SuperCorp (a collection of one-shots)

of pianos and sisters

I'm a sucker for the street musician trope.

Kara closed her eyes as she let her fingers roam across the keys of the old piano. The beat-up instrument had been left on the curb of Noonan's three years ago, and Kara wasn't the first musician to use it – and she certainly wouldn't be the last. It was a surprisingly popular after-school activity to come and play in front of the restaurant.

Her newsboy cap was sitting upside-down on top of the upright, a few quarters and dimes glinting in the soft sunlight that streamed down onto the rain-soaked street in the middle of National City.

Kara had been frequenting this corner for a few weeks now, playing anything and everything with reckless abandon – she needed all the cash she could get to cover the expenses of her student loans. A reporter's salary was barely enough to manage the bills that came with the apartment Alex gave her, much less pay off a wildly expensive education and fill her stomach.

Kara remembered the piano lessons that the Danvers paid for – Eliza told her that it was to help her gain control over her strength. There had been an instrument like the old vertical that sat in their house in Midvale back on Krypton, and it almost felt like learning to play was bringing back a piece of her home.

The reporter's alien physiology transferred to her cerebral power too, it seemed, as Kara picked up the ins and outs of the piano in less than eight months.

The flowing melody that Kara played made her think of Alex – Alex, who had always been so strong for Kara, so strong that she never got the chance to discover what life could be like for herself. The mourning tone of the song made Kara think about how she had taken over her sister's everything, never allowing Alex to be... Alex.

The sound of a familiar heartbeat at the edge of Kara's senses brought her out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see Lena, all powerful CEO of L-Corp standing a couple feet away from the piano, a warm expression that seemed to only be reserved for Kara lighting up her face.

Kara faltered on the keys, accidentally playing a natural instead of a sharp as she met Lena's eyes over the upright. Lena grinned a bit, placing her purse on the piano before coming around and leaning on the end.

"Hello, Kara. Rather sad song, isn't it?"

Feed a lonely alien and drop a comment, I hear they like potstickers.