Chapter Text
Lillian liked to think she’s a pretty good mom to both of her kids. Sure, she wished she had been a bit more tactful when first faced with the living proof of Lionel’s infidelity but she’s changed. Lena is and will continue to be her daughter, even if she hadn’t felt Lena grow in her womb, beneath her heart.
(maybe, in another universe, she wouldn’t have taken Lionel’s brief mistake as lightly, wouldn’t have seen Lena as a lonely, sad girl who just needed a loving family, wouldn’t have taken her under her wing, wouldn’t have loved her.
but that’s not her, not here, not now.)
Which is why she’s getting worried.
“Lex, darling, have you seen your sister at all this morning?” She asked, worriedly glancing at Lena’s unoccupied seat. Her son absentmindedly shook his head in response, way too focused on the Gameboy his grandmother had given him for Christmas. She and Lionel shared a look.
“Maybe she’s sleeping in?” Lex offered, looking up from his game (Lillian thinks it’s called… Pokey-man?) to take a big gulp of orange juice and a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
“Perhaps.” Lillian was unconvinced. Ever since Lena came to live with them, the girl had always been early to every meal, mostly to help her or the butler to set the table. Lillian wasn’t quite sure why her daughter insisted at waking up at the asscrack of dawn every day, but... “I’m going to check on her.” The Luthor matriarch stood and left the table, gesturing for her husband to remain seated.
She came to a stop in front of Lena’s bedroom door, knocking thrice on the lacquered wood. “Lena? I’m coming in, okay?”
No response.
“Lena?” She slowly cracked the door open, peering in and half-expecting her daughter to still be asleep or getting dressed. But there was no one in the room. Panic welled up in Lillian, and she stepped fully into the room - maybe Lena’s just hiding? “Lena?”
A moment passed as she tried to process the information.
“Lionel!” Her shout was dripping with anxiety, even as she tried to look around for any clue as to where her darling daughter had gone. Wardrobe? No. Behind the door? No. The bathroom had been empty when she passed. Gardens? No - she would’ve come to get either her or Lionel or Victor to follow her. Then where was-
“Lillian?”
She jumped and whirled around, having been too lost in her panic to realize her husband had sprinted from the dining room to join her.
“She’s gone!” Lillian tried to swallow her upset, but her voice wobbled anyway, and her hands began to tremble. A moment later, Lex joined them.
“Madam?” Victor, their loyal butler, peered into the room, looking terribly confused.
“The window is open,” Lex mumbled, pointing a finger at the window left slightly ajar. Lillian felt her heart drop to her stomach. She turned to Lionel, who had already ordered Victor to check the gardens anyway, his mobile phone pressed to his ear, no doubt calling the security company that patrols their housing estate.
With heavy steps, Lillian walked up to her daughter’s unoccupied bed - sheets still tangled up as though her baby had tried to twist and squirm away from some unknown attacker. “Oh, Lena.” She sat down heavily at the edge of the bed.
“Mrew?”
Lillian stiffened, as did Lex and Lionel.
A little feline head poked out from the tangled sheets, familiar green eyes staring out from a ball of black fur.
“Lena?” Lillian whispered in disbelief, even as her hands moved to free the kitten from the sheets. The moment the kitten was freed, it unsteadily ambled into Lillian’s lap, purring loudly all the while.
“What the heck,” Lex mumbled, pressing a palm to his forehead. Silence reigned for a long moment, only broken by the kitten’s incessant purring.
“That’s her, isn’t it?” Lionel eventually asked. Lillian breathed in and nodded, the magic within her reaching out to coil protectively around her now-feline daughter. No matter what form her daughter took, her aura and soul would always be recognizable in its quiet determination and flashes of green-blue hues.
“How did this happen, Lena?” Lillian murmured, carefully lifting the black ball of fur up to her face. She didn’t really expect an answer but was nonetheless warmed when the kitten reached out a paw to softly boop her on the nose. Lena then wriggled her paws, swishing her little black tail to show her displeasure at being held aloft for so long.
“Lionel?” Lillian gently put her daughter down on the duvet. “Do you know?”
“I - ah…” Lionel trailed off. “I suspected that, perhaps, Maeve might’ve been a - uh… Sidhe of some sort.”
Lillian huffed in exasperation. By this point, Lex had wandered closer to his sister and was now dangling a bit of loose thread in front of the kitten to keep her occupied. Unused to walking on four legs, Lena kept stumbling over herself and her too-big paws in her attempt to swipe at the thread.
“If Lena doesn’t turn back to herself by lunchtime, I’m calling my mom over,” Lillian huffed, shooting a disapproving glare at Lionel. The Luthor patriarch wilted and cringed a little at the idea of Lillian’s mother visiting.
Lionel glanced over at his daughter, catching her green eyes and mentally willed her to cooperate. Lena just blinked slowly back at her father before yawning and padding over into Lillian’s lap, where she curled up into a ball and fell back asleep.
“Hello? ”
Hello, mother.”
“Oh! Lillian, how are you doing? How're the kids? ”
“We’re… alright.”
“Uh oh, what’s happened now? ”
“Do you think you could come over for dinner?”
“Lillian… ”
“It’s nothing.. bad. But I - we - could use your help.”
“Fine. But only if that delicious hunk of man-butler- ”
“- Mother, his name is Victor.”
“Yes, yes. His meat stew is absolutely divine. Mm-mm-mmm! I want that in my mouth-hole when I get there, yes?”
Lillian cringed a little at her mother’s words but sighed in reluctant acceptance. “Yes, mom.”
Still in Lillian’s lap, Lena purred softly.
Opposite them, Lionel sighed louder.