The heat was getting to be a problem.
The power had been out in National City for three days, and those three days were expected to be among the hottest of the year. Lena was, frankly, desperate.
You might think that she’d have it easy, but anyone who would think that a penthouse in a skyscraper would be easy to cool would quickly be disabused of that notion. The windows mostly didn’t open and having the balcony doors spread wide did next to nothing when the breeze felt like opening an oven, even up here.
It had been Alex’s suggestion, sent by text.
Why don’t you go to Kara’s? The loft is pretty breezy.
She was right, of course. When Lena arrived, Kara had every one of her huge loft windows open, allowing the breeze to flow freely through the open, airy space.
There was another problem, though.
When Kara opened the door, Lena nearly keeled over. Kara was wearing a sports bra and shorts so short they barely deserved the name, exposing a vast amount of golden, sun-kissed skin. Worse, her gloriously muscled stomach and shoulders glistened with sweat.
Lena was surprised to see that the heat bothered her, but it clearly did. Kara had forgone her glasses, too, and after she opened the door, she swept the back of her hand across her forehead and sighed.
“Hi,” Lena squeaked.
“Hi yourself. Hot out there?”
“It’s hot in here.”
“Come in, come in,” said Kara.
Lena stepped inside, forcing herself not to stare at Kara’s thick thighs and the swell of her chest under straining fabric. Was that zipper some advanced Kryptonian technology?
“Want something to drink?”
“Isn’t your fridge dead, too?”
“Yeah, but I cheat. Watch.”
Kara slipped a bottle of water out of a pack on her counter and breathed on it. Ice crystals formed on the surface and the water visibly chilled. It shocked Lena when she accepted it and the cold water on her lips was bliss. Lena let out a soft sigh and closed her eyes, savoring the feeling of cold spreading through her chest, cooling her body.
When she opened her eyes, Kara was the one staring. Lena had thrown on a short, a-frame sun dress that bared her back, for no other reason than making sure that her skin could have as much surface exposed to the air to evaporate and cool her down as possible.
“So what are you up to?” Lena asked.
Kara gestured to the notebook and stacks of papers on the table.
“Old-fashioned journalism, I guess. My laptop battery died yesterday.”
“I thought you’d be out there trying to fix the power.”
Kara shrugged. “With what, my super-electrician powers?”
Lena shot her a look, raising her brow.
Kara turned away, heading for the windows.
Oh, Jesus, Lena thought.
It wasn’t as if Lena hadn’t… noticed Kara’s physique. She wasn’t blind, after all. They’d taken spin class together, and Kara liked to wear leggings on the weekends.
But holy shit, those shorts made her ass look… Super.
Lena was still fumbling over a buns of steel pun in her head when Kara turned back.
“Hey, you okay? Your heart raced for a second there.”
“F-fine,” said Lena.
“Alex and the others are coming over tonight for an emergency game night,” said Kara. “I better get ready.”
For the next couple of hours, Lena helped Kara neaten up her apartment and prepare non-perishable snacks and a cooler full of beer and wine coolers, chilled care of Kara. Alex and Kelly were the first to show up, with Alex giving Lena a cheeky look as she walked into the apartment.
“Hey, you two,” she said. “Been having a hot time?”
There was something brittle in Kara’s laugh that set Lena a little on edge, and the Danvers sisters shared one of those looks they shared that made Lena wonder if they could communicate telepathically. Whatever the message was, it made Kara look away first, distracting with an offered beer that Alex gladly accepted.
Lena took a wine cooler, wishing it were wine.
Nia and Brainy showed up next, followed by J’onn, who was the only one fully dressed in a button-down shirt and khakis, while everyone else was dressed for the beach or a track meet.
Lena sat on the floor, because the hardwood was cool under her butt, and leaned back against Kara’s couch. Kara sat beside her and Lena’s heart definitely sped up.
Looking over, it was hard to tear her eyes away. Kara made a magnificent display- the blocky weight of her shoulders, full biceps and strong arms and bulky, sculpted forearms. Lena’s eyes followed the vein on the back of Kara’s arm down the back of her strong hand and the elegant lengths of her fingers.
Kara kept her nails neatly trimmed like that because of Supergirl duties, right?
Right?
“Hey Luthor? You having a heat stroke?” said Alex. “You look spaced out over there.”
Alex had a playful grin plastered on her face, though she too was sweating profusely. A cooler breeze rolled in through the big windows and everyone sighed in delight.
Except J’onn. “What shall we play first?” she said.
“Clue!” Nia chirped.
“Brainy always kicks our ass at Clue,” said Alex, “and I am not playing Monopoly with a literal billionaire again.”
“Perhaps we should play Risk,” said J’onn, rifling through the game shelf.
“We could try Twisted,” Kara suggested in a deadpan voice.
Lena swallowed hard, thinking of herself tangled up on the mat with Kara, clothes glued to their skin by sweat, salty skin sliding against salty skin, the scent of her…
“Earth to Lena,” said Alex. “Got any ideas?”
“Exploding Kittens,” said Lena. “We haven’t done that one in a while.”
“Kara, chill us some cold ones, will you?” said Nia.
Once everyone had a rapidly warming drink, Brainy dealt the cards and the game began. Alex called Kara out for peeking several times, with that loaded Danvers Sisters Look and an almost predatory smirk.
She wasn’t the only one peeking.
Lena participate in the game but her mind was elsewhere, specifically the valley of Kara’s broad back, where sweat gathered between her muscles and rain down in heavy beads, or the sweat gathering along her collarbone or sparking along the lush inner curves of her tightly contained breasts.
“Hey,” said Kara. “It’s your turn, Lena.”
Then she reached over and brushed damp lock of inky hair out of Lena’s eyes.
She could have melted. She swallowed hard, brushed the sweat from her brow, and made a hasty and wasteful play that would probably cost her any chance of winning, but she didn’t care. The game seemed at most a distant concern.
Kara’s tongue glazing along her soft pink lips was much more interesting. They’d pretty much all given up on makeup but Kara was still positively radiant, soft and inviting and homey in a way that made Lena ache in her chest.
And, uh, other places.
It was full dark now, so they finished the game and Kara and Alex got up to light a few candles.
“This is like camping,” said Nia.
“We should have thought to procure ‘marshmallows’, said Brainy. “Kara could toast them with her heat vision.”
“We hardly need more heat. I’m boiling,” said Lena.
J’onn let out a soft grunt. “It’s my turn to go on patrol. I think I’ll be the first to head out.
Everyone gave their goodbyes as he headed out the window. The others huddled closer around the table, lit by the candle sitting in the middle.
“We should tell scary stories,” said Alex. “Like around a campfire.”
“Since it was your idea, you go first,” said Kelly.
Alex leaned into it with abandon, leaning in over the table as she started spinning a campfire yarn that Lena quickly recognized as The Hook.
Kara edged closer, until her bare thigh pressed against Lena. She leaned in close, and it wouldn’t have taken much for Lena to… rest her head on Kara’s shoulder. It just kind of happened, Kara’s scent filling her nostrils as she turned into Kara.
Lena flinched as Kara shot her a concerned look.
She can hear my heartbeat.
Kara must have thought Lena was scared, because she casually slipped an arm around her.
Lena’s breath caught. Kara’s powerful arm rested lazily around her hip and her relaxed hand rested on Lena’s thigh, fingers placed lightly on bare skin.
It was a powerfully possessive gesture, not just protective but… more. Lena shifted a little and let herself completely fall against Kara.
Alex kept on telling the story, her gaze pausing heavily on the two of them as she scanned the room. Brainy looked bored but Nia looked genuinely petrified and Kelly was looking at her wife with the kind of adoring reference that was currently plastered on Lena’s face as she looked up at Kara.
Alex reached the crescendo of the story and Lena let out a little gasp, turning her face into Kara’s neck, more for the sake of it than out of fear. Kara’s hand stroked lazily up and down her back.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone get you,” Kara whispered.
“You two okay over there?” said Alex.
“Fine,” said Kara.
“There are two actual couples here and you two are the ones doing the heavy petting.”
They weren’t heavy petting. Okay sure, Lena had her fingers curled around Kara’s hip and Kara’s hand was staring to pass the platonic zone when stroking her back but…
Oh.
“It’s getting late,” said Kelly. “Maybe we should head home.”
“Agreed,” said Nia. “Come on, Brainy.”
Lena and Kara didn’t get up.
The others did, piling out of the apartment. Alex went last, shooting Kara another of those damned looks, smiling like a self-satisfied cat after a big stretch.
The door closed and Kara yawned.
“Mind if I stay?” Lena said, quickly. “My place is just too hot to sleep.”
“Of course,” Kara said softly.
Lena didn’t move. They were alone now, the apartment dark except for candles that threw flickering shadows and made Kara even more ethereal. Lena could barely believe someone so gorgeous could be real.
“Lena,” Kara said quietly. “Have you ever thought about…” she trailed off.
“About what?”
“Us. What we are to each other.”
“Yes,” said Lena.
“Me too.”
“What are you thinking?” Lena asked.
“You’re my best friend. You mean more to me than basically anyone else, and the thought of you has kept me going through some really dark times.”
When Kara smiled for her, her eyes lit up, sparkling in the candlelight, like moonlight dancing on nighttime waves. She was entrancing.
“I…” Lena began. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you as just a friend. There’s more on the table if you want it.”
“More like… kissing?”
“Yes, exactly.”
This was actually happening. It was real, not a daydream or a fantasy. Kara moved with agonizing slowness, full of a gentle, kind intensity as she leaned down and lightly brushed her lips across Lena’s.
It was like being tossed in a tub of ice water… in a good way. Lena shivered as Kara cupped her jaw and went for another kiss, more forcefully this time, more insistent. The breathed as one.
“Kara,” Lena whispered.
She couldn’t help it. Lena dragged her tongue over Kara’s skin, tasting the sweat pooled at the base of her neck. Kara let out a low moan followed by a deep basso rumble in her chest, pulsating in time with her breathing.
“Did you just lick my sweat?”
“Are you purring?!”
Kara giggled. “I can do lots of things.”
Lena looked up at her with lidded eyes. “Oh yeah? Show me what you got.”
She squeaked as Kara picked her up in a single smooth motion, and with a self-satisfied smirk, carried her towards the bed.
Later, as they lay in a tangle of perspiring limbs atop sweat-soaked sheets, the power thumped back on and the air conditioning began to blow over them, chilling Lena’s skin.
She barely noticed.
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“I don’t regret it, Dean.” Cas says quietly. “Telling you I love you was the best moment of my life.”
“Yeah? Well, it was the worst of mine!” Dean yells, throwing his arms out to the side. There’s a moment of stricken silence where Cas’s face falls and Dean realizes how his words came across. He rushes to elaborate. “Do you know how many years I wondered if angels could feel love? Romantic love? Do you know how long I hoped that they could— that you, specifically, could? And more than that, that you would feel it towards me? I wondered all the goddamn time, Cas. And then you— you finally—“ Dean swallows past a lump in his throat, letting his arms fall back to his sides. “You finally tell me not only that you can love, but you love me. Me. And in one second, ten years of my wildest dreams came true and then were ripped away.”
Dean looks down at his feet. Clenches his jaw against the feelings threatening to choke him. He tries to take a steadying breath in through his nose but it doesn’t help him feel any better.
“Dean—“
“I didn’t think I was ever gonna see you again.” Dean confesses to his boots. “I thought I’d have to live the rest of my miserable life knowing I could’ve had you and kicking myself for being such a dumb piece of shit.” He swallows again and looks up. “I thought you were going to spend eternity not knowing that I love you, too.”
“I didn’t mean— Dean, I didn’t—“ Cas shakes his head as words fail him.
“So yeah,” Dean shrugs a little helplessly, his voice still tight with emotion. “It was the worst moment of my life. Except for every moment that came after— because every single moment from your death until you came back was the worst moment of my life. Every moment without you is. And you coming back could’ve been the best moment of my life if you hadn’t been such an ass about everything.”
There was a time, once, in the distant past where Cas’s face never betrayed any emotion. Dean could’ve scrutinized every single molecule of his expression and he wouldn’t have been able to read a goddamn thing from it. That hasn’t been the case for a long time— Cas took to emotions and humanity better than Dean did, and it was the only thing Dean had ever known.
Now, Dean can read a multitude of emotions in Cas’s expression: disbelief in the slight part of his lips, hope in the blue of his eyes, shock in the rise of his eyebrows. He can practically read every thought going through Cas’s mind as he tries to process what’s happened.
And then, there it is: acceptance in the way the corner of Cas’s mouth ticks up.
“I had no idea.” Cas answers after a moment.
“‘Course you didn’t.” Dean replies, his own mouth mirroring the small smile. “You fucked off before I got a chance to say it back.”
“I just assumed—“
“You know what they say about assuming, Cas.”
“No, I don’t.” Cas is full on smiling now, warm and full of the love Dean had only ever seen hidden in shadows of his expressions. Now it’s practically splitting his face open, spilling out of Cas like he’s finally filled up with so much of it that it’s simply impossible to keep it all in. “And frankly, I don’t care. I only care about what you have to say.”
Dean huffs out a fond laugh as he shakes his head. “Finally gonna let me do the talking, huh?”
“I’m in the mood to do some listening,” Cas’s grin is dazzling and a little cheeky, Dean wants to memorize it immediately.
He takes a step closer to Cas. And then another. Cas simply watches him approach, making no attempt to back away. His personal space is inviting and Dean enjoys stepping directly into it with no hesitation.
“Well, I might be in the mood for something other than talking.” Dean whispers, less than a foot from Cas now.
“Oh?” Cas prompts, his hand reaching across the minuscule place between them to settle on Dean’s hip.
“Yeah,” Dean murmurs, leaning in. “But just to make sure you get it through your stubborn head: I love you, Cas. And I’ll fucking kill you if you ever do something like that again.”
Dean kisses him before Cas has a chance to reply.
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