#and Lena. Lena Lena Lena. barely holding it together because if she doesn’t see Kara again

[spaceman-earthgirl]

Supercorptober 2023 Day 31: Spookycorp

It's been a busy month and I didn't get to do as many of these as I have in previous years but I've really missed writing supercorp and this month has been fun. I really appreciate all the support through likes and reblogs (and comments and kudos on ao3), I would not have written as many as I did without you guys.

Enjoy this final prompt (even if it is something silly) and thanks again for reading :)

ao3 fic link. series link.

---

Kara is dressed as a banana. And Lena thinks she might be in love.

“What do you think?” Kara asks, a stupidly beautiful grin on her face. 

Yep, Lena’s definitely in love.

“I think you’re by far the brightest person in the room,” Lena comments. They both glance around and Lena is right, there are a range of different costumes around the room but Kara’s is, by far, the most eye-catching costume.

Kara grins again. “Alex bet me five sticky buns I wouldn’t wear this tonight, but guess who is going to have a delicious breakfast tomorrow morning?”

Lena’s not sure how one person can eat so much but there is no doubt in her mind that Kara will eat them all tomorrow. “I’m guessing you?”

Lena’s not sure how she does it, but Kara’s grin gets even brighter. She really is like the sun, bright and beautiful, drawing Lena in like no one else has before.

“It’s going to be so good,” Kara says. “She’ll also owe me a carton of ice cream if I can do five costume changes this evening.”

Lena takes a moment to process what Kara has said, thinking she’s heard her wrong. “You’re not going to wear this all night?”

“You think I’d come to a fancy party just dressed like a banana?”

“Honestly? Yeah. Somehow, this is very you,” Lena says, gesturing to Kara’s body.

“I don’t know what that means but I’m taking it as a compliment.”

Lena’s not quite sure what it means either. “You should. What other costumes do you have to wear?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Kara winks, and Lena’s knees go weak.  “I better go, I have lots of outfits to wear tonight if I want that ice cream.”

---

The next time Lena sees Kara is not long later, but it takes her a moment to realise it’s her because she has in fact changed costume. Lena has to take a breath before she makes her way towards Kara.

“I see you’ve changed,” Lena says, trying to keep her eyes from the distracting view of Kara’s now bare legs. She’s wearing a skirt, but it’s a short one.

“What do you think?” Kara asks, swinging the tennis racket she’s holding up to rest of her shoulder. She’s dressed all in white. White shirt, white skirt, white shoes, and even white sweat bands around her wrists and forehead. “Think I’d make a good tennis player?”

Lena has to take another breath, because this is a look she never expected to see on Kara, but one she knows will now be burned in her brain.

“I’m not sure, maybe we should play some time and find out?”

Kara’s eyes light up, which Lena is pretty sure is just the competitive nature in her.

“Deal.”

---

Lena spots the Scooby-Doo costume from across the room, the head towering over most people, and she doesn’t need to get closer to know that it’s Kara.

“Why are you dressed like a dog?” Lena asks when she does get closer. Because how can she stay away from Kara? Even if she does look a little ridiculous right now.

She’s drawing attention from other partygoers, clearly not used to people like Kara. But that’s the rich for you.

“I’m not just any dog, I’m Scooby-Doo.”

Lena rolls her eyes. “I know, because you made me watch both of those movies.”

“This was part of Alex’s bet, I think she’s trying to embarrass me.”

That sounds exactly like Alex. Lena presses her lips together, trying not to laugh. “I think you look cute,” Lena comments. “But I think you made a cute tennis player and a cute banana too.”

The costume hides half of Kara’s face, but Lena’s pretty sure Kara is blushing. Or maybe she’s just hot from the full body suit.

---

Lena hadn’t realised it was something she’d wanted to see until the next outfit Kara appears in is a Supergirl costume.

Kara looks incredible. She has a similar build to Supergirl, so from a distance, no one could be blamed for mistaking her for Supergirl.

Actually, close up, she wouldn’t blame someone for confusing the two either. The blonde hair definitely helps, so do the sharp blue eyes that Lena finds herself lost in thought about far too often.

“What brings you here tonight, Supergirl?” Lena asks, eyes dropping of their own accord. Lena knows Kara is quite muscly under her usual blouses and sweaters, but it’s something else seeing her in a suit like this. Lena’s pretty sure the suit isn’t padded, that it’s all Kara.

Another short skirt isn’t helping Lena’s attention either.

“A Luthor party is always a target, I thought I should stop by to make sure everything was ok,” Kara smiles.

Lena’s actually surprised the real Supergirl hasn’t stopped by, she usually does to any L-Corp event. Most times, just a visit from her is enough to deter any possible threats.

Lena smiles, still playing along. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“Anytime. I better check the perimeter, make sure there’s nothing I’ve missed. Have a good evening, Miss Luthor.”

“You too, Supergirl. Stay safe.”

Lena’s about to break character (though she’s technically playing herself) but she’s cut off when Kara floats off the ground and then disappears into the air, leaving a very surprised Lena in her wake.

---

Kara’s next costume is an angel, which goes well with Lena’s devil outfit (which consists of a black dress and horns on her head) but Lena can’t even admire that, not when her whole world has been rocked.

She wonders for a moment whether she’d just gotten the two confused, but there was no doubt in her mind before that she was talking to Kara.

Kara is Supergirl, and she’s not sure how she didn’t see it before, she’d even just thought about how similar they both look, and she still didn’t make the connection.

At least Kara’s hurried excuses to leave when they’re together make sense now but still, she’s smart, she should have figured it out.

Now here she is, not sure what to do with the information. Or she does. The answer is nothing, she’s not going to tell anyone. And she wants Kara to know she can trust her too.

(And part of her can’t help but wonder why Kara hasn’t told her yet. She thought they were friends. Thought they were best friends but it turns out Kara has been lying to her this whole time).

“Looks like you’ve won your carton of ice cream,” Lena says.

There’s no time like the present.

Kara frowns. “No, that’s only four.”

“No, that’s your fifth outfit.“ Lena holds up a fist, raising a finger as she counts each one. “Banana, dog, tennis player, angel and…”

Lena trails off, for a moment wondering if she should just keep quiet. But they’re alone near the food table, no one close enough to hear them. And she wants Kara to know that she knows.

Before Kara can cut in, Lena holds up her last finger. “And Supergirl makes five.”

Kara freezes, Lena can see her processing what she’s just said. Lena’s not sure what she’ll do if Kara denies it.

Kara glances around, voice quiet when she finally speaks. “How did you know it was me?”

Relief washes over Lena, she’s not sure what she would’ve done if Kara had denied it.

“The better question is, how did I not see it before? You don’t even wear a mask. But tonight I was watching the crowd, waiting for you to appear. I think I saw you before I realised what you were wearing.” Lena shakes her head. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it, you literally look the same.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, no one sees it.’

“But I’m your best friend, I should have known.”

“I think I should counter that with, you’re my best friend, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” Kara reaches out, takes Lena’s hand. “I promise, it was me and not you. I trust you, I just didn’t know how to tell you with all the history between you and Supergirl. Or you and me, I guess. I just didn’t want to risk losing you.”

Lena squeezes Kara’s hand. “You’re never going to lose me, I promise. But no more secrets, okay?”

Lena feels like a bit of a hypocrite asking that, when she’s hiding a secret herself. But baby steps, she can work up to telling Kara she’s in love with her another time.

“No more secrets,” Kara nods. “I promise. After the party, do you want to come over? I can tell you everything.”

Lena swallows down the emotion that rises in her throat. “I’d like that.”

The moment lingers and Lena finds herself caught in blue eyes she’s often distracted by.

She breaks the moment, she has to, before she does something stupid. “So, tell me, if Supergirl wasn’t your fifth costume, then what is it?”

“You’re just going to have to wait and see. I still need that fifth costume change because I cannot tell Alex one of them was Supergirl and that’s how you found out or she’d kill me. She already thinks I’m not careful enough, next she’ll make me wear a mask or something.”

Lena laughs. “Your secret is safe with me.” She pauses. “All of them.” Kara needs to know she won’t tell anyone either.

Kara smiles, tangling their fingers together again. This time she doesn’t let go. “I know.”

[autisticlenaluthor]

Midnight

“I’ve got you!” Kara says in the morning when Lena trips over trips over the blanket discarded on the floor. Before Lena can fall, she lunges forward and catches her in her arms— graceful as ever. For a second, they both laugh. 

“My hero,” Lena says through her giggles. She kisses her and boops her nose. “Thank you.” 

“I’ve got you,” Supergirl says when another L Corp press conference is attacked. As the crowd runs in every which direction— scattering across the park like flies, Lena makes a beeline for her. She ducks down and throws her hands over her head— Kara immediately crouching over her. Like the wind, her cape blows over Lena’s body and shields her. When shots fire, they bounce right off. They’re nothing but a startling bang and flattened bullet. 

“I’ve got you,” Kara says again, her hand holding firm on Lena’s arm. “I’ll get you out of here.” 

“I’ve got you,” Kara affirms at game night when it’s time to pick teams. “Right?” 

Lena grins and rolls her eyes. “Obviously.”

 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Kara says, pulling Lena aside to hand her a coffee.

Lena blushes bright red.

“Kara!” Her voice is an octave higher than normal but she can’t help it. Of course Kara would interpret her disgruntled texts about how she was running late and wouldn’t have time to stop at Noonans as an invitation to buy the drink for her. “You didn’t have to do that.” 

“I know, I wanted to. And you really can’t function without caffeine.” 

Lena bows her head and smiles. They’ve got an 8am CatCo staff meeting in five minutes– she really did need the boost.

Running her index finger over the rim of the cup, Lena bites her bottom lip. “You really are my favorite- you know that?” 

“I know.” Kara grins. “But I love when you remind me.”

 

“I’ve got you,” Kara whispers, half asleep. Lena curls into her, shaking like a leaf as she reaches out to hug her around the neck. 

Through the darkness, Kara can just barely make out the spotty tears on Lena’s cheeks. She’s frowning, chin quivering, but still, fighting to keep the rest inside. Kara wraps her arms around her and gently pulls her close. 

She’s no stranger to nightmares either– to seeing the images of her worst days projected onto the backs of her eyelids like a looping movie she can’t escape. In moments like these, she’s almost grateful they’ve been through it so many times together. It means she knows exactly what Lena needs to feel better. 

“It’s okay,” Kara breathes, carefully rubbing Lena’s back. “You’re safe. It’s just a dream.” 

Wordlessly, Lena sniffs. She holds Kara a little tighter– her way of reminding herself that she’s real, she isn’t going anywhere. 

“You’re safe,” Kara says again. “He can’t get to you.”

“It’s okay– I’ve got you.”

Kara drapes Lena’s coat over her shoulders and puts her arm around her, effectively shielding her from the crowded clamor of the gala. At midnight, the party is still roaring. A scene with noise and flashing lights Lena hit her limit on half an hour ago. 

Lena nods to herself, pressing her body closer to Karas. For a second– she doesn’t have the discretion to think about being caught in her moment of weakness. She doesn’t care about being watched or gawked at. 

Because they planned for this weeks ago. Because Kara knows when Lena says they need to go, it means they need to go now. Because they never go to an event without knowing where the service exit is.

Before Lena knows it, they’re hidden away in a private hallway, on their way out of the building.

“You alright?” Kara checks. 

Lena nods and manages a small smile. 

“Yeah,” she whispers. “I know you’ve got me.”

[chaotic-super]

The Vampire Woman - Chapter 26

AO3 Link

As it turns out, sharing privileged information about vampires is a dangerous affair.

None of them could have expected this, not when they’re in Lena’s apartment, one of the safest places on the planet, and none of them know how someone has managed to get to them.

As soon as Sam had opened her mouth to start answering some of Kara’s questions after she had woken up, something hit them. Lena, Sam and Kara keel over, their hands clutching their ears in an attempt to block out the agonizing noise attacking them.

Kara drops to her knees, the least experienced with her advanced hearing, thus unable to try and cut off the incessant high-pitched ringing that is assaulting her from seemingly every angle.

Soon enough, the noise turns to words, or rather, one word.

“Hush.”

The way one single word can make a vampire’s already cold blood turn to ice is horrifying, terrifying, and everything in between.

Lena and Sam’s eyes lock onto each other as the noise stops, freeing them from the prison of pain they’ve found themselves unexpectantly trapped in. For the most part, Kara is just trying to catch her breath, stunned by what just happened and barely holding herself together as the fear catches up with her, her brain processing that she was just in a considerable amount of pain, and now she’s not.

“What the fuck?” Sam had just about curled over out of the chair she was sitting in when it happened, and now, she leans back, making a conscious effort to rid herself of the tension that wound up around every muscle in her body.

Seeing Sam compose herself and ease the strain out of her stiff shoulders, neck and spine, Lena follows suit. With the tightness there, she almost wonders if she got rigor mortis a few centuries too late.

“We need to move somewhere else, somewhere safer.” Lena pants out, barely catching her breath.

“Like where?”

“I’m not going to say, clearly, we’re being listened to,” Lena says, not bothering to lower her voice. It won’t do any of them any good.

Kara is still on her knees, her eyes firmly fixed on the carpet, her mind reeling. Her panic, anxiety and fear are scuttling around under her skin like a thousand tiny bugs burrowed away inside her. It makes her itch but she can’t seem to make herself move; she doesn’t have the energy after that.

Alex rushes to her side. She and Ruby were giving the three of them some space by sitting in the kitchen while the vampires and hybrid have their discussion, but upon hearing the pained gasps and grunts, they gave up on their stations in favour of making a beeline for their loved ones.

Dropping down before her sister, Alex’s hands brace along Kara’s jaw, cradling her head in her soft, worried embrace. “Kara? Kara, are you ok?”

Kara nods weakly against her palms, very obviously not ok.

“We can’t go anywhere yet, it’s too light out. What do we do?” Sam asks, her eyes darting between Lena and Ruby. “If it’s not safe here, I don’t want Ruby here. Maybe you can get Frank or Jess to come and get her so we can send her somewhere she’ll be better protected.”

“Sam, nothing is going to happen to her. We all know that a hundred vampires could break in here right now and nothing could come remotely close to hurting her because we would rip them to shreds if we had to. Besides, for us to be heard, that means another vampire knows where we are, and they must be strong. However, no vampire can walk in the light of day unscathed.”

Sam shakes her head before pointing at Kara, raising an eyebrow at Lena.

“No, a hybrid wouldn’t have enough power to hear us from the ground, and there’s no way they’re inside the building; the security is too tight. I built this place, and I have safeguards in place to prevent outside ears from listening in. I have no idea how they got around it, but I need to figure out how they did it so I can stop it from happening again.

Alex manages to shuffle Kara up and get her on the couch. It’s clear she’s not doing well, and while she’s doing her best to remain stony-faced, unshed tears are making her eyes glisten and her clenched jaw gives away just how disturbed she is by what just happened.

Her breathing is ragged; Lena can hear it clear as day, and her hands are clenched into fists atop her knees. Lena reaches out to unclasp it, hoping to relax her somewhat, but she tears herself away, stretching her back out until it clicks and shrinking in on herself.

“Kara?” Alex tries again, and seeing the way Kara winces at the sound of her sister’s voice, Lena realizes what’s happening.

“She’s overwhelmed. I fear the audio attack we’ve just faced may have momentarily tipped her over the edge. There are headphones on the nightstand in my room. They’re noise cancelling and should help her regain her senses once again, would you mind fetching them for her?”

Lena barely gets her question out before Alex is on her way to get them. She’s grateful to be given a task, something to do to make her feel useful because, quite frankly, she hasn’t got a fucking clue what just happened. All she knows is that they’re being listened to and that means she has to be careful with what she’s saying. Given that she doesn’t know what is classified as dangerous, she’s opting to say as little as possible.

She grabs the headphones and rushes back to the living room to fit them over Kara’s head, ignoring the blonde’s hands as she reaches out to take them from her. Once they’re firmly in place, she tucks a few stray curls out of her face and sits beside her, her brow furrowed in worry.

“I don’t have a clue what is going on but I need answers as to what just happened and I need to know that you’ve got a plan.” She stares into Lena’s eyes for a brief moment before moving over to lock eyes on the chestnut brown ones of the other vampire, who has her daughter tucked beneath her arm protectively, the younger girl’s head resting against her arm.

“You’ll have to let me figure that one out for myself before I can answer that, Alex.” Lena huffs, annoyed that she’s out of the loop. If there’s one thing she hates more than being threatened by a mysterious voice that is paired with the audio equivalent of being stabbed in the ears repeatedly, it’s not knowing something. Lena has to figure this out.

-

Lena’s senses are going crazy as she ushers everyone into the back of Frank’s car, and she has no doubt that Sam is just as on edge as she is.

They have been waiting all day for the chance to leave, waiting for the sun to go down just enough for them to get out of the apartment and get to L-Corp. At least there, they’ll know they’re safe. The only problem with that is their relative certainty that the person who sent them that message is a vampire too, a strong one at that. That means they could show up at any time, and all they can do is cross their fingers and hope they can get to L-Corp without meeting them.

“Frank, don’t dawdle. Take the fastest route and be on guard. If you see anything suspicious, you must let us know.”

“Of course, Ms Luthor.” Frank drones, his foot hitting the gas pedal before they’ve even had a chance to put their seatbelts on.

A horn sounds from behind them as they cut off some poor soul who’s probably on their way home from work. Kara flinches at the sound, and Lena pulls her into her side more firmly before making sure the cups of the headphones are over her ears properly. “Keep them on. You’ll be on edge for a while so it’s best to leave them on until we at least get where we’re going.”

Kara presses herself into Lena’s side more firmly, taking comfort in the tight grip she has around her shoulders. It’s steadying and makes her feel like nothing can touch her. Her right hand reaches over to grab Alex’s, who looks just about ready to jump into Sam’s lap with how wide her eyes are, constantly searching for the threat they can’t see. The only reason she hasn’t already done it is because Ruby is huddled so tightly to Sam already, Kara’s certain.

Frank makes the judgment call not to take the fastest route but the most populated, figuring that if someone or something is after them, then it’s best he uses the public as their safety blanket. No vampire wants to be exposed to the world, and no vampire is going to risk attacking them on Main Street, he’s pretty sure of that. Not unless the vampire is dumb or overly cocky anyway.

Lena takes note of Frank’s choice but doesn’t say anything. She understands why he did it, but she would still prefer it if he followed her instructions. Fighting over it now isn’t going to help anyone though. It’s already tough keeping everything moving smoothly when they’re all on edge. If she makes a fuss about it, that will scare everyone even more.

Closing her eyes, Lena listens out for any sound that could be coming from someone who wants to hurt them, her ears working overtime to try and find footsteps that aren’t matched by a heartbeat or the telltale sound of some supervillain cackling malevolently in some dark, abandoned building.

Frank pulls up around the side of L-Corp, bringing them to the same side door that Kara was first brought through by him long ago when Lena had him bring her to her. This time, nobody needs to get threatened by a gun to go inside, although Kara wishes she had one stuffed in the waistband of her pants so she could whip it out like she’s in an action movie and get her revenge on Frank.

They all scuttle through the door, their heads swivelling as they duck inside, trying their best to spot anyone down the alley.

The door clangs shut behind them, but none of them lose any tension from their shoulders. None of them release the breath they’re holding. Something doesn’t feel right.

“Everyone get down to the lab,” Lena demands, her ears straining to find anyone who isn’t meant to be here and coming up empty. Diving for her phone, she calls up the new head of security, someone she hired after Vasquez was murdered. She’s not sure if she likes her just yet but doesn’t get any negative feelings from her. “Ms Lane, I want a full head count and a list of everyone in the building please. Anyone who isn’t security is to be taken to the second-floor conference room. Once I’ve reviewed the list and checked on the staff, I’ll decide on further steps.”

“Of course, Ms Luthor. Is there anything you’d like me to prepare for?”

“Just be ready. We might have to move fast.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Lena shuts the lab door behind them firmly before heading straight for the safe room. “I know it’s not your favourite place in the world, but please just go in here for now. I’m not sure what’s happening, but I’ll be able to handle it better knowing you’re safe.” She swings the door open and gestures inside.

Ruby is the first to pass through the door after a not-so-gentle nudge from her mom and Alex is right behind her, quickly followed by Frank.

“You too,” Lena says softly, squeezing Kara’s hand. “You’ll be more protected from an audio attack in there, and I’ll feel better knowing there’s someone powerful in there to protect Ruby. I know Sam will too.”

“I will,” Sam confirms.

“Is Jess still here?” Kara asks, backing into the room. “Are you going to bring her down here?”

Lena’s eyes widen. “Oh shit. Sam, can you go and get her? I imagine she’s either already been rounded into the conference room or at her desk.”

Sam takes a second to enter the safe room, duck down to press a kiss to her daughter’s forehead, and then whisper a gentle reassurance to her before she darts off up the stairs, much quicker than the humans in the room were expecting, all of them left shell shocked by the causal display of power.

Kara moves into the room and waits just inside the door. “She should be back in just a moment, right? No point in shutting the door until Jess is here.”

Lena nods but looks around nervously. “I guess so, but it’d still make me feel better.”

“We all saw how quickly Sam just ran off, she’ll be back in no time.”

“They’ll be longer than you think. The day Jess lets anyone make her move that quick is the day a janitor is mopping up her puke from every step in the stairwell. It’ll be like a breadcrumb trail, except it’s just the regurgitated sub she had for lunch.”

Kara pinches the bridge of her nose between her fingers, wincing as she tries not to picture that. “Yep, thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome,” Lena smiles playfully, although it doesn’t feel completely genuine, the unease in her eyes overtaking the brief moment of joy.

“It’ll be ok.” Kara tries reassuring her but knows her thunderous heart is giving her away. She almost died the last time they were in a situation like this. Now someone else is threatening them, and she’s got to somehow not freak out.

Sam comes barging down the stairs at full speed, practically throwing Jess into the saferoom before barging Lena into there too before she slams the door shut behind them, locking them all in.

“What are you doing?” Lena exclaims.

“Shut up.” Sam commands, barely glancing back at the group, which now includes a very green-looking Jess. “They’re here.”

“What?” Lena whispers, almost inaudibly.

Not a moment later, a long, deep scratch can be heard from the other side of the door, trailing across it with a noise that makes them all raise their shoulders up in an attempt to protect their ears.

Alex notices Ruby quivering against the back wall and tucks her arm around the girl, noting how she immediately clutches her arms around her waist and buries her head into her chest.

Jess takes the other side of Ruby, joining in on the impromptu hug, a familiar figure for her to draw comfort from.

Frank just huddles in the corner, his necklace pulled out from under his shirt, the little cross held tightly between his clenched hands as he mouths the words to a prayer that won’t protect him.

“I hear you.” A dark voice sing-songs from outside. “I can hear your fear.”

Lena turns to everyone, a finger pressed to her lips to warn everyone to be quiet.

“If you think this adorable little room will protect you, you’re wrong. I know who you’re hiding in there. I know what you’re hiding in there. A beat. “Hybrid.”

Kara’s eyes are so wide she’s confident they might just roll right out of her head. Her hands clutch at the headphones, and to stop herself from accidentally breaking them, she shoves them back onto her head, regretting ever taking them off when they got down here.

Lena holds her hands out to her, holding her palms out flat to reassure her that everything is fine. She’s not going to let anyone hurt her.

“Give me the creature and I’ll leave. Nobody has to get hurt here.”

A snarl rips itself free from Lena’s throat, her protective side coming out in spades as she thinks about what someone could possibly do to Kara. Obviously, whatever she is planning isn’t good. Nobody who has good intentions with someone calls them a ‘creature.’

“Ah, so someone in there has a pair of balls. I like that, and I’d recognize that sound anywhere. You made that sound back when we first met too. So feisty, Ms Luthor.” A sinister laugh travels through the door, muffled by the metal but no less terrifying. “Or should I say, Lenetta Kieran? I bet you don’t even remember; you low-levels never do.”

Lena’s lip curls dangerously. She knows that was her name. Her first name. It’s changed many times across the centuries, often whenever she moved from city to city, or even across the minimal number of countries she’s been to, but that’s one she’ll never forget.

Only one person she met during that time was a vampire too. One person who definitely shouldn’t be here. Someone that she was sure died so long ago. Someone who paid the ultimate price for their crimes but apparently managed to duck beneath Death’s scythe.

“You know me, don’t you, Lena?” The voice taunts, and all of a sudden, Lena is back in her chambers in England. She’s human again, her last moments of being a normal person. The final moment before her life is robbed of her.

Lena’s hand moves without her consent, reaching forward to open the door.

Sam grabs her wrist, fighting against her, shocked by the amount of strength Lena is using to reach forward. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

“Open the door for me, Lena. You know you want to.”

Kara wraps her arms around Lena from behind, trapping her arms at her side as much as she can, knowing full well that this isn’t a fight she can win. Lena has to resist for them to win this battle.

Sam clings to her wrist, a flame burning deep inside her. She won’t let her do this, not when Ruby’s safety depends on it.

“Don’t make me stop you, Lena.”

“Lena, open the door.”

Lena feels as though something has nestled deep into her brain, changing the wiring and drawing her closer to the person on the other side of the door, pulling her like they’re magnets attracting. She has the desire to resist it but also feels like her wants are not her own. A part of her wants nothing more than to open the door while her logical brain screams at her that it’s a trap.

“Lena, don’t,” Kara mutters in her ear, her arms pressing deep into her stomach as she pulls back on her. Her warmth is steadying against her back and helps guide Lena through the fog.

“I won’t,” Lena says, her tone lacking its usual bite. “You might as well go, you can’t hurt us in here and we’re not handing anyone over to you.”

A cackling laugh travels through the thick metal of the door. “Interesting. You’re stronger than I imagined you to be. Nowhere near strong enough, but you’ve got a little bit of bite to your bark. I like that.”

“Just go!”

“I can’t do that. Give me the hybrid and I won’t harm the humans you’re hiding. That’s the deal. I can smell them. I can smell you all. You have three…no, four. There are four humans in there, two vampires and the hybrid. One in seven isn’t a bad loss. Hand it over.”

Kara bites her lip and winces as nails once again scratch against the door, causing an obvious amount of damage. The door won’t hold forever. Lena made this one of the safest places on the planet, yet here they are, sitting piglets as the big bad wolf slowly taunts them as she blows their house down. “Maybe I should just—”

“Absolutely not.” Lena cuts her off, turning around in her arms and taking her muscled arms in her hands, holding her tightly as though she’s about to open the door after begging her not to do it just moments before. “You’re not doing that. We’re fine, we’re safe in here.”

“Not forever.” The voice singsongs. “How long do you think it’ll take for me to get through this door? A few minutes? An hour? A day? I can wait you out. I have nothing but time.”

“Are you a vampire?” Lena asks, unsure if she actually wants to know the answer, but in a much better state of mind than she was before, clearly the woman has stopped controlling her for now.

“You could say that.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Telling me.” Lena smiles through the darkness, pulling out her phone and tapping the screen with her fingers faster than the flap of a hummingbird's wings. She then shoves it back in her pocket and presses Kara’s headphones against her ears more firmly. “Sam, Kara, this is going to hurt. I’m so sorry.”

The loudest, most ear-piercing ringing booms through the entire building, ten times worse than the audio attack they suffered at the hands of the mysterious woman and strong enough that it knocks not only the vampires to the floor but also causes the humans to cover their ears. It’s not enough to hurt them, but it’s not comfortable.

They hear a piercing scream on the other side of the door, demonic sounding undertones to it reaching forth and battering the lab. They hear the faint smashing sound as beakers and test tubes shatter from the mixture of the scream and Lena’s defence system.

It pauses, and all goes silent.

They relax against the floor, loosening their stiff limbs from their foetal positions. Lena swallows harshly. “It’ll just keep going. The system will take short breaks every so often. It’s random too. It gives anyone affected a chance to leave. I’ll leave it on for as long as necessary. We can endure longer than you. We’re more protected in here than you are out there. We have the upper hand. Get out while you can.”

“No!”

The noise starts up again, and Kara cries out in anguish, the least able to deal with it out of all of them. Lena knows that, at least she does when she’s not also being assaulted by the noise. She just hopes that the woman doesn’t call their bluff. If she does, they really are screwed.

They tighten back up into their foetal positions, their hands covering their ears, and their eyes slam shut.

Another scream from outside the door.

Silence.

“We can do this all day if we have to. We’re not opening the door.” Lena pants. “Give it up.”

Silence.

“You can’t win.”

Silence.

“Why do you want her so badly that you are willing to endure this pain?”

“I’m not. I’ll be back, don’t worry. I’ll find you again, not that it will be difficult; your name’s on the building.”

The door slams.

Silence.

The screeching starts up again, and as much as Lena wants to text security and have them shut off the noise, she can’t make herself move at all through the assault. They have to wait for the next break in the noise.

It does come eventually, but it feels like it takes an eternity. As soon as it stops, Lena dives for her phone and submits the order. It’s over for now. If she’s really gone, that is.

They all unravel from their positions, slowly sitting up.

“Is everyone alright?” Sam asks, her eyes pinned on her daughter. “Ruby?”

“I’m ok, mom. Is she gone?”

Sam turns her ear to the door, listening for the woman.

Silence.

“She’s gone.”

“Are you sure?” Alex asks, her eyebrows furrowed and fear written across every inch of her face.

Lena wraps her arms around Kara’s shaking body. “We’re certain. I think you should stay here while Sam and I go out there and secure the building properly. We’ll come and get you once we’re sure that’s done.”

Nobody puts up a fight. Nobody wants to leave their little sanctuary, fear still coursing through their veins and taking over them.

-

Kara is still shaking over an hour later and it has everyone worried about her. She’s sure it’s just adrenaline, but Lena and Alex have forced her to lie down on a gurney—a new one. Lillian really did a number on the last one when she escaped from being bound to it.

“I’m ok.”

“I’m sure you are, but you’ve been through a lot today, and you were practically tortured by not only her but also my defence system. We believe we only got one over on her today because a person like that doesn’t think that people below them can have similar ideas to them. I installed the frequency emitters after the Lillian thing. I wanted to be sure that I have something to rid the building of vampires should the need arise.”

“Smart.” Kara shifts, moving to take the headphones off.

Lena gently bats her hands away, keeping them in place and instead connecting them up to her phone and offering it to her so she can play some music instead. “Find something relaxing, maybe try to rest for a while. Even if you can’t sleep, you should just try to relax your body and close your eyes.”

“What about you?”

“I have work to do.”

“You should at least take half an hour to yourself, maybe sit down and try meditating or something. You can’t think if your head is everywhere at once.”

Lena leans down and presses her lips to Kara’s forehead softly. “I’ll be fine. I’ll rest once my work is done.”

Kara sighs. She already knows she’s not winning this one right now, so she turns her head until she spots Jess. “Hey! Can you make sure she rests soon, Jess?”

“You got it.” Jess gives her a thumbs up, pausing her sweeping to do so before going right back to cleaning up the broken glass.

“Thanks,” Kara calls out as she settles back down, turning on some soft music and trying not to think about how there are six people milling about the room around her.

Lena shakes her head at her softly, amused but also slightly annoyed by her actions. This woman is something else. Even after suffering through something that is definitely traumatic, she’s still trying to make sure she’s looked after too. If she could blush, she would be beet red.

“She’s not so bad,” Frank admits from his place on a random stool near to where Lena is standing.

“She’s not bad at all, and I’m just happy she didn’t try to have you kicked out of the room before she settled down.”

Frank hums softly. “She doesn’t like me very much.”

“That’s the understatement of the century.”

“I stand by what I did.”

“I know you do, but you cannot deny that what you did traumatized her deeply, just as my actions did the same to her. Our relationship has flourished since then, but it has not come without its trials and tribulations, of which I’m certain are not completely finished.”

Frank nods slowly. “I know what I did. I know what harm I caused. I know it’s not rational that I dislike her for not wanting to help you that day; she had every right and reason to refuse, but I care about you. I’ve been your driver for years, and you’re like family to me.”

Lena looks down, forcing herself to hide the tiny smile the old man just forced onto her face. “You’re like my family too. I just…can you try and get along with her? She’s lost a lot because of me and having you guys at odds just adds unease into her life that she shouldn’t have to deal with.”

“As you wish.” Frank nods. “I’ll be nice to her.”

“Thank you, that’s all I ask.” Lena squeezes his arm gently. “Now, why don’t you go and get Jess to find you somewhere to lie down too? You can call your family and let them know you’ll be home late and try to relax. At your age, you have to take it easy after something like what happened today.”

“Cheeky madam. I’ll be fine, but I suppose I should let Mandy know.” Frank grins at her before standing up and shuffling over to Jess, who eases the broom down before leading him upstairs so he can rest and call his wife.

She moves to her station where she was working on the synthetic blood, eager to see if any of her experiments she was working on have garnered any results, but her cold, unbeating heart shatters as she takes in the sight of it all strewn across the station and ground broken, her notes ripped to shreds. Whoever that woman was, she doesn’t want her to be working on this, and if she could tell what the experiment was just from her notes and the experiments, then she’s smart. Smarter than Lena would like her to be.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Sam and Alex both wander over to come and look over her shoulder.

“Oh crap,” Alex mutters. “Is that the artificial blood experiments?”

“Yep, I guess this means I’ve got to start all them over again. Fuck. At least I remember what was in the notes, so I don’t have to start completely from scratch.”

Sam squeezes her shoulder reassuringly. “I’m sorry, Lena.”

“Me too, but it’s not the end of the world.” She ducks her head. “I’d rather it just be this than any of you.”

Sam nods. “Me too. Need a hand cleaning up?”

“No, I’m good. Why don’t you and Ruby go and hang out in my office? Ruby can nap there if she wants to. I’ve got this covered.”

“Translation: you want us to scarper so you can try and make sense of everything that happened.”

Lena rolls her eyes. “Yes, that. Now scram.”

“You’ve got it.” Sam turns on her heel and eases Ruby up from where she’s sitting to take her upstairs and away from here.

“Oh, and Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s another safe room in my office; use it if you have to.”

Sam nods at her one last time with a reassuring smile before the mother-daughter duo leave the lab, leaving only Lena, Alex and Kara.

Alex finds a box of gloves nearby, washes her hands and snaps a pair on before helping Lena clear up the mess left all over the place.

“You don’t have to.”

Alex shrugs, not stopping for even a second. “I know, I want to. You protected us today and this is what I can do to thank you. I don’t know what that woman wants with my sister, but I know you’re not going to let her do anything either, not to Kara.”

Lena’s lips quirk up. “That’s true. I won’t let anyone hurt Kara. However, I do have to figure out who that woman is. She had a hold on me that I’ve never felt before, and I need to know exactly how and why she was able to do it.”

“That sounds smart.”

“It means I won’t be able to work on my artificial blood project though. I can’t do both, but I need to.” Lena sighs. “If I don’t work on the blood, the supply will run low again.  I can’t risk becoming as starving as I was when I met Kara. If I work on that and put the research into this woman on the backburner then I’m opening us up to an attack. What do I do?”

“You’re a billionaire, right?”

Lena frowns, pausing to look over at Alex in confusion. “Yes, why?”

“Just pay someone to do it.” She shrugs. “You have a load of scientists in this building during the day. Just get a few to work on the blood.”

“But I can’t let anyone know I’m a vampire. That’s the problem.” Lena shakes her head.

“Do you really think only vampires need blood?” Alex laughs, amused. “The hospital is always in need of donations. Believe me, I would know.”

Lena’s eyes grow wide. “Oh, shit. I forgot you’re a doctor. How are you having so much time off?”

“They’ve been trying to get me to take my vacation time for years. So has Kara for that matter.”

“Sounds like something Kara would do,” Lena admits.

“Yeah, but as much as I like resting. I love the feeling of helping people and saving lives. Sometimes, I like to work with patients, and sometimes I do lab testing. I love it.”

Just like that, a metaphorical lightbulb shines brightly over Lena’s head. “Lab work, you say?”

“Lab testing. It’s different.”

“But you’re familiar with bloodwork?”

“No. Nope. Not going to happen. No.” Alex shakes her head. “I like my work at the hospital.”

“And you can still do that, I will just have you come here and also be part of the team working on this.”

Alex sighs. “How big would the team be?”

“Two?”

Alex’s eyebrows raise so high they almost merge with her hairline. “Are you nuts? Only two people?”

“Me and you.”

“Definitely not. The hospital needs the extra help with the testing, so I won’t stop doing that.”

“I’ll start up an initiative to train and send some more people their way then. That means you’ll have time to come over and help.”

Alex shakes her head at Lena. “Why do you want me so bad?”

Lena ducks her head, shuffling her feet against some broken glass. “Surprisingly, I trust you and know I can speak openly around you. I don’t have that a lot of the time and I’ve never had the opportunity to work with anyone in the lab on something so personal. I’d like to know how it feels to work with a friend.”

“We’re friends?”

Lena clears her throat. “Not to make it weird or anything. I just…you’re my girlfriend’s sister, but I also kind of like you. You’re not bad for a human.”

Alex smirks at her, her hip propped against the nearest surface. “You’re not too bad for a vampire, I suppose. You should definitely roll out that initiative for the hospital.”

“You’ll do it?” Lena’s head snaps up. “Really?”

“I’ll think about it, but helping the hospital is a great way to inspire me to agree.”

Lena grins. “I look forward to working with you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hurry up and clean, then we can get some of these experiments going again and you can rewrite those notes.”

Lena lifts a few of the ripped sheets of paper and tries to jigsaw them together. “Do you think that if we get some tape—”

“Rewrite them.” Alex cuts her off. “You’re going to be a pain to work with. I can see it now.”

Lena smiles up at her smugly. “Yep, but you can’t back out now.”

“Of course I can.” Alex disagrees.

“Nope, because I’m going to tell Kara you said yes, and you can’t say no to Kara. That would be like kicking a puppy.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Alex glares at her.

“Probably not, but it’s a good threat.”

Alex’s shoulders slump. She hates that she actually kind of likes Lena now. She still gets the odd spark of rage when she thinks about Lena back when she first met Kara and the harm she caused her, but seeing the pair so lovey-dovey and the way Kara grins when Lena’s around has done wonders for making her come around to the vampire woman.

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

They silently keep cleaning, Lena getting tired part way through and using her speed to run through the rest of the lab quickly.

Alex shakes her head at her, but it doesn’t last as her eyes focus on her sleeping sister. “Promise me you’ll focus on that woman. I’ll handle the blood; you just keep her safe.”

“I’ll do my best. I promise.”

“Thank you. That’s all I needed to hear.”

“Just for the record though, I’m not leaving the blood just to you. I trust you, but not enough for you to do it alone.” Lena bumps her shoulder into Alex’s, almost sending the redhead flying.

“Asshole.”

Read the next chapter early on Patreon here!

[waytooinvested]

Small Problem... Chapter 3

You can find the full story on AO3

..................................................

Lena woke abruptly from an unintended doze to find her cheek stuck to the pages of her grimoire (damn it, she REALLY had to start treating this book with more reverence), Kara standing on her out-flung wrist, and the rest of her friends gathered around her work bench in a loose semi circle.

She sat up slowly, careful not to move her Kara-arm too much to avoid knocking her over, but unwilling to remain in such a vulnerable position with everyone staring at her.

‘What is it, did something happen? Does the world need saving?’

‘No Lena, the world doesn’t need saving, but we’re worried that maybe you do’ Alex replied.

‘Lena, we’re all here because we love you, and we want to help you. It’s been five days now, and you’ve barely left this room. You’re hardly eating, you are apparently only sleeping when you crash out at your desk, and you aren’t talking to any of us. We all know how much you want to help Kara, but you need to let the rest of us help you.’

Lena blinked back at Kelly, trying to collect herself from the haze of sleep and her sudden awakening.

‘Why does it sound like you’re holding an intervention for me?’

‘Because we’re holding an intervention for you. Sorry Lena, but Alex and Kelly are right. You barely even laughed at the photos we took of Alex’s face when she realised she’d spent the last ten minutes talking to a doll. And it was a REALLY funny face. You need help.’

Alex tutted. ‘Alright, thank you Nia, lets not get off topic.’

‘Well it was’ Nia muttered back at Alex before putting her Serious Face back on and turning her full attention to Lena.

Lena looked around the semi circle at each of them, hoping to find someone on her side, but they all looked back with the same expression of sympathetic resolve, and she knew it was hopeless. She dropped her gaze to her best friend instead, still standing on her wrist in Supergirl stance.

‘Kara, surely you’re not part of this? You know why I have to keep working. I’m doing it for you.’

‘I know, but...’

Kara dropped the hands on hips pose and shuffled her feet awkwardly (which tickled, but she was getting used to it).

‘I’m sorry Lena. This is so difficult, but you’ve been here for me ever since this happened, and I need to be here for you now. You’re my best friend, and I love you, and you need me to tell you this: you need a shower.’

‘...oh.’

Thinking back, Lena actually wasn’t sure when she had last made it home to shower. Yesterday? The day before? Longer? The fact that she had to think about it probably meant Kara had a point, but a full intervention about it seemed excessive.

‘Okay… I will go and take a shower. Thank you all for telling me, I guess. I’ll be back in an hour or so.’

‘NO you won’t.’ Alex protested. ‘This is not about the shower, it’s everything. You need to sleep, and eat, and take a break, and then you need to join the rest of us so we can work on this together. We miss you.’

They all nodded and added their own words of encouragement, and it was too much for Lena. Did they think she wanted this? She was doing it for them. She made to fold her arms defensively across her chest, but couldn’t help feeling like the gesture lost some of its power when she could only do it with one arm lest she topple Kara. She compensated with a glower.

‘You must see that I can’t do that. I still don’t know what I did to shrink Kara. What if it happens to someone else? You need to keep away from me until I figure out how to control it!’

There was silence in the room as everyone stared at her, jaws hanging slack. Apparently they didn’t see. Had none of the rest of them put two and two together about what must have happened? Alex took a step towards her, reaching out a hand as if to lay it comfortingly on her arm until Lena shook her head adamantly. Touching might be dangerous.

‘Is that really what you’ve been thinking all this time? Lena, this wasn’t your fault, you didn’t cause this!’

‘Alex is right Lena. My calculations suggest a 96% certainty that the miniaturisation was caused at least in part by an external force. It may have interacted with your magic in some way, but there is a 78.3% probability that it was entirely unrelated to you. In any case, the likelihood of a causal relationship between you returning to physical proximity with the rest of the group and a similar incident occurring is barely 0.004%.’

‘You’re wrong.’

‘That is statistically extremely implausible.’

‘I’m with Brainy. I know a thing or two about magic Lena, and what you’re saying doesn’t follow the pattern of yours. You’ve had your powers under pretty tight control for months now, and even when you were just starting out nothing like this ever happened, so why would it come up all of a sudden with no provocation? It’s not even like you were in a really intense emotional state or anything.’

‘But I was. And I was touching Kara just when it happened, so-’

Shit, she hadn’t meant to say that, but Nia had pushed, and it just slipped out.

Nia gave her a quizzical look, and although she didn’t turn to look Lena could feel everyone else doing the same, the heat of so many gazes making her cheeks burn.

Don’t ask, please just let it drop and don’t ask…

‘How come? Were you and Kara having a very quiet fight?’

Trust Alex.

‘No, we-’

They had been standing hip to hip, leaning over the book and idly discussing what spell Lena might practise next. They reached a page about a draught that would give you courage to confess true feelings to the one you loved, and Lena had felt a spike of adrenaline just at the sight of it. She had reached too quickly to turn the page just as Kara had done the same thing, and their hands collided. Their eyes had met. The butterflies had surged. Kara had shrunk. Here they were.

‘We weren’t fighting.’

‘So what were you- oh.’

Kelly was looking at her with an expression that betrayed far too much understanding, and a moment later Alex looked from her wife to Lena and her eyes widened too.

‘Oh.’

Lena’s heart was pounding now and she wanted to bury her burning face in her hands, but her wrist was still pinned by Kara and her friends were between her and the door so she couldn’t just storm out of there without first awkwardly edging past everyone. She shook her head in frantic denial. It wasn’t meant to happen this way.

‘It wasn’t. You don’t- you’re just-’

‘Lena? What was the intense emotional state you felt while we were looking at your book?’

Kara spoke as softly as she could given the level of projection required to make herself heard at this distance, and Lena reluctantly dropped her eyes to meet her friend’s. She was pretty sure her cheeks were hot enough to boil a kettle by this point, and there was no way it didn’t show. Somehow the intensity of Kara’s expression was undiminished by her tiny size, and the butterflies – god, the traitorous, ill-timed butterflies – started dancing again.

She opened her mouth to reply, and found she couldn’t make a sound. Not like this. Not in front of everyone. She just couldn’t.

‘Okay, everyone out except Lena and Kara. They clearly need some time to talk.’

Kelly started herding the others to the door, and Lena was so grateful she could have kissed her, if she wasn’t too caught up with the thought of kissing Kara to have eyes for anyone else (and also Alex would probably have murdered her if she did, but that seemed like a lesser concern right now given that Lena was kind of hoping that someone would, just so that she wouldn’t have to deal with talking about her feelings). The door was halfway shut behind the last of them and Lena was steeling herself to look back down at Kara, when Nia suddenly popped her head back into the room.

‘For the record Lena: 1. I knew it and I am super happy for you, and 2. I still think you’re wrong about what happened because if that sort of strong feeling was going to cause accidental magic, I don’t think it would be to shrink Kara. It would have done something way horni-’

‘NIA! Leave them be!’

Nia rolled her eyes, but her head retreated back into the corridor and they heard the sound of her whisper-arguing with someone, then a door banged and Lena and Kara were properly alone.

‘That girl is becoming a menace. I remember when she was so sweet and shy…’

She was trying for levity to diffuse the moment, but Kara refused to be distracted, her eyes never leaving Lena’s face.

‘But was she right? Do you… have feelings for me?’

‘Kara, I’m not sure this is the right time to have this conversa-’

‘I’m in love with you Lena.’

‘What?’ Her voice was a cracked whisper, barely there past the lump in her throat, because she had to have misheard. This had to be a dream… didn’t it?

‘I’m in love with you. I didn’t really realise until I thought I’d lost you for good, and then when I finally got you back I couldn’t bear to risk what we had by pushing for more, so I never told you. But now here you are devoting everything to helping me like you always do, and you just had to go through that in front of everyone and it was kind of my fault for being part of the whole intervention thing instead of just talking to you privately, so it’s only fair that I’m the one who says it. I am in love with you. Completely, desperately in love with you. And I want to know if you love me too.’

Lena closed her eyes, and a tear spilled down her cheek. She wanted to pull Kara into a hug. She wanted to kiss her until she forgot the feel of anything except Kara’s lips and her body pressed against hers, until she forgot her own name. But she couldn’t do that now, so instead she whispered ‘yes.’

‘Yes, I love you. I’ve been in love with you for years.’

The slight weight on Lena’s wrist disappeared as Kara lifted into the air, then there was the soft brush of fabric against her face, and Kara was wiping away tears with her cape. She came closer still, wrapping her tiny arms as far as they could go around Lena’s cheek in the closest thing she could manage to a hug. Lena laughed shakily, bringing her own hand up to cover Kara very gently. It wasn’t what she had imagined. But it was more than she had dared to hope for.

When Lena went home for the much needed shower, meal and sleep, Kara came too. She didn’t actually come into the shower (that was very much a full-size-only activity, though one she hoped to experience in the not too distant future), but she was hovering outside the bathroom door when Lena emerged and immediately settled back onto her shoulder the moment the door opened, despite her still-wet hair (as it turned out Kara was better than a blow drier, and used a moderated burst of heat vision to dry it in seconds).

They ate together, talking of small things as if everything was still as it had been between them, then Lena gave in to her exhaustion and went to bed. She did her best to make a comfortable bed on the night stand for her tiny friend (girlfriend?), carefully arranging a small cushion as a mattress and the softest sweater she could find to form a makeshift blanket, but when she woke in the night it was to find that Kara had abandoned it and was instead burrowed against her neck, cocooned in her hair like she had made herself a nest. It would be a pain to brush out in the morning, but Lena didn’t care. She raised one hand to cup around Kara’s curled form, and drifted back off to sleep.

From then on, Kara rarely left Lena’s side.

They still worked on spell options, but Lena no longer locked herself away to do it. She discussed the possibility of building some sort of de-shrink-ray with Brainy. Talked about the nature of magic with Nia. Alien powers with J’onn and Alex and what species might have traits that could be helpful. And she talked about everything with Kara.

They still didn’t have an answer to what was causing Kara’s tiny size, but they had found another answer to a question neither of them had dared ask each other for years. And now they had, Lena knew that whatever had caused this didn’t stand a chance against her. Because there was no way in the universe she was going to let some random mystery malchance magic keep her from getting to kiss Kara Danvers full on the mouth.

[supercorpkid]

He’ll never love you (like I do)

Supergirl, Lena Luthor x Reader, Kara Danvers x Reader, Alex Danvers, James Olsen, Sam Arias.

Word Count: 3120.

Notes: prompt by @thebifisignal. It took me forever but here it is. The heartbreak of being left for James Olsen is worst than a normal one guys.

Superfriends group text:

Kara: Guys, game night tomorrow at my apartment. 

Alex: Great! I’ll invite Sam.

Lena: Is James coming as well?

Kara: He just said he’ll be there!

Lena: Great! See you guys tomorrow.

You furrow your brows at Lena’s text, surprised and utterly confused. Why is she asking about James and not about you, her own girlfriend? You look at your calendar on your work desk, knowing you can’t join the game night because you have a meeting.

Y/N: Sorry guys, can’t make it. I have to work. 

Kara: Aw no. Should we reschedule?

Y/N: No, don’t worry about it. I’ll go to the next one.

Kara: Alright, but if you want me to go pick you up at any time during the game night, let me know.

Alex: You’ll be missed, Y/N. But don’t worry, we’ll take care of Lena for you.

Lena: I can take care of myself.

Ok. Alright. You immediately shoot Lena a text to know if everything is alright. Lena was never one to need anyone to bring her flowers or climb her tower, but still she is usually more sweet than that. She answers with a dry, ‘yes, going into a meeting now’, and you swallow deep. Have you done something?

Sure, you’ve been working a lot, but that’s no excuse. Lena always works a lot herself and this was never a problem for the two of you.

You don’t make it to game night, and on the weekend Lena comes up with a lame excuse not to see you and you decide not to push, afraid this might drive her further away from you. But if you’re being honest, you’re starting to get worried. Even with Kara reassuring you that Lena seems fine. 

Must be a little bump in the relationship, you try to convince yourself. You should give her the space she needs.

You go to the next game night, a week later. Lena is already there and she is sitting extremely close to James. You feel a lump on your throat when she says they’ll be partners for the night, but you don’t fight her on it. 

So you pair up with Winn, and end up winning more games than you ever did when you were partners with Lena. Except that winning doesn’t matter at all to you and you’d rather lose all night and have her smile at you like she is smiling at James, than winning at this term.

When everyone just gets really tired of competing and playing games, and you all fall into a comfortable conversation about your lives, and what’s going on with National City (nothing good, really. There’s barely ever anything good happening here), you think Lena is going to come back closer to you and talk, instead she sighs loudly when she notices you’re staring and that’s all.

“Hey,” Sam whispers in your ear when everyone else is distracted by Kara enthusiastically telling a story. “What’s up with you and Lena?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me.” You look at her, and she furrows her brows. “Has she mentioned being mad at me or something?”

“Not really.” Sam thinks about it for a second. “To be honest, she hasn’t mentioned you in a while.”

“Oh.”

“Are you two on a break?”

“If we are, then I think she forgot to mention it to me.” You feel stupid and completely out of place.

 When you first started dating Lena you knew it wasn’t a good idea to date someone from your group of friends. But the attraction and respect between the two of you was undeniable, and everyone in the group encouraged you two to get together. But now, now you see why you had your doubts in the first place.

When the night ends, you run after Lena before she leaves without saying a word directed at you.

“Lena!” You call her, but she doesn’t stop walking. “Lena, hey! Wait a second.”

She stops, giving you a loud sigh. “What, Y/N?”

“What’s wrong?” You try to hold her arm, but she moves away. “We haven’t seen each other in a week, then you act like you don’t even know me, and what was that whole thing with James?”

Lena blinks at you, like that’s a good answer, or like if maybe you don’t even deserve one. “Y/N, I’m so tired.”

“Of what?”

“This.” She points at the two of you. “This conversation and us and – Look, we should leave this for later.”

“Later when, Lena? You’ve been avoiding me for an entire week!” 

You hear someone clearing the throat and you look behind yourself to find James there. He forces a smile, and excuses himself so he can walk down the stairs.

That should be all. It should be James feeling embarrassed to see you and Lena having an argument on the staircase (or trying to have one), but you can tell there’s more. There’s more to it. You can feel the tension between them. They share a look as if they were more than friends, as if they were allies. It’s funny how they say nothing to each other or to you, but they don’t have to because the whole moment was so tension-filled that it already says everything. 

“Shit.” It’s your only reaction. You let yourself fall on your butt, sitting on one of the steps when James is out of sight. “Shit, Lena.”

She looks at you, totally aware of why you’re saying this. She knows. She can see how much you know and yet she does nothing to deny it. Nothing to ease your mind. Nothing at all.

“You're leaving me for him, aren’t you?” It’s not like you don’t know already, but yet you need confirmation. You need an admission for it to feel real.

Lena bites her lower lip. Then she looks at her hand, ignoring your gaze. “I’m – Yeah.” She breathes out. “Yes, I am.” 

Your heart stops on your chest. God, you did not see that coming. So you miss one game night and she replaces you like that? She switches partners not only to play games, but to live her life with? How did that happen? How did it happen so fast? Unless… It didn’t.

“What happened?” You look up to her. She doesn’t look like your Lena. She looks small and so distant, it’s like you can feel this barrier around her. “How did we ever come to this?”

“We grew apart.”

“In a week?” You can’t hold the surprise in your voice, because things were not this bad a week ago, at least not for you, and if it was so bad for her why didn’t she mention it sooner?

“I can’t explain, I just don’t feel the same way about you anymore. Or about him.” 

“You know he will never love you like I do, right?”

“Y/N.” That’s all she says. She says your name and it says it all. So sardonic and sharp, it leaves no margin for wondering. You agree with your head reading her perfectly. 

She doesn’t care about that, she doesn’t care about the fact that you love and respect her like no one ever will. She doesn’t care that you completely understand what it is like to be a woman in this business, because you are one yourself. She doesn’t care that you respect her space, and that you took your time to break down her barriers and open up to someone. Lena doesn’t care that you are the first person she truly trusted in years. 

And you feel stupid.

Stupider than you’ve ever felt. 

She is leaving you for James Olsen. Which only makes this whole thing a lot worse. 

You get up, passing her and running down the stairs so she doesn’t see the tears springing on your eyes.

To be honest, you’ve never expected this to happen. It’s not like you were planning to marry Lena, although you did think there was a great possibility of that to happen. But what you didn’t expect at all was her breaking your heart like this. Especially not after everything the two of you went through. 

And God, for everyone she could leave you for… James Olsen? That fucking idiot who doesn’t even believe in her. Who judged her because of her name on several occasions. Who broke her trust and lied to her before. 

She is leaving you for the most absurd, worst suitor possible. Which leaves you feeling like crap. There’s too much stuff running wild in your mind, on the ride back home. Too much stuff leaving you hollow and devastated.

Oh, how much you despise him.

Despise is a strong word, you know that. It’s not James’ fault. You try to tell yourself while your brain floods with images of you shooting daggers at him. He stole Lena from you. 

But that’s not what happened, was it? Lena cannot be stolen. Cannot be whisked away like she can’t make her own decisions. No. Despite all of your anger and your fury, and your clouded judgments; Despite the fact that this is just another reason for you to hate his entire being, you can’t be unfair.

It was her who made this decision. Hell, it was her who let her feelings for him change, and her feelings for you disappear. It was her who decided to break your heart and not even dignify you with the truth before you connected the dots. It was Lena who decided to throw all that you guys built out of the window and move on with her life as if you weren’t there to begin with.

And you try to do the same. You do. You leave the Superfriend group chat, throw yourself into work, into alcohol, into sadness. You cut ties with everyone related to Lena, with all of your friends too. You ask your assistant to send her assistant a box with all of the stuff you could find in your apartment that belongs to her, and if you leave behind the sweater she wore the first time she stayed over, well, then that’s just you doing a crappy job, isn’t it?

You stop leaving the house, scared you might run into her and James at some restaurant or Kara’s apartment. You don’t go to CatCo, even when you miss your best friends because you know you will see him there. And the world goes on, and on.

The silence from all the ends grows heavy, interminable, and it says too much even when it's not saying anything at all. Your friends are on their side. They agree you should be left. They agree James is better for her. They agree you're the odd one out and they are leaving you too.

And God, you wonder if all of this pain is going to go away someday. You wonder if the relationship was real in the first place, or whether it was just an act to love you from her end. And you wonder if this pain is for nothing.

You snap out of it when the doorbell rings. Clean your tears, and hide your bottles. Toss Lena’s sweater under a cushion and let your hair down. Then you make your way to the door.

She looks at you in pity. Kara’s blue eyes are filled with sadness and warmth, but also pity. And you hate that. 

“You’re not picking up my calls.” She states as to why she is here unannounced, before you even have a chance to ask her. “And I cannot let you do this.”

“Do what, not pick up my phone?” You bicker and she winces at your harshness. But this is Kara, and that’s not enough to push her away. So, instead, she steps inside your apartment.

“That, too. But I cannot let you do this.” She walks to the bottles of alcohol you just hid behind the couch. You roll your eyes at her x-ray vision, and the clear invasion of privacy. “Hide and suffer alone.”

“Well, I am alone.” Your tone is accusatory, and completely unnecessary. Kara didn’t leave you for James. She didn’t break your heart and left you wondering what was wrong with you and if you did something unacceptable. 

She comes back to where you are, because you still haven’t moved. Kara’s hands go to your arms, stroking the length of it, careful and shielding. “You are not alone. I’m right here.”                 

“Kara.” You argue with her name alone. Too tired and drunk for more. 

“It will get better.” Kara says, sadly and hopeful. And you want to laugh at her for still being able to say this after the whole thing that just happened. But you also want to yell, scream-cry and fall on the floor in a hyper-ventilating crying that would make anyone pity your situation. You do none. You breathe deep.

“But this doesn’t make it better right now.” 

She agrees with her head, and pulls you in for a hug. You don’t fight her on it, but you don’t hug her back. Yet, you feel completely safe and loved inside her embrace, which allows your angry tears to leave your eyes and soak her button-up shirt. She doesn’t let go, though. She would never.

You don’t know how, or when, you two moved to the couch. But you notice the change of positions when she kneels in front of you, hand on your knee.

“What happened?” Kara’s other hand goes to your face, trying to wipe out some tears. But your own hands are in the way, hiding your face and your shame for crying over a woman who just left you like you were nothing. It takes a few minutes for Kara to ask again. “Honey, what happened? Why did Lena tell me she hopes it hurts?”

“She did?” Your crying is put to stop, although the tears are still rolling down your cheeks. “She left me for him, stabbed me in the back, and she hopes it hurts?”

“What?” Kara’s brows quirks. “She – What?”

“Left me for James.” You think about the absurdity of it all. About the pain and the crisis you just fell into because of her. Because of him. And you laugh sharp and sour. “She left me for James fucking Olsen, Kara.”

“She – She couldn’t.” But at the same time that her voice is incredulous, her face is filled with anger and ire. Looking like she could spit fire instead of freeze air. Like she might be capable of breaking them like twigs. 

She blinks one lonely tear, as if she can feel what you’re feeling and you wipe your own face clean, aggressively. 

“Well, you can tell her that it doesn’t anymore.” You resolve, with new found strength and petulance. “I won’t allow her to leave me in pieces.”

You can’t believe you let this situation keep you up at night. You can’t believe you let that woman break your every heartbeat.

Kara holds your neck, pulls your face onto her shoulder, and you bury your nose on the crook of her neck, breathing her in. “I’m on your side. I’m with you. And you’ll never be alone.” She whispers a promise, kissing your temple softly and loving. “I’ve got you, sweetheart.”

“Thanks, Kara.” You whisper too, pulling back, until your forehead is resting against hers.

“It will stop hurting, and it will get better. And I’ll be by your side until it does. And when it does… I’ll be right here.” She blinks at you like she is saying something else. “I will not break your heart or your trust.” She whispers. “I will not leave you.” 

And you blink too, unaware of what it could be. Confused as to why she is making sure you know all that. And she sees the confusion crossing your face, so she kisses your forehead, loving but respectfully. 

“Let’s start with getting you sober, and out of this crisis.” She smiles, making way to your cabinets, and your coffee pot. “Wanna take a shower while I get this ready?”

“Okay.” You whisper, baffled by the change of her demeanor, but not ready to get into that just yet.

Nia comes on the very next day. And not long after Alex texts and a game night is quickly arranged at your apartment. Lena and James are not invited, but everyone else is. They don’t bring out their names, though Sam lets it slide that Kara has cut all ties with them. 

You don’t tell Kara she didn’t have to. She knows she didn’t. And there’s nothing you can say that would change Kara Danvers’ mind anyways. 

You strive to get better. Some days you don’t even remember who Lena Luthor was, and some other times… Well, you try to cry alone under your blankets so Kara doesn’t hear you, but every time without fail, the depression session turns into a sleepover and you forget about Lena once again.

They break up after a few months. You don’t keep up with the news about her, but sometimes you hear things, no matter how much your friends try to shield you from it. You don’t want Lena to be sad, but you’re glad to know you were right. He could never love her like you did.

He almost dies and Kara tells you she is going to visit him, as if she is asking for permission to do so. You fear for what this could mean. Ties are being mended and maybe that means that she is not with you, like she promised. But she comes back. And she doesn’t break your trust. 

It stops hurting, and Kara is still here. She doesn’t break your heart, like she said she wouldn’t. Instead, she helps you heal it. She patches it up and aids it. And never once you are left alone. 

It takes you a few months but you finally get it. You get what she meant in her whisper.

Kara is not leaving, because real love doesn’t flee. It doesn’t expire or grows apart. It grows together in the same direction. It doesn’t leave you alone with a deep cut and a nightmarish heartbreak. No. It nurses your heart back to health, sure it will be able to love again. Real love waits for its turn and, when the time comes, holds onto the chance. 

And it never, ever, breaks your heart and your trust, nor leaves you. 

[marinawolf]

A lot of the prompts you’ve gotten are happy and fluffy and awesome. But can I challenge you as a writer with a bit of angst/vulnerability?

Lena has a scar in a spot that’s always covered by clothing so the general public doesn’t know about it. How she got it isn’t happy memories and a direct consequence of Lionel/Lillian/Lex when she was younger. Then Kara sees it and shares her (Kryptonite) scar(s?), shocking Lena because she didn’t believe it possible for Kara to scar

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Thank you for this. I love writing angsty fics.💙

(Also, if you enjoy angsty supercorp fics, I'm regularly updating one called Always You on ao3. My username there is marinawolf! It's all about revelations, red k Kara and angst!)

Here you go. I hope you like it:

Scarred (Supercorp)

-

Lena couldn't help but marvel at Kara's sheer beauty. Her presence was a radiant force, her cascading blonde hair framing her face like a halo. Those enchanting blue eyes held Lena captive, their gaze a magnetic pull that drew her closer.

Lena's fingers threaded through the strands of Kara's hair, aching to hold onto this moment forever. Their lips crashed together and Lena felt electricity surge through her body, igniting a fire that threatened to consume them both.

Time stood still as they explored each other with an unquenchable hunger. Kara's lips were a revelation, each touch imprinting itself on Lena's very soul. The taste of Kara on her lips was a divine elixir, sweet and intoxicating.

As their kiss deepened, Lena surrendered to the intoxicating euphoria that enveloped them. Her heart thundered in her chest.

When their lips eventually parted, Lena found herself lost in Kara's captivating gaze once more, her blue eyes asking for permission that Lena gave freely. She pulled Kara to her once more, and when Kara's fingers moved to the buttons of her shirt, her breath hitched. The moment was both exhilarating and terrifying, and Lena found herself holding her breath as Kara's fingers skillfully undid the buttons of her shirt.

And then it happened. As Lena's shirt fell away, revealing the scar that had haunted her for years, Kara gasped audibly. Lena's heart sank, fearing that Kara's reaction was one of shock or disgust.

She felt a surge of self-consciousness wash over her. She wanted to hide, to pull away and cover herself, but Kara's hands held her in place, grounding her in the present moment.

"I'm sorry," Lena whispered, her voice barely above a breath. "It's not a pretty sight, I know."

But before she could utter another word, Kara's touch silenced her fears. Her fingertips glided gently across the length of the scar, tracing its path as if trying to understand every curve, every line. Lena watched, her breath caught in her throat, as Kara's gaze softened with an unfathomable tenderness.

"What happened?" she whispered.

And Lena told her, her mind drifting to her childhood, to a time when her life had been shattered by the actions of her own brother. He had orchestrated a horrific event, an intentional explosion that had caused unimaginable damage. Their nanny had lost her life in the blast, and Lena had been thrown through a glass window, the impact leaving a long, jagged scar on her abdomen.

The pain of that memory resurfaced, and Lena felt a lump forming in her throat. It was an event she rarely spoke about. Lillian, her mother, had blamed Lena for the incident, adding another layer of guilt and shame to an already heavy burden.

"It's a reminder," Lena whispered, "It's a reminder of my family, the pain they so easily caused, of my weakness. Of my complacency in the face of that darkness."

Kara sat up without a word, straddling Lena's waist, her eyes filled with an intense determination. She reached for the hem of her own shirt and slowly lifted it, revealing a tapestry of tiny scars that adorned her abdomen.

Lena gasped, her eyes widening in astonishment as her fingers instinctively traced the delicate lines etched into Kara's skin. She had never imagined that Kara, with her seemingly invincible presence, could bear such marks. It was a revelation that shook Lena to her core.

"I didn't know..." Lena's voice wavered with a mixture of awe and tenderness. "I didn't know you could scar, Kara."

Kara's expression softened. "Kryptonite leaves its marks," she explained gently, "Do you think that these scars are symbols of my weakness?"

"Never." Lena whispered, "You are so strong, Kara."

"Then why do you feel that way about yourself? This scar," Kara's fingers traced its jagged edges, her voice soft, "it's a testament to your strength. It's proof that you survived, that you came out on top of all the darkness. It's a reminder of the incredible person you are. That you are a kind and wonderful person despite your family. These scars are a part of who we are, Lena, and we should never be ashamed of anything that reminds us of our own resilience."

And then, Kara leaned in and captured Lena's lips with her own, erasing any lingering doubts or insecurities. In that moment, Lena felt a surge of gratitude for Kara's presence in her life. It was as if the touch of Kara's lips had the power to heal, to mend the wounds that had haunted her for so long. Kara's touch was a balm to her wounded soul, mending the cracks and shattering any lingering insecurities.

As their bodies drew closer, Lena shed her self-consciousness and embraced the vulnerability that came with being truly seen. Kara didn't view her scar as a symbol of pain and darkness; to Kara, it was a testament to Lena's strength and the triumph over her family's legacy. The scar that she had once despised now held a new meaning—an emblem of her resilience and a reminder of the love and strength that existed within her, despite the darkness of her past.

And as Kara's lips met hers once again, Lena surrendered to her- the woman who had stolen her heart and ignited a fire within her that could never be extinguished.

[2-the-moon-and-2-saturn]

of all the lies i’ve heard

also on ao3 if u wanna go there :)

Frankly, she can’t say she hadn’t seen it coming.

There’s a constant, an invariable behavior to all of them that prefaces the declaration. She’s observed it enough times to understand what’s going to happen, sometimes even before they make up their minds about saying it.

And perhaps none of them had looked quite so flushed, acted quite so bashful for as long as the one before her did upon blurting it out, as if the words had gained a life of their own, unstoppable on their quest for freedom.

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter.

She’s lived it enough times to know that they’re all the same.

Kara looks beautiful with pink dusted across her cheeks, big blue eyes searching for an answer to the sentence that never should have been. Because even if the concept is a bit unclear to Lena – she hasn’t had much of an example of it in her life, – she knows that it isn’t meant for her.

“Lena?”

Right. She’s supposed to say something. Usually, she’d just go along with it: let the lie slip through the cracks of her ribcage masked by the conviction that she won’t let it get to her heart, to sear into it like poison, to destroy her from the inside.

But Kara is looking at her, sweet and expectant, and oh, it hurts. It’s barely been a minute and it’s already seeping through her veins, constricting her lungs – so she needs to say it, can’t let it sit this time.

It’s not Kara’s fault, and yet-

“This will sound strange, but…” She straightens her spine, crosses her legs, and sets down the container of leftover fries she’d been munching on. Kara brought Big Belly Burger to her office this afternoon, and they’d only just been talking about their days – Lena explaining her latest project with what were likely way too many details – when Kara hit her with it.

Mind you, computing the words “I think I’m in love with you” while her neurons had been nearly entirely directed to going off on a tangent about polyatomic anions was no easy task, but she managed. And when she did, she simply had to know. She wipes her fingers on a napkin, eyes not once leaving Kara. “Why do you say that?”

Kara’s eyebrows knit together. “W-Why… Why am I in love with you?”

“I’m not looking for compliments or anything of the sort,” Lena clarifies, trudging through the embarrassment of having to subject them to this conversation at all. Of not being able to keep her mouth shut, because it’s Kara, and Kara always listens. Pulls the truth out of her like a magnet seeking guarded steel. But if she’s going to face what may be one of the most humiliating conversations of her life, she will do it the only way she knows how: with a blank mask on her face and fabricated calm in her voice. “I just… would like to know, I suppose.”

Kara sputters.

Lena can see she’s really trying: hers is not exactly among the responses one expects upon performing a love confession. She watches the pink across Kara’s cheeks gradually evolve into a red that spreads across her face until, finally, the blonde is able to speak.

“I guess I like – love –,” she corrects herself, the word clearly uncomfortable on her mouth now that she’s formed it voluntarily, “how much you care. You help the world even though it hasn’t been fair to you. You hear my stories even after a long day of important work. And even in the worst circumstances, when no one would blame you for succumbing to darkness, you just… You try to make the world a little bit brighter, instead.”

Although they’re beautiful words, Lena purses her lips against the sting of potential tears she refuses to shed and feels her head shaking before she can take a better hold of herself, the words tumbling out in a defeated tone. “But those are all things I do, see,” she smiles – a ginger, pitiful thing. “They’re not who I am.”

The blonde seems to simultaneously deflate and frantically search for better words, all too scared to hurt her. Lena hurries, forcing herself to find downcast blue eyes as she takes a deep breath. It’s okay. Kara bore her heart, misguided though it may be. It’s only fair she does the same. “Please, don’t take this the wrong way. It’s alright. You matter a lot to me, Kara. But I’m afraid people have cared about me for what I can do my entire life, and I don’t want to mislead you, because I’ve found that it never really lasts.”

Lena doesn’t know when she started staring at the rug under the coffee table rather than making eye contact, but it’s where they’re at, and she can’t make herself change it. Not when she’s already this vulnerable.

“I can’t have that happen here, do you understand? If I fell, and then…” She tries not to chastise herself over the conditional, a translucent sheen of protection guarding her feelings from lying entirely bare. Unable to finish the sentence, Lena bites her lip, shaking her head minutely. “The crash would be too hard.”

When she brings herself to at least look Kara’s direction, three sharp knocks sound on her door.

Her gaze lifts towards it. Her assistant doesn’t interrupt a meeting unless it’s important – especially not one with the one relationship she actively works to maintain.

“Yes, Jess?”

“Excuse me, Ms. Luthor. Maxwell Lord caved, but we’re on a clock.”

The CEO nods before turning to Kara. “I’m so sorry, can we continue this later?“

Still dumbfounded, the blonde just nods hesitantly, apparently not sure of how to deal with the entire exchange. Honestly, neither is Lena, but she can’t focus on that right now.

She leaves shortly after, and entering her town car, the youngest Luthor idly wonders if she finally managed to ruin the realest thing she’s ever known.

Lena doesn’t further ruminate on it until later that night, when most of the city should be asleep and she folds a leg under herself on the couch while nursing what started out as one glass of wine.

Kara, crestfallen, ghosts over her mind and spreads cold over her body like the midnight fright of a child who’s just realized that anything could be lurking in the shadows, but has stranded too far from the rooms still clothed in light. It quickly fosters an urge to run back to safety, and, as if of their own volition, her fingers curl around the phone she had been replying to e-mails on and open Kara’s contact.

She stares at it.

Gulps down the remaining liquid that tints her glass and refills it, instead.

Hopes that the burn will wash away lingering thoughts.

Thoughts of how she should have explained better – of how, maybe, she should have kept her mouth shut; not said anything at all. Her mother’s voice echoes the latter, so she focuses on the former instead.

But how could she have possibly shared more than she did?

How was she supposed to explain to Kara that, for her, love has always been hard-earned through satisfactory deeds and brittle in its durability – never freely given and unconditional?

That, because of it, she has become a master at wearing masks – a chameleon so focused on adapting to whichever environment she finds herself in, that her very idea of self has proved indistinguishable from a mere elaborate disguise?

That in order to love, one must understand. And that if not even she can see herself, how would Kara? How can they be sure she hasn’t simply been seeing what she wishes to, because Lena is unable to show anything of value at all?

Once Kara finds out – that she’s not perfect; that she doesn’t excel at everything; that sometimes she’s too tired to speak or hold a conversation (and, sometimes, she doesn’t want to); that she likes songs Kara doesn’t listen to (and dislikes songs Kara does); that she only ever talks about her relationships with people at work (and occasionally, on really bad days, with her family), rather than herself, because there is nothing about her that is interesting enough to point out, – once Kara finds out that Lena, as an individual, strays far from Lena, as a friend, how long will it be before she leaves, too?

And when she does, will there be enough remaining shards of Lena’s heart to be put back together?

No, those aren’t things a person should say.

So, she didn’t.

Correction – tried not to.

But she was weak, and hurting, and in love. And just like all those times before, she watched herself be lied to by someone she cared about, except in this case, she knew it wasn't malicious (which, somehow, stung worse). She didn’t have to wonder if Kara was taking advantage of her feelings, because she knows in her heart that Kara is good. Kara is good, and so her thinking she’s in love with Lena is entirely the youngest Luthor’s fault.

Because people use people – of course, they do. Whether it is for money, or power, or love, humans engage in relationships as two-way streets, which is all well and good if all parties are on the same page. If there is reciprocity. Unfortunately, Lena’s never fared well when it came to those conditions.

What she has noticed, however, is what most people’s idea of a perfect friend looks like. Someone who listens, and doesn’t bring up their own baggage unless they are asked to. Who makes their problems easy to digest, and would rather talk about the other person. Who gives all of their soul and displays the parts of their mind that are nice to look at. Someone who will love wholeheartedly and keep to themselves, so scared of being turned down that they would rather never say anything at all, and never ask for anything in return.

So, that’s her strategy. She gives what she can and accepts what she gets. Tells herself it’s enough to get bits of happiness out of leftover feelings that end up her way.

She lets her feelings be used (save for a handful of boundaries here and there – remnants of dignity too stubborn to be washed away by a lifetime of rejection), and when it hurts too much to keep going, she is the one who throws herself out – leaving behind someone who wasn’t even aware of the high emotional stakes to begin with.

It’s not what real relationships look like – Lena is aware of that. But it is what her reality, when it comes to relationships, tends to look like.

She’d made peace with it.

Until Kara Danvers.

Wishes creep up on you, and hope is the most self-destructive of weapons in the eternal, if subconscious, battle for love – it wields itself, uncaring of who stands in its way, mindless of its human origin. Reckless in its greed, hope is nearly unstoppable, and in facing off against reality, the only true casualty is the naïve heart who dared embrace it in the first place.

Put simply (and independently from Lena’s proneness to dramatics), she wasn’t really granted a choice. Kara was there, being Kara, and suddenly, Lena was there, falling head over heels. Infatuated, enamoured, and wanting. Desperately hoping – against all better judgement, yearning. Stretching herself thin towards something she knows is out of her reach.

And the thing is, this has happened before, so she knew they had an expiration date. But as always, the beginning was… Intoxicating. Lena couldn’t get enough of Kara, and really, molding herself into the kind of friend she needed was practically seamless – so much so that a wide-eyed, stubborn fraction of her soul managed to convince itself that what Kara wanted was her, though she was much too experienced in the game to give said fraction a voice. However, Lena did believe this particular mask to be a small price to pay, if it meant keeping the woman around.

And the more she got to know Kara, the better it felt.

She didn’t mean to be this emotionally involved, but it’s not exactly something she can put a stop to, so she made the executive decision to simply give in.

But she couldn’t bear to hear Kara’s confession – to fool the both of them into believing that her best friend loved her for her, – and Lena just-

She really wishes they’d had more time.

Well. There’s no use wallowing about it, now; what’s done is done. Kara probably no longer wants anything to do with her – not after she revealed herself so insecure and broken, so needy.

Lena attempts to shiver off the icky shame that came with the entire conversation and straightens her position on the couch, then picks up the remote control to her television.

The documentary she’s been staring at blankly for an undetermined amount of time rolls up its credits, but Lena doesn’t really notice that at all.

It’s as though she’s sunk into herself, the emotional fatigue and numbness of a heart that has grown far too accustomed to losing people, like weights on her soul, dragging her under the surface she’s supposed to live in.

Lena likes it down here. It’s comfortable.

Her body feels perfectly settled on the cushions around it and her mind has slowed down enough that she can focus on one thought at a time. Even the empty glass on her hand feels like it belongs there, as though integrated by her body.

Of all the things that could have brought her out of her familiar state in the late hours of night (or early hours of morning, she’s not sure), Lena really didn’t count the doorbell as one of them. Brow furrowed in curiosity, she pads her way to the door in bare feet, planning out a sentence that will explain to whomever is on the other side of the door that they’ve got the wrong apartment.

After lurking through the peephole, her frown deepens.

“Kara? What are you-“

“So here’s what I’ve been thinking,” the blonde visitor gesticulates widely, clearly trying not to pace so she won’t stop looking at her unsuspecting visitor, “I think that what happened today was a bit unfair.”

“Kara, I’m so sorry if I was out of line or said too much. The last thing I wanted was to make you uncomfortable-“ Lena cuts in, ready to take back everything she said, because Kara is wearing a black tank top and koala pajama pants, her messy bun matching the slightly askew glasses that frame earnest, crazed eyes of a person who has been thinking too long and- how could she ever have thought she could willingly walk away from this?

“Please, just hear me out? I have some things to say.”

With wringing hands and a somewhat slack jaw, she nods. Apparently her ability to look unaffected went away with the wine that used to inhabit a now-empty bottle (sue her; this was not exactly on the itinerary of her one-woman pity party).

“I think this afternoon was a bit unfair,” Kara reiterates, her words gradually quickening in pace “because, well, I was caught by surprise, and you were caught by surprise, and really, who could have imagined that was the turn a regular Tuesday lunch date would take? And if I had planned this – which would have taken at least a month and a lot of pages from my journal in order to get to the right speech, – I would have realized that there is nothing more reasonable than you needing me to elaborate on something like this.”

Oh.

“You deserve a worthy confession of love, and I think that due to chronic verbal diarrhea, I couldn’t grant you that. But I also think that maybe, I might be a candidate to a do-over. If you want. And then, if this isn’t something you’d like to pursue, it’s all good. We can go back to being friends and never talk about it again. Or-or not go back to being friends, if that would just make you uncomfortable, I mean that’s okay, too. It’s more than fair, really, because-“

“Kara,” the pale woman is neither able to contain the blush that’s spread through her cheeks, nor the tug of a smile on her lips. Eyes that somehow contain simultaneously the most inviting of oceans and brightest of stars are trained on her, expectantly waiting for whatever she has to say. “Come on in.”

“Would you like to sit?” Lena asks a few moments later, and the blonde considers her answer carefully before taking a space near her on the couch. For what feels like ages, Kara just stares, her features filled with nerves at first and then slowly morphing into something calmer, something that Lena is trying really hard not to read as adoration.

“I guess I should start with what prompted this whole situation in the first place,” she bashfully suggests, and an increasingly shy Lena nods, unable to break their gaze. “It’s, uhm, it’s the way you talk when it comes to things you’re passionate about. Your eyes will grow really wide, and your eyebrows rise the slightest bit, and the longer you spend talking, the faster you do, because you’re just so clearly excited about it. You know it’s been a long time since I was actually interested in science, but when you’re talking about it, it’s the most fascinating thing in the world, to me. I want to know everything that makes your eyes shine like that.” Kara looks down and smiles slightly, tinted cheeks and all, then breathes out, “and, if I’m being honest, I really, really like it when I can make them shine like that.”

The Kryptonian clears her throat before continuing, steely gaze akin to how she looks before an important mission.

“I know you said that loving what someone does isn’t enough, but I do believe that actions can say a lot about their personality. So I’ve decided to include that,” comes the solemn announcement. “I am mesmerized by how you fight for the world, because it shows how deeply it matters to you – it’s not just about righting your family’s wrongs; this isn’t just atoning for their sins. It’s you. Because you’ve always been good, and always wanted to help people in any way that you could. And I love that, growing up, you managed to foster that feeling in your heart even though no one was around to show you what it meant.”

Lena’s throat has closed up, and it’s becoming really hard to keep her tears at bay.

Kara, of course, notices. She moves to cradle the youngest Luthor’s face in her hands – not before silently asking for permission, – and her thumbs brush feather-light against the spots where traitorous droplets have rolled to.

“I love it when you trust me enough to be vulnerable, and ask for what you need,” her whispers are soft, soft, “and sometimes, if I’m lucky, I get to hear about your bad days. Because it means that I’ve learnt a little bit more about your heart.” An arm snakes around her middle, coaxing the CEO towards safety. Kara’s breath is warm on her ear, whispering her confession not like it’s a secret she should keep, but like it carries too much wonder to be shared any other way. “It’s such a beautiful heart, Lena. Scars and all.”

Kara’s fingers toy with the hem of her long sleeve, and Lena wants to tell her whatever she needs to, say treacherous things like okay, she believes it. That she can stop trying to touch each and every tender spot in her soul, because this is dangerous, to let someone as emotionally starved as the youngest Luthor indulge in this kind of experience. That she may get addicted to it – that, maybe, she already is. Maybe that’s why she lets Kara keep going.

“I love it when you wear these, because it means that you’ve allowed yourself to be comfortable, and for someone so kind, it’s rare for you to direct that kindness towards yourself.” The back of Kara’s fingers strokes the back of Lena’s. She plays with their tips, hooks them together, and the CEO surrenders at last. She’ll take down all the walls, if it means her skin will feel every detail with which Kara paints her love. “I love how your hands are always half-covered by your sleeves, and the fact that you let me see you without your armor on.”

At that, her chin is tilted up until she faces Kara, cerulean orbs that hold constellations of another sky drinking her in, reading parts of her soul she never even knew to be visible.

“I love the different shades of green in your eyes, and the sound of your voice. Your hair, when it’s braided or straightened or up in a ponytail, but most of all, when it’s a little bit damp, a little bit curly, and entirely you. I love it when you let me hold you close, and I think I will never really understand how Krypton is long gone, but you smell like home.”

In Lena’s opinion, she can’t be blamed for what happens next.

How the arm that’s not tangled around Kara’s lifts to cup the blonde’s cheek and bring their lips together in a chaste kiss that deepens in awed reverence.

She can maybe be blamed for how the knot in her throat tightens, a tiny hiccup causing her to stop the kiss from moving forward as more persistent fresh tears quickly paint her flushed face, which she hides on the crook of Kara’s neck as a tanned hand meets the back of her head in a delicate embrace.

“Oh, don’t cry,” comes the mildly panicked voice, like she really expected Lena to make it through whatever is going on right now in one piece. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

Kara trails off as Lena shifts to meet her eyes, wiping away the dampness on burning cheeks and smiling gingerly as she shakes her head.

“It’s not your fault.” She tries to swallow away the tightness in her throat that makes her voice sound strangled. “You have to understand: moments like this aren’t a reality for me. They’re not- I don’t know how to be in this scenario. It’s not something I’ve ever done before.”

“Well, I hope you know I don’t expect anything from you. Whether or not you feel the same way won’t affect how important you are to me. But, hey, I’ve spent most of my life building relationships for a person who is only half of me,” she chuckles. “It’s not the same in any way, but I just mean I don’t really know how to do this ‘feelings’ thing either. But I was thinking, if you want, maybe we could figure it out together? Just… be us, and know that we can end up wherever feels right.”

A smile blooms on Lena’s face, but Kara’s eyes widen and brows shoot up before she can notice.

“I-I mean, if you feel the same way, that is. Because I’ve kinda assumed, I guess, from-from the way you’re acting, but maybe I got this all wrong and am terribly mistaken and I’ve just gotten way ahead of myself, which really wouldn’t be cool but honestly you have to blame the hours I spent planning what I wanted to say because once I got to the speech I just went all in and-“

A pale hand to her mouth is very effective as shutting the blonde up, and Lena can’t hold her grin in any longer.

“Kara.” Big blue eyes give her all their attention, and- fuck it. “I’d like that.”

A smile tickles her palm, reminding her to move her hand away, and it ends up.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Lena nods, and it’s sort of unbelievable, how Kara’s face lights up as if this was the best piece of news she could ever receive. It makes her feel shy, so she buries herself back into the safety of her most beautiful maybe’s arms.

They just drink each other in for a while – Kara’s chin on top of Lena’s head and arms loosely wrapped around the youngest Luthor, who’s own encircle her waist. Then, the blonde hums smoothly.

“I understand if you still don’t believe me, by the way.” Lena stiffens, and Kara rubs her back lightly. “You don’t have to pretend, okay? I know you’re trying, and I want you to know that I know it’s not your fault. I’m more than happy to keep telling you until you do believe, and then tell you some more.”

“Kara,” she complains, voice strangled, “It’s not fair. You’ll make me cry again.” Which is a lie, sort of, considering that the first tear is already making its way through her eyelashes.

The thing is – it’s sweet. This whole situation is fucking saccharine and she hasn’t had much of that in her life. Any, really, that she can remember. No one has made her so emotional because of their love. It’s never been this-this selfless, and she’s not quite sure what to do with that.

So, she cries. Apparently.

“It’s alright,” the blonde shrugs, then envelops her closer, tucking Lena snug against her body. “I’ll just sit here holding you. I mean, what are friends for, right?”

A pause.

A stifled giggle.

Lena makes a show of shoving her, though she doesn’t really move away from Kara at all.

“Asshole,” she laughs even as tears carry on their job of gathering and overflowing, creating new patterns across her face. God, who knew her cheeks could hurt from smiling so genuinely?

“You’re wondrous, Lena Luthor,” Kara announces after the laughter has been reduced to chuckles. “I’m so happy I met you.”

“Charmer,” she deflects around a small yawn, sleep softening the edges of her mind as she rubs the side of her face on Kara’s shirt.

“Oh! That reminds me!” The blonde makes a show of clearing her throat, as though she were preparing to give a lecture. “You laugh when we watch horror movies and I’m pretty sure you have a snarky remark for each minute of every rom-com ever made, but you hate it when someone doesn’t seem to be paying full attention to the story. You get cuddly when you’re sleepy – case in point, – or have had one too many drinks-“

Lena reaches up in a haphazard attempt at physically shutting Kara’s mouth again, who has since burst into a fit of giggles, but it’s to no avail.

“Stop it,” she whines, face already burning, “I can’t sleep if you keep making me all flustered.”

Kara just steals a kiss off the top of her head.

“Tough luck,” is her response, but when she talks again, her voice is much calmer. “You have three different kinds of real smiles, and one gradually morphs into the next depending on how happy you are, but the glint in your eyes is invariable. First, comes the tight-lipped one; then, the borderline upside-down one; and then, my favorite: the heart-shaped one…”

Kara threads her fingers through dark hair as she continues on her monologue of stubbornness, even when Lena’s ability to listen to it is lost over the haze of attentive fingers that massaging her scalp.

As sleep pulls her under, cushioned by the lull of Kara’s voice, Lena muses.

Maybe things can end differently this time, after all. And if they don’t, maybe that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t real.

[cardcaptorsakura96]

Sweet Love- Chapter 3

Fandom: Supergirl

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Alexa Luthor-Danvers (OC), Liza Luthor-Danvers (OC), Jess, Lillian Luthor, Alex Danvers, Kelly Olsen, Krypto, Mable Longhorn (OC)

Summary: Lena is stressed about family and work decisions that need to be made. Kara believes that a family vacation to the Danvers' family ranch will get her mind off of things. However, the more they find out about the history of the place, the more they realize that the place holds quite a few hidden secrets.

Chapter: 3/?

Lena never thought that she would be sitting in a car and driven to an unknown location, but here she was. She has never been trusting of anyone especially given her family’s dynamics, but Kara was something different. Everything around her screamed sunshine and rainbows. She never thought that someone so caring and kind would go out with her. She was a town pariah due to her family’s exploits. However, Kara never judged her for that. She nearly fainted when Kara asked her out, thinking it was some kind of mistake. However, after a whirlwind three months, they were still going strong. Or at least she hoped they were. A piece of her worries that this can’t be real and thinks that Kara will abandon her once she realizes she should be cast in the shadows like everyone else thinks. 

She takes a deep breath and focuses on the scenery. She watched as it changed from desert to green beautiful plains. She was so lost in thought that she barely heard what Kara was saying to her.

“Penny for your thoughts?” asked Kara.

Lena looked up and smiled. Kara was just beaming at her. She turned away instantly, her face quickly blushing.

“Nothing in particular. Just wondering why you are being so secretive about where we are going.”

“It is a surprise,” said Kara with a mischievous smile. 

“I don’t like surprises,” muttered Lena. 

“That is because you have never been surprised by me,” said Kara with sparkle in her eyes. 

Lena chuckled and rolled her eyes. 

“Just think of this as the first of many adventures together.”

Lena stared up at Kara with a smile. She liked the sound of that, especially about the part of Kara seeing them together more so long term. Lena leaned in to kiss Kara on the cheek causing her to blush. 

“What did you do that for?” 

“Just being your perfect self.”

Kara blushed harder as they continued to drive along. After 10 more minutes, they passed through a huge gate that had Longhorn Ranch arched over it. When they passed through, Lena could see several cabins up ahead, a stable, and a pin where sheep were being kept. A dozen or so people were walking around wearing everything from Western outfits to modern attire. Kara parked in front of the first cabin. It was way bigger than the rest at two stories. 

While bouncing in her seat, Kara turned to Lena and said, “We’re here. The best place on Earth.”

Lena kept a passive face. When Kara told her that she wanted to celebrate their three-month anniversary together, she thought that it was a bit trivial. Three months was very short in the scheme of things. However, Kara’s enthusiasm won her over. Kara wanted to be in charge of all the preparations. Lena knew that Kara wasn’t going to whisk her away to the lap of luxury, but she was expecting a little more than a dude ranch. 

She turned to Kara with a forced smile and said, “This is an interesting choice.”

Kara chuckled and said, “I know what you thinking. This place doesn’t look like much, but this place has brought me so much joy since I first came to live with the Danvers. There is so much to do here like horse riding, camping, different trails to go on, and a corn maze…”

“Really?” mused Lena.

Kara laughs which causes her eyes to sparkle. Lena couldn’t help but smile.

“The first time that I came here was a couple of weeks after Jeremiah died. Eliza didn’t take it well. While she sought help to get better, we stayed at her mother’s ranch for a year. Every year since then, I always make multiple visits during the year here.”

“This place made that much of an impression.”

“It did. Mostly because of Eliza’s mother, Mabel. She is a very warm and welcoming person. I really think you are going to like her.”

“I am looking forward to meeting her.”

“By the way Kara talks about you, I feel like we have already met.”

Lena nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw a woman standing at the passenger window of the car. She had grayish-brown hair, green eyes, and a mischievous smile. 

“I am sorry to startle you dear. You guys have been sitting in front of the house for 10 minutes and I began to get curious.”

“I am sorry Mable. I was just telling Lena about the place.”

“All good things I hope,” smirked Mable. 

“She has had nothing, but lovely things to say,” said Lena now having regaining control of her breathing again. 

“I would like to hear more, but it is hot out here. Let’s go inside.”

Read the rest on AO3

[lipzlipzlipz]

westenray helps kara get the girl

Kara is a sucker for the Dracula tale, pun absolutely intended. And she’s always really clear that she means the Bram Stoker story when others think she means all vampire stories. Of course she doesn’t mind those other vampires, some are actually quite fun. But ever since she landed on this planet and tried to absorb this country’s literature and pop culture references, Dracula has been her jam. Especially adaptations that take place in a period setting, whether the Count is a straight-up villain or a sympathetic romantic figure (this is her favorite iteration, if she’s being honest).

Her love for the Dracula tale hasn’t diminished over the years, and her best friend Lena often indulges her by watching various movies and television shows based on the book with her.

Which is what they’re doing tonight. This time it’s the tv show from several years back; Lena hasn’t seen it yet. She loves the setting, the costumes, the various characters.

But it’s not the main vampire-human romance that appeals to Kara in this version.

Lena is sitting very close to her on the couch as the next episode begins, occasionally eating popcorn from the bowl on the coffee table in front of them.

“Mina should forget about Jonathan,” says Kara.

“Clearly,” agrees Lena. “The man is obviously insecure and doesn’t really want her to be so ambitious and independent. I’m still undecided about Grayson though. He’s a bit too selfish for my tastes.”

“Totally! But I mean, Mina should be with Lucy, don’t you think? Lucy should tell her.”

She’s looking at the screen but she can feel Lena’s gaze on her.

“Maybe being best friends is enough for her,” the woman says evenly.

“But it’s obvious she wants more. And she’ll never know if she doesn’t try. If Mina was a true best friend she wouldn’t let Lucy’s feelings come between them. But come on, it’s mutual, definitely. All the cuddles, all the sleepovers - don’t give me that time period appropriate crap. Lucy would never hold her back, and Mina would always know there was more to Lucy than status and a pretty face.”

Kara is rambling, and her face is heating up, but she can’t stop now. Even with Lena’s endeared smile being thrown at her. There’s a reason she picked this show for tonight.

“Maybe Mina’s afraid, too,” continues Kara. “Maybe she doesn’t really believe her gorgeous best friend could ever want someone like her.”

“You think?” asks Lena softly.

“Absolutely.”

There’s a short pause as a pensive expression crosses Lena’s face. But a slight shake of her head and a chuckle get rid of it.

“You do realize I read about the plot yesterday as soon as you told me what we were watching tonight.”

“Lena,” whines Kara, upset at this and also at her hints not getting through. “You spoiled yourself! I keep telling you not to do that.”

“I didn’t want to be surprised,” claims Lena. “And you’ve already seen it, so speculating on Lucy’s chances with Mina is a moot point.”

“Well I don’t care. The showrunners got it wrong. Mina should stop being distracted by those other guys and see the amazing person her best friend is,” Kara argues. She starts to ramble again but she thinks Lena is beginning to get it now because she hears the woman’s pulse pick up. “How generous she is. How encouraging she is. How she challenges her to be true to herself. Lucy should say something. Or Mina should say something. One of them—“

“Kara,” Lena interrupts quietly.

She immediately stills. Lena’s hand reaches over to lay atop hers on her thigh. The moment is weighted. Green eyes bore into hers. Full lips part and press together in quick succession.

She’s going to say it, she’s going to say it, Kara’s heart beats in her ears.

“Something.”

Wait, what?

At first Kara frowns. Lena only arches an eyebrow and waits, gently squeezing her hand.

And then Kara smiles.

And then she beams.

Kara just barely manages an answering ‘something’ before Lena pulls her in for a kiss.

Later when they tell their friends the story of how they got together, Kara is not the least bit embarrassed by Lena making fun of her artful and inspired use of fictional parallels to get the genius to confess her love. Or for how Lena played on her words in doing so.

She still got the girl in the end, after all.

***********

This bit of silliness was brought to you by a fever and a need for a distraction

[urwelcomeforthis]

Alex’s tattoo shows up the day after she punches Marcus Hinkle.

He had been picking on Kara in the hallway, dangling her math book above her head, taking advantage of his summer growth spurt.

Kara still doesn’t know what possessed Alex – Marcus Hinkle had been a thorn in her side since she had landed on Earth and started school a year ago, but whatever the reason, today was the day Alex couldn’t take anymore.

Eliza had been furious. Jeremiah had been (not so) silently proud.

Kara didn’t know what she had felt, really. Especially not when she asked Alex why, and the older girl had just shrugged and said “You’re my sister. It’s what we do.”

Up until this point being sisters meant fights in the hallway over the bathroom and ignoring each other at the dinner table.

Apparently, things were changing.

Kara is just waking up when she hears Alex’s hushed “What the hell?”

“What is it?” She asks, groggily sitting up and wiping at the sleep in her eyes.

Her sister is holding her forearm up, frantically scrubbing at a spot right in the middle, her eyes frantic.

“I don’t…. I don’t know! It’s like a tattoo but I didn’t get a tattoo! Fuck, Mom is going to kill me.” Alex sounds panicked as she continues scrubbing at the spot, and Kara feels her heartbeat speed up.

“You had a tattoo just appear on your skin?” Kara asks slowly, her mind suddenly far away on a planet that doesn’t exist anymore, in a culture she had been forced to leave behind.

Alex stops scrubbing and looks at Kara with a piercing gaze. “Yeah. It’s some funny symbol too, like the way you used to write before you learned English. Did you do this to me?”

Alex leaps off the bed and crosses the room in two quick strides, arm held out like an accusation.

Kara shrinks in on herself a little but nods. “I think so. I didn’t know it was possible here, but well, on Krypton when your soul mate reveals themselves, a tattoo linking you appears. I should have one too, somewhere, if you do.”

Alex stops dead in her tracks, her eyes wide. “Soul mates? But we’re sisters! That’s so gross!”

Jumping up from the bed, hands held up in surrender Kara hastens to explain further. “No! Not like that, I promise! Back home, people had different kinds of soul mates. Sometimes it was the romantic kind like you talk about here on Earth, but other times it could just be a compatible soul, someone who was meant to be a part of you.”

Alex still looks wary, if not relieved, as she tentatively holds out her arm. “So, what does this mean? What kind of soul mates are we?”

Stepping forward Kara delicately traces the symbols on Alex’s forearm. “It literally means “sister of the soul.” Je shesur. The symbol after it is unique, the way we would know we were linked. If this had happened on Krypton it would mean we were soul sisters. Not from the same parents but family just the same.”

Alex nods. “And here on Earth? What does it mean here?”

“The same thing. At least that’s what it means to me.” Kara refuses to meet Alex’s eyes, not sure she wants to see what waits for her there.

There’s a long minute of silence after Alex takes her arm back. The clearing of her throat brings Kara’s eyes up from their place on the ground.

“Where’s yours?” Alex asks, eyes burning with curiosity.

Kara shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s not on my arms like yours is. It must be hidden. Can you look on my back?”

“Sure.” Alex nods. “Lift up your shirt.”

Kara turns and tugs her shirt up and over her head. It takes a moment, but she hears her sister gasp followed by the feel of fingertips against her left shoulder blade.

“It’s the same as mine.” Alex says reverently, and Kara closes her eyes against the emotion welling up there.

Who would have thought she would get to have this piece of home?

“So, I guess I’m stuck with you. For like, ever, huh?” Alex smiles once Kara has turned back around.

Kara grins back. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Alex shrugs. “Could be worse. But you have to tell Mom about this, because she’ll never believe me, and she is going to be pissed that I have a tattoo.”

“Sure, I can tell Mom.” Kara grins, a piece of her heart settling in place. She hasn’t felt at home on Earth, not really, but at this moment she feels like it isn’t all that bad.

--

The next person to get a tattoo is, interestingly enough, James.

It doesn’t come when they’re dating, or whatever it was that they were doing, no.

It comes after he has revealed himself to be Guardian, and he and Kara have the biggest fight of their friendship.

Kara wakes up the morning after tired, groggy, and more than a little cranky. Its as she’s stripping down to get in the shower that she notices it – the Kryptonese scrawled along the inside of her right bicep.

Throniv Shesur. Protector of the soul.

Kara heaves a deep, deep, sigh and grabs her phone.

She meets James at the DEO, both tentative around each other after the yelling match of the day before.

“So. I woke up with a tattoo. Kryptonese. Any idea what that’s about?” James looks smug, like he’s won some kind of battle with Kara and god, at that moment she wishes they were in the training room and she could just punch him.

“Yeah. I did too. It means “protector of the soul.” She crosses her arms against her chest, desperately trying to hold onto her anger from yesterday but the wide grin on James’ face is making it hard.

“I know. I asked Clark first thing since I figured you’re still pissed at me. He was a little surprised, but he translated it for me.”

“Where’s it at?” Kara asks, still pretending to be upset but truthfully it was hard given the glaring message from home telling her that James was meant to be Guardian. That they were meant to protect each other. Protect others together.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” James says with a waggle of his eyebrows and that’s what finally breaks Kara, a laugh ringing out across the room.

It wasn’t who she expected to have a tattoo, not in this way at least, but if it had to be anyone, she’s glad it’s James.

--

Mon-El doesn’t get a tattoo. Kara wishes she were more disappointed.

--

The last person to get a tattoo is someone Kara had desperately hoped both would and would not get a tattoo.

For a long time, she feared what that tattoo would be, if it were to happen. She feared having to explain it, having to explain herself.

She had checked with Clark a few times, when paranoia would get the better of her.

No, he always told her. Lex did not have a tattoo. They were enemies, yes, but it hadn’t been decided by destiny or fate. It just was.

That mollified Kara because she couldn’t stand it if she and Lena were to become Clark and Lex. She would fight against it, fight against fate to keep it from happening.

And then, well. It kind of happens anyways.

They aren’t enemies, not really. Lena just hates Kara and aims a few Kryptonite cannons at her and tries to mind control the entire planet, but really everyone is allowed a brief lapse of their sensibility, right?

And what matters is she came around, in the end.

It did take time, however, for them to build back to what they once had. It was different now, but in the way that things once broken and fixed usually are.

It was better, if anything.

They were back to shared lunches and dinners, quick breakfasts and coffee breaks. They were back to game nights as partners and movie nights as friends, and the occasional sleepovers as best friends.

Things were finally back to normal, so of course Kara had to go and absolutely, irrevocably, mess it up.

It was Alex’s fault, really.

If she hadn’t said anything, if she hadn’t asked Kara what was up between her and Lena lately, Kara probably never would have stopped to think about it.

She never would have stopped to think about the way her heart sped up when Lena entered a room, or the way her palms got sweaty when they hugged, or the way she just could not stop staring at Lena when she laughed at game nights.

But now she had thought of it and had come to the very scary conclusion that she was in love with her best friend.

Her best friend who didn’t have a tattoo.

She would, after all this time, have a tattoo, the tattoo, if they were meant to be together, right?

Kara mulls it over for weeks. It haunts her. She asks Lena about tattoos, and if she has any.

She learns that yes, in fact Lena does have tattoos and boy howdy one of them is on her lower back and it is seared into the back of her eyes now that she has seen it.

But she doesn’t have any kryptonian tattoos, which is really what Kara was aiming for.

Much like it was Alex’s fault that Kara even realized she was in love, it’s also Alex who reminds Kara of one important detail.

“Well I didn’t get my tattoo until after I punched what’s his face. Maybe you have to tell Lena how you feel and then she’ll get the tattoo.”

Kara feels dumb struck, right there on her own couch, because of course, Alex is right.

The tattoos always come after the person has already revealed themselves.

Then of course comes the true fear: what if she tells Lena and she still doesn’t get a tattoo?

That’s the question she’s mulling over the next night as she and Lena sit on her couch watching some documentary that had been put on Netflix.

Lena looks beautiful, face bare of makeup, hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, glasses slipping down her nose.

She’s eating a piece of pizza, a rare treat after a long week of work, and Kara decides that it doesn’t matter if Lena doesn’t get a tattoo.

She’s hopelessly, desperately in love with the woman and she can’t let a tattoo that may or may not come dictate her life.

“I’m in love with you, you know.” Kara blurts out, like this isn’t a life changing moment, like it’s the easiest thing in the world to say. (It is.)

Lena chokes a little on the bite she was swallowing, her hand coming up to her chest as she sets down the slice.

“Excuse me?”

Kara laughs. She’s never felt more free than in this moment. “I’m in love with you. I just thought you should know.”

Lena looks at her, shock written all over her face. “Oh. I guess that’s good.”

“Just good?” Kara nudges Lena’s thigh with her knee.

Lena shakes her head. “I mean it’s more than good, considering I’m in love with you too.”

“Yeah?” Kara could float up to the moon, she thinks.

Lena smiles, nose crinkled. “Yeah.”

It’s the next morning that Lena calls and asks if Kara can stop by. She has this tattoo she didn’t have yesterday, right on her ribcage, and it looks like it’s Kryptonian.

Kara frantically searches her own body, finding the script on her hip, on the left side.

Zhao Shesur. Love of the soul.

It took them five years to get to this point, but Kara knows, this moment was more than worth the wait.

[spaceman-earthgirl]

Kara hugs them all, J’onn, Brainy, then Nia, and it’s so good to see them all, so good to be back with her sister, her family. She never thought she’d have this, never thought she’d see them any of them again.

But it’s Lena who makes her heart skip in her chest, a rhythm of I’m home coursing through her before she even sees her, she can just feel her presence in the room, Lena’s own heartbeat fast and sure in her ears.

It’s not until she’s hugged everyone else, been welcomed home by the others, does she turn to Lena, because she knows once she sees her, once she hugs her, feels her warm body, catches the scent of her shampoo, she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let her go again.

Kara’s breath gets caught in her lungs when familiar green eyes, brimming with tears, finally meet hers.

She’s smiling as she steps into Lena immediately, no hesitation in the gesture, just arms wrapping around Lena’s shaking body, holding her as tight as she can.

Home, is what this feels like, and it crashes over her just how much she loves Lena, just how much she’s missed her. 

Lena was never far from her mind in the…where she was. A thought to keep her sane, a thought of green eyes she’s still never found a match in colour for elsewhere, a thought of a bright smile and a brilliant mind and a hug so warm that it can dispel any cold.

She can feel it now, feels warm all the way to her bones, in a way she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel again.

She doesn’t say any of that.

“It’s only because you’re on the team that I’m here,” she says instead.

Lena gasps at the words, a tiny intake of air that almost sounds like a sob. Kara buries her face into Lena’s shoulder, holds her there for a moment as Lena’s grip tightens. She can feel Lena’s fingers digging into her back before they suddenly slip away, Lena pulling herself from her arms way too soon.

Kara’s not quite ready to let her go yet, she’s not sure she ever would be, but so for right now, she catches Lena’s hands as they fall, grips them tightly in her own as Lena still moves away. But Kara follows, would follow her anywhere, drawn like a magnet to Lena, always wanting to be near her, to be closer.

It’s been like that since the day they met, that Kara felt a particular pull to the woman who also just wanted to make a name for herself outside of her family, the woman who she’d believed instantly, only because her smile was soft and her eyes were honest and she just felt deep her in chest that they could trust her.

She knew Lena was going to be important to her, she just didn’t know she was going to be this important.

She sees Alex in her peripheral vision, sees her about to interrupt, but she pays her sister no mind, had almost forgotten they weren’t alone, that the others are all still here and watching too.

But Kara ignores that fact for now, her mind stuck on the woman in front of her and the promise she’d made to herself while she was gone, a thought that had kept her going because she knew she had to tell Lena exactly what she means to her, how she feels about her.

Kara’s still leaning forward as her eyes dart down to Lena’s lips, but then she glances back up to green eyes, steadily moving closer, a mix of confusion and relief and something else Kara can’t quite identify.

Kara’s breath stutters out of her when her forehead presses against Lena’s, relief and hope skittering through her chest when Lena doesn’t pull away.

Lena’s heart is pounding in her chest, loud and certain in her ears and it reminds Kara that this is real, that she’s actually home, that the number of times she’s imagined this moment, it’s finally here, Lena’s hands warm still tangled in hers, her breath hot against her face.

She can feel all the tension leaving her body as she leans into Lena’s touch, feels completely surrounded by her.

“I missed you so much,” Lena chokes out, the words barely more than a whisper but they’re there, Kara can hear the pain, the longing, the relief in them.

“I missed you too,” Kara sighs. She tilts her head, brushing her nose against Lena’s, just once, and then again when she hears the way Lena’s heartbeat skips, the tiny gasp that falls from her lips.

It’s that that spurs her on, and the knowledge that Lena is still here, that she hasn’t pushed her away, that gives Kara the courage to push forward, to close that tiny gap that was barely even a gap anyway, but enough that Kara’s mouth brushes Lena’s.

Kara’s whole being crumbles at the touch, she feels herself break apart as she lets out her last secret.

Lena sighs, and the sound is mostly swallowed by their kiss but Kara hears it, she feels it too, it reverberates through her as Lena presses forward, more confidence in the touch.

Lena’s lips part under her own and Kara gasps when Lena’s tongue brushes her lips. Kara drops Lena’s hands, no longer afraid of her going anywhere, in favour of tangling her fingers in soft hair, pulling them even closer.

She gets lost in the touch, in Lena’s fingers cupping her jaw, in the hot press of Lena’s mouth against her own, the smell of Lena’s shampoo and her heartbeat loud in her ears.

A throat clearing close by brings Kara crashing back to reality. It breaks their kiss, but Kara doesn’t move away, and neither does Lena, still half tangled together as they turn towards the sound of the noise.

It’s Alex who interrupted them, and that knowledge does have Kara slipping her hands from Lena’s hair, putting a more friendly distance between them even if the kiss they just shared was anything but friendly.

“As happy as I am for you both,” Alex says, an amused tilt of her eyebrow. “Could you maybe tone it down a little? I did not need to see all of that.”

Kara wants to be annoyed at the interruption, but then she’s grateful because her father walks in a moment later and she’s glad he didn’t see what just happened.

She looks back over to Lena, who’s cheeks are red and her lipstick is smudged, her hair not as perfect as it was before she’d run her fingers through it, and Kara thinks she falls even more in love with her.

They still have a lot of things to talk about, but that can wait. She tangles her fingers through Lena’s again, bumps her shoulder into Lena’s, earns a shy smile in return, half hidden by a curtain of hair as Lena ducks her head.

Despite everything they’ve been through, Kara knows they’re going to be okay.

-

Also can be found on ao3

[chaotic-super]

Live With Me - Chapter 19

Read it on AO3 here!

Kara leans back into the pillows as she watches Lena pace across the room, passing the foot of the bed over and over again.

“I just don’t understand why they won’t let us just go back to National City,” Lena complains, her voice hushed because the last thing she wants is for the infamous Cat Grant to know how much she can whine when she wants to.

“I know, baby.” Kara commiserates. “I want to get back there too, but if they don’t think it’s safe, then there’s not much we can do about it. It’s just a matter of waiting and finding out what we can whenever someone with information comes around.”

Lena sighs, her hands tangling in her own hair and pushing it back from her face. “How do we even know we can trust the CIA? Maybe they were in on the plan and this is just their way of getting rid of us.”

Kara fights the urge to roll her eyes. “Lena, baby, I love you but you’re spiralling. Come cuddle with me so we can work through all those scary thoughts in your brain together.”

Lena resists her charm, not looking in her direction so she doesn’t get tempted. “No, we have to cover our asses. We need a phone. Maybe we can sneak out and find one somewhere. I bet if we found a grocery store and asked to use their phone, they would let us. We can call CatCo and get through to Nia.”

Huffing a little, Kara pulls herself from under the scratchy sheets and pads over to Lena, her bare feet sticking to the floor in a way that makes her want to disappear up her own butthole with how gross it is. At least it’ll give them something to do later. They’re bound to get bored. She rests her hands against Lena’s forearms and stands her way so she’s forced to stop pacing.

“Lena, we’re fine. We’re ok. Well, not ok, but we will be. The CIA are completely separate from the FBI and the government. They have different goals as organizations. You know that. They’re protecting us, and I’m sure they’ll come and explain everything to us soon enough. They only brought us here last night and it’s still early. Cat isn’t even awake yet. Everything will be fine. You just have to have a little faith.”

“Faith hasn’t really been on our side much lately though, has it?”

“It has to be at some point though.”

Lena looks up at Kara with disbelief clouding her features, but Kara sees through it. Shining in those emerald eyes is something she loves to see. Hope.

Kara presses her lips to her forehead, wincing as her split lip makes contact with her skin, but she doesn’t let that stop her from kissing her a second time on the tip of her nose, loving the way she scrunches it in faux annoyance. “You might not have faith but I do, so just trust in me and I’ll lend you some of my faith.”

“I’ll always trust you.”

A head peeks around the door and makes Lena jump. She wasn’t expecting to see anyone show up in her peripheral vision, so she can’t help how a striking red blush crawls up her neck and cheeks at the thought of Cat knowing how soft and mushy she is, even though she’s already seen it all before.

“Well, if it isn’t you two and your infuriating need to be so close together that your skin will one day fuse and make you one giant lesbian.”

Kara’s head whips around to her boss. “Good morning, Ms Grant. How did you sleep?”

“Terrible. I would like the bed for a few hours as long as I have verbal confirmation that you didn’t do anything sacrilegious in it last night.” She strolls right past them and perches on the edge of it carefully, not yet willing to move and sit on it properly, just in case.

Kara shakes her head. “Uh, no. We just cuddled.”

Cat then proceeds to climb into the bed, wincing at the scratch of the sheets both Kara and Lena had to put up with last night and nuzzles into one of the pillows. She flippantly waves her hand in the air at them, her eyes closed. “You can let yourselves out.”

“Hold on.” Lena frowns. “I know you’re tired, but we need to discuss everything.”

With a hefty sigh, Cat flops onto her back, her eyes still closed. “No, we don’t. The CIA lady with the moustache told me she’d come by this afternoon to discuss everything with us when I saw her last night. Just relax until then, watch some TV maybe. Just leave me in peace.”

“You didn’t think to tell us that?” Lena baulks.

She doesn’t get a response though because Kara grabs her by the arm softly and leads her out of the room while Cat burrows herself down into the bed and completely ignores them in favour of trying to get some decent sleep. That couch is not comfortable.

Lena finds out just how uncomfortable the couch is when she throws herself down on it frantically, wincing at how lumpy it is the second she lands. “Ok, I feel bad for trying to stop her from sleeping now; this is awful. I’m actually shocked she didn’t wake us up to kick us out of bed.”

Kara shrugs, sitting down beside her and wrapping her arm around her shoulder to pull her closer. “She wouldn’t do that. She’s a lot of things, but she’s a softie at heart. She wouldn’t hurt a fly really, not unless it either has a good story or owes her money anyway.”

Lena croaks out a chuckle and nuzzles into Kara’s neck. “I was so worried about you.”

“Likewise. I was so scared about what they had done to you after they took me to another building and tied me to a chair.”

“What actually happened to you?” Lena asks.

“I met the president, and he wanted me to hand over all of my proof against the government to him, presumably to destroy it. He was behind the awful plans they had. He signed off on it all and didn’t want the word getting out. When I refused, he wasn’t too happy with me. He had two guards, sergeants actually. One broke the pen you got me as a gift, just to be cruel, and I was pretty upset about that, but I was admittedly more upset when he hit me in the face.”

Lena’s jaw tightens. “Then what?”

“They put me in a car and took me to another building. It looked a bit like an office building. They took me into a room where I was tied to a chair, and they hit me again before leaving me there alone. That was the scariest part. All I had was my thoughts and I just kept imagining what they would do to you. I was so scared, Lena. I was scared for you and Cat.”

Lena pulls Kara closer to her. Leaning back into the arm of the couch and pulling the blonde on top of her so her head rests beneath her chin. “And then they brought Cat to you?”

Kara nods, the movement sending Lena’s chin wobbling. “Yeah, then they brought Cat in and they tied her to another chair. They didn’t hurt her though. We just sat there for a while trying to figure out how to get out, and eventually, I realized that I could break my chair and get out that way. Cat picked the locks of our handcuffs, and then we started climbing out the window. We figured that leaving through one of the rooms upstairs would be safer than leaving through the door of the room we were in, but we were still part way up the side of the building when the CIA arrived and took us out of there.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Me too. What happened to you?”

Lena presses several kisses to the top of Kara’s head, needing the few seconds she earns herself to devise a good way to tell Kara what she went through. “I met General Lane.”

“Does he smell as bad as he looks?”

“What?”

“He looks like the kind of guy who has terrible body odour.”

“He does but I didn’t notice, so I guess that since he was sitting on the other side of the hotel conference room from me, I couldn’t tell. That room does have good ventilation though, so the jury’s still out on that one.”

Kara snickers and her laughs rumble through her body and against Lena’s chest, making her giggle too. “He definitely smells. I just get that vibe.”

“Me too. I would have paid more attention to it, but he was too busy trying to get me to buy into his schemes. I guess that he thought that since I bought out Lord Industries and that I’m a Luthor, I would be willing to do a whole host of very illegal and immoral things with him. I went along with it to try and buy us more time and to try and get more information on all of the plans. I made a deal with him that I would look over it all if he brought you and Cat to me so I could see that you’re alright, but before he could do that, the CIA came in and took me out of there.”

“It feels kind of anticlimactic, doesn’t it?” Kara asks, tilting her head up to look into Lena’s eyes. “We’ve gone through all that shit to try and bring these people down, then the CIA swoops in and takes them down in one day. It feels like we’ve been robbed of the chance to win after everything.”

Lena lets her eyes trail across the ceiling, particularly the water stain covering a large patch of it. “I guess so, and I’m sure I’ll feel that way later, but I’m just happy it is over for now. Well, I’ll be happy when we get confirmation from this so-called moustached lady that it is over.”

Kara gently scratches her nails over Lena’s arm, soothing her and smiling at the tiny sigh she manages to pull from the brunette’s lips. “Me too.”

-

Lena presses herself into Kara’s side as tightly as she can, more than a little afraid but unwilling to voice her concerns in front of a load of CIA agents. She’s not showing herself up like that. Not a chance in hell.

As she always does, Kara seems to just know. She always knows. She intertwines their fingers and grips onto her tightly, making a show of being afraid so she has an excuse to cling to Lena. Lena knows better though. She knows that Kara’s nervous but not terrified. It’s just a helicopter, after all.

They were flown into a CIA branch in Metropolis from the Motel this afternoon, where they spent a few hours reviewing their story and writing a written report of it all. Now they’re finally being allowed home, but the only private aircraft they would allow was a helicopter because, apparently, private jets are excessive. Cat tried to argue with them, but it didn’t get them anywhere, so here they are in a helicopter flying from Metropolis to National City, where they’ll land on top of the CatCo building.

Lena is sure she would be much better at this and much less afraid if it wasn’t so dark and they weren’t flying into the abyss, but she did insist on getting home tonight. She stands by that. She really wants to get home as soon as possible, and it’s definitely worth it, but that doesn’t mean that she’s not scared.

“How long will it take us to get to National City?” Kara asks through her headset.

“About an hour, just sit back and relax. We’ll be there in no time.” The co-pilot smiles warmly at her. “This is one of the safest forms of travel, you’re in good hands.”

Lena pipes up. “That’s true, but you don’t often see a helicopter in movies that doesn’t crash. It has a way of eating into your subconscious.”

The co-pilot laughs warmly. “That’s true, but I can assure you that this is nothing like in the movies.”

Lena nods and clings onto Kara a little more, tempted to try and climb into her lap to get away from the helicopter door. Kara is going the opposite way, trying to lean over Lena to take a look out of the window.

“Look at that view.” She marvels at the lights shining from all of the buildings in Metropolis and the way they are slowly lessening as they make their way out of the city.”

Cat stares out of her window. “It is a sight to behold. It’s no National City, but I must admit there’s a beauty to seeing it from up here.”

Lena wants to look but doesn’t dare, so she settles from slowly building up her courage throughout the rest of the flight, all so she can force herself to look out of the window for ten whole seconds when they get to National City and look out at the place that she calls home.

She manages it and has to say that even though she was horribly afraid the entire time, it was worth it. She’s glad she did it, and it’s a sight she’ll commit to her memory for as long as she can keep it preserved in her mind.

They land on CatCo’s helipad and get escorted inside, where a few more CIA agents are gathered in one of the conference rooms. A couple of them are in the lobby protecting the building, but none are roaming the halls. Kara figured that’s because they’ve already done a thorough sweep of the building and are satisfied that there’s no danger here.

They head right for Cat’s office, and when they get there, they see Nia spinning in lazy circles in Cat’s chair. She shoots up out of it when Cat clears her throat.

“Ms Grant, you’re back!”

“I am, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t break my chair.” She saunters around her desk and shoos Nia out of the way so she can sit down.

Nia moves her attention over to Kara and Lena, but her eyes get caught on Kara’s face. “Oh no, you’ve been hurt.”

Kara nods softly. “I’ll be alright though. I’m sure it’ll heal in no time. How did everything go here? Were you ok?”

Nia looks at her with disbelief written across her face. “Was I ok? Kara, you were kidnapped by the government.”

“And you were in charge of a media company in the middle of one of the biggest stories we’ve ever told with nobody around to help you.”

Nia blushes, suddenly bashful. “I was ok.  Franklin was a big help. I think I handled it pretty well. The FBI tried to barge their way in here, and by ‘tried’, I mean they did fully force their way in.”

“What?” Cat’s eyebrows practically raise into her hairline.

“Yeah, I just started a livestream and showed off their behaviour to the world. Soon enough, they were forced to admit that they didn’t have a warrant and were just being bullies while being broadcasted to the world. I then used that same broadcast to bring everyone’s attention to you guys and the way that those same people took you. It caused a lot of anger and worry for you guys, and I guess that attention got the CIA’s attention too. They arrived not long after with actual clearance and have been here ever since helping to clear up the mess that FBI made.”

Kara smiles and nudges Lena’s shoulder. “See, I told you to have faith.”

Lena ducks her head. “Yeah, you did.” She clears her throat when she realizes that Nia is watching them way too closely to be normal. “What?”

“You’re just so cute.”

“Oh, can I have my phone, Nia?” Kara asks.

“Yeah, I’ll go and get it. You want to call Alex?” Nia gets moving, talking to Kara over her shoulder.

Kara nods. “Yeah, I think she’d kill me if she found out she wasn’t the first person I called when getting back. That and she’s probably pretty worried.”

Lena takes the opportunity to sit down on the couch, and she leans forward to rest her head in her hands. “I’m ready to go home.”

Kara sits beside her, rubbing her hand up her back soothingly. “Me too. Is there anything we have to do here before we can go?”

Cat looks up from the laptop Nia was using. “I’ll handle everything. You two should talk to the agents and see if you need an escort or if you can just go. If you can, take my car. I won’t be leaving here tonight.”

“Are you sure, Ms Grant?” Kara looks up at her through furrowed brows. “You should rest too. You only got a few hours at the Motel.”

“I’m sure. I’ll try to get those agents out of my conference room and then sleep on the couch for a while. I’m far too restless to do anything good with myself at home though. It’s best I work for a while and get a handle on everything I can. I need that right now.”

Nia holds up their phones and keys triumphantly for a moment before setting them on the coffee table. “Here you go. You best call your sister, Kara.”

“I know. I’m actually surprised she’s not here, to be honest.” Kara’s heart sinks when she sees Nia grimace in response to her words. “What is it?”

Nia hums awkwardly for a minute, avoiding eye contact.

“Nia, just say it, you’re putting us even more on edge than we were before.” Lena raises a demanding eyebrow at her, her voice harsher than she means for it to be because of how tired and stressed she is.

Taking a deep breath, Nia comes out with it. “Alex is at your place. She has been staying there because the CIA had to go and search through your entire place to make sure it’s safe. She’s been tidying up after them since.”

Kara sags back into the couch, her head thrown over the back of it. “For fuck’s sake. Now we will have to redecorate again because the place feels gross.”

Lena sighs. “At least we know it’s safe now, and it’ll give us something to do on the weekends.”

“This is going to be hard to believe, but I like having lazy weekends that don’t include busting my ass painting.”

Snorting, Lena pushes herself up, ready to get going. Kara can call Alex on the way home. “You could’ve fooled me.”

-

Alex squeezes Kara as tightly as she can, completely ignoring the way she’s wheezing because she can’t breathe thanks to the tight grip she’s got on her little sister. “I’m so happy you’re alive.”

“Me too, but I don’t think I will be for much longer if you don’t let go.” Kara pushes back on Alex’s shoulders in an attempt to get her off her long enough to get a couple of good, deep breaths in.

“Sorry.” Alex says, letting go of her. “I was just worried about you. I thought they were going to kill you.”

Kara looks down at her feet for a moment before taking a shaky breath. “You and me both. It wasn’t a situation I’d like to be in ever again.”

Alex’s eyes widen dramatically. “Yes, I would very much appreciate it if you could avoid ever getting into a situation like that again, please and thank you.”

Lena chuckles dryly. “I will do my best to stop her if she tries, believe me, this hasn’t been a walk in the park.”

Kara presses her lips together tightly and Lena raises an eyebrow at her questioningly. “Got something to say?”

Puffing out a nervous breath, Kara tries to mask her increased breathing by walking off towards the kitchen. “I’m going to go and get a drink. Does anyone want one?”

“Kara, you can’t avoid us. Say what you want to say first.” Lena insists, catching her arm as she tries to pass her.

Licking her dry lips, Kara steels herself for whatever reaction she’s going to get. “I’m not sorry it all happened.”

Lena frowns at her, her eyebrows pinching and her lips angling down. “What do you mean?”

Dropping her shoulders, Kara continues. “I’m not sorry I dug into it and I would do it again. We saved a lot of lives by bringing it to light. That plan to start experimenting on humans was awful and I could never live with myself if I just turned a blind eye to something like that. I would make the same choice over again and if I ever come across anything like it in the future, I have to speak up. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.”

“I know you wouldn’t.” Lena can’t be mad at that, especially when Kara is speaking so passionately.

“I never want to put any of you in danger and when I started this case, I didn’t bring everyone into the loop right away when I should’ve. Maybe that would have helped or stopped some of the bad stuff from happening, but overall, I’d still have to take the case. I’ll always take the case. I’ll just take more precautions with it.”

Lena tugs on Kara’s sleeve, prompting her to stop rambling. “We know you will and we’ll always support you. We just also want you to be safe. We want to know that no matter what, we’ll be here and we’ll keep you as safe as we can. You just have to let us in.”

“I second that.” A voice calls out from behind Lena, startling the brunette and causing her to almost leap into Kara’s arms. “Sorry, Lena.” Kelly walks out, a glass of water in hand. She passes it to Kara. “I heard you say that you want a drink so I got you one. I was helping Alex tidy up.”

Kara smirks as she looks between Alex and Kelly. “Thank you. So, have you guys been here together the whole time?”

“Yeah, well, I was with Alex when she got the call about the CIA being here so I decided to come along and keep her company,” Kelly explains, taking Alex’s hand.

Lena has now recovered from the Kelly-sized jump scare and is now smirking at Alex, who is redder than a ripe tomato. “I bet you did.”

“Anyway, we’re both just happy you’re ok and we came to make sure nothing got damaged here. It was just a bit messy since they had to sweep the place for bugs and weapons.” Alex rushes out. “We should probably go.”

Kara shakes her head at that. “Nonsense. It’s late. You guys can take the guest room.”

“Thank you, Kara. That would be much appreciated. It’s late and I hate driving at night.”

“I could drive.” Alex argues weakly.

“I’m sure you could, honey, but I want to stay,” Kelly says and to Kara’s utter astonishment, Alex agrees with a singular nod.

Lena looks equally as baffled but also extraordinarily amused. “Now that’s settled, you’re free to just relax now. We really appreciate you guys coming over and doing that for us. We’re really tired though, so we’re going to head to bed and deal with everything in the morning. You can either go to bed or stay up and watch TV or something if you want to.”

Kelly smiles at them warmly. “You’re welcome. I’m glad we could help. We’ll probably head to bed soon too. Which guest room are Alex and I staying in?”

Alex flushes again as Kelly outs them as only needing one room, her ears ablaze.

“I’ll show you, follow us,” Lena says, directing Kara to head for the stairs with a hand to the small of her back, eager to get upstairs and get a proper night’s sleep in her own bed with Kara tucked safely against her, protected and loved.

-

The next few days are hectic. It's not the kind of hectic that comes from the government trying to murder them, but it's still pretty hectic. There are more interviews than they know how to handle, and given that it’s literally part of Kara’s job, that’s a lot. She knows how to handle herself, they both do, but when they’re forced to spend days doing nothing but recounting the same story over and over to a hundred different people, it’s too much.

They haven’t even figured out how to handle it themselves just yet, but here they are, forced to try and explain something they have yet to figure out themselves. Something they want to understand but haven’t had the time to process.

“How many today?” Kara sighs, rubbing at her eyes harshly as she tries to summon up the courage to sit up so she can take the mug Lena’s offering her, one filled with caffeinated goodness and way too much sugar.

Lena sighs and puts it down on the nightstand, sensing that her arm will go numb from waiting with it outstretched before Kara will take it otherwise. “I don’t know. Maybe we should call in sick or put them off for tomorrow. We haven’t had a break from it yet, and I think we deserve one.”

“I never thought I’d see the day when Lena Luthor would offer up a day off.” Kara smiles wryly for a moment. “But we can’t. If we put it off, we’ll just end up with a load more work waiting for us another day. We have to tell all those people these things for a reason. We’re helping clean up this mess, and I think it’s important.”

“It is, but so is your mental health.” She takes a breath before correcting herself. “Our mental health.”

Kara smiles up at her proudly. “Look at you looking after yourself.”

Lena sinks into bed beside Kara, cuddling up into her side. “Yeah, well, I have a pretty awesome girlfriend who becomes a nightmare to live with when I don’t look after myself, so I’ve been speaking with my therapist over the phone. I think she was surprised when I made the appointment because it’s been that long since the last time we spoke. I’m lucky she got me in so fast.”

Kara grimaces. “I think that’s probably because our faces are all over the news, so she knows you need it right now.”

“Fair point.” Lena gives in. “Still, she helped me realize that we need some time to deal with this without everyone interjecting and messing up our thoughts, so I think a day off is exactly what we need.”

“You think so?”

“I do.”

“Even if we don’t go to work, we won’t be able to find out who the latest government asshole is that got arrested. You know I live for those updates.”

Pressing her lips to Kara’s cheek gently, she trails soft kisses across her skin until they fall into a tender kiss. One that is promptly ruined by Lena blowing a raspberry against Kara’s lips.

“Ew!” Kara gasps and pulls away from Lena. “Lena!”

Lena cackles maniacally, falling onto her back and holding a hand to her chest. “Your face! That was so good!”

“Ok, now I definitely want to go to work.”

Lena’s laughs don’t stop, not even as she starts trying to talk between laughs. “I already called us both out.”

Kara grabs her mug and pouts, propping the pillows up behind her. “You’re mean and I don’t appreciate it.”

Lena trails her hand up Kara’s leg, starting at her knee and then slipping up her thigh, her fingertips sneaking beneath the fabric of her shorts. “Are you sure? If we stay home, we can really…work through our emotional baggage together.”

“Lena, we can’t fuck away our trauma.”

“We can try.” Lena smirks, shuffling closer, continuing to edge her fingers further up to where both of them want them to land.

Kara leans into the touch, her arms still folded over her chest and her head tilted away in faux indifference even as she does so. “I haven’t done my morning crossword yet.”

“I’m not stopping you,” Lena whispers, tugging at the waistband of the offending shorts. “Your puzzle book is in your nightstand drawer as per usual. You shouldn’t have an issue getting it, should you?”

Kara tries to focus, her hands faltering when she tries to grip the knob because Lena takes that exact moment to tug the shorts down to her knees and swipe her tongue against her clit. “Jesus Christ.”

“If that’s not the answer to a clue, I don’t want to hear it.”

“What?”

“What’s the answer to number one?”

“Across or down?”

“Surprise me.” Lena drawls, watching on joyously as Kara frantically flips through the book in search of a crossword she hasn’t done. It takes her a moment to arrange the pen in her hand and run her eyes over the words. “So?”

“Across is Benjamin Fr—” Kara gasps and loses her mind as Lena’s tongue gets back to work.

“Who?” Lena stops what she’s doing and takes that time to pull Kara’s shorts all the way off so she can lie down between her legs comfortably, her head coming to rest on her inner thigh to show that she’s not starting again until she gets her answer. “Who?”

“B-Benjamin Franklin.”

“Mmm.” Lena hums, her tongue getting back to work on the pretty, pink pussy she’s missed in all the commotion caused by people trying to murder them. This is a very relaxing change of pace. “What about down?”

“Down?” Kara gasps, her eyes falling closed as she drops her pen, her hand travelling down to nest in Lena’s messy hair, still tangled from sleep. It’s slapped away, and Lena snatches up the pen from where she dropped it on the sheets and forces it back into her hand.

Lena traps Kara’s thighs with her arms, pinning her in place. “Down.”

Kara writhes under her touch, trying her best to wriggle free from the tight grasp, to regain the ability to buck and grind, something she definitely took for granted. Now, she doesn’t stand a chance of taking a single thing that Lena isn’t allowing.

She drops the book and pen onto her chest, giving them up and reaching down a second time. She’s not sure if she’s trying to pull Lena closer or get away, but either way, she needs Lena to hurry up and stop teasing her before she implodes.

“Fuck, Lena. You’re doing a better job at killing me than any of those incompetent government dimwits ever did.”

Lena freezes. “Kara, my love?” She waits for Kara to peer down at her. “Too soon.”

“Sorry,” Kara mumbles, her hands gripping at Lena’s, trying to pry them away from her thighs, a task she’s completely failing at.

“Hands back up.”

“But—”

“No, hands back up,” Lena demands, her tone sharp to match the fingertips digging through the supple flesh of her thighs and into the steely muscle hiding beneath it. “If you aren’t going to be a good girl and fill in the answers for me, you can hold onto the headboard.”

All it takes for Kara to comply is Lena’s mouth trailing over to her thigh and her teeth sinking into her skin, albeit with a moan that would make a demon shake its head. She follows it up by finally releasing her thighs and sitting up to grab the puzzle book and pen.

She takes a look at the next clue on the page. “You answer correctly and you’ll get rewarded. Now, this is an easy one. The surname of the actress who played Rachel in ‘Friends’.” She finishes the clue with a lick to the teeth marks she’s left behind.

“Aniston.” Kara whines.

“Good girl.” Lena smirks, latching back onto her clit with a ferocity that forces all the air out of her lungs. She licks across it broadly before sucking it like her life depends on it, working her up as quickly as humanly possible, knowing all of the little tips and tricks to get her to cum faster than a teenage boy losing his virginity.

Kara is catapulted to the brink of insanity and then left there to teeter as Lena eases off, licking across her pussy in bold strokes, her tongue avoiding her clit more and more with each pass, thoroughly lavishing her lips and avoiding the little bundle of nerves that craves her attention.

“No…” Kara complains. “Lena, please.”

“Hush. I have to write your last answer in the grid. I forgot to do it. Remind me what the answer was again.”

“Aniston.”

Lena hums, picking up the pen with one hand and using the other to gently rub her clit in tiny, delicate circles, keeping her right where she wants her. “Next clue. The famous river that runs through London.”

“The…” Kara groans as Lena adjusts the pressure, giving her a little more just to watch her squirm. “You’re evil.”

“I know. Now tell me the name of that river, baby.” Lena twirls the pen playfully, reaching up to use the non-working end of it to flick her nipple. “I want to know.”

“The Thames!” Kara practically shouts. “Please, let me cum.”

Lena tuts, taking a second to jot down the answer before tossing it aside once more. “You’ve only answered three questions. Do you really think that’s earned you that kind of reward?”

“Probably not, but I want to drink my coffee while it’s still hot, so please hurry the hell up.” Kara gasps but peers down at Lena with a level of sincerity that the ravenette isn’t expecting.

“Yes, dear.” She drawls. “Do me a favour and move your hands down to your breasts. They’re way too perky to be left neglected, don’t you think?”

Kara doesn’t need telling a second time, her hands making their way up her pyjama top and grabbing her boobs with a ferocity that shocks even herself. Her fingers find her nipples and pinch them teasingly, matching Lena’s soft rhythm and getting harsher as she speeds up her tongue as her hands get acquainted with her ass.

Lena grabs handfuls of the cheeks that she’s missed so much. How long it’s been since she’s managed to get a good butt grab in should be a crime. “Ok, darling. Let’s make you cum so you can have your coffee.”

She attaches herself to her clit once again, sucking ruthlessly and adding just the tiniest amount of teeth, sending fire burning through Kara’s nerves and finally tipping her over the edge that Lena has kept her on for way longer than she expected her to today. “Fuck, Lena!”

“That’s it, good girl.” Lena coos, continuing to lick at her, unwilling to stop and move away from the delicious treat she’s found between Kara’s legs, one that is definitely her favourite. She’s half convinced she could actually survive from eating Kara out as her only source of nutrition.

Kara takes a long few minutes to come back to herself, using her shaky hands to pull Lena’s head away from her sensitive clit until her cheek is resting on her thigh. “Ok, this is a good morning.”

Lena hums, climbing up to lie beside her slowly and carefully before she reaches over to her own nightstand and grabs her mug. She takes a healthy sip before simply tipping it back and chugging the entire thing. She sighs as she puts it down once it’s empty. “Thanks for reminding me about the coffee. I hate cold coffee.”

Kara stares at her wide-eyed. “Did you make me cum quickly just so your coffee wouldn’t go cold?”

“Yep. I was planning on making you finish the crossword first, but you know I have to get my caffeine fix.”

“You’re definitely evil.” Kara pouts, drinking her coffee at a much more reasonable pace. “At least some of my crossword is done though. I’m not thanking you because you’re mean, but I am glad it’s got a few…” She peers down at the page. “Only three?”

“Three answers, only another twenty-three to go, it would have been more but you’re not great at multitasking. That’s a shame.” Lena leans over and pecks her on the lips before deepening the kiss and giving Kara the chance to taste a mixture of herself and coffee on her tongue.

Kara sighs against her lips and chases them as Lena pulls back. “I’m going to have a shower and then get breakfast started. Take your time with your puzzle.”

“I’m going to get you back for this.” Kara calls out to Lena’s retreating form.”

“I’m sure you will,” Lena smirks over her shoulder, disappearing into the bathroom with an extra sway of her hips.

Sagging back into the pillows, Kara pulls the duvet back over her bare bottom half. “This woman is going to kill me.”

Read the entirety of Live With Me on Patreon here!

Find out more about a new Supergirl fandom event for writers and artists here!

[from-a-reckless-writer]

iv. couch.

read on ao3

To Lena: r u busy??? U didnt answer my calls. Dinner later?

To Lena: my place.

To Lena: Or yours! Can totally go to urs. If u want.

To Lena: Lena????

To Lena: where are u??

To Lena: Answer my calls

To Lena: Pls?

Kara rounds the corner of her hallway, keys bitten, dangling from her lips, as she types with both hands. Her 67th text message of the day to an MIA Lena Luthor sent. She fails to notice the creature lurking around the front of her door; dark fur shining under the cheap LED lights of Kara’s corridor.

She’s still deeply absorbed in her phone with worry, in the middle of jamming her keys in with one hand, when something furry brushes against her legs and Kara yelps.

She pulls the knob clean out of the wood in shock, her phone dropping to the floor loudly, the cat doing a duet with her with a startled yowl of her own.

Heart hammering and adrenaline racing, Kara looks down and sees the cat for the first time.

“Oh! Oh!” she gasps, “I didn’t see you there, buddy. I’m sorry for startling you!! I didn’t mean it.”

The door knob clatters loudly to the ground as it falls out of her grasp. And Kara sheepishly feels guilty for the hole in her door. But the cat meows loudly, catching her attention, as if in response to her apology.

She crouches down low, and reaches out a hand to touch the furball. She snaps a quick pic, sends it to Lena and pockets her phone.

To Lena: KITTY!!

“Oh, oh come here,” she coos, “where’s your collar? How’d you get here huh?”

The cat reminds her of Streaky. The first stray who ever took to her kindly. Although upon closer inspection, Kara realizes this one has striking emeralds for eyes, Streaky’s eyes were a more softer blue.

The cat surprisingly seems friendly, immediately leaning into Kara’s touch. Nosing at the inside of Kara’s wrist and it’s such a familiar gesture but she can’t seem to remember why.

And...oh, a small rumbling echoes through Kara’s palm!

Oh, they’re purring!

Kara doesn’t know how long she stays there crouched low exactly, but eventually, she stands up, takes her hand away, and picks up the damaged doorknob.

“Well, time for you to go home now, buddy,” she tells them, giving their head one last pat before dusting off her hands on her jacket.

“Go on, shooo. Shoo. Go home. I’m sure your human is looking for you.”

But the cat remains unmoving. It looks like they’ve decided to sit firmly in front of Kara’s doorstep, casually licking a paw, as if waiting for Kara to open her door.

“Are you actually waiting for me to open my door?” Kara makes a mental note to thank Rao that none of her neighbors can see her trying to hold a proper conversation with a cat.

“Look, kitty,” she says firmly, “I’m not your human.”

The cat just blinks owlishly at her. Eyes too green, too intelligent and-

Kara makes up her mind.

She turns her face skywards, takes a deep breath (This will probably backfire, she already knows. But she's always had a soft spot for strays.) and then she pushes her door wide open.

The cat races inside, cutting through Kara’s legs and almost tripping her.

“Well, somebody’s excited,” Kara mutters under her breath, she watches the cat head for her living room couch; watches as they pause all of a sudden, changes course and jumps onto Kara’s coffee table instead.

Where the cat then proceeds to knock down everything in close vicinity, even the picture frame of her and Lena together.

“Hey! No! Bad kitty-”

But the cat is already hopping down from her pedestal, landing on the frame directly.

And then things get weird.

The cat proceeds to stomp all over it, meows loud, like really loud; insanely loud for a cat their size.

Her paw seems to be almost pointing? At the other person in the frame.

“I-” Kara seems taken aback by the bizarre behavior, sure she knows cats are vastly different from dogs, but this…

This is just weird.

The cat’s meowing only seems to get louder.

How you land yourselves in these situations, Kara. I really just don’t know, at this point. She can almost hear Alex say.

“What are you- Are you- are you pointing? That’s- That’s Lena, yeah. That’s my best friend.”

At that, the cat seems to vibrate. They start clawing at Kara’s pant leg, meowing and meowing and meowing—

And then it hits her.

"-but it turns out that she’s a witch. And apparently, so am I."

The green, green eyes.

A pink nose nuzzling against her wrist.

“Lena?”

******

“Oh, Rao! Lena you’re a cat! What happened?! Oh, no, baby what did you do?”

Lena-

Lena The Cat—and okay, so she’s still wrapping her head around that one—just stays silent. She’s sitting on her lap, looking regal than any cat has any right to be. A judgmental look in her eyes.

Lena’s a cat. Cat’s can’t speak. Can’t answer Kara’s questions.

“Right. Sorry. Only meow,” Kara murmurs, embarrassed. For some reason even in cat form Lena manages to be intimidating.

“Okay so, uh d-does that mean you still understand me? Two meows for yes. One meow for no.”

Kara gets two meows.

“Okay, cool, cool. Great. You can still understand me, that's good.” Kara runs a hand down her spine, “Gosh, your fur is just so soft.”

She hears Lena give a small growl, body tensing, “Right. Right. Sorry. Not the time for pets.” Kara retracts her hand away.

“Uhm, so next question then, I guess? D-did you become a cat this morning? Were you testing out your uhm...gift?”

Lena meows twice. Kara nods, clenching and unclenching her fist underneath her chin. Fingers itching to run themselves through Lena’s soft fur again. Lena seems to sense this, and nuzzles her face into Kara’s hand, bumps against her repeatedly.

“Really?” Kara double-checks, giddy. If she were human Kara bets Lena would be rolling her eyes like she always does when Kara does something particularly dorky, but she just pushes her head firmer against Kara’s hand and meows twice.

“So uhm,” she starts, cautiously, noting Lena’s increasing purr, “is there like a spellbook for this or something? Something that can help you transform back?

Lena meows yes.

“Is it in The Tower or back at your place?”

There are no responses.

“Sorry, sorry lemme rephrase, is it in The Tower?”

She gets two consecutive meows.

Okay, to The Tower it is.

******

“Are you going to tell me why you’re cradling a cat in your cape or??” Alex raises a brow at her, a hand on her hip, left foot tapping impatiently. Her sister was heading out for the day, it looks like. It was just tough luck that Supergirl landed one minute before the elevator took Alex.

Crap. Now they have to explain. They didn’t talk about this. Lena still hasn’t told her if it was okay to tell people about her gift.

“I-I rescued it,” Kara says.

Well, that isn’t so far from the truth, right? She stares at the bundle in her arms, Lena the traitor staying silent all the while—green eyes shining all innocent at Kara.

Alex’s stares intensifies.

“From a tree,” Kara flounders, and Lena The Cat has the audacity to yawn, squirm and jump away from her arms. She lands gracefully, tail swishing up in the air and heads straight for the lab.

Alex eyes the cat suspiciously before turning back to Kara. She jabs a finger to her chest. “It better not have any fleas. It better not touch my training mat.”

“She won’t.”

Alex just shakes her head, rolls her eyes, grabs her helmet and walks to the elevator.

Before she goes though, Alex says, “You know, this is gonna sound weird, but I swear I think I saw that same cat slinking out of The Tower earlier this morning.”

“Alex, she’s literally a black cat. There are hundreds of black cats in the city.”

“You're being weirdly defensive about this. Why are you being weird?”

“I’m not.”

Alex seems like she wants to say more, but the elevator dings, and she’s never been more grateful that Kelly makes Alex pick her up from work. Alex huffs out breath, before conceding and disappearing into the lift.

******

The camera flash is what gets Kara busted.

But is it really her fault if she walked in on a cute kitty, hunched over, meowing adorably, trying to flip over the pages of a thick spellbook, with her teeny-tiny bean paws?

Lena hisses at her, teeth-bared and fur puffy.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But you were just really, really, really cute okay?” She walks closer to the desk, carefully lifts a hand and scratches Lena behind the ear.

The hissing slowly devolves into purring, and Kara grins triumphantly. Lena lets herself be picked up after a few moments, Kara leafing through the pages for her.

“So, found anything yet?” She asks, cradling Lena close to her chest. A warm weight on Kara’s arms, and as much as she wants to get her real Lena back, she also isn’t too eager on giving up this version anytime soon. Then again, Kara thinks, it would be impossible for her to give up any version of Lena Luthor.

“Spell? Charm? Anything? Do you need to make a potion? Are we gonna get to make a potion? Oh, oh do you need a wand? Do you have a wa-”

Kara’s words get muffled as two black paws press against her lips. Lena’s green eyes narrowing at her. She meows at Kara. Loudly.

“Mkay, mkay. Shut up. Got it.”

Lena removes her paws, and Kara makes a gesture of zipping her lips together. This seems to appease Lena enough because the next second, a pink tongue darts out and she...licks Kara's nose.

“Did you- did you just lick me?” Kara gasps out.

Lena doesn’t even acknowledge her with a meow, just turns away and jumps out of her arms again. Before Kara can do anything about it though, her phone rings.

The screen lighting up with Andrea’s name.

“Danvers, I’ve got a story for you.”

******

“Alex, please, I’ll be quick. I promise. I’ll only be three hours at the most. Please just look after her,” she pleads, pouting and puppy eyes in full power.

It also helps that the cat burrito in her cape looks to be cooperating. Lena The Cat staring at Alex with wide round eyes.

Apparently, some governor was found dead downtown, and now Andrea wants her on the scene. She can’t just leave Lena all alone in The Tower. No matter how hard Lena’s been protesting, this is brand new territory for both of them. Nobody knows the extent of Lena’s powers.

Point is, Kara would feel a lot better if she were to leave Lena under the care of someone she trusts. Even if said someone, accuses Lena of being a stray with fleas. It's still better than leaving Lena all on her own.

“Ugh.” Alex groans and Kara knows she’s won. “If this cat causes trouble I will throw it out the window, Kara.”

“No!” Kara yells, distressed. “Don’t do that. She’ll behave. She promises.”

She puts her hand under Lena’s arms and raises her up to eye level—Simba style. “You promise to be good for Alex, don’t you?”

All she gets is a lot of squirming and screaming, there were also a lot of attempts at scratching Kara’s nose.

“See?” Kara says, chuckling nervously. “She’s telling you she’s good.”

Alex looks skeptical, her arms crossed against her chest.

Kara sets her down on the couch, and crouches down low.

She tries to pet her head, but Lena bites at her finger, she catches her teeth on the skin of her supersuit’s thumb slot. She bites deeper, her teeth accomplishing nothing but a few dents.

And oh, Rao she thinks she’s such a feral little cat but her pink adorable gummy snarl says otherwise.

“I’m sorry, I’ll be back. I promise,” she whispers, careful not to let Alex hear. “And then we’ll figure it out later, okay? The safest place for you right now is to be with Alex.”

She really doesn’t want to go, and based on Lena’s protests she doesn’t want Kara to go either. But well, Andrea had finally threatened to fire her if she disobeyed...which is...fair.

She’s aware she’s been doing a less than stellar job at being a journalist lately. Rao, what an understatement. This is basically her make it or break it.

“Look, I’ll be quick, promise. Be good to Alex,” Kara murmurs. She presses a kiss on Lena’s furry forehead. Lena finally unclenches her jaw and lets Kara go. The little whine she lets out, letting Kara know that she knows the battle’s lost.

“Both of you, be good,” Kara tells them sternly. “Alex, please don’t yeet my cat out of the window.”

Alex shrugs, staring at the cat with suspicion. “I make no promises.’

Lena is staring at Alex just as hostile. Great. They both deserve each other.

Kara sighs exasperatedly. Well, at least she tried.

******

She gets a very angry Alex Danvers on the line, right after she’s finished talking to some sources. It’s nighttime now, and when she checks her watch—yep, she’s left Lena in Alex’s care for more than six hours.

Crap.

“Hey, Al—”

“KARA IF YOU DON’T PICK UP THIS THIS THIS GODDAMNED HAIRBALL RIGHT NOW, YOU WILL NEVER SEE IT EVER AGAIN.”

There is loud meowing, and then, “What the- Get off! Get off me right no-”

The line clicks dead.

Kara Danvers quickly changes into an alley, manages to break the sound barrier.

******

It’s Kelly who opens the door.

“Hey, Kara,” she greets her. Kara is impatiently rocking on her heels, trying to peer past Kelly’s shoulders.

The place was quiet; ridiculously quiet, and Kara feels fear swoop in her belly.

“Please, tell me my cat is still alive,” Kara bursts out, Kelly just gives her a pained smile and oh, no, oh no.

She muscles her way past Kelly to a brooding Alex on the couch.

Lena is nowhere to be seen.

“Alex, Alex where’s my cat? Where is she? Where did you put her?”

Alex finally looks up at her, Kara taking notice of the red marks on her arm.

Oh no, Lena, what did you do?

“Calm down, I didn’t throw the little demon away. She’s-" Alex sing-songs before finishing, "on time-out.”

“Time-out?” Kara asks, voice shaking. Rao, does she really want to know.

Alex takes too long to answer, taking a swig of her beer first before pointing to a corner in the living room.

And there, she spots it.

It, being a small pile of laundry on the floor, next to an upside down hamper. A big white hamper housing one Lena Luthor. There's a crude cardboard sign stuck on it; "Kitty Jail". Alex has also stacked a few encyclopedia on top of it, no doubt an attempt to keep Lena from escaping.

“Oh! Oh, Lena!”

Kara superspeeds her way and scoops Lena up, the cat meowing immediately and curling into Kara’s chest.

“You named the cat after Lena?!”

Crap.

Kara turns around slowly, “Uhm yeah?”

Alex just shakes her head. “Unbelievable.”

“Her eyes reminded me of Lena, okay?!” Kara yells defensively, pressing tiny kisses onto Lena’s fur.

“I’m sorry that Alex has been such a meanie to you," she coos, "I know you didn’t deserve it, baby."

Alex seems to perk up at that, because she raises up from the couch. “That,” Alex jabs a finger in their direction, Kara cradles Lena protectively, “That baby ruined my couch and she so totally deserves all the mean! All the mean in the world, Kara!”

Lena hisses in her arms.

“No, no. That’s not true. Lena is baby and she’s perfect and you’re just a meanie.”

“She ruined my upholstery! She left hair all over the place and that’s not even to mention the scratching!”

“Because you were mean to her!”

Alex scoffs, eyes bulging wide in disbelief.

“Get out,” Alex says, her brows pinching comically, “Get out of my apartment before that little devil causes more damage.”

“Gladly,” Kara says, and Lena meows her assent. They make their way past Alex, Kara unaware that Lena has stuck out her little tongue at Alex over her shoulder.

“And she’s not a little devil!” Kara calls out.

Alex slams the door in her face.

******

That evening, Kara pores over a thick spellbook, eyes swimming with Latin symbols with a purring machine on her lap.

By midnight, Kara has managed to pass out on her couch, a black cat curled on her chest.

The spellbook lay open on her coffee table, forgotten.

******

The first sight that greets Kara when she wakes up are green eyes.

Green human eyes.

And then it hits her.

“Lena!”

The spell had blessedly wore off by morning, and Kara’s never been more glad to see the sunlight lighting up Lena’s face.

For a moment, Kara’s assaulted with the mental image of laying in a pool of sunlight with a black cat stretching leisurely next to her.

“Good morning,” Lena purrs, and oh Rao, that sound is much, much better than her meowing.

“You’re back!” Kara gasps in awe.

“I’m back,” she whispers, she’s still draped fully over Kara on the couch. A blanket covering them both.

“Rao, I missed you.” A palm comes up to cup her cheeks, Lena automatically nuzzling into the inside of her wrist.

“Mm, I missed me, too,” Lena tells her, face breaking into a small smile. Kara traces her fingers up and down Lena’s spine. Oh, how she’s missed touching Lena’s skin.

Wait-

Skin.

Is she-

“Lena,” Kara begins, swallowing. Her nerves not going unnoticed.

Lena raises a brow at her. “Kara?”

“Are you- uhm- ah. Are you naked right now?”

Lena’s eyes light up like a cat’s and Kara knows she’s in trouble.

“Mm. It seems that I am,” Lena says, and all Kara can do is gulp.

“What are you gonna do about it?”

special shoutout to @mike-wachowski, @sexybread-png and @thebreakfastgod for their cat expertise without whom this silly little fic would not be written.

[supercorpkid]

The Snap - part 3

Supergirl, Lena Luthor x Reader, Kara Danvers x Reader.

Word count: 2445.

Part 1

Part 2

“Hey,” Kara opens the door of your apartment and stares at your figure on the couch. Arms crossed, clearly upset. “watcha doing all dressed up?”

You swallow the pent-up anger, shooting daggers at her. Upset doesn’t even begin to cover how you truly feel. Why do people seem to forget all the plans they make with you?

“We had a dinner date!”

“Oh.” Lena finally remembers the plans. “I got caught up at work.”

“And you couldn’t have called so I didn’t waste my time putting on my clown makeup?”

“I forgot,” Lena says and you huff, angrier now. “it was an important meeting.”

You get up from the couch and go to the bedroom to change. Lena comes in a while later while you scrub your face off of makeup.

“Darling,” she starts.

“Why can’t you just say sorry like a normal person?”

“I said sorry!” Lena adds and you raise an eyebrow at her, sure that word never left her mouth. “Ok, wait,” she holds your hand before you move away. “I should’ve called, I’m sorry.”

“You should’ve been here, you asshole!”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Lena pulls you closer, taking a lock of hair from your face. “I should’ve been here, darling. Let me make it up to you.”

“You better.”

You swallow your anger alongside the memories.

“Oh, I don’t know.” You get up going towards her. “Someone asked me on a date this morning and I thought she’d remember it!”

“Who says I didn’t?” Kara picks you up in her arms and kisses your cheek, lovingly. “You look beautiful, baby. But we’re going flying and that might ruin your hair. And I plan on ruining your makeup with kisses.”

“Where are we going?”

“Oh, I made a reservation at a nice restaurant. La Pergola.”

“I don’t remember seeing this one. Is it new?” Kara shrugs but you barely move in her arms. “Where’s that?”

“Italy.” Kara gives you a chaste kiss and flies you to Rome.

Against your better judgment, you and Kara had been going out for months. It’s, um, a different relationship.

Some days you can just forget what brought you two together. You forget she was your wife’s best friend, her bridesmaid, her confidant. You forget Lena’s, puff, gone and that for years you had no one but Kara to talk things through. Some days you ride that wave up high, forgetting to even judge yourself, forgetting how shitty you feel for letting someone else (no, not someone else, Kara) touch your body instead of your wife. Because it’s so good. God, it’s so good and why shouldn’t you be allowed to feel good anymore? Why shouldn’t you be allowed to have companionship and a relationship with someone who truly gets you?

But then, some other times, you despise yourself. You hate to think about what you're doing and how selfish you feel betraying Lena like this. You abominate Kara’s cute smile and the fact that she makes you smile as well. You hate yourself and you hate her, and you feel no shame in slamming the door in her face or closing the drapes so you can’t see her pouting on the other side of the window.

It’s a different relationship, indeed. It’s on and off. It’s pain and love mixed together. It’s self-loath and self-preservation. But it’s mostly mourning in a less lonely way.

There’s no tombstone. There’s no body. People just disappeared and life went on for some, but not for others.

To remember those who were gone, they made a memorial with all the names of people in National City that were gone. You hate going there, it’s stupid, Lena is not there. And yet you can’t keep yourself from stopping by every time you drive around that park.

You know precisely where her name is, so you don’t even raise your head to look around. There are always people around, even if there are fewer and fewer nowadays.

Luthor, Alexander Joseph.

Good riddance.

Luthor, Lena Kieran.

Seeing her name up there always leaves a lump in your throat. You wonder if someday the sight of her name on a marble stone will not break your heart into a thousand pieces.

You look around, sure no one can hear you talking to a stone. Sure no one can judge you for what you’re about to confess to your wife for the first time in four years.

“Honey,” you breathe out. “You’re not back yet. And it’s been four fucking years. I-I think you might be gone for good, but I don’t want to leave you behind. You’re the love of my life.” You wipe your tears that came uninvited. “I shouldn’t be dating your best friend, I know. It’s messed up and weird and I hate that we did this. But I-God Lena, I hate to admit this but I like her. I’m hopeless and she is hope. I’m sad, and she is-Kara is happiness wrapped up in a cute pout and stupid glasses. I’m lonely with or without her, but when she is around I’m a little less lonely, and I think it’s because you’re a part of her and a part of me.”

You look around one more time, to be sure. “I’m sorry Lena. I really am. But I think I’m done being miserable and I want to believe that wherever you are, you don’t want that for me either. I love you honey, and I promise I’ll never love anyone as I love you, but at some point, I’ll have to try.” You clean your tears and leave the flowers you bought for her on the floor. “I’ll see you soon.”

You’re almost leaving when you look a couple of rows in front of you and see Kara. You walk to her and hold her hand.

“That was a good speech.” She says, and she doesn’t even have to glance to know it’s you. You give her a teary laugh. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I can’t really help it.”

“It’s ok.” You kiss her shoulder to prove you’re not upset. “I didn’t know you were out here.”

She shows you the flowers she bought for Alex and you agree with your head, cleaning the rest of your tears on her sleeve. Kara throws her arms around you, pulling you close and she kisses the crown of your head.

“See, Alex? I told you I wasn’t lying about it.” She jokes, making you laugh again.

Kara touches Alex’s name on the marble delicately, then places the flowers on the floor. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Home?”

“Home.”

“You know,” you start and Kara raises her eyes to look at you from the place she’s settled in your lap. “maybe I should move out.”

“Really? Why?” She gets up immediately, surprised and confused.

“It’s Lena’s place.” You explain.

“It’s your house too. You’ve been living here without her for almost five years now.”

“Baby, look around. She’s been gone for nearly five years and I haven’t been able to change a single thing about this place. Look, that lamp’s been broken for two years now and it’s still here.”

“Ok.” Kara makes her way to the lamp you’ve pointed to. “What else do you want to get rid of? Supergirl is in the business of moving now.”

You smile, looking at the lamp she’s holding so effortlessly.

“Hey,” you rub your eyes out from sleep. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“Sorry, darling.” Lena looks up from her laptop, a shadow on her face from the light of the computer only. “I just got a call from Japan, it’s daytime there.”

“Hm,” you agree with your head, turning the lamp next to her. “Don’t work in the dark, it is bad for your eyes.”

She looks at the lamp, then at you. “I totally forgot about it. Thanks for caring, my love.”

You kiss her lips with a smile. “Don’t take too long, the bed is cold without you.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

You breathe out. “It’s ok, just leave it. I’ll buy another one later.”

It’s her time to sigh and sink onto the couch next to you, careful enough not to touch you. By now, she knows when a memory has come and what it usually brings.

“Do you want me to leave?” Kara pouts just a little, enough to make you smile.

“No, baby.” You show her your hand and she comes closer, laying her head on your chest. “Please, don’t leave.”

You slowly start changing the house. You throw the lamp away and buy a new one. You get rid of Lena’s uncomfortable couch that you never liked, and buy a new mattress lump-free (actually, the lumps are not so bad. But having sex in the same bed you and Lena used to, it’s somehow worse). You also get around some books and small items that belonged to Lena and put them in her home office. You’ll deal with that whole place a while later. You even open space in the closet for Kara to leave some pieces of clothing.

Sure, every time you move an item to her office you go around looking at everything, having deja-vus and memories. You sniff things for the smell of her; look at the dust settling on the desk because you have yet to find the courage to touch any of these things; then cry in her comfortable leather chair. Every single time.

But still feels like moving on.

“Guess what?” Kara calls from the front door, and you yell back from the bedroom, encouraging her to go on. “I went to China for a thing today and I saw this restaurant there. Baby, it’s called Changs! They have Changs in China!”

“Oh,” You match her enthusiasm when you see her smile. “Hope is as good.”

“Yeah, me too.” Kara is quick to dive in for an egg roll, but you’re quicker to steal a kiss from her lips.

“So what was the thing in China?”

“Hm,” she starts talking while chewing. “some people said they saw the ghosts of their loved ones that went out in the blip.” You furrow your brows. “I was afraid some fathoms were out of the fathom zone, but it was a dead end.”

“Kale, please!” You hear Lena’s voice and you jump-scare. Kara does the same, looking around for fathoms, and protecting your body with hers.

“Le-Lena?” It’s out of your mouth before you can hold back. Ghost of a loved one.

“Yes, darling?” Lena appears in your eyesight and you let out a shit-scared scream. Kara’s arm pushes you behind her, while the egg roll falls from her mouth and hit the floor silently. “What’s wrong? You two look like you saw a ghost.”

“Stay back,” Kara warns, voice thick with worry and scare. “don’t come anywhere near her.”

“What? Kara, what the hell is going on? Why can’t I go anywhere near my wife?”

You live on the top floor, and there’s usually no noise coming from the street, but all of sudden there are cars crashing, people yelling, and birds flying into buildings. The three of you run to the balcony and look down. The same chaos from the blip, except people is reappearing.

“Shit.” You look at Lena next to you. “You’re not a ghost.”

“Why would I-?” Her answer is cut short by you throwing your arms around her.

Lena is back. Shit. Shit. Shit. Lena is here. She is back. You can feel her in your arms and she smells the same she’s always had. Lena is, puff, back. Just like you’ve dreamed of all these years.

The tears cascading from your eyes are impossible to stop. You can’t talk. Breathing is almost impossible with all these overwhelming feelings exploding from your chest. You leave it to Kara to explain.

“Lena, you’ve been gone for more than five years.” You hold your wife tighter at the sound of Kara’s words. Five years and she is back. It’s a miracle. “One day, half of the life in the universe disappeared. You, Alex-” She stops. “Alex! Gosh! Alex is back, I have to go!”

She flies out and Lena is left to comfort you, even if she hasn’t completely understood what happened. She gets you to calm down, a whole five minutes later, but you still don’t let go of her while explaining, scared she might be turned into dust again.

“Oh,” Lena says when you finish your explanation. “Even though this all sound insane to me, the fact that you do look older now makes sense.”

“I am older than you. Two whole years.”

“You’re such a cougar.” She jokes the same way you used to. And you finally smile at the fact that Lena, your Lena is actually back. Right here, a touch away. “And I need a drink after all this new information.”

Lena makes her way to where she used to keep her whiskey and you follow her, close by. “You changed the couch.”

“Yes, this one is actually comfortable.”

She chuckles, looking inside an empty cupboard and moving to the next. “Who else was gone?”

“Alex, Kelly, M’gann. Oh, your brother.”

She looks back at you with a smirk. “Bet the world didn’t miss him a bit.” You agree with your head and Lena raises an eyebrow at you. “So where do we keep the whiskey now?”

“Again, honey, it’s been five years.”

“It doesn’t go bad like that.” She counterpoints.

“I drank it.” You say like it was obvious, but it isn't, because you never once drank whiskey with her. In fact, you always said you didn't like. “There’s an open bottle of wine in the fridge.”

Lena goes to the fridge for said wine but stops in her tracks. Oh no. She blinks at the refrigerator door, and the booth photos of you and Kara together. It’s more than smiles, more than friendship, and you can see it from miles and miles away. So, obviously, she can see it too.

You swallow deep, face getting hot and bothered. Everything you’ve ever told yourself as an explanation of why you let this happen disappears from your mind. You’ve been coming up with excuses, defenses, and pleas for years and years. And right now, as Lena stares at the photo of you kissing her best friend, none of them will work. None of them are right. None of them are true.

Confusion crosses her mind when she looks up at you, after holding the photo strip in her hand, like a bomb that might go off. “What’s this?”

[mrsluthordanvers]

Supercorptober

Day 4 - Couch

Read on AO3

“Eagle one, the package is in hand.” 

Lena smiles as Brainy’s voice comes through her ear piece, sounding diligent as always. 

“Return to the tower immediately, the golden sleeper is stirring.” Lena tries to mimic Brainy, keeping her tone serious to the mission at hand but it comes out sounding more amused than she means. It's hard not to. Brainy is retrieving a cake like it’s a top secret DEO mission. Nia is somewhere behind her bossing everyone around as they decorate the tower. She can almost see Alex and J'onn exchanging fond looks of exasperation as Nia and Kelly both try to tell them how to straighten the welcome home sign. 

The entire energy of the tower has shifted in a few short hours now that Kara is home. Safe and sound and sleeping under a sunlamp one room over, completely oblivious to the chaos. 

It keeps Lena distracted right up until the moment Alex walks into the surprise party with Kara leaning heavily on her shoulder. As soon as she lays her eyes on the blonde’s tired smile, there’s nothing left to distract her from the way her chest constricts as she watches Kara embrace Nia. Or how her chin starts to tremble when Kara finally, finally, looks towards her as she steps forward. 

Lena’s knees are threatening to buckle when sturdy arms wrap around her waist, her own arms wrapping around Kara’s shoulders to hold her tight. 

“It’s only because you’re on the team that I’m here.” Kara whispers, squeezing a little tighter when Lena hiccups quietly as she tries to hold back a sob of relief.

Lena doesn't know how long they hold each other in silent comfort. But when she feels Kara's arms finally loosen it feels too soon to let go. She pulls back reluctantly, hands drifting down Kara’s arms to give her hands a gentle squeeze before she steps away entirely.

She stays a while, simply watching Kara mingle with the super friends from the edge of the party. Mostly to assure herself with her own two eyes that Kara really is safe at home again. The reality of her tumbling through the portal was almost too good to be true after so many days of trying to save Kara that Lena had barely let herself believe it. But she’s letting herself believe it now. She gives herself a moment to bask in it before she tries to slip out of the tower undetected. 

“No goodbye?” 

Lena glances out of the side of her eye as Kara steps in beside her, looking ahead at the elevator door.

“I didn’t want to interrupt.”

Kara nods before she turns, just barely putting herself between Lena and the elevator she’s waiting for. 

“I meant what I said earlier.” Kara pitches quietly, her eyes willing Lena to hear her. “Alex told me everything.” 

“I-”

“Come home with me?” Kara wrings her hands together, her voice so quiet that Lena has to strain to hear her over the low hum of the music in the next room. She looks so unlike the confident superhero that Lena’s heart aches. “I really don’t want to be alone right now.”

“Of course.”

A quick text to Alex and Lena finds herself scooped up in Kara’s arms. Her protests land on deaf ears as they lift into the air. Despite Lena’s fear of flying, Lena can feel her stress start to melt away as she sinks into Kara’s embrace. Her jaw slowly relaxes, the muscles protesting as she opens and closes her mouth in a small yawn. By the time Kara flies through her bay windows and sets Lena gently on her feet her muscles no longer have the will to keep going. The soles of her feet feel bruised the moment they touch the ground, making it impossible for Lena to hide a wince as she tries and fails to stand up straight. 

Kara must recognize the battle Lena’s going through because she nudges Lena towards her couch and pulls a blanket over her knees. 

“I’m just going to go get changed.” 

Lena just nods as she runs a hand over the knit material, tugging it down to better cover her feet as she brings her knees to her chest. Leaning her temple against the couch Lena closes her eyes and listens to the sounds of Kara moving around her bedroom, the dull thump of a drawer opening and closing and the rustle of clothing. 

“Would you like some tea?” Lena manages to open her eyes as Kara comes around the curtain in a soft sweater and shorts. 

“Yes please.” Lena’s voice cracks slightly before she licks dry lips. She tries to shift around so she can watch Kara move around the kitchen, but her eyelids feel so heavy she can barely fight the weight.

The next time she opens them, sunlight is streaming in through a window and she’s staring at a clock that reads 2:00 PM in big red lights with a heavy arm thrown across her waist. Wriggling her hips, Lena manages to roll over so she’s face to face with Kara without waking her. They’re so close Lena can map out every faded freckle scattered across Kara’s nose. She can see the blonde tips and the end of dark lashes fanned across her cheeks, and how her hair is starting to frizz just slightly from rubbing against the pillowcase. 

Unable to resist herself, Lena smoothes a hand over Kara’s hair and gently tucks it behind her ear. Her hand resting there as bright blue eyes slowly blink open. They stare at each other for a moment before Lena repeats the motion again, prized with a low hum as Kara snuggles closer. Her nose brushes against Lena’s throat briefly before she settles again. Her breath deepening as Lena continues her ministrations. Her own eyes falling closed again as she lets herself drift back to sleep. 

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Home [a Supercorp snippet]

The minute Kaa regains enough strength to stand, she asks to go home. She knows the tower might be the safest place for observation, but after months in a reality where rest and comfort doesn’t exist, she just wants to go home to sleep in her own bed. 

She’s still exhausted enough that she lets Alex and Len talk it out without her. She doesn’t hear much, but does catch Lena’s soft “I’ll take her,” and notices the soft hand on Alex’s arm in reassurance. 

Kara manages to get to the car on her own two feet, and slides into the back of the SUV expecting Lena to slide in after her. To her surprise, Lena climbs into the driver’s seat. She must gape at the sight, because Lena catches sight of her in the rearview mirror and turns with a crinkle forming between her eyebrows. 

“What’s wrong?”

Kara blinks, forcing her sluggish brain to search for words. “You drive?”

At that, Lena cocks a half-grin. “When the occasion calls for it.”

Kara’s learned from Nia that Lena’s left LuthorCorp, but that fact doesn’t truly hit home until that moment. Could Lena no longer afford a driver? Or was the threat of Lex’s ire so great that she simply couldn’t risk having one? 

All Kara knows for sure is that Lena takes the long way home as smoothly as if she’s been doing it all her life. She takes the turns and curves gently, even as her attention remains half in the backseat with Kara. The final stop on Hope Street comes as a surprise-- Kara’s barely registered they’ve arrived by the time Lena opens the car door for her.

Upstairs, Lena unlocks the door to reveal an apartment that’s exactly as she’s left it. Almost.

With half-lidded eyes she takes in the rumpled NCU sweater thrown across the couch’s armrest and lip-sticked mug of half-drunk tea on the kitchen island and from the edge of her clothes rack dangles a bra that doesn’t belong to her. 

Her own items are still there: her easel still stands in its corner with her half-finished painting propped up on it, and her shirt is still thrown over the wooden privacy screen separating her bedroom from the living area, and her pictures are still stuck to the refrigerator door with the same magnets. Only now bits of Lena are intermingled amongst all her things, and Kara’s throat locks against the realization that she’s not the only person who’s made a home here. 

Lena interprets her silence as distress, and immediately moves to erase any trace of herself from the apartment. “I’m sorry, I’ll just clean up a bit and get out of your hair--”

Kara catches hold of her wrist just as Lena reaches for the dirty mug. Lena freezes at her touch-- saying nothing, she waits for Kara’s condemnation.

“Stay,” is all that comes, soft and low.

Lena’s mouth opens, then shuts, jaw working silently as she stares. Realizing she might say no, Kara asks again. 

“Stay?” She swallows thickly. “Please.”

Lena’s lips press together as she nods, wordlessly acquiescing. She doesn’t question it, not until Kara collapses into bed and opens the covers to let Lena crawl in after her. Only after she joins Kara, fully clothed, does Lena finally give voice to the doubts in her eyes. “Kara,” she issues softly. 

“I know,” Kara returns, equally quiet. They still have so much to talk about, so much to work through. And they will. But tonight, Kara just needs to rest. “Later,” she promises.

It’s enough for now. 

Lena burrows closer to Kara, slotting their bodies together in an awkward hug beneath the covers. With her nose deep in Kara’s hair, Lena breathes, “I’ve missed you.”

Kara closes her eyes, willing herself to forget the false memories of the Phantom Zone, of seeing Lena among the broken bodies in Reign’s cave, so vivid she could taste the blood in the air. It wasn’t real-- Lena is her proof, warm and safe and tangible in her arms.

She sighs, letting herself drift towards sleep, finally, finally home. 

“I missed you too.”