Chapter Text
lena waits under a full moon.
the night sky is filled with specks of stars and the city below is slowly but surely drifting off to sleep, and lena leans against the balcony railing. her tumbler is cold in her hand and her eyes are gently closed and she waits, like she’s done for the past two weeks, for supergirl to return.
she doesn’t blame her for not coming back like she’d promised; lena’s seen the news and she’s seen the crime spike in recent weeks, and she assumes that supergirl has been kept busy keeping the city safe. she’s also seen the statistics plastered on television screens right beside her face, as local news pundits try and connect her arrival to the rise in hatred the city has seen.
she knows it’s not true, that it’s purely coincidence, but part of her wonders if it really is her image that inspires hate. and part of her wonders if that’s the true reason zorel has stayed away.
the october air is unseasonably warm and she grows restless as the night drags on and the whiskey in her glass dwindles down and yet.
and yet.
still she waits.
zorel surfaces a few nights later. the air is beginning to cool and halloween decorations haunt the city and lena’s eyes are closed as she faces the wind, unable to stop the smile that creeps onto her face when she hears something touch down next to her.
‘and here i thought you were a figment of my imagination.’
zorel laughs, a sound that makes lena’s heart soar into a new plane of undiscovered yearning.
‘i think my life would be a lot easier if i were just your imaginary friend, and nothing else.’
‘long day?’
‘they’re starting to feel longer and longer.’
silence rests between them for just a moment. lena offers her glass of nightly whiskey to zorel, who takes it, sipping it slowly.
‘i didn’t think you’d come back,’ lena says softly. ‘not once you found out who i am.’
‘i almost didn’t,’ zorel admits. ‘a lot of people told me not to.’
lena feels her heart sink.
‘but then again, i’m used to being misunderstood by people who refuse to even try and understand. i don’t think i could do that to someone else.’
it’s a loaded statement, one lena is sure is directed at lex and lillian. she wonders what the world would have to look like to allow for her to befriend zorel, a super and a luthor being something other than enemies.
she thinks it would have to look a whole lot simpler.
‘i would like the record to show that i never lied to you,’ lena says. ‘my middle name is kieran.’
zorel smiles. ‘i didn’t lie, either. zor-el was my father’s name. on krypton, women take on their father’s name as their last name.’
‘do your parents live here, too?’ lena asks, turning to face zorel. she’s not prepared for the sad smile she gives her. and instead of an answer, zorel asks her a question.
‘do you ever miss somebody so violently, all you can do is try and hold back your tears until you get to the nearest bathroom or something?’
‘your parents still live on krypton?’
zorel hesitates. ‘today i got a whiff of this perfume, and i could’ve sworn it was my mother’s. i was in the middle of my workplace, and i just… i broke down. i felt like i was eight years old and homesick at my first sleepover. all i wanted was to be able to climb into my parents’ bed and know that they’re beside me.’
oh.
lena understands now. because sometimes she’ll get the vaguest memories of a faceless woman with long brown hair who gives the best hugs and feels more like home than any luthor mansion ever has.
‘today,’ lena smiles, ‘i walked passed a woman in the street. she had the most gorgeous blonde hair and her glasses kept sliding down her nose. and somehow, when she walked out of view, i missed her. i missed a person i’ve never even met, and i’ve never felt quite that foolish. it was horrible.’
‘why do we yearn the things we can never have?’ zorel asks, and lena shrugs.
‘they say as a species we’re fatally hopeful. maybe that’s why.’
zorel laughs, and not for the first time that night, lena feels things she’s seldom felt before, things that make her think maybe there’s more to life than whiskey and profit margins.
‘you know i’m an alien, right?’
‘well then you know better than anybody that humanity is so much more than your genus.’
zorel pauses. she pauses and lena wonders if she’s said something offensive to aliens. she has an apology on the tip of her tongue when--
‘you’re a good person, you know that?’
‘i guess i try and remind myself sometimes.’
‘people in this town… they have no clue just how much goodness you hold. and i wanna make sure they never take that away from you.’
‘wow,’ lena says, deadpanned. ‘i didn’t realise supergirl was strong enough to sway decades of public opinion on the luthor name.’
zorel laughs again. ‘sometimes i can be more effective when i’m whoever i am outside of this suit.’
‘when you’re zorel?’
she smiles affectionately. ‘i’m only ever zorel with you.’
lena returns the smile. and then, her own body betraying her, she fails to stifle a yawn as her body begs for sleep.
‘i should let you get home,’ zorel says.
‘it’s already so late, i might as well sleep on the couch in there.’
but of course, that’s the wrong thing to say.
before she knows it, lena is nestled firmly in zorel’s embrace, being flown high above the city and straight to her apartment.
and when they land, touching down gently against the balcony attached to her bedroom, the moon is above them, but lena feels as though she’s still in the clouds, weightless and fluid and free.
zorel bends down, and presses a soft kiss against her cheek.
‘sweet dreams, lena.’
it’s the first time lena’s heard her say her name, and it sounds so perfect in zorel’s voice, like she was born to say it, to be in lena’s life.
‘goodnight, zorel,’ she replies, and not for the first time that night, zorel hesitates for just a moment.
‘call me kara,’ she smiles, before flying off into the night.
and lena whispers into the wind,
‘goodnight, kara zor-el.’