Chapter Text
With her hand raised in a closed fist, Lena once again found herself in front of Maggie and Alex’s apartment door, ready to knock.
“Oh, it’s unlocked,” Kara said from beside her, sending a brief, but warm smile her way.
Her girlfriend (had they made it official yet?) went to move past her, when Lena shot out her left arm, blocking the way.
“Wait,” she said, eyeing the doorknob before looking up at Kara.
Kara looked taken back at first, before realization dawned on her face. She put on her biggest kicked puppy dog eyes and pouted.
“Kara—” Lena searched her face, lingering on those lips just long enough to throw off her train of thought.
“I promised you I would tell Alex. And I will,” Kara supplied for her.
Lena knew there was a but coming and Kara knew that she knew; so, when Kara took both of Lena’s hands in her own, Lena couldn’t help but tut.
“But what if Maggie already told Alex?” Kara asked. “Then me coming out to her and telling her we’re dating would be redundant.”
“You still owe it to yourself and to her to be open about it, though, if you’re ready.”
Kara sighed, running her thumbs over the backs of Lena’s hands.
“I am ready,” she said, meeting Lena’s gaze.
Those eyes, even behind the superfluous glasses, looked as if they could bore holes through Lena at any moment. She paused. Maybe they could.
“I wouldn’t have brought you to game night if I wasn’t,” Kara continued. “I just—” Kara scrunched up her face and looked away from Lena towards the apartment door. “It feels selfish.”
A moment of silence followed. Kara’s thumbs, which hadn’t stopped their ministrations, now came to a halt.
“I can’t take this from her,” Kara said finally.
Lena pulled her hands out of Kara’s slack grasp and tugged her forward into a hug. Her arms folded around Kara’s frame and the beige, knee-length jacket she was wearing that night.
“She’s your big sister,” Lena said, hooking restless fingers underneath the jacket’s matching beige belt. “If anything, I think she’d be proud that her little sister was following in her footsteps, so to speak.”
Kara guffawed. Lena felt the reverberations against her chest.
“I’ll tell her, tonight,” Kara promised, voice soft against the shell of Lena’s ear. “I’ll pull her aside before dinner and tell her the truth—the whole truth this time.”
Lena withdrew slightly, a grin on her face.
“Thank you, Kara. I know how much your relationship with Alex means to you.”
“Even if she isn’t always your biggest fan?” Kara asked. She smirked and pressed her tongue against the underside of one of her canines.
Lena rolled her eyes.
“Yes, even so,” she replied, before her grin grew into a wide smile. “So, we’re dating, huh?”
Kara blushed. Lena’s arms, still clasped behind Kara, settled lower against the small of her back, before she drew her in. Their eyes met for a moment—a questioning exchange as if asking is this okay—before sleek jacket met sheer blouse. Kara’s hands, always warm to the touch, pushed Lena’s heavy coat out of the way so they could slip under the loose material of her blouse and find the skin she’d been searching for.
Their lips met briefly.
“I’m glad you agreed to change before coming tonight,” Kara murmured, eye flashing up to Lena’s before leaning in again.
Lena knew Kara had not purposefully made the double entendre, but the string of words together still forced her to swallow down the lump in her throat or risk coughing mid-kiss. Kara did not seem to notice Lena’s short-lived struggle. With each kiss, she came back just a little bit more eager until suddenly, Lena felt the cool, languid swipe of Kara’s tongue against her bottom lip.
Lena had only the most fleeting of moments to consider whether or not she was the type of person to make out in the semi-private hall of the apartment building, when a door connected to said hall, flung open.
“I thought I heard—”
The voice cut off sharply.
“Alex.”
Lena registered the sound of Kara’s voice, before those warms hands were leaving her hips. The loss of Kara’s chest against her own made Lena realize she had been sweating a fair amount under her own shirt. She resisted the urge to dab at the skin of her cleavage and instead extended an awkward hand Alex’s direction.
The woman hesitated, before shaking it twice.
“You two really need to stop doing that,” Lena said, motioning towards the door. “Nearly scared me death this time.”
Kara forfeited a weak chuckle, while Alex looked on towards her sister.
“Most people don’t loiter in hallways,” she said, before stepping back into the apartment and motioning for the other two to follow.
“Are Winn and James here yet?” Kara asked, as she stepped into the apartment after he sister.
She handed Alex her jacket, before rubbing at the back of her neck.
“No, they were running late, but they should be here any minute now.” Alex shot both Kara and Lena a cautionary glare, before holding out her hand for Lena’s coat. “I’m gonna toss these in the spare room. No room in the coat closet.”
A familiar wavy head of hair poked out from the kitchen and smiled.
“If that’s supposed to be your passive-aggressive way of telling me that I have too many coats, it’s not going to work.”
Due mostly because of the events of the last few minutes, Lena had forgotten the Maggie part of Maggie and Alex’s apartment.
“I wasn’t intending it to, but it’s definitely warranted,” Alex replied, already halfway down the hall to where a set of closed doors were.
As Alex disappeared behind one of them, Maggie met Kara and Lena is the foyer.
“Glad we didn’t scare you off after last time,” Maggie said, observing Lena under a close eye.
Lena looked from Kara to Maggie before replying, “I don’t scare away easily.”
Maggie just shook her head. “Well, we are having tacos tonight—don’t worry there’s plenty of fillings available if you don’t want meat—and we’ll probably play a different game. I need a win after last time…”
She trailed off, before padding into the kitchen to check on a skillet of veggies on the stove.
Through the sound of the range hood and Maggie’s spatula against the bottom of a pan, Lena groaned, “you need to talk to her.”
Kara had the perfect opportunity, but instead chose to rock back onto her heels and eye the ajar door at the end of the hall wearily.
“You seriously can’t be considering just letting that go?” Lena asked, exasperated.
Kara shrugged, shoulders sagging down farther than where they’d been before.
“Maybe she didn’t see. Maybe she thought we were just sharing a tight hug.”
“A tight hug, Kara? Really? That’s what you’re going with?” Lena furrowed her brows and let her attention wander to the pile of blankets that were once again spread over the back of their large couch.
She stepped towards Kara’s side, avoiding eye contact like they were spies exchanging top secret information and whispered, “your tongue was this close to getting tight with the inside of my mouth.”
The flush on Kara’s neck gave her away as Lena moved to the kitchen to help Maggie with the dinner.
***
Kara tried to work up the courage to tell her sister the truth, but with every opening to pull Alex aside, she caved. The group was once again sitting around Maggie and Alex’s dining room table. Half-empty bowls of taco fillings sat scattered amongst the deserted droppings of shredded cheese, pico de gallo, chopped lettuce, and the occasional glob of sour cream.
Since their exchange in the foyer, Lena had been stringent on her new resolve to not touch Kara in anyway possible. Every time Kara reached out to brush against Lena’s arm or rest a hand on her back, those piercing eyes were on her, warning her, but ultimately reminding her that she needed to talk with Alex first.
This new resolve was not without its faults, though. While Lena proved very skilled at the age-old keep your hands to yourself rule, her eyes were constantly betraying her. They sought after Kara’s with a hunger than rivaled Winn’s appetite for ground beef and guacamole. When she wasn’t eating, the rest of her face joined the silent rebellion; her lips parted every time Kara traced the outline of her body with her own eyes and her tongue escaped the confines of those lips whenever Kara would take a purposefully long sip from her daquiri’s straw.
It wasn’t until James and Winn had moved to the living room and Maggie and Alex to the kitchen, that Lena spoke on the issue.
“I see what you’re trying to do, Kara Danvers,” she said in a hushed tone.
In her hand she clutched the spoons that had been used to scoop out the various taco toppings. She held them away from the table, while her other hand pressed hard against the wood surface, fingers curving around its sharp edge.
Kara sat up straight. “I think the word you’re looking for is succeeding at,” Kara replied, smiling wickedly while she adjusted her glasses.
“That’s two words,” Lena retorted, leaning down farther until they were almost even.
Kara’s eyes drifted down to the billowing material of Lena’s black blouse and caught the swell of Lena’s chest as it pushed up against a bra of the same colour. When her gaze returned to Lena’s face, her lips were pursed, and her eyes cast away towards the kitchen.
“You’re very obvious,” Lena said without looking back towards Kara.
She straightened, standing back up to full height, and walked off to the kitchen with the dirty spoons. Kara sat waiting for another plea to tell her sister the truth, but it didn’t come.
“Same teams as last time?” James asked as Maggie and Lena joined the rest of them in the living room.
“I was thinking we could do two teams of three, actually,” Maggie said.
She walked to a shelf behind the love seat and pulled down a thick stack of cards that had been teetering on falling over. She set the cards down on a side table, choosing to separate them into two stacks, and joined Alex on the larger couch.
“If we’re splitting up the teams from last time, can I join Lena and Kara?” Winn asked.
James shoved him playfully, before Lena spoke up.
“Nonsense, I’m new here. I’ll join your team.”
Before Kara could react, Lena was standing up from her spot beside Kara and walking over to the chaise.
“I guess I’m stuck with you, big sis,” Kara said, shooting a pair of finger guns Alex’s direction. The gesture felt weird and the words were foreign on her lips.
Alex tilted her head to the side, brows drawn in, before she motioned for Kara to join them on the larger couch.
“Okay,” Maggie drawled, “the game is charades, but with no allowance for noises, two minutes to act out your word, and I better not see you mouthing any words, Winn.”
“One time,” Winn replied, holding up a single finger as he rested his forehead in the palm of his other hand. “That was one time, and it didn’t even help.”
James let out a low laugh before standing from his spot on the ottoman beside Winn.
“Do you have something to keep score with?” he asked Maggie.
She stretched past Alex on the couch and grabbed a pad of paper and pen from the side drawer. James accepted both and set them down beside the stacks of cards.
As James scribbled something down on the paper, Kara leaned forward in her seat to catch Lena’s attention, but her somebody was having an animated conversation with Winn. Kara soured. She knew all she had to do was tell Alex and things would go back to how they’d been earlier that day, how they’d been for the past week, hell, how they’d been last game night before Alex’s outburst. But the words on the tip of Kara’s tongue weren’t hers.
I started to develop feelings for her, she heard Alex’s voice say in her head.
How come they felt like her words too?
Charades was much harder than Catch Phrase and not just because the premise of the game was more challenging. Every time it was Lena’s turn to act out a word for her team, Kara was drawn to her. Drawn in by the way her lips curved inwards when she was thinking about what to do. Drawn in by gleam in her eyes when James called out Ferris Wheel and Winn guessed astronaut correctly. More than anything, the silent looks of adoration Lena gave her—even though she hadn’t told Alex yet—almost pulled her out of her seat and across the room.
“Do you have your word?” James asked.
It was Winn’s turn to act. He nodded before handing his card to Maggie and moving to the centre of the room. Once Maggie started the timer on her phone, Winn began to wave his arms around like they were connected to those giant inflatable men Kara would see outside of car dealerships.
Lena and James were at a loss for words.
“Umm, the wave?” Lena guessed.
Winn shook his head no. After a ten more seconds of imitating a giant inflatable man, Winn paused. He hung his arms loose at his sides and began squatting with both knees pushed outward. Lena and James’ expressions turned from confused to outright bewildered.
“What is it?” Kara asked Maggie beside her.
Maggie leaned over and covered her mouth from view.
“Jellyfish,” she whispered.
Kara choked out a laugh as Winn caught her reaction, mid-spastic wiggle.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The obnoxious alarm of Maggie’s phone went off and Winn slumped forward.
“What was it?” Lena asked, nearly standing from her seat.
“Jellyfish,” Winn replied with his jaw jutted out.
As he took his seat beside James, Kara stood and reached over to one of the piles of cards to look at her next word. Skiing.
Easy, Kara thought.
She handed James the card and took her place in the centre of the room, waiting for Maggie’s go ahead. When Kara got the thumbs up, she did her best to act out slipping ski boots into a pair of skis, even showing resistance before the nonexistent click. Maggie and Alex looked on confused though. Kara held up her hand, motioning them to hold on for a second, before she looked away, thinking.
When she started her next motion, pretending to ski downhill with poles at her side, an eruption of laughter came from the other side of the room as Lena leaned forward in her lap, face reddening and unable to hold eye contact. She wanted to ask what, but she wasn’t allowed to talk. Even though they were on the same team, she wouldn’t put it past Maggie to force her to forfeit the word.
Kara resumed her skiing motions and turned back to Maggie and Alex. Maggie had curled her feet up on the couch where Kara had been sitting a minute before and both were trying to hide a smile.
“What?” she finally asked, out loud.
Maggie pointed an accusatory finger at her just as the alarm for two minutes went off. Kara threw her head back in frustration before stalking back to the couch. There was no room where she’d been before, so she squeezed in beside Alex, pushing her towards the centre.
“What were you trying to do?” Alex asked, still fighting the laugh bubbling beneath the surface.
Kara shook her head, eyes locked to the hands in her lap.
“Skiing,” she said mumbled.
Alex took in a deep, centering breath, before she turned back to Kara.
“When people ski, they push up with their knees. They don’t thrust out.”
Kara pondered the mechanics of the motion over in her brain before realization dawned on her.
“Alex!” She swatted at her sister’s arm.
Thankfully, the thrusting comment had been too quiet for Lena to hear; however, the damage had already been done.
“Please stop me next time,” she said out of the corner of her mouth as Lena stood up to start her turn.
Alex nodded, before accepting the next card from Lena.
“You still good with the timer?” Lena teased a sleepy Maggie whose head now lied in Alex’s lap.
Maggie held out a thumbs up and motioned for her to start.
It was hard for Kara to ignore Lena’s ass when she walked around in her dresses and pencil skirts. It was even harder for Kara to ignore in these jeans. Why had she not appreciated these jeans more the last time she wore them? Was she blind or had she felt guilty about ogling her best friend?
Probably both, Kara thought.
Lena continued to act out the blatantly obvious motion of a tennis player. She swung her invisible racket, held her arm up as she pretended serve, and even leaned over, face focused with determination as she moved her invisible racket from one hand to the other like Kara had seen on TV a few times.
Lena looked to the side and noticed Kara staring. Staring was normal, though. Lena was acting out a word and Kara was watching. It was simple. Except it wasn’t, because Kara wasn’t just staring at Lena, she was adoring her.
Kara leaned over to Alex as Winn and James proved just how not-versed they were with the sport of tennis.
“It’s tennis, right?” Kara asked in her sister’s ear.
Alex didn’t nod or show her the card; she leaned back over to Kara and whispered, “you and Lena are dating, right?”
Kara found herself nodding along, before her eyes shot back up to an oblivious Lena, then over to her sister.
“You saw,” Kara stated, no question involved.
“I saw a lot,” Alex replied.
“I told you I was working on it.” Kara couldn’t help the playful snipe.
“Are you two—”
“—together?” Kara cut her off.
Alex nodded.
“I’m…”
“You’re working on it?” Alex offered.
The timer went off. Beneath Alex, Maggie stirred.
“Tennis!” Kara heard Lena saying in the background. “It was tennis!”
“I think we’re winning,” Maggie declared, shooting up, as if a second wave of energy had just coursed through her.
Alex patted her shoulder, coercing her to calm down.
After Lena’s round, everyone had collectively decided to call the game there with Alex’s team two points ahead. James and Winn took their empty glasses to the kitchen as Maggie and Alex cleaned up.
“You look, different,” Lena commented as she walked over to the couch where Kara still sat.
“A good different?” Kara asked, before forcing herself to stand.
Her legs felt heavy, but her mind felt light.
“An I just told my sister the truth different.”
Kara bit her lip.
“She sort of told me you and I were dating and then I agreed.”
Lena’s eye went wide.
“Kara,” she scolded impishly.
Kara reached out to run a hand down Lena’s arm when commotion at the front door drew them apart.
“You ready?” Lena asked.
Kara nodded and followed her over.
Maggie’s second wave of energy was dying out fast. She rested her head against the foyer wall, blinking slowly. A comfortable silence enveloped the group as they waited for Alex to retrieve their coats from the spare room.
“I’ll need a rematch after tonight,” Lena said, breaking the silence. “Or maybe a different team.”
Winn started to protest, when Alex returned with their coats slung over one arm.
“I did have fun though,” Kara admitted.
She accepted her jacket from Alex’s outstretched hand and shrugged it over her shoulders.
“I won’t be in town next weekend, but maybe the 8th or 15th?” James suggested.
Maggie nodded as he straightened out the collar of his coat.
“We will be looking forward to it,” Kara said, before finding Lena’s hand at her side and grasping it in her own.
Lena’s hand wasn’t far. It was never far, but those few inches had felt like miles before. Kara didn’t catch the surprised look on James’ face or the confounded expression on Winn’s. She didn’t need to look to Alex to know her sister was proud of her. No, all she needed to do was find Lena and she had.
“Hold up, hold up.” Winn steepled his hands against his face and drew out a labored breath.
“So, you are together? Like girlfriends—in the gay way?”
Alex bit back a strangled laugh.
“Like you’re serious this time?” Winn tried again.
Kara gazed down at their conjoined hands, then up to Lena’s face. Her dark hair, up in its trademark ponytail, lay over one shoulder as her other hand played with its ends.
“Very,” Kara said.
She caught the motion of Lena’s tongue pressing against the side of her cheek, before Lena smiled.
“Likewise,” she assured.
After some drawn out goodbyes, Maggie had excused herself for bed and James had dragged Winn out of the apartment before he could ask any more questions.
“I’ll see you Sunday for lunch?” Alex asked Kara as she leaned against the side of the door.
Kara replied, “of course,” before pulling her sister in for a tight hug.
It was short and sweet, and if Kara didn’t let her go fast enough, they might have been there all night.
“Do you want me to wait up?” Lena asked from behind them, hands buried in the pockets of her coat.
She looked small for a moment, uncertain still with family moments.
“You can go on ahead. I know where you live.” Kara smiled smugly to herself.
“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit then.” Lena winked at her before turning for the door.
When she’d made it down to the elevator, Kara turned back to Alex. She had that all-knowing sister look on her face. Kara was starting to really resent it.
“We drove here separately,” Kara said with forced levity.
“Yeah, I heard,” Alex replied, nodding.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Kara nudged Alex’s arm with her shoulder.
“Like what?” she replied, trying to hide her smirk.
“I’m an adult that does adult things, so stop looking at me like you’re about to send me off to the prom.”
A beat passed before Alex chuckled. “So grown up,” she teased.
Kara snorted.
“Oh, to be young and in love,” Alex continued.
Kara just smiled.