Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alex isn’t sure what she’d expected when she turns up at Kara’s apartment but it most certain isn’t this. She’d spoken to Kara earlier who’d been nervous about going to see Lena after everything that had happened between them involving Lena and her mother. And then Kara had vanished for a week without a word and Kara wasn’t sure where they stood. Alex thought she should check on Kara before heading to Maggie’s for their date just to make sure things went ok since she hasn’t heard from her sister since this afternoon.

Alex can see now why she hasn’t heard from Kara since she’d gone to Lena’s office as the sight in front of her stops her in the doorway, eyes trying to make sense of what she sees. There’s empty takeout containers littering the table and floor, which ok is not unusual for Kara, but the empty wine bottles in the mix are. And there in the middle of it all, leaning against each other on the couch, are Kara and Lena.

And they’re giggling.

Alex knows immediately they’re both drunk as she moves towards them, mind trying to figure out how they went from how Kara was feeling earlier, to this.

“Kara?”

Kara’s eyes find Alex and then she’s off the couch in a moment, moving too fast for a normal human, before her arms are around Alex, squeezing just a bit too tightly.

“Alex,” she giggles, huge smile on her face, “what’re you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Alex replies, eyes moving back to Lena on the couch who’s grinning just as widely as Kara is.

“We’re having a party,” Kara says, stumbling slightly as she steps back from Alex. Alex moves to help her but Kara manages to right herself.

“I can see that,” Alex says as she moves further into the apartment, eyeing the bottle of alien alcohol that Kara has clearly been drinking too.

Kara moves back in front of her, now bouncing to the balls of her feet in excitement, “and Alex, guess what?”

Alex eyes her warily, “what?”

“Lena forgave me! For everything! She even doesn’t care that I’m an alien! Isn’t that great?”

Alex’s eyes go wide as they go from Kara to Lena, who is now nodding earnestly as she looks back at Alex.

“You told her the truth?” Alex isn’t sure what she expects Kara to say since it’s obvious she has and Kara is far from sober but she certainly doesn’t expect the answer she receives.

“Of course I did, Lena deserved the truth so I gave it to her.” Suddenly Kara’s whole demeanor shifts, she looks serious and if Alex didn’t know any better, she’d think Kara is sober. “I couldn’t lose her, she’s too important to me.”

As soon as the words are out, Kara’s grinning again, looking back at Lena with what Alex can only describe as a goofy smile.

Lena opens her arms wide in obvious invitation, “I miss you, come back.”

Kara doesn’t even hesitate as she moves back over to the couch and flops down beside Lena before she crawls back into her arms and Alex’s eyes widen as she watches Lena press a kiss to Kara’s forehead.

Alex would think they were sweet if she wasn’t so confused right now. How did this even happen? It’s obvious she’s not going to get any answers out of them in the state they’re in now. But what should she do now? Leave them to it? Let them deal with the consequences in the morning? Watching Lena now, she’s not worried about her knowing Kara’s secret. She hadn’t seen it before, hadn’t seen how much these two women obviously meant to each other, if the way they’re tangled on the couch now and giggling is anything to go by. But she can’t leave them, not in this state, all she’d do is worry all night. With that thought in mind, she picks up her phone.

“You’re not calling tonight to cancel our date, are you?” Alex smiles when she hears Maggie’s voice through the phone.

“No.”

“Good, because I miss you.”

Alex blushes, “I miss you too but I have a bit of a problem that I need some help dealing with first.”

Maggie’s tone shifts, she can hear her switching into work mode, “what do you need me to do?”

“Meet me at Kara’s as soon as you can?”

“Of course, I’ll see you soon.”

Alex ends the call and she’s glad Maggie hadn’t asked more questions over the phone, she’s not sure she could explain exactly what she’s seeing.

First things first, while Alex is waiting for Maggie, she takes away the left over alcohol, not that there’s much left, and gets both women a glass of water each. Next she cleans up the takeaway leftovers but all this only takes a few minutes and she knows that Maggie won’t be here for at least another ten so Alex takes a seat at the table and she can’t help but watch the two women on the couch. There’s less giggling now but there’s still lots of smiling and when Kara presses a kiss to Lena’s cheek, she has to look away.

Alex is relieved when Maggie finally knocks on the door fifteen minutes later.

“Thank God you’re here,” Alex says, not even saying hello as she pulls Maggie into the apartment. She’d already had to fight Kara once when she’d wanted more alcohol, had to help both Kara and Lena up off the floor where they’d fallen off the couch in a tangle of limbs and couldn’t get back up and she’d had to make Kara put Lena down when her sister had pulled Lena into her arms and they’d started dancing. All Alex really wants now is to separate them and get them both to bed where she knows there safe and Kara especially can’t hurt anyone.

“Is everything ok…” Maggie’s words trail off when she hears laughing and she looks over to the couch to see Kara and Lena Luthor throwing popcorn at each other.

“Dammit, how did Kara get more food?” Alex grumbles as she leaves Maggie at the door to go and retrieve the bag of popcorn from Kara before they make even more of a mess.

Maggie watches on in amusement as Alex manages to get the bag out of Kara’s hands but only after Kara had thrown several handfuls of popcorn at Alex first.

Alex walks back over to Maggie as she picks popcorn out of her hair. “I don’t know who gave her the alcohol but she’s never allowed to drink unsupervised again.”

“That’s probably wise,” Maggie says as she nods her head to Kara to get Alex to turn around and look at her in time to see Kara use her heat vision to burn a hole in one of her pillows for no other reason than she can.

Alex just shakes her head, “ok, we need to split them up and get them both to bed. I’ll deal with getting Lena home while you get Kara to bed.”

“Wait, why do I get Kara?”

Alex looks guilty before she admits the truth. “Because I don’t want to have to deal with a drunk alien with superpowers.”

Maggie laughs, “she’s your sister so you get her, I’ll take Lena home.”

“No!”

Both women look up in surprise at the shout that comes across the room from Kara.

“What?” Alex asks, alarmed.

“You’re not taking her!”

“What?”

Kara moves to wrap her arms around Lena, “you’re not taking her. She’s staying here. With me.”

Alex looks at Maggie for any suggestions but Maggie just shrugs.

“Ok,” Alex nods, “Lena can stay here, but how about we get you both to bed, I’m sure you’re tired.”

Kara grins as she releases Lena, only to take her hand. “My bed is so comfy, do you want to stay here tonight?”

Lena nods enthusiastically.

“Great!”

Alex can only watch on half amused, half concerned, as Kara drags Lena into her bedroom.

“Do we follow them?” Maggie asks, trying not to laugh.

Alex turns to Maggie, “we probably should but before we go in there, there’s something I need to do first.”

Maggie looks confused before her expressions morphs into a smile again as Alex leans over and presses their lips together.

“Hi,” Alex whispers, her lips brushing Maggie’s again, “thanks for coming.”

“Always,” Maggie responds as she shifts closer to Alex, intending to deepen the kiss when a loud bang draws their attention to Kara’s room.

Alex pulls away with a frown on her face, both at the noise and the fact that it interrupted their kiss. “We should probably deal with that first.”

This is the second time tonight she’s been surprised when she walks into a room and she’s honestly not sure if this is worse than the first time or not. They find Kara on the ground and as Alex’s eyes fall on Lena, she can guess why Kara tripped and fell. Lena is standing there wearing nothing but her skirt and bra, the black lace still holding Kara’s attention even from the floor.

Alex nods at Maggie before motioning to Lena before she goes to help Kara to her feet. “Up you get.”

Maggie helps Lena into a shirt she’s picked up off the floor before she helps Lena out of her skirt next and into a pair of pants. Alex doesn’t have as much luck with Kara and by the time Lena is dressed for bed, Alex has made no progress in dressing Kara. Dressing someone with super strength who doesn’t want to cooperate is no easy task and it takes a lot of distracting by Lena and help from Maggie before the task is complete.

Ten minutes later and both women are dressed but neither are making a move to get into bed.

Alex sighs, “ok, time for bed.”

“But it’s so early,” Kara grumbles. It is early, it’s barely gone eight o’clock, but Alex is sure Kara doesn’t know that.

Alex eyes widen when Lena sidles up to Kara and winds an arm around her waist. Lena leans into Kara’s side, mouth going to Kara’s ear but her words are loud enough for Maggie and Alex to hear. “We can cuddle in bed.”

Kara’s frown turns into a grin and then she’s out of Lena’s arms and in bed faster than any human could be. Lena looks at the empty space beside her before her eyes fall to Kara already in bed and she grins herself as she jumps onto the foot of the bed and crawls up it before she settles into Kara’s open arms. Lena rests her head on Kara’s chest, both women smiling as their eyes already begin to slip closed.

Alex can’t help but smile too as she watches to two women drift off to sleep in each other’s arms. “They look so peaceful now.”

Maggie laughs, “yeah, and they’re going to have one hell of a hangover in the morning.”

Alex nods, she remembers the last time Kara had alcohol, it wasn’t pretty when she woke up, but at least her hangovers don’t last as long as human ones, she knows Lena is going to be in for a rough morning.

They leave the room and do another quick tidy up and Maggie leaves some painkillers and water for Lena beside the bed.

“How did they even get like that?” Maggie asks once they’re by the door, ready to leave.

Alex shrugs. “No idea, the last thing I heard from Kara was she was going to go apologise to Lena and then I found them like this when I came to check on her. Kara said Lena forgave her and doesn’t care that she’s an alien but that’s all I could get out of her. But I’m glad they figured it out, Kara was really worried about losing Lena.”

Maggie laughs, “I told you your sister had a crush on Lena.”

Alex grumbles, she hates to be wrong. “I should’ve known, I thought Kara was just so happy to have another girl as a friend, I didn’t realise the feelings ran deeper than that.”

“Somehow Kara always managed to bring up how pretty Lena was when talking about her, that didn’t give you a clue that your sister was into the young Luthor?”

“I know, shut up, you were right,” Alex says, knocking her shoulder softly against Maggie’s to negate any of the harshness from her words.

“And because I was right, you can buy me dinner tonight.”

“Fine, but only because it’s date night and I was going to take you out anyway.”

Maggie grins, threading her fingers through Alex’s. “Come on then, let’s get going so we can get to bed early, I know you’ll want to come back here in the morning to see the two lovebirds in the aftermath of their drunken night and I’m sure you have questions for Kara.”

Alex grins in return, she definitely wants to be here in the morning to both tease Kara and find out exactly what’s going on between her and Lena.

Alex gives Maggie’s hand a light squeeze, “let’s go.”

Chapter Text

Lena blinks her eyes open, her head pounding as she tries to locate the source of the noise that woke her. The lamp on the bedside table is on, casting shadows around the room but she easily sees Kara at the foot of the bed fixing her cape to her suit.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Lena goes to sit up but is hit with a wave of nausea so she lies back down with a groan. “What time is it?”

“Just after 5am but Alex called and I have to go.”

How is she even upright? Lena thinks as Kara moves closer to her side of the bed, “how’re you feeling?”

“My head is pounding and I’ve already thrown up twice so I hope Alex doesn’t expect much out of me today because honestly right now I’m not one hundred percent sure I’m even going to be able to fly,” Kara replies and now that she is closer, Lena can tell her face is rather pale.

Lena grimaces, “you can’t call in sick?”

Kara lets out a soft laugh, “I wish.” She sighs, a voice coming through her ear, “I have to go.”

Lena nods, “go save the day, Supergirl.”

Kara smiles, “you’ll stay until I get back?”

“Of course,” Lena smiles back. She may be incapable of moving right now but even if she was, she’d still stay.

“I’ll see you later.” Kara’s gone before Lena can even blink.

xxx

The next time Lena wakes, the room is considerably brighter than before. She blinks against the light as she looks around the room, disappointed that it’s empty. Her eyes fall on the glass of water and painkillers on the bedside table and she quickly downs them both. The nausea from earlier is gone now but her head still hurts.

She sits up in bed, debating what to do now. Kara told her not to leave and she won’t, she just has no idea how long until Kara’s going to be back, it could still be hours. The sound of Supergirl’s cape flapping in the wind and boots hitting the floor in the living room draw Lena’s thoughts away and she smiles as Kara walks into her bedroom.

Kara smiles when she sees Lena still in her bed. It’s not that she thought Lena would leave, she just didn’t get to enjoy the sight of Lena in her bed this morning but now she can, something she hopes to see more often in the future. “Sorry, I was gone longer than I’d hoped.”

Lena shakes her head, “don’t worry, I just woke up. How’re you feeling now?”

Kara kicks her boots off then works to unfasten her cape. “Better, the sun helps. You?”

“My head hurts but nothing major, I feel better than I thought I would after how much we drank last night.” Lena is still trying to piece together everything that happened last night. She thinks she remembers most of it but the end of the night is a bit fuzzy.

Kara winces, “we did drink a lot, didn’t we?” She pauses, her mind going through the events of last night too, not just thinking about how much they drank but how much they both let their guards down thanks to the alcohol. Kara told Lena her secret before the drinking began but once the alcohol started flowing, they definitely became more comfortable around each other and she wasn’t sure whether that was just what drunk Lena was like, or if it actually meant something. “Do we need to talk about last night?”

Lena nods, “we do. But how about first you take a shower and I’ll make us breakfast and then we’ll talk?”

Kara can feel the dirt and soot on her skin from her Supergirl adventures this morning, a shower and breakfast does sound good before what Kara knows will be an important conversation so she nods.

While Kara goes to get cleaned up, Lena drags herself out of bed. She grabs one of Kara’s discarded sweaters and pulls it on as she walks into the kitchen. She’s just about to open the fridge to examine its contents when a knock at the door startles her. Lena’s eyes flash in the direction of the bathroom but she can hear the shower already running, knows that even if Kara did hear the door, she won’t be coming to answer it.

Lena hesitates, should she open Kara’s door? What if it’s anyone but Alex? Or what if it is Alex? Lena’s not sure she can face her after what Alex saw last night. Before Lena can make a decision though, there’s a key sounding in the lock and the door opens to reveal Alex and Maggie on the other side.

“Oh,” Alex pauses as she steps through the door, “you’re awake.”

Lena looks between Alex and Maggie who steps through the door behind her and she doesn’t know what to say so she settles on the obvious. “I am.”

“Good, we brought breakfast, how’re you feeling?” Alex smiles and Lena instantly feels herself relax under the warm looks the women are sending her way as they all sit at the table together. By the time Kara exits her room twenty minutes, Lena is completely relaxed as she laughs with Maggie and Alex while they eat.

Kara eyes the laughing women suspiciously, “what’s going on?”

Alex grins, “Lena here was just telling us what you got up to last night before we arrived.”

Wide eyes fall on Lena as Kara’s mouth forms a pout, “Leeeennnaa, how could you?”

Lena quickly defends herself but she’s smiling, ”I had no choice, Alex said she’d share stories from when you were a teenager if I told her about last night.”

The three women laugh at the look of betrayal that settles on Kara’s face.

“Relax,” Lena says, taking Kara’s hand and pulling her over to the table to sit next to her, “they didn’t tell me anything too embarrassing, teen Kara was cute, plus Alex brought us breakfast so you can’t be too mad.”

There’s another round of laughter when Kara’s face lights up.

Everyone notices that Kara and Lena’s hands stay joined even once they’re seated but no one says anything.

Once silence has settled and Kara is eating, Maggie brings up the one part of last night that was the funniest, the one part that Maggie and Alex promised each other they’d bring up somehow, just to see the looks on Kara and Lena’s faces. “Don’t worry, Kara, Lena still wins the award for the most embarrassing thing done last night, she did take her top off in front of us.”

Lena’s eyes widen as her cheeks go red, she’d forgotten about that.

Alex cuts in, “I think that’s embarrassing for both of them though,” Alex says, addressing Maggie, “Kara did fall over because she was looking at Lena’s breasts.”

Kara chokes on the mouthful of food she’d just taken, going red herself.

Alex and Maggie burst out laughing while Kara tries to clear her throat and Lena blushes furiously.

“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Alex says once the laughter has died down and she tries not to laugh again as she sees Kara and Lena’s eyes go wide.

“But-“

Alex cuts Kara off, “I need to check in with the DEO, I came straight here so J’onn will want me back to debrief him on what happened. You’ll need to come in later too, but take the morning off.”

Kara nods as Alex and Maggie stand and she finally lets go of Lena’s hand so she can give Alex a hug, “thanks for breakfast, and thanks for last night, I owe you one.”

Alex laughs, “you owe me more than one. We’ll talk later, ok? A proper talk?”

“Of course, I’ll see you later.”

Alex gives Lena a smile and Maggie gives both women a wave and then they’re gone.

Kara turns from the closed door to find Lena watching her from her seat at the table. Kara hesitates for a moment before she retakes her seat next to Lena even though all their food is gone now.

“So, I suppose we should talk?

Lena gives Kara a small smile, “I suppose we should.”

“Where do you want to start?”

Lena huffs out a laugh, "this shouldn't be this hard, we talked about so much yesterday." They’d talked about so much, about Lena’s family, about Kara’s, about Supergirl, they’d both apologised after all that had happened with Lena’s mother and Kara vanishing for a week, but the one topic they’d avoided was their feelings for each other.

Kara nods, "you're right, so I'm going to make this easy." She pauses, takes a calming breath and then just goes for it. It could go terribly wrong but it could also be so right and if she's been reading Lena correctly, she already knows what her answer will be. "Will you go on a date with me?"

Lena's face breaks into the most beautiful smile Kara has ever seen. "I'd love to."

Kara's own smile now matches Lena's, "oh thank Rao."

Lena laughs as she threads her fingers through Kara's again, "dinner tonight?"

"Sounds perfect."

"Now, as much as I'd love to stay here with you," Lena blushes at her admission, "I left work early yesterday so I've got some work that I really should get back to."

Kara looks guilty, "sorry about that."

Lena squeezes her hand, "I'm not."

After a moment, Lena sighs, "ok, I better go."

"Do you want me to fly you there?"

Lena laughs, "after last night, I need a few days break before I can fly with you again."

Kara looks guilty again, "please don't tell Alex I flew us here drunk last night, she'll kill me." Alex is under the impression that they started drinking at Kara's apartment last night, not Lena's office and Kara would like to keep it that way, only to avoid questions about how they ended up at her place. It takes Kara an extra moment to register all of Lena's words, "does that mean you'll fly with me again in the future?"

"Maybe." Lena already knows the answer is yes, she now knows how close Kara holds her when they fly together and that's something she wants to experience sober too.

Lena gives Kara's hand another squeeze before she untangles their hands, "do you mind if I wear your clothes home? I'd rather not put my skirt and blouse back on."

Kara nods as she follows Lena back to her bedroom so Lena can gather her clothes, "of course."

All too soon they're in front of Kara's door, both wishing this morning didn't have to end.

"Dinner tonight, right?"

Lena smiles, "I'll pick you up at 7."

Kara grins and before she can lose her nerve, she leans forward and presses a kiss to Lena's cheek, just like she'd done last night except this time she's sober.

Her lips linger for a moment, pressed to Lena’s soft cheek, before she pulls away, her cheeks stained red again.

"Goodbye, Kara," Lena says softly, her cheeks red too, a smile on her lips.

"Goodbye, Lena."

Kara watches Lena go, wishing it was dinner time already.

xxx

The next morning when Alex turns up to see Kara, she's not even surprised when she walks through the door to find Lena in Kara's kitchen, the two making breakfast together.

Both women blush because it's clear what this looks like, it looks like they spent the night together, in more than just a sleeping way.

And that is exactly what had happened.

Lena would say it's Kara's fault, since she was the one that grabbed Lena and kissed her when Lena showed up to pick her up the previous night, causing them to miss their reservation as they'd ended up on Kara's couch and then in her bed instead.

Kara would of course blame Lena, because she'd looked so incredibly good in that dress that Kara had had no choice but to kiss her.

Alex just laughed and shook her head at the blushing women who had done nothing but stare at her since she'd entered the apartment.

"We'll talk later, Kara," Alex shouts over her shoulder as she leaves. From now on, Alex is going to start knocking on Kara's door.