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“In my defense, she was an alien,” Winn said, pulling open the oversized front door to the bar.
Maggie tutted, following in after him.
“Alien or not, she clearly wasn’t into you,” Alex explained.
“A human wouldn’t have scorched my seat, getting us all kicked out though.”
Kara hummed. He had a point. A subtle blow off or drink to the face would have been less troublesome and time consuming. The new bar James had suggested was a long walk over from their regular spot and since the whole gang wasn’t going to squeeze into a single cab, everyone but Kara seemed to complain about the cold once or twice.
“I could have flown some of you guys over,” she supplied once they’d all stepped inside.
The maze of a room was just as dark as their old bar, but the ambience was less extraterrestrial and more… extra pricey. Kara didn’t mind, because she had no plans on drinking, but the others shot James uncertain looks.
“I say we go in on a pitcher,” Maggie suggested when they’d found a booth that could seat five comfortably.
Kara ran her hand over the slick leather underneath her, before glancing up with a smile. It wasn’t Catco that had her down nor her work with the DEO. It was the repetitiveness of the last few months that had her set in a funk. The aliens were predictable, Snapper was a pain in the ass, but reasonable, and Lena… It felt like their friendship had reached a plateau. Still great, just not better. Kara had a few ideas as to why.
“Do they even sell pitchers, here?” Winn asked.
James’ shot him a thin lipped glare, before Winn backed off.
“They do,” James replied. “But they’re mostly craft beers.
Maggie seemed somewhat pleased by this, while Alex shrugged.
“Still beer.” Alex rose from her spot on the end. “I’m buying first round.”
No one argued with her on the point, before settling into an awkward silence. It was usually Alex to break it, being the glue that held the Superfriends together. As expected, Kara used her spot on the other end to weasel her way out.
“I’m going to grab a soda water, actually.”
Her tan oxfords slid against the tiled floor below, before she stood up and headed towards a smaller bar on the other side of the room. This one had one bartender working behind the counter as opposed to three with only one customer slouched over, engrossed in conversation.
Kara was so focused on continuing to listen to her friends back at the table, that the scent of perfume alerted her to the bar patron’s identity before anything else. Kara felt a warm feeling settle in her stomach. It was so sweet, it left her sort of queasy.
“Lena?” she asked, adding a little uncertainty to her question.
She knew it was her L-Corp best friend, but she hadn’t exactly admitted her identity yet, and after the flying bus incident, she’d been improving her discretion.
Her friend stopped mid-sentence and turned with a smile already plastered on her face.
“Kara Danvers.”
She met Kara’s eyes, then scanned behind her, before landing back on her friend.
“Come straight from work?”
Kara blanched. Work? Like the DEO? Kara ran her finger along the collar of her button up, but it hid her suit completely.
“It looks like you’ve come here to interview me again.”
Lena rose one eyebrow in feigned curiosity.
“No, no.” Kara found herself laughing, looking down at her shoes, when she realized she’d wore the same outfit to the office just days before. She subconsciously drove her thumbs into the pockets of her light blue chinos, before facing Lena again. “I guess I just like these clothes.”
Lena shrugged. “No harm in that.”
Kara glanced down at another one of Lena’s immaculately tight, solid-coloured dresses and cleared her throat.
“And you like your clothes too.”
It wasn’t really a question, but it came out so uncertain that Kara couldn’t pass it off as a statement either.
“I do,” Lena admitted. “My boobs look amazing in this line.”
Kara pretended not to have noticed and nodded, keeping her eyes trained on Lena’s face.
“So… Here alone?” her friend asked.
The bartender behind them cleared her throat, then walked off to a Staff Only area in the bar.
“No, actually.” Kara looked behind her. “The gang in just around the corner in a booth.”
“Trying out a new bar?” Lena asked, grabbing her straw with her tongue and taking a final sip, before setting it down with a clink.
“It’s a long story,” Kara said, smiling. “There was an incident.”
“Do tell,” Lena said.
She stepped off the stool in her satin red heels and grabbed her purse, slung over the chair back’s corner.
“Well…” Kara begun.
Lena started heading toward the backdoor to the bar and guided Kara there with her hand on the back of Kara’s elbow. She leaned in when Kara hadn’t continued.
“Winn tried really hard to pick up this girl there.”
“What’d he do?” Lena asked, arching a brow again.
She really needed to not do that—for Kara’s sake.
“Nothing bad,” Kara assured her, waving her hands in front of her. “She just really wasn’t interested.”
Lena nodded with a sly grin.
Had she said that right?
“She was gay,” Kara clarified.
Lena laughed—no chucked—no, there wasn’t really a word Kara could think of to describe it. It wasn’t fake like her laughs around other notable people at the galas and it wasn’t like the little chuckles she made at silly commercials on TV or when their server would crack a bad joke at their table.
“I got that, Kara.”
She held the door open for the both of them, then stepped out onto the small back patio. It was surrounded by fancy, tall glass walls that had little torches at each corner. That and the light from the street beyond left the area brighter than inside.
Lena pulled a tattered box of cigarettes from her purse and took one out, holding it awkwardly in her hand. Kara was a little shocked. For a smart woman, she was surprised she’d subject her human body to the toxins.
“You smoke?” Kara asked, trying to lighten the disappointment in her voice.
Lena smiled with a far-off look in her eyes.
“No, I don’t.”
She looked down to consider the small object in her hand for a second, before rolling it between her fingers.
“I used to for a bit when I was 17.”
She produced a laugh that Kara knew all too well, before shaking her head.
“My rebellious stage,” she said bitterly. “When I thought I could make Lilian more disappointed with me. In the winter, I step out sometimes and wait until the urge goes away.”
“That would explain the balconies at your office and apartment,” Kara pointed out, finger raised like she was a cop deducting facts in an investigation.
Lena nodded, head still drawn away, following the movements of the cigarette between curled fingers.
“I think everyone has those little quirks left over from childhood,” Kara said after the sounds around them became too encompassing. She just wanted to wrap herself up in Lena’s voice—hunker down for the night.
“What’s yours?” Lena asked, meeting Kara’s eyes for the first time since she’d plucked out the cigarette.
Kara’s fingers instinctively rose to adjust her glasses, when Lena smiled wide.
“Would it be too much of a stretch to assume that is yours?” Lena asked.
She reached out and lifted the frames from Kara’s face with her thumb and index finger. Kara knew deep down that she wasn’t going to stop her, yet the little Alex Danvers inside her made her fingers twitch at her side, nearly reaching up to hold onto them like a lifesaver.
The lenses were clear and unfocused, yet standing in front of Lena without them, not in her Supergirl suit, felt raw. Kara decided in that moment that raw was good.
“You look younger without them,” Lena pointed out.
She replaced them back on Kara’s nose and smiled faintly with a stunted sigh. Lena was freezing. Kara, in the intensity of their time outside, had forgotten. But the goose bumps that littered Lena’s pale arms and slight shiver that shook her body, made it incredibly obvious now. Kara rubbed her hands down Lena’s arms until her friend appeared less rigid.
“You’re so warm,” Lena pointed out. Her voice was steadier this time, but standing outside in a sleeveless dress was taking its toll on the human.
Kara was about to suggest they go back inside when Lena ran the same hand up to her face and let her palm rest against the side of Kara’s cheek.
“You’re absolutely burning,” she said.
It was meant in complete sincerity and concern, but Kara felt herself turning red.
“We should go back in,” Kara said, looking towards the cracked open door where the faint hint of music still pervaded out onto the patio.
Kara walked in first and Lena followed, Kara catching the quiet mutter of should leave Lena’s lips as the door shut behind them. She needed to turn, to catch the look on her friend’s face, when the gang appeared in front of them, partially masked by the low lights.
“Kara,” Winn said, not as a greeting, but with his hand outstretched her direction, showing the others where she’d come in.
The ones not looking turned, before all eyes landed on Lena behind her. Kara felt Lena’s hand fall against the back of her blouse, fingers slightly curled protectively against the material.
“We’ve been calling you,” Alex said out of thin air.
“Really?” Kara drew her hand behind her to feel for her cell phone inside her back pocket, when she realized it must have fallen out at their booth.
Her fingers grazed the back of Lena’s hand on the way back to her side and both of them seemed to flinch at the contact. Still, Lena’s hand remained steady, a pressure behind her, that kept her grounded.
“Oh, sorry.”
She avoided her sister’s piercing stare, before finding a friendly face at the back.
“Look who I ran into too,” she said, eyes mainly focused on James.
“Yeah, half an hour ago,” she heard Maggie mumble.
No one else looked the detective’s direction, but Kara felt Lena’s thumb begin to lift off. Kara leaned back into the touch, chasing the feeling, but it was already gone.
“I should take off. Let you get back to your friends,” Lena said with a toothy, feigned smile.
“Okay. All right,” Kara said, trying to hide the longing just clinging to her words.
Lena shot Kara one more pained smile, before walking past the group towards the front doors, heel clicks getting fainter until the music completely swallowed them up.
“That wasn’t uncomfortable at all,” Winn added when the group was alone.
The others coughed uncomfortably, before sitting down at a high-top farther away from the blaring bar speakers. The hard surface of the chair made Kara stand back up as she realized her phone was still back at the other booth.
“I need to find my phone,” she told the group as they began arguing over who was going to buy the next pitcher.
They didn’t seem to pay much attention to her and waved her down with okays .
“All right then,” Kara said, frowning at their indifference.
Weren’t they the ones that were just trying to track her down for the last half hour.
Kara pushed her glasses up the ridge of her nose and walked back towards the front of the bar where they’d come in. Her hustle didn’t sound nearly as dramatic with the quiet shuffle of her flats, but she still felt the determination inside her.
Outside, Lena was balancing on one foot, near the curb, resting the heel end of her other shoe vicariously against the side of the incline.
“Yes, 42nd and Main.” She nodded, on the phone.
Kara’s shoes were apparently loud enough, because when she came to a stop behind the lady, Lena turned, phone receiver away from her lips and mouthed, I’ll be off in a second .
It wasn’t Kara’s inability to read lips nor listen that caused her to ignore Lena’s request. She found the sides of Lena’s face—the lines the ran down her jaw—and cupped them like catching water in the shower. And in one move, raised that jaw to her own lips, and drowned.
It was always hard to concentrate on one thing for Kara, but somehow, every sense had narrowed in on Lena. Lena’s smell—the perfume mixed with mild chemical detergents from work. Lena’s sounds. Her own sounds against her. The taste, like barely flavoured lipstick and whiskey, and the feel. Oh, the feel could leave the rest behind. It gave the endless dark of her shut eyes a hundred brilliant pictures. Intangible pictures. Pictures of them, pictures of memories taken in time, and pictures of home—a deep red sun that warmed Kara to her core.
When Kara pulled away, Lena’s hand not tangled in Kara’s hair, raised her phone back to her ear and she thanked her driver, before hanging up.
“I almost forgot to say goodbye,” Kara said, when the phone had been tucked back into her purse beside the cigarette box, change, and lipstick.
Kara eyes lifted from the purse and landed back on Lena’s face, skeptically.
Without a change in expression, Lena shifted to her other foot and said, “I’m glad you forgot then.”
They held each other’s gazes in a stalemate, before each crumbled in a mixture of smiles, laughs, and intense blushing. This was a new Lena expression for Kara. It was subtle, yet just sweet enough.
“You know,” Lena began after a beat, “we should do this again.”
She raised both brows with that alluring pull the woman could exert over Kara in a heartbeat.
“Oh, so you come here often?” Kara asked, trying to hide the giddy smile behind her stoic expression.
Lena shifted her high ponytail to the other shoulder, running her hand through it until it slipped off the end.
“I could, if you’re here this Thursday.”
“Absolutely,” Kara stumbled, trying to recall her Catco and DEO schedule. In the end she gave up and just nodded excitedly.
“9:30?”
“Yes.”
“Great.” Lena lingered on Kara, eyes flitting around her face, before she continued, “I’ll pick you up at your place.”
Kara was all smiles, standing there with a shit-eating grin. Lena drew in a breath to continue when Kara stepped forward, cutting her off.
“I can wait with you, if you want.”
Lena felt herself smiling, both at the warm contact of Kara’s arm snaked around her shoulder and not having to say goodbye just yet. Waiting alone at the curb was too reminiscent of dates gone wrong and friendships lost. As Kara stepped towards her again, her chin found purchase in the crook of Kara’s neck, just above her collarbone, where she nuzzled in closer. The dirty blonde tresses of Kara’s hair blew softly against her face as the wind picked up, but she wasn’t bothered, instead content, breathing in a familiar scent.
“I think that’s your car,” Kara mentioned from above.
She nodded against her, but her head tilted even further in curiosity, breathing in the scent again.
Back inside, it took James returning with the final pitcher for the group to realize that Kara still wasn’t back yet.
“So this is what it feels like to everyone else when that girl just disappears,” Winn commented, filling his glass after James’.
Maggie shrugged. “She probably ran into her girlfriend again.”
Alex stopped mid-pour while the guys lowered their full glasses to the table.
“Oh my god,” Winn said, while James and Alex met each other’s gazes with conflicting expressions.
“Eh,” Maggie broke the silence. “She’s not buying any rounds, so good on her.”