Work Text:
Lena turned the deadbolt on her front door. It drove home with a satisfying thud that gave her a peace of mind. It was one of many lines of defense she took to shield herself from the horrors that were just lurking out in the real world, horrors that too often shared her own name. She had actually bought the penthouse because it was of newer construction and therefore more reliable and secure than some of the older and perhaps more beautiful buildings in National City. In fact, she had bought the entire building. Most people assumed it was just another savvy business investment or her being so rich that she simply did it because she could, but beneath the facade everyone else saw was an intense level of doubt, of fear. Owning the building and thus managing who was living in it was just one of her security precautions. Tonight, though, she did not bother with her other personal security measures, not yet at least. She glanced at the security alarm panel and noted that the readings it provided showed that the penthouse had not been breached during her time at L-Corp. All the windows were shut and locked, the balcony door too. Tonight she passed on arming the system right as she got in the door. She didn’t want to seem paranoid when Kara arrived a little later. Not too much later actually, she thought as she looked down at her watch.
In her bedroom she undressed, hanging her skirt up in the closet and setting aside her blouse for dry cleaning. She changed into sweats and one of her old MIT science club t-shirts. She splashed her face in the bathroom and tied her hair up into a messy bun. By the time she walked barefoot into the living room and switched on the television the L-Corp CEO had disappeared and simply Lena remained. It was nice to be just Lena, especially after a day like today. Her mother’s not so subtle threats on the stand not only sent shivers down the spines of everyone sitting in the courtroom but terrified L-Corps’ board of directors. She had been on the phone all afternoon trying to ease their fears while keeping an eye on their stocks as a result.
And on top of that all, while her mind was focused on such annoyances, her splitting heart was still aching with the fact that she had finally fallen in love. Not with one person, but two. How she had fallen for not only Kara Danvers, so sweet and caring and good, but also Supergirl, protective, cunning, and dangerous in such a delicious way, was beyond her.
Her heart, though, had finally made the choice for her and it had nearly come too late. She had been there, in Supergirl’s arms on her office’s balcony. The sun setting behind them, a warm breeze coming off of the bay. She couldn’t even remember why they had embraced but she remembered how good it felt to be in the hero’s arms, how her heart raced as Supergirl had slowly lifted her chin, their eyes meeting briefly, before they each leaned in.
And then she had pulled back. Something had screamed inside of her to stop as flashes of Kara danced through her memory.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t.’ The hero released her easily at her words and they each took a step back from the other. ‘There’s someone else...I can’t...I’m so sorry.’
The hero gave a sad smile and nodded. ‘I understand.’ She walked to the other end of the balcony, to the place where she always took off. Without looking back Supergirl said, ‘I hope they make you happy,’ before shooting into the sky.
That had been months ago and she still couldn’t bring herself to take the next step with Kara. A part of her still seemed to be in mourning over her decision. That embrace and near kiss played through her mind every night as sleep evaded her. When she was with Kara, she felt guilty about what she had done to Supergirl and the few times the hero had interacted with her since that incident left her guiltily thinking about Kara. And now, as she stood in front of the the television, watching the news coverage of Supergirl’s latest save and knowing that Kara was moments away, the battle of guilt raged again.
Kara’s knock came at exactly seven-thirty and broke her from this tiring rumination. Maybe tonight would be the night she’d finally put her feelings on the table, she thought as she padded towards the door.
“Wow, so Lena Luthor does own something other than business attire.” Kara stepped into the entryway, placing her purse next to Lena’s and kicking off her shoes. She was becoming quite comfortable in the Luthor residence much to the joy of Lena.
“Ha, ha, you’re so funny.” She let her eyes sweep Kara from head to toe. “I thought I told you to come in something comfortable?”
“I had to stay late at work because I missed one of my deadlines earlier today.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.” Lena led them into the living room where the television was still on. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah! Just something...” Kara looked at the television where she found footage of herself flying through the flames of the warehouse fire that morning, “...something came up this morning. It’s all good now.” She felt her cheeks redden. “But, enough about me! How are you holding up? Your mother she is–” Kara whistled in place of an adjective.
“Tell me about it,” Lena groaned. “Today has been a nightmare.”
Kara wrapped her arm around Lena’s shoulders and squeezed gently. “We don’t have to do this tonight. I totally understand if you’d rather be alone and relax.”
Lena smiled as she let her head rest against Kara’s shoulder. “No, I need this. If you are still up for it, of course.”
With another small squeeze Kara turned them both toward the kitchen. She gestured for Lena to lead the rest of the way. “Show me how to cook, Ms. Luthor!”
Lena chuckled and pulled Kara along. They had been planning this for some time now and Lena wasn’t going to let anything, not even her aching heart, stand in the way.
The tiles of the kitchen floor were cool but comforting under their bare feet. Lena’s kitchen faced south but had nearly a full panoramic view of National City. It gave a splendid display of the full spectrum of dusk, the deep purples and grays being pulled westward by the oranges and reds of the sinking sun, almost like the sun was pulling a blanket of darkness over the soon to be sleepy city. Kara couldn’t help but stand in full awe at the view, oblivious to the fact that Lena was looking at her much in the same way.
Kara finally turned to Lena, her eyes had taken in all of the sight that they could. “Alright, what’s on the menu?”
“Well,” Lena opened the refrigerator and started to hand ingredients to Kara, “I figured since you eat more than an entire football team I could show you had to make a few different pasta dishes. They are delicious and filling, and will be easy enough for you as a beginner. And they can also be made in large batches so you can take them to work during the week too. Or even bring them for our lunch interviews.” Lena beamed at her own plan.
“Pasta is good. I like where this is going!” Kara rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, ready to learn but thrilled to just get to be around Lena, especially in such a laid back environment.
The kitchen was soon filled with the warm sounds and smells of a home cooked meal. The parmesan had been grated and was sitting in a bowl, ready for use. Lena had to keep slapping Kara’s fingers out of it as she took pinch after pinch for herself. She had set them both up with cutting boards and knives. She first showed Kara how to hold things with a claw-like grip to avoid cutting her fingers. The fast and steady rap of Lena’s knife as she chopped up an onion echoed through the kitchen over the sound of the boiling water from the stove. Kara mimicked Lena’s cutting style, not nearly as fast but still impressively for a beginner, at least in Lena’s opinion. Soon, the smell of sauteed tomatoes and asparagus filled the room on top of the scent of the grilled chicken they had already set aside, and the two different sauces still simmering away.
“So you made that? Like from scratch?” Kara had pulled some fresh vegetables over to her cutting board for their salad as Lena unwrapped a loaf of bread and brushed it with the garlic butter they had just made.
“I did. I love making homemade breads. Maybe you could come over some weekend when we are both off and I can show you how to do that too.” Lena’s voice resonated with hope as she slid the pan of bread into the oven to be warmed.
“I’d love that.”
Lena stood as she closed the oven door, her cheeks flushed not only by the heat of the oven but also by Kara’s agreement. “You would?”
Kara nodded enthusiastically. She smiled at Lena as her hands continued chopping the vegetables. “I really-Ah!” The knife came down hard on her knuckle and she jerked it back in surprise.
“Oh Kara!” Lena, quick on her feet, ripped a wad of paper towels from their holder and immediately covered Kara’s hand.
“No, Lena, I’m fine. I’m not hurt,” she pleaded as she tried to pull her hand from Lena’s grip. “It’s okay! I’m okay!”
“Stop moving, please, and let me look at it,” Lena chided.
Kara stilled in defeat and watched as Lena gently unwrapped the paper towels from around her hand. Lena’s movements were slow and delicate, like she was dreading to uncover the red of blood. Kara couldn’t help but smile at the care she was taking. She knew if she was ever actually hurt, she’d want Lena there to treat her and care for her like this.
When the last of the makeshift bandage was pulled away, Lena’s shoulders slumped in confusion. “But...I saw it. I saw the knife hit your finger...” She turned Kara’s hand over in search of a wound but instead only found flawless skin. Too flawless, really.
“See? I told you I was okay.” Kara tried to give a reassuring smile but it only caused Lena’s brow to crinkle even more.
Lena looked to the counter for the knife and didn’t immediately see it. She lifted up the kitchen towel and then moved the salad bowl Kara had been filling in search of it. That was when she noticed that Kara had kept her right arm behind her back the entire time. “Kara? Give me the knife.” She held out her hand as suspicion overtook the confusion on her face.
“I’ve got it, Lena.” She turned her left shoulder toward Lena in an effort to distance the arm that held the knife in it.
“Give it to me,” Lena instructed seriously. “Now.”
Kara gulped. With a roll of her eyes, resigning to her fate, she brought her arm around. She held out the knife with the blade lightly gripped in her fingers, the handle pointed out so that Lena could safely take it. Lena took ahold of the handle, slowly pulling it toward her. The middle of the blade was bent in almost a perfect impression of Kara’s knuckle. There was a small crack in the blade too. Lena brought her eyes up to Kara’s but Kara immediately hung her head and put her eyes on the floor.
“So.” Lena took Kara’s ‘cut’ hand and held it up, examining it once again. She then presented Kara’s own hand and the knife to the blonde. “Do you want to explain this?”
Kara just shook her head. “I don’t think I have to.”
Lena sighed, not in annoyance but in realization. Her eyebrow arched and she grinned. “I should’ve known. You ‘flew here on a bus’, you eat at least two entrees at meals, your passion for alien advocacy rivals no one else...”
Kara pushed her glasses back up her nose as she shook her head, a wide smile plastered across her face at the fact that Lena didn’t seem upset by this discovery. “Yeah, I’m not the smoothest about it,” she laughed out embarrassingly. “I hope this doesn’t bother you. Me being...well you know.” There was a shred of fear in her eyes.
“Of course not.” Lena placed a soft kiss on her hand where the cut should have been. “I may be a Luthor and I may not have the cleanest record against non-humans but I’d like to think that you consider me pro-alien after everything that has happened. And you’re still Kara to me.”
The timer on the oven interrupted the moment much to their disappointment. Lena released Kara’s hand. She grabbed the oven mitts laying next to her on the counter and turned off the beeping timer.
“I’m really glad you know now. It was exhausting keeping this from you.” Kara sighed in relief. She heard Lena chuckle in response as she opened the oven. Feeling more relaxed now, she undid a few of the buttons on her shirt, reaching in to adjust her Supergirl uniform that tended to bunch up in the front. “It’s a lot harder than one would think to find clothing that can fit over this thing. I was always scared you were going to notice it.”
“What species of alien are you? If you don’t mind me ask–” Lena stopped, shocked, as she turned back around to Kara. The pan she had just pulled out of the oven clamored as it hit the kitchen floor, garlic bread scattering in all directions, at the sight of the too familiar “S” beneath Kara’s partially unbuttoned shirt.
“Well that’s a silly question,” Kara said just as the pan bounced against the floor. Then, her eyes bulged with realization of their miscommunication and at the sight of a very shocked Lena. “Oh no...”
“You’re...you’re...you’re Supergirl?!” Lena was somehow even paler than usual. Flashes of that night on the balcony in Supergirl’s arms, of Kara on her office couch as they ate lunch, the way their foreheads crinkled the same way, their smiles and those same blue eyes, played quickly in her mind. Oh God, how had she missed that?
Kara gave a small and awkward wave, the cringe of her mistake deepening on her face. “Hi.”
It was so adorable that Lena couldn’t help but start laughing. And then the laugh turned into relief when she realized she had been fretting over two versions of the same person. She covered her mouth and wrapped an arm around her middle as her body shook. She hadn’t laughed like this, hearty and true, in a long time.
Lena’s laughing was contagious and Kara joined in. The sight of Lena Luthor, billionaire and business extraordinaire, standing in a pile of garlic bread, dressed in sweats while laughing, was quite a picture. In fact, Lena had never looked more beautiful than that moment to Kara. When at last they both fell quiet, she knelt down and picked up the pan at Lena’s feet.
“Oh, Kara, be careful! It’s probably still hot – which doesn’t bother you,” Lena rolled her eyes at her mistake as she bent down to help.
Kara winked and held the hot pan out for Lena to deposit the pieces of bread she had gathered herself. When all the pieces were back in place they each stood slowly. Kara sat the pan down on the counter and looked at Lena who was chewing hard on her lip, a sudden look of concentration on her face. Kara didn’t know what to do or say next. She went to cross her arms, only to change her mind at the last minute and send her hands searching for her pant pockets. Realizing she didn’t have any in this pair of pants, she settled for tapping out an awkward beat on the counter with her knuckles before a rational thought finally registered.
“Um, so...you’re going to have to sign some paperwork since, you know, you... know now. Funnily enough, I actually have it with me. I’ve been trying to tell you this for like...” she pushed her glasses back up her nose and ran a hand through her hair, “like so long. Embarrassing long, to be honest–”
Lena’s lips swallowed her next words. Kara responded instantly. Her arms circled around the woman she had silently been in love with for far too long, and held tight, so tight that Lena wouldn’t have been able to pull away. And then the realization that Lena started this, that Lena wouldn’t want to pull away, made Kara pull her even closer.
When they did let their kiss break, and Kara lowered Lena back to the floor, Lena ran her nose against Kara’s as a satisfied smirk graced her beautiful face. “I’ve thought about this every minute since that night on the balcony,” she whispered.
Kara stiffened as she let the memories of that night come forth. She took a step back and tried to read Lena’s eyes. “That night, you said there was someone else. I don’t want to put you in the middle of that kind of situation.”
“I guess it’s good that the two people I have feelings for are right here in front of me.” Lena leaned in and pressed another gentle kiss to Kara’s now smiling and relieved lips. As the kiss started to deepen once more, the sound of Kara’s rumbling stomach broke their groove. Lena pulled back and chuckled. “I’m going to be doing a lot more cooking now, huh?”
“Yes, but we can do it together.” Kara slid a strand of loose hair behind Lena’s ear and kissed the tip of her nose softly.
The very thought of that made Lena’s eyes dance and her heart race. Kara’s arms went around her again and they kissed once more, the thought of food quickly leaving both of their minds.