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Moving to National City hadn’t been the plan. Not even moving the headquarters of LuthorCorp had been enough to convince her she should follow the company. Sure it would have been easier as the CEO to operate out of the headquarters, but Lena had initially planned to operate it remotely for the first while.
Suffice it to say the Luthor image was still tarnished, eroded into a form barely recognizable from the respected and revered family name it once was. Lena had her brother to thank for that. Of course, her mother certainly had a hand in that, albeit indirectly. Lex always was her favourite child, regardless of her empty words which she imparted to Lena with the barest effort imaginable. She said them as though by rote, I love you, you’re my daughter, we’re family. The young CEO knew better than to take any of them to heart, at least now. She would be ashamed to admit to her strong desire to make the woman proud when she’d been younger, and now as an adult she pushed the remnants of those feelings as far down as she could.
Bearing all that in mind, Lena didn’t think she would be welcome in National City right away, if ever. She had fully intended to turn LuthorCorp- or rather, L-Corp into a force for good before she came out from behind the curtain. If it was made apparent that the improvements and actions for the betterment of National City and the world as a whole were made with her at the helm the whole time, then maybe it would cushion her introduction.
That being said, she was going to be in town for the official name unveiling and press release. After that, she had planned to return to Metropolis where while she was quite universally hated, at least she knew what to expect.
All that went out the window when, well- Supergirl went through a window. Not hers, no it was a window in some shiny building further in the centre of the city. Lena didn’t remember which one, only that the windows took up more room than the actual walls. Supergirl had been fighting a new threat, and the presence of alien guns in the hands of the human assailants had lent to her unforeseen yet not entirely surprising trajectory through the clean glass.
Her blue and red body arced rather beautifully towards the glass, and Lena found herself fascinated at the way the glass fractured around the woman’s impenetrable body.
The reason Lena’s plans dissolved during this fight was twofold. Firstly, because as she watched Supergirl fly circles around the criminals, the counter on her own wrist went up and down. Perfectly in sync with Supergirl’s movements. When she went further east in her flight path and subsequently further from Lena’s location on the west side of the city, her numbers increased. And when her flight brought her west, the numbers decreased.
It could be a fluke, right? There was no way a Luthor and a Super were soulmates. The green eyed CEO scoffed at the thought, rubbing the numbers imprinted on the soft skin of her wrist as though to force them to take on some sort of order once more. She continued to knead at the skin absentmindedly as she watched the tv broadcasting the fight, her fingers acting as though they were trying to encourage blood flow to a numb limb.
She sighed as she looked down again to see the numbers were still matching Supergirl’s movements exactly. It couldn’t be a coincidence as there were no coincidences when it came to Luthor’s and Super’s. Not in her experience anyway.
“Jess, could you come in here a minute please.” The raven haired woman raised her voice slightly, beckoning her assistant into the room, to which the other woman appeared immediately. Lena did always Like Jess.
“Could you cancel my afternoon meetings please, something has come up that I must attend to.” With that, the green eyed woman crossed to the coat rack where she retrieved and put on her jacket, then pulling down her purse to sling over her shoulder.
Her assistant’s mouth was twisted into a frown, the woman not being used to Lena taking any time to herself. Truthfully, Lena couldn’t blame her as she was the definition of a workaholic. Leaving the office in the middle of the day was unheard of. Nonetheless, Jess nodded her assent and scampered back to her own desk.
Lena had some sleuthing to do.
***
She sat on a bench in the largest park in National City, central to pretty much everything. It sat almost exactly at the centre of the city, so Lena figured she could sit and read for a few hours, occasionally checking the counter to help her narrow down the general location of Supergirl.
In between reading whatever articles caught her attention, Lena checked her google alerts for Supergirl’s location. It was a tedious task, as she could never be completely sure of the exact direction the superhero might be.
“This is going to take longer than I thought.” Lena sighed to herself, resolving that she would have to stay in National City longer than she’d anticipated.
***
Every day for the next few weeks, Lena ate her lunch in a different park. And each day, it seemed that supergirl was either more or less distance to her. It did help in Lena’s search however, as if she moved her lunch to a park four miles away, the maid of might was four miles closer. If the CEO ate her lunch at a park seven miles in the other direction the next day, her soulmate was seven miles further than the original distance from the central park on that first day. In this way, Lena was able to slowly and painstakingly find her way closer.
She had a momentary thought that what she was doing was creepy, but then she remembered all the other lengths people had gone to in order to find their match. As far as ‘stalking’ went in the scope of the soulmate search, Lena’s method was far down at the bottom of the creep list. She was simply using a practical method, one which made sense to her scientific mind.
Finally, after three weeks of lunches in different locales throughout the city, Lena had narrowed her soulmate's most likely location. It was a cafe called Noonan's. No matter where she stopped, her soulmate was in the direction of this establishment. Noonan’s sat perfectly on the cross-section of all her mappings.
So, Lena took a deep breath one Friday afternoon before striding with purpose through the doors of the little restaurant.
Flicking her eyes down to her wrist, she saw the number was still a solid 200 steps away. Lena was glad of this, it meant she had the chance to find a spot to watch the door from. She hated nothing more than being unprepared.
Roughly five minutes later, the numbers were down to double digits. The young CEO was seated at a small table to the side of the cafe, far enough from the door to be able to see who walked through before they saw her, and close enough to make out the faces clearly.
Though, she didn’t have any worries about recognizing Supergirl of all people.
And when the numbers were down to low double digits and Lena was watching the door with her heart in her throat, she realized it hadn’t even occurred to her to not look for the eye catching red, blue and yellow. For all that Lena was a certified genius, it certainly took long enough for her to realize this was likely a stop for Supergirl’s alter ego. It wouldn’t make any sense for the hero to have a schedule and regular stops, that would make her far too much of a target.
Now Lena was panicking slightly. She wasn’t 100% sure she’d recognize her, considering that the rest of the city didn’t seem to know her secret identity and doubtless there were people in her life in a position to be able to put the pieces together. If they hadn’t, how was Lena supposed to when she’d never had a face to face with the woman?
She really shouldn’t have worried, as when the numbers were just shy of twenty, the doors were pushed open with a bang and a frazzled looking blonde burst though with a wild gaze. Eyes hidden behind large round glasses looked at her own wrist and she walked to her right a few steps, and doubtless upon seeing the numbers increase, she turned and started walking in the other direction. Towards Lena.
The raven haired woman held her breath, watching the blonde zig zag adorably through the room with her eyes glued to her wrist. She wore a blue checkered button down matched with light grey chinos, and black oxfords. Her hair was held in a ponytail and a messenger bag was slung across one broad shoulder.
Eventually her feet found the space just in front of Lena’s own. The tips of her oxfords barely avoided bumping the toes of Lena’s black and red louboutins.
Hitching a nervous breath, Lena’s eyes searched out the ones slowly making their way up from the floor. They swept up her form on their journey, not feeling predatory or disrespectful at all in their ascent. Rather, it felt more like an unbelieving appraisal more in line with convincing herself she was actually seeing what was in front of her.
Lena felt a flush and shivered slightly when brilliant blue eyes finally met green. Her lips twitched in a smile, and she looked down while pushing a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. Looking up again, she caught the soft expression creasing a friendly and welcoming face. “Please, sit.” She gestured to the seat in front of her and chuckled under her breath when the blonde scrambled into the chair gracelessly. Not to say she was charmless, there was an endearing quality to her eager nature.
“Um, hi.” Smiling so wide her cheeks lifted her glasses, the blonde leaned forward on the table. “I’m Kara. Danvers. Kara Danvers, is my name. Yep. That’s me.” She laughed nervously, a pretty blush colouring her round cheeks. She quirked her lips to the side and shrugged, her hands fiddling with a napkin from the dispenser on the table.
The CEO smiled widely, a more true smile than she could remember wearing in recent months, if not years. “I’m Lena.” At this she took in a bracing breath. “Luthor, that is.” She wasn’t entirely sure how to broach her knowledge that Kara was the city’s own hero, at least without seeming like a scheming Luthor.
Surprisingly, Kara didn’t balk, grimace, or flinch away. The woman simply tilted her head to the side, that megawatt smile still stretching cupids bow lips. “I’m really happy to meet you Lena.” Giggling, Kara leaned more on the table, her ponytail falling over a shoulder and dusting the top of the surface.
Lena heaved a sigh of relief, feeling her shoulders release the tension they’d held ever since she’d stepped foot in the cafe. “Well, that’s a better reaction to my name than I usually get.”
At this, the blonde twitched her perfect brows in confusion, a crinkle appearing between them. Rather quickly though, her expression morphed into one of shared humour, almost like she was in cahoots with the CEO. “It’s okay, I get the same thing when I tell people my name.”
The raven haired woman twitched an immaculate brow up, her own eyes begging the silent question.
Kara looked around for a moment, eyes searching for any prying gazes or nosey people. She then held herself still for a spell, eyes unfocusing as she tilted her head to the side as though she was listening for something. Shaking her head slightly, bright eyes once more caught Lena’s.
Leaning even further over the table with her entire upper body practically draped across the surface, Kara’s face was only a few inches from Lena’s. Hitching her breath, the blonde whispered. “Zor-El isn’t exactly a common name. At least, not for humans.” Kara chuckled, nerves filling the vibrations in her lungs.
A massive sigh of relief left Lena’s own lungs, and she huffed a laugh. “Oh I’m so glad you said that. I wasn’t sure how to tell you I know about your other identity.” A single pale hand lifted and rested on top of the tan one resting on the table in front of her.
Kara pouted adorably, not looking annoyed or angry, but instead slightly like her surprise had been ruined. “How did you know? My disguise is perfect!” The blonde blew a gust of breath as she sighed, the wind ruffling Lena’s hair slightly. She crossed her arms in an adorably petulant manner as she waited for the CEO’s reply.
Laughing prettily, Lena drummed her fingers on the table while she regarded the beautiful blonde. “Well, let’s just say I knew who my soulmate was, I just didn’t know it was you.” At this, Kara frowned in confusion. “Kara, when you fly around my counter goes haywire. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together.”
Blue eyes widened in a delightfully cute manner. “Oooooooh. I never even thought of that.” Kara’s eyes became faraway as she considered the ramifications of her unknowing actions.
There was one thing Lena still wondered though. “I have one question, if you don’t mind my asking.” Without hesitation, the blonde’s eyes lightened up and she nodded her head encouragingly. “Why were you so quick to tell me who you were? Weren’t you nervous? At the very least because I’m a stranger, but I’m also a-”
“-Luthor, I know.” Kara shrugged her shoulders as she slumped forward to reorganize the different colour sugar packets in the small glass dish on the table. “I’m not worried about your last name. You’re not your brother, same as I’m not my cousin. Plus, you’re my soulmate.” She shrugged again, a blush rising to her cheeks once more. “If I can’t trust my soulmate, who can I trust.”
Lena was baffled. Flattered and touched, but baffled. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve such an understanding soulmate, but she was eternally grateful. The niggling thought that her soulmate might have been someone evil, and prove she was just like her brother had always been in the back of her mind. But finding out it was Supergirl, Kara. Only served to prove to Lena that she was who she had always hoped she was, instead of who she had always feared she could be.
“Thank you.” No other words came to mind, and those two felt woefully inadequate but they were all she had in that moment.
Kara shook her head with a soft smile. “No need to thank me.”
They spent the next hour talking, even getting lunch while they were together. Lena discovered that a Kryptonian’s appetite was quite literally otherworldly and a plan was made for them to get lunch the next day as well, both internally hoping it would be a regular thing moving forward. And when the CEO had to return to L-Corp to reorganize her meetings for the next day, the hero offered to fly her there.
Far be it for her to refuse such an offer. She really wasn’t a fan of flying, but like Kara had said.
If she couldn’t trust her soulmate, who could she trust?