Work Text:
“Barbara, I need your help.”
Barbara sighs quietly, glancing over the top of her computer monitor to face a panicked looking Kara. She’d been in the jam of replying to emails and talking to a few people over various projects until she’d been so rudely interrupted by Kara slamming the office door open, a look of panic evident on her face. “What can I do you with this afternoon, Ms Eberle?”
Kara scrunched her face up a bit momentarily before she sighed, Barbara rolled her eyes at the dramatics that her friend was ensuing, only assuming the worst would come out of her end of the situation. “I need a favor. A really big favor, and you’re kind of the only one I think I’m going to trust with it.”
That intrigued Barbara enough to make her let go of her computer mouse and lean back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Continue,” She said, staring at Kara as she stood in front of her desk.
“I kind of need you to be my girlfriend.”
The words came out much more rushed than they should’ve been, and Kara flushed a dark crimson as she spoke, refusing to make eye contact with Barbara. It didn’t matter much at that moment because Gus was throwing his hands in the air and walking towards the door, just throwing a quick, ‘I’m out!’ to the women before he made his way towards their lunch area.
“Okay, what?” Barbara asked, leaning forward and resting her elbows at the edge of the desk. Kara let out another sigh before she shook her head.
“Look, I’ll just.. cut to the chase. My ex-boyfriend kind of invited me to this thing this weekend and I said yes on a whim because- well, because I did. And then he asked if I was bringing anyone along because he was bringing his new girlfriend, and I kind of quickly replied that hey, I’d bring my girlfriend which was fucking ridiculous because then he was all over me about us breaking up because I was some huge lesbo or something, which really makes me want to cut off his balls because so what if I was, he sucked anyways. But, now he’s insisting that I bring my fake, imaginary girlfriend and I don’t really have anyone to turn to, so I kind of came to you.”
Barbara wishes that she’d lost Kara through the story, but she didn’t and now she’s faced with the dilemma of either disappointing Kara or being Kara’s girlfriend and now it’s just really confusing. Except, it’s totally not. “Okay,” Barbara finally says, it feels a little too quick, but the way Kara’s face lights up makes up for all of the doubt filling Barbara’s chest.
“Really?” She squeals, moving around the desk to crawl into Barbara’s lap and hug her tightly. She grins into her friend’s shoulder, laughing quietly at the enthusiasm Kara’s getting from the whole thing. When Kara climbs out of her lap, she walks around the desk halfway before she stops, turning back to Barbara for a quick moment. “Are you sure? I mean, you definitely don’t have to. I don’t want you to think you like, owe this to me or anything-”
Barbara rolls her eyes, giving the best convincing smile she can to Kara. “I’m sure, and I do owe this to you, especially after that time you got me out of that awkward encounter at the bar last week. Trust me, I’m definitely one-hundred percent willing to help you out here.”
Kara grins again, making her way towards the door before she paused once more. “I’ll text you, okay? Thank you, Barbara, I owe you one!”
Barbara just grins quietly to herself before she goes back to her emails. It can’t be too bad, especially with having Kara as a fake girlfriend. She’s fun and pretty and probably kinky in bed, this could only turn out positive.
Then again, Barbara’s never really been that good at predicting the future.
-
When Gavin hears about them ‘dating’, he teases Barbara about it for two days straight. The only thing she can really do is flip him the bird at every waking moment they’re together.
She pretends not to care when he says that they’d actually be cute together if this was real.
She flips him off again when he asks if he can watch when they do really get together.
-
It’s two weeks later when Kara’s ex-boyfriend’s thing actually happens, and everything is carefully choreographed - from their outfits to their commentary, it’s perfect. At least, as perfect as it can be- every plan has it’s flaws, thankfully theirs aren’t really on the surface for anyone to pick at.
They’d decided to color coordinate - “That’s what gay girlfriends do right?” “Kara, holy shit.” - and surprisingly enough, it actually worked until they got to the party and Kara stopped Barbara outside the door.
“I don’t think I can do this,” She finally says, and Barbara shakes her head, moving to slide her fingers into her friend’s.
“Nope- not after all of this time I’ve put into helping you with this, I’m not letting you back out!” Barbara squeezes her hand reassuringly before raising her hand to knock at the house’s door so Kara couldn’t keep insisting to back out. Barbara ignores Kara’s glares, humming quietly before the door swings open and a tall man is standing there in what looks like the douchiest outfit Barbara has probably ever seen, and she works with J.J. and Blaine for a living.
“Kara!” The man says, and Barbara tries to ignore the way her friend’s name sounds heavy on his tongue. Kara looks stiff as he pulls her into a hug, which is odd because Kara’s usually so animated at any kind of happy physical contact. “This is your girlfriend, I’m assuming?” He says, and Barbara bites at the inside of her cheek when he carefully dances around the word ‘girlfriend’.
“Yes, this is-” Kara begins, immediately getting cut off as Barbara stuck her hand out and grinned to the man.
“Barbara. I’m Barbara, and yes, I am the girlfriend to this lovely lady.” Once they were done shaking hands, Barbara leaned over and pressed a kiss to Kara’s temple.
The man studied them momentarily before he finally shrugged, opening the door more and stepping aside to let them in. “Come join the festivities, we’re just cracking open the good wine.”
-
It’s two hours later when someone finally asks how they met, and Kara opens her mouth to speak but of course Barbara beats her to the punch. She grins, clutching the wine glass in the hand that isn’t wrapped around Kara’s shoulders. “Well, we first met at the office, I guess. We worked together- well, we still do, but when I was hired, she was already working there and we kind of met then, but it was really rushed because she’s always so busy. I like to say we officially met at the first office party our boss threw, we were going to have a small get together and watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones, and the moment I walked into the house, she was there to greet me. I guess I should mention that we’d had a few fleeting conversations before, but she didn’t even know my name.
“I was into her from the moment she hugged me, she was so beautiful and just.. wonderful. We’d spend the night talking and drinking and after the show was over, she invited me over to her place so we could watch a movie or something together. We go and when we get there, I don’t even have a moment to blink from when I step into her house before she’s pushing me against the door and kissing me. It was wonderful, much more that I ever could’ve imagined. We hung out from there, and then it just kind of became this.” She gestures between the two of them and grins over to Kara, who’s only staring at her with a happy expression.
The conversation moves along quickly after that, and Barbara tries to ignore the fact that Kara spends the rest of their night staring at her, along with the rush that it quietly gives her.
-
When they leave the house to go back to Barbara’s, Kara stops her before they get to the car. “Thank you.” She says quietly, leaning up to press a chaste kiss to Barbara’s lips. She tries to blame the heat that spreads through her body on the alcohol she’d consumed tonight.
“Any time.”
-
For some reason, it sticks. They don’t really have any reason to keep the facade up, but they do. Gus calls Barbara out on it one day after Kara drops off a few letters at her desk and on her way out, she winks to Barbara.
“Are you guys really dating?”
Barbara glances up from her work to look over at him, pursing her lips momentarily before she shook her head. “No, we’re not.”
Gus furrows his eyebrows together for a moment. “Wasn’t that party Kara had like, three weeks ago? You don’t really have any reason to keep up this whole thing, right?”
Barbara just shrugs in response, already back to replying to the emails from fans and potential business collaborators.
He lets it go after that.
-
When they go to lunch, they end up crammed together on one side of the small yellow picnic table, legs tangled together under them and their hands intertwined as Barbara eats her salad and Kara picks at fruit.
“So,” Gavin says, looking at them with a slight confused look on his face as he waits for Michael and Lindsay to return with his lunch. “You guys are still doing this?”
Barbara glances up to him as she bites into another mouthful of salad and Kara raises an eyebrow.
“You’re still pretending to be dating?”
Kara laughs quietly, taking a bite of another grape. “Shut up, Gavin.”
He opens his mouth to say something else, but Brandon strolls by the table and taps at the wood before he points to Kara. “Hey, you busy? I need your help,” Kara shakes her head before she pushes the rest of the bowl of fruit over towards Barbara before she pulls away from Barbara to slip off the bench.
Brandon’s already walking away before Kara picks at another piece of fruit and leans down, pressing a slow kiss to Barbara’s lips before she goes to run after Brandon. Barbara smiles quietly, moving to take a sip of water. Gavin makes his noise of incredulousness, glaring over to his friend.
“What?” Barbara asks, setting the bottle of water down on the table.
“You’re fuckin’ kidding me, right?” Gavin finally asks, and Barbara laughs quietly, asking ‘What?’ once more. “You’re fucking dating her! Kara is your girlfriend!” He says it loud and Barbara almost chokes on her salad before she shakes her head.
“No, she’s not!” She finally says, and it’s a weak defense in Gavin’s eyes because they obviously are dating, they just don’t know it yet. They don’t get to say any more because Michael and Lindsay stroll in and drop themselves at their table, quickly filling the conversation with their mindless chatter.
-
“Why are we still doing this?” Barbara asks one night, they’re curled around each other in Kara’s and Catfish is quietly playing in the background to fill the silence as Barbara checks her Facebook and Kara plays Candy Crush.
“Doing what?” Kara asks, eyes never leaving her phone once.
“Fake dating.”
Kara shrugs, her head moving to lean on Barbara’s shoulder as she finished a level. “I don’t know.”
It’s quiet for a few moments as Barbara types out a reply to one of her brother’s posts.
“We should try the real thing sometime.”
“Alright.”
-
They’re sitting together in one of Burnie’s recliners, Barbara strewn over Kara’s lap as they watch Ashley and Burnie have a civil conversation over the mechanics of Mario Kart. They’ve been sitting there for awhile, having both of them given up on the same four Cups in because it was impossible to win against Ashley. Their conversation had been aimless, starting with the impending doom of RTX coming up soon and ending up somehow with the newest additions to the podcast set.
“I think I might love you,” Kara says as their conversation dies down, and Barbara glances up to her from where her head was laying over the edge of the chair, trying to see how long she could last it out before all of the blood rushed to her head and caused her to get lightheaded.
“Cool. I think I might love you, too.”
Kara grins and pulls her girlfriend up, pressing a kiss to her lips.
-
Barbara goes out of town to go back home to visit Canada, and though she begs Kara to come back with her so they can experience the hockey games and Tim Hortons together, they end up not being able to work it out because there’s a shoot Kara needs to be at the office for.
I miss you.
The first text comes in at about 11 P.M. and Barbara grins at her phone stupidly as she rolls over in her childhood bed.
I miss you, too. Sucks you can’t be here with me.
I know, right? You’ll be home soon, though! Spirits up.
I knooowww.
: ) I’ve got to go, J.J. challenged me to an impromptu karaoke session. I’ll text you later, babe!
Alright! I love you.
I love you, too. <3
-
It’s almost six months later and they’re sitting on the floor of Barbara’s apartment as they try to figure out how to set up their new TV when finally, they give up and Kara rolls over towards where her phone is plugged into the wall so they can ask Gus to come over and help them.
Barbara’s sitting with her back against the couch, sipping at a Vitamin Water. “Do you want to move in?”
Kara glances upside down to her from where she’s laying, her scrolling through her Twitter feed paused momentarily before she smiles to Barbara. “Most of my stuff is already here, so I don’t see why that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.”
Barbara grins to her, leaning over and pushing Kara’s phone away so she could ‘Spiderman’ kiss her. “Awesome. Is Gus coming over to help us set this shit up?”
Kara nodded, sitting up once Barbara was clear of her path. “Said he’d be here in about an hour.” Barbara grinned again, standing up from the ground before she pulled Kara up along with her.
“That leaves us with about an hour to break in your new bed,” Kara rolled her eyes at Barbara’s statement before she followed her into the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind her.
-
“How’s it going, being actual girlfriends? Like, living together, constantly fucking girlfriends?” Gavin asks, taking a swig of his beer as they sit together on the podcast couch. They’re setting up for the podcast, and thankfully it didn’t go live for another ten minutes, so they’d be in the clear of the mics accident picking up whatever they’d say.
“It’s pretty great,” Barbara laughs, “I mean constantly having her around is great. I love her.”
Gavin laughs quietly, knocking their shoulders together. “You sound like you’re going to marry her someday.”
Barbara just grins quietly, moving the mic better so it could pick her up better once the podcast started.
“Maybe one day.”
-
It happens two years into their relationship. Things haven’t always been smooth, and Barbara’s moping around the apartment after one of their less-heated fights before Kara finally sighs, getting up from where she was sitting on the couch to follow her girlfriend into the kitchen.
Kara pushes the fridge door closed from where Barbara’s just blandly standing in front of it, letting out the cool air in their already sticky apartment. Barbara goes to open her mouth and Kara just pushes her back against the fridge before she moves to kiss her, deep and slow enough to break the dam of the tension between them.
“I’m sorry.” Kara finally says when they pull away, pushing Barbara’s fringe away from her face before her girlfriend smiled quietly, whispering a sorry of her own before she moved to kiss Kara again.
When they pull away again, Barbara laughs quietly and Kara just mutters a ‘What?’ against her shoulder as she rests her forehead there. “It feels like we’re fucking married whenever we fight like that, y’know?”
“Maybe we should be. I mean, you’re right, it’s kind of like we are already,” Kara mutters, her voice muffled and the filter between her mouth and her brain pretty much nonexistent.
“Kara Eberle,” Barbara grins, pushing her girlfriend back a bit to get a good look at her. “Are you proposing to me?”
Kara laughs quietly, shaking her head before she leans up to press a quick kiss against Barbara’s lips. “Maybe. Do you want me to?”
Barbara nods once and Kara returns it. “Then yeah, I’m proposing to you.”
“Say it correctly.”
Kara rolls her eyes before she moves a hand behind Barbara’s neck, moving it so their directly looking at each other. “Barbara Dunkelman- will you marry me?”
“Of course.”
When they kiss again, deep and meaningful, Barbara decides that she’s pretty damn thankful that Kara insisted they be fake girlfriends in the first place.