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Kara’s not entirely sure what it is about tonight, but she’s finding it increasingly hard to keep her mind off of Lena. Of course, with the woman sitting right next to her, it’s a hard task, but usually she has better control than this.
But not tonight, for whatever reason, she just can’t get Lena off her mind.
It’s the most cliché thing in the world, isn’t it? To fall in love with your best friend. But Kara has, she’s fallen hard, and as much as she’s tried, there’s just nothing she can do about it.
So she’s accepted it, accepted the fact that it’s always going to be this way, that she’ll always feel like this. But she’s content with that fact, content with being Lena’s friend.
Times like tonight though, she finds it difficult. Her eyes flick over to Lena beside her once again, pressed warm against her, shoulder to shoulder.
She’d suggested they put on a movie while they eat their dessert and wait for Alex and Maggie to arrive to properly start movie night, thought it’d be a good enough distraction. But not tonight, even The Princess Bride isn’t enough to hold her attention.
“Do I have something on my face?” Lena asks, her own eyes flicking to catch Kara’s gaze.
“No,” Kara quickly responds, but Lena’s tongue darts out anyway, to remove the non-existent ice cream from the corner of her lip.
The movement captures Kara’s attention and she’s caught for a moment, unable to think of nothing else but the fact she wishes that was her tongue instead.
She feels her cheeks redden as she quickly looks away, hoping her staring hadn’t been noticed. Kara can feel Lena’s gaze on her for a moment longer before she turns her attention back to the TV.
It’s at times like this when she considers just telling Lena the truth, just to get it out in the open. When she’d first developed (or, well realised she’d had) these feelings, she’d worried that it’d change things between them if Lena ever found out. But since then they’ve become so much closer, and she knows now that that fear was unfounded, that no matter what, they’ll always be friends.
And so she considers just telling her, if only so Lena would understand moments like these. But she doesn’t, as much as Alex and Maggie have begged her to, she still doesn’t tell Lena the truth. There’s really no need to. She’s happy with Lena as just a friend and there’s no way that Lena feels the same, so why bring up something that could make Lena feel awkward, when they’re both happy as they are?
None of those thoughts help right now though, because all Kara currently wants to do is lean over and kiss Lena, to smear that red lipstick she’s wearing and see if her mouth still tastes like the ice cream she’d just eaten.
“Kara?”
Lena’s voice breaks Kara out of increasingly inappropriate thoughts.
“Hmm…?” Kara tilts her head to the side in question, eyes still on the TV like she’s been paying attention this whole time. The only reason she actually knows what’s going on is because she’s seen this movie before.
“Are you okay tonight? You seem like you have something on your mind.”
This is just one of the many things she loves about Lena, how thoughtful she is, how caring, how she notices little things like this. Kara can tell she really pays attention to her, that she genuinely cares.
“I’m fine,” Kara smiles, turning properly to face Lena. Because she is. She has Lena here, she’s pressed close to her side, and Alex and Maggie will be here soon, hopefully with more snacks, so they can really get this movie night going. She’s happy, and she doesn’t want Lena to worry about her.
Lena watches her for a moment before she smiles. “Good.”
Kara loves the way that Lena smiles, they way her lips curve up, the way her eyes shine bright with a colour Kara still can’t identify, the way they crinkle at the sides too. It’s a genuine smile, one that shows genuine happiness and Kara could honestly look at her smile forever.
Which is what she’s doing now, and now she’s watching her lips, again.
And she knows she should stop, knows she should look away, knows she should turn her attention back to the movie in front of her.
But she just can’t.
Especially not when Lena’s tongue darts out to wet her bottom lip.
It’s like something snaps inside her, like the last of her self control is finally gone, and all she can think about is kissing Lena, wondering if her lips are as soft as they look.
So she does.
Snaps implies that she movies quickly, but she doesn’t, even as she moves forward, she goes slow, she has to give Lena a chance to say no.
But Lena doesn’t, Lena leans forward too, and that’s all the permission Kara needs to kiss her.
Lena’s lips are even softer than she’d imagined.
Kara can feel the kiss all the way to her toes, it courses through her like nothing she’s ever felt before, bringing to the surface everything she truly feels for Lena, everything she’s hidden in the past.
She paints the feeling across Lena’s lips.
It’s slow at first, just the gentle pressure of Lena’s lips against hers, but then Lena’s mouth parts under hers, inviting her in, and Kara’s never been one to deny Lena anything.
Kara tries not to over think this, just feels, as she lifts her hands up, cups Lena’s cheeks, and presses closer.
She feels Lena eagerly respond against her and it only spurs her on.
Kara feels Lena grab hold of her shirt and she’s not sure if Lena’s pulling her, if she’s pushing herself, or a combination of both, but next thing Kara knows is that she’s pressing down on top of Lena instead, their mouths still connected, as they end up horizontal on the couch.
Kara’s not sure why this is happening, or how it even happened really, apart from her lack of self control and Lena looking gorgeous, but she’s not going to question it.
Instead, she presses into Lena further, feels the soft press of the warm body beneath her.
She was right before, she can still taste the ice cream on Lena’s tongue.
“Kara.”
It’s breathy, more of a moan than anything, mostly muffled by their joined lips, but Kara hears it (and feels it) anyway.
“Are you okay?” Kara asks, pulling away so she can look over Lena. “Did I hurt you?”
Rao, Lena is a picture beneath her. Her lipstick is smudged, and Kara wonders if her own face is the same. Her hair is slipping out of her usually perfect bun and her eyes are darker that she’s ever seen them.
The only thing that’s stopping Kara from kissing her again is the worry that she hurt her in her enthusiasm.
“No you…you didn’t hurt me at all.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
They stall like that for a moment, quiet, just looking at each other, and Kara’s not sure what to do. Has Lena finally come to her senses? Finally realised that this isn’t what best friends do?
Lena’s hands reach up, hands cupping her cheeks and then she tugs, pulls her head down so their lips slot back together, and Kara forgets her worries and immediately gets lost in the feeling of Lena kissing her again.
“Lena,” she whispers, the name painted across Lena’s lips, all her feelings pushed into that one word.
She hopes that Lena gets the meaning.
Because this isn’t a onetime thing for Kara, and she wants Lena to know that now, know how she feels, because she doesn’t want Lena to think there’s any other reason that she is kissing her except for the fact she’s completely in love with her.
The knock at the door is completely unexpected. Kara actually uses her powers to fly off Lena it’s so unexpected.
Not many people can sneak up on Kara, it’s rather a hard thing to do when she can hear everyone’s heartbeat, can hear every little movement someone makes. But she’d been so focused on Lena, focused on listening to her racing heart, her quick breaths, focused on the way Lena felt against her, that not only did she miss Alex and Maggie arrive at her apartment, but she’d also forgotten they were coming in the first place.
But now she’s remembered and as soon and Alex and Maggie walk through that door, they’re going to be able to tell exactly what they’ve been doing because, well, it’s obvious.
It’s obvious in the smudge of red across Lena’s lips, the mess of her hair, the way her shirt is ruffled, and Kara knows she must look similar.
She doesn’t really think, only acts, as she picks Lena up off the couch and in a flash, they’re in her room.
“Sorry,” she says, cheeks even redder than before as she rights Lena again.
She just really couldn’t let Alex and Maggie catch them.
Lena’s eyes look even darker than they had and Kara doesn’t know what to make of it.
“Alex and Maggie are here,” Kara says, eyes wide, as she hears a second knock. She knows they won’t knock again, they’ll just come in.
Using her speed again, Kara quickly fixes her hair and wipes the lipstick from her mouth.
“That’s not fair,” Lena pouts.
What’s not fair is Kara can’t kiss her again right now.
“I’ll go and answer the door, you clean yourself up too, okay?”
Lena nods. “Okay.”
Kara pauses before she leaves, she needs to say something. “We’ll talk later?”
Lena smiles this time and Kara feels some of the panic loosen in her chest.
She heads towards the door, trying to calm herself more, and not think about the fact that just moments ago, she was making out with her best friend on her couch.
What was she even thinking, kissing her? But Lena kissed her back, right?
What does that mean?
The door opens before Kara gets to it and Kara freezes on the spot. But she forces herself to smile, because she knows Alex and Maggie will know something has happened immediately if she acts weird.
“You started movie night without us?” Alex asks by way of greeting.
“Umm…” Kara stutters, not expecting that line of questioning. She glances back at the TV and sees the movie is still playing. She’d forgotten they’d even started that in the first place. “We were just watching something while we waited for you too. We can put on something new now.”
How she managed to actually string a sentence together while her heart is beating so, she’ll never know.
“Where’s Lena?” Alex asks as she gives Kara a hug and that does nothing to help her heart. “And your cheeks are red,” she says as she pulls away. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Kara says, her blush only getting worse.
Maggie gives her a smile in greeting and it’s all kind eyes and dimples and Kara feels herself relaxing a bit more. This is Alex and Maggie, she can do this, pretend that nothing has changed. And then once their movie night is over, she can talk to Lena and find out exactly what this means for them.
“Luthor, do you want a beer?”
Kara turns to find Alex in the kitchen, already into the alcohol, which is really no surprise. But she can talk to Alex about her drinking some other time because, right now, what’s important, is the fact that Lena is back in the room.
Kara’s eyes find her immediately and it’s a mistake. She looks in a much better state than she did before, so much so that you can’t tell just by looking at her that not five minutes ago, she’d had Lena pressed to the couch.
That’s really not helping.
Lena’s lipstick is gone now, but her lips look no less kissable. But maybe she’ll ask Lena to put it back on later, she’d like to see the evidence on her skin of Lena’s kisses. Or, better yet, maybe she’ll put lipstick on herself just so she can leave a red smear down her body.
Oh Rao, she needs to stop, now.
“Earth to Kara,” Kara hears and she knows that’s not the first time someone has said her name as the elbow hits her side and she looks to her right and finds Maggie there, giving her an extremely amused look. She looks back to Lena and finds that Alex is now at her side and she has a beer in her hand. How had she missed that?
Okay, she knows how she missed Alex walking across the room, she’d been too distracted thinking about Lena to notice.
Her hair is loose now, falling in waves around her shoulders, and Kara knows that Lena pulled it out because it was easier than fixing the mess she’d made.
What she really wants to do is mess it up again, to run her fingers through it and-
“Kara?”
This time it’s Alex that speaks, she’s looking confusedly between her and Lena and shoot, she really needs to stop thinking about Lena like that.
One last glance at Lena shows her cheeks are red but that’s all she has time to think about before she has to look away again. She needs to talk to Lena, needs to figure out where they stand, has to know whether this was a onetime thing or not, or if just maybe, Lena has feelings for her too.
But there’s no way that Lena feels the same, right?
Sure, they’re a lot closer than Kara has ever been with another friend.
(She’s going to discount tonight’s events, because Kara’s really not sure why Lena kissed her back).
They hug a lot, long, lingering hugs that always leave Kara warm as she presses her face into Lena’s shoulder and she just holds her close.
They talk all the time, texts and phone calls, almost constant contact while they’re apart.
There’s the cuddling close on movie nights, but that’s normal too, right? She does that with Alex and Maggie too. (Again, she’s going to forget the kissing for now, even if it’s almost impossible to forget how right it had felt to have Lena’s lips pressed against her own).
Lena knows more about her than anyone else, Alex included. Kara has told Lena things that she’s shared with no one else and she know some of the things that Lena has told her are like that too.
They know each other’s favourite things, favourite foods, favourite movies and songs and things to do when the world sometimes feels like too much. They know everything about each other.
Kara’s favourite times are when Lena sleeps over after movie night, or after she’s come over and they’ve stayed up too late talking and so she invites Lena to stay. Lena always presses close in bed (Lena is a cuddler, which works out really well because so is she) and she just gets to fall asleep with Lena’s heartbeat under her ear, pressed warm and close to Lena.
But all of that means nothing. Well, not nothing, it means everything, but it doesn’t mean that Lena has feelings for her, it just means they’re best friends.
So that’s why she needs to talk to Lena, to find out what’s really going on in her head. Can she just kick Alex and Maggie out? That’s one sure way to have this conversation as soon as possible.
But she can’t do that, as much as she wants to talk to Lena, she also loves movie nights with Alex and Maggie, and it’s been almost a month since their last one, so she doesn’t want to cancel now.
They end up in the same positions on the couch as they always do, Alex pressed warm against her right side, Maggie tucked into Alex’s other side, and Lena on her left, pressed shoulder to shoulder once more.
That’s really not making tonight any easier though, because this is where it all started, and it’d be so easy just reach over and kiss her again, just like before.
But she’s not going to do that, not without talking to Lena, and not with Alex and Maggie so close.
She lets Alex pick the movie tonight, and while Alex gives her a look when there’s no protest about the horror movie she chooses, she says nothing.
Kara’s not going to be able to pay any attention to whatever they watch, so why not let Alex choose for once?
She can her Lena’s heartbeat strong and steady at her side and she can’t help but glance over as the movie starts, so similar to earlier, as Lena catches her eyes again.
Lena’s heartbeat ticks up and Kara warms at the sound. She sends her a smile and Kara’s chest warms even more.
At least from that smile, she can tell that she hasn’t ruined her friendship with Lena, so that’s a good sign.
But it still doesn’t help the overall question of what now?
“I’m going to get more popcorn,” Lena says all of a sudden, surprising Kara. She stands. “Kara, can you help?”
Kara feels her heart leap into her throat as Lena looks at her questioningly and suddenly she’s not sure if she’s ready for this, not sure if she’s ready for the possibility that Lena may reject her.
“We have popcorn right here?” Alex says, pointing to the full bowl of popcorn already on the table.
“We need more,” Kara says as she stands. “Lots more. I’m a hungry Kryptonian, that’s not enough for me, let alone anyone else.”
She makes her way to the kitchen, Lena close behind. Kara can hear Maggie and Alex whispering behind them as they walk away but she can worry about that later.
Lena wastes no time once they stop. “I thought I could wait until they’d gone but we need to talk.”
“I can kick them out,” Kara says, voicing her earlier thought, because she’d do it in a heartbeat if Lena asked. Sure, she’d feel a bit guilty but Alex would forgive her when she eventually explained the situation.
“No,” Lena laughs. “It’s okay.”
Silence settles over them for a moment and Kara nervously tucks a strand of hear behind her ear. She watches as Lena bites her lips, something she does when she’s nervous too, and Kara can’t help but watch as white teeth dig into soft flesh.
“Kara, please, eyes up here, you’re making it very hard for me not to kiss you again.”
Kara startles. “You want to kiss me again?”
She watches in amazement as Lena’s eyes drop to her lips as she nods. Then her eyes shoot up. “Yes.”
“Oh.” She’d hoped, Rao, had she hoped, but she’d never thought she’d hear something like that come from Lena’s mouth.
“I wanted to tell you that, since I wasn’t sure where you thought I stood on the subject.”
“Do you just want to kiss or…?”
Kara trails off, leaving the question open, because she needs to know if Lena wants to date her too.
She realises what her words sounded like a moment later, when Lena blushes again. And it’s kind of adorable, but also definitely not what she meant. Not that she’d be opposed to…with Lena, but just, not now, or at least she doesn’t want to talk about it with Maggie and Alex in the same room.
“No!” she splutters, her own cheeks red now too. “I just meant, that I, I mean you, I mean do you-”
She stops when she feels a comforting hand on her arm. “Darling, breathe.”
Kara takes a deep breath, trying to get her mind in order. The smile Lena sends her way helps.
“Do you want to go on a date with me?”
She hears the breath catch in Lena’s throat and she worries for a moment she’s said the wrong thing, that Lena is after something purely physical with her, when the most magnificent smile breaks out across Lena’s face and Kara feels her chest blossoming at the sight.
“For a long time I thought I’d never hear you say those words, and I knew that I’d never have the courage to say them either.” Lena takes a step forward and reaches out to thread her fingers through Kara’s. Kara looks down at the touch, then back up as Lena continues. “But then you kissed me and it gave me hope that I’d never had before.”
Kara reaches up with her free hand, cups Lena’s jaw. “I thought the exact same thing.”
Lena laughs, the sound happy and light. “I think we’ve both been idiots then.”
“Is that a yes to a date then?”
“That’s a yes to all the dates you want.”
Kara laughs. “You’re going to be stuck with me for a long time then.”
“I’m definitely okay with that.”
There’s no mistaking the intent behind this kiss, as Lena closes the small gap between them. Lena’s mouth feels just as good pressed against hers as before, but this time there’s a lightness in her heart with the knowledge that Lena has feelings for her too.
There’s a loud ‘woop’ and laughter from across the room and Kara can’t help but laugh into the kiss too, not caring in the slightest that they’ve been caught.
Kara presses one more quick kiss to Lena’s waiting lips, before she uses their still joined hands to tug her back towards the couch.
Lena’s smile is just as wide as hers and her heart fills again. She hasn’t said it yet, but she knows Lena loves her too.
“Where’s the popcorn?” Alex asks when they return to the couch. Both she and Maggie look thoroughly amused and she’d be embarrassed by that fact but right now, she’s too happy to care.
They settle back into the couch together and this time, Lena presses more firmly into her side and leans over to rest her head against her shoulder. Kara turns and presses a kiss to the top of Lena’s head, just because she can.
Lena, in turn, lifts their joined hands and presses a kiss to the back of Kara’s hand.
Rao, she’s so in love with this woman.
“You two are going to make me sick, can we continue the movie?”
Kara looks at the screen and realises that it’s paused. She really has been focused on nothing but Lena tonight.
Alex must take the silence as a yes as she starts the movie again. She leans into Kara’s other side. “We’ll talk about this later.” There’s no question in Alex’s voice, not that she’d say no.
“Of course.”
And they will talk, later, but not tonight. Tonight, she has plans already, plans that now involve Lena and a lot more kissing.