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On the top floor of the sleeping building sat looming over the city stood two souls, locked in a passionate battle for dominance. The dim darkness of the city outside painted the room in a gentle glow, the moon turning the pale modern furniture to sterling silver, but it went unobserved by the loving bodies pressed together like puzzle pieces. Lips crashed, teeth clashed, breath hot and strained against clumsy kisses. They were two forces of nature finally colliding after dancing around each other for what felt like eons. They met with the ferocity of a hurricane as years of emotion finally overwhelmed them with an urgency most frantic.
Their friendship alone was a miracle by most standards, a Super and a Luthor were never designed to be civil with one another, let alone friends. And now as they stood entwined with one another in a frantic attempt to convey the love that had manifested within them over the preceding few years of their lives, defying every odd that faced them. Defying the near-fatal feud between their families, the cruel words of the press, even the ingrained doubt that resided within each of them. The issues that lay beneath the surface would be addressed later, but presently they could hardly focus on much else but each other.
Lena Luthor had been one of the single bravest people that the young Super had ever met. She charged forth, forging her own path, regardless of the haunting legacy her name carried. Her courage as vast and endless as waves of the swelling sea. Her professional facade appeared as murky and ominous as the unexplored depths, but once Kara had smashed through the thick barriers she had erected, there lay a beauty that no one person could have been able to capture in words. Her mind was complex and troubled, every move she made for the better of the masses, an attempt to distance herself from the lingering shadow cast by her family. Kara had found, hidden away deep within Lena, a vast reservoir of love and compassion that was stowed out of fear. Found that Lena hadn't known what to do with all that love once it was dredged up to the surface- opting to do it in the only way she knew how- by showering Kara with lavish gifts and filling her office with flowers.
At last, their lungs wailed for air, burning with desperate need of oxygen, forcing the pair apart, though they stayed close. Foreheads pressed together, tears gathering in Lena's eyes as she laughed noiselessly to herself at the absurdity of the situation. Kara leaned away to meet green kaleidoscope eyes lifting an eyebrow in question.
"Never thought I'd see the day that I kissed Kara Danvers," Lena's eyes still glazed over with tears built up, brought upon her by the overwhelming joy engulfing her being. It wrapped her in an indescribable sense of warmth and completeness.
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Their union was celebrated in a hole in the wall full of alcohol and karaoke singers. They tucked their names away locked in a box and buried deep in the earth, they bid them farewell with tacky confetti and cocktails. And so their lives went on, each day made brighter by the other's presence.
Time passed, and they found themselves residing in the same comfy abode, working around each other with delicate grace. Their hectic lives molding into the other's as they worked in time for themselves between the late nights and bustling days. The weight of the city's safety resting on their shoulders made lighter by the help they provided one another.
When Kara found her hunger rousing her from yet another a late nights work, padding across the chilly tile, she happened upon Lena swaying at the countertop to a song found solely in her head, quietly fixing a snack before retiring once more to bed. A long moment of spectating was spent before Lena noticed the soft eyes trained on her, and turning to hold out a delicate hand for Kara to take. They found themselves pressed close as the wee hours crested, minding not the stars who watched their slow display. It could hardly be classified as a dance, labeled as such for lack of a proper title, they rocked to and fro into one another absorbing the comfort and warmth that it brought. Only when the time passed began to weigh did they resign to sleep, their eyelids heavy as tungsten, the tire in their bodies lacing their limbs with lead.
Three simple words lay teetering on the edge of their tongues, tethered only by hesitance. The fear of being the first to speak them pressed heavy on their shoulders. They knew better than to expect it, to lay faith in others, it was a bet they couldn't afford to make, and yet they made it. Sat waiting in expectation for a moment that would never come to them.
The names long buried began to crawl to the surface, clinging to every step they took like sopping clothes in the pouring rain. Duty called on both ends digging its claws in deep, furthering the distance between them. Exhaustion penetrated the marrow of their bones keeping them separated by miles, even when they found themselves pressed close sharing heat. They had their whole lives together ahead of them being choked off by the very things they had first fought to hold at bay.
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The day the cracks began to show would remain fixed in their minds 'till the end of their days, amidst an attack on the city under tense circumstances commenced the fight that rivaled even the threat looming above the rooftops.
“No! You stay here, safe, I’ll be back,” It was a demand softened by the traces of panic in her voice.
“I’m not staying here! I’m useless over here, and I refuse to stand idly by while you all fight this, I’m going to help!” Lena stood headstrong, not bending to Kara’s requests.
“I cannot in good conscience let you charge headfirst into this! It’s practically a warzone Lena!” her pleas were growing more desperate by the second.
“Why not! I think I’ve proven myself a valuable asset to your team!” Lena’s tone was steadily rising, gathering more attention from their coworkers, curious to see what caused the seemingly picturesque pair to quarrel.
“You know that is not what this is about!” Kara’s tone was hushed in an attempt to shake the interest of the gathering crowd.
“Then what Kara? What is this about?” Lena’s question left no wiggle room, Kara would be forced to answer, “certainly it’s not still about my family,” her long-standing insecurity finally rearing its ugly head.
Kara was taken by shock, rendered incapable of answering for a fraction of a second that nearly presented itself as hesitance “You’ll get hurt, I’m just trying to protect you!”
Lena’s face fell briefly before contorting in rage, stepping forward, standing toe-to-toe with Kara, back straightened to the point of looking painful, causing the girl of steel to shrink uncharacteristically away from her, “I don’t need you to treat me like some porcelain doll! I’m not a child who needs protecting, and I think everyone here will agree when I say that I am more than capable of taking care of myself as well as any single person out there working with me!” her voice dropped low, frighteningly calm, “including yourself Supergirl,”
Kara stood in silence not sure what to say in response, watching as Lena turned on her heels and marched away past the group of gawking DEO agents. She promised herself that she would return to the conversation once everything settled, to attempt to patch up the holes left torn in its wake. She broke that promise, and with it, their chance for a future together for it was a dispute that marked the beginning of their demise.
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The strain bared down, fracturing their foundation, eventually shattering their delicately constructed walls, leaving them all too vulnerable to the stresses of their chaotic lives. And as their resolve chipped away, their hesitant tethers grew stronger, until finally, they met in a fury. They fought with the heat and ferocity of a wildfire, before fizzling out, parting ways in a heavy silence. Their end had been swift, the plug pulled, and along they went as though they'd never met. Lena returning to her isolated emptiness building her walls back up, of brick and mortar made several feet thick. While Kara threw herself full force into her two identities, working herself near to death.
Looking back they had never been built to last. Their relationship spackled together in the heat of the moment and lacking in proper patching. They got lost in an ideal, too afraid of what was to come from confronting the obstacles head-on, allowing them to go unchecked and spread like a cancer until it all came down, raining down upon their comfortable bubble of security, shattering the fragile contentment between them. Exposing the fatal flaws that had been tacked over, unable to be ignored further.
Even after managing to pick up what they could of their own pieces they never could attempt to reconnect their lives outside of the pang of guilt and pain that filled them when they passed by each other's orbits.
Kara sighed deep, exhaling heavy through her nose, watching the sway of the skeletal trees outside. Coffee going cold next to the shoebox full of photos, tears unheeded by the empty apartment as they narrowly avoided the happy memories scattered across the stone countertop. She stood in the very spot Lena had the night they spent pressed close in the kitchen. It stung all the more as she found the tether now loosened, she could say it now with conviction, now that it was far too late and there was no one near to hear the quiet confession escape her lips, drenched in misery and heartbreak, voice quaking, verging on breaking. Her partner now long gone away, the warmth gone along with her, leaving the chill of the linoleum to seep through the bottoms of Kara's feet and leave her whole being feeling hollow and cold. She had fought it for so long now, years of denial finally losing traction, conceding to an acceptance that she would never dance in the kitchen with her again, that she had let slip from her fingers the only woman she'd ever loved and greatest friend she'd ever had.