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It starts with a drunken suggestion from Sam.
Never Have I Ever.
Kara thought it was innocent enough, even if it leads to her knowing a bit too much about her friends, and definitely too much about Alex.
Not enough about Lena though. She wants to know everything about her best friend, even at the cost of knowing how Alex and Maggie had spent last night.
Kara shivers, she needs to get J’onn to erase that particular bit of information.
But the game is fun, Alex looks happy, laughing into Maggie’s shoulder, as Lena grins as she tells a story from her boarding school days, Maggie shaking her own head while Nia and Sam laugh too.
So they’re all having fun, enjoying girls’ night, Lena’s cheeks are tinged red from the alcohol and she looks happy, that’s all that matters.
But then it happens.
“Never have I ever gotten a tattoo.”
Sam herself drinks, Maggie does too.
But so does Lena.
And Kara’s mind screeches to a halt.
Lena has a tattoo??
Kara thinks that maybe this is something Lena was trying to keep quiet, based on the look she shoots Sam. Although she can’t be sure, it increases her curiosity tenfold.
Where is it, that it’s somewhere she’s never seen before?
She wishes she was actually drinking, only so she could throw back her drink and hopefully forget about this little bit of information, at least until Lena wasn’t around.
Because she’s pretty sure she’s staring.
She can’t help it though, because Lena has a tattoo and the idea is unbelievably hot, made even more so by the fact that Kara’s never seen it before.
When did she get it?
Why did she get it?
Is she ashamed of it?
Why has she never mentioned it before?
Where is it that it’s always hidden by her clothes?
“Kara?”
“Hmmm?” Kara says, tearing her eyes away fro Lena with great difficulty to look at Alex.
Yep, she’s definitely staring.
She’d never look though, never use her vision to look beneath Lena’s clothes.
If she ever gets to see all of Lena, she wants Lena to consent.
That thought brings a barrage of other thoughts flooding her mind, thoughts that are definitely not appropriate to have about your best friend.
“Kara!”
Her eyes snap around to Alex again, she hadn’t even realised she’d looked back at Lena. Is it just her imagination, or are Lena’s cheeks redder than before?
“What?”
“Stop staring, have you ever broken the law?”
“I wasn’t-“ Kara cuts herself off with Alex’s knowing look, her own cheeks flaming red. She takes a drink, because yes she has. She really wishes she wasn’t on call tonight, she needs something stronger to drink.
She’s intrigued again because Lena drinks too, but then so does everyone else in the room.
Her eyes keep glancing over at Lena of their own accord for the rest of the evening, her mind still stuck on a loop that Lena has a tattoo.
“Drink, Kara.”
“What?”
“Never have I ever broken something because I saw a pretty girl.”
Dangit, she’d gotten distracted again.
“Do tell,” Lena says, eyes liquid as she watches her. She shoots a glance at Alex, maybe she shouldn’t have told her about that particular moment, but Lena had let her hair out during lunch last week and the cup Kara had been holding exploded in her hand.
She only told Alex because she had to explain to her why her shirt was all wet.
At least Alex doesn’t know about the other times, like the pen or the door handle or the phone.
All of those were thanks to Lena.
The raised eyebrow from Lena says she might be thinking about those times too
“That’s not fair, I have super strength,” Kara grumbles, even as she takes a sip of her sadly non-alcoholic drink anyway.
“You don’t need super strength to break things, the other day I forgot a towel when I had a shower and I stepped into the living room naked to grab my clothes and Alex dropped the glass she was holding.”
“Maggie!” Alex hisses, Kara covering her own ears so she doesn’t have to hear anymore.
Sam, Nia and Lena just laugh.
“Is this game over yet? It’s not fun anymore.”
Everyone laughs again. If they ever play this again, Kara is going to opt out, or at least drink.
They completely ignore her.
“Never have I ever kissed someone of the same sex.”
(They all drink, bar Nia, and there’s another piece of intriguing information about Lena).
“Never have I ever flown into a building.”
(That question was definitely just directed at her, which totally isn’t fair. She glares at Alex as she drinks).
“Never have I ever participated in role play during sex.”
(Kara shuts her eyes, she doesn’t need to know the answer to that, about any of them).
“Never have I ever worn pyjamas and pretended it was clothing.”
(Kara really loves Nia, giving them nice and safe questions. Except she has to drink, but her pyjamas in college were comfy and of course she wore them to class. Everyone but Nia and Lena drink, so at least she’s not the only one).
“Never have I ever fallen asleep during sex.”
(They all laugh when Sam drinks).
“Never have I ever had a sexual dream about a friend.”
(Kara takes a drink, ignoring the knowing look Alex shoots her, she shouldn’t have told her about that particular dream. She also ignores Lena’s intrigued look as she takes sip of her own drink).
There’s a few more questions before they all start to lose their steam, the alcohol and late hour getting to them. As much as Kara is enjoying tonight with her friends, she also doesn’t want to find out any more about their sex lives, which is apparently Sam’s and Maggie’s favourite thing to ask about.
And she doesn’t want Lena finding out too much about her either, namely the fact hat the sex dream was about her.
She blushes at the thought as her eyes fall back on Lena.
Where is that tattoo?
She wants this night to be over so she can think about that more too.
They all say their goodbyes and shuffle out of Kara’s apartment, with a bunch of tight hugs and promises to text when they’re home safe. They all shuffle out but Lena that is, who is still there when Kara shuts the door behind the rest of their friends.
Not that Kara is going to complain about that.
“Do you want to stay?”
“Please,” Lena smiles sleepily. Kara loves her like this, soft and open and adorable.
This is far from the first time Lena has stayed, so they go about their normal routine of getting ready for bed together. Kara uses the bathroom first, getting changed and brushing her teeth before Lena does the same.
When Lena steps out of the bathroom, she’s clad in a pair of pyjamas that she commandeered from Kara early in their friendship, always claiming them whenever she stays over.
She looks utterly adorable.
“Have you really never worn pyjamas out as normal clothes before?”
“I’ve wanted too, but being a Luthor comes with a certain image, and it’s not pyjamas in public.”
“Brunch tomorrow, we’re wearing pyjamas out, okay?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No,” Kara grins, as she climbs into her side of the bed and Lena does the same.
She likes that they have their own sides of the bed.
It’s not until she’s settled under the covers, can feel Lena close by, that the night’s events enter Kara’s mind again. She takes a deep breath, willing her thoughts from the earlier from her mind. She hadn’t thought about this when she’d asked Lena to stay, hadn’t thought how much harder it would be thinking about Lena and a particular tattoo, while the woman is lying right beside her.
“You can ask?” Lena says quietly into the dark bedroom.
Kara freezes. “Ask what?” She’s pretty sure she knows what Lena is talking about.
“You haven’t stopped staring at me since you found out I have a tattoo. You can ask.”
“You have a tattoo?”
Lena laughs quietly. “Yes.”
Kara swallows, forces herself not to turn and face Lena. “Where?”
“On my hip.”
Why does her heart pick up at the thought?
“When did you get it?”
“When I was eighteen, I wanted to do something for myself, something that the Luthor’s couldn’t control.”
She does turn to look at Lena this time, her heart aching for the woman next to her, who has been through so much on her own. Kara reaches out, takes her hand under the blanket. “What is it?”
Lena laughs, giving Kara’s hand a squeeze. “It’s a heart. Any more questions?”
Kara blushes, glad Lena can’t see it in the dark room.
“Can I ask you something now?”
“Of course,” Kara responds.
“Why did you break the cup the other day in my office?”
Anything but that.
Lena’s being honest, so so can she. Sort of. “I think you know why.”
“The same reason you broke the door and pen and pillow?” She can hear the smirk in Lena’s voice, she’d forgotten about the pillow.
Kara nods even though Lena can barely see her in the dim light. “The same reason I broke my phone too.”
“You think I’m pretty?”
Kara’s sure Lena wouldn’t be speaking so openly if she were sober.
But she doesn’t deny it, can’t really deny it now when Lena already knows the truth.
“Yes.”
“Can I ask you something else?”
“Always.” At this point, she’s not sure what Lena could ask that could be any worse.
“You’ve had a sex dream about a friend?”
Kara chokes on nothing.
“Because I have too, and I think you should know that it was about y-“
Kara cuts her off, a finger to Lena’s lips while her own heart beats wildly in her chest. “You’re drunk.”
“Not that drunk,” Lena mumbles around the finger still pressed to her lips.
Kara retracts her hand. “I don’t want you to say anything you might regret when you’re sober.”
Lena shakes her head. “I won’t regret this. I’ve spent months, years even, wondering if maybe you have feelings for me, maybe the way I catch you looking at me sometimes means what I hope it does. But tonight, the way you were staring, it made me think I wasn’t the only one who’d fallen for her best friend.” Lena tilts forward, pressing her forehead to Kara’s, her eyes falling shut. “Please tell me I’m not wrong.”
“You’re not,” Kara says, breathless, as Lena presses warm against her. Kara slips her hand against Lena’s cheek, leaning back so she can see her properly. Lena’s eyes are a brilliant green, even in the dark, when her eyes flutter open. “But we can’t do this right now, you’re drunk.”
“Am not,” Lena protests, and as much as Kara wants to believe her, wants to give in to whatever this thing is, she can’t, not yet.
“You’re not sober, then.” Kara’s thumb runs gently across Lena’s cheek. “This is something we should both be sober for.”
Lena sighs, shifting further away. “You’re not rejecting me?”
Kara crosses the distance Lena has just created between them. “I’m not. In the morning, if you still want this, if you’re sure about this, then we can talk.”
“You’re the only thing in my life I’ve ever been sure about.”
“Sleep,” Kara says, tilting her chin up to press a kiss to Lena’s forehead. “We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Promise?” Lena asks, the one word full of so much hope that Kara aches to just close the gap between them now, to give in to what Lena wants, what they both want. But it wouldn’t be fair, not when Lena’s been drinking.
“I promise.”
---
They’d fallen asleep barely touching, even as they’d been lying close to each other. But when Kara wakes, it’s to a head pillowed on her chest and an arm tucked across her stomach.
Usually, when Kara wakes first, she’d gently slide out of bed to make Lena breakfast, wanting to let the woman sleep a bit longer. But not today, today, she wants to stay right where she is. There’s no point in breakfast when they’re going out for brunch and she wants to be here when Lena wakes, wants to know if Lena had really meant those things she’d said last night.
If she didn’t, it may just crush Kara.
But she thinks Lena did. She’d seen the conviction in Lena’s eyes, seen the hope.
Lena was right, she’s not the only one who’s fallen for her best friend.
So she’s content to stay right where she is, with a soft body pressed against her own.
Kara feels movement not long later and she looks down to find eyes fluttering open, only for them to squint shut again against the morning light.
“How are you feeling?” Kara asks, laughing lightly at the ridiculous cuteness that is a sleepy and hungover Lena Luthor.
“Maybe you were right last night, maybe I was a little drunk,” Lena groans, pressing her face further into Kara’s chest.
She must fall back asleep because it’s half an hour later before she stirs again, half an hour when Kara has been able to think of nothing but the fact that Lena must remember their conversation because that’s when she’d called Lena drunk. She’s nervous now, because what if she’d been wrong, what if it was just drunk Lena talking, what if she didn’t mean any of it?
“Morning,” Lena mumbles, voice thick with sleep as she opens her eyes, keeping them open this time as she looks up at Kara.
“How’re you feeling now?”
“Better,” Lena says, shifting away so she’s lying on her own pillow again. Kara misses the contact immediately. “Do we need to talk?”
“I take it you remember?”
“I wasn’t that drunk.”
“Just drunk enough to admit you’d had a dream about me?” Even without using the word ‘sex’, Kara blushes.
But so does Lena, as she buries her face in the pillow. It’s entirely too adorable for words. “Maybe I was a little drunk,” Lena says, words muffled by the pillow. Lena turns her head to look back at her. “I’m not drunk now.”
“Can I tell you something?”
Lena nods.
“I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’ve fallen in love with my best friend.”
Lena shifts forward, Kara can hear how fast her heart is racing. “Am I the best friend?”
Kara laughs, a hand moving to Lena’s hip to hold her close as Lena presses into her. She wonders whether this is the hip that has the tattoo or not. “You are.”
Lena tilts her head forward, presses their foreheads together. She’s so soft, Kara wishes they could stay like this forever. “Does that mean I can kiss you?”
“Are you still drunk?” Kara asks, even though she already knows the answer.
Lena shakes her head, their noses brushing together. The touch is electric.
“And you still want this?”
“I’ve always wanted you.”
Kara’s breath catches as Lena’s words brush against her lips.
It’s Kara that closes the last of the distance, doing what she’s dreamt about since she first saw Lena and wondered if those red lips felt as soft as they looked. She knows now they’re softer, knows now that no dream can compare to the reality of kissing Lena, no amount of imagination is as good as the feel of Lena’s lips moving with the gentlest care against her own.
“I love you too,” Lena breathes, the words coursing through Kara as lips slot back against her own, and then a hand threads into her hair and Kara sighs as Lena shifts closer.
All she wants is Lena closer and to never let her go.
“You’re really good at that,” Lena says, breathless, as she pulls away. Kara chases her lips and Lena lets her.
“Good at what?” Kara asks when the words finally register through the pure exhilaration of kissing Lena.
“Kissing,” Lena says, her cheeks red. Kara’s not sure if her cheeks are red from the admission, or from the kissing itself.
All Kara cares about is the fact that she can now put ‘kiss’ and ‘Lena’ in the same sentence.
Kara laughs. “So are you.”
“Better than any dream you may have had about me?”
Kara smirks. “I never said the dream was about you.”
The look Lena gives her says she knows it was anyway.
Kara doesn’t answer though, Kara just kisses her again.
---
Nobody pays attention to them as they sit in their favourite café a couple of hours later, still in their pyjamas, hands resting tangled on the table between them.
It’s their first date.
---
It’s two weeks later, after their fifth date, that Kara finally gets to see the tattoo.