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Kara loved a lot of things in her life. She loved her sister, being Supergirl, her job as a journalist. She absolutely loved being Nia’s new mentor, and trying to set her sister up with a girl who would be great for her, and eating so many potstickers she wanted to throw up.
When she was drunk tipsy, she loved even more things. Nia’s impression of Snapper, Winn’s many (very, very bad) accents, playing pool even though she was not good at it. She also loved almost every person she came across in the bar, honestly.
But the one thing she always loved the most was her best friend, with her perfect eyes, and hair, and smile, that always made her feel warm inside and could make her laugh with any pointed look or sly grin. And beyond just that, the one thing she loved most of all were the loud nights out at the bars with all her friends that morph into quiet nights on her couch with her best friend, drunkenly binge-watching every rom-com they could lay their hands on when they’ve decided they’ve had enough of crowds for the evening.
“Okay, okay, okay,” she heard Lena’s voice pull her thoughts as she flopped down on the couch beside her, glass of wine in hand. “You have to actually pay attention to this one, otherwise you might get confused,” Lena instructed seriously, a bit of teasing in her eyes.
Kara rolled her eyes but still sat up animatedly. “You act like I have a poor attention span,” she complained, unable to stop the wide grin on her face.
Lena let out a laugh at this, and poked Kara’s cheek to get her attention. “You do have a poor attention span, darling,” she chided.
Ignoring the little catch in her breath, Kara turned to study Lena, noticing her eyes were a bit glassy, signalling she was a little more drunk than she had let on. Her hair was up in a ponytail that was now falling out after the night’s adventure, and she was wrapped up in the same blanket as Kara. She didn’t really know how to explain it, but the calm moments cuddled up with Lena always made her feel more alive than any loud bar.
“You and Supergirl are really close, huh,” Lena asked, an amused look in her eye as she watched Kara study her intently.
Kara stuttered as she nodded and averted her gaze down to her feet, confused at the sudden change in topic. “I mean, yeah. I guess we’re pretty close,” she finally managed to mumble out, and Lena hummed. “Why do you ask?”
Lena waved her off a bit with a laugh and shrugged. “I read something the other day about how when you’re really close to someone, you start to pick up on their mannerisms,” she explained.
“Oh, uh,” Kara laughed nervously. “Is there something Supergirl and I do the same?” she asked, her voice sounding a little higher in pitch than usual.
Lena shot her a wide grin, bringing her wine glass back up to her lips as her skin glowed warmly from the several drinks already affecting her. “When you’re both deep in your thoughts, you lick your lips,” she pointed out slyly as her best friend turned the brightest shade of red. “Has anyone else noticed that about you two?”
Kara let out a sort of high-pitched nervous whine-laugh hybrid, not expecting that observation at all. Did she really lick her lips that much around Lena? “Nope, I don’t think anyone has noticed except you,” she tried to respond calmly, but unfortunately this wasn’t a conservation she should be having intoxicated. Especially because the thoughts of why she licked her lips around her best friend were very much not acknowledged by her consciousness and therefore very much buried deep in the corners of her brain. And the thoughts buried deep in the corners of her brain generally don’t like to stay buried when there’s alcohol in her system.
“It’s strange though,” Lena continued, wanting to continue to analyze this discovery she was now hooked on of the similarities between her two friends. Kara knew Lena was a philosophical drunk, but now wasn’t really the time. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say you both look at me when you do it, but since I don’t think that is the case, it begs the question of what are you both thinking about when you do it?” she asked, her voice dipping in pitch and her body leaning ever so slightly closer to Kara. “Do you think you both think of the same kinds of things? Or is it just like something one of you picked up from the other?”
Kara stared at Lena, mouth parted open, trying to come up with a response that would get her best friend off the topic of licking lips, or even just lips in general. Because what she definitely didn’t want to do at this moment was try to drunkenly explain what goes through her head when she looks at Lena. That was a topic best left-
“There!” Lena cried out, her eyes lighting up as she pointed an excited finger at Kara’s lips. “You did it again! Quick, tell me what you’re thinking about!” she demanded, sitting so far on the edge of the couch now, her thighs were pressed against Kara’s knees, and Kara merely let out a strangled noise and a nervous laugh.
Unsure of what else to do, she used the hand that wasn’t holding a drink to reach up and boop Lena’s nose. “I don’t know what I’m thinking, silly. I’m drunk,” she diverted with a smug smile, and a hope that would calm her friend.
Lena narrowed her eyes at this and began to lean closer and even closer into Kara until their noses were almost touching and it took everything in Kara not to cower away from the intense look in Lena’s eyes. A beat later Lena glanced down at Kara’s lips and then looked back up at her eyes with a smirk, and Kara felt very convinced her heart was going to give out on the spot.
“Don’t think you can hide anything from me, Miss Danvers,” she finally whispered, and Kara held her breath so as to not implode. “I’m very good at figuring out people’s secrets.”
“Well, I guess you’ll figure it out, won’t you then?” Kara teased back, an unfamiliar burst of confidence flowing through her, and Lena sat back with a laugh, lightheartedly accepting the challenge.
Lena apparently had drank more than she intended. After her and Kara making the decision to leave the bar, her mind went blank, with only glimpses into her memories from there. For some reason, she had a weird feeling in her stomach she had said or done something embarrassing in that gap of self-awareness, but Kara had seemed like nothing was amiss, and so Lena shrugged off the feeling and went about her business.
It wasn’t until the following Monday, when Lena was doing a routine check in at CatCo did a memory hit her unexpectedly.
“I’m going out in the field today, if that’s okay, Lena,” Kara was explaining to her. “I’m going to try to get some sources for the piece we’re doing on the new advances and funding on the alien refugee homes.”
Lena nodded, trusting Kara almost blindly to do whatever she needed to do the incredible job she always did. “Just make sure you’re discreet about the patron of some of those homes,” she instructed with a pointed look. She had privately disclosed to Kara a few weeks ago that she had used some of her personal funds to anonymously help pitch in and provide the city with more resources for their new program.
Kara winked back at her with a little hand salute. “My lips are sealed, boss,” she jested, and while Lena smiled in response, her heart stuttered a bit as she suddenly remembered she had tried to have a whole conversation with Kara about lips. Kara’s eyebrows furrowed a bit in concern for Lena, as she was always able to see past Lena’s walls and detect the most subtle of changes in her expression, but Lena quickly waved her off and escaped to her office.
Okay so maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. She called Kara--and Supergirl for that matter--out on always licking their lips while staring at her. That wasn’t horrible, was it? That didn’t have to mean what her brain was jumping to it meant, right?
“Glad to see you in today, Lena,” Nia entered her office with little fanfare and a small smirk, which surely was supposed to reference how the last time Nia saw Lena, her boss was stumbling out of a bar in Kara’s arms. Lena let out a small laugh and gestured towards the papers Nia was holding to be delivered. “Got some of those reports you asked for,” she explained as she handed them over.
When Lena hummed to accept them, Nia turned to leave. With a start, Lena realized Nia could be a good confidant in the situation she had suddenly found herself in with Kara, just to get a feel on whether or not she was overthinking things. She was a bit younger and outgoing and would have more insight in the connotations of what had been said.
Before she could decide on anything, though, Nia stopped suddenly and turned back to Lena. “Oh, by the way, I might be leaving later to help Kara with her piece, if that’s okay,” she requested, and Lena nodded without hesitation. Nia smiled relieved and then turned on her heel to leave again.
“Nia, wait!” the words escaping her mouth before she could fully convince herself it was a good idea. Nia turned with furrowed eyebrows and looked at Lena curiously. “I- I have something to ask you, on a non-professional level? As a friend?”
Nia’s face scrunched with more confusion but she shrugged. “Shoot,” she offered.
Taking a deep breath, Lena shifted to her other foot. Her face was suddenly flushing bright red, and it took a few stutters for any words to come out. “If someone looked at you and- and licked their lips, that means-?” she trailed off, asking Nia to finish the sentence.
Nia’s face seemed confused still for a moment before she froze and her eyes widened in panic. “I- um, I think we both know what that means, and I don’t think I’m going to say it,” she finally answered, clearly flustered, and Lena’s stomach dropped. “Anyways, uh, see you, boss!” she called out, as she quickly escaped the room and didn’t look back.
Lena stared dumbfoundedly after her, as her answer finally clicked in.
Fuck.
She definitely accused two of her friends of flirting with her, while flirting with one of them.
Not that she was to blame, necessarily. They both did lick their lips a lot around her, and maybe she wouldn’t have noticed if it didn’t… affect her… every time she noticed it. And not to sound like a grade school girl with a crush on her best friends, but anyone with eyes could see that Kara and Supergirl were both incredibly attractive. Both of them with their stunning blue eyes, and perfect bone structure, and always flawlessly golden curled hair: it was unfair to the rest of the population. And then add in the way that both of them looked at her and then licked their lips, it-
Wait.
Lena’s mind began doing the fastest mental math it had ever done before, adding up everything she had just said, and-
Oh.
Fuck.
“Did something happen?” Alex asked with a concerned look in her eye, and Kara looked at her helplessly.
“No, not necessarily, but I just think it’s time, don’t you?” she tried again, and Alex shook her head.
With a little laugh and turning to check one of her other test results in the lab, her sister shrugged. “I feel like it’s a little past time you tell Lena your identity, but I was just curious if something happened to compel you to think that you should do it now,” she repeated.
Kara stared and tried to think of an answer, but couldn’t think of anything. She definitely didn’t want to tell her she had practically challenged Lena to figure it out through the licking lips situation. What she didn’t need was her sister reading into that.
“Hey guys, guess who just had the weirdest conversation with Lena,” Nia entered, flopping down on one of Alex’s testing tables before she could protest. Winn looked up from his work table where he had been sitting quietly with a shit-eating grin.
“Something tells me it was you,” he joked, and Nia pointed to him as if he won something.
“She told me she wanted to ask me about something on a ‘friend’ level, and then asked what it meant when someone looks at you and licks their lips,” she reported, with a sly pointed look at Kara who immediately began blushing.
Both Alex and Winn turned their attention to Kara too upon hearing this, knowing instantly the culprit of the lip-licking in Lena’s vicinity. Winn began laughing boisterously as Alex sighed and raised an eyebrow at her sister.
“Seriously, Kara?” she asked with an exasperated expression. “She’s going to figure it out because of that?”
“I mean, honestly, who of us are surprised,” Nia piped up, a faux-seriousness about her voice. “Kara looks at her like she’s a five-course meal in both of her identities; she was bound to put two and two together eventually.”
“Supergirl’s secret identity foiled by super gayness,” Winn chimed in, and while Alex tried to stifle her laugh, Nia began laughing outright.
Huffing, Kara turned on her heel to leave the room, middle finger in the air and calling out, “I’m going to talk to Lena.”
She heard the feet land softly on her balcony, and honestly, she had almost been expecting it. Ever since she had put everything together, she had assumed Kara would sense something was up and come visit.
“Supergirl,” Lena greeted warmly as the city’s hero walked into the room, more timid and shy than usual. Honestly, without the hands-on-hip confidence she was usually spouting, she really just looked like Kara in a costume. Lena let out a shaky breath.
“Miss Luthor,” she responded, her voice wavering and betraying the bit of nervousness she had. “I actually came here to tell you something,” she explained, but looked like it was going to be painful to do so.
Sighing and deciding to help her friend out, Lena offered a soft smile she usually reserved for Kara only (even though technically this still was Kara, she figured) and responded, “I have something to tell you too.” Kara looked a bit caught off-guard at this, and a bit worried as well, but Lena held up her hand to calm her and asked, “Can I go first? It might make yours a little easier.”
Letting out a shaky breath, Kara nodded, clenching her fist in anticipation. Lena bit her cheek and reached into her desk drawer to pull out her spare pair of glasses before she stood up and walked around the desk to her friend.
“You’ll have to forgive me,” she said quietly. “I know it’s all the same and everything, but for whatever reason-” she paused in front of Supergirl, opening up the glasses and placing them delicately on Kara’s head, who was now not breathing. “It’s always easier for me to talk to Kara Danvers,” she finished with a light blush. “I- I’ll work on that, but in the meantime: My thing was that I have to tell you that I like you too, assuming that’s what all the lip-licking and such was about,” she admitted bashfully, noting her best friend was now blushing too.
“I- I-” she tried to stutter, her mind still processing everything that had happened. “Yeah, I- I like you too, Lena.”
Lena practically beamed at this before clearing her throat and addressing the stunned looking superhero. “Okay, now that that’s out of the way, you had something to tell me, Supergirl?” she teased lightly, and Kara let out a little laugh.
“I, um, am Kara Danvers,” she admitted with a nervous yet cheesy smile, and Lena laughed loudly at this.
“Are you now? I’m in shock. My best friend is Supergirl? This came out of nowhere,” she reacted dramatically, and Kara couldn’t help but laugh along with her when she was finished. They laughed for a moment before it died down and there was a charged look between them.
Finally, clearing her throat and delicately handing Lena her glasses back, Kara explained, “Now if you’ll excuse me, Miss Luthor, I have an article I must go write, or my boss will have my head.” Without waiting for a response, she turned to walk back out on the balcony.
Shaking her head with an amused look, Lena called out, “Go finish your article and then I’ll just have your hand for dinner tonight.”
At this, Kara practically flung herself off the balcony, she was so caught off-guard by the words. Sheepishly flying back up and looking over the railing at Lena laughing contagiously, she asked, “I feel like I heard you wrong, d-did you just ask me out on a date?”
Calming her laughter, shrugging and turning back to her own work, Lena answered with a smirk, “I guess you’ll figure it out, won’t you?”