Work Text:
Like usual now these days, Lena gets home late. If she's not working, then she's in a meeting, or she's studying to one of her projects or she's simply avoiding the outside world.
Her driver, Gary, God bless his soul, hasn't complained about this new work schedule. It maybe is due to an astronomic salary rise he received or it was the fact that she often looked like she was one step of collapse into her feet and he felt sorry for her. Either way, he was there ridiculously early in the morning and extremely late at night to drive her to and back from work every day, including weekends now.
When she turns the corner of the hallway where the door to her penthouse is, she stops. There's a bouquet in a vase located right in front of her door and it's weird enough to make her frown right there, in the middle of her hallway.
There are not a million possibilities, to be honest. It could be some weird attempt by her mother to try to mess with her head after another failed effort to end her life. It could from someone else trying to play tricks with her, but there was only one way to find out.
Lena decided to wander closer, a little suspicious and very cautious. She bends to pick up the vase, keeping it as far from her face as she could and keeping her breath hollow and short in case it had some sort of poison attached to it. The vase is quite heavy and it's filled with white gardênias, if her botanic classes served her right, and she has to use her torso to press it against the wall so she can hold it in place to free one hand to open her door.
She walked inside her penthouse a little distracted, staring down at the flowers, and shut the door behind herself. The brunette walked around kicking off her heels and placing her purse down on her couch before strolling to her kitchen, where she puts the vase down on the table.
She stared at it like it's her prey and, just then, she realizes her heart is beating hard and fast against her chest. "Stop being ridiculous, Lena," she muttered to herself and shook her head. "Just read the damn card."
There's a black card peaking from between the flowers, calling for her, so she reached out and grabbed it, slowly unfolding it to reveal a small note inside, scrabbed in well-written hand letters.
I'm sorry.
She can only think of a handful of people who might want to apologize to her and she doesn't feel like forgiving any of them. So she grabbed the flowers and dumped them unceremoniously in the trash can. The maid can take the trash out tomorrow, because she doesn't want any of the flowers, and there are so many freaking flowers it's ridiculous.
She does keep the vase, though. It's pretty and she can't throw it away without breaking it in a million pieces, so she rinses it out and shoves it inside one of her many cabinets. She can find a way to get rid of it later. Or her maid can find it another use. Right now, she has to think about a paper she needs to start working on. She has no time to think about flowers or forgiveness.
"So you're telling me Kara isn't on this planet," Lena started slowly, almost as if she was talking with a child, but Alex nodded just as slow. "Or any planet in this solar system."
"Well, she is" Alex wiggled her fingers nervously on her lap. "She's on Earth, she's just not on this... Earth."
"Because she's in another Universe."
"See, I knew you would get it pretty fast."
Lena didn't appreciate the joke. It made her mad. She felt like Alex was mocking her and her intelligence and, like an old instinct, she wished she could jump across her expensive glass table and knock the smirk out of the agent's face.
"Kara's Supergirl," Alex added like a late thought.
Lena arched one eyebrow at her and clicked her pen. "I'm aware of that for quite some time now, agent. Not thanks to Kara," she chose to ignore the woman's shocked expression, taking a little pleasure from it. "Not thanks to you either, or any of our friends."
"How?" Alex gulped loudly but she didn't look sorry. Lena wasn't sure if she was expecting the woman to do so, but it felt like the last string to her heart.
"Does it matter how I know?" The CEO's pen made a sickening noise when she dropped it on her desk to cross her arms, but neither woman dared to take their eyes from each other. "Do you still want my help?" She mocked.
Alex sighed, unwilling to get defeated. "You're the smartest person I know, Lena. I need your help to bring Kara back home."
"National City needs its hero," Lena complied with a nod. "If you bring me all your data and everything you have that can help, I will take a look at the files"
"Thank you, Lena."
"Don't thank me just yet," the CEO rose from her chair with her chin up high and a side smirk that made Alex's skin rise. "I will walk you out."
The first thing she thinks when she steps inside the DEO that night is that she shouldn't be there. Quite literally.
She wasn't authorized to walk inside those walls without a companion or, as she liked to say, an agent who would be responsible for her. But, in her defense, she didn't have another time to show up and Alex's notes were vague, for the lack of a better word for it. Lena could barely understand what the other woman was trying to say and it definitely was a problem if she wanted her help.
She was not expecting, of course, to see Kara.
The woman was sitting on a stool, one leg under her while the other foot touched the ground, her cape falling behind her like a light breeze was hitting her from the side. There was clearly something different about her. When she greeted Lena, scaring the living shit out of her, her smile didn't reach her eyes and her chuckle didn't hold any humor. Her blue eyes were distorted thanks to the blue-ish portal separating them, the small undulations that rushed through it every now and then making her image flutter slightly, and the glare coming from it made her look almost ethereal.
"Welcome to my new place," she mocked in a self-demeaning way.
Lena was furious at Kara. She can't stop herself from glaring at her, can't stop herself from wanting to launch herself at the woman and tear her apart. Thankfully, she stops herself from actually doing that because it would never end well.
When her brother died, she's not sure whether to be grateful or terrified.
On one hand, she's the one who did it, she killed her own brother, shot him really. On the other hand, Lex was not a sane person anymore, he hurt millions of people and he planned on doing much more. He hurt Lena numerous times. He was going to hurt her friends. He was going to hurt Kara.
He was going to hurt Supergirl.
Except that Supergirl and Kara were the ones and the same.
The satisfaction she felt when she shot him should be considered illegal. She was hurt and he became a target and she felt good afterward. And then she felt nothing. But then she felt anger.
So much anger.
It started eating her inside.
Consuming her.
"I just rented it," Kara continued when Lena didn't reply to her semi try of a joke. The CEO had walked straight to the computer in one of the tables, the one closest to the door, and was now typing and looking at the data she could find like Kara wasn't even there in the first place. "The landlord is really nice. He's called Universe and every once in awhile we..."
"Not funny, Kara."
They locked eyes over the computer screen. Kara is still holding a fake smile, Lena is still looking furious and they don't say another word as they stare at each other for what felt like years.
It was an accident. In the back of her mind, Kara knew she should be expecting it to happen at some point. You just can't go around playing with Universes like that and wait for nothing to happen. It eventually did, of course. Barry asked for her help and she went, of course, she did because she's Supergirl and she wants to help, but then she tried to go back to her Earth, only to find out she couldn't do that anymore.
The portal was still there and there was nothing wrong with it, apparently, but there was this blue line now from which she couldn't walk through. It took her a while to understand what was going on, but it looked almost like a dome, keeping her stuck in Barry's world and incapable of going back to her own. Every time she tried to walk by it, she would get shocked so violently that, even with her powers, she would be thrown back five feet in the air. Thankfully she could still communicate with Alex and the others and everyone was invested into getting her back home, but it has been over two months now, and they still had no success.
"It's okay," Kara whispered with a sigh, breaking the stare-down when she looked down to her palms. "I know you guys are trying."
And they were. Alex had told her about every single plan they had and how every one of them failed. She also told her about how much she missed her sister and she even cried a little, which was unfair because Kara was trying to play it cool but it was hard not to cry when someone else was doing it right in front of her.
"What are you doing here?" She had no idea why she was asking that, but the words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
Lena arched one eyebrow at her. She glared at the blue line before directing it to the woman on the other side. "Nothing."
Kara didn't stop her when Lena turned around and walked away, closing the door in the DEO's office on her way.
A few nights later, Lena returned to the room at DEO who held the portal. She pulled herself a chair and just sat in the cold room. Her fingers clutched the cushions so hard she was sure she had indented the leather somehow. And she just stared at the blue-ish portal wondering how things became like this.
She should be happy, at least a little bit. She wanted a fresh start, one where she hadn't trusted Kara, one where she wasn't stupid enough to trust someone else, just to get betrayed all over again. So the fact that Kara was stuck in another world should make her happy. At least a little bit.
So why did she agreed with Alex when the woman asked for her help? She didn't even think before saying that she would do everything she could to bring the other woman back. To her credit, Alex didn't look surprised to have her agreeing with it without a fight.
It has been five months without talking with Kara before she went missing. At first, Lena didn't think much of it. She thought the blonde might have taken a break or traveled away, but when a week without Supergirl became two, and then three, she knew something was wrong. As much as she wanted to point out every flaw Kara might have, she knew the woman would never leave National City without their protector.
But Alex didn't talk with her for another month and Lena was too proud to ask or go look for Kara herself. By the time the director reached out for her, Kara was stuck for almost two months and National City was already believing their favorite Superhero was dead. Lena thought the same and it was a scary thing to think, being mad at Kara or not.
She had stopped crying months ago about Kara. She stopped crying when the reality of what had happened settled in. She wasn't angry anymore, not really. All the anger that consumed her and made her seak for some sort of revenge was gone. All she felt was the void in her heart that grew bigger and bigger, consuming her in the emptiness that she was feeling. You can feel nothing and still get destroyed, she realized.
Her head whipped up as the sound of an exhausted sigh cutting through the silent room on the other side of the portal. She watched as the other person shut the door behind her and started searching for a chair, only to come empty-handed.
"What a sight for sore eyes," she mocked between a heavy sigh.
Kara jumped a little, clearly not having noticed her there before. Despite the sarcastic words and the tense posture from the other woman, the blonde's face lighted with a smile. "I could say the same. What brings you to my palace?"
Lena scoffed and held her head high – her mother would be proud of her for the first time in her life. "As I'm sure you're aware, I was asked to help clean this mess you got yourself stuck on, so I have to study this thing," she waved at the general direction of the portal. "What are you doing here again?"
Kara stuffed her hands deep into her jeans pockets and shrugged. "A few things. For the most part, just think."
At that, the CEO raised one dark brow. "Okay, then. I think I have enough information for now," said Lena as she raised from her chair and straighten her skirt. "Goodbye, Supergirl."
As soon as the brunette turned to leave, Kara took a step closer, almost hitting her face against the blue-ish wall separating them. "Wait." She was genuinely surprised when Lena stilled and turned around slowly, even if her features didn't soften as she did so. Kara cleared her throat to gather some courage, before huffing. "How's Alex? For real."
Lena nodded in understanding. She knew the sisters for long enough to know how much they cared about each other, even if she didn't felt like she knew them that well after all. "She's okay, very determined. Haven't you been talking to her?"
"Of course, but I only know what she tells me," reasoned the blonde. "And Alex can be very... filtered when she wants."
"Well," Lena started after taking a deep breath. "She's concerned, of course, but she's a really smart woman and she's not giving up."
A moment of concern brushed over Kara's face, impossible for Lena not to catch on it before it was replaced with a half-smile that was clearly just for show. "She's tough and very stubborn."
The silence that followed that sentence was uncomfortable and Kara shifted from foot-to-foot while waiting for Lena to say something. On her side, the CEO wanted to point out that Alex and she were the same in that matter, but she bit her tongue. Kara and she weren't friends, not anymore, and they weren't on terms for jokes or teasings.
"I'm leaving," she finally spoke, glad for the first time for being raised by Lillian Luthor and that she had learned all about a good poker face.
"Okay," Kara nodded and watched her go without another word.
The next time they met, neither were surprised to see each other.
Surprised that the other would be on the other side so late at night? Sure.
Surprised that the other was there at all? Not really.
The heroine was using her cape to sit in the groud when Lena walked in, holding a stack of heavy books under her arms, and she turned to look at the big window across the room and up at the stars as soon as Lena buried herself into work.
No words were spoken. Instead, Lena grabbed a book, pulled her tablet closer to where she set down and started reading. They sat side by side, each one on their own side, not daring to look directly at each other, but unable to stop themselves from stealing glances every now and then.
"Supergirl," Lena greeted politely as she pulled the chair from the corner of the room. She furrowed her brow when she found the blonde floating length-wise along the line of the portal, hands clasped over her stomach as she stared at the ceiling above her, her blonde hair falling down and almost touching the ground thanks to gravity. "What are you doing?"
"I'm wondering how it's like right now," commented Kara in a whisper.
"What's what like now?" She didn't think much while sitting down without her working supplies, neither she wondered why she was indulging Kara in that conversation either.
"Our Earth. Our Universe. What's going on out there now?" Lena noticed that Kara was floating way too close to the portal and it made her want to push her away or scream at her for being so reckless about her own safety.
Despite her best effort, Lena smirked as she crossed her arms. "Food now comes in capsules. Only one a day, sometimes only half. And the zombies are starting to gain more territory as we talk, they invaded all Europe. There's a new flu and it's killing every person who owns a cellphone, weirdly enough. Don't worry, though, global warming is still an issue and people still don't give a shit about it."
Kara chuckled softly. "I'm serious. Give me some updates. How's the weather?"
"You want to talk about the weather?" the brunette scoffed. "I didn't peg you as one who enjoyed this mundane talks."
"Well, I didn't sign up to live in another Universe, but here I'm," Kara argued a little angry.
"But, Supergirl," Lena enunciated her title like it was a curse, "you did. You were the one who walked inside a portal that took you to another Universe."
"I didn't know it would be like this." The hero turned her head to look at Lena for a second before she returned to stare at the grey ceiling again. "In the end, I guess it was a good thing for you, huh?"
Lena laughed. She truly laughed, throwing her head back and all, and, for a second, Kara thought she might have gone crazy. The blonde sat up, still floating a few feet in the air, to give her a proper look.
"You're saying that I came out on top of this?" Lena shook her head and her voice started to rose a little bit. "National City lost its hero, the one thing giving them hope, the one thing that made them stop fearing me. People think I did it," she confessed in a low sick voice. "People think I made Supergirl go away, just like Lex was trying to do with Superman. Everything I did, everything I worked for, it's gone."
"Lena..."
The CEO shook her head, a grimace appearing on her face. "Once again, the Luthor gets her to wish, right? But the only person I thought I could always trust is a line away from me and, in the end, I couldn't trust you at all."
Kara stared wide-eyed at the panting woman before she rushed to stand when Lena snorted and pushed her chair back to the corner. Without thinking, Kara stepped forward to chase the brunette, to stop her from leaving, but she was able to stop herself just in time. Only a second from touching it, Kara stared at the portal like it was the most offensive thing in the world for her before her eyes adjusted again and she had no other option but to watch Lena leave.
Kara was not even a little surprised when Lena didn't return the next night or for the next week after that, but she returned to the room holding the portal every night. Barry was worried about her, he had said so and he had tried to keep her company, but there was only so much he could do for her. She was depressed, a Universe away from home, from her sister, from her friends, and Lena, and there was nothing he could do about it. He apologized, like it was his fault somehow, and hugged her, but that was all he could do for her.
She heard the door opening again later that week. Kara didn't react at first. It could be Brainy, Winn or even Alex back even after Kara told her to go home and enjoy the night with her girlfriend, but she almost tripped on her own foot in her rush to get up when she saw the familiar heels clicking the floor.
"Hi," she said sheepishly, regretting her choice of fashion because those pants didn't have pockets for her to occupy her hands with.
Lena barely nodded in her direction as she walked straight to where she had left her tablet the last time. "Supergirl."
"I'm sorry about the other night-"
"No need to apologize," Lena dismissed as she sat down in her usual chair and started working, typing away numbers without looking up, her back turned to Kara.
Kara watched her for a few moments before sitting back on the floor and pulling the sleeve of her sweater with her nervous hands. "Aren't you tired?" she asked after a while.
"No," came the reply and there was silence for a while before Lena sighed and her shoulders dropped when she realized it was clear she was lying. She had looked at herself in the mirror on the way there, she looked like shit and she knew it, there was no point pretending she didn't.
Kara nodded and allowed a few moments of silence to settle between them before talking again. "Barry and I raced today." That caught Lena's attention as her eyebrows rose as the only indication that the blonde could keep going. "We wanted to see who's faster, so we ran across the country."
"Who won?" Lena asked as she tried not to sound curious at all.
Kara stuffed her chest at that, a big smile on her face as she threw her hair over her shoulder. "Me, of course!"
The brunette's lips tilted upward in a smile herself, betraying her attempt to hide her disdain. "I bet he let you win."
"Like he would lose when Iris is around," the hero quipped happily.
After muffling down a chuckle, Lena turned around in her chair, still holding her tablet against her chest like it was a shield. "I have to admit that National City is a little more boring without Supergirl doing her pirouettes around."
"I assume there's been a rise of mobs and aliens," replied Kara with a slightly concerned frown.
"Yes," Lena sighed. "But the police and the DEO are doing a very good job. L-Corp has also offered some technology to help."
Kara smirked. "Thank you." After a deep bored sigh, Kara threw her body back, lying down in the hard ground and closing her eyes. "It's boring here, you know. Barry doesn't need much help, I don't have a job. It's a monotonous routine I find myself in."
"Is that the reason why you have these late-night excursions to the portal?" the brunette asked.
"I don't want to get into anyone's way," Kara replied quietly. "I used to wish I wasn't alone, but people here aren't... my people. I just feel alone."
There was a pause, brief, but significant. "You're not alone right now," the other woman pointed out softly.
"Yeah," Kara's hand, the one closest to the portal, shifted as her chest rose and fell slowly. "You're here."
Lena gulped and shifted on her chair before she scratched the back of her hand with her well-made nails. "You were the one, weren't you? You sent the flowers."
The heroine hesitated for a second, maybe a bit too long, and sighed before she nodded. "Yes, I did. It was the same day Barry called me."
"I threw them out," Lena confessed with no signs of remorse. Kara's face wasn't completely clear thanks to the blue-ish color of the portal and the small waves that ran through it, but she could see the woman's eyes falling to the ground, she could see her remarkable pout and she could see how heartbroken she was. It made her feel good. It made her feel like shit. "Do you still want me here?"
"Yes," Kara nodded, now looking back up at her, making sure their eyes were locked. "I still want you here."
"Hey!" Kara waved from her place on the floor, clearly excited to see someone she knew after a day talking with people she was trying to get along with.
Lena pulled her chair from the corner to sit in the table closest to the blue line. "It's raining today," she informed when she removed her raincoat to put it on the back of her chair.
"Too bad, I would have loved to see some rain again," Kara laughed.
"Why do you sit on the floor?" Lena asked after spotting a chair just behind Kara.
The woman shrugged. "It's nice, I guess. Try it." Kara patted the spot beside her, causing the other woman to raise her brow. For a second, it was easy to forget they weren't friends anymore. It was easy to pretend the portal was the only thing that was stoping Lena from cuddling against Kara while they watched a movie, especially when the blonde had that easy smile on her face and that warmth on her blue eyes. "Sit on your side," Kara shrugged.
But Lena looked at her like she was crazy and the idea was an offense. "On the floor?"
"Are you afraid it will bite you?" the blonde teased with a smirk.
Lena could blame the scotch she drank before going there for what she said next. She could blame Kara's easy smile. She could blame her own mind for forgetting, even for a second, that she should still be mad because it was so easy to forget. It was so easy to slide into her old teasing manners with Kara. But she would blame the scotch, this time, at least. "Are you into bitting, Supergirl?"
Kara set up straighter with a goofy smile on her face that made Lena remember a time where they would share lunch on her couch. "That depends." Smiling bigger when she noticed Lena's cheeks flushing, she continued: "But there is this portal thingy separating us right now, so..."
Throwing a petulant glare at the blonde, and trying to hide the fact that she was still blushing, Lena dropped herself into her chair and rolled her eyes. Kara giggled again, but Lena was already staring at the screen of her tablet.
"Why are you looking like someone took your food away?" Lena asked after she heard a rustling sound behind her. She used the black screen in the computer by her side to watch as Kara walked inside holding a bag and dropped it on the floor before sitting down.
"I flew by Paris since I had nothing else to do and decided to buy a croissant for you," Kara answered and sighed. She kind of looked like a kid when she crossed her arms and frowned. "But I forgot I can't give it to you."
Lena raised one dark brow and took a few seconds to decide how to react to that. Finally, after clicking her pen on the table, she sighed and turned her chair to face Kara. "Why don't you eat it?"
The blonde shrugged. "It's not for me."
"When did that stopped you before?"
Kara rolled her eyes. "It's your favorite," she confessed.
Lena almost smiled at that. "It's okay. It's not like I'm going to eat it anyway." It was an easy thing to forget too, she realized. How cared Kara made her feel, even when she couldn't even eat the damn thing the other woman flew so far to get for her. She had to make a real effort to remember. Remember why she should be mad.
"Isn't it a little cruel to eat it in front of you, though?" Kara wondered, even if she was already opening the bag. "It's like drinking water in front of a thirst man."
"Go ahead, Kara, I'm fine," replied Lena with an eye roll. She watched amused as Kara almost inhaled the first croissant. "And you didn't want to eat it."
"I didn't say I didn't want it," Kara grumbled with a mouth full of half-eaten croissant. "This is so good." That was the thing that broke Lena's poker face. She chuckled softly at that and shook her head, which caused the blonde to froze in place as her eyes catch the vision in front of her. Her hand was raised halfway to her mouth holding a second croissant, but she wasn't feeling like eating anymore. "I miss you."
She watched, almost in horror, as joy was erased from Lena's face. Her lips curled into a thin line, her brows furrowed and the last traces of laugh left so fast as they came. For a minute, Kara was sure her friend – or former friend – was going to get up and walk away like she had done many times before, but Lena just stared at her. Her emerald eyes were filled with such sadness that broke Kara's heart all over again.
"I'm sorry," Kara whispered sadly. "I didn't mean to overstep, it's just... It's true, Lena, I miss you so much. And not only because I'm stuck here because I was already missing you before all of this happened. Rao, Lena, you're my best friend and the only reason we're talking right now is that I lock myself in this room while you have to work trying to get me back home."
Lena took a few seconds after the hero's rambling to reply. Her voice was low and emotionless, even if her eyes were screaming everything she couldn't voice. "I miss too," she admitted finally. "I miss the lie you made me live in and I miss the person you made me believe you were. It was a happy world, I can't deny that." Another pause and, this time, she got up. "That doesn't mean I want to live that again."
Right around 10 pm, two nights later, Lena returned to the portal room, finding Kara already spread out on the floor like she was in a large bed. As soon as she walked in, the blonde set up and offered her a hesitant smile, which Lena decided to ignore. Instead, she started getting stuff ready to do some more research, making a very good point of pretending no one was watching her from, literally, another Universe.
The room around her was so quiet that, for a moment, she forgot she wasn't alone. Of course, things couldn't go smoothly like she wished they could, though.
"Can I ask you something?" Kara's voice was low and a little uncertain. Her eyes were glued to the floor where she was sitting with her legs crossed under her. She was holding a little piece of paper that she was tearing apart slowly.
Lena looked up from her book to watch the other woman for a couple of seconds. Her mind, the part that was raised by the Luthors, kind of wanted to tell Kara to go fuck herself, but the other part, the part that remembered long night talks and movie nights, eventually won.
"Go for it."
"Are you still mad at me?" Her eyes raised for a second to steal a glance from Lena to measure her reaction. She was quick to add after seeing the grimace: "It's just... you're helping them to bring me back and... well, you're here almost every night. I was just wondering."
Lena sighed as she allowed her body to fell back on her chair. She crossed her arms while pondering the question before she sighed again and shook her head. "I'm not mad, Kara. I was, at first, but that was gone fast." Lena waited until Kara looked up again and they locked eyes. "I'm hurt, Kara."
"Lena-"
"I'm hurt. I'm hurt because I trusted you and you lied to me. You looked me in the eye and you lied," she scoffed at the last word, becoming more and more angry by the second. "I told you all about the people who betrayed me in my life and you set there and promised you wouldn't be one of them while doing exactly that."
Kara suddenly jumped to her feet and took a step closer, before she remembered the electrical field separating them. Her hand stopped just an inch from touching the portal and she whined when she let the member fall back to her side. "Lena, I'm-"
"I used to think about you as someone who would never hurt me," Lena confessed quietly as tears started to blur her vision, but she refused to cry. Kara had done enough to her, she didn't deserve the proofs of all the damage she had created. "But of course I was wrong. You were the one who hurt me the most."
A second later, Lena was standing and walking to the door with a purpose. Feeling like her world was sliding from her fingers, Kara tried to approach again, only to hiss when her toes touched the portal. "Lena, Lena, please, wait!" She shook her leg to get rid of the electrical sensation running up her foot, but she refused to look anywhere but Lena. "Please! We need to talk, okay? Please."
"Whatever excuse you came up with, I don't care," her hand was reaching the door handle.
"I was trying to protect you!" Kara shouted in despair. She raised her hand and dropped them back when she found nothing to hold on to, but it got the desired effect. Lena stopped. Her back was still facing her, but she stopped. "Alex was kidnapped once. She was held hostage and she almost drowns. She almost died, Lena. If I was a second late..." Kara stopped herself when the perspective of that hit her. The memory of saving Alex still haunted her. "Only because she's my sister. She's Supergirl's sister and that makes her a target. I couldn't help it, because Alex always knew who I was, but I couldn't do the same to you."
Lena watched, with watery eyes, as Kara fell to her knees, tears rolling down freely through her face, hands shaking clutching at her thighs. "I was afraid that, as more people knew, more dangerous it would become. If we have too many people knowing Kara Danvers is Supergirl, then anyone involved with her will become a target." Sniffing, the hero looked up again, eyes puffy and trembling lips. "I was also selfish. You were the only one who I could be just Kara with. I thought I could be myself with you, Lena, but I was wrong. By hiding a part of me from you, I was only living a half-life. I was trying so hard to be Kara Danvers, just Kara Danvers, with you that I wasn't neither."
Kara shook her head and took a deep breath to control her emotions. "I was wrong and I'm sorry," she begged. "Can we start over?"
"No, Kara, we can't start over," replied Lena. "I can't just press a button and forget about everything. That's not how it works."
Kara got up again when Lena opened the door, not even carrying anymore if she was launched five feet in the air. "No, Lena! Please, wait!"
"What is it, Kara?" the brunette asked with a deep tired sigh as she turned around.
Kara let a shaky breath out as she made a decision. "My name is Kara Zor El," started her. "I'm an alien from Krypton and I got sent to your Earth a long time ago to protect my cousin. Here I'm known as Kara Danvers, that's my human name, but you might also know me as Supergirl, National City's protector. I made a horrible mistake and I'm sorry."
There was a pause. Long, uncomfortable and awkward. In the end, Lena sighed. "I can't. Not right now."
"I can wait."
"I know you can," Lena whispered almost sadly. "Maybe that's the problem."
"It's not a problem, not for me."
"Kara-"
"I'm sorry, Lena. Please, I never meant to hurt you. I can give you time, just think about it."
She appeared again around 10 pm four days later. Kara was spread out on her cape, right against the edge, her phone was beside her, playing soft music as she hummed along with it under her breath. She looked up when she heard Lena's heels clicking on the floor and watched with intense interest as the younger woman walked across the room to pick up her chair and the old book she had been reading nonstop since she started with her visitations. Without a word, the CEO removed her coat, threw it on top of one of the computers, opened her book and started reading while bitting the end of her pen. Kara just smirked and went back down, continuing to hum to her music when she realized the other woman was not only back, but that she was also looking almost... okay. She knew they would be fine then.
Three songs played before the silence was broken. "I paint."
"Hm?" Lena tilted her head to the side with a light frow. Her eyes were still scanning the page from her book, but she speeds up before looking at Kara in confusion.
When it became clear that she hadn't heard, the blonde chuckled. "I paint. In my apartment sometimes," Kara explained.
The CEO nodded, still slightly confused. "What do you paint?"
"Landscapes, for the most part." Kara shrugged the best she could in her position.
"From National City?" Lena commented casually and understanding.
The hero smiled. "Yes. But I never show my paintings to anyone," she kept going after a couple of seconds. It sounded like a piece of very important information to share, especially considering the other part of herself she kept from her friend. She wanted Lena to understand she didn't keep her painting a secret for any other reason than being too shy to show it. "Alex is the only one who saw a couple of them, but I felt weird when she did it."
"It's personal."
"Yes, it is," Kara agreed with a sigh. "I keep them in storage. I don't have a car, so I just use it to drop the things I don't use very often."
Lena didn't know what to reply to that. She knew what Kara was doing by sharing that information with her, she knew she was showing her she wasn't going to keep secrets anymore, but she also didn't know how much of it she could trust. But she was back, wasn't she? It took her four days, but she went back.
And it's not like she needed to be back, either.
"I write," Lena whispered after looking around both rooms to make sure they were alone. "Poetry. Is stupid. Lillian made me took classes when I was a pre-teen and it kind of stuck, I guess. It's not a book material, for sure, and most of them don't even make sense, but yeah, I have a notebook filled with them."
Kara had the most gentle smile when she turned her head to look at her. "I would love to hear one of them someday, I'm sure they're all great." Her smile grew bigger when Lena blushed and looked down at her book, clearly ending the conversation. "I chose number... 34, for you to read for me."
"Fine. I chose painting 12," Lena replied in the same teasing tone without missing a beat as her eyes raised and locked with blue ones.
Kara had a large smile that refused to go down, even when she was challenged so openly by Lena. In the end, she laughed. They were fine.
Lena didn't show up for two days. Kara waited, crossing and uncrossing her arms, groaning and falling asleep sometimes.
Barry had offered her to eat some pizza with him and Iris and she declined the invitation so she could talk with Lena again. He promised he would keep her some, but she didn't know if she could trust him with her food. He was a nice guy and was letting her crash on his couch while his friends and her friends tried to find a way to bring her back home, but food was food.
But Lena didn't show up. She didn't think much of it on the first day. It wasn't like they had schedule encounters now and Lena had skipped days before, usually when she was too tired. However, when she didn't appear on the second day on a roll, Kara started to get a little restless.
Kara waited well past midnight and then some, but Lena never showed up. It was a shame because she also didn't felt like eating pizza after that.
By the time the CEO returned to the room holding the portal the next night, Kara was already sitting on her cape for about four hours. She talked with Alex earlier that day and her sister seemed a little off but didn't give her any pieces of information on that. Winn also made more lame jokes than usual. Even Maggie had shown up to see her, holding potstickers take out.
Lena walked inside wearing some expensive-looking jeans and a large National City University hoodie, which already rang all the bells inside Kara's head, keeping her head down and her hands stuffed on her back pockets. She jumped to her feet and walked just a little too fast to the edge of the line, going as far as she could go. "Lena?"
The brunette looked up. There were black deep circles under her eyes like she hadn't slept in several days and it was clear she wasn't wearing any makeup. "Hi."
"For Rao, what happened?" Kara stepped forward, only to whip herself back at the shock running down from the tip of her fingers. She growled in anger but stepped closer again.
Lena shrugged and removed her hands from her pockets to cross her arms in front of her chest. "My family," replied the other woman like she wasn't looking one wind of falling into the ground.
"Lena." The hero tried to reach for her again but was able to stop herself in the last second. She sighed heavily and her shoulders dropped in defeat. "What have they done this time? Why are you looking dead on your feet?"
"Mother tried to kidnap me again, sent out some of her henchmen to fetch me." She allowed a humorless laugh to pass her lips and shook her head. "I spent all night getting looked at and they forced me to take the day off."
Kara raised an eyebrow, not entirely believing that was the whole story, but not wanting to press any further either. She was also mad with Alex and everyone else for not telling her any of this before. "How... Who..." She wanted to ask who saved her since she wasn't there to do so, but she also didn't know how to ask that without sounding too narcissistic.
"The police got wind of it," Lena said with a shrug. "Maggie can really kick some ass."
"What happened to your hands?"
"Why do you ask?"
Kara scoffed. "Because you're hiding them from me since you walked inside."
Lena's eyes narrowed a bit and her lips twisted to the side. "Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Yes, nothing happened. So where can I find that storage of yours so I can find painting number 12?"
"Stop deflecting my question," Kara growled. "Did you punch someone?" When Lena blushed, a smile started to slowly show up on her face. "You did, didn't you? Did you lose?"
"No, I broke his nose," quick to defend herself, Lena bit the bait before she could realize what she had done. She groaned when Kara laughed.
"Let me see it."
"Why? I had five doctors looking at it already."
Kara rolled her eyes. "Just let me see."
Lena sighed exasperatedly and took a step forward as she uncrossed her arms and put her hands flat in front of her for Kara to see. The blonde leaned in as close as she could, some of her hair touching the portal and causing a small sizzling noise from it. She had a deep frow of concentration while she looked down at Lena's hands and the CEO wondered if she was using her x-ray vision on her before she remembered Kara's powers wouldn't work from the other side of the portal.
After a few seconds, the blonde sighed and shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."
"It's not your fault I have such a lovely family," Lena replied in a neutral tone, crossing her arms again. The knuckles on her right hand were a little bruised and swell, but she could handle it. The doctor said she should lay down and put ice on it, and the only reason he let her out of the hospital was that she promised she would do just that. Instead, she walked to the DEO, literally behind Alex's back, and waltz inside the portal room. In her defense, Maggie helped her out.
"If I was there, you wouldn't get hurt," Kara whispered.
"You don't know that," came the fast reply from the CEO.
The hero shook her head in determination. "No, I wouldn't allow that. I wouldn't allow you to get hurt." She said with so much conviction and strength that Lena had no option but to believe in her.
And that made her mad.
"What are you getting at?" Lena stood, her heels planted firmly in the ground as she glared at the blonde who slowly raised her eyes to meet hers.
"Why are you mad?" Kara asked in confusion. "I'm just saying I would have protected you if I was there" she pointed out.
"Why do you suddenly care, Supergirl?" Lena scoffed. "You didn't care before when you spent two years lying to me."
"I'm just supposed to let people try to hurt you now?" the blonde asked, deciding to ignore Lena's second jab.
"Just because you're Supergirl does not mean you can save everyone." Lena's sudden burst of anger made Kara's head spin. She had no idea how things had got so out of hand so fast or how to fix it.
Kara stood in her side a little more upright as anger started to take over her too. "I can protect you, that's all I'm saying. I would have protected you."
Lena's breathless laugh was painfull before she even said anything. "Then come over here and kick some bad guy's ass." She motioned to the room behind her.
The blonde growled as her hands closed in fists. "I'm stuck in another Universe, Lena. Can't you give me a Goddamn break?!"
Suddenly, all emotions left Lena's body. Kara stared, in horror, as it became like looking at a wall. A bruised wall. "Supergirl, I believe you're confusing these meetings as something of a friendship. I have a job with the DEO, that said, I'm here to work. I'm not your friend, not anymore."
If Kara wasn't so confused and shocked at Lena for her being angry, she maybe would have laughed when the CEO turned on her heels and started walking away hitting her feet in the ground like a small child.
Just before she got outside the door, Kara called after her. "Just because you can protect yourself doesn't mean you should stop other people from trying to do the same."
Lena whipped her head back at Kara and, for a brief moment, the blonde thought she was going to walk back. Instead, a sickening smile crept on her face before she disappeared behind the door.
The hero was floating only a few feet from the ground with her legs crossed when she returned, over a week later. Lena looked around the room but her chair was nowhere to be seen and her eyes glared briefly to the floor.
"Thinking about it?" Kara smirked down at her.
"Not a chance," Lena made her decision and hopped up on a table after pushing some keyboards to the side.
Kara closed her eyes. "Whatever works for you."
This time Lena didn't pick up her book or tablet. Instead, she grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started making some calculations while studying the portal from close. They sat in silence for four hours and, by the time Lena looked down at her wristwatch and realized it and looked over, Kara had fallen asleep. She was still floating, but she had laid down at some point, both hands were under one cheek and her mouth was slightly open.
Lena wondered if she should wake her up and apologize for exaggerating the other night, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, so she gathered her papers and left quietly.
They failed again. Lena spent over a week doing calculous and more calculous with Winn and Alex, they came up with a plan, and they failed again. Kara was hopeful it would work, like every other time, and she took a confident step forward, only to be throwback so violently that she broke through a wall. Barry had to help her stand while Alex called her name repeatedly in worry.
When she finally walked back, with a sad smile, she tried to play it off. "Well, that was more fun than rollercoasters."
Later that night, after everyone left and the DEO was silent and almost empty, Lena walked back into the room holding a small notebook. Kara was already waiting for her, floating around, and watched her walking inside with a grin. Lena grabbed the recovered chair but pushed it away in the last second. With a sigh, she eased herself into it, crossing her legs under herself, looking nothing like the stonecold CEO she tried so perfectly to pull off.
She ignored Kara's giant smile as she cleared her throat and flipped the pages in her notebook. "I'm not reading it out loud. I will never, ever, do it. Not even if you pay me to do it. Not even if you promise to buy me an island.." She finally reached the page she was searching for and turned it to Kara. "So you're going to have to find a way to read it."
"You wrote it?" Kara raised her hand to touch the notebook and the open pages, the handwritten words decorating the white page almost like a painting, but she realized her error just in time, bringing her hand back with a sigh. "I can read it from here," she announced while her eyes started scanning the words. She might not be able to use her x-ray vision, but her superspeed would still work, even with the slightly blurred words, so she was going to put that in her advantage. "It's really good," Kara whispered in awe after she finished the last words.
"Thank you," Lena whispered back with a hint of pride and shyness in her voice, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. She looked at her notebook from upside down and turned the page. "I will let you read another one. As a bonus since we failed today again."
This one was much shorter. It was clearly talking about a person, someone in Lena's life, that either was a part of it in the past or was still on it, but that clearly left a mark. Only four lines, but they were much longer than the ones from before and piqued her curiosity again. This time Kara couldn't help herself and when she tried to grab the notebook to take a look from closer the electricity shot through her, making her yelp.
"Kara!" Lena leaned over on her chair, one leg already touching the ground, ready to launch herself forward if needed, and yelled. She moved to go after her, but the buzz still coming from the portal made her remember she would have the same fate as the other woman.
The hero groaned and rolled her hand in front of her. "I'm okay. I'm okay." She shook her hand one more time. "Stupid move, I just wanted to touch it."
Lena scoffed. "Perhaps one day your stubbornness will break it," she joked.
Kara winched when her palm tingled from where it had touched the portal, but she laughed no less. "Maybe one day."
"I made a research," Lena whispered to the quiet room the next night. She was typing for the best part of an hour now and Kara was floating behind her while playing a game in Barry's Nintendo Switch for the most of it.
"On what?" the blonde asked without removing her eyes from the small screen where her character was jumping through buildings.
Lena was glad she had her back turned to Kara. This way the other woman couldn't see her blush, or the way her fingers started playing with the edges of her book. "The flower you sent me," replied her finally.
"Oh," not compromising herself with her answer, Kara's voice was neutral.
"Do you know what gardenias mean?" the CEO asked after a minute of silence. It was a different type of silence. Not only because now there was no other silence to fill up space, no typing or game's noises, but it was also heavy and a little uncomfortable. It was strange enough for her to know that Kara did knew what she was being asked before she even answered it.
In a low voice, so low that Lena barely heard anything, the heroine replied, "secret love."
Lena nodded, without turning around, clicked her pen and then licked her lips. "Yes," she agreed. "Secret love."
She started typing again a minute later, but Kara's game didn't return. "Would you have throw them out if you knew what they meant that day?"
Lena didn't answer.
"The poetry you showed me, the second one, was that... was that about me?"
Lena didn't answer either.
"Are you coming tomorrow?"
At that, Lena smiled.
Kara had a whole thing planned the next night. She had to ask for help and Alex had looked at her a little weirded out, but Maggie jumped right in to help and so did Barry, so she all settled when Lena arrived.
There was a tablecloth across the floor, carefully put on both sides, so close to the line that it almost looked like a continuous thing. Maggie had buzzed her finger a little to do it, but she couldn't stop making joked during the time she helped Kara, so she was taking the woman wasn't taking it to the personal side.
On her side, there were three burgers from a place called Burger's Palace and enough fries to feed a family, along with a coke. There was also a single rose lying in the middle of the setting. On Lena's side, there was a single Big Belly's Burger, a handful of fries, some organic juice Kara hated the smell of and a sunflower.
It looked perfect from where she was standing. And she even floated to look it from above too.
So when a confused Lena walked inside after being guided by Maggie, Kara only waved at her, trying not to jump in place in excitement. Try as she might, she couldn't stop the small smile when Lena arched a brow at her.
"Why did I had an escort today?" Lena asked while her eyes took the vision in front of her.
"Well, I thought we could sit down together, have some food and, you know, talk." Kara waved her hands in the direction of the improvised picnic and blushed a little.
"A date?" Lena had to bit her lip to stop herself from laughing from Kara's rambled explanation.
The blonde nodded so fast that her head almost became a blur, then she straightened her glasses. "Only if you say yes. If not, then it's just dinner."
Lena looked down to hide her smirk. "Well, I have nowhere else to be now, so..."
Kara let out a breathless laugh of relief. "Okay, great, because I know this amazing restaurant," she joked. "The reservations are impossible to get, let me tell you, but I know some people."
"I bet you do," Lena teased back as she watched Kara sit on the floor on her side. "No chairs? Are we having a rustic first date?"
"I told Maggie to leave the chair for you," the blonde sighed, but then smiled brightly at her.
"How fancy." Lena rolled her eyes as she sat down, cross-legged, at the end of her red tablecloth.
They stared at each other for a couple of seconds, before Kara chuckled softly and pointed at the bags around them. "The menu is very limited, the chef works with exclusive dishes, as you can see."
"Classy." The CEO opened her bag and pulled out her burger, her eyes going a little wide when she saw what she would be eating for the night. It had been nine months since the last time she ate a burger from Big Belly and boy she was excited about it.
Kara smirked, lifted her coke and toasted to her, before taking a small sip. "I miss Big Belly," she complained with a whine as she watched Lena take the first bite off her burger.
Lena cleaned the corner of her mouth with a napkin and smiled. "Well, that's one thing to look forward," she said quietly, her meaningful gaze caught the blonde's blue eyes.
Kara offered a tight smile in return but decided to shove her sadness to the side. It was no time for that.
They slipped easily into the flow of conversation like they used to do before the whole mess started nine months prior. They talked about how different both Earths were and Kara even told her there was a Luthor family in the Earth she was in, but they were not as knowledgeable and she decided not to go search for them either. They also talked about their friends, Lena's job and how they covered the fact that Kara Danvers was also missing for nine months now.
Alex came up with the idea to say that Supergirl's disappearance hit her too hard since they were so close friends and she decided to go back to Midvale to stay with their mother for a while and ended up not returning anymore. She was officially not a CatCo employee anymore, which was a sad thing to find out, but she couldn't blame them for it. And Lena could only hold her spot for so long before people started to question her too.
They also decided that, after she came back, they would have to play her return in different moments. First, she should show up as Kara Danvers again, the reporter who finally returned from Midvale, maybe try to get her job back and build up her life, and then, when the risk of people make the connection subside, Supergirl could make her return too.
Honestly, Kara didn't care how they would play it off after she got back. She just wanted to go back.
She wanted to go back home. She wanted to have a real date with Lena, to hold her hand and hug her. She wanted to watch movies with Alex and watch her and Maggie fighting over silly marriage details.
"Hey, you still here?"
Kara sighed and pushed her empty fries plate away. "Sorry, I just started thinking about when I get back."
"Yeah," Lena also sighed. "I would like to say we're getting close, but every time we thought that..." She didn't have to finish the sentence. The memories of Kara flying across the room was still fresh for both of them.
"What will happen when I get back, Lena?" Kara wondered out loud in a whisper.
The CEO frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Are we good again?" She looked up with watery eyes and a trembling lip, but she needed to know. "Did you forgive me?"
"Kara, let's not ruin the night talking about this."
"No, we need to." Kara sighed heavily. "What are we doing here, Lena?"
"We're having a date, Kara. I think that's enough to answer your question, isn't it?" Lena quirked one eyebrow at her. "I want to have you back here if that isn't enough for you. I want you to be back."
"And what happens when I do?"
Lena tilted her head to the side and stared at the wall for a while, trying to crack down her own thoughts before voicing them. Finally, after what felt like forever, she looked back at Kara with set up jaws and enough confidence for both of them. "One day, when I wake up at 3 am, unable to sleep, I will look next to me and you will be there. You will be sleeping peacefully beside me and, suddenly, the world won't seem so lonely anymore." Her voice cracked a little at the end, but she managed to keep her ground. "So you better start working out those electrical powers of yours."
"I don't have any," Kara told her like it was a secret and they shared a quiet laugh. "But I will work it through, I promise. I want to wake up at 3 am with you."
"No, you don't," Lena teased.
The blonde laughed, throwing her head back and all. "No, I don't. But I wouldn't complain either."
"What do we have on the menu today?" Kara asked while she waited for Lena to sit down with a large smile.
The CEO raised her bag in her direction. "Kale."
"What? Why would you try to poison yourself like that?" Now she had a deep frown like she was honestly offended and Lena couldn't help but laugh.
"Not all of us can eat burgers every day, you know."
"I think you can." Kara shrugged while opening her bag to take out her first sandwich. "We're going to change that the minute I'm back. No more healthy disgusting food, only the good stuff." To add some effect on her words, she took a huge bite out of her sandwich and waved her brows at Lena, drawing another laugh from the brunette.
"Well, you're going to be grounded once you're back, so I'm sorry to tell you, but no junk food for you either."
"What? Grounded?!"
Lena arched one eyebrow at her, her fork halfway through her mouth, and smirked. "When kids do things they're not supposed to, that's what happens, right? Especially when they cause so much trouble for the grown-ups to fix the problem later."
"Oh, ha-ha." The blonde rolled her eyes. "Hillarious."
"I thought so."
They locked eyes over their food and a mirrored smile crept on their faces. When they both inevitably blushed and looked away, Kara couldn't help but thank Rao and every other force that might exist for her luck.
Lena and Alex were having a glaring contest again. It wasn't uncommon, especially since the last failed attempt to bring Kara back, but it was a little unnerving when there was no one else in the room to separate them if things started to get out of control.
"What I'm saying..."
"I get what you're saying, but I don't know why you're saying it. It makes no sense and to be completely honest..."
"Will you just let me..."
"It would never work!"
"You don't know that! We didn't even make the required calculation to..."
"Because we don't have to do something just to waste our time. It clearly won't work!"
"We tried every single one of your stupid ideas. Why can't we try a rational idea I had?"
"What did you just said?"
"Do you need me to repeat it?"
"Enough!" Kara shouted over their raised voices. She had both hands closed on tight fists as she had to battle her instincts to approach them. Once again, like it had been doing for the past six months, the blue-ish glowing color of the portal seemed to be mocking her. "Will you two stop fighting? This is not going to take us anywhere."
Alex scoffed at that, but Lena only chose to cross her arms and look away. Since they were going to play the kids there, Kara rolled her eyes and bumped her foot on the ground.
"Seriously? We should be a team, you know. Don't make me go there and get you two to shake hands."
Her weak joke was enough to break some of the tension in the room. Alex rolled her eyes, turned on her heels and started to walk away to grab her phone and keys. "Fine, I think I had enough for today anyway." She sighed. "Don't try anything by yourself."
The CEO looked genuinely offended by that, but she was able to play it off by only raising one eyebrow. "I'm right, not stupid."
"Whatever you wanna tell yourself," Alex chanted over her shoulder while waving her way out. "Goodnight, Kara."
Once they were alone, Lena allowed the breath she was holding out and ran both of her hands through her face in frustration. "Your sister is driving me crazy," she confessed tiredly.
"What's up with you two?" Kara wondered out loud as she set down in the ground, much more relaxed now that people weren't screaming around her.
Lena shrugged, trying to brush it off. "Nothing. I guess we're both too frustrated with the number of failures we collected in the last months. It's finally catching up on us."
"You two shouldn't fight," the blonde spoke slowly and carefully under her breath as she played with the edges of her cape.
"I know, it's just..." Lena sighed heavily and leaned on a table behind her, resting both of her palms against the cold surface, and looked up at the ceiling to stop her frustrated tears from spilling. "It's hard," she whispered. "Harder than I thought it would be when I agreed to help restore this portal."
"Maybe you don't have to restore it." Lena's eyes widened almost comically as her head whipped back down, her mind quickly going to the worst-case scenario she could think as a reason why Kara would tell her that. The blonde might have realized her panic, or she just wasn't done talking yet, because she offered her a watery smile and a wink. "We'll make do."
"What do you mean?" Lena asked a little more at ease.
Kara shrugged and used her chin to point at the blue edges of the portal. "We can build one house on each side of the portal," voiced her with a warm smile. "This way we can jump over that awkward part where you would ask me to move in with you."
"Oh, why would I ask you to move in with me? Why not the other way around?" Lena teased. Her lips were now curled in a loving smile, the dimples on her cheeks were visible now, and her green eyes were shining on the dim light of the room.
The hero chuckled. "Because I have nothing to offer but a studio apartment that I can't even afford now."
Lena shook her head, but her smile remained. "Okay. So we build our houses' door to door?"
"Well, we could get creative," Kara bit her bottom lip to hold back a laugh. "We could build the living room and kitchen on my side, you could get the office and dining room. The bed could be placed right in the middle, we would have the most efficient alarm ever. One bathroom each, though."
Lena rolled her eyes. "Can I decorate it as I want?"
"You can decorate your side the way you want. I'm decorating mine just like I please."
"Do you think the DEO would mind moving away so I could build my half?"
Kara huffed and waved one hand towards her. "Consider it done."
"I'm going to have to leave for a couple of weeks," Lena informed her three days later while they played Uno.
Kara, who was biting her tongue while thinking on her next move, looked up already pouting. "Oh, why?"
"There are some events I need to attend on Europe," answered the CEO with a shrug. "London, Paris, and Munich. Then I will meet some investors in Switzerland."
"Sounds not so much fun." Kara smiled at her and put a green four on top of the pile.
Lena nodded. "It probably won't be, but I still need to go. Job requirement, you know." She threw a green seven and waited for Kara's card.
"Well, I'm going to miss you." The blonde was blushing when she fixed her glasses and pulled a yellow seven out.
"I think we're kind of used to that right now, don't you?" Lena carefully said as she lied another card down. "Uno."
"I suppose," Kara sighed sadly and threw her last hope of winning. "But we won't be able to talk. You might have an amazing telephone service, but it can't make interuniversal calls."
"That's something I should invest in," the CEO joked as she placed her last card with a wild grin. "I win."
"So you could get even richer," Kara teased right back while throwing her cards away. She finished holding three of them again and she had no idea how Lena became so good at that game suddenly.
"Well, you look like high maintenance." Lena shrugged, leaned over to grab all the cards again and pushed them to the side. "Alex said something about the supermarket bill and it got me concerned."
The blonde rolled her eyes even if she was smiling wildly before she furrowed her brow. "Did you tell her?"
"Tell her what?"
"About this, you know..." she gestured between them with one arched eyebrow and shrugged.
Lena also quirked her brow. "About me coming here every night and pretend I'm working or about us trying to keep a relationship from different Universes?"
"Hey, you do work sometimes!" Kara pointed a finger at her in protest and they shared a smile, but she eventually shook her head. "Sounds crazy when we say it out loud, huh?"
"It's crazy even if we don't say it, Kara." The brunette sighed and changed the position of her crossed legs. "But no, I didn't tell her. I think she knows something is up, she's not stupid."
"Do you think she thinks we're crazy?"
Lena gave her a self-conscious smile. "We are crazy, Kara."
Day 1 without Lena was okay. She talked with Winn and she raced Barry again and they had pizza on a rooftop after she won again.
Day 2 was much the same, instead this time Iris cooked for them.
Day 3 was like a punch in the stomach, though. She missed Lena. She missed Lena before. She missed her for five months and then for a few more time before they could talk like they used to. But she had Lena again and now she was gone and she just missed her.
She was whining all day about the silliest stuff, even she knew it. Maggie kept calling her Gertrude Prototype for some reason, Winn didn't want to stay much longer with her and Alex only rolled her eyes every time Kara tried to talk with her.
Day 4 was even worse because Alex said she had a new plan and then she flew back against a chair after being shocked when she jumped in excitement too close to the portal. Then she had to hear Alex bitting her ear off for almost an hour because of that.
But on day 5 Alex stayed around all day. It was nice, even if she was working most of the time. They even had lunch together. Alex tried to tell her it was a stupid conception, but Kara didn't let her kill her mood. Right before Alex was leaving for the day, with a pile of papers under her arm, Kara called after her.
"Hey, can you text Lena and ask her how she's doing?"
Alex looked a little taken aback for that, but she recovered quickly by glaring at her. "Why would I do that?"
"Because I'm your sister, I'm asking you and you love me."
The agent studied her for a couple of seconds, eyes roaming her body up and down before she sighed heavily and decided to drop the papers back on the table. Then she crossed her arms and looked at her sister with a frow. "Kara, what are you two doing?"
"No, Alex." Kara shook her head with determination. "I won't take your criticism on this, okay?"
"You do realize this is the worst time possible for..."
"Yes, I do realize that Alex. In fact, I think, from all the people, I realize it the most," she let a frustrated huff out and stubbornly refused to look at her sister again. "There's a fucking barrier between us. Do you think I don't know that? I'm stuck on the other side! I'm the one who's here when all my friends, my sister and the woman I'm madly in love with are literally in another Universe! So, yes, I know this isn't the right time and I'm sorry we didn't schedule it for a more convenient moment for everyone, but things happen."
Alex's only reaction was a grin and a nod before she took her phone out. "What do you want me to tell her?"
"What?" The blonde confused gaze fell on Alex and, for a second, she looked like a fish out of water.
The agent shrugged. "I will text her. I still think you're crazy, but it's better than see you mopping around like someone kicked your puppy because she's not talking to you. Besides, you finally admitted you love her and it only took you two years and get stuck in another dimension. I will never let you live that."
On day 6, Maggie FaceTimed Lena and Kara waved at her for like a whole minute. On day 7, she helped Barry to save the city and her mind got a little occupied. On day 8, she saw a turtle on it's back on the park and it made her laugh even if she knew she shouldn't, and she made Alex call Lena so she could tell her about it.
On day 9, the blue portal became purple, then red, then green, then yellow, then there was some sort of power explosion that pushed everyone away. Winn grabbed an apple and threw it at it. The apple landed on her feet.
She went back home on day 184.
Lena woke up feeling already pretty annoyed when she remembered her busy schedule for the day. Her assistant had made sure she had it memorized before she left, but it did terrible things for her anxiety, especially because it stopped her from having a good night's sleep. Not that she had hoped to have one anyway. She hadn't slept a good night's sleep since she was six.
She started her morning routine like normal. She used the bathroom, took a shower, ordered breakfast, changed and started to answer her emails while waiting for her coffee and omelet. Back at National City she might have grabbed her cup and took it to stand by the window to look at the city while she drank, hopefully waiting to see the city's protector flying by. But, in Paris, an hour before a meeting, she had to get her head wrapped around data points and important facts.
The CEO was just finishing some random email when there was a knock on the door. She furrowed her brow as she jumped from the stool, not removing her eyes from her phone as she walked and typed skillfully even in high heels. There was a more impatient knock before she finally opened it and she raised one eyebrow at the sound. And then her brain simply stopped, unable to process what was right in front of her.
Lena stood there, one hand holding her phone, the other one in the doorknob, mouth gaping, breath shallow, eyes wide staring at the blonde standing in the hallway looking almost as surprised as she was, holding a life-size white gardenias bouquet.
Of course, Kara was the first one to recover. A slow smile started to curl the corner of her lips up until her whole face was lightning with a full-on flashing smile and then she was throwing herself forward. Lena's phone fell on the ground when Kara's arms wrapped around her firmly and lovingly, the flowers tickling her back. Her own hands grasped on the blonde's shoulders, nails digging on the skin, pulling her as closely as possible as she hides her face on Kara's neck. She knew she was crying and, in the back of her mind, she knew Kara was also crying, her tears falling on top of Lena's head, but she didn't care.
She was too happy to care.
"Kara," Lena whispered almost in reverence.
The hero's arms squeezed her ever harder on her desperate hug, moving around her waist. "I'm back," she whispered back and kissed the top of Lena's head a couple of times. It was clumsy and desperate, but neither of them cared about it at that moment. "I'm home, Lena."
"I flew here the second I crossed the portal," Kara admitted quietly. She feared that if she talked too loud it would break the magic spell they were locked for the past hour and a half.
She honestly couldn't believe that she was in the same room as Lena again. She couldn't believe she was hugging her, touching her, that they were lying side by side, that their fingers were intertwined and that they were so close she could feel Lena's warm breath against her face.
"I'm glad you did, even if Alex's going to kill you for doing that."
"I don't care. I needed to see you," Kara used the tip of her fingers to trail a path up and down Lena's arm.
Lena smiled softly at her. "You're here," she replied in awe as her hand clutched at the blonde's waist. "You're here. You made me lose my meeting and Jess will be so mad at me, but you're here."
Kara chuckled with a joyful glint in her eyes before she brought her hand up until her palm was pressed on the back of Lena's back. She gave her a second to push away, but all the CEO did was smile right back at her with the same amount of happiness. She started by pressing a kiss on her jaw, then on each one of her cheeks, then on the tip of her nose, then on her chin, finishing with one right on the left corner of her lips. Lena gasped at that and she raised her eyes to look at her.
The brunette had her eyes closed, mouth slightly apart, head tilted as an invitation. One Kara wasn't stupid to refuse. Their lips met and it was just like fireworks and just like every love poem ever wrote before. Lena's lips were soft, sweet and delicate as they moved together, deepening the kiss, tongues shyly touching at first.
"I can't believe how long I had to go without doing this," Kara whispered against her lips when they parted to breathe.
Lena smiled at the blonde, her fingers brushing a curl of her bangs out of her blue eyes, before her palm rest against her cheek. "I spent a week away and you went crazy with your hair."
"I was left unsupervised and I had too much free time without you around," replied the hero.
"I like it," Lena smirked as she started to push Kara so she would lay on her back so she could straddle her waist. "I like it very much."
"Do you know what I like?"
"Hm?" Lena hummed as her eyes fluttered closed when Kara's hands started to caress her thigh.
"I can finally feel you."
"Hey, why didn't you asked me to help?"
"I can put a nail on the wall, Kara." Lena rolled her eyes, but she knew it was already too late.
Kara floated by her side in less than a second, resting one hand on her small back while the other one moved to take the hammer from her fingers. "I have no doubts you can, but so can I." She placed a wet kiss on Lena's cheek and squeezed her waist before moving to stick the nail on the wall with only a flip of her finger.
"Show off," Lena growled under her breath as she already started to get down the small stair she was using to reach the spot on her wall.
The blonde chuckled and slowly turned until she was upside down facing her. "Give me the painting, will you?"
Lena sighed when she grabbed the heavy frame from the floor and tried to raise it enough for Kara to catch it. The blonde easily took it from her hands, her curls brushing against it, and she flashed her a blinding smile.
"You sure you want to hang it?"
"Yes, Kara, I'm sure. It's a beautiful painting." The CEO placed her soft hands against Kara's cheeks to keep her in place while she leaned to press a kiss on her pink lips before she used her index finger to poke her chest. "It's painting number 12, now hang it."
"Okay, fine." Kara rolled her eyes but started to return to a standing position so she could put the painting in place. It was a beautiful painting of National City saw from above on the sunset, the very first painting Lena ever saw from her. She still had no idea how the woman convinced her to hang it on her penthouse living room, but she honestly thought there was nothing she wouldn't do for Lena.
"I think it's a little crooked," Lena said from behind her, causing her to frow as she tried to see how that could be possible.
When she came empty-handed, Kara looked over her shoulder, only to see that the brunette had her head tilted to the side, hands on her hips, and a playful smile on her lips. Behind her, a beautiful vase filled with a ridiculous amount of gardenias was decorating the room. "I think something else is crooked."
"Don't cross that line."
Before Lena could even finish her half threat, Kara had her over her shoulder as she walked back to their room. Lena squealed in shock but willingly allowed the other woman to carry her back to their bed. They had an anniversary to celebrate.