Work Text:
“It’s midnight, what do you want?”
“It’s midnight,” Kara counters. “What are you still doing at work?”
Every night this week, Kara has flown past, seen Lena at her desk, working into the early hours of the morning. Every night she’s considered stopping by, talking to her, telling Lena to go home, but Lena is clearly avoiding her, so Kara’s let her.
But a week is enough, Kara misses her best friend, and Lena’s showing no sign of coming to her, so Kara’s going to go to her instead.
“I have a lot to do,” Lena says, pointing at her screen. She hasn’t looked up at Kara yet. “And if I want to finish any time soon, I need to keep working. Can we talk tomorrow instead?”
“Lena,” Kara sighs. “You know you’ll just have some other excuse tomorrow so you can avoid me again.”
“I’m not-“ Lena says, finally glancing up. The knowing look on Kara’s face cuts her off. Lena sighs, resignation clear in her exhalation of breath. “Do we have to do this now?”
“We need to talk about what happened,” Kara says, stepping closer to Lena’s desk.
“Do we?”
“Please,” Kara says, holding out her hand towards Lena. Lena looks down at her outstretched hand, Kara can tell she’s considering the offer. Kara wiggles her fingers, sees the slight upturn of Lena’s lips before Lena slips her hand into Kara’s offered one.
Kara’s missed her touch, revels in the warmth of the hand in hers as Lena stands, and Kara leads them both over to the couch.
Lena takes her hand back once they’re seated, Kara watching as Lena’s hands fall to her lap, watches the way they twist together. She’s clearly nervous, and Kara wants nothing more than to reach out and lay her hands over Lena’s, soothe her with her touch. But Kara also knows that Lena’s uncomfortable right now and she’s not sure if her touch would be welcome.
“So,” Lena says after a moment. “What do you want to talk about?”
Kara almost laughs. Almost. They both know what this is about, they both know why Lena has been avoiding her.
“You kissed me, and then you ran away.”
Lena sucks in a quick breath, her eyes still on her hands. “We’re getting straight to it then.”
“Lena,” Kara says. She does reach out and lay her hand over Lena’s, before she can remember why she didn’t before. She almost pulls her hand away again, despite how much she’s enjoying even this small amount of contact. But she feels Lena relax under the touch so she keeps her hand where it is. After a week of not seeing Lena, this feels like everything. “We can’t keep ignoring this, you can’t keep avoiding me. I’ve missed you so much, I miss my best friend.”
“I’m still your best friend,” Lena says, finally drawing her eyes up to meet Kara’s.
“Then talk to me. You kissed me, and then you ran away. I have super speed and I’ve never seen anyone move as fast as you did leaving my apartment. Talk to me, you know you can tell me anything. Why did you do it?”
Lena swallows, Kara mesmerised by the way Lena’s cheeks turn red. “I think you can guess why I kissed you.” She’s not meeting Kara’s eyes again.
Kara shakes her head. “I know why you kissed me,” she says. She’s known for a long time that there’s something special between them. Everything with Lena just feels so right, including their first kiss. It had felt inevitable, but what Kara hadn’t expected was the way Lena left afterwards. “I want to know why you ran.”
“Because I kissed you,” Lena says after a long moment. “Best friends don’t usually kiss each other. I got scared,” Lena says, being honest with her answer. “You’re so important to me and I don’t want to lose you.”
“You could never lose me,” Kara says, shifting closer. “Hey, look at me.” Kara uses her free hand to tilt Lena’s head up, sees the fear swirling in green eyes when they meet again. Kara’s going to do everything she can to take that look away and make sure Lena never feels like this again. “I promise you, you’re stuck with me forever, okay?
“Okay.” Lena nods, her lips turning up again, this smile slightly bigger than the last. “I’m sorry I ran, I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you and I’m sorry I kissed you, I shouldn’t have done it and it won’t happen again.”
“I’m sorry you ran too, and that you’ve been avoiding me, but I’m not sorry about the kiss. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it all week.”
Kara’s entire world had shifted when Lena’s lips had touched hers, no first kiss has ever felt so good. But then Lena ran, leaving Kara wondering why, leaving Kara with tingling lips, the memory of Lena’s smile before she’d kissed her, the memory of lips so soft, all thoughts that have been a constant on her mind all week.
Lena’s eyes widen. “What?”
“And I very much hope you will kiss me again. You must know how I feel about you.”
Lena chokes on nothing. “How you feel about me?”
“I love you,” Kara says, simple and honest. It’s the simplest thing in the world to love Lena. She fell in love with her without even realising it, it was easy, Lena is so easy to love, what’s been hard is keeping it a secret for so long. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone before, and I’d like to take you out on a date, if you’ll let me. Or we can just stay friends if you want. Whatever you want,” Kara says, squeezing their still joined hands. “I’ll always be here for you.”
“God, I’ve been so stupid,” Lena says. “I didn’t, I didn’t know.”
Kara smiles. “Well, now you do. I thought that’s why you kissed me.”
“I kissed you because you were so close and you were smiling at me and I thought you wanted me too.”
Kara smiles. “I did. But then you panicked?”
“I thought I’d made a mistake, I let myself overthink it, convinced myself that you didn’t actually want me to so I ran.”
Kara cups Lena’s cheek. “You never need to run from me, ever. No matter what, I’ll always be here for you.”
“I know.” Lena tilts forward, her head coming to rest of against Kara’s. “I was dumb.”
“Yes you were.”
“Hey!” Lena says, pulling back. But she’s smiling. “But I promise, no more running.”
“What about kissing?”
Kara can hear the way Lena’s heartbeat picks up speed. She can feel her own doing the same thing in her chest.
Instead of answering, Lena leans forward, stopping just before their lips meet. Kara can feel warm breath against her lips, knows Lena is waiting for her to make the final move this time. Kara doesn’t hesitate in closing the distance, Lena’s lips feeling just as warm, just as soft, just as good, as last time.
Except this time Lena doesn’t pull away, this time, hands cup Kara’s cheeks, this time, thumbs soothe under her eyes as Lena presses forwards, as Lena leans into the touch.
And then Lena’s tugging her forwards, Lena tilting backwards until she’s lying on the couch, Kara deepening the kiss as her weight presses into Lena.
This feels right, being here with Lena, it feels like home, it feels like Kara belongs with Lena.
They kiss until they grow tired, which isn’t long considering the late hour.
“I love you too,” Lena says, pressing a kiss to the underside of Kara’s jaw, the only skin she can reach with the way she’s tucked into Kara’s side now. “I didn’t say it before, but I love you so much.”
Kara tightens her hold, content to just lie here for a moment, with the woman she loves in her arms.
A few minutes later, she goes to suggest she fly Lena home, only to find the woman is already asleep, head pillowed on Kara’s chest.
Instead of waking her, Kara just shifts them, so her cape can act as a blanket. She’s so happy, she’s not sure she’s ever been this happy in her life.
(Lena tells her the next morning that she’s happy too, which is followed by more kisses, Kara laughing into Lena’s mouth as joy bubbles in her chest. They only stop when a very surprised Jess walks into Lena’s office).