Archive of Our Own

Lena miscalculated. 

God, did she miscalculate. 

She’s never been particularly strong, physically. She’s better at numbers and technology, has always preferred reading over sports, preferred cardio over weights. She knows that most people are capable of causing serious damage, that enough adrenaline can give an extra boost that turns not good into bad, but she didn’t think that she’d be one of those people.

She knows as she brings her arm down, heavy steel wrench in her grip, that it’s too hard. She’s put too much into the swing, too much force, and there’s no stopping its pace or trajectory. 

It comes down right on Lex’s head. 

It splits. 

So much for just knocking him out. 

His head splits.  

Red, copious and glimmering in the lab lighting, bursts and oozes from the wound, his skull cracked apart at the side. He falls to the ground, dazed expression on his face, and on the way down his head smacks into a table with a sickening crack that Lena feels reverberate in her spine. 

He splits and he falls and he hits his head and his neck twists with the force, only a little but unnaturally so and then he’s not looking dazed anymore, not looking shocked or confused in his bloodied heap on the ground. No, he looks… like he’s no longer looking.  

There’s blood on the wrench. The room smells of iron. 

Red leaks across the floor in a slow puddle as she stands there. She’s frozen, her grip on the wrench solid and tight, her own blood bumping too slowly as her heart races too fast. 

It takes her five minutes to realise Lex is dead. 

“Oh god.”

The wrench drops to the floor and splatters blood onto her shoes and bare ankles, viscous and warm on her skin. Lena starts to shake. 

It’s late. There’s no one around. She’s alone in a lab with the corpse of her brother, her brother, but she can’t find it in herself to be fully… upset. She’s scared, of course, and regretful at swinging the wrench too hard instead of just enough to knock him out before he shot her , ‘payback for what you did to me, sis’, but, but she’s not upset.  

Lena will mourn for the brother she lost as a teenager, she will mourn for the brother she could have had, the brother he could have been to her had madness not taken hold, but she will not mourn this man. The man who hates with every fibre of his being, the man that hurts and kills without thought, the man that just tried to kill her.  

“Oh god .”

This is the part in movies where the accidental killer is sick, right? This is the part where she’s supposed to vomit into a waste paper basket and feel tears burn her cheeks. Should she be in shock? Maybe she is and doesn’t realise. She hasn’t moved in ten minutes but to drop the wrench and form ‘oh god’ on her lips. Maybe in a moment those tears will arrive and she’ll crumple and wail over Lex’s body as shock consumes her. 

Except- except she knows that won’t happen. 

Lena swallows. 

She mentally checks herself. Her breathing is mostly back to normal, her limbs stiff but moveable. She wiggles a hand, then a foot. She notes the blood on her brogue and grimaces. God, what a mistake to make. She couldn’t have accidentally blown up half the lab? Or accidentally emailed the wrong info to an investor? She couldn’t have done literally anything else instead of accidentally killing a man?

Lex’s blood has slowed its spread. It touches the toes of her polished black shoes. She looks at his eyes and is suddenly taken aback by how blank they are. Lex’s eyes have always been so full, be that with warmth, anger, or absolute madness, but now they’re… empty. 

It jars Lena. 

She’s still scared. As the seconds tick by it seems to be morphing into a kind of terror, and his lost stare only feeds into the fear building at the prospect of dealing with a dead body. A dead brother. 

Lena swallows again. 

“Supergirl.”

She doesn’t really mean to say it but it slips out anyway, petrified and small but so goddamn loud to Lena. 

And then-

A crash, somewhere above. 

Lena’s heart races. 

Within seconds there’s the sound of footsteps behind her, the door flung open and feet skidding to a halt. 

“Lena, I’m here, are you-”

Kara stops. Presumably because she sees the dead body on the ground. 

“Oh my god”

Kara brushes by Lena’s side as she steps forward and crouches near Lex. 

“He’s dead,” Lena says softly, unable to speak any louder, “there’s no use checking.”

“What-” Kara starts, pausing to hold her fingers to Lex’s pulse point anyway and counting silently. Realising that Lena is right, the man is dead , she pulls her hand away. “What happened?”

Blue eyes connect with green, wide and scared. Lena is sure her own are the same. 

“He came at me with a gun,” Lena tells her quietly, carefully, “told me he was just doing as I did, when I shot him on earth 38. And I… I panicked. I did what anyone else would do with a gun pointed at their chest.”

“You did this?” Kara whispers, looking back down at the mass of blood she crouches next to. 

“He had a gun pointed at my chest, Kara,” Lena stresses, “and I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted him to stop. So I picked up a wrench I was using and, and hit him.”

“You hit him hard , Lena.”

“I didn’t mean to!” Lena throws her hands out, making Kara look at her for the first time since entering the room. “What was I supposed to do? Let him shoot me? It’s Lex, Kara. He would have shot to kill. I only meant to knock him out, then I was going to call for you!”

“You should have called sooner.” Kara stands, approaching Lena slowly. 

“When?” Lena laughs, and she does hear the hysteria in it, sure her face matches the sound. “In the split second before he pulled the trigger? You’re fast, Kara, but you’re not that fast.”

“You should’ve-” Kara stumbles over her words, running her hand through her hair in frustration, “you could’ve- I…”

She trails off eventually, that hand running again through blonde locks as Lena simply stands and watches. Kara sighs, rubs her face, then stares at Lena.

“This is bad.”

Lena nods. 

“I know.”

“This is very bad, Lena.”

Lena frowns a little and nods again.

“Yeah, Kara, I know.” 

“You killed someone!”

“By accident!” Lena shrugs, wide eyed and exasperated. “And I mean, it’s not the first time-”

“What?!” Kara splutters. Lena waves a hand in dismissal. 

“Never mind, just… please, help me? I need to… move him.”

Kara rears back at this, alarmed and shocked.”

“Um,” she says, incredulous, “what?”

In all honestly, Lena has only just realised that moving his body is her plan, standing here with Kara as Lex cools at their feet, but now that the seed is in her mind, it grows. 

“Kara,” please,” Lena says carefully, wringing her hands together, “I need your help.”

“You have to report this!” Kara quickly walks close to Lena, eyes darting between Lena’s own. “We need to call the police.”

“We absolutely do not ,” Lena’s voice picks up in panic, “I’ll go to prison.”

“You killed someone!” 

Lena can’t help but feel a little hurt. 

“You want me to go to prison?”

“No,” Kara balks. She grabs Lena’s hands, squeezing them in her own as she stares at her. “Obviously not, but Lena- this isn’t a joke, you have literally murdered your brother.”

“It was an accident!” Lena stresses again, feeling frantic. “Plus, he deserved it!”

“I am not having this discussion.” Kara gives her hands one last squeeze before dropping them and reaching for the phone Lena knows she keeps in her boot. “We are calling 911. They’ll see it was in self defence and it’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.”

“Kara, wait, wait , please,” Lena hurriedly steps back into Kara’s space and grips her arms. She knows she’s not strong enough to actually stop the blonde, but Kara halts anyway. “You know what will happen. Everyone loves Lex on this earth, you’ve seen the way people fawn over him here! I’ll go down for this. They’ll call it first degree murder and I’ll go away for life. And you know that isn’t fair.”

Kara makes like she’s going to interrupt so Lena grips tighter, pleads harder. 

“He has killed so many people, and now he’ll never kill again! Isn’t that a good thing? One less ‘big bad’ against the goal of humans and aliens living peacefully.”

“I…” Kara trails off, fretting the edge of her cape with nervous fingers, “we should call Alex.”

Lena balks. 

“Call Alex?” She says, her tone incredulous. “Your serious, law abiding, angry-wangry sister who previously worked for a strict government agency? You want to call her ?” Lena laughs, high pitched and maybe a little unhinged. “I’ll be in a cell by dinner.”

“Oh come on,” Kara huffs, “she’s not that bad. She always does the right thing. She’s for the many!”

“Actually,” Lena let’s go of Kara’s arms, folding her own as she looks at the body distractedly, “you’re right. She’d probably take my side because of that. Okay, you can call her.”

Kara’s lips twist unhappily. 

“… I’m not calling her.”

“Oh, for-” Lena drops her face into her hands for a moment then brings it back up, staring at Kara while pressing her palms to her forehead. “Kara, listen. With your help, we could make this disappear. Lex’s diabolical plans, the pain he causes, my lifelong incarceration, all of it. I mean, you could literally make it disappear, pretty sure your heat vision could turn him to dust-”

“ Lena. ”

Okay, Kara looks a bit nauseous. Lena desperately steers the conversation back away from the body. 

“Sorry, I’m sorry, that was tactless,” Lena says carefully, “I just mean- you could essentially save my life here. He’s dead and he’s not coming back, and it can either end with me in prison, or… not.”

And now Kara paces, one hand tugging again through blonde hair, finally dishevelling smooth waves, the other fisted at her side. 

Lena waits, arms tightly crossed, watching her best friend struggle. It pains her, it really really does, and she hates herself for asking Kara to do this huge fuck-off big thing just to help Lena avoid prison, but- but Lena can’t see another way around it. And if Kara says no, a definitive no, Lena will accept that. She won’t judge Kara for it, won’t hold it against her, will go down easy, but if there’s the slightest chance that Kara might help?

Lena always has seen Kara as a figure of hope. 

Kara finally stops and turns, face pinched in a grimace full of regret and defeat. Lena doesn’t know quite how to read it. 

“This goes against everything I stand for.”

And… yeah. Yes. Kara’s right. She’s right. God, what is Lena even doing? She resigns herself to Kara letting her down gently, knows she deserves it, doesn’t understand why she pushed for this anyway.

“I know. Fuck, I’m sorry,” Lena sighs. She looks at the ground, focusing on a shoe scuff to will the tears building behind her eyes to just stop. “I don’t trust anyone else. That’s why I asked. I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry, Kara. Let’s- let’s call the police.”

The silence is tense and heavy and Lena wonders if she’s not only lost a brother, today, but a best friend too with her stupid and immoral request. 

Kara shifts, bringing Lena’s gaze back to her. The blonde is staring down at Lex. 

“I can’t carry you both at the same time.”

Lena blinks. Swallows. 

“Wh-what?”

“I’ll take him first?” Kara asks, still not looking at Lena. “Probably to one of the uninhabited islands I know. It’s an hour from the coast. Can you get yourself to the roof?”

“Kara-”

“Can you get yourself to the roof?”

Lifting her stare from the body on the floor, Kara’s eyes meet Lena’s. They’re not blank, like Lena feared. Just… imploring. Pleading. 

Lena nods. 

“Yeah, yes. I’ll go now.”

“Okay.” Kara looks around the room, grabs some plastic sheeting covering a nearby bench. “Go. I won’t be long.”

And so Lena… Lena goes. 

——

The flight to the island takes longer than Kara took with Lex, likely due to the fact that Lena is alive and therefore needs to breathe during the trip. 

It’s a tiny place, barely more than the size of her office, rocky with clumps of dried grass and some larger boulders on one side. It juts out of the ocean in an unobtrusive way, just a little gathering of basic land that isn’t worth stopping to look at should you happen to pass by on a boat way too far out. 

It’s perfect. 

When they touch down, gentle and careful, Lena spots Lex immediately, nestled in the grass. He looks peaceful. Asleep. Calmer than she can ever remember his adult face looking. She waits for the pang of regret and despair at seeing her brother dead, by her hands no less, but it still doesn’t come. She simply misses the boy he once was, and nothing more. He’s caused the world too much pain as this man for her to feel truly sad. 

She kneels by his side anyway. 

The plastic sheet is gone. Kara must have disposed of it on the way back somehow, not wanting to leave any evidence that could last a while on this rock. 

Lena touches his cheek. Straightens his blood-soaked collar. Thinks of the boy. 

“Are you okay?”

Kara’s voice is soft and quiet. It’s almost too caring, considering what Lena has asked of her. 

“I should be asking you that question,” Lena says, looking up and over at the blonde. “We don’t actually have to do this, you know. I can turn myself in.”

“No, I don’t- I don’t want you to do that.” Kara walks around the body and Lena stands to join her. Their arms touch as they look down at him together. “It was an accident. And- and the world is, um… it’s…”

“You don’t have to say it,” Lena says quietly, running her fingers gently down the back of Kara’s arm. 

“No, but it’s true. It’s… better without him in it. I just wish it didn’t have to happen the way it did. I wish you’d never been put in that position.”

“Me too.”

They’re quiet for a while. Lena doesn’t know about Kara but her own gaze sort of blurs until she’s no longer really looking at Lex, just thinking. Not about him, but about the woman next to her. Her best friend, her confidant, the only person she truly trusts despite everything that happened between them. But god, even after that, after the lies and hurt, after the revenge and retaliation, they’re both still standing here. Together. 

It makes Lena feel warm. It makes her chest fill with that familiar tenderness that only Kara causes. It makes her heart skip, just once, as she acknowledges again how lucky they are to still have each other. 

“Okay,” Kara says, then clears her throat. “Okay.”

Lena’s heart skips again. 

Kara’s voice reminds her of the task at hand. This wonderful woman is standing here, ready to dispose of a body. For Lena. Just for Lena. That warmth and tenderness persists and sends her heart thundering, and if Lena was in her right mind she’d scold herself for feeling love while leaning over the corpse of her brother.

But then, her life has never really been normal. Maybe yearning for her best friend at a time like this can just be chalked up to standard behaviour for her. 

“What should we do?” Lena asks after a deep breath. 

“ We aren’t doing anything,” Kara says firmly, “ you are moving out of the way, and I…”

She trails off, swallowing, and Lena takes her hand. Squeezes it, hard. 

“I,” Kara starts again, “will make sure no trace of Lex Luthor is ever found. So, um, please go stand… over there.” Kara points randomly. 

Lena doesn’t move. 

“Lena, please.”

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just, that way is downwind, and I should probably not-”

“Oh gosh, no, yeah, don’t stand there.”

And Lena can’t help it, she really can’t, but she laughs.  

“This is not a funny moment, Lena.” Kara reprimands her, which just makes Lena laugh more. She covers her mouth with her hands to stifle it, tries to shove the laughter back in while Kara rolls her eyes. 

“Sorry, I’m nervous,” Lena admits, muffled by her palms, “this is ridiculous and my brother is dead and I killed him and now you’re going to laser beam his body to dust and I have to move out of the way so I don’t inhale him.”

Kara presses her lips together in a tight line in a way Lena recognises as Kara trying to control a smile. 

“Lee I swear to god,” she manages, “if you make me laugh when I’m about to dispose of a body…”

“God, sorry,” Lena sobers herself up, shakes her arms out, focuses on the fact that Kara is about to do this for her. She reaches out and takes Kara’s hand. “I’m so sorry. I just- I don’t even know. Thank you, Kara. I’ve not said that yet, but thank you. So much.”

“I’ve not done it yet,” Kara mumbles, but she flashes the smallest smile her way and it soothes Lena’s nerves somewhat. “Go, stand back.”

Lena does. She moves away, letting her hand drop Kara’s only when she’s too far to keep holding it, Kara also keeping the grip as if she doesn’t want to let go. 

A beat of silence, the tightening of Kara’s fists, the slight step back of her right foot, and then-

Lena watches as her brother’s body goes up in flames. 

Twin white-red beams of light flow from Kara’s eyes and onto the corpse, instantly igniting it. It smokes heavily, the air thick with the smell of burning flesh, and Lena covers her mouth and nose as best she can with the sleeve of her sweater. 

He burns. He burns and burns, but he doesn’t seem to be doing much beyond burning. Lena realises all too quickly that Kara needs to channel her power hotter, stronger, but there’s no way Lena would tell Kara to amp up the firepower. This is a horrible act enough without Lena pushing her to do more.  

Kara must understand too, because she lets out a frustrated grunt and takes a step forward, eyes still blazing, but it’s still not enough, and Lena feels-

This is all her fault. 

As if she didn’t already know that from the start, seeing Kara, her Kara, struggle with herself to burn this demon of a man to ash breaks Lena apart. Guilt swallows her, and she staggers over to the woman. 

She feels Kara jolt beneath her arms as she wraps them around her waist from behind. 

“ Lena , go- ”

“I’m sorry,” Lena pleads, pressing her forehead to the back of Kara’s head, “you shouldn’t have to do this, you can stop, it’s not worth it!”

“What?” Kara calls back over the hum of the beams and the sickening crackle of burning bones and grass. “It’s okay, Lena, let me do this for you!”

“No, it’s not worth it,” Lena stresses, “ I’m not worth it!”

Lena feels the heat of Kara’s hand close around her own that clutches at the front of Kara’s suit. 

“You are worth this, Lena,” Kara insists, still burning the corpse in streams of light, “you are worth this and more , you are worth people defending you and supporting you and loving you, and if I have to burn to dust one of the people responsible for making you feel this way to prove that to you, then I will do so willingly! ”

The increase of volume in Kara’s words ends in an angry broken shout. 

Even from behind, Lena can feel the heat grow stronger, the air dry and painful against the backs of her hands where they grasp at Kara, but she keeps them there. She keeps them there when Kara shouts again, a roaring scream, and then- the furious pops of splintering bone, the absence of bright white light, the golden glow of a fire. 

Kara folds, staggers backwards and crumples in Lena’s arms. She catches Kara as best she can, cradling the other woman as she eases them down to the ground. The skin around Kara’s eyes looks red and sore, still faintly glowing. She looks exhausted. 

Lena’s heart creaks and groans miserably. 

It takes a soft palm on her jaw and gentle fingertips on her cheek for Lena to realise she’s been talking. 

“You saved me, you saved me,” Lena is murmuring into the overheated skin of Kara’s neck, scented with smoke, “thank you, thank you Kara, thank you.”

Kara is cupping her jaw and trying to guide her to face her, pulling her from the darkened crook. Lena allows it but finds tear-glossed blue eyes, paths cut through the ashy dirt on her rosy cheeks. It breaks Lena again, again and again, because she did this, she did this to Kara. 

“You saved me,” she breathes, her own hand finding Kara’s neck, gently touching, needing the connection, “you saved me. Thank you. I love you. I’m sorry, I’m so- I love you, Kara. Thank you.”

Lips find Lena’s cheek and press there in a kiss, firm and sure, and Lena’s eyes slip shut. Their breathing is ragged, eyes wet, but Kara kisses her other cheek just as firmly as the first. The waves crashing into the island are loud but the air feels still around them, grinding to a halt. Kara goes to kiss Lena’s first cheek again, but something in Lena’s chest pulls, something rooted in sorrow and gratitude and an age-old longing, and she turns her own head. 

Lena captures Kara’s lips with her own. 

And maybe it isn’t right to kiss your best friend, your hero, amidst the ash of your brother, but Lena doesn’t care. In this moment, she needs to show Kara how she feels. Years of emotion, of an aching heart, of happiness and hurt and love for this woman, this incredible woman, this woman who truly would go to all lengths for her. Lena simply can’t keep it in any longer. 

And Kara kisses back. 

It’s soft and gentle, just a press of plush lips as tears dry sticky on their cheeks. Nothing rushed or passionate, it isn’t the place for that, but so full of meaning that Lena shakes. 

Fingertips touch lightly at her jaw, Lena’s own hand still holding the back of Kara’s neck with reverence. It lasts only seconds, no more than five, but when they break apart there are only mere atoms between their lips. 

Kara laughs weakly, quietly. 

“How romantic.”

Lena huffs at that but she’s laughing softly too. She leans her forehead forward until it rests against Kara’s, their breathing slowing to more measured paces as they hold each other. 

“Kara-”

“Only you,” Kara interrupts her, words hot on Lena’s lips, “you’re the only person I’d do this for.”

Lena swallows hard.

“Why?”

“Because I’d do anything for you. Even,” Kara exhales shakily, “even go against my morals.”

Lena kisses her again, soft and chaste, her free hand coming up to soothe her thumb across Kara’s cheek. 

“God, what have I done,” Lena mumbles against Kara’s lips, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry Kara. I’m going to give myself up. I won’t mention you or this, I’ll-”

Kara Lena’s back, brows furrowed as she gazes deeply into green eyes. 

“No, no, Lena, I wanted to do this.” She cringes at her choice of words. “I mean, I wanted to help you. I can’t have you go away again. I- I need you.”

The love and tenderness in Lena’s chest is overwhelming, the pressure almost suffocating in the sweetest way. 

“Okay,” she sighs, pressing her forehead to Kara’s again. “Okay. Thank you.”

It’s quiet for a while, rolling waves and the soft crackle of still-burning grass the only sounds as they sit slumped on the ground, touching where they can. 

“Did you mean it?”

Lena lifts her head away to look at Kara. 

“Mean what?”

“You said… you said you love me. Did you mean it? Or… how did you mean-”

“I meant it,” Lena cuts in, sliding her hands to cup both of Kara’s cheeks. “I love you. In every single way I could love you.”

Kara manages a small smile, sending Lena’s heart thrumming once more. 

“I love you too,” she says, “I wouldn’t burn a body for just anybody.”

Lena grimaces. 

“Oh god.”

“That was too soon wasn’t it,” Kara says, eyes drifting to look unfocused over Lena’s shoulder, “I think I’ve become desensitized. Am I in shock? Is this shock?”

“We need to leave, let’s get out of here.” Lena starts to shift herself from beneath Kara, where the other woman still sits cradled against her. “I’m taking you home and we’ll watch a nice movie and we’ll order in and, and I’ll hold you. I won’t let go.”

“I should be holding you. He was your brother.”

“No, you deserve it more. You’re a good souls and I made you- I made you-”

“You didn’t make me do anything,” Kara pushes herself shakily to her feet and takes Lena’s hands in her own. “I did it of my own free will. I did it for you.”

“Never again,” Lena whispers, squeezing Kara’s hands, pulling her close, “I won’t ask ever again for anything like this.”

“Yeah, don’t kill anyone else.”

“It was an accident!”

Kara smiles at her softly, thumbs running along her knuckles. 

“Then control yourself next time, please.”

“Okay,” Lena can’t help but roll her eyes, “yes, I will, I promise.”

Kara frees one hand to push some of Lena’s dusty hair behind her ear, then starts to walk them both to the edge of the island. The water laps at their feet as they stand there, hand in hand.

“Didn’t think I’d be telling you I love you for the first time after disintegrating my brother’s corpse. 

“ Lena. ”

“Sorry,” Lena can’t help but chuckle anyway, “but my comment still stands.”

Kara shakes her head at her, gaze as fond as it is alarmed. It makes Lena laugh some more. 

“I didn’t know I’d be saying it ever.” Kara says, quietly.

“What?”

“Would you believe me if I told you it took agreeing to destroy a body for me to realise exactly how deeply I care about you?” Kara squeezes her hand and smiles shyly.” I was serious when I said I wouldn’t do this for anyone else.”

“What about Alex?”

“She wouldn’t even ask for help,” Kara scoffs, “she’d dig the grave ‘til the job was done.”

There’s no arguing with that. 

“So, you…” Lena starts, faltering anxiously, “you do love me? You’re not just… having a response to shock or something?”

“No, I really do, I love you.” Kara smiles wide then, the warmest Lena has seen since before this mess. “Wow. It… feels good, giving this feeling a name.”

“You feel good?” Lena asks shyly. 

“Well, not really,” Kara replies distractedly, “I mean, it feels good to know now what these butterflies mean. But, yeah, I just cremated a man, so I don’t exactly feel good.”

Lena pales, gripping Kara’s hand tightly. 

“God, I’m sorry-”

“Lena, it didn’t feel good, but it was the right thing to do. I actually believe that.”

Heartbeat calming back down from the sudden frantic guilt, Lena leans gently into Kara’s side. 

“My hero.”

A small kiss is pressed to her temple. 

“I will not do it again.”

Lena smiles into the ashy fabric of Kara’s supersuit.

“Noted.”

They stand there a while longer. The air is salty at the water’s edge, refreshing, a sort of balm that clears the mind. Lena closes her eyes and breathes in deeply, relishing the chilled feel of it in her lungs. Kara’s hand squeezes hers tightly, but it doesn’t hurt. It’s comforting. Warming. 

“So,” Lena says eventually, “let’s go home?”

“Oh,” Kara says softly, and Lena turns her head to find Kara’s eyes closed, a peaceful smile on her lips. “We can’t.”

Lena blinks.

“What?”

“We can’t,” Kara repeats, opening her eyes to look at Lena. “I blew my powers out.”

“You what? ” Lena stresses, but Kara just shrugs casually. 

“Yeah, it happens sometimes when I channel too much power through the ol’ laser beams,” she points at her eyes with a lopsided smile. “Come to think of it, maybe I am in shock. I am basically human right now, after all.”

“Oh Jesus,” Lena grumbles, slapping her free hand over her forehead. She drags it down, pulling her skin taught as she groans. “Okay, this is fine. How long are your powers usually gone when this happens?”

“Couple hours…” Kara starts, and Lena sighs in relief. 

“Okay, that’s-”

“Couple days, sometimes.” Kara finishes. Lena simply gapes at her. “One time, I caught a cold. Oh, and I broke my arm. James made me a sling by tearing his shirt in the street, it was actually a kind of weird display of-”

“So we might be stuck here for days?” Lena asks, looking around at the island, stare skimming over rocks and burnt plants and... “Amongst the burnt remains of a madman?”

“Maybe,” Kara grins a bit giddily, “I think I need to sit down.”

And as Lena lowers Kara, clearly in shock and coloured grey with the ash of Lena’s brother, still smiling regardless, Lena can’t help but laugh. 

They’re trapped on a tiny island for the foreseeable future with only cremated leftovers to keep them company, but Kara’s eyes shine bright and beautiful in the dying sunlight as they gaze at Lena with nothing but love. 

There’s nowhere else Lena would rather be.