Chapter Text
Thanksgiving had never been Lena’s favorite holiday. To be fair, Lena’s childhood experience of the holiday had been of sitting around a long table laden heavily with familial tension, generally culminating in threats and yelling over the main course and usually followed by at least one person storming out. The Luthors rarely made it to pie.
Since Lex’s breakdown and his and Lillian’s respective imprisonments, Thanksgiving had rarely crossed Lena’s mind. After all, she hadn’t become the youngest CEO in National City by taking days off. And besides, as she likes to remind herself, she’s Irish by blood, so there’s little point in celebrating this foolish American holiday built around colonialism and gorging oneself on turkey, of all things. In fact, Lena had decided somewhere between yet another torturous November home from boarding school and the Easter where Lex hid explosives in her plastic eggs as a prank that holidays in general were simply not worth it.
But then Kara Danvers walked into her office with that insufferable Clark Kent, and suddenly Lena found herself doing things like actually taking her lunch break and eating fried food and attending game nights and definitely not falling deeply and irrevocably in love with the person who quickly becomes the first best friend she’s ever had.
So when Kara looks at her over an absolutely enormous bite of some monstrosity of a pastry creation called a “cruffin” (which she insisted Lena try, and Lena was really bad at saying no to Kara when she was making that face), and through a mouthful of crumbs, asks Lena what she was doing for Thanksgiving, Lena cracks.
“Working, probably.”
Kara blinks disbelievingly at her response. “You mean you don’t have plans with anyone?”
Shifting uncomfortably on her office’s white couch, Lena tucks her feet up underneath her. “This will probably shock you, but Lillian was never big on giving thanks. Or family. Or warmth.” This last part, mostly under her breath, is meant as a joke, but Lena doesn’t miss the way Kara’s eyes soften as she reaches out a hand and places it on Lena’s shoulder.
“Spend this year with us? Eliza always makes way too much food anyways, and J’onn and Winn will be there…and probably Sam and Ruby, if Alex ever realizes Sam is also super into her, and I already promised everyone I won’t try to cook this year, even though I really think everyone overreacted last year over the mashed potato incident—” she finally pauses to take a breath, and Lena takes that as her opportunity to cut in, fully planning on politely declining.
After all, holidays are clearly important to Kara, and who is Lena to show up and scrooge all over her joy? Lena opens her mouth to kindly let Kara down, but what comes out is “I would love to, Kara. Can I bring anything?” And Lena is a little confused at her mind-voice disconnect, but the look on Kara’s face when she agrees is so bright that Lena melts a little inside, and decides that maybe she’ll give Thanksgiving one more try.
She almost cancels the second she wakes up on Thanksgiving morning, and then again when she sees a picture on Kara’s Instagram story of all three Danvers women standing around an absolutely enormous turkey, though she notes with a little smugness that Alex is clutching her coffee mug just a little too tight for someone celebrating a day of familial warmth.
At 3:00 sharp, Lena is pacing the hallway outside of Kara’s apartment, trying to decide if she’s dressed too casually or if the bottle of scotch she’s holding is too expensive, when she is suddenly tackled from behind by a pair of arms around her waist, and just nearly avoids dropping a $2000 bottle of scotch in the hallway.
“Woah, Ruby. Lena deserves to be at least one drink in before we start forcing joy on her.” Sam grins, coming around the corner and prying her daughter off of Lena, who feels herself relax for the first time that day in Sam's presence.
“Sorry,” Ruby pouts, “but I’m so excited you’re here, Aunt Lena! You didn’t come to our Halloween party but my mom says that you’ll do anything Kara wants so I’m glad she invited you—”
She’s cut off by Sam putting a hand over her mouth and smiling at her sheepishly. “Ruby, we’ve really got to have another talk about discretion.” As Sam opens the apartment door and shepherds Ruby inside, she turns around to mouth an “oops” at Lena, who rolls her eyes and follows Sam in.
Inside, festivities are in full swing, with Eliza and Winn chopping vegetables in the kitchen, Kara and J’onn watching the dog show on tv, and Alex standing sullenly in a corner with a glass of wine, though Lena doesn’t miss the way her eyes light up when she sees Ruby and Sam. She only has a second to watch their reunion though, before she’s having the wind knocked out of her for the second time in two minutes by an overly excited hug.
“Lena!” and Lena can feel Kara’s beaming smile against her cheek as she wraps her arms around the taller woman’s waist like she hadn’t seen her the day before for their weekly lunch date plans. “I’m so glad you came.”
Lena tries to form a response as Kara pulls back from their hug, but then the blonde reaches up and brushes a piece of hair back behind Lena’s ear, and her brain short circuits. After a second, she recovers enough to hold up the bottle of scotch she’s had a death grip on for the past twenty minutes, and thrusts it in between their bodies, trying to create enough space between herself and Kara’s really good smelling hair to form a cohesive thought.
“Where should I put this?” Kara looks down at the bottle and then up at Lena, and only then seems to remember that there are other people in the room.
“Here, I’ll put it in the kitchen. Come say hi to Eliza! She’s so excited you’re here.” Lena follows, trying not to let her nervousness about interacting with maternal figures show, but Eliza is every bit as gracious as she has been every time Lena’s met her, shaking her hand warmly and complimenting her on her latest publication on L-Corp’s cancer research.
As the evening progresses, Lena finds herself getting more and more distracted by Kara, who seems to always have an excuse to have her hand on Lena’s arm, or resting on her thigh, or in one particularly disarming occasion, wrapped around Lena’s whole body as she opens the bottle of wine that Lena’s shaking hands can’t seem to get open. They sit next to each other at dinner, and Lena’s left-handedness has them bumping elbows every few seconds.
(Lena’s fully ambidextrous, but Kara doesn’t know that, and Lena won’t deny herself the spark that zips through her every time their arms brush.)
By 8pm, dishes are washed and leftovers are put away, and Ruby’s fallen asleep on the couch with her head in Alex’s lap, who’s stroking her hair with such reverence that Sam seems on the verge of proposing right here and now. J’onn and Winn are helping Eliza with an enormous jigsaw puzzle of the skyline of National City that has taken over the entire kitchen island, and Kara, who seems shockingly sober despite the amount they’ve all had to drink, is trying to explain to Lena the intricacies of the National Dog Show, which is inexplicably playing again, for what Lena is sure is the third time this evening.
“I mean, I guess it’s just a beauty contest, but their personalities really matter too, like—look,” Kara points to the absurdly fluffy dog currently prancing around the on-screen ring. “See how happy and peppy he looks? You can tell the judge likes him. I bet he wins best in breed.”
Lena has little to no interest in dogs, and even less in elaborately ritualized pet pageants, but something about the twinkle in Kara’s eyes makes her feel like she could listen to her talk about it forever.
Eventually, Sam rouses Ruby and announces that they’re headed out, and the rest of the guests, Lena included, begin to file out as well. Before she can leave, Kara pulls Lena aside.
“Did you have fun tonight? I know big holiday gatherings aren’t really your thing.” Her eyes concerned, she rubs a hand absentmindedly up and down the outside of Lena’s upper arm.
“It was wonderful, Kara, thank you so much for inviting me. I haven’t ever really had family like this—” she tries to keep talking but she feels a lump well up in her throat and seriously? As if Kara didn’t have enough reasons to think she’s damaged, now she’s blinking away tears at the end of a perfectly enjoyable thanksgiving dinner, and oh.
Kara pulls her close for another hug and tilts her head to press her lips quickly to Lena’s temple. “Oh Lee. I’ll always be here for you.” And before Lena can slip out the door, Kara grabs her hand. “I mean, what are friends for?”
Lena deflates a little at that, but she can still feel the ghost of Kara’s lips on the side of her head, and she goes to sleep that night just a little lighter, thinking that maybe Thanksgiving isn’t so bad after all.