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Lena was definitely still talking, Kara was sure of that. She was sure of that because she was following the way the crisp red lines of her lipstick moved as they rounded around each word. The way they puckered and thinned as she continued her story, the way her tongue darted out to coat them in a thin sheen of saliva, leaving them sparkling in its wake.
So Kara knew she was, in fact, still talking, but she had absolutely no idea what was being said. She was more concerned with the imprint of Lena’s lips that had just been left on the glass Lena was drinking out of, and how she wished more than anything that she could be a glass, that Lena might leave that cursed stain on her own skin.
“Kara? Where’d you go?”
Kara raised her eyes from their place on the lip of the glass to the soft, smiling green eyes that gazed at her knowingly.
“Sorry,” she apologised quickly. “Sorry, I guess I spaced out there.”
Lena’s smile widened, red lips stretching to reveal white teeth, and stilling Kara’s heart.
“It’s okay, I’m sure you’re quite bored of hearing about my boardmember woes,” she laughed.
“Never!” Kara was quick to refute. She never wanted Lena to think she was bored of her. Kara could never be bored with her. Kara thought perhaps she had been sent to this planet specifically to listen to Lena every day of her life.
“I think I’m just a little tired,” she continued, masking the true reason for her distraction. “That Andergaard was stronger than it looked.”
Lena nodded, reaching for her glass and swilling the merlot inside of it.
“I can only imagine. No more shop talk. Just tv and snacks, how about that?”
Kara burned with happiness. TV, snacks, and Lena was her ideal evening.
“Sounds perfect.”
“I just don’t understand why this makes me sad,” Lena sobbed into her shoulder, tears falling fast onto her grey sweatshirt. “He’s evil, he killed people -- he tried to kill you -- he...he…” she trailed off in a sob and buried her face further into Kara’s shoulder as they curled tighter on Kara’s couch. “He abused me! Why should I care that he’s gone?”
Kara felt the pain radiating off of the younger woman in waves, and though she was quick to rub Lena’s back in slow, gentle circles and hold her even tighter, she couldn’t help the pride in her heart at Lena’s recognition of Lex’s treatment of her. It had taken so long for Lena to admit that what she had been through at the hands of the Luthors had been abuse (“there are people that have been through much worse than me, Kara”) and even longer to actually voice it out loud.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it makes sense, Lena,” she whispered into her messy hair, wishing she could soothe away the pain with just the right words, the right amount of pressure, “But he was still your brother. You knew him before all of this -- you knew the good and the bad. You’re allowed to feel conflicted. I’d be more concerned if you didn’t.”
Lena sniffled and pulled her head back from where it had rested on Kara’s shoulder.
“But I hate him ,” she hiccuped out, eyes puffy and lips smudged. “How can I be this sad over someone I hate?”
Kara sighed and adjusted their bodies, laying Lena’s head back down on her shoulder and wrapping her arms tighter around the sobbing woman’s midsection.
“I think probably because it takes an awful lot of love to hate him the way you do.”
Lena cried herself insensible that night and when she finally fell asleep in a pool of her own tears, Kara carried her gently to bed and tucked the blankets tight around her.
As she pulled off her soaked sweatshirt and went to toss it towards her laundry basket, she noticed a dark red smudge near the hood and couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips. Nothing made her happier than evidence that Lena had been there.
Even lipstick-stained clothing.
They weren’t sure how the fire had broken out. Probably a lab accident -- an unattended Bunsen burner or something -- but that hardly mattered at the moment. What was far more pressing was the fact that an oppressive, raging fire was spreading through the laboratory level of L-Corp and Lena had somehow managed to get herself trapped in the decontamination chamber while evacuating employees, and now the automatic fire suppression system was rapidly sucking the oxygen out of the room in an attempt to suffocate the flames.
Lena pawed at the sleeve of her lab coat, only to realise that the super watch was not there! She had taken it off to do work with a new chemical and hadn’t wanted to risk harming it. Well, she huffed to herself.
She stood up and yanked on the heavy steel again, but she knew it was no use. Hope had put the lab into lockdown and these doors would not budge until the flames were extinguished, and she would run out of oxygen long before that happened.
Her breathing quickened. Was the air already thinning? Her lungs felt like they were working harder than normal. Oh god, was this really it?
Stay calm, she reprimanded herself, Kara is probably already here and she’ll find you.
But as her breathing became more and more shallow, she realised that Kara may not even know that L-Corp was burning. How many times had she directed Hope to take L-Corp off of Supergirl’s radar? She already had an entire city to protect, Lena could handle this one thing for her.
Except, apparently she couldn’t.
Gathering every last bit of breath she had, she screamed at the top of her lungs:
“Karaaaaaa!!!”
Collapsing to her knees, her vision started to blur, black spots began to appear around the edge of her sight, but just as she fell into unconsciousness, a flash of blue light appeared and she was being gathered up quickly. There was a quick rush of air, a resounding crash, and then --
Air. Sweet, blessed, fresh air. Lena filled her lungs to the brim with it, coughing as she inhaled too quickly.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re alright,” Kara was whispering into her ear as her cape fluttered around them in the air, the crease in her brow deepening with every shaky exhale Lena gave. “ God Lena, what the hell happened?! Why didn’t you call -- where’s your watch?!”
Lena just shook her head, unable to speak just yet.
“You could have died , Lena! You can’t take that off ever! What if I hadn’t heard you? What if I was too late? Rao, Lena -- do you know what that would have done to me?!”
Lena just watched as the hero worked herself up into a frenzy, worrying over her and holding her close as they floated back toward the ground.
She drew in another breath and leaned forward, whispering into Kara’s ear:
“I know you’ll always save me, Supergirl.”
She pressed a kiss to her hero’s cheek before dismounting and making her way toward where Alex stood looking harried as she did triage on L-Corp employees.
Kara stood stock still for a moment, replaying the kiss over and over in her mind, a little wondrous half-smile stuck to her face.
She wandered over to Nia to check on the state of the blaze, but found that Lena’s fire suppression system (the one that had nearly killed her) had suffocated the fire all on its own.
“Guess we weren’t needed here after all,” Nia said lazily, kicking a rock across the parking lot.
“Maybe not for the fire, but Lena got stuck inside,” Kara retorted, her tone testy.
Nia looked at her in surprise. “Is--is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Kara replied, finally letting the relief bleed into her voice.
Nia looked at her for a moment and snickered.
“I see she thanked you for your efforts.”
Kara stared at her blankly. “What do you mean?”
“She gave you a little token of her appreciation?”
Kara huffed in annoyance. “What are you talking about?”
Nia giggled and pulled her phone out of her boot, turning the camera so that Kara could see herself. There, plastered to her cheek in a ruby red patch, was a perfect outline of Lena Luthor’s lips.
Kara’s cheeks immediately tried to match the colour, and she bolted into the air before Nia could tease her further.
“Hey, that’s my phone!” She heard Nia call from below. She ignored her.
That’s what she gets for teasing me, she thought as she absentmindedly brushed her fingers over the waxy stain on her cheek and wished that it was placed just a little further south.
The portal whooshed open and Kara stepped through. She loved working with Barry, but boy was she glad to be home. Inter-Earth travel exhausted her the way sparring under the kryptonite lamps with Alex used to.
“Hey, how did it go?” Alex asked, as she stepped fully into the lab. “Did you get your man?”
“Yeah,” Kara replied with a yawn. “It was pretty standard. Was good to see Barry again, but man! I’m exhausted.”
Alex grinned. “Well, I’m glad you’re back safe. And don’t worry! All of your plants are still alive, although that’s more thanks to Lena than me. Apparently I was overwatering them, so she took over plant care duties.”
Kara laughed. “Of course she did.”
She gave her sister a quick hug and told her to say hi to Kelly for her, and then she shot off into the sky, ready to curl up in bed and sleep . She’d have to thank Lena in the morning for not letting Alex kill her plants. Maybe she’d fly to Dublin and get her scones for breakfast…
As she descended onto her balcony, she noticed the lights were on in her apartment. Had she left them on? Maybe Alex or Lena had. She groaned. Her light bill was going to be offensively high.
Pushing open the door into her living room, she unclipped her cape and dropped it onto the chair, kicking off her boots as she trudged towards her bedroom. God she was ready to just sleep and sleep and sleep and --
“Kara?”
The voice jolted her back into reality and she accidentally shot heat vision toward the intruder.
A scream rang out and then Kara saw who it was.
Lena had dropped to the floor with her hands over her head, a bamboo plant on the ground next to her.
“Lena! Oh god, oh Rao, Lena I’m so sorry! I -- you startled me! I didn’t think anyone was here!”
She zipped over to the CEO and gathered her in her arms, checking her over for evidence of injury and apologising all the while.
Lena sat up straighter, checking herself over with a laugh. “I think I’m alright.”
“Did I hurt you? Did I -- did it hit you? Oh god, if I’ve hurt you --”
Lena gently cupped Kara’s face with her hands.
“Kara, love, I’m fine . I’m fine. You didn’t hurt me.”
Kara’s turned her gaze to Lena’s and was astonished at the gentleness found there. There was no fear, no anxiety. Only calm understanding and... love ?
Had Lena called her love? She hadn’t imagined that, had she? She was awfully tired. Lena called her pet names all the time; darling, sunshine, E.T., space cadet, etc. But never love . That felt...different.
Lena was smoothing her blonde curls away from her face as she came back down to earth.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” she was saying, tucking a wisp behind her ear. “I was worried you’d be delayed again.”
“You--you’re not hurt?” For some reason, Kara’s brain was stuck in that place and would not move on until she had explicit confirmation.
Lena laughed brightly into her neck and smiled up at her.
“No, love. I’m not hurt.” She cupped her chin and Kara couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her when she heard the term of endearment again, sure this time that it was real.
“I know you could never hurt me,” Lena continued, her face only inches away from Kara’s, so close that Kara could feel each breath ghosting across her skin.
There they were, those sweet, sharp, tantalising crimson lips. Right there. Just micrometers away...if she could just be brave enough, she could have them right where she wanted them --
“Well?”
Kara snapped her gaze up to Lena’s green eyes from where they had been frozen on her lips and gave an intelligent, “Huh?”
Lena smiled, those ruby crescents turning up in amusement.
“Are you going to kiss me, or not?”
So Kara did.