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Ever since the day Kara had met Lena Luthor, she had known she was going to be important to her. She just didn’t know how important the CEO of L-Corp would become to her. As it happened, Lena Luthor came to be one of the most important people in Kara Zor-El’s life, second only to her sister (and on the days when Alex drove her nuts, Lena surged to number one without even trying).
Maybe that’s why Kara found herself doing everything she could to keep Lena safe, to protect her, to help her in any way she could in her everyday life, long before the woman knew she was Supergirl. Whether it was lending an ear to the troubles of the youngest Luthor or writing a flattering article about the latest L-Corp tech and Lena’s relentless search for ways to help humanity, Kara did her best to make Lena Luthor’s life easier, and keep a smile on her face.
More often than not though, she found herself using her superpowers to help Lena. Something as small as using her heat vision to reheat Lena’s coffee that had gone cold while she was working on some technical emergency from the labs, or using her freeze breath to keep Lena’s sushi lunch edible when she was unexpectedly called away to an investor call.
Kara was a superhero, she was supposed to help people. At least, that’s how she justified all the times she came dangerously close to exposing her identity to Lena in an effort to make sure that she had her favourite tea from her favourite local cafe in Ireland, that couldn’t be purchased online. She had to fly there every time she needed to restock, and though Lena asked and asked where she bought it, she simply said that she had found a secret site and she wasn’t going to tell because this ensured that Lena kept being her friend.
(And if she burned with pride when Lena told her that, tea or no tea, she would never stop being Kara’s friend, well that was no one’s business but her own.)
Eventually, all of this harmless use of her powers led to Kara using her superhearing to keep an ear on Lena’s heartbeat. So she wanted to keep an eye on her best friend after years of assassination attempts? Sue her!
When she heard an increase in Lena’s heartbeat while she was at work, Kara would fly over to L-Corp and keep an eye on things. Normally it was just anxiety -- having to conduct a meeting, give a press conference -- that kind of thing. But occasionally Kara would catch some Cadmus agents or anti-Luthor activists threatening Lena and she would break the sound barrier flying to help her. She was a hero -- that’s what heroes did!
The weird part though, was that sometimes she would be texting Lena -- just about their days, or how much she loved Lena’s outfit at the press conference -- and Lena’s heartbeat would go into overdrive. But when Kara would hover above L-Corp or Lena’s penthouse fortress, there would be nothing happening. Just Lena tucked into her couch or sitting at her desk, smiling at her phone where Kara’s message sat.
Kara found it odd. She made sure to tell Lena how important it was to have annual checkups with the cardiologist the next time they hung out. The last thing she wanted was for an untreated heart disease to take Lena out when she had worked so hard to protect the woman from literal assassins.
Sometimes though, Kara had to take a more direct approach to protecting Lena, even while she was Kara Danvers -- not Supergirl.
Threats to Lena Luthor were everywhere, and sometimes they were sudden and unsophisticated. They might come in the form of an impromptu protest over Lena’s release of Image Inducers by an anti-alien group, or someone who had suffered from one of Lex’s many plans to take over the world, coming to shout in her face while they were in line at Noonan’s. In these instances, Lena would stand quietly and listen to the shouting, trying to offer her sympathy, her apologies, her support, her defense of her technology, and Kara would try to shove herself in between Lena and the person accosting her.
Lena didn’t often let her. She told Kara that she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if Kara got hurt while she was trying to protect her. Of course, Kara couldn’t explain to Lena that unless these idiots had fists of Kryptonite, there was no way she’d be hurt.
Which is exactly what precipitated the events of one Tuesday afternoon. Kara and Lena were having lunch at Wei Fu’s, Kara eagerly eating seven helpings of potstickers while Lena nursed her seaweed salad, when a man came up to their table.
“Are you Lena Luthor,” he asked angrily, fists clenched by his sides.
“I am,” Lena replied evenly, though Kara could see the tremble in her hands as she set down her chopsticks. Kara set her own down in preparation for trouble.
“I just think you’ve got some nerve showing your face in public after all the pain you’ve caused,” the man began, his voice rising. “Seems foolish too. Must be a whole bunch of people who want you dead for everything you and your family have done.”
Kara leapt to her feet. “Okay that’s enough,” she said icily. “You need to walk away.”
The man ignored her, stepping closer to Lena, whose expression was still calm, but Kara could hear her pounding heart beating anxiously in her chest.
“You play the innocent role like you and your family haven’t killed people -- haven’t destroyed lives! You’re a goddamn curse on this city, you evil bitch!”
Kara felt her heat vision filling the corners of her eyes. She needed to get this man out of here, away from Lena, away from innocent people, before she lost control. She could hear Lena’s shuddering breaths, see the tremble of her lip, the tremor of her hand, knew that she was trying to hold herself together until this asshole got it all out of his system because she thought she deserved people’s ire in exchange for everything her family had done. They couldn’t get to Lex or Lillian, so she let them cannibalise her with their poisonous hatred.
Shoving herself between the man and Lena, Kara lowered her voice to a deadly whisper.
“You need to leave. Now.”
The man finally had to acknowledge her and he turned to her furiously.
“This don’t concern you,” he replied, stepping around her to address Lena again, who was already sliding out of the booth to protect Kara. “You gonna let your guard dog take all the heat? Pretty on brand for you Luthors. Just walk away and leave others to clean up your mess.”
Lena put her hand on Kara’s arm, urging her to sit back down.
“Kara, please, it’s alright. I can handle him.”
Lena’s acknowledgment of the situation only seemed to embolden the man. Stepping closer, he looked absolutely murderous as he spat out, “Oh you’ll handle me?! Handle this!”
And he swung a fist towards Lena’s head.
Kara didn’t have to think. It was second nature to protect Lena. She stepped right into the oncoming blow and only barely remembered to flinch as the man’s fist connected with her steel-like jaw. She heard a deafening crack, a horrible scream, and then suddenly all of her senses were filled with Lena, Lena, Lena, as she let herself “fall” to the ground.
Lena, holding her in her arms on the sticky floor of Wei Fu’s. Lena cupping her unblemished jaw tenderly, as if she must be in immense pain. Lena cooing softly in her ear and then shouting for ice and for someone to call the police.
“Oh God, Kara, why did you do that! Why would you do that? I’m getting you some ice, you big sweet dummy. Are you hurt? Is it broken? Oh god, I’ll never forgive myself if it’s broken!”
Kara had to admit, it felt pretty good being the one being taken care of after so many years of everyone assuming she was fine because she was Supergirl. Of course, she was fine. That man couldn’t have hurt her, but it still felt nice to have someone worry over her for once. Especially when it was Lena doing the worrying.
“Are you okay, Kara?” Lena asked, pressing the ice pack someone had produced for her to Kara’s cheek gently. “I think I have some ibuprofen in my bag. That might help with the pain and swelling.”
Adjusting her position on the floor so she could hold Kara closer, she stroked her blonde curls and continued cooing in her ear.
“I’m so sorry you got hurt, sweetheart. I’m going to take you home. I’ll call Cat and tell her what happened -- you don’t have to worry about a thing, darling. Oh god, how many times have I told you that you’re not my bodyguard and not to interact with these nutjobs??”
Kara couldn’t take it anymore. Pulling away, she sat up straight to face her best friend, pushing the hand holding the ice pack away gently.
“So I was just supposed to let him hit you?” She retorted hotly.
“Yes!” Lena cried. “Yes, of course! I would much rather you let me take the hit. I don’t want you to get hurt, Kara!”
Kara crossed her arms. “Well, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to let someone hit you.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “Kara, it’s not like I’ve never been hit before. I can take a punch just as well as I can throw one.”
Kara just stared at her. What the hell did that mean? Who had hit Lena? Kara would heat vision them to death. She’d throw them into space. She’d crush them with her iron fists until they were nothing but pulp and bone dust and then she’d have Kelex clean them off the floor.
Lena must have realised what she had said, because she cleared her throat and helped Kara to her feet, stepping over their harasser as she led her out the door and to the waiting towncar.
It wasn’t until later when Lena was seated next to her on the couch, holding Kara’s legs in her lap as they watched Kara’s favourite musicals, that Kara finally asked the question that had filled her mind since Lena had put it there.
“Who hit you?” She asked quietly, pausing the movie.
“What?” Lena asked, and Kara could tell she was only pretending not to have heard her.
“You said it’s not like you’ve never been hit before. Who hit you?”
Lena sighed. “There’s a reason I don’t have a great relationship with my mother, Kara.” She paused, considering. “Well, beyond the xenophobic, murderous, anti-alien stuff.”
Kara nodded sympathetically. It made sense. Lena had opened up to her about how critical and vicious Lillian had been toward her growing up. Of course there had been more to it.
“It wasn’t only her though,” Lena continued thoughtfully. “Lionel, my father, he would get mean when he got drunk. When he was sober, he was fine. But drunk Father was angry, vicious, dangerous, savage. It was better just to hide in my room when he was on a tear.”
Kara sat up and pulled her close, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“Just because you can take something, doesn’t mean you have to or even that you should. It wasn’t right for your parents to hurt you, and just because your family hurt other people, it doesn’t make it right for you to let their victims hurt you too.”
Lena played with her fingers, pulling on them and twining them together.
“I know,” she replied, her voice small. “I just don’t want you to get hurt. I mean, look what happened!”
“Lena, I’m fine.”
“You got punched in the face!”
“And I’m fine,” Kara huffed. “He punched like a child and I’m -- I’m -- hard-headed!” She lowered her voice and pulled Lena even closer, stroking her arms with her thumbs. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, no matter how brave you are. I’ll always protect you. Always.”
Lena smiled, her eyes soft and glistening with tears.
“Kara Danvers, you are my hero.”
They sat like that on Kara’s couch, Lena in her arms, until the sun went down, and when Lena reluctantly rose to leave, Kara didn’t have to think twice about asking her to stay over, not wanting her to have to be alone after the events of the day. Lena didn’t have to think twice before saying yes.
Kara would always rescue Lena -- from anything. And sometimes, she thought, as she cuddled Lena that night, sometimes Lena would rescue her right back.