Work Text:
“So,” Alex’s eyes flick from one blonde to the other. She doesn’t even have it left in her to be surprised. “She’s from another Earth?”
“And the future,” both Karas say at the same time. Kara, this Earth’s Kara, looks a little bit awed at the almost identical version of herself standing beside her.
There are differences, of course. This other Kara is older, though it’s hard to tell by how much thanks to Kryptonian physiology.
There are a series of lines in the corners of her eyes, and more freckles on her cheeks. Her hair is blonder than Kara’s, almost silver at the front on one side.
Despite wearing sweatpants and a threadbare MIT sweatshirt, she looks poised in a way Kara hasn’t quite mastered yet, almost regal.
Alex sighs.
“Must be Tuesday.”
-
Kara gives herself a tour of the tower. Apparently on Older Kara’s earth they work out of an abandoned castle somewhere. She won’t reveal too much, says it can be dangerous to talk too much about it, in case some things overlap.
They get along well, sharing matching grins as Kara leads them from room to room. A box of Brainy’s donuts are discovered in the kitchen and soon both Kara’s have full bellies and icing on their fingers. It’s kind of nice, actually.
Older Kara tell her that she thinks a fifth dimensional imp has something to do with her ending up here, and Kara nods along, knowing all about it.
“Lena can help,” Kara says casually as they enter the lab, where Lena sits among a series of spell books and equipment. She’s leaning heavily on one elbow, face down turned to the page she’s reading in a kind of concentration that makes her miss their entrance.
Her hair is pulled up into a quick bun, a few pieces slipping out around her face, and she has a pair of thick rimmed glasses perched on her nose that Kara knows she’s started needing to read the tiny print in her mother’s spell book.
She looks comfortable in the bubble of her lab, and as beautiful as she has ever been.
Older Kara pauses beside her, the easy posture she had adopted during their tour transforming into stony stillness.
“Lena,” she breathes. When Kara turns to look she sees her own jaw flexed tight, eyes wide and shining with what looks like shock but might also be tears.
It’s enough to get Lena’s attention and she turns to acknowledge them, looking from one Kara to the other with a raised eyebrow.
“Alternate dimension?” she asks calmly, slipping her glasses up into her forehead to see them properly. Kara nods, eyes still trained on the older version of herself who is in turn still staring at Lena.
Lena nods.
“Cool. Hi,” Lena offers to the other Kara with a kind smile, dimples flashing, brain clearly already spinning with questions and curiosities.
Older Kara swallows thickly, and Kara’s brow crinkles. She looks from her to Lena who just shrugs.
“Hi,” Older Kara manages after too long, but then she’s clearing her throat, blinking something away as her posture loosens a little bit. “Sorry, uh. Hi. Hi, Lena.”
Her name sounds different on this Kara’s tongue, and Kara wonders why.
An awkward moment passes and then Lena stands from her stool. Green eyes zero in on Older Kara’s sweatshirt for just a moment, a flicker of something crossing her face just long enough for Kara to catch it.
Then Lena is looking between the two Karas before her and smiling again.
“Okay, then. Science or magic?”
-
They use both.
It’s simple enough once Lena has the details. She alters the transmat-portal watch to create fifth dimensional wormholes, muttering a few words over the now well used technology.
Older Kara never looks away from her. Kara never looks away from Older Kara looking at her. It’s a lot of staring.
At one point Alex comes to check on them, a cup of coffee steaming in one hand, looks between the three of them and shakes her head.
“Nope. No energy for whatever this is today,” and she turns right back around and walks out.
Lena solves the problem in an hour and when she holds up the watch with a bit of a smirk both Karas cheeks turn the slightest shade of pink.
-
The Karas are talking in hushed whispers on the balcony landing. Lena watches them with interest from the seat at her desk, unable to hear what they’re saying with her human ears.
Older Kara continues to look a little too serious. Kara — her Kara — looks confused and then bashful and then quietly devastated.
Lena’s halfway to standing, ready to go make sure she’s okay, when Alex pipes up beside her.
“Let’s just give them a minute.”
Lena nods, and sinks back to her stool, fingers tapping an irregular rhythm against the tabletop while they wait. After a few more minutes of whispering together and a long hug in which four arms flex and squeeze with all the strength they have, the Karas come to stand before her.
“She’s ready,” Kara says, and her voice scratches in her throat like she might cry. Now she’s the one who can’t look away from Lena.
It makes Lena want to reach out and smooth a thumb against the line between her eyebrows, but she controls herself. Instead she presses her thumb against the button on the side of the watch.
A vortex of blue appears in the center of the room.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Alex waves off the older version of her sister.
“Bye, Kara,” Lena says, hoping to ease whatever fear has recently settled on Kara’s face, and both Karas hands flex at the same time, curling into self soothing fists.
“Bye, Lena,” Older Kara blinks quickly a few times, and after a long moment tears her eyes away from Lena to look at Kara.
“Don’t miss your chance,” Older Kara says seriously and two sets of matching blue eyes share a look that goes over Lena’s head.
Older Kara nods once, casts one last long look at Lena, and then disappears through the portal in a swirl of blue energy.
“What was that about?” Lena says, trying to keep her tone light amidst the weird lingering tension. She can’t imagine what would have Kara looking so grave.
Kara has her hands on her hips, brow furrowed. She stares after the older version of herself until all that remains are wisps of blue magic.
Lena looks at her expectantly, raising both eyebrows.
“Kara?”
Kara turns to her then, blue eyes shining with an unguarded intensity that burns like stars.
“I’m in love with you.”
Lena blinks back at her, lips parting slightly. From beside her Alex let’s out a low whistle.
Alex’s coffee cup hits the table and she pushes out her stool, heading for the elevator without giving either of them a second glance and muttering to herself.
“Oh, yep. Definitely not enough energy for this today.”
-
There’s a soft shimmer of blue and then Kara is landing gracefully in the center of the castle ballroom turned Superfriend’s command central.
Her heart is pounding in her chest both from the interdimensional travel and from the experience she just had. She brushes a shaky hand through pale blonde hair and attempts to collect herself, mind still full of images of another life.
Alex is asleep in front of a bank of computer monitors, her graying mohawk hanging to one side as she slumps over. Kara nudges her shoulder until she startles awake with a grunt, just barely managing to steady the cup of coffee that threatens to spill on the table in front of her.
“Oh, thank god,” Alex sighs, standing up to wrap her sister in a tight hug. When they break apart Alex grabs her hearing aids from the desk and pops them into her ears. It’s been ten years since her hearing loss and the little bits of plastic and wire are a part of her now.
“What happened? Where did you go?”
Kara sinks down into the chair that Alex just stood from, leaning back heavily. Her mind is still racing, but her heart steadies ever so slightly in the calming presence of her older sister.
“It was another Earth. She was there,” she says quietly.
Alex softens, sitting back against the edge of the desk and reaching over to put a comforting hand on her sister’s shoulder. Her thumb rubs a soothing circle over the cut of her collar bone, and Kara lets her cheek rest against it for a moment.
“Oh, Kara.”
“She was there!” Kara repeats even louder, lifting her head. Her eyes are wide and a little wild as she looks up at her sister, and to Alex she looks the same as she had that very first day back in Midvale. A scared little girl who just lost everything.
“And she was…?” Alex asks the question without asking it.
“Awake,” Kara breathes, eyes unfocusing slightly as she remembers the feeling of the other Lena watching her. Her heart clenches. It’s been so long since she’s seen those green eyes, bright and curious and alive.
“Young,” she adds with a small laugh. “We all were. I was practically a baby.”
“You’re still a baby,” Alex says, lifting her hand from her sister’s shoulder to pinch at her cheek before leaning back and crossing her arms.
“She’s the one who sent me back,” Kara says with a fond but sad smile. “It took her all of five minutes, of course.”
Alex snorts.
“She always was too smart for her own good.”
Kara looks up sharply, smile falling into a tense frown.
“Is,” she says sternly. “She’s not dead, Alex.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” Alex concedes with an apologetic nod, holding her hands up in surrender. “I know she’s not dead. It’s just...Kara, it's been almost twenty years.”
Kara pins her sister with a hard look.
“I don’t care if it takes a hundred and twenty years. I won’t give up on her.”
With that Kara stands from her chair, pushing past her sister and heading for the long staircase that leads to the upper floors of the drafty castle.
-
The room is dark and a little cold.
Kara pushes open the heavy, velvet curtains to let in the sun. Light spills in through the large window and warms her skin but doesn’t offer the same comfort that it once had.
She moves from the window to sit in the familiar chair beside the king sized four poster bed.
“Hi, beautiful,” she whispers, leaning down to press a kiss against a pale forehead. A thrum of magical energy courses against her lips, tickling at her mouth. She likes to think of it as Lena’s way of saying hello.
Lena lays, unmoving, beneath the heavy comforter. Her chest rises and falls steadily and Kara soaks up each quiet rasp, letting her ears tune into the slow, steady beat of Lena’s heart. Dark hair is fanned out around her against the white pillowcase, and Kara reaches up to smooth it back with still shaking fingers.
Twenty years since Nyxly put her into this cursed sleep and she looks as though not a day has passed.
“I saw a girl who looked like you today. Almost as pretty,” she says with a small smile. “And very smart. She sent me home. She sent me back to you.”
Lena’s heart beats steadily, chest rising and falling, and she doesn’t respond. Doesn’t move a muscle beneath the wave of magical energy that encases her like a cocoon. Kara draws a thumb across a dark eyebrow, chest aching.
“You’ll be happy to know that I’m stupidly in love with you in every universe. As if that were ever in question,” she huffs out a tired laugh. “I’m also an idiot in every universe. We must have been thirty and I still hadn’t told you.”
She can perfectly imagine Lena’s smug look, her affectionate eye roll, the feel of once warm hands against her collar, tugging her closer and calling her darling.
“Other things were different though. Our base was still in National City, in a kind of tower above J’onn’s private investigation firm. J’onn, a PI, can you imagine? Alex was just as grumpy as ever. And you were...oh, Lena. You were awake.”
She lets her forehead fall down against a chilly hand, trying to press her warmth into the pale skin.
“You were magic,” she whispers. For a moment she sits like that, breathing against the bedspread and letting herself soak in the feeling of Lena’s skin against her own, even through the thin barrier of magic.
Magic.
Magic.
“Magic!”
Kara bolts upright, fast enough to startle herself.
“Lena, you had magic,” she whispers quickly. She presses her lips to the back of Lena’s hand before letting it gently fall back against the bed. Jumping up from her chair she begins pacing, mind going a mile a minute.
“Lxyvdlp!” she calls into the empty room after a few minutes of letting the plan that was blooming in her mind take shape. “Lxyvdlp! I know you can hear me.”
“There’s no need to yell,” a voice says from behind her and Kara whips around, coming face to face with a small boy, no older than the age of eight, at least to the untrained eye. He’s got floppy black hair and is wearing a little tuxedo with a red bowtie.
“Send me back,” Kara rushes out. The boy considers her seriously for a moment before letting out a child-like laugh that’s laced with something sinister.
“Fat chance, Danvers.”
Kara grabs him by the lapels of his tiny tuxedo jacket, hoisting him off of his feet to look her in the face. Her fists curl into the material and for a moment she considers throwing him through the window, even though she knows it wouldn’t do any damage.
“Send me back, you snot nosed brat.”
Despite being dangled two feet off the ground, the child remains undisturbed, an easy smile on his little face.
“And what would I get out of it?”
Kara knows this is a bad idea. She can practically hear the voices of Alex and Lena both screaming in her mind to think this through, to not do anything rash, to remember that they’ve waited this long, they can wait a little longer. They can find another way.
Her hands flex against his lapels and her jaw tightens.
Screw waiting.
“I’ll owe you a favor.”
A sly grin spreads across the little boy’s face and for a split second the familiar blue light of fifth dimensional energy swirls in his pupils.
“Done,” he snaps his tiny fingers and a moment later Kara is falling through space and time.
-
Kara has experienced more tactile sensations than the average person.
She knows the feeling of the wind in her hair as she soars high overhead, keeping a watchful eye over the city that she loves. She knows the sting of icicles in her lungs as she breathes great gusts of frost from deep within her lungs. She once stuck her hand in literal lava and barely felt more than a tickle.
She’s shot lasers from her eyes, and floated in the dark expanse of space, and been crushed by skyscrapers.
None of it compares to the feeling of Lena thighs wrapped around her hips as she holds her aloft with one hand, pinning her securely to the wall while she drags wet kisses down her throat.
None of it holds a candle to Lena’s fingers tugging at her hair or Lena’s chest heaving against her own.
She has all the superpowers a girl could dream of, and they barely register on the Lena Luthor Scale of Physical Intimacy.
“Kara, fuck—” Lena hisses in her ear as she sucks a particularly hard kiss against a pale clavicle, letting her teeth dig in against the bone just enough to leave a mark. She smiles against Lena’s skin, reveling in the way blunt nails scratch beneath the collar of her shirt, eager to feel more skin.
They’re so wrapped up in each other that neither of them notice a swirl of blue energy or a body landing hard against the lab floor. They can’t spare a moment for the gentle and then again more firm clearing of a throat behind them.
“I guess that means you told her,” Kara’s own voice says with a tiny laugh, and she whips around. Lena, who is still wrapped around her and currently being held in the air by one strong hand on her ass, lets out a yelp.
Kara has the sense to look bashful as she gently lowers her girlfriend to her feet.
“What are you doing here?” she asks the older version of herself who looks exactly the same as she had the last time they’d seen her, almost six months ago by her count.
Older Kara steps forward.
“Lena,” she says in that same slightly different tone that Kara remembers from last time. “I need you.”
Lena, who is still in the process of smoothing her skirt down from her hips and trying to wipe lipstick off of her chin, freezes in place, cheeks coloring slightly. Older Kara laughs and it is just as bright and spirited as Kara’s.
“No, not like that. I mean, you’re not my type. I mean, you are, kind of exactly, but uh,” Older Kara presses a palm to the back of her neck at the same moment that Kara does.
“My heart belongs to another. I need you to help me save her,” Older Kara finishes. Lena only nods in understanding, even if both Karas can easily spot the smirk curling at the corner of her mouth.
“What can I do?”
Once Kara and Lena are properly presentable, the three of them move from the lab to the tower common room. Lena gestures for Older Kara to take a seat on the couch, and Kara stands close by, crossing her arms over her chest and standing at attention.
Older Kara makes quick work of explaining: about their final battle with Nyxly which had left Lena under a magical curse that put her into a twenty long year hibernation, about Lxyvdlp and his stupid bowtie.
By the end of the explanation Kara is gaping at her, but Lena is just watching her carefully, mind obviously already working on a solution.
“Wait, I’m confused,” Kara says, holding up a hand. “If you know this Lxyvdlp, why can’t you ask him for help?”
Older Kara scoffs, the lines on her face becoming more prominent as she scowls.
“Because he’s a twerp and he won’t go against his mother.”
“His…”
“Mother…?”
Kara and Lena ask at the same time.
“Please tell me you don’t mean Nyxly.”
Older Kara grimaces.
“It’s a long story.”
“One I think I’d rather not hear,” Lena says delicately, smoothing out invisible wrinkles on her skirt. The implication of who Lxyvdlp’s father could be goes left unsaid, for which they’re all a little grateful.
“We spent five years fighting Nyxly. It took everything we had to get rid of her. The banishment has lasted all these years, but the kid is free to roam as he pleases, and he loves to come around and cause trouble in the name of family.”
Lena looks a little nauseated, and Kara moves to stand behind her chair, putting a comforting hand on the back of her neck that she leans into gratefully. Older Kara watches them with a kind of sad fondness.
“I want to help, Kara,” Lena says. “I’m just not sure what good I can be to you. I’ve only been using magic for a year, and it’s still a struggle.”
If Older Kara’s hand shakes in her lap when Lena says her name, none of them mention it.
“If anyone can help with this, it’s you. I believe in you. In every version of you.”
Lena sucks in a rush of air, and Kara’s thumb gives a reassuring brush along the side of her neck as she nods in agreement. Older Kara looks over at her with wide, blue eyes that are filled with faith and an all too familiar love.
“Okay. Let me grab a few things.”
-
Interdimensional portal travel should feel familiar by now. It doesn’t.
They land in the castle bedroom with three soft thuds, Lena’s somehow the most graceful of the three. Both Karas have arms full of books and magical herbs and science equipment. Lena wasn’t sure what it was going to take, so she’d gone with the kitchen sink method.
“Oh,” Kara freezes as her eyes fall to the bed and its inhabitant. She carefully sets her armful of items on a nearby table, and looks to her older self for permission. Older Kara nods and with careful steps, Kara makes her way to the edge of the bed.
Lena is very pointedly organizing things on the table, her back to them.
Kara sits on the bed gingerly, careful not to disturb the Lena resting there. She’s even paler than Kara’s Lena, and it takes a moment of carefully watching the rhythm of her breathing for Kara to be sure she’s even alive. The sight of her makes Kara’s heart feel like it’s splitting open.
Older Kara sits in the chair beside them, leaning forward to take the sleeping Lena’s hand between her own. She presses a kiss to her knuckles, eyes trained on her face. For a few minutes they both just sit there and watch her while Lena prepares her spell components on the other side of the room.
The Karas share a meaningful look and then turn their attention to her. There’s a shuffle of books and vials, and an organizing of their bodies in a semi circle around the sleeping Lena. Lena looks down at her with guarded green eyes, like she’s compartmentalizing her feelings to maintain focus.
“Okay,” she breathes, watching her own face carefully. After a moment her eyes drift closed, fingers tightening around the vial of green liquid clutched in one hand and the spellbook held aloft in the other. She mutters a few words that neither Kara understands and there’s a tense pause while nothing happens.
“Did it—” before Kara can finish her thought, a wave of blue magic explodes from around the sleeping Lena, washing over them all in a warm flood. Lena blinks a few times to let her eyes adjust from the flash, and when she can see again, green eyes identical to her own are staring back at her.
“Oh my god, it worked.”
Older Kara is already in motion, hands reaching for any part of her Lena that she can. She scoops her up into her arms as gently as she can, their bodies pressing so closely together that they could be one person. She’s kissing her face, her hair, her mouth, and muttering something that sounds distinctly like ‘stupid, you’re so stupid, how are you so smart but you’re so stupid’ and the other Lena is laughing, and clutching at her back.
“Did you miss me?” she asks in a voice that’s rough from lack of use but otherwise identical to Lena’s own. Older Kara pulls back just enough to kiss the words from her lips and then to check her over for any injury. When she’s satisfied that she really is here, awake and alive and in her arms, she looks up into her eyes.
The other Lena gasps, fingers stretching up to brush a streak of silver away from her Kara’s eyes.
“Darling, what…” she looks from her Kara to the Kara and Lena standing a few feet away, now wrapped in each other’s arms, cheeks wet with tears, and furrows her brow.
“What happened?”
Before anyone can answer, a slow clap sounds from the desk behind them.
-
“Well, well, well,” Lxyvdlp is perched on the edge of the desk, his wide eyes and ridiculous outfit making him look something like a ventriloquist's dummy. His little hands slap together slowly before bracing against the desk as he pushes himself to stand.
“Get lost, kid,” Older Kara says, only sparing him a glance before her eyes are on her Lena again.
“Ah, ah. Aunt Kara, we had a deal,” he says and all four women become still at his words. He moves to peek around them, taking in the Lena still curled in Older Kara’s arms who is looking at him curiously.
“Aunt Kara?”
“She’s married to my aunt, I believe that makes us family.”
Kara and Lena exchange a wide eyed look at this revelation, and Kara can’t help the shy smile that breaks across her face at the idea. Lena bites her lip, fingers squeezing against Kara’s before they turn their attention back to the impish child.
The Lena still laying in bed looks more confused than ever, and her Kara rubs soothing circles along her back, refusing to move any further than an inch away from her.
“Lena, Lxyvdlp, Lxyvdlp, Lena,” she gestures with her free hand between them. “He’s Nyxly and Lex’s devil offspring and a general pain in the ass.”
Twin gasps from the Lena’s at the confirmation, and then green eyes meet green eyes in a tense look. They stare at each other openly for a moment, almost as if sizing each other up, and the Karas both pretend that their cheeks don’t go pink at the sight.
“Okay, enough of whatever that is,” Lxyvdlp says easily, waving his tiny hands. “I just wanted to make sure you remembered our deal, dear Auntie. I’ll let you have your time with Aunt Lena, for now, but just remember. You owe me.”
Before Older Kara can answer he snaps his tiny fingers and disappears.
-
“Promise to keep in touch?” Kara asks the older version of herself as they hold each other in a tight hug. It’s strange, she thinks, being able to hug someone with all her strength knowing they can take it. She can tell by the way Older Kara’s biceps flex around her shoulders that she’s not the only one enjoying the rare feeling.
“I’ll leave you the watch,” Lena says from behind them. With careful fingers she affixes the watch around other Lena’s wrist before tapping the face. She leans close to say in a conspiratorial whisper, “you’re going to love this.”
Other Lena grins, wide and double dimpled, before pulling Lena into a soft hug.
“Thank you,” she says against dark hair, and for a moment they just hold each other. When they finally break apart it’s to two sets of blue eyes watching them with all the love two people can muster.
Lena gives other Lena one last smile and stands from the bed, moving to take Kara’s hand in her own. Older Kara hands over the bag of magic items, and Kara hoists it onto her shoulder, taking one last good look at her.
“Take care of each other,” Older Kara says and Kara nods firmly.
“You too.”
Other Lena presses the button on the side of the watch experimentally and for the last time a swirling blue portal appears in the room. With a final wave, Kara and Lena step confidently through, back to their own Earth.
When the portal closes all that’s left in the bedroom is Older Kara and other Lena. They’re kissing before the blue light has even faded.
-
“So,” Kara says smoothly, dropping her bag onto the couch with a bright smile. “Married?”
Lena returns her smile, sliding into her space to wrap her arms around her neck. Kara’s hands automatically go to her hips, pulling her closer until they’re almost as close as they had been earlier that day.
“Married,” Lena agrees, leaning up to press their mouths together in a long, slow kiss. “But first, I think I’d like to finish what we started earlier.”
Kara is already halfway to hoisting her up, Lena’s legs once again wrapping around her waist, hands buried deep in her hair.
As Kara carries her off to the lab, neither of them take notice of an exhausted looking Alex, rolling her eyes at them from across the room as she downs the remnants of her coffee.