Chapter Text
"Have you decided what we're going to name him?" Kara asked on the phone, shutting the trunk and hauling the large bag of clothes up Lena's driveway.
"No, I still can't choose. You said you were going to help me sort through names this week." Lena complained on the other end, sounding displeased in a way that made Kara's hands ache to squish her face.
"You are so cute when you whine" she chuckled as she opened the front door and pushed inside. "I promise we can look at names tonight, I'm bringing my stuff to your house just now and we'll have plenty of time now that we'll live together."
"You're really happy about that, aren't you?" Lena's voice had a teasing lilt that made Kara smile. "Anyway, I have loads of work to go through if I want to be home by seven" at this, Kara scoffed, "and no, we did not agree on six, you did that all by yourself. I will not be bound to that agreement, so stop rolling your eyes, I can hear it from here."
"Fine, seven it is." The smile could be heard on both ends of the phone call. "I'll see you then, have a nice day at work."
"See you soon."
Dropping her phone to her pocket, Kara found her way to the guest bedroom that would become her bedroom for the foreseeable future. As soon as Lena had approached her in November with the news that she had decided to get pregnant, Kara had been ecstatic to be an aunt. She was even happier when the woman had asked her to co-parent the child in December.
"I don't think I can do this alone, and this child would be incredibly lucky to have you as a parent." Was the explanation given to her. Not that she needed any explanation, she would agree to anything just to see the look of approval in Lena's green eyes.
Alex had been admittedly less excited to learn of this. She always thought her sister had an unhealthy crush, but accepting to co-parent a child seemed a bit extreme, even for Kara's standard. She insisted the child was what she wanted, though, and so the argument died down shortly after Kara and Lena's announcement, sparks of pure joy gleaming in blue and green eyes.
For the first few weeks, nothing really changed in their routines, except for the few doctor appointments that Kara tagged along. By February, Lena started struggling with morning sickness, however, and Kara picked up the habit of driving to her house to make her peppermint tea and toast before work. One of those mornings, after some consideration, Lena asked Kara to temporarily move in. "You're already having to make the commute from my apartment to work anyway, might as well save you the trip from your place to mine every morning."
Alex, once again, was not stoked to learn of this. "Are you sure you're doing this for the right reasons? This is a child we're talking about. Please tell me you're not doing this just to play house with Lena Luthor?"
Kara simply waved her question off. "I already told you I want this child. I'm moving in with Lena to help take care of her while she's pregnant. That's part of being there for this kid too, isn't it?" She couldn't banish the smile from her face, even though she was upset with Alex for not accepting her choices. It was impossible not to smile when she talked about having a child with her best friend.
And so, by the end of March, Kara was setting up her things in Lena's spare bedroom, located right beside the nursery.
The morning sickness persisted until halfway in the second trimester, and by then, the blonde was afraid that her friend would jump to undo their current arrangement, of which she had grown very fond of. It wasn't an easy life, but Kara had found it fulfilling. Every day, she would wake up at 6 o'clock, in anticipation of Lena's usual morning sickness, and put the kettle on the stove. She would open up the curtains in the kitchen before checking on Lena and making her bed after she went to the bathroom (her protests are always dismissed with the wave of a hand). The blonde would then get down to the kitchen and start making breakfast and peppermint tea. Kara left for work later than Lena did, and so she would wait until the brunette left to start putting her outfit together. At night, they would cycle through different restaurants for dinner, basing off of Lena's current cravings. It was a pattern they comfortably fell into, and Kara was dreading it would come to an end.
The end didn't come, though, as the brunette never mentioned any intent of changing their dynamic, and as much as Kara wanted to talk about it, she didn't want to tip the balance of this new blissful domestic paradise she found for herself. She would have to enjoy it while it lasted.
"Kara, sweetie, are you ready yet?" Lena called into the blonde's room. They were meant to be heading out in ten minutes for a fund raiser and Kara had yet to come out of her room. "We're supposed to take the car in ten minutes, I don't want to come home much later than ten tonight."
She looked around and didn't find the other woman inside. Just as she was about to turn around and leave the room, Kara came out of the bathroom in only her bra and underwear, wearing earphones and humming to some tune she had playing. Lena's eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets at the sight, and Kara remained oblivious to her presence for a few moments, frowning at the dress in her hands. Her reaction, however, was the most disconcerting of all the things in that moment: she simply smiled and held the dress out to Lena, eyes crinkled and so damn blue. "I spilled toothpaste on it and I can't get it out."
And even though they were gonna be late, and Kara was doing something that would generally anger Lena, there was no way she could hold it against the other woman. Not when she looked and sounded so sheepishly adorable.
"Well, do you need help finding another one? I can let the driver know we'll be down in twenty minutes instead of ten." And the beaming smile she received was enough proof that no, Lena could never hold anything against Kara.
They sat at the park near their house, sprawled across a blanket as they enjoyed the summer breeze in the morning, before the heat and the sun would be too much for Lena's pale skin. She had discarded her shoes in favor of wiggling her toes in the grass, as she watched the other woman pensively.
She wasn't stupid. She knew that feelings for her friend started bubbling back up inside her ever since she walked in on Kara, that night of the fundraiser. The same feelings she once had for the woman when they first met. Not that it was surprising. She knew what she might have been getting herself into when she first proposed co-parenting to Kara, but she imagined it as a minor risk, and not as this unstoppable pull towards the other woman. Absent-mindedly, she stroked the arm that was at her reach, not noticing the goosebumps that arose at the skin. She felt herself falling deeper and deeper into this feeling, and she was running out of time to blame it on the pregnancy hormones. She was also running out of time to have Kara living in her house like this, and it tinged her heart with sadness just to think about it.
"Hey" the blonde called softly, tugging at the hand that was stroking her arm. "Where did you go? You look blue."
Of course she would notice my mood change, she thought. Brutal honesty was never Lena's strong suit, but something about their current arrangement emboldened her. "I'm thinking that I will miss you after this pregnancy is over."
"I don't have to go when the baby is born." Kara's blue eyes are shining with love and understanding, and Lena wonders if there's a world in which Kara reciprocates her feelings. "I can stay for as long as you need me."
A lump is formed in the brunette's throat as she hears this. She wants to say that she will always need Kara, and that her baby, their baby, needs Kara too. Instead, she nods, scared that she won't be able to hide her emotions if she speaks.
"I'm here for you and our son, Lena. I promised you this."
"Have you ever stopped to wonder if it's a girl?" Amusement sparkled in green eyes, mirrored by blue.
"Then we'll name her after me." The blonde smiled sheepishly.
"Never. It's enough that I'm letting you keep the last name in the hyphen." Lena crinkled her nose in mock distaste as she spoke.
"Well, Luthor-Danvers sounds much better than the opposite, don't you think?" Kara's eyes spread warmth from her chest to her toes.
It does.