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The Annual L-Corp Holiday Function takes place on December 1st, as has been tradition since Lena Luthor took over the company and decided to turn this specific gala into a fundraiser that would revert its profits into presents for underprivileged children in foster care. She spends two months every year gathering letters to Santa Claus from tiny humans and does her best to get them whatever their pure little hearts desire.
So even though she absolutely despises social functions, the smile plastered on her face during this particular one is genuine, because she imagines the little smiles that will come out of it.
Alright. Maybe it also has to do with the blinding one she spots from across the room, followed by the most melodic of laughters.
By now, Lena Luthor is fully aware of Kara Danvers’ gravitational pull on her, but it is almost embarassing how she doesn’t even notice her own movement to close the distance between them until she is halfway there. Multicolor lights draped on trees seem to come alive in Kara’s presence. Blue eyes shine under red-green starlight, and when the skies above them bathe in gold, the new pattterns dance around her smile as if she were the Sun they so desperately tried to mimic but never quite succeeded.
Kara’s grin is wide and carefree next to her sister, eyes basking in the decoration around her, until they lay on Lena and turn a desperate kind of sorry. She’s no match for super speed, at this point, Lena’s become able to recognize the particular whoosh of air when Kara moves too quickly in an attempt to hide something. The CEO weighs her paths of action before deciding to make her girlfriend squirm a little.
“Hi, darling,” with her right hand on Kara’s shoulder, Lena presses a quick peck on her lips before greeting Alex as well . “Enjoying the party?”
A muffled voice works its way around the food in Kara’s mouth. “Oh, absolutely,” she swallows. “Beautiful party, amazng, really. Astonishing. So much fun. I was just telling Alex how this is the best party I have ever been in-” Kara trails off as she seems to realize the obviousness of her overcompensation.
”Kara,” Lena has that particularly amused smile coupled with the arch of her eyebrow that tells Kara she knows something, and she rather enjoys watching the blonde freeze like a deer in headlights.
“Lena,” she gulps, eyes wide that, to her credit, never break contact.
“What are you hiding?”
”Pfffttt, whatttt? I’m not hiding anything. See?” Hands come up to frame her face and Lena can’t help but muse in how cute her girlfriend looks when caught with her hands in the proverbial cookie jar. “Nothing hidden, all clear. Squeaky clean. Isn’t that right, Alex?” An alarmed elbow meets the older Danvers’ ribs rather ungracefully.
“Ow.” One of her hands comes up to massage the assaulted spot while the redhead seems to decide whether or not to play along. After analyzing Lena for a moment, whatever semblance of a façade drops as her hands wave in defeat. “You know what, no, the two of you have put me through enough already. Have fun with- whatever, bye.”
”Wha- No, Alex, come back!” Kara pulls back her outstretched arm as she sees Alex has spotted Kelly. No turning back now, she’s alone against the raven-haired wrath that’s to come.
”Ready to spill yet?” Lena leans forward with her hands behind her back and even though her expression still terrifies Kara, the scene is admittedly one of the cutest things she has ever seen.
“You can’t be mad.”
”You can’t ask me not to be mad when you haven’t given me reason to believe you haven’t done something that will make me mad.”
”Fine. So, uh- Remember that… tool we use to… count the days until… a certain white-bearded dude flops down chimneys…” Kara’s impressively ineloquent stalling gives Lena time to fill in the gaps for herself. The chill expression on her face drops a moment later, replaced by panicked betrayal as she notices the smudge near Kara’s lips.
“You ate the chocolate without me?!”
“Not all of it!” she grabs Lena’s hands. “Just, you know. Some. I mean, Lena, can you blame me? They looked so cute under the little drawings! I just had to see if they all tasted nice, too.”
“Couldn’t you wait to open it at home?”
In all fairness, it’s not like this exact scenario didn’t cross her mind when they decided to buy Advent calendars, but Lena elected to leave it to fate. Now, fate has come back to bite her in the ass. She tries very hard to keep her heart rate under control, so that Kara has nothing to suspect, and proceeds to ask the question that’s been making her internally sick for the past minute in her most nonchalance tone.
”What days have you opened?”
”Only the even days,” Kara shakes her head in exasperation, then places her hands on Lena’s shoulders with urgency. “Will you still love me even though I’m an Advent calendar ruiner?”
The even days. She’s good, then. Crisis averted. Lena uses the laughter that the look in Kara’s eyes has bubbled in her as an opportunity to exhale as well, arms now wrapped around her waist. “I’ll do my best.”
So. That was a close one.
In retrospect, it might not have been the greatest idea to put the future of her relationship at the bottom of a chocolate box, when her girlfriend is basically an untamed animal when it comes to snacks, but it’s not like predictability has ever played a strong role in this particular dynamics.
Yes, This is fine.
Now she just has to get Kara to eat one chocolate every other day until December 21st.
On second thought, maybe she should buy a few extra Advent calendars that will lessen the chances of Kara accidentally peaking into that particular compartment before she’s supposed to.
At the end of the gala, Arthur, their limousine driver, spots two giggling forms as he waits for them by the entrance.
Right arm entwined with Kara’s left, Lena lets herself feel the slight buzz of the champagne now that all the guests are gone. She leans into Kara, and even though the Kryptonian is strong enough not to falter, she leans back. They do this dance while singing ‘Bye Bye Bye’ out of tune.
For a moment, Lena feels like she’s watching the scene play out from above. This happens when she’s with Kara sometimes: it’s as if happiness overflowed her so deeply that she actually got to watch as she lives it. Keep the memory in her mind. Over the years, her collection has grown expansive and varied, but it always has one thing in common: the glimmer of stardust in warm blue eyes. Lena likes to think this is what will flash through her mind when her time comes.
Kara’s shoulder is strong, but also makes for the most comfortable pillow. On their way back, Lena’s cheek brushes against impossibly soft, sun-golden skin, She has given up trying to understand how the smell of Dar-Essa flowers Kara exhales reminds Lena of home; she basks in the feeling instead.
At one point, Kara’s absentminded gaze out the window sparks in that familiar way, when it finds something that excites her. Next thing she knows, they’re dismissing the limo and walking around the National City Gardens. It’s always been one of the places Lena found most beautiful, but it wasn’t until their first date, when she got to watch the pink of Kara’s cheeks team up with flowers all around them to create the most beautiful of masterpieces, that it became Lena’s favorite.
After pushing her against one of the trees to exchange soft kisses and softer words, Kara looks into Lena’s eyes, one hand resting on her waist, and the spark appears once again, her smiling lips uttering whispers, as if she were telling the most important of secrets. “I want to show you something.”
The gentle tug of Kara’s hand in her own leads Lena around the gardens. She keeps her eyes closed the entire time, as promised. Curiosity has nothing on the way that woman beams when a surprise she planned makes Lena happy.
The bench on which they sit is cold, but Lena barely notices it against the warmth that dances around her with Kara so close. She takes a deep breath and the smell of fresh Plumerias gives up their location even with her eyes shut.
”Open them,” an excited whisper reaches her ear.
A small, familiar, white bench under a Plumeria tree is what Lena expects to find. If she looks on the bottom left corner, she’ll even find the silly marks of their initials Kara carved during one of their anniversaries. It made her laugh and give an offhand comment on how they are not teenagers, and filled her heart with even more love. She hadn’t thought it was possible, at first, but somehow, there is always more space in her heart for Kara, and somehow, Kara makes her fall a little bit more in love every day.
What Lena doesn’t expect to find is the twinkling of pearl-colored lights that adorn the trees. The pink petals that mix with white and yellow. The adoring gaze of Kara’s eyes that still never fails to take her breath away.
”Do you remember when we first came here?” Lena is still too overwhelmed by the beauty of it all to actually speak, so she just lets herself drown in Kara’s eyes. “We were both so nervous. First dates tend to have that effect, but I think our particular situation warranted more of it than most. And then we were in this beautiful place, Plumerias all around you, and it finally hit me: new beginnings. That’s why it was your favorite. And right here, where I first kissed you, we got ours.”
When Lena feels Kara’s hand cup her face, she kisses her palm and embraces it with her own hands, holding it close to her heart. “I think that was the beginning of the happiest, most beautiful part of my life. Because it had you in it. Fully.” Damn it, Kara knows how to make a girl cry.
To be honest, Lena is sort of used to these moments. At first, she couldn’t take a single compliment, but Kara is really good with love speeches, and they make Lena happier than she would ever say. Still, though. Striving for tears in the middle of the night seems merciless.
That’s what she’s thinking about when the woman next to her starts shuffling in her seat, and it takes Lena a while to register that the girl with the blue eyes and warm smile is holding back tears as well.
”So I thought there was no better place to try and propose our next beginning.”
And she is on one knee.
The tears that once stung behind her eyes roll down Lena’s cheeks in full force as she brings both hands to cover her mouth in sheer surprise.
”And now you’re full on crying so I’ll try to speed this up, okay?” Kara giggles, her own voice a bit strangled and slightly concerned at her girlfriend’s state. Warm hands now cup Lena’s face on each side, thumbs wiping the continuous stream of tears that just won’t budge. Their eyes meet, and nothing else matters. “Lena Luthor, you are the love of my life. I would go to the fiery depths of hell for you, because when I’m with you, I think that’s what heaven must feel like. You are the strongest, most beautiful, kind-hearted soul I know, and not one day goes by that I’m not over the moon that I get to be in your life. I want to be in your life forever.”
A beat is all it takes for Kara to fall from her eloquent speech giving persona, to the dorky cub reporter that walked into Lena’s office all those years ago.
”Also, full disclosure, I did find the ring earlier, but you had the whole gala to host and I know how you get when a plan sort of- derails. And- And I guess I could have just pretended it never happened, but you’re very smart and I am a lousy liar, and also, the last time I did manage to lie, it didn’t work out so well for us, so. Here I am. Saying I want to be your forever person. If- If you still want me to, that is. I’m obviously not gonna force you to marry me, that would be uncool. Oh, crap, I didn’t say that before. You knew I was talking about marriage, right? ‘Cause I was. But again, only if you want to. If not, we can just pretend this never happened and-”
”Kara!” Lena’s hands travel from Kara’s, to her forearms, shoulders, until Kara has been pulled close enough that she has to sit on the bench again, the back of her neck cradled by cold hands as Lena leans forward, bringing their foreheads together. Green eyes look up to drown in blue, and it feels like every cell in her body is smiling. “I want to. I want to marry you. I want to be able to call you my wife as soon as possibile, for as long as I live.”
”You do?” It feels like sunlight is giggling in front of her.
”I do.”
Teary eyes, blinding smiles, excited giggles and heartwarming kisses fill the air at the National City Gardens, yellow and white Plumerias joining the Dar-Essa pink to paint their future, without ever forgetting their roots.
It turns out, Kara actually had already been planning to propose as well, and the engagement ring may only have been on Lena’s finger for a few hours now, but it already feels like an organ as vital as her own beating heart. Kara’s is as close to a Kryptonian cut as Lena was able to have made, based on their past trips to Argo. It’s not until they’re in bed, ready to finally go to sleep as the Sun rises through their bedroom window, that the implications of Kara having found her ring down on Lena.
“Hang on. Does this mean you actually ate all the chocolates without me?”