Chapter Text
The truth was that Lena had never expected to find someone like her: a single, asexual parent looking for someone to coparent with. What were the odds there were two people like that? Even more unlikely, what were the odds they’d be in the same city?
Okay, so they didn’t start out in the same city. Lena met Sam when she was living in Metropolis, working for a small company that Luthor Corp acquired. Lena was based in a research lab in National City, but she was in Metropolis to help her brother with the acquisition, when she saw Sam, diligently working far later than any other employee. So Lena stopped to talk to her.
The next day, she told her brother they had to keep her.
Their friendship lasted longer than Lena’s trip to Metropolis, much to Lena’s surprise. She and Sam bonded over their daughters (Ruby was seven and Leia five), their love of scotch, and, eventually, their sexuality.
“I wouldn’t mind a partner, you know?” Sam said one night when Lena and Leia were visiting. The girls had gone to bed hours ago, and Lena and Sam were several drinks into the night. “Someone to help me with the, just, the life stuff, you know?”
Lena nodded wildly. “Yes. Like if… if the fucking roof leaks or Leia needs to be picked up from school early or something.”
“Just someone to pick up the slack.”
Lena slumped down on the couch until her head was resting on Sam’s shoulder. “I’d pick up the slack for you,” she mumbled.
Sam kissed her head. “I would for you too.”
They fell asleep shortly after that and both woke up with massive hangovers the next day, but Lena couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation. “What if we were?” she finally asked when she’d tossed the idea around in her head for hours.
“Were what?”
“Were partners. Life partners. Or, uh, what’s the word?”
“Queerplatonic partners?”
“Yes! That!”
“Well,” Sam said, “for one thing, I live in Metropolis and you live in National City.”
“So move to National City,” Lena said. “Lex is looking for a CFO who’ll be based out of there. You’re more than qualified for it.”
Sam gaped at her. “It’s not that simple!” she protested. “There’s… there’s Ruby’s school, and her friends, and my friends.”
Lena scoffed at that. “What friends? The wine moms that you go out with on Wednesdays and then call me on Thursday and bitch about?”
Sam glared at her. “Okay, fine, but there’s Ruby to consider.”
Lena softened at that. “I know. But National City schools are some of the best in the country. Leia’s school has a robotics program and an afterschool soccer team.” Sam looked like she was wavering. “You two can move in with Leia and me. The house is big enough for each of us to have our own wing, and we could share the kitchen and living room. You’re my best friend, Sam. What do you say?”
Sam sighed. “Get Lex to offer me the job, and we’ll talk.”
*
Sam and Ruby moved in on a Thursday. Lena had paid for a service to move and unload all the large items, but there still seemed to be a ridiculous number of boxes that needed to get from the car into the house, and then sorted into specific rooms in what Lena and Leia had been referring to as the Arias wing.
“This place is huge!” Ruby said, staring around with big eyes. “This is the biggest place we’ve ever lived. I think this is the biggest house I’ve ever seen!”
“Well, it’s yours now too,” Lena said. “You can go anywhere you like.”
“Except the west wing, right?” Ruby asked. “I’ve seen Beauty and the Beast.”
Lena laughed at that. “Even the west wing.”
“Wow!”
“Come on, I’ll show you around!” Leia said, and they raced off.
Sam appeared, holding two stacked boxes. “Sure,” she grumbled. “These are for her room.”
Lena took one and laughed again. “I’ll help you.”
As they set the boxes down in the bedroom Ruby had chosen, Sam said, “We’re making the right choice, right? It’s not… super weird?”
Lena shrugged. “Maybe. But if it works for us, that’s what’s important, right?”
“Right.” Sam still sounded uncertain.
Lena took both her hands. “I love you, Sam. It might not be romantic or sexual, but it’s just as strong as either of those. You’re my person.”
Sam took a shaky breath and wiped her eye as she said, “I knew you were watching Grey’s Anatomy, even though you said you weren’t.”
Lena smiled at her. “It’s our secret.”
It was actually surprising how quickly and easily Sam and Ruby fit into their home. Having separate places to go in the house helped keep them from getting on each other’s nerves, and it was really nice for Lena to come home and find Sam had already fed the girls, or for Sam to come in and see Lena working through Ruby’s math homework with her.
It was also nice for the two of them. Lena was mostly a solitary person. She liked having her space and spending time doing the things she wanted to do, without input from another person. But she found that she liked having Sam there to do some of those things together. It was nice to have a built-in person to go to events with or take in movies or get dinner.
Sam was there when Lex was arrested, and Lena’s world collapsed around her ears. She stood by Lena’s side at press conferences and helped her rebrand Luthor Corp as L Corp and took care of Leia when Lena worked late into the night.
And then the Danvers sisters turned their whole world upside down.
Lena met Kara first. At first, she didn’t think much of the cute blonde who hovered nervously behind Clark Kent as he conducted an interview with her. Clark had been one of her brother’s best friends (so it was awkward as hell), but Lena had only met him a handful of times, and she’d never known he had a cousin around her age.
But Kara was insistent they become friends. “It’ll be fun, Lena,” she promised.
And, dammit, she was right.
For a while, she didn’t think anything of her friendship with Kara. They had a good time, and eventually Lena started to count Kara as one of her best friends. Sam liked her, and Leia and Ruby adored her, and Kara even started to plan trips where she took the kids out and gave Sam and Lena some time off.
And then she introduced Sam to Alex.
Lena had never seen Sam fall in love before. By her own account, Sam had only been in love once. It hadn’t been with Ruby’s father, it hadn’t worked out, and it had devastated Sam to the point where she hadn’t been sure she was going to recover from it.
Sam fell for Alex so hard Lena was surprised it didn’t leave a physical mark.
Alex, to her credit, seemed to be just as crazy about Sam.
Lena expected it to become a problem. She assumed that once Sam got a romantic girlfriend, that would be the end of their partnership. Sam would move in with Alex, or at least start spending all her nights there, and eventually Lena would become just another treasured friend.
Except… that wasn’t what happened.
“Listen to me,” Sam said one day. “I need you know that you’re just as important to me as you’ve always been. It doesn’t matter that I’m dating Alex.”
Lena waited for the but. “I know,” she said, sounding unconvinced even to her own ears.
“I’m serious,” Sam said sternly. “I’ve talked to Alex about it. You and I are a packaged deal. We’re family. Alex respects that.”
Lena started to nod, then hesitated. “I’m not sure what that means,” she admitted. “That she respects it.”
Sam shrugged. “It means that she understands that sometimes you come first, and that nothing progresses in my relationship with her without talking to you first.”
“So you want my, what? Permission to move in with her?”
“What? No! Not that we’re anywhere near moving in together, but if we did, she’d move in here. With us. Our family.”
Lena stared at her. “Sam, it’s okay,” she finally said. “I understand that things are going to change. She’s your girlfriend.”
“And you’re my partner,” Sam said fiercely. “It’s different, but it’s the same. I love you, and I l—” She pulled up short. Lena snorted. “Anyway, my point is that you and I are in a committed relationship that’s not just a simple friendship. And I want you to know that my desire to be in that relationship hasn’t changed even though I have a romantic relationship. And I know you don’t believe me yet, but that’s okay. I’m going to keep showing you until you have no other choice.”
Lena rolled her eyes at that, but it was mostly to hide the fact that it made her chest feel warm and her eyes burn with tears.
And so life continued on for a while. Sam and Alex grew closer, but, true to Sam’s word, not much changed between her and Lena. Sometimes Alex joined them for movie nights and dinner, but sometimes she didn’t. And sometimes she watched the girls so Lena and Sam could spend time alone. Sometimes Sam kissed or cuddled with Alex on the couch, but sometimes she cuddled with Lena instead, even when Alex was there.
Most importantly, Alex didn’t seem to mind any of it.
“It was a little weird in theory,” she admitted, when Lena finally confronted her about it. “I’ve never been in a relationship with someone who’s already in a relationship. But she explained about your partnership and, I don’t know, it doesn’t really feel that weird when we’re all actually together.”
“We make it work,” Sam said to Lena later. “She’s just started a sexual relationship with this woman she knows named Sara, who’s in an open marriage. I told her I’d have sex with her sometimes, if she wants to, but she knows I don’t really like it.” Sam shrugged. “I never thought my life would be this complicated,” she admitted. “But I guess as long as everyone is getting what they want out of their relationships and no one is getting hurt…”
“Yeah,” Lena agreed.
Sam gave her a long, calculated look. “So what is it that you want, Lena?” she asked.
Lena knew what she was asking, but tried to dodge anyway. “I like what we have,” she said.
But Sam had always been blunt when it came to the people she cared about. “Do you want to be in a romantic relationship? With Kara. Do you want to be in a romantic relationship with Kara?”
Lena sighed. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been asking herself the same question, especially since Sam and Alex became seriously involved. Lena loved Kara, she really did. But…
“I think I might be aromantic,” she blurted out, the words spilling out before she could catch them. It was a fear she’d had for months, maybe even longer. Somehow, the idea of being aromantic, especially when Sam clearly wasn’t, scared her more than being asexual.
“Ah,” Sam said. She wrapped her arm around Lena’s shoulders. “How do you feel about that?”
“Not… not so great,” Lena admitted, her voice shaking a little. “Somehow, this is even worse than being asexual.”
“It’s not worse,” Sam told her, “but I can understand why you feel that way. But it’s okay, Lena. You have me and Ruby and Leia, and we love you in any way you want to be loved. And you have Alex and Kara too. They’re our family now too.”
Lena started to cry now, and Sam wrapped her arms more fully around her, hugging tight and not saying anything else. “I love you,” she murmured after a little while, kissing the top of Lena’s head. “And you’re perfect just the way you are.”
For a little while, Lena let herself believe that.