Chapter Text
“Kara, I’ve done something stupid,” Lena’s words echoed over the phone line and into Kara’s ear, immediately sending concern to fill her body.
It was around 8PM and she was sitting in her apartment, cosied upon her couch with a mug of hot chocolate (extra marshmallows and cream, of course). She had been completely absorbed in the rom-com that was playing on her TV, even though she had watched this one a million times before. Then her phone had rang, the sound breaking through the quiet apartment as Lena’s caller ID flashed on the screen, causing her to almost spill her drink in her scrabbling haste to pick it up.
“Do you need to bury a body? Because if so, I’ll be there in five,” Kara replied, only half-joking as she tried to ease Lena’s panic that had bled through her voice.
At that, Lena let out a warm laugh, “No, no, of course not.” There was a pause and Kara’s brows scrunched up in anticipation. “Though burying myself alive sounds pretty tempting right about now,” she mumbled as an afterthought.
“Lena?”
Another short laugh came from the phone again, albeit a bit more nervous than the last.
“Uh, sorry, I was wondering if I could come over right now?” Lena asked and shuffling could be heard, like the ruffling of plastic bags. “I’ll bring food.” Lena then said a thank you to someone and Kara realised she was probably at a takeaway shop.
She was unable to help the grin that spread across her face. “You know you can come round anytime without bribing me, right?” Kara said with a teasing tone, “though food is very much appreciated.”
“Why do you think I’m currently holding three bags of takeout?” Lena responded, “I’m five minutes away.”
Kara immediately supersped into a jacket and trainers, phone still pressed to her ear, “I’ll meet you and help.”
True to her word, she found Lena two blocks away and gave her an excited hug, always happy to see her and being careful not to squish the food that was dangling from the shorter woman’s arms. They made their way back to Kara’s chatting amicably along the way, and once they arrived, they spread out the food on the coffee table, an open bottle of wine laying in the middle. Kara had haphazardly chugged the remainder of her hot chocolate — cold, but no way was she going to let it go to waste, despite the raised eyebrow she had gotten from Lena (it had marshmallows, Lena!) — before getting two wine glasses.
She loved being able to do this with Lena again, falling back into their familiar dynamic after almost a year apart where the entire time, Kara ached to repair things, just so her heart wouldn’t feel like it was being punctured with a thousand tiny kryptonite needles whenever she looked at her.
And it had taken time, hard conversations where mostly, emotions would boil over and they would end up screaming at each other, salt stinging in every raw wound it could find. Other times they would just sit and cry, navigating the minefield of hurt and pain Lex had so kindly sown himself as they curled up on the floor of the kitchen with their backs against the cupboards, the only tethering point being their joined hands.
Things slowly came back together for them, starting with simple coffee dates. After a month of those, they had begun to stray beyond, asking for dinner later, for movie nights, sleepovers, and late-night drives out of the city just to see the stars because Kara had mentioned once how they grounded her.
It was good, wonderful, even, and Kara found herself feeling only utmost content in her time spent with Lena, filling all the cracks from the time they had spent apart with new understanding. Random nights like these were always welcomed.
It was around halfway through their sweet and sour pork that Kara remembered Lena’s original purpose of coming over that night, and she felt her curiosity spark up again.
“So,” Kara started, reaching over to the table to snatch up another potsticker with her chopsticks. Lena watched her chew on the fried dumpling and swallow, awaiting her question. “You, uh, you said you did something… questionable earlier?” She saw a flicker of hesitation cross Lena’s face, causing Kara to frown slightly. “Of what nature?”
Her dinner companion pursed her lips, fingers tapping on the stem of her wine glass. “Okay, so you know how I was having lunch with Andrea today?”
Kara hummed in remembrance. Lena had told her about reconciling with the woman, how she was finally ready to put the past behind them and try being friends again. She had started noticing a change in her boss, in that she seemed happier, less likely to yell at some unsuspecting intern before lunchtime. Hell, Andrea was even less likely to yell at her, unlike before where whenever the woman approached her desk, Kara felt the weight of dread in her stomach. Kara was happy for her — for both of them, glad that a stormy cloud no longer passed Lena’s face whenever Kara’s boss was brought up.
Lena placed her wine glass down, fingers wrenching together in her lap. Kara felt the urge to soothe them with her own hand, but they stayed firmly in place, giving Lena the space to think.
“So the conversation drifted to the upcoming annual L-Corp gala next week,” Lena said, glancing at Kara, who nodded for her to continue. “You’ve seen how happy she and Sam are. She wondered if I was taking a date and if I didn’t have one she could set me up with someone.”
Kara arched her brow, taking a sip of her wine to wash down the strange bitter taste she always got whenever this topic arose.
Lena chuckled, laced with self-deprecation. “And you know how my love life is, no one would touch a Luthor with a ten-foot pole, nor do I want to subject anyone to that kind of media attention either.”
“Lena, you know that’s not true,” Kara placed a hand on Lena’s leg and squeezed gently. Her heart ached whenever the other woman would talk about herself like this, evidence of how terribly the world had treated her. It only made Kara want to wrap her up in her cape and shield her away from everything dark and unkind and horrible, like a human burrito.
Lena shrugged, “I really didn’t want to be set up with someone so… this was why I called you earlier because after she asked me, I panicked and said I was already seeing someone.”
Kara frowned, “You are?”
“No, silly,” Lena laughed gently, putting her own hand over Kara’s, the contact sending a pleasant warmth to rest right next to her heart. “That’s the problem, now she’ll expect me to show up to the gala with a non-existent person. Sam will probably text me tomorrow depending on when Andrea inevitably tells her and she’ll be going on about how I kept a secret from her.”
Andrea and Sam were also a recent change. Sam had moved back to National City to take up the position of CFO again at L-Corp with Ruby, only a few months after the defeat of Lex and Leviathan, where Lena had worked tirelessly to rebrand the company again like she had on Earth-38, airing out any illegal activities that had happened under him. The two had struck up an unusual friendship after Lena had introduced them, which had developed into something more.
(Sam was probably another reason Andrea was yelling a lot less and was even being semi-friendly… which, thank Rao for Samantha Arias.)
Lena buried her face into her palms and let out a long groan while Kara scooted closer to rub her back comfortingly. A notification sound dinged from Lena’s phone and she yanked it out of her pocket, reading the message before tossing it on the table which narrowly missed the tub of shrimp fried rice.
“Speak of the devil,” Lena grabbed her bowl of rice and sat back, sinking into the cushions as she scooped some with her chopsticks into her frowning mouth.
“Lena,” Kara spoke slowly, “why can’t you just tell them that you were joking or something?”
Kara watched her pause, rice floating midway in the air before her body slumped.
“Because…” Lena sighed, voice quiet, “because maybe I don’t want them to feel pity for me. Sam’s already suggested multiple people who might be interested but I’ve turned them all down. And now Andrea…”
“Okay,” Kara nodded, an idea forming her head. “We can do this.” Lena looked at her with confusion, brows scrunched adorably. “I’ll be your date,” the words to her half-baked plan tumbled out her mouth before she could stop them, causing her to immediately flush red.
“What?” Lena asked, sounding slightly breathless.
“Fake date I mean,” Kara amended, face still burning. She flashed her a bright grin instead, hoping it would cover up the blush. “We can pretend for the gala, and long enough to get them off your back.”
Lena seemed to be processing, hands twitching in her lap again as her green eyes met her gaze. “Kara, I can’t ask that of you. You know what I just said about the media — they’re ruthless.”
Kara waved a hand, “You’re not asking, I’m offering. Lena, you’re my best friend, a little media attention isn’t going to put me off helping you. Those things usually die down anyway.”
She didn’t mention that some gossip columns already wondered if they were ‘gal pals’ or something along the lines of.
Lena wasn’t convinced. “Kara, that puts a target on your back.”
She let out a laugh, “I’m Supergirl.” Kara paused before adding, “Besides, I’ve been kidnapped as a reporter before, so…” She watched Lena’s eyes widen, feeling satisfied when her face looked like she was close to conceding. “It’s okay, Lena. It’s just listening to rich people talk to each other for an evening. I did that all the time with Ms. Grant when I was her assistant,” she reassured one last time. “Besides, it gets William off my back.”
Lena breathed in deeply, slumping in acceptance. “Okay, we can do this.”
Kara gave her a smile, softness betraying the odd, giddy feeling that had taken up residence in her stomach. “Now you won’t have to go on a date with some random person Andrea found for you, and I can easily say no to William if he asks me out again.”
Which… Kara knew William was now dating a nice paediatrician from the city’s General Hospital, but she really wanted to help Lena, so if this tiny omission would convince her, then so be it.
Kara’s mouth curled into a grin. “It’s a win-win! Then when we ‘break-up,’ you can go into a grieving period for the greatest love you’ve ever experienced.”
“Yeah.” Lena gave her a soft smile, so soft that Kara almost faltered at the strange underlying meaning it could have.
Kara returned the expression, “That’ll buy you a few months at least.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Lena’s words were caring, edged with a slight weariness, the question seeking out assurance of Kara’s comfort in such an odd proposition. Kara’s hand found the one Lena wasn’t using for holding her bowl and laced their fingers together.
“Absolutely. You—” she tilted her head at Lena “— are about to receive the Kara Danvers Girlfriend Treatment.”
Her words drew a smirk from Lena, face bordering on sultry as her entire demeanour shifted. “Oh really, and what exactly does that entail?” Her voice had dropped to that lower register that had always made Kara’s brain turn to mush and her heart to stutter in its cavity.
“Uh—” Kara blinked owlishly as Lena raised a brow at her in waiting. “Free cuddles!” she blurted with a frantic edge to it. Her brain finally kicked back into gear as she wrapped her arms around Lena, pulling her into her side, snug and warm, drawing a yelp from the other woman as she tried not to spill her food on the both of them.
“Kara,” Lena’s voice was muffled in the fabric of her hoodie, cheek pressed against her shoulder as her free hand rested on her chest where the crest would usually be. “As warm as you are, I’d like to not be five seconds from accidentally throwing rice everywhere,” she pointed out, hand holding the bowl straining at an awkward angle.
“Oh, sorry!” Kara pulled the bowl away from her and put it on the coffee table before wrapping Lena back into the hug, cradling her body closer.
Kara didn’t mention that this still felt like what they usually did when they had their movie nights.
And she sure as hell didn’t mention that she really, really, liked having Lena close like this, so much that her pulse would jump whenever Lena accidentally grazed her fingers across Kara’s throat in reaching for her shoulder. Or sometimes, Kara could feel something stir in her stomach whenever the curve of Lena’s lips would press into her neck after she had said something particularly funny, her warm chuckle lighting up her body.
They had to part ways eventually, promising to meet for lunch tomorrow and flesh out their little scheme in advance of the gala next week. As soon as the door had closed, Kara listened for Lena’s heartbeat, making sure she got in her car safely and only tuning out once it started to fade.
Kara laid in bed that night, starfished on her mattress as she stared at the ceiling. Her body was still feeling the effects of being in Lena’s presence, having waned mostly but still enough to make her slightly jittery.
She rolled over and tried to stop her mind from replaying that night’s events, hoping sleep would take her soon.
Kara would be lying if she said she wasn’t a tiny bit nervous about their plan, a plan which she had suggested knowing full well that pretending to be Lena’s girlfriend (oh Rao, girlfriend) would likely (definitely) send an entire amalgamation of feelings throughout her body. Feelings which, to be honest, had probably been around for a long time, ignored by Kara as to not rock the precariously balanced boat they had found themselves in.
She would do this to help Lena, because Lena was her best friend and that’s what best friends were for — getting each other out of sticky situations. And if that meant Kara would be toeing dangerously close between the line of Friendship and Decidedly-Not Friendship, then she would be okay with that.
Her fingers fiddled with the handle of her cup while the other picked apart the croissant she had chosen for lunch. She was sitting in Noonan’s awaiting Lena’s arrival, staring out the window and watching passerbys. The ringing of the bell above the door brought her out of her thoughts, eyes snapping to where the other woman was walking towards her, a small smile on her face.
“And what sugary monstrosity is Kara Danvers drinking this afternoon?” Lena greeted, pulling off her coat and draping it on the back of the chair, sitting and making herself comfortable.
Kara flashed a grin, “Just a normal caramel latte today. Alex says I’m haemorrhaging money because of all the coffee add-ons I buy. Here, I got you yours.” She pushed over the large mug of black, hot filter coffee and a sandwich across the short distance of the table which Lena accepted gratefully.
“You’re my favourite,” Lena replied, eyes filled with affection as she took a large gulp of her drink. It made Kara feel as warm as the coffee in their cups. “I talked to Sam today,” she said ominously.
“Oh?”
Lena let out a laugh, “Well, more like she cornered me in my office this morning, so clearly Andrea must have told her something. Those two are honestly kind of terrifying.”
Kara nodded with a sympathetic smile, “Agreed.”
She watched Lena clear her throat and school her features, voice slipping into an impression of Sam. “‘Lena, I thought we were friends! You’re meant to tell me these things! I’m glad you’re finally getting laid though.’”
Kara almost spat out her drink all over the table but instead, she forced it down, causing her throat to choke on the hot liquid. Lena didn’t even look concerned, knowing that Kara wasn’t about to die anytime soon and was laughing— no wait, scratch that, cackling loudly, drawing a few heads of the other patrons in the room. Once Kara had recovered from her oh-so elegant coughing fit, she had a hand on her chest, heart beating a little unsteadily underneath.
“Lena!” Kara exclaimed, catching her breath and levelled her with the most convincing pout she could muster. “I almost hacked up a lung!”
Lena shot her a grin, as if she wasn’t the reason for Kara's coffee going down the wrong pipe. “Anyways,” she continued, “I tried to be as vague as possible, nodding and smiling at the right bits.” Lena let out a small breath, grin turning into more of a shy smile as pink crept onto her cheeks. “I let slip your name.”
“So…” Kara drew out, tilting her head in question, “Sam knows then? That we’re ‘dating’.” She even used her fingers to form air quotations, as if Lena wasn’t part of their hare-brained plan.
As if she even needed to specify.
(Maybe it was more for Kara’s own benefit, drawing boundaries in the sand and reminding herself of the situation they had wound up in.
A clear line would definitely be needed for this task.)
Lena nodded, “Yeah, I almost couldn’t escape her interrogation. I made up some stuff — we’ve been dating for a month by the way — friendship provides a strong foundation for romance and all that, blah blah blah, and now the seed has been planted.”
Kara’s brain still was kind of reeling at the fact that this was actually happening. Lena must have caught on, as she moved to place a hand over Kara’s own, which happened to be the one shredding up a poor napkin.
“We can call it off, Kara,” Lena said gently, “seriously, you don’t have to do this.”
Kara immediately shook her head, maybe a little too fast for a human but it got the point across anyway.
“I want to,” Kara reassured, waving a hand dismissively, “I was just… thinking about this article Andrea’s having me write that’s due later today, that’s all.” It wasn’t a complete lie, at least. There very much was an article due but Kara had only written a grand total of three sentences that morning even though she had all the research and quotes ready, her mind clearly not in the CatCo bullpen.
“We should probably get our details straight then, huh?” Lena said, finishing off the remains of her sandwich and wiping her fingers with the napkin in an oddly well-mannered way. It was no doubt from the etiquette training the Luthors had subjected her to when she was younger that she had never quite managed to shake.
Kara couldn’t help but watch, a small part of her overcome with the want to run her own fingers across the planes of Lena’s hands, to feel each bump of her knuckles under her thumb while letting the warmth of her palms bleed into her skin.
“No pun intended,” Lena added, snapping Kara’s eyes away from her hands, causing her to blush.
Kara let out a short burst of laughter, a little strained and way too much for something that wasn’t even that funny, but Lena either didn’t pick up on it or chose to ignore it.
Rao, she was being so weird today.
“So, dating a month, you said?” Kara asked, desperate to move the attention away from her sudden lack of social skills. Lena confirmed with a hum. “Let’s say I asked you out during one of our lunches.”
Lena lifted a perfect brow. “Why couldn’t I have asked you out?”
“Maybe we both wanted to but I beat you to it.” Kara shrugged. “We were nervous and you fumbled a bit too long, which is believable enough.”
Kara tried not to think about what ‘believable’ meant in this context — pretended she hadn’t noticed that sometimes their hugs lingered a little too much to be friendly, their looks a little too longing. That when their hands would brush, the touch would send a rush of butterflies to swarm her chest, both parties pulling away with soft, shy smiles.
“For Sam and Andrea,” she clarified when Lena didn’t answer.
“Okay,” Lena finally agreed. “That should satisfy the wolves for now. Everything else we can just… be vague and hope they don’t ask for too many details.”
The topic moved away from their plan and eventually led them both just talking about their days so far, with Kara talking about how excited Nia was for her first assignment in the fashion column of the magazine, and Lena, about her recent breakthroughs with a project she’d been working on.
“Is that an exclusive for me?” Kara beamed brightly.
Lena met her with her own, more edged with a smirk than a grin. “Anything for my favourite reporter,” she replied, voice smooth with a teasing tone. Her posture softened before adding, “I think that’s all we have time for today though, got to head back. No rest for the wicked.”
The two put their cups, plates, and the napkin-turned-confetti into a tidy pile with a tip and left, nodding their thanks at the baristas who knew they were regulars. They walked together for a block, before reaching the intersection that split off into CatCo and L-Corp.
Kara pulled Lena into a hug, feeling the other woman wrap her up with her own arms just as tight. They pulled back a little, but still had each other in their arms.
“I’ll see you soon,” Kara said, “and you’d better go home at a reasonable time. Don’t make me get Supergirl to haul you back to your apartment.” Her words were said in a feigned serious voice, but still held some weight to them. Lena was definitely a workaholic, and most of the time she needed Kara to appear at the balcony door during her late night patrols to make her realise the sky had already turned an inky black.
“Don’t worry, darling, I’ll try not to.” Lena smiled, face laced with a warm fondness that made Kara’s stomach do a low swoop.
She stepped out of Lena’s arms, but not before planting a soft kiss onto her cheek without thinking, drawing a barely audible squeak of surprise from her.
“Bye!” Kara yelled as she sped-walked away and she felt own face lighting up like a candle, almost walking straight into a lampost. She was smacked in the face by that giddy feeling again, and she knew, once she was sat back in the office, she would have to focus on restraining her bouncing leg from putting a hole through the building.
What had she gotten herself into?
CatCo was having one of its slow days, it seemed, which was a surprise as it usually exuded a frantic energy, with people running around carrying stacks of paper, followed by the trilling of phones and clacks of keys. Even Supergirl had barely seen anything beyond cats stuck up trees and helping this one old lady cross the street.
Which, yes, less crime was actually a good thing because it showed that her team’s strategies were working.
But…
To put it simply, Kara was bored, but also restless.
Recently, she had this pent up energy begging her to be set free, so the lack of tasks that involved exerting her muscles was starting to get to her (she had already decimated a few concrete blocks in the Tower’s training room, much to Alex’s concern). Hell, even running around after a source for one of her assignments would get at least some blood pumping.
And because it was a particularly quiet day for National City, she had been assigned a filler piece which CatCo was starting to turn away from, but still remained when, well, nothing was happening.
Rao, if she had to research any more on the different types of onions for her Top 10 Onions for Cooking article and the accompanying What Type of Onion are You? Rate these Disney Movies and Find Out! quiz, she would probably file her own death certificate and fling herself into the sun. At least she had a lot more knowledge in the Disney movie section and, well, she supposed she was now able to tell the difference between Vidalia onions and Spanish onions.
It was around mid-morning when Kara finally broke her gaze away from the screen of her laptop, superhearing picking up on the familiar click of heels and heartbeat. Her own heart started singing with joy, finally a break in her monotonous onion-oriented tasks. It had only been just over a day since she had seen Lena, but her body hummed with a newfound energy nonetheless.
She swivelled around in her chair when she heard her step out of the elevator, face lighting up immediately when blue met green. Lena was already smiling at her as she made her way across the rows of desks, a coffee holder balanced in one hand.
“Hi,” Kara greeted, a megawatt grin on her face as she stood up, wrapping Lena in a hug. “I missed you,” she murmured into Lena’s shoulder.
When she pulled back, Lena let out a chuckle, a faint pink blossoming on her cheeks. “It’s only been thirty-ish hours.”
“Thirty-ish hours too long,” Kara quipped back, ignoring the fluttery feeling she felt as soon as the words left her mouth, “what brings you to this corner of National City? Not that I’m not happy to see you of course.”
“Andrea wanted to catch up.” Lena nodded towards the woman’s office, giant glass panels looking as foreboding as ever while the woman behind it talked on the phone. “I brought you coffee.” She lifted one of the paper cups and placed it on Kara’s desk. “It’s got all the add-ons you could ever imagine,” Lena said with a smile.
Kara easily returned it, feeling light at the nice gesture, “Thank you, Lena, you didn’t have to.” She saw her eyes track curiously over Kara’s laptop screen.
“‘What type of onion are you?’ Well, Ms. Danvers, what type of onion am I?” Lena asked, playfulness in her tone.
“Cipollini,” Kara answered without missing a beat, “rich and sweet.” She felt her face heat up when Lena raised an amused eyebrow at her. “For cooking,” Kara added, as if there was any other purpose for an onion other than for cooking.
(…candying them? Putting them in a… garland? Kara shuddered internally at the thought of putting caramel on onions.)
“Well you’re right about the rich part,” Lena grinned.
Kara laughed warmly, “You’re sweet too.”
Lena made a noise in protest. “Absolutely not! I, Lena Luthor, am not sweet. That word is reserved for elderly neighbours who bring you lasagne once a week, or cats that don’t bite you when you try to pet it.”
“Or maybe,” Kara countered, “it’s for friends who bring each other coffee and eat takeout together.” She made her point when she brought the cup of coffee to her lips, taking a satisfying sip and letting the taste wash over her tongue (milk with a hint of coffee, Lena had once dubbed it). Lena frowned and Kara knew she had won, a grin splitting her face. “Speaking of,” she continued, “we still on for tonight? I believe you promised to help me bake many batches of cookies. Alex is coming round earlier so but she should be gone by the time you arrive.”
Lena smiled, fond and definitely sweet, no matter how much she would deny. “Of course, darling.” She glanced over at Andrea’s office, the woman having finished up her call. “If I don’t reappear in an hour, assume I’ve murdered Andrea for her interrogating me about our relationship,” Lena stage-whispered, eyes sparkling conspiratorially. “I’ll see you later,” she followed up with a wink, hand squeezing Kara’s arm before turning on her heel, leaving a somewhat flustered Kara behind.
“Yeah, yeah leave me with the onions,” Kara muttered to herself with a shake of her head, sinking back into her chair and stretching out her arms. She didn’t get much done before someone rolled up beside her, office chair wheels squeaking along the carpet as they arrived.
“Kara,” Nia popped up by her elbow, a sly grin on her face and a mischievous glint in her eye.
“Nia,” Kara greeted, eyes only glancing over before returning to her laptop as she continued typing. She had an inkling of why the younger woman had appeared at her desk. “How can I help?”
Nia settled back in her seat, pretending to pick at her nail, feigning an air of casualness which maybe would have worked if not for the giant smirk plastered on her face.
“Surely I’m more interesting than…” Nia leaned forward, squinting at the laptop, “onions? Well I guess they could stick that in the cooking section.”
Kara hummed noncommittally, shrugging. “I assume you didn’t come over while Andrea was distracted to talk to me about onions?” Kara finally stopped typing, sitting back and turning to face Nia, who still had a giant knowing look plastered on her.
“No, more like a little birdie told me something,” Nia feigned nonchalance, “about you and Lena.”
Ah Nia, the little gossip. Kara bet she probably found out from Sam — after all, they both enjoyed messing with their friends, and as soon as they figured that out about each other, Nia and Sam formed an alliance to lovingly meddle in their dear friends’ personal lives together.
No one was safe.
Kara decided to play dumb, “What about me and Lena?” She was about two hundred words away from finishing her article and the sooner she finished, the sooner she would never have to hear about Bermuda onions ever again.
“That you guys finally did something about all that unresolved sexual tension?” Nia commented off-handedly.
Kara swore her soul left her body in that moment, like she had temporarily blinked out of existence before coming back, never quite the same again.
“I— what— Nia!” Kara spluttered, words coming out half-choked and eyes wide as her entire body flushed red.
“That was very coherent of you, Kara, I understood that perfectly,” Nia teased.
She was having way too much fun with this. Well, it was now or never.
“Yes,” Kara confirmed quietly, ducking her head to hide her burning face. “We’re together.”
The squeal Nia let out was not with her indoor voice, the noise drawing the attention of a few colleagues who were also no doubt bored out of their minds from the slow traffic today.
“Nia,” Kara tugged nervously at the collar of her button-up, “try not to tell the entirety of the office block?” Some people were trying to discreetly watch them, desperate for any form of entertainment.
At least Nia looked apologetic. “Sorry,” she said quieter, but her grin broke out again. “I’m so happy for you, you have no idea how unbearable the tension was whenever you and Lena were in a room together.”
Kara choked on air again, covering it up as a cough, but Nia didn’t seem to mind as she went on.
“Even Kelly thought you guys were together when she first met you, and then, well,” Nia shrugged casually as if her words weren’t completely flipping Kara’s world like a high RPM centrifuge. “During your fallout she thought you guys had broken up or something and I had to explain to her that this wasn’t just lesbian drama.”
Kara stayed stock still with a blank expression, the only movement being her blinking. Sexual tension— already dating— breakup drama— what?! Rao, she had a lot to process, and on top of that she still had to finish that darn article on stupid onions.
“Way more fun if it was just lesbian drama,” Nia muttered to herself, but Kara heard clear as day. The younger woman seemed to finally notice Kara’s silent spiral where her brain was in the midst of reevaluating every interaction she had ever had with Lena. “You okay?” Her tone immediately shifted from teasing to concerned, which was one of the things Kara loved about her friend, how ready she was to switch from joking into caring mode at the drop of a hat.
Kara let out a reassuring laugh as best as she could, betraying the swirl of emotions that were waging a storm in her chest. “I’m good, just… thinking about how lucky I am to have her,” she said, holding nothing but the truth.
“Trying to take the crown for cutest couple away from Brainy and I, are we?” Nia smiled, eyes crinkling with affection. “For what it’s worth, I’m happy for you.”
Kara smiled back, nodding with an odd sincerity, “Thank you.”
Thank you? For what? For congratulating Kara on a relationship that wasn’t even real? A friendship in which at least two of their friends thought there was something more between her and Lena? She needed to talk to her sister, preferably before she exploded into a mess of feelings and flashbacks of her and Lena that her brain seemed to be loving at that moment.
Kara could talk to Alex after work, she just needed to make it through this afternoon.
Around an hour later, when Lena had wrapped up her lunch with Andrea and had said her brief goodbyes to Kara with promises of seeing her later, she was called into Andrea’s office. Curious about what it might be about, she didn’t waste time and headed there, leaving the still-unfinished article at her desk. She straightened up when she reached the tall glass doors, never quite knowing what to expect from her boss. After a knock, she heard permission to enter, and so she did. Kara crossed the hallway-like length of the giant office, passing the lined up couches and armchairs before she finally reached the desk, pushing her glasses up in her usual fidgety anticipation.
“You called, Ms. Rojas?” Kara asked, clasping her hands behind her back so they would stop twitching for something to do. The many silent screens of news reporters flitting about gave her the feeling of being watched over. “If this is about the food article, I swear I’ll get it done soon.”
Andrea, looking regal and terrifying as ever, raised an eyebrow, reminding Kara oh-so-much of the way Lena did that too. She wondered if they had learned to perfect it with each other in their boarding school days.
“The cooking artic— oh, no, I don’t really care about that, as long as you finish it by the end of the day, it’s fine,” her boss waved a dismissive hand and Kara nodded slowly, still standing a little awkwardly in her office. Andrea seemed to regard her for a moment, and she tried not to squirm under her intimidating gaze. She could probably command a plant to wither with a mere look. Finally, she gestured at the chairs. “Take a seat, Kara.”
She sank down into the expensive leather and folded her hands neatly across her lap, leaning forward slightly.
“I wanted to talk to you not as a boss, but as a…” Andrea paused, seeming to try to find the correct word, “friend of a friend, Sam and Lena speak very highly of you. So does Kelly. I’d like to assume we’re at least somewhat friendly.”
“Uh, yes, of course,” Kara said, not quite sure where this was going.
“Essentially what I’m going to do is give you a warning.” Andrea twisted a fancy pen in one hand that had probably cost more than Kara’s monthly rent.
Kara bit down the noise of surprise that had swelled in her throat, making her face look as neutral as possible. “Warning? What do you mean?”
“Well you’re dating Lena now, aren’t you?” It was more of a statement than a question, with the way she phrased it. “I suppose people usually call this a shovel talk,” Andrea let out a small sigh as she placed her pen down, clasping her hands together, placing her full, unwavering attention on Kara. “We both know how Lena has been screwed over by people she cares about in her life, again and again. Including me.”
Including herself, Kara thought shamefully, the memories bubbling to the surface in her mind.
“I am incredibly grateful that Lena has allowed me a second chance, even after everything,” she continued, words firm yet edged with a softness Kara didn’t see from her usually cutthroat boss. “I care about her a lot, so if you even dare try to break her heart,” Andrea’s demeanour shifted back to the one Kara knew so well, and she could already feel part of herself shrinking into her seat, “I can make sure your body is never found.”
Even though Kara was indestructible and one of the strongest beings on the planet, she still had to fight back the shiver that had gone down her spine. She knew perfectly well of what Andrea Rojas was capable of, including her time as a deadly assassin for Leviathan, as well as joining Supergirl’s side during the fight against them and Lex, giving Kara’s team a much needed upper-hand.
“I’m sure you’re aware of the money and power I possess,” Andrea added nonchalantly, as if she wasn’t threatening Kara with bodily harm if she so much as looked at Lena wrong (which Kara would never do anyway, she would swear by that). She then smiled at Kara, and Kara returned it, albeit a little wearily. “Just because I’m dating Sam and I’ve semi-adopted her kid does not mean I’m losing my edge.”
Kara let out a soft laugh. “No, of course not, Andrea. I don’t think you could be anything other than terrifying when the time calls for it,” she said genuinely, and in a moment of rarity, her boss seemed to give her a sincere smile.
“Thank you, Kara,” her expression moved to a more serious one, “and I hope you don’t think I’m joking about those threats, because I’m not. Lena is one of the most important people in my life and if you wrong her in any way, shape, or form, I can make you disappear. Am I clear?”
Kara bit her lip and nodded, her fingers pulling absently at each other. “I really care about her, and I really hope it never comes to that,” she replied, full of earnestness and conviction, almost forgetting that they were only pretending to date and that they weren’t actually in love, yet her words still rang true. “Lena deserves all the love, and I’m so glad she has people like you and Sam in her corner who care about her.”
“Of course, Kara, like I said before, I will always be grateful for even having any kind of relationship with Lena after what I had done to her in the past.” Andrea smiled again, “A year ago I couldn’t even imagine her ever letting us be as close as we are now.”
Something in Kara’s chest squeezed at how much Andrea’s words had hit home, even though the other woman didn’t know about their fallout or the destructive extent of it. Kara could only breathe out a quiet, “Yeah.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page, Kara,” Andrea sat back, the gentleness in her posture changing back to that of a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. “Now, I believe I’ve kept you for long enough, you can go back to your work now.”
Kara stood up and almost tripped over with the realisation that a) she just had a rather friendly conversation with her boss, b) said boss had also given her a threatening shovel talk about her non-existent romantic relationship yet it was somehow enjoyable nonetheless, and c) she could now see the softer side to the woman that Sam and Lena, and even Ruby had talked about. Once she had righted herself, she turned to leave, but not before Andrea said one last thing, utmost sincerity in her tone.
“Kara? For what it’s worth, you and Lena look good together, it’s clear that you make her very happy, and that she loves you.”
By the time Kara had turned her head to respond, her heart tripping over itself, Andrea was already sat back down and typing away on her computer. She felt that stirring again, something growing deep inside her fuelled by whenever someone mentioned something positive about her and Lena’s relationship. Kara turned back and had to force her legs to work again, walking out, all the while pushing her glasses back up her nose.
“Cool cool cool cool cool,” Kara muttered to herself all the way back to her desk, drawing a few concerned looks from her coworkers. Finally slumping down into her chair, she let herself deflate, heart beating a little too fast for her liking.
Once again, she was sat in front of her article about onions. Kara rolled up her sleeves, focused on the screen, and got to work.