Work Text:
Kara Danvers is in deep, deep trouble.
She’d thought that a summer job as a pool cleaner would be easy money. A part-time gig between college and grad school. It’s only three afternoons a week, they agreed to pay her asking price instead of lowballing, and their pool is saltwater and much easier to clean than some of the huge Olympic-sized chlorinated monsters she’s done. When she shows up on her first day and lets herself through the back gate, she expects to get an anonymous envelope of cash from Lillian Luthor and be left more or less alone to clean and work on her tan in peace.
“You’re new.”
Kara whirls around, a pool skimmer in one hand and a box of pH test strips in the other, and she almost drops both when she sees the source of the voice. There’s someone sitting in one of the reclining deck chairs in a one-piece and a white sarong, and she’s looking at Kara curiously over the top of her dark sunglasses.
“Uh, yeah. I’m Kara. Lillian hired me? To clean the pool?” It all comes out like a question, and the girl raises a dark eyebrow. She looks about Kara’s age, and she’s so freaking beautiful that it makes Kara feel stupid.
“I suppose she was finished with the last one, then,” the girl mutters. She’s so pale that she almost glows even under the big pool umbrella she’s sitting under, and after a second of sizing Kara up she pulls her sunglasses back up and goes back to the large book in her lap. “It’s not worth the money, you know.”
“What?”
The girl turns a page calmly. “She’ll eat you alive.”
Kara snorts, her stomach dropping. “Oh, that’s not – I’m not into – I mean, she’s very – but I don’t – I’m Kara,” she finally says, blushing furiously and extending her hand to shake. The girl looks at it with another raised brow.
“You have cyanuric acid on your hands.”
“Oh,” Kara says, dropping the hand and looking down at it. She did indeed spill chemicals on her hands, and apparently this person knows exactly which one just by looking.
The girl nods her head towards the shed. “There’s a hose over there.”
By the time Kara has rinsed her hands off, the girl is gone.
It takes two more workdays to learn that her name is Lena, she’s a year younger than Kara is, and she’s home for the summer before heading back to Metropolis for her PhD. Lena seems determined to ignore her at first, but when after three weeks Kara is still cleaning the pool and Lillian hasn’t even made an appearance she seems to let her guard down. She even brings Kara a cold glass of iced tea when she’s struggling to clean the filter during a brutal heatwave, descending like an angel from the air-conditioned house, and after that there’s always a glass waiting when Kara arrives.
By early June Lena has started coming out to the pool whenever Kara is there, making interesting conversation while she reads what seems like a new book every day. It might be wishful thinking, but sometimes Kara even thinks Lena’s gaze lingers on her as she skims the water – but it’s impossible to tell. Her eyes are always hidden behind those dark sunglasses, and she always seems to be looking at her book even when her cheeks are pink.
A few more weeks, Kara thinks, and she might even finally get up the nerve to ask Lena out properly. She’ll get to it. She just needs time.
The first day Lillian emerges and intercepts Lena’s iced tea with a tray of lemonade and a smile, Kara thinks nothing of it. Lena seems a bit miffed, shutting her book with a little too much force, but Lillian is perfectly friendly as they sip their drinks together – Lena’s goes untouched – and chat about the weather before Kara gets back to work.
But when Lillian starts doing the same thing every time Kara is working, Kara can’t ignore the fact that her outfits get more scant by the day.
As the weeks drag on, Lillian starts asking her to do extra tasks. Kara carries the pool chemicals from the garage to the shed, inflates some large pool toys that go unused, changes the perfectly useable liner – and each time Lillian stays to watch, settling next to Lena on one of the reclining pool chairs.
“Wonderful view, isn’t it?” Lillian says to Lena as Kara struggles with filling in a crack in the cement around the pool, gesturing at what Kara assumes must be the garden lining the fence behind Kara’s back. Her tone is almost pointed; Lena buries her face in her book.
In early July, Lillian gives Kara an offer that takes her aback.
“You want me to be…your handyman?”
Lillian smiles, and there’s something disconcertingly calculated behind it. Not malevolent, exactly, but not entirely innocent either. “You would only be responsible for the yardwork and some light repairs. Besides, you fixed the eavestrough just yesterday. Clearly you’re qualified.”
“I used duct tape,” Kara deadpans. Lillian waves an uncaring hand, letting it land on Kara’s bicep for far too long.
“Perfectly satisfactory.”
The money is too good to refuse – it’s more than twice what she was making before, and full-time hours all summer – but almost as soon as Kara starts coming every day, Lena disappears. Instead Lillian is there in a silk robe, directing Kara in each individual task and sipping cocktails. She’s perched on the deck with a mojito while Kara re-paints the shed, changing her mind on colours halfway through; she’s reclining by the pool with a martini while Kara mows the lawn, pointing delicately at spots she claims that Kara overlooked only for Kara to haul the mower over and see that she didn’t miss it at all. The only time Kara sees Lena for the rest of the month is when she’s finishing shoddily installing a birdbath, and she spots Lena’s outline watching them from an upstairs window. Lillian, seeming to notice Kara looking up, catches sight of her as well; and when she cheerfully raises her daquiri to Lena’s shadow, it disappears.
When Kara hesitantly asks Lillian where Lena has been, hoping that perhaps there’s some reason besides the one she suspects, Lillian replies with a dry chuckle.
“She’ll turn up when she realizes she needs to take risks. Luthors don’t sit around and wait for things to come to them – they go out and get what they want.” Lillian punctuates it by picking a few blades of grass from Kara’s hair, her eyes roaming over Kara’s shoulders.
Well. It’s certainly a whole lot of a vibe that Kara doesn’t know what to do with, and more than anything she just wants to see Lena again.
The last straw, the thing that snaps the situation like a stale breadstick, is in early August.
Lillian, seeming to delight in the discomfort it causes, calls Lena out to the pool for some ‘mother-daughter bonding time’. Lena descends from the house for the first time in weeks, not quite making eye contact with Kara while she sits stiffly in a deck chair, and in her attempt to make conversation with the younger Luthor Kara doesn’t notice Lillian setting a bottle of sunscreen on the table. By the time Kara gets the feeling that something is wrong Lillian has already laid herself out on her stomach and undone her bikini top; and the second the strings drop, Kara drops her phone in the pool.
“Shoot!” Kara hisses, averting her eyes from Lillian’s bare back and grabbing the skimming net to fish it out. Her hands are clumsy, and she misses it several times before she throws the net down in frustration and just dives into the pool, cutting through the water to snatch the phone from the bottom and surfacing with it in her fist.
She’s barely taken a breath before Lillian calls out to her.
“Miss Danvers, if you could be a dear? I find nothing makes sun-lotion more effective than having it rubbed in by a strapping young athlete.”
Kara inhales a mouthful of saltwater.
“Uh, look, Mrs. Luthor,” Kara coughs, her eyes watering as she grabs the side of the pool for dear life, “that’s – I’m not –”
Her attention is drawn by the sound of flip-flops running on grass, and she looks over just in time to see Lena disappearing into the house. Lillian seems pleased, thankfully re-tying her top as she rises efficiently from her lounge.
“Give us a moment.”
Kara means to give them their moment. But she’s too curious, too confused by whatever weirdness is happening, and she treads water for a minute or so before hauling herself out of the pool and following them, soaked, into the mansion.
She’s never been inside before, but she doesn’t need to know where she’s going to find Lena and Lillian. Their voices carry clearly through the house, and Kara follows them through a massive gleaming kitchen and a cavernous sitting room until she’s hovering outside a half-closed door.
“- it’s inappropriate. If you’re going to screw the staff, at least be discreet,” Lena is saying hotly. Lillian seems completely unperturbed.
“If you want her, dear, you’ll just need to step up and take her.”
“If I want – this isn’t– this is about you!” Lena says, her voice raising to almost a yell. “I’m tired of you carrying on affairs with every person we hire under the age of 30!”
“So then tell me why this is the first time it’s bothered you.”
Kara can almost hear the breath whoosh from Lena’s lungs. Lillian continues, matter-of-fact.
“You’re perfectly welcome to carry on an affair of your own. Just be bold enough to do it. I didn’t raise a wilting wallflower.”
The door opens so fast that Kara doesn’t have time to move. For a second she and Lena stare at each other, Lena’s face white and Kara dripping all over the shiny hardwood floor, until Lena barrels past her and back towards the yard. Following Lena’s steps much more calmly, Lillian softly closes Kara’s gaping mouth with two fingers under her chin and floats off to the study with a smile.
Kara finds Lena at the pool a few tense minutes later, sitting in a lounger and staring morosely into the water.
“Shouldn’t you be working?” Lena snaps, before Kara has even said a word. “Or has my mother given you something else to do?”
Kara, desperate to explain herself as quickly as possible, blurts out:
“Okay, so, your mom is hot.”
Lena’s gaze goes flinty.
“No! That’s not what I –” Kara stutters, sitting in the lounger next to Lena before her knees give out. “I get flustered! When women…hit on me. Especially older women. It happens with this job, and I can usually handle it. But your mom is – I mean, she’s persistent, right? And I didn’t know how to – and my brain just sort of shuts down –”
Lena clenches her jaw. “Whatever you’re grasping at, spit it out.”
“She’s not the one I like!”
Lena blinks silently. Kara takes a deep breath, and tries to gather herself before she blows this whole thing.
“Ever since I started working here, the only person I’ve wanted to talk to is you.”
“Well then why –”
“Because your mom is pretty aggressive, if you haven’t noticed,” Kara says, gesturing back at the house. “I don’t really know how to respond when someone is – you know, asking me to put lotion on her back.”
Lena rolls her eyes. “So you’re saying my mother sexually intimidates you.”
“I’m saying she’s persistent and I’m awkward,” Kara says, finally managing to sound firm. “I didn’t sleep with her. Nor do I want to! All I ever want to do is hang out with you. I like you, Lena. When we used to talk while I cleaned the pool, that was the best part of my whole week. And ever since this mess started I feel like I’ve had a breakup or something.”
“You can’t have a breakup if you aren’t dating.”
“Then, let’s date.”
Kara can’t tell if the sound Lena makes is a laugh or a scoff, but she turns towards Kara, and that’s definitely a step in the right direction.
“What, just like that? What about my mother?”
“What about her? I asked her to back off before I came out here,” Kara explains. “I told her I wanted to ask you out and that I was going to resign as your handyman.”
“You quit?” Lena asks incredulously. Kara frowns.
“Well, I tried. She just laughed at me and said ‘about time’. So…I’m not sure if I still have a job or not.”
Lena sighs, deep and long-suffering. “Of course she did. I’m going to kill her.”
Kara stands up, pulling Lena to her feet and tugging her closer playfully. “You two seem sort of competitive. Is it a family trait?”
“She’s competitive,” Lena corrects, but she’s smiling as Kara leans close enough to feel her warm breath.
“So if I say something like I dare you to kiss me, it wouldn’t make you –”
Lena closes the distance with a heat Kara wasn’t expecting, grasping her by the front of her still-soaked tank top, and Kara sinks into the kiss with an enthusiasm that’s been building for 2 months.
“You’re getting me all wet,” Lena says breathlessly when they finally part, making no move to put any space between them. Kara winks.
“I get that a lot.”
With a groan, Lena pushes her into the pool. And flailing, victorious, thrilled, Kara goes down laughing.