Chapter Text
The table is laden with food; mashed potatoes, green beans, mushroom wellington, Alex’s famous tofu scramble, stew, glazed carrots. It is more food than they will ever finish, but Kara does not mind. She might love the Christmas leftovers more than the first time she eats the meal.
The warm herby scents wafting from the food makes Kara’s mouth water. She will have to be patient just a little longer.
Slowly, everyone gravitates towards the table and finds themselves a seat. Clattering sounds from the kitchen as the last dishes get served and brought out and the final few people find their seats.
And then, at last, they get to start eating. Kara wants to try a little bit of everything so she is careful to take only a small amount of each dish. She does not want to end up the way she did last year. So full she was ready to puke up all the delicious goodness she had eaten the hour before. She will pace herself tonight. And as a bonus, there might be more leftovers then.
Kara takes her time to carefully plate all her food and then takes mindful bites of everything so she can savour the flavour and enjoy her meal.
A silence falls over the table as everyone takes a moment to appreciate the food. The only sounds heard are cutlery scraping on plates and glasses being put down on the table. It takes a while for the conversations to be picked up again, when everyone has had an initial taste of the food.
Her cousin gets asked about their upcoming marriage. Her aunt about what it’s like to be an empty-nester now that the last child has gone of to college. Said child gets asked about college. Alex gets questions about the adoption process.
And inevitably, someone asks Kara the question she has dreaded so much: “How is your love life?”
The dread is not because there is anything wrong with Kara’s love life. In fact, it is going phenomenal. But her girlfriend is a busy woman and this is the second year she has had to skip Christmas with Kara’s family. She has not met any of them and they have started teasing her about her girlfriend being made up.
“It’s great.”
“When is she joining us?” an aunt asks, trying to make it sound casual but Kara can hear the smugness in her voice.
“She can’t make it today.”
“Oh,” comes the disdainful reply of that same aunt. “Did she have something better to do than join our Christmas dinner?”
Normally, Kara is patient and kind and sweet but today the worst in her surfaces. “Yes. Much better.” It isn’t even a lie. Lena is attending some fund-raiser for sick children, although if she had a choice maybe she would have picked Danvers Christmas dinner. Lillian is forcing her to go with the family but without a plus one to ‘uphold the reputation of the family’.
Now that she thinks about it, Lillian and her aunt are quite similar in some ways.
Kara hopes Lena doesn’t have to deal with too much of this tonight. It’s bad enough they can’t be together. And Kara can’t even text her because apparently phones are now forbidden at Danvers Christmas dinner unless you want to host next year and pay grandma’s retirement home rent until that moment. Kara isn’t made of money, so she had to opt for the no phone option.
“You are starting to make me think your girlfriend isn’t real,” one of her cousins jests.
But her aunt seems to take it seriously and nods adamantly.
Kara sighs. She has put herself in a difficult position. Nobody is going to believe she is dating Lena fucking Luthor, Chief Creative Officer of Luthorcorp and nepo daughter of one of the richest and most influential people of Metropolis. They wouldn’t even believe her if she had pictures. It would only get her accusations of using AI.
Kara sighs again. Fine. Let them believe she made up her girlfriend. She will show them next year. If Lena doesn’t have another event to attend.
“What did you say her name was again?” someone asks.
“Lena.”
“And her last name?”
“I never said. I don’t want my family cyberstalking my girlfriend.”
“But Kara, how can we believe you if you don’t have any pictures or give us a name?”
How about because you trust me? Kara thinks. But she doesn’t say it out loud.
Instead, Kara shrugs again. “I like to respect my girlfriend’s privacy. Besides, she’s not on social media anyway.”
Her family falls silent, but Kara can hear the disappointment in the breaths of her cousins who realise they won’t find anything about Kara’s girlfriend online, and the distrust from her aunt is palpable. Kara decides then and there that she is not going to put them above Lena. She never planned to, but now even less so.
The rest of dinner is slightly awkward and progresses at a drag. Kara doesn’t usually have such problems with family but everyone prioritises romance so much, it’s tiring. She would never make a girlfriend up to please them, but she understands why some people would cave.
Just as dessert is about to be served, the doorbell rings.
One of her younger cousins gets sent to the door to see who it is. Kara can vaguely hear voices but doesn’t pay much attention. It isn’t her house after all, so anyone ringing the door isn’t much important to her.
That is, until she hears a muffled squeal and her cousin’s raised voice shouting, “Wait, are you Lena Luthor?!”
At the mention of her girlfriend’s name, Kara shoots up and sprints to the hallway.