Work Text:
“Is that all, Miss Luthor?” Kara asked, smiling tightly and stilling her stylus pen above her tablet. Lena didn’t respond. “Miss Luthor?” Kara inquired again, attempting to get a response.
“Yes.” Lena said sharply and continued to work on her paperwork, not looking up.
Kara nodded her head and turned on her heel, walking out of the office. She tightened her her grip on the tablet in her hand, wincing when she heard a small crack. She sighed, and stopped by Winn’s desk instead of going directly to hers. She slid the tablet across the desk.
“Kara! Hey- wait- what’s this.” Winn said and stopped typing.
“Um, well-”
Winn opened the cover on the tablet, sighing when he saw the cracks spidering across the screen. “Again? Really?”
Kara winced. “She- she didn’t even look at me.”
“You can’t just break your tablet every time she doesn’t act like you think she should.” Winn sighed, opening the drawer on the side of his desk, giving Kara another tablet. “This is the one you cracked last time- replaced the screen.”
Kara picked up the tablet. “Thanks, Winn. Again.” She looked down at the tablet. “Did you-”
“Yes, everything updates automatically.” He said, looking back at his computer.
“Thanks.” Kara sighed, walking over to her desk. She sat down dejectedly and moved the mouse on her computer, watching the screen come to life. Kara sighed when L-Corp’s website slowly come into focus. Lena’s smiling face stared at her from the sidebar of the page. Kara angrily clicked the small “x” at the top of her screen.
It hadn’t always been like this. The coldness. Before a last month, they had been close. Friends even.
“I-I brought your lunch.” Kara stuttered, holding up the takeout boxes.
“Kara! Thank you. Just put them on my desk.” Lena smiled, looking up from her laptop.
Kara gently put them in front of Lena. “Not that I’m judging or anything- which I’m not! But isn't this a lot of food?”
Lena laughed. “You caught on.” She closed the lid on her laptop. “I bought enough for you too.” Lena opened a few boxes. Kara zoned in on the second box’s contents.
“You- you bought potstickers?” She gasped.
Lena smiled and slid the box across her desk. “Yes. And you can have all of them if you’d like.”
Kara gasped. “You- I-” She plopped down in the seat across from Lena and broke open some chopsticks. “This is-” Kara picked up a potsticker, staring at it reverently. She popped it into her mouth, moaning when she bit into it. She grabbed a couple more and stuffed them into her mouth. “This is so good!” She said, words muffled by the food.
“I’m glad.” Lena laughed, breaking open her chopsticks and digging into the takeout box containing noodles. “I had to call all of the Chinese food places around just to find your favorite spot.”
Kara almost choked on a potsticker. “You what?”
Lena frowned, looking up at Kara worriedly. “Oh no, is that odd?”
“It’s- that’s- that’s the nicest thing anyone’s done for me!” Kara said shaking her head furiously.
“Oh.” Lena smiled and looked back down at her food. “Alright then.”
Kara sighed and rubbed her forehead. She looked at her computer when a reminder popped up to call an investor to set up a meeting. She grumbled and picked up the phone at her desk to dial the number on the screen.
“Earth to Kara.” Kara heard a deep voice say from her left. She looked away from Lena’s office door where she could see the woman distantly through the glass.
“James!” She smiled, jumping up to hug the tall man. “What are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy-”
“Kara. Kara, I get it.” He laughed.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at Catco, running things?” Kara asked, sitting back down.
“No, I’m still on a lunch break.” James smiled. “This isn’t a long visit, I just stopped by to drop this off.” He held up a small pizza box.
Kara gasped. “A pizza from Felix’s?” She grabbed the box, breathing in the intoxicating smell of fresh pizza.
“Knew you’d like it.” James smiled. He looked at his watch and sighed. “Duty calls.” He bent down to kiss Kara on the cheek. “I really wish I could stay longer…”
“Go, go.” Kara laughed. “If you stay, I know you’d steal a slice.” She said, hugging the box to her chest.
“Okay, okay.” James waved over his shoulder. “I’ll see you later!”
“Bye!” Kara immediately stuffed a slice into her mouth. Kara’s phone rang. Her eyes widened when she saw the caller ID and she chewed faster, quickly picking up the receiver. She managed to swallow right before she answered.
“Miss Luthor?” Kara answered, and craned her neck to see Lena staring at her through the glass of the door. “M-miss Luthor, is something wrong?”
Kara turned her head back to look down at her keyboard when she heard Lena sigh. “No, Kara.” Kara head Lena take in a few deep breaths. “You know there are no social visits allowed during work hours.”
Kara frowned. “You’ve never told me-”
“I have.” The tone of Lena’s voice left no room for discussion.
“Yes, Miss Luthor.” Kara heard the click of the call being ended. She also heard Lena slam the phone down in the distance.
Kara slowly lowered her face onto her desk. She turned her head to look at the box of pizza and sighed. She closed her eyes, frustratedly.
“Kara, could you close the door?”
“Of course, Miss Luthor.” Kara said, smiling.
“I’ve already told you, call me Lena when it’s after hours.” Lena said and down at her chair, crossing one leg over the other. Kara averted her eyes from the skin exposed by the rise of Lena’s dress.
“Ri-right. Lena.” Kara said, testing the name out. She looked at Lena smiling satisfactorily.
“Good.” Lena said, leaning forward a bit, putting her elbows on her desk. Kara looked upwards, trying her best not to stare at Lena’s cleavage. “Kara.”
Kara snapped her eyes to look into Lena’s.
“Sit down, please.” Lena said pleasantly.
“O-okay.”
“I need to talk to you about something.” Lena sighed, fiddling with a pen cap.
“Nothing bad, I hope?” Kara said nervously.
“No, no. Quite the opposite, I think.” She smiled, looking up at Kara. She took a deep breath. “I don’t think you should be my assistant anymore.”
“Wa-wait. Wha- are you firing me?” Kara asked, getting up.
“Kara, goodness no! I’m promoting you!” Lena exclaimed, getting out of her chair and walked over to Kara. She put her hand on Kara’s arm. “I think you could really excel in our marketing team.”
“Marketing?” Kara said weakly.
“Yes. Absolutely. I’ve seen the way you write-”
“No.”
“W-wait. No? No to the promotion?” Lena asked, quickly taking her hand off of Kara’s shoulder.
“I don’t want a promotion.” Kara said and walked out of Lena’s office.
Kara snapped a pen that had somehow ended up in her hand, getting ink on herself and blouse.
“Shit.” She whispered, quickly getting out of her seat. Kara quickly walked over to the small restroom by the stairway, ignoring Winn’s concerned glance. “Shit, shit, shit.” She whispered while clumsily pulling off her shirt. She frantically ran it under the water. Blue tinted water splashed over the edge of the sink. Her blouse was a splattered mess. She scrubbed at it harder and looked up at herself in the mirror. She ripped a hole through the garment.
Kara angrily shut off the faucet, dropping the ruined article of clothing dejectedly. She looked at her ink stained hands and sighed.
“Oh. I didn’t know anyone was in here.” Kara heard a low voice saw from the door. She looked over. Lena. “The door wasn’t locked.” The door closed behind Lena slowly.
“I- I was just leaving.” Kara sighed, and threw the dripping mess that was her shirt into the garbage and walked towards the door where Lena was standing, looking at her intensely.
“You’re not wearing a shirt.”
Kara looked down, noticing that she was only in a white cotton bra. “R-right. Yeah.”
Lena sighed and turned around. Kara heard the click of a lock.
“Miss Lutho-”
“Kara.”
Kara took a sharp intake of breath when she saw the way Lena was looking at her. Moving closer.
“I have a question for you, Kara. I want you to answer me honestly.”
“Miss-”
“ No. ” Lena snapped. “I need you to answer honestly.” She looked pleadingly at Kara.
Kara stared at Lena and then slowly nodded her head, sighing.
“Why didn’t you take the promotion?”
“I don’t underst-”
“Yes you do. Let me ask again. Why didn’t you take the promotion.” Lena walked closer to Kara.
“I didn’t want to work in marketing.” Kara muttered.
“ Why ! The pay is good, you would get to write! I don’t-”
“I wouldn’t get to be around you!” Kara blurted out angrily and grabbed the sink with her hand.
“Oh, Kara-”
“I don’t want your pity.” Kara said looking up at Lena with angry tears in her eyes. “I don’t- I don’t want-”
“Kara.” Lena whispered, slowly moving her hand up to Kara’s cheek. “I’m going to ask you something and I need you to answer it honestly.” She sighed and leaned in closer to Kara.
“Okay.” Kara whispered softly.
“Do you want me to kiss you?” Lena said, rubbing her thumb against Kara’s cheek.
Kara took in a deep breath and looked up into Lena’s eyes.
“Yes.”