Work Text:
When Kara heard the police sirens, her heart swelled with relief and she let out a shaky breath.
“Finally that woman is getting what she deserves,” J’onn said.
Kara turned to where mother and daughter stood and watched as Lillian Luthor was cuffed and manhandled towards a police car by a tall mean looking man. Kara’s heart clenched when she saw Lena, face cold and void of emotion but inside her heart was slamming against her ribcage violently, and Kara could see how her lips started trembling before she bit them from the inside.
She turned to J’onn. “Do you need me at the DEO right now?” He looked at her with a frown and caught a glimpse of Lena from over her shoulders. “I need to help a friend,” she added.
“You did your job, Supergirl. You deserve the rest of the night off.” He smiled at her.
“Thank you,” she said before turning to look at Lena one last time, their eyes met for a brief second but Lena clenched her jaw and looked away before Kara could even try to smile at her. “Well, here goes to nothing,” she mumbles to herself as she took off flying.
She flew to her apartment at superspeed and changed before taking off again. She landed a few streets away from the port and ran at human speed towards the commotion.
Not much had happened since she left; Lillian Luthor was sitting at the back of a police car looking ruefully at her daughter, while Lena tried to ignore her mother as a police officer talked to her. Kara waited until the officer turned away from Lena to make herself known.
“Lena!” She called out from a few feet away, half-jogging towards the woman.
Lena frowned as she turned around. “Kara?” She didn’t move, and waited for Kara to get closer. “What are you doing here?”
“I, uhm… I have a police scanner,” she lied lamely, and it sounded more like a question.
“Ah,” Lena nodded with a bitter smile. “Supergirl told you,” she deduced. “Came to report on the new evil Luthor being arrested? Do you want an exclusive interv-” But Lena didn’t get to finish her sentence.
Kara threw herself at Lena, wrapping both arms around her, catching Lena by surprise. “I came for you,” she whispered next to Lena’s ear.
Lena was stiff at first, hard as a rock, but at Kara’s words and the hot breath against her skin, she slowly relaxed into the embrace, all but collapsing in Kara’s arms. Lena wrapped her arms around Kara, clinging to the girl’s clothes, face buried in Kara’s neck as she still tried to remain at least a little bit composed.
She felt Kara rubbing her back soothingly and it took all of her strength not to sob right there. Kara’s body was warm and strong and it made her feel safe, Lena couldn’t remember when was the last time someone hugged her like that but it was definitely the best hug the best hug she ever got, the thought of that made her cling to Kara even tighter.
“It’s okay, I got you,” Kara whispered to her, squeezing her shoulders gently.
Lena pulled in a shivering breath and pressed her eyes tightly to will off the tears.
Kara didn’t pull away. She waited until Lena had taken up all the comfort she needed and let her step away.
“I’m really sorry,” Kara told Lena, looking into her eyes. “Truly.”
Lena nodded, a pained expression in her face. She swallowed tightly and pulled a smile on her face, one that didn’t reach her eyes and looked sour. “So where did your superhero friend run off to? Thought she would like the show.”
“She… thought it would be better to give you some space, she had a feeling you wouldn’t want to talk to her.”
“How considerate of her,” Lena said bitterly. She set her jaw and continued. “Actually I owe her an apology.”
“Really?”
“I was unfair to her, she told me some things that I didn’t want to hear,” Lena confessed. “But you’re right, I don’t want to see her right now.”
Kara nodded carefully, her eyes never leaving Lena’s face. “Do you want me to go?”
“No! You can stay, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t,” Kara whispered shaking her head, she gave Lena a small smile and heard the woman’s heart flutter. “I owe you an apology as well.” Lena didn’t say anything. “I lied to you, about the interview.”
“She asked you to look into me?” Lena accused.
“I offered to help,” Kara clarified. “Without bringing too much drama.” Technically it wasn’t a lie.
“You wanted to see what I knew about my mother.”
“Clearly I overestimated my reporting skills,” Kara joked.
“No you were fine, I just…”
“You’re smarter than me.”
Lena cocked her head. “Your words, not mine.” And there it was, that charming smile Kara was so fond of. It was gone too quickly. “Why did you?”
Kara sighed. “I guess I didn’t want you to think I didn’t trust you, that I was accusing you of being…” She trailed off, not sure if she should continue.
“Like them,” Lena finished for her, and for the first time since they parted their hug, Kara looked away from Lena’s face, looking sheepishly to her feet.
“I do trust you,” Kara told her. “I know you are good, better.” She looked up again, hesitant, afraid of how Lena was going to react, but the woman’s face seemed to be relaxing.
“Well,” Lena sighed dramatically. “I suppose if I really was evil I probably wouldn’t confess everything to a reporter, no matter how cute she is,” she teased.
Kara laughed. “I was hoping I could convince you with a nice smile.”
Lena smiled again, and it almost made Kara sign in relief. “I like to think I wouldn’t fall for that, but it is a very pretty smile.”
“If it didn’t work I could just pout.”
“Now that’s just playing dirty.”
Kara giggled. She watched as Lena’s smile faded when her eyes met her mother’s and her own face fell back to seriousness. “What you did was really brave.”
“It was the right thing to do,” Lena brushed it off.
“Yes! But doing what’s right is not always easy, nor is standing up against our family. It takes a lot of courage to do so.” Kara refused to let Lena’s heroism be undermined, even by Lena herself. “You saved a lot of innocent lives today. That’s the work of a hero.”
Lena shifted on her feet, a little uncomfortable.
“I, for one, am very grateful for what you did,” Kara continued. “I have friends who would have died today, but you stopped that from happening, you saved them. So thank you.” She said seriously, looking Lena in the eyes again. Her lips trembled and she pressed them together to stop the crying pout she knew she made.
Lena only nodded, quietly, and looked over to the car her mother was in; the police was getting ready to move her.
“Do you wanna… say goodbye?” Kara asked hesitantly.
Lena shook her head no. “She probably hates me right now.” She shrugged. “I guess there really isn’t such thing as a good Luthor.”
“Well, there’s you. I think you are good enough to compensate for all the bad that they’ve done.”
“Yeah, well, I’m adopted.” Lena let out a dry laugh and Kara looked at her sadly.
“Can I take you home?” Kara offered.
Lena gave her a small smile. “That would be nice.”
Kara smiled back at Lena and they started walking, side by side, towards the street.
“You know, you’re kind of my hero,” Kara said nudging Lena on the arm.
Lena smiled and shook her head, the little laugh under her breath was like melody for Kara.
When they reached the sidewalk, however, Kara froze. “I guess there is a big flaw to my plan,” she told Lena.
“What?”
“I can’t drive… And I don’t have a car.”
Lena laughed. “It’s the thought that counts, right?”
“I hope so.” Kara shrugged.
“It’s okay,” Lena was about to tell Kara that she’d call a car but Kara interrupted her, by blurting out her thought.
“I could walk you home.” Kara’s voice was edging too much on desperation. “I don’t like the thought of you going home alone at this time of the night.”
Lena smirked at Kara. “Are you trying to flirt with me, Miss Danvers?” Lena teased.
Kara laughed. “Not right now.” She offered her arm to Lena, hoping Lena would let her keep company at least for a while longer.
“Some other time then,” Lena said softly as she took Kara’s arm in hers and started leading the way to her home.