Chapter Text
Lena tried to focus on the document in front of her as she typed her final paper of her last class of her Junior year of college. Tried being the operative word. It was really hard to focus with the adorable distraction in the form of her girlfriend wiggling around in the corner.
“I’m almost done, babe, I promise,” Lena lied. She was far from done, but she would take a break soon to tire out her girlfriend so she could go back to writing.
“I’m sorry,” Kara said. “I’m trying to be patient I really am. I just miss hanging out with you.”
“I’m right here,” Lena said with a small smile.
“You know what I mean,” Kara said, frowning. “It’s not the same.”
“No, I know. What you really miss is making out with me,” Lena said.
Kara blushed and looked down at the ground. “Well, yeah, among other things. I just want to be able to talk to you, though, and hold you and not worry about school anymore.”
“I know, babe, I know. A few more days, ok? Then we have all of Christmas break to ourselves.”
“Kind of; I need to go home for a few days and you should too.”
Lena shook her head sadly. “Mother doesn’t want me there, and Lex will be too busy with work to really see me. Honestly, I’ll be better off here.”
“You could come home with me,” Kara says for about the 40th time that week, “Eliza would love to have you and Alex would get over it eventually. She’s starting to warm up to you. Plus she’ll be too busy making out with Maggie to really care that much.”
“I’ll think about it,” Lena said, which was the closest she’d come to agreeing thus far. Kara squealed, jumped off her place on the bed, and threw her arms around her girlfriend’s neck. “Kara, I said I’d think about it, not for sure.”
“I know, but if I pout enough I think you’ll see reason.”
Lena shook her head and tilted her face to plant a kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek. “Your puppy dog face gets you your way entirely too often, it’s so unfair.”
“But you loooove me.”
“Mmm, I do. Now, let me finish this page then we can get some food and watch tv, ok?”
Kara nodded and ran her fingers through Lena’s hair as she typed. It was still distracting, but Lena didn’t have the heart to stop her. And besides, it felt really good.
Lena finished her page, exited out of Word, and pulled up the website for Kara’s favorite Chinese restaurant. “How hungry are you?” she asked.
“It’s a 4 order night,” Kara said pointing to “potstickers” on the menu.
“Just potstickers?” Lena said.
Kara nodded. “I’ll probably have a couple bites of whatever you’re having, though.” Lena made sure to select the large size of the lo mien she ordered.
“Ok, says it’ll be here in thirty minutes. Time enough for one episode?”
“Or…” Kara said, grabbing Lena’s hand and dragging her toward the bed.
“Mmm I like how you think Ms. Danvers,” Lena smirked and crawled on top of her girlfriend. She was just about to connect their lips when her phone started ringing. Normally, she’d just ignore it, but it was the special ringtone she’d set just for her mother.
“Kara, I’m so sorry, I have to take this.” Her mom only called if it was an emergency, and Lena didn’t want the speech she had gotten last time she’d missed one of her mother’s calls.
“It’s fine,” Kara said. “I’ll be waiting.”
Lena sent an apologetic look her way before answering the phone. “What do you need, Mother?” she said curtly.
“It’s Lex. He’s been imprisoned and you need to come home immediately.”
Lena’s heart sank. “What’d he do?” she whispered brokenly.
“Nothing that deserved jail, that’s for sure. Our lawyers will have him out quickly, that I’m sure of.”
“Then why do I need to be there?” Lena said, glancing over at her frowning girlfriend. She knew Kara could pick up every word.
“Press, mostly. We need a good family picture for when he gets out, and I need to quiz you on what to say when they ask you questions.”
“Can’t you do that over the phone? Wouldn’t it be better for me to lay low? I was planning to go to my… um… friend’s house over break.” Kara’s frown deepened at the use of the word “friend” to describe her. She knew Lena hadn’t told her mom about them, for very good reasons, but it still hurt a little bit to be kept a secret. She didn’t blame Lena, though, of course. She was just upset at the necessity of sneaking around.
“Lena,” her mother said in a stern voice, “I wish you wouldn’t argue with me. You need to do this. For your brother; you owe him that much.”
Lena sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “All right, fine, let me finish my finals and I’ll be home in two days.”
“I’ll talk to your professors and you’ll be here tomorrow,” Lillian said. She hung up the phone before Lena had a chance to respond.
Kara held out her arms and Lena sighed as she settled into the embrace. “Sorry,” she murmured against Kara’s shoulder.
“Not your fault,” Kara whispered back. Kara ran her hands soothingly up and down Lena’s back until her own phone started to buzz. She kept one hand in her girlfriend’s hair as she used the other to answer. “Clark! Hi! What’s up!”
Lena smiled into Kara’s shoulder, knowing that her girlfriend rarely got a chance to talk with her cousin and cherished every opportunity. Her smile turned into a frown at the tone of Kara’s next words, though. “I see. You, uh… That was you. No, she’s with me. Yeah. Yeah, Lillian wants her home tomorrow though. Well of course she’s going to go; Lillian didn’t really give her a choice. K-Keep an eye on her, what do you mean? I mean, of course she knows, Kal – er – Clark, so what? Well Lena isn’t Lex, ok?”
Lena bristled at the way Kara said her brother’s name. She knew Lex was doing some… questionable stuff with the family business, but he was still her brother and she had to believe in his innocence.
“I know. Ok. I’ll talk to her. Love you too. Bye.” Kara tossed her phone across the room and pulled back from Lena with a distant look on her face.
“What was that all about?” Lena asked.
“It was about Lex. Clark, um, Clark’s the one who caught him.”
Lena stiffened. “Caught him what, Kara?”
“Caught him planting bombs under Metropolis. Clark’s going in to get an official interview tonight and wanted to give me a heads up before it appeared in the paper tomorrow.”
“Lex would never,” Lena muttered.
“Lena,” Kara started but Lena held her hand up.
“Lex. Would. Never. Lex would never hurt innocent people.”
“Lena, they have hard evidence. I know you love him, but Lex deserves to go to jail.”
“Kara, you don’t know that. All you know is what Clark tells you, and you know he’s biased against my brother.”
“Only because Lex is biased against Kal-El! He’s been trying to kill him for months now, Lena. He’s been trying to go against all aliens, including me!”
“He just wants to be safe. He doesn’t know how great aliens can be; all he sees is their power. Kara, I know and love you, but you have godlike powers that in the wrong hands could destroy everyone. Lex is just trying to be careful.”
“How long have you thought that way, Lena,” Kara said, her eyes darkening.
“Kara, I don’t feel that way about you. I love you so much and would trust you with my life; would trust you with anything.”
“Then why don’t you trust Superman? Why do you trust your brother? You can’t have me, an alien, as your girlfriend and then turn around and distrust everyone like me.”
“Not everyone is as good as you, Kara, you know that. It’s not just about aliens; it’s about everyone!”
“No,” Kara said, “No you’re right it’s not about aliens. It’s about Lex, isn’t it? You still can’t believe he’d ever do anything bad, despite all the warning signs.” They’d fought about this before. It was pretty much the only thing they’d fought about, and Kara hated that. Hated that something could come between them like this. She wished Lena could see that she just didn’t want her to get hurt; didn’t want Lex to betray her like everyone else in her family had.
Lena wished Kara could understand that she couldn’t just give up on the only Luthor who’d treated her like family. Lena loved Kara, but she’d grown up knowing that being a Luthor came first; that family loyalty was everything, and she couldn’t go against that now.
“Kara, I don’t want to get into this right now. I just want to eat bad Chinese food and watch dumb tv shows and finish my paper and go support my family.”
“Yeah, well, what about my family,” Kara muttered. She half hoped Lena couldn’t hear her.
“What about them?” Lena said.
“You complain about your family all the time, but the instant they try to hurt mine you step in defense of them. It sucks, Lena. I know you want to believe in Lex and you think he’s all you have, but he’s a bad dude. He’s always been after power, and he’ll bulldoze anyone in his way to get it, including you!”
“No, no that’s where you’re wrong. Sure, Lex hasn’t always been the most moral person, but he would never hurt me. He’s been nothing but good to me and if you can’t see that…” she trailed off, not sure she wanted to finish that thought.
“If I can’t see that, what?”
“If you can’t see that maybe you don’t really know me as well as I thought you did.”
“Lena, I’m just trying to protect you.”
“I don’t need your protection. I need your support.”
“And you have it, always, but Lex doesn’t.”
“Well he needs mine and if you can’t support him then maybe you can’t support me.” Lena shoved herself off the bed and began gathering her things off the desk.
“Lena, don’t. Don’t go,” Kara said, scrambling up after her.
“No. We’re never going to see eye-to-eye on this so maybe it’s better if…”
“No, no don’t finish that.”
“Maybe it’s better if we don’t talk about this anymore. Maybe… maybe it’s better if we don’t talk at all anymore.”
“Are you… are you breaking up with me?” Kara said. She sounded so small, and for a second Lena wanted to drop everything, to hold Kara and assure her that no, she wasn’t breaking up with her and never could. But then she looked at the phone in Kara’s hand and strengthened her resolve.
“Yeah, I am,” Lena said. “Unless you can learn to give my brother the benefit of the doubt and not just blindly believe everything Clark says.”
“You know I can’t do that. I trust Clark. Can you honestly say you trust Lex enough to know he won’t hurt my cousin or me or you?”
“I have to,” Lena said. “I know he doesn’t like you or Clark, but he wouldn’t hurt innocent people. He can’t be guilty and I need you on my side.”
“Lena, you know he’s done… shifty things in the past. I honestly think he’s very capable of this.”
“You won’t let this go, will you?”
“And neither will you, huh?”
“Nope.”
“Well,” Kara said, her shoulders shaking and tears threatening to burst on the edge of her eyes, “I guess maybe you’re right then. Maybe we should break up.”
“Yeah. We probably should.”
Kara longed to reach out and hold Lena one last time, but knew it’d be a bad idea. Knew that she’d never let go. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry it has to end like this. I wish we could have just… ignored our families and been happy.”
Lena smiled sadly. “You could never abandon your family; they’re everything to you. I hope you understand that I have to do the same for mine.”
Kara nodded, refusing to look Lena in the eye. “I understand why you think that, but your family is bad, I’m sorry. I hope… I hope they don’t hurt you anymore, though. I hope I’m wrong.”
“I know you are,” Lena said. And with that, she opened the door and left Kara’s dorm room for the last time.
For the first time in her life, Kara couldn’t eat a singe potsticker. She dumped the entire order in the trash and sobbed into her pillow for the rest of the night.