Work Text:
She was young the first time she tried it. She’d seen Lex write things on his body before only to watch ink suddenly appear on his skin in response. It had amazed her to no end and she had felt an intense need to know if her soulmate was out there too.
Lena sat in the middle of her bed, perfect dress draped around her, with a marker gripped in her hand. She chose a spot near her wrist and wrote a simple, “Hi.”
The girl stared at her arm for what felt like hours, but nothing ever came. She sighed, “I’m not worth loving after all,” But she left the ink on her arm until she showered that night just in case. Nothing came.
0~0~0
She didn’t write on her skin again. She didn’t see the point. She had no soulmate, no one to communicate with through the ink that stained porcelain skin. Lilian didn’t like it anyway, said it looked trashy. But Lex didn’t seem to mind. He received hearts and smiley faces all day which often times made Lena feel so much like the outsider she knew she was.
She took a pen one night. Just to try it. Just one more time. She breathed in deeply, “Are you there?” It was written on her palm. If she had a soulmate, there was no way they’d miss it.
When she went to bed that night, she had no response and that sealed the deal for her. She had no soulmate.
0~0~0
She was sixteen when it finally happened. She was writing in a notebook while taking notes. Her chin was propped on her free hand. She smiled up at Lex when he entered the room before looking back down at her notes.
“Need to do something?” He asked and she looked up at him questioningly, “Looks like you made a list of things to do on your wrist,” He pointed and she furrowed her eyebrows before shifting and looking down at the hand she’d been leaning on.
There on her wrist, in small and loopy writing reads:
Ask Alex what dork means.
Ask Eliza if we can get a dog. Those things are so cute.
Do those awful math problems.
Read that chapter of science even though it’s so behind.
Lena’s eyes widened and Lex had just smiled at her and ruffled her hair when he walked by, “Congrats, Lena,” Was all she got. She picked up her pen and stared at her arm.
“Hi,” She tried once again and held her breath.
Her eyes fill with tears when she receives a reply in a bright green ink, “HI!” And she breathes out a sigh of relief. Maybe she is worth loving.
0~0~0
Her soulmate is an artist. Lena receives detailed drawings of sunsets and sunrises. She receives full colored paintings of animals and flowers. Each one means so much to her and she saves pictures of all of them in fear of never seeing them again once they’re washed away.
She still gets her soulmate’s do to list each day as well. Some of them are so strange but some of them are just like any other student. And Lena loves everything that she sees.
Her soulmate doodles stars often. Pictures of space and constellations often litter her body. She feels drawn to the sky after a while and the stars keep her company after her brother goes away to college.
“Do you happen to know how transpiration works?” Is slowly written across her palm and Lena laughs before penning her reply across her thigh. She figures she’ll need a little bit more space to explain than her hand will give her. She receives ten smiley faces and a large block lettered thank you for it.
0~0~0
On Lena’s eighteenth birthday, she does something that the Luthors will never approve of. She gets a tattoo. It’s small and it’s simple, but it’s what she wanted. And when she looks in the mirror after her shower that night and sees words appearing near the little star, her breath catches.
An arrow appears first, pointing at the new ink, “Is that permanent?”
Lena bites her lip and reaches for the light purple sharpie that her soulmate had said she liked so much one time. She keeps it on her all the time now.
Lena writes on the skin just below her collar bone where the tattoo is, “It is. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Appears just under her own writing, “I like it. But when did you turn 18?”
“Today,” Lena writes after only a moment of hesitation. And then she’s receiving drawings of balloons and flowers and the biggest “Happy Birthday!” She’s ever seen and she’s crying and wanting nothing more than to ask this girl where she is and what her name is and if she’ll come to her. But she doesn’t. Just settles on a heartfelt thank you and goes to bed.
0~0~0
Apparently her soulmate likes to play ‘How long will it take Lena to find the ink’ with her. She often finds drawings on the insides of her thighs or on the bottoms of her feet. They make her laugh each time and she’ll write back as much. She loves that her soulmate is playful. She needs playful.
It’s when Lena wakes up on her twenty first birthday and looks in the mirror that her heart swells. There just over her heart is written, “Don’t get too drunk tonight. I’d love to actually get to meet the woman I’ve fallen for. With that said. Happy Birthday, sweetheart. I hope it’s a great one.”
On her stomach, is the entire night sky painted with hues of purples, blacks, and blues. She loves her.
0~0~0
“Where do you live?” It comes suddenly one day while Lena is doing paperwork. She sees the words write themselves across the side of her thumb and grins before taking her pen to reply.
“National City,” Is what she writes. She wonders if it’s finally time. They’ve never discussed names or cities. They’ve discussed their families and their fears and their insecurities and their dreams and hopes and everything else. Lena knows this person inside and out. But she doesn’t know her name.
“No way!” Comes the reply now written on the side of her index finger, “Me too!”
Lena feels her breath leave her and pens a simple, “Imagine that.”
0~0~0
Lena sighs in relief when Clark Kent leaves her office. They’d come up to apologize to her and Kara had promised to write a great article over her. With the man now gone, Kara sits across from her on the other side of her desk and brings out her notebook to make a few notes.
Lena only looks up to ask a question but her heart thuds in her chest when she takes note of Kara’s handwriting. Handwriting that is currently all over her body after they’d stayed up talking so long the night before.
The blonde has an elbow propped on her knee and her chin propped in her hand. The back of her hand faces Lena and the CEO has to know. As discreetly as possible, she makes a small heart on the back of her own hand and watches the image appear on Kara’s hand.
Tears fill her eyes and a smile over takes her face. She looks at her wrist where Kara’s to do list for that day is. And right under “Kick Maggie’s ass,” She writes, “I love you.”
She watches Kara and sees the moment the script across her wrist catches her attention. The blonde’s smile stretches across her face and she writes back without looking up at Lena.
“I love you too!” Is accompanied by at least ten little hearts. And Lena takes a deep breath.
She writes, “Then look up at me, Kara,” And watches confusion and then realization dawn on Kara’s face before her head snaps up and she sees the same things written on Lena and that green marker of hers gripped in her hand.
“Well,” Kara says with a radiant smile, “It’s nice to finally meet you.”