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She’d bought enough lilies, plumerias, and violets to fill Kara’s entire office, and then some. They spilled out a few feet past the door. There was a significant difference in the ratio of lilies to violets and plumerias, but that’s exactly what Lena wanted.
Lena had been fascinated with flowers as a young girl, not just for their beauty or fragrance, but for their meanings. She’d memorized the meaning and accessible histories of every flower she could get her hands on.
Violets, Plumerias, and Tiger Lilies had always been her favorite.
Violets because they were significant to people like herself. Lena felt the connection to them. She’d had to hide so much of those feelings from her mom, but never her love for the flower.
Plumerias had been used by lovers to express one’s feelings, plus, the delicate spin and twirl of the petals had always captured Lena’s eye. She always kept a bouquet of them in her office.
Tiger Lilies, though, would always own a place in her heart. Their meaning reflecting a lot about her own personality. The phrase “I dare you to love me” always stuck out in her head.
It only felt right to fill Kara Danvers’, the one person who dared like no other ever had, office with symbols of the phrase, symbols of the love she’d been too scared to admit sprinkled in, and finally, one red rose hidden among the rest of the masses.
It had been a risk, but as she was having the arrangement done, she couldn’t help herself. It would only be one out of thousands. The likelihood of Kara finding it was so minuscule, Lena shouldn’t worry about it.
She did. She worried when she was planning the arrangement, she worried when she knew it was being delivered. She worried in the minutes and hours which ticked by until the moment Kara came to visit.
Now that it was out of her hands, she wondered if Kara knew. If she found it.
They talked about the article for some time, Kara laughing at Lena's compliments, dismissing them as she did every achievement, very accolade, and Lena was sure the flowers were going to go unmentioned. The thought sat like a weight against her chest. She didn't want to ask. She didn't want to see Kara stumble over her words and then her feet in an effort to get out of her office. It was only when there was a lull in their conversation and Kara tucked some hair behind her ear, fidgeting as they sat together, that she finally acknowledged them. The way Kara blushed, unable to look at Lena for too long, had made butterflies erupt in Lena’s stomach. It had been one of the best exchanges in Lena’s life.
“So my office is- is overflowing with flowers.”
“Really?” She allowed the smile to slowly, ease on over her mock questioning look.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah… I did.”
And really, she did have to. She couldn’t write Kara just any old thank you, she’d tried, none of the words had been a monumental or as important as she felt them. Flowers worked where her words failed. At first it had felt like too much. The extravagance of it felt like overstepping. There would never be enough flowers in the world for Kara Danvers. And she was sure if it was an option, she’d hand over every single flower in existence if she could. Loss of oxygen not a concern if she can see Kara smile that smile that looks like the goddamn sun.
But it was new level of anxiety to worry about it after the fact. To know that there was no way the flowers were all gone and that that single rose still lived in the possibility of being found, like Schrodinger's Cat, Lena’s feelings were half admitted, half not.
Lena’s answer came a week after their first conversation and Kara just walks in; no Jess trailing after her, just Kara. Her secretary had just allowed her in. Lena tried not to let it mean anything.
She grinned, like she always did when she saw Kara, and pushed back from her desk to stand. “Kara!”
“Hi, Lena,” Kara responded, looking bashful.
Lena pulls her into a hug, trying not to relish in the feeling of their bodies pressing together too much. “How are those flowers treating you?" She asked when they pulled away because she couldn’t help it.
Kara laughed, blushing. "Great! Beautiful as ever... I've been trying to slowly file them out but..." She shrugged and Lena couldn't help but smile. She hoped they all reminded her of something.
"And you know… Surrounded by all those flowers, it must’ve gotten me thinking about it because I remembered something."
"Oh?" Lena tried to ignore the way her heart was beating too fast in her chest.
"When I was in high school we went on a field trip to a flower garden. There was a tour guide and everything!"
Lena grinned, imagining little Kara wandering among rows of flowers. "At first, I thought it was just cool because everything was so beautiful and smelled so good, but then the tour guide started telling us about the flowers. I don't remember most of them... But I do remember one."
"And that is?"
"The violet… violets had significant meaning to particular people."
Lena gulped.
"At first, I thought that that didn't have to mean anything... But then, this weekend I had a movie night with Alex and she brought Maggie along, she wants us to bond, and I let Maggie pick the movie."
Lena has an idea of where this is going.
"And she brought Imagine Me And You. Now I'd never heard of it before, but... I learned something from it."
Kara was getting closer to her now. "Did you know the lily means I dare you to love me?" Lena wanted to scream that yes, yes she's always known and it wasn't just a coincidence. “And you always have plumerias in your office,” she gestures towards the vase on Lena’s desk, “I had to call Jess on that one.”
"So at this point," Kara continued, "I just think I'm reading too much into it. That maybe none of it was on purpose... But then, I move a few flowers that were dying... And there's a single red rose in the mix. Now I knew that couldn't be an accident, you're far too composed to allow for that kind of mistake... So I googled it and it means exactly what everyone thinks it means."
There's a long pause as they allow it to sink in. Lena was about ready to cry.
"Quite the detective you are, Miss Danvers,” she breathed, feeling her embarrassment radiating through her body, feelings entirely too exposed. Cat's out of the bag. “I see why you make such a good reporter.” As if she didn’t already have every article Kara's ever had published memorized from the moment they hit shelves.
For a moment, she started to hate herself for the stupidly romantic grand gesture.
Then, from the corner of her eye she watched as Kara produced something from her pocket. A wilting flower. A rose. The rose.
She held it out, looking happy and content and soft for Lena.
"I love you too."