8. Chapter 8(1)

When Lena wakes up on day six of their excursion to Earth-1, it’s to an empty hotel room and a note on the bedside table that reads ran out to get coffee and breakfast - k

It’s another day of absolutely nothing planned and Lena double checks her computer to make sure the team isn’t looking for them.

With the hotel room empty, she takes the opportunity to get ready for the day, hopping in a long, hot shower that she wouldn’t usually indulge in when she’s home. Showers tend to stay quick and tepid, a functional thing rather than something pleasurable, but now, with no agenda for the day, Lena stays under the hot spray for over a half hour. It feels sinfully good.

Walking out of the bathroom, Lena doesn’t think to realize Kara has probably returned and that’s her only excuse as to why she walks back out in nothing but a towel, loose wet hair falling over her shoulders. She doesn’t even notice Kara until she hears something like a small explosion burst through the room, and Lena jumps so forcefully her back hits a wall.

Hand at her chest to stop the sudden racing of her heart, Lena blinks up to see Kara staring at her, her fist clenched midair and what must be coffee all over the front of her shirt.

They stare for a long moment, Lena trying to keep her breath even until she feels like she can reasonably talk again. “Kara,” she says, still gasping a little. “You scared the hell out of me.”

Kara doesn’t respond. She just stands frozen in the middle of the room, jaw moving silently up and down. The only other movement she makes is to point at Lena inarticulately, and that’s when Lena realizes what the problem is. 

Tightening the towel wrapped around her body, Lena forces herself not to react too much. She clears her throat and gestures at Kara’s now soaked shirt, the dark liquid dripping off it onto the carpet. “You should probably change and soak that before it stains too terribly.” The shirt is far beyond repair, but it’s something to say.

It takes another few seconds for Kara to respond, but she blinks down at herself, startling at little, as if she didn’t realize she exploded an entire cup of coffee in her hand. Lena spares a moment to feel disappointed she won’t get to actually drink the coffee Kara had clearly bought for her.

“Right, yeah,” Kara is saying and her eyes dart around the room to avoid looking at Lena. She flails about to try and find her bag until Lena points at it with another gentle clearing of her throat.

Then, as Kara is scrambling for it, getting coffee over everything, she seems to uncharacteristically lose coordination and stumbles, bumping into the corner of her bed so forcefully that something cracks loudly and the entire frame crashes down into the ground.

They both stare at it with wide eyes for a few seconds before Lena bursts out laughing and passes a hand over her eyes. “You know what,” she says with considerable mirth. Kara’s nose is scrunched up as she chuckles, an attractive blush beating into her cheeks. “I’m going to go back into the bathroom while you…” she waves around the room. “Deal with your life.”

Kara makes some sort of strangled noise, but Lena doesn’t stay around to unpack it. She reaches over to grab a set of clean clothes from her duffel and retreats to the safety of the bathroom. The heat of Kara’s stare burns into her back.

-- 

“I wasn’t objectifying you,” is the first thing Kara says to her when she comes back into the room, the words coming out in a heated rush like they were dying to burst out of her the entire time Lena was in the bathroom.

“It’s okay, Kara,” Lena says with a laugh, waving her off. “Honestly.”

The coffee-stained shirt has been traded for something clean and Kara fidgets a little where she’s sitting at the small table in the corner, adjusting her glasses as she looks at Lena warily. “I mean, you’re attractive, obviously. I’ve always found you - you’re pretty I mean - you know I don’t - I just don’t want you to think - we’re so much more than-”

“Kara,” Lena cuts off, stepping forward to put a finger against Kara’s lips. “It’s okay.”

“I feel bad,” Kara confesses when Lena releases her mouth.

Lena arches a brow, is determined not to make a big deal about this. They’re being normal, right? Kara’s seen her half naked so many times it’s hard to count. Even before they dated.  

“The only things you should feel bad about,” Lena says with a warm smile. “Is destroying what I’m going to presume was my coffee and then breaking a bed. This room is under Felicity’s name.”

Kara looks appropriately sheepish at the reminder, but she grabs a small coffee cup to her right and holds it out to Lena. “I got you another one,” she says and Lena’s a little surprised she had the time to do that while Lena was changing.

She plucks the coffee out of Kara’s hand and takes a small sip of the hot liquid, arching her brow over the rim of it. “Then you’re forgiven,” she says when she’s done, smiling down at Kara, who beams back. 

“Do you want to go to the planetarium?”

The sudden change of subject startles Lena a bit, but she recovers, goes to sit at the table next to Kara and sips at her coffee. “The planetarium?”

Kara nods enthusiastically. “Cisco gave me, like, free museum passes to Central City because apparently S.T.A.R. Labs has some kind of reciprocity with everyone I guess. They have a planetarium and it’s only a few blocks from here.”

“Okay,” Lena answers easily.

“Awesome,” Kara breathes. “I want to see if they’ve discovered the same amount of planets here as they have back home.”

“Or if they even have the same amount at all,” Lena adds, considering it. It’s an interesting thought.

“I hadn’t thought of that!” Kara says perking up with wide eyes.

Lena laughs. “Come on, nerd,” she says, standing and holding her free hand out to Kara. “let’s go.”

“Hey,” Kara replies indignantly, but she takes Lena’s offered hand and stands. “I’m not the nerd in this relationship.”

It warms something in Lena’s chest and she doesn’t fight it, just smiles at Kara and tugs them towards the door. “Says the girl that suggested we go to a planetarium and count planets.”

“You’re the one going with me,” Kara accuses, but she’s smiling and all Lena wants to do is kiss her. The urge is so strong that her mouth goes a little dry.

“Only because you’re literally my only friend in this entire universe,” Lena teases and Kara shoots her a dry look.

--

The planetarium is actually fairly impressive as far as museums from other universes go. Kara is completely enamored with the place, which Lena finds endlessly charming.

“You’re from outer space,” Lena reminds her in a soft whisper.

“It’s all relative,” Kara says, spinning a small display of the solar system. “To me you guys are the aliens.”  

Lena hums through a laugh and observes a display case hosting a piece of a dwarf planet. 

It’s comfortable to stroll through the exhibits arm-in-arm with Kara. There’s a relief in not having to second guess threading her arm through Kara’s elbow or leaning into her as they wait in line for one of the shows. She marvels for the hundredth time since coming to Earth-1 that not a single person bats an eye towards them. They’re all but invisible amongst the crowd. 

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Kara asks after a particularly long stretch of silence. She’s staring at some sort of sextant behind a glass case, glancing up at Lena with a smile. 

Lena laughs. “Nothing important.”

They walk through a long hallway with a curved ceiling that maps the history of the universe along its sides and ceilings. A recreation of the big bang echoes through the hallway in a sudden burst of light and sound and Kara laughs, delighted by it as some children skitter by, frightened by the noise.

It reminds Lena of times spent out in a field with the astronomy club drinking spiked hot chocolate out of a thermos and listening to Kara map the stars with her friends, Kara whispering in her ear about which galaxies she had visited.

“Do you keep in touch with anyone from school?” Lena asks as they walk. 

Kara stills noticeably and disengages from Lena’s hold to look at her warily. “Why?”

Lena shrugs and can’t figure out why Kara looks suddenly closed off. “I was just curious. Your friends from astronomy club. Max, Aaron, Jos-”

“No,” Kara says cutting her off with a dismissive shake of her head which is noticeably forced. “I didn’t.”

Lena’s brows pull together. “How come?”

Kara’s eyes dart everywhere but at Lena and she fiddles with a nearby display that tracks how long it would take for a postcard to arrive from Neptune. It’s clear that Kara doesn’t want to talk about this particular subject, but Lena can’t imagine why. 

“I just didn’t,” Kara answers with a shrug, pressing buttons on the display absently. Lena steps forward, close enough that her arm brushes up against Kara’s front. 

“Okay,” Lena says with an encouraging smile. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I was just curious.” She pauses and Kara still doesn’t look at her. “I didn’t stay in contact with anyone after I graduated as I’m sure you know, but since you were there for anot-”  

“Actually, I transferred. And I didn’t really talk to anyone back at school after,” Kara interrupts with a thin smile as she finally looks at Lena.

“You transferred?”

Nodding, Kara laughs, but it doesn’t sound happy. “After you graduated, I just...I transferred.”

She thinks to ask why but she’s terrified of the answer. It’s written all over Kara’s face even as she tries to smile, shaking her head and looking down. “It’s not because of what you’re thinking it is,” Kara adds.

“What am I thinking it is?” Lena asks in a soft voice, her chest suddenly tight with emotion.

“I missed Alex,” Kara says instead of answering. “You know that.”

“Kara, I said you didn’t have to explain and I meant it.” Certainly not if their breakup was the main reason Kara had to go to another school entirely.

“Campus was just so quiet after you left,” Kara admits, laughing at herself. “I couldn’t concentrate.”

A tense silence stretches between them and Lena struggles to keep her heart from racing. “Kara,” she say softly and Kara reacts immediately, steps closer and puts a hand at Lena’s elbow in comfort.

“It wasn’t - I don’t regret that decision. It ended up being really good for me and I got a great internship in Midvale and I worked at Noonan’s for a while and then I got to be Cat Grant’s assistant and now here we are and-” Kara blinks, her stare heavy. “I told you that on Krypton we believed that every moment is a bridge to the next. Things happen for a reason. Even bad things.” 

It’s hard not to think of Lex suddenly or of her mother, but it’s even harder not to think about how their breakup seemed to fundamentally change the course of Kara’s life. “I’m sorry,” is all she can think to say.

“It’s not your fault,” Kara says with a kind of sincerity that Lena is surprised to find she believes. “No one is responsible for my feelings apart from me. You taught me that.”

The moment feels far too significant and the entire point of this vacation is to forget about all these messy emotions between them so Lena takes a breath and tries to smile. “You’re right.”

Kara squeezes Lena’s arm where she’s still holding it and smirks. “You’ve been saying that a lot lately. Are you sick or something?”

Lena rolls her eyes, but she lets herself laugh and when she pushes her fingers against Kara’s stomach in jest, her ex-girlfriend makes a predictably exaggerated reaction to it, pulling away from the touch in mock pain.

“Come on, dork,” Lena says, and she lets Kara tangle their fingers together. “If we’re going to make the Cosmic Wonder show we need to get moving.”

“Isn’t it cool that they named a show after me?” Kara comments as they start walking, and it takes Lena a good five seconds until she understands the joke. She groans loudly when she does and Kara laughs, the sound of it bright and easy as it threads its way around Lena’s heart.

--

They eat lunch at some restaurant down the block from the planetarium and Lena spends most of the time trying to convince Kara she should include some greens in her meals. Her efforts are repelled by Kara ordering a sandwich that comes with a massive amount of meat on it. 

“So,” Kara says, elbows propped up on the table as she takes a huge bite of her sandwich.

“So,” Lena parrots, spearing a carrot out of her salad and arching an eyebrow.

“Tell me something else,” she says, thankfully after swallowing her food.

Lena rolls her eyes, but she smiles. “Tell you something else about what?”

“The getting to know each other thing,” Kara answers, setting her sandwich down and going straight for her fries. “Or re-know each other I guess. The getting to know each other again because we spent four years apart and are now super different people thing.”

It hasn’t felt like they’ve spent four years apart. Not these past few days. Their time on Earth-1 has felt disturbingly similar to college and Lena’s starting to feel like a fool for constantly insisting they’re two entirely different people now.

“What do you want to know?”

Kara dips a fry in her ketchup before swirling it in a small ramekin of mayonnaise and Lena sets her fork down and takes a long sip of her drink to hide her grimace. “I don’t know,” she shrugs. “What did you do after graduation? I remember seeing something on the news about...Japan?”

Clearing her throat against the memories of her months in Tokyo, Lena affects a smile and takes a sip of her drink. “I went there a few weeks after graduation to open up a new technology branch in Tokyo.” 

“What was it like?” Kara asks earnestly and Lena doesn’t know how to tell her how isolating the experience felt, how cold and lonely.

“Have you never been?”

Kara shakes her head. “Nope. So tell me what it was like? I have to live vicariously through you.”

Lena laughs a little, picks at her salad. “It was…rainy.” 

Kara’s nose scrunches a little. “Rainy?”

“Yeah,” Lena says with a shrug of her shoulder. “It was rainy.”

“That’s it?”

“Pretty much,” Lena answers with a half smile. “I mostly just worked the entire time I was there. And it was rainy.”

Skepticism shades part of Kara’s face, but she doesn’t push Lena, just picks her sandwich back up and takes an exaggerated bite of it, smiling at Lena’s immediate expression of disgust.

“You’re doing that on purpose,” Lena says, but she’s laughing and Kara smiles wide, food bulging one cheek.

“What?” Kara says after swallowing. “You didn’t miss eating with me?"

“That might be the only thing I didn’t miss about you,” Lena teases and she presses her foot against Kara’s shin under the table in a friendly gesture.

“So you’re saying you missed everything else?” Kara asks with a dorky waggle of her eyebrows that makes Lena laugh. 

“Okay, your turn,” Lena says.

Kara sits up a little straighter, sets her sandwich down. “What do you want to know?”

There are a million different things that run through her head, but she settles on something that’s been sitting in the back of her brain for the past few days. “When you were mind controlled by the Dominators…” Kara deflates a little, a wary expression taking hold of her face. “You seemed upset. More so than the rest of the team.”

Kara purses her lips a moment before answering. “Well, being out of control is kind of dangerous,” she says softly and Lena sees something in the crinkle of skin around Kara’s eyes.

“I know that, but...is that all?”

It takes a second, but Kara leans forward a little across the table. “Last year, I was exposed to red kryptonite.”

It wasn’t what Lena expected and she mimics Kara’s pose, leaning forward with a quizzical expression. “Red?”

“It was synthetic. Maxwell Lord created it.”

“Maxwell Lord?” Lena rolls her eyes. “Why does that not surprise me?”

“You know him?”

Lena sighs a little. “Lord Technologies and L Corp have a bit of a storied history. Not all of it friendly. Let’s just say we’re aware of each other, but we won’t be dining together anytime soon if we can help it.”

“He’s kind of gross,” Kara agrees. “He totally tried to get with Alex.” Lena’s face contorts into an expression of distaste and Kara laughs. “Exactly.”

“What does red kryptonite do?”

Kara swallows, serious again. “It sort of,” Kara gestures around her head. “Destroys inhibitions, I guess. Takes away any emotional restraint I might have had.”

“That sounds awful.”

“It was,” Kara says with a sad smile Lena feels desperate to fix. “Every negative thought or feeling I’ve ever had just came out and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.” Kara’s voice sounds shaky now, thick with what Lena can tell are tears at the corner of her eyes. “The things I did, the things I said to Alex, and James and Ms. Grant...I couldn’t control it.” 

Lena reaches across the table to grip Kara’s hand, strokes her thumb over the knuckles soothingly. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“It’s fine,” Kara says, but her voice is uneven and Lena squeezes Kara’s hand as tightly as she can. “I just don’t like the feeling of being out of control of my own mind.”

“I understand,” Lena replies in a hush.

Kara seems to recover then, turning her hand over to return Lena’s grip and smiling. “Okay, I told you something hard, now you have to tell me something hard.” 

Lena just stares at Kara for another moment. “Kara,” she says slowly, but Kara shakes her head.

“I’m fine,” she replies, clearly reacting to the concerned look in Lena’s face. “For real. So it’s your turn again.”

Letting go of Kara’s hand, Lena sits back in her chair, reaches forward to fiddle with her silverware and thinks of something to say. “I was surprised,” she says, looking down at her plate. “When Lex was arrested.”

When she looks back up Kara has an unreadable expression on her face, but she’s still leaning forward, arm out across the table towards Lena. It takes a second until Kara replies, but when she does it’s with a soft, “So was I.” 

“I didn’t know,” Lena continues feeling suddenly desperate to impart this knowledge onto Kara. “I didn’t know what he had planned or that he felt that way about -”

“I know you didn’t,” Kara says and she reaches further until she’s holding Lena’s hand again. “You don’t need to convince me.”

“I just didn’t want you to think that I...”

“Lena,” Kara says and she smiles sadly, tangles their fingers together. “I knew Lex too. I was shocked when I first heard. When my cousin told me about-” Shaking her head, Kara thins her lips a moment. “I never once thought you had anything to do with it.”

Lena did have something to do with it, considering she was instrumental in getting Lex’s warsuit operational, but she doesn’t tell Kara that. The layers of guilt are too thick and she’s not sure she could get it all out without breaking down. “I tried to stop him.”

“I’m sure you did,” Kara replies kindly and Lena feels something like a weight lift off her for a moment. There’s a trust radiating out of Kara that Lena’s not used to and it’s comforting to talk about her brother without seeing suspicion in someone’s eyes, without feeling like she’ll never get anyone to understand that she loves her brother even if she believes he belongs in jail. Kara understands.  

“I had to realize that you can’t save everyone,” she says with a mirthless laugh. “Some people are just bad.”

“I don’t believe that,” Kara says softly and Lena sighs.

“I know you don’t. But that doesn’t make it not true.”

Kara is clearly ready to argue the point, but Lena doesn’t want to. She wants to enjoy her vacation and the careful steps the two of them are taking to reconnect and none of that involves a philosophical debate over whether her brother can be saved.

So she pulls out a tried and true tactic. “Do you want to get dessert?”

The determined set of Kara’s jaw fades instantly and her eyes go a little wide as she smiles.

--

It’s only a week into the semester and Lena already feels like she’s behind. Saturday morning she lugs all of her books over to the coffee shop on the far end of campus and sets out to do as much studying as humanly possible so she can feel more on top of everything by Monday.

She sends a quick text out to Kara to let her know what she’s doing and then promptly turns her phone off, stows it in the zippered pocket of her messenger bag and focuses on her work.

Hours pass by fairly quickly as she goes through her notes for her solid mechanics class and then moves on to differential equations. By the time she’s gotten to relativistic quantum field theory, a body is sliding into the chair across from her and a coffee cup is replacing the empty one near her laptop.

“I told you I was studying,” Lena says dryly, but she smiles warmly at Kara and accepts the offered drink.

“And?” Kara asks, leaning back in her chair and propping her feet up against the bench Lena’s seated at. “I know that’s code for ignoring things like food and sleep and fun so I decided I should check on you.”

Lena rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her drink. Her free hand drifts down to sit against Kara’s ankle, stroking against the strip of skin below her pant leg. “I just feel so behind already.”

“It’s only been a week, Lena,” Kara teases and then reaches across the table to pull one of Lena’s textbooks towards her. “What are you behind in?”

“Everything, it feels like. That’s for an elective.”

Kara flips through the book, hums a little as her eyes scan the pages. “Quantum field theory?”  

“Yup,” Lena answers with a little pop of the word. She leans back a little further, strokes her fingers up under Kara’s pant leg and spends a moment enjoying the way her girlfriend looks this Saturday. Body draping over the chair, glasses slipping a little down her nose, hair piled messily on top of her head and a sweatshirt Lena immediately recognizes as one of her own.

“It’s like reading a history textbook,” Kara complains, shutting the book and tossing it back down on the table with a solid thud.

Lena laughs. “I apologize on behalf of my primitive planet,” she teases and Kara sticks her tongue out a little. “But I do have a lot of work to do. Do you want to get dinner later?”

Kara shrugs. “Sure,” she answers, craning her neck to peer a little at Lena’s notebook. “Do you want me to do your homework for you?”

“No,” Lena says indignantly, and she kicks a little at Kara’s shin under the table. “I actually have to learn this stuff.”

“Boring,” Kara sighs, sinking further into her chair. “Can we get Ping’s tonight?”

“Not Great Wall?” Lena asks with an arch of her brow.

“I’m breaking up with them,” Kara says in a huff. “They screwed up my order three times in a row last week.”

Smothering a laugh, Lena twists her lips a little. “Well, as your girlfriend I support you in whatever you want to do.”

Kara hums, picks at her nails a little. “How much longer do you think you’ll be?”

Observing the books and papers she has spread out over the table, Lena shrugs. “I don’t know. I have a lot of work left.”

Letting her head fall back Kara makes an exaggerated groaning sound, but she sends a teasing smile towards Lena. “It’s Saturday,” she all but whines.

“I know, darling,” Lena says with a chuckle. “But I really need to get this done.”

“Fine,” Kara says after a moment, removing her leg from Lena’s grasp and setting her foot back down on the ground as she sits up. “I support you too.”

It makes Lena smile, especially the feigned exasperation in Kara’s face tempered by an affectionate grin. “I’ll text you later for dinner.”

Kara stands, rounds the table and takes Lena’s hand in a loose grip. “I get to pick the movie.”

Pretending to consider it for a moment, Lena purses her lips. “Then I get to pick the dinner order.”

Kara’s eyes narrow a little in consideration and they stare for a long moment before Kara concedes and rolls her eyes. “I guess that’s fine,” she says, but she smiles before she kisses Lena. It lasts a little too long to be truly decent, but Lena brings her hand up to cup around Kara’s neck and keeps her there. There’s practically no one in the coffee shop anyway and everyone that is is far too involved in their own private worlds to notice them.

“Bye,” Lena says when they part, the words whispered between them.  

“Bye,” Kara parrots, pressing a final peck to Lena’s lips before striding away.

By Monday, Lena only feels slightly more on top of her work, and she makes an entire thermos of coffee before walking to her 8am class.

She takes her usual seat on the side of the auditorium and is in the process of pulling out her laptop when a presence suddenly slides into an empty seat next to her.

It’s a familiar presence and she has to blink for a few seconds to process it. “Kara?”

“Hey,” Kara says, acting like everything is normal as she sits back in the chair and pulls out her small tablet.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m in this class,” Kara answers with a casual shrug.

Lena looks around to see if maybe she’s being pranked. Or dreaming. “No, you’re not,” she says, slowly, like maybe Kara confused their schedules or something.

“Yes I am.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

Lena pinches the bridge of her nose. “Since when?”

“Since today,” Kara says brightly and Lena starts to catch on to what’s happening.

“You just registered into this class?”

Kara nods, twirling a stylus in her hand a little. “I did.”

“Why?”  

Kara shrugs. “I needed to fill an elective.”

An incredulous look crosses Lena’s face and she lowers her voice as the professor walks into the front of the room. “With relativistic quantum field theory?!”

Kara shrugs again. “You’re in this class,” she says, smiling. “And if we’re both taking notes, we can study together and stuff.”

Lena’s jaw drops a little, but Kara’s grin is unwavering and she leans forward quickly to kiss Lena on the cheek. “We’re talking about this later,” Lena says, but she can’t stop the smile from spreading over her face at the relaxing feel of having Kara next to her.

“Sure thing,” Kara replies and the professor starts the class with a loud greeting.

The class goes by fairly smoothly, but Lena can’t decide if it’s because of all the preparation she did that weekend or the notes Kara slide her all throughout class with anecdotes about whatever the professor was covering.

--

They spend the rest of the afternoon walking around Central City. They wander aimlessly and without purpose aside from being with each other. It’s something Lena hasn’t done since college and she wraps herself around the feeling of not needing to be anywhere but next to Kara.

“You should come to game night,” Kara comments as they walk. “When we’re back home.”

Lena doesn’t want to think about when we’re back home because it threatens to shatter the careful balance Lena’s found on this new Earth, but she squashes the feeling down and manages to smile. “What’s game night?”

“Just a night where everyone comes over and I kick their butts at Settlers of Catan,” Kara says with a proud smile. “Or whatever game we end up playing.”

Lena laughs. “Then are you sure you want me to come?”

“I’m not scared of you,” Kara says with a playful puff of her chest.

“If you’re still as bad at chess as you were four years ago…”

“Okay, first of all, that’s because you play a super simple version of chess that I am not used to,” Kara points out and Lena smiles at the memory of Kara listing off the varieties of intergalactic chess she was more familiar with. “And second, you’re very distracting as an opponent.”

“I haven’t a clue as to what you’re talking about,” Lena says with a smile as Kara mock glares at her.

“With your,” Kara gestures at Lena’s face and it makes Lena laugh. 

“Well, that shouldn’t be a problem for you anymore, right?” Lena teases and Kara wraps a comfortable arm around Lena’s shoulders.

“You’re right. After four years I’ve built up a complete immunity to your distraction tactics.”

It’s overtly flirty and if they were on Earth-38, Lena would be scrambling for an escape from the line of conversation, but with the freedom of not having to overthink everything it’s much easier to sink into the feeling. To smile at Kara genuinely and without reservation and to laugh when Kara attempts to wink at her but fails miserably. 

“So you’ll come to game night?” Kara asks again. “When we get back to our earth?”

And just like that the reminder that this vacation will undoubtedly end stabs through her. Her throat feels a little thick at the thought of it, but she pushes through to keep smiling. “I’ll consider it,” she replies and thinks she manages to make it sound teasing.

Kara grins widely, tightens her hold over Lena’s shoulders. “That’s all I can ask.”

They stop and buy ice cream at some place Barry had told Kara about and it’s the first time Lena’s had the treat in years. It tastes as delicious as she remembers it. Even more so with the happy expression Kara gets when she takes her first bite of it. 

The park they hung out in just the other day isn’t too far and they stroll that direction, talking about everything and nothing at all.

“What was it like being Cat Grant’s assistant?” Lena asks. “I’ve always heard that position has a notoriously high turnover rate.” 

Kara chuckles. “Ms. Grant was - is - tough, that’s for sure. It wasn’t an easy job, but the rewards of it were-” Kara shakes her head a little. “She’s one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met and she was all I could ask for in a mentor. She’s smart and strong and successful and-”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you have a crush on her,” Lena teases and a blush flames in Kara’s cheeks immediately.

“What?! No!”

“I’m teasing, Kara,” Lena says with a placating hand to her forearm. Kara relaxes, but she smiles sheepishly.

“She’s just one of the best people I’ve ever known,” Kara says and then turns a soft smile to Lena. “Apart from you.”

“Ah,” Lena replies with a little chuckle. “Flattery.”

“I’ve learned a lot about flirting while you were away,” Kara says with exaggerated pride that makes Lena laugh again.

“Are you flirting?” She brings a hand to her chest in mock incredulity.

“If you want,” Kara says simply and Lena has to bite her lip and look away to keep from kissing her.

“Well if we were flirting then I’d feel compelled to tell you I find you very pretty,” Lena says, turning with an overly flirty smile. “Some might even say…” She pauses and Kara’s brow scrunches a little. “Your looks are out of this world.”

Kara groans, her head falling back as she laughs. “Four years and we couldn’t let that joke die?”

“It will never die,” Lena says, threading her arm through Kara’s and laughing along with her. 

The moment feels too good. Solid and fragile at the same time.

Lena finishes the ice cream in her hand and chucks the empty cup in a nearby trash can at the same time Kara takes a final bite of her waffle cone. They walk towards the pond in the park, and stride out onto a small dock there. The sun is barely setting, just red and orange hues reflecting over the water and Lena drinks it in as they stop at the end of the walkway.

Kara leans her elbows on the railing there and looks at Lena with half a smile, her eyes moving up and down Lena’s figure in a way that makes Lena feel suddenly exposed.

Running a palm down the side of her jeans, she eyes Kara warily. “What?”  

Kara just laughs and her hair waves around as she shakes her head. “You look…I don’t know.”

“Bad?” Her eyes dart down to her ensemble and she knows it must look odd. She didn’t really pack her normal wardrobe. Instead she’s dressed in the only pair of denim she owns, a soft navy sweater and pristine white sneakers she rarely wears. It’s been some time since she’s worn such an ensemble for any stretch of time, but she doesn’t think she looks that terrible in it.

“No,” Kara answers hastily, waving her hand forward. “Of course not. Just...you look like how I remember you.”

Lena tilts her head to the side, isn’t quite sure what Kara means. “Because I looked so different before?”

“It’s been weird seeing you in suits and professional clothing all the time,” Kara comments, smiling. “I’m used to the Lena that wore jeans and sweatshirts and combed her hair with her fingers when she was late to class.” 

Lena laughs, rolls her eyes to the side. “I’d like to think my style has improved,” she says dryly.

“I wouldn’t say improved. Just changed,” Kara says softly before her eyes widen just slightly and she adds a hasty, “Not in a bad way. You’re still - I mean you’re still you - I’ve always thought you were gorgeous. No matter what you wear and it’s just-”

Lena stops the tumbling of words with a finger against Kara’s lips and tries to smother a wide grin. “I get it, darling.”

It slips out so easily that Lena doesn’t even realize it, not until Kara’s eyes go large and her cheeks start to color. For a long tense moment she considers taking it back. Her heart is beating so fast she’s sure it’s deafening Kara, but she just clears her throat a little and smiles, pulling her finger away from Kara’s mouth.

“Anyway,” she says, turning back to face the sunset and prop her arms on the railing next to Kara.

“It’s gorgeous,” Kara murmurs and Lena can feel the way Kara’s still looking at her even as Lena stares out at the horizon.

“It is,” Lena agrees and when she turns to Kara, they both smile.

--

They stay out late into the night and Lena finds herself loathing the idea that it has to come to an end. It feels all too much like a date, trailing off into the night when they walk slowly back towards their hotel. In college, after their dates, Kara would follow Lena up into her dorm room more often than not, and the week stays true to its form. Kara piles into the elevator after Lena, smiling exuberantly at some of the other people in the small enclosure, and smiles even more when Lena’s hand drifts down to grip Kara’s.

The obvious problem they face doesn’t make itself known until they’ve both gotten ready for bed and Lena comes out of the bathroom to find Kara staring at her bed with a worried expression.

That’s when Lena realizes what’s wrong. Kara’s bed is destroyed, hanging off a cracked frame and obviously out of commission for the evening.

“I can sleep on the floor,” Kara says, when she notices what Lena’s looking at.

“Don’t be silly,” Lena says, though the words feel thick as they come up her throat. “You can sleep with me.”

Kara looks frozen at the idea, just standing there and blinking at Lena like she can’t quite process the idea. “I don’t know about that…”

“We’ve slept together before. Not even a week ago,” Lena says, but Kara continues to stare at the bed with trepidation. Lena reaches out, circles Kara’s wrist with her fingers. “We’re not second guessing, remember?”

The words seem to hit Kara, shifting her expression from one of hesitation to something more neutral. With a shaky smile, she nods and paces towards the bed, slipping into it and scooting towards the edge to leave room for Lena. The sight of it makes Lena second guess her decision, despite her reassurances to Kara that they weren’t doing that. She falters for a moment before moving the sheets aside and sliding into the bed.

Kara’s body heat radiates towards her and Lena shifts a little closer without thinking about it. They’re facing each other, each on the edge of their pillows and even in the dark of the room Lena can make out the way Kara’s eyes are tracing her face.

“Sorry that I broke the bed,” Kara whispers and Lena laughs softly.

“It’s okay,” Lena says and she shifts around the bed, tries to get comfortable.

Kara rolls over onto her back, shifts just as restlessly as Lena feels before huffing a bit. “This shouldn’t be awkward.”

“I can think about fifty reasons why it would be,” Lena jokes and Kara turns back over on her side.

“We’re not second guessing, right?” Kara asks and the question seems suddenly very significant.

Lena swallows. “No.”

“Okay,” Kara says, and Lena can make out a decisive nod before Kara reaches out to drift her hand over Lena’s hip, pulling them in close enough that Lena’s body practically falls onto Kara’s, her face pressing into her collarbone and leg shifting until it’s sliding between Kara’s. The sudden proximity change makes Lena inhale sharply, but her body relaxes against Kara’s as if it has a mind of her own. 

The world seems to shrink to this bed and in the darkness Lena feels something shift and settle between them. It’s even easier to shut out the rest of the universe - the multiple universes. It reminds her almost too much of the first time they shared a bed and simultaneously the first time they slept together after being intimate. 

There’s nothing sexual about the moment, but Lena can’t stop her mind from wandering. Not when Kara’s body feels so warm and Lena’s fingers can feel defined muscle under Kara’s shirt.

Memory swirls up so strongly that Lena can’t stop herself from pressing closer, the desire for contact suddenly burning over her skin. Her eyes flutter closed when Kara strokes Lena’s hair off her shoulder, fingers carding through it soothingly. Lena’s fingers trace over Kara’s ribs and it’s so much more warm than when they did this in the park.

A voice in the back of Lena’s head tells her that she’s crossing a line that can’t be uncrossed. That when they’re back on their Earth all of this will have consequences, not easily forgotten.

But it feels so simple in the darkness of their hotel room, so easy to shut off all the different voices screaming in her head.

“Goodnight, Kara,” Lena whispers and Kara’s arm tightens around her, a warm hand at the back of Lena’s head.

“Goodnight, Lena,” Kara says, the words hushed over Lena’s hair before warm lips press down and Lena sighs into the feeling.

--

The first thing she learns about Kara, really learns, is that she has an almost inhuman appetite. Her penchant for consuming her body weight and then some in food invariably leads to a very sleepy version of her best friend. Lena presumes it’s because her body has to expend the energy of a nuclear reactor just to digest it all.

It’s an interesting thing to learn about Kara, but not nearly as interesting as the fact that sleepy Kara is somehow an even more tactile person than wide awake Kara.

It wouldn’t be a problem - Lena has finally grown used to the way Kara is constantly touching her, holding her hand, playing with her hair, hugging her for no reason at all - except it’s rounding midnight on a Wednesday and after inhaling a family size serving of buffalo wings and a large pizza, Kara’s snuggled on Lena’s bed, strong fingers twisted in the fabric of Lena’s sweatshirt.

Lena’s not entirely sure what to do. One minute, they were just lounging there, watching some documentary about sharks Kara had heard about from Max and the next minute, Kara’s snoring softly, her head at Lena’s shoulder and her fingers pinning Lena to the bed with a deceptively strong grip on her clothing.

“Kara,” Lena whispers, trying to shake her awake, but Kara barely moves, just mumbles and scoots closer to Lena, her face nosing further into Lena’s shoulder.

Lena considers her options. She can try harder to wake her friend - though considering how peaceful and content Kara looks Lena’d feel a little guilty.

She can attempt to leave the bed, pull a pillow and some blankets to the couch and sleep there. Though, she doesn’t know why she’d need to really. It’s not that big of a deal to share a bed with her best friend. People do it all the time. Right?

Except Kara’s body is so warm and it’s pressed up against Lena’s side in a way that’s making it hard for her to consider any of her feelings as friendly.

Warm breath is puffing against Lena’s neck and Kara mumbles again, her fingers tugging at Lena’s sweatshirt insistently despite being asleep. With a sigh, Lena concedes the battle, decides that it won’t kill her to let Kara sleep in her bed. It doesn’t change anything and she can be in control of her own damn feelings.

Grateful she at least changed into something she can sleep in, Lena lets herself settle down into the mattress and attempts to turn over on her side. It’s an immediate mistake.

Kara lets go of her sweatshirt, which is good, but she winds her arm around Lena’s waist as a substitute and suddenly Lena’s back is flush against Kara’s front.

It takes her a good ten minutes to relax, but she manages it, tangles her fingers with the ones sliding over her stomach and lets herself imagine this is a normal thing for a moment. Lets herself imagine that if she wanted to she could turn over her shoulder and kiss Kara goodnight, that Kara would murmur affection into the skin of her shoulder and that her crush wouldn’t be so unrequited.

Another ten minutes later, with imagination squirming in her head, she falls asleep to the sound of Kara breathing against the back of her neck and a warm palm at the top of her abdomen.

When she wakes up she feels uncharacteristically well rested, but Kara has already left the bed. She finds her friend sitting at Lena’s desk chair, twisting her fingers together and looking worried.

“Kara?” Her voice is a little rough with sleep and her brain a little foggy, but she sits up and runs her fingers through her hair, trying to wake up.

“I’m sorry,” Kara says immediately, her leg bouncing almost too rapidly for Lena to really register the motion. She assumes it’s because her brain hasn’t fully booted up yet. The urge to sink back down into her mattress is strong, but Kara looks concerned and she forces the desire down.

“What for?”

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep or, like, be in your bed all night and make you - I just - I know you-”

“Kara,” Lena cuts her off with a hand reaching out. “It’s fine.”

“I feel really bad I know you like your privacy and everything and I-”  

“I said it’s fine,” Lena says because her body feels ridiculously relaxed and it’s the first time she’s ever really shared a bed with someone just for sleeping and she’d do anything to wipe the sad look off Kara’s face. “Come back to bed.”

Kara stares at Lena’s outstretched hand for a good moment before taking it and standing. She paces back to the bed and slides in next to Lena yet again. “Are you sure?”

Lena’s already halfway back to sleep, but she glances at the clock - six in the morning. Thursday.

“I’m sure that I don’t have class until nine this morning and neither do you.”

The next time she wakes up, at eight, her head is tucked into Kara’s shoulder and they’re tangled together once more.

--

The next morning Lena wakes up still wrapped around Kara and for a few seconds she forgets everything. The bed is warm and soft and Kara’s snoring just a little. It threads around her like something tangible and when she shifts, it’s to nose against Kara’s jawline, her lips pressing there for a long enough moment that Kara’s hold tightens around her.

Kara mumbles something that sounds a lot like five more minutes and Lena smiles, content to spend the rest of the morning just lying there.

It’s the sound of tires screeching outside that brings her back to present day and when she remembers where she is, she moves away from Kara’s body with a sigh. Kara protests the movement immediately, rolling with Lena and reaching out to keep her in place.

“Kara,” Lena whispers, sagging back down and running a hand up through Kara’s disheveled hair. “Kara, it’s morning.”

“No, it’s not,” Kara protests, eyes still closed and a sleepy pout on her lips. Lena finds it adorable, wants more than anything to kiss the expression off Kara’s face and wake her up with a few well placed touches.

“If you wake up, I’ll buy you breakfast,” Lena says and hopes the allure of food will convince Kara to relinquish her hold.

“You don’t have any money in this universe,” Kara replies, sounding more awake as she pops an eye open.

Lena laughs and tries not to notice the way Kara’s hand is sliding over her hip, her thumb tucking under the hem of Lena’s shirt. “Are you really going to split hairs over the promise of food?”

The other eye opens and Kara smirks a little. “You make a good point.”

--

They get the call from Barry just as Kara’s shoving the last of a foot long hotdog into her mouth and Lena is doing everything in her power to avoid seeing it happen. Kara had tried desperately to convince Lena that hot dogs are totally a breakfast food, but Lena was fine with her coffee thank you very much.

Mouth stuffed with food, Kara all but throws the little communicator at Lena with wide eyes and she dutifully picks it up, but not before shooting Kara a dry look.

Barry doesn’t tell her much information apart from instructions to meet back at the hangar. The abducted members of the team have apparently been rescued, but he doesn’t go into detail as to how.

Still chewing on her food, Kara looks at Lena quizzically. “Who was it?”

“Barry,” Lena replies, standing up from the bench they’d been sitting on and holding her hand out to grab at Kara’s. “He wants us back at the hangar.”

They make their way back to the hangar where the group is gathered just in time to see their missing teammates walking in looking no worse for wear.

“What’s our status?” Oliver asks as soon as he stalks in.

Barry sighs, walks forward. “Nothing since the Dominators paid their little visit to mess with our heads.”

It had been quiet since the first day they got there. Quiet enough that a part of Lena had forgotten this wasn’t a real vacation. They were here on a mission.

“Maybe they were trying to pit us against each other,” Ray posits, looking around. “In order to get intel on metahumans.”“I wish they would just send us an IM with a questionnaire,” Felicity jokes. She catches Lena’s eye and smiles.

“Metas pose the biggest threat to their invasion,” Kara offers. “It makes sense they’d want to get to know their enemies.”

“Maybe it’s time we return the favor,” Oliver says and Lena sees his intention before the group even starts to formulate the plan.

“What do you want to do? Kidnap one of them?” Diggle asks.

“They’re not exactly lingering around Earth,” Barry counters, shrugging.

“But we do know where some are,” Lena adds from behind everyone. They all turn to her with a certain amount of surprise and she shrugs. “Or at least where they were.” She amends again. “When they were.”  

Varying degrees of confusion flood their faces and she sighs. “You have a time travelling ship, right?”

Sara smirks a little. “I do.”

“So you know that the Dominators came to earth half a century ago in a failed invasion attempt,” Lena comments and out of the corner of her eye she sees Kara smile, her chin lifting a little in pride.

“You’re suggesting we travel to 1951, abduct a Dominator and interrogate it to determine their intentions?” Professor Stein asks with a certain amount of incredulity.

Lena shrugs, crosses her arms over her chest. “I was just commenting that if we wanted to talk to one of them, we technically have that option.”

“They kidnapped us,” Sara says suddenly and Lena looks over to where she’s standing with half a smirk on her face. “Seems fair.”

Oliver steps forward. “We’ll send a few people to 1951 then. Sara, it’s your ship. You pick the team,” he says to Sara, who nods at him.

“Time travel,” Cisco breathes out reverently and Lena understands that emotion personally. Felicity joins in with equal enthusiasm. “I don’t want to lose my geek cred,” she says as an excuse and she smiles at Lena when she laughs. Barry seems heavily against sending Felicity or Cisco on the timeship, but he reluctantly agrees.

Felicity walks over stealthily while Oliver and Barry discuss the plan, who is going where. “Do you want to come?” Felicity asks out of the side of her mouth and Lena blinks at her for a moment before she realizes what she’s asking. 

“To 1951?” Even the question sounds absurd as she says it, but Felicity nods enthusiastically and she can see Cisco behind her watching them with an excited grin.

Instinct says to answer yes because who in their right mind wouldn’t want to experience time travel first hand, but she catches a glimpse of Kara out of the corner of her eye. Kara’s not looking at her, too focused on what Barry is telling Oliver, but Lena suddenly finds the prospect of leaving her close to unbearable. 

“No,” she answers with a half grin at Felicity’s shocked expression. “I’m going to stay with Kara.”

A wave of understanding passes over Felicity’s face and she nods a little, smiling. “Totally understandable.”

The team breaks up then and Cisco and Felicity head off to the time travelling ship, the Waverider as Lena has learned.

“Oh,” Barry adds as they watch the group walk away. “The new president called. Which would be cool under different circumstances.” Kara nods at him and Oliver sighs. “She wants to meet with us.”

“Let’s bring Ray and Sara as back up,” Oliver says and Kara immediately perks up, bouncing a little on her toes.

“What about me? I can do backup.” Kara is far more than backup in Lena’s opinion, but she can already see the brush off Oliver has prepared. It’s written all over his face even before he looks at Kara and asks her to step aside.

Kara looks back at Lena for a fleeting moment who just shrugs and sends a narrowed gaze at Oliver Queen’s retreating back.

Eyes on the conversation Kara is having, Lena doesn’t even notice that Sara Lance has sauntered over and when she finally does notice, Sara has this knowing look on her face as she regards her.

“Hello,” Lena says warily, but she straightens, affects her best CEO neutral expression and arches an eyebrow at the woman.

It doesn’t have its usual effect, Sara’s smile just sort of deepens and she reaches into a crate by Lena’s side, pulling out what must be some sort of weapon and tucking it into her belt. “Lena, right?” Sara asks, digging further into the crate in search of something.

“Yes,” Lena asks simply without giving her anything more. There’s something intentional in Sara’s face that Lena can’t read yet and she’s content to sit back and let Sara make her move.

Sara glances over her shoulder to where Kara and Oliver are still talking, shoots the scene an amused smile. “Kara’s pretty badass,” Sara comments, looking back at Lena as if to judge her reaction. “It’s kinda hot. You guys a thing?”

It becomes crystal clear then what exactly is happening and Lena purses her lips, crosses her arms and sends Sara a practiced smile. “We’re very close friends.”  

Sara’s face twists a little. “I see,” she says, straightening up from the crate and mimicking Lena’s crossed arms.

“Can I help you with something, Sara?” And she doesn’t mean it to sound rude, but Sara is becoming more and more of an unknown entity the longer she stands there and Lena feels slightly unnerved by it.

Sara seems to consider that, glances back over to where Kara and Oliver are before shrugging. “Not yet,” she answers with a smirk before striding away. “See you later, Lena.”

As Sara passes by, Kara turns and walks away from her conversation with Oliver, an exasperated expression on her face that floods any thoughts of Sara Lance from Lena’s mind.

Hands on her hips, Kara stomps forward, her steps sounding significantly heavier than usual, and Lena’s a little afraid she’s going to crack the floor under her feet.

“What was that?” Lena asks when Kara steps in front of her.

“He wants to,” Kara huffs a little, rolls her eyes. “Minimize my involvement.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s dumb,” Kara answers petulantly and Lena laughs a little.

“That much is obvious,” Lena replies, glancing over to where Oliver has retreated to speak in low tones to Sara and Mick. “But tell me why for real.”

Kara shrugs. “Doesn’t trust me. Doesn’t trust aliens, I guess, though I’m beginning to think he just doesn’t trust anyone.”

“I’m sorry,” Lena says, reaching out for Kara’s fingers.

“It’s fine,” Kara says, but the crinkle between her brows says otherwise. Lena aches to make her feel better.

“So,” she says swinging their hands a little. “Does that mean you’re free for lunch?”

It does the trick. Kara’s chin lifts a little and a grin spreads over her face.

-- 

They’ve only been on Earth-1 for less than a week, but Kara’s managed to befriend no less than five restaurant owners and they all brighten the minute they see her walk through the door.

They’re halfway through their meal and Kara’s reaching across the table for the ketchup when she notices it. As soon as she does, she can’t figure out how she hadn’t seen it before. But hanging off Kara’s wrist, like it’s always been there, is the bracelet Lena had given her years ago. The sample of self-repairing alloy she’d fastened into jewelry.

Kara must notice the way Lena’s ceased all movement to stare at the item in question because she brings the ketchup bottle over slowly, setting it down with sluggish motions and looking at Lena warily. “You okay?”

It pulls Lena’s attention away and she clears her throat, blinking against the heat in her eyes and picking her silverware up. “Yeah, of course.”

Except Kara knows her too well and she doesn’t buy it for a second. “You don’t look okay,” Kara comments, bending over the table a little to catch Lena’s eye.

Lena laughs humorlessly and glances again at the bracelet. After a deep breath she goes for a casual smile, hopes she succeeds. “I didn’t know you kept that,” Lena says quietly, trying not to read into anything. But Kara’s eyes sit significantly on the item in question and her fingers ghost over it just as reverently as the first time Lena had given her the bracelet. 

“I couldn’t throw it away,” Kara says. “If anything, it’s like a marvel of science.”

Lena laughs a little, preens at the subtle praise. “Well, you’re not wrong. I just meant that-” She swallows the rest of the sentence. Kara keeping it and Kara wearing it are two different concepts altogether.

“You meant because it’s an us thing,” Kara finishes for her and Lena nods a little when Kara looks up.

“I like the reminder,” Kara confesses softly, looking back at the bracelet and hooking a finger inside the loop to pull at it lightly. Lena doesn’t want to ask what it reminds Kara of, is too afraid she knows the answer, but Kara continues talking anyway, lifting her eyes to look at Lena. “That there are some things in this world even I can’t break.”

Lena smiles, her heart thudding solidly against her ribcage. “That’s why I made it for you,” Lena says and Kara’s lips thin.

“To remind me that there are unbreakable things?” Kara asks, voice barely over a whisper, and Lena swallows against the lump in her throat.

The conversation feels like it’s about something else entirely - Lena knows that it is, but it doesn’t stop her from nodding and reaching out to cover Kara’s wrist with her palm, right over the piece of metal she hasn’t seen in four years.

“I’m glad you kept it,” she says and when Kara looks at her with stormy blue eyes, Lena has to pull her hand away to avoid tugging Kara across the table and kissing her.

--

Summer drags on in a way Lena’s never felt it. The months are spent not unlike how she’s spent most of her summers since she young, but the day-in-day-out work schedule has somehow become mundane to her. She used to love the work, love throwing herself in the lab for hours on end and working some problem to death.

And it’s not so bad when she’s elbows deep in some new project. It’s just the going home at the end of the day part that’s become tiresome.

Her bedroom at Luthor Manor feels empty and isolated and without Lex in the house this summer, the hours pass by slowly and without excitement.

Lena tries hard to pretend like it has nothing to do with missing a certain person who is currently in Midvale, but the truth of it screams in her head in the middle of the night when she curls around a pillow in bed.

It’s the kind of want that Lena’s always tried to avoid, a consequence of being attached to someone. So she doesn’t call Kara too often, tries not to sound needy on the phone, but she’s not sure how successful she is.

Kara chats about going to the beach and having family dinners and board game nights and movie marathons. She talks endlessly about Alex and Eliza and some local friends from high school.

Lena listens, laughs when appropriate and asks a litany of questions to avoid having to fill the silence with information about her own day. It wouldn’t be very interesting. Went to work. Came home. Had dinner with my mother. Went to sleep.

“Are you okay?” Kara asks one night, when Lena feels exhausted and incapable of keeping up the pretense that she’s not dying to feel Kara in the flesh, have her next to her in bed.

“I’m fine,” she manages with a soft clearing of her throat. “Just tired.”

“Oh,” Kara says, and if Lena closes her eyes she can almost picture her girlfriend’s face. “Well I’ll let you go then.”

“You don’t have to,” Lena protests, stuck between the desire to fall asleep listening to Kara’s voice and knowing that if they stay on the line she’ll keep herself awake just to keep hearing it.

“Go to sleep, Lena. Call me tomorrow.”

Refusing to seem clingy in any way, she agrees with a soft, “I love you.”

It doesn’t take her long to fall asleep, but the next thing she knows she’s waking up to the soft sound of something tapping on her window.  

When the noise registers she shoots up in her bed and looks out towards the small balcony off the side of her room to find a familiar figure standing there and waving excitedly. It takes her a few seconds of just blinking at the image until she realizes she’s not in some sort of dream state.

Kara is grinning widely when Lena opens the balcony door and seconds later she’s being pulled into Kara’s strong arms. The sudden overload of her senses overwhelms her for a minute.

“Hi,” she says after a few seconds, her voice a little rough from sleep.  

“Hey,” Kara says brightly, pulling away to look into Lena’s eyes. “I missed you.”

“Why are you here?” Lena asks, enjoying the feel of Kara’s palms on her back, thumbs stroking against the fabric of her shirt.

“I missed you,” Kara repeats, before moving forward to kiss Lena swiftly.

Something in the house creaks loudly enough for both of them to jump and it’s then that Lena remembers where they are. Her eyes go wide and her heartbeat starts to pick up so quickly that Kara’s eyes dart down to her chest.  

“My mother will kill us if she finds you here,” Lena whispers, remembering to be quiet. Her mother’s room is far from Lena’s, but she knows the woman keeps odd hours and she doesn’t want to risk a confrontation in the middle of the night.

Kara looks unconcerned. “I’m super sneaky,” Kara whispers back, though her voice is considerably louder than Lena’s was.

Lena slaps a hand over her mouth and shoots her a pointed look, gesturing with a finger to her lips to be quiet.

Kara pulls Lena’s hand away and leans forward, lips against Lena’s ear in a way that undeniably sends a shiver down her spine. “Do you want me to leave?”

It’s the last thing Lena wants and she shakes her head. “I missed you too,” she confesses in a hush, moving in closer to her girlfriend. “A lot.”

And emotionally it’s very true, but there’s something physical about the yearning that’s just now presenting itself low in Lena’s gut. Just being this close to Kara is making her body feel more awake than it has in what feels like forever.

Kara is all smiles and bright eyes that can barely be seen in the moonlight streaming into Lena’s room. It pulls a matching expression onto Lena’s face that she can’t control and then Kara is pushing forward, nose brushing her own before their lips meet again. It surges warmth down Lena’s body and she barely suppresses a laugh when Kara wraps her arms around her waist and picks her up, pressing them flush against each other.

The only way to keep quiet is to keep her mouth pressed against Kara’s, which Lena is absolutely fine doing, and she keeps kissing her even as Kara moves them towards Lena’s bed and floats them down onto the mattress. Kara’s body feels good against her, a pressure that she had no idea she had missed so much.

It gets hot fast. Kara’s mouth is insistent and her hand is sliding up Lena’s soft sleep shirt and Lena knows that after a month of not feeling this there is zero chance of her staying quiet for the duration.

“We can’t,” she gasps out while Kara’s lips trail down her jawline, her fingers tracing her ribs.

Kara ceases movement immediately, though her head stays tucked in against Lena’s neck and her body sags down into Lena’s. “Sorry,” she murmurs.  

“Don’t be,” Lena says softly, her hands tracing up Kara’s spine and into her hair. “I definitely want to.”

“Me too,” Kara chuckles, the words mumbled against the skin of Lena’s collarbone. It does nothing to quash the desire pooling in Lena’s gut.  

“But there is no way either of us can be quiet enough,” Lena tells her. “And the thought of my mother somewhere in the house kind of kills the mood.”

Kara coughs against a laugh, but rolls a little off Lena, her thigh nudging in between Lena’s legs and her head coming to rest against Lena’s shoulder. “Do you want to get out of here?”

Lena looks down at her girlfriend with an amused smile. “To have sex?”

“No,” Kara denies hastily, but loud enough that Lena has to slap her hand on Kara’s mouth again.

“I’m just happy you’re here,” Lena confesses and smiles when she feels a grin spread under her palm. She pulls away and Kara picks her head up to kiss Lena again, soft and slow.

“Fourth of July,” Kara says, suddenly, after she’s laid her head back down on Lena’s shoulder and Lena blinks for a moment.

“Yes?”

“Come to Midvale?”

Lena’s brows pull together. “Why?”

“For fireworks and a cookout and hanging with your super amazing girlfriend,” Kara says with a half-grin. “That’s me,” she adds, pointing a thumb at herself. “I’m the girlfriend.”

Lena has to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “I’m aware.”

“Just making sure you didn’t forget. It’s been like a month.”

“Too long,” Lena says seriously, tracing the lines of Kara’s face.

“I completely agree,” Kara replies with a nod. “So you’ll come?”

It will probably be impossible to get away, or convince her mother she can take the time off, but Kara’s smile is already putting an energy into her body that Lena’s feeding off of and the idea of a small vacation somewhere far away from Luthor Manor and Luthor Corp and all her responsibilities sounds close to heavenly. She agrees with a soft nod and Kara surges back forward to kiss her again, smiling against Lena’s mouth in a way that burns all over Lena’s body.

--

When they get called back to the hangar, the team is idling about with a clear vibe of unease threading among them. Kara gives Lena a worried look, and Lena grabs her hand in response, squeezes it lightly before taking a seat near where Cisco is typing rapidly at a computer.

The information the time travelling team has isn’t good and after days of almost nothingness Lena can feel the final confrontation creeping up on them.

A metabomb, Oliver tells them.

Kara shoots her a look and Lena knows they’re both thinking about Medusa. Another universe. Same kind of problem.

It also seems the Dominators have given them a classic ultimatum. Surrender Barry Allen and they’ll leave Earth alone. Fail to do so and they’ll drop the bomb. A bomb with a projected non-metahuman casualty count over two million.

In true superhero fashion, Barry makes an impassioned speech about how he plans to give himself up, make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good. Kara has something like pride in her face, but Lena knows she won’t let Barry go through with it.

Neither will anyone else, as far as Lena can tell, and as soon as Barry walks away, Oliver steps forward, the rest of the team standing to join him. Without even thinking about it, Lena stands as well, paces next to Kara.

“Barry,” Oliver calls out. “I’m not letting you leave.”

“No offense, Oliver, but you and what army?”

As Barry turns, Kara crosses her arms. “This one,” she says simply and Lena fights a smile.

It feels good, powerful even to be standing there with this group of people who have seen her as nothing more than a part of their team. It doesn’t last. A beeping sound blares through the hanger and the monitors flare to life behind them.

“Guys, that ship in Central City,” Sara suddenly says, breaking the silence. Everyone turns to her warily. “It’s opening up.”

Everything revs into action then. Everyone is running around, grabbing gear and suiting up, while the tech team is booting up their equipment and handing out nanoweapons that are designed to incapacitate the Dominators. Everyone is already halfway out the hangar when Kara turns back, looking at Lena with her serious Supergirl face. 

“Be careful,” Lena says, and Kara steps forward into Lena’s space to press a warm kiss against her forehead. 

“Always,” she murmurs, and then she’s gone, out with the rest of the team.

Lena’s left to watch the battle from the bank of computers with Felicity and Cisco and if she tries she can hear the sound of the fight echoing from somewhere outside the hangar. The fight goes smoothly, from what Lena can tell. Kara stays in the air most of the time and the team works to plant as many devices on each Dominator as possible. Biting a bit at her thumb, Lena clicks through some monitoring programs on a computer next to Felicity.

“We’ve still got Dominators virtually everywhere,” she comments softly and Felicity nods, clicks on the comms.

“Good work planting Professor Stein’s nanoweapons, but we’ve still got Dominators all over the country.” Felicity smiles at Lena. “This looks like a job for Supergirl.”

The little dot that represents Kara zooms away from the group in an instant and Lena watches the map light up with indications that more devices are being planted just as Barry’s voice fills the space. “Thanks, Felicity,” he says dryly. “I’m not the least bit insulted.”

With a sheepish smile, Felicity raises her eyebrows at Lena who tries hard not to laugh and only half manages. “Sorry. I meant Supergirl and Flash. This is totally a job for the both of you, that’s what I meant. Supergirl and...Flash.”

Lena laughs then and Felicity swats at her with a hissed shut up even as she smiles. It’s a friendly, comfortable feeling and it distracts Lena for a second from worrying about Kara, who is still flying across the country planting devices.

It’s not long before they get a signal from Oliver to turn the nanoweapons on and Felicity presses the button with a sense of triumph. It only takes a few seconds before they watch the icons indicating Dominator ships blink away one by one and Lena feels the tension ease as each one leaves the screen. 

“They’re retreating,” they hear and Felicity grins.

“It’s not just them,” she says looking at Lena. “It’s all around the world.”

Felicity jumps a little and before Lena can react, she’s surging forward, wrapping Lena up in a triumphant hug and squealing a little in her ear. “We did it!” 

At first Lena goes stiff, but then she relaxes, allows herself to feel a sense of success and hugs Felicity back.

--

When the team has returned and traded their weapons for champagne flutes, Lena can’t help but smile at the accomplished feeling that seems to settle over the entire hangar. Felicity pours her a glass of champagne and Kara clinks their glasses together with a soft smile.

“We did it,” Kara says and Lena reacts to the happy way her face is lit up.

“We did,” Lena agrees.

“Saved another universe together,” Kara says with a conspiratorial smile. “We make a pretty good team.”

“I think we had some help,” Lena laughs, and Kara makes a feigned scoffing sound.

“I think it was mostly me and you, but whatever.” Kara’s biting against a smile and Lena wants to kiss her so badly. It’s part the triumphant feeling that’s thrumming around the group, intoxicating in its nature, and another part the way Kara looks right now, bright eyes and a flirty half smile Lena has always been weak to.

A voice interrupts them, low and knowing. “Ladies,” Sara says as she steps up to them, holding a small silver flask in front of her. “Whisky?”

Kara declines with a shake of her hand, but Sara is arching an eyebrow at Lena with a kind of challenge in her expression. Not one to be intimidated or to back down, Lena reaches out and takes the flask, putting it to her lips for a long pull.

It burns immediately, bitter and rough against her tongue, but she doesn’t react. Even as it hits the back of her throat and slides down like fire into her stomach she just passes the flask back to Sara, who is observing her with an impressed expression.

“I like a woman who can handle her liquor,” Sara says with a smirk and Kara just sort of looks between them with a confused expression. “This stuff is no joke. Plucked it from the seventeenth-century. Quadruple distilled.”

There are no less than three things in that sentence that Lena doesn’t fully comprehend, but doesn’t comment, just takes a sip of her champagne to wash out the taste of the whisky in her mouth.

Sara has a look in her eye that Lena recognizes easily and she shifts a little towards Kara automatically.

“So, Girl of Steel,” Sara asks in a low flirtatious tone that makes Lena’s spine straighten a little. It reminds Lena a little of college when everyone would attach their eyes to Kara and stare at her for hours. Kara at parties was some sort of magnet; apparently that hadn’t changed. “I have to ask,” she says and Lena bites back on the no you don’t that she wants to say. “Do you lift or anything? I mean, what’s your workout routine?”

Kara’s frowning, looking at Lena in confusion for a brief second before looking at Sara and smiling.

“I uh - I don’t really need to work out,” Kara says, shrugging. “I do some sparring, I guess.”

“Are you telling me that these are just...natural?” Sara asks, reaching out to run a quick finger down one of Kara’s arms. Lena’s eyebrows raise a little and she fights a smile. This kind of brazenness she can almost respect. “Damn, I’m kinda jealous,” Sara comments casually. “Has Felicity seen you knock out a salmon ladder workout yet? She’d probably have an aneurism.” 

“What’s a salmon ladder?” Kara says and she looks down at Lena with even deeper confusion. Lena’s sure Kara thinks it has something to do with food, but before she can even open her mouth to explain, Sara’s talking again.

“And you,” Sara says, looking Lena up and down and grinning. “You’re too hot for the nerd squad.”

Lena laughs a little, shaking her head. “I’m sure Felicity would love to hear that,” she says, keeping her gaze even with Sara’s.

“Good point,” Sara says, gesturing at Lena with her flask and smirking. “Beauty and brains clearly.” 

Kara seems to catch on to the conversation the moment Sara flat out winks at Lena and her reaction is a none-too-subtle arm sliding around Lena’s waist, hovering at the small of her back. Sara notices it, and the worst part is that her grin widens.

“Ah, I thought so,” she says, and then knocks back another shot. “Ollie told me that I was making shit up, but he’s an idiot. I should’ve stopped listening to that guy when I was fifteen.”

“You’ve known him since you were fifteen?” Kara asks, and her curiosity makes Lena smile.

“Before that, even,” Sara says, shrugging. “We’ve all got stories. He took me on his boat and then we got stranded on an island for a few years.”

“I was stranded in a pocket of space called the Phantom Zone for twenty-four years,” Kara says, and this time, when Sara offers her a swig of the whisky, she takes it. The face she makes at the taste makes Lena laugh.

Later, after Sara’s left, Kara turns to Lena with a scrunch of her nose. “She was hitting on us, right?”

Lena tries to control her grin and only half succeeds. “Yes.”

Kara gives her a little triumphant nod and adjust her glasses. “I told you I’m so much better at this flirting thing.”

With a shake of her head, Lena just smiles at Kara, bumps a little into her side and laughs, allowing Kara’s arm to pull her in closer.

“So what is a salmon ladder?” Kara asks, whispers, right in Lena’s ear. It just makes Lena laugh harder, and when she’s finally done laughing, looking up at Kara’s red face, Lena suddenly wants to reach up and kiss her. It’s not a new urge, but it rushes up in her like an ache. She brushes it aside, along with all the other feelings being stirred up just by being this close to Kara. No overthinking, not now, when it’s clear they have so little time left here.

-

Towards the end of the party, as people are peeling away and the champagne is dying, Cisco walks up to them with a careful smile on his face. “Hey, guys.” He’s holding a black box in front of him and Lena eyes it for a moment.

“Hi Cisco,” Kara greets, and Lena takes a sip of her champagne.

“I made you something,” he says, and Kara perks up a little.

“What?” She glances at Lena and then back at Cisco. “You didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugs and smiles a little, handing the box over for Kara to take. She opens it to reveal a small, circular device that Lena has to lean over to get a look at.

“What is it?” Kara asks, turning it over in her hand.

“It’s an interdimensional extrapolator,” he explains, looking at Lena as he answers. “It creates small breaches so you can use it to cross over to our universe any time you need to.”

“That’s amazing!” Kara says with a bright smile, but Lena realizes what the device really means. They’re going home soon. She tries not to think of it too much, focuses on the feeling of Kara right next to her.

“I also included communication functionality so if you ever need any help, you can always contact the team.”

“Thank you,” Kara says and she hands the device to Lena to look at before wrapping Cisco up in a hug.

“Of course,” Cisco says with a smile for both of them.

Lena turns the small device over in her hands, studying it for a moment before Cisco bends down into her eyeline. “I’ll send you the schematics,” he says with a wink and she can’t help but laugh a little.

And then they’re saying goodbye to everyone else - Sara gives Lena a very firm hug and a whispered warning to take care of Supes. Felicity grabs ahold of the both of them at once, with excited gibberish pouring out of her mouth. Oliver walks over to lead Felicity away with a wave and a grim-looking half smile. Barry and Kara hug for a full five minutes, and when he gently places a hand on Lena’s shoulder and smiles at her so happily, she smiles back.

Kara takes her by the hand, and they begin walking back to the hotel, as something icy begins to pool in Lena’s chest.

--

When they get back to their hotel, Lena packs up with sloth-like motions as the reality that their vacation is over starts to sink in. Even Kara moves unusually slow, doesn’t superspeed her way through it like she usually would.

“You ready?” Kara asks eventually, and Lena almost answers honestly, let’s the not at all drop between them.

Instead she takes a deep breath and nods. Fights the growing despair clawing at her stomach.

Kara’s got the device Cisco’s given them in her hand and Lena’s staring at it like it’s a ticking time bomb, waiting to destroy the careful balance they’ve found between them in the past few days. The minute Kara opens the breach they’re back to Earth-38, back to the DEO, to L Corp, to having to worry about her mother or whatever threat Kara is up against next.

They’re back to the watchful eyes of Kara’s family and friends, the press.

The dread Lena feels threatens to choke her and she’s reaching out to stop Kara from opening the portal before she can stop herself.

“Lena?” Kara asks, soft and concerned.

“Can we - I’d - can -” The words get lost somewhere between her heart and her mouth, but she clears her throat and forces full sentences to come out. “Do you think we could stay here for just a little longer?”

Kara lowers the hand holding the device and she looks at Lena with her brows pulled down. “Sure. If that’s what you want.”

Lena nods, shoulders relaxing only when Kara slips the small extrapolator back in her pocket. “There are just things I still want to do here that I haven’t yet.”

“Like what?” Kara asks and it’s hushed between them, so low that Lena’s heart starts to thud loudly in her chest.

It’s probably the three glasses of champagne and whatever weird, suspiciously high-alcohol whisky Sara had, but Lena finds some kind of emotional bravery bubbling up inside her as she studies Kara’s blue eyes. By tomorrow they’ll be back in their normal lives, surrounded by all the reminders of how complicated their relationship is and Lena needs to take something with her from this perfect week.

So without an answer, she surges forward. Her hand grips at the back of Kara’s neck to pull her closer and their lips slide together so easily that Lena thinks Kara whimpers a little at the feel.

There’s a second where both of them freeze. Right as their lips connect, and Kara’s body goes rigid in surprise. Lena’s fingers clench where they’re pressing against the skin of Kara’s neck and she waits to see if Kara will push her away. 

It shouldn’t surprise her that when Kara does move, it’s to deepen the kiss and slide her arms around Lena’s waist to pick her up a few inches off the ground, but relief floods through her anyway. It feels so good that Lena smiles against Kara’s mouth. Her fingers trace upwards, pulling Kara’s hair out of her ponytail and tangling in the strands. Kara turns them then, backs Lena up until she’s propped up against the wall near the door and Lena swallows a moan at the feeling of Kara pressed completely against her.

“Lena,” Kara is murmuring, but she’s still kissing her, still gripping Lena’s hips and keeping them together. It’s an intoxicating feeling to realize that there is no one here in this entire universe to interrupt them right now, nothing pressing they need to attend to. Just the reality of the way their bodies still fit together so easily and the tight feeling low in Lena’s gut that’s begging her for release.

The feel of it all swarms Lena’s head so completely that she feels like she’d fall over if Kara weren’t holding her upright. “Please,” Lena says quietly because she can feel the confusion in Kara, the questioning even as she doesn’t stop pressing their mouths together.

Kara has a hand sliding up the back of Lena’s shirt and her lips are trailing over Lena’s jawline. Her head snaps back at the feeling of Kara kissing her neck and it’s a melting, liquid feeling that floods all over her skin.

There’s a crunching sound next to Lena’s ear and when she looks over, it’s because Kara’s slammed a hand into the wall next to her head, strong fingers breaking just slightly into the plaster there. Lena reaches up to hold onto it, the muscles relaxing at the first feel of Lena’s touch and Kara’s whole body sags against her, pressing ever closer, and Lena feels her body get lifted up off the ground again just by Kara’s body holding her tightly against the wall. It’s a show of unconscious strength that sends a thrill through Lena, and when she moans, Kara makes a sound Lena hasn’t heard in four years.

A warm hand is tracing Lena’s side, dipping below the waistband of her pants and pulling a strangled sound out of the back of Lena’s throat. Lena brings her free hand up to cup Kara’s chin, bring their mouths back together, and then, once Kara’s kissing her again, she drifts a hand down to the front of Kara’s shirt, finding purchase on the buttons there and trying to pry them open.

The feel of Kara’s leg threading between her own rips a noisy exhale through her nose and she needs them to be horizontal now. The bed is just visible over Kara’s shoulder and she struggles to think of a way to steer them that direction without having to break apart.

Halfway through a low order to take me to bed, Kara is suddenly zooming away from her, hitting the opposite wall with a loud thud Lena’s positive left a mark. The movement is so abrupt that Lena’s left thinking about the incident in her office just weeks ago, the chill of Kara’s body being ripped away from her.  

“Wha-” It’s a battle to get air into her lungs, but she manages and she eyes Kara with confusion.

“I can’t,” Kara is saying, but she’s staring at Lena with hot eyes, her narrowed gaze raking over Lena’s disheveled clothing and her chest heaving in a telltale sign of arousal.

“Kara,” Lena says and she gulps a lungful of air to steady her voice. “What’s wrong?”

Kara shakes her head and even across the distance of the hotel room Lena can tell her eyes are watering behind her glasses, tension settling in her jaw line. “I don’t want it like this.”

The look in Kara’s eye scares her. It’s profound and determined and Lena feels like they’re both stepping up to the edge of a cliff. “Don’t want what like what?”