40 | Kale and Alcohol

Lena sighed contentedly as her pen did the final stroke of her signature, finishing up what she hoped to be all of her paperwork for today.

And just in time for lunch.

She hummed as she stacked the papers and tapped them on the table before putting them aside. The CEO stood up and rolled her neck which earned a satisfying crack.

Lena's head snapped up at the knock on the door which then opened to reveal a familiar dopey grin. She immediately relaxed from her confident CEO posture as the blonde walked up to her.

"Hi Lena!" Kara exclaimed with her usual bright smile. "I'm starving let's eat! Uh— if you're not busy that is because if you're busy that's totally okay because I did kind of barge in here and um—"

"Kara, breathe," Lena finally said with an amused smile. She did love her girlfriend's adorable rambling. She cupped Kara's face and planted a soft kiss on her lips before walking hand-in-hand to the table where Kara had dumped the good stuff.

She handed the CEO a tub of kale salad and opened up her own tub of noodles and another additional tub of potstickers. Lena always looked forward to lunch with Kara. Before they had met, she usually skipped lunch — too busy working on whatever scientific breakthrough she had discovered or perhaps because of the more recent revelations, digging the Luthor name out of what might as well have been the fucking Mariana Trench.

"Anything eventful today?" Kara asked but it sounded more like 'anwyhng evnetfl ooday' through her large mouthfuls of food. Her cheeks were puffed up, reminding her of a cute hamster.

"Quite quiet today actually," Lena impaled a kale leaf with her fork, "everything so far is going according to schedule which is rare. Nothing has exploded, or gone up in flames, and no one's tried to assassinate me yet, so..." Kara gave a reassuring smile and Lena decided to change the subject. "What about you? How's being the ace reporter for CatCo?"

"Snapper gave me a column to write about food!"

"Really? That's amazing Kara!"

"I know right?!" Kara exclaimed in excitement and Lena loved the way her blue eyes would light up anytime someone even remotely mentioned anything about food.

"I get to go around trying new restaurants and recommend and review stuff, ," she paused for dramatic effect, "I don't need to pay because CatCo buys the samples!"

Lena laughed warmly at Kara's puppy-ish glee and the blonde pouted before crossing her arms. "It's free food, Lena! No way am I passing on that!"

"Of course, love, I think this article will be perfect for you and your multiple stomachs." She gestured towards her salad before adding, "Multiple stomachs yet you can't handle kale."

An incredulous expression crossed her face and her eyes filled with determination. "I can eat kale! Pshh, how hard can it be? It's just chew and swallow."

Lena couldn't help but burst out laughing the pure determination which seemed to have possessed her girlfriend about eating .

Kara doesn't say a word and used her chopsticks to fish a limp kale leaf out of Lena's container before promptly engulfing it like a whale.

A series of very interesting expressions showed on the hero's face, ranging from — at first — pleasantly surprised to trying not to gag and die. Lena however, was on the couch, writhing with laughter, tears streaming down her face as she clenched her stomach from the sheer hilarity of it and probably ruining the makeup she had so precariously applied that morning.

Kara glaring at the tub which held the offending foodstuff didn't help either as she was sent into another fit of laughter. She quickly regained her composure and wiped away the tears after receiving a friendly glare from Kara. She cleared her throat before speaking in her most serious voice. "How was it?"

"G-Great."

"Good because you'll be glad to know we're having kale salad for dinner tomorrow."

Kara's eyes widened with horror. "Oh Rao, please no."

"I'm kidding Kara. But that reaction was totally exaggerated," Lena pointed out with a ghost of a smile.

The blonde pouted yet again at the accusation. "It wasn't! It was like having to eat kryptonite." She glared at the innocent pile of leaves again.

"Kara, please calm down before you set my salad on fire," the CEO warned. After all, she really didn't want a repeat of last time.

***

"Alex, no! Don't do that!" Kara cried as she darted towards her sister who had whipped out a sword from god knows where.

It was game night at the eldest Danvers' apartment and everything was... hectic to say the least. Most of them were intoxicated, making them somehow louder than usual (they're a very loud group in general) and a hell of a lot more accident prone.

"It's okay Alex! I have another one!" Maggie yelled towards her wife who was only standing a metre away so the yelling was completely unnecessary.

Lena watched the scene unfold with a glass of scotch and an amused smile from the couch. The police detective reached underneath the coffee table and pulled out a sheathed katana.

"No, Maggie! Put it away!" Kara was now trying to wrestle the dangerous weapon away which proved to be a much harder task than she had first intended. The Kryptonian was really trying not to snap the detective's arm but Maggie was clearly putting up more of a fight.

"The gays really do own swords huh," Sara Lance commented as she sipped her own glass of golden liquid.

Lena hummed in agreement. "I may or may not own one too," she said in response.

"Well you are a lesbian after all," Sara concluded with a shrug.

Lena chuckled and turned back to the havoc in front of them. Kara had finally managed to wrangle the sword out of Maggie's hands and temporarily confiscated them on top of the kitchen cabinets — a place which Maggie will definitely not reach.

"Why don't we calm down and play Monopoly?" Kara suggested to the drunken group.

"Dibs on Lena! She always wins!" Winn blurted out and walked in a moderately straight line towards the couch where Lena, Sara and Lucy were seated — well Lucy who was rather, sprawled over the armrest. The other four arranged themselves into pairs and they all migrated to the floor to sit in a vague circle.

The pairs went like this: Maggie and Alex, James and Lucy, Kara and Sara, and finally, Lena and Winn. Kara and Winn had ended up arguing about which team could have the dog token which Alex had easily resolved by giving Kara the wheelbarrow and Winn the shoe, taking the dog for herself.

There was barely any competition considering the drunken state they were in and so Lena and Winn snatched victory (this was at least the fifteenth time Lena had won). Alex blamed it on Lena's business degree and the youngest Lane accused them of purposely getting drunk so would lose.

"No one told you to do four shots of vodka, Lucy," Winn shot back, earning a glare from the woman.

"I'll have you know, I can kill a man with my index finger," Lucy said, the threat not really holding much substance due to her slurring every second word and swaying very violently.

James had to practically hold the agent down after Winn decided to respond with 'I'd like to see you try'.

"Let's play Mario Kart!" Maggie exclaimed, smiling widely with her dimples showing.

"What are we, twelve?" Lucy retorted, "Fuck off." Apparently she was a bit of a mean drunk. The brunette collapsed into a pillow face-first.

Lena adamantly thought to herself. Okay, perhaps she too, was slightly tipsy.

"Okay Luce, lets call Vasquez and get you home," James threw his hands up in defeat.

"Her shift's not finished yet," she muttered into the pillow. At least that's what Lena thought she heard, as it came out very muffled. Suddenly she shot up like a rake that had been stepped on and walked over to the liquor cabinet to get more. Even Kara was surprised at her speed.

"Being sober at game nights are always... interesting," Kara said as she sat down on the couch next to Lena. They observed the scene in front of them. It had calmed down dramatically from before as most were close to passing out.

At least this time it wasn't as chaotic as that Christmas party Lena and Veronica co-hosted last year.

Now was the definition of chaos.

Lena enjoyed the warmth of Kara being cuddled up against her, her face buried in the crook of her neck. To think just how different her life was two years ago always surprised her. Before she had nothing but work as her only friend but now, she had an entire circle who loved her and cared about her, and most importantly, a fantastic, wonderful loving and caring girlfriend.

Before, the word family meant something which brought sadness and anger to flood her veins. Now the word drowned her in warmth and happiness.

She wouldn't trade them for anything — not even mean-drunk Lucy who hated Mario Kart.

"Hey, you alright?" Kara whispered softly, her hand mindlessly tracing patterns on the back of Lena's free hand.

"I'm great darling," Lena replied, "alcohol just makes me space out."

Kara pressed a kiss to Lena's forehead before getting up off the couch leaving Lena whining from the loss of the living radiator. "Maggie needs help finding batteries," she held her hand out for Lena to take, "come on." They linked their fingers loosely as Lena emptied the contents of her glass down her throat feeling the familiar burn.

The two worked together and managed to scrape up enough batteries (they may or may not have stolen them from the TV remotes... Alex can find that out later) for the Wii controllers.

They played multiple rounds and even managed to get Lucy 'fuck off I'm not twelve' Lane to join in. Turned out racing wasn't the best idea when the room was spinning at the speed of a centrifuge. The competitive nature of the game seemed to have made them less tired and more adrenaline fuelled than before. With the amount of shouting (mostly colourful expletives like 'move, Princess Peach, you bitch' or 'fuck off, Yoshi, you little shit') the neighbours were bound to file a noise complaint. They only really calmed down when Alex and Maggie stumbled to bed.

"Damn it, Lena! Why are you so good at everything?!" Winn yelped as he fell into twelfth place whilst Lena was killing it in first. The CEO shushed Winn and pointed at the couch behind her which earned an apologetic look from him.

Kara who hadn't drank at all was passed out on the couch snoring and adorably scrunching her nose every so often. Sara was asleep with James on the other couch.

Lena returned to Winn's earlier question and pondered for a moment. "There is one game I'm bad at," Lena admitted as she sped through the finish line.

"It's not The Game Of Life is it?" Winn asked.

Lena smiled sheepishly, "Some things in life translate into games. Like Monopoly but in this case... The Game Of Life." It was like the universe was playing a cruel joke on her.

"We should play that some time."

Lena raised an eyebrow, "Just so you can beat me?"

"Duh." Winn paused for a moment and Lena practically sees the gears turning in his head as his eyes lock onto the swords Kara had hidden on top of the kitchen cupboards. A mischievous smile crept onto his face and he wiggled his eyebrows at Lena.

Lena shook her head fondly. These guys really were going to be the death of her.