Chapter Text
“That should be the last of the dishes,” Kara says with relief, stretching up onto her toes. “Thank Rao, unpacking is even worse than packing.”
Slim arms wrap around her from behind, and a chin rests on her shoulder. “You’re not wrong, which is why I usually pay people to do it for me,” Lena murmurs, lips ghosting over the sensitive skin of Kara’s neck. “Remind me again why we didn’t do that?”
Kara hums and leans back into the embrace, resting her hands over Lena’s. “Well, first, I can’t afford it.”
“Kara-“
“Lena, we talked about this,” Kara interrupts firmly, fondly. “I don’t need you to pay for things for me. I’m not a… sugar-baby? That’s the right word, right?”
Lena chuckles huskily, nipping at Kara’s earlobe. “It is. And, well, no, you’re older than me, which I think disqualifies you from being a sugar-baby. Though I can’t say I hate the idea.”
Kara valiantly ignores her. “And second, unpacking is like, the best way to get familiar with your new place. Now I know where everything is, and I discovered some little quirks early on so they don’t surprise me later.”
“You mean like those big-ass windows that you can’t possibly buy curtains large enough to cover?” Lena asks wryly. “Or the fact that your bedroom doesn’t have a door?”
“Exactly like that,” Kara confirms, turning in Lena’s arms and pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose, giggling when it wrinkles. “Why do you care about my windows anyways? I happen to like the sunlight.”
“I’m going to get a sunburn reading on your couch,” Lena mutters grumpily.
“I’ll keep you safe, oh pale one,” Kara assures her, boosting Lena up so she’s sitting on the kitchen counter and moving to stand between her legs. “There’s only about a million blankets on that couch to cover up with.”
“There’s only one blanket on your bed,” Lena argues.
Kara raises a brow playfully. “And you steal all the covers every night, anyways. Exactly how often are you planning on being in my bed, Miss Luthor?”
“As often as humanly possible,” Lena grins, locking her ankles and pulling Kara into a languid kiss.
“Ow-OW!” someone catcalls from the doorway. “Get it!”
Kara groans and drops her head to Lena’s shoulder. “Lucy, go away!”
“Don’t let me stop you guys making out. Please carry on,” Lucy grins devilishly, crossing the room and dropping into one of the island counter stools. “Fair warning, though, the boys are right behind me with dinner.”
Kara groans pitifully and Lena chuckles. “Get some plates down, Kara.” At the blonde’s mutinous look, she leans in and whispers, “They have to leave sometime. The faster we eat, the faster they go.”
Kara perks up instantly, zipping through the kitchen in a blur and setting the table for five in the blink of an eye, much to Lena and Lucy’s amusement.
“You’ve got her wrapped around your little finger, Luthor,” Lucy laughs as Kara uses her heat vision to light the candles.
“Other way around, Lane,” Lena corrects mildly, smiling when Kara presses a kiss to her cheek as she whips past at inhuman speeds. “Other way around.”
“Kara?”
“Mmph?” Her hands are sliding smoothly up Lena’s thighs.
“Kara.”
“Mm-mm.” One hand ghosts along the sliver of skin exposed on her stomach.
“Kara.”
Kara pulls away from Lena’s neck with a pout. “Yes, ehl? What do you need?”
“Well, first off, I need you to stop leaving hickeys all over my neck,” Lena laughs. “You’re scandalizing the board. And second, you need to stop for a minute.”
Kara’s instantly concerned. She cups Lena’s face gently, turning her head this way and that to examine her for injuries. “Oh, Rao, was I hurting you? I’m so sor-“
“No! No, not at all, you know I’d tell you,” Lena reassures her, covering Kara’s hands with her own. “I’m fine. But… I don’t want to get all… worked up.”
Kara’s brow furrows. “I thought that was the general idea of you staying over.”
“No. Well, yes, but… I don’t want to have sex unless you can too. It’s not fair.”
Kara flops backwards onto the bed with a groan. “Lena-“
“Kara,” she shoots back, undeterred. “Look, it wouldn’t be fair. And I want you to have fun-“
“I do have fun!” Kara argues.
“-and not be worried about hurting me the entire time,” Lena finishes pointedly. “I mean, you get jumpy from kissing me, darling. I can’t imagine that’s particularly conducive to orgasm.”
Kara throws an arm over her face. They sit in silence for a moment before Kara concedes. “I hate it when you’re right, you know.”
“I know,” Lena tells her, smiling. She crawls up Kara’s prone form until she’s lying along her body, chin pillowed on arms crossed over Kara’s chest. “Besides, I still haven’t taken you out to dinner.”
“You bought dinner tonight!” Kara protests.
Lena shakes her head. “That’s not a date.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for one, there were other people here.”
“It was Lucy and James! That’s practically a double date!” Kara argues.
“And Winn!”
“So? Winn goes on all our dates with us, it’s basically tradition at this point,” Kara grins.
“No. Absolutely not. And I was all sweaty from helping you move all day. Hardly romantic.”
“I don’t care about that, Lena. Rrip zhindif ehvahn vrrahdh bem.”
“Okay, one day, you’ll tell me what that means,” Lena huffs. Kara tells her some variation of this at least once a week and refuses to tell her what it means. And Lena would ask Alex, or Clark, but if it’s dirty (which she vaguely suspects it is), she doesn’t particularly want them to be privy to it.
“Just an honest observation, ehl,” Kara says, grinning crookedly. “And why else doesn’t that count?”
“Because I want to show you off.”
“You did that already. Twice, at two different galas,” Kara points out. “Very showy.”
“Kara,” Lena groans, dropping her forehead to Kara’s chest in frustration. She picks herself back up, choosing her words thoughtfully. “Look, I… I’ve never gotten to plan a date with someone I care about before. And you do so much for me, to make sure that I’m safe and happy and comfortable. So let me do that, and let me figure out a way to have really hot, fun, totally satisfying sex with you so we both can relax and enjoy it. Okay? Please?”
Kara’s blushing prettily in the shifting pinpoints of light thrown off by her star-lamp in the corner. “Well, when you put it that way…”
Lena grins victoriously. “Good.” She presses a sound kiss to Kara’s lips before settling down and sighing in contentment.
“Are you planning to just… sleep on top of me?” Kara asks, giggling when Lena’s hair tickles her face.
“Mm-hmm. Warm.”
“Rao, you’re like a tiny lizard,” Kara laughs.
“Kara Zor-El, you take that back,” Lena scolds, playing at offense.
“I will not, because you’re curled up on me like I’m a warm rock in the sunshine,” Kara informs her. When Lena makes no move to get up, Kara changes tactics and digs her fingers into Lena’s sides, eliciting a shriek that she’s sure doesn’t endear her to her new neighbors. “Shhh!”
“Did you just tickle me, and then have the nerve to shush me?!” Lena asks incredulously.
“Uh…”
“This means war.”
Kara scoffs. “Bring it, I’m not even- EEEP!” she yelps, when Lena actually manages to tickle her. “How did- that’s not-“ she gasps, scandalized as realization dawns. “You talked to Alex!”
Lena shrugs, smirking and totally unapologetic. “I did.”
“But that’s cheating!” Kara protests.
“Darling, I’m a Luthor; since when do we play fair?”
Eventually, they settle down, with Lena half-draped across Kara rather than lying directly on top of her.
“First night in your new apartment,” Lena hums sleepily.
“Yeah,” Kara agrees. “Kinda weird.”
“How so?”
Kara shrugs gently, careful not to disturb Lena too much. “I dunno, I… it just is,” she decides.
Lena nods. “I get that. It’s always odd, sleeping in a new place; learning all the new noises, new ways the light hits you in the morning… I get it. And you haven’t lived by yourself before. It might be a little lonely for you, at first.”
“Yeah.” Kara turns and presses a kiss to Lena’s forehead. “I’m glad you’re here with me, though. I’m never lonely with you.”
“Always,” Lena murmurs, falling deep into sleep.
And Kara’s pretty sure that she might, maybe, possibly love Lena. A lot.
‘Oh, Rao.’
********
“Alex!”
Alex is beaming from the laptop screen. “Hey, kiddo! Maggie’s here too; say hi, Mags.”
“Hey, Little Danvers! Where’s your better half?”
Kara rolls her eyes. “Working late, but she’ll be here pretty soon, I think. She texted me a while ago to tell me she was almost done with… something or other.”
“Gotcha.”
They’re doing a Skype sister/double-date night. It’s not quite the same, but it’s the best they can do for now. They’ve ordered the same takeout orders and have the same movie cued up on Netflix, so now they’re just waiting for the delivery driver.
And Lena.
“So how’s it going out there? You guys still all gooey for each other?” Maggie teases, flashing a dimpled grin.
“Ew, babe, gross.”
“Wh- not like that, you goddamn degenerate!”
Kara laughs. “We’re good, she’s trying to make sure the whole rebranding thing stays on track, so she’s been working a lot, but Winn and Lucy and James have been keeping me company.” A sudden chime from her pocket has her rolling her eyes skyward. “As has my work phone, courtesy of Ms. Grant.”
“Yeah, how’s the dragon lady of all media treating you?”
“We can totally come kick her ass, Little Danvers.”
Kara shrugs, reading over the text before tucking her phone away again. “Not as bad as I thought. She’s actually, like, really making sure I have time to do my homework and get to class on time. Last week, she even let me use her elevator when the main one was jammed so I could catch the bus to campus.”
“That’s pretty impressive, for someone who once fired someone for smelling too much like Harrison Ford,” Maggie laughs.
“Oh my god, I forgot about that.”
“I didn’t,” Kara grouses. “Yesterday, she asked me for a salad with a cheeseburger on top.”
“To be fair, if anyone on earth knows where to get that, it’s you, Kara.”
“Well of course I knew where to get one, that’s not the point!” Kara huffs.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, show us the new place! Last time we saw it, it was all full of boxes and shit. Are you finally unpacked?”
Kara nods with a proud grin. “I am! Lena was like, obsessive about it, said she couldn’t sleep with all those boxes laying around-“
A wicked smile spreads across Maggie’s face. “Couldn’t sleep, huh?”
“How often is she sleeping there?” Alex asks, grinning knowingly.
“Oh, Rao, just forget I said anything,” Kara groans. “Anyways, she was over here helping me unpack, like, every night for a week.”
“I like this one, you should keep her,” Maggie says seriously.
“For real; anyone who can get you to actually, y’know, do your work in a timely manner, is a rare find,” Alex agrees.
Kara nods thoughtfully. “You’re probably right.”
“Woah, LD, we were joking.”
Kara shrugs. “I’m not.”
“Just remember to be, like, slow with her, alright? She’s been through a lot,” Alex cautions.
“I know my own girlfriend, Alex,” Kara scoffs.
There’s a long beat of silence.
“I’m sorry, did you just use the word girlfriend?” Maggie asks.
“Without a gun to either of your heads?”
“She’s my girlfriend. Why wouldn’t I call her that?” Kara asks, grinning dopily at them.
“Kara and Lena, sittin’ in a tree,” Alex sing-songs.
“F-U-C-K-I-N-G!”
“MAGGIE!”
Lena rushes in the door a little while later, hurrying to where Kara’s sprawled on the couch and dropping an apologetic kiss to her lips. “I’m sorry, darling; I got caught up at the lab working on a new project.”
Kara shrugs, smiling easily. “It’s okay, nobody even has their food, yet. Go get changed.”
Lena nods, kissing her again, before darting off into Kara’s room to change out of her work clothes.
“Wow, didn’t even say hi to us.”
“It’s like she doesn’t even love us anymore,” Alex laments.
“Hello, you two,” Lena calls wryly from the bedroom.
“Is your super-hearing contagious if you have sex enough times?” Maggie whispers.
Kara rolls her eyes. “No, my room just doesn’t have a door.”
“You broke your door?”
“Alright Littles! Get it” Maggie cheers.
“No! There was never a door.”
“What sorta flophouse are you living in?”
“You picked it out!” Kara protests. “Besides, I like it. All the windows and the brick… It’s homey.”
“I, personally, could do without the windows, but the brick and hardwood are nice,” Lena says, settling onto Kara’s lap with a grin.
“We all know you’re secretly a vampire, Luthor,” Alex teases. “But Kara’s like a solar-powered battery. Gotta get that sweet, sweet yellow-sun radiation.”
The others laugh, but Lena freezes. “Of course,” she mutters.
“Of course what, ehl?”
She shakes herself out of a daze of formulas and blueprints, smiling indulgently. “Nothing, darling. So, what are we watching tonight?”
“It’s Maggie’s pick, and she chose-“
“Star Wars, bitches!” Maggie whoops. “Something for everyone.”
Lena grins, and there’s a knock on Kara’s door. “I’ve got it,” she says, pressing a quick kiss to Kara’s cheek as she gets up.
“Lena, there’s money by the front door for the food. If you buy it again, you’re in trouble,” Kara calls.
Maggie snickers. “What’re you gonna do, Little Danvers, spank her?”
Lena snorts out a laugh. “I would not be opposed to that,” she says, winking at Kara.
“Ew! Augh, c’mon, guys, gross, that’s my sister!”
“Honestly, babe, after how many times she’s walked in on us with like, plenty of forewarning on her part, you kinda have it coming.”
Alex pouts. “Traitor.”
Lena pays the delivery guy, thanking him for his time, and she lugs all the bags into the living room, spreading their contents across the table. By the time she’s done, Alex and Maggie’s food has been delivered too. Both parties start the same movie and dig into the same food at opposite ends of the country, bickering as though they were no further apart than opposite ends of the couch.
Kara smiles softly as Alex and Lena get into a heated discussion on the merits and practicality of lightsabers versus blasters. This isn’t quite what she’s used to, and it’s not really the same as sister nights where she can cuddle up with Alex and Maggie on their too-big couch in their too-small apartment, but like everything else changing in her life, she’s getting used to it. She watches Alex’s face get more and more animated, and makes the same face at Maggie that they’ve shot each other a million times over the years when someone’s being ridiculous.
And she studies the often too-serious, always overworked, never self-indulgent woman debating sci-fi weapons on her lap and smiles.
Some changes, she’s learning, are definitely worth it.
********
“Augh!” There’s the dull thud of a heavy book hitting the ground.
“Kara-“
“No! This is so dumb! Why can’t I figure this out?”
“Because, according to you, our understanding of physics and the universe in general is totally primitive and backward?” Lena says drily, looking up from her paperwork to see Kara sprawled on the floor of Lena’s loft in defeat. “Darling, do you want some help?”
“I never said the word ‘primitive’, I just said you all were wrong,” Kara corrects. “And I- isn’t that cheating? I mean, you’re a genius scientist.”
“So are you, technically speaking,” Lena admonishes. “And I’m going to help you understand your homework, not do it for you. That would be cheating.” She slips off the couch and onto the floor beside her girlfriend. “This, however, is called tutoring. What are you having trouble with?”
“I just- all of it,” Kara sighs, rolling so her head is in Lena’s lap. “I just don’t get it. It makes zero sense, no matter how hard I try.”
“I can help. Come on, sit up,” Lena encourages. Kara grumbles but complies, retrieving the book from where she’d tossed it across the room. “Now, you’re probably over-thinking it. Is it the math?”
Kara shakes her head. “No, the math is fine, it’s just… the rules to what you guys think is and isn’t true in regards to gravity- that you have laws about it at all- is messed up! And then that messes up the math, and I know the answers, but you guys don’t yet, so all my answers seem wrong!”
“Okay, then just… I know we’re wrong,” Lena says carefully. “So do you. So just try to do the math wrong like we do.”
“You want me to give wrong answers on purpose,” Kara says flatly, frustration evident in the set of her shoulders and the tone of her voice.
Lena takes a deep breath, trying to hold back her own rising frustration. Kara is always exceptionally moody when she has science homework. Which is ironic, considering that many of their own discussions are much more involved than this, delving into everything from time-travel to cross-dimensional teleportation. But simple, basic physics as humans understand it is enough to make her ray-of-sunshine girlfriend into, well, kind of a brat.
“Yes, I want you to give wrong answers in this class so that you pass and never have to take it again.” Kara grumbles something in Kryptonese beside her, and Lena chooses to ignore it. “Do you know how to do the math wrong, the way we do it?”
Kara’s brow furrows even more, and she crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “No.”
Lena sighs with relief. Finally, progress. “Okay, so, let’s go over the basics, and we can move on from there.”
Kara’s still sulky, but she nods silently, and at this point Lena will take what she can get.
Kara bursts into Lena’s apartment, beaming. “Lena! Lena, look!”
Lena has been reading quietly on her couch, and nearly falls off of it when Kara flies in through her (thankfully open) window. “What? What’s wrong?” She pushes her glasses up on top of her head and sets her book on the coffee table.
Kara settles carefully onto her lap, grinning hugely. “Look!” She shoves a sheaf of papers into Lena’s hands, watching her eagerly.
“Your homework from two weeks ago?”
“Lenaaaaa, read it!” Kara whines.
Lena pushes her glasses back onto her nose and starts reading. “Remarkable improvement in comprehension and participation in class discussions… Very impressive turnaround...” She keeps reading until the bottom of the final page, when she breaks into a broad grin. “You got a B!”
“B+,” Kara corrects proudly.
“I’m so proud of you! Look how well you did!” Lena enthuses, pressing a kiss to Kara’s smiling lips. “We’ll make a dumb human of you yet, Kara Danvers.”
“You wish,” Kara scoffs.
“Seriously, though, I’m so, so proud of you. I know how hard it is for you, and you’re doing really well.”
“Thank you, for helping me,” Kara says, smiling softly. “You’re the best.”
“What are girlfriends for?” Lena asks, shrugging easily, arms looped loosely around Kara’s hips where she straddles Lena’s lap.
“No, I mean it. You were so patient with me, and I know I’m not, like, the most fun when it comes to that stuff, so thank you.” She turns suddenly bashful. “I, um….”
“What is it, darling?” Lena asks, tracing Kara’s cheekbone with her thumb.
“I love you.”
Lena’s eyes widen. “What?”
“I love you. And I know it’s only been a couple months, and humans are kinda weird about it- honestly, when you feel love you should tell someone. You’re all so breakable. But you- You’ve always got my back, and you want to know about me, and my home, and you helped me move and unpack, and you spend hours helping me with my stupid homework, and you sneak vegetables into my cart when we go shopping because you want me to eat healthier- I still hate kale, by the way, nothing you can do will change that-, and you watch dumb movies with me on cable even though I have them on DVD and you hate commercials, and you put up with my weird family, and I just… I love you,” she shrugs. “I do. And you don’t have to say anything if you’re not ready to, but-”
Lena tugs Kara’s face to hers and kisses her thoroughly, remapping the already very familiar terrain of Kara’s mouth with her tongue and sliding her fingers into Kara’s wavy hair and pulling, just a little. The hand that’d been resting on Kara’s waist drifts up under her shirt, nails scratching lightly over the taut muscle of her stomach. She feels Kara moan into her mouth (one of her very favorite things) and rock her hips down ever so slightly into Lena’s lap before she catches herself. Lena smirks, just a little.
“In case,” Lena husks, “it was, at any point unclear; I love you, too.”
“Oh, thank Rao. That would’ve been really awkward,” Kara laughs, a bit giddy at the weight of those three words being pulled off of her chest.
“Indeed,” Lena hums, nipping at Kara’s neck. “That reminds me, I made something for you.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mm-hmm. It’s in my room.”
“It is more indestructible lingerie? Because, like, I’m into it, but cut me a little slack, here, there’s only so much restraint I’m capable of when my very hot girlfriend is wearing… that,” Kara laughs.
Lena grins and swats her on the butt playfully. “No.” She considers this for a moment. “Okay, actually, yes, but that’s not what I was talking about.”
“No?”
“Nope. Hop up, I’ll show you,” Lena says, trying to hide how eager she is but knowing that her heartbeat is probably a dead giveaway.
Kara does as she asks, grumbling about having been comfortable where she was, thank you very much, but she takes Lena’s hand and follows her into her bedroom.
“Okay, close your eyes and cover them,” Lena tells her. At Kara’s dubious look, she rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to murder you, just do it.”
Kara huffs, but follows her instructions, however odd they seem.
Lena fiddles with a few switches and waits for a moment before she says, “Alright, open them.”
Kara removes her hand cautiously. “Black-out curtains? That’s… great, I guess, but I gotta say, I was expecting something a little more impre-“
And then Lena smirks and flips on the red sun lamps, and Kara shuts up.
“So, I finished the project I was working on,” Lena says, aiming for casual but missing by a mile. “Ta-da!”
If Kara weren’t so thoroughly distracted by the 10,000 equally appealing ideas that just popped into her head, she would absolutely tease Lena for saying ‘ta-da,’ but as it is, that’s the last thing on her mind. “So these- do they actually work?”
“From all the testing I’ve done, they should, yes,” Lena says, nodding. “Go ahead, try to fly.”
Kara stays put. Scrunches up her face in concentration, even jumps into the air a little- nothing.
“Now try the heat-vision.”
Kara squints, and there’s not even a hint of red in her eyes, aside from the tint the lamps are casting through the room.
“Can you lift the bed?”
Kara crosses the room, squats beside Lena’s comically large bed, and strains for a moment, but the stubborn thing doesn’t move an inch. She turns, and starts when she sees that Lena has snuck up behind her. “No super-hearing, either,” she says wryly. “So…”
“So…” Lena mimics, grinning up at her. “Do you like your present?”
“I feel like this is one of those presents that you give someone, but really it’s also for you,” Kara jokes.
“Those are the best kind,” Lena argues teasingly.
“True. And yes, by the way,” Kara says, snaking her arms out and jerking Lena flush against her by her hips. “I do like my present.”
“Good,” Lena whispers.
And that’s the last really coherent thing either of them says for a long time.
“So,” Kara pants, chest rising and falling rapidly with exertion, “that happened.”
It’s the strangest feeling, to be tired, and to sweat, and to be so pleasantly sore.
Lena laughs from where she’s sprawled out, facedown, beside her. “Yeah. Yeah, it did.” She turns her head, studying Kara as she catches her breath for a moment before climbing back onto Kara’s prone form. “Think it could happen again?” she asks lowly, nipping at the column of Kara"s throat and secretly pleased at her own ability to leave marks on Kara under this artificial red sunlight. She shrieks out a laugh when Kara rolls them suddenly so that Lena’s on her back and Kara’s hovering over her on her elbows, both of them laughing breathlessly.
“I sure hope so,” Kara whispers, and dives in for a deep, searing, unrestrained kiss.
The End