7. Chapter 7(1)

Lena wakes up slowly, awareness coming in inches. Sun is piercing into her eyes and she squints into it as she tries to blink awake. 

The first thing she notices is that she’s not in her apartment and it takes a stuttering moment to remember that, of course she isn't. She had made a foolhardy decision to stay at Kara’s last night. She winces at the memory of leaping so far across the boundaries of their friendship that they might as well just ignore them.

The second thing she notices is that she’s warm, comfortable even, and she goes stiff when she realizes why.

How Kara’s body wrapped tightly up around her own wasn’t the first thing she had noticed, Lena has no idea.

Kara mumbles something grumpily, likely reacting to the way Lena’s body had gone rigid. Lena forces herself to relax, turning over a little to confirm for herself that it is in fact her ex-girlfriend that’s latched to her back.

The sight of Kara still sound asleep, gripping at Lena and frowning in her sleep, flutters uncomfortably in Lena’s chest for a long, still moment. She manages to turn completely around without waking Kara, and can’t resist reaching across the short distance between them to smooth out the crinkle between Kara’s eyebrows. Kara’s face relaxes and she murmurs something incomprehensible, something in Kryptonian, before tightening her hold on Lena.

It makes her want to smile just a little - Kara was always a deep sleeper and it seems that nothing has changed. For a moment, Lena sinks into the feeling of Kara around her, lets herself pretend like she did the night before that nothing has changed between them. That Kara will wake up soon and she’ll smile at Lena without opening her eyes. They’ll exchange soft good mornings and linger far too long in the comfort of the bed.

The rational part of her brain is screaming at her to get out of the bed, to slowly extricate herself from Kara’s grip - a harder prospect than it sounds - and move away. But nothing in her body seems to agree, and all she can do is fall into the warmth around her for a few more minutes - hold onto it until the real world breaks its way in and shatters it all. She catalogs the feelings and stores them away, saves them for another day, when she can’t have this.

She must fall back asleep. The next thing she knows, a loud pounding sound is echoing into her foggy brain and she’s sitting up in an empty bed. For a fleeting second she wonders if the earlier moments were just a part of a dream.

But then Kara is coming out of the bathroom, piling her hair on her head in a messy bun, her sleep shirt riding up inappropriately high on her stomach as she does it, sweatpants hanging low on her hips and Lena hasn’t had nearly enough coffee to deal with any of this, and certainly not enough to deal with spotting Kara’s abs.

The pounding sounds out again, and Lena finally registers it as heavy knocking. Kara notices her sitting up on the bed as she passes, shoots her a shy smile before rolling her eyes as the knock comes again.

“I’m coming, Alex!” Kara yells and Lena’s spine stiffens. Her heart starts beating uncomfortably fast and Kara’s steps falter as she’s walking towards the door. She turns to look at Lena over her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Lena shakes her head, shuffles out from under the covers and manages a smile. “Nothing.”

Kara looks skeptical, but Alex is still knocking and Kara huffs a little at the interruption, padding over to the front door and throwing it open.

Lena barely has time to smooth the wrinkles out of her shirt and run her fingers through her disheveled hair before Alex is barreling into the apartment with a tray of coffee and a box of baked goods.

“Hi,” Kara says to her sister, plucking the box out of her hands and opening it immediately. A donut is in her mouth before Alex can even respond.

Alex drops the tray of drinks off on Kara’s kitchen counter and Lena eyes the excited look in her eyes, wonders what has the older Danvers sister over at - she glances at a wall clock - six in the morning.

“What are you doing here?” Kara asks around a mouthful of food. It’s just then that Alex notices Lena lingering near the bedroom. Her eyes go wide immediately, and Lena realizes how the entire scene looks - both she and Kara still in sleep clothes, hair in disarray and she’s walking out of the bedroom.

“Oh no,” Alex says, straightening and pointing between Kara and her. “I have a thing, okay? I have a thing to be excited about and it is not going to be usurped by you two doing -”

“Alex,” Kara interrupts with a sharp snap, swallowing her donut hastily and glancing briefly at Lena. “We’re not - Lena just stayed the night because - we didn’t -” Kara fumbles around and Lena needs coffee if this how the morning is going to go because, sure, they didn’t sleep together the way Alex is implying, but what they did do feels so much more intimate, so much more real.

“I stayed the night because I wasn’t exactly feeling safe in my own home,” Lena finishes for her, clearing the sleep out of her throat and walking over to a coffee maker on Kara’s counter. She only counts two cups on Alex’s tray and she’s not going to sit here and suffer the delicious smell of it without having her own cup.

“You can have mine,” Kara says when she notices what Lena’s doing and Lena tries to wave her off, but Kara is slapping her hands away from the machine and pushing a styrofoam cup into her hands, steering her back to the kitchen island. 

Alex watches it all with a pinched expression and sighs, shaking her head as she takes her own coffee off the tray and sips at it.

“So,” Kara says after a moment. “What are we excited about?”

The box of donuts is open on the counter and Lena watches as Kara eyes it with glee, picking up her second treat and taking a big, happy bite out of it.

Alex is looking at Lena with a wary expression, like she’s not sure she wants to say what she has to say with Lena there and Lena gets that, wonders if she should offer to leave or head to the bathroom under the excuse of getting ready for the day. But the look only lasts a few moments and fades into a happiness Lena’s sure she’s never seen on Alex’s face before.

“Maggie came over last night,” Alex says to Kara who sits up a little straighter, surprised. Lena smiles, realizing exactly why Alex looks so pleased.

“She did?” Kara asks, blinking at her sister and slowly setting her donut down. “Why?”

Kara is clearly not picking up on Alex’s very clear body language because she’s frowning a little, looking like she’s readying for Alex to start crying again and Lena fights a smile at the protective stance Kara’s adopted.

Alex’s mouth opens like she’s going to answer Kara, but no sound comes out. Her jaw moves helplessly and her eyes flicker around the room like she can’t find the words and something in Lena understands that feeling like a warm memory. When Alex catches her eye, Lena smiles encouragingly, full and easy as she remembers trying to explain Kara to her brother all those years ago.

“I think we’re dating,” Alex confesses in a soft hushed whisper, managing to sound excited and completely confused at the same time. “She kissed me.”

“What?!” Kara says, jumping a little and her expression shuffling to one of wide eyed surprise. “Really?”

Alex nods so rapidly Lena’s a little afraid she’s going to give herself whiplash and then suddenly Kara’s squealing in happiness, bouncing towards her sister and wrapping her in a tight hug. Alex laughs, and Kara laughs, and Lena smiles as she watches the two sisters embrace each other.

“Oh my god, Alex. I’m so happy for you,” Kara is saying, swaying Alex back and forth. Alex just clutches at her sister’s shoulders and smiles.

“I’m happy for me too,” she says, but it comes out like she doesn’t quite believe any of it is happening. It pangs in Lena’s chest.

She takes a slow sip of the coffee in her hand, but can’t help the sour expression she makes at the first taste. Whatever Alex brought for Kara has to be the sugariest thing on the menu because it tastes like liquid candy. She coughs at the unexpected taste and it brings the attention of both Danvers women her way.

Licking her lips a little, she smiles, sets her coffee down. “Congratulations, Alex. Maggie is a lucky woman,” she says politely and Alex just grins at her, a testament to just how lost she is to the moment.

“The luckiest,” Kara agrees with an arm around Alex’s shoulder and a grin for Lena. It feels so normal in that moment. Like she and Kara belong in this apartment together and Alex would naturally come over to break the news to both of them.

They all sit there for a minute, comfortably, a blanket of happiness swirling around them.

“Well,” Alex says after a moment, looking at Kara pointedly and then at Lena. “I just came over to tell you, but I can see that you guys are -”

“No, Alex, stay,” Kara says at the same time Lena tells her, “It’s fine, Alex. Stay.”

They both look at each other and then back to Alex, whose face has regained its pinched look from earlier. 

“We can catch up later,” Alex says.

“I want to hear all about it,” Kara tells her with a finger towards her sister and Alex grins again, wide and genuine. Lena feels an ache in her chest at the knowledge that Alex has figured it all out, gets the girl and the happiness and here Lena is with Kara. Where everything feels unattainable, like a fleeting dream.

“Later,” Alex replies walking back towards the door. “We can have a sister night.”

Kara claps her hands excitedly and follows Alex over. “Definitely,” she says. “Thanks for the coffee and donuts.”

With a nod to Lena, Alex hugs her sister goodbye and exits. Kara turns, a disbelieving but happy expression on her face and she walks back to the kitchen island to pick up her donut and resume eating.

“Good for Alex,” Lena murmurs, taking another sip of the sugary drink in front of her, this time less surprised at the sudden saccharine taste.

Kara hums around her food, shrugs and a little of the excitement of earlier fades from her face. “Do you think I should give Maggie the talk?” Kara asks after she swallows. 

“What talk?”

Shrugging a shoulder, Kara takes another bite. “The hurt my sister and they’ll never find the body talk.”

Lena laughs. “I don’t think that’s necessary,” she says and Kara looks a little skeptical so she adds, “Alex owns a lot of guns.”

“True,” Kara says with a thoughtful nod.

The excitement of earlier is subdued now and Lena’s left to yet again confront the fact that she’s alone in Kara’s apartment after a night of sleeping together. There’s a memory lingering in the back of her mind of her voice begging Kara to stay in the bed, her fingers pulling Kara towards her and she’s hoping it’s the fading images of a dream and not something she actually did.

Kara is regarding her from across the kitchen island, watching as she takes careful sips of her coffee. It’s not exactly the way she likes her coffee, but it’s caffeine and she needs the boost to get her brain to start working properly. After a few more pulls of the drink, Kara laughs, popping the last of her donut in her mouth and dusting her hands off.

“I’ll make you real coffee,” Kara says, plucking the cup out of Lena’s hands and taking a long drink of it.

“I can make it,” Lena protests, half standing until Kara waves her off.

Kara goes about turning her coffee maker, pulling out a container of ground beans from her fridge and Lena gets lost in the domestic feel of it.

“Are you going into work today?” Kara asks, glancing over her shoulder at Lena. She startles a little as the memories of the previous day come flooding back.

She sighs, eyes her bag where it sits on Kara’s couch and thinks about how her phone is probably overflowing with notifications. The headlines must be full of her name this morning, or at the very least her mother’s, and she can’t decide if she even really wants to see what L Corp’s stock is going to do when trading opens, what it did overnight in Japan.

“I suppose I have to,” she says, for the first time truly dreading the idea of stepping foot in her office and having to play the part of stalwart CEO.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Lena,” Kara says, turning to lean against the counter while the coffee maker starts to percolate. “You certainly deserve a day off after what you went through.”

Lena laughs softly, shakes her head. “There aren’t really such things as days off in my world.”

“There should be,” Kara says pointedly, crossing her arms and Lena rolls her eyes a little.

Ignoring Kara’s expression, she gets up and walks over to her bag, pulling her phone out from its depth and feeling unsurprised to see the flood of notifications on her lock screen.

“Maybe I do need a vacation,” she confesses with a chuckle and she turns her phone off, willing to put off having to answer anyone for at least another hour. The world can have her after she’s at least two cups of coffee, taken a shower, and gracefully exited her ex-girlfriend’s apartment.

Kara’s expression is sympathetic as she slides Lena a mug of coffee and they both retake seats at the kitchen island.

“Do you want to talk about last night?” Kara asks after a few quiet seconds of just sitting there.

It causes Lena to choke a little on her coffee and she wonders which part Kara means - the part where they had just barely stopped her mother from committing genocide, or the part where Lena’s pretty sure she all but begged Kara to sleep with her.

“What about last night?” Lena asks, managing to keep her tone even and steady. She takes a sip of coffee just to have something to do, while Kara fiddles with her own cup.

“Everything with your mother,” Kara clarifies, and Lena relaxes a little. It’s somewhat easier territory to navigate, but only just slightly. “Did you want to talk about it?”

“Honestly?” Lena starts. “Not really.”

Kara reaches out across the counter and twists her fingers with Lena’s softly, the feel of it shooting straight up Lena’s arm. “Well when you do…”

“You’ll be the first to know,” Lena says, with a quick squeeze to Kara’s hand. It’s not untrue. Lena can’t imagine who else she would trust enough to talk about things with her mother. Who else would understand everything she’s going through.

The moment feels comfortable, not unlike how it was earlier when they were still wrapped up in each other under Kara’s comforter. Lena loathes to think that anything could break this feeling, that reality is calling out to her and she’ll have to leave all of this in a few short moments and face everything the day has set out in front of her. Just the thought of having to read what the press is saying about her makes her want to scramble back into bed and hide under the bedsheets there.

Before either of them can say anything, a loud whoosh sounds out behind Lena and she ducks away from it quickly. Nanoseconds later, Kara is pulling Lena off the stool to stand behind her and Lena’s eyes go wide to see the same blue anomaly from Thanksgiving and L Corp pop into existence in front of Kara’s couch. It wavers there for a moment longer than it had the first two times and Lena feels frozen as she watches two men come jumping out of it like it’s a portal.

It’s a portal, she realizes when it pops away, and she’s left standing behind Kara observing two strangers in the middle of Kara’s apartment.

Everything is still for a long moment before Kara is squealing again, jumping forward with a loud, “Barry!” and rushing towards the taller man’s arms.

So. Not a stranger, Lena thinks and she’s left to watch Kara embrace - Barry apparently.

“I knew it was you,” Kara is saying, breaking apart and Barry smiles widely at her. “I knew it was you in that weird space portal thing.”

“Yeah,” Barry says, shrugging. “It took a couple tries to get here.” He gestures to the man standing next to him. “This is my friend, Cisco.”

Cisco reaches out to shake Kara’s hand. “I have to say,” he starts. “This is a nice universe you got here.”

Lena’s brain tries to put it all together, but she’s only barely had one cup of coffee and there are about twenty parts to what’s happening that aren’t adding up. Barry notices her then, his eyes going wide and jaw dropping as he looks between she and Kara in a similar way to how Alex had earlier.

“Oh,” he says, gesturing around a little. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had - I didn’t mean to interrupt you guys. The breaches are kind of hard to control where we -” He paces over to Lena and smiles engagingly. “Hi, I’m Barry Allen.”

Lena shakes his hand, still entirely confused as to what is happening, and Kara bounces over to them. “Oh, wow, sorry, yeah. This is Lena. Lena this is my friend Barry!” Kara looks excitable and happy and Lena reacts to it, relaxing a little despite not knowing anything about what’s going on. “Barry is from another universe,” Kara says to her, in a lower voice, and Lena blinks, tries to decide if she maybe hallucinated hearing that.

“You’re Lena,” Barry says with a knowing tone that surprises Lena. “Like -” he turns to Kara, drops his voice a little. “Lena Lena?”

Kara nods, and Barry’s smile goes even wider than before and Lena can’t keep up with it. It reminds her of Kara, in a way, like Barry is vibrating at an entirely different frequency than the rest of them. “Wow, I’m so happy for you guys. I mean, that’s awesome. I know all about - I have an Iris back home. Well, she’s not, I don’t have her, she’s a person - you know what, I’m going to stop talking now.”

The words come out in a quick and jumbled mess and Lena is fairly confident she might actually still be dreaming.

“I’m Cisco,” the other man interrupts, shoving at Barry just enough to move past him and shake Lena’s hand. “You can call me Vibe,” he adds in an exaggeratedly low tone. Barry makes an apologetic face behind him.

“Kara,” Lena draws out slowly, maintaining a polite smile for the two men in front of her.

Kara looks at her expectantly, but frowns when she notices the expression on her face. Good, Lena’s communicating her feelings correctly. 

“Can you please explain what is going on?”

“Oh! So,” Kara gestures at Barry. “Barry is from another universe.”

“You said that,” Lena replies and she tries to force her brain to boot up to its normal processing speed.

“A parallel universe,” Barry adds with a shrug.

“Parallel universe,” Lena parrots. She realizes she must sound like an idiot right now, but she’s pretty sure that Kara has just implied the multiverse theory is real and she’s standing here in front of two people not of this Earth.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Kara asks, and Barry turns back to her, clearly not caring that Lena’s having mental whiplash trying to keep up with everything that’s happening.

“So you remember last year when I like helped you out and you promised to do the same for me?” 

Gone is the excitable Kara Danvers of before, replaced by a more Supergirl-looking woman, her spine straightening. Despite her disheveled clothes and messy hair she looks confident and ready for action. “What are we up against?”

“Aliens, actually,” Cisco answers, smiling a little. “Barry here thought we might get a ringer for our team. Even the odds.”

“Well, I’m happy to help, Barry,” Kara says, and Barry grins at her. “Of course.”

“Thanks, Kara,” he says and he glances at Lena for a moment. “We kind of have to get going as soon as you’re ready-”

“Oh yeah,” Kara says, waving around. “I just need to change.”

Barry is still eying Lena, but he keeps smiling. “Cisco and I will go get some food. I’m starved.”

“You guys have Big Belly Burger on this Earth?” Cisco asks, as Barry ushers him to Kara’s front door and out of the apartment.

Alone again, Lena finds herself incapable of forming a complete sentence, settles instead on shooting Kara a perplexed look and just blinking at her. Kara stares back at her, clearly trying to find a way to explain.

“So Barry’s from another universe,” Kara says slowly.

“We established that,” Lena replies. 

“And now he needs me to go over to his Earth and help him out.”

“Okay,” Lena says, drawing the word out slowly. “I’m going to need you to start from the beginning.”

“Barry is from another universe,” her ex-girlfriend repeats.  

“Kara,” Lena warns, and Kara straightens a little, tapping on the counter and thinking.

“Do you remember last year - there was this thing in the news about the Blur?”

Lena digs through the archives of her brain, has a fuzzy recollection of such a thing. “Sure.”

“Well that’s Barry. He’s like, insanely fast. Superhuman fast.”

“Faster than you?”

“No,” Kara scoffs, snorts into a dismissive laugh. “Of course not. But close.”

“Is he an alien?”

“Uh, he’s a metahuman?” Kara says, and Lena no longer needs coffee. She needs a drink. “So, like, he got struck by lightning and now he’s the fastest man alive. At least on his Earth.”

“And he got to this Earth because-”

“He ran way too fast and accidentally showed up here,” Kara says with a soft shrug.

Lena’s brain finally feels like it gets up to speed and she attempts to unpack everything Kara is saying. It helps when she adds what she already knows about multiverse theory into the conversation. “Okay,” she says, rubbing her temple a little. “I think I understand. Sort of.” Not entirely, but if Kara keeps explaining it, Lena feels like she’ll just understand less.  

“Now he needs my help and I have to, uh-” Kara pulls a face, crosses her arms.

“Go to another universe and help him,” Lena finishes for her.

“Yes.” Kara pauses, then brightens like she’s just had the most genius idea of all time. “Hey, why don’t you come with?”

Lena’s jaw drops. “To another Earth?!” The words come out with a little squeak she feels immediately embarrassed about, but the world feels like it’s moving way too fast and she can’t keep track of anything in a coherent manner.

“You said you needed a vacation,” Kara points out and Lena shoots her an incredulous look.

“When I said that, I was thinking more like a weekend in Coast City or Happy Harbor, not a different universe.”  

“Come on,” Kara entreats, and she adopts this look on her face that Lena can’t categorize as anything other than seductive, even though she’s sure Kara doesn’t mean it that way. Lena’s body doesn’t really care about Kara’s intentions, however, and she feels her chest heat up a little at the sight. “Don’t tell me that the nerd inside you isn’t totally dying to see what another universe looks like.”

Kara’s not wrong, the scientist in her is completely interested. But she has responsibilities here on this Earth and she’s still reeling a little from the events of the previous night along with the way she woke up just moments before. It’s like she can still feel Kara pressed tightly against her and she swallows against the tingling that rushes over her skin.

A laundry list of things she needs to do today pours into her mind and she thinks of the chore it’s going to be handling her inbox at L Corp.

“Look,” Kara says, stepping a little closer to Lena and Lena straightens a little at the feel of Kara’s body radiating warmth towards her as it always had. “You can either stay here and deal with the hell that your work day is probably going to be or you can come with me to a universe in which neither of us have to worry about your mother or about…” Kara looks around, trying to find words, like she can’t figure out what it is Lena actually does in her day to day. “Stock prices?”

It makes Lena laugh and she considers what Kara is saying. Her work day is going to be hell and just the thought of her mother, sitting in a jail cell, likely plotting revenge is making her itch. Kara is standing in front of her with sleep mussed hair and wrinkled pajamas, offering Lena a reprieve from the stress of all of that and Lena can’t help responding to it.

“It sounds like it’s a job for a superhero,” she says as a last ditch effort at resistance. “I don’t want to get in the way of your saving another world.”

Kara’s brows pull down. “Lena,” she laughs. “You helped save the world literally last night.”

“I thought you didn’t like me taking risks,” Lena says, and Kara rolls her eyes.

“I don’t like when you take risks without me. If we take one together, it’s way more fun,” Kara clarifies. "And safe." 

“Barry came to find an alien. I don’t think I exactly qualify,” Lena jokes and Kara shrugs.

“Barry came because he needs help fighting aliens and you’re like the smartest person ever and you probably know more about aliens than anyone he’s got on his team so…”

“That’s quite an assumption,” Lena replies, but she feels pride start to swell a little her chest.

“Come on. Let’s go save another universe. You and me.”

Lena purses her lips and crosses her arms, regarding Kara for a long moment. With a deflating sigh she shakes her head and laughs. “Fine,” she concedes. “I’ll go.”

Kara’s eyes go wide like she didn’t really expect Lena to agree and then she’s practically vibrating with excitement, jumping forward to hug Lena with exuberance. “It’s going to be awesome.”

“I’m going to regret this,” Lena grumbles, but she smiles at the sound of Kara’s laughter, clear and bright in her ear. She grabs a bag, shoves a few clothes in it, dashes off an email to Jess telling her to put out a press release asking for privacy, with clear instructions to not do anything else until she hears from Lena. And then Barry and Cisco are back, and Kara’s pulling her by the hand into another universe.

--

They take a trip during the spring of sophomore year, because Lena can’t stop stressing about her early graduation and Kara can’t stop stressing about Lena’s stress, and they both decide they need some time away from campus and Lillian’s badgering phone calls. If only just for one weekend.

So they buy plane tickets to go to Midway City for the weekend, even though Kara tries to convince her that she can fly them both. Lena texts Lex making sure the family yacht that’s docked there is available for the next few days.

“We need to do this more often,” Kara observes from behind Lena. She’s spread out on one of the foredeck’s small little lounge beds, watching Lena as she leans to look into the water. Kara’s clearly happy to be in the open air, free of the hours of airport, plane, and town car that had preceded their arrival at the yacht.

“Do what?” Lena asks, making sure they’re anchored correctly and glancing over her shoulder to look at Kara. Behind the dark of her sunglasses, Lena allows herself a moment to admire all the skin Kara has on display. It’s an unusual sight - Kara tends to favor pants and sweaters and long sleeved shirts - but the unseasonably warm weather of the day called for shorts and tank tops and Lena is not complaining.  

“Be lazy,” Kara answers, craning her neck a little in Lena’s direction. She tips the edge of her own sunglasses down so she can look at Lena. “Come here,” she murmurs enticingly.

Satisfied that the anchor is hooked properly, Lena abandons her post and pads over to Kara, dropping down and curling up against her side with a soft sigh. “It’s nice.”

“No homework to worry about, no job to get to,” Kara lists off, tracing her fingers down Lena’s bare arm, her lips ghosting over Lena’s forehead.

The combination of Kara and warm sun makes Lena feel boneless as she sags against Kara’s body, her leg sliding over her girlfriend’s. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” Lena says wryly, closing her eyes against the subtle rock of the boat.

“We should get a boat,” Kara responds and Lena props up a little to look at Kara, her palm spreading out over unfairly toned abs.

“We’re on a boat.” Lena laughs. “One that I do, in fact, own.”  

“Well, we should go on it more,” Kara clarifies and she puts her hand against the small of Lena’s back, pulling her closer. Lena’s hips press in solidly against Kara’s and heat blooms up in Lena’s gut that has nothing to do with the abundance of sunshine. Her hand slides up Kara’s body until it’s resting against her sternum where bare, tanned skin is on display thanks to this miracle tank top.

“If we did it all the time it wouldn’t be special.”  

“After you graduate then,” Kara says, her fingers sliding up under Lena’s tank top to trace her spine. It’s a distracting feeling tempered only by the mention of graduation and the imminent separation that Lena knows will follow. It cools a little of the heat building between them.

“Can we not talk about graduation?” Lena asks softly, her fingers smoothing against the exposed skin over Kara’s collarbone.

“Sorry,” Kara replies, equally soft and genuine.

Lena shakes her head, pushes forward a little until she can kiss Kara properly, a solid pressure of their lips. Kara smiles into the kiss and Lena’s chest flutters with happiness. “I don’t want to think about the real world right now,” Lena murmurs between kisses and Kara’s hands fit to her hips, lifting her slightly until she’s stretched out fully on top of Kara. “I just want to be here with you. Just us. Nothing else.”

With a sudden movement, Kara flips them over, pressing Lena down into the cushions. “I can do that,” she says.

Kara kisses her then. The kind of kiss that sparks through Lena like wildfire and she wonders for the millionth time how someone that isn’t even human , that had to google what dating was, can be so good at something like this. She manages to push Kara’s sunglasses off her face and pulls her own off as well, tossing them to the other lounge bed on the bow. Kara’s weight is steadying and warm, and Lena’s hands are traveling through Kara’s hair, down her back.

Warm hands are pushing up Lena’s tank top and Kara’s lips are sliding insistently against her own and just like that Lena gets what she wanted - the entire world distills down to this moment and everything else gets shut out. All she is aware of is the careful way Kara dusts kisses down her jawline and whispers affection directly into her ear.

She’s so distracted by the fingers tracing her ribs that she doesn’t notice Kara’s switched from English to Kryptonian until she’s mumbling words Lena’s never heard before. Pulling away a little to force Kara to look at her, Lena affects a quizzical look, her hand reaching up to trace a thumb over the swell of Kara’s lower lip. “What did you just say?”

A blush beats over Kara’s cheeks and Lena realizes maybe there’s a reason Lena doesn’t know those particular phrases. “I said I love you,” Kara murmurs, voice thick and attractive. It beats heat into Lena’s gut.

“No, you didn’t,” she says with a smirk. “I know what that sounds like.”

Kara’s eyes dart away guiltily and Lena laughs as realization dawns. “Kara,” she says in a teasing tone, voice dripping with feigned shock. “Were you saying something dirty?”

“No,” Kara immediately denies, but the truth is in the deepening of her blush and Lena grins even as Kara moves off of her with a heavy roll of her eyes.

Lena follows the motion immediately and settles on top of her girlfriend, grinning down at the sheepish expression on her face. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t teach me all the dirty Kryptonian words. That’s easily the best part of learning a new language.”

“Stop teasing me,” Kara complains, with a certain amount of whine and a pout that Lena has to kiss.

“I’m sorry,” Lena says softly against Kara’s lips, but she’s smiling and Kara makes this little noise into their kisses that tightens something low in Lena’s gut.

“No, you’re not,” Kara retorts, but she brings her hands up to grip Lena’s hips and sits up a little to keep their lips together. Lena wraps her arms around Kara’s neck and enjoys the feeling of Kara cradling her in her lap.

“Kara,” Lena says, pressing a trail of kisses across Kara’s jaw until she’s nosing under her ear. Kara hums out a questioning sound and slides her palms up under Lena’s shirt at her back. “I love you.”  

It’s whispered straight into Kara’s ear and the reaction is instantaneous. Kara’s body relaxes into Lena’s and her fingers clench a little against the skin over Lena’s spine.

“But I’m not having sex on the bow of this ship.”  

Kara startles a little bit and pulls back to look at Lena. “I wasn’t trying to - I mean I want whatever you - I didn’t.”

Lena shushes her with a finger over her lips and a short chuckle. “We’re not alone on this lake,” Lena says and gestures without looking to where she knows another boat is anchored not far away. In the distance she can hear the gentle roar of an engine speeding past. “Do you think you can handle carrying me down to the cabin?”

Without responding verbally, Kara just stands up, lifting Lena with ease and all but floating them down to privacy.

--

As it turns out, parallel universes don’t exactly have significantly noticeable differences. At least not right away.

Earth-1, as Kara had called it, isn’t much different than their own earth (Earth-38, she learns) and Lena finds herself just a tad disappointed by that.

Barry has assembled what looks to be an entire superhero team together in a big airplane hanger and Lena feels a little out of place. The feeling settles just slightly when Kara grabs her hand and keeps her close by her side.

“Barry, I thought you were bringing an alien,” a man calls out from across the hangar as they make their way towards him.

“Yeah, we did,” Barry says and he smiles at Kara, stepping aside for the group to observe her. Lena drops her hand on instinct and allows Kara to pace forward. “Everybody, this is my friend, Kara Danvers, or as she’s known on her earth, Supergirl.”

It’s odd to hear Kara’s secret identity so casually disclosed like that, but she supposes it’s not as important a secret on a completely different earth.

A man to their right speaks up. “What makes her so super?”

Lena smothers a smile at the quick response Kara has to that, jumping up to hover in the air. Her laser vision whirs to life and they all watch as she draws the Crest of El into the cement right behind them.

“I’m convinced,” Lena thinks she hears someone say punctuated by an excited, “Best team up ever!”

Kara touches back down beside Lena, eyes bright and Lena shakes her head. “Show off,” she whispers.

The man from before, the one asking Barry if he brought an alien, steps forward. “And you are…?”

It takes Lena a second to realize the question is directed at her, but Kara answers for her anyway. “Lena,” Kara provides, rocking forward a little on her toes. “She’s with me.”

The man looks like he’s waiting for some other sort of explanation, but Kara doesn’t give him one, just keeps smiling and looking around. Lena doesn’t offer one either, just crosses her arms and stands beside Kara.

Barry steps forward and claps his hands together. “Right, so let’s get some introductions out of the way,” he starts and proceeds to name each person in the hangar, Kara watching with intelligent eyes as she nods at every single one of them.

There are a lot of names to remember, and a lot of aliases that go along with them, but Lena keeps up and idly wonders what it would be like to live on an Earth with this many superheroes. On their Earth, it was only a couple Supers, a new Guardian, and a rotating cast of Bat-people in Gotham. And that was only because Gotham was so crazy, she was sure of it.

When they’re done, they congregate around a bank of monitors and Barry runs them through the threat they’re all gathered there to fight. The Dominators. Kara adds in her own two cents about what she knows of them from their universe. Lena only half listens to it as she idles by Kara’s side. She marvels a little at what it’s like to be confronted with a problem that really has nothing to do with her. That doesn’t actually pose a threat to her day-to-day.

It’s also only slightly unnerving to be in a warehouse full of strangers and realize that not a single one of them knows who she is. At least not who she is apart from some woman Supergirl brought with her from another universe.

Eventually the group decides on running a training exercise against Kara, and Lena grins a little at the excited glint Kara gets in her eye at the prospect. When they all clear out to get ready, Lena’s not entirely sure where to stand or what to do. It occurs to her that she really just is a bystander in this whole thing. Every single other person seems to have some kind of role or contribution to the group, but Lena is just there observing, standing on the sidelines and watching.

Kara, who is far too excited about pretty much everything to do with this, merely gives Lena’s hand a warm squeeze before skipping away to talk to Barry and the grumpy man named Oliver Queen. Lena just kind of looks around the room and tries to find a place to stand that is relatively out of the way.

“Lena, right?” The woman named Felicity walks over to her with a cautious smile, pointing at her in question.

“That’s right,” Lena answers, straightening a little.

Felicity’s smile grows to something more warm and easy and Lena can’t help but respond to how friendly it seems. It’s freeing to realize that she’s meeting people that seem to have zero presumptions about her. “You can stand with us,” she says. “In the command center. It’s where the brains of this operation usually congregate.”

Lena follows her into what looks like a mobile tactical unit with S.T.A.R. Labs painted on the side. Lena’s never heard of such a company, but from the looks of the massive hangar they’re currently standing in and the amount of tech around them with the same logo, it’s as big a deal as L Corp in this universe.

They watch the training exercise from the safety of the van, occasionally stepping out to run some tests or take down data. Lena lingers around Felicity, Cisco and Caitlin and watches over their shoulders. It’s fascinating to discover what each member of the team can do - between highly powered weaponry and lethal combat skills they make a formidable squad. But they’re no match for Kara.

“Heat vision,” Cisco breathes at some point when Kara yet again lets the beams shoot out of her eyes. “Damn. That’s cool.”

Felicity hums agreement, types something into her laptop and Caitlin looks over. “I wonder how hot it actually is. It just cut through tungsten.”  

“It can exceed 50,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit,” Lena answers without thinking and the group turns around to collectively stare at her with matching looks of surprise. She can’t decide if it’s because the number is almost incalculably large or if it’s because it’s the first time she’s spoken aloud to them in almost an hour.

“That is seriously hot,” Cisco says in a way Lena’s not entirely sure is about the numbers. Lena laughs a little, clears her throat at the feeling of being observed critically by all the three of them.

Felicity turns her chair entirely around, leans back in it and looks at Lena with narrowed eyes. “What is it exactly you do? On your Earth?”

“I run my family’s company,” she says simply.

“Sounds quaint,” Cisco adds, turning back to his computer and typing in a few commands.

She smiles at the idea of L Corp being considered anything of the sort. “It pays the bills.”

“What’s the company?” Felicity asks.

“L Corp,” she responds promptly. “Formally Luthor Corp. After my family. The Luthor family.”

There’s no visible response and Lena finds herself a little baffled at the experience. Not a single person in the room reacts to her last name and she hasn't had this kind of feeling since meeting Kara for the first time.

Felicity just sort of blinks at her. “What does the company specialize in?”

Lena can’t help but laugh a little. “I wouldn’t say we do exactly. Though our technology division is probably our most lucrative. We also hold interests in industry, communications, financial, and some property ventures.”

“Okay maybe not so quaint,” Cisco says, twirling around like Felicity. Lena can make out the small smile Caitlin lets out at that.

“Well you’re in good company,” Felicity says wryly, but Cisco is watching her with interest now and he wags a pen in her direction.

“Technology. Talk more.”

Lena shrugs, feeling comfortable with this line of questioning. It feels nice to talk about L Corp to people that have absolutely no preconceived notions about its legacy. “Mostly bio-engineering, robotics, pharmaceuticals, software.”

“I knew it,” Cisco says sagely with a shake of his head. “You’re totally a nerd.”

Eyebrows raising, Lena smiles, crosses her arms. “I know a few people that would disagree. Myself included.”

Caitlin turns after that, sending Cisco a short glare before looking a Lena kindly. “So does Supergirl work for L Corp?”

It pulls a sharp laugh out of Lena. “No, not exactly.”

“But you guys work together?” Felicity asks and Lena wonders how she found herself in this position being interrogated by these three.

“We’re friends,” Lena answers and it seems like a massive oversimplification, but it’s all she has. Felicity gives her a skeptical look, like she knows just how generic that response is, but she lets it go.

“Is that how you know all her numbers?” Cisco says.

“Her numbers?”

He nods. “Yeah, like her powers. You’ve tested them?”

It’s habitual to shield people from knowing too much about Kara, knowing about the wealth of information she’s gathered regarding Kara’s powers, but the room seems to hold something trustworthy in it. “I have.”

Caitlin’s eyes light up a bit of that and so do Cisco’s. Felicity has an amused smile on her face she can’t read, but doesn’t get a chance to before Cisco is nodding rapidly with a wide grin. “Awesome. You have got to tell me everything. Let’s start with just how strong she is because I’m thinking she could probably drop kick Grodd into cyberspace based on what I’ve seen, but maybe it’s even more than that.”

“Grodd?” Lena asks, perplexed.

Caitlin glares at Cisco again. “He’s this -” she wavers, gestures inarticulately.

“He’s a gorilla,” Cisco provides. “It’s a long story.”

“Doesn’t seem that long,” Felicity mumbles, but she spins back around in her chair and eyes the monitor that’s playing a live video feed of the hangar. Out of the corner of her eye Lena can spot Kara’s happy grin as a stream of bullets bounce off her chest.

“So how powerful is she really?” Cisco is leaning towards her eagerly and she can tell Caitlin is just as curious about the answer.

Lena shrugs, thinks of the encrypted spreadsheet she still has on a dusty harddrive in her storage unit and does some easy calculations in her head. “On a good day, with significant yellow sun exposure, she could likely support somewhere in the range of 200 quintillion tons.” If she inflates the numbers a little it’s only because she likes the awed reaction she gets as she says it, the way everyone glances at Kara who is now tossing around Ray Palmer like he’s made of paper.

--

It happens mostly accidentally, but she’s working on a robotics project one day when she discovers how to make a self-repairing alloy.

It wasn’t her intention when she had set out to modifying her newest battlebot, but as she’s reviewing some of her research results and sipping on a lukewarm mug of coffee she realizes that the metal she’s been tinkering with in the simulation was...healing itself.

For a frozen few seconds she can’t do anything but blink at her computer screen.

She checks her results three times. Runs them through four different programs.

All the same.

Her first thought is that she could revolutionize architecture, industrial design. An alloy that when broken intuitively binds itself back together has limitless possibilities.

Her second thought is about Kara. And as if summoned by Lena’s wandering brain, her girlfriend saunters into the enclosed lab with a bright smile and a brown paper bag.

“Hey,” Lena greets, craning back a little to accept the kiss Kara drops on her lips.

“Hi,” Kara says before plopping into a chair next to Lena and leaning back to prop her legs on the table. She deposits the bag next to Lena’s laptop. “I ordered potstickers, but I think Great Wall shortchanged me again.”

“That’s probably because no one that works there thinks one person could reasonably want twelve orders of the same thing at once.”

Kara hums disapprovingly and glances at Lena’s computer. “What are you working on?”

Glancing back at her screen, Lena just sort of shakes her head, flounders around for what to say. “I’m not sure.”

Kara sits up then, her feet thudding back on the floor and she leans in close to Lena to properly see the program that’s still running Lena’s numbers through a series of algorithms. “Whoa,” Kara says after a few seconds of blinking at the screen. The expression on her face is a lot like how Lena felt just moments ago when she realized what was happening. “Is that - I mean is it repairing itself?”

“I think so.” Lena nods grateful that someone else is seeing it too. At least she’s not hallucinating.

“Rao,” Kara breathes out, looking at Lena with awe in her expression. “That’s amazing. It’d make it virtually unbreakable wouldn’t it?”

“In theory, yes,” Lena answers and she’s back to thinking of all the implications - she makes a mental note to call Lex later and send him the results.

“I knew I was dating a genius, but this is like -” Kara smiles at her as she makes a gesture with her hands, opening them up near her head and letting a small explosion sound come out of her mouth. It makes Lena laugh and roll her eyes.

“Stop,” she says, fighting a blush. Kara relents with a quick kiss to Lena’s cheek and a smile.

“I wonder what that would feel like,” Kara comments with a hint of wonder in her voice and Lena looks at her curiously.

“What do you mean?”

Kara shrugs, leans back away from Lena’s computer and reaches into the bag of food on the table to pull out a plastic box of potstickers and set it on her lap. “I’ve never held an Earth metal I couldn’t snap in half or at the very least bend.”

Lena had never thought about that. Never thought about how Kara doesn’t really understand anything on this earth that’s unbreakable. She reaches out to hold Kara’s hand and warms at the gentle way Kara twists their fingers together. “Well if I can get it out of the theory stage, I’ll make you something with it.”

“Really?” Kara perks up a little at the idea, and Lena is, as always, helpless against Kara’s smile.

“Definitely,” she responds with a quick, solid kiss to Kara’s lips.

The metal does, in fact, end up working. Her brother sends her a bottle of Macallan 1939 after she sends him the results and a sample. The note on the bottle reads: you’re going to make us obnoxious amounts of money. It makes her feel a kind of pride she can’t deny, fills her with purpose and for a few seconds she looks forward to the future - working with Lex at Luthor Corp to revolutionize the world.

Kara takes her out to dinner to celebrate, and when they’re back in Lena’s dorm room later, she hands Kara the bracelet she made out of the new metal.

“What’s this?” Kara asks, taking the small metal circlet from Lena’s hands. It’s a shimmery, anodized metal that picks up colors easily, and it nearly shines in Kara’s hands.

“A bracelet,” Lena answers simply. “Made from the first samples of the new alloy I discovered.”

Kara looks down at it with something like reverence and she’s holding it gently in her fingers like it’s liable to break. Which it’s not. That’s the whole point.

Lena laughs a little. “Go on,” she tells Kara. “Try to break it.”

There’s hesitation in Kara’s demeanor, but after a few seconds, she tries, pulling at the bracelet in an attempt to snap it in half. The metal bends a little, but doesn’t break, stays interlocked in a circle. It’s thin, but incredibly heavy - Lena had to use two hands just to present it to Kara.

“Wow,” Kara says, looking between Lena and the bracelet. “You really did it.”

“I did,” Lena replies, feeling proud of herself.

“I love it,” Kara whispers and her smile beats across Lena’s heart like a drum.

“I would have had it engraved,” she adds softly and she fiddles a little with the watch on her wrist. “Like you did with my watch, but you can’t really carve into a metal that’s built to repair itself.”

It’s said as a joke, but Kara’s gaze whips up so fast and serious that Lena’s smile swipes off her face in response.

“What would you have said?” Kara asks and her voice sounds hoarse and scratchy. “If you could have?”

With a casual shrug, Lena tries to ignore the significant look in Kara’s face. “Something like mine,” she answers, aware of the Kryptonian lettering that sits against her skin. “Something saying how much I love you. How I’ll love you forever.”

Kara’s chest is moving up and down perceptibly and it’s such an odd image that Lena starts to get a little worried. Especially when Kara doesn’t say anything else, just stares at Lena with an inscrutable expression.

“Kara,” Lena says, keeping her voice soft, but reaching out to stroke a palm down Kara’s arm. “Darling, are you okay?”

Without answering, Kara just pushes forward and presses the sweetest kiss to Lena’s lips.

--

The training lasts a few hours and Lena can’t stop the swell of pride as she sits back and watches Kara handily beat back any attack thrown at her without breaking a sweat. As it goes on, though, Kara starts to look a little uncomfortable with it, and as happy as Lena is to see Kara beating everyone up, she still doesn’t love Kara being used as a training dummy.

“Are you sure you want me to keep going?” Is a question Kara asks more than once and it’s always met with the gritty grumble of Oliver Queen telling her not to stop.

There seems to be some other drama happening among the group and she’s heard the term time travel thrown around about seven times. There’s a lot to process.

She follows along with some of it, but she’s frankly so grateful to not be at the heart of some epic conflict that she’s happy to watch the rest of them argue amongst themselves and throw distrustful gazes at someone that isn’t her. It isn’t until a beeping sound interrupts them and Lena turns to see Felicity staring at her phone with clear worry.

“Guys! It’s Lyla. The president’s been abducted by the Dominators. She needs us now.”

Just like that everyone tenses and looks around and what had felt like just fun and games for most of the day seems to get palpably serious. Kara’s spine straightens and she locks eyes with Lena.

The group, still clearly unnerved by their own internal drama, splits in two. Oliver and Barry hang back and Lena can’t decide if Oliver is upset about it or if the surly attitude is just normal for him. Judging by the way Felicity seems to constantly be rolling her eyes at him behind his back she thinks it’s probably a consistent personality trait.

Most of the team shuffles out with purpose, but Kara walks over to her and grips lightly at her bicep, clearly conflicted at the idea of leaving Lena alone in the hangar. It occurs to her then that they really are isolated in this universe. They have only each other.

“You going to be okay?” Kara asks, her hand warm and solid on Lena’s arm.

“Of course,” Lena replies, reaching up to grip at Kara’s hands, their fingers slipping together. “Be careful.”

“Always,” Kara says with a bright grin that makes Lena laugh.

Without any time to realize what’s happening, Kara leans forward to press a quick brief kiss to her cheek, just a little too close to her mouth to be considered friendly and they both kind of stare at each other wide eyed when Kara pulls back.

“Okay, cool,” Kara croaks, stumbling back a little. “Yeah, okay I’ll see you later.”

Speeding away just a little faster than human, Kara is gone and Lena is left staring at the empty hangar space hangar.

--

“So how long have you and Kara been dating?” The question comes out of nowhere and Lena nearly chokes on the rum runner she had been sipping on. She bends over, away from the wall she’d been leaning against and coughs for a good few seconds.

She turns wide, confused eyes to her left, where the voice had come from and squeaks out a, “Excuse me?”

It’s Max’s new girlfriend, who’s sitting on the far end of the couch and she’s eying Lena with her brow furrowed, clearly puzzled by Lena’s reaction. They’re at some party the astronomy club is hosting and Kara had just bounced away to make sure to Aaron and Josie were ordering the right kind of pizza, leaving Lena in the living room with...apparently a very curious new addition to their friends group.

“You and Kara,” the girl, Hayley, Lena thinks, is saying. “Have you guys been dating long? Did you meet here, at college?”

“We’re -” Lena tries to get her brain to start working again, idly wonders how many drinks she’s had. It can’t have been that many. Maybe two. Maybe three. “We’re not dating.”

This gets what can only be described as a shocked expression and Hayley sort of rears back a little, looking at Lena like she’s just told her that the world is indeed flat and the sky is actually purple. “You’re not?”

“No,” Lena answers, the word slow like she’s explaining something to a child. Max steps over then, handing his new girlfriend a drink and he grins at both of them.

“What are we talking about?” He asks and then catches Lena’s expression. “Why do you look like someone just told you the Earth orbits the moon?”

“I was just asking about her and Kara,” Hayley confesses and she scoots over so Max can join her on the couch. “I thought they were dating.” She winces a little, sends Lena an apologetic look. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be awkward.”

Max bursts out into laughter, loud and nonstop for a good thirty seconds. Both she and Hayley shoot him perplexed looks, clearly not getting the joke, but before she can say anything, Kara is gliding back into the room and heading straight for Lena.

It becomes obvious to her quickly both why Hayley was convinced they’re dating and what exactly Max found so amusing because Kara plops down on an armchair to Lena’s right before reaching up to circle Lena’s wrist and tug until Lena is falling right into Kara’s lap.

She just sort of freezes, her heart starting to thud a little quicker than usual, but it’s not from sitting on Kara’s lap. That, she’s starting to realize, is a completely normal experience. Kara is a pretty tactile person and she’s always touching Lena in some capacity. But now she notices that Max is fighting a smile when he looks at them and Kara wraps her arm around Lena’s waist in a manner less than friendly and she leans her head against Lena’s shoulder as she plucks the plastic cup out of Lena’s hand and takes a long sip.

It takes a few seconds, but Kara must notice Max and Hayley staring at them and she’s likely picked up the sudden increase in Lena’s heartrate because she leans forward a little bit to catch Lena’s eye before glancing warily at their other friends. “What?”

With a slight cough, Lena recovers and doesn’t want Kara to feel self conscious about what she’s doing so she slings her arm around Kara’s shoulders like she always does and smiles at her. “Nothing,” she says, ignoring the pointed way Max takes a slow sip of his beer.

Kara looks completely unconvinced - Lena’s sure it’s because her heart is still fluttering - so Lena twists her fingers in the ends of Kara’s ponytail to try and reassure her. “Did you get the right pizza ordered?”

Brightening at the prospect of food, Kara bounces a little, setting her chin on Lena’s shoulder with a happy grin. “Yes, and I made sure they ordered you a salad.” She says the last word like it’s something dirty and Lena laughs.

She’s aware of Max and Hayley still watching them even as Aaron and Josie walk back into the living room, but she finds she doesn’t actually care. Kara’s body is warm as it wraps around hers and she’s smiling like Lena is the only person she cares about in the room and there are worst things to be accused of doing than dating Kara Danvers.

The crush she’s developed on Kara since they started being friends two months ago has become harder and harder to ignore - especially with the way Kara has no idea what the near constant physical contact between them does to Lena - but Lena’s pretty sure she wouldn’t trade their friendship for anything.

It’s odd. Lena had come to college with zero intention of developing any significant emotional attachments, but it seems she was wholly unprepared for this girl in her life. A girl that is still unaware of the implications of some Earth customs, unaware that holding hands and cheek kissing and lap sitting could all be easily misinterpreted.

But Lena stops caring when Kara laughs at something Aaron is saying and the sound of it comes straight into Lena’s ear, puffs of air against her neck. She tangles her fingers in the ones spread out against her thigh and takes her drink back from Kara.

--

The tech team heads to the actual S.T.A.R. Labs and watches the mission from what looks like some kind of command center. Cisco and Felicity take seats next to each other in front of a bank of computers and Lena takes stock of everything they’re looking at. Before long, everything goes to hell - as it seems like it does with this crew. The terrible feeling that rockets through Lena when she hears Kara screaming in pain isn’t settled by Barry and Oliver rushing out to go help them, and it certainly isn’t helped when the team, including Kara, starts attacking them.

Eventually, Barry gets Kara alone, leading her back to the warehouse where the team had started.

“What is he doing?” Felicity asks and Lena feels the exact same way, would like to know exactly what Barry thinks his plan is.

Cisco answers. “He’s making her angry.”

Lena thinks to tell them how bad an idea that is - she’s seen Kara Danvers angry, has been there while trying to calm her - but settles for keeping her eyes on the little map that tracks Barry and Kara’s movements.

“But he knows Supergirl is invincible,” Caitlin argues and Lena feels something turn over in her chest. Because Supergirl has weaknesses and this is alien technology that she knows Kara’s never been up against. Worry spikes hard in the back of her head at the idea of Kara getting hurt because of someone overestimating her invulnerability.

It occurs to her then what Barry is probably doing and she exhales noisily in realization. “He’s trying to get her to destroy the device. Fly right through it.”

She can’t fight the wave of irritation that flows through at that because she hates the idea of Kara being used, but it’s not seconds later that both figures on the map seemingly collide and then stop abruptly.

Everything in the room stills and they wait for what feels like a minute, but is likely only seconds before Barry’s voice is breaking through the silence telling everyone that everything is okay and they’re back.

Lena fiddles with her watch and takes a deep, steadying breath.

On a monitor to her left she can see the video images of the rest of the team, congregated just outside the labs, but no longer fighting each other. They stand around just staring at each other and as soon as it’s confirmed the fight is over, Felicity is fleeing the room and heading outside.

The group is all assembled there and Barry shows up in a flash, but Kara is nowhere to be seen.

Lena walks over to take a seat at the chair Felicity just vacated and looks at Cisco. “Do you have Supergirl on the communication systems?”

Cisco turns to her, gives her a look that could only mean duh and hands her a small earpiece. “Sorry, probably should have hooked you up earlier.”

“It wasn’t necessary,” Lena tells him, smiling in thanks as she slides the small device into her ear. Cisco reaches across and pulls up a program on the computer she’s sitting at and she recognizes the software with relative ease.

“Know how to work that?” He asks with a little smirk and she sends him a confident look of her own.

With a few keystrokes Lena connects to Kara’s earpiece and hears it click open in her left ear. “Kara?”

Kara’s voice returns, surprised. “Lena?”

“Are you okay?” Lena asks because no one else seems overly concerned about Supergirl and that’s a role she easily steps into.

“Yeah,” Kara says but the tone sounds anything but convincing. “I’m going to go scan the rest of the city. Make sure there aren’t any more of the devices that were controlling us.”

It doesn’t seem like the brightest idea, frankly. If Kara does come across such a device what’s to stop it from controlling her again? Of the entire team to be put under that kind of spell, Supergirl is the most dangerous of all of them.

She can feel watchful eyes on her, from Cisco and Caitlin, who are still loitering around the room. In the interest of privacy, Lena clears her throat and speaks a language she hasn’t spoken in four years. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? ” Her Kryptonian is rusty and feels awkward at first, but she thinks she got the words out right.

It takes Kara a second to respond, likely because Lena’s accent was never quite perfect, but she comes back through the line, answering in kind. “I'll be careful.”

 "See that you are,” she says, and then goes for levity. “It’d be pretty bad form to abandon a girl in an alternate universe.”

Kara laughs and Lena smiles. “I’ll be home for dinner,” Kara jokes and it feels so normal.

Lena tries to remember the Kryptonian phrase Kara used to say to her all the time, the one that was supposed to be something like take care or until we meet again. It takes a second of scrambling through her memory to find it, but she does, and she says it softly across the comms.

There’s another pause, long enough that for a second she thinks maybe Kara already disconnected, but then her voice comes through again, quiet. She repeats it back, and it floods Lena with the warmth it always has 

With that, Lena clicks out of the line and closes down the communications program, sliding the little device out of her ear and standing.

Cisco is looking at her with his jaw dropped and confusion in his eyes. It nearly makes Lena laugh as she hands back the earpiece.

“You guys have some secret language or something?”

Lena just smiles, declines clarifying and settles for, “Or something.”

A gasp of alarm interrupts them before he can ask anything else and Caitlin is rushing towards a computer, pulling up a video feed. Lena turns just in time to catch a yellow light stream down over what once was the figure of Ray Palmer. Then again over John Diggle. Their bodies disappearing in an instant and suddenly everyone is running back into the lab.

They watch for a moment as Barry rushes straight for Oliver’s body, missing him by just a hair before he too is taken away.

Cisco gapes at the video feed. “Well, this just got a whole lot more complicated.”

Lena sees her vacation getting longer by the second and wonders how possible it is to send e-mail across universes.

--

Kara comes back later, much later, and Lena watches as Barry tells her what they suspect happened - the Dominators abducted five members of their group. Kara’s face falls immediately and she reaches out to touch Barry, to reassure him that they’re going to get the rest of the team back.

Kara notices her then and paces forward. Exhaustion is evident all over Kara’s face and in the sluggish way she walks towards her. She’s quieter than normal too and Lena can tell it’s because she’s fighting something inside herself. Lena ventures the mind control has affected Kara more than the others and she files the information away for a later conversation.

“You heard?” Kara asks when she gets close and Lena fights the urge to wrap Kara into a hug, to murmur affection into her hair until the other girl stops looking like she’s carrying the weight of multiple universes on her shoulders.

“I saw actually,” Lena says, and she doesn’t hug Kara, but she reaches out to stroke fingers down the fabric of Kara’s suit spread out on her forearm.

“Are you okay staying here for a little longer?” Kara asks and Lena sees the question for what it is, knows that Kara needs her there even if she won’t say it.

So she answers easily, “As long as we need to.”

Kara relaxes then, smiles a little and reaches out to grab Lena’s hand.

--

After a considerable amount of time spent having a very vocal freak out over her team getting abducted, Felicity offers to put Lena and Kara up in a hotel room and they gratefully accept. She even offers access to some kind of superhero fund they have going and Lena attempts to refuse any kind of financial handout - Luthors do not take handouts - but Kara gently reminds her they have no money and that food isn’t free.

With a strongly worded promise to pay the team back in full, Lena allows the loan and she and Kara make their way to the hotel with a quick stop to grab some kind of dinner. As soon as Kara is holding three paper bags full of cheeseburgers and fries, she starts to relax from the tense exhaustion of earlier.

It seems some things never change and at the first bite of one of the burgers, Kara lets a smile pass over her face.

They make it to their hotel room with little incident apart from a few strange looks at the voracious way Kara is shoving food into her mouth, incapable of waiting until they stop. She only does pause when they finally get into their hotel room and she superspeeds her way out of her suit and into a pair of sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt that hangs off one shoulder.

Kara plops unceremoniously onto one of the double beds and tugs her bag of food back over, digging in and pulling another burger out while Lena is left to roll her eyes and set her bag down on the desk against the far wall. She had brought an extra pair of clothes, just in case - and now she suspected that she was probably going to need to stop and buy some more.

It’s curiosity more than anything that propels her to open up the laptop Cisco had loaned her earlier that day and do something she usually avoids at all costs. She googles her own name.

For the first time since she was a kid, absolutely nothing comes up from the search. Not a single headline.

It takes considerably more digging than it usually does but she actually manages to locate this earth’s version of her and she can’t decide if she’s happy that her alter-ego exists or if it’s weirding her out. The Luthors don’t seem to be the powerhouse family they are in her world, but they are still a family - just one of moderate wealth that doesn’t make the news half as often.

Kara, who has been scarfing down her seventh cheeseburger while she lounges on one of the beds, looks over at her curiously. “You okay?” The words are garbled around a huge bite of food and Lena rolls her eyes. “Your heartbeat is being weird.”

“Don’t do that,” Lena chastises, but she smiles to take the heat out of it. Lena’s palm pushes against her sternum lightly and she takes a deep breath.

Swallowing the rest of her food, Kara affects a sheepish expression. “I can’t help it. Your heartbeat has always been super loud to me.” 

It feels like a much more significant fact than Lena is prepared to unpack, so she moves past it and focuses back on her laptop. There’s a webpage pulled up with a picture of Lionel and Lillian Luthor on it, and she can’t stop staring at it. There’s another one of her and Lillian and they look almost happy, normal even.

The differences between this earth and her own are then starkly apparent. Her father is alive. Lex isn’t in jail. Lillian doesn’t have any sort of paramilitary group under thumb (as far as she can tell). Even the pictures she finds of herself look...mundane.

“This Big Belly Burger stuff is really good,” Kara comments, fishing in the paper bag by her side and shoving a handful of fries into her mouth. “We need this on our earth.”

“We had it,” Lena replies, absently, clicking through pictures of the Earth-1 Luthors. “It was a subsidiary of Luthor Corp that my brother shut down to divert resources to other endeavors.”

Kara makes a horrified gasping sound and Lena arches an eyebrow back at her. “It’s really good,” Kara says in defense, wiping her hands and jumping off the bed to pace towards where Lena is sitting at a small table. “What are you looking at?”

After a second’s hesitation, Lena moves the laptop so Kara can see it. “I was curious if I existed on this earth.”

“And you do?”

Lena shrugs, gestures at the computer. “It seems so.”

“Wow,” Kara breathes out, looking at a picture of her parents looking like a normal middle-to-high class couple. “Weird.”

“Apparently my father is still alive,” Lena says, smiling even though the thought of it is settling an uncomfortable band around her chest. “And Lex is -” She can’t finish the thought, but imagines she doesn’t need to. Not with the sympathetic twist to Kara’s mouth and the kind set to her eyes. “I think I might even have a relationship with my mother.”

“That makes sense, I suppose,” Kara says, shutting the laptop and sliding it away from Lena. She’s settles on the edge of the bed closer to the desk, and Lena spins around to look at her.

It doesn’t make sense to Lena and she says as much. “How do you mean?”

Kara’s lips thin for a moment. “Well, there aren’t aliens here,” she says. “On this earth. Not until now of course, but that doesn’t totally count.”

Lena’s brow furrows as she tries to catch Kara’s meaning, and when she does her jaw drops. As if her family’s entire problems could be simplified to such a thing. “You mean there’s no Superman,” she says softly and doesn’t add the obvious. No Supergirl either.

“Krypton is still out there,” Kara adds with a wistful lilt to it. “At least, I assume it is. So there was never a reason for Kal to come here, or me to be sent to protect him, and none of my pod dragging Fort Rozz out of the Phantom Zone.”

It hadn’t occurred to her to consider that if Supergirl wasn’t on Earth, then the logical conclusion was that Krypton had never exploded. Everything Kara’s lost on their earth is here, in this universe, and intact.  

“Kara,” she starts slowly, her eyes starting to well a bit as the significance of what they’re talking about starts to become clearer. Kara must recognize what Lena’s thinking because she shakes her head with a soft smile, reaching out to grab at Lena’s hands and squeezing them.

“On Krypton, we believed that every moment is a bridge to the next. That everything happens for a reason,” Kara says, a serious set to her eyes. “If Krypton doesn’t explode, I never get to Earth. I never meet Alex or live with the Danvers. I never meet you.”

Lena hurts just imagining such a world, and then realizes she’s in it. Somewhere out there is a version of herself that’s never known Kara Danvers. At first, when she had realized that her family was more intact, she had assumed that in some way her life was happier here, more at peace. But as she faces the reality that Earth-1 Lena Luthor never has a Kara Danvers...

“I miss my planet,” Kara continues with a half smile. “Of course. I miss my parents, and Rao’s light, and Argo City. But I love the life I’ve built on Earth, and the people in it.”

“Me too,” Lena says, and is surprised to discover how much she means it. They blink at each other for a moment, their fingers winding together between them.

“I’m sorry we have to stay here longer than expected,” Kara says, her thumb rubbing over Lena’s knuckles.

“Don’t be,” Lena says with a dismissive shrug, happy for the subject change. “I told you I needed a vacation.”

Kara hums agreeably, dropping Lena’s hands and leaning backwards. “It’s kinda nice when you think about it.” 

“Think about what?”

“We’re just us here,” Kara says, looking at Lena softly.

Lena’s brows pull together. “I don’t know what you mean.”

With a shrug, Kara bites a little at her lower lip before continuing. “We’re not - I mean here on this Earth we’re not - there’s no DEO or L Corp, and your mother isn’t trying to kill anyone here and apart from a massive alien invasion going on, I don’t know…it feels like we’re playing hooky or something.”

With a slight pang in her chest, Lena understands what Kara’s trying to communicate and the truth of it sits over her like a blanket. “Less pressure,” she murmurs.

“Kind of,” Kara agrees.

Lena’s not sure it’s entirely true, considering Kara was brought to Earth-1 for the express purpose of being a heavyweight in the team’s fight against the Dominators, but she understands that’s not really what Kara’s talking about. “It’ll be nice,” she says, wanting to reach out again for Kara. “To just be us for awhile.”

“We can learn how to be friends again,” Kara says softly and suddenly the room feels so small to Lena. She clears her throat a little against the sudden thickness that claws up into it. “Without all the other stuff getting in the way.”

“That’ll be nice.”

“I haven’t had a real vacation in like forever,” Kara confesses in a soft voice and Lena smiles warmly.

“Me neither.”

“Like not since sophomore year when we went to Midway City and went on the lake,” Kara adds and Lena almost chokes when the memory of the trip Kara’s talking about comes to mind. They learned things about each other, but it wasn’t as friends. Kara must realize what she said and she straightens, coughs a little and stands. “Anyway, we should probably sleep.”

Lena turns away from Kara, organizes things on the table just to have something to do and nods. “Yeah, absolutely. Sleep.”

“Hey,” Kara says and Lena turns with a questioning arch of her eyebrow. “I know Barry wants to chase down some leads tomorrow around town, but I was thinking afterward we could like...I don’t know...do something?”

“Something?”

Kara shrugs, twists her fingers together and looks generally fidgety. “Go for lunch?”

It’s about the fortieth time Kara has asked her out for lunch since they reunited and each time never fails to remind Lena of the fumbling way Kara had first asked her out. It’s no different now, but Lena finds herself unwilling to say no. Not in a universe that’s comprised of only the two of them and nothing else. 

“Sounds good,” she replies, and smiles at the grin that takes ahold of Kara’s face.

“Really?” Kara’s so genuinely surprised at Lena’s answer that she almost feels guilty.

“Really,” Lena repeats and her chest swells at the happy way the skin around Kara’s eyes crinkles.

--

Jack Spheer is exactly the kind of guy she knows her mother would be thrilled if she married. He’s well mannered, successful, and he comes from the kind of money that almost matches the Luthors. The fact that she knows her mother would approve of him almost makes her dislike him immediately, but Jack is undeniably charming and nice in an unassuming way.

Plus he’s brilliant, and he has a passion for saving the world that reminds Lena unerringly of Kara.

And maybe that at the end of the day is the reason why Jack’s request to take her out to dinner spikes a stab of pain into her chest.

“I can’t,” she says almost immediately, trying to get the hollow feeling to fade from her chest.

“You mean not tonight or -” He’s still smiling and his invitation is almost casual, no pressure. But he keeps looking at her with kind, soft eyes and Lena’s avoided emotional attachments for two years for a reason.

“I’m not really looking to date anyone right now,” she answers, trying for a practiced and polite smile.

His expression barely wavers, but he shrugs. “I get it,” he says and it just makes it worse that he looks so understanding about it. They’ve been nothing but friendly with each other and she loves working with him and she really needs to stop thinking about Kara right now.

“I’m just not over an ex,” she tells him, reaching out to grasp his forearm. A worry that her rejection might ruin their friendship wraps around her chest, but he’s still smiling at her, shrugging like it’s no big deal. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he says immediately in a way that feels genuine. “Bad breakup?”

The answer to that isn’t really simple so Lena doesn’t give him one. Just shrugs. “Sort of.”

He grins like she didn’t just reject him in favor of an old flame and reaches out to pat her hand where it’s still resting on his arm. “Look, Lena. We’re friends, right?”

“Sure,” she says. Professional colleagues is more what Lena would categorize them as, but they’ve been working together on a joint project for the past few months now and it’s involved spending a considerable amount of time together - maybe friends was just as apt a description.

“Come have dinner with me,” he says again and puts up a finger to stop her response. “Come out, have a meal, you can tell me all about this moron that let you get away. No pressure. Not a date.”

She laughs a little, if only at the teasing half-smirk he has on his face. “Jack,” she sighs.

“Or we don’t have to talk about that at all,” he adds, putting his hands up in a half shrug. “Your choice. Either way, you get a free meal.”

“I can pay for my own meal,” Lena says with a roll of her eyes.

“Sure, but how else am I going to convince you to spend time with me if I can’t bribe you with free food?”

A smile threatens to take hold of her face and she purses her lips to prevent it. Jack has laughter in his eyes and she finds herself no longer wanting to resist.

“Fine,” she relents, shouldering her purse. “But I get to pick the place.”

Dinner ends up being far more enjoyable than Lena expected. Jack is an interesting conversationalist and he listens to her with a kind of patience she’s not used to. Apart from having a romantic interest, Jack seems to have no other agenda. He doesn’t need her money, and he already has corporate resources of his own, so he doesn’t need anything she can offer from her position at Luthor Corp.

He’s funny and he has good taste in wine and Lena feels comfortable with him in a way she’s only really felt with two other people.

“You have to tell me,” he says after ordering dessert and pouring the last of the bottle of wine in her glass.

“Tell you what?” She smiles at him over the rim of her glass, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.

“About the idiot that broke up with you,” he says, flashing her a charming smile.

It doesn’t hurt as bad as it usually does when she thinks about Kara, but there’s still that little twinge of pain in her chest. “Actually, I was the one that did the breaking up.” 

Arching a brow, he leans forward, plays with the stem of his wine glass. “Really?”

With a slow nod she takes another sip of her wine, shrugs one of her shoulders. “We were at different places in our lives,” she answers. Another massive oversimplification, but not that far from the heart of it. Idly, she wonders what Kara is doing right now, if she goes on dates like this, if she has to explain Lena to a new person - she wonders what Kara says about it. “It was for the best.”

“Sounds more complicated than that,” Jack says with a knowing glint in his eyes.

“Speaking from experience?” She asks with half a smirk, but his face grows serious when he answer.

“Yes,” he says simply and with a kind tone.

Any trace of a smile erases from her face and she sets her wine glass down to look at him, feeling affection burst unbidden from her chest. “Thank you for dinner, Jack,” she says softly and his lips twitch upward just a bit.

“The pleasure is all mine, Lena.”

--

The next morning, she and Kara both head back to meet up with Barry and see if they have any leads on where the Dominators could be or where they would have taken their teammates.

Lena hangs back with Cisco, Caitlin and Felicity, who have seemed to accept her as a de facto member of their nerd squad (their words, not Lena’s). She helps where she can and keeps an eye on Kara where they have a tracking program running up on a large monitor.

Nothing comes of it the first day. Nor the second.

At the end of the second day, Barry tells them to go back to their hotel with a we’ll call you if we need you and a sorry you’re having to stay longer than you probably intended.

Felicity makes plans to head back to Star City with Cisco and check in with her team. She hands them all small communication devices and basically puts them on call. Kara assures her that she can be anywhere at the drop of a hat and that she’s faster than Barry (he scoffs at that immediately, but the two of them share a smile).

The third day, Lena wakes up around 8am - a late start for her - and realizes she has absolutely no reason to get out of bed. No responsibilities, no pressing work to get done. It’s an odd experience.

She sends a fleeting thought for L Corp and the firestorm she’s surely abandoned it in. Guilt races through her, but she can’t deny that the past few days have been a reprieve from the usual stress of her life, and they’ve pumped a newfound strength into her.