12. Chapter 12(2)

“He must have sabotaged it,” J’onn answers.

“That amount of power,” Lena says slowly, her eyes wide as they track to Kara’s. “It’ll take ten city blocks with it. At least.”

“Why would he want to blow the building up?” Kara asks. “That doesn’t make sense. He’s here too.”

“I imagine he doesn’t care,” Lena responds, sliding into a chair next to Vasquez and logging into a terminal.

“She’s right,” M’gann says. “Armek will do anything to carry out his mission. Even sacrifice himself. He’d do it proudly.”

“There’s got to be a way to shut it down,” Alex says, coming up behind Lena and eying the reactor status window she has pulled up.

“The White Martian didn’t just take Winn’s form. He took his intelligence too,” J’onn replies. “He’s re-encoded the entire system.”

“So what?” Alex asks. “We need the real Winn to unlock it?”

“Let me see,” Lena says as she types in a few commands to verify what J’onn is saying. They continue talking but she only half listens as she tries to get into the system. This she can do - even if it’s small, she can work this computer. It’s something to focus on, something to help her hands feel less shaky.

“We don’t even know if Winn is still in the building,” Kara says, her hand settling on Lena’s shoulder as Lena gets denied access to the reactor override.

“He has to be,” M’gann replies. “In order for Armek to shapeshift so exactly into Winn he’d have to be close by to keep the telepathic link.”

“Okay, so he’s still in the building,” Alex says. “That’s good.”

“How do you know Winn’s access codes?” Demos asks, his body suddenly appearing in Lena’s peripheral vision. His voice is dripping with suspicion.

Lena turns to answer, but before she can he’s raising his rifle straight at her and Kara’s moving between them. “Put the gun down,” she orders in a dark tone.

Alex has raised her own weapon towards him. “She has access to the system,” Alex explains. “Because I gave it to her. And she’s close to Winn.” Alex glances at Lena. “I assume.”

Lena nods and allows a small smile to cross her face despite the situation.

“You gave Lena Luthor access to the DEO?” Demos asks incredulously.

“Watch your tone,” Kara snaps immediately, and Lena feels the air crackle with tension just enough to tell her Kara’s a moment away from zapping Demos in the face. Standing out of her chair, Lena moves closer to Kara and puts a comforting hand against her back in an attempt to ease the tension.

“Lena’s trustworthy,” J’onn says with a dismissive look at Demos. “We don’t have to time to argue about this.”

“How do you know?” Demos asks, keeping his gun trained towards Lena.

“He can read her mind? Put your gun down, you moron,” Vasquez says in an annoyed voice and after a moment’s hesitation, Demos does as he’s told, warily eying the look on Kara’s face.

“There’s a White Martian roaming about this building and the last thing we need is for all of us to start turning on each other,” Alex says.

“Alex is right,” J’onn says. “We need to find him. And fast.”

“Can’t you just x-ray the building?” M’gann asks, and when Lena gets a look at Kara’s face, she’s pulling an annoyed frown.

“Nope,” she answers with a pointed look at J’onn. “Someone lined all the walls with lead.”

“We’ll have to search the building on foot,” J’onn says and Vasquez gets up from her seat to retrieve her weapon, joining J’onn on the far side of the room.

“How long do we have?” Kara asks, and Lena drops back down into her chair, keystroking through what she can to get an answer. 

“About fifteen minutes,” she says. “I can try to see if I can work around the new code, but it’ll take time.”

“Okay,” Kara says. “I’ll stay here with you then.”

“No,” J’onn interrupts. “Vasquez and Demos will take the north wing. You and Alex will take the basement.”

“I’m not leaving Lena here alone,” Kara responds incredulously.

“I’ll be fine,” Lena says, turning back to focus on getting into the system. “Just leave me a gun.”

“I’m not going to just leave you a gun,” Kara practically hisses and Lena pauses her typing a moment to focus on Kara.

“This building is going to blow,” she says seriously. “And there’s a White Martian on the loose trying to kill us.”

“Exactly,” Kara says and she steps close enough that they’re shielded from the rest of the group who are busy gathering weapons. 

“Kara,” Lena says softly, reaching out to encircle Kara’s wrist, the small bump of fabric over her bracelet warming under Lena’s palm. “We need to find Winn or I need to find a way to override the reactor. Either way you’re needed out there and I’m needed here.”

“Lena,” Kara warns darkly, feeling a little shaky under Lena’s hand.

“We’ve talked about this,” Lena interrupts and she stands until they’re face to face.

“Yeah, we did,” Kara agrees. “We talked about taking unnecessary ris-”

“I’ll be fine,” Lena says and she reaches up to put her free hand against Kara’s cheek, pressing in close to keep her voice quiet. “If anything happens, I have the watch.”

“Kara,” Alex says from behind Kara. “I’ll stay here. With Lena.”

“That’s not necessary, Alex,” Lena says just as Kara adds, “I’ll be the one staying.”

“Need I remind you that we are on a clock here,” Alex says pointedly, glancing at both of them. “My sister isn’t going to let you stay here alone,” she directs towards Lena before looking at Kara. “And we need Supergirl out there when we find Armek.”

Kara looks about ready to argue, but Alex beats her to it with, “You trust me, right?” 

They stare at each other for a significant moment before Kara deflates a bit. “Of course.” 

Turning to Lena, Kara reaches out to grip her chin and presses a quick, solid kiss to her lips. “Be careful,” she murmurs.

“You too,” Lena says.

“Always,” Kara replies with a quirk of her lips.

Kara steps away and Alex takes her place with a comforting smile for Lena, and Lena’s a little shocked when Alex doesn’t take the opportunity to tease Kara for kissing Lena in full view of them all.

The group leaves then and Lena drops back down into her chair. Alex paces around behind her, gun drawn.

“You really don’t have to stay here,” Lena comments, focused on her screen as she types away into a terminal.

Alex laughs a little. “Yeah, I do. I’m not going to be the one to tell Kara that I left her-” Alex cuts off for a second and Lena glances over her shoulder until she continues. “Left you here defenseless.”

“Kara’s overprotective,” Lena says, returning to her work. Alex makes a noise that sounds something like agreement, but doesn’t bother responding.

It only takes a few minutes of trying to get access to the reactor before Lena comes to a realization. She can’t override it remotely. She’s going to have to make her way to the reactor room.

“I can’t override it from here,” she says, standing. “Do you know how to get to the reactor room?”

Alex eyes her for a moment. “You’re sure you can’t do it from here?” 

“Positive,” Lena answers, grabbing a tablet from the table.

Alex doesn’t seem thrilled with the idea of heading out, but she relents with a nod of her head. “Fine. Just stay behind me.”

--

“My mother certainly likes you,” Lena comments as she sets her purse on her kitchen counter and moves to the cabinet to grab a glass.

Jack laughs and slides into a stool. “You say that as if it’s not something I should consider in my favor.”

“It’s not,” Lena replies dryly, bending over to inspect her wine chiller and pulling a bottle out.

It makes Jack laugh again. A warm, comforting sound that makes Lena smile and he stands to move around the counter and pluck the bottle of wine out of her hands, ushering her away as she moves to open it. “Who knew my natural charm would be such a hinderance in courtship?”  

Lena rolls her eyes and takes the glass of wine Jack pours when he offers it to her. “If my mother likes you then there must be something,” she gestures around with her free hand at his body. “Off about you that I’m just not seeing.”

“You have quite the high opinion of your mother,” Jack says, pouring his own glass and arching his brow at her.

“You’ve met her,” Lena says simply, taking a sip of her drink. “That should speak for itself.”

“I’ve met worse,” Jack answers and they move into her living room. Jack falls onto the couch and Lena follows with an exaggerated expression of horror.

“Worse than my mother?! Surely you jest.”

Jack’s arm rests on the back of the couch, comfortably above Lena’s shoulders and he clinks his glass against hers before taking another sip. “Are you saying your mother has never liked anyone you’ve introduced to her?”

It makes her think instantly of Kara. The memories don’t come as often these days, but when they do they still squeeze at her heart as if it were just yesterday she was standing in a small regional airport crying. Thankfully, years of practice allow her face to remain unchanged, a small smile still playing across her lips. “My mother isn’t exactly the warmest of people.”

“What about the ex?” Jack asks simply and Lena fights the urge to look away.

“The ex?” She asks even though she knows exactly whom he’s referring to.

“The one we don’t speak about,” Jack says knowingly and he’s not meaning to be unkind, but Lena hates the way just thinking about Kara still spikes pain in her chest. It’s hard to remember the one time Lillian and Kara met; harder to remember all the times after that when Lillian pointedly referred to Kara as that girl you’ve been cavorting with.

“No my mother wasn’t very-” she falters for a moment, considers what to say. “My mother has never warmed up to anyone I’ve been fond of and the...ex...as you put it, was no exception.”

“Ah,” Jack says sagely, nodding his head in a slow motion. “I must imagine that made them all the more attractive to you.”

When it registers, Lena laughs abruptly, the pain in her chest easing just the slightest and she shoves at Jack’s chest. The motion is just a little too forceful and he sways to the side, jumping forward to catch his wine before it sloshes out of the glass.

“Don’t be rude,” she warns him playfully and he grins at her.  

“I’m just shocked you didn’t marry the ex purely out of spite,” Jack comments and this time he scoots a little away from her on the couch as if in anticipation of another shove. Rolling her eyes, Lena merely scoffs.

“Marriage,” she says, the word feeling strange as it comes out. “As if that’s something in my future.”

That seems to sober Jack. His smile stutters into a slight frown and he quirks his head at her. “You don’t want to be married?”

It’s then that Lena realizes who’s she’s talking to and the context of the question and tries to scramble for some kind of appropriate response that doesn’t provoke an emotional conversation she’s unprepared for. “It’s just never been something I’ve...considered,” she says and it’s such a lie that she can’t help but think of Kara again, of the way it felt to fall into routine with her, to fall asleep at night together, to companionably share quiet meals together. She goes for levity with a casual smile. “I’ve always been a more married to my job type.”

Jack’s face is thoughtful. “I love my job,” he says slowly. “But I’d always hoped I’d be married one day.”

 Lena looks away for a moment, studies the night sky outside the windows of her apartment. “Marriage is just a contract,” she says softly before turning back to Jack. “It doesn’t mean you love someone more or less. It just makes you responsible for them legally.”

He laughs, but it doesn’t sound entirely amused and his lips thin at the end of it. “I’ve always considered it more about…” He shrugs. “Making it public, official, permanent.”

“Love can be permanent without marriage,” Lena says quietly, her throat going thick. There’s a burn in her eyes suddenly and she forces herself not to think of the obvious.

Jack looks at her dead on, a sadness crinkling around his eyes that wasn’t there before. “I suppose it can,” he replies and there’s something so final about the moment that Lena has to take a deep sip of her wine just to keep from crying.

--

The walk through the DEO is eerie to say the least. It’s relatively silent and the hallways glow with a strobing red alarm light as they make their way to the reactor room. It doesn’t take long. Alex leads them efficiently through the base and Lena monitors the reactor on her tablet.

They step inside the correct room and Lena sets her tablet down at a small table just inside, and reaches to pull a wall panel off, trying to find the correct wire to connect straight into the system. Just as she’s fumbling through them she hears the sound of a gun clicking from behind her. 

“I’m going to need you to step away from the console,” Alex says. Or at least it seems like Alex, but when Lena turns to her there’s a look on her face that’s nothing like the Alex Danvers she knows.

“Alex?” Lena asks slowly, turning around to face her completely.

It occurs to her what’s happening in a matter of moments, confirmed when the Alex in front of her trains her weapon straight on Lena. For a second, it feels like she can’t breathe. She’s certainly seen her fair share of danger in her life, but it’s another thing entirely to see an alien wearing her friend’s face aim a gun at her chest. 

“You’re the White Martian,” Lena says. Nothing about Alex’s face blinks. "There's two of you." 

“Step away from the console.”

“You really don’t want to do this,” Lena says drawing the words out, but she steps away from the console, her hands up.

“Do what?”

“Kill me,” Lena answer, trying to stall for time. 

“I’m not going to kill you,” the Martian says and it’s a uncomfortable feeling to see such a sinister look on Alex’s face. “The reactor will take care of that for me. I just have to delay you. Give Armek a little time. Maybe use you to toy with Supergirl a bit. You know...just for fun.” 

Lena drops her hands down and her fingers are immediately drawn to her watch. She runs her thumb over the side button, considering for a moment. “Give him time for what?”

The Martian ignores her question, focuses instead on where her hand is playing with her watch. “Thinking of calling your mate?”

Her hand flinches away from her wrist and she eyes the Martian skeptically, her mind racing for a plan while the Alex lookalike smirks.

“Yeah, I know what that watch is and what it does...what it means . Alex here knows a lot of things,” the Martian says, tilting its head to the side entreatingly. “Would you like to hear any of them?”

“Where’s Alex?” Lena asks. “The real one?”

“I’m just as real as she is,” the Martian says. “I feel everything she feels, I have all her memories, her thoughts, everything.”

Lena tries to ignore the obvious ploy to distract her and looks around the room to catalog her positioning and see if there’s anything she can use to her advantage. Her heart feels like it’s racing and if not for the lead permeating the entire base she’s sure Kara would be bursting into the room to see what was wrong. For the first time in a long time she wishes her heartbeat was broadcasting loud enough to reach Kara.

“You’re going to die here, human. There’s no point avoiding the inevitable.”

“We’ll see,” Lena says, moving her stance a little.

Just as Lena’s thinking of making another move, diving for a storage crate to her right that she’s hoping has something useful inside of it, Kara comes bursting around the corner.

Lena can’t imagine what this looks like - Alex with her weapon aimed straight at Lena’s head. But Kara must know already that it’s not her sister, because she drops into a fighting stance. “Get away from her,” Kara commands.

“Come to rescue your wife, Supergirl?” The Martian says with a smirk, lowering her weapon and turning to face Kara. Lena’s brow pulls down at the words, but Kara’s eyes start to glow in response, her face dark and severe.

“I said step away from her.”

“Maybe heat vision isn’t such a great idea in a room with an unstable nuclear reactor,” the Martian says, gesturing around the room and Lena’s inclined to agree with that. Her eyes go a little wide and she looks at Kara, grateful to see her eyes fade back to normal.

“Then I guess we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way,” Kara says before throwing herself at the Martian with a cocked back fist. The slam together forcefully and the Martian gets thrown back a few feet before standing back up and laughing a little.

“I can’t believe you’d hit your sister.”

“You’re not my sister,” Kara growls.

“You’re right,” the Martian, says throwing the gun to the ground. “I’m not.” 

With a sickening sound the vision of Alex fades and is replaced by a gigantic White Martian. They’re nothing like the Green Martians, Lena notes. The Martian lets out a loud roaring sound before jumping back towards Kara and engaging.

Lena ducks quickly away from the fight and finds her way back towards the console. Just as she’s about to try again to get access to the system a familiar yelp bursts out across the sound of fighting and she turns to see Winn skidding into the room next to J’onn.

Winn’s eyes go wide at the sight of what’s happening in front of him, but before he can say anything, a man Lena doesn’t recognize comes barreling in from the side straight into J’onn. 

“Winn!” Lena calls out as J’onn starts to grapple with the newcomer - the other White Martian Lena thinks, Armek. Winn turns towards her voice and flinches away from where Kara is throwing her own Martian into a wall.

“Hey, hi, hello, how are you?” Winn says breathlessly as he scrambles closer to Lena and surveys the screen. “Little reactor problem, huh?”

“Yeah,” Lena replies, feeling her own sense of urgency start to overtake her better senses as she watches Kara struggle to get the upperhand in her fight. “I’m locked out of the system,” she tells him, shoving the keyboard towards him.

Winn reaches out and quickly types in a few commands, the same commands Lena’s tried about a hundred times in the last ten minutes. “Whoever encoded this is a genius,” Winn comments and Lena would roll her eyes if the robotic reminder that they have two minutes until a complete reactor meltdown wasn’t putting her on edge.

“We have to reroute it,” Lena says, grabbing at his forearm.

“Good call,” he replies, his eyes going wide with a sense of purpose as he quickly moves past her and pulls a panel off a nearby wall.

“What can I do?” Lena asks, trying to ignore the sight of J’onn getting tossed around and Kara sliding across the floor and into the wall.

“Stay by the terminal. I’ll tell you when to try again,” Winn says, plugging his tablet into the array of wires.

Lena hovers shaky fingers over the keyboard and glances over her shoulder to where Kara is seeming to get a few well placed punches in. On the monitor, a clock counts down the seconds until the core breaches and she can’t decide which sight - Kara or the time - makes her more nervous.

J’onn’s seemed to finally take control of his own struggle with Armek and M’gann has joined the fight, the two of them managing to beat the White Martian back and Lena glances to where Kara is standing up from having been knocked into an array of storage crates on the far side of the room. 

“Lena, now!” Winn yells over his shoulder and she turns quickly back to the monitor, reaching out to type in her access codes and feeling a sense of relief when she’s not denied entry into the system.

Winn is moving quickly over to her and all but skids to a stop over her shoulder, bouncing as he watches her work. “You got it? You got it?” 

“Shush,” she hisses, never taking her eyes of the screen as she works. It only takes a few more seconds until she’s finally getting a CORE STABILIZED message and she and Winn let out matching sighs of relief.

Kara is suddenly behind both of them and when Lena turns she’s dropping her head back on her shoulders and blowing out a low breath. “That was a close one.”

J’onn and M’gann are a few feet away standing over the body of a lifeless Armek and the other White Martian is out of sight.

“What are you talking about?” Winn says with an exaggeratedly dismissive shrug. “We had like, what, twelve whole seconds.”

Kara laughs and Lena finds herself joining as Winn grins widely at her. The feeling of triumph buzzes across her skin and when her eyes connect with Kara’s the sensation intensifies.

“Good job,” Kara says, glancing at both of them. She reaches out to squeeze Winn’s bicep. “Glad you’re okay.”

“I was on the ceiling,” he tells her, both of his eyebrows raising and Kara laughs again.

“Everyone okay?” J’onn asks as he walks over, his arm slung over M’gann’s shoulders as he leans slightly into her. 

“Where’s Alex?” Kara asks immediately even as she moves over to stand by Lena. 

Before anyone can answer the previously lifeless White Martian suddenly awakens, rising up off the floor and towering over them for mere seconds before the sound of a blaster rings out. As quickly as it rose, the White Martian falls back to the ground to reveal Alex standing in the doorway, weapon raised and a smug smile on her face.

“Have I mentioned how much I love my new gun?” Alex asks.

Kara seems to relax fully at that, her shoulders sagging as she grips Lena’s hand and offers a exasperated smile directed at her sister.

“Nice of you to join us,” she calls out with a teasing quirk to her lips.

A round of soft laughter echoes across the room and Lena lets herself all but fall against Kara’s side. Adrenaline hums through her, but there’s still a sense of victory among the group and she can’t stop the almost contented exhale that drops out of her lips.

--

The minute J’onn takes the base off of lockdown an irate looking Lucy Lane is marching towards them with James only steps behind her. Both of their faces are a mixture of concern and irritation.

“What the hell happened?” Lucy asks as soon as she gets near them.

J’onn steps forward. “Director Lane. I didn’t realize you were in town.”

James idles behind her, locks eyes with Kara for a moment, before nodding a greeting to Alex and smiling at Winn.

“Well now you do,” Lucy replies shortly, hands on her hips. “I got the alert that the base went on lockdown in the middle of dinner.”

“We had a White Martian situation,” Kara explains, stepping forward. “Hi, Lucy,” she says with a grin before wrapping Lucy up in a brief hug.

“Hi,” Lucy says with a touch of exasperation, but she returns the hug and manages a smile. “A White Martian situation?”

Alex paces forward, gives Lucy her own hug and squeezes her shoulder. “It’s taken care of.”

“Everyone okay?” James asks. Winn ambles over with a grin and he and James engage in some sort of ritualistic looking handshake that Kara rolls her eyes at.

“Yeah, of course,” Kara answers, moving back next to Lena. “Sorry to interrupt your date.”

“It wasn’t a date,” Lucy and James both reply immediately before whipping their heads to look at each other briefly. Lena laughs quietly and exchanges an amused grin with Kara.

 “I’m going to go check on the rest of the base,” J’onn says with a touch of side-eye for James and Lucy. “Good to see you, Director.”

Lucy nods at him. “Director.”

Winn makes an exaggerated saluting gesture. “Director,” he mocks until James smacks him in the arm.

“I’ve gotta go,” Alex says, walking away from the group, her phone already out. “Maggie and I were supposed to have dinner.” 

James shoots Alex a quizzical look and Winn’s eyebrows pull down as he looks over at Kara and Lena. “Maggie?” He asks in a quiet voice as Alex strides out of earshot.

Kara just shrugs and turns towards Lena. “Hungry?”

As if on cue, her stomach answers the question for her and she nods a little. “I could eat,” she answers as Kara grins. 

“I know a place,” Kara says, reaching out to grab at Lena’s hand.

They say goodbye to the rest of their friends and Lena lets Kara lead her away.

-- 

The place Kara knows ends up being the rooftop of an old dinner theater on the south part of town. Kara drops Lena off there before racing away and not ten minutes later is back, changed out of her suit and holding two huge bags of takeout.

“Did anyone just see you leap up an entire building in jeans?” Lena asks as Kara approaches.

“Of course not,” Kara tells her with a grin. “I told you. I’m stealthy. Like a cat.”

Lena laughs.

“When you said you knew a place I was thinking of...you know...actual tables or walls,” Lena teases and Kara rolls her eyes a little, walking to a corner of the roof where she sets the bags down and reaches around an old fuse box to pull out a duffel bag.

“I don’t have a table, but I’m not going to make you sit on the dirty floor,” Kara says with a look for Lena. “Don’t worry, Princess.”

Lena laughs, but shoves at Kara’s side and laughs harder when Kara flails at the touch and makes a big show of falling over onto the ground.

“Be nice!” Kara protests, but she’s smiling. “I fought a Martian today.”

Lena rolls her eyes and grabs for the blanket that’s sticking halfway out of the duffel. “Why do you have a bag here already packed and ready?”

Standing back up, Kara shrugs. “I like to come here,” she says, helping Lena spread the blanket out and moving the food around so they can sit, their backs up against the outer ledge of the roof.

Lena presses in close to Kara, taking an offered box of Chinese food and chopsticks. “Why here?”

Kara points with her chopsticks and Lena follows the direction towards the horizon, the sun setting slowly in a hazy glow of red and orange. “Awesome sunset views,” Kara explains. “And there’s not a ton of artificial light here which means-”

“More stars,” Lena fills in for her with a smile at Kara.

“More stars,” Kara confirms with an answering smile of her own. 

They stay smiling at each other for a long moment before Kara leans across the space and kisses Lena quickly on the lips. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Lena reaches up to cup at Kara’s chin, kisses her again. “Me too,” she says.

“Oh, and I brought wine,” Kara says suddenly, pulling away and setting her food down so she can reach into the duffel bag and pull out a bottle.

“You had wine in that bag?” Lena asks.

“Yeah,” Kara answers and Lena quirks an eyebrow.

“You don’t drink wine,” Lena points out and Kara freezes as if caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be.

“You do,” she says slowly, turning her gaze on Lena. 

Lena narrows her eyes. “Did you plan this?”

Kara seems to consider her answer for a moment and Lena struggles not to laugh at the expression on her face. “Would it be bad if I did?”

“I don’t know,” Lena says, shrugging a shoulder. “Are you planning on getting me drunk and taking advantage of me?”

“What?!” Kara exclaims so loudly Lena’s sure someone on street level could hear it. “Of course not.”

“It’s a joke, darling,” Lena laughs, reaching out to tweak a strand of Kara’s hair.

“I knew that,” Kara says, scoffing, but there’s a faint blush in her cheeks just barely detectable. “I meant to say that I don’t need to get you drunk to take advantage of you.”

It takes a second for that to register, but when it does Lena yelps out an indignant sound and shoves at Kara for the second time, laughing when she fumbles with the wine and sways to the side.

“Stop pushing me,” Kara jokingly protests.

Lena rolls her eyes, but smiles when Kara hands her a glass of wine. As she does it, the sun glints off the bracelet on Kara’s wrist, visible now that she’s changed out of her suit. It triggers a memory - a sequence of memories actually - and Lena debates for a moment if she’s ready to have that conversation.

After a heavy sip of wine, she takes a breath. “Kara,” she starts slowly, waiting for Kara to acknowledge her. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah of course,” Kara says, stabbing her chopsticks into the box in her hands and stuffing a huge portion of chicken in her mouth. “What’s up?”

Lena sets her wine down next to her own box of food and fiddles a little with her watch, trying to figure out how to start this conversation. “Kryptonian mating,” she begins, articulating the words out in a drawl. Kara’s eyes go noticeably wider and she swallows the food in her mouth.

“What about it?” 

“How does it work?”

“Why?” Kara asks with a level of suspicion that Lena doesn’t understand. It makes her laugh just a bit even though her heart feels like it’s seconds away from racing out of her chest.

“Well I know you said that mates were chosen at a certain age, but I was curious if there was some sort of...I don’t know...ritual to it?”

“Ritual?”

“Like here on Earth,” Lena explains, thinking that maybe she’d be better off just blurting out the question she really wants to ask. “We have weddings and often the couple exchanges rings.”

Kara’s silent for a moment and slowly lowers her food away from where it was hovering near her mouth. “Are you asking because you want to get married?” Kara asks and Lena barely holds back from reacting to that.

Instead she thins her lips into a faint smile and shrugs a shoulder. “I guess I’m asking because I’m getting the feeling there’s something I’m not understanding,” Lena says. “About us.”

“About us?” Kara repeats and Lena sighs, drags her eyes up to the sky for a moment.

“The White Martian...when it was Alex it called me-”

“It was trying to mess with you,” Kara interrupts. 

“I know,” she says, “but it was still Alex.”

“It wasn’t Alex.”

“It had all her memories and her thoughts,” Lena insists. “And it referred to me as your mate and then later...your wife.”

“Lena-”

“Why would Alex consider me your...why would Alex consider us married?”

“She doesn’t,” Kara denies hastily, shaking her head so rapidly Lena almost loses track of the motion.

“The Martian wouldn’t have just made that up. From what I understand about their telepathy that’s not how it works. Which - a conversation for another time, but thank you for telling me about J’onn being able to read my mind this whole time.”

Kara laughs in this quick burst of repeating sound that comes out so forced that Lena almost startles. “I think you would know if we got married,” Kara says still forcing laughter out of her mouth. “I mean, that’s like generally a thing people are aware of happening.”

Lena quirks a brow. “Generally,” Lena replies dryly.

Kara’s eyes are wide and the smile on her face is strained. Lena sighs, considers a different approach. 

Unclasping her watch, she turns it over so the inscription is visible. “What does this mean? The last part of the engraving.”

Kara eyes the watch with a hint of wariness. “I told you-”

“Tell me what it actually means,” Lena interrupts sounding perhaps a bit sterner than she intends.

Kara’s fingers have drifted to her own bracelet and they tug at it absently as she looks over at Lena. “Lena,” Kara sighs out, biting lightly at her lip.

“Just tell me,” Lena says softly, trying to sound relaxed and reassuring. “It’s okay.”

Silence stretches for a few seconds as Kara looks down at her bracelet and then the watch. On a deep breath she finally looks back at Lena, her eyes blue and soft as she searches Lena’s face.

“There’s a ritual,” she says so softly that Lena barely hears it. “On Krypton, I mean.” 

“Okay,” Lena replies slowly, her thumb swiping over the letters on her watch.

“After you’re matched with your...mate...you both stand on the Jewel of Truth and you...say the vows and then,” Kara pauses, brow crinkling just a bit. “Then you exchange bracelets.”

“Bracelets,” Lena repeats, eyes drawn to where Kara’s twisting her own bracelet around her wrist.

“Yeah,” Kara says slowly.

“And the inscription,” Lena says. “On my watch? The part you told me was some kind of version of girlfriend.”

Kara nods, her bottom lip pulled into her mouth for a second. “It’s possible that the words I used might mimic those of the Kryptonian wedding vows, so it - loosely translates to mate.”  

Though she had been expecting this explanation Lena feels her eyes go wide anyway. “What?!”

“I told you we don’t have a word for girlfriend,” Kara replies defensively her eyes going wide.

Lena shakes her head, looks away for a second. “I’m sorry, I’m just...are you saying that you basically married me in college and I had no idea?” 

“No,” Kara denies hastily. “Of course not.”

“So when Mon-El kept commenting about your mating bracelet, he was right.”

“I can’t believe Mon-El thought I had a mate and still asked me out,” Kara interrupts with a pinched expression.

Lena’s brain feels like it’s all over the place and another thing occurs to her quickly. “Alex told him you had a mate. I mean Alex-”

“Alex is...that’s just complicated,” Kara says with a shake of her head. “Alex thinks she knows more than she does.”

“I’m getting the feeling that everyone seems to know more than I do,” Lena says and Kara looks sheepish at that.

“It’s not-”

“So when I gave you that bracelet that was basically a...I mean that was....we…”

“Lena, it wasn’t like that,” Kara says, soft but serious.

“Then explain it to me,” Lena says, and she doesn’t mean to sound so angry, but so much of their relationship suddenly has new and alarming context that Lena doesn’t know how to process.

She isn’t sure how she would handle knowing that Kara thought of them as married and let Lena walk away from her. 

“I’ve told you that we didn’t date on Krypton,” Kara says slowly. “That wasn’t really a concept I understood when I first came to Earth.”  

“I remember,” Lena replies quietly.

“Kryptonians just have one mate,” Kara continues. “And it’s for life.”

“So,” Lena holds up the watch in her hand, eyes it as her heart starts to thud heavy and quick against her rib cage. “This was about making me-”

“No,” Kara interrupts. “It wasn’t about...marriage or mating. More like...intention.”

“Intention?” Lena asks, her fingers tightening on the watch in question.

“I guess there are just some Kryptonian customs that stuck with me,” Kara says and she reaches out to take Lena’s watch, turning it over in her hands and inspecting it. “I never really got accustomed to the idea of dating. I just knew that I wanted to be with you...forever.”

“Kara,” Lena replies, the name coming out thickly through the restraint of sudden emotion.

“It was supposed to be a symbol of how I felt about you,” Kara continues, handing the watch back softly. “It still is, to me. It doesn’t have to stand for anything more than that.”

Memory swirls between them and Lena feels like something heavy is sitting on her chest, pushing so hard that her heart feels like it might burst at any moment. All those years where they weren’t speaking, that one moment in the airport - Kara thought Lena was it for her.

“The bracelet that I gave you,” Lena says, eying the metal in question. “Even if I didn’t mean to...you know, accidentally fulfill a Kryptonian mating ritual at the time...it’s a symbol of how I feel about us too.”

Kara’s fingers tug softly at the bracelet and Lena’s lips thin upward into a slight smile. “Unbreakable?”

“Yeah,” Lena answers quietly, reaching out to run her hands over the bracelet, over Kara’s hand. “It bends, but it doesn’t break.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Kara says. “I know it sounds like I was trying to trick you, but I swear I wasn’t. I would have told you eventually, if we hadn’t - you know.”

Lena nods, blinks against the heat in her eyes. “I don’t think you were trying to trick me.”

“I’ve been meaning to tell you the last few months. Alex has been bothering me about it forever. I’m - I just - I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay. I think I get it,” Lena says, offering out her hand for Kara to latch the watch back on her wrist. Kara eyes her outstretched arm for a moment before she slowly slips it on, her fingers soft on Lena’s skin as she presses the clasp closed, and it feels significant. And it’s terrifying, heady, and Lena can’t help but feel thrilled by it.

They finish their dinner in companionable silence for the most part and watch the sun set on the day. The night cools considerably, but Lena stays warm pressed up against Kara’s side while Kara points out constellations as they appear in the night sky, Kara’s hand pressing against the metal of her watch. They tangle together on the rooftop until it grows too late to reasonably stay out, and Kara flies Lena home after that.

When they land, Kara lingers, her hands playing up and down Lena’s arms, her eyes unblinking and focused on Lena’s face. The air outside is cool, but the thing building there between them is warm and Lena can’t help but step the slightest bit closer.

“Are you tired?” Lena asks, and with the throaty way it comes out she’s sure there’s no mistaking the suggestion in her tone. Kara’s smile is indicative enough, but she speaks anyway.

“No,” Kara replies and when she steps closer in to Lena’s body, she radiates warmth that seeps through Lena’s clothes and buzzes across her skin. “Are you?”

Lena’s chest feels tight with anticipation as her throat goes a little dry. “Not at all,” she answers, and Kara doesn’t seem to need more clarification other than that because she steps forward quickly and picks Lena up around the waist, kissing her firmly.

The show of strength does absolutely nothing to stem the tide of arousal pooling in Lena’s stomach. She feels drunk on the adrenaline from earlier in the night and the way Kara’s eyes look as the sun set, the certainty with which Kara spoke about loving Lena forever. It certainly doesn’t help that Kara’s kissing her like this is going somewhere, stepping into Lena’s apartment and pulling the balcony door closed behind her.

It’s been an age since she’s engaged in anything physical with another person and her body makes that known pretty quickly. Everything feels hyper sensitive to Kara’s presence, her legs wrapping around Kara’s waist and her arms around her shoulders. Kara’s hands have already slipped up under Lena’s shirt, pressing tightly into the skin of her back, and their kisses are warm and insistent, and Lena feels like she can’t breathe, but she has to keep kissing Kara. 

Whatever this is leading to...Lena’s fairly confident she’s not going to last very long. Not with the way Kara feels so good after so long, not with how she feels on edge just kissing Kara in the middle of her living room. It’s clear that four years of separation hasn’t evaporated Kara’s knowledge of Lena’s body. There’s a hand holding firm at her back, and another settled on her thigh, above her knee, playing with the fabric of her pants.

“Kara,” Lena murmurs, threading her fingers into Kara’s hair and enjoying the strong feeling of Kara’s fingers gripping at her thigh, letting Kara kiss down her throat.

“Yeah?” Kara answers distractedly as they walk through the apartment, somewhere past the infernal grandfather clock in the hall. Kara’s voice is in her ear, her teeth on Lena’s earlobe, and she nearly loses all functioning thought at the feel of it.

Lena’s back hits a wall a little harder than it normally would had Kara been paying full attention and air whooshes out of her.

“Sorry,” Kara mumbles with a laugh against Lena’s cheek. “What were you saying?”

Lena laughs in kind, her lips near Kara’s temple. “I was going to say try not to break anything.”

Steering them away from the wall and through the bedroom door next to them, Kara deposits them on the bed with a grin. “No promises,” she says before ducking her head back down to Lena’s neck and working downward.

In the wake of Kara’s lips against her skin and the way every second feels thick with intention Lena finds she doesn’t really care if she wakes up and the entire apartment is destroyed in the morning. That’s a problem for another day.

When Kara encounters the fabric of Lena’s dress shirt, she hums in annoyance, her fingers reaching between them to tug the buttons free from their holes, and that’s all fine and good, but Lena wants Kara’s shirt off nearly as much. She shoves at Kara until she pulls away to pull it off, and then she flops onto her back, and when Lena straddles her hips, Kara’s smile is almost too much for her.

“Your heartbeat’s going crazy,” Kara says, her hands resting on Lena’s thighs and rushing up her body as Lena manages to get her own shirt off. Lena laughs, a warm feeling filling up her chest. It’s probably true, but Kara’s statement is a direct reminder of their first time, and memory swirls around them.

“That’s a good thing,” Lena returns, and Kara’s smile is wide and inviting and good, and when Lena leans down to kiss her, her hands running over Kara’s body, she feels it all the way down to her soul.

And when Kara manages to tear her bedsheets twenty minutes later, she loves her enough to forgive her.