18. Chapter 18(1)

One of the things Lena’s started to learn about National City is that it’s a lot like Metropolis. She imagines that’s mostly due to the fact that they both play host to a resident Kryptonian protector, but for whatever reason, both cities have the same unspoken ability to just move past all the strange things that happen on a frequent basis.

Living in Metropolis meant there was always some strange new Superman rogue terrorizing downtown. It had once become commonplace for Lex to complain about the slime coating a block down by his favorite sushi place, or Lena’s driver to pick her up forty minutes earlier to avoid the wreckage left over by some way-too-large mutant creature.

Much the same, National City doesn’t seem all that distraught by the events of the previous evening. Apart from light coverage on the morning news, most of the city goes about their day as though an alien spacecraft didn’t try to launch into lightspeed from a warehouse not too far away.

She and Kara watch the short coverage together over early morning cups of coffee. The television drones away over footage of families hugging each other – authorities have thwarted a terrorist plot to send registered aliens back to space.

Oddly, neither she nor Supergirl are mentioned on the news – Lena idly wonders what it took to keep them out of it – but the memory is still vivid and it shivers through her.

Kara must feel the same way considering how deeply she frowns at the television before clicking it off and reaching into the fridge for the bottle of creamer.

“Feels like it happened to someone else,” Lena murmurs into the steam rising from her coffee.

Kara quirks a brow from where she’s pouring way too much creamer into her coffee. “And yet it didn’t.”

Lena sighs, but doesn’t comment – despite waking up tangled together, Kara’s still a little frosty this morning about her and Alex going after Cadmus on their own and Lena’s not sure how to fix it. Isn’t entirely she wants to, really.

“If you have something you’d like to say to me, Kara...” Lena starts and Kara sighs so dramatically Lena nearly laughs. Wisely, she swallows the urge and hides it behind the lip of her coffee mug.

“I can’t believe you went off guns blazing into a Cadmus warehouse,” Kara says matter-of-factly like, hands at her hips. “How many times do we have to have a conversation about this stuff?”

“It was Alex’s plan,” Lena says, shrugging a largely unrepentant shoulder. “What was I supposed to do, let her go in alone?”

Kara looks stumped by that – just kind of moves her jaw around in thought for a moment. “Yes,” she says, albeit with such extreme hesitation that Lena has to choke down a laugh again.

“If you recall, I was perfectly agreeable in letting you stash me away with your sister. It’s not as if I planned to have her already gearing up to storm the castle,” Lena points out with an arch of her brow.

“You could have stayed put,” Kara replies, with a firm set to her eyes.

“Alex was off to challenge my mother and her minions. Seeing as I couldn’t stop her, I wasn’t very well going to let her just go off by herself.”

“You should have at least called me.”

“There wasn’t exactly time,” Lena says even though that’s not entirely true. Admitting she used the threat of calling Kara to leverage Alex into letting her go to the warehouse doesn’t seem like her best move. “And we did call you when we got a chance.”

“When you were already halfway to the other side of the galaxy!” Kara exclaims.

“That’s dramatic,” Lena counters, blowing out a breath at the stern look she gets in return. “We hadn’t even left the troposphere,” she adds softly.

Kara rolls her eyes severely enough that it makes Lena bristle a bit. “That is so far from the point.”

“Which is?”

“That you shouldn’t have been there to begin with,” Kara replies quickly, her voice sounding like she’s barely restraining herself from snapping the words out angrily.  

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I wasn’t going to let Alex go alone,” Lena says. “I stand by that decision. No matter the consequences.”

Something breaks across Kara’s expression, a tightening of her jaw and a widening of her eyes. Her fingers tap nervously against her coffee mug as she just observes Lena for a moment longer. “Look,” she says, taking a breath. “Alex can handle herself, she’s a trained DEO agent, but you’re –” Kara’s words cut off at the look Lena shoots her, but her lips thin in displeasure and she lets out a sighed, “Lena.”

“Everything turned out fine,” Lena says, trying to navigate her way out of an argument she can’t see having an easy resolution. “You stopped the ship, we thwarted my Mother’s evil scheming and no one was hurt.”

“It could have easily gone the other way.”

“You can’t go through life thinking of what-ifs,” Lena warns her. “Our lives are too crazy for that.”

Letting out a low breath, Kara turns her eyes up to the ceiling for a moment before slouching her shoulders and dramatically letting her forehead fall to the countertop. Lena jumps a bit at the motion, worries over whether Kara just cracked the surface for a second. “Kara?”

“You almost got launched into space, Lena!” Kara exclaims, the words muffled by the countertop, but still quite loud.

“I’m aware of that,” Lena replies dryly. “I thought you didn’t want to yell at me.”

“I’m not yelling at you,” Kara says, considerably quieter as she picks her head up from the table.

“Kara,” Lena sighs, reaching across the table to clasp the top of Kara’s hand. “We had a long night last night. We’re both exhausted.”

“It’s not just last night!” Kara retorts, her voice returning to its earlier decibel, but retreating at the arch of Lena’s brow. “It’s not.”

“Then what is it?” Lena abandons Kara’s hand in favor of crossing her arms over her chest.

With a brief look of consideration, Kara laughs, but the sound isn’t happy or all that amused.

“You know, when you called me to tell me you were on the same ship that we were watching take off into space, part of me wasn’t surprised?” Kara says, eyes drifting away from Lena. “Some sort of Cadmus death trap outside National City. Where else would Lena be?”

A hot spike of indignation hits Lena square in the chest. “That’s incredibly unfair.”

“Certainly not in the nice safe apartment with my sister where I left her,” Kara continues as if Lena hasn’t spoken.

“You’re being ridiculously overprotective,” Lena says in lieu of something sharper.

“Am I?” Kara counters, her eyes suddenly flashing as they dart back to Lena.

“Yes,” Lena replies, trying to stop herself from getting just as angry as Kara looks. Their emotions have clearly still not recovered from last night and Lena can sense the argument escalating beyond both of their control. The last thing she needs before heading into a busy work day is to be fighting with Kara. “I don’t want to argue about this.”

Kara stands from the counter, hands at her hips and despite the faded t-shirt and low sitting shorts she’s wearing, looks the perfect picture of Supergirl. It reminds Lena, unbidden, of Kara standing outside her freshman physics lab insisting they’d go to dinner together before Lena ensconced herself in the library for the weekend. It’s stupidly endearing even when Lena finds it deeply frustrating. “Maybe I do.”

That much is clear in the way Kara’s chin lifts a bit and her jaw goes tight, but Lena has to go to work and she can tell this isn’t something they’re going to resolve over quick cups of morning coffee. “Well I have to go into the office,” Lena says, glancing at the digital clock on the nearby microwave. “And so do you I’d imagine.”

Silently, Kara looks that direction as well, her lips thinning as she sees the time. “We’ll talk about this later,” she says even as her shoulders lose some of their tension and she drops her hands off her hips.

“I’m sure we will,” Lena says dryly, finishing her coffee before depositing the empty cup in the sink.

A desire to leave it at that and exit the kitchen wordlessly runs through her, but a deeper pull that’s always tugged her straight to Kara wins the fight and she steps up into Kara’s personal space to tangle her fingers in the fabric of her t-shirt.

“I love you,” Lena says firmly, threading forward and pressing a solid, swift kiss to Kara’s lips.

“I love you too,” Kara returns, her voice immediately losing the steel from earlier as her blue eyes soften just enough.

“Have a good day at work,” Lena tells her quietly before disengaging and retreating towards the bedroom to get changed.

--

The first person to greet her off the elevator is a very unimpressed looking Jess, holding a tablet and a coffee that Lena takes with an arched brow. The smell of a perfectly brewed americano from her favorite coffee shop makes the slight unease she felt from arguing with Kara that morning start to ebb away.  

“You’re supposed to be on vacation,” Lena admonishes, striding into her office as Jess trails behind.

“Yes, because I was very well going to stay in Hawaii after I heard about Alana,” Jess says icily, though Lena can tell very clearly her ire isn’t directed at Lena.

“I still have Hector,” Lena replies with a touch of exasperation. “I can manage.”

“While that’s not at all my point, as sweet and handsome as Hector is, he can’t handle your entire schedule every single day on his own,” Jess replies, following Lena through the office in a practiced routine as Lena sets her bag down and boots her laptop up.

“Jess, as much as I admire your work ethic, I did genuinely want you to have a vacation,” Lena says, settling in her office chair and watching as Jess looks down at the tablet in her hands.

“Technically I’m only back part time until the end of the month.”

“Do I need to remind you of what a vacation means?” Lena jokes before taking a sip of her coffee and trying not to react to just how good it tastes. It’s such a small comfort, but it settles any lingering nerves in her chest.

“The raise was generous enough,” Jess says. “I’ll take a so called real vacation when you stop getting thrown off balconies. Perhaps you’re the one who should take a vacation. Hawaii was lovely up until I saw my Google Alerts go insane.”

“That was a one-time incident,” Lena mutters, as Jess begins to queue up her usual and familiar list of items to start the day.

“Why do I find that hard to believe?” Jess replies, tilting her head knowingly.

“You sound like Kara,” Lena mutters, mostly under her breath, but she catches Jess smile before moving past the comment and on to the day.

“It seems this latest Cadmus defeat has left a few vacancies in the company,” Jess informs her, handing over the tablet in her hands. On it is a list of resignations submitted that morning and Lena sighs. The list takes some scrolling. She considers calling Kara and demanding to abscond to Hawaii for a short, desperate moment.

“You’re joking.”

“Think of it as a good thing. Those still loyal to your mother are staging a strategic retreat.”

Lena hums as she scrolls through the list in her hands, a headache already forming at the idea of having to go through the hiring process to fill all the positions. Far too many are too high level, ones that she’ll have to sit through meetings over or others that require Board approval.

As a child, she had often enjoyed following her father into the office to watch him work. Even when Lex first started, Lena would enjoy long breaks lounging on his office couch and idly watching him take conference calls or handle an international crisis. Neither of them had ever looked quite as exhausted as Lena feels these days.

Maybe Lex had. At the end of it all.

“Don’t worry,” Jess says, interrupting Lena’s derailing thoughts and reaching to flick through the tablet in Lena’s hand. “I already have a list of qualified candidates for you to look over. I’ve narrowed it down as much as possible.”

A different list loads up on its screen, and Lena can’t help but feel impressed and it must show on her face if Jess’s expression is anything to go by, a small smile on her face.

“When on Earth did you have time to compile this?” Lena asks idly, eyeing the list of possible targets.

“I have my ways,” Jess says airily.

A name sticks out immediately and Lena nearly laughs when she reads it. “Samantha Arias?”

“The junior finance officer over in Central City? Rumor is she’s looking for a move to National City,” Jess replies, a quizzical arch to her brow as she observes the bio displayed in Lena’s hand. Sam looks inevitably older than Lena remembers, but her smile is as beautiful as ever.

“What a small world,” Lena murmurs, mostly to herself.

“You know her?”

“We went to boarding school together briefly,” Lena says. Her memories of Sam are nothing but fond. “I haven’t spoken to her in years.”

“Well, she went on to National City University after high school, finished summa cum laude with a degree in finance. Several of her supervisors have recommended her for higher placement in the company.”

“Interesting,” Lena murmurs, looking through the original hiring record they have on file.

“Boarding school. Very stereotypical,” Jess says, half under her breath. Lena isn’t certain exactly what she means, but she thinks it must be somewhat insulting considering the smirk on Jess’s face.

“What are you implying, Jess?” Lena asks. Jess shrugs, directing her gaze outside as though something interesting is happening in the morning sun. Lena decides to let Jess have her fun for the moment and scrolls down.

She snorts when she sees Jack’s name and qualifications, the picture included from a few years ago, when he was growing a rather amusing mustache for charity. She can recall Lex asking him whether he had time travelled from the ‘20s as a joke.

“You want me to hire Jack Spheer as our chief technology officer? Did you just compile a list of my romantic entanglements?”

Jess looks a bit startled by the sudden admission and Lena feels a flush at hearing her own words. Thankfully, Jess recovers first. “If you’ve dated Tripp Burlington, I might start to doubt your taste,” she comments dryly and Lena laughs.

Sidestepping the turn in conversation, she returns to the screen before her. “I can’t imagine Jack is in the market for a job. He runs his own company.”

Jess shrugs. “A company that you are a major shareholder in,” Jess says. “Spheerical is about to announce their new IP here in a few weeks. Your invitation came just this morning. Perhaps you could engage in a small takeover.”

“I don’t prefer to engage in small takeovers,” Lena says and they share a smile when Lena hands the tablet back over. “Make sure HR opts me in on director and above level hires. And RSVP to that invitation for the Spheerical event.”

“Shall I put you down with a plus one?” Jess asks. Lena pauses, looking down at her phone, where an unread text message from Kara awaits her. It’s often a picture of whatever monstrosity Kara’s found to eat for her second breakfast on the way to work, but in light of their disagreement that morning, Lena’s not too sure.

Turning back to Jess, Lena nods. “Yes.”  

Jess nods dutifully, turning away to return to her desk.

“Jess?” Lena calls out, just as her assistant gets to the door.

“Yes, Miss Luthor?”

“It’s nice to have you back.”

Jess doesn’t reply other than a smile before exiting the office and leaving Lena to her work.

--

It’s never a date. There’s never a promise or hope for more. Lena makes sure of that.

This time it’s a girl in France – not blonde, name beginning with an E, Emily maybe, Emma? The girl works at a marketing company contracted by Luthor Corp in Paris, smart enough to be discreet. She’s pretty and interesting enough that Lena has two drinks instead of one before suggesting they move from the hotel bar up to the penthouse suite she’s staying it.

It’s never hard to convince them. Sometimes, some part of her wishes it weren’t so easy. It’s the part of her that always feels uneasy touching someone that isn’t Kara.

It’s their anniversary. Her and Kara’s.

She spends it whispering in French to a virtual stranger that’s as far from Kara as she could find. It’s been a year and a half since she last saw Kara, a few months since she returned from Japan with a renewed interest in joining society, in Luthor Corp. It’s getting better. Or so she tells herself. She goes on business trips all around the world, sees it for what it is, rose-colored glasses firmly tucked away.

Sometimes, she thinks about calling Kara just to hear her voice, an ache present in her chest when she can’t quite remember the inflection of how Kara would say something. Those are the days when things like this are best had.

The sex is quick. It usually is. It’s mechanical, simple, a series of movements and sayings that have formed into a sequential order for Lena. The suite is lovely, the girl beautiful, the location superb. And somehow, it never amounts to anything but a checked box.

The girl leaves satisfied, still flushing with pleasure and hair attractively tousled as Lena politely kicks her out of the suite. There’s no lingering in bed, no more words exchanged apart from soft thank yous and goodbyes.

And then Lena’s alone again. It's the exact opposite point of the whole endeavor, but it always ends this way.

Wide awake, she sidesteps the bed and retreats to the balcony, flipping through her phone until she’s pulling up her brother’s contact info - a silly picture of him looking absolutely terrified of a giant freshwater stingray appears on her screen.

It’s warm in Paris. A breeze ruffles the soft, worn shorts she’d put on and her eyes wander over the lights of the city at night. The sound of the call trying to connect rings in her ear and her mind starts to wander against her will.

Kara would love it here. The food, the history, spending all day luxuriating in a penthouse suite with a balcony view of the Eiffel Tower. Before her thoughts can grow dark, Lex is picking the phone up with a frustrated, “I’m going to throw Maxwell Lord off a cliff,”  and just like that Lena’s chest relaxes.

“Hello to you too,” she says, smiling. Her eyes linger on a fading tan line at her wrist a moment before she looks back out to the city. “What’s Max done now?”

“He’s gone and poached four of our best chemists,” Lex says, sounding like he’s pacing around his office. It’s easy to picture – the way his hair is likely disordered from his fingers running through it, his tie just a little too loose to be board meeting appropriate and the sunshine streaming through the windows that overlook the Avenue of Tomorrow.

“How’d he manage that?”

Lex lets out a frustrated breath. “Some hogwash about National City school systems. As if that’s more important than being on the cutting edge of science.”

“Spoken like a true bachelor,” Lena says, laughing as Lex joins her in the sound.

“You okay?” Lex asks after the laughter tapers off. “My little sister senses are tingling. You haven’t gone and sold the company to the French, have you?’

“No, of course not,” Lena answers. “But I’m off to Germany tomorrow, so there’s still time.”

Lex doesn’t laugh at her joke. “Lena,” he says in the tone he always uses when he knows she’s hiding something.

“I just missed you,” Lena replies, sighing and watching a couple stumble their way down the street below her room. The man is singing La vie En Rose very poorly, but the woman is laughing loudly. “Am I not allowed to miss my brother?”

“Very suspicious,” Lex says, though it’s light and punctuated by a soft laugh as if to indicate he’s not going to push her.

They’re both silent a moment and Lena feels guilty for pulling Lex away from what’s likely a busy workday back in Metropolis. “I’m sorry to bother you.”

“You’re not bothering me. Are you sure you’re alright? You know you can talk to me if you need to.”

“I’m fine. Just trouble sleeping,” she says and before Lex can react to that she adds, “This project has been tiresome.”

Lex hums like he doesn’t totally believe her, but moves past it. “Well, if you need me to send you a better support staff…”

“I’ll be sure to let you know,” she says, picking her head up and looking down the street to where the trees of a nearby park are ruffling in the wind. “Well, I’ll let you go throw Max off a cliff, then, I suppose.”

“Call me if you need me, Lena,” he says before she can hang up. “Anytime.”

“Thanks, Lex,” going for casual, but likely not succeeding.

Nevertheless, Lex disconnects the call and Lena’s left to retreat back into her room where the bedsheets are still rumpled and smelling of sex. She looks down at it for a moment before turning to the couch in the outer room, gathering a bottle of wine along the way. When she turns on the television, a musical is on - one of the only ones Lena had ever bothered to care about during Kara’s education on the genre.

She watches it without watching it. She drinks her wine, and does not think about what Kara is doing, wherever she is. Whether she knows what day it is or not.

She doesn’t fall asleep until she’s finished the whole bottle of wine, and before she knows it, she’s out of the room and off to Germany, repeating the whole process over again with some girl, not blonde. Name with an H.

--

It’s a surprise to see Kara appear in Lena’s office over lunch.

Their argument is fresh in her mind, but Lena’s glad that it doesn’t stop Kara. She strides into Lena’s office just as Lena’s turning to her phone to have Jess order her something.

A flutter of delight ruffles in Lena’s chest at the unexpected sight of her. Fighting with Kara always leaves Lena with a general sense of unease the rest of the day and the sudden possibility of reconnection soothes the disquiet in her stomach.

But Kara doesn’t seem quite as delighted as she makes her way into Lena’s office. Quite the opposite, in fact, and heartbeats after Kara’s entered the room, Jess is scurrying in behind her with a worried glance to her employer.

Subtly as she can, Lena waves her away and stands from her desk, gaze snapping to lock onto Kara’s face and try to figure out what’s got Kara walking with robotic motions to flop forward into one of Lena’s office chairs without so much as a hello.

“Kara?” Lena leans over her desk, fingers splayed out across the white surface to keep her propped up as Kara just sort of blinks dazedly at Lena in reaction. “Are you okay?”

An odd silence wafts around them another moment, twists nervously in Lena’s guts, before Kara sits up a bit and darts her eyes around.

“Yeah,” Kara answers, sounding nothing at all like anything is okay. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Lena returns, thinking to laugh, but quelling the reaction at the restless look in Kara’s eyes. “I was just about to order lunch; do you want something?”

Kara blinks at her as if not understanding the question and then seems to startle out of her confusion. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t just drop in on you like this,” she says suddenly, the words quiet and rushed as she makes to stand.

With a hot spike of concern, Lena stops her, holding out a hand. “Kara, darling, sit back down,” she orders and Kara seems to obey without thinking about it, falling back into her chair immediately. “What’s wrong? Tell me what happened.”

The last word seems to pull Kara just enough out of her haze to respond coherently. “I got fired,” she answers, her brow furrowed like she can’t quite believe the words she’s saying.

Lena feels her own eyes go wide with surprise. “I’m sorry? You what?”

“Snapper fired me,” Kara says, looking some measure of confused and irritated.

“He did what?” Lena asks indignantly, idly wondering if she has any professional leverage at CatCo.

“He fired me. For breach of contract,” Kara adds, twisting her fingers together.  

“The article?” Lena asks, not knowing what to do with the look on Kara’s face, but she comes around her desk to lean up against it in front of Kara’s chair, arms crossing over her chest.  

Kara just nods. “For blobbing,” Kara adds with a quirk of her brow that makes Lena’s shoulders soften just a bit.

But it doesn’t stop the wash of guilt that suddenly flows over her. She had been the one to encourage Kara to self-publish after all. “That’s ridiculous. That article helped save hundreds of lives. You shouldn’t be punished for it.”

As a business woman, Lena’s aware it’s a lot more complicated than that, but as Kara’s --- her brain can’t settle on any word other than mate – she can’t see past a need to protect and defend. Any disconnect between them from that morning washes away from her in light of the forlorn look on Kara’s face.

“The article was redundant,” Kara says. “You had the location an hour after I published it. Alex did too. We stopped the spaceship and it had nothing to do with what I published.”

Lena bends her neck in an attempt to lock with Kara’s evasive eyes. “That’s not true. The article was what prompted my mother to launch the ship ahead of schedule and –”

With a drop of her head backwards, Kara blows out an aggrieved sigh. “Oh, great, so I actually nearly caused hundreds of people including my –”

“Kara,” Lena interrupts and this time she steps forward and unceremoniously drops into Kara’s lap. It seems the only way to grasp the whole of Kara’s attention and it does the trick. Kara sits up when it happens and her hands go straight to Lena’s hips, blue eyes locking onto Lena’s face. “If she hadn’t done that the DEO would have never detected the launch and we would have –”

“We didn’t need to detect any launch because you and Alex were already there and if I hadn’t published that article then I wouldn’t have had to stop a giant frigate from launching you and my sister into space!” Kara’s voice escalates at the end of it, agitation and fear mixing together in a sound that makes Lena reach out to cup her cheeks, thumbs stroking against the skin there.

“Hey,” Lena says in as soothing a voice as possible. Kara’s cheeks have gone a little red and there’s a crinkle in her brow that Lena reaches up to rub away. “Everything turned out okay. I’m fine, Alex is fine, you’re fine and we foiled my mother’s plans once again.”

There’s a palpable anxiety bubbling up around Kara that Lena’s not sure how to ease. It’s the same one she’s felt ever since they returned home from that night in Lex's warehouse with her mother. Part of Lena’s sure it won’t go away until the Cadmus threat is eliminated once and for all. She tries not to think too hard about what that might entail, or how long it might take.

“Sorry,” Kara says softly, eyes closing briefly and Lena lets her hands trail up into Kara’s hair, scratching lightly at her scalp in a gesture she knows Kara likes.

“It’s okay,” Lena murmurs soothingly, enjoying the way Kara’s blue eyes flutter a bit as she leans into Lena’s touch. “There’s been a lot going on.”

Kara laughs, the motion relaxing her just a bit. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“And Snapper is an idiot,” Lena adds, trying to pull Kara’s attention away from the memory of last night.

Kara makes a noncommittal noise, but doesn’t disagree. Her posture slouches even more, her head seeming to get heavier where it’s cradled in Lena’s hands. “I can’t believe he fired me.”

“He’s an idiot,” Lena repeats.

“Yeah, I guess,” Kara says, looking listless.

“Hey, you’ll get another job,” Lena says, going for reassuring, trying to pull Kara’s gaze back up to her own. “If you want, you can always come work at L Corp.”

It’s said with enough tease, that Kara’s lips quirk a bit and she finally looks back up at Lena. “I’m not sure I could handle working under you like that.”

Lena quirks a brow until Kara’s cheeks go pink. “I’m sure you could manage,” she says and Kara rolls her eyes, but laughs. In an effort to keep the happy expression on her face, Lena continues to tease, “You could live off my salary. I have always wanted a trophy wife. It’d be very Luthor of me.”

That pulls a louder laugh this time, full and genuine, and Kara plays with her glasses, ducking her head a bit. “I think you’re underestimating what your grocery bill would be if I just stayed home all the time.”

“Maybe you’re underestimating the weight of my bank account,” Lena points out.

“Unlikely,” Kara replies, but she’s smiling now and her shoulders have relaxed. “Well. Since I’m all kinds of unemployed now, do you want to spend an evening on the couch with me and my Netflix queue?”

At Lena’s acquiescence, Kara retreats home and Lena finishes up her work day with the promise that she’ll pick up takeout on her way to Kara’s apartment that night.

--

They do, in fact, spend their evening on the couch eating the Indian food Lena brought over and scrolling through Kara’s queue. They end up watching far too many episodes of some true crime documentary series that Kara had become obsessed with some time that afternoon.

Eventually, Lena turns to her phone in favor of watching it and just enjoys the feeling of leaning into Kara’s side and blocking out the real world for as long as possible.

It’s Lena’s irrepressible yawns that finally pull Kara’s attention away from the television. “Tired?”

Though she’s still mid-yawn, Lena shakes her head. “You can keep watching.”

Kara regards her a moment longer before reaching forward and flicking the television off. Then, with little warning, Kara scoops Lena off the couch and all but tosses her over her shoulder. It pulls a startled yelp out of Lena and an indignant, “Kara!”

“Yes?” Kara asks, moving towards the bedroom.

Lena swats at whatever body part she can reach. “Put me down,” she orders, though she’s sure the laughter she can’t suppress is taking some of the authority out of the words.

Kara does put her down, flat on the bed, and then the lights are off and the bedroom door shut, and Kara is pressing her face into Lena’s sternum. It only takes a matter of seconds and it has her laughing even more.

It feels good. To just be with Kara like this. There’s not some death-defying adventure they’re both recovering from, nothing ominous sitting on the horizon and with Kara’s hands pushing up the sides of Lena’s sweatshirt, their fight feels far away.

“I didn’t need to go to sleep right this minute,” Lena points out, running her fingers up Kara’s back and smiling when soft lips find their way up under her jaw.

“I know.” Kara’s breath hits warmly on her neck and sends goosebumps down her chest.

Any further discussion gets swept out of Lena’s throat the second Kara’s fingers take a journey south and tug at the waistband of her yoga pants.

--

In the morning Kara watches Lena get ready with a look wavering around pitiful. She lies on the bed and pouts as though she’s dying - a favorite tactic of Kara’s to get Lena to stay in bed and skip her required history class. It had worked far too often. The only reason it doesn’t now is because running a company is perhaps not as easy to do as taking a class pass/fail.

“Why don’t you call Alex?” Lena suggests as they share cups of coffee in the kitchen.

Kara stirs a spoon in her own cup aimlessly, staring down into the drink. “Alex is just as unemployed as I am,” Kara points out and Lena’s brow furrows.

“Her suspension isn’t over yet?”

“I’d doubt it considering she decked a prisoner,” Kara says, looking up at Lena. “And then took a civilian on a solo crusade against Cadmus.”

Though their fight had been set aside last night, it simmers quickly to the surface in the pointed way Kara delivers the last bit. It’s a struggle not to rise to the bait, but Lena manages to restrain herself to a silent glare as she sets her own cup of coffee down on the counter.

“Then you can wallow in unemployment together,” Lena says, a touch testily despite her efforts.

“I’m not wallowing,” Kara argues, grabbing for the creamer still out on the counter and beginning to pour a ridiculous amount into her coffee.

Lena just raises her brows, but declines to reply. “You’re not going to feel any better sitting around here doing nothing,” she says, drifting her eyes over Kara’s tiny apartment.

“I can’t believe you think my beating Mario Kart is doing nothing,” Kara mutters, shoulders hunched as she sips at her coffee, before she shrugs. “But I suppose.”

“Go into the DEO. Maybe J’onn or Winn have something for Supergirl to do,” Lena tries as she turns to her phone on the counter. There are a few morning messages from Jess and Lena scrolls through them, looking at her calendar for the day as Kara continues to sulk over her coffee.

“You’re right,” Kara says eventually and with a burst of air, she’s out of her chair and waltzing out of the bedroom changed into her supersuit.

A smile hints at Lena’s lips, unbidden. Kara always looks so different when she’s dressed like this, but so many of her mannerisms remain the same. How everyone doesn’t see through her disguise Lena doesn’t understand, but she’s sure not many people have spent as much time as she has studying the intricacies of Kara Zor-El.

Striding towards a drawer in the kitchen, Kara pulls it open and rummages through it until she’s pulling out a small silver key and depositing it on the counter in front of Lena. “I keep forgetting to give this to you,” Kara says, soft, but casual, like it’s not a big deal.

Absurdly, Lena feels a slow crawl of emotion well up in her throat as she reaches her fingers out to pull the key towards her and realizes what it is. “A key?”

“Yeah,” Kara answers, not even looking at Lena as she gathers her phone from the counter. “Lock up after I go?”

Lena blinks at the small item in her hand, but manages to make an affirmative noise as Kara presses into her side and kisses her warmly at the temple. “Have a good day at work.”

Swiftly, Kara’s gone again, flying away into the blue morning sky and Lena’s left standing in the kitchen holding a small metal key and wondering when life will stop constantly surprising her.

--

It turns out that even though Alex’s suspension had actually been rescinded, she nor anyone else at the DEO had anything to occupy Kara’s day. Neither did Clark, who Kara had flown to see in Metropolis when National City proved to be too sleepy to entertain her.

Kara complains about it all when they meet up later at the alien bar. It’s supposed to be a full friends-group hang out, but for the moment it’s only she and Kara perched at the bar.

Winn and James are hovered over an antique jukebox in the corner and Mon-El is trying his hand at picking up what Lena thinks might be an Alstairean judging by her leafy hair, but Lena’s lexicon of alien knowledge isn’t perfect. Most of it had been whispered to her by Kara in the dark, late at night and Lena can’t be held accountable for remembering every little detail.

Alex and Maggie are nowhere to be seen, but M’gann had mentioned something about their disappearing into the back alley a half hour ago with an all too-knowing look in her eye. Lena tries not to think too hard about how M’gann is telepathic.  

“When nothing exciting is happening in Metropolis that’s when you know nothing exciting is happening anywhere,” Kara comments, surly as she picks at the label on her beer bottle and slouches down on her stool. Lena finds her hands trailing over her spine, tracing some calm into her.

“You should have flown by Gotham,” Lena replies wryly, sipping at the old fashioned M’gann has crafted for her earlier. “There’s always something underhanded happening there.”

Kara makes a face. “That place is so dirty. The river smells.”

“I think they like it that way,” Lena says, laughing at the way Kara’s scowl deepens. “There was really nothing happening in Metropolis?”

“Nope,” Kara replies, popping the word on her lips. “Everyone’s just talking about how Morgan Edge is trying to relocate to National City. Clark’s been non-stop covering the story.”

The name immediately draws Lena’s attention and she turns more fully to look and Kara and make sure she heard right. “Morgan Edge?”

Kara nods, noticing Lena’s sudden interest, but clearly unsure what’s so interesting about that information. “Yeah, Clark thinks that’s why things have been kind of quiet in Metropolis. I don’t know what that has to do with anything, but Clark’s convinced.”

“What would Edge want with National City?”

Observing Lena for a moment, Kara plucks a few peanuts out of a bowl at her fingertips and pops them in her mouth. “I don’t know. Do you know him or something?”

“Everyone in Metropolis knows Morgan Edge. He’s an ass,” Lena answers with a soft, derisive laugh. “It’s never been publicly acknowledged, but it’s widely suspected that he’s behind Intergang.”

A look of confusion furrows between Kara’s eyes. “Intergang?”

For a moment, Lena’s reminded of just how far away Metropolis actually is from National City. “Clark’s non-stop covering the story, but he didn’t fill you in on the details?”

A blush dusts across Kara’s cheeks, just visible in the dim light of the bar, and she shrugs sheepishly. “I didn’t really ask. Hearing about Clark’s great job writing for the Daily Planet wasn’t high on my list of things to do.”

“Ah,” Lena says, understanding easily enough. “Well, Intergang is a criminal organization that’s been rooted throughout Metropolis for years. Ironically enough, Lex tried very hard to expose Edge a few times.” Lena purses her lips. “Though that may have been a corporate competitiveness rather than altruism. His day job is commercial real estate.”

Kara hums, taking the information in and a memory strikes Lena.

“Don’t you remember that bank heist in college? The one with the hostages?” Lena asks, remembering the news coverage surrounding Superman’s absence.

Kara’s brow stays furrowed as her eyes dart about as if searching for the memory. “Kind of?”

“You wanted to fly off to Metropolis because Superman was a bit late to the scene,” Lena reminds her with a smile playing at her lips.

The flush on Kara’s cheeks deepens and she laughs a bit. “Right, yeah, I remember.”

“That was Intergang,” Lena says and then tilts her head a bit. “Likely Morgan Edge.”

“Oh,” Kara says, nodding and picking up her bottle of beer from the counter. “Well, I’d like to see him try that in National City.”

Picking up her own drink, Lena laughs softly, but scrunches her nose up in slight distaste. “I’d prefer he’d stay away from here entirely. He’s so…smarmy. Lex and I once had dinner with him where he spent twenty minutes talking over his quest to date an entire calendar’s worth of models as though I wasn’t there. Lex nearly dumped his scotch on him.”

Kara picks her chest up a bit, wraps an arm across Lena’s shoulders and smiles at her. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

It makes Lena laugh again and she lets Kara tug her closer, enjoys the warm security of it, but still reminds Kara, “I don’t need you to protect me from everything, darling.”

Kara frowns, but they’re interrupted by Mon-El slinking away from his potential love interest with a frown on his face and slinging his arm around both their shoulders.

“Not going well?” Lena asks, amused by the hang dog expression on his face and the annoyance written across Kara’s at his presence.

“Things were so much easier on Daxam,” Mon-El says. “I don’t know what happened when I got here. It’s like I lost my mahjong.”

“Mojo,” Lena corrects, gently, as Kara very un-gently pushes his arm off them.

“Maybe it was because the majority of Daxam was under the influence of atmospheric psychotropics meant to make them compliant,” Kara grumbles in an uncharacteristically snarky tone.

Lena shoots her a look that makes Kara’s expression go more contrite, but Mon-El largely ignores the comment in favor of sighing dramatically, dropping onto the barstool next to Lena and letting his forehead fall forward onto the countertop.It reminds Lena of Kara yesterday morning, and she reaches out to pat him on the head briefly.

“My mojo is all gone,” Mon-El moans, mostly into the wood of the bartop. “I stopped this dude from stealing this old lady’s purse earlier today while I was getting ice cream and I totally almost cried when she hugged me.”

“I’m sorry that Earth has improved your morality,” Kara says. Her hands play at Lena’s waist, smoothing along the fabric of her shirt there. Mon-El picks his head up to glare at her.

“Be nice, darling,” Lena murmurs. “He’s lost his mojo.”

It’s said with enough tease that it pulls a smile on Kara’s lips and she sighs. “Maybe you’re just asking out the wrong people,” Kara offers, leaning into Lena’s body enough to face Mon-El.

“I don’t know how that’s possible since I’m asking out everyone,” Mon-El says.

Kara rolls her eyes, turning back to her beer bottle with a murmured, “He’s beyond our help.”

“How did Kara find you?” he asks Lena, tapping at the watch on her wrist and eyeing it almost thoughtfully.

“We just ran into each other at school,” Lena answers with a shrug.

The explanation makes Kara snort. “Actually she ran into me. Literally.”

Though Lena smiles at the memory, exchanging a warm glance with Kara, Mon-El sighs heavily and manages to slouch even farther into his stool.

“Maybe a drink will help,” Lena offers, gesturing to M’gann who is already fishing out a bottle of beer from a nearby cooler and setting it in front of Mon-El.

“I’ve been trying that,” Mon-El complains, but he takes the beer anyway. “It hasn’t made me any more charming.”

“Shocking,” Kara deadpans and when Lena tries to elbow her she just laughs.

“We should do shots!” Mon-El exclaims suddenly, a grin bursting across his face.

Lena’s eyes go wide and she grabs at the hand he’s about to raise to flag M’gann down again. “We’re not doing shots,” she tells him.

“Come on, we should,” he entreats, looking at Kara and then back at her. “I mean you’re sad because your mom sucks, right?”

Behind Lena’s back, Kara reaches across to punch Mon-El in the shoulder, who cowers away from her, grabbing his arm in pain.

“What?” He asks, looking indignantly at Kara. “It’s true. We’re all sad. I’ve lost my mojo, Lena’s mom sucks, you lost your job.”

Lena doesn’t need to be looking at Kara to know Mon-El’s about to get punched again, so she just grabs Kara’s wrist and scoots closer to her, trying to deescalate the situation even as she can’t help but laugh. “Okay, everyone just –”

“I just think shots would help,” Mon-El says, still rubbing at his shoulder and watching Kara warily.

“There aren’t enough shots in the bar to help you recover your mahjong,” Kara says testily, nearly sticking her tongue out at Mon-El like a child.

“I thought it was mojo,” Mon-El says, looking confused at Lena.

“It is,” she responds quickly before turning to Kara with a pointed look and a soft, “Be nice to our friend.”

“He’s dumb,” Kara whispers.

“He’s still our friend,” Lena replies quietly, her palm spread out across Kara’s thigh.

“I can hear you,” Mon-El tells them, leaning over the bar so he can see them more clearly. “Are we doing shots or not? They’ve got that stuff from Rimbor in stock that I hear can make you hallucinate.”

Before anyone can comment, Winn is suddenly slinging both his arms around Lena and Kara – much like Mon-El had – and grinning. “Did I hear mention of shots?”

The rest of the night is a series of drinking games that Mon-El and Winn devise in which the sole object seems to be to do as many shots as possible. Lena refrains from joining after the first game, but Kara finds some kind of sudden enthusiasm for the venture and joins in with the boys exclaiming quite loudly that, “What? It’s not like I have work tomorrow.”

It’s the first time she’s ever seen Kara even remotely affected by alcohol and the result is some mixture of adorable and alarming. When she’s not accidentally shattering glasses or upending tables, Kara seems content to press close to Lena, her arms warm and surprisingly gentle considering how out of touch she seems with her strength.

They make it home just fine, but not before Kara breaks two bar stools and nearly puts a hole in the brick wall outside the bar when she stumbles against it.

“I’m not safe right now,” Kara says when she sees what she did and she looks at Lena with wide eyes.

Lena laughs. “Just be careful and get in the car. Let’s get home before you knock a building down.”

“I could knock a building down,” Kara mutters, looking down at her hands as Lena tugs at her. “I should stay still.”

Kara does just that, going rigid against Lena’s attempts to pull her along and Lena tries very hard not to laugh. “Kara, let’s get in the car.”

“I can’t make it to the car,” Kara says solemnly, looking at the waiting black town car at the end of the alley. It’s no more than ten feet away, but Kara’s looking at it like she has an ocean to cross.

“Yes, you can, come on,” Lena entreats, but Kara just shakes her head.

“I could knock a building down,” she repeats and then suddenly, absurdly, laughs at the prospect.

“Kara, focus,” Lena commands, trying not to laugh at the bizarre mixture of glee and confusion on Kara’s face.

“Everything’s so fishy,” Kara observes, blinking dazedly at Lena.

“Okay,” Lena laughs, gripping Kara’s hand which thankfully goes with the motion. “Can you focus please?”

Kara’s shoulders hunch up, and her lips pull into her mouth in an expression that conveys I don’t know so clearly that Lena laughs again. Pressing Kara’s hand to her sternum, Lena pushes in close and captures drunk blue eyes as best she can.

“Focus and get in the car,” she tells her until the haze in Kara’s face seems to clear just enough.

“Can we get Big Belly Burger?” Kara whispers, but she shuffles forward when Lena moves her this time and they make it into the waiting car. George looks at them both a bit strangely, but doesn’t comment when the door makes a little crunching sound against the strength of Kara pulling it shut.

“You’re in no shape to be travelling dimensions, darling,” Lena says, pushing the button for the privacy partition after she tells George to head to Kara’s apartment.

“I got drunk,” Kara states, staring straight ahead and blinking as if surprised by the admission.

“You did,” Lena agrees.

“That’s dangerous,” Kara says then, sounding serious despite the drunken way the words slur out.

Lena slides down against the leather seats of the car, pushes against the warmth of Kara’s side. She’s nowhere close to Kara’s level of intoxication, but there’s still two cocktails and a round of shots swimming in her system and she could probably fall asleep against Kara’s shoulder if she let herself.

“Kara,” Lena murmurs, already closing her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Relax,” Lena tells her, blinking her eyes open a moment to regard her girlfriend, glasses slipping adorably down her nose and cheeks flushed. “I’ll take care of you.”

Kara’s body does as its told, folding softly around Lena’s in the back of the car. “I love you,” Kara whispers.

“I love you too,” Lena returns with a smile, leaning heavily into Kara’s side.

“Are you still mad at me?” Kara murmurs out of nowhere and Lena’s brow furrows in confusion at the seemingly random question.

“I was never mad at you,” she says, watching Kara lick out against her lips a bit noisily.

“Yes, you were. You think I’m overprotective. You keep saying that.”

“You were the one mad at me,” Lena points out, knowing it’s pointless to try to have this conversation now with the state Kara’s in, but trying to navigate it nonetheless.

“You’re fragile, Lena. Like eggs,” Kara says, the words coming out like a whine. If they weren’t slightly insulting, Lena might laugh.

“Fragile compared to you, maybe.”

“Definitely,” Kara corrects, her eyes set in the start of a glare.

“I’m not talking about this with you when you’re drunk.”

“Okay,” Kara says, a bit irritably, her voice huffy even as she reaches for Lena’s hand and runs her fingers over the bones there.

They’re silent after that, Kara turning to watch the city pass by outside the car window. It’s warm in the back of the car and quiet compared to the noise of the bar they’d recently left. Lena sinks into the feeling and lets her eyes fall on the way the city lights play over Kara’s face.

“Thank you for the key,” Lena says quietly, remembering the moment that morning in the kitchen with a warm pressure against her chest.

Kara turns to her, confused for a moment before realization clears on her face and she smiles, drifting impossibly closer to Lena in the process. “Of course. I don’t know why I didn’t give you one before.”

Because it’s a big deal, giving someone a key to your place, Lena thinks. It’s never been something Lena’s done with a significant other. Not that she’d ever dated anyone long enough to warrant such a thing. Jack, maybe, but it hadn’t even crossed her mind to do so.

“I can have one made for you,” Lena says, chewing softly at her bottom lip. “For my place.”

Kara’s squinting at her, her eyes darting across Lena’s face in a drunkenly distracted manner. “I don’t really use the front door a lot,” Kara whispers as if confessing something.

It makes Lena laugh and she threads her fingers in between Kara’s. “True.”  

They smile at each other and for a moment, in the back of the car, Lena feels like any normal couple retreating home after a night out. A comfortable, warm kind of silence falls over them, but then, even as Kara’s eyes start to drift closed, her head falls forward a bit and she licks her lips as if to say something.

“I still want a cheeseburger,” is what Kara ends up informing her and Lena just laughs before pulling her phone out of her purse and opening up a food delivery app she has on the front page.

--

“What do you want to do this weekend?” Kara asks, hanging off the end of Lena’s couch at an awkward-looking angle. “I heard they’re doing movies on the quad. Max said they might show the original Alien.”

Lena makes a face at that. “You want to watch Alien?”

Kara shrugs, shifts on the couch into a more comfortable looking position. “It’s funny.”

Returning to the calendar she has open on her computer, Lena laughs a bit. “Only you think it’s funny.”

“Okay, fine,” Kara says her lower lip poking out just the slightest even as she chuckles. “We can do something else.”

The idea of spending the weekend lounging lazily on the quad with her girlfriend is beyond tempting. Even if it means listening to Kara laugh her way through a film like Alien . But the reality of the situation is that Lena has no such luxury, and she sighs softly before turning back to face Kara. “Actually, I can’t this weekend,” she says, reaching out to poke at the crinkle that appears between Kara’s brows. “My mother is in town.”

“She can come,” Kara replies easily and Lena laughs at the very thought of Lillian Luthor settling down on a picnic blanket to watch Alien.

“As hilarious as that would be, I think I’m better off taking her to dinner and attending some ridiculous event she undoubtedly has scheduled for us.”

Kara nods, shrugs a shoulder in silent agreement, but her eyes start to dart around nervously and Lena tracks the motion with a furrow in her brow.

“Can I ask you a question?” Kara finally says.

“Of course you can.”

“Is there a reason you don’t want me to meet your mother? She’s been in town three times since we started dating, and I was...just wondering.”

“Yes,” Lena replies immediately, almost laughing again. Of course there’s a reason. If Kara ever met Lillian, surely she’d understand.

“Oh.” Kara blinks in surprise, looking taken aback by that answer and Lena sees the wrong conclusion shadow over Kara’s face.

“Not that kind of reason,” Lena clarifies.

“What kind of reason?”

“My mother isn’t the most pleasant of people,” Lena says, trying to decide how to frame this. “It’s not something I subject someone to unless I have to.”

“I know how you feel about your mother,” Kara replies, a quirk of a smile. “I was there when you had Aaron pin her picture to his dartboard.”

“Then it shouldn’t come to any surprise that I wouldn’t make someone endure her company if I could avoid it,” Lena says, rolling her eyes just the slightest at the drunken memory of the night Kara referenced. “Certainly not you.”

“I just want to be there for you,” Kara insists softly and Lena’s chest swells.

“I know, darling,” she says. “But she’s...she once visited me at boarding school and took me and my friend Sam out to lunch and Sam left the restaurant crying because my mother said her shirt looked too tight and asked if she needed help.”

Kara frowns, picking at some thread on her jeans that probably only she can see.

“I’m glad you had Aaron print out extra pictures for the dartboard,” Kara mutters. Lena snorts, reaching for Kara’s hands.

“This isn’t about not wanting you to meet her. This is about...it’s just,” Lena takes a breath, “I don’t want to have to sit and listen to her say something backhanded or rude to you.”

“So you’re just going to let her say all those mean things to you ?” Kara looks incredulous at the idea and it only makes Lena’s cheeks warm.

“I’ve had years to build an immunity to Lillian Luthor’s special brand of insult,” Lena says because it’s mostly true. Lillian still seems to have an ability to make Lena feel small and insignificant when she wants to, but most of the time, Lena barely registers it.

“That doesn’t mean you should have to deal with that,” Kara argues. Lena’s been aware of Kara’s vague disapproval of her mother’s treatment to Lena, but it’s certainly the first time Kara’s been vocal about it. It makes her feel warm, to know that Kara is on her side.

“All I know is that if I can protect you from my mother, I will,” Lena says, her tone serious and gaze unwavering.

“I don’t know if you know this, but I’m indestructible.”

“That’s not the point,” Lena counters.

“I can handle your mother,” Kara clarifies and Lena sighs.

“That’s not the point either,” she says, “Though I think you’re vastly underestimating what my mother is like.”

“If she’s that bad, I don’t want you having to deal with that alone. Isn’t that what dating is about?”

Lena reaches out to grab one of Kara’s hands and tangles their fingers together. “I’m okay, darling. It’s just how it is.”

“How long will it be this way?” Kara asks, frustration evident on her tone as she struggles to wrap her mind around what Lena is saying. It’s clear that this is one of those things that Kara isn’t going to immediately grasp just because it requires the acceptance of Lillian Luthor being an overall awful person.

“I don’t want to argue about this, Kara.”

“It’s not an argument,” Kara protests.

“Regardless,” Lena replies, arching a brow.

“I can’t not feel the way I do about you,” Kara says quietly. “I don’t know how to change that.”

It feels a bit like her chest might crack under the pressure. “I’m not asking you to,” Lena says, searching sincere blue eyes. “Can’t you understand that it’s the same for me?”

Kara’s eyes seem almost shiny as they regard each other and Lena can’t help the protective urge that takes over her whenever she thinks about Kara and Lillian in the same room together. It’s hard to imagine Kara will ever be something Lena will want mixed with what it means to be a Luthor.

“You do so much for me,” Lena says softly. “Let me do this one thing for you.”

Kara’s lips go thin like she’s going to argue, but after only a moment she deflates. “Fine,” she grumbles. “But I’m buying you ice cream Sunday night.”

Lena laughs, doesn’t protests when Kara pulls Lena onto the couch with her. “Deal,” she says, pressing her lips against Kara’s and resolving to forget about her dreaded weekend plans for the rest of the afternoon.

--

The next few days are a sequence of jam packed days of sitting through hell at work and Kara trying to fill her days of unemployment at home.

For the first few, Kara doesn’t leave her apartment. Instead, she stays curled up on her couch watching television. Lena only knows as much because Kara spends the majority of it texting Lena intermittently about whatever it is she’s watching.

At one point Kara just sends a series of selfies that become more and more bored as they go on. Then, an interesting catalog of photos showcasing new and inventive food concoctions Kara’s come up with in her free time.

It breaks up the monotony of Lena’s days. Days filled with meetings that seem to drone on endlessly. A trail of lawyers and public relations teams dealing with all the fallout of her mother’s recent reappearance. Though Lillian’s involvement wasn’t something broadcast on the news, it’s well circulated knowledge internally at L Corp, made especially obvious by those employees who had tendered resignations.

“Your mother clearly has a few claws still left in the company, Miss Luthor,” one of her directors is saying, leaned back in his chair, the bright red color of his tie an eyesore against his white shirt. “If word got around that it was Luthor Corp property she was using to –”

“L Corp,” Lena corrects, interrupting him with a sharp enunciation of the word and an even sharper cut of her glare.

It seems to do the trick and he cowers a bit under the stare, his hand adjusting his tie as he clears his throat. “Right, of course, my apologies.”

“If I may, Miss Luthor,” another man – Alan – says, leaning over the table. “I believe Geoffrey’s point is merely that despite the flood of resignations, there may be a few moles left over and it’s best we get ahead of this issue before it becomes a problem. Your mother sat here at this very table, let’s remember –”

“I assure you, I haven’t forgotten,” Lena says, unwilling to get baited into a larger discussion about her mother.

“The problem is with public perception,” Alan continues. “Like it or not, your last name is still Luthor.”

Lena can’t help the incredulous look that lights up her eyes even as they set into a harsher glare. A sliver of satisfaction thrums up her spine when she sees the man react just as Geoffrey did, sitting back a bit and swallowing visibly. “Try to remember that my last name is also why any of us are even sitting here,” she says slowly. “Like it or not.”

In the pocket of the black slacks she had chosen to wear that day, her phone buzzes, the vibration soft but noticeable against her hip. It’s Kara, she’s sure, with some ridiculous message about whatever documentary she’s watching or disgusting grilled cheese modification she’s discovered and just the thought of it starts to quell the twist of anger in her gut. Lena sighs, adjusting the watch on her wrist and letting its shine pull her more out of irritation before she speaks.

“Perhaps we could turn our attention to something more important,” Lena says, softening a bit and pushing a tablet forward. “I trust you all have the information on the LRT-67 Project.”

--

Of all the public perception problems Lena thinks to be worried about, her relationship with Kara is vastly lower on her list than the things her board is worried about. Lena’s spent much of her adult life in public view, is young enough and singular enough that the press often finds her an interesting bit of gossip fodder whenever they get their hands on something more interesting than an L Corp innovation or a charity event.

It had been something she had been mildly concerned about when they first reunited, but since then it’s definitely fallen much farther down her list of priorities. Somewhere below her genocidal mother and the near constant attempts on her life.

Which is why she’s so blindsided when one of her weekly e-mail dumps includes the headline:

Spotted: L Corp CEO Lena Luthor and CatCo Magazine Journalist Kara Danvers

Wide eyed, she clicks onto the article to discover she and Kara have certainly made the news. Nothing front page, but it’s there nonetheless, tucked beside a fluff piece about a charity event hosted by the local professional basketball team.

To her further surprise, the article contains more than one picture of the two of them together.

The first is from the renaming ceremony Lena held to announce L Corp. The same one John Corben attacked all those months ago. She and Kara are off to the side of the platform and they’re leaning towards each other as they talk.

Lena remembers the conversation fairly well. Remembers the steely way Kara had tried to convince her to cancel the event, the flare of protectiveness that Kara couldn’t hide even back then.

In the picture, both of their hands are shoved into the pockets of their jackets and Lena can tell by the clench of her jaw that she’s on the verge of crying. Kara is clearly aware of it, her eyes trained on Lena and posture rigid.

The second picture is much more recent and the difference is obvious, if only to her. It’s a quick moment between L Corp’s front lobby and her usual black town car out front. Hand-in-hand, she and Kara are walking together towards where George is holding the door open for them. Lena can’t even remember the moment in particular, it could be one of dozens of times Kara’s come to pick Lena up from work like that. Kara is half-turned to look back at her, and the photographer got a fairly lucky shot of them smiling at each other. It’s strange to see her own image looking so joyful when most of the images she’s seen of herself in the press have been more stoic.

While neither picture is especially romantic in nature, the article still speculates as such - there’s a choice line over Lena’s “long-rumored Sapphic tendencies” that makes Lana laugh for four minutes over their lunch that afternoon. It makes a few negative comments Lena’d expect – particularly that she’s only dating Kara for good press.

This seems to be the detail Kara latches onto first, though her reaction misses the point entirely.

“Former CatCo Magazine journalist,” she corrects with a frown.

“Yes, that’s the important thing here,” Lena replies with a pointed quirk of her brow.

“They’re implying you’re dating me for good press,” Kara says. “As if I have any kind of journalistic sway anymore.”

“Maybe the good press comes from the idea that I’ve convinced anyone as good looking as you to date me,” Lena counters, trying to pull Kara out of her self-pity.

It seems to work. Kara laughs softly. “I’m pretty sure I convinced you, actually.”

With a noncommittal noise, Lena turns back to the picture of the two of them in the article. “Either way, my image can only improve if they keep printing pictures of us.”

“Better than them printing pictures of you with Supergirl like they were before,” Kara comments, reminding Lena of the few times they’d made the news together – after the L Corp gala incident is the first that comes to mind.

“There’s a difference?” Lena jokes, quirking her brow and expecting Kara to laugh, but she doesn’t.

“Of course there’s a difference,” Kara says instead, frowning. “One of those things paints an obvious target on your back.”

As Lena catches the turn in conversation, she sighs. “I already have a target on my back, Kara,” she says. “I’m the only visible member of a family filled with terrorists.”

“Filled with terrorists is an exaggeration,” Kara says and at Lena’s look she laughs a little. “I’m just saying. Everyone knows that Superman and Lois Lane are kind of a thing and Lois gets kidnapped every other week.”

“Kind of a thing ?” Lena asks, laughing again. “If that’s how you refer to their marriage, I’d hate to hear you talk about us in public.”

An immediate expression of deep offense takes hold of Kara’s face before she catches the teasing glint in Lena’s eye and it fades to something more amused, but unimpressed. “Lois is married to Clark Kent, unassuming Daily Planet journalist according to the press.”

“Right, yes, of course,” Lena says.

“Yet she’s still been the target of almost all of Superman’s enemies,” Kara replies with a pointed look.

The memories she has of her brief encounters with Lois make her laugh. “I’ve met Lois,” she informs Kara. “I’m fairly certain she’d be getting kidnapped every other week whether she knew Superman or not.”

At Kara’s look of confusion, she shrugs. “She once tracked me down while I was in the Amazon visiting a renewable energy company Lex and I were thinking about buying out. Despite not publishing any details of our trip she managed to find us.” Lena pauses at Kara’s impassive look and adds, “In the jungle.”

“Lois is a resourceful journalist,” Kara says with a shrug.

“She’s a journalist that manages to get involved in a whole slew of things that put her in harm's way with or without Superman.”

“Sounds familiar,” Kara mutters. Lena throws a glare her way just as Kara’s cheeks leak of color.

“What is it?” Lena asks, a bit alarmed at the sudden expression of anxiety across Kara’s face.

“What do you think the likelihood of Clark or Lois not noticing this article is?” Kara asks, flicking again to the top of the page, where the image of them at the renaming ceremony sits. Lena finds a small edge of panic leaking through her mind. Lois Lane randomly showing up to send the Luthor Corp security team into a frenzy while in the Amazon was one thing; Lois Lane informing her superpowered husband that his cousin was dating the sister of his mortal enemy was another thing.

“I would say low,” Lena says, after a moment. “We should probably break up now. It’s our only option.”

“You think you’re so funny,” Kara says though she can’t stop the smile tugging at her lips even as she attempts to glare quite heavily.

Of all the things to worry about, Lena’s not going to spend any more time on this particular subject so she slips into Kara’s arms instead, charmed when Kara’s glare wipes immediately from her face.

“I should call Kal,” Kara says softly even as her hands are taking hold of Lena’s hips and pulling her closer.

“Later,” is all Lena says before threading forward for a kiss.

Kara’s reaction is immediate. Her body goes slack against Lena’s and she pushes forward into the kiss and they’re both laughing when they fall back onto the couch.

--

Tensions at L Corp continue to rise higher and higher each day after the resurfacing of her mother. As irritating as her Board of Directors can be, they were certainly right about the connection public opinion is continuing to make between L Corp and Cadmus.

Friday morning starts with a line of protesters across the street from the front entrance and Lena’s grateful George has the foresight to drive her into underground parking before dropping her off.

She’s no stranger to cacophony surrounding her workplace, but it’s unnerving to realize that the responsibility of the company now rests solely with her - it’s not something that she and Lex can commiserate over dinner about after work. And even though she and her mother’s relationship had been strained at best, there was still some sense of security in having her steely presence on the board to back their decisions.

Their presence throughout the day – and the general strain that can be felt around the upper floors of the building – pushes Lena to spend the rest of her afternoon down in the labs with Lana.

“Slumming it with the nerds today?” Lana jokes, arriving at the workstation Lena’s been camped out at for the last two hours with a fresh cup of coffee and a wink.

“Hiding out, if I must confess,” Lena admits taking the offered drink with a grateful smile.

“I saw the crowds this morning,” she replies with a sympathetic tilt to her head. “If you’d like, I do have a pretty decent bottle of whiskey in my office.”

Lena laughs. “Don’t tell me that,” she admonishes with a smile as she palms her face briefly. It seems to be enough to convince Lana of the virtue of that plan.

“Come on, boss,” Lana entreats with a jerk of her head towards the office space in the corner of the lab. “Let’s liven up these coffees.”

With another laugh, Lena relents, setting the digital pen and tablet she’d been working on down and flipping off the small light on the desk.

They settle on the small leather couch of Lana’s office and Lena lets her brain take a much needed rest for a few moments. It’s nice in Lana’s office. Cluttered, but clean and so much quieter than the upper floors she usually has to spend her days in. Lena’s old office in Metropolis had been much the same, and Lex had spent far too much time lying on the floor of it tossing a baseball in the air and talking over some absurd investor meeting.

“How’s Kara been doing?” Lana asks, after she’s told a funny story involving her graduate research thesis on AIs. Lena rolls her head around on the couch and glances down at her phone, where a text from Kara sits detailing updates in her quest to make her way through all 10 seasons of Friends.

“She’s bored,” Lena says. “Yesterday she went to IKEA and bought a huge bookshelf to build because she claimed her old one was faulty. I came home to her to cursing the instruction booklet.”

“Well, even I think IKEA instructions are ridiculous,” Lana says, sipping her coffee and giggling. “Has she been looking for a job?”

“She’s in her wallowing phase,” Lena says, smiling down into her own cup. “You just have to let it happen. She once failed a test in college for her biology class and laid in bed for a weekend watching nature documentaries and eating ice cream.”

“Sounds cute,” Lana says. Lena rolls her eyes.

“It’s cute until you’re being convinced to go out at eleven before the convenience store on campus closes to get more ice cream,” Lena says.

Lana laughs, and it’s nice - to forget for a moment about the mess of her life. But it comes back again as she looks around the office and spots the small photo on Lana’s bookshelf of she and Lex shaking hands with a patent certificate thrust towards the camera.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, but there just hasn’t been the time.”

An interested look crosses Lana’s face. “What’s that?”

“When I was kidnapped by my mother, she took me to one of Lex’s vaults,” Lena says. Lana’s face goes almost impassive, but her eyes are still curious as she regards Lana. “I wanted to ask if you would help me find more of them.”

“Help you find them?” Lana asks, carefully.

“You’ve worked for this company nearly as long as I have,” Lena says. “I know he has more vaults stashed around the city and my mother seems quite set on using former Luthor Corp resources to further her cause. I have to imagine Lex did much of the same.”

“You think there are more here in National City?”

“I’m not sure, honestly,” Lena says with a bit of a laugh. “I don’t even know where to begin. They could be anywhere.”

“Knowing Lex there’s probably some elaborate treasure map hidden somewhere that leads to a series of puzzles followed by another series of puzzles,” Lana says with something in her tone that can almost be categorized as affection.

As the words register, Lena feels herself go still. Lana’s right. That sounds exactly like Lex. But so few people know Lex well enough to say such a thing. Or to say it with the kind of fondness that’s radiating from Lana’s face.

Perhaps it’s the stress of the past few days, or the fact that the protestors outside have put her mother into the forefront of her brain, but Lena feels a tendril of distrust climb up her spine.

“You’re right,” she says to Lana carefully though something dark must show on her face because Lana reacts immediately, the smile dropping into a frown. “You speak of Lex like you knew him well,” Lena says, thinking perhaps some of Kara’s paranoia of late has started to seep into her brain.

A hesitant look crosses Lana’s face before she replies. “I suppose you could say I did. Once.”

“You did,” Lena deadpans, not sure if she wants Lana to elaborate.

“Well. Lex and I,” Lana starts and Lena can already feel realization start to twist in her gut. “I mean, you know Lex and I were together. Briefly.”

The shock of it locks onto Lena’s face before she can stop it and Lana’s eyes go wide. “You didn’t know,” she adds.

A catalog of memories shuffle around in Lena’s brain and she tries to sort through it. “When?”

“Years ago,” Lana answers, softly. “I was an intern at the time and he – well – we kept it quiet for a reason.”

“You dated Lex,” Lena repeats, blinking at the information as she processes it.

“I’m sorry, Lena,” Lana replies. “I thought you knew.”

“Years ago - when?”

“It was a long time ago,” Lana says, sitting up and setting her coffee aside. Her attention stays riveted on Lena, a worried look wrinkling the skin around her eyes. “Way before he ever…I mean I didn’t know about…”

Lana looks lost, but Lena’s brain kicks back into working order just in time and she takes a deep breath, punctuating with as soft a smile as she can manage. “You needn’t explain,” she says. The look on Lana’s face is all too familiar to Lena.

“I don’t agree with the things he did,” Lana continues anyway. “At the end.”

There’s truth in the way Lana is looking at her, the genuine set of her eyes and the steady way her voice sounds. “I believe you,” she says, feeling the reality of it in her chest.

Memories try to put themselves into some kind of coherent order in Lena’s head, but she still feels a little blindsided. “It was serious, though, wasn’t it?”

Lana takes a visible breath, her lips setting into a line as she nods. “Yeah. It was, for a while.”

--

Kara’s reaction to the new information about Lana is much less conflicted than Lena’s was. A fiery kind of emotion shadows across her face immediately and her eyes set into a determined glare.

“She dated Lex?”

“Apparently while we were in college,” Lena tells her, still trying to put the story fully together herself. “I had always wondered who had Lex so hung up back then. I guess now I know.”

“She left him for Clark, then,” Kara says.

That part of the equation hadn’t occurred to Lena. She’d almost forgotten Kara had told her Lana and Clark were once together and that Lex had blamed Clark for his mysterious breakup at the time as well. “I suppose so.”

“So Lana dates your brother, breaks up with him for Superman and then Lex goes –”

“Kara,” Lena warns, drawing the name out as she can follow Kara’s thoughts fairly easily.

“There are only two options here,” Kara says. “Either Lana is still some kind of sleeper agent for your brother or she’s the reason he went all rage-y and therefore probably still a target which puts you in danger purely by proximity and –”

“How are those the only two options?” Lena interrupts before Kara’s rant tumbles further into insanity. Defensiveness and indignation are starting to mix uncomfortably in her stomach and it only gets worse with the expression growing on Kara’s face.

“Because that’s generally how our life goes, isn’t it?” Kara replies, starting to sound a bit hysterical.

“I trust Lana,” Lena says slowly.

“You barely know her,” Kara counters and Lena bristles.

“I’ve known her for years, Kara.”

“It doesn’t matter. You should - stop hanging out with her. Or fire her,” Kara says as if she has any kind of authority on the subject.

“Excuse me?” Lena asks, incredulous. Kara nods to herself as though she has stumbled on the most logical solution to the problem.

“Fire her,” Kara repeats. “I’m not letting you go to work every day with a possible spy for your brother in the building like a ticking time bomb.”

A hot well of irritation hits so hot in her chest that a bitter taste forms on the back of her tongue. “You don’t let me do anything,” Lena says slowly in an attempt to keep her tone even and low. “Especially when it comes to my job.”

“If you won’t take steps to protect yourself, then I will,” Kara replies, undeterred by the flash of anger Lena can feel in her eyes.  

“What exactly do you think you can do?”

“Remove her,” Kara answers, arms crossing over her chest.

Lena can feel her eyebrows shoot up her head and she laughs – a sharp angry burst of sound. “Do you hear yourself?”

“I’m done sitting around while you continue to take risks like this with your life. She knew about the kryptonite, she knows about the vaults - she could be helping your mother look for them right now.”

“You’re talking about my friend,” Lena says. “And my employee.”

“I’m talking about your life,” Kara counters and Lena resists the urge to roll her eyes, settles for scrubbing her palm across her face and taking a deep breath.

“Kara, you’re being absurd,” Lena says. “Lana is not a sleeper cell agent intent on killing me, nor is she somehow making me a target by association.”

“You don’t know that,” Kara says, indignant.

“You don’t either,” Lena says. “You can’t just accuse every person who gets close to me of being an evildoer. Who’s next? Winn? Jack? Jess?”

“You have a pretty high rate of associating with bad people,” Kara says. Whether it’s true or not, Lena feels anger rising up in her even higher.

“At some point, Kara, the common thread in that is me,” Lena says. “Perhaps I’m the bad person.”

“No,” Kara says, shaking her head.

“You don’t get to tell me how to run my life,” Lena says. “I don’t tell you how to go out and punch people.”

“I know, Lena,” Kara says, her hands raising in the air between them, clearly trying to slow the train of Lena’s rant. But it makes her more frustrated. 

“You don’t, Kara,” Lena says, trying to restrain herself from slapping her palm on the table between them in annoyance. “You spend all your time reminding me about my apparently bad decision-making as if I choose to get kidnapped or shot at or thrown off a balcony.”

“That's not what I meant,” Kara says, her tone pleading. “Lena, I know - you just need to be more careful! I feel like you just - you don't - you willingly put yourself in dangerous situations without -”

“I’m not having this argument again,” Lena interrupts, unable to stop the exasperation from soaking her tone. “You can’t wrap me in wool every time you think there’s some threat lurking.”

“I’m not going to apologize for wanting you to be safe,” Kara says, sounding firm. Lena can read the anxiety fairly clearly in her face, but she can’t give in to a deep desire to soothe it.

“I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that this kind of behavior isn’t a sustainable way of living. I watch you fly out to fight monsters every day, Kara, and I don’t ask you to not because I know that’s who you are and I love you for that. Why can't you afford me the same courtesy.”

Kara runs shaky fingers through her hair, blows out a breath and looks like she might start yelling, but her voice is quiet when she speaks again. “You take risks that you don’t need to take.”

“We’re not talking about taking a risk here, we’re talking about you trying to interfere with my professional life.”

“She could very well be a threat,” Kara insists and this time Lena does roll her eyes. “You can’t know that she’s not!”

“Sure, I don’t know that Lana isn’t going to hand me over to Cadmus tomorrow,” Lena says. “Lex didn’t know whether Superman was going to go tear apart Metropolis, either.”

Kara blinks for a moment, her arms crossed and eyes still fierce. Lena feels herself deflate, rubbing at her eyes as she sees the time.

“I don’t want to fight about this,” Lena says, feeling like a broken record. An answer to Kara’s seemingly increasing paranoia and overprotectiveness seems far too elusive for this argument to ever end. Lena’s exhausted just thinking about it.

“I’m not trying to fight about it,” Kara replies and Lena sighs.

“I know,” she says, blowing out another breath before glancing again at the time on the clock over Kara’s shoulder. “I have to go.”

Surprise pulls Kara’s brows down. “Have to go where?” she asks, standing as Lena does.

“Out,” Lena answers succinctly, pulling her phone out of her pocket and opening up her messages.

“Out where?” Kara says and before Lena can even move an inch, Kara’s in front of her, blocking the way.

Lena blinks unimpressed eyes up at her girlfriend and takes a breath against the new wave of angry words that threaten to come out. “Move, Kara,” she says slowly, hoping her tone breaks through.

“If you just don’t want to be around me, I can leave,” Kara says, but this time all the anger has abandoned her voice replaced by a soft resignation coated in worry.

The sound of it tugs Lena’s hand out and pulls her forward until she’s curving her fingers around the tense muscle of Kara’s forearm and feeling it relax almost immediately. “I’m not trying to get away from you,” Lena says quietly. “I told Winn I’d help him with something at the DEO tonight. That’s all.”

The tension in Kara’s shoulders deflate further, but she bites at her bottom lip as if she’s trying not to cry and nods softly. “Okay, do you need a ride?”

“George is waiting outside,” Lena says. Kara nods, tears clearly present in her eyes. Even though Lena wants to help soothe the issue, she’s still irritated enough that she can’t bring herself to supplicate to Kara’s wishes.

“Listen, I’m - I’m sorry,” Kara says, softly, after Lena starts to move toward her coat and bag by the door. “I’m trying to not be crazy.”

“You might want to try harder,” Lena says, turning to glance at Kara as she pulls her coat on. “I love you.”