Chapter 52

Maggie and Alex don't stay for long in Kara's bedroom, wanting to give her and Lena time to pack and sleep before they leave the next morning.

"You better not leave without at least waking us up." Alex says, leaning against the frame of the doorway. Maggie's waiting just behind her.

"You know I won't." Kara murmurs.

Alex sighs and tugs her sister closer to her, holding onto her hand. "I know. I just hate knowing you're going to be in danger."

"We'll be careful. Lena will watch my back and I'll watch hers." Kara promises. "We will have each other, so we won't do anything that would put us in too much danger. Okay?"

"That's only semi-reassuring." Alex sighs, running her unoccupied hand through her hair.  "You're both pretty reckless. At the very least, be careful."

Kara nods and squeezes her sister's hand. "We will. And you can remind us of this in the morning too."

Alex nods and lets out a breath. "I just might. Maybe then you'll remember it." Kara smiles softly at her. "Finish packing before you fall asleep, you won't want to deal with all that in the morning." Alex cuts Kara off before she can reply to that. "Goodnight. I love you."

"Love you too." Kara says.

Alex hugs Kara, then heads across the hallway to her room (which has really become her and Maggie's room). Kara stands and watches as the doors close behind them, and without using her super hearing, she can hear Maggie's voice becoming soft and soothing, probably to reassure Alex about Kara's well-being. Kara hates that her sister gets so worried, that she causes Alex so much stress.

Lena gently places a hand on Kara's upper back. "Hey. Do you want to talk about it?" She asks quietly.

"Not really." Kara replies and then sighs. "I just... I don't like that Alex gets so worried about me. I hate that I cause her so much distress."

Lena hums in understanding and reaches down to tug at Kara's hand to indicate for her to turn around. Kara complies.

"That's part of having strong relationships." Lena pauses for a quick moment. "Your family has been teaching me that. It's normal to worry about someone, especially with the careers you and your sister have chosen. There's no way to stop her from worrying. All you can do is try not to give her more reasons to worry if you can."

Kara bites her lip before swiftly releasing it, cocking her head. "How?"

"You can't cut out the dangerous missions in your life, or the inherent dangers of being an alien, and a Super." Lena begins. "So what you can do, as your sister said, is be careful. Try not to rush into things without a plan. Stuff like that."

Kara nods and rests her hands on Lena's waist. "That's a good way of explaining it."

Lena smiles and drapes her arms over Kara's shoulders, knowing exactly what her girlfriend wants at the moment. "You know, we should probably pack before we do anything else."

"Or," Kara draws the word out. "We could take a quick break and kiss a little first."

Lena practically melts in Kara's arms. "Darling, you know we will lose track of time. We should pack first. And change."

Kara sighs but nods, knowing that Lena's right. "Just one quick kiss?" She asks with wide eyes, giving Lena her famous pout with her 'puppy dog eyes' as Lucy calls it.

They work faster than usual on Lena and she nods, leaning in. Their lips brush gently before Kara closes the small distance between them. Lena hums happily and as she suspected, gets lost in the kiss. She reaches up to tangle her fingers in Kara's hair to pull her closer.

While Kara's Kryptonian abilities allow her to go without much oxygen for a longer period of time, Lena's still only human. She ends up pulling back from the kiss, gasping quietly for breath. Her forehead is pressed against Kara's and she keeps her eyes closed as she catches her breath. When she opens them, she almost wishes she didn't. Kara's eyes are so expressive, so beautiful. She looks at Lena like she hung the stars in the sky for her. Like Lena's her whole world.

It makes Lena really want to just give in and lean in and kiss her again. But they have things to do, and the Luthors instilled in her iron self control. It just isn't as strong against the Girl of Steel.

Lena sighs and gives Kara one last quick peck. "We have to pack."

Kara groans but doesn't disagree. They pull apart reluctantly and efficiently make their way around Kara's room, picking up what they need and putting them into the bags that Alex has already packed for them. It doesn't take them too long, luckily. They change into their sleep clothes and get into bed, Kara using her strong breath to carefully blow out the candles from the bed.

Lena yawns and Kara looks at her with a fond expression as her girlfriend cuddles up to her. Lena lies on her side while Kara lies on her back. Lena rests her head on Kara's shoulder and drapes her arm over Kara's stomach. Kara kisses Lena's forehead, grinning when her girlfriend responds by snuggling up closer to her.

"Goodnight." Lena murmurs.

"Goodnight."

***

To their surprise, Lena and Kara wake up to the smell of breakfast. It's warm and sitting on the table. That would be alarming, because the person sneaking in wasn't heard by Kara. But she can see a hastily scribbled note with familiar writing from where she is still lying down with Lena, who's now half on top of her.

"Who brought us breakfast?" Lena mumbles, blinking tiredly. Kara thinks she looks gorgeous.

"Alex and Maggie, I recognize Alex's handwriting on the note." Kara says.

"Hmm. Remind me to thank them later." Lena says, rolling over off of Kara so she can sit up and stretch.

They eat breakfast quickly and then Lena makes sure that they have everything, going through a mental checklist and checking with Kara to ensure she has everything as well. They change into their clothes and Kara pouts when she sees what her girlfriend is wearing.

"You're wearing your armor. Does that mean I can wear my supersuit?" Kara asks.

Lena smiles softly and walks so she's in front of Kara. "We'll have to see what Winn whipped up. If it can cover your suit, then yes." Kara pouts harder and Lena can't resist giving her a quick kiss before explaining. "My armor is a muted color, it'll blend right in to the forest, which is what we want. Your supersuit, while very charming, is mainly blue and red. That stands out in a forest. Okay?"

Kara nods. "Okay. So... It's okay that I have my supersuit in my bag?"

"Darling, it was on the checklist. Of course it is." Lena answers, her tone thick with amusement and adoration.

"Right," Kara says, blushing.

Lena takes Kara's hand, mentally going over everything again. She puts on her backpack, which is not as heavy as she feared. It must be the good padding. According to Kara's ramblings last night, it's a design that Alex created for people going on long trips and for knights. It's designed in such a way that it evenly distributed the weight over her shoulders and is padded using a polymer that Lena's never seen before.

"Ready?" Lena asks.

"Yeah. Lets do this." Kara smiles at her, squeezing her hand.

The guards they pass all nod to them, some speaking up to wish them a safe trip. While they may not know what exactly Lena and Kara are doing in their mission, J'onn has said it was okay for people to know that they'll be gone on a mission.

Kara and Lena aren't surprised when they see a gathering of people just outside the castle's main doors. What Lena is surprised by is how despite the fact they're all from and loyal to the Danvers Kingdom, they greet her warmly and wish her good luck. She recognizes a few of them from the DEO and from in the halls, but the main people she expected to see aren't here.

Kara, sensing her confusion after they say their goodbyes to the last person, explains. "They're all in the DEO with Winn."

Lena nods and walks alongside her girlfriend toward the DEO. They open the doors to see that they are all here, aside from Winn and Vasquez. He runs into the room with Vasquez trailing behind him a second after Lena and Kara do, both looking frazzled but proud.

"They're done!" He exclaims. He hands the finished disguises over to Lena and Kara. "This material is super light but also should slow down any projectiles if you're ever shot at, gods forbid, so it's a good layer of protection too. Vasquez had the idea of making it kind of tie together, like a bath robe. You can still keep it in place and cover what you have underneath, but it's easy to pull apart. Also, it's painted with a special thing I've been working on in my spare time for a couple of years. When you put it on, it'll recognize your body heat and the colors of the area surrounding you. So it can kind of camouflage you by itself. It's obviously made with alien tech, but cool right?" Winn asks, grinning despite the exhaustion in his eyes.

He and Vasquez didn't sleep at all last night, working through the night (after he said goodnight to Lyra, he joined them in working) to finish it. Vasquez holds up their hand and he high fives them.

Just so you know, from now on I'm going to be using they/them pronouns to refer to Vasquez! I'll go back and change stuff when I have the time, which actually might be this week. So if you ever see that I'm updating a lot on one day, that's just me editing! Next chapter, the goodbyes. Also, up soon is a special Sanvers moment ;) We should be getting to it within the next couple of chapters. Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!