Chapter 57

Lena's pleased by how far they've made it in such a short amount of time. She had thought they would be much slower. Though she isn't surprised when she thinks about it more. Lena has a high stamina from her training and from her time scouting this kind of place. And Kara, Kara's Kryptonian. Nearly endless supplies of energy, like a humanoid solar panel, and superspeed means that Kara can match any pace that Lena sets. She can't help wondering if that extends to the... She cuts off her thoughts there, her cheeks turning pink.

Lena shakes herself out of her daze and focuses on the terrain in front of them. She's the main guide, since she knows the area better than Kara. They're off any of the paths now in an attempt to stay off of Lillian's and Cadmus' radar for as long as possible.

If Lena's memory is correct, and it usually is, then they should be coming across the edge of the disputed territory. They have been planning on the fact that there are guards patrolling the perimeter, knowing they would be subtle as to not draw attention to their operation, but not so subtle that an expert Markswoman and a Kryptonian wouldn't notice them.

Lena has to admit, it's handy to have Kara with her. Instead of Lena being anxious and constantly on her guard, she can almost relax. As much as she can on any potentially dangerous mission, that is. She can rely on Kara to be her eyes and ears, what with her having super senses.

Kara is more than happy to help, and takes it even more seriously than Lena expected. She's constantly at the minimum semi-alert, ready for anything. Just like Lena.

"Two guards, 36 degrees." Kara whispers.

Lena nods in understanding. Instead of the confusing clock times that people in novels seem to favor, she and Kara have agreed to use degrees instead. The zero degrees is the line straight ahead in their field of vision. Kara has explained it like if someone drew a line from their noses, that would be zero degrees. And then to the left is 30, 45, 60 degrees. As if they had taken a unit circle and set it in front of them, standing and facing the zero.

It makes sense to them, and that's what matters. Especially in situations like this.

"Can we go wide, around them?" Lena murmurs back to her girlfriend as they stop in order to make a quick plan.

"If we go to the left, we'll go straight into their field of vision. We have to go right a bit. There's a guard another couple hundred feet to the right, and I can't tell if he's napping or dead. Oh, napping. His heart's beating, at least."

Lena pulls Kara in for a quick kiss, oddly charmed by her adorable commentary in such a serious situation. Kara gives her a beaming smile and pecks her again, taking Lena's hand in hers and squeezing briefly before letting go. They can't hold hands for too long in case of a surprise attack, where they would have to hastily let go and Lena would have to pull out her weapons. The extra second or two it takes them to let go could end up getting one of them seriously hurt.

On a slightly lighter note, avoiding the guards is an almost laughably easy accomplishment. Her mother's lackeys are either idiots or unprepared for anyone to attempt to come through the territory. Lena would guess idiots, Lillian needs all the help she can get, and she would never let her workers be unprepared.

"Wow. That was easy." Kara remarks quietly and winces exaggeratedly when Lena lightly smacks her arm, even though they both know she could barely feel that.

"Don't jinx it, darling."

Kara frowns. "Oh, right. Oops."

Lena and Kara continue on like that, with Lena leading and Kara as the lookout. They manage to avoid quite a few guards, who Kara says look bored out of their minds. They're coming up on the two possible castles of the four that are closer together.

"We're getting pretty close. I don't want to go too much further." Lena informs Kara quietly a couple minutes later. "Do you hear a lot of people?"

Kara cocks her head and listens for a minute. "Not like you'd expect if it were a secret base, no. There are some heartbeats, but it mainly sounds like they're moving in a fixed pattern, so patrolling. There isn't anyone on separate floor levels, like there would be if they occupied a big castle like that. And nothing's covered in lead."

"So we can cross them off. Castle Hadrian and... Castle Bunny?" Lena gives the list a flabbergasted look, not having known the name for it before.

"Bunnies are cute!" Kara exclaims. "I have no idea why the owner named it that, there aren't any nobles in the Danvers Kingdom with Bunny as their first or last name."

"There is one noble in the Luthor Kingdom that may be the owner... Her name is Lady Anyanka, Anya for short if she likes you, and she absolutely despises bunnies."

"What?" Kara gasps. "How can you hate bunnies? With their little twitchy noses and buckteeth and floppy ears? They're such amazing creatures! I've been to twelve planets and I've never seen anything like bunnies!"

"I don't know why, darling. You would have to ask her. But there are rumors that she hates them because they remind her of who she used to be, or some cheating ex-husband. Something like that." Lena replies.

"Oh, that's fair." Kara nods empathetically. "Okay, so we've knocked down the list of possibles to two!" She glances at the list. "Castle Dalul and Castle Lion! What's with the animal names?"

"Lion." Lena repeats, turning over the name in her head in an attempt to make sense of it. "Of course!" She exclaims excitedly, barely remembering to keep her voice quiet. "Lions were Lionel's favorite animals, he always used to say that it's because his name has 'lion' in it. That's probably where my mother is staying, as a homage to her late husband. We'll still want to check, make certain, but I think we've got it, Kara."

Kara grins at her girlfriend's excitement. "Ok. So where's Lion Castle? We should head there first."

"It's the largest and one of the easiest to fortify. I remember that much from my research on it. It's bit exactly close, but if we move fast, we should be able to make it to a pretty cosy cave to stay in for the night."

Kara looks excited at the idea of sleeping in a cave and urges Lena onward, gesturing for her to lead so they don't get lost on the way. The cave is smaller than Lena remembers, but she's never brought a guest to it, so that could be why it seems tinier.

Once again, Kara cooks their dinner and they cuddle up together in the sleeping bag while they eat, playfully flicking crumbs at each other. They decide to turn in not long after they finish eating, after they discuss tomorrow.

Lena has her head on Kara's chest so she can listen to her heartbeat. Kara reverently brushes Lena's hair from her face and they share a sweet, passionate kiss before they resettle and fall asleep.

***

"She called us what?" Vasquez asks, amused.

They're taking a lunch break with Winn, Maggie, and Alex, who they somehow managed to pull away from her work. Vasquez suspects that Maggie provided an incentive, but they have no proof.

"The nerd twins." Alex says.

"Allie," Maggie groans out, poking Alex's side in retaliation. Alex snorts out a laugh, which makes Maggie grin at how cute the sound is.

"And she said with me, we're the nerd triplets." Alex continues.

"So with Maggie, we're the nerd quintuplets?" Winn asks.

"Not unless you're counting J'onn, too. Quintuplets is five, quadruplets is four." Vasquez points out.

"Right, I knew that." Winn says, blushing.

"Wait. Are you nerds calling me a nerd?" Maggie asks.

"Yes," Alex deadpans. "Babe, you get excited about various weaponry, you know how to use a caliper... I could list a lot more."

Maggie lets out a dramatic gasp and clutches her chest. "It's contagious."

Alex gives her an amused look and leans in to give her a kiss to quiet her girlfriend.

"It's passed through intimate bodily contact." Vasquez teases, moving their eyebrows up and down. They stare when Alex and Maggie exchange a look and blush. "Wait, really? Go Alex!"

Vasquez leans over the table to high five a highly embarrassed Alex.

"You picked a good one," Winn says.

It's such a contrast to Vasquez's more crude words that Alex nearly does a double take. She grins at the man she considers her little brother and resists the urge to give him an affectionate noogie, settling for lightly kicking his shin to get his attention.

"Ow!" He yelps, mainly in surprise.

"Thanks, Winn."

Whoo, hopefully that was good. The time zone I'm used to, it's 5:30 am and I've been up since 8 am yesterday. I've been traveling since 2:30 on and I'm working with about one hour of sleep on the airplane... Thank you for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!