Chapter 145

"So what's your plan so far?" Alex asks, sitting down on one of the benches in the gardens.

Lena sits next to her and lets out a breath, running a hand through her hair. "I don't know. I want it to be perfect because Kara deserves nothing less. I know I don't want to do it in public or in front of a large crowd, I don't want her to feel pressured to say yes."

"Kara's going to say yes no matter how you propose. She won't feel obligated to do anything, she's not that type of person."

"I know. But I would still worry about it," Lena sighs. "And this is a huge step forward in our relationship, I want to be more intimate than that."

"So a flash mob is out of the question."

Lena blinks at her and then bursts into laughter, her body hunching forward with the force of it. She wipes a tear from her eyes as she calms down. "No, Alex. No flash mob."

"Mm. Then what are you thinking?"

Lena sits back up and looks at the beautiful clear sky above them. "I don't know. I want to think of something meaningful that she'll love more than if I just blurt it out. Which I have so close to doing so many times."

"Heh, Maggie told me she had the same problem. We Danvers girls are hard to resist." Alex nudges Lena. "But you have a ring, at least?"

Lena nods, her face softening as she smiles. "Yeah. I've had it for quite a while, been carrying it with me everywhere."

"Do you have it with you now?" Alex asks and Lena nods. "Can I see it?"

Lena hesitates for a moment before nodding again. She rifles around in her pocket, trying to find it. She hands the small jewelry box to Alex, who looks up at her. Once Lena gives her silent permission again, Alex carefully opens up the box. A soft gasp escapes her lips when she looks down at the ring.

Lena shifts, looking away from Alex as she stares wide-eyed at the ring. "Is it too much? I know I like it but-"

"Shush." Alex places a finger over Lena's lips without taking her eyes from the ring. She looks up at the woman who makes her sister so happy and breaks into a wide, warm smile. "It's perfect, Lena. She's going to love it! If you don't mind me asking, why did you choose this color? After all, most jewels in rings are white."

Lena looks down at the ring. It's a simple dark gray band made from a small part of Kara's ship (she can't even begin to say how hard it was to figure out how to weld it into a ring with the technology they have). It's sturdy and harder than any metal Lena has come across on Earth, and Lena thinks it'll be a nice reminder of Kara's home, of her family. And in a way, it'll link her Kryptonian family with her Earth one.

"The red is beautiful, isn't it?" Lena murmurs, gesturing to the stone. "You know how Kara paints Krypton, right? One night when we were in the Luthor Kingdom, she was trying to explain the difference between the sun and Rao, all the color differences. How Rao lit up Krypton. It sounded beautiful, and I told her so and that I wish I could have seen it. So she spent the next day-" Lena chokes up, like all the words flee from her mouth as her heart flutters hard enough to steal the breath from her lungs.

"She painted it for you," Alex murmurs and Lena nods. "She used to do that a lot more, painting scenes from Krypton. Sometimes, when she felt like she couldn't explain something well enough for me to understand, she would paint it. So she painted Rao for you?"

"She painted Krypton for me. It was the view from her balcony as Rao began to rise in the sky. The way Rao's lights fell over the crystals..." Lena's breath hitches just thinking about it. "I can see why they worshipped Rao as their god. It was easily the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I had been looking for a jewel for the ring for a while by the time I found that, and I just knew it was perfect. I had already made the ring, it just needed something like that. The deep red reminds me of her painting of Rao," Lena says softly.

She gently taps the jewel, smiling down at it. She can imagine how amazing it'll look on Kara's finger. Lena can't wait to find out how much reality surpasses her fantasy. She hears a soft sniffle and looks up.

"Alex, are you crying?"

"Pfft, no." Alex scoffs as she brushes away a tear. She reaches out and takes Lena's hand, holding the ring box in the other. "Listen, Lena. Kara really is going to love whatever you do. Heck, I guarantee you could propose in the middle of stables that haven't been mucked out in months and she would still cry!"

"That would probably be because of the smell," Lena says.

Alex laughs. "Probably. Do you want me to help brainstorm?"

Lena nods. "Please."

"Okay. What's something that the two of you do that's just yours? That you don't do with anyone else?"

Lena raises an eyebrow. "Do you want me to answer that?"

Alex grimaces. "Not like that! You know what I mean!"

Lena chuckles softly. "I do." She pauses to think. "Sometimes during a clear night, Kara will fly me up so I can look at the stars. I hate flying but I always feel safe in her arms. It feels like I can touch the stars when we fly up that high. We love walking in the gardens and through the cities. Sometimes she shares her food with me. And when we have free time, we sometimes read together. Sometimes we'll read to each other."

"I think I have an idea." Alex says, a smile growing on her face.

Aah! I think I've figured out what Lena's going to do to propose? We'll see? And I did well (96%) on my Psych test! Spending an hour buying a charger worked out! And now I'm off to get ready for Pride Prom, which is going to be awesome! Because I have friends I'm going to go hang out with! I still need to learn how to tie a tie lol. Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!