Chapter 148

They sit down at the table on the kitchen, letting Kara be the one to take the trays with pizza and potstickers out of the oven since she can't get burned. She sets it on the the table and sits next to Lena, who leans against her. Kara presses a kiss to her forehead and lets the others grab food. By now they know that whatever they don't take, Kara will devour.

"How's the married life?" Lena asks as she hands one of her potstickers to Kara to tide her over until she can grab the rest of the food.

"It's wonderful," Alex says. She turns and looks at Maggie with heart eyes. "I love being able to call her my wife, and hearing her call me her wife."

Kara listens to her sister continue to wax poetry about how much she loves Maggie and how they're married absentmindedly, looking longingly over at Lena. Rao, she wants to marry her, to see a ring on her finger and a bracelet on her arm. But she doesn't know if Lena's ready for that. Kara has tried to bring up the idea of marriage a couple times in the past month or so, but Lena keeps acting nervous. And no matter how much Kara wants to marry the love of her life, she would never ask if she thought it would make Lena feel uncomfortable or feel pressured to say yes.

Kara looks back over at her sisters and grins shyly when she sees that Maggie is giving her a knowing look. Nothing gets past her. Kara shakes her head gently, mouthing "she's not ready." Maggie's eyes sparkle after she mouths that and Kara has no idea why. Before she can ask, Alex pushes the leftover food in front of her. They left her about three-fourths of the food and Kara can feel her mouth watering already. Kara immediately pops another potsticker in her mouth and hums happily at the taste.

"I was about to tell you that it's hot, but then I remembered that it doesn't affect you," Maggie says.

Kara nods. "I can tell if it's warm or cold, but it won't burn my mouth."

"We found that out after Kara ate a cookie right after a sheet of them came out of the oven. Our old chef nearly fainted and retired the next day."

"Oh yeah! I forgot that that's why he retired! He said he 'couldn't deal with invulnerable aliens with voids for stomachs.' " Kara says.

"I'm just glad you didn't use your heat vision or floated in front of him, the poor old man would have had a heart attack!"

***

After Kara finishes her mound of food, they head back to their quarters together. Maggie and Alex lead the way, hand-in-hand, with Lena and Kara just a few steps behind them. Maggie's telling them about what she and Kara got up to while Alex was with Lena in the library.

"Kara decided it was a good idea to bake. Or at least attempt to," Maggie says.

"Hey, it wasn't-"

"You burned frosting," Maggie interjects. "And it wasn't even because of your heat vision."

"How?" Alex asks.

"I don't know! It was next to the oven for a moment and then it started smoking! And you've messed up instant mashed potatoes that Lyra made for you!" Kara retorts.

"Oh, babe. Is that the-"

"The time where I read one-third of a cup of salt instead of one-third of a teaspoon? Yup."

They laugh and Alex can't even pretend to be annoyed. Looking back, she's not sure how that happened either.

"Alright," Maggie says as they reach their rooms. "This is us. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight!" Lena and Kara say.

Maggie holds the door open for Alex and closes it softly behind them as Lena holds open the door for Kara. Kara kisses Lena's cheek as she passes her. Lena closes the door and wraps her arms around Kara from behind. Without her heels, she can't rest her chin on Kara's shoulder.

Lena smiles at how Kara relaxes and leans back in her arms, just enough to put her weight on Lena but not enough to knock her over.

Kara turns her head and kisses Lena's nose. Kara smiles when Lena laughs softly at the action. She turns around in her arms and rests her head on Lexa's shoulders, turning their embrace into a hug.

"I love you Lee," Kara murmurs.

"I love you too," Lena whispers back. She presses a kiss to Kara's cheek, delighting at how that makes her girlfriend's face light up.

"What do you want to do tomorrow?" Kara asks, pulling back so that they can get into their pajamas.

Lena shrugs, grabbing her night dress from the hanger and laying it on the bed. "I don't know. Do you have anything in mind?"

"I kind of want to sit around and read again, if you're up for it."

Lena's heart rate increases a lot more than Kara would expect at her suggestion. She eyes Lena carefully, though her face is devoid of any negative emotions as far as she can see.

"Okay. It's my turn to read, right?"

"Yeah. Unless you don't want to, I mean I could always read instead."

Lena shakes her head. "No, that's alright. I can read."

Kara nods. Lena's being weird, she can tell that much. But if it's something Kara needs to know about, she trusts Lena to tell her. She won't push her or anything.

Kara and Lena get dressed and get under the covers. Kara blows out the last candle and then cuddles up to Lena, her head resting on her shoulder and her arm draped over Lena's stomach. Lena's hand moves up and down her back, occasionally moving to trace her biceps. Lena's hand then moves up to gently run her fingers through Kara's hair. Kara's eyes slowly close and she snuggles up further against her girlfriend.

Lena presses a kiss to Kara's forehead and then closes her eyes as well

Okay! So next chapter for sure is the proposal! And wow this chapter is a lot later than usual... Which will probably keep happening for the next chapter as well since finals week is this week! And I'm going to force myself to actually write the poem later today lol. Thank you all for reading and for your patience! Thank you for your amazing comments as well, they really make my day! Stay awesome!