332. Chapter 332

“Oh come on, Alex, she totally knows.”

Alex pffts and looks away and looks back and looks away and looks back.

“Noooo.”

“Alex. Yes. She does.”

Alex squints and leans across the bar to get a better look at Lena, at the way she’s fawning over Kara, at the way Kara’s leaning into her, the way Kara’s arm looks like it’s just twitching to toss itself over Lena’s shoulders.

“I’m not saying she doesn’t like Kara for Kara – hell, she seems even more in love with Kara than she’s enamored with Supergirl – but I’m saying, Danvers. She’s not stupid. And we’ve already agreed that the glasses really…”

“Are ridiculous, yeah,” Alex murmurs distractedly, staring all the harder at her sister and her sister’s maybe-not-really-what-are-you-talking-about-Alex-we’re-just-friends-come-on-I-mean-sure-I-like-her-what’s-not-to-like okay-I’m-gonna-stop-you-right-there-Little-Danvers-because-what’s-not-to-like-is-literally-the-phrase-your-sister-used-about-me-right-before-she-became-my-girlfriend girlfriend.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Lena asks Kara on the other side of the bar when she catches Alex and Maggie both staring.

Kara has to try – hard – not to tell her exactly what Alex and Maggie are talking about, because in a bar this crowded, this loud, there would be no other way to explain her knowledge except superhearing. And she’s going to tell Lena – really, she is – but not yet, because she’s terrified, because Lena likes Kara for Kara, which is unbelievable and amazing but what if when she realizes that Kara is also Supergirl, she doesn’t like her for… her… anymore?

But she can’t say all that, not yet, not yet, so she splutters and she adjusts her glasses and she tries very hard not to spill her club soda all over her baby blue collared shirt that Lena had commented earlier brought out her eyes beautifully.

“Oh, um… probably… girlfriend stuff. Definitely girlfriend stuff.” She adds an authoritative nod for good measure, and Lena’s laughter sounds like faerie wings, and Kara’s heart leaps because she’s laughing, but she’s not laughing at Kara, and that… she… is perfect.

“Girlfriend stuff,” Lena deadpans, her voice rich and low and full of barely contained amusement.

Kara adjusts her glasses again. “Yeah. Like uh… what… hey, what do girlfriends talk about, anyway?”

Lena takes a long sip of her wine, and Kara tries – and fails – not to look at her lips.

“The same things we do, probably,” Lena answers after a thoughtful swallow, and Kara’s stomach flips because sometimes she thinks she knows Lena so well, but when they go anywhere near… this territory… she just can’t figure out what her feelings are… if she’s just happy to have a friend, or if these dates they’ve been going on are actually… you know…. dates.

She should ask Alex. Or Maggie. Or both. But not now. Not now, because now, Lena is draining her wine and standing up and Kara’s ex-boyfriend – not the amazing one – naturally chooses that moment to cross behind her, causing Lena to overbalance, to stumble, to start to fall.

Kara doesn’t think and she doesn’t calculate. She just sweeps one arm under Lena’s thighs and the other, strong around her back, scooping her up bridal style so she doesn’t fall, so she doesn’t roll her ankle, so she doesn’t…

But oh. Oh. Oh no.

Because now Lena’s breath is hitched and Alex and Maggie’s jaws are both on the bar and Lena’s pupils are dilating and her breath smells of wine and nothing has ever smelled so perfect and Kara can hear her heartbeat, feel it, and she hasn’t had anything but club soda but Rao does she suddenly feel drunk, and Rao is Lena’s body warm, and Lena’s arms are wrapped around her neck and Lena is speaking, softly, speaking, low, speaking, intimate.

“Well, these arms certainly do feel familiar,” Lena’s practically whispering, and it doesn’t matter that the bar is crowded, and it doesn’t matter that the bar is loud, and it doesn’t even matter that Kara has superhearing: the words penetrate her every cell with subtle, heated precision.

“I… I didn’t want you to… fall,” Kara splutters, and neither woman says anything about the fact that Kara still hasn’t put her down.

“Oh, Kara Danvers,” Lena husks softly, “I told you. You are my hero. I know you’d never let me fall” She brings her lips to Kara’s ear easily, protective of her secrets, of her safety, of her comfort and of her happiness. “Whether you’re in or out of that suit and cape.”

Heat sears throughout Kara’s entire body, and she has no words because she barely has breath, and she pulls back so she can look Lena in the eyes, and Rao she can’t help the way she glances down at her lips once, twice, three times, until Lena breathes, until Lena wets them, until Kara can’t take it anymore and closes the gap, because she can’t process anything except Lena, Lena, Lena.

They startle apart at a loud whoop from across the bar, and Kara sets Lena down gently, carefully, though they stay entangled in each other’s arms, entangled in each other’s breath.

“Boom! You owe me that flash grenade, Danvers!”

“I never said the glasses aren’t ridiculous!”

“Flash grenade!”

“Do we want to know why your sister’s girlfriend wants a flash grenade to begin with?” Lena grins into Kara’s ear.

“Not even a little bit,” Kara grins, and finishes what she started, and Rao, are Lena’s lips soft, and perfect, and smiling into their kiss, and Rao, Rao, Rao, she likes me for me, for me, for me.