Work Text:
Kara stepped into the ballroom and immediately went to find a drink. She sipped at her champagne, absentmindedly wishing it was the alien liquor Al’s Bar kept just for her. Maybe that would make this gala bearable.
Her new post-crisis world had left Kara feeling perpetually in turmoil. Lucy and Winn were still long gone, James was off seeking greener pastures, Lena despised her, and Alex was busy watching every move Lex Luthor made. She had Nia, but the girl was busy and couldn’t babysit a bored Kara all night. Without the people who made these things fun, Kara was counting the minutes before she could leave. Hell, she’d even take Cat Grant barking orders at her if it meant she didn’t have to spend the whole night here. Cat always arrived late and left early.
Not that Kara had exactly been on time herself. There had been a raging forest fire that she had to put out earlier in the day and three showers later, there was still soot in her hair and under her nails. It was normally something Kara wouldn’t bother to care about, but she’d let Alex pick her dress for this party and it was white.
Smoothing a hand over her skirt, Kara leant against the bar and watched the party happen around her. It was well underway already, and she knew it was only a matter of time before the classy jazz was replaced by something that people could dance to. Hopefully, Nia would be less busy by then. Kara cringed to herself, remembering the first time she’d been at a CatCo party with the girl and she had forced her up on the stage as soon as she’d learnt that Kara could sing, and Nia was intent on making it tradition. Maybe it was better that she stay busy after all.
Downing the last of the drink, Kara swapped her empty champagne flute for a fresh one. Something caught her superhearing and her head snapped up to search the room. She could have sworn she heard...
Kara shook her head to clear the thought. It was a fluke - a similar laugh or something along those lines. It wasn’t like this was the first time Kara’s senses had fooled her. She took another sip and caught sight of Nia hurrying across the ballroom to her, brow drawn.
“Nia?” Kara frowned at the look on her friend’s face. “What is it?”
“Cat Grant is here.”
Kara’s stomach bottomed out, and she put the champagne flute on the bar before she dropped or broke it. She stared at the dark-haired girl.
“What?”
“I just ran into her White House assistant. I haven’t seen Cat yet, but she’s definitely here.” Nia laid her hand on Kara’s arm, concern in her eyes. “I thought you should know.”
Kara’s head swam and she briefly wondered about the potency of the champagne after all.
“Thanks, Nia,” the blonde mumbled, stepping away from the bar on unsteady feet. The grip on her arm tightened.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Kara smiled thinly. “Yeah, I’m just gonna go upstairs and get some air, and then I’m going. I think it’s better if I’m not here.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Nia asked, and suddenly her concern was stifling. Kara needed out, now.
“No.” She said, a fraction too quickly. Kara took a breath. “No, stay. Enjoy the party. I promise I’ll call if I need you.”
“Okay,” Nia relented, uncertain, as she released Kara’s arm.
Kara gave her one last smile, and headed for the elevators. She moved on autopilot, and when she stopped she realised she was stood on the balcony off of Andrea’s - Cat’s - office. She put her hands on the railing and released a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.
“Grown-up is a good look on you, darling.”
The voice rang out from an unlit corner of the balcony and Kara yelped in surprise, spinning to face the shadows.
“Ms Grant, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise you were out here.” One sentence from the woman and Kara was back to being a stuttering, rambling mess. Internally, she rolled her eyes at herself.
“You thought I’d be downstairs.” It wasn’t a question. Kara nodded, there was no point in denying it.
“I needed some air, this is just where I ended up, I guess. The ballroom doesn’t have a balcony, you remember.” If there was something acerbic in Kara’s tone, Cat chose to ignore it.
“Too much champagne?” There was a smirk in her voice and Kara narrowed her eyes at the shadows surrounding the other woman.
“Something like that.”
There was a pause, then the sound of heels on concrete, and Cat Grant stepped into the light. Her hair was shorter, lighter too, but still curled in that unmistakable way. The lines around the corners of her eyes now slightly deeper, surely a remnant of the stress of the White House. She was beautiful.
And then Kara noticed the dress, and her breath caught in her throat.
Because that dress was burned into Kara’s memory, had been for the past three years. Because Cat had been wearing that exact dress at the last CatCo party she attended, the one she’d thrown herself as a going away party - the one that ended with Kara’s heart shattered into fragments. Because Cat has been wearing that same beautiful, deep blue velvet when Kara kissed her on this very balcony, and asked her not to leave. And Cat had left anyway, gone away to dive.
“I meant what I said, Kara,” Cat said softly. “You look beautiful.”
It broke Kara’s heart all over again.
She shook her head slightly, “I should go, Nia is waiting for me.” Kara moved back to the elevators without looking back, praying that Cat wouldn’t follow.
Kara searched the ballroom for her friend, falling into step beside her as she crossed the room.
“Kara? You’re still here?”
“Yeah, listen.” Kara glanced at her to make sure she was paying attention. “Cat Grant is going to be down here any minute. If she tries to talk to me, I need you to get me out of it.”
Nia looked like she was about to protest. Kara grabbed her wrist and turned to face her.
“Nia, please.” Kara felt her eyes sting as the tears came. “I can’t do this tonight.”
“Okay, okay.” Nia relented, the concern back and knitting her eyebrows together. “She really did a number on you, huh?”
Kara’s laugh was thin and watery. “You have no idea.”
“Well let’s go get a drink from the bar, because Cat just walked in the far door. We can see which direction she goes from there and we go the opposite way.” Nia took Kara’s hand and pulled her towards the bar with a grin, and Kara laughed.
They arrived at the bar and Nia positioned them so that Kara’s back was to the party, but Nia still had a clear view of Cat’s movements over her shoulder.
“You’re good at this,” Kara muttered into her drink.
“Yeah, Brainy is a hard guy to avoid. You get good.”
“What? I thought things were good with you two.”
Nia sighed, “It’s just a lot. He’s... intense.”
“I can see that,” Kara chuckled.
“So what just happened with you and Cat Grant then?” Nia pried and the blonde sighed emphatically. “Come on, I’m helping you dodge her and she hasn’t stopped looking at you since she set foot in here. Something clearly happened while you were gone, I want the details.”
“I went upstairs for some air and she was on her old balcony.”
“And?”
“And you see that dress she’s wearing? She’s worn it before. At the going away party she threw herself before she left for the White House. We ended up on her balcony and I was an idiot and kissed her, asked her to stay. She left the next morning. And now she’s here, in that dress, telling me I look beautiful, and I don’t know which way is up.”
Nia blinked. “Wow. And I thought I had issues.”
Kara threw her head back and laughed, and then Nia’s eyes went wide before she schooled her expression.
“Kara, did Cat kiss you back that night?”
“Yeah, why?” The blonde’s brow furrowed.
“Because I think she may have feelings for you. I can see her face right now and she is not at all pleased that I made you laugh. Do that as much as possible.”
“Nia! I’m not going to spend the night trying to win her over!” Kara hissed, “She made herself perfectly clear when she left.”
“Who said anything about winning her over? She made you suffer for three years Kara, she can survive one night of watching you be happy without her. Be selfish for once.”
“For the record, I think this is an absolutely horrendous idea.”
Nia grinned, all teeth. “That just means it’s fun. Now, where’s William? He totally wants in your pants and I can’t wait to see Cat’s face.”
Against all her better judgment, Kara let Nia drag her across the room to William Dey, allowing him to engage her in a conversation she really couldn’t care less about. The one benefit of this was that it put Cat in her direct line of sight, and Kara watched her stare daggers into the back of William’s skull for the best part of 15 minutes. Nia had been right, this was sort of fun. William’s voice drew her focus back to the conversation at hand.
“So,” William fixed her with a smile Kara guessed was meant to be charming. The man looked like he was in pain. “Nia tells me you normally sing at these things.”
Kara laughed, and if looks could kill, Cat Grant would have made him a very, very dead man.
“If, by that, you mean Nia forces me up on stage and makes me sing, sure.”
“Ooooh, speaking of that, now would probably be a good time! It looks like the band is getting ready to take their break. Come on, Kara, one last song?” Nia turned to her, eyes pleading, and Kara made her wait precisely seven seconds before she gave in.
“I hate that you make me do this.” She muttered under Nia’s excitable squeals. Kara turned her attention back to William, laying a hand on his bicep and suppressing a smirk at the gasp across the room that her superhearing picked up. “Guess I better go interrupt the band. See you later?”
“Sure. Break a leg.”
Kara felt Cat’s eyes on her every step of the way to the side of the stage, where the band’s singer was waiting while the rest of the band played an instrumental track. The perk of CatCo using the same band for the past five years was that they knew Kara well, and had no problem with her crashing their set.
“Hey, Toni,” Kara said, bumping her hip against the pretty redhead. Kara heard Cat growl from her latest vantage point at the bar. Toni laughed, unaware, and bumped her back.
“Is Nia making you do this again?” She teased. Kara rolled her eyes, grinning good-naturedly.
“Yeah. I think 5 times officially makes it a tradition, and I’m stuck doing this forever.”
The redhead laughed again. “Okay, well, our next song is Strangers in the Night if you want that? Or I’m sure the boys would be happy to do you something else?”
“Actually,” Kara paused, pulling up some sheet music on her phone and showing the other woman. “Do they know this?”
“You bet.”
Cat Grant wore her fury beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that most people would never even know it was there. Only the people who knew her well enough would notice it’s existence. It was there; in the stabbing percussion of her heels against the marble floor, in the extra sway this put in her hips, and in the slight clench of her jaw that extended her neck. Yes, Cat Grant knew she looked beautiful in her fury - she also knew Kara Danvers could see it coming off her in waves.
Cat had to admire the girl, really. Three years ago, even the slightest hint of Cat’s fury would have sent her scrambling - either for cover or for something to fix it. Now, however? Kara was taunting her. If she weren’t so angry, Cat would be impressed.
In the half an hour since she had left the seclusion of the balcony, Cat had watched Kara flirt everyone she had come across. She’d even flirted with William Dey for God’s sake, laughed at his jokes. The man was smarmy, and if he wasn’t such a good reporter Cat would fire him the minute she told Kara she’d bought the company back. Then Kara touched his arm, and it practically left him standing in a puddle of his own drool. Cat nearly put her stiletto in his neck, and quickly decided firing him would work out after all.
And now it was the redhead, the singer in the band CatCo always used. This would be the last time. She was fawning all over Kara, her Kara.
Not that Cat had any right to call Kara hers, especially after what she did. Kara had bared her soul for Cat that night, and Cat had turned her away, broken her heart and fled the state before the pieces had even begun to settle. She had been scared then, and it wasn’t a mistake Cat wanted to make twice - if only she could get Kara to talk to her, Cat would lay herself bare in return. It might be three years too late, but she had to hope, had to try.
That was what the dress was for, this was supposed to be a fresh start for them, a do-over of the night Cat had handled so badly the first time. Except Kara had seen the dress and bolted like the very sight of it was painful to her, and Cat had been forced to consider that her ‘grand gesture’ may not have been a great idea after all.
Cat looked up from the untouched amber liquid in the tumbler she’d been staring into as she thought, and raised an eyebrow as she noticed Kara was on the stage.
This is what happens in her absence? She goes to DC for a while and suddenly work functions are impromptu karaoke bars?
A soft tune that Cat couldn’t quite place started to play, and Kara closed her eyes. The older woman finally took a healthy sip of her scotch and immediately choked on it as Kara started to sing.
“She wore blue velvet,
Bluer than velvet was the night,
Softer than satin was the light,
From the stars.”
Cat hastily set down her drink and stared. Surely this wasn’t actually happening.
“She wore blue velvet,
Bluer than velvet were her eyes,
Warmer than May her tender sighs,
Love was ours.”
Cat had slipped on the balcony and hit her head. This was a hallucination. Or a coma dream. That was it, that had to be it. Because there was no way Kara was singing to her in a packed ballroom.
“Ours a love I held tightly,
Feeling the rapture grow,
Like a flame burning brightly.”
Oh, but then Kara opened her eyes and instantly found Cat’s and all the breath was stolen from the older woman’s lungs. She absently smoothed her palms over the heavy fabric that clung to her skin.
“But when she left, gone was the glow of,
Blue velvet,
But in my heart there'll always be,
Precious and warm, a memory,
Through the years,
And I still can see blue velvet,
Through my tears.”
Cat saw it then, in Kara’s eyes, the gravity of what she’d done those years ago. It was like a punch to the gut. She had to make this right.
Cat picked up her drink, raising it slightly in Kara’s direction, never daring to break eye contact with the girl.
“She wore blue velvet,
But in my heart there'll always be,
Precious and warm, a memory,
Through the years,
And I still can see blue velvet,
Through my tears.”
The song finished, and Cat seized the cover of applause. She brought her drink back to her lips and murmured into it.
“I know you can hear me,” Kara froze momentarily as she stepped offstage. “And I know you’ve been listening to every noise I’ve made all night. There are some things I need to say to you, and I can’t say them here. So, I’m going to go back upstairs to the balcony and wait there for the next fifteen minutes. I’ll understand if you don’t come, if you can’t hear what I want to say or just don’t want to. But, Kara, you’ve listened this long, so just keep listening. Please.”
And with that, Cat knocked back the contents of her drink, stood, and left the ballroom.
“How long have you known?” The voice behind her sounded tired, defeated.
Cat stayed where she was, forearms resting on the rail and looking out over the city she’d missed so much.
“I suspected it again after Bizzarro - if there could be two you then, then it was possible that two of you could have been in my office. But for certain? When you caught me instead of the President - your perfume.” Cat smiled wryly. “And about a million other things after that, of course, but they just confirmed it.”
“And you just sat on it?” Kara asked, incredulous.
“Is it so hard to believe that I might want to not ruin your life? The first time I figured it out... I was rash, caught up in what was right for everyone except you. I realised the damage it would do to fire you or print who you are. It’d paint a target on your family and friends. You’d never get to be normal for five minutes again, never truly get to switch off. I cared about you, Kara, even then. I didn’t want that for you.”
“Oh.” Kara searched for an appropriate reply.
“Eloquent as ever then, I see.” Amusement crept in at the edges of Cat’s voice.
Kara sighed and resigned herself to asking the obvious question.
“Why are you here, Cat?”
The older woman turned then, leaning back against the railing as she made eye contact.
“I bought it back. All of it.”
Kara’s laugh was hollow. “Great. So... what? You’re back? Tell me, Cat, how long do you plan on staying this time?”
“Permanently. I belong here, Kara, we both know it.”
“I thought I did. Look how that turned out.”
Cat was at loss when presented with this version of Kara. This wasn’t her Kara - all optimism and sunny disposition - this was the woman that was left behind when Cat broke her. It made Cat seethe at herself, her own stupidity, allowing this to happen to that incredible girl - by her own hand, no less.
“Kara...”
“It’s fine, Cat, honestly. I get it. You needed to dive. I guess I just wasn’t deep enough for you.” Kara shrugged and turned to walk away.
“Don’t you get it? You were too deep. I wouldn’t have been diving. Kara, I’d have drowned.”
The girl stopped in the doorway. “What’s that supposed to mean? That I was too much for you to handle? Gotta be honest, I preferred the original version of this let down. At least when you disappeared off the face of the earth I didn’t have to know it was all because I’m too needy for you.”
“God, no!” Cat was beginning to get exasperated. This was much harder than she’d anticipated. As great as she was with words, talking about her feelings was never Cat’s strong suit. Add in an angry, cynical Kara and it was safe to say that Cat had no idea what she was doing. “Will you sit, please? Or at least look at me? It’s hard enough to do this without you trying to run away.”
Kara hesitated a moment before she turned around. Cat Grant had said please twice in the last half an hour, something practically unheard of, and it had Kara’s interest.
“I’ve had four divorces, Kara, all to men who were appropriate and convenient, men who loved me far more than I ever loved them. And I did love them, in my own way. You, though? I could drown in you. You could take me to pieces and I’d still want more, and that terrified me. So, no, it wasn’t that you needed me too much, Kara. It was that I needed you more.”
Kara stared, mouth agape. “That’s why you left? Because you were scared... of what? The chance that we could actually be happy?”
“Because we would have been until we weren’t!” The CEO ran her hand through her hair, disrupting the curls. “I’d have driven you away, like all the others before you. Or worse, you’d have realised I’m not actually someone you want to spend your life with and left. I’m too old, too jaded, too bitter, too cynical - the list goes on. People who get the career don’t get the girl, Kara, especially girls like you.”
Kara was silent for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was small and her eyes shone.
“Don’t you think I should have at lest been part of that decision, Cat?”
The older woman hung her head slightly. “I know. I didn’t say what I did was right, I just wanted you to know why.”
Kara sighed heavily. “I need a fucking drink.”
Maybe it was the absurdity of Sunny Danvers herself saying such a thing, but the tension in the air broke. Cat gestured inside the office.
“Technically, I now own whatever Andrea keeps in the bar.” She offered Kara a small smile.
The girl shook her head. “Wouldn’t work anyway.”
Silence settled between them and Cat took the opportunity to really look at the other woman. She didn’t look older, Cat noted, but she wore the years that had passed in every other way. She was sure of herself now, moved with a grace that can only come with confidence and comfort in your own skin. She’d stopped dressing like she could be teaching a kindergarten too, and gotten bangs - something that would usually earn a derisive comment from the older woman, but they were so inexplicably Kara, Cat immediately loved them.
“You’re staring.” She sounded vaguely amused.
“I didn’t expect you to be somehow more beautiful than you were.” Cat shrugged, figuring she had nothing to lose by being honest.
There was pang somewhere in Kara’s chest and she sighed again.
“Why are you here, Cat?” She repeated her original question. “And I don’t mean in the city. Why are you here, on this balcony, in that dress?”
“I wasn’t happy. I realised I was happier here, with you in my life, than I ever was while I was off ‘diving’.” It was Cat’s turn to sigh as the emotion cracked her voice. “And I know the damage I did to you, darling, I’ve witnessed it all night long. And I know I’m probably three years too late for this, and that’s okay. If you want nothing to do with me that’s fine, and I promise you, I will respect that. I just needed to be near you. Being away was too hard.”
“And the dress?”
“Wishful thinking?” Cat shrugged. “As much as I’ll respect your choice if you never want to see me again, I really wanted a second chance at that night. The dress felt... important enough that you’d know what it was, but subtle enough that only you would know. I realised after you saw it that it was... misguided. I should have realised that any reminder of that night would be painful for you, and I’m sorry about that.”
“An apology and two ‘pleases’, all in one night?” Kara teased lightly, at a loss for anything else to say. “Maybe running away was good for you after all.”
“Realising that you abandoned someone who very well may be the love of your life can change a few things about a person, it turns out.” Cat gave a sad smile and Kara took half a step towards her, almost as if the movement was involuntary.
“What did you just say?” She breathed.
Cat raised her chin slightly, looked her squarely in the eyes, and said the thing she’d been to scared to say last time; “I love you, Kara.”
There was a flash of movement and before Cat could register it, Kara’s mouth was on hers. Cat gripped her hips to secure herself and didn’t hesitate to kiss the girl back, pouring everything she could into it as Kara’s hands threaded into her hair. And when she pulled away and rested her forehead against Cat’s, her eyes still closed, Cat almost missed the whisper that left her.
“Please, don’t go again.”
Cat placed her hands either side of the hero’s face, and began to pepper kisses over her.
“I won’t,” She murmured between kisses. “I won’t.”
Kara’s hands left her hair and began roaming Cat’s abdomen, stroking the thick blue fabric at her back and sides, as if to reassure herself that the other woman was truly there.
Velvet blue eyes opened, searching the other woman’s expression. “I can’t do that again, Cat.”
“You won’t have to. I’m in, Kara, all the way. I’m yours.” Cat paused to kiss her again, and her heart ached at the uncertainty she saw in Kara’s face. She searched for a way to soothe her, and found the perfect idea. “Come home with me tonight?”
“What?!” Kara spluttered, a blush spreading across her cheeks.
“Relax darling, I’m not propositioning you.” Cat smirked at her embarrassment. “I promised Carter I’d be home by 10:30. I just... want you close. You’ve been too far away for too long. I want to be able to hold you, now that I can. I wasn’t lying when I said I need you, Kara.”
“What about Carter?”
Cat’s smirk grew into a full blown grin. “Carter will be ecstatic. He’s made a point of telling me how stupid I was to leave you once a month for the past three years. I swear he marks it on a calendar.”
Kara’s own small smile appeared, “Really?”
“Truly. Now, shall we go mingle with the masses so we can leave as soon as possible?”
“Sure,” Kara ducked her head and pressed one last lingering kiss to Cat’s mouth. “Might want to fix your hair, though.”
“You weren’t going to mention the lipstick?” The older woman scowled as she checked her reflection in the glass of the balcony door, and set about fixing her appearance. Cat wiped her smudged lipstick off and reapplied it, passing the tube to the reporter. “Fix yours, it’s worse than mine was.”
“You want me to go into a room full of investigative reporters wearing your lipstick, after we disappeared for half an hour? Kara asked sceptically. “Gee, Cat, I wonder what conclusions they’ll jump to.”
“Probably the same ones they’ll come up with when I keep holding your hand and dancing with you. Imagine how their brains will explode when I kiss you in front of them.” Cat wiggled her eyebrows playfully. “I won’t hide you, darling. Not for a second.”
Cat leaned back against the balcony and watched the younger blonde apply the lipstick.
“You can sing.” She prodded for information.
Kara groaned and looked skyward, “Not you too. Nia found out and now she makes me sing at every one of these things. Thank Rao, Toni and her band are nice about it.”
“Yeah, about that. She’s definitely in love with you.”
“And you want to fire her.” Kara met her eyes in their reflection, all fire and challenge. It nearly stole Cat’s breath.
“A little,” Cat acquiesced. “But I won’t. I will kiss you until your knees give out right in front of her, though.”
There was a small gasp and a furious blush danced across Kara’s cheeks. Cat plucked the lipstick from her grip, and smirked as the girl fought to control her reaction. The older blonde seized on this, guiding her through the balcony doors.
“Ready to go, darling? Carter will want to see you as soon as possible.”
“Yeah. I need to see William before we go anyway, he has a flash drive of sources for our new article that I need to go over.” Kara muttered distractedly, tangling her fingers with Cat’s as she led them to her private elevator.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that, dear.” Cat said flippantly, waving her free hand. “He’s one I’m definitely going to fire.”
“Cat!”