Chapter Text
I saw my mother pull the trigger. I saw the green bullet perforate on her side as she turned to try and avoid the projectile. I saw Kara stumbling backwards as soon as the glowing petard hit her. I decided in a matter of seconds, I didn’t have time to hesitate, I ran towards her. And despite everything appearing to be in slow motion, I knew I wasn’t gonna reach her in time, she had one foot on the edge already—just as I grabbed her by the collar of her super-suit her body was pulled down by gravity, my strong grip on the fabric dragging me along with her. And down we went.
I knew what I had to do, and so, with an apology delivered against the wind hitting my face, apology she didn’t get to hear due to her unconsciousness, I dug my fingers into the wound in search of the offending object. With my left hand tightly gripping the back of her neck, pulling her towards me not to lose her, I kept on digging, poking her weakened flesh. It felt like and eternity before I felt the still solid bullet—so fucking lucky it didn’t shatter—and suddenly, in the blink of an eye, I had it in my hand. I tossed it away and placed my bloodied hand around her torso, pulling at the fabric and feeling the synthetic of her cape slapping ay my sides as we kept racing downwards. I spoke next to her ear, hoping for her to hear me even inside the darkness.
Kara…
Kara…
Kara!
Her arms tightened around me and the speed augmented just as the direction of our free fall changed abruptly—straight ahead, down the street and barely avoiding the vehicles, and then upwards again. Right at the last second, right before the concrete welcomed our bodies with a violent impact. I would have puked if I hadn’t felt so damn relieved—relieved for her not being dead, for me not being splashed on the floor like a mosquito on a windshield. I thought I heard her say—“I got you”—but the wind was still roaring in my ears, and my heart threatened to escape from my chest. I felt the warmth of her skin on my hands, the sun itself outflowing from her pores, and the security that her body against mine provided, just like my very own kryptonian shield.
Then it stopped. I wasn’t in the air anymore. But I was still in her arms, surrounding her with mine as well.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Her voice wasn’t loud, didn’t even sound angry, not one bit, but she was out of breath, which I found odd. “You could have died.”
“You were going to if I didn’t pull the bullet out.” That was a fact—without her powers, the fall would have killed her for sure. On the other hand, my probabilities of actually dying had been fifty against fifty, and all I'd had to do to improve my odds was save her first. “I would have kept my feet on the ground, but you kinda made that a bit difficult.”
My face was still against hers, cheek against cheek, and I had to congratulate myself for wearing heels because the height difference—even though minimal—would have made the simple act of resting my face against hers a bit more difficult. I thought I felt her smile, but I couldn’t tell, and I refused to be the first one to step away.
“I’ll remind myself to fall on my face the next time.”
I laughed for two seconds, before realizing I wouldn’t stand to see anything like this happening again, but that being who she was, it was basically inevitable. “Please, don’t.”
I hadn’t been mad whatsoever after she had confessed her secret. Firstly, I had already known—she wasn’t exactly what one could call subtle. And secondly, I was so happy I could stop pretending and ignoring her lame excuses for disappearing every five seconds, that I completely overlooked everything else. It hadn’t been my secret, and I knew a thing or two about secrets, so the simple fact that she had come clean with me, had been more than enough for me. The only thing I had struggled with, had been the fact that I knew pretty well what this entailed—I had always known her life was in constant danger, she would always run towards the next crisis, ready to fight, whether she had her powers or not. Now that I was part of the secret, it was a bit harder to ignore that small fact. I couldn’t just look the other way and divide her personalities in my head anymore, I couldn’t pretend that while Supergirl was out there facing the villain in turn, Kara was safely at home or Catco—Kara was Supergirl, and Supergirl was Kara, no more pretending, no more looking the other way, no more deceiving myself to try and avoid all the emotions the woman caused in me, whether bad or good.
“Hey.” She pulled away, and I saw myself forced to bring my hands from her back to her sides, and then I saw her blood on my hands—proof that there was something out there that could hurt her—and it made it worse. “Lena.”
I didn’t look up, I avoided her eyes and focused on her hands grabbing mine, staining her fingers with her own essence. It was gonna be harder than I had imagined.
“I’m sorry you had to jump after me.” She said it as if it had been her fault, as if the decision hadn’t been entirely mine. “I never wanted you involved in this.”
“It’s hard not to be involved when my mother is the one hurting you.” I hadn’t been thinking, I just reacted, and if I had been able to move a bit faster, I probably would have stepped in front of her to keep the bullet from hitting her in the first place.
She was shaking her head even before I finished talking, but her following words weren’t what I had expected. “Thank you for saving me.”
I shrugged, feeling lighter, wanting the conversation to shift away from the threat of death. “It wasn’t that hard.”
It was her time to laugh. She took my right hand and wi1ped it with the fabric of her cape, the red tones mixing and making the viscous liquid almost imperceptible.
“I’m sorry for digging into your wound.” I could still feel the tenderness of it, and it sent a chill down my spine.
She misinterpreted the reaction. “Are you cold?”
I was burning actually, and the heat augmented the more the touch between us prolonged. “I’m fine.”
“Do you want me to take you home?”
“Shouldn’t you go get Lilian?”
She smiled at me with complicity, only I was ignorant of the reason behind the peace I could see in her eyes. “Alex is already there. Brainy and Dreamer are handling it. Let me take you home.”
I don't remember answering to her request, but no one heard me protesting when I was swept off my feet and became weightless once more, only this time around the super-heroine was conscious and very well aware of where her hands were currently placed. I, not worried with saving her life anymore nor drenched in adrenaline and blind with fear, could feel them perfectly as well.
*****
By the time my feet touched the solid ground of her balcony, my lungs were swimming in her scent, that sweet and wild aroma that characterized her so well. We were lucky I’d been able to keep it together, keeping us from crashing against a building.
I had gone through a tough time recognizing what this sensations, emotions, and feelings Lena provoked in me were. But, to become aware of them hadn’t been as difficult as accepting them and come to terms with the dynamics that had been underlying in each interaction we’d ever had. I knew she recognized it as well, there was no way she hadn’t realized how different it actually was for me to hug her from hugging Alex, Nia, or Kelly. If she had known about my secret identity, then of course she knew about my secret feelings—I wasn’t exactly what one could call subtle.
I had been going back to those times I let my eyes linger a little longer on her features, my arms hold her a little tighter, my face nuzzle slightly at her neck, and my hands glide off her back and arms when retreating in a manner that was beyond friendly… and man, if she had called me on it, I surely would have lied my ass off to escape from how inappropriate I had actually been.
It was my turn to feel the warmth of her arms on my shoulders, her breath on my neck. I was doing it again, being awkward and inappropriate, so I lowered her down to her feet, but keeping my hands on her hips—I just couldn’t stop, and since she wasn’t doing anything to push me away…
“Thank you,” she said in a whisper.
I had noticed she had starting doing this more and more—lowering her head and avoiding eye contact, letting her voice decrease in volume. It was a good thing I had enhanced hearing, otherwise some of the conversations we’d been having in the past couple of weeks wouldn’t have been possible.
“I should be the one showing my appreciation.” In any way I can, I thought—again, inappropriate. “You saved my life.”
“Both of ours.” She shrugged, and somehow I knew what she was about to say, and boy, was I correct. “Kind of selfish, so no need to thank me.”
She was a ridiculously strong woman, the strongest I had ever encountered, and yet, she always found ways to downplay her strength and her value. That enraged me—not towards her, of course, but towards those who had dared hurt her enough for her to doubt herself.
“Do you want to come in?” she asked out of the blue.
“Wait.” I took a hold of her hand and stopped her before she turned around and walked through the gliding glass doors. “I need to say something first.”
She looked worried for an instant, right before she steeled her features and the seriousness of the business woman resurfaced, mixing with the warmth I could always find in her eyes.
“I’m—uh, I’m not crazy, right?” That was a bad start, but it was done. “I’m not the only one that feels this,” I said gesturing between the two of us. “Is it deliberate? Or are you—? I mean you could totally be doing it unintentionally, I wouldn’t blame you—I just, I... I don’t think it is, not at this point.”
“Kara—”
“I get it’s confusing.” I was in no position to judge really. And what if she hadn’t had the time to think about it? I had resolved my issues, but what if she hadn’t. “Oh, Rao. I’m being selfish and inconsiderate, aren’t I?”
“Kara, slow down.”
“I knew it might be a possibility, but of course I didn’t want to believe it would actually happen. But I had to tell you, you had to know. I never want to keep anything from you again. And I had to know it isn’t just in my head. Because if it is—”
“Kara, darling.” Not only the term of endearment took me by surprise, but also her hands on both sides of my jaw, her fingers grazing my neck. Her eyes were boring into mine with an overwhelming intensity, very Lena Luthor. “It’s not in your head.”
She did something unpredictable, something for which I had been wishing for a long time, but for which I was bot prepared. She stepped forward, pulled me slightly by the collar of my suit and crashed her lips against mine—the movement drove our bodies so close that I could feel her hands trapped between the two of us, one flat on my stomach and the other againstmy collarbone, right above the edge of the suit. I had no other way to react to it, to her, than to cave in and let her do as she pleased.
When she finally pushed backwards—perhaps due to lack of air, who knew? I was still not breathing, even after we parted—she looked at me with such intensity in her eyes that I thought my knees would buckle down.
“I didn’t overstep, did I?” she asked, her voice came out as an agitated whisper. “That was what you meant, right?”
“Mhmm.”
Her expression changed from serious and worried to one filled with utter happiness, and when my voice failed to add anything else to the appreciative and affirmative hum, her smile turned into a satisfied smirk. I didn’t know exactly what she was thinking, but just by the look on her face I knew I was in trouble—I had been left to her mercy, out in the open for her to see and do with me as she pleased.
She licked her lips, chipping away at my will, even more, and said, “It’s good to know that the Girl of Steel can be left speechless.”
I instinctually shook my head, not denying her statement but a small fact within it. “Just Kara.”
“What?” she asked in confusion, her hands moving from my stomach to my sides, right above my ribs, action that caused another dent in my control.
I wanted to smile broadly, but I was stuck in the awe I felt for her. “There’s no Girl of Steel, no Supergirl, no Kara Zor-El, not even Kara Danvers. Not with you. With you I’m just Kara.”
The smirk returned, but there was no smugness in it, this time it was just a sheepish expression that gave away how much she was trying to contain the gigantic smile attempting to escape her control.
“Just Kara, huh?” I nodded and leaned forward to place my forehead against her, barely restraining myself not to chase after her lips once more, but needing the contact of her skin. “Well, Kara, how about a drink and maybe some more of this?”
She pushed against me and kissed me again, so gingerly and fleetingly that my need for her did nothing but to increase exponentially. At this rate my manners were going to be lost and any hope for a civilized conversation was gonna be buried under tonnes of need and desire for the emerald-eyed woman.
For the first time since I had accepted how in love with her I was, I felt strong and confident, certain of both of us, individually and as a team. “I follow you,” I said, and if that wasn’t an honest-to-God promise, then I’d be damned.