Work Text:
“ I'll be there to save the day
Superman got nothing on me
I'm only one call away”
Being back brought her nostalgia from not so long ago. The place remained untouched, everything precisely where it should be, even the same grains of dust on the dinner table. She didn’t dare to turn any of the lights on as if that action could violate the peace and entropy that hovered over each room, and then scare the ghosts from the past wandering on the corners, dancing the dance of life and bringing back unwanted memories that caused her a panic, going up to her throat like a piece of meat. She felt sick, and that the same time, intoxicated, cold, and anesthetized Would the Phantom Zone have succeeded in sucking all of her happiness away?
She was scared of the answer, and so, she decided to only walk into the room, setting her shoes aside and going to take a long and hot shower, where she could rub all that experience away from her body.
Her phone vibrated non-stop, texts from her friends asking if she needed something, if she wanted company or if she really was okay enough to be at home unsupervised. She didn’t answer any of them, after all, nothing she’d say would sound convincing enough and her desire and need at the moment was to be alone; quiet. She responded something superficial to Alex, if not she would have to deal with the overprotective older sister fury, and put the phone aside, then searching for something to watch on the tv and ended up rewatching Friends for the hundredth time. Joey and Phoebe never failed to make her laugh.
As she finished a season finale, she heard her stomach roar loudly and decided she was going to call her favorite pizza place and order everything on the menu. She deserved to be spoiled and was not going to worry about the consequences of not being fully recovered and not having all her powers back yet. Would it give her a stomachache? Probably, but it will be so worth it that even the anxiety of it was euphoric to her. Life was about the little pleasures, she repeated to herself, wondering where the paper with the restaurant’s number was and then remembering there was an app for it.
That was when her phone rang, the song as a ringtone chosen especially for the only person in the universe that made her heart cartwheel inside her chest for no exceptional reason.
Rao, she needed to hear her voice so much.
“Hey, Lena!” genuine joy escaped so easily in her voice that even she was surprised by it “I’m… I’m glad you called.”
“Kara” her trembling lips suffocated a sob that arrived with a sudden urge to cry. Rap, it was so good to hear that voice whisper her name once again. It was like balm for her wounds and she thought she was never going to get her back “heaven knows how scared I was of calling and you not answering.”
There was a certain fear between the lines, a hesitation within the commas.
How many times would Lena have called and she wasn’t able to answer?
“It’s good to hear you too, I missed…” she paused, weighing the consequences for a few seconds but then sending them to hell “I missed you so much” the wedged crying in her throat suffocated all the words.
“I missed you too” Kara heard her sigh and moved to the other side “I called to know if you’re okay, if you need anything.”
Would she have the courage to tell her the truth? Probably not.
“I’m fine.”
Lena seemed to consider the answer for long minutes until she continued the conversation.
“I’m glad you are.”
Kara never wished so hard to be called a liar, or have her lie exposed like many other times. She never wanted so bad for the Luthor to tell her that it wasn’t true, that she knew her well enough to see from afar how broken and terribly frightened she was to be back. She wasn’t stuck in the Phantom Zone for too long, however, it was enough time to traumatize her once more and only make her want to run away, run as far as possible from there and ignore any and every voice in her head, constantly screaming the hard and painful truths in her ear.
“I have something to tell you and… and I hope you’re honest to me about how you feel” that was when Kara knew Lena had caught her lie, but chose to overlook it. Lena never forced her to tell something she wasn’t ready to and always waited for her time. She loved that about her so much.
“You can tell me anything, you know that, right?” She hoped that she did, that Lena still trusted her fully like before.
“I know” she smiled and took a deep breath, Kara did the same “Kara, I know that you’ve just returned and that… that everything’s confusing still, and we haven’t had a proper time to talk, but…” Lena bit her lip, trying to find a more comfortable position in the backseat of the car “but seeing you find your father after so many years after you thought you had lost him forever, made me wish to have the same, somehow. I know I’m not going to see my mother again, but I need to know more about who she was and so…” she hesitated. Saying it out loud made her sound so silly and crazy. Why, after years, was she going to look for someone who probably hasn't left any traces? What was the point? Kara was definitely going to tell her she was crazy and that there was nothing to be found, and that made her reconsider “I’m going back home. I’m going after what’s left of her.”
“Oh” was all she could answer, her brain struggling to process the information from that confession.
“If you need me to stay, if you need me here, I’ll stay” Lena spoke, the words jostling over each other “truly, Kara. I know you’ve been through a lot and my priority will always be you. I can delay this trip and…”
“No!” she suddenly claimed, shaking her head to keep it from rambling “no, Lena, don’t do that. I’m… I’ll be fine, I just need to sleep enough and eat as much pizza and ice cream as I can during this week” they laughed “I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for, I really do.” She forced herself to bury all the need to beg her not to go, because she wasn’t sure she could deal with that distance right now, just when she had come back. However, Kara couldn’t be selfish to that level, it was unfair, and Lena deserved to know more about her history “do you… know when you’re coming back?” Kara looked down at her fingers fidgeting with the tip of her shirt, Ross’ voice echoing in the background.
“I don’t know” Kara heard Lena’s heart sink on her chest, or maybe it was the echo of her own, anchoring on the eternal feeling of loss “I don’t know what I’m looking for or how I’m going to do it, so I don’t have an answer for that.”
“Uh… r-right” she swallowed the tears “just… just don’t be a stranger, okay?” Don’t run from me, was what she wanted to say “we need you for game night and I can’t win at Uno if someone doesn’t cheat for me.” she tried to lighten it up, otherwise her tears would start falling.
“Kara, are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”
Kara closed her eyes, a stubborn tear streaming down, and wrote, on those pale cheeks, everything she couldn’t say out loud.
“Don’t worry about me” she got up and walked to the kitchen, grabbing a cup and filling it with water “if anything happens, Alex can come to stay with me and… and work is going to help keep me busy” she swallowed the entire liquid down, feeling her insides protest at the sudden temperature change. She leaned on the counter, her body trembling and hand holding the phone tightly, almost breaking it “I want you to promise me something.”
“Anything.”
Anything to keep you with me.
“Promise me you’re going to call or keep in touch somehow to tell me about what you find” the wish coming off almost as begging.
Lena nodded, it was the least she could do. Kara wasn’t asking for too much.
“I promise” she answered “I’m going to miss you, I’m sorry for going away just now. I feel like a terrible friend.”
“Stop that, please” Kara would not let her fall into self-deprecating, they already had enough problems to go and create more “you’re not leaving me forever” you’re not, right? She questioned in silence, pushing that thought to the bottom of her mind “If I could, I’d come with you, but I think I’m on the brink of losing my job.”
“Do you want me to deal with Andrea? I’m sure there’s some clause that makes it clear you’re not allowed to be fired” Lena joked and Kara laughed loudly, making her poor useless heart skip a beat “I’m serious!”
“As much as I want it, thank you. I think I’m going to have to deal with this the most simple and boring way” she sighed “you… uh, no… never mind” Kara scratched the back of her neck, grateful they were in a phone call, so Lena couldn’t see her face turn red with embarrassment.
“Hey, tell me,” Lena asked tenderly “you know you can tell me anything.”
“No… it’s nothing and I don’t even know if I could, it would certainly be more trouble than…”
“Whatever it is, it’s no trouble to me” Lena cut her off, her voice surrounding her in a warm embrace.
“Uh, okay” she chuckled. “can… can I come to visit you? I mean, at least… er, at least once. I mean… you would like it if… if I went?”
“There’s nothing that would make me happier, Kara” she answered, “unfortunately, I have to hang up but I’ll let you know when we land.”
“Be safe and you know that if you need any help…”
“I know, darling” Lena loved how Kara, no matter the situation, no matter how exhausted she was, would always put her safety first. She didn’t judge her, she had the same habit “same goes to you.”
“Later, Lena.”
“Later.”
***
It was Monday and the routine had returned as close to normal as possible, but in Kara’s opinion, nothing had really changed, it wasn’t like they had missed her. No, few people noticed enough to go greet her and ask how she had been. Part of her was grateful for it, after all, Kara wasn’t sure she would be able to maintain the strong and distant pose she needed to not fall to tears among her colleagues, with Andrea in the next room and her father staring at her. She had to survive, take a deep breath, focus and pretend her absence had been due to a trip to meet with Cat Grant, even though she didn’t even know what said the article was about and had a plain conscience that, sooner or later, she would have to tell her boss the truth.
The truth was that everything had gotten ‘wrong’ and the project was canceled.
Rao, lying still gave her bothering nausea in her stomach.
At lunchtime, her phone rang and a large and radiant smile appeared on her anxious and tired face.
“Lena!” she thanked the waitress for the food with a polite nod and then walked back to the sidewalk “Rao, it’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Hey! How’s life back to the boring world of human beings?” Kara laughed.
“Boring” Lena rolled her eyes “it would be better if you were here” Kara felt a wave of regret as soon as that confession slipped from the tip of her tongue “uh… sorry.”
Lena sighed.
“I know and I wish you were here too” Lena understood her friend’s feelings, it wasn’t about wanting her to be back, or simply wishing she hadn’t gone to Ireland, but just for the simple problem of absence itself. Especially now that they had a chance of rebuilding their friendship and spending more time with each other, she had flown across the Atlantic, and Lena couldn’t help but feel she was being a terrible friend.
But she would never say that out loud again, for Kara’s sake.
“Tell me more about the city! You only sent a feel pictures” Kara pouted and took a bite off the sandwich, running back to CatCo.
“Oh, yes! The city is quite small, just two avenues downtown and residential neighborhoods around it” she described. Lena had just checked in and was now going upstairs with her suitcases “the view is breathtaking, even though it’s raining” she chuckled “and it’s so quiet, different from National City and Metropolis, you would love it. You’d sleep like an angel.
“Ugh, it would be my dream” Kara mumbled, running into Nia in the elevator. The girl questioned with a nod who was on the phone with her and Kara whispered ‘Lena’, to which Dreamer answered with a smirking ‘of course’ “hey, Lena!” she screamed in the background “Nia says hi from this side of the Atlantic.”
“Tell her I said hello back and that I’ll call her back from this morning’s missing call” Kara frowned.
That friendship was escalating to a level that made her heart sink in her chest, at the same time, her rational side reminded her that it was okay, that didn’t mean she was the last special, she only had to share Lena’s heart with more people.
Rao, she didn’t like that very much.
“I’ll pass her the massage, you got it” Kara grumbled, not really hiding the hesitation and angst in her voice.
Lena arched a brow to herself, something was wrong, and though she wanted to snatch the truth from Kara, she had to wait to be invited into that new field that their friendship was gravitating towards. It wasn’t like Lena didn’t know about the nightmares, Alex had commented on it in a phone call to give some info about the Tower’s computer, which was broken last week, and about one of the pieces that needed fixing. She didn’t understand why Kara was keeping the details to herself, but she wasn’t going to force anything. Kara had to come to her freely and spontaneously. May the heavens help her be patient.
“Why don’t you tell me how your first day back has been?” Lena suggested.
“So, Andrea is punishing me because I disappeared and didn’t come back with a story capable of changing the world, William finally found someone else and I can’t even begin to tell you how relieved I am for it” Lena also felt relieved, though she didn’t know why. Or she refused to accept the reason why. The latter was possibly more true “oh, and my dad lifted a printer machine with one hand in front of everyone.”
“Seems like you’re having fun today” Lena teased, as Kara groaned and she left “soon you’ll be home again.”
“I don’t know, your little friend wants us to get an interview with the ‘superfriends’” Kara quoted with her fingers, swallowing the rest of her food and going towards the bathroom. Lena had sat on the bed and taken off her shoes “even if we have to jump off a cliff to get an exclusive.”
“That might work, I’m saying from personal experience” and Kara laughed out loud.
“Oh Rao, Lena” she gargled the water for a second before spitting, Lena still laughing at her own joke “you’re awful.”
“I know,” she shrugged. “I’ll stop bothering you until my ‘little friend’ comes blaming me for your lack of productivity and good luck with the exclusives thing, if you need me to cover anything, I’ll be happy to do it.”
Kara sighed sadly, not wanting to hang up, but aware she was going to lose her job if she didn’t.
“Okay, but don’t take too long to call again!”
“I promise I won’t” Lena affirmed vehemently “talk to you later, Kara.”
“Later” she paused, “I miss you.”
Lena felt her lungs compress and hurt. Her heart skipping a beat.
“I miss you too.”
Suddenly, Kara felt a shadow next to hers.
“So, when are you two making it official?”
Oh Rao, Nia!
***
Another game night, Kara refused to participate and ended up being responsible for the score counting. Five minutes ago, Nia fell asleep on the couch, while J’onn exclaimed that Alex and Kelly were cheating, after all, it was impossible for them to be so good at guessing games. It was like they could read each other’s minds. In her romantic and extremely utopic, sometimes, it was cute, and watching them only made Kara miss her game partner even more.
Ever since 4 in the afternoon, Lena didn’t say anything, but they were also apart by the huge time zone gap. Which made Kara extremely upset for no reason most of the time.
Distractedly, Kara wandered through the photos she had received that morning. There were gorgeous pictures of the green horizon and the absurdly blue sky, magical forests, the beach that dropped her waves over the rocks and a shy and home-y village, with a medieval atmosphere to it, and at the same time modern, with cars parked in front of the little stores and the citizens sitting on the benches by the main square, around a water fountain. She also got enviable photos of food, making her stomach protest and almost start a revolution, and so, Kara also began to send Lena photos of her day to day life, which was basically: photos of the many puppies she saw on the street, selfies of her dying of boredom on the work desk with a huge pout, pictures of Nia taking a nap on the printing room and, of course, photos of every food she had consumed in the last five hours.
Her phone vibrated suddenly.
Kara smiled and excused herself to the balcony.
“Everyone hates me here, it’s like arriving at National City all over again” Lena let it out before Kara could even greet her with the usual contagious happiness.
“Hey, I never hated you” Kara retorted, feeling an urge to fly to Ireland and hug her, and prove to everyone that Lena Luthor was the best person in the world “How can you hurt my feelings like this?” She made it dramatic. Alex screamed her name and Kara turned around quickly, pointing at her phone. Her sister rolled her eyes but left her alone, choosing to keep all the jokes and teasing for later.
Lena laughed.
“You did, a couple of months ago” she shot right back.
But Kara Danvers was the person that took everything too literally.
“Even at that time, I could never hate you, and I tried” she was honest, her voice becoming softer and softer “but it’s pretty hard to hate you” and so easy to love you.
“I’m adorable, right? Lena teased, as she searched for a presentable outfit to start her day. It was early, the sun had barely risen, however, she had an important meeting and anxiety had consumed her through the whole night.
“I won’t agree nor disagree, don’t want to compromise myself” she laughed back “but yes, let’s say you are.”
So much for not compromising…
“You’re also very adorable” the right word would be lovable, but Lena thought it would be too much for a conversation like that, for a relationship like theirs.
“I know,” Kara smugged, “it’s my charm, my smile, and the way I flex my biceps” she teased, holding back her laughter.
“That’s a Supergirl thing, not yours” Lena pointed out, trying to sound serious “Supergirl is also very adorable if you know what I’m talking about” she licked her lips slowly, unconsciously.
“Are you saying you'd rather have a crush on Supergirl and not me?” Kara pretended to gasp “Lena! How… how could you?”
“I have nothing to say in my defense, but if it makes you feel better, she’s not into women like me.”
“Women like you?” What in Rao’s name did that mean?
“Women with impressive emotional baggage and a terrible last name” Lena answered casually, balancing the phone between her shoulder and face as she put her clothes over the bed.
“I can speak for her and I can assure you that she, most definitely, is into women like you” she heard Nia laugh loudly and all her face burnt with embarrassment. She couldn’t hear it, it wasn’t possible!
“Kara,” Lena chuckled. “You know I still remember your secret identity, right?”
“Uh… I… yes…”
Oh, Rao.
“Interesting” Lena smirked and felt her body on fire, her blood running 100 miles per hour in her veins. Goddamned useless heart “then tell her I’m very much into girls like her.”
Quick, Kara!
“Girls like her? Blonde? Tall and incredibly strong? Kryptonian?” good move, she thought to herself “the latter is so Luthor, I wasn’t expecting this from you, I’m disappointed.”
“Are you insinuating that my brother has been acting up all these years and being a complete dick, murder, and xenophobe because he’s in love with your cousin?” Kara snorted so hard she almost fell over, holding herself to the handrail. Everyone in the room turned to her.
“Maybe it’s a Luthor thing,” she continued.
“Maybe, and maybe it’s all these ridiculously perfect kryptonian genes that every now and then make me question every life decision I’ve taken every time you people do something dumb and cute.” and a point to Lena.
“I’m not dumb! But yeah, I'm a very cute, funny, and lovely person” she inflated her chest.
“I’m obliged to agree. You are, in fact, all that and also a dork, dear” the hero sighed, her pout coming up again “and I love you nonetheless” Lena caught herself deliberately confessing, and then begged the heavens for the phone call to suddenly end or for lightning to strike her in the head.
For God’s sake, Luthor! A great way of ruining everything.
Kara took a deep breath, holding the air in for so long her throat began to burn.
“I love you too, Lena” she let the words go in a quick blow of oxygen.
There wasn’t much after that, Lena needed to start her day while Kara had to return to game night.
And as soon as Kara stepped into the room again, her older sister smiled and mimicked, with a quite annoying voice: “I love you, Lena” as everyone laughed.
Damn it…
***
Impressively enough, nothing changed. No, not even with the infamous ‘I love you’ at the wrong time had destroyed whatever friendship was left between them. And Kara was surprised, just like Lena.
No, that was a lie. One thing had changed and Kara couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was, just that the texting became more frequent with much clearer demonstrations of love and care, with many others ‘I love you’ discreetly escaping here and there, shaped as ‘I miss you’ and ‘wish you were here.
Irish Lena sent a photo
Irish Lena: the waitress is really cute, don’t you think?
Golden Sleeper: I don’t.
Irish Lena: very cute
.
Golden Sleeper: I’m canceling this friendship.
Irish Lena: but she’s not my type.
Golden Sleeper: and what’s y0ur type?
Irish Lena: blonde, tall, with the biggest appetite I’ve ever seen.
Golden Sleeper: you and your unbearable crush on Supergirl, I’ll end up thinking you’re going to call her on a date!
Irish Lena: maybe I am.
***
Golden Sleeper: you know, I used to have a best friend.
Irish Lena: and what happened to her?
Golden Sleeper: she went to follow a dream and traded me for an Irish redhead
Golden Sleeper: she used to bring me donuts every time I felt bad
Golden Sleeper: but she abandoned me.
Irish Lena: drama queen.
And that night, Lena sent her none, none other than five boxes of donuts of all possible flavors and imaginable toppings. Kara, still jumping up and down, unable to contain her excitement, sent a photo of herself with her hands covered with sugar, lips stained with chocolate, and wearing an absurdly adorable smile. Lena’s favorite.
Golden Sleeper sent a picture
Golden Sleeper: I like coming here so much.
Golden Sleeper: it’s my favorite place, I’m so in love with it.
Golden Sleeper: just like you’re my favorite
Irish Lena: are you going to say you’re in love with me too?
Golden Sleeper: never.
But maybe she was. And maybe she was trying to say it in between the lines.
Golden Sleeper sent a picture
Golden Sleeper: bought my favorite food for dinner!
Golden Sleeper: I just don’t have my favorite person to eat with me…
And maybe Lena was also willing to show the same. Neither of them dared to say it out loud, through the endless calls to one another, with Kara insisting on not hanging up and Lensa sleeping in late every time. Pictures came and went, whether they were of markets and Irish folklore festivals, or the animal adoption fairs that took place on a Saturday morning in National City, or even of the movie that Kara was watching at sister night, making sure to write a summary and a critic worthy of a professional. Everything to make Lena smile a little, everything to vanish the sadness that took over their hearts or the nightmares that visited them when they least expected.
Kara didn’t talk about the phantoms. Lena didn’t talk about how little she had found on her mother and how disdainful the citizens were to her.
Golden Sleeper: Andrea is being mean to me!
Irish Lena: oh, baby.
Irish Lena: what is it this time?
Golden Sleeper: she wants me to work!
Golden Sleeper: Can you believe it?
Irish Lena: I mean… isn’t that what she's supposed to do as your boss?
Irish Lena: demand work?
Golden Sleeper: which side are you on? Honestly.
Irish Lena: always yours, darling.
On a lonely rainy evening, Lena felt her heart shrink on her chest and decided to work on the courage she didn’t have.
Irish Lena: you know what’s missing to make this place perfect?
Golden Sleeper: no?
Irish Lena: you…
Golden Sleeper: Rao…I miss you so much.
Irish Lena: I miss you too.
Irish Lena: Every day.
And on an equally scary and cold night, Kara, sleepy and blue, used the same audacity.
Golden Sleeper: I miss you.
Golden Sleeper: come back home.
Golden Sleeper: I love you…
Irish Lena: Soon, dear.
Irish Lena: I love you so much, don’t forget that.
***
Kara screamed and, in one move, jumped out of bed and ran to a dark corner of the room, hugging her legs, pressing them as tight as she could against her chest, and hiding her face in her knees. Her tears streamed down hot, acid and painted her face blood red. She couldn’t breathe. Rao, she couldn’t pull air in and everything around her spun and spun, as if she was on a carousel, her eyes closed and loud music playing. Everything became too agonizing. The car sounds, the steps on the apartments, the tv noise, a car crash at the road that linked the south coast to the north.
She couldn’t turn herself off, she couldn’t see a way to go back to reality.
Her blood boiling, her heart about to stop at any given time and her lethargic limbs would not move. She wanted to get up, to reach her phone and call Alex, tell her she needed help, tell her she was terrified and couldn’t…
Rao, she couldn’t hear Lena’s heart.
Her face shot up, eyes showered in horror and trembling never seen before. Lena.
Where was Lena?
She forced herself to focus, to look for the soft rhythmic beating that always put her to sleep, like a lullaby, but she couldn’t find anything.
Desperately, hands shaking and feet weakened, the hero pressed the clock on her wrist, sending her sister a signal, alongside the others and swallowed the fear, inhaling enough oxygen to throw herself out, catching impulse and flying as fast as she could to cross the Atlantic.
On the other side, Lena not only got the red signal on her own clock, but also a flood of texts from Alex and J’onn. She said goodbye to the woman who had agreed to tell her about her mother, apologizing a million times, promising to get in touch as soon as possible, and explaining that an emergency had come up. The woman, completely clueless and confused, just nodded and wished her luck, assuring she would be at that same place for when she returned if she ever did. Lena, throughout the whole excruciating time she spent inside the car, almost breaking some traffic laws to get back to the hotel, cursed herself for the terrible timing to leave National City.
She parked fast at one of the spots in front of the building and ran inside, ignoring the elevators and going up the stairs at impressive speed, her thighs begging her to stop and heels aching. As she turned on the hallway where she was standing, she saw an equally breathless and uncontrolled blonde, her face drowned in tears, blue eyes covered by the dilated pupils, its color completely masked by a shadow and tension that made Lena step back.
Kara, on the other hand, felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest and brutally torn apart, and as she realized that Lena was there, alive and looking at her back, she ran to her arms, crossing the hallway not caring if someone would put two and two together and figure out her secret identity.
“Lena!”
“Kara!”
With no previous warning, shame, or barrier keeping her from doing what she wanted to do during all those days apart from one another, Kara closed the space between their bodies as they collided, she held the face of the woman that she loved and kissed her clumsily, the fury from her fear slowly vanishing, being replaced by a feral desire, that took over her body and mind as she felt her tongue contour her lips, not playing coy and asking for passage.
Lena froze in place, her brain shutting off.
Kara was kissing her.
Oh, God!
So, choosing not to question it, Lena kissed her back, sinking her hands on the sweaty hair and intertwining her finger on the blonde strands, feeling Kara’s hands pull her waist, in a hunger, not even she was able to comprehend.
***
Some hours had passed, Kara fell asleep without explaining herself, just begging Lena to stay and not leave her alone. Lena, unable to refuse her anything and still affected by the kiss, nodded and both went into the room, as Lena lied down and pulled her to go lie with her. However, Kara placed her body almost entirely over hers, lying her chest over her chest and embracing her in a hug that Lena would never be able to escape, not even if she tried.
Lena took her time to tell Alex that her sister was safe and sound, a bit nervous and unstable, but nothing she couldn’t handle. She was going to call later after she figured out what had happened, and while that didn’t come, Lena began to stroke the long hair then fell over her shirt, dragging her nails on her head, in an up and down movement, going behind her ear and sliding to the back of her neck. She sighed, remembering those velvet lips salted by tears on hers, and used her free hand to trace the way they had made, it was all so fresh and lucid in her mind.
“Why did you stop cuddling?” Lena suddenly heard a hoarse and needy voice echo. She chuckled.
“Because it’s time to wake up” she poked her cheek, to which Kara promptly grumbled and hid her face on her stomach “and tell me what was that all about earlier.”
“Do I really have to?” Kara murmured, the words muffled by the shirt.
“It would be nice, after all my best friend kissed me after crossing the Atlantic ocean in tears” Lena pointed out wisely and this time Kara seemed to react, turning her face only to look at her and get lost in the tender green on her eyes.
“I don’t regret the kiss,” Kara confessed, her cheeking blushing.
Lena smiled, ignoring the wave of butterflies in her stomach.
“Me neither, dear. It was quite enjoyable and I’d like to repeat it” Lena reached out and Kara took her hands, crawling until she was beside her, and sat down. Their hands remained together “you worried me, Kara.”
“I’m sorry about that” she used the purest honesty “I…”
“Take a deep breath and tell me from the beginning” Lena stroked her hands with her thumb and kissed her head.
“Ever since the Phantom Zone… it’s been hard to move on, I have nightmares and wake up… wake up thinking I’m still there, that none of this is real” she swallowed dry “because that was what the phantoms did, they created a reality where I was back at National City, everyone was with me and then… then you were in danger and I couldn’t… Lena, I c-couldn’t…”
“Hey, it’s okay” Lena embraced her tight, letting her lie her head over her shoulder “I’m here.”
“But you weren’t, and I couldn’t hear your heart” she sobbed. “I couldn’t get there in time and you… you wouldn’t breathe and then… the air would disappear from my lungs a-and… Rao, I couldn’t hear your heart!” she cried out, spilling all of herself out at the intimate and sincere moment.
“That’s why you came” she nodded “and that’s why you slept on top of me.”
“I needed to have it with me, I’m sorry” she apologized but Lena was far from being bothered by that fact.
“You don’t have to apologize, I just wish you had told me about the nightmares sooner” Lena explained tenderly. Kara smiled and moved away just a tiny bit to see her properly “but I know I’ve been hiding my own problems too, in an attempt to not worry you.”
“We’re a quite complicated pair, aren’t we?”
“We are” they laughed and the laughter died down and Lena glanced, for too long, at her mouth “and about the kiss…”
“I’d like to repeat it too” Kara whispered, licking her lips as the anxiety and desire grew inside her “that… if you… uh, Rao…”
Lena leaned in and broke the little to no space separating them, sealing her lips on hers, this time more calmly and more aware of what was happening, though she could not name what she was doing in that dim room, at the heart of a tiny Irish town.
“Does that answer your question?”
“Absolutely” Kara leaned in again but a low ring alongside annoying vibrations interrupted them “ugh…”
“It’s your sister wanting to know if you’re alive” Lena unlocked the screen and and showed the feverish group chat.
“Okay, I have an idea” Kara moved on the bed, asking Lena to be in front of her and, holding the phone in one hand and her face in the other, she kissed her chastly, pressing the buttons to take a picture.
Irish Lena sent a picture
Dopey: oh god…
Sleepy: Finally!
Doc: I did not need to see that…
Happy: happy for you!
Grumpy: MY EYES!
Grumpy: I hope you fall in the Atlantic on your way back.
A few minutes later…
Grumpy: if you ever hurt her…
Irish Lena: HEY
Irish Lena: Lena would never do that!
Grumpy: I know, I was talking to you.
Still flooded by that sudden happiness, Kara decided to stay for longer, after all, she had never been to Ireland, and Lena wouldn’t say no to her, after all, Ireland wasn’t that interesting without a particularly tall, cute, extremely clingy blonde.