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When Lena looks back on it, she realizes that the catalyst is playing Heads-Up at M’gann’s bar the first weekend after the new year. It’s Kara’s turn and she's holding her phone in front of her forehead while everyone shouts clues for her to guess the word displayed on the screen. She's been doing incredibly well so far, obviously on the same wavelength as her friends, but then she flips her phone down after correctly guessing Justin Timberlake from Nia's clue, "Shrek 2, Fiona's bedroom poster!" and the next word pops into the window.
"They float around!" Nia shouts.
"In the ocean!" Brainy adds.
"They have no brain!" Kelly yells, just as Alex pitches in with, "Lena's favorite animal!"
And that, that's the start of it all.
"Sea turtle," Kara says, responding to Nia and Brainy's combined clue, then pauses when she registers Kelly's "no brain" clue. "No, wait—"
And then she pauses again when Alex's clue hits, mouth open and brow furrowing more and more with each passing second.
"Caaat?" she guesses eventually, and cats definitely don't float brainlessly in the ocean, but uncertainty makes her elongate her obviously incorrect answer as though the amount of time it takes her to say it is directly correlated to an increase in the likelihood of it being correct.
"They've got nematocysts," Lena supplies. Helpfully, she thinks.
Brainy is the only one who looks at her like she's given the best, most obvious clue. He holds his hand up for a high-five behind Nia's head, which she returns, and they wait expectantly for Kara to answer as everyone else shares confused glances.
"Um," Kara says, nibbling at her soft, lower lip.
"Tentacles?" Lena amends, noting the way Kara doesn't seem to be getting her clue. But that only seems to make it worse.
"Octopus?" Kara tries again, frustration showing on her face when everyone shakes their heads. "Ugh, fine, skip," she says, flipping the phone upwards.
Lena barely catches a glimpse of pomegranate before Kara's phone buzzes and jingles to indicate the end of the round.
"Shoot," Kara says, lowering her phone. "Darn."
"The word was 'jellyfish'," Brainy says, and Kara screws her face up.
"Oh."
It's Alex's turn next, but Kara appears unfocused, staying quiet more often than not while the others shout out their hints. Moreover, the clues she gives Alex are, for once, not enough for Alex to guess off of.
Alex frowns when the round ends and looks like she wants to ask her what's wrong, but Kara tells them to keep going before excusing herself to get another drink from the bar.
Just as Kelly is picking Kara’s phone up to prepare for her go, Lena abruptly stands up, hands pressing flat against the wooden table. "I'm gonna- I also want another drink," she says, and Alex makes meaningful eye contact with her from across the table. She's sending her an entire encyclopedia of words with just her eyes, but the gist is clear: Make sure she’s okay, please?
Lena nods, lips thinning as she presses them together in worry. She shuffles out of the booth and makes her way towards the familiar head of blonde hair by the bar.
"Hey, you," she says when she approaches, running a hand comfortingly down her upper arm. "Everything okay?"
Kara stares morosely down at her fruity drink. “Yeah,” she says unconvincingly.
When nothing else seems forthcoming, Lena pivots to lean back against the bar. She braces her elbows on the bartop and looks out over the other patrons as she waits patiently for Kara to open up. Movement from their table eventually catches her eye and she watches the animated efforts of Alex, Kelly, and Nia as they try to get Brainy to guess whatever’s displayed on the phone.
“It’s just—” Kara starts, then goes silent again, dragging her finger up and down in the condensation gathering on the side of her drink.
Over at their table, Kelly slams the table with her palms and tips forward, laughing so hard she almost smacks her head on the wood; Alex clutches her shoulder and laughs just as hard; and Nia presses a smiling, lingering kiss to the corner of a very perplexed Brainy’s mouth. They're all so cute and in love and Lena feels her chest swell with affection. She wants that. She wants that effortless, helpless love. And she wants it with—
"You never told me jellyfish were your favorite animal," Kara mumbles next to her, drawing squiggles on the bar with her condensation-wet finger.
Lena hums, dropping her head back and squinting up at the definitely-knife-carved marks on the ceiling. "You never asked."
"What's your favorite animal?"
"Jellyfish," Lena quips immediately.
Kara snorts softly and Lena rolls her head around until she can look at her. "Cats are a pretty close second, though," she says.
A small smile flickers across Kara's face, there and gone again as she continues to peer sadly into her drink. "Alex knew they were your favorite animal," she says. "Did she ask?"
Which, ah.
Lena shifts her weight and pops an ankle as she considers. "She must have," she concludes after popping her other ankle. "Pretty sure at a game night. Or, hm. No, wait, it was definitely a game night. And you'd gotten up to go to the bathroom, maybe, and I was buzzed and I thought I heard Alex say 'jellyfish', but it turns out she was talking about lutefisk."
Kara's staring at her now, chewing at her lip, and Lena tries not to think about how much she wants to catch it between her own teeth and tug.
"Turns out she'd said, 'Yeah, they store it in a jar and it's, like, some sort of jelly fish?' which is when I screamed, 'That's my favorite animal!'" Lena continues, tearing her eyes away from Kara's bottom lip and gluing them to the back of somebody's chair instead. "Um, so, she didn't ask, so much as I yelled it in her face randomly."
"I can't believe I missed that," Kara says.
"I can't believe she remembered that," Lena replies.
Kara sips her drink, then wipes her damp hand on her jeans before mimicking the way Lena's leaning against the bar and casting her eyes over to their table of goons. "Of course she remembered, she's a big sister. They remember things like that. Small, small things about you that you maybe mention in passing one time that they'll commit to memory forever. And then when you least expect it, they'll whip out that little nugget of info and get you the most amazing, thoughtful gift and make you cry."
Lena wants to ask—even though she knows the answer—if Kara's speaking from experience. She wants to make a light joke about how she wouldn't know, how Lex is the only older sibling she's ever known and everyone knows how that turned out, but instead she just nods and watches Alex arm wrestle Nia.
Alex does a great job of making it look like she's struggling before ultimately letting Nia win. She playfully shakes her hand out while Nia retrieves hers and looks down at it in shock.
"I was supposed to be Kal's big sister," Kara says softly, and Lena glances over at her, feeling her stomach twist sympathetically when she sees the dark look on Kara's face. She's still staring out at their table but it's clear she's not seeing her sister and their friends. There's a weight of a dead world in that look and Lena has to drop her gaze.
She doesn't know what to say to make Kara feel better. She doesn't know if there's anything she could say to take away the pain of losing everyone you've ever loved, including yourself.
She's still looking for those words herself.
"I won't forget," Kara says, and for a moment Lena has no idea what Kara's talking about. She won't forget Kal? The world and people she's lost?
"That jellyfish are your favorite," she finishes, and Lena blinks up at her. The heavy look on her face is gone, replaced by a handsome, crooked grin and Lena's heart lurches because, god. God. Here is a woman who's lost and lost again but still chooses to press on with a smile brighter than anything she's ever seen.
"Any reason in particular they're your favorite?" Kara asks, tilting her head cutely.
Lena blinks. "Does there need to be a reason?"
"Nope," Kara says easily, her smile somehow stretching wider across her face. "Let's get you another drink and head back. They're probably having such a boring time without us."
Lena laughs, and they wave M'gann down.
---
Kara texts her early in February.
Lena smiles giddily, biting her lip as she taps out a response to keep from laughing out loud alone in her office.
She changes the format of the calendar on her first monitor from a weekly to monthly view and is pleasantly surprised to find that she's got nothing planned. But then she notices the green dot and hovers over it, and.
Valentine's Day.
She tries not to let her heart do something stupid like jump out of her chest and run to Kara, but it still kicks her in the ribs because Kara inviting her to stay over on Valentine's Day likely means she isn't seeing anyone. Likely. There was that one person her coworker had tried to set her up with recently.
She looks down at her phone to avoid thinking about it.
Lena does laugh out loud this time. She didn’t see anything scheduled on Saturday the fifteenth when she checked the fourteenth earlier, but glances up to check again just in case. There's still nothing penciled in for her on either of those days, so she turns her attention back to her phone.
Lena sets her phone off to the side, affection warming her from the inside out, mood buoying up and up and up just thinking about spending time with Kara. It’s like Kara’s a helium balloon tied to Lena’s mood and she just keeps drifting higher, tugging Lena along with her. And maybe that’s a stupid comparison, but Lena feels a strain in her cheeks several minutes later as she’s checking her email and realizes that she hasn’t stopped smiling since Kara’s first text.
Sometimes she feels like something inside her has never stopped smiling since meeting her.
---
The week and a half leading up to Valentine's Day is draining and awful and fucky. Lena even had to cancel on lunch with Kara this week, and now all she wants is to step into one of her warm, comforting hugs and melt. Just stop fucking existing for a couple hours.
Which is why, when she finally drags herself to Kara's apartment on the night of the fourteenth right after work and Kara excitedly opens the door for her before she's even knocked, that's almost exactly what she does. Kara looks so soft and beautiful with her hair down in her long sleeve tee and sweatpants that Lena stiffly stumbles forward and into her, sighing the kind of satisfied but world-weary sigh that big dogs heave out, like they’re a compressing hydraulic press.
That’s how she feels right now, as Kara wraps her up in her warm arms and nuzzles into her as much as she nuzzles into Kara: A little like the world is a hydraulic press trying to fucking squish the hell out of her, and a little like she’s decompressing, letting out the breath she’s been holding since the last time she got to see Kara.
“Well, hi there,” Kara says, voice muffled by the way she’s talking into Lena’s hair.
“Hi,” Lena mumbles, sagging further into Kara’s arms and trusting implicitly that Kara will keep them both up.
(She does, bearing the increasing deadweight of Lena’s body like all it amounts to is an extra sheet of paper on a stack of two.)
“Long week,” Kara observes, and it’s not a question because Lena knows she can tell in the hunch of her shoulders, in the way she can’t seem to burrow close enough.
“Long week,” Lena agrees, filling her lungs with Kara—whatever lovely, fruity scent of lotion she’s chosen recently (grapefruit, today), the Bounce Outdoor Fresh dryer sheet smell on her clothes, and always, always the sun—before reluctantly pulling away and kicking her stupid heels off. “Couch?”
“Couch. I prepared a bowl of pasta for you, it’s on the coffee table next to a glass of wine,” Kara says, shutting her door.
“Ugh, you’re perfect,” Lena says, staggering over to Kara’s well-loved, lumpy yet comfortable couch and deflating onto it while Kara grabs an extra couch blanket and a change of clothes for her. It’s the same outfit every time and has been the same since they found the proper combination: a soft, navy t-shirt inscribed with KALE in college font—something Kara had purchased for her as a joke—and heather gray sweatpants.
Lena's so fucking tired that she doesn't even try to change like a well-adjusted human adult. She just unbuttons, unzips, and shoves her slacks down her legs without even getting off the couch; the most she does is lean one way and then the other to lift her buttcheeks away from the couch cushions so she can shuffle her pants off her ass. She slowly pulls her sweatpants on afterwards before wriggling pathetically out of her blouse, shoving herself into the KALE shirt, and almost violently ripping her bra off from under the shirt and flinging it across the room.
Kara snorts out a laugh from where she’s pouring herself onto the couch next to her, but there's a sympathetic twinkle in her eye when Lena slides her eyes over. "Bras suck," she says and Lena manages a grunt of agreement, pulling her knees up to her chest and turning inwards to press her face to Kara's arm.
Kara laughs again and snugs the blankets over their legs before tossing her arm over Lena's shoulders.
Lena nestles closer, rubbing her cheek against the soft cotton of Kara's long-sleeve shirt. "Can we watch something easy tonight, please?" she asks, so tired it feels like her tongue is sticking to her mouth. "Know I'm gonna fall asleep like twenty minutes in, but I need to turn my brain off."
"Yeah, of course!" Kara says, queueing up Planet Earth.
As soon as David Attenborough starts up his soothing narration, Lena feels herself melting further into the couch, and with the way Kara is warm against her, Lena has an increasingly difficult time keeping her eyes open. At one point, Kara chuckles softly and the shaking of her shoulders jostles Lena slightly. She lets out a questioning hum and slowly opens her eyes after remembering that that’s an integral part of blinking.
“What?” she asks, voice crackly, eyelids slowly beginning their descent again.
“You falling asleep on me?”
“No,” Lena says, eyes closed. “‘m blinking.”
Kara’s shoulders start shaking again and Lena frowns. “Stooop,” she whines.
"But if I let you sleep now you won't eat dinner,” Kara says, and she’s totally smiling—Lena can hear it. “And it’s not even eight yet, so you’d probably wake up in the middle of the night with your stomach growling like a bear, and then you’d have to eat cold pasta and that’s not as good as warm pasta.”
“Ugh,” Lena says, sluggishly sitting up, “first of all, I’m guessing that exact thing has happened to you before.”
Kara’s sheepish grin confirms it.
“Secondly, my stomach doesn’t really do the growling thing, I think she’s broken from too many skipped meals and coffee-as-food days.”
Kara looks horrified, so Lena keeps going. “But I agree that warm pasta is much better than cold pasta. So… thank you. I’ll eat now.”
Kara claps happily with a quiet Yaaaay! her eyes big and bright and blue— and Lena has to look away, clearing her throat. She drops her feet to the floor and leans forward to pick up her pasta.
“Um, can I heat it up for you? It’s probably already cold by now, actually,” Kara says, fiddling with her glasses.
“Oh. Yes, please,” Lena says, holding her bowl out for Kara to take.
Kara laughs nervously and doesn't take the bowl. "Do you mind if I just…?" she asks, gesturing between the pasta and her eyes with two fingers.
"Oh. Oh! Yeah! Of course!" Lena says.
Kara lets out a breath Lena didn't know she was holding. "Okay, cool! Great! Awesome!" And then she nibbles at her lower lip, glancing between the outstretched bowl and Lena's face before finally taking another breath and blurting in a rush, "Doyoutrustme?"
"Yes," Lena says without hesitation.
"Okay," Kara breathes, licking out at her lips and lifting her glasses up. “Hold it steady.”
And Lena maybe gets stuck staring at the way her plush lower lip glistens, gets stuck thinking about running her own tongue over Kara's lip, following the same path she'd traced, tasting her, smearing their spit together along the pink of her mouth.
She gets so lost in thinking about Kara's lips, chewing restlessly at her own and trying not to squirm, that it takes her a second to notice that the skin around Kara's eyes is starting to glow a white-orange—semi-translucent and reminiscent of the way it looks when you hold a flashlight behind your hand. In the next moment, her eyes burn red-orange and Lena barely stifles a squeak of surprise before Kara's carefully directing twin beams of focused heat into her bowl.
It takes a second, at most, for Lena’s bowl to go from cold to perfectly warm, and then Kara's letting her glasses drop back down again. She scratches the side of her nose and smiles shyly. "The, um, microwave usually only gets the top and makes the bowl too hot to touch. For humans. So."
Lena looks down at her steaming pasta, then back at Kara's blushing face. And honestly, Lena's not sure why she's blushing, but Kara is so cute that her fingers twitch against the bowl as she imagines pulling Kara in by the front of her shirt and nosing across the apple of her cheek until she can slide their lips together, slick, wet—
"Lena?" Kara asks, ducking her head to make eye contact, but Lena's eyes follow her mouth down.
"Huh? Yeah?" Lena replies, meeting Kara's worried blue eyes with effort.
"I asked if it was okay with you that I did that? I'm sorry if I scared you."
Lena shakes her head quickly. "That was definitely okay! I wasn't scared at all, promise. I trust you completely, I was just—" And she pauses for a moment since she can't say what she was just. The pause goes on for far too long and Lena looks back down at her bowl. “You’re much more efficient than a microwave,” she says dumbly instead, reaching for the fork Kara's set out on a napkin.
“Yeah, I like to think so,” Kara says, and the heat of her gaze on the side of Lena's face is so strong that she wonders if maybe Kara is using her heat vision again.
Lena tries not to give in to the urge to look over at her, she really tries. But like a plant never stops trying to face the sun, she’s helpless to resist. She stabs her fork into the pasta, slips her ankle under her other thigh, and looks up at Kara.
There’s an unreadable look on her face.
No, that’s a lie. It’s open and readable and undeniably affectionate.
Kara's never been able to keep her emotions off her face and they’re all there clear as glass, but Lena digs her blunt nails into her palm in an ineffective attempt to stop herself from hoping. She's just so tired of hoping, so tired of the way her hope refuses to die. It’s been four years. Four years of friendship. But sometimes it seems like Kara only comes alive when Lena is in the room. Sometimes Kara looks at her like she’s starving. Sometimes it feels like Kara is the plant and Lena is the sun.
“I’m really, really happy you trust me,” Kara says, and she’s the one who averts her eyes first, leaning forward to pick up her own bowl of pasta. She’s always the one who looks away first.
“I always will,” Lena says, forking a mouthful of warm pasta into her mouth to stop herself from saying anything more.
A part of her wonders if it’d be possible to fill up the cracks in her heart with pasta if she ate enough of it.
---
The pasta is delicious.
Lena tells Kara as much and it’s adorable the way she puffs up proudly at the compliment, smiling so, so hard, cheeks flushing hot enough to make the bottom of her glasses fog up.
Lena finishes her food quickly, surprised to find that she's more hungry than she’d originally thought, then returns to her original position with her knees pulled up and curled into Kara. Her glass of wine is still mostly full and she sips at it slowly, occasionally passing the glass to Kara so she can partake as well. Kara’s obviously not affected by it, but she indulges so Lena isn’t drinking alone.
By the time Lena finishes her glass, she’s slow-blinking again, belly full of wine and pasta, eyes staying closed for longer and longer spans of time as she slowly nuzzles her cheek against Kara's shirt. And this time, Kara lets her slip under, warm and solid next to her.
---
She dreams of being a pirate captain at the top of her game, sailing the seas with her motley crew, plundering ships bearing the flag of the tyrannical king and redistributing the wealth to port cities.
The port cities love and respect her, the king is… impotent, and she’s happier than she’s ever been.
Dusk is falling as Lena sails away from another successful raid. She’s already thinking about which barrel of whiskey to save for herself and her crew to share in the following days when the ocean starts bubbling. Her heart drops into her toes, along with her celebratory mood, and then tentacle after massive tentacle emerges from the depths of the sea to curl around her ship.
"No!" she screams, and an enormous mantle breaches the surface, putting Lena face-to-eye with the kraken. "Please, spare my ship, my crew!” she entreats. “Just take me!"
The kraken blinks it’s huge, intelligent eye, then slowly releases its hold on Oisín before reaching out to wrap a tentacle around her instead. Lena's arms are pressed to her body and the giant sea creature lifts her off the ship.
She sucks in a quick, harsh breath, expecting the plunge into the sea to be frigid and brutal, but when the kraken tows her under, she’s surprised at how easily the sea dips and parts for them, at how warm the water is, at how she can still breathe.
At how the sea smells like the sun.
---
Lena wakes up to the smell of coffee and stretches luxuriously with a happy sigh, the sheets susurrating with her movement.
God, she loves coffee. She also loves how incredibly well-rested she feels for the first time this week.
Lena knuckles at her eyes, belatedly remembering her eye makeup and realizing that she's probably smearing day-old eyeliner, but can't quite bring herself to care. Coffee comes before everything.
Even well-rested, it still takes her a long moment after she cracks her eyes open to recognize the fact that she's in Kara's bed.
She sits up and swings her legs out of bed, combing her fingers loosely through her hair as she's coaxed towards the kitchen by the tantalizing scent of "hot bean water".
Kara does not look surprised to see her poking her head around the muslin divider.
"Good morning!" she says cheerily, spatula-ing something from where she stands in front of the stove. It looks like eggs. "I just poured you a cup of coffee, it's in your mug."
"Morning," Lena replies, drifting towards the promised coffee.
"I'm making french omelettes right now, but I also made a quick trip to pick up your favorite pastries before you got up."
Lena takes a long sip of her coffee, feeling immediately better as the full-bodied taste blooms upon her tongue. "The rose black tea kouign-amann from Craftsman and Wolves?" she asks, cupping her mug.
"Um, just a little further than Craftsman and Wolves," Kara says, sounding sheepish, which is when Lena sees the white pastry box inscribed with Cafe Rue Serret along the top and sides.
"Oh my god," Lena says, "you didn't."
Kara plops the omelette on a plate before looking up at her. "Would… would you be mad if I did?" she asks, voice uncertain.
Lena sets her coffee mug down on the counter and steps closer so she can slip her arms around Kara's waist with a squeeze. "I would absolutely not be mad. Embarrassed, maybe? For making you go to such trouble." She lets go, crossing her arms until the tingling in them fades enough for her to feel like she can grab her mug again without dropping it.
“It’s no trouble at all,” Kara says, her pretty lips turning up again as she sets the spatula and pan down and briskly chops some chives. “It’s a little like getting up for a morning jog, or something.”
“You hate exercise.”
Kara freezes, face going pink before she starts moving again with effort. “Okay,” she says, grabbing a pinch of chives and sprinkling it on top of the omelette. “It was like, all the best parts of a morning jog and none of the bad parts, like the exercising. But also, flying is nothing like running, so now I'm really not sure why I made that comparison." She pulls out a fork and lays it on the plate before pushing it closer to Lena. “This one’s yours,” she says.
Lena nods, cheeks going tight as she smiles at Kara. "Thank you," she says, "for breakfast and coffee and pastries. And for letting me sleep in your bed."
"Yeah," Kara says, buttering her pan again. "You've had a really hard week. I wasn't gonna let you sleep on the couch, though you resisted when I tried to pick you up. You were all wiggly and said something about a ship?"
Lena sips at her coffee and leans her hip against the kitchen counter as she watches Kara pour the remainder of the beaten eggs into her pan and stir. "Huh. I have absolutely no idea what that could be about."
---
Kara finishes making her omelette, then swaps it with Lena's when they sit down at the high top.
Lena tries to protest, but Kara just gently bumps their shoulders together. "I want you to have the warmer one," she says with an easy smile, and it's such a simple gesture, but it’s so thoughtful and sweet that Lena feels like the tips of her ears catch on fire.
"Okay," she murmurs, ducking her head and hoping that the fall of her hair hides the way her ears are blushing. "Thank you."
"Mmhm," Kara says, cleaving part of her omelette off with the side of her fork and scooping it into her mouth. "Now eat up before it gets cold!'
---
Breakfast is leisurely and just as delicious as dinner was, though Lena spends most of it smiling so hard she has a hard time chewing.
They're sitting so close that their arms brush with every breath. Kara rests her foot on the footrest of Lena's stool, swinging her leg every so often to tap their ankles together. And every time Kara bumps her foot, Lena wants so badly to hook hers around Kara's—inner ankles pressing together—to keep her from swinging away again. She wants to urge her closer by that point of contact, until their thighs meet and they can lean into each other as they giggle and banter and trade messy kisses over breakfast.
She swallows her last bite of éclair, washing it down with another sip of her second cup of coffee, then clears her throat, hoping it'll also clear the impossible fantasy from her mind like shaking an Etch A Sketch.
"Was there something in particular you wanted to do today?" she asks, propping her chin on her hand and looking over at Kara.
"Yeah! I’ve got somewhere I wanna take you, if you’re interested,” Kara says, then hurries to add, “Oh, but I do want it to be a surprise, so just let me know if you feel up for it? Or not?”
Lena snorts. “I’ve had two incredible meals now—at normal human times—and had some of the best sleep of my life last night. I’m game for anything. Think I can take on the world right now.”
Kara grins and presses her ankle to Lena’s. “This is gonna be so great, really think you’re gonna love it!”
Lena bites her cheek to keep the You’re so great. I love you in, but lets herself say, “If it’s a surprise from you, I know I’ll love it.”
Kara shuffles excitedly on her stool and beams. “Okay, well, we’re gonna have to do some flying, so why don’t you raid my closet for warm things and I’ll clean-up?”
Twenty minutes later, Lena’s taken a quick body shower, brushed her teeth, and dressed warmly and comfortably in dark blue jeggings and a gray National City University sweatshirt. She walks out of the bathroom to find Kara leaned against the kitchen counter in loose-fit, light wash jeans and a white t-shirt underneath a burgundy zip-up jacket. She’s got an intense look of concentration on her face as she studies something on her phone, tongue poking out the side of her mouth.
“Something wrong?” Lena asks.
The furrow in Kara's brow smooths immediately when she hears Lena approach, like pulling a crumpled tablecloth taut by its four corners. She pockets her phone and loops her thumbs casually and attractively through her front belt loops.
“Not at all!” she chirps lightly. “Just wanted to make sure I remembered the directions. Oh, and I went and picked up your black chucks, by the way,” she says, throwing a thumb over her shoulder towards the shoe rack by the door. “We're gonna be walking, so, comfy shoes."
Lena tries to bite back a grin and can't. "Why'd you make me raid your closet then? Could've picked something up from my place if you were also getting my shoes."
Kara flushes an interesting shade of red and flaps her elbows with her thumbs still hooked in her belt loops, flustered. It takes her an extended moment to respond, but she eventually does so, shyly, with a murmured, "I like the way you look in my clothes." And it's so quiet that Lena would have missed it if she weren't staring at Kara's lips, watching the way she carefully forms the admission and releases it into the space between them.
"Oh," Lena whispers, blushing hard.
"Yeah," Kara says softly, and she's got another one of those intent, hungry looks on her face again as she studies Lena, eyes lingering like she’s trying to memorize all the places where her clothes bunch and drape differently on Lena's body.
Lena swallows hard, suddenly hyper-aware of how Kara's clothes smell and feel on her—of how it's almost as if she's wrapped up in her—and it makes her feel too hot. It makes her want desperately to strip out of Kara's clothes so she doesn't have Kara on her skin and Kara filling her lungs and Kara staring at her—
But like always, Kara blinks and looks away first, scuffing the hardwood floor with a socked foot, and Lena can breathe again.
"Anyway," Kara says, and her voice sounds a little tight, but Lena's still so flushed that the blood rushing in her ears is probably messing with her aural processing. "If you’re ready to go, we should head out soon."
Lena nods, crossing her arms protectively over her belly. "Yeah, okay.”
---
Lena has no idea where Kara is taking her, but it doesn't even matter because she's wrapped up in her arms. She's so busy fantasizing about all the different scenarios that would require being carried by Kara like this that she doesn't even notice that an hour has passed by the time they land discreetly by some trees.
Kara carefully sets her on her feet, and.
She's flown them to an aquarium.
"Come on!" Kara says excitedly, grabbing her hand and tugging her towards the entrance. "The fish are waiting!"
God, she's such a dork. A helpless smile stretches across Lena's face, her own mood quickly matching Kara's as if its only purpose is to mirror whatever Kara's feeling. She rolls her eyes but allows herself to be pulled out of the treeline and through the double doors.
"I got us e-tickets so we can just get 'em scanned by the scan-y people and start looking at all the fish!" Kara explains, whipping out her phone to get their tickets.
Once they're through ticket check, Kara spins to face her, practically vibrating with exuberance. "Okay, okayokayokay, is there anywhere you wanna go first?”
Lena grins as widely as she ever has, infected by Kara’s happiness, and shakes her head. “Nope, just wanna see everything. Do you?”
Kara also shakes her head, bouncing in place as if she can’t stay still any longer. “Nope!” she parrots. “If you want, we can follow the aquarium-designated optimal path?”
“What’s the aquarium-designated optimal path?” Lena asks, trying to reign in her urge to giggle.
“Look down!”
Lena looks down, then furrows her brow in confusion when she doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She’s about to ask what Kara’s talking about when she notices a little painted fish on the floor about five feet away from where they’re standing. She walks over to it, then spots another fish in the distance.
“Oh!” she says with delight as Kara steps up next to her.
“Yep! Keep an eye on them, they change based on the exhibit,” Kara says, then nudges their shoulders together before taking a slight step forward towards the first exhibit. “Let’s get going, a huge group just walked in and I don’t wanna get stuck behind them.”
---
The first exhibit features animals from the rivers and lakes of Africa, South America, and Asia, and Kara pulls a face when they come upon a giant river otter.
“What the- I thought otters were fluffy and cute?” she says, recoiling as the otter blinks beady eyes at her before baring its sharp teeth.
Lena grimaces. The river otter’s eyes are really unsettling. “Yeah, uh, sea otters are fluffy and cute. River otters are, like this.”
Kara grunts in acknowledgment and they nervously drift away, the river otter still maintaining unpleasant eye contact.
The next exhibit has animals from the coldest oceans—beluga whales, Japanese spider crabs, giant Pacific octopuses, and penguins to name a few—and it’s here that they find the sea otters. They let out simultaneous awws when they see them, grinning widely at each other before wordlessly agreeing to stay for a while to watch them frolic. Lena hangs back a little, partly to let children shorter than her squeeze closer to squeal at the otters, partly to watch Kara as she fawns over them.
The sea otters are so cute. But they’re still not as cute as how elated Kara gets as she watches them, inching closer and closer to the glass until her nose is practically pressed right up against it as she babbles nonsensical babytalk to them.
When Kara eventually gets her fill, she carefully eases through the crowd of children to make her way over to Lena, cheeks pink with happiness.
“You ever think about how they have favorite rocks and just, cry?” she asks, still throwing glances over her shoulder at the sea otters even as they start meandering over to check out the giant Pacific Octopus.
“I actually think about that episode of Alaska: Earth’s Frozen Kingdom, the one where the mother otter fluffs up her baby so he floats? And he’s just there squeaking and floating in circles? That one makes me emotional,” Lena admits as they stroll up to the octopus exhibit just as the octopus is moving along the bottom. Making their way downtown, Lena thinks.
“What the heck? That sounds so cute?” Kara says.
“It is. It’s disgusting.”
Kara actually tosses her head back when she laughs at that, and Lena bites her cheek to keep from smiling too wide as her chest swells with pride. She does, however, allow herself a small smile and an indulgent moment of admiring the stretch of Kara’s neck before she turns her attention back to the reddish-brown cephalopod.
The octopus actually seems keen on interacting with them, so they spend a long while poking at the exhibit wall and gasping and giggling when the octopus drifts over to place their tentacle over the same spot, staring at them with intelligent eyes. Something about the interaction tickles a memory, but Lena can’t think of anything substantial enough to trigger her recall so she ignores it in favor of playing with their new friend.
By the time the octopus grows tired of their game and settles into a nook in the rock, Lena is almost loath to move onto the next exhibit, feeling inexplicably proud of and exceedingly attached to the squishy cephalopod.
When they do move on eventually, Lena swears the octopus rolls a tentacle to wave them good-bye.
“Holy crap!” Kara says abruptly, and Lena looks up from where she’s been staring at the ground and watching the painted animals go from octopus to shark. "Lena, look!"
Lena casts her eyes in the direction Kara's staring and—
“Holy fuck, a whale shark,” she gasps, stopping dead at the mouth of the acrylic viewing tunnel.
And a whale shark it is, doing the swim-version of a leisurely amble on the other side of the acrylic. It’s almost as if they, too, are interested in observing as much as they’re being observed. The benevolent water giant has rays, smaller sharks, and other fish swimming around them—some putting in extra bursts of speed to dart ahead every so often as if trying to goad the shark into a race—but they’re wholly unbothered, content to float lazily through the water.
Lena steps up to the curved wall of the tunnel and gawks as the whale shark takes several seconds to swim by.
“Really reminds you just how small you are, huh?” Kara says, standing next to her with her hands stuffed into her back pockets.
“Jesus… yeah,” Lena says, nodding and spinning in a slow circle to admire all the other aquatic creatures passing through.
They spend a long time in the tunnel, finding a spot to sit on the benches lining the rounded walls and staring up and all around as the four—four!—whale sharks in the aquarium make an appearance. Then they stay even longer to watch the manta rays do their thing, flapping their wing-like fins, looking for all the world like flat birds. Lena briefly entertains the idea that the element on the other side of the acrylic is not water, but air, and that they’re currently in a sky observatory watching skyfish swim through the air, but Kara eventually starts fidgeting and Lena glances over at her with a smile.
"Ready for the next exhibit, then?" she asks, though the answer is clear with how antsy Kara is.
Kara jerks her head in a quick nod, then reaches out to take her hand and tug her towards the next part of the aquarium.
Lena chuckles at her enthusiasm but lets herself be pulled along, feeling her own excitement building because they’ve reached the last exhibit and she knows this has to be the one with jellyfish. Elegant, careless, deadly.
Lena glances at the aquatic creatures painted on the ground and smiles when they go from whale shark to manta ray to jellyfish, because, yes. And when she looks up, there they are. Drifting peacefully, bells puffing out every now and again, tentacles trailing long like an unraveled dress train.
"Oh my gosh," Lena hushes, trying to keep her voice low even though there's already a hum of noise in the jelly exhibit. She wouldn't be in the wrong for speaking at a normal volume, of course, but something about the lighting in the jellyfish zone—coupled with the ethereal quality of the jellies themselves—makes her feel like they're in a sort of secret, liminal space where she should be quiet. "They're so pretty."
"Yeah, they really are," Kara sighs, and there's something in her tone that has Lena looking away from the pink-orange jellyfish drifting in front of her.
Kara's looking directly at her.
This is where Kara's supposed to blush and laugh and play it off like the hundreds of times she has before. This is where she pretends to have been staring at some speck on the wall behind Lena, or a puppy or leaf or baby. This is where she makes the excuse that she was spacing out, what did you say, Lena, sorry. This is where she breaks Lena's heart again.
Kara's cheeks go visibly pink even in the dim, blue glow of the jellyfish exhibit, and it’s then that Lena registers the fact that they’re still holding hands. She feels her own blush rise to her cheeks and gently tries to extract her hand, actively not-thinking about how it feels dwarfed in Kara’s warm, callused hand. Kara makes no move to stop her, loosening her grip, and Lena’s heart drops uncomfortably. Not down into her belly, but like it’s flinching away from the pain, like it’s pressing back back back in her rib cage to shield itself from disappointment, from whatever it is that Kara’s about to say or do next.
But then Kara reaches out before Lena can pull her hand away entirely, before she can clench it in a fist at her side or press it to her chest like another layer of protection. She reaches out and carefully but firmly tangles their fingers together, eyes darting all over Lena’s face like all the answers to everything she’s ever asked are written on her skin.
Maybe they are, Lena thinks, as Kara steps closer and licks out at her lower lip, still searching her face for… something.
"You know you're my favorite, right?" Kara murmurs, and Lena's eyes are once again stuck on her mouth so it's like she can see her ask it in slow motion, lips pursing, tongue flicking, teeth scraping.
She really needs to stop looking at her mouth.
"Why?" she hears herself ask breathily, but it feels distant, almost warbly, like she's actually underwater and the only thing keeping her from drowning among the jellies is the way Kara's holding her hand right now.
She asks Why? and even she’s not sure if she means it like yes, I do know, why? or I am? Why?
Lena watches Kara's mouth quirk up, watches the quick dart of her tongue as it wets her lips again— fuck.
"Does there need to be a reason?" Kara says, and Lena looks up to meet Kara’s unfairly blue gaze because, oh.
But.
Four years. Four fucking years.
“Yes," Lena blurts, "absolutely. I’m not— You can’t just— This isn’t favorite animals, Kara"—frustration colors her tone and cheeks—“you know that, right? This isn’t a game. You can't just say whatever you want and not have to deal with the repercussions. You can't just keep giving me hope just to yank it away agai—” she chokes off, a hysteric sort of sadness welling up and souring in her stomach. She whirls around and bites her lip before she says any more, already having said too much, and tries—to no effect—to yank her hand out of Kara's.
“Lena.” And god, Kara says it like a prayer. She says it like a promise. She says it like the hope Lena tries so goddamn hard not to have. “Lena, please look at me.”
Lena sucks in a slow, deep breath to brace herself before she turns around again, rebelliously keeping her hand limp in Kara’s grasp.
"I know I've been, um… oblivious,” Kara starts, and Lena scoffs incredulously. Oblivious is a very polite way to put it.
But Kara seems to understand and her face is apologetic as she continues. “I also know that I've probably hurt you more times than I can count and more times than I can ever hope to apologize for, but.” She pauses to wet her lips and carefully reaches up with her free hand to tuck a strand of hair behind Lena’s ear. Her long fingers brush at the shell of her ear and the touch is a brand, a struck match, a pebble dropped in Lena’s pond and sending ripples of heat through her body. She resists the urge to chase after Kara’s hand when she pulls it away again.
“If it’s not too much for me to ask of you after hurting you for so long,” Kara murmurs, “I really want you to give me the opportunity to try. The stuff yesterday and today… I wanted to show you how well I can treat you. How well I should have been treating you and how well I want to treat you, from now on. If you’ll let me.”
Lena gapes at her, wide-eyed. Kara’s saying all these words and Lena hears her loud and clear, but nothing is actually registering.
“What?” she asks quietly. “What are you saying?”
Kara takes a tiny step closer, face open and hopeful. “I’m trying to tell you that I never want to not know the little things about you ever again. I’m trying to tell you here, in front of your favorite animals, that you’re my favorite person. And I’m saying that I want to hold you”—she reaches out and wraps her arm around Lena’s waist, tugging her closer still until their hips and thighs are flush—“and kiss you”—she lifts Lena’s hand to her mouth, cheeks as red as her jacket, thumb rubbing soothingly along the skin between thumb and index finger as she presses kiss after reverent kiss to each of her fingertips— “and be with you.”
“God,” Lena whispers, eyes darting down to watch how Kara’s lips move against her fingers, head spinning as her words sink in, as she struggles to reconcile the sensation of Kara’s mouth pressing warm and gentle to the sensitive pads of her fingers with the visual.
“I’m saying,” Kara hushes, lips brushing her fingertips with every word, “that I love you.”
Lena's head snaps up in shock and she looks into Kara's beautiful, earnest eyes—
And Kara doesn’t look away.
Lena stares and stares and stares, mind racing because this is actually happening, this is actually happening, and it’s long enough that Kara lowers their intertwined fingers, long enough that the hopeful look on her face starts to fall and her lower lip picks up a near-imperceptible tremble. And Lena feels that like a punch to the gut because, shit, she put that tremble there. Because her words aren't coming, because she's not good with words, not like Kara is.
So instead of grasping for words that won't come, she does what she does best… and acts.
Her free hand twists into Kara's shirt and she surges forward, trapping their clasped hands between their bodies as she closes the last few inches and messily, messily slots their mouths together. It's too hard and she really only catches Kara's bottom lip between her own, but it's still the best kiss of her life.
Kara makes a noise of surprise but quickly adjusts, arm squeezing around Lena's waist and tilting her head just right until their lips are actually slipping together, wet and sticking and sweet and— fuck, okay, this is the best kiss of her life.
Lena lets out a soft, sighing breath, and Kara stiffens slightly before groaning low in her throat and pressing in harder, firmer, mouth greedy and teeth scraping.
When Kara licks at the seam of her lips with a hot tongue, Lena has to end the kiss, shaky and gasping, belatedly remembering that they’re out in public and probably shouldn’t stick their tongues into each other’s mouths.
“Fuck,” she breathes, dropping her forehead to Kara’s shoulder, cheeks hot. “Oh my god, fuck. I don’t think I can kiss anyone else ever again.”
The arm around her waist tightens possessively. “I would really prefer it if you didn’t kiss anyone else now, too,” Kara says.
Lena barks out a short laugh, finally tightening her grip on Kara’s hand and holding it properly. She smooshes her face to Kara’s shirt with a happy hum before lifting her head and pulling away just enough to look into her eyes. A huge smile—dopey, pleased, and embarrassed all at once—spreads across Kara’s face as soon as Lena pops her head up.
“Hi, welcome back,” Kara says, smile so big that her nose crinkles.
“Hi,” Lena echoes, then rocks up onto her toes to kiss her again just because she can. Kara keeps her eyes shut afterwards, pressing her lips together like she’s trying to memorize the feeling, savor the taste.
Completely relatable, Lena thinks as she licks out at her lips and tastes Kara on them. Which only reminds her of how Kara’s tongue felt on them and how she’d really like it a lot if they could do that again in a more private setting. Like, a lot a lot.
Lena clears her throat quietly and Kara’s eyes flutter open. She blushes, caught, and abashedly shrugs a shoulder like can you blame me?
And no, Lena can't blame her. Not when she's thinking about how much she wants Kara to stick her tongue into her mouth.
"Can we… can we go home now?" Lena asks, dropping her gaze and tugging shyly at Kara's shirt. "I, um"—she drops her voice to a near-whisper even though no one is close enough to hear—"wanna makeout."
Kara’s eyes widen almost comically, but then she nods so quickly and emphatically that Lena worries about the probability of her taking flight from just the force of her bobbing head alone.
Lena barely remembers speed-walking out of the aquarium. She barely remembers the flight home too, but she absolutely remembers landing on Kara’s balcony and just getting her feet under her before Kara is crowding in to kiss her against the double doors, one warm hand gripping at her hip while the other fumbles for the handle.
Their lips are millimeters apart when there's a cracking sound, forcing them to pull apart as Kara sheepishly reveals the fact that she’s snapped the door lever in half.
And maybe, maybe that should worry Lena a little. But instead, she feels a hot flush spread down her chest as Kara giggles nervously and strokes her thumb over the piece of broken metal in her hand. The hot feeling only worsens when Kara turns around and welds the handle back on with her heat vision.
"Microwaves definitely can't do that," Lena mumbles.
Kara huffs a laugh and opens the door for her, taking care not to snap the newly-welded door handle off again. "Oh, thank goodness," she says as Lena slips through. "Job security!"
"Job security," Lena agrees, spinning around to sling her arms low around Kara's waist. "Let's see what else you can do that a microwave can't, shall we?
Kara nods, eyes darting hungrily down to her lips. She settles a hand on her hip again and slips a crooked finger under her chin to tilt her head up. "Is this the part where I get to makeout with you?" she asks quietly, so close Lena can feel her breath on her lips.
"Yeah," Lena breathes, an anticipatory thrill running up her back.
Kara grins and finally dips to fit their mouths together again, lips so, so soft as she hums into the kiss, fingers slinging under her jaw, thumb brushing warm against her chin, and it's just as wonderful as she remembers the aquarium kiss being.
Lena's breath hitches in her chest and she melts into her, eagerly following the way she's moving her lips easily against hers. She kisses so sweetly, so carefully, nodding into each little press as their lips stick and drag. But when Kara slides away after a moment to kiss the corner of her mouth, she whines quietly, confused. Kara simply chuckles and pulls away, inciting another dismayed whine.
"I've got you," she hushes reassuringly, stroking at her chin again. "Just, wanna…" Kara trails off, gaze intently focused on Lena's mouth as she brings her thumb up to rub over her lower lip and gently tug it open. She makes a low noise, half-groan half-sigh, and then her lips are back on Lena's, licking greedily into her mouth, tongue hot, spit sweet. The air is cool against the spot where she messily drags her tongue before slipping it into Lena's mouth, and all Lena can do is moan helplessly and open herself up to let Kara taste.
Kara lets out an echoing moan of her own, mumbling, "Y'taste so good," before moving the hand under her jaw up into her hair and tugging. Lena's knees buckle, like Kara’s hit the switch that makes her legs stop working or something, but Kara quickly gets an arm around her waist to hold her up.
"Bed?" she asks, breath hot in her ear, and Lena nods, weakly toeing off her shoes and clutching desperately at her jacket.
Kara kicks off her own shoes and practically carries her there since her legs are doing their best impression of a glass of water during an earthquake, but she can't even bring herself to feel embarrassed by it when Kara lays her down on the soft sheets and crawls up to hover over her.
"Is this okay?" she asks, braced on her forearms, hair falling in a golden curtain around them, a few strands tickling her face.
"More than okay," Lena says. She wraps her arms around Kara's broad shoulders and tugs her down. "More kisses now, please."
Kara is more than happy to comply, settling more and more of her weight on top of her, body warm and firm and pressing Lena into the mattress as she licks and nips at her lower lip.
The air goes heavy when Kara coaxes Lena's tongue into her own mouth and sucks on it. Lena's hips shudder unsteadily upwards and she whimpers, high and desperate.
Kara rocks her hips down into Lena's with a harsh breath, pulling another light gasp out of Lena. "Rao," she pants, "your noises are just so…" She continues humping mindlessly downwards as she struggles to find her words.
"You're so pretty, Lena. Your sounds are so pretty," she says eventually, and Lena flushes. "Wanna hear more," Kara mumbles to herself, shifting until she's got one thigh pressing lightly between Lena's legs.
"God," Lena whispers, watching the way Kara breathes hard and licks licks licks at her stupid-soft lips until they're glistening. She spares a second to wonder how her lips don't get chapped with how much she licks them, but then Kara's nudging her thigh more firmly against her and the thought floats off on a quiet moan. She squirms, slipping her hands under her shirt to trace along the hard muscle hidden beneath.
"Can you…?" she asks breathlessly, dragging her knuckles up against the inside of Kara's shirt like she's kneading the world's shittiest pizza. She wants it off, but Kara's staring at her with her pupils so blown Lena gets distracted thinking about getting lost in the midnight zone, about Kara being the shiny, pretty thing tempting her closer and closer until she can eat her up. She buries a hand in Lena’s hair and scrapes her teeth along her lower lip and Lena groans and rolls herself against Kara's thigh, desperate and ready to be eaten.
But then Kara abruptly sits up to rip her jacket off. "'S hot," she grunts, whipping her shirt and bra off without hesitation, too, and, oh. Oh.
“Oh fuck,” Lena says, biting her lip hard to make sure she’s not dreaming, and it honestly comes out sounding whiny and kind of pathetic, but she’s never seen anyone in real life with the kind of muscle definition Kara apparently has. She’s felt it under her hands and pressed to her body when they’ve hugged, or when Kara has caught her or flown her somewhere, but she’s never seen it, impossibly perfect and chiseled and just, super. She feels light-headed as she tries not to stare too hard at Kara’s delicate, pretty nipples, as she counts and counts and recounts Kara’s abs. She doesn’t think she’s ever had such a hard time counting to six.
Kara flushes as if only just realizing the fact that she’s half-naked and straddling Lena. She moves to cover herself with a quiet, um, but Lena sits up too and bats her hands away.
“No,” she murmurs, swallowing hard as she looks down and finds herself even closer to tanned skin and ludicrously toned muscle. “You’re perfect.”
Kara shyly tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “You are too,” she says, voice soft, and leans in to kiss her cheek. She knocks their foreheads together afterwards and lightly runs her fingers under the hem of Lena’s sweatshirt.
“You know, as much as I love seeing you in my clothes,” she says, “I’d really love to see you out of them too.” And if it were anyone else saying it, that would’ve sounded like a line. Contrived. Phony. But because it’s Kara, and it’s Kara saying it with her sweetest, most honest voice, staring deeply into her eyes like she can actually see anything other than a blob with vaguely-Lena features when they’re this close, all Lena can do is blush and nod because yeah. Yeah, she wants out of Kara’s clothes so they can be skin-to-skin and Lena can do something reckless like put her mouth on Kara’s bicep.
Kara leans away and Lena uses the space to pull the sweatshirt off and unclasp her bra, but Kara’s already pushing her back into the mattress before the bra even hits the ground, sliding her tongue into her mouth and swallowing her moans as bare skin finally meets bare skin, as their nipples drag together, as one jean-clad thigh returns to press between her legs. It’s just enough teasing pressure to make Lena feel wild, but not enough to actually give her the relief she needs, which is just—
Lena recklessly grabs at Kara’s hips, at her ass, at whatever she can reach to try to pull her closer. Her fingers slip sloppily through her belt loops and she tugs, letting out a muffled keening cry when she actually manages to drag Kara closer, actually manages to get Kara to rock her thigh up against her clit through her leggings and, god, she can feel her cheeks blotching up, can feel heat sparking in her lower belly with how much she wants.
Kara grunts in surprise, their lips separating with a wet noise, brow furrowing in concentration as she repeats the motion again, and then again, eyes bright and flitting between her face and chest as Lena gasps and arches with each nudge of her thigh. Her mouth drops into a pretty little ‘o’ when she notices Lena’s piercings for the first time, visibly doing a double-take before staring—still rocking her thigh up between her legs, but glassy-eyed, nostrils flaring, teeth chewing white into the kiss-bruised red of her lip.
“Kara,” Lena chokes out, head tossing on the sheets, voice pitching an octave higher than usual. “Kara, please, I—”
Kara catches her with a firm hand under the jaw, and Lena cuts off, breath wheezing out from behind trembling lips when she sees the intense look on her face. The glazed look she’d had just moments ago is gone, and even with the way Kara’s irises have been almost completely swallowed by pupil, her eyes glitter. She holds Lena’s head still with her big hand, keeps her right where she wants… and smirks, slow and sure. And that— fuck. That makes Lena feel squirmy and too too warm, makes her aware of just how much her underwear is sticking to her, makes her want to squeeze her thighs together or roll her hips up or drag Kara’s hand down between her legs. Just do something to make Kara touch her already because fuck.
“Baby,” Kara says, and Lena’s eyes widen, body wracking with a full-body shiver from just that one word. Kara licks her pink, pink lips, smirk somehow growing even wider and more confident, and Lena follows the movement of her tongue like it holds the secrets to the universe. “I’m gonna take care of you,” Kara continues, voice low, and Lena actually feels her higher brain functions power off with the Windows XP shutdown sound. The tension in her body melts out and she turns into a wet puddle right there on Kara’s bed.
“Okay,” she mumbles, boneless and pliable, ears and cheeks hot.
Kara hums approvingly and leans in, hand still cupping Lena’s jaw. “Good girl,” she hushes, stroking a thumb along her jawline, and Lena’s breath catch catch catches, thighs snapping closed around Kara’s leg, the praise sending a hot lick of pleasure through her entire body. Kara just smiles serenely and settles more of her weight onto her side so she can drag a warm hand down Lena’s body and curl her fingers under the waistband of her leggings.
“Are you ready?” she asks, sliding her fingers slowly along the inside of her waistband and tugging it ever so slightly downwards.
Lena slowly unclamps her thighs and lets them fall open, trying not to roll her hips needily as she breathes out a quiet, yeah, shivering as good girl, good girl, good girl echoes in her brain.
Kara nuzzles a kiss right by her ear, then scoots down to peel Lena's leggings and underwear off.
A soft, Oh, falls from Kara’s parted lips when she looks up at her from her position by Lena's knees, hands stilling in the process of dropping her clothes to the floor.
Lena can feel herself twitching embarrassingly under Kara's gaze, the wetness between her legs and smeared along her inner thighs a cool, almost soothing contrast to the way anticipation and arousal warm her skin. She fights the urge to squirm and close her legs, submitting herself to Kara's observation as she swallows and stares and stands up to fumble ineffectively at the button of her jeans. Just as she hits her limit, feeling too spread and shy and wet, Kara successfully shucks everything below the waist and settles between her legs, sliding her warm palms up her thighs to keep her open, thumbs resting along her inner thighs and stroking soothing little circles mere inches away from Lena's dripping cunt.
"Karaaa," she whines, feeling the ghost of Kara's touch over her. "Please."
“You’re so wet,” Kara commentates unnecessarily, because, yes, Lena’s soaked and she just needs Kara to please fucking touch her already. But instead, Kara just grins and looks at her and makes her wait—long enough that Lena counts ten quick beats of her heart, long enough that she's one more beat away from begging—before finally pressing a thumb to her clit and rolling it in a slow circle.
"Shit," Lena gasps, shuddering, back bowing, hips jerking up as much as they can go with Kara pinning them down. She has no idea when she got so sensitive and so close, but it almost feels like she could come just from this, just from Kara pressing her hips into the mattress and rubbing little circles over her clit and watching her with stormy, hungry eyes, god.
As if she knows, Kara drags her mouth wetly up her thigh, sucking a sloppy kiss where her thigh meets hip. "Can you come like this?" she murmurs, lips brushing her skin, thumb pressing and pressing and pressing.
Lena whimpers and reaches down to bury her fingers in Kara's soft hair, unsure if she wants to spread her thighs or squeeze them closed but unable to do either with Kara in the way. "Apparently," she pants, arching helplessly and attempting to roll her hips up to drag her aching clit against Kara’s thumb, tension already growing in her belly.
“Okay,” Kara says calmly, and then she’s scraping her teeth against the skin of her thigh as she strokes and strokes and strokes at Lena’s clit. She thumbs over the throbbing bud quicker and quicker until Lena can only gasp and writhe and fist at Kara’s hair as Kara easily ramps her up from a mellow buzz of pleasure to jittery, thigh-quivering, full-body bliss. She distantly registers the sound of her own overwhelmed noises as she presses her hips into the mattress, twitching away from Kara’s tireless, relentless thumb, heat building and building in her belly and god, she’s—
“Hey, Lena?” Kara suddenly says, continuing to rub at her clit, and jesus fuck Lena’s on the brink of coming and Kara chooses now to try to start a conversation.
Lena whines to acknowledge that she’s heard, lifting her head and doing her best to keep her orgasm at bay so she can listen to what Kara has to say.
“How many fingers can you take?” Kara asks, voice casual like she’s just asking about the fucking weather, and Lena scratches her blunt nails against Kara’s scalp and wheezes out a breathless, Fuck.
“How many, baby?” Kara repeats, nudging at her clit, slipping her fingers through her wetness.
“God. Fuck,” Lena groans out, head tossing on the pillow, so so close. “Two. Three. I don’t know, I don’t care. Just—”
Lena chokes off when Kara eases into her, gently working her big fingers deeper and deeper, filling her up. “How’s that?” she asks, catching her lip between her teeth. Her eyes are wide and hazy as she stares at the way Lena’s spreading to accommodate her fingers and it’s— the stretch is—
Lena arches and comes with a high, whimpering moan, hips bucking up off the bed, air cool on the sweat on the back of her thighs, clit twitching against Kara’s thumb in time with the way she clenches reflexively around her fingers. Her fingers tug at Kara’s hair, pressing her head into her leg with the deadweight of her hand as she rides out wave after wave of pleasure.
When she finally regains cognizance, Kara’s fingers are still inside her but she’s shifting on the bed, mouthing hotly at Lena’s thigh and free hand between her own legs.
“What are you doing?” Lena asks breathily, unclenching the hand she has in her hair and propping herself up on trembling elbows.
Kara groans and looks up at her, cheeks blotchy red with her flush. “‘m sorry,” she pants, continuing to touch herself. “That was. So hot. I just—” she cuts off with a whine, breath gusting out heated and damp against Lena’s thigh.
Lena swallows hard and watches attentively as Kara jerkily humps against her hand. She wants to be the one touching her like that, wants to feel how shaky her thighs get as she drags her clit against her fingers, wants to feel her clit pulsing against her when she comes apart. She reaches out to brush Kara’s sweat damp hair away from her forehead, fingers skimming over the shell of her ear as she tries to figure out how to ask if she can take over.
“Are you close?” she asks, curiously.
"Oh fuck," Kara whispers hoarsely, body stiffening and hips losing what little rhythm they had. She bucks sloppily into her hand, presses her mouth into the meat of Lena's thigh, and comes just like that.
It's so hot. It's so hot.
"Oh my god," Lena says softly, replaying the sound of Kara saying fuck over and over, stroking Kara's hair as she shakes and breathes through her orgasm.
"Sorry," Kara mumbles again, ears bright red, rubbing her face against Lena’s thigh.
“No, you’re— That was— God, I love you,” Lena blurts.
Kara pops her head up, embarrassment forgotten, and gawks at her, wide-eyed. “Yeah?” she asks, voice tiny and hopeful.
Lena feels her eyes soften with the realization that she never actually reciprocated in words earlier and strokes her fingers down Kara’s cheek. “Yeah,” she replies, “I love you, Kara.”
Kara grins so hard her nose scrunches up and her face develops a million wrinkles and it’s adorable. She scoots up the bed then, carefully retrieving her fingers and wiping them on the sheets before she kisses Lena deeply and enthusiastically, clearly trying to pour every ounce of her affection into it.
Lena’s light-headed when Kara finally pulls away after slicking her tongue indulgently along her upper lip. She forces herself to focus and feels anticipation flutter in her chest when she sees the way Kara’s looking down at her with her eyes glittering again.
“Hi,” Lena says softly, body warming up under her gaze.
“Hi,” Kara replies, leaning in to nuzzle kisses along her cheek and down to her ear.
Lena’s breath hitches when Kara takes her earlobe into her mouth, then hitches a second time when Kara asks, voice full of promise, “Can you go again?”
Lena can absolutely go again and she bucks her hips up into Kara’s to prove it, watching as the confident smirk from before spreads across her face once more.
“How do you feel about toys? Wanted to strap you,” Kara says easily before starting up a delicious roll of her hips.
“Shit,” Lena breathes, mouth dropping open at the way Kara manages once again to say something so lewd in such a casual tone. “Yeah, god, fuck, I want that.”
“Okay,” Kara says, smiling. “Whatever you want, baby.”
And Lena melts all over again, body going slack as the promise of being taken care of again sends an overwhelming wave of calm rushing through her. She relaxes into the sheets, soft and wanting, ready for whatever it is Kara does next.
She blinks and there’s a blur of movement followed by a gust of wind and Kara is hovering over her on all fours again, a dark brown, leather harness snugged around her hips and thighs, the tip of a big, blue, silicone strap-on nudging at Lena’s hip.
Lena rocks into it, feeling an insistent throb start up between her legs as the strap drags heavy against her skin.
“Please,” she whimpers, squeezing her thighs together to alleviate some of the aching emptiness she feels between her legs. “Want it.”
Kara hums and shifts and the full weight of the strap suddenly presses against Lena’s clit.
“God, yes,” Lena gasps, eagerly rolling her hips up to drag her clit along the slick silicone.
“Think you’re ready for it?” Kara asks, languidly humping down and sliding the strap against her.
“Yeah, yeahyeahyeah,” Lena chants, willfully ignoring the fact that she probably really isn’t wet enough to take it easily just yet and reaching up to grab Kara’s hips and urge her down. She wants to feel Kara work the strap into her, inch by exquisite inch. “Please, now, want you inside.”
“Okay, baby,” Kara says, kissing her softly before reaching down to align the head of the strap to Lena’s entrance and start the gradual, slow press in.
Lena’s more than wet enough to take the first inch smoothly, and her breath stutters out into a gratified moan when Kara sinks into her. Her moan soon tapers off into tiny satisfied whimpers once Kara starts gently rocking her hips to ease more and more of the strap in. She clutches at Kara’s broad back, fingers digging into muscle as she opens herself up, as Kara buries her strap further and further until their hips are flush and she’s finally filling Lena all the way up.
Lena groans and clenches around the strap, clit throbbing, feeling so wonderfully full, and Kara lets out a small, echoing groan of her own from where she’s got her face buried in Lena’s neck before she lifts up to press her forehead to Lena’s.
“Good?” she checks.
“So good,” Lena says quickly.
“Okay,” Kara says, pecking her lightly. And then she braces herself, draws her hips back, and slams the strap into her again.
Lena lets out a guttural moan, the drive of the silicone so rough and nothing short of divine.
“Yes, fuck, do that again,” she whines, raking her blunt nails down Kara’s back encouragingly, already feeling half-wild and desperate.
“Fuck, you’re perfect,” Kara rasps, and Lena shudders under her, expletive and praise working in tandem to send molten pleasure dripping down her spine. Kara carefully settles her forearms by Lena’s ears, then starts fucking her in earnest, pulling her hips back slowly at first before snapping them forward again, gaining speed with each thrust until the room is filled with the sound of slapping skin, harsh panting, and breathy whimpers.
On one particularly deep thrust, something about the way Kara rolls her hips causes the heavy silicone to angle up and just a little to the left, dragging against her in the best way, and Lena’s hands fly up to grip at the straps of her harness.
“There,” she gasps, “right there. Fuck, please—”
Kara’s brow furrows in concentration. “Here?” she asks, hitting that exact fucking spot.
Lena whines, eyes rolling back, thighs starting to shake. “Yes! Yes, oh my god—”
Kara’s brow smooths again and she grins. “Hang on tight,” she says, drawing her hips back. And then she’s plunging into her, strap thick and filling and rubbing so, so deliciously inside her.
The noises coming out of Lena’s mouth are messy, needy, and the closer she gets—the more Kara hits that spot—the more frantic she gets.
“Please, Kara,” she hears herself say, thighs jittering, lower belly squirmy and achy and hot. “Please, I’m so close.”
The drag of the strap is just so good, it’s so fucking good that Lena thrashes her head helplessly to the side, digging her teeth into Kara’s bicep to muffle her desperate sounds, breath rasping out of her throat like ripping notebook paper. Kara grunts and redoubles her efforts, driving into her again and again right where she wants it, snaking a hand up to tweak one of Lena’s nipple piercings—
And Lena comes hard, guttural groans eking out from around Kara’s arm, with Kara following shortly after, the base of the dildo grinding against her clit and pushing her into her own orgasm.
It takes a long moment of Lena trembling through her aftershocks before she manages to unclench her jaw from around Kara’s bicep. It looks none the worse for wear, but she still presses an apologetic kiss to her arm.
Eventually, when Lena finally manages to mostly catch her breath, she clears her throat and says, “That… was unexpected.”
Kara hums a questioning noise and turns to nuzzle at Lena’s neck, body limp and flopped heavily over hers.
“You’re, um.” Lena swallows down an embarrassed giggle, feeling immensely silly for being embarrassed in the first place since they’ve just spent the past few hours fucking. “You’re surprisingly good at sex,” she mumbles.
“Wha-!” Kara snaps her head up, the affront on her face matching the tone of her voice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Lena runs her fingers soothingly down Kara’s spine. “I don’t mean anything bad by it, darling. I just— I really wasn’t expecting us to be so… sexually compatible right off the bat. Or for you to be so well-prepared, for that matter.”
She narrows her eyes in thought, studying Kara’s face. “Kara, are you secretly a sex god?”
Kara sputters and flushes, looking like she wants to hide her face in Lena’s neck again. Her pretty blue eyes look anywhere but directly at Lena for an extended moment, but then she deflates and drops her head to Lena’s chest. “I… might have done some research,” she admits shyly, voice muffled by the way she's got her mouth pressed to Lena's skin.
Lena almost laughs out loud, picturing a furiously blushing Kara watching porn and googling ‘how to please your best friend (who might soon become your girlfriend) in bed’ and buying sex toys.
“Well, I wouldn’t have expected any less of a Pulitzer Prize winner,” Lena says. “Thank you for using your top-of-the-line investigative skills and”—she strokes a hand down Kara’s side—“truly incredible superhero physique to blow my back out.”
Kara snorts a surprisingly sleepy sounding laugh.
“Don’t tell me I actually wore you out in two rounds,” Lena says, incredulous.
“Um…”
“No way. I did?”
“No! No, it’s not that. It’s, um.” Kara falls silent and Lena waits for her to organize her thoughts and pick up again, which she does after a moment. “After I carried you to my bed last night, you wouldn’t let me go. I got in bed with you with the plan to make my way back to the couch after you fell asleep, but then you, like, latched onto me and I couldn’t, um, concentrate on sleeping,” she explains quietly. “So I just, laid there until it was morning, at which point I went and got you the éclairs from Cafe Rue Serret.”
“Oh my god. I’m the octopus,” Lena says in a hushed voice, revelatory.
“What?”
Lena shakes her head. “Sorry, it’s nothing important. Just, had an incredibly bizarre revelation. But anyway, I’m so sorry, Kara.”
Kara shrugs as much as she can with how she's sprawled over Lena. "It's okay," she says. "Even though I didn't sleep, waking up to you in my bed was the best way to start my morning."
Lena's heart does the heart equivalent of bursting out of the house to spin in the rain and scream with glee. She presses her nose to Kara’s hair, wrapping her arms around her to squeeze as hard as she can.
“Thank you, I love you,” she says, chest so, so warm and filled to the brim with affection.
“Love you too,” Kara murmurs, voice drowsy, clearly losing her battle against sleep.
And as Lena feels her own eyelids start to droop, Kara’s body a solid, comforting weight on top of her, she secretly adds a reason why jellyfish are her favorite animal.