Chapter Text
Lena had to admit, she would much rather do this than sit behind her desk back at L Corp. She could quite easily do most of the work on her laptop away from the office, and she only returned when an important meeting demanded that she attend physically. These days she did most meetings over skype. What she had dedicated most of her time to was helping the DEO. Well, it was more out of her desire to help Kara. After the debacle with her mother, and once Lillian had been captured and locked very far away with Lex, Kara had decided to trust her enough to let her in on her secret.
Honestly, Lena had been ashamed with herself for not having guessed it already. But at least it explained her insatiable attraction to both Supergirl and Kara. It was a relief to her that they were simply the same person. She still remembered the day Kara had told her. It never failed to put a smile on her face to think about it.
Lena was at her desk, a hand fisting her hair as she frowned down at a stack of papers. She twirled her pen around in her fingers and bit down on her lip hard. Her legs and ass were already numb from sitting for so long, and an entire day of tense meetings left her with a sore neck and shoulders. She wanted nothing more than to go home and sink in her huge tub, submerge in hot water and bubbles with a glass of red wine in her hand.
Lena perked at the familiar sound of Supergirl tapping on her glass door. She always landed so softly, but she knocked on that glass like she was utterly terrified of breaking it. Lena knew that Supergirl very easily could. She wasn’t certain exactly how she had come to recognize the way Supergirl knocked, but she had, and so she turned around in her seat and smiled brightly at Supergirl’s expectant look. She stood and quickly ushered her inside.
“Supergirl, this is quite a surprise.”
Supergirl took a deep breath, cheeks puffing up. When she exhaled Lena had the sense that the hero was nervous about something. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Supergirl said.
Lena leaned against her desk and crossed her arms over her chest. “Not at all. Is everything alright?”
Supergirl clasped her hands together and walked away, turning so that Lena could only see her back. Lena didn’t waste the opportunity to stare at Supergirl’s muscular shoulders. She imagined gripping onto them and shivered.
“Everything’s fine,” Supergirl promised. “I just came here to talk to you.”
Lena frowned. “Is my life in danger, or am I under suspicion again?”
Supergirl twisted around quickly, dropping her arms from her hips, eyes wide. “What? No! It’s nothing like that. Actually, it’s…” she glanced off to the side, wincing. She looked awfully nervous. Lena was struck dumb by the fact that Supergirl could even feel nervous. Something really must have been wrong, for her to look so distraught. “I came here on a personal matter. Between me and you.”
Well that… Lena swallowed. Her mouth was suddenly dry. “I hope I haven’t unknowingly offended you,” she joked breathlessly, terrified. “Us Luthors are quite known for scorning a Super.”
Supergirl cracked a pained smile, but she shook her head. “It’s nothing like that, Lena.”
Lena honest to god shivered. Supergirl hardly ever said her name, and when ‘Lena’ left her lips instead of ‘Ms Luthor’, it did things to Lena’s hormones. She sometimes imagined Supergirl gasping her name into her ear, or against her mouth, or from between her legs. She cleared her throat loudly and crossed her legs, unsure if Supergirl would be able to sense that she was less than dry.
“You can talk to me about anything, Supergirl,” she urged. The curiosity and sudden excitement was burning her. “I might have told Kara that she’s my only friend in National City, but I would like to believe that I was wrong. That you are too.”
Supergirl flashed the first genuine smile. “I consider you to be a great friend too,” she said. “And that’s exactly why I’ve decided to finally tell you.”
Lena quirked a brow. “Tell me what?”
Supergirl sighed softly. She ran a hand through her hair in a contemplative manner, but seemed to make up her mind. She approached Lena with purpose and then gently grasped her shoulders. Lena was unprepared. Supergirl had never touched her outside of having to rescue her from lunatics out to end her life. This was different. This was very personal, and Lena’s heart started pounding way too hard. There was absolutely no way that Supergirl didn’t hear the roaring that Lena felt in her veins.
“Lena, ever since we met, I knew that you would be on my side. I saw so much of myself in you. The struggle to be above the name, above what others assume of you. I saw someone so strong, so good. Every time I feel as though I can’t move on, I think of you and your struggles, and I’m motivated to try again and try harder.” Lena couldn’t believe what she was hearing. That she meant this much to Supergirl? Her lower lip began to quiver and tears rushed up into her eyes, but she bit down and inhaled shakily to quell the swell of emotion. Supergirl took a great pause to stare at her lips, and Lena’s stomach rolled. Was Supergirl going to confess her love? Lena’s grip on her own arms tightened and Supergirl released hers.
“I hope I’m not in trouble,” she joked to mask how utterly flustered she felt.
Supergirl took a step back. She pulled something out of the sleeve of her suit and Lena realized with great confusion that it was a pair of glasses. She opened her mouth to ask, but shut it quickly when Supergirl set the glasses down on the bridge of her nose. She then gathered her thick blonde hair and tied it all up into a ponytail. The way those blue eyes looked beyond the lenses, the blonde curls cascading down the back of her neck. Lena knew exactly where she had seen this before.
“Kara,” she gasped in shock, eyes wide. There was still the suit, and too much muscle and too much confidence, but this was Kara. There was absolutely no way that Lena could miss it. Oh, how on earth had she never realized before? Why did it take a simple hairstyle change and a pair of fake glasses for Lena to realize that the two people that meant the world to her were one and the same?
“I’m sorry that I never told you sooner,” Kara was saying, in that almost frantic way when she was clearly nervous. It was toned down by a lot, no doubt from the fact that she was Supergirl more than Kara. She let her hair down again and hid the glasses away. Lena was stunned by how similar yet different Kara looked. “I don’t want you to think that I didn’t trust you. I just wasn’t sure it was safe to let you know.”
Lena licked her lips and took a breath. “Kara Danvers is Supergirl,” she muttered to herself. “I… I don’t know what to say. Why are you telling me now?”
Kara smiled brightly. “Because you mean a lot to me, Lena. I want you to help me protect the people of this city. Both human and alien.”
Lena furrowed her brows. “You’d really trust a Luthor like that?”
“No,” Kara hurried. “But I’d trust you.”
The words made Lena happier than anything ever had. She couldn’t stop herself from shooting forward and wrapping herself around Kara’s strong form. Oh, Supergirl was much firmer and leaner than Kara. Even a little taller. How did she change this much? But she was still just as warm as Lena remembered and she smelt the same, a little like rain and sunlight. Kara hugged her back gently and Lena held back the tide of tears.
“I know that you’ll do us all good, Lena,” Kara whispered into her ear. “Because you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Lena’s undoing. She curled into Kara and bawled her eyes out, utterly horrified afterwards. But Kara let her cry it out, through her wet tears and running makeup. Kara had gently wiped her face off, pressed a kiss to her forehead and then leapt off her balcony to head back to the DEO. It was only after Lena watched Kara’s form disappear that she realized she had been hoping for an entirely different confession.
As happy as Kara confiding in her made Lena feel, she was still a little disappointed. Who wouldn’t want Supergirl to fall in love with them?
And thus Lena began dedicating a lot of her time in the DEO labs, developing any tech they needed. Alex often joined her to help whenever some sort of serum or poison was needed. Lena primarily focused on anything Kara needed, like finding a way to cure Kara of her natural weakness to kryptonite—which still seemed impossible—or developing a new suit that somewhat shielded Kara from it. So far she was getting closer to discovering the way to prevent Kara’s cells from breaking down and attacking each other in the presence of kryptonite.
Lena straightened in her chair and rubbed a hand over her face. It was well over midnight and she was still at the DEO tinkering away at Kara’s blood. Most of the agents had left already, except J’onn who obviously lived there and, of course, Winn, who seemed more eager to type away at his computer than retire for the night.
She sat back in her chair and twisted her shoulders to get the worst kinks out of them. Maybe she should head home after all, since her latest experiments weren’t really working. Her calculations were sound and logical, but Kara’s blood never reacted the way she expected. Once Lena had applied her new serum and Kara’s blood had seeped through the Petri dish, the table, the floor, the floor below that one and finally into the soil. So she never tried that one again.
Another reaction, which she found the most amusing, was the one time when a new serum had done nothing extraordinary other than make Kara’s blood turn a bright glowing green. It actually glowed in the dark, too.
“Is there a point to all of this?” Kara had asked, exasperated.
Lena was having the time of her life though. She lifted the test tube with Kara’s glowing blood and grinned broadly. The lab’s light was off, making the soft green light bathe Kara’s face in shadows. “Could I make a retro necklace out of it?”
Kara’s eyes had nearly fallen out of her head. Lena could still hear the indignant snort, the sharp inhale of offence, and then finally the laugh as Kara realized Lena was in fact merely joking.
“Relax, Kara,” Lena chuckled. “I was merely fucking with you.”
Lena smirked to herself when Kara inhaled sharply at the way she enunciated the word ‘fucking’, then went back to explaining why exactly Kara’s blood had turned so glow-y.
Lena’s latest serum should work this time. She really hoped it would. When applied to Kara’s blood, it should stimulate Kara’s cells to reject the effects of the kryptonite and essentially make her immune to it. That was the theory, at least. Lena was about done adding all the ingredients and making sure that all of her calculations were accurate. All she needed to do was drop it into the blood and wait and see. Part of her considered leaving the actual testing for the morning, but she was desperate to know if she had succeeded. So, never being one for self-care or preservation, Lena rolled her chair closer and grabbed for the syringe that held the serum.
Lena carefully squirted a small amount into the glass dish and waited, breath caught in her throat, as the serum covered the dark blood. After a minute or so there was absolutely no reaction that Lena could outwardly see, so she moved over to the microscope and grabbed the tools needed to place a drop of blood on a slide to inspect. But when she disturbed the tiny puddle of liquid, a loud boom echoed in Lena’s ears and then she smacked into the wall across the room. She heard the distant sound of approaching boots before her ears started to ring and she fell unconscious.
When Lena woke, she was surprised to see Alex hovering worriedly over her. She lifted a hand and pressed it to the base of her skull, wincing at the dull throb there.
“Lena?” Alex asked, eyes wide. “How do you feel?”
Lena sat up, noted she was in the DEO’s medical wing. “Like I just royally screwed up and nearly killed myself,” she answered tersely. She cringed at the awfully dry texture to her mouth. “What’re you doing here so late?”
Alex straightened and crossed her arms over her chest. She very much resembled an angry mother, which made Lena feel uncomfortably warm and awkward. “I should say the same to you. I was on my way home when I heard something explode. I half thought some alien criminal had broken in and was tearing the place apart.”
Lena laughed shortly. “Well, it was just Kara’s blood.” At Alex’s confused look, Lena decided that it was prudent to explain. “I was doing one more experiment before I left. I thought I had it this time, but when I went to put a sample on a slide, it just… exploded.”
Alex’s brows creased together. “Are you saying you turned Kara’s blood into a bomb?”
Lena shrugged. “I suppose I did. Don’t tell J’onn.”
Alex shook her head. “Only if you let me escort you home. It looks like you have a nasty bruise on your head, but I didn’t see anything too worrying when I examined you.”
Lena hopped off the bed and straightened her skirt and hair. She gave Alex a lingering look. “Agent Danver, I wasn’t aware that you were interested.”
As expected Alex slapped her on the arm and rolled her eyes. She lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers, showing the beautiful engagement ring. “I am happily taken, remember?”
Lena pouted. “Can’t fault a girl for trying.”
“You flirt as a profession, Lena. Now come on, let’s get you home.”
Lena laughed and allowed Alex to fuss over her a little more before they gathered their things and went. J’onn was nowhere to be seen, thank god, and Winn had fallen asleep on his keyboard. His cheek was entering in a bunch of random text in a search, and Lena wondered in amusement how long the string of numbers and letters would be when he finally woke and lifted his face.
They climbed into Alex’s car—she insisting that there was no way Lena could drive after the hit she took—and finally arrived at Lena’s apartment. Before she could thank Alex with a flourish and scuttle away, Alex reached out and grabbed her wrist.
“If you feel anything strange at all, call me immediately,” Alex commanded. “I mean it. If you so much as sneeze differently I want to know about it.”
“Or what?” Lena teased. Alex merely lifted a brow.
Sufficiently feeling like a chastised child, Lena dipped her head in acknowledgement, promised that she would do as told and then hopped out of the car. She was amused that Alex waited until she was safely in her apartment before she left. As soon as the door shut behind her, Lena felt exhaustion overwhelm her so intensely that she stumbled in the doorway. Her vision blurred for a second, but she shook her head and her eyes cleared, and she shrugged it off as mere fatigue. She drank a glass of water, shrugged out of her clothes and heels, and collapsed in a heap on her bed.
Lena didn’t even have time to lift the blanket before she was fast asleep.