Tying the Knot
“Kelly, do you think you could do my tie too? Winn said you helped with his.”
She speaks into her chest looking down at the abysmal knot there and tugs it out to start again, flipping and twisting the ends in another halfhearted attempt to get it right.
Alex had been lucky; Kelly had tied hers the night before so all her sister had to do was loop it over her head and cinch it up to her neck. When Kara saw Winn smugly sporting a similarly perfect knot at his throat she had crowed at him to do hers but as it happened it was still Kelly who had done it.
Kara was loathe to bother her future sister-in-law on such a trivial matter especially when so many other things were going so wrong today but there wasn’t anyone else to ask.
Eliza could have helped but she had to take Esme home for a quick shower after her niece had fell in some mud running around and playing while everyone else was setting up. Brainy had left to find the band who had gotten lost on the way to the venue. James was sorting out a crisis with the florist, and J’onn had gone to pick up the cake which was (thankfully) not on the list of failures for today but the person meant to deliver it had called in sick so space dad’s help was currently out of reach.
“Oh my god! Go ask Kelly! I just need one thing to go right today, even if that means it’s only that your stupid tie is not a complete disaster!”
Alex had all but shoved her out of the room and shut the door in her face. Not that she blamed her sister in the least for her overreaction on such a monumental and stressful day.
Kara pulls her hands away from her own neck, hoping against hope that somehow, magically, this time she did it correctly, but she groans and stamps her foot a little in frustration as her eyes take in the atrocity that is her latest iteration.
A light familiar chuckle sounds from across the room and Kara’s face immediately burns in embarrassment.
She almost groans and stamps her foot again.
Why did it have to be Lena, of all people, that had to bear witness to her pouting petulantly like a child? Surely, Rao would not be so cruel?
But it is Lena.
Oh Rao, is it Lena.
Kara’s breath is swept away with sudden rapid beat of her stuttering heart because Lena looks- well Lena always looks beautiful but- Kara swallows hard against the sudden dryness in her throat and she can’t look away.
Lena’s wearing her purple bridesmaid’s dress and it hugs her in all the right places with a plunging neckline that goes so low Kara’s eyes widen incrementally as she follows it down down down.
“Looks like you’re having some trouble.”
The smooth teasing timbre of Lena’s voice trickles down Kara’s spine and the fond smile that’s directed her way is too dazzling to look at directly but that means her eyes inevitably drag down again to that dangerous sliver of skin-
Oh Rao, I think I’m going to pass out.
To make matters worse Lena and her devastating ensemble are coming closer and she forgets how to form words.
“Uhhh…”
Yes, perfectly eloquent Kara, you idiot. She chastises herself.
But it’s not entirely Kara’s fault. She’s been especially tongued around Lena recently.
“Where’s Kelly?” she manages to croak, ripping her eyes from their fixation at Lena’s navel to look her friend in the eye like a friend is supposed to and not blatantly ogle their best friend like a creep.
One perfectly sculpted eyebrow rises, and Lena’s dark painted lips pull at one corner with a smug knowing look that has Kara’s ears burning as much as her flaming cheeks.
“Nia’s helping her in the restroom,” she replies easily, green eyes trailing away from her face to rake over Kara’s appearance, and she can see the way Lena’s eyes darken and dilate the smallest bit. It makes her racing heart thump deafeningly in her ears.
“Oh.”
The silence stretches a little between them and Kara rushes to fill it before it becomes awkward.
“I just needed her help with this,” gesturing to her neck.
Lena’s eyes light up with mirth, “Yes, you certainly do,” and her smiles stretches, “The girl of steel pouting over losing a fight with a tie,” dry and droll as usual.
Kara can’t help the slight whine that creeps into her voice at Lena’s teasing, “It’s not funny, Lena!” drawing out her name a little, and tries valiantly not to pout because that feels like losing ground in a war she was not at all prepared to fight.
Although, the happy laugh that bursts from Lena and the swell of pride Kara feels in her chest at knowing that she pulled it from her feel like a victory.
Lena’s face softens into something more sympathetic, “Here, let me help.”
Kara almost chokes on nothing when Lena closes the last few feet between them.
So close.
Lena’s hands slide under her collar and Kara nearly jumps five feet in the air when cool fingers brush against her flushed skin working around her neck to flip the stiff fabric up.
Kara stares down at Lena, she’s not used to her being so short but Lena hasn’t put on her trademark towering heels yet, so she stands a few inches lower than Kara is accustomed. She finds it strangely endearing and just as Lena’s hands move down to her neck to work out the knot to start again, Kara’s hands fall to settle lightly on Lena’s waist of their own volition.
There’s the slightest barest instant where Lena’s hands still and Kara revels in the light dusting of pink that spreads across the bridge of Lena’s nose. If that weren’t enough Kara also hears the slightest change in tempo of Lena’s heartbeat and it fills her with some long sought-after confidence.
“It’s a good thing you’re around to help me with the really difficult fights, isn’t it?”
Lena’s eyes flick up at her words for a moment, and the smile that spreads across her face is soft and pleased, even if it is currently directed at Kara’s neck.
“Yeah,” Lena whispers, tugging the finished knot of the tie up to Kara’s throat then reaching around once more to tug Kara’s collar down, smoothing her hands flat across her shoulders and finally looking up, “you sure got lucky with me.”
Kara thinks it's meant to be teasing but it comes out too soft and a little breathless and the fact that Lena hasn’t pulled away out of her arms yet has her hopes rising.
Lena’s eyes flick down to her mouth for the span of two heartbeats and Kara’s almost certain now of what comes next but she’s not sure she’s ready for it.
“I did,” she hears herself saying, whispering, as Lena’s chin tilts up and Kara watches with bated breath as Lena draws nearer, feels her own eyes drift closed and the faintest puff of breath across her lips.
A door bangs open and Kara jolts away from Lena.
“Remind me to have a less complicated dress if I ever get married, Lena,” Nia says as she and Kelly come through the door, “Oh, hey Kara.”
Kara stares at her friends with wide eyes.
Kelly frowns at them with concern, “You guys ok? You seem a little…” but she trails off and gestures ambiguously at them.
“Yep!” Kara yelps, and both Kelly and Nia are visibly taken aback at the sound. She tries to calm her heart and wrangle her voice into something normal, and tries again, “I just needed some help with my tie and Lena kissed me.”
Kara feels her stomach bottom out in mortification at her error, “Fixed me!” she shouts, and cringes again, “It! I mean ‘it’, she fixed IT,” and then because she really needs to get out of here or else, she really might die of embarrassment she manages to say evenly, “I have to go check on Alex now!” and dashes out the door.
If perhaps she uses a touch of superspeed to do so well, who could blame her really?
“Holy shit! Did you guys finally kiss?” comes Nia’s excited and incredulous shout, which Kara is certain she probably would have been able to hear without super hearing.
But she doesn’t wait to hear Lena’s reply.
Kara wishes she could have replied in the affirmative.
Maybe next time she can.
It’s not until later, after the ceremony, after the cake cutting, after goofy pictures with her niece, after working up the nerve to ask Lena to dance, after a touch of liquid courage thrust into her hand by one Nia Nal, that she pulls Lena outside away from the celebration and all their friends.
And this time when Kara places her hands on Lena’s waist, she does it deliberately.
This time Kara’s heart beats fast but steady as one perfectly manicured hand slips up to tug lightly on the perfectly made tie.
This time Kara is ready.
This time when Lena finally leans in…
This time she kisses her.
___________
Inspired by this twitter thread.
Shouldn't you be working on the next chapter of Stay With Me, you ask?
Why yes, yes I should but I worked on it plenty today and this was a fun aside I whipped up while scrolling mindlessly through twitter on a break.
