“You’re gonna want to be careful with that,” Kelly warns her over the punch bowl. “It’s got the stuff.”
She walks off with a chuckle and Kara watches her rejoin the rest of the Superfriends in the middle of the living room, huddled over a game of Catan. It’s not at all unusual, save for the fact that this is the last Catan that Alex and Kelly will be playing as girlfriends. The next time this happens, they will be playing as wives.
This is it, Kara thinks, the moment it starts sinking in. Alex is getting married. And adopting a kid, to boot. All of her dreams are coming true and Kara couldn’t be happier for her. Alex, her sister, her best friend, her partner in crime(fighting). She’d been her rock, her tether to humanity. Now she was going to be that for someone else. And Kara is glad that that someone is Kelly. Kara feels an unbidden pang of sadness at the thought, but she reminds herself that she’s not losing Alex, she’s just going to be having different priorities now. They’ll all still be working together anyway, and sister nights will still be a thing, both she and Alex made sure of that.
Her thoughts are interrupted by Lena sidling up next to her.
“Hey,” she whispers, snaking an arm through Kara’s blazer. Lena’s hand moves over her back in a soothing motion, as though she knew where Kara’s mind was at. Kara loved that about her.
She’s a vision in a dress of deep burgundy that compliments her skin, clings to every curve. Her eyes are alight with the twinkle of mischief, and she might also be a smidge flushed, too, from the wine. It’s a (very) pleasant distraction.
“You're crying already,” she teases. “It’s not even the wedding yet.”
Only then does Kara realize that her cheek is wet.
“Well, I'm a sap for happy endings so…”
“Aunt Lena!” Little Esme, belle of the ball, tiny thief who stole hearts wherever she went, comes bounding up to them with the largest, proudest grin.
“Aunt Lena, this is for you.” The little girl gives Lena a friendship bracelet of red and blue. “Thank you for my reggle-later, I can play in the park with the other kids now.”
Lena had thoughtfully come up with the device when she’d heard about the incident at Esme’s last foster home. She’d taught the girl how to use it some weeks ago, told her to think of it like training wheels until she learned to control her powers.
Lena admires the bracelet, chirrups about how well-made it is, and thanks Esme with a warm hug.
“They give those out to anyone these days.” Kara says in mock indignation.
Lena only scrunches her nose and sticks her tongue out at her.
The girl goes back to the larger group, or as Kara thinks, her adoring public, leaving the two of them alone again. Lena straightens up and puts her arm back around Kara's waist. She regards her gift with an endearing little smile on her face, and Kara’s heart is very near bursting; it surprises her that it hasn’t already.
“Suits you,” Kara says fondly.
“What, this?”
“Happiness. The bracelet, too.”
Lena only gives her a soft little laugh in turn.
Kara tugs her ever closer and tenderly kisses her brow. Lena melts into it, lets her other hand rest over Kara’s abdomen. The moment takes them over, and the world around them fades away. One day, she might tell Lena that she is the best thing that has ever happened to her. One day, she might tell Lena that she loved her from the day they met. One day, she might tell her that she wants to spend the rest of her life making her smile the way she’s smiling now. One day. For now, Kara is content to have Lena back in her life, to have her here in her arms. If she’s lucky, Kara thinks, maybe she could have her happy ending too.
Alex’s voice cuts clear across the room.
“Hey!” She calls out jokingly. “No one is allowed to be cheesier than us tonight.”
Lena immediately buries her face in Kara’s shoulder, and Kara extends her arms placatingly as they move to join the others at the game table, uttering a bunch of sorrys the whole way.
“Yeah,” Kelly seconds with a laugh. “Go get your own engagement party.”
And with the way Lena is blushing so hard right now under the weight of all this affection, the way she glows being surrounded by people who love her, Kara thinks she might not need to wait too long to do just that.
Hey! 8 from the happiness list or 7 from the sadness list please? If you're still taking prompts. I absolutely adore your work btw.
Well gosh, bruh 🥰
Happiness 8: Run away with me
-
“You work too hard.”
“I work just enough to keep this place from rack and ruin, thank you very much.”
She’s staring intensely at some spreadsheet or whatever, likely trying to convince Kara that she’s fine, but the fatigue in her voice, the slump of her shoulders, and the dark circles around her eyes tell a different story. Kara shakes her head in exasperation. Uncrossing her arms, she eases off the doorframe and walks over to the desk. She closes the laptop, unhooks the phone, and carefully lifts Lena off her chair. Any other day, she would be complaining, but not tonight. Tonight, Lena wraps her arms around Kara’s neck and allows herself to be carried to the couch with nary a peep of protest. Kara lays her head on her lap, and starts to gently scratch her scalp. Almost immediately, Lena relaxes. Her breathing slows and the tension in her jaw evaporates.
The weight of the world she’s trying to change melts away, and all that’s left is Lena.
And she is beautiful.
“Run away with me.” Kara whispers.
Lena smiles. “Kara, don’t be ridiculous,” she says with a soft laugh, touching her chin to Kara’s knuckles. “You know we can’t do that.”
“Okay. Run away with me for a few weeks.”
Lena slowly opens her eyes at that. She looks like she might be considering it, so Kara continues.
“Come on, what do you say? You and me, anywhere you wanna go.”
Lena’s eyes shine.
“Anywhere?”
-
The trip to Argo takes a day of planning and 46 hours of travel time. Lena spends half the trip asleep.
-
It’s Alura who greets them when they land.
“Mom, you rememb—”
“Lena! Oh how wonderful of you to visit us!”
The older woman embraces her like an old friend, and gazes upon her like a daughter. And Kara’s heart feels like it might burst.
For the next few days, Kara feels like a museum guide in charge of an overcurious guest. But she doesn’t mind. Everything fascinated Lena. She was so eager to learn all that she could, and spent most of her time either poking around with some tech or falling asleep at her translator tablet. Kara finds her in such a state one day, seated like a shrimp in the study, her dark hair falling over her face. She takes the device, bookmarks the page (3277, energy… dark matter), and moves Lena to a more comfortable location.
She’s startled to find her father next to her, Lena’s reading glasses in hand.
“She is exceptional.”
“She is.”
“I’m glad you found each other. A match like yours is rare.”
Kara’s eyes widen at what Zor-El must be implying.
“Oh. Oh no, it’s not—”
Her father only gives her a cryptic nod and softly claps a warm hand to her shoulder. He plants a kiss to the crown of her head, then puts Lena’s glasses in her palm.
-
She’s walking through the courtyard one morning, when she spots her mother near a patch of flowering hedges. Not unusual, she loves those flowers. What is unusual is that those flowers are symbolic of the union of two souls.
And that she’s talking about them to Lena.
-
Lena approaches her one evening, asks to meet her in the gardens.
“So… Your mom,” She starts. “We were talking the other day and she uh, she thinks that we’re…” Lena’s hands flail about helplessly between the two of them.
Oh, Rao.
“Yeah, funny, my dad thinks so too… But don’t worry, I didn’t—”
“No, yeah, it’s fine… I mean, I’m not…”
This might be the most awkward, most embarrassing conversation in her entire life, Kara thinks. Not even that first date with what’s-his-name from junior high could top this.
Her feelings for Lena were never easy to deal with. She’d always resorted to avoidance whenever she was forced to face their existence. And now she’s finding that she might be exposed, by her own parents, no less…
“Sorry about that. They can be a little… nosy.”
She decides to have a talk with them later, ask them to never bring it up again. But then she glances sideways at Lena, sees how the fading rays of the red sun bring out the color of her eyes, hears the music in her quiet laugh, and--
And Kara wants that. Not for a few hours every week. She wants that every day, for the rest of her life.
“Would it be so horrible, though?” she asks. “Being… together. With me?”
Lena’s gaze meets hers for a moment, then turns downward to look at her own hands. When she looks up again, the smile Lena gives her leaves no room for misinterpretation, and hope swells bright and loud in Kara’s chest.
“I don’t think it would be horrible at all.”
“Kara, darling!” Alura calls out in Kryptonian. “Supper is ready.”
Kara yells out a response and turns back to Lena. She tentatively reaches out to her.
Lena takes her hand, and threads their fingers together.
Dinner gives way to (an only slightly competitive round of) Kryptonian chess, gives way to a quiet walk under the stars, and Kara figures this was the best dumb idea she’d ever had. Lena’s head rests on her shoulder, Kara turns her cheek into her hair. She looks down at their joined hands and Kara thinks she’s found something here, in the softness of the moon’s pale glow.
Eh, but what if Lena finds Kara brooding on the balcony for like the third time today, so she's like "Hey."
And Kara's like "hey." And Lena, having seen that her former lover from the future has been making eyes at her since the second he landed, goes "so, Mon-el's back."
"Yeah. Yeah." Kara's face is... Sad? Bothered? Both?
"He's been trying all day." Lena says lightly. She may have also overhead a little something about inviting Kara to go back with them, not that she has any objections (she does, an entire UPS truck of boxes worth).
"He has."
"And... You're up here by yourself because?"
"There's some decisions i need to make, and i need a clear head."
"He asked you to go back with him, didn't he?" Hands on hips, feet shuffling, Kara looks at her, even more troubled than before.
"I don't want to. I won't."
And of course Lena thinks that Kara's just being her regular stubborn altruistic self again, so she's like "Kara." She gently lays a hand over the blonde's cheek. "You've done so much for this city, hell for this universe even." Her voice doesn't waver. There isn't even a hint of hurt, or longing, or regret. Lillian would be proud. "You can go, we'll be fine. You deserve a chance to lay your burdens down. A chance at happiness. A chance at love." Her eyes glisten with what she hopes looks like joy for her best friend's future, instead of all the tomorrows she will never have with her. "You can have that with Mon-el."
"I don't love him, I love you!"
"I know you love us, darling. But-"
"No, no, Lena." Kara breathes, taking her hands and lifting them to her chin. "I love you."
It's Lena who finds Kara. But she's been exposed to the phantoms for too long now, and she's disoriented and paranoid and weak. Lena struggles to calm her down, struggles to let her know that it's me, it's Lena. Kara refuses to believe her, refuses to fall further into despair. You're not real. You're not her.
Kara, look at me, she says, a bit more forcefully now, but Kara simply will not comply, will not stop trying to get away from her. She scrabbles backwards against the rock until she doesn't have anywhere else to go. She screams. It's angry, painful, and hopeless. And then she slumps down and starts crying. Stop, she begs. Stop.
And oh, how Lena's heart aches for her. All she wants is to wrap Kara in her arms and keep her safe and tell her that she's here, that she's not alone anymore, that they're going to make it home. But they don't have time. The portal is closing and if Kara doesn't snap out of it right now, they'll miss their window and-- she doesn't want to think about that.
You're not real. Kara rocks back and forth, hugging her knees. You're not her.
Lena gently takes Kara's face into her hands. Her eyes have gone white, unseeing.
She has an idea.
She kisses Kara.
It lasts for a split second. It lasts for a lifetime. And Lena hopes that it works.
She needs for it to work.
When she pulls away, Kara's eyes are blue again. On her again. Lena barely has time to register the surprise in them when she grabs her hand, lifts her to her feet, and starts running towards their coordinates.
-
The ordeal takes an hour in the real world. But to Lena it felt like months. She couldn't even imagine how it felt for Kara. She tries not to think about it. Kara is here. And she's safe.
They made it.
-
Kara recovers fairly quickly, but only physically. Lena takes turns evaluating her with Alex and Kelly. Sometimes they argue about sitting still and not superheroing until she's ready. Sometimes they just sit there in silence, shared trauma and all that.
Things are so heavy between them now. Sometimes Lena wishes she'd just sat back and let J'onn or Mgann or anyone else, anyone stronger, go in there to get Kara.
A lone figure limps into the clearing, using its sword as a crutch.
Kara.
The knight collapses into a miserable heap, the thud of plate armor heavy on the ground. “Lena. I’m home.”
The damage is extensive and Kara’s pulse is already weak. Lena knows her magic will not be enough to save her.
“Let’s get married.” Kara stutters.
“This is literally the worst possible time,” Lena chuckles in spite of herself.
With a great effort, Kara lifts her hand to wipe the tears from Lena’s cheek. Her radiant smile is stained with red and blue and black. “Then we’ve nothing left to lose.”
There is no ceremony, there is no fanfare. It matters not to Lena. For what is marriage but the union of two souls who choose to be bound to one another? She wears Kara’s scarf, Kara wears her flower crown. The petals weave themselves into her flaxen hair, becoming as much a part of Kara as Kara a part of them. She has never looked more beautiful. Lena kisses her one final time. It lasts for a moment, it lasts for an eternity. It tastes of salt and sweat and blood and love.
A tree springs forth from the ground where Kara lies.
Lena tends to it. Talks to it. Builds a little garden around it. She feels her touch in the breeze, hears her laugh in the rustling of the leaves. And though she knows it will not be the same, sometimes she feels like Kara never left at all.
Centuries come and go. The forest thrives and, true to their word, the humans stay away.
Until they don’t.
Lena is hurt and tired and bleeding. She won’t be long for this world.
The forest, her forest is burning. The smoke can be seen from miles away.
Her dearest, oldest friends, the little ones she helped bring into the light, the rocks and the mosses and the streams. All of it. All of them. Gone.
The acrid stench grows thicker, the heat and the flames grow fiercer, and the only home she’s ever known is shrieking and groaning and dying.
Lena along with it.
Instead of fleeing the forest, she goes to the tree.
Kara’s tree.
With the last of her strength, she reaches it. Tall and steadfast. Gentle and beautiful. Just like her.
Lena rests by the roots, folding her broken wings around herself. She lays her forehead against the trunk, and heedless of the pain at the stretching of charred flesh, a peaceful smile blooms across her face.
783 years.
775 without her.
She can’t wait to see Kara again.
.
.
.
.
"Lena!"
Kara rushes towards her, hair glowing in the sun. She wraps Lena in her arms. She smells of leather and rain and earth.
She still wears the flower crown.
"You're home."
For @mike-wachowski on your tumblrthday. Have a great one! 🥳
Training with Kara to control her powers is, well...
“Go on, hit me.”
This beautiful idiot claims that she is indestructible, and so volunteers to hold a teacup in her hands for Lena to shoot some bolts at, in an effort to “minimise damage”.
Honestly.
They’d graduated from levitation to shield generation fairly quickly, and now it was time to learn some offensive moves.
“Please stop being ridiculous.” Lena pleads.
“Come on, what's the worst that could happen?” Kara says, smiling like a happy puppy. She’s clearly excited about… something.
“Kara,” Lena tries to reason with her. “I could hurt you.”
Kara’s smile fades into something softer, and blue eyes lock on to hers. Confident. Trusting. Reassuring. “You won't.”
There are a precious few things that will get Lena Luthor to do anything against her better judgment. Kara Danvers is one of them.
She stands a fair distance away, marks her target, and begins the process of summoning the energy to her open hand. She breathes in deep, waits for the right moment, and flings the energy towards the teacup in Kara’s hands.
But the blast goes wide, ricochets off the wall, and then flies straight at Kara’s head.
What happens next is a blur of blue and green.
Lena acts on instinct, creating a shield just in time to absorb the bolt, quickly following it with a floating spell to move Kara out of harm’s way.
Adrenaline is surging through her, and she’s vaguely aware of where she is and what she’s doing. But she’s sure of one thing: she feels powerful in a way that she never has before. A split second passes, or maybe it was an hour, Lena can’t be certain. She sees Kara beaming at her from inside the sphere. The blonde’s lips are moving, but she can’t make out what she’s saying. When sound comes flooding back to her ears, she thinks she can hear Kara say something like “Lena, you’re doing it!” Then in the next moment, as though waking up from a trance, her concentration breaks and she loses her grip.
The sphere of energy bursts and Kara falls with a graceless “wha!” to the floor.
“Kara! Kara are you okay?” She rushes to the blonde, fully prepared for an emergency but—
Kara is laughing. Here Lena is, on her knees, more than moderately freaked out, and Kara's laughing. She’s lying spread-eagled on her back, but clearly unhurt, and Lena heaves a sigh of relief. Kara angles her neck backwards so she’s looking at Lena upside down. “See? Told you i’d be fine.”
A once-over in the medbay (on Lena’s insistence) reveals nothing out of the ordinary, and Lena finally relaxes. (Although it should’ve been obvious that Kara was fine when she wouldn’t stop telling everyone how awesome it was to be encased in a giant magical ball.)
-
“A donut seems appropriate,” Kara offers as she settles down next to her on the floor. “How are you feeling?”
Their little “practice session” took a lot out of her, but she’s elated about today’s progress. “A bit tired, but I’ll be alright.” Lena replies softly, taking the pastry. “That was dangerous, Kara. Don’t ever make me do that ever again.”
“Sorry about that. I was just... excited to see you do amazing things with your gift.”
Lena scoffs, though not unkindly. “Wish i had you when i was growing up.” How is this big dummy so good at making her feel like she’s important? Like she’s precious? Like she’s loved?
“Hm, don’t know about that,” Kara smiles. “But you have me now. And I am proud of you.” She reaches across Lena’s shoulder and pulls her in for a hug. “All of you.”
“Thanks,” Lena can only squeak, teary-eyed into Kara’s shoulder.
Kara drops a kiss on the top of her head. “Always.”
Lena only has three more seconds before Kara disengages from the hug with a gasp, eyes wide and expectant. “Do you think you can multiply these chocolate sprinkles?”
