Work Text:
Kara had to keep trying; she just had to. There was absolutely no way she was going to give up anytime soon, and Alex knew that. After Kara's last attempt to apologize and make amends once again failed, the blonde finally decided to give Lena some space and back off for a while. It had been a few weeks, and that morning, Alex received a call from her little sister that she was going to try again.
Kara made it clear that she was taking a day off from being Supergirl and she wouldn't be on comms, so she asked politely if J'onn and Nia could take over. No matter how much it frustrated the eldest Danvers that Kara was continuing to go after something that Alex believed to be hopeless, she knew the hero wouldn't hear any of it, especially since it was Lena Luthor they were talking about.
Of course, Alex knew that her Sister was hopelessly in love with her former best friend, even if Kara could never admit it to herself or anyone else. This fact was one of the only reasons the auburnette hadn't tried to intervene more forcefully and much sooner. That, and the fact that although Lena Luthor was exceptionally angry at Kara and continuously ignored her, she was still living her life as usual.
There were no plots, schemes, or intentions to conquer the world, just a broken friendship that Kara wouldn't give up hope of fixing. Sure, the thought did cross Alex's mind that maybe Lena would go all Lex Luthor after finding out the news, but she quickly scolded herself for ever thinking like that, knowing full well all that the younger Luthor had done over the years to prove she wasn't like her family.
Kara hovered outside Lena Luthor's penthouse, looking in as she ran through what she would say in her head over and over again, trying to make sure it was perfect. The blonde first showed up at L-Corp as Kara Danvers that morning, but the only person there was Jess, who told her that Lena had been sick with a bug for a little while and was working from home. She, of course, knew that wasn't the case, and she hated to think that she was the reason Lena wasn't going to work.
The heroine closed her eyes and listened to the steady heartbeat from inside the seemingly empty penthouse as she took a few deep breaths and tried composing herself. Her best friend's heartbeat had always done a good job calming her; it was just different from other people's. Probably because she's Lena Luthor, and everything about her was different to Kara. More special.
Dirty blonde eyebrows furrowed slightly, a crinkle forming on the bridge of the hero's nose as the sound of the heartbeat got continuously closer until she could tell that Lena was standing on the balcony looking up at her. Kara's eyes fluttered open slowly, and a small smile formed at the corners of her lips as she admired Lena's beauty.
Her long raven locks were down and unstyled, slightly wavy as they cascaded down the woman's back and shoulders. She was wearing a loose, flowy tank top and a pair of blue jeans that were cuffed at the ankles. Her bare face had a faint glow to it in the sunlight, and she was absolutely perfect.
Kara took one last deep breath before she floated towards her former best friend's (Rao, she hated saying that) balcony and landed softly beside her as the Ravenette turned to face her. "I was doing work in my study, and for some reason, I just knew that you were listening to my heartbeat. The feeling I got while I was working on invoices was familiar. It was the same feeling I get late every night when you come to check on me and make sure I'm okay. I know you think I don't know you're there."
Kara began shaking her head a little, "I don't, I know you know I'm there every time I come, but that's not what concerns me. What concerns me is that your brother and your mother are both still out there, and they have both attempted to kill you multiple times before. They may have been silent since the last fight when I almost killed Lex, but they could strike at any moment, and something tells me that we're the two people they'd go for first."
Lena just nodded. Something told Lena that it was really Kara that they were after, no surprise, but a part of her couldn't help but feel a little guilty. She was bait. Her mother and brother both knew that if she were in danger, Kara would do anything, including give up her own life to save her. The ravenette had never had the courage to unpack exactly what that meant.
The two women stood in silence, neither of them really sure what to say. It made Lena feel happy inside when Kara talked about her need to protect and worry for her life, but it was still hard. No matter how much the Luthor missed the cheery reporter or wanted things to go back to the way they used to be, there was this lingering feeling of betrayal and mistrust that refused to go away.
It was always there in the back of her mind, and it would push its way to the front anytime Lena's thoughts drifted to the Girl Of Steel for even a split second. Lena sighed, a little more audibly than she intended, before turning and starting to head back towards the inside of her penthouse. "Lena." Said Kara, stopping the ravenette in her tracks before she could get too far.
Lena turned around slowly and looked back at the Heroin, "What, Kara? What do you want me to say? 'Thanks for caring if I die. Come on in, and we can get takeout like old times.'" The blonde winced at Lena's tone, the familiar guilt she got every time she came here settling in. "What are you doing here? It's been three weeks, and for a minute, I thought you'd finally given up."
"I could never give up on you." Kara immediately responded before snapping her mouth shut and taking a deep breath. Lena tried not to smile at that.
"I just-" Kara hesitated "I thought If I gave you some space, I could-" "What? Come back and feed me a different version of the same apology for the hundredth time? I thought I made it clear that I heard you. I understand how sorry you are, but I'm just not ready to forgive you yet. Please go, Kara, I have work to do." Tears stung both women's eyes as Lena turned around and left, trying not to blame herself for the utterly broken look on the blonde's face as the hero averted her eyes to the ground.
Kara kicked herself internally, now realizing how stupid she was to think that a few weeks of distance and a different version of essentially the same apology she'd tried to feed Lena last time would make things better. This was one situation where Supergirl couldn't just fix everything.
Alex was getting some routine paperwork done on a new alien prisoner who had tried to rob a bank when Agent Vasquez knocked at her office door. The older Danvers sighed as she placed her pen on the glass desk and looked up from her paperwork before saying, "Come in." "Good afternoon, Director Danvers, I wanted to inform you that a large storm has rolled in unexpectedly, and we should be getting thunder any minute."
With that, Alex snapped into action, standing up and quickly leaving the room, agent Vasquez following her closely behind. The director entered the main room, and everyone immediately stood at attention as she said, "Winn, go to the back and get Kara's super hearing dampeners. We're supposed to get thunder any minute now."
Winn nodded before quickly standing up and running to the back room. Alex then pressed her finger to the commlink in her ear and said, "Supergirl? Supergirl, do you copy?" Before remembering that Kara wasn't on duty as Supergirl, and she wasn't wearing her commlink today. The auburnette huffed in frustration. She knew that even superheroes needed days off, but it didn't make it any less inconvenient.
Alex pulled out her phone to call Kara. Just as she was about to dial her sister's number, Winn came rushing into the room with both dampeners in his right hand as he frantically said, "I got them, I got the-" Winn, being the clumsy mess he is sometimes, slipped and fell face first towards the concrete floor of the DEO, putting out both of is hands to catch his fall.
The distinct crunch that sounded beneath Winn's right hand made half the people in that room visibly cringe, while director Danvers yelled, "Dammit Winn!" as she rushed towards him to pull him out of the way and hoped to god that he hadn't made the dampeners completely unusable. When his hand was lifted from the floor, disappointment fell over Alex's face when all she saw was a multitude of wires and plastic pieces strewn about.
Just great.
Kara was just about to fly off Lena's balcony when she heard her phone ringing. The blonde unzipped the hidden pocket in her suit and looked at her phone to see her sister's name across the screen, so she immediately answered it. "Hey Alex, what's up?" "Kara, have you looked at the sky at all today?" The reporter directed her eyes to the sky, and with that, her face dropped.
"A big unexpected storm rolled in not too long ago, and according to the weather, there's gonna be a lot of thunder. I was going to have J'onn come to drop off the hearing dampeners, but-" The oldest danvers paused before clearing her throat a little, "What, Alex? Spit it out." "Winn shattered them to pieces." "He did what?!" Asked a shocked Kara, a little louder than she intended. "Alex, I need those. You remember what it was like before I became Supergirl, It's going to be excruciating, especially after not experiencing it for at least 3 years." "I know Kara, and I'm so-" "What's going to be excruciating?" Interrupted a mostly indifferent but slightly curious voice behind her. "Kara? Who was that?" Asked Alex, who heard the voice interrupt her.
"Lena, I was just about to leave her place when you called." "Oh, okay. Well, I'm sorry, Winn and Brainy confirmed that they would need a couple of days to make a new pair. You'll be fine, just tell Lena what's going on and don't you dare try to fly. You know how dangerous that is." Kara winced quietly before sparing a quick glance back at Lena, "But Alex, you know how fast I can fly! It'll only take a minute for me to get to my loft an-" "Absolutely not Kara. You have no idea when that thunder is going to start, and when it does, you could fall out of the sky, and then who knows what would happen. You could damage property. You could hurt someone!" "Okay, okay, I get it!" "You're gonna be okay, Kara, I love you." "Love you t-to." Stuttered Kara before the phone call ended.
The heroine slipped her phone back into her suit pocket before turning around to find Lena standing in the same place as when she walked in on the phone call. "What's going on?" Lena asked firmly, "U-um, I don't really tell many people about this, but um- my super hearing causes me to have a severe sensitivity to certain sounds, particularly thunder. I get really overstimulated, and It causes unbearable pain that I used just to have to deal with whenever there was a storm." Kara took a deep breath before continuing. "When I became supergirl, that wasn't an option anymore, so Winn made a pair of dampeners that I could wear in my ears, and they would suppress my super hearing enough that I could still use it, but the thunder couldn't hurt me. Well, there's a storm rolling in, which came unexpectedly, and Alex just called me to tell me that Winn somehow managed to break the only pair of dampeners."
Lena let the information she had just been given sink in, when she realized what that meant, and a somewhat apprehensive yet sympathetic expression its way across her features. Kara spoke again, "It's not safe for me to fly anywhere, or I could literally fall out of the sky, and ya know, that could cause a lot of damage. And I can't really go anywhere alone in general, so Alex ordered me to stay here. I'm sorry." Lena sighed, "No, Kara, don't be; this is out of your control. Come on."
Kara hesitated, "I could just sit out here on the balcony until the storm passes if that would be-." "Don't be ridiculous! Inside, now." Kara did as she was told, and Lena closed the balcony doors as she gestured for Kara to sit on the white leather couch before her phone started to ring, "Hold on, let me just grab this really quick." She said before answering the phone, Kara nodded.
"Lena? It's Alex. I don't have much time, so just let me talk really quickly. I know Kara's with you, so I just wanted to give you a call and give you a heads-up about what to expect. She's going to be in a lot of pain, so you should try to distract her. Get close to her ear and talk to her, talk about something comforting. You can even try to start a conversation to take her mind off of the pain. Also, make sure she focuses on her breathing, she needs to be taking some deep breaths and doing her best to stay calm. It's really easy for her to go into a full-on anxiety attack in this situation. You got all that?" "Y-yeah." "Okay, good, I've gotta go. Just um- please protect her." "I will, I promise."
Lena stared down at her phone for a few seconds, taking time to process the information she'd just been given before finally joining Kara on the couch. Kara didn't ask about the phone call; she seemed slightly too panicked to care, so they sat next to one another in silence. When Lena finally decided to look over at Kara, she noticed tears welling up in her blue eyes, and without hesitation, she took the blonde's hand in her own before asking, "What is it?" Kara sniffled "I'm terrified Lena." She started, directing her eyes to the woman beside her, "It's been over three years since I've had to suffer through a thunderstorm."
Lena nodded in understanding before closing the gap between her and Kara and wrapping her arm around the Alien's shoulders, deciding that any problems or awkwardness between them needed to be placed on the back burner for now. "It's going to be okay, Kara, I'm right here with you." Kara let out a shuddering breath as she nodded her head before squeezing her eyes shut and preparing herself for the first crash of thunder.
Lena held her tightly and began whispering comforting things in her ear like Alex had said. The ravenette was telling the hero next to her a funny (and kind of sleazy) story about an investor in one of her meetings who had tried to hit on her when the first loud and long crash of thunder came. Kara screamed out in pain before slapping her hands over her ears and pulling her head down towards her knees as she began to shake. The sight of the woman that Lena still cared so much about in agony broke the Luthor's heart, but she knew she had to stay strong for her. "Kara, how about we go lay down upstairs? You'll probably be a little more comfortable up there."
Kara shakily lifted her head from her knees to look at Lena before nodding. The Ravenette helped Kara stand and supported her quivering body as she walked up the stairs. When the two women made it to Lena's bedroom without accident, Lena closed the door before helping the blonde onto her king-sized bed and lying down next to her.
Kara huddled herself underneath the oversized comforter, and Lena followed suit. When the younger woman was under, Kara immediately pulled their bodies together, clinging to Lena like she was a lifeline before burying her face in the ravenette's neck. The Luthor instinctively wrapped both of her arms around the Super as she began stroking her blonde hair in an attempt to soothe her. Another crash of thunder came, and Kara's whole body jerked as she choked out a strained whimper. Lena felt tears beginning to stain her neck.
"Shhhh, it's okay. Just close your eyes and focus on my voice. I want you to take deep breaths for me, in and out, in and out." Kara began to relax more as she did her best to hone her senses in the sound of her best friend's voice, following Lena's instructions and trying to stay as calm as possible. With each new crash of thunder, Kara would tense up again, whimpering brokenly in pain, and every time, Lena would soothe her into relaxing again.
Never in her life had Lena Luthor struggled so much not to cry. It physically hurt her to see Kara in so much Agony, but she didn't want to freak Kara out or make the blond think she had to comfort her when she was the one who needed comfort. It was then and there, in that bed, with Kara curled up into her side, that Lena decided she would come up with a better solution, one that wouldn't break so easily.
The two women lay there together for the next hour or so as they waited for the storm to pass. The thunder continued, and when the pain eventually became too much for Kara to handle, she started to sob, making it hard for her to breathe. Lena just held her even tighter and continued to tell her that it would all be over soon and everything was gonna be okay. She kept working through her breathing with her, keeping her from spiraling into an anxiety attack.
As the storm finally started calming down, so did Kara. The blonde was exhausted from all the crying and pain, and she started to drift off as soon as her muscles relaxed. "Kara, if you fall asleep like this, I'm afraid you'll squish me." Lena breathed into her hair. Kara smiled and chuckled a little in her half-asleep state before she floated up off the Ravenette, then picked her up by her waist and flipped them over.
Lena sighed in contentment as she relaxed into the Superhero's solid but soft form, laying her head on the family crest in the middle of her chest and throwing an arm and a leg over her waist and hips. They both drifted off with each other filling their heads not long after that, and they each got the best sleep they'd ever had since their relationship had fallen apart.
At that moment, they both forgot all about lies, and fights, and secret identities, and they imagined they were happy together. That they were a normal couple cuddling up in bed together after a long day at work. They weren't going to delude themselves into thinking that everything would magically be fixed when they woke up, but for the first time, they both felt like there was a real chance for something more. Yes, forgiveness would take time, and neither of them was quite ready to admit how they truly felt about each other either, but they were both finally ready to try, and that was enough.