Lena Luthor rarely allowed anticipation get the better of her. From a young age, she had learned that to show how excited she was about something, to reveal that she cared, was to alert other people to a potential weakness. No one had been better at exploiting those weaknesses than her dear mother.

So Lena had learned to hide the things she cared about. The things that made her smile, that made her life just a little bit brighter. She kept them inside, locked safely behind a mask of indifference. Only to be brought out and nurtured when she was alone, safe from the threat of discovery.

Her office, while empty save for herself at the moment, could hardly be considered a safe space. She was sure her mother had spies and informants squirreled away all over the company. Reporting back Lena's every action and movement. Every minor slip up and mistake. Even still, Lena couldn't help but glance at the calendar on her desk and give a soft, secret smile.

Just one more day.

If asked what their favorite day of the year was, many people would answer one of the major holidays; Thanksgiving, Christmas, maybe Easter or Halloween. Perhaps it would be their birthday or anniversary.

For Lena, it was November 1st.

Kara Danvers hummed happily to herself as she retrieved the overflowing box of decorations from the top shelf. Halloween was officially over, and Kara wanted to make sure the bakery was appropriately decorated for the start of business of tomorrow.

She knew that other people thought she was crazy, but for her, November 1st was the start of the Christmas season. Over the years Alex had tried to convince her to wait until a more reasonable date, like December 15th, but Kara would have none of it.

November 1st would always hold a special place in Kara's heart. It was the day that she knew for certain that she had a soulmate. Alex had tried to reassure her that the silence was nothing to worry about, her soulmate wasn't musical inclined either. Nevertheless, Kara had worried. She couldn't fathom a life without music, so the silence in her mind was worrying. Occasionally, there would be a snippet, but always so fleeting Kara wasn't sure if it was real or imagined.

Until one day, it had changed. The song had been halting, a few of the words wrong, but Kara had easily identified the strains of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." It was only the first of November, but for Kara, Christmas had come early. If her soulmate was fond of Christmas songs, then Christmas songs they would have.

Every year since November 1st marked the start of the Christmas season. Singing came naturally to Kara, and while her soulmate didn't always respond, every once in awhile, Kara would be rewarded with the echoing refrain. It was all the encouragement Kara needed. She liked to think that somewhere out there, her soulmate was smiling.

"Maggie is going to kill you," Alex said from her seat on the counter.

"I'm not afraid her," Kara insisted with false bravado. Technically, she had made a deal with her soon to be sister-in-law the previous year that she would delay her Christmasification of the bakery until after Thanksgiving. However, Maggie was a romantic at heart, and Kara didn't think she would hold her to their bargain. If anyone could understand doing anything for your soulmate, it would be Maggie.

Kara dropped the box of decorations on the counter. "Weren't you supposed to be going on a date tonight?"

"Maggie's running late," Alex explained. "She's going to swing by and pick me up when she's done at the station."

"Well if you're going to hang out here and bug me, you can help," Kara instructed, digging a string of lights out of the box and tossing them at her sister.

"Don't I always?" Alex retorted, getting up from the counter and walking to the front window.

Kara shrugged. "You've been...otherwise occupied for the last year." Alex sent her an apologetic look, opening her mouth to apologize, but Kara waved her off. "You don't need to apologize. You know how happy I am for you and Maggie." She had never seen Alex this happy, and it made Kara happy in return. Her usually workaholic sister was finally taking time to actually enjoy life, and Kara would never begrudge her that.

If she was also, maybe, just a tiny bit jealous, well, she was only human. Finding your soulmate took as long as it took. Kara knew that. It was just that seeing how happy Alex was, she couldn't help wishing hers would hurry up already.

"You'll find your soulmate soon," Alex said, reading Kara's thoughts.

Kara nodded and gave Alex a small smile. "I know. I'm not sure how, but it just feels close."

"Well, if it doesn't happen right away, don't get discouraged," Alex counseled, walking back her earlier statement. Kara hid a small smile. Even if love had made Alex soft, she was still her cautious older sister at heart.

"I won't," Kara promised. "I'm not going to just sit back anymore, though. I have a plan."

Alex looked at her skeptically. "A plan? You know you can't force these things to happen on your timetable. They happen when they happen."

"I know that," Kara insisted. "But there's nothing that says I can't help stack the odds in my favor a little."

"You need to do this."

Lena jumped as Jess slammed a piece of paper down on her desk. Stepping back, Jess crossed her arms over her chest and waited expectantly.

"Are you forgetting who writes your yearly review and approves your bonus?" Lena asked, arching one eyebrow.

"Please, we both know you'd be lost without me," Jess said dismissively.

"You can still at least pretend I'm in charge," Lena grumbled.

"Of course Ms. Luthor," Jess replied deferentially. "I saw this flyer, and thought it would be something you may be interested in, so I just wanted to bring it to your attention." Jess paused. "Ma'am."

"There's no need to be snide," Lena chided, picking up the piece of paper Jess had so unceremoniously deposited on her desk. "You must be joking." Lena dropped the paper as though it was on fire. It fluttered silently to the floor.

"I'm deadly serious," Jess insisted, picking up the fallen flyer and slapping it back down on Lena's desk. "You love Christmas carols, don't even try to deny it. I hear you in here humming them when you think no one is around."

Lena felt an embarrassed flush spread across her chest, and slowly creep up her neck. Not for the first time, she cursed her fair skin. "Keep your voice down," Lena hissed, looking around, as though one of her mother's spies was going to pop out of her sofa cushions.

Jess rolled her eyes. "Yours is the only office on the floor. And, since you probably haven't noticed, it's almost nine o'clock. Even your most dedicated executives have gone home."

"Yet you're still here," Lena pointed out sweetly.

"Someone needs to make sure you actually remember to go home and sleep," Jess retorted. One time. Lena had lost track of time and fallen asleep at her desk. One time and Jess just couldn't let it go.

It was Lena's turn to roll her eyes. "I don't need a keeper. I've been taking care of myself for years." Secretly Lena was warmed by Jess's concern. Her assistant was the closest thing she had to a friend. Lena pushed the piece of paper across the desk toward her assistant. "There is no way I'm doing that."

Undeterred, Jess slid the paper back towards Lena. "I think you should."

"Out of the question. Can you imagine the headlines?" Lena slid the now slightly crumpled paper back toward Jess.

"We'll get you a disguise. A fake name. It will be fun. Besides, you need to get out more. You can't lock yourself away in your office all the time. You need to live a little." The paper came to rest once again in front of Lena.

"Don't be ridiculous. What do you propose? Some glasses and a hoodie?"

"If that's what it takes," Jess insisted, crossing her arms and looking at Lena in determination. "The coffee shop that hosts this group is right around the corner from my apartment. You would love it. It already looks like Christmas exploded in there."

Lena forced a smile. "Sounds...unique." Jess may have discovered her penchant for humming Christmas carols to herself at a ridiculously early date on the calendar, but Lena wasn't about to reveal the true reason for the habit.

It wasn't that Lena hated Christmas, precisely. It was just that she had no great love for the holiday. Or any other for that matter. Even the carols themselves, she could take or leave. It wasn't the music, or the holiday, or any of the trappings surrounding it, that Lena so looked forward as October drew to a close each year.

It was the knowledge that somewhere out there someone was thinking about her. That, someone, was doing something just for her. Not to get something out of her, or to benefit themselves in some way. They were doing it just to do it. For the sheer joy of it.

As a Luthor, selfless action wasn't something with which she was intimately acquainted. Everyone in her life had an angle, and no one did anything for free.

To a ten-year-old Lena Luthor, sitting alone in her bedroom watching Home Alone, and thinking that her mother getting on a plane and leaving her alone would be the best gift she could receive, the realization that someone out there might care about her had seemed like a dream.

Lena had been aware of her soulmate for years. Whoever they were, they loved to sing. In fact, they almost never shut up. Lena wasn't much for singing. She had a terrible voice according to her mother, and she would be doing the world a favor if she kept it to herself. So she had. Until one afternoon, in an act of childish pique, she had haltingly started to sing along to the movie.

Almost immediately, Lena had heard the echo of the lyrics in her mind. Startled, afraid her mother would somehow find out, she had instinctively stopped. Her mother had made no secret of her disdain of the whole soulmate concept. Lena knew that it wasn't supposed to be possible to feel the emotions of your soulmate, but she swore the sense of disappointment had been almost palpable. The silence didn't last long, and it was only a few short moments until the strains of carol after carol filled her mind.

Soothed by the stream of music, by the knowledge that somewhere, someone was trying to connect with her, she had eventually dropped her guard enough to haltingly sing along. For that one brief moment, with two voices singing in time, she had finally felt like someone cared about her.

It was the start of a tradition. Every year since November 1st was marked with the strains of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". Lena didn't allow herself many indulgences, but not even she could resist occasionally singing along.

However, she wasn't about to tell any of that to Jess. She would rather let her assistant think she had a weakness for sappy Christmas songs then reveal the true reason. If Jess found out it was linked to her soulmate, she would be relentless. Her assistant was a hopeless romantic, and a soulmate just wasn't in the cards for Lena Luthor.

Reluctantly, Lena picked up the flyer. Bright, bold text urged her to join Dough See Dough's Annual Christmas Chorale. Cider and cookies provided. Lena sighed. "If I agree to check it out, will you let it go?"

Lena reasoned that it would be easier to give in, and waste an evening, than it would be to constantly have Jess harassing her over the issue. One night, and then she could focus on work uninterrupted.

Jess smiled, triumphant. "That's all I ask."

"Have you lost your mind?" Alex asked, looking at Kara incredulously.

"It will be fun," Kara insisted with a pout.

"You already host your own caroling group. Joining six more is insane," Alex insisted, punching down her bowl of dough with perhaps a bit more force than was absolutely required. Kara hopped up on the counter, letting her feet dangle off. "That's really unsanitary you know," Alex chided.

"I'll wipe it down before you roll out the dough," Kara insisted.

"You better," Alex grumbled.

"I couldn't just sit back and do nothing this year," Kara said defensively. "It just feels so close. Like if I just reach out a little further, I could get a fingertip on it."

"You know it doesn't work that way, Kara," Alex said gently. "Besides, I fail to see how joining every caroling group in the city is going to help."

"It's not every group," Kara insisted, kicking her feet back and forth. "I could only join if their rehearsal times didn't conflict. That narrowed the field considerably. From what was left, I needed to make sure I was covering as broad a geographical area as possible."

"You really thought about this," Alex said, looking at Kara thoughtfully.

Kara nodded her head emphatically. "I told you I had a plan."

Kara had vowed that this year was the year she stopped sitting back and waiting for life to happen to her. She was going to go out and grab it with both hands. She knew that you couldn't technically hurry up the discovery of your soulmate, but Kara felt like she had to do something. Just sitting back and waiting, was slowly driving her crazy.

She wanted what her sister had with Maggie. She wanted to find that one person that would make her life balanced and full. The only thing she knew about her soulmate was that they had an apparent affinity for Christmas songs. Of all the songs Kara would sing, they were the only ones that garnered a response. With that in mind, she figured the best way to increase her odds of finding a fellow Christmas enthusiast would be one of the cities many caroling groups.

The problem was, which one? Kara had a regular group she hosted every year, but that had never yielded any prospects, and at this point was comprised of a core, unchanging group. Her best option was to cast a wide net. A Google search, a simple data file, and a map of the city later, she had her final list of six.

"I'm not sure this exactly qualifies as a plan," Alex retorted. Kara started to protest, but Alex continued before she could launch into her defense. "But if you feel like it's going to help you locate your elusive soulmate, I'll make sure to keep you supplied with warm tea and honey."

"Thanks, Alex!" Kara cried happily, jumping off the counter and engulfing her sister in a bone-crushing hug. "I just have such a great feeling about this!" Kara skipped happily out of the kitchen.

"Hey!" Alex yelled at her retreating back. "You said you'd wipe down the counter!"

Lena had a terrible feeling about this. She was a powerful, independent woman. The head of a multi-billion dollar empire before the age of thirty. She had endured Lillian Luthor for years and was still alive to tell the tale. If people knew that she was unable to say no to her administrative assistant, her reputation would never recover.

She hugged the outside edge of the room, pushing her dark-framed glasses up her nose, and pulling her sweatshirt's hood a bit tighter around her ears. The fact that she had let herself be talked into this ridiculous "disguise" would be the final nail in her professional coffin. The idea that a hoodie and some reading glasses would render her unrecognizable was preposterous.

She surveyed the group of thirty or so people in the room with a wary eye. She really hoped that no one recognized her. She wasn't sure how she would explain what the CEO of L-Corp was doing in a middle school auditorium in one of the worst neighborhoods in National City.

It was Lena's one rebellion to Jess's plan. Her ornery streak refusing to completely roll over and give into her assistant's demands. It was the principal of the matter. Lena may have capitulated, but she was going to do it on her terms. The flyer for the group Jess had initially brought to her office had been a little too close too home for Lena's comfort. If she was going to do this, she wanted to be as far from her normal stomping grounds as possible. A quick search had given her a list of other caroling groups in the city. She had picked the one the furthest from her apartment and L-Corp as she could get while still technically being in National City.

She debated making a break for it before rehearsal started. She had told Jess she would come, and check it out. Which she had. She had never agreed to actually stay and sing. Lena Luthor knew about loopholes.

"Okay, everyone! If you would please gather around, we can get started." Lena cursed silently, realizing her possible window of escape had closed.

Pushing off the wall, she shuffled slowly toward the group of people gathering around the woman handing out a packet of sheet music. Edging forward into the crowd, she got jostled by someone trying to make their way through and knocked shoulders with the person standing next to her. A shiver, quickly shaken off, raced down her arm.

"Sorry," Lena offered reflexively, not bothering to turn to see who she had bumped into.

"No worries," the woman responded warmly. "It wasn't your fault. I'm Kara by the way."

Lena paused, realizing it would be rude to simply ignore the woman. "Tess," she said, turning only halfway to speak. Lena, or Tess, since she had no intention of using her real name, wasn't here to make friends.

A gap in the crowd opened in front of Lena and she pushed forward, leaving the woman behind. Taking the offered packet of music, Lena once again made her way through the milling group of people. Flipping through the pages, Lena was pleased to see that all of the songs were familiar. Though given her soulmate's penchant for singing, she supposed it would have been more surprising if they hadn't been.

"Alright, everyone. We're going to start off with an easy one. This doesn't have to be perfect, I just want to get a sense of where everyone is at. If everyone can turn to page 16, we'll get started in just a minute."

Lena flipped to the assigned page and tried not to scoff when the lyrics to Winter Wonderland stared back at her. They lived in southern California. What did they know about walking in a winter wonderland?

The choir director tapped on her music stand, and once she had everyone's attention, signaled for the pianist to start the accompaniment. The start of the song was a bit of a jumble, and it took everyone in the room a moment to get on the same page. Because of that chaos, it took a few moments longer for Lena to realize what she wasn't only hearing the singing from the others in the room.

Lena froze, the next line of song dying on her lips unsung. That didn't stop the unmistakable echo of the lyrics in her mind. This could not be happening. She was going to kill Jess.

Kara hurried down the hallway toward her sister's apartment. She felt positively buoyant, almost like she could fly. Not bothering to knock, she flung the door open and burst in, a whirlwind of barely suppressed excitement.

"You'll never guess what happened!" Kara cried excitedly, slamming the door behind her.

"Jesus, Kara!" Alex yelped from the couch. "Have you ever heard of knocking?"

Ignoring her sister's outraged shout, Kara plopped down in the armchair across from the couch "Hey, Maggie," Kara greeted.

"Hi, Kara," Maggie responded with a half laugh as she slid her hands out from under Alex's shirt. Still flustered, Alex pushed herself into a sitting position and pulled her shirt down.

"Did you need something, Kara? In case you didn't notice, we were kind of in the middle of something," Alex said crossly.

"It worked, Alex! It worked," Kara said excitedly, ignoring her sister's ill temper. If Kara limited her interaction with her sister to when she and Maggie weren't "in the middle of something" she would only see her sister at work. Sometimes, not even then.

"What worked?"

"My plan! It worked!"

Comprehension dawning, Alex leaned forward, her earlier irritation evaporating. "Oh my god, seriously?"

Kara nodded emphatically. "They were there, Alex! It worked!"

"Congratulations, Kara," Maggie said, almost as excited as Alex at the news. "Who's the lucky guy, or girl?"

"Well, as to that, I'm not exactly sure," Kara replied, some of her enthusiasm deflating at the question.

"How can you not be sure?" Alex asked in confusion.

"You of all people are asking me that?" Kara quipped.

Maggie snorted inelegantly. "She does kinda have a point there, Danvers." Alex poked Maggie in the side, none too gently, causing the detective to yelp and move away from the offending digit.

"I didn't exactly meet them," Kara explained, frowning slightly. "But I know they were in that room. I could hear the echo of the lyrics. They were there."

"Maybe it was just a coincidence. It is that time of year," Alex offered gently.

Kara shook her head. "They were there," Kara insisted with surety. "One song would maybe be coincidence, but not the whole set, Alex."

"So, what are you going to do now?" Alex questioned.

"I'm going to figure out who they are," Kara said with determination. "And I won't stop until I do."

AN: Okay so...I'm supposed to be working on my other fic, but I needed a little break. This idea came to me a few months ago, and was intended as a one shot. It may have gotten away from me just a touch. I figured that at around 50 pages, it was stretching even the most generous definitions of a one-shot, and I decided to bust it into 6 parts.

It is done, and almost completely edited, so the rest of this should be going up over the course of the day.

As always I would love to hear what you think about it, good, bad, or otherwise.