Literally this is all Valnixyrie's fault. She not only forced me to watch Legends, but then proceeded to pout in my general direction until I wrote her this fic. So now it's mostly done and if I don't write every day I get frowny faces sent at me, so, aiming for once a week updates and they should be consistent considering. Enjoy the fluff.
Kara hurried in to Noonan's, knowing she was late, but knowing that not stopping at Noonan's for Miss Grant's latte would be even worse than showing up earlier without it. She got in line, already digging in her purse for the company card, not paying attention to anything except her own panic. The woman in front of her stepped off the side after paying and Kara finally looked up to see a barista that definitely hadn't been there before. With Miss Grant's coffee habits she knew everyone that worked the front counter and a good portion of the people in the back too. And she would have noticed this woman if she'd been here before because she was just too striking not to notice.
And of course now she had stared at the woman for far too long not to get caught. She blushed hard and managed to get herself together enough to open her mouth. "Um, hi, sorry, you're new and I'm late for work and completely frazzled so my brain just shut off. I'm Kara."
The woman smiled, blue eyes twinkling with amusement. "Hi there, Kara." She pointed to her nametag. "I'm Sara, just in case your frazzled brain can't read just yet. And what exactly can I get you this morning?"
Kara, however, was still stuck on Sara's smile which totally looked like the cat who caught the canary while still being pretty to look at. Miss Grant's coffee order slipped her mind completely.
"Hmm, well, since you're still a bit frazzled, you look like a pumpkin spice latte and cinnamon bun type of girl to me. Cute and sweet go together, don't you think?" Sara winked and rang up the order quickly.
Kara spluttered a bit. Cute? Was Sara calling her cute? Was this flirting? How in the world did she flirt again. She had totally been able to like two minutes before.
"I, yeah, that's actually what I get, but I'm here for my boss's latte, actually." Her brain finally, finally kicked in and Kara thanked Rao silently.
"Which boss are we talking here? I've already been given the rundown on all the heavy hitters that get their coffee here and I memorized the list." She tapped her head. "I have a good memory." She looked Kara up and down slowly and smirked.
Kara blushed even harder, but she managed to keep it together. "Cat Grant."
"Alright then, a tall skinny latte, hotter than the sun coming up along with that pumpkin latte cinnamon roll, because pretty assistants need breakfast too." She punched in the rest of the order. "That's 9.27, but since I get the employee discount, that'll make it 5.72."
Kara handed over the CatCo card. "Um, thank you? You didn't have to do that."
Sara smiled. "No, but I wanted to. Just don't get too used to it, I do have to keep this job for a while at least." She shrugged and stepped away from the register to start making Kara's order since no one was behind her in line. "They have dental."
"I think you already have great teeth." Kara wanted to hit herself. What kind of flirting was that? She had great teeth? That was probably something a serial killer would say.
"Thanks, my dad would be glad to know all his money didn't go to waste." She smiled wide, winking at Kara. "Just never ask to see the pictures of me in braces because then I might have to kill you."
Kara snorted. She'd like to see the barista try.
Sara handed over one latte. "That would be your boss's brew. Gimme one sec and I'll have yours too." The bell on the entrance rang. "Or not." She turned to the other barista working, one that Kara had had plenty of interactions with. "Hey Kendra, can you get the rest of this order I just started? Pumpkin spice and a cinnamon bun."
"Yeah, sure," Kendra replied with an easy nod as Sara went back to the cash register.
Kara waited while Kendra finished up the order in front of her and started on her own. She held Miss Grant's latte in her hand and willed it to stay hot by sheer force of will. Late and a cold latte might just be the thing that got her fired after two years. Kendra, though, was quick and a couple minutes later she had the rest of her order and was out the door.
She ran across the street to the CatCo building and slipped inside an elevator. Kara sighed and leaned back. Now she was where she was supposed to be at least, she just had to prepare herself for the storm that was Cat Grant. She took out her latte and went to take a sip to fortify herself, but stopped when she saw something more than her name on the cup. She turned it so the writing was facing her and read. It was string of numbers that had to be a phone number. Kara's heart started to beat a bit harder. Had she really gotten Sara's number just by being a perfect mess?
She looked under the number and in Sara's precise, but in no way girly, handwriting it said, "Just in case you wanted to do something other than talk ;)" Kara dropped the coffee to the floor before she even got all the way through reading, her brain short circuiting again. Coffee splashed up from the cup hitting the floor, soaking her shoes and the bottom of her pants, along with a few drops scattered as high as the bottom of her shirt.
Kara didn't even have time to register the mess before the elevator doors were opening and she heard Cat yelling her name from across the floor. Shit. She darted forward, grabbing the empty cup on her way out. She could call maintenance later about the spill and she could clean up after Cat rolled her eyes at the mess she'd made of her outfit. Knowing Cat she called in an improvement. If she didn't know that her boss cared underneath the ice queen routine her job would be ten times harder.
And maybe, after she dealt with the morning barrage from Cat, she could use that number to text Sara and tell her just what her message had done to her. Kara smiled at the thought and slipped into Cat's office just as she opened her mouth to yell again.
By the time Kara actually got to sit down again it was after lunch. She was totally starving and needed about five boxes of Chinese takeout at least before she would be anywhere near full, but she really didn't have the time. Just because she was actually sitting down now didn't mean she didn't have work to do, it was just work that didn't require moving. She sighed. If only she could convince someone to bring her food she would be golden.
Her eyes flicked over to the cup on her desk, coffee splattered, but numbers still written legibly on the white surface. She stared for a long moment, considering. Sara had flirted rather mercilessly with her to the point that Kara had dropped her coffee. She could be daring too.
Kara picked up her phone and plugged in the number, entering Sara's name as a contact with a little coffee cup emoji next to it. Then she stared at the blank screen for a good long minute, debating just what in the world she should send. She looked down at her shoes coffee stained as they were and got hit by a sudden idea. She snapped a picture of her coffee stained shoes and typed out "So I think you owe me lunch because after reading your note I dropped my coffee in the elevator and then this happened. And maybe I just want an excuse to see you again, too." She stared at it a bit more before determining she wasn't going to die of embarrassment if this text didn't work out and then hit send.
Of course then she had to wait. Which Kara never liked waiting, not really. It reminded her far too much of those interminable moments between her pod launching and watching Krypton explode. She grabbed the nearest piece of work she had, a proof that Cat would have a conniption over if she saw it before it had gone through at least one round of correction by Kara herself, and she set to actually making it something worthy of CatCo Magazine.
She was so involved in her work she almost missed the vibration of her phone right beside her. But she saw the light from the screen and turned to see the coffee cup emoji out of the corner of her eye. In a flash that was probably too fast for a human, she had the phone in her hands and opened the message.
"CatCo employees can actually take lunch? I'm amazed. ;)"
Kara immediately started to type out a response. "Well, usually. Today I'm so busy I don't even think I can grab something from the cafeteria. The magazine deadline is Thursday."
There was a long gap between the next text, long enough for Kara to over think literally every word she had typed, but then Sara messaged back.
"Well what if a barista who just got off her shift happened to bring you by some food? You seem like you would be a potsticker type of girl. We can save the real lunch date for the weekend when we both have time."
Kara's stomach growled. Oh Rao above, potstickers. "I think I might propose to you even though it's way too early for that if you brought me potstickers. And I'm free at noon on Saturday if you are." At least she damn well hoped she was free. If an alien popped up she was totally going to knock them out in one punch just so she could get back to her date. It had been forever since she'd been on a date, at least a real one. The thing with James had almost gotten off the ground, but then too many things had gotten in the way over and over again and they had just decided to remain friends. She had been sad, but not heartbroken. A friend was just as good as a significant other in her mind.
"Hahaha, I've been with some U-Haulers before, but I think proposing the first day is a first even for me. You move fast there Kara. Also, is The Long Dragon good for your potsticker needs?"
Kara's mouth watered. That was her favorite place, but it didn't deliver, and it was too far for her to make it there and back without suspicion on her lunch break. How in the world Sara was going to go there and back before she died of starvation. Then again, she was totally willing to wait for those potstickers. They were melt in your mouth, best food in the galaxy material.
"Um, yes, that's my favorite place, how in the world did you know?"
"Would it gain me points to say that I did actually know? Because if so I totally did. If not, well, I made it my first priority to find the best Asian restaurants in town when I got to town. I lived over there for a while so. The Long Dragon is great, plus I may have an in with one of the workers there so I'm the only one in town who can get delivery."
Oh my god, Kara might just be in love already. Delivery. From The Long Dragon. She wanted to know just how Sara had managed that and then she totally wanted to repeat it. Though, if she was stupid she could probably manage it by revealing she was Supergirl, but Alex and J'onn would kill her.
The phone vibrated in Kara's hand again. "It'll be there in thirty. I hope you can hold out that long. But we've got six orders of potstickers, two of wontons, two of Peking duck, sweet and sour soup, and enough rice to kill something coming at us, so you're going to need to be hungry anyway."
That was it, Kara literally was proposing. No one knew to get that much food when they first got to know her. People only started to scale up after they had seen her eat breakfast, first breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, a mid-afternoon meal, a snack, dinner, order more takeout, then have a midnight snack before bed. She really was a bottomless pit and most of her money went to buying food, not that she minded much since food was freaking delicious, but still. She wondered just how much Sara ate if she ordered that much right off the bat, since Kara herself seemed to over order every time she was sharing food with others.
"Oh, believe me," Kara typed out. "I will be hungry. Nothing will be left."
A reply came immediately. "I like a girl with a good appetite. ;)"
Kara blushed hard at that. What was she getting herself into again? Probably a bit of trouble, but the good kind of trouble.
"Should I just come up when I get there or?" Sara texted again.
"Yeah, I'm on the top floor, I'll tell security to give you a visitor badge. Um, what's your last name, they're gonna need that."
"Lance, Sara Avalon Lance, though that middle name is a secret and you better defend it to your grave."
Kara snickered and smiled down at her phone. Humans being protective of their middle names was adorable to her, and Sara was especially adorable. "It's safe with me, don't worry." More than safe, really. She texted again. "Good, I'll call them right now and they should send you right up. You take a right out of the elevator and you'll see my desk almost immediately after that."
"Good, see you in a bit then, Kara."
Kara startled from her work when a large bag of food plopped down by her. She looked up and there was Sara, grinning at her, visitor badge displayed clearly on her shirt where her name tag had been earlier.
"Hey there beautiful, long time no see." Sara started to rustle around in the bag. "I have potstickers with your name on them." She handed over two containers of potstickers and some chopsticks.
Kara took the containers out of Sara's hands politely, but as soon as she had them firmly in her own grip she ripped the top off and started shoving them in her mouth. Oh Rao above she was so hungry. She stopped for long enough to look up at Sara and smile.
"Sorry, hi there, and thank you for the potstickers. Obviously I am a little hungry." She looked away sheepishly.
Sara grabbed Winn's empty chair and rolled it over to Kara's desk and sat down. "Hey, it's like I said, a girl who likes her food is a girl after my own heart." She grabbed out her own container of potstickers and started to eat. "So, busy day?"
Kara nodded, looking at her screen, typing out a few words before turning back to Sara. "You could say that." Another email popped up and then another. And another. Kara wanted to groan. It was going to be a long night. She really hoped that nothing else popped up tonight. Like the city needing saved. Or the world. Or even a cat, really. "Everyone freaks out when the deadline is a couple days away. There's almost always some sort of last minute disaster too. This week's is the fact that the shoot for the main article of the issue is terrible. Like, beyond saving terrible, and the reshoot was supposed to be last week but then it fell through for weather related reasons and had to be rescheduled and that's happening today, but that gives forty-eight hours to put together the spread and do any last minute edits, and that's chaotic at best." Really, it made even Kara with her super speed and therefore super productivity want to tear her hair out a bit, but this honestly wasn't the worst disaster she had faced in this job so she wasn't super worried about it, just busy.
Sara whistled. "Wow, sounds like a train wreck. Makes me glad that the most I have to worry about is getting someone's coffee order right. Though, sometimes, that's a task. Have you heard what some white business guys order now? It's a book, not a coffee order." She rolled her eyes. "And then they get all cranky when you don't catch their two minute long order the first time."
Kara snorted out a laugh around the potsticker currently in her mouth and then choked on the little piece that managed to slip down her throat on the inhale. She coughed until tears flowed from her eyes and she had to be beet red even with her Kryptonian constitution. Oh great, almost dying in front of the cute girl who brought her lunch, way to go Danvers.
Except Sara reached across the desk and rubbed Kara's back soothingly. "Don't die on me there, Kara. You still have to take me on a date this weekend, remember?"
Kara finally pulled in a deep breath without coughing and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Wouldn't miss it for the world, even if that potsticker wanted to kill me a little bit."
"Well, we can't have any killer potstickers on our hands. I'll make sure that next time I buy the potstickers that aren't little assassins." A hint of a shadow passed over Sara's face before she shook herself and smirked at Kara.
"Sounds good to me. Could you imagine the obituary they would have to run in The Tribune?" Kara laughed despite herself. Cat would have an absolute conniption about having to put that someone died by choking on a potsticker in her paper. She would do it because it would be honest reporting, but still.
"Forget obituary, I think it would be front page news if it was a literal assassin potsticker, don't you?" Sara smirked and popped another one in her mouth chewing slowly.
"Right, sure, it would have to be a really, really slow news day for that to happen. Have you been in National City long enough to realize there really isn't such a thing as a slow news day?"
"Uh, yeah, a bit. It is a big city, but now it's a big city with an alien protector which doubles the action."
Kara flinched slightly at that. It wasn't her fault that aliens sought her out for a fight, not really, but she did feel bad sometimes because without her in the city the citizens of National City wouldn't have to deal with a crisis every six seconds, or so it seemed. Then again, normal crime rates had dropped after her appearance, so maybe things balanced out in the end. Except for the city's emergency infrastructure fund. She was pretty sure that that would never balance out again.
"Uh, yeah, right." Kara typed out a few more emails while shoving the rest of the potstickers in her mouth and humming. Rao, they were really good.
"Not a fan of Supergirl?" Sara asked after a couple minutes, digging out a container of what smelled like Peking duck and handing it to Kara.
"No, yes, I mean." She took a deep breath. "I don't have a problem with her at all, I was just thinking." If she had a problem with Supergirl, well, that would be interesting, now wouldn't it.
"Thinking about her rippling biceps were we? Half the city has a crush on her it seems like."
Kara blushed, but definitely not for the reason that Sara probably thought. People actually looked at her muscles? People had crushes on her?
Sara laughed and finished off her own potstickers. "Yeah, I thought so. Can't say I blame you because damn she is ripped." She hummed dreamily.
Kara crumpled up her chopstick wrapped and threw it at Sara. "Well I'm a bit more available than Supergirl." The irony in that sentence was enough to fill a football stadium.
Sara's eyes swept up and down Kara's seated form. "Well, if you're willing I'd like to do something about that soon enough."
Ugh, Kara was going to die choking on her food because Sara was entirely too smooth. Was it even humanly possible to be this smooth all the time? Was Sara some sort of cyborg? Considering Kara was an alien from another planet that wasn't really outside the realm of possibility. She shoved some duck in her mouth to distract herself and for the most part it worked.
"How long have you been in National City, actually?" Kara asked after she got done chewing.
"Couple weeks, actually. I came from Star City...it just wasn't home anymore after the last few months." Sara set down her food with a sigh.
Kara didn't know what was wrong exactly, but she reached out and took Sara's hand and hoped it offered some comfort. Sara squeezed Kara's hand back hard, hard enough that it would have been painful to someone who wasn't Kryptonian and Kara got the sense that whatever had driven her from Star City had been big and it had hurt.
Sara shook herself out of it after a second. "Sorry, still a relatively new wound. Thank you though."
"Of course. Anytime. I mean it."
Sara raised Kara's hand up to her mouth and kissed it. "You know, for once in my life, I actually believe that someone honestly means that. You're quite the outlier there Kara Danvers."
"I don't think I am. I think I'm perfectly average."
Sara shook her head. "You keep thinking that, darling, but I know the truth."
Kara frowned slightly at that, not sure if she should take that as a compliment or be offended that Sara wasn't listening to her. She decided to just ignore it for now and shoved Sara's food back at her.
"Even I'm gonna need help with this amount of food, so get eating." She totally could eat it all, but even that would be pushing it for her.
"Can't say no to that." Sara smiled and picked up the last of her potstickers and set to work.