"This is a dangerous game you're playing," Supergirl warns, hands on her hips in the classic pose.
They're on the roof of the National City branch of Queen Consolidated, Lena Luthor standing just a foot or two from reach, her purple and green battle suit gleaming in the sun. Oliver's personal chopper rest idly at Supergirl's back, it the prize her rival covets this particular day.
"Is that you finally admitting this is all a game?" Lena replies, ruby red lips cocked in a smirk.
Supergirl finds herself staring at those lips a moment too long, shaking her head as if the sudden fantasy of strawberry flavored kisses will jar loose with the motion. Lena notices the linger, a single brow arching up in amusement, knowing she would have no problem returning such hypothetical affection in this grand public setting.
"Why would you even need a helicopter?" Supergirl stalls, trying to gather her bearings. "With that suit you can already fly."
Lena laughs in her practiced, callous way, and Supergirl will not let the smooth honey sound of it wash over her. It's becoming impossible not to let their private lives leech into the comic book activity of playing hero and villain. Supergirl tries to tell herself, if it weren't for that news copter circling above them, she'd drop all pretense and kiss her paramour rather than strike. She'd rip that battle suit from her body, and do so many unruly...
Distraction always leads to altercation, Lena saving her deviation from the script, with a casual blow that sends her reeling into the side of the helicopter. She pounces then, pinning Supergirl's arms above her head, leaning in so close our hero fears she may just blow their secret wide open on the six o'clock news.
"Where are you?" Lena asks in a whisper. "Because it's clearly not here. Not with me."
Supergirl's eyes dart to the news copter, before thrusting a knee into Luthor's midsection, sending her sprawling onto to the rooftop flat on her back. Atop her opponent in a blink, one hand to Luthor's throat, the other poised to pummel her senseless.
"I want you," Supergirl admits through grit teeth, keeping up the show as much as she can. "So bad."
Lena's lips break into a grin, somehow managing to look maniacal and truthful all at once.
"Do you?" She teases, sending a punch into Supergirl's ribs, knocking her away and gaining the advantage. "Tell me, darling." She goes on, systematically sending punches she know won't hurt to Supergirl's face. "You know how much I love it when you admit that."
Hands to the battle suits' shoulders, Supergirl flips her rival with hardly an effort, using flight to spin herself with the motion and landing to pin Lena on the ground.
"How long are we going to keep this up?"
Lena laughs again, though not in her practiced way, but the real expression of a woman Supergirl has come to know quite intimately.
"My bed is yours," she answers smoothly. "But I'm afraid this time it's going to cost you."
Supergirl hesitates, mulling over the moral ramifications of taking a dive for her own selfish desires.
"He's a billionaire," Lena offers up. "Replacing a helicopter will hardly put a dent in Oliver Queen's expense account."
Supergirl glances back at the flying machine, tells herself that not everyone can be perfect, and concedes to Lena's demands.
"Fine," she agrees with a sigh. "But make it look good."
"Oh honey," Lena responds over the hum of her suit achieving maximum power. "Don't I always?"
/\
"You seemed awfully pleased with yourself," Kara comments, as Lena snuggles closer into her neck.
"Mmm," she hums against Kara's pulse. "Got my girl, got my whirlybird, it's been a good day."
Got her whirlybird indeed, Kara muses. It's the first thing she noticed coming into the lair, perched like a prized trophy in the middle of the hangar bay. Kara had been delayed over an hour at the DEO, the paper thin excuses to J'onn, Winn, and Alex for why Lena Luthor keeps getting the best of her being cross examined with a frightening scrutiny. Lena making her pay for such tardiness with an endless array of taunts and teases, before finally letting Kara succumb to the desire that net her the helicopter in the first place.
"I'm going to need you to explain one more time why you wanted it," Kara states, fingers running through Lena's hair, as Lena gives a gentle nip at her skin.
"Don't you know?" She begins. "A Luthor and a helicopter go together like bread and butter."
Kara's breath catches from the nip, turning into Lena and kissing her properly, before pulling back and waiting for the conversation to continue.
"Father always preferred them as a mode of transportation," Lena continues. "Lex too. In fact, the first day I was adopted into the family they whisked me up into the clouds in one. First time I ever left the ground. First time I had a last name. "
"Oh," Kara replies, not expecting an actual reason for committing grand theft aircraft. "That's kind of sweet, I guess."
Lena chuckles against her.
"It also helps that I probably put a bigger frown on that sourpuss' face."
Kara is momentarily confused.
"Who? Oliver Queen?"
"Have you ever met him?"
"No."
"If you had, you would have helped me steal it."
Kara laughs.
"He can't be that bad."
Lena's hand lifts to Kara's chin, thumb stroking gently.
"Always believing the best of people, aren't you little sunflower?"
Kara kisses her.
"Can't be helped."
"Don't I know it," Lena agrees. "One of the things I love about you."
The word is said so casually, Kara almost doesn't recognize it as a declaration, the first time uttered from one of them.
Kara kisses her again, and neither say much more after that.
/\
Supergirl stands next to the podium, looking out at the massive crowd, as the mayor delivers their speech for the sesquicentennial celebration of National City's founding. Ten minutes in and there's no cause for alarm, which honestly is a little surprising, with a gathering like this usually the kind of catnip that sends super villains flocking.
She can't help but tune out most of the speech, it the textbook cheerleader rhetoric any town would congratulate itself on for existing, but she smiles and waves whenever the mayor makes a point to include her. Fifteen minutes becomes twenty, and Supergirl really wonders how one speech could carry on so long, when the expected mayhem finally comes calling.
Explosions at the back of the crowd send people scattering, and Supergirl takes to the air in less than a second, scouting for the wounded and taking damage control. She saves a little boy from a collapsing camera tower, when the people still running around fall to their knees from the wailing cry of a banshee.
"Oh no," Supergirl mutters to herself, hands over her ears, turning to see Siobhan Smythe screeching at the citizens in all her silver and black colored glory. She plans for a supersonic rush attack when the spark of electricity snaps at her back, sending her sprawling face first into the ground. Hair in her eyes, she quickly brushing it back just in time to see Livewire smiling cruelly with her next arc of lightning popping between her fingers.
"Hey blondie," she taunts. "Miss me?"
Police are on the scene with guns drawn, but none of them dare fire when so many civilians are still running about. Silver Banshee turns her attention toward the uniforms, pushing them back with her audible attacks, while Livewire squares up against Supergirl still splayed on the concrete.
Fists clench as she braces for the shock to come, almost recoiling on instinct, when Livewire abruptly pitches forward to kiss the sidewalk just as Supergirl had.
"Looks like you could use a hand," Guardian offers gruffly, standing above the alabaster foe.
Supergirl wants to tell him no, that he should get out of here too, but never gets the chance as Livewire shoots a bolt from the ground, hitting her dead center in the chest. Guardian moves to strike her once again, but Supergirl calls him off.
"No!" She shouts. "I assume you have ear plugs in that head gear?"
"I do," he acknowledges.
"Then handle the Banshee, I got this!"
"You wish," Livewire seethes, electricity crackling around her, and bursting from her body at all angles.
Supergirl's arms raise to block the energy, flying back with the force of it, landing on her back this time.
"Not looking so super, are you girl?" Livewire jeers, arms shooting forward with another blast.
She barely misses crashing into the commemorative statue, dedicated somewhere in the middle of the mayor's long winded speech, before smashing into the ground once again. The Banshee's scream destroyed the communicator in her ear, but Supergirl has no doubt the DEO are on their way, she just wonders how much punishment it's going to take before back up arrives.
From the corner of her eye, she can see Guardian holding his own against Silver Banshee, using that shield of his to block her sonic screams. The half second stray of attention is enough of an opening for Livewire to attack again, but Supergirl manages to dodge the burst this time around.
"Not getting bored are you?" Livewire teases. "I'm just getting warmed up."
Supergirl is about to reply bring it on with as much confidence as she can muster getting tossed around like a rag doll, when a gleaming solid purple suit of armor lands deftly between them. For a moment no one moves, both Supergirl and Livewire assessing this new gladiator tossing their hat into the arena.
"Friend of yours?" Livewire asks first. "Three against two, that's hardly fair."
Supergirl doesn't have time to reply, the armored warrior lifting a hand and firing a bolas toward Livewire, the villain instantly constricted by the cords.
"You think this can stop me?" She rages. "Boy are you in for a shock!"
Supergirl nearly rolls her eyes at such an awful pun, but Livewire makes good on her threat, energy buzzing around her and building to a dangerous level. The armor turns its back on the villain, offering a hand toward Supergirl, and pulling her to her feet. One quick x-ray scan, and she feels like an idiot for not realizing who it could be off the color scheme alone.
"Lookout!" Supergirl shouts when Livewire's onslaught seems imminent, stepping in front of the suit and staring blankly when Livewire's energy doesn't pulse but disperses.
"What the hell?" Livewire questions, trying to build up another charge, but only pops off a few weak sparks.
Silver Banshee then lets out such a wail, all of the people still around without protective ear pieces fall to their knees once again, Guardian covered by his shield but sent sailing through the air by the force. Purple suit aims the opposite hand toward the howler, firing another bolas that doesn't miss its mark, the scream instantly halted on impact.
"It's a wonder you heroes ever save anyone," Lena's voice tuts from behind the purple helmet.
The police converge on the fallen criminals, and Lena doesn't hesitate shoot off into the sky when they get close, leaving Supergirl staring after the streak that shiny suit leaves against the clouds.
/\
"It's quite an upgrade," Kara comments walking into the hangar, where Lena has her new battle suit propped up and getting a wipe down.
"Yes well," Lena acknowledges. "It was about time I think. I mean, I wore Lex's to feel close to him, but it is woefully outdated."
Kara presses herself into Lena's back, who instantly halts her chore, the blonde's arms going around the brunette's waist followed by a soft kiss pressed into her shoulder.
"So affectionate," Lena comments.
"I'm grateful," Kara replies. "Proud even. You saved a lot of people today."
Lena shifts in Kara's arms, so that they're face to face, wrapping her own around Kara's neck.
"That was hardly my intent."
Kara's mouth drops open.
"B-but you swooped in there like violet knight, took out my arch nemesis' like they were nothing."
Lena bumps Kara's nose with her own.
"It's wasn't too terribly complicated," she states."Just a simple matter of specific electrical resistance and sonic dampening,"
Kara is undeterred.
"That is exactly what I'm talking about. Think of all the people you could help with your kind of genius. If you were a hero-"
"But I'm not a hero," Lena interrupts. "I'll never be one."
"But-"
"I know, darling. Always looking for the good in me."
"There is good in you. Even if it wasn't your intent, you saved-"
"I saved you," Lena cuts in. "Only you. If you thought I could just stand idly by while those power hungry twits dared to lay hands on-"
Lena kisses her in quick succession, one two three.
"I never even asked if you were alright."
Kara dips her forehead to press against Lena's.
"I'm alright."
For a moment they just breath each other in.
"You said something," Kara begins. "The other day. About my believing in the best of people. That you-"
"Loved that about you? Yes I did, and yes I do."
Kara can't help the smile that comes.
"Okay but, does that mean..."
Lena kisses her again, sweet and sure.
"That I love you?" She fills in. "That I'm in love with you?"
Kara ducks her head, shying away.
"Do you?" She asks. "Are you?"
Lena laughs softly.
"Of course I am, you silly girl. To think that I would betray the Ladies of Doom for some flight of fancy..."
Lena kisses her again, and again. Then once more, just to be sure.
"But being in love with you doesn't change who I am, Kara. To become a hero, simply on your behalf, would be as hypocritical and disingenuous as any scoundrel is naturally inclined."
Tears well in Kara's eyes, as she tries and fails to keep them from falling.
"I love you, too." She confesses. "So much. But I'm afraid."
"Of what?"
"That we have an expiration date," she admits. "A hero in love with a villain isn't some romantic comedy, it's a stalemate."
Lena wipes the tears from Kara's cheeks.
"If that's the case," she begins. "My vengeance will be swift and merciless. I just may burn this city to the ground."
Kara's eyes go wide.
"But that's just my nature, sweetheart. It doesn't mean you're at fault, or have done anything wrong."
Lena's hand lifts to Kara's chin.
"It doesn't mean I wouldn't be grateful for every single moment I got to have you."