A/N: This is set in my usual supercorp universe.
"Lena?" Kara asked softly, breaking the quiet of the night as she turned onto her side and looked up at her girlfriend.
"Hmm?" Lena hummed. The pages of her book fluttered over her hand as the cover pulled shut when she gave her attention to Kara, taking in the mused blonde hair, still slightly damp from her shower, and the cheek mushed against the pillow.
"I wanted to ask you…" Kara shifted upward until she was sitting, the comforter folding at her waist. Her shoulder scraped the headboard as she faced Lena and dropped her hands into her lap. "Well, I was going to surprise you with a very spectacular, probably slightly overwhelming Christmas display that I was planning on setting up overnight with my then I thought, you're probably pretty used to extravagant Christmas setups—I mean, I saw pictures from the Luthor Christmas party every year, and honestly, even I was impressed, and I have high standards for Christmas."
Lena put her book to the side, waiting with soft eyes for Kara to wind back to her main point.
"So anyway," Kara continued, fingers fidgeting atop the comforter gathered over her legs. "I was just wondering, if maybe you'd want to decorate for Christmas with me?" Her eyes lifted to meet Lena's. "The real way—all Vince Guaraldi and messy tinsel, no superspeed."
Lena smiled, eyes shiny as she settled her hand over Kara's. "Kara, I'd love to."
"Yeah?" Kara released a breath, shoulders relaxing.
"Of course." Lena gave Kara a squeeze. "I want to do it all with you. The real way or the super way—it doesn't matter as long as you're there, all right?"
Kara nodded. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Lena took off her glasses, setting them on top of her book on the nightstand, and switched off the light from the lamp. Inky blue fell over the room, few streetlights and stars sending a muted glow through the window.
"Goodnight, Kara."
The blonde searched for Lena's hand under the sheets, twisting their fingers together and settling to the sound of Lena's heartbeat. "Night, Lena."
/
"So," Lena said, standing in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips as she looked around the room. "Where do we start?"
"The tree!" Kara popped up from behind a stack of plastic storage bins. The ornaments inside rattled with the speed of her movement and blonde wisps of hair spread out across face. She ran a hand over her hair to tame it, grinning at Lena. "I'll go grab it."
She maneuvered the tree from its waiting-area in the corner of the living room where they'd left it yesterday after returning from their around-the-world gallivant to secure a tree with just the right height, width, and character—difficult criteria by Kara's standard.
"All right," Kara said, stepping back after securing the fir tree in its stand. She dusted her palms against her pajama pants, leaving green needles stuck on the red and reindeer-dotted fabric.
Lena laughed and shook her head.
"Laugh now, Lena, but you're going to be a Christmas mess, too, by the time we're finished here." Kara grinned as she peeled off the lid of the first box, tossing it to the side and beginning to untangle the red ribbon and silvery lights.
"It'd be my pleasure." Lena caught Kara's eyes and scrunched up her nose, and Kara had to fight the urge to drop all the tree decorations and kiss her right there.
"Oh man," Kara sighed, straightening from her position over the storage container and shaking her head with a length of Christmas lights looped around her forearm. "We're going to have to make some changes before we start."
A crease formed between Lena's brows. "What do you mean?" She moved closer to the stack of boxes to help Kara.
"I can't work with you looking like that." Kara gave an exaggerated shake of her head, getting hair in her face again.
Lena balked, throwing her hands out in defense. "What is that supposed to mean?!" She exclaimed, lips twitching upward.
"Here." Kara set down the lights and rifled through the bin, producing a Santa hat and settling it over Lena's head.
The pompom flopped to the front and the hat slid down, partially covering Lena's eyes. Lena let a pout take over her own features, standing still as Kara moved around her. The blonde's heart skipped a beat.
"Hmm, not quite." Kara rummaged through the box again.
She removed Lena's hat, settling it over her own head, and replacing it with a headband sporting felt reindeer antlers.
Kara tilted back, an arm resting on each of Lena's shoulders, to examine her work. "Oooh, that's good. Just one more thing."
There was another bout of shuffling in the box before Kara turned back to Lena, slipping a glowing Christmas-light necklace over her head and putting on a matching set.
"Perfect," Kara declared. "I can finally take you seriously."
Smirking, Lena rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous."
Kara just beamed. "Let's start with the lights. Then we can do the ribbon and ornaments."
/
"Is that all of them?" Lena asked, hooking a glittering crimson orb onto the bottom layer of branches, beneath a line of homemade ornaments—pictures of Alex from elementary school glued onto popsicle sticks and construction paper, alongside two of Kara when she must have been in middle school, one of Maggie, and even older, frail looking versions from both Eliza and Jerimiah's childhood.
"Almost. I'll be right back," Kara called as she disappeared into the bedroom, returning a moment later with a green silhouette of a Christmas tree cut into thick construction paper, with a hole punched in the top, threaded with red ribbon.
"What's that?"
"Yours."
Kara flipped it around. In the center of the paper was a school photo of Lena; she'd been four years old at the time, in her last year of pre-school, wearing a navy sweater with a dinosaur on the front—the kind of clothing she'd stopped wearing once she moved in with the Luthors and Lillian dictated what she wore.
With the picture in front of her, the day came back in snapshots, watercolor blurring together—her mother running a brush through her hair, smoothing it down and away from her face; sitting in the backseat of her mother's car, humming along to the radio and swinging her legs from the car seat; the end of the school day, sprinting into her arms and being settled on her mother's hip for the walk through the parking lot.
Lena blinked, realizing the homemade ornament was in her hands, her grip so hard the paper crinkled at the edge. She flattened the crease between her thumb and pointer finger.
Raising her gaze to Kara, she cleared her throat before talking. "Where did you get this picture?"
"I—um, I called in a favor to Winn. He worked some of his computer magic and found old records from your preschool. If it's too much we don't have to… I just thought—"
"No." Lena looked back down at the paper and swallowed the lump in her throat. "It's perfect… It—Kara, we're not even a week into December and this already the best Christmas I can remember."
"You like it?"
Lena caught Kara's eye. "I love it." She held the paper close to her chest. "More than I can even express. Thank you."
Kara smiled, squeezing Lena's shoulder. "You're welcome. You needed a Danvers ornament, too," she explained. "To match the rest of us."
Lena's lip wobbled and tears gathered in the corner of her eyes, she dropped her gaze to the floor and focused on her girlfriends snowflake covered socks.
"Oh no," Kara soothed, a slight laugh lifting her voice. She pressed on the balls of her feet, wrapping her arms around Lena and enveloping her in a hug. "I love you. So, so much, Lena."
She held Lena, and warmth billowed between them.
Lena tightened her grip around Kara. "I love you, too." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, waiting a moment, breathing in the Christmas tree scent from the needles in Kara's hair. "So, where do I put this?" She asked, stepping back.
"Well, there's one more thing you have to do before it's tree-ready." Kara pulled two plastic tubes of glitter glue from the pocket of her pajama pants. "You have to write your name on the back in glitter glue, and the year, too, if you remember. So, red or silver?" She held the plastic containers out to Lena.
"Oh my god," Lena laughed, but took the red without further comment.
Kara grinned and pocketed the silver.
Fifteen minutes later found Lena sitting on the floor beside Kara, their legs touching—all the counter space overtaken by boxes of Christmas decorations—in their winter-themed pajamas. They stopped for a lunch break, eating takeout from the containers, while Lena printed her name and the year the picture was taken in thick, glimmering glue, smiling the whole time with Kara's shoulder pressed against hers.
/
"Be careful! Be careful! Kara, be careful!"
"I'm not going to fall, I can fly, Lena!" Kara reminded from her perch on the highest step of the ladder, pushing human physics as she stretched to secure the last tack, stringing the white Christmas lights around the parameter of the living room as Lena threaded them up to her.
Lena pursed her lips and crossed her arms as she released the last strip of lights to Kara. "Okay, that's true, but still… just, I worry…"
"I know," Kara said, leaping off the top step and hovering to the ground. Her hand slid around Lena's shoulder as she drew the other woman in for a quick kiss. "But you don't have to."
"Mhmm, hold on," Lena said, a moan edging into her voice as she pulled Kara back in for another kiss, her lips tasting of mocha and sugar and a hint of mint. The tension dropped from her shoulders as Kara's touch wrapped around her back, thumb rubbing gently.
"Shall we assess our work now that the final touches are complete?" Lena asked when they allowed some space to slip between them.
"Absolutely."
Kara skirted away to turn off the normal lights. The evening sun cast dim shadows through the window before Kara flipped a switch to replace the yellow with glimmering white, illuminating the room as the miniature bulbs sparked on.
The shining white gleamed off the ornaments, until the whole room was glowing.
"Wow."
Lena watched as the light caught her ornament, tucked beside Kara's and the rest of her family; and Kara's gaze wandered onto Lena's, where the sparkling was reflected in her misty eyes.
Kara brushed her hand against the back of Lena's, linking their fingers together when Lena opened her palm to Kara, squeezing tight.