In the days following Kara's departure, new identity and clothing in hand, Oliver kept an eye on the news from Central City. He knew someone - Barry or Cisco, if not Kara herself - would tell him when (if, a rebellious part of his mind muttered at him) she returned to her Earth, but in the meantime, he watched for news of her.
Even as he did, he berated himself for a fool - she was her own person, and she didn't need him anymore, not once he got her the documents that would let her start a life on this Earth.
Still, Oliver's chest swelled with pride when he saw the first reports of Supergirl helping the Flash stop a mutated shark - seriously, Barry? A mutated shark? - that had escaped confinement and terrorized Central City.
And he envied Barry and his closeness, not just physical, to Kara.
- S -
A month after her arrival on Earth-1, Kara's hopes were fading. Cisco hadn't been able to identify, let alone isolate, whatever interference kept him from opening a portal to her Earth. He put up a good front, but Kara wouldn't fool herself: it was looking less and less likely that she'd ever go home to Earth-38.
It was a hard truth that she accepted one night as she perched atop the undamaged spire at .R. Labs, just as she'd once had to accept that her parents were sending her away from the only home she'd ever known, just so she'd have a chance at survival.
But, as she'd said, at least on this Earth she had friends who were willing to help. It could have been much worse, and she thanked Rao that it wasn't.
Her phone vibrated at her hip. Kara pulled it from her pocket and couldn't help smiling when she saw a text from Oliver. He'd texted or called every couple of days, just to check in. Tonight's text was no different.
How're you doing?
Well enough, she typed. Surprisingly bored.
No metas out and about?
Nope, she typed. And everyone else is busy with their lives.
And I'm alone, she added silently.
His response came immediately. You know you're always welcome here.
Now?
Now.
Kara had barely returned the phone to her pocket before she launched herself into the sky.
- S -
Kara soared over Star City, scanning for Oliver or any of his team with her super-senses. The distinctive twang of a bowstring released caught her attention and she banked toward the sound.
Of course it came from an alley. She touched down behind four men who faced Oliver. Two of them had machine guns, while the other two brandished semi-automatic pistols. In the face of that, the arrow Oliver had nocked looked pathetically ineffective.
"Not so scary now, are you?" One of the men brandished his machine gun.
"You should be scared of us," another said, more menacingly.
"Why?" Oliver's voice was electronically filtered, but still Kara heard a trace of amusement in it. "You're right where I want you."
"You have your back to a wall, facing two machine guns, and we're right where you want us?" All four of them laughed.
"Yes," Oliver said. "With your backs to her."
Even though Oliver's face was shadowed by his hood, Kara saw the amusement glinting in his eyes.
She smiled back, then said, "So nice of you to line them up for me."
"Just keeping them busy for you."
All four whirled, and in an instant their expressions went from shock to disdain.
"Shoot her!"
Kara moved. Bullets wouldn't even slow her down, but she couldn't risk anyone else - especially Oliver - getting hurt by a ricochet when they bounced off her body.
Five seconds later, all four were on the ground, unconscious, and Oliver was returning his arrow to its place in his quiver. He tapped a button on his suit.
"That's it, Overwatch," he said, and his voice sounded normal. "Tell Detective Malone he has a present waiting for him, and you can call it a night."
"You really kept them busy until I got here?" Kara asked when Oliver ended his call. "That's so sweet."
"Don't let word of that get around," Oliver teased.
"I'm sure no one would believe me. Any other bad guys to go after?"
"Not tonight," he said. "Tonight, my friend needs me more than my city does."
- S -
Half an hour later, Oliver climbed the ladder to the roof above the loft, an open bottle of wine and two glasses in one hand.
Kara, of course, was already on the roof. She'd changed from her red-and-blue dress into a sweater and casual trousers. "The roof?"
"Warmer tonight than it was when you took me up on a roof," Oliver said. "Besides, it's one of the few non-work related places we can talk without being overheard."
"Good points, both." Kara held the glasses while he poured, then perched on the ledge.
Oliver put the bottle aside and took a position next to her, accepting the glass she offered him. For long minutes, they sat and sipped, watching Star City slowly, finally, fall asleep.
Finally, Oliver said, "How are you really doing?"
"Huh?" Kara frowned at him.
"You're quieter than I've known you to be before. In my experience, when someone's quiet, something's bothering them."
Kara looked down at her glass. "It's dumb."
"It's not."
She gave a half-shrug. "It's just -"
When she was silent too long, Oliver hazarded a guess. "You miss your Earth?"
"Of course," she said. "But that's not it."
"Then what is it?"
"I said before that if I had to be stranded somewhere, at least I'm someplace where I have friends who can help."
"And we are," Oliver said. "Or isn't Cisco still trying to get you home?"
He'd damned well better be. As much as Oliver hoped Kara could stay on his Earth, he'd never wanted her to lose hers. If Cisco wasn't trying to help her, Oliver would have to pay a visit to the other man, bow in hand.
"He is," Kara was hurrying to assure him. "But he's also helping Caitlin with her powers, and Wally with his."
Oliver relaxed muscles he hadn't realized had tensed.
"But it's not just him," Kara continued. "Barry and Iris are starting their life together, and even though I don't feel like that for Barry, I'd just be in the way. Joe's great, but he has a job, and Cecile -"
"You're lonely."
"I said it's dumb." Kara took a swallow of her wine, and when she lowered her glass, Oliver caught her hand in his.
"It's not dumb," he told her firmly. "You're a people person, Kara. They're just not giving you what you need."
She nodded, but didn't say anything.
After a moment, Oliver took a breath. "You don't have to stay in Central City, you know."
"But Cisco's there."
"And he can open a portal to wherever you are when he has news," Oliver reminded her. "Or he can call you and you can be where he is in a -"
"Flash?" Kara suggested, humor lacing her tone.
"Matter of minutes," he finished. "Maybe an hour. You don't have to be tethered to him."
Kara took a sip of her wine, her expression thoughtful. "Where would I go?"
"Anywhere," Oliver replied. "Here, if you wanted." Please want.
That tiny voice in his head didn't sound like him - not the him that he'd become after Lian Yu. That him had returned to then-Starling City determined to be a lone crusader. Over time, first Dig, then Felicity, and then a double handful of others had joined his crusade even as the crusade changed.
Still, despite those additional comrades and his relationships with Laurel, Sara, Felicity - at some level, he'd still been him, that lone crusader accepting assistance only reluctantly. Why was he now hoping Kara would move to Star City, even if she never joined his crusade?
"Really?"
Oliver chuckled. "You don't have to sound so skeptical."
Kara looked away, and even in the dim light, Oliver could see pink tinging her cheek. "I was just - would it be any different in Star City than in Central City?"
"I'm not in a relationship you'd get in the way of." Oliver tried to keep his tone light, and judging by Kara's smile, he managed it.
After a moment, she nodded. "Okay."
- S -
Since Kara had moved to Starling City, dinner with Oliver and Thea had become a Sunday night ritual - assuming there were no crises that required the intervention of Mayor Queen, Green Arrow, or Supergirl. Tonight, Kara was hosting, and as soon as she put dinner in the oven, she sped-washed the dishes so the apartment would be clean when they arrived.
Except when she opened the door, only Oliver stood in the hallway.
"Where's Thea?"
"She has a date."
Kara blinked. "There's someone who's actually good enough for your sister?"
"She thinks so," Oliver said. "And that's what matters. She may not be you, but I'd be more worried for him if he tried something she didn't want."
Kara had to laugh at that. "Good point."
"Besides," Oliver added, "if it starts to get serious, Felicity will run a background check."
"Isn't that … overkill?" Kara asked.
"I don't want her to have to keep secrets from him, if he's the one for her."
Barry's words from the party last New Year's Eve came back to her. Oliver has an odd way of showing he cares.
"Makes sense," was all she said. "C'mon in. The lasagna's almost done."
"Smells great." Oliver took a step into the apartment, then paused, frowning slightly. "You're actually using the oven?"
Kara shut the door behind him and led the way toward the tiny kitchen. "I found a chocolate torte recipe I wanted to try, and even with heat vision, I can't speed up the chemistry in baking."
"So there's something Supergirl can't do?"
Kara glared at him, even as she grinned in response to his teasing. Oliver set the bottle of wine he'd brought on the kitchen island and went to the cabinet where Kara kept the glasses.
"I got a job," she blurted, then winced. She'd meant to tell him, but she hadn't meant to sound like a nervous schoolgirl when she did.
"What kind of job?"
"You know I've been writing letters to the editor at the Sentinel, right?"
Oliver nodded. "And commenting on some of their opinion pieces."
Kara stared at him. "You read the Sentinel?"
Oliver ducked his head, and if he were anyone else, Kara would have thought his expression was … sheepish? "Felicity does. She tells me about them. Seeing your perspective on things is interesting."
"Even when I don't agree with what you do as mayor?"
"Especially then."
"Oh." Kara felt herself flushing at the warmth in his gaze - maybe even approval? She found herself hoping so. "I guess my comments are more popular than their columnists. Or that's what the editor said when he emailed me and offered me a regular column."
"Congratulations." Oliver handed her a glass of the wine he'd poured while she spoke, then tapped his glass to hers. "To Star City's newest columnist."
She sipped, but before she could say anything else, the timer on the oven dinged. Kara set her glass aside and turned to pull the lasagna and the torte from the oven. Oliver moved around her in the tiny kitchen, getting plates and flatware. As tight as the quarters were, he never bumped into her, barely even brushed against her, and she found herself wondering if he were avoiding touching her on purpose.
If he is, it's your own fault. Since she'd moved to Star City, even since she'd been on this Earth, Kara hadn't made any move to continue their sexual relationship, and gentleman that he was, Oliver hadn't pushed her for anything she didn't want to give him.
She hadn't wanted to give him anything - give more of herself to him than she already had - when she'd expected to be going home soon. Now, though…
Now, Kara tried to keep the conversation light through dinner, but it felt strained even to her, and Oliver's quizzical expression told him he felt the difference, as well.
She was surprised that he waited until she served slices of chocolate torte before saying, "What's wrong, Kara?"
"Nothing's wrong," she answered immediately.
"Really? Because we've never talked like this before."
She laughed, a nervous reflex. "We talk all the time, Oliver."
"Yes. We talk. We don't make conversation, and that's all you've done this evening. So what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Kara said, then added, "not wrong. Just … different."
"What's different, then?" His tone gentled, and she swallowed.
"What's different is that I'm realizing that I probably won't go home."
"Don't give up hope, Kara. Cisco and Barry are doing all they can -"
"I know." She hadn't meant the words to come out so sharply, and she swallowed before repeating, "I'm not giving up hope, but it's been four months. I have to make a life here."
"You are," Oliver pointed out. "You just told me about your job, and you have this apartment. You have friends."
"I do, and I'm grateful for all of that." Kara took a breath and looked up to meet his gaze. "But I've just been going through the motions, thinking that tomorrow I might go home. I'll never give up hope, but I have to start living, really living the life I have on this Earth in the meantime."
She held his gaze, tension making her throat tight, willing him to understand the things she didn't know how to say.
Then he smiled, and even as a part of her relaxed, a different tension knotted in her stomach.
Oliver stretched a hand toward her and pushed back from the table. Kara stood, and blinked when he simply sat there, waiting. A moment later, she realized what he wanted, and she rose to float over the table and into his lap.
His arms came around her and he nuzzled his lips against her ear. "Kara."
"I thought you never miss," she murmured and turned her mouth to meet his.
It was as though they'd never touched before, never kissed, and Kara could only savor the moment and the heat that spread from her belly throughout her body as he explored her mouth, teasing with his tongue, nibbling her lower lip with his teeth. It didn't hurt - it couldn't hurt - but somehow lightning sang along her nerves and she moaned against his mouth.
"I missed you," he rasped, and she shivered before kissing him again.
When his hand slid up under her skirt, she moaned and parted her legs to give him better access. She'd missed him, too, but his touch distracted her enough that she couldn't form the words to say so. Instead, she tried to show him with her reactions, with her exploration of his body, with her kisses.
Then her focus narrowed, narrowed to that point between her legs, and the tension coiling there where his fingers worked and stroked her, and all she wanted was to pull him closer, cling to him as he brought her over the edge.