The "ding" of the elevator bell shakes Kara out of her flashback, and she remembers that she is rushing towards the cinema...and Lena. While speed-walking, she takes out her phone to text the Super Friends and tell them she would be late. She has 5 unread messages.

Lena : I'll be late sorry! Mtg ran long.

James: Sorry guys, can't make it tonight. Lucy's in National City for a conference and we need to talk. Wish me luck.

Winn: Good luck James! I can't make it either. Alex is being a slave-driver

Alex: Hey! It's not my fault that the servers at the DEO suddenly went dark.

J'on : Someone is sniffing around the sacred symbols I buried. I have to investigate. See you all next week

Kara : You guys suck.

Kara calls Lena, nervous even though she has dialled her best friend's number a million times.

"Hey Kara," Kara can hear the stress and fatigue in her voice.

"Hey, Lena," Kara keeps her voice light. "Dunno if you saw the group chat, but the rest can't make it anymore. You wanna postpone?"

Lena sighs. "Oh, dear." A beat, as she considers. "No, let's go ahead. I need movie night after a week like this. And I know that Jess went to quite a bit of trouble to set this up for us at Stories."

"Are you sure? You sound stressed and tired," Kara says. Please don't postpone, please don't postpone... She feels a blush creeping up her face and neck again as she recognises how useless she is being. Lena needs her rest but Kara needs to see her. The blonde misses her even though it has only been a day since their last lunch "date".

"Yes," Lena says, the smile returning to her voice, "I'm sure, Kara. Thanks for thinking of me as always," Kara melts a little at the affection in Lena's tone. "My driver says we're reaching in two minutes. See you there,"

"Great! I'm reaching soon too. See you!" Kara says brightly. She fans her face, willing the blush to go away before she arrives at the cinema and Lena notices.

She stands outside the theatre, nervousness crippling her from taking another step. She takes a few deep breaths. Don't be silly. It's just Lena, your best friend for the past two years. And besides, if you don't enter soon, she's going to come out and find you standing here, paralysed.

She goes in.

The lights are on, and she counts only twenty seats in the cavernous theatre which can easily seat a hundred. Each seat looks like a self-contained mini cabin, like the Business Class ones that she had walked past on the way to the Economy Class section the last time she had taken a plane.

There are a few seats which are clustered in pairs, and she sees a familiar raven-black ponytail sticking out from the back of one such loveseat. Kara feels her face grow red again and she begins wishing that she can somehow freeze-breath the blush away. Lena must have sat down absent-mindedly while reading a work email or text, not noticing that it was a couple seat.

Her stomach churning with equal parts excitement and anxiety at being so close to Lena, she hurries towards the seat and sits down.

Lena immediately puts down the phone she had been frowning at and gives Kara a big smile that torches Kara's heart. Kara beams back at her - she fears that her uber-keen smile would somehow betray her love but she is unable to reel it in. Especially when she sees that Lena is wearing that gorgeous purple three-piece suit that makes her look absolutely...hot. The suit had earned Lena multiple appreciative glances from Kara the last time the CEO had worn it - looks which Kara hoped the other woman had not noticed. Kara swallows hard, taking in every detail of Lena in the suit. Keep your shit together, Kara Zor-El!

"Shall we start?" Lena asked, still smiling.

"Uh...sure," Kara replied, composing herself. "What are we watching today?"

"It's a surprise," Lena says with a wink and her trademark Luthor faux-diabolical smirk. "I'm so glad you guys let me choose the movie this time round - I think you're gonna love it," Lena looks so gleeful that Kara imagines this must have been what Little Lena had looked like in one of her rare happy moments as a child. The image in her mind is incredibly adorable. Stop it , she scolds herself.

"I can't wait," Kara says, still beaming. She didn't pick the movie just for you , she reminds herself. But her heart ignores her brain, and sings.

Lena presses a button on her phone and the cinema darkens. To Kara's surprise, Lena's hand finds hers, covers it, gives it a squeeze. To the blonde's disappointment, Lena pulls her hand away as the opening credits play.

Kara's hand flies up to her mouth. It is The Greatest Showman, which is not even out for another two days! No wonder Jess had difficulty setting this up. She had once squealed excitedly to Lena when she saw an article in CatCo magazine that the movie was coming out soon, and it sounded like it was going to be an epic musical. Of course it would be, it had Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron in it!

Subtlety be damned, Kara thinks, suddenly feeling brave. She finds Lena's hand in the darkness and gives it a squeeze. The Kryptonian leans over and whispers in Lena's ear, "Thank you." Kara is not entirely sure why she is whispering when it is just the two of them, but it seems appropriate.

"I remember you saying that you wanted to watch this," Lena whispers back, undisguised glee in her voice. She grabs Kara's hand and waves it around in excitement.

Kara is glad that Lena has no super-hearing because the reporter's heartbeat is now, she reckons, at least as loud as the surround-sound speakers.

"Oh, before I forget…" Lena presses a button on the touchpad in her armrest. A few seconds later, a waiter appears with a gigantic bucket of popcorn. It smells absolutely incredible, all caramelly and buttery, and Kara's mouth immediately starts to water.

"You didn't think I'd forget the popcorn, did you?" Lena teases.

"You're the BEST!" Kara immediately stuffs a handful of popcorn into her mouth. It tastes like heaven.

She swallows quickly and asks at a normal volume, whispers all but forgotten, "OMG WHAT'S IN THIS! It tastes AMAZING!"

"Well, Kara," Lena drawls, "it's seasalt caramel popcorn with freshly-churned butter and macadamia nuts that were harvested just this morning in Hawaii." Her Irish accent creeps in towards the end of the sentence and Kara feels her own breath catch. Lena pinches Kara's chin with her thumb and forefinger. "Enjoy," she smirks again at Kara's mindblown expression.

Once Lena turns her face away from Kara and towards the screen, Kara takes the opportunity to study the profile of her best friend. The ponytail hitched high on her head, showing off her aristocratic neck and beautiful jawline. Those playful eyebrows, her deep dimples, the high cheekbones, that straight, perfect nose, her full, pillowy lips. Then Hugh Jackman starts singing, and the opening scene is so vibrant, so colourful that she becomes distracted. She wants to stare at Lena whenever she can, use this golden opportunity where they are in the dark and alone, but the story is too absorbing and the songs too catchy and soon, she gets sucked in and forgets to steal glances at her incredible best friend.

Kara is already misty-eyed at the beginning of the movie, touched by the love story between a pauper and a rich man's daughter. She is particularly moved by the couple's determination to be together, awed by the dreams that Hugh Jackman's character had, and how his onscreen wife supported him through it all. This is why she loves musicals - decades of a lifetime could be condensed into marvellous minutes, through soulful song, clever editing and expert choreography.

She feels something move underneath her hand, and is shocked to discover that while watching the courtship scene onscreen, she had subconsciously moved her hand to cover Lena's, and the brunette is now turning her palm upward to meet hers. "I'm a little cold, I hope you don't mind," Lena whispers apologetically, then bites her lip. Kara was never able to reject lip-biting Lena from the first time the billionaire did it to her, even though the reporter had not yet realised how important the human would become to the alien. Besides, Lena's hand was cold, and Kara thanked Rao for her Kryptonian physiology, which effectively made her a furnace. Blocking out thoughts of what Lena might make of this action, Kara sandwiches Lena's hand in both of her own and rubs gently to warm it up. Lena smiles back at her gratefully.