The rain is starting to lull her to sleep the longer she listened to it. Sitting a little slumped over in her office chair alone in her penthouse apartment absently swirling the amber of her chosen alcohol around in its glass.
She takes another swallow as she hears another low roll of thunder from outside the only thought on her mind:
Kara hates thunderstorms.
Lena lets out a small groan as she swivels her chair and reaches for the decanter behind the desk as the thought crosses her mind while she refills her glass.
Why should she care what the other woman hates?
It wasn't like they were friends anymore anyway so she should stop caring. Stop wondering what her ex-best friend was doing now the longer the rain beat against the large window that had replaced the outer wall leading to the balcony of her penthouse.
Was she laying on her bed in her own apartment huddled up under a mountain of blankets with her hands clasped over her ears rocking back and forth as she waited for the storm to pass?
Did she head to Alex's to snuggle with her tough as nails big sister letting Alex calm away her fears? If she had would Kelly be there to help? Where Alex and Kelly even seeing one another anymore?
Actually, the longer she things on those kinds of thoughts as she twists around in her chair Lena swears, she can almost make out her ex-best friend silhouetted against the darkness of the surrounding skyline as the lightning cracks across the sky outside.
And not her super-powered world-saving hero persona at that.
No in that flash of light all she sees is Kara.
Just Kara. Without her glasses of course now, she knew those were simply part of her disguise to pass as human.
Her blue eyes were wet with tears, her clothes damp from the rain her long blonde hair heavy from the downpour now plastered across her face and her neck as she hovers just outside the reach of the office lights and balcony's reach.
Like a pitiful drowned rat looking angel in rain-soaked clothes.
Lana shakes her head and looks again. Seeing nothing this time she lets out a slow breathtaking another larger swallow of her drink. This is just the quarantine messing with her mind. Just her mind playing on her longing for some kind of human contact the longer she is forced to go without it while the world rips itself apart in panic. And with the storm naturally, her mind chose Kara for its longing point.
It was the only science-based answer she could come up with as she forces her eyes back to the schematics, she was meant to be looking over
That is until a tentative knock caught her ear even over the sounds of the oncoming storm brewing outside the window.
At first, she ignores it but when it sounds again a tad louder this time as she finishes off the last little splash of amber in her tumbler Lena gives in with a groan and gets up.
"This better be important." She calls out as she crosses to the door and pulls it open in one smooth motion.
The first thing she notices was that at least this version of her ex-best friend was wearing for different clothes than the one she'd just spotted outside her widow a few moments before. The second was that besides her guests drenched appearance on her doorstep was that she was holding her right arm way to gingerly for it to be anything other than injured in some way. And third, was how the glare of the lights overhead really do cast the shivering blonde as nothing short of angelic as she stands in front of her in her rain-soaked pjs.
"What happened to you." Lena asks as soon as she'd recovered from the surprise at finding the 'Girl of Steel' huddled and bleeding on her doorstep enough to speak. Her first question immediately followed by an even more curiously asked "Why didn't you go to Alex's place?"
Kara drops her head like a scolded puppy as she gives her answer without looking up from inspecting her own rain ruined sock covered feet. "A…A…Al…." she tries to stammer out her teeth chattering so badly from the cold that she can't even manage her older sister's name.
"Oh, for the love of Rao get in here." Lena gives in holding the door wider for her.
Kara hesitates peeking up at her as if she wasn't sure she'd heard her correctly.
"Alright stay out there then if you want, but I'm going to get you a towel."
Kara had yet to move when Lena turns and starts heading toward the massive bathroom the penthouse offered.
She comes back to find Kara had at least moved out of the hallway and into the apartment now standing with her arms wrapped tightly around herself shivering like an adorable leaf on the mat with the front door closed and properly locked back up behind her.
"You can come in farther than the doorway you know." Lena sighs setting the rather impressive stack of fluffy white towels down on the kitchen island.
Kara shakes her head just enough that Lena can tell her head had moved in denial "I don't want to track…." She starts to argue her teeth still chattering like crazy as she hugs herself even tighter trying to warm herself back up.
"Kara Zor-El Danvers you get your butt over here right now." Lena ordered unrolling a towel as if unsheathing a sword while she spoke. Her eyes as hard as emeralds as she stared the shivering alien in her doorway down.
Given the absence of any green veins running up her neck or any other bits of skin she was able to see without asking the other woman to strip her clothes off completely Lena could only guess that at some point Kara had blown out her powers leaving the city hero more or less human until she'd taken in enough solar energy to recharge herself.
With a soft huff, Kara does as she asks her wet socks squishing across the floor as she walked.
"Thank you." Lena grumbles wrapping the fluffy white cloth as tightly as she could around Kara's shoulders once she was within reach.
"N…No….Th….thank….you." Kara corrects trying to use her none dominate hand to pat some of the water away as Lena goes for another towel from the waiting stake.
A loud crack of lightning shakes the widows and causing Kara to let out a soft cry in surprise and drop the towel in panic. Her eyes were wide and so fearful that Lena can almost forget about her deception enough to pull her in for a comforting hug.
Almost.
Instead, Lena steps into Kara's unfused sightline her hand reaching out cautiously to rest against the blonde's vibrating shoulder.
"Kara?"
No response.
"Kara." Lena tries again talking a little louder this time as she gives the alien woman's shoulder a little squeeze to get her attention.
Still, nothing as Kara's unfocused eyes linger on the flashes of light crisscrossing the sky outside. She was vibrating in fear now and given how cold and wet she was from Lena assumes was walking all the way here in this downpour she needed to think fast before she had one sickly superhero on her hands.
"Kara I'm going to bring you to the bathroom with me alright? You need to get out of those wet clothes and warmed up or your sister will try and kill me for endangerment." she rants keeping her hand pressed around the blonde's shoulder while her other hand reached for the hand Kara was keeping tucked tightly against her chest wanting some other way of leading her.
The yelping hiss of pain that followed had Lena tripping over herself to back away her hands raised while she stammered several apologies as Kara cradles her injured hand.
Lena hated to admit that she was grateful for Kara's pain. At least because of her hand she wasn't focused on the storm anymore.
"Sorry Kar" Lena murmurs while Kara bends to pick up her fallen towel from the floor. "I really am sorry but I just- I need to get you warmed up so you catch a cold or something before you get those powers of yours back and you weren't seeming to remember I was here with you."
Kara swallows her eyes flickering to the window wall then back to meet Lena's concerned gaze.
"Can I look at your arm at least?"
The not so super superhero nodes but has trouble with pushing her wet shirt sleeve up enough to be any help.
Lena stills her hands and after wrapping her up in yet another towel and retrieving a small medical kit from under her sink leads Kara over to the sofa and guides her down. "Now this may sting a little." She warns already taring open one of the disinfectant wipes as she rests Kara's arm in her lap.
"I feel down the stairs." Kara confesses in a small voice answering Lena's yet to be asked question once she'd finished rolling up the sleeve of the blonde's shirt enough to see the source of the bleeding she'd spotted earlier.
"How many exactly did you hit on the way down?" Lena asks before she could repress the question seeing just who scrapped up Kara's arm was as she wiped away the drying blood and wrapped it in a protective layer of gaze.
"Alex went to Gotham before the storm hit." Kara says her voice clearer now while she answers another of Lena's earlier asked questions rather than the one just added to the list. "If she had known it was coming, I think she would have stayed a little longer so we could have sister cuddles." She guesses as she huddles under the warmth of the towel hanging around her shoulders. "It's just she and Kelly have been fighting so much ever since the VR thing…."
Lena wanted to ask what she was talking about but chose to hold her tongue concentrating instead on heating up some chicken broth she'd decided to serve the chilly hero sitting on her sofa.
"…..I mean come on they are soulmates after all. So really who can deny that kind of love?"
Lena only hums in agreement at the soft-spoken revelation while she stirs. "Wait who are soulmates?"
"Alex and Maggie." Kara hiccupped now hugging her knees to her chest as her eyes find Lena's.
"Oh. Well yeah. I'd say it's about time those two got back together." Lena shrugs. Even being as distinct as she was since the not so final attempt to get Lex out of her life that ended in her being let in on apparently the worst and best-kept secret in all of National City, Lena could tell that Alex wasn't nearly as happy with her new girlfriend as she had been with the tiny detective that had first captured her heart enough to get the agent to propose marriage to her. She'd heard and apparently now Alex had as well how Maggie had chosen to move back to her old stomping ground in Gotham City after their split.
"It would be nice to know that at least someone in this mashed-up new universe of ours will be able to have something resembling a happy love life."
Kara lets out a shaky breath in agreement but otherwise said nothing until Lena returned to the living room carrying two mugs of steaming chicken broth. "Thanks."
Lana nodes back choosing to curl up on the other end of the couch from Kara leaving only a small pillow-shaped bit of distance between them. Why she did instead of taking a seat in one of the two chairs beside the couch she didn't really know as she takes another sip from her mug letting the warmth of it slide down her throat just as Kara as doing a few inches away.
Author Note: SuperCorp will be split into two to avoid an extra-long chapter. And because I'm still working out a few things.