So I just started watching the show so be kind, but also I write when I have bad episodes of anxiety or depression. Right now I am really struggling with passive suicidal thoughts (I'm safe) but writing keeps me grounded and make me feel like I am making something happy for myself and others. I like the idea of some one shots of Lena and Kara's relationship. Just wanted to start with one and see how it went. I have other stories I need to update, but this helped me through a rough weekend. Some things might not be straight canon or might be OOC, but I tried not to stray too much.

At almost every single stage of her life, Lena was reminded how important family was. Now, that being said, this feeling of family was not taught to her in an effort to provide support and family bonding, but instead was hammered into her psyche as a requirement to show absolute devotion, not love, to her bloodline. Putting it simply, Lena did not grow up with a family who spent much of their day looking out for the other people who they claimed to love without conditions. Then she met Kara Danvers and was introduced to the wonderful, though sometimes overwhelming, world that comes with having a family full of people who love each other because it is in their hearts, not because it will further their power struggle.

Lena sometimes still struggled to fully understand how Kara's family differed so much from her own when the two youngest members of each family had so many things in common. Lena remembered her first time meeting Eliza and how she tried so hard to put on a brave face to suit her image, but her bouncing leg and nail biting gave her anxiety away to her girlfriend who tried endlessly to assure Lena that she would be most welcome in the Danvers family home.

"Kara, I love that you are so hopelessly optimistic, but think about it: her youngest child is dating a Luthor. There is no way in hell she doesn't have some concerns about my intentions toward you."

"Uh huh, and what exactly are your intentions toward me?" Kara smiled as they drove and she could see Lena pout out of the corner of her eye.

"Kara I'm serious. She probably is gonna have an interrogation set up when we get there."

"You are exaggerating."

"Alex did it! And it was a real interrogation room Kara."

"Once! And trust me Eliza and Alex might share blood, but they lock horns on a lot of things and I promise you, no third degree. Just normal family dinner conversations."

"Darling, my family staged hostile takeovers over dinner, that doesn't make me feel better." Kara felt bad instantly and she happened to pull up to the house right at that moment. She turned her body toward Lena and forced her girlfriend to look at her.

"Listen, I know family stuff is scary for you and if you want, we will go back home right now, but you should remember something. This woman I'm introducing you to, is NOT the woman who raised you. Ok? She raised me Lena. She raised a kid, an alien no less, when she had her own daughter to deal with. She and Jeremiah and Alex, they didn't have to love me Lena, they just did and on some level, they chose to. They chose, in spite of everything, to love me and put up with the challenges I brought to their lives. They helped me control my powers and they didn't make me feel like a freak. The woman in that house who is eavesdropping from the living room window right now isn't going to judge you because of who raised you."

Lena looked over her shoulder and sure enough she could see a vague outline of Eliza who was clearly watching her daughter and Lena from inside.

"You don't know that Kara."

"Yes, I do. I know it because she has already welcomed one person into her heart who had a rough go at the early stages of life and she raised me without ever making me feel like I had to prove my worth. She is gonna love you Lena. She will love you because I love you and that it what families do."

"I do love you." Kara smiled and unbuckled her seatbelt, kissing Lena as she reached for the door handle.

"Good, cuz I love you too."

Lena was brought back into reality when her assistant buzzed her phone, alerting her that Alex was here to see her. Lena straightened a few papers around her desk and tried to collect herself, having gotten slightly tearful at the memory. She told Jess to send Alex in and just as she stood from her chair, Alex walked into her office with Jess behind her a few steps.

"Thank you Jess, that should be it for the day. After I meet with Agent Danvers I will be heading out myself." Her assistant said her good nights and left Alex in Lena's office. Alex turned back toward Lena and smirked.

"So I'm Agent Danvers today huh? What did I do to get called to the principal's office?"

"Would you prefer I call you Alexandra?" Lena smirked back and Alex feigned hurt.

"Full name and everything, damn Luthor you really are in rare form this evening. You must keep my baby sister in stiches. Speaking of which, where is she"

Lena gestured to the couch and as Alex sat, Lena followed suit.

"She is at home cooking dinner for us and she made me promise to stay at the office till she came to get me." Alex's eyes got big, "you left my sister unattended in your super nice kitchen? Girl the Fire Department is gonna call any minute informing you of your condo being destroyed by smoke." Lena smiled, but shook her head.

"She took those cooking classes with me for her birthday remember? She isn't a James Beard level chef, but she can make a handful of things now without burning the food or our home. So, I trust her." Alex nodded and leaned back in the sofa. "She can make a mean pasta dish now. However, if she is busy trying not to start fires, what are you doing here and why was my presence demanded?"

"I didn't demand you come." Alex scrunched her nose at Lena and she relented, "ok I did a bit, but I was nice about it. And I promise this won't take long, but I wanted to talk to you without someone who can hear things across town just down the hall."

"Ah, so you did call me to gossip about Kara. So, tell me, what has she done? Did she start snoring again? Not putting her wet towels in the hamper?" Lena shook her head in amazement, "you Danvers sisters are a weird pair, you know that right?"

"I do, but you are massively in love with my sister and we've become friends so really who is weirder in this situation?"

"Oh, I know I am guilty of falling prey to the charms of your family, one of you in particular has seemed to have stolen my heart rather successfully." Alex continued the back and forth kidding by pretending to gag at Lena's clear declaration of love for Kara.

"I get it, you love my sister. That is lovely Lena, and very nice to hear that you two are so happy, but if that is what this call was for you could've texted me how much you love Kara." Lena smiled and nodded, "you are correct, I could have told you all of that in a text or over the phone, no reason to drag you across town." Alex stood up and laughed as she began to put her coat back on.

"Well then, I will leave you to call for your chariot while I try to beat traffic going home. Should you ever need a formal sit down again this close to the weekend it had better end with you asking for my blessing to marry Kara." Lena let Alex get about two steps from the door before she called after her, "so I have it then?"

Alex turned around, already reading something on her phone, "have what?"

"Your blessing to marry Kara." The info had half registered in Alex's head, but she thought she had heard wrong. When she looked up at Lena the executive was standing a few feet from her with a wide, but genuine smile.

"You're joking right?" Alex wanted to be excited, but didn't want to jump the gun and Lena knew that this too was a family trait, born out the two sisters' work: never get your hopes too high about a good thing, because you might lose it. Lena shook her head, "I assure you Agent Danvers, I am quite serious about this." To punctuate her point Lena tossed Alex a small box that she seemed to have made appear out of thin air and Alex dropped her phone to catch it. Alex opened the box to find a stunning diamond engagement ring that had to have cost more than 6 months of her rent for the diamonds alone. Alex looked at the ring for a while in dead silence which would have worried most suitors, but Lena knew better and she gave Alex time. After a minute or two, Alex sat down, right where she had been standing and kept looking at the ring while sitting on the floor of Lena's office. Lena slipped off her heels and walked over to Alex and began to fidget with her fingers as she started talking.

"Alex, I know how much you love Kara and honestly that's why I thought to ask you at all. I know I don't need anyone's permission but Kara's, but it felt right asking you and…" Alex waved her hand to stop Lena and gestured for her to sit down with her.

"My sister has rubbed off on you: you are babbling." Alex smiled and Lena took a breath to steady herself.

"I love her Alex and that is coming from a woman who never thought she would ever love anyone like this. People saw my last name and they saw money, power or an opportunity for both, they never saw me. Then your sister showed up and maybe those glasses your dad gave her really are magic because damn it Alex, I never felt more seen than when Kara Danvers was standing in front of me." Alex understood what Lena was saying on a level that other people likely wouldn't. She too knew what it was like to be truly seen by her little sister and it had nothing to do with the superhero's ability to see through most structures.

Lena continued, "I know I'll never totally know the pain she felt when she watched her home vanish in front of her, but I know what being alone and scared feels like. I know what not fitting in feels like. And I know how exhausting it is running after the life someone else handed you. Kara made me realize I could have a beautiful life and I didn't have to chase it or please anyone, I just had to be happy with myself. I promise you, she won't ever be scared and alone with me, it may not always be a perfect life, but she won't be alone for any part of it. Ok? She doesn't have to run or chase a beautiful life anymore Alex. The life she built for herself is the one I want to be a part of forever. She doesn't…she doesn't have to run anymore, not with me." Lena had tears streaming down her face and it was the first time Alex ever watched Lena come totally undone with happy emotions before. It was jarring, but it was also the single most beautiful thing Alex had ever seen. Alex moved right next to Lena so they were shoulder to shoulder and Alex took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully.

"When she came to live with us, I was such a brat to her. I was mad on some level because my mother told me to watch out for her, protect her, make sure she settled into life here ok. I always loved her, don't get me wrong, but I tried so hard not to, like just fought like hell not to love her. Then this one night I woke up and she wasn't in her bed. I looked around the house and found her on our front porch. I snapped at her for being outside so late or something dumb, then I noticed she was crying. I asked what was wrong, she told me everything was too loud. It was like 2am so it was dead quiet, so I didn't get it. I couldn't understand the pain she was feeling because she could hear everything and I mean everything. In that moment, everything my dad had told me hit me: she had really lost everything she had, she had powers she couldn't control and I was being a brat cuz I didn't want to share my life with this new girl. But seeing her cry, for something like this was heartbreaking and on instinct I reached out and hugged her as tight as I possibly could and she was afraid to hug me back because she knew she was stronger than I was. I told her it was ok to hug me back, if she wanted to just be gentle. She did and she leaned her head on my shoulder after a while and cried. She cried, I cried, we were a mess. When we calmed down she said thank you to me for helping her. I asked if she could still hear the noise and she told me they ever go away. I snapped and told her I would make them…make them go away." Alex was already crying, but she stayed very focused on the ring and Lena let her talk, knowing this was something Alex had to get out.

"I put white noise machines in the room so she could sleep, I put them in every room and drove my mom crazy doing it, but it helped. They weren't gone, but she could use the white noise to block out what she couldn't handle hearing and focus on hearing us talk to her or the TV or whatever. In that moment out on the porch, I became her big sister and there was nothing I wouldn't do for her. See, you and I, humans in general, our bad days or our storms, they are like regular rain storms. We see some coming, others not, but we know they will run out of rain eventually and things will be ok, sometimes they are even pretty. Kara's storms are like hurricanes: she sees so many of them coming, but all the prep in the world can't make her feel ready and then they hit and its chaos in her heart. My job, as her sister, was to help her calm her storms, give her the promise that even though it was big and scary, this storm would eventually pass and she wasn't in it alone." Alex closed the ring box and taking Lena's hand, placed it back in the palm of her hand. Lena looked at Alex, both women had eyes full of tears.

"Alex?" Alex shook her head to stop Lena. "It was my job, but now, it is going to be yours. Don't get me wrong, I will always be her big sister, but no more storm chasing for me. You have the watch now and, with it, you have my blessing." Lena smiled through her tears and hugged Alex. When they both stood up Alex brushed tears away from her eyes as she watched Lena put the ring in her safe.

"You should call Kara, I'm sure she already is feeling something is off." Lena nodded: she and Kara did have a deep bond and she knew her girlfriend would feel something off the second she laid eyes on Lena.

"I'll tell her I had a long week and just needed to cry it out." Alex nodded and pointed to the door. "I really should get home, but you keep me posted on this and if I can help you just let me know."

"I will." Lena put her shoes back on and began to gather her things to go home and Alex turned on her heel. "One more thing." Lena nodded and waited for Alex to round out their conversation. "I know we covered this when you started dating her, but just as a reminder. If you break her heart, I will hunt you down and kill you."

Lena knew Alex was dead serious and if anyone could make it happen, it was her. Lena always respected that about Alex: no idle threat of death, just an honest reminder of what fate had in store should Lena ever fail to be the kind of partner Kara deserved.

"I remember that conversation Agent Danvers, its not one I'll soon forget. But I assure you, you can rest easy. I love Kara, more than anyone else. Your faith in me is not misplaced."

"Oh I know. You didn't think I would trust just ANYONE with my baby sister's heart did you? And I know damn well I have told you to call me Alex. If we are gonna be family you gotta cut the Agent Danvers stuff out."

"Alexandra it is then." Lena winked at Alex who flipped her off in response.

"Watch it."

Lena smiled as she picked up her bag and texted Kara to come get her in 10 minutes, "good night Alex. And thank you for coming down to review that offer." Alex smiled and started to walk toward the door, shouting behind her, "welcome to the family kid."