Just the mere act of lifting her head up off the pillow sends Kara into a spiral of dizziness she can't seem to climb out of.
She's been sick before – a few times actually, but this is the first time she's ever gotten sick whilst still somehow maintaining her powers. Whatever sickness she has come down with is strong enough to overpower her connection with the yellow sun, not enough for her to lose her powers completely, just enough for them to be on the fritz.
Her heat vision is completely gone, as is her ability to fly, but from what she can tell, her superspeed is mostly intact and her freeze breath is still immaculate. The power she's having the most trouble with is her x-ray vision with her super hearing joining in the mix every once in a while just for the fun of it.
It keeps starting up without her meaning to, much like it did when she was just a kid and still trying to get control of her new abilities. It's really quite unnerving to suddenly be looking at a person's skeleton when you aren't expecting it.
Kara already knows that she's majorly late for work but the mere thought of leaving the safety of her bed when her head is pounding, and she can't keep something as simple as her vision right makes her want to puke.
She also does not want to be x-raying any of her colleagues. While her x-ray vision is mostly making her see through people's skin, she can also see just through people's clothes if she doesn't use her vision on full intensity, and if that happens by accident at work, she will never be able to look at any of those people the same way again.
The sound of her front door opening and then slamming shut makes her wince and bury her face into her duvet, trying to hide from the intruder that will probably make her leave the confines of her safe haven.
"Kara? Darling are you here?"
Lena's voice calls out, and Kara's glad for it. She needs the clarification in case her x-ray vision starts up again. It can be difficult to identify people buy their skeletons.
Kara hums morosely in response, the only sound she can muster up in her sorry state. Her head is pounding like nobody's business, and she can't exactly pinpoint where the ceiling is anymore.
It's a good job that Lena was actively listening out for her so she hears the brief rumble from the bedroom, urging her to venture further into the loft after letting herself in with the key Kara gave her so she can come over whenever she wants, something she does more often than she's willing to admit.
Lena lays her eyes on the lump beneath the duvet, her eyebrows pinched together with worry. "Kara? Are you alright, darling?"
A loud groan emerges from the bed where Kara is completely submerged under the sheets. "Peachy."
Lena presses her lips together, trying not to laugh at Kara's expense. She pads her way past the curtain separating the bedroom from the living room and into the bedroom, perching herself on the edge of the bed next to the lump under the covers.
"Something tells me that you're fibbing. What's going on? Nia called and asked where you are because you didn't show up for work." Lena asks, one hand resting on top of the Kara shaped lump, right where she guesses her hip would be.
With a trembling hand, Kara reaches up to uncover her face, exposing her flushed cheeks to the open air. "I think I'm sick." She mumbles, feeling sorry for herself.
Lena immediately places the back of her hand to Kara's forehead, her eyebrows pulling together in worry at the scorching heat radiating from her sick best friend. "I think you're right. You're burning up. Did you blow your powers out or something?"
Kara tries to clear her throat, causing her to fall into a coughing fit that she has been trying to avoid for the last fifteen minutes. Lena jumps into action, rubbing Kara's back to try and help her through it.
"Maybe we should get you to the DEO so Alex can check you out." Lena grabs Kara's hands in an attempt to pull her up but Kara, being the stubborn idiot she is, resists her and presses herself into the mattress.
Lena just huffs, trying again only for Kara to do the same thing again.
"I don't want to go, I just want to stay here and cuddle." Kara's whining might just be giving Lena a bigger headache than the one Kara has.
"We have to make sure you're alright, especially if you're powerless." Lena makes one last ditch effort to pull her up but instead Kara drags her down onto the bed with her.
"I'm fine, still have some of them, just sick. Come cuddle with me, baby."
It's time for Lena to get stern, even in the face of an unexpected pet name. She pulls out her CEO eyebrow raise and sharp tone, directing it at the whiny mess before her whilst really hoping that she can get Kara to co-operate because she's genuinely worried about the sick little alien. "Kara Zor-El Danvers, you will look at me this instant."
Kara's always been weak to Lena when she's being bossy. Well, she's just always been weak to Lena but especially now. As much as she just wants to lie there all day, hopefully with Lena's arms around her, if Lena wants her to look at her, that's what she'll be doing.
The second her baby blues fall onto Lena's form, her nightmares come true, Lena's beautiful form being replaced with that of a skeleton, the jaw of the skull moving in time with words that are of Lena's voice but not her face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Holy shit, you're terrifying!" Kara actually jumps back, scuttling across the bed to the other side, her legs trembling when her feet land on the cool floor, the floorboards grounding her, giving her a solid surface upon which she can regain her composure.
Lena holds her hands out in front of her, trying to look as harmless as she can, completely unaware that in Kara's eyes she has been stripped of her skin suit, so she really does look terrifying. "It's ok, it's ok. You're fine, I promise."
Kara presses herself back, stumbling away from the bed until her spine reaches her dresser, the contact making a bunch of her stuff fall from the surface of it and onto the floor.
Her hearing heightens unexpectedly, each item thudding onto the floor sends a sharp ringing into her ears that burns with white hot pain, stabbing her eardrums each time one drops.
Her hands shoot right up to her ears, covering them with an exaggerated whimper, her legs giving out beneath her, so she falls to her knees. Thanks to her wavering powers, the blow to her knees actually hurts and she will no doubt have bruises there by tomorrow.
Lena has never moved so fast in her whole entire life, if anyone would have seen it, they would question if she's the one with superspeed. Her hands land atop of Kara's, which are still covering her ears.
She doesn't pry them away or try to talk, just presses her hands to the back of Kara's to let her know she's there and to block out a bit more of the noise she's being assaulted with, even if the items have all finished toppling.
At some point Kara starts rocking in place, her sensitive ears picking up every sound in a ten mile radius and sending it all to her brain in a big, jumbled mess she can't decipher. It's overwhelming to the point where she can't even think. Her eyes have been squeezed shut since she hit the ground and she can't even begin to try and force them open.
She's aware of Lena's hands, can feel the warmth of them against her own but can't do anything but will away her powers, she's completely unable to control them at this point in time.
Through the chaos and confusion she tries to force herself to breathe, remembering the breathing techniques Eliza used to coach her through as a young girl alone on a strange planet. She breathes in through her nose then out through her mouth.
Strangely enough, when she breathes out Lena jumps back away from her, her warm hands are instantly missed so she finally opens her eyes again, cranking them open to reveal Lena looking completely normal apart from a few little crystalised icicles forming on the front of her very expensive looking sweater.
An utterly horrified expression appears across Kara's face, realizing that she just used her freeze breath on someone she cares deeply about and could have potentially hurt because she isn't in control.
"Lena – " Kara's voice wobbles, terrified and unsure of what to say, how to apologize to her best friend for putting her in danger.
At the sounds of Kara's voice, Lena is shocked back to reality. "It's alright, I'm ok. Let's get you back on the bed, ok?"
Kara shrinks further away from Lena when she offers a hand. "I'm sorry, Lena. I'm so sorry. You should go, I can't control myself." Tears cloud Kara's vision now but it is way better than having her x-ray vision turning itself on.
"Shh, I'm not going anywhere, now let's get you up and we'll start on getting you better and then you'll be up and fighting fit in no time." Lena isn't letting Kara wriggle away from her, she grabs her arms and heaves her up, grunting at the dead weight she has to lug over to the bed.
It isn't a delicate manoeuvre, but it gets the job done, Kara is back on the bed, and she seems to have calmed from her sensory overload quite quickly, now she just has to calm down from the anxiety of having her powers become so unpredictable.
Lena pants, standing up straight and puling her clothes back into place since they got ruffled in all the kerfuffle. "Alright, you stay here a minute while I call Alex and get her opinion. We still need to figure out how you got sick with your powers and how to nurse you back to health."
Kara can't respond because Lena promptly turns her back on her and walks away to the kitchen, already digging through her purse for her phone.
She has to suffer through listening to Lena telling Alex all about what a sorry sight she is and how she can't control her powers. It brings a dark feeling of shame through her veins, the one thing she has prided herself on is her ability to remain in control and using her powers wisely, so having them be so wildly unpredictable is like a kryptonite dagger to her heart.
By the time Lena comes back in after getting off the phone to Alex, Kara has rolled over onto her stomach, her face smooshed into the pillow and her arms wrapped tightly around herself to try and stop the shivers that are wracking her body.
Lena moves up to the side of the bed once again, rolling Kara over as carefully as she can and covering her with a blanket.
"Alex is on her way, she's going to check you over and decide what we should do once she's here. If she thinks it's bad enough or too dangerous for you to be here then we'll have to take you to the DEO so you can stay in the med bay there."
"I don't like the med bay." Kara whines. "I can deal with it here, you should go though so I don't hurt you again."
Lena huffs at Kara's sudden insistence that she leave. "I'm not going anywhere so you can lie there and complain, or you can shuffle over and let me come and cuddle you, and we both know that you didn't hurt me, just surprised me."
It elicits a sigh from Kara and the tiniest little shuffle across the bed. Lena takes it as her attempt of asking for the cuddles so she helps the poorly blonde to migrate onto one side of the mattress so she can slip into the bed next to her, curling her body around the shaky one.
For someone who wants Lena to leave Kara doesn't seem to have a problem holding onto the arms that are wrapped around her waist or pushing her body back into Lena's stealing her warmth.
Lena is just enjoying being this close to Kara, holding her exactly how she pictures holding her in her dreams, taking care of her as more than a friend and if she closes her eyes, she can almost imagine them waking up in this position every day in a house of their own.
It's a selfish fantasy, she knows it, but she knows in her heart that she is always going to want Kara and doubts that she will ever be able to move past the love that has made its home in her heart.
"Let me be here for you, Kara."
Lena isn't expecting the loud sob the words inspire, the tears that stream down pretty, flushed cheeks and the weight of Kara's body as she pushes back into her even stronger.
"Please, don't leave me."
Kara's headache has worsened, her dizziness consuming her and her bones aching with every breath she takes.
"I'm never going to leave you, my angel. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, everything is going to be ok."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
Alex rushes through the front door, grateful that Lena left it unlocked so she doesn't have to search through her keys to try and get in.
Seeing that the couch is empty she immediately knows that Kara must be in the bedroom. She takes long strides, impatient to be with her little sister.
"Kara, I'm here." She calls, frantic undertones clouding her voice.
She doesn't get a response, just the endearing sight of her little sister snuggled up into the arms of the big bad Luthor, both fast asleep in the shared embrace.
She hates to disrupt them, but Kara really needs to be checked over in case it's anything too bad, still she does take the time to snap a couple of photos of the pair. They will make an excellent present to them when they finally get their crap together and admit how they feel.
Alex aims for Lena first, shaking her shoulder lightly, stirring the light sleeper pretty much immediately. Once Lena's eyes open she reaches over to shake Kara awake too but a hand on her wrist stops her.
Instead Lena brings a finger to her lips to signify that she should be quiet and very slowly extracts herself from around Kara, tucking a pillow behind her to take her place.
They head into the living room, drawing the curtain behind them.
"We should let her sleep, she needs rest." Lena keeps her voice hushed.
"How has she been?"
Lena rubs her eyes, trying to fight away the residual fatigue from her impromptu nap. "She's been on edge, it seems like her powers are fluctuating a lot and she isn't coping with it well. So far I've seen her be crippled by her super hearing and accidentally use her freeze breath. I think she might have used her x-ray vision on me too because she told me I looked terrifying."
"She definitely did, she hates skeletons, she even got nightmares from The Nightmare Before Christmas." Alex laughs to herself, her face straightening again when she processes the rest of the sentence about the rest of Kara's powers.
Lena can't help but keep looking back over her shoulder to the curtain, almost wishing that she left it open so she can see Kara but opting to leave it closed to block some of the sound of their conversation as not to wake her up from her much needed rest.
"I'm worried about her, I think we should take her to the DEO just in case. I don't like seeing her like this, how could this happen, Alex?" Lena picks at her cuticles, her eyebrows scrunched.
Alex shakes her head. "Only if she really needs to go, she'll be even whinier than usual if we make her go there when she doesn't have to. Besides, I called J'onn on the way here and he told me that there has been a few aliens in containment that have fallen ill too, looks like some kind of alien flu. It's probably how she got it in the first place, she brings most of the aliens in."
Lena shakes her head imperceptibly. "What if she gets worse?"
"Then we take her in, I haven't checked her over yet so I don't know how bad it is but from the sounds of it, we can deal with it here, there's no need to have a government agency prodding and poking at her."
"You work for that government agency."
"And that's how I know that they don't always do things above board and why I will never fully trust them with my sister." Alex folds her arms, standing her ground, understanding that Lena's objections are coming from a place of love. "She'll most likely just be better off here with you."
Speak of the devil, a croaky voice drifts from the bedroom. "Lena?"
Lena drags the curtain open to see Kara trying and failing to sit up, rolling over helplessly, trying to get out bed even though she can barely tell where the floor is. "Hey, don't move, I'm coming."
Alex is shocked to see that Kara is actually listening to her, pigs can fly after all.
"I'm here too, Kara. Let me get you checked over." Alex joins Lena at Kara's bedside, looking down at Kara, noticing how pale she is despite her flushed cheeks. "What are your symptoms?"
"I'm dizzy and my head hurts. My powers are being weird too." Kara mumbles out, trying to grasp onto Lena's hand but failing to judge how far away it is.
Lena helps her out by taking Kara's hand in her own. "She's really warm too, I think she might have a fever."
"Let me take her temperature then, but from the looks of it, we will just have to let it run its course. No DEO or med bay necessary, just plenty of fluids and rest." Alex grabs her medical bag she brought with her, doing a more thorough check and determining that Kara can stay here.
Kara watches her with unfocused eyes. "Alex, am I going to die?"
"Do you always have to be so dramatic?" Alex rolls her eyes then continues. "You'll be fine, the doctor is prescribing you with cuddles, Lena has an abundance so she will give them to you at least every two hours."
Lena's head shoots up at her. "Alex, what are you- "
"Look after her, I've got to get to work. You're on babysitting duty, just order some soup and get her to take a cool shower to get that fever down. If she gets worse call me but other than that, she'll be fine. Go cuddle the whiny alien."
Lena stares down at the clingy blonde holding her hand then back to Alex, who is already packing her things away. "You really think I can look after her?"
"You're the only one I trust to do it" Alex smiles at her. "I'll check in later."
With no other options once Alex leaves, Lena decides to take the advice offered and orders soup. "Alright, darling. We'll eat and then we'll get you showered. As soon as that's done it will be time for your first dosage of your prescribed cuddles."