Lena is tired.
Today has sucked balls. The board has been jumping down her throat because of a tiny dip in their profits and think that yelling at her will somehow make it all better. On top of that, it's her birthday. Not that anyone else knows that, it is absolutely privileged information that only her assistant, Jess, knows and the only reason she knows is because she sometimes handles documents with her date of birth on them.
She's perfectly happy to just get home, shower and then snuggle up on the couch with a nice glass of wine, birthdays are overrated anyway. Jess already broke the rules of not mentioning her birthday this morning by bringing her a little iced cupcake with her coffee, and as much as that meant to her, she'd prefer to just ignore the day altogether, just like everyone did when she was a child in the Luthor household.
She turns the key to unlock her front door, happy to be home. The door swings open to reveal a low light spread across her apartment, a soft golden glow coating everything.
The problem with that lands firmly in the fact that she never leaves lights on, so who the fuck is in her apartment?
A loud clang fills the air before a muffled whisper reaches her ears. She knows that whisper and even without hearing the exact phase, she can tell that it's most likely some variation on an almost curse.
Her guard drops and she closes the door behind her, heading right in to find the intruder and figure out why they are here and how they got into her place without a key, she's never given anyone a key.
She steps into the kitchen to find a mess of ingredients littering the counters and pans across the stove. The source of the clang is found in the pile of pots already in the sink, piled high enough to make her feel even more exhausted just by looking at them.
Standing in the centre of the mess is the one and only Kara Danvers, completely oblivious to her arrival and completely immersed in some veggies she's got in one of the pans.
"Hey." Lena drawls, dropping her purse on the floor and discarding her uncomfortable heels, not even caring about the icy cold floor on her feet.
Kara practically jumps out of her skin. "Lena! What are you doing here?"
"I uh…live here."
Kara shakes her head, physically throwing her dumbfounded confusion aside. "What I meant was – why are you back so soon? I thought you were finishing at seven today because of your meeting with the board."
"How do you know about that?" Lena's eyebrows raise in questioning as she heaves herself up onto one of her barstools. "Actually, let me guess. Jess?"
"Don't be mad at her, she means well." Kara turns the heat off the stove, giving herself a little reprieve to turn and talk to Lena properly.
Lena looks deep into Kara's deep blue eyes, infatuated with the popping colour that just pulls her in. "Should I be mad at you then?"
She receives a brisk negative headshake for her question. "Nope, because even though it's your birthday, I'm not overdoing it. Even I'm not that cruel. It's obvious to literally everyone that you don't like celebrating your birthday so instead of a party or a group get together for drinks, we're just having a nice quiet dinner and then we'll watch a movie before a little late night reading and going to sleep."
Lena has to admit that it all sounds very nice, but she doesn't want to set a precedent that she will be doing something every year. "I appreciate it, but I really don't like to acknowledge the day."
"So we don't have to. I won't mention the day, let's just have a nice meal, homemade if you hadn't noticed, and relax. No gifts, no 'happy birthdays', no unnecessary frills."
Lena hates how quickly Kara can win her over and it's times like these when she hates that she's in love with her best friend but so far into the friendzone that she fears she can never climb out of the wretched pit. "Fine, I'll allow it…but only if you let me help you cook."
"I was hoping you'd say that, this cooking lark is much harder than I thought it would be." Kara wipes the back of her hand across her forehead dramatically, pretending to wipe away the sweat that's not there.
"Yes, well, I was really quite worried when I saw you in my kitchen, you're the person who is most likely to burn down this entire building." Lena pitches her with a smug smile, knowing it landed on its mark when an offended hand flies to Kara's chest.
Kara just shakes her head and gestures for Lena to come and join her.
Lena slides herself off the stool, her feet pattering against the floor as she pads around the kitchen island towards Kara. "Alright, let me see what concoction you've managed to make."
"Rude."
To Lena's surprise, the food actually looks pretty good. Kara's managed to make an epic looking lasagne, which is currently finishing off in the oven, and she has a bunch of veggies going on the stove to go with it.
Lena pegs Kara with an astounded stare.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Kara can feel Lena's emerald orbs burning into the side of her head.
"You did this by yourself?"
Kara shrugs. "I had Eliza send me her recipe with about fifty added instructions that anyone else would be able to guess with basic common sense, but yeah, I guess so."
Kara is pulled away from the stove in an unexpected motion and pulled right into Lena's arms in a tight hug. She doubts she could escape Lena's grasp if she tried, not that she would want to try and escape.
"Thank you."
"Always."
With one last squeeze, Lena pulls away and takes a look at the lasagne in the oven. "It looks like this is just about done."
Kara glances over her shoulder and then into the pots. "Same for these, why don't you go change into something more comfortable while I serve this?"
Taking Kara's suggestion, Lena goes right ahead and makes her way to the bedroom, grabbing her discarded heels and purse as she goes.
She comes back out after changing and taking a calming breath from trying not to freak out that for the first time since her birth mother was still alive, she's actually acknowledging her birthday.
Kara is waiting for her, plates and glasses full and a couple of nice white candles littered across the bar.
"Where were you hiding those?" Lena laughs, watching Kara light the last couple of them.
"You already busted my first surprise, you have to let me at least have this one. I love a good candle." Kara pulls one of the stools out for Lena, offering a hand to help her up.
The food is much better than what Lena was expecting but then again, it is Eliza's recipe and everyone knows that Eliza is an incredible cook.
This is not at all how she was expecting to spend her Thursday night – wait, Thursday?
"Isn't Thursday usually sister's night?"
Kara shrugs nonchalantly. "I just told Alex that we were getting together now before Halloween because otherwise we probably won't have a chance to celebrate because work is so busy. I didn't think you would want anyone else to know. She didn't mind rescheduling too much, we're going to have it in a couple of days instead."
"You really did that for me?"
"Of course I did, I'm just glad your birthday is so close to a major holiday, it makes for a great cover up. Now, eat your dinner, your couch is calling me and I'm expecting cuddles for my efforts."
Lena answers with a simple roll of her eyes but really, she wants to kiss Kara right now for her thoughtfulness and maybe a little bit because she's ever so slightly in love with her.
Maybe later.