There were two things Kara needed to do to make her relationship with Lena work. One was simple. Tell Lena she was Supergirl. Just tell her. She could put that off some, because surely Lena wouldn't expect them to be telling each other deepest, darkest secrets—or very bright and airy secrets—on the first date. But now that, thanks to Mon-El, she knew some of Lena's fetishes and was looking forward to trying one or two or four, it seemed like they were becoming a little intimate not to know about second jobs.
Well, she didn't get paid. More of a hobby. Surely, Lena wouldn't resent taking a few months to be told about a hobby, right? Long enough to be sure they were, like, training for marriage and not just being weird sex friends.
The second thing Kara needed to do was tell Alex that she was telling Lena that she was Supergirl. That was the first thing, really, because if Kara told Lena without telling Alex that she was telling Lena, it would become one of those sore subjects that Alex would crab about to Maggie and then Maggie would probably tell all her cop friends to give Lena a bunch of parking tickets. Lena could afford it, but still, that was a level of trust in the interplay between civilians and police down the drain.
So, Kara waited until she'd fought a forest fire and thus had an excuse to be in her Supergirl costume, which she always thought made her look as particularly badass and intimidating as she felt in it, and she visited Alex's apartment. Thankfully, Maggie wasn't there.
Kara huffed a sigh. Might as well get this over with before the two of them U-hauled. There was no way she wanted to be faced with a soft butch united front.
"So I was thinking of telling my girlfriend I was Supergirl."
Alex, who was standing at the kitchen island eating a bowl of ice cream, smelled a rat. She fiddled her spoon at the largest scoop in her bowl, as if wondering where to begin the autopsy. Kara gulped.
Though she'd been careful to thread some hints about seeing someone new, while also demurring that she didn't want to say anything until she 'knew what it was', she knew that she could be dating Lucy Lane and Alex would get her dander up, because why should her sister settle for the Lane sister that didn't have a Pulitzer?
Also, she was kinda in the mood for ice cream now.
"So it's getting serious," Alex observed. She peeled off a spoonful of ice cream as if flaying some unfortunate soul alive. "Funny how I still don't know her name."
"Well, I wouldn't say serious, more… committed?" Kara waggled her shoulders, before thinking that was a bit too mild-mannered for this conversation. "Yeah, it's serious, but between you and Maggie and work and Mon-El and the DEO and Cadmus, I really haven't been able to gossip about it. But, yeah, we've been dating a while. And she likes me, I like her… definitely bi over here, that's for sure…"
"Anyone I'd know? Now that you know what it is?"
Maybe she should tell Kal first. He'd probably be really supportive. He didn't hold anything against supervillain-y types. Hadn't there been something between him and Maxima? Maybe not, but she still doubted he'd judge. Hell, he'd let his best friend go after his cousin. That was far from the guy code.
Well, she'd told Mon-El, even without quite entirely meaning to, so she should absolutely be able to tell Alex…
"Okay, she was adopted, so I don't know her birth name—it's kind of like how she doesn't know I'm Supergirl—but her slave name or whatever is Lena Luthor. Ugh, what, slave name? That can't be the right English. You know what I—"
"You're dating Lena Luthor?" Alex howled, somewhere between a demand and a shocked question. "Are you out of your mind?"
Not this time. Kara wasn't going to be defensive, not on this. She planted her hands on her hips and demanded right back. "I wouldn't think you, of all people, would have a problem with her."
"Don't play the gay card on me, you... you bisexual." Alex put her fists on her hips, as if they were both readying for some duel. "Maggie is a dedicated police officer who risks her life to defend people. Lena Luthor is a corporate shark who, oh yeah, might turn out to be a supervillain-"
"Just because she's a Luthor?"
"It's a risk," Alex insisted. "And out of all the people my sister could date, I would like it to be someone who has only a one percent chance of trying to take over the world instead of..." Alex took a hand from her hip to scratch the air near her head, seeking a number. "Ten percent!"
"I know her and she has a zero percent chance of breaking bad, okay?"
"You would say that about anyone."
"I'm not dating anyone! Do you really think that I'd go out with her if I thought there was a chance she'd hurt me, or anyone else for that matter?"
"Do you think anyone does?" Alex stabbed her spoon into her ice cream, realizing it was dripping on her hand, and advanced on Kara. "And even if she's pure as the driven snow, she still has bad guys at every family reunion! What if Lutessa or Nasthalia or someone checks up on Lena and finds out about you? You're putting yourself on the Luthors' radar in your most vulnerable identity!"
"So I'm taking a chance. I do that every day. If anyone's prepared for it, it's me."
"It's different when you let someone into your heart. You're inviting someone into our family here, and I don't think you could handle having someone in your family turn on you."
"I won't have to," Kara said, finally sounding as sure of herself as she was. As sure of Lena as she was.
Alex sighed, the furious calculation in her eyes now turning to finding ways to live with this. "Fine. Fine. Just promise me you won't tell her your secret."
"Alex, c'mon, she's a smart woman, she's going to notice-"
"So be careful. And hold off onto telling her for as long as possible, until you're sure it's real. I know it'll be hard, but trust me—please, please trust me—that's the safest way you could go about this."
Kara could see Alex wouldn't budge on this. "Alright. I won't tell her." She smiled slightly. "I'll wait until marriage, just like Mom and Dad raised me to..."
"Such a martyr," Alex groused, though she was smiling too. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run another security check on Lena Luthor."
"I thought you'd already-"
"A real one."
Kara suddenly felt bad for Lena's firewalls.
