Chapter 6

Prepping for what was, ostensibly, her first real date ever was something of a chaotic process for Lena.

Sure, she had been on 'dates' before, both during her time in Alliance training and since her transfer to the reserves. Those however, had never served any greater purpose than 'let's share a drink to make sure that we're compatible before we sleep together'. Lena had made it more than clear to all of her partners that she had no desire to pursue anything beyond the simply physical, and that had leant a sense of clarity to all those interactions. It made it so Lena didn't worry, if the 'date' didn't go well it was no big loss. As Sam had pointed out to her many times, she wasn't exactly lacking for potential partners.

With Kara, it felt different from the off. For once, Lena hadn't asked Kara out for a drink with the express intent of sleeping with her (not that she would object to the possibility though). Lena was drawn to Kara, in a way that was certainly deeper than just the physical, for reasons that she couldn't quite lock down in full. There was some inexplicable magnetism she felt for the other woman.

Sam, of course, had been no help at all.

The moment Sam had returned to their apartment the evening Lena had landed her date with Kara, she had been able to tell that Lena was excited about something. After far less prodding from her than Lena was willing to admit, she had given in and told Sam everything. Sam had found her hopelessness hilarious and had proceeded to spend the better part of the next half an hour laughing at how nervous Lena was about the prospect. After a suitable amounts of threats, and then promises of bribes, on Lena's part Sam had relented in her teasing. Beyond giving her space to freak out, Sam's only piece of advice was to wear something that 'shows off your ass and your arms'. When Lena had the audacity to act mildly insulted by her crudity, Sam had simply shrugged and replied 'I know what makes you look good. Christ knows I've seen you naked often enough for that'.

Loathe as she was to admit it, Lena had followed Sam's advice. Among her best friend's many talents was her fashion sense, something that Lena had never developed much affinity for. So she had followed Sam's advice. Fitted blue jeans to highlight her curves; a black tank top, since she knew that Kara would be drawn to her exposed arms; and a checked flannel shirt, because there were some cliches it seemed impossible to avoid. For a moment, she had toyed with the idea of adding her favourite leather jacket, but with her desire to show off for Kara and Krypton's mild weather, it didn't seem worth it.

Lena had been greeted by a whistle from Sam that bordered on lecherous when she walked out of her bedroom, and she had set off towards the bar with confidence in her stride.

Even though Kara had said she would meet Lena there at eight, Lena arrived comfortably in advance of seven thirty. She was, as Sam had insisted, being paranoid, there was no doubt about it. There was something in the back of her mind though, something that had very little to do with actual paranoia. It was a habit that military life had worked out of her for the most part. Afterall, when one ran on the precise clock and packed days the Alliance Navy did, it was impossible to be early to anything. It was a habit that she had picked up before she enlisted, a habit that brought up memories of scoldings and lectures.

On time is late, Lena.

She shook the memory out of her head physically as she leant over the bar-top and flagged down the server with one hand. Ordering the first soda on the menu she recognised, Lena waved her omni-tool over the payment scanner, and turned to face the rest of the bar.

Even relatively early in the evening the place was beginning to fill up. As human-owned establishments went on Krypton, the bar was remarkably popular. It was the closest analogue to a real Earth dive-bar that Lena had come across off-planet, even compared to most of the colonies. The light was kept to a minimum, draping large swathes of the room in long, dim shadows. The bar itself wrapped around in a U-shape through the centre of the room, portioning the main floor off into two thin columns that ran down either side of the bar; and a larger, rectangular area at the apex. A solid third of the rectangular space was taken up by a slightly raised stage that, on that particular night, was occupied by a small band piping out a catchy junk salsa backdrop.

Hand wrapped around the cold glass of her soda, Lena let the music drift over her, calming her nerves as she sipped from the glass. There were a few dozen stories she could glimpse from the patrons of the bar as she looked around. It was something that had always come instinctively to her; the ability to read people. Around the bar she clocked the couples on dates, the small knots of friends who were there to support the band, and the solitary figures who dotted the bar much like her, either waiting for others or alone for the night and waiting for something.

How much time passed exactly before Kara arrived, Lena wasn't sure, but when she did time itself seemed to stop around her.

Lena had to blink herself back into focus when she first laid eyes on Kara. The woman who had just walked into the bar was such a far cry from the kryptonian that Lena had seen in their previous interactions that it took her a few moments to fully recognise that it was really Kara.

Kara, on the other hand, spied Lena immediately. Her eyes locked onto her across the bar, smile bright on her lips and a wave thrown up on one hand as she crossed towards Lena. Before Lena could fully put in order the cacophony that had blundered through her mind, Kara was by her side.

"It's good to see you again, Lena." She said, warm smile on her lips.

There was a pause before Lena found herself able to answer, one that lasted long enough for a knowing smirk to tug at one corner of Kara's mouth.

"You look…"

Gorgeous. Sexy as all fuck. Delicious enough to bend over and have right here on the bar top.

The Kara the was stood in front of Lena was night and day compared to the woman she had seen in the library the previous day. Gone was the ever so grandiose, floor-length gown that was the earmark of kryptonian attire, a species-wide consensus on fashion. In its place was an outfit that was, for lack of a better description, human. Jet black jeans, a graphic t-shirt that featured some classic rock band, finished with a jacket and boots made from the same style of leather. If Lena hadn't already known she was a kryptonian, there would have been no doubt in her mind that Kara was human.

"Close you mouth, Lena, it's undignified," Kara winked at her, with a boldness that stunned Lena back to something approaching mental functionality. "These were a gift from a friend back on Earth. I don't wear them very much, it isn't proper for a kryptonian."

Improper or not, the outfit was sinfully good on Kara. It rang of a fashion sense that was not her own, somehow Lena couldn't imagine Kara picking out particular ensemble if she was given free reign in a human clothing store. Still though, it was a look that stirred up a twisting fire somewhere in the pit of Lena's stomach. If she had been attracted to Kara when she had been outfitted in formal kryptonian robes, fitted denim and leather was a whole other realm of intensity.

"Improper huh?" Lena quirked an eyebrow at Kara.

If the flush that had risen over Kara's cheeks was anything to go by, Lena had been caught checking her out.

"We're in a human neighbourhood," Kara said a little bashfully. "I thought it would be better to appear to be human. Kryptonians get a lot of attention when we go openly into human establishments in traditional dress."

"I imagine you get a lot of attention however you're dressed, Kara."

It had come out without any conscious thought, an impulse of feeling and appreciation that her mind hadn't been able to stop from leaping from her mouth. The faint blush on Kara's cheeked deepened from light pink to red.

"So," Kara said after a long moment of pause. "What can you recommend?"

Quickly calling back the attention of the bartender, Lena rattled off an order for drinks and snack food, then indicated at one of the unoccupied tables that sat along one of the narrow sections of the room parallel to the bar. The drinks were produced, chilled bottles pulled from a fridge and placed on the bar, and Lena took one in each hand before leading Kara towards the table she had chosen.

Their first drinks were consumed with ears and eyes mostly attuned to the junk salsa that came from the front of the bar. The intensity of the conversation didn't move beyond small talk, light compliments passed back and forth and general comments about the work they were busy with. It wasn't until the snack food that Lena had ordered arrived that both of them faced their nervousness and turned full attention to one another.

"Are these nachos?" Kara asked with a look on her face that Lena put as somewhere between adoration and ravenous hunger.

"I guessed that your taste for human food might extend beyond candy."

The intense look stayed fixed on Kara's face even as her attention turned up from the overflowing plate of nachos and locked onto Lena. The twisting that Lena had felt in her stomach intensified tenfold as she pictured Kara giving her that same look in a situation far less public.

"I haven't had these in almost a decade," Kara admitted. "Not since my time on Earth."

"Spend some more time with me, Zor-El," Lena teased. "You'll spend a lot more time in divebars but at least the snacks are good."

For a moment, the intensity of Kara's look receded a little and she regarded Lena in a way that she couldn't fully decipher.

"I get the feeling I'll definitely enjoy spending more time with you, Lena Kieran."

After that the conversation, and the drinks, flowed far more readily between them. Despite Lena's best insistence that she covered their tab for the night, since the whole date had been her idea, Kara had only agreed to the compromise that they take it in turns to buy a round. Though, for Kara, most every round included some sort of additional snack from the menu the bartender had allowed them to keep on their table with an amused roll of her eyes.

Kara, Lena learnt, had first attended studies at Argo almost a decade prior after her return from Earth. At age sixteen (Earth standard), freshly returned to her homeworld after a year on an alien planet, Kara had completed the same level of qualification Lena herself was working on. After a few years actively working for the Science Guild, Kara had decided to return to Argo to undergo additional training in an entirely separate field to try and bolster her knowledge base.

Xenotechnology, the qualification Lena herself was working on, while offered at Argo for non-kryptonians was not a subject that any member of Krypton's Science Guild would take. Yet another strange cultural quirk of Krypton that had Lena hesitating. Kara however, seemed to find the idea fascinating. Much like Lena, she found it baffling that the species of the galaxy hadn't dedicated more time and resources over the past two-thousand years to trying to understand the science behind the mass relays. It was one of the reasons Lena had chosen to specialise in dark energy as part of her dual masters back on Earth, and that was the qualification Kara had returned to Argo to seek, though admittedly at a much more advanced level to Lena's own. In spite of that, the two of them had been able to exchange their own theories and ideas they had learned elsewhere without either of them being a step behind.

The whole time Kara talked, Lena found her gaze drawn to the shapes her lips made, the way her jaw would move, the bobbing of her throat as she swallowed a mouthful of her drink. The twisting in her stomach had built into a tension that Lena knew full well was the burning of attraction, and she dimly wondered how much Sam would mock her if she finally gave in to her flatmate's insistence she buy herself some kind of sex toy.

At some point in the conversation, with the warmth of the bar and the heat Lena felt under Kara's eyes, her flannel shirt had been shrugged off and draped over the back of her chair. Kara's reaction had been everything that Lena had hoped for, and she made a mental note not to be too hard on Sam when she grilled her for information about the date in thanks for her advice.

Then, Kara was asking Lena about her own history, and she had to fight to regain control of her brain before the wrong thoughts came spilling from her lips.

"I enlisted with the Alliance Navy when I was seventeen," Lena said, enough alcohol in her system to make the confession. She avoided making eye contact with Kara as she said it to avoid the judgment she was sure to receive. "After basic training and a stint on some space stations to get my zero-g certification, the Alliance offered to give me extra training, and I got transferred to the reserves."

When she looked back up, there was no judgment on Kara's face. No distaste in learning that Lena was a brute. No intimidation in knowing that she was a solider. There was just a curiosity, an interest, a look that told Lena that Kara really did want to know her story.

"My aunt and uncle both serve in Krypton's Military Guild, as does my cousin," Kara told her. "I…understand the dedication that must come with that duty." There was a pause for a moment, Lena staying silent as she watched Kara move through her thought process. "I think it's fascinating, the human capacity for diversity."

That comment threw Lena for a loop. "We're not that different from any other species."

"But you are," There was a light in Kara's eyes as she said it and Lena's only though was that if there was a way to entrap starlight, it would look exactly like the blue of Kara's eyes. "The salarians are most all scientists in some form or another, both the turians and the krogan are warriors, the volus are mercantile, and on Krypton we are assigned our Guild, our whole life, from the moment we are born."

Lena thought that Kara was choosing to omit a few key details about galactic life, but she could certainly see her point.

"Humans, you…you can choose. If you decide the life you have chosen isn't for you, you simply rise to your feet and choose another," Kara continued. "Look at you. Military trained but you fought for your education, to be able to see the galaxy outside the frame of reference that life gave you."

The conviction in Kara's words weighed down on Lena, the intensity of what she was saying. There was a truth to what she had said, one Lena was well enough aware of. Humans did have a flexibility to them that many other species didn't. Part of Lena had always wondered if it was to do with how little time humans had spent involved in the galactic community. For the most part, the species that occupied Citadel Space had been allied together for, at the short end, a thousand years. That was enough time for a society to condense itself to fill the role that the rest of the galaxy needed from it. Humanity on the other hand, had less than a generation of involvement with galactic society, and continued to fiercely defend its independence.

"Yeah, we're a pretty fickle people." Lena attempted to joke, her mind not wanting to work through the potential extents of Kara's statement in its alcohol addled state.

"I think you're incredible." Kara said.

When Lena looked up, Kara's gaze was locked firmly on her. Lena knew in that moment that Kara had most certainly not been referring to humanity as a whole when she had said that. Swallowing hard, Lena could feel her fingers twitch, burning with the desire to touch Kara, to drag her close so she could finally taste the lips she had been staring at all night.

Across the table, Kara plucked up her half empty bottle and tipped it back against her lips. There was a brief silence as she drained the bottle. Then, Kara rose to her feet, took a long step across the distance around the table, and held one hand out to Lena.

"Why don't we make a choice right now?"

Lena didn't take so much as a second to think about it. She took Kara's hand and allowed herself to be guided to her feet. The moment she was stood up, Lena's free hand settled at Kara's hip, eyes fixed on her lips. She and Kara shared a moment of hesitation, then they closed what little distance still remained between them.

Until that moment, Lena had been sure that she had heard every cliché in the book to describe a first kiss, between the other soldiers back in boot camp and her time at both universities. She could not have been more wrong. She had heard of fireworks before, of sensing explosions, or electricity. Lena had never felt any of it before, with any of her partners.

As her lips connected with Kara's, the sweet taste of asari honey-mead still lingering on them, Lena didn't see fireworks. She saw whole galaxies.