Chapter 8
By a cosmic joke of irritation, another four days passed by before Lena was able to see Kara again.
They traded a few extranet messages via omni-tool, though none of those came close to broaching the subject of their night together. Kara had promised to treat Lena to a real breakfast sometime to make up for the morning after, but that had been the closest they got. Lena had wanted to push it a little more, to see how Kara felt about it. There had been so few meaningful words exchanged between them that night that Lena could help but to worry about Kara's reaction to it. As far as she was aware, Kara had a good reason for her absence that morning, but it didn't mean for certain that she was completely okay with them having slept together on their first date. She wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to only be a one-time thing.
Still, their messages never made it out of polite conversation, both of them edging around the conversation they needed to have.
Sam, of course, commented repeatedly on how it affected Lena's mood. On receiving Kara's gift of bagels the morning after Lena had been flying high on the rush and thrill and promise of her connection with Kara. After two days too nervous to address the situation between them directly, and with no sign of Kara being the one to take the initiative, she had become – in Sam's exact words – a moody bitch. Maybe, maybe, there was something to that, but Lena stoutly refused to admit it.
The irritation was aimed more so at herself than anything else. She was a solider, trained by the Alliance Navy, a woman with a veritable genius level IQ and the combat skills to kill someone as fast as they could blink. She was a badass. And she was too damn nervous to text a pretty girl and ask her out on a second date. Sam found it hilarious. Lena felt the need to hit something, repeatedly. So, four days after she had last seen Kara, and after spending two hours in a shooting range to no noticeable effect, she called James.
Thankfully, the universe had seemed to be working with her for once and James had readily agreed to meet her at their gym. Apparently, he'd been in the depth of an assignment for one of his classes and had been in need of an outlet to destress himself.
Usually, sparring with James was Lena's first call when she had excess energy of one form or another to work out. Emptying the clip of her Phalanx over and over at dummy targets was never a particularly satisfying experience for her. It was something Lena did her best to do often, just one of the many facets of her training that wouldn't leave her alone, but it was purely mechanical to her. Load, aim, squeeze, repeat. She was a good shot, third in her graduating class but it wasn't much of an outlet for her.
Sparring on the other hand, was far more tactile. Being able to feel every action and reaction, getting punished physically for making a mistake and not just hearing the passive whine of a buzzer, actually having the sport of competing against another person, it was much more fun. That said, Lena was a fierce fighter on a good day, never mind with four days of pent up self-loathing. She had warned James in advance that she had some frustration to work off, but he had laughed her concerns away and told that that he would be fine. If he wasn't, he told her, she'd be the one paying his medical bills.
Thankfully, there was definitely no chance of that happening.
While Lena usually would be able to best James in a fight, he did put up an impressive resistance. The first afternoon Lena had laid eyes on Kara had been the quickest she had ever taken James down, by a significant margin. Whether he had been putting in some more practice time because of that, or some other reason, James had been fierce when they met up that day.
James had come at her out of the gate with a style remarkably different to his own.
Where James was more of a raw boxer, Lena relied on her speed and flexibility to take down opponents that were, typically, larger than she was. She could still throw a killer right hook, one that had delivered a clean knock out on a few occasions, though it was rarely her first move in a straight up brawl. To see James holding back, circling her with more probing jabs over his usual brute assault almost caused Lena to pause. Almost.
Apparently having learnt his lesson after a few months of getting taken to the mat by Lena, James opened the fight on the defensive. For the first time since they started sparring, Lena was the one who stepped into the fight first. As soon as she was in range, James opened up. Lena had to take a step back to dodge some of the incoming blows, steering the others aside with wing blocks. A grin split Lena's lips as her system ticked over fully into combat mode. James was finally giving her a real fight.
James kept pace with her for nearly five minutes, Lena unwilling to push too far into her own training and flatten him like she knew she could. There were parts of her combat training she didn't tap into when she sparred with James, the techniques that the Alliance taught her so that she could kill, not just disable. Even without her using those things, she was a more capable fighter than anyone else at Argo she had encountered. Despite James' valiant energy, Lena still took him down to the mat.
He was up on his feet and readying himself for another round before Lena even had the chance to offer him a hand to get to his feet.
Twice.
The third round was the only time that James would ever be able to take Lena down to the mat. For years after, Lena would continue to insist that James wouldn't have come that close at all if it hadn't been for Kara. Because of course, of course, Kara would be the only thing capable of pulling Lena out of her diamond-sharp focus mid-fight.
All it took was a glimpse of blonde hair to tug at the corner of her eye. A shine, a radiance that Lena could only recall seeing in the squalor of the gym once before. It was just enough to snag the rest of Lena's attention, eyes refocusing the second she could make out the features that were attached to that blonde hair. Through the dim light of the gym, Lena locked eyes with Kara, and Kara smiled.
And a right hook spun Lena off her feet.
Reflex brought her arms up in time to cover her face before she hit the mat. Lena let out a grunt as pain splintered up through her forearms and knees, and her muscles tensed hard to stop the rest of body from collapsing down to the ground. On her periphery, she saw James take a step back, either in shock at finally being able to land a solid hit on Lena or observing the proper rules and giving her space to get back to her feet. Shaking some of the stars she was seeing from her head, Lena slapped a flat palm on the mat under her and shoved herself up to her feet.
Lena ran a tongue around the inside of her mouth, tasted no blood and found no loose teeth. The blow James had levelled her with had mostly been constrained to her cheekbone, nothing that would leave any lasting damage. Probably not even a real bruise if she slapped some medi-gel on it once she was out of the ring.
The moment she was back on her feet Lena locked eyes with James, and grinned devilishly.
James visibly shrunk at the predatory gaze that had washed over Lena's face. In two quick steps Lena crossed the distance that had opened up between her and James. Trying to catch her before she could close the rest of space between them James shot out with hooked fists, striking low in an attempt to get in under the guard he expected Lena to put up. She stepped in to meet him, deflecting his attacks with wing blocks and using knees and elbows to take him down. James grunted gut-deep with the blows and hit the mat for the third time that afternoon, one arm folded beneath his body. Lena went down after him, landed on his back and dragged the available wrist up, locking out the arm until it creaked.
"Fuck, goddamn it, alright! I tap out!" James protested.
Lena felt the grin return to her lips and got up, stepping back from James. After a moment, he got to his feet, uninjured hand massaging the shoulder Lena had twisted. Looking up at Lena, James glowered at her.
"Couldn't just let me get the hit in, huh?" James sniped at her, but Lena could tell there was no real malice in it.
"False sense of security, Jimmy," Lena grinned. "Just wanted you to drop your guard so that I could finish you off."
James made his way towards the lip of the ring. "Bullshit, L. I finally drop you and you're telling me you let me? You wouldn't wound your own pride like that. And don't call me Jimmy."
Sometimes, Lena forgot how insightful James could be.
"Alright, maybe I wouldn't."
Lena followed James to the edge of the ring, her eyes immediately searching for Kara as she dropped down to the main floor of the gym. While James went for his gym bag, searching for his water bottle and towel, Lena found Kara. There was a half-smile on her lips, mixed with a little concern that Lena reasoned must have been because of the injury James dealt to her. Lena gave her a bright smile to attempt to soothe her concerns, even as the tensing of the muscles in her face caused her cheek to twinge with pain.
"Shit, am I late again?" James' voice stole Lena's attention. By the time she turned her eyes onto him, James had thrown his omni-tool on to check the time, and his brow was furrowed in confusion. He looked up, saw the direction of Kara's gaze, then turned to look at Lena. "You've got to be kidding me. Already? It's been like two weeks!"
Lena couldn't help but to let her eyes refocus on Kara. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
James crossed his arms over his chest. "Krogan. In a stealth suit." James enunciated his favourite mockery for Lena's lack of subtlety. "You know one of these days you'll actually start telling me when interesting things happen to you, instead of letting me find out through Sam, or by accident."
"I'm not exactly good at small talk, James."
James sighed and shook his head fondly. "I'm gonna hit the showers. You go…hit on my tutor, I guess."
Lena knew she didn't need to reply, unable to resist the way one corner of her mouth curled into a grin at what James had said. She absolutely would go and hit on Kara. It seemed to be a reflex she had, every time Lena was in Kara's vicinity she found herself paying her compliments. Not that it was a reflex Lena was unhappy to have. It was one far more enjoyable than anything programmed into her by her Alliance training.
The moment James was out of sight and around the corner into the area that contained the changing rooms, Lena gravitated towards Kara. She was dressed exactly like she had been the first few times Lena had seen her, the flowing grandeur of kryptonian fashion hung expertly off every curve and hair pinned back in a high ponytail.
With no prompting at all, Lena's mind flickered over the memory of the last time she had seen Kara; wrapped into Lena's side, a faint sheen of sweat across her forehead, and completely naked. Unlike every other time she had pictured her time in bed with Kara since the morning after, Lena didn't supress the memory, she needed the confidence.
"Hey." Lena said, stopping just in front of Kara.
"Hello, Lena."
There was something approaching a smile on Kara's lips as she said it. Kara's head was tipped down a little, cheeks somewhat flushed. Embarrassment, Lena clocked after a second.
"I hope it's okay that I'm here," Kara continued. "I…wanted to see you and James mentioned that he may be late to our meeting this afternoon because he was training. I reasoned that I would find you here as well."
"You could have just messaged me." Lena did her best to cover the accusatory nature of her words but if the look on Kara's face was anything to go by, she hadn't done particularly well.
"Given how unsuccessful we've been in our digital communications the last few days, it made sense to come here in person."
Lena had to fight down the urge to comment on how formal Kara sounded. That night at the bar when they had traded theories on dark energy, discussed the protheans, talked about the science of the mass relays, Kara had shed many of the formal speech patterns Lena had noticed among kryptonians. Lena had taken it as a sign that Kara trusted her, liked her, enough that she was comfortable to drop the grandstanding and act like herself. The moment they were back in public, with other people around who could potentially overhear them, Kara had defaulted back almost entirely to that formality.
A flicker of memory from Earth shivered through Lena's mind and she shoved it away.
"Well if I'd known you were coming, I'd have gone a little easier on James, worked up less of a sweat." Lena joked, a half-smile on her lips as she tried to do something to disrupt the strange tension crackling in the space between them.
Kara was silent for a long moment before she replied, her voice dropped dangerously low. "I've got some very fond memories of the last time I watched you work up a sweat, I don't mind at all."
Lena was stunned into silence. Her mind flashed the image of Kara, naked in her bed. Lena looking up at her with Kara's hands tangled in her hair. With that image in her mind, Lena would have pounced on Kara right then and there if there hadn't been so many other people around them. With any less military conditioning, she might have done it anyway. Whatever god, whatever force beyond all forces was out there running the universe, it definitely, without doubt or reservation, wanted to kill her.
"I wanted to apologise again," Kara said, as if she had been able to tell that Lena's mind was going to be unable to form a reply. "For running out on you that morning, and for not waking you myself before I did. I…wish I had not done so."
And all of the tension, all of the doubt and self-loathing Lena had battled with in the days since she had last seen Kara burnt away instantly. Kara had felt the same as her, had wished that they had been able to spend more time together and really talk about what had gone on between them.
"What happened the other night…" Lena began before trailing off, trying to work out how best to voice the jumble of thoughts that were fighting for priority in her mind. "If you wanted that to just be a one-time deal, something casual, I'm okay with it. But, I thought there was…something, maybe, more between you and me. I don't know about you, but I think that might be worth exploring."
If she hadn't known for a fact that it was medically impossible, Lena might have worried that her heart was going to shatter a rib with how hard it was pounding against her chest. Lena could count on one hand, with fingers to spare, the amount of times in her life she had truly put her heart and soul on the line. Every single time it was a gut swooping experience. With Kara, it felt even more so, even if Lena had a good idea of how Kara would answer.
"I would very much like to explore it as well," Kara said. "I don't…casual—" Kara tipped her head to one side, seemingly refusing to say the word 'sex' out aloud.
Lena almost had to resit the urge to laugh out loud. After the things she and Kara had done to each other the other night, the idea of Kara being prudish about just saying the word sex was both adorable and funny.
"That's not who I am," She continued. "The other night was an anomaly for me. You make me act unlike myself, Lena. I find you…fascinating."
It's not unlike yourself. Lena wanted to say. It's just who you can be without the burden of responsibility.
It was hardly something she could just drop into a conversation in the middle of her gym.
"Well it just so happens I find you fascinating as well, Kara." Lena opted to say instead.
The smile that leapt across Kara's lips as she said it could have powered whole continents with how bright it was.
"Then what would you say to dinner?"
"I'm guessing you mean a real one, not just snack food in a dive bar?"
"I do. I believe I 'owe you one' after leaving you to the disappointment of eating breakfast with your flatmate the other morning."
After the things you did to me the other night, you could stab me in the kidney and you wouldn't owe me a thing.
"You don't owe me anything, Kara." Lena said, ignoring the treachery of the voice in her head.
"Fine, then, because I want to treat you to a real dinner."
Lena smiled at her. "Then I accept."
"Excellent. I'll message you the details."
Maybe, Lena considered, the universe didn't want her dead after all.
CODEX ENTRIES
Medi-gel: An all-purpose medicinal salve capable of healing various wounds and ailments, instantly sealing injuries against infection and allowing for rapid healing. The modern incarnation of medi-gel was developed by the Sirta Foundation, a human corporation.
Protheans: An ancient alien race which mysteriously vanished over 50,000 years ago. The Protheans have been credited with creating the Citadel and the mass relays, the basis of which all galactic society is built on.
Medi-gel: An all-purpose medicinal salve capable of healing various wounds and ailments, instantly sealing injuries against infection and allowing for rapid healing. The modern incarnation of medi-gel was developed by the Sirta Foundation, a human corporation.
Protheans: An ancient alien race which mysteriously vanished over 50,000 years ago. The Protheans have been credited with creating the Citadel and the mass relays, the basis of which all galactic society is built on.