Chapter 9

If Lena had been nervous in the leadup to her first date with Kara, the two days leading up to her second date were on a level of their own.

Kara had been more than a little cagey about the exact details of the dinner that they were going to and it had driven Lena stir crazy. The only piece of information that Kara had given to her, was to say that she would pick Lena up a little after 7pm that evening. The name of the restaurant they were going to, how high class the venue was, how Lena would need to dress, Kara hadn't given her any answers at all. It was as infuriating as it was endearing.

In spite of Lena's lack of affinity for popular fashion, needing to dress for the occasion was as much a habit that came from her life on Earth as it did from her Alliance training. The lack of information flowing from Kara was doing very little but tug annoyingly at the back of her mind. Kara had repeatedly assured Lena that whatever she wore, she would look more than good enough for any place they could go to eat. Lena would have loved to say that the compliment, delivered with as much conviction as Kara had, didn't do anything to assuage that tugging feeling but well…she was only human. No matter how deep her training ran, military or otherwise, there was nothing quite like compliments from a pretty girl to override it.

Still though, her nerves had her in overdrive in the hours leading up to Kara's arrival at her apartment. With two hours until Kara would be there, Sam had slipped seamlessly from good-natured mockery at Lena's "gay panic" and into full-on stylist mode. With the amount of work Sam had been doing for her fashion lately, Lena was dangerously close to having to admit out aloud that her friend had good taste. Then again, she supposed, if it meant that she was well-dressed enough that Kara would be the one of them stumbling over herself, then it would be worth it.

Without much explanation at all of what she intended to do Sam manhandled Lena into the chair at her desk in her room, employing suitable biotic-fuelled threats where necessary, and began busying herself with a makeup kit. At first Lena tried to complain that she never wore much makeup, but Sam had shut that down by slapping her hand away every time Lena attempted to redirect the brush Sam was using. No more than twenty minutes later, Sam pulled Lena's hair up into an elegant bun and was disappearing to riffle through Lena's wardrobe. She emerged with a burgundy suit that Lena had only bought on Sam's insistence and a black dress shirt that she only owned to be worn under her Alliance dress blues at funeral services.

She put together the image of what she would look like in that outfit and grinned. Sam was good.

The outfit was completed with a pair of high heels that Sam had to lend to her since Lena didn't own a single pair. Despite Sam's influence on her wardrobe in the months that they had known each other, Lena had still refused to buy herself high heels. While she was more than capable of walking in them, they were an incredibly impractical piece of fashion that Lena never saw the point in suffering through. As a finishing touch on an already killer outfit though, and if it meant impressing Kara, she would make the sacrifice.

After completing a full catwalk strut in her outfit at Sam's behest, and the almost full hour that followed of Sam trying to hype her up, Lena's confidence was soundly returned to her by the time of Kara's arrival. Lena had seen her arrive before her omni-tool light up with the message ping. Even with Sam's incredible work as Lena's personal stylist and hype-woman, Lena had still been looking out the window ready for Kara's presence for almost twenty minutes by the time the autocab pulled up outside her apartment building. When the message from Kara came through confirming as much, Lena was already in the elevator.

When Lena stepped out onto the tepid early-evening air she was greeted by the sight of Kara stood patiently by the idling autocab, hands clasped in front of her and a brilliant smile on her lips. Lena had to make the conscious choice to stop walking for a moment to fully take in Kara, not trusting her body to continue walking properly with the way her mind was wandering.

The dress Kara had draped herself in bespoke a fashion that Lena thought more asari than kryptonian. Where the crest of the wearer's House was usually centred over the chest, the one on Kara's dress was smaller and lower, covering her lower chest with the point coming to rest mid-stomach. The lower crest allowed for a delicate cut out across the upper chest, exposing a tantalising expanse of sun-kissed skin and a teasing glimpse of cleavage beneath. Similar cut-outs sat on each hip, revealing more skin and highlighting the trim of Kara's waist. The deep blue hue of the dress drew Lena back up to the matching shade in Kara's eyes, and Lena didn't even try to supress her smile at what she saw there.

The thrill Lena had gotten from watching Kara shamelessly check out her arms was nothing in comparison to the rush she felt in that moment. The smile Kara had been wearing when Lena had first stepped outside had half-slid off her face, leaving a look somewhere between admiration and shock in its place. Her mouth was slightly open, just enough that Lena could be sure it wasn't intentional, and her eyes were shamelessly raking up and down Lena's frame. At the open attraction Kara was showing her, Lena found her feet again and carried on the rest of the walk across the small courtyard to where the autocab was idling.

"Hi," Lena smiled as she reached Kara, placing on hand on the exposed skin of her arm and leaning in to place a kiss to one cheek. "You look beautiful."

Whatever Kara's first words were when Lena pulled away, her translator missed them entirely. All she caught was a string of compressed syllables – in what Lena assumed to be Kryptonese – and the vital red blush on Kara's cheeks.

"You look absolutely incredible." Came the response a moment later, filtered into English standard by Lena's translator. "A suit is…something else on you."

"If you like this, you should see me in my dress blues." The confidence rush from Kara's words produced the statement, complete with a wry grin over Lena's lips.

Kara practically froze in place, swallowing audibly, and Lena could only assume that Kara was picturing exactly what she had said. After a long moment of allowing her the fantasy, Lena grinned.

"Close you mouth Kara, it's undignified."

That snapped Kara out of her stupor instantly. Her mouth formed an almost perfect o-shape in the shock at having her own words turned against her, then her features transformed into a light scowl, then she started laughing. It was a full, throaty laughter and Lena found it immediately infectious. It took a few moments for the two of them to compose themselves.

"Shall we then?" Kara pulled open the hatch of the autocab and gestured one-handed for Lena to enter.

Taking Kara's hand, Lena moved herself into the passenger seat of the cab, making a conscious effort to slide in like a normal person, and not with the military efficiency with which she was used to boarding a vehicle. Once she was settled, Kara closed the door-hatch behind her and moved around to the driver's side, opened the hatch and took her seat. The steering column was collapsed into the dashboard, the onboard VI currently in control of the vehicle, which left Kara with plenty of space to settle into her seat.

Once she was sat down Kara waved a hand over the centre console, activating the holo-display and tapped the slowly pulsing 'next destination' icon. The autocab's mass effect drive started humming rhythmically and they lifted up from the ground.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going yet?" Lena asked, looking over to Kara.

She smiled coyly. "Honestly, Lena, you can't manage to wait another five minutes for your curiosity to be sated?"

"Not a chance."

Kara bit her lip for a moment, eyeing Lena with an intensity that lit a fire in the pit of her stomach. Unsure if it was a conscious movement or not, the two women leant in towards each other simultaneously.

"Then maybe we should find a way to keep you distracted until we arrive."

Lena didn't need any more prompting to close the rest of the gap between them. It was the first real kiss that she had Kara had shared since their night together more than a week before, and it was everything Lena had remembered it to be. The distinct sweet flavour of the asari honey-mead Lena had recalled tasting on Kara's lips and tongue the previous time they had kissed was gone. In its place was something less sweet but equally distinct, and Lena couldn't be sure if it was something purely Kara or if it was in her lipstick.

Either way, she was desperate to keep enjoying it. One of her hands reached around and rested at the back of Kara's head, holding her close; the other arm half-trapped between her own body and the backrest of her seat. Kara reciprocated the gesture, resting her free hand on Lena's hip, fingers idly stroking back and forth. Encouraging her actions, Lena started to rake her fingers through Kara's hair, lighting tugging at it. In response, Kara's hand slid around from her hip and down to cup her ass, and squeezed lightly.

As much as she had expected the action Lena was still caught by it and sighed pleasurably, breaking the kiss. Kara surged forward immediately to close the tiny gap that had opened up between them. Lena lifted herself away from the seat slightly, freeing up enough space for her free arm to move up. At first, her hand rested on Kara's cheek, but quickly trailed down over her jawline to lightly curl around her neck, covered as it was by her dress.

Before either of them could make another move, the autocab juddered to a halt. The mass effect drive made an audible whine as it shut down, and the holo-display in the centre console bleeped with the payment request.

The two of them lingered for a moment before breaking part, not feeling any pressure to hurry thanks to the tinted windows of the cab. Even as the kiss broke, both Lena and Kara hesitated to take hands from one another. Lena was the first to make a move. The hand that had been at Kara's neck dropped slowly, fingertips trailing downward over her neck, then down along the exposed skin of Kara's chest and finally catching lightly against the bottom line of the cut-out as Lena followed the line down between Kara's breasts.

Kara sucked in a breath and their gazes locked.

"If we didn't have a reservation to make…" Lena whispered into the space between them.

"Yeah." Kara echoed, breathless.

They broke apart then, both pulling up their omni-tool cameras to smooth their appearances before they left the cab. A minute later, Kara closed the camera app and swiped her omni-tool over the payment display on the cab's holo. With one last shared glance, they both hinged up the hatches of the autocab and stepped out. Back on her feet, Lena buttoned her blazer up again, then stepped around to the front of the cab and held her arm out to Kara. For a moment, the kryptonian paused, and Lena was suddenly reminded of the fact that cultural quirks didn't always translate easily species to species. It took Kara a moment to either interpret the gesture, or remember it from her time on Earth, but when she did she linked her arm with Lena's.

Once they stepped clear of the landing zone, the autocab powered back up and lifted from the ground. Lena watched it out of the corner of her eye as it began to climb and after a moment she lost the tail lights in the streams of airborne traffic.

Linked arm-in-arm, Lena allowed Kara to guide her up from the small field of landing pads and into a sparsely populated street. The early evening on krypton, especially in the restaurant dense areas of the cities, tended to lend to light scatterings of pedestrians, since most were settled down to eat. They passed by a number of places that Lena knew tended to be frequented by students at the university when they had cause to celebrate, and Lena had most expected them to have stopped at one of them. When they crossed over into one of the adjoining streets that housed some far more expensive venues, something flared in the back of Lena's mind.

The restaurant they came to a stop in front of amplified that flare several fold. Lena recognised the place on sight, it was one of the most exclusive venues in Argo city. It wasn't somewhere the average student would know existed given said exclusiveness, it was rare that non-kryptonians dined there, but Lena had been thorough in her research of Argo before her arrival.

Clearly, Kara had sensed Lena's hesitation, and she fixed her with a curious look.

"Kara, isn't this a little out of the student budget?"

Kara flexed her face into a disarming smile before she answered. "It's on me, Lena, don't worry about it." When Lena gave Kara a look that definitively said she wasn't going to accept that as an answer, Kara dipped her head a little and blushed. "I may or may not have some family money. I, um…well I don't know how better to spend it than to impress a beautiful woman."

The bashfulness on her face and the sincerity of Kara's complement almost was enough to let Lena drop the issue entirely.

The first time Lena had laid eyes on Kara she had reasoned that she came from a family of some standing. The intricate quality of her robes had given that away to her almost immediately. Then, Kara's comment about having an aunt who had served on Earth had made Lena suspect even more since, to the best of her knowledge, only people who had been very high up in the kryptonian military guild had taken part in those so-called 'diplomatic missions'. On top of it all, not only was Kara willingly to throw away a few hundred credits on a single dinner, but she was able to secure a place at one of the most exclusive venues in the city.

Something about it all set the hairs on the back of Lena's neck on edge. Her concern wasn't the Kara had kept from her that she was from a family of means, but that her family might be one of Krypton's most notable houses. The great houses of Krypton were comparable to the 'old money' families back on Earth; snobby, prejudiced, convinced that their status and standing gave them the right to lord over the choices of others. Lena had fled from that on Earth, joined the Alliance to get away from it.

Yet, Kara hadn't given her any impression that she was like that, that she belonged to a house like that. Her own attitude had never been anything other than open and accepting, curious about the other races in the galaxy, and eager to learn. She was one of the most generous souls Lena had ever come across. Even if she was from one of those families, Kara was different.

Lena bit her tongue for a moment, forcing out the doubts her mind was trying to drum up. It wasn't like she was being entirely honest with Kara about her own history. At the very least, Lena owed them both a chance to see where things between them would go before she made any decisions.

"You don't have to do anything other than be yourself to impress me, Kara."

The blush on Kara's cheeks deepened at the comment and she ducked her head bashfully. It took a few seconds before Kara had calmed herself enough to look back up at Lena.

"Thank you, Lena," She smiled. "But since the table is already booked?"

Lena returned the smile. "Then we should make the most of it."

They duo stepped through the automatic doors and into the restaurant with arms still linked. Kara slipped her arm out from Lena's own and, before she could complain, darted a few paces forward to exchange words with the maître d'. By the time Lena had caught her own surprise at Kara's sudden rush forward and moved to join her, menus had been gathered and they were being led to a table near the front window of the restaurant by a waitress who appeared seemingly from nowhere.

The waitress lingered while they took their seats, then passed them both a menu.

"Could we have a bottle of Thessia Red while we decide?" Kara asked.

With a polite nod, the waitress disappeared. The menu in Lena's hands was printed in the same elegant Kryptonese lettering she had grown accustomed to over her months on Krypton, the one that she had still neglected to learn. She was about to pull up her omni-tool's translate app when Kara stopped her.

"The food here is…" She hesitated for a moment, as if searching for the right word. "It's the closest analogue to Earth sushi."

Sushi.

It wasn't the first time that Lena had heard Kara's voice without the slightly synthetic edge that the ubiquitous audio translators produced, but something about it landed hard in Lena's chest. There was a twinge of accent in it that she hadn't noticed before, something that had been lost in either excitement or alcohol during their night at the dive bar. It was impossible to describe with a human frame of reference; something equatorial with edges of Russian.

"That's one of my favourite foods from home." Lena admitted.

"Would you mind if I ordered for us?"

"By all means."

The waitress returned, placed a wine glass in front of each of them and filled them half-full before putting the bottle down in the middle of the table. When she asked them if they were ready to order, Kara quickly rattled off a selection of dishes that Lena had no understanding of.

One of the things translators could never give any aid with was proper nouns. The names of the fish and of the dishes that Kara ordered reached Lena without any translation, strings of Kryptonese that served no meaning to Lena other than to allow her to admire Kara's accent even more. Flashes of memory came back to Lena of the night she had shared with Kara, of the Kryptonese curses that had leapt from Kara and reached Lena's ears unfiltered by her translator. Suddenly, Kara's voice, raw and unaffected by the synthetic undertones of translators, became one of Lena's favourite sounds in the universe.

CODEX ENTRIES

Autocab: A standard X3M aircar, piloted by a VI for passenger convenience. (These don't officially exist in the Mass Effect universe, but…come on they have to, right?)

VI: A Virtual Intelligence (VI) is a sophisticated program designed to make modern computer systems easier to use. VIs vary greatly depending on how they are deployed. They can handle search queries on the extranet, act as tour guides, manage sophisticated lab and database work, among other functions. Though they appear to be intelligent, they aren't actually self-aware, just made with clever programming.