All too soon, Lena's little stay with Kara came to an end.
"Thanks again, Kara, it really means a lot to me," the CEO said as she prepared to return to her own home.
"Oh! It's was nothing! No trouble at all!" Kara gave Lena a lopsided smile and an awkward thumbs up. If Lena found the gesture to be odd, she didn't show it. Instead, she only gave Kara another little laugh and another thankful nod before heading out the door. Kara waved her farewell but, as soon as Lena was out the door and down the hall, Kara quickly shut and locked her own door before heaving a huge sigh.
As wonderful as it had been to have an excuse to have Lena living with her for the past few days, it had been incredibly stressful too. Trying to keep calm, cool and collected while her crush walked around her apartment had been hard. Trying to remind herself that it was not a permanent move was even harder. Admittedly, Kara had liked to pretend that she and Lena really were together and that the past few days had been normal domestic life for them. It had been hard for Kara to say goodbye to that dream, and to Lena. But of course, it had to happen. Lena had a life to get back to and a house that really needed her. Now that her new, amped up security was in place, there was no need for her to stay with Kara anymore. This realization saddened Kara, but she managed to fight off the sorrow and only heave another resigned sigh instead.
"Oh well," she sighed to herself on that unpleasantly quiet and empty morning. "At least it was fun while it lasted."
But even though Kara was under the impression that Lena had needed and wanted her only for the temporary housing, she couldn't have been more wrong. Truth be told, once Lena's own place became safe enough to go back to, she had been incredibly close to lying and trying to extend her stay with Kara. Feeling that it would be wrong of her to take advantage of Kara's hospitality like that, however, made Lena change her mind and ultimately choose to tell Kara the truth, telling her exactly when she would go back home. It hadn't been fun for the Luthor, to leave her best and closest friend behind, but it had to be done! Lena had a life and so did Kara! She didn't want to be a burden on Kara. They had both known that the move wasn't permanent anyway. But even so, Lena had been unhappy to leave.
"It's too quiet!" she muttered in frustration as she looked around her own empty home. She wished Kara could've come with her.
In the days to follow, both women continued to pine for the company of one another, but both of them were too shy to say it. Kara didn't want to come off as creepy or desperate by inviting Lena back over so soon while Lena didn't want to seem imposing or ingenuine by trying to return the invitation. Until Kara had a real need to stay with Lena, Lena didn't want to ask about their housing situations.
By some unfathomable amount of luck, however, Kara's apartment suffered a minor infestation. Kara offhandedly mentioned it during one of their brunches together (conveniently forgetting to mention that it had somehow magically only affected her room and not anyone else's in the complex) and Lena's heart had nearly stopped.
"If you need some place to stay, you're more than welcome to stay with me," Lena said, struggling not to sound too excited or hopeful.
"Really?" Kara asked back, eyes shining with something unreadable.
"Sure!" Lena nodded again, then she tried not to offer to allow Kara to stay over forever...
That night, Lena's home was not at quiet as it had been before. In her eyes, this was an improvement.
"It's lovely to have you over, Kara," Lena smiled fondly at the reporter as they cleaned up dinner.
"Thank you so much for letting me stay," Kara replied with an equally fond smile. 20 minutes later, the two of them had both changed into more comfortable clothing. Lena was, once again, wearing her pajama shirt and large, flannel boxers. This was completely intentional. Although Lena had played dumb earlier, she knew for a fact that Kara was smitten with her. She had been first aware of it the morning she'd come out of Kara's room wearing that black suit. Lena could still remember it clearly, Kara's jaw dropping wide open to expose a half-eaten donut bit. Then she'd made the common, but still grievous, mistake of trying to speak while her mouth was full.
From that very first wide-eyed, wide-mouthed stare, Lena had realized that Kara was at least a little struck by her. That subsequent night with the boxers had only confirmed it. Lena felt both proud and giddy to realize that Kara felt that way about her so, when Kara accepted Lena's offer to stay over at Lena's house while her apartment was cleaned up, Lena had intentionally made sure that her boxers were clean. Now, she was wearing them once again and, just like before, she could feel Kara's eyes burning into them. She had to hide a smirk, just in case Kara was also staring at her face. She didn't want to give it away just yet that she knew what Kara was doing. It was much more fun to play dumb and watch Kara flounder. But what Lena hadn't expected was how struck she was going to be by Kara.
In a minor case of role-reversal, as Kara emerged from the bathroom wearing a baggy sweater, Lena suddenly found herself fighting hard to stop grinning like a complete and utter idiot. But she couldn't help it! Kara just looked cute and adorable in that overly large sweater, its sleeves going far past her hands. The bottom of it reached her knees and Lena was sure she was going to start crying just because of how precious Kara looked in that sweater. Heaven knew that Lena had never seen Kara wearing anything like that before! But then she remembered why. In all their past encounters, even when Lena had been living in Kara's apartment, Kara had tried so hard to be prim, proper and formal around her that she'd always been in something a little bit nicer than a big old sweater. Lena had found it flattering before, thinking that Kara was getting dressed up just for her, but now it seemed that Kara felt at ease enough to wear something far dorkier than a nice shirt and pants. Lena almost liked it more than the days where Kara wore dresses and skirts.
Lena tried hiding her giant, goofy grin behind her hand as she continued to watch Kara saunter over in that giant sweater, but that started to look weird after a while, so she resorted to just trying to remain with a neutral expression. That didn't work very well either.
"So, you said we were going to watch a movie?" Kara asked as reached Lena's side.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah!" Lena quickly turned around, biting her tongue to keep from accidently laughing out loud with nerves. Meanwhile, Kara tilted her head, just a little bit confused by Lena's reaction. But she set it aside the moment she and Lena found themselves side by side on a couch again.
Just like before, as Lena carefully leaned onto Kara's arm, Kara felt like she had just flow right up beyond cloud nine. And just like before, Kara hardly paid any attention to the action on screen, far more infatuated with the view sitting right beside her. Little did she know, however, that Lena was doing the same thing, occasionally using the TV screen or the reflective plastic of its frame to watch Kara, still unable to get over how freaking cute Kara looked in that old sweater, curled up almost inside of it as she relaxed on the couch beside Lena. Lena was sure she was going to have a heart attack from the cuteness of it all! By the end of it, neither woman could remember the name of the main character, but they were well versed in each other's outfits for the evening, both of them over the moon and totally in love.
Once it came time for bed, Lena tried to offer the same courtesy to Kara that Kara had offered to her a few days ago.
"You can take the bed this time," she grinned awkwardly as she remained on the couch.
"No, I couldn't," Kara grinned bashfully, but this time, Lena wouldn't take no for an answer. Instead, she personally escorted Kara to her bedroom.
"Come on," she insisted, grabbing Kara's elbow before leading her over to the bedroom.
"Uhhh, ok, Lena, sure! Whatever you say!" Kara mumbled as she realized where Lena was taking her. Once again, her mind went to the gutters and the heavens both at the same time. She was thankful, then, that Lena was dragging her along, because if the two had been walking side by side, Lena would've seen the flustered faces Kara was making, and Kara didn't really need Lena to see those at the moment.
The moment the two entered Lena's bedroom, however, Kara's initial shyness vanished at once.
"Woah!" she couldn't help but gape at how large and beautiful the bedroom was. It was just as magnificent as the rest of the house and this didn't surprise Kara in the slightest, but getting to actually see it still took her breath away. It managed to look so high-class and enviable, but without looking too gaudy or showy or flashy. There was a quiet sort of opulence to it. But what caught Kara's eye the most was the bed. Lena noticed.
"I'll leave you to it," she said, squeezing Kara's arm once before turning around to leave.
"Wait!" without even thinking, Kara stopped Lena. "This bed is definitely large enough for us to share!" then she suddenly looked pale. "Oh no. Did I really just say that out loud?"
To which Lena replied, without even thinking, "Yes. And yes." Then it was her turn to look slightly mortified.
Several minutes later, though, the two of them had managed to snuggle up under the sheets together, though both of them were sweating bullets. Lena instantly regretted her decision not to sleep on the couch after all while Kara continually cursed herself for speaking so impulsively. At the same time, though, neither woman would've "rectified" the situation, had they been allowed to. Lena knew for certain that she would much rather stay with Kara than sleep alone (whether it be on bed or couch) and Kara herself knew she'd never, ever truly regret her stupid decision to be so reckless and bold as to ask Lena to sleep with her. Oh! And there Kara's mind went! Right for the gutters and the stars again.
But for all the nervousness between the pair, they managed to fall asleep fairly quickly. Even though they were both sleeping as far away from each other as they could, there was something so natural and so right about them being able to be so close and so intimate that even their nerves couldn't keep them awake. It was like they had been doing this for years, or like it was second nature for them to do this. Slowly, then, over the course of the night, the two unwittingly drifted closer and closer to one another until they were curled up and facing towards one another, almost embracing in their sleep. It was a far cry from where they had started off the night on opposite sides of the bed.
Kara woke up first and had nearly gone flying off the bed (literally) when she realized that she was holding Lena in her arms (or was Lena holding her?). She managed to restrain herself, however, and wake up quietly, sprinting out of that bedroom as fast as she could and getting changed into her work outfit all the while. Today she was meeting with some big and important guy for a fluff piece that she had been assigned to write. Because of that, she put on her best dress for the occasion. It was relatively simple, but there was a beauty in its plainness and it was still very formal and elegant. It wasn't overdone, but it was nice. And it was easy to put on, and it wasn't distracting (both in terms of showiness and "sexiness"). Kara had faced interviewees before who seemed less interested in what was under Kara's reports and more interested in what was under her clothes. It was her hope, then, that this relatively simplistic dress would keep her interviewee focused.
"Kara!" Lena woke up not too long after Kara and had walked sleepily out of her bedroom, forgetting that she had a guest over. To see Kara standing there, then, inspecting herself in the light of a nearby window, had been a little bit of a shock to her. Then two other thoughts came to her mind simultaneously. The first was embarrassment that she was still in her night clothes while Kara was already dressed up for work, and the second was absolutely slack-jawed awe. Simplistic beauty was definitely something Lena appreciated and when Kara was in it, it became that much more pleasing to her. Her scrambled mind quickly worked to try and figure out where Kara was going that she needed to look so nice. She never dressed up that well for a normal day, as far as Lena knew.
"Lena! Hi!" Kara whipped around quickly, smiling broadly as she caught sight of Lena coming out of their bedroom. Wait. Their?
"You look lovely today," Lena said as she walked closer to Kara, an affectionate look in her eyes.
"Uhh, thanks," Kara was suddenly sheepish again. "I have some interview with some guy today and I figured I might as well get dressed up."
"Lucky him," Lena replied and that soft tone in her voice became just a little bit harder. Was that jealousy that Kara saw in Lena's face? No! Surely not! Kara was just seeing things! Her hopeful, hyperactive imagination was just playing tricks on her! Right?
"I wish it was you I was interviewing instead," Kara tried, hoping to see if her wishes about what Lena was feeling were true.
"Me too," Lena replied, that short reply taking on multiple dimensions as she continued to drag her eyes up and down Kara's body. Sweaters and dresses, that quirky little reporter really did it all! If only Lena could've been on that list. Wait. What?
After a few more hurried and awkward compliments, the two shared a quick breakfast and then Kara was out the door. Lena watched her go before heaving a sigh. She had hoped that she might be able to call Kara out on her obvious infatuation, but then that love bug had struck Lena just as hard and she found herself terrified at the idea of telling Kara anything. But even though she was nervous, Lena still knew that she wanted Kara badly. Maybe most of last night had been lost to the dreamworld, but Lena had woken up slightly once in the middle of the night and had noticed that Kara was much closer to her than when they first went to bed. Lena had then, carelessly, wrapped her arms around Kara before falling back asleep. When she woke up to find Kara's side of the bed empty, she'd suffered a tiny onslaught of nervousness as she worried that maybe she'd still been hugging Kara when Kara woke up, but from the reaction she gained out of the reporter, it did not seem that way. Lena wasn't sure if this relieved or disappointed her.
As the Luthor continued to spend the rest of her day alone, knowing that she would not see Kara again until after the working day was done, she couldn't help but grow sadder and sadder. Although she knew Kara was still going to be a guest at her house for the next week or so until the infestation problem could be taken care of, Lena still felt lonely. It was because she was only half living with Kara at this point. There was still so much the Luthor wanted to say and do, but her fears were holding her back. Until they released their death-grip on her, she would never be truly content with what she had. She didn't just want Kara to live with her anymore, she wanted to know that Kara might feel the same way about her. She was certain of it, if all of Kara's longing gazes were anything to go off of, but Lena was still nervous, second-guessing everything...
The dinner between them that night was unusually quiet. Lena had hoped that maybe Kara's natural chattiness would cover for the fact that she, herself, felt unable to speak, but Kara seemed just as subdued and distracted as Lena. That made for a mildly awkward dinner. Lena also didn't miss the fact that Kara was still in her dress and full makeup. It was definitely a wonderful sight, but Lena was more concerned with the fact that Kara looked mildly uncomfortable and unhappy. Finally, even though she was nervous, the Luthor had to speak up.
"Are you ok, Kara? You've been rather quiet," she said softly.
"So have you," Kara replied, the reply coming out a bit harsher than she had meant it to. For a moment, Lena looked genuinely stung, but Kara quickly amended her statement before it could leave too much of a mark.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "That was rude of me. I know you were just curious. I guess today just hasn't been one of my better days."
"Really? What happened?" Lena's eyes shimmered with concern. For just a moment, she wondered if Kara's interviewee had given her grief. The thought alone made Lena's blood boil with a Lex-like anger and protectiveness. For better or for worse, however, her fears were wrong and it had not been the interviewee at all. Instead it had been-
"You, Lena," Kara confessed.
"What?" Lena was shaken out of her stupor by genuine surprise.
"I know that sounds bad," Kara cringed again. "But I don't mean for it to come out that way. I just don't know how else to say it."
"Say it how you know, then," Lena replied, trying to be as comforting as possible. "We can work out formalities and technicalities later."
"But that's just it, Lena! I don't want it to be formal or technical! At least not with you! And I hate that it is! So formal and technical, that is. I want things to be easier between us, but it's not!" Kara gave a helpless gesture and Lena tried to calm her down again.
"Hey, Kara, it's ok. I'm not saying that you have to be formal with me, because you don't ever. I just meant that I can help you work though your thoughts after you've laid them all out on the table. Consider this to be its own sort of informality, where it's ok if you just unload before we try digging into it and seeing what's underneath the surface. Take time to just breathe and speak. Don't think. I don't mind waiting. That's true informality. You don't need to understand everything perfectly on the first go-around. You don't need to be technical. Or formal. Or polished. Just speak now. Ok?" Lena continued to reassure her friend, trying to explain to her that by working out formalities later, she didn't mean that they needed to be formal, but rather, that the formalities could wait because they were close enough that they didn't always have to be so professional with one another. It seemed to work and Kara began to relax.
She relaxed so much, in fact, that the truth came out in very short order after that. It was a very long explanation but she spoke it so quickly that it almost sounded like one very, very, very, very, long word. Lena was honestly surprised that she didn't pass out from not breathing as she managed to speak her entire little speech all in one breath.
"Lena Luthor, I just wanted to tell you that I think I've had a crush on you for quite a while now and I think it's only ever grown since the very first day we met when Clark and I first came to interview you at L-Corp, but I think I only really realized it when you had to stay over at my place about a week ago. Just something about having you around all the time was so nice and comforting and enjoyable that it made me realize that it's something that I want to have in my life... You are something that I want to have in my life, all the time... And then when you went away and came back and just thinking about the reason why you had to stay over at my place in the first place makes me realize how much I really do want you in my life and how soon I want you in my life because anything could happen at any moment and I don't want to waste a single second we have together. I was too afraid to tell you at first but it's been on my mind for like a week and a half now and I just had to say it before anything else happened because I love you, Lena, I really do. And I just want you to know how much I really care for you and how much I really do want you around. I know it's bad and I know I've probably gone on for way too long and am probably just rambling now but I can't help it! I just have so much to say and it all is just kind of coming out and I really don't want it to stop so I'm just going to keep going instead-"
And Kara continued to ramble on about herself, Lena, and the two of them as friends and potential lovers. She also continued to mention all the wonderful and fun things they had done together and how complete she felt whenever she was living with Lena, no matter whose place they were staying at. And she finally finished by saying how much Lena meant to her, in all areas of life. Then she finally gave the Luthor one final sheepish grin, apologizing for how long her speech had become.
Lena, meanwhile, could only sit there in silence and blink.
"Wow," she said at last. "Well... ummm... ok... That was a lot to take in," Kara's face suddenly fell.
"You don't reciprocate," she said. "I knew! I am so sorry, Lena. If I've just made things weird between us, I can go. I can just stay over at James' or Winn's. Alex is with Maggie right now, but I do have other options..."
"What? No! Kara! That's not what I meant at all!" Lena interrupted, suddenly frantic as Kara began to rise from the dinner table.
"Huh?" Kara was genuinely surprised. Lena quickly gestured for her to sit back down, so she did. Then it was Lena's turn for the longwinded confession about how much she adored Kara and how much she adored having Kara around.
By the end of it, both of them were very much out of breath, but also very much relieved. The tense silence of the day melted into warm, relieved, loving laughter as the two of them finally confessed to one another, delighted to realize that both of them felt the exact same way.
"What a relief!" Kara exclaimed, smiling for the first time since that morning. She had a hand over her heart.
"Is that usually what you say when you get the girl?" Lena asked back, but she looked just as relieved.
"Only if that girl is you," Kara replied with a giddy, nervous laugh, and Lena echoed the sound. Dinner passed much easier after that and both of them stole unabashedly affectionate glances at one another the entire time.
That night, when the two went to bed, they curled up in each other's arms from the get-go.
"This is so nice!" Lena sighed as she nestled herself into Kara's arms.
"Agreed!" Kara happily kissed Lena's forehead as they slowly drifted off into sleep. A smile flickered across Lena's face. She hadn't felt quite this happy or excited in a long time! And Kara felt just the same, feeling her heart pounding with pleasure, happiness and contentment that she had finally told Lena how she felt. She felt complete, and she could instantly understand why Alex spent nearly all of her free time at Maggie's place. Now, Kara had her own Maggie, and she had never felt happier. The last sensation Kara felt, then, was the feeling of boxer-clad legs wrapping around her own, and the last sensation Lena felt was the feeling of a baggy sweater wrapping around her in a warm, loving embrace.
AN: Here's your sequel chapter, Leapyearbaby 29! Stealing from the motif of the previous chapter, we've got one of the two women being smitten by the clothing (both casual and fancy) that the other one wears. This time, though, it's Lena's turn to fall victim to Kara's beauty. But hey, at least they finally get their happy ending! No more pining, or stolen looks, or useless, oblivious lesbians, LOL.