I'd love to hear your feedback for / reactions to this one! Hope you like it, - PV

Chapter 4: Question and Answer

The first kiss was like a question, that they were asking each other, that they were asking themselves. Long enough to linger, short enough to display their mutual vulnerability. Three seconds, then five. Enough time for the pace of Kara's heartbeat to skyrocket until it sounded, to her ears, as quick-beating as the sleet on the windowpanes outside. Long enough to catch a faint scent of lavender, perhaps from Lena's conditioner earlier in the day, or some perfume donned hours ago, and now only discernible at such close proximity.

Long enough that, when Lena pulled away - not more than a few centimeters, their foreheads still almost touching - Kara could feel the temperature difference, her lips cool where moments before they had felt the heat of the other woman's lips pressing against them.

"Kara?" said Lena, and Kara couldn't keep a smile from tugging up the corners of her mouth. Lena had said her name as though it was something to be handled with care, the tone lilting up a little on the last syllable so the presence of the question was clear. What was she asking? So much was carried in that one word, in the way Lena's mouth formed around the letters, in the tiny silence that came just after.

Is this all right?

Is this what you want?

All in that one word. Kara. Kara felt Lena's hand, the one that was holding her own, shifting so their fingers were now twining together, a punctuation mark to the question that hung in the air.

She's waiting, Kara realized. Waiting for me to answer. Lena blinked, and Kara could feel the flutter of her eyelashes, so close they were to each other. There was an analog clock on the wall - had its ticking always been so loud? And her bare feet, one of them had come uncovered from the blanket, the toes now feeling the cold of the exposure. All the little things seemed so… consequential, in this moment.

The answer?

Yes.

This time it was Kara who leaned forward, who eliminated the distance between them. The hand that she had used to tuck Lena's hair behind her ear now ran gently through the rest of her hair, and Kara found that it hadn't entirely dried yet, that it was still damp at the roots. This kiss was a bit longer, as they breathed each other in, tested the waters. They were both still being gentle - gentle, as if I were breakable, Kara mused. Then Lena's hand broke from her own and caressed her shoulder, and Kara was reminded that yes, she was indeed breakable - had Lena felt her wince, as her fingers danced along the bruise there? Maybe she had, because she moved her hand around to the back of Kara's neck in an embrace that deepened their kiss.

Kara smiled without thinking, and she knew that Lena noticed, because the woman slowly started moving her hand down her back. Her fingertips slid between Kara's shoulder blades, down across her spine, and although it felt good - damn, it felt good - Kara had to suppress another wince at the pressure against another one of her bruises. Perhaps this wasn't the best route to go?

A change in position, then.

To this point, they had been upright, turned towards each other from where Kara's head had once leaned against Lena's shoulder. Now Kara shifted, her movements measured both so Lena could tell what she was doing, and so her own aching body didn't protest too much. Kara reached her hand around Lena, supporting her at the small of her back, while simultaneously leaning forward. Their legs and the blanket were somehow all tangled up together as Kara lay Lena back beneath her, Lena's head and shoulders coming to rest on the pillow and armrest of the couch.

I like this position, Kara thought. From here, she could see Lena's face better, the way the woman's eyes glinted with reflections of the lamplight, the flush that had risen in her cheeks, the rise and fall of her chest that matched the heightened rate of her breathing, a pace that Kara found mirrored in herself.

"Is that so?" Lena said, and Kara paused. Did I say that out loud? Which part?

"Though if you were going to make an argument that mine are the most beautiful eyes in the room right now," Lena continued - just the bit about the eyes, then, Kara realized, relieved - biting her lip in a way that made Kara's heart flutter, "I'm afraid," she ran her fingers back up Kara's spine, and Kara shivered a little when they halted at her neck and held there, gripping with playful pressure, "I'd have to protest. And you should know…" Lena tugged Kara down, and Kara let herself fall into the kiss. Her arms were supporting her weight, hands on either side of Lena's head, fingers curled into the couch cushions.

"…I don't concede arguments easily," finished Lena. Whatever response Kara had been about to make was lost as Lena rose to meet her, Lena maintaining her hold on the back of Kara's neck, while Kara - for her part - pressed forward, feeling the curves of Lena's body against her own.

Their bodies rose and fell together, and Kara felt as though she were caught in a current. Their breathing wasn't in sync, but their movements accommodated each other. Kara felt a bead of perspiration along her brow and was clear-headed enough to know that the heat wasn't from an overactive furnace. As she was registering the temperature, she felt one of Lena's legs kick a little. Glancing down, she saw her trying futilely to be rid of the blanket that had been draped over Kara, and which was now hopelessly entangled with the two of them. Kara laughed a little and sat back.

"Hold on, this is a fixable problem," she said, and Lena grinned. Kara tugged at the blanket and realized it was somehow wrapped around three of their combined total of four legs. "How did this even happen?" she wondered aloud as Lena sat up to help with the issue.

They were both breathing heavily, but as they pulled and tugged and untied the blanket from their limbs, Kara felt her pulse begin to slow - not back to normal, but down from the sustained peak it had been racing at before. Her hands and Lena's moved around each other as they finally worked the blanket out from around and under them. When it was free, they triumphantly pushed it to the floor. Kara hadn't let the way Lena's hands lingered an extra beat on her knees and thighs go unnoticed, and now, with the challenge overcome, she let her eyes flick up to the woman that was sharing this space with her, this moment with her.

Kara took in the sight of Lena, now, unashamed in her stares, unsubtle in the way she allowed her gaze to pause a little at how the sweater she'd leant her was now more uneven than before, it had slipped nearly entirely off of one shoulder.

"That sweater really does look good on you," Kara said, and Lena grinned. Kara caught the glint in Lena's eyes and shook her head. "Oh, man, if the next words out of your mouth are some cheesy line about how it would look better on my floor…"

Lena laughed aloud at that, then bit her lip and raised her eyebrow and oh boy, Kara could hear the breath audibly catch in her throat. Lena sat back, tussling her hair.

"Well, I am a woman of science," Lena said, eyebrow still raised as she surveyed Kara's response. "If you really wanted to find out the best place for this sweater, I suppose the only way to figure it out would be… practical experimentation?"

Damn, that was smooth, Kara thought as she couldn't keep a small giggle from escaping her throat. Lena grinned and reached forward, taking Kara's hands in hers and guiding them to her hips, then up to the hem of her shirt. They were close again now, and they exchanged a small flurry of kisses, short, fleeting.

"Think you could give me a hand?" Lena whispered, and Kara took the invitation. She eased her hands up Lena's torso, taking the fabric of the sweater with her. Lena raised her arms above her head, and Kara tugged the sweater off gently, careful not to pull her hair, and tossed it to the side - nearly knocking over the wine glasses, Kara noticed, and she knew Lena had seen it as well when laugher bubbled up in the other woman's throat. Lena's arms, now bare, were draped around Kara's shoulders, both sitting upright again as they watched the one wine glass which had actually been pushed a few centimeters by the sweater's trajectory stopped rocking in place.

"More wine?" Kara offered when all was still again, and she felt Lena shake her head.

"No thanks," she said, softly caressing Kara's face, turning it back towards hers. "I'm rather enjoying having a clear head right now," she said softly.

"Me to," said Kara.

Aside from a simple black bra, Lena Luthor's torso was bare, and Kara found herself taking in the sight of her body as if she were taking another sip of Aldebaran rum. The curve of her breasts, the toned muscles in her arms and shoulders, the definition of her collarbone, the rise and fall of her chest as she watched Kara, watching her.

"Wow, Lena, you're - " Kara started, then stopped, wishing cleverness came to her as easily as it seemed to come to the woman before her. "You're beautiful," she finished, knowing that Lena had surely heard those words before, so trying to make up for it by making her earnestness clear in her voice. Kara saw a blush rise in Lena's face.

Kara reached her hand out to Lena's abdomen, but stopped just short of touching the skin. She swallowed.

"C-can I - " Was that a stutter? Really? "Can I touch you?" she asked.

"Kara," Lena said, and there was almost a laugh behind it - almost. It seemed that Lena had been about to say one thing, but she stopped, instead turning Kara's face towards hers again, looking at her carefully.

"Is this all right?" she asked. "Are we going too fast? Are you comfortable with… all this?" She paused, but before Kara could say anything, she continued. "You know it's okay if you're not?" she said. "I'm serious, we don't have to if you don't - "

"Don't you?" Kara interjected.

"Yes, but only if you - "

"I do," Kara said, a little surprised at the confidence in her own voice. Saying it aloud - that she wanted what was happening here, that she wanted this woman whose body was now so close to her own - it made it real, in a new way. And it felt… good. Right. "I do want this," she said.

With one hand, Lena tilted Kara's head into a kiss, and with the other, she guided Kara's hand to the skin of her torso. "In that case, Kara Danvers," she said, and Kara let her fingers splay across the woman's body, and she could feel Lena's smile through their kiss, "Yes, you can touch me."

This time when their bodies pressed together, there was a different energy to their movements. Not faster, just… more sure.

"Do you think we could - "

"Yeah," answered Kara, and she let Lena lower her down, so now it was Kara whose torso was supported by the pillow against the couch's armrest, looking up at Lena. The woman leaned down and kissed Kara's jaw, then lower, slowly, kissing along the arch of her neck and down to her collarbone. Kara heard a little moan escape her lips at Lena's actions, and she reached her arms up, fingers grasping at Lena's spine, starting at the shoulder blades and moving the pressure down, down, playing at the edge of the sweatpants Lena wore, then the skin just under the waistline, just lower than the small of her back. A small noise of affirmation from Lena had Kara smiling again, and she felt Lena's hands exploring at the hem of her own sweater, then slipping underneath.

"Hmm, dressed warmly for the cold weather, are we?" Lena said, tugging Kara's sweater up a little more.

"What?" Kara said absentmindedly, eyes closed as Lena kissed her collarbone again, savoring the sensation each new small gesture of intimacy. Lena pulled at little more at Kara's sweater, and she felt it come up, no longer covering her stomach now, then higher, and Lena's hand touching the place it had been - except she wasn't touching Kara's skin -

"Kara?"

There was something different in the tone this time, a different undercurrent to the question, and Kara opened her eyes, realizing that Lena had pulled away from the kiss. She was still bent over her, but her gaze didn't fall on Kara's face now, no, it was focused on the space of Kara's body no longer covered by the sweater, the abdomen and part of her chest.

No longer covered by the sweater, but still covered. Mostly by blue material, but the red and yellow of the insignia was partially visible, now, and had her heartbeat ever been this loud? Definitely not, Kara decided. Was the color rising in her face, or draining from it? Her body felt hot, her fingertips felt cold as she studied Lena's expression, watched for her reaction to the Supergirl uniform that adorned Kara's body.

Did I break time by accident? There's no way seconds can be this slow. Kara saw Lena's eyes widen, saw them blink and confirm what it was they were seeing, saw them flit up to Kara's face to where Kara's mouth had fallen open a little, but where no words were coming out.

Come on, say something, you have to say something. Kara closed her mouth, swallowed, and tried to think of anything, anything at all to fill the silence.

Surprise?

Hey, there's something you should know -

I can explain -

Lena, I never wanted to lie to you -

Lena sat back a little more, one elbow leaning on the back of the couch, the other running through her hair, and Kara could almost hear the gears turning, working in her mind. It seemed an eternity before she spoke.
"I think - " Lena paused, then started again. "You offered more wine," she said slowly, "And I think now might be a good time to take you up on that drink."