to be honest, i forgot about this fic until i saw it in my works list

sorry?

now, read, ponder, and enjoy!

Compared to the district attorney's building, public defenders didn't have the luxury of completely functional copy machines or even sleek designs that told outsiders of their truly professional profession. Sometimes, the pipes leaked. Occasionally, there were even rats scurrying around, causing a ruckus and delay in the works.

This country could definitely do something to provide better public defense. But before someone brought it to the Supreme Court or a senator decided to be kind enough to enact a bill about it, Kara Danvers would work with what she had now.

According to Cat Grant, she had the talents and certainly the bloodline to go private. In fact, Cat appeared to be more than willing to retain her when she had finished her internship. However, Kara had very early on realized that if she had taken advantage of her long buried last name, she wouldn't be any better than her parents, and that was the last thing she wanted.

"Well, if you won't assist me, then you must at least inform Lena Luthor that Carter will not be pleased if she still refuses to call within the next two weeks," Cat had imparted casually, waving her away in farewell.

That wasn't the first time she'd heard about Lena Luthor. The woman, despite being younger than Kara, had built quite a name for herself as an up-and-coming prosecutor. Of course, much of the whispers surrounding the ADA had also been about her decision to go the attorney path, when her family had all rose to fame in political circuits.

Before her first day in the district court, Kara had done all the research she could on Lena Luthor, gasping and gaping at her achievements, occasionally chuckling at the transcriptions available in the case files.

But no sufficient research could have prepared her for the sight that confronted her in the courtroom. Honestly, Kara could hardly keep herself from deflating right in front of the astoundingly stunning woman that faced her, with those green eyes and dark locks and pale, pale skin.

"Ah, I see."

Kara blinked out of her reverie to find James standing her office door, leaning against the panel with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "See what?"

He shrugged and entered her office without invitation, but she didn't mind. She could use the distraction from the casefile she'd been reading, even though she was rather well distracted before his interruption. She supposed she needed the distraction from her stray thoughts.

Aptly, he jabbed a finger at Lena's name, printed across the case.

Yes, for the second time in a row, it seemed that Kara would be going up against Lena Luthor. This really wasn't good for her weak constitution against very beautiful women. Cat would be so disappointed.

"Falling over your feet over Lena Luthor is a rite of passage in this office," he said. "No one's ever passed."

Her cheeks heated up at being called out. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'd say you held up pretty well. At least you didn't pull a Vasquez."

"What's a Vasquez?"

"When Vasquez saw Lena Luthor for the first time – she wasn't going up against Luthor, mind you, just passing by – she dropped all her files, spilled her coffee on the woman, and told her she had a nice face," he recounted with a mild chuckle.

Unwittingly, her eyes attempted to locate Susan Vasquez through the window that allowed her view into the common area. But the woman was nowhere to be found, so she looked back to James with bug eyes, disbelieving and humored.

"You're kidding."

He grimaced. "I have a recording."

"Yeah, I'm not ready for the secondhand embarrassment," she dismissed, easily imagining Vasquez being clumsy in front of Lena – after all, she'd almost fallen victim to her own clumsiness at the sight of the woman. "But I also still don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh huh." James tucked his hands into his pockets with his brows raised. "Look, I'm not gonna scold you for looking at a pretty woman. Hell, sleep with whoever you want." She was ready to protest before he raised his palm in her face. "But just remember: when you're at work, you'll always be at opposite sides of the aisle." He then shook his head. "I shudder to think about a repeat of the Willis-Smythe saga."

"What Willis-Smythe saga?"

He actually shuddered this time. "This is an easy case," he said, changing the subject and pointing at the casefile. "Don't disappoint me, Danvers."

"Yes, chief."

He exited her office and was polite enough to close the door behind him.

She stared at the door for a moment before looking back down at the casefile. Her eyes caught on the name that had started the very confusing conversation in the first place, fingers tapping irrhythmically on the material of her desk.

Yeah, no. She stood up and opened the door again. She needed a coffee.

The night had darkened completely when the last light in the office had turned off and a certain blonde emerged from the building, coated up with her briefcase readily clutched in her hand. The sky was bereft of stars. Moon hidden behind the clouds.

Across the street, she could hear raucous laughter and conversations happening in shops and bars, recognizing a few familiar faces hanging out to celebrate another day gone by. She hesitated for a moment before making her way to the end of the block, leaning against a streetlamp and looking up at the building housing opposing counsels.

This probably wasn't a good idea, given that James had pretty much warned her off people opposite the aisle this morning. But she stood there anyway, giving herself half an hour. If by the half-hour mark, no one showed up, she would walk home.

No big deal.

She didn't really understand what she wanted to happen in half an hour, but when a raven-haired figure emerged from the district attorney's building, she smiled. Replacing the file she'd been flipping through in her briefcase, she stood upright and faced the woman who was making her way towards her.

Lena tilted her head, staring at Kara curiously. "I don't wanna read too much into this –"

"Can I walk you home?" the blonde interjected a little too excitedly, not bothering to hide her smile.

Not for no reason, Lena narrowed her eyes, half in suspicion and half in amusement. If Kara was in her shoes, she would probably be suspicious too.

The thing was that when she exited her office just now, she had a feeling that Lena was still around as well – the woman had a reputation of putting 110% in her homework before going to battle.

Call it intuition. Or call it obsession because Kara hadn't been able to stop thinking about her since the moment they met, most particularly after she spent a whole day studying a casefile with Lena's name printed on it. And her intuition paid off, because here Lena was.

"What's your game?" Lena queried.

Kara shrugged. "We're going the same way, aren't we?"

"Remember when I said we shouldn't talk to each other outside of work?"

"And I still say that's not a rule."

"You're very stubborn."

"Kind of the description of the job."

Lena considered her for a moment. A few long moments actually. So long that Kara actually began to feel nervous. Actual tingles crawling up her neck at the attention she was getting. Attention she wasn't sure was good or not.

"Fine," the prosecutor said and proceeded to stride down the sidewalk, obviously expecting Kara to follow her.

The blonde caught up easily. "How was your day?"

"Did James put you up to this?"

Kara halted minutely. "James?"

As if realizing her mistake, Lena cleared her throat and didn't say anything, like she was deliberately forgetting the subject all together. But oh no, there was no way. This was fun, and Kara wanted the fun to persist.

Plus, irrational jealousy had sparked within her at the familiarity that Lena seemed to have with James. Come to think of it, James had seem abnormally familiar with Lena earlier. That knowing smile and the hidden meaning behind his words. She wondered, briefly, if she would ever have that familiarity with Lena.

"You call him James?" she plowed on.

Lena clenched her jaw. "We – well, I'm not sure this is information you need to know anyway," she dismissed quickly, waving a hand in the air. "My day has been hectic, if you must." Kara hummed, a prompt for Lena to elaborate. "I really shouldn't discuss my cases with you."

Fair.

More than anyone, Kara should understand confidentiality, especially when they worked with people who were on the opposing ends of the aisle. Honestly, the bureaucracy of lawyer work was so stressful – not that Kara would complain. She loved her job.

Still, the blonde found herself all the more curious about the woman walking beside her. Professionally. Personally. All the ways possible. It was entirely unprofessional of her, but that was something Cat had mentioned she admired about her, because it allowed Kara to think out of the box, which was necessary when it came to certain cases that came across their desks.

Despite all that, she was tactful enough to comprehend that she and Lena really didn't knew each other long enough to dig into each other's lives. Maybe after a few more rounds in the courtroom. Maybe one day, Kara could destroy the notion that they shouldn't talk to each other that Lena seemed to live by.

"Leave it to you."

"What?" Kara exclaimed as she washed the dishes after a late dinner.

Alex sighed through the speakerphone. "Don't fuck an ADA when you're a public defender, is what I'm saying," she instructed.

Kara gasped, dramatically loud enough that Alex would hear through the phone. "The slander that just left your mouth," she retorted, genuinely offended. "I didn't take this job to have sex with an ADA, or anyone for that matter," she added, drying her hands on a towel before grabbing the phone and making her way to the living room.

"You're weak for pretty women."

"Anyone should be weak for pretty women. They're pretty women," the blonde argued and rested her elbow on the back of her couch, looking out the window of the loft she rented for a rather cheap monthly payment. "You should see the other ADA. I think she's exactly your type."

Alex heaved a prolonged groan. "The last time you set me up with someone –"

"I had no idea she's into all that kinky stuff!"

"I would think the fact that she calls herself Powderpuff is a pretty big inclination."

"I thought she's just a big fan of the cartoon!"

"You're hopeless."

"No, but seriously –"

"Stop talking," Alex interjected, cutting through the phone despite the distance. "First of all, I'm not – I don't think I'm in a good place for a relationship. Yet."

Kara sighed and extended her arm over the back of the couch, resting her head against her arm. She couldn't see Alex's face right now, but she understood what her sister meant. Hell, she was there for the trainwreck after a certain detective had thrown Alex's heart to the floor and stomped into ashes with her boots.

Cat had been fairly understanding when Kara asked for a week off to visit her sister in Seattle after the breakup, since Kara's internship was almost ending and she had done nothing but perform remarkably. So Kara had gone to Seattle, and saw all but a husk of the sister who had always been the strongest person Kara had known.

That Alex managed to climb back up proved Kara's point of Alex being the strongest person she had ever known.

"Secondly, I don't think you actually what my type is after the Powderpuff fiasco."

"Okay, come on!"

"Nope," Alex rejected. "Anyway, I gotta head back to work. I'll visit you soon. Don't fuck Lena Luthor."

"I'm not gonna."

"Just put a lock on your vagina or something."

"Don't think about my vagina, maybe."

"Okay, this has gotten too far. I'm hanging up and washing my brain."

It wasn't the most complicated case that James had handed her, but it wasn't the simplest either. If there was one thing that Cat had taught her during the internship, it was that a lawyer should never take a case at face value. Reality might not entirely reflect what was on paper.

The hardest thing, though, was the negotiation process. Digging through the discovery and the like were certainly harrowing, but they were par for the course and Kara liked sorting through them. This way, she could see exactly what she had missed out in the files and how she could construct her arguments from the available documents.

But the settlement conference – well, prosecutors were known to be pretty cutthroat, especially towards underfunded and overworked public defenders.

This, apparently, rang especially true with Lena Luthor and Samantha Arias, based on her asking around the office. Those two were determined to win cases and rack up their scoreboards, and they didn't particularly care how they did it. If Kara wasn't so into her own job, she would be impressed.

"Ms. Danvers."

Kara had to restrain a chuckle. Of course, Lena would be beyond professional in this setting, especially when they were in the DA building. Still, she slid a cup of coffee over the table to Lena and took a seat of her own, appropriately spaced apart.

"Are you bribing me, Ms. Danvers?"

"I barely get paid enough to bribe myself," she replied easily. "I heard you're grumpy without coffee. I would prefer this discussion to go over without you biting my head off."

"You heard?"

"Strangely enough, James knows a lot about you. Even your coffee order," Kara prodded, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes, not at all jealous – she had no right to be jealous, despite how fucking attractive Lena Luthor was.

To be honest, she expected the infamously cool and composed Lena Luthor, who would swipe away the not-accusations and proceed. She certainly didn't expect Lena to blush, all pink in the cheeks and ears twitching.

Kara blinked, surprised by the cute sight before her. She clenched her fists below the tabletop on her lap and leaned forward, opening a file before she did something stupid. Like reach out to pinch Lena's cheeks or something. That would land her in court, probably.

"My client parked his car legally."

"The record shows that he didn't."

And on they went. Lena was, true to her reputation, unmoved, protecting her client from every angle. And Kara was reasonably frustrated at the stern position that Lena had taken. And yet, it was kind of fun. And yet, Kara couldn't stop thinking about the red on Lena's cheeks.

"Not guilty."

Kara smiled to herself and patted her client on the arm. Once the judge had concluded his statement, the court was adjourned. Kara spent a few minutes to congratulate her client and warn him to maybe park his car where there were clear lines in the future, before she packed up her stuff.

"Good work," Lena offered as soon as Kara exited the courtroom.

Kara let the heavy door swing close behind her and stared at Lena. People walked past between them, busy for their own cases and appeals. But the two of them just stared at each other on opposite sides of the hallway, quietly admiring one another.

"Not the most exciting case," Kara said.

Lena rolled her eyes. "Take the win," she said and took a few steps closer to Kara, brushing imaginary lint of the shoulder of her jacket – the blonde tried not to shudder at the touch. "After all, you won't get a lot of wins against me."

"Oh yeah?"

"Guaranteed."

"You're awfully confident of yourself."

Lena hummed and smirked. "I think I have the right to be."

Kara sighed and shifted her weight. "Yes, you do."

Lena's smirk widened. She gazed at Kara for a second longer before nodding her farewell and walking away.

Kara did not spend a few seconds admiring her ass. She didn't.

There was a whiteboard sitting in the common area. A weekly roster that stated who was on which case and who had meetings with whom and who deserved the bear claw today. And then there was…the duty roster.

No one liked being on duty. It was boring and the cases that came were, more often than not, not mind-blowing enough to get the lawyer's name on the paper. And today, it seemed that Kara was the unfortunate victim. Oh well, it was about time anyway.

Kara stuck her tongue out at Julia who snickered at her misfortune, and then made her way to the district court building. Winn was chipper as always, smile on his face as he did his thing on his computer. His face practically lit up when he saw her approaching him.

"Good morning, Kara," he greeted.

Kara smiled in return. "Morning, Winn. What's on the docket today?"

Slapping a file on the counter top, he said, "Diana Johnson. Caught with a gun in public." She nodded, cursing the second amendment all over again in her head. "Be objective, Kara," he chastised, and she blinked.

"I'm objective."

"You're the most passionate person I've ever met. That's why you're here, instead of sitting in some fancy office being a total capitalist. Don't get me wrong; I admire you for that."

Sticking her tongue out at him, she looked around and inevitably caught onto Lena Luthor, who was standing in the hallway talking to…James. Lena was smiling, kind of laughing, and James was obviously comfortable with her, what with his open posture and their practically lack of distance.

She clenched her jaw and turned back to Winn. "Can I ask you a question?" He raised his brows. "What's – what's their deal?" she asked, subtly gesturing at James and Lena's direction. "Like, they seem friendly."

Winn followed her gaze and spotted them easily as well. "Oh, them." She raised her brows, expecting more. "You know, Kara, I don't think it's appropriate to gossip about your boss." Her brows rose higher. "Completely impolite," he added.

"Winn," she pronounced carefully, "you're the biggest gossip in this circuit. Probably the city."

"How dare you."

"Am I lying?"

"100%."

"Now, who's lying?"

"Just –" She looked at the two people that had garnered her attention instead of the file she should be studying and blinked rapidly, because James now had his hand on Lena's shoulder and the ADA didn't seem to mind. In fact, she seemed to have taken a step closer to James. "Come on, just give me something."

Winn frowned and stared at her for a long moment. Then as if something caught in his mind, his eyes widened and a laugh escaped his throat. A derogatory laugh, sort of teasing. "Oh no, not you too."

"What?"

"The Lena Luthor virus strikes again."

She stood upright. "Excuse me?"

He hummed and shrugged, retreating from the counter. "Well, for the record, I am not a gossip. Honestly, the slander – I should sue you." She narrowed her eyes at him. "But let's just say that in terms of the virus, James Olsen is the only one who managed to cure it in the history of this district."

"What on earth does that mean?"

He shrugged again. "Take with that what you will, Ms. Danvers," he commented with a sly look on his face. "Now, don't you have a case to beat? Don't worry – Lena isn't the opposing counsel."

"I'm not worried!"

"Uh huh."

She huffed, deciding that he wasn't worth her time. She grabbed the file, cast one last look at the pair that had struck a green match within her mind – James had removed his hand on from Lena's shoulder, but they were still talking with those stupid smiles – and walked away.

Winn was right, even though he was wrong about his gossiping tendencies. She had case to deal with.

The next hour was spent mulling over the case that Winn had handed her, studying all the details as given in the statements of her client and reports from the men in blue. At this point, Kara still didn't know what to make of the cops within the district – she was too new – but previous experiences had told her to always keep an eye out for anyone in uniform.

However, as much as she wanted to help her client, there was a small part of her brain that kept replaying the footage that her eyes had recorded earlier. Running it over and over again, catching the smallest details and letting the green match grow brighter. It was totally irresponsible of her, but Kara was only human who really liked women.

What the hell kind of relationship did Lena have with James?

For someone who always preached that district attorneys and public defenders shouldn't be too friendly with each other, Lena didn't seem to have that qualm with James. In fact, she seemed all too ready to not hide her seemingly affable relationship – acquaintance, whatever – with Kara's boss.

Unwittingly, she managed to snap a pencil when she spotted James – finally – making his appearance in the office, clapping his hands to gather the staff for a weekly meeting. She tossed the broken bits in the dustbin and headed out, keeping her distance from the board, where James stood.

"Well, good news first: you won't be going up against Lena Luthor in the near future," he announced with a knowing smile. "The woman will be fairly busy."

"Oh, did she finally come to the realization that she's too good for the public circuit?" one of her colleagues asked.

"Nothing of the sort. Bigger fish on the horizon, as they say," James dismissed with a wave of his hands. "But that doesn't mean you get to slack off. The DA's office is infamously brutal, and there's still that shark called Samantha Arias. You're still not getting off easy."

"Well, as long as it's not Luthor," another piped up.

And then the meeting went on for another two hours. They discussed their respective cases, shooting advice and suggestions whenever necessary. James made a few appointments for further brainstorming with his staff. They celebrated the winner of the bear claw of the day.

Then it was dismissed, and Kara went back to her office to pay her full attention to Diana Johnson. Still, there was no denying that she was disappointed at the knowledge that Lena would be off the books for quite some time.

i'll try not to forget about this fic again, but no promises!

i'm determined to keep it short, but we'll see how that goes.