A/N: I am still alive with ch3, guysss! As always, italics are flashbacks! Enjoy! *pretend there's a heart emoji here*

Sam says she should go see the house Lionel left her in his will. Lena says she shouldn't. Lena wins that argument for about half a day.

Her phone rings again as soon as she hangs up from talking to Sam, Kara's name flashing on the screen.

"Hello?" She clears her throat as she feels a lump forming in the back of it when she speaks.

"Lena?" Kara's voice sounds off and Lena doesn't know if it's just a connection issue or if there's something wrong. "H-hey, I was hoping you hadn't changed your number…" The young woman on the other end of the line sniffs. It's not a connection issue.

"Kara? Hey, what's up?" She's pretty sure she fails to keep concern from seeping into her tone, not that she tries too hard to do so anyway.

"I'm sorry, it's just… Can we- can we meet up maybe? I'm sorry, I know we said you should call me when you have free time and all and I'd usually just call Alex or- or something but she's not here and I don't want her to worry and-"

"Kara, hey, slow- slow down. Where are you? I'll come get you, okay?"

Ten minutes later, Lena finds herself outside of a very dodgy-looking bar, one that she would never imagine being Kara's style. The inside makes her feel uneasy too and she hates the way the few patrons turn to look at her, some not even trying to mask the lust in their eyes as they lick their lips suggestively and wink at her. She feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she shudders. Thankfully, she spots the blonde sitting in a corner booth further away from everyone, nursing some kind of blue drink that's probably not her first, and she makes a beeline for her.

"Kara?" Lena's voice is soft and calm, not wanting to startle the other woman who whips her head to her direction and gives her a wobbly smile.

"Lena!" Kara's voice, on the other hand, is loud and overly enthusiastic in a way Lena knows is either fake or drink-induced. Or maybe both.

"Hi," Lena says with a smile not wanting to overwhelm the girl. "How are you, darling?"

"I'm good! I'm gr- great! Sit with me, want a drink? Come on, it's on me. Not actually o- on me, that'd be gross." Her speech is slurred as she bursts into laughter.

"Are you maybe a little bit drunk right now, sweetheart?" Lena gives her a tender smile as she slides in the booth across from her.

"Yeah… Only a little, though! I have to drive home so I can't drink too much."

'A little late for that.' "Do you wanna tell me what happened?" She waves the waitress off when she sees her approach and makes a mental note to tip the girl generously when they leave. Kara seems to be in her own little world as she ignores Lena and stares intently at the table. "Do you want me to call Alex?" That seems to get the blonde's attention as her head whips up and panic flashes in her eyes.

"No!" Kara's body lifts a little from her seat as she yells, and Lena quietly apologizes to everyone around who is now looking at the pair. "Don't call Alex, she's like… a million hours away!" Six and a half. "We don't have to worry her, honest!"

"Okay, okay, we won't call Alex." Kara lets out a sigh at that and she slumps so far back, she almost glides right off the seat. "I'll tell you what," Lena speaks again as she grabs the girl's hands and gently pulls her forward. "We're going to pay for your drinks and then I'm gonna drive you home so you can get into your comfy bed and sleep. And then tomorrow, if you're up for it, you can call me and we can go get some brunch, how's that sound?" It's a wildly different schedule from what Lena had set for herself earlier that day, but she could never resist spending time with Kara anyway.

"Sounds good…" Kara nods, her eyes trying to focus on Lena's but not quite making it. "Oh, wait!" She grips Lena's hand as she begins to slide out of the booth and her grip is surprisingly strong. "I haven't finished my drink yet!"

"You've finished a lot of drinks for tonight, sweetheart, I don't think this one is going to mind if you leave it as is."

"But- but Leee… It's a Midnight Kiss, I can't just leave it!" she whines looking absolutely scandalized but still lets herself be pulled to her feet, stumbling slightly as she rises. "Ask them to make it to-go!" Drunk Kara is adorable and Lena doesn't think she can take much more of it. She laughs softly and shakes her head as she pays for the drinks Kara had ordered, making sure to tip more than the required twenty percent. The hundred dollar bill she leaves behind still doesn't feel like it's enough, however.

It's cold outside and Lena has to practically force Kara to put on her coat as the young woman stumbles and flails. That's what it's going to be like if she ever has a child, she thinks and laughs to herself at the thought of drunk Kara as an overgrown toddler.

"Come on, my car's this way," she says as she gently pulls Kara by the hand. It was one of the rare times she chose to drive herself instead of having someone else drive her and she's happy she made that decision. She'd hate for anyone to see Kara like that.

"No," Kara pulls her hand back, not managing to free it from Lena's hold. " I'm driving you , remember? I told you, I couldn't drink too much cause I had to drive!"

"You don't have a car, remember?" Lena chuckles. She's not certain that Kara still doesn't have a car, but she's willing to bet she doesn't.

"Well…" Kara seems confused for a second and she stops walking, her brows furrowing as she tries to think; the small crinkle and pout that adorn her features bring heat to Lena's face. "Well, if I don't have a car, then how did I get here?"

"I honestly don't know, but I really hope you took a cab," Lena is only half joking.

...

"Mike and I broke up." They're halfway to Kara's place when the blonde blurts that out and Lena has to try not to slam on the breaks. She tightens her grip around the steering wheel instead, her knuckles turning white, her mind screaming at her that she should have realized that that's what was wrong all along.

"Is that why you were at the bar?" She can't help but ask, receiving a small nod as a reply. Kara is not sober, far from it, but she seems to have moved to a more adult version of her drunk self, one Lena can hold a decent conversation with. "What happened?"

"Stuff…" Kar mumbles. "Lots and lots of stuff." She rests her head on the cold window and closes her eyes, letting the movement of the car lull her into a numb stupor. "All my things are at our place," she says a few quiet moments later. "The keys to my apartment too…" Lena knows instantly where this is going.

"You'll sleep at mine tonight," she says without thinking as she changes lanes in order to take the right exit. Of course she'll sleep at hers. "And we'll go get all your stuff tomorrow, okay?" Kara doesn't reply. A quick glance to her right and Lena sees her fast asleep, her head lolling slightly as the car speeds up.

"I can't believe you did that." Lena is furious. A laugh bubbles up Kara's throat and, in her drunken state, she's unable to stop it from pouring out. She instantly knows it's a mistake. "Don't you dare laugh right now, Kara, or I swear to god." Her grip tightens around the steering wheel as she forces herself to take a few deep breaths.

"I did it for you." Mistake number two.

"For me. You drank your weight in- whatever that shit you were drinking was and punched a guy in the face for me!"

"He was bothering you…"

"I can handle myself, Kara!" She regrets the volume of her voice the moment it hits her own ears and she sees Kara flinch. "You broke his fucking nose, what the hell?" she continues more quietly.

"It's just… I- I don't know what came over me… I saw you there and he was so close to you and- and his hand was on your hip and I just- I… I'm sorry…"

"Do you even know who that was?" Lena's eyes never once leave the road ahead and that only serves to make Kara feel worse.

"N-no…"

"Of course not," the brunette mutters. "That was Jack, Kara." She turns to look at her now and Kara wishes she hadn't done that. There's no anger in Lena's eyes like she expected. They're overflowing with disappointment instead, and something else that she can't really put her finger on. "You know Jack? Who you were supposed to meet tomorrow?"

Kara pales at that. "I'm so sorry, Lena, I didn't- I didn't know, I was stupid, I thought he was bothering you and I just saw red, I'm sorry." She's crying now and she knows that it has a little bit to do with the fact that she's drunk and that makes her emotional, but she thinks she would be crying if she was sober as well. She fails to hold in a sob and that's when Lena finally pulls over and lets the quiet of the night overtake them. They sit there, the only thing breaking the silence is the clicking sound of the hazard lights and Kara's occasional soft sniffing. Neither one speaks for a while and Lena lets her head drop against the back of her seat as she keeps her eyes closed and tries to even out her breathing.

"I understand if you hate me and never want to speak to me again," Kara mumbles, her voice thick with tears, and Lena sighs. They've officially entered the sad drunk territory.

She can't deal with this, she thinks as she unfastens her seatbelt and gets out of the car, leaving Kara behind. She's not her most sober self either and she knows just how bad the situation can get if they start fighting. She digs through her purse instead, pulling out a half-empty pack of cigarettes and a lighter with a small engraved pair of Ls on it. LL for Lex Luthor. She stole it from him a while ago and he never asked for it back even though he knew who had it. It's only a few seconds later when she hears groaning from inside the car as Kara struggles to get out as well. She slams the door closed with more force than intended and offers Lena a soft, apologetic smile that goes unseen as the brunette never turns to look at her.

"Why were you drinking?" she asks refusing to acknowledge Kara's previous words as she finally turns to face the crying blonde. "You never drink, Kara… If something's wrong, please tell me what it is. I'm- I'm worried…" Kara realizes now that Lena wasn't mad because she punched Jack -well, not only because of that anyway- but because she was worried; scared even. And it makes her want to cry harder. "Did something happen?" Lena presses on when she gets no reply from her friend and receives a tiny nod from the blonde this time. "Something at work?" she guesses. Nope. "At home then? Do you need to go back? Listen, if you have to go back home, I can arrange that for you, you can leave tonight even. I just have to make a call and-"

"Everything's fine at home. Thanks, though, I- really appreciate the offer…"

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what it is." Her voice is louder than she had intended it to be. The few drinks she had had at the party are finally making their presence in her system known and this whole conversation takes a lot more out of her that it normally would. She sighs. "Did something happen at the party? Did Jack-"

"No! No, Lena, Jack didn't do anything and I'm really sorry I kinda probably broke his nose…"

"His nose and one of his front teeth… Didn't know you packed such a punch to be honest…" Lena's attempt to lighten the mood works for a moment and she smiles at the sound of Kara's soft chuckle. "You uh… You were talking to this guy from the football team," she says. "James?" Kara's nod is the only indication that the girl is actually listening to her. "Did something happen with him?" she asks finally and Kara's silence is enough of an answer.

"We broke up." Lena stares at that. She didn't even know Kara and James knew each other, let alone dating.

"I'm... I didn't know you were seeing each other," Lena mutters and she isn't certain Kara heard her.

"I met him when I first got here. He came in for coffee one day and just- asked for my number. I don't know, I guess I liked his boldness or something... We ended up dating after that."

"I'm sorry..." Lena says finally, trying not to acknowledge that fact that Kara had been dating this entire time they knew each other and never said anything. It was selfish of her to think that Kara owed to tell her anything about her personal life after all. "I'm sure it's for the best," she settles on.

"I'm sorry I never said anything, it just never came up... And uh... Well, James..." Kara sighs and closes her eyes in an attempt to avoid looking at Lena. "He's had some- not so nice things to say about... stuff. And that's mostly why we broke up."

"Stuff."

"About why you… left boarding school…?" Lena can feel her heartbeat accelerate at the words.

"I know James, he's in the KSJ program," she says, her voice not betraying the need she feels to throw up. "He's... not my biggest fan."

"Well, that's just a load of bullshit now, isn't it?" Lena laughs. Dunk Kara has no filter, she finds out that night. "I'm sorry there are people like him out there."

"It's okay, sweetheart. At least there are people like you out there too to balance things out," they both chuckle, Kara's drunken state making her laugh a little harder.

Getting inside the house undetected is a struggle. Kara, ever the clumsy one when sober, is twenty times worse now, giggling as she stumbles over her feet. Lena has to hold her upright and stir her away from anything breakable on their way up the stairs and to her room, her breathing catching to the back of her throat as they pass by Lex' room. Lillian's is located further away, but the woman likes to keep odd hours so it wouldn't be too surprising if she made a sudden appearance. The mere thought of it is enough to send Lena's heart to overdrive.

"I've never been in your room before," Kara slurs out as they walk inside Lena's room, the door safely shut and locked behind them.

"There's a reason for that," Lena mutters as she sits the blonde down on the edge of her bed as she goes to rummage through one of her drawers. "Here, wear these." She hands the girl a T-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts. "And please be quiet, okay, honey?" Kara nods and mumbles something that Lena doesn't make out as she lets herself fall back on the bed, her shirt pulled halfway over her neck, just above her breasts. Lena's face heats up and a muttered "fuck" escapes her lips but Kara doesn't hear it.

"You know," the blonde mumbles a few moments later, after having wrestled her way out of her own clothes and into Lena's almost giving her an aneurysm in the process, "I never did get my midnight kiss…" She's settled herself down now and her eyes droop as her breathing slows but she still makes an effort to look up at the other girl. Her voice is sleepy and Lena can't tell if it's intentionally flirty, although she guesses (hopes) it is. Drunk Kara never had a filter, after all. "Maybe you can give it to me now…" She's half asleep already; Lena chuckles at the thought that maybe Kara is, in fact, talking about the drink and not an actual kiss and fights to keep her racing heart and blush at bay. In all honesty, she wouldn't be too surprised if that turned out to be the case.

"How about you go to sleep and I'll make you one tomorrow?" she asks. Her voice is quiet and tender and her hand is itching to reach out and caress the girl's cheek. She smiles at the soft snore she gets as a response. With a shake of her head and a deep breath, she puts on her pajamas and climbs into bed as well, mindful to leave enough space between her and Kara. The fact that she wakes up with the girl's limbs tangled with hers, a hand dangerously close to her breast and soft breaths on the side of her neck goes unmentioned.

If getting inside the house had been an adventure, getting out is even worse. With people always moving about, it would be a miracle if no one saw them sneaking around. They leave as soon as Lex and Lillian are gone. Of course, Lillian isn't going to let Lex run the company completely by himself so she tags along when he goes to the office; not that Lex minds, per se. It's not like he's going to let her run it for him, after all.

Lena makes her obligatory appearance during breakfast, informing both Lex and Lillian that she won't be joining them as she has some other business to tend to. She doesn't miss the side glace Lex throws at her or the knowing way his lips curl and his eyes sparkle. It sends a chill down her spine and she has to try not to shiver.

"Thanks for doing this…" They're outside now, sitting across from each other at a little bistro not too far away from Kara and Mike's apartment. Or… Mike's apartment now. They had gotten it together, Kara had explained, when Mike was new in town and had nowhere else to live. She had offered to help out and even pay for most of it so of course the man had accepted. It was his name they put on the lease, however, which meant that it had to be Kara the one to go, no matter how much of it was paid by her. "Really, you didn't have to and-"

"Nonsense, Kara. I wasn't going to just leave you hanging." Lena waves her off with a smile on her face.

"I guess you have questions about this whole thing…"

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to."

"No… No, I want to. You were- are, you're here for me and you deserve to know what's been going on." Lena only nods, waits for Kara to speak when she's ready. "It's been…" she frowns as she searches for the right word. "Weird," she settles. "You know when you meet someone and it feels like they complete you in some way? And it's so good because it's like this missing piece you had is finally back and you can breathe again?" Lena nods again cause she does, she does know what Kara is talking about maybe a little too well, but she's not trusting herself with actual words just yet. "That's what it was like. He was… He was from a neighbourhood next to mine. From when I was little, before I got taken in by the Danvers. And- and he lost his home too and it felt like… Like we connected through that. He was my missing link to those days, you know?" She sighs and grips her hands together to stop the slight tremors. "And I guess I was so happy that I'd finally found someone who shared the same experiences I did that I missed the big picture and all the warning signs and I snoozed all the alarms that kept going off in my head…" Kara's eyes are downcast, as if she's ashamed to look at Lena.

"There were alarms?" She knew there had to be a reason she didn't like the guy ever since she met him. It took her all of two seconds to know that something was off about him and she had to wonder just how enchanted Kara had been to not see it for months.

Kara nods a couple of times as her hand reaches up to wipe a stray tear that's rolling down her cheek and Lena's heart clenches. "So many," she says a moment later, her head finally raising to look at the woman across from her. "He was a lying, abusive jerk who would throw hissy fits if he didn't get his way like a five-year-old. He- he had this way of thinking that everyone had to agree with, you know? And if you happened not to, then you were always the one in the wrong. He cheated on me, you know." If Lena had super strength, the edge of the table would have turned to splinters because of how hard she had just gripped it. "We'd been together for like a week or something and I caught him, actually caught him with a girl from the office." Her eyes grow hard, harder than Lena knows them to ever be and she realizes now that the tear Kara had just wiped off wasn't one of sadness, but one of anger. Anger because she let herself be swayed and played like that simply because she and Mike shared a similar past. Because he could somewhat understand what she had gone through.

"Come to Europe with me," Lena suddenly blurts out as she unclenches the grip she has on the table, her brain not even processing the words. The anger immediately evaporates from Kara's eyes, confusion setting in instead as she frowns.

"What?"

"I'm serious." Lena can't back out now and, more importantly, she doesn't want to. "My father left me a house. In his will. It's in Europe and I… Honestly, I wasn't going to visit. Sam thinks I should, though and now you- Well, you could probably use a couple of days away from this place," she shrugs and smiles at Kara, her eyes soft and filled with love as she watches the girl process what she has just heard. She blinks a couple of times and Lena swears she can see the cogs turning in her brain.

"Who's Sam?" the blonde asks, and it's probably the one question Lena expected the least.

"She's a friend back in National City," she simply states and decides to ignore -for now, at least- the fact that she definitely noticed the way Kara's eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly as soon as she heard the word 'she'. She's going to think about that later.

Kara nods slowly a few times, thinking over Lena's proposal no doubt, before she finally replies. "Okay," she says and Lena has to blink the bewilderment away.

"Okay?"

"Yeah," Kara nods again. "Yeah, I'll come to Europe with you. What the hell, it sounds fun!" Her signature smile is now back on her lips and it's so much brighter than before. Lena feels her own grin getting wider at the sight.

A/N: This was supposed to be up on Monday, tbh, but [SHAMELESS SELF PROMO INCOMING] I got caught up with work and I was also doing this fictober thing (give it a read if you wanna, I'm only three prompts in and I was supposed to be on prompt 13 by now and I hate myself, but hey! I think the three one-shots I have up are pretty decent xD) and then I also did some Lena art which you can find on my tumblr and time got away from me... Oh well. Follow me on tumbler at itsaroseforrose, babes! I'd love to talk to you all ^^