Kara enjoys the comforting heat of the stove as she throws in herbs and leaves to create the tea she has seen her mother make hundreds of times before when she was a child. The scent engulfs her, willingly taking her back to the days when her life was normal and safe. For a second she can almost feel her mother's arms around her, and she longs to hug her back. She'll have to make a trip to Argo after the mission. She hasn't seen her since she found out her father is alive. It's been decades since her family has been together and that needs to be rectified.
She stirs the pot on the stove, bringing it to a boil before setting it aside to cool for a second whilst she plates up the rest of the food for everyone. She delights in the sight of a meal from her homeland and tries to make the dishes look as aesthetically pleasing as she can. She really hopes that her found family will enjoy her food.
Lena breezes in humming a light-hearted tune. "Is the food ready?"
"Yeah, and the tea. I made extra in case anyone else wants some. It's all natural so it's perfectly safe." Kara grabs a couple of the plates and slips them into Lena's hands. "I'm just about ready to take everything through to the dining room."
Lena takes the plates through and places them in the centre of the table before detouring and heading to inform the others that it is time to eat.
The team hurries into the dining room, obviously excited to eat a homemade meal. By the time they have seated themselves, Kara has already laid out the dinner plates, piled up with food.
"Here, Nia. I got you a water and some tea." Kara delicately slides the two glasses in front of her and receives a grateful smile in response. "There is also some more in the pitcher if anyone wants to try some."
Nobody wastes any time digging into the food. "This is incredible, Kara!" Alex exclaims around her fork, which for whatever reason, only has two prongs.
"Thanks." Kara flushes with the compliment and Lena nudges her shoulder with her own.
"It truly is incredible. This is a taste that I have never experienced before in my life."
They fall into silence fairly quickly save for hums of appreciation. Even Esme is barely talking, too tuckered out from the day and a little grumpy from being woken from her nap.
Lena watches Nia struggle for a second since she has her injured hand in a sling. She is trying her very best to get the perfect amount of food onto her fork but cutting it with a knife is out of the question.
She looks a little embarrassed as Lena leans over and cuts up her food for her, although she does it as discreetly as possible so nobody else notices, at least they didn't comment on it if they did.
The second everyone's plates were empty, they all made themselves scarce, running off to their own bedrooms before Kara could complain that they had left their dishes. She sighs heavily and stares Lena down as she tries to make her own swift escape.
"Ah, ah, ah. Where do you think you're going?"
Lena has the decency to look sheepish and return back to the table to help her gather up the plates and glasses.
"Thank you for dinner, it was lovely."
"You're welcome, I just wish that I had more time to research first. Maybe I could have found something better than tea." It's clear to see by the expression on her face that Kara is blaming herself for not finding an antidote of some kind for Nia and Lena can tell that it is being exacerbated by the emotions of being back on Krypton.
Lena follows her into the kitchen, wary of her fragile emotional state. "You're not to blame for any of this." She whispers it into the air loud enough for Kara to hear but gentle enough to show her earnestness.
"I appreciate that but when I brought you all here, I assumed responsibility therefore anything that happens to you guys is on me." Kara turns away, stacking the dishes into what seems to be some kind of dishwasher.
Lena ponders for a few beats, coming up with an answer that will satisfy both of them. "Well, in that case, we will simply have to agree to disagree and work together on figuring out our problem."
Kara visibly gulps, most likely to swallow down her feelings. "I can agree to that."
"Great, come on then. We don't have time to dawdle." Lena tugs her out of the kitchen by her arm.
Kara allows Lena to drag her back to the office, a little bit amused at her commanding attitude to the situation, she hasn't seen Lena doing her CEO persona in a while, but she really enjoys it. There will always be a level of admiration for the way she can command a room and come up with a solution on the spot.
Lena leads her back up to the second floor to the books she was reading before. "I'm assuming that there wasn't some kind of key or index for the medications in the storeroom?"
Kara shakes her head, resting her chin on her closed fist as her elbow perches on the desk. "Not that I could find."
"Alright, and the medication tubes don't have information leaflets in them like how we do on Earth?" Lena paces as she thinks out loud.
Kara goes to shake her head again but pauses. "I don't- I'm not actually sure."
Lena's posture seems to snap, going from her stooped pacing to her spine whipping up straighter than a ruler. "Perfect, we have a place to start. Let's go undo a bunch of boxes!"
Kara winces at how upbeat Lena is at the mere possibility of a lead. She's usually down for anything that is a mystery or an adventure, but it's been a long day and all she wants to do is sleep. A selfish part of her is wishing that there won't be any leaflets in the boxes simply, so she won't have to do any more translating.
Where Lena takes quick deliberate steps down towards the storage room, Kara takes sluggish stomps. She watches the back of Lena's head as she walks, impressed by how she manages to keep her hair up in a slick ponytail despite being on a strange, overly dangerous camping trip.
Lena doesn't waste any time in finding some of the more interesting-looking boxes and tubes and opening them in search of a leaflet.
Kara watches her haphazardly opening and closing box after tube, and tube after box, not finding anything but persevering, nonetheless.
"Are you going to help at any point or just watch from the doorway?"
Kara uses the doorframe to push herself back upright from her leaning position against the frame. "I'm just thinking."
"Can you think and open at the same time?" Lena sends her a pointed look and Kara snaps right into action. She never has been able to deny her anything when she is sent that look.
Kara opens the boxes but takes the time to turn the boxes over in her hands, reading as much of the fine print as she can. She had simply checked to see if the usage was on the box before but completely skipped over the section that shows the side effects.
"The side effects are listed on the side of them. We can rule out the usage for some based on those. You're not likely to have a side effect of headaches from headache medication."
Lena nods, thinking it over. "It is possible to figure out general usage from that method but there would be no guarantees of accuracy and it would take an extraordinarily long time to do, longer than we have."
Kara slumps, off put by their only real plan getting shot down. Lena is right, it would take too long but it was the only thing her tired brain could come up with. A sigh falls from her lips but is overtaken by a yawn.
Lena automatically yawns back at her. "Don't do that, we still have to figure this out."
"Sorry, I can't help it. It's been a long day."
"Tell me about it." Lena goes back to searching through the medications but has no real intentions.
Kara slips past her to pull down some of the large boxes from the top shelves, grabbing a little fold-away stool from a hook on the far wall. She didn't get to those earlier, so it seems like a good place for her to look.
She pulls the boxes down and finds Lena holding her arms out to take the box, helping her get it down safely. They use that system of Kara grabbing them and passing them to Lena a few times until they are all on the floor. Lena puts the last one down and then offers Kara a hand to steady herself as she steps down.
Kara smiles gratefully at Lena. "Thanks."
Together, they go through the boxes, finding more small boxes of medications. As they root through the boxes, it makes Kara wonder why they had so many different kinds here. She was expecting to find an extended first aid kit but instead, they found a store room with at least two hundred different kinds of medications and that is just from a quick glance.
They don't find anything particularly good or helpful but Lena winces as her hand whacks against something hard in the middle of a box, not expecting to have anything other than the lightweight packaging in the box.
She pulls out what happens to be a book and hands it to Kara to translate. "What's this? Is this the index you were looking for?"
Kara runs her eyes across the title, a fond reminiscent smile crossing her face. "No, but it might help us."
Lena tilts her head as she tries to decipher the unfamiliar glyphs across the book's cover. "What is it then?"
"It's Krypton's 'Jungle Book'. It was always my Uncle Jor-El's favourite. It is a scientific book that has a whole load of information about the different jungles of Krypton and my guess is that there will be a section on the Scarlet Jungle too." Kara takes the book from her hands and begins flipping through it.
"Brilliant, let's go read that. Do you want to go back to the office or are you feeling up to a little bedtime reading?" Lena raises her eyebrow at Kara as she stifles another yawn.
Kara shakes her head as though to shake away her fatigue. "If we go to bed then I won't make it all the way through the book before I fall asleep."
Lena snatches the book back from her. "That settles it then, we're going to bed. You won't be very good at translating anything If you're dead on your feet. Let's go get a couple of hours rest then you can have the book back."
Lena is already out of the room before Kara can stop her, leaving her tripping over all of the boxes as she scrambles after her. In her haste, she slips on a pack of dressings and slams her elbow into the doorframe. "Ow, crap!"
She stumbles after her, rubbing her sore elbow and pouting. Lena is waiting for her by the entrance to the hallway where the bedrooms are. "Do you mind if we bunk? I've gotten used to having your snores in the background, I find it quite soothing at this point."
Kara looks outraged. "I do not snore!" She whisper shouts, annoyed that she is being forced to go to sleep instead of rest and that she is being accused of such a crime as snoring.
"Don't worry, darling. I find it quite endearing." With that parting line, Lena peaks in each door, finding out that their family have taken the closest bedrooms. She spends an extra few seconds peering into Nia's room and finding her fast asleep, seemingly resting at last, oblivious to the pain of the waking hours.
She keeps on moving, Kara stumbling behind her until she finds an empty room and enters, holding the door open for Kara.
Kara pauses as she is about to enter. "I forgot to grab our bags from the entrance, I'll be back in a second."
Lena nods back in understanding and takes the few moments she has alone to hide the book from Kara, tucking it under the corner of the mattress where she will be sleeping.
Once it is safely tucked away she lets her eyes wander around the unfamiliar space.
The bed looks relatively normal, except for the pillows, which are cylinder and rounded. There is also an ensuite with a relatively similar-looking toilet and sink to what they have on Earth, but the shower is an odd tube in the corner of the room.
All of the storage is built right into the walls in drawers which open when you wave your hand before them except for two small bedside tables on either side of the bed.
Kara slips into the room and sets the bags on the bed. "I don't know whether or not we should unpack. We'll probably be here for another couple of days but there are no guarantees. If something happens we need to be able to get out of here quickly."
Lena simply grabs her own back and takes out some of her clothes. "Is there a washing machine of some sort here?"
"Uh…yeah."
"Great, then we'll be staying at least long enough for all of our clothes to be washed. We may as well unpack. It would probably only take us fifteen minutes tops to get everything we need and run. Overall, that's not bad. Besides, I don't really think that anything is going to happen to us in a random place in the middle of a forest."
Kara balls up one of her shirts and throws it at her. "Expect the unexpected."
Lena turns to her, disgusted. "If that was a dirty shirt then you're dead Danvers."
"The only way to find out is to sniff it." Kara smiles smugly, crossing her arms and throwing all of her crumpled, dirty laundry into a pile by the door.
Lena throws it back harshly and adds her laundry to the pile. "You're gross."
"Thank you, I appreciate the compliment." Kara bags the ensuite before Lena can make a dash for it, sliding the door shut behind her."
Lena hears a strange sound come from within the bathroom and assumes that is it the tube shower thing. The thought spurs her to take a little sniff of herself and her nose doesn't thank her. She is in desperate need of a good wash. She just prays that the others couldn't smell her at dinner.
It only takes a few minutes before Kara emerges with damp hair and fresh clothes, looking thoroughly scrubbed. "Your turn." She smiles.
Lena smiles back and grabs some fresh clothes, heading right in and dumping her clothes on the nearest available surface.
She looks up into the mirror that covers the top half of one wall completely and takes in her appearance. This past week has not been all that kind to her. Whilst her hair is still in pristine condition, a habit from being the CEO of a science company in a male-dominated field, the rest of her is fairly grubby and sweaty. All in all, not a good look.
She heads over to the corner where the tube is and tries to figure out how it works but can't see any buttons or switches right away, so she peeks her head out of the door to ask for help.
"Is the tube thing a shower?"
Kara is already in bed and facing the other way but sits back up properly and swings her legs over the side. "Yeah, need a hand?"
"Please."
Kara steps past her, hand skimming her side as she does in the tight space of the doorway. "Here, just press on this silver diamond and it will turn on. There is a little blue strip of metal on the inside, slide your hand up it to make the temperature go up and down to make it go down. Press the diamond again to shut it off."
Lena admires the controls and technology, finding it fascinating. "Cool, I definitely want to see the schematics at some point on our trip."
Kara grabs her a towel from the storage cube in the corner, which is essentially just a cube in the corner for storing towels and such. "The water contains cleansers and moisturisers already so no need for shampoo, just give your scalp a good scrub with your fingers under the water and you'll be good to go."
Lena thanks her and slides the door shut behind her before starting the shower and changing the temperature until it is perfect.
She greatly enjoys the feeling of the water running away all of the sweat and dirt from her body. She sees another metal plate on the inside of the tube and taps it out of curiosity.
A small space opens up at the back, revealing a sponge. She sighs a little. "You couldn't have mentioned that bit too, could you, Kara?" She whispers into the bathroom.
She scrubs herself until her skin turns pink with the force before jumping out of the shower and wrapping herself in a towel.
When she gets back to the bedroom she finds Kara once again facing away from her but as she manoeuvres around the room to place her dirty clothes onto the laundry pile, she can see that Kara is still awake and staring at the spy beacon on the bedside table.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Kara once again sits up. Lena joins her in the bed and scoots in closer so she can steal her warmth, her toes having gotten cold on the tiled floor on the way to the bed.
"I was just thinking about my aunt. The spy beacons were our way of contacting each other and I don't know whether or not to set them up so Esme and I can use them."
Kara looks sad as she thinks about her aunt and Lena wants nothing more than to cheer her up. She wraps an arm around her and brings her close, shuffling them down under the covers further. "I didn't know you found another one."
"I didn't." Lena looks at her, confusion clouding her features. "I still have the one from when I was a child, and I could potentially reprogram it to link to this one instead of the one my Aunt Astra had."
Lena takes a deep breath before diving right in. "Don't do it."
Kara's eyebrows shoot up. "What?"
"I think that you should leave yours exactly how it is."
Kara tilts her head, so she is looking right into Lena's eyes. "Why do you think that?"
"I think you would regret severing your last real link to your aunt and you could still have your own with Esme if we find another spy beacon. I don't know how rare they are or where you normally find them, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if you don't. Is this the normal place to find one?"
Kara hums as she processes Lena's opinion before answering her question. "This is probably one of the last places I would think to look for one, spy beacons were used by rebels against the council mostly, which is why my aunt had one."
"So, you'll leave it? I honestly think that Esme will have forgotten all about it by tomorrow anyway as long as you find something as equally cool to play with." Lena squeezes her arms around her a little tighter.
"For now." Kara snuggles down a little more and turns her back to Lena but holds her arm, so it stays wrapped around her.
"There's easier ways to say you want to be the little spoon." Lena huffs into her hair.
Kara simply sighs. "Shh, I'm trying to sleep."
Lena wakes up feeling more rested than she has in days. It's almost as though sleeping on a real bed is more comfortable than sleeping on an air mattress. She opens her eyes slowly, allowing herself the fortune of waking slowly and calmly.
She is aware of Kara sitting up beside her, somehow reading the book which she had stowed under the mattress yesterday.
"I hid that for a reason." Her raspy morning voice seems to make Kara smile.
She closes the book and sets it down on the bedside table. "I found it yesterday when you were showering but I promise that I left all of the reading for this morning."
"You better have." She warns.
"I did, however, this morning's read hasn't been very helpful, there is nothing about the plant or any antidotes in the very short Scarlet Jungle section although I have thoroughly enjoyed relearning about all of the other jungles. I'll read you some later."
Lena looks a little downtrodden at the news.
"I know it sucks but today is a new day. I already checked on Nia, and she is awake, just chilling in her room. She says the pain is slowly subsiding but is still quite bad so we can either try and wait it out or find something but if we do wait it out then we could end up a couple of weeks behind and Nia will have a crappy stay here."
In response, Lena simply gets out of bed and starts to make it around Kara, smirking when she pulls the covers down off of her. "I think we should keep looking but be prepared for a longer stay if necessary."
Kara, albeit reluctantly, gets up too and begins getting dressed. Lena averts her eyes quickly and begins to do the same although she got a lovely, good look at some very impressive abs and a very attractive ass.
They brush their teeth side by side before leaving the bedroom and heading to the living room. The others must still be resting because they are nowhere to be seen.
They briefly take in the state of the place, it's a mess. Their search and scramble has left the place looking like a bomb site. "We should clean up."
"I hate to give myself more work, but I agree." Kara heads right for the storage room whilst Lena starts at the living room and kitchen.
They work tirelessly on cleaning up and tidying things away, even going as far as to pile up all of the books from their initial collection to go back into the office.
Kara comes out of the closet with a grin.
"I have successfully tidied a room for the first time in years without the use of superspeed. I am very proud of myself." She holds her arm up triumphantly.
Lena chuckles, smiling wide enough to show her dimples. "I've done the living room, dining room and kitchen in the time it took you to do that one room but sure, it's a huge achievement."
"You can be really cruel, you know that?"
Lena smirks picking up half of the pile of books. "It's part of my charm."
Kara follows suit and grabs the rest of the books and follows Lena to the office where they start putting them back into the correct places, Lena passes the books to Kara to reshelve and Kara teaches Lena the symbols for each number.
They marvel at the now full shelves but Lena's eye catches on the one empty spot right by the desk on the second floor.
"Does the book you were reading in bed fit into that spot? I really want to see it all completed."
Kara playfully shoulder-checks her on her way out of the door. "I'll go get it."
Lena waits patiently for her to come back, ignoring the amused look on Kara's face as she returns with the book.
"Here you go, be the extra woman you are and place the final book."
She snatches it from her hands and haphazardly shoves it into the spot and steps back so she can see the completed shelves.
Much to their absolute shock and horror, the shelves begin to slide and open up to reveal a staircase.
They look at each other, wide-eyed. Lena finds her voice first. "We're going to tell the others that we worked this out and didn't find it by accident, right?"
"Oh, absolutely."