Chapter Sixteen: Thou Shalt Not Forget


The weekend came faster than expected—or wanted for that matter—and the choice to settle Eliza in an assisted care living facility was one of the hardest, most mind-numbing decisions Kara had ever made. The Danvers matriarch, whose emotional range was turbulent and unpredictable at best, offered little to no resistance when her daughters approached the subject of her move. As surprising as it was, Kara was learning more of her adoptive mother's mood patterns the more time she spent with her. The years that she had lived outside of Danvers ranch and in her own home back in town were what was assumed to be the most vital years of Eliza's decline in mental acuity, though Kara did her best to not lay all of that blame at her own feet. Though, it was hard for her not to. Her guilt had her in a stranglehold. The signs of Eliza's dementia, as it was explained to both her and her sister, were things that most people would miss, even if they were to spend a majority of their time with her. "Nearly imperceptible" the neurologist had called them. Asking the same question twice in a row or misplacing handheld items in strange places… small things that really no one could have been expected to look out for.

Before, Kara would come and see Eliza at the ranch once, maybe twice a week, if only to brush Ducky and look in on the other horses. They had been her most faithful friends for so long, and she could hardly bear to be away from them for extended periods of time. Now that she had spent nearly a week at Eliza's side, she began to grasp how high her highs could be compared to how low her lows could get. Kara noted that her mother could sometimes swing from one extreme to the other in a matter of minutes, depending on the subject of conversation. Her erratic behavior worried the blonde, and she pondered to herself how many times she'd have to remind their mother that she was moving house… and what her reaction would be. Turns out Eliza only asked twice more and was actually pleased with her quaint little room once they arrived, not to mention the thrill of traveling by elevator to her floor. Eliza had said that she felt like the star of the show and did her best to let everyone know.

When all was said and done, Kara and Alex had collectively gathered some bits and things from the main house on the ranch that would remind Eliza of home, as was suggested to them during one of the many intake discussions to help ease her transition. They were also told that it was quite common for a minor emotional breakdown during the first week of her stay, and to maybe expect it. The time in between the commotion caused during the initial move and carving out a daily routine was usually associated with a steep drop in hormone levels and could make new residents experience small episodes of panic or depression.

Neither Kara nor Alex received such a call during that week. In fact, Alex had called Kara to relate to her how Eliza had already made friends with several other women on her floor and had instituted the building's first card club.

"They're playing poker, Kara. She's taking these ladies money like she's been doin' it for years!" Alex exasperated into the phone, making her younger sister laugh on the other end. "I'm serious Kara, she's gonna get herself thrown outta there and then she'll have to come live with you."

"Nope." Kara replied, popping her 'P' distinctly with her lips. "I can't wrangle the ranch cats and Mama at the same time. Too many claws. Besides, this place is falling down by the beams. I've got a lot of work to do here—" She trailed off at the sight of the raven-haired woman at the other end of the kitchen who had just leaned a hip against a countertop. Lena was carefully sipping a cup of tea with her eyes deadlocked onto Kara, pursing her lips rather suggestively to blow and cool its hot contents.

Always a flair for seduction, this one.

"I- uh… Thanks for keeping me updated. I'll come with you to visit next week. Gotta go." Kara heard the faint goodbye from Alex on the other end as she lowered the phone and tapped the red end call button. She abandoned it on a counter at her end of the kitchen and crossed her arms at her chest.

"You're lookin' at me like Christmas dinner right now." She said at Lena, who had sat her cup down and was sauntering slowly toward Kara across the aged linoleum kitchen floor.

"Mm." Lena hummed when she smoothed a palm across the plane of Kara's bare collarbone. The blonde, dressed in work boots, blue jeans, belt and sports bra, had rid herself of her shirt while she was out gathering felled mesquite wood from the dead and dying trees she had cut down the day before. The largest paddock across from the stables was rife with them, but the sun was hot that late summer day and the work was plenty, so off came her shirt. Mesquite branches have large thorns capable of piercing tire, sole and hoof alike at just the right angle once on the ground, and it was important that Kara rid the landscape of them before sundown. She had just finished for the day and stepped inside the house when her sister had called to catch her up on her visit with Eliza, but now her attention was zeroed in on the woman who was seconds away from climbing her like one of those broad Mesquites.

"Your skin…" Lena's eyes were scanning her. Devouring her.

Kara moved into the other woman's space and wrapped her tired arms low around her waist. Then she swung her around and lifted until the backs of Lena's thighs were placed on top of the island counter. Kara became prisoner to the small frame of the dark-haired woman when slender legs crossed themselves behind her.

Lena ran her fingers into wavy blonde hair as she leaned forward to rest her temple next to Kara's. "I've been thinking…" She said quietly, her lips perched close to Kara's ear. "I'd like to stay a bit longer if that's alright?"

Kara was still only maybe an inch and a half taller than her when they stood side by side, but the blonde always seemed to somehow tower over her. So naturally, Lena liked being up above her whenever the opportunity presented itself. It never failed to make her heart race. Kara emanated a stoic and almost intimidating atmosphere nearly everywhere she stepped, maybe because of her height, defined musculature and sometimes mysterious demeanor… but Lena wondered if men constantly underestimated her. Only she knew the uninhibited and surprisingly silly side of Kara, and that was something which she treasured immensely.

Kara kissed her on the tip of her nose then and smiled. "That'd be alright with me."

Lena cupped Kara's jaw and lifted her gaze. Her magnificent blue eyes sparkled in the day's waning sunshine, and she found herself wanting to count each and every eyelash. Her other hand brushed a few soft blonde baby hairs away from Kara's hairline and then dipped down to kiss her softly where she hummed blissfully onto her full lips. Kara's thumbs were firmly planted just above her hip bones, and they dug in slightly when Lena's tongue ran across her bottom lip. All of a sudden, the woman standing trapped between her legs went stiff for a moment, and then dragged her lips away. Her face now crestfallen and devoid of its once animated and cheery smile.

Just from the way Kara's shoulders had dropped, Lena could tell that she felt disheartened, somehow. She hadn't pushed her once the entire time she had known the woman, and she wasn't going to start now. Kara had kept herself busy that week with task after task and seemed too afraid to slow down long enough to let her mind wander. There were dark circles under her eyes and the tops of her shoulders wore a light pink dusting of a burn from the sun. Kara ran her eyes across the features of Lena's face, flitting from her barely perceptible widow's peak to her sharp cheekbones, to the graceful little lines in the corners of her eyes that grew whenever she smiled, to the small dimples that made their home in her cheeks… Lena felt Kara's weary bones settle in her hands as those blue eyes scanned her, as if she was being read like an ancient tablet and revered as holy commandment, committing her to memory.

Thou shalt not forget…

Kara's eyes were suddenly wet with tears, and Lena saw a breath catch in her throat. Then her chin wrinkled and bobbed, and the rest of her face followed into an unstoppable contortion. Every painful feeling and emotion Kara had stuffed down over the course of the week was fighting, violently, to be let out of its cage. She suffered for having bottled everything inside and though it was easy to ignore in the short term as she kept her hands busy, it was the very moment she slowed down long enough to look at something, really look, that every pressurized emotion held inside of her gained the upper hand and was now primed and ready to burst out of her like an iron ball from a cannon.

Lena's hands flew to Kara's face and pulled her cheek to her breast. Her heart broke for the blonde as she cried into her. It flowed out of her in gentle, persistent weeping, and was truthfully some of the saddest sounds that Lena had ever heard. Pitiful, puled sobs wrenched their way into her chest. Lena didn't know what else to do other than to hold her, and to receive the broken trappings of Kara's soul. She would keep them safe for her, locked away and mended whole again for a better day.


The following week was spent rearranging furniture in the house and cataloging what could go and what could stay. Kara enlisted the help of Clark to move her bed from her house—which was originally her birth parents' home that she inherited when she turned eighteen—along with a few of her toolboxes and cabinets. Lena helped her collect and store what remained of the bulk of Eliza's clothing that was not taken to her new place of residence in Austin into boxes and bags. Kara had estimated it would take several more weeks to complete all of the dire repairs in the house, such as the inch and a half gaps at several of the windows and door frames which would be important to finish first before the cold weather set in. And even months longer to replace some of the siding and insulation on the horse barn as well as the whole of its roof, which was near to collapsing on one side.

The more Kara looked, the more she found, and the more depressed she became as the days blended into weeks. Lena held her hand as she fought back tears on the evening when she realized she would have to sell two of the studs, as the sum of their fees even combined with the others would not be enough to break even after the staggering total of the repairs needed for the year. One of them happened to be Ducky's sire but would fetch several thousand more than any of the other studs housed at the ranch because of his illustrious racing career.

Kara visited Eliza in her new home in Austin regularly, with every visit being different than the last. She would be happy for the company one week, and then perturbed and downright mean the next. Her mother's mood was still as volatile as ever, but the plethora of puzzles, boardgames and her poker club seemed to improve her awareness and recall on some days.

Lena traveled back and forth from her home in New York to Danvers Ranch a handful of times until the beginning of December, when the weather in Texas had chilled enough for long sleeves and sweaters. The raven-haired woman was overwhelmingly grateful to her assistant Jess, who had her company well in hand while she was away south. It was fortunate that Lena was able to work remotely, and indefinitely if she needed… but any time Kara called for her, she came running.

The worst of which were Kara's night terrors, which had resurfaced during Lena's last trip back home. The first night of her return to Texas, she was startled into consciousness next to the blonde who had snapped awake and plunged straight into a panic attack. Almost every other night after was the same, and Kara continued to decline in energy and disposition. Some days she hardly spoke. But not a single day passed with Lena where she didn't find a very quick moment to at least whisper, "I love you."

Lena hadn't been wrong when she realized that no matter what, despite all hardship and heartbreak, that Kara would always be soft with her. Even when she was disheveled and exhausted and sometimes even too tired to get out of bed until well after noon. Kara always managed to put her feet upon the ground eventually, and a kiss upon her cheek. Even if that was all she could do for the day. Lena was continuously amazed with how Kara kept herself moving some days when she dragged large timbers around and pounded hammer to nail, and other days when she ached head to toe too much to get out of bed for longer than what writing the month's expenses in the ranch ledger took. She worried more than anything that the blonde would run herself into the ground, forget to eat, or accidentally hurt herself… Or all of the above.


One particular evening would be struck in Lena's memory for years to come.

It was near to the third week of December and the sun had begun to habitually set late in the afternoon, plunging the ranch into darkness as early as six o'clock. Kara was round-penning a young chestnut filly when Lena went in search for her near the corrals. She admired the blonde's patience with the ill-mannered horse, having spent the past week exercising her ground manners and direction. The round pen worked well to break the filly's desire to run with no corners to escape Kara's influence, and the young female eventually knew that the blonde was not bound to leave her be until she do as told.

Lena had carried with her a handled lantern in preparation for the quickly approaching dark. She wore new round toed boots and had quickly realized that they were her favorite footwear, as they were comfortable, practical, and easy to slip on and off. She lifted one of them to rest on the lowest runner board of the corral and sat the unlit lantern on a nearby post. Kara caught her shape from the corner of her eye, and broke her eye contact with the filly. She stood and stared at Lena as if almost taken aback at the sight of her. Her boots weren't the only new thing about her, apparently. Lena had truly taken a liking to popular western fashion in the past couple of months and she seemed to drip an authentic cowgirl aesthetic, which made Kara's heart beat again like it did in Port Aransas that summer.

In addition to her appropriate new footwear, Lena wore a faded turquoise knitted sweater with patterned knots down the sleeves and blue jeans that hugged the round of her buttocks with intricately stitched back pockets. The front of her sweater was tucked loosely behind the button of her jeans, making the rest of it billow around her comfortably. Her hair was plaited in a tight braid which swung around the front of a shoulder. She was a vision, and Kara was rocked to her bones with the realization that this was the same woman in a business skirt and heels that she towed into town over a year and a half ago.

Kara nearly dropped the lunge whip in her hand as her mouth fumbled in unison for words. She quickly noticed her mouth had gone dry, probably because of how long she had left it hanging open. She licked her lips then and blurted, "Want to walk with us to the stables?"

Lena smiled. "Sure."

By the time they reached the lofted barn it was fairly dark out, and the solar powered entrance lights on the inside of the structure flicked on as soon as they stepped inside. They provided enough of an ambient light over exits, doors and ladders so that one could move around inside without having to clamber around in complete darkness. It was still somewhat dim once the large doors were slid shut on the track behind them, but not enough to need use of the lantern. Lena hung it on a nail at the wall near the end of the door, as they would need it to get back to the house after the filly was stabled. She heard a door click on its latch and the loud satisfied huff of a horse from behind her, but then spun around when she heard an "Oof" from Kara when she had apparently tripped over a small stack of hay bales that she had been too tired to throw into the loft some days before.

"Shoot…" Kara caught her footing and stood up straight again, placing her hands on her hips. "Lemme just toss these up and we can go." She said, leaning down to plunge her fingers under the wrapped wire of the first bale. They easily weighed anywhere from forty to forty-five pounds each, but she lifted a square and swung it back in preparation to toss it above her. Before Kara could heave it up into the loft, she halted at the sight of some spare crates blocking her aim. She then dropped the bale with a huff and pinched the bridge of her nose between her eyes, grumbling beneath her breath.

"Want some help?" Lena asked after a moment.

Kara's hands went to her hips again and she pulled in a deep breath to shoo away her frustration. "That's alright, darlin'… this'll just take me a second."

She shrugged her wool lined denim coat around on her shoulders and walked over to the loft ladder to scale it in long steps. Soon, Lena could hear the sound of feet shuffling around as Kara grunted and pushed several crates to the opposite end of the loft.

The raven-haired woman on the ground strolled over to Ducky's stall and was happily stroking his nose when she realized the shuffling from up above had stopped. "Kara?"

"Yep. Still here." She heard a voice call back. "Just… sat down for a spell."

Lena left Ducky to tuck his head back into his stall for the night and climbed the ladder to find Kara laying somewhat upright in a mountain of clumsily stacked hay bales. A lot of which had spilled loose into a large pile. Her head was leaned back, and her eyes were closed. She looked comfortable, at least.

"I'm almost done…" Kara stated, having heard the other woman reach the landing. "Just restin' my eyes."

Lena crossed the loft and lumbered down to lay next to her. "I know, baby." She replied softly as she laid her head on Kara's shoulder.

Kara was the strongest person she had ever met. Physically, mentally, and emotionally… but Lena also knew that even Kara had her limits. There had been so many days where she witnessed the blonde work from sunup to sundown, and several nights where it was all Kara could do to make it to her bed upstairs just to fall lopsided into it. It was often that she'd fall asleep on top of the covers with her boots still on by accident, too exhausted to toe them off beforehand. Lena would always pull them off her and drag the quilt down underneath, usually with some difficulty because even though Kara was nine-tenths lean muscle, she was still solid like a boulder at deadweight. It was usually those nights where she slept soundly enough to stave off any nightmares, and Lena would stir awake in the early morning hours with at least one of Kara's arms around her.

She pecked sweet kisses at Kara's jaw and ran a hand up into the hair at the nape of her neck to massage her scalp there. Kara hummed deeply, delighting in the feeling of the fingers that pressed into the weary muscles at the back of her neck. Lena was busily working out all the knots that had manifested from her constant state of stress and for the first time in months, and Kara finally relaxed.

Slightly invigorated now, Kara turned her head to catch Lena's next kiss with her lips and melted into it. She had made sure that she kissed Lena at least once every single day that she spent with her on the ranch, but this one was different. It felt long-awaited and much deserved, like the breaking of a fast. It hadn't been her intention to withhold her affections from the other woman all these weeks... Quite the contrary, she troubled her mind to be intimate with Lena when the opportunity arose, but every time found herself deflated and near tears. She had not possessed the emotional fortitude since their last embrace at the beach house to make love to her. Not with everything going on the past couple of months. Her head was in too many places. But now, the torrent in her mind calmed long enough to channel one thought, and one feeling.

Lena.

Kara tipped her head to angle their kiss and deepen it, which sent a tiny jolt through the body of the dark-haired woman in her arms. Lena shivered as she felt Kara exhale deeply through her nose in that familiar way that she loved so much, which was always a sure sign that Kara was happy. Lena's body temperature spiked with her heart rate and worked to warm her against the bitter coldness inside the tall barn. She rolled the length of her body then into Kara on top of the surprisingly soft hay. When they finally broke apart to gasp for air, Lena was mad with want for her.

"I love you." Kara rasped as soon as she pulled her first breath in. Her eyes were open like Lena had not seen them in a long while. They were looking at her again, and it made her bones want to fall apart from end to end.

Kara sat up as Lena swung a leg across to perch herself in her lap. She then gripped the rough denim collar of Kara's coat like handles and pulled her close, kissing her with abandon. Suddenly, Kara's cold, calloused hands ran up the inside of her sweater. She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth as each of them wrapped completely around the front of her ribcage just beneath the swell of her breasts. Kara held her there, firm and resolute. Her hands fit perfectly, as if the blonde's long fingers were sculpted to slot in between each of her ribs like the keys to a divine lock.

God, her hands…

"Oh, I've missed you." Lena said. Her fingers tangled into golden hair as the woman beneath her nosed her way to breathe heavily into her chest. Kara was filling her senses with the woman she loved. The sight of her, how warm she felt under her hands, the flowery perfumed smell of her skin, the lingering taste of her lips, the sound of her breaths falling at the tops of her ears…

Kara smoothed her hands upward further to cup both of Lena's breasts under her bra, making her squirm uncontrollably into her lap. She rolled the small, stiff peaks of Lena's nipples in between her thumbs and forefingers and Lena mewled wantonly, grinding her hips at last down onto Kara. The moan that trembled out of the blonde made Lena clench her fists tighter into her hair and tug slightly downward, and soon their bodies began exchanging that lovely discourse without words, which was one action resulting in another, resulting in another. As if no time at all had passed, they were again an unstoppable, powerful, and irrevocable force of nature.

Kara, when overwhelmed by desire, tended to emit small growls when she wanted a particular thing. It was always a very quick signal to Lena that whatever was transpiring between them was about to escalate… and sometimes fast. It always made her shiver all the way up from the base of her spine, because she found it absolutely thrilling in the way that it slightly scared her and turned her on at the same time.

Its deep, audible rumble bubbled its way into the air between them. Kara quickly dropped her hands to the bottom hem of Lena's sweater and pulled it up and over her head. Lena's hands followed by pushing the shoulders of Kara's coat off her. Lena noticed that even though she was now topless, she was nowhere near cold. The blonde wasted no time in reaching a hand around to unfasten the double clasp of Lena's bra with a snap and twist of her fingers, and then dragged her tongue long and flat up in between her breasts from her sternum to the base of her neck. It made Lena feel as if she were falling, and her hands clutched at Kara's shoulders desperately to keep from plummeting from the floor of the loft onto the ground below.

Incoherently muttered half curses and subtle praises lilted into the air above them as Kara sucked and licked over her soft breasts. The way the blonde mouthed the flesh on her chest so attentively and so ravenously made Lena want to liquify from head to toe into a steaming, well worked mess. She almost couldn't bear it any longer.

"I want you so badly—" Lena said, bucking her center unexpectedly into the seam of Kara's jeans when she felt the subtle scrape of teeth against her skin.

"Where do you want me?" Kara asked, suckling the prominent curves of Lena's ribs one by one.

Everywhere. Always.

"I want to feel you inside of me again… please." Lena answered, her voice more breath than sound.

Kara sprawled more kisses over Lena's collarbones and up into her neck when she folded her legs and rose up onto her knees with the smaller woman still wrapped around her waist. She laid Lena softly on the hay, careful to not let the back of her head fall without her hand behind it. Now bereft of her concern for patience, the raven-haired woman laying beneath her took this small window of opportunity to ball her fist tight into the buttons of Kara's shirt and yank her downward into another wet kiss. She writhed sublimely underneath the blonde in anticipation. With the button of Lena's jeans popped open with another deft pinch, Kara thrust a hand under the front of them as soon as her zipper had been pulled to the end of its track. It was there that Kara immediately withered into a loose-limbed mess on top of Lena when her fingers met the wetness that had gathered there.

Feeling Kara finally touch her like this again made Lena bite into her bottom lip hard to keep from coming undone so soon. Kara was swirling the tips of two fingers around her tight entrance when the hand currently fisted in the blonde's shirt pulled hard enough to rip the top two buttons away. Lena's hips canted upward in rolling motions every time Kara circled low enough that she thought she would dip inside of her, but the blonde kept her maddening, swirling rhythm constant.

"Yes… yes… yes—" The cadence in Lena's voice climbed each time she thought Kara would push inside. She brought her head forward and her lips onto the thick corded muscle covering the expanse of Kara's shoulder and neck where she kissed and lapped with her tongue for a moment, then she bit down with her teeth. A low, pleasured groan reverberated behind Kara's clenched jaw, and as if having been spurred into action, she shoved two fingers inside of Lena with a sudden force that rocked the raven-haired woman into the hay with a gentle bounce.

"God…" Kara moaned just before Lena caught her mouth with her lips again. The smaller woman was nodding her head fervently into their kiss when Kara backed her fingers out just to give them back to her again. Lena's hands soon went flying to the tops of Kara's jeans and grabbed hold of them by the belt, pulling her hips into her again. It trapped Kara's hand behind the front of her crotch and buried her fingers deep in Lena's cunt. Her impatience had been the beginning of her undoing.

"Fuck- stay like that, please…" Lena pleaded against Kara's lips. The blonde complied and held herself at a plank to let the woman beneath her push herself back and forth onto her fingers.

The way Lena was moving underneath Kara nearly made her heart stop. She had never seen anything undulate so beautifully. She stayed completely still for her like that while Lena rutted against her, lost to her passion. Then, Kara backed away and pulled out of her for a moment. Lena was about to whine for the loss of Kara's fingers when she felt her jeans being yanked downward around the curve of her ass, and again in one long pull off her legs entirely along with her panties. The blonde returned to lay prone above the green and blue eyed woman and gripped the underside of her perfect jaw, angling her face to look directly at her. Lena's bottom lip went back in between her teeth reactively. Being handled like that set every inch of her skin on fire.

"I want you to keep doin' that, but on my mouth." Kara's voice was deep and demanding. For all her outward timidness and somewhat bashful nature, Lena noted that Kara was also equal parts assertive and incredibly dominant behind closed doors. So much so that she felt absolutely compelled to do anything she said and trusted her completely.

Lena nodded as Kara began the slow descent down her body. Strong, determined hands traversed the insides of her thighs, squeezing lovingly here and there as the blonde smacked wet open-mouthed kisses closer and closer to her center. Then she felt hot, moving lips which ran up and slid a tongue into her folds. The feeling brought to life every single nerve ending on her body in one unified, jarring lurch of a spasm. It had been so long…

"Oh fuck—" Lena cried out, arching her back and raising her knees slightly. Every muscle wanted to coil in their middles as if shocked with electricity. Kara caught both of Lena's petite hands and put them each on the back of her head. When Lena felt two fingers push back inside of her, she drew in a large gasp that expanded the exquisite articulated bones of her ribcage and her eyes rolled hard back into her head behind fluttering lids. It took Lena several ragged breaths before she could command her limbs to move of their own accord again. Kara then took her free hand to the handle of Lena's hip and began to push her into her mouth, encouraging her to rock steadily onto her face.

The agonizingly slow rolls of Lena's hips set a blissful pace between them, and her chest began to heave and stutter as she drew nearer to the crest of her orgasm. A tight pressure deep inside of her suddenly broke when Kara hooked her fingers onto her G-spot, and after a few more well-timed pumps, Lena's legs became clamped tightly around the blonde's ears. Her cries echoed off the A-framed ceiling above them as she rode out each wave, and every time Kara's fingers drew out of her partly, a warm flood of wetness poured into her palm. Lena felt as if she was being pulled like a pump handle to a well as she flowed helplessly into Kara's hand with small spurts.

The glorious out-of-body, back-into-body, earth-shattering ecstasy that topped even her strongest orgasms eventually diminished to a liquid-limbed afterglow. Lena was absolute putty, a spreadable, boneless semi-solid worked into such a state by the panting woman between her legs. They had not yet tested the limits of Kara's lung capacity, but she knew that the muscled goddess that had just driven her nearly out of her mind had gone without a breath for the entire time that Lena was bent backwards and stolen away by her climax.

Lena's exhausted breaths rumbled into a deep chested laugh as she looked down at the mussed blonde hair below.

"Oh my God, Kara." She laughed again and brushed the hair from her eyes.

How am I ever going to fucking walk again…

The blonde wore a proud grin as she climbed upward to plant kisses at the corners of her mouth. Lena, still tingling at every inch of her body, darted her tongue out and ran it along Kara's chin to suck her bottom lip into her mouth, tasting the remnants of her release. She felt so much better… though she was sure they could have kissed like that until the sun came back around.

"I've missed you too." Kara husked her voice lowly into Lena's mouth. It nearly made her eyes roll into the back of her head again. She was spent, but that familiar radiating warmth returned to her belly in a flash. She squirmed into the blonde's solid body to comfort the feeling away for the time being and dripped a few more kisses down her neck. With a deep breath, she settled in Kara's arms and angled her head slightly to stare the other woman in the face.

"I think that was the loudest I've ever been… I wonder if the horses are worried." Lena joked.

Kara shrugged her shoulder animatedly. "Most of them are broodmares, so it's not like they're unfamiliar with certain sounds." Her wide grin returned, which sent the corners of her eyes upward in their own smile.

Lena gasped in jest and smacked her palm on the side of a dense bicep. "Kara Danvers, are you comparing me to a broodmare?" Kara merely chuckled and leaned to kiss her once on the cheek in response. Lena shook her head playfully at the blonde and then paused for a moment, darting her eyes in thought. "…Does that make you a stud?"

Kara's mouth dropped open to answer, but then tilted her head and furrowed her brow as if she were mulling the thought over considerably.

Lena barked out a small laugh at that and wrapped an arm around Kara's back to draw her closer. "I'm cold again. Let's go to bed."

Kara swiped her hand up and down one of Lena's arms to warm her for a moment and then sat up. "Alright darlin'."

The following morning Kara was out of bed with the rising of the sun. Lena had momentarily awoken with the movement of the mattress and noticed Kara's familiar low, happy humming. With her eyes still closed, she felt lips peck a small kiss at her temple and then heard the sound of feet padding their way to the bathroom where the shower head began running water soon after. Lena sighed happily.

There she is.