Chapter Seventeen: Serendipity Be Damned

The trunk of Alex's BMW shut with a loud and solid -thunk- as Kara helped her sister to lug the last of her suitcases into the house on Danvers Ranch. It had become apparent that the youngest Danvers woman was near to killing herself from exhaustion, what with their childhood home being is such a state of disrepair and not knowing when the hell to quit, so Lena—for the first and hopefully last time—saw fit to "put her foot down". Alex and Sam had offered to stay at the ranch while Kara and Lena took a much-needed trip back to New York. Lena was thrilled to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with Kara in the city and could only hope that the change in scenery would help to ease the blonde's anxiety. Since their spontaneous reconnection in the loft of the barn the previous weekend, her mood had elevated some… but it was when Lena witnessed the same sort of stress Kara exuded when faced with less forward momentum, as if she scrambled to do anything but sit still, that she concocted the plan for their quick get-away. Kara had agreed to go, so Lena made sure the short vacation from reality would be worth it.

Once on the plane, Kara spoke energetically about all the extra foot room that the first class section offered and gawked at the size of the seats. "Look, cupholders! And there's even enough room for my hat…"

Lena laughed openly at the blonde next to her. She couldn't wait to see how many heads would turn when Kara walked the streets of New York City in a Stetson.

Memories of those first few days almost a year and a half ago when Kara had her laughing like that for hours played like a broken record in her head. She dwelled there for a moment and then trained her eyes on the woman again who was still admiring the luxurious state of the forward section of the airplane gleefully.

How is it even possible to love someone this much…

It was the day before Christmas Eve when they landed in New York. By the afternoon the snow had picked up and Kara begged with the full use of her lower lip and upturned brow in the form of a pout to go out into the white abyss and visit Central Park. Lena witnessed the eager and joyful child that had apparently been lying dormant in the blonde for so long. It was so hard to say no to her. Then Lena thought for a moment, why would I even dare? This trip would be filled with the word "Yes", no matter what Kara asked of her. Central Park in the snow? Yes. Window shopping in Times Square? Yes. Potstickers for breakfast? Regrettably, and more than likely, yes. The excitable little girl inside of Kara had been buried away long ago for having to grow up too soon as the circumstances of her childhood had dictated, and Lena lamented in that quietly as she walked hand in hand with the woman she loved.

She found herself wishing for a way to give some of that innocence back somehow and hoped that not all of those moments inherent of an age where life was spent unencumbered by stress or obligation were lost to history. Lena was appreciating the wide-eyed expression that grew on Kara's face when she saw how much snow was on the ground as they made their way further into the park. It was stacked high and untouched in areas that were undisturbed by foot traffic, and Kara's inner-child suddenly exploded with a slew of high-pitched ramblings and giggles.

She needed this.

And just maybe, so did I…

After her fourth snow angel or so, Kara rose to her feet and dusted herself off. She stood there admiring her work and sat her hands upon her hips proudly. Lena couldn't be sure why, but she loved it when the other woman stood like that. Was it slightly authoritative and reminded her of how commanding the blonde could be when she wanted? Perhaps. Maybe it was the way that she made her hands into fists sometimes and sat them knuckle down against the tops of her hips. It was a stance to fit a multitude of feelings; pride, contentment, worry… For all intents and purposes, it seemed to be her signature pose and Lena regarded it as an absolute art form.

Kara was at her side soon after, red cheeked from the cold and sniffling. Her grin was wide enough to display those beautiful rows of teeth which were chattering together rapidly. "My gloves are wet." The blonde admitted with another sniffle.

Lena snapped out of her rose-colored haze and peered into crystal blue eyes. Against the powdery white backdrop of the landscape, Kara appeared so beautiful to her. The color of her irises popped vibrantly along with her golden ponytail of hair that emerged from under her beanie. Kara's Stetson unfortunately did little to protect her ears from the cold and the moisture from the falling snow was sure to disagree with its tan felt, which would run the risk of misshaping its well-worked form. "It's bad luck to disrespect your hat…" Kara had mentioned many moons before when teaching Lena proper Stetson etiquette. They were short and interesting lessons which the raven-haired woman would never forget, as it seemed that Texans were just as much of superstitious folks as Irish people were.

Finally, she shook her head in an effort to regain the command of her thoughts—or lack thereof—and then took Kara's hands in her own. Lena pulled the damp gloves off by their fingertips and rubbed the blonde's wonderfully calloused and beaten hands back and forth in her own to warm them.

"Keep them in your pockets now or you'll come down with a bad dose." She instructed Kara as she reached up to shift the collar of her heavy coat to sit closer to her neck. Lena adored that beat up denim Wrangler coat even more now that she had become a bit more intimately acquainted with it. She bit the corner of her lower lip into her teeth when she thought about the loft in the barn, and the hay…

"What if I just kept holding your hand instead?" Kara asked plainly.

Lena finished fussing over Kara's coat and smoothed her palms along the tops of her shoulders with a smile. "Well, you could just…" She trailed off as she took Kara's hands again and slowly wrapped them around her waist inside of her lengthy unbuttoned peacoat. Lena drew the taller woman into her space in what was most definitely considered a public display of affection. It was an intimate one at that, as they now stood but a single breath apart. Kara huffed a short chuckle into the cold air which rose into a dense cloud above them, which helped to assuage Lena's fear of having pushed the proverbial "envelope". It was the first time she had ever dared to make a move in public.

But to Lena's great relief, Kara seemed to be unfazed by it. Perhaps pleased, even. Quick, stolen kisses were quiet and usually went unnoticed by others, but this, a very obvious romantic embrace in full view of other pedestrians… was anything but quiet. Lena's heart thudded triumphantly beneath her ribs.

"I love you… so much." Kara said, waving her chin emphatically on the word "so". Her blue eyes narrowed when they looked at her just like they always did when Kara spoke from the heart. God, Lena wanted to cry tears of joy. For a moment she thought she might have let one or two escape but couldn't tell because of how cold her cheeks were in the subtle wind. It wrapped them in gentle gusts, busily pushing large snowflakes around them in a flurried, swirling vortex.

They stayed like that with their foreheads resting upon each other for a long while, even as other hand-tethered couples walked past them. Their shared warmth was a loving respite from the cold until they eventually decided to separate and head back to Lena's penthouse. Kara had gotten her fill of snow when she realized she already had her very own angel. Hers just happened to be warm and had a laugh that sounded like heaven.

"Lavender or chamomile?" Lena asked as she open and shut the cluttered cabinets of her large en suite bathroom. "Ah, well, looks like I can only find the lavender."

"Hmm?" Kara replied with her head leaned back against the lip of the enormous oval bathtub. The blonde soaked in its steaming water with her arms hanging over the sides, tired from overexerting herself during their walk. Her biceps flattened against the porcelain-finished cast iron, making them bulge and drip water over the edge onto the rug below. When Lena turned around and saw how relaxed she was, a flash of warmth swirled low in her belly and then plummeted even lower, making her cheeks undoubtedly flush a bright shade of pink.

Lena shook off her lustful daze with a momentary toss of her chin and crossed the tiled floor to sit on the edge of the clawfoot tub, adding the scented oil to the water. Kara had opened her eyes and was watching her swirl a hand into the water, breaking its calm surface with ripples that lapped at the blonde's chest.

The blonde had apparently noticed the small smile that dimpled the raven-haired woman's cheek. "Can I ask you some questions?" She asked quietly.

Lena merely tossed her brow upward with a sort of nonchalance. "Sure. What would you like to know?" She answered as she removed her hand from the water to dry it on the bottom hem of her robe.

"Alright. Well, first… Are you happy?" Kara asked as she shuffled her shoulders slightly to sit up against the cool edge of the basin.

Curious… Lena remarked inwardly at how the blonde had simply asked the question as plain as day, but she folded her hands into her lap and answered truthfully, "Very."

"Okay." Kara nodded. "Second question… Is that robe silk?"

Lena scanned her eyes downward at the length of her robe which was tied comfortably around her middle and paused. "Well… no, it's more of a blen—"

Kara suddenly took her by the hand and pulled Lena bottom first into the tub with her, sloshing waves of water and bubbles over the edge and onto the floor. The dark-haired woman squealed with her surprise and landed with her back squarely against Kara's chest. A lengthy gasp followed by an unrestrained guffaw once Lena realized she was submerged in the water with Kara had the blonde laughing raucously into her back.

"Kara, really…" She squealed when the blonde jabbed her fingertips into the small of her ribs. "I was going to probably get in with you anyways—!"

Kara ceased her gentle tickling and pulled the smaller woman closer by her hips. Lena then sat up slightly and slipped her soaked robe off and lobbed it out of the tub onto the tile with a wet sounding -plop-. Seemingly satisfied now, Kara looped her long arms around the raven-haired woman in front of her and leaned back with a content sigh. She hummed deeply, the sound of which vibrated against the back of Lena's ribs through the water. Two hands ran up and down her arms adoringly, coming to rest just around her shoulders. They laid there in the warmth of the lavender scented bathwater and simply held each other for a long while before Kara spoke again.

"Can I ask you something else?"

"I'm already in the tub, you moose." Lena replied jokingly.

Kara chuckled and then stilled again. She seemed to mull over her words a moment longer. "You don't really talk about where you came from much at all, and if you don't want to that's fine… but may I ask why?"

Kara's voice had been calm but dripped of concern. To Lena's ears, the question appeared to be attached to a subject that the blonde had thought long and hard about, but until now apparently had never sought to approach. It had suddenly become very clear to her that Kara's depth of patience could easily outpace her own, but she seemed to hold it beneath the surface with such ease… How? Lena hadn't even been aware that the other woman desired to know this part of her. But Kara loved her, why wouldn't she want to know?

Admittedly, Lena had spent almost a year and a half of receiving the hard to admit, dark, and painful pieces of Kara's past but had spent very little time reciprocating. Perhaps it was the fact that she merely wished to make herself a sounding board for the woman she fell in love with and wanted her to feel safe, without emptying any of her own traumas in return. It never seemed to be the right time to share her own experiences, not while Kara needed a place to allow her troubles to finally escape her.

"You may." Lena answered quietly, turning a bit in the water to lay her head just beneath Kara's chin. "I guess I just didn't know where to begin."

"I get that." Kara admitted.

What Lena said was true. After all, how does one include "So, my adoptive father is actually my biological father, birth mother is long since dead and half-brother is a megalomaniac currently in prison for war crimes where he'll likely die too" in conversation? Lena lifted her head and bobbed out of the water briefly to peck a kiss on Kara's lips affectionately.

"But I can try." The dark-haired woman replied with a sigh. "You already know some things, of course. Happy things. But in a nutshell, I lived in Belfast with my mother until she died. Then my father came to get me, and I moved with him to London where I met my brother." She paused for a moment and then continued, "I was ten."

Kara had known the woman's origins were somewhere in Ireland, as Lena had related fond memories of her mother and her childhood home to her on occasion during their almost year and a half of getting to know each other. Sweet stories of day-long adventures that were spent searching for will o' the wisps and other various folkloric creatures with her mother, as well as other precious bits and pieces which she had volunteered from her past over time.

"I missed my mother so much." Lena admitted. She felt herself grow incredibly vulnerable with putting words to the deep feeling of loss that had haunted her all her life, as if the words themselves somehow breathed life back into the day she was sat down and told her mother was never coming home. Just the act of verbalizing it made her feel slightly terrified and uncomfortable, but once she remembered where she was and who she was with, that fear dissipated almost as quickly as it had materialized. Besides, Kara wasn't exactly a stranger to losing a parent at such a young age. She had lost nearly her entire family in one day. Lena blinked her eyes shut hard several times and inhaled sharply through her nose to carry on. "…and I adored my brother beyond words, but he did terrible things back home that caught up with him, and he changed. For a time, I thought there was a small part of my brother still inside that angry and hateful shell of a person that looked like him and walked like him, and sometimes still talked like him… But that gentle and caring young boy was gone forever. What remained I had to let go of. After that, my life in England was… strained."

Lena ran her hand flat across the surface of the water deep in thought, dipping her fingers one at a time as if tickling the keys of a piano. "My stepmother pushed me relentlessly to hone my intellect, almost to the point where it broke me. I didn't want what she wanted for me. Once Lex was gone, all eyes were on me, and I was desperate to get away. So, when I was old enough, I left." She quirked her head with a smile then. "Then I met Sam, and my life here began."

Kara gathered the smaller woman tightly in her arms with a squeeze. "I'm glad you're here."

"An áit a bhuil do chroí is ann a thabharfas do chosa thú…" Lena recited with a happy lilt.

"What does that mean?"

Lena smiled. "It means I'm where I belong."

When Lena stirred on the morning of Christmas Eve, she felt a warm and heavy arm looped around her middle under the covers. She was sure that Kara was awake, because she had slept next to the woman for long enough to know her breathing patterns and the density of her body when it was at rest compared to when it was deep in slumber.

A small puff of exhaled breath upon the back of her neck made her squirm slightly, tickling the soft hairs at her nape. Kara radiated a reliable and familiar heat against her back from where she was pressed against her back. With a yawn, Lena stretched longways with her arms outward onto the mattress and when she did so, she felt a hand run down the ribbed end of her torso and lay flat against her stomach just over her navel, pulling her gently against the body behind her.

Some mornings in the very brief moments just after waking, their bodies moved together in that indescribable language that made words altogether unnecessary. It said absolutely everything that spoken language simply could not, and then some. Lena writhed a bit against Kara's front and when she heard the subtle intake of air through the blonde's nose, she tilted her hips and pushed her ass into her. She then felt the hand on her stomach pull at her more and a soft kiss land at the pulse point on her neck. Lena loved to stoke the fire between them, especially when they woke up besides each other. She turned her head as far as she could toward the woman behind her and parted her lips again to whisper into the air above them, "I love you."

A deep and unintelligible murmur floated past the sensitive skin behind her ear, raising stiff bumps onto the skin of her forearms. It didn't take long for Kara's hand to travel further downward and fill the bedroom with Lena's warbled cries that morning, which was by far the best way to start her day.

After taking their sweet time to remove themselves from Lena's bed, the pair decided to step into the city and shop for a while, stopping to snack here and there with salted pretzels and pizza slices well into the afternoon. Kara's metabolism kept her continuously engaged with the thought of food most of the time and had admitted to Lena on more than one occasion that eating was one of her favorite things to do while visiting New York. She wanted to try everything. She wanted to see everything. The big city was—as far as Kara was concerned—an entirely different world. One where she craved experiences instead of hiding from them. Although she was the coldest she had ever been, she was also the happiest.

As the evening drew near, they settled back in at Lena's top floor penthouse after their last stop in the city for supper, which was a cozy little Italian restaurant where Kara indulged in the best tasting handmade pasta she had ever eaten. The sleek gas log fireplace had been lit and completed a very cozy aesthetic when the lighting in the penthouse was dimmed. Lena sat with her legs across Kara's lap on the brown leather sofa as the flames danced out of the logs behind their glass case. On the table in front of them were two stone coasters, one holding a glass of white wine and the other a small tumbler of whiskey. The fireplace itself did little to offer actual heat and was meant to be more of a decorative appliance, as no amount of fire could truly warm such a large area with a ceiling that high. The penthouse was a modern marvel with heated air ducts high above them that were camouflaged behind large wooden beams and Kara had admired the rustic touch it possessed since the very first time she had stepped into the space, as it felt a bit like a home away from home.

They sat and talked more about Lena's past and of her birth mother specifically, to which the raven-haired woman openly shared more loving memories the longer they stayed there in front of the small burning fire. She painted a beautiful picture of her childhood for Kara, who was listening intently and was irrevocably drawn to the way the Lena's mouth moved whenever she spoke through a smile.

As they traversed different subjects of conversation, Lena laughed when Kara brought up the fact that she had never seen so much snow in her life… again. Frankly, she had lost count of how many times the blonde had made an excited remark about how powdery the snow was compared to what came out of the sky back home in the south, which she also admitted was rare to begin with. She described it in detail because it fascinated her so much, and Lena was merely content to sit and adore the joyful ramblings that came out the woman who was snuggled comfortably beside her.

"Have you never had a white Christmas?" Lena asked after a while.

Kara thought for a moment. "Maybe once when I was a kid? But it was nothing like this." She gestured emphatically out of one of the large panes of glass across from the seating area that looked out over the city.

The sky was dark now and the lights of the city dotted the landscape like luminescent pinpricks against a pale grey blanket. It was like the world was turned upside down here and instead of the stars being in the sky, they were down below. If Kara sat and stared long enough, they took on a life of their own. They moved forward and away, some flashed, some panned and moved sideways, and some rose while others fell. It was entertaining to say the least, to watch the illuminated life in the city happen in real time.

"Well—" Lena began to reply, scooting closer to lean against her. "Consider it just another Christmas gift."

"Wait- we are doing gifts, right?" Kara blurted.

Lena chuckled. "I did find a couple of things I wanted to get you, yes. I hope that's alright?"

Kara blew through her cheeks exhaustively. "That's more than alright because I got you some things too." She revealed, huffing a relieved laugh through her nose.

"But you'll have to wait until morning." Lena said playfully.

Kara stuck out her lower lip in a feigned pout, which only made Lena lean forward to steal a quick kiss from it. "You'll be fine."

"What about one for tonight? Please?" Kara asked. Her face took on that adorably scrunched shape that never failed to make Lena cave within seconds. The dark-haired woman pursed her lips thinly and narrowed her eyes with a teasing sort of squint. She then remembered the promise she made to herself when they arrived in New York.

Yes.

With a smile, Lena held the moment in suspense until it seemed as though the blonde was seconds away from spontaneously combusting. "Aye. G'wan, then."

"Yeah-?! Alright!" Kara said with a pump of her fist as she leapt off the sofa in a flash. "I'llberightbackhangon—" Her lightning fast rambling echoed across the floor of the penthouse when just a few moments later, she returned from the bedroom with her hands held behind her back. Kara then kneeled onto the plush rug in front of the fireplace at Lena's legs with a grin that reached from ear to ear.

Lena smiled when Kara finally brought her hands around. The blonde held out in front of her a small wooden horse about the size of one of her hands from fingertip to wrist. Lena hovered over the object in complete reverie when her jaw dropped open slightly.

"Kara… did you carve this?" She asked in amazement, taking the equine figure into her own hands to study it back and forth.

Her eyes instantly flashed back to the smattering of band-aids that had appeared on Kara's hands and fingers over the past few weeks. Lena had thought with how hard Kara worked the ranch recently that the small cuts and punctures had been the result of a number of different things like barbed-wire, or wood splinters… She finally pieced things together when she remembered a recent afternoon where she had walked into the stables to bring Kara a cup of tea and the blonde jumped to hide something in her lap. What she had chalked up to exhaustion jitters was really Kara secretly carving this tiny horse figurine for her. It was a priceless gift.

Kara merely nodded and kept her eyes trained on her reaction.

"Oh my God. It's amazing- it looks a lot like a…" Lena paused, almost absolutely certain of it but for whatever reason was unable to say the word.

"It's a Clydesdale." Kara finished.

Lena's mouth dropped the rest of the way open. True enough, the tapered ends of each leg were feathered in the style of a Clydesdale hoof. She was astonished with Kara's craftmanship, never having seen wood worked in such an intricate way at this scale. The figurine was beautifully carved with lines so detailed and smooth that she guessed it must have taken Kara a very long time to get them right. Or, perhaps since she knew the woman to have more skills than she knew what to do with most of the time, it might not have actually taken her that long at all. Lena's shoulders bounced with a laugh at the thought, which made the faint, crinkled lines that lived between Kara's eyes reappear.

"Would you have preferred a different one? I just figured since you've seen so much of the thoroughbreds back home you might like to look at somethin' else—"

Lena quickly interrupted the fumbling blonde by throwing herself from her cushion on the sofa and into her arms. She poured all of herself into a passionate and bruising kiss, which Kara accepted with just a small judder of surprise. Lena wasn't usually one to attribute happy coincidences to anything beyond serendipity, but it was as if the universe had spoken to her very molecules in a manner that said, and unequivocally so, this is where you should be. She trembled in a way that made Kara eager to grab and pull at her wantonly wherever her hands could lay claim to the smaller woman's body.

"I take it you like it?" Kara gasped when Lena finally tore herself away from her lips.

It was all Lena could do to nod up and down vigorously as her brain scrambled for words. Then she settled on just four of them.

"Take me to bed."

Kara immediately lumbered up onto her legs and stood with her hands cupped under Lena's ass to walk them into her bedroom. For the most part, Kara knew the full measure of her strength and had learned as time went by that she was quite capable of controlling herself and holding herself back when she felt it was appropriate, but the blonde decided that now was not one of those times. The signals Lena gave her as she bit, sucked and licked at her neck were ones that let Kara know she wanted to be handled roughly… and thoroughly. It was a hot and carnal desperation, and Kara knew exactly what to do with it.

With the precious figurine discarded on top of a nightstand, Kara placed Lena on her feet once more at the edge of the bed and set her jaw hard with a determined stare. "Where is it?"

Lena unfurled her shaky fists from Kara's sweater to point at the long closet at the far end of the room. "Left side dresser, top drawer."

Lena shook from head to toe under the influence of Kara's fast and jerky movements to disrobe her of every piece of her clothing. She dared not to step a toe out of the blonde's space or remove herself from the hands that pawed at her and turned her roughly by the hips to face the bed. Lena wanted to be dominated, bent over, and fucked into oblivion.

She moaned freely when she thought of getting exactly what she desired, and grinded her backside into the crotch of Kara's baggy sweatpants. An excited growl followed by a hand at the back of her neck pushed her forward and firmly into the mattress then. Lena's hands clawed wildly at the bedding, needing something, anything, to hold on to.

The force Kara used was a calculated amount of strength that was enough to excite Lena without disrespecting her body or her boundaries. Over the span of a year and a half the blonde had learned just how far she could push the other woman and even still, Lena would sometimes beg for more. When they were together like this, Kara would give, and Lena would take. It was as simple as that. No fear, no judgement, and only three taps to stop it in its tracks.

"Stay right there." Kara demanded with her hand still gripping the back of Lena's neck.

Lena replied with a shiver, "Yes, daddy."

She heard the blonde's footsteps pad softly away from her toward the closet, and then listened as the door sliding open on its track reached its end with a -thunk-. Lena bit her lip when she heard the following sounds of a dresser drawer opening, a pair of buckles clacking together, and the cinch of nylon straps. Her body vibrated into the top of the bed with excitement, and she could feel her heartbeat thrumming upward from the base of her throat.

It had been quite a while since this side of Kara had made an appearance, even before their recent reuniting in the stable loft, and Lena knew that what was about to take place would be intense. Her body would need a few minutes to acclimate at first, but she absolutely trusted Kara beyond a shred of a doubt to be mindful of that. After all, the blonde wasn't brutish and disrespectful of her just for the sake of being rough. She had a deep reverence for Lena's body, and it showed every single time that she touched her.

Suddenly, Kara's hands were on her hips again. Lena hadn't heard her cross the room from behind her and gasped audibly with her surprise. Her heart leapt again, thudding soundly against her chest. Lena wanted those hands everywhere, gripping her, pushing her, pulling her, choking her... But instead, the blonde placed one at the back of her head and then closed her fingers into a fist, gathering a handful of her beautiful and vivid black hair into it. Kara pulled then, and Lena followed. She walked her hands up the bed beneath her as the top half of her body was pressed against Kara's chest. The skin that met there was hot and soft in its embrace, with the firm length of the strap on below nestled perfectly between her trembling legs.

"Good girl." Kara whispered against the helix of her ear.

The blonde's grip on her was tight and the power she held over her made her feel faint, if only for a moment. Bright spots danced behind Lena's eyelids as she licked at the dryness of her lips. God, she wanted this. Lena whined as Kara swiped the silicone cock inside of her folds, lining it up with her entrance. It moved slick and swiftly against her for a few seconds and then paused with its rounded tip just barely dipping inside of her.

"Is this mine?" Kara spoke into the side of her face with another downward tug of her hair. The blonde jostled the strap on possessively at the edge of her cunt with the question, making Lena nearly slip over the edge and fall apart right there on the spot.

Lena's bottom lip popped loose from between her teeth as she moaned loudly. Her hips wanted to lunge backward onto Kara badly, but she wanted even more for Kara to be the one to take her. This level of control the blonde had over her drove her crazy and keeping herself restrained and complicit without just letting her body take over was proving more and more difficult as the seconds passed.

"Y- yes, it's yours- It's always been yours…" Her voice broke repeatedly as the tightness of her throat grew the more Kara pulled at her hair. It didn't cause her any pain; It was the strength behind it that was slowly driving her mad.

"Fuck me, please—"

"Please what?" Kara interrupted.

Lena struggled to swallow for how dry her throat was, nearly making herself choke. "Please daddy…"

Kara released her hold of the back of Lena's head, allowing her to finally drag in a stuttered gasp now that her neck was no longer inclined at such a strained angle. No sooner had her lungs filled with air than Kara carefully pushed inside of her to the hilt. Lena clutched at the rigid forearm wrapped around the front of her ribs, digging her fingertips in deeply which left small half-moon shaped nail marks. A pleased whimper rang out into the bedroom. Her jaw clenched tightly as Kara stilled inside of her, allowing her to settle for a moment and then slowly relax. One roll of her hips was all it took to make her toes curl into the carpet.

Fuck… make me come undone.

"Grab those pillows and hand me one, please." Kara said behind her.

Lena obeyed and reached toward the headboard of the bed to grab at two pillows, placing one in front of herself and handing the other to Kara.

"Put your face down."

Again, she did as she was told and felt Kara's hand smooth its way down her spine as she was bent forward over the edge of the bed again. She shuddered in anticipation when she realized the blonde was making good on the played-out scenario they shared over the phone while she was in China some months ago. Lena mumbled incoherently, almost drunk with how turned on she felt.

"Up on your tip toes now, darlin'."

Lena mewled eagerly, pushing herself backward onto Kara again. The blonde allowed her to fuck herself for maybe five full seconds before she caught her by the hip bones on a forward stroke, stopping her movements entirely. Kara suddenly brought the palm of her hand down onto her ass just hard enough to emit a sharp -smack-, making Lena suck in a startled gasp.

"I said up on your toes." Kara repeated firmly.

Lena moaned lewdly and found her words this time. "Yes, daddy."

The raven-haired woman lifted her herself using the balls of her feet on the floor and then onto her toes as Kara slid her pillow underneath her stomach. This adjusted height proved to offer a much better angle once Kara pushed back inside of her. Lena cried out gloriously and shoved her face into the pillow beneath her head to bite down.

Kara fucked her over the edge of the bed like that for a short while, keeping Lena pressed down by her shoulders or her lower back to stop her from squirming too much below her. It didn't take long for the smaller woman's muffled cries to be heard from the middle of her pillow. Kara rocked into her roughly once more, then bent over slightly to shove a hand past and started rounding Lena's clit with a thumb and forefinger.

Lena's face resurfaced and whimpered in a sweet crescendo each time she was rocked forward from the force behind her. Soon the space around them filled with a cacophony of sputtered "right theres" and "don't stops" as Lena's natural mezzo-soprano register produced a rich and full-bodied loop of outcries. It was a heavenly symphony to the blonde's ears. Lena felt Kara's warm breath against the base of her neck then, along with the feminine groans and grunts behind each exerted arch of the blonde's back. That tightly coiled pressure deep inside of her begged to break the surface as Kara drove her further toward madness. Soon it sprang upon her like tidal wave, buckling her knees and gripping the bedclothes for dear life.

"Oh God Kara, I'm gonna cum... I'm gonna—" The end of her sentence cut off into its open vowel sound with a hiked cadence as that blessed coil low in her belly finally snapped.

It wasn't often that Kara didn't orgasm with her. Over a year ago when the blonde had admitted that just the sound of her voice was enough, Lena had at first been doubtful, but as time progressed… this remained to be a true statement. Kara shook against her back with its subtle but undeniable proof.

Once the blonde caught her breath and the feeling in her limbs returned, she planted soft kisses into the hair of the woman who laid panting beneath her. She rose up higher then and locked her elbows to stare down at the stunning flushed porcelain skin below. Every time Lena drew a breath in, her shoulder blades separated and came back together when she exhaled. The backs of her ribs pushed against her skin in the same manner, expanding and contracting in synchronous beauty. They worked together in time as a gorgeous, finely tuned mechanism of bone and flesh that housed the heart of the person she loved most in the world.

Kara pecked kisses down each protruding vertebrae of Lena's spine and slowly backed out of the still slightly trembling woman as she reached lumbars three, four and five. She then stepped to the side and fell back onto the bed beside her, flopping her arms above her head tiredly. Lena decided to lift herself up onto her elbows and turn her face to the woman lying next to her with a satisfied grin.

"Don't be too proud just yet, I'm going to need you to do that at least three more times. So, saddle up." Lena teased blithely with a few playful pats of her hand atop of Kara's abdominal muscles.

Each of those abs shifted together solidly when the blonde laughed out loud. "Giving orders now, are we?" Kara joked, still slightly out of breath.

Lena stood up then with a slight wobble and walked toward the chaise lounge surrounded by its accompanying mess of books. An enthusiastic swaying of her hips captured Kara's attention immediately, making her completely forget how to breathe for a split-second. Then Lena sat, crossing a slender leg over a knee and hooked her finger mischievously in Kara's direction.

"Correct. Now come here please." The dark-haired woman replied coolly.

Kara's eyes widened, suddenly thrilled. "Yes ma'am."

For once, the pair enjoyed the rare occasion of sleeping late into the morning with no alarms, ringing phones, or other rude awakenings of any kind. When Kara did wake, she stretched her arms and grimaced with her realization of just how sore she was. Her muscles often stayed in a static state of soreness due to the nature of her work either at the repair shop or on the ranch… The latter of which had been her main focus these past few months. There had been much work to do, so being tired or sore wasn't altogether new for her… but the way her body felt right now? Oh boy.

Lena roused not long after, feeling much of the same. Kara eventually turned on her shoulder and swept a few lengths of dark hair out of Lena's face, looping them around one of her lovely, pierced ears.

"Merry Christmas." Kara whispered, kissing Lena just at the corner of her mouth.

"Hm." Lena hummed quietly as the blonde showered her with affection. She replied with her eyes still closed, "Merry Christmas, mo ghrá."

A sleepy hand wafted clumsily into the air in search of Kara's face and landed softly at her jaw. Their lips met with a sigh as Lena shifted closer beneath the covers.

"Presents?" Kara asked, the inflection in her breathy voice begging the question.

Lena muffled a giggle behind her lips. "Yes." She sighed again, finally opening her eyes to meet the blue ones just beyond the tip of her nose. "But in a little while. You are the only gift I want right now. Just hold me?"

Kara's heart swelled with the request, and she obliged the smaller woman, resting an arm around her middle with every intention to lay there a while longer in complete and blissful stillness.

"A while longer" turned into another hour or so of slumber, and when the two awoke again they were better rested and at last amenable to climbing out of bed for the day. They presented each other with the few gifts between them that they had successfully managed to hide from one another. One of Lena's gifts ended up with Kara in tears due to its attached sentiment; She had given her a horseshoe. Though, it wasn't just any old manky horseshoe. It had been polished and engraved with the words céad míle fáilte, and when translated from its original Gaeilge meant "A hundred thousand welcomes". Lena explained that it was customary for an upturned horseshoe to adorn the threshold of a home to ward off evil and also to offer a wellspring of good luck to its inhabitants. It could also be buried with a new building's cornerstone for the same purposes. The few tears that had run rogue from Kara's eyes came when she was told that it was one of Ducky's discarded shoes, and that Lena had secreted it in her luggage away from the ranch during one of her trips back home to New York.

When Kara produced her last gift, she had insisted that Lena shut her eyes and hold her palms out, where she then placed a shallow, square shaped box. Once Kara instructed that she could open her eyes again, Lena could plainly see that it was box for a necklace. It was when she opened it that her pulse quickened at the sight. The beautiful, vivid aquamarine topaz stared up at her from its sterling silver teardrop setting. Lena's breath hitched in her throat as she pulled it free of the silk lined box by its chain length and was perfectly mesmerized by the gemstone.

"Do you like it?" The blonde asked after a moment.

"Kara, it's beautiful." Lena answered, her eyes flitting back to her and being struck a second time by the realization that the color of the other woman's eyes nearly matched the clear blue of the gem. They both sparkled at her magnificently.

Kara joyfully detailed the interesting history of the blue topaz, for it was known to be the Texas official state gemstone and represented loyalty, as well as true love. The blonde had thought it was the perfect gift and was an unmistakable show of her love. She happily fastened the chain around Lena's neck and the gem trickled down to sit in the small dip between her clavicles.

Never had Kara spent a more perfect Christmas.

For the next few days, the pair were ultimately snowed in, which was yet another first for Kara. Normally, she may have objected to being stuck inside of a place with no means of leaving it for days at a time, but there were far more reasons to stay and enjoy her surroundings than to leave and brave what wintery cataclysm awaited outside. Basically, Lena was warm, and the outside was cold. Her sun-soaked Texan bones simply were not made for temperatures so low, and it was because of this that there were zero complaints to be heard. Instead, she spent more of her time becoming better acquainted with Lena's kitchen and her many stacks of books.

Lena read aloud to her on occasion but usually resolved to reading in comfortable silence on her own after noticing she all but put the blonde to sleep each time. Was it her current taste in literature? A history of theoretical physics perhaps wasn't the most entertaining of subjects for anyone with less than a genius level IQ, she supposed. But that certainly didn't persuade her to think of Kara as dull, as there were plenty of mechanical engineering scenarios back at the ranch where Lena found herself quite out of her depth. The books that did however capture the blonde's attention were her collection of queer romance novels, since any time she recited excerpts from her favorites the two of them usually ended up in bed, or on the sofa, or a rug… or countertop. In fact, there weren't many level surfaces left in the penthouse where they had not strewn their bodies across, mangled together in their euphoric sexual ether. Besides, what else does one do when snowed in and in love?

As the days continued and a brief lull in snowfall allowed the city streets to once again be trodden with life, the pair exited the tall building on the eve of the new year to stroll around Times Square. Kara was thrilled to finally don her Stetson, which indeed drew the eyes of many a New Yorker. The skies had been grey and overcast for most of that week, but as providence would have it, the moment they stepped back out into the world was when the sun decided to appear again. Only for a few moments did it pierce through the dismal sheet of leaden clouds, but when it did, it shone directly on the side of Kara's face, illuminating her in a spotlight as if the woman herself had called it down from the heavens. Lena would never cease to be amazed with the fact that Kara could speak to the sun.

Once the light from the sky faded and more people gathered, they chose a spot where the ball suspended above Times Square could be seen from a distance and huddled together in their warmth. Night grew near and the streets began to crowd with spectators for the New Year's Eve celebration. The two were surrounded by music, bright billboards, and more people than Kara had probably ever been around at a single time in her life, but for all of the noise and all of the chaos… Kara's eyes set determinedly toward the woman to her front and took her hands into her own. Despite how many people were in such close proximity to them, Kara paid them absolutely no mind. The cheering from the street around them rose as the numbers high in the sky began to count down closer to zero, and Kara leaned into Lena's space to speak clearly into her ear.

Eight
Seven
Six

"I just want you to know that you mean the world to me."

Three

"I love you."

Two

"And I will never leave you."

One

When she kissed her, she let go of every little bit of what still tethered her to the fear of having to hide who she was, or who she loved. Kara was free.

As the shouts of "Happy New Year!" rang out into the cold night air, Lena let herself be kissed like she had never been kissed before and thanked whatever higher power saw fit to leave her stranded in that tiny town in the middle of nowhere all that time ago. Somewhere in all of the noise, she listened to that unmistakable confirmation once again at the back of her mind.

You are exactly where you should be.

Serendipity be damned, this felt like destiny.