WHAT: Kara and Lena discuss their future together after a gift from their future kids WHERE: L-Corp, Lena's office WHEN: Backdated to a few days after the end of the future plot WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Complete ART CREDIT:Here!
It was a good feeling, knowing that they had been able to make a difference, to help shift the lives of their counterparts ten years down in a better direction. Kara had seen some miserable worlds in her time – Earth X still lived in hear mind rent-free a bit more often than she’d like to admit – but this was something different. Knowing that the future version of her was very much her, as she was now but older – it was difficult to process. There wasn’t the degree of distance there was with Overgirl, with Red Daughter. It felt so much more personal, and the sense of urgency permeated through her completely.
She’d seen Lena’s conversation with her future self, too. Despite the filter, it had been easy to read in Alex’s old journal. She hadn’t intruded, hadn’t so much as mentioned it to Lena yet. It didn’t feel right. But knowing what the future held for them, knowing that Lena wasn’t sure even if the good parts would still come to be, it was a tough pill to swallow, and it wasn’t one she wanted to think about too hard.
She had promised to wait, and she would wait. She had time. But it didn’t stop her from yearning for a life that was somehow just out of her reach.
Lunch with Catra at Con Artist had come with a surprise – two torn out parchment pages from the journals with drawings on them. Theo and Lori, Catra told her. Lorelei, her daughter with Lena. Her future self had never revealed their names, but now she knew the Rubik’s Cube artist was Theo, and Lori was responsible for the crayon portrait of Supergirl, cape flowing behind her under a gigantic, smiling sunshine.
She folded them up carefully to take them home with her later.
Well, not home. L-Corp.
It had been home for the last few weeks, though. Lena had been absolutely insistent after the time travelers left that Kara come stay with her in the penthouse; there was a guest bedroom that had started to slowly become her own, but she was careful to keep it perfectly clean, ready to be left at any time. She never wanted Lena to feel like she was pushing, being in her space too much. But it had been a few days since everyone had returned, and she hadn’t sent her packing yet. She was going to milk that just a little bit longer.
She was still working at L-Corp; that kept her busy for most of the afternoon after her lunch. She and Lena intersected on work projects occasionally, but Kara still handled most of the day-to-day operations while Lena had taken on the bigger picture goals. It worked well for them, especially without the additional worries of their lives going down what had to be the worst possible pathway.
It was just before five when she left her office for Lena’s, offering a goodbye to Lena’s assistant as she got ready to leave for the night before she tapped on the door. She didn’t wait to be summoned before stepping inside, closing the door carefully behind her.
“Hey, boss.” She clutched a manila folder on one hand, with a leasing contract inside for Lena to sign and the kids’ drawings carefully smoothed out and stashed underneath the pile of printouts. She smiled as she settled into one of the comfortable chairs across the desk. “I’ve got one more thing for you, then I believe you owe me a TV night.”
Lena tried not to think about the future much. Not that what happened in the past several weeks wasn’t important – it was. They set the course of this timeline towards a brighter one once the problem introduced itself right to their faces, and that’s all they could do. Handle the problem as is. The guarantee of it, however –
That’s what she didn’t trust. She knew better. Timelines shifted. There were too many moving variables that caused ripple effects that shaped events differently, altering people’s lives. Things simply changed. She wasn’t Lex; she had no desire to play God to keep things working in her favor, and all she could do was work in the present to help prevent it all from twisting into that direction.
So she tried not to think about the future, or who she had become, or who she was with or had. But the keyword in all that was tried, and as much as she liked to compartmentalize and box pesky thoughts away – Lena Luthor was failing horribly. That was why she was clicking mindlessly at tabloid nonsense when Kara came in, her presence unsurprising but pleasant, like warmth had suddenly wafted through an office that was a notorious icebox.
“Mmm,” she hummed, making herself look deceptively busy despite the fact that she was scrolling through a list of Best Dressed when it came to some Vallo awards ceremony. “What would that be, Ms. Danvers?”
“Lease for a new start-up moving into the eighth floor,” Kara announced, sliding the folder across the desk to rest beside Lena’s hand as she clicked away on her computer. “They’re a brother-sister duo starting a lifestyle website. Background checks came up clean. They’re coming in tomorrow to sign their end if you’d like to meet them yourself, but they’re good people.”
Something about Lena’s posture had her raising an eyebrow. She knew what Lena looked like busy and at work, the way her heart sounded, the way she breathed – which was, admittedly, a tad creepy from an outside perspective. But the point was there was a shift, something forcibly calm about her that gave off the impression she wasn’t really that calm.
“How was your day?” she questioned, crossing her legs and folding her hands in her lap, genuine curiosity painting her expression.
Lena felt a sting of guilt. She really ought to not be doing–this. Her signature coping mechanism for, well, quite literally everything was to dive so deeply into her workaholic tendencies to the point where she’d convince herself that the science behind micro-naps was effective and sound, therefore were eight hours of sleep truly necessary a healthy lifestyle? That was clearly when sleep deprivation crossed into delusion.
And here was Kara, a shining beacon of actual production and not a slave to trashy clickbait. This wasn’t rock bottom – but it sort of felt like it.
“I have…” She sighed, digging her teeth into her bottom lip, and opted for transparency by turning her monitor to face her. Kara wouldn’t shame her. Gods knew she might actually be amused by the fact that Lena Luthor was looking at red-carpet fashion with a gratuitous amount of side-boob cleavage during peak work hours. “Done absolutely nothing. My brain gave up today. I didn’t even try.”
Kara took a few seconds to absorb what was on Lena’s screen before she started to smile softly, raising her gaze to Lena’s. It wasn’t like Lena to distract herself this way, but there was nothing wrong with it. They had been through the wringer, even on their admittedly less horrific side of the equation, and her brain could probably stand to rest.
“Lena Luthor, falling into a who-wore-it-best pit? You really are one of the people,” she teased her best friend, reaching out to take her hand and give it a quick squeeze. “I think you’ve earned a brain-off day. You should have just gone upstairs and relaxed, sweetheart.”
“I did,” Lena admitted, the smile she flashed was small but guilty. In a funny way, really. She told herself it was fine, and she often worked from home so it would–balance out? It should put her at ease, except the thought was also a bit miserable.
That hand squeeze, though.
Paired with that pet name.
She didn’t let go, not right away. Lena squeezed her back and held on. “Thank you,” she chuckled, rubbing her brow with the back of her other hand, “for picking up my slack. I owe you more than just television.”
Kara brushed her thumb across Lena’s knuckles in her grasp, happy to let her hold on as long as she wanted. The position was a bit awkward, hands joined across the desk, but she would make it work. She could tell Lena needed it, and she had promised to give her whatever she needed after all they’d been through.
“You never have to thank me,” she chuckled. “I’ve had a lot of practice keeping things running smoothly. I don’t mind lifting some weight off your shoulders. You deserve it.”
It was good to hear Lena had taken some time for herself, and as far as Kara was concerned, it wasn’t something to feel guilty about. She knew the workaholic tendencies didn’t make that the easiest thing to accept, but she would make a point to encourage it. Rest was warranted even without the added complications of what they’d dealt with lately.
As nice as the handholding was, she had to let go – eventually. Kara had brought papers for her to provide a signature and she should at least summon the willpower to accomplish that task. Then they could call it a night.
So Lena let her go, flipped open the folder and grabbed a pen (that most likely cost more than it should) to put to work. Perhaps it was a bit irresponsible to not read through the documents but, really, it was Kara, the embodiment of trustworthiness. It was a fairly quick ordeal, until –
“Ahhh…?” Lena cocked her head to the side, finding papers that were distinctly not documents. Pages from one of those journals with art that clearly belonged to children. Her brain might have short-circuited, the cells trying to rub together in effort to gauge just exactly what she was looking at. “Kara, what’s–?”
Oh.
Yes.
Lena knew what she was looking at now. There were two.
Kara had been waiting for this moment; it was part of why she’d gently pushed Lena to sign the paperwork, knowing what she’d find beneath. It was the most organic way she could think to introduce the subject without the potential of being shut down. Maybe it was a little sneaky, which definitely wasn’t her style, but it was effective in this situation.
“Catra gave them to me,” she explained with a sheepish little smile. “The kids drew them for her during the big battle. She thought we might like to have them.”
She studied Lena for a moment, trying to assess her reaction before she went any further. She didn’t seem upset, but Kara was perceptive enough to realize this was a lot to drop on her.
Lena wasn’t sure how to feel about this.
To say she wouldn’t be receptive in regards to things involving those, ah, future kids wasn’t entirely true – but there was a distance she preferred to keep between her and them, yes. She tried not to let guilt swallow her. Those children had their mothers, and Lena was just a version of one of them. To call them hers felt like a misstep of some kind of boundary.
She allowed herself to fall into this false sense of security that she had an established future in Vallo before, and surely that timeline existed in one of this world’s many possible routes – but it wasn’t hers, and she had no reason to believe that this one would be hers, either.
Still, she wasn’t… going to react coldly about this. “They’re nice,” was what she managed to come up with at first. The response was sincere but it didn’t feel like enough. Lena cleared the discomfort from her throat and picked up the pages. One in each hand. “No autographs on their work, though? You–Future You–wouldn’t give me their names.”
Kara nodded; she knew that. She wasn’t entirely sure what her future self’s reasoning had been, but she’d seemed afraid too much information would put the life she had at risk. Kara could understand that. The time-space continuum, the multiverse – all of it was so complex and so fragile. There was no saying that one misstep wouldn’t cause an irreversible change.
Seeing Lena admit she wasn’t sure that life would happen for them here probably hadn’t helped matters either. She could see it making her both scared and protective, not wanting to give away any more ammo to have her family willed away.
“The only one who signed theirs was Finn, apparently,” she relayed. Catra had shown her that one, too, signed in big block letters on the corner of a family photo the little kitten had drawn. “But she told me their names, if you really want to know.”
Lena could see the age difference in the skill of the art. It was precious. She – they – would keep these. A lego set that Theo had put together was protected in a display case in her bedroom from the first time she experienced a slip of time here, and she couldn’t fathom not preserving these too.
“I don’t see the harm in it,” she said, lifting her eyes from the pictures to give Kara a wary smile. “I’ve known about a possible child before, and it seems only fair that I know about these, too. No matter what happens.”
Kara smiled softly. She couldn’t refuse Lena anything even if it might be the wiser course of action. They had no idea how this would affect the future, but she’d been around long enough to have heard about the timeslip instances she’d missed the past two years. It was more likely than not that the future would shift as it saw fit with or without their awareness.
“Theo,” she said, tapping the top of the Rubik’s Cube drawing. “And Lori. Lorelei.” Her hand shifted to the mini crayon portrait of Supergirl, fondness clear in her eyes.
Lena blinked, her eyes rounding in surprise. Surely she didn’t – “Theo?” she asked incredulously, staring back down at the drawing said to be his and she must have been an idiot in denial to not have even thought it was a possibility.
Theo. Theo was still there, and now Theo had a little sister.
“I didn’t even fathom that it could – that he’d still be someone to have,” she admitted, feeling a bit stupid about it. Theo was an adoption. Alex not being around didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t exist.
Should she even look for him here?
Kara knew about Theo. There hadn’t been any secrets kept when Lena arrived, and they got to talking. It had felt a little weird at the time, having to get to know this part of Lena that she hadn’t been there to witness, to experience, but she had absorbed as much as she could. Lena had kept more intimate details of her relationship with Alex to herself, of course, but Kara knew about the timeslip. She knew about the two of them ending up with a future version of an adopted son, and the way it had propelled their relationship forward.
She was happy for Lena that, despite Alex’s absence, there was some consistency still there. Kara hoped her future self was a good parent in Alex’s absence, that she still told both their kids all about her sister, even if she wasn’t there. She liked to think that was the case – between her and Lena, Adora and Catra, there would never be an absence of Alex stories, even if she never returned.
“Do you think…” She hesitated a moment, considering the best way to word this. “Do you still want that? To find him?”
Lena opened her mouth, and yet she was floundering for words. For a response. Everything in her selfishly screamed yes, she wanted to find him – because when she realized she had lost Alex here, she mourned that future. Part of her still did. She learned to work around it, and live with it, and move forward. But the thought of finding him on her own hadn’t dared cross her mind.
Until now.
“I don’t even – I don’t know if I’m ready to be a parent, to be anyone’s parent,” she admitted, leaning back into her chair. Really, though, perhaps she was underestimating herself. She had resources. She had time; she just had to force herself to take it. Emotionally, however – that was the question. “I already disappeared from this place once before, and I’d have to see what happens if a second time occurs and I have him, and…”
She trailed off, thinking.
“How do you feel about it?”
Kara’s input was important. Theo may have been hers and Alex’s once upon another Vallo timeline, but in another one he had become Kara’s. Taking her into consideration was important, even if what they had between them hadn’t progressed beyond best friends.
Best friends clearly in love with each other, but still just best friends.
“About being a parent to Theo?” Kara questioned, brows raised. She smiled, eyes falling back to the careful Rubik’s cube drawing resting on Lena’s desk. The lines were so precise, so purposeful – just this picture laid out a pretty clear image of the little boy they were talking about. “I feel like I would love that. I know it isn’t exactly how you might have envisioned it, but it would mean the world to me to… be involved. To be another parent, if you want me to be.”
It was still a tricky situation, knowing what Lena was getting now and what she’d imagined getting before were skewed. Everything between them right now was tangled in a way she understood but wasn’t fond of. But she was doing her best to exercise her patience and let Lena take the lead.
“Being a parent in general, with you?” Her smile softened just a bit, eyes raising to find Lena’s again. “I want that, someday. Whenever that day is, for you. I know we… aren’t in the place you might imagine us being for something like that.”
Picturing a relationship with Kara wasn’t anything new – she thought about it before Vallo. Before Alex’s wedding. Before Lex dropped the bomb about her identity. Picturing what things could lead beyond just getting to that point was blurred. Daring to want anything more, a legitimate future with her, was something Lena had tread cautiously about.
The glimpse she caught through written words had been heartbreaking. Kara from the future wrote to her so willingly, and so lovingly. They had something good in a future that had gotten so bleak before –
Well, she imagined they were reunited now. Lena had hopes for them.
“I want it,” she admitted quietly, twisting the pen between her fingers. “I do. But I… know nothing’s certain. I know things can change. I’m–terrified of it changing again, Kara. And you’re right, we aren’t in an ideal situation.”
They haven’t even had a chance to figure things out for themselves. Tossing in the possibility of parenthood in the near future could complicate it.
“I… want to find a way to get to it, though.”
Kara had been good so far. Sure, she’d reached out to hold Lena’s hand for a few moments, but she’d stayed on her side of the desk, letting Lena process without crowding her. The temptation to close that distance now, though – it was much stronger. She didn’t want an obstruction between them anymore.
But she reeled that urge in. Patience. Lena admitting she wanted that was a big step in and of itself. That didn’t mean she needed to push things any further along, no matter how much she might want to greet that revelation with a kiss.
“I never want to push you,” she said, her tone quiet but earnest. “I’ll wait however long you need, but I want that, too. You know I do. Just keep telling me what you need, and we’ll get there.”
Kara wasn’t the only one having issues with this desk between them. It was why she rose from her seat, and why she circled around it – just to perch herself on the edge, legs crossed, hands resting safely on her lap. There was no scandalous kiss shared between them that would rob the air out of their lungs, but she very much wanted to begin eliminating the space between them.
Physically, and emotionally.
“I want to look into having Theo,” she decided, squaring her shoulders. “I will look into it. But first.” Her foot nudged her shin. “I’d like to take you out on a date, officially. Something more than just staying in and ordering out.”
Kara broke out into a grin immediately. “Yeah?” She was a little surprised. She hadn’t expected this conversation to take that kind of turn, much as she may have hoped. “I’d really, really love that, Lena.”
She was tempted to question, to double check – this was a shift, and she wanted to be sure Lena wouldn’t regret it. But she knew that look in her eyes, the way she was holding herself, shoulders strong. Lena Luthor wasn’t the type of person to say something she didn’t mean.
Yeah. Yes. Lena was sure. A part of her was waiting for some kind of revelation–some sign that told her when the perfect time would arrive, but that was a fable. She wasn’t a fan of this self-imposed limbo. It had been necessary; a chance to take it slow, to think, to sort out feelings and grieve a relationship that didn’t end mutually.
But she had to move on at some point, didn’t she?
There was an ache in her throat that usually implied some kind of sadness–but she wasn’t sad. It was a good ache, although she lacked the eloquence to explain why. “Thank you, for…” Lena dug her teeth into her lip, shrugging a little. “Waiting, I suppose. I know things haven’t been conventional, in any way. And I know nothing’s guaranteed for us, but aside from the evil overlord and dystopian aspects…” A hand gestured vaguely into the air before folding her arms over her chest. “But I liked the way our life sounded when you wrote to me about it.”
“You have nothing to thank me for, Lena,” Kara assured her gently, reaching forward and giving her knee a brief, affectionate squeeze. It hadn’t been a burden to wait, especially not knowing these circumstances. Of course it had ached a little, wanting to move forward so badly, knowing her feelings were very mutual, but time was necessary.
Even now, if Lena asked for more time, she’d give it to her without question. Vallo was a strange place, and it had taken something from Lena that she’d expected to have for much longer. But selfishly, she was glad she was taking a step forward instead.
“I hope we’ve averted the dystopian part of the future,” she went on, “but I’ll take any future I can get with you in it.” She hesitated for just a moment before her expression turned a bit sheepish, and she admitted, “I read your conversation with her. The filter was broad enough to include me. It did… You’re right. It sounded good.”
Lena blinked. “You read–”
Huh.
No, she wasn’t upset – there wasn’t anything in her posture or face that would imply that. Surprised, yes, but she didn’t particularly view it as eavesdropping. It was Kara no matter what angle she looked at it (and it was entirely possible that she was looking at it through a lens of bias because it was Kara, although she didn’t particularly care). Their exchanges in writing had been emotional, and she knew it had been cathartic for that version of Kara to talk to her while she wasn’t controlled.
But there was a lot she held back from saying due to their present circumstance.
She slipped off the desk to hover over her, cupping her face with her hands. Lena studied her – and she wished she could study all all of her like she’d done the night of Alex’s wedding, taking in every detail when it was there and bare for her to drink, but her face was perfect enough to sate her.
“You know I love you,” Lena stated. They had said it to one another on Valentine’s day, and that confession should have been followed with a more celebratory night but it had been complicated, and she was tired of it feeling complicated when she didn’t need to. “I want to be able to say that to you whenever I want, wherever I want. So I’m going to. Because if I keep holding back, and then you’re gone from me tomorrow – my biggest regret is wasting all that time when I should have been spending it with you the way I wanted to.”
Kara hadn’t been quite sure of what reaction she’d get from that reveal. A few different scenarios went through her mind, including the very real possibility that Lena would feel she’d violated her trust. It was small, something insignificant in the scheme of things, but she had tried very hard to prove she wouldn’t do that to Lena anymore. It didn’t matter that the snooping hadn’t been intentional; it hadn’t been a conversation she was meant to see (at least, not then), but she had, and given their history, it could be received badly.
The reaction she got was more along the lines of what she’d hoped for.
She leaned into Lena’s hand against her cheek, looking up at her and studying her just as intently as she was being studied. She was relieved to see the lack of upset wasn’t just an act, as far as she could tell – Lena looked truly unbothered, if a little surprised. She liked to think she’d learned from their trying months apart and could see beneath even Lena Luthor’s most dedicated facade these days.
“Well,” she said softly, looping an arm around Lena’s waist and gently tugging her closer. She gazed up at her, thumbs grazing along her hips. “I love you, too. So much. I don’t think it was a waste if it gave you time to process, you know that. But I’m selfish enough to take that offer if you’re really ready for it.”
Lena allowed herself to be drawn closer, pushing her fingers into her hair to muss it up a little. It was the end of the day – neither of them were required to look proper and professional right now, and she had the need to touch Kara. Intimately, but innocently. Less than chaste intentions were always brewing when it came to Supergirl, that wasn’t some hidden secret, but she just wanted to… touch. To feel.
“I am,” she chuckled, stroking her hand towards the base of her neck. “I’m not one for tradition but I also want to do some basic courting protocols here – in basic terms, ‘wining and dining.’ Spoiling. Dates. I know there’s still… a lot to consider.”
Theo, mainly. They should talk about Lorelei too. Preferably in the comfort of the penthouse, where they could decompress and change and uncork a bottle of wine.
“But I don’t see why I can’t consider them with you,” she finished, gazing down at her with a smile.
Kara’s stomach fluttered wildly with butterflies, her smile broadening into something much less hesitant. There had been a part of her tiptoeing around Lena, careful to let everything and anything be in her hands when it came to their relationship, not wanting to push or rush. It was freeing to be able to step away from that.
And then Lena’s hands on her skin. Her skin wasn’t sensitive, and sometimes it wasn’t easy to feel soft touch under a yellow sun. But her every nerve ending felt like it was on fire under Lena’s fingertips, and it was a feeling she wouldn’t soon be ready to give up.
“I think we should consider them together,” she agreed softly. They had clearly been very intertwined in that future, and she hoped that would hold true in the life they made from this moment onward – hopefully one that veered away from apocalyptic territory. No matter what, though, they were in this together.
El Mayarah. Stronger Together.
“But considering and spoiling can happen at the same time, if you ask me,” she went on, pushing herself to stand, still keeping Lena close even as she stood a few inches taller than her. She dipped down and pressed her forehead to Lena’s, fingers trailing delicately up her back. “Tonight, I’m cashing in my movie night, Ms. Luthor, and getting you to bed early.”
Kara’s hands on her felt so subtle, and yet - it spiked up her heart rate, a shudder zipping up her spine, goosebumps on the exposed skin of her arms. They’ve cuddled. It hadn’t veered off into anything that shot a searing hit down to the pit of her stomach, but that somehow had.
It occurred to her that they hadn’t even kissed yet, either. Not since that night. Awfully tragic, she thought.
Lena’s eyes dropped to her lips, and then back to her eyes, and upon making the decision to remedy the issue, she leaned in. Their mouths pressed together into a kiss that was soft but lingering; she was savoring the way Kara’s lips felt, there was no hurry. No reservations, no pressure.
No guilt.
And with that revelation, she deepened it.
As soon as Lena’s lips pressed against hers, Kara felt her body instantly relax.
Months had passed since the last time she’d kissed Lena. She’d come straight from the morning after her sister’s wedding, from kissing Lena goodbye as they parted ways for the day, to Vallo. Her memory was a steel trap; she forgot nothing, and she’d remembered it all vividly. On nights when she struggled to stay patient, she could close her eyes and feel Lena kissing her again.
It was nothing compared to this. Nothing compared to really having Lena in her arms, really kissing her, soft and deep in a way they hadn’t had a chance to experience before coming here. It had all been a blur, a rush in the passion of the moment. They got to enjoy it in a different way now, know what they both wanted, how they felt, what it could all lead to someday.
“I love you,” she breathed, breaking away just to ghost her lips over Lena’s cheek instead.
The moment felt liberating. It felt overdue. Waiting had been the right choice, she’d stand by that – but this moment was right, too. Lena kept her eyes closed for a little while longer, taking it in, steadying her breath. Easing her heart rate, and silently thanking Kara for not calling her out on that.
“I love you too,” she echoed, lashes fluttering against the side of her face as her eyes finally opened. “We have art to put on our fridge.” Their fridge. Kara wasn’t technically moved in – and it might be a little too soon for that step – but she was over enough regardless, and her home would always belong to her best friend. Girlfriend? “And a movie to watch, but I think we can also do that in my bed.”