The penthouse had been a little more lively the last couple of weeks.
There was always life going on, obviously. Kara and Lena spent plenty of time at home, and the apartment Lena and Alex had created during her sister’s first trip here felt very lived in and comfortable. But the height of their excitement was typically when Mermista got into a bout of the zoomies and bounced off whatever walls she came into contact with, expressing her true inner crackhead.
Having a child here added an entirely new dimension of life.
Kara was, frankly, in heaven. She had missed her big sister and her niece fiercely since she arrived. Life went on, of course, and she took comfort in knowing they were just fine back home, that she was still with them in some capacity, even if the version of her in Vallo couldn’t remember past Alex’s wedding day. Their presence was so welcomed, and she was soaking in every moment she could find, in case she woke up to find them on the disappearance list the next morning.
Best of all was that they fit so smoothly into place. Kara knew about Alex’s history with Lena while they were in Vallo together, and Alex knew that Lena and Kara were, as she put it, meant to be. There was no tension, no anger, not even a hint of strange competitiveness – not over Lena, but the Danvers sisters could find a dozen other things to compete over if they worked at it, and oh boy, had they. It made Kara’s heart sing.
Eventually, the excitement came to its inevitable conclusion at bedtime. She kissed Esme goodnight and let Alex usher her off to the guest room to tuck her in while Kara went off in search of Lena. She wasn’t too difficult to find, visible on the balcony through the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over Vallo City. The door slid open soundlessly, and Kara stepped up behind her, wrapping her arms snugly around her girlfriend’s waist and tucking her chin over her shoulder.
“Hi,” she whispered, a contented little sigh following. “What’re you thinking?”
“Well,” Lena hummed, not at all unnerved by being snuck up on – and she usually would be as a Luthor with a ledger of enemies and having been kidnapped a handful of times, but there was a zen found here that she didn’t quite find back home. “I’m attempting to do this ludicrous thing where I, in fact, don’t.”
There was an unmistakable smile in her voice and on her lips; hands moving onto her arms, back pressing into her chest to reciprocate Kara’s embrace. It had been an incredible time. There wasn’t any tension in the penthouse that would force Alex out the door, away from them. They didn’t have to hide displays of affection. Having Esme around made everything brighter, and it was okay.
She and Alex talked. They visited one of their old haunts as friends, not girlfriends, and sometimes her heart felt this ache – and it had that day – but it was a strangely welcomed kind of ache. The good kind of hurt.
“I’m not exactly succeeding,” Lena continued, laughing gently about it, “but it’s fine. I’m just thinking about how relieved I am, I guess.”
Relieved. That made sense, when Kara thought about it. This kind of situation could easily have gone sour quickly, had Alex been anyone else. But Alex was Alex, and regardless of the complicated history Vallo had created for the three of them – a history they didn’t have to deal with back home – tensions were nonexistent. Alex’s love life hadn’t intersected with Kara’s back home, and thank Rao for that.
This was, quite literally, the best case scenario. They were all happy, all comfortable. She was glad for that because it kept Alex and Esme here. She’d have let them go to Morningside if it had ended up feeling like too much, on either her sister’s side or Lena’s, but she was endlessly grateful that wasn’t the case. She couldn’t count on the permanence of this visit, so having them near enough to take advantage of every available moment was all she wanted.
She knew Lena wanted that, too.
“That’s good.” The kiss to Lena’s temple that followed was tender, lingering. “I like it when the two of you get along.” Had she envisioned it being for this reason? No, but that was okay. “And you’re so good with Esme. She loves you.”
Lena’s weight was fully against her now, and she felt Kara absolutely not budge like the immovable force she was. “Taking my godmother role quite seriously,” she told her, allowing her eyes to fall shut at the kiss. “But, yes, I’m… glad we can co-exist like this. We talked, and it went well. I’m happy she’s here.”
Alex was missed. They were able to spend time with her freely. They got closure. The guilt of moving on without her knowing was lifted - and so was the guilt of finding Theo without her.
“Have you had a talk with her? About – things going on back home?” About Kelly?
“Yeah. I guess we Danvers and Olsens don’t mix as well as we might initially hope,” Kara sighed. It was disappointing to hear that Alex and Kelly had separated, but only because Kara wanted so desperately to see her big sister happy – and she’d seemed happy at the time. To hear it hadn’t worked out the way Alex had hoped, that the love there wasn’t what she was looking for after all? She hurt for her sister.
“Looking back, I can see where it might not have been a good match,” she admitted. Alex did have a tendency to fling herself into things, especially romantically. Sometimes, that panned out perfectly for her, but sometimes, it came back to bite her. “I don’t think being with Kelly was ever going to reach Maggie-level happiness for her.”
She couldn’t speak to how happy Alex had been with Lena and some small, selfish, possessive side of her didn’t want to think about it right at the moment either.
“I hope she finds her Maggie-level happiness someday,” she said quietly, also wondering if she had lived up to that – but it was a blip of a thought, not worth contemplating. Lena didn’t have to be. She wasn’t interested in playing the favorites game. Things happened, and they adapted, and things were the way they were.
She wouldn’t change it.
Lena twisted about in her arms, and pulled away just to hoist herself up on top of the balcony’s railing hundreds of feet above ground. There was no fear of heights or falling. Kara was here, and Kara always caught her. “We did talk about Theo,” she continued, tugging her hair free from her ponytail and letting it spill over her shoulders. Her fingers worked to comb out the creases. “Did you two talk about him too?”
Kara shook her head fondly, stepping up to the balcony to anchor her hands on Lena’s hips. For someone who had been in life-threatening situations as often as she had, Lena Luthor showed absolutely no fear. Granted, here, the life-threatening situations were less, and of course Kara would save her in the blink of an eye if a freak accident were to occur, so maybe the lack of fear was more rational than it seemed.
“She didn’t,” was Kara’s response, followed by a shake of her head. “What did she say?” She wondered now why, but maybe Alex had just thought this was a conversation best left to Lena and Kara. If all went well, if they stayed, they would be the ones raising him now. She knew Alex didn’t think she’d be staying in Vallo too long this time around.
“Well - I told her about our literal darkest timeline incident,” Lena began, pausing to click her tongue. Not every detail was given since she didn’t know every detail, but Theo and Lori were the most vivid takeaways from that (aside from her crippling guilt thanks to unintentional neglect, that is). “How I still had Theo, but with you. I wanted to be honest and let her know that I still intended to find him, also with you. And she was supportive. Insisted on it, in fact.”
She knew that it also hurt Alex to let go of that future where she was his mom, that her support came with its own unique ache – and there was no way they could soothe it for her.
“It was… hard to talk about,” she admitted, piling all her hair over one shoulder. “I don’t know how long she’ll be here for, but something’s convinced her that it’s not long-term.”
Ah. Kara’s lips pressed together in a sympathetic smile. She hadn’t thought to have that conversation with Alex herself, but she hadn’t been involved that first year they’d met him. Theo was an idea to her, a concept that Lena had told her about. And while she very much wanted to find him with Lena and was more than willing to be his mom, thinking about Alex losing out on that same opportunity – well, she didn’t know if she’d willfully ignored it or just hadn’t thought about it.
“That’s why she’s the best,” she murmured, affection for her sister aching in her chest. Her hands pushed further, circling to the small of Lena’s back as she looked up at her. “She knows you’ll be a great mom, and you will.”
Of that, Kara had no doubt. If there was anything Lena had learned from her upbringing with the Luthors, it was what not to do. Some people couldn’t break free of those cycles no matter how much they tried, but Kara knew Lena would. She would be there every step of the way supporting her, too, making sure their kids got the happiest upbringing they could manage.
“But she said the same thing to me,” she affirmed. “That she doesn’t think it’s permanent. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking. I want her to stay but only if it’s going to make her happy. Esme, too.”
Lena fought the urge to (fondly) roll her eyes at those outrageous motherhood claims. Accepting those particular compliments with grace was a difficult task, but she was trying. She wanted to be involved and not detached – a family that was loved and knew how to love, unlike the ones she grew up with.
She hoped to get there; hoped that Vallo wasn’t luring her into another false sense of security about obtaining a future she happened to get severely emotionally invested in.
“I don’t think it will make her happy,” she sighed, parting her legs to accommodate Kara’s closeness. “She told me as much, anyway. It stung to hear, but I understand it. No matter what, we’re still with her back home.”
Kara nodded, a bit solemn. Alex hadn’t said as much to her, but she wasn’t surprised to hear she had admitted it to Lena. She had a habit of trying to keep Kara from information she felt would hurt her, even twenty years down the line, and it did sting. She wanted her sister with her, always. She wanted to watch Esme grow up. She wanted to watch Alex find herself, whether that was in love or not.
“We’re still with her back home,” she echoed. That was enough. It would have to be if Alex and Esme returned. There was some comfort in that knowledge – knowing they had each other, and Aex, and all their friends back home. That their lives kept moving and no one felt their absence. It made it a little easier to stomach the distance, even knowing she, as she was now, wouldn’t have those things.
But she’d have Lena. If she was lucky, they’d have that little family their glimpse into a world razed by Interitus had shown them – their two little shining lights, in Theo and in Lori.
“I’ll be happy anywhere I’m with you.” One hand shifted to smooth down Lena’s thigh, blue eyes shining with adoration as she looked up and met Lena’s. “I love you.”
“I love you too, darling,” said Lena, smiling as she reached to cradle her face. No one looked at her like Kara did; full of devotion and love and hope that felt undeserving, but she had it. It was hers. Kara was hers. “I love you here,” she murmured, ghosting a kiss over her brows, “and I love you back home.”
She leaned forward, and down, and seized her mouth into a kiss that was shameless. They had kissed in Alex’s presence before, they weren’t exactly lacking – but they had kept those tame and respectful.
This kiss wasn’t that. This kiss would clean the day’s lipstick right off her lips. They had no audience to be mindful of right now, there was no child nearby to accidentally scandalize, and Lena was taking advantage of it.
Kara melted into that kiss, taking advantage to pull Lena safely back onto the balcony floor and wrap her arms around her fully. This kiss was leading in only one direction, but her niece was down for the night, and she suspected her sister would follow. So, she indulged, eagerly devouring Lena’s mouth and letting her hands drift to a much less G-rated location and squeeze.
The sound she made into the kiss was something of a breathy chuckle and a little bit of something else. Something that was definitely meant to happen behind closed doors, but fooling around on an open balcony proved to be thrilling. Lena definitely didn’t mind.
She broke the kiss for air and to softly pant out, “Thank you. For being patient. For never pushing. I know all of this was strange to jump into.” There was a smear of red she noticed on the corner of Kara’s lips, and her thumb went to wipe it. “But I think I’ll always love you a little more here for waiting for me and accepting - well, everything.”
Her history with Alex. Theo. Things between her and Kara hadn’t always been easy, but this might also be the easiest thing they’ve dealt with together. No resentments. Lena Luthor would never be as good as Supergirl, but she inspired her to keep trying.
“You don’t have to thank me for that,” Kara insisted. She meant that, too. It felt almost like Lena thanking her for loving her, and that wasn’t something she needed. Loving Lena wasn’t a favor or a task; it just was, and it always had been. It had taken her some time to wrap her mind around and even longer to let Lena in on what she was feeling, with all the extenuating circumstances in her life, but none of that mattered now.
That was absolutely a positive of Vallo. So many of the obstacles that had been between them were eliminated. In this case, they’d been replaced by something different – her sister, namely, which was another factor that again took some time for her to wrap her mind around – but it didn’t stop her from loving Lena. Nothing ever would.
She raised her hands to frame Lena’s face, thumbs tracing the curves of her cheekbones. “I was never going to push you before you were ready. I would have waited forever, you know that.”
“I’d never make you wait forever,” Lena scoffed in mock-offense, hands slowly sliding down Kara’s front – and since her girlfriend had the opportunity to grope her, she took the chance herself to do the same in passing. She loved the feel of Kara under her palms. Soft, and indestructible. “I don’t have the patience for that. And we’ve waited enough, haven’t we?”
“More than,” Kara agreed, letting out a soft hum at the feeling of Lena’s hands on her. Gentle touch could be hit or miss for her, living under a yellow sun, but she always felt Lena. She leaned in for another kiss, this one less raw but no less passionate, no less eager. “What do you say we head inside and I put that patience of yours to the test?”
“Do not,” Lena interrupted herself with a follow up kiss to that, lacking some coordination – but the want behind it surely made up for that, “test my patience.”
Kara’s blouse was already being pulled out from being tucked into her pants. Buttons were being undone, and she was directing her girlfriend’s body back into the penthouse with hers while kissing her again, and isn’t everyone just so very lucky that the master bedroom had soundproof walls?