One begets Another
Kara was plastered. Well not completely. But close. She also might have been milking it a little to temporarily avoid the elephant in the room. But just a little.
“Wedya ged dis duff fom,” she slurred, looking over at the surprisingly near-sober lady next to her.
“What?”
Kara lifted up a limp arm, gesturing to her empty glass on the table.
“Oh,” Lena laughed quietly. “The Aldebaran rum.” The corners of her lips twitched upwards in mild amusement. “I’d heard you were familiar with it.”
Kara’s eyes grew wide. “How dya hear ‘bout dat.” Her mind drifted back to that night with Mon-El.
Lena smiled to herself, letting out a small huff. “You can’t expect me to give away all my secrets,” she drawled, eyeing the woman next to her fondly.
Kara squinted at her. “So now, you can keeb segets,” she accused, jabbing a finger into the woman’s check.
Lena looked at her with both eyebrows raised in skepticism.
Kara blinked, thinking back to her words. Perhaps she was a little bit more inebriated than she thought.
“Sowwy,” she mumbled, letting her finger drop.
The two woman were sprawled across the couch in Lena’s office (read: Kara was sprawled and Lena was neatly tucked in a corner). Mxy had long been banished (he would say, willingly departed, but they all knew better) from the Luthor’s office. The CEO’s suit jacket had been abandoned, her sleeves rolled up and a couple of shirt buttons were undone as if the woman had known exactly how long of an evening she had ahead of her. Kara, for her part, had discarded the Supergirl persona in favor of a well-worn sweatshirt and comfortable slacks, though the crux of Kara Danvers -- her characteristic glasses -- lay abandoned on the table next to them.
Honestly…Kara couldn’t remember the last time she was Kara Danvers without the glasses.
“An answer for an answer.”
Kara’s attention snapped back to Lena’s face, who was now gazing off into the distance.
“Wad?” She squinted at the Luthor in confusion.
“I’ll answer your question,” Lena arched an eyebrow, as she turned to meet Kara’s gaze. “And you’ll answer one of mine.”
Kara nodded sagely, “Yea, okeydokey. No moh segets,” she promised.
“No more secrets.” Lena lifted her glass in mock toast.
“How ah yous sill dinking dat?” The blonde looked over at Lena incredulously. She had been nursing the same drink since they had gotten back to her office, almost two hours ago.
Lena chuckled. “Some of us like to leisurely enjoy their alcohol,” she retorted, giving Kara an amused look.
“Bud foh dwo owers?” Kara threw her arms out wide, almost whacking Lena in the process, in an effort to convey exactly how egregious said woman’s drinking-buddy violation was.
Lena sighed, watching her glass as she swirled the amber liquid around lazily.
“I’m really just using it to take the edge off…I would much rather be the sober one while you’re drunk.”
Kara gasped, offended.
“How cudya do dat do me?” The Super paused for a minute, fully processing what her friend had said. “And I’m not dwunk,” she weakly exclaimed.
Lena fixed her with an amused look.
“Do you?”
Kara flushed scarlet, easily embarrassed with a couple of glasses of alien rum running through her veins. “Yous dow waddi mean.”
The other woman burst out laughing. “Darling, you’re an adorable drunk. I’ll have to make sure I am well-stocked with this Alien liquor, because we are definitely doing this again.”
Kara frowned, feeling like she was being made fun of. “Yous newer dold me howdya fwound oud.”
Lena gave her amused look, shaking a finger. “No, no, the deal was an answer for an answer. And now you’ve asked three questions.”
The superhero let out an indignant huff. A small voice of reason – probably the last semblance of her intellect which had yet to become corrupted by the drinks – warned Kara that going down this path might not be the best of ideas
Not when the other woman had just admitted to purposely wanting the Super loose lipped.
But she already owed Lena at least one answer. She promised, and Kara Danvers always kept her promises. She glanced down at the glasses on the table. Though technically, she was both people right now.
“Fwine, wads da queshion,” she muttered, crossing her arms.
“So…” Lena took a wig of the scotch as she contemplated her question, looking out into the city from the windows in the distance.
“What was up with you at the hospital?” The Luthor paused, biting her lip in a show of hesitancy before blustering on. “You started acting weird when we were with Lily.”
Kara gaped at her.
Unbeknownst to the Super’s shock (or perhaps, in spite of), the Luthor continued on. “Particularly when Lily and I had gotten into a rather interesting discussion on wavefunction collapse and its uses for building a quantum measurement scheme.”
Lena quirked an eyebrow, turning back to her friend as she queried for a response.
“Dat’s nod fwair.” Kara crossed her arms in an x-shaped fashion, exasperated. “Low blow.”
“Difwent queshion.” Kara enunciated slowly, adamantly shaking her head.
Lena shook her head in bemusement.
“Okay Kara,” the Luthor gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment. “But I really believed you when you promised me.”
Kara could feel herself faltering. That stupid voice in her head should have warned her before she agreed to this Rao-forsaken game.
“Dat’s nod fwair,” Kara repeated, this time in a whisper. “Dat pwomise was made udder false pwetenses.” The blonde groaned, sinking deeper into the couch. “Nod fwair.”
Lena frowned, letting her shoulders droop a little, head bent in apparent aggrievement.
Kara suspected this was all an act, but the alcohol had dulled her normally quite-adept comprehension abilities so she couldn’t exactly be sure.
She narrowed her eyes, huffing.
“Fwine, but I need anodder dwink.”
Lena surveyed her for a minute before disappearing and reappearing with a glass bottle. She topped Kara off and watched as the woman took a sip before spitting it all over Lena’s glass table.
“Lewa, I doh wad scodch dastes like.” She looked at Lena with the face of utter betrayal. “I mighd as well be dwinking wadder.”
Lena let out a low laugh. “Darling, what kind of friend would I be if I let you keep drinking in this state?”
At the indignant look on the Super’s face, Lena continued, “Look, if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine. Really.” Lena fixed Kara with a sincere look and the Super could feel herself melting. “It was a bit of a low blow for me to ply you with alcohol, even if you really did make it all too easy,” she drawled in amusement.
Kara pursed her lips, stuffing her hands in her pocket.
“Nod fwair,” the Super murmured.
Lena laughed, “I know, I know. I’m not fair. Come on, let’s get you to bed. Not many people know this, but I’ve got a spare room in the back for late nights at the office.”
Lena grabbed Kara’s arm in an attempt to pull her off the couch, but the Super refused to move.
“What – Kara, come on.” Lena gave a bit of a harder tug, but Kara still refused to budge. On the third attempt, Kara flipped the situation around and tugged on Lena instead. The Luthor let out an abrupt squeak before falling backwards onto the blonde’s lap.
Arms snaked around Lena’s waist to keep her in place, before blonde hair buried into the crook of younger woman’s neck. Kara breathed in deeply.
“I missed yous,” Kara murmured. Okay she might actually be extremely drunk.
“I-uh…” Lena struggled to maintain an even voice after being put into such an unexpected situation. “Kara, I’m right here. We have literally never been closer,” she retorted, clearly flustered at her new seating situation.
“I mean…deez last few monds.”
Lena blinked. Oh.
“You’d been acting odd, you know…like you had to keep a certain distance,” Lena began, hesitantly. “I was beginning to think you didn’t enjoy my company anymore.”
Lena could hear Kara scoff into her shirt.
“Iwwa awfaid yous didn’t like me anymwore,” Kara finally responded. “Youda bwoken my heart, if yous dunned down a hug.” Kara tightened her arms around the Luthor, burying herself deeper.
Lena’s heart and head were practically short circuiting at this point. She was grateful the Super was apparently beyond intoxicated, because she didn’t think she’d live her erratic heartbeat down if the girl-wonder actually noticed.
Plying Supergirl with Alien liquor had officially backfired. Spectacularly.
Lena shook herself out of her unfortunately revelation.
“Well it’d have only been fair,” she joked, voice cracking midway. “You did break mine.”
There was a lengthy period of silence from the Super, and Lena found herself regretting the quip.
“You know we’re over that right? I’m over it.” Lena softly murmured, her mind finally rebooting from the sudden Kara overload even if her heart hadn’t exactly gotten the memo yet.
Lena could feel Kara hum into her back in agreement.
“Dat’s why Iwwa weird.”
Lena’s heart thudded in her chest, painfully.
“What?” she asked quietly.
Kara tightened her grip on the Luthor once more. “In da hopidal…” Kara mumbled. “Wid…ow daughder.” Ah, there it was. The elephant in the room they had both been avoiding talking about.
Lena blinked as she felt the words as much as heard them as her heart fluttered and stomach clench. Her visceral reaction made Lena question her previous conclusion of being sober. Perhaps I’ve drank more than I thought, Lena mused.
“Because I was jwealous dat she cud hug yous and douch yous, and I cudn’t.”
Lena took a sharp intake of breath at the confession. This was not what she expected. Well…to be frank, she had actually no idea what the reason was when she asked the question. But she did know it wasn’t this.
“Kara…” she breathed, flushing despite realizing that the other woman had no idea what she just said sounded like.
She twisted around, cupping Kara’s face to look the depressed Super in the eyes. Lena was so close that she could see the specks of turquoise in her eyes and feel the blonde’s soft breath on her face.
“You can have all the hugs you want from now on,” she said, seriously. “I promise.”
Kara’s eyes searched Lena’s for any semblance of hesitation. After a moment of finding none, Kara’s face lit up like a literal sun before she threw her arms around Lena’s neck.
Lena froze for a moment before relaxing into the hug. As she buried herself back into the blonde for the first time in such a long time, she absently found herself wondering why she had ever doubted the intentions of someone so pure to end up hurting her so badly.