On Earth 1439, Kara met Lena under different circumstances. On that world, Kara had discovered she was bi in college and was quite aware of herself by the time she began at Catco. And when Cat Grant had accused her of being Supergirl, she didn't think of asking Jonn to stand in for her to take the heat off, even though she vehemently denied it to Ms. Grant. And on that world, there'd been no attempt to destroy the Venture space shuttle, no saving it with Kal-el, no interview with Lena about whether she'd been nefariously involved. Instead, the first time they met was almost six months later, at Noonan's, after Kara had finally been made a reporter, after Kara had published a number of stories.
Kara was eating lunch, two Reuben sandwiches today, and an extra large order of garlic parmesan fries, with a strawberry shake when Lena walked into Noonan's. But rather than walk to the counter to order, Lena stopped and stared at Kara then smiled, and finally, she approached Kara's table.
"Hi, your Kara Danvers with Catco, right?" Lena asked.
Kara looked up in surprise and nodded as she wiped her mouth with a napkin, finished chewing, swallowed, tried to control her libido, then finally said, "Um, yes. And you're Lena Luthor, CEO of L-Corp. How is it that you know about me or even who I am?"
Lena smiled. "I've read several of your stories. A bit more depth to those than the usual fluff that Catco has published in the past, you know?"
Kara smiled. "Thank you. Ms. Grant has been trying to make the magazine more relevant to the people of National City, so I have to thank her for giving me the opportunity to pursue those stories."
"Do you mind if I have lunch with you?" Lena asked.
Kara simply nodded, trying to not let her instant attraction to Lena Luthor lead her to say something absurd.
Kara's eyes followed Lena to the counter as she went to order, and she smiled as soon as Lena turned around and returned to the table. Her order would be out in a few minutes.
“So what are you working on these days?” asked Lena.
Kara swallowed then tried to gather her wits, “Oh, um, there's rumors of an underground fight club using aliens, to the point that some are being killed. Ms. Grant let me decide to try to dig into that.”
“Do you support the Alien Amnesty Act, Kara?” Lena asked.
This grounded Kara a bit more, because she was quite aware of what Lex had tried to do, she wondered where Lena stood on that, and finally she nodded. “Yes, America's always been a land of immigrants. I don't think aliens should be treated any differently.”
Lena smiled and nodded right back at her. “Excellent, because I've been hiring aliens and want to help them integrate into our society. I know my brother did those things but some people just assume I'm like him when I'm not at all. I rebranded our family company and moved to National City precisely to get this sort of new start, although I may have had other motives as well.”
“Other motives?” Kara asked, taking a bite of her second sandwich.
Again, Lena nodded. “I tried to approach Superman in Metropolis but he made it quite clear that he wasn't going to trust a Luthor at all. I was hoping I could collaborate with Supergirl but I've only even seen her a few times.”
“I... actually know her,” Kara almost stammered saying that. “I could get her a message if you like?”
“Wow! Running into you here really was fortuitous today!” Lena exclaimed, as her own salad and green tea were delivered.
The rest of their lunch went by in a blur, but Kara went back to Catco both with a message “for” Supergirl and in a little bit of a daze at just how much attraction she felt towards Lena. Part of her wondered if Lena felt the same but the woman had given her no such hints, so she tamped that thought down, and focused on her work.
*****
Supergirl had met with Lena, who had provided her with information about a man who had threatened Lena and several other business persons throughout National City. And Supergirl had handled that problem, working directly with the National City Police to assist in gathering the evidence necessary to arrest the man and take apart his crime ring that was trying to extort high tech companies in the city. But precisely because she didn't want to risk her identity with Lena Luthor, Supergirl remained a bit distant with the CEO.
Meanwhile, over that same period of a few months, Lena and Kara had grown closer. Kara was still crushing hard over Lena but, so far as she knew, Lena only viewed her as a friend. And it was over a movie night at Lena's apartment when Kara discovered how Lena felt as well.
“That wasn't bad but I'm glad I didn't see it in theaters,” Lena remarked as she turned the movie off as it ended.
Kara stood and began picking up plates, cups, and other assorted trash from their evening.
“You don't have to do that, Kara!” Lena exclaimed.
“You had me over. You bought takeout. Let me clean up for you,” Kara countered.
“Then I'll help as well,” stated Lena.
Together they cleared their mess and took items into the kitchen, placing dishes and silverware into the sink, then Kara moving all the trash to the garbage can. Lena began rinsing dishes and Kara stacked them in the dishwasher.
“We're not supposed to have to rinse them before putting them in the dishwasher,” Kara remarked.
“I know but have you ever had a dishwasher that works perfectly every time? I sure haven't!” laughed Lena.
As Kara placed the last dish into the dishwasher, she felt Lena's hand at the small of her back. She turned, feeling Lena's hand slide to her left hip, only to find Lena very close to her. She swallowed nervously.
Lena spoke. “Kara Danvers, may I take you out on a date?”
Kara's mouth fell open as she stood there stunned, realizing that maybe Lena felt about her the same way she felt about Lena. Finally she nodded, then licking her lips, she asked softly, “Can I kiss you?”
Lena closed the gap with no hesitation, both her arms going around Kara's neck.
When the kiss finally broke, Lena said softly, “I have to be careful because of my brother. He's still trying to kill me, even from prison. And that would mean that you're in danger too. I understand if this is too much and you don't want to...”
Kara cut her off with another kiss, then when they broke apart, she simply said, “You're worth it and I'll be fine. And I won't let anything happen to you either. I can protect you.”
Lena was happy but also worried, because when reality came calling, things could get very dangerous very fast for her and those she loved.
*****
Their first date, courtesy of Lena, had Lena picking up Kara in her limousine, then the two of them traveling to one of downtown's most famous steak houses, Marvin's Grotto.
They had eaten dinner and were waiting on dessert when Kara sighed.
“Are you okay?” Lena asked.
“I am but... there's something I have to tell you before we go further with this,” Kara started.
Fate, however, had other plans. When they'd sat down, Lena was facing the doorway, something she always tried to achieve in public settings, so she saw the gunman enter the restaurant first. She saw him raise his submachinegun. And then she saw Kara stand and turn towards him. In that moment, her only thought was she was about to lose Kara to her brother's insanity.
Before she could move, the machinegun unleashed a hail of bullets... at Kara.
But Kara did not fall. Instead, she moved faster than Lena thought possible, watched her snatch the machinegun from the man's hands, bending it like a pretzel then lifting him by his neck. She rushed to Kara's side, seeing how angry Kara was in that moment.
“Don't do anything, Kara. You stopped him. We're safe.”
Her words reached Kara and she looked from the frightened hit man to Lena and smiled sheepishly. “I was trying to tell you.”
Lena simply laughed. The police burst into the restaurant at that point, seeing the spent shell casings all over the floor, Kara's shredded dress, the mangled machinegun in Kara's right hand and the criminal standing terrified, his hands in the air as Kara clutched his shirt and everything clicked for them as well.
One of the officers approached. “Supergirl? Can we take him now?”
Kara nodded and released him, letting the officer cuff the man, then turned fully to look at Lena, at which point Lena realized that Kara's dress had been torn apart by the gunfire. As she handed the crumpled weapon to the other officer, Lena pulled her close.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” Lena said, her voice hitching, just suppressing a sob.
Kara pulled her into a tight hug. “You're not going to lose me unless you tell me you don't want me around.”
“I don't plan on telling my girlfriend to go away. I just got her!” Lena exclaimed.
“Do you really mean that?” Kara asked, her smile widening gloriously.
Lena looked up at her. “I absolutely do. Now let me take you home to get you some clothes that aren't... shredded.”
As they walked out to Lena's car, Lena remarked, "I guess you really meant it when you said you would protect me."
Kara just grinned, looked at her, then said, "Yeah."
*****
It was at Kara's apartment that her phone began to ping relentlessly, after she'd changed into jeans and a t-shirt and gotten comfy on the couch with Lena. As she opened her phone, she was inundated with notifications from social media.
She and Lena read through them together.
“Kara Danvers is Supergirl? And she's dating Lena Luthor? OMG!”
“They are perfect together!”
“I ship them! National City's Power Couple!”
“I kind of doubt Kara intended to come out to the world as Supergirl like this but hey, saving your date from an assassin? That's peak lesbian!”
There were thousands of comments, almost all of them positive, and, it turned out, most of what happened at the restaurant was captured by a few of the staff who had posted it to Instagram and other social media sites.
And then there was the message from Cat Grant.
“I expect an exclusive with you, you know! Those glasses didn't fool me. And maybe, Kara, just maybe, your life will be a little bit easier now instead of trying to live two lives at once.”
Cat Grant got her interview, with both Kara and Lena, whom she dubbed SuperCorp. The name stuck and they moved in together just a few months later.