#festivecorp

"Well, that's the whole point of Bantr," Kara started. "Instead of matching with someone based on their profile picture, you match up with them based on their personality. It means instead of the usual shallow world of online dating where everything is based on looks, it's based on a real connection."

"I didn't know sending Christmas jokes counted as connecting with someone," Alex teased.

"What did you expect from me? Christmas day is in a week!" Kara said defensively. "That's not all we talk about, you know. Besides, LadyL27 seems to like my corny Christmas jokes."

"LadyL27?" Alex raised her eyebrows a little. "As in Lady Lesbian?".

"I mean, I guess," Kara paused. "What else could the L stand for?"

"I mean, it could stand for," Alex started, "No that's ridiculous, forget I said anything."

"Okay, you're being weird." Kara wondered what Alex had stopped herself from saying.

"No I'm not." Alex was trying to change the subject. "What's your username on the app?".

"BigDEnergy." Kara said proudly.

"Your name on a dating app is big dick energy?" Alex exclaimed.

"No, it's big Danvers energy. Obviously, the D is for Danvers." Kara made it sound like Alex was the one who had made a mistake.

"No one on the app is gonna get that!" Alex shouted.

"Oh my god really?" Kara was starting to sweat a little. "So Lady Lesbian thinks she's been talking to big dick energy this whole time. That's so embarrassing."

"This is why you should have come to me first." Alex was enjoying being right. "I don't know why you sent her daily Christmas jokes though."

"We matched in December and I thought I should show her how festive I was," Kara shrugged as she said this. "And the Christmas jokes are a real icebreaker. Get it? Icebreaker?"

"You do know I carry a gun right?" Alex should have expected the Christmas pun but Kara had surprised her with that one. "And the minute she sees you in person she'll see how festive you are."

"Oh you mean this?" Kara motioned down to her Christmas dress. The dress was bright red and was covered in miniature gingerbread men. To make matters worse, some of the gingerbread men had bits of them broken off and were saying "Give me a break!" in speech bubbles.

"Are you sure that's what you want to wear to a first date?" Alex sounded worried for Kara.

"Of course," Kara answered smiling. "If she can't handle me at my most festive, she's obviously not the girl for me."

"Can we at least talk about the tights?" Alex pointed down to Kara's legs. The tights, which Kara had bought the second she had seen them in a store, were green and filled with drawings of elfs. Above each elf it said "treat yo elf" in capital letters.

Alex had tried to convince Kara not to buy them at the store, her efforts had been in vain in the end.

"I love these tights!" Kara spun a little to show them off." "They help me to express my elf."

"Was I not clear about me carrying a gun?" Alex rolled her eyes at the second Christmas pun she had to hear in the space of a few minutes.

"You love my jokes," Kara laughed back.

"I don't think love is the word I'd use." Alex crossed her arms as she said this. "I guess I can't talk you out of wearing those boots either."

The boots in question were red leather ankle length zip up boots. Kara had insisted on buying them because they made her think of Christmas as soon as she saw them.

"Nope. You definitely can't." Kara beamed back. "I didn't spend all this time putting a Christmas outfit together just to let you talk me out of wearing it."

"Well in that case," Alex paused. "Can you at least tell me where you're meeting your mystery date?"

"We're meeting in National City Square." Kara couldn't hide her excitement when she said this. "Under the massive Christmas tree they put up there every year."

"The one you drag me to every year?" Alex asked.

"That's the one." Kara said, sounding a little guilty. "Then we're getting hot chocolate and going for a walk in the square. It's gonna be perfect!"

"Maybe curb your expectations a little," Alex warned. "For all you know, you could be meeting a middle aged man with a bald spot."

"As if." Kara wasn't hearing a word Alex was saying. "She literally has lady in her name. I mean come on."

"You've clearly never been catfished." Alex groaned. "You better go, you don't want to miss your date."

"You're right. But first, I need to get my coat, gloves and scarf. And of course, I can't forget the pièce de résistance."

After putting on her extra layers, Kara then took out a headband that had a pair of reindeer antlers attached and placed them on her head. The antlers shook around a little every time Kara moved her head.

"Okay wow." Alex stared in disbelief. "This is a lot to take in."

"I told her that she would know me if she looked for the woman wearing the reindeer antlers." Kara explained.

"Oh yeah. It's not like the Christmas dress, tights or boots are a dead giveaway." Alex said sarcastically. "How are you gonna know her?"

"She told me she'd be wearing a low cut black dress. You can never be too careful though." Kara checked her watch. "Just call me Rudolph because I gotta run."

Before Alex had a chance to sigh or groan at yet another Christmas joke, Kara was gone with only a breeze behind her.

Kara hurried over to the Christmas tree in the square. She had landed away from the crowds and was scanning every woman she saw. So far she hadn't seen any women in low cut black dresses.

After a few minutes of scanning, she did see one woman in a black dress. This wasn't just any woman though. This was Lena, her best friend.

Lena was wearing a fluffy coat with leather gloves, a beanie hat and a knitted scarf. She had left the coat open though, to show off her black dress.

As opposed to Kara's festive tights, Lena had opted for a pair of black tights. And of course, she had picked out a pair of high heels that probably cost more than Kara's whole outfit put together.

"Kara?" Lenas eye's met Kara's through the crowd. "What are you doing here?" Lena then looked Kara up and down seeing the reindeer headband and realising what had happened.

"Oh my god, are you BigDEnergy?"

"Yeah that's me." Kara looked down at her feet when she said this. "Which would make you LadyL27 right?"

"You got me." Lena laughed. "I have to admit, this is a surprise. I had no idea you were-"

"Into women?" Kara interrupted.

"I was gonna say dating but that works too." Lena was clearly surprised by Kara's outburst. "So the D in BigDEnergy stands for…"

"Danvers!" Kara cut in. "Definitely Danvers!"

"Okay, I thought maybe it stood for something else." Lena smirked at Kara when she said this.

"Nope, just Danvers." Kara laughed "And the L in LadyL27 stands for…"

"Lena, of course." Lena explained. "What did you think the L stood for?"

"It's not important." Kara hadn't expected to be this nervous. "All that matters is we know what our usernames mean now."

"I am a little surprised though," Lena admitted. "I didn't even know you were trying dating. Especially not with women."

"Well there's a story behind that," Kara paused to collect her thoughts. "Alex talked to me a few weeks ago and said if I didn't ask you out before the year was over she would kill me. She said she couldn't watch all my failed attempts at flirting anymore."

"Alex is certainly honest," Lena giggled. "She's not wrong though. I've been wanting you to ask me out for years."

"You have?" Kara hadn't been expecting that from Lena. "Now I feel really stupid. I was gonna ask you out a few weeks ago but then I totally chickened out at the last minute. I thought maybe you weren't into me so I backed out."

"Which led you to Bantr?" Lena inquired.

"Pretty much," Kara answered. "Something about talking to a woman online and not even knowing what she looked like felt easier. Of course, I had no idea that woman was you.. What led you to using Bantr?"

"Well," Lena bit her bottom lip. "I was waiting for this really cute girl to ask me out and she never did. I've had a crush on her for so long too"

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Kara rubbed Lena's arm a little. "Who was it? Oh my god! Was it Andrea? I know you two have been friends for years but I didn't know you liked her like that."

"I'm talking about you Kara." Lena explained. "I've been into you for as long as I can remember. And Alex talked to me about her plan. How she was going to make you take action. When you never asked me out I just assumed you changed your mind. I thought maybe I had misread things."

"Lena I had no idea, '' Kara said apologetically. "I was just so scared of you saying no. And I didn't want to ruin 5 years of friendship."

"Kara, this has been so much more than just friendship for so long now." Lena fidgeted with her gloved hands. "I just wanted it to go further. And when it didn't, I downloaded Bantr. I thought maybe I could distract myself from thinking about you all the time."

"Did it work?" Kara queried.

"Clearly not, the first woman I matched with was you." Lena was smiling again. "No wonder I enjoyed our conversations so much."

"I enjoyed them too!" Kara shouted a little louder than she had meant to there. People passing by gave her a glance before going back to their business.

"Oh, sorry. I got a little over excited there."

"I could tell," Lena teased. "Especially seeing as you're going redder than Rudolph's nose right now.

Kara then attempted to pull her scarf up over her face as if hiding would make her any less embarrassed.

"Well now you just look even more adorable." Lena said through laughter. "You know I can still see you right?"

"Yeah I know," Kara answered. "I thought maybe it would help me though."

"A for effort," Lena gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up."

"How about we just focus on the positives," Lena began. "Even though it's not the way I thought it was gonna happen, me and you are on our first date. And it's Christmas. So let's just enjoy it okay?"

"Okay," Kara readjusted her scarf. "This isn't how I saw us doing this either. It doesn't make it any less perfect though."

"Aww Kara," Lena squeezed Kara's hand. "This is the best present I've ever gotten for Christmas. Just being with you, that's all I ever wanted."

Before Kara could answer, Lena was kissing Kara's lips with hers. Pulling Kara in closer, their bodies sharing warmth and passion.

The tree above them was sparkling and both their faces were illuminated by the Christmas lights.

"That was…" Kara was still attempting to regain her composure. "The best kiss I've ever had."

"High praise indeed," Lena glanced at Kara's lips as if she was already thinking of kissing them again. "You were definitely worth the wait darling."

"Merry Christmas Lena!" Kara proclaimed.

"Nollaig Shona Dhuit." Lena replied. "That's Merry Christmas in Irish, in case you were wondering."

"One day you have to teach me the whole language." Kara pleaded.

"You've got yourself a deal." Lena agreed. "But for now, let's just enjoy our date. I've been waiting for this for a long time."

Kara and Lena hadn't imagined that this would be the way they had the first date. That didn't stop them from enjoying the Christmas festivities though. Two lost souls who had been brought together by something stronger than fate. For the first time, they could experience Christmas together.

Of course, Kara's oven mitt was festive too. It had "Get Your Mitts Off My Turkey" written on the oven mitt in capital letters.

Kara was sure this batch was gonna be the one. The one she finally got right. She had even bought cookie cutters to make things easier. Each cutter was a different letter of the alphabet going from A to B. All she wanted to do was spell out Lena's name in cookies.

Ever since their Bantr date they had been spending all of their time together. Because of this, Kara wanted to do something special for Lena. Spelling out Lena's name with delicious baked goods. Well, that felt pretty special for Kara.

Lena had just left the apartment and would be back soon. She had gone out to buy a gift for Esme. Lena had decided to go alone because she didn't think Kara could keep the present a secret from Esme.

When Kara had asked Lena what the present was gonna be the only answer she had gotten was "I don't want to spoil the surprise Darling."

One thing Kara did know was that Lena was one of the fastest shoppers she had ever seen. This was due to years of experience. This meant that Kara didn't have much time until Lena got home.

All of this was adding to the considerable pressure that Kara was already feeling. Her first batch of cookies had looked like something you would give to a prisoner you wanted to get information out of. They were burnt to a crisp and completely black.

The letters didn't come close to spelling out Lena either. They were more of a jumbled mess of misshapen objects. Misshapen and as hard as a rock. Kara wouldn't have been surprised if they had stood up to a blast from her heat vision.

The second batch was slightly less charred and had spelt out Lena. The problem with them was when Kara did a taste test on them they stayed solid in her mouth and were set to chip a tooth.

This third batch had to be perfect. Kara had perfected the recipe. She just needed to make sure she didn't burn the cookies.

The first time Kara was baking she had got distracted re-reading old messages between her and Lena. They had kept talking on Bantr even after they met in National City Square.

Lena had told Kara that just because they had realised they were talking to each other they didn't mean they had to stop using the app. Kara was pretty sure Lena just enjoyed talking to BigDEnergy. Lena enjoyed that username a little too much.

Kara didn't mind though. Especially seeing as before they decided to keep their conversations on Bantr, she had accidentally texted Alex an eggplant emoji with a winky face the day after her date with Lena.

She could have sworn she hit Lena's name when she sent that text. At least on Bantr, she was only texting Lena so she couldn't have a repeat of that embarrassing fiasco.

Kara's second attempt at baking was also thwarted by her phone. After putting the cookies in the oven to bake, Kara made sure to close Bantr so she wouldn't be distracted. The only problem was, Kara then found herself distracted by her phone's screensaver.

It was a picture of her and Lena standing beside the National City Ice Rink. Lena had brought Kara there for their second date. Kara had never tried ice skating before then so she ended up falling over multiple times.

Lena hadn't been able to hold back her laughter at this and spent most of the date cackling. She did always pick Kara back up though. Always making sure to turn Kara's pout back into a smile.

She stopped laughing too, when she saw Kara getting annoyed at herself for not being able to keep her balance. She would even say "Don't worry, Kara. You can do this. Just try again. If you fall I'll catch you. I'm right here."

This date, and the picture that came after, led to Kara's second batch of cookies going up in smoke, literally. Kara was pulled out of her memory by the sound of the smoke alarm beeping above her head.

After using her freeze breath twice to prevent the kitchen from burning down, Kara had put all of her focus into this batch. The third time's a charm right? Kara hoped it would be anyway.

Kara carefully placed the third tray into the oven. After the suggested baking time had passed, Kara opened up the oven to check on them. The recipe online said they should be golden brown.

Kara wasn't sure about golden brown but they definitely weren't burnt and they spelt out Lena. This meant it was time to save them before they joined the first two batches in cookie heaven. That's what Kara called it when the burnt ones went in the trash.

After gently placing them on the kitchen table, Kara transferred them to a large plate. Her timing couldn't have been better. As soon as the cookies had been safely carried over, Lena stepped into the apartment with a shopping bag in her hand.

"Do I smell gingerbread?" Lena asked as she dropped her bag onto the floor.

"Come over here and find out," Kara said from the kitchen.

"Okay, I'm coming." Lena took off her coat and placed it on the hanger by the door. She rolled up the sleeves of her white blouse and smoothed out her black skirt. Kicking off her red high heels before walking over to Kara in the kitchen.

"Since when do you bake?" Lena arched an eyebrow looking at the tray of cookies sitting beside Kara.

"It's just one of my many talents." Kara nudged the trash bag behind the table with her foot when she said this.

"It's funny," Lena paused. "Before I smelled gingerbread I thought I smelled something burning."

"That's ridiculous," Kara shot a glance at the trash bag filled with evidence. "You really think I can't handle baking some cookies."

"Clearly I was wrong." Lena looked down at the tray. "The cookies say my name too! Kara, that's so thoughtful."

"I just wanted to show you how special you are." Kara smiled at Lena. "Speaking of special, don't you want to try them?"

"Of course I do!" Lena answered. "You should have one first though. I can see how much you're eyeing them up."

"Are you sure?" Kara asked, "I did make them for you."

"Yes I'm sure," Lena assured her. "There's still three letters left for me anyway."

Kara took that as her cue to gobble up the L from Lena's name in a matter of seconds.

"Well," Lena said after Kara had finished munching. "How did I taste?"

"You tasted amazing!" Kara exclaimed.

"Oh really," Lena smirked. "So you enjoyed the taste of me then."

"That's not what I meant." Kara wiped some crumbs off her mouth. "I meant the cookie, not your…

"Cookie?" Lena offered. "I don't think anyone's ever called it a cookie before. You do seem to enjoy eating it though."

"I was talking about baked goods." Kara tried to mop some sweat from her brow with her oven mitt.

"So you weren't talking about my goods?" Lena teased.

"Of course not." Kara was pulling on the strings of her apron nervously.

"I'm sorry Kara, you just make it so easy," Lena laughed. "I couldn't help myself."

"You just like seeing me blush," Kara said with flushed red cheeks.

"Well I thought you'd like blushing," Lena offered. "Now you have bright red cheeks, just like Santa Claus."

"Yeah, except Santa's cheeks are red cos he's jolly, not embarrassed." Kara replied.

"Fair enough," Lena considered. "I can make you feel jolly if you want."

"Maybe after you taste one of my cookies." Kara lifted the E shaped one and held it out to Lena. "And don't even think about making another joke."

"Okay, I'll be good." Lena took the cookie from Kara's hand. She took one bite of it and her face said it all. "Oh my god Kara, this is amazing! Now I wish I had a longer name so I had more cookies left to eat."

"Well if you like it that much I'll bake Lena Kieran Luthor next time instead of just Lena," Kara joked. "Is that long enough for you?"

"Yes!" Lena answered enthusiastically. "Please do. I have to ask, why did you make me cookies anyway?"

"I just wanted you to know how much I've loved spending time with you this Christmas." Kara moved closer to Lena. "I'm so glad we finally started dating. Christmas as your best friend was fun, but Christmas as your girlfriend is so much better."

"Kara, I'm the one who's glad." Lena wrapped her arms around Kara. "You've made this the best Christmas ever. There's no one on this planet I'd rather be spending my Christmas with. I love you Kara."

"I love you too." Kara answered. Neither of them had used the L word before but that didn't stop Kara from saying it back to Lena immediately. Kara always knew she loved Lena, she just hadn't figured it all out fully until recently.

"Wow," Lena looked at Kara. "I was afraid you might not say it back."

"Come on," Kara squeezed Lena's hand. "Of course I'd say it back. I love you from your head to your mistletoes."

"And you ruined it." Lena rolled her eyes.

"If you're gonna love me, you have to love my Christmas puns too," Kara said proudly.

"Sounds like a fair deal to me," Lena laughed back.

Kara hadn't expected baked cookies to lead to love confessions. She just wanted to surprise her girlfriend. Kara's gift from the heart had led to Lena giving Kara a gift too.