#hrwinter

Kara’s apartment is always homey, but it’s something special around Christmastime. It smells like pine trees and cinnamon and peppermint, and there are glimmering candles and twinkling string lights everywhere. There are soft, croony covers of Christmas songs playing in the background, a gentle accompaniment to the clatter of Kelly placing their dinner dishes in the sink. Alex is next to her, humming in the kitchen while she makes some spiked hot chocolate, and Nia lays sprawled out over an armchair in the living room, flipping through Christmas movies for them all to watch together.

Lena, from her spot snuggled under a blanket on the couch, sips on her wine and feels something warm and happy come to rest deep in her bones as she watches her friends finish collecting their drinks and snacks before they all settle in for a movie.

It’s somewhere in the middle of Love Actually that Lena looks contentedly, sleepily, around the room. The coffee table is littered with empty hot chocolate mugs and wine glasses. Alex and Kelly are snuggled up together on the other side of the couch, equally comfortable sharing loving glances as they are a bowl of popcorn. Brainy had squeezed into the armchair with Nia before the movie and had promptly fallen asleep, his head resting on hers as she plays with his fingers. And Kara… Kara is curled into the corner of the couch right next to Lena and so engrossed in the film that Lena allows herself a moment to stare a little too long at her profile. The light from the tv flickers over Kara’s face like the light from all the candles she’d lit, and Lena’s struck by a longing so sudden it twists her stomach in knots.

Kara looks at her then, turns her head away from the tv to smile at Lena and slide her hand along the back of the couch until it’s cupped around Lena’s shoulder. She tugs once and Lena follows, tugs once and all those knots in Lena’s stomach unravel and go gooey at the edges as she settles into Kara’s side and rests her head on Kara’s shoulder.

The last thing she remembers as she rapidly loses herself to the haze of warmth that comes from a home-cooked meal, close friends, and a steady heartbeat under her ear, is looking around the room once more. She sees Alex happily snuggled with Kelly and Nia happily snuggled with Brainy and muses that maybe, to an unknowing eye, they’d look like three couples instead of two and two extras. She wonders, as her eyes grow heavy, what Alex or Nia would see if they were to look at her and Kara.

It comes back in pulses, her awareness does. Lena feels a kiss brushed against the crown of her head, catches a whiff of Alex’s perfume and slowly blinks her eyes open to see Alex leaning over her to press a kiss to Kara’s head as well. The two sisters are whispering goodnights to each other when Lena’s eyes drift closed again.

The sound of the front door closing clicks in Lena’s ears and she comes to again, blinking slowly as the room comes into focus. The tv is off but the string lights and the candles still cast a warm, dim yellow glow over the apartment. Her friends are gone, but there’s a heavy throw blanket draped over her that tucks in around Kara’s hip, and Kara’s fingers are carding softly through her hair. They scratch gently over her scalp, and Lena huffs out a soft noise, nudging into Kara’s shoulder in protest as the fingers leave her hair, curling around her shoulder instead.

“Hey,” Kara murmurs, quiet. A thumb strokes over Lena’s shoulder and her eyelids start to droop once more before Lena blinks them back open.

She tilts her head to look up at Kara and finds Kara smiling softly at her. Kara’s hair is even more golden in the dim lighting; her blue eyes are sparkling and Lena knows that no one has ever, ever looked so beautiful in candlelight before.

“Hey,” she finally mumbles back to distract herself. “How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour,” Kara replies, those blue eyes flicking back and forth between Lena’s as her fingers scratch over Lena’s shoulder, and it would be so easy, Lena thinks, to just tip her head up and catch Kara’s lips with her own.

“I should go home,” Lena whispers instead.

Kara’s lips part, her brows furrowing in protest before her face smoothes over again. Kara shakes her head once, her free hand rising to cup around Lena’s elbow. It’s quiet for a moment, and Lena can feel the steady rise and fall of Kara’s chest against her, can see how it causes Kara’s sweater to shift. Kara takes a deeper breath before she speaks again.

“Stay.”

Lena eyes flick back up to Kara’s, having not realized they’d drifted, to find Kara watching her intently.

“It’s late,” Lena says, her eyelids drooping again as if to prove her point. Her eyes follow the tug of gravity and fall to Kara’s mouth, full and pink as ever, before she blinks back up at Kara.

“Yeah,” Kara hums. Her hand flattens on Lena’s shoulder and smoothes over her upper back, pulling her in, and Lena’s stomach clenches, ears burning as her forehead presses into Kara’s. Kara’s other hand leaves her elbow and slides across the small of her back, setting Lena’s skin afire and her breath stuttering out of her as she lets Kara gather her closer. “So stay.”

And oh, Lena thinks, okay.

“Okay,” Lena murmurs, and Kara kisses her.

Kara kisses her and a hand slides up the back of her neck and into her hair. Kara kisses her and she fists her fingers in Kara’s sweater, lets the sweet press of Kara’s lips steal the rest of the breath from her lungs in a whimper. Kara tastes like chocolate and when she finally pulls back, she stares wide-eyed at Lena, lips parted and breath coming in pants.

Lena lets out a shaky breath of her own, eyes half-lidded and trained on Kara’s bottom lip before she pulls her own between her teeth and forces her gaze back up to Kara’s. It’s instinctual, the way a pang of anxiety twists back up in her stomach, but Kara’s eyes are just as wanting, still sparkling in the candlelight as her thumb tugs Lena’s lip out from between her teeth.

“How—” Kara croaks, stops and clears her throat and starts again. “How do you feel about ‘Friendsmas’ now?”

It works, and before she can stop herself, Lena’s eyes are rolling so far back into her head it almost hurts. But Kara’s devious grin is too catching, and Lena presses her own finger to it before moving back in to press her lips to it instead.

“Shut up,” she quips, and Kara laughs so hard it’s all Lena can do to keep their smiles pressed together.