#sapphic-luthor

your excuses to yourself are starting to look flimsier, your arguments starting to devolve into near-stalemates. but does this mean you’re getting weaker, you wonder, or stronger?

you won’t kiss her by @sapphic-luthor ↳ commissioned by @prisnvillanelle

Alex is the one who reaches out first. After Obsidian. After Leviathan. After Lex. When the world has been vanquished of its evils and the dust has settled once more, when Lena's personal phone lights up for the first time in months, it's with Alex's name, not Kara's. Lena pauses for a moment before she picks up, trying to slow the way her heart started racing at seeing the name Danvers on her lock screen again, trying to push away the disappointment that clawed at her stomach when she saw Alex instead of the name she really wanted.

It's work-related, because of course it is, and Lena tries not to be disappointed about that either. The next day finds Lena marching into the DEO with her chin held high. Alex meets her in the foyer and escorts her through the hallways to a conference room with a stack of paperwork an inch tall on the table. It's a slew of NDAs and non-competes, and when she's done Alex sheepishly slides a potential consultancy contract and two fingers of whiskey over as well.

It's on the walk from the conference room to the lab in the basement that she sees Kara for the first time. She's in her suit, leaned back lazily in a swivel chair, feet up on Brainy's desk and her blonde curls tossed over the back of the chair like a golden curtain, and Lena's stiletto slips right out from under her. It's immediate, the way she reaches for Alex's arm, off-balance and falling, but she misses, and just as she's reaching out for the ground, there's an arm around her waist and a hand on her hip. Her feet are under her again and she looks up to find Kara's blue eyes watching her with concern.

"Are you okay?" Kara asks. Her hands are resting on either side of Lena's rib cage, and she's a step and a half too close for Lena to wrap her brain around. "Yeah," she whispers back. "I just slipped. The floor's slippery."

"It's your heels. We have boots we can give you in the closet," Kara looks over to Alex, who shrugs. "I'll walk you there."

"We're going to the lab, Kara," Alex cuts in. "We can give Lena a whole tactical suit later if you want, but not now."

Kara glances back to Lena, her lips twitching to one side as she looks her over, and she's so close, Lena can feel her palms burning through her blazer. "You're sure you're okay?"

"Yes, Kara," Lena replies, an edge to her voice that she didn't intend but doesn't regret. Kara takes a step back and nods but falls in on Lena's other side when Alex starts walking again, the palm on that side of her ribs slides to the small of Lena's back and stays there all the way to the lab. Kara stays, hovering just inside the door with her arms crossed while Alex walks Lena through the program Brainy had been building. It isn't until they're done, when Alex stalks off deeper into the DEO with an exaggerated eye roll, that she's left alone with Kara. Lena turns back toward the direction she came from when Kara's hand returns, warm, warm, on the small of her back while they walk. Lena allows it against the pounding of her heart as they climb the stairs, but when she feels Kara's fingertips start scratching over her, she stops, turns, hates-loves-hates that it makes Kara's hand slide around to her side instead of dislodging it. "I'm fine, Kara. I won't slip again. I've been here before. I can walk in heels."

Kara's hand falls away as she takes a step back. "Do you want to come over tonight?" "What?"

Kara shrugs. "For dinner, after work. We could talk about... everything." She shrugs again, and Lena feels her heart start to pound in her chest. "I've missed you, a lot."

"You have?"

"Lena," Kara breathes out, and Lena watches her hand reach out before Kara pulls it back, feels the small of her back warm with anticipation anyway. "Yes, of course I've missed you. Every day." Lena drops her shoulders, lets a small smile fight its way onto her face. "I really missed you too." Kara hugs her then, envelops her so gently it brings tears to her eyes, a hand between her shoulder blades and the other warm, steady on the small of her back pulling her in, and Lena sinks into it. "Come over?" Kara murmurs into Lena's shoulder.

It is the beautiful and unparalleled Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, which I just finished and am now obsessed with. This baby has everything I could ask for. Unfathomable love. Heists. Politics out your ears. Gods meddling in the affairs of mortals. Reluctant kings. Costume porn. The epic of Gilgamesh. Unfathomable tenderness. Elephants. A disabled main character with a hook hand. Parkour. Attempted bride kidnapping. A master's understanding of pacing and foreshadowing.

definitely lipstick