Lena wasn’t that surprised to hear that Kara loved her which means she knows which means kara has told her. When do you think that happened and how? Maybe cuddling after Jack? Even before that? That’s something they should have shown but #nohomo

proudlyunicorn:

The first time Kara says it is right after Supergirl rescues her from the Kryptonite explosion caused by her mother.

It’s light and casual, but it still jolts through Lena’s system. Like touching a livewire, she thinks, reading the texts over and over again.

Received: lunch tomorrow?

Sent: I’m afraid I can’t, Kara. I have a meeting in the afternoon.

Received: 😦 aw okay no prob

Sent: You might be able to tempt me to do brunch, however. If you can take your lunch hour that early.

Received: OMG LENA I LOVE YOU YOU’RE A GENIUS I LOVE BRUNCH

Received: that’s a yes btw

Received: if you’re sure you can afford the time?

Received: …Lena?

Sent: Yes, Kara, of course. I always have time for you.

And Lena knows – she knows – that Kara means it the way a friend means it, that she has a boyfriend, that there are probably a million people she says it to in a day. But Lena… Lena doesn’t have that. There’s no one that she says it to and the only ones who’ve ever said it to her are Lex and Jack, neither of whom she has anymore.

(She doesn’t count the times Lillian had said it, always followed by a demand or some sort of qualification.)

She wonders what the protocol is, if she’s meant to say it back, if she’s meant to acknowledge it at all. But then Kara sends roughly ten emojis in response to her last text and the moment is lost, buried beneath a return to their regular conversation. She thinks perhaps it was a slip, that Kara hadn’t meant to say it. Or worse, that the words were said lightly and held no true value to Kara at all, as it sometimes didn’t to people who were allowed to say it all the time.

People who didn’t know how truly precious it was to be loved.

//

Except Kara, though she tosses them out casually at times, never seems to use those words outside of her immediate circle. With her sister, of course. With her closest friends. But she doesn’t say them to her boss or her sister’s girlfriend or even to the delivery boy Lena’s pretty sure she sees almost every night. 

But she says them to Lena. 

She says them like she had the first time, mixed into excited text messages (usually when the subject of food comes up, or when Lena says something that makes her laugh). She says them when they hug goodbye, her arms squeezing tight around Lena, holding her close several beats longer than Lena is used to from longtime business associates.

She says it with quiet reassurance when Lena is feeling low, self-depreciating, when she starts to close in on herself (an arm around Lena’s shoulders, a gentle press of lips to the top of her head, a murmured, “You know I love you, right? And I’m not going away. You’re stuck with me now, Lena Luthor”).

And sometimes Kara will just be looking at her and smiling and the words will be there in her eyes, in the affection that even Lena can read. 

It takes Lena weeks before she is able to say the words back. They’re sitting in Kara’s apartment, lazing on the couch, and Kara’s fingers are toying gently with the ends of her hair. Lena turns to her and studies her profile, the curve of her jaw, the slope of her cheek, the way her lips tilt up at the corners when she feels Lena staring.

She turns her head, tilts it, blue eyes searching Lena’s face.

“What?” she asks, adjusting her glasses self-consciously. “Is there something on my face?”

And Lena just shakes her head and whispers, “You know I love you too, right?” with her voice quivering. But it’s worth it to see Kara’s eyes light, to feel her lean forward and wrap her up in a hug.

“I know it,” Kara agrees, her voice soft beside Lena’s ear, and Lena closes her eyes and clutches to her shirt and wonders if Kara knows how much she truly means it.