3 – a tired kiss
It’s not Kara’s job to stay up late with Cat, fixing everything that blew up in this month’s issue when their features editor quit the day everything is due to the printer. It arguably wasn’t Kara’s job to stay up late with Cat even when she was her assistant, but she always did it. She does it now, too.
Cat calls, stressed, asking Kara if her piece that is supposed to go on the website is ready to be published. Kara comes over instead of just emailing it. Comes over and works in Cat’s home office until almost two am, until everything is fixed. Not perfect, but no longer a disaster.
Cat droops, shoves a second pair of reading glasses to the top of her head.
“Thank fucking God,” she says, and Kara agrees. Cat looks up at her. “You have to get home, Kara, Jesus,” she says. “I shouldn’t have made you stay.”
“You didn’t make me, Miss Grant,” Kara says. “I’m glad I could help.”
Cat rubs at her eyes instead of saying anything else. Kara is glad she could help, really. She’s happy in her new position but she misses certain parts of being Cat’s assistant. She misses helping Cat solve things, misses working one-on-one with her like this. She doesn’t even mind how late it is; Cat is stressed when they work late, yes, but she’s softer, too, worn at the edges in a way Kara loves. It’s even better working out of Cat’s home office instead of the Catco building—Cat is in soft black pants and a thin long-sleeve shirt, looking like she should be snuggled up with a book rather than behind a desk.
Cat yawns. “Let me walk you out.”
Kara half-trudges along next to Cat, the hour catching up to her now that they’ve finished work.
Carter is in the living room when they get there, passed out across a couch.
“When did he get out here?” Cat murmurs.
He had been going to bed when Kara arrived. Kara can’t believe she was so focused on working she didn’t hear him get up and move to the living room.
“Sweetheart,” Cat says, her hand on Carter’s shoulder. Her voice is so gentle Kara feels like she shouldn’t watch, like she’s intruding on a personal moment. Carter rouses, barely. “Why are you in the living room?”
“I wanted to make sure you didn’t stay up too late,” he says, voice thick with sleep. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“We’re done working, darling,” Cat says. “I’m just saying good night to Kara then going to sleep, okay? Why don’t you go to bed?”
Carter nods. Cat hugs him, drops a kiss on the top of his head. His eyes still aren’t all the way open as he staggers toward his room.
“G’night, Kara.”
“Good night, Carter,” she says.
Once Carter has disappeared, Cat catches Kara by the elbow, leads her the rest of the way to the door. She yawns again as she opens it.
“Good night to you, too,” she says, and Kara can’t respond, can’t even make words, because Cat wraps her up in a hug just like she did with Carter. And then—Kara swears she must be dreaming, must be so tired she’s hallucinating. Because there’s no way Cat leans up and presses her mouth against Kara’s in the same casual way she kissed Carter on top of the head. “Fly safely,” Cat says.
Kara half stumbles out the door and it closes behind her.
What?
“Fuck,” Kara hears through the door. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
The door opens again. Cat looks taken aback that Kara is still there, standing right in front of it. She’s not sure she’s able to move.
“Kara,” Cat says. “I’m sorry. That was inappropriate. I’m exhausted and—there’s no excuse. I’m sorry.”
Kara stares at her. She has…absolutely no idea what is going on. Cat kissed her and told her to fly safely and…Kara has no idea what she’s supposed to do here. She focuses on the Supergirl side of things because that’s easier, less terrifying—though she is slightly embarrassed that the idea of Cat knowing her secret identity is less terrifying than dealing with Cat kissing her.
“Fly safely?” Kara asks, her voice significantly more high-pitched than usual.
Cat sighs heavily. “Can we possibly just forget the past thirty seconds ever happened?”
Kara is exhausted and terrified and absolutely does not want to forget the past thirty seconds happened.
“No,” she says and Cat sighs again. “You kissed me.”
Cat looks—Kara isn’t sure, really, has never quite seen this look on Cat’s face before. She’s staring over Kara’s shoulder rather than at her. She rubs at her eyes.
“I did, and I’m sorry,” Cat says. “I—”
“I’m not,” Kara says.
Cat’s eyes snap to hers. It makes Kara lose all her confidence of the moment before. She swallows.
“I…” She takes a breath. “I liked it. But if it was just an autopilot thing because you’re exhausted and had just kissed Carter good night, then yes, let’s forget it ever happened.”
Cat just keeps looking at her, and Kara forces herself not to look away.
“I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Kara,” Cat says.
Kara wilts, just a little. So they’re ignoring this, then. That’s probably the right choice. It’s not like Kara hasn’t been ignoring her feelings for Cat for years already. Before she can turn to go, Cat continues.
“Perhaps we could have dinner together afterward,” she says. “And…talk.”
Kara immediately beams, then tries to get control of her face, twist it into a normal-sized smile. Cat smiles back. She still looks tired, both pairs of glasses on her head and eyes a little bleary, but she kissed Kara and she wants to talk and she’s smiling at her. Kara’s heart might skip a beat.
“I’d like that,” she says.
Cat’s smile grows, just for a moment, before she glances away. “Get home safely,” she says. “And sleep well.”
“You, too.”
Kara has to fly around the city three times before her heart slows down enough that she has any chance at sleep.
I love this a lot 😀
Especially this line, this is great! “Kara is exhausted and terrified and absolutely does not want to forget the past thirty seconds happened.”
Question of Smoke 