You are the fire (I'm your gasoline)

Chapter 5

Kara gasps into her mouth, and for half a second a wave of panic rushes through Lena's body, but then Kara's hands are cupping both sides of her face and she's kissing back.

It's soft and sweet and even better than Lena could've imagined. She can't breathe and she might be crying, but Kara's kissing her back and that's almost too good to be true, so Lena doesn't dare pull away in fear of waking up.

Eventually it's Kara who pulls away first, gently. One of her hands is still on Lena's cheek, the other tangled in her hair, and there's something about the look in her eyes that Lena has never seen before.

"Hey," Kara whispers, wiping a tear off of Lena's cheek. "Are you okay?"

Lena tries to speak, but her tongue is paralyzed so instead she just nods. She can almost feel the blood rushing through her veins, hear the thump thump thump of her heart against her ribs, but all she can do is stare at Kara. Kara, with eyes are bluer than the ocean. Kara, whose lips are curling up into a hesitant smile. Kara, who's still here, even though Lena just kissed her.

"Was that okay?" Kara asks, dropping her hands from Lena's face. "I've never kissed anyone."

Lena blinks, because here she is, finally letting herself be in love with Kara, and Kara's talking about how this was her first kiss. And it's cute, but it's not how Lena imagined it going. She thought there would be more yelling and calling Lena names and Kara running away from the worst friend she ever had.

"What?" she mumbles, wanting to pull away and stay close to Kara at the same time. "You're not mad?"

Kara raises her eyebrows in surprise. "Mad? Why would I be mad?"

"Because I kissed you," Lena starts, suddenly highly aware of how her mouth still tastes like Kara, and how her lips are still tingling. "Oh god, I kissed you. I didn't mean to—I never wanted to ruin our friendship but I couldn't help it, and now—"

"Ruin our friendship?" Kara interrupts. "You—wait, what?" She reaches forward to push a strand of hair out of Lena's face. "You think I didn't want that? Lena, I know I'm not the best at talking about my feelings and stuff sometimes, but that doesn't mean I don't feel anything at all. I—I feel a lot of things, and you...I mean. Duh."

And before Lena can process what's happening, Kara leans in to press her lips against Lena's again. She's rougher, more aggressive this time, but also tender and full of compassion. Lena reacts to it without a second thought, reaching for the back of Kara's neck to pull her closer. Her side is pressed uncomfortably into the wall of the cave, but she barely feels any of it. All she feels is Kara's lips on her own, and fire spreading rapidly through every cell of her body.

For about a week, they spend their time sneaking around. Stealing kisses when no one's looking, covertly holding each other's hand underneath the table at dinner, snuggling up to each other while they're watching a movie...all the things Lena thought she'd never have. Not with Kara, at least. She imagined all of this so many times, yet somehow the reality is even better than the dream.

One day, when they're walking back from a day on the beach, Kara hooks her arm through Lena's. "I wanna tell them. Eliza and Jeremiah, I mean."

"Tell them what?"

"That you're my girlfriend," Kara says. "I think they'll be okay with it. They like you, and one time when Alex said something dumb she got yelled at by Eliza. She kinda deserved it."

"Wait, I'm your girlfriend?"

Kara stops walking, her smile faltering ever so slightly. "Um...yes? Unless you don't want to? I kinda just assumed...is that not okay?"