steam - a supercorp au

chapter four

Kara is usually the nervous one. Lena knew that. She had known it ever since she tripped over her Converse, and the thumb-fiddling, albeit cute, was extremely obvious. Lena didn't mind, though- it was adorable and sweet, that her girlfriend got so flustered over every little thing.
But for some strange reason, Lena was the nervous one while she invited Kara over. She had stumbled over her words as if they were loose laces, and she stuttered through the entire sentence. All of her worry washed away when Kara responded with her usual enthusiasm and optimism. "Of course I'll come over!" She had said, in between large bites of donuts on their casual donut date. Lena's worry, however was replaced with sheer terror over the idea of Kara entering her apartment.
So Lena spent hours (literal hours) prepping the house, trying not to bite her nails and ultimately failing, wondering and wondering what would happen there. Would they watch a movie? Bake? Cuddle, oh, had they ever cuddled before? Is that a new thing?
The minutes were counting up to the final 5:30 PM, and Lena was smoothing out her hair, touching up her eyeshadow, making sure she looked her absolute best. Naturally, Kara was late, so for twelve minutes Lena drove herself insane, thinking she stood me up. She didn't want to come, so she stood me up. Can I blame her? Damn, I really thought she liked me. Why would she like me of all people, though? You should've expected this, you're smarter than this.
The doorbell rang.
Lena fought the urge to run to the door and fly it open, so she calmly sauntered, and swung open the door to reveal Kara Danvers.
She was wearing skinny jeans, short-cuffed above the ankles, with tan flats (cruelty-free, as Kara always made sure). She had a plaid button-down tucked at her waist, and her hair fell neatly past her shoulders in soft ringlets. She clumsily adjusted her glasses. "Hey, Lena!" She greeted, a giant smile painting her face.
"Hi, Kara," Lena replied smoothly, the same happy smile on her face as well. "Come on in, please." She held the door open, and gestured to the inside.
A sleek refrigerator and oven seemed to be the only cooking appliances, placed in the far left corner, and Kara recalled that Lena mostly ate out. She also recalled her girlfriend mentioning that her building used to house a fire station, which explained the poles breaking through the ceiling and floor in the middle of the home. A large king sized bed with simple gray sheets was pushed up at the wall to the side of the door, with a small sconce above. Other than that, there wasn't much furniture. In fact, the apartment was mostly empty, minimalist. The walls were stark white, and the floors were simple hard wood. The only personalized thing near the bed was a small picture frame of Lena and an older guy- maybe around 30 or so?
The only cluttered and busy area was the right side, directly opposite the kitchen and bedroom (which were combined). The entire right wall was peppered with different newspaper articles, magazine cutouts, printed out Youtube comments. They all had twine connecting them, lines crossed all over. Small flash cards were taped up all over the place, with neat, curly handwriting penning small notes. Below the mess of a wall, three desks were all equidistant from each other, and covered with even more papers. The middle desk, however, was clean, except for heaps of technology. There was a professional camera, a laptop, an additional screen, a light sheet, and a large wooden chest underneath.
Kara's first question was "are you a hoarder, or a psychopath?" and she was about to ask, until Lena quickly began, "It's not what it looks like! I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything, I promise."
Kara wandered towards the disaster area, squinting at the papers. Adjusting her glasses once more, she muttered, "what is all this?"
Lena was shocked that her voice wasn't in the tone of fear or worry, but in amazement and awe. "Work," Lena explained succinctly. "This is my job."
Kara traced her fingers along the pinned articles, reading the titles quietly. "Popular trends of 2017, makeup styles of the decade, crazy tips for perfect brows..." Her eyes drifted to the open laptop, chugging and humming slowly. "What the hell is your job, Lee?" Kara tried not to question why they hadn't talked about it before, and decided to push it to the back of her mind.
Lena came up behind her, gently putting her arm around Kara's waist. "I'm a makeup artist," she answered, and then pointed to the screen. "I, uh, make Youtube videos about it, too. That's my channel; it has a few subscribers, I suppose. People like my content."
Kara quickly glanced at her, studying her perfect eyeliner, her clean crease, the lack of lipstick on her teeth (so that's how she does it). Then, she looked at the computer page.
"2.3 million subscribers, Lena?" Kara took her hands, which had fallen awestruck at her side, and placed them on Lena's hips. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Lena locked her arms around Kara, pulling her closer. "I just," she faltered, "didn't want you to like me for my 'fame.' If you can even call it that."
Kara was now safe and enclosed in the Luthor's arms. She looked up- considering that Lena was slightly taller- and stared into her crystal, soft blue eyes. It was warm, comfortable.
"I like you for you," Kara whispered, and pressed onto tiptoes.
First kisses are shocking, is what Alex always taught her. It's a jolt, like electricity, like lightning. It's incredible. But Kara disagreed. This wasn't shocking, or surprising. It was incredible, but in the way that it felt like home. Her stomach didn't drop, and she didn't experience static. The only thing she experienced was perfection and light. And the one sense she was focused on was the taste of Lena's bright red lipstick, shocking against the white walls.