What Fools These Mortals Be

Chapter 5 - More Than Friends

There's a knock on Lena's office door on Tuesday afternoon. It pulls her out of her staring match with some schematics (which she would have won) and changes her bleary-eyed stare into a bright smile.

"Kara, what are you doing here? Didn't you get my message?"

"I did." The reporter smiles shyly as she slides into Lena's space as comfortably as she would a pair of old slippers. She holds up a paper bag hanging from one of her arms by handles. "If you can't make our lunch, I thought I would just have to bring lunch to you."

"Oh, you didn't have to," Lena replies even as her smile grows, and she wraps Kara in a hug that's warm, soft, and doesn't look as if it's likely to end anytime soon.

"And let the world saving genius starve? Not likely." Kara smiles back into that hug as she holds Lena tightly in return. She's wrapped in Lena's arms and a beautiful, loving, private moment until—

"Ahem."

"Oh!" Kara peels herself free of the embrace and adjusts her glasses. She has the good graces to blush as she gestures to the woman still waiting in the doorway. "I totally forgot. I'm so, so sorry. Lena, this Nia. We work together. Nia, this is Lena. She... Well, I told you all about her."

"You certainly did." Nia crosses the room with her free hand extended in greeting, a bag similar to Kara's hanging from the other one. "Nia Nal. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Luthor. If even half the things Kara has been telling me about you are true, you're going to single handedly save the world. Oh, and sliced bread is only the second best thing now."

Kara mumbles something noncoherent as she ducks her head, and her blush deepens.

"Kara is much too kind," Lena says as she shakes Nia's hand, "but she does have a way with words. You must be the new reporter that's working with her. She's said your articles are very good. Another crusader for truth and justice?"

"And the American way." Nia pats her bag and takes a step back. "Well, I hate to drop off food and run, but I do have to get back to work."

"Yeah, it was great seeing you, Lena." Kara hands over the bag to Lena. "Call me on your ride home tonight?"

"Hey, Kara, I have a bunch of research to do. Since we already came all the way out here, why don't you and Miss Luthor have lunch?" Nia says.

"Oh, I couldn't leave you to do the research alone."

"Please, I insist. You stay and have lunch with your... friend. I'm going to drop this other lunch off with Miss Luthor's assistant for—" Nia is backing up toward the door and turns, nearly colliding with someone who's entering, "Querl!"

"Nia?" Querl fumbles with a file, nearly dropping it. "What are you doing here?"

"I'll take that, Querl, thank you. You two know each other?" Lena asks.

"Um," Querl hands over the folder and looks from Nia to the two ladies watching him expectantly, "yes, clearly."

"Wow, small world, huh? How do you two know each other?" Kara asks.

"How?" Querl's mouth opens and closes, but he doesn't manage to say anything else.

"We're dating," Nia suddenly blurts out. Then her entire face scrunches up. It's a look that says she's trying to close the verbal barn door long after the cows have gone.

"It certainly is a small world." Lena smiles broadly. "I take it that's lunch for Mr. Dox and yourself in that bag?"

"Uh..." Nia stares at the bag in her hand. "It is but—"

"Join us."

Nia shakes her head. "But—"

"That sounds like fun," Kara says. "It can be like a big friend date. The more the merrier."

Querl points over his shoulder with a thumb. "But I should—"

"I insist." Lena is still smiling as cheery as ever, but her tone brooks no argument.

Defeated and slightly dejected, Nia lays out food on the coffee table while Querl takes a seat next to her on the couch, his mood matching hers. Lena and Kara have already scooped the chairs on either end of the table, sitting as far apart as they can without one of them moving to Lena's office chair. They both smile airily and chat as Lena daintily opens her salad even as Kara digs into a triple bacon cheeseburger her jaw practically has to unhinge to eat. Their dichotomy is once again on display, yet they're a match.

"So, how did you meet?"

Nia, completely enraptured at watching Kara's imitation of a hungry python, startles at Lena's voice. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You and Mr. Dox, how did you two meet? He's a rather private person. I wasn't even aware that he was seeing someone."

"Oh, work."

"Interesting. You're in very different work." Lena's gaze bounces between the two Cupids. "Whose?"

"Mine," they both say at the same time as their gazes lock unsteadily.

"Ruh-roh, trouble in paradise." Kara shows off her mastery of speaking utterly clearly around a ¼ pound of beef in her mouth even as she shoves some fries into the remaining open space.

"Actually, funny story. I was writing an article about inventors, and Querl was one of the people I interviewed. So I was doing my work at his work. We met at both our work."

Kara takes a gulp of her soda and grins. "Hey, kind of how we met, Lena."

"You're a reporter, Kara. You meet a lot of people that way."

"Oh, true. So, was it love at first sight you two?"

"Actually, no," Nia says as she picks up her BLT. "Querl here was completely clueless." She watches his face screw up in anger and widens her eyes, gesturing first left and then right at the other two women.

"Ah, yes, I was. I thought I had made a friend, a best friend, but clearly Nia was so much more. I couldn't see what was right in front of my face, but Nia was just as bad."

She chews and swallows, wiping at her face as she nods. "Oh, I was. Can you imagine, the genius inventor and investigative reporter, best friends, spending all their time together, people even thinking they were dating, destined to end up together, but they couldn't see the forest for the trees."

"Golly." Kara blinks. "Lena?"

"Yes, that's quite a story." She smiles brightly. "Well, I'm glad you two came to your senses."

"Yeah, congrats you two," Kara says. "Lena, are you going to eat your roll?"

"Do I ever?" She holds it out.

Kara takes the roll in both hands, her shoulders rising and falling as she grins. "You're my favorite."

Even as the 'best friends' continue to chatter away, the Cupids make uneasy eye contact. They have their work cut out for them indeed.