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“Is everything okay?” Lena asked.
Kara stopped still, from the constant fidgeting that she’d been doing ever since they sat down on Kara’s couch to watch a movie after their dinner date. She sighed, and drew back the arm she had over Lena’s shoulders.
This was it. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
They’d been officially dating for four months. Longer, if you asked Alex, their behaviour suggesting they were a couple long before they officially were. And really, nothing much had changed. They still saw each other as often as possible outside work, with plenty of games nights, movie nights and meals shared as the two of them relished in each other’s company. The wonderful difference was the dinner dates turned sleepovers turned shared breakfasts or, more often than not, watching movies in one of their apartments and one of them falling asleep halfway through, with the other curling up around the other to follow suit, as close as they could be with the limited space.
But of course, Lena thought, the inevitable was happening. It was too good to be true, really, the fact her wildest hopes and dreams had become a reality. And while Kara had seemed happy enough, was she realising that perhaps it wasn’t the development with their relationship she wanted after all?
“Kara?” Lena broke the silence. “What is it? You can tell me.”
“So,” she began, Lena tensing up beside her. “I don’t want you to worry.”
“Okay... What is it?”
“So I know we’ve only been dating a few months, but there’s something I want to give you.”
Lena exhaled. Okay, not a break up.
“It’s nothing big!” Kara said hurriedly. “Just something I want all the people I care about to have.”
“Oh,” said Lena, curious now. “What is it?”
Grinning, Kara leapt up. In a second, she’d flashed back, holding a case in her hands. “Here.”
Slowly, Lena opened the box to reveal a watch. A thick leather strap and a square face, with a faint House of El symbol displayed in it.
“Wait, is this-“ she started.
Kara smiles cautiously. “I know I’ve saved you without it, but I want you to always be able to call for me.”
Tears in her eyes, Lena carefully places it down in front of her before throwing herself into Kara’s arms. “Thank you,” she breathes.
Kara hugs her tightly and presses a kiss to the top of her head, murmuring into her hair. “I promised you I’d always protect you, and I meant it.”
Withdrawing from Kara’s arms, Lena reaches for the box again and offers it to her. “Can you put it on for me please?”
Kara takes the box, gently removes the watch and takes Lena’s offered hand onto her lap, then fastens the watch onto it. Satisfied with the fit, she pulls Lena closer to her to show her the mechanism which would open the watch face to reveal the button. “Remember, any time you need me, any time you’re in danger or someone needs help. Press that and I will be there.”
“And to think,” Lena starts to say.
“Think what?”
“You’ll think I’m silly, but I knew you were preoccupied with something this evening, and I thought, well...”
“Thought what?”
“That maybe you were over this.”
“This?”
Lena, starting to choke up now, gestures between them. “You know,” she says thickly.
“Oh Lena no!” Kara slips off the couch and onto the floor in front of Lena, clasping her hands between hers as she stared up at her, willing her to understand. “Lena, these past few months have been the most exciting of my life. I wake up some days and think it must have just been a dream, and it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world when I look over and see you curled up next to me. Lena, I love you.”
Lena gasps quietly as she stares back at Kara. Not quite the evening I was expecting. Reaching out her hands, she gently cups Kara’s face and presses her lips to hers. Pulling back, but staying close, she smiles at her, all the worries of the world, for the moment, lifted off her shoulders. “I love you too.”
Later that evening, snug in her bed with Kara’s arms wrapped around her from behind, Lena wakes for a moment, feeling the warm body behind her and the feeling of the watch secure on her wrist. She is home.
Two years later.
“Kara, are you home?” Lena calls out as she opens the door to the apartment. Their apartment.
“Just a minute!”
Kara emerges from the living room, beaming at Lena. “Hi.” She quickly kisses Lena before taking her bag and helping her remove her coat. “Go get changed then meet me in there.”
Grinning, Lena heads to their bedroom, removing her work clothing and heels and replacing them with sweatpants and one of Kara’s sweatshirts. She wanders back through the apartment to find Kara waiting.
The room is softly lit by dozens of candles, and the coffee table full of all their favourite foods.
“I wanted to take you out tonight, but figured that after the hectic week we’ve had just being home with take out was a much more relaxing option.”
Lena nods her agreement as she gets closer to Kara, who opens her arms for a hug. Lena finds all the stress of the week disappearing as Kara hugs her, then gently lifts her up and sits her on the couch. “Right, what first?!”
A couple of hours later, food eaten and then mess cleared away, and their conversation all but died down, Lena is resting on the couch, her back to Kara’s front as Kara gently combs her fingers through her hair. She’s just about at the point of starting to drift off when Kara clears her throat quietly and sits up slightly.
“So I was planning this slightly differently but I can’t think of any better moment than right now.”
Puzzled, Lena turns her head slightly towards her, and feels Kara wriggle slightly as she gets something from her pocket, which she passes to Lena. “Here.”
It’s an odd looking piece of small metal, one longer piece bent and twisted into a strange pattern back around itself.
“What is it?”
“Your watch,” is all Kara says.
Sitting up more, Lena lifts her hand and sees that the squared end of the metal piece is a similar size to the watch face. She removes the watch from her wrist then gently presses the metal to it, faintly hearing it click into place. Ever the scientist, she presses against the side piece of the metal, and the watch face fully rotates around. But what’s inside isn’t the usual button.
“Kara...” Lena breathes.
Inside the watch, the watch she’d worn every day for the past two years, is a ring. She pulls it out, then feels Kara move from behind her and appear on the floor, not unlike the first day she’d seen this watch.
“Like I said, this was planned slightly differently. You deserve the world and I was planning all sorts of fancy displays and special dinners and locations, but then I realised that it’s just you and me and what’s special to us, and you’re all I need. So, Lena Luthor, will you marry me?”
Speechless, Lena gapes at her a second too long, and Kara goes to speak again, ready to promise to make this the special occasion Lena deserved, before Lena pushes herself forward off the couch and into Kara’s arms. “Yes, yes, of course, yes!” Wrapping her arms around Kara’s shoulders, she kisses her hard before drawing back to face her again. “Am I dreaming?”
“If we are I don’t want to wake up.” Kara says, before gently taking the hand containing the ring and sliding it onto Lena’s finger.
“This whole time?”
“I knew from the second I met you that you were going to be important to me. The day we finally admitted our feelings to each other was the day I knew I wanted to be with you forever, and the day I gave you that watch I knew that I would be marrying you one day. So I just waited, until it was the perfect time, and then realised I was done waiting.”
“I love you Ka-” is all Lena can get out before bursting into tears again.
Kara smiles and lifts them both back onto the couch, pulling Lena into her. Once Lena is quiet again, she smiles up at Kara. “I love you, and I can’t wait to marry you.”
Kara smiles, kissing her again, before reaching for Lena’s hand and gently pressing a kiss to the back of Lena’s hand, and then to the ring.
To the place it would never leave.