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“No, no, you two can not be on the same team again!” Brainy hadn’t been attending games nights long, but even he knew the power of the sisters together.
“I agree, inside jokes, shorthand from Midvale, this is an unfair advantage.” James piped up from the couch.
“So?” Kara shot back.
“Hey but you know, maybe we have an unfair advantage too?”
Kara’s stomach twists for a moment at Lena’s words before joining in with Alex’s laughter. Soon the whole room is laughing and yelling as they try decide teams, everyone else determined to split up the usual pairs, Kara and Alex hugging each other tight as everyone tries to decide what the new teams should be. Soon, Lena chimes in louder.
“Fine, let’s split up the pairs. But I get Kara.”
The room goes quiet for a moment before James starts muttering about all their lunch dates and how that wouldn’t be fair either.
“Nope, that’s what we agreed, splitting up us and them, that’s all. So, what do you say Kara?”
Kara looks at Alex apologetically, and Alex rolls her eyes before nudging her off the couch. “Fine, tonight only!”
Kara bounces up and goes to stand pointedly in front of James. “I believe you’re in my seat?” she says with a grin. He sighs, gets up and goes to sit next to Alex, as Kara sits herself down next to Lena.
Kara beams at her before turning back to the table. “Right, who’s going first?”
Kara was answering first, and Lena bit her lip as she took the first card. Kara squeezed her shoulder in a sort of pep talk way. “Hey, we’ve got this, I’ll only ignore you for a week if you lose!” Lena grimaced, then smiled back at Kara, before nodding at Brainy, who was timing this round.
“Aaaand, go!”
“He’s that chess player I told you about when I showed you my trophies?”
“Magnus Carlsen.”
“Russian Empress I admire?”
“Catherine the Great.”
“The monastery I visited in boarding school?”
“Kylemore Abbey.”
And so it continued, scoring them 10 points on their first turn. Kara high-fived Lena before crossing her arms and staring down Brainy. “Beat that.”
Neither other team could, scoring one and two points each, before it was back to Kara and Lena again. This time, it was Lena’s turn to answer.
“Location of the ice cream headquarters I want to visit?”
“Vermont.”
“My favourite movie?”
“The Wizard of Oz.”
“The constellation I was telling you about the other week?”
“Monoceros.”
This time, nine points, but still significantly more than that others, who got one each in that round.
An hour later and it’s Kara and Lena’s turn again, Kara grinning almost maniacally as Nia calls “time!” just as they complete the last card from the pile in front of them. Alex is rubbing her forehead in exasperation, while a frown has been on James’ face the entire time. The others, at least, are entertained, too used to losing normally to be too bothered.
They’ve won. They’ve definitely won. The pile of cards in front of them towers over everyone else’s, more than even Kara and Alex’s pile has in the past, and, Lena thinks, far bigger than her and James have ever had the few times they’ve played this game. Kara leaps up in some sort of victory dance as Lena leans forward to start collecting the cards, when she feels a hand on her arm and Kara is guiding her up with her. Confused, Lena puts the cards down then stands, then bursts out laughing as Kara curtsies to everyone. “You’ll all welcome for being able to witness this victory. Come on Lena!”
Lena, still laughing, drops into a small curtsy too, before she’s pulled back onto the couch with Kara, who’s cackling as Alex throws the cards at them, sick of Kara’s gloating. Kara laughs at her, and pulls Lena in closer as they both stick their tongue out at Alex. The bickering turns into laughter as they reflect on some of the more entertaining moments of the game, but slowly, Lena starts to tune them out. She’s exhausted, she’s been up since 4am and it’s gone 11pm now, but she’s relaxed and happy and could just stay in this moment forever.
Just as her eyelids are starting to droop, everyone starts getting up, collecting dishes and tidying games and pillows as they return Kara’s living room to its original state. Lena grabs her glass and takes it into the kitchen to start washing the stack that has built up, quite content to avoid the flying pillows in that direction (“I’m putting them away Alex!” Kara insists when one of hers hits Alex in the face).
As she waits for the sink to fill up she feels someone behind her as James’ hand settles around her waist. “I think everyone’s leaving, are you coming?”
“I’ll just finish these then I’ll be going,” she replies, scrubbing determinedly at a non-existent mark on one of the wine glasses.
“Did you want me to come back to yours or?”
“Actually James I’m really tired, but I’ll call you tomorrow okay?”
“Fine,” he says, exasperatedly, but presses a long kiss to her forehead anyway before saying goodbye to Kara and heading out the door.
“Oh you don’t have to do that!” insists Kara, once she’s finished saying goodbye to the others and then Alex, promising her that they’ll team up next game night, despite Kara and Lena’s record win.
“I’m almost done,” Lena says, smiling. “We did good tonight huh?”
“Uh, good is an understatement! We were awesome! Thank you for suggesting it! Though I think Alex might take a while to get over losing that badly.”
Lena laughs at that as she removes the plug from the sink, dishes now clean. “Well she’ll get you back for good now so I’m sure she’ll survive.”
Kara pauses for a second, cocking her head to watch Lena as she goes to get the tea towel. “What makes you think that?”
“Wasn’t that the one-off deal she made?”
“Yeah but, I want to go with you again now,” says Kara. “Unless you don’t want to?”
“I would love to, assuming Alex is willing to share?”
“I’ll convince her, she knows you’re one of my favourite people too, and she loves me so she’ll agree.”
Lena feels herself blush slightly at that, and busies herself with putting away the last of the glasses before turning back to Kara. “Anything else need doing?”
“No, and again, you didn’t have to do that. Are you leaving?”
“I had a very early start for a conference call, so my bed is calling me, but brunch tomorrow maybe? It’s been a while?”
“Yes please, Noonan’s at 10?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” Lena smiles at Kara, then goes to grab her coat. She takes in the offered hug and nods to Kara’s “bye partner” before Kara shuts the door, leaving Lena in the hallway. She smiles, presses her hand to the door and murmurs “bye partner” before heading towards the elevator.
The next morning Lena is sitting in their regular booth at Noonan’s at 9:45 when her phone rings. It’s James.
“Where are you, I’m at your place with coffee but you aren’t here?”
She sighs. “I’m out. If you’d have called before turning up you’d have known that.”
“Oh, okay. Where are you, shall we go get brunch?”
“Actually, that’s what I’m doing, meeting Kara for brunch.”
“I was hoping to spend some alone time with you…”
“We’ll talk later, bye James.”
She ends the call before he can respond, before silencing her phone and tucking it into her bag. Looking up, she sees Kara heading in her direction. “Sorry, I didn’t realise I was late!”
“No no, you weren’t, I was just early, and I ordered your usual.”
The food arrives in a few minutes and they dig in, Lena teasing Kara about trying some of the “it’s delicious like this Kara!” kale on her plate as Kara politely but quickly makes her way through her meal. They chat throughout, Lena laughing hysterically at Kara’s impressions of their friends during the game the night before, as they got more and more frustrated the higher their pile grew. Once they’re both finished, Kara leaps up and heads to the counter, returning with two takeaway cups, also their usual, just as Lena is finishing her meal. Lena thanks her as she stands up, grabbing her bag and taking the offered cup, before Kara hooks her arm around Lena’s and heads out the door to wait for Lena’s driver. “See you later partner” is all Lena hears as she gets in, and she smiles the rest of the drive home.
“Good time with Kara?” Lena jumps as she walks in the door to see James smiling at her from the kitchen counter.
“It was, thanks.” She smiles back before removing her shoes and opening the closet to hang up her bag and coat.
“Did you feel like going out tonight? There’s a new place that’s opened up just down the road from CatCo.”
She doesn’t, really, and would have rather stayed in that evening, but this is James making an effort, so she readily agrees and asks him to make the booking.
Later that evening, they arrive and are seated at what is admittedly a very nice-looking restaurant, with a very appealing menu. He orders for them both (“oh you’ll love this!” he insists, though she doesn’t) and is talking about the latest group of photojournalist interns he’s working with when her phone goes off. Apologising, she unlocks the screen to see a message from Kara. Working around everyone’s schedules, the next game night is a week from Thursday. Will I see you there partner?
Lena replies quickly. Wouldn’t miss it.
She puts her phone away and sees James watching her. “Who was that?”
“Kara, just letting me know about the next game night.”
“Ha, best practice for that one then!” James says with an odd look on his face, then continues his talk about the interns and what he’s been teaching all of them that week.
“Are you ready?”
James is standing at the door of the CatCo office as Lena finishes the last of her work for the day. They’re off to game night, Kara having already promised that she’d team up with Alex and Lena once each during the evening, and today that was the only reason Lena was going, because someone else wanted her there. Things with James had still been off, they still hadn’t talked through any of the issues from Thanksgiving, with James being more interested in distracting her with cooking and flowers and presents, brushing her off with them needing to move forward whenever she tried to bring it up. She didn’t want to push him too far again, but she hated feeling like she was walking on eggshells around him.
“Just a minute.”
Lena looks up at him, leaning against the doorway, watching her, then turns back to her computer, responding to the last email before closing everything down and standing up. James is waiting with her jacket in hand, ready to help her into it, but instead she takes it in her other arm before heading out the door.
They drive to Kara’s in silence, but before Lena can get to the elevator in Kara’s building she feels him touch her arm. “Hey can we talk please, you’ve barely said two words to me today.”
She’s about to brush it off again, but then something in her snaps. “You’re one to talk,” she snaps, turning to face him. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for weeks.”
“Lena…”
“No, no more excuses. I don’t need distracting with fancy dinners, I need us to actually talk this out.”
“Why can’t we move past it?” He asks. “We’ve been happy, why dwell on what doesn’t matter anymore?”
“Because it does matter, because all you did was tell me I was loving you wrong.” Her voice almost cracks at that, but she stands firm.
“We’ve moved past it, we’re having fun, what’s the issue?”
“Sure, on the surface, but I don’t know what you expect from me beyond this. The dutiful girlfriend you cook for, the grateful girlfriend getting sent flowers to work, the charming girlfriend out for a meal. Where’s the rest of it. Where does this go once all the picture-perfect parts on the surface are gone? The part we still can’t talk through.”
“We’re just going to get through it, it won’t matter one day.”
“Sure,” she replies, running her fingers through her hair. She’s about to respond again, when her phone goes off. It’s Kara. Are you guys far away?
“We’re actually talking later,” she tells James, before heading to the elevator. They travel up in silence, and head inside Kara’s apartment.
Once inside, Lena pointedly sits next to Kara on the spare couch space, leaving James to sit on the floor.
“Unless there are any objections, we’re playing Monopoly first.” Kara announces.
Lena grins at her, and Kara winks back. Clearly this was intentional, Lena understands the strategy of this game and more often than not comes out on top.
An hour later, two people are bankrupt and Kara is getting down to her last few dollars, hoping to make it past Go before-
“Darnit!”
She rolls a four and lands on Park Place with a groan. It’s Lena’s, with a hotel. She doesn’t have nearly enough to pay it. Her only unmortgaged property is a utility, and yet…
“I’ll take the Electric Company as payment.”
“Lena it’s not worth that much.”
“Ah, but it is to me. I pay what a property is worth and it just so happens to be the same price.”
“Deal!” Kara says quickly, handing it over.
A few turns later, Kara still barely hanging on, James lands on Boardwalk. He’s not in a much better position than Kara, and without any property sets he’s stuck.
“Which properties do you want?”
“All of them.”
“Come on Lena, Kara gave you one in exchange.”
“Yes but I wanted that one more, this is me being generous.”
Yes, she’s being petty, but she’s annoyed with him.
He hands them over and is out by the next turn. The game continues, and despite Lena’s continued moments of generosity towards Kara, much to Alex’s disgust, Lena does eventually win.
“Can we please play something now that doesn’t give someone an unfair advantage? Playing a property trading and developing game with a multi-millionaire who does this regularly seems a tad unfair.” Nia says, bringing another bottle of wine out.
“Trivia again?” Kara says with a grin.
Kara and Lena teamed up again for the first round and won, much to Kara’s delight. In the second round, Alex insisted that it was definitely her turn with Kara again, and everyone reluctantly agreed.
Kara and Alex definitely did well, although Lena noticed they had missed a few more than she and Kara had, but brushed it off as the luck of the cards.
Lena and James, however, didn’t do quite so well. He made references to places he’d been or wanted to go that they’d never talked about, anecdotes he’d never shared with her and references Kara and Alex seemed to get but Lena didn’t, and by the time Lena’s turn came, she realised that while there were some things she hadn’t shared with him, there were others she definitely had talked to him about that didn’t register in the slightest. All fluff on the surface with no substance. She purposely didn’t think more about the next thought that crossed her mind, because someone had remembered lots of her stories.
They finished off the evening with poker, using Kara’s stash of gummy bears as chips when everyone’s response to Lena’s face lighting up at Kara’s suggestions was firm agreement that she would clean them out of all their money on hand. Lena didn’t mind either way, she was distracted by Kara’s suggestion, who’d clearly remembered their brief discussion after Roulette first appeared of Lena’s time at boarding school, where Roulette introduced her to all sorts of things her parents wouldn’t have approved of, poker included.
The game eventually finished, Lena winning as expected, though at the end declared it far too much candy and pushed the pile to the centre of the table. They chatted quietly as the group made their way through the pile, then everyone started standing up to leave. Thanking Kara for another entertaining evening, with Nia declaring she would try find a game to challenge Lena, the group slowly departed, Lena almost wishing she could stay, because despite how she and James needed to have that conversation, she really didn’t want to.
Hanging by the door until everyone else had left, she thanked Kara again, before Kara gave her a quick hug and a “see you tomorrow partner.” Lena smiled, pulled her coat on, then followed James out the door.
Back at Lena’s apartment, she fussed around removing her makeup and changing out of her work clothes before finally turning to James, who was sitting on the couch.
“So,” she started, sitting on the opposite end. “We need to talk about this.”
“So, talk.”
Lena sighed. “Okay, fine. What is this, and what are we doing?”
“Dating, I thought. We had a fight, we moved past it, we’re happy now.”
“Except we didn’t move past it. I finally came to you, you brushed over it, then cooked me dinner. What did you really think about what I did?”
“I didn’t like it, you know that.”
“No, you said I wasn’t loving you right because of that.”
“I was angry, but you don’t need to fight my battles for me, I would have been fine. You know that now.”
“If it wasn’t for me you’d be in jail right now, I protected you out of love and I omitted it bec-”
“Because why?”
“Because I don’t think I was doing it right after all…”
“See, we were both in the wrong, we’ve admitted that to each other.”
“No…” Lena said slowly. “Not that. I omitted it because I knew you wouldn’t like it. I knew that bothered you.”
“Didn’t we just establish that?”
“No, not like that.”
“Like what then? We love each other, we can accept our flaws and still work on them.”
“James, that’s not why I omitted it. I should have told you the truth.”
“Again, didn’t we just establish that?”
“I didn’t tell you because that’s not what you want. You don’t want us to be equals who sometimes have to do things and be bigger for the other person. And I let that happen.”
“Okay now you’ve lost me.”
Lena stands up, heading to the window, not wanting to look at him. “I tried to make it work. I was going to let the interview thing go for god’s sake. I was going to let you walk all over me personally and professionally because I was so desperate to make it work. And then I was so determined to finally make it better than I wanted you to see what you’d done wrong, but I went back to you and you cooked me dinner and it was somehow fine. It’s not fine.”
“I told you I was sorry.”
“Except you never did, and still continue to not respect me professionally because, what, being linked romantically means that somehow the fact I’m your boss doesn’t matter?”
“I’ll work on it. It’s hard for me, because I was running CatCo before you turned up, and I don’t know how to see you as my superior there.”
“James,” she says coolly. “You’ve been acting in that role for months now, despite no qualifications to do so, and you were just fine before when Cat Grant was still around.”
That hurt his pride. “I’ve been fine.”
“Because people have your back James, people with experience have your back. The least you could do is respect everyone who does.”
“I’ll tr-”
She cuts him off. “And then, tonight.”
“What, you didn’t beat Kara?” He says sarcastically.
“No,” she replies. “But the fact you hadn’t shared any of those stories with me, and you hadn’t listened to any of mine, was all I needed to confirm it. It’s all surface, no substance, we’ve been together for months and those discussions haven’t registered or haven’t been heard. I don’t want just surface anymore.”
“Are you breaking up with me?”
“Yeah.” She says softly. “Because I think we can both find our perfect game night partner someday, and I’ve realised I finally deserve that substance.”
He stands from the couch slowly, walking towards where she’s standing at the window. Her eyes are glassy, but she’s not quite crying.
“Your job is safe, and I think we were becoming good friends for a while, if you want to go back to that. But we both deserve better than this.”
He stands there, unsure of what to do next, before reaching out a hand to shake hers. She smiles at that, and grasps his firmly. “To friends,” he says.
Four weeks later, and it’s game night again. Between various business trips and awkward work shifts for the group this was the first one they were able to finally arrange. They’re seated around Kara’s table again and Lena’s feeling so much better than she was last time they were gathered there. James is there, and things between them had been tense for the first week or so, but professionally their relationship had improved tremendously and they’re getting there on the friendship front. Right now, it’s Alex’s turn to guess in Clue. She’s correct, of course, and Lena turns to Nia with a laugh. “So we can’t play games that I have an advantage in but you bring one for someone in law enforcement.”
“Well they didn’t have one for journalists, but either way you still aren’t winning.”
Lena rolls her eyes and settles back into the couch as Alex’s gloating starts. “At least I don’t behave like that all the times I do.”
They play a few tamer (in Lena’s words) card games next before Kara excitedly pulls out her favourite. And Lena’s too, if she’s admitting it to herself.
“Now I did say Danvers sisters for life when it comes to this, but as a public service due to Alex’s winning behaviour, I’m kindly sacrificing myself to Lena’s team for this round.”
Alex boos at her and throws an ice cube from her drink at her. “Poor excuse, you just want to be on Lena’s team.” But she agrees anyway, and after declaring Nia her new favourite due to the game she brought, Brainy and James end up as the other team.
To their credit, both other teams do a lot better this round, but, again, Kara and Lena pull ahead quite quickly. When it’s half over, Kara declares a break to top up drinks and snacks, and while everyone is milling around Lena sits and observes, realising how content she is here, again, and she’s so grateful for that. James is watching her, and she turns to face him curiously. “We might be losing,’ he says, “but you’re a great team to watch.”
She smiles at that, then sits up and rubs her hands together as Kara approaches gleefully. “Ready to whip their butts again?”
They do, of course, and Kara contained her excitement slightly more this time. Eventually, the conversation dies down, and everyone heads out. Lena stalls, wanting to soak up as much of this contented feeling as possible, when Kara asks her if she wants a cup of tea before she leaves. “I’ve even got your favourite! Took me ages to find too.”
Lena agrees, and soon they’re curled up on the couch, one of Kara’s favourite movies, which by extension has become one of Lena’s, playing in the background. They’re half watching, half talking, but Lena is sure Kara knows all the words anyway.
“You and James seemed okay tonight.” Kara says quietly.
Lena turns to her with a smile. “Yeah, I think we are in a good place now. It’s a relief. I didn’t want to miss these.”
“Miss what?”
“You know, game night.”
“Why would you miss it? Would you stop coming if James was here too?”
“Oh you know,” Lena says, “if we hadn’t managed to stay friendly, you’ve been friends with him for longer, so of course I wouldn’t try keep coming.”
“Lena!” Kara sits up in a hurry, placing her mug down on the coffee table and pausing the movie before turning her body completely towards Lena. “You’re my best friend. Of course you would have been welcome still.”
“Either way, it would have been awkward if we hadn’t kept things amicable, and I couldn’t push aside someone you’ve been friends with longer.”
“Lena,” Kara repeats firmly, “I would have wanted you here.”
“Yeah well, it wasn’t a problem anyway. Now push play, it’s just getting to the good part.” She waves off Kara’s worries.
Kara, however, doesn’t. “Lena, you’re my best friend, I want to spend this time with you as often as I can. I mean, you’ve become my perfect game night partner, and I-“
Kara cuts herself off at that, remembering an evening in that very apartment from years earlier, leading to a realisation that she still struggled with. Someone who knows everything about me. My perfect partner at a game night.
Lena, too, is thinking about what Kara said, from a far more recent conversation with the very same person. She’s just thinking about it before it clicks for Kara first, and suddenly Lena feels Kara’s lips on hers.
“Oh!” Kara sits back on the couch quickly. “Lena I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”
“Hopefully it was the same realisation I just came to.” Lena replies, as she leans towards Kara and returns the kiss, ever so slowly. Kara responds, bringing her hands up to Lena’s face before Lena moves back to look at Kara, who is sharing the same smile and look of wonder.
Lena blushes slightly and ducks her head before Kara’s hand moves under her chin to lift her face up, giving her another kiss before bringing her into a hug.
“My perfect partner at a game night.” Kara murmurs to herself as Lena snuggles into her, as they finally finish the movie. Once it’s over, Lena is asleep, so Kara simply pulls the throw blanket over the both of them, and drifts off with her.
The next morning, Lena wakes to the smell of coffee as Kara hums away in the kitchen, something sizzling on the stove. She slowly sits up and runs her fingers through her hair to tidy it up before standing up and heading to the breakfast bar. “Morning.”
Kara turns from the stove, a huge smile on her face. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Surprisingly, yes. I haven’t slept on a couch that comfortable, well, ever. Though perhaps the company was responsible for that.” She blushes, but this time doesn’t look away.
Kara comes around the breakfast bar and wraps her arms around her from behind. “Maybe you’re onto something with that.”
Lena twists her head to smile at her, and Kara pecks her on the lips before rushing back to the stove. “Won’t be very good company if I burn your breakfast!”
It’s an atrocious day, so after breakfast they find another movie, and once it’s over Lena reluctantly decides that while stays curled up with Kara all day would be perfect, she really needs to go home and get changed. Kara offers some of her own clothing and the use of the shower, but Lena needs to get away for a bit, but promises to return for Kara’s offered dinner. She takes her time gathering her things and putting her shoes on though, hugging Kara once more before heading down to her driver.
Lena is just getting out of the shower when she hears her phone go off. After getting dressed, she heads into the kitchen and takes her phone off the counter, reading the message from Kara. See you around 6? x
I’ll be there.
After spending the rest of the afternoon trying to distract herself with work, due to the inevitable self-doubt and pessimism creeping in with whatever this thing was with Kara, it’s finally time to leave, but by the time she makes it up to Kara’s floor, she’s already feeling better. She’s about to knock when Kara calls “it’s open!” so she let’s herself in to see Kara paying close attention to whatever she’s doing at the stove.
“Sorry, almost done!”
Once she’s placed whatever it is into the oven, she heads to Lena and presses a quick kiss to her lips before taking her coat and guiding her to the table. “Please, have a seat. Dessert’s in the oven and dinner is ready.”
They eat slowly, Kara’s meal is amazing but they’re talking constantly, about everything except the one thing Lena knows they need to talk about. Kara seems slightly oblivious, smiling and chatting and reaching out to touch Lena’s hand whenever it’s on the table, but when they’ve finished dinner and dessert and Lena takes her by the hand and leads her to the couch, Kara speaks.
“Can I say something please? Before you start?”
Lena is surprised, but nods, and Kara continues. “I know this is new, and it hasn’t been that long since James, but yes, I do want this, and I’m in as much as you want me to be. I meant what I said last night, and I think you know what I meant by that. You are my perfect partner at a game night and I hope you’ll be that in everything else too. So if you want me, I’m yours.”
“I’m all in then.”
They’re both done with waiting, and the next kiss says it all.
The next game night is three weeks later, and despite their winning streak in every single game they pair up for, no one is complaining, and their happiness is enough of a victory for everyone.