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Lena Luthor is a model student. Lena Luthor is working on her second degree at 20 years old, and on the fast track for grad school applications by next year. Lena Luthor is going to change the world, even if her family refused to pay for her education after she came out. She has a full ride scholarship for her grades, and she will graduate with no debt.
So, when a piece of paper with 10 digits on it is slammed down on top of her Quantum Mechanics textbook during her requisite daily 3.5 hours of library time, her reaction is one of intense irritation.
“What’s this?” She asks suspiciously, lifting the paper with the tip of her pencil.
“It’s a phone number,” Sam drawls, shifting some of Lena’s notebooks so she can plop down in the adjacent chair and prop her feet up on the desk. “I’d have thought you’d know that, Miss Genius.”
“I know that,” Lena says, pushing at Sam’s feet until they fall to the floor again with a thunk. “Who does it belong to, and why is it on my desk?”
“It belongs to a hot girl, and it’s on your desk because said hot girl wants you to text it.”
Lena sighs, rolling her eyes and trying to turn her attention back to her notes. “Sam, I told you. I don’t have time for dating.”
“Come on, Lena,” Sam groans. She crumples up the nearest piece of blank paper and throws it – it bounces off Lena’s forehead, and Lena has to breathe deeply through her nose to keep from breaking the sanctity of the library ‘quiet’ sign to yell at her. “You’re not even the high-powered CEO I know you’re going to be yet, and you’re already pulling 60-hour weeks. It’s only October!”
“I’m motivated,” Lena counters, but Sam shakes her head.
“You’re a recluse is what you are. You live in the library!” Sam gestures around them emphatically, as if the realization of where they are is somehow going to change Lena’s mind. “You’re young, you’re gorgeous, and you’re recently out of the closet. You could have any girl you wanted. You even have a sexy roommate, what’s her name again -“
Lena can feel her face heating up, and not for the first time she rues the day she even mentioned her roommate to Sam. She’s Lena’s best friend, but Sam is far too invested in her personal life (or lack thereof), and she doesn’t need to give her any more ammunition. Even if her roommate is ridiculously attractive, all three times Lena has seen her this year, with her perpetual gym clothes and her blonde ponytail and those cute, slightly bookish glasses.
“I said cute, a cute roommate, and I don’t remember her name,” Lena hisses, already packing her things. Her own room is less quiet and her desk is a little too small, but it has a lock on the door, and right now that sounds incredibly tempting. “It started with a K, Kiera or Katie or something – and we’ve barely even spoken, so don’t even -“
“Okay, jeez,” Sam concedes, raising her hands in surrender. “Look, there’s a girl in my English Lit class I think you’ll like.”
Lena pauses in her hurried stuffing of physics textbooks into her bag to sigh, rolling her shoulders in preparation for the weight of it.
“God, sometimes I wonder what it’s like to live in a world where you can take a Lit class.”
“Well, you can ask her all about it on your date!” Sam chirps, handing Lena her notebook with the phone number still on top.
“Yeah, sure,” Lena mutters, taking the book and shoving it beside her laptop. She’s slung the bag over her shoulder and is halfway to the door when Sam’s words hit her.
“Wait, my what?”
Lena has no idea how Sam talked her into this. She could have resisted – she could have locked herself in her apartment, could have disappeared off-campus to do some work instead of letting Sam pick an outfit and help her with her makeup.
But she didn’t. And now she’s standing outside a moderately fancy sushi restaurant, in a dress she hasn’t worn since her last disastrous date over a year ago. The one her mother had set her up on, with the boring business major who claimed he only slept with ‘good Catholics’.
Maybe she is the tiniest bit excited for her first real date with a girl. Possibly. Not that she’d ever admit it to Sam.
She smooths her clammy hands over her skirt as the hostess leads her into the dining room, and the excitement almost doesn’t seem worth the nerves.
“Someone will be by to take your drink order –“ The hostess is saying, but Lena has long since tuned her out because the girl that stands up from the table with a sunny smile is probably the single most attractive person Lena has ever seen.
Long blonde hair in soft waves, strong jaw, bright blue eyes, and biceps that strain against her tight button-up shirt. The combination is enough to make her knees weak – but thankfully Kara is there to steady her.
“Lena, hi! You look amazing, wow,” Kara says genuinely, accepting Lena’s handshake and pulling out her chair. She seems a little overly friendly for a first meeting, but Lena brushes it off as their eyes meet across the table. Something about Kara’s grin is striking Lena as somewhat familiar, but it seems less and less important as the conversation flows freely.
Kara is smart. Lena isn’t shocked so much as pleasantly surprised, and it’s not long before the easiness of their conversation makes her start to loosen up. She’s easy to talk to, even easier than Sam in some ways, and Lena has never laughed so much with a complete stranger before. It is, without a doubt, a great date.
That is, until Kara pulls a pair of black-framed glasses out of her pocket and slips them on to read the menu, tucking her hair behind her ears, and recognition hits Lena like a freight train.
She chokes violently on her water, spraying it into her lap and across half the table, and Kara startles so hard that her knee makes the table jump a few inches in the air.
“Oh, gosh - Lena, are you okay?” Kara asks, looking concerned, and Lena answers with the only thought running through her head. In possibly the least intelligent way possible.
“You’re my roommate!!”
Kara is, indeed, undeniably her roommate. Lena knows those glasses, and she really should have recognized her immediately, but she’d been distracted by how cute she was – all she’d known going into this was that her date’s name was Kara, and Sam had acted weird about showing her a picture.
She’s going to kill Sam.
There’s a pause wherein Kara seems to have trouble processing Lena’s words. But then her brow furrows, and she tilts her head.
“I...yeah? I thought...” Kara looks genuinely confused, and Lena feels suddenly intellectually unworthy of her academic scholarship.
“Wait, you knew?” Lena blurts, still wheezing, and Kara looks at her like she has three heads.
“Of course I did! Sam showed me a picture of you,” She says, and Lena truly wishes she hadn’t said anything. “Did you not...recognize me?”
Lena blushes deep red, dabbing at her skirt with a napkin and waving off the waiter’s offer to help. “Well, you – it’s - your hair is different, and you didn’t have your glasses -“
Kara laughs, full and loud, sounding absurdly delighted at the revelation. “Aren’t you, like...a genius? All your textbooks are math and engineering. Glasses and a ponytail fooled you?“
“God, I can see why you get along with Sam,” Lena grumbles, hiding her face in her hands, and Kara laughs even harder, fiddling with the glasses that caused Lena’s little revelation.
Even with the unwelcome interruption, it’s still the nicest date Lena has ever had.
Kara is a perfect gentleman, insisting on paying the bill (“You can get the next one, I promise!”) and waiting a perfectly reasonable amount of time before gently intertwining their fingers as they walk home together. She seems to breathe a tiny sigh of relief when Lena squeezes her hand back tightly, and Lena tries not to make it too obvious that her heart feels like it’s glowing.
When they finally arrive at the door to the building, Lena can’t help but duck her head, feeling uncharacteristically shy.
“I actually had...a really great time,” She admits, and Kara grins, rubbing the back of her neck bashfully.
“The fact that I’m your roommate didn’t ruin it for you?”
Lena laughs, shaking her head. “No. Honestly, with my workload, having you literally living in my apartment might be the only way I get to see you.”
Lena realizes what she implied - that there will be more dates, that they’ll continue whatever this is - and blushes, but Kara looks pleased.
“Well, I’ll be sure to try and distract you as much as possible,” Kara says quietly, stepping forward with intent. Lena’s breath catches, but she tilts her head up amenably.
“Oh? And how do you propose that? I have very strict self control,” Lena replies playfully, her voice equally hushed. Kara smiles in response, and this time it’s not sunny, but it’s all heat.
“I can think of a few ways.”
Kara leans in, slowly. Lena can smell her perfume, see the flecks of grey and hazel in her blue eyes, and her lips look so soft –
This is such a bad idea. She told Sam she didn’t have time for dating and she wasn’t lying, but there’s something about this girl. Something magnetic.
Lena rocks up on her toes, and their lips meet.
Lena isn’t one to wax poetic. She’s pragmatic, logical - everything in her life can be explained by science. But this first kiss, the soft movement of their mouths in perfect harmony, has to be some kind of magic. It’s everything a first kiss should be – exciting, enthusiastic, gentle and yet decisive – and very unscientific butterflies are causing an irrefutable ruckus in Lena’s chest.
When they finally part, Lena’s traitorous heart hammering away, Kara’s eyes flutter open with adorable slowness.
“Wow,” Kara breathes, smiling in a goofy sort of way. “You know, when we first met, I thought about what it would be like to kiss you. I had no idea how great it would be.”
Lena laughs, smacking her shoulder lightly. “Stop it. We barely spoke when we met.”
“Yeah, because you’re so pretty that I forgot how to talk.”
Lena blushes, tucking her hair behind her ear, and in so doing she happens to glance at the door. Her apartment door.
Their apartment door.
Seemingly simultaneously, they realize their predicament.
“So, um. Ladies first?” Kara jokes, rubbing the back of her neck, and Lena lets out a breath.
“Well, I feel silly,” She mutters, fiddling with her keys. “I didn’t even think -“
“Neither did I, to be honest.” Kara says, and the honesty makes Lena feel a little bit less ridiculous for forgetting that a goodnight kiss outside her apartment door is also a goodnight kiss outside Kara’s. And that now, they have to share a space for the foreseeable future.
“I guess you don’t really have the option to not call me, hmm?” Lena says, attempting flippancy and only half succeeding.
Kara laughs Lena’s nerves away, and unlocks the door. “As if I wouldn’t call you anyways. This is the best date I’ve had in...ever.”
“Me, too,” Lena admits.
Easing the door open, Kara looks at Lena with a grin.
“Look, I don’t usually do this on the first date, but...would you like to come inside?” She winks, and Lena laughs, loud and surprised.
“Well, I wouldn’t say no to a nightcap.”
“By nightcap, I assume you mean popcorn, wine, and an unhealthy amount of Netflix?” Kara grins, and Lena returns it, relaxing as Kara pulls her gently into the apartment by the hand.
She has work to do. She should probably go back to the library. She has a lab in the morning, and tutoring afterwards, and then a full afternoon of classes.
But honestly, with Kara beckoning her towards the couch with a crooked finger and an infectious smile, a night of relaxing sounds...perfect. It’s barely day one, and already Kara is a distraction.
She’s even more so an hour later, when their shirts are both flung across the living room and Netflix is asking if they’re still watching.
A sweet, sweet distraction.