#bribery makes gotham go round

[thegrimllama]

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Lena Luthor wasn’t usually a nervous person.  She could command an audience, she could dominate the boardroom, but right now?  She was panicking.

Honestly, Lena never really thought her friendship with Kara would reach a stage where she was slowly being introduced into the group, one by one.  Maggie had been first.  She and Lena had long since discussed the whole Maggie-arresting-Lena debacle, Maggie spending the better part of ten minutes apologising before Lena could get a word in edgewise.  She and Maggie had hit it off fairly quickly, bonding over their mutual love of Italian cuisine and various scientific magazines.

Alex was next.  She’d been a little harder to crack than Maggie, mainly because Lena had to spend a good portion of their first meeting convincing Alex that Kara really was just a friend.  But now, she often ran various projects past Alex before perfecting the science behind them.  It was good to have an impartial party who was willing to tell Lena when she was being too damn ambitious.

Lena hadn’t technically met Lucy.  They’d connected via Facebook not long after Kara convinced her to join the “superfriends group chat”.  Lena still didn’t quite understand the name, but she figured it was something to do with the fact that everyone in the group was in some weird way, connected to the girl of steel.  She was still honestly trying to figure out who knew who and how.   Lucy was strangely comforting, and they’d had many private late night-early morning conversations thanks to Lucy being in… well from what Lena could figure out, she was last posted somewhere in the Middle East.  

Winn… He was a special case.  Lena had sought him out on her own soon after the gala, where he had helped her out of a sticky situation.  It wasn’t until a few weeks later that Lena realised that her friend Winn and Kara’s Winn were the same person.  That certainly made Lena feel a little silly.  Winn had started becoming a little scarce when he had started dating a girl called Lyra, who Lena was still yet to meet.

Which brings Lena’s thoughts back around to the fact that tonight was her first official “induction to the Superfriends”. Which according to Kara, should have happened months ago, but unfortunately due to everyone’s conflicting schedules, there was never a chance.  Luckily enough, Kara’s weekend off coincided with Lucy’s, giving everyone else the drive to take the Saturday off completely.

She’d been texting Kara intermittently throughout the morning, asking if she should bring anything, fending off accusations of bribery when Lena suggested bringing an aged bottle of scotch from her bar, eventually leading to her standing in front of Kara’s loft, three hours early in a pair of tights and her oversized MIT sweater.

Lena chuckled at the stunned look on Kara’s face when she opened the door wrapped in her towel.  "Aren’t you cold…?“

 "I am too hot to feel the cold.  You’re early,” she said disappearing into her bedroom, presumably to finish changing.  Lena was thankful that it gave her a few minutes to help her overcome the blush that had set in at the thought of what could possibly be hidden under that towel.  She could’ve kicked herself.  She might not have many friends, but she knew that letting her thoughts wander there was definitely not a friend thing to do… 

 "I just… usually when I have a Saturday off there’s a bouncing blonde dragging me across the countryside or causing havoc for my PR department…“

Kara’s laugh was positively gleeful at the reminder of the fiasco that her social media post had caused the month before. Lena’s brain nearly short circuited when Kara left the bedroom, still half pulling the shirt over her head.  She was so weak.  And Kara had washboard abs.  

 "How is Jess handling Yousef’s incessant emails and voicemails?”

It was Lena’s turn to laugh as she removed the bottle of scotch from her bag and placing it on the bench along with the pack of donuts she’d deposited on the way past. 

 "Honestly…? I think you should maybe start upsizing Jess’s coffee and adding a chocolate brownie to the usual lunch order.  The words, ‘I’m going to strangle Kara’ actually left her lips yesterday.“ 

Kara had the decency to look a little sheepish, "I will definitely make it up to Jess.  But… you have to admit, the panicked phone call from Yousef was hilarious.”

Lena snorted and flipped open the donut box.  "This is true… donut?“

Two hours later, Lena and Kara were sprawled across the couch, legs tangled together as they silently watched the live feed from the L-Corp satellite that Lena had looped into Kara’s tv.  "What’s that one called…?”  

Kara raised an eyebrow, “There are roughly twenty thousand objects on the screen, Lena…”

Lena rolled her eyes and used her phone to zoom in on the star in question, “This one.”

Kara laughed, “Me completing a masters degree in astronomy does not mean I can name every star in the sky.”

Lena tilted her head from her spot on Kara’s shoulder, an eyebrow raised in challenge until Kara sighed, “Rigel.  It’s the seventh brightest star in the night sky when viewed from Earth…”

 "You can view it from places other than Earth?“

There was a definite smirk in Lena’s voice.  Kara dug her fingers gently into Lena’s side, causing the CEO to squirm away, "You can if you’re an offworlder, Ms Luthor.”

 "So, what has Supergirl told you about Rigel?“

Kara laughed, "We don’t usually talk about the stars.  But I can tell you that it has a surface temperature of 11000K and a radius of 54.29 Million kilometres give or take…”

 "That’s almost double the temperature of the sun… right?“

Kara was about to answer when the loft door swung open, revealing Alex, who was holding six large pizza boxes and a pained expression, "You know, you could’ve got the door… so much for…  Oh, hi Lena!”

Lena quickly climbed off Kara and rushed to take the boxes from Alex, who thanked her and hung her coat.  

 "Where’s Maggie?“ Kara said, looking over the back of the couch.

 "Finishing paperwork at the Precinct.  Wine?”

 "You and I both know that I don’t drink wine…“

Alex threw Kara a sarcastic smile, "Well it’s a good thing I was asking Lena then, because your lazy ass didn’t even attempt to help with the pizza…”

Honestly, taking Alex up on the offer to drink, when all she’d had to eat was donuts, was probably a bad move on Lena’s part.  She was tipsy before anyone else arrived.  On a positive note, Maggie had ended up bringing along a dark maroon bottle of something with foreign (alien?) on the label.

Kara held up her hands and groaned, attempting to shield herself using Lena’s hair, “I hate all of you…”

Lena leaned over and sniffed the glass in Kara’s hand, “What the fuck is that? It smells like that time I burnt out the wiring on the circuit I was working on…”

Maggie laughed, “That is oddly specific, yet strangely accurate…”

 "So, Kara Danvers, any particular reason your poison is battery acid?“ Lena chuckled as Kara tossed back the glass draining it in one.   A knock at the door spared Kara an answer, "Lucy!”

Game night went well, at least, as well as it could for Kara and Lena who were kept at a pleasantly buzzed level after Lena completely decimated the squad at Jenga and then again when she paired with Kara for charades.

The Superfriends had all slowly trickled out of Kara’s apartment, shortly after midnight, leaving Lena and Kara to tidy up the empty pizza boxes.  The silence was comforting, Kara occasionally giggling would set Lena off and they’d dissolve into another round of laughter.  The loft was once again clear, and Kara and Lena were back in their spot on the couch, once again watching the stars via Kara’s tv.  

 "We need to talk…“ 

Lena rolled herself over, "Is this about the fact that you only get drunk on battery acid…?”

 Kara laughed, “It’s Zakarian Ale and yeah… kind of…”

Lena had had her suspicions for a while, and honestly, if Kara wasn’t ready to tell her, then Lena wasn’t going to force the subject.  She tugged on one of Kara’s braids, feeling much braver than she had six hours ago.  "It’s okay.  I know you trust me… and if you need to keep your secret then I’m not going to ask you to divulge it…“  

Kara rolled her eyes, "What if I want to?”

 "Then I’m gonna have to find a new best friend, because I don’t think I can be friends with someone born in Gotham…“

Kara laughed and pushed Lena off the couch, catching her easily before she hit the floor, "I wasn’t born in Gotham.”

 "Metropolis…?“

 "Lena!”

Lena laughed and allowed Kara to tug her back onto her stomach, “You know, I think I’ve known for a while." 

 "Really?”

Lena’s breath caught in her throat at the sound of Kara’s voice.  She sounded so small, so scared.  "Yeah, I mean, there’s no way that blonde is natural…  Seriously though, I don’t care where you come from.  I don’t care that you could probably easily lift me one handed… I know what you are…“

Kara smirked, "Say it.  Out loud.  Say it…”

 "Vampire…“

Kara laughed loudly, mingling with Lena’s giggles, "You’re an idiot.”

 "But you’re still my best friend, so what does that make you…?”

 "One very lucky Kryptonian.“

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