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we could be something special if you wanted

Summary:

Given the recent resurgence of the "whose NCU sweatshirt was that" debate, this is my contribution. The show doesn't obey logic and neither will I. Ideally this would be mostly cannon consistent but also I do not want to rewatch season 3.

Anywho TL;DR Kara lends Lena her sweatshirt at game night and it becomes a whole thing, title is from "Feel Something" by Clairo.

P.S. This my first fic, in the Supergirl fandom and in general. I was so inspired by the creativity in this fandom to finally give fic-writing a go! Supercorp endgame <3

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter Text

It’s a Thursday evening and the gang is all gathered around Kara’s coffee table in a heated round of charades. Someone had suggested they play guys vs girls, and currently Winn is desperately attempting to get his team back on track as he gestures wildly, standing at the edge of the carpet.

“Time!” Alex shouts from the couch to groans from the other side as Kara leans into her sister’s shoulder, breathless with laughter.

“Ok I’m sorry but what was that even supposed to be?” asks an exasperated James, hands still rested on his scalp in disbelief.

Winn tosses the folded slip of paper on the table and settles back onto the floor, taking a swig of his drink. “In my defense that was impossible, so good luck Lena.”

Everyone turns expectantly to Lena, who is seated on the floor with one leg held to her chest across the other, chin tucked into the lip of her turtleneck with her hands curled into the sleeves and mid-sip of her glass of red wine. Her mind had just wandered during that last turn to her schedule the following day, and so she raises her eyebrows to the onlooking group to convey her confusion.

“Oh whoops sorry Lena I forgot to go over all of the house rules,” supplies a smiling Kara as she unfurls herself from her sister’s side to lean forward and pass the folded paper to Lena. “Once per game if the other team can’t guess a word you wrote, you have to get us to guess it or we lose 2 points. But if we get it we get two points.”

Lena’s mouth falls open in disbelief. “Kara how could you sabotage our team like this! That seems like a very important piece of information for me as a clue writer to know.”

“Yeah Kara!” Alex adds from her sunken place on the couch, outstretching an accusing finger directly at the crinkle in Kara’s brow. “Saboteur!”

Kara rolls her eyes at her sister and lightly shoves her hand away.

“Ok so since Kara didn’t tell Lena the rules, I’ll give you a hint: it’s a physics thing,” Winn offers as he settles back onto the floor.

The Danvers sisters groan in unison as Lena laughs before shaking out her sleeves and unfolding the piece of paper. She climbs to her feet, a small smile spreading across her red lips.

“Well, I actually do have a good idea for how to do this. Although as we’ve seen so far, sometimes even my stellar acting ability does not always make up for when you two decide to share one brain cell.”

It’s the sisters’ turn to hold their mouths agape, with Kara going so far as to clap her hand to the powder blue NCU crest on her grey sweatshirt in a decidedly over the top display of shock. Across the room the boys roll with laughter. In fairness to Lena, she was carrying their team this evening, having correctly guessed every clue either woman mimed. Meanwhile, the majority of Lena’s acting turns the sisters had wasted half of the turn in a giggling fit at some wild guess the other shouted.

“Ok ouch but noted,” replies a grinning Kara, leaning forward to prop her elbows on her knees with her feet planted squarely on the carpet, eyes locked on Lena, giving her her full attention. Alex takes the hint and trains her gaze on Lena and gives her a thumbs up to start.

Lena gulps and raises two fingers to indicate the clue has two words. Nodding after the sisters correctly identify the number of words, she drops her eyes from the seated group and brings her hands together in front of her chest, her two index fingers touching and pointed toward the ceiling. She stays still like that for a few breaths, the Danvers sisters sensing this is the type of clue that requires patience and holding their guesses as the group watches the youngest Luthor in silence. Then, Lena splits her fists apart and starts to move each hand as if she were drawing a circle on the ceiling with her long outstretched fingers, each hand with an opposite spin. She spreads her arms as wide as they can go, a grin stretching across her face as she maintains the radius and direction of each spin as her hands draw farther apart. She then brings them back together before folding her right arm behind her back, wrists still rotating slowly.

She raises her eyes then and is met with two very different expressions from the young women on the couch. Alex’s face is plastered with confusion but overlaid with a soft fondness as she watches the newest member of the group grow more comfortable in their presence.

Once Lena catches Kara’s gaze, however, the rest of the room just sort of falls away. Kara’s eyes are wide open with wonder, recognition, and what looks like pride. And something else that Lena doesn’t quite know how to name. But she finds her eyes unable to leave Kara’s sparkling blue ones as she brings her right hand back in front of her, still spinning in a perfect mirror of her right.

“Quantum entanglement,” Kara exhales, a sloping grin across her face and her eyes still on Lena’s.

“No freaking way! No! There’s no way!” exclaims Winn as James groans, holding his head in his hands. Lena smiles and drops her hands to her sides as she slides back to the floor and places the unfolded slip on the table, revealing the two words scrawled in her handwriting.

“I’m sorry we’re going to need some new rules because whatever that was is not fair. No obscure physics terminology! And on top of that, Kara, how would you even know what that was?” Winn continues, now standing as he grumpily retreats to the kitchen to soothe his ego with another beer.

Lena turns her gaze back to Kara with the pads of her fingers pressed to the line of her jaw, a dark eyebrow raised. “Yes, Kara, how does a CatCo reporter know so much about quantum physics?”

Kara gulps as Alex shoots Winn a quick warning glance for introducing this line of questioning. “I was always good at science in school growing up. I would get restless if I got bored, so sometimes my teachers would give me random textbooks so I could sit on the exercise ball in the back and read,” Kara shrugs as she pops what must be her fortieth potsticker into her mouth and grins.

“Oh yeah I totally forgot about that!” corroborates Alex. “I was so pissed senior year when I walked in and saw you sitting in my AP Physics class.”

They all laugh as the tension amongst the superfriends dissipates and they decide to continue the game with Alex’s turn. As Alex works to extricate herself from the misshapen couch cushions, Kara glances back to Lena and notices her running her once again covered hands along the length of her arms, chattering slightly.

“Oh my goodness Lena you look freezing! I’m so sorry why didn’t you tell me you were cold?” Kara gasps in alarm.

“Oh no Kara don’t worry I’m fine, I was just a little chilly,” Lena deflects, but Kara is already midway through removing her sweatshirt before Lena can even finish her reply. Kara holds the sweatshirt out to Lena, and Lena finds herself tentatively reaching out to accept this small kindness from her friend. The soft cotton is still warm as she pulls it over her head, and the scent of Kara washes over Lena as the fabric slides over her features. Normally Lena might be cross with herself for lingering and taking pleasure in the comfort that being familiar and close like this with Kara brings her, but tonight she is able to look at her friend and smile as she pulls her dark wavy hair free of the added layer. She whispers a “thank you” so quiet that Kara shouldn’t hear it.

But she does hear it. And she also hears the way her friend’s heartbeat settles into a slow rhythm as she nestles into her college sweatshirt. And before she can really question it she reaches out for Lena’s hand that’s settled on her knee and cautiously threads their fingers together.

“Ahem,” comes a cough from across the room, and Kara and Lena finally break their gaze to take in the forgotten rest of the group. Alex is standing with her arms crossed, clearly having waited for some time to start her turn. Winn and James, on the other hand, are still deep in conversation whispering to one another, James smiling down at his friend animatedly describing something.

“If I had known these game nights would turn into me being a fifth wheel every time, I would have just taken out the middleman and been the single girl drinking by herself at the bar,” Alex exclaims, joking but with a touch of bite to her words. Kara squeezes Lena’s hand before she releases her grasp on her friend to launch herself at her sister, causing them both to topple onto the carpet, Kara with her arms around Alex in a tight (if unsolicited) hug. Alex yelps and struggles against her little sister for a moment before the two descend once again into uncontrollable giggles.

“I’m so sorry that I took a two minute break from snuggling with you on the couch to hold Lena’s hand Alex, you’re so right I have really been neglecting you this evening,” Kara dramatically repents as the rest of the group joins in the laughter.

The women complete their inevitable victory a few rounds later, and they decide to end the evening there before anyone else gets tackled. Everyone tidies their glassware and helps Kara package up what’s left of the food, even though they suspect she will simply devour the rest as soon as they are gone. Having returned the apartment to its original state, Winn and James make a quick exit, claiming they have a midnight showing of some sci-fi movie to catch. Alex and Lena now stand at the door as Kara hands them their coats. Lena moves to remove the sweatshirt, but Kara stops her.

“Keep it. Well, not /keep it/ keep it, you can borrow it. If you’re cold in here you’ll be freezing outside. I can always get it back from you later, “ Kara bumbles, eyes on her shoes. Alex snorts and rolls her eyes before shouldering past the now frozen Lena to wrap her sister in a hug and plant a kiss on her cheek.

“I love you dummy. Thanks for hosting,” she says before releasing her sister and turning to tow Lena by her elbow toward the door. “Pack it up Luthor you can make puppy dogs eyes at her tomorrow at lunch.”

Lena blinks to lift her heavy lashes and schools her features back into a gentle smile directed at Kara. She pulls her arms into the sleeves of her coat but leaves it unbuttoned, the logo peaking out from behind the edges of the Givenchy coat. “Right, yes, well, see you tomorrow Kara Danvers,” she breathes, green eyes fixed softly on her friend as she retreats toward the door.

“See you tomorrow Lena Luthor.”

Notes:

This was originally just going to be a one shot but this scene ended up longer than I intended, my goal is to update this with 2ish more chapters :)