Chapter Text
Kara and Lena have always hovered just out of reach of each other. Two bodies drawn together in orbit, tethered but never quite touching. Pushing and pulling against each other at a careful distance. Always afraid of the collision. But they grow used to the spin. After all, at the surface, you can barely feel such things.
But in fleeting moments, between Lena's war with herself and Kara's war with all her selves, they take turns with the chance they are wrong. Letting knuckles graze the back of hands as they walk. Letting bodies angle towards each other through the pinch of a crowd. But only just that much — always mistimed, always mismatched, always thwarted by some circumstance or another.
So they keep spinning.
Keep their distance.
Instinctively, Kara presses herself closer to Lena on the couch, their shoulders bumping as she sits down.
"Sorry," Kara mumbles, ducking her head. "I didn't mean to --"
"It's okay," Lena reassures her quickly. "I don't mind." Reaching out, letting her fingers tangle with Kara's for the briefest moment before pulling away.
They collide anyway.
All that careful distance is soon taken up again in the frantic rush of Kara's fingers closing around her wrist. Hands and bodies merge unpredictably—abruptly. It's hard enough to bruise. Hard enough that there can be no doubt of their intention. Kara lunges, pulls Lena towards her, lacking all her usual grace and just enough careful measure as Lena crashes against her chest.
Kara's hands were everywhere; the back of her head, the base of her neck, the length of her back.
Bits of plaster cling to her.
Not her cape.
Not her suit.
Just flecks of white dotting the dark blue sweater that Lena loves.
Lena can hear the scuffle of feet in the hall.
Can hear the sound of siren's down on the street below.
And fuck if she's not tired of it.
And fuck if she doesn't miss being this close to Kara.
She hooks a hand in the torn fabric of Kara's sweater, curling it around her fingers, trying to hold her in place.
It feels like all the gravity lets out instead.
She bumps her head into Kara's as they meet in the middle of their fall toward each other.
A breath, a beat, and then a laugh — at the universe, at herself.
"Would you stay still for a second?"
"But…" Kara is as close and as far as she can be.
Still careful.
Still worried.
Still spinning.
Lena reaches up, her hands framing Kara's face, wiping away the traces of dust and the crinkle between her brow.
"oh…but—"
"Just stay still for a second, okay?"
Lena feels the muscles under her hands tense and then relax.
"o-okay." Kara lets a little more of her weight settle onto Lena's body beneath hers.
The kiss comes like a collision of its own, but the spinning has already stopped, and when it does, it’s the the world that falls away, not them.