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Lena looked out the floor to ceiling windows at the city. She smiled watching the ships racing through the air above the multicoloured lights spread out over the land that had once so many years ago been National City. She’d thought it fitting to return to where it all begun.
Behind her she heard the soft patter of small feet on hardwood getting closer. She smiled and waited, listening. The steps slowed at the door then begun to creep closer. At the last moment she turned and caught the five year old girl who dived at her legs.
“Aw, you caught me,” Allie said, giggling as she looked up at her.
“I did,” Lena said, with a smile.
She lifted Allie with an exaggerated groan and kissed her cheek.
“You should be asleep,” she said, affectionately tapping Allie on her nose.
The immediate shaking of a small blonde head made Lena laugh.
“Yes Allie, it’s past your bedtime.”
Allie protested as Lena carried her back down the hall and to the small bedroom, carefully stepping over the half dozen toys that were somehow once more spread across the floor. She carefully tucked the young girl back into her bed.
“Please, story,” Allie pleaded.
Lena sighed heavily.
“Alright. One more story, but then you must sleep a stór.”
Allie nodded quickly, snuggling deeper into her blankets cuddling her stuffed fish —that week’s favourite. Lena smiled and brushed a lock of hair out of Allie’s face.
“Once upon a time, a long time ago in a city very like this one, there was a hero-”
“Supergirl,” Allie said smiling.
Lena laughed and nodded.
“Yes Supergirl, and her friends. But right when she was starting out she had to rescue a cat in a tree, but this time it was different-”
“Fluffy!” Allie said excitedly.
Lena smiled and nodded continuing the story. It was one of Allie’s favourites.
Allie successfully put to sleep, for real this time, Lena walked back to the main living room. A soft repeating chime alerted her to an incoming call request.
“Who is it Hope?”
“Your son Ms Luthor.”
Lena smiled and looked towards the nearest Hope station.
“Then by all means put through the councillor.”
There was no sound but suddenly she had a nanobot hologram beside her of Kira in his red and yellow striped robe, his grey hair streaked with blue and green today and a bright smile on his face.
“Mother,” he said beaming at her and spreading his arms wide. “I swear you look as good today as you did when first we met.”
She smiled back, sighing with exasperation over his favourite joke. His face was lined with wrinkles but she could still see the small boy she’d rescued in his smile.
“Some day that joke is going to get old,” she said.
His mouth shifted into a brighter smile making the lines deeper.
“Not until you do,” he said.
Lena scoffed and found herself looking over at the nearby window, her reflection stared back. Her face, barely changed despite the march of time. The only truly significant change to her reflection over time being the addition of a few wrinkles and a small scattering of grey hairs. She looked back at Kira who was still smiling at her.
“Just because I don’t look it doesn’t mean I’m not ancient,” she said.
Kira laughed.
“Well then, oh wise and ancient mother, how’s my little sister?” he asked.
Lena smiled and looked towards the hallway almost expecting to see her youngest standing there again.
“Allie is very well. She’s still trying to extend her bedtime,” Lena said turning back to the hologram.
Kira smiled.
“She just wants more Supergirl stories.”
“She gets plenty of Supergirl stories,” Lena said with a sigh sitting down on the couch.
“Some real, others less so,” Kira said.
Lena rolled her eyes and with a flick of her hand a bottle of wine appeared on the table in front of her, another flick and she had a glass.
“I never lie about Supergirl,” she said pouring herself a glass.
Kira smiled folding his hands in front of his stomach.
“No, you just get the stories all confused and any attempt to sort them into some kind of order ends up a mess full of plot holes.”
Lena rolled her eyes and picked up the glass.
“You’ll have to forgive my very human memory.”
Kira smiled then his face changed to something serious and almost solemn as he looked at her.
“Does it help?” he asked.
“Does what help?” Lena asked lowering the glass to consider her son.
“Does forgetting help you, when you…” He sighed the smile almost entirely gone from his face. “When you bury us.”
Lena felt a heavy weight descend on her shoulders.
“No, I don’t really forget, not forever. Little things leave, what your favourite colour was at six, where we went for your first holiday, but you never do.”
Kira smiled at her as his near century of life seemed to settle over his body showing the old man he really was.
“How do you cope?” he asked.
Lena sighed. She looked away from Kira to consider her wine.
“Time heals all wounds,” she said, repeating what had become almost a promise to herself.
Kira waited. She sighed again and looked up at his hologram.
“It also helps that in your case I’ve seen you lead a very full and happy life,” she added.
He nodded, the boyish smile returning to his face.
“And you do have a new one to keep you busy-”
“I do not consider our children like pets,” Lena said cutting him off with a glare. “I don’t just go out and get a younger one when the other gets old. I’ll remind you we went a whole century without having any children.”
Kira laughed and waggled a finger at her.
“That hardly counts. That century was also in the middle of a galactic war and you spent a lot of that hiding under a mountain as both sides tried to recruit you,” he countered.
Lena conceded with a nod.
“It wasn’t my favourite century,” she admitted. “I frequently missed shampoo.”
Kira laughed and she saw her baby again. That little two year old with a bloody face and scraped hands who got brought to her after his parents died in a speeder crash. She felt emotion well inside her as she was vividly reminded of the first time she’d caught him sneaking out of his bed to find where she hid the chocolates.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Lena nodded, quickly blinking away the rush of emotion.
“Yes unahte,” she said smiling wider at him.
He tilted his head to one side giving her a long look.
“She’s going to wake up soon,” he said.
Lena closed her eyes and nodded.
“She is.”
She sat back trying to pretend her heart and body weren’t on the verge of panic when she considered just what might happen when Kara woke so very far into the future.
“How do you feel about that?” he asked gently.
Lena raised an eyebrow.
“Are you trying to psychoanalyse your mother?” she asked.
Kira immediately laughed again. He really was the happiest of her children. Her sunshine boy with his constant smile and bright laughter. He had always insisted he’d gotten it from his Jeju. A sentiment that had never failed to warm Lena’s heart.
Lena’s head turned and she looked over at Kara lying comatose on her bed. It was in the corner out of view for guests but where Lena could see her at all times, and where Kara could be in direct sunlight for the longest possible time. Beneath her a series of small machine arms were working sending small sparks of electricity at intervals to make her muscles twitch in preparation for when she woke.
“She’ll be happy to see you,” Kira said.
Lena turned to look at him once more.
“I know, it’s why I did it,” she said.
He nodded and she saw the man again. The man her baby boy had grown into, with his intelligence and passion for helping others that had led him to a life in spirituality. His sermons were famous all over for their ability to inspire hope in the listeners. When asked he always said he’d learnt it from his mothers.
“And if we’re lucky I’ll even last long enough to tell her all the lies you spread about her,” he teased.
Lena found herself laughing as she shook her head.
“She’ll tell you it was all true.”
Kira smiled once more and gave her a small wave.
“I’m going to sleep, we mere mortals need rest, unlike you.”
Lena shook her head again not bothering to correct him that she did indeed sleep. He knew. She smiled at him as the nanobots dissolved into a cloud and disappeared back into the nearest Hope station.
She put down her wine and walked over to Kara. Reaching out automatically she took Kara’s hand in her own and gave it a small squeeze.
“Well…”
She looked down at Kara’s sleeping face for a moment.
“Our son is still a little shit,” she said. “And you’re going to have to tell him Lex did turn into a lizard because we agreed not to tell them the truth and I was a bit drunk when I made that story up.”
She looked out at the lights of the city for a moment before returning her gaze to Kara's face.
“Yes, I know it was a dumb idea but we’re stuck with it, at least for another decade or so until everyone forgets.”
She squeezed Kara’s hand again her eyes moving to the streak of white that had grown in over the centuries, adding some evidence of the passing time to Kara’s otherwise unchanged face. Or perhaps it had changed and she just hadn’t noticed.
“Yes, we’ll make it another few, just to spite the critics. We might have a few dignified grey hairs but considering the last near millennium it took to get them I feel confident saying we have a few decades at least ahead of us.”
She was silent for a minute just holding Kara’s hand listening to the even sound of her breaths. A small electric nip on her fingertip made Lena jump and she glared at Kara.
“Oh shut up,” she muttered lightly smacking her shoulder. “I have it doing that for your benefit. The last time I left you unmoving for a long period of time you turned to marble and I had to get you electrocuted by lightning just to be able to move your limbs again, and it was such a mess I promised not to do it again.”
She sighed and pressed a kiss to Kara’s hand. She took a deep breath.
“I am scared,” she confessed. “I know you probably won’t remember any of this. You’re just going to wake up and think it’s still 2023, but…”
Lena’s throat closed over for a moment and she looked away to stare once more at the city.
“I don’t know how I’m ever going to explain everything to you, the children, our history… that decade of hedonism I indulged in.”
She smiled and looked back at Kara.
“I might skip that in the retelling. You probably don’t need to know about the orgies.”
She brushed a few invisible hairs away from Kara’s face.
“It’s been so long and I’ve changed so much I’m scared you won’t be my best friend anymore. Which I know is stupid. But…”
Lena moved her fingers over Kara’s face again. Over her lips.
“You did promise, you have to remember that. You said you’d always be my friend.”
She looked at Kara’s peacefully sleeping face tears welling in her eyes.
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
Lena pressed a final kiss to Kara’s hand before placing it back on the bed. It twitched as a mechanical hand underneath sent a spark through it.
“Goodnight darling,” she said.
With a final smile she opened the wall to her bedroom and went to shower and change. She cast the usual spells to protect them while she slept and lay down looking at Kara. She cast her last spell and relaxed as Allie’s heart and breaths felt as close to her as though she lay in the bed beside her, as did Kara’s. Distantly she was aware of Kira’s mechanically assisted ones as he slept in his bed halfway across the city.
Lena woke as Allie did, the magic pulling her from her dreams with a small push in the back of her mind. She sighed and rolled over hearing Allie’s feet on the wooden floors, then the pause as she stopped and begun to creep into the room. Lena smiled waiting until Allie was almost to her before turning to look at her.
“Good morning Inah.”
Allie’s little face dropped and a pout appeared.
“How do you always know?” she demanded.
“Jejuni has superhearing. She tells me as you go past.”
Allie turned to glare at Kara.
“Jeju!” she whined.
Lena laughed and lifted the blankets so Allie could climb in for her usual morning cuddle. Lena smiled and nodded along as Allie told her all about the dreams she’d had. All of which apparently involved Supergirl or horses.
Hope eventually rose the blinds to let them know it was time to get up. Lena rose with an exaggerated groan and sent Allie to go play with Kara as she prepared breakfast.
Allie ran over to sit with Kara a smile on her face as she begun telling her what she was going to do with her friends at school that day. Lena went over to the kitchen and collected the ingredients from the waiting draw. She could have Hope cook but she preferred to do it when she had time. It was a skill she refused to forget no matter how obsolete it felt now. She'd had to reteach herself at the start of the galactic war and refused to go through the process again. Once the omelets were ready she called over Allie who put down her toy puzzle and told Kara she’d be back soon so they could finish it. Lena smiled at Allie as she ate and then coaxed the girl through getting ready for school.
Once the speeder turned up to collect her Lena smiled at the waiting driver and gave Allie a kiss on the cheek telling her to have fun as she waved her off.
She turned back to Kara when the speeder was out of sight.
“We are not getting her a horse. I don’t care how much you both pout.”
Lena moved to the couch and glancing at Kara once more she put in the lenses so she could work. She still had plans to make in preparation for her idea. She hoped Kara would like it, she had after all inspired it.
Allie returned that afternoon, her hair a mess and missing her jacket. Lena sighed, it would likely turn up at the end of the week. She listened to the usual mess of chatter that spilled from her daughter for a half hour. Once Allie felt she had sufficiently updated her mother on her day she went to go play with Kara while Lena made some calls.
Her calls went longer than anticipated, but every time she looked over to check she saw Allie still happily playing with Kara. Allie was talking happily as she “played” chess against Kara. It was one of Allie’s favourite games to play with Kara, because she always won.
Hope made them dinner and after eating Lena cuddled up on the couch to play games with Allie for an hour before bath time. Finally Allie was clean, tucked into bed with her fish, and had been told a Supergirl story. This one about the time Supergirl saved Martian Manhunter, and then the time Supergirl lifted a submarine. Allie’s eyes were carefully drifting closed by the end.
Lena smiled at the artificially deep and even breaths Allie was doing. She smiled and kissed her head.
“Okhashbem Inah,” she whispered.
“Good night Mama,” Allie mumbled.
Lena smiled shaking her head as she got up turning out the overhead light.
“Well she’s asleep at last,” Lena said walking over to Kara. She looked down to see Kara’s hand had moved. She gently put it back into place. “I give it five minutes before she comes out having faked it.”
“I give it two,” Kara croaked.
Lena’s head jerked up and she found herself staring into Kara's bright blue eyes, open for the first time in a thousand years.
“Kara,” she whispered.
Lena found herself moving quickly to wrap her arms around Kara, holding as tight as she could. Kara hugged her back. Lena felt tears begin to pour from her eyes as she felt how familiar the embrace was. A thousand years and she could still remember how it felt to be hugged by Kara.
“Thank you,” Kara whispered.
Lena choked back a sob as she clung tighter to her. Then she jumped as a spark of electricity zapped her. Kara laughed and Lena quickly turned off the bed looking back at Kara who hugged her again, this time a little tighter. A thought hit her.
“You know who-”
Kara nodded tears in her eyes.
“I’ve heard everything,” she said. “The whole time.”
Lena’s heart began to race and her throat closed up as she looked at Kara in amazement. She’d heard. She wouldn’t need to explain the last thousand years because Kara had heard them.
“And I have a few things I’ve been wanting to say back to you over the last thousand years,” Kara said.
Lena managed to pull back a little even as the tears of joy continued to pour from her eyes.
“You definitely owe Diana an apology, wherever she is now because she was right. I knew Faora was a terrible person from the start, like seriously the loneliness led to that I know and I’m sorry you fell into that. But also like, how hot was she that you were willing to fall for it?”
Lena found herself laughing as her tears flowed faster, completely obscuring her vision. She quickly wiped them away.
“Also damn, every time you had phone sex I was dying. Lena do you have any idea how many threesomes we had over a thousand years? If you could've read my mind you would have been shocked, yes even with all the things you got up to for the hedonism decade. I still can’t believe you put me in a closet for that.”
Lena found herself laughing harder as she clung to Kara once more. Holding her as tight as she could, afraid to let her go. Kara’s voice was suddenly very soft and very quiet.
“Luca wasn’t your fault.”
Lena’s throat closed over as tears of a very different kind filled her eyes.
“You didn’t make a mistake, he changed. He did it himself and you did everything you could to save our son.”
Lena felt an agonised sob force it’s way out of her throat at the memory of Luca and his final moments. Kara held her tighter.
“Thank you for never giving up,” Kara whispered. “Thank you for taking me with you every time. Thank you for always talking to me, for holding my hand and kissing my head. Thank you for the last thousand years together, for our children, for never once leaving me out, for never leaving me alone. And I have been wanting to say this for a thousand years… I love you too. I have always loved you. I have always wanted you.”
Lena could barely see through her tears but she blinked them away and turned her head so she could see Kara as she said those words.
“I am so happy that the first person I saw when I woke was you. I love Allie. And yes Kira is, and always has been a little shit, but he’s our baby in every way.”
Lena felt her heart racing faster as more and more tears flowed from her eyes blurring her vision again as a warmth filled her heart spreading to the rest of her.
“Also it’s not quantum entanglement, it’s soulmates and I can’t believe you reduced something so magical to a few molecules vibrating. How can you be such a romantic and yet not make that connection?”
Lena choked out another laugh and was finally able to pull back enough to look properly at Kara. Kara’s hand came up to softly caress her face.
Lena just looked at her, still not quite able to process that Kara was awake again. She’d had dreams of this over the years, some more devastating than others when she woke to see Kara still asleep. Kara reached out and pulled her in for a kiss a thousand years in the making.
It was soft, and warm, and salty from their tears, and it was perfect. Lena kissed her back their mouths moving in sync as though they had been kissing each other for every one of those thousand years.
They pulled back gradually their eyes opening slowly. Lena half expecting Kara to not be there.
“Also how could you use me as a teething toy for the children?” Kara demanded causing Lena to laugh again before she was wiping away more tears. “That cult was weirder than you thought, and I was so relieved when you got my body back.”
Lena kept laughing her head coming to rest on Kara’s shoulder holding her closer.
“I did not appreciate the whole lightning thing, even if it was necessary because I was stone by then. But please know it still hurt. You stuck a rod-”
Kara stopped talking and a moment later Lena heard it too. Bare feet on hardwood. Kara smiled and lay down.
“My turn,” she whispered.
Lena nodded wiping away her tears again as the footsteps slowed and began to creep towards them. Lena felt her smile growing as Allie got closer. There was a small triumphant yell as she dived forwards, right as Kara moved. Kara’s hands reached out and catching Allie in the middle of her jump.
It took a second for Allie to realise what who was holding her then-
“Jeju!” Allie yelled excitedly.
“Inah!” Kara said, her wide smile for Allie melting Lena’s heart all over again.
“You are supposed to be in bed little one,” Kara said.
“But Jeju!” Allie protested. “You’re awake!”
“Yes Inah, I am.” Kara’s eyes met Lena’s and softened again. Kara looked back at Allie. “And you should be asleep, you have school tomorrow. But I promise we can do breakfast tomorrow morning and I’ll even make pancakes.”
Allie did her best pout. Somehow it didn’t work on Kara, Lena was quietly impressed. Kara rose, and carrying Allie very carefully in one arm, she took Lena’s hand in the other and took her first steps in a thousand years. They gradually made their way down the hall to Allie’s bedroom.
Lena watched as Kara carefully laid Allie in the bed and tucked her back in with her fish.
“Story,” Allie pleaded turning the full force of her best puppy dog eyes on Kara.
“One more,” Kara said smiling. “Once upon a time there a long time ago there was a brilliant woman-”
“Supergirl!”
“No, this one is about your Mama. About her doing something very special. I don’t think you’ve heard this one, at least not fully.”
She looked over her shoulder at Lena who was leaning in the doorway watching them.
“Supergirl had just been in a big fight with a very powerful villain. She won but at a terrible cost, she was cursed. Cursed to sleep for a thousand years so that all she had built and known would crumble around her, never to be seen again. Cursed to be the only one to remember her world once more.”
Allie’s forehead creased in a worried frown as she hugged her fish closer.
“But your brilliant Mama couldn’t let that happen. So she did research for weeks, months. She dug through every text she could find that might have an answer, but in the end there was nothing they could do about the cursed sleep. But she found something they could do about the rest. A spell she could do.”
Kara looked towards Lena a soft smile on her face.
“She couldn’t stop the sleep, but she could make sure when Supergirl woke she wasn’t alone. One person could stay with her, to remember with her. There was a catch though, they would have to link themselves to Supergirl, forever. Tie their very life energy to Supergirl’s so that they would live and die together. And unlike Supergirl they wouldn’t be able to sleep away that time. They would have to live through it. They would have to watch the world change. Watch civilisations rise and fall over and over. They would need to stay with Supergirl, to protect her from those who might try to take advantage of her weakened state. And they would have to do it alone.”
Lena felt fresh tears gather in her eyes at the memory.
“She told this to the others and their choice was unanimous, that person should be her. When Supergirl woke the person who should be with her was Lena. She argued that they were wrong, that she would want someone else to be there.”
Kara turned back to Allie and brushed a hair away from her face.
“But they were right. There was one person I could never lose. One person I would miss above the others, one person whose loss would mean I could never recover, and it was her. In the end they convinced your mama. Not with any reasonable argument though, but with something she could never deny; science. The only person my heart reacted to, the only one I would let be linked to me for the rest of my life, was her. So Lena did the spell, linking us together, forever.”
Lena felt herself slowly sliding to the floor as her legs gave out remembering that moment when the spell finally worked and she could feel her heart beat in time with Kara’s.
“Then she carried me for a thousand years. She hid me, fought armies, dragged me across the galaxy and back. No matter what happened she carried me with her. Often thrown over her shoulder or in the back of a cart. Once she even hid me in a rug.”
Allie giggled.
“She got me back after I was stolen a few times, and not once did she stop talking to me. Or being my friend. For a thousand years she always remained my Lena, my best friend, and the love of my life.”
Kara smiled and kissed Allie’s head. Allie was fighting against sleep as Kara stroked her hair.
“And when I woke I was so happy to see she also gave me you inah.”
Allie’s face transformed into a pleased smile.
“I love you Jeju,” she whispered.
“And I love you Inah.”
Allie’s eyes slowly closed as Kara’s fingers gently combed through her hair. At last Allie was asleep and Kara smiled.
“Okhashbem inahte,” she whispered kissing her head.
Kara rose and turned to smile at Lena. She held out a hand and Lena let Kara help her to her feet. Without a word needing to be said they walked back to Lena’s room and stripped out of their clothes climbing into bed together.
Kara pulled Lena into her arms.
“Also, for future reference, can you sleep next to me in circumstances other than the cold and there being only one bed, because I missed you on the nights you were gone.”
Lena curled around Kara holding her tighter as fresh tears filled her eyes.
“I didn’t want to get used to it,” she admitted. “I thought you might be upset if you ever found out.”
Kara scoffed.
“Lena we shared a bed all the time before I was cursed. Remember when Mon-el came over to surprise me with breakfast and found us snuggled up together watching cat videos in my bed.”
Lena scoffed.
“He asked if we’d been waiting for him,” Lena said, smiling at the memory once long forgotten. “And I told him this wasn’t the start of a porno.”
Kara laughed, her hand coming up to gently stroke Lena's hair, playing with the ends.
“After you left I had to call Winn to have him explain what a porno is because I couldn’t without turning into a stammering mess.”
Lena chuckled and snuggled closer burying her face in Kara’s neck. Kara smiled settling deeper into the blankets.
“One good thing about being so far in the future, no one else remembers that relationship so we can just pretend it never happened.”
Lena was quiet for a moment, then she started snickering.
“What?” Kara asked, snuggling closer and letting herself luxuriate in the softness that was Lena’s hair.
Lena lifted her head to smile at Kara.
“I’m not sure if I should say this now but, you should know Mon-el is set to turn up next week.”
Kara groaned hiding her face in Lena’s neck.
“It’s been a thousand years and I still can’t escape my ex boyfriend.”
Lena laughed and tilted Kara’s face towards her so she could kiss her again.
“Just think how he’s going to feel when he miraculously sees you again, and you tell him you’re dating me.”
“Lena, I think after a thousand years together we’re a bit past dating, I think we’re married,” Kara’s voice faltered slightly. “Or at least we should be be…”
Lena smiled at her.
“Kara Danvers, are you saying you want to marry me?”
Kara smiled and nodded.
“Yes. Yes, I do, I- I’ve wanted to marry you for over a thousand years so…”
Kara drew in a breath as she saw Lena’s smile go from teasing to something closer to awe. Lena bit her lip and ducked her head into the crook of Kara’s neck.
“You haven’t even taken me on a date yet Ms Danvers,” she teased, her lips brushing against Kara’s neck as her heart started to race.
Kara sighed, melting at the feeling of Lena’s lips on her skin.
“I’ll take you on a date tomorrow, then we can go buy bracelets and get married the day after.”
Lena laughed, the sound suddenly wrapping around Kara like a warm blanket drawing her deeper into Lena.
“I think you might have trouble finding a priest willing to do the ceremony that quickly,” she said.
Kara scoffed.
“Lena, I remind you Kira is a priest. A very senior one at that, and we both know he’d do it in heartbeat.”
Lena groaned.
“He would,” she mumbled. “And he’d find some way to make it a religious holiday.”
Kara laughed and gently tilted Lena’s face up so she could look deep into the beautiful green eyes she’d missed so much.
“So Ms Luthor, will you marry me?”
Lena smiled wrapping her arms around Kara's neck.
“Yes Ms Zor-El Danvers, I will.”
Then she kissed Kara again, and again, and again.