Chapter Text
Kara was almost entirely sure that this had been their third date. The first one had been a bit ambiguous with respect to the “date” status, so she’d probably have to get clarification on that at some point for purposes of anniversaries and such. But what she did know is that this was their fourth kiss, and she was 100% definitely sure about that.
And as far as kisses go, this one seemed to be lasting a lot longer than any of the first three had done.
They were at Lena’s condo, meant to be saying good night, though the words to that effect had happened at least ten minutes ago now. Her tongue was sliding between Lena’s parted lips, her fingertips sinking deeper into Lena’s hair (on the left) and wrinkling the smooth black fabric of the dress that covered Lena’s lower back (on the right).
Lena’s back rested against her front door, neck craned upward to meet Kara’s warm lips. With Kara’s tongue working magic inside her mouth for minutes on end now, sticky wet fire had taken hold between her legs, and her thighs were rapidly losing the motivation to keep her upright because of it. With her head cradled, immobilized against the door by the strong fingers wrapped around her hair, her brain was a whirlpool of every thought on the spectrum from restraint to surrender.
Thoughts like, “this might be too fast” and “I don’t care - now, right now.” Swirling, swirling about.
Spurred by Lena’s breathy little whimpers into her mouth (which did not, for the record, seem to encompass any ambivalence about the situation at all), Kara found herself pressing Lena harder and harder against that door, hips and belly leading the charge. And as that happened, she was rapidly realizing that that whole plan she had made to be the perfect gentlewoman who was “taking it slow” in her delicate new relationship was on the verge of becoming a quaint (and possibly even laughable) notion.
She hadn’t consciously registered that Lena had untucked the front of her shirt from her waistband until she felt the fingernails tracing hungry lines along bare skin at her waist, and found her eyes rolling back into her head a bit at the touch of those fingertips.
Oh it would be easy, so easy - nothing but the flick of a wrist, really - to rip that expensive dress right off the curvy little frame pressed between her body and the door. It required nothing short of super strength for her to pull her lips away instead and whisper, “Lena, I have to talk to you about something.”
Bliss ripped away unexpectedly, Lena blinked up at Kara with glazed eyes. “Talk?” she repeated, her whirlpool brain feeling puzzled and not a little petulant.
Somehow, through her dreamlike state of groggy want, Lena remembered how to use a keypad and thumbprint, and let them inside. And then, with her rumpled half-undone hair, flushed face, and bare feet (shoes kicked off immediately inside the door), somehow conducted the motions to pour them each a glass of wine. She sat at the bar and sipped while her heart rate slowed, much to her chagrin, and she tried to focus on the words being said and not just the lips forming them. Because Kara was clearly trying to tell her something significant.
“I have to tell you something about myself,” she was saying, hands resting in her lap as she sat across the bar from Lena, eyes sincere and darkened lips pressed together, all serious. The glasses she had removed in the heat of the recent moment were back on her nose.
“Of course. You know you can tell me anything, Kara,” Lena said, still raspy but sobering up, butterflies suddenly awakened in the pit of her stomach. (But if it ruins this, don’t tell me, don’t tell me.. . .)
“So, it’s not really a secret, per se,” Kara said. “It’s more of a private thing about me. And it’s something I only tell to people who I think there’s a good chance I might be, um, intimate with.” Kara’s eyes flickered downward shyly.
The anxiety about whatever this was that Kara was about to tell her was palpable in her gut, but those words made the fire between Lena’s legs flare up just a little brighter. Intimate… Kara.. .
While Lena’s thoughts swirled, Kara was gathering her nerve.
“On Krypton, they called people like me ‘Zhol-tauv’,” she said with a sharp exhale, as if she needed the force of her breath to get the words out.
“Zhol tauv.” Lena repeated, searching her mind for the few Kryptonian words that she knew, and coming up empty. “I don’t think I know it. What does it mean?”
“Well, ‘zhol’ means sex. And ‘tauv’ means two. So it means,” Kara swallowed. “It means to be a person of two sexes.”
Kara looked up at Lena with nervous eyes. She had had this conversation with a few people in her life, and it had never once been easy. And though she knew this was her truth and hers alone to share, the history she shared with Lena, fraught with secrets as it was, could never have been a non-factor when this moment came.
Lena set down her wine glass. “Do you mean. . .” she trailed off as she searched for the right words. “Is that like being non-binary?”
“No,” Kara said, shaking her head. “It doesn’t have anything to do with gender. My mind is female; I’m a girl. Zhol-tauv is more of a. . . physical. . . situation.”
“So two sexes meaning physically both?”
“Yes.”
“Oh,” Lena said, the realization clicking. With a gentle tone she asked, “So, would it be like the English word intersex? That’s a perfectly natural thing, Kara. .. “
“That’s closer to what I am,” Kara hedged. “And I do identify with that community on Earth in some ways. Zhol-tauv is a condition that’s so much more common on Krypton that I didn’t realize at first it was going to be yet one more thing that made me different on this planet. When I first got to Earth, Eliza was so good about helping me adjust. She took me to a support group for intersex kids and their families. I still keep in touch with a few of the friends I made there.”
“That’s wonderful, Kara. Eliza is such a great mom.”
“She is,” Kara agreed. “But despite that, as I got older, I realized that even the term intersex isn’t quite right for me. It’s not that I have some characteristics of two binary biological sexes. It’s that I’m truly, fully. . . both. At once.”
“Yet your secondary sex characteristics are overtly female,” Lena noted. “Your voice, your shape,” she said, and couldn’t help but let her eyes wash up and down over Kara’s soft facial features, cleavage peeking out from her dress, and soft rounded hips that Lena knew well (even though they were hidden behind a long coat at the moment).
“Yeah, that’s true,” Kara agreed. “It’s a condition very specific to certain, um, parts. Of me.”
“So it’s that you have a… and a.. ..?”
Kara nodded. “Yeah. Yep, both of those.”
“Huh,” Lena said, her intrigue encapsulated in the raise of one animated eyebrow.
Kara held silent and let Lena digest this information. She followed as the processing danced over the tiniest of creases in Lena’s forehead and around her mouth.
“Well.” Lena said finally, with a mischievous smirk. “And here I was thinking I knew all of your superpowers already.”
Kara allowed herself a small smile in return. “So you’re not, you know, weirded out?”
“Are you kidding?” Lena said, getting up from her seat and winding around the bar to wrap Kara up in a hug. “Thank you for telling me. Thank you for trusting me.”
“You’re welcome,” Kara said, relief flooding her. “I felt like it was time.”
“Yes, well, I think about five more minutes and I was going to find out for myself out on that doorstep out there,” Lena agreed, and Kara blushed.
“So is it okay if I ask a question? Are all zhol-tauv female-identifying?”
“Of course you can, and no actually, it’s just as common in people who identify as men. Eliza thought it must have offered some kind of evolutionary advantage when animal life on Krypton was evolving. Something about having more options of both sexes to maximize reproductive options. Of course in modern Kryptonian society most men repressed the hormonal cycles that went along with their biological female parts, but it wasn’t totally unheard of to pass a pregnant man out in the world.”
“Fascinating,” Lena said pensively. “It suggests some kind of chromosomal independence between the reproductive organs and the rest of the body’s development. Some kind of transposon or nondisjunction mechanism.”
Kara laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know about any of that. Maybe you can talk with Eliza about it someday. Sometime far, FAR in the future.”
Lena laughed, too. “I think all I need to know for now, Kara, is how to make you feel comfortable, and how to make you feel good. When we get to that place,” she said, kissing Kara’s lips gently, “You just let me know what parts of yourself you want to share with me.”
Kara kissed her back, wrapped her long arms around Lena and drew her in close. “So far, it’s been different with every partner I’ve had,” she said quietly. “It depends on our dynamic. How they feel, and how I feel.”
“Sexuality is so much more exciting and interesting than the little boxes so many humans try to confine it in,” Lena said, resting her head against Kara’s shoulder. “When we’re ready, Kara . . I think we’re going to have a really good time figuring it out.”
****
A few days later, it was a farmer’s market Saturday. This was a regular and daresay unmissable event for Alex and Kelly and Nia and Brainy, and as the new couple of the group Kara and Lena had undergone some shock-and-awe levels of peer pressure to ensure their attendance this week. Normally, Kara would have been patrolling and Lena in her office, but even their respective workaholic natures were no match for Alex’s big sister voice, Kelly’s appeals to the mental health benefits of fresh air and good company, and of course Nia’s (only slightly manipulative) puppy dog eyes.
So attend they did. Kara dressed down in grey sweatpants, a t-shirt that most definitely belonged to Alex ten years ago, and a cozy hoodie over a messy pony tail. Lena was more hippie than hipster in a flowing sundress and oversized cardigan, tiny braids punctuating her cascading waves. They held hands in the warm sunshine and let Brainy talk them into buying way more kale and bok choy than any two people could reasonably eat in a week, even if one of them was Kara Danvers. They contributed to spoiling Esme rotten as any good aunts would; the little girl went home with an enormous fresh strawberry smoothie, a sparkly jar of worth-its-weight-in-gold raspberry honey, handmade unicorn charm bracelets, a rainbow hemp purse, and… well after that, honestly, Kara lost track.
Now they were back at Kara’s, and Lena was trying to figure out the best way to store six pounds of leafy greens in the fridge.
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” Kara called to her from the couch as Lena arranged and then rearranged. “I’ll deal with it later on.”
“I’m going to deal with it now,” Lena insisted. “You know Brainy’s going to want a detailed list of the recipes we made, and I don’t want to have to explain ourselves if any of it goes bad.”
“Just tell him we were too busy making out and we didn’t have time to cook,” Kara said with a shrug. “That’ll shut him up.”
Lena turned to face Kara’s playful, sheepish grin with a faux-scandalized expression, and then to Kara’s delight immediately took those words for the invitation that they were.
“Well I suppose if we’re going to say that, we should at least make it true,” Lena said, climbing into Kara’s lap on the couch. She straddled Kara, knees on either side of her hips. With vegetable tetris in Kara’s fridge now far less interesting, the kale lay abandoned on the kitchen counter.
“Hi,” Lena said softly, cradling Kara’s face in her hands and then bending down to kiss her.
“Hi,” Kara said, smiling into the kiss, wrapping her hands around Lena’s hips.
They kissed lazily, a way befitting of the warm, relaxing morning. Their lips met deliberately, millimeter by millimeter, and the kisses broke just as slowly. They parted, grudgingly and reluctantly, even though there was always another kiss just behind it, bringing them back together at a nearly imperceptible change of angle. (Just in case that felt different. Just had to make sure.)
Lena’s thumbs stroked Kara’s jawline, fingers sliding into golden hair at the nape of her neck. Kara sighed and squeezed Lena’s waist. She was going to start to get a reputation as the impatient one. She couldn’t help it. Her tongue brushed between Lena’s lips.
It was hard to feel a shred of regret about it, though, as Lena whimpered gratifyingly and opened her lips, brushed Kara’s tongue with hers. She shifted in Kara’s lap, putting a little more delicious weight against Kara’s belly. Kara’s nails crept further up Lena’s back under that sundress, digging in on either side of her spine, coaxing an arch into Lena’s back.
And just like that it was a threshold crossed; the languid kissing turned frantic, deep, and Lena felt her body becoming demanding.
More of Kara, more.
Lena's inner thigh muscles stretched as her legs opened to let her sink down harder onto Kara’s lap, hips canting into Kara’s lower belly. Kara’s hands had continued their journey upwards, now on shoulder blades, pulling Lena in closer yet pushing her downward. Lena let her body comply, shifting in the ways Kara’s hands told it to.
When she felt Kara get hard it was startling, the contrast (in her experience, anyway) between that feeling and the soft feminine features against her lips and body. It was not a combination she had felt before.
It was also deliciously intoxicating.
Kara’s erection pressed hard into Lena’s center and lower belly. Lena’s breath grew shallow, her thighs squeezing Kara’s hips.
“Kara,” Lena breathed with a little smile, “I think someone down there likes me.” Breaking their kissing for a moment to look down, she could see Kara’s length bulging through her grey sweatpants.
“Oh, hello,” she murmured.
Kara covered a shy smile with her hand, blushing, and said, “Is it okay?”
“Oh, it is so okay,” Lena replied, eyes rolling back as she pressed herself harder against Kara, clit getting sticky and eager to have that hard length to rock against. Lena moved gently at first, getting to know the feeling of Kara’s length and shape against her body. With the clench of her thighs, she raised and lowered herself, pressing along Kara’s cock from base to tip.
After a few minutes of this, it was drawing a series of pained moans from Kara, whose hands grasped desperately at Lena’s hips. Eventually, their movements fell into an unmistakable, rhythmic, grind.
And once she got going like this, Lena was merciless. She rocked her hips, blatantly enjoying the feeling of Kara’s cock separated from her clit by just a few thin layers of clothing.
“Lena.. . “ Kara whispered, “You gotta stop.”
“Why would I do that?” Lena asked breathlessly.
“I’m gonna make a mess,” Kara panted, “If you keep doing that.”
“Oh, don’t you wanna?” Lena teased.
“I. . . “ was the only syllable that Kara could manage.
“I want you to.”
“Lena, “ Kara choked out, eyes squeezing shut.
“Show me how good it feels,” Lena requested, grinding her hips down onto Kara. “Make a mess for me, Kara.”
There were three annoying layers of fabric between them, but Kara could feel Lena’s heat. Fire rose through her, and Lena pulled back enough to watch as Kara’s chest, neck and face flushed into a dark golden rose. Kara’s mouth stretched into a grimace and she grabbed onto Lena, pulling her down roughly against her. With a few quick thrusts against Lena’s center, she let out a moan that was probably (definitely) supposed to be Lena’s name, and drenched the front of her panties as she came. A second later it soaked through them, making a dark wet spot at the front of Kara’s sweatpants.
Kara panted harder than Lena had certainly ever seen her do before, chest heaving, skin still flushed. She reached down with one hand and pushed a few times against the bulge in her pants, letting out tiny little moans of pleasure, finishing herself completely. Her body relaxed and she fell back against the couch, gazing up at Lena with unfocused eyes.
“Oh, Kara,” Lena breathed reverently at the glowing, blissful girl beneath her. So surreal. So perfectly right, this view of Kara.
“Lena,” Kara smiled up at her, and pulled her down close.
“I. . . I should get you a change of clothes, and a washcloth,” Lena said, trying desperately to maintain the ruse that she was currently a lucid, functional human who definitely had blood in her brain and could certainly accomplish simple tasks like retrieving a washcloth without walking into any walls or anything.
“In a minute,” Kara said.
A second later Lena was on her back on the couch with golden brown locks of hair falling over her, Kara’s smile beaming down at her. And Kara was pushing one of Lena’s legs off the side of the couch, moving it out of her way.
“Lena, can I touch you?” Kara asked.
Lightning bolts shot through Lena, and she whispered, "Yes."
“Thank you,” Kara whispered into Lena’s ear. “Because I think it’s your turn to make a mess.”
There was already a flood between Lena’s legs, and Kara’s two middle fingers slid inside her body like silk.
This was admittedly not how Kara had pictured this moment going; she’d had plans to build Lena up to this state over a matter of hours when the time came.
But their bodies had had different ideas on this day, and Lena was already on the verge, swollen and moaning at Kara’s touch. Kara was nothing in this world if not responsive to Lena’s needs; it had been true for years. Her strong fingers bee-lined for the spot inside of Lena that would get the job done, the pad of her thumb providing pressure for Lena to rock her clit against.
Kara had also been looking forward to watching Lena’s face during these moments of intense pleasure, watching the tension and the explosion. But as it turned out, Lena wrapped her arms around Kara’s ribs and buried her face in Kara’s neck as she came, thighs shaking, clenching around Kara's fingers.
But in that moment, Kara knew there would be plenty of time. There would be plenty of time for all the moments she wanted to see, all the details she had imagined. She kissed Lena’s forehead and knew, heart bursting, that this? This was just the very beginning.