Hey guys, sorry about the delay – as predicted, this week got a bit crazy! But here it is, the final chapter for now at least. It's been really fun writing this (really, a lot, very much, extremely, tremendously, etc), so it's not impossible that there could be a follow up story of the canon-adjacent variety, but I do have another project that I want to get back to first so I'm not sure when that might happen. There are a bunch tonne of excellent canon-adjacent supercorp fics around though, so have fun with those in the meantime. Anywho, thanks for reading, as always, hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Ten

It was a real struggle to remember that this was reality now. She was holding Lena's hand in the elevator again, her chest feeling several thousand times lighter with all the secrets that she'd shaken from it, and she also had the very recent memory of several extraordinarily thorough make-out sessions with Lena on the Star Labs rooftop to make her heart soar; and yet, apparently, this was reality. Having spent a significant part of the last 24 hours in a musical dream world with Barry, it was hard to completely trust that something this utterly and impossibly wonderful was in fact real.

"So, is Barry from another planet too?" Lena asked, her eyes lighting with the fire of interest that signalled that her genius brain was about to dive down an impressive rabbit hole of theorising. "And Cisco? It's just fascinating! A whole alternate universe full of possibilities! And I'm betting that there's more than just one…."

"There are loads apparently," Kara replied, unable to contain her smile at Lena's enthusiasm, at the relaxed happiness that she was radiating. "According to Barry, ours is 'Earth 38', but clearly that's just wrong."

"Thirty-eight!?"

"Yup," Kara almost laughed aloud at Lena's expression and her heart practically buzzed in her chest. "But as for Barry and Cisco, they're not aliens but 'metahumans'. Thus far, there hasn't actually been much alien contact on this earth; nothing friendly anyway."

"None at all?" Lena looked shocked, her eyes going distant for a moment. Kara wondered for a moment if she was thinking of Lex and what a world without aliens might have meant for him but then she continued, eyes bright with interest. "So where do their powers come from, or is that just normal in this universe? I guess I'm assuming a lot-"

"No, humans having powers isn't exactly normal here, but it's recently become more normal than it is back home. Barry told me once how it happened for him, something to do with getting struck by lightning when a particle accelerator exploded-"

"A particle accelerator?! But-"

Kara grinned again at Lena's still-widening eyes but before she could really get into it, the elevator dinged to signal that they had arrived back downstairs and the doors opened into the lab again.

"Perhaps we can attempt to satisfy my endless list of multiverse questions another time?" Lena said, squeezing Kara's hand with a grin.

"We can certainly try," Kara laughed as they made their way into the room, pulling Lena's hand up to press a kiss to her knuckles, just because she could.

"You guys," Barry practically cooed at them as he turned towards them, his face alight with pride. Kara could feel her blush blossoming all over her face, but there was no point trying to conceal her happiness, even if she wanted to.

"How are you feeling, Kara?" Caitlin asked, always one to get straight to business, although even she had a warm smile on her face as she walked towards them. "Are you feeling back to normal strength after some time in the sun?"

"Honestly I feel like I could do pretty much anything right now." The slightly embarrassing answer made its way out of her mouth before she could even try to stop it but, really, with the way Lena smiled at her words, she was glad her heart spoke before her mind could step in. "But how are you, Barry? You don't really have as easy a fix as I do?"

"I'm fine actually," he said with an almost baffled grin. "It's like my speed's just been flowing back to me ever since I woke up and now I'm fine again. Like, I think maybe Music Meister actually didn't do any damage at all."

"I have to say," Lena spoke up, her eyes flashing almost guiltily at Kara, "I know I didn't have to deal with him as long as the rest of you did, but honestly I'm kind of grateful he came along in the end."

"Well, much as I spent a lot of time wanting to punch him, I kind of agree," Iris laughed.

"Hey, we would have figured it out," Barry pouted a little, his eyes darting from Iris to Kara and back again. "And Kara would have plucked up courage before too long, I know it," he said looking pointedly at Lena.

Kara could feel the blush intensifying on her own face.

"Has Kara told you the story of their little otherworldly musical adventure yet, Lena?" Iris asked, with a grin that clearly showed she didn't understand how mortified Kara was about to be. "It's quite the tale."

"We hadn't actually gotten to that," Lena said with a little smirk, but she squeezed Kara's hand as she glanced at her and somehow even just that made the mortification easier to deal with. "We had a few other things we needed to discuss a little more urgently. Care to fill me in, darling?" she directed the last at Kara, her smirk getting more mischievous by the second.

Oh dear. Oh golly, how am I supposed to be coherent when she's calling me 'darling' and looking at me like that?

"Oh- umm, well- Uh, we- uh, Barry and I, that is, were singers in a club-"

"You can sing?" The mischief was gone from Lena's voice, just wonder and that soft and intense look that Kara was beginning to recognise as the look that Lena only gave to her.

Because she loves me.

Which is the craziest and most awesome thing ever.

"Oh man, can she sing," Barry answered for her, making Kara blush again. "You should get her to sing for you sometime."

"Oh, I definitely will," Lena murmured, her hand squeezing Kara's again and now Kara's heart was thundering and skipping and doing all sorts of silly things.

"Barry's got a great voice too," she said, her voice a little squeaky as she tried to deflect at least some of the attention.

"Oh, I know," Iris said, looking at Barry with a glowing smile. "We used to sing together as kids. But come on, get to the story!"

"Well," Kara cleared her throat, looking slightly desperately at Barry for help but he just grinned and shrugged at her. "Well, we were singers at a- a club, and- and it was kind of like a West Side Story or Fantasticks kind of thing, where there were two rival gangsters, one of whom owned the club we sang for, and- and-" She could feel her heart rate increasing as she scrambled to tell the story without completely embarrassing herself. Barry was apparently just going to let her embarrass herself as much as she could. "And, each gangster had a daughter, one was called Millie and the other L-Liza, and they were in love, so it was a kind of star-crossed forbidden love kind of situation-" She could see one of Lena's eyebrows rising, saw her bite her lip to keep from smirking, a move which was distracting enough at the best of times and now- "And- uh, uhhm, uh- and we had to try to help them to get their fathers- the gangsters- to- to accept their love and reconcile, but it didn't entirely go to plan, hence the, uh, gunshot wounds…."

She trailed off a little pathetically, not quite able to think how to tell Lena that she had had a starring role as 'Liza', one of the ill-fated lovers in this tragic tale.

"Uhm, there are a couple of fairly important details you missed out there, Kara," Barry said with a grin.

"Just one or two," Iris laughed along too and apparently all Kara could do was grimace apologetically at Lena, whose eyebrows were really doing their thing now and Kara completely lost any grasp of words.

"I mean," Barry continued, "to start with, the part where it was a musical meant that everyone kept bursting into song all the time which was kind of fun looking back on it but at the time was kind of bewildering, but, more importantly and more strangely, the cast of actors who played the major characters were made up of people from our lives, people that Kara and I care about, most particularly the characters of Millie and Liza."

"I was Millie apparently," Iris chimed in at this point with a wide grin, "and you, Lena, were Liza. Apparently we made quite an inspiring couple."

"How could we not?" Lena replied and Kara could hear the smirk dripping sexily from her voice without even looking; it was enough to make her whole body feel a hundred times hotter. "Does this mean that I should have just tried to make you jealous, Kara, is that what it would have taken?"

"Uh," Kara practically squawked, swallowing hard in an attempt to regain control of her voice. "I, uh, don't think I can answer that right now without completely embarrassing myself." Lena's beautiful, silvery laughter washed over her as the shorter woman pulled her a little closer, one hand still holding hers and the other rubbing comfortingly up and down her arm; there was so much fondness, such deep affection blazing in her eyes as she looked up at Kara that the blonde had to wonder how she hadn't seen it before.

"It's ok, darling," Lena said gently as she smiled at Kara. "We probably shouldn't hang around here much longer anyway. Jess will be going through the roof thinking something's happened to me again if I don't reappear in my office soon."

"Yeah, Alex always gets antsy if I'm in another dimension for too long too," Kara nodded.

"Can't imagine why," Lena murmured with a sigh, but she squeezed Kara's hand which Kara took to mean that they would have the discussion about Lena worrying about her work as Supergirl at another time. "But, completely bewildering as it has been at times, it really has been lovely to meet you all," Lena continued, her eyes drifting back across Barry, Iris and Caitlin and at that point Kara noticed Cisco was missing. "We really must be going, but I hope we all meet again soon, in one universe or another."

Kara had to grin; she knew that Lena's inner nerd must be out of its mind with excitement at being able to say a sentence like that and mean it.

"Yeah, guys," she sighed, her heart swelling with love and friendship as she looked at Barry and thought of the incredible journey that they had just been on together. "It's been- it's been amazing, but we should really get going. Is Cisco around? Alex said he could get us back?"

"Yeah," Barry said as he wrapped his arms around Kara for a good, long hug which Kara carefully returned. "I think he's down in the cells trying to figure out how Music Meister escaped his cell. I suspect it's a lost cause, but he won't rest without at least trying to figure it out."

"Sounds like Cisco," Kara said with a smile as she hugged Iris and Caitlin too, her chest tightening slightly as she saw Barry hug Lena out of the corner of her eye, saw Lena's almost uncertain but then grateful smile as the goodness in Barry's warm heart flowed around her.

Even now, it was clear for Kara to see how much Lena appreciated this kind of casual, friendly affection but was just completely unaccustomed to it; she really hoped that that was something she might help to change.

They made their way down to the cells below Star Labs having made their farewells and their 'call-me-if-you-need-me's, excitement clear on Lena's face as Kara told her that the cells were actually a relic from the very same particle accelerator that had created so many of the metahumans like Barry. As they walked through the halls, she could practically hear Lena's brain whirring through the possibilities and practicalities of the structure they were walking through and had to marvel at Lena's incredible mind.

And she chose me. Out of all the people in her world, she loves me.

Kara was pretty sure she would never not be amazed and overjoyed at that thought.

"Cisco!" Kara called out when her x-ray vision showed her that they were close to where he was standing, staring at the cell which had presumably held the Music Meister.

"Kara! Lena! Hey!" he called back as he turned and saw them round the corner onto the gangway approaching this particular cell. "Are you guys heading back already?"

"Yeah," Kara said with a slightly tired smile. "We've got things we need to get back for and, honestly, I think we probably need a little time to process all this in our own dimension, you know?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," Cisco nodded, but he was still frowning. "It's just I'd been hoping to chat with you, Lena," he said, his eyes darting across to her. "Alex told me you're some kind of engineering genius. I do a little engineering myself and it would be great to pick your brains some time?"

He looked hopefully from Lena to Kara and back again.

"Uhm, well, of course, I'm flattered," Lena said hesitantly, her eyes darting to Kara for a moment before returning to Cisco again, "but, I mean, is that entirely sensible? I don't know whether- I mean, obviously you have far more understanding and experience in this field than I do, but sharing technology across dimensions? Isn't that a little risky?"

"I shouldn't think so," Cisco said, cocking his head slightly as he considered.

Oh man, Winn will be so jealous if Cisco gets to have a proper nerd-melt with Lena before he does…

"It's not like with time travel," Cisco said with a casual shrug. "We have to have strict rules with that because damaging existing timelines can have serious consequences but with this-"

"I'm sorry," Lena cut him off abruptly. "Did you just say time travel? And that you have rules for it…" She trailed off, her eyes widening and Kara heard her heartrate increasing as she carried on, her words spilling out quickly in her excitement, "….because you guys are familiar with interdimensional travel so of course you're familiar with time travel!"

"Yup," Cisco replied with only a slightly smug grin that Kara really couldn't blame him for.

"Ok, Kara and I have to go home now, but we are going to have that chat at some point before too long, Cisco." Kara could practically feel her buzzing with excitement beside her and could barely keep her grin from completely taking over her face. "Are all your friends this interesting, Kara?"

"Uh," Kara laughed slightly, unable to deny it, "well they're not all genius tech guys, but a lot of them are pretty interesting."

"Ok," Cisco grinned, "well, Kara knows how to contact me with the oscillator that Alex has at the moment, so when you're ready let me know."

"Absolutely," Lena said, almost a little breathlessly and Kara had to laugh.

"Alright then," Cisco smiled. "Where and when am I taking you? I imagine you'd like to go right back to where and when I took you from when I came with Alex?"

"You can do that?" Lena almost gaped at him and Kara felt her heart thrill with warmth again. "Of course you can do that," Lena shook her head sharply, her eyes closing for a second and a brilliant smile flashing on her face. "I'm guessing that theoretically at least you could spend hours and hours here and go right back to the second you left our dimension?"

"You can," Cisco grinned, "but it's not sensible to do that too often – it's like a- a kind of interdimensional jet lag effect. Your body still goes through time, even if it's not time from your dimension."

"That makes sense," Lena nodded, murmuring. "Oh I have so many questions. I'm very much looking forward to picking your brains, Cisco."

"Right back at you," Cisco laughed, "but for now-"

He pulled on his glasses and gloves and shot forth a beam of swirling blue light from his hands, a portal forming right before their eyes.

That's still cool every time I see it.

"Thanks, Cisco," Kara said to him and he grinned in response. "Let's go then," she said to Lena, squeezing her hand gently and leading her towards the portal.

"Oh, I seem to remember not particularly enjoying this experience on the way here," Lena grimaced slightly.

"Sorry," Kara grimaced back and Lena laughed, squeezing back.

"It was definitely worth it, darling, don't worry. Let's go."

Kara smiled, feeling her whole chest swell like a balloon of gratitude and love and happiness; she pulled Lena closer, one arm firmly around her waist, and together they walked forwards into the portal.

As always, the experience of travelling between dimensions left Kara blinking hard for a couple of seconds, but clearly the experience was a lot more unpleasant for Lena whose whole body was rigid, her face somehow even paler than usual and her eyes wide. She turned and clung to Kara almost immediately as they set foot in their dimension; Kara lost no time in wrapping her in a close embrace, slightly relieved to feel her tense body relaxing and her thundering heart rate slowing.

"Um, maybe we should get Cisco to come here for your brain-picking meet up thing?"

"No, I'm fine!" Lena protested firmly, even as she buried her face further into Kara's neck, making it impossible for Kara to not smile. "I'm not going to let a little travel discomfort stop me from making the most of the opportunity for interdimensional travel, Kara, come on."

"Of course," Kara snuffed a laugh, "what was I thinking?" Carefully, she squeezed Lena that little bit tighter, held her that bit closer, and she pressed a small kiss into her sweet-smelling raven hair.

Because I can. Because I know it won't weird her out if I do that like I always want to.

By now Lena's body was almost completely relaxed again and Kara felt as much as heard the low rumble of satisfaction that started somewhere in her chest and came from her throat.

And then she felt Lena's lips on her neck.

Oh…oh my…

It was impossible to understand how something so simple could make quite so much heat flood so suddenly through Kara's entire body. Kara's knees literally began to feel slightly weak as Lena kissed her way up her neck, along her jaw and finally met Kara's mouth in a kiss that felt more important than breathing.

Lena's mouth was so soft and warm and Kara could not get enough. She felt Lena's tongue gently dance along her own lips and a shiver of white hot heat shot down her spine as she welcomed her in, her whole body completely ablaze with desire at something so simple and-

The horrible, awful, world-ending gentle ding of Lena's office intercom sounded.

"Miss Luthor," Jess's polite and professional voice sounded in the room. "Just to let you know, the delegation from the Green Cities Foundation has arrived for your three o'clock with them; I'll get them set up in Conference One."

Kara froze, her whole body now ablaze with slightly embarrassed disappointment. She and Lena glanced almost in unison to the row of clocks on the wall and groaned at the sight of the one that read the time for National City as 2.55pm. Lena's forehead dropped onto Kara's shoulder with a sigh, her fingers gripping tightly at Kara's waist for a moment before she took a deep breath, removed herself from Kara's arms and walked over to her desk, pressing the intercom button on her desk phone.

"Thanks, Jess," she said, turning to meet Kara's gaze apologetically as she continued. "I'll just be a couple of minutes."

It was almost like a physical pain, the realisation that returning to their reality actually meant returning to their actual reality where they both had jobs and responsibilities and could not spend every moment making out and declaring their love for each other.

"I'm really sorry, Kara," Lena said, her face crawling with guilt as she walked back towards the superhero. "I really can't miss this meeting; I've had it scheduled for months and Green Cities are doing some really important things that I want to support and-"

"Lena, it's ok," Kara smiled, rationality winning out even as she ached a little. "I know you have responsibilities you can't just abandon; trust me, I know what that's like."

Lena snuffed a laugh, shaking her head slightly as she walked back into Kara's embrace, her face burying into Kara's neck again; the ache in Kara's chest eased.

"Of course," Lena murmured, "you of all people would understand."

"I really do," Kara replied, again kissing her hair, again just because she could and because she delighted in it. She felt Lena squeeze her tighter, burrow a little closer, and her heart soared. "So, I should really go now, but- but can I see you later?"

Lena instantly squeezed her tighter still.

"Yes, please," she mumbled into Kara's neck before pulling back enough to meet Kara's eyes, the pale green in hers making Kara's breath catch as always. Lena lifted a hand, her fingers drifting gently, almost reverently, across Kara's cheek and making Kara's heart race. "This already feels a little unreal, what with the whole alternate dimension aspect; it'd definitely be good to have some confirmation that this hasn't just been one wonderful hallucination when I start to really think it might have been later this evening."

"You're going to think it was a wonderful hallucination?!" Kara couldn't help protesting. "I got stuck in a musical and then got to make out with you! I kind of already think it's probably a hallucination."

And then Lena laughed her beautiful laugh, pulled Kara down, leaned up and kissed her.

"Best hallucination ever," Kara breathed against Lena's lips as she pulled away enough to rest their foreheads together.

"Kara," Lena laughed her protest lightly, shaking her head before kissing her gently one more time.

"Ok, ok," Kara groaned as she regretfully pulled away. "I should really go because you have your meeting and I should probably check in with Alex to stop her worrying and everything, but," she paused taking a breath and trying to absorb every detail of the vision that was Lena Luthor looking up at her with love in her eyes, "I will text you, probably a lot just to keep checking that this is real and also because I love you and also so we can arrange something for later."

There it was again, that almost quivering smile that had burst onto Lena's face when she'd told her she loved her earlier, almost as if Lena couldn't quite believe it, couldn't quite believe her own happiness. It was beautiful, but Kara was going to do everything she could to make sure Lena believed it.

"That sounds like a plan," Lena said, her voice quiet and just on the edge of tremulous. "I love you too, Kara."

Kara could feel the smile practically taking over her entire face – there was no stopping it, not even with super-strength. Her entire body was buzzing and her heart was soaring and floating and doing all the clichés; it could not be helped.

She leaned in again, unable not to kiss Lena 'just once more', holding her as close as she dared, trying to memorise the feeling as much as possible so she could relive it again in the hours before they would see each other again that evening; a few hours seemed like a horribly long time right now. They'd only just found out that their feelings were mutual, surely they shouldn't have to be apart again right away?

No, Kara; responsibilities, jobs, being a mature adult. You will survive a few hours without making out. You have to, or you won't get to make out with her again.

"Ok," Lena said as she pulled away, and Kara was slightly relieved to see that it appeared to be as much of a wrench for her as it was for Kara.

"Ok," Kara nodded, her hands sliding along Lena's arms until they reached her hands; she lifted Lena's hands to her mouth, pressing kisses to both of them. With a deep breath, she met Lena's beautiful green eyes, felt her heart cracking even as it swelled with love. "I'll see you later then."

"You will," Lena said, squeezing Kara's hands slightly before dropping one and leading her towards the balcony door with the other, although she did stop rather conspicuously at the door; evidently it was going to take a little while for Lena to be comfortable on her balcony again. "And you'd better text me, Kara Danvers. It's very stupid, but I know I'm going to be missing you until I see you again."

"Me too," Kara grinned, swallowing and dropping her gaze for a moment before raising her eyes to meet Lena's again. "But it's actually Zor-El, not Danvers."

"Sorry?" Lena blinked.

"My true name, from- from Krypton."

"Kara Zor-El?" Lena said, her voice almost a little breathy as if in wonderment. Kara's own heart was full of wonder at the effect that hearing her true name from Lena's lips had on her.

"That's- That's me," she managed to reply with a shy grin.

"It's beautiful," Lena smiled, biting her lip in that truly unfair way that she did. "You're beautiful."

Kara couldn't not blush.

The most beautiful woman in the world thinks I'm beautiful; how ridiculous and how very wonderful.

"I love you," she murmured, unable not to, and also unable not to lean down and kiss Lena again – just one more, ok!? – melting again against the soft, welcoming warmth of Lena's mouth.

And then the distant chime of the city clock tower tolling the hour sounded, just loud enough for Lena to hear it too.

I hate time.

With a noise of deep discontent, Lena pulled away from the kiss, her brows furrowing in evident frustration.

"I love you too, Kara," she murmured, her eyes softening again as they met Kara's, both her hands coming up to push Kara's hair back behind her ears before cupping her face. "I love you and I will see you later, ok?"

"Ok," Kara nodded, somehow her heart already stuttering in excited anticipation for seeing Lena later even as it ached at being parted from her now.

And with the greatest of efforts, Kara stepped away and rose carefully into the air. She hovered a few feet above Lena for a couple of seconds, just gazing at her as she gazed back, each of them drinking in the sight of the other, before Kara turned and forced herself to leave. She knew that no amount of time was going to feel like enough.

But I will see her later. Soon, in fact. Tonight.

We might go on an actual date like people do.

Or we might just stay in and snuggle on a sofa and talk about all the things we still need to talk about.

And also make out a lot.

I get to make out with Lena now, because she loves me. She loves me, and I'm gonna see her tonight and- and everything is perfect!

I think even Alex is ok with it! I mean, she hugged Lena! Hugged her!

She's probably going to grill me about it now though…

But I still get to make out with Lena later. Because she loves me, like I love her.

Kara couldn't help it; the energy running through her from the sheer joy of it needed expelling. She shot straight up into the sky, getting so high it wouldn't matter if she broke the sound barrier, whooping and laughing her happiness into the air, spiralling and twirling and looping her joy as she flew.

She couldn't remember ever feeling like this, feeling a love so deep and full and completely without reservation.

And she loves me too. She loves me so much that she saved me from a magical interdimensional coma.

She loves me.

She let go, basked in the rush of joy as this thought consumed her, the sun shone its powerful energy upon her, and the wind flew around her in wild torrents that seemed to echo the song in her heart, a song of kindness and courage and deep wells of inner strength, of soft, pale skin and green eyes and thick raven hair; in short, a song for Lena Luthor.

So there you have it :) I hope you had half as much fun reading it as I had writing, and I hope you'll forgive me for how this last chapter kind of waffled on a bit at the end there – endings are really and truly not my forte! As always, let me know what you thought, what worked and what didn't and potentially what you might like to see in a follow up canon-adjacent fic. I don't really have much of a plan for one yet bar a couple of scenes here and there which would be particularly interesting, so if there are things you want to see let me know and hopefully at some point I'll make it happen!

Thanks so much for the interest in this fic; you guys are marvellous :) :)

M