Kiss it better (karamel AU)

12

"You aren't on call today, are you?" Winn asks. There's a beer in his hand, but he doesn't pass it over until he's received an answer.

"Had to switch with Olsen," Mon-El shakes his head and grabs the bottle before taking a cold sip. "I've put in too many hours this week apparently."

A game is playing on the TV screen, muted and irrelevant. They glance at it and quickly focus back on each other. "Are we gonna talk about this or are you gonna keep pretending you're fine?" Winn speaks again.

"What is there to talk about?"

"A lot, obviously. Don't make me drill it out of you."

Sitting down, Mon-El stares at his friend, feigning a stubbornness he isn't particularly inclined to at the moment. "Kara's still ignoring me," he says with a shrug.

"Are you sure that's it? From what you've told me, she isn't the person to scare easily."

"She also isn't the person to back down when she wants something. I get freaking out and not knowing what to say after what happened, but if that was all, she would have showed up by now." His sentence ends with a hint of disappointment, yet it's hurt reflecting in his gaze. "I guess I'll have to accept that I'm not what she wants."

"Bullshit," Winn exclaims. His tone is steady, confident. "You two have been all over each other since the first time she came into the ER. Everyone could see it."

"Well, maybe everyone was wrong."

"Really?" he quirks a brow.

A sigh is Mon-El's immediate response. "I don't know what to tell you," he fidgets with his drink, sweeps a hand through his hair, then turns to look at the ignored game again. "She doesn't open up. One minute she's all in, the next she shuts me out."

"That sounds familiar..."

"Don't," he's quick to warn his friend. "This is nothing like what happened with Imra."

"So you actually know what you want this time?"

"I do, which is why I called Dr. Jefferson this morning to turn his job offer down."

Winn's eyes widen. His back straightens. "Why the hell would you do that? I thought you wanted the job."

"I didn't think it through. And now that I have, I decided I wanna stay."

"For Kara?"

The question sounds innocent, yet Mon-El feels called out. He doesn't know how to answer; the truth should be obvious to him, but it isn't. What is clear is that he's confused, because Kara has always had him second-guessing his every move. She says she doesn't want a relationship, but doesn't act accordingly. And when he starts to figure her out, it only takes her a second to twist it all around and leave him blank. "No," he says and regrets it immediately. "Yes." For some reason, it still sounds like a lie. "I don't know," he concludes and looks at Winn with every bit of uncertainty flooding his thoughts.

Winn watches him finish off his drink. A smile pulls at his lips and he doesn't hide it. "You're in love with her." It's a statement, not a query.

Mon-El could deny it, but he doesn't. They've been friends for too long to fool each other. When Winn was pining over Eve, he was the one to tell his friend to grow a pair and admit he had feelings for the nurse. He pushed him to ask her out. Talked him out of his panicked daze when she asked him to move in with her. He saw everything Winn pretended not to, thus it's Winn's turn to shake him out of his delusion now — because Mon-El can lie to himself, but he can't lie to his best friend.

"It doesn't matter," he says instead of confirming the fact, "I can't push her. I might be staying for her but she won't know until she chooses me too."