Late Bloomer

Chapter 18- Epilogue

Kara muttered to herself as she finished putting exactly 8 pickles on the piece of bread, having already double checked that she had indeed put regular butter on it before she'd slathered it with a thick layer of peanut butter (she'd made that mistake once – never again). Wrinkling her nose, she placed the piece of toast carefully on a plate and grabbed the accompanying large glass of strawberry milk before making her way back to the living room where her friends, and Lena - the recipient of said toast, were waiting.

Lena reached for the plate with big eyes and grabby hands, shoving the toast towards her mouth and immediately taking a large bite which she washed down with a big swig of milk, much to the disgust of Kara and the other guests. There were some grumbled, 'ewwws' which she ignored, but Lena seemed put out by Kara's expression. In between bites and satisfied moans she managed to get out a sentence in her defence, though she sounded more petulant than pissed.

"Don't look at me like that. It's your baby in there that makes me want these things."

Kara couldn't even be mad at the insinuation, instead her faced morphed into the goofy grin that she always sported whenever she was reminded of the fact that Lena was carrying her baby. Their baby. It hadn't all been smooth sailing – in fact there had been quite the learning curve in the beginning, but now five months in, she finally felt like they were hitting their stride, and despite all of the ups and downs, she was loving the whole experience.

Pregnant Lena was, to put it mildly, mercurial. In the beginning Kara had had an extremely difficult time figuring out what Lena was thinking or feeling, never mind guessing what she'd feel next. This was only compounded by the fact that Lena herself often had no idea what she was feeling or why, which had led to more than a few meltdowns and Kara spending a night or two on the couch.

For example, a few months into the pregnancy Lena had starting picking fights with Kara at every turn about the most mundane things – like how Kara's belt didn't properly match her shoes or her inability to put things directly into the dishwasher. Kara, being the person that she was, had tried to placate Lena, apologizing and doing things to try to make up for it, but she somehow only managed to make Lena more angry. They tried to talk through it – Kara asking Lena what she needed from her, but Lena didn't know either and the conversation didn't go anywhere. After about a week of the same it was too much and after a flippant comment, Kara had snapped and snarled at Lena, invading her space and letting her pheromones loose. To Kara's complete surprise, instead of being mad Lena had positively melted, sinking into Kara's hold and within a few seconds was whining for Kara to fuck her. She had obliged, of course, and after some time in bed it was as if Lena's bad mood had never existed.

The next time Lena got upset was because Kara had apparently hogged the blankets all night. Kara had stupidly decided to try the same thing as before and attempted to start something with Lena, pinning her to the bed and starting to mouth at her neck. It was decidedly the wrong thing to do in that situation, and she ended up being shoved off, yelled at and sent to the store to buy more blankets even though it was 5am. She later learned to rely on her nose and her instincts to figure her way out of those types of situations: if she could detect a hint of arousal under Lena's anger, then she should growl, bite Lena's neck and bend her over the nearest solid surface. If not, she should apologize, placate and offer recompensation. In that specific order.

Kara was pulled out of her musings as Lena, done with her snack, crawled her way into Kara's lap. The others were still engrossed in the board game in front of them, but Kara, having lost quite awhile ago, had nothing to distract herself with when Lena started to mouth at her neck. She tried to hold out to the end of the game, for her friends' sake, but it seemed like it wasn't ending anytime soon, and when Lena's aroused pheromones saturated the air enough that Kara's sern had come out to play, she knew it was past time to end the night.