steam - a supercorp au

chapter two

Kara fiddled with her thumbs, a common quirk that she had been called out on for years. She was adopted, around the age of thirteen, and the first thing that her new older sister Alex said to her was "stop playing with your thumbs. It's weird."
So it wasn't unusual that, in her twenties, Kara fiddled her thumbs out of nervousness. The new baristas- fresh in for summer jobs- would give her weird looks, but the veterans would just smile and give her a nudge of encouragement.
"Danvers!" A voice from the back barked at her, which she recognized to belong to Mr. Carr, her boss. "Get to work, or I'll amputate those thumbs of yours!"
This shocked her out of her thoughts, so she immediately grabbed the nearest coffee she could find and read the name aloud. "Uh, order for-" her stomach dropped- "Miss Luthor!"
And Lena walked through the bustling crowd to retrieve her coffee, flashing a grin at Kara. "Are you ready?"
Right as she inquired, Kara's phone rang the sacred bell. She clumsily plucked it from her apron pocket, and read the alarm alerting: DATE WITH LENA! DATE WITH LENA!
"Right on time," Kara replied with a chuckle, her fear shining through in her shaky voice. She had been nervous for hours- twenty seven, to be exact- for this date. "Uh, Janie, I'm on break now."
Janie, one of her fellow baristas, nodded, and gave her a wink that could only mean go get 'em, Kara.
Blushing furiously, Kara hung up her apron and pushed through the gate barricading the station from the public. This barricade protected Kara from the outside world, where she felt misunderstood, lonely. Behind the counter, however, the other baristas understood. They gave the knowing glances, they understood the sigh of frustration when yet another customer decided to take out their anger on the innocent servers. So, Kara was (to say the least) terrified to be retreating from her safety zone.
But when Lena turned around, her eyes a mix of nervousness, excitement, and fresh romance, and something new, fear was the last thing on Kara's mind. The only thing on her mind was Lena's hand in hers, where it currently resided with a foreign yet familiar touch. Lena's beautiful acrylics had changed color since the day before, and Kara recognized them as the color of her own kind blue eyes. A furious blush spread across her cheek. She was gently led by her date to a window seat, and couldn't help but mumble, "Oh, I've never actually been a patron here." She softly laughed, and she didn't quite know why.
Lena pulled out Kara's chair, and helped her in. This is so Taylor Swift, Kara thought to herself, despite being more of an *NSYNC girl. Then, taking her seat directly across, Lena bit her lip gently. "Thank you for joining me, Kara," she said, her voice flowing like warm- no, hot- caramel.
"It's my absolute pleasure," Kara responded with a slight smile, her flirting slowly becoming more and more effortless.
"So you didn't order anything?" Lena asked. She was grasping for a simple starter conversation, desperate not to screw it up, but Kara couldn't detect her worry.
"No," Kara said, a sheepish grin growing wider on her face, "I wouldn't really know what to get." She had been fiddling with her thumbs below the table, but they slowly calmed as time went on.
"Try some of mine," Lena offered, sliding her coffee over to the other side of the table, "I insist."
Kara couldn't help but bite her lip ever so slightly at the sight of the dark purple stain on the coffee cup. It was recognized as the same color painting Lena's lips. She took the cup, her hand brushing against Lena's, and drank it.
She immediately began sputtering, slamming the cup down and gasping. "Ugh!" She muttered, wiping the lipstick and coffee remains from her mouth. "That tasted like poison!"
Lena broke into laughter, and still managed to sound collected and gentle. "You would probably take yours with a little cream, huh?"
Kara continued to gag, grabbing a napkin and wiping her lips. "Maybe a lot of cream!" Then, she laughed, and Lena nearly mistook the sparkle in her eyes for constellations.
By this point, Kara's hands were completely still, because they were occupied with holding Lena's underneath the table.

--

9:18 pm
L: hey kara
K: hi!!
L: i had fun today.
K: i had a lot of fun too!
L: sorry about the coffee incident...
K: you have no need to apologize, i'm just used to orange juice lol
L: well maybe on our next date i can try your preferred beverage instead
...
L: kara?
K: next date?
L: yes, would you like to go on another date?
K: oh
K: i would like that more than anything, miss luthor