How Many Tears Are Enough?

Ten

With a little help from passer-by's, Kara finds the place Lena is supposedly staying. The mailbox says L. K. Luthor, reassuring Kara she's at the right place and hasn't sent some stranger postcards and letters over the last half year – though Lena thanking her for them and sending her own back in reply had already assured her of the latter. 

Bursting with too much nervous energy to stand in an elevator, Kara decides to take the stairs for the five floors it takes to get to Lena's. She rings the doorbell, hearing it sound through the door, and waits for Lena to answer it.

When the door doesn't open after a few minutes, Kara rings again. Maybe she should've called ahead. Let Lena know she was coming. Make sure she wasn't intruding. She should definitely have called ahead. What if Lena is out? Or working late – even though it's a Sunday. What if Lena planned on bringing someone home only to find Kara sitting in front of her door?

She shoves her negative and anxious thoughts away and sinks down to the floor. Her back is resting against Lena's door and she tucks her knees to her chest as she waits. Negativity isn't going to help her. Lena might as well just be out for a small errand. To kill time and keep herself from brooding, Kara takes out the book she bought at the airport and starts reading.

A loud thud draws Kara from the letters on the page a while later.

"Kara?" Lena sounds like she sees a ghost, her hand clamped to her mouth and eyes wide with surprise.

Quickly, Kara scampers to her feet, barely in time to catch Lena who's flung her body at her. Lena's bag lies forgotten at the elevator door.

"Hey," Kara greets. She tightens her hold when Lena does too, holding her friend closer than ever before. Lena suddenly starts shaking in her arms but when Kara tries to pull back to give her space and get a good look at her, Lena tightens her hold even more. Kara complies and lets Lena hug her firmly.

"Are you okay?"

"I missed you," Lena mumbles against her shoulder.

"I missed you too." Kara rubs her hand up and down on Lena's arm, comforting her friend a little more. It feels like the ravenette might be crying but Kara can't see her face to confirm and she knows Lena's an expert at crying quietly. "I thought you like Ireland?"

"I do. It's- I do," Lena stutters uncharacteristically as if she's keeping herself from saying something. Kara decides not to push her. For now at least.

"Did something happen today?" They'd talked only a little over a day ago and Lena had sounded happy and light then. It could have all been a ruse to keep Kara from worrying, she realises. Lena could bury a lot of things and especially through phone calls and texts it would be hard to see through the meticulously crafted picture Lena is able to present at times.

"No. I just didn't realise how much I missed you until I saw you just now," Lena confesses.

"Okay." Kara's relieved nothing bad happed and she wants to get to her goal of telling Lena how she feels about her but she can't do that before she's consoled her friend. She sets a slow rocking pace from side to side, like a cradle, and steadily turns it into a slow dance to soundless music.

They must be some sight, she muses. A frazzled blonde who hasn't slept in too long and a crying ravenette tucked under her chin, dancing to silence in the fifth-floor hallway of an apartment complex. There's no one to see them though, as Kara starts to speed up their swaying and eventually has them perform turns and twists, hands always connected and Lena always spinning back to Kara's embrace.

Laughter bubbles from Lena's mouth after another twirl and Kara quickly follows suit now that her first mission of consoling Lena is complete. They spin around a few more times until falling to the floor side by side, giggling uninhibitedly. Their hands lie intertwined between them, shoulders touching as they laugh and try to catch their breaths.