Service

Notes: Find me on Tumblr at spoopercorp and on AO3 as Local_Asshole.

Summary: Lucy asks Kara for a favor, which turns out to be whether or not she could live with the young blonde following her break-up with Jimmy Olsen as she finds it too awkward to continue living with her ex-boyfriend.

Kara stirred from her nap after a muffled knock on the door reverberated through her apartment. She checked the time. 3 P.M.

Apparently, the person was impatient and banged on the entrance once again with an increase in volume.

The blonde startled awake, groggily pulling up her navy-blue sweatpants before acknowledging the guest at the door, who continued to increase the amplitude of the knocks, "I'm coming! Hold on!"

The hammering halted immediately, Kara was generally a very tolerant young woman, but she did feel a little bit irked as she shuffled her way towards the entrance, unhinging the lock, swinging the large plank of wood wide open.

Her vexation vanished once she saw who it was.

"Major – I mean, Director Lane?"

The brunette looked slightly disgruntled, which was rare for the soldier as she always maintained a professional demeanor. Kara noticed the younger Lane's appearance was clad in a crimson cashmere sweater and black skinny jeans – quite a bit less formal than usual. The blonde then looked down at her own outfit, comparing them and mentally cursing at herself for how under-dressed she was at the impeccable occasion; finally, she realized that her top was completely unbuttoned.

"Oh, uh..." Lucy averted her eyes and took a step back, "Ahem..."

Kara squealed, her face heating up, and ran her hands through her unruly blonde locks before scrambling to button up her shirt, "S-Sorry about that, heh..." She shook her head and gave a nervous grin.

The Kryptonian was very thankful that her guest had not noticed her rosy pink face, but Lucy seemed flushed as well.

"Excuse me, Kara, for the interruption," the soldier coughed out awkwardly, "but I sort of, kind of, need a...favor..."

Kara did not hesitate and gave a kind, gentle smile, "Yeah. Totally. Sure." She would not refuse to help her boss, let alone her friend. They have worked with each other for about a year now; they may not have had time to forge something like Alex's and Kara's relationship, but their bond was treated with the utmost respect by the both of them.

However, Lucy was a bit surprised by her quick reply, initially she did not think she would come this far, but she continued, "Um, James and I..."

A pause.

"We broke up."

"Oh," Kara did not know how to react, "What do you need? Do you want to come in? I can make some tea or coffee, maybe get a snack for you?"

The Lane raised her hands up, "Woah, it's all right, Kara, we're both still on good terms, I just needed to...find someone to room with?"

The last few words of her sentence had a raised intonation.

The blonde tilted her head to the side, unsure of what she just heard, "Pardon?"

Lucy sighed, rephrasing herself, "Would I be able to move in with you? Living with an ex-boyfriend is kind of awkward..."

Strangely, for the both of them, Kara instantly agreed.

"You...You what?" the brunette said, the shock caused her arching brow, but her stiffened posture relaxed.

"Of course. You're always welcome here, Director Lane."

The brunette held her index finger up and corrected her, "Lucy." Then she smiled, "Just call me Lucy. We've worked with each other for a year at the D.E.O. and CatCo, and we've had several lunch breaks together, so you can just call me Lucy. Plus, we're technically not working at the moment."

"Oh...no problem..." Kara laughed, "So when will you be moving in?"

"I can gather my stuff and be here by tomorrow night?"

"Do you need help?"

The Lane scoffed, "No thanks, Supergirl, I think I can move a few boxes by myself."

The blonde shrugged, "Okay, whatever you say. Suit yourself."

"Told you so," Kara snickered, carrying a load of cardboard boxes that towered above her head compared to Lucy's three plastic containers that even she was struggling up the stairs with.

Supergirl tossed the column into one hand before raising her other to make a puppet out of it, mocking the brunette's previous statement, "'I think I can move a few boxes myself'."

"Shut up..." Lucy chuckled.

Kara stuck her tongue out and reached over to pick up the top-most crate her friend was holding.

"Hey!" the brunette scoffed, "I may not be as strong as you, but I can definitely handle a couple of boxes."

"That's what you said last time," the Kryptonian reminded her.

"Rude!"

The blonde was caught off guard by the slight bump Lucy made with her shoulder, causing the heavy tower to topple over.

"Careful!" Kara panicked, before hovering over the shorter woman to shield her from a possible concussion.

Once the rain of boxes stopped, she released Lucy, the brunette heaving a relieved sigh, "Thanks, you're my hero, Supergirl."

"Don't mention it," the blonde smiled, "It is my job after all."

"Kara! Your glasses!" Lucy picked up the broken frame from the carpeted floor of the building, "I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, it's no problem!" the blonde reached up to her face to push her glasses up.

Only they were not there.

So, she attempted to cover the habitual mistake she made by brushing loose strands of hair over her ear.

Unfortunately, she was unable to cover up the faux pas.

Lucy chuckled and Kara face-palmed, partly to hide her embarrassed, reddened cheeks, "Oh my god, I can't believe I just did that..."

The soldier brushed the broken lenses before placing them on the taller woman's face, "Ta-da! At least some of the glass is still intact."

As if on cue, the frame completely fell apart.

Kara slouched, pouting, and blowing a strand of hair in front of her face away.

Lucy folded her arms, smirking, "Don't be so cross, I'll buy you a new pair; this time ones that are almost as indestructible as you."

"I actually have another pair," the blonde replied, "So there's no need for that. I usually keep the lead-lined ones in my apartment on my days off."

"Do you also check people out with your x-ray vision on those 'days off'?" Lucy teased.

The Kryptonian was caught off guard by the statement and awkwardly shuffled her feet, "N-No, I don't."

The brunette took her body language's answer differently though and laughed, "Oh my God, you do!"

The alien was, quite frankly, being honest, "No! I don't! I swear I'm not a pervert!"

"Sure..." the shorter woman continued to tease.

"Well," Kara changed the subject, "Now look at what you did, we have to carry all of this stuff up again!"

Lucy waved her arm, "Stop whining. You can take care of that, Supergirl."

The blonde squinted her eyes, "Fine, but I'm probably going to be complaining about this for the entire day."

She continued, "Also, now I get to choose the dinner for tonight. I'm going to order some pizza."

The brunette shrugged, "Sounds good to me."

Lucy sighed, plopping herself next to Kara on the couch, "Those boxes were a bitch to move."

The blonde clicked her tongue, her voice harbored an annoyed tone to it, "I'm the one who moved those boxes."

Before Lucy knew it she felt a push and was suddenly on the ground.

Glancing up, she noticed Kara had made herself comfortable, utilizing all of the space on the couch.

The brunette glared daggers at her roommate, but they were ignored as the Kryptonian smirked and made to turn on the television, taking a bite of her cheesy pizza, "Movie night?"

Lucy gave an enthusiastic nod, the pair of legs raising up high in the air to make room before resting down on top of her lap.

Before they could select a movie, the door clicked open and in came Alex, who stiffened at the sight of the head of the D.E.O., who made herself comfortable on her little sister's couch, "Director Lane? Why're you here? It's late and..."

"Relax, Danvers, I've just decided to move in with Supergirl," giving the agent a sly smile, which was complemented by Kara's beaming face.

"Want to join us for movie night, sis?"

Alex glanced between the two quizzically, back and forth, then back and forth again, "Um, I was just checking up on you, and since when were you two this close?"

Kara shrugged, taking another bite from the pizza, "We both worked at CatCo, we've spent a few of our lunch breaks together. So are you going to join us or not?"

"You know what," Alex pondered, "I think I'm going to leave you two roomies alone so you both can get to know each other better."

"It's all right," Lucy chided, gesturing to the Kryptonian sitting next to her, "This one's a lot of work to deal with, so I can understand why you wouldn't want to stay the night."

The blonde gasped and flared her nostrils before chomping a large piece of pizza and swallowing it down, poking the offending person with her toes, "How dare you, I could melt your face right now if I wanted to."

Lucy ignored her, "So how's Hank – or...J'onn, doing these past few days without me?"

"Well, he's been director for a long time so he's handling the abandonment well," the agent smirked, "We still call him Director Henshaw though, it just kind of stuck. Plus, not every human can get the Martian inflection in 'J'onn' or 'J'onzz' right."

"But officially I'm the director," Lucy chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess, but we're so used to 'Director Henshaw', and nobody in the D.E.O. can decide whether to settle on 'Director Lane' or 'Major Lane', so it's just all over the place honestly."

"Understandable, I usually like taking the field jobs instead of sitting behind monitors in a cave all day."

Alex snickered for a bit before shaking her head and closing the door.

Their first week together was not as awkward as either of them had assumed, save for one horridly embarrassing moment, at least for the Lane.

Lucy did not often have time to revisit her childhood or actually relax and have fun, so whenever she was positive her roommate would be absent for a few hours, she would slip into her baby blue pajamas complemented with Kara's squeaky bunny slippers and watch reruns of Tom and Jerry.

Being the Army general's daughter was as unpleasant as it sounded. When Lois estranged herself from the family after their mother had died, Samuel Lane was much more protective of his second and remaining daughter. Lucy was sent to boarding schools and boot camps over the summers, forcing her to grow up much faster than the other children as the general was often absent from the house for his duties. The moment she turned seventeen, she enlisted for the reserves in the Army. The moment she graduated from Harvard's law department, she was lost and confused as to the direction her life would be going; after several months of being a lawyer, she decided she was unhappy and applied to be a full and active member of the military.

There were times she did not regret the decision, mainly because of meeting new friends and traveling, garnering new experiences every day that she was dispatched. Eventually, she gained the title of Major Lane, making her father proud; Lucy thought seeing him happy would do the same for her, and as much as she tried convincing herself of that, she was wrong.

Most of the time she hated being in the Army; leading a squadron of her friends and subordinates into a possibly unwinnable battle was not particularly pleasant. Then again, she thought anyone from either side of the war were not victors. So many soldiers and innocents killed before her very eyes, sometimes under her own orders, direct or indirect. The casualties would often come back to haunt her: friends, comrades, family, and people who looked up to their leader.

Her post-traumatic stress disorder did not affect her nearly at all anymore, for which she was thankful. Still, Lucy never knew why she ended up working for the government after being honorably discharged. It was frightening to think that there was a part of her that actually enjoyed being on the field. Being a lawyer was too dull, too mundane.

A jingle of keys interrupted her reverie. She panicked.

She's not supposed to be home now.

The door swung wide open and Kara halted, soaking up the image of Lucy in her silky baby blue pajamas watching old cartoons.

"This isn't what it looks like!" Lucy blurted out, red faced.

"Are those...my bunny slippers?" the blonde pointed, a dumbfounded expression painted her face.

The brunette buried her face in her hands, "This is embarrassing, I'm so sorry, it's just that I don't have a lot of time to sit back and relax. I know that's no excuse but..."

Kara burst into tears of laughter, "It's fine! I actually find it sort of charming."

I wonder why it didn't work out with you and James...

"No, it's not fine, especially not 'charming'!" Lucy cried, her blush intensifying.

The blonde set down her keys and plopped onto the cushion of the couch next to her, "Okay, I won't tell anyone if you give me my slippers back and I can watch with you."

Lucy found herself nodding at Kara's bright, white smile.

Notes: Constructive criticism is appreciated.