Sleep, my sweet, grumpy hero

Chapter 3

Seventeen days.

Kara grumpily glared at the calendar on her desk. Seventeen days since Lena left for Ireland. It was supposed to take her just a few days!

She sighed and tried to focus, again, on the blank page on her laptop. She'd been staring at it for at least fifteen minutes, and nothing came up. She had a deadline until 9 am of the next day, and Snapper would transfer her to the gossip section if she didn't deliver it in time.

Kara rubbed her forehead and forced herself to think, but there was nothing. Well, nothing except thoughts of Lena Luthor. Why was she not back yet? She looked at her watch: almost 6 pm, close to 2 am in Dublin, but Lena was probably still up, right? She usually was. They talked every day, with scattered text messages and phone calls at odd hours, but still, she missed her terribly.

She knew Lena was trying her hardest to get everything wrapped up to come home as soon as possible. She could hear the longing in her voice every time they talked, the stress and the frustration. No matter how much Lena tried to sound perky and casual, Kara always heard the truth in her voice. Always.

Kara had just stepped inside through her living room window when her phone buzzed in the hidden pocket of her boot. She rushed to get the phone, hoping it was Lena, her face splitting into a huge grin when she checked the caller ID.

"Lena," she greeted, her voice full of affection.

"Hello, sweetheart." Lena's voice sounded slightly raspy. "Are you home?"

"Just got here, actually." Kara was still grinning when she let herself drop on the couch. "Did you sleep well? You sound like you just woke up."

Lena chuckled. "Something like that, yes, and the chilly winter of Ireland doesn't help much either."

Kara frowned. "Are you sick?"

"No, just a slight cold, nothing to worry about." Lena chuckled again. "I forgot what it was like."

"Hum... Well, I like the sound of your voice like that," Kara admitted with a shy smile. "And you're starting to slip your accent. It's... hum..."

"Sexy?" Lena supplied, deepening her voice just slightly, her Irish accent clearly more pronounced.

Kara swallowed hard, a fierce blush creeping up her neck, as a fluttering feeling started in her stomach. "Y—yes..." she stammered.

When Lena's low, wicked laugh came through the line, she knew she was in trouble.

"I'll have to keep that in mind."

Kara cleared her throat. "Did it take you long to lose the accent when you came back?"

"No, I changed it immediately."

"Why?"

A sigh was heard from the other side. "Because, Kara, I'm a Luthor and a scientist, with an Irish accent, and for some reason, Americans tend to imagine mad scientists are always British and gangsters are Irish. I already had my  criminal family's name working against me; I certainly didn't need an accent to make it worse."

"Oh!" Kara nodded to herself. "I never thought of that. It does make sense, but... It's such a lovely accent. It's not fair that you feel the need to hide it."

"It's actually a bit hard for me not to keep what I consider to be my 'default' accent," Lena admitted. "I went to Ireland still very young, and that was the accent that stuck."