Written for a Tumblr prompt: "you're very endearing when you're half-asleep"
Maggie thought she was doing pretty okay at the "friends" thing with Alex Danvers. For instance, she wasn't lunging at the DEO agent's face and kissing her senseless every time she saw her. She thought about it, but she wasn't doing it, and that was the important part.
Also she wasn't putting Alex's picture as her lock screen and pretending to check the time every thirty seconds just so she could look at those big eyes and her unbelievable cheekbones and her pretty, solemn mouth. And she wasn't immediately texting her whenever she saw something weird on the job. She waited a decent amount of time, at least until she knew whether it was alien-weird or just human-weird.
Alex was coming out, she lectured herself every time she drove to the bar, or heard her car pull up, or heard the take-no-prisoners stride of her favorite chunky boots at some crime scene. She didn't need to get wrapped up in a relationship right away. Maggie remembered how it had been. Years of dating boys, trying to feel what she was told she should feel, kissing at the right time, fucking at the right time, waiting to finally feel something. Like doing the steps to a dance where she couldn't hear the music.
And then all of a sudden, the first time she'd kissed a girl - there was the music.
It filled your head, it danced on your fingers, and it buzzed in your toes. You just wanted to kiss every girl you saw. That was where Alex was, and she didn't need a relationship with a screw-up like Maggie (sociopath, hard-headed, selfish) making a mess out of her when everything was so beautiful and new.
So, yeah, friends, totally.
Which was why she panicked when she woke up in Alex's apartment.
She froze, heart galloping, staring at the unfamiliar coffee table. All she could think was, I only had one beer, right? There's no way I got drunk enough to throw myself at Alex Danvers and if I did, I'm the worst.
"You awake?" a voice called out.
A cowardly part of her considered shutting her eyes and snoring loudly, but Maggie swallowed and sat up. "Man, did I fall asleep on you, Danvers?" She was proud of her voice. Light and breezy. Friendly, even.
"Not on me," Alex said, and there was a laugh in her voice, and Maggie was dying. She would be dead shortly. Pushing up daisies. She would join the choir invisible. "But yeah, you crashed hard in the middle of Candyland."
Candyland, Maggie remembered. Kara's favorite game, for some reason - "there's candy! and it's so easy! You can literally come from another planet and figure it out! For … example."
Last night had been game night at Alex's, with her sister and some of her sister's friends and their stone-faced boss from the DEO. Silly kiddie games, beer and nachos and pizza. All very friendly and cheerful and not at all conducive to Maggie cornering Alex in the hallway and kissing her until their teeth rattled.
"Where is everybody?" she asked, licking her teeth. Ew. Okay. Now her own breath would keep her from kissing Alex, so that was a good.
"They took off," Alex said. "Like, five hours ago."
"What? What time is it?"
"Six a.m." Alex came out of the mini-kitchen with a mug and handed it to her. "You said you had to work today."
"Wow, Danvers, I'm sorry," Maggie said. "You shoulda woken me up and sent me home."
"It was fine," Alex said, going back for her own coffee. "You must have really needed the sleep. You didn't even wake up when M-Mike had a temper tantrum because he kept getting draw-fours in Uno."
She'd pulled a lot of late nights this week on a truly gnarly case, so yeah, she'd definitely been operating at a deficit. Still, she said, "You had to put up with me snoring and drooling - "
"You didn't snore or drool," Alex said. "I told you, it was fine. You're pretty endearing when you're all curled up asleep."
Kapow. Stealth sweetness. She was an ex-Maggie. Bleedin' demised.
Alex had gone still, hands frozen on her own coffee mug.
"Uh," Maggie said brilliantly.
Alex made a breathless noise that could have been a laugh. "God. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say things like that, should I?"
"No, I mean, yeah, I mean - It's fine. Friends can say nice things to their friends." If any of her other friends had said that, she would have arm-wrestled them until they took it back. Maggie Sawyer wasn't endearing under any circumstances.
But this was Alex, and Alex said things like that as if they were true.
Maggie gulped about half the mug of coffee, scorching her throat, and hopped to her feet. "Well, I'd better take off if I want to get a shower in before I have to be at the station." Please don't offer your shower, she mentally begged Alex. Please, please do offer your shower.
But Alex offered her a travel mug instead. "More caffeine," she said with a shaky smile.
"Awesome," Maggie said. "Thanks for the couch, Danvers."
"Anytime, Sawyer."
Maggie grabbed her phone, found her jacket, checked for her motorcycle keys, and dashed out the door. Friends, she thought, zooming through the chilly pre-dawn streets toward her place. That was working out, right?
Totally.
Just fine.
FINIS