a/n rambling stream of consciousness, sorry. also probably not going to make sense to anyone, sorry about that too.
"They're not here yet?" Alex says as she takes a seat across from Lena, "Mags said she was going to meet Kara to make sure we didn't have any superfriend tag alongs today."
Her only response is a slight head shake as Lena continues to tap away at her tablet, thoroughly engrossed in whatever report she's working on. Alex lets her work in silence while she shoots off a reminder to her two wayward lovers, with Kara's heat getting closer, they're all a bit groggy so she wouldn't be surprised at a little forgetfulness.
She admires Lena from the corner of her eye for a moment before remembering that she doesn't have to hide the appraisal and instead leans back a bit in her seat to take in Lena's elegant beauty, a bit envious that Lena always manages to look so well put together even with the effects of Kara's coming heat, compares this version of her with the sleepy, disheveled Lena that grumbled about adult responsibilities with her head buried in Kara's neck that morning at breakfast while Kara 'helped' to finish off the last of her sticky bun.
Feeling the giddy smile come over her when she notices Lena's cocked brow and the slight smirk pulling at the corners of her lips, and when Lena tilts her head up and briefly locks her eyes with Alex's before dropping her gaze down to her mouth, it's all Alex can do to resist leaning in to take the kiss that's being offered.
Lena swallows thickly before she stands from the table, "I need to call the office, can you please get ahold of one of them and figure out what's going on?"
Alex nods somewhat dumbly, eyes locked on the exposed column of Lena's throat. The desire to bite, to claim, and to mark gets stronger each day and she fuzzily wonders if this is going to be one of the rare occasions that her rut and Kara's heat hit around the same time.
A brief touch on her shoulder as Lena walks past her and Alex takes a moment to inhale her scent, a calming mixture of Kara and Lena with a mild underlayer that she recognises as her own scent. Today there's something slightly different, something that wasn't there when they left the apartment this morning, something familiar but not quite clear enough for her to put a name to and she can't rouse her groggy senses enough to puzzle it out.
Instead she pulls her phone back out but before she can get another message off, she catches sight of Kara and Maggie jogging up to the door. She doesn't even attempt to fight the dopey smile from covering her face and breaths out a light laugh as she recognise an identical one lighting up Kara's as she leans into Maggie in what appears to be the start of a nuzzle that is quickly aborted at the slight shake of Maggie's head softened by an indulgent, if somewhat goofy smile.
The resulting bashful nose crinkle from Kara and quirk of the lips from Maggie has Alex quickly grabbing her phone to capture the moment while suppressing the loving 'awhhh' that's fighting to get past her lips.
She notices the slightly disheveled appearances, the poorly fixed braid in Kara's hair, and mismatched buttons on Maggie's shirt confirm her suspicions about the delay and she's ready to lay into the teasing until something dark, high up on Kara's neck, catches her eye.
She's still staring intently as Maggie drops into the seat next to her while Kara slips into Lena's abandoned one.
They're both apologising instantly, Maggie leaning into Alex's shoulder while grumbling about hiding from Winn and Kara being annoyingly irresistible, Kara pouting about it being Maggie's fault and really if Maggie had just let her fly them it wouldn't have taken so long, it's adorable coming from both of them and under normal circumstances Alex would be happy to lightly tease them both since they have only recently started seeking out one on one time and she wants to make sure help normalise it for them, but there's a hickey on Kara's neck that she is sure wasn't there when they headed off to work this morning, knows is not from her, and that isn't in Lena's prefered spot.
Which means it's from Maggie.
Which explains the underlying scent she picked up from Lena.
Kara has finally imprinted on Maggie and Alex is deliriously giddy at this development.
They're still lightly bickering when Kara looks around and asks where Lena is and her response about calling the office results in a cute pout and grumble from Kara, "but we said no business calls during lunches!"
"We're like 10 minutes late, babe," Maggie is quick to remind her with a sheepish smile of her own directed at Alex.
And Alex can't resist anymore, "So had to give Winn the slip huh? Where did you manage to do that while giving Kara a hickey?"
Alex bursts into laughter at their responses. Kara's hand flies to her neck while a rare blush spreads across her cheeks and Maggie turns into a stuttering, wide eyed mess.
"It's not from me! It can't even be from me, it's probably from you! Or, or Lena.. Alex stop laughing it's not that funny!"
Lena's return to the table goes unnoticed and she takes a moment to take in the scene before moving into the unoccupied seat next to Kara. Her prompt for an explanation from Kara is met with stutters and blushing and avoided eye contact with much of the same from Maggie.
"Alex, take a breath and explain why you've broken them please." Is her slightly exasperated reply.
But Alex is still laughing, hand over her mouth to hold the bulk of the sound back, and when she reaches over to tug Kara's hand away from her neck Lena notices that she seems to be crying as much as laughing, "look!" Alex manages to get out, redirecting Lena's attention to the spot Kara had been covering.
She knows Kara can hear her heartbeat speeding up and she doesn't even try to fight the smile that breaks out over her lips, "well done Sawyer, that's pretty impressive."
It finally puts a stop to Maggie's indigent sputtering and Lena spares her a loving smile before tilting Kara's head up so she can lightly touch her lips to the mark, taking a breath to bask in the mingling scents of the four of them that now cling to her, revelling in the slight shiver that shakes Kara's frame.
They didn't spend a lot of time talking about this unconscious part of Kara, a part that she can't really explain even though it give them a power over her that no other human is capable of naturally; and Maggie was always a part of them, would always be a part of them, but she also knows how afraid Maggie was of this at first and then how much she craved it once she realised that she loved Kara too.
It's kind of perfect, it suits the two of them, and Lena can't imagine how she could possibly be any happier with the love of these three in her life.
Maggie fits her hand into Alex's as she drops her head to her shoulder, a loving smile directed towards Kara while Alex nuzzles into her hair.
Kara nuzzles into Lena, all bashful smiles and pinked cheeks and quite mutters about being way too tired and far to hungry to be subjected to teasing.
And then Alex's eyes meet Lena's misty ones and the silent "I love yous" are exchanged and the moment is perfect and she's surrounded by so much love that she feels like bursting, vows to capture this feeling to keep her comfort on the days that simply existing is trying.
She can't stop the smirk and it grows more pronounced when Lena mirrors it. They were late because they were too busy necking like a couple of teenagers to keep track of the time, and they love their goofs, really, but they can't just let that go without a proper teasing session.