13. "Ask me again."
The day had been unforgivably long, Kara had hoped that having more time to devote to the DEO would give her a sense of fulfillment and stability she so desperately needed, but instead it just exhausted her. Not that the work was difficult, rather it was the tedium that grated on her nerves, the mindless minutiae that she had conveniently escaped before, only coming in when the situation required swift actions. She hadn't, until recently, been subject to the 2 pm afternoon slump, where everyone seemed to have paperwork and training and indexing to do, which left her, quite literally, sitting on her hands waiting, praying for a robbery, a fire, even a jewel heist to break up the boredom.
She needed to decompress, to veg out with Alex, and maybe vent a bit, which is how she found herself knocking on her sister's door at quarter to eight that evening.
Alex opened the door with a flourish – smile wide and staggeringly bright. It faded as she took in her bespectacled sister in the doorway, "Oh, hey." She turned on her heel, leaving the door ajar.
"Nice to see you too." Kara sniped, teasing.
"We were together all day, Kara." Alex busied herself in the kitchen, cracking some romaine hearts over a bowl – the crisp green leaves torn into smaller, manageable pieces – before moving on to something else sautéing in a pan. "It isn't that I'm not glad to see you I'm just," she tossed something in the pan with a flick of her wrist; it shifted in the oil, lifted, flipped gracefully and settled back down, searing pleasantly, "I'm a little busy."
"I can see that." Kara stepped into the apartment, crossed closer, and leaned over the kitchen island, curious, "You're cooking."
"Yes."
"You don't cook." Kara raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"I do," Alex paused and the two sisters exchanged a wary look; they knew each other far too well for such crude lies, "Okay, I don't. But that doesn't mean I can't." The redhead removed the sauté pan from the heat and turned off the range.
Kara crossed into the kitchen a bit further, noticing an assortment of fresh vegetables and something wrapped in cheesecloth, sandwiched between two plates. She treated Alex to a quizzical look, steeped in a healthy dose of judgment.
"It's tofu, Maggie's vegan so I'm trying something new to surprise her. Eliza sent me a few recipes and some suggested modifications I might try." She moved to take the tofu from the damp cloth, pressing the excess water from it before transferring it to a cutting board.
"You really like this woman."
"I thought we'd established that." Alex took up a knife and started cubing the tofu, setting the pieces into some sort of dark brown mixture to marinate.
"No, I mean, you really like her." Kara almost laughed and Alex set down the knife with an exaggerated eye roll. "Cooking, Alex. Vegan cooking."
"Oookay, this has been fun," the redhead sighed, and, smiling almost menacingly, stepped from the kitchen, taking her sister by either arm and leading her back toward the door, "but Maggie will be here any second, which means it's time for you to leave now."
"Oh c'mon," Kara whined, "I just got here. And I want to see Maggie's face when she sees that you've been making... whatever it is you're making for her."
"Nope." Alex started physically pushing her along now, fighting Kara's resistance to leave. "Maggie's been pulling doubles at the precinct all week and this is our first night to ourselves in forever. Now, I love you, Kara, but will you please just get. out?"
Alex gave her younger sister an unceremonious shove and rather than stuttering forward, Kara came crashing back toward her, stubbornly. Alex braced against her and little by little, the blonde started to grow heavy, leaning back against the press of her hands.
"Uh-oh Alex, I –"
"No." The redhead shook her head sternly, shoved up as Kara leaned into her more forcefully now.
" – feel something strange –"
"Kara, no." Alex felt her knees buckle as her sister crumpled slightly against her.
" – happening to me."
"Kara, I swear!"
The blonde paid her no mind and Alex could almost hear the stupid smile in her sister's voice.
"It's like...
"Don't do it!" Alex was shouting in earnest now.
"...like I suddenly have no bones!"
And with that, the Kryptonian became a dead weight, nothing but dense muscle and flopping limbs, collapsing against and then over Alex. With one motion, Kara pulled her down, trapping her sister beneath the weight of her strong body, laughing all the while.
"I hate you." The redhead said flatly, her voice muffled under the weight of her sister.
Kara cackled delightedly as Alex squirmed helplessly under the weight. True, her sister was strong, she was fast, she cold fly – the savior of National City – but still, when she wanted to, she could be really annoying. And heavy. Alex wasn't certain, but she was pretty sure something in Kara's alien makeup made her five times heavier than any normal human of her size. Struggle as she might, Alex wasn't going anywhere.
"You can't hate me." Kara let her head loll to one side, meeting Alex gaze and smiling delightedly, "I'm too loveable."
"I do, though. Get off me, I have important cooking to do!" Alex almost howled.
"Gosh, it's like you don't even want me here, Alex, I'm hurt. Truly."
Alex struggled futilely for a few moments before the levity of the situation finally got to her and, sprawled out in exhausted surrender, she couldn't help but giggle.
They hadn't done this in years, but their childhood had been punctuated with hundreds of situations just like this: one of them would get impertinently upset over something – a test, a boy, using the car – and the other would retaliate by collapsing like a bronze statue gone suddenly liquid until the obstinate party broke. Granted, Alex's weight on Kara was little more than a nuisance to her, but it wasn't the act, it was the spirit of the thing: a reminder to never take themselves too seriously. As soon as Alex let loose the first hint of a laugh, they both lost their resolve and laughed outright, too busy enjoying the ridiculousness of their position to notice the figure in the door.
"Well, this is not the surprise I was expecting."
Alex's face snapped up, as much as it could from its awkward position, pinned under Kara's shoulder. Maggie stood, leaning casually against the doorframe, a lopsided smile deepening one of her dimples in a way that made Alex's heart skip a beat. Kara detected the less than subtle rhythmic change of her sister's heart and shifted slightly.
"Hi, Maggie!" the blonde smiled broadly. "Could you give us one second?"
"Anything you need, Little Danvers. I'm just going to hang here and take in... whatever this is." Maggie gestured to them vaguely.
"Kara." Alex hissed.
"No bones!" the blonde countered.
"Get off." Alex pleaded. Her voice whispered, but her tone was caustic.
"Ask me again. Nicely."
"Please Kara?" Alex sighed, finally giving into the pressure, both physical and otherwise.
She hadn't realized it, but as stupid as this whole thing was, and it was definitely stupid, it had actually forced her to relax, to breathe, to displace some of the pressure she had put on herself regarding her evening with Maggie. She resigned herself to a bemused smile and softened considerably.
"You know I love you, more than just about anyone else in this galaxy –"
"And the next." Kara amended, helpfully.
"Right. This galaxy and then next." Alex huffed under Kara's shifting weight. "And I am always happy to see you. But I would really like to spend a night cooking for my girlfriend and I can't really do that from down here. Can I get a rain check? Maybe tomorrow we could hang and catch up on Brooklyn 99?"
"With?"
"Pizza," Alex answered automatically.
"And?"
"Potstickers."
"Deal."
Kara moved to stand and pulled her sister to her feet. Alex stepped in and caught Kara up in a tight hug.
"Thanks" she whispered, pulling back to smile at the blonde, "I think I needed that."
"Anytime." Kara answered, smiling still.
Maggie, for her part, just stood back, laughing at both of them.