Here ye be, my loves. Also, I love Alex. She is my favorite character of so many great ones to choose from on the show. Hope you enjoy!
Song: Stand By you by Rachel Platten
Kara walked out of CatCo swinging her bag from one hand to the other. Neither of her bosses had been pleased with her results, but they'd accepted them. Kara almost hung around after Snapper stomped out of the room, but if she had stayed, she would have told Cat the truth. She looked in the direction of her apartment and walked the other way, pulling out her cell phone. She'd forgotten how good walking everywhere felt. She'd done it nearly every day when she first arrived in National City for college. She had no messages on her phone but opened it anyway and opened the app to her favorite pizza place and clicked on the first saved order in the cue. She wasn't picky about what it was. Kara slipped the phone into her back pocket and ducked into a convenience store to grab a six-pack of Alex's favorite beer. She wasn't sure her sister needed any more alcohol this week, but it was their habit. Alex was her habit when she felt lost, and she gave into it that night. She wanted to check on her anyway, so it was a double-sided coin. She picked up the pizza a block away from Alex's building and took the stairs to the third floor.
Fumbling with the pizza and beer in one hand, she sorted through her keys and unlocked Alex's door with the other, swinging it wide and stepping inside. She'd seen lots of things in her life, lots. Some had shocked her, some had disgusted her, some had given her warm fuzzy feelings. But of all the things she'd seen in her life, Kara had never been as gob smacked as that moment. Her sister was shirtless, moaning, and grinding into the lap she straddled—the lap of Detective Maggie Sawyer… or at least she thought it was Maggie. The dark hair obscured the face attached to the lips attached to her sister's chest, but the hand grasping her sister's ass certainly looked like Maggie's. It was only a moment, less than a second before the two parted, and Kara exclaimed a startled, "OH."
"You... but... why...how... You never said... what?" Kara babbled. Alex slipped off Maggie's lap and reached for her shirt on the floor, covering her chest but not putting it on. Kara looked between the two, eyes moving from Maggie's cocky smirk and her sister's flushed cheeks, and the door was still open and the pizza and beer were still in her hand and Kara was dumbfounded.
"I brought pizza and beer," she said. What else was there to say? She put the food on the island and tried her best to keep her eyes off the other two women, for their privacy. "I should..." Kara pointed a thumb over her shoulder. "I should go and uh... let you finish."
"Nah, it's alright." Maggie got up off the sofa and fixed the tuck of her shirt. "You two should talk." She leaned down and kissed Alex who tipped her head up to return it without a moment of hesitation. "Text me later, Babe?" Alex nodded, and Maggie sauntered towards Kara with a smirk on her lips and mischief in her eyes. She and Maggie weren't really friends, but they weren't… not friends.
The cop pulled the door shut behind her and left the sisters alone. Kara chewed her lower lip, brow crinkling. Alex cleared her throat and hugged her shirt to her chest.
"How long has that been going on?" Kara asked once the shock dissipated a little. She couldn't help the little teasing grin forming on her mouth. Alex pulled on her shirt and leaned back, running a hand through her hair. "Alex."
"We, uh... It was... um... you know, does it really matter?" Alex laughed, a high-pitched anxious thing of a sound, and Kara's eyebrows shot upward.
"Alex." Kara opened a beer and brought a box of pizza to the sofa and set them both on the coffee table as she tucked a leg beneath her and faced Alex.
"It uh... we first slept together after... after... Astra." Alex glanced up at Kara, gauging her reaction to her aunt's name. Kara's jaws clenched, and she looked down at her hands. "I wasn't expecting… it… I mean, I'd been with women before, and we were drunk and… then… it sort of… became a habit."
"It's been over a year! How have you hidden your longest relationship from me for over a year?" Alex flinched, but Kara's following laughter eased the tension from the moment. She snorted and rolled her eyes, turning towards Kara. She leaned forward and snagged the beer from the table and rested her head in her palm before taking a drink.
"It's not really a relationship. I mean, we're friends, but… well…"
"That sounds like something." Kara pushed Alex's shoulder, nearly spilling the beer when Alex went for another drink. "Talk to me. I didn't even know you slept with women."
Alex sighed and picked at the label. She looked ready to burst, and the energy infected Kara. They had so much more to talk about, but if Alex wanted to share this happy moment with her, then Kara wanted to be open enough to experience it fully.
"You taught me that it isn't always about the body, Kara. I probably would have never even thought about it if I didn't learn how to be open to the experience by watching you," Alex said. A chuckle stuttered over her lips. She tore a large hunk of wet paper from the bottle and rolled it between her fingers. Kara absorbed the new information, tucking it in that place in her heart where she kept moments she never wanted to forget. All these years, she'd assumed Alex had questioned her sexuality in judgment, not because she was trying to learn how to expand her mind by listening to Kara's experiences.
"And Maggie? Sounds like she might be different," Kara encouraged Alex to keep talking.
"It wasn't serious," Alex started, looked up from the bottle. Kara nodded and offered an encouraging smile. "Not for a long time, not until recently... not until... until this," Alex waved a hand at her face meaning her almost getting killed in the attack Saturday night. Alex looked positively giddy but bit it back a little, stealing glances at Kara.
"But you've been sleeping with her for over a year." Kara leaned forward for a slice of pizza, leaving the box open, and looked back at Alex with wide, serious eyes. "Should we be sitting on the couch? Has it been cleaned lately?"
A pillow womped against the side of her head just as she opened her mouth to take a bite of pizza, and Alex giggled at her shocked expression.
Kara made a sound at the back of her throat. "Rude."
"Jerk," Alex murmured in a half-hearted response, too caught up in her own thoughts to engage fully in the back and forth.
Kara smiled and shoved the whole slice into her mouth, chewing and swallowing while Alex sipped her beer and nervously clawed at the label waiting for Kara to say something else. When nothing came, Alex raised her eyes again.
"Maggie hasn't been my only lover in the past year, but she's… been the one I've come back to when I'm… when I'm lonely or when I… need something beyond…" She waved her hand. "Beyond physical release."
Kara nodded. She got that. Golly, did she ever. "You fell in love with her." Alex grinned, more to herself than Kara, and nodded.
"She told me she loved me tonight, and I promised her that I'd tell you the truth, so... here we are." Alex shrugged and finished the bottle.
"That's... one way of telling me I guess..."
Alex rolled her eyes and set the empty bottle on the table and took up two slices of pizza, handing one to Kara as she leaned back.
"Not how I wanted to tell you, that's for sure," Alex laughed and bit into her pizza. A smear of grease shined on her chin, and Alex wiped it with the back of her hand. Pigging out with Alex was one of the best things in the world. It melted the world and her stress and their problems into a gelatinous form as pliable as the cheese sliding off the crust. Alex caught it with her mouth and took another huge bite.
"Good thing I didn't fly in the window."
"Maggie knows," Alex said with her mouth full.
"You told Maggie?"
Alex made a sound in the back of her throat, nearly choked, and chewed fast, swallowing greasy food. "Really? You have an entire group that calls themselves the Superfriends."
"That's different," Kara snapped. Heat flared in her cheeks, and she knew Alex saw it because the dark-haired woman sat up a little straighter, chose her words a little more cautiously.
"I didn't tell her, she already knew. She says the glasses are not convincing and you should have changed your hair color as Supergirl." The truth and joke eased the tension again.
"Well, what does Maggie know?" Kara shoved more pizza into her mouth, and Alex chuckled.
They ate in silence for a second, going back for another slice each before Kara collected herself enough to speak again.
"I'm inviting Lena to our next game night."
"I'm not inviting Maggie. She would hurt Winn for saying something stupid and probably eat James' face because she didn't like it. She'd get along with Lucy, though. I'm glad she decided to stick around National City."
"Are you okay with Lena being there?" Kara asked. She wasn't really asking for permission, but she also wanted to avoid a fight if at all possible.
"I... Kara, it's your decision. You said I didn't have to approve, I just needed to be here. I'm here." The agent cradled a half-piece of pizza in her lap and picked at the crust with her thumbnail.
"I wish you hadn't told me that Maggie knows."
Alex wrinkled her nose and tossed her pizza back into the box, wiping her hands on her jeans. "Why?"
"It's my secret, Alex. I know a lot of people know who I am, but I've only ever actually told Winn. J'onn and James already knew. I told Lucy to get her to help save your life. It doesn't matter that Maggie already knew, it should be my choice to reveal myself when I'm ready, on my terms." That sounded good. Firm. A clear boundary, something she'd never imagined needing in their relationship. Were they that close once or had it always been a little controlling on Alex's end?
Alex ran her hands through her hair, dropped them to her lap. She looked at Kara long and hard enough that Kara squirmed a little. What the hell was she looking at? Alex reached over and squeezed her knee, still staring at her in that weird way.
"I'm sorry, Kara. You're right. It should be your choice," she said, leaving her hand against Kara's warm skin.
Kara opened her mouth and sucked a breath to deliver the retort already prepared to be fired. She clicked her teeth shut. Alex passed up on reveling in her shock and stood, taking her empty beer bottle to the kitchen. Kara adjusted her glasses and smiled gratefully at her sister's back, slumping into the couch. She tore off a hunk of food with her teeth and chewed, watching Alex move around the space. She put the remaining beer in the fridge and opened the cabinet for glasses. Alex wasn't deflecting or stalling for the inevitable fight Kara's correction of her behavior would have instigated in previous situations. She made an effort to modify her behavior and see Kara as Kara wished to be seen.
"So, what brings you by tonight? Everything okay?" Alex asked, opening the refrigerator again.
"I wanted to check on you. And, tell you that I won't be making sister night on Friday. Lena is making me dinner at her place," Kara answered, still watching her sister move around the kitchen.
Alex shrugged as she stood up with a pitcher of filtered water. "The funerals are on Friday afternoon. I'll ask Maggie to come over."
"Supergirl will be there," Kara promised.
Silence lingered. There was too much emotion in the topic to go deeper without making it a big thing. For all their satellites and gadgets and intelligence, the DEO was still no closer to figuring out who was heading Cadmus or the goal of the organization. The stress of the unknown and the vigilance of waiting for the next attack took a toll on all of them. Alex poured two glasses of water.
"Lena cooks?" Alex sounded surprised. She returned the pitcher to the fridge and took up the glasses from the island. Kara looked for any hint of irritation or insincerity.
"Lena's an amazing cook, and she actually makes enough for me to have seconds or thirds."
"Or fourths," Alex teased and handed Kara a glass. When Kara took it, Alex curled one leg beneath her and sat as close to Kara as possible without pressing up against her.
"How's your, uh... other thing?" Alex looked awkward and took a sip of water and stood again, taking the empty pizza box to the island.
"My thing?" Kara watched her bring the second box of pizza back to the small table and open it.
"Your sex drive, Kara. Your powers go haywire if you're too frustrated," she elaborated, sounding more clinical than anything else. She sat again.
"Oh, uh… it's... I'm handling it." Kara flushed. She could spank a guy calling her mommy, but she couldn't vaguely discuss the topic with her adult scientist sister.
"Still no sex, huh?" Alex put her water on a coaster and pulled the blanket from the back of the sofa.
"Why are you suddenly so interested in my sex life?"
"Because you've finally started talking to me about it?" Alex tugged the blanket around her shoulders and settled into the sofa. She looked exhausted, and the cut on her cheek looked painful, but Alex had found some sort of center in the two days since they'd last seen each other. She needed to take a week off more often.
"Says the woman who kept a hot girlfriend secret for a year," Kara joked, not bearing the thought of bringing Alex more worry or stress with her precarious alien DNA.
"She's not my... Maggie is my girlfriend." Alex giggled a little, giddy all over again.
"You are such a dork."
"You are the queen of dorks, you should know."
"I learned from this weirdo I got placed with when I crash landed on Earth," Kara teased just a little more.
"Yeah, who did that? They could have at least placed you with a popular athlete or something." Alex moved a little closer, still rooting about for a comfortable position. She remembered Alex wincing when she raised her arm the other morning, so her shoulder must have started aching. The agent blinked slowly, face relaxing in preparation of sleep. She knew her sister's phases of winding down for the night. This phase lasted at least an hour or so, then another jolt of energy, and then a sudden passing out that always took Kara by surprise.
"Should I go so you can have Maggie come back?" Kara asked. She wasn't tired, and she was comfortable with Alex for the moment, and she really hadn't wanted to go back to her empty apartment after her afternoon with Lena, which had left her more confused. Alex was something to hold onto. She always had been.
"Later," Alex said and pushed up to grab the remote beside the pizza box. She tossed it onto Kara's lap and snagged two pieces of pizza, handing them both to Kara as she leaned back.
This time, she snuggled up to the warm body relaxed into the corner of the sofa and rested her head on Kara's chest just above the curve of her breast. Alex sighed, so the position must have brought some relief to whatever pain had her squirming around the couch. Kara stiffened at the new position, but Alex flipped through channels without saying anything. She'd not really ever comforted Alex, not like this, not… not in a way where Alex voluntarily surrendered control or asked for it. Even if she asked silently. Kara felt like her equal, not her pet. She liked that and settled down, laying an arm over Alex's back. With the other hand, she brought the two pieces of pizza of her mouth, one atop the other perfectly, and bit into both. They were okay, frayed but strong. She wasn't going to lose her sister by standing up for herself, by living her life. They just needed to keep trying.