A ray of sunshine warms her back ; these are her favourite kind of mornings. She has no idea of what time it is, but with the sun up, her daughter is bound to bounce in her bedroom anytime soon. Alex learned this the hard way, first with her sister, now with her daughter, Kryptonians rise with the sun. With the knowledge she only has a matter of seconds now, she snuggles closer to her wife, moulding around her back and tightening the arm thrown over her waist. Even asleep, her wife sighs contently. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, Ruby comes flying in her room, pretending to be swimming mid air in a both endearing and ridiculous fashion. She's only developed flight recently, and she's taking every opportunity she has to explore this new power of hers. Alex knows it's no use, but she still pretends to be asleep, hoping her personal ball of sunshine will go away on her own.
"Rise and shine Mum !"
"Sssh Rubes," Alex whispers, "Mummy is still asleep."
In her arms, her wife moves sleepily, trying to no avail to stretch while still being encased in her arms.
"Not anymore loves," Kelly groans, "not anymore." She rolls over, burying her face in the crook of Alex's neck. "It's so early," she mumbles, "are you sure you want to have another one ?"
"With you ?" Alex asks, kissing the crown of Kelly's head, "always."
"Thanks God the next one won't be such an early riser."
Alex chuckles fondly. "You don't know that love."
"Let me hope for just a second."
"Not to interrupt the preparation for my unborn sibling," Ruby says, floating right above them, "but I'm hungry and we're meeting Yeyu at the museum at 10."
With an exaggerated groan, Alex pushes herself of the bed, carefully untangling her limbs from Kelly's. "Close your eyes for a minute babe, I'll get started on breakfast."
The floorboard is cold under her feet, even through her night socks. As she pads to the kitchen, she wonders what it would take to convince Kara's girlfriend to develop ecofriendly heated floors. All things considered, it probably wouldn't take much, all she'd have to do is ask Kara to pout.
"Alright kiddo, what shape do you want your pancakes this morning ?"
"Brontosauruses !" Ruby replies excitedly, shoving her brand new phone in Alex's face, probably to show her a picture though this close to her eyes, Alex can only see blurry shapes.
"You do know brontosaurus have really long necks, right ? It's going to be a mess to make and to eat."
Ruby considers the question for a moment, frowning in a familiar way that isn't unlike her own face in the mirror. "Okay," she says eventually, "then I want stegosauruses."
Stegosauruses, as it turns out, are also a hard shape to achieve with liquid batter. Alex ends up with slightly overcooked pancakes that distantly look like crocodiles, if one were to squint while looking at them. Ruby eats them anyway, and Kelly finds her endeavour absolutely hilarious. She shares a picture of it on the "Ruby's mums" groupchat they have with Sam.
It's cold outside, courtesy of a somewhat early winter, and it's a pain in the ass to get Ruby to dress in something human appropriate and not just the t-shirt with a brontosaurus print Kara got her for her birthday. She gets her to wear a coat with the promise of two extra scoops of ice cream. Few people are actually blood-related in her little mismatched family, but some days, Ruby is so similar to Kara that it makes her heart soar with love.
Sam is waiting for them in front of the museum, and she engulfs her daughter in a bone crushing hug that only the two of them can share. When the newlyweds reach her, at a far more human pace, she kisses Alex on the cheek, ruffling her hair with a teasing grin, and lightly hugs Kelly. They let Ruby loose in the exhibit, and she drags them from display to display, rattling dinosaurs facts at an impressive speed. At some point, she amasses a decent crowd of younger children who are all entranced by her T-Rex stories.
"We raised her well," Sam says, slipping between Alex and Kelly.
"Not how I expected my life to go," Alex says with a content smile, "but we sure did."
"So when are you adding to the family ?" Sam asks cheekily, poking her in the stomach.
"Stop it," Alex whines, "you sound like my mum."
"Soon," Kelly says, bypassing Sam to kiss her wife right on the corner of her lips, "soon."
"Aunt Kara ! Mum, aunt Kara is here !"
Taken aback, Alex turns her head in the direction of Ruby's excited shouting. Kara is on a date today, and she didn't mention dragging Lena Luthor to the science museum. Before her eyes can find her sister though, her own body seemingly contracts, knocking the air out of her lungs.
"Aunt Kara, are you okay ? I think something's wrong with your face."
Urgency takes over Alex as she frenetically looks around for Kara, then for Ruby who's out of sight. Neither Kelly nor Sam seem to be that much concerned with the girl's sudden disappearance and Alex stomach collapses on itself. The world blurs around her, and her head pounds like it's going to explode and she can't breathe, her lungs filling with acid as she tries to look for Kara. She tries to grasp Kelly's hand but it slips further and further out of reach, and /
