She's got her elbows propping her up on the kitchen counter as her knees lock beneath her. Kara yells for her to sit on the barstool and that she didn't pay for her sister to just stand around hunching over her kitchen counter eating a bowl of cereal. But Alex just did what she liked.
She hums in response.
Alex is mindlessly swiping around at her phone, unable to pay too much heed to the women on the app. It only takes a couple of minutes for all of them to blend into one, uninteresting flurry of faces she would never remember. She could taste the metal of the spoon in her mouth. There were barely any traces of sugar left with the way she's been pressing the poor spoon between her tongue and the roof of her mouth for the last minute or so.
She wonders how long it would be until someone caught her eye. Kara had been getting at her to try online dating for over a month now, and inspiration had only struck her this morning at dawn before her usual run. Alex was half a coffee down when she downloaded Tinder, just for shits and giggles. No harm could come out of it, she thought.
Setting up a profile, eight miles and a day at work later, this was more boring than Alex had expected. She's swiping around now for the first time. None of them clicked. Her mind threatened to stray to Maggie, but it was in a voice that was not her own. It had been long enough since they last spoke that tears no longer prickled at her eyes at the drop of a dime, and her chest didn't tighten at the thought of her dimpled smile. A flash of red on her screen throws her off her routine, so much so that Alex had missed her approaching sister, sneaking up from behind. The phone was swiped out of her hand before she could get a better look, and Alex instantly regrets doing this at the sleepover.
"—Hey!" The spoon clatters against the counter as it falls out of her mouth.
"Hey yourself, I can't believe you hid this from me!" Kara's feet swivel on its axis, far too nimbly for Alex to catch up with. Alex's fingers grasp at sudden air as the phone is whisked away from her reach again. She feels the blonde hair whipping against her face.
"Who's this?"
"You didn't give me a chance to look, Kara," sighs Alex. Kara smiled her crooked mischievous smile, and Alex makes a face. With her romantic life held hostage yet again by her younger sister, she finally takes a seat, plopping down on the stool with an odd mix of amusement, and frustration.
"She's pretty and punk," comments Kara, with an undeniable lilt of excitement in her voice. Alex was on the trajectory to protest, lips parting in anticipation. But Kara has the uncontested upper-hand in speed and cuts in, eyes still trained on the profile that Alex thinks they've spent an uncomfortable amount of time on. "Her name's Kate, she's thirty, and wow, all that red's natural."
"Would you like to share it with the class, Kara?"
The blonde gives it a thought and a giggle, apologizing with a grin as she settles in next to her sister. "I'm just happy to see you give this a shot." Alex's vision adjusts to the shot of Kate, 30, five miles. Five miles is nothing, she decides, remembering the route of the jog she took this morning and wondering if she had passed by one of the buildings this woman lived in.
The red of her hair was nothing short of fiery, and it was something about the combination of that and the wry smile on her face that catches Alex off her guard. A porcelain-fair face coming to a sharp point at the chin with cloudy green eyes. The hair looked manicured, and the dusty pink jacket, expensive. Alex notes that she isn't by any means the girl next door. Kara flicks to the description and lets out a huff Alex didn't know what to make of.
It begins with a disclaimer that the hair is real. "Jewish, lesbian, and weak for good avocado toast. What do you think? Right or left?" Kara pipes, turning to find Alex's quiet expression of focus. "Well, you've got me invested in this girl, so I guess we owe it to ourselves to give her the first right swipe of the day," offers Alex.
"First?"
"What? There wasn't anyone particularly interesting."
"Did you actually look at every one of them?"
"Come on, Kara. Baby steps." Alex swipes at the profile. "And no, I didn't. Are you supposed to?"
"How are you supposed to give them a fair chance if you don't?" Kara's response was as swift as it was accurate. Alex agreed.
"Ooh! Looks like she's given you a chance too." Kara was absolutely beaming, and Alex feels a weight being lifted off her chest. Who knew Tinder was stressful? She figures that it was most likely her ingrained nature of wanting to do well that made risking a virtual rejection scarier than it is. She taps to send a message, grateful that it wasn't worse, and that her sister was near.
"Should I send something? What should I say? Is it weird if I send her a message this quickly?" Panicking at the prospect of a romantic interest? Force of habit. Alex had to remind herself to breathe. She felt her palm get clammy. Kara's almost as giddy as her sister; this exhilaration at three in the morning in the face of a possible new match for her sister expressed itself in a bubbly giggle. Caving into those anxious puppy eyes her sister was adorning, she motions for the phone, this time seeking permission. Alex's expression switches to one of caution in a flicker as Kara spares no hesitation in tapping away furiously.
"Here." Kara's earnest smile and solid support for her would be something Alex can never be more appreciative of. "Now it's your turn." Alex shoots the chat screen an apprehensive glance, and Kara pipes up immediately. "Come on, Alex. You got this. Your wing woman's got your back." She rolls her eyes, but truth can be found in the way her cheeks ached with the grin her little sister always solicited.
She glances at the text and takes a deep breath.
A/N: Thanks for giving this a read, and do let me know what you think! For those who are wondering, I'm not sticking strictly to SG's timeline besides the fact that this takes place sometime after Maggie, and before Director Danvers.