Kara decides the bar needs karaoke: NSYNC ensues, Sanvers style.

Points - in the form of me fulfilling a one-shot Sanvers prompt request for you - if you catch the Grey's Anatomy reference.

This was originally uploaded wrong - thank you to the very generous Tear of Light for pointing it out!

"Danvers, what did you do to the place?"

Alex's heart simultaneously expanded and shattered when she saw the woman she'd kissed sauntering toward her, arms spread in mock disbelief at the temporary stage they had erected in one of the corners of the bar. For a moment - but only a moment - her eyes fluttered down to the softest pair of lips she'd ever kissed.

It wasn't too difficult to force a smile: seeing Maggie still washed out every external worry in the world. Even if it was two months later and she was still humiliated and hopeless, hopelessly in the throes of apparently unrequited love.

"Wasn't me," she laughed as Maggie stopped in front of her, just out of reach. "Kara thought this place could use a little karaoke." Maggie opened her mouth and Alex held up her hands. "No no, I know how you're gonna object, because J'onn said it, too." She threw her voice in a humorously deep tone, and J'onn, in earshot at the bar with M'gann rolled his eyes and chuckled. "'Alex, why would you allow Kara to subject an alien bar to such a distinctly human custom?'" Maggie laughed at her imitation and Alex's heart soared despite herself. "You'd be surprised how many other planets have karaoke."

In triumph, she gestured at the stage behind her, where two of the regulars were helping an overenthusiastic Kara set up a screen and a pair of microphones.

When Alex turned back to face Maggie, smug and pleased with herself, her breath hitched at finding that Maggie's eyes were already on her, not the stage. Unreadable to Alex as always, she chuckled awkwardly and shifted her upper body, hoping it didn't look like she was squirming. Even though she was.

She wondered if the kiss really had been that bad for Maggie. She wondered why the woman still even spoke to her, why she was standing there, looking at her like... like that.

"You gonna sing, then, Danvers?"

Alex laughed. "Pfft, no, I don't - no, that's Kara's department, I don't - "

"What, come on, you've never belted it in the shower?"

Alex flushed and Maggie cocked an eyebrow.

"Bet you get all deep and emotional, sing some stuff like that Breathe 2 am song."

This does not mean she thinks of you in the shower, Danvers. That is not how she meant it. Get it together.

As though to save her - always, always - from having to formulate words, a loud squeak of the microphone made everyone in the bar jump and groan. Alex looked at the stage to see Kara with an apologetic grimace on her face.

"Sorry! Sorry. But! Now I have everyone's attention, anyway. So um... hi! I'm Kara, and this - " She whipped her arms out wide around her at the lackluster, makeshift stage like it was a Broadway set. "This is our first karaoke night!"

J'onn raised his glass and Alex gave a small, supportive whoop.

"Nerd," Maggie muttered beside her.

"What, you telling me you're not gonna go up there? What're you, scared Sawyer?"

Maggie's response was cut off by Kara clambering forward on stage. "Okay okay okay! Let's get this started!" She thrusted her hand out to Darla at the karaoke machine, who grinned with a slight eye roll as she queued up the song Kara had chosen.

Alex paled as Kara started singing with the first note.

Oh my... she didn't. She wouldn't. She's not.

"It's tearin up my heart

When I'm with you;

But when we are apart,

I feel it too!

And no matter what I do,

I feel the paaaiiiin,

With or without you!"

Kara's hair flew ridiculously with the music, and Maggie leaned into an Alex Danvers who was very much wishing she were somewhere, anywhere, else.

"Danvers, your sister's got a voice!"

"Yeah. Yep."

She wouldn't. She's not. She won't.

"Alex, get up here!" Kara shouted, leaning down and yanking at her arm.

She would. She did. She is.

She tried shaking her head, she tried shucking off her sister's grip. She tried repeating no a handful of times.

But Maggie was pushing and her Kryptonian sister was pulling and the musical bridge was ending and the second microphone was in her hand and she grew up mocking this music but dammit, Alex Danvers was not one to back down when pressed against a wall.

"Baby I don't understand

Just why we can't be lovers.

Things are getting out of hand,

Tried too much, but

Baby we can't win."

Maggie's jaw was open, arms crossed across her chest, staring up at the woman who'd kissed her searingly, gently - perfectly - and walked away crying. Heat pooled in her core at Alex's nerdiness, at Alex's boldness. At the tenor of Alex's voice, at the bend in her knees as she leaned slightly into Kara, who joined her for the bridge into the chorus.

"Let it go.

If you want me girl,

Let me know.

I am down

On my kneeeees,

I can't take it anymore."

Maggie gulped as the sisters launched into the chorus, fingertips stretched theatrically toward each other, Alex giving herself completely over to the experience, diving into it as she dove into everything. Without hesitation. Without question.

Just like she'd grabbed her by the forearm, pulled her back, and kissed her.

She'd had her reasons, to protect them both. Of course she had. Most of the time, she stood by those reasons. Fresh off the boat. Fresh out of a relationship. Etcetera.

But watching Alex's face - watching Alex's heart get torn - that still haunted Maggie's every night.

And she didn't know whether to be amused or heartbroken as Alex crooned under her sister's voice.

"And no matter what I do,

I feel the paaaiiiiin,

With or without you."

Alex let Kara take the oooohing in between the chorus and the verse, and that was when she risked it all. That was when, as she let her arms loose around her sides and her hips sway dorkily, she took a glance at Maggie, whose eyes she'd been studiously avoiding until then. There was light in Alex's eyes; there was joy, there was giddiness, there was adventure, there was the exhilaration of holding a microphone instead of a gun, the stakes laughter and frivolity instead of torture, death, or survival. But, as their eyes connected, there was also an underlying steel in Alex's, and Maggie knew without a hint of uncertainty: Kara had chosen the song on purpose.

And Alex was singing about Maggie, to Maggie, even when she was miming the song with Kara; because Maggie was tearin up her heart.

Her voice wasn't bad - it was quite sweet, actually - but Kara was clearly the superior singer. Despite that, Kara gestured the lead to Alex, yet again, for the second verse. And Alex, yet again, went for it.

"Baby don't misunderstand

What I'm trying to tell ya

In the corner of my mind,

Baby it feels like we're running

Out of time.

Let it go.

If you want me girl,

Let me know."

And suddenly Maggie couldn't breathe. Suddenly she couldn't see and suddenly, as she dimly registered Alex singing that she was down on her knees - a fantasy Maggie had had, too many times, not to mention in reverse - she did something she rarely, if ever, did.

She ran.

Sort of.

Maggie was a bit more dignified than running, truth be told. So she muttered incoherently to J'onn, now standing next to her, staring and laughing up at his girls. Something about having to leave. He nodded at her without taking his eyes off the women he thought of as - well, not exactly his daughters, but, close enough. To see them relaxed, loose, enjoying the world and each other, being silly instead of weighed down by the world? His heart couldn't ask for anything more. So he tilted his head in acknowledgement at Maggie, but didn't notice the tears in her eyes, the weight on her shoulders, as she turned and strolled - she focused on the strolling part - out the back door.

She didn't want Alex to notice. She didn't want Alex to care.

She didn't want to exist, at this very moment.

But as she was leaving, she heard Kara's voice wobble in concern, taking over Alex's part, the duet becoming a solo. She heard footsteps behind her. She heard Alex's voice.

She kept walking. Strolling.

She grabbed for her helmet, for the handles of her Triumph, her safety, her escape, her ride, her independence. Her way out of Blue Springs; her way out of this damn heartache.

She grabbed for her helmet, but she didn't make it. Because Alex Danvers had grabbed her arm - again - and spun her around. Again.

Soft lips didn't touch hers, not this time, but they were standing close enough to kiss, close enough for Maggie to let herself go this time; to not be strong enough, this time, to do what's right.

They lost themselves in each other's eyes for a long moment, before Maggie's heart couldn't withstand it anymore.

"Alex - " Her voice broke, just on those two syllables.

"Maggie." Alex's breath was close enough to taste, and her eyes searched Maggie's entire face with an intensity that would have made a lesser woman cower. Her voice was low, almost but not quite a whisper. Insistent. Her fingers were still taking Maggie's rapid pulse on her forearms, both of them. Maggie was limp in her hands. "I'm not gonna kiss you again. Not yet. But I think you want me to. And I do, too. So not yet. But one day. And for now... for now, Maggie, I want you to stay. Kara's gonna get drunk, and if you think she's been ridiculous so far, you really wanna wait and see what kind of fun is coming. I'm going to make J'onn sing - I've heard him humming in the DEO, and I'm not gonna let him get away with it - and you and I are gonna sing. Hell, I'll even do a solo: I had a kinda intense punk rock phase. And we're gonna drink, and we're gonna laugh, and we're gonna enjoy each other. And one day, we're gonna kiss again. Not yet, because fine: different places. But one day. For tonight, though, Maggie? I'm not gonna let you run like I did that night. Stay. Stay and let yourself loose. You deserve it. We both do. Okay?"

There was a long pause, and both women fought to search the other's eyes, not lips, with their own.

"You had an intense punk rock phase? What, alongside NSYNC?"

"Hey, that was Kara's phase, I only know that stuff because I was being a supportive sister."

"So, punk rock."

Alex's voice lowered several octaves. "You won't find out more unless you come back inside."

Maggie gulped.

And let Alex lead her by the hand, back into the bar.