Prompt from the wonderful atsirc: "i'm loving the slow burn of sanvers, but it's also killing me. anyway, if possible, i'd like to request a one shot based around the whole "pool. tomorrow night." in which, when they meet and play pool that next night, maggie just says fuck it and makes her move."

(in which atsirc is all of us re: our love/hate relationship with Slow Burn 2k16)

Alex was admittedly not quite sure about how this whole gay thing worked.

She hated being inexperienced, but she was willing to admit she didn't quite get the whole thing yet.

But she had trouble fathoming how Maggie's speech about not wanting to imagine life without her meant that she just wanted to be… friends.

Because if some man had said that to Alex, she'd know what he'd been angling for. But with Maggie? She wasn't sure.

But she knew – could see in the look in her eyes, in the openness of her face, the warmth of her tone, her sincerity and her constant kindness throughout their relationship so far – she knew that whatever confusing logic Maggie was going with (whether she was still trying to set her down gently or cover up for something or what Alex couldn't tell), she knew that Maggie was sincere. That she wanted to be in Alex's life, and she never wanted to hurt Alex. She knew that much.

And she knew that the gigantic hole that had been sheared through her heart when Maggie rejected her that first time started to fill, bit by bit, just from looking at the woman, just from being close to her again.

She knew how deeply, how despairingly, how indescribably, she missed Maggie, no matter how much swagger she'd been showing off lately.

She still felt defensive. She still felt confused. It still hurt to look at Maggie, even as it comforted her, because she'd never in her entire life felt desire like that, and not touching her was torturous.

But she didn't want to imagine her life without Maggie in it, either.

So:

"Pool. Tomorrow night."

"Wouldn't miss it."

Then suddenly tomorrow night was here and Alex's stomach was a complete mess.

Kara was always the one who wanted help choosing what to wear. Kara was always the one who needed to endlessly process her feelings, her nerves, her excitements, her hopes, her desires.

But dammit, Alex had no idea what to wear and, for that matter, what to do with her hands, which kept wandering around to make sure her face, her eyebrows, her hair, were all decently arranged.

By the time Kara read Alex's frantic texts, Alex had changed pants three times, and was zipping her fourth choice – a pair of tight black jeans – up when Kara flew in through her window. Alex jumped and relaxed only when she saw Kara's empathetic expression.

"Well, those jeans are good, but I'm pretty sure only wearing jeans and a bra would send the wrong impression."

Alex glanced down at her shirtless body. "Or the right one."

Kara laughed, and Alex allowed herself a grin. She pulled Kara in close for a hug.

"Thanks for coming," she whispered.

"I know it was probably hard for you to ask. Thank you."

Alex shrugged, unable to handle an overly emotional sister moment right before heading into an overly emotional… friend… something… not-date-just-friends-playing-pool… moment.

Kara understood, and breezed past Alex efficiently on her way to her closet.

Hanger after hanger was pushed back, and Alex didn't bother watching the clothes; she just watched Kara's face, pouting at this shirt and squinting at others, considering, while completely ignoring some more.

"Here," she said after a while, holding up a simple red colored shirt that, if Alex remembered correctly, fit her perfectly.

"It'll bring out your figure and give you color while allowing you to also maintain the cover of 'this is cool, we'll just be friends.'"

Alex rolled her eyes but took the shirt gratefully and shrugged it onto her shoulders.

"It's just pool, Kara. I shouldn't be this nervous. Why am I so nervous?"

"Because you like her, Alex! It's okay! It's okay to be nervous; to not be in complete control of everything all the time."

Alex paused in buttoning up her shirt to glare suspiciously at Kara.

"Since when are you not hating on her?"

Kara shrugged and pointed casually at Alex's shirt; she's misaligned the buttons. Alex groaned and started again.

"Since I heard her talking about how she doesn't want to imagine her life without you, all that stuff. I don't know, Alex: I think she really cares about you. Like, a lot."

"But not… like that?"

Kara shrugged mysteriously and checked the time.

"You should get going. Gonna be late for your not date."

Alex rolled her eyes.

"Fly me there?"

Kara sighed and held out her arms. Alex stepped into them willingly.

Maggie wasn't there yet when Alex arrived.

Kara had prepped her for this possibility – not everyone had a sister that could fly at the speed of sound – and had warned her not to panic.

Alex panicked. To the tune of a shot of tequila and starting a pool game against herself to distract her shaking hands.

Kara lingered outside in the alley until she caught a glimpse of Maggie, walking quickly with a look of steely concern, almost fear, on her face.

Kara wondered if she wore that look a lot when she didn't think anyone was watching her.

"Maggie," Kara called, and Maggie jumped, but when her eyes found Kara's, her face lit into a genuine smile. She looked sincerely happy to see her, despite Kara's utter coolness the last time they'd seen each other.

"Kara! Hi! I was just about to – "

"Go see Alex, I know. Listen, Maggie." Kara took a deep breath and considered the woman in front of her. "Do you like my sister?"

"Of course I like her, she's my – "

"Your friend, I know. I know you care about her, Maggie. But do you, like… like like her?"

"Kara, that's not – "

"Because she was convinced you didn't want her, but then I hea – she told me what you said last night, and I know Alex is too nervous around you to think straight – "

Maggie chuckled at the bad pun and Kara smiled, too.

"But from what I've seen and heard of you, I think you do want her, Maggie. I think you want her and you're afraid because she's fresh off the boat or whatever you said to her, and you don't want to take away her chance to grow on her own or something. But here's the thing you might have only just started to learn about my sister: Alex knows what she wants, Maggie. Once she decides on something, she's in, she's committed, and she wants you. Not just because you're her coming out crush or whatever you think you are to her."

Maggie blinked and tried to form words unsuccessfully a few times before words actually happened. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying…" Kara thought, inexplicably, of Cat Grant. "I'm saying that my sister was brave enough to dive; are you?"

Maggie breathed in deeply and closed her eyes. By the time she opened them, Kara was gone.

She collected herself with a shaky breath, straightened her leather jacket, and strode into the bar.

"Danvers!" she called happily. Despite her terrifying – and exhilarating – encounter with Supergirl (how people didn't recognize Kara without glasses was beyond Maggie's comprehension), all concerns and stresses about what to do and how to do it vanished when she saw Alex leaning over the pool table, trying to set up a shot against herself.

Because Supergirl – Kara – didn't understand that yes, Maggie's priority was to protect Alex. But it was also to protect herself. Because what if Kara was wrong? Everyone else left Maggie. She couldn't bear it if – when – Alex did, too. And there was a lot less chance of that happening if they were friends.

Just friends.

Playing pool.

Tonight.

Alex turned and grinned, relief flooding her stomach. She reached for the glass of beer she'd ordered for Maggie.

"I wasn't sure you'd turn up," Alex said, glancing significantly at her wrist.

"I told you: I wouldn't miss it. I was just… held up, that's all. I'm sorry," she said, and tilted her glass in a toast toward Alex before sipping deeply. She moaned as the beer made its way into her system, and Alex swallowed down how much the sound turned her on.

"Tough day?" she asked, trying desperately to maintain the banter they'd had before. Before all of this.

"Mmm," Maggie answered as she shrugged out of her jacket – Alex gulped at the sleeveless white tank top that showed off Maggie's arms just so – and grabbed a cue. "Boss insisted on giving me fifteen different forms of paperwork to fill about Guardian. Seems to think that because I'm the one he put on TV condemning him, I should be the one buried in paperwork underneath finding out he didn't kill those people."

Alex furrowed her brow. "I'm sorry, Maggie. I didn't want to make your life harder – "

"No, no, Danvers, please, it's part of the job. I'm just glad we didn't arrest the wrong guy. That's a good thing. Not your fault."

She grinned up at Alex and Alex felt her insides melting, but she just nodded toward the table. "Wanna finish the game I've got against myself and then we'll play for some real stakes?"

Maggie's eyes flashed at the vague suggestiveness in Alex's tone, and she remembered strongly what Kara had said: that Alex was brave enough to dive.

Am I?

"What kinda stakes you thinking, Danvers?"

Alex reached into her back pocket, and Maggie gulped trying not to keep her eyes glued to the spot where Alex's fingers disappeared.

She tried unsuccessfully.

Alex noticed. Alex echoed her gulp.

Alex took a step closer. Maggie almost took a step back.

Two crisp twenty dollar bills were suddenly being flashed right in front of Maggie's eyes.

"Hope you plan to bring you're A game, Sawyer."

Maggie could barely breathe; all she could do was think of that kiss, their kiss, of Supergirl's basically permission – encouragement? – to do it again.

"I never bring anything less than that, Danvers."

Alex snorted as she backed away and it was the cutest thing Maggie had heard since the last time she'd heard Alex pfft.

"Maybe if never doesn't include pool."

Maggie just grinned, enjoying Alex's teasing; so different than the ruthless teasing of so many of her exes; teasing which wasn't so much teasing as it was verbal abuse; teasing that wasn't so much meant to goad gently as it was to slice into flesh and burn.

And it amazed her because Alex Danvers was ruthless; Maggie had seen it in her eyes, soldier's eyes, during missions. Like when she shot Supergirl out of that cage in the fight club.

But she also was ruthlessly kind. Her teases were not the accusations of Maggie's exes.

And Maggie knew, then, that Kara was right; she'd lost the battle of rejecting Alex before she'd even begun.

But suddenly Alex was right in front of her, again, so close that Maggie could smell the beer on her breath, mixed somehow with mint. She must have brushed her teeth before she got here, Maggie guessed dimly, comforted by her ability to detect things even as her knees went weak.

"Maggie, we gonna play or are you gonna space out like – "

The rest of Alex's sentence was lost in Maggie's mouth, and she only froze for a moment, a split, shocked second, before she grabbed Maggie by the waist – Maggie's hands were occupied with Alex's face – and pulled her closer, closer, deeper. Maggie stumbled on her tip toes and Alex held her, stepping back – their mouths still connected – until the backs of her thighs connected with the pool table. There, she fully leaned into Maggie's kiss, letting her mouth open and letting a moan slip out as Maggie's tongue flitted across her bottom lip.

They only broke apart when Alex pulled back, slightly, slightly, so she could she Maggie's eyes; so she could check if this… this… was real.

"Maggie, you said – "

"I never said I didn't want you, Alex. That was never why I… you just didn't hear me."

"But… what changed your…"

Maggie shrugged and breathed in deeply, relishing the feeling of Alex's arms wrapped casually around her waist like they'd been doing this for years.

She'd like to be doing this for years.

"A pep talk from your sister."

"Kara? What – "

"Alex. I really like her, but I don't want to be talking about your sister right now."

Alex's breath hitched and she licked her lips. "No?"

"Nnnmmm."

"What would you rather be talking about?"

"How much I like being friends with you."

Alex started and Maggie laughed, pulling her in for another kiss.

By the end of the night, M'gann had to practically kick them out of the bar to get them off the pool table.

But, powerful Martian though she was, she couldn't do anything to get them off of each other.