Prompt from pilar-at-the-disco over on tumblr: "Maggie massages Alex after an alien attack and calls it, "just friends""

Oh dear sweet Maggie trying to convince herself about this "friends" thing. Bless.

Heads up, though: Cadmus hurts Alex, badly (it's not very graphic, though), and scares her - a lot - in the first part of this, and it's referenced throughout. It's overall a very fluffy piece, but just fyi.

Alex has earned her fair share of bruises.

At any given time, she can usually count at least five on her torso, and she's long since forgotten the uninterrupted color of her shins since they're so often patched with various shades of black, blue, red, purple, green, and yellow.

But this attack had been different.

This attack had really knocked the wind out of her in more ways than Alex knew how to count.

She'd taken bullet for people, and she'd taken beatings for people.

But the thrashing that she'd taken to protect Kara today?

The lackeys from Cadmus hadn't just hit her. They'd talked to her. Talked about the things they'd do to Kara, to J'onn, to Eliza. To James, to Winn. To Maggie.

She didn't even know how they knew these people.

But they did.

And they told her, as they were kicking her in the ribs, all the things they'd do to each of them in turn. All the things they'd like her to watch.

In the end, Kara, J'onn, and Maggie had busted up the operation, had come in guns a-blazing – in Maggie's case, anyway – and the only thing Alex remembered before passing out was the feeling of panic bleeding into sweet relief; the feeling of pride at seeing Maggie break the nose of the man who'd been working her over with a sharp swing of her elbow.

She'd woken up under Kara's watchful eyes, her bed in the DEO surrounded not only by her sister, but by J'onn, James, and a very, very red-eyed Winn. And Maggie, pacing behind all of them, stitches above her left eye and looking like she could throw up at any moment.

Alex immediately tried to sit up.

Of course she did.

Four pairs of hands went to stop her. Maggie just stopped pacing and turned to look at Alex's face. Turned to stare at her conscious form, to convince herself that they'd gotten to her in time, that she was alright; that she was alright.

Alex eased herself back down with Kara's help, and found that it was easier than she expected. She felt incredibly stiff, but not the sharp pains that she usually woke up with after beatings like that.

J'onn smiled knowingly, and went so far as to sweep a stray strand of hair off Alex's forehead. "We've been improving our healing technologies; you should be stiff, but your bones are already basically healed."

"How long've I been out?" Her voice sounded like she hadn't used it in months, and tears flooded Kara's eyes as she smiled down at her sister.

"Only a few days, Alex, everything's ok – "

"A few days – "

"Told you she'd take it like this – "

"Kara, they were threatening you, all of you, my mom, they said they were gonna – "

Of all the voices the raised to try to comfort her, Alex's sought one in particular. Winn had stepped aside to let Maggie take his place next to Alex's shoulders, and it was Maggie that Alex turned to, Maggie's voice that Alex singled out of all the others'.

"Danvers, you've got a damn good team backing you up. Your mom's safe, and look at us, look. We're all safe, Danvers. Everybody's okay, Alex. We're all safe. You're safe. You did a damn good job, holding on like that until we could get to you – "

Maggie's voice broke off in bitter rage and grief that they didn't get there sooner, couldn't get there sooner. Alex noticed, but also didn't. She reached a slow, shaky hand out to Maggie's forehead.

"They hurt you."

Maggie shook her head. "I'm fine. Come on. We're gonna take you home, okay?"

Alex let her head fall back on the pillow, into Kara's open-palmed embrace, and she nodded with her eyes closed.

She felt rather than heard her friends – her family – whispering over her, and then she felt nothing.

When her eyes cracked open again, she was in her own living room, on her own couch. Soft jazz was humming in the background and someone was moving around in her kitchen.

"Kara?" She tried to sit up, and succeeded this time, but thought that the stiffness really might be the death of her.

"Danvers! You're awake!"

Maggie's dimples melted her insides and tensed her outsides. "Maggie? What – "

Maggie was holding a frying pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. She quickly set them down, fiddled with something on the stove, and came over to the couch.

"Kara thought you should be home instead of at the DEO, but she has three separate deadlines for that Snapper guy, so I said I could take you."

They stared at each other and both of them gulped.

"Home. That I could take you home. And I uh… I figured you might be hungry when you got up, so… Kara told me you have a thing for pancakes."

Alex nodded slowly, the bruising on her neck aching terribly. "Yeah."

She raised a hand to her neck and started trying to rub out the pain with her fingers. But her arms, too, felt demolished. She squeezed her eyes shut with the effort.

"Hey, hey, no, don't do that. Lay down."

"Maggie."

"Alex. Lay down."

Alex didn't know she could be any stiffer than she already was; she was wrong.

"Why?"

Maggie threw up her hands like she was trying to imitate Kara, a small smile pushing up her dimples. "Because you clearly need a serious massage, Danvers, and I – " she waggled her fingers at her, "happen to be quite excellent in that department."

I bet you are.

"Maggie." There was gravel in Alex's voice, and Maggie didn't miss that it had dropped several octaves. "I don't know if that's such a great idea." Her voice was small, now, so different from the way she'd said her name, and Maggie's insides wilted, hating that Alex thought she was alone in this struggle, that she thought Maggie didn't want her.

Ugh.

"Danvers. What're friends for but to massage each other after nearly fatal alien attacks, huh?"

Alex rolled her eyes, but relented; she'd only ever let Kara massage her. Only ever let Kara see her, touch her, when she was that vulnerable, laying on her stomach, back exposed, unable to see behind her, body relaxed. But there was something in Maggie's eyes; there was something about Maggie's voice; there was something about Maggie Sawyer that made Alex shift and start to lay down on her stomach, slowly, slowly, because of the pain.

"Um. I don't mean to – I mean – I'd be able to give you a better massage if you were – if you were in your bed. I can't uh… not enough room, really, on the couch…"

Alex didn't understand – how does one need room for a massage? – but her body was longing for gentle touches – Maggie's touches – and so she dragged herself up and into her bedroom, barely breathing at the idea of Maggie following her.

This was certainly not how either of them had pictured first going to bed together.

Alex set herself down face first and felt Maggie standing above her, hesitating; staring.

She heard her gulp, and she shifted her head to look up at her. "You okay?"

Maggie gulped again and tore her eyes away from Alex's ass.

"Yeah. Uh… yeah."

Alex closed her eyes again, body tingling with anticipation; what a relief to be anticipating enjoying a touch instead of terror at how much it was going to hurt, how badly it was going to tear into her.

The bed tilted down as Maggie joined her on her left side, and Alex held her breath; but then the bed went down again on her right side, and – Oh. Okay. Oh. – she felt Maggie straddle her gently, resting her inner thighs just above the curve of Alex's ass.

She must have said her thoughts aloud – her "ohs" – because Maggie froze and started immediately to get off of her.

"I'm sorry, I don't have to – "

"No, no, I just… I just realize now what you meant by you needed more space. Because of course you'd have a better position to give my a massage by being on top of me, that only makes sense, I should have thought – "

"Alex."

"Yeah."

"We cool?"

"Yeah. Like you said, what are friends for, right?"

Maggie grimaced and was grateful Alex couldn't see. "Right."

Whatever Alex had been expected from Maggie's massage, from Maggie's touch – and she'd fully expected it to set her body on fire, no matter what Maggie said about just a massage between alien-fighting friends – it hadn't prepared her for this.

Because the moment Maggie's fingers touched her neck, her shoulders, her back – was the most sensual, sexual, intimate, incredible feeling Alex had ever known.

Aside from their first kiss, of course.

But now Maggie was basically sitting on Alex's ass, both of her hands working attentively at each part of her body that the DEO had healed but couldn't quite work the stiffness out of; now they were alone, now they were in Alex's bed, now there was soft jazz flowing in from the living room and now there was the way that Maggie's fingers touched her with complete attention, complete focus, testing first, always, to see if a particular spot would be painful before pressing down into the knots that Cadmus had tied in her body.

Alex moaned as Maggie found a spot that they'd worked over particularly well, and Maggie filed it away as one of the most magnificent sounds she'd ever heard.

She was happy her mouth was so far up away from Alex's ears; she was happy Alex couldn't hear how hard her heart was beating, how heavily she was breathing, feeling Alex's ass, Alex's skin, underneath hers.

She was happy, and she was in agony; she wanted to murder the people who had done this to Alex. But not now. Now, she needed to take care of her.

She concentrated, diligently seeking out every spot that gave Alex pain, and she massaged every inch of her back, her neck, her shoulders, her arms, her hands methodically, passionately. Perfectly.

"Mmm, Maggie, how do you do that?" Alex asked while Maggie was working on the small of her back, biting her lip to keep some semblance of control at the bruising she found there when she lifted up Alex's shirt slightly for better traction, the desperation she felt to kiss each one, to weep at the idea of someone hurting her, to cry at the idea of not being able to make love to this woman right here, right now.

She took a few steadying breaths before trusting herself to respond. "A good massage is equal parts hand strength, knowledge of anatomy, and attentiveness and thought about the body of the person being massaged."

"Spend a lot of time thinking about my body, Sawyer?"

Yes. So much. So, so much.

"Hush up and let me work, Danvers. Unless you want me to stop?"

Alex practically squeaked in protest, and Maggie added it to her collection of perfect sounds.

So she didn't stop.

She didn't stop until she could tell from her breathing that Alex was half asleep again. Maggie ran her fingernails up and down her back, her arms, gently, gently, a few times to ease Alex out of the massage before bracing her hands on either side of her limp, resting body.

She lowered her body carefully, carefully, in something like a push up, until her lips were just above the nape of Alex's neck.

She pressed a tender, lingering kiss to the spot and she felt Alex hum contentedly in response.

Unable to take anymore, Maggie swung herself off of Alex without moving the bed, and silently crept back into the kitchen.

She clutched the edge of the sink for a few long, long minutes, trying to collect herself.

"Pancakes," she reminded herself. "Kara says she'll want pancakes when she wakes up."

So she cooked while Alex slept off her first non-sisterly massage.