Hey all! Back again. This one is a bit different. Completely didn't know the best way to format is so...
Two songs inspired this: "What If It's You" - Reba, and "My Never" - Blue October

"Didn't I tell you to bring an umbrella?"

"Nice to see you, too. Oh, my day? It was delightful. Scaled the Mount. Everest of paperwork. How was work? More alien catching. Interesting."

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny." Alex replies rolling her eyes as she pulls the dripping jacket from Maggie's trembling shoulders, "What did you do? Swim here?"

"Someone keeps nagging me not to ride my bike in the rain." Maggie grumbles, freely allowing herself to be pulled into Alex's warm embrace

"How dare I want to keep you safe?" She sighs out dramatically, hands running over Maggie's damp shoulders

"Rude is what it is."

With a soft kiss to Maggie's forehead, Alex makes sure her legendary eyeroll is appreciated by the woman before her as she pulls away

"Go change," She orders, softly turning Maggie in the direction of their room, "I've got dinner warming in the oven."

At Maggie's immediate stop, Alex sighs.

"Before you say anything, I ordered in."

"Oh, thank god." Is her only reply as Maggie continues into their room.

"You do realize I cooked before you came around, don't you?" Alex calls out, gently shaking Maggie's soaked jacket before moving to hang it on the rack. Feeling an object in the pocket, she absentmindedly reaches in rescuing a slightly damp envelope.

"Ramen and burnt eggs do not count as cooking, babe."

With a sigh, because really, she used the stove so it was -technically- cooking, she tosses the envelope on the counter to dry before pulling the take-out containers from the oven. It takes two trips to get the food and drinks to the coffee table. As an afterthought, she grabs the envelope on her second trip, deciding next to the fire would be the best way to dry it.

"What's taking so long? What are you doing in there?" Alex calls after fidgeting with the pillows and waiting for Netflix to load.

"Painting the Sistine Chapel. What do you think I'm doing?" A huff. "You didn't tell me not to wear skinny jeans in the rain, so technically this is on you."

"First off, no naked men allowed in our room. That's was the first line of that lesbian agenda we signed." Alex throws out with a smirk, "Second, I didn't realize I was your mother. If you need any help getting out of those pants, I have a good record of getting into-"

"Please, don't use the words 'mom' and 'getting into your pants' in the same breath." The sentence is punctuated by a rush of air and body, as Maggie slumps onto the couch before snuggling closer to Alex's side.

Alex lets out a chuckle before taking a moment to pull Maggie closer to her side. Eyes close in comfort.

Alex had never understood the appeal of rainy days. Puddles, wet hair, the added chill of the wind, to say Alex hated the rain would have been an understatement. But here, now, with Maggie's still damp hair wavy and pulled back from her face. With Maggie curled beside her, pajamas just long enough, just big enough, to clearly have been stolen from Alex's dresser. With the fireplace crackling and radiating warmth in an effort to combat the tapping rhythm of the cool drops collecting on their windows.

She's not ashamed to admit she's beginning to like the rain.

One last press of lips to Maggie's damp hair, and Alex is shifting to make their plates. Mainly broccoli from the broccoli beef tin for Maggie, a generous few scoops of orange chicken, and fried rice with as little carrots as possible.

'I just don't understand it. It comes with peas, why do they need to ruin it with carrots. I know they say carrots help with vision but I-'

The rest of that particular rant hadn't made its way to Alex's memory. Instead the fire in Maggie's eyes, the clear annoyance radiating from her being, the- Let's just say it was the most adorable sight Alex had ever seen.

Quickly compiling her own plate -with far less fanfare- she glances at the screen where Maggie is idly scanning through their options.

Giving up for the moment, Maggie switches her focus to the plate before her. A small smile tugging at her lips.

"You remembered."

Who knew chewing while blushing could be so difficult.

Swallowing carefully, Alex glances at Maggie with a casual, "We've been together a year, Mags. How could I forget your vendetta against carrots and the 'chewiest beef to ever live- well, not live'."

A nudge attempts to stop Alex's teasing laughter.

"You're never going to let me live the beef thing down, are you?" Maggie's attempt to hide her smile behind a huff, is mediocre at best. "What's that?" She asks, nodding her head to the envelope in a valent effort to wipe the smirk from Alex's face

"I don't know, came out of your jacket." Was the reply between bites

A quirked eyebrow, has Alex furrowing her own brows.

"What?"

"I didn't have any papers with me." Maggie shrugs, leaning across the table to grasp the slightly dryer envelop, a quick glance has a smile pulling at her face. "You sure you didn't write this?" The sentence accompanies a swift turn of the paper for Alex to see.

Thin but sure loops mare the paper.

Thin but sure loops that spell out Maggie's name.

Thin but sure loops that apparently like to dot 'I's with hearts.

Thin but sure loops that send a shower of cold through Alex.

Are emotional umbrellas a thing? Alex could really use one.

"Judging by that," Maggie pauses, illustrating her meaning by quickly moving her hand in an all-encompassing gesture of Alex's tensed form, "I'm guessing you didn't write this?"

A you-think stare is her response.

Moving both of their plates to the table, Alex pulls Maggie closer to her side in comfort, in calming, in love.

"Who's writing is it?"

"Certainly not yours, Ms. Chicken Scratch."

A soft nudge.

A furled brow.

"It's familiar…Can't say anyone on the force is super into calligraphy. Nick's been trying watercolor. He's got a major crush on the cute- Sensing this is not the time to bring up cute girls."

"I knew you were a great detective." Alex deadpans, arm tightening around Maggie's shoulders succeeding in bringing her further into Alex's lap

"Is it-" Maggie moves slightly with Alex's steadying breathe, "If it's Rose I can't be held accountable for my actions."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hun. We don't even know what it says, could be about a schedule change or-"

"Maggie, there's a heart."

"That may be," A pause. A thought. "a bit harder to explain away."

Alex's sharp look could scare the worst of the worst, but it just brings a smirk to Maggie's face and earns a soft slap to her thigh.

Their stare lasts a moment before Maggie drops her eyes back to the paper clasped before the duo. "You want me to open it don't you?"

"I would like to know who to threaten." She grunts out, trying for a nonchalant shrug. Failing at a nonchalant shrug.

"Sure you do, slugger, sure you do."

"Maggie, c'mon." Alex pleads, voice strained, eyes not leaving the loops, not leaving the heart, not leaving the cause of her insecure thoughts.

Shifting to the side in an effort to catch Alex's eyes, Maggie's movements are stalled by the securing grip she finds herself in. Feeling Alex's unease, she shifts once more, quickly pulling herself further into Alex's body. Maggie's back against the couch's back cushions, chest and legs sprayed comfortably, comfortingly, over Alex, she makes sure to place a kiss to Alex's troubled lips.

"You sure-" She asks pulling away, calmed by the small smile pulling at Alex's lips

She feels Alex's nervous swallow as she nods slightly.

Maggie hands her the envelope to open, smiling as movement forces her further into Alex's embrace. Alex's arm falls back to its place on Maggie's side as they use their free hands to hold the paper up in tandem.

Maggie,

I've got something to tell you that I just can't say. I've tried, it just- So, I'm writing it down in case maybe someday our lives go down the same road. In case one day you see me.

I know you're happy and I'm happy for you. But since you found each other I've been so confused. I believe there's one soul for me and I can't help but think, or know, or wonder…what if it's you? What if you're meant for me and we don't- I promised myself I wouldn't mess up in this letter, but I feel like I already have messed up with you.

What if- maybe- I already missed my chance. If I did. If that first chance is over. Will I get another?

"Alex," Maggie's voice breaks the silence but not Alex's stare. Not her quickened blinking. Not her quickening heart. Not her fear. "We can just throw it away, it doesn't matter."

Swallowing, Maggie moves with Alex's resolutely shaking head.

"It's okay, we should know. Right?"

Right.

Right?

Slowly tightening her embrace before softening, Alex places a peck on Maggie's cheek, eyes once again meeting thin but sure loops.

Glaring at thin but sure loops.

Glaring through thin but sure loops.

I don't know how love works, you'd be the first to know that. I just thought we would learn it together. Maybe that's stupid, maybe it's irrational, but that's what they say love is. Irrational. I just can't help but tell you. Tell you that: love is a feeling, love is my feeling, my feeling for you.

I can only hope you understand how I feel. I can only hope beyond hope, you feel the same. If you don't right now, that's okay. We have time. We have time for you to feel it too. I see the forever in our never.

We'll have our chance.

We'll have our chance when it's right.

Until then and forever.

Your Rose

Alex's rushed breathing is hard to ignore as Maggie drops her hand to let the letter wilt in her girlfriend's tense grip.

"Looks like someone's been really getting into the poetry scene."

Silence.

Hurried breathing.

Thumping heart.

Blinking eyes.

Maggie brings her hand to Alex's cheek, slouching further into her as she sees the moisture and concern gathered there.

"Mags."

A soft hum is her only response.

"I'm going to kill her."

"Settle for a maim. A slight maim. I don't want my future bride limping down the aisle."

Maggie's soft laughter gives Alex's mind a raft. Something to hold to, something to cling to, something to keep afloat. The depths of concern and pain seem far away as Maggie's pulling her closer, crumpling the paper, aiming for the fire place -missing the fire place-, and once again melting into her side.

"I'll try not to get hurt then."

The whisper should have been scary, should have shaken her, should have done a lot of thing. But what it did was ground her, what it did was pull a smile, what it did was open a future.

Their future.

"Good."