523. Chapter 523

The first time she says it, she panics and tries to pass it off as distinctly not a big deal.

“Of course I don’t mind, Danvers, you’re my best friend,” she tells her, unintentionally – it just slips out, the casual tone of honesty so deep you don’t think before you speak – when Alex asks her if she really doesn’t think it’s too corny, too unromantic, to just go to an arcade together one night.

She says it, and Alex stops and stares at her, and she panics.

“Also, I mean, it’s totally romantic to go to arcades together. Totally a couples thing, I can win you a stuffed animal, or you can win me a stuffed animal, or we can win each other stuffed animals, see? Totally a couples thing.”

Alex doesn’t comment that Maggie’s picked up half of Alex’s rambling and half of Kara’s. She just smiles and nods and takes Maggie’s hand in hers – best friends, lovers, best friends, perfection – and brings her to the arcade.

The second time she says it, it’s after a fight – about something stupid, something small that blows up because they both have jobs where they risk their lives on the daily, because small things become so damn important – and Maggie is crying.

“You’re my best friend, Danvers, I hate fighting with you,” she strokes her hand, and Alex reaches up to caress her face.

“You’re my best friend too, Maggie,” Alex offers. “And I normally like fighting. Too much. But I hate fighting with you.”

Maggie sniffles and chuckles but then she furrows her brow.

“Kara?” she asks, because she doesn’t want Alex to feel like she has to call her that just because Maggie had said it.

“Kara is my sister, and yes, my best friend, but she also… she has a category of her own, you know? And so do you, Maggie. So do you.”

The third time she says it, they’re both dressed in white and Kara looks radiant next to Alex and Adrian looks so damn handsome next to Maggie and James looks like he might cry as he tells Alex that he’s not trying to tell her what to do – their family, surrounding them, laughs, and so do Alex and Maggie – but now would be the time to say their vows.

“You’re my best friend, Danvers,” Maggie tells her, her voice low and shaking but somehow also so, so steady. “You’re my best friend and I am so wildly in love with you. I’m never going to stop being in love with you. You’re everything I never knew I needed, Alex, and I… I can’t promise you a perfect life, but I can promise you the best life I can possibly give you; a lifetime of firsts, good and bad and everything in between, and I’m going to hold your hand through every single bit of it, Alex Danvers. Always and after. Even if it was my jurisdiction.”