174. Chapter 174

It’s Maggie’s idea.

“Come on, Danvers, it’ll be fun. Something you’re not an expert in for once, plus all the commercials to yell at? Good beer, good food, good people? It’ll be like game night, except the game’s on TV.”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re a football fan, Sawyer?”

Maggie shrugs flirtatiously, and Alex beams. Because Alex loves learning new layers to Maggie.

“College ball was big where I’m from. And, hey, hot cheerleaders.”

Alex mock scowls, and heat pools in Maggie’s core.

“Really, Sawyer.”

“You bet, Danvers,” Maggie snickers, stepping back slowly, sexily, because Alex is backing her into the wall, and Alex is shoving her against it, now, and Maggie’s head tilts back as she moans at Alex’s lips on her neck.

“Hot cheerleaders,” Alex repeats in a growl, and Maggie snickers.

“None of them nearly as hot as you, Danvers,” Maggie capitulates, and Alex smirks.

“Superbowl party it is, then. I’ll invite the gang,” she smiles brightly, walking away quickly and leaving Maggie breathless and wrecked against the wall.

And she’s back on the wall, again, the next Sunday night, as Winn gestures wildly with his beer at the TV, shouting about how it makes no sense, if they’re going to ram themselves into each other like that, they should at least have efficient suits, and James is reminding him that they’re not suits, they’re uniforms, equipment, and Kara is laughing and J’onn is rolling his eyes and Alex is digging deeply into the seltzer Maggie’s gotten her really into.

She’s been to her share of Superbowl parties before. Wild college affairs punctuated with even wilder sex in the bathroom, awkward affairs at the home of one of the guys in her precinct, and, of course, the extravaganzas in Blue Springs, featuring her cooking up a storm and dodging drunken uncles and inquisitive neighbors wanting to know when she’s finally going to stop spending more time with things like football and more time with things like boys.

But she’s never been to a Superbowl party that felt quite like… home.

She’d made Kara homemade potstickers, over Winn’s loud and playful objections that potstickers aren’t Superbowl food and doesn’t your sports knowledge stop basically before it begins, Schott? and awww, leave him alone, Alex, he’s trying, look, he’s wearing my Cam Newton jersey and Maggie are they ready yet and can’t rush the magic, Little Danvers and well the magic would be a little faster if there was less magic going on under the counter, don’t think I don’t see where your hands are, Danvers and oh my god, Winn, I didn’t need to hear that and good god why is Cadmus choosing this night of all nights to not attack somewhere or other?

She’d made Winn homemade pineapple and jalapeño pizza, herself her own cheeseless version, and ordered for the rest of them because it’s not my fault the rest of your taste palates have been killed by fast food joints, and James and Alex took turns getting things down from high shelves for her and James even scooped her up at one point, much to her surprised delight, because she’d never been in a man’s arms that made her feel safe, that made her feel light and happy and playful, but Alex was giggling and Kara was squealing and Winn was yelling for them to freeze so he could take a picture and J’onn was I thought the point was to watch the sport, not create our own in the kitchen.

She’d yelled at the racism and xenophobia in the newest movie trailers with James and she’d beamed when Alex staunchly agreed, and she’d drawn Alex into an open-mouthed kiss that had Kara squealing and James and Winn whooping and J’onn diverting his eyes whenever gay couples were featured in commercials, and she’d drooled and barely restrained herself from taking her girlfriend then and there when Alex slipped into the bedroom to put on her glasses and Maggie’s spare Kaepernick jersey, claiming well this is actually fun and I wanna get in the spirit, and hey, gotta see properly, right?

So now, she’s leaning back, holding up the wall, and she’s watching the people she’s assembled instead of the game she’d used as an excuse to have them all over, to cook for them, to hear them laugh, to make them smile.

Alex catches her eye and arches a questioning eyebrow, and Maggie smiles broadly, softly, and shakes her head. Alex nods, because she understands when Maggie gets overwhelmed and needs to pull back, and when Maggie keeps holding her eyes with her own, Alex knows it’ll be okay to say what she needs to say.

“I love you,” she mouths, and Maggie beams.

“You too, Danvers.”

J’onn notices and exchanges glances with a beaming Kara.

“How’s it feel to get another daughter, J’onn?” she asks him softly, her hand on his arm as James cheers a Falcons touchdown and Maggie laughs when Winn and Alex both ask what happened.

J’onn watches the laughter dance across Maggie’s face, and looks at the bottle of seltzer in Alex’s hand, the glasses – which she would never wear in front of people before Maggie, not ever – on her face, her girlfriend’s Kaepernick jersey on her back, the relaxed smile on her face, the easy laughter, easier than J’onn had ever seen it spilling from his girl’s lips.

“Not bad, Supergirl. Not bad at all.”