373. Chapter 373

“Wanna get outta here?” Maggie asks, chuckling at Alex’s banter with their roommate, but also wanting the full attention of this adorable enby.

And it terrifies her.

Her desire.

Her question.

Terrifies her because the only people she’s kissed have been girls in high school who took her underneath the bleachers to make out, only to tell their boyfriends later that she took advantage of them.

Terrifies her because of Eliza Wilke.

Terrifies her because of her father.

But she’s away, now.

Away, for the first time.

And Alex Danvers? This kid hanging out of their window, undercut and tank top and sleeveless vest and and flattened chest and baggy shorts all but screaming their queerness? Their braveness?

Maybe Alex Danvers won’t punish her for her desires.

But at her question, Alex almost topples out of their dorm room window.

Maggie catches them by their stomach, and they both pause at the contact. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so – “

“No, no, it’s… it’s just funny, right? Because usually when someone says ‘you wanna get outta here,’ they mean go home or something, but I am home, so you don’t mean go home, right, you mean go away from my home instead of to it, and it’s just…”

Alex putters like they’ve run out of fuel, and they shrug awkwardly. Adorably.

Maggie’s never wanted to kiss anyone this badly, and she chastizes herself harshly. She barely knows Alex.

Doesn’t know them at all.

But their rambling is awkward, and it’s earnest, and earnesty isn’t something Maggie comes across a lot.

“Just what, Danvers?” she helps them out, a small smile tugging at her lips.

“It’s just funny,” Alex finishes, starting to blush, and Maggie hears Lucy sighing dramatically at Alex’s lack of chill inside the dorm.

Maggie gulps and she lowers her eyes to Alex’s lips and she looks away as soon as she realizes she’s done it.

“Your room isn’t the only home on this campus,” Maggie says, her voice low, her voice hopeful.

Alex nearly falls again, and Maggie grabs them again.

Alex opens and closes their mouth helplessly.

“But for now, wanna take a walk?” Maggie grins, hopping down from the window and retrieving her backpack and motorcycle helmet from the ground.

Alex takes nearly a full thirty seconds to stammer a yes, and somehow their rambling makes them more attractive to Maggie. More unassuming. More… earnest. More honest. More genuine.

“Uh – yes, just – uh, can you come around the front entrance? I’m sorry, I – “

“Yeah, yeah, it’s cool. Meet you in a minute. Um – nice to meet you, Lucy!” Maggie raises her voice at the end.

“Have them home by midnight, Sawyer! It’s not a huge campus, I can easily find out where you live!”

“Yes ma’am!” Maggie offers a mock salute. Even though she knows Lucy can’t see her from inside, she knows Alex can, and Alex laughs.

She decides she wants to make Alex laugh as much as she can.

“See you on the other side,” she offers up to Alex, and they nod as they scramble backwards off their windowsill, nearly falling in.

Maggie chuckles to herself once she listens to make sure Alex is okay. She slings her bag over her shoulder and sets off at a jog toward the main entrance of Alex’s dorm.

It takes Alex more than a minute or two to get there.

It occurs to Maggie that they might not come.

That Maggie asking if they wanted to go somewhere – to get outta here – might have been rude to Lucy. Might have been a turn off to Alex.

Because why would someone that attractive want to go anywhere with Maggie anyway? Why would someone that soft want to have anything to do with Maggie, anyway?

Maybe Alex had only said she could come up and sit on their window to be polite.

They seemed like they were a polite person.

Politeness was good. Nice.

Good and nice didn’t deserve Maggie Sawyer.

How could she have been so stupid? So overconfident? How could she have been so –

“Maggie.”

Her stomach backflips at the slightly breathless sound of Alex’s voice, and she turns.

“You’re a lot taller than me,” is the first thing she says, because she couldn’t really tell when they were sitting on the windowsill together. It’s the first thing she says because the shock of Alex actually standing there in front of her, eager and ready to head out… wherever… is so unbelievable.

Alex grins and straightens, puffing out their chest slightly.

“I uh…”

“You don’t have to actually respond to that, it was a stupid comment.”

“No! It wasn’t stupid, I… um… I’m sorry I made you wait. I’m uh…” They glance around and take a deep breath, but Maggie had used their pronouns without hesitation and without any reluctance, and she still wanted to go out with them – go out? were they going out? did this count as going out? – and it feels so good to still, maybe, be wanted, and they want to talk, to share, so badly… “I’m not used to my uh… to my binder yet, it’s uh… I’m still not used to things like uh… hopping out of windows and stuff.”

Maggie grins and nods, giving Alex another once-over with her eyes. “Well, it’s good self-care: you’re not supposed to be all breathless with them on anyway, right?”

“Gonna be hard to be around you while I wear it then,” Alex blurts out softly without thinking, without considering, and Maggie’s breath hitches, and Alex’s face flushes.

“I’m sorry, that was forward, I just meant – “

“No. No, Danvers, I…” She realizes there are tears in her eyes and she’s not quite sure why. She clears her throat and she forces down a gulp. “Where do you wanna go? On campus, off? There’s this pizza joint a few blocks off the SU that I like. Do you like pizza?”

“Isn’t it kinda the law?” Alex chuckles, and starts walking.

Maggie falls into step, and after a quiet moment, Alex offers their arm out for Maggie to hold onto.

“Oh, a gentlehuman,” Maggie laughs, accepting their arm. She looks up at Alex with soft eyes. “Is there a word you prefer? Something less gendered, more?”

“Context,” Alex shrugs. “Right now?” They glance down at Maggie, at her leather jacket and tight jeans and gorgeous, gorgeous hair. “Gentleman would be just fine. I mean, unless you… you’ve only dated girls before? Not that this is a date, I mean – “

“It’s not?” Something’s dancing in Maggie’s eyes, something a lot like that confidence she’d had in her walk when she’d first gotten off her bike. But this is less affected, less defensive. This? This is happiness. This is hope.

“Is it? I mean, do you want it to be? If – I mean, I know it’s not how dates typically happen – “

“What, you mean sitting with a girl on your windowsill, getting egged on by your roommate, and then taking the girl on a walk to a pizza place off campus? That’s not your typical MO, Danvers?”

Alex laughs, and Maggie grins.

“I don’t have an… I mean, I don’t usually – we just met, I don’t want you to think I’m trying to…”

“To what?”

Alex shrugs, stiffening as a group of frat boys laughs their way past them. They glance down at Maggie, whose face is suddenly steel, and Alex decides they like her even more than they already did. They put their arm over her shoulder and pull her closer to their body protectively.

The boys pass, and Alex shifts their arm, unsure of what to do.

“Is that okay?”

Maggie nods with a tight throat and a throbbing heart. Alex keeps their arm around her shoulder.

“You said you’re new here. New to cities. I told you I’d look out for you. I don’t want you to… to think I want anything in return.”

“Except maybe a date,” Maggie deadpans, but she’s smiling and her dimples ease Alex’s worry.

They lapse into a surprisingly comfortable silence, taking in the campus, taking in the football game on one side of the quad, the class being held outside on the other.

“Why would you want to?” Maggie asks after a while.

“Want to what?”

“Look out for me.”

Alex shrugs again. “You don’t seem like you need it. Looking out for. But everyone should have someone. It’s lonely otherwise.”

“Yes,” Maggie says after a long moment, and her tone tells Alex she’s not responding to their comment about loneliness.

“Yes what?” they ask, furrowed brow and nervous heart.

“Yes, this is a date, Danvers,” Maggie grins, and Alex can practically hear Lucy whooping from all the way across campus, can practically hear Kara’s excited squeals when they call her later tonight.

And all these things?

Make them feel like they’re flying.