Chapter 43: The Freedom of Comfort

"Hello Ms. Luthor."A tall man with an almost dark golden-like complexion. "Mr. Ounnefer, it is lovely to see you here." He comes from the African branch and has volunteered to take over the silent action at this event."Thank you again for letting me take this over. I'm very excited - I've never felt happier with the work we are doing."Lena smiles politely, she is beyond happy that her company can do this for the world, she is happy that something like this can happen at all.The Luthor makes her way around to greet all of the attendees and once she makes her rounds she settles in an area with her family, finally."Hey guys. Sorry, I've been-" Her eye catches a shorter woman with a blood-red dress on. "Is that?"Alex looks over her shoulder and takes a sip of her champagne. "Yup. Lucy and Andrea. Honestly, didn't see that coming."Kara slaps Alex's arm. "They are just friends, the incident, only happened a month ago, Alex."Alex rolls her eyes, "It's been a month, but we all know that James and Lucy were done at least five months before he gave her that dramatic parting gift to signify the end of their relationship."Sam looks over at the two. They are laughing and trying to keep their voices down. "She has her sparkle back." The brunette Kryptonian smiles through the words.Alex takes a sip of her whiskey, "I really and truly do not want to give Kara's boss the shovel talk though."Kara curses under her breath. "This is gonna make for an awkward game night if she invites her over."Lena rolls her eyes, "It doesn't have to be you know."Kara says, "I bet you fifty dollars that she hounds me about an article I turned in two minutes late."Lena shakes on it, "Deal."Maggie shoves Alex, "Shhh, they're coming over now."Alex scrunches up her face, "I wasn't even talk-"Maggie pokes her to quiet. "Hey Luce, you clean up nice." The detective gives the shorter girl a hug."I see that I stand corrected." She grabs the detective's hand and twirls her around, "You in a dress, I did not expect. You look absolutely stunning"Maggie smiles, "And it's a plus that it's not against my will or for undercover."The detective shifts her focus to the taller woman. "You must be Andrea, I'm Maggie." The Latina rolls the r perfectly, she puts out a hand to shake and gives a warm smile."Nice to meet you Maggie." Andrea greets all of them, and wasn't expecting to see most of them here tonight. She usually hates things like this because they are usually filled with huge obnoxious egos and white men who try to cop a feel of her ass and she can't really do much to show her displeasure lest she get labelled a hormonal snowflake who can't take a compliment.It's two hours in and they make good conversation. Kara has to admit that having her boss present in a non-work setting isn't as off putting as she thought it would be. Seeing Andrea like this without her girl boss energy radiating and suffocating the Kryptonian, if felt nice. She is actually getting to know the women and Kara can safely say that she cannot wait to beat her on game nights.It's been about two hours into the auction and Lena has done her part. She loves the atmosphere here. Usually at Gala's it's stuffy and she is annoyed and hounded by people who would want to be business partners with her. They lean more towards Lex's ideologies and Lena would never in a million years want to go down that road with them.The Luthor really wants to leave now. The dress she has on is tight and she feels kinda stuffy with all the people in the area even though this is an outside event.Lena notices herself well enough to realise that she really just wants to lay in bed for a long while with Kara and just cuddle."You seem like you wanna leave." Maggie walked up to her, handing her a glass of cool water. The chill of the glass soothes her nerves just a little bit."You don't seem to really want to be here anymore either Detective." Lena raises an eyebrow to her.Usually Maggie and her would do this banter but all the eyebrow does it make the shorter women fidget.Lena sees Maggie. The inner parts of her they both know she only can safely show to a few people. Maggie has never been little around the CEO without Lena being little too. Maggie hasn't gone that far yet. But it seems like this will be happening for the both of them sooner than later.Maggie looks small, smaller than usual and that says a lot."You want me to get Sam an Al?" Lena knows that here, out in public is the last place the little would want to be.Maggie fidgets more, not looking at the Luthor in the eyes yet. "No, they uh-" Maggie loosely motions to the five people talking at one of the tables far away from the bar they stand at. "They seem to be having fun. Don't wanna ruin that."Lena nods her head, but Maggie couldn't see it. "You know you didn't have to come right Mags?"The detective blows out a breath. "Yes, I know but this was important.""Yes it is," Lena grabs the other girl's hand and sets down her half-empty glass with the other. "But it's ok to go if you need to."All Maggie does is grumble."How about we go to my office? We can sit there for a bit, maybe watch a show on my computer, talk, read." The raveness says lightly."I'm not little right now Lee." Maggie almost stomps her foot, which would be contradicting her earlier statement."No you're not. But I for one would like to relax for a bit but I also don't want to leave before this is all over. You would be doing me a favour by keeping me company." Lena tries to soothe the girl.Maggie bites at her bottom lip, thinking hard, picking at the skin off her fingernails. She knows she's dropping, and she's dropping fast. Usually she would have shoved this feeling down and just pushed through the rest of the night. Sam and Alex have given her an out though. But they do deserve some time while not taking care of her. Maggie knows that if the two ever heard her say something like this they would throw a fit at the untrue words. But she can't help it.Lena is throwing her life vest after she's already dangling off the edge of the boat. At least she would be able to stay afloat. It's either drown or take the raft at this point because there is no way that she is ruining this nice night for them."M'kay." Maggie finally nods her head yes and looks up to see the Luthor smiling at her. Maggie feels warm, it feels good.Lena grabs onto the little girl's hand firmly and gives it a little squeeze. They make it into the elevator past a few people giving them polite smiles.She sits Maggie on her larger couch and goes to her ensuite bathroom to get some comfortable clothes for the both of them.She kneels down on her knees and begins to wipe off the makeup from the detective's face."I can do it myself." Lena rolls her eyes while scrubbing gently at the stubborn eyeliner."Yes you can, but I want to." Lena's brows furrow, Is this how Kara feels when I insist on taking care of myself?The Luthor leaves the girl to dress in her bathroom while she dresses in her office.Lena puts both of their clothes in a backpack. "So, what do ya wanna do?"To be honest, Lena is out of her depth. She has never cared for a child before, and that is essentially what Maggie is.For Maggie's part, she is out of her depth too. She had never dropped around anyone without Sam and Alex, and that started mostly by accident. Maggie probably would never have told the two if it weren't for that day. She doesn't entirely regret it all though.Lena is new, new to the world of littles and what it's like being one. New to the new experiences and new to being around someone like her.Maggie has never met anyone like her. She knew, fundamentally, that she wasn't alone. But she has never been around someone personally like her. She has had fun so far. With Zari and Charlie, that little taste of having people like her around was so much fun. She loved playing dino's and watching movies with them. Playing with puzzles and colouring outside the line. It's more than that though. She loved the feeling of acceptance. The community she hasn't felt so seen with a group like this. She can almost go as far as saying that the Blue Sparkles case was worth it."We can watch movie?" Maggie feels comfortable on the couch after Lena puts two blankets over her. It's not cold at all and Maggie does feel a bit hot but isn't willing to say so. She'll fix it eventually."Yes we can," Lena gets up to get her laptop, "Is there a movie you have in mind?""Luca!"Lena smiles wide, Maggie is truly precious. Lena hasn't felt the need to slip in a little while. She doesn't really know how to slip willingly. Usually it just happens."Oh, I have a projector. You want to watch it on that?"Maggie nods her head eagerly, "Bigger."Lena does so and they are halfway through the movie. They are cuddled up perfectly squished together. Maggie has thrown off the extra blanket and they are sharing one.Maggie's fingers, that probably haven't been washed, are firmly between her lips. Her other hand is twirling round and round one of Lena's rings that's still attached to the slightly taller girl's finger. Lena doesn't mind the fidgeting because she knows the detective does the same for her when she can't exactly stay still in a situation where it calls for it.They both hum along to the songs, almost knowing every lyric. Lena has gotten into the habit of rewatching all the Disney films, Kara enabling this habit.She can tell that the detective is getting sleepy once they get to the second movie. She slowly guides the detective to lay down on her lap and she immediately closes her eyes. Lena pets the girl's hair, trying to keep her own hands occupied, and turns the volume down a bit. Slight sucking can be heard from the tiny detective's mouth.(22:34) Kara: You guys ok up there?Lena types softly, careful not to jostle the girl in her lap. She wipes at the tiredness that rests in her eyes.(22:36) Lena: Ye, we're good. Just got tired down there.(22:38) Kara: Wanna head home? Lucy and Andrea just leftLena looks at the clock and it's nearly eleven, way past her bedtime.(22:40) Lena: yes plz.Lena puts her phone away and waits for Kara to come up, along with Alex and Sam inevitably coming up with her."We were gonna come and take her home when we realized that you guys were ditching but Kara said to leave you guys till one of you would call." Sam sits on the couch by her bunnies feets.Kara comes over to Lena's side and kisses her hairline."Yea, it didn't seem like you guys would really mind. Sounds like you had a nice time?" The blonde says while looking at the Luthor.Lena smiles and yawns, "Yea." Is all the raveness can get out to say."Well it sounds like you could go for a bath and bed hm?"Lena hums in confirmation.Sam goes to pick Maggie up out of the Luthors lap and Alex takes out her thumb and pushes in her pacifier."She complains about sores and still insists on not washing her hands before she puts her fingers in her mouth." The redhead says exasperated.The tiny detective's legs cling around the Kryptonians waist and she wastes no time inserting her nose into her mommy's neck.Lena sees this and tries something herself. She flails out her arms, opening them to show she would like to be picked up too. Kara just rolls her eyes good heartedly but compiles nonetheless.Lena rests her head the same as Maggie, wrapping her arms around Kara's neck.Alex has the phone in her hand, "The car is downstairs waiting in the private exit." The redhead cleans up the blankets and puts away the movie projector. She takes the bag and puts it on her own back. She sets the laptop in the laptop bag and over her shoulder.That night, they all slept easy. Lena was wrapped around Kara the rest of the night, clinging to her not wanting for the Kryptonian to drift away.Maggie did get what she wished for though. Fluffy and her Mama's surrounding her.Alex and Sam know they will have to have a talk sometime soon on Maggie expressing her needs in any and every situation it calls for. They do not want a repeat of Maggie feeling neglected. But they also feel as though Maggie denying it feels like her subtly setting a boundary, they don't want to cross that. Maggie has expressed the hate towards the feeling of losing control. But that's what her being little is fundamentally, she is putting hertrust into her girlfriends to take care of her. She is giving up most of her independence and it's scary sometimes. It isn't always sunshine and rainbows with them. Maggie is reluctant to give in so fast in fear of falling fast and hard.Both of the bigs wish it were easier for them all but they think a talk is overdue. Some new rules set in place to better fit Maggie's new needs.They just hope she gets used to it all because what's in store might seem to her, losing certain freedoms, giving up a lot more than she expected. But that will not truly be the case.For now though, both Sam and Alex bask in peace. They just hope it doesn't shatter too soon.