Chapter Text
After a couple hours Kara dropped by Cat's office and saw Mia spinning in Cat's chair. Her eyes went wide and she hurried towards her to get her off her boss' chair but Cat was at her sofa in the middle of a phone call looking completely unbothered.
"Kiera, the president scheduled a meeting with moi. James will have to hold on the fort while I'm gone. Again." Cat announced.
"James will be great. He always is. Um, actually I'm just picking Mia up. I'm clocking out and it's time to take her... home."
Cat nodded, getting up and pocketing her phone.
"I've fed her. We have annoyed the opposite sex and the child discovered the wonders of office chairs. My work here is done."
"Oh... I'm sorry about her sitting on your chair."
"I'm perfectly capable of sitting elsewhere, Kiera." pointed out Cat, rolling her eyes.
"Of- Of course! Um, c'mon Mia. Time to go home."
The little girl got up, a little woozy from spinning on Cat's chair so much. She joined Kara and turned around to wave at miss Grant.
"Bye, Gata."
Kara opened her mouth to hastily correct the little girl but she was surprised to see Cat smile and wink at the child.
"Goodbye, little hobbit."
They made their way out of the building and into the busy streets without talking and Kara was again surprised by Mia when the kid grabbed onto two of her fingers. Her hand was so small that a couple of fingers was as much as it could wrap around. It was a warm little hand and Kara kept herself in check at all times so she wouldn't put any more pressure than what Mia was offering with contact.
The girls had walked only a block before Mia stopped dead on her tracks.
"Whatsthat?" asked the child, pointing at the giant billboard.
Kara looked up and saw the gigantic picture of a raven-haired woman with the word "WONDER" written.
"That's the poster of the new Wonder Woman movie."
"Wow." Kara could've sworn that the kid's eyes were shining. "Wass'er name?"
"Oh, that's Diana, Princess of Themiscyra."
Mia's eyes flashed with a memory of warm dark brown eyes but she thought she was just imagining things so she just shook her head and kept walking besides Kara.
The little girl stopped again after they walked around the block. Kara looked around for more Wonder Woman posters but what had gotten Mia's attention was far simpler than that.
It was a tree. Purple flowers were blossoming in it. Mia absentmindedly raised a hand as if to touch the flower but she was way too short to reach it.
"Can I pick you up?" asked Kara, smiling.
Mia nodded eagerly.
"Actually, I have a better idea. Wanna sit on my shoulders?"
Mia nodded again and Kara knelt down so the child could put her legs around the back of her neck. She got up slowly and felt Mia yelp and grab the blonde's locks almost painfully.
"Don't worry, don't worry. You're not going to fall. I got ya. "
Mia's death grip loosened and she reached her arms forward to the closest purple flower, her little fingers wrapping around it carefully and Kara watched as she gently caressed the petals as if feeling the texture. The superhero briefly wondered if Mia had ever seen or touched a flower before. Kara also noticed that unlike other children, she didn't pluck the flower away from the tree. She just held it almost reverently.
"Preddy." Kara heard Mia whisper.
"It is, isn't it?"
"Like you." The kid pointed out, lowering her hands and patting the woman's hair.
Kara's heart melted. "Awww, Mia. Thank you. You are very pretty yourself."
The woman made to kneel down so Mia could get out of her shoulders but Mia tugged at Kara's shirt collar. "Cannistayhee?"
"Sure! But you gotta gimme your hands so I can hold you better."
Mia offered thin arms and Kara gently held them. They walked the rest of the way like that.
-
Kara gently put Mia down from her shoulders when they were at her apartment's door and opened it.
"So... This is my apartment! You can check it out if you want."
But the kid didn't seem very prone to move around, exploring it. She was standing next to the door blinking heavily. The blonde noticed that she was taking a little longer to get accustomed to the new environment. Her appartment was a lot brighter than her sister's and where Alex's was minimalist, hers was brimming with life, colour and the amount of new information was overwhelming to the little girl.
Of course Kara understood what it felt like to have sensory overload so she decided to give her a little time to adjust.
"Hey, why don't you draw little bit while I take a quick shower?" she asked, handing Mia paper and some coloured pencils.
The kid looked at her confused, her eyebrows knitting together but she nodded.
Kara allowed herself to relax in a quick but warm shower and then changed into an old *NSYNC shirt, putting a blue jumper on top and slipped into her favourite old joggers that she was sure had like five holes but she didn't really care since she wasn't going to leave her house for the rest of the day.
She found Mia kneeling besides the coffee table.
"Sooo, what did you draw?"
Mia looked up with the same confused expression as before. Kara looked down at the table and saw that the kid had set the paper on the table and lined up the coloured pencils on top of them organised by their hue.
"Oh, okay..."
Mia looked startled as if wondering she'd done something wrong so Kara quickly smiled at her. "It looks beautiful, Mia. Very, um, aesthetically pleasing."
She snapped a picture and saved it to send it to Alex later. Pocketing her phone again, she looked at the child. She was sitting and staring unmoving at the organised coloured pencils as if trying to spot one that was out of hue order.
Kara scratched her head, trying to think of something to do with Mia to pass the time until Alex and Maggie dropped by to pick her up.
Maybe a movie? Alex said she loved movies. Or maybe she could read a book to her... Did Mia know how to read? She could teach her...
She was about to ask the kid that when the bell rang and she jumped up, startled. Mia barely moved, still staring at her masterpiece.
Kara pulled her glasses down so she could scan the door. Alex had briefed her about how the little girl ended up on Earth and how she could still be in danger, but when she saw who was at her door, she almost tripped trying to get there as fast as she could. That attracted Mia's attention and curiosity.
She flung the door open with so much strength she almost took it off its hinges.
"Heeeeeey... Lena!" was what she said but what she thought was 'I'm not wearing a bra'.
The raven-haired woman flashed the blonde with a 1000-megawatt smile.
"Kara! I'm sorry I didn't say anything about coming here but I was about to check this new restaurant and I found out they serve potstickers so I instantly thought of you. What do you say? Want to come and check it out with me? You can even update your "Best Potstickers of National City" Instagram that you pretend you don't manage but I know you do."
Kara's stomach growled at every mention of potstickers but she knew she couldn't go out at that moment.
"Oh, dang! I wish I could, I so do but um... I actually.... I-I can't- I can't leave right now. I have a... Thing."
Kara cast a sideways glance to Mia, who was still looking at her curiously. When she looked back at Lena, the CEO was blushing slightly.
"Oh! If you have someone there, you don't have to be embarrassed. I can come back later. No need to put the sock on the doorknob."
"What?! No! It's not that!" Kara bit her lip. "Okay, fine, come on in."
"I don't have to if you-" started Lena, but Kara tugged her inside the apartment and closed the door behind her.
"Kara, really, I can leave if you have someone over-" Lena's eyes finally focused on Mia. She blinked twice. "Is that... a child?"
"Yeah, uh... That's- That is Mia." Kara fidgeted with her glasses. "I'm kinda babysitting for Alex and Maggie."
"Your sister and her girlfriend have a kid?" asked Lena, confused, trying to remember if Kara had ever mentioned being an aunt.
"Oh, no. Mia is uh... Maggie's... She's Maggie's... c-cousin."
"Right." said Lena, a little unsure. She scanned Kara's frantic face. "Are you okay? Is there something wrong?"
Kara worried her lip. "I don't know how to entertain her! I don't wanna be a boring aunt. No, no! I wanna be the cool aunt! No, better: I wanna be the coolest aunt! Like the one that always has sweets to give you and you always have a good time with her."
"Well, do you have sweets?"
Kara bit her lip again, this time looking guilty. "I ate them all."
Lena smiled. "Of course you did."
"Why don't we make cookies? This way you can make sure that she has a good time and something sweet to eat."
Kara's belly grumbled again. Cookies were not potstickers but well, they were cookies.
"Excellent idea, miss Luthor." she said, playfully. "Just... Let me introduce you to Mia. She can be... Um, very shy."
Both women approached the back of the sofa. Mia was now staring at them, a little taken aback.
"Mia, um, this is... This is my... Best friend. Do you wanna come meet her?"
Mia got up from the floor and approached the two women carefully, looking at their shoes (or just socks, in Kara's case). The blonde didn't mind that the kid wasn't making eye contact. She still pointed at Lena and smiled.
"This is Lena Luthor. She's really nice so you don't have to be scared, okay?"
"She's yo fwiend."
"Yes she is."
"Uhmm not scahh of her, then." she said simply and headed to the bathroom, remembering the rout Kara had taken to get there and shower earlier.
"That went well." point out Kara, half surprised.
Lena nodded. "Is she British?"
"What, Mia? No, she's... Brazilian... I think... Why?"
Lena raised an eyebrow at the "I think" but didn't comment. "She has a British accent."
"She does?"
Lena raised one perfect eyebrow. "Yes. Have you never talked to her before?"
"Oh, uh... She didn't really talk.... Much or even at all. I guess she's getting used to me so she's talking a little more." Kara fixed her glasses. "I probably should tell you, um, she's-"
"Autistic."
Kara stopped fidgeting with her glasses and looked at the other woman, questioningly. Lena shrugged.
"Sometimes I visit the Luthor's Children Hospital and there's this boy, Matty. He's on the transplant list for a new heart and he's a non-verbal autistic kid. There's also this little girl, Danny who's got cancer and she's on the autism spectrum."
"Oh... Do you visit there a lot?"
"Not as much as I wished. I have so much work at LCorp but whenever I find the time I'm there."
Kara smiled. "That's really nice, Lena. If you ever want company, you know, you can always call me."
She thought she saw Lena blush.
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."
When Mia walked back to the living room, the women told her their idea of making cookies. Lena was slightly taken aback when she noticed that the kid didn't seem to know what cookies were but still looked excited.
Kara gathered the supplies needed on the counter and Lena helped her pick up some necessary bowls and spoons.
It started out great. Mia watched intently as the women mixed some ingredients in a big bowl, perched up on a chair with a pillow on it to help her reach the things she needed.
"Hey, Mia, could you hand me that bag of flour, please?" Asked Kara, pointing at an open bag close to Mia's end.
Mia leaned forward and lost her balance slightly, fumbling with the bag and dropping it on the counter. A giant cloud of white powder puffed around her and the entire kitchen looked like a scene from a Christmas movie. When the powder finally settled down, they could see that the kid looked like a ghost.
Only her eyes showed some colour but they kind of looked like golden and green balls floating on a white sheet.
"Oh Ra- my God!" exclaimed Kara.
Mia's eyes went even wider and her bottom lip wobbled. "I'm so so-" she sneezed, "-rry."
"Oh no, darling, it's okay, I um..." whatever Kara was going to say to reassure the kid was swallowed by a huge explosion of laughter when both her and Lena just couldn't keep it together anymore.
The little girl felt reassured that the two women weren't mad at her and she didn't feel like crying anymore. Actually, soon their laughter became so contagious that she joined them.
Mia's clothes were ruined so after the cookies were put in the over, Kara helped her out of them, cleaned her face and arms and picked her smallest shirt to serve as a dress for the kid but when she said that the little girl shook her head and said it was not a dress but a Toga and she stuck one of her arms out of the neck hole, making the shirt fall sideways like an ancient Greek's dressings. Kara tied one of her belt's around Mia's midriff to keep the shirt from falling.
They set a timer for the cookies and moved back to the living room and Kara put on her Spotify playlist on shuffle except her playlist was like 80% *NSYNC but Mia seemed to like it so she let it play.
The little girl would go up and down at every "bye" and Kara and Lena couldn't help but laugh and dance with her. At one point Mia pushed Kara gently forward so she would dance with Lena and watched with a proud (and a little cheeky) expression when the two women complied.
When the timer finally went off Mia sang "Co co co cookies!" To the rhythm of "bye bye bye" and Kara almost doubled over with laughter. It was just too damn adorable.
Lena got the cookie tray out of the oven while Kara turned down the music to a pleasant background noise and picked some things to decorate the goodies.
They got some orange juice and sat at the table once it was cool enough to not be a danger to the child and the women engaged in lightheaded chitchat while Mia looked 100% focused on throwing all the sprinkles she could in one cookie. They thought the girl wasn't paying any mind to their conversation but when Lena mentioned to Kara that the CEO of another company and his assistant were rude to her when she offered a collaboration in an app that would reduce the number of car crashes, Mia's head snapped up.
"Why were people not nice to you?"
"Oh, um... Because I'm a Luthor."
"Wassad mean?" the kid asked, tilting her head like a confused puppy. Kara thought the action looked remarkably like something Maggie would do and she smiled softly.
"It means, darling, that people think I'm evil."
"Butya not." the little girl pointed out, looking even more confused. Lena's heart jumped when she heard Mia say that without hesitance, without a shadow of doubt and having known her for just a few hours.
"You are your own person." Mia said. Both women stared at her surprised. It felt like she was quoting something or someone without realising.
"My last name carries all the weight of the evil things that my family did and it's a bit hard to avoid it." explained Lena.
"Oh, I don't have a last name." The kid said, nonchalantly.
Kara choked on her orange juice while Lena looked at them, puzzled. The blonde was saved by the bell of explaining it when the CEO's phone buzzed with a text message.
"Sorry ladies but I got to go now. Work calls." she said after checking it. She was required in the office.
Mia pouted. "Will I see you again?"
Lena ruffled the little girl's hair. "I sure hope so. You and Kara are always welcome at LCorp. That's where I work. If you ever want to visit, simply drop by and Jess will let you in."
The kid raised her arm, offering a cookie to Lena. This one was decorated with a smiling sun.
"Oh, so I get a to-go cookie?" asked the raven-haired woman, beaming.
Mia nodded, grinning.
Kara walked Lena to the door and hugged her, mumbling a "thank you".
Lena waved it off. "Just don't let her get into a food coma."
Kara laughed. "I won't."
"And don't get into one yourself."
The superhero flashed a toothy smile. "Can't promise you thaaat."
Lena shook her head amusedly and left, wishing she could've stayed longer.
Kara turned back to the little girl who was pouting slightly.
"Hey, no pouty-face! We got cookies to eat! Besides, we'll see Lena again, okay?"
Mia gave in when Kara tickled her. They jumped into the couch with a bowl of freshly baked and decorated cookies. The girls spent the rest of the afternoon eating them, drinking orange juice and watching some random documentary about cats on tv until Mia started snoozing.
The blonde gently smoothed the little girl's wild hair and wished her good dreams.
-
Kara heard keys jiggling and her door being opened. She didn't even have to look to know that Alex and Maggie had arrived, she recognised their steps. The superhero turned off the tv and got up from the couch slowly to not startle Mia.
But when she looked behind her, Mia was already up and smiling wide. She ran past Kara and hugged Alex and Maggie's legs.
"Ally! Ma!"
"Hey, kid did you have fun?" Asked Alex, bending down and smiling at the tiny girl.
Mia nodded enthusiastically. "We made cookies with Kara's Maggie."
Alex frowned. "'Kara's Maggie'?"
"Yeah! You've your Maggie and Kara has hers too! But she's tall and not a police officer. Oh! And she has green eyes like mine. Except both of them are green." she pointed out as if that was such a wild detail, having both eyes be the same colour.
Alex's eyes sparkled and she grinned. "Green eyes, huh?"
She cast a sideways glance to Kara, who was blushing.
"Lena stopped by."
Maggie smirk matched Alex's.
"Mmm Mmm."
"It was her idea to make cookies." said the blonde.
"I'm surprised you three managed not to burn the house down." joked Alex.
Kara raised one eyebrow. "Look who's talking."
"She's right, babe. We've gone through like... Four fire alarms because you insist on throwing them away instead of just shutting them off." said Maggie, petting Mia's hair.
"They're annoying little things." mumbled Alex.
Maggie snorted. Mia tugged her hand, intent on showing her the cookies and her coloured pencils hue line.
When they were out of ear shot, Alex cleared her throat.
"Kara?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm pretty sure that when you picked Mia up she was, you know, wearing clothes." said Alex, staring at Mia's makeshift 'dress'.
"Oh, that." Kara fixed her glasses. "Um, there was a little bit of an accident."
"What sort of an accident?"
"A flour-related one. Didn't you see the pictures I've sent you? Don't worry though, I put the clothes in the washing machine."
"I actually didn't check my phone um, because..." Alex cleared her throat. "I was uh... busy."
Kara looked between Maggie's smirk (she and Mia were back by their side) and Alex's rosy cheeks and, understanding what "being busy" meant, shivered, trying to get the image out of her mind.
"Well, none of my trousers or shorts fit her so I just had to make a makeshift dress-"
"No." said Mia, pointedly.
"Sorry, robe." Corrected Kara.
Alex raised one questioning eyebrow to her sister.
"Yeah, um, I don't know how she knows that word."
Maggie pinched the kid's cheek playfully.
"Bundle or mysteries, you are."
Mia giggled smiled proudly.
-
They headed back to Alex's apartment half an hour later because Maggie noticed that the kid was yawning. Mia nodded off in the car and when they arrived, Maggie asked Mia to take a quick shower and Alex had to help her change into her jammies afterwards because the kid looked like a tired rag doll and once they were done, she basically fell into a coma.
The two women stared at the knocked-out child.
"We should give her a healthy breakfast tomorrow to counteract with the whole lotta sugar she had today." pointed out the Detective.
"It was a good day today, wasn't it?" asked Alex, snaking her arms around Maggie's waist.
"Mmm, actually it was damn near perfect." answered Maggie, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's neck and tugging her down gently.
They kissed softly, feeling the residual of the intense intimacy they'd had during the day.
"I love you." whispered Alex.
"And I love you." said Maggie, taking one of Alex's hand and guiding her to bed. They settled down and shuffled closer until the Detective's small body was spooning Alex's.
Sometimes, when they were touching, Alex thought that there was something electric about them. Something set off, restless and wild, untamable. And then sometimes there was this silky, soft feeling... Like instead of lighting up and catching fire when they connected, they relaxed completely, as if coming home after a long journey, and found within themselves a part of them that wasn't tainted by what they experienced in the world and on their jobs. Something truly innocent, unmarred. And every so often, instead of electricity, they just connected to each other through those parts. Like the universe knew that Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer were good humans separately, but together they made each other better. She knew Maggie would blush and call her a nerd if she ever said that to her.
'I guess I truly am getting soft on you, Sawyer.', she thought, smiling at the arm draped across her midriff.
Alex shook herself off from her epiphany and unlocked her phone to set her alarm for the next day and saw a picture of a lot of coloured pencils organised by their hue.
She frowned at the text. It was from Kara and it simply said "Teach Mia how to draw."