Chapter Text
It's Lucy she goes to first. It's her Agent training, she can't help it. Looking at the legal side of things has been hammered into her by J’onn and that's not something Alex’s going to forget anytime soon. Besides, Lucy’d want in on this anyway.
Lucy and Susan sit across the table from her in Noonan’s. They make a formidable team since they got together, shortly after Lucy took over the desert base actually. Alex’d heard that the whole mess had been a truly staggering amount of paperwork.
She still envies them a little, if only for the ease they have around each other and the sweetness in their eyes. Paperwork or not, it looks nice.
Just so long as they both keep their hands above the table that is.
“Well,” Lucy replies to her question. She’d taken some time to think and Alex waits on every word. “Technically, they don’t work together anymore, no matter whose name is on the company doors.”
Alex grins. She’d thought that, but she’s no legal expert. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. “Fantastic. Then I have a lot to do. Thank you, Lucy.” She rises from her seat but a hand on her arm makes her pause.
“You’ll keep us in the loop, right?” Susan grins and yeah, Alex couldn't have picked better people to turn to, not even if the entire world was at her disposal.
She nods and smirks, “Of course, it's going to be ‘all hands on deck’ for the day-of preparations!” She winks, and Susan barks out a laugh.
Lucy leans over Susan to say, “We'll do whatever you need, Danvers!” Susan presses a kiss to her head and gives Alex a thumbs-up.
She's already almost to the door but she waves back at them and shouts another thank you. The smell of pastries and coffee swirls away as Alex steps out into the National City winter. It's cold and crisp and Alex shivers before quickly striding away.
She has a plane to catch.
Next up is Clark and… Lois… who could be interesting. Alex bites her lip and steels her resolve. She needs this to be amazing. She doesn’t know their target well enough… she needs Lois.
It'd been a coincidence that the DEO needed her to go to Metropolis. Identifying a biomembrane forming in the city’s downtown wasn't the most glamorous job, but it did get her on one very fast jet. Plus the ultraviolet luminescence that it was producing was quite fascinating!
The hundreds of thousands of insects the ultraviolet glow was attracting from the surrounding buildings though… definitely not the most glamorous.
Her knock resounds on the door and Clark must have been waiting because he’s already ushering her inside. He’s far too jolly, even for the holidays.
“Alex! Welcome!” Clark wraps his arms around her, and it's a lot like Kara's hugs but with more cologne. “It's good to see you again!”
His exuberance is exactly like Kara's, and, all of a sudden, she gets the same familiar ache for her sister that she always does. It recedes as quickly as it came though, and Alex rolls her shoulders as Clark finally lets her go. The same bruises too.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” His smile still stretches across his face and Alex’s been so preoccupied with Lois’ reaction she hadn't really thought about Clark’s…
Well, too late now.
Lois walks in halfway through the explanation, hair wet and snark on her tongue. She kisses Clark, even with the snark, and leans against him on the couch. Their closeness seems to pacify Lois and, honestly, she'd always kind of scared Alex. She nearly has to bite back a sigh of relief when Lois’ piercing eyes close to revel in Clark's fingers trailing through her hair.
“So,” Lois’ voice fills the silence between them, her eyes still closed. “The old bag’s finally accepted her feelings then?”
And that's the confirmation Alex’s been looking for. But that's also a good question, and not one Alex knows the answer to.
She shrugs and sighs, glancing out at the unfamiliar skyline. “I don't know. I know they love each other.” She can't contain her snort, really, they were so obvious. “But I don't know if they'd ever act on it, if they'd ever even try, y’know?”
Lois hums and Clark frowns. “You don't know if this will freak them out.”
“Yeah.” Alex slumps back. It'd been bugging her and that's why she'd come to Lois.
Lois was her best bet for insight on her unknown player. They had some sort of friendship. Alex wasn't sure if it was more based on competition or actual, mutual liking, but either way, Lois was her only hope.
“They should be alone together. No one else around.” Lois nods at Alex, and yeah that makes sense. Makes sense for both of them, in fact. It'd surprised Alex, just how well they fit together. But the more she saw them interact… they just worked.
She jerks from her thoughts when Lois snorts though, glancing up to see her rolling her eyes.
“Can't believe she's copying me, still, after all these years.” She traces the “S” pattern that sits under Clark’s clothes and smirks.
Clark laughs, taking Lois’ hand. “Don't lord this over her too much, dear.” He kisses her hand and Alex can't help but smile.
“Oh, no!” Lois laughs and shakes her head. “I still haven't gotten her back for the whole ‘screwing the future president while in college’ thing that she keeps bragging about!”
Alex blinks. “What?”
She watches Clark pull back from Lois, looking at her wide-eyed. But Lois just tosses her head back and laughs. She doesn't answer any of Alex's questions.
“Ask your inevitable sister-in-law!” And Lois has the gall to just laugh harder.
She hadn't thought that far ahead. That should be a few years, right? Sister-in-law...
It takes her ages to contact Adam. He’s perhaps not the most receptive, but Alex knows the ways to a young man’s heart.
“So, I get shooting practice and combat training, no charge.” He narrows his eyes and Alex only nods. “As long as I take Carter, who will be more than happy to go with me, to the observatory which is somehow rented out especially for us, for the whole weekend?”
Alex nods again and smiles. “Yes.”
Adam frowns though. “You’re sure my mother… wants this?”
She breathes out and squares her shoulders. “Yes, you can ask Carter. He’s the one who contacted me.”
“Really?” Adam raises an eyebrow and hmphs quietly. “I guess I have a lot of catching up to do with him then.”
Alex smiles, “I think you'll have a good time at the observatory. Carter's a smart kid.”
They meander down the halls of the DEO, passing offices and bunkers, chatting quietly. She hadn't told him of the paperwork he's here to fill out, but… he'd find out soon enough.
“What got you into all of this?” Adam asks, gesturing to the facility. “I mean the whole government spook thing. Not hooking my mom up with my almost-girlfriend.”
Oh god. “Please, don't ever put it that way again. That makes it sound so weird.” He's laughing though and that settles another worry in Alex. He's not against this. “Well, I joined because an alien, impersonating my dad's dead commander, whom my dad saved, thought I would be useful for keeping an eye on my alien sister, and I stayed because he's pretty much my adoptive father now who taught me to believe in myself and see value in what I could do, even though I have a superpowered, adopted, sibling.”
She stops outside a door and Adam's staring at her like she's got three heads. Well, when put like that, it is kind of a crazy story.
“Kara is Supergirl?” He opens his mouth, only to close it again. Alex can wait though, she's seen this before. “ Shit. How did I miss that?”
Yup, there it was.
Alex laughs and claps him on the shoulder, nearly throwing him into the nearby wall. “Don't worry, I think your mom’s the only one who's known from the very beginning.” She pushes open the door and waves him through. “Now, before you leave, there's some paperwork for you to fill out.”
She watches as he takes his first look at the table of papers. His groan brings another laugh from her lips, maybe she owes this guy a beer. There really are a lot of papers.
She’s not been putting the call with her mom off, really. She’s just had other people to talk to. Her finger certainly doesn't shake over the call button at all.
Not even a little.
She just wants to make this the best time possible and Kara's been feeling down lately, lost. What better than a chocolate-pecan pie and mom's latkes to celebrate the holidays with her… past boss/friend/mentor/romantic partner?
Yeah, mom’ll know how important familiar food will be in keeping Kara comfortable.
Alex breathes in and hits ‘call’. The call connects and maybe she could leave a voicemail? The first ring goes through, she's going to get so much shit for this. A second ring, Kara's going to seriously owe her for this.
“Alexandra?”
Ugh. “Yeah, hey mom.” One day, one day she'd get her to stop answering the phone using her whole name. “I have… a surprise for Kara I need help with…”
When she’s through with the explanation, she gets, well, not… not at all the reaction she’d expected.
“I'm sorry, mom, did you hear me correctl-”
“Yes, yes, Alex, don't be so surprised. I saw the signs too.” There's shuffling on the other side of the phone and her mom’s voice comes through a little clearer. “Honestly, Kara talks about her plenty enough. It’s hard not to jump to conclusions.”
Well… true, but wow, okay. She hears a click and almost looks to see if the call disconnected before mom’s voice comes loud and clear.
“So then, you have me on food duty, correct?” Alex hums in agreement. “And who’s on decorating duty? This is supposed to be a party, so there better be decorations.”
Oh god, she’s making a list. “Uh, Lucy and Susan and maybe Clark.”
“Good, good. They won’t need to bring a step stool then. Clark can help me with the latkes too. You know how your sister eats them.”
They share a laugh at that and the line goes silent. Alex lets her write, she’ll probably bring enough food to make six or seven dishes, pounds of each dish too. It’ll be good for Kara.
“Do you know what seasonings Kara has at her place? Or should I just bring- yes, yes, I’ll just bring my own. Clark can help me with the lifting. There’s latkes, pie…” Alex grimaces, this is going to take a while. At least she has off today. “For such a special occasion I should really make both their favorites, I can talk to Lois for that though. Hmm, then there’s the decorations though, they should be classy, do you think Lucy and Susan will bring classy decorations, Alex?”
“Uhh.” Classy… Susan and Lucy could do classy, certainly, but would they? “Yes?”
Her mother hums. “Then decorations too.” She chuckles and Alex frowns at her hand, what was this day becoming? “Perhaps there should be some mistletoe.”
Oh, bleh, not what she wants to think about, thank you. “Mom!”
“Oh hush,” She chides back, but Alex can hear her grin. “You’d want some too for such an occasion.”
Alex smiles, yeah, this might take all day, but mom will get them set up. This will be the best day possible for her sister.
Carter’s indispensable in helping Alex with the invitation. He knows exactly what will assure his mother's attendance.
“No, no, don’t use Calibri, use Times New Roman.” He’s been hanging over her shoulder the whole time and, honestly, maybe Alex should just give him the keyboard.
“Really? She doesn’t like Calibri?”
“Yeah, and use thirteen size font, she has trouble seeing eleven but won’t admit it.” Carter points to the screen and Alex huffs.
“At least that one makes sense.”
Carter giggles. “You should probably use the correct “there” too.”
“What?” Alex squints and - damnit. She’d just been distracted- “Well, I wouldn’t make such mistakes if I wasn’t feeling so pressured here.”
It pulls another giggle from the boy behind her and Alex can’t help but smile. Adam’s sitting over on the couch behind them, reading the third alien technology safety manual of the month. Alex won't let him shoot without the proper knowledge. He’s still grumbling about it.
Watching Carter and him interact has been… nice. Adam's good with him and Carter practically glows at him. There's a little bit of her that aches ever so slightly when she watches them.
“Hey, Alex, what's a ho- horch- horcortort?” Adam reads out and Alex doesn't even look up from the screen.
She just smiles. He’s a lot like she was when she started. Though, to be fair, only the Ciantin in her training group could ever pronounce anything correctly.
“A Hor-a-cortort is a species from the 241st quadrant system. They're incredibly technically advanced, even beyond most space-traveling species.” She drags a box down and Carter tch’s in her ear. Okay, back up then. “I heard they have matter generators but I haven't seen any so that may just be rumor.”
Carter tugs on the chair. Then tugs again and Alex looks up and - woah, that's quite the face there. “A matter generator ? Like, it creates matter? Seriously?”
Oh. Oh! “Uh, probably more like a 3D printer! More like, you add a bunch of different pure elements and then it'll spit out whatever you want.” Actually, that's not quite- “Actually, it would most likely work by drawing in air or a water type mix, like, maybe ocean water here, and that would be the raw material! From that you could probably make anything except things like, Uranium, although that's a naturally found material too. I mean, everything we eat is made of carbon, so if we intake seawater, there'd be algae which obviously has carbon and-”
So the invitation wasn't complete, but Adam and Carter talked with her for hours afterward. It was a good day.
Cougar’s on the prowl.
Alex glances at her phone and her eyes would roll right out of her head if she didn't need them to drive. Lucy easily could have kept Susan from picking such a ridiculous codename. Really, they didn't even need codenames for this.
All Susan had to do was track the singular other member of this party that wasn't currently leaning against Alex’s back, her arms looped around Alex’s waist. Susan’s penchant for theatrics would get her into trouble some day. Alex so wanted to be there for that day.
But everything’s ready. Today’s the day. Carter and Adam had bid them all good luck and were now at the observatory. Susan had placed the tracker on Cat’s car, and she and Lucy were with Clark and Eliza, finishing the last minute preparations. If all went well, Susan would let Cat in just as Eliza and Clark were leaving and, after Susan pointed Cat to the good wines, she and Lucy would make their exit too. Then, all Alex had to do was get Kara there before Cat could wonder about where they all went.
It would be perfect.
Kara knew there was some sort of party, but Alex had kept it secret, even after the puppy-eye look. It’d nearly broken her soul, but she’d managed it. She’d probably never be able to hold out again though.
She had caved and gotten potstickers though. They’d only lasted about five minutes though, so, oh who’s she kidding? Kara’s going to eat a million latkes anyway. Plus, with a pre-filled stomach, maybe she won’t have such bad nerves.
Cougar’s ready for clams
She almost crashes with that one. Susan dies tonight.
She manages to get to Kara’s apartment in one piece, she ignores Susan’s other texts in favor of keeping her sanity. Kara links their fingers as they walk up the stairs and it’s nice. She’s missed Kara’s real smile.
“And, y’know, I still don’t see why you can’t have potstickers with barbecue sauce. That has to be a thing somewhere, right?” Kara’s only been complaining about this for the entire last week.
Alex has looked, multiple times. She’s already proposed just combining potstickers and barbecue sauce, but apparently, that’s “sacrilegious” unless the potstickers were cooked to have barbecue sauce on them. Honestly, Kara’d eaten cheese-whiz on spaghetti, nothing gets more sacrilegious than that. So she just huffs and pushes the door open.
Kara steps in around her and stops almost immediately. She’s got to be smelling the latkes and the mistletoe. Alex only sees a tiny bit, but the whole ceiling is green. Yeah, Kara’ll be fine.
“Bye, sis! Have fun!” She closes the door and smirks. Susan was a genius with the lock idea… as long as Kara doesn't rip her door apart of course. She gives the key a turn and heads down the hallway. She hasn't skipped in ages, but goodness she feels like trying right now. She'll grill Kara for details later, perhaps after the weekend.
But for now she has a date with Susan and Lucy at the bar to celebrate a job well done. She'd arranged for them to go to the alien bar, that way M’gann could keep an eye on their thoughts. Maybe Alex wouldn't have to keep an eye on their hands.
She walks in and the bar is loud, packed with all kinds. There's some sort of event going on but there are too many bodies and voices to tell what it is.
After her first glance around, she starts walking toward the bar, maybe Susan and Lucy will be-
“Alex!”
She turns and there they are, waving and grinning. They're probably a few drinks in already, Susan's looking particularly giggly. Their booth’s tucked away in the back so at least they should be able to hear each other.
“So! Our great and noble leader, how went the drop-off?” Yeah, Susan's definitely had a few drinks. Her voice is the slightest bit too loud, but her grin is infectious so Alex doesn't comment.
It's a good night after all.
“So far so good, besides your horrendous codename texts.” She glares but Susan just laughs. “But, the lock works fine, so the rest is up to them.” Alex takes the beer Lucy slides over to her and, yes, it's her favorite. Apparently, you could always trust a Lane. “How'd the mistletoe and decorating go?”
The stout is just cooler than room temperature and it sits on her tongue fabulously. It's the perfect winter drink. Besides almond flavored coffee, of course, but that was a morning drink.
Susan throws her arms out to the side and laughs, and it startles a laugh out of Alex too. “We put up this much mistletoe! Those Kryptonians and their flight, y’know, are really useful!”
Oh, she knows, Kara does all the decorating near the ceiling for any occasion. “So, you put Clark to good use then?”
Lucy nods and Alex looks to her. “It's easy to tell him what to do when you're his sister-in-law.” She winks and Alex laughs, Lucy's always been one to do whatever it takes. “Oh, but your mom kept scolding us about how we used the mistletoe for ourselves though. Something about knowing when to work or play.”
Yeah that would happen. “Well, if you two could keep your hands off each -ugh” Susan’s already tugging Lucy into a kiss and they’re both smiling into it.
The kiss doesn’t remain a peck on the lips and Alex glances left to escape the sight of Lucy’s tongue… doing that. M’gann’s walking over to them with drinks in hand. She meets Alex’s eyes and well, anything to help a friend, right?
She kicks Susan in the shin and that breaks up what is quickly becoming a very hands-on event. M’gann smiles at her yelp and sits the drinks she was holding down in front of them. Alex loves Martians. She most certainly ignores Susan’s glare to inspect the newest drinks.
“I heard celebratory thoughts, figured you could use a round on the house.” M’gann says before leaning back on her heels and smiling down at them. “Ah, I see. Congratulations indeed then, it's about time.”
Alex raises her glass and Lucy and Susan follow suit. “Cheers to that!” She takes a long drink and the sigh she breathes out takes all her cares with it. Kara will be fine, after all, everyone loves her.
She looks up just in time to see M’gann’s head whip around, toward the door. It's sudden enough that Alex almost gets whiplash trying to follow her line of sight. She cranes her neck over her seat, but she can't see anything in particular. Just Horgen trying to beat Vaarou in… it's probably not called arm wrestling when neither really have arms…
Well, that's going to be another broken table. Poor M’gann.
Speaking of M’gann, where'd she go? She was standing right next to their table. Did Lucy and Susan's wandering hands force her away, again?
She looks over but Lucy and Susan are just looking at her, smirking… that's not good.
“Alex, right?”
Oh shit. Oh shit.
She turns and yeah, yeah, shit. “Yeah, Sara, right?”
What’s she even doing in this dimension? Had something happened? Is she okay? How'd she know about the alien bar? Why is her shirt so tight?
Why is her smile so god damn attractive?
“Yup, that's me.” She leans forward onto the table and wow, that is, like, a really tight shirt. “You’re here for the Auroti celebrations too then?”
“Uh,” So that’s what all the hubbub is about. “No, we’re here celebrating a different occasion.”
Sara nods and smiles, opens her mouth to respond, that same smirk that’d pulled Alex in from the beginning forming on her incredibly soft lips -
“We just set Kara up with the woman she’s been in love with for ages.” Lucy pipes up, because she can never keep her damn mouth closed. “After all, it’s the perfect weekend for… shenanigans.” She winks and Susan nods emphatically and what in all of the good graces are they talking about?
“Ha! That’s for sure.” Sara grins, and that’s a grin Alex swears she’s seen before. “Y’know, if you don’t have anyone to spend Auroti with, you could join me for the night, Alex.”
Oh no, what in all of god’s name is Auroti? “Uh, I don’t know, I’m here with Lucy and Susa-”
“Oh no, no, we were just leaving!” Lucy, not so trustworthy after all it seems, hauls Susan to her unsteady feet and vacates the booth far faster than should be possible. The traitorous… she’s telling J’onn about this. How can she ever trust that smile and wave anymore?
“Nice friends you have there.” Sara purrs. Seriously, Alex didn’t think that was a noise people could make but, there it is. “So,” She steps forward and slides into the booth next to Alex, effectively pinning her against the table and wall. “That didn’t have to be a one-night stand… it could be a couple-night stands.”
That smirk’s going to get Alex in trouble, there’s no doubt about it. But Sara’s shirt keeps riding up and her skin was really, really nice and well, maybe her memories need some freshening? “Uh-”
Sara reaches out and- oh god she’s going to kiss- twirls her finger in Alex’s hair. “I could teach you the true meaning of Auroti.”
Alex swallows and wow. She’s really gay. “Well,” her throat needs to start working at some point, please? “I, uh, I don’t know what Auroti is so…”
The smirk Sara pulls is feral, truly feral. Alex is going to be eaten alive, though that wasn’t so bad from what she can remember. “Oh, we best get started then, it’s a very long lesson.”
And Sara’s leaning in and Alex can remember the taste of liquor on her lips and - woah . This is so much better sober.