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“I can’t believe you blindfolded me.”
Maggie throws a look in Alex’s general direction in the driver’s seat, and Alex can see the way her wife’s eyebrows raise over the top of the material covering her eyes. She can visualise the exact look Maggie is giving her.
“Why? It’s not like you’ve never been blindfolded before.”
Maggie chokes on air, which makes the edges of Alex’s lips curve up into wicked smile.
“You okay there, babe?” She teases, her amusement heightened when Maggie tries to punch her playfully and misses. Alex chuckles.
Maggie sits slouched in her seat, her arms folded tightly across her chest, her mouth formed into one of the cutest pouts Alex has ever seen. She looks just like Jamie and it warms her heart.
“This band is itchy,” Maggie says, scratching at her right eyebrow where the blindfold sits. She feels the car come to a stop and desperately hopes that they’ve arrived at wherever the hell Alex is taking her.
She has absolutely no idea what Alex has in store. As much as she claims to dislike surprises, she finds that she’s actually pretty excited. And life with Alex is anything but dull.
“Then I guess you can take it off,” Alex says, undoing the knot behind Maggie’s head. She watches Maggie’s reaction; of all the things she has planned for their tenth Valentine's Day, seeing Maggie’s reactions to each of them, especially the last one, is what she’s been looking forward to most.
“Alex!” Maggie squeals, delighted. It takes a moment for her eyes to adjust to the brightness of the day, but when she sees the sign on the quaint little building in front of her, she can’t contain her excitement. She throws her arms around Alex and brings their lips together for a delighted kiss. “This is amazing! Totally worth wearing that itchy blindfold all morning.”
“Really?” Alex asks half-seriously, an eyebrow raised curiously. A bonsai workshop isn’t her idea of the most exciting way to spend a morning, but she knows how much Maggie will enjoy it and she’s pretty sure she’ll enjoy it too because she gets to do it with Maggie.
“Really, really,” Maggie promises, unable to keep her beautifully dimpled smile from her face, the one that makes Alex’s heart swoop every single time she sees it. “I love you.”
“You too, forever,” Alex replies wholeheartedly, smiling into the kiss that Maggie presses to her lips.
Once they’ve signed in, Alex and Maggie find a free workspace in the middle of the room. They slip out of their leather jackets and place them on top of the stools under the work benches.
Two beautiful, untamed bonsais are already waiting for them in the centre of the table, accompanied by a small set of clippers, amongst other things, including a glossy book containing step-by-step guides detailing a million different ways to style a bonsai.
Alex lets out a deep exhale. Stopping the world from ending somehow feels far less daunting than trying not to make a mess of such an elegant tree.
Maggie smiles softly and rubs Alex’s arm reassuringly just as the woman hosting the class appears at the front of the room.
“Good morning,” she begins with a kind smile, capturing everyone’s attention and silencing the room. “Welcome to Ally’s Bonsai Workshop. I’m Ally, and I’ll be your teacher today…”.
Ally explains a little about her business and how she came to fall in love with bonsai trees. She quickly launches into facts about caring for bonsais and sets everyone their first task.
Maggie is the first to pick up her clippers and begins to carefully cut the tree as demonstrated by Ally. Alex can see the concentration fixed in the furrow of Maggie’s eyebrows and the way she pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. She watches as Maggie works, trying to emulate her. Although her bonsai doesn’t look as neat and perfect as Maggie’s, she doesn’t think she does a bad job initially. She actually feels pretty proud when Ally wanders over to their desk and complements both of their works.
Although she’s sure Ally’s just being nice about hers. The more she stares at it, the worse it starts to look.
“Have you guys taken a class before?”
Alex is quick to shake her head.
“No, but I’ve had bonsais since I was fifteen,” Maggie replies. “I mostly learned stuff from books.”
“You can tell,” Ally says with a smile as she heads towards the next table. “You’ve got skilled hands.”
“You can say that again,” Alex mutters. Her words hang in the air for the briefest of moments before immature giggles ensue, especially when Alex sees the cheekily-raised eyebrow, set jaw and cocky grin that paints itself across Maggie’s face. She joins in with Alex’s contagious laughter and realises that it’s been far too long since she felt this relaxed or carefree. This is definitely what they both needed, even if Alex’s bonsai is beginning to look like it’s been hacked at by a chainsaw.
Their bouts of laughter come in fits and bursts until Ally demonstrates their next task. They manage to rein themselves in and focus on their art. Out of the corner of her eye, Maggie sees Alex looking between their trees, her frown growing deeper with each subtle movement of her head.
“Why does yours look perfect and mine look like… this?” Alex gestures between Maggie’s perfectly manicured tree and her own, which now looks shapeless and almost bald.
“Practice, babe.”
Maggie’s answer doesn’t seem to satisfy Alex, who folds her arms across her chest and stares at her little tree with a burning intensity even Kara couldn’t manage.
“I love you,” Maggie says sincerely, feeling her heart swelling at the cute little pout on Alex’s face.
Neither she nor Alex ever stood a chance against Jamie, not with the pout and the dimples combined in an adorable miniature version of themselves. Their daughter is a force to be reckoned with.
“I don’t know why. I’ve basically just butchered your favourite tree.”
Maggie glances down at Alex’s bonsai. Her mouth opens and closes as she looks back at Alex as she tries to think of something positive to say. She shrugs. “Yeah, I got nothing.”
“Hey!” Alex exclaims, but she grins at Maggie.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” Ally says from the front of the room. “Thank you all for joining me today, you’ve done an excellent job.”
Alex sarcastically demonstrates the definition of an ‘excellent job’ by gesturing towards her tree. Maggie has to press her lips together to stifle a giggle, though Alex can see the amusement swimming in her eyes.
“Please feel free to take your bonsai home with you.”
“Oh, please, no,” Alex whispers. “We’ve already got six at home.”
“Now we have seven,” Maggie replies, picking both trees up and handing them to Alex. “And a monstrosity.”
/
Maggie holds her left arm in front of her and closes her right eye, aligning her fingertips with her target. She takes a slow, deliberate breath, her shoulders rising and falling as she composes herself.
With a strong whip of her toned right arm, Maggie sends her axe hurtling so fast she can hear as it cuts through the air. It wedges itself into the centre of the target with a satisfying thud.
“Impressive,” Alex says, her mouth agape. Suddenly, the room feels just a little too warm. “And possibly the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Maggie winks and bows dramatically. She retrieves her axe. “I gotta say, Danvers, this is even more therapeutic than the bonsai class.”
“Psycho,” Alex teases her wife. She launches her axe towards the target, pleased when it finds a home in the middle of the circle, just like Maggie’s. “But you’re right.”
Maggie picks up a slightly larger axe for her next throw. She practices swinging it a few times, adjusting to the weight before she throws it. It lands as perfectly as the last one. “Your turn,” she says with mock-arrogance.
Alex pinches the inside of her cheek between her teeth and raises her eyebrow, accepting Maggie’s challenge. She grabs another axe, plants her feet firmly on the ground and throws her axe without a moment’s hesitation. It lands in pretty much the same spot as the last one.
“Damn, Danvers,” Maggie says, impressed - but not surprised - by both of their accuracies. “Looks like we’ve got a competition on our hands.”
Alex knew Maggie would say that, so she’s already thought it through. “First one to miss the little yellow dot in the centre of the circle has to buy the winner ice cream.”
“You’re on.”
They throw and throw and throw as many axes as they can until their arms begin to tire. They lob a few with their other hands, and even those are pretty accurate. No amount of boasting or trash-talk seems to have an impact on their performances.
In the end, they have to call it a draw.
“Fine, it’s a draw,” Maggie agrees reluctantly. “But you’re buying the ice cream.”
“I can live with that,” Alex replies, wrapping her arm around Maggie’s shoulder and placing a kiss into her soft hair. “But I’d rather you throw an axe at me than eat vegan ice cream again."
/
“Madam,” Alex says, pulling out a chair for Maggie.
“Why, thank you,” Maggie plays along, making herself comfortable.
Despite it being February, the air is pleasantly warm, a gentle breeze tugging at the edges of the menus on each of the tables laid out neatly in front of the ice cream truck that long ago found its home in the park - and their hearts.
“The usual?” Alex asks Maggie despite knowing the answer. Maggie’s absolute favourite is the tiramisu-flavoured vegan ice cream, though she always says the the vegan praline comes in at a close second. It just kind of tastes like gunk to Alex. Still, she did choose to adopt a few vegan options into her lifestyle a year or so after meeting Maggie and she’s never felt better.
Maggie watches passers-by while she waits for Alex. Joggers weave their ways through the people scattered around the park, the occasional dog walker ambling by. Couples share picnic benches and birds sing in the trees, and Maggie takes a deep breath, living in the moment. Spending the day with her beautiful wife and getting to go home with her to their beautiful daughter is more than she ever hoped for when she was fourteen.
She’s so lost in her thoughts that it takes a hand enveloping hers to realise that Alex is sat across from her, a loving smile tugging at her features. Alex tilts her head to catch Maggie’s eye, and the dimples that cave their way into Maggie’s cheeks tell Alex that her wife is happy.
“The server is going to bring them over.”
“I don’t know who’ll be more sad that Jamie’s missing out on ice cream; Jamie, or me,” Maggie says, knowing that ice cream is her daughter’s absolute favourite food on the planet. She seems to have inherited Alex’s taste for salted caramel, cookie dough and brownie flavours.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Alex replies, just as someone holding two ice creams appears next to their table.
“One peanut and salted caramel ice cream and whatever this goopy one is,” Jamie says, holding out the ice creams to her moms.
This is the moment Alex has been waiting for all day. Maggie lights up when she sees Jamie, and Alex knows that this will mean more to Maggie than the bonsai workshop and axe throwing ever could. She told Jamie that she could help to surprise her mommy on Valentine's Day, but she had to keep it a secret.
Jamie pinkie-promised. She had been really excited all week but never once slipped up and revealed the surprise.
“Hey Alex,” Maggie says with a wink in her wife’s direction. “Our server looks kinda familiar…”
“Y’know, I was thinking the exact same thing…” Alex plays along.
“Wait… It’s Jamie!”
Jamie giggles. She likes it when her moms are silly, and they’re almost always telling her stories and making her laugh. It’s one of her favourite things about them.
“If you’re not the cutest little waitress I’ve ever seen!” Maggie boops Jamie on the nose and steals her cap from her head. It matches the little apron she’s wearing with the ice cream truck’s logo on it. “I didn’t know you worked here.”
“Just for ten minutes. It’s time for my break,” Jamie replies honestly, stealing back her hat and putting it on backwards exactly like Maggie did.
Alex and Maggie laugh. Jamie disappears to go and get her chocolate chip ice cream. Maggie pulls out a chair for her when she gets back.
“Sweetie, where did some of my ice cream go?” Alex eyes the Jamie-sized bite where the ice cream swirl should be.
“Oh. I got hungry.”
“You sound just like Aunt Kara,” Maggie mutters. That was her usual excuse where potstickers were concerned; nothing changes.
“You inhale your food like her too!” Alex adds, watching as Jamie devours her ice cream, barely even stopping to breathe between mouthfuls. “Slow down!”
Maggie catches Jamie’s attention and points towards Alex’s ice cream. Jamie knows exactly what her mom is thinking and nods.
Together, they push Alex’s arm as she goes to take another bite of her ice cream, smushing it into her face.
“Hey!” She exclaims in her surprise, wiping ice cream off her nose. “What was that for?”
Maggie and Jamie look at each other, consumed by fits of laughter at the expression on Alex’s face. Two sets of identical dimples being used against her isn’t fair. “Fun.”
“Oh yeah?” Alex says, pretending to be incredulous. She wipes more ice cream from her face and reaches towards Jamie, who is quick to scuttle from her chair. Alex chases her around the table, much to Jamie’s amusement, while Maggie urges her daughter to run!
Eventually, Alex gives up on trying to get payback on Jamie. They sit down, and Maggie frowns.
“You’re not gonna get me back?”
“No. Vegan ice cream is punishment enough,” Alex bluffs before grabbing Maggie’s ice cream and rubbing it in her face when she’s least expecting it.
When they calm down, they finish what’s left of their ice creams while Jamie tells her moms about all the new facts she learned in history and the book her English teacher asked them to read. They push her on the swings for a little while before deciding to head home.
“We could get pizza and watch a movie,” Alex suggests to her girls. She and Maggie each hold Jamie’s hand and swing her up in the air every few steps.
“Like every other Thursday night?” Jamie almost says more than asks.
Alex and Maggie find each other’s eyes, surprised. They’ve learned to never underestimate their daughter and how smart she is.
“Did we just get shaded by our five-year-old daughter?” Alex asks Maggie.
“Yes, you did,” Jamie replies seriously before Maggie can.
“You’re so cheeky!” Maggie exclaims. She begins to tickle Jamie, who wriggles in her attempts to get away.
“She gets that from you,” Alex says to Maggie, who throws her a look in return.
/
That night, they sit huddled together on the couch, Jamie between Alex and Maggie. Gertrude lies down on the floor in front of them, content. Jamie chooses the film and they eat so much pizza that even Kara would be impressed.
It doesn’t take long for Jamie to start to feel sleepy after the movie finishes, but she insists that she doesn’t want to go to bed yet. She lies down with her head in Maggie’s lap and her legs sprawled across Alex’s.
Maggie runs her hands through her daughter’s hair. It’s long and dark and soft like hers, but her eyes are entirely Alex’s. She’s a perfect combination of the two of them.
“Thank you, babe,” she says, linking her fingers through Alex’s and meeting her eyes. “For planning the most perfect day for all of us. I’m pretty sure Jamie loved it as much as I did.”
Without disturbing Jamie, Alex leans over and shares a long, deep kiss with Maggie. They press their foreheads together before their lips meet again.
When they break apart, Alex squeezes Maggie’s hand. “Thank you for being you and loving me and our beautiful daughter. And for giving me the real, full, happy life you told me I deserved.”
Maggie feels her eyes beginning to well up, and she can see the tears shimmering in Alex’s.
“Thank you for always being my ride or die and for the lifetime of firsts I never thought I’d get to have. We still make a pretty good team.”
Alex nods her agreement, wipes a stray tear from her cheek and sniffles. “I still can’t believe that I get to be this happy.”
“Me neither.” Maggie sighs contentedly. “Can I let you in on a secret?” She asks quietly. Alex nods. “You’re the only woman that could make me like Valentine’s Day.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”