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i. pool night
“Come on, Danvers, how is that even fair?” Maggie groans as she watches Alex clear the table for the second time already.
“It would be fair if you were any good at this, Sawyer!”
Going to the dive bar and playing pool has become a habit rather quickly, and it’s one of Alex’s favorite things - she’s always impatient to find Maggie there, waiting for her, already nursing a drink. It feels familiar and comfortable, and it’s all Alex needs. And Maggie can use it, too, anyway. Distractions are always good after a break up, aren’t they?
“How much time did you spend in bars to get that good? I thought you were the perfect little agent.”
Maggie smirks, but Alex looks back down at the pool table. A trip down memory lane is not the best thing that can happen right now. Well, memory. More like blackouts and vague flashes of nights spent drinking too much in random bars and playing pool with gross men or frat boys. Alex notices the change in Maggie’s expression - it’s apologetic all of a sudden, but she doesn’t say a word and Alex couldn’t be more thankful.
“You owe me a drink,” Alex finally says, regaining some of her composure.
"Beer?" Maggie asks, and Alex immediately nods, watching her walk to the bar to order Alex's victory beer. Barmaid-slash-Maggie's ex still doesn't seem to like Alex, or her presence anywhere near the bar.
Alex doesn't exactly mean to eavesdrop on their conversation as she circles the pool table, but that's what she does. Curiosity has never killed this cat, after all.
"It's not a date. She's just a baby gay in distress."
"Like I don't know what you do to 'baby gays', Maggie. What you want to do to this one."
"What? You want a kiss to make sure my intentions are pure?" Maggie's tone is playful, just like it is when she teases Alex, but the alien ex doesn't seem to like it. She simply pushes the beer against Maggie's hands, resting on the bar, and moves away to talk to another client.
“Ready to lose again, Sawyer?”
“Seriously, next time, we’re playing darts.”
ii. bar fight?
“Relax, Alex, it’s just a lesbian bar. Nobody here is going to judge you.” Maggie’s smile quickly fades away, Alex can even feel her tensing up. “Nobody except my ex. Who is here.”
Alex glances around, turning in her seat as discreetly as possible - surprisingly not that well for a special agent - and spots the blonde she has seen Maggie kiss not so long ago. She’s pretty, and very busy glaring at the table where Alex and Maggie are sitting. Yup, totally judging her. Hard.
“You don’t think she thinks we’re...” Alex doesn’t dare say the word. She definitely doesn’t need to imagine what it would be like to date Maggie. In fact, she never has thought about it. Never. Because that’s not something friends, or co-workers, do. Alex is professional and not crushing on Maggie - she can almost convince herself.
Maggie seems somewhat uneasy. “Pretty sure she does. You know, that time you saw her?” Alex nods. “She kept ‘joking’ about how pretty you are and how she’s gonna be jealous that I work with you all the time.”
The thought that anyone could be jealous of her doesn’t settle well with Alex, it isn’t exactly believable. That girl is the one who dated Maggie, and she is gorgeous, it’s ridiculous, really. No reason to be jealous of oblivious Alex who couldn’t realize that she doesn’t like men until she’s over twenty five. Oblivious Alex who’s a workaholic and whose only friends are colleagues. And her sister. Alien sister who happens to be Supergirl. Now, that’s someone to be jealous of.
“Maggie.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s her loss.”
Maggie smiles. It’s not as bright as usual, and it doesn’t show the adorable dimples that Alex loves so much, but it’s a smile and it’s good enough right now. There’s a comfortable silence between them as they sip at cheap beer, Maggie’s attention drifting away to her ex, while Alex’s doesn’t falter, remains on the detective the whole time.
“It’s okay if you want to go talk to her, Sawyer. I don’t mind.”
For just a second, Maggie seems to consider it an option, but she shrugs and looks back at Alex, grinning this time.
“Nope! I promised to help a baby gay with her gay awakening, so that’s what I’m gonna do!” The phrasing makes Alex blush, but she hides the embarrassment behind a groan - it only makes Maggie smile even brighter. “What about that redhead over there? She’s been staring at you since we got here!”
iii. game night
Alex isn’t sure who invited Maggie to their game night, but she doesn’t quite mind. It’s weird to be with Maggie and everyone else, but it feels right. Maggie fits right in with them - she teases Winn as much as everyone else does and even agrees to guess how all of them fit together in this big mess of friends who don’t seem like they should have even met.
Maggie is quick to guess Jimmy and Winn had (still have) a thing for Kara. And she’s just as quick to guess that Jimmy and Lucy had a thing. She proceeds to joke about how Jimmy and Winn should just date each other. Jimmy and Winn are the only ones who don’t laugh.
The TV screen is forgotten when Kara suggests to play two truths and a lie, to see how much of a great (Kara insists on great and glances at Alex when she says that) detective Maggie is. After three beers, and when the guessing starts to become crazy hard and extremely odd propositions, Alex leans against Maggie and whispers in her ear to give her the right answers. Alex loves it, loves the warmth of Maggie’s body against her own. Then again, it’s probably just the beer.
“Agent Danvers! Refill! Come with me!” Lucy exclaims just as Maggie pressed her back to Alex’s side.
When Alex stands up reluctantly and walks, apparently too slowly, to the kitchen of Kara’s apartment, Lucy grabs her arm and drags her there.
“You’re really cozy with Detective Sawyer, Agent.” Lucy is teasing, it’s obvious, she’d be calling her Alex if she wasn’t. “Why didn’t you tell me you had gotten yourself a girlfriend?”
“She’s not- We’re not-” Alex stutters over her words, glances over at the couch to make sure nobody is paying attention to them. There’s only Maggie, who smiles at her before going back to her conversation on alien languages with Winn and Kara. “Not my girlfriend,” Alex finally manages to whisper.
“You should work on changing that, Alex. I’m not blind, and I know you.” Lucy’s voice is soft, reassuring, full of the acceptance and comfort Alex has been craving in silence lately. “Ask her out or I’ll make sure the next girl she dates is the better of the Lane sisters!”
“You wouldn’t dare.” Alex fakes outrage - but the pang of jealousy and nervousness is there, because she can’t exactly expect to stand a chance against Lucy Lane if it comes to it.
“Does it really take DEO two hours to get beers over here?”
“Shut up, Sawyer,” Alex calls back from the kitchen as she grabs three beer bottles.
“Maybe you should make her shut up.”
Alex throws a glare at Lucy over her shoulder. It’s crazy how she’s forgotten it’s so easy to talk to Lucy, how much she enjoys their ridiculous banter - it’d been too long since the last time Lucy had come to game night.
iv. bar fight
It’s the fifth time Maggie takes Alex to a lesbian bar. This time, it’s not the one Alex would refer to as ‘the usual’. It looks much more... well, expensive. Which explains why Maggie asked her to dress nice earlier. Alex almost thought for a moment, that Maggie would make this a date. At least until...
“Maybe we’ll find a lady who meets your standards here, Danvers.”
It’s still not a date, but Alex can deal with it. Maggie always is great company and a lot of fun to be around, even when she tries to set her up with random strangers in lesbian bars. Maggie’s intentions are good and that’s what matters the most, right? It matters more than the fact Alex really likes her - something she can’t say out loud.
And just to please Maggie, Alex looks around the bar - it’s just a bit too dark, the neon lights will give her a headache after a while, and the music is too loud. There are women here who Alex knows to be high profile, not as high profile as Cat Grant maybe, but close enough. She blinks at the sight of a brunette chatting up a redhead (a redhead Alex is pretty sure she’s seen on the cover of some magazine in Kara’s apartment).
“Is that...?”
Maggie follows her gaze and her eyes widen. “Lena Luthor? Yeah, looks like it.”
Lena Luthor is the last person Alex expected to see when going out, but here she is. And she looks stunning in her little black dress.
“She can’t see me here, we need to go.”
“Danvers, if she’s in a lesbian bar, it’s probably for the same reasons we are. Too late, any way, she’s coming our way.”
Lena Luthor is standing right there, that weirdly attractive wicked smile of hers plastered on her face. Alex still doesn’t trust her, even if Kara says that Lena can’t be all that bad. Trusting Kara doesn’t mean she has to trust a Luthor.
“You’re Kara’s sister, right? Special Agent Alex Danvers, FBI?”
“Yes, I am.”
It’s all Lena needs to hear, apparently, because now she’s staring at Maggie, and Maggie is staring right back. It’s weird and intense, and there’s definitely some sort of animosity here. Alex knows how much Maggie relates to aliens, so it’s not too complicated to imagine that she would hate Lena Luthor just as much as most aliens do.
“Your girlfriend?” Lena asks. Alex knows the question if for her, though the other woman hasn’t looked away from Maggie yet.
“Detective Sawyer, NCPD,” Maggie answers before Alex can even open her mouth to correct Lena on the girlfriend part.
“May I buy you a drink, Detective Sawyer?”
“Maybe you should go back to Kate Kane before she decides to head back to Gotham. I’ve got my own redhead to take care of.”
“Of course. I hope we get to see each other again.”
“I hate her,” they both mutter before taking a sip of their drinks.
v. movie night
She is sitting on her couch, Maggie’s legs are thrown over her lap and the intimacy of it all is the best thing ever. Alex likes it, it’s comfortable, warm and Maggie. They are supposed to watch Imagine Me & You tonight, but they’ve gotten distracted by Maggie’s phone all too quickly.
Maggie made her an account on a dating app and is now going through all the profiles of women who showed interested in Alex’s, as well as the ones she thinks Alex could be interested in. Alex can’t quite say that the one woman she’s interested in right now is sitting next to her.
“How about her?”
“Maggie, I already told you I don’t like blondes. They remind me of Kara.”
Maggie rolls her eyes but doesn’t insist - she’s mentioned that she likes blondes, she likes all women, but blondes tend to be her favorites. That’s not an information Alex could forget, not when the last time her hair was blond, she was in high school.
“Here, a redhead!”
“That’s Kate Kane. She lives in Gotham. And we saw her hanging out with Lena Luthor.”
Maggie just laughs at that, and goes to the next profile. Blonde, blonde, blonde, more blondes. Alex places a hand on Maggie’s thigh - for balance and nothing else, obviously - and reaches for her glass of wine, discarded on the coffee table too many minutes ago. A soft “oh” falls past Maggie’s lips. It’s her profile and her picture is the cutest thing Alex has ever seen - she didn’t know Maggie has a dog.
“I like that one,” Alex smiles teasingly, though her cheeks are blushing.
“Don’t they all?” Maggie retorts. “You don’t want a date with that one, I hear she’s hard-headed, insensitive, obsessed with work and borderline sociopathic.”
“I really wouldn’t mind a date with her. Actually, I’m pretty sure I’m on a date with her right now, and I’m enjoying it.” Alex doesn’t know what got into her, but the new found confidence around Maggie is... as amazing as it is unexpected.
“That’s not a date, Danvers.” Maggie is doing that frowny thing she did when Alex says stupid things - like when she denied being gay, and Alex can’t help thinking that she’s finally messed up everything between Maggie and her. “I’m sure the hot lady would love to take you on a date, but you’re gonna have to send her a message first.”
“Maggie!”
“Alex?”
“Sawyer.”
“Danvers?”
“I... erm... you... date?”
“Sure, Danvers. Me date you.”
vi. date night
“That’s what you call a date?” Alex asks as she pushes down a particularly aggressive alien’s face onto the ground.
“A date is supposed to be fun, Danvers! And it’s fun, isn’t it?” Maggie is smirking, handcuffing her own alien, who she just made sure is going to be knocked out. With some metal pipe.
When Maggie said she would take her on a fun date, Alex thought pinball, darts or maybe even pool again. Maybe she thought about the ridiculous traveling carnival that would make for a perfect first date - even if she told Kara it isn’t Maggie’s style and that she’d herself hate it because it’s a gross romcom cliché. Kicking alien butts, though? Not something she thought about.
“It’s just a warm-up, though. While DEO takes care of these kind sirs, I will be taking you on a proper date.”
So Alex calls Hank and tells him that there’s two aliens who need to be picked up, tells him where to find them, and ten minutes later, she has her arms wrapped around Maggie, because that’s what you do when riding- Alex smiles and buries her face in Maggie’s hair, reveling in her scent. She doesn’t need excuses anymore. Maggie likes her enough to take her on a date.
Alex has no idea where they are going, not until they finally come to a stop and she can hear the loud cheerful voices coming from the traveling carnival. They are going on a cliché first date.
“I asked your sister. She said you’d love coming here. And that I should win you a stuffed animal.”
She can’t help but smile brightly. It’s the first time someone bothers to go as far as asking Kara any sort of advice to do something to make her happy. Maggie is basically perfect, and she is taking her on a date.
“I can win a stuffed animal for myself, you know?”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s not the same if someone wins it for you.”
Maggie takes her hand and drags her towards the carnival, grinning like the happiest of children. It’s amusing how quickly she can go from Badass detective who fights aliens and rides a bike to Adorable eager overgrown child.
The date is perfect. Maggie holds her hand the whole time, only letting go when they reach one of the shooting galleries (she wins her the biggest teddy bear and even offers to carry it). Alex is the one to let go when they go through the haunted house - even Special Agents are scared of clowns, it’s rational, she tells Maggie, who is still laughing when they get out.
(The only bad part of the night might be getting back to Maggie’s bike and realizing that they are going to struggle with the giant teddy bear.)
The night ends in front of Kara’s building. Alex promised she would come after the date, just to be sure that she didn’t stay at Maggie’s after the first date, it’s cute how protective Kara can be when Alex doesn’t even need to be protected.
“We’ll kick alien butts together tomorrow?”
“Yeah, see you at work tomorrow, Detective Sawyer.”
They stay right there for a while, Maggie leaning against her bike, Alex just staring, hands at her hips. Neither steps forward for a kiss, so Alex offers her a last smile before turning around. She can hear Maggie shifting, probably to put her helmet back on.
“Maggie!”
Alex reaches for Maggie, grabbing her jacket to pull her close.
“Thanks for tonight, it was great.”
“Damn, Danvers, for a moment I thought you were gonna kiss me.”
Alex rolls her eyes and gently presses her lips to the corner of Maggie’s mouth, pulling away quickly.
“Shut up, Sawyer.”