204. Chapter 204

Before Maggie, Alex’s go-to after long days – the days where she needed to be alone, where not even Kara’s company would do – was a bottle of bourbon.

Before Alex, Maggie’s go-to after long days – the days where she needed to be alone, where not even M’gann and the bar would do – was a heavy bag.

Since Maggie, Alex’s go-to became the massages Maggie would give her, the root beer Maggie would crack open for her, Maggie’s fingers running through her hair as Alex laid in her lap.

Since Alex, Maggie’s go-to became the baths Alex would draw for her, the vegan ice cream Alex would buy for her, the soft jazz Alex would play throughout the apartment for her.

But Maggie still needed physical release; Maggie was wired for physical release.

Sometimes, it was sex; sometimes, it was begging Alex to shove her backwards onto the bed and fuck her senseless, and sometimes, it was bending a pliant, panting Alex over the couch and slamming into her until the were both weak in the knees.

But with Alex, she was also learning about other kinds of intimacy.

With Alex, she was learning to laugh again. More than that, she was learning to giggle.

Because one night, after a particularly long day – after a particularly bloody day – she comes home earlier than expected, and there is a pile of blankets, a fort of pillows, meticulously assembled in the middle of the living room.

And in the middle of all this soft pillow-y chaos, her head and wide, deer-in-the-headlight eyes poking out from under one of the blankets, is Maggie’s badass, take-no-prisoners, secret agent soldier girlfriend.

“You weren’t supposed to be home yet!” Alex squeals, and Maggie tilts her head and saunters forward, barely holding in a laugh.

“Do you… want me to leave? You could be alone with your… fort?”

The fort trembles and Alex’s upper body emerges in protest. “It’s not my fort, Maggie! It’s yours! Well, ours, really. I – it – Kara makes me forts sometimes, when I have a really rough day, so I thought maybe you’d like a fort too!”

Her eyes are still wide and her face is getting redder and redder with each syllable, and Maggie kicks off her boots without breaking eye contact with her, and she bites the corner of her upper lip, and she knows she’s never been in love like this.

Without looking away from her suddenly shy, suddenly nervous girlfriend, Maggie reaches out to the couch for one of the only pillows that hasn’t yet been integrated into the fort.

“Do you uh… need extra pillows for our fort, Danvers?” Her eyes glisten dangerously, and Alex fully emerges from the fort now, holding her hands up protectively.

“Don’t you dare, Maggie Sawyer,” she cautions with a growing smile, and Maggie lunges.

Alex shrieks, part with laughter and part with shock, as she tumbles back into the fort, fall completely cushioned by soft blankets and more pillows than Maggie even knew she owned.

Maggie’s frozen on top of her with laughter, and Alex takes the opportunity to flip her over, to wrest the pillow from her hand and bring it down into her side.

“Oh, that’s how you wanna play, Danvers?” Maggie laughs as she grabs above her head at another pillow.

“You started it, Sawyer!” Alex breathes as she rolls over to avoid Maggie’s pillow blow, but Maggie must know some pillow fighting tricks that Alex never learned in the DEO, because before she can regain balance, Maggie’s found her shoulder with the memory foam pillow.

“Oh, bringing the memory foam to a pillow fight! You play dirty, Sawyer.”

Maggie straddles Alex so suddenly that Alex hisses, suddenly turned on beyond belief. “You know I do, Danvers.”

Alex leans up for a kiss, but Alex comes up empty, because Maggie launches herself off of Alex to the other side of the fort to grab at one of the blankets and wrap it around her shoulders.

“Every good pillow fighter needs a cape,” she declares, hands on her hips, and Alex giggles.

“And you call me a nerd,” she laughs as she swings Maggie’s favorite throw pillow her way.

“Takes one to know one, Ally,” Maggie counters as she blocks the blow, and she can’t stop the last syllable from turning into a scream when Alex scoops her up bridal style and spins her around until they collapse in a dizzy, painful, breathless, hysterically-giggling pile on the fort.

They laugh until tears sting their eyes and stitches ache in their sides, and they laugh until they’ve forgotten what sadness feels like.

“Pillow fights need to be an institutionalized part of game night with the gang,” is the first thing Maggie declares when she gets her breath back, and Alex kisses her soundly, relieved and profoundly, profoundly thrilled that Maggie is exactly who she is.

“Kara and Winn are fiends; we’ll have to team up with James to stand a chance.”

Maggie snuggles into Alex’s still slightly heaving chest and smiles. “Teaming up with you, Danvers? I could do worse.”

“Love you too, Sawyer.”