288. Chapter 288

She’s sleeping in Maggie’s arms when her phone buzzes.

Persistently.

Maggie rouses before she does and fumbles her hand across the scattered sheets for the phone.

“I think it’s yours, babe,” she mumbles sleepily, and manages to find the phone in Alex’s jeans pocket, dangling at the edge of the bed.

“Mmm, thank you,” Alex kisses her cheek with a sleepy smile as she checks the text – the texts – that are coming through.

Alex, I’m so sorry, but I miss you.

I know you’re spending time with Maggie, but – you know what, never mind, forget that last text.

I’m sorry.

I love you.

I hope you’re sleeping well. Or whatever you’re up to. Say hi to Maggie for me.

Maggie watches Alex read and kisses her bare shoulder. “Go, Ally. I’ll be here when you get home. Or if you want to spend the night there, I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow.”

“How do you – “

“I know your Kara needs me face by now, Alex. Go. And give her a hug from me too, okay?”

Alex squints and quirks her pursed lips to the side as she examines Maggie’s sleepy, perfect face.

“You’re the best, you know that?”

Maggie’s smile broadens.

“Not so bad yourself, Danvers. Don’t forget to put on pants.”

She chuckles as she tugs them on and she relishes the crisp coolness of the night’s breeze whipping over her body as she speeds her Triumph to her little sister’s apartment.

“Hey sis,” she calls softly as she opens the door, finding Kara exactly where she expected to: wrapped in blankets, surrounded by donuts, on the couch.

She sighs at the sight of her sister’s sad, confused face, and she shrugs out of her jacket as she approaches the couch and perches on the edge.

“You didn’t have to come,” Kara mumbles through a mouthful of donut, and Alex’s heart breaks.

“Do you want touch?” she asks, and Kara nods without looking at her.

Alex shifts closer and strokes Kara’s cheek with a gentleness that, until Maggie, she’d only ever had for her little sister.

Kara sighs and closes her eyes and leans into her touch, so Alex brings her other hand up to stroke her hair, too, and lets Kara lean into her shoulder.

“I can’t make anything work out right, and there’s never a break,” Kara says after how long, she couldn’t tell. Alex nods quietly and watches her sister.

“Can I be closer?” Kara asks, and Alex opens her arms.

Kara cradles herself into Alex’s chest, because her steady heartbeat is even more comforting on contact than it is with her superhearing.

“You’re not the reason things haven’t been going well, Kara. You’re not responsible for the horrible things other people do, for the way the world works. I know you think you are, I know you take on the weight of all that. I know you’re a hero, Kara, but that… that doesn’t mean you can fix everything, every time. It’s okay to just… take this. Carve out breaks. You deserve to be loved, Kara. You can make this time for yourself. It’s okay.”

“But I’m taking you away from your girlfriend.”

“There’s enough of me to go around, Kara. I have enough love for both of you, I promise. And you will always be my sister. I will always, always be here for you. Okay?”

Kara tilts her head so she can look up into her big sister’s eyes, and Alex smiles down at her.

“Hi.”

Kara grins softly. “Hi. Can I show you something?”

Alex furrows her brow but nods, and Kara scrambles out of the blankets, stands, and offers her hand to Alex.

“Where are we going?”

“Up.”

“Flying?”

Kara chuckles. “We don’t have to fly to go up. I just want to be Kara tonight.”

Alex nods and accepts her hand eagerly. Their fingers lace automatically.

It’s a short flight of stairs to the roof, and Alex is glad Kara grabbed her jacket on the way out. She tugs it around her and Kara hugs herself and Alex steps behind her, following her gaze up, up, up.

“I know you’re Kryptonian and therefore above things like chilly California nights, but since you’re just Kara tonight, you want to snuggle away the cold?”

Kara smiles and nods, and Alex wraps her arms around her little sister, and they sit, Alex’s legs open around Kara, Kara leaning back into her sister slightly; like they used to in Midvale, like they used to when they went sledding on those ski trips that Kara pouted Eliza into taking them on.

“Tell me,” Alex asks.

Because she knows all the stellar classifications and distances from Earth and proximity to exoplanets and all the facts, all the science.

But she doesn’t know the stories.

Kara does, and Alex never, ever tires of hearing them.

Her little sister’s soft voice brings her across the sky, to planets she could only imagine, to planets that have amazing desert, but nothing as incredible as Eliza’s chocolate pecan pie; to planets with three suns and planets whose governments aren’t governments so much as consent-based communities.

Neither of them notice when the sun starts to come up, but they both notice that they feel lighter, feel happier, feel safer. Feel home.