502. Chapter 502

Kara doesn’t like to bother anyone when she’s sad.

Well, she thinks of it as bothering, anyway.

No one else does.

Alex certainly doesn’t.

And Alex knows – much as she wants to slug Barry Allen right in that pretty little mouth for recruiting his sister to join him, alone, without her, on another Earth to combat an entire invading army – that Cisco, Barry, and the rest of the Earth-1 crew wouldn’t consider it a bother, either.

Because friends aren’t bothered by friends.

And friends really aren’t bothered by inter-dimensional Game Nights with friends.

So she does something she hasn’t done since they were kids and would hide each other’s things to see how long it would take the other to find it (Kara cheated with her powers of flight; Alex consequently got really good at climbing trees).

She rummages around in Kara’s room to find the communicator Cisco left her.

And she calls him.

“You remember Kara’s boyfriend?”

“The goofy one who seemed more like he should be her brother than her man?”

“You picked up on that too, did you?”

“Agent Danvers, please. Detection is what I do.”

“Oh my god, you sound like my girlfriend. Listen, she’s been having a really tough year, and he was… for better or for worse – mostly for worse – he was the only one she could touch without worrying about breaking his nose or dislocating his shoulder. He was a piece of her history, her people, you know? And now – “

“Say no more, Alex. Get Kara to her apartment tonight. I’m bringing the crew.”

She chuckles and she shakes her head and sighs, and she wonders if it was wrong. Using Kara’s communicator behind her back. Telling Cisco – and by extension, the others – behind her back.

But that night?

That night, when Kara comes home and her apartment is flooded with Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Sara Lance? Along, of course, with the people she loves most on this earth?

Any and all trepidation leaves Alex, because Kara is crying, but they’re happy tears, they’re grateful tears.

Because she’s launching herself – literally – at Barry (James and Winn try not to be jealous, Winn unsure who, exactly, he’s jealous of), and she’s laughing with Cisco and she’s hugging Iris and Caitlin at the same time and they’re rocking back and forth and talking fast, and she’s a warm, happy, affectionate, but a little stiffer with Sara Lance – “Look at that sexual tension. Sara might be her closet key, babe, like I was for you. Relax, Lena, getting Kara to come out can only help your cause,” Maggie mutters, and Lena tries to unclench her fists – and then Kara is launching into Alex’s arms.

“You did this, you brought them all here… for me?” she asks, and Alex smooths her hair out of her face and tries not to blush. Because her reputation with all these people is supposed to be that of a formidable warrior, and unshakable soldier.

But all they’ve seen so far is her licking frosting off her girlfriend’s fingers and coddling her sister tenderly.

Dammit.

“I’d do anything for you, Kara.”

Kara melts into Alex’s arms, and Barry, Winn, James, and Cisco awww.

“Well you boys are gonna get along,” Sara observes, a half-cocked grin on her face as she nudges Kara in the ribs lightly.

“Hey, Supergirl, your very attractive sister and her – might I say – deathly gorgeous girlfriend made you cupcakes before we all got here,” she tells her, and she’s rewarded by Alex’s splutter, Maggie’s blush, and Kara’s squeal of excitement.

“They’re in a relationship,” Caitlin scolds Sara softly, grinning, and Sara shrugs.

“Yeah, and I’ve died a couple times over. Nothing’s impossible,” she winks, and Iris and Caitlin laugh, their eyes on Kara as she devours the sweets.

“Alex, I’ve been meaning to ask you – how exactly does her metabolism work? Is it like Barry’s? But she must have a completely different physiology – “ Caitlin wants to know, and Cisco and Winn groan into each other.

“We’ve lost them, Captain,” Cisco murmurs, and sure enough, Alex’s eyes are glistening as she launches into Kara’s biochemical processes.

“Star Trek on other earths, that’s what I’m talking about!” Winn’s jaw drops as he puts up a high five, and Sara leans close into Maggie.

“And now we’ve lost these two,” she winks, and Maggie gulps slightly.

Eventually, they regain Caitlin and Alex, Winn and Cisco, and eventually, they kick off their first inter-dimensional Game Night in earnest.

It turns out that Barry and Kara – the two kindest, the two quietest, the two most thoughtful of them all – are the most competitive together.

They scramble to see who can get their suits on first, on fastest, and when James whips out his camera to take a series of videos, a series of stills, of the heroes in their full-out superhero get-up, trying to out race the other on Mario Kart, it only stokes their fire more.

They steal the controllers from each other and they toss bananas and turtle shells at each other and they ignore everyone else in the race.

Iris laughs into Maggie’s shoulder, torn between cheering on her fiance and cheering on the girl who makes her more than a bit bi.

Lena laughs as Alex and Winn do battle with their hands, with limp wrists, mocking each other and egging each other on as Alex whispers into his ear affectionate teasing about him having a thing for superheroes that has his blushing, that has him preening, that has him squealing about how she can’t talk, she melts whenever Maggie even looks at her.

Barry and Kara are so focused on each other, so focused on their super speed competition playing out on Kara’s TV screen that they don’t notice Sara and Cisco silently cheering on Caitlin.

They don’t notice Caitlin’s silent focus, and they don’t notice Princess Peach’s subtle approach behind their Toad and Luigi.

They don’t notice Caitlin’s slightly squinted eyes and they don’t notice the way she moves with her controller.

They don’t notice until she uses a boost of speed to pass them both to cross the finish line in first place.

Cisco and Sara yell victoriously and slap five and topple over a smug-looking Caitlin; Winn doubles over with laughter, with relief that the house is filled with happy yelling, not the other kind; Iris rushes to laughingly console a betrayed-looking Barry; James shakes his head with a grin as he takes photos of Lena consoling a sulking Kara; and Maggie passes cupcakes to Alex, who passes them to Kara, who stuffs her face while leaning into James and mock-glaring at a celebrating Caitlin.

“Round two!” she demands once she’s re-energized, and the feeling of joy, the feeling of adrenaline that’s just for pleasure – that no one’s life is depending on, just happiness, just freedom, just family – last long into the night of the first, but definitely not the last, inter-dimensional Game Night.