522. Chapter 522

CatCo Magazine wants to do a feature.

Of course CatCo Magazine wants to do a feature.

An FBI agent known to have been vital in bringing an end to both Myriad and the Daxamite invasion? An NCPD detective on the science task force, known to have joined said FBI agent in preventing the genocide of the alien populations of National City?

Cat can’t resist.

Kara concedes because J’onn doesn’t think it can hurt – Pam from HR is very strict about her confidentiality forms, and apparently Maggie Sawyer, Lena Luthor, and Cat Grant are the only ones in National City not fooled by Kara’s glasses – and Maggie consents because she knows how important these kinds of profiles would have been for her as a kid, and Alex only consents because of the photographer assigned to their feature: James Olsen.

He doesn’t force them into unnatural poses held for awkward amounts of time, and he doesn’t make them feel like objects and he lets Winn and Kara and Adrian into the studio because it makes them feel more normal, it makes them feel less nervous, it makes them feel… loved. Family.

And family is exactly what James is going for.

So when Alex doubles over into Maggie’s arms, laughing at Winn and Adrian’s antics, James doesn’t tell them he’s snapping photos. He just does it.

And when Kara tells them how beautiful they look, Alex with her hair pinned back from her face and Maggie with her hair cascading down her shoulders, Alex can’t help it; she takes Maggie into her arms and she kisses her, so soft and so tender and so loving that Adrian and Winn can’t whoop, they just awwwww, so perfect that Kara starts to cry.

James snaps photos while they make out, forgetting everyone else in the room, and he snaps even more when they pull back, their foreheads pressed together, their lips slightly parted in breathless emotion.

“You’re going to be my wife,” Alex whispers, and Maggie fights tears. James shifts to get the best angle on Maggie’s dimples.

“Yeah she is, Danvers!” Winn cheers, and Maggie catches Alex laughingly around the waist as she teasingly holds out her index finger threateningly toward him.

When they’re warmed up and they’re used to the flash bulbs, the clicking of the camera, James asks them to look at him. Not the camera, just him.

To think about how much they love each other, not the feature.

To think about how excited they are to do the whole “I do” thing together, not the photos.

He beams when Alex gets confident enough to pull her hair down in front of her face seductively and bite her lip at the camera – responding to his prompt to think about being alone with Maggie tonight – and his heart leaps with the exhilaration of a perfect shot when Maggie turns, laughing, right out of the light pouring through the massive window.

He indulges their Charlie’s Angels posing with Kara and he waves Winn and Adrian into the mix before he sets the timer on his camera and jogs into the photo with his family.

And Cat couldn’t be more pleased with the results.