567. Chapter 567

She’s reasonably convinced that the only reason she talks – well, gushes, really, if truth be told – about her roommate all the time is because her roommate has a motorcycle.

She has a motorcycle, and she’s studying forensics, and she runs the school’s LGBTQ+ club, and she’s got this long, gorgeous hair that somehow still looks amazing even when she tosses it into a messy bun, throws on her glasses, and plays video games after making them both pancakes on Saturday mornings.

Alex has started to live for Saturday mornings.

And that’s normal, right?

Sure, Maggie’s a lesbian, but it doesn’t make her one just because she just really, really, really likes her, does it?

Of course not.

And even if it did, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Maggie likes her back.

Because Maggie is too… too perfect, and Alex is just… just Alex.

And on Maggie’s end?

Maggie refuses to have a crush on her apparently straight roommate.

Refuses to fall for the girl who moans absently when she eats pancakes, who’s never once made fun of Maggie’s glasses, who knocks on her bedroom door when she sees the light on late at night to check if she wants any pizza, who is always, always, always studying and always, always, always protecting her little sister from everything from papercuts to asshole frat boys.

Maggie, for her part, refuses to get her hopes up about her roommate just because Alex – Alex perpetually busy, perpetually in the lab, perpetually having time for nothing and no one but studying and her sister Danvers – has started to block off her Saturday mornings so she can stay in the dorm with Maggie and watch her play video games.

She doesn’t even play herself. She just seems content to sit there, next to Maggie on the floor, and cheer her on over the tops of her own glasses, wrapped in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, a text book unopened in her lap.

Maggie refuses to get her hopes up.

Straight girls just really like their roommates sometimes, right?

And she probably doesn’t even really like her, anyway. She’s probably just sitting in the living room because she likes the pancakes Maggie makes and feels obligated to stick around because of it. Or maybe she wants to use the TV for herself, and she’s just waiting patiently for Maggie to be done with her gaming.

She sighs.

She doesn’t realize – and Alex doesn’t realize – that they’re slowly starting to spend all their time together.

Grabbing meals together in the dorm’s cafeteria.

Studying together in the library.

Quizzing each other in subjects the other isn’t even taking.

Just to be helpful.

It’s what good roommates do.

Sara always arches her eyebrows when she’s around them, like she’s waiting for them to just strip each other’s clothes off then and there.

Caitlin politely asks Alex how Maggie’s doing whenever she sees her in the lab, and Alex thinks it must just be what people do, ask about the well-being of their friend’s roommates.

Cisco and Winn sigh that they make such an adorable couple, and that’s when Maggie runs.

Because Alex is a straight girl, and straight girls get her kicked out of her house when they think she likes them.

Maggie starts keeping to her room and she stops making pancakes. She stops playing video games.

Alex doesn’t even know where she goes Saturday mornings, now.

But she knows she wants her back.

“Hey Sawyer,” Lena sits down on Maggie’s right one night at dinner. Maggie grunts in acknowledgment, but doesn’t look up. She does, however, when she realizes that Kara has taken the seat at her left side.

“Little Danvers,” she murmurs, her heart starting to race.

“Alex says you haven’t been around the room much anymore,” Kara starts, feeling absolutely no need for a preamble. Because Alex might not understand what she feels for Maggie yet, but Kara does. And she has a feeling Maggie does, too. And if she doesn’t, she should.

“Been busy,” Maggie murmurs around her food, gulping a little too hard. Her eyes water as Lena thumps her gently on the back.

“She’s been worried about you,” Lena tells her then, and Maggie’s body stiffens.

“Figured she’d be angry at me,” Maggie murmurs, and Kara adjusts her glasses.

“You know,” she starts, and Maggie just wishes she’d punch her and get it over with. “I didn’t realize I was falling in love with Lena until everyone else around us thought we were dating. Heck, Maggie, I didn’t even realize I was bi until suddenly I had an accidental girlfriend.”

She waits until Maggie looks up at her, and she smiles, then.

“Talk to my sister. It’s okay. Just talk to her.”

“Speaking of which – “ Lena murmurs, reaching around Maggie to tug Kara up and away. She nods at the door, where Alex is strolling in.

“You’ll be fine,” Lena whispers in Maggie’s ear. “The Danvers girls are worth it.” Maggie manages a smile and a gulp and, somehow, manages to stand without knocking anything over.

“Danvers! Wanna sit with me?” she asks, pulling out the chair Lena had just pushed in.

Alex’s eyes fly wide as they meet Maggie’s, but she nods, and Maggie watches her rush through her food selection. Watches her forget to pick up silverwear and blush wildly when she realizes.

She thinks that maybe Little Danvers and Little Luthor have a point. Maybe Alex does like her. Like that.

She dares to hope.

“Alex, I – “

“Maggie, it’s – “

They both start speaking at the same time when Alex comes to sit down.

“You go ahead.”

“Sorry – “

“Okay.”

They giggle at their uncharacteristic lack of synchronicity, and Maggie goes first.

“Listen, I’m sorry I’ve kinda… disappeared on you.”

“Well, I mean hey, you’re taking twenty-one credits and you’re running a campus org, so I can’t expect – “

“No. No, Danvers, it’s… it’s not because I’ve been busy. I’ve uh… I’ve been avoiding you.”

Alex blinks. Her eyes are already wet, and Maggie swallows the growing knot in her throat.

“Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean – “

“No. No, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just… I like you, Alex. I mean I… I like you like, I want to take you out on a date. On a lot of dates. But I didn’t think… I heard Winn and Cisco talking about us being a cute couple, and I didn’t want you to think I was some lesbian stereotype who couldn’t live with a straight girl without wanting to fu – “

“I’m not straight.”

“You… you’re what now?”

Alex gulps and worries at her bottom lip and lets her eyes flutter down to Maggie’s.

“I want to date you, too, Maggie. I just couldn’t imagine that you’d actually… But if you do, I… Maggie, it – can I kiss you?”

The entire section of the cafeteria around them ruptures into smatterings of applause, of “finally!”, of “it took them long enough!” as Maggie catches her breath and nods and parts her lips for Alex’s; as Maggie’s hand catches Alex’s elbow and they both nearly overbalance from the awkward angle they’re sitting at.

Neither of them pay any mind to awkward angles or cheers or whoops; neither of them have the brain space to pay attention to anything other than the way Maggie tastes like the ziti she’d just been eating, the way Alex tastes like the coffee she’d just been drinking; the way Maggie’s thumb swipes across Alex’s cheek and the way Alex’s fingers tangle in Maggie’s hair.

“Your uh… your dinner’s gonna get cold,” Maggie croaks weakly when they finally part for breath, their foreheads pressed together, disbelieving grins on both of their faces.

“Who needs dinner?” Alex asks with the beginnings of a wicked smile.

And Maggie couldn’t agree more.