621. Chapter 621

She knows the card is from Alex just like she knew all the answers to trivia.

Winn starts with the easy ones – she says “blue” instead of “black” for Alex’s favorite color because she knows the difference between what Alex is willing to admit in public and what Alex really loves deep down – and she eggs him on, encouraging him to go deeper, make it more difficult.

He murmurs to her that he can’t make it that difficult in front of Eliza, and she laughs, because god, this feels amazing.

She knows the card is from Alex just like she knew Alex would get all her trivia questions right.

And – even though she protests her entire way into the hot seat – sure enough, she gets every question right.

“Just treat it like a polygraph, Danvers,” Lucy encourages, and as the other Superfriends groan and laugh, Lena leans in to ask Lucy what she means.

“That woman can beat a polygraph without breaking a sweat,” Lucy tells her, and Lena arches an eyebrow and ponders ways to make the technology more accurate. Not for military use. Just… for fun.

She knows the card is from Alex just like Alex knows tiramisu (”favorite food?”), bonsai trees (”random passion?”), getting crushed by a vending machine (”weirdest fear?”), Captain Kathryn Janeway (”nerdiest television crush?”), and “f Lucy, k Kara but only because she couldn’t if she tried so there’s a loophole, and no offense Lena but she’s only marrying me” (”fmk Kara, Lena, and Lucy?”).

She knows the card is from Alex because only Alex would give her a homemade card – well, a DEO-made card, courtesy of her design ideas and Winn’s gorgeous execution – dressed up to look a storebought one.

“I think I know who this is from,” she teases, because who else would photoshop their heads onto the bodies of the Doctor and Clara Oswald and edited the whole thing further to look like a Victorian snowy winter’s night… in space?

Only Alex Danvers.

She reads the card in Alex’s adorable scrawl before opening her gift.

She swore she wouldn’t cry at this damn party.

She breaks her promise to herself, and she really doesn’t mind.

Because inside the blank card, Alex had written the most beautiful words she’s ever read; because they were all, lovingly, painstakingly, for her.

“Maggie,

I’ve never loved anyone like I love you. I’ve never touched anyone – been touched by anyone – like the way we touch. And I don’t just mean… you know ;) I mean… Babe, from the moment I first laid eyes on you, I felt my entire multiverse shift. I didn’t understand it then – baby lesbian, I know, haha – but Mags, my center of gravity suddenly became… well, you.

After I came out to Kara, she asked what you’re like. I told her you’re smart, and tough, and beautiful. So beautiful. And I was right. But I was also wrong.

Because you aren’t just smart: you’re brilliant. I would say you’re going to save the world with that mind of yours, but baby, you already do.

You aren’t just tough: you’re courageous enough to be vulnerable and steel enough to be unbreakable.

You aren’t just beautiful: you’re beauty defined, inside, outside, every side.

I am honored to be your friend, your girlfriend, your fiancee. Soon, your wife. I smile every single time I say that. Your wife.

Here’s to you, my soon-to-be wife. Here’s to us, and to our lifetime of firsts.

After Always,

Your Alex.”

The gift, next to that card, Maggie thinks will seem frivolous. Because that card is… that card is everything.

And so are the photos that James takes of the kiss they share – the long, intimate, nobody-else-in-the-world exists kiss they share – when Maggie finishes reading that card.

But that’s for later.

Because now, Alex’s eyes are gleaming as she urges Maggie to continue opening her gift.

Because, just like the card, it’s completely customized to her.

Maggie snorts when she sees it, and then she gasps, and then she nearly shrieks. She covers her mouth and her eyes fly wide and the box with the gift tumbles off their laps as she launches herself at Alex. Again.

Winn goes to pick it up for them, and promptly drops it like it burned his hand on contact.

“Seriously, Alex?” he squeals. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you two are still my favorite couple, but is this even…” He leans in and whispers. “Authorized?”

Alex grins and shrugs as Maggie swoops down to pick up her gift like it’s the best thing anyone’s ever gotten her.

“J’onn left me in charge of the DEO,” she offers, and Lucy groans, and Kara groans, and Winn groans, and James groans, and Lena and Eliza lean forward to see what everyone’s groaning about.

“Maggie, is that a…” Lena asks delicately, and Maggie doesn’t even look up at her as she looks down at the thing in her hands, holding it like it’s alive, like it’s precious, beaming down at it, caressing it, like it’s a small puppy.

“It is,” she breathes.

“I am so, so, so in love with you, Alex Danvers,” she kisses her fiancee again, and again, and again.

Because at long last, she’s finally been gifted a flash grenade.