666. Chapter 666

"Again, babe?” Maggie calls from the bedroom, and when she emerges – dressed in Alex’s Stanford sweater and basketball shorts, but still rubbing a towel through her wet hair from her shower – Alex freezes and their eyes widen guiltily.

“Um… no?”

“Danvers,” Maggie grins, stepping into the kitchen and winking over Alex’s shoulder at a chuckling Winn, James, and Kara. “I’m a detective. What does that mean?” she teases.

Alex fidgets with their hands behind them, blushing but obviously pleased with the attention from their wife, and with their teasing siblings laugh happily behind their hands.

“You detect,” Alex murmurs, a grin tugging at their lips.

Maggie nods. “Mmhmm. And with these detection superpowers, I overheard three things: the fire alarm beeping. You cursing. Then a loud crash. So you know what I’m thinking?”

Alex tilts their head to the side and pretends to think.

“That you’re developing superhearing and heard someone’s fire alarm go off from across the city, and you heard me cursing because Winn stole the last donut, and the crash was from Kara tackling him with rage over said last donut?”

“Ahinatalaout!” Winn mutters behind them.

They turn on their heel and arch an eyebrow at their brother. “Come again, Schott?”

He takes an enormous gulp and tries again. “I did not take the last donut!” he exclaims, but the massive dusting of powdered sugar on his chin tells a different story.

“So Alex,” James steps in, trying and failing to prevent a grin from forming on his face, “let me see if I have this right. You’re trying to avoid getting in trouble with your wife for breaking and throwing out your, what? Fourth? Fire alarm this month – “

“One of those times was Kara!”

“They’re actually right about that, I got carried away with my heat vision – “

“Okay, third time this month… and you’re trying to divert blame onto Winn?”

Winn straightens up, grinning and nodding and trying to subtly wipe the powdered sugar off his face.

“What James said! See, at least someone here loves me!”

Alex crosses the room in two strides and hesitates, waiting for Winn’s grin of approval, before wrapping him in their arms.

“Awww, no, I love you too, Schott. You’re just also a great scapegoat!”

“Babe, you know I’m standing right here?” Maggie tries not to laugh, and Alex’s eyes widen.

“I’ve been caught,” they mutter to Kara, who giggles at her sibling’s ridiculousness, remembering a time when Alex didn’t know how to be this playful, this absurd, this ridiculous.

“You know, Maggie, if you feel the need to punish them, we can all evacuate – “

“Winn!”

“No one asked you, Schott!”

He chuckles into Kara’s shoulder as James grins and shakes his head, while Maggie steps over to Alex and wraps her arms around their waist.

“Sweetie, you murdered another fire alarm, didn’t you?” Maggie asks again, and Alex sinks into her arms with a small pout.

“It was being overly critical of my cooking abilities!”

“Al, you’re my sibling and I love you endlessly, but to be fair, half the kitchen was on fire for a second there – “

“Only a second!”

“All the burners were like out of control – “

“We’ve faced down alien invasions, you think a couple little burners – “

“The bottoms of the cabinets all got singed – “

“Whose side are you on, anyway?”

“Justice,” James grins, hands on his hips as the entire family bursts out hysterically laughing, Alex leaning forward into Maggie’s arms, asking with their eyes for a kiss.

“Yes, I murdered another fire alarm. But it was for a good cause!” Alex pouts the original Danvers pout, the one that Kara has honed and perfected over the years.

And sure enough, Maggie melts.

“I love you, you massive nerd,” she tells them, and their family awwws in unison as she stands on her tiptoes to kiss them, wrapping her arms around their neck and sighing into their embrace.

“Let’s order pizza?” Maggie asks with a dazed smile when they finally untangle.

“And potstickers!” Kara chimes, and Alex grins.

Their family really is the best.