732. Chapter 732

She never liked being intimate.

Then she met Maggie Sawyer.

More specifically, then she fell heels over head in love with Maggie Sawyer.

And now?

Now, she doesn’t know how to stop being intimate.

It’s not even about sex. Well, it is. But it’s so much more than that.

It’s holding hands and kissing every one of Maggie’s knuckles.

It’s about pressing kisses to her belly button and giggling when Maggie squirms in a wave of aroused ticklishness.

It’s about checking her body every night for bruises from the job, and kissing every spot that looks like it might hurt; and even the spots that look like they might not.

“You know, her dimples can probably go more than five minutes without being kissed, Alex,” J’onn tells her one day, trying to be serious and utterly failing.

Alex, though, is so sincere in her response that J’onn’s faux-severity nearly cracks.

“I don’t want to risk testing that theory, sir. Best give them all the attention they deserve.”

And she does.

She kisses her bare shoulder when her oversized Gotham University sweater drapes off to one side.

She even kisses her elbow, because “it’s an often overlooked spot.”

Half the time Alex does these things, they’re out in public.

It’s not something Maggie used to enjoy.

Oh, she was fine with brief pecks hello or heavy making out – one extreme or the other – but these little kisses that Alex give her, everywhere, anywhere, for no reason whatsoever other than “I love you”?

These, somehow, feel so much more intimate than anything Maggie’s ever experienced – in the bedroom and out of it – and she finds, unexpectedly, that she loves it.

And yet, it overwhelms her.

The feeling starts wherever Alex’s lips are – the palm of her hand, her ankle, the crook of her elbow, her collarbone, her nose, her forehead, anywhere, everywhere – and floods through her body like an explosion waiting to happen.

It isn’t sexual. It’s… it’s just pure affection. The pure, uninhibited feeling of being cared for. Adored. Cherished.

And it fills Maggie past her breaking point.

Because fucking? She can do fucking.

But this?

This attention, this affection, this adoration, from anyone, let alone from Alex Motherfucking Danvers?

This is more than Maggie ever believed she’s deserved.

So one Game Night, when Maggie triumphantly shouts Uno, Alex leans in to kiss her tricep – casual and giggling and proud – amidst the shouts and boos and hisses of their friends. Their family.

And it jolts Maggie over the emotional edge.

Her card – a red three – slips out of her fingers and her rib cage quakes.

Winn, Kara, and Alex are alarmed, but Lena, Sam, and James share a soft glance, because they’re pretty sure they know.

“Baby, what – “

“Why do you do that?” Maggie sobs. Now that the crack has been made – in front of so many people who respect her, no less – there’s no even trying to reign it in, so she just lets it go, lets the tears fall, and for once in her life, maybe believing that someone will catch her. That she deserves to be caught.

“Do what? Whatever it is, I’m sorry, I don’t – “

“No, Alex, no, I’m sorry, it’s not… you just… you kiss me all the time.”

Alex tilts her head and blinks, sharing a quizzical glance with her sister. “Yeah?” She stroked stray strands of hair out of her teary face as their family start to quietly slip away into the kitchen to get more snacks.

“I just… I don’t… I’m sorry. I just… no one’s ever…”

Realization dawns on Alex, and she gathers Maggie fully into her arms and presses kisses onto every bit of exposed skin she can reach.

“I’m always going to show you how much I love you, Maggie Sawyer. Unless you don’t want me to, then I – “

“No. No, I don’t… don’t stop, Alex. Please? Don’t ever stop?”

A smile takes over Alex’s lips – the kind of smile she never knew she could wear until Maggie Sawyer strolled onto her crime scene and into her heart – and she promises, in front of their grinning, teary-eyed family.

“I will never stop, Maggie Sawyer. Never ever. I promise.”