793. Chapter 793

“I don’t wanna,” they muttered, still burritoed in the covers they’d stolen from Maggie in the middle of the night. “Still sleeping.”

Maggie grinned and unleashed the hound.

Gertrude leaped onto their king-sized bed – that Alex still somehow managed to take up all of – and somehow, impossibly, burrowed into their burrito and licked at their face mercilessly.

“Okay, okay, I wanna,” Alex fumbled to untangle their groggy arms from the sheets, throwing them around Gertrude as gently as they could, their hands still clumsy with sleep.

“Good, because I thought I was gonna have to fly you out of there,” another figure crashed down on the bed next to them.

“What is this,” Alex asked, turning from Gertrude to Maggie and then to their sister, now laying next to them, on her stomach with her chin innocently in her hands and her feet swaying behind her. “The let-everyone-into-our-bedroom-and-watch-Alex-sleep show?”

“I’m not in your bedroom!” Winn called from the kitchen. “I value my life, thank you very much!”

“So do I, but Guardian could totally take you, Alex,” James added.

“And I wouldn’t need to,” Lena laughed along to the sound of sizzling pancakes. “My wife would just give you those big eyes and any argument would be over.”

Kara demonstrated said big eyes. Alex threw a pillow at her. And set Gertrude loose. Kara shrieked and Alex chuckled in sleepy victory.

“Okay Kara, Gertrude,” Maggie clapped gently like she was talking to two puppies, not just one. “They’re awake now. Out.”

“But your bed is so comfy,” Kara moaned, flopping over so Gertrude was standing on her chest, eagerly wagging her tail and licking every surface of Kara’s face.

“Yes,” Maggie agreed, “and I very much took all your sibling’s clothes off before we fell asleep last night, so – “

“I’m going, I’m going, I’m going!”

Kara flew out of the room, Gertrude in her arms, at a speed that would make Barry Allen sweat.

Alex laughed and pulled Maggie down on top of them, shifting the covers so she could feel their body underneath hers. They shook their head as they tucked Maggie’s hair back behind her ear.

“Why are you doing all this, Mags?” they murmured.

“All what?” Maggie kissed their nose, their cheek, their chin, their neck. Alex shifted and bit their lip, suddenly breathless. “This is basically a regular Sunday morning. Just… on a Thursday. J’onn’s on his way with three dozen donuts, by the way.”

“So there will be exactly half a donut for each of us when Kara gets through,” Alex nodded.

“Yeah, but Lena’s making pancakes.”

“Oh god, is the kitchen on fire?”

“I can hear you!” Lena shouted.

“When did you become the one with super hearing?” Alex shouted back. Maggie flinched dramatically and Alex kissed her ears in teasing sympathy.

“Seriously, babe. You’re perfect. Why are you perfect?” Alex lowered their voice and asked while they fumbled for their glasses.

“I’m not,” Maggie took pity on them and helped put their glasses on. “You just deserve to be celebrated, and I just love you.”

“And I love you. But celebrated?” Alex snorted. “I didn’t – “

“Save an entire warehouse full of baby Astonians without breaking a sweat? You sure did! And that’s cause for celebration, Danvers!” Winn called again.

“And if I recall correctly, it’s been exactly a year since you came out. Um, again,” James added.

Alex’s eyes flew wide as they stared up at their wife. “You all remembered?”

“The night you brought us all to the bar and wept while you told us what pronouns we should use? Yes, sweetie, we all remember.”

“No, I meant. The date, and everything. Like an anniversary. Like it’s something to celebrate.” Alex sat up, their eyes suddenly wet. Maggie crawled off of them, kissed their lips, and tossed them a t-shirt that had been discarded the night before.

“Because it is something to celebrate,” Maggie kissed them again, as soon as Alex got the shirt down past their neck.

“Are they decent?” Lena asked.

“Please don’t lie,” Kara pleaded.

Maggie tossed Alex a pair of basketball shorts – neither of them were sure, at this point, whose shorts they originally were – and when Alex tugged them on and nodded, tears still in their eyes and wonder still on their face, Kara reopened the bedroom door.

Lena was holding a cake big enough for Kara and everyone else, yellow and white and purple and black frosting. Winn was wrapped in a blue and pink and white flag, James’s arm around him. And Kara had painted a collage of the past year, from directorship and haircuts to wedding prep and space flights. She held it shyly in one hand, a tail-wagging Gertrude tucked under her other arm.

“I love it,” they spoke to Kara first, when they remembered how to speak at all. “I… guys. Thank you. It…”

“It’s family,” J’onn said simply, stepping into the room behind Lena.

Just as the smoke detector went off.

“Damn that thing!” Alex jumped out of bed as their family both groaned and laughed.

Because it might be a day for celebration, but Alex’s war against smoke detectors would never end.

And neither would any of… this.