It's a sister thing
Like Kara said she would be, Alex was laying out in the middle of the quidditch field with Maggie talking.
Kara knew she needed to make things right, and was thankful that Lena had been able to calm her down enough so that she could actually process her emotions. Kara never liked to be wrong, but this time she knew she needed to accept that she had been wrong in this situation.
Lena waits at the entrance of the field and nudges Kara along. “I’ll be back up in the library if you need me” she tells her reassuringly.
Kara takes a few deep breaths and proceeds onto the field; she doesn’t want to startle the two so she makes her presence known.
“Just the girl I’ve been looking for.” Kara says trying not to hide the fear in her voice.
Kara has never seen Alex jump so high in her life; it was almost out of a comic.
“Kara, what are you doing here.” Alex practically gives herself whiplash at how fast she turns around.
“I’m here to talk to you if that’s okay?”
Maggie is looking back and forth between them with horror in her eyes, she’s had dealt with enough drama today and had finally got Alex to stop sobbing.
Alex doesn’t say anything, she simply sniffles as she watches Kara walk closer. It feels like an eternity before she finally reaches them, she stands so she’s facing both of them and they sit up looking at her.
“I owe you both an apology.” Kara bravely proclaims, she’s still nervous and can’t help but fidget with her glasses while she talks. “Maggie, about what happened in the library, I acted very poorly and I wanted to tell you how sorry I am.”
Maggie winces. She hadn’t told Alex about what had happened in the library and prepared herself for more yelling.
“What happened in the library!?” At this point Alex gets up from where she is sitting and is standing face to face with Kara.
“Oh. I thought she would have told you.” Kara looks at Maggie nervously now knowing her apology was going to have to be a really good one.
“Obviously not Kara!” Alex tells her as she shrugs her shoulders.
Maggie also stands and tries to get in between the two. “Kara it’s okay, it’s water under the bridge but please can you guys just work it out already.”
Alex and Kara share a glance, both realizing that Maggie is just trying to help and fighting on the Quidditch field isn’t going to solve anything.
“Maggie do you think I can talk to Alex alone?’”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea Little Danvers” Maggie practically begs.
Maybe Maggie is right and she should have given Alex more time to cool off. She is surprised when Alex finally speaks up again.
“It’s fine Maggie, I’ll be okay” She says while grabbing her hand and squeezing it for comfort.
“I’m sorry I interrupted your study session earlier; Lena is back in the library if you want to finish.” Kara sheepishly tells Maggie.
“If you’re sure.” She responds looking at Alex for reassurance.
“I’m sure. I’ll come find you later okay?” And Alex goes to give Maggie a kiss on the cheek. She gathers up her belongings, leaving the two sisters alone.
Kara hates fighting with Alex. At home Eliza would be there to knock sense into the two girls, but here they were alone and had to figure it out for themselves. In all reality the things they had fought about in the past were nothing compared to this, it was usually Kara borrowing Alex’s shirt without asking or Alex switching the TV when Kara was watching it. But this? Was new territory for them both.
Kara goes to lay down and looks up at the night sky, Alex soon joins her but makes it known she’s keeping her distance.
“I’m sorry Alex.” She had tried not to cry but it looked like that plan was out the window. “I’m sorry that you felt like you couldn’t tell me about what was going on in your life. I’m sorry that I reacted the way that I did, I just panicked... Remember when I was little and would have nightmares?”
“I do, I used to have to sleep with you some nights because they were so bad.” Alex recalls many nights where she could hear Kara crying in the night. At first she never knew what to do, but as time went on she learned how to comfort Kara and bring her out of her panic attacks when she woke up.
“You were always there for me, even when it wasn’t easy. What if as we get older you don’t want to deal with me anymore” Kara continues, trying hard not to let her voice break.
“Kara, how could you ever think that? I’m still me, that hasn’t changed” Alex also had planned on being tough but as soon as Kara started crying she couldn’t help herself.
“I’m scared that I’m not your best friend any more. I’m scared that us coming here is changing our relationship and I don’t know how to handle that.”
“Kara you will always be my little sister but most importantly you will always be my best friend. I know we’ve had each other all these years, but it’s okay that as we grow as people we can accept new relationships into our lives and that doesn’t take away from what we have. I am always going to be here for you, you could never be a burden to me, in fact you bring out the best in me.”
“I understand that now, it just felt that if you had Maggie you wouldn’t need me anymore.”
“I will always need you Kara. Always.”
“Do you hate me?” Kara asks, looking at Alex with tears in her eyes.
“What? Kara I could never hate you, not in a million years, come here” Alex reaches out to grab Kara into a hug, both girls finally relieved that the weight of the day is over.
“I really am sorry.”
“I know you are and I forgive you.”
“Can we promise from now on no matter how scary it is we won’t keep secrets from each other?”
“I think I can manage that.” Alex laughs knowing that from then on out she didn’t need to hide from Kara. “So about me and Maggie?” Alex continues wanting to make sure they are on the same page.
“Yeah you and Maggie apparently like to make out in the quad, Lena said she’s scarred for life.”
Alex scoffs “First of all she interrupted up so that’s her own fault, second it wasn’t even that scandalous”
“How did you know you liked Maggie?” Kara asks, she realized she had been oblivious to any signs and wanted to know how she could have possibly missed it.
“I don’t really know. I thought she was a real arrogant know-it-all at first and we fought a lot. We started hanging out more and I realized we had a lot in common. We quickly became friends and then one day I just saw her differently. It terrified me at first to the point where I started pushing her away. She must have known though, because she wouldn’t let me go. One thing led to another and… yeah here we are now.”
“Have you told Eliza yet?” Kara asks, she can’t imagine coming out to Eliza was going to be easy. Not that she thought Eliza wouldn’t accept it, but if today’s interaction was any indicator, Alex had a long road of acceptance for herself.
“Kara I barely told you today, one step at a time”
“I just want you to know, I support you 100%”
“Thank you Kara, I really needed to hear that.” And it was true, Alex didn’t know how much she longed to be accepted until she heard Kara say it.
———————————————————————
The following day things seemed to have gone back to normal for everyone. At breakfast Alex and Maggie had announced to everyone that they were an item.
“Well Hot dog! How did I miss this!” Lucy asks, not entirely surprised.
“Well maybe if you took a moment to stop locking lips with Olsen you would have noticed literally anything else happening around you” Maggie quips back.
“Ouch Sawyer, you'd think now that you’ve got a girlfriend you’d be nicer.”
“Ha! Not a chance Lane.”
Lena just rolls her eyes, happy that everything had turned out okay in the end. More importantly, things worked out with her and Kara.
“So Wena, Chritmus is coming up swoon, do you have any plens?” Kara asks between mouthfuls of food.
“Kara, I already told you I can’t understand you when you try talking to me while eating.”
“Sarwy.” Kara mumbles out.
Lena waits patiently as Kara finishes chewing before she starts again. ”Christmas is coming up soon, any plans?”
“My family throws a holiday party every year and a lot of families that work with my father at the ministry come over. It’s quite boring.”
Kara has never actually been to a fancy holiday party but from stories she’s heard from Lena, they never sound fun.
As long as she can remember Eliza would always make her and Alex hot cocoa as they put up their Christmas tree. Every year without fail, Eliza always knitted them a sweater. Embarrassingly each one would have prints of something to remind the girls of that year. The year they had adopted a stray black cat and named him streaky, was the year they both got matching sweaters that were littered with embroidered cats. They never actually liked the sweaters but it made Eliza happy, so on Christmas morning they would dawn their sweaters and pretend they loved them for the rest of the day. It was unique to them and Kara always loved the holidays at home.
This year however, she wished she could bring Lena with her. Why did Lena have to go to a boring party when she could come make gingerbread cookies with them?
“Why don’t you come home with me?” Kara asks, why couldn’t she come home with her? She was sure Eliza wouldn’t mind.
Everyone at the table goes quiet, having not expected Kara to just casually ask Lena to go home for Christmas.
“That’s very nice of you to ask Kara, but I'm expected to be at the party. There’s no way my dad and step-mother would let me miss it.”
“But you even said they barely even notice you’re there anyways!” Kara hadn’t meant to blurt it out, she was just tired of Lena having to do things she clearly didn’t want to do. When was Lena going to get to do what she wanted to do?
Lena knew that Kara hadn’t meant what she had said to be rude, she wasn’t wrong after all. She had explained to Kara that at most of her family functions she was there merely to show face, not because they cared one way or another.
“Kara I can't, it’s not that simple” Lena couldn’t stop the blush that crept along her cheek bones and into her ears. She wished she didn’t have to spend Christmas at home with the Luthor’s, she would rather be anywhere else. Her life didn’t work like that, she didn’t get to make those kinds of choices. Her heart aches for a minute at the thought that Kara wanted to spend Christmas with her.
“I just think you’d have more fun with us, right Alex?”
Since the events of yesterday Alex seems to have turned over a new leaf with Lena. She knew that Lena had been the one to go after Kara and she was starting to notice that if she couldn’t be there for Kara, Lena would be. She still had her reservations but she hadn’t met anyone else who could calm Kara the way Lena could. A thought was starting to brew in Alex’s mind, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on yet.
“I mean she’s not wrong Luthor” Alex chimed in.
“Really guys, I wish I could.” Lena genuinely replies.
“Fineeee, but promise me you’ll at least write.”
“Deal.” As she out stretches her hand to shake Kara’s.