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Maggie had finally gotten used to the climate of National City—mostly dry summers and mild, rainy winters.
Well they were “winters” in her mind, quotes and all because really, the lows never even hit freezing—not even close. She could count the number of snowflakes she’d seen here on no hands at all because there’d been exactly zero snow.
An upside, admittedly, was that she didn’t have to worry about things like unplowed roads or black ice. But the real benefits of the mild temperatures were that winter motorcycle ride dates were now a sure thing. They’d become a semi-regular thing too, whenever Alex or Lucy was free. Or even better, when all three were able to ride.
“The view is beautiful.” Alex’s voice slipped between the sounds of the backcountry as she and Maggie sat side by side at the lookout point. There was an easiness and warmth to Alex’s words, like she had finally stepped out of her head and let herself relax. A good thing—that was exactly why Maggie had suggested this short ride out to the nearest state park.
“It is.” Lucy walked over to them with their snacks, her eyes dragging over Alex and Maggie for a moment. She took in snug armored leather and boots before sitting down next to them and breaking out into a sly grin. “The lake and forests aren’t bad either.”
Maggie snorted, rolling her eyes and turning a little to give Lucy a look, a raised eyebrow and an amused smirk. “That’s the best line you could come up with, Lane? Sounds like you’re finally running out.”
“Oh, I assure you that I am not.” Lucy turned to raise her finger up at them and, yeah, Maggie didn’t doubt that. “And come on, Sawyer, have some appreciation for the classics! Plus I saw you,” Lucy’s eyes narrowed playfully, “You both smiled, don’t try to deny it.”
“Only because it was so bad,” Maggie teased, nudging her shoulder against Lucy’s, who nudged her right back into Alex. “And because it was you.”
Lucy grinned again. “You are going soft.”
“Only for you.” A quick kiss pressed against Lucy’s lips. “And you.” Another for Alex.
It lit up both their eyes and well, Maggie had to agree, really.
That was the most beautiful sight.
--
The hottest days of the summer were unanimously deemed the Worst.
Temperatures creeping up above 75 °F brought with them sweaty skin trapped underneath Kevlar gear and binders, a disincentive to layer on (some very stylish) leather jackets, and a general heaviness from the heat.
At the moment though, the AC humming in the background of the apartment spared them from that particular discomfort. It was still warm enough inside that they forwent any blankets while cuddling, but cool enough to prevent most overheating.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the heat that was the problem currently. Instead, it was that Maggie’s arm was steadily growing uncomfortably tingly under the weight of one very cuddly Alex Danvers.
Usually this didn't happen. They’d switch positions as needed, and if they were going to nap, arms would be positioned in such a way to allow for blood flow. (Alex would also say that she was usually the big spoon, that she preferred it—but it didn’t stop her from getting adorably clingy whenever Maggie or Lucy wrapped an arm or two around her.)
And today, they had intended to cuddle just a little bit. Alex’s day off had gotten interrupted by a trip into the lab to check on samples, and when she had returned home mid afternoon, she barely protested when Maggie wanted to be the big spoon. If Maggie’s arm was underneath Alex, well, it wasn’t a big deal—they’d be awake to change positions as necessary.
Within minutes though, Alex had fallen asleep on Maggie in the very literal sense.
Which also left Maggie’s arm falling asleep. Hardly a sacrifice to make for being able to fully hug Alex—Maggie wasn’t complaining about that. But also…
“Babe,” she murmured softly.
No response.
She moved her free hand away from Alex’s waist to lightly prod her shoulder.
Alex, still mostly asleep, let out the cutest whine and curled up a little more.
From Maggie’s position holding her, it was impossible to see Alex’s face. But from countless lazy mornings in bed and carefree naps on the couch, Maggie could instantly picture the way that Alex’s nose would scrunch up a little at being nearly roused, only to smooth out again once she settled.
And oh, Maggie didn’t have the heart to wake her.
She knew that Alex didn’t mind being woken up for the sake of her comfort, but maybe she could carefully extract her arm without needing to resort to that.
While she contemplated, the door to the apartment opened. Maggie craned her head a little to see a similarly tired Lucy trudge in.
Lucy glanced over and did the thing, the thing that always made Maggie get all warm inside, where Lucy simultaneously brightened and softened and looked like the world was a little better at the sight of them. Which was currently Maggie laying in the middle of the bed holding Alex, being slightly trapped by said girlfriend and Maggie’s own unwillingness to disturb her.
Lucy changed into more comfortable clothes and moved towards the bed.
“Hey, Luce. Long day?” Maggie asked softly.
“Mm. Nothing that can’t be helped by some cuddles in bed,” Lucy smiled, tired around the edges but genuine. Her eyes fell on to Alex, and then to Maggie’s trapped arm poking out beneath. “Danvers fell asleep on you?”
“In seconds. Help me get her off?”
“Oh, I don’t think you need my help to get Danvers off.” Lucy with her damn endless word play. (Maggie loved it though, and her shit-eating grin. She absolutely fed Lucy lines to go off of sometimes.) “But yeah, I’ll help free your arm. She was too adorable to wake up, wasn’t she?”
And gently, Lucy helped move Alex a little, making sure she wasn’t disturbed while Maggie slid her arm out from underneath her body.
Maggie sighed in relief. The pins and needles were worth it, but she also liked having feeling in her arm.
Lucy crept over to the other side of the bed and slid into the space behind Maggie. “We’re heating up leftovers for dinner, right?”
“Yeah.” Maggie turned her head to get a glimpse of Lucy behind her. “Want me to get it started?” Lucy deserved a little time to relax, and Maggie was more than happy to give her some.
“Would you?”
“‘Course. Danvers might just roll over and hang on to you in her sleep in the meantime.”
Lucy propped herself up on her elbow to kiss Maggie. “I think I can live with that.”
--
Maggie would take dry heat over humidity any day, but what she really preferred were the cooler winter months that had finally rolled around.
“Winter”, that is.
She would still make air quotes while saying it, just to see Alex smile and roll her eyes. (“Yeah, yeah, Sawyer, we know you think that I have no cold tolerance and that California winter is fake.”)
Lucy had moved all over the place and had lived through full winters, but when Maggie learned that Alex had grown up in California her entire life, had even stayed in California for her degrees? Sure, Alex had traveled for conferences. She had seen snow in person. But Alex hadn’t really experienced it, not like they had.
Maggie wanted to watch Alex’s face light up at the sight of it, the way she always did whenever she got to do something new and exciting. One day, Maggie would have to find time for all of them to take a vacation to stay somewhere with proper snow to actually play in.
In any case, the slightly chilly breeze during the National City evenings gave her a good excuse to hold Lucy or Alex’s hand inside her coat pocket. And it meant that jackets were back—jackets with very grabbable lapels that they used to draw each other in for warm kisses under twinkling city lights that seemed to shine just a little brighter the closer they leaned in.
It also meant this:
“Stop hogging my blanket,” Alex complained, tugging the plush material in question further over herself as she lay in bed.
“I’m cold,” Lucy complained right back.
“You’re using your own blanket right now! And you’re stealing my blanket too.”
Maggie listened from the other side of the bed under her own personal blanket, a little grin forming on her face from the superficial bickering.
Alex’s back obscured her view, leaving Lucy a mystery on the other edge of the bed. But the shuffling told her that Lucy was curling up closer under Alex’s blanket while simultaneously pulling more of it over herself.
“Don’t worry Danvers.” Maggie pressed herself against Alex’s back, against where the blanket was riding up and letting in cool air. “I got you.”
--
Other times, it looked like this:
Underneath their blankets, Maggie burrowed a little more into Alex, breathing her in and melting into the sensation of gentle fingers stroking her hair.
On Alex’s other side, Lucy tangled their legs together and threw her arm over both Alex and Maggie.
This was Maggie’s favorite thing—cuddle piles with the three of them. Holding and being held, resting her head on one of them or being a pillow herself, drawing each of them closer into her because she always felt so loved in moments like these.
And while tracing mindless patterns across Alex’s skin and listening to Lucy ramble about a book, Maggie didn’t have any other care in the world.
“I love you both,” Alex started, once Lucy had finished talking and an easy silence had settled for a few moments, “but I’m way too hot right now.”
“You’re super hot, babe.” Lucy could never help herself (and Alex and Maggie still smiled every time). “But yeah, want me to switch with you?”
“Please.” Alex disentangled herself from them and sat up, letting Lucy take her place in the middle of the bed.
Blankets and limbs were rearranged and soon everyone settled in again. Maggie latched herself onto Lucy. Alex stayed close but with her blanket pushed halfway off her.
“Maybe we can get Kara to like, make snow for us,” Maggie wondered out loud.
Lucy hummed in interest. “Has Kara done that before?”
“I, I don’t think so?” Alex said. “She usually just freezes things in blocks of ice. But what’s this about?”
“We could have our own little winter here finally.”
“You know that it does snow in California, right? Like, it doesn’t here, but if you go up to the mountains, there is snow.”
“But that’s exactly it,” Maggie stressed. “We aren’t in the mountains, so really, this is just like an extended fall.”
“I can’t believe you’re still on about this,” Alex laughed. “And winter doesn’t even require snow, but—” she barreled ahead, already knowing what Maggie would say in response to that, “I can see if Kara will make us some.”
“And not to get ahead of ourselves, but we may be able to go all out and make a bunch in a DEO training room. That'll give us a bunch of space,” Lucy added.
Maggie gave a little celebratory Yay! into Lucy’s shoulder and Alex snorted. “Alright babe, we’ll try to get you your winter wonderland.”
--
And indeed, that’s what Maggie got.
Kara filled their reserved room at the DEO with a flurry of white so they could roll up balls of snow for building snow people. Kara pinned her cape around the neck of one, and another got Maggie’s windbreaker, then Lucy’s scarf, and Alex’s leather gloves hanging off the stick arms.
And with their perfect packing snow, there was an obligatory free-for-all snowball fight that led to forts being infiltrated and full-contact wrestling with snow being shoved into faces and down the backs of coats until they all dissolved into breathless laughter.
And finally, they treated themselves to a pot of hot chocolate—made from actual chocolate blocks with extra cinnamon just the way Maggie liked it, heated over the stove by Alex (one thing they trusted her to easily make).
“So, was that more like a proper winter day to you?” Alex asked in between sips from her mug.
Maggie leaned into Alex as the three of them sat on the couch, fireplace flickering in front of them. “It was perfect. Thank you.”
“And it sounds like we might be able to do it again,” Lucy said from the other side of Alex.
“I can’t wait,” Maggie grinned. “And next time, both of you are going down in the snowball fight.”
“Yeah right.”
“Keep dreaming, Sawyer.”
(The next time, Maggie claimed she did in fact win, to the many protests of Alex and Lucy. But there was always the next time, and the time after that. And no one really cared who won anyway. Regardless of the outcome, they all ended up at home on the couch with hot chocolate or s’mores, cuddling together in front of the fire, wholly comfortable and content.)