Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Disclaimer: I do not own Supergirl or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in, the OCs, and the soulmark stuff too.

Marry me. Seriously, marry me, please? Every time she traced the elegant cursive, she felt warm. She honestly expected Alex's marks to be the illegible scrawling of scientists and doctors.

Who knows, it might make you feel differently about...things. Her fingers stalled on these letters as her memories of her time at the soul center filled her mind.

“Miss Sawyer,” The voice addressing her sounded muffled, as though they were spoken through a thick wall. Her eyes remained on the window next to her desk. “Miss Sawyer, if you do not engage in the class I will send you to Isolation.”

She tracked the snowflakes as they fell past the window. She'd hated the snow but now, Maggie loved it. It was pretty, but it was cold and heavy. “Figures.”

“Mr. Vhon, please escort Miss Sawyer to Isolation.”

With effort she shifted her attention from the window to the instructor. Her face was blank, as blank as her right arm; the last of the warmth from her first marks had disappeared. She stared at the instructor until Mr. Vhon placed his hand on her shoulder, a silent request to rise from her chair. “Mrs. Tenor, is I-Isolation really the best place for a S-Soul splinter?”

She couldn't hear the orders Mrs. Tenor barked to Mr. Vhon over the chattering of her teeth. Her head was heavy and she couldn't hold it up anymore. The left side of her face burned as it rested on the cold metal of her desk. The heaviness traveled to her eyelids, and try as she might, they closed; shutting out the world.  

 “Maggie?”

She shifted further into the blanket as a sharp blade of frigid air hit her skin.

“Mags, can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Good, that's very good.” There was a hushed conversation that followed before her aunt continued, “Mags we need to know, what happened?”

“She told them. She told her parents about the card. They, they, they,” The sob ripped its way out of her chest. “called papa. He,” Her tears were hot and fast, another sob followed. “was waiting with a suitcase. He brought me here.”

“Oh my Mags.” She shifted closer to her aunt, unfortunately the centers' workers were incompetent.

“Ma'am as far as we could determine, Miss Sawyer is currently suffering extreme tactile sensitivity. Any physical contact with someone with a soul-bond will be excruciatingly painful.”

“What kind of back-ally soul center is this?” Her aunt spat. “Do you not recognize the significance of the colors my soulmarks are? I'm make them appear that way for a reason.”

Maggie snorted into the awkward silence. “The core of the letters are black, bordered by thin lines of gray, white, and purple. The black means she's Ace. Fucking idiots.”

“You're...the foremost Spirit healer in the world.”

“Does your head hurt?”

Maggie giggled in anticipation.

“I'm, sorry?”

“Did you strain any of your brain cells when finally decided to join the conversation?”

If she'd had any energy to roll over and face them, she would have, just to see the flush of embarrassment on the idiot's face. The very same flush she could feel through the heated blanket.

“Now, tell your interns to get the hell out of the way. So I can infuse soul-marks into my niece and help her through Soul splinter.”

[We are fire inside, we are an army asleep. We are a people awaking to follow their dreams. We don't have time for your games, we have our own goals to score. There are trophies to win instead of being one of yours.]

She shot up from the couch and snatched her phone from the coffee table, praying it wasn't an emergency; she was supposed to have the night off. “Yo, little Danvers, what idiot is threatening to ruin my night off?”

All she heard for the next few seconds was a choppy rendition of 'Pure Imagination' from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What she heard of it before, it was abruptly cut off, was good. She was about to click end, and proceed to plan on teasing little Danvers about the butt dial when she heard, “Alex what's wrong? What is it?”

The burning heat spreading across her chest froze her in place.

“Um,” She willed her body to move, to end the call, to do something. In the back of her mind, she knew she deserved whatever happened next.

“Maggie doesn't want to have kids.”

Her chest was on fire. She knew in that moment, that having kids meant a lot to Alex.

“No, it, it.” Alex's defeated sigh sent a sharp spike of pain through the marks forming across her chest. “I agreed because that's what she wanted.”

A breathless gasp escaped her as another sharp spike rippled through her.

“Maggie's not gonna change her mind,” Maggie heard the slight hysterical catch in her voice when she said 'her mind.'

“and the only way we're going to work through it, is if I let it go.” The silence is not enough, not nearly enough to prepare her for what she hears. “And I've tried, Kara. I, I love her so much, that it hurts; that they hurt, my marks hurt when I think about it.”

She swallowed back her sob to avoid letting Kara know, that she was listening.

“And I convinced myself that that living a life wi...” Her marks were burning, sucking all the heat from the rest of her body. She was slowly going numb. “th her, it was enough.” Another defeat sigh, another spike from her marks. “But watching Ruby...”

“I want all the experiences that mom had with us, you know? I want, I want,” Every time Alex's voice trembled around a word, the vice around her heart and lungs constricted. “to take my kid camping, and I want to show her the constellations. I want to teach her how to read and throw a punch. And how to make cheesy Valentines. I want to give her soulmate the shovel talk.” Her mouth spread into a grin even as tears poured down her face; only Alex.

“And I want to hold her,” Her grin faded when she heard the steadying breath Alex took before continuing, “when she has a bad dream.” Alex was fighting so hard to keep her voice even.

“I want to tell her,” She wanted to crawl through the phone and wrap her soulmate in her arms. “that the world is a better place, because she's in it.”

“Yeah.” Little Danvers spoke so softly, but to Maggie it was like a firecracker exploded in her ear.

“I want all of it. I want to be a mom.” The heat over her heart pulsed in time with the beat. Her left hand clawed at her chest, in a vain attempt to pry the muscle free. “W-What am I going to do?”

Abruptly the call was cut off, she could still hear Alex breaking down into sobs. A single thought was on repeat inside Maggie's head: Kara you better be holding Alex while she cries.

“Mark shut the fuck up. I'm trying to concentrate.” She spat, “I will never go to prom with you.”

“Miss Sawyer, since you seem to be an expert on the subject of Soul-bonds, I want you to conduct today's lesson.”

Maggie sends a nasty glare to the annoying asshole next to her before giving Mr. Cray her attention. The color drains from her face when she sees the topic written on the white board: Soul splinter. Mr. Cray could smell blood in the water when she shakes her head. His smile is too wide, his teeth blindingly white. “Get up here and teach or get sent to a center, your choice.”

Mechanically she rises from her desk and stiffly walks up to the board. In an effort to appear normal to the class, she forces a smirk onto her face, and shoos Mr. Cray to his desk. “Sit down Lucas, you might just learn something.”

That gets a few snickers from the bottom-feeders in the back row. “Soul splinter is what happens when a bond is initiated but fails, spectacularly. In lay man's terms, it shatters and the subsequent backlash triggers Flash-freeze. Flash-freeze is what happens when your first soul-marks fade completely. As you all know, soul-marks warm up around your soulmate. The reason is three-fold, the first reason it can warm is to let you know that you've met your 'best possibility.'” She viciously stabbed the board to make that sentence's period.

“The second reason it can warm, is the formation of new soulmarks during the beginning phase of forging the bond. In this case, the heat varies and depending upon what emotions you and your soulmate are experiencing during a T.M.; Tether Moment. The final and third reason soulmarks are warm, is because soulmarks are a small piece of your soulmate's soul.

The Flash-freeze is the only way for the small piece of soul to leave your body without killing you. The Flash-freeze's most notable symptoms include: body-wide shivering, tactile sensitivity when in close proximity to people with finalized soul-bonds, total emotional shutdown with exception of feeling empty, numbness, extreme listlessness, and severely low body temperature.

All of these symptoms can be mitigated by anyone with a platonic soul-bond or an Ace soul-bond. Those who possess platonic or Ace bonds can infuse temporary soul-marks onto people suffering from Flash-freeze. However, the people with a platonic or Ace bond has to be related to, or bonded to a relation of the person with Soul splinter for it to work. A lesser known result of Soul splinter is the permanent sensitivity to cold weather and a lower than normal body temperature.

Soul splinter is basically a wound to your soul inflicted on you by a selfish coward who runs away from-”

“Class dismissed.” Mr. Cray's bark cut her off. She remained standing in front of the board, long after the last of the students left the room.

“I apologize, Miss Sawyer. It wasn't my intention to cause you any distress.”

“Congratulations, you failed. Am I free to go?”

“Yes.”

The heat was just on the side of bearable when she heard the soft creak of a floorboard. It was the same one that Alex had teased her about always stepping on. She was never really good at pretending to sleep, but tonight she knew, that Alex wouldn't notice. Wouldn't notice the tear tracks or how shallow her breaths were. Maggie wanted to so desperately snuggle into her soulmate's side, Alex was her favorite space heater, but stayed where she was.

She listened to Alex struggle to keep quiet as she started to cry again, not wanting to disturb her as well as avoiding a huge fight, a fight she wouldn't get. At some point Alex had grabbed her arm, and for the first time since they started dating; Alex was cold to the touch. Her eyelids opened just enough for her to see if there was a soulmark on the arm, there was.

Long into the night the white-blue letters mocked her: Do you mean, kids? Sweetie, my not wanting kids has nothing to do with my parents or my childhood. My feelings for you are deeper and stronger than anything I've ever known. I can picture our life together and its rich and happy. But there aren't any kids in that picture. You're all that I need. I guess you got to let me know if you feel the same?

Chapter Text

Disclaimer: I do not own Supergirl or its characters. I own only the plots/situations/ideas that I have placed the characters in, my OCs, and the soul-bond stuff. 

Maggie had felt the cold seeping into her marks when she woke up, they'd been going cold on and off for the last week. They were still cold when she got to the precinct. She slogged through an hour of paper work before going to her captain to request the next few days off.

As soon as she got back to the apartment, she pulled out the whiskey Lena gifted them for their wedding and two glasses. After she set them on the coffee table, she settled on the couch. That had been a few hours ago. The moment she heard footsteps outside the door, she poured the whiskey into the glasses and took a sip of hers. It brought a smile to her lips, Lena had excellent taste in alcohol.

The smile was gone by the time Alex made it through the door and was standing on the other side of the coffee table. She hated that the door opened directly into the living room. “I was hoping you'd take longer getting home.”

“I thought about it,” Alex said reaching for one of the glasses on the table before sitting on a chair at the bar. “but that will just make this harder.”

“I don't want to feel like this.” It was more difficult than she thought it would be to stay on the couch. She wanted to feel Alex's warmth, but the cold helped remind her what was at stake. “I love you so much.”

“Yeah, I, I love you back.” Alex had been swirling the whiskey in her glass since she picked it up.

A shudder-y breath gusted out of her. “This can't be it.”

“We've talked about this for the last week.” Alex gently set the glass down before moving closer. “Can you do that again? C-Can you go another couple of rounds?”

The words lodged in her throat as Alex sat down; so close, but so far away. Her mind was screaming: Now or never Sawyer.

“Because I can't-”

“What if our kid turns out like us, Alex? Being gay isn't a walk in the park. You'd think with soulmarks it'd be easier, right?” She grabbed her glass and chugged. The whiskey should have burned all the way down, but it was ice cold. Unlike her soulmate, she slammed the glass down so hard the base of it cracked.

“I wasn't lying when I said my not wanting to have kids, had nothing to do with my parents. Grandma Danvers can more than make up for the absence of my parents in their lives. I was lying. I, I,” She shivered as her marks grew colder. If she didn't spit out an explanation, Alex's anger was going to sever their bond. “you know your marks aren't my first ones. What you don't know, is that this isn't my first bonding either. My first one...”

The rush of heat burning over her chest stole her breath, at the same time Alex wrapped her in a hug. “Soul splinter.”

“I nearly died, Alex. My papa just, he just dropped me off at the center without even explaining anything to them. All I felt was numb and cold, it was like I was trapped in a fog and that fog, cut me off from my emotions. It wasn't until I collapsed that they even bothered to track down a relative.” She presses into the embrace even more, tucking her head under Alex's chin.

“This world isn't perfect, its dangerous and full of selfish cowards who hurt others because they can't accept who they are. I don't want that for our kid. Believe me, I've thought about it, about having kids; I'm afraid of hurting them. Why bring them into a world with the possibility that they could be like us? That their best possibility could hurt them.” Her eyes closed against the welling moisture. It does little to stop the tears. Above her, she hears Alex sniffle before strong arms grip her even tighter.

The two soulmates stay that way for hours or so it seems before Alex speaks, “I'm not selfless enough yet, to share you with anyone. I'm not asking you to have kids with me today, or tomorrow, or even in the next couple of years; I'm asking for someday. I know you think its some notion in my head, but its not.”

“Alex-”

“Please just let me finish.” Maggie fell silent. “Being a mom is something I've always just known. Even when everything else was...boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever. When that was blurry the part of me being a mom, that's always been crystal clear. If I deny that, I'm going to feel it forever.”

“I know.” It was the last thing in the world that she wanted to do, but she pulled away. As she did, she willed her newest soulmarks on to the palm of her hand and offered it to Alex. The sharp intake of breath let her know that Alex was shocked at seeing every word that she spoke to Kara on her hand. “Little Danvers accidentally butt dialed me. I know its not some notion. I've spent the last week fighting with myself to tell you this. To tell you why having kids is so scary to me. Why I-”

“J'onn 'Space Grampa' J'onzz and Supercorp would destroy anyone who hurt our kids.” Alex entwined their fingers and gave her hand a squeeze. She squeezed back.

“I've decided to face that fear, for you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I'm sure.” A burst of heat exploded in her chest and the startled yelp from Alex, told her that she felt it too.

Like magnets they were drawn into a kiss. A gentle press of lips that stoked the heat into a blazing inferno. One moment she was kissing Alex, the next, her back was pressed into the firm couch cushions with Alex straddling her waist. Alex had made a mistake by hesitating, her hand snagged a fistful of gray tank top and pulled Alex down.

Alex didn't resist, their lips met again and again. She nipped at Alex's bottom lip dragging a low moan from her throat. With a growl Alex placed a trail of kisses along her jaw before tracing the shell of Maggie's ear with her tongue. “Are you sure you want to play dirty pool?”

Each word was accentuated with a soft caress of velvety muscle, ripping a much louder moan from her throat. “Because you and I both know, that you'll lose.”

She yelped when she felt long calloused fingers ghosting up her abdomen and grazing the side of her breasts. Another moan pulled free of her throat when Alex applied enough pressure to a stiff bud, sending a jolt straight to her groin.

The sound was swallowed as Alex kissed her again. “Clothes. Off. Now.” The order was bit out between breathless panting. Then Alex's weight wasn't pinning her down anymore. Before she could free herself from the lust filled haze to comply, Alex was pulling her up from the couch.

They stumbled toward the bed lip-locked and fumbling to undress the other. She didn't hear the sharp clacks as buttons flew off her shirt when Alex yanked the button up off. Nor did she care that Alex pushed her onto the bed to help with her jeans. The instant the jeans were off her legs, Alex's hands were stroking her inner thighs. Her hips lifted up in desperate need of friction.

“Alexandra.” The name involuntarily fell from her lips in a plea for mercy. Her legs opened wider when she felt the press of soft lips to her slit. She shuddered and renewed her search for friction. This time a fingertip slowly slipped into the slickness but stopped just shy of where she needed it.

“Is there something I can help you with, Detective Sawyer?” She groaned when Alex licked her from the apex of her thighs to the swell of her breasts. The finger was still poised to give her what she wanted. “I'm afraid that I'm fresh off the boat and I'm in uncharted waters.”

Her chest was heaving, her skin flushed, and she was so warm. “I'm,” she bucked her hips into Alex's when she felt a hot wet mouth envelop one of her nipples. “sorry,” another shudder passed through her when the fingertip brushed against her clit, at the same time Alex gently scrapped her teeth across the stiff bud. “f-for calling you A-Alexandra.”

She was rewarded with another brush. “I'm still a little lost, Detective?”

Her breaths were coming faster and the heat in her lower region was unbearable, she nearly came when she felt a second finger join the first. “F-for the love o-of god, A-Alexandra. Give m-me f-friction-”

She was seeing stars after five blissful seconds of perfect rhythm, of rocking hips and thrusting fingers. She rode the tidal wave of sensual electric heat, that signified a sealing bond. Her eyes had closed long before she felt Alex pull out and curl up around her. She tried to fight off the wave of exhaustion, but it was inevitable. Her last thoughts before drifting off were: I love you Alexandra Danvers.

“Today's topic is The Bonding, not to be confused with sex.” Dead silence greeted Mr. Cray's announcement. “As you should know from your lessons in Mr. Aston-Cray's health class, sex is a vital and healthy way to deepen a soul-bond that isn't platonic, but does not affect nor spur a bond into sealing or settling. Now, Miss Lane can you tell me what happens when a non-platonic bond enters the final stage?”

“The soul-mates experience a wave of intense heat that originates from their soulmarks. This draws the couple together where one or the other will bring them to,” everyone could hear Lucy's fortifying breath. “climax. During this time the person on the receiving end needs to recuperate from the infusion of their mate's soul. It is critical for the two soulmates to remain in physical contact, skin to skin, for the recuperation period. Once the infusion is complete the receiver will repeat the process.”

“That is correct. Miss Sawyer, will you tell us what a newly bonded couple can expect to experience after the bond is complete?” Mr. Cray asked, as he wrote down and expanded on Miss Lane's answer.

“No more personal freedom for a whole year or they'll contract a horrible disease called Soul Tear. The newly bonded couple have to be within twenty five feet of each other, if they don't want to live through every painful and emotionally scarring moment of their soulmate's life. Once their bond has been sealed for longer than a year, they will be able to tell if their mate is in danger. The bond will temperately allow them to read each others' thoughts and feel their emotions.” She answered as flatly as possible in an effort to keep the anger from seeping into every word.

Mr. Cray quirked a brow at her, “And?”

“Whole, happy, warm, and fuzzy.” She said as flatly as she had before. Mr. Cray turned back to the board. When she bothered to glance up from her lack luster note taking, a small smile tugged at her lips; Mr. Cray had actually written, whole, happy, warm, and fuzzy.

When the bell rung at the end of class, she was half way to the door when Mr. Cray asked her to stay behind. After everyone had gone he spoke, “I'm not saying that what she did to you was okay. But I can tell you, one day you'll meet this amazing beautiful girl that will help you overcome your fears. And that, you shouldn't fixate on the pain or the darkness.”

She wanted to punch him, to scream at him that he didn't know what he was talking about, but she stayed silent. A few moments later she was glad that she did.

“I know what you're thinking, 'how dare you', 'what would you know about it', and 'I want to punch you'. I know, because Mr. Jack Aston-Cray is my handsome knight in shining armor whose helped me overcome my fears. It wasn't anything he did, its what I decided to fight for. I fought for him.”

Maggie nearly groaned when she realized that she felt whole, happy, warm, and fuzzy. Her finger tips were tracing one of Alex's newest soulmarks: I'm not selfless enough yet, to share you with anyone.

It helped keep the awful pit of dread that yawned open every time she thought about having a kid over the years, at bay. She meant what she'd said to Alex, she was willing to have kids with her, she was willing to fight for them.

Sanvers Gives Lena Luthor the Shovel Talk

It had been two blissful, and tiring, days before she asked about the 'Supercorp' comment. She hated the blinding grin and teasing glint in her eyes. It was a miracle that she even remembered that part of the conversation after the Bonding.

“Kara called four times yesterday and while you showered, I called her back.” Alex smirked before taking a sip of her coffee.

“Spit it out, Danvers.” She grumbled before taking a bite of oatmeal pancake.

“Turns out Lena is Kara's soulmate after all,” Maggie was going to strangle Alex if she didn't stop being the biggest, most awful, tease in the universe, “Kara was happy and distressed. Lena took so long to come forward because she's Soul Sear,” She'd set her fork down and was half way out of her seat when Alex continued, “and Lena's first soulmarks are from the helicopter incident, but Lena fell in love with Kara despite them. Lena told Kara that she choose her.”

“Whoa.” She collapsed back into the chair. “Who'd have thought that that was the reason that Lena didn't realize Little Danvers was Supergirl.”

“I know right. I think me and space dad won the betting pool.” The smirk got even wider at that.

“Betting pool, and you didn't tell me about it?” Alex's mirth vanished at her tone. “I'll forgive you, so long as we plan Lena's shovel talk together.”

“I wouldn't dream of leaving you out of that. I'd have to wait a year and a year is far too long.”

Lena knew the moment that the doors to her office at L-Corp, Sam was handling a conference in Metropolis, opened to emit Alex and Maggie that she was in for it. She was ready, otherwise she'd have had Jess stall them for long enough to send an S.O.S to Kara. She was so not ready.

When Alex had politely asked her to put the blindfold on in the car, she complied and trusted that Alex wouldn't do anything to harm her; Detective Sawyer had protected her from the rowdier of the rookies that came to arrest her at L-Corp. When the vehicle stopped it was Maggie who guided her out.

“Miss Luthor you may remove the blindfold now.”

The sight that greeted Lena was a little underwhelming it was an obstacle course, she suspected it was used to train new DEO agents. Her relief was short lived when Maggie pulled her along to an observation window.

On the opposite side of the window, Kara's sister stood before a table. The table had an array of alien weaponry and human weaponry from the DEO's arsenal laid out on its surface.

She watched as Alex efficiently selected an M4 assault rifle, a pure black hand gun, that looked like a modified taser gun than advanced alien technology, and a sword from the side with alien weaponry.

The moment Alex stepped away from the table, a door opened on her left and she proceeded onto the course. Maggie tugged her along to room with floor to ceiling screens along one wall, gestured to the only chair in the room, and exited. She only had a second to feel relaxed before she saw the screens come alive with both Alex and Maggie.

They moved through each floor of the underground course with frightening efficiency; Maggie had selected a 12 gauge combat shot gun and a Daxomite staff. Lena's eyes stayed glued to the training exercise until the screens went dark before the screen in the center lit up with statistics. Her focus fell solely on one of the stats for Alex and Maggie, hit percentage. Between the two of them it was 100%.

She was nervous but calm when both women entered the room. “Lena, I won't insult you by explaining what this is all about. However, I do love to threaten people with fatal harm if they hurt my sister. So don't or I'll-”

Her eyes shifted from Maggie to Alex as Maggie cleared her through before shooting a pointed look at Alex. Lena swallowed the urge to congratulate them as she watched Alex mouth a quick 'Sorry Mags'.

“Or we'll hunt you to the ends of the universe and kill you. Understand?”

“I'd be hugely disappointed in the both of you, if you didn't.”

Like a spell the tension and stifling atmosphere evaporated and Lena said, “I see the whiskey wasn't needed to drown your sorrows. I will say, bonded life looks great on you two.”

Lena couldn't stop chuckling at the two flustered soulmates she left behind as she exited the room.