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Unfortunately for Lena, who had been up far too late with the laptop, the sisters woke her earlier than she would have liked to be dragged back to the beach. Conditions were even better and Alex could hardly wait to dive into the surf. With none of the curling waves, just tumbling white water, there wasn't as much to see and the surfer crowd was thinner.
"Thank you for this," Kara said quietly as they watched. "Even I'd forgotten how much joy she gets in this." Far out in the water, Alex was socializing with a knot of other surfers as they all waited for a good set to roll in. A mix of men and women, several of them threw their heads back in clear amusement and Alex high-fived two others. "And how easily she can make friends when she's relaxed," Kara added, the adoring fondness in her voice so thick that Lena just had to stare for a long moment. "She spent so much time helping me fit in, learn this place, just… function, that she stopped doing a lot of things. The whole family helped me get through, but Alex is special."
"That she is," Lena agreed softly as the half dozen surfers went for a wave, scattering across it like so much wind-borne flotsam.
After Alex had come onshore for a break before going back, Lena dragged Kara off to the nearest surf shop and talked her into trying out stand up paddling in the placid waters of the nearby river. The flat, oversized boards were nothing like Alex's speedy new toy, and the long paddles took some getting used to, but the friends ended up laughing over their awkwardness and getting the hang of it.
Kara was fine heading back when Lena wearied from the upper body workout, hoisting the two boards and leaving the paddles in Lena's capable hands. The latter was enormously amused to watch several surfers stare at the ordinary-looking blonde hauling nearly eighty pounds of bulky boards as though carrying a newspaper under her arm.
They returned the equipment and were surprised to find Susan and Kyra hanging out beneath an enormous umbrella tethered tightly to the sand. Feeling the unusually hot day, Lena was pleased to crawl into the shade and huddle up next to Kyra's folding chair. "We weren't expecting to see you until at least tomorrow."
Susan chuckled at the tease and Kyra intoned melodramatically, "woman cannot live on love alone."
Even Kara chuckled where she was at the edge of the shade, basking in the glorious sunshine.
"Y'know," Kyra added in her regular tone, her voice fond and shocked the hell out of Lena with a gentle hand hooked around her neck in an abbreviated hug. "This has been a hell of a nice almost-anniversary present."
Leaning over, she met Susan halfway for a sweet kiss before flashing a grin at Lena.
"And thank you, especially. But I'm not kissing you."
They all laughed at that.
Kara was ready to worry that she couldn't find Alex in the water when she realized that her sister was a moderate distance down the shore, walking and talking with a few of her new pals. By the time she drew closer, there was only one left, a pretty little thing with a blaze of pink dyed into her ashy blonde hair who was clearly taken with the agent.
"She's gonna be in trouble," Kyra muttered in a sing-song voice and was shushed by Susan even as Lena's eyes narrowed. Close now, Alex spotted her group under their umbrella and lit up. With a few words to her companion, she trotted over, completely missing how the other surfer pouted.
"Hey guys, you wouldn't believe the water today…" The quick hello kiss was abruptly something completely different when Lena dug her fingers into salt-rough hair and pulled into a tonsil-tickling embrace that made Kara look away and the other couple to just chuckle.
"Am I that bad?" Kyra asked in a completely amused tone and Susan nosed at her temple.
"Completely. But at least I know when I'm being flirted with and to deflect."
Bamboozled by the possessive kiss, Alex had collapsed against Lena's side and her wannabe suitor had moped off. Satisfied, Lena leaned back against Kyra's seat and continued to pet the back of Alex's head. It took long moments before suddenly Alex's head shot up.
"Hey, waitaminute, Rosie wasn't flirting we were just talking about…"
Susan and Kyra tried not to laugh, they really did, but stifled guffaws escaped and even Kara echoed Lena's 'really?' expression. Flushing rosy beneath the sunburn over her cheeks, Alex buried her face in Lena's shoulder and groaned. "Oh c'mon you guys, I'm still new at this."
Contrite, the other couple was immediately apologetic and Kyra curious. "Wait, you mean more than just being with Lena here, don't you?"
Embarrassed all over again, Alex nodded, her eyes wide and vulnerable where she peered around Lena.
"Then welcome, my sister!" The effusive comment saved Kyra from Kara's glower. "Feels good, huh?"
Again, Alex blushed under her sunburn and buried her face in Lena's neck and the chuckles were warm and accepting.
"God, I remember when I figured it out," Kyra went on nostalgically, her mouth curled into a fond smile. "Music camp after high school, of all the clichés. Yes, there was a girl, but it was more like an awakening at how amazing and sexy women were. Sure, guys were still sexy too, but the possibilities were so much richer. Frankly, I don't give a damn about packaging and mostly identify as pansexual because of it. Though I'm quite happy to have been hooked by this one."
Susan's grin was lost for a moment in their sweet kiss.
"Similar," Lena chimed up, noting how both sisters were listening avidly. "Though I came at it in reverse, and I raise you in cliché poker. My all-girls boarding school trumps your music camp awakening."
That made Kyra crack up. "Yep, you win."
"I've always IDed as bisexual, despite taking the usual crap for it over the years," Lena added and Kyra made a disgusted noise.
"Right? Seriously, people can be so weird about bisexuals. It's idiotic."
There was a long moment of silence heavily tinged with awkwardness where the sisters remained intrigued. Susan took it upon herself to pick up the unexpected conversation. "No guys for me, I was very comfortably soft butch, gay as a daisy by the time I was six. Not so much my folks, who were… disappointed that I didn't outgrow it."
There was no disguising the thread of dulled anger and pain there and Kyra hugged her tightly.
"And I thought my own feelings were going to be the most complicated part of…" Alex struggled with the right word, "this. Sometimes, it doesn't feel any easier than playing straight."
"Hetero-normality is real, Danvers," Susan soothed her pal, leaning forward to look around the others at her. "I can't lie and say I wasn't starting to wonder what was going on with Lord, especially with his being underfoot so damn much for a while there." Then she paused before asking tentatively, "was there anything there?"
"Eww, no! I was manipulating him!" Alex protested vehemently before her mouth twisted into a confused half-pout and she looked at first Susan, then Lena, her face completely vulnerable. "Okay, fine, I have no idea, okay? He was intriguing and smart and hard to figure out. It's all very confusing…"
Not liking to see her lover beat herself up, Lena hugged her and teased dryly, "maybe you just like your fascinations hard to pin down their motivations." Caught off guard, the other four just blinked at her and she added sheepishly, "too much?"
The ruckus of laughter was welcome.
"All kidding aside," Susan carried on with the conversation. "Sure, it took you a while to figure out that maybe you really aren't into men after all because wow women are amazing but hey you figured it out."
"Yeah," Kara jumped in suddenly. "I know things were rough there with Maggie for a bit, but you landed yourself a dream girl. You embraced the U-haul. A+ lesbianing."
Again, the group was left blinking and Kara's face fell.
"Didn't I use that cliché right?"
Their joyful laughter carried far in the tropical winter warmth.