Chapter Text
When you’re responsible for stopping the world from ending and you succeed, there’s not much that you can do but try to keep doing it. And when you’re powerful enough to keep whole species, maybe even whole galaxies safe, your priorities end up there and not on the home front, even though you’re just finding your way back to the person you used to be. But who you were would love to be who you are, so I guess you’ve got to go. Find your new self, your purpose, and… maybe come back to me. Please, won’t you come back to me?
--
“You’re not going to stay, are you,” Maria says quietly, one hand stroking blonde hair out of the other woman’s face. “You’ve got people to save the whole universe through, you can’t stay here.”
“I can’t,” Carol agrees, and she looks properly regretful about it too. “You’ve always given me a home —”
“— but your heart has always been among the stars. I know.”
It’s Carol who lowers her gaze first, unable to take the intensity of it. For someone with so much raw power, the ability to fly past the edge of the atmosphere, to take down an entire Kree squadron single-handedly, she still doesn’t know how to navigate her own emotions that well. Her captors had done their best to train them out of her, after all.
“I’ll come back though,” she promises, chest feeling unreasonably tight as Maria tips her head forward and presses their temples together. “I promise I’ll come back.”
“Well, you’ve always been too stubborn to die.”
“Damn right.”
“Don’t take six years this time.”
“I won’t!”
It’s the defensive tone that makes Maria burst into laughter, pulling away from the embrace and looking up at the sky. It doesn’t matter how long it takes Carol to come back, she’ll always be there for her. After all, the woman is her best friend, and she’s only been in love with her for decades.
“You…” Carol sounds hesitant as she speaks. “You were waiting a long time.”
“I thought that was obvious.” Maria turns to look at Carol, brow creasing. “A long-ass time. Monica too.”
“No, I mean… waiting for me to catch up with you, and come back to you.”
This time, the eye contact is heavy. Carol reaches out to grab Maria’s hand, and the latter’s eyes slam shut, trying to will the tears not to fall from her eyes. Her face crumples with the effort, lungs stuttering, and she nods. Waiting for your heart for what felt like a thousand years. We were just kids, innocent and beautiful and… “Fuck, you don’t —”
“I remember,” Carol says, and suddenly they’re surging together, lips against each other’s like it’s the only thing keeping them alive. There’s electricity that sparks between them, the Kree powers making them both glow as they are filled with a sort of desperate elation, and suddenly they’re no longer touching the ground.
Maria clutches at Carol, wide-eyed and slightly baffled, but she doesn’t have time to look around before she’s kissed again, and pulled higher and higher into the sky. Carol is the one who pulls away this time, though her hold on the other woman remains tight both by want and necessity, and when Maria looks down, she can’t help but break into a massive smile.
“ Holy hell .” She laughs breathlessly. “I can’t imagine that you’d ever want to come down from here with this kind of power. Jesus , you never do anything by halves, do you!”
“Nope.” Carol’s grin is impish. “But I’ll come down once in a while, just for you and Lieutenant Trouble, alright? I’ve got to keep reminding you that my recklessness pays off sometimes.”
Maria nods. There’s not much else she can ask for, and… she’s happy with this.
(She’d wait forever for her. She
will
. There’s nothing else she can do.)