Chapter 1: Gig With Royalty
Flight Lieutenant Lexa Woods didn't get as far as she has done in life by being a pushover. And so here she was in the office of Air Vice Marshall Dante Wallace's office calmly arguing that the females in her squadron should not be forced to wear skirts when not on a formal parade or inspection as is dictated in the uniform regulations. However, Wallace was saying that he did not care what the dress regs said he wanted all females in skirts. To say Lexa was annoyed was an understatement; she had even brought a copy of the book to show him just where it said females were permitted to wear their slacks. After two hours of arguing with the intolerable man Lexa finally got her way and Dante caved in, a small victory for 138 Expeditionary Air Wing.
Lexa stood from her seat made her way to the door, stood at attention and saluted the superior officer before she about-turned and left quickly. She made her way down the long corridor and out into the bright sunlight of RAF Marham. Lexa had been posted at this station straight after she left RAFC Cranwell as an officer of the Royal Air Force, she loved her squadron and she loved the Tornado she flew, she felt comfortable hidden behind the rules and regulations, she felt safe in the cockpit of her fighter jet, she felt strong in her pressed uniform that was without a fault, Lexa felt right in her position and wouldn't give it up for anything.
She had finally finished work for the week and had the weekend free due to the graveyard shift taking over for the weekend as per usual. She walked briskly to her office and collected her backpack before she made her way over to her matte black 1969 Chevy Camaro SS. She was exhausted and just wanted to go back to her apartment and sleep for the weekend. Alas, that was not to happen as her roommate and best friend, Raven Reyes was taking her out to see Paramore live in concert at Water Front. Admittedly Lexa was excited to see the band as they were one of her favourites and she wouldn't want to miss the chance for anything however, after her week of constant manoeuvres and complex attack patterns she was shattered.
She pulled out of her spot and made her way out of the security posts at the front of the RAF station ready to start her weekend. After driving for ten minutes she arrived at her apartment building and pulled into the small car park for residents. She was glad to be home and felt the weight of her day start to leave her as she made her way inside the building. Reaching her door she practically fell into her apartment cursing herself for being clumsy and frantically searching her shiny parade shoes for damage.
"Hey Lex, get ready we're moving out in one hour and if you're not ready by then I'm gunna drag you out of this place no matter what state of dress or undress you're in!" Raven yelled at her from the living room directly in front of her.
"Nice to see you too Reyes, have fun at work?"
"Oh come on Lex we both know as much as I love tinkering with cars I miss the gold old days of tinkering with high grade weaponry, super top secret projects, and faster than sound aircraft!" Two years ago Raven was 'tinkering' with one of those 'super top secret projects' when something went wrong and it blew up. The ex-flight sergeant ended up with shrapnel embedded in her spine, paralysing her leg. The RAF had to discharge her due to medical reasons and to this day Raven still curses the 'super top secret project' she was working on that cost her a job she adored. However, in true Raven style she jokes about her unfortunate accident and didn't let it get her down.
Lexa made her way over to her bedroom and stripped herself of her stiff RAF issue uniform, hanging it up neatly and placing her shoes, that she was far too over protective of due to the hours of polishing she had done on them, carefully in their box safely away from anything that could scuff them.
She grabbed her towel and went to shower and prepare for the gig.
Clarke was excited to say the least. Due to her surprisingly low press following Clarke had managed to successfully hide herself from the media since she was twelve years old by simply hiding in plain sight so the paparazzi assumed she was just an ordinary twenty-six year old woman. Clarke was the next in line for the British throne and so she obviously had high security risks and media following due to her mysterious private life.
Octavia was taking her out to the Paramore gig near their home in Norfolk. Granted her security had to go with them too, but they promised to stay low-key and not do anything too soon like shoot someone for accidentally pushing Clarke over in a mosh-pit.
Octavia had finished work and gone straight home to rummage through their clothes to pick out the perfect outfits. They couldn't wear too little as they didn't want to bring attention to themselves due to Clarke's status, but they couldn't wear too much as gigs like this tended to get very hot very quickly. She settled finally on dressing Clarke in a pair of black skinny jeans, ripped at the knees, dark blue converse, and a dark blue t-shirt with "I'm Not One Of Those Crazy Girls" printed across her chest.
After quickly doing their hair and makeup they climbed into Octavia's maroon Land Rover and drove off, acting like the two cars containing her security detail weren't in front and behind her. Thankfully she had discreet security to help her lead a life she wanted to and they stayed close without making it obvious but she never went anywhere without at least eight highly trained special forces members with her.
When they arrived at the venue there was already a considerably large queue to go inside so they joined the back with Clarke's detail casually hanging around too.
When the doors opened and everyone rushed inside Octavia and Clarke ended up near the middle of the crowd where the mosh-pit normally would open up, just where they wanted to be at a gig like this.
Clarke felt someone bump into her back and she turned around only to have her breath taken away buy the beautiful brunette standing behind her looking shocked and apologetic.
"I'm so sorry, the person behind me shoved me and I didn't have time to stop myself from falling into you, are you okay?"
It took Clarke a moment to collect herself to respond to the gorgeous woman, her mouth still slightly open and her brain only having one thought processing and that was on how gorgeous the brunette was.
"Uh... yeah, yeah I'm fine don't worry about it," she offered a shy smile in return, kicking herself for being so nervous around the beautiful woman.
"I'm Lexa by the way, Lexa Woods," the gorgeous brunette, Lexa, told her, holding her hand out to Clarke.
"Clarke, Clarke Gri..een," Clarke felt bad about lying about her name but she had to be careful she really did, security was tight for her and she had come so far without the media following her she couldn't risk that for anyone, no matter how attractive or charming they were.
"It seems our friends have become acquainted Miss Green," Lexa said with mischief sparkling in her bright green eyes, nodding her head in the direction of Raven and Octavia eyeing each other up, talking about god knows what.
"Please call me Clarke, and it seems that they are, knowing Octavia and her ways."
"Her ways huh? She better not hurt my Raven, she's a beautiful cinnamon roll, too good for this world too pure."
Clarke burst out laughing at Lexa's analogy and quickly explained that she couldn't stop laughing when she saw the beautiful cinnamon roll on tumblr and that in actual fact she hadn't seen Octavia this engrossed in someone before to this date so Lexa shouldn't worry.
Clarke and Lexa spent the whole of the time the two support acts were playing talking and they both moved closer and closer together to 'hear what the other was saying' and they were becoming more drawn to the other the longer they spent together.
When Paramore finally came on they cheered with the rest of the venue and sang along to the first song: Misery Business. Several songs were played and the girls moved closer together as they sung the lyrics to every song perfectly.
"Okay, uh this song is for those of you here who are in love, so uh, yeah this is for you guys," Hayley said into her mic before the opening chords to The Only Exception was played.
Clarke and Lexa looked at each other and smiled shyly, Lexa leaning in to talk into Clarke's ear so the other girl could hear, "I know this song is mainstream and all but I still love it," Clarke made a gesture which meant 'same' from what Lexa could gather before singing along to the song, keeping her blue eyes on Lexa's green ones.
They moved closer until they were inches apart and finally their lips touched for a bried second before they were pulled apart by Raven rudely yelling down Lexa's ear.
"Hey fly girl Octavia and I are heading off back to our place so be careful when you walk in okay! Have fun babe!" And with that Raven and Octavia took off into the crowd.
Clarke looked at her curiously so Lexa explained the situation with a roll of her eyes. Clarke laughed at the situation and shook her head at their antics. They carried on singing along to the rest of the songs, sharing meaningful glances the whole way through. When the gig ended and they had to reluctantly leave the venue and step out into the warm summer air.
"So uh, how you getting home?" Lexa asked putting her hands behind her back as a habit due to the military and the countless hours doing drill.
"Well, Octavia drove us here actually so I don't know," Clarke would probably have to squeeze into one of the cars her security had but she didn't mind they were all really nice guys.
"If you wanted I could drive you home, I mean just drive you home not anything weird," Lexa rushed out suddenly feeling nervous around the blonde.
Clarke thought about it for a second, on the one hand it would be helpful to get a ride, and she did want some time alone with the brunette but on the other hand she didn't know if she could trust the girl with her location in case she either knew who she was or found out. In the end the blonde decided to trust Lexa and agreed to the ride thankfully.
They climbed into Lexa's car, Lexa holding the door open for Clarke, receiving a 'such a gentleman' from Clarke, causing the brunette's cheeks to redden slightly.
The drive to Clarke's house was in comfortable silence, only broken by Clarke giving out directions when needed and soon they pulled up outside the relatively small house.
"Well thank you for the lift, and for talking to me during the gig."
"It was my pleasure Clarke," Clarke loved the way her name rolled off Lexa's tongue it made her tingle and her heart jump slightly.
"Okay so I know this is totally forward and I really don't usually do this but I kinda feel like we had a thing tonight and I just wanted to ask if I could have your number and we could maybe go on a date sometime," Clarke was impressed with herself that she managed to get that out without messing up, and hoped Lexa would agree.
Lexa's cheeks heated up and she shyly nodded at the blonde, pulling a pen out and writing her number down on Clarke's hand.
"Well I guess I'll call you later then," Clarke said unbuckling her seatbelt.
"I look forward to it."
Clarke looked back at Lexa and made her mind up, slowly leaning in, giving the brunette chance to pull away, instead Lexa leant in and connected their lips together gently. The kiss wasn't passionate, or long either but it was filled with meaning and as they parted and smiled shyly at the other, both blushing like they were teenagers all over again.
"Well I guess I'll call you later then."
"I guess I'll answer later then."
"Night Lex."
"Night Clarke."
And with that Clarke got out of the car and walked up her path and into her house.
Later when Lexa got home with a smile still on her face, despite the loud noises coming from Raven's room she got a call from an unknown number.
"Okay so maybe I couldn't wait much later"