Your parents tell you it started when you were six and you felt your arm tingling, only to find sloppy hearts and stars covering your left arm. They sat you down to talk about soulmates.
"Lexa, when kids are about your age this starts happening. Your soulmate will write something on their skin and it will appear on your skin. So if you write or draw something on your skin it will appear on their skin." Of course, at that age you were too young to understand what a soulmate was, but you were happy enough to doodle some hearts back.
When you turned eleven, your soulmate finally wrote something. You woke up to find the message on your arm.
"My name is Clarke Griffin."
You stared blankly for a few moments before leaping out of bed to find a pen.
"I'm Lexa Woods."
Throughout the day you chatted about anything and everything. You told her about your school and your best friend, Lincoln. She told you about her parents and her best friends, Octavia and Raven. She made you laugh with her silly doodles and you made her smile with your sincere compliments. Since that day, you chatted with each other nearly everyday. It was rare occasion that a day went by without your skin covered in ink.
For years, you were content with just this communication. You knew nearly everything about her, her favorite color (green), she lives in New York, she is a virgo, and even that she prefers hot chocolate without marshmallows but with tons of whipped cream. And she knew everything about you.
xx
When you were sixteen you told her about the girl in the grade above yours named Costia. You told Clarke about her beautiful blonde hair and her strong bone structure and the look in her eye of pure determination and how it made you weak in the knees when she talked to you.
"I hope you're happy with Costia" she wrote, "but I can't help but feel a little jealous knowing my soulmate is falling in love with someone else."
You remember staring at that message for hours, contemplating what to say. You finally decided on "Clarke, you know you will always come before anyone else in the world." And you really meant it.
When you turned seventeen, you and Costia broke up when she went away to college. You cried for days and refused to talk to anybody but Clarke.
xx
On your eighteenth birthday, Clarke decided it would be fun to write little numbers over her body throughout the day. When you gathered all the numbers together on a piece of paper, it made a phone number. You stared at it for nearly two hours before deciding to call it.
Your breath was shallow as you heard the rings. On the third ring, somebody answered. It was a man's voice and before you could even get a breath out, he started singing happy birthday. You asked him what was happening and he told you that you called the phone line that wishes people happy birthday when they call it. You thank him before taking a huge black marker and writing in big, capital letters, "CLARKE I SWEAR TO GOD THAT WAS REALLY SWEET BUT I THOUGHT YOU GAVE ME YOUR PHONE NUMBER."
She responded almost immediately with a smiley face and "If you wanted my number you could have just asked ;) (xxx) xxx-xxxx"
You stare in disbelief before dialing the number, half expecting nobody to pick up. On the second ring, you hear a smiling voice say "Lexa?" You lose your breath. "Lexa, is that you?"
You finally calm yourself down enough to say "Clarke?" She laughs into the phone and your heart just melts.
"Yes Lexa, its me. Happy Birthday!"
"Holy shit!"
"Holy shit to you too."
"Oh my god, Clarke! After twelve years I finally get to hear your voice!" She laughs again and you swear you could die happy just listening to that sound.
"Lexa, I know this is a weird thing to say after only having spoken to you for about fifteen seconds, but damn your voice is doing things to me right now."
You blush heavily and lay down on your bed, "Right back at ya, Clarke."
You're on the phone for hours and hours, laughing at all the memes Clarke lists from memory, and talking about your parents messy divorce. You feel like you can tell her everything, and you do. The only thing you don't talk about is when you will finally meet each other, but it doesn't matter because you are just so happy to hear Clarke's beautiful, raspy voice. You both fall asleep on the phone because neither one of you wanted to hang up first. Which is super cheesy and cliche now that you think about it, but made you smile so much when you woke up and found you were still on the phone.
You call each other every day, just talking about little things like what you both ate or the gossip going on in either of your schools. Weirdly enough, you find you know more about Raven and Octavia than you do most kids at your own school.
You remember Clarke telling you about how when Raven and Octavia were ten, they discovered they were each others soulmates and became even more inseparable than they already were. Clarke told you stories about 'Octaven' and their dates and cute arguments and you began to feel like you already knew them.
xx
One day, a few months after turning eighteen, Clarke tells you she was accepted into University of California and you just about scream in the middle of your school's hallways because you just got accepted there too. You immediately text her the good news and she calls you within seconds screaming in your ear about how "fun this is going to be!" You go home that day with your cheeks in pain because you can't stop smiling.
xx
The summer before college, you are in New York visiting your cousin, Anya. You are in bed lounging around on a Saturday when you see Clarke's handwriting appear on your left arm.
"Lexa, I got into a car crash. The doctors have to preform surgery in a few minutes. Just thought I should let you know in case they write something weird on me during the surgery."
You fly out of bed in search of a pen, your mind racing beyond belief. All you can think about in that moment is "fuck I'm not ready to lose Clarke."
You speedily write back, "Clarke, I need to know what hospital you are at before they take you for the surgery."
"Lexa, please. I promise I'm okay."
"Clarke… I swear to go if you go into surgery before you tell me where you are I will never forgive you."
"Okay, okay. I'm at New York Methodist Hospital. Its in Brooklyn."
"Okay Clarke. Please please please don't die."
"I promise I'll be okay. But the nurses are telling me to put down the pen now. Bye."
"Don't say bye."
After a few minutes with no response, you race out of Anya's guest room and call Anya telling her everything.
"Lexa, don't worry. I'll pick you up in half an hour and we'll drive there. We can make it in less than an hour and I'm sure the surgery will take longer than that."
"Okay, okay. Anya please hurry. She the love of my life I have to see her." You hung up with your heart racing. Even though you knew there was such a small chance of Clarke dying there was just part of your mind that was paranoid that you would never get to live happily ever after with Clarke.
Since you had half an hour before Anya could pick you up, you decided to take a shower and at least look presentable before seeing your soulmate for the first time. You put on some mascara as Anya pulled the car to the front of the building and you jumped in the car, screaming the address of the hospital. The entire car ride, your body shook and the nerves in your stomach were overwhelming. When you got out of the car, you raced to the hospital entrance and flung open the door.
You told the lady at the front desk, "I'm here to see Clarke Griffin. I understand she was taken into surgery about an hour ago but I was wondering if I could wait in her room or something?"
"I'm sorry, what's your name?"
"Oh sorry. Lexa Woods. Clarke and I are soulmates." You say, practically shoving your ink ridden arm in the lady's face.
"Gotcha. Well Clarke is actually already out of surgery and she's in room 402." She said pointing toward the elevator.
You breath a soft "thanks" before quickly walking to the elevator. You press the button but after a few seconds decide that it is taking too long, so you bounce up four flights of stairs and find the room Clarke is in. You peek in through the window and see a sleeping figure. You decide then and there that she is the most beautiful person you have ever laid your eyes on. Her beautiful, soft blonde hair and angelic features, you almost think she is an angel. You nearly melt outside the door. You are about to open the door when a doctor stops you and tells you he operated on Clarke and that she should make a full recovery. Its that moment when you realize you don't even know what he operated on specifically.
"Sorry, this is a little embarrassing but what did you operate on exactly?" You ask him.
He laughs a little and says, "Oh you must be Lexa. Clarke made a big fuss before we put her under about you and how you were going to kill every single one of us if she didn't come out of there alive." Lexa blushed profusely and looked toward the floor. "Oh don't worry. We just had to fix up her leg a little bit but she will need crutches for at least 8 weeks."
A breath escaped you, "I thought she was dying or something."
"Oh no no. In fact, she should be waking up soon." The doctor smiled as he walked away.
You turn back toward the door and open it slightly, careful not to disturb Clarke. Your face is flushed and you are still shaking slightly. You walk over to Clarke's bed, wondering if it is super weird that you came all the way here just because Clarke broke her leg. You decide its not because she is the most spectacular thing in your life and you would do anything for her. After a few moments, her eyes flutter open and you gasp as you see the bluest eyes in the world probably. She smiles gently and grasps your hand softly.
"You know, Lexa, you really didn't have to come all this way."
You roll your eyes and squeeze her hand before replying, "Clarke, you know I would do just about anything for you." You see her smile a soft, lazy smile.
"Hey, Lexa?"
"Yeah, Clarke?"
"I think I'm still a little high from all the pain medicine they gave me but I just want you to know, I think you're the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my entire eighteen years of living."
You blush harder and look deep in to her eyes and say, "Clarke, have you ever looked in the mirror?"
She giggles again and in that moment you swear you have never loved anyone more than you love Clarke. "Lexa, I think you should kiss me."
You lean forward slowly, anticipating the first kiss of many. You look into her deep blue eyes and bring your hand up to her face and brush away a few strands of hair behind her ear. Your lips are barely an inch apart and she is looking at you like there has never been a moment better than this. She leans her head forward slightly and her lips touch yours and its pure bliss. Her lips are the softest you have ever had the pleasure of feeling and she tastes like wild cherry and you cannot get enough of her. You press forward slightly and feel butterflies erupt everywhere and her mouth slides against yours so you open you mouth and lick her lips and she moans. Oh god, she moans, and you swear its the best sound you've ever heard and you know you will try anything to hear that sound again.
Clarke pushes you back slightly and her pupils are full blown. "I think I am absolutely, irrevocably in love with you, Lexa Woods" she whispers with such awe in her eyes.
Your heart bursts with excitement as you kiss her again softly and whisper back, "I'm so happy to hear that, Clarke Griffin. Because I am so, incredibly in love with you too."
Her smile lights up the whole room.