Watching Your Face in the Spotlight
Clarke hadn't truly gotten the opportunity to look at Lexa until the third song in the set. While she had all of her music memorized and played it musically and accurately, the first song had enough moving lines in the violin to distract her and keep her eyes looking passionately, but blindly, ahead as she moved with her bow. And Lexa was not even on the stage during the second song; Clarke assumed that she either could not sing as well as she could dance – The Hearts Cry being a very beautiful and vocal piece with much less movement than the previous song – or she was getting changed into a costume for the next song that she was in.
That being said, she had watched Bellamy as he entered the stage on a lunge, arms flung out with his loose sleeves waving behind him almost like an angel as it landed from the heavens during Reel Around the Sun, and thought that she would see no other dancer that night, that danced as well as him.
That is, until she watched Lexa come onto the stage in The Countess Cathleen. Her arms were flung down to her sides, unlike what Bellamy had done with his boisterous entrance in the opening number, and thus she added an air of discipline and professionalism to her dancing. Her face was stoic, and looked to be unaffected, but Clarke was sure that if she had been close enough to see her eyes she would have seen the pure, undiluted joy in them. Clarke's hands and arm began to play the music on autopilot as she really looked at Lexa for the first time. Sure, she had seen her in practices and in passing while on break, but truth be told practice didn't run for long when at a professional level. Musicians and dancers alike were expected to practice and get it on their own, only touching up on the finer things while in rehearsal.
It didn't help that the spotlight made her look even more stunning than usual.
So while Clarke's eyes roamed Lexa, she took in the finer details of her instead of just looking at her as a whole. She noticed the way that Lexa's fingers were clenched tight at her side (she couldn't imagine how hard it must be to keep her arms pinned like that while spinning and jumping around), how she had tight control of every part of her face, except for her eyebrows. While her eyes remained in a constant state of awareness and her lips pinched together, her thin eyebrows would occasionally jump or bunch up when doing a particularly difficult piece of choreography.
The way her hair behaved on stage was yet another fascination Clarke had developed with Lexa. Lexa's thick dark hair was braided intricately, perhaps as part of her character- the Countess- but Clarke could see Lexa wearing her hair like this as often as possible. It swayed delightfully as she landed her jumps, and managed to keep out of her eyes as she twirled. She could see how well it settled on and around her shoulders as well as accentuating her features. Part of Clarke wanted to see the curve of her neck, as well as her ears, but perhaps another time. Right now, she was busy ogling the rest of the gorgeous dancer in the spotlight.
As the song progressed and her eyes progressed down Lexa's body, it was harder and harder to keep from watching as the hem of her short dress jumped up with her. Of course, she was wearing tights under it but nonetheless, Clarke caught glimpses of her muscular legs, no doubt a byproduct of years and years of dancing. She swore that she could see the lean muscles under dark tights flexing as she flittered around the stage.
Then she suddenly stopped moving and the stage went dark, and Clarke realized they had gotten to the part where the male dancers would enter. Frankly, it was a miracle that Clarke's fingers had remembered to stop playing before she embarrassed herself. Lexa dashed off of the stage and faint tapping was heard. Sadly, Clarke wasn't going to get another unobstructed view of Lexa again for the entire show. She sat up straight, and attempted to focus more on the music than on the dancers.
Lexa had just walked back to the edge of the stage when Clarke walked onto it. She had been taking a much needed break to get some water into her system (she had sweated most of it out during the performance - under the spotlights which made the stage feel as hot as Satan's crotch) and rest her tired feet. When she felt up to it, she slipped on her soft shoes and picked up her hard ones as to not make any noise and disturb the musical interlude on the stage.
She hadn't thought it odd that so many people were crowded around the edge of the curtain, carefully peeping in. The musicians were amazing, she knew as much so did everyone else. Lexa briefly thought back to when she tried to learn to play an instrument, but found it much harder to sit and make the music than to stand and move with it.
When Lexa got to the crowd, the crowd made a small path for her to walk down in order to get to a viewing spot. The visual she received was stunning to say the least.
Clarke was standing on the far left side of the stage, playing an absolutely amazing violin solo. At the moment, she was situated in one spot, rocking her upper body to the music she made, nodding her head and closing her eyes in joy. The smile on her face grew and diminished in crescendos and decrescendos as music poured from her soul, never loosing it's shine. Her knees bent and straightened periodically, and Lexa thought that she had never seen a sight so enrapturing.
Though, she didn't stay in that spot for long; her legs brought her over to a large metal pedal on the ground close to the other musicians, and when she stepped on it and played her violin simultaneously, a strange, funky sound was produced. Clarkes movements from then on were sensual, flowing with the music she played and the music being played back to her. She made her way to center stage walking backwards, playing in time with the percussion with a huge grin and occasionally nodding her head, causing her blonde curls to bounce deliciously.
Then Clarke was running back to the musicians, and Lexa was nearly about to jump and scream "Brava!" when she realized that the music had yet to stop. Clarke ran up to the percussion and began to play along with the percussionist, a lanky boy with shaggy brown hair and an angular face. He would hit drums, she would play a lick on her violin or occasionally she would hit one of the instruments within reach. When she had first hit one of the suspended cymbals, he had looked at her mock angrily, but they then went on to crouch and laugh at each other. As she was leaving, Clarke dragged her bow through the chimes for good measure, then jumped down onto the main stage and continued playing her solo.
When the rest of the band came back in, Lexa didn't even notice, because for her there was only Clarke, rhythmically tapping her heel on the stage and moving to the music in the spotlights.
The show was over, and both were more than a little saddened by the fact that they wouldn't see the other working magic again until the next show. Lexa had just finished showering and walked out into the dressing room with nothing but her towel when she spotted Clarke, on the opposite side of the room, getting ready to pack up her violin and leave. Her heart began to race and her palms began to sweat as she looked over the gentle slopes of Clarke's face, and she just barely kept herself from audibly swallowing at the sight of her up close. Deciding to forgo putting clothing on, Lexa found herself walking, clutching her towel over her heart to try and slow it.
Clarke hadn't noticed Lexa for a moment or two while the latter stood over her clad in nothing but a fluffy white towel. Clarke sincerely wished she would have made some noise or something to announce her presence, as she had been so preoccupied with thoughts of having to buy a new bow as well as rosin that she hadn't felt her until she looked to her side… and straight into Lexa's legs. She could feel her face heating up rapidly as she continued to stare for longer than she should have, then managed to pry her eyes up into Lexa's intense gaze.
"Uh, h-h-hi!" she near shrieked, embarrassed, surprised, and a bit horrified at what she had been doing. She inched away as much as she could in her crouched position next to her violin case.
"Hi," she could almost feel the amusement in Lexa's voice. "You are Clarke, right?"
"Um, yeah!" Clarke said overenthusiastically, jumping up to her feet and holding her hand out to Lexa. "Clarke Griffin."
Lexa took her hand and squeezed it heartily. "Lexa Woods."
Clarke took her hand away slowly, bunching her shoulders to her ears, "Yeah… I know. You did great tonight, especially in The Countess Cathleen."
Lexa's eyebrow raised, and a very small smile, almost imperceptible (and would have been had Clarke not been staring at her lips for the longest time), graced her features. "I did?" Clarke nodded. "Well, thank you, Clarke. You were amazing tonight as well." Lexa closed her eyes for a moment to reel herself in. She hadn't meant to give that high a compliment, even if the compliment deserved was one that held the moon and stars in its hands.
A moment of silence passed after Clarke managed to utter a thank you.
"Do you wanna get coffee sometime?" Clarke blurted out when Lexa opened her eyes again. She hadn't been able to hold it in anymore after seeing her eyes for the first time up close. She had never met someone so beautiful before in her life, both in physical appearance and artistic capacity, and she had to at least make an attempt to know her better.
Lexa, who had been so hesitant to even give a well-deserved compliment, paused for a moment, her breath hitching as she looked down at the girl who had somehow managed to capture her heart through a three-minute violin solo. She didn't have the mental capacity to do anything other than slowly nod her head at first, then flash the blonde a full on smile and nod more rapidly.
Clarke nearly laughed at Lexa's eagerness. She would never have guessed that Lexa even had the capability to act in this manner after watching her perform on stage. But then again, while the spotlight was good at illuminating a person's physical beauty, Clarke found that it did absolutely nothing for a glimpse into a person as complex as Lexa.
A/N: So I saw this prompt on Tumblr along with a bunch of other dancing AU's and this was the only one I felt somewhat comfortable writing, and I'm certain that the prompt giver wanted a dancer to dancer fic, but I'm sorry I liked this idea and I ran with it. I am not a dancer, I'm a musician in fact so while I understand feeling the music I don't understand moving my body parts in choreography to it, sorry xD.
Anyhow, I love Riverdance and Irish music in general, so I hope I do this justice. Countess Cathleen and Slip Into Spring are two of my favorite songs/dances, so I encourage you to watch performances of them(as linked on my profile) before/while reading this. Thank you :D