So this was supposed to be a oneshot but things got a little out of hands and now it's a three shot. It's pretty much nothing but Clexa fluff and Raven/Clarke friendship. If you like it let me know! If anyone is actually interested I'll be sure to upload another chapter tomorrow or the next day :)
"So who's the girl?" Raven bursts into Clarke's room on a Monday night, soda can in hand and a pencil tucked behind her ear. "Or boy, I don't mean to discriminate." She gestures for Clarke to move over and she does even though it's her bed and Raven didn't really have the right to just shove her off. But she flops down and sends Clarke's collection of coloured pencils in eight different directions. "Don't stare at me like that; you've been in here drawing for hours. You know when you tend to draw for hours like this? When you're in love."
Clarke shakes her head and rolls her eyes, giving her friend a hearty shove so she squeals, falling from her perch on the bed and tumbling to the floor. She holds her soda can up in the air and impressively manages not to spill anything. "Would you rather not get our security deposit back or something?" Raven asks with a glare as she heaves herself back up from the floor. "Don't hate me cause I'm right."
"I hate you because you're annoying," Clarke finally says, pretending to focus on the piece in front of her. She'd been working on it for the last hour or so. "And my drawing time is hardly related to my relationship status."
"Oh please! The amount of time you spend here holed up in your room and skipping classes is directly related to how many feelings you have rolling around in that blonde head of yours and inversely related to how much time you actually have to spend on it."
With a sigh Clarke shoots Raven another glare. "Can you leave now? I'm busy." That was a lie. She wasn't busy in the slightest. But Raven was right and Clarke had not spent the last six hours sketching and painting and drawing just to have all of her feelings dredged back to the surface.
The only answer she receives is a raised eyebrow as Raven pulls the sketchbook away from Clarke, flipping the pages back to all of today's earlier musings. "I may not know a damn thing about actual art, but I do know when you are crushing on someone else. And these definitely signify a serious crush."
Clarke reaches forward and snatches it back, careful to make sure Raven will let go and none of her work will be ruined. "I'm just trying to practise a few things. School hasn't left me much time for it."
"You're a dirty liar, Clarke Griffin," Raven declares as she stands from the floor. "And don't think I don't have my ways of discovering the truth." She strides toward the door and stops to spin dramatically, peering her head back through. "Oh I will get to the bottom of this."
Clarke throws the first thing her hand can find at Raven's retreating figure.
/
The next morning announces itself too soon and Clarke has little choice but to haul herself out of bed and off to class where she would hand in the most half-assed homework assignment of…well, of this week. It wasn't that she was a bad student. It was just that she was occasionally a lazy student. It didn't help that she had gotten an apartment with her best friend Raven Reyes who was a genius ten times over and thus always on the search for something else to do as her own homework took mere seconds.
Of course it's raining when Clarke gets outside and she hadn't bothered to bring her umbrella and there was no way in hell that she was climbing back up all those stairs to get it. So she just keeps her head down and her cell phone shoved deep in her pocket. If one more phone ended up water logged she was convinced her mom would have her head.
It wasn't that she had gotten out of bed with the intention of stumbling into the only Java Jaha on the way to class, but it was cold and she was wet and tired and there was no freaking way she was attempting to make it through a two hour art history lesson without some caffeine in her system.
The bell above the door rings as Clarke walks through, and she can't help but think it's was an awfully outdated contraption to still be put to use. It's warm and the lighting is dim from the gloomy clouds outside. Instrumental music plays quietly in the background, but it's easy to tell that the real noise of this place rested in the clinking of dishes and the beeping of machines as costumers joked and laughed amongst themselves. It was a cozy place and, even better in Clarke's mind, it was familiar. Leaving home had been initially hard, especially with how sick her dad had been, and something about this place reminded her of Sunday mornings and blueberry muffins. Even if there weren't cartoons playing in the background or her dad lounging about in his oversized blue bathrobe that had been around since the dawn of time.
"Hang tight, princess," Bellamy, her most attentive barista, says from behind the counter. "Latte machine is in high demand today."
"Take your time," she says with a wave of her hand. She wasn't exactly running out of here in a rush. Clarke had left early for her class and it wasn't that she was here looking for someone exactly, but if she was around a few extra minutes and just so happened to bump into this person then where was the harm in that? Plus Mr. Kane would hardly miss her for the first ten minutes of his drawling lecture. He was the type of teacher who got so obsessed with what he was talking about he forgot that there were actual students there waiting to learn something.
Clarke plants herself on one of the barstools, knowing Bellamy will come find her whenever her drink is ready. She taps a pattern against the counter and peers over the man's shoulder on her left, skimming an article about the latest politic faux pas.
Maybe she shouldn't be surprised when someone comes and sits down next to her, after all, it was a little bit why she was here in the first place. Even so Clarke is all quick heart beats and swooning stomach as soon as she turns and catches a glance of who's next to her.
"Morning," the girl says when she catches her eye. This was not their first time happening upon each other in this god forsaken coffee shop. The girl came here almost as frequently as Clarke it would seem, though Bellamy called her 'commander' instead of 'princess,' and she kind of took to sitting in Clarke's barstool a few weeks back.
Of course it had turned into somewhat of a competition for the next several days. It got to the point where Clarke was waking up to be at this damn place a full hour and a half before her class and this other girl was still beating her in. "What do you sleep outside?" she had asked one morning when she walked in here before the sun had finished its ascent over the trees only to find that this other girl had still beaten her.
It had been an unspoken game but Clarke had breathed it to life that day. The girl had laughed high and clear and Clarke knew she was gone. Damn girls and their cute laughs. "That was the next step, but I think it's time we find something else to fight over." She slides off the barstool and takes her to go coffee cup in hand. "I'm exhausted."
And then she just freaking left.
After that Clarke didn't see her as consistently and, when she did, it was always in the barstool next to Clarke's unofficially reserved one. At the very least she appreciated the girl's mercy. But now when Clarke saw her it always lead to all of those damn butterflies again and she tried not to make a fool of herself yet repeatedly failed. The other girl was equally as much of a loser, but she played it off so well that she seemed cool even when she was tripping over a chair on her way out.
"Good morning," Clarke smiles a little too wide until she reminds herself not to. Play it cool, Griffin. It wasn't even a good morning. It was raining buckets and her head kind of hurt and oh dear god Mr. Kane had been on a Monet kick last class and there was no way he was past it already. But somehow in her familiar little café, Clarke felt like the morning might just be good after all.
"Are you too good for umbrellas?" the girl asks with pointed eyes at Clarke's less than attractive state. In fact, she probably looked a bit like a drowned cat.
Instead of admitting either to her forgetfulness or her laziness she merely nods. "Definitely." That causes laughter to fill the space next to her. It was a simple sound but one she could use more of.
"Here you go, princess. Extra whip just as you like it." Bellamy gives her a wink and she rolls her eyes back in his direction. If she hadn't met his girlfriend in the past she would think he was hitting on her. But no, his general demeanour was just to flirt with the world.
"What do you get to drink?" the girl asks and Clarke doesn't know which she finds more strange: the fact that she was revealing her coffee order before her first name or the fact that they didn't already know this tidbit of information about each other.
Even though it's stupid Clarke flushes just a little bit. Maybe this place was too warm today. "Salted caramel latte…with soy milk." She admits a little bit shamefully. Raven rolled her eyes every time Clarke requested it muttering the words "basic bitch" under her breath. It wasn't as if she was not completely aware of how basic she sounded, but regular milk gave her gas and that was the last thing she wanted while sitting in class. "You?"
The girl just smirks as Bellamy sets her drink down in front of her. "You're going to have to earn that answer," she says with an air of importance.
"Oh I'll get right on a good barter and trade system as soon as I get home today," Clarke says with as much sarcasm as she can muster when her insides are flipping around. Then she glances at the clock high on the wall and curses under her breath. "As I don't have anything to offer currently I suppose I'll take my leave."
The girl nods. "For the best," she says and Clarke is still reeling from her smile even as the rain soaked through her jacket on the way to class.