Just a fun little story co-written with Bookwyrm743 (Cross-posted on A03 under their tag). This is a SLOWBURN Clexa (will literally take forever).

Chapter 1 Everything is fine

"Hey girl long time no see!" Raven grabbed Elyza and pulled her into a tight hug, "Oh my god I missed you so much!"

"You act like you've been gone for years." Elyza teased, but she hugged back just as tightly. The familiar smell of oil and solder reminded her of hours spent helping Raven with robotics labs, and shop assignments. Raven smelled like home. "Man, you couldn't have picked a college a little closer to home?"

Raven stepped back to grab Elyza's suitcase, "You know I love it here. Besides an hour isn't that far away, just a hop skip and a boat ride right?"

Elyza slugged her shoulder, following her into the tiny apartment. "Weirdo."

"You know it." Raven grinned over her shoulder, "You get the couch." She set the suitcase in the corner by the TV and snagged the clean laundry off the back of her green couch. "I've got a few blankets in the ottoman." Raven jerked her chin at the pair of black footrests next to Elyza.

She lifted the lid off the top and found a plethora of old controllers and consoles tangled into a mess that would have made any nerd cry. "This is just sad." Elyza looked up to Raven and opened up the other footrest to pull out the heavy denim blankets. "These, however, are amazing."

"Courtesy of grandma Reyes." Raven grinned, "She's a god damn miracle worker with some old jeans and flannel." Her smile faded just a touch and she watched Elyza focus too hard on unfolding the blanket, "Speaking of miracle workers, how's your mom?"

Elyza sighed, throwing the blanket over the couch. "Stressed, as always. I think it's really bad Rae." She glanced over at her best friend, "I've never seen her so freaked out… I don't think she's sleeping anymore and, and her face." Elyza grimaced, trying to figure out how to explain what she saw in her mother's eyes, "When she told me that we were coming down here… I don't know Rae, she looked, she looked the way she did after dad."

Raven put a hand on Elyza's knee and squeezed, "That shitty huh?"

"Yeah..."

Raven sat down next to Elyza and hooked an arm over the younger girl's shoulder, "It's gonna be okay Elyza, your mom is a genius among geniuses, and they have dozens more where she came from. They'll fix this."

Abby said almost the exact same thing when they parted at the airport. 'This will all blow over in a few days.' Elyza couldn't help but feel like it was worse, calling so many doctors to work with the military, quarantines, and evacuations. Even the college was catching on. The whole reason that Raven had any time to spend with her was a nationwide holiday. Too many people getting sick. She played enough chess to know that you didn't move that many pieces around for a minor issue that would blow over in a few days.

"Yeah…" Elyza pressed her face into Raven's shoulder, "I'm sure it'll be fine."

Raven only allowed them half an hour to sulk about the shitstorm brewing outside before she double tapped Elyza's shoulder. "Alright, enough mopey shit. I only get you for a weekend and I'll be damned if I'm not going to enjoy it." Elyza sat up enough for Raven to stand and accepted the hand offered to her.

"What are we doing?"

"Well I am going to make dinner, and you are going to update me on life outside of the smoggy valley." Elyza raised an eyebrow at the dinner comment until she saw where Raven was headed. Phone in hand, Raven dug through her drawer of takeout menus with a huge grin.

"I know what you want and not a chance," Elyza replied, grabbing the first pizza menu she could find. "This one."

"Come on," Raven pouted, "No boys? Or girls I'm not picky. I need something in my life besides robotics projects and a bunch of eggheads too focused on their homework to notice the bitch sitting next to them."

"Nah, none of them." Elyza shrugged, "I'm not really looking for any of that stuff right now."

"Girl you need to get over that Finn business, guy was a fucking dick, jerking everyone around."

Elyza spun a pen on the countertop, avoiding Raven's knowing looks. "I'm over it."

"Mmmmn," Raven dialed the pizza place. "You're so over 'it' you became a national fucking monument to being over it." She rolled her eyes every few minutes while ordering their food, all while Elyza made it a point to ignore those looks. "So what movie is it gonna be tonight? I've got anything that the internet has to offer." Raven kicked Elyza's chair, "Come on dude, I'm sorry about the Finn comment okay?"

Elyza shook her head, "I-It's not Finn, you're right, he's a tool. It's whatever. I'm worried about what's out there." She jerked her chin, "Something bad is going to happen."

"Oookay, I think it's time to watch some Disney. You need lighthearted, carefree songs." Raven dragged Elyza to the couch and sat her down. "You are gonna stay here until you can smile and mean it, I will also accept singing along with the songs, but it has to be loud and awful. Got it?"

Elyza made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a scoff and nodded her agreement, "Yeah mom."

Raven vaulted over the couch and turned on the TV, "Jokes are a very good start, but they won't get you out of a minimum four movie marathon." She warned.

"I guess I'll have to be surly for the first four movies."

"Shut up." Raven flopped down next to her and turned on Cinderella. They made it through the first half of the movie before pizza showed up. After that, it was laughter and eating and rude commentary all the way to the end of the night and then some.

Disney movies were still playing when the sun rose. Raven was curled up on a pillow, her legs thrown across Elyza's lap and sleeping soundly. Elyza watched her sleep, wishing she could do the same. She appreciated all the effort Raven had gone through to make her feel welcome and try to take her mind off of things, but how could she just have fun? Her mother was off dealing with a potential epidemic while she marathoned fucking Disney.

"Fake it til you make it right?" Elyza murmured, laying her head down on her arm, "I hope you're right mom."

"Did you get any sleep?" Raven mumbled, nudging Elyza with her foot.

"Eh, I'll sleep when I'm dead" Elyza shrugged moving out from under Raven's legs. "I'm gonna take a shower then I'll make breakfast?" she asked

"If by make breakfast you mean pour some cereal in a bowl or toast a poptart, sure" Raven snarked "Shit, you know I'm your girl if you want something blown up or set on fire, that goes for food too."

Elyza laughed and shook her head as she collected her things and headed into the bathroom. Letting the water warm up as she brushed her teeth, Elyza couldn't help worrying. There was an epidemic out there, one bad enough that they had declared a national holiday. How long would Raven's stash of junk food last? And what would happen if they couldn't get delivery?

Mom had made it clear that they should stay inside and wait out the worst of the problem, but that had been all of the advice she had offered. She had been so focused on getting back to work that she really hadn't given much information, not that she probably could. Stepping into the steamy water Elyza decided that a trip to the grocery store was the first order of business. They could get some real food and then they could really hole up until this all blew over.

"I know you said you have cereal and stuff, but let's head to the grocery store and get all the fixings and I can make pancakes and bacon and we can eat real food for breakfast," Elyza said as she walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel.

"Uh, aren't we supposed to stay inside til your mom calls and gives the all-clear?" Raven asked, looking a little worried

"Yeah, but she probably forgot your eating habits and staying inside doesn't do us much good if we keep getting visits from random delivery people who could be sick," Elyza said with a grin.

"Yeah ok, you may have a point on that one. Give me some time to shower and change and I'll be ready to go. We can hit Kroger down the street." Raven agreed, heading to her bedroom to get ready for the day.

"Fuck me!" Raven moaned staring at the crazy grocery store parking lot "Why are there so many people in this state?"

"Because the weather is nice, and it wouldn't be a problem if you ever bought actual food, if you did then we could be chowing down and watching something but NOT Disney. I still can't get that Frozen song out of my head." Elyza whined.

"Shut up, let's get this done with already, I'm starving," Raven smacked Elyza's arm as they headed into the store. "What all do we need?"

"Well if I thought you'd use the stuff, I'd make pancakes from scratch," Elyza paused and looked at Raven who just rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of that idea " So we need pancake mix, eggs, milk, bacon, lunch meat, bread, cheese, some chicken and then snacks. Maybe we should get some stuff we don't need to heat in case there're issues with power?"

"First of all why would there be issues with power? It's a long weekend, not an apocalypse. And second why do we need so much food?" Raven asked

"Uh, have you seen you eat? My mom's paying for it anyway so we may as well eat well. We have no idea what's going to happen, so we should be prepared." Elyza answered as she grabbed a cart and started down the first aisle.

To say it was a mess would be a grievous understatement. Boxes tossed to the floor, a once-full container of frosted flakes was exploded across the linoleum like so many bags of sugar frosted confetti. A couple of dented cans, and most importantly, almost no undamaged packages of food on the shelves. It looked like a war-zone met a candy store riot.

"Shit, there's not much left. What's with people going crazy? And if you're being miss prepared, maybe we should get some bottled water and batteries for flashlights? Sometimes the water stops if the power is out for too long." Raven suggested as she dodged around carts and people blocking the shelves, throwing what she could into the cart.

"Yeah, we can do that. This is insane, it feels like the whole city is here." Elyza complained, barely avoid ramming yet another clueless idiot with her cart.

"Ok, so they are out of milk, and there's only frozen chicken left. Let's get the water and get the hell out of here already." Raven grunted as she dumped another armful of food into the cart.

"I thought you were unhappy getting groceries, I think you've added a ton more stuff to the cart than I have." Elyza pointed out "I'll head up to the lines, they are ridiculously long, while you get the water."

"Sure, send the cripple to get the heavy water," Raven joked "Meet you up there," she took off, not giving Elyza time to say anything else

The lines were ridiculous, all of the checkers had at least 7 people waiting in the que to be checked out. Elyza wasn't even close enough to belt to read any of the trashy magazine articles. Figuring she could at least get in a few levels of Candy Crush while she waited, Elyza pulled out her phone and started matching.

"Boo!" Raven yelled, laughing as Elyza jumped and almost dropped her phone. "They are out of water, there's literally none left so I got some iodine solution."

"Ok, how does that help us if there's no water coming into the house in the first place?" Elyza asked, leaning back onto the cart. She was now the 4th person in line.

"I figure if you are worried about it, we can fill up the bathtub." Raven shrugged,

"Better be after a serious washing. I'm not drinking ass water" Elyza laughed.

Raven smirked and shook the iodine bottle, "Hence this shit, it'll keep the ass out of the water."