Clarke never liked hockey, but her dad did. And so does the girl occupying the seat next to her. Clexa hockey!AU.
It's been years since her last hockey game, and she'd vowed to never go to one again, not after her dad, but when Bellamy comes to her with tickets to the first playoff game and Raven and Octavia begging her to go she can't exactly say no. Especially when the older Blake gives her a look and says, "It's been years, Princess. Come with us, for old times sake?" And she finds herself nodding, excited squeals filling her ears from her two roommates and best friends. It's not like she had any other plans. Besides, it's the start of summer break, her last summer break before she goes to med school in the fall, and Clarke feels like it'll be a good start to the break. And who is she to say no to Finals tickets?
They all dress in their blue and white Sharks tees, Clarke grabbing her dad's faded blue ball cap from their last game and placing it on her head. Their group was going to stand out like sore thumbs in the middle of the area filled with Penguins fans, but Clarke felt good in her light blue Sharks shirt and her dad's hat on her head. It felt like old times, and while she still felt bittersweet about it, it felt like coming home, and Clarke knew her dad would be proud of her for it. The drive from campus to the stadium takes at least four hours, not including the DC traffic on Memorial Day, so they get an early start, eating brunch before heading out on the road.
Clarke's never been to Pennsylvania, only having traveled to the East coast with her three high school friends from California to go to school in Washington DC a few years ago. Sure, they'd been up to New York a summer or two, but they mostly find themselves going back home for the summer when they can. The California beaches are better anyways. She enjoys the trip in the back of Bellamy's pick up, all of them singing along to the radio while Octavia plays DJ with it and it doesn't take as long as they thought it would to arrive at their hotel for the night. They decide to check in, all of them sharing a room on their college student budgets, minus Bellamy who's just a TA but still has to pay off loans, and start the walk to the stadium.
It takes some time and a lot of glares for their group of Shark fans to find seats, but once they do Clarke feels better than she has in a long time. She's seated next to Octavia, Bellamy and Raven on the other side of the girl, the seats next to her unoccupied. She had lost the game of rock, paper, scissors of who has to sit next to the Penguins fans, and she was hoping, praying, no one sat next to her. Or she was hoping she'd get lucky enough to have a fellow Sharks fan next to her.
Clarke was never one for having luck on her side, and it doesn't take long for the seats around them and next to her to start filling up. A rowdy cheer lets out to her left and she turns her head just in time to meet green. The greenest eyes she has ever seen are staring right back at her, and Clarke isn't sure if it's the way the black war paint the girl wears around her eyes makes them more green or if they always look like that but she can't look away. At least not until said green-eyed girl gets shoved slightly by the rowdy bunch behind her and she makes her way down the aisle, her seat right next to Clarke. Face slightly flushed, Clarke swallows before turning back to Bellamy beside her, looking at her knowingly. She ignores him in favor of taking in the expressions of Raven and Octavia who have also noticed the group that found their seats in their row. It makes Clarke feel better, but not by much.
The game starts and Clarke is on the edge of her seat, trying her best to keep her focus on the game and not the girl next to her. But that becomes harder the more Clarke catches a glimpse of her out of the corner of her eye. It should be illegal to look that good in a hockey jersey, a Penguins jersey nonetheless, and it doesn't take long for Clarke to want to find out what's underneath. Especially when the Penguins make a good play and the girl stands up, cheering. Clarke finds herself distracted once again, and not on the game.
The girl goes to sit down, her head turning and catching Clarke in the middle of stairing. She smirks and Clarke finds herself looking at lips that show the barest hint of dimples around said smirk and she looks away quickly at getting caught. It's not even the end of the first quarter and she has already made a fool of herself. Getting up, she makes her way to the right, the opposite side of their aisle, the opposite of the green-eyed smirking girl, whispering to Octavia, who is too busy making bedroom eyes at one of their seat mates at the end of the aisle over her brother's head, that she's going to the restroom. She gets waved off and she rolls her eyes before finding the nearest bathroom.
Taking her time, Clarke splashes some water on her warm cheeks, hoping to cool herself down, and walks the long way back to her seat after finally cooling off. Only, when she returns, she finds butterflies in her stomach and their whole row seems to have changed seats. She finds Octavia speaking with the handsome muscular guy she was looking at earlier, Bellamy in a deep discussion with another girl wearing a Penguins jersey, and Raven nowhere to be found. Then she meets green eyes once again and the only open seat is next to green eyes, so with no other choice, Clarke climbs over Octavia and Bellamy, settling herself next to the girl once again.
"You go to the bathroom for one moment and everything changes" she grumbles under her breath, though she feels no one hears her.
A heavenly laugh comes from her right and Clarke is proved wrong, so very wrong, when she meets eyes she hasn't been able to get out of her mind the moment the game started. Her heart feels like it's in her throat and she can't help but smile back. The girl offers her hand and another smirk.
"Looks like your friends moved on without you. Lexa."
Clarke looks down at the hand offered, only hesitating a moment before shaking hands, and stumbling out her own name. "Clarke. Clarke Griffin. And those are my friends who seem to be making friends…or enemies with your friends. Though I don't know where Raven is but..." She cuts herself off, knowing she's starting to ramble and shrugs. "If she's gone that's never good."
Lexa looks at her, understanding in her eyes before nodding her head and gesturing to the stairs. "My sister, Anya, is gone too. I don't quite think it's a coincidence."
Clarke opens her mouth to reply when cheers erupt around the stadium and for a moment she'd forgotten where she was. It's almost deafening and she stands up to find out what's going on. No sirens or lights, which means no goals were scored, but when she stands on her toes and looks out on the ice she grins as she sees fists throwing punches and gloves flying off. It was one of her dad's favorite parts of hockey, and she starts to get lost in her thoughts of him again until Lexa starts cheering, her chants of "blood must have blood" making Clarke laugh. The sound alerts Lexa, and she smiles, a real smile, not a smirk, it meeting her eyes, at Clarke, and the blonde gets lost in green eyes once again, her body turning so she's facing Lexa more. Her eyes drop down to pink lips before looking back up and licking her own, watching Lexa follow her movements. It's then she realizes two can play at this game, and she sends Lexa a smirk before being seated again after the fight calmed down.
The Sharks have a power play for the next two minutes, leaving them with five players and the Penguins with four. With only seconds left of the power play, Couture, one of Clarke's favorite Sharks, gets the puck and scores. Clarke finds herself up on her feet, cheering loudly while the arena around her boos. It isn't until she feels a tug on her shirt that she looks down to find Lexa looking at her, being the one doing the tugging.
"You may want to sit down, Shark Princess, unless you want to be a victim here."
Slowly, Clarke makes her way down into her seat and shoots the girl next to her a grin. "Yes, commander. Any other tips on how to make it out of here alive when we win?"
"That's cute that you think you're going to win. We aren't even halfway through the game, and your pretty mouth already needs to be shut. You're rather brave coming here and talking trash in a stadium full of Pitt fans. Care to put your money where your mouth is?"
Never one to turn down a bet, Clarke straightens, nodding. "Sharks win, and you owe me a beer or two. Penguins win and you find a way to shut my mouth for me." She held her hand out to shake on it, much like they did when they first met, and Lexa meets her halfway. "You're on, Shark girl."
For the rest of the second quarter, Clarke watches the game but also learns a lot more about Lexa, and she'd even go as far as admitting that Lexa is more interesting than the game. They're only a year apart, Clarke having just turned 21 and Lexa turning 23 at the end of the year, and Clarke learns Lexa came with her family, her sister Anya, who has yet to come back to her seat, and her cousins Lincoln and Echo. The four of them had been lucky enough to find tickets even though they had to pay an arm and a leg. She learns Lexa is a poli sci major at a school not too far from where Clarke goes to school. "We've lived in Pennsylvania all our lives," Lexa explains, "it's only right we come to a Penguins game when they're going to win the Cup." Clarke just rolls her eyes and shakes her head, they've been going back and forth with one another, sly remarks in between flirting on who's going to win the game.
The third quarter makes it difficult for them to continue any conversation as the Penguins score not even a minute in, tying the game 1-1. Clarke can barely hear herself think, and though it's not hard to watch the game at this point, she still glances at Lexa every once in a while, finding the girl with her hair in intricate braids even more attractive when she's fired up about the game.
"Blood must have blood!" Lexa cheers again when another fight breaks out. Though this time, it's a Sharks player that gets to spend two minutes in the penalty box. At this point, Clarke can't help herself. She can't help the fact that there's only three minutes in the game. She can't focus on anything other than the girl next to her whose eyes had her at the beginning of the game. She doesn't want to do anything other than find out just how soft her skin is, to feel just how warm she'll get when she finally tastes pink lips, and she can't hold back, not anymore.
It doesn't take long for Lexa to realize Clarke's gone quiet and when she turns her head, she finds Clarke staring at her, ocean blue eyes a shade darker. "Clarke-"
Lexa doesn't get to finish her sentence though, because it's then that Clarke leans over the tiny armrest and presses their lips together. The moment their lips meet, Clarke can't help but see fireworks. She can't help but feel on fire, and she most certainly can't help but feel the butterflies in her stomach.
It doesn't take long for Lexa to start kissing back and for things to start heating up between them. Tilting her head to the side, Lexa takes Clarke's bottom lip in between her teeth, pulling slightly, smiling against Clarke's lips at the groan she barely hears over the roar of the crowd around them.
They're so into one another, into kissing the other, that they don't notices who scores and wins the game. They don't notice Raven and Anya slinking back into their seats, hair slightly mussed and lips swollen but satisfied smirks on their face. They don't notice Bellamy and Echo conversing about history of the game, and they don't notice Lincoln and Octavia switching numbers while grinning at each other softly. Instead, all they can focus on is each other, lips against lips, hands on skin, and the feeling of being one.
It isn't until later that night, after they all get back from a late-night group dinner together, that Clarke and Lexa find time alone. As she lays there, her body sweaty and spent, Lexa's arm wrapped tightly around her waist, sharing a bed in Lexa's hotel room, that Clarke allows herself to feel. And for the first time since her last hockey game with her dad, Clarke feels whole again. It's all thanks to a girl with a Penguins jersey, war paint, green eyes, and a heart for hockey. Just like her dad. Just like Clarke.