A/N: Hello my beautifuls! If you follow me on Ao3 at ToriWritesStories, you'll probably have read this story before. But I know that some people don't read on there, and I also want to have my stories in multiple places because I want as many people to be able to read them if they want :) So I'm reposting this here. I will try my best to post 3 chapters a day, and that way it will take 8 days for the whole story to go up. Then, I will post the sequel on here as well, and I'll probably do 2 chapters a day for that or something and it'll take 10 days. Anyway, this story is completely finished on Ao3, but there it is again ;)


Dragging her single suitcase behind her and keeping her backpack slung over her shoulder, Clarke Griffin boarded the hotel bus that would take her from the London Airport to the place that she was going to stay at for a handful of days. Despite really having no plans, she was trying to stay somewhat organized with what she was actually doing, which was really the only reason that she had booked a hotel beforehand in the first place. However, that was about as far ahead that she had thought at all.

So she shoved her suitcase into the window seat about midway through the bus, dropping her backpack on top of it as well before taking the middle seat of the three on that side of the aisle. It was a pretty big bus, though so far there were hardly any people on it. It was only supposed to be a twenty minute ride from the airport to the hotel, but Clarke tried to make herself comfortable anyway. However, as she relaxed into her seat and began to untangle her earphones, a guy probably just a few years older than her decided to sit in the seat directly next to her, despite the bus being nearly entirely empty.

"Hello," he greeted with a wide smile.

"Hi," Clarke muttered, wishing she could just be alone and ride to the hotel in peace. It was about midnight, and after the day's events, all she wanted to do was curl up in fresh sheets and sleep, even if her day had been short due to the plane ride.

"What brings you to London?"

Clarke sighed, already frustrated by his questioning as she answered vaguely, "Stuff." A few other people began to board the bus, and Clarke hoped that once the bus started to move, the guy would realize that she didn't feel like talking. It seemed odd that he hadn't, because Clarke was sure that her face displayed her dismay.

"Ah, I see. I'm visiting my family," he said, "though, they don't have enough room for me in their house. Hence why I'm in need of a hotel."

"Cool," Clarke muttered, her hands absentmindedly playing with her phone.

"How long are you staying for? It seems kind of strange that you're here all by yourself. You getting a room by yourself?" he questioned, and Clarke took in a deep breath, trying to figure out what to say to avoid answering his stupid questions and somehow get him to realize that she didn't want to be bothered.

Suddenly, though, a female voice answered him, "Do you mind moving seats?"

He looked up at the girl as Clarke did and asked, as if challenged, "Why shouldn't I sit here?" The girl looking down at him had long, wavy brown hair and intense green eyes that Clarke found herself suddenly lost in. She had a strong air of confidence about her. "Because that's my girlfriend that you've got your beady eyes all over."

Though Clarke was surprised by the lie, she forced herself not to react so as to avoid undoing the help that the stranger had just provided her with. The guy next to her turned to look back at Clarke, as if waiting for her to deny the statement. Clarke just blinked, unsure of what to say, if anything at all, and he finally just grunted and got up, moving to the back of the bus. Once he was seated and looking elsewhere, the brunette sat in the window seat across the aisle, not even looking toward the blonde. "Hey, thanks," Clarke spoke up, and green eyes suddenly jumped over to look at the source of the voice.

She smiled sweetly and said, "Don't worry about it."

Now free from conversations, Clarke shoved her earphones into her ears and began blaring her music, trying to stay awake as the bus finally started moving.

She failed, however, and a soft voice woke her twenty or so minutes later. "Hey, you sleeping in a hotel room tonight, or the bus?"

Clarke's eyes flickered open and were immediately focused on her brunette savior looking down at her from the aisle, with her backpack equipped and another bag next to her. They seemed to be the last to get off of the bus, which was waiting for them to do so and go into the hotel. "Oh, thanks."

The girl just chuckled and said, "Sure." She started off of the bus, and Clarke quickly gathered up her things and followed. She gave a quick thanks to the hotel bus driver, since she felt bad for making him wait on her, and then finally went into the hotel.

She had to wait for three other people, the strange brunette girl and the guy from earlier included, before she could check in. Once they had checked in and disappeared, Clarke finally got her key card and went up to her room in a rush.

It was small, but fresh white sheets and soft pillows awaited her on the queen sized bed, so she dropped her bags and slipped off her shoes and collapsed into the bed, instantly falling asleep.


Despite how tired she'd been when she fell asleep, Clarke woke up early since she'd only technically been awake for about eleven hours the previous day, due to time zones. She had thought that she would wake up at noon or later, but by ten in the morning, she found herself showered, made up a bit, and heading down a level in the hotel to go to the buffet breakfast with her messenger bag – which had been shoved into her suitcase for later use – slung over her body.

She'd intentionally chosen a hotel with free breakfast, because she was on a bit of a budget and since she really had no plans, she wanted to be a bit tight with her cash. That's what she was using – cash. She didn't want to use her card for particular reasons, for the same reasons that she was avoiding her social media accounts and all of the text messages that she kept feeling her phone receive now that it was no longer in airplane mode.

Once at the breakfast buffet area near the lobby of the hotel, Clarke felt her stomach growl angrily and she instantly started filling a plate with food.

There was only one table to sit down at, so she set herself up there and began to eat. As she ate, she became aware of the brunette she had encountered the previous night entering the buffet area. She scooped some food onto her plate, and then her green eyes were bouncing around the full tables, trying to find one that was empty. Clarke knew that she would be unsuccessful, so when that entrapping gaze found hers, she offered a kind smile, and the girl hesitantly approached her.

"There aren't any open tables," Clarke said as the girl approached, "and you're welcome to sit here. I probably won't be long anyway."

The girl nodded silently, sitting across the blonde. "Thanks."

"I do owe you one," Clarke reasoned, going back to her meal. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and she resisted the urge to check it. She couldn't check it, or she might be tempted to reply. Instead, she took another bite of her breakfast, wondering briefly what she was going to do once she left the hotel. She was near the main area of London that she wanted to be at, but she may need to take the tube to get anywhere cool. Not that she really had anywhere she wanted to go aside from a general idea.

The brunette now sitting opposite of her was scrolling through something on her phone, and Clarke felt suddenly quite awkward without her phone in her hand, but she couldn't look at it. It wouldn't help. Instead, she opted for trying to start a conversation, because why not? She'd probably never see this girl ever again if she did somehow make a fool out of herself.

"Have you been to London before?"

Green eyes flickered up to look at Clarke, and the girl smiled pleasantly. "Yeah, five years ago. How about you?"

Shaking her head, the blonde replied, "No, I haven't."

"What brings you here?"

"Spontaneity," Clarke answered, for lack of a better answer and since she didn't feel like explaining her whole situation to a stranger who probably didn't even really care.

"Going to see the sights?"

Clarke shrugged. "I suppose."

"I'm taking the tube to the Big Ben," the girl said, "to take pictures. I'm kind of here for a work commission thing." She paused, and then said, "If your spontaneity hasn't let you make any plans, I could use company."

Clarke was slightly surprised at the offer, but she found herself surprisingly wanting to join her brunette savior. "Sure," she agreed. "Maybe that way I won't be roaming around like a lost tourist."

The girl smiled softly. "I'm Lexa."

"Clarke," the blonde returned, suddenly very intrigued by this girl – Lexa. However, she avoided asking questions, because since she herself wouldn't be up to offering up information about herself, it would be unfair of her to expect Lexa to give her anything. So the rest of their breakfast was silent, until they were both done and Lexa gave her another smile.

"Are you ready to go now?"

Clarke nodded, and after they both put their plates in the used plates pile at the end of the buffet, Clarke found herself following the stranger out of the hotel. Her eyes immediately started bouncing around the city surrounding her. She had been far too exhausted the previous night to actually pay attention to any of it, even though she was sure that it had been lit up from the tall buildings around her. "Wow," she found herself murmuring.

"Pretty awesome, isn't it?" Lexa commented, and Clarke felt the green gaze on her as she nodded. "Come on, I'm pretty sure I know where the nearest subway station is."

Clarke began following Lexa down the sidewalk, but her gaze was glued on the city around her. It was so different from what she was used to – so many of the buildings were older and majestic looking. Not like Washington DC, where she was from. Some things there, like the white house and Lincoln's memorial, were fairly old looking. But not like this place. After a few moments, she realized that Lexa was a good few paces in front of her, and she picked up her speed to catch up to her. "How are you not in like... awe?"

Lexa flashed the blonde a teasing smile and answered, "Well, if I was, we would both end up wandering around like lost tourists."

"I see, you're one of those responsible people," Clarke replied playfully, pleased when she noticed the smile on Lexa's face widen.

"Guilty. Though I can't say its the worst thing about me." Lexa turned a corner and Clarke kept matching her pace to the other girl's.

"So, you take pictures as your job?" Clarke wondered.

Lexa shrugged. "Sometimes. I technically have a different job at home, but every now and then I get photo commissions."

"And they pay enough for you to go to Europe to do them?" Clarke asked, actually very surprised. The brunette just shrugged one of her shoulders, flashing the blonde a mysterious look, and Clarke took that to mean that she'd asked too many questions.

That's why she answered the question that came from the other girl a moment later, "What job do you have that you can spontaneously take a trip to Europe?"

"I'm a bartender," Clarke replied, though she offered no further explanation, and Lexa didn't ask for any.

"I don't see it," Lexa commented, quirking an eyebrow up but not looking to the other girl, whose eyebrows furrowed.

"What? Don't think I'm cool enough to make drinks?"

Lexa just flashed the girl a teasing smile and nodded suddenly to a set of stairs going down to the underground. "Come on."

Clarke had been on subways before, but the tube was something unlike anything she'd experienced. It was really impressive, actually, and she found herself struggling to keep up with Lexa's fast strides.

Paying for access to the tube and actually getting to the desired train was all a blur for her, and she was honestly amazed at how she'd managed to stay behind Lexa the whole time. Finally, though, they ended up sitting in a crowded subway train next to one another, on their way to Parliament Square. Neither of them said anything as they first settled into their seats, but Lexa ended up being the first to speak. "Is it what you expected?"

"London?" Clarke asked, looking at Lexa with slight surprise at the question. When she received a nod, she shook her head. "I mean... I don't know. I didn't really expect much. I kind of came here on a whim."

"Right, spontaneity," Lexa recalled, smiling a half smile.

Clarke nodded, returning the smile and suddenly feeling her phone go off into a burst of vibrations again. She hoped that Lexa didn't notice, and if she did, she said nothing about it. Clarke continued to ignore the device that she was usually so connected to.

When they got to Parliament Square, Clarke found herself blown away. She saw the Big Ben, firstly, but the city itself captured her attention easily. "Wow," she murmured. They'd just come from the underground, and Lexa was fumbling with the bag she'd been clutching the whole time. She retrieved a nice looking camera from it, and then she offered the blonde an apologetic smile. "I've gotta take some pictures. It'll be a little while."

Clarke just nodded. "I'll just explore." Lexa started off to wherever it was she was taking pictures from, and Clarke found herself roaming away from the Big Ben and just walking. She tried to absorb everything around her as she walked, and ended up crossing the Westminster Bridge, her gaze stuck on the massive London Eye.

She wanted to ride it, but once she saw the line, full of people who had other people to ride with, she slunk away from it and found herself sitting on a little bench.

What had she been thinking, coming to London? She knew nothing about this place – other than the Big Ben and the London Eye, she really knew very little about what was actually in the city. Go figure, she hardly paid attention in any of her geography or history classes ever. She could probably have fun, though, were she with one of her best friends or someone else.

Her mind briefly though of Lexa, but she shook it from her head. She'd only just met Lexa, and the girl seemed to have her life together. She was here for work, no other reason. And no matter whether she'd found a temporary companion or not, Clarke knew that there was no way that she could stay in the city for more than a handful of days. The cash she had with her could last her maybe a week max, with hotel and food expenses considered on top of transportation. She would end up with very little to spend on actual cool things, anyway.

All she could really do was reach into her messenger bag and retrieve her sketchbook. She hadn't come to Europe to draw, but she had come to get away from her every day world and life. And if drawing was what would get her that, then she would draw.

She drew the view. The London Eye off one side of the paper, and the Thames River, with the Westminster Bridge across it and the Big Ben off in the background. It was a really rough sketch – something that Clarke would never show anyone – but it helped distract her. Once she sketch was done, she tried to make it better, but it still looked far too unstable.

When she finally gave up and slid the sketchbook back into her messenger bag, possibly an hour or so later, she looked up at the area in front of her and noticed a familiar head of wavy, brown hair next to the railing that overlooked the Thames. Clarke tilted her head, watching her snap pictures on her camera. The feeling that had come over her earlier – the intrigued, curious feeling – returned to Clarke as she watched her.

When Lexa was done snapping that round of pictures, she looked down at her camera, her hand held over her eyes to block out the natural light, even though it was fairly cloudy out, so that she could see the screen. Clarke wondered if it would be considered creepy that she was just watching the girl, but concluded that since Lexa hadn't noticed, it was okay.

Lexa didn't notice at all, actually, that Clarke was sitting there, even as she started glancing around, like she was wondering what to do or where to go next. "Hey there, stranger," Clarke called, drawing the brunette's attention easily, "you lost?"

Lexa shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and started toward the blonde.

"Tourists these days," Clarke teased, shaking her head with a smile spread across her face.

"Did you ride the eye?" Lexa wondered, tilting her head. Clarke shook her head, and suddenly found a soft hand closing around her own and pulling her up and off of the bench. She felt her breath hitch slightly in her throat, surprised by the contact. "You're coming with me then. I need to go up."

"How much are tickets?"

"I think it's like twenty-eight pounds or something like that," Lexa answered, releasing Clarke's hand as they started toward the building where ticket purchases were done. Clarke opened her bag and found her wallet, pulling out a wad of the cash she had with her. Lexa noticed the amount of cash and her eyes widened slightly, but she didn't question the use of paper money over a card.

When they got into the building, they had to wait in a short line, but soon they both had their tickets onto the massive ferris wheel. "Whose idea was it to build a ferris wheel that big?" Clarke asked as they exited the building and started toward the attraction.

"Beat's me," Lexa replied. "It's amazing, though."

"You need to take pictures from up there?" Clarke wondered, and the brunette nodded. "You've planned out your photo route pretty well, it seems."

Lexa flashed her an amused smile. "I've got a commission for an art studio for an exhibit. Five years ago, I took a tour of Europe and photographed all sorts of things and places, popular ones and less obvious ones. The idea is, I come back now and take them again. It'll make a cool exhibit, I think. So I kind of have certain pictures of take."

"That's actually really cool," Clarke admitted as she and Lexa fell into the back of the line to get on the eye.

It actually wasn't too long until they got into one of the glass pods, since they were so big. When the ferris wheel started moving again, so slowly and magnificently, Clarke found herself entranced by the view. On the whole way to the top, Lexa was at one end of the pod, taking pictures through the glass, while Clarke just stood and stared out at the city. When it reached the top, however, Clarke made her way over to the brunette, who had stopped taking photos.

"This is incredible," she admitted.

"It really is," Lexa agreed. "Honestly, I feel like everything in Europe is so much more amazing than anything in America. I mean, we have some nice things but... it's just so incredible here."

"I used to think that the white house had nice architecture," Clarke said, her eyes glued on the beautiful structures all around her.

"Are you from DC?" Lexa questioned, and Clarke blinked. She decided that it hardly mattered if Lexa knew where she was from, so she nodded. "That's cool. I've been a few times. I live in New York City."

"Oh cool," Clarke said, tilting her head a little, "New York's cool."

Lexa just nodded and then looked back over the city around them. "London is amazing, but I like the look of Paris better."

"I've never been," Clarke admitted, though she assumed that Lexa had figured that already.

"I'm going in a few days," the brunette said, "to take pictures of course. I like the atmosphere a bit more. I'm kind of a sucker for big cities, too, so."

Clarke smiled at the brunette. "I wish I could see it, but I'm probably going to end up going home after a handful of days. I don't really know what I'm even doing here." Lexa didn't say anything in response, as if she knew that Clarke didn't really want to talk about it.

They were silent as the glass pod began to head down the opposite side of the wheel, though the rest of the people in there with them were chattering happily and excitedly. They only spoke again when they realized that a camera on the side of the ferris wheel was supposed to take a picture of the whole group of people there. "Well," Lexa said, glancing toward where everyone was gathering for the picture, "I think right now, what you're doing here is taking a picture. Come on."

Clarke felt a small smile appear on her face as Lexa grabbed her hand and pulled her over to where the group was standing. She released her hand for the actual picture, but Clarke wore a genuine smile when the picture was actually taken.

They stopped for lunch somewhere, but they didn't talk much at all. It was a peaceful silence between them, and it was like there was a mutual understanding that they didn't need to say anything. It wasn't like they were becoming close at all. They were two Americans alone in London, being each others' temporary companions for the day. Probably just that day, too. There really wasn't a point in talking. Lexa was heading into Paris in a few days, and Clarke would be forced to return home.

After their lunch, Lexa had to take the tube to the edge of the city, and Clarke decided to go back to the hotel. The brunette kindly gave her directions through the underground to get on the right train back, and then they gave each other a goodbye that could either be seen as temporary or permanent, and went their opposite ways.

Clarke found herself back in her hotel room feeling slightly tired. The day hadn't been bad by any means, but it felt like a false sense of happiness. The idea of returning home was daunting, and it was presently leaning right over her shoulder, trying to get to her.

It's what made her finally look at her phone, at all of the notifications that she'd received throughout the day.

Ten from her mom, twenty in a group message with some of her friends, about five from each of those friends individually. And those were just text messages. She had at least fifty total alerts from her other social media apps, but she clicked on none of them, and she didn't read any of the text messages. She didn't want to, and she took control of herself and plugged her phone into her charger, connected to the wall via an adapter. Then she curled up in her bed with her sketchbook and started drawing.

It started raining at some point, little drops of water landing on the large window that was at one end of the room. She glanced through the glass out of the corner of her eye and saw the cloudy, dreary city of London, and she felt a smile appear on her face. It was peaceful, for some reason.

That's how she found herself falling asleep way earlier than she probably should've, listening to the sound of the city and the rain and wishing that she would never have to go back home.