Author's Note: Hey, folks! So I wrote this story years ago and decided to update it for a new and spicy Clexa angle because...reasons :-P It was originally a long- $$ oneshot, but I decided to make it into a mini story with smaller chapters instead. I'm posting the first three chapters tonight, let me know what ya'll think :-) Enjoy!
Clarke wasn't sure what she was doing here. She stared forlornly at the mass of emerald green hedges separated by thin coils of barbed wire off to her left and the clusters of mountains that seemed to touch the sky. It was exquisite in an alien way and it unnerved her a great deal. She didn't belong here.
A light tug on her hand brought her back to her senses and she gazed at her boyfriend of 5 months with a sheepish smile.
"Hey, where did you go just now?" Finn asked, a playful grin coursing his handsome face. Clarke sighed blissfully on the inside looking at him. He had this magical way of keeping her calm when her innate anxiety over new and scary situations got the best of her. But then she remembered with a jolt that he was the one introducing her to a new and scary situation and she felt anxious all over again.
"Babe, you're worrying about nothing. My family's going to love you." Finn continued, hoping his voice sounded a lot more reassuring than he felt.
He loved his family immensely. But there was a reason why he'd waited so long to introduce any serious girlfriends to his puritanically Christian bloodline. But it was different this time. He was crazy about Clarke. And she was sweet and charming – how could his family not fall in love with her too?
Somehow, he doubted that was what was worrying his adorable girlfriend at this precise moment as she stared with suspicion at the broad and tall trees. Clarke was a city girl to her core. Before moving to Washington DC during her college years, she had grown up in San Francisco. And before he had moved to Washington DC, Finn had grown up in the country. In Arkadia of all places.
Clarke wasn't sure she'd even heard of the place until Finn had told her he wanted her to meet his family. Country folk were so different from people in the city – what if Finn's parents thought she was a 'city hussy' trying to corrupt their innocent son? Clarke scrunched her nose in bewilderment, wondering when was the last time anyone had actually had used the term 'hussy' in civilised conversation.
Finn locked the car with the remote control and took Clarke's hand once more. "We're here," he murmured more to himself. He breathed in the scents of fresh grass and the downy earth with its rich undertone of fertiliser and inhaled deeply. It had been far too long since he'd been home. It was good to be back. "Let's go," he whispered to Clarke, shooting her an encouraging smile.
And then they began walking along the dirt road littered with beige rocks and pebbles, which was a good 500m from the small hill on which Finn's family home stood. Clarke's nerves were already oversensitive and now scores of flies and mosquitoes kept flying and landing intrusively on her face as she walked hand in hand with Finn. Why did bugs always insist on going for the face or the jugular?
"There he is!" a female voice boomed with happiness.
Finn's face crinkled with a similar feeling of joy as he laid eyes on a middle-aged woman with pale skin and greying hair whose eyes were just like his.
"Mom!"
Clarke watched in a mesh of amusement and disappointment as Finn disentangled himself from her and sprinted to his mother. She stared at mother and son interlocked in a warm and intimate embrace that went on for longer than five seconds. Till now, Clarke hadn't thought of Finn as a 'Mama's Boy'. Maybe she didn't really know her boyfriend as well as she thought and hoped, even after 5 months.
"Well, well. If it isn't the runt of the family," a tall and handsome man with wavy, jet black hair announced, narrowing his eyes at Finn.
Finn in turn eyed the figure with a stony glare of his own. Clarke was even more confused when both men suddenly started laughing raucously and fist-pounding each other.
"Hey, big bro," Finn greeted with a crooked smile.
"Come say that to my face," the older man growled with affection as he pulled his younger brother into a bear hug.
Then Finn moved towards a beautiful younger woman with long brown hair who had the same adorable cheek dimples as he did.
"Finn!" the girl greeted with obvious affection.
"Sis!" Finn boomed, sweeping the younger woman up into his arms and spinning her around in a circle.
Clarke quirked an eyebrow at this display of affection. Finn had waited till their fifth date to hold her hand and kiss her at the end of the night. And here he was, giving away love and affection like it was going out of style.
The next of member of his family was a tiny wrinkly woman with big brown eyes that didn't seem to stare at anything. "Hey, Nana…" Finn greeted with just a touch of awkwardness.
He'd always been that way around his grandmother. Mainly because she'd started slowly going senile when he was still in high school. She didn't seem to want to mix with anyone in the family, choosing instead to spend her time de-weeding the vegetable patch or sweeping the wooden floors of the house, mumbling to herself about things only she alone knew.
And finally, Finn came to stand in front of a tall middle-aged man with broad shoulders and dark eyes like flint that almost matched his greying hair.
"Dad..." Finn said, his nervousness far more apparent this time around.
The older man studied his youngest son for the longest time in silence that was impregnable in its abstraction. Then as if coming to a sudden decision, he relented and clapped the younger man on the shoulder, a small smile creasing his face. "Good to see you, son," he murmured, letting his hand remain on his son's skinny shoulder.
Then Finn seemed to remember that Clarke was still standing awkwardly beside him, waiting for an introduction. "Clarke, these are my parents, my older brother Bellamy, my baby sister, Octavia, and my grandmother. Everyone...this is my girlfriend, Clarke."
Clarke sucked in a breath and lifted a pale hand to wave self-consciously at Finn's family. "Hi," she began in a breathless voice. "It's...very nice to meet you all."
Finn's mom was about to say something when her youngest son interrupted with 'Wait a sec, somebody's missing. Where the heck is Lexa?"
"She took Pearl out for a stroll," Bellamy offered with a knowing look at his baby brother.
Clarke was about to ask if 'Pearl' was the family dog when Finn's dad interrupted this time around. "Here they come now," He muttered, wiping dust that had gathered on the sleeves of his blue and white plaid shirt as he spoke.
Clarke heard the sound of galloping hooves and turned around abruptly. Because the sun was directly in her eyes, she could just make out the charcoal silhouette of a figure riding a horse on the dirt road on which they stood. She heard a flurry of murmured words from the rider, which made the horse whimper with keenness and come to a halting stop in front of her.
The rider hopped off from the saddle with a kind of effortless grace and approached a bewildered Clarke. Her face was hidden by a big brown summer hat. But everything about her, from the subtle curves of her slim hips that poked out from her faded jeans, her skinny arms to her flowing curly, honey-brown hair that escaped the hat perched on top, Clarke could tell that it was most certainly a woman. This fact was made more apparent when the stranger took the hat off and wiped a band of sweat that had collected on her small forehead, shaking her hair out in the process.
"There you are," Finn's mom greeted with a warm smile.
"Yes, here I am," the strange woman answered in a gruff voice. Then her mint-green eyes landed on Clarke. "What's this?" she demanded in an abrupt tone.
Clarke didn't understand it, but she felt a flicker of annoyance at the fact that the woman had said 'what's this?' instead of saying 'who's this?'
"Lexa, this is Clarke, Finn's girlfriend." Octavia explained, raising her eyebrow meaningfully at the brunette.
"Sheesh, where are my manners?" Finn cut in. "Clarke, this is my cousin Lexa. Although she's lived with our family for years, so she's more like a sister to me."
"I don't recall you ever pushing Octavia out of a tree and breaking her arm in the process, and she's definitely your sister." Lexa declared in a huff. But Clarke saw that her impossibly green eyes twinkled with mischief while looking at Finn and something akin to butterflies fluttered in her stomach.
"I hope you won't tell my girlfriend all of my deep dark secrets. I want her to still love me after this family visit." Finn murmured with a light chuckle. But inwardly, he was being more than frank with his cousin. He loved Lexa like a sister, but her enigmatic personality made for a lot of unwanted surprises that seemed to backfire on him at the worst possible moments. She'd already scared off more than a few of his previous girlfriends just because of her overprotective nature. It was awfully sweet that she cared so much about his wellbeing. But her constantly grilling his lady loves about their intentions for him made for an uncomfortable drive back to the city afterwards with said girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend if Lexa had her way). He honestly didn't know whether his old girlfriends had disliked his cousin because of her extraordinary beauty or her uncomfortably frank disposition. Maybe it was both.
"I guess we'll just have to see if she really loved you to begin with," Lexa answered, a bright smile adorning her high cheekbones. The look on Finn's cousin's face unnerved Clarke a great deal. What did she mean by it?
"Let's get inside and unload your bags," Bellamy suggested, taking charge of the semi-awkward pause after the greetings and Lexa's sudden appearance.
"Yes," Finn's dad agreed. "You can tell us more about your latest project at work." With that, he wrapped a strong arm around Finn's shoulder and started leading him away.
Bellamy stooped in front of Clarke and picked up both hers and Finn's bags, lifting them up easily with one hand. Clarke knew for a fact that she hadn't packed light for this trip, despite Finn's incessant complaining. She surmised that while Bellamy was tall and lean, he must still bench press a lot of weights.
"If you need anything during this trip, don't hesitate to ask, Clarke." Bellamy offered with a charming smile, winking salaciously at his brother's girlfriend, causing the blonde woman to blush profusely.
"Cool your jets, Don Juan. Don't forget what Finn did to you the last time you hit on one of his girlfriends." Octavia quipped, throwing Clarke a sympathetic smile.
"What? I can't be nice?" Bellamy protested as his baby sister punched him in the arm. "And for the record, I tripped over that bale of hay – Finn did not tackle me into it!"
"Whatever you say, Bells. Come on, Lexa!" Octavia called out over her shoulder.
"Just a sec. I've gotta put Pearl in the barn!" Lexa shouted back. That left her and Clarke standing together as the rest of Finn's family walked up the hill. To cover up the tense-filled moment, Lexa put one foot on the stirrups and hoisted herself back onto the chocolate brown horse in a single leap.
"So um...it's nice to meet you." Clarke blurted out.
Lexa gazed down at her for the longest time without saying anything. Then she chuckled darkly and stared straight ahead of her. "We'll see," she mumbled in turn. She clicked her tongue three times through her parted lips and Pearl broke into a canter.
And Clarke was left there standing like an idiot watching the brown-haired beauty ride off in the direction of a maroon-coloured barn a few paces away without a backwards glance. Shaking her head at the strange encounter, Clarke dug her hands deep into the pockets of her threadbare hot pants as she went after her boyfriend.
Yip, Lexa is not coming off well so far. But she's hot as hell and that's why we love her ;-) Chapter 2 up next!