"I guess I could've guessed this," Clarke said, her blue eyes following the huge monument up to the top – the Eiffel Tower. Yeah, it probably wasn't her brightest moment to have not been able to guess it. "It's a lot bigger than I thought it was."

"How big did you think it was?" Lexa asked, clearly amused.

"Um. I don't know? I've only seen the one in Vegas, so."

Lexa let out a bright laugh that made Clarke's heart bounce – for some reason, hearing Lexa's laugh did that to her. "You didn't think it was the same size, did you?"

Clarke scoffed. "No."

"Okay, so you wanna climb up then?" Lexa was smiling brightly at the blonde, and Clarke's gaze found the staircase. Her jaw dropped once she saw it.

"Wait, we have to climb that thing? I didn't even know you could go up it."

"Wow," Lexa said, clearly stifling a laugh and earning a playful glare from the blonde. "Technically there's a lift, but... climbing is a better experience."

"Like hell it is," Clarke muttered, crossing her arms. "I am not climbing that thing."

Lexa rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I'm gonna go buy tickets."

"Wait, let me pay for mine."

Lexa was shaking her head, though. "No, it's fine. Plus, you're twenty-three, right? You mentioned that you were seventeen six years ago."

"Yeah, why?"

"Well," the brunette was clearly slightly amused, "anyone under the age of twenty-four gets a discounted price."

"Are you trying to say that you're going to pay for my ticket because it's basically the price for a child?" Clarke asked, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes.

Lexa let out a light laugh and shook her head, "No of course not. It's the price for a teenager." Before Clarke could object, though, Lexa was off to the the ticket booth, and Clarke was left alone in front of the tower. She looked up at it again, and let out a breath. She could see that the stairs definitely didn't go all the way up to the top, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to climb the whole way to the middle part. It seemed like a lot of stairs.

The bright side was that before they'd come to the tower, they'd stopped a little sandwich place for a late lunch, or perhaps an early dinner, so Clarke was no longer hungry.

Since she was alone, she took out her phone and decided to take a selfie with the tower – if she didn't, her best friends would kill her later. That was for sure. And even though she was still angry with them for telling her ex where she'd gone, she knew that by the time she eventually went back home, everything would be okay. Even if they were pissed at her for a little while first. They were always okay, it was just how thing were between them.

Clarke started to get bored waiting for Lexa, but then she finally caught the brunette on her way back. "Got the tickets," she said, smiling happily. "I didn't pay for the elevator up to the second floor, though, so we're climbing that part."

"I don't wanna," Clarke whined, but Lexa just nudged her.

"Come on, it'll be fun. It's part of the experience."

"I didn't come here for the experience."

Lexa raised her eyebrows. "So why'd you come here?" Clarke said nothing, and then she sighed.

"Fine." Clearly proud of herself, Lexa spun on her heels and started toward the stairs. Trying not to groan at the idea of climbing so many steps, she started after the brunette. "Slow down!"

"Okay," Lexa said, slowing her pace, "but we can't take three hours to get up there, Clarke. There's champagne at the top, but the bar closes at ten."

"I won't take three hours," Clarke objected, though as she soon as she started climbing the stairs, she huffed. "Maybe just two."

"Come on, it doesn't take that long. It's not as many as it seems."

"How many is it?"

"I don't know."

Clarke huffed, and by the time that she was sure that she'd climbed two hundred steps, her eyes caught on a label on one of the steps that marked which number it was. Twenty. Of course. Only twenty. "For fuck's sake," she grumbled.

"What?"

Clarke just shook her head. "This better be worth it." Lexa gave her a soft smile, and Clarke suddenly felt a soft hand wrapped around her own. As frustrated as she was, she couldn't help but calm considerably at the feeling.

The climb didn't end up being too bad, she figured, by the time they reached the first level.

That was, until she realized that it was the first level, and that they needed to get to the second level before taking the lift up to the top. "Okay, but we're taking a break," she told Lexa, going to the edge of the level and looking over the plaza below them.

"Fair enough," Lexa agreed, following the blonde.

Clarke let out an impressed breath, the city was definitely something else. Dozens of people were scattered below them, though it was definitely getting dark by now, and the lights from the city around them kept the place illuminated just well enough to still see.

After about five minutes of standing there silently, Lexa reached out and tugged Clarke's hand. "Come on. Don't you wanna see what it's like from the top?"

It didn't take as long to get up to the second level, and from there, they filed into the shortening line that would bring them up to the top of the tower itself. Despite having seen the height of the tower from the ground, it didn't really register until she and Lexa were peering through the protective fence around the top level, looking down at the ground. It was funny looking, actually, all of the tiny people. The trees were trimmed into cube shapes, making them look like giant hedges. It was amusing, actually.

They went to the champagne bar and each got a glass – and Clarke finally paid for her own. She did appreciate Lexa paying for her ticket onto the tower, but she didn't want to take advantage of the brunette, who seemed to have no monetary issue at the moment. Walking back out to look through the fence again, they sipped their champagne quietly.

"Okay, this was worth it," Clarke finally admitted, looking over to Lexa, whose gaze was still focused on the ground below them.

"Told you," Lexa teased, smiling at the blonde brightly. Clarke rolled her eyes, a smile on her face as well, and then looked up at the dark sky. The bright city made it pretty hard to see the stars, but she wasn't particularly used to seeing lots of stars anyway.

A minute later, Clarke suddenly heard the click of a camera, and her head instantly turned to face Lexa, whose glass had been precariously set down against the fence. She had her camera, which must've been tucked away in her purse, out and in her hands. "Did you just take a picture of me?"

"Maybe?" Lexa asked, smirking slightly.

Clarke took a sip of her champagne. "Why?"

"You're not a bad subject," the brunette replied, lifting her camera again and snapping a picture.

"Cut it out," Clarke said, though her tone was light and drew a mischievous grin onto the other girl's face. "Lexa..."

"What? I promise, the pictures look very flattering." She snapped another one. Clarke squeaked as the flash suddenly turned on and blinded her for a moment. "Oops. Well, that one probably wasn't."

"Lexa!" Clarke exclaimed. "Delete them!"

Lexa grinned, biting her lower lip as if to keep the smile from growing too big for her face. "Why? You look so cute in them."

"Shut up," Clarke protested, though a blush had already risen to her cheeks. "At least let me see them."

Lexa took a step closer to Clarke, though her camera was held carefully in her hands, like she feared that the blonde mind steal it. She rotated the device to show the screen to Clarke, and cycled between the three pictures she took. The first two were kind of dark, but Clarke actually didn't look half bad in them. The last one, though, was absolutely awful – Clarke's eyes were all squinted and Lexa immediately began laughing when Clarke huffed.

"Delete that!"

"No way."

"Lexa."

"Clarke."

Clarke huffed, realizing that she was getting nowhere, and drank down the last of her champagne. "Fine, but you owe me another glass."

"Deal," Lexa chirped, smiling, grabbing Clarke's empty glass, and suddenly disappearing back into the little middle part of the top level of the Eiffel Tower. Clarke looked back down over the city and honestly felt in awe of the view. A few moments later, Lexa returned with another glass in her hand for Clarke.

The blonde took it. "Thanks." She took another sip of it as Lexa pointed her camera out through the fence and down at the dark, yet somehow lit up, plaza below them. "Isn't it a little dark for pictures?"

Lexa took one and then looked at it, shrugging. "Looks kinda cool, but yeah. I'll have to come back here tomorrow or something to take some actual ones for my commission. But I didn't come here tonight to take those pictures anyway."

"So why did you bring your camera?" Clarke asked, tilting her head and taking another sip of her champagne.

"I usually always bring it with me," Lexa replied, shrugging as she powered the device off and slipped it back into her purse. "Never know when a good photo-op will come up." Lexa flashed the blonde a knowing smile.

"Mmhmm," Clarke replied, rolling her eyes and fighting a smile. She was finishing the second glass of champagne by now.

"Wanna head back down now?"

"Sure," Clarke agreed, not really caring either way. Her mind was buzzing slightly from the glasses of champagne, and she was feeling quite bubbly herself as she followed Lexa back to the elevator that would take them back down to the second level on the tower. She assumed they'd be walking back down the stairs, but the prospect definitely didn't seem as bad as climbing it.

And it wasn't. It took far less time for them to reach the plaza after leaving the second floor.

The conversation they made as they found their way back to the metro and headed back to their hotel was possibly the lightest and most casual conversation they'd had yet. It was nice, just to talk about random things. Clarke mentioned her bartender job again, and Lexa admitted that she was usually just a wine drinker, and the blonde promised to make some sort of drink for Lexa at some point. The brunette still seemed to not believe that Clarke could mix drinks, which fueled the other girl's intent on proving herself.

When they reached their hotel again, it was nearly eleven, and Clarke realized that the window at the end of the room looked out at the Eiffel Tower. Just as she glanced out at it, the whole tower began to sparkle, and she gasped. "Whoa."

"What?" Lexa asked, looking up from where she'd been looking for something in her suitcase. "Oh, the sparkling."

"It's so pretty," Clarke mused, watching the tower that she'd been standing on not too long ago.

"Mmhmm," Lexa agreed, suddenly standing next to the blonde, whose gaze flickered to her companion.

"Thanks for showing me," Clarke murmured softly, smiling gratefully.

Lexa returned the smile. "Don't worry about it."

Clarke suddenly felt the exhaustion of the whole day overtaking her body, and she took in a light breath and made her way back to her bed, to retrieve her toiletries. "I won't take too long in the bathroom."

"Okay," Lexa said, seemingly not worried about it.

That was probably because once Clarke was curled up in bed, drifting to sleep, and Lexa came out of the bathroom, she sat up on her bed with her laptop out, clicking through pictures. The bright light from the computer didn't keep Clarke up, though, even though she stopped drifting off when she noticed. No, what kept her up was Lexa herself.

From her position on the bed next to Lexa's, Clarke watched the brunette, who seemed oblivious. The feelings that she had had for Lexa basically right off of the bat were far bigger now, three days later. She supposed that it wasn't too weird, though, considering that they'd spent the whole day together. She kept finding things that increased how much she liked Lexa. For example, her laugh. Every time Lexa laughed, Clarke couldn't help but feel a warm feeling in her chest. She was just... so carefree and lighthearted, but also understanding, and breathtakingly beautiful.

But finally, tiredness overcame the blonde, and she drifted off to sleep.

She awoke to a bright light breaking through her closed eyes. Groaning, she rolled over to face the other direction, and immediately the light became less harsh. Eyes flickering open, Clarke stretched her arms out in front of her and then sat up. She saw Lexa sound asleep under the blankets of her own bed, with her laptop half closed and asleep next to her. Clarke briefly wondered what time the brunette had finally gone to bed, but then realized that she really needed to pee, and quickly hopped off of her bed and went into the bathroom.

After using the bathroom, she decided that there was no point in leaving the room without getting ready the rest of the way, so she took a quick shower, washed her hair, blew it dry, and then did her makeup. By that point, she'd realized that she hadn't brought any clothes into the bathroom to change into, so she quickly went back out to her bed to grab an outfit out of her suitcase. Lexa was still fast asleep as she did so, and by the time Clarke was completely ready and seating herself back on her bed, Lexa was still asleep.

Leaning against the backboard of her bed, Clarke reached to the side table in between the two beds and unplugged her phone. It flashed the time at her – ten-thirty – before she unlocked it.

She had many texts, of course, though less than normal.

Though, she had one from her ex again.

From Soul-Crushing-Ex – Seriously, Clarke. This isn't funny. Tell ur friends or ur mom where u r. U r acting like a child.

Clarke felt anger building in her chest, and she was tempted to reply to him – to tell him to leave her the fuck alone, to forget about her. She was also nearly as tempted to call her friends and bust them for talking to him about her.

But she didn't.

Instead, she opened up Instagram and went to her best friend's account, stalking the pictures from the past few days. There was a selfie up accompanied with a long rant about some "dickhead" that had she'd had to talk to at work, from the day before Clarke had left. After that, nothing. Until the previous night, when she posted a picture of her and their other best friend together at a club, with the caption: Partying hard with octabadassbb !

There were a few comments on the picture – one from the tagged friend, Octavia, one from a girl who was friends with Octavia, and one from Raven, Clarke's best friend.

octabadassbb: blackbirdrae love partyin w u! … missing thegriffinator tho.

iplaytheharper: octabadassbb blackbirdrae where is thegriffinator ? .. thought she was crashing w u guys?

blackbirdrae: iplaytheharper she's on a trip

Clarke let out a light breath. So at least if her friends had told her ex where she was, they at least didn't seem to be making it a big public thing. She was appreciative of that. Though, the number of Instagram and Twitter messages she had made it clear that they were still quite worried about her. She supposed that she shouldn't be angry at them for that, though.

Clarke's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Lexa stirring in the other bed. Blue eyes were drawn to the other girl, whose eyes fluttered open a moment later. She was facing Clarke's bed, and immediately smile.

"Morning." Lexa's morning voice was slightly raspy, and Clarke thought that it was honestly super adorable.

"Good morning," Clarke replied. Lexa noticed that Clarke was showered and made up and fully dressed already.

"You've been up a while?"

Clarke shrugged. "The sun woke me up."

"Oh shit, I should've closed the curtains," Lexa muttered, rolling over to face the sun that was streaming in through the glass.

"It's fine," Clarke insisted, amused. "I don't know when you need to be taking pictures... but it's ten-thirty, so."

Lexa nodded, sitting up. The strap of the tank top she was wearing drooped off of her shoulder a bit, and Clarke scolded herself for letting her attention immediately fall to the revealed skin. "Yeah, I should probably be getting ready. You gonna come with?"

"I don't really have anything else to do," Clarke said, looking pointedly at the brunette. "But I am not climbing the Eiffel Tower again."

Lexa laughed. "I'm probably just gonna take the elevator up to the top for about ten minutes to take some pictures. Shouldn't be too long there."

"Okay," Clarke said, smiling at the brunette as she dragged herself out of bed. "Well, the bathroom's all yours, go crazy."

Laughing lightly again, Lexa padded across the room and slipped into the bathroom, but not before remembering to grab a change of clothes.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated again and she glanced down, reading the text message from her lock screen.

From Soul-Crushing-Ex – I can see that u read my msg, Clarke. Text me back.

Clarke blinked. She had completely forgotten to think about that – she hadn't opened the text messages from any of her friends or her mom in her actual message app, just her ex's. She quickly unlocked her phone and went to her settings, turning off the "read messages" option. Taking in a deep breath, she locked her phone again and tossed it aside.

She was stubborn, that much she knew, and maybe that was the main reason that she was still ignoring everyone's messages. And maybe she'd waited long enough, and she should at least let them know where she was.

But the thought made her heart rate pick up, because she knew that they would all be mad.

So she did nothing, just sprawling across her bed and looking out through the window through her angled view, waiting for Lexa to finish getting ready.