"Hey, I like your tattoo."

Clarke watches the woman driving the car flick her eyes up to the rear view mirror, a graceful smile on bright lips and pony tail swaying when she quickly turns to give a thank you.

An infinity symbol lies inked in the back of the brunette's neck. It's minimalistic and shape looks almost aged but Clarke likes it all the same.

"Are you two having a good night?"

Lexa turns to face Clarke and smiles when she sees the easy calm in her wife's expression. "It's always perfect when I'm with her."

"Gah," Clarke gives Lexa's shoulder a shove but then joins their hands, "I love you too you dork."

Clarke is blushing, glad the road is rather dim and uncrowded with other cars tonight or they'll see her all flustered and 17 years old again around Lexa's charm.

"We're here."

ArkDC is decorated in a menagerie of genres, every piece of the establishment designed to mimic a different era. Everything blends seamlessly together, making the cozy space expand with favour instead of feeling overcrowded.

The bouncer had been a silent fella, rolling his wrist to indicate needing the patrons to turn around and allow a stamp to the back of their necks before being permitted in.

The music is jazzy but Clarke knows it can jump and switch, ranging from the sixties then leaping into the todays top forties before settling in between and repeating the cycle again. There's a projector set up facing the far wall that shows the album cover of each song playing so partiers would stop asking the employees for band and song names.

This place had been a perfect little hole in the wall after Clarke's semester finals and it was here that she bumped into her childhood crush. Lexa had looked striking under the golden bar lights. Hair bound up in elaborate braids and clothed in a leather jacket and tight dark jeans. Lexa was celebrating with her friends after her first deployment and had spilt her flagon of beer all over herself when Clarke had gone to greet her with a whisper and a kiss along a slender neck.

"Do you remember when we bumped into each other?" Clarke asks expression coy. "How what's his name kept hitting on me until you growled at him to 'stand down'."

"I don't growl and if I recall you told him you weren't interested twice before I sent him off for being overly forward." Lexa muses as they lounge in a particularly plush velvet chair. "I could have hurt you that night if I didn't have such fine control on my reflexes."

"Oh you," Clarke pats Lexa's knee, "the killing machine clad in a beer barley soaked through white tank."

"It was a strategic move." Lexa affirms, taking Clarke's left hand into her own, there's no clink of wedding bands since they had chosen a circling tattoo of each other's names around their ring finger. "I knew you liked my abs."

"I did choose your soaking ass over Bellamy's boyish smirk." Clarke moves to steal a kiss. "You're right, you were deadly."

The music shifts, hopping into an upbeat pop song that has Clarke grinning and Lexa dropping her head onto the back of her seat with a groan. Lexa reaches out without having to look, knows that Clarke will want them to dance to this. She lets Clarke drag her into the middle of the dive and willing allows Clarke to lead them in a rather chaotic number, moving around one another like they were fresh from their first meeting and high off possibilities.

Lexa grins all the more when she wraps her arms from behind Clarke, makes them slow to the switching genre. The music is just instrumental and the dance floor is emptying with just the pair of them.

"It's nicer to hold you when my front isn't covered in beer."

"You ruined my dress that night."

"Wasn't it worth it?"

"Yes you dork; you are worth anything, happy anniversary." Clarke turns her cheek into the kiss she's given and finds herself content. They stay against one another for a period, the song matching their mood instead of spastically flittering through differing beats. "Do you remember how many years?"

"Mmmhmm." Lexa tightens her hold, nuzzles a kiss just behind Clarke's ear. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Lexa, you're supposed to actually mention our year instead of distracting me." Clarke lets Lexa bring them up to the bar, calls up dark blend for herself and then a white Russian for Clarke.

After an expert display, the bartender places their drinks over black and green coasters striped by a 1's and 0's design and slides it over to them.

"Hey don't I know you?" Clarke holds the glass against her chest, feels the condensation cool against her heated skin.

The bartender shrugs, her eyes seem knowing but her bright lips stay silent.

"Are you having a good time?" Lexa places her hand on Clarke's elbow.

"Huh, yeah." Clarke looks momentarily away and when she turns she finds the woman serving at the other side of the long bar, speaking with another patron. "Didn't she look familiar to you?"

"My eyes were on you."

Clarkes laughs, puts her drink down and pulls Lexa into another kiss. It tastes like vodka, beer and the bitter sweetness of coffee liqueur. She can't get enough of those lips; to the feel of a similar smile against her own mouth. Of hearing Lexa's voice saying such inanely sweet and silly things. To falling in love with all these little moments she can have with her wife for the rest of their lives.

"Take me home."

The dive plays them a farewell song and the projector shows a black bird caught up in orange-red yarn.

...

Extra points for figuring out which band had that album art :3c