A/N Hey Guys! Sorry I've been so inconsistent updating, but here is chapter nine. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with this story!
Neither Lexa nor Clarke had an exam after two o'clock on Friday, so they spent the afternoon packing and hauling their stuff to their respective cars.
By five they were ready to leave.
"Okay, so you have the directions, right?" Lexa asked.
"Yep, plugged into my phone. And I'll be following you," Clarke replied. "And your sister is okay with me coming, right?"
"She'll be fine with it," Lexa responded breezily.
"You haven't told her yet?" Clarke asked.
"No, she hasn't called me back yet. But it's fine, Clarke. I promise," Lexa said, smirking. "I'm allowed to bring whoever I want home."
Clarke laughed, "Okay, good." They got into their cars and Clarke followed Lexa to her sister's apartment. The drive was about half an hour long. The apartment building was extremely nice, Clarke noticed.
"We're here," Lexa said, once she and Clarke got out of their respective cars. "You can leave all your stuff in the car, it'll be fine. Just grab your duffel," Lexa told her.
Clarke nodded. For some reason there was a tension between them that there wasn't before, and she was nervous. She didn't know why, she was only hanging out with Lexa for break, just like she'd been doing for months now. But she had butterflies in the pit of her stomach anyway.
Maybe Lexa could tell Clarke was nervous, because she took Clarke's hand, smiling at her as they walked in. Clarke held Lexa's bag as Lexa unlocked the apartment and let them in.
"Anya will probably be home in half an hour, so we can unpack until then," Lexa told her. "We're going to have to share my bedroom, or one of us can take the couch, but you can put all of your things in my room."
"Awesome," Clarke said, smiling. Just like the outside of the building, the apartment itself was really nice too. The girls put their bags in Lexa's room, which was about the extent of their unpacking, instead choosing to sit on the couch and watch TV.
"Oh my gosh so many channels, I haven't had this in months," Lexa joked.
Clarke laughed, "Honestly. Damn college."
"And you know we're just going to end up watching Netflix anyway," Lexa said.
"Obviously."
"There isn't even anything on," Lexa said, scrolling through the channels, leaning up against Clarke.
"That's cable for you," Clarke replied as Lexa signed into her Netflix account.
They only got about ten minutes into the next episode of Friends before the door opened.
"Lexa?" Anya called from the door, holding it open with one foot as she tried to get her armfuls of groceries in the door. Lexa jumped up to help her, taking a few bags from her and putting them on the kitchen counter. Clarke awkwardly stood up and walked out towards the kitchen.
"Anya, this is Clarke," Lexa told her.
"Clarke? Hello, I'm Anya," Anya said politely.
"Hi, I'm Lexa's roommate," Clarke told her. She was nervous. She didn't know why, it was only Lexa's sister, but Clarke was nervous. Anya nodded.
"What happened to Costia coming?" Anya asked Lexa, not rudely, just rather confused. "Not that I'm not glad that you're here, Clarke," she added quickly.
"Um, well Costia bailed on me at a party earlier this month, and we were fighting and then we broke up so…" Lexa explained, not quite meeting Anya's eyes.
"Aw, kid, I'm sorry," Anya moved to give Lexa a hug, but Lexa brushed her off.
"It's fine. Anyway, this is Clarke. She's my roommate, like she said, and I told her that she could spend break with us because her plans got canceled," Lexa said, pulling Clarke over by the hand to where she and Anya were.
"Awesome, so do you two want to go out for dinner?" Anya asked.
"Sure," Lexa said. "Is that good with you Clarke?"
"Yeah, of course," Clarke said, smiling. She was more comfortable knowing that Anya was okay with her being there, but she could still feel a tug in the pit of her stomach.
"Where should we go, though?" Lexa asked. They discussed dinner for a few moments before Anya suggested the Grounders restaurant nearby.
"I've never heard of it before," Clarke said.
Lexa gasped dramatically, "What? That's, like, blasphemy!"
Clarke laughed, "Sorry?"
"Well I guess we have to go now," Anya said, smirking.
"Yeah Clarke, I have to introduce you to the pure heaven that is Grounders Cafe," Lexa said.
"Okay," Clarke said, laughing. "Sounds good."
The girls got changed and waited for Anya to be ready to leave.
The ride was short, but Lexa sat in the back with Clarke, earning raised eyebrows from Anya, which she pointedly ignored and hoped Clarke didn't notice.
"So this is it," Anya said as they pulled into the parking lot.
"We used to come here a lot before our parents died," Lexa told Clarke softly as they got out of the car. "We haven't came nearly as much since."
Lexa glanced away, so Clarke took Lexa's hand in hers and squeezed it, reassuring her that she was there. But neither of them let go until they were seated at their table, Anya sitting across from them.
"So, Lexa. You haven't called me every week like you claimed you would. How has the year gone?" Anya asked, raising her eyebrows at the girls.
Lexa giggled, "Well it's been a… busy semester."
"To put it lightly," Clarke added. Lexa nodded in agreement.
"So how have your classes been?" Anya asked, to which Lexa started explaining all of her classes, and Clarke hers.
They talked about everything that happened during the semester as well, including Clarke's alcohol incident and Lexa and Costia's relationship and eventual breakup.
"Yeah, so then Costia had the audacity to come to our room drunk and accuse me of cheating on her with Clarke while Clarke was in the room. Then Clarke yelled at her and I broke up with her," Lexa finished the story and Anya's eyes were wide.
"That's...that's… wow, Lex," Anya said, raising her eyebrows.
"Yeah," Lexa said, and Clarke nodded in agreement.
"When I was in my freshman year of college, my biggest worries were my grades," Anya said with a laugh.
"Oh, we had those to worry about too, almost forgot," Clarke quipped, and Lexa and Anya both laughed.
"Well I'm glad you two have had each other all year," Anya said to the girls.
"Yeah, you've been a lifeline for me, Lex," Clarke said.
"And you've stuck up for me all year through all my relationship issues. I think we're pretty even," Lexa replied with a soft smile, cuing more raised eyebrows from Anya that Lexa did her best to ignore.
Dinner was fun as Clarke and Anya got to know each other. To Lexa's relief, they seemed to get along well, which was something that didn't always happen with Costia and Anya. Anya wasn't Costia's biggest fan, and was always the one to call her out, just like Clarke had. Nevertheless, Lexa was glad they got along. It was important to her that they did, and she couldn't be bothered to ask herself why.
When they got back to the apartment, they decided on a movie night to celebrate the first day of no school. Anya got the junk food out and sat down on the couch next to Clarke and Lexa. Anya only made it through the first movie before she opted out to go to bed because she had to work in the morning.
"What should we watch next?" Clarke asked Lexa at nearly three in the morning.
"I dunno," Lexa mumbled sleepily, nuzzling her face into Clarke's side, not noticing when Clarke tensed up. "Let's just go to sleep."
"Do you wanna, like, move and get ready for bed?" Clarke asked.
"No. You're comfy," Lexa mumbled back, not moving away from Clarke. Lexa always fell asleep before Clarke did, and she had a habit of rolling in her sleep.
Clarke couldn't help but smile at how adorable Lexa got when she was tired, and just moved into a more comfortable position without disturbing Lexa and went to sleep.
During the day, Anya almost always had to work, so Lexa and Clarke had the whole apartment to themselves. Not that they actually did much, of course. They slept late, ate junk food that Anya told them wasn't healthy, and sometimes went to the park down the street. It was every college student's dream Christmas break.
Most nights ended like that first one, with TV until the late hours of the morning, and sleeping together on the couch.
When Christmas eve finally rolled around, Clarke and Lexa were in their usual spot on the couch, practically on top of one another, this time watching A Christmas Story.
"God I love this movie. We always used to watch it when I was a kid," Clarke said.
"We always used to watch White Christmas," Lexa replied.
"Well then we'll watch that next, and then Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or Frosty. One of the old animated ones," Clarke said excitedly.
Lexa laughed at her, and Clarke's smile grew wider, seeing how brilliantly green Lexa's eyes were when she laughed.
"Of course, Clarke," Lexa replied through her giggles.
By the time Frosty the Snowman was actually put on, it was nearly one in the morning, and the two girls were laying next to each other on the too-small-for-two-people couch, like always. Lexa was half asleep with Clarke's arms around her waist when she turned over onto her side so that her and Clarke's faces were mere centimeters apart. Clarke's eyes widened. Lexa was so close that she could feel her breath on her face.
"L-Lex," Clarke managed to choke out, her throat dry.
Lexa murmured something, and only gripped Clarke tighter.
"Lexa," Clarke said a little louder this time.
"Wha-?" Lexa opened her eyes only to realize seconds later how close her and Clarke's faces were. Clarke saw Lexa's eyes dart to her lips and meet her eyes again and Lexa was not oblivious to how dilated Clarke's eyes were. So instead of moving or thinking like she might have at any other moment, she leaned in.
Lexa met Clarke's lips, kissing her slowly at first. Clarke's chest felt like it was going to explode and she kicked the blanket away, shifting her body so that she was on top of Lexa, her knees digging into the couch, pressing Lexa up against the armrest. Her hand were in Lexa's hair, and Lexa's were around her shoulders, pulling Clarke closer to her. Lexa's lips were soft against Clarke's and only left Clarke's when their breathing was too ragged to continue.
"Lexa?" Clarke asked finally, looking up to meet her eyes.
"Yeah?"
"I don't want this to be just because you and Costia broke up and I don't want you to think I'm just-"
"Shh, Clarke. This has nothing to do with Costia. I think you know that."
"I really like you, Lex," Clarke whispered, her blue eyes wide and vulnerable in a way that Lexa had never seen from Clarke before.
"I really like you too, Clarke," Lexa said just as softly, pressing a soft kiss to Clarke's cheek.
Clarke smiled and pulled Lexa to lay back down with her, hoping to god that this was something that would last and not something Lexa would regret in the morning.
