The first thing Clarke noticed as she forced her eyes opened was that arms were wrapped around her midsection and her back was pressed against Lexa's bare front. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized it, and an involuntary smile appeared on her face. The even breathing from behind her indicated that Lexa was still asleep soundly.

The window at the end of the room wasn't flooding it with light, so Clarke assumed that it wasn't too late in the day yet. She wasn't sure where they were going next, though she was pretty sure that they were checking out of the hotel at some point during the morning. She decided not to worry about it yet, and let her eyes flicker closed again as she relaxed her body into Lexa's.

She woke again later to a ray of bright light shining directly into her face, and she immediately let out a small groan and brought a hand up to cover her face. Lexa stirred behind her. She pulled her arm out from around Clarke, allowing the blonde to turn over and face away from the light. "Morning," Clarke murmured to the brunette, who was looking at her with bright eyes.

"Morning," Lexa replied.

"Where are we going?" Clarke asked, bringing a hand up to wipe at her tired eyes.

"Amsterdam," Lexa answered softly. "We have a train at one. Gotta check out before noon."

Groaning, Clarke propped herself up and turned slightly to reach for the nightstand, pulling her phone apart from her charger. She relaxed back into the bed, still facing Lexa, and unlocked her phone. "Well, it's nine. And I wanna get food before we get on the train."

"So we should probably get up."

"Yeah."

Neither of them moved, and Clarke rolled her eyes, smiling fondly at the naked girl laying in front of her. The blankets that were covering them were a bit twisted and tangled, so most of their bodies were pretty exposed despite them.

After another beat, Clarke finally began to pull herself up out of her bed. "No, stay in bed," Lexa whined. "We can go to Amsterdam later."

"No," Clarke argued, rolling her eyes. She stood up and faced the bed, where Lexa's gaze was having trouble staying on the blonde's face. Clarke smirked, no longer shy about her body. Lexa had already seen it, after all. "I need to shower, and I'm pretty sure you do, too, because I don't think yours last night ended up keeping you very clean."

Lexa's cheeks were flushed a bit red. "We could shower together..."

"You planning on getting out of bed in the next thirty seconds?" Clarke asked, moving to her suitcase to grab fresh clothes. This was her last pair of fresh clothes, so she hoped that there was an easy access washer and dryer where ever they were staying in Amsterdam.

"No."

"Then you are showering alone, after me," Clarke said, smirking at the brunette before disappearing into the bathroom.

They were both cleaned off, dressed, and with everything packed for their train ride into the Netherlands by eleven. They checked out of their hotel and walked to the bus station that would then bring them to the train station. Before getting on a bus, though, they stopped at the easiest to access restaurant for a quick breakfast. Their meal took slightly longer than expected and they ended up rushing off of the bus to make their train in time.

Lexa had purchased the tickets without Clarke's knowledge, and when they were seated across from one another in the train, settling in for the two hour ride, Clarke asked, "Did you already book a hotel?" The brunette hesitated for a moment, and then she started speaking.

"Well, the past two hotels we were staying in, I'd already booked a room. I just upgraded it to two beds. So... I tried to do the same in Amsterdam, but they wouldn't let me upgrade so... I have a room, but just one bed."

"Works for me if it works for you," Clarke said, biting the inside of her lip and wondering if Lexa noticed. Whether not she did, Lexa smiled knowingly and nodded.

"Okay."

During the first part of the train ride, neither of them talked much. Lexa had to finish organizing her pictures from Brugge, since she'd been otherwise occupied the previous night to do so. In the mean time, Clarke set out to sketch something she could recall from the latest city they'd been in. However, she quickly became bored and flipped the page to start something new.

She glanced up at the brunette, staring with focus at her computer and she did whatever it was she was doing. Clarke found herself sketching those slightly furrowed eyebrows, the focused expression that was actually pretty cute. It was just a rough sketch – Lexa's face was pretty much just floating in the middle of the page, but it was a nice thing to occupy her time.

Halfway through the trip, Lexa closed her laptop and her expression smoothed out. "All done," she announced, as if she could tell that Clarke had seemed pretty bored throughout the past hour. Clarke's pencil stilled, having lost the reference she'd been using.

"How come it takes so long to organize them all, or whatever?"

Lexa shrugged. "I have to put them all in their respective folders, and name them all to match the name of the original photo, from five years ago. It's kinda a long process, but it saves me from having to do it all the night before I'm supposed to send them all to get printed."

"Makes sense," Clarke commented, propping her chin up on the palm of her hand. "So... Amsterdam is in The Netherlands, where they speak Dutch, right?"

Lexa smiled, amused. "Yes."

"Okay, so I know something going in this time," the blonde said, smiling proudly. The brunette laughed at the expression Clarke wore.

"Good job," she teased.

They talked a little about Amsterdam through the rest of the ride, but then they switched to talking about how Lexa had gotten into photography. That was what filled up the rest of their ride, and then they were suddenly pulling into a train station. It seemed to be near the sea, and Clarke's eyes curiously looked out the window. When the train pulled to a stop, she followed Lexa out of it and into the station.

"So, we're gonna have to take another bus. We can get one almost right to our hotel, and check in, and then I wanna show you something," Lexa said brightly.

"You always have something you wanna show me," Clarke commented, though she didn't object by any means as she followed the brunette to the bus stop near the train station.

Lexa rolled her eyes. "There are so many things I could show you, I just have to pick one to start off with," Lexa claimed. "Plus, I have to pick the best for when I'm not taking pictures."

"How many days are we spending here?" Clarke wondered. The bus was already approaching the stop, which was nice. Lexa began answering as they clambered up into the automobile, squeezing their bags in with them.

"A couple," Lexa replied. "At least today and tomorrow, but we might not have to stay another day after that."

"How many more places are you going?"

Lexa flashed Clarke a mysterious grin and she said, "Where's the fun in telling you that?" The blonde chuckled, and she actually had to agree with her companion. Knowing how many places, and then being able to estimate how many days, would probably be more depressing than interesting. She'd rather be surprised every time. It felt nice to not have control of the planning, actually. On the other hand, she was pretty sure that Lexa enjoyed being in control of it. It worked out pretty perfectly.

The hotel they were staying in seemed pretty big and pretty crowded, probably since it was just past the beginning of check in time – which was displayed on the front desk in Dutch and English to be at three in the afternoon. It was just nearing four when Clarke and Lexa got their room keys and started up to their room.

The room was about the same size as every room they'd stayed, but with one bed centered in it rather than two. It was a king sized bed, though, there was no doubt, with nice looking sheets and a soft green blanket draped across the end of it. Clarke could already imagine curling up in it with Lexa. She knew that she definitely had no problem sharing a bed with the brunette.

Despite how comfy it looked, Lexa quickly rushed her back out of the room after dropping off their luggage and gathering up their smaller bags. They made their way back down to the lobby of the hotel and then out into the fresh air. It was slightly overcast, and so they had both made sure to have their coats with them, but it was not dreary or depressing at all. Rather, it made Clarke pull her coat around her a bit tighter and feel comfy and just... good.

"So where are we walking to?" Clarke asked, taking a few quicker steps to catch up with the brunette, who had gotten a bit ahead of her. Her hair billowed up behind her a bit as she did.

"You'll see," Lexa replied, getting an eye roll from the blonde. Clarke hardly cared if the girl told her though, she would see, and she didn't mind walking alongside Lexa. She pointedly took Lexa's soft hand, and felt the other woman squeeze it in response. They walked silently through the cool air with their hands intertwined, comfortable and at ease.

It was less than ten minutes later that they reached their destination, and Clarke immediately knew that she'd seen it in photographs before. "Oh," she said, nodding in recognize. It was the red and white I Amsterdam sign. Not many people were crowded around it, surprisingly, but that was possibly because it looked like it might start drizzling. "I've seen this before, in pictures."

"It's pretty cool," Lexa commented. "I think it's pretty cool that it's like... the city's motto or whatever."

They were facing the back of the sign, and in front of the path in the front part of it was a long pond sort of thing. It was a pretty area, even in the overcast weather. They made their way around the sign so that they could face the front, and Lexa hummed thoughtfully.

"I think I'll take my pictures of it now. No one's really around, and the weather isn't really a big deal." It sounded like she was mostly talking to herself, and Clarke let her start doing her thing. She looked around at her surroundings appreciatively. What she'd seen of the city so far just seemed sort of... friendly, she supposed. People were biking around, looking happy. It didn't seem like the cities that Clarke was more used to seeing in the US. Not that she expected it to be anything like those.

She began to get bored while Lexa was taking pictures, though, and so she sneaked around behind the sign and poked her head through the first "a", smiling widely. Lexa snapped the picture she'd been setting up before realizing, and she let out a laugh. "Clarke, I'm trying to take pictures."

"You're taking too long," Clarke whined playfully, now standing next to the "a" instead. Lexa took another picture of her.

"Fine, but I'm not deleting these pictures," Lexa stated, smiling slyly.

"Okay," Clarke agreed, "but at least take one on my phone so that I can have one."

She hopped away from the sign and handed Lexa her phone before taking her bag off of her body and tossing it aside. She went back behind the a, sticking her head through it and smiling. Lexa took a picture of her with her iPhone, and then switched back to her camera, snapping multiple as Clarke was moving back around the sign.

"What are you possibly going to do with so many pictures of my face?" Clarke joked, grabbing her messenger bag and pulling it back over her shoulder. She retrieved her phone from the brunette, who just shrugged.

"I don't know," she answered. "It would be a shame to delete them, though. You're so cute."

"I'm not cute," Clarke argued.

"Uh huh, whatever you say," Lexa replied, rolling her eyes.

Clarke opened up the picture that Lexa had taken on her phone, and was only slightly surprised at how good it was. Seriously, no matter how hard she tried to focus a forward facing picture, she could never do it. Selfies, though... "Well, oh professional photographer, you take selfies? Or is that too lowly of a photograph for you."

Lexa rolled her eyes. "I don't really take pictures with my phone, so no, I don't usually take selfies." Shaking her head, Clarke grabbed the brunette's hand and adjusted her position so that they were both facing the water – the sign behind them. She flipped to her camera on her phone and switched the camera to face them. She positioned it strategically to make both her and Lexa look correctly in proportion, and as they both smiled into the camera, snapped the selfie. When she looked back at it, she was proud of her abilities.

"Does the professional approve of my selfie taking skills?"

Lexa laughed, nearly snorting and causing Clarke to grin. "It's a very nice picture. I'd give it a three out of five."

"Shut up," Clarke said, laughing lightly.

Lexa grinned widely. "Feel like a drink?"

"Isn't it a little early for drinking?" the blonde responded, raising an eyebrow as Lexa grabbed her hand and started pulling her down one of the paths.

"It's like a fifteen minute walk," Lexa replied. "Will it be too early then?"

Clarke smirked, rolling her eyes. "Why not?"

The bar that Lexa brought her too was small and cozy and had a pretty good assortment of drinks. They both ordered a sandwich with their first drink, since it was probably best that they didn't drink after not eating for a little while. They talked lightheartedly as they sipped from their glasses. Clarke had ordered a cocktail, though as she sipped she couldn't help but think that she could've made it better. It was probably the worst habit she had when she went out anywhere to get a drink – she could always pick out the smallest mistakes. The drinks there were definitely pretty good, though. Lexa, however, had a glass of wine. Clarke wasn't really surprised, though.

At some point, her phone vibrated in her coat pocket, and she grabbed it to see a text from her best friend.

From Rae Bae – How's the Brussels Sprout city?

Clarke rolled her eyes at the message, though a smile tugged at her lips. Lexa wondered, "Is that Raven?"

"Mmhmm," Clarke answered, typing out a response.

To Rae Bae – Not there anymore.

As she clicked out of her messages app, she curiously tapped her photo app and looked at the two newest pictures she had. The one of her and the Lexa, and the one of her by the I Amsterdam sign. "I wonder how they'd all react if I posted these pictures on my Facebook," Clarke mused, smirking. "I've been avoiding that site like the plague. If my mom saw me online on there, she'd never stop messaging me. And the noise that the Facebook messaging app makes is so annoying."

Lexa laughed. "I really only have my Facebook because of my family," the brunette admitted. "None of my friends care enough to use it."

"My friends are big Instagram users," Clarke said, smirking. Experimentally tapping on her Facebook app. She was greeted with an influx of new notifications, from the past week or so that she hadn't been on it at all. Most of them were tags in the comment sections of posts that her friends thought she might like. "Ugh, my Facebook is trashed by now. This is what happens when you don't check notifications for a week."

"You're the one who did that," Lexa reminded her teasingly, taking a sip of her wine.

"Yeah..." Clarke shrugged, looking at the little box at the top of the page that was prompting her to update her status. After looking at it for a moment, she just about clicked away until a little tiny instinct inside of her told her that it was time to come out of hiding. She was comfortable in her journey right now, with Lexa, and she wasn't going to be easily persuaded to come back. That's why she'd avoided her mother, anyway, because she knew that the woman would try her hardest to coax Clarke back to DC.

Her best friends knew where she was by this point... what was the harm, really? Lexa seemed to be reading into her thoughts. "Are you really going to post them?"

Clarke shrugged. "Why not? I was avoiding them all, but I already know that I'm not going back until... I guess until you go back to New York. As long as you don't ditch me somewhere first." Lexa laughed incredulously, and the blonde smiled, continuing, "So it doesn't really matter who knows where I am. I have a reason to be here now, or at least more so than I did before. And it's probably easier to just post this than to text everyone and endure all of their rage separately. Plus, at least this picture will tell them where I am."

"Go for it," Lexa said, shrugging. "But if anyone comes here trying to drag you back to DC, I might actually fight them."

Clarke blushed. "Oh yeah?"

"You're kind of good company," Lexa replied, eliciting a smile from the blonde.

"Just kind of? Coming from the girl who literally asked me to come travel Europe with her after knowing me for two days?"

Lexa gave an exaggerated eye roll. "You can't pull that card every time."

"Sure I can," Clarke insisted, sipping her cocktail and fighting a grin. She glanced back down at her phone and clicked the photo button by the status update box. She selected the two pictures, and hit post without typing in a status or caption, and immediately held her breath and slipped her phone into her messenger bag, where she wouldn't hear it go off.

She tried not to think about it as she fell back into a nice conversation with Lexa. When they had decided that they shouldn't have anymore drinks, they left the bar and started on their walk back to the hotel. It wasn't too late, but like most days, they were already pretty tired. Not to mention a little more intoxicated than tipsy.

They didn't rush back to the hotel, so it took them a little while before they were back, and they also stopped briefly by the little pond next to the I Amsterdam sign, sitting along the edge of it and talking. Talking to Lexa was almost a billion times more entertaining and also just easier than talking to other people – both sober Clarke and tipsy Clarke could agree with that.

It was nearing six-thirty when they got back to the hotel, and Clarke slid her shoes off of her feet and claimed the left side of the bed, while Lexa went to go see if she could find out about a washer and dryer in the hotel. Clarke would have gone with her, but she knew that she would've made it more difficult. It was hard enough when one person was trying to converse with people who would rather be speaking in Dutch.

Clarke tossed her messenger bag onto the ground, and it flapped open a bit, revealing a bright light on the inside. Clarke reached back down and retrieved her phone, suddenly recalling the pictures she's posted.

She had multiple text messages, along with many Facebook comments. She checked Facebook first.

Harper Johnson:

Amsterdam? That's so cool. Where have you been, girl?

Monty Green:

Did you go off the grid to go to Europe and hook up with some random girl? XD JK, but where have you been, Clarke? We miss you :(

Jasper Jordan:

What he said!

Octavia Blake:

WHO THE FUCK IS THE GIRL IN THAT PICTURE? RAVEN GET ON THIS DAMN SOCIAL MEDIA SITE!

Raven Reyes:

WTF! CLARKE!

Harper Johnson:

I didn't even realize there was a second picture. ;-; But yes, whoooooo?

Abby Griffin:

Clarke. Jane. Griffin. You post on Facebook before you even call your mom?

She was surprised at how few comments there were compared to text messages. She had about ten from her mom, and thirty from Octavia and Raven combined. Then there was one was from Bellamy, and, due to what she assumed was karma, one from Finn.

She started from her mom, ignoring all of the messages and hitting the call button next to her contact.

The call was answered instantly. "Clarke Griffin! You are in Amsterdam?"

"Yes?"

"Why haven't you called me, or even texted me? I can't believe you! You've been off having fun and wasting away the time you should be using to get a new job and a new apartment! And you've left me here in a panic!" Abby exclaimed, sounding definitely very pissed off.

"You have to understand, mom," Clarke breathed out, feeling like she had sobered a little bit just from the situation, but aware that alcohol was clouding her thoughts a little bit, "I had to get away. And I couldn't talk to you. You would try to get me to come home, and I would've listened to you. But I can't. And I won't, not for probably another week or so. And I still have my job. Raven's got Wick keeping it for me right now, and I'm going to call him soon and work something out with him. Apartment won't be a problem. I'll crash with Rae and O for a couple more weeks when I'm back. They won't mind."

Her mom let out a huff. "I'm at work right now, Clarke, but if I weren't, you would be in for a much longer conversation. Count your lucky stars. I have to go."

"Bye, mom," Clarke said, glancing down at her right hand, which was playing with the hem of her coat nervously. "I love you."

She heard a surprisingly calm breath from the other side of the line. "I love you too." The call ended, and Clarke moved on to the next most important person. Raven.

From Rae Bae – Who's the girl?

From Rae Bae – Obviously not a temporary hookup, because you took a goddamn selfie with her.

From Rae Bae – And you two look awfully smiley and cutesy.

From Rae Bae – You better fucking call me if you want to keep your life.

There were countless more messages basically reiterating those same statements, and so Clarke didn't bother to read them all and instead clicked the call button on her phone. It was Sunday, so she knew that neither of her best friends were working. This was confirmed when Raven answered the phone call after not even a full ring. "Start talking, blondie."

Clarke let out a sigh. "Her name is Lexa."

"Okay?"

"I met her in London."

"What? You met her in fucking London? Wait a second, she was that girl you mentioned in that video you made when you were in London? The one who took you to the London Eye and shit?" Raven demanded.

"Yeah, that's her," Clarke confirmed. "She's in Europe taking photographs for an art exhibit thing. She's from New York."

"Clarke! She's a fucking stranger who you met randomly barely a week ago!" Raven exclaimed. "What, did she just offer to take you with her?"

"Basically?" Clarke replied, raising her eyebrows.

Raven huffed. "Have you been drinking at all?"

"A little? How'd you know."

"You answer lots of questions with questions as answers, like you think the answers should be obvious," Raven replied, sighing. "Is she with you right now?"

"Not right now," Clarke replied, glancing over to the entrance to the hotel room. "She's... looking to see if the hotel we're at has a washer and dryer we can use. We're both kind of out of fresh clothes to wear..."

"You're staying in the same hotel room."

"Yeah?"

"So... she's paying for it? That's what I'm assuming, since according to your mom, you haven't spent a single dime with your credit card, and you haven't come running back to DC begging for more money yet," Raven assumed.

Clarke sighed. "I tried to pay for some, but she was very adamant about paying. I don't think she has an issue with the money."

"Why would she pay for all your shit though?"

"Well... she doesn't want me to go back to DC either," Clarke said, rolling her eyes.

"Because she's probably secretly a serial killer or something, Clarke! Look, babe, I know you're going through some shit. But you can't just start trusting a random stranger you meet who invites you to travel Europe with them," Raven insisted.

The blonde lowered her gaze to where her fingers were still fiddling with the hem of her coat. She wasn't quite sure why she hadn't taken it off yet. "You don't know her, Rae. Okay? She's not a serial killer. She's sweet and she cares and she needs someone with her here as much as I do. Trust me."

The door of the hotel suddenly opened, and Lexa walked in. "I found the washer. You can have the first load, if you want," she started, before realizing that Clarke was on the phone and clamping her mouth shut. Clarke figured that her stressed out expression was pretty obvious.

"Was that her?" Raven asked.

"Yeah," Clarke muttered, sighing. "One sec." She got up from the bed and grabbed her messenger bag, emptying it and then stuffing the clothes that she needed to wash into it for easier transport. It was stuffed pretty full.

She looked to Lexa, who looked like she had a good assumption of what Clarke and Raven were talking about. The brunette gave her quick instructions on how to get to the washer, saying that she'd paid for using it at the front desk already.

When Clarke was in the hallway following Lexa's directions, she went back to her conversation with Raven. "Look, Rae, I know what I'm doing."

"I'm sure you do, babe, but I'm worried about you. I don't want something bad to happen to you, Clarke. You're my best friend," Raven said, her voice quiet all of the sudden.

"Nothing is going to happen to me," Clarke promised, finding herself walking into a laundry room with a few washers and driers set up. She popped one of the former appliances open and began dumping her clothes into it. "And I trust Lexa. I've already been staying with her for a week now. If I didn't trust her, I'd have gone home by now."

Raven sighed. "Okay... I guess I can approve. She's hot." Clarke smirked.

"Yeah, she is," the blonde agreed. The brunette gasped on the other end of the line.

"Have you two already slept together?"

"Oh – gotta go, Rae! Talk to you tomorrow!"

"Clarke, hey –"

The blonde hung up the phone, smirking slightly. She started the washer after dumping some of the available detergent into it, and then hoisted herself up on top of it as it worked. She glanced back down at her phone. Only a few more people to go.

All of the texts from Octavia were in freak out mode, much like Raven's, but they also said that Octavia would call her when she was done helping her mom with moving some furniture in her house. Clarke couldn't help but feel a bit lucky that she had caught Octavia at a bad time. Her lecture would be way harder to fend off than Raven's.

She checked her other two messages.

From Bellamy – Hey, u look happy in the pics u posted on fb. I'm glad. I know O is gonna freak out at u. Just remember, if u r safe and u r happy, u r doing it right. Obviously u need to return to responsibility and everything at some point, but let urself time to heal and stuff.

She smiled, because the text was such a Bellamy thing to do. Whenever he knew that Octavia was going to get pissed about something, he never hesitated to remind Clarke that she didn't have to succumb to his sister's wrath, even though the blonde knew that by now.

The last text was the one she was looking forward to reading the least.

From Soul-Crushing-Ex – Wow, you post on Facebook before you answer me. And of course you had to make a big spectacle with that random chick. Message loud and clear, C.

Clarke felt her eyebrows furrowing, and despite not wanting to at all, she found herself typing back angrily.

To Soul-Crushing-Ex – You shut the fuck up Finn, and lose my fucking number. I didn't answer you, because you're a pretentious ass who has about as much right to know what's going on in my life as some any random stranger on the street. And this "random chick" has treated me better in a week than you ever could've in your entire fucking life. So fuck off before I sick Raven on you.

Dropping her phone in her lap and letting her eyes flicker closed, she leaned against the wall behind the washing machine, which was humming peacefully under her as it sloshed around the clothes inside. She took in a deep breath, blocking out all of the drama and focusing instead on where she was, who was with her, waiting just back in the hotel room for her. She pictured the previous night in the hotel room in Brussels, and early that morning.

And it was all okay.