"Hey, wake up," Clarke heard someone murmur, and then a bunch of fluttery kisses were pressed all over her face. "Clarke, come on, get up."
"Mm, why?" Clarke groaned, burying her face back into her pillow. She felt Lexa suddenly straddling her over her back, and her hair was pushed away from her neck only to be replaced by soft lips. "Lexa, I don't wanna get up."
"But it's Saturday," Lexa whispered, her lips still tickling across the back of Clarke's neck. "We're going to Busch Gardens, remember?" Clarke's eyes flickered open, and she sighed contently before flipping over, causing Lexa to almost fall off of the bed at the movement. "Clarke!"
"That's what you get for sitting on top of me," Clarke insisted, grinning up at her. "I'm up. What time is it?"
"Seven thirty," Lexa answered. "I already got ready and packed what I need for tonight, so you just have to do the same."
Clarke groaned, rubbing her hand across her face tiredly. "Did we even make hotel reservations? Did we buy tickets for the park?"
"Yes, Clarke, I did yesterday. Remember?"
"Sleepy," Clarke murmured, placing both of her hands over her eyes, "too early."
"Clarke!" Lexa whined, grabbing her hands and tugging them away from her face. "Come on, get up. I wanna go run away from reality for twenty-four hours, remember? We're gonna go ride roller coasters and pretend like we aren't freezing."
Clarke couldn't help but smile, and she finally pushed herself up into a sitting position. "Cold," she murmured, stretching her arms up above her head and yawning.
"You're fully dressed in warm pajamas," Lexa tutted. "Plus, it's February now, and it won't be cold for long. Your cold, whiny morning self is gonna have to give up pretty soon."
"It's always cold," Clarke insisted, smiling tiredly at the brunette. Then she forced herself up out of bed and began getting ready.
They barely managed to leave successfully at eight, but even then they had to stop at The Bean for coffee and breakfast. Their drive started off quietly as they woke up, sipping coffee and eating the pastries from the coffee shop. But about twenty minutes in, Lexa was apparently feeling more awake and switched on the radio. Clarke had never been much of a radio listener while in the car, but she had also not been on a road trip that lasted longer than an hour since moving to Polis, and even then the trip had been only just over an hour. Music seemed like the perfect way to fill the time. "So have you been to Busch Gardens?"
"No," Lexa admitted. "I haven't been much of anywhere. But I've always wanted to go."
"You'll like it," Clarke said, smiling widely at her. "I mean, assuming you like roller coasters, which I'm assuming you do since you suggested that we go there in the first place."
"I haven't really ridden any ever... but I think I'd like them."
"I don't," Clarke admitted shyly. "I mean, they're not horrible... but I get scared."
Lexa let out a bright laugh, raising both of her eyebrows. "You get scared?" Clarke nodded.
"Don't make fun of me. The last time I rode a roller coaster was when I was like six or seven, and I was terrified out of my mind. You're gonna have to hold my hand every time."
"Ha, like you couldn't have just asked me to do that," Lexa teased.
The car ride went extremely well for the most part. Their minds were already off of everything that had been bogging them down lately, aside from when they stopped at a gas station for Lexa to go to the bathroom and Clarke had stayed in the car and realized that she had text from Octavia.
From Octavia – Hey, have you talked to Lex at all about NYC again?
To Octavia – No. Why?
From Octavia – Well, I was talking to Monty and he said that NYU's transfer application is due by the Monday after next, and it'll take a couple of weeks after submitting it to get an answer. And that means that she'd know whether she got in by March, and since we're all planning the move for May, that's cutting it kind of close for finding an apartment and moving everything and whatnot. Just thought that maybe you should be thinking about it. Rae and Monty have both already sent in their apps.
To Octavia – Alright, I'll probably ask Lexa again about it next week. But today is mine and Lexa's day away from everything, okay? We're going to Busch Gardens, and staying the night in Williamsburg. I'll see you tomorrow, k?
From Octavia – Okay. As long as you talk to her in far enough advance that she can still send her transfer application in, or else that's a definite, 'nope, not moving'. Have a good day.
Clarke frowned. She hadn't thought about the fact that the transfer process would have a due date, and now she felt a pit form in her stomach. She wanted to allow Lexa to have time to think about the whole situation at her own pace, which was why she hadn't tried to bring up at all. But now she had a time constraint, and it made her nervous. She just kept remembering Lexa getting stressed about thinking about, and getting up and pulling on her jacket and saying she needed air.
Clarke was terrified of driving away this girl who she loved so much. It had always, easily been her biggest fear, at least since getting together with the brunette. That she would mess up, and Lexa would leave her. The thought hadn't come up but once or twice in a span of two years, and only one of those times did it actually leave Clarke panicking. Now, however, she had a feeling that if Lexa reacted badly to her bringing up New York again, she might actually panic for real.
She saw Lexa coming out of the gas station, light on her feet, and immediately pushed away the thoughts. This was a day away from all of that drama and stress. She wouldn't ruin it for her or her girlfriend. So she plastered a smile onto her face as Lexa got back into the car, and they continued off to Williamsburg.
When they were driving into the area, the theme park in their line of sight, Lexa grinned. "Okay, so we can't check into the hotel until three," the younger girl stated, "so I guess we can go straight to Busch Gardens."
"Sounds good to me," Clarke said, and they began the rather difficult task of locating the parking lots for the theme park, and then venturing from there to the actual entrance of the park. Lexa grabbed Clarke's hand as they finally walked up into the area and the blonde knew that whatever it was that Lexa wanted to do while they were here, she'd do.
It occurred to her that since Lexa had never really left Polis, and that she'd generally been very focused on school, she probably hadn't gotten to do many fun, exciting things as a kid. Not to mention the fact that she was raised by a single mother, who was clearly only as well off as she was by working so hard and for so long. Clarke, however, had had a pretty lively, active childhood. She'd had a plethora of friends up until moving to Polis, and she'd gone to many exciting places, such as Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens, with her parents. Of course, upon moving to Polis, she had become much more withdrawn until finally making her new group of friends after finishing high school.
They made it to the ticket booth, where Lexa handed over both her and Clarke's tickets and the blonde grabbed a map for them to use. "So where do you wanna go first?" Clarke asked her girlfriend, unfolding the map and scanning over it as they walked into the England section of the park. Lexa leaned into the blonde to look at the map as well.
"Wait, why is Italy there? Shouldn't it be past France?"
"Lexa, I don't think that their organization of this amusement park was based off of the actual geography of Europe," Clarke said, amused as she looked at the brunette, who rolled her eyes.
"Okay, but if they'd put Italy up there, and then you turned the map over, it would actually be almost geographically accurate."
Clarke couldn't help but laugh as she flipped the map over as Lexa said and realized that she was right. "Alright, you're right. Now that that is established, what do you want to do first?"
Considering that half of the park's attractions were geared to kids, there weren't actually a ton of things for them to do while there. There was the Royal Palace Theatre in the back of the park, in the France section, that had shows at night, and the two of them thought that they might stop by there later. But to start their day, they decided to go to the Mach Tower, which Lexa claimed was probably going to be tame. Clarke wondered how exactly Lexa could say that when she hadn't even ridden any of these kinds of rides, but mostly she was just trying to forget that she herself was actually terrified of the height part of the tower.
Clarke was glad that it wasn't blistering hot outside, which was most of what she remembered from going to places like this. Since it was so early in the year, the weather was actually pleasant and cool, so when they found themselves waiting in line, it was actually tolerable.
The Mach Tower, for Lexa, was indeed not so bad. Clarke, however, was squeezing Lexa's hand from the seat next to her the entire time, sure that she was going to die. Yeah, Lexa got a great laugh out of that experience, and then they took a break from rides, instead just looking around the park. It was actually rather scenic and interesting to look around at.
At lunch time, they stopped at one of the food places and got some easy, typical theme park food. Then, Lexa was insistent that they ride a roller coaster. There were five coasters throughout the park, and Clarke was easily terrified of any of them. Lexa let her pick which one she thought would be the tamest, and that's where they went first.
It actually wasn't so bad, in retrospect, because Lexa had kept hold of Clarke's hand the entire time. Not to mention, Lexa seemed to have a lot of fun on it, and that alone made Clarke was to ignore the fact that she was scared.
So it wasn't really hard to believe that she allowed Lexa to take her onto the other four roller coasters as well. Surprisingly, by the end of the day, Clarke was proud to say that not only had she conquered her fear of roller coasters, but she may have also gotten past it. They had dinner at the park as well, but then decided against trying to get to the show that was being put on at the theater.
As they were approaching Clarke's car at the end of the day, Lexa let out a happy sigh. "This was fun," she said, leaning against the blonde. "I'm glad we did this."
"Me too, babe," Clarke agreed, smiling softly at the brunette. They piled back into Clarke's car, and the blonde managed to drive them out of the theme park's parking lot and to the hotel that they'd booked a room at. It was well after the earliest possible check in time, so their room was immediately ready for them. They didn't have more than a small overnight bag each, so it didn't take long for them to get up to the room.
"Ooh, it's a queen sized bed."
"Lexa, our bed is a queen sized bed."
Lexa gave the blonde a curious look. "Really? It seems smaller than this."
"You're crazy," Clarke teased, dropping her bag on the floor and stretching her arms up and over her head. "Oh god, I need to shower. It might not be really hot out there, but walking around all day has made me feel gross anyway. Also, I should really start working out someday. I'm so tired."
"Our life is way too busy to work out," Lexa stated, and Clarke nodded in agreement, before taking off her coat, peeling off her shirt and then discarding her bra all in a matter of seconds. Lexa's eyes widened at the sudden stripping.
"Come shower with me," Clarke suggested, batting her eyelashes at her girlfriend as she unbuttoned her pants and pushed them off of her legs, stepping out of them once they were low enough.
Lexa hummed thoughtfully, but a smile was tugging at her lips and she also began to remove her clothing. Clarke didn't wait for her to undress, instead stepping into the bathroom when she was naked and starting the water running.
"Hey, could you grab my shampoo out of my bag?" Clarke asked.
"Yep," Lexa said, fumbling with the bag for a moment as Clarke stepped under the water, letting the shower door close behind her
"Ah shit, it's cold."
Lexa stepped into the bathroom, giving the blonde an incredulous look. "Did you really just turn it on and then step in? Of course it's cold, Clarke."
Clarke pouted. "Come warm me up."
"Actually, I think I'll wait until the water isn't going to give me hypothermia, thanks."
Clarke pushed opened the shower door and extended her hand. "Well, at least give me my shampoo." Lexa obliged, but instead of grabbing the bottle from the brunette, Clarke grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the shower. They nearly slipped as Lexa shrieked and stumbled into the space, and Clarke grinned evilly.
"Clarke! We could've just died!"
"We didn't."
"It's so cold! What the fuck!"
Clarke batted her eyelashes at the brunette. "And you were going to make me freeze in here all by myself."
"Well, with this cold shower, I guess we won't need to be doing any funny business tonight." Clarke's jaw dropped at Lexa's statement, and the latter girl smirked knowingly. Clarke closed her mouth, her expression shifting into a challenging one.
Lexa gasped when Clarke suddenly pinned her against the wall of her shower, which was undoubtedly colder than the water even though it remained dry. "You sure about that?" Clarke murmured, the front of her body coming flush with Lexa's.
"Not entirely." Their lips were centimeters apart, and Clarke stared at Lexa's for a good ten seconds before choosing to close the distance between them. Lexa moaned in want, her arms wrapping around Clarke's neck as the blonde's hands came to her waist. Clarke's tongue delved into Lexa's mouth fully, dominating the kiss.
The water began to warm up finally, and since Lexa was probably still mostly cold, Clarke's hands fell to her ass and pulled her away from the wall and under the spray of the water.
"Not cold anymore," Lexa mumbled against Clarke's lips when they paused for air.
"Mm." Clarke joined their lips again, and gently pinned her girlfriend against one of the other walls of the shower, and now they were actually slightly being sprayed by the shower head. Clarke pulled her lips off of Lexa's and began placing slow kisses down her skin.
"This is such a waste of water," Lexa muttered, "this is why I hate shower sex."
"You've never complained about shower sex before," Clarke murmured against the skin on her chest, before grabbing a nipple in between her lips and sucking on it gently.
"Fuck," Lexa moaned, her head tossing back a little and resting against the wall. "That's because you always make me forget that it's a waste of water."
"I can make you forget again," Clarke offered after releasing the nipple, and Lexa's only response was another throaty moan. Clarke eagerly lowered herself onto her knees, her hands dragging down from Lexa's ass to her thighs instead. She gently and yet firmly spread Lexa's legs while still keeping her from slipping. Clarke brought her lips to meet Lexa's lower ones, which were quite expectant and prepared for her. She loved how aroused she could get Lexa.
She went slowly, because she knew that it would drive Lexa crazy. "Fuck! Clarke!" Lexa gasped out, her hands grabbing Clarke's hair somewhat strongly. The action drew a moan from Clarke's own lips, which vibrated against her girlfriend in an apparently very pleasing way, driving Lexa even closer to release.
She could feel when Lexa was coming, and she squeezed Lexa's thighs appreciatively as the brunette let out a loud moan of pleasure. When Clarke pulled her face out from between Lexa's legs, she turned her gaze upward to look at her girlfriend, whose eyes were squeezed together as her sporadic breathing began to even.
"You... have to let me give you a turn," Lexa insisted, "after we shower."
"Deal," Clarke agreed. "I don't know about you, but I'm not so tired yet anyway."
They left Williamsburg at around ten the following morning, and Lexa felt successfully rejuvenated. It was strange to feel so calm, knowing everything that there was to be stressed about, but it was nice at the same time.
Their car ride back to Polis was quieter, with both of them knowing that as soon as they were back, their real lives would hit them again at full force no doubt.
And though she knew to expect that, Lexa was not expecting to get a phone call from Luna at the exact second that she got home and collapsed onto her and Clarke's bed, while the blonde went into the bathroom.
With half a mind to ignore it, Lexa glared at the phone for all of ten seconds before finally deciding to answer it. "Hey, I just got back from Williamsburg. What's up?"
"Um. I really need to talk to you about something."