For two weeks Lexa denied any change within her with regards to Clarke as they worked side by side. Even though the night she spent at the blonde's and Raven's instigating had alerted the brunette to traces of connections she had undoubtedly formed with the blue-eyed girl.
It was the way she carried herself, how she described her perception of the world, and how she genuinely smiled at things she found amazing and beautiful that forced Lexa to take notice.
Still, Lexa had said nothing on the matter and never hinted beyond the usual banter. She carried her growing appreciation for the girl silently until the need to vocalize it became too much.
That is how the brunette ended up calling her sister to vent her frustration with a beer in hand.
"I don't even know if she's fair play." Lexa drowned deeper into her sofa at the admission.
"You mean you've been working with this girl for months and you can't tell if she's gay or not?" The older sister teased. "Looks like this Clarke girl has you all twisted."
"That's why I'm calling you, Anya." Lexa rolled her eyes in the darkness of her living room. "I don't know whether I should approach her, wait to learn more, or just give up altogether."
There was a low chortle on the line. "Well don't just walk away, Lex. You've never just not gone after what you wanted."
Lexa nodded in agreement, remembering the times she has fought against everything, including her own self-doubt, to accomplish something. The image of her most recent love flashed behind closed lids. "I still miss her, Anya." She sighed heavily into the phone.
"I know. I do too, but don't you think it's time you move on. She would want that." The older woman responded. "Why don't you take your time in getting to know this Clarke girl and see where it takes you?"
"Yeah. I think I will. Thanks, Anya." The girl finished her beer and set the bottle on the coffee table before she sighed. "I'll talk to you later."
They bid their farewells before the brunette retired to her room for the night.
Across town, Clarke placed the finishing touches on her latest portrait, one that featured Raven. She had asked the girl for permission to feature her in her class project, and Raven being the extrovert that she was, quickly agreed and even forwarded the blonde a selfie to use as reference.
She smiled proudly at her work and with a final nod placed her tools in their cleaning jars before she walked away to let the canvas dry overnight.
When the blonde realized she was wide awake and not at all tired, she settled on the sofa to stream one of her favorite shows. She watched distractedly as she flipped through her feed on one of her social networks and smiled when she came to a photo of Octavia, Raven, and Lexa with her at Polis Billiards. They had enjoyed a few pitchers of beer and several rounds of pool before they called it a night. Each of the girls had a huge smile on their face and Clarke realized she kept sketching one in particular with her eyes.
It was a smile worthy of being immortalized Clarke concluded, and immediately decided she had her next subject.
Clarke wasted no time in mentioning it to Lexa the following night as they experienced yet another slow shift, and found themselves standing side by side behind the bar.
The girl smiled at the dancers before her gaze traveled to the blonde when she called her name. "What's up?" Lexa responded.
"I need more portrait work for class. I want to paint yours next." She smiled wide hoping it would convince the bartender.
Lexa contemplated the request and looked cautiously at the girl with an unconvinced look. "I don't know. There's so many of us here, why me?" She really was not a fan of selfies and photos in general, and it made her a bit nervous to think all of Clarke's class would be scrutinizing her face on a canvas. "What if people think I have a disfigured face or something?" She shrugged.
Clarke laughed. "Then that would be might fault not yours." She argued. "Besides, I promise to do a good job. I'll be extra focused on yours." She batted her eye lashes in pleading form.
The brunette shook her head, still not fully convinced, but eventually sighed in consent. "Fine."
There was a small squeal from the blonde before she nodded with excitement. "Ok but there's a catch." Clarke added and grinned at the girl's eye roll and feigned annoyed glare. "No selfie. You come to my place and we work in person."
"What?" Lexa shook her head. "That hardly seems fair. Raven got to do it with a selfie." She pouted with a playful frown.
"Yes, but she offered before I could tell her otherwise. And my instructor wants us to get comfortable with in-person lighting and outside variables that could challenge our skills." Clarke responded. It was mostly true, but deep down her motives hardly related to that and had much more to do with the fact that she enjoyed Lexa's company. Discussions with her far outweighed any benefit from having a still photograph she could paint from in no time.
After some more pouting and shaking of her head, Lexa nodded. "Ok. When do we start?"
"Tomorrow? Maybe bring your clothes and we can carpool to work?" Clarke shrugged innocently.
Lexa shook her head again because she sensed the blonde was finding ways to get her to say yes. In reality the brunette could not bring herself to mind spending time with the girl. Still she found it was fun to pretend to be irritated. "Fine. That works." She casually shrugged before they both shifted their focus towards the stage.
When the night was over, Lexa could hardly contain her excitement for the following day. She made sure not to openly express it, however, as she grinned and bantered with her friends per usual. She proceeded with her routine of asking Clarke if she needed a ride home, and of course Clarke declined politely like always.
"See you tomorrow, then." Lexa smiled as she walked nonchalantly towards her car and left Raven and Clarke standing near the edge of the sidewalk.
"I'll wait with you." Raven smiled and ignored the blonde's look. "I wanted to mention that I saw a hot guy looking at you earlier. He kept looking for you while you made yours rounds."
There was an unimpressed look from Clarke as she shook her head at her friend. "Not interested."
"Well he sure as hell seemed interested in you. Did I mention it wasn't his first time here?" Raven nodded with a grin. "Clarke's got an admirer."
A sigh of relief escaped the blonde as she saw her rideshare approach them. "Good night, Raven."
"Night." The brunette waved with a grin before she walked towards her own car.
Lexa smiled a lopsided grin as she observed the way Clarke's eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Her left hand glided effortlessly upon the canvas as she added more paint to the portrait.
"I need a real smile not just a grin." Clarke spoke to the brunette, but never actually broke her focus from the canvas.
It was something that made the brunette shake her head incredulously at her before she cleared her throat and straightened her posture. "Do you want a fake smile, toothy, small, or loveable? I need direction miss artist." She teased.
Clarke shook her head too as she continued the brush strokes. "One like the one you flashed that night at Polis Billiards." She tore her blue eyes from her work just enough to lock them with Lexa's.
The girl pondered for a minute before she shook her head. "Then we have a problem because I need more beers for that one."
Small laughs echoed in the living room as they chuckled together. "There you go." Clarke nodded as she spotted the sincere smile on Lexa's face. "Just hold it."
And Lexa did hold it despite the burning in her cheeks for another thirty minutes while the blonde worked diligently. When it became too much she shook her head and rubbed her face. "Sorry, Virginia. I can't anymore." She frowned apologetically.
"Sorry. I get in the zone. We can stop for today and finish tomorrow if that works for you." The blonde waited with the brush in hand for Lexa's response.
"Tomorrow." She nodded. "My face hurts, and I'm hungry." She continued to rub her face. "Want to go grab some food before work?"
Clarke moved around the space as she put away her tools and moved the easel towards the corner of the room. She nodded while she situated her work station. "Yup. I can eat."
It was a short drive to the diner a few blocks from the apartment and soon the girls sat opposite each other in a secluded booth. They ordered their meals and proceeded to talk effortlessly while they waited. The blonde laughed at the story Lexa recounted about Octavia and Raven and how they hated each other at first. She could not picture the girls not being the best of friends because since she came to know them, she noticed the pair often did everything together. Even going as far as going on blind double dates.
She shook her head as the brunette continued with the details. "No way."
"Yes." Lexa nodded. "Octavia nearly ripped Raven's hair out one night because she thought Raven was trying to flirt with her boyfriend. But you know Raven, she's a people person."
"Yeah." Clarke nodded with a laugh. "That she is."
When their food arrived, they didn't stop talking and only moved from topic to topic when the previous one was exhausted. It was all very easy and Lexa couldn't fight the feeling of contentment that took over her.
"Raven said there was a guy in the audience the past couple of days that keeps eyeing me." Clarke opened the discussion as she bit one of her fries.
"I haven't noticed him." Lexa responded flatly and tried her best to hide the disdain in her voice. She sipped on her drink to avoid having to say anything more on the matter.
"Same here." The blonde shrugged. "So what about you, Lexa? It's been months, and I have yet to meet anyone in your life." She smiled suggestively.
Lexa snorted and shook her head with an impish grin. "People can't handle me." She smiled so wide that Clarke actually thought she meant it.
"Is that why of all the people that flirt with you every night, none of them have succeeded?" Clarke took another fry in her mouth with imploring eyes. "Are they scared? Or are you?" She challenged.
"Please." Lexa waved her hand dismissively. "They're just in it for the free drinks. I'm the bartender remember?" She smiled again. Clarke shook her head at the way the brunette dismissed her questions.
There was more she wanted to say to tease Lexa, but in the end she dropped it so they could eat. That did not mean however, that their time was quiet or lacked the usual teasing the two thrived on by now.
When the girls arrived to Tassels, most of the crew was already dressed and sitting in the main room looking dismally quiet.
Indra stood on the stage and tore her eyes from the group to the two ladies that had just entered the establishment. Her eyes lacked their usual motivational gleam and color.
Something was wrong and the girls quietly and carefully made their way to an empty cocktail table to listen to whatever Indra had been saying before they walked in.
"Clarke, Lexa, thank you for joining us." Indra smiled sadly with a small nod.
"What's wrong?" Lexa questioned her before she looked around the room. When she saw no one was missing she allowed herself a sigh of relief.
"The group can fill you in on the details, but to keep it short, if we experience any more slow nights like in the previous weeks I am afraid we will have to close down." She shrugged defeated and the two girls could sense the woman fought back tears.
Lexa shook her head stubbornly. "I know it's been slow at times, but we still bring in a good amount from the bar. How much are we short? What can we do?" The brunette asked in near desperation because at the end of the day, the Tassels crew and business was her family and it's what kept her going.
Clarke looked keenly over at the brunette. Her eyes were glued to Indra, but even then Clarke could hear the determination in her voice. It made the blonde respect her all the more for her willingness to contribute in whatever capacity. Because of it she nodded along with her. "I'd like to help, too. Let us know how, Indra." She looked at her boss and could feel the other girl's eyes on her this time.
"Thank you, ladies. But simply put, we must increase business enough so our earnings pay for the operating costs, employee wages, and mortgage." Indra nodded despondently.
"Then we will increase business." Raven cut in with an unwavering tone. "Let's think of how we can increase the number of customers." The brunette looked around the room.
"Well it seems to me that our numbers began to drop when the new club opened up around the corner." Monty cleared his throat and voiced his thoughts. "Has anyone been over there to see what's so special about them?"
There was a resounding silence in the space before Bellamy cleared his own throat. "Actually Echo and I went to check it out." When the room gaped at him as if he had betrayed them he smiled and shook his head. "We didn't stay; we pretended to be lost and in need of directions." He looked back at everyone with a smug grin. "Anyway, the main difference is that they have two shows, one like ours and one very unlike ours and more…rated R." He shrugged.
"I'm not stripping for anyone." Octavia shook her head adamantly.
Indra allowed herself a small laugh. "No one is stripping, O. Don't worry."
"What if we add singing?" Harper asked.
Everyone in the room considered her suggestion for a minute before Jasper nodded. "We know who can sing, that might work." He grinned at some of the girls in the room.
"I'm not singing. I don't sing." Clarke shook her head inflexibly as Lexa looked to her and smiled wide.
Lexa nodded. "You can sing, Clarke." She added.
Clarke looked at green eyes disbelievingly; feeling like her friend had just sided against her. "I'll sing if you write." She challenged with a smirk.
Several instigating remarks were heard around the room before Lincoln jumped in. "That's a great idea. Lex, you write a script or something. We can make this a legit play but sexier." He nodded at everyone. "I'll take care of writing the music to fit whatever tone you go for." He offered.
A feeling of relief and anticipation flooded the room as the ideas were tossed around, considered, tweaked, and decided upon. Not everyone was in complete agreement or even comfortable with the changes, but one thing was for sure, everyone was willing to give it a try if it meant Indra kept her family business and they all got to stay together.
As they worked that night, everyone smiled at each other, but no two more than Clarke and Lexa.
The girls were the personification of sexual tension as they bumped into each other with shoulders, and their hands lingered too long on the small of each other's backs. One of them fully aware she enjoyed every single minute of it, the other reciprocating mindlessly…reflexively as if her body had been doing so for years.
Neither girl fighting it.
TBC…
Ah, so we have Lexa fully accepting there's something she feels for Clarke, and do I detect Clarke's unknowing willingness to be close to the brunette? Anyway, thanks for reading guys! Hope you're all still with me.
