AN: Thanks for reading! Once again, sorry for any mistakes.
Lexa sat in Clarke's living room once again as the artist focused on some of the last details and brush strokes.
Her green eyes studied the girl as she moved her own gaze from the brunette to the canvas. The way her brows wrinkled made Lexa want to smile, but she held back.
Clarke smirked when she read the sudden change of emotions on the girl's face, despite her attempt at hiding them. She wasn't sure if she had caught the slight upturn of the brunette's generous lips because she knew her expressions, or if her skills as an artist had allowed her see what was beyond the girl's features. Either way, the blonde smiled at the obviously subtle exchange.
"So what do you think I should write about?" Lexa spoke in a hushed tone, but nearly laughed at her lame attempt to not disturb the blonde.
Said blonde shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "Shhh."
"I know, I know. I heard myself too late." Lexa whispered and this time did laugh. "Sorry. Proceed Ms. Artiste." Clarke grinned and shook her head in response.
They existed in silence for a long while before the painter allowed herself a sigh of delight and stretched her arms with her brush and pallet in hand.
"We can call it a day." Lexa proposed as she too re-positioned herself in her seat to allow the blood to circulate.
Clarke was quick to shake her head with a smile. "No need. Your portrait is complete." She stated proudly. "Wanna see?"
Lexa nodded as she stood and moved towards the girl, shaking her legs and moving awkwardly in the process.
There was a small chuckle from the other girl. "Uh oh. I know that dance. Sorry I didn't give us a break today."
"It's OK." She dismissed the comment with a grin. "I'm sure I'll regain feeling in that region soon enough." She laughed as well before she walked slowly around the blonde to admire her work. They stood in peace while they both took in the convergence of colors and shading. Clarke sighed again, and it was then that she felt the heat that radiated off the brunette and nearly burned her shoulder blade.
"So?" She stammered as she regained her voice and did her best to ignore the sudden awakening of nerve endings that signaled Lexa's close proximity.
The girl stared at the portrait and nodded with satisfaction. "I don't look disfigured." She shrugged and avoided a quick bump that Clarke sent her way in retaliation. "It's amazing, Clarke. Really." She finally allowed the seriousness and pride to be heard in her voice. "You are amazing." She said it almost silently, but sensed the blonde had heard her loud and clear and her heart sped anxiously.
Still, she continued to look at the painting from her position and wished for an accidental brush of skin.
They were so close that all Lexa had to do was nudge an inch forward towards the perfectly shaped ear. Or lift a hand towards the exposed skin near the girl's waist band of her jeans.
She didn't.
And much to Lexa's dismay, Clarke broke the trance she found herself wrapped in. "Thank you, Lexa." She cleared her throat. "Early dinner?" The blonde asked as she stepped away with the pretense of cleaning her tools to create some much needed space between them. "My treat for making you sit through the entire session today." Her smile was hidden by the angle of her face, but the brunette heard it in her voice.
"Sure." Lexa agreed as she walked nonchalantly towards the door to wait for the girl outside.
After their meal Lexa suggested they take a short drive to Grand Park so they could walk and begin to brainstorm on the Tassels changes.
They made their way side by side unhurriedly as they looked around at the families and kids that ran around. Neither girl had broken the serenity to begin the work talk, until Lexa took note of the time on her watch. Eventually they would have to head back to Clarke's so they could grab their work clothes and head in for the evening grind.
"I think you should work on advertisement portraits for Tassels next." Lexa finally commented as she stuffed her hands in her pockets. "Is that something your instructor would allow?" The brunette turned her head to look at her friend.
Clarke shrugged in thought. "I could ask, but I would do it either way." A small smile graced her features. "Got any ideas on what I should advertise?" She tucked some hair behind her ear and Lexa was transfixed despite the simplicity of the move.
She cleared her mind quickly to respond. "You can start with some really appealing poses of the girls in their dance numbers." Her eyebrows hiked in challenge and Clarke could not fight the laugh that rumbled from within her.
"Right. Octavia will love that." Clarke shook her head with a smile.
"Octavia will be fine. It's you I'm worried about. You think you can take painting all of them in compromising positions?" She teased.
Clarke shoved her with her shoulder. "Please, I can paint anything and everything. Even nudes."
Lexa cringed in jest as she pretended to picture them all naked. "Please some of them are like my sisters."
"Perv." Clarke teased in return and after they recovered she continued. "So thought about a script for the play?
"I have some ideas." The brunette replied and proceeded to bounce them off of Clarke to get her opinion on the matter.
They exhausted their voices and their minds before they drove off towards Clarke's apartment to get ready for work.
When Clarke invited Lexa in, the girl opted to wait in the car so they could beat the traffic they were sure to encounter as soon as the artist came back out.
She waited and toyed with her phone for a few minutes before she got bored of the social media apps. Her green eyes roamed the surroundings for the first time since the blonde had moved in. Lexa knew the area was not the worst or the greatest either way, but the lack of kids playing outside made the girl do a double take. She spotted a man on a bike followed by a lady on hers and she followed them until they disappeared around the building. Their demeanor suggested they were anything but friendly, but she decided not to judge based on that so she shrugged it off and proceeded to flip through the stations on her radio.
"Ready?" Lexa jumped, clearly still in her own mind when Clarke opened the door and jumped in.
"Let's roll." She smiled and drove off.
For the first time since Raven had mentioned it, Clarke noticed the regular customer that would glance at her every now and then. It made her uncomfortable at first, but when he struck up a small conversation; she was relieved to see that he was not a stalker.
He courteously introduced himself, but he was every bit the confident man he dressed as. By the end of the night, he even left his business card on the cocktail table for the blonde to find. Assuming she was interested, he walked away without as much as a request for her own number.
That irritated her as much as it made her curious. The man, Anthony, was good looking and coincidentally a gallery owner if the business card could be trusted.
Clarke made a note to keep the card, but only for future reference. She was really not interested, and decided it would be best if she made all the friends she could for now.
Later, as the crew gathered their belongings and headed out for the night, Clarke detected a shift in Lexa's behavior. Her body was rigid and her eyes were almost devoid of their green color. She noticed it between glances that were periodically averted.
She probably should have avoided bringing it up, but the blonde felt the urge to lighten Lexa's obviously foul mood. "Everything alright, D.C.?"
The brunette huffed in response with a forced smirk. "Super."
"Wanna go grab a late bite or something?" Clarke prodded further.
The brunette shook her head at the girl before she quickened her steps towards her car. Without looking up she unlocked the door and replied. "Nope. See you tomorrow."
Her short answers placed Clarke on edge immediately, and it cost her the ride to her apartment and her night's sleep while she retraced their day to figure out what had bothered the bartender.
It suddenly occurred to her, minutes before the badgering sound of her alarm alerted her of the time, that maybe Lexa had seen her exchange with Anthony.
Her heart sped up and a spike of emotions flowed to her stomach at the unexpected realization that maybe the bartender was jealous.
Lexa stayed up well into the early morning hours outlining key points for their play. Alright, she attempted to work on the outline while she fought off images of Clarke and her mystery admirer.
The brunette had a feeling the man in the suit would end up being the regular Raven had referred to, but she figured he would just appreciate Clarke from afar. Her heart had dropped when she realized how wrong she was. Nothing prepared her for the onslaught of emotions that coursed through her at the sight of him smiling up at the girl, and her smiling back.
There was no way Lexa could know what Clarke was feeling then, but a smile meant a lot to the brunette. In her world, a smile conveyed everything the heart and words could not. It was why she rarely allowed genuine smiles, not smirks or grins, but smiles to show on her face.
She had hoped that the distance from which she observed them obscured the type of smile etched on the blonde's face. And she had succeeded in placating the burning in the pit of her stomach until she witnessed Clarke take what she assumed was his card, and placed it in her back pant pocket.
It made Lexa feel even worse when Clarke had asked her out for a late night dinner, and she had chastised herself internally for being upset at that. The blonde had meant well, but she just could not think of sitting in close quarters with her all the while avoiding the one topic that would likely nag her the entire time.
She recognized she would have to apologize to the girl for her behavior, but Lexa tabled that thought a while longer so she could discard the half-assed outline and sleep at least a couple of hours.
By the time Lexa walked into Tassels Clarke was already dressed and invested in a conversation with Raven and Octavia.
She debated whether she should walk over to the group and say hello to pull Clarke aside or if she should just save the conversation for later. In the end, the brunette simply addressed her hello to all three before she walked towards the lockers.
"See. Something is bothering her." Clarke added the evidence to her argument about Lexa being upset.
Raven dismissed the blonde's concerns before she rolled her eyes. "Lexa doesn't get upset easily. She's like the most level-headed person I know."
Octavia nodded but knitted her brows before she added, "True, but she's also very protective of those-"
The brunette was cut off by Raven. "Those she works with. True." She attempted to glare at her friend subtly so Clarke would not see.
Clarke didn't fall for it as she shook her head with a small smirk. "Not slick. I know she's upset and it has something to do with me. I'm going to go talk to her."
Both dancers looked at each other. Things could get really interesting soon and they knew it.
Before completely disappearing upstairs, the blonde turned to yell something about discussing art projects she had in mind. The pair nodded in agreement before they smiled at each other.
When Clarke walked into the locker room, she was relieved to see no one else but Lexa was there.
She smiled when Lexa peered around the locker door she had open. The brunette nodded.
"Hey." Clarke replied and felt a bit disappointed that all she got was a nod before the girl returned to the confines of her cubby. "Want to go out after work or something?"
Lexa sighed as quietly as she could before she closed the door to look at the blonde. "Is something on your mind?"
The girl was taken back by her curt question, but the shock didn't last long as she became irate with the girl's tone. She couldn't believe that Lexa had just managed to question her in such a manner that implied Clarke was the one with the problem.
"I should be asking you that." Clarke replied with creased brows and crossed arms. "I get the feeling you're upset and I wanted to make sure everything was alright." She glared at the brunette.
Lexa grinned before she shook her head. "Everything's alright, Clarke." She wanted to say so much, but she was damned if the blonde before her was going to make her seem like a jealous idiot.
Clarke shook her head not convinced by the girl's response. "Alright." She uncrossed her arms and made to walk out before Lexa reached for her arm to stop her.
TBC…
Oh this Anthony guy is really going to irk me. Lexa seems to be bothered as well. What do you guys think will happen with this mini triangle we find ourselves being a part of?
