hah! and chapter three is here and our favorite two best friends show up and it's as fluffy as ever

listen, like i said, i'm bad with fluff, so take it with a grain of salt, okay?

now, read, ponder, and enjoy!

As a trauma attending in Silver Hill Hospital, it was a given that Clarke had a schedule that fluctuated at the last second with only a 50% guarantee that she could stick to her shifts as assigned. Not that it really mattered; she actually rather appreciated it, because treating a stripper pole sticking out of a man was better than saving solders whose lives were mostly hanging on a thread.

But Clarke had come to appreciate sleep as much as the next person, and she had never failed to chastise herself for not thanking her parents enough for forcing her on naptimes. Case in point, she had barely gotten five hours of sleep when she was woken up by the sound of her door banging open and followed by a series of footsteps that cared not enough for her need for slumber.

In her sleep addled mind, she had an idea who it was – or were, as it went. She wanted to kill them.

Still, she was rational enough to know that if it wasn't because of her spontaneous late night wandering into Philly Park earlier, she would have gotten more hours of sleep. Be that as it may, she didn't regret it, because that singular spontaneity had led her to a reunion with an individual who had haunted her more than necessary since six months ago.

Nevertheless, while she herself was to blame, it didn't give her intruders permission to just barge into her place whenever they felt like it. They had been doing it since she came back and signed the lease for the place, and she had been as displeased every one of those times as she was right now.

Clarke opened her eyes a little, allowing a small smile to creep on her face as she recalled everything that had occurred from the moment she clocked out of her shift to when she reached her doorstep. The banter that picked up from where they had left it at hospital. The gentleness and wit that couldn't be found on the internet. The appreciation for the ability to use a goddamn cane. The tiny quirk constantly tugging on those kissable lips as the owner interacted with the doctor.

Since six months ago, the image of Lexa Woods all casual and kind of a hot mess in a hospital bed had been ingrained in her brain, and Clarke couldn't replace that image with a much nicer photograph on Google even if she wanted to. That image had, shamefully, served as material for some dirty dreams. Clarke had spent at least two days a week wondering if the princess made it okay, if the princess still remembered her, if there was ever a chance they would meet again.

The letter that Lexa had left behind was sitting on a mantel over the chest in her bedroom, clad in a nice frame she picked up from Ikea when she was furniture shopping. Every night, she would look at it and believe once again that she and the princess of her country had been friends for at least a night.

And now, now, she had one other image of Lexa Woods that nobody else, except for the scary bodyguard, got to have. One of her in a hoodie and a pair of skinny jeans and a Red Sox baseball cap, with a relaxed smile and a flirtatious glint in those green eyes. Playful and loose.

"Griffin!" She startled out of her reverie when two voices shouted from the doorway and human weights proceeded to join her in her bed.

She cursed and yelped as a knee dug into her waist and a finger nearly poked her in the eye as those two humans scrambled to find stability on the bed. "What the fuck," she cried when one of them tugged on her hair momentarily.

"There's a princess outside."

Clarke blinked the sleep out of her eyes and stared at Octavia in confusion – Raven's head was perched over her shoulder. "What?" she whispered, thinking that perhaps they had lost it.

Octavia shoved her while Raven shoved an arm towards the door. "A princess," they hissed in unison.

"Oh my god, wake the fuck up," Octavia snapped, starting to snake her arms under Clarke's armpits and dragging her to sit upright, only encouraged by Raven's murmurs while completely ignoring the blonde's protests. "Listen, Lexa Woods – yes, that Princess Alexandria fucking Woods – just apologized to us for interrupting our morning and then asked us if it would be convenient to ask you if you're willing to meet her outside." All the while, Raven was just nodding viciously while throwing wary glances towards the door. "What the fuck is going on?"

Listen, she had a total of four hours of sleep – one couldn't blame her for taking a little longer than necessary to truly absorb the information that had just been shoved into her face by her two best friends.

Nevertheless, as soon as she had comprehended the gravity of everything Octavia had just said, any sign of sleep was forgotten, replaced only by disbelief and panic as she scrambled out of bed, not even caring that the two intruders had toppled out of bed along with her, and got dressed. She checked herself in the mirror, trying to make the best out of her irreparable bedhead, and popped a mint into her mouth.

"What did you tell her?" she hissed, tucking on her slippers and tripping out of the bedroom.

"What do you mean what did we tell her?" Raven snapped, finding her footing faster than Octavia despite the fact that she was the crippled one out of the three of them. "There's a princess at your door, Clarke!" As if to emphasize her point, the Latina just pointed an angry finger at aforementioned door as she followed the blonde out.

"Oh fuck," Clarke muttered under her breath and placed her hand around the knob.

"We better hear some good –"

The door opened and indeed, Lexa was standing right there, overcoat on with a well-ironed light blue button down and a pair of skinny jeans underneath. Completely put together and completely unlike her appearance just hours ago.

"– explanation later when you're done with the princess!" The rest of that sentence was muffled by a hastily slammed door.

For the second time in only so many hours, the doctor found herself gaping at the princess, still finding the fact that the Princess of Polis had been within a mile of her vicinity three times rather unreal. She brushed her hair and placed a hesitant hand on the door and brushed her hair again and blinked a few times, while her mouth just opened and closed repeatedly.

"Your friends are…interesting," Lexa commented, obviously offering Clarke an olive branch as she tried very hard not to smirk at the blonde's inability to form words.

"Yeah, I –" Clarke swallowed and frowned at Lexa. "Did you even sleep?"

"I had coffee with my dad."

Clarke decided to bypass the fact that Lexa just called the King 'dad' and furrowed deeper. "But you slept."

"I closed my eyes in the shower if that counts."

"Lexa."

"Just because you saved my life once upon a time doesn't mean you get to advise me on my sleeping pattern."

Clarke huffed, shaking her head and crossing her arms. "As a certified doctor myself, I simply cannot condone this behavior."

"You look cute by the way."

"There are literally researches out there that –"

Clarke cut herself off, frozen in place, as Lexa simply stared at her with that mischievous smile and that mischievous glint in those eyes. It was said in such a careless manner that the blonde had almost just totally ignored it so she could rant about scientific researches and sleeping patterns and extended lifespans.

Not that the princess of her country living longer wouldn't be a good thing – it would most likely do the world wonders – but Clarke was shallow enough to prioritize the princess calling her cute over her lifespan. It could be treasonous, but she was also quite sure that not a lot of people was called cute by the one and only Lexa Woods.

Plus, as she gawked back at the brunette, there was a moment where doubts came in about how many other people had seen this look on Lexa before. Entirely unabashed and shameless, so unlike the image that had been portrayed on magazine spreads and newspaper clippings.

Clarke shook her head, chastising herself for being so damn weak in the face of a pretty girl. Sure, said pretty girl was another level of beautiful, but that was beside the point. She herself was a certified doctor with a colorful repertoire under her name and a medal hanging on her mantel; there ought to be more decorum than what she was showing right now.

"I'm wearing yesterday's clothes and –" she glanced down "– fuzzy bunny slippers." If there was a time machine so she could have the chance to change her shoes, it would be pretty useful right about now.

"Yeah, I know."

"If only the rest of the world knows you're this charming."

"Gus knows. Gus is the rest of the world." Lexa carelessly gestured down the corridor, where Clarke had just noticed stood a foreboding figure.

"You need to let him sleep."

"Tell my dad that."

Ignoring the casual remark once again, Clarke sighed as she noticed that this conversation had gone entirely way off point. "Side note: Gustus is the not the rest of the world. The rest of the world does not look like the bear that's ready to tear down your tent in the middle of the night and eat you up."

"You sound like you have experience with that," Lexa commented, tilting her head with her eyes narrowed in curiosity.

Clarke was pretty sure she had never worked as hard at anything as her effort to not get bogged down by how absolutely adorable Lexa looked like this. "Your sleeping pattern and your giant bodyguard aside," she began, "what are you doing back here?"

And it was then that the confident façade disappeared like water washing away; in its stead were fidgeting fingers and darting eyes and lip licking. Good to know that maybe the princess didn't have as much game as Clarke had first thought. Gave her a little bit more edge in this department. Made her feel a little less inadequate.

Maybe she could play this game too. That was, only if she wanted to. She still wasn't sure. It wasn't everyday that you went out to a war and come back having saved a royalty's life and calling said royalty by her first name. Clarke was thankful that she had remembered to pick up some Ben & Jerry's over the weekend.

"I forgot to ask for your number."

Clarke blinked slowly. "You missed sleep just so you can come all the way out here to ask for my number?"

"Don't be absurd. Your place isn't that far away. I just don't sleep." Before the blonde could pursue the subject further, Lexa bustled on with determination, as if she knew that Clarke would hook onto it. "I actually wanted to show up at your hospital, but then I realized I couldn't wait that long, so here I am. Plus, I think it'd probably be much worse if I just show up at your hospital. I imagine you wouldn't want paparazzi to just pop up and interrupt your workspace." When Clarke didn't say anything, Lexa smiled sheepishly with a shrug. "I really like talking to you, Clarke."

"You're the princess, Lexa. I'm pretty sure you can easily get your hands on my number without purposely making a trip out here."

"Yes, but that wouldn't be very sincere of me, would it?"

"What a goddamn charmer."

"Thank you." Lexa winked and Clarke almost asked for a pen right there. "Also, I'm not a tyrant. I want to have your number with your consent. If you ask me to leave right now, I will."

Clarke sighed. "What am I going to do with you, Your Highness?"

"You could start with giving me your number." Lexa paused, glancing at her bodyguard doubtfully, who was still expressionless in the distance. But the brunette must have seen something there, as she turned back to Clarke with more resolution than before. "Only if you want to, of course."

Clarke asked for a pen. Lexa signaled for Gustus. He made his way down the corridor and gave Clarke a look that was half dirty and half amused, like he couldn't believe his charge had resorted to this kind of flirting and he would slit her throat the next second if she even tried something.

Honestly, Clarke could hardly believe this was happening right now. She wanted to say stranger things had happened, but that would be a lie. No stranger things had happened. This was the strangest thing that had ever happened.

Nevertheless, the fact that the second Princess of Polis only had one bodyguard was also strange. But as Clarke found herself being smiled at gratefully by said princess, she decided it was a conversation for another time. She hadn't been sure if there would be another conversation, but now that the princess was leaving her building with her number, there wasn't any doubt about it anymore.

"Didn't the sister just announce her engagement with Roan Queen?"

"I have rounds, Raven."

"I can't believe I didn't notice that letter until today."

"Yeah well, you can be pretty self-absorbed, Octavia."

"Are you going to be at the royal wedding?"

"That's not relevant."

"What do you mean it's not relevant? It's the royal wedding!"

"Don't you have drips to change and patients to coddle?"

"They're not relevant right now."

"Imagine how proud Sydney would be to have trained a nurse like you."

"Holy shit, do you know her brother?"

"Let me do my rounds in peace."

"You know, you're not being very nice, letting a cripple run after you like this."

Clarke only snorted and swerved into a patient's room where her friends wouldn't follow her. They had jobs to do. When she was done later, she was sure that they would be gone and she'd be able to escape their incessant questioning for a few more hours. Briefly, she wondered if Wells would mind that she break into his apartment tonight.

Never mind that. It wasn't important right now. Speaking of important, she displayed a bright smile on her face and greeted the patient, "Good evening, Mrs. Lang. How are we feeling today?"

And that was how it went for the rest of the evening, extending well into the wee hours of the morning. The ER was as its usual. Traumas came and went. She treated some cuts and bruises, bought a kid who was waiting for her mother a lollipop from the vending machine, judged another kid for drinking too much on a Wednesday night that he landed in here with alcohol intoxication, and made her rounds.

All the while, her phone was kept on silent because she had been glancing at it a little too many times since this morning and it was a form of distraction that a trauma attending like her couldn't afford to have, even though there had been absolutely no distraction at all, which was a distraction in and of itself.

Clarke kept telling herself that the woman was part of the royal family, so she surely had her duties to attend to. She had been hearing about Lexa's involvement with the Defense Department and Veterans' Agency, about the things she had been doing for veterans' families and non-returning solders' loved ones, so yeah, Lexa was off doing great stuff, busy giving out money and providing educational opportunities to poor kids.

Still, Clarke was nothing but a mere human woman, and when she gave out her number, she expected the person she gave it to text her.

She was on her second break in her 48 hour shift, sipping on her coffee in the on-call room, when her phone buzzed. No one was in here with her, so she wasn't afraid to admit that she leaped for it in anticipation, only to drop in disappointment once she saw that it was Raven asking where she was. Before she could stop herself in her moment of deliriousness, she revealed her location, only to realize her mistake.

She could only sigh to herself at this point. And she had been doing so well in avoiding the two monsters since she ditched them just now.

The door unceremoniously banged open ten minutes later, and tottered two ungraceful women who hissed to each other about elbows and knees. Clarke watched as Raven and Octavia argued about closing the door and then finally closing it before looking at her in anticipation.

She shrugged. "I don't know what you want, honestly. I've told you everything."

Raven scoffed, limping over to the bed and taking up the space that Clarke had moved over for her. "You've told us barely anything. I saw you rescue the princess that one time in Libya – I didn't know you became best friends with said princess." She grumpily unclasped the brace and tossed it to the side, one hand absentmindedly massaging the muscles.

"When's the last time you saw Jackson?" Clarke asked, gesturing at the leg.

"Two Sundays ago. Don't change the topic." The Latina huffed in appreciation when Octavia dragged over a chair to sit on it and placed her leg on her lap, taking over the massaging. "Is she good?"

"Good at what?"

Raven threw her a deadpanned look, unimpressed. "Sex."

"We did not have sex!" Clarke whisper-shrieked, smacking her best friend in the arm. "Oh my god, she's a princess, Raven!"

"Doesn't mean she's dry as a Sahara desert down there. I'm pretty sure Prince Harry didn't stay celibate as a bachelor just because he's a prince," Raven easily retorted, waggling her eyebrows for good measure.

"We are not talking about Lexa's sex life right now. I feel like that's ground for treason or something."

Raven made a sound – the sound she usually made when she made a breakthrough with her latest pet project, triumphant and proud. She shared a look with Octavia, who was seemed pretty giddy herself. "She calls the princess Lexa."

"You two are children." Clarke placed her phone facedown on the table, determined not to look at it as she turned to face her friends. "Look, I treated her in Libya. We talked. I haven't seen her since she came back and then I came back. And then we just ran into each other in the park last night. And that was that."

"I can't believe you went to the war and flirted with a princess. I should have gone with you," Octavia complained.

Raven emitted a noise of agreement, followed quickly by a long moan of approval, which only threw the three of them into giggle fits. The number of times this had happened with the three of them in the same room, some of them Raven did on purpose, Clarke was afraid to think about how many interns and nurses thought that they indulged in their own threesomes in the hospital on-call rooms.

Well, it wasn't like they did anything to stop the rumor mill. They denied the notion the first week, but since the interns were still talking about it and the nurses were still whispering about it after, Raven came out with the great idea of just going along with it. If the rumors wouldn't stop, might as well have a little fun with it.

And really, since Clarke and Octavia accidentally saw Raven place Nicolas Cage photo on all the toilet seats in the west wing restroom in junior year, they had pretty much resorted themselves to Raven's occasionally-reluctant partners in crime. Plus, watching the nurses' or interns' faces in horror when they eventually emerged from the on-call room was rather awesome.

Honestly, Clarke had only been back a month and she was already roped into this little shenanigan. To think that a Princess of Polis came all the way out to her apartment, without any sleep no less, for her number.

Unknown (2:35a.m.): Busy?

What was that people always said about assuming? Well, given that Clarke had forgotten about it, it gave her license to ignore it. Even though it was probably unsafe and dangerous and she might end up getting kidnapped or worse.

Clarke (2:37a.m.): not even halfway thru my 48hr shift

Raven and Octavia might have clicked their tongues at her in disapproval had they known how wide she had smiled and how clammy her palms had become when she saw the text. But alas, they had ditched her – one for home and the other to finish up her own shift – and so they were not around to bear witness to her moment of schoolgirl delight.

Her phone vibrated in her hand as soon as an intern rushed up to her with a chart and a litany of questions on his lips. This was a teaching hospital, she understood that. Part of her responsibilities was to teach these interns, she also understood that. Raising these interns to be doctors like her should make her feel proud, she understood that as well.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been happy to indulge. But it was wee hours in the morning where the sky was still dark and she had been waiting for this text for more than eighteen hours. She had been waiting for something for more than eighteen hours.

And now that she had something, this tiny innocent little intern just decided to get in the way of her joy like he had any right to do that.

"Leave her alone," Octavia popped up out of nowhere to drag the intern away. As she ignored the intern's protests, she threw the blonde a look that meant it wasn't an assist given freely.

Clarke was grateful nonetheless. She made sure that the emergency room was dealt with and she wasn't needed. If they needed her, they could page her. With that in mind, she ducked into a conveniently empty bay and drew the curtains before sitting on the bed.

Unknown (2:37a.m.): Sounds brutal.
Unknown (2:37a.m.): I think we should talk about your lack of self-preservation in terms of texting unknown numbers.

Clarke (2:44a.m.): no one texts me at midnight except my stupid best friends and sometimes my mother lexa

Lexa (2:45a.m.): I'm not sure I want to be one of your stupid best friends.

She stuck a tongue out the corner of her lips, fingers ready to tap out a smartass answer, only to be stopped by another grey bubble popping up.

Lexa (2:45a.m.): And I meant that in a kind of non-platonic way.

Her heart stopped.

Lexa (2:45a.m.): Please tell me if I'm making you uncomfortable.
Lexa (2:46a.m.): Because I can stop.

Fingers frozen marginally over the screen, the organ between her ears that served as the center of her nervous system could, in no coherent way, find a coherent answer to that message that wouldn't make her sound like an incoherent idiot. Clarke gently put the device facedown next to her on the bed and propped her elbows on knees as she buried her face in her hands.

Once again, she wondered if this was even a good idea at all. Should she even encourage this liaison? Maybe it would be more helpful if she just cut it off right there and then, when she still wasn't in too deep and found herself lost, when she could still see a way out of the tunnel – albeit the light seemed a little too far away now.

Clarke had managed to grow up sensibly and sanely under Abigail Griffin's shadow as one of the most accomplished surgeons in Polis, a woman who was currently chairing an up and coming international medical commission. She had been among the top ten in all her classes since she entered pre-school. Her medical degree was obtained through four hardworking years in Mayo Clinic and then another two years of houseman-ship before she was shipped off to Libya for two years as an army doctor. Hell, she had even had to save a princess' life with mediocre equipment and in a barely sterile operation theatre.

That should be the most difficult thing that Clarke had had to experience. Hell, any of those appeared plenty difficult. And yet, the doctor was stumped by a charming royalty who wasn't really even asking for anything but friendship and possibly – if Clarke wanted to.

Which was exactly why Clarke picked up the device and typed her reply.

Clarke (3:00a.m.): maybe u're not

Lexa (3:02a.m.): Maybe I'm not what?

Clarke (3:02a.m.): one of my stupid best friends

Lexa (3:06a.m.): Good to know.

Because despite her status as a princess, the authority she had because of her parents and her birthplace and the blood tracing her every cell, Lexa had never shown any sign of abusing that power – be it with Clarke or with the public. Everything that Lexa had said, since that night at the hospital until this morning, had been with utmost respect and never failed in asking for consent.

Clarke had met one too many entitled assholes in her life. She trusted Lexa not to be one.

And truth be told, she was already in too deep since the princess insisted on being addressed as 'Commander' while they were still in the warzone. The light at the end of the tunnel had long been snuffed out, and Clarke could only submit herself to this unknown territory and hope for the best.

lexa? charming. clarke? smitten. they're both screwed :) also, guys, i'm in a little bit of cinch here - actually, more like a cinch, and i could really use your help, so if you would please go to my tumblr at overcanary to see how you can help me, i'd be very appreciative :)