"Charlotte," Clarke greeted the girl in an overly friendly tone and turned around, "always a pleasure."

"Can't say the same." The other blonde girl replied coldly and took another sip of her drink.

Clarke had never liked her. Unlike Finn, Charlotte had always made clear that the Collins family was better than the rest, better than those poor souls that weren't lucky enough to be one of them. At every family dinner, every high society gathering the Collins hosted, even at simple garden parties, Clarke had never felt welcome, Charlotte had made sure of that. If not because of Finn's behavior, sooner or later Clarke would have broken up with him because of his family.

"You haven't answered my question yet." Charlotte noted.

Clarke shook her head, trying desperately not to immediately lose it. "Because there's nothing to answer. It was a misunderstanding, I just asked Ontari for some soda."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Clarke," even the way Charlotte said her name tested her patience, "but I thought I had heard Finn's name."

"Well," Ontari piped up as she stepped closer to the girls, "it was me who mentioned him, so if you don't mind, let Clarke go and solve this issue with me."

Never before had Clarke been so thankful to have Ontari in her life, or at least in the same room. Their relationship had had its ups and downs, in the end more downs than ups, but Ontari had her heart in the right place, and Clarke thought highly of her for this.

There was nothing she wanted more in this moment than to claw Charlotte's eyes out for the things she had said and done to Lexa, she wanted to see her suffer, and she wanted to be the one causing the worst of pain to her. But at the same time, she didn't want to make a scene, especially not with Lexa around and especially because Charlotte didn't know she was there, too, so she kept her anger to herself, relieved as Charlotte backed away a bit, knowing better than to mess with Ontari.

"We're not done yet." Charlotte threatened under her breath as she passed Clarke, and with a last glare, she left the room.

Clarke closed her eyes for a moment and slightly jumped when she felt a soft hand on her arm.

"Hey," Ontari said, worry evident in her voice, "I'm so sorry about her. I know things between the two of you are fucked up but I hadn't expected you to bump into each other here. You're usually in the backyard with the guys."

Clarke was slightly taken aback by Ontari's genuine concern. When she didn't manage to form a coherent answer, she shook her head.

"No, it's not okay, Clarke… if she bothers you again, you know where to find me," Ontari reassured her and let go of her arm, "also, I'm sorry about Finn. I wasn't aware things with you two are actually over. I mean I heard some rumors but…" she laughed, "you can't exactly believe most of them, right?"

"I guess not." Clarke sucked in a sharp breath before taking a large sip of her beer. She wanted to say something else, she wanted the moment to last a bit longer because it was rare to see Ontari like this, caring, with her walls down, but she didn't know what to say, at all.

"I won't hold you up any longer. There are some bottles of soda in my room, take whatever you need." Ontari said and reached for her red cup on the beer pong table next to her, before softly brushing her thumb over Clarke's blushing cheek and leaving her to herself. Clarke slowly released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, trying to understand what had just happened. What the hell was that? She thought to herself, not sure if she was referring to Charlotte or Ontari, and slowly made her way upstairs to finally get some soda.

"Jeez Griff, what took you so long?" Raven yelled at Clarke when the blonde approached her friends, misjudging the distance between them and Clarke winced, making a mental note to bring ear plugs next time.

"Met some old friends." Clarke replied dryly and handed Lexa a cup of coke before sitting down next to her.

"Well, they're old friends for a reason," Octavia noted from the other side of the fireplace, "how about you spend your time with your new friends now?"

Clarke nodded, emphasizing it with a smile that she hoped convinced her friends. Apparently, it did, because the small group started cheering while clinking their glasses and bottles.

She spent the following hour listening to her friends, occasionally laughing with them, or getting new rounds of drinks from time to time. Mostly though, she watched Lexa who seemed to be absolutely enjoying herself having found a match for discussing documentaries in Lincoln. Nerds. Clarke thought with a smile, bringing her beer to her lips but she never got to drink.

"Well well well, look who we've got here."

Clarke raised her head and rolled her eyes. "What do you want, Charlotte?"

She stood up and walked over to the other girl in order to draw Charlotte's attention to her, and her only, and she hoped that Lexa wouldn't freak out, either.

"I wanna know who the fuck you think you are to break up with my brother just like that!" Charlotte snapped her fingers to emphasize her point, and Clarke bit down on her lower lip to not let out an amused laugh, remembering how Finn, buried between her breasts, had done exactly the same several months ago.

"I broke up with your brother because he acted like a child, and it's not my job to raise my own partner. It's also not my job to justify myself here."

"Oh please," Charlotte snorted in amusement, "you cheated on him, I'd say lucky him to have his freedom from you now."

This time, Clarke laughed. "I did what?" She asked while opening another beer with her lighter, shooting the lit across the backyard. "Cheated on him?"

"Don't act so dumb, Clarke, I mean you were there. I bet she wasn't even worth–" she stopped talking when she noticed Lexa approaching them, and raised an eyebrow in disbelief when the brunette slid her hand in Clarke's, intertwining their fingers. Clarke could feel Lexa's distress in the way she was squeezing her hand but at the same time, she was lucky that her girl was there, at her side, supporting her, calming her down.

Charlotte took a moment to process what she was witnessing, before she started laughing. After several moments of gasping for breath, she shook her head, a huge grin still playing around her lips, while Clarke and Lexa looked rather unimpressed. Lincoln appeared next to Lexa and calmly crossed his arms.

"I thought you–" another snort, "I thought you said it's not your job to raise your partner, yet I find you here with…" she looked Lexa up and down, "her."

Clarke felt Lexa's grip tighten even more, and the blonde tilted her head to the side but the couple stayed silent.

"Oh please, Clarke, please don't tell me you're serious about this." Charlotte's grin slowly disappeared when she realized that Clarke was indeed serious. "You… broke up with my brother because of her?"

Scratching her chin, Clarke shook her head and took another step toward the other girl. "No, actually… I broke up with him because he was a bastard. Lexa had nothing to do with this."

"You ch–"

"I did not cheat on Finn for Christ's sake, especially not with Lexa!" Clarke exclaimed, throwing her head back. She was growing impatient. When she looked back at Charlotte, she could literally see the wheels turning in the girl's head.

"Everything okay here?" They heard Octavia who was now approaching them as well, coming to a halt next to Clarke, while Raven lurched her way between Lexa and Clarke, leaning on their shoulders from behind, careful to not separate their hands.

"Charlotte was just about to go." Clarke informed them, and the group nodded, each of them trying to hold back their grin.

"Byeee Charlotte!" Octavia quipped in a sing–song while waving at the other blonde, who had a crimson red shade creeping up her cheeks now.

Clarke let out a long sigh, incredibly thankful that everything had gone so well, that no one had flipped out, while they watched Charlotte stumble her way back into the house.

"Oh and Charlotte?" Raven yelled, pulling Clarke out of her thoughtful state, and Clarke watched with wide eyes as her best friend made her way over to Charlotte who was waiting at the French door, one hand on the handle. Without even hesitating, Raven landed a hard punch directly in Charlotte's face who immediately went down.

"This is for treating Lexa the way you did." Raven growled and watched in satisfaction how Charlotte covered her nose, trying to stop the bleeding, whimpering something unintelligible about how it was probably broken.

With tears in her eyes, the blonde glared at Raven. "That little freak–" she stopped when Raven slowly raised her hands to calmly crack her knuckles.

"At least I don't need my friends to protect me!" Charlotte sneered in Lexa's direction while she got up, struggling a bit.

"At least I have friends." Lexa noted dryly and the whole group broke into laughters and cheering, waving at Charlotte until she disappeared in the crowd in the house.

After the excitement had eased off, the friends strolled back to the benches around the fireplace. When Lexa turned around as well, Clarke tugged at her hand to stop her and Lexa turned back.

"Clarke?"

The blonde gently cupped her girl's cheeks, taking a moment to search her face for any signs of distress or discomfort, but Lexa seemed to be okay so far.

"Clarke?" Lexa asked again, a small crease forming between her eyebrows.

Instead of answering, Clarke pulled her in for a passionate kiss. It wasn't hurried, it wasn't messy, but it was deep and full of emotions. Lexa wrapped her arms around Clarke's waist, and the blonde swore she had never known what home really felt like before this kiss.

She was glad that her friends, although they rarely let the opportunity slip to make fun of their own friends, knew when not to interrupt an honestly important moment like this one. Of course, especially Raven was sporting a shit–eating grin when she bumped her shoulder into Octavia and whispered a smug "I told you so!" into her friend's ear, but they all gave the two girls the time they needed.

A minute passed, maybe two, or maybe an eternity and a half, until Clarke slowly pulled away, resting her forehead against Lexa's, smiling when she felt the girl twiddle with a twine of her dress. She took a long breath and held it for a moment, before slowly releasing it.

"I love you, too."