Chapter 5
Lexa stared at the fire as the effect of the colour-changing packets she had throw in earlier was dying down. It was a huge hit with the guests who had never before seen such beautiful, vibrantly coloured flames. It had even gotten a "that's pretty cool" from Anya, which is basically the biggest compliment anything can get from her. She thought back to when she ordered a twenty-pack of those things online, more than two years ago. She was with Costia then and she had been looking for ways to make a bonfire more special to impress her. Much like Lincoln wanted tonight. She was successfull both times.
She had almost forgotten she had those packets in her possession, she had not used them again after that one beautiful night with Costia. Lexa shook the memories out of her mind. Summertime always brought back the lovely times she had with her first love, but even though it had been years, it was still more painful than sweet to remember.
She gazed around; Octavia was blissfully lying in Lincoln's arms and they were chatting and laughing, Lily was having what seemed like a serious conversation with Monty, Raven and Clarke were sitting by each other talking and herself and Anya were mostly just drinking in silence. It had been like that for about an hour. When they got the first introductions out of the way, those who had not known each other before tonight kept to their own side, so to speak. Lexa was a-okay with that.
She got up to feed some more wood into the fire. She looked at the flames and smiled at the familiar heat that brushed against her face when she got close. She carefully picked on the burning wood with a stick to position it before putting a couple more logs in. She took her time, until she was satisfied and then stepped back to take a look at it, like she did every single time. The beauty of a bonfire always amazed her and it was even more awesome when she was the one to create it. When she was done she went to the cooler to grab a beer for herself and looked over at Anya to see if she wanted one as well, only to see that Raven was just sitting down where she had been, next to her friend. She put the second beer back and glanced over to the, now only, free space next to Clarke. With a sigh she opened her beer and headed that way.
"This seat taken?" asked Raven. Anya was lying on her back, looking up at the night sky.
"Yea, kinda." she replied without getting up.
"I bring booze!" Raven said and took a flask out of her pocket, a move that grabbed the other girl's attention enough to lift her head up to take a look. Raven shook the flask that sounded more than half empty, to which Anya raised an eyebrow.
"I'll trade you the rest of this for the seat." smiled Raven and Anya motioned her to sit. As soon as she did, Anya reached her arm out, making a grabbing motion with her fingers and Raven handed her the flask. She took the cap off and sniffed.
"Whiskey?"
"Scotch to be exact."
"Good girl." Anya took a big gulp of the drink and passed it to Raven.
"The deal was you can have all of it. And I honour my deals."
"A great quality to have." Anya looked at the younger girl. "But booze is to share." she handed her the flask. Raven smiled and threw her head back, finishing the drink.
"Do my seat privileges expire with the end of the alcohol?"
"I don't recall such conditions. Besides, I still have some beer left." she offered her beer to Raven who quoted her "booze is to share" back to her, before taking a sip. Both of the girls fell on their back almost at the same time and looked up.
"How cool would it be to walk amongst all of those stars?" Raven said after a few minutes of silence.
"Technically you wouldn't walk. You'd float." Anya corrected her.
"Even cooler."
"I don't know. I like to feel the ground beneath my feet, personally."
"Sometimes it's not too bad down here. Sometimes."
Raven kept her eyes on the thousands of tiny, little stars blinking at her from the blackness of the night sky. When she was younger her parents would spend hours yelling and fighting with each other. They never shouted at her. They never paid much of any attention to her, good or bad. She would sneak out and climb to the roof of the house. She had borrowed a book about the constalletions from her school's library and she would spend many nights studying the stars. By the time she reached high school, she had turned into the stereotypical trouble- child of divorced parents, but knew everything there was to know about the sky. A couple of her teachers tried to set her straight and put her on an academic path. They kept on telling her that if she put her big brains to use she could study astronomy at the best university. Some even went as far as saying she could have been accepted into a space program, had she set her mind to it. She was both physically and mentally capable. But back then Raven could not stay out of trouble for much more than a full day and things like that did not fly at the big leagues.
She had since regretted most of her choices when it came to education but that was something she would not admit out loud very often, if ever. She had subsequently taught herself how to fix mechanical stuff, starting with small household appliances and moving to bikes and cars. Her uncle had gotten her a job at the local auto shop and she had thrown herself to work, keeping busy and tiring herself down, managing to change her ways and keep out of trouble. The last few years, her only guilty pleasure had been girls. Lots of them. She didn't care about love, she didn't really believe in it. But she did believe in lust and physical pleasures.
Anya turned around to look at Raven. The girl kept her face towards the sky and only moved her eyes to look at Anya. None of them spoke but Raven let out a little sigh. She didn't mean to, but something about Anya's eyes looking straight into hers felt safe almost, and the puff of air she had been holding in for what felt like years just escaped her. Anya nodded her head and stood up. She walked over and poured two gin and soda drinks for herself and Raven. She handed the drink to the girl and sat beside her. A bit closer than before.
"To sometimes!" she proposed a toast.
"To right now!" Raven replied and Anya smiled at her for the first time since they had met. A beautiful smile, thought Raven. Rare things always are.
The two girls lied once again on their backs, next to each other, and Raven started teaching Anya the names of the different constalletions. Anya was telling her about some stories she had read, of lovers whom jealous gods or witches turned into stars that shine at different times so that they may never see each other again, when the sound of a guitar sweetly broke the stillness of the air around them.
Suddenly, everyone stopped their conversations and turned to look at Clarke. She had taken her guitar out and was playing an abstract melody, unaware of the attention. Her eyes were fixed on the flames of the fire, her fingers delicately moving over the strings, her body swaying from side to side. It was only when she heard a soft sound coming from her left, that she broke her focus and turned to look at Lexa, who was quietly harmonizing along to the melody. The fact that she had started humming probably took Lexa herself by surprise more than anyone else, but when her eyes met Clarke's neither one of them stopped. It felt like the world around them fell away and for a few moments nothing mattered except the beautiful sound they were making together. When Lexa went silent, Clarke slowed down the rythm and after a few seconds she strummed a closing chord.
"That was pretty awesome." she said with a low voice but when she turned to smile at Lexa, the other girl was thoughtfully looking to the ground and didn't turn to face her.
"You play really well." Lexa simply said while getting up and Clarke watched her walk away.
