"It looks different at night," Lexa said, and Clarke flashed her an amused look as she parked her car in the same, usual spot in the dirt clearing in front of the warehouse. "Kinda scarier."

"I promise there aren't any monsters," Clarke teased, opening the driver's side door and getting out of the car. She heard Lexa scrambling to do the same on the other side of the car, and as she started up toward the warehouse, the brunette hurried to catch up to her.

"So... you guys just bought this place?"

Clarke shrugged. "Yeah. Took forever to figure out who actually owned it before, though. The place was empty and almost run down when we found it. Finn and Bellamy had to rebuild part of the roof before we could actually start setting up rooms."

"Well it's come a long way," Lexa commented quietly. Clarke led Lexa through the nearly pitch black warehouse carefully, through Octavia's area, down a hallway past Raven's, around a corner and finally to hers. She felt along the wall by the entrance and found the large light switch, turning it. Harsh, bright lights came on above them, and through the hallway they'd just come from.

"The windows," Clarke said, nodding across the room, "usually let in enough light to make the lights kind of unnecessary. A couple of the rooms don't even have lights."

"Definitely seems pretty rundown," Lexa murmured.

Clarke hummed in agreement. "So, you know how to put Ikea furniture together?"

"Um, can't say I've ever had to before," Lexa answered, and Clarke wasn't surprised. She felt Lexa's eyes on her as she went and sat amongst the remaining pieces of her shelf. They were the cube sort of shelves, and she and Octavia had managed to build half of the total thing.

"Alright, well. The idea is, we make four of these four cubicle shelf things, and then they all get connected and make a bigger square... if that makes sense?"

Lexa chuckled, and Clarke looked over her shoulder curiously at the brunette. "Don't you have friends who actually know how to build things that could help you with this? Because you seem to have no idea what you're doing."

"Yeah, but we're busy people," Clarke answered, rolling her eyes. "You gonna help or not?"

They were quiet during the half hour that they spent each constructing another fourth of the huge shelf. Clarke wasn't sure how she felt about Lexa. The girl was clearly going through a rebellious stage – Clarke herself had done that when she was in high school, and it had involved her hair becoming an unnaturally bright shade of pink – but she wasn't as annoying and insufferable as Clarke figured that she should be.

Not to mention, despite Clarke's initial frustration toward the brunette after finding out that she'd intentionally not told Finn that she was underage, Lexa seemed actually like a relatively honest and decent person.

Either way, Clarke could understand Finn's initial attraction to the younger girl. She was pretty, pretty charming, and surprisingly intriguing.

When they'd finished the other two fourths, Clarke let out a pleased exhale. "Okay, well, my upper body strength fucking sucks, so I might have to wait and get Bellamy or Finn to help me stack these tomorrow."

Lexa shrugged. "I bet we could do it."

"You a secret body builder or something?" Clarke asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, but there are two of us," Lexa stated, tilting her head. "Might as well try, right?"

"Don't drop it on me," Clarke muttered in resignation. She quickly positioned the bottom half of the shelves correctly against the wall, and then she and Lexa both lifted and stacked the second half on top of it. It required a bit of struggling, but they managed to do it successfully. It left Clarke slightly winded, though. She knew that she should probably exercise more, but the fact was that she hardly had enough time.

Lexa grinned at Clarke when the shelf was fully constructed. "Told you."

"Whatever," Clarke muttered, scoffing. She moved over to where her cardboard boxes were stacked, and heard Lexa pull one of the chairs out from under the paint covered table sitting in the room. Clarke didn't bother to glance over at her, but when she did turn around with a box in hand, she saw the brunette seated happily in the seat and looking around the room.

"You didn't wanna paint the room first? I mean, you're an artist, right?"

Clarke shrugged. "Kinda just want to cover the walls with my art, you know? That way I don't have to paint it all, but it will still be decorated. Plus, I'm the worst at choosing colors for walls, because I change my mind about what I want it to be like every day. Better I just hang things up."

Lexa hummed in response, but said nothing as Clarke set down the box and began to go through it. They were like that for a few minutes, completely silent as Clarke began filling up her shelves with all of her art supplies. It was weird, how calm the atmosphere was between them, despite having only met a week ago and not really knowing each other at all. Not to mention, they were incredibly different people.

"Did you go to high school here?" Lexa asked suddenly, and Clarke glanced over her shoulder at the girl.

"Yeah," she answered, standing and making her way over to the rest of the boxes to get another of them. "But I didn't grow up here. Moved in my sophomore year of high school. Can't say it's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Oh. I've lived here forever," Lexa admitted.

"But not on the university side of town?"

Lexa shrugged. "The whole town is overridden by university students and faculty. I'm pretty sure all of Polis is the university side of town. Anyway, Ido live across town from the university, but my mom is an English professor there."

"Mm, well that explains it," Clarke murmured, smirking a little as she felt the air fill slightly with tension.

"Explains what?"

"Nothing."

"Clarke."

Clarke wasn't sure if it was the first time she'd heard Lexa say her name or not – she was pretty sure that it was – but whether or not, Clarke was not expecting it to sound so... intense. She involuntarily sucked in a breath as she heard it, but she quickly covered up her reaction by snickering a little. Deciding that she would try to figure herself out later, she relented and said, "It explains the whole rebellious thing."

Lexa let out a a frustrated puff of air. "Could you stop pretending like you know everything about me, please?"

"Mm, sure, whatever," Clarke agreed, still smirking. "So you just gonna sit there, or actually help me with this?"

It was nearing eleven at night when Lexa's phone started ringing. She and Clarke actually hadn't spoken very much at all after Lexa had started helping her fill up her new shelves with all of the strange art tools and supplies. Some of them the brunette recognized, of course, but she felt like the blonde must definitely be in school for art based on all of the funky looking tools she owned.

Lexa glanced at the caller ID on her phone and immediately frowned. It was Anya. She had maybe expected a call from her mom, but she had assumed that her best friend would've just given her some space after earlier. She answered it anyway, however. "Hey," she said carefully.

"Hey, Lexa, where are you? I wanted to apologize for earlier – because you really don't deserve me judging you or anything. I just... feel like you're making some bad decisions and I think you'll regret them later. But I'll stop giving you shit for them, since it's obviously getting to you. Anyway, since The Bean's closed, I went by your house and your mom let me in. I'm assuming that she thinks you're here or something, but you are mostly definitely not."

Lexa glanced up at the ceiling nervously. "Yeah, I'm with Luna."

"Where?"

"The lake." Lexa could feel Clarke's curious gaze now settled on her, but she avoiding meeting it at all costs.

"Is there a bonfire or something?"

"Ah, no, she just called about an hour ago and, well, you know Luna. I should probably be heading home, though. I'll be back soon."

Anya coughed awkwardly. "You have a ride, right? Like... has Luna been drinking? I mean, I saw your car here so she picked you up, right?"

"Yeah no, I'll be fine," Lexa insisted. "See you soon." Hanging up the phone quickly, Lexa let out a relieved exhale.

Clarke chuckled. "Who was that?"

"My best friend," Lexa answered, stepping away from the shelf and Clarke and stretching her arms out to her side. "I should... um, get going."

"So you said."

"I... kind of need a ride." Clarke smirked, clearly having not forgotten that she'd driven Lexa from The Bean. "You don't... have to take me all the way to my place. I can walk from The Bean just fine."

"Alright, I guess it's the least I could do anyway, considering that you helped me set up all of this," Clarke agreed, softening a little. "I should probably give myself a break, too. Thanks for the help."

"No problem," Lexa returned, wondering slightly why Clarke hadn't questioned her lying to Anya about where she was. It occurred to her, though, that it was pretty sketchy what she was actually doing. Hanging out with a random twenty-one year old at a creepy warehouse that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, even though it was decently close to town.

Lexa silently followed Clarke through and out of the warehouse, after the blonde had shut off the lights. It was even harder to get through the blackness of the building at that point, but they'd both switched on their phone flashlights in order to do so. It was very dark outside as well, but Lexa found herself not so crept out by the place anymore.

She found herself seated in the passenger seat of Clarke's car again, and feeling slightly disappointed by the fact that she was having to go home when she could be helping Clarke still with her room. When Clarke's car stopped in front of The Bean, Lexa found herself having to suppress a sigh.

The blonde looked at her with an intrigued look in her eye, and Lexa gave her a somewhat bashful smile. "Thanks. I guess... I'll see you... sometime?"

"I guess," Clarke replied, a small smile forming on her face. "You better get home before your bestie realizes you lied to her."

Lexa flushed at the mention of her lie, but she was glad that it didn't come with an interrogation of any sort. "Yeah. Bye, Clarke."

"Bye," Clarke returned as Lexa opened the passenger door and climbed out of the car. She gave the blonde a sheepish smile and then started off along the sidewalk toward her neighborhood. Clarke's car started off a moment later, and Lexa let out a breath, feeling some tension drain from her body now that the blonde was gone.

She wasn't an idiot – she knew what she was feeling for Clarke. It was she should've been feeling for all of these years about boys – at least by society's standards, and her family's and friends' standards. It's what she pretended to feel when she'd dated that one guy the year before, and what she'd promised herself she felt when she let him take her virginity. It's what she tried again to feel when Finn approached her, and the thought that it would be the perfect way to get out of her comfort zone had crossed her mind.

But no, none of those times had she actually felt it. But Clarke was something else, and Lexa wanted to figure her out, no matter what.

So as she walked home, her hands shoved into her pockets and a small smile playing on her face, she planned out the next time she would be able to slip away from her life once school started and make it somehow to the warehouse. And, of course, how she would somehow get Clarke to not see her as some rebellious teenager.

Maybe that's what she was, essentially, but what she was feeling for Clarke went far beyond that, she was already sure of that.