On Friday, Clarke was more than happy to finally not have any classes. Sure, it meant that she had to work for most of the day, but she didn't mind that as much.

Her week had only gotten better after talking to Lexa on Tuesday. She'd forced herself to relax about everything – for Lexa – and was able to realize that Lexa had made some good points. Plus, Clarke didn't even want to think about what it would be like to see Lexa and have to force the butterflies away.

She wouldn't ever admit it, but she practically melted when she saw the brunette. Her stomach would fill up with butterflies, and then she would see that smile spread across Lexa's face and she would just melt. It didn't bother her, either, that her reaction to the younger girl was so soft. She was even beginning to think that maybe it was a good thing for her to be soft around someone for once – to open herself up. After all, Lexa had done that for her, hadn't she?

She hadn't seen Lexa since Tuesday, however, because Wednesday and Thursday were the busiest days for Clarke when it came to school. She also worked both of those nights, and she was sure that Lexa couldn't go to The Bean every night. She did, after all, have to do schoolwork. Luckily, texting had become a norm for them.

Clarke also had homework for her classes of course, She'd decided that maybe Friday was the best day for it, though, because she had work starting late in the morning and ending late in the evening, which gave her the early morning and the night to knock out her homework and free up some space in her weekend.

She'd done over half of it that morning, and so she was quite content as she worked through the afternoon. Especially when it began to get nearer to the end of her shift, when Lexa got out of school and texted her.

From Lexa – Are you painting today?

To Lexa – No :( I have to finish my homework today so I can chill tomorrow and Sunday.

From Lexa – Lame. Can I see you tomorrow?

To Lexa – Yes. And don't act like you don't have homework to do too, cutie. X

From Lexa – It's still lame! Aren't you working right now?

To Lexa – Yes...?

From Lexa – So work, don't text.

To Lexa – You texted me first ;)

The brunette didn't text again after that, and Clarke rolled her eyes even as a smile appeared on her face. Texting Lexa wasn't as fulfilling as seeing her in person, of course, but it was always nice to at least converse with her in some way.

When she got off work, and had driven herself back to her apartment, she sprawled across her bed with the last of her homework waiting to be done. She thought about texting Lexa again, but knew that doing so would just cause her to not finish her homework, and that would mean more weekend work. So, pushing the brunette out of her thoughts as best as she could, she started finishing her homework.

Saturday morning, she woke up to a new text from Lexa.

From Lexa – What time will you be painting today?

To Lexa – Probably just all afternoon.

From Lexa – :D

Clarke smiled at her phone, something she couldn't remember doing in so long. She wasn't sure how Lexa could get her to smile so easily in person, let alone over a silly text message.

Suddenly, her phone started ringing, and she saw Octavia's name flash across the screen.

"Hey," she said as she answered it.

"You gonna be at the warehouse today? I have a surprise!" Octavia exclaimed, and the blonde could practically hear her grinning.

Clarke climbed off of her bed and started toward her closet. "Yep, I'll be there in an hour probably. Just woke up. What surprise?"

"You'll see it straightaway when you walk in," Octavia said vaguely. "I felt really bad about you doing so much stuff for this place and all of us. And also the fact that Finn's been so mad at you lately – and obviously I don't have to apologize for that asshole, but basically I know you've been really stressed by us lately. So I decorated the front entrance to the warehouse. It looks almost homey now."

Clarke felt herself smile. "Thanks, O, that's really sweet. I'll see it soon. Are you gonna be there for a while?"

"Oh yeah," she replied, "probably all day. Gonna do my homework here and then when Rae gets here later, we're having an Orange Is The New Black marathon in Bell's room? You gonna join?"

"Probably not," Clarke answered, feigning disappointment. "Is Bell not gonna be around?"

"Oh no, he'll be here for most of today as well," Octavia admitted, "but he'll be writing. So he's just gonna stick his headphones on and bust his eardrums with whatever music he's listening to these days. But you're sure you don't want to watch with us?:

"I'm sure, sorry," Clarke insisted. "Okay well, I've gotta get ready, so I'll see you soon."

Sure enough, an hour later, Clarke found herself pulling up in front of the warehouse. She could tell just by the cars parked who was there – Bellamy, Octavia, Jasper and Monty. It was likely that Monty was working on his music stuff and Jasper was just hanging out with him. He and Octavia didn't really have a specific thing that they did in their rooms, aside from chill and do homework occasionally.

Clarke climbed out of her car and as she approached the warehouse, she immediately saw the decorating that Octavia had done to the entrance area. There was a rug across the floor, as well as curtains hanging over the arches that exited either side of the room – into Octavia's space on the right, and Bellamy's on the left. There were a few old beanbag chairs against the wall, next to an old table that was covered in many of their goofy and weird group pictures, as well as Octavia's many selfies, which she'd forced everyone to be in at some point.

Clarke smiled, making her way into Octavia's room. "Hey, O, I really like the entrance. It's cute."

"I know," Octavia agreed, looking up from her homework with a grin on her face. "I figured that it's not too done up and it's chill like all of us."

"I think more than one of us are not very chill," Clarke said, smirking.

Octavia laughed, nodding in agreement. "True. Well, I've got loads of homework. Remind me why I decided to major in journalism instead of something easy like you and Bellamy?"

"No idea," Clarke answered, chuckling and shaking her head. "Have fun with that. See you later." She continued through to her own room, passing Monty's, where he and Jasper were talking about some video game or another. She gave them a brief hello before continuing through, and finally found herself in her familiar art room.

Sighing happily, she got to work.

It was a couple hours later, after Raven had already gotten to the warehouse and begged Clarke once again to binge Orange Is The New Black with her and Octavia, that Clarke began wondering when Lexa was going to show up. She found herself anticipating it, and every time she heard any movement from the warehouse, she glanced over her shoulder. So far, though, no Lexa.

It was probably nearing four in the afternoon when the familiar voice suddenly spoke out behind her, "Hey." Clarke smiled at her easel, setting down her paintbrush and turning around to see Lexa. The brunette had seated herself on Clarke's table, with a cup of coffee in one hand and second cup sitting next to her. "I got you coffee."

"Good, I might've had to turn you away if you hadn't brought me something," Clarke teased, making her way to the table. "You know, I did put chairs at the table for like, sitting purposes."

"Mm, that's weird. Why would you do that?" Lexa asked, smiling bashfully. Clarke rolled her eyes, fighting a grin as she picked up her coffee and took a sip. She really wasn't picky when it came to coffee, and she would drink it black if she had to, but it made her feel good to know that Lexa thought to get her something good. "Have you been here a while?"

"Since eleven I think," Clarke answered. "Octavia called me and wanted me to look at the entrance to the place. Apparently she did that all either last night or this morning."

"It looks nice."

Clarke nodded. "She's very proud of it." She took another drink of her coffee as Lexa's gaze shifted around the room a little bit, landing on Clarke's second easel. She'd started a new painting that morning, though she was nearly finished with the one she'd been working on. The new one was the first one in a while that wasn't abstract. It was an attempt at a landscape, but having never done one before, she wasn't so confident in it.

"Don't you still need to finish that one?" Lexa asked, nodding to the first easel.

"Yeah," Clarke confirmed, sighing a little. "It started to get boring. I'll finish it at some point. I wanted to do something different."

"They both look awesome."

"Mm. The new one isn't very good," Clarke argued, shaking her head, "but I appreciate the flattery."

Lexa flushed a little. "I was being serious, not trying to flatter you."

"Mmhmm," Clarke answered sarcastically, setting her coffee cup down and smiling softly at the brunette, "whatever you say."

"You're literally so ridiculous."

"Literally?"

Lexa narrowed her eyes, attempting to glare at the blonde. "Don't mock me."

"I would never," Clarke denied, grinning now and not trying to hold it back. She pushed herself away from the table and headed back toward her easel.

As she went back to painting, Lexa asked, "It just occurred to me... does this place have a bathroom?"

Clarke snickered. "Yes. Two. Apparently, the old owner had them added in because he had plans to rent the building out as a party place or something. He never really finished any of it other than the bathrooms, but since they've hardly been used, they're actually fairly clean. We don't just sit up here for hours and pee in the bushes."

She could practically see Lexa roll her eyes, despite being turned the other way. "I didn't think you did, which was why I asked."

"Mm."

"Do you always paint?"

"Sometimes I draw, especially with charcoal," Clarke answered. "But lately I've been mostly painting. I guess you can blame the painting class I took last year for that. I sort of fell in love with it."

"Will you ever try to sell any of it?"

"Yeah, actually I'm trying to get Bellamy to help me set up an etsy account and start listing my pieces. He's been busy, though, with school and his own stuff," Clarke admitted. "I'll get around to it at some point. I'm not sure how many people would buy any of it, though."

"I'm sure there would be plenty," Lexa insisted, and Clarke just smiled.

"That would be nice."

They spent about an hour like that, conversation flowing easily between them as Clarke painted and Lexa sat on her table. Every now and then, Clarke would set down her brush to go and take another drink of her coffee, only to end up lingering away from her artwork in order to be near Lexa for a little while.

But after that hour, she got bored of painting while Lexa was in the room, and she cleaned off her paintbrushes for good. She faced Lexa, who was looking at her with wide green eyes, and smiled. "Are you hungry?"

"Possibly," Lexa answered, raising an eyebrow.

"Bellamy has food hidden in his fridge – he gave me permission to steal. You want one?"

"Sure."

"I'll be back then," Clarke said, slipping out of her room and heading to the front of the warehouse. As she entered Bellamy's room, she noted that he wasn't there, but Raven and Octavia were sprawled across his couch, Netflix open on his TV.

"Hey, Clarke! You joining us?"

"Nope," she answered, quickly crouching in front of Bellamy's mini fridge and unlocking it with the little keypad that kept it stuck closed.

"Hey, what the fuck, you know the pass code?" Octavia demanded, hopping off the couch. "He wouldn't even tell me, and I'm his sister."

"Yeah, well, you'd just steal all his beer," Clarke insisted, smirking and shaking her head as she grabbed two of the prepackaged sandwiches out of the fridge. Before Octavia could jump over to the fridge, she shut it and clicked the lock back together purposefully.

"Hey, tell me the code," Octavia whined, her and Raven both on Clarke's heels as she slipped back out of the room. "Please, Clarke? I decorated this whole front area!"

"Yeah, to repay me. So why should I repay you for repaying me? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?" Clarke asked, rolling her eyes. "Don't you have to some episodes to watch or something?"

"Why do you need two sandwiches?" Raven asked.

"Go watch your show," Clarke huffed out dismissively, approaching her room.

"You should watch with us."

"No."

"Why not?" Raven questioned, just as Clarke turned into her room. Her friends froze in the doorway as they realized that someone else was in the room – Lexa, to be specific. The brunette suddenly looked very shy, and Clarke tried not to snap at her friends to tell them to go away. Instead, she passed one of the packaged sandwiches to Lexa and then looked pointedly at her friends.

"Hey, Lexa," Octavia said, sounding surprised. "Haven't seen you here since... last Tuesday..." Her eyes jumped up to meet Clarke's questioningly, and she knew that she was thinking back to Clarke and Finn arguing about the nature of her relationship with the younger girl.

"She was here this week too actually," Clarke commented, trying to keep Lexa from having to deal with her crazy friends.

"Don't you have like... school?" Raven asked.

Lexa raised an eyebrow, a half smile appearing on her face as she answered, "Not on Saturday, surprisingly enough." Clarke smirked.

"Right..."

"Well, you can both join us watching Orange Is The New Black if you want," Octavia offered, surprising both Clarke and Raven. "C'mon, Clarke, don't you wanna fangirl over hot lesbians with us?"

Clarke saw Lexa's eyebrows raise a little in amusement, and Clarke rolled her eyes. "Maybe later, O."

"At least give us Bellamy's fridge code?" Raven asked hopefully, and Clarke shook her head once again. "Ugh. Fine. Let's go, Octavia." The two of them left, finally, and Clarke let out a breath and sat down at her table, opening her sandwich.

Lexa got off of the table and took a seat in one of the chairs as well.

"See, they don't hate you," Clarke commented, but Lexa rolled her eyes.

"They don't like me, though."

Clarke shrugged. "They don't even know you."

"I'm just glad Finn's not here. I can't figure out what his whole deal is," Lexa muttered, opening her sandwich as well and taking a bite of it.

"Yeah, I'm honestly not sure," Clarke admitted with a sigh. "He's... I really don't know. I think he's trying to be protective, maybe because he feels bad about what almost happened with you and him. But I wouldn't stress about it. He'll get over it, whatever it is."

"I just don't want your friends to hate me."

"They don't, Lexa," Clarke insisted, "and if they did, they'd stop, because I like you, and that's what matters, isn't it?"

Lexa's cheeks turned a little pink as she nodded. Suddenly, the brunette's phone vibrated, and she grabbed it reluctantly. "Apparently, I'm being dragged down to the lake for a bonfire by two of my friends."

"Sounds like fun," Clarke commented, trying not to frown.

"Do you never go to them?" Lexa asked.

Clarke shook her head. "I used to, a lot, but not usually anymore. Not unless Bellamy goes, because he doesn't usually get drunk as fuck, and the only time I can force myself to not go crazy with drinking is when someone else is maintaining themselves as well. And I hate getting drunk. You'll probably find Finn there, though."

"Ugh, maybe I won't go then."

Clarke rolled her eyes. "You should go."

"It's weird that I'm going to a college party and you're not," Lexa stated thoughtfully, propping her chin up on her hand.

"Not everyone in college is a party goer you know," Clarke said teasingly, smiling.

"I guess you're right." They continued to make conversation as they finished their sandwiches, and then Lexa sighed and stood up. "I should go, before Anya or Luna start physically looking for me."

"Lame," Clarke muttered, standing as well. "Don't get drunk."

"Who said I was going to drink?" Lexa asked, quirking up an eyebrow.

"You go to college parties and don't drink? C'mon. The first time I got plastered I was seventeen."

Lexa shrugged. "I had a few drinks at a couple of the parties I've been to. But as far as getting drunk... I'm not sure if it would be a good idea, given the company I'm usually with."

Clarke hummed thoughtfully, before shaking her head. "Sometimes I guess I just really don't understand you."

"I'm not that hard to understand."

"Maybe not to you," Clarke said, amused as she took a step closer to the brunette. "Have fun at the bonfire."

"Mm, okay," Lexa said, closing the space in between them with a soft kiss. Clarke hummed contently against Lexa's lips, sliding her tongue through them bravely. Lexa's arms wrapped around Clarke's neck as the kiss deepened, and Clarke wouldn't rather be doing anything else.

When she pulled away from the kiss, she murmured, "Ah, when's your birthday, by the way?"

Lexa's giggle was low, and the blonde nearly groaned in annoyance as the brunette bit her lower lip. "Tenth of October."

"I guess that's not very far away."

"No, it's not," Lexa agreed. "I'll text you later."

"Okay," Clarke agreed, frowning a little when Lexa's arms dropped back to her sides. She leaned in once more, though, surprising the blonde with another quick, sweet kiss, and then finally took a step backwards.

"Bye."

"Bye," Clarke returned, smiling sweetly at the brunette as she backed out of the room, before turning and walking out.