Chapter Ten

Everything was different.

They were shyer around each other now. They flushed bright pink every time their eyes met during class or even at lunch. At practice, Clarke spent most of her time watching Lexa on the field—nothing new there, but there was something different about the way Lexa looked now. Something in the way she carried herself; in the way she smiled. Something about the way she glanced over at Clarke every now and then as she ran down the field, sending her a smirk as she dodged a tackle.

"Clarke! Focus!" Harper yelled, interrupting her thoughts. "You can talk to your girlfriend later. Homecoming is this Friday!" Clarke rolled her eyes, but forced herself to turn away from Lexa, ignoring the fluttering in her chest as Harper's word echoed in her mind: girlfriend.

Were they girlfriends? All Clarke had really done was ask her to Homecoming. And they'd kissed. More than once. But did that mean that they were officially a couple? Or were they just dating? Clarke knew that she'd said she wanted to 'give them a shot' but neither of them had even bothered to clarify what that entailed.

She hoped it meant more kissing.

After practice, Clarke headed straight for the showers, rinsing off as quickly as possible, before getting dressed and running back out to the field, where the football team was running a few last-minute drills. The boys seemed to finally be treating her like she wasn't completely made of glass and Lexa was thriving, swiftly avoiding being tackled when she had the ball and easily taking down her teammates when they did. Lincoln and Miller high-fived her and she even got a pat on the back from Murphy, who had laughed uproariously when she took Bellamy down with little to no effort.

Bellamy, of course, didn't think it was so funny.

When Lexa was finally done—and probably very banged up by the look of her limp—Clarke ran out to meet her, touching her for the first time that day as she enveloped the other girl in a hug. Lexa let out a groan and Clarke pulled back, eyes wide.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her eyes checking over Lexa with worry.

Lexa nodded, stiffly. "Yeah," she said. "Practice was just a little intense today. I'll be fine."

"Okay…" Clarke said, unsure. "But, just in case, let me give you a ride home."

"Uh, I don't think we should go to my house right now," Lexa said, allowing Clarke to help her out to the parking lot.

"What? Why not?"

"Anya's home and there's no way we're going to get any peace with her around. Not after last night." She flushed as she looked away and Clarke softly cupped her chin, bringing her gaze back around to meet hers. She smiled as she leaned in and pressed a sweet, simple kiss to Lexa's lips. When she pulled away, Lexa's face was practically in flames.

"To make up for last night," Clarke said, by way of explanation.

Lexa grinned. "I happen to remember several kisses last night that more than make up for the one we missed."

Clarke lifted an eyebrow. "You want me to take it back?" she asked. Lexa's eyes widened and she shook her head, furiously. "That's what I thought," she said. "Come on, we'll go to my place. My mom should be working late tonight."

"I thought she was the school nurse."

"She is," Clarke hummed. "During the day. At night, she works general surgery at Arcadia Mass General."

"Does she ever sleep?"

"Probably not."

Lexa chuckled as they approached Clarke's car and placed her pads in the back, but kept firm hold of her helmet.

"Lex, I only live about three blocks away," she said, getting into the driver's seat.

"Still," Lexa replied. "It's better to be safe than sorry."

Clarke took a deep breath, but said nothing. She wasn't about to tease the other girl for a very reasonable fear; she could be a bitch sometimes, but she wasn't a dick.

"Are you going to wear your helmet to your first away game on Saturday?" she asked as she pulled out of her spot.

"Of course," Lexa replied. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I meant on the bus, silly," Clarke said, teasing gently.

"Oh," Lexa said, frowning. "I hadn't considered that. Do you think the others will make fun of me?"

"Murphy might," Clarke replied honestly. "The others might laugh. But Lincoln and Miller will probably come to your defense."

"I don't need anybody's protection," Lexa harrumphed. "I can take care of myself."

Clarke sighed. "I know," she said, reaching for Lexa's hand and giving it a quick squeeze before placing it right back on the steering wheel. "Doesn't mean they won't have your back."

"I suppose," Lexa sighed. Then she pressed her lips together and looked out the window. Clarke glanced over and caught the way her fingers were fumbling nervously in her lap.

"You okay?" she asked and Lexa turned back; Clarke was able to see the trepidation through the slits in her helmet and it filled her with worry.

"Yeah, I just…" Lexa sighed and looked away again, then back. "Would you…I mean, you're going to be at the game, right?"

"Of course," Clarke said. "I'm always there."

Lexa smirked slightly and shook her head. "Well," she said, "what if you…what if you rode with us? To the game, you know? Or…I could ride with you?"

Clarke's eyes widened. "Oh," she said. "Well, I was actually planning on driving up there. This way Raven and O could come with. I guess I'll be ferrying Indra, too. And…and you, if you want."

"Very much," Lexa said with a relieved sigh.

Clarke nodded. "Okay," she said. "I'm sorry I never offered before. It didn't even occur to me."

"It's fine," Lexa assured her. "I just hope coach will allow it."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"We're supposed to go over plays and strategies and blah, blah, blah…I could do all of it in my sleep, but Titus would be pissed if I wasn't there to review."

"Sounds like a real hard ass," Clarke murmured.

Lexa snorted. "You have no idea."

Clarke grinned and reached for the radio, turning it to a random station and turning up the volume on some rock song she hoped would distract Lexa. They were nearly to her house, anyway. Before the song was even over, she pulled into her driveway and shut off the engine. When she looked over at Lexa, though, she found her staring up at the house, mouth gaping beneath her helmet.

"Are you okay?" Clarke asked as she opened her door and grabbed her bags from the back.

"This is where you live?" Lexa gasped, stepping out onto the pavement of the three-car driveway. Clarke flushed and shrugged her shoulders, looking up at the house.

She'd never considered her house that extravagant. Sure, it was on the bigger side, and in a nice neighborhood. Her father used to rent it from his boss and then, after the accident, he'd given it to her mother, along with a generous settlement that was meant to make up for the fact that her father had lost his life at one of their construction sites. It hadn't, but Clarke liked to think that it helped that her mother didn't have to struggle to make rent payments or keep the water and heat running.

"It's a long story," she told Lexa, "but yeah; this is where I live. It's smaller on the inside, I guess? I mean, it only has four bedrooms."

"Four?" Lexa gasped. "Seriously?"

"Well, one of them is actually my mom's office, but…yeah. Doesn't your house have three bedrooms? That's pretty big for somebody Anya's age to afford."

"We got a small inheritance," Lexa said, looking away. "And our grandparents lent Anya a big chunk of the money. They won't let her pay them back." She snorted and shook her head. "Anya doesn't like that very much."

"I had no idea," Clarke said, softly.

Lexa shrugged one shoulder and gave her a sad smile. "Why would you?" she said, grabbing Clarke's hand. "Come on." She pulled her toward the house and Clarke went, interlocking her fingers with Lexa's, feeling a knot form in her stomach.

At the front door, she turned the key in the lock with one hand and grasped Lexa's fingers with the other, tugging her inside as soon as it was open.

The foyer was split into upstairs and downstairs and Lexa started toward the former, before Clarke tugged her back with a smirk.

"My room is this way," she said, and she could swear that Lexa blushed and swallowed thickly, but she came anyway, removing her helmet as Clarke led her down a short flight of stairs into what looked to be a tiny rec room. "The reason this place has so many bedrooms," Clarke said, "is because it's technically a two-family. My parents used to rent out the upstairs, but after…it happened, my mom got the whole place and I moved down here when I was thirteen." She nodded to a doorway just off the main room. "It's not huge, but it's home. And there's a whole floor between me and my mom."

Lexa was eerily quiet and Clarke turned to see her worrying her lip, her biceps flexing around the helmet. She was pointedly looking away from Clarke, which worried the blonde immensely. She wondered if she'd said something to offend her.

"Lex? Are you okay?" she asked, tugging on the girl's hand, which was still clutched in hers.

"Uh…I'm a little sore," Lexa replied, still not meeting Clarke's eye. "And I'm a virgin."

"Um…okay?" Clarke said, frowning in confusion.

"So I'm not really comfortable, um, you know…" Her face was beet red now and she was half-hiding it behind her helmet.

Clarke's face mirrored hers and her eyes widened, her hand clenching around Lexa's. "Whoa, hey!" she said, waiting until Lexa peeked shyly over the top of her helmet to meet her eyes. "I wasn't…I mean, I would never…I mean…" She shook her head furiously. "That's not what I was getting at, Lexa," she insisted. "I just meant that I had privacy from my mother because, you know, I just…like…privacy." She pressed a hand to her forehead. "I would never force you to do anything you didn't want to do, okay? And, besides, it's way too soon for us to think about that right now. I mean…what even are we?"

"You don't know either?" Lexa asked, her cheeks still bright pink.

Clarke shook her head. "I know that I like you," she admitted, her grip loosening on Lexa's hand even as she stepped closer. Her heart began to flutter again as Lexa looked down and smiled, shyly. "I know that I'm taking you to Homecoming and I'm going to be there cheering for you at every one of your football games."

Lexa snorted. "You're a cheerleader, Clarke," she reminded her.

"Still," Clarke laughed. "I'll be cheering for you the most out of anyone. And you'll be kicking ass because that's what you do."

"Naturally," Lexa joked, leaning in. "But what can I call you? My…you know?"

Clarke sighed and looked down. "Can we not…I mean, can we go on a second date, first? Before we DTR?"

"Before we what?" Lexa asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Define the relationship?" Clarke laughed. "Come on, Lex; get with the times."

Lexa huffed and nudged Clarke with her helmet. "Sorry I'm not hip enough for you, Griffin," she said.

"Oh, your hips are plenty for me, Woods," Clarke said, placing her free hand on one and tugging Lexa closer. The brunette groaned and pressed her forehead to Clarke's shoulder.

"That was awful," she sighed, her breath sending a shiver down Clarke's spine as it brushed against her neck.

"I know," Clarke laughed, wrapping her arm around Lexa's waist. "I'll get better, I promise."

Lexa looked up at her then, their noses brushing, the look in her eyes stealing all the breath from Clarke's lungs. "You're already perfect," she breathed and Clarke sighed, her lips curving up in a smile.

"Oh, that was good," she said, leaning in until their lips were brushing. Lexa pressed their smiling mouths together and her helmet dropped from her grip as she wrapped both arms around Clarke's shoulders. There was no more talking after that.