Arcadia Building
Song : All That You Built by Land Of Trees
Lincoln parked up in front of the Arcadia Building.
“I’m sorry I can’t stay” he said to the blonde, “I have to go back to work. But Octavia is home though. She’s the one with your keys, in case you need anything in your flat.”
“Thanks Lincoln” Clarke smiled, helping Ayden get out of the car. Lincoln waved at them and drove away.
“Ok honey, you’re ready?” Clarke asked her son. Of course, it was more for herself than for Ayden.
Clarke didn’t know if she was ready to go back there; there were so many memories here, good ones as well as bad ones, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to remember everything. Maybe she’ll never be ready, but she had to make an effort at least, for Ayden.
“Come on Mommy, look someone is waving at us!” Ayden said excitedly, pointing with his finger to a window on the first floor.
Clarke looked up; Jasper was here, waving at her with a big smile. “Hey Clarkey, long time no see! What are you waiting for? Get your ass upstairs now!” The man shouted, gesturing at them to hurry.
Clarke smiled, and pushed the door to enter the building. She had been in conflict with Jasper, a few years ago, when he was just beginning his relationship with Maya. She was sick, and Jasper was blaming Clarke –who was working at the hospital at the time- for not being able to help her or heal her. But Maya had gotten better, making Jasper apologise to Clarke for his behaviour, erasing the tension between them.
A few steps ahead of her, Ayden was practically running into the stairs. Clarke couldn’t blame him; they hadn’t been out of Lexa’s loft for like a whole month, and even if Ayden loved being at Lexa’s, he needed to run and venture himself into the world. He didn’t deserve to be locked up in some cage, whatever the cage was.
“Hey pumpkin” said Harper, opening the door at the moment Ayden and Clarke had reached the floor, “you remember me?”
Ayden nodded with a smile, accepting the hug Harper was giving him. Monty and her looked back at Clarke, impressed, and Clarke smiled back. They were impressed, because the boy had never liked physical contact with someone else than his mother, and now, he was willingly opening his arms for people to hug him. Clarke knew Lexa had a lot to do with this; she had been the first person Ayden had really trusted, and maybe having Lexa close to him was making him feel safe enough to approach people again.
Harper then slowly approached Clarke; Raven and Octavia had told Harper the blonde was opening herself more, now letting people touch her after what Finn had done, but she still wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t want to scare Clarke off, or trigger something.
But Clarke noticed Harper’s hesitation of course, and smiled at her, opening her arms to the girl. “I won’t bite you, I promise” The blonde joked, making Harper laugh before she hugged the girl.
“We were worried” Harper whispered into Clarke’s ear, “I’m glad to see you”. Clarke nodded into her neck; she knew how hard it must have been for her friends, having no clue about how she was doing or anything, and Clarke was blaming herself a little for that.
“Hey Clarkey, good to see you back here!” Jasper shouted then embracing Clarke into a big hug, soon joined by Monty. It made Clarke laugh, and suddenly they were joined by Ayden, Harper, Raven and Octavia which became a big group hug, every one of them still in front of Jasper’s door.
“Ok ok people, let’s calm down, enough hugs for today” Raven sassed, making everyone chuckle, “let’s go to Blake’s to hang out!"
Everyone approved, and went next door. Raven sat on the couch first, pretending her leg was hurting, but everyone knew it was rather to highjack the couch –because it was the only comfortable thing to sit on in Bellamy’s and Octavia’s apartment-. No one said anything though, letting the Latina do whatever she wanted; they had learnt not to put up a fight with her.
Surprisingly, Ayden came to sit on Raven’s lap, beginning to tell her what game he had played back at Lexa’s, and everyone was staring at the boy, who was speaking and installing himself on Raven without a shred of doubt. Raven too was surprised; it was true the boy wasn’t as shy as before, but it was definitely a big step.
“Lexa did this, didn’t she?” Octavia said, more like a statement than a question, sliding behind Clarke to be sure she was the only one to hear.
Clarke hummed; she knew all too well it was all Lexa’s doing, but she was not ready to entirely accept it.
“What are you going to do now?” Octavia asked.
“I don’t know, O” Clarke murmured, looking at the ground. “Ayden doesn’t want to leave Lexa’s place anymore”.
Octavia smiled; she could clearly see that. “And what do you want?” the brunette then asked, knowing it was the most difficult question Clarke currently had on her mind.
“I don’t know” Clarke whispered again, “I... When I’m with her” the blonde said turning towards Octavia, “I don’t know, I feel... Safe. And protected. I feel like me. I don’t know how to explain it O, but I feel... I feel like me. I’m me, when I’m around her”.
Octavia nodded; she had noticed that, too. “What does Lexa want then?”
Clarke shrugged, but then thought about it. She knew what Lexa wanted. “I... I think she likes me” Clarke said, a smile slowly breaking on her face.
“Of course she likes you” Octavia scoffed, “she took you and Ayden in”.
Clarke chuckled. “That’s not what I meant. I think she likes me.”
Octavia’s eyes widened a little, understanding what Clarke was implying. “Oh”.
“Yeah” Clarke sighed.
“And, did you two, hum you know...?” Octavia asked, trailing her question off.
“Oh! We may have kissed a few times...” Clarke trailed off too, looking at everything but Octavia.
Octavia’s eyes widened a little more, “you kissed Lexa?” the brunette said, lightly hitting Clarke on the arm, “you know how to make things complicated, don’t you?”
Clarke lowered her head, because this was true. Everything was always so complicated when it came to her. Octavia noticed Clarke hadn’t taken her remark very well, and put an arm around her shoulder.
“Hey, Clarke. I was just kidding. Lexa is good for you. For the both of you” Octavia gestured towards Ayden, still rambling and laughing on Raven’s knee.
Clarke hummed, leaning her head on Octavia’s shoulder, silently thanking her.
The doorbell rang, and Octavia got up to open it. Maya was there, coming home from work, and she had a lot of envelopes in her hand.
“Hey guys, I crossed paths with the postman and he gave me all those...” she stopped herself when she saw the boy on Raven’s lap, and searched the apartment with her eyes until she had found Clarke. “Hi Clarke”, Maya smiled, going towards her to hug the girl.
Clarke hugged Maya back, happy to see the girl she had learned to appreciate. Their story was kind of funny actually; the first time they had seen each other, Clarke had kind of threatened the girl with a knife on her neck, thinking Maya was one of the bad guys. Since, they had become friends. It’s not like Clarke had had the choice anyways; she was Jasper’s girlfriend, so full part of the gang.
“So what’s all this Maya?” Monty asked, pointing at the envelopes Maya was still holding.
“I don’t know” She shrugged, “but our flat numbers are on them."
Clarke frowned; they didn’t really live legally. It was still legal; they had the right to live here, but it was more complicated than that. When they first arrived in Polis, they were all looking for places to stay; but everything was either too deteriorated or too expensive. But then, they had met with an agency who had given them the right to live into Arcadia, until they had the money to fix the building for proper renters. So officially Arcadia was supposed to be an empty building waiting for construction work to begin.
“Hey look Clarke, there’s one for you too!” Maya said, giving Clarke the envelope, and then frowned, “actually there’s two letters for your flat”.
Clarke frowned again, taking the envelopes. It couldn’t be good. But before she had time to open them, Harper was gasping, reading the letter.
“They are evicting us” the girl said, her eyes widened. Everyone in the room looked up at her, surprise smacked across all their faces –well except Ayden who didn’t understand what was going on, of course- waiting for her to explain.
“They say the building has to be empty for next Monday” Harper said blankly, “and if we don’t, they are going to report it to the Police that we are living here without proper authorisation."
“Who? Who say we have to leave?” Clarke asked, her mind going blank.
“Hm wait, it’s...” Maya read the letter again, “it’s Coalition Corp.”
Clarke blinked a few times; Coalition Corp. It was the company Lexa was CEO of. It wasn’t making any sense.
“I don’t understand” Raven said standing up, “Anya knows we live here, I told her and...”
“Wait, who’s Anya?” Jasper asked.
“She’s my boss” Raven answered, re-reading the letter once again, “the ambassador from Trikru Company at Coalition Corp. She’s also Lexa’s older cousin”.
Clarke sat down. She was just beginning to find her balance again, and now this. Would it ever end? How was she going to deal with this? Should they all look for new places to live, or should she tell Lexa? Why had Lexa done something like this? Was it on purpose? Clarke was feeling betrayed right now. She didn’t understand.
“It doesn’t make any sense” Raven said again, “Anya knew we lived here. She would never had agreed to this without speaking to me about it.”
Clarke raised a brow at Raven; she didn’t know Anya and Raven were that close. Then, Raven frowned, and went to pick up her phone into her jacket.
“I have seventeen missed calls from Anya” Raven said, turning a little pale. She dialled the number back, and went outside to try to reach Anya.
Anya had spent two hours in a car, searching for Lexa, without any luck. Anya growled, and decided to go back to Coalition Corp’s building. Maybe Lexa was back there.
Indeed, Lexa was sat down behind her desk, looking through papers. She didn’t look up when she heard steps on the floor; she was used to Anya’s way of walking, although today she could say her cousin was in some kind of hurry.
“You branwada” Anya hissed through her teeth when she spotted her cousin sitting at her desk. Surprised, Lexa looked up, to see her fuming cousin glaring at her.
“Anya? What’s wrong?” Lexa asked, not understanding Anya’s behavior.
“You made a big mistake” Anya said, “please tell me you didn’t send the expel letters to Arcadia yet”.
Lexa raised a brow. “I did so an hour ago. I didn’t want to leave that hanging. Why?”
Anya let out a growl of frustration, slumping on the couch. It definitely got Lexa’s attention, and the brunette stopped whatever she was doing to look at her cousin.
“Anya” Lexa said again.
“Oh Lex, you have no idea, do you?” Anya sighed, looking back at her. Lexa shrugged, getting frustrated too.
“This Arcadia building Nia asked you.” Anya started.
“Yes” Lexa nodded.
“This is the building Clarke lives in. Or lived in. But everyone of her friends are still living there. Octavia. Raven. Bellamy. Lincoln. They all live in it.” Anya sighed again, looking at Lexa, waiting for her reaction.
And Lexa paled, her eyes widening, realizing what she had done. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I did tried!” Anya protested, “I tried, but you didn’t want to listen!”
And then, Lexa remembered how her cousin had indeed tried to talk to her, earlier in the day.
“Anya. They should receive the letters in half an hour now. I sent them by steed” Lexa said.
Anya put her head into her hands. There was no way to undo this. “Anya, what do I do?” Lexa’s voice was small, shivering a little, “Clarke, she’s going to get mad and...”
“Lexa, we are not going to panic. OK?” Anya stopped her.
Lexa weakly nodded. She couldn’t lose Clarke like this. She was just beginning to care for the girl. She couldn’t break everything now.
“Ok, we are going there” Anya stated, already getting up.
“What?” Lexa asked, lost.
“We are going to your place to fetch Clarke and then, Arcadia. We will explain to everyone it was just a misunderstanding”. Lexa then nodded, and got up to follow Anya to her car.
They didn’t lose any time getting to Lexa’s loft. She hurried herself to open the door, afraid some of Clarke’s friends had already called the blonde to tell her, but her heart stopped when she heard nothing. No No no no, this couldn’t be happening. “Clarke?” Lexa called. No one answered, and Lexa was beginning to feel sick.
“Clarke? Ayden?” the brunette called again, as Anya was closing the door behind them. Anya saw the worry on her cousin’s face. It couldn’t be good, and the silence in the loft wasn’t a good sign either.
“Clarke? Are you there?” Lexa said, her voice threatening to break anytime now. Lexa turned towards her cousin, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Anya immediately understood; they weren’t here.
Anya watched Lexa do a tour of the entire apartment, checking every room. When Lexa came back into the living-room, Anya saw at that very moment Lexa was going to break down. And her cousin couldn’t break. She had broken down once, and it had been hard for her to get back up again.
“Lexa...” Anya said.
“There are gone” Lexa whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek, “Anya they are gone. They left. They left.”
Lexa sat down on the couch, her look going blank. Anya then noticed something on the counter, and frowned; it looked like a piece of paper. She got closer, and chuckled when she read the note; the one Clarke had written in case Lexa would come home early.
“Hey Lex, look” Anya said with a smile on her face. Lexa didn’t understand at first, because it was absolutely not funny, but then she saw the piece of paper Anya was giving her. She raised a brow at her cousin, who just smiled back.
Lexa sniffed, and began to read the paper. Another tear fell while reading.
Lexa,
Ayden and I are going to say hello to Octavia and everyone in Arcadia. We’ll try to be back for dinner, but if we are not, don’t worry!
We’ll see you soon,
Clarke and Ayden
PS: Ayden says you have to wait for us for dinner!
Lexa laughed, wiping her tears away, they hadn’t left her. They were coming back. “They didn’t leave" she said.
“No, they didn’t” Anya smiled back. “Come on now, we have some fixing to do!”
Lexa nodded. She wasn’t going to lose the blonde this easily.