More Than Friends
Song : You will find me – Alex and Sierra
In Octavia’s apartment, everyone was still in shock. What were they going to do, now? Move out, Protest?
Raven came back into the apartment, sighing. “Anya isn’t answering her phone”, she sat on the couch near Clarke, “maybe she wanted to warn us?”
Clarke shook her head; it wasn’t making any sense. “I don’t understand! Lexa knows we used to live here, she...” But then, Clarke paused. She had never told Lexa where everyone lived. Anya knew, because of Raven, but there was still a possibility Lexa didn’t. Maybe she hadn’t done it on purpose.
“What is it?” Raven asked, noticing that Clarke was thinking hard.
“I don’t think Lexa is aware we live here” the blonde whispered, “I don’t think I ever told her...”
Raven’s eyes widened; that made sense. Raven had seen Lexa and Clarke interact with each other; there was no way Lexa would have done something like this, knowing they all lived in Arcadia.
“Can’t you call her?” Raven suggested, but Clarke shook her head, huffing at herself.
“I don’t even know her phone number,” the blonde said, making Raven raise a brow; Clarke and Lexa were definitely from another planet.
Octavia then rejoined them, pointing to the other envelop Clarke hadn’t open yet. “What is this Clarke?”
Clarke shrugged, and began to open the letter. Raven frowned; the logo on the paper was the police’s. Clarke opened the piece of paper and gasped, beginning to get pale.
“What? What is it?” Octavia asked, now worried.
“It’s a letter from the court. For the case against Finn” Raven murmured. Octavia gasped too, and suddenly everyone in the apartment was very silent. No one dared make a single sound, waiting for Clarke’s reaction.
“I... I need air” Clarke whispered, suddenly getting up and almost running to the door, disappearing into the stairs.
Octavia tried to follow her, but was stopped by Raven. “Let her go O, she’ll be back”.
Octavia huffed, “and how do you know that? Last time, she went missing for almost a month”.
Raven smiled, pointing towards Ayden who was playing with Jasper, “because she would never leave him”.
Octavia nodded; she knew it was the only thing they were sure about Clarke. That she would do anything for her family, for her people.
Then, Raven’s phone rang, startling everyone. “Raven Reyes speaking” the Latina said.
“Hey Raven, it’s Anya” said the voice.
“About time Woods, what the fuck is going on?” Raven asked, relieved Anya was calling her back.
In the apartment, Raven had put the phone on speaker mode, so everyone could hear the conversation.
“I’m sorry, but something came up, um, maybe you have received some sort of letters...?” Anya asked; she wasn’t sure the letters had been delivered yet.
“You mean like eviction letters?” Raven said, “Yeah we received those. You wanna say something ‘bout it?”
They all heard Anya sigh on the phone.
“It’s a big misunderstanding” Anya said, “I’m with Lexa right now. Can we come by to explain everything?”
Raven took a look at her friends, asking for a decision.
“I don’t know” Octavia whispered so Anya couldn’t hear, “Clarke usually makes the calls, I’m not sure this is a good idea”.
“What do we have to lose?” Monty then whispered, “I say let them come. At least we’ll have some explanations.”
Raven then nodded, and brought the phone back to her lips.
“Ok Anya. You two can come, but Lexa?” Raven asked.
“Yes?” the brunette’s voice made itself heard into the phone.
“Clarke might be angry at you” Raven warned her. She didn’t want Lexa to trigger her blonde friend, or hurting her.
“I’m sorry if she is. I’ll explain everything to her”.
“Ok” Raven answered, “See you in a few”.
The brunette hung up, sighing. “I hope this is not the worst idea ever”.
In Anya’s car, Lexa is going to lose her patience. “Lexa please calm down” Anya said huffing at her cousin, “we are going to be there soon”.
“And what if she’s really mad at me? I mean, you heard Raven, she might be angry, what if she doesn’t want to see me? And what if...” Lexa rambled, only stopping when Anya interrupts her.
“For God sake shut up Lex! We don’t know anything yet, but we’ll know soon. Just calm down!” Anya lightly hit her cousin on the arm to make her stop fidgeting on the seat.
Lexa mumbled something between her teeth, and Anya didn’t ask what it was about.
Soon, they were parking in front of Arcadia building. “So this is the place” Anya said, stopping the car. They got out, and Lexa almost gasped when her eyes stopped on the building. It was in really bad shape; the walls weren’t anything close to white, some windows were broken. It really looked like a crappy place to live, and it was sending shivers down to Anya’s and Lexa’s spines, to know that people they loved lived in such a place. The both of them shook their heads before entering the building. People they loved, really? Of course, the only ones they were fooling were themselves. Ah, the Woods girls weren’t known for their ability to accept that love was just in front of them, were they?
They quickly made their way to the floor the group was on, looking for the apartment number Raven had given them. “Here it is” Anya said, pointing at a door. Lexa lightly knocked on it, waiting for someone to come and open it.
They were both relieved to see Raven answering the door; they didn’t know everyone in the group yet, and the situation was weird enough.
“Come in” Raven invited them. The Woods took a step in, accepting Raven’s offer to take their coats off.
“Hello you two” Octavia greeted them. They had seen each other already too; it was making things easier for Lexa and Anya.
“Everyone, this is Lexa” Octavia said, turning to her friends, “and YES she’s THE Lexa Woods, CEO of Coalition Corp” the girl added; she knew the boys still had trouble accepting the idea of Clarke being friends with such a wonderful, beautiful, sexy and badass woman. Those were Jasper’s and Monty’s words, obviously.
“And the lady here” Octavia said again pointing at Anya, “is the Anya Woods Raven was talking about earlier, Lexa’s older cousin and Raven’s boss at Trikru. She’s kind of my superior, too”.
Anya raised a brow at this, because she didn’t know what Octavia was doing for a living; she had never seen her in Trikru Company. Lexa sent her an“I’ll tell you later” look and Anya stopped thinking about it to focus on what was really important right now.
“This is Monty, Harper, Maya and Jasper” Raven said.
Everyone nodded to each other as a greeting, and then silence fell again in the apartment. Octavia hadn’t missed the way Lexa’s eyes had wandered all over the place; probably looking for blue ones. Then, Ayden spotted Lexa, and ran full force into her legs.
“Yexa, you’re here!” he shouted excitedly, happy his second favourite person was here –the first one being his mother, of course.
It put a smile back on Lexa’s face as she was lifting the boy in her arms, under the stare of everyone else in the room. “Hey buddy, how are you doing?” Lexa asked him, and he started to explain to Lexa how he had played a fun game with Jasper earlier. Raven and Octavia were still staring at Lexa, analysing her maybe; they both wanted to be sure Lexa wasn’t going to harm and break Clarke even more than she already was. But Ayden was so attached to Lexa it would hurt them both anyways; it was too late to go back.
“Ok” Raven said, “You have an explanation to give”. She gestured for Anya and Lexa to take a seat so they may start explaining.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Clarke to be here?” Maya whispered to Octavia. But the girl shook her head, “Nah. Clarke has to cool off on her own. Lexa will talk to her after.”
Maya nodded, and everyone went silent to let Anya and Lexa talk. Lexa was the first to start their explanation.
Half an hour later and Clarke was still sitting on the stairs in front of her old apartment. She had taken her key back from Octavia, but she hadn’t had to courage to go in it yet. It was stupid, really. She knew they had cleared the place, and all of Finn’s stuff would be gone, but still. This place held so many memories. This is where she had learned Well’s, Charlotte’s and Zoe Monroe’s death. She had also earned Raven’s forgiveness here, Jasper’s too, and she had grown closer to Octavia in a way she didn’t think possible. Clarke had been here when she had taken the pregnancy test. She had been here when Finn had shouted in joy when she had told him about the baby growing in her belly. This was the place she had cried for hours when things were bad. This was the place she had cried in joy when things were good. This place had been everything. But now, she didn’t know anymore. She had ran from here, first to live with Finn in a house –although she was starting to believe it was just to run away -, and then to distance herself from the violence and the people who would always remind her that their lives weren’t easy at all.
Clarke’s hands were slightly shaking around the letter from the tribunal. How was she going to handle this now? And what about the eviction order? She was already so, so tired... And most of all, Clarke was afraid. She hadn’t been alone for a whole month now. Lexa had been by her side supporting her, helping her, even when she was pretending she didn’t need help, and now, Clarke was scared; she didn’t know if she could do it without Lexa’s help. It was silly; she and Lexa weren’t even friends. What were they, anyways? Clarke didn’t know. The only thing she was sure of was that she didn’t want the brunette out of her life so soon. She couldn’t explain why, but there was something… Something making her move towards Lexa. There was something about her. Even Ayden had fallen for Lexa, and Clarke couldn’t pretend she hadn’t any longer.
A silent tear rolled down Clarke’s cheeks as her mind was full of questions. She was tired, so very tired...
But then, she looked up; someone was using the stairs. She wiped the tear away, composing herself in case it was one of her friends coming to fetch her, but her heart stopped when she spotted the person coming towards her was, Lexa. Lexa was here.
“Clarke. I’ve been looking for you” Lexa murmured, not coming any closer.
Clarke opened her mouth, but no sound came from it. Instead, she put her head into her hands. It was too much. Clarke was feeling alone, sad, overwhelmed, and then Lexa was there, with her green eyes and her lips and everything Clarke couldn’t resist to.
“Clarke...” Lexa whispered again, now sitting right next to Clarke. Their shoulders touched, but Lexa didn’t dare make any move to hug the girl; she was waiting for Clarke to move first. But then, she heard Clarke making a noise she didn’t want to hear. Clarke was crying, and Lexa couldn’t bare it any longer. She threw her arms around the blonde, embracing her into a tight hug.
“Clarke, don’t cry. Everything is a misunderstanding. I didn’t know people were actually living here. I didn’t know. I’m going to cancel everything. Don’t worry. You’re safe. They all are.” She whispered into Clarke’s ear, keeping her close.
Clarke knew Lexa didn’t know about them living in Arcadia, but hearing her saying they would be safe did the trick for her, she put her arms around Lexa’s neck, now fully accepting the hug. Lexa was drawing small circles on her back to calm her down. “It’s ok, I’m here.”
Clarke was slowly calming down; she was going to trust Lexa on this. Finally, Lexa released her, seeing the letter Clarke still had in her hand.
“What’s this?” Lexa asked, and immediately regretted asking, because Clarke’s eyes were watering again.
“It’s... It’s a letter for the trial against Finn. Next week” Clarke cried, trying to wipe her tears, “Lexa I... I can’t do this alone anymore” her voice broke, as Lexa’s heart was exploding in a thousand pieces.
“Hey hey” Lexa gently smiled, putting her hands on each side of Clarke’s cheeks, “you are not alone. Do you hear me? I... I care about you” Lexa admitted, lowering her voice, “and I’m here. I guess I’ll have to call Titus to tell him I won’t be at work that day next week then” she winked at the blonde, making her chuckle in the process.
“Thank you” Clarke whispered, as Lexa was wiping Clarke’s tears away with her thumbs. Lexa smiled as an answer, and Clarke didn’t hesitate; she brought her lips to Lexa’s, kissing her with her whole soul. She felt Lexa smile into the kiss, and then she felt her kiss her back harder.
When they ended the kiss, Clarke pointed the door they were sitting in front of, sniffing. “This is my old flat. You want to see it?” she asked Lexa.
“Yes, of course” Lexa answered, and then helped Clarke up. Lexa could tell Clarke was nervous about entering her apartment again, so she gently took her hand in hers, intertwining their fingers for support. Clarke smiled when she felt Lexa’s hand, and opened the door.
The flat was simple, really. It still had all of Clarke’s old furniture, but it was somewhat different. She sighed, relieved. This was her old flat, but in some way it was like another one. A little like Clarke was another person. “I like it, it’s simple” Lexa said, still not letting go of Clarke’s hand.
Clarke silently thanked her. She didn’t know why; she was always acting weird around the brunette. She pulled Lexa into a chaste kiss, surprising the brunette, but who still reciprocated the kiss hard, putting her hands on Clarke’s waist, bringing her closer.
They parted from the kiss and Clarke snuggled her nose into Lexa’s neck.
“Lexa?” the blonde whispered.
“Yes?”
“How come you’re here?” Clarke asked, suddenly remembering that she didn’t know what Lexa was doing here in the first place.
Lexa sighed, and released her embrace around Clarke, guiding her towards the couch. She knew she had some explaining to do; she had already explained everything to the others half an hour earlier, but she had to do it all over again with the blonde.
“You remember Nia White? I may have talked to you about her?” Lexa asked. Clarke frowned, because she had heard the name before, but not from Lexa’s mouth.
“I do know her. She’s the head of Azgeda Company, right?”
Lexa nodded, “but you didn’t talk to me about her though” Clarke added.
It was Lexa’s turn to frown; Nia had been the one to have Clarke and Ayden’s pictures with her go public; did Lexa not explain all this to Clarke? Then, Lexa remembered Clarke had ran away, the day she had seen the newspaper, and the next time they were seeing each other had been when Lexa had stopped Finn from hurting the blonde.
“Yes, she’s Azgeda’s ambassador in Coalition Corp” Lexa confirmed, “but she’s the devil incarnate”.
Clarke chuckled, because she had no idea what Nia White was doing with this mess.
“Don’t laugh” Lexa said, “She really is. You remember the newspaper you saw one day, at my place?”
Clarke nodded, avoiding Lexa’s eyes. Clarke too remembered she had run away from Lexa, that day.
“Nia White was the one to give the pictures to the press” Lexa said.
Clarke frowned, “but why?”
“She wants my place as CEO” Lexa sighed, “she’s a vicious woman; she’ll do anything to achieve her goals”.
Lexa adjusted herself on the couch, leaning back a little, and was pleased to see Clarke adjusting herself too, but on Lexa’s chest.
“She wants to get to me, to break me so I’m not able to do my job anymore, and so far she didn’t have a lot of ways to do that” Lexa continued, “but now... Now she does.”
“That means... That means she’s targeting us, Ayden and me, for being close to you. To make put pressure on you” Clarke understood what Lexa was trying to say.
Lexa sadly nodded. “I’m sorry. I never meant to pull you into this”.
Clarke didn’t answer, but leaned back on Lexa’s chest, putting one arm around her.
“So um, about the eviction letters and everything...” Lexa sighed, gathering some courage, “Nia White came to me this morning, in a meeting, and asked for new offices in town for Azgeda. It was weird at first, because it seemed too easy to give her, and I couldn’t figure why she was asking me about this one building in particular, and it worried me all day, so much I didn’t even listen to Anya when she obviously wanted to tell me something.”
Lexa paused. She had been so worried about Nia’s move that she had kind of sent her cousin away.
“And as the building was officially not occupied, and the agency owning it doesn’t exist anymore, I didn’t have any trouble buying it for Nia.”
Clarke gasped; she had no idea the agency didn’t exist anymore.
“I had no idea Clarke, I swear” Lexa said, looking down at Clarke with eyes which were pleading forgiveness, “I bought the building and made a steed deliver some letters to tell the junkies I thought were living here they had to leave the place. This is what happened.”
“But how did you do all this so fast?” Clarke asked, and Lexa sighed again.
“I’m Coalition Corp’s CEO, Clarke. I have all privileges, my needs and my orders are the first top priorities” Lexa explained, not particularly thrilled by the prospective of everyone being at her feet.
Clarke nodded, trying to process everything Lexa had said.
Lexa shifted on the couch, not knowing what she could say. “I know it doesn’t make what I did any better, but if I knew, I wouldn’t have done that. But I’m going to fix this. I promise” Lexa said, kissing Clarke’s forehead.
“How...?” Clarke whispered. She trusted Lexa, really she did, but she didn’t know how it was fixable.
“Well” Lexa sighed, “first of all I’m still the owner of Arcadia. Meaning, I can do anything I want about it”.
Clarke’s eyes lightened; she understood what Lexa was implying. She hadn’t given the building to Nia yet. She could not do it.
“Clarke, I have seen the outside of this building. It’s falling into pieces, there’s no way Nia would have asked for it genuinely” Lexa murmured; she didn’t like the fact that Clarke and Ayden and all of their friends were living in such conditions, and now she was beginning to understand Nia’s motivations to have it.
“So I may have a proposition” Lexa continued, taking a breath to gather some courage, “I still need to put some Coalition Corp’s business in this building, because I cannot buy random buildings like this” she said, making Clarke chuckle, “but what I can do, is restore the building, part by part. You and all of your friends would still be able to live here, in good conditions, and I would put some offices upstairs, for employees from my company”.
Lexa closed her mouth, waiting expectantly for Clarke’s reply.
“You would do this?” Clarke whispered, not believing what she was hearing.
“Yes, I would. With your permission” Lexa answered.
Clarke didn’t answer right away, because it was a lot to take in. She was fascinated by the brunette though; she had seen Lexa being on the phone with Titus, her CEO’s mask in place, and the blonde had to admit Lexa was quite scary with it, but right now, Lexa was a complete bag of compassion, affection, care and... Love?
“I... Why, Lexa?” Clarke asked instead. She couldn’t figure out why Lexa would want to help her, to help them, that much.
“I think you know why” Lexa whispered, feeling very shy and bare with the blonde.
Of course Clarke knew; she needed Lexa to say it, though. So, she looked at Lexa as if she didn’t understand, and it made Lexa sigh because now she had to talk about her feelings; Lexa wasn’t used to this.
“I told you. I care about you. I don’t want to be away from you, I don’t know I...” Lexa stopped, interrupted by the blonde pulling her into a kiss.
“I care about you, too” Clarke answered, and the both of them smiled into the kiss like teenage lovers.
“Clarke, I have one more thing to ask you” Lexa said, tugging at her lower lip, sending shivers down Clarke’s spine. Lexa is so goddamn sexy doing that, the blonde thought, and then mentally face-palmed herself so she could concentrate on what Lexa wanted to ask.
“I... I know you’re missing your friends, and I know Ayden miss being here, too” Lexa started, and Clarke turned pale. Was Lexa going to kick them out and ask them to live here? She didn’t want that. Clarke wanted to live with Lexa. She thought she had made it clear by telling Lexa she cared about her?
Lexa noticed Clarke was starting to freak out, so she quickly took Clarke’s face in her hands. “Don’t freak out” Lexa whispered, “I’m not going anywhere”.
Clarke nodded, slightly reassured, waiting for Lexa to continue.
“I was wondering if maybe, you’d like to come live here on some days” Lexa finally said. “Like, we stay at my place on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the rest of the week, we live here to be close to your family”.
Clarke’s heart jumped into her chest. Lexa had said “we”. She would come with them. But as Clarke had still said nothing, Lexa was beginning to worry. “Clarke? What do you say?”
It took the blonde half a second to make her decision. She wasn’t afraid anymore. If Lexa was here, there was nothing to be afraid. “I say yes. A million times yes” Clarke chuckled, kissing Lexa hard.
But it was not any kiss, this time. This time, it was something more. Clarke’s hands were beginning to travel on Lexa’s body, going from her waist to her neck and back, and Lexa could swear she was already seeing stars. Her own hands were trying to get under Clarke’s shirt, and she could feel Clarke shivering under her touch. Lexa was about to fully put her hands under the blonde’s shirt, but a voice called them, breaking the moment.
“Lovebirds! Lincoln brought a cake! Come down!” Raven shouted up the staircase.
Clarke chuckled, and Lexa smiled. Clarke brought her arms around Lexa’s neck as Lexa was putting her hands back on Clarke’s waist, connecting their foreheads while catching their breath.
“Lexa?” Clarke asked in a whisper.
“Yes?” Lexa answered in the same soft tone, not opening her eyes.
“We are more than friends, aren’t we” Clarke said, and Lexa didn’t know if it was a question or a statement, but decided she couldn’t deny what was going on between them anymore.
“I want us to be more than that” Lexa whispered, barely audible.
She knew Clarke was smiling, and it was warming her heart. “I want that too” she heard the blonde answer back. Lexa began to head for the door, but was stopped by Clarke’s hand on her forearm. Lexa looked back to see Clarke biting her lip. GOD those lips.
“I... I wanted to call you, but hum...” Clarke trailed off.
Lexa got closer to the blonde, slightly amused by the shy side of Clarke. “But what?”
“I... I don’t have your phone number” Clarke confessed, pink slowly rising to her cheeks.
But Lexa raised her brows; Clarke did have her number, it was the first thing she had ever given the blonde. “but Clarke, I gave you my number the first day we met...?”
Lexa watched as Clarke’s cheeks were becoming even redder. “I... I didn’t register it” the blonde whispered in shame.
It made Lexa chuckle, and held her hand to the blonde. “Give me your phone” Lexa gently asked. Clarke took her phone out of her pocket and gave it to Lexa.
Lexa typed her number into the phone, still smiling at the blonde’s behaviour. “There. You can call me when you want, now.” Lexa smiled. She would have liked to ask for Clarke’s number too, but she didn’t want to rush the girl.
But then, Clarke typed something on her phone, and Lexa’s made a noise. The brunette frowned, taking the phone out, and saw she had a new message from an unknown number. She opened it, and smiled when she saw what Clarke had written.
“Now you have my number, too” The blonde smiled.
Lexa smiled back, and slowly leaned on Clarke to peck her lips once more. After that last kiss, they went down the stairs to meet with the others, hand in hand.
You leave me room for my imperfections
When I'm a mess and you jump right in
If I drift in the wrong direction
You turn the tide and you calm the wind
Anytime, every time I get lost
You will find me
You will find me