The Matchmaker

Clarke had never been particularly religious, but she was praying in her head for a hole to open up, swallow her up, and spit her in China where she would change her name and dye her hair red.

"Come in, Lexa," Jake said with a smile as he ushered Lexa inside as if he hadn’t just asked a complete stranger to pretty much marry his daughter and call him dad. "Oh, you brought wine, thank you." Lexa looked like she was ready to bolt. Clarke had been right; the girl was even better looking in person.

"Clarke why don't you show Lexa around while your mom and I serve dinner and let the wine breath." Jake grinned at her before gently pushing Lexa towards her and turning around to pull Abby towards the kitchen.

"I can't believe you did that!" Abby whispered as Jake moved around the kitchen humming happily.

"Oh, come on love, Lexa is great, you'll adore her, besides you and I know Clarke has horrible taste on her own, remember Finn? Guy's lucky I didn't cut off his hair after what he did to my little girl... And remember when Clarke had this crush on Bellamy? Hell, if it weren't for me they would have dated."

"Ah, come on, Bellamy is not that bad, he is a great guy." Jake rolled his eyes at her reply.

"No, he is a good brother and a nice friend, he would have made a horrible partner, it's in the hair he had that same douchebag hair as Finn "

"You had long hair too," Abby added with a shrug as she moved around the kitchen.

"Yes, and it was during my douchebag period." Jake handed Abby the corkscrew and opened the oven to inspect the lasagna.

"So, it's all in the hair?" Abby asked amused

"Of course, I knew you were the one just by your hair, shinning under that street lamp, glowing like the sun and casting light over my darkness," Jake said dramatically, and Abby rolled her eyes but there was a smile playing over her lips.

"What does Lexa's hair tell you then?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow

"That she will make Clarke happy." He shrugged, and they went around the kitchen preparing dinner, Abby handed Jake the plates and he served before handing them back for Abby to place on the table.

"Wait... What do you mean if it weren't because of you she would be dating Bellamy? Jake... What did you do?"

Jake smirked widely and then tried to reel it back into an innocent smile, but Abby gave him the look.

"Oh, come on, it's not like I threatened him or anything I just... conditioned them." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"What do you mean conditioned them?" Abby asked with a frown.

"Oh, you know... just... Every time Clarke mentioned Bellamy I would reply with something about how nice he was, such a good friend... how he was like her brother and whenever he came over and started with all his compliments in that stupid five shots of whiskey, glass gargles voice of him, I would say how nice of him it was, how they were almost like siblings and how he treated Clarke as nice as he did Octavia and thanked him for being the brother she never had." Jake ended his explanation with a chuckle. "If I had told Clarke I didn't like him for her, I could have sent her into a rebellious stage and she would have dated him just to prove she could, I never liked Finn, but they were already dating when we met him, so nothing I could do there.”

___________________

"Did you know about this?" Clarke asked as Jake and Abby disappeared inside the kitchen.

"No... And I think it's safe to say you didn't either. Jake told me he wanted to apologize for taking my picture and the post... He said your mom felt bad about it." Lexa grimaced. "I can go, I should go..."

"No, please, I'm sorry, you don't have to go, the least we can do after putting you through all this is feed you and my dad does make a mean lasagna." Clarke pleaded she didn't know why but as awkward as it was, for both probably, she didn't want Lexa to go.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Lexa asked even though every fiber in her body was shouting at, her that she should go, damn her manners.

"Oh, I probably will once my dad starts talking, but stay, please." Lexa nodded once and they both exchanged shy little smiles. "So, I'm Clarke.... sorry about the post, is just my father has been doing that ever since I came out and I mean I should be grateful, a lot of kids get kicked out or put in camps and all kind of awful things, but my dad? He sends me pictures of girls asking if I think they are girlfriend material. It's awesome and embarrassing, I hoped public shame would make him stop, instead, he sent you a friend request and seems more determined." Clarke rolled her eyes and Lexa chuckled.

"My father joined PFLAG when I came out and after his first meeting he gave me a snapback and a flannel shirt..." Lexa shook her head and a smile softened her features. "One time a waiter was trying to hit on me by telling him 'sir your daughter is... uhm pretty." Lexa blushed at repeating the compliment to herself and Clarke's smile widened. "His answer was ‘yes, her future wife will be very lucky.’ The guy didn't make eye contact with either of us for the rest of the night." Clarke chuckled, she was glad Lexa had a good support system and especially that her dad sounded to be almost as embarrassing as Jake.

"Girls! Dinner's served!" Came Jake's voice and Clarke led Lexa to the dining room.

"I apologize in advance." She said before taking a deep breath to steel herself.

___________________

"So, there she was no clothes and dancing in a very... distinctive way against the door.... honestly, we should have known she was bisexual because when we asked what she was doing, she just said she wanted to be like the pretty ladies on TV... She was like five! Needless to say, we never let the remote within her reach ever again." Jake said, and Clarke groaned in her defense Coyote Ugly was an awesome movie. "Especially when her first 'masterpiece' was a unicorn with rainbow-colored hair, I have it framed in my office, I'll show it to you after dinner."

Jake had spent most of the dinner just gushing, gushing about how awesome Clarke was and telling all kinds of embarrassing stories, she should have known that dinner would be like that when he told Lexa about her love for sailor moon and her very confused and conflicted feelings about sailor Uranus and Neptune. She didn't know if she wanted to be them or with them and then there was, of course, Tuxedo mask.

Abby cleared her throat, she was worried her daughter would pass out, she had been blushing for at least half an hour. "So, Lexa tell us about yourself."

Lexa straightened her already impeccable posture and looked at Abby like she was in a job interview before she replied... as if she was in a job interview all formal and polite, sharing academic facts instead of personal ones and Jake chuckled before he began gushing about Lexa and how she was going to be an awesome lawyer and how smart she was and Clarke was a little concerned about just how much her dad knew about the girl.

"Lexa." Jake began turning to the girl. "Marcus told me you never called."

"Ah yes... My family doesn't want me distracted from my studies, the job I applied to but rejected was fine for them because it will have been within my field, but I don't really want to take it, their views are very narrow-minded ones."

"I respect that, it's admirable that a girl your age would rather stick to her values than chase after money… Isn’t that admirable Clarke?” Jake asked with a big grin, ignoring Abby’s ‘Jake’ and Clarke’s glare.

Lexa had been planning on staying for just long enough not to seem impolite, again, damn her manners, but after the initial shock and the embarrassing stories during dinner, conversation actually flowed quite easily, they talked about law and politics, some funny stories of Abby about patients or interns, Clarke talked about art and classes, they spoke about Lincoln and Octavia, Clarke had met Lincoln a handful of times and Lexa had met Octavia only once but they both agreed that they seemed very serious about each other.

Things went back to weird when Jake mentioned that if it hadn’t been thanks to him they’d have eventually met each other anyway.

She had stayed longer than she had planned but once Jake hinted at childhood photos and she noticed how uncomfortable Clarke was, Lexa decided it was time to go, her exit was a little more hasty than she’d have liked and she was laying on her bed at night, staring at the piece of paper in her hands, she didn’t know why she kept it –because the number of the restaurant guy, of course- but she did.

It wasn't that the blonde intrigued her, or that she was attracted to her, sure Clarke was beautiful, but the world was filled with beautiful people in all shapes, sizes, and forms, so no, it wasn't that, she just felt rude for the way she left.

'Hey Clarke, this is Lexa. I wanted to apologize for leaving in such a hurry and ask you to please thank your parents for having me for dinner.'

Lexa read the text so many times, deleted it and rewrote it before deciding to hell with it and pressed send.

She regretted it immediately.

Clarke: 'I don't blame you, honestly if I could I would have left when my father started with the embarrassing stories.'

Lexa chuckled as she stared at her phone, shaking her head and an amused smile playing on her lips as she began typing her reply.

Lexa:'Professor Griffin is not that bad...'

Clarke frowned at her phone, blinking a couple of times. 'Just exactly how well do you know my dad, Lexa?'

Lexa:'Well we've ran into each other a couple of times in that cafe we met.'

Oh this poor naive girl, Jake had been playing matchmaker for weeks now and this girl probably hadn't even realized, she chuckled and was going to type her reply when she noticed the three dots signaling Lexa was writing.

Lexa:‘We are sort of... friends I guess.’

'It's weird to imagine someone like you calling someone like my dad a friend.'

Lexa:'What is that supposed to mean?'

Clarke frowned as she read her message and realized just how it sounded. 'My dad likes to think he is cool or something but he's a huge nerd, goofball, dork... I love him but I can't help but feel bad for his students and you seem so... Calm and collected... Cool, I guess.'

Lexa took the longest time to reply and Clarke was already deep into freaking out about this gorgeous girl thinking she was weird or something when her phone finally beeped.

Lexa: ‘Sorry, my roommate... burrowed my phone.’

Later, when Clarke went to stalk Lexa's facebook, she noticed a girl named Anya Forrest tagged Lexa in a post about blushing at her phone and some poor delusional girl thinking ‘The Commander' was cool and had to resist the urge to like it.

Lexa:'It started with him talking to me about a job at one of his friend's restaurant, but we usually talk about law and politics and engineering and the environment.' '...And books.' 'and movies.' 'and superheroes.'

Clarke saw the three dots that meant Lexa was still adding and chuckled as she typed fast to beat her in sending the message.

'OMG'

'It all makes sense now.'

'You are a nerd too!'

___________________

Clarke was on the couch, a glass of Monty’s special drink, something they had titled the knock out, in her hand, she was sitting next to Octavia and Raven, so when the bell rang and Lincoln opened the door to welcome in Lexa Woods and some blonde girl she vaguely remember seeing in Lexa’s Facebook as Anya, she couldn’t help but choke on air before turning to Octavia.

“Did my dad tell you to throw this party?” she asked with a frown, Octavia mirrored her expression before looking at where Clarke was looking and then back at her for a couple of times before something clicked.

“Stop being so paranoid, Lexa and Anya are Lincoln’s friends… Family and we wanted our… people to get to know each other.” The younger girl replied rolling her eyes and Clarke sighed her father’s word about eventually meeting Lexa even if he hadn’t meddled, echoing in her head.

“Well hello there, nerd.” Clarke greeted with a playful smirk as she walked into the kitchen to find Lexa pouring herself a beer, Lexa looked up and smiled before scoffing in reply.

“I’m not a nerd.”

“Right… I would believe you… truly, I would… if it weren’t for the fact that yesterday you had a discussion on Facebook with my dad, that went for over twenty comments about why the Star Wars prequels were under-appreciated, including a character study of that blonde whiny dude and how he was great character and the actor was great and it was just the script’s fault the movies sucked so bad and therefore it was George Lucas’ fault…”

“What does it say about you… that you read said discussion then?” Lexa replied with a triumphant smirk and Clarke smiled, they had been texting, ever since that first night and Clarke genuinely enjoyed talking to her, their banter was like a chess match of wits.

___________________

Clarke parked at the gym parking lot and she shot O a text that she was there to pick her up, she had asked Clarke since her car was at the shop…

It was always at the shop, it was old as fuck and broke down more often than not, Raven worked on it for free when she could but at this point they all knew it was just a waste of money and time but O was attached, so here she was and just because she amused herself for a good five minutes thinking of her father's response when he asked about her day later and she replied that she went to the gym, she got out the car and walked inside the building, taking a seat on a chair in the lobby as she waited for her friend.

“Oh hey…” Clarke looked up from her phone and tried to smile, she really tried but her facial muscles seemed to be frozen, Lexa stood in front of her, she was wearing black leggings, and a black sports bra, there was a tribal tattoo on her arm and Clarke licked her lips, she had enough anatomy knowledge to know that the little triangular bulge on her shoulder was the deltoids, the little bulge at the back of her arm the triceps, the bulge that the tattoo wrapped around was the bicep, the line in the middle of her abdomen that divided the very defined abs was the linea alba, the obliques, the rectus abdominis and then further down bulging through the leggings the rectus femoris, her gaze traveled back up, she could see Lexa’s lips moving but the rush of blood going through her head was much too loud in her ears for her to make anything the other girl was saying.

“Yes.” She replied stupidly, and Lexa smiled, wide.

“Great, I’ll see you tomorrow…” Lexa said and waved goodbye…

That’s how the following day she ended up further inside that the lobby of the gym.

“Oh, you poor fucker… You like her.” Octavia said as she watched Clarke all but crawl through their door groaning in pain with every step.

“Shut up.” She replied pathetically.

“We know each other since forever, and you have never gone to the gym with me… ever, I’m pretty sure once you said you’d rather jump off a plane without a parachute cause then death would be quick…”

Clarke just groaned in reply, though it was more like a pathetic moan of pain and then used every furniture on her very slow very painful way to the bathroom.

“Clarke…” She heard her name being called and a hand on her shoulder softly shaking her awake, pulling her from sleep’s sweet embrace and into a world of pain, she groaned her reply. 

“Octavia let me in on her way out….” She heard the sweet melodic voice and opened one eye to see Lexa, the light from the window making a halo around her making her look like some sort of angel and she groaned once more, aware that she probably looked like a gremlin and not the cute ones.

“What are you doing here?” she asked blinking several times, she was still half asleep, and this wouldn’t be the first time she dreamed of some hot person waking her up, usually though she would wake up feeling like a movie star all sexy and collected.

“Well… I texted you yesterday but you didn’t reply, so I asked Octavia and she said that you were and I quote pleading to be euthanized… so I felt bad, I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard…” she said wincing though it wasn’t Lexa’s fault, it had been Clarke’s for trying to keep u with some amazon goddess… but then again she only did it to try to impress Lexa, so it was indeed Lexa’s fault for being so hot and looking so sexy all sweaty in her workout outfit.

“Here drink this.” She said placing a bottle of Gatorade on her bedside table and some ibuprofen.

“I’ll make you breakfast as an apology, just come down whenever you’re ready,” Lexa said before leaving the room, Clarke knew she wasn’t dreaming when she tried to reach for the bottle and every muscle from her calves, her thighs, up her sides, her chest, shoulders all the way down to her arms protested, the bottle felt too heavy and it slipped from her grasp.

Clarke freshened up, took the pills, drank about half of the bottle and then very slowly made her way downstairs.

“Oh, thank you, God,” Clarke said the moment her eyes laid on the steaming cup of coffee.

“Actually, I prefer to be called Lexa.” She replied with a teasing smirk. Clarke rolled her eyes and took a sip to test the temperature, once she was sure she wouldn’t be burning her tongue off she took a healthier sip. “It’s decaf,” Lexa said trailing off with a half-surprised half-amused chuckle as Clarke spit it right back.

“What the hell? Are you trying to poison me or something?” She asked glaring first at the cup and then at Lexa.

“Caffeine causes muscle tension, pain and is a diuretic, it’ll make you feel worse,” Lexa explained, and Clarke rolled her eyes again but there was no bite behind the action.

“You’re causing me muscle tension and pain.” She mumbled her reply but there was a playful twinkle in her eyes.

“Fine, I’ll make you a cup of real coffee, just don’t whine if you feel worse.” Lexa huffed out and turned around to make a new batch.

Clarke eyed the plates on the counter, there were two small bowls with mostly berries and a diced banana, two small cups with yogurt, and two plates with scrambled eggs with… spinach.

When Lexa turned around and handed her the cup, and after adding a healthy dose of sugar she eyed Lexa.

“This is real coffee?” She half asked half stated.

“Yes,” Lexa replied with a stoic face.

“Like caffeinated coffee…”

“Yes.” Clarke took a sip from it, eyes still glued to Lexa.

“Or is it?” Lexa asked once Clarke had swallowed it, expression shifting to an amused smile.

“It is…” Clarke stated.

“Are you sure?” Lexa asked eyebrows raised.

“Yes?” Clarke replied, and Lexa smiled in triumph.

“I guess you would never know… because they both taste exactly the same.”

Later she would send Lexa a good dozen different links to studies on how good coffee actually was for sore muscles.

After the coffee debacle, Clarke decided to eat all her breakfast without much protest, she would have rather her eggs had bacon instead of spinach but compromised.

“Thank you…” Clarke said once she handed Lexa the last dish for her to dry. “You didn’t have to, you know? I feel a lot better actually.”

“It’s okay, no problem really, I had a good time.” Lexa shrugged and dried her hands. “I guess I should go now.” She added as an afterthought as she looked around.

“No… you don’t… I mean, if you don’t have to, I mean, I still don’t feel all that better yet and I mean… it is your fault.” Clarke replied smiling to show Lexa she was just joking around. “We can watch a movie and relax on the couch or something.”

___________________

Jake Griffin knew his family, he knew his wife and he knew his daughter, and he knew, and though he would never say it out loud, not even under torture, he knew that one of the traits they shared was…

A rather severe chronic case of being stubborn mules…

He loved them

He truly did

They were both bullheaded, stubborn frustrating lovely women who were worth the rather huge amount of stubborn that somehow fit into their rather small bodies…

So, he knew that if he pushed the Lexa issue too far, Clarke would resist on principle, they had known each other for three months now and everyone, and he meant everyone, could see their amazing chemistry… except for themselves.

He was standing by the grill, half his concentration on the grill, half on the girls.

Octavia wanted to invite Lincoln and Jake thought it would be the perfect opportunity, after all, they had the space and didn’t want Lincoln to have to choose between family and his girlfriend, right?

So, he personally had sent a Facebook invitation to his daughter and his adoptive girls, Raven and Octavia, sending a little message for Raven to bring a plus one if she wanted to, one to O’s brother and his plus one, and of course Lincoln and his family… Anya, Gustus, Indra and of course Lexa, plus a couple more people.

“Are you seeing this?” He asked Gustus, it was just another sign that he liked Lexa’s family so much.

He nodded subtly at where Lexa, usually reserved and… contained Lexa threw her head back and laughed squinting her eyes in mirth at something Clarke said and watched as his daughter beamed, honest to god beamed with pride at the reaction.

“Is Lexa just as stubborn as my daughter or…"

“Honestly, I think she’s just oblivious.” the huge man ran a hand through his beard as he watched the girls interact.

“I’ve seen her bring study buddies and friends that were just fawning over her and when I pointed it out she thought I was blind.” Gustus shrugged and Jake sighed. “I think unless they hit her on the head with a neon sign that says ‘we should date’ she assumes it’s friendship.”

He would be honest and be the first to admit that the first reason why he sent Lexa’s picture was aesthetic, but as he got to know her more he realized instinct had gone a long way and they were actually perfect for each other…

He would have to get back in touch with his inner Slytherin and pull a reversal on Operation sink down Bellarke… and honestly, that should have been their first clue, what kind of crappy name was Bellarke? Clarkemy… Grake? Bliffin? Clexa just rolled off the tongue, like…

It belonged.

Clarke woke up a week later to a text from her father, she groaned as she saw the picture of some random woman and a ‘what about her?’, It had been three months since he had sent Lexa’s picture and he hadn’t sent another one after that, she had honestly thought he had gotten it out of his system and since he had stopped so had Abby.

‘you haven’t texted me a picture of a stranger in months… I thought you were team Lexa?’ Clarke asked frowning down at the screen.

‘I was… I am but I thought it was time to move on since you are friend-zoned.’

‘What?’ Clarke had taken a while to reply, her frown only deepening as she read her father’s words.

‘Well, you are both always saying how you two are just friends so… that means you are in the friendzone right?’

‘That’s not… That’s not how it works.’ Clarke replied, glad that it wasn’t possible to precisely convey emotion through text cause she would have sounded fucking offended, cause she was, and her fingers itched to type that she was NOT friendzoned but... She and Lexa were just friends...

The frown would stay on her face for the rest of the day, it would only deepen as her dad replied, much, much later with a:

‘Besides, Lexa is super cool, so I mainly just wanted her in the family and since we are friends, I don’t need you to make it happen anymore.’

‘Don’t you think it’s weird you are friends with a 20something student?’ Clarke replied, once again happy that the written words didn’t reflect the bitterness in which she would have said that.

‘FYI ,she considers us friends too, she said so herself, she introduced me to her girlfriend as her friend today.’

Clarke took a good ten minutes in which she just stared at the words on her screen. ‘What?’

‘Oh sorry, her girl friend, she was with a cute girl today, like a Game of Thrones beauty type. Aaand she introduced me as her friend, Professor Jake Griffin.'

Back in his home office, Jake turned around slowly in his chair and laughed like a movie villain just for effect.

Sometimes destiny needed a helping hand.