Chapter Text
Lexa groaned as she took off her running shoes, dragging her feet as she made her way to her bathroom, silently hating herself for getting up so early to go for a run before school. She’d been exhausted all week thanks to her intense schedule. Her track team had a district competition coming up, which would determine who would go on to represent the area in the state competition, so her track coach had been running the whole team ragged, and now that it was Thursday, Lexa was about ready sleep as they ran. Yawning, she turned the tap of her shower, taking off her shirt and shorts while she waited for the water to heat up. Stepping under the hot stream of water, Lexa let out a sigh of relief. It had been a surprisingly chilly morning, and she had definitely been underdressed in her tank top and shorts for the cool temperature. The warm water stung a bit as it hit her cold skin, causing her to shudder slightly as she lathered her hair with shampoo.
Ten minutes later, Lexa was drying her hair with a towel when her phone chirped. Looking at the lit up screen, her face broke out into a wide smile when she saw the text was from Clarke.
(6:57 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: Ew, I feel like death
(6:57 am) Lexa Woods: Awe, I’m sorry! Morning workout?
(6:59 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: What the fuck? No! I just woke up! Please don’t tell me you’ve worked out already
(7:00 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: omg Lexa!!! Are u a morning person?!
(7:01 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: I can’t believe I like a morning person… dear god, this will never work out!
(7:02 am) Lexa Woods: Clarke calm down! It’s ok, if we can make it past the fact that you’re a sky kid and I’m from Tondc, I think we can make it through this
(7:04 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: wait, was it an issue that I’m from the Ark??
(7:09 am) Lexa Woods: only to ignorant elitists (and in this case, Tondc is the elite)
(7:10 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: … so in other words not you?
(7:12 am) Lexa Woods: definitely not me
(7:17 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: oh thank god <3 I was worried!
“Lexa?” Lexa’s mother opened her bedroom door, bleary-eyed and sounding a bit drunk. “What are you doing up?”
“I have to go to school, mom,” Lexa said quietly. “It’s morning already.” Lexa’s mother looked at her in confusion for a minute before seemingly losing interest in the time of day.
“Who are you texting?” She asked, nodding her head at the phone in Lexa’s hand. Lexa bit her lip nervously.
“No one. Someone from work…” Lexa locked her phone screen and put the device in her pocket. Lexa’s mother stared at her for a minute, looking suspicious, before shrugging in nonchalance and turning to leave.
“Don’t stay up too late,” She mumbled. Lexa sighed and squeezed her eyes shut for a minute before pulling her phone out again to reply.
(7:24 am) Lexa Woods: Hahah only thing to worry about here is that I’m going to miss my bus if I don’t hurry up and leave!
(7:25 am) Random Weirdo Stalker: okok, point taken :P have a good day at school then! I’ll see you at work
Lexa smiled at the interaction as she shoved things in her large black backpack. Talking to Clarke was so easy – it was like talking to Echo or Anya, people she’d known for so much longer. Grabbing a green and navy flannel to wear over her black t-shirt, Lexa made her way hurriedly out the door, jogging down the street to catch her bus and making it to the stop just as the bus pulled up. Nodding her acknowledgement to a few people she recognized from classes, Lexa found a seat in the very back corner of the bus, leaning her head on the window as she dozed quietly until they arrived at the grey cement block that was Tondc High. As Lexa trudged her way up the steep steps, she heard a voice behind her.
“Lexa! Hey! Lexa!” The voice didn’t belong to Echo, so Lexa was inclined to ignore it – whoever it was, though, didn’t take the hint, instead raising their voice further so they were practically shouting. “LEXAAAA!” Lexa turned around abruptly, glaring at everyone on the steps below her. A couple of nervous glances in the right direction told Lexa that the person shouting had been the scrawny year 8 boy making his way up the steps slowly, looking nervous.
“What?” Lexa said, her tone cool.
“I, um… I just wanted to say, um. You, uh, did some volunteering at the church a couple months ago, and my dad’s a preacher at the church so I saw you a lot, but I don’t think you noticed me, but anyway, I just wanted to say, um… Do wanna like… go to a movie some time?” Lexa balked at him. The kid only came up to her shoulder height-wise, not to mention the fact that he was two years younger than her. Not to mention the fact that… well that she was interested in someone else. Lexa took a breath. Ok, so it wasn’t like the whole school knew about her – that was a good thing. But still… it would be convenient for this type of situation if people knew. Lexa looked down at the kid – Aidyn was his name. She remembered him vaguely from her volunteering, but that definitely wasn’t something to go in his favour. She had hated volunteering with the church – she had only done it because her mother had wanted her to, and at least at first, their involvement in the church seemed to help her mom. It wasn’t long before her mother began drinking again, though, and when that happened, Lexa stopped volunteering with them, stopped going to church altogether. Stopped doing anything with her mother. Lexa sighed.
“Look, I, um. I’m… I can’t go out with you,” Lexa’s face burned. She wished she was anywhere else, literally anywhere other than here. “I’m, uh, I am seeing someone.” She said the words stiffly, and she was sure that the kid would call her on her bluff and figure it out and spread rumours around the whole school about her. She shuddered at the thought, ready to backtrack and think of a better reason not to go out with the kid. Before she could open her mouth, though, the kid sighed.
“Yeah,” He mumbled, shoulders slumping. “I figured you wouldn’t want to go out with me… I just thought I’d ask,” Lexa sighed. She felt like a horrible person – but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel like she had dodged a bullet.
“It’s okay… I mean, maybe we can be friends or something,” Lexa did not want new friends.
“No offense, but I have friends. I don’t have a girlfriend,” Aidyn said grumpily. You and me both, kid, Lexa thought. Instead of saying that though, she just shrugged and turned to walk away, not totally sure how to end the conversation. Her face was still burning with embarrassment as she opened the doors to the school and hurried down the hall towards her locker, where Echo was waiting for her.
“Hey girl,” Echo said absently, not looking up from her phone. She’d been playing Candy Crush on it obsessively since she finally cracked and downloaded the game two weeks before.
“Hey,” Lexa nodded her acknowledgement as she unlocked her locker, grabbing out her physics textbook and her English poetry and grammar books, shoving them into her backpack. “It’s physics first today, yeah?” Echo nodded.
“Yup, physics, then I have psych, then our double German, and then don’t forget that we have track practice instead of gym class today.” Lexa nodded, thankful that she hadn’t gotten her days mixed up, because she’d had barely any time to work on her math homework after she was finished at Grounders the night before.
The warning bell rang and Lexa slammed her locker door shut while Echo stowed her phone away in her back pocket, and together they made their way through the crowded halls to the science wing, which was inconveniently located on the opposite side of the school from when their lockers were. Physics consisted primarily of their teacher, Mr Osiris, talking about the final projects the students were supposed to do as part of their advanced placement in the course. He wanted them to build projectile rockets in partners, then on the last day of classes before their exam, they would launch them in the quad and measure whose flew the highest.
“That’s all I want, guys,” Mr Osiris said. “I just want a car - I don’t care how you build it or what you use, as long as every element is built by you. You really want to think about the aerodynamics of this - you want it to fly high, and to achieve that you’ll need something that will be able to fly up in a smooth line, so think of how that might happen. That’s all I’m going to say.” When the bell rang most people were chatting excitedly, but Lexa was frowning at the thought of adding another time intensive project to her already overloaded schedule. As she rushed back over to the other side of the school for her English class, bidding her farewell to Echo, she began to make a mental schedule of what she’d need to do when. She sat in her usual seat in the class, closest to the window and farthest from the front. She didn’t know anyone in her honours English class, and she didn’t particularly care to know any of the over-eager students who tried way too hard to impress their teacher, Niamh, who had insisted on the first day that her students call her by her first name. She was young, a recent graduate from University of Polis, and her eager grin and nervous babbling showed it. She was pretty, in a teacher sort of way. She had an edgy short haircut that was buzzed all around the bottom of her head and long on the top, her curls swooping over to the left side of her head. She often wore a leather jacket and Blundstones, and she always had her motorcycle helmet resting on top of the shelf next to her desk. On the first day of class when Lexa first saw her, she’d been skeptical of the woman’s ability to teach - it seemed like a career path that wouldn’t have meshed well with her seemingly badass nature. Lexa was quickly proven wrong, though, when the first words out of her new teacher’s mouth were about how much she loved Harry Potter and how she was a giant poetry and literature nerd. That was all it took to win Lexa over, in the end, and it definitely hadn’t hurt that her teacher was a self-proclaimed Slytherin, but a tested Ravenclaw, same as Lexa.
Sitting on the cold plastic seat that was attached by a metal arm to the small desk, Lexa pulled out the poem they’d been assigned on Tuesday - by far her favourite one they’d read so far - and reread the comments she’d made in the margins of the book. As the other students in the class chatted and giggled loudly, girls flipping their hair for the boys they thought were cute and the boys not paying them any attention, instead comparing scars from old sport’s injuries, Lexa sat quietly, mouthing the words of the poem as she read through it in her mind.
“Alright, everyone,” Niamh said loudly as the bell marked the start of class. She looked very nice today, Lexa noticed, and she found herself wondering about her teacher’s sexuality. Surely no straight woman would have the haircut Niamh had, or would wear that badass leather jacket with leather boots and torn black skinny jeans that hugged her every curve, and - Lexa had to stop her train of thought before it got out of hand. She bit her lip and looked down at her hands - apparently her coming out to herself had unlocked something bold in herself. “How did you all like the poem we read? Did anyone have any thoughts or critiques of it? Any comments on what the author may have been alluding to?” One of the suck-ups in the class raised her hand.
“I have a critique,” She said, and Niamh nodded with a skeptical glint in her eye. “I think it was written really poorly - I mean, there was no consistency in the rhyme pattern or the stanza length, so it just didn’t make any sense.” Lexa rolled her eyes - the poem they’d read, The Lonely Land, was a free verse poem, so of course it didn’t have consistency - that was just part of what made it beautiful. A few people nodded and murmured their agreements. Niamh looked disappointed.
“So no one liked the poem?” She asked, scanning the class full of blank faces. Lexa raised her hand, and Niamh nodded at her.
“I thought it was incredible. Especially the last line - ‘this is a beauty of strength, broken by strength and still strong’ - that really resonated with me. I thought that AJM Smith did a really nice job of showing how even when you are completely alone and feel small and insignificant, you have an astounding significance to the rest of your surroundings.” Lexa’s classmates all turned their blank gazes to her as she spoke, and she could tell that she was the only one who felt like the poem had been brilliant. The only one aside from Niamh, that is, who was grinning at her broadly.
“Yes,” Niamh said eagerly. “Precisely! Okay, I want to read you the poem, so you can all really think about what Lexa has said and feel those tones and that strength, and we can discuss it again afterwards.”
The rest of the English class passed by slowly, with the rest of the class failing to comprehend pretty much everything Niamh said. It wasn’t until the end of class when Niamh called Lexa’s name that her interest was again piqued.
“Lexa! Would you mind staying to chat a minute?” Niamh smiled at Lexa, who nodded dumbly as the rest of the class filed out, grabbing their marked essays from the table at the front. Niamh had something in her hand - Lexa’s essay. The assignment had been pretty simple, since it was still only October and they hadn’t really gotten too far into the course. Niamh had wanted to get to know her students, so she had asked the class to write a critical essay that looked at two works - any works were fine by her, be it novels, poems, songs, art, or anything else - and why those two works were particularly significant in the students’ lives. Lexa had chosen to write on Hiromi Goto’s novel Half World and paired it with the poem by Irving Layton, The Bull Calf. She had been moved deeply by both works, and she spoke of how The Bull Calf made her feel weak and useless, but how it also made her realize and understand that those feelings were not always avoidable, and how much of its significance to her came from the time in which she read it for the first time - right after her father’s death. Writing on Half World was a lot harder for Lexa, because a lot of it reminded her of her own struggles with her mother, and her struggles with herself. In the end, though, she’d been pleased with what she’d written, and she thought she might get an A on the paper, or even an A+. Now, though, as she watched the last of the students leave and Niamh close the door behind them, she wasn’t so sure. She felt her phone vibrate three times in rapid succession - the custom notification pattern she’d set for Clarke’s texts - and felt some slight comfort in that.
“Was there something wrong with my paper?” Lexa asked finally, unable to stand the silence. Her phone vibrated again with a text from Clarke, and her hand instinctively went to her jacket pocket.
“No, actually, your essay was very beautifully written. You have a real talent, Lexa, you know that?” Lexa blushed and was about to thank her teacher when she continued on. “However, I did notice some themes that, as a teacher, I wanted to talk to you about.” Lexa was confused. Themes? Had she had a comma splice error that ran throughout the essay or something? Niamh noticed her confusion and smiled kindly. “I just noticed that a lot of this essay seems to relate to a lot of struggles you face, and the poem and novel you chose to write about are not exactly cheery.” Lexa understood, finally.
“You mean my dad? He died four years ago, and I definitely went through a big period of depression without having him here anymore, but since he’s been gone I’ve healed a lot from the experience.” When her father first died, all of Lexa’s teachers had heard about it - all of Tondc had heard about it, really, since it was widely advertised in the newspaper’s front page with her father’s stoic face in his police uniform and with Lexa and her mother’s tear-soaked faces at his funeral printed side-by-side above the article. After a while of constantly being asked if she was alright, Lexa learned what to say to get people to stop worrying about her. “I miss him, of course, but I’ve had to get stronger without him, which isn’t a bad thing, I guess.” Lexa shrugged nonchalantly. Niamh’s eyes narrowed as she inspected Lexa’s face.
“Actually, Lexa, I was more referring to your relationship to your mother - your current living situation. I could tell from the essay that you had a very strong bond with your father, but it seems like you and your mother might be struggling a little more, and it seems like that may be causing you a lot of turmoil and pain.” Lexa’s heart rate quickened. “I’m not here to psychoanalyze you or force you to share everything with me, but I just wanted to let you know that if you ever need someone to talk to - maybe someone a little older than your friends, someone with a bit more wisdom under their belt, I am here for you.” Niamh seemed to take a bit of a breath, suddenly unsure of herself. “I speak from personal experience here,” she said. “I know that depression and anxiety are things that it seems like no one will understand, but trust me when I say that there’s always other people out there who can relate to you.” With that, Niamh gave Lexa a slight nod and a smile before handing her her paper. Lexa flipped to the last page, the marking scheme, to see her grade. She’d gotten 97%. She looked incredulously at Niamh, who just shrugged and said, “I told you it was beautifully written - you dug deep and you were genuine. Keep it up, and you could be a very strong candidate for some of the best literature programs in the country.” Lexa balked at that slightly - she’d always loved English, but at the same time she knew that she was destined to go into sciences. How else would she earn money than with a degree in medicine or dentistry? She followed Niamh to the door, shoving her essay in her backpack as she walked.
“Thanks, Niamh,” she mumbled quietly, still thinking.
“No problem, Lexa. Remember what I said,” Niamh said seriously, before opening the door and releasing Lexa into the hallway. Lexa sighed and pulled out her phone, hoping talking to Clarke would take her mind off of things.
(10:45) Random Weirdo Stalker: Hey girl, did you fall from Jupiter? Cause your ass is out of this world!
(10:46) Random Weirdo Stalker: I’m so sorry, that was from my friend Raven… using the term friend very loosely here. She’s an idiot. How’s your day going?
Lexa smiled and chewed on her thumbnail as she responded to Clarke’s text.
(10:53) Lexa Woods: No worries, Clarke. Sounds like something my friends would do, so I understand! I think I’m dying - I got another project assigned today, because I wasn’t busy enough. School is making me look forward to putting cookies on trays for 8 million years at the bakery!
(10:55) Random Weirdo Stalker: Wow, that hurts, Lex. I thought that you’d at least be looking forward to seeing me more than traying cookies?
Lexa smiled at the speed of Clarke’s response, but tried to tone it down as she neared the bench in the main hallway that she and her friends sat at.
“Heya Lexa, who ya talking to?” Echo asked overly dramatically, slinging her arm around Lexa’s shoulders as she peeked not-so-subtly at Lexa’s phone. “Ooooohhh Clarke!” She all but squealed, making Lexa’s blush deepen. Lexa punched her friend in the arm only somewhat hard and glared at her.
“Shut up, Echo. Go bother your boyfriend.” Echo stuck out her tongue at Lexa before sliding back on the bench next to Nyko who, despite what most people thought, was not Echo’s boyfriend.
“Who’s Clarke?” Nyko asked, and Lexa’s other friends looked her way. She squirmed under their stares, immediately uncomfortable with the attention.
“Sh… no one,” Lexa said, hearing her mistake immediately. Echo’s eyes widened and she tried to save Lexa.
“Do you have any hand sanitizer?” She asked no one in particular, eager to draw the attention away from her friend. “Also, Damien Whitetower totally fainted in psych today when we were looking at a fetus on the projector.” No one took Echo’s bait, though, and their gazes remained fixed on Lexa.
“She? Like… not a guy Clarke, but a girl Clarke?” Nyko probed further. “Why is Echo making fun of you for talking to a girl?” Lexa squirmed internally as Nyko tilted his head to the side. Ash, Nyko’s best friend seemed to be scrutinizing Lexa, digging deeper into her psyche with his eyes. Temi had a small smile on his face as he nudged Baz and raised his eyebrows.
“I didn’t say she - I said sh. Like shut up,” Lexa was grasping at straws and everyone could see it.
“Yo, Lex, is she hot? Cause like, no other reason needed if she is.” Lexa bit her lip. It wasn’t like her friends were looking at her judgmentally… And if they were anything like her friends at the bakery, they’d probably already know. She was torn between protecting her identity and outing herself, but thankfully before she could decide, the bell rang.
“We won’t forget, Lexa! We’ll be back to bother you at lunch!” Temi raised his hand to wave as he walked away with Baz and Ash towards their chemistry class.
“I have student council, so no you won’t!” Lexa called out down the hall, flipping them off with a grin when they turned around to look at her again. Sighing, she turned back to Echo, who was hanging back slightly behind Nyko, who had started to make his way towards their German class.
“I am so, so sorry,” Echo grabbed Lexa’s hand and squeezed it tightly, her face lined with anxiety. “I wasn’t thinking beyond Clarke being a unisex name, but I should have known that something would happen if I brought it up, Lexa, I’m so so sorry please know that I didn’t mean for them to realize anything before you’re ready for them to know, I know that was supremely uncool of me, and I’ll always regret that, it was dumb and I’m sorry -”
“Echo, chill, please.” Lexa squeezed Echo’s hand back reassuringly. “They’re going to find out one way or another, and they are my friends. Besides, we both know that Nyko and Baz are gay, despite what the rest of the school might think, so it’s not like I’m facing an unfriendly crowd here. Honestly, you probably did me a favour.” Echo bit her lip, obviously still feeling bad. “Nou get yu daun. Ai ste hodness yu,” Lexa whispered in Trigedasleng. Don’t worry. I still love you. Echo smiled at Lexa and bumped her shoulder against her friend’s.
“Wrong language, doofus. We’re supposed to be practicing German, remember?”
“Achso, wie könnte ich das vergessen?” Lexa responded, rolling her eyes slightly.
By the time school was over, Lexa was thoroughly exhausted. Thanks to her Student Council meeting, she’d managed to put off a confrontation with her friends for another day at least, but between the lack of sleep she’d gotten the night before and the rigorous training their track coach had put the team through during practice in their last period, Lexa felt like she might pass out at any second. Her coach had noticed her lagging, too, and gave her a strict talking-to about wearing herself thin.
“You won’t be fit to run in the districts if you are falling asleep as you do so, you know that right?” Her coach had asked sternly. “Maybe you should cut back on your shifts at work, hey?” Lexa sighed. She didn’t tell her coach that without those shifts at Grounders, she wouldn’t be able to pay the bills, let alone pay her way to states, should she make it that far. Instead Lexa had just nodded silently before sluggishly continuing with the practice. Now that she was at work, Lexa could hardly function - especially problematic, because Clarke was nowhere to be seen. Granted, Clarke lived all the way across the city from the cafe, but even so, Lexa figured the hour that Indra had granted her after school would have been more than enough time for her to make it to work, especially given that she had a car. But, four had come and gone, and now that it was nearing five, Lexa was really starting to get concerned.
“Where’s your girlfriend at, Lexa?” Anya was annoyed, and when Anya was annoyed, everyone was annoyed. “Leaving us in the lurch like this isn’t exactly a great way to make a good impression on your best friends.” Lexa bit her lip and looked at the screen of her phone. There was no message from Clarke, whom she had tried to call twice already.
“I’m sure she’ll be here… she’s probably just having car troubles or something.” Lexa insisted. As if she had heard them talking, Clarke burst through the front doors of the store, apologies streaming out of her mouth before the door even closed behind her. A wave of relief washed over Lexa, who hadn’t even realized just how worried she had been.
“About time, Ms. Princess,” Anya snarked, irritated. Lexa noticed Clarke flinch slightly at Anya’s words and felt a pang of guilt for Anya’s hardass nature. She shot Anya a glare, but the older girl wasn’t paying her attention.
“I’m so, so sorry,” Clarke said, a red flush now creeping up to her cheeks. “I - my car broke down this morning, so I had to take it in and I had to take the bus to get here… I got lost.” She was still in her uniform, the blue plaid skirt and white blouse hanging somewhat loosely off her frame. She’d taken off her tie and blazer as she’d walked in the door, and was now shoving both into her backpack while taking out a pair of faded jeans and a purple t-shirt. “I just need to get changed, I’ll be ready in, like, ten seconds.”
“Whatever, princess,” Anya said, and Clarke frowned at the nickname. She bit her lip as she walked to the bathroom, her shoulders slightly slumped. Lexa wondered what the deal was with that nickname - maybe it wasn’t particularly flattering, but Clarke seemed to be taking it far more seriously than she needed to. Lexa decided to chalk it up to awkwardness over the obvious class difference between Clarke and everyone else at Grounders.
“Hey,” Lexa said with a small smile when Clarke returned from the washroom. “How was your day? Aside from the car troubles?” Clarke grinned back, glancing over her shoulder briefly to where Anya was cleaning up the back area.
“It was alright!” She said chipperly. “We’ve got soccer tryouts coming up, and I’m going for the senior varsity team this year instead of the JV team, which is what I did for grades eight and nine. Not too many people have gotten the chance to join varsity in grade ten, but I think my friends Octavia and Raven and I will be able to do it!” Lexa grinned. That was the Clarke she’d gotten accustomed to - almost overwhelmingly positive and cheerful.
“I’m sure you will,” Lexa agreed. She’d never seen Clarke do any sort of sports activity, but she couldn’t help but have noticed that Clarke was in very good shape - not that she’d spent too long looking at her, of course.
Most of their shift together passed smoothly, with easy back and forth banter. It wasn’t until they were closing up the shop that Lexa realized neither of them had mentioned their date the next night - immediately she bit her lip, suddenly nervous that Clarke may have forgotten. Just as she was about to mention it, however, Clarke gave her a quick hug and a wave goodbye, calling out over her shoulder, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lexa!” Lexa stood still, struck my Clarke’s figure walking away. That answered that, then.
“Tomorrow?” Gustus was locking up the metal gate and he raised a skeptical eyebrow at Clarke. Anya was next to him, holding a plastic bag with leftover sandwiches to be passed out. “What’s tomorrow? Clarke isn’t working…” Lexa bit her lip and glances at Anya, who suddenly had become very interested in looking at the sandwiches in the bag.
“I guess we sort of… Have a thing tomorrow?” Lexa said, like she was asking a question. She’d forgotten that she hadn’t officially told Gustus yet, and felt bad about going against her earlier promise that he’d be the first to hear about anything new in her life.
“A thing…” Gustus was smiling, but waited patiently for Lexa to respond.
“A thing… I guess, like, a date, thing?” Lexa shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I’m sorry, Gus, I should have told you, I just… I didn’t think… I don’t know. I just forgot, I guess.”
“You forgot about your date?” Gustus was incredulous. “Christ, Lex, for how much you stare at Clarke with heart eyes, I wouldn’t have expected you to forget about a date with the girl!” Lexa blushed.
“No, I didn’t forget about the date… I guess I just forgot that you didn’t know? Because you seem to know everything about me before even I do?” Lexa bit her lip and looked up at him, unsure of what to expect. Gustus nodded quietly, and finished locking the gate. He shook it a few times, hard, to test the security before stepping back from it. He looked at Lexa very seriously, and suddenly Lexa felt tiny compared to the mountain of a man. She was about to speak again - to say what, she wasn’t sure, but just to break the awkward tension that was building. Before she could get the words out, though, she was being crushed by a giant bear-hug.
“I love you, Lex. You know that. I’m happy for you. And yes, I did know - you’re not exactly subtle, and I’ve known you since you were five and in love with Posh Spice and Hilary Duff.” Lexa blushed and punched Gustus in the stomach.
“I did not love them… they were just icons of every 90s kid’s life!” She declared indignantly before leaning further into the hug. “But thanks, Gus,” she added softly.
Stepping away and releasing Lexa, Guss added, “You do know that this means Clarke and I will have to have a little… chat… though, right?” Lexa opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by Anya.
“I need to chat with her, too, Lex. Non-negotiable.” Anya matched Lexa’s gaze with a hard stare of her own, until finally Lexa cracked.
“Alright, fine. But be nice, I don’t need you scaring her off!” Lexa warned. Anya and Gustus grinned at each other deviously, probably already planning fifty different ways to make Clarke uncomfortable and afraid of them.