Chapter Text
The chanting could probably be heard from miles away, the sound of “Trikru, Trikru, Trikru,” rumbled louder and louder every step the pair of friends took closer to the bar. The city was coming alive more than it had since Clarke could remember, and for the first time in a while, she was actually more than excited to be out, surrounded by flocks of overly excited people.
“Griff, this is going to be exceptional. According to their Instagram stories, they’re all here,” Raven nudged her friend towards the front of the crowded line.
“Rae,” the blonde started, “you really think we can just cut in front of the hundred or so people waiting?”
The brunette had a devilish grin on her face, “You betcha.”
Clarke rolled her eyes, “And how do you think we’re going to get away with doing that?”
“You know the guy that’s been trying to get with O?” Raven asked, knowing the third leg to their tripod was inside about to start her shift behind the bar, “he also happens to be the new bouncer, and O happened to mention to him that if he let us in when we got here, she would consider letting him take her out.”
She couldn’t help but laugh, “Leave it to Octavia.”
“Listen here, Griff,” Raven snorted, “we have a chance to meet the hottest girls in the country right now. And they just so happened to win the nationals for the third year in a row. This is history. We’re living in history.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s go meet O’s mystery man, then,” Clarke gestured towards the door.
They were understandably met with grimaces and scowls as they passed everyone in the line, almost every person decked out in either a Trikru jersey or red and black clothes, resembling the team’s colors.
“You must be Raven and Clarke,” a rather large man said as he stood up from his perch to greet the pair, “I’m Lincoln, I work with Octavia.”
“We most certainly are,” Raven beamed, “she mentioned that you might be so kind as to let us in a little bit ahead of this line.”
He looked between the two and raised his brow, “She mentioned correctly. I think she’s already behind the bar. It’s pretty slammed in there, most of the team is inside, too.”
Clarke wasn’t exactly sure how the Trikru team decided to celebrate at the group’s favorite haunt. Sure, it was decently close to the stadium, but so were a good amount of other bars. The friends had been coming to this place ever since they moved into the neighborhood, and for the life of them, they definitely would have remembered seeing anyone from the team having a casual drink there.
“Your girls are inside,” Lincoln smirked.
Clarke quipped a brow, “Girls? We’re just here with O.”
He laughed then eyed each of the jerseys they were wearing, “Woods and Forest are inside. Last I saw, they were standing on the bar pouring champagne down everyone’s throats. It might be a little rowdier than you gals are used to.”
Clarke nodded in amusement when she caught sight of Raven rubbing her hands together, “Oh this is definitely going to be a good afternoon.” She grabbed Clarke’s arm, ready to yank her through the door before turning back to the man, “Thanks for your hospitality, kind sir. But if you’ll excuse us, Team Trikru are waiting.”
The blonde shook her head at her friend, “You act like they know who we are, Rae. We probably won’t even be able to get near them. And if we do,” she emphasized the ‘if,’ “all that’s going to happen is us congratulating them and them thanking us.”
“Listen here,” Raven started, as she pushed their way through the crowded room towards the bar, “if we do, I will be getting Anya Forest to fall in love with me. You’ve got to wingman this for me, Clarke. It might be my only chance.”
Clarke rolled her eyes. Raven was, in fact, insane, “You realize that at this point, everyone on this team is basically a celebrity, right? This isn’t a random day out where I help you hit on a random girl. They literally just won the national championship for the third year in a row. We’re at a huge bar that is packed wall-to-wall, in which seventy-five percent of the people are wearing her jersey or her number. You know the odds aren’t in your favorite, right?”
“What you think about, you bring about, Griff,” Raven said, tugging the blonde towards the bar to make their way to Octavia.
They somehow managed to get to a spot right in the center of all the action. Clarke took a seat on a newly empty stool while Raven squeezed next to her, trying to get Octavia’s attention. The blonde took a look around the space, still baffled by how so many people were pressed inside. Gone was the sight of any soccer player atop the bar, pouring champagne down anyone’s throat. She thought she spotted Harper McIntyre in the back, but wasn’t totally sure. The place was filled with jerseys and because everyone was smushed so close together, it was hard to pick anyone out.
“Rae, I’m not even sure they’re here anymore. Maybe they slipped out the back,” Clarke nudged her friend.
The brunette shook her head, “Don’t kill my vibe. O just saw me and nodded in our direction, I think she’s just going to pour us the usual, unless you hurry up and tell her if you want something else.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Clarke nodded, “But seriously, there are a million people here and I bet they’re all on the same mission you’re on. This is a lost cause, Rae.”
Raven rolled her eyes, “Stop being such a downer, Griff. Come on, don’t you kind of want to meet Lexa Woods in the flesh?”
“I mean,” the blonde answered, “I wouldn’t be opposed. But even if that happened, it would be a congratulations and a thank you and that would be it. If they’re even still here, they’re all probably huddled around together celebrating in their own little circle.”
“I think it’s kind of hard to have any little circle going on with the bar this packed,” Raven pointed out. “Come on, Clarke. If they wanted to do their own thing and just be with themselves, they wouldn’t have come out to a bar open to the public.”
Clarke cocked her head, “Whatever you say, Rae.”
“Hey,” Octavia got their attention, swiftly making her way to her friends, “we’re slammed, I can’t talk right now, but here’s some beer. You guys are double fisting right now because I don’t know when I’ll be able to make it back this way, and you damn well know Murphy is going to charge you if you try and order from him.”
“Thanks, O,” Raven proudly grinned, holding up a beer in each hand.
“Yeah,” Clarke chimed in, “and thanks for getting Lincoln to let us in like that.”
Octavia smiled as she shrugged, “He needs to earn his keep. Also, word on the street is that most of the team are around the back room. Murphy was just called over to bring five more bottles of champagne that way.”
Raven’s eyes lit up, “That’s our cue! Thanks, O!”
---
“This is stupid,” Clarke huffed, spilling a little bit of her beers each time she bumped into someone.
Raven stopped in her tracks, “Holy shit. There they are.”
There they were, indeed. Anya Forest, Harper McIntyre, Maya Vie, Niylah Post, and–
“Obviously Anya is still my number one, but holy shit, Griff,” Raven dramatically grabbed for Clarke’s arm, “Lexa Woods is so much hotter in person, and I didn’t think it was anatomically possible for her to be any hotter than I already thought she was.”
Clarke raised a brow as she smirked at her friend, “Rae you need to chill out. You’re fangirling in a bad way.”
“I’ll give you $50 if you go hit on her right now,” Raven said, eyes still on Trikru’s star forward who also so happened to be one of the team’s captains.
“She has a girlfriend, Rae. As soon as the game was over, she ran over to the stands and grabbed a girl and kissed her,” Clarke furrowed her brow, “Why would I ever do that after seeing every huge news publication post an article about how Lexa Woods came out and confirmed she had a girlfriend all at once by doing that?”
Raven pursed her lips, “Because by the way she’s looking at you right now, I don’t think she’d turn you away.”
Clarke’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the thought. After Raven’s remark, she instinctively whipped her head in the direction of the team, only to find Lexa looking right back at her. Clarke looked away at the speed of light, but she unfortunately knew that still wasn’t quick enough for the forward to have noticed.
The blonde took a long sip of one of her drinks, “What the hell?”
“Griff,” Raven nudged her friend, “she’s whispering something to Maya Vie and is still looking this way.”
Clarke gritted her teeth, “Yeah, Rae. Probably because you’ve been staring this whole time. Can you please just act normal?”
“Uh,” Raven’s jaw seemed to be slowly dropping to the floor, “I probably would be able to if she wasn’t walking this way.”
“What?!” Clarke yelled in a whisper, “Are you kidding me?”
The blonde refused to turn around, her eyes growing wider and wider while staring at her friend who was seeming to get more and more excited.
“Hi,” Clarke heard a voice from right behind her, a voice all too familiar from all the post-game interviews her and Raven watched at their apartment and on the way to the bar.
Raven cleared her throat, “Uh, hi. Wow. Hi. Awesome match today,” she offered, “Congrats on the big win… for the third time.”
“Thanks,” the voice responded, “Uh, hi there.”
There was no escaping it, Clarke knew it was her cue to turn around to be face-to-face with the forward who’s number she was sporting. She took a deep breath, eyes still wide and staring at her best friend as if one last plea, before finally turning around.
“Hi, there,” was all she managed to get out.
Lexa grinned at the girl, “Nice jersey.”
Clarke looked down at what she was wearing, then to the girl standing right in front of her, “I could say the same for you. Congrats on the win, by the way. It was a great game.”
The grin never left Lexa’s face, “Thanks. And yeah, it seems that we’re matching. Maybe next time we should consult each other so this doesn’t happen again.”
It was somewhere between a chuckle and a huff, but Clarke wasn’t able to control her expressions at this point. How Lexa Woods could be talking to her was already beyond her, “Next time?”
Lexa shrugged as she wore a cocky grin, “If you want.”
Clarke raised a brow at the girl, not quite sure how to answer. Thankfully for her, Lexa filled the void, “Mind if I have that?” nodding towards the blonde’s full beer, “They’re filling us up on champagne but I’ve been craving one of those all day, and by the looks of the crowd, I’ll probably be waiting a long time at the bar.”
The blonde squinted slightly at her, “You’re Lexa Woods, the captain of–“
“One of the captains,” Lexa quickly corrected, before nodding for Clarke to continue.
She rolled her eyes, “Okay, one of the captains of Trikru. Lexa Woods who scored the goal that won your third championship game. If you wanted a drink from the bar, I’m sure every person in here would lay out the red carpet. But by all means, if you want my lukewarm IPA, you’re more than welcome to it.”
Lexa reached for the drink, her smile never leaving her face, and took a sip, “Mmm, the best part of my day.”
“The best?” Raven finally interjected, awed at the spectacle in front of her. Lexa Woods was actually flirting with her best friend right before her eyes, “You literally just won the championship.”
The girl shrugged, “You can’t get much better than a girl buying you a drink.”
Clarke pursed her lips, “I didn’t buy you that,” she pointed out, “You took it from me.”
Lexa chuckled, “Well, can I buy you another to make up for it?”
The blonde raised a brow, “What happened to the masses of people in here prohibiting you from getting to the bar?”
“Well,” Lexa started, “this exquisitely beautiful girl informed me that I might be able to make my way up there without any problems. There was something about a red carpet too, but I’m not so sure about that part.”
“Ah,” Clarke nodded, “Sounds familiar. But how would your girlfriend feel about you running around calling other girls pretty?”
Lexa took her chin between her finger and thumb, “I believe the term I used was ‘exquisitely beautiful,’ but semantics. And I don’t have a girlfriend. Not to my knowledge, at least.”
“Right,” Clarke nodded, then turned to her friend, “Raven, after Trikru winning the game, what was the next top trending thing on the Internet today?”
Raven set down her empty beer glass and raised both hands in surrender, “I’m not entirely sure what’s going on right now. This isn’t really how I planned my day going, so I’m just going to head to the bar and grab some more drinks. Beer for both of you?”
Clarke rolled her eyes while Lexa nodded.
“Lexa, the whole country watched you run up to the stands and kiss your girlfriend after you won,” Clarke quipped and looked towards Raven, “I’m with her with that this wasn’t how I expected my day to go, but as much of an ego boost this is, I’m not taking the bait.”
“She’s not my girlfriend–“ Lexa stopped, “I don’t even know your name.”
“And you’re not going to. You don’t need it because like I just said, I’m not taking the bait.”
“Don’t you think it’s wildly unfair that you know my name? Hell, you’re even wearing my name across your back right now. You seem to have an unfair advantage here,” Lexa smirked.
Clarke raised a brow, “Are you always this relentless?”
“Three time national champ, right here. What do you think?”
Before Clarke could answer, Raven reappeared trying to balance three pints in her hands. She handed one off to Lexa before turning to the blonde, “Clarke, O ran out of the IPA you liked but said that you’d probably like this one.”
Lexa smiled, “Clarke.”
The blonde shot her friend a glare before turning to the soccer player, “We’re not continuing with this, Lexa. Congratulations on the win and enjoy the beer. It was lovely meeting you.”
Lexa nodded with a grin, “Okay. But just to be clear, here. I don’t have a girlfriend, I don’t even know who that girl was. I had so much adrenaline after we won, I was running around like a maniac and saw a bunch of people leaning over the sides waving all of us down, so I just ran to the first person I saw wearing my jersey and planted one on her.”
“That’s definitely going to be tomorrow’s top trending story,” Raven pointed out, earning another look from her friend.
“I’m not sure if that makes this situation better or worse,” Clarke mumbled.
Lexa scrunched her nose, “How about you give me your number so we can hang out outside of an overly crowded bar flooded with people wearing soccer jerseys?”
The blonde raised a brow, “Why? So the temptation of kissing a stranger that’s wearing your jersey won’t be lingering on your mind?”
Lexa bit down on her tongue before moving closer towards Clarke’s face. Before the blonde could react, she felt the presence of Lexa hovering over her ear, “Not for nothing, but that’s been on my mind ever since I saw you.”
When she pulled away, taking a stance in front of the blonde, almost challenging her to continue her protests, the blonde cocked her head, trying her very hardest not to let lips lift into a smile, “You’re annoyingly stubborn.”
Lexa nodded, “But equally charming.”
“I can’t deny that,” Clarke sighed.
“So,” Lexa grinned, “don’t deny me your number, then.”
“For God’s sake, Clarke,” Raven squealed, “It’s Lexa Woods. Lexa fucking Woods. Give her your number, otherwise I will.”
Lexa threw her arm around Raven’s shoulder, “I knew I liked you. What can I trade you for Clarke’s number?”
Raven grinned like a kid in a candy shop, “Well, is Anya–“
“Rae, really?!” Clarke exclaimed at her friend, before turning to Lexa with her phone, “Give me yours and I’ll let you know if I’m up for it.”
Lexa nodded as she took the blonde’s phone and added her number, “I knew you’d give in.”
“This is not how I imagined my day would go,” Clarke sighed, taking the phone back from the soccer player.
“Me neither,” Lexa smiled as she turned to walk back to her teammates, “but I’m glad it ended up this way.”
“It was great meeting you, Lexa,” Raven called out, earning a slap from her friend.
The brunette turned back around, “You too, Raven.” She was going to turn to walk away again, but decided against it, “And, Clarke?”
The blonde raised a brow, waiting for her to say her goodbyes.
“Something tells me you’re going to be up for it. So how about we meet here tomorrow at 7. Use my number to tell me what you’re wearing so we don’t wind up with matching outfits again,” Lexa winked before walking back to the rest of her teammates.
Raven watched Lexa walk away, then turned to Clarke, “Did that just–”
“Yes.”
“So you’re going to–”
“Yes.”
“Is this real li–”
“Yes.”
“Do you think she would set me up with Any–”
“Rae!”