Chapter Text
A long sigh came from the brunette still tangled in the soft covers of her bed, hair a wild pile on the cushion as lean fingers gently navigated behind her back to find the offending device which was currently at fault for filling the quiet morning with its annoying alarm.
After a moment she found the alarm clock and hit snooze. Finally the annoying sound was gone and she was once again left in peace and ready to go back into the dream world. Her breathing slowed down again and she was about to welcome back the sweet darkness taking her under when suddenly across the room another piercing alarm chimed up. Not a second later another repeating sound came from the other side of the huge bed before a third sound came from behind her that sounded suspiciously like her phone.
“What the…?” The brunette groaned and sat up in bed, eyes blinking rapidly trying to help along the process of waking up as green eyes flickered confused around the room.
Barely two seconds later the door to her room opened and her best friend entered the room, already completely dressed and styled for the new day. Without sparing a glance at the woman still in bed the blonde walked straight over to the window and opened the curtains, letting in the sun which immediately covered the brunette with its bright rays.
“Good morning, Sleepy Head. It’s time to wake up. You have a long day ahead of you.”
Oh right, it was this time of the year.
Comic Con.
“I take it that you are at fault for this splendid concert of alarm clocks in my room?”
“I know you, Lexa. It takes quite a lot to get you out of the hotel in time for your schedule.” The blonde replied and smirked at the pouting brunette.
Lexa threw her head back and pushed against the cushion hoping to melt back into the bed and go back to sleep, hopefully forgetting all about Anya and her army of alarm clocks. “You’re the devil incarnate.”
“Whatever shall I do with you?” Anya shook her head disbelieving, her eyes roaming over the big child on the bed. Lexa had never been a morning person. That she was always on time for her appointments was honestly a wonder. And perhaps also the result of Anya’s patience and vivid imagination about how to wake Lexa up. After years of being Lexa’s manager she learnt to know all the way of how to wake up her friend. “Come on, you have to be there an hour before the doors will open.”
“Whoever thought it was a great idea to start such event at such an early hour?”
Anya chuckled and moved away from the window towards the bed, reaching for the covers to pull them away from the brunette which drew an unamused moan out of her. “You ask that every year.”
“And I still haven’t gotten an answer to that yet.”
Resigning to her fate like she did every day Lexa slowly crawled out of the bed and dragged her feet over to the bathroom. She had already prepared her outfit for the day yesterday and strategically placed it into the bathroom so that she could put them on right after her shower. Lexa had long since learnt to keep her showers cold to erase the last bits of sleep still clinging to her.
The knock on the bathroom door sounded when she was in the middle of applying her light make-up for the day. Since she knew that there was only one person who it could be knocking on the door Lexa didn’t bother to reply and continued to concentrate on her make-up.
“You’ve ten minutes to finish up, leave the hotel room, and make your way down to the car!” Anya yelled through the closed door.
“Yes, Mother.” Lexa exclaimed sarcastically under her breath.
“I heard that.”
Lexa snorted. “Good!”
As quick as possible Lexa finished with her make-up, picked up her phone and purse and left the hotel room. While impatiently waiting for the elevator to arrive Lexa repeatedly tapped her foot on the ground as she chanced a glance at the time. It will be a tight one again.
Anya leant with crossed arms against the car as Lexa rushed past her and took her place at on the passenger seat. Her best friends’ eyes flickered down to her watch and rolled her eyes as she moved over to the driver side. “Just in time. What a surprise.”
“Can we just hit the road already?” Lexa asked as she slumped down in her seat and closed her eyes leaning her head against the cool window glass of the car door.
“You can’t seriously still be tired.”
Lexa just replied with an undefined sound but otherwise stayed in her position and didn’t make the slightest inclination that she will change it any time soon. Anya sighed and made a mental note to stop on their way for a quick coffee run.
It really will be a long day.
Clarke smiled happily as she arrived at the Comic Con, her two friends Raven and Octavia at her side.
This was their second year that they were attending Comic Con due to their very successful comic series, Grounders. It all had started with a little doodle created by Clarke’s boredom while waiting for her friends to arrive at the bar they had agreed to meet up at. Her friends had been really ecstatic about the detailed doodles and the three of them had spun many different stories about the doodles.
Since her friends had been so excited about her doodles the blonde had kept drawing more of them and suddenly completely new characters, places, animals and plants had been created. Following that, the three had started to imagine conversations between the different characters and situations to throw at them.
That was the beginning of their very first comic edition.
Clarke had still the original doodles and the very first versions of their silly time killing activity.
One day Octavia had told them that she knew someone who worked for publishing company and had shown him the few comic scenes they had created. To all of their surprise the publishing company had been interested in their comic as soon as they had seen the drawings and heard of the story of the comic.
Since this moment, the three friends started to work on the comic more intensively. All three of them developing different storylines, Raven and Octavia spent more time on the writing part while Clarke took over the drawing part.
The first three editions had been a complete hit and their publisher wanted more and more of it. It had become almost too much for the three girls and in the end they had to take in two more people to meet all the deadlines the publisher had set up for them.
The additional help came in form of Monty and Harper, both very good in drawing and coming up with interesting twists. Monty was solely there to help Clarke with the drawings while Harper was more of a joker, always helping to smoothen out a process. If Clarke and Monty were after their schedules she was helping them finishing the drawings and if the others needed help with the story she was there to relieve them of some of their workload.
After that Bellamy, Octavia’s older brother, and Jasper entered the picture. Both of them took care of the drafts being made on the computer, converting the comic so that there wasn’t any extra work for the publisher and the comic could be easily printed.
Until now, the group of seven had successfully managed to keep up the phenomenal work for two years, though the comic was still gaining fans steadily and they all knew that they soon would need to bring in new people.
Their fans had been ecstatic when they had heard that they would have a booth at the Con last year and all seven of them had been touched by the loyalty of their fans. It had been the first face to face interaction with their readers and it had been amazing. Their appearance and booth had been a hit and their attendance this year a clear given.
But only Clarke, Raven and Octavia were mainly scheduled to be part of the Comic Con, while the others kept working on their latest edition. There was a panel scheduled with all seven of them, but that was the only time all of them would be at the Con at the same time.
“Ready for some crazy days, girls?” Raven asked and slung her arms around her two friends pushing them towards the huge building they would spent most of the next days in.
“Hell, yeah!”
Clarke nodded excitingly. “I can’t wait to interact with our readers again.”
That was the best part of it all. Clarke loved to hear their fans talking about their comic, voicing their opinions on the story, hearing about the things they loved and the things they didn’t like. The blonde loved that her and her friends’ passion created a whole new passion for the reader.
“Oh yeah, do you remember the shirt this girl had worn last year?” They had all been positively surprised when one of their fans had stood in front of them with a white shirt on and the name Grounders painted on the front. That was the first time it had really hit them that they had created something others related to and for some it had become a big part of their lives. Suddenly, people were carrying the name of their comic out into the world like it was a famous TV-show or a big movie. They now had a following. “I’m curious to see if there will be more of those things this year.”
“Don’t know, Rae. But I have the feeling it won’t be less.” Octavia exclaimed, following the two girls inside the air-conditioned building.
Inside they met their publisher, Marcus Kane, who swiftly directed them to the location of their booth and talked about their schedules again. They may have a panel, but they will mainly remain at their booth. They weren’t as famous as some of the TV celebrities, meaning they didn’t have autograph and photoshoot sessions and dozens of panels. Not that they wanted all of that. They were happy to just remain at their booth and talk to their fans.
This year their booth was located at the end of the comic zone, bordering at the area destined for the TV-shows. The booth itself was kept down to earth. They didn’t want to have some flashy, over the top kind of booth. The word Grounders was largely printed at the background with a picture of their main character. There were a lot of cartons already stacked at the back filled with their latest edition of Grounders ready to give them out to the world with their signatures.
That had been a surprise for Clarke last year. People suddenly had wanted her signature. Seeing that they all worked behind the scenes there were hardly a lot of pictures of them out there. Last year was the first time the fans really had the chance to see the faces of the people behind the creation of their favorite comic. But they certainly had known their names.
Bit by bit the other special guests arrived at their booths and the three girls put their things away and readied their booth for their soon incoming fans.
“Oh my God!” Raven suddenly squealed right beside Clarke. “Do you guys see what I’m seeing?”
“I don’t know, Rae. What are you seeing?”
The brunette beauty threw her arms around the necks of her two best friends, pulling them into her sides as she turned them into the direction of the booths for the TV-shows and movies. “We are right opposite of the booth for The First 100!”
“That sounds vaguely familiar.” Clarke replied while frowning at the booth almost opposite of them. The name rang a bell, but she couldn’t place it.
“I am ashamed of myself for letting you live under a rock for such a long time!” Raven exclaimed theatrically while putting her hand over her heart as if it literally pains her that both of her friends didn’t know about one of the best TV shows in history – in Raven’s opinion.
Octavia huffed at that. “We can’t watch everything, Raven.”
“You don’t have to watch everything, O. But The First 100 is a real diamond! To know that you don’t even know of it but are watching Mount Weather Survival Camp is really pitiful.”
“Hey! I’m only watching MWSC after long days of work. It’s the perfect show if you don’t want to think about anything at all. My brain cells need some rest.”
“Your brain cells are degenerating by watching this show. Rapidly!”
Scoffing Octavia took a deep breath probably to shoot a hotly reply of her own and Clarke knew that if she didn’t interfere these two hot heads will be found fighting and rolling on the ground by the time the fans would be coming in. “Guys, please!”
There was sudden silence as both turned with wide eyes towards their blonde friend, after a beat looking as if they’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. “We’re not here to fight but to engage with our fans and have a great Comic Con experience. Am I right?”
Raven’s yeah came at the same time as Octavia’s true.
With that in mind the three girls continued to get the booth ready for the first guests.
“Wow, Woods! You look really ecstatic to be here.”
Lincoln laughed as he glanced at his brunette co-star. “You know how she is, Luna. It’s way too early for her.”
“How she managed a whole season of filming during the night is beyond me.” Luna snickered.
“Laugh all you want. Not all of us can be morning people like you.” Lexa replied with a casual shrug. She was used to the teasing of her cast mates and friends. She had never been a morning person and she probably never will be one. That ship sailed a long time ago.
The three of them followed slowly one of the many assistants of the event organizer towards their booths for this year’s Comic Con, the rest of their co-stars lagging behind as they emptied the rest of their coffees back at the zoned special guest area.
“Oh, look at that. We’re at the end of the TV-show area.”
“Yeah.” The assistant, Steve, answered. “We’re expecting that your booth will have one of the biggest run of fans. We tried to separate the hotspots a little. That way we have better control and overview of the queue.”
Lincoln, Luna and Lexa took their designed places at the booth and readied themselves. Lexa organized her pens and pictures to sign in front of herself. More awake then before yet still a little tired she watched as the rest of them arrived. With Gustus, Indra, Costia and Aden they were now complete.
Her green eyes took a quick sweep over her surroundings and stopped at a booth diagonally to theirs. It wasn’t a big booth and clearly belonged to the comic area. Cartons full with what she guessed to be comics where stacked at the bag, the name Grounders was written in big letters at the top of the booth. Three girls were already sitting behind the table separating themselves from the future guests.
One of the girls had dark hair and was currently typing away on her smartphone and Lexa smirked briefly as she noticed the quick glances towards none other than Lincoln. He often had this effect on women. Lexa was completely and hopelessly gay, but even she saw the appeal in him.
The girl in the middle had brunette hair and animatedly talked to the dark haired one, obviously not minding her divided attention to what the brunette was saying. Lexa wasn’t even sure if the girl on the phone even heard any word of the brunette.
On the right side of the booth sat a blonde girl currently scribbling on a piece of paper. Lexa couldn’t see her face as her blonde curls were currently covering the most of it. Whatever she was doing she seemed to put her whole concentration into it.
Just as Lexa was about to look away the blonde looked up and directly into her eyes and the brunette was immediately enchanted by the blueness of the blonde’s eyes. There was a lovely smile forming on the blonde’s lips as she lifted the sheet of paper she had worked on not even a minute ago.
On the paper was a hastily drawn cartoon in black and white, showing a person with their eyes closed crawling on the floor trying to reach desperately a hot cup of coffee.
Breathing out an amused laugh Lexa dipped her head letting her hair cover her face so the blonde wouldn’t see her blush. Was her tiredness this obvious? She was even surprised how detailed the quick sketch of the blonde’s was. With a twinkle in her eyes and the tiredness suddenly forgotten the brunette actress looked back up and was met with the toothy grin of the blonde.
“Hey, it’s starting.” Aden stated excitedly next to her, pulling her attention away from the blonde artist and towards the first Comic Con guests filling up the alleys between all the different booths.
Lexa risked one last glance at the blonde before her view was blocked from the first fans smiling excitingly at their idols and Lexa slipped into her professional persona, greeting the fans, answering quick questions and signing autographs.
Sadly, with the many fans filling up the waiting area for their booth and even the decent growing queue of the artist’s one, Lexa wasn’t able to get another glimpse of the blonde.
Clarke had never had this much fun at the Comic Con before.
Not that her past experiences both as a fan and last year as an invited guest had been boring, but this year seemed to be better than the last times she had spent in these halls. There were more fans of their comic than last year and the three girls didn’t get any chance of a break. The comics in the cartons behind them were rapidly getting less and less.
In the small breaks Clarke did however manage to get whenever a fan asked a rather complicated question and Raven or Octavia took their time answering them, the blonde drew. Just quick and funny sketches about current happenings. Throughout the day whenever she got the chance to make brief eye-contact with the brunette actress from the booth across from them she showed one of the sketches, receiving a laugh and an amused shake of her head.
She really liked the smile of the actress.
A while ago she had noticed the group of actors getting up and leaving their booth, probably to get to a panel. Out of the corner of her eyes she had noticed the brunette looking her way as they left, but Clarke was talking to a fan and couldn’t meet her glance.
Now, the day was coming to an end and their booth had closed for the day. There were only a few fans and guests left as they still mingled through the many booths. Clarke had yet to see the brunette actress and the other actors returning to their booth. There were still some fans waiting for an autograph, but the actors were probably still at some interview or photo shoot.
Raven, Octavia and Clarke were only there for a short time the next day as it was the turn of the others in their group to interact with their fans, answer questions and signing autographs.
Octavia was pulling Raven along as they made slowly their way out from the hall, Clarke lagging behind. The blonde grabbed the piece of paper she had worked on here and there during the day and gingerly made her way to the booth of the actors of The First 100. The other fans were curiously staring at her, waiting to see if she was just trying to skip the queue. She barely managed to reach the seat of the brunette and dropped the piece of paper on her place. The blonde quickly made her way back out of the fan zone thanking the people who had let her pass.
As Clarke reached Raven and Octavia who had waited for her at the doors leading out of the hall she was met with questioning stares. Clarke just shrugged and lifted her smartphone up for them to see. “Just forgot my phone.”
Together they left the hall and were met by the burning evening sun, talking about all the things they had experienced today.
Lexa was happy to move back to their booth for their last autograph signing for the day. She couldn’t wait to go home and do nothing. As much fun as she had during the day, she was ready to call it a day.
As soon as she got closer to their booth her eyes instantly flickered towards the booth of the artist, only to find it already deserted. Lexa had hoped that she may see her again upon her return, but she also knew that it was already late and only a few booths were still occupied.
Pulling out her chair at the booth the brunette saw something lying face down on her place. Curiously she turned it around and was flabbergasted. The others looked wondering at her having heard her sharp intake of air.
There, on the thin piece of paper was a drawing of a woman. Other than the quick pencil sketches of the blonde during the day this one was with actual color. The woman had long brunette hair pulled back in intricate braids. She wore a long black coat and some sort of pauldron on her shoulder. The woman wore black boots and black trousers. There was a red sash strapped to the pauldron making its way down the body of the woman. The red almost looked powerfully next to the blackness of the clothes of the woman. The woman’s stance was widened as she looked like to be ready to take on the whole world, two long and thin blades in each hand.
But the most breathtaking thing about the drawing was the intense look of the woman. There was no mistaking that Lexa had been the model of the drawing as she looked down into her own face. Green eyes bored into the ones of the viewer, highlighted by what seemed to be some kind of black war paint. Three lines ran down each cheek and there was a little cog wheel on her forehead between intense green eyes.
Lexa had never thought that she could look this powerful.
Freshly showered and eyes already halfway closed Clarke cuddled into her bed and scrolled through the many tweets of the Comic Con, smiling at some pictures the fans posted. After another few tweets she was ready to put her phone away and enter the dream world as a tweet caught her eyes.
Lexa Woods
@RealLexaWoods
I’d like to give my thanks to this amazing artist making me look like some powerful warrior.
Among all the great things I was allowed to experience today, this is my personal highlight of the day! #ComicCon #WarriorLexa #ReadyToTakeOnTheWorld
There was a picture of the drawing she had made of the brunette today. Smiling happily as her heart skipped a beat, she liked the tweet and debated if she should answer before she hesitantly put her phone away.
It didn’t take long for the blonde to fall asleep with a smile on her face, dreaming of a powerful yet kind brunette warrior.