Chapter Text
"Is this seat taken?"
Lexa is pulled out of her reverie and looks up to see a smirking blonde holding a tray that holds a single cup of blue Jello.
Blue. Who in their right mind picks blue?
"All yours, Griffin," Lexa gestures to the seat across the table with her oatmeal spoon. Now that's a breakfast for champions. Unlike stupid blue Jello, everyone knows it's the worst one. Lexa glances at the woman who is stifling a laugh and looks around to see if she's missing the joke.
The commissary is empty. Of course.
"What's on your mind, Colonel?" Griffin says and attacks the blue gunk with vigor. Ew.
"You know how it is, lots to think about. In space," Lexa sighs and concentrates her efforts in her delicious mush.
"I can tell." The tone of the woman is menacing and Lexa attempts to glare at her but the captain is humming with the tiny spoon in her mouth. It irks Lexa.
"How do you do it?" She finds herself asking. There's no way to tell night or day on the USS Kongeda except for a sad ticking clock perched crooked on top of the commissary doorway. But Lexa knows it's morning because she got up half an hour ago and now she's having oatmeal while contemplating nothing. Because that's what you do after a 5 day stint on a jungle planet running from killer bugs. Reyes is still in the infirmary with a busted knee. Lincoln is definitely still sleeping off his close-call to getting trench foot.
But not Griffin. Oh no, she's perky. Even after camping out in freezing canyon water for the whole solar day. Even after hiking 40 miles up the highlands to complete their mission. Even after their small gunfight with the locals. Oh no, it seems like nothing could bring down Captain Clarke Griffin.
"Do what?" She asks innocently.
"We just spent a week on a hellscape of a planet and you're so... happy."
"Happy?" Griffin quirks an eyebrow in that way that Lexa feels like she's questioning her sanity. Although this early in the morning, Lexa questions herself.
"How are you so perky all the time?" Lexa knows it's a highly inappropriate way for a commanding officer to speak to their second-in-command but dammit, her brain isn't on full capacity.
"You think I'm perky?"
There's that smirk again. Speaking of highly inappropriate, that smirk is definitely in that category. Lexa is just about to do something as undignified as groan until her head hits the metal table but she's saved by the bell. Or by the droning sound of the ship PA anyway.
"SK-1, report to General Forrest."
"That's our cue." Lexa sits up and snatches her barely eaten oatmeal a little too quickly. She places her bowl neatly on top of the dirty dishes cart and turns to see Griffin tipping her glass of blue Jello straight into her mouth. Lexa watches the horrific display as Griffin swallows the whole thing neatly. The woman tips her head back down and Lexa realizes she hasn't looked away. How can she? It's like watching a wrecked car by a freeway.
Griffin has the decency to look shy at least and clears her throat while she bumps her empty glass beside her bowl.
"Duty calls," Griffin says swiftly and walks towards the exit. Lexa's gaze follows until she turns a corner.
"I don't think I'm perky, Colonel," Griffin says out of the blue while they watch a meteor shower pass through P4X-371. Reyes just left to watch the scene from the upper deck instead of the tiny circular window of the arrival bay. Lexa's boots are still filled with sand and she just knows her nose is peeling from the miserable sun of said planet. But there's Griffin, with that little smile again, looking like she didn't just come back from the desert.
"Griffin, I've seen you laugh after a planetquake." Lexa deadpans.
"The planet was evacuated. I was relieved." She shrugs without looking away from the spectacle. They're shoulder to shoulder and Lexa hasn't stepped away and neither has Griffin. "I don't think I'm perky, I think you're just grumpy."
Lexa frowns. "I believe that's grounds for insubordination, Captain."
"We're watching a meteor shower that only happens every 125 solar cycles and you're thinking of court martial. Like I said, grumpy." Griffin bumps into her lightly and Lexa tries not to feel the flutter in her stomach. She will not be bested by a 28 year old archeologist/air force captain. Lieutenant Colonel Lexa Woods is former Special-Ops for crying out loud.
And yet, Lexa doesn't say a word.