Chapter Text
Clarke doesn’t hate her roommate.
Raven is one of the best friends Clarke could ask for. She’s funny, she’s smart, and she’s opinionated. The problem? Raven is also in a committed relationship and well, that relationship leads to Clarke being banished from their dorm room whenever Raven’s boyfriend comes over.
Tonight happens to be one of those nights.
Clarke sighs. Normally, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. She usually goes into one of the dorm lounges and studies there for a while until Raven texts her. However, Clarke has a very important exam the next morning, which she absolutely cannot afford to fail. She needs her beauty sleep.
Clarke gathers up her stuff and knocks on each door on her dorm floor. She knocks on five doors without success and knocks on the sixth. Surprisingly, the door opens. An irritable looking woman her age appears in front of Clarke. The woman rubs her eyes and squints at the light. Her room is pitch black.
“What?” She asks.
Clarke is immediately horrified. She forgets that it’s 2AM and people might be sleeping at this hour (or, in Raven’s case, having sex).
“I am so sorry. Did I wake you up? I can totally go somewhere else.”
Clarke blushes and turns to walk away.
“Wait,” the woman says behind her. “What did you want?”
Clarke turns and faces her. She scratches her neck.
“Erm. My roommate sorta sexiled me and I’m looking for a place to crash tonight.”
The woman blinks a few times and sighs.
“…You can stay here tonight,” she mumbles. “Just try and be quiet.”
Clarke nods.
“Of course. Thank you so much. I have a really important test tomorrow so it’s kinda essential that I get some sleep tonight. I’m Clarke by the way.”
“Lexa,” she grunts.
Lexa opens the door wider and gestures for Clarke to come in. Clarke walks into the room and sees that Lexa’s side of the room is completely organized while her roommate’s side is the exact opposite.
“Where’s your roommate?” Clarke asks.
Lexa yawns. “With her boyfriend probably. I don’t care.”
Lexa rummages through her drawers and throws Clarke a pillow and a blanket.
“You can sleep on the floor. I trust you won’t steal anything?”
Clarke shakes her head. “Of course not. Thank you for letting me crash.”
Lexa grunts in acknowledgment and burrows into her bed. She turns off the light.
“Night,” Lexa says.
“Good night.”
--
Clarke is awoken by her phone in the morning. She gets up and yawns. She has an hour before her class starts. She notices that Lexa is gone. Apparently, Lexa is a ninja because she managed to leave without waking up Clarke.
Clarke sees that she has five text messages all from Raven. Apparently when Clarke never returned back to their room, Raven got concerned. She doesn’t reply because honestly, Raven could’ve been a little more considerate to Clarke’s needs.
Clarke wants to shower before her class so she goes into her backpack and takes out a notebook. She rips out an unused piece of paper and takes out a pen. She writes a thank you letter because she figures it’s the polite thing to do. The letter reads:
‘Lexa-
Thanks for letting me crash here tonight. I owe you one.
–C’
She places it on Lexa’s bed (which is immaculately made- seriously did the girl go military school? She’s freakishly neat). Clarke folds the blanket and puts it and the pillow neatly on top of Lexa’s bed, next to the letter.
Lexa’s roommate never came back so Clarke makes sure that the door locks behind her when she leaves.
--
Two weeks pass without any incidents.
Clarke hasn’t seen Lexa since that night. It’s kinda weird since the floor has communal bathrooms and showers. Clarke would think that she would have to run into Lexa sometime but she never sees the woman. Clarke half-thinks that Lexa was just a figment of her imagination.
Two whole weeks pass without Clarke being sexiled until tonight.
“Seriously?” Clarke groans at Raven.
“Clarke, I’m sorry. I really am. But I rarely get to see Finn,” Raven says. “I swear that this won’t happen again.”
Clarke sighs. She knows that Raven misses Finn a lot. They go to different schools so it’s not often that they see each other. Still, Clarke grumbles to herself, maybe Raven could go to Finn’s dorm room for once.
Clarke gathers up her stuff and goes into her floor’s common room. It’s the middle of the night so it’s completely deserted. Actually, on second glance, it isn’t. She sees a woman on one of the couches, reading a textbook.
“Lexa?” Clarke asks in disbelief. So she does exist.
“Clarke?” Lexa looks startled at her sudden appearance.
Clarke sits next to her.
“What are you doing here?”
Lexa grimaces. “My roommate came back. With her boyfriend.”
Clarke laughs. “Same here. I love Raven and all but being her roommate is sometimes really annoying.”
Lexa raises an eyebrow. “You are sexiled again?”
Clarke lets out a light laugh. “You think that the time I crashed into your room was the only time I was sexiled?” She shakes her head. “I’ve been sexiled about half a dozen times and the semester is still young.”
“Oh.”
“What about you? This your first time?”
Lexa nods reluctantly and grimaces. “Usually my roommate does it at her boyfriend’s place but…I guess not tonight.”
Clarke laughs. “Welcome to the sexiled club! I’ll be president and you can be VP.”
Lexa rolls her eyes. “I am never second in charge.”
Clarke rolls her eyes. “Alright fine. We can both lead. We’ll be co-presidents.”
Clarke thinks she sees Lexa give a faint smile and she feels internally pleased with herself.
The two women settle into a comfortable silence. Clarke yawns and reads her textbook. She knows she should really be studying since her professor would doubtless assign them another pop quiz but her eyelids feel heavy and the couch cushions are so comfortable.
Clarke is awoken by her phone vibrating. She blinks blearily a few times, disoriented, before she realizes where she is. She’s in the common room and oh shit- she’s currently propped against Lexa, their heads together. Clarke sneaks a glance and notices that Lexa is asleep. The two of them must’ve fallen asleep and leaned against each other in their slumber.
She takes out her phone and sees that she’s gotten a text message from Raven. It’s okay to go back to their room now.
Lexa stirs next to Clarke. She blinks sleepily and her eyes widen at the position she and Clarke are in. She pulls back immediately and strangely, Clarke misses the physical connection between them.
“Sorry,” Clarke says. “Raven texted me. It’s okay for me to go back to my room.”
Lexa nods and avoids Clarke’s eyes. She pulls out her phone and checks for her messages.
“Same with Anya.”
“Cool,” Clarke says, feeling self-conscious.
The two pack their stuff up in an awkward silence.
“Well, good night,” Clarke says when they leave the common room.
“Night.”
Clarke watches Lexa walk down the hallway into her dorm room.
--
Clarke thinks Lexa has been avoiding her.
She’s seen her a few times around campus and each time, Lexa avoids making eye contact with her. She’s perplexed. The two of them aren’t exactly friends but they’ve established some sort of bond.
Clarke doesn’t dwell on the matter for long since midterms are coming up and she needs to maintain her grades.
--
It’s a Saturday night and Clarke is in her dorm room, alone. Normally, Clarke would be out to a party or something but she has a killer test on Monday that she really needs to study for. Besides, sometimes she just needs a break from other people.
She notices an unused bag of popcorn on her desk and decides that now is a perfect time for popcorn. She grabs the bag and her keys and walks to the common room, where the microwave is. When she walks in, she’s surprised to see Lexa there on the couch again.
“Hey Lexa.”
Lexa looks up from her textbook. Her face is carefully blank but Clarke thinks she sees a hint of surprise in her features.
“Clarke.”
Clarke puts her bag of popcorn in the microwave and puts in the time. She turns around and faces Lexa who has returned to her textbook.
“What are you doing here?” Clarke asks.
Lexa sighs. “Anya has some of her friends over and they were being particularly loud.
“So you’re just going to be here for the rest of the night?”
Lexa shrugs.
Clarke walks over to Lexa and extends her hand.
“C’mon,” she says. Lexa knits her eyebrows together.
“What are you doing?”
Clarke rolls her eyes. “Come hang out with me in my room. Raven’s spending the weekend at her boyfriend’s school so I have the room to myself the whole weekend.” She waggles her eyebrows. “And I have popcorn.”
Lexa hesitates.
“I don’t know…”
“C’mon Lexa, you’d rather spend your Saturday night banished in here?”
Lexa clenches her jaw.
“I am not banished.”
“I was joking, you dummy.”
The microwave beeps. Clarke looks at Lexa a moment longer before returning to the microwave. She pulls out the bag of popcorn and opens it, the aroma of it spilling into the room.
“Doesn’t this smell good?” Clarke says, teasing. “You sure you want to miss out on this?”
Lexa remains impassive.
Clarke shrugs. “Well, if you change your mind.” She opens the door.
“Wait.”
Clarke smirks. Lexa was almost too easy. Clarke turns her head.
“Yes?”
Lexa sighs and rolls her eyes. “I’ll come with you.”
Clarke waits while Lexa gathers up her things and leads Lexa to her room.
“Welcome to my room,” Clarke says.
Lexa walks inside and looks around. She wrinkles her nose. “How do you live like this?”
“So it’s a little bit messy, it’s not that bad.”
Lexa raises a skeptical brow. “If you say so.”
She places her backpack on the ground and looks at Clarke’s side of the room. She notices all of the pencil and charcoal sketches on Clarke’s wall and all over her desk. They’re mostly scenes of nature. Birds, trees, an occasional wolf, lots of sunsets.
“You drew these?”
Clarke nods. She jumps onto her bed and opens her bag of popcorn. Lexa hadn’t noticed that Clarke was wearing fuzzy pajama bottoms until now. It’s rather endearing.
“You can sit on my bed if you want.” Clarke pats the empty space next to her. Lexa complies and gets on the bed.
“These are really good,” Lexa says, studying one of the drawings on the wall.
“Thanks. My mom doesn’t approve,” she shrugs, “but it’s what I love doing.”
“Are you an art major?”
Clarke shakes her head. “I’m a Biology major but I’m minoring in art. My mom wants me to go to med school.”
Lexa studies Clarke. “And what do you want to do?”
Clarke shrugs again. “I’m not sure. I love drawing but it’s hard to make a living doing that.”
Lexa nods and drops the subject. She can tell it makes Clarke uncomfortable discussing her future.
Clarke looks at Lexa. “What about you?” She nudges Lexa’s arm with her elbow. “What are you majoring in?”
“Political science.”
Clarke lets out an impressive whistle. “Nice. What made you choose that major?”
“My family is heavily involved in politics. It seemed only natural that I follow in their footsteps.”
“But is it something you want to do? Or is your family forcing you to do it?”
Lexa gives Clarke a steely look. “Not all of us are unhappy with what our families wish us to do.”
Clarke puts her hands up. “Alright, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that question.”
“It’s okay.”
“So you wanna become a Congresswoman or something like that?”
Lexa shakes her head. “I see myself as the head of some nonprofit organization, helping others.”
Clarke looks at Lexa for a long time. Lexa looks away and swallows.
“That’s really great of you,” Clarke says softly after a few moments. Lexa nods, unable to make eye contact with her.
There’s an awkward silence.
“Hey, we should watch a movie.”
Lexa shrugs. “I’m not much of a movie fan.”
Clarke’s jaw drops. “Seriously? But movies are awesome.”
“Most of them don’t capture my interest.”
Clarke shakes her head. “You just haven’t been watching the right ones. Have you ever seen The Breakfast Club?”
Lexa shakes her head.
“What?!” Clarke says.
“What’s the big deal?”
Clarke lets out a laugh. “What’s the big deal?” She says in disbelief. “The Breakfast Club is like the most iconic teen movie there is. Have you ever seen any of John Hughes’ stuff?”
Lexa shrugs.
“Pretty in Pink? Sixteen Candles? Does the name Molly Ringwald mean anything to you?”
Lexa shakes her head, annoyed at Clarke’s continued disbelief.
“Alright, I know exactly what we’re watching tonight.”
When Lexa had imagined her Saturday night, she never would’ve pictured this. She and Clarke are huddled on Clarke’s bed around her laptop, sitting in the pitch-black darkness. The bowl of popcorn is between them.
“So that guy is Bender. He pretends he’s a really tough guy but he’s actually not.”
“I think I can figure that out on my own, Clarke.”
Clarke ignores Lexa’s comment.
“And that is Molly Ringwald. I used to have such a major a crush on her.”
Lexa’s eyes widen but she doesn’t say anything. She reaches for the popcorn and her fingers accidentally brush up against Clarke’s. She draws back her hand like she’s been burned.
“Sorry,” she mutters.
Clarke doesn’t reply, engrossed in the movie.
Lexa has to admit that this movie is a lot better than she expected it to be. She finds herself caring about the characters a lot more than she would care to admit. Throughout the movie, she sneaks glances towards Clarke. Clarke not once notices.
Lexa sighs and shifts around on the bed, making herself more comfortable. Before she knows it, the credits are playing.
“That’s it?” Lexa finds herself asking out loud.
Clarke laughs. “I knew you would like it.”
Lexa bristles. “It was okay.”
Clarke rolls her eyes. “This is a safe zone. You can admit that you liked the movie.”
“Alright,” she admits, “It was better than I thought it would be. But the ending is so unsatisfactory.”
Clarke turns on the light and rests against the wall. “What do mean? The ending is iconic. The shot of Bender with his fist in the air with the song playing? Legendary.”
“But you never find out what happens to them. Are they friends? Do they ignore each other at school?” Lexa can’t believe that she’s getting this worked up over a movie.
Clarke looks pensive. “But that’s a part of why the movie is so good. The ending is so ambiguous so people can draw their own conclusions. I’d like to think that they were friends.”
Lexa looks skeptical but nods. “Maybe.”
Clarke looks at the clock. “Well, the night is still young. Wanna watch another movie?”
Lexa nods again. She hopes she doesn’t appear too eager but spending time with Clarke is a lot more fun than she had thought it would be. The grin on Clarke’s face makes it all worth it.
“You can pick the movie this time,” Clarke says. “Surely there’s a movie you like.”
There is one but Lexa is embarrassed to admit it.
“Well,” she says slowly. “There is one.”
“Okay and which movie is that?” Clarke asks, grinning.
“It’s embarrassing. It’s one of my favorite movies.”
“Now I’m really curious. C’mon, I promise I won’t tell.” Clarke looks solemn and holds out her pinkie. “Pinkie swear?”
Lexa rolls her eyes. “Alright fine. It’s She’s the Man. Happy?”
Clarke bursts out laughing. Lexa frowns, which only makes Clarke laugh harder.
“I swear I’m not laughing to make fun of you,” Clarke says in between laughs. She regains her composure and smiles at Lexa. “I love that movie. I just wasn’t expecting you to suggest something like that, that’s all.”
“You’ve seen it before?”
Clarke waves her off. “Of course. The movie is so quotable.” Clarke sits up a little and puts her hands on her hips and does her best Amanda Bynes impression. “And when I close my eyes, I see you for who you truly are, which is UUUGGG-LAY.”
Lexa snorts. “I think you missed your calling,” she teases.
Clarke throws a popcorn kernel at her. “Oh shut up.”
Clarke finds the movie online and starts playing it on her laptop.
A few minutes into the movie, Clarke gets a text message. She glances it but doesn’t reply to it. A few seconds later, she gets another text message. And then another one.
“Ugh, this is getting annoying,” Clarke mutters. She shuts her phone off and throws it onto her desk.
“What’s going on?”
Clarke just looks at the laptop screen. “It’s nothing really,” she sighs. “Some of my friends are at a party tonight and they keep pestering me to go.”
Lexa feels a pang inside of her. “You can go. Don’t let me stop you.”
Clarke looks at Lexa and shakes her head. “Nah. I’m not in the mood to party tonight. Besides, I’m having fun here with you.”
Lexa tries to not look so pleased as she tries to pay attention to the movie. It’s hard when Clarke is sitting mere inches away from her.
They mostly watch the movie in silence with Clarke making a few comments here and there.
“I had forgotten how good young Channing Tatum looks,” Clarke remarks.
Lexa shrugs. He’s not her type.
“Amanda Bynes is also pretty cute?” Clarke ventures.
Lexa raises an eyebrow at Clarke but doesn’t say anything.
At some point during the movie, Clarke falls asleep. Lexa had been so engrossed in the movie that it takes her a while to realize that Clarke isn’t watching it anymore. Lexa studies Clarke for a few moments. Clarke looks so peaceful she sleeps, strands of blonde hair everywhere. Lexa mentally shakes herself. She can’t fall down this hole again.
She closes Clarke’s laptop and puts it away, as well as the popcorn bowl. She moves the blanket so that some of it covers Clarke. She picks up her belongings and quietly leaves the room.
Lexa goes back into her room and she’s relieved to find that her roommate is asleep-and, thankfully, alone. When she goes to sleep, she dreams of a blonde girl.
--
Clarke wakes up in the middle of the night, disoriented. She’s a little bit sad to find the other woman gone.
--
Clarke sees Lexa a few days later, sitting at a table surrounded by people. She doesn’t speak much but she smiles here and then and even laughs at one point. Even though there doesn’t seem to be any significance of where everyone is seated, Lexa stands out as the clear leader of the group.
Clarke smiles to herself and doesn’t say anything.
When she walks away, she gets the feeling that she’s being watched.
--
Clarke is sleeping and in her dreams, there’s a ringing noise that gets louder and louder. She wakes up with a jolt and realizes that the fire alarm is going off. She groans and looks at her clock. 3AM. Great. She sees that Raven is still sleeping.
“Raven, get up,” Clarke says, while nudging Raven gently. Raven wakes up after a few moments and blinks in confusion. “C’mon, we have to go. Fire alarm.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Raven groans. “What dumbass freshman did this?”
Clarke shakes her head. “Dunno but we need to get out of here.”
Clarke and Raven put on their shoes, jackets, and grab their keys and ID.
Clarke squints at the bright light of the hallways. She sees that everyone on their floor is reluctantly lined up at the stairs, waiting to walk down. They’re on the seventh floor so it takes a while to trudge down all of the stairs. Clarke can barely keep her eyes open and the fire alarm just won’t stop ringing.
They get outside and they shiver in the cold. Clarke regrets not putting on a heavier jacket because she is freezing. Raven has closed her eyes and appears to be dozing off while standing.
Clarke looks around and sees a familiar face nearby.
“Lexa?”
Lexa blinks and turns around. “Clarke?” She sees Clarke and walks to where she is.
“Hey,” Clarke says.
“Hey.”
“So how majorly does this suck?”
Lexa nods. “This was the one night I was supposed to sleep well without any projects or essays to worry about,” she mutters.
Clarke nods and shivers. Lexa notices. She takes off her jacket and hands it to Clarke.
“Here,” she says.
Clarke stares at Lexa, dumbfounded. She shakes her head.
“No, you keep it.”
Lexa rolls her eyes. “You’re freezing. Take it.”
“Won’t you be cold?”
Lexa shakes her head and sports a faint smile. “I’m used to worse.”
Clarke accepts it gratefully and shrugs it over her shoulders. “Thanks.”
Now that Lexa is up close, Clarke makes out that she’s not wearing any makeup. She looks nice, younger even. Usually she’s intimidating to look at but now, she just looks like a young college student Clarke’s age. It’s nice seeing her like this.
Lexa frowns. “Do I have something on my face?”
Clarke blushes at being caught and just shakes her head. “No, I was just thinking.”
“Oh.” Lexa looks away.
Their RA walks to the front of the shivering crowd. “Okay everyone. It’s safe to go back in.”
Someone yelled out, “What caused the alarm?”
The RA shakes their head. “Someone burned their popcorn.” Everyone collectively groans out loud.
Clarke looks away from Lexa and nudges Raven.
“Raven, we can go up.”
Raven doesn’t open her eyes. “Can’t move. Too tired.”
Clarke looks at Lexa, exasperated. “Can you help me with Raven?”
Lexa nods, amused. Clarke takes one of Raven’s arms and Lexa takes the other.
“Okay Raven, we’re walking now.”
Raven only grunts in reply.
“Sorry about this,” Clarke says, “She’s pulled a lot of all-nighters lately because she has a huge engineering project due soon.”
Lexa nods. “I have some friends in her program so I understand.”
They walk slowly, not wanting to drop Raven. Clarke guides them up the stairs, which proves to be tricky but manageable somehow.
Once they’re on the seventh floor, they walk to Clarke and Raven’s room. Clarke fumbles with the lock, only able to use one hand. Finally, the lock opens and she pushes the door. Lexa and Clarke gently guide Raven to her bed where she immediately falls on top of it and curls into a ball.
Clarke laughs and shakes her head. She really does love Raven even though she can be a massive pain in the butt.
“Your roommate is certainly an amusing one,” Lexa remarks, careful to whisper.
“You have no idea.”
They look at each other for a few seconds and don’t say anything. Lexa is half covered in the shadows, which makes her look both beautiful and dangerous for some reason.
“Well, I should head back and get some sleep,” Lexa says after a beat. She licks her lips.
Clarke nods. Lexa heads out of the door but pauses in the doorway.
“Did you forget something?”
“Actually yeah, you’re still wearing my jacket.”
“Oh, right,” Clarke says, flustered. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, it’s just that my keys are in there.”
“Right, of course.” She takes off the jacket and hands it back to Lexa. Their fingers brush against each other.
“Well… goodnight.” Lexa says.
“Good night Lexa.” Lexa smiles a little and leaves. She shuts the door carefully after her.
“You guys need to get a room,” Raven mumbles under the covers.
“Just go to sleep Raven.”
Raven just laughs and laughs.