Chapter Text
1.
Clarke and Lexa met at the slide. Lexa had just gone down and was sitting at the bottom, just about to get off, when she felt someone ram into her from behind. She was thrown forward onto the ground and her palms and knees start stinging immediately. She turned angrily to whoever went down the slide without waiting their turn, but froze when she saw that the small blonde girl behind her had tears in her eyes.
“Awwww, Princess Clarke is crying,” a nasally voice called down from the top of the slide. “Poor baby.” The boy standing at the top of the slide laughed loudly and his two friends joined in. The girl, Clarke, started to cry harder.
“Hey!” Lexa shouted to the top of the slide. “Shut up!”
She didn’t wait to see the boy’s reactions and instead took Clarke’s hand into her own and helped her off the ground. She dragged her over to a more secluded part of the playground and helped her dry her tears.
“I’m sorry for going down the slide on top of you,” Clarke said, sniffling every other word. “Murphy pushed me. I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s okay,” Lexa replied quickly. “Those boys are idiots. Stay with me. I’ll protect you.”
Clarke looked up at Lexa with wide eyes.
“Really?”
“Always,” Lexa said.
By the next day, the two girls were inseparable. Lexa was true to her promise and any time Murphy, Atom, or Sterling tried to approach them, she would growl, shout, kick and punch at them until they decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. By the end of third grade, they pretty much left the two girls alone.
2.
In fourth grade, talk about boys started. Lexa asked Clarke if she liked anyone and after briefly thinking about it she said, “Finn. You?” Lexa thought about it as well and said, “Monty.” He was sweet and cute and he never said anything mean to anyone. Clarke giggled and grabbed Lexa’s hand.
“Do you want him to be your boyfriend?” she asked.
“No, not yet,” Lexa replied. “Maybe later?”
Clarke nodded as if this was the wisest thing they’d ever heard.
3.
In fifth grade, Clarke and Lexa spent nearly every weekend at each other’s houses. They practiced braiding hair, painting nails, and putting on make-up. They’d skim through teen girl magazines doing quizzes and reading dating tips though neither of them were ready to date anyone.
Whenever Lexa laughed, Clarke would press a kiss to her cheek and every night before they went to sleep, Lexa would press a kiss to her forehead. They’d hold hands as they drifted off.
4.
Sixth grade was the year of first kisses. All the girls were talking about it. They waited anxiously for a chance to have theirs. They practiced with pillows, with their hands, with posters of celebrities. But the boys were a couple years behind and still not interested so most girls were left wanting.
Clarke lay with her head on Lexa’s stomach staring at her ceiling.
“You’d have told me if you had your first kiss, right?”
Lexa lowered the magazine she was reading.
“Of course I would, dummy. You’d tell me too right?”
“Of course.”
They both fell silent again and Lexa went back to reading her magazine.
“I wonder what it’s like,” Clarke mused out loud.
“My mom says it’s nice,” Lexa replied.
Clarke nodded and fell silent.
“You know we could always find out,” Lexa said, closing her magazine and carelessly tossing it off her bed. She sat up slightly forcing Clarke to move her head.
“How? The boys are all dumb. They don’t want to kiss us.”
“You could kiss me. It wouldn’t be like a real kiss ‘cause you’re my friend and we’re both girls, but we would know what it felt like.”
Clarke looked at her thoughtfully.
“Alright,” she said. She moved so that she was kneeling on the bed in front of Lexa. They stared at each other nervously for a second. Lexa leaned forward and pressed her lips to Clarkes in a very chaste and very quick kiss. Their noses bumped a little but they didn’t mind.
“That was nice,” Clarke said, “Though I think it’s supposed to last a little longer.”
Lexa nodded and then leaned forward again. This time when she pressed her lips to Clarke’s she kept them there for a full two seconds before pulling away. Clarke nodded.
“I liked that,” she said.
Lexa smiled.
“Me too.”
5.
In seventh grade, there was a school dance at the end of the year. Clarke hoped someone, anyone, would ask her, but no one did. Most of the guys didn’t ask anyone unless they were really good friends with a girl or they got dared to do it. Lexa didn’t get asked either.
“It’s okay,” she said to comfort her friend. “We’re going together so it’ll be fine.”
Clarke wanted to complain that it wasn’t the same, but she knew that Lexa was just trying to cheer her up so she smiled widely at her and nodded.
They got dressed for the party together, Clarke excited at her new dress, and Lexa irritated that she had to wear one. When they arrived at the school gym, most of the boys were off in the corner shooting hoops while the few who had asked girls to come with them were awkwardly swaying with their partners on the dance floor. The girls were in huddles either gossiping or dancing.
Lexa and Clarke quickly found Octavia, Indra, Raven, and Anya, and soon they were dancing and laughing together boys mostly forgotten. At around 10, parents started arriving to pick kids up. At around 10:15, Clarke’s mother and father called her cell phone to tell her that they were outside. Clarke and Lexa reluctantly excused themselves from their friend and got into the car with Clarke’s parents.
“Did you girls have fun?” Jake asked.
“Yup,” Clarke said, cheerfully, but Lexa could hear something else in her voice.
When they arrived at Clarke’s house, they immediately went upstairs and changed into their pajamas. When they were curled up in bed together, holding hands as always, Lexa turned to Clarke.
“Did you really have fun tonight?” she asked.
“Yeah. It was fun dancing with you girls,” Clarke replied, but Lexa sensed she was holding something back.
“But?”
“But I was kind of hoping to have my first real kiss, you know,” Clarke said. “I feel like it’ll never happen.”
Lexa brought her hand up to the back of Clarke’s neck and pulled herself close.
“Is this okay?” she asked, pausing a couple inches away from Clarke’s mouth.
“It doesn’t count because we’re both girls,” Clarke said weakly, but this was different from their casual kiss the last year. They weren’t practicing. They weren’t doing this just to see what it would feel like. It was dark and they were in bed together. It was completely different.
“Right,” Lexa said.
“Okay,” Clarke replied and Lexa closed the distance between them. This time, she didn’t draw away after a couple seconds. Instead, she experimentally started moving her lips against Clarke’s how she’d read in a magazine. Clarke responded in kind and they continued like that for a while. When they parted, they were both short of breath and their hearts were pounding.
“How was that?” she asked.
“It was nice,” Clarke replied.
Lexa smiled softly and pressed a kiss to Clarke’s forehead like she did every time she slept over and the two girls drifted to sleep with tingling lips.
6.
In eight grade, Finn asked Clarke out. She was so nervous and surprised that instead of saying yes, she said she’d think about it. At lunch, she pulled Lexa away from her friends and told her.
“Finn asked me out,” she said.
Lexa’s eyes widened and her expression fell for an instant before she schooled it into a pleasantly surprised and happy expression.
“That’s great, Clarke,” she said, but Clarke knew her too well.
“What’s wrong, Lexa?” Clarke asked. Lexa ignored the question.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“I told him I’d think about it.”
“And? Have you thought about it?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You’re my best friend. I want your opinion.”
Lexa stared at Clarke. She really didn’t want Clarke to go out with Finn, though she couldn’t really think of what the actual reason for that was. She didn’t think Clarke would be happy with him. Middle school romances never lasted. She doubted Finn even really liked her and was only asking her out so that he could have more status among his friends. Whatever her reason, she knew her heart clenched every time she thought about it.
“Well? Do you like him?” she asked.
Clarke seemed surprised by this question as if it didn’t even have to do with anything.
“I… I don’t know.”
“In that case the answer is probably, no,” Lexa said. “Don’t go out with him if you don’t like him. We have plenty of time. Loads of people don’t date until high school. Wait for someone you really like.”
Clarke seemed to think very deeply about this advice. Then, with a grin on her face, she leaned in and placed a kissed on Lexa’s cheek.
“You’re the best friend in the world. You know that right?”
Lexa grinned at her.
Two days later, Clarke saw Finn and Raven walking hand in hand.