Archive of Our Own

now i've got you in my space / i won't let go of you / got you shackled in my embrace / i'm latching onto you - latch by disclosure ft. sam smith.

.

lexa woods has lived in 97 mount weather street for about three years now. it starts out like this: her older sister anya elopes with her thirty year old boyfriend at the age of nineteen. seven years later, anya woods-rodriguez is a widowed woman at the young age of twenty six, and she invites her younger brother and younger sister to live with her in the little neighbourhood of polis. at first, lincoln and lexa are a bit reluctant, which is understandable since anya did disappear for a little while, but they warm up to the idea of living away from their parents and soon the three of them are as close as they were ten years ago.

(lexa and anya bicker often over little things, two stubborn heads colliding, while lincoln stands as the middleman, quite literally sometimes. there are a few instances where he pretends to listen to music in his room and ignores the yelling that occurs downstairs. he doesn't really like taking sides, because his sisters are both fierce and won't back down until they win.

they are still siblings after all.)

.

they live in between two houses, and on their right, lives an elderly woman named indra. she seemed apathetic to them when they first moved in, only giving piercing death glares whenever lincoln waves at her in the morning, effectively scaring the shit out of him, but eventually she begins to offer curt nods of acknowledgement to anya and even a smile at lexa as the years pass by. they admire her, from afar, especially on saturdays when she goes grocery shopping and picks up eight bags of grocery all at once, looking like she could kill anything that stands in her path.

(they watch, from the living room window, as indra carries the bags, in her muscled arms, from her car to her porch.

"i can't believe she's sixty-five," lexa marvels one particular saturday, the three of them huddled on the couch, watching indra from the window.

lincoln scoffs, "she is not. she can't be."

"she's my new favourite superhero. screw captain america.")

indra's not friendly, she has no interest in being friends with the woods, but one day she points to lincoln's car and says, "one of the boys backed into it with his own car, i yelled at him for you," before promptly disappearing into her home.

("'i yelled at him for you,'" anya mimics, "looks like you two are best buds, lincoln.")

the boys, that indra refers to, are the three college students that live on the left side of the house. one of them, nathan miller, attends the nearby community college and drives a pickup truck with a rusty side mirror. he’s almost as apathetic as indra, none of them have ever spoken to him, they aren’t even sure if he can speak since they’ve never heard his voice. the other two, jasper jordan and monty green are what anya refers to as the 'pebbles'.

(she thinks she was being hilarious when she saw them on their lawn, obviously high as a kite, and met lexa in the kitchen. "they're pebbles, look at them. the whole street stinks of weed now."

lexa stares at her sister for a while, her eyes narrowed. "..you mean stoners?"

anya laughs in response, "pebbles. i called them pebbles, in their face. they think i don't know about the weed smoking."

"i am.. pretty sure everyone knows about the weed.")

jasper’s a dropout, and he has mentioned once that his own parents think he’s still working towards getting his accounting degree when really all he does is get high and play video games in his boxers all day. they find this out through lincoln, who catches jasper trying to hop over their shared fence in the backyard. his jeans are caught on the wooden fence, and he’s dangling precariously with his knuckles almost white from gripping on the partition. jasper chats with lincoln easily though, as if he’s not about to come crashing down any minute, and when he snorts with laughter, he loses his balance and topples over to their side of the fence.

“are you okay?” lincoln rushes over to him, helping him up and quickly assessing if he has broken any bones.

but jasper’s bloodshot eyes blink back at him, before he starts howling with laughter. “that was awesome! let’s do it again!”

lincoln’s eyes widen by a fraction, “let’s not- come on, i am taking you home.”

monty is less rambunctious than jasper, but much more friendly than nathan, and lexa prefers him over all of their neighbours. he chats with her on warm days, when he’s watering the grass and he catches her getting out of her car, or checking the letterbox.

“good morning, lexa,” monty greets quietly, hose in his hand. she never initiates the conversation.

lexa glances over and throws him a smile, “good morning,” before quickly jogging over to the letterbox at the end of their driveway. she notices monty shuffling closer to the hedgerow that separates them.

“um, hey. can i ask you something?”

she doesn’t look up when she replies, “yeah, shoot.”

“can i have that spare key i gave you in case of emergencies? kane wants it back.”

lexa looks up at him questioningly, they’ve been neighbours for nearly a year now, with the boys moving in after the owner of the house, marcus kane, began renting it out. “he wants it back?”

monty nods, “yeah, we’re moving out.” he shrugs nonchalantly before he continues, “miller’s moving in with his girlfriend and jasper’s parents found out that he dropped out so he’s moving back in with them, and i’m graduating anyway, so.”

lexa tries to school her features to form a frown. “that’s too bad. i’ll go see if i can find the key and i’ll drop it over later, is that okay?” she's not too upset over it, she doesn't particularly care for them, but it would be a shame for her neighbours to be replaced by someone worse.

monty nods, “that’s cool, thanks lexa. we’re moving out on friday.”

(lexa, lincoln and anya are just coming home from having lunch together that friday when they catch the three boys waving goodbye before hopping into their respective cars. when the cars turn around the corner and out of their sight, they hear indra chuckle from where she’s standing on her own driveway, “good riddance.”)

.

it turns out, their neighbour moving out is the best thing that can happen to lexa.

two days after the boys are gone, she’s washing her car in the driveway when a blonde haired, blue eyed angel parks her car in front of 97 mount weather street and approaches lexa.

“hi,” the angel says with a smile, locking eyes with the youngest woods, and lexa can hear her heart pounding in her chest. she thinks she must look like a hot mess right now, with suds on her forearms, her hair tied back in a messy bun, while her faded grey shirt and black booty shorts are soaked. a beat passes by and the blonde continues, “i’m just looking for 95 mount weather street, this isn’t it, right?”

lexa forces her mouth to form words, “uh, no. it’s the next one.” she raises her hand to point in the general direction of the house next door, her eyes never leaving this beautiful stranger’s face.

“oh,” she smiles again, “thank you! i’m clarke, by the way.”

“lexa- i’m lexa.” she blinks, and tries to remember how to breathe normally. “nobody lives there anymore, they moved out a few days ago.”

clarke nods, “i know, i’m the agent the landlord hired to find new tenants. i just wanted to look around the place and take a few pictures. and since you know, you live here, maybe you can tell me what the neighbourhood is like?”

“i- uh- yeah,” lexa stammers, and she looks away momentarily to compose herself. “it’s pretty quiet, i guess.”

“i can tell,” clarke licks her lips as she glances around at the peaceful neighbourhood and lexa’s eyes are glued to those plump, pink lips. “anything else?”

“uh,” she gulps, what the fuck is wrong with her today? “yeah, generally quiet, no trouble at all. save for the occasional fighting cats and loud, shrieking babies.”

clarke laughs, and it sounds so melodic to lexa’s ears and her stomach swoops. “it must get pretty wild here then.” she points at lexa’s drenched shirt, an amused grin on her face, “i like this.”

it’s the shirt lincoln gave her on her birthday, a faded grumpycat frowning with a crown on his head on it, “thanks,” she mumbles. “you’re really pretty.” she almost wants to take it back, a five year old in the playground can come up a better compliment than that.

but clarke blushes and she smiles widely, her blue eyes twinkling. “thanks, so are you.”

(lexa thinks maybe this is what it feels like to fall in love at first sight.)

lincoln finds her on the kitchen floor later that afternoon, when clarke is long gone and lexa has realized how dumb she must have looked in front of her.

“what’s wrong?” her big brother asks, eyeing the tub of raspberry ice cream on her lap and the spoon in her hand. “who made you cry?”

“nobody,” she mutters, digging the spoon into the ice cream. “i met a girl today.”

“oh no.”

(‘oh no’ - interjection. defined in the dictionary as an exclamation or expression of alarm, concern, or resentment about a problem or error. synonyms: ‘ah shit, oh fuck, lexa is in love’.)

“yeah,” lexa lets out a deep sigh. “i can’t stop thinking about her,” she mumbles before shoving the spoon into her mouth, embracing the cold, numbing raspberry flavour on her tongue.

lincoln pulls the cutlery drawer open and takes out a spoon. he settles next to his younger sister and reaches for the tub. “did you get her number?” he asks, wondering how much ice cream lexa has had, considering the fact that he just bought this tub of ice cream yesterday and nearly half of it is gone.

“no, she had to go,” lexa frowns. “she’s the agent kane hired to find people to live in the house next door.”

lincoln nods, nudging her encouragingly. “maybe you’ll see her again.”

"i hope so."

.

over the next few weeks, lexa unfortunately does not see clarke again. she does however, meet her new neighbour when he comes over to introduce himself, two days after he’s moved in.

“dante wallace,” he announces, holding out his pale, wrinkled hand to lexa. “i’ve just moved in here today, you’re my new neighbours, yes?” he’s caught the woods siblings at the end of the driveway, just getting home after they’ve had brunch at their parent’s house.

“we are,” she takes his hand and politely shakes it. “lexa woods, this is my brother, lincoln, and my sister, anya.”

dante shakes lincoln’s hand firmly, offering him a gentle smile. then he winks at anya, and proceeds to kiss her hand. “it is my pleasure to meet you.”

“uh, thanks?” anya blinks, before pulling her hand away. next to her, lincoln places his hand over his mouth and he’s visibly trying hard to keep himself from bursting out laughing. lexa lets out a choked noise before clearing her throat.

(when they get inside the house, lexa exclaims, “what is up with you and older men?” lincoln falls on the floor, howling with laughter.

anya’s cheeks are bright red and she shrieks, “shut the fuck up!”)

for the next month, lincoln and lexa begin referring to dante as ‘anya’s boyfriend’, much to the older woods' chagrin. she doesn’t have a problem with the older man besides the fact that he’s annoyingly persistent in trying to get her to go out on a date with him.

dante spends his days painting, inside and outside of his house. he likes to set up his easel and canvas on his front porch, before stripping down to a pair of loose boxers and humming as he paints. he hums obnoxiously along to the classical music playing from his living room at an alarming level.

(lincoln comments, “i’m not sure if i prefer this over obvious underage drinking and the dubstep that used to blare from that house.”

“i definitely prefer that over this pretentious bastard,” anya adds.)

when he’s not half-nakedly painting or humming on his porch, he’s watering his flowers and whistling, something that annoys lexa very much because she can’t whistle. it annoys anya too, because he pauses his whistling whenever she’s nearby and proceeds to wink at her and say something along the lines of, “you look absolutely delicious today.” then he returns his attention to his beloved yellow flowers as if nothing happened, and doesn’t see anya shivering and her face twisting in disgust.

“you know i found out that your boyfriend’s eighty,” lincoln tells his sisters, as he sets a bowl of tortilla chips down on the coffee table, before taking a handful. “he’s pretty.. active for an eighty year old.”

“he’s pretty alive for an eighty year old,” lexa quips, not looking up from where she’s sitting on the couch. she’s got her laptop on her lap, and she’s furiously typing up a monthly report for work.

anya rolls her eyes at her siblings, “he is not my boyfriend.”

lexa hums in response, “he was telling you how mouth-watering you looked this morning, don’t think i didn’t hear that.”

“do we need to give him the talk?” lincoln smirks, “would you like him to come over for dinner?”

anya hisses, “no! absolutely not. don’t you dare-”

lexa interjects, a similar wicked grin on her face, “and afterwards, you two could go up to your room-”

“you two are so fucking dead-”

lincoln nods at lexa, “the door has to be left open, of course, as per house rules. there isn’t going to be any hanky-panky,” he winks at anya, “happening while you two young kids are alone.”

“i swear to fucking god, i will murder both of you in your sleep-”

unfortunately, they don’t get to humiliate anya any further. lexa gets home one day and finds an ambulance parked in front of her house. her heart rate spikes a bit, and she’s immediately filled with worry about her siblings until one of the paramedics come out of dante’s house.

she ends up having to park her car in front of indra’s and jogging over to the paramedic to investigate. lexa’s a little breathless when she asks, “what happened?”

the paramedic is a bulky, bearded man who has a manbun, and he avoids lexa’s question, “do you know mr. wallace?”

“yes, he’s my neighbour. is he alright?”

the paramedic nods in response, “house cleaner called emergency services, found him on the kitchen floor. he’s suffered a heart attack. we got here just in time.” he smiles kindly, “mr. wallace will be okay.”

just then, the rest of the paramedics come out of the house, carefully lifting a stretcher with an unconscious dante on it. he’s even paler than usual, lexa notices, if that’s even possible. she stands back and lets them carry the old man into the back of the ambulance, and watches as it soon drives away.

lincoln’s at work and so is anya, and lexa’s only out of work this early because their system in the office shut down and won’t be back up for another few days, so she pulls out her phone and sends them a quick text in their group message. anya’s boyfriend just got taken by an ambulance.

lincoln replies first, what happened?

he. is. not. my. boyfriend. anya texts back, followed by an angry emoji. a few seconds later, is he okay?

heart attack. he’s gonna be okay, apparently.

lexa’s already inside the house and making herself a cup of tea when her phone vibrates again, signalling another text from lincoln. we should visit him, then anya can kiss him better and he’ll be okay.

lexa chuckles at her phone as she types out, ah yes, true love’s kiss.

you two are both dead to me, anya replies, along with two lines of the angry emoji. lincoln sends two lines of the ghost emoji in return.

they never see dante after that, only his son who clears out the house for him. cage offers them a wave and a nod, which they return politely, and then he drives away, leaving the house empty once again.

.

lexa’s coming home from the gym, dressed in black sweatpants and a red sports bra, exposing her stomach, when she sees clarke wave at her from the porch of the house next door. she nearly trips on nothing but manages to gather herself by the time clarke approaches the hedgerow that separates them.

“hey,” she greets cheerfully, and lexa can’t help but smile in return. “i’m back, with potential neighbours for you. they’re inside looking around the house.”

“oh, um, that’s good.” lexa nods, her eyes flitting back and forth clarke’s smile and her eyes. she’s dressed professionally today, lexa notices, clarke’s in a white blazer and a baby blue top, and tight slacks that makes lexa wonder how great her ass must look.

“i feel bad for what happened to mr. wallace,” clarke says, breaking lexa’s train of thoughts.

“well he is old, it was inevitable,” lexa remarks, and she immediately regrets it. “i mean- that wasn’t nice-”

clarke laughs, and lexa watches in awe. “it’s kind of mean, but also kind of true.”

she clears her throat, and racks her brain for something to say just so she can be in clarke’s presence a little bit longer. “how are you, clarke?”

“i’m great, actually,” she beams, “work’s been kind of tough, but everything else is okay. and yourself?”

“good- great. i went to the gym this morning. you look gorgeous today." she pauses and then, “i really want a smoothie.” lexa blurts out, feeling her cheeks grow warm.

clarke seems to not catch the compliment, but her bright smile reveals otherwise. either way, she presses on, “really? i’ve been craving chocolate chip cookies these past few days, i don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

a breeze passes by, causing clarke’s hair to fly to her face, and she's suddenly preoccupied with trying to tame her hair. lexa tries to muster up the courage to ask her for her number, but by the time she comes up with a sentence that’s not creepy or weird or awkward, the potential tenants are walking out of the house and one of them waves clarke over.

“i gotta go,” clarke ducks her head and smiles apologetically, “nice talking to you. you look great, too, by the way.” before lexa could say anything else, the blonde glances down at lexa’s abs, winks and turns around and jogs over to the porch, leaving lexa standing on her driveway with her heart racing.

.

lincoln is the first one who introduces himself to their new, seemingly sane neighbour when he moves in. he finds out that he's a tall, tan, young doctor named jackson, who works in the nearby hospital. he has a gigantic great dane named sinclair, who slobbers all over lincoln’s hand when he tries to pet the beast.

“sorry,” jackson laughs a little, “he likes to eat stuff. it’s becoming a problem.”

a few days after he moves in, lexa meets jackson, and he’s visibly apprehensive by her intimidating demeanor.

"so uh, i just wanted to know," he asks a little nervously, "there aren't any frequent robberies around here right? 'cause that's the reason I moved out of my apartment in the city."

suddenly, a mischievous glint appears in lexa's eyes, "well, not often," she says casually. "there are a few cases though, those ones usually end up in murder." she watches jackson's face grow pale, and she forces her features to remain neutral. "i'm pretty sure one of them happened in that house." jackson gulps, and she continues, "don't worry, the chances of a house being robbed twice is slim to none anyway." lexa turns to walk towards her front door, but she can't resist herself, so she adds, "unless you're a hotshot doctor or something."

(she sees no harm in freaking him out a little. and who knows? he might move out tomorrow and clarke will be back and lexa can finally find the courage to ask her out.)

.

she's laying on a towel on her front lawn, wearing nothing but a black bikini, and she can feel the sun's rays on her skin when she hears footsteps approaching her. lexa nearly groans, "anya, lincoln, leave me alone. it's my day off."

"i- uh- sorry?"

wait, she knows that voice. lexa's eyes blink open and right in front of her is clarke, with pink cheeks and her hair up in a ponytail, trying desperately not to look at the amount of skin exposed before her. "clarke! sorry, i thought you were someone else." she sits up and begins to get up on her feet.

"that's okay, sorry to bother you. i just wanted to say hi." clarke gulps when her eyes accidentally travel down, and her cheeks become even more brighter.

lexa can't help but grin, "hi. did jackson move out?"

"what? no, i just picked up the contract from him. kane made a new one that adds a clause about vandalism and not getting the deposit back, or something like that." she shrugs. "you're sunbathing."

"excellent observation skills. would you like a cookie?" lexa jokes, and clarke lets out an embarrassed laugh. "i just wanted to make use of a particularly warm, sunny day."

"i see," clarke nods once. "well, i better get going. i need to go back to the office and fax a copy of this," she waves the envelope in her hand, "to kane. have a good rest of your day."

she turns to leave and she's three steps away from lexa when she hears, "wait, i have to ask you something."

'come on, come on, come on,' lexa tells herself, 'just ask for her number, no big deal, you can do this.'

"um, can i..?" clarke tilts her head slightly, silently encouraging her, but lexa panics. "can i know where you got that shirt?" she blurts out.

her evident nervousness about the question is not lost on clarke, but she doesn't know lexa well enough to call her out on it, so she just looks down at her clothes before looking back up at lexa with a soft smile. "my mom gave it to me."

(she eats dinner with her siblings that night with a permanent frown. anya and lincoln share a worried look with each other.)

it turns out, lexa didn't scare jackson enough for him to move out the next day, but only enough for him to install three deadbolt locks on his front door and an expensive alarm system that goes off every morning.

the fourth time the alarm system goes off, anya marches to his front door, cranky from being woken up early on her only day off this week, followed by a tired lexa who's only making sure that her sister doesn't commit homicide at half six in the morning.

the alarm is still blaring loudly when an equally tired jackson answers the door, after unlocking all of his locks. "i'm really sorry about that," he winces at the ferocious look on anya's face.

"are you? are you really? because if you were," she growls, and jackson takes a step back, eyes wide and terrified, "you would turn it off right this instant!"

"anya, calm down," lexa groans. "sorry jackson, can you just turn it off please? it's sunday and if you don't turn it off soon, the whole neighbourhood will be paying you a visit."

he manages to look sheepish when he mutters over the noise of the alarm, "i'm not really sure how to do that."

"well, you better figure out because i am literally so ready to kill-"

"-kill some time!" lexa interjects, pushing past her sister. she sighs, "let me take a look."

jackson nods and leads her to the alarm system's panel, and he watches lexa push a few buttons while occasionally sneaking nervous glances at anya, who is glaring at him and his dog who is slowly approaching her with a curious nose. when the loud alarm shrieking stops, and lexa pushes a final button before closing the panel, jackson lets out a sigh of relief, "thank you so much."

"no problem," she rolls her eyes at her sister who has her arms crossed over her chest and a scowl on her face. "i turned off the motion sensor, that's probably what sets it off."

"ah, okay. thanks again, and sorry for the inconvenience." he scratches the back of his head as he follows them towards the front door.

"see you later, jackson." lexa waves at him and gives sinclair a gentle scratch on his ear, while anya ignores him completely as they walk back home.

.

lexa bumps into another person when she's getting coffee later that week, just outside the coffee shop that’s minutes away from her office. she spills a little bit of her expensive bitter americano on herself, and she scowls at her offender, ready to make them cower in fear. but when she sees familiar blue eyes, wide and staring back at her, she loses her anger as quickly as it came.

"oh my god, i'm so sorry," clarke is spluttering apologies immediately, while rummaging through her bag for a tissue or something. "it was my fault, i swear, i'm really sorry."

lexa thinks clarke hasn't realized who she is yet, and she watches as clarke fishes out some wet wipes and begins dabbing the coffee stain on her previously pristine white shirt. she's happy just to stare at the flustered clarke, satisfied in watching the way her hair bounces in its curls on her shoulders and the way her eyebrows are scrunched up worriedly, but when clarke looks up and her mouth falls open slightly in recognition, lexa murmurs, "hello."

"lexa," clarke blinks, a slow smile appearing on her face, "it's good to see you again. i mean, i wish we met again in better circumstances, but it's really good to-"

"clarke, why are you fondling this stranger's breast?" asks a voice from behind clarke, and lexa sees two girls standing there, watching them both curiously. one of them, the taller one wearing a bright red jacket and has her dark hair pulled up in a tight ponytail, is smirking deliciously, while the other one, dressed casually with a black leather jacket and dark eye shadow, has her curved eyebrows shooting up to her forehead.

and then lexa looks down and clarke's hand is on her boob, while the other is holding the wipe.

clarke hastily pulls her hand away, a red blush creeping on her neck and towards her cheeks, "i'm sorry, i don't know what's wrong with me today-"

"clarke, it's okay," lexa offers her what she hopes is a reassuring smile, "it happens."

"you get strangers touching your boobs all the time?"

lexa's cheeks flush too as she lets out a laugh, "you know what i mean." she glances at the two girls who are still watching them, "are they with you?"

"yeah, they're my friends. they were annoying me so i walked ahead of them.” clarke shrugs, glancing back at her two friends, “that’s raven,” she points to the one in the red jacket, then she gestures towards the one with the leather jacket, “and octavia.”

lexa offers them a slight nod and quirk of her eyebrow, and they return the acknowledgment with a wave. when she looks back at clarke, she’s scowling at her two friends and her face quickly morphs into a cheerful smile when she turns back to look at lexa. “i am really sorry about your shirt.”

“you’re forgiven clarke,” she chuckles, “i can cover it up with my blazer.”

clarke’s biting her bottom lip, and she seems deep in thought until she says, “let me make it up to you. give me your phone.”

“my phone?” lexa asks, but she pulls her phone out of her pocket anyway. clarke takes it without a word and types in her number, then saves it before placing it back into lexa’s hands.

“there,” the blonde says, “so we can make plans or something and i can replace your shirt, if you’ll let me.”

lexa blinks, and then jerks her head in a nod, “yes, yes of course.” god, she thinks, way to sound so damn eager, lexa.

“great!” clarke beams, “so i’ll wait for your call?” and with that she waves goodbye and returns to her friends, who are sharing a knowing glance with each other.

(lexa is stumped, to say the least. she finally has it, she finally has clarke’s number!)

however, the feeling of achievement is short-lived when she gets home that day and bumps into a jogging jackson and his beast of a dog on the sidewalk, sending her bag and its contents all over the ground, just as she’s turning away from her car. she mutters, “ah, shit,” as her neighbour apologises and begins to help her gather her things, all while keeping his dog from drooling on everything she owns.

she dismisses him and waves him off when jackson keeps apologising, just wanting to get her shit together and get inside before she yells at him, and it isn’t until she’s upstairs in her room that she notices that something is missing from her bag.

her phone.

her phone with clarke’s number in it.

lexa races downstairs and ignores lincoln’s questions as she runs out the door and towards her car, unlocking it quickly and rummaging through her glove box, checking under the seats and every nook and cranny of her car for her current most prized possession.

lincoln follows her out and watches her mutter to herself as she searches frantically, then he asks, “what did you lose?”

“my phone,” she glowers, “i can’t find it-”

she stills when she sees a familiar piece of paper on the ground by lincoln’s feet, and it looks like one of her post-it notes that must’ve fallen from her bag and-

and then she’s racing past lincoln, and up jackson’s driveway to his front door. she ignores sinclair who’s lounging on the grass comfortably, and bangs her fist three times on the doorbell.

jackson answers the door and before he can even speak, lexa asks, “have you seen my phone?”

he blinks, confused, “what?”

“when my stuff fell, did you see my phone?”

he pauses, trying to remember the items he picked up for lexa but then he shakes his head, “i didn’t notice a phone. only make-up, some paper, and that bottle of hand cream.”

while lexa is busy interrogating a nervous jackson, lincoln approaches sinclair on his neighbour’s front lawn and kneels by him, petting his head.

“hey, you monster,” he grins and the dog discards the item lodged in his mouth in favour of licking this new person’s hand. lincoln hasn’t even noticed that he was chewing on something, until pieces of a shattered, slobbered iphone is left abandoned on the grass. “oh no,” lincoln mutters. he looks up and calls out, “lexa, i think you’d want to see this.”

both lexa and jackson turn at the item on the grass, and jackson echoes lincoln, “oh no.”

.

that night, lexa is sulking in her room when anya walks in and plops down on her bed.

“what,” lexa snaps, “do you want?”

her older sister only smirks, “i heard you got a crush.”

lexa groans, “lincoln!”

“i heard it’s on the letting agent of the house next door.” anya chuckles, “did you get her number?”

“i did,” lexa mumbles, “then jackson’s stupid dog ate my phone.” she scowls, before pressing her face on her pillow.

“can’t stop thinking about her, can you? ah, young love.”

“g’way, leave me ‘lone.”

“you should scare off the new neighbour so she’ll bring new ones again and you get to see her,” anya jokingly suggests, sitting up from lexa’s bed. “and maybe you can ask her out again.”

(anya never expected her little sister to take her seriously. then again, she doesn't expect anyone to take her seriously, in general.)

.

she's in her parent's house, in her old bedroom, rummaging in her wardrobe when there's a quiet knock on the door.

"go away," lexa calls out, tossing clothes out of her wardrobe and onto the floor. "i'm busy." the door creaks open and there's feet shuffling on the floor, and she scowls, turning to look at her unwelcome visitor.

there's a threat at the tip of her tongue, but it fades away when she sees that clarke is standing there, a sheepish grin on her face, wearing nothing but a white robe. "sorry," she laughs a little. "missed me?"

lexa blinks in confusion, and the item she's looking for in her wardrobe is soon forgotten. "clarke, what are you doing here?"

she tosses her hair back and unties her robe. "i needed to see you,” clarke’s grin turns into a smirk, and she lets her robe fall and pool around her feet. “or, rather, i needed you to see me.”

lexa blinks and her throat suddenly feels dry, as her eyes roam clarke’s very naked body. she’s frozen where she’s standing and clarke is slowly advancing on her, with a playful smirk on her lips and a look in her eyes that makes lexa’s mouth fall slightly open.

“clarke?” she swallows and breathes sharply through her nose. clarke is so close to her, their faces only inches apart.

“lexa,” she hears.

“yeah?”

“lexa.”

“yes, clarke..?”

her eyes are blinking open, and there’s a bright light coming from her open window, and anya is standing by her bed, with an amused smirk on her face. “you’re late, your alarm’s been going off for ten minutes.”

“what?” lexa croaks tiredly.

anya laughs, “you miss clarke already?” she turns and leaves lexa’s room with the intent of having breakfast with lincoln in the kitchen, and she’s halfway down the stairs when she hears lexa’s groan of realisation.

it was just a dream.

.

lexa originally wanted to go to the gym that morning, but she scraps all of her plans for the day in favour of sulking in her pyjamas and eating cereal out of the box. she’s in the kitchen, cursing at the coffeemaker when lincoln arrives home early from work.

he watches his little sister struggle and condemn the poor machine to hell before he clears his throat, “you okay?”

“no,” is her grumbled reply.

“wanna be nice to that coffee machine? you know that’s the only thing keeping anya alive in the morning.”

lincoln doesn’t catch the mumbled words before the coffeemaker is finally abandoned in the kitchen counter and lexa turns to him with a scowl. “did you bring food?”

“no..? i came from work.”

she glares and crosses her arms over her chest, “you’re useless.”

he throws his hands up, “okay, what can i do to help you, miss grumpy-pants?”

there’s a beat, and something flashes in lexa’s eyes, as if she’s trying to consider her decision, before she grabs lincoln by his collar and drags him outside to their backyard. she releases him when they get to the wooden fence that separates their property from jackson’s, and then lexa announces, “we’re climbing over.”

“what?” lincoln exclaims, wondering if lexa has lost her damn mind like anya. she says nothing in response, only climbs the fence and hops over to the other side easily.

“lincoln, hurry up!” he hears from the other side, and he sighs defeatedly before doing the same.

there are a few identical lawn chairs on the patio, and he can hear jackson’s dog barking from inside the house, while lexa’s looking into one of the kitchen windows.

lincoln asks, his voice hushed, “we’re breaking in? why the hell would we-”

“we’re not stealing anything,” lexa shakes her head. “we just need to make it look like a break in.”

“why would we,” he begins to ask, but his sister is walking away from him and towards the lawn chairs. he sighs again, hoping she can sense his disapproval to whatever the hell this is they’re doing, but lexa only carries one of the chairs with a determined look on her face.

“break the window,” she orders, putting the lawn chair down in front of him. lincoln furrows his eyebrows at her, confirming in his mind that lexa has indeed gone crazy, like anya. she tilts her head at the window, “break the window,” she repeats. “you wanted to help me, remember?”

he deliberates for a moment, before picking up the lawn chair and glancing at the kitchen window. “stand back,” he says, and lexa does, before he tosses the chair into the window, breaking the glass and unexpectedly setting off the alarm.

the shrill noise seems to wake lexa up in whatever mood she was in two seconds ago, because her eyes are wide and she gasps, “oh shit,” as if suddenly realising what they’ve done. she turns to her big brother, “okay, now we run!”

sinclair is barking at the broken window and at the noisy alarm as they hop over the fence like teenage criminals and run back inside their house.

nobody in their street calls 911, and lexa assumes it’s because they must think it’s just jackson’s security alarm being annoyingly faulty again, and it isn’t until jackson himself comes home from work that the alarm is turned off and police are arriving at the scene.

they investigate around the house and just as lexa expects, they become incredibly confused when they realise nothing has been stolen from him. the police come over and ring the doorbell, with the intent of asking if they’ve noticed anything, and lincoln is standing in the kitchen, tense and barely breathing as he listens to lexa opening the door.

“good afternoon,” an unfamiliar voice greets, “i’m officer shumway, and i’d just like to ask a few questions about the house next door, is that okay?”

lincoln listens to lexa’s answers, “yes, i was home all day. i didn’t notice anything odd at all. yes, i heard the alarm going off, but it’s been like that since last week and i thought jackson was home. no, this is a quiet neighborhood, this stuff usually doesn’t happen too often. yes, officer, thank you.”

the door shuts and he hears a click, and lincoln releases a shaky breath as lexa appears in the kitchen. she asks, reaching for an apple on the island counter, “you okay?”

“you do know that lying to the police is illegal, right?”

lexa rolls her eyes, “don’t overthink it. they’ll probably think that someone tried to break in then got spooked by the dog or when the alarm went off.”

he flails, “what if they find your fingerprints lexa? shit, what if they find mine?! i can't go to prison- i haven't even finished the last season of the walking dead-”

“-you’ll be one of the walking dead if you don’t shut up, lincoln.”

“why did you do that?! why did you make me do that?!”

“because..” lexa blinks, apple in hand, “because if he moves out, clarke will come back with more tenants because she’s the letting agent and i’ll see her again.”

lincoln stares at his younger sister incredulously, “you did this for a girl?!”

“hey! she isn’t just some girl-”

“-i did something illegal for you just so you can see a girl again?!”

“like i haven’t done shit for you, lincoln, what the hell-”

“-i can’t go to prison!”

“nobody is going to prison!” lexa lets out a breath, “we’re fine, the worse case scenario is that he’ll find out and he’ll sue us, it’s fine-”

“-that’s fine?!”

“you know what the fuck i mean!”

silence falls in the room, and lexa is suddenly laughing.

“oh, come on, lexa. i was hoping for you to stay sane, since anya’s already fucking crazy.” lincoln dramatically frowns. “what’s so funny?”

“he’s not getting his deposit back.”

two days later, anya is standing on the front porch and she watches as jackson takes boxes into a moving van and drives off without so much as a glance back.

indra is outside, tending to her flower garden and she comments, “that is the third time someone has moved out of that house in two months.”

.

just as lexa expects, clarke does come back and has new, potential tenants looking around the house once the kitchen window is replaced. what she didn’t expect, was for clarke to come over while she wasn’t home.

clarke has the house locked up and the tenants promising to call by the end of the week with their decision when she’s sitting in her car and deliberating whether to get out and go talk to lexa. it has been more than two weeks since they ran into each other literally, and since clarke gave her her phone number, and lexa still hasn’t called.

(lexa, lexa, lexa, with the striking green eyes and long, curly hair, and the gorgeous smile and the breathtaking laugh and the-)

she’s avoiding me, she thinks, i was too forward and now i scared her, fuck.

she taps her fingers on her steering wheel before sighing, “fuck it,” and getting out of her car. clarke makes it to the front door without incident, and she’s gnawing on her bottom lip nervously when she rings the doorbell and waits for lexa to answer it.

only it isn’t lexa who opens the door, it’s a tall, blonde young woman, raising her eyebrow intimidatingly. “can i help you?”

clarke falters, “is.. is lexa here?”

“nope, she’s at work,” anya answers, then she smirks slightly, “and you are?”

“clarke, clarke griffin. i’m a..” she hesitates, “friend, i guess. i was just dropping by, thanks.” clarke gives her a final, curt nod before turning around and walking briskly to her car, cursing at herself.

she’s avoiding you, she thinks, as she starts the car and drives away.

.

lexa is exhausted when she gets home that night, and she’s generally unresponsive to anya’s questions during dinner. she replies with a grunt at most, or she doesn’t reply at all. but at the mention of clarke griffin, she looks up at anya, “she went here?”

her sister nods casually, pretending like this isn’t a big deal at all. “yep, i get it now.”

“get what?” lincoln asks before funneling food into his mouth.

“i get why you’ve got a boner for her,” anya smirks at her little sister, “she’s hot.”

lexa chooses to ignore that comment and presses on to more important questions. “what did she say? did she ask about me?”

“no, she was asking about the value of the house.” anya deadpans and lexa visibly deflates. “i was joking, for fuck’s sake. she asked about you, then looked like she was gonna cry when i said you weren’t here.”

“you didn't even get her business card? or like, a surname or something so i can at least facebook stalk her?”

“hey, relax, hannibal. we're not the one interested in banging her.”

lexa’s silent for the rest of the meal until they’re finished, and lincoln is gathering the plates when she groans loudly and puts her hands on her face. “she probably thinks i’m avoiding her.”

anya croons from the kitchen, “ah, the drama of young love.”

“something you’ll never experience again since you’re old?” lincoln laughs.

anya calls out, “well, thank fuck for that.”

.

in the next few days, their new neighbours move in, and not once does lexa see clarke again.

there are three girls this time: monroe, harper and fox.

monroe is the first one they meet, she’s athletic and always has her hair up in braids and in ponytails. harper is monroe’s sister, who has lighter hair and darker eyes. lexa almost always sees them arguing as they walk up their driveway. fox is the quiet one, who only watches the two sisters argue, and only interjects when she feels necessary.

they’re all college students, attending the same community college that nathan miller had attended, and they manage to live next door to the woods’ for nearly four weeks.

they would’ve lasted longer than that, but after two weeks of moving in, the doorbell rings at the dead of the night, followed by a loud bashing on their front door.

monroe is pushed by her sister and her roommate to open it, and she reluctantly unlocks the front door before peeking out of it, only to find nobody standing there. “hello?” she calls out, and she’s about to step outside to investigate until she steps on something that is definitely not their welcome mat.

there’s a dead cat on their front step, along with a note, ‘you are not welcome here’, scribbled messily with a sharpie.

anya finds out about this the next morning, when the girls’ come over and ask about it. she’s home alone, and she had originally intended to sleep the day away because, why not, but she groans as she walks up to open the front door.

“what?” anya tries not to growl when she sees that it’s her new neighbours standing in front of her. they’re nice, they don’t bother her much and they don’t seem to be the type to have really loud alarm systems or wild parties late at night. well, they were nice until now.

“um, hi,” harper greets a little hesitantly, “we found a dead cat on our front porch last night, along with this.” she holds up the note, and anya squints her eyes to read it.

“and..?”

“and,” monroe asks, “do you have anything to do about it?”

anya blinks, “you found a dead cat and a note that says you’re not welcome here and the house next door is your primary suspect?”

“well,” monroe grimaces, “we just- this has never happened to us before so we don’t really know what to do about it. does it happen here often?”

“nope, good luck.” and with that, anya shuts the front door and and trudges upstairs to her room.

when lincoln comes home and goes to see if anya’s okay, she tiredly mentions that their new neighbours came over for a short visit.

when he asks why, anya replies, “dead cat. front porch.”

“they found a dead cat on their front porch?”

anya hums, “now go away.”

much later, when lexa walks into the house exhausted from not getting enough sleep the previous night, lincoln is waiting for her in the living room.

he greets her with, “lexa, did you kill a cat?”

“what?” she yawns.

“the house next door received a dead cat.”

“oh,” lexa nods casually. “yep.”

“you killed a cat?!”

“no, idiot,” lexa rolls her eyes and sets her bag down on the floor. “it was roadkill i saw last night.”

lincoln’s eyes nearly bulge out of his skull, “you picked up a dead cat and left it on our neighbour’s porch? that’s even worse!”

things are quiet in mount weather street for a while, and one afternoon, lincoln is playing his xbox and lexa is sitting on the couch, searching ‘clarke’ on facebook and hoping to come across the one she’s been thinking and dreaming about, when anya storms in with a huff.

“they fucking dented my car.”

lexa doesn’t look up from her laptop, scrolling slowly while staring the search results. she asks, with a blank look on her face. “who dented your car?”

“monroe,” anya seethes. “she didn’t even apologise. just shot that fucking football and dented my car, then ran inside the fucking house.” she sits on the couch next to lincoln, she mutters as she crosses her arms, “i will burn that fucking house down.”

“no,” lincoln sighs, pausing his game. “i’ll go talk to them.”

“i can talk to them-”

“-calmly.” he throws his older sister a glare.

lexa pipes up, eyes still glued on her laptop screen. “or i could just give them more vague threats and dead animals.”

“lexa, no-”

anya sits up from where she’s sitting, a maniacal grin on her face, “lexa, yes!”

monroe, harper and fox would have lasted longer than four weeks in that house, if lexa and anya hadn’t threatened lincoln to drive around town for more than two hours just to find more roadkill.

anya’s the one writing the note that night, and when lexa reads it, she scraps the piece of paper. “you can’t say that, anya.”

“i can’t say ‘fuck you for hitting my car’?”

lexa’s scribbling on the paper, as lincoln watches helplessly. “yes, because they’ll know it’s us.” she replaces the cap on the sharpie as lincoln reads over her shoulder.

“‘we’re coming for you’,” he reads. “we are?”

“no, but they don’t know that.”

the girls are gone by the end of that week, and anya’s car is still dented.

.

the house is empty for another few weeks, and at this point, lexa is slowly accepting the fact that she’ll never see clarke again.

(or if she does, who says clarke wants to see her again?)

during one particular weekend, she’s moping in her room dejectedly, her ipod plugged into her speakers, katy perry’s voice singing about the one that got away, a perfect song for this very situation, and lexa’s singing quietly along when lincoln comes barrelling into her room.

he begins to drag her off the bed and lexa exclaims, “what the fuck, lincoln?”

“we are baking cookies,” is his only reply, pulling her down the stairs to the kitchen.

the ingredients are laid out on the kitchen counter, anya is examining the mixer suspiciously as though she has never come across one, and lexa asks, “why are we baking cookies?”

“because,” lincoln responds, taking the mixer from anya, “there's the new girl named octavia next door and i'm pretty sure i am in love with her.”

“you saw her for five seconds,” anya scoffs, “you just want to bang her, like lexa wants to bang that clarke girl.”

lincoln ignores his older sister with a roll of his eyes, “so,” he asks, “oatmeal, chocolate chip or what?”

lexa sighs resignedly before stepping closer to the counter. “who the fuck likes oatmeal cookies?”

“me!” anya perches herself on one of the stools, silently declaring that she will not be taking part in the baking process, only the eating part, “me the fuck likes oatmeal cookies.”

lexa does most of the work, since lincoln is useless when it comes to baking and she manages to whip up two batches of chocolate chip cookies and one batch of oatmeal cookies for anya, the weirdo. they both help lincoln pick out a shirt to wear before they pack up the cookies and head next door. (read: lexa helps lincoln pick out a shirt while anya eats cookies and gets crumbs all over his bed, then she proceeds to throw them the peace gesture before going upstairs with her oatmeal cookies as they’re walking out the front door.)

“she’s gorgeous, you’ll see,” lincoln mumbles to lexa as they’re walking up the driveway of 95 mount weather street.

they ring the doorbell and a few seconds later, the door opens and there’s a blur of blonde hair and-

“clarke?”

“lexa!” clarke’s surprised to see her, after such a long time. she glances at lincoln and grins at him.

“i’m lincoln, lexa’s brother.” he holds out his hand and clarke shakes it firmly. “we brought cookies, as a sort of welcome to the neighbourhood.”

raven appears behind clarke, “ooh, cookies,” she exclaims, taking the box from him, “i like this place already.”

clarke laughs, ushering them into the house. “sorry, raven’s a complete weirdo. i’d like to apologise now for all the things she’ll probably do.”

raven doesn’t object, only funnels chocolate chip cookies in her mouth. she glances at lexa, then remarks, “you’re that girl clarke has a crush on.”

“raven!”

lexa’s eyebrows shoot up, “what?”

“sorry,” raven smirks, “i meant to say clarke spilled coffee on, but those are the same things.” she tilts her head in the direction of the stairs, “yo, octavia! come downstairs!”

“no,” clarke huffs, glaring at her best friend. “i will not be subjected to this right now.” she links her arm with lexa’s and takes her to the kitchen, just as she hears octavia’s footsteps stomping down the stairs. “sorry about them, they can get embarrassing.”

“you have a crush on me?” lexa marvels, and her heart feels like it’s going to fly out of her chest.

clarke stammers, her cheeks suddenly feeling warm. “well- i wasn’t- you weren’t-” she looks up and lexa’s smiling at her. “what?”

“the feeling is mutual.” wow, what an awkward thing to say, she thinks. lexa clears her throat, “i mean, i like you too. that way.”

“really? why didn’t you call?”

she frowns, “my phone got eaten by a dog of one of the tenants of this house.”

“monroe and the girls didn’t have a dog..” clarke mumbles, then confusion clears up off her face. “oh, jackson? the one who moved out after someone broke into the house?”

“yep,” lexa remembers that one particularly annoying neighbour. “nobody broke in,” she corrects, “they just broke a window.”

clarke’s eyes narrow, “jackson told me that nobody in the neighbourhood knew about the broken window. how do you know?”

“lincoln and i broke it. so he’ll move out and i could see you again, because i lost your number.” lexa blinks, realising how creepy that must sound. “sorry, i really, really wanted to see you again.”

clarke tries to stop it, but she ends up bursting out in laughter. “why didn’t you just ask jackson for my number?”

lexa’s mouth falls open.

(seriously, why didn’t she think of that?)

.

anya’s looking for her phone charger and she walks into lincoln's room, expecting her brother to be home. she finds his room empty, and decides to barge into lexa’s room.

“anya!”

anya blinks and sees a half naked clarke on top of lexa, both of them are flustered and trying to cover up. “i am looking for lincoln,” she mechanically says, not quite sure what to say.

lexa glares from where she’s on the bed, “this is my room!”

“where is he?”

clarke is the one that answers, “next door, with octavia.”

anya lets out a little humph, before shutting the door and going downstairs. she suddenly stills when she finds a dark haired girl sitting on the kitchen counter, eating her oatmeal cookies. “who are you and who said you could eat those?”

“raven,” the girl responds nonchalantly, “and nobody,” she smirks. “are they yours?”

“yes,” anya hisses, narrowing her eyes. “don’t you live next door? why are you here?”

raven nods, before swallowing a mouthful of cookies. “it was either listen to octavia and lincoln have sex, or listen to lexa and clarke. i picked them.”

“why?”

“octavia’s a screamer. do you have netflix?”

anya’s eyes are still narrowed, but she nods. “bring the cookies.”

raven grins as she hops off the counter, box of cookies in hand, and obediently follows anya into the living room.  

.

(“you don’t even feel weird that your sister just walked in on us?”

“nope,” lexa shakes her head, “she’s seen worse,” she mumbles before reattaching her lips to clarke’s neck.

clarke lets out a quiet moan, “how much worse?” she feels lexa’s hands squeeze her ass once more.

“how about i take your bra off, and then we can have this conversation later?”

“sounds good.”)