Work Text:
Clarke kept a casual eye on the 2 pm art class she was subbing in for as a favour to Lincoln. He also coached the school’s hockey teams and he would have struggled to get to the tournament on time if he taught as usual.
It wasn’t a problem for Clarke - her last class of the day would be her senior AP biology at 3 pm, and she’d always enjoyed drawing. Plus it meant that Lincoln owed her a favour, something she was looking forward to cashing in.
The class itself was quiet, the scratching of pencils filling the room and a low murmur of conversation as the students chatted to each other. She relaxed back into her chair, surreptitiously checking her phone underneath the desk as the time dragged a little.
She had multiple texts from her mother, telling her that the chief at her hospital was willing to consider her for a position if she ever decided to finish her residency.
Which she was never planning on doing.
Ever.
It wasn’t that Clarke hated practicing medicine; she was pretty apathetic towards the whole career honestly, only that attitude doesn’t mix well with the demanding, stressful hours and the emotional toll it took on her.
Teaching was stressful as well, but she actually enjoyed it and liked to think she was pretty good at it.
The clock hit 3:45 and Clarke stood, collecting the work and handing out compliments as she did so. She left the work on Lincoln’s desk for the next day and followed the students out of the room.
The hallways were packed but she made it to her usual room on time, finding some of her students already loitering inside.
Clarke raised an eyebrow at Raven who was sat casually on her desk, “Something you need Raven?”
Raven slid off the desk with a smirk, “Just wondering when we’re getting that pop quiz that’s been sat on your desk, in the open, for the entire day.”
Clarke groaned.
She knew she’d forgotten something in her bag.
Raven smiled and leaned forward a little, “S’alright Miss G, I won’t tell any of them.”
Clarke shook her head and leaned against her desk, knowing full well that Raven will have already told Octavia.
Raven seemed to discern what she was thinking, “Well, I won’t tell any more of them. You know, apart from O. And Niylah.”
Clarke shooed her away from the desk and towards the rest of the class, “You’re lucky your smart Reyes.”
Raven lit up at the compliment, sidling back towards Octavia and Niylah who were smiling innocently.
Unbelievable.
She wasn’t overly annoyed about them knowing about the pop quiz. Raven was already way above the intelligence needed to ace the exam. Niylah was quiet but studious and would easily pass regardless, and Octavia was best friends with both of them, and so had the advantage of near constant study groups.
She had a good group of kids in the class. Sure, Finn was nearly always staring at her chest, and Murphy was always a step away from starting an arguement, but they shut up and listened to her when she spoke and seemed to genuinely like her.
Nathan Miller seemed like the only one with a true interest in biology, but Monty was terrific at science in general. Raven was - from what Clarke could gather from Jasper the physics teacher - some kind of physics and engineering prodigy, but listened in class all the same.
She cleared her throat, “So first of all I want to remind you that those group presentations are next week,” unified groaning from the class pulled a smile from her, “I know, I know, but Principle Kane says we have to put participation into the grade so I’m stuck, guys. Try not to stress about it too much, if I can tell you’ve done your research and actually tried, you’ll get a good grade, I hated giving presentations so I’ll go easy on you.”
She moved to stand in front of her desk, shifting her weight onto her right more, “So last week we were nearly finishing protein structure and-”
“Excuse me, sorry.”
Clarke looked over to the open door to find a woman stood there in smart dress pants and a fitted shirt, her hair loose and tumbling gently over one shoulder. Her eyes were a vivid green as they fixed on Clarke’s, an apologetic grimace on her lips.
Clarke stared.
Raven started laughing unsubtly, and Clarke blushed and pulled her eyes back up to the woman’s face.
The woman stepped further into the room, “Lexa. Lexa Woods, I’m the new Politics teacher?”
It had been a long time since Clarke was left speechless by a beautiful woman, in fact Clarke can’t remembering it ever happening to her.
And yet.
Niylah coughed helpfully and Clarke licked her lips, “Yes, sorry. Anya’s replacement. Can- what can I help you with?”
Lexa seemed embarrassed, avoiding looking at the students as she answered, “Marcus didn’t actually tell me where my classroom is, just walked me there. I left to get something to eat and can’t seem to find my way back.”
Clarke relaxed somewhat, leaning back into her desk and crossing her legs, smoothing out her skirt as she did so. She eyed Lexa’s slender neck and smooth jawline, deciding it wouldn’t be a bad thing to help her out.
Co-worker support and all that.
She smiled a lopsided smile and watched Lexa’s ears turn pink at the tips before turning back to her sniggering class.
“I have worksheets up here on my desk, textbook pages 150 to 180 should help you. Raven can get the worksheets, she seems to have familiarised myself with the contents of my desk already.” She grinned as Raven snorted, and then glanced at Lexa, still waiting patiently by the door, “I’m just going to help out Miss Woods here, I’ll be back soon.”
Ignoring Lexa’s protests, she ushered her out of the room and into the empty corridor.
Lexa frowned, “You could have just given me directions, I didn’t mean to interrupt your class.”
Clarke scrunched her nose, “This place is a maze, who knows what could have happened if I didn’t take you myself?”
Lexa laughed, “Well thank you for rescuing me. Does my savior have a name?”
Clarke didn’t break stride as she shook Lexa’s hand, thumb smoothing over soft skin briefly, “Clarke Griffin. Biology teacher. Occasional hero.”
Lexa seemed acutely aware of Clarke’s interest, because she immediately blushed and took her hand back, refusing to meet Clarke’s gaze.
Most women would be put off by such a response.
But Clarke Griffin is nothing if not a trier.
She did back off though, not wanting to push Lexa and add more stress to her first day. Plus, she had no idea if Lexa was even into women.
“So how has your first day been?” The walk to the history and politics classrooms wasn’t a short one, and Clarke had no idea how Lexa had gotten so spectacularly turned around but she wasn’t about to complain about the company.
Lexa smiled, glancing at her briefly out of the corner of her eyes, “Tiring.”
Clarke nodded, “Alright, Eeyore. Have you met many of the other teachers yet or is it down to me to make what is no doubt an excellent first impression?”
Lexa rolled her eyes, “Not many. I met one of the history teachers, Bell...ini? No, Bell something, last name Blake.”
Clarke snorted, electing to exclusively call Bellamy “Bellini” for the next month.
Lexa watched her laugh with a pleased smile, “I’m not certain I made a good impression.”
Clarke bit her lip and watched Lexa’s smile fade a little as her eyes flicked down to it.
Lexa licked her lips before clearing her throat. Clarke felt a little smug, I guess we know if she’s into women.
Clarke approached the stairs and looked at Lexa, “Bellamy Blake. What did you say to him? Did you insult his hair? He’s very sensitive about it.”
Lexa wore a pained smile, “I may have argued extensively with him about whether it’s most beneficial to honor an alliance at the risk of your people or save your people first. He wasn’t pleased with my opinion.”
Clarke huffed a laugh, “Wow, an argument on the first day? Brave.”
She watched as Lexa’s lips twisted into an honest-to-goodness pout as she scowled, “It’s not brave. His opinion was wrong. I was correcting him.”
They were approaching the classroom, only ten minutes late to the start of Lexa’s class, and Clarke didn’t want to end the conversation so soon, “You don’t think he’s entitled to his own opinion?”
Lexa shot her a look, “Of course he is.” A small smug smile formed on her lips, “I was simply educating him on his incorrect opinion.”
Clarke laughed, “How noble of you.”
Lexa still had a pleased smirk on her face, and Clarke reluctantly looked away to point her towards the classroom, “This is you.” She hesitated and then pulled a pen from where it was tucked into her messy bun, jotting her number down on a confused Lexa’s hand. She offered Lexa a small smile, just a twist of her lips, “In case you need saving again.”
Lexa stammered before straightening up, taking the pen in her own hand and jotting a number on Clarke’s hand in return. Clarke was aware of the pleased but inquisitive expression on her face, and Lexa shrugged, “No reason, just thought you might want it.”
Clarke’s jaw dropped a little, and Lexa checked her watch and swore softly, “I am so late for this class. Thanks again.”
With that she headed into the classroom. Clarke practically skipped back to her own classroom, finding Raven already finished with her own worksheet and working on filling out Octavia’s.
The class hushed when she walked in, but naturally Raven zeroed in on the back of her hand, where black numbers were scrawled into her skin.
“Not a word, Raven.” The girl didn’t look too put out at having her fun taken away, instead settling for shooting her an impressed look and sitting down at her desk.
Clarke perched on her desk, “Where were we?”
It was Friday. Classes had just finished for the day and Clarke was looking forward to her weekend.
Her weekend full of marking pop quizzes, but her weekend nonetheless.
First though, she opened her classroom door to let in the students for the GSA meeting.
She took issue with the name, considering the wide spectrum of sexualities and gender identities they had, but Kane decided the whole idea would be less confusing for parents if they kept it short and simple.
Clarke didn’t think they should be catering for the parents; it was the students she was looking out for, but her boss’ decision was final and so the GSA was born. It was Clarke’s own little project, set up after accidentally mentioning her bisexuality in class once and being bombarded with questions.
It wasn’t a huge group, mostly kids from her classes and their friends, but she felt bizarrely overprotective of each of them.
Raven was the first to arrive, sauntering in with Octavia and laughing. Niylah followed them both in, shooting a quick smile at Clarke as she did so.
Monty shuffled in next with Miller, having a quiet conversation between themselves. Harper and Zoe Monroe - both juniors - also arrived, snacking on chocolates.
Clarke was surprised to see John Murphy attend - he had gone to the first ever meeting and then never returned until now - but she smiled at him anyway and he shocked her by responding with a small smile of his own.
“Okay guys, I know we said we’d have a movie or something today but I want to check first if there’s anything anyone wants to -”
“Hi, sorry.”
Clarke looked over to the door so quickly her neck cracked a little, her jaw hanging a little slack as she saw Lexa stood there.
Clarke smiled slowly, “We have got to stop meeting like this.”
Lexa offered her a wide grin of her own, her cheeks bunching adorably for a moment before she turned around to speak to who Clarke guessed was a student behind her.
Clarke took the time to let her hair out of its bun and muss it up a little bit, smoothing down her long t-shirt and running her tongue over her teeth.
Predictably, Raven and Octavia noticed her obvious primping, and outright laughed at her efforts. She shot them both identical glares but the smirks never left their faces.
She and Lexa had only texted a few times, mostly general information about work and the rest of the faculty, but this was the first time since that monday that she had seen her.
She looked back towards Lexa who was nudging a younger boy - a freshman, Clarke would guess - into the room, “This is Aden Willows, my nephew.”
Clarke tried not to make her surprise obvious, “Willows? Like Anya’s son? You’re her sister?”
Lexa nodded with faux disappointment, “Unfortunately. Anyway, I heard from Niylah that you run the GSA, she said I should come along. I’m guessing she didn’t think to tell you.”
Oh she thought about it all right, she just decided not to. Scheming little shits, the lot of them.
Clarke ignored the poorly muffled laughter from behind her and gestured for them to enter, “Pull up a chair, we can do some basic introductions and then maybe watch a movie if we don’t have anything specific to talk about.”
Aden sat down next to Lexa, bright red in the face, and Clarke was glad when Lexa raised her hand in the air.
Laughing, Clarke addressed her, “Yes, Miss Woods?”
Lexa grinned, “My name is Lexa, I identify as female, I teach politics here at Ark High School and I’m a massive lesbian.”
Raven choked on her drink with laughter and Clarke couldn’t help laughing along. Lexa was clearly trying to make Aden feel more comfortable, and from the tiny smile on his face it had worked.
Clarke went to introduce herself next, “Clarke, female, biology teacher, former frat party keg-stand champion and quite exceedingly bisexual.”
Her description roused some cheering from the assembled students, and she bowed in acknowledgment of her achievement, hearing Octavia cackle from beside Raven.
The introductions went around, finally landing on Aden who had come out of his shell enough to speak, “Aden Willows, I’m a freshman, male, and I think I’m bisexual. Maybe.”
To her surprise, it was Murphy who turned in his chair to give the boy a fist-bump, and Clarke wondered if she had perhaps underestimated him.
“Okay, so does anyone have anything to ask?” There was a comfortable silence in the room, and Clarke shrugged, “Movie it is. How do we feel about Captain America?”
There was a general murmur of agreement around the room, so she started the movie, dimmed the lights and made her way to the back of the room to sit next to Lexa. Aden had moved to sit next to Murphy, while Octavia was practically sat in Raven’s lap.
Clarke wasn’t sure if they were dating, but she wouldn’t be surprised to find out they were.
She sat down in a plastic chair next to Lexa, immediately swinging her legs up to rest on the desk in front of her.
Lexa smiled in greeting and raised an eyebrow at Clarke, “Frat party keg-stand champion huh? Impressive.”
Clarke laughed quietly, “Oh you have no idea.”
Lexa kept her stare for longer than would be considered friendly, and Clarke enjoyed looking at the reflection of the screen flashing in Lexa’s eyes.
Lexa’s eyes which were currently scanning her body slowly, dragging down and across her curves in the most obvious case of leering Clarke had ever seen. She let her have her fun before clearing her throat, watching with amusement as Lexa’s eyes jumped back up to meet hers.
Lexa swallowed, “So, how come I’ve been told I have to dress smart-casual or formal, and you can show up to work in leggings and a long band t-shirt?”
“When your mother has been friends with the principle for over twenty years and you’ve known him personally since you were three, you get away with a lot more.”
Lexa tilted her head but returned her focus to the movie.
Clarke paused for a moment before speaking again, “For what it’s worth? You really rock the smart-casual look.”
Lexa ducked her head and even in the dim light of the room, Clarke thought she could see a blush dusting across her cheekbones.
Pleased, Clarke sat back in her chair and settled in to watch the film. Throughout the next few hours, their chairs shifted closer together until their shoulders were brushing and Clarke could feel Lexa breathing.
When the movie was over, the students got up to leave. Aden came over to tell Lexa that Anya was picking him up, and she gave him a quick hug before he left. Clarke was comfy where she was however, and with the room till darkened she was loathe to move.
Lexa stood up once everyone else had left the room and held a hand out to Clarke. Groaning, she took it and was hauled up to her feet.
Lexa shifted a little, and her close proximity made Clarke feel a little dizzy, “Would you be opposed to me coming to more of these meetings? I know it’s your thing but-”
“I’d love it.” Clarke internally kicked herself, “I mean, it would be nice.”
Lexa grinned and moved closer, “Nice?”
Throwing caution to the wind, Clarke pressed against her slightly, “Mhmm, really nice.”
Lexa took a sharp breath before pressing her lips to Clarke’s, moving a hand up to pull gently at the back of her neck. Clarke sighed into her mouth, enjoying the soft push of Lexa against her and cupping her jaw with one hand, rubbing her cheek gently with her thumb.
She opened her mouth a little to capture Lexa’s bottom lip between her own, and hummed into the kiss as she ran a tongue along Lexa’s lip. Lexa gasped in response and moved even closer, her other hand running down her back to grasp at her waist tightly and Clarke knew she had to breathe but really didn’t want to stop doing this-
“Hey Miss G- oh, my bad.”
Lexa jumped away from Clarke comically quickly, stuttering out an excuse and a promise to text Clarke before making a swift exit.
Clarke tried to contain her groan but wasn’t sure if she was entirely successful, considering the legitimately guilty look on Raven’s face as she lingered near the door.
Clarke rolled her eyes to the ceiling and took a deep breath, reminding herself that interrupting her hugely enjoyable kiss with a fellow teacher was not a valid reason to be angry at a student.
Regardless of how outrageously hot said fellow teacher was.
She sighed and looked over to Raven, “Yes, you needed me?”
Raven still looked guilty but answered anyway, “I was just saying, would you be up for organising a group trip to Pride over the summer? For a lot of us it’s our last year, it would mean a lot if we could experience it together.”
Clarke smiled, “I’m sure we could get something sorted.”
“Awesome,” Raven grinned and turned to walk out, “Oh, and Miss G?”
“Yes, Raven?”
Raven’s smile turned wicked, “Way to pull, I’m impressed.”
Clarke laughed and nodded, ushering Raven out of the room and switching off the lights before locking the door.
“But seriously, you’ve known her like, five days. You’ve got game-”
“Okay, Raven, thank you. I’m a little insulted at your lack of faith and the general tone of surprise but I’ll take it.”
“Don’t get me wrong Miss G, I knew you had it in you, but five days-”
“Raven.”
“Right, sorry.”
The next time she had her senior AP biology class was the following monday, and Clarke walked in still deliciously sore from the night before. She’d felt she’d done a stand-up job of covering up the copious number hickeys on her neck, but it turns out Lexa has a thing for marking, so it’s entirely possible she missed one.
Suffice to say she practically skipped into the classroom that morning, or she would have if she wasn’t struggling to walk without a limp.
She likes to think she hid it well.
She reached her desk and removed the presentation marking sheet from one of the drawers as the class filled up behind her and yawned as she leaned against her desk. Raven and Octavia walked in attached at the hip as usual, and for once Niylah was talking intently with Murphy instead of walking with them.
She smothered another yawn, trying but failing to completely regret Round 5 the night before, and smiled at the class.
“Presentation day guys! I bet you’re all super excited.”
She received various responses, most of them heavily dosed with sarcasm, and she laughed at them, “I know, I know. I’m sorry. But let’s just get it over with, yeah?” She glanced down at her presentation list, “First up we’ve got Raven, Octavia and Niylah.”
They grimaced but stood and made their way to the front of the class, organising their notes and props while Clarke moved to stand to the side. There was a polite knock on the door and Clarke frowned but opened it, immediately smiling when she saw who was stood there.
“Well look who learned to knock.”
Lexa smirked and rested sideways against the open door, “I’ve learned a lot of things recently.” She kept her voice to a low murmur, just the sound of it bringing back memories and giving Clarke goosebumps.
Apparently not quiet enough to go undetected by her nosy students however, as Clarke rolled her eyes when she heard Raven cracking up behind her where they were stood at the front of the group.
Clarke turned around, “I hope you’re ready over there.” She yawned, “Sorry, I’m really tired today.”
“Would coffee help?” Lexa was holding out a thermos to her, and Clarke bit her lip against a smitten grin as Lexa ducked her head and whispered, “Sorry, we were kind of in a rush this morning-”
“Mhmm, your fault, I told you we didn’t have time.”
Lexa held up her hands, “And this is my apology.”
Clarke grasped the thermos like a lifeline, “Thank you, honestly… and thank you for, you know…”
“The multiple orgasms?”
Clarke swatted her arm and shooed her out of the doorway, leaning into the corridor a little, “Yes, those.” She smiled hopefully, “Text me later? I know a great diner nearby...”
“It’s a date.”
Clarke restrained the urge to fist-pump like one of her students and re-entered her classroom, ignoring the smug look on Raven and Octavia’s faces. She took a sip of the coffee and hummed with happiness, “Sorry about that ladies, you can start anytime.”
She loved her job.