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“Hey, do you remember when we met?” Clarke asked out of the blue. It was a little late, the two of them had dinner a couple of hours ago and right now they were on the couch in front of the TV, watching One Day At A Time on Netlfix; it had been a long day for both of them, and they both needed something a little light-hearted that would make them laugh. Clarke was lying on the couch with her head on Lexa’s lap, unsure herself where that question even came from.
“How can I forget?” Lexa replied, a small laugh escaping her lips at the thought. “You walked into my crime scene like you owned the place and refused to leave until I fell in love with you.”
“Pfft,” Clarke scoffed, bringing herself up to sit up straight. “More like how you wouldn’t let me leave until you got into my pants.”
“Yes, because jumping through all the hoops and talking to everyone I could to get you out of the station was me not letting you go.”
“Playing hard to get.” Clarke offered with a small smile. “You thought it would make me actually want you.”
“Clarke, every morning I walked into the precinct for the first year of you working with us,” Lexa started slowly. “I prayed you wouldn’t be there.” She shook her head with a small smile but doing her best to hide it – she can’t really believe how much she didn’t want to see Clarke every morning and now she can’t imagine that. “But you were always there, at my desk, with two cups of coffee.” She paused for a second, continuing jokingly, “And you already wanted me, I didn’t have to do anything.”
“Ah, so you couldn’t stand me for only the first year,” Clarke nodded to herself. “Because I recall it taking…a lot longer…before you said anything….about i-” She spoke a little hesitantly, almost waiting for Lexa to stop her.
“No,” She shook her head, “Only the first year because after that I knew there was no point in hoping for you to disappear.” Lexa tried telling her, doing her best to pretend after a little while she didn’t walk into the bullpen expecting to see Clarke with her coffee.
“Ah, okay.” Clarke nodded, pretending to agree with her. “How many times did you try to get rid of me, anyways?” She thought for a moment before asking.
“Too many,” Lexa replied. “I lost count after…the second year I think.”
“So you didn’t miss me when I left for the summer after our first year as…partners?” She raised her eyebrows slightly.
“You left that summer?” Lexa asked, tilting her head slightly, “I didn’t even notice.” Yeah, no that was a lie; that first year working with Clarke was something Lexa would never forget, sure there were ups and downs and she did her best to try and not enjoy it but…let’s face it, that was hard to do with Clarke around. So when she left for the summer to write, a part of Lexa thought she wouldn’t be coming back and she’s not really sure how she felt about that back then. She had thought she would be relieved to have her gone but if anything, the summer that followed was pretty bleak without her. Clarke swatted her on the arm jokingly, bring her out of her thoughts. “What? It was a decade ago.” Lexa received an eye roll at that. “No wait, I do remember.” She corrected herself. “I had way less paperwork in those couple of months.”
“So is that all I am to you?” Clarke asked, feigning hurt. “Amount of paperwork?”
“Well…” Lexa shrugged lightly. “You did get yourself almost killed…countless times.” She continued. “So that was…a lot of paper work for me…”
“Do my near death experiences mean nothing to you?” She pretended to be offended, narrowing her eyes slightly as she looked at Lexa. “And not to mention, a lot of them were because I was saving your ass.”
“That’s what I mean,” Lexa responded, “You kept doing really dumb things that got me stuck behind a desk for much longer than I’d like to be.”
“Okay, I didn’t know saving your life and solving murders that even New York’s finests couldn’t solve was considered dumb things.” Clarke knew this hit a nerve every time, Lexa didn’t like being reminded Clarke had solved cases for them – not that it annoyed Lexa anymore, they were memories both of them cherished more than anything. But the detective part of her didn’t like the fact that a mystery writer could solve cases her and her team couldn’t.
“You didn’t solve anything,” Lexa scoffed anything, receiving a glare from Clarke, “Okay fine, maybe you helped us solve a couple of cases.” Clarke muttered a small sarcastic uh huh before Lexa continued, “But we would’ve managed just fine without you.”
“Sure babe,” Clarke nodded sarcastically. “Keep telling yourself that.” She rolled her eyes slightly before they fell silent again and Clarke relaxed against Lexa, both of them going back to watching the episode they were on right now. “Can you imagine if we never met though?” Clarke asked after a moment of silence, not looking away from the screen.
“I would have a lot less paper and no one to annoy me at work for about ten years?” Lexa suggested, her eyes not moving from the screen either.
Clarke let out a sigh, “You’re impossible, you know that?” She asked rhetorically and Lexa only tilted her head to kiss the top of her head. “I still love you though, I don’t know why.”
Lexa hummed against her, “I love you too,” She responded quietly. “I don’t know when that happened,” She continued absentmindedly, “But I’m glad it did.” The two of them fell silent again after that, content with being in each other’s arms after a long day of work.
It was a little crazy really; how they had come from that first meeting. Clarke was…a pain to say the least but Lexa’s not sure whether she changed or whether Lexa just grew fond of her exactly how she was. Or maybe it was a bit of both. But she couldn’t deny – not now, not even back then – Clarke was fun to work with; and when you had a job as dark as solving murders, a little fun was always welcome. Clarke was childish and silly and never took anything seriously; everything was always a joke with her, and Lexa couldn’t stand it – stand her – not even for a moment. But the more they worked together, it got better, they got along better – well Clarke was always fine with working with Lexa – Lexa learned to let loose a little, let Clarke in a bit more. And Clarke…she changed too, she was still the fun and light-hearted person Lexa grew to fall in love with; but she learned to take things a bit more seriously now, the important things like Lexa and whenever she needed to be at work.
They had come a long way, a really really long way from Lexa dreading seeing her in the morning to looking forward to coming home to her wife. The last ten years were definitely a ride for both of them; working together, Lexa slowly growing to like working together, Clarke realizing she wanted a lot more than to just get into the detectives pants – as Lexa’s mentioned before. It took a long time, yes, and it wasn’t the easiest thing for them to get where they were now, but neither of them would change it for the world.
“You walking into my crime scene ten years ago was the best thing that happened to me.” Lexa said quietly.
“Yeah?” Clarke looked up at Lexa, not moving.
“Yeah,” Lexa nodded. “I never thought, after so many years, it would lead to this.” She took Clarke’s hands in her’s, intertwining their fingers as she looked down at the wedding bands on their fingers. “It’s still unreal.” She muttered quietly, her brushing over’s Clarke’s ring.
“I know.” Clarke replied. “It’s crazy how things work out though, isn’t it?” She asked Lexa as she looked up.
“Yeah,” Lexa nodded with a smile. “For anyone out who doesn’t believe in fate, I think we’re living proof it’s a real thing.” She told her. “How else do you explain a writer walking into a cop’s crime scene ending up with them falling in love and getting married?”
“It’s one hell of a story.”