Chapter Text
Lexa should have seen it coming, really.
Clarke had come home to their apartment, and the first thing Lexa could smell from the couch where she had been studying was her favorite Chinese takeout from the restaurant only a five minute walk away.
(If anyone asks, the takeout place did not affect Lexa’s decision when it came to finding an apartment to live in for their senior year.)
(Clarke knows it absolutely did - even if Lexa refuses to admit it.)
She should have seen it coming because Clarke knows Lexa was planning to cook tonight, and Clarke never complains when Lexa cooks - which is honestly way too often due to the blonde’s lack of skills in the kitchen.
It should have been obvious when Clarke let Lexa pick what DVR show they should catch up on as they had dinner because Clarke always insists on watching the newest episode of Game of Thrones even when Lexa disagrees and says they need to watch something less intense for the night.
But instead of taking notice to any and all of it, Lexa had merely given Clarke a look when the girl flashed her innocent smile before giving in by tucking away her textbook and scooting over to make room for Clarke on the couch.
Which is why Lexa almost chokes on the last of her sesame chicken when Clarke says, “I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend at my mom’s wedding next weekend.”
“I’m sorry,” Lexa says when she’s managed to swallow her food without dying. “What was that, Clarke? Because there’s no way I heard correctly.”
Clarke grimaces, placing her empty takeout box on the coffee table that sits in front of them. “I may have made a bet with Bellamy when my mom got engaged.”
The brunette suppresses an annoyed groan and an eye roll at the hesitant statement that comes out of her best friend’s mouth. Although she’s only met Bellamy a handful of times, she knows he and Clarke have a tendency to always compete against each other, having been best friends since Clarke had met Octavia in the first grade. She likes the boy, she does, but he and Clarke being in the same room together - with or without Octavia (Lexa isn’t sure which one’s worse, to be honest) - usually ends up with stupid decisions and competitions.
“What did you bet, Clarke?” Lexa deadpans, trying her best not to let the annoyance be heard in her tone.
“Well,” Clarke huffs, crossing her arms like a child. “He said there would be no way I’d ever be in a real relationship by the time my mom gets married. I told him I definitely could,” she explains with exaggeration that Lexa can’t help but find slightly endearing. “We shook on it.”
Lexa quirks an eyebrow. “So you want to lie to Bellamy?” she asks for clarification. “Does the winner even get anything?”
“But Lexa,” the blonde practically whines. “Bellamy just gets so annoying when he wins. He gets that stupid smug attitude about everything and doesn’t shut up about winning.”
“I’m not helping you cheat,” the pre-law student tells her with a scoff. “And anyway, why can’t you get Octavia or Raven to help you?”
“Bellamy wouldn’t believe it. He’s known all of us practically our whole lives.” Clarke points out. “Anyway, Octavia would rat me out and Raven would be a terrible girlfriend.”
“He knows me.”
“Not well enough.”
“This is crazy.”
“No it’s not. It’s just you helping your best friend.”
“Clarke.”
“Alexandria.”
Lexa narrows her eyes. “Don’t use my full name on me.”
“Come on,” Clarke pouts, blue eyes looking so soft with the dim lighting of the room. “You’ll get a free road trip and also free food for a weekend.”
It’s silent for a few moments as Lexa mulls over her options. She knows the whole idea is stupid; Bellamy and Clarke have been at it for years and it’ll only be a matter of time before they find something else to bet on. Yet Clarke does have a point - she was basically getting a free vacation out of it.
(Maybe Clarke’s insanely blue eyes and begging look also sways Lexa, but she doesn’t say so.)
“Plus,” the pre-med student adds with a mischievous voice. “You get to prove Bellamy wrong. I know you like doing that.”
Perhaps Lexa does, in fact, like proving Bellamy wrong. There may have been a few quarrels - or heated discussions, as Lexa likes to call them - between the two of them in the few times they’ve met. It’s cheating, kind of. They’re not actually going to be dating, but still. The appeal of Bellamy thinking that once again Lexa has proved him wrong is too good.
Lexa wrinkles her nose. “I guess pretending to like you for a weekend wouldn’t hurt.”
(It was never going to be a no.)
(It never is, not when it comes to Clarke.)
//
“And you said yes ?”
Lexa cringes at how loud her sister’s voice gets by the end of her question. She had already known Anya would react this way, and she was really planning to avoid the conversation but when Anya asked Lexa what her plans were this weekend she’d already blurted it out before she could even stop herself.
“It’s not that big of a deal An,” she insists, moving the phone slightly away from her ear. “It’s just Bellamy. He just gets so cocky when he wings anything against Clarke. It’s so satisfying to prove him wrong.”
“No Lexa,” Anya’s voice goes back to her normal tone. “It’s not just this Bellamy kid. You’re going to her mom’s wedding. That means you have to fool every single person attending this wedding - all of Clarke’s friends in attendance, her mom, the soon-to-be husband…”
Lexa just blinks when Anya finishes speaking because she hadn’t thought of that. She hadn’t realized that her and Clarke were out to fool everyone, not just Bellamy. Honestly, Lexa was just trying not to think about it with all the assignments and tests being thrown at her. Now here she is, just days away from lying to everyone.
She’s lying to Octavia, who at first was skeptical of Lexa and the way she exudes confidence, but quickly bonded with her as time went on.
To Raven, who shamelessly admitted Lexa is “so hot it’s a miracle Clarke hasn’t hooked up with her,” and welcomed her into their circle without hesitation.
To Abby, who - despite meeting each other only a few times over the years - has insisted time and time again if Lexa ever needs anything, just give her a call.
“Lexa, are you there?” her sister asks on the other end when Lexa doesn’t reply after a minute or two.
“Yeah,” she answers, running a hand through her tangled hair. “I’m here. I’m just...thinking.”
“Why’d you say yes, Lex?”
The young brunette doesn’t repeat her reasoning from earlier. She knows Anya’s asking for something more, something deeper. Except this time, she doesn’t know what Anya wants her to say.
(Saying no to Clarke has never been a thing for Lexa.)
(She wonders if Anya has caught on.)
“She’s my best friend,” Lexa manages to reply.
Anya lets out a long, drawn out sigh. “Be careful kid. Things like this never end well.”
Lexa ignores the turning of her stomach at Anya’s words.
//
Clarke’s been looking at Lexa every now and then since they started their four hour drive out to Arkadia. Lexa pretends she doesn’t notice, instead opting to check her phone or look out her passenger side window at cars and roads and basically anything but Clarke. There’s music from Clarke’s road trip playlist she’d made in the week leading up to the trip, and although it’s providing upbeat sounds, all Lexa can feel is the utter guilt of what she’s agreed to.
Not even an hour into the trip, Clarke breaks the silence.
“You’re being weird.”
Lexa doesn’t look away from her window. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Clarke takes her eyes away from the road to look at Lexa for a moment. “You don’t want to do this anymore.”
She frowns, turning away from the views of cars to face Clarke. “It’s not-”
“I can tell,” the blonde says quietly, eyes back on the road. “You’ve been weird the past few days. I bet you’ve been re-thinking your decision to do come with me.”
“Clarke,” Lexa sighs, letting her shoulders drop as she glances at the girl who watches the road. “You know this isn’t just Bellamy we’re trying to fool. It’s everyone. It’s Raven, Octavia, your mom .”
“I know Lexa,” Clarke says calmly, switching lanes to overtake the prius going much too slow for her liking. “My mom already thinks we’re dating with the ungodly amount of time we spend together.”
“What?” Lexa gapes, staring at Clarke as if she’s grown a second head.
The blonde shrugs, still keeping her eyes focused on the road. “When I told her I was bringing a date to her wedding she was a little overly excited. Before I could even give her any more details, she said it was about time we got together.” She turns her head and flashes that lopsided smile Lexa can’t help but adore when it comes. “She totally loves you, you know. Maybe even more than me.”
The brunette gives her a skeptical look, trying to process all of this information. Abby already thinks they’re dating. She thinks Lexa and Clarke are together. She thinks because they spend so much time together there’s no other explanation than they’re dating.
It’s ridiculous, of course. Best friends always spend time together, don’t they?
At least, it makes perfect sense to Lexa.
“Oh god Clarke,” Lexa gasps. “What if Abby finds out we’re faking it? We’re going to ruin her whole wedding.” She throws her hands in the air, panic filling her insides as she imagines a distraught Abby when she realizes Clarke isn’t dating anyone at all.
“Lexa.”
Clarke’s voice is steady and strong, much like the girl herself. Her right hand immediately reaches out, grabbing Lexa’s wrist gently to stop it from waving around. Her grip on Lexa is firm, and she turns away from the road again to look at the brunette. Those cerulean eyes stare at her so intently that Lexa’s convinced she could come apart with a single glance. Except she doesn’t. In fact, it’s got quite the opposite effect.
“It’s going to be fine,” Clarke murmurs, looking back to the road for a moment before returning her attention to Lexa. “No one’s going to find out. No one.”
Her thumb runs across the skin on Lexa’s wrist, knowing it’ll get her best friend to calm down. She slowly guides Lexa’s arm back down, letting the girl’s hand rest on her knee. Clarke doesn’t release her hold on the girl, easily steering with one hand as she continues to run her thumb across Lexa’s wrist.
“Okay,” Lexa breathes, leaning back into her seat and closing her eyes. “And if they do?”
She’s still concerned, but Clarke’s steady strokes manage to keep her worries at bay. Lexa feels Clarke’s gaze on her again so she turns her head slightly and opens her eyes to see the blonde give her a wink.
“They won’t.”
When she spots the easy smile Clarke flashes at her, the stuttering of her heartbeat finds a steady rhythm once again. It’s a smile that has almost everyone charmed when they meet the pre-med student. It’s the smile Clarke gave Lexa the first time they met their freshman year, when Lexa grunted something about calculus being stupid and Clarke heard her from two seats away.
“Well we better get our story straight,” Lexa informs her, offering a hint of a smirk.
“But we’re not straight,” Clarke jokes, her smile widening out into a grin.
Lexa tries her best to be annoyed, but instead a full laugh escapes her lips paired with “Come on, Clarke.”
(Clarke doesn’t release her grasp on Lexa until they finally make a stop an hour later.)
(Lexa doesn’t mind. They’re best friends.)
(She should know this is trouble.)
//
Four hours and a few stops later, Clarke’s driving them into a rather nice neighborhood. Lexa’s known Clarke’s expenses have never come as a problem, really. She knows Abby works at the highest ranked hospital in Arkadia and all the surrounding cities, and that her father was an engineer before he passed.
“Mom should be home right now,” Clarke informs Lexa as the car slows when they navigate around the neighborhood. “Kane might be too, I don’t really know.”
Lexa merely nods, taking in the big houses and the pretty front lawns with shiny cars parked in the driveway. From what Clarke’s told her, Marcus Kane is also an engineer of some sort and worked with Jake Griffin for years. In Clarke’s perspective, he sounds like a nice man.
(A nice man she’s about to lie to, she doesn’t remind herself.)
“We’re really doing this,” Lexa muses as Clarke pulls into a driveway of a nice-looking two story home. She feels her nerves growing as she stares longer at the house. She has to pretend to be Clarke’s girlfriend.
Clarke kills the engine, shooting Lexa an honest gaze. “You can say no, Lexa. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I’m not going to force you.”
(Except Lexa can’t say no when Clarke asks.)
(Clarke hasn’t caught on yet.)
She looks at the blonde, and she’s afraid to see what that face will look like if she says no. She wonders - for a fleeting moment - what would happen if she freaked out and told Clarke there was no possible way she could go through with this.
“We should really get out of the car,” she tells her instead, unbuckling her seatbelt before she adds, “ babe .”
There a flicker of worry that comes across Clarke’s features before she relaxes with grin. “I love you, Lex. You’re the best, you know that?”
Lexa lets out a soft laugh, shaking her head. “Don’t thank me yet, we’ve got to get through this weekend first.”
(She ignores the way her heart beats faster at Clarke’s words, almost like she’s hoping they mean more than they do.)
“Clarke! Lexa! You’re here!” Abby exclaims as she approaches them once they’ve made their entrance into the house.
The house is extremely nice on the inside, Lexa notes, except it’s not over the top. Even though it’s much nicer than what Lexa’s used to, there’s still a sense that it’s home and not just a house to Clarke and her family. Abby’s looking comfortable in yoga pants and some old t-shirt Lexa figures is from one of Clarke’s high school fundraisers from back in the day. There’s the smell of something sweet cooking in the kitchen, and she feels somewhat entranced by the whole scene playing out in front of her.
“Hey Mom,” Clarke smiles, allowing herself to be engulfed in Abby’s embrace as she drops her bags.
Lexa can’t help but smile as she watches the mother and daughter. She knows Clarke is rather close with her mom, a big part of that following the death of Jake Griffin. They had just become friends with it happened, but Lexa held Clarke tightly and let the girl cry as much as she wanted on her. She didn’t make promises she couldn’t keep, but she’d whisper Clarke’s name gently like a prayer when she would begin to calm down. She’d seen the progression of Abby and Clarke’s relationship after that, watched as Clarke was more careful, made sure to call her mom and visit home often.
Lexa wishes she still had that - at least one parent to come home to.
Abby finally releases Clarke, who lets out a dramatic grunt. She turns her attention to the brunette and her grin only grows wider. “Lexa, it’s so nice to finally have you in Arkadia.”
“It’s nice to finally see where Clarke grew up,” she replies, giving Clarke a teasing smile when the blonde rolls her eyes.
The doctor then wraps her arms around Lexa, and the brunette waves off Clarke’s look of concern. She’s not big on affection, but something about Abby feels motherly and right. Lexa hugs her back, letting herself revel in the way this interaction doesn’t make her feel uncomfortable in any way.
“Mom let her go, she needs to breathe,” Clarke jokes.
Abby laughs, full and bright just like Clarke often does, and drops her arms. “I’m sorry, it’s just so nice that you two are together now. I was just telling Marcus earlier that it was only a matter of time.”
At this Lexa freezes, having already forgotten that she was here as Clarke’s fake girlfriend, not as her best friend. She feels a hand slip into hers and lets herself be tugged towards a smiling Clarke. Clarke’s hand is warm and somehow she fits in the spaces between Lexa’s fingers perfectly. Lexa’s voice is stuck in her throat as those thoughts cross her mind, but Clarke comes with a quick reply.
“Yeah well, it’s a miracle that Lexa finds me more interesting than her law books,” she teases, an amused look on her face when Lexa glares.
Something about the way Clarke eggs her on helps her find her words.
“I never said I did,” she jabs right back, quirking an eyebrow at her.
Abby gives Lexa a look of appreciation. “She has fire in her, sounds like a keeper Clarke.”
Clarke looks at Lexa, blue eyes giving the girl every reassuring look she doesn’t realize she needs until suddenly she’s relaxed. “Yeah, I think so too.”
(Lexa ignores the way she can’t seem to quite catch her breath from the words Clarke speaks.)
Abby smiles at the response, watching the way Lexa flushes and Clarke grins between her alleged girlfriend and her mother. “Well, you two go ahead and get settled in Clarke’s room. Marcus will be home in about an hour.”
Clarke drops her hand to carry both her and Lexa’s bags for the weekend, and Lexa wordlessly follows her up the stairs.
(She tries not to notice how her hand feels cold without Clarke holding it.)
“We made it through my mom,” Clarke says as soon as she shuts the door behind them.
Lexa only gapes at her. “Are you kidding? I completely froze when she mentioned that we were together.” She unceremoniously plops onto the end of Clarke’s bed, her face a mess of emotions.
The blonde shakes her head, leaving the bags on one side of the room as she makes her way over to Lexa, gently taking her place next to the girl . “She believed it,” she states confidently. “That’s all that matters.”
When Lexa’s worry lines don’t disappear from her face, Clarke wraps an arm around her. She pulls the taller girl close, rubbing her side gently. It makes Lexa relax lean into Clarke, allowing the comfort she offers.
“This weekend’s about to be a mess,” Lexa mumbles into Clarke’s hair with a sigh.
Clarke only chuckles. “It’ll be exciting.”
They stay like that for awhile, Clarke continuing to run her hand up and down Lexa’s side and Lexa not even thinking about asking her to stop. They share moments like this often - where they don’t need to talk and just appreciate each other’s presence. Lexa appreciates moments like this, where she can just be without having to speak.
//
Marcus Kane is indeed a nice man.
He’s a tall man perhaps in his early fifties, but he wears the age well. His dark hair is hardly even beginning to grey, and his face holds a shadow of a beard. There are slight wrinkles on his face, but despite them he looks very handsome for his age. When he turns to Lexa in greeting, she can see kindness in his eyes and smile. It warms her heart.
“So you’re Clarke’s mysterious girlfriend,” he chuckles, sticking a hand out.
Lexa can feel Clarke’s eyes on her, wondering if she’ll freeze again.
This time she doesn’t.
“I’m not so sure about mysterious,” she admits with a laugh, giving his hand a firm shake. “But yes, I’m Lexa Woods.”
“Well it’s definitely nice to meet you Lexa Woods,” he grins at her. “I’m Marcus Kane, but you can just call me Marcus.”
Lexa feels herself breathing a little easier after their introduction. He does seem like a good man, and the way he’s already joking with her has the girl smiling. She allows Clarke to lead her to the dining room, where she sits next to Clarke, with Abby and Marcus across from them. She takes a look at the plates on the table, taking in the delicious scent of it all.
“Everything looks so good,” she tells Abby, smiling when she sees Abby’s look of appreciation.
Clarke grins at her. “Mom’s cooking is so good, Lex. I’ve told you it’s literally one of the main reasons I come home.”
Lexa rolls her eyes, but she’s appreciative of Clarke beside her making conversation flow. “Leaving me alone on those weekends - thanks for reminding me.”
“Seeing your mother isn’t enough?” Abby challenges, giving Clarke a raised eyebrow with a threatening expression to go with it.
At this Clarke’s teasing softens and she offers her sweetest smile. “The food comes with seeing my mother, of course.”
Marcus laughs, low and gruff. “Good save, Clarke.”
Lexa smiles at the whole interaction, enjoying the company of Abby and Marcus as well as feeling relaxed with Clarke by her side and looking so in her element. Clarke’s right - Abby’s food does taste delicious, and Lexa tells her so immediately after swallowing her first bite. Clarke grins at her with an encouraging expression and reassurance in her eyes, helping Lexa breathe a little easier.
She finds herself more relaxed as dinner continues. Abby and Marcus are more concerned with how the girls are doing in school than their relationship, and for that Lexa is grateful. Halfway through dinner, Abby mentions something about “always knowing you two would end up together,” and the brunette tenses slightly, eyes widening just a bit while Abby looks down at her plate as she cuts her meat. Not even a moment later there’s a warm hand on Lexa’s jean-covered knee, and she turns slightly to see Clarke’s pretty blue eyes reminding her that she’s not in this alone, that Clarke is right here with her.
“It’s okay,” Clarke mouths, hand still pressed on top of Lexa’s knee.
Something inside of Lexa relaxes when she meets Clarke’s gaze and feels the warmth of Clarke’s hand on her knee. It’s an immediate reaction that happens every time Clarke fixes one of her warm and soft looks towards Lexa, the one that Lexa swears is reserved for the brunette’s moments of panic. She still doesn’t understand it - how Clarke is able to calm her down with just a glance.
Often she brushes it off as something best friends do.
//
Lexa’s teeth are freshly brushed and she’s dressed in her pajamas as she walks out of Clarke’s bathroom. The rest of the dinner had gone well, and after insisting that she help clean up (to which Abby insisted it was fine and that they should get some rest) Clarke and Lexa had trudged up the stairs side by side back to Clarke’s bedroom.
“You don’t mind sharing a bed, right?” Clarke asks as she places her phone down on her nightstand, looking up to pay attention to Lexa. “I know it’s smaller than the ones back in our apartment, but it’s from when I was younger.”
Lexa only shrugs. “It’s not like we haven’t shared a bed before.”
And it’s true, the two of them have shared a bed on a number of occasions. When they’re drunk and tired, too lazy to make it to separate rooms and instead stumble together to the room closest to them (usually it’s Clarke’s) before collapsing onto the sheets. When they’re crashing at a friend’s place and there’s not enough beds and couches and sleeping bags and general floor space for everyone to get their own. Hell, they’ve even shared a couch together once.
It’s normal, best friends do that.
Clarke takes her answer with a nod of agreement and pulls the covers, climbing in. She pats the spot next to her, grinning widely at Lexa. “Come on then, my wonderful girlfriend . ”
(Lexa’s heart most definitely doesn’t stutter at the way Clarke calls her “girlfriend.”)
She lets out a laugh, easy and light as she rolls her eyes but still makes her way over.
(Lexa can never say no to Clarke.)
“I wouldn’t say I’m a wonderful girlfriend,” she admits with a tentative laugh as she situates herself under the sheets. “I couldn’t even string together words when your mom or Marcus first brought up the words ‘girlfriend’ or ‘together.’”
“Hey,” Clarke frowns when she notices the critical slight scowl Lexa wears. She knows it well. “Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“You know what.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Lexa huffs.
There’s a slightly annoyed expression on her face, but Clarke’s lips are tugging at an endearing smile Lexa misses. “You just need to get used to it, that’s all,” she reasons. “You were fine after awhile.”
“After you calmed me down,” Lexa mumbles without meaning to.
She hopes Clarke didn’t hear it.
Clarke pulls a gentle smile. “Yeah,” she nods. “When I calmed you down.”
The brunette meets her eyes and the soft look Clarke is giving her suddenly makes Lexa feel like she’s much too close and too warm to be under these covers, sharing this bed with another person.
“Just...if you start to freak out, look at me,” the pre-med student instructs her. “You’re not alone Lexa, I’m here.”
Lexa nods, because Clarke’s right. She’s always there.
She was there when Lexa failed her first exam in her life their freshman year, bringing her a cupcake and iced tea just the way Lexa liked it the next day.
She was there when Lexa was too sick to even do so much as move their sophomore year, skipping classes (though Lexa told her not to) in order to nurse her back to health.
She was there when Lexa got her heart broken by Costia their junior year, filling the freezer with ice cream and letting Lexa pick whatever they wanted to watch without hesitation.
And now, senior year, she’s here reassuring Lexa that she’s fine, nothing is wrong, she can do this.
“Okay,” Lexa says in a voice only slightly above a whisper.
“Okay,” Clarke answers in the same tone. “Let’s go to sleep, I know you’re tired.”
Lexa nods, and she comfortably slides the rest of her body under the covers. She can hear Clarke shuffles out of bed to turn off the lights before returning under the warmth of her bed sheets.
Clarke’s phone keeps buzzing every two seconds with new messages filling her phone.
“Are you going to get those?” Lexa asks, eyeing the buzzing phone before looking at Clarke.
The blonde makes a small frown before shaking her head. “They’ll be there in the morning. It’s just Raven and Octavia.”
Suddenly, Lexa frowns. She looks at the clock on Clarke’s night stand, knowing it’s a little early for college students such as themselves to go to bed. She feels a tinge of guilt. “If they want to see you, you can go Clarke. I’ll be fine here.”
“It’s fine, Lexa.” Clarke tells her, voice close as they lay on their back side by side, staring up at the dark ceiling above them.
“I know you don’t get to see them much these days.”
“It’s not me they want to see,” Clarke chuckles. “It’s you.”
Lexa raises an eyebrow, shifting so she can see Clarke’s still figure. “What?”
Clarke moves, mirroring Lexa’s position so they face each other.
(Lexa doesn’t think about how close they are. She doesn’t think about the way she can see Clarke inhale and exhale.)
“They can’t wait to harass us about dating.” She rolls her eyes in the dark, but Lexa can still see how blue they are. “I didn’t want to tell them who it was. I was going to let them wait until tomorrow night’s rehearsal dinner, but they’re persistent.”
“Of course,” Lexa snorts, knowing Clarke’s right. She doesn’t think she’s met anyone nearly as determined to get what they want as Raven and Octavia.
“Anyway, they can wait. I need my sleep. We’ll meet up with them tomorrow for lunch or something,” Clarke explains before she returns to lying flat on her back.
Lexa nods. “Sure.”
She drops her hand, letting it fall into the sheets before turning so she’s sleeping on her other side. Her back is to Clarke and Lexa can already feel the heaviness of her eyelids pulling her to sleep. Except her heart is still not settled from how close in proximity Clarke was to her. And this isn’t something that should be spectacular to her.
This is Clarke Griffin, her best friend.
“Goodnight Lexa,” Clarke mumbles, already half asleep.
“Goodnight Clarke,” she replies, waiting for sleep to take her.
(If she dreams of those blue eyes, she doesn’t remember.)