Tag: fic rec
Made a moodboard because I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started this fic.
Pictures of You
Someone posts college photos of Clarke and Lexa on Facebook, and now
they have to deal with the feelings they’ve repressed for years. And the
20 year college reunion draws near…
Clarke stretched out on the sofa and groaned with relief. Her legs
ached after a long shift that had kept her running and on her feet most
of the day. The prospect of an evening on the couch with a couple of
cold beers and American Ninja Warrior had helped her power through the
last few hours. She scrubbed her hands over her tired eyes and pulled
her hair down from its bun. She twisted off the beer cap and took a sip
as she flipped on the TV to see a would-be ninja splash on the spin
cycle. Shit, it’s half over.Princess Clarke: Hey O, just got home. What’d I miss?
Clarke and Octavia had started texting each other while watching
the show to mock the cheesy commentary and goofy competitor costumes; it
had turned into a routine.O: This course is so brutal. Spin Cycle is taking everybody out. How was work?
Princess Clarke: Long. Uh oh, heartwarming story!
O: Oh shit. I’m going with…cancer?
Princess Clarke: Nope. Inspiring kid story.
O: Damn.
O: We are horrible people.
Princess Clarke: Eh. It’s not like we’re betting on it. Ooh, Jessie Graff’s up next!
O: Ok, keep your lady boner in your pants :p
Princess Clarke: Shut it, she’s a badass. And hot. Don’t you judge me.
O: lol ok, Princess
Clarke rolled her eyes at the nickname. Squeal at a snake on the pavement one time
and end up branded for life. She set the phone down and migrated to
the kitchen to scrounge a snack. She rummaged through the cupboard with
a sigh. She really had meant to eat a real meal tonight, but
it had been another wearing day and snatched potato chips from the
vending machine had been so much simpler. Longer hours at work the last
few months had spelled more missed workouts and fewer healthy meals.
She absently rubbed her belly under her tshirt and grimaced. Tomorrow I’ll go to boot camp, she promised herself. She settled on a bag of cracked pepper popcorn and returned to the TV.She sank onto the couch and scooped up her phone again, raising an eyebrow at the flurry of texts from Octavia.
O: Holy shit
O: OMG this is awesome
O: Are you seeing these, Clarke??
O: LMAO oh crap, I’d forgotten all about that!
O: Clarke, where are you?
O: Clarke! CLARKE! You’ve gotta see this.
Princess Clarke: Jesus, O, what? It’s on commercial.
O: NO—are you on fb? Go look
Princess Clarke: Ok
Clarke bemusedly switched over to facebook. If this is that cat dressed like a shark riding a Roomba video again, I’m going to smack her. She straightened a bit and frowned quizzically at the red number on her feed. Eighteen notifications? What the hell? The number jumped to twenty as she watched. She clicked on the tab.
[Harper McIntyre tagged you in a photo.]
Eighteen times.
Jesus, Harper? Her college roommate freshman year. They hadn’t
gotten along so well at the time and had only lived together the one
year. Harper had bonded with the other suburban trendy girls on the
hall—Clarke vaguely remembered much squealing to an impromptu Grease
dance party in their room—but Clarke hadn’t really fit with their
group. Not enough fashion sense, for one thing—or caring about fashion
sense, at least. On a hall full of nerds, Clarke had gravitated towards
the supernerds and other pseudo misfits, like Octavia and Octavia’s
roommate, Raven. But facebook and the passage of time had lent some
perspective. She’d never actually disliked Harper—they just
had never really understood each other. And Clarke realized her own
seventeen-year-old awkwardness had been a big part of the tension. So
when Harper inexplicably sent her a friend request a year or so back,
Clarke hesitantly accepted and was glad she had. Until maybe now.She clicked on the first photo. “I’m cleaning out some boxes and
thought I’d share these photos before our 20th reunion! Love you
Monroe 3rd East ladies! Please tag anyone I’ve missed!” A group shot
of a dozen or so girls in skirts and dresses of varying floral print
patterns popped up. Oh lord, that pre-Thanksgiving dinner in the upstairs attic. God, Laura Ashley threw up on all of us.
She scrolled to the next, another group shot of eight guys in
almost-matching denim shirts and khakis, posing with puffed-out chests
and pool cues. Wow. That’s that dude Mike who bought us booze.
And Atom, that guy from my Physics class I totally had a crush on for a
hot minute. And—holy shit, is that Lincoln? She snickered.Princess Clarke: OMG, did you see this one with the guys? Is that Lincoln? He’s such a baby!
O: I KNOW! Oh, C, I’m totally digging out some photos. Just wait.
Clarke winced. Harper’s photos were innocuous enough, but Clarke
was far better friends with Octavia. Meaning that Octavia undoubtedly
had more…compromising…material of her. She paged to the next photo,
another group pose, this time a Halloween shot in the hallway foyer.
Harper and—was that Fox?—crouched in the foreground, scowling in
football uniforms and eyeblack, looking fierce. Clarke smiled and
scanned the other faces. Raven, still a gymnast then, wearing cat ears
and a choker collar. Gina, beaming in a flapper dress and long beaded
necklace. Ontari…less said about her the better, Clarke thought wryly.
Her eyes fell on the next face in a Mary Poppins dress holding an
umbrella and her breath hitched. Lexa. She glanced at the photo tags. She and half a dozen others were tagged, some with their married names, but not Lexa.[Octavia Forrest tagged you in a photo.]
Clarke
gulped and clicked on the new link. Three grinning faces popped up,
posing in a dorm room doorway wearing lime green facial masks. Clarke
guffawed and slapped her hand over her mouth. Octavia, Raven, and Lexa.**August 1994**
There was a peck on the door. Clarke groaned inwardly and closed her
book. Please don’t let this be Anya again about another stupid
orientation mixer. Because after how uncomfortable she felt at the first
one, she’d sworn she wasn’t going to another one, no matter how much
Anya cajoled her. She’d found the public library a couple of days ago
and had borrowed a nice selection of murder mysteries so she could hole
up in her room and skip out on the next batch of mixers. She glanced at
the empty bed on the other side of the room. Not Harper, then. She
leaned over the edge of the loft bed and peered around the corner at the
door. A slim girl in shorts and a long-sleeved button-up with the
sleeves rolled to the elbows poked her head in. Thin, round metal
glasses perched on her nose and a mane of brown hair curled wildly in
the humidity.“Um, hey, a few of us are going to walk down to the Food Lion to get ice cream. Your door was open, so…you wanna come?”
Clarke cleared her throat. “Isn’t it raining?”
“Not much.” The girl glanced over her shoulder and then leaned
in in a lower voice. “Octavia’s boyfriend dumped her this afternoon and
Raven—her roommate—thought this might cheer her up. But if you don’t
want to go out in the rain, that’s cool.” She turned to walk away.“No, wait!” Clarke never did know what prompted her to close the
book and shuffle down from the loft, but in the years to come she was
so glad she had. “I wanna come. I’ll, uh, meet you downstairs?”“Ok. I’m Lexa, by the way.”
“Clarke,” she offered shyly. “Let me just get my shoes on.”
ReallyGroovyNinja 