#bol asks

I think it’s safe to say they found each other attractive 🤔 both physically and emotionally. They have a sort of competitiveness and intensity to them they don’t have in the same way with other people, an appreciation for how the other works. To say it plainly, they just get each other, seem to wear the same type of weight on their shoulders. Weren’t afraid to call each other out or disagree. They understood each other so there was always a kinship there.

I would say in a way it was less “oh I’m super attracted to her” and more “oh I could be attracted to her…” and a baseline acknowledgment of “she’s exactly my type, but nothing is ever happening 🤷🏽‍♀️” that resulted in them automatically keeping a bit of a distance with each other, something they didn’t feel the need to do with anyone else (and also, at least in the case of one of them, compartmentalizing and trying not to ever think about it). Not necessarily because they let themselves consciously worry that it could develop into something, but because they could both sense something deeper there than was wise to explore. They were friends. Lexa and Costia were happy together, and that was that. Clarke was happy for them. That was how it had always been and they couldn’t imagine that changing.

I think that happens a lot in real life. People don’t magically stop being attracted to other people when they’re in a relationship; it just doesn’t matter, because you choose who you are with and you choose whether or not you let something grow where it shouldn’t. Choosing anything other than loyalty to Costia was never an option for either of them. It likely could and would have been much different, had Clexa somehow spent as much time with each other alone as they are now, but they didn’t.

But when you’re suddenly thrust together on a journey through life—when you’re both grieving together, both scared together, both healing together—well, things can change.