#clextober21

You can't tell her intricacies from your subtleties in your half-slumber, but you know it was worth it. Always worth choosing a quiet night alone with her over the noise and smoke of your friend's party.

You'll debate the finer points of your exhaustion with her in the morning over coffee and pancake kisses. 

The sound comes again just as you're slipping back into pumpkin spiced dreams, and it's enough to have you damn near growling as it registers exactly what you're hearing. 

"God, not again. Go away, Raven," you groan as quietly as possible against your girlfriend's chest. 

Three more taps. "Open the door, Clarke."

"No. Bed."

"Please," Raven whispers back, sickly sweet and just as quiet. "I wanna have some fun."

Easing around in Lexa's arms to lay on your other side, you squint and blink against the strip of light spilling from under your door. You take a second to glance at the clock on your table, silently cursing the universe and your roommate when it reads a little after half past three in the morning. 

"You're drunk, babe," you sigh with a lazy rub of your eyes. "Just go to bed and sleep it off. We'll do brunch or something tomorrow."

"But I wanna show you guys something," Raven pleads with a quiet laugh, her words followed by a few more taps. "Open the door."

You frown as your girlfriend rolls away with a sleepy sniffle and the sudden loss of body heat shifts your annoyance to full aggravation. 

"Stop it and go to goddamn bed," you whisper in a harsh rush. "Lexa is sleeping."

"I'll be so quiet."

"No! She's fucking naked, Rave."

A low chuckle has you frowning even further as another series of taps click against your door.

"I won't peek, I promise," Raven says as the annoying tap of her nail continues in a rapid beat and grows louder.

"What is wrong with you?"

"This is important… Open the door."

Finally hitting your threshold of bullshit for the evening, you fumble for the edge of the blanket and whip it off. You ignore Lexa's whine of complaint as your feet hit the freezing wooden floor of your bedroom and stomp across the room.

"Raven," you gnash out through gritted teeth, "you are drunk, and annoying the shit out of me. What. The hell. Do you want?"

"For you to open the door, Clarke."

Slapping a hand against your thigh at the sharp snap of her words, you relent. "God dammit, fine." 

Chest heaving and hands ready to lay themselves in an entirely ungodly way over the backside of your roommate's head, you turn in semicircles and peer through the blackness of your room in search of the sleep shirt that'd been slipped off your body and tossed aside earlier. 

"Now, Clarke."

"I have to find clothes, Raven," you grunt as you struggle to pull on a pair of Lexa's boxers from her drawer. "In case you missed the giant fucking clues, we were both kind of naked in here. And sleeping. Before some rude asshole started--"

"Clarke. Stop."

The tapping slows. 

Stops.

Your hands freeze at the hushed whisper from behind you. Something in the tone of it leaves your fingers poised just against the light switch. Your palm against the knob you were about to turn.

"What, Lex?"

It feels so long before she answers. 

"There's no shadow."

You pull away from the door and turn to look at your girlfriend, searching her with eyes finally adjusted to the night and finding her sitting up straight. Her legs hang over the edge of the bed where she's now perched, narrow-eyed, staring, and tense.

She's not looking at you, though. She's looking to the floor across the room. And you follow her line of sight when she motions to the door beside you. 

"Look," Lexa whispers so quiet you can barely hear it. "... There's no shadow."

The unbroken beam of light glares up at you. 

You jump as a sharp thump slams against your door. 

"Open the door, Clarke," Raven snaps.

Another slam of a fist. Another jump.

You feel your heart kick against your ribs, racing faster than you ever remember it beating at the hollow gravel of your roommate's voice. She's never sounded like that, not once, in your three years of living together and every nerve in your body winds tight. 

An icy chill runs over you as your eyes flick back and forth between the gap at the floor and the door handle.

"I really think you should go to bed now, Rave," you breathe out in a tremble that runs head to toe. 

Silence settles around you. 

The air grows static and every hair on your arms stands on end.

"... And I really think you should've opened the fucking door."

You fling yourself at the door just as the handle spins sideways and clicks open. 

The pressure pushing against your hip and shoulder has you grunting as you fight and shove back. A growl vibrates through the door, guttural and sickening as it licks at your ears.

Your hands burn with the effort to turn the handle back shut as your fingers scramble with the lock that just will not clear the damn opening inside the wall.

The world tilts with a sudden lurch as something solid slams into you. 

Sandwiches you between it and the door, but the momentum is enough to thankfully give you that extra centimeter you need.

Satisfying in how it feels gliding at your will, the lock finally, finally, clicks into place. 

You shove backwards from the door, fighting against your attacker, your own savior, as the adrenaline pumps thick through your blood. 

You flail as hands grab at you, shout nonsense when arms cage you and pull you close; can barely register anything beyond the need to get the fuck out of there even as the world suddenly floods with light. 

Those hands are on you again and holding your face, cupping your cheeks and forcing you to stay still for a second. 

"Clarke. Clarke, look at me."

Wide green eyes are staring back at you and, oh... that shade of green is a good thing. 

You're safe with that shade of green.

You know that green. 

That green means home. 

The fight drains from your body even though you're still tense and shaking and you cling to her. Feel her wrists beneath the grip of your hands and your brain switches to hang on to her every word. 

"Hey. Hey, babe, that's it. There you are," she breathes with an awful, trembling smile when she realizes you're actually seeing her. You can feel her hands shaking too as her thumbs brush over your cheeks in circles. "Keep looking at me, okay, love? Eyes on me. I need you to stay calm, okay?"

"Lex," you plead, matching the quiet of her voice. "Lex, what the hell is--"

The banging at the door stops along with your words.

You watch Lexa watch the door. Listen to the eerie silence that falls behind the door and only hear the rush of your own blood. It's natural to move at the feel of her hands on your shoulders guiding you as she eases you back with her toward the bed.

Each breath feels like a chore as your lungs burn and throat aches. You're gripping fistfuls of the shirt Lexa had thrown on only-God-knows-when and you both struggle to put yourself in front of the other. It's a valiant effort on her part, bare-assed and in your old high school softball shirt, but you maneuver around until her chest is pressed to your back.

You halt when she halts, feel when her legs hit the edge of the bed and silently curse the shitty square footage of your apartment.

But your thoughts for the next step freeze when the very air seems to swell. Seems to pressurize and balloon enough to make your ears pop.

Her scream leaves your head ringing as something slams against your door hard enough to have it rattle in its frame. 

"Open the door, Clarke!"

The slams come right after the other and you feel the bile rise in your throat at every complaint of metal hinges. 

There's nothing to do but pray the lock Lexa had installed for you after one-too-many walk-ins holds up.

You hear yourself screaming as the slamming booms around you. 

Lexa's hands pull you back onto the bed with her, half-positions herself between you and the door, poised in an attack stance and you love her beyond words just for trying. 

"Get away my goddamn door!" you scream and the sound of it is as raw as the shredded tatters of your throat. 

That growl sounds again. 

Louder. 

More violent. Enough to rattle the picture frames along your wall.

"Open. The fucking door," Raven snarls with words that drip like poisoned black ink. 

"Fuck you!" you yell back in a thrash of anger with all the energy you have left.

A final screech and slam that sounds like an explosion has the wood practically bowing inward... before silence settles like a calm after a storm.

You feel light headed and dizzy as your breathing matches the hyper pace of your girlfriend's. And you'll apologize for the spindly bruises you leave later when you realize the reason your hands hurt is from gripping her so tight. 

You both start at the light sound of Raven's chuckle. 

Hear a few tiny taps against the door as Raven sighs.

"You guys are no fun."

/////////////

"We can't stay in here forever, Clarke."

You pause in your pacing just long enough to send Lexa a scowl before continuing on. 

She huffs and leans back against the wall beside your bed, fingers playing with the drawstring of her sweatpants. "Let me go grab my phone at least."

"Lex--"

"Babe," she interrupts in a whisper as she climbs from the bed. You pout as she rests her hands on your shoulders and makes you still. "We? Have to get out of here. Let me go get my phone. I'll call Anya and… I don't know. Have her smuggle us out to a priest to get baptized or something."

You scowl again.

"That's not funny."

"Well I'm not exactly sure what else to do," she sighs, eyes darting back and forth between you, the faint blues filtering in through your window, and the silence behind that damn door. "But what I do know is… we have to get out of here one way or another. And it's been pretty quiet, okay? I think… I think we're good."

You shake your head and try to pull her closer. "No, baby--"

"Clarke, listen to me," she says in a firm whisper, staring you in the eyes with dire intent. "I?… Have… To pee."

You stare up at her for a moment before coughing out an incredulous laugh.

"We're kind of out of options here, love." She leans down and presses a sweet kiss to your lips, rests her head against yours and breathes. And you release a relenting sigh because she's right and you're weak for her.

"Fine," you hush, holding a hand up for her to wait. You walk over to your bedside and reach behind the headboard, groping around with a few choice expletives until you find it. 

Marching back over, she shakes her head as you thrust your prized offering into her hands.

"Are you serious?"

Both of your heads swing around at the faint shuffling sounds from somewhere down the hall. You see her face pale as she swallows.

"Very," you whisper quieter than before. "If we're leaving, we're leaving together. And armed, because I'm beating her ass if she tries anything."

She clicks her tongue with an impatient roll of her eyes and rests your softball bat against her shoulder. "What about you?"

Without a word you bolt over to your closet and grab your own weapon of choice. 

Ignoring the amused and dismayed look sends you, you grip your stiletto tighter and nod your chin toward the door. But she sobers and nods too, grips the handle of the bat and gets into place, puts her weight on her back foot at an angle just like you'd shown her.

You adore her and whatever happens when you open up that door, you're getting the both of you out of here alive.

Your fingers squeeze the stiletto as you reach out and grab the lock, stomach flipping with every scuff and rustle of wind from the outside world. Green eyes stay on you as signal for her to get ready and slowly, silently count down.

"1…" you mouth and ease the lock undone. 

".... 2…" she mouths when you falter.

Taking a fortifying breath, you look at her on more time, before grabbing the handle of the door and flinging it open. 

The door slams against your wall as three screams ring out through the apartment.

"What the fuck, man?!"

"Get back!"

"What is the matter with you?!"

"What is the matter with me?!" Raven shouts and then grimaces. She raises a hand to rub over her face, smearing her already terribly smudged eyeliner even further. "You two fucknuts are the ones scaring the shit out of people at six in the morning."

"What the hell was last night?!" 

"Dude, stop screaming," Raven huffs as she holds her head and leans more heavily against her bedroom door. "If you keep it up, I am gonna vomit right here, and I'm not cleaning it up."

"Where were you last night?" Lexa demands from beside you. 

Raven stops at that and looks you both over as she pulls the wonky headpiece off the top off her forehead. "Is this some kind of sex thing?" she asks, pointing the gold whip in her other hand between the bat in Lexa's grasp and the pointed heel of your shoe. 

"Stop fucking around," you warn coldly and inch closer. "What the hell was last night?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Last night! You scaring the hell out of us?!"

Raven looks at you like you've lost your mind. Turns to Lexa and obviously finds no help there. "What are you talking about?"

"Stop saying that! Don't act stupid--"

"Dude, I wasn't here last night," Raven says with a frown. "How drunk did you two get?"

You bare your teeth in frustrated anger. "We didn't drink, asshole. You were banging on my door at three in the morning!"

"Uhhhh, no. I mean, I was banging something at three, but it definitely wasn't your door," Raven sighs. 

"Bullshit."

"Would you like me to call Finn to prove it?"

"Ew, you slept with Finn?"

"Lexa," you snap. "Focus."

"Right, sorry."

"Look, you lunatics," Raven finally grumbles as she pushes away from the frame of her door and opens it. She starts unbuckling the back straps of her gold and red bodice and kicks off a pair of flip flops that are entirely too large for her feet.

Flip flops she certainly didn't leave in last night. 

She stumbles into her room and tosses her skirt aside before turning back and slouching against her door. "I don't know what you're talking about, but we hooked up at the party and was at dipshit's place all night."

"Rave--"

"I'm tired, man. And pretty sure still kinda drunk. You two go back to whatever weird door banging sex scene you were doing, I'm gonna go sleep off my regret. Wake me for food later."

Standing in just her bra and underwear and sporting a disconcerting amount of hickies, she gives them a sloppy, closed-eyed smile and swings the door shut in their faces.

Silence falls around you as you stare at the door.

You blink once.

Twice.

Feel unnerved and sick to your stomach as you slowly turn and look at your equally unsettled girlfriend. 

Lexa lowers the bat with a clink against the floor and drags her eyes over to you instead.

She shrugs. Shakes her head and breathes a terrified sigh as she glances helplessly into your room and then back.

"So… You wanna just move in with me?"