Assorted Clexa in their 30s

Anya and Lexa were inseparable from the moment Anya moved to Maine in 2009, and while circumstance was the main reason, most of it was by choice.  

They were nineteen when Anya signed on, and the only two riders on the new team. They got along instantly and immediately grew close. They trained together day in and out. They rode the lifts all day together and pushed each other in the park on their days off. They each had a small room in a big house full of Indra’s friends twice their age that kept half an eye on them and made sure they ate enough and didn’t party themselves into failure. Anya had a truck and she and Lexa cruised the scene for house parties together while they were too young to get into the bars. 

In a lot of ways they were opposites. 

Anya grew up on Mt Hood in Oregon with two loving, wealthy, supportive parents that recognized her talent young and poured resources into Anya’s training. She had all the best gear. She went to camps and traveled and had coaches. She was training like an Olympian before snowboarding was officially an olympic event. Her parents pulled her from school by second grade and home schooled her so she could have better access to snowboarding and her travel schedule didn’t need to revolve around school.

She competed regularly in contests across the country by the time she was ten, and traveled internationally to compete by twelve. She won a lot. She was very comfortable on the podium. 

On the other hand, Lexa grew up with nothing, raised herself, and snowboarded as an act of rebellion and escape, depending on the day. All of her gear was borrowed or handed down by friends. She couldn’t afford lessons and didn’t have any special gear, but she trained all the time. 

As a little kid, she’d practice her balance on anything. She was upside down as often as possible. Young Lexa was personable, charismatic, and just so cute and she charmed her way out of trouble when she got caught on the mountain with no pass. With no money, she’d sneak onto the hill in the morning through the woods, and she’d stay in the park and walk back up the same jumps over and over all day so she never needed to use the lift. 

Lexa was born to ride, and she found a way. 

Lexa showed up at Mount Polis and Indra couldn’t ignore her. Conversely, Indra watched Anya’s career from afar for a few years, then searched her out. 

Their roads to the Trikru team were completely different, but once they were there, they became exactly the same and lived the same life every day together treated as equals. Where they came from and how they got there didn’t matter. All that mattered was exactly where they were right now. They understood each other in ways the rest of the world couldn't. They were living their dream side by side, full of energy all day and always encouraged one another to do one more run, one more trick, one more lap through the pipe. 

They were well matched in riding skills with different but complimentary styles. Lexa rode big and boldly, Anya more tight, technical, and smooth. Anya’s riding was reliable and consistent. Lexa’s riding was always huge and sometimes unpredictable, but when she nailed it, there was nothing else like it.

Despite being one another’s competition, they were each other’s biggest fan, biggest support, and each other’s best inspiration. The bond they had was immediate and intense. 

Socially, Anya’s calm and dry humor fit perfectly with Lexa’s bright and outgoing charm. They were on either ends of the smooth spectrum, and as a duo, absolutely killed at parties. Lexa brought a girl home or stayed out for the night several nights a week. Anya always went home alone no matter how successful the two of them had been in flirting and entertaining a group of women that night. 

After a few months of friendship, cohabitation, and working together full of mornings of Lexa arriving home or kissing her overnight guest goodbye in front of Anya alone in the kitchen, Lexa finally asked what Anya was waiting for and why she wasn’t drowning in all of the women who very obviously wanted the chance at warming her bed.

Shyly and uncomfortably, Anya admitted to Lexa that she was much more of a romantic and she struggled with hook ups. The idea scared her a little. She was inexperienced and didn’t want anyone to know. She enjoyed socializing fine, she was a great flirt, but when it came to pushing that final boundary, she couldn’t get herself to do it. She needed a real connection. She needed to feel something. She needed it to be something big, and so far, nothing sparked inside her. 

She had big goals, and she wasn’t going to let anyone or anything get in her way. Anya decided young, maybe too young, that there wouldn’t be room for anyone else for a long time, and she was okay with it. Lexa playfully brushed it off at the time claiming that just meant more women for herself, but over the next few years, it sank in how seriously Anya meant it. 

Anya had been training aggressively and acutely since she could walk and Lexa was born with a gift. Once all books were balanced, Anya technically had more and better skills, but she worked harder than Lexa to get them, and had to work so much harder to keep them. Lexa definitely worked hard, but it all came to her easier. Anya had the sharpest focus on her goals and her future that Lexa had ever come up against, and Lexa had nothing but die hard respect for it. 

The two of them went to the Olympics in 2010 as alternates, but they didn’t qualify to compete. They were up and coming and breaking onto the scene in the sport, and very clearly the future of the sport, but were young and gaining experience and still catching up to the current greats. Their rising careers brought Trikru all kinds of notoriety and sales. Construction on the factory and the house alongside growing the team began as the brand blew up. 

Lexa and Anya were suddenly very much on the map. They traveled to contests all the time. Their coaches pushed them hard and focused up on their development. Trikru added a bunch of new riders to the team and it made Lexa and Anya’s bond even stronger as the original two. 

The dynamic duo became VIP guests at all the parties at every mountain. Lexa kept a revolving door of overnight guests, and Anya continued to go home alone. She did, however, start to bring up one of the Polis locals every so often in conversation and thought she was nonchalant and breezy about it, but Lexa clocked right away that it was anything but.  

Anya thought she was a shop tech at the mountain but she wasn’t sure. They hadn’t had so much as a conversation, but Anya could describe Raven Reyes to the letter. How she wore her hair, what her riding style was like in the park, that she had a ton of cool sneakers and that she smiled more than everybody else. The sound of Raven’s laugh across a crowded room always caught Anya’s attention.

Raven had the black Trikru jacket from the new apparel line that Anya wore all the time and did all the ad campaigns for. Anya wanted to believe so badly that it was a sign. Lexa pointed out regularly that it was their number one selling jacket, it was an awesome piece of apparel, and one in every twenty women on the mountain at any given time had it on. 

Knowing that Anya was so focused and so careful with who she let in, Lexa didn’t encourage Anya to go for it and chat Raven up. She didn’t respond much when Anya tried to work Raven into conversation. Lexa had a steadfast and deeply bound respect for Anya and her choices for herself. Anya’s riding results, which always edged slightly above Lexa’s, were proof that she had her mental game figured out. Lexa was in full support of whatever it took for Anya to stay in that place, even if it meant discouraging hitting on a total babe that always smiled first when they caught eyes by accident. 

The factory and the house was a gigantic project and it took years. As expected, they ran into a few delays along the way. Mount Polis hosted a huge halfpipe competition in the winter of 2011 that had Anya and Lexa with good chances to land on the podium, but all of the Trikru board techs were stuck in a blizzard on the west coast where they went for training while they waited for their shop to get built. 

Anya and Lexa needed a last minute board tech to handle their gear and the Mount Polis shop manager owed Indra a favor. For what was one of the highest profile competitions of their career so far, Raven Reyes showed up at the mountain with her tools wearing her black Trikru jacket to take care of their gear for the day. 

Raven caught up with them individually to discuss their wax and edge preferences, details of their stances, and any other specifics she should know. After well over a year of watching Raven from afar, Anya had to not only finally talk to her, but put her total faith and trust in her to manage her equipment on the most important day of her career so far. 

Once the ice was broken, the normally stoic and serious and silent Anya couldn’t stop talking.  

And smiling. And laughing. And giggling. And cracking jokes. And flirting whether she meant to or not. 

Anya had three extremely technical runs full of tight and big tricks that very few women were executing at the time. It was the competition that changed her career. Lexa placed second just a point behind her. 

Anya started approaching Raven at bars and parties, but her trademark smooth behavior grew awkward and clunky any time she tried to figure out what to say. She was all dad jokes and goofy smiles instead of calm, cool, and collected like she was at the competition. She saw herself out of conversations early, and shyly spent the rest of the night in another circle of friends avoiding Raven’s gaze. 

The texting started slow and all business. Anya thanked Raven for taking great care of her and playing a part in an important win. Raven let Anya know her shop door was always open if Anya needed anything. Anya made sure Raven got direct invites to Trikru parties at the new house. Raven wished Anya luck before any competition, at home or all over the world. Raven always knew the day and time to text, and kept track of the timezone math when Lexa and Anya were abroad.  

Anya was smooth as silk via text, but fell all over herself in person. She and Lexa traveled so much back then that Anya only really ran into Raven in person a few times a month at best over the next year, and each time got her so wound up and so sloppy in her head that she both loved and hated the time apart. 

It went on for two years. Slowly but surely, their even and intimate digital relationship finally bled into their in person encounters and Anya loosened up enough to be herself. 

In the summer of 2013, Raven finally got fed up with all of it and made an aggressive and extremely direct first move that was well overdue. She timed it perfectly. Anya was home and on scheduled rest for a few weeks and had a ton of time on her hands, all of which she occupied with spending as much time in bed with Raven as she could. 

Lexa had mixed feelings about the whole thing. 

Watching the two of them slobber all over each other during Anya’s rest taper was perfectly fine. Once training started up again, Anya shocked them all by being sharp as hell. She was always on time. She was extremely focused. She didn’t talk about Raven much at all when she was working or training, but all of them talked behind her back about how long that was gonna last, and Lexa didn’t like it. She couldn’t figure out what to do about it either, because Anya seemed so happy. 

Lexa had never seen Anya express such pure joy, so she did her best to let it all go as summer turned into autumn and winter snuck in quickly and snow started to fall.

They were headed into the 2013/2014 season and they were both looking incredible for the Olympics. Anya was ranked one of the top in the world in the halfpipe. Lexa was in the top ten world wide for all three events. It was a huge and important year for both of them, and their coaches were all over the two of them. After being a huge support in protecting Anya’s peace through solitude for so long, Lexa had a hard time coming around to the idea that Raven and Anya were definitely clicking, and clicking hard, and clicking pretty much every night Anya was home.

It was December, there was plenty of snow on the hill, they were riding and training hard for their first real olympics, and now the intense and unwavering Anya had her first girlfriend that she completely denied having. 

There was always some other way to describe it. Definitely not my girlfriend, no, no, totally not dating. Just friends who like to fuck. It’s just kind of a thing, but it’s no big deal. She’s just cool. We’re close, we just get each other. 

Lexa didn’t really like that, either. Everything Anya did was clear cut and direct. She struggled to watch Anya treat something so casually that was clearly getting kind of serious. Anya didn’t do well with lying, and Lexa hated watching Anya lie to herself because she knew that eventually that bubble would have to burst.

The new team house was packed. Mount Polis was hosting a huge multi-day halfpipe event. Azgeda snowboards was in town from Canada doing promo shoots and riding in the contests. Their business team was friendly with Trikru’s, and everybody from the company came down. The party was ripping, the music was bumping, everyone was having a good time, but Lexa hung by one of the kegs and scowled at Anya and Raven snuggling in a corner across the room. 

“Let it go, Lex,” Indra warned, somewhat serious but mostly in jest. She made a habit of showing up for a few in the earlier part of the evening anytime they entertained high profile industry peers, but she always slipped out early. 

“I can’t,” Lexa sighed as she looked down into her empty solo cup. 

“I was worried about what that might do to a secretly tender little soul like Anya’s, but I think it’s all good,” Indra shot Lexa a reassuring smile.  She’d been keeping tabs on the will-they-won’t-they dance Anya and Raven had been doing for years. Maybe even longer than Anya had been. Indra regularly checked in privately with Anya on how she was doing, and Anya only continued to improve on snow, so Indra left it alone. 

“I don’t know, man,” Lexa shook her head and pursed her lips. Across the room, Anya was a wet puddle of mushy grins alongside the blasting sunshine in human form of Raven laughing at all of her jokes. 

“You don’t like Reyes?” Indra raised a brow and wordlessly took Lexa’s empty cup to fill it from the tap.

“No, she’s great. I like Raven fine,” Lexa shrugged. She’d been friends with Raven for years, but a divide full of misplaced tension grew between them over the last few months. Lexa couldn’t quite get the words to come together, but it bothered her how casual Anya was about it after all these years of talking about how big it would all need to be to make her let someone in. She knew that didn’t actually have much to do with Raven at all, but sometimes caught herself letting Raven be the target, and she knew that wasn’t right either.

“But?” Indra tried. 

“I dunno,” Lexa blew a big breath out through her lips. “I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Have you talked to her?” Indra handed Lexa back her full cup and Lexa nodded a thank you.

“Anytime I say something, Anya shuts me down about how it’s not a big deal, it’s just fun, it’s not like that,” Lexa grumbled and mimicked Anya’s insistent laid back voice. “She’s full of shit. Look at ‘em,” Lexa tipped her cup at Anya and Raven smiling at one another with moon eyes between kisses and laughs. 

“I meant have you talked to Raven?” Indra asked more pointedly. 

“No?” Lexa quirked her brow. “Why would I do that?”

“Because she’s basically dating your sister,” Indra replied frankly. 

“Oh, they’ll both tell you repeatedly that they’re totally not dating,” Lexa smirked. Indra chuckled low in her throat. 

“Sure, but come on, kid. That’s your girl,” Indra nodded at Anya talking animatedly with her hands while Raven hung on every word with a wholesome grin. 

“Yeah,” Lexa sighed. “But maybe it isn’t any of my business.”

“Anya’s well being is very much your business,” Indra said with a little huff. “I figured I didn’t have to say anything to Reyes about being careful with our big softie because you probably already had.”

“For real?” Lexa laughed.

“Absolutely,” Indra laughed with her. “You should talk to her. Don’t threaten to kill her or anything like that, she’s an important member of the community and I’d like to keep her talents in Trikru’s good graces, but clear the air between the two of you. You’ll feel better.”

“I’ll think about it,” Lexa brushed it off. Moments later, someone called her name for a group photo she needed to be in, and she said good night to Indra and ventured deeper into the party. 

It was over an hour and a handful of beers and too many photos later before Lexa headed upstairs and down the hall towards her bedroom to use her and Anya’s private bathroom. The door opened just as she reached it, and Raven was on the other side. 

“Oh,” Raven blurted with sheepish, startled, wide eyes. Lexa met her with squared shoulders and a sly, superior smirk. “I figured it was cool, since,” Raven trailed off and gestured at the “PRIVATE” sign on the door. 

It was not the first time Lexa found Raven in her bathroom when she was expecting Anya. It had been happening a lot over the last few months. 

“Of course it’s cool,” Lexa replied evenly and held her hands up in a casual gesture of surrender. 

“Are you sure?” Raven asked, a rise of strength in her tone that made Lexa look up at her. “Cause I’m kind of getting the vibe lately that you don’t really like me.”

“I like you,” Lexa shrugged. “I’m just not sure if I like what you’re up to.”

“What I’m up to?” Raven scoffed, her jaw slack. “I’m not UP TO anything.”

“If you say so,” Lexa sighed a little too dramatically. 

“Go ahead,” Raven gestured between them. “Let’s hear it.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Lexa held her hands up defensively.

“Is this the part where you tell me if I hurt your friend you’re gonna kill me?” Raven slowly folded her arms across her chest. “That if I fuck with her you’ll make sure I never work in this town again? You’ll make my life hell if I do her wrong?”

“I wasn’t gonna do all that,” Lexa rolled her eyes.

“Then WHAT?” Raven huffed.

“Look,” Lexa took a deep breath and shook off her top layer of hyper defense. “Anya is the most important person in the world to me,” Lexa began in a much calmer tone. 

“I know that,” Raven replied flatly and quickly. 

“You don’t understand,” Lexa tried harder to keep herself even. “I don’t have anybody.”

“I know that,” Raven repeated slower and with more emphasis. “She’s been talking to ME about how important YOU are to HER for YEARS.”

“Really?” Lexa wrinkled her nose in thought.

“Which is why it’s been killing me that you don’t like me!” Raven burst out.

“I just said I like you!” Lexa matched her burst. 

“I don’t believe you!” Raven threw her hands up.

“Anya’s really special,” Lexa awkwardly continued, suddenly aware of the big feelings she put on display. “She’s different from the rest of us.”

“That’s a lot of what I like about her,” Raven cracked into a smile against her will and it softened Lexa’s rough edges.

“She’s the best one of us,” Lexa struggled to find all the right words, but the beer and the vulnerability wrestled inside of her. “She works harder than the rest of us, and she makes us all better. She’s so focused, and she’s about to do some huge things, and she has to stay focused.”

“I know I’m not going to come first for a long time,” Raven blurted out. Lexa paused before letting out a deep breath. 

“No. You’re not,” Lexa agreed sympathetically. It was exactly what she was looking for. Exactly what she had been trying to figure out how to say. 

Watching Anya’s happiness came with the nagging feeling that she wasn’t going to get to actually be happy and enjoy it. Lexa knew Anya wouldn’t give her whole self to someone else and it was hard to see Anya getting close to someone she probably should be with. The feeling Lexa couldn’t find was wrapped up in the anxiety that she had polarizing feelings about which side of it all to support.

“I probably won’t come first until she retires,” Raven leaned back against the wall in the hallway and her shoulders slumped in a mix of relief and defeat. “And I know that. I’ve known that the whole time. I knew that before she told me that. She knows it too, by the way, because she and I talk to each other A LOT.”

“Might be a long career. She’s a fucking animal,” Lexa warned. 

“Don’t I know it,” Raven couldn’t help herself and tried to swallow a cocky smirk. 

“Jesus, dude, come on,” Lexa groaned, but finally slipped in a surprised laugh. “We share a wall. I’m all too aware of all of that.”

“Sorry, not sorry,” Raven replied earnestly through a tentative friendly smile.

“I want us to be cool,” Lexa said calmly as the tension eased between them. “The hardest time I’m having with you two is that it’s so obvious that it works and you’re good for her. It’s just,” Lexa trailed off uncomfortably. 

“If you’re worried I’m gonna make her choose me or her career, I’m never gonna do that,” Raven said with a new softness and seriousness in her eyes. “What she’s able to give of herself is enough for me. I’d rather have some version of this with her than none at all, and eventually some day that will change.”

“We’re still young and she’s already one of the best. Might be a long time,” Lexa warned gently. 

“She’s worth the wait,” Raven smiled awkwardly at Lexa. “And that’s why she says it’s not that serious, and it’s just a thing we have and do. She’s gotta keep me in the right place mentally, too. She and I have had this talk more than once.”

“That’s very mature of both of you,” Lexa raised impressed brows. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s a big part of why she wouldn’t make a move on me,” Raven chuckled. 

“Wrong. She didn’t make a move because she’s secretly a HUGE nerd,” Lexa jumped in with a conspiratorial grin and let herself just be Raven’s friend for a minute. “She’s an only child who was homeschooled by rich parents so she could train year round. She’s emotionally fourteen and sixty all at the same time somehow.”

“I completely forgot she’s a homeschool kid! That makes so much sense!” Raven had wide eyes of clarity as she lined up feelings and memories. 

“It does after you let it sink in for a minute, doesn’t it?” Lexa grinned. Raven let out the last of her nervous laughs and caught Lexa’s calm energy. It was nice to joke like friends about the person they both cared so much about. The air shifted and suddenly Lexa felt relieved to have an ally in loving and respecting Anya. “But I need you to make me a promise.”

“What is it?” Raven asked cautiously. 

“If you ever even think you might change your mind, if you need more of her than she can give, talk to her right away. Don’t string her along, don’t mess with her. Be up front and clean about it. Her heart’s too good for games,” Lexa swallowed hard. 

“I won’t,” Raven nodded once firmly. 

“Our lives are complicated. We don’t really own them. We don’t make all of our own choices, but when we can, ultimately we will always choose ourselves,” Lexa cautioned. 

“I get it,” Raven nodded.

“No you don’t,” Lexa said firmly. “I have had to choose myself over her and I have had to feel her choose herself over me when we compete against each other. It doesn’t feel great. She’s a goddamn warrior when it comes to focus. She becomes someone else, and to her, there is no one else. This is a massive year for her, so make sure you’re prepared for that, or break it off right now.”

“I told you, I know I’m not going to be first,” Raven said strongly through a set jaw. The ache of the reality of it bubbled up in Raven’s chest and frustrated tears pricked at the back of her eyes, and Lexa saw the first big flicker of real love cross Raven’s face. It softened something proud in Lexa’s chest.

“Nobody’s first,” Lexa warmed into a gentler smile. “But I’ve been her second for a while now, and I can attest that it’s pretty great.”

Raven laughed good naturedly and gave Lexa a playful scoff. 

“And when she’s not in warrior mode, she’s the kindest, most thoughtful, sweet and caring person I know, and I’ll deny I ever called her any of that,” Lexa stayed in a friendly and calm tone. “Her heart is gigantic and she’s just really, really good. I have no doubt that she’ll be as good to you as she can, it’s what she does, so please, just be good to her.”

“I will,” Raven matched Lexa’s warmth and seriousness. 

“Good,” Lexa nodded curtly with a little smile. “Glad we had this talk,” Lexa tacked on.

“Me too,” Raven nodded back. 

“Alright, well, I’m gonna finally pee, which is what I came up here for,” Lexa pointed at the bathroom over her shoulder with her thumb, glad to have the reason to leave. 

“Right,” Raven said through a breathy laugh. “Sorry.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lexa returned to her cool and smooth default and it made them both feel better. “And for the record, I’m fine with you sharing me and Anya’s bathroom. You don’t have to hide your toothbrush and your products in her room or your bag. We’re cool.”

“Thanks,” Raven chuckled. 

“Of course,” Lexa grinned and moved to leave again. 

“For everything,” Raven added on quickly. “Thanks for talking to me, and thank you for being supportive about us. Really, Lexa. It means a lot to me.”

“I’ll continue to be supportive until either one of you gives me a reason not to be,” Lexa replied sincerely as she stood casually in the bathroom doorway. “Now why don’t you get out of here and go find her and enjoy what early season bandwidth she’s got left, huh?” Lexa nodded towards the stairs and the bustling party below. 

“I will,” Raven grinned. 

“Hey! What are you two doing up here?” Anya cried out enthusiastically as she hit the top of the stairs. Lexa watched both of their faces light up and their postures change when they laid eyes on each other and this time, it only made her feel happy for them. 

“Just chatting real quick,” Raven shot Lexa a smile before opening her arms to a drunk Anya that was headed straight for them. Anya planted a few exaggerated kisses on Raven’s cheek that brought a laugh from deep in Raven’s anxious guts. 

“Oh yeah? About what!?” Anya asked playfully. 

“I was just talking to Lexa about who’s gonna come in first this season,” Raven couldn’t stop grinning with Anya in her arms. 

“Me, obviously,” Anya came back immediately in beer-soaked mock bravado.

Anya and Lexa were inseparable from the moment Anya moved to Maine in 2009, and while circumstance was the main reason, most of it was by choice.  

They were nineteen when Anya signed on, and the only two riders on the new team. They got along instantly and immediately grew close. They trained together day in and out. They rode the lifts all day together and pushed each other in the park on their days off. They each had a small room in a big house full of Indra’s friends twice their age that kept half an eye on them and made sure they ate enough and didn’t party themselves into failure. Anya had a truck and she and Lexa cruised the scene for house parties together while they were too young to get into the bars. 

In a lot of ways they were opposites. 

Anya grew up on Mt Hood in Oregon with two loving, wealthy, supportive parents that recognized her talent young and poured resources into Anya’s training. She had all the best gear. She went to camps and traveled and had coaches. She was training like an Olympian before snowboarding was officially an olympic event. Her parents pulled her from school by second grade and home schooled her so she could have better access to snowboarding and her travel schedule didn’t need to revolve around school.

She competed regularly in contests across the country by the time she was ten, and traveled internationally to compete by twelve. She won a lot. She was very comfortable on the podium. 

On the other hand, Lexa grew up with nothing, raised herself, and snowboarded as an act of rebellion and escape, depending on the day. All of her gear was borrowed or handed down by friends. She couldn’t afford lessons and didn’t have any special gear, but she trained all the time. 

As a little kid, she’d practice her balance on anything. She was upside down as often as possible. Young Lexa was personable, charismatic, and just so cute and she charmed her way out of trouble when she got caught on the mountain with no pass. With no money, she’d sneak onto the hill in the morning through the woods, and she’d stay in the park and walk back up the same jumps over and over all day so she never needed to use the lift. 

Lexa was born to ride, and she found a way. 

Lexa showed up at Mount Polis and Indra couldn’t ignore her. Conversely, Indra watched Anya’s career from afar for a few years, then searched her out. 

Their roads to the Trikru team were completely different, but once they were there, they became exactly the same and lived the same life every day together treated as equals. Where they came from and how they got there didn’t matter. All that mattered was exactly where they were right now. They understood each other in ways the rest of the world couldn't. They were living their dream side by side, full of energy all day and always encouraged one another to do one more run, one more trick, one more lap through the pipe. 

They were well matched in riding skills with different but complimentary styles. Lexa rode big and boldly, Anya more tight, technical, and smooth. Anya’s riding was reliable and consistent. Lexa’s riding was always huge and sometimes unpredictable, but when she nailed it, there was nothing else like it.

Despite being one another’s competition, they were each other’s biggest fan, biggest support, and each other’s best inspiration. The bond they had was immediate and intense. 

Socially, Anya’s calm and dry humor fit perfectly with Lexa’s bright and outgoing charm. They were on either ends of the smooth spectrum, and as a duo, absolutely killed at parties. Lexa brought a girl home or stayed out for the night several nights a week. Anya always went home alone no matter how successful the two of them had been in flirting and entertaining a group of women that night. 

After a few months of friendship, cohabitation, and working together full of mornings of Lexa arriving home or kissing her overnight guest goodbye in front of Anya alone in the kitchen, Lexa finally asked what Anya was waiting for and why she wasn’t drowning in all of the women who very obviously wanted the chance at warming her bed.

Shyly and uncomfortably, Anya admitted to Lexa that she was much more of a romantic and she struggled with hook ups. The idea scared her a little. She was inexperienced and didn’t want anyone to know. She enjoyed socializing fine, she was a great flirt, but when it came to pushing that final boundary, she couldn’t get herself to do it. She needed a real connection. She needed to feel something. She needed it to be something big, and so far, nothing sparked inside her. 

She had big goals, and she wasn’t going to let anyone or anything get in her way. Anya decided young, maybe too young, that there wouldn’t be room for anyone else for a long time, and she was okay with it. Lexa playfully brushed it off at the time claiming that just meant more women for herself, but over the next few years, it sank in how seriously Anya meant it. 

Anya had been training aggressively and acutely since she could walk and Lexa was born with a gift. Once all books were balanced, Anya technically had more and better skills, but she worked harder than Lexa to get them, and had to work so much harder to keep them. Lexa definitely worked hard, but it all came to her easier. Anya had the sharpest focus on her goals and her future that Lexa had ever come up against, and Lexa had nothing but die hard respect for it. 

The two of them went to the Olympics in 2010 as alternates, but they didn’t qualify to compete. They were up and coming and breaking onto the scene in the sport, and very clearly the future of the sport, but were young and gaining experience and still catching up to the current greats. Their rising careers brought Trikru all kinds of notoriety and sales. Construction on the factory and the house alongside growing the team began as the brand blew up. 

Lexa and Anya were suddenly very much on the map. They traveled to contests all the time. Their coaches pushed them hard and focused up on their development. Trikru added a bunch of new riders to the team and it made Lexa and Anya’s bond even stronger as the original two. 

The dynamic duo became VIP guests at all the parties at every mountain. Lexa kept a revolving door of overnight guests, and Anya continued to go home alone. She did, however, start to bring up one of the Polis locals every so often in conversation and thought she was nonchalant and breezy about it, but Lexa clocked right away that it was anything but.  

Anya thought she was a shop tech at the mountain but she wasn’t sure. They hadn’t had so much as a conversation, but Anya could describe Raven Reyes to the letter. How she wore her hair, what her riding style was like in the park, that she had a ton of cool sneakers and that she smiled more than everybody else. The sound of Raven’s laugh across a crowded room always caught Anya’s attention.

Raven had the black Trikru jacket from the new apparel line that Anya wore all the time and did all the ad campaigns for. Anya wanted to believe so badly that it was a sign. Lexa pointed out regularly that it was their number one selling jacket, it was an awesome piece of apparel, and one in every twenty women on the mountain at any given time had it on. 

Knowing that Anya was so focused and so careful with who she let in, Lexa didn’t encourage Anya to go for it and chat Raven up. She didn’t respond much when Anya tried to work Raven into conversation. Lexa had a steadfast and deeply bound respect for Anya and her choices for herself. Anya’s riding results, which always edged slightly above Lexa’s, were proof that she had her mental game figured out. Lexa was in full support of whatever it took for Anya to stay in that place, even if it meant discouraging hitting on a total babe that always smiled first when they caught eyes by accident. 

The factory and the house was a gigantic project and it took years. As expected, they ran into a few delays along the way. Mount Polis hosted a huge halfpipe competition in the winter of 2011 that had Anya and Lexa with good chances to land on the podium, but all of the Trikru board techs were stuck in a blizzard on the west coast where they went for training while they waited for their shop to get built. 

Anya and Lexa needed a last minute board tech to handle their gear and the Mount Polis shop manager owed Indra a favor. For what was one of the highest profile competitions of their career so far, Raven Reyes showed up at the mountain with her tools wearing her black Trikru jacket to take care of their gear for the day. 

Raven caught up with them individually to discuss their wax and edge preferences, details of their stances, and any other specifics she should know. After well over a year of watching Raven from afar, Anya had to not only finally talk to her, but put her total faith and trust in her to manage her equipment on the most important day of her career so far. 

Once the ice was broken, the normally stoic and serious and silent Anya couldn’t stop talking.  

And smiling. And laughing. And giggling. And cracking jokes. And flirting whether she meant to or not. 

Anya had three extremely technical runs full of tight and big tricks that very few women were executing at the time. It was the competition that changed her career. Lexa placed second just a point behind her. 

Anya started approaching Raven at bars and parties, but her trademark smooth behavior grew awkward and clunky any time she tried to figure out what to say. She was all dad jokes and goofy smiles instead of calm, cool, and collected like she was at the competition. She saw herself out of conversations early, and shyly spent the rest of the night in another circle of friends avoiding Raven’s gaze. 

The texting started slow and all business. Anya thanked Raven for taking great care of her and playing a part in an important win. Raven let Anya know her shop door was always open if Anya needed anything. Anya made sure Raven got direct invites to Trikru parties at the new house. Raven wished Anya luck before any competition, at home or all over the world. Raven always knew the day and time to text, and kept track of the timezone math when Lexa and Anya were abroad.  

Anya was smooth as silk via text, but fell all over herself in person. She and Lexa traveled so much back then that Anya only really ran into Raven in person a few times a month at best over the next year, and each time got her so wound up and so sloppy in her head that she both loved and hated the time apart. 

It went on for two years. Slowly but surely, their even and intimate digital relationship finally bled into their in person encounters and Anya loosened up enough to be herself. 

In the summer of 2013, Raven finally got fed up with all of it and made an aggressive and extremely direct first move that was well overdue. She timed it perfectly. Anya was home and on scheduled rest for a few weeks and had a ton of time on her hands, all of which she occupied with spending as much time in bed with Raven as she could. 

Lexa had mixed feelings about the whole thing. 

Watching the two of them slobber all over each other during Anya’s rest taper was perfectly fine. Once training started up again, Anya shocked them all by being sharp as hell. She was always on time. She was extremely focused. She didn’t talk about Raven much at all when she was working or training, but all of them talked behind her back about how long that was gonna last, and Lexa didn’t like it. She couldn’t figure out what to do about it either, because Anya seemed so happy. 

Lexa had never seen Anya express such pure joy, so she did her best to let it all go as summer turned into autumn and winter snuck in quickly and snow started to fall.

They were headed into the 2013/2014 season and they were both looking incredible for the Olympics. Anya was ranked one of the top in the world in the halfpipe. Lexa was in the top ten world wide for all three events. It was a huge and important year for both of them, and their coaches were all over the two of them. After being a huge support in protecting Anya’s peace through solitude for so long, Lexa had a hard time coming around to the idea that Raven and Anya were definitely clicking, and clicking hard, and clicking pretty much every night Anya was home.

It was December, there was plenty of snow on the hill, they were riding and training hard for their first real olympics, and now the intense and unwavering Anya had her first girlfriend that she completely denied having. 

There was always some other way to describe it. Definitely not my girlfriend, no, no, totally not dating. Just friends who like to fuck. It’s just kind of a thing, but it’s no big deal. She’s just cool. We’re close, we just get each other. 

Lexa didn’t really like that, either. Everything Anya did was clear cut and direct. She struggled to watch Anya treat something so casually that was clearly getting kind of serious. Anya didn’t do well with lying, and Lexa hated watching Anya lie to herself because she knew that eventually that bubble would have to burst.

The new team house was packed. Mount Polis was hosting a huge multi-day halfpipe event. Azgeda snowboards was in town from Canada doing promo shoots and riding in the contests. Their business team was friendly with Trikru’s, and everybody from the company came down. The party was ripping, the music was bumping, everyone was having a good time, but Lexa hung by one of the kegs and scowled at Anya and Raven snuggling in a corner across the room. 

“Let it go, Lex,” Indra warned, somewhat serious but mostly in jest. She made a habit of showing up for a few in the earlier part of the evening anytime they entertained high profile industry peers, but she always slipped out early. 

“I can’t,” Lexa sighed as she looked down into her empty solo cup. 

“I was worried about what that might do to a secretly tender little soul like Anya’s, but I think it’s all good,” Indra shot Lexa a reassuring smile.  She’d been keeping tabs on the will-they-won’t-they dance Anya and Raven had been doing for years. Maybe even longer than Anya had been. Indra regularly checked in privately with Anya on how she was doing, and Anya only continued to improve on snow, so Indra left it alone. 

“I don’t know, man,” Lexa shook her head and pursed her lips. Across the room, Anya was a wet puddle of mushy grins alongside the blasting sunshine in human form of Raven laughing at all of her jokes. 

“You don’t like Reyes?” Indra raised a brow and wordlessly took Lexa’s empty cup to fill it from the tap.

“No, she’s great. I like Raven fine,” Lexa shrugged. She’d been friends with Raven for years, but a divide full of misplaced tension grew between them over the last few months. Lexa couldn’t quite get the words to come together, but it bothered her how casual Anya was about it after all these years of talking about how big it would all need to be to make her let someone in. She knew that didn’t actually have much to do with Raven at all, but sometimes caught herself letting Raven be the target, and she knew that wasn’t right either.

“But?” Indra tried. 

“I dunno,” Lexa blew a big breath out through her lips. “I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Have you talked to her?” Indra handed Lexa back her full cup and Lexa nodded a thank you.

“Anytime I say something, Anya shuts me down about how it’s not a big deal, it’s just fun, it’s not like that,” Lexa grumbled and mimicked Anya’s insistent laid back voice. “She’s full of shit. Look at ‘em,” Lexa tipped her cup at Anya and Raven smiling at one another with moon eyes between kisses and laughs. 

“I meant have you talked to Raven?” Indra asked more pointedly. 

“No?” Lexa quirked her brow. “Why would I do that?”

“Because she’s basically dating your sister,” Indra replied frankly. 

“Oh, they’ll both tell you repeatedly that they’re totally not dating,” Lexa smirked. Indra chuckled low in her throat. 

“Sure, but come on, kid. That’s your girl,” Indra nodded at Anya talking animatedly with her hands while Raven hung on every word with a wholesome grin. 

“Yeah,” Lexa sighed. “But maybe it isn’t any of my business.”

“Anya’s well being is very much your business,” Indra said with a little huff. “I figured I didn’t have to say anything to Reyes about being careful with our big softie because you probably already had.”

“For real?” Lexa laughed.

“Absolutely,” Indra laughed with her. “You should talk to her. Don’t threaten to kill her or anything like that, she’s an important member of the community and I’d like to keep her talents in Trikru’s good graces, but clear the air between the two of you. You’ll feel better.”

“I’ll think about it,” Lexa brushed it off. Moments later, someone called her name for a group photo she needed to be in, and she said good night to Indra and ventured deeper into the party. 

It was over an hour and a handful of beers and too many photos later before Lexa headed upstairs and down the hall towards her bedroom to use her and Anya’s private bathroom. The door opened just as she reached it, and Raven was on the other side. 

“Oh,” Raven blurted with sheepish, startled, wide eyes. Lexa met her with squared shoulders and a sly, superior smirk. “I figured it was cool, since,” Raven trailed off and gestured at the “PRIVATE” sign on the door. 

It was not the first time Lexa found Raven in her bathroom when she was expecting Anya. It had been happening a lot over the last few months. 

“Of course it’s cool,” Lexa replied evenly and held her hands up in a casual gesture of surrender. 

“Are you sure?” Raven asked, a rise of strength in her tone that made Lexa look up at her. “Cause I’m kind of getting the vibe lately that you don’t really like me.”

“I like you,” Lexa shrugged. “I’m just not sure if I like what you’re up to.”

“What I’m up to?” Raven scoffed, her jaw slack. “I’m not UP TO anything.”

“If you say so,” Lexa sighed a little too dramatically. 

“Go ahead,” Raven gestured between them. “Let’s hear it.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Lexa held her hands up defensively.

“Is this the part where you tell me if I hurt your friend you’re gonna kill me?” Raven slowly folded her arms across her chest. “That if I fuck with her you’ll make sure I never work in this town again? You’ll make my life hell if I do her wrong?”

“I wasn’t gonna do all that,” Lexa rolled her eyes.

“Then WHAT?” Raven huffed.

“Look,” Lexa took a deep breath and shook off her top layer of hyper defense. “Anya is the most important person in the world to me,” Lexa began in a much calmer tone. 

“I know that,” Raven replied flatly and quickly. 

“You don’t understand,” Lexa tried harder to keep herself even. “I don’t have anybody.”

“I know that,” Raven repeated slower and with more emphasis. “She’s been talking to ME about how important YOU are to HER for YEARS.”

“Really?” Lexa wrinkled her nose in thought.

“Which is why it’s been killing me that you don’t like me!” Raven burst out.

“I just said I like you!” Lexa matched her burst. 

“I don’t believe you!” Raven threw her hands up.

“Anya’s really special,” Lexa awkwardly continued, suddenly aware of the big feelings she put on display. “She’s different from the rest of us.”

“That’s a lot of what I like about her,” Raven cracked into a smile against her will and it softened Lexa’s rough edges.

“She’s the best one of us,” Lexa struggled to find all the right words, but the beer and the vulnerability wrestled inside of her. “She works harder than the rest of us, and she makes us all better. She’s so focused, and she’s about to do some huge things, and she has to stay focused.”

“I know I’m not going to come first for a long time,” Raven blurted out. Lexa paused before letting out a deep breath. 

“No. You’re not,” Lexa agreed sympathetically. It was exactly what she was looking for. Exactly what she had been trying to figure out how to say. 

Watching Anya’s happiness came with the nagging feeling that she wasn’t going to get to actually be happy and enjoy it. Lexa knew Anya wouldn’t give her whole self to someone else and it was hard to see Anya getting close to someone she probably should be with. The feeling Lexa couldn’t find was wrapped up in the anxiety that she had polarizing feelings about which side of it all to support.

“I probably won’t come first until she retires,” Raven leaned back against the wall in the hallway and her shoulders slumped in a mix of relief and defeat. “And I know that. I’ve known that the whole time. I knew that before she told me that. She knows it too, by the way, because she and I talk to each other A LOT.”

“Might be a long career. She’s a fucking animal,” Lexa warned. 

“Don’t I know it,” Raven couldn’t help herself and tried to swallow a cocky smirk. 

“Jesus, dude, come on,” Lexa groaned, but finally slipped in a surprised laugh. “We share a wall. I’m all too aware of all of that.”

“Sorry, not sorry,” Raven replied earnestly through a tentative friendly smile.

“I want us to be cool,” Lexa said calmly as the tension eased between them. “The hardest time I’m having with you two is that it’s so obvious that it works and you’re good for her. It’s just,” Lexa trailed off uncomfortably. 

“If you’re worried I’m gonna make her choose me or her career, I’m never gonna do that,” Raven said with a new softness and seriousness in her eyes. “What she’s able to give of herself is enough for me. I’d rather have some version of this with her than none at all, and eventually some day that will change.”

“We’re still young and she’s already one of the best. Might be a long time,” Lexa warned gently. 

“She’s worth the wait,” Raven smiled awkwardly at Lexa. “And that’s why she says it’s not that serious, and it’s just a thing we have and do. She’s gotta keep me in the right place mentally, too. She and I have had this talk more than once.”

“That’s very mature of both of you,” Lexa raised impressed brows. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s a big part of why she wouldn’t make a move on me,” Raven chuckled. 

“Wrong. She didn’t make a move because she’s secretly a HUGE nerd,” Lexa jumped in with a conspiratorial grin and let herself just be Raven’s friend for a minute. “She’s an only child who was homeschooled by rich parents so she could train year round. She’s emotionally fourteen and sixty all at the same time somehow.”

“I completely forgot she’s a homeschool kid! That makes so much sense!” Raven had wide eyes of clarity as she lined up feelings and memories. 

“It does after you let it sink in for a minute, doesn’t it?” Lexa grinned. Raven let out the last of her nervous laughs and caught Lexa’s calm energy. It was nice to joke like friends about the person they both cared so much about. The air shifted and suddenly Lexa felt relieved to have an ally in loving and respecting Anya. “But I need you to make me a promise.”

“What is it?” Raven asked cautiously. 

“If you ever even think you might change your mind, if you need more of her than she can give, talk to her right away. Don’t string her along, don’t mess with her. Be up front and clean about it. Her heart’s too good for games,” Lexa swallowed hard. 

“I won’t,” Raven nodded once firmly. 

“Our lives are complicated. We don’t really own them. We don’t make all of our own choices, but when we can, ultimately we will always choose ourselves,” Lexa cautioned. 

“I get it,” Raven nodded.

“No you don’t,” Lexa said firmly. “I have had to choose myself over her and I have had to feel her choose herself over me when we compete against each other. It doesn’t feel great. She’s a goddamn warrior when it comes to focus. She becomes someone else, and to her, there is no one else. This is a massive year for her, so make sure you’re prepared for that, or break it off right now.”

“I told you, I know I’m not going to be first,” Raven said strongly through a set jaw. The ache of the reality of it bubbled up in Raven’s chest and frustrated tears pricked at the back of her eyes, and Lexa saw the first big flicker of real love cross Raven’s face. It softened something proud in Lexa’s chest.

“Nobody’s first,” Lexa warmed into a gentler smile. “But I’ve been her second for a while now, and I can attest that it’s pretty great.”

Raven laughed good naturedly and gave Lexa a playful scoff. 

“And when she’s not in warrior mode, she’s the kindest, most thoughtful, sweet and caring person I know, and I’ll deny I ever called her any of that,” Lexa stayed in a friendly and calm tone. “Her heart is gigantic and she’s just really, really good. I have no doubt that she’ll be as good to you as she can, it’s what she does, so please, just be good to her.”

“I will,” Raven matched Lexa’s warmth and seriousness. 

“Good,” Lexa nodded curtly with a little smile. “Glad we had this talk,” Lexa tacked on.

“Me too,” Raven nodded back. 

“Alright, well, I’m gonna finally pee, which is what I came up here for,” Lexa pointed at the bathroom over her shoulder with her thumb, glad to have the reason to leave. 

“Right,” Raven said through a breathy laugh. “Sorry.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lexa returned to her cool and smooth default and it made them both feel better. “And for the record, I’m fine with you sharing me and Anya’s bathroom. You don’t have to hide your toothbrush and your products in her room or your bag. We’re cool.”

“Thanks,” Raven chuckled. 

“Of course,” Lexa grinned and moved to leave again. 

“For everything,” Raven added on quickly. “Thanks for talking to me, and thank you for being supportive about us. Really, Lexa. It means a lot to me.”

“I’ll continue to be supportive until either one of you gives me a reason not to be,” Lexa replied sincerely as she stood casually in the bathroom doorway. “Now why don’t you get out of here and go find her and enjoy what early season bandwidth she’s got left, huh?” Lexa nodded towards the stairs and the bustling party below. 

“I will,” Raven grinned. 

“Hey! What are you two doing up here?” Anya cried out enthusiastically as she hit the top of the stairs. Lexa watched both of their faces light up and their postures change when they laid eyes on each other and this time, it only made her feel happy for them. 

“Just chatting real quick,” Raven shot Lexa a smile before opening her arms to a drunk Anya that was headed straight for them. Anya planted a few exaggerated kisses on Raven’s cheek that brought a laugh from deep in Raven’s anxious guts. 

“Oh yeah? About what!?” Anya asked playfully. 

“I was just talking to Lexa about who’s gonna come in first this season,” Raven couldn’t stop grinning with Anya in her arms. 

“Me, obviously,” Anya came back immediately in beer-soaked mock bravado.