No Need To Ask

You're Not Clarke

 It isn't until two weeks later after Luna drives Raven home that morning that she sees her again. Raven absolutely hates how much she thinks of Luna's quiet gentleness the entire time.

The doorbell rings on a weekend, and Raven opens the door to Luna. Raven rubs her eyes to make sure she isn't hallucinating, because she's pretty sure she had asked Clarke to buy her a blowtorch because she couldn't find hers for her project. In fact, last time Raven checked, she didn't even have Luna's number so there's no way she accidentally texted Luna to get her a blowtorch. After her morning sickness, she really didn't want to go out.

"Good afternoon,"Luna greets casually, as if it is perfectly normal for her to show up with a blowtorch and a bag of coffee beans. She raises an eyebrow as if waiting for Raven to invite her in.

Instead of doing that, Raven frowns. She is not ready for a random guest, the apartment is a mess of chip bags, wrappers, soda cans, and wherever she left her tools. Plus she's in sweats and a tank top, expecting the person to drop by to be Clarke and not somebody who could judge her attire. "I don't think my coffee machine can use coffee beans." Of course that is the first thing on her mind, not the fact that Luna has showed up on her doorstep, or the fact that she should probably invite her in.

Luna just shrugs, hands her the blowtorch, and sidles past her, "I'll take care of it. Where's your kitchen?"

Glancing at the clock, Raven discovers she doesn't have the time to care whether or not Luna is really intruding on her space. She has to get this project to the professor by 3pm. She murmurs directions to Luna and then hurries off to do some soldering in the living room, ignoring the fact that there was probably some code regulation she was breaking by using a blowtorch inside her apartment.

When Raven finishes, examines the piece once again. Yes, it is exactly how she wants it. Then she looks up to find Luna looking at her over the rim of a coffee mug and yelps in surprise at the intense brown gaze. She hadn't even noticed Luna was there in her concentration. Raven fumbles a few times before she catches the circuit board again, and carefully places it back down on the coffee table.

Luna's lips are quirked up slightly as if she's trying not to smile. "That one's yours", she nods to a cup across the table. A steaming mug of coffee sits on the glass, aroma wafting towards Raven enticingly now that it didn't just smell like burning metal.

Raven picks it up slowly, sniffing it just in case Luna poisoned it or something. Tentatively, she takes a sip. The flavors burst onto her tongue and she tries to mask her pleasant surprise. "This is...okay. How'd you even do that?"

The curly haired woman shrugs. "I improvised a french press." Raven is mildly impressed at the woman's talents. What couldn't Luna do? However, despite Luna's apparent abundance of talents, including delivery of blowtorches, Raven was still fairly sure she didn't hallucinate asking Clarke to get her one.

"So why are you delivering the blowtorch and not Clarke?"

"Clarke had to run off somewhere and told Lexa to do it, and Lexa being the useless lesbian she is, didn't have the heart to say no to Clarke, so she asked me to do it for her", Luna answers, a smile now gracing her features. It was kind of cute.

Raven snorts, glad she wasn't drinking her coffee when Luna spoke. "They're hopeless. Especially commander heart-eyes." A glance at the clock tells her that she has twenty minutes to hand in her assignment. She downs the rest of the coffee and dashes out, calling over her shoulder, "Thanks! Let yourself out, Luna!"

The sun is setting across campus when Raven finally makes her way back to her apartment. Orange sunlight reflects on the pavement. She swings her door open, ready to plop onto the couch and just watch some TV, and stops dead in the doorway. Gone is the mess she walked out of. Here is a squeaky clean apartment that she almost doesn't recognize. She swears the countertop of the kitchen is so clean it is sparkling.

Raven's jaw is on the ground by now, as she walks slowly into her apartment. Everything is cleaner. Even the blanket on the couch is folded up neatly on one end. Her phone rings and she opens it to a text message from an unknown number.

Unknown: I didn't want you tripping over something and squashing the baby. -Luna

As she looks around the now clean apartment, Raven thinks that it wouldn't be so bad if there was somebody in her life that balanced out her habits, and helped her clean around the house. After all, it was only for the baby right?

Raven: Not bad. The baby says thank you.

Two Weeks Later

Luna hears the sniffles before she sees her on the bench. It is early in the morning, at 4am on Saturday, the yellow glow of the lamp on the path overlooking the crashing waves of the sea.

Unlike the last two times, her hair is let in waves of brown locks. Her shoulders shake as she cries, hugging herself in just sweats and a t-shirt. If somebody were really looking for it (not that Luna was, she just happened to notice) there was a slight baby bump underneath the tight shirt. Luna really shouldn't meddle. She already has twice. But the girl is going to catch a cold if she keeps sitting there like that. Luna shrugs off her long flowing coat as she approaches the bench and drapes it over the latina.

Raven looks up as she feels the weight of the fabric, her eyes rimmed red in a heart rending way. Luna gives her a small smile and turns on her heel to continue her way back to her yacht. "Wait. Stay...please."

Luna stops and turns around slowly. She waits for Raven to speak as her curls float in the wind behind her.

"I wish he was here. Not him specifically. I know how to do this, sometimes I just need somebody to be there", Raven rambled, instinctively pulling the jacket tighter around herself as a particularly strong ocean wind gusts by.

Luna's face softens. She sits herself down next to Raven, not really looking at her but instead out at the foam where the water meets the rock and sand. "It is nice to have emotional support", Luna acknowledges. There is no question in her statement. She doesn't ask "who is he?" or "what happened?" It's not her business.

Raven considers that. "Emotional support, huh? I never thought of it like that. When you say it that way it almost seems different from needing help and relying on others."

"That's because it is different", Luna replies easily. She knows the difference easily because she herself has often straddled the thin line between the two and seen many people do the same. She's no psychologist, but it doesn't take one to use common sense to make sense of life experiences.

Raven hums in return in a contemplating fashion. Luna stays silent, figuring that she probably needed time to think about what was said. The waves are lulling, and she just watches them, breathing in the saltiness of the air. The calm washes over her. The ocean has always had a natural effect on her that nothing else has had.

Perhaps it is because the ocean relaxed her so much that her heart leaps out of her chest in surprise when the weight of Raven's head falls onto her shoulder. She whips her head around to see Raven now asleep, fatigue finally having gotten the better of her. The first few rays of orange sunlight were starting to crest over the horizon, splaying onto her face and outlining it. Luna raises a hand up and in front of her face. She knew firsthand how bright sunlight could ruin a good session of sleep.

She sits there for a good two hours, her shoulder being used as a personal pillow and attempting to block the sunlight with her hand. It was silly because she didn't need to. She barely knew Raven, but it felt like the correct thing to do.

The sun was almost all the way up when a woman walked by with a cacophonous baby in a stroller that Raven jolted awake with a snort. Luna has to bite back a smile. It's almost cute how she started.

It is quick, but Raven murmurs, "Thanks for that. I uh... gotta go." As she slips off the bench and down the street, Luna can swear that she sees a hint of a blush.