We're taking our time

Chapter 1

Clarke stumbled into Lexa's room. She was holding Lexa's arms which the brunette had wrapped around the blonde. And they were laughing into their kisses, the ones they've waited too long for. The ones that waited 20 years for, to be felt, to be experienced, to be sealed into a memory.

"For someone who was so averse to doing this, I must say you're pretty good!" Clarke said between the kiss. Latching her lips back between Lexa's.

But the lips were not enough, not after twenty years.

Now that Lexa knew what it felt like to have Clarke's tongue invade her mouth, there was no going back. She deepened the kiss quickly. The hunger in her body showing in the way she kissed so fervently and the way she had a hand wrapped around Clarke's waist.

"We can talk later, kiss me", Lexa said. Not wanting to waste this moment in conversing, something they had been delving into ever since Clarke got back from space.

They'd been kissing at every chance they got, ever since Clarke convinced Lexa that they should try it out.

But this afternoon, after their movie in Lexa's living room, Clarke asked her about the tech she spoke about once and Lexa was overjoyed that she didn't have to remind Clarke about it.

****

It had been 20 years since Clarke and her family set off from earth to live in space. The world saw a terrible virus making its way into every city, pushing everyone indoors and pausing all progress. That was the year 2020.

Clarke's dad who was a scientist and a practised astronaut was then burdened with the responsibility of participating in a social experiment. He and his family along with a few select families were to be sent to space, away from the plagued earth, where they would stay until life on earth came back to normal. They would have to log their experiences as a family and as a community so that their counterparts on earth could then compare it to the state of life on earth during these years.

Clarke was furious at her dad for accepting this. For being okay with taking his family away from all that they held dear. But Clarke's tiny voice as a 15-year-old was nothing in the magnanimity of things. Clarke's dad hoped that one day she would understand that he was one of the only astronauts who had completed all the training to take on this mission. To lead a community of people away and sustain their lives.

But 15-year-old Clarke had bigger worries. Her school crush had finally said yes to her for a date and the blonde was on cloud 9 when the date went really well. Little did she know that her dad at that very moment was signing a contract to live higher above the clouds for the next twenty years.

Clarke's tears fell like rain that day when her dad told their entire family. She shut her bedroom door and wept. Not only would she be leaving behind her entire childhood, her school, her friends, her painting classes, her dog. But she would be leaving behind her best friend and now almost-girlfriend, 'Lexa'.

The brunette was new to their town and Clarke easily fell into companionship with her when they both took the same classes. Lexa grew into Clarke's friend circle so easily that it felt like they'd known each other for ages.

So when Clarke asked Lexa out, right after their history class, the brunette blushed but didn't hesitate to say yes. Their first date was at a local diner when they sat beside each other and spoke the way they always did, as though they knew each other for lifetimes, the only difference being the two hands intertwined between them.

When Clarke dropped Lexa home that evening, they both knew a kiss would be too soon and too much right away. They both felt more for each other than what every other friend knew, but now that they were dating, they'd have all the time in the world, so for today they'd take it one step at a time.