Love Hate Relationship

Chapter 69

And before you knew it, Lexa was alone. She looked around, finding it hard to believe how quickly they all deserted her. Her bottom lip jutted out in a pout. Sitting around by herself seemed unappealing and lonely. As she wallowed in a shallow pool of self-pity, the doorbell rang. The dogs were suddenly very agitated and excited, tails wagging furiously. Lexa figured maybe Anya and Luna decided to come back and keep her company. When she opened the door, her heart jumped into her throat. Clarke was standing there. "Clarke?"

"Hi, I wanted to check on you, so I thought I'd just stop by. I just saw the gang as they were leaving. They all seemed to be in a rush to get out of here. What happened? Are you still grumpy?" Clarke asked with her hands on her hips.

"No, I'm not grumpy. I may have whined a little bit. But, I was not grumpy. I don't know what got into them," she said, looking past Clarke at the cars speeding out of the driveway. "C'mon in, I'm happy for the company. I thought they would hang around a bit, but they all just got up and left..." Lexa hesitated, almost saying it was as if they wanted us to be alone. She cocked an eyebrow as she pondered that. Naaah, they couldn't have known, that would make them psychic. "Come in, come in."

Clarke walked past her and stood in the foyer as the dogs demanded her attention, pushing against her legs. "Oh, here are my boys. You guys missed me, didn't you? Good boys." She squatted down and hugged them both, and promptly got pushed to the ground by their exuberance.

"Hey boys, that's enough, Jesus, calm down. Let her get up. Sorry Clarke."

"They can't help it if they love me," she said with a smile, not upset to be on the seat of her pants getting doggie kisses.

Lexa gave her a hand up off the floor. Clarke pulled her in for a hug, and Lexa melted into her, wrapping her up, ignoring the pain in her ribs for this small bit of intimacy, holding the hug way past standard hug time. She was obviously in a weakened state, what with the concussion and all. And Clarke was comfortable.

Clarke stepped out of the hug to look around the room and Lexa missed her immediately.

"Okay, where are those kittens? I see one, and there's the other one, and oh, what's he got in his mouth?"

"Huh?" Lexa looked down at her kitten, "What the heck?"

"Is that a shower cap?" Clarke asked, prying it out of the kitten's mouth and holding it up. "Is this yours?"

"Maybe?"

"It's got ducks on it."

"So?" Lexa grabbed the cap and shoved it in her pocket.

Clarke started giggling, "Nice shower cap, Lexa."

"Enough. You're my doctor. You're not supposed to make fun of me."

"True. I apologize. It just kinda quacked me up."

Lexa stared at her, trying very hard not to laugh. "Is that supposed to be funny?" She secretly loved goofy Clarke.

Clarke kept a straight face, "Yes, Linda, yes, it was supposed to be funny."

The Linda comment cracked them both up.

"Okay, enough," Clarke said. "Let's get quacking, where's those kittens? Come here baby, let me see how big you got. They grow so fast don't they?" She bent down and picked up the closest one, kissing him on the cheek and getting a paw to the face for her troubles. "Now I get my formal introduction. Lexa? Please introduce me."

Lexa bit her lip and put her hand behind her neck, rubbing at some imaginary crick, "Ah, that's, um, Thumper," she said sheepishly, suddenly slightly embarrassed to admit what she named them.