Douse This Fire

9

Lexa; Friday, 6:24pm

It took twenty minutes before the realization sunk in for the rest of the residents that their building had been tampered with deliberately.

In that twenty minutes, Lexa had first stood with Clarke at the window, their arms around each other, watching the wild dance of flakes outside. Then Aden and Tris had joined them, both oddly quiet. Lexa supposed that they were scared but too stubborn to admit it, and so the only acknowledgement she gave them was a kiss on the head each, and then the four of them were watching the storm, the kids leaning back against the adults.

After that, their friends trickled over. Anya, Octavia, Lincoln, Raven, Bellamy, Monty, Gina, Wells, and even that kid, and the group of them all stood silently watching the storm. Then three others joined them, and after they greeted Clarke and her friends with grins, Clarke explained that they were more friends from middle school.

"You adopted a whole pack of people back then, didn't you?" the kid snickered, bumping Clarke lightly against her shoulder.

Lexa felt a little lighter when Clarke grinned, nodding. "Yeah, I kinda did. And then Bell adopted us," she laughed, glancing over at Bellamy.

He made a face, all but sticking his tongue out at the group that were all snickering at his expense. "Yeah, I don't know why, though."

"It's because we're awesome, Bell," Raven cackled, swinging her arm around his shoulder. "And you love us."

He didn't argue with her, and the group was quiet for a little after that. Lexa tried not to get too excited when Clarke turned into her more, snuggling closer. She ended up with her head under Lexa's chin, both arms wrapped around her waist, and Lexa's nose buried in that blonde mane.

(Lexa did not sniff Clarke, though she noticed she smelled like citrus.)

It was then that some of the other residents started panicking.

They were all bunched together in a separate group, with a couple of people by themselves, bickering amongst each other. Suddenly, it got very loud, and Mr. Hunter, Lance's father, was shouting. "How do we know it wasn't someone here? We don't know all of them!" Lexa turned her head to see he was pointing at her and her friends, and she couldn't help the anger that bristled.

Clarke leaned over, not letting go of Lexa, and rolled her eyes. "Mr. Hunter, these are my friends, I've known them for years, and none of them would deliberately sabotage the building. Plus, they were all in Octavia and my apartment when the power went out."

"Shouldn't we call the police at least?" Mrs. Fitz fretted, wringing her hands as she looked around at everyone else, keeping her son Leo close.

Anya snorted, tugging Tris' hat down farther over her ears. "Lady, I am the police." She turned serious though, frowning deeply. "Though I suppose I should go down and investigate, take some pictures. With the storm still on outside, it's not safe to call in reinforcements."

Clarke's friend, Wells, nodded in agreement. "I'll go with you. I might specialize in negotiation, but I'm still a cop."

Clarke seemed to tighten her grip, and Lexa did the same, trying to silently support Clarke somehow. She was calmer than earlier, now, but still leaning heavily on Lexa. Not that Lexa minded, really.

"Okay, Jaha and I will go back down and take some pictures. Then we'll come up and take some statements, just for the record, so if anyone saw anything out of the ordinary, anything at all, other than the group that were in Clarke's place, then tell us then." Anya took charge, pulling her phone out and grabbing a flashlight that someone had found in a supply closet. Before the two officers headed back down to the basement, Anya turned to her family. She pulled Tris and Aden into a hug, frowning at them. "Stay with Lexa, hear me?"