Make Christmas Your Bitch

Chapter 1: Make Christmas Your Bitch

Clarke is stressing about a big art show she has coming up but she's got Lexa on her mind. And it appears Octavia and Raven are plotting.

"You know I am totally not going to tell you," Clarke said as she hefted the painting onto its hook on the wall. Octavia helped her get it centered.

"C'mon. It's Christmas." Octavia gave her an exaggerated eyeroll, which was kind of funny. She had her hair pulled back today, and it framed the planes of her face nicely.

Clarke stepped back to make sure the painting wasn't crooked. "And?" she said after a few more seconds.

"So share some cheer and tell me who your Secret Santa mission is."

"Raven put you up to this, didn't she?"

Octavia didn't respond and Clarke rolled her eyes. "I knew it." She went back into the storage area and started unwrapping another painting, this one a bit smaller than the other. "And I'm not going to tell you. Because what if you're my Secret Santa target?" She wasn't. She had Jasper this year. But she also had another Secret Santa project she was working on and there was no way in hell she was going to tell anyone in the crew about that.

Octavia stood in the doorway, watching. "How about this? Tell me who it's not."

"Because that's different...how?" She carefully tore the rest of the protective paper away to expose the painting. "Every year she tries to figure out who everybody's Secret Santa mission is." She picked up the painting and Octavia moved aside for her. "I'm not going to make it any easier for her." She laughed like a bad movie villain.

"I hate it when you do Secret Santa like—like all secret and shit."

Clarke laughed. "What part of Secret Santa is not clear?"

Octavia shrugged. "Did you get Lexa?"

And just hearing her name again caused little sparks in her chest and it made her warm and tingly even though there was no good reason for it to have the effect it did but it always did. Every. Single. Time. She'd been both fighting it and embracing it for years. She hoped she didn't betray anything through body language or anything.

"Did you not just get my memo about 'secret'?" Clarke mock-glared at her.

"You take this way too seriously. Anyway, Raven thinks you should do something a little different with Secret Santa this year."

"Like what? I mean, there are certain rules for how this works. And we have fun with it every year." She carefully placed the picture on a wall hook.

"Like, you know. Get laid or something."

She laughed. "How the fuck is Secret Santa supposed to—seriously? We do this with our own crew and the only people getting laid are the ones already partnered. And I'm sorry, I'm not interested that way in our crew."

With the exception of one.

Octavia scoffed. "Please, Clarke. Raven and I are pretty hot."

She looked at her for a beat, then laughed again. "Okay, yes, you are. And you're also both in committed, monogamous relationships. So how, exactly, does that get me laid?"

"So you're saying you'd do me or Raven?" she said with a teasing glint in her eyes.

"I think of both of you as my sisters. So I can't really wrap my head around that."

"There's always Lexa."

Clarke was really glad she'd already hung the picture up because she probably would have dropped it. "Excuse me?"

"Just sayin'. I still think the two of you would be awesome together. Raven and I have shipped you with her for years."

She summoned her best "what the fuck" look though she completely agreed with her. "And Lexa is—"

"Super attractive. Intelligent. Driven. Funny. Confident. Supportive—"

"Are you perhaps writing her Wikipedia entry?"

"No, but maybe I should."

"Anyway, as I was saying, Lexa is in New York. She has a life there."

Octavia shrugged again. "And? It's not that far. We're only forty minutes from DC, and there are these things called trains and planes. Even cars."

"Oh, my God. Just stop. Go back to asking me about Secret Santa."

"We're just trying to help. After the last...um...situation."

Clarke crossed her arms and looked at her. "It's not like that's the norm in my life. I mean, that's the first and only time I've had a dude ask me to do his ex so he could watch."

"Which, okay, might not be bad."

Clarke raised her eyebrows. "Not my thing. And it wasn't his ex's, either. And come on. His ex? Really?"

"Octavia held her hands up. "You're right. I'm just messing with you."

"I know.

"Besides, the ultimate ship is Clexa."

"Seriously? I can't with you." She went back to the storage room and retrieved another painting, trying not to think about Lexa but failing completely. She hung this painting near the other. "What do you think?"

"About that or Clexa?"

"Octavia—"

"Looks good. On both counts."

Clarke rolled her eyes. "Focus. On this. Me. The show. What do you think about the rest of the place?" She gestured at the art. "Honest opinion. I'm trying to create a nice space for the show and these are the two that will be teasers until it happens."

Octavia walked around a bit, inspecting. "Nice. Clean lines, warm lighting. Great outside light from your giant front windows. But you know what would make it even better?"

"Do tell."

She turned. "Lexa."

"Final warning. I'm done with that part of the convo." Because it was too close to her heart, and there was no way she was going to tell Octavia that she totally agreed with her assessment.

"Okay, okay. Then I say, more Christmas decorations."

"Really? You don't think this is enough? I don't want to overwhelm and detract from the art." She had a small tree in the front window, and had hooked up a couple of cool neon signs in the other window that flashed red and green, alternating "Holly" and "Jolly." The front door and counter had matching wreaths and she had framed the doors and windows with evergreen garlands.

"No, I'm being totally serious. The opening is, like, a few days before Christmas. People expect more festive-ness. It'll make them feel all warm and fuzzy and they'll want to buy more art. Possibly Christmas presents for themselves."

She had a point. "So you're saying I don't have enough Christmas out?"

"I mean, you've got some good Christmas going on, but you need a bit more. Some extra touches."

"Okay..." she hesitated, not sure what else she could do because she needed wall space for paintings.

"Here's what I suggest. You're going to have a couple of drink stations and a food table. Let me and Raven set those up and we'll bring more Christmas. Just a bit more of what you've got going on here.

"Really?"

"Damn, Griff. We are your best friends ever. We know Christmas and, more importantly, we know you. So let us take care of adding a little more of the holidays to your very artistic, clean, sleek space. A little more festive, a little more—" she pointed at Clarke's blinking signs in the window, "holly jolly."

She grinned.

"Make Christmas your bitch."

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End of Chapter 1

xx Alex