Lion's Roar (Clexa)

6. Walking the Tightrope

The diner was nothing fancy, lit by fluorescent tube lights that seemed to flicker ever so slightly if one concentrated on them hard enough, and was devoid of life aside from a tired-looking girl behind the counter, leaning on the cash register, seemingly reading a book. She had short, blonde wavy hair, what looked like an undercut, and didn't so much as look up when Clarke and Lexa came through the door. She may well have been asleep. A faint sound of country music emanated from the kitchen, barely audible behind the content humming of various grillers and fryers. A tall young man with curls to rival a hobbit lay reclined across two chairs next to the drive-through window - he was definitely asleep.

Lexa knocked on the counter, and the blonde girl awoke with a start, dropping her book and scrambling to straighten her glasses before flashing the travellers a standard customer-service smile. According to the badge on her uniform, her name was Kelsea.

"Good-" she looked at her watch "- morning. How may I help you?"

"I'll have a-" Clarke began confidently, then faltered. What did one actually order for a midnight snack? Coffee? Nuggets? Or was this the one and only time of day at which anyone actually ordered a Fillet-o-Fish? She was well and truly stumped. "Er, how about you order first?" she suggested, glancing at Lexa. The older girl smiled back at her.

"You like nuggets?"

"God, Lexa, of course I like nuggets! Who doesn't like nuggets?"

"Well, my Australian roommate for one - she was a vegan. Made the mistake of buying her a rather expensive ice cream cake once so I just had to check. Come to think of it, Anya still owes me for that... Anyway -" she turned back to Kelsea, who seemed to be getting a little impatient, "We'll have a twenty-pack of nuggs."

Kelsea nodded, yawned, and entered the code for the nuggets into the cash register.

"Chris!" she yelled to the hobbit-looking guy in the drive through. "I'm gonna need twenty nuggets!"

Chris awoke with a start, and looked around in confusion. "Nuggets. Twenty. Now." Kelsea repeated now she'd successfully captured his attention.

"Coming right up," he said, leaping up from his chairs and starting up the deep-fryer.

"That all?" said Kelsea, turning back to her customers. The girls looked at each other and nodded.

"I know we don't usually do table service, but since business here's slower than a tortoise in a traffic jam, you guys can take a seat and I'll bring your order over when it's ready"

"Thanks" smiled Lexa, reaching for her wallet but Clarke beat her to it, slapping a $5 note down on the counter.

"Let me pay," said the lion tamer. Lexa went to argue but Clarke cut her off. "I'm not gonna go broke over some chicken nuggets, don't worry," she smiled sweetly at the sword-swallower.

The girls took a seat in a corner booth, away from the draughty doors and beneath a TV broadcasting one of the evening's NFL games in silence, semi-accurate subtitles snaking across the screen at a faster pace than play itself.

"So," began Lexa with a cocky grin. "You feeling the exhilarating rush of the midnight snack experience yet?"

"Uh," Clarke faltered. "Should I be? How do I know when I'm feeling it? What exactly about this makes it exhilarating?" she raised her eyebrows suggestively with that last question, as if testing the waters for the possibility of other such exhilarating experiences occurring between them.

"Look around," said Lexa, gesturing to the hordes of empty seats that filled the dilapidated restaurant. "There's no one else here, probably no one awake for miles around - it's like we're the only people in the world. We're rebelling against the universe, playing by our own rules. Chicken nuggets weren't made to be eaten at one in the morning, human physiology isn't even designed for such late meals, but we're doing it anyway. We're breaking free. Here and now, it's like anything is possible."