Clexa One Shots

The art of coparenting (AU)

By: almostafantasia
The first time that Clarke's new neighbour comes over to complain about her dog, she brushes it off as a one time thing.

She has an imposing presence, as she stands on Clarke's doorstep with the mother of all glares on her face. Clarke doesn't know what she has done to deserve such an icy stare from somebody she swears she has never laid eyes on before, but this girl, despite only being marginally taller than Clarke, looks down on her with her head held high and her green eyes empty of all but scorn. Clarke wants to cower away back into her house, until she remembers that this is her doorstep, and she has no right to feel intimidated in her own home.

"You are Clarke Griffin?"

Clarke doesn't ask how this stranger knows her name, nor why she appears to be wrestling with a bundle of dark hair held tightly against her chest by tanned arms, though she decides not to ask either question.

"Yes."

"You are the owner of this dog?"

The stranger thrusts her arms out, and in doing so the fluffy bundle becomes the familiar shape of the dog Clarke has owned since she was fourteen, unmistakeable dark unruly hair almost covering his eyes and wet pink tongue hanging from his mouth as he pants and wriggles in the girl's arms.

"Bellamy!"

The dog barks in response and leaps out of the girl's arms, clumsily bumping into Clarke's legs as he darts into the house behind her.

"He did his business in my front yard," states the girl.

"I'm so sorry!" gushes Clarke. "My mom asked me to put the trash out earlier, I must have forgotten to lock the gate at the side of the house. Bellamy probably escaped from the back yard through there. I'll make sure it never happens again."

At the very least, Clarke expects a smile before the girl departs, if not a thank you, but she gets neither.

"Good. If I ever see that dog again I expect him to at least be toilet trained."

Without another word, the girl turns and strides away down the drive at the front of Clarke's house, head still held aloft and a general air of feeling like she's better than Clarke about her.

"Wait!" Clarke calls out, stepping through the door and onto the doorstep in her socked feet. "You didn't tell me your name!"

The girl looks over her shoulder once and gives Clarke a look as if to say nice try, before continuing on her way, out of both Clarke's front yard, and her life.

Or so she'd thought.

Clarke sees her neighbour several times over the coming weeks, going both in and out of her house, which Clarke learns is the one diagonally across the road from her own. Most of the time she's alone, pulling out of the drive in her small red hatchback and returning at around the same time that Clarke gets in from school. She sees the girl on two other occasions too. The first is in the park near their street; while Clarke takes Bellamy for a walk before school one morning, she spots the girl from across the road out for a run, wearing a tiny pair of running shorts that show off a strong pair of tanned legs. The second time happens while Clarke is out at the local grocery store running errands for her mom, where she almost bumps into the girl in the fruit and vegetable section of the store. Clarke had thought the air in the store had been cold, until she'd seen the positively chilling glare from the other girl when they almost collide, as if it had been entirely Clarke's fault. (It hadn't.)

Despite these encounters, as infrequent as they are, Clarke still doesn't learn anything about the girl with the wild hair, enticing emerald green eyes and the furrowed brow.