Chapter Text
“You ready to go Clarke?” Octavia was strangely pumped for Nerdlesque. Apparently a ripped dude did a show dressed as Thor at some point so her hopes were high.
Clarke looked up at her best friend from her perch on the edge of her queen sized hotel bed. “Yes I’m ready. Why? Do I not look ready or something?”
Octavia raised her brows incredulously and looked Clarke up and down. “Dude. You’re not going dressed like...... that.” She gestured at Clarke, arms all akimbo in her wild movements.
“Ummm, why not?”
“I swear woman sometimes you are absolutely clueless. Do you not see how I’m dressed? Take your cue from me and go change your goddamn clothes.” Octavia swept her arms down her torso, showing off the form fitting corset she had slunk into, along with the black skinny jeans and her trusty punk leather jacket.
Clarke just rolled her eyes. “You do realize that I don’t own anything relatively similar to what you have on right now. Besides, what is wrong with jeans and a t-shirt? We’re going to a pub.”
“Yes we are going to a pub. Great observation skills there bud. But it’s an event at a pub. And not any old regular event. It’s a nerdy burlesque show. We’re gonna see some mostly naked hotness, ergo we also need to be hot. Trust me dude, this is exactly the type of occasion people should take advantage of. When was the last time you dolled yourself up, huh?”
Furrowing her brow in thought, Clarke realized she couldn’t actually remember the last time she had dressed up for anything.
“Plus. Isn’t that cosplay chick going to be there?” Octavia leered at Clarke, knowing she had finally made a point that would affect the Blonde.
“Ugh, FINE OCTAVIA. You win. But you’re going to have to lend me something to wear since I don’t have anything worthy of matching your current level of hotness.” As if to lend credence to her statement, Clarke raised an eyebrow and looked her friend up and down.
Octavia just smiled brightly, accepting of the praise offered.
“Alright, lets find you something HOT to wear. It’s time you make that chick sweat.”
With a resigned sigh, Clarke got up to allow her pushy best friend to play doll with her.
***
Finding something for Clarke to wear had taken slightly longer than either of the women had expected. Mostly because anything loved by the one immediately got vetoed by the second. But of course, Octavia won out in the end. Honestly Clarke was just tired of the whole charade and decided it would be easier to give in to the insistent nature of Octavia. Also, she had to admit that maybe Octavia had a point about what she ended up wearing. She was slightly self-conscious but also, weirdly confident.
“This the place?” Octavia asked from the drivers seat of their rental car, neck craned to look at the front facade of the pub they were pulled up in front of.
Clarke looked down at the text from Lexa (the woman had texted herself from Clarke’s phone when she had it earlier in the day) to confirm the address. “Yup, this is the place. Can we park here you think?”
“Nah, Imma park in the lot across the street. I just wanted to be sure before I bothered to actually park.” At this Octavia pulled a quick u-turn and pulled into the lot directly across the way.
The two got out of the car and crossed the street to enter the busy pub.
The pub was situated on a busy street with a seriously wide sidewalk which allowed there to be tables and seating areas in the outdoor area. There were about ten four seat tables scattered about and leaving a path to the entrance of the establishment. The door was wide and left entirely open, lively sound effects leaking through the portal. Even outside there were people so Clarke could hazard a guess and say the interior would likely be crowded.
As they were walking through the tables, many a stare was aimed their way.
Clarke leaned over surreptitiously and whispered in Octavia’s ear. “Why did you make me wear this? People are staring. I look weird.”
Octavia grinned as she responded. “You’ve got it all wrong buddy. They’re staring because we look amazing and they either wish they were us, or they could have us. Own it sister.” As if proving her point, Octavia slung her arm across Clarke’s shoulders and exaggerated her swagger.
Looking around her with new eyes, Clarke had to admit that the stares did look suspiciously...... intense. Octavia had decided to dress Clarke in a loose and very low cut black top which was sculpted to follow the hip lines of the wearer, leaving some skin above the very low cut jeans showing. The jeans were dark blue skinnies, full of rips and slashes from below the knees all the way up to the pockets and they were paired with her slightly heeled black boots. To top off the look she had donned her bomber style short black and blue leather jacket. Both hers and Octavia’s hair was done to the nines as well. Octavia’s pulled back from her face in a series of intricate braids while Clarke’s was softly curled and styled to fall over one shoulder more than the other.
To say she and Octavia struck a strong image would be an understatement.
She decided Octavia was right and she was going to enjoy this newfound feeling of power and sex appeal. She wrapped her arm around Octavia’s waist and at the action she felt her friend chuckle and smile in approval.
With confidence, the blonde and brunette strode into the pub.
It was clear quite quickly that Clarke’s assumption regarding the number of patrons in the pub was accurate. There wasn’t an empty table to be seen anywhere. They changed course and headed to the bar where a few stools were available.
After ordering drinks they turned to eye their company. They assortment of people was staggering. There were people in cosplay, people done up to the nines like Clarke and Octavia, and a few dressed relatively ‘normally’ who stood out in so much as they looked like they made no effort (alright, Clarke would concede that Octavia was right about dressing up.) It was a veritable grab bag of people who would have been in entirely separate cliques in high school. It was actually pretty cool to see people from so many walks of life bonding over a common interest.
“So. You see what’s her face yet?” Octavia was already halfway through her drink and eyeing people win interest. People watching was one of her favourite activities.
Clarke took another cursory glance around the establishment, not seeing any of the three faces she recognizes from the group. “Yeah, no I don’t. I’m sure she’ll show. The actual show time isn’t for a few minutes after all.” She shrugged, a little anxious but not especially concerned.
They settled in to wait for the show, finishing their first drinks and ordering another round.
As expected of any event, it didn’t start exactly on time. It was a few minutes after 8 when the lights dimmed and the audience raised their voices, giving life to their excitement.
Clarke still hadn’t spotted Lexa and was starting to get a little frustrated. The least she could do was show up if she was going to invite someone out, otherwise what was the point?
Sighing, Clarke relaxed against the bar to enjoy the show regardless of her disappointment.
The first few spots were pretty good, a group of men and women came out in full X-men regalia and gyrated around stage for a few minutes, much to the pleasure of those in the front row. Following them was a single act, a woman who started in a full Varia Suit and did a strip tease, leading down to zero-suit Samus and finally into a bra and panty set decorated with metroids. The third act was a group of men dressed as all the male avengers (as well as some villains). There was Thor, Hulk, IronMan, Hawkeye, Captain America, Loki, Thanos, and a few others Clarke didn’t recognize. Octavia definitely enjoyed that one.
They were about halfway through the show and Clarke was kind of angry now. Lexa and the rest still hadn’t shown up. That irked her to no end. It was a bit of a dick move.
The fourth act was about to come on stage and strangely, the entire audience was staring towards the stage in rapt attention as the lights lowered to almost complete darkness.
Wait, was there a program or something? How do they know what’s next?
A slow beat played, some heavy electronic song that Clarke didn’t know. Strobe lights started flickering to the beat as a group of people walked slowly onstage from all wings. They walked into a formation, ending in a line stretching across the stage’s length. There were six of them, all dressed in armour.
The music started to crescendo, the lights coming up with it. As the beat sped up the group remained stoic, legs planted apart, arms ending in fists and heads tilted forward.
Finally the song reached it’s peak in the intro, the bass kicked in and the lights flared up.
Exactly on cue, the group sprang into action. Clarke was floored by the precise movements. The number was clearly exactly choreographed, the cosplayers seemingly experienced dancers. The other performers were all okay but they were obviously not professional, or at least not to the extent these guys were.
They moved around each other, missing each other by a hair as they passed, leapt and slid. While there was significant amounts of popping, locking, and even break dance it soon became apparent it was only the intro to their act.
Slowing down slightly they all gathered in the centre again and as the music morphed into a more melodic but still heavily electronic song. The audience meanwhile had been going apeshit the whole duration of the intro.
The members started removing their armour to the music and almost floated towards the front of the stage as pieces fell to the floor behind them, their hips and shoulders weaving and undulating to the beat as they went.
Clarke had to marvel at the coordination it would take to accomplish such a feat. Chancing a quick glance to her left she saw that Octavia was just as entranced as she and the rest of the audience were.
Three of the six reached the front of the stage ahead of the others and two were revealed to be men while the third was a woman. Clarke didn’t recognize them but was capable of admitting they were all exceedingly sexy individuals.
The second set of three moved up into the spots vacated by their counterparts and Clarke jerked forward in realization, nearly launching herself off her barstool.
Holy balls. I would recognize those tattoos anywhere!!!! What the shit?!
As they reached the edge of the stage and removed their helmets they were revealed to be Raven, Anya and Lexa.
Once all six of them were sans armour they jumped off the stage and into the audience. Now unencumbered by the ungainly armour they moved even more fluidly, which Clarke wouldn’t have thought possible if she hadn’t been witnessing it in that moment.
The audience was going wild by this point, apparently these guys were fairly well known in nerd-dom as a whole.
Each member of the troupe split off, giving short lap dances to those they deemed satisfactory (Clarke had a feeling they were basing it on creepiness level) and when Clarke spotted Lexa moving in her direction, she stopped breathing.
Good god she is sexy. And damn if she doesn’t know it.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Octavia wearing a positively gleeful expression as she watched Lexa approach Clarke.
Lexa stopped a few times on her way over to grant a small amount of attention to a few event attendees but her eyes never left Clarke’s. Leaving her most recent victim she made a beeline for Clarke and reached her in almost inhuman time.
Okay, Clarke lied. NOW she stopped breathing. Lexa was inches in front of her and she was moving closer. Her hands landed on Clarke’s legs as she planted herself between them, her hips grazing the insides of Clarke’s thighs.
She stopped momentarily, looking up at Clarke with a question in her eyes. It didn’t take more than a second for Clarke to nod her head, her breath back but erratic.
Lexa started to move, her hips rolling forward and her back arching. She kept perfect time and her eyes never left Clarke’s.
Increasingly Clarke’s breath sped up and by the crooked smile on Lexa’s face, it hadn’t gone unnoticed.
One of Lexa’s hands raised in a beckoning motion and without missing a beat, the remainder of the troupe made their way over as well. Anya and Raven coming up next to Lexa and the other three surrounding Octavia who apparently was eating it up if the face splitting smile on her face was anything to go by.
Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. I’m going to die. Or not, because I think I already did.
Each group danced and gyrated around the two girls, leaving at least Clarke significantly breathless and flushed.
For all that there were three beautiful women basically giving her a once in a lifetime experience, Clarke only had eyes for Lexa. She seemed to sense Clarke’s thinking as she slid closer, her face now inches from Clarke’s.
Before the blonde had a chance to react Lexa was pulling away as well as the other five. They backed away slowly, moving towards the stage. Once their backs came level with the stage edge they hoisted themselves up to perform a few last moves as the music came to an abrupt stop and the lights went down.
The crowd went apeshit as the group sauntered off stage, and Clarke and Octavia found themselves being surrounded again, this time by people hyped up by the show and eager to hear about the experience. Many offers were made to buy drinks for them but were cut short as the bartender leaned over and said something directly in Octavia’s ear. She jumped to her feet and grabbed Clarke’s hand, dragging her towards the stage.
Reaching the door the bouncers let them through without a second thought and Clarke was treated to a view of the group lounging on the couches with drinks in their sweaty grips.
Clarke found her eyes alighting on Lexa immediately, the tattooed beauty was already looking at her. Before she could doubt herself Clarke strode over.
“So. When you invited me here you neglected to mention you were not only part of the show but nerdlesque royalty.” She smiled up at the taller girl, hands in the pockets of her jeans.
Lexa didn’t answer immediately in favour of looking Clarke up and down shamelessly, getting a better look now that they were in a well lit room.
Clarke took the opportunity to do the same, as Lexa had changed out of her performance clothes. Lexa was dressed in a simple pair of black harem pants paired with an unadorned grey tank top. She was wearing combat boots as well. Clarke had no idea how such a simple aesthetic could look so goddamn sexy.
Her roving eyes finally came to rest on Clarke’s own and she spoke with heat in her eyes and an amused twist to her lips.
“But that would have spoiled my fun, Clarke.”