AN: Happy Sunday, everyone! Here is the epilogue of Into the Woods, as promised. It feels so weird to be ending this story lol. It has been an amazing journey. Thank you for all your support, for your favorites, follows, and reviews, and for just reading the story. You guys are all amazing, and I have loved sharing this story with you. I hope you like the way I've decided to end it! For the last time, enjoy!

Epilogue

Three and a Half Years Later

Clarke bobbed up and down in the waves, enjoying the cool ocean breeze that was hitting her cheeks. Her friends were floating all around her, and she finally felt at ease. She, Octavia, Raven, and Lexa had spent all week studying and preparing for finals, and now that the tests were all over, Clarke felt like she could finally breathe a sigh of relief. It felt crazy to be done with her senior year of college, but it also felt amazing to be getting to the next part of her life. Even though Clarke still needed to go for her PhD, she was excited about being that much closer to becoming a doctor. However, school was tiresome, and she found herself a bit burnt out from this year, so she was just happy for the fact that she would have the rest of the summer to recover.

The sun beat down overhead, and Clarke thought that it was a perfect day to be in the ocean. Everyone else seemed to agree, as they were all enjoying the water around her. Well, everyone except Lexa and Anya. They were still lying out on towels on the beach, trying to get a tan. Or avoiding the ocean, Clarke thought. She had gone to the beach with Lexa enough times to know that the brunette didn't like being in the water. The rest of the group had started out by tanning, but after an hour or so, everyone was ready to go swimming, and Clarke couldn't say she was opposed. She knew that Anya was just staying with Lexa because she didn't want to leave her sister all alone and that she had no real desire to remain on the beach. Clarke would've stayed on the beach with her girlfriend instead, but she knew from experience that Lexa would just tell her to go with the others and have fun. Clarke wouldn't be having much fun, however, until she was back by Lexa's side.

The blonde realized that she was just staring up the beach at Lexa, and she shook her head, trying to turn her attention back to her friends as she saw Raven swimming towards her. "I'm so glad we're finally done with our finals."

Clarke couldn't help but give an emphatic nod. "Agreed. If I have to study for one more second, I'll explode."

Raven gave her a knowing look. "Yeah, because you haven't had as much time for sex."

Clarke had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. She should have known Raven would take the conversation there. It was as if she couldn't help it. Clarke had to admit that Raven wasn't wrong though. Having to study twenty four seven really cut down on the amount of time that she could actually spend with Lexa, having sex or otherwise. She knew that they were technically spending time together even when they were in the same room studying, but Clarke didn't count it. Even though she was tired of studying because it wasn't the most riveting thing to do, Raven was right when she insinuated that Clarke was ready to be done studying because she hadn't had sex in a week, and it was driving her crazy. However, she didn't want Raven to know this, so she splashed the other girl, smiling at Raven's screech of indignation. "That is not the reason. I just don't like studying."

"Right." Raven wasn't buying it.

"Fine. I will admit that is a large part of the reason." Clarke shot a wink at her friend.

"I knew it." Raven smirked, flicking water drops at the blonde.

At that moment, Anya plunged into the water between them, and Clarke glanced up in surprise. She looked hopefully up at the beach, but Lexa was still there, and the blonde's shoulders slumped in disappointment when she realized that her girlfriend would not be joining them. Clarke turned a questioning gaze on Anya, wondering why the older girl would leave her sister on the beach, but Anya was already speaking. "Are we getting into a splash war? Because I am here for that."

Clarke shook her head. She should have known that Anya wouldn't be able to resist something like that. "No, we are not getting into a splash war."

"But we could be," Raven suggested, and Clarke groaned internally.

Before Clarke could even tell the brunette not to get Anya started, she had sent a wall of water right into Anya's face, causing the other girl to scream as she tried to rub the salt water out of her eyes. "Raven, I wasn't ready!"

"Are we in second grade now? You never have time to get ready in war." Raven danced out of the older girl's reach.

Anya scowled, and she was about to chase after Raven when Clarke decided to get in on the so-called war, knowing that it would be boring to just stand around and watch the others, and she splashed Anya herself. Anya frowned, wiping at her eyes again before she opened them to reveal a teasing glint. "Oh, I see how it is."

Clarke began to run through the water in the same direction that Raven had gone in to get away from the other blond who was now chasing her. Anya sent a smirk in Clarke's direction. "That's right. You better run, Munchkin."

Clarke quickly ran to hide behind Lincoln in the hopes that he would protect her, but once he caught onto what was happening, he stepped out of the way, splashing Clarke as he chose to join Anya's team. Clarke looked up at him in betrayal. "Lincoln, how could you?"

He shot her an apologetic grin. "Raven's with you, so it's only fair that I'm with Anya."

Soon, the Blakes had joined the game as well, Octavia siding with Lincoln and Anya, and Bellamy with Raven and Clarke. It was definitely a great way to spend their time, filled with lots of teasing and laughing and running, and Clarke was glad that she could finally feel so carefree again after the stress of her exams. However, she knew that this moment would be a lot more fun if Lexa was with her. She looked up at where the brunette was lying and noticed a pair of familiar green eyes trained directly on her. She knew it would be a long shot, but Clarke waved her over, deciding to try and get her girlfriend to join her in the water. Unsurprisingly, Lexa shook her head, causing the blonde to sigh. She decided to let it drop, not wanting to pressure the other girl into doing something that she didn't want to, but when the blonde turned around, she realized that the others had caught onto what she had been doing. Their game slowly came to an end, and all began to beckon to Lexa, silently telling her to join them in the water. Clarke shook her head, knowing that they were more than likely wasting their time. To her surprise though, Clarke thought that she could see Lexa thinking about coming in. The brunette was far away, so Clarke couldn't be sure, but she decided that she wasn't going to waste this opportunity, and so she tried calling to Lexa again. She waved Lexa over, blowing her a kiss, and she cheered when she saw the brunette slowly rise from the sand before making her way down the beach and into the ocean.

When Lexa got in the water, Clarke watched as she carefully picked her way through the salty liquid and over to the blonde, the cautious look on her face never leaving for a second. When she finally stopped in front of Clarke, the blonde wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's waist, holding her close as she pressed a quick kiss to Lexa's lips in the hopes of comforting her. The blonde wanted to turn the kiss more heated, half because she knew that it would distract Lexa from the things that could be lurking in the ocean around them and half because she needed this contact after the stressful week, but Lexa pulled away, still wearing a frown on her face.

Clarke brought her hands up to cup Lexa's cheeks, pinching them gently. "No pouting. Be happy."

Lexa forced a smile. "Fine, Clarke. Is this better?"

Clarke sighed and nodded. "Yes."

She thought that it would be even better if the other girl's smile was genuine, but she knew that Lexa was extremely afraid of sharks, so it would be hard to get a genuine smile out of her at the moment. Clarke supposed that she should just be glad that the other girl was in the water with her, knowing that it was something the brunette rarely ever did. The blonde wouldn't make her girlfriend stay in long though. She could already note the other girl's rigid posture and the way that she was squeezing the blonde's hand in a death grip. It was actually starting to hurt, but Clarke wasn't going to complain if that was the price she had to pay for Lexa to be beside her in that moment. "I'm just glad you came in."

"You're just lucky I love you." Lexa was not amused.

Clarke easily agreed with her, seeing the truth in that statement. "Yes, I am."

At that moment, Clarke saw Anya coming up behind Lexa's shoulder. Clarke was about to smile at her, but the older girl pressed a finger to her lips, warning Clarke to be quiet. That's when Clarke realized what Anya was about to do, and she knew that she shouldn't let Anya do it, that she should blow the other girl's cover before she got close enough to do what she had planned. However, Clarke couldn't pass up the opportunity to see something that would most assuredly be quite funny, so she remained quiet, keeping all traces of recognition off her face as Anya snuck up on Lexa.

"Rarrrr!" Anya yelled as she grabbed onto Lexa's legs. The brunette jumped a foot in the air, letting out a bloodcurdling scream as she clung tightly to Clarke. The blonde started laughing hysterically, and she tried to calm herself a bit when she found that Lexa was holding onto her so tightly that she could barely breathe. Clarke began to rub Lexa's back soothingly, trying to comfort the other girl through her laughter because she couldn't help but feel a bit bad that she had let Anya do that to her sister when the brunette was already obviously so afraid.

"It's okay, Lexa. It's just Anya. There's no shark."

Lexa buried her face further into Clarke's chest, and the blonde knew that she was embarrassed at this point when she looked down to see the red color of Lexa's skin. "You guys are so mean," the brunette mumbled against her girlfriend.

Clarke finally wiped all traces of amusement off her face, but her lips turned up into a smile again when she realized that Anya could not stop laughing. The older girl had literally fallen over when it happened, making the moment all the more funny, and she was now clutching at her sides, unable to stop the uncontrollable laughter that was pouring past her lips. Clarke knew she should glare at Anya or scold her or something, but she couldn't help the fact that she had found it hilarious too. Lexa slowly untangled herself from her girlfriend, sticking her bottom lip out in a sulky frown when she noticed the smile that was still on the blonde's face. She glared at both her girlfriend and her sister before making her way out of the water and back onto the beach without a word, clearly a bit angry at them both for having done that to her. Clarke might have been afraid that the other girl was seriously mad at her had she not caught the reassuring glint in the brunette's eyes right before she turned to get out of the water. Clarke still felt a bit bad about the whole thing.

Once Lexa had gotten out of hearing range, Anya looked back at Clarke, not looking sorry at all. "Is this the part where you yell at me?"

Clarke shook her head, unable to keep the smile off her face despite her slight regret. "Nope. That was too funny. But I'm going to go after her. Maybe I'll lie out on the beach some more."

Anya nodded, clearly not having expected anything different. "Have fun."

Clarke got out of the water and scurried through the sand after her girlfriend, lying out on the towel that had previously been occupied by Anya. Lexa turned her head to look at the blonde, peering at her over the sunglasses that she had just put back on. "You don't have to stay up here with me."

"I know, but I want to," Clarke told her, making no move to leave.

Lexa opened her mouth to argue, but Clarke stopped her before she could even get a word out. "Will you just shut up and hold my hand?"

Lexa smiled, reaching across to grab the other girl's hand. "Now that I can do."

"I still hear talking," Clarke said teasingly.

Lexa stuck out her tongue in response, causing Clarke to laugh, and then they both fell silent, simply lying out on the beach together. Clarke could still hear her friends laughing and playing in the water, but she knew that there was nowhere she'd rather be at the moment than lying here with the feel of the sun on her skin and her girlfriend lying next to her.

Clarke entered the apartment that she shared with Lexa, glad to finally be home after a long day of hanging out with Octavia and Raven. She and her girlfriend now had their own apartment, which they had moved into after a year of living with Anya and Lincoln. It began to get too crowded, and Clarke and Lexa weren't getting as much alone time as they wanted, so they decided to get a place all to themselves. A year later, Octavia and Lincoln had decided to do the same, but luckily for Anya, Raven and Bellamy decided move in with her so that she could keep the apartment.

Today, Clarke and her friends had gone biking on one of Polis's bike trails. Clarke had quickly agreed at first, thinking that it would be extremely fun to ride through the forest with her friends, until they told her Lexa couldn't come. Raven had decided that it should just be the three of them. No significant others. This had made Clarke more reluctant to go, since she would have rather spent the day with Lexa, but the brunette said that it was fine and promised to be waiting for her when she got home. That's why Clarke was frowning now when she noticed that the living room was empty, and she realized that she couldn't hear any noises throughout the apartment. Her frown only deepened when she walked into her bedroom to find it empty as well. Lexa had promised that she would be there when Clarke got back, and the blonde couldn't help but worry that something might have happened to her. She thought about calling her girlfriend to find out where she was, but she decided against it, not wanting to come off as clingy. For all she knew, Lexa could've just run to the store really quickly, so she pushed her worry away. Plus, the sight of the bed in front of her was too tempting, and Clarke wanted nothing more than to lie down. She had wanted to take a nap with her girlfriend, but she sighed and settled on sprawling out on the bed herself to wait for the brunette to come home.

After a few minutes, Clarke rolled over, and she opened her eyes when she felt something crinkle beneath her. She realized that she had rolled onto a piece of paper that had been lying on Lexa's side of the bed. She wondered if Lexa had left her a note, but upon picking up the paper, she realized it was not a note at all. It was a series of lines with numbers written neatly next to them, leading to a big X. A treasure map, just like the one she and Lexa had made with Anya and Lincoln so long ago when they were kids. Clarke couldn't help the huge smile that spread across her face, having almost forgotten the trek she had made through the forest with the Woods children in search of The Flying Dutchman's treasure shortly after she had met them, and she suddenly felt much more awake.

Exiting the apartment, she walked the marked fifty paces down the hallway, turning right afterwards, following the instructions on the map. Clarke paused when she saw that the trail was leading her into the stairwell and seemingly going up. To the roof? She wondered why Lexa would want her to go up onto the roof, and she was suddenly skeptical, wondering if this was some kind of trap so that Lexa could get back at her for encouraging Anya at the beach last weekend. Curiosity got the better of her, and she pushed her way into the empty stairwell, counting her paces as she climbed the steps. When she opened the door to the roof, she saw that the last twenty paces led her straight to Lexa, who was looking right at her with a happy grin.

"What is this?" Clarke's brows furrowed in confusion as she walked over to stand in front of the love of her life.

"This is a date." Lexa gestured to the picnic blanket that was lying out on the ground beside her. "I brought all of your favorite foods, and you can pick the movie."

The picnic blanket was covered in an array of delicious foods of all different sizes and colors with Lexa's silver laptop sitting near the edge. The aroma of German chocolate cake, Clarke's all-time favorite dessert, made the blonde's mouth water, and she wondered if Lexa had baked it herself. She had a sneaking suspicion, though, that Lincoln may have helped her. He had always been the best cook out of the three of them. Clarke smiled at the sight of so many of her favorite foods, and she smiled wider when she realized that they were Lexa's favorites as well. Because of their childish habit of sharing food, they had taken to liking many of the same foods, and even though it was a little embarrassing, Clarke had to admit that they had begun to share food with each other again on occasion. Food aside though, Clarke wondered what was so special about tonight that they were going to eat on the roof rather than in their living room, and she was suddenly afraid she might be forgetting something important. "What's the occasion?"

"The occasion is that I love you, Clarke. I've loved you ever since I was little. I was so taken by you when we first met that I was prepared to let you use the pink car, which was my favorite, and I let you ride on my motorcycle the day after I met you when I wouldn't even let Anya and Lincoln ride on it most of the time. I just didn't know how I was feeling back then, or maybe I just didn't understand it, but when you ran into me outside of that coffee shop, I knew I was in love, and Anya helped me see that I always had been. In those years without you, I felt so lost, like I was just going through the motions, but when I saw you again, it was like lightning struck, and suddenly, everything was right. The only thing I learned in our years apart was that I never want to be away from you ever again. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, if you'll have me. I want to wake up every morning to your beautiful face and fall asleep every night with your arms wrapped around me."

Lexa ran a hand nervously through her hair. "When we were younger, we could never agree on an ending to our princess commander stories. You thought the prince and the princess should live happily ever after, but I thought that the prince should sacrifice himself to save the princess. I was jealous even then." Lexa shook her head at herself, smiling widely, and Clarke chuckled, eager to hear what Lexa would say next. "I hope that we can agree on an ending now. My family has always considered you to be a part of the family, and I would love to make that official." Lexa pulled out a small blue velvet box and got down on one knee. "So Clarke Griffin, my love, will you marry me?"

Clarke had to blink the tears out of her eyes as she answered easily. "Yes. Of course I will. I went into the Woods the day that we met, and I never came out. I never want to come out, so yes, I will marry you, Lexie. I would love to be a Woods."

Lexa slipped the ring on her finger, and Clarke had only a second to admire the way the emerald gem glinted in the fading sunlight before Lexa pulled her into a searing kiss. Clarke gripped the brunette's waist to bring her ever closer as she reciprocated it, turning it heated. She tried to pour every emotion she was feeling into the kiss, and she hoped that Lexa could feel it too. Clarke had been waiting for this day for so long, and she was overjoyed to finally be engaged to Lexa, to finally be on her way to becoming an official member of the Woods clan that she loved so much. She was so very ready to marry this girl that she loved more than life itself, because she wanted nothing more than to just be Lexa's for the rest of her life. After several passionate moments, Clarke pulled back to catch her breath, resting her forehead against Lexa's, and she knew she hadn't stopped smiling since the moment that Lexa had started talking.

Clarke was sure her smile got wider when she heard Lexa's next words. "And so, Commander Lexa finally got up the courage to ask Princess Clarke to marry her, and she was overjoyed when the princess said yes. The commander knew that she and the princess would have a wedding more lavish than any in all the lands and that the entire kingdom would come to witness it, and she knew that she would love her beautiful princess for the rest of her days."

"And they lived happily ever after," Clarke murmured, breathily, against the brunette's lips.

The huge smile that Clarke loved so much, the smile that was only reserved for her, spread across Lexa's face, and then the brunette finally said the last words of the story that neither of them had ever been able to say. "The end."