Chapter 4
Chapter 4 -
The stars were bright, eliminating the dark just so much that Clarke didn’t see it’s terror but it’s beauty. As a kid, she used to be afraid of the dark. She was scared what may be lurking under her bed, every child's nightmare. Her father would come in and tell her happy stories, about fairies, her favorite, he would tell her about a fairy named Jess who would go by every kid at night to make sure the monsters stay away because all the monsters are scared of Jess because she is so optimistic and the monsters are pessimists. Whenever Clarke was pessimistic her father would remind her of Jess, and she better be optimistic, or the monsters would come and get her.
Since she came down to earth, she didn’t have much time to look at the sky, mostly busy trying to keep her people safe, or a storm would cause her to find shelter inside. But now laying under the stars she can finally see it’s beauty, see what the books on the ark actually meant by the beauty of the night.
Next, to her, she hears a low growl, and she looks up. She sees Lexa lightly snoring on the grass. She isn’t wearing her commander armor but rather a short-sleeved low-cut black shirt and matching skinny black pants, her hair is loose and peeks out here and there. Lexa is laying on her back with one arm across her belly while the other hand is clamping hers like a lifeline. Again a soft snore escapes Lexa’s mouth, and this time she rolls around a bit.
Carefully Clarke repositions herself and watches as slowly Lexa wakes from her beauty nap - and god was she beautiful in the starlight- and stretches out like a cat. “Hm good morning” Lexa mumbles softly, her voice still hoarse from the sleep and her eyes barely open. Lexa’s back cracks when she sits up, and then she purposefully cracks her shoulder blades then her knees and finally her fingers.
“Do you always need to do that?” Lexa looks up confused “And why wouldn’t I?” Clarke also sits up, “because the sound is horrible?” Lexa just hums, apparently not caring about the noise at all.
“Did you sleep well?” Clarke asks softly. Out of nowhere, Lexa seems to grab a bottle of wine and some glasses “Well enough, care for a drink?” She nods her head, and Lexa starts pouring the wine. “I didn’t know you knew what wine was” Lexa shrugs “I’m Heda I know everything” A soft laugh bubbles in the back of CLarke’s throat, while she takes the glass from Lexa and takes a small sip. “Well Heda, care to explain what a microwave is?” She asks innocently, Lexa's face scrunches up, but Clarke is unable to tell if it’s from her question or the wine. “I know everything about the ground, not about your weird elect- electro-” Lexa starts “Whatever” she mumbles. Clarke laughs and takes a bigger sip this time.
They sit on the edge of a cliff which looks out over a waterfall which usually would make a thunderous sound, but the cliff is so long that the sound is barely audible. Beneath them, they sprawled a blanket on the grass to prevent them from getting mud everywhere, and above them, the stars spark brighter than Clarke ever experienced. The both of them watch as the waterfall quickly flows not giving a single fuck about the coalition, peace or anything at all.
“Do you ever think we would be so free?” she asks timidly, “What? Being so free that we start pouring water out our mouth? I know that we are made of 80% water but Clarke I don’t thin-“ Clarke playfully shoves Lexa, who was holding herself up on one arm, and laughs as Lexa dramatically lets herself fall in the mud. “No, you dork, you know what I meant” She watches as Lexa wipes away most of the mud “Maybe someday” Lexa eventually answers. She hums, hoping that their someday is sooner rather than later.
“Wanheda? Wanheda?” She growls and hears at least five people jumping back and a minimum of two gasping, her eyes shoot open out of curiosity, and she is greeted by more than ten guards all standing next to her bed. “What the f-“ she starts but don’t even finishes her sentence when she feels the blanket fall, somewhere in her mind registers that she took off her clothes before bed but never put on any pj’s. A combination between a sigh and a yelp escapes her as she frantically pulls the blankets back over her chest. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” All guards turn red, and all at once everyone starts talking.
“Heda wanted..”
“Late for breakfast…”
“Make sure…”
“Noises while sleeping…”
“wanted to catch you naked…”
“information on the sky girl…”
She gestures with one of her hand for silence, the other one still holding on to the blanket for dear life. “First of all, how late is it?” The guards look at each other, and one steps forward “A few hours after noon Wanheda.” Her first thought was to jump out of bed, but as soon as she started moving, she felt her naked legs against each other and pushed back the idea. “Where is Heda? I need to know about this information.” Again the same guard answered her question “She is on the training grounds, Nabu can escort you there.” She can see Nabu nodding from behind the guards. She quickly nods back. “And last but not least, Who wanted to see me naked?” The guard who earlier stepped forward now almost jumps back in the crowd, it takes a few second for the guilty guard to move forward, but instead of a guard, Tomac steps forward.
His brown hair is tied back in a small bun, and instead of casual clothing, he wears a silver chest plate with two crosses swords on his back, Black pants with shinguards and daggers strapped to his hip. “Tomac?” She gargles out, her voice temporarily lost. “Couldn’t help myself” Is his simple answer, while a crooked grin forms on his face. She shakes her head. “Leave us” she calls to the other guards. While they are going, she gives Nabu a look, and he seems to understand because she can see him take position next to the door. When everyone left, Nabu softly closes it.
“I thought u were an ambassador?” He walks to her table and sits down on a chair with his legs on another. “Yeah?” he says “Oh, by the way, you can come out of bed don’t mind me” Clarke snorts loudly, and Tomac sighs and lets his feet fall off the chair. “I also need to be prepared to fight since the girl may come to Polis,” before she can ask he waves his hands “Lexa will inform you, she is probably going to give you the same outfit. Anyway, I should get going” He stands up cracks his back, which makes Clarke a bit nostalgic and walks to the door “See ya” and he is gone.
Clarke quickly dresses and practically sprints out the door and almost bangs into Nabu. “Can you bring-“ she doesn’t even need to finish her sentence because Nabu is already pulling on her arm, guiding her outside to the training grounds.
“Good Aden, Again, Zanne, please use your sword for what is meant, Kylian stop picking flowers and get back to training” Lexa’s voice booms over the fields, Clarke fastens her pace and watches as Lexa’s sword clashes against Aden’s. Even while Lexa is swinging her sword, she looks around to give enough attention to the other kids. As soon as Lexa sees Clarke, she gestures for Aden to keep practicing with one of the other children and walks over.
“Goodmorning Clarke, How are-”
“Did you sent ten guards into my room while I was sleeping?” Lexa’s face at that very moment is best described as guilt/regret and a bit of amusement. “Yes, you would have slept trough the whole day,” Lexa says looking back to the nightbloods. Clarke shakes her head “I don’t see how that is bad.” Lexa snorts, it was a step towards a laugh and Clarke couldn’t help but feel proud that she was the cause of it.
But the little smile that had worked his way up Lexa’s face suddenly dropped. “Please follow me” the blonde merely nods and follows Lexa back into the tower, Clarke could just see a bald man taking over the lesson. Clarke half expected them to go to Lexa’s room, but instead, they stay on the first floor. After a maze of halls Lexa opens a door and the room which was clearly a weapon room given the swords and daggers in the shelves, on the wall, and tables, looked like every weapon room in every movie she ever saw on the ark and all she could say was “Wow”
While the blonde was curiously eyeing all the various weapons, Lexa had stepped further into the room and was pulling swords; daggers even axe out several shelves. “Come over here please,” Lexa says to Clarke’s surprise, the taller brunette rarely used the word, please. So Clarke quickly walked over to Lexa and stood next to her looking at the weapons she had put on the table. “Clarke, pick a sword and two daggers” Clarke eyed the swords first. They looked average to her until one caught her eye, it was not too long but looked sharper than the other ones, the hilt had gold and silver strokes on it and formed some symbol. “This one,” she says with a certainty she didn’t know she had. Lexa nods and picks up the sword and searches for its scabbard while Clarke eyed the daggers. This time there wasn’t choice because they all looked the same, so she just picked two and grabbed them.
Meanwhile, Lexa found the scabbard she was looking for and turns around to Clarke who was regarding her curiously. The commander takes the daggers from her hand and lays it on an empty table as well with the scabbard and sword. From behind Lexa, Clarke can see something shimmering. Lexa picks it up and just like Tomac said, Lexa was holding the same kind of armor that he was wearing.
“Could you please wear this?” The amount of emotion hidden in Lexa’s voice touched Clarke and takes her back to their kiss in the tent so many months ago. True to her word Lexa had waited for her, she had not once made an indication that she had feelings for her. At first, Clarke thought that maybe the brunettes feelings were gone but standing here makes her wonder if this isn’t Lexa’s way of giving her space?
“Clarke?” Lexa’s voice seems to echo in her ears. “What, yeah? Of course…Um, how does one put this on?” She asks eyeing the multiple straps and strings attached to the chest piece a bit wary. “May I?” Lexa asks while looking anywhere but her eyes which Clarke thought was cute. She nods but then realizes that Lexa, of course, couldn’t see this “Yea.” Lexa looked up, confusion clear in her eyes but she doesn’t question her. The commander of blood almost seemed nervous approaching her.
The beginning was all right, Lexa handed her the chest plate first which she had to press against her chest while the brunette pressed the other half to her back and tied the sides, but then came her legs. It was iron-like protection which needs to be pressed tightly against her skin and tied on the sides. Lexa started with her lower leg, she tied tightly, but the moment she began working on her thigh, it was like she was never touched before. Screw everyone who said it was like butterflies in your belly she felt like someone just put a lighted match in her which was now racing trough every vain. Lexa unaware of the damage she was causing went on to her other thigh, and Clarke felt like she might faint.
Lexa picks up the scabbard and seems more nervous this time approaching her, which seemed weird to Clarke because Lexa’s head was just between her legs, well at least close enough. “Something wrong?” She asks curiously. The taller girl almost jumps 5 feet back and scans her eyes frantically. “No, just I am sorry” The words just left Lexa’s lip when Clarke felt the strap of the scabbard on her shoulder, at first Clarke didn’t quite get why Lexa felt sorry. Until, while Lexa was following the strap of the sheath to make sure it was tight on, her fingers followed the strap down her cleavage. The match was racing even faster now, and she could swear that Lexa’s fingers lingered a bit longer than necessary but then it was over and Lexa’s hands were on her back securing the scabbard.
When Lexa stepped out from behind Clarke, her face was all red, and it was the cutest thing Clarke had ever seen. The urge to kiss the commander then was overwhelming which surprised her. “Here,” Lexa says and shoves the sword in the scabbard on her back, “Thank you,” she says sincerely. Lexa showed her how to attach her daggers to her thigh and her waist, “Can you now tell me why this is necessary?” Clarke asks when she is finally approved by Lexa in her full armor and weaponed.
“We have information which says that the sky girl might attack Polis, with your guns.”