Safety
A trail of soft kisses on her back woke up Lexa. Her eyes slowly fluttered open only to be blinded by the intense light coming in through the window. She raised a hand to cover her face while Clarke kept giving her soft kisses and pecks all along her upper back and neck.
"What... time is it?" Lexa sleepily asked between yawns
"I don't know. Nor do I care." Lexa turned around and before she could protest, Clarke shut her up with a tender kiss that quickly heat up, both of them gasping for air as Clarke ran her hands through Lexa's hair. The brunette's hands raised to the small of Clarke's back as she topped her.
A loud knock on the door made them stop.
Lexa raised a sole finger and pressed it to Clarke's lips, motioning for her to keep silent. The knocking continued. Lexa sighed dramatically.
"Who is there?"
"Heda, you must attend your duties." None of them were surprised to hear Titus' voice, of course. Who else would dare bother their Commander after so many days of sleeplessness?
Clarke hid beneath the covers under the apologetic look Lexa gave her. Lexa opened the door angrily, but her voice was stoic as ever when she addressed Titus.
"And what are those duties you speak of? I've spent days without a single minute of sleep trying to avoid war."
"May we speak alone?"
Lexa raised an eyebrow "We're alone."
"Fine." Titus entered the room and closed the door behind him. His expression got even more serious than it usually was "You mustn't see her."
"I see dozens of women everyday, so unless you are a bit more specific..." Lexa replied bored already
"Clarke. You mustn't have feelings. Not for her. Not for anyone. Your love will destroy you, Lexa..."
"It's Heda to you." She abruptly cut him off "And you're no one to tell me what to do. You're not a teacher, not to me."
A glimpse of hurt showed in Titus' eyes before he left the room without uttering another word.
Lexa got back into bed with Clarke, showing the widest of her smiles "So, where were we?"
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A figure covered with a cloak entered Titus' chambers. He finished litting his candles and turned around.
"Finally."
Hands put the cloak down as Indra's face appeared from within its hood. "Did you speak to her?" Her raspy voice and tired eyes as well as the dark circles under them showed that she hadn't been having the easiest time lately
"There is no way, Indra. We can only hope that no one finds out." He began to display several religious figures and talismans on the wide table on which he'd previously left the candles.
"If we don't stop it...no Commander has ever had a partner, not a long-lasting one anyhow. Titus, they've made each other weak. And we're all going to end up getting killed because of it." Anger boiled inside Indra as she went on talking "Lexa is already dealing with a fragile alliance, if any of her enemies find out about them, they'll give the allies she has left a reason to betray her as well."
"I know, Indra. I've seen Lexa grow as well. I understand how you feel about her. And that makes us both weak as well."
Indra furrowed her brow. She knew he was right. Both of them had been taught that love was weakness, that they shouldn't care that much about anyone. That it would be a disaster for them and the person they loved. And yet both of them had grown to love Lexa over the years.
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The shadow kept getting closer. It grew with every treason, every backstabbing, every betrayal. It craved power and it was gaining it. It approached Polis and the power within it. And yet no one knew. Only the shadow's allies, who moved as silently as it did. They were everywhere. They saw everything. Drawings of a spiral inside a triangle began to appear through the villages.
No one seemed to know what they were until an old woman from a remite farmer village remembered. Then, for the first time in her life, she packed the few belongings she would need to travel and left her house and village behind. She started a journey to warn them of what was coming. A journey she didn't know if she'd be able to finish. But someone had to warn them. She was their only hope.
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Meanwhile, Lexa and Clarke made love for hours. It was tender and loving, and it got rough when it had to be, leaving both of them sweating and in need of more. More love. More of each other. More.
They also spoke about everything, as they'd done since the first day they'd really spoken, so many years ago. They remembered old times, running through the woods, getting lost and sleeping within them, only to be woken up by each other the morning after. The little things that had made them fall for each other.
Stolen glances, hands that touched softly when there was no need for it, little details and sentences with double meaning that only they would understand. Soft kisses by the lake. As they kept speaking and holding each other in their arms, their hearts beating as one, they only fell even more madly in love with each other.
And that way, Clarke resting in Lexa's chest, held in the other girls' arms, is how the shadow first saw them. It did so from a distance, for it couldn't yet be discovered, but it was close enough for Clarke to shiver and cover them in their furs.