Chapter 6
When Andes finished her story, she looked at Clarke, who was staring into the fire, her eyes filled with unshed tears. And then she knew, she knew why Clarke had such sad eyes, and her chest tightened,
“She was the love you lost, wasn’t she?”
Clarke didn’t reply, so Andes moved closer and gently wiped away a tear that had escaped from Clarke’s eyes. Clarke reached up and put her hand over Andes hand, and held it there, she leaned into it. She nodded her head slowly. Andes wondered what it would be like to have Clarke’s love, and decided Lexa had been very lucky.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.” Clarke said, taking a deep breath.
“That’s ok.” Andes paused for few seconds. “Did she love you?” Clarke nodded again, remembering how Lexa looked at her, so unguarded when they were alone. Remembering how she tried so hard to make it up to Clarke, make it up to her for abandoning her at Mt. Weather. Clarke knew Lexa loved her, because her actions spoke so much louder than words.
Andes moved and sat next to Clarke and put her arm around her. Clarke rested her head on Andes shoulder, and Andes put her head on Clarke’s. They stayed like that for a few moments.
“I guess we’re both a little broken.” Andes said. She rubbed her hand up and down Clarke’s arm, trying to soothe her. “But maybe there’s hope for us. I would never have thought that Lexa would have opened her heart to someone else, but she did. She found you.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Mad, why would I be mad?”
“Because she was your sister’s lover, her partner, her soulmate. “
“Costia’s gone, Clarke. To expect Lexa to be alone for the rest of her life would have been asking too much. Nobody should be alone, everyone deserves love.”
“Says the girl who lives alone and has never been in love.”
“I’m different, I’m seriously broken, you’re just a little broken, you’re fixable. A little tape, a little glue, fix you right up.” Clarke smiled at that.
“You’re not broken Andes, maybe you just haven’t found the right person yet.”
“Maybe. Although seeing what you’re going through, love doesn’t look very fun.”
Clarke didn’t have an answer for that one. She looked across the fire where the dogs were laying, all with their heads on their front paws. “I think we’ve depressed your dogs.”
“No, you’re right, they’re wolves.”
“Well, don’t tell them that,” Clarke said softly. Andes smiled at that, and she kissed the top of Clarke’s head. Now what made her do that? Maybe because she felt very close to her right now. It was just the moment she told herself. This moment was very intimate. Tomorrow things would be back to normal.
“Do you feel better?” Andes asked.
Clarke nodded her head. She felt warm with Andes so close. She reached out her hand and picked up Andes necklace, “this is the necklace that Lexa gave you? The one from Costia?” she asked.
“My father’s yes.”
Clarke turned in over, and looked at the four readable letters, L O O M. “Loom, I wonder what it means?” Andes just shrugged. “Shame the other letters rubbed off.”
“Yep, it’s a mystery I guess.” Andes insides were churning a little from being so close to Clarke, so she got up and spread the furs on the ground so they could go to sleep. She whistled for Jaks, wondering if she should ask Clarke if she wanted to share again. She took off her clothes and lay down, pulled a fur on top of herself, nestled her head into Jaks side. She was surprised when Clarke got up, and pushed her furs closer to Andes, and lay down on her back next to her, her head sharing the dog’s softness.
Clarke felt a little restless. She turned on her side and looked at Andes. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For understanding, all this stuff.”
Andes smiled, and Clarke just looked at her. She saw tenderness in those gray eyes. Clarke turned over and scooted closer, her back facing Andes now. They weren’t touching, but they could both feel the warmth of the other’s body. Clarke wasn’t tired yet, “Andes, tell me a story.”
Andes was feeling it now, Clarke laying next to her, smelling her hair. And now she wanted a story. “What kind of story?”
“I don’t know, tell me a story about when you were young, and how they found out you were a nightblood.”
“Ok, I’ll start at the beginning, though. When my mom was alive, it was just the three of us. We were a happy little family. We were like gypsies. Remember when I told you I was from nowhere?” She saw Clarke nod, “well, it’s because we really were. We moved around a lot, from village to village, my mom and sister made necklaces, jewelry, ornamental stuff, they were very artistic. We never really had a home where we always went back to. We never were part of a clan, just nomads wandering around, surviving.”
“And you never met your father, you just have his necklace?”
“Yes, never met him, at least that I can remember. Costia didn’t know him either. We supposedly had the same father, he visited my mother, well, at least twice right?” she said with a smile.
Clarke laughed, “at least twice. Unless you were conceived by osmosis.”
“Doubt that. He must have been good in bed though, two for two.”
“Yeah, must have been, evidently it runs in the family. Although that could be heresay, I mean, I wouldn’t know.”
“Yet, “ Andes said quietly, flirting her ass off.
Clarke turned, “What, did you say?” She smiled to herself, she thought she knew what she said, but wasn’t quite sure.
“Nothing.” Andes was ready to kiss Clarke’s shoulder, she was so close, she leaned in, but thought better of it and buried her head in Jaks side instead, groaned a little.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. Jaks smells.”
“Is it him? I was thinking it was you.” Clarke was teasing her now.
“Not me,” Andes reached over and stuck her arm under Clarke’s nose, “Is it?”
Clarke inhaled, she smelled sun, a little sweat, she smelled like the outdoors, she smelled good. “Nope, not you.”
Andes scooted a little closer, hoping Clarke didn’t notice, her hair smelled like sunshine, if that was possible, it was intoxicating , driving her a little nuts. And she didn’t mind if she had to exercise a little self control tonight, self control built character, didn’t it?
“Continue please,” Clarke said.
“Oh, sorry. So, we’ve established the fact that I did have two parents, right?”
“Yes, that has been established. Get on with it.” Clarke said, feigning impatience.
“Ok, geez, just trying to drag it out a little, make me more interesting.”
“You don’t have to drag it out, you’re very interesting without the dragging out part.” Andes smiled again, and was itching to put her arm around Clarke now, pull her close and bury her face in her hair.
“So, my mother looked nothing like Costia and myself, she had dark hair, dark eyes. We got our coloring from our father, at least that’s what she said, that’s why we knew we had the same one. Father that is. My mom talked about him, said he was special, that he wasn’t like anybody else, wasn’t like any of the other grounders. She said that he said that he was from someplace far away. I wish I could have met him, I wish he had known me.”
“How old were you when your mom died?”
“Three I think.”
“Wait, so how do you remember her so well, how do you remember conversations with her?” Clarke turned her head to ask this question, now noticing how close Andes was. She turned back and felt a warmth grow inside her. It was pleasant. She laid her head back down, waiting for Andes answer.
“I don’t know, I just do. Why, don’t you remember stuff when you were young?”
“Not that young, my god. I don’t think anybody remembers stuff when they were that young.”
“Well, I remember it like it was yesterday.”
“You’ve got a weird brain.” Clarke said.
“I told you I was weird. Well, I didn’t use that word, but I told you I was different.”
“You did. Continue.”
“Ok, so, where was I?”
“You were gypsies, you were from nowhere, your father wasn’t around, but he evidently had potent sperm the two times he did show up, he was a weirdo like you, you sold stuff to stay alive.”
Andes started giggling now, Clarke’s summary was cute and funny, and she did what she thought she shouldn’t do, but did it anyway, she reached her arm around Clarke and pulled her closer, kept her arm there, too. And Clarke let her keep it there, she pushed her butt back into Andes and sighed, enjoying the warmth. There were still furs between their bodies, Andes figured she shouldn’t push it too much, shouldn’t let her naked body interact with Clarke in anyway, cause then she might lose it for sure.
“So, my mom got sick one day. We took her to a village healer, but they couldn’t help her. She died about a week later.”
“I’m sorry Andes.” Clarke said, turning to look at her again.
“Thank you. It was a long time ago, but thanks. After she died, Costia took care of me. We kept the same lifestyle, moving around constantly. We kept our hair covered all the time. It drew too much attention to us, actually, we learned that from our Mom, she told us to always keep it covered. But, one day, I didn’t have it covered, because I was stubborn and didn’t want to cover it, it was hot that day. So, I’m prancing around this village, not far from Polis, Ton DC,”
“I know Ton DC,” Clarke said.
“Yeah, well, there I was, all blond hair and gray eyes, running around with a friend that I had made the day before. We usually stayed in a village for a few days before moving on. I attracted the attention of an older boy, typical boy, all tough, all bluster, not too much older than me, so he was around 5 or 6 I guess. He wanted to know why my hair was the color it was. Started calling me names, started pushing me. It was attracting a lot of attention, more kids, more adults gathered around watching this. I got tired of being teased and I hit him, hard. I think I broke his nose actually, cause blood spurted out of it. Well, his friends didn’t take too kindly to me hitting him, so two of them came after me at once, they swung at me a couple times, but I avoided it, cause that’s what I do. But then a third boy joined in, and he managed to hit me in the face, I started to bleed, and that was it. Everyone saw the black blood. Costia finally showed up and rushed over to me, trying to get me out of there. But now we were surrounded by people. They took us to the village leader, and it was decided that I needed to go to Polis, to enter the nightblood training. And that’s how I ended up in Polis, learning how to become a commander.”
“Wow, that’s some story.”
“Still think I’m interesting?” Andes asked, fishing for a compliment.
“Very.” Clarke enjoyed the story a lot, but now she started to yawn.
“So interesting that it’s putting you to sleep?” Andes teased.
“No, it’s not the story, it’s the warmth. You generate a lot of body heat. You and Jaks.”
“Oh, ok. As long as you don’t think I’m boring.”
“God, you’re anything but.” Clarke said sleepily, yawning again. “So you were nightblood, but Costia wasn’t?”
“Yes. But that wasn’t unusual. There were kids that I trained with who had siblings who weren’t nightblood.”
They were both quiet now, and Clarke was having trouble keeping her eyes open now, “I think I gotta go to sleep now, maybe we can finish the story tomorrow?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good night Andes, “
“Reshop Clarke.” Andes laid awake for a while, enjoying the feeling of Clarke so near, felt her fall asleep, listened to her even breathing. Finally sleep found her.
When Clarke woke up the next morning, her head was on the ground. Jaks must have gotten up at some point to go hunt. She looked down, Andes had her arm across Clarke’s stomach and her head was next to Clarke’s shoulder, their feet were tangled up. Clarke felt the heat from her naked body, and just lay there for a bit. She didn’t want to disturb Andes. She just wanted to enjoy the closeness. She hadn’t felt this type of contact in a long time. Hugs from Abby didn’t count.
Eventually, she felt Andes stirring, and she looked down to see her eyes crack open. Her hair was so tousled, she looked less goddess-like and it was adorable.
Slowly Andes realized where her limbs were, “Oh, sorry Clarke,”
She went to pull away but Clarke held her arm. “No, it’s ok.”
Andes looked at her, and lazily smiled, “well, in that case, “ she moved her head to Clarke’s chest and pulled her tighter. She heard Clarke’s heart beat, heard it beat a little faster. Andes sighed happily. She really liked Clarke, and she was going to enjoy this moment to the fullest.
The sun was coming up now and Clarke knew they had to get up and move. She also knew that Andes naked proximity was making her feel a little hot in all the wrong places.
“Ok, sleepy head, we have to get up.”
Andes groaned, “But you’re so comfortable Clarke.”
“We do have people chasing us, remember?”
Andes picked her head up and smiled at Clarke. She rolled off and lay on her side, her head in her hand. Clarke said a silent thank you to the sex gods that the furs were covering most of her nakedness. Andes took her index finger and started to slowly run it up and down Clarke’s exposed forearm. Clarke looked at Andes, but she was watching her finger and not looking at Clarke.
“You know, Clarke, the offer still stands.” She then took her finger and went up to Clarke’s shoulder, and across her collar bone. She watched the pulse in Clarke’s neck start beating faster.
“You need to stop.” Andes looked up at Clarke, who was trying to look stern, but had the hint of a smile playing around her lips.
“Stop what?” Andes asked innocently.
Clarke shook her head and sighed. Still holding back a smile, “what offer was that?”
“Let me satisfy your needs. Let me take your pain and worry away, for a few hours. Let me be your, um, friend with benefits.”
Clarke stared at Andes, still smiling. “Really? Is that your new pick up line now?”
“Maybe. I like it.”
“Well, maybe you’re not the one who can satisfy my needs.” Clarke replied playing devil’s advocate.
“Hm, “ Andes placed her finger on Clarke’s pulse point, it was beating faster now, “This tells me different, Clarke.” Her deep voice a little seductive, sending shivers down Clarke’s spine.
Now their eyes were locked. Clarke couldn’t look away from those smoky gray eyes, because now they were turning darker, like storm clouds. Andes started leaning forward, and Clarke knew she was going to kiss her. And Clarke panicked. She panicked because her body wanted it, and she felt totally betrayed by that. She rolled away and onto her feet. Andes kept moving forward and ended up face down in the furs, groaning. Clarke laughed at that. She threw her fur over top of Andes head.
“You need to get up.” Andes rolled over and gave Clarke a most pained look. “Beja, please Clarke, don’t leave me like this,”
“There’s a nice cold creek out there just waitin’ for ya.”
Andes laughed, “Ok, ok. You wound me Clarke,” she said dramatically, with a hand over her heart.
“I’ll wound you. Now get your ass up.”
Clarke stepped outside and took some deep breaths, trying to still her heart. It was definitely pounding. What was she, some sex crazed, whatever? She knew she found Andes sexually attractive, my god, who wouldn’t. That was probably all this was, just lust. It’s been a while for Clarke, been a while since she felt that release. Maybe Andes was right, the body had needs and down here on the ground, you should take it when you could. Who knows if you’d be alive the next day. She was going to give herself a break for getting all hot and bothered. It wasn’t a big deal. Clarke turned around in time to see Andes, naked as the day she was born, walking out and heading to the creek. The girl had absolutely no inhibitions. Clarke followed her with her eyes, then caught herself and cursed. Shit, c’mon Clarke, you’ve seen naked bodies before, nothing special here. Well, maybe a little special. Maybe Clarke needed to visit the creek too.