A/N- My first Clexa, but I just had to. This is four times Clarke and Lexa fight (may also be four times Lexa's understanding of English screws her over). It will be two chapters, and I'll get the next one up soon. Let me know what you think!
Title from 'Private Lawns' by Angus and Julia Stone (I own nothing of The 100)
"When all the fights stop, so does the passion."
― Crystal Woods, Write like no one is reading 2
There are no 'swear' words in Trigedasleng. It's a language of necessity, there's at least a dozen different words for 'sword' all referring to a sword with different size, purpose, shape, material, but there's no swear words. So the first time Clarke's face turns red, her eyes narrow, her jaw clenches, and she practically growls out, "You are such a bitch."
Lexa just quirks a concerned eyebrow, "I am a what?"
"A bitch, Lexa." Clarke repeats. She can see the confusion etched on the Commander's face, but she can't bring herself to care, "Ask someone else what it means."
The two had managed to unite their clans to defeat the Mountain Men together, but now as winter is drawing nearer buried tensions were beginning to bubble to the surface. This latest fight wasn't all that significant, but it was the culmination of a dozen smaller fights the two of them had gone through.
"Just let a few of my soldiers go out with your warriors on the next hunting trip." Clarke tried again with a more calm voice.
"No. You don't have soldiers, you have children." Lexa growled, "Until they can learn to hunt without guns, they are not going out with my people. You know what happened the last time they brought back a pauna."
Clarke set her jaw, the bullets had been embedded in the large animal Bellamy had managed to shoot and when they cooked it later, two people cracked their teeth on the metal.
"Come on Lexa, that was only one time."
The Commander narrowed her eyes at Clarke, "I said no, that is my final decision. Until they can hunt with our weapons, they do not hunt with us."
Clarke huffed in frustration and stormed from the tent, being sure to open the flap as violently as she possibly could.
That day was quite the interesting day for Octavia. She had been training for months now as Indra's second and was living full time in Ton DC with the grounders, they day of Clarke and Lexa's explosive fight, she was training with a bow and arrow in the forest.
Clarke came across her after storming out of Lexa's tent. Octavia spotted her friend's glare from a mile away.
"Who pissed in your Cheerios?" She asked with amusement as Clarke startled, clearly she had been too absorbed in her thoughts to notice Octavia.
"Nobody, I'm fine."
The brunette rolled her eyes, "I've spent the last year with you Clarke, if you're not bright eyed and bushy tailed spouting a hope speech or over your head in some argument about the future of our people, you're not fine."
Clarke allowed the corner of her mouth to lift in a hint of a smile, "So maybe I'm not fine."
Octavia patted a rotten stump next to her that Clarke didn't hesitate to sit down on. They weren't the best of friends, sure, but they were damn close after having gone through so much together.
"Tell Auntie O, what's got you looking like someone floated your cat?"
The question was ridiculous, there were no pets on the Ark (not enough oxygen), and both girls had experienced one of their parents being executed in such a manner, and yet Clarke couldn't help but laugh, "Auntie O? Really Octavia?"
"Oh shut it and spill." The brunette rolled her eyes, going back to target practice while Clarke explained about her fight with Lexa.
"I just don't understand what her issue is. It's like she has a personal grudge against me!" She finished.
Octavia laughed shortly, "The Commander doesn't hate you."
"How do you know?"
"Well she lets you call her Lexa instead of Heda for one thing. And if anyone else tried to argue with her the way you did, she would run them through with her sword."
"You're exaggerating, she's not that mean."
"To us peasants she is."
Clarke rolled her eyes, standing to continue her walk back to Camp Jaha, "I don't believe you." She lied. The whole way back, she couldn't help but mull over her friend's words and wonder if maybe there was something more to her relationship to the Commander.
For Octavia though, the weird was just beginning. Shortly after Clarke left her to continue archery in the woods, Indra appeared silently beside her.
"You're pulling your arrows left, use the tips of your fingers more than the pads."
Octavia jumped, sending an arrow high and way off target when Indra startled her, "How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to know you need more practice. But not now, the Commander has requested your presence."
"What?"
Indra narrowed her eyes, giving Octavia her signature glare and the girl swallowed, "Yes, Indra." She gathered her things and hurried away back to camp. She knew better than to bother her mentor with useless questions, in her haste to avoid Indra berating her, Octavia missed the older woman's slight smirk.
Octavia bounced nervously on the balls of her feet while she waited for Lexa to summon her inside. Soon enough, she heard the gruff 'enter' that let her know the Commander was not a happy camper, and she went into the tent.
She bowed her head respectfully, "Heda."
"Octavia, I understand you are quite fluent in Trigedasleng?"
"Yes, Heda."
"Clarke said something, and I wonder if you can translate it for me."
"Yeah, I'll try." Octavia said, instantly relaxing. Clarke sometimes dropped slang that they used on the Ark without realizing it, all of them did.
"What is a bitch?"
At the question, Octavia couldn't help but burst out with laughter. Until she caught sight of Lexa's deadly glare.
"Sorry, Heda." Octavia said, sobering up and blushing, "A bitch uhm, well it's a word for someone who, erm." The warrior ran a hand through her hair trying to figure out how to explain it to the Commander who was looking at her with a mix of anger and confusion, "It's well, it's a swear word."
"Like an oath."
"No, a different kind of swear." Octavia bit her bottom lip.
…
They had been officially a couple for one month, Lexa had made the first move in asking Clarke to be her partner after one of their ambiguous makeout sessions. Now Clarke was spending most of her time at Ton DC, sleeping over most nights in Lexa's tent. She had to admit, the fur bed was growing on her.
They were having dinner one night around a fire outside of Lexa's tent with some warriors when the fight started. Clarke had gotten up to grab a dense bread roll, and when she got back, Lexa pulled her to sit on her lap. Clarke had laughed, but given into her girlfriend's tug.
She was surprised when they first started dating how affectionate Lexa was even in front of other people. The brunette had explained simply that she like to show her off. Clarke later learned that their relationship was somewhat symbolic to the people of Ton DC. The grounders were at ease knowing their Heda was happy.
Clarke reclined in Lexa's lap, laying her head against the Commander's shoulder, and tuning out of the conversation. Lexa was talking with a highly tattooed man in Trigedasleng, the blonde had tried, she really had to learn the language, but she was still barely conversational and most of her knowledge revolved around a battlefield.
Lexa began running a hand through Clarke's hair, the blonde smiled and leaned into the contact. She nestled her face in the crook of Lexa's neck, pressing a kiss to the soft skin there, and snuggling her body closer into Lexa's. The man said something resulting in a laugh from all of the warriors gathered around the table, and a slight blush to rise on Lexa's cheeks.
"What did he say?" Clarke asked quietly.
Lexa's blush only deepened when she translated it for her girlfriend, "He said that I know how to take care of what belongs to me."
A shadow passed over Clarke's face but she knew better than to say anything about it now. As affectionate as Lexa may be, she couldn't be questioned in front of her people, so Clarke bit her tongue until she was back in Lexa's tent at the end of the night.
Lexa knew something was wrong when the blonde just stood with her arms crossed, "What is it, Princess?"
Clarke resisted the urge to smile at the nickname- Lexa was the only one who could get away with calling her that.
"What that warrior said earlier."
Lexa smiled knowingly, she thought it might have gotten to Clarke, "I know, you can take care of yourself, and you don't need me to do it for you."
"That isn't what I was going to say." Clarke bit her lip, she knew this wasn't something Lexa would easily understand, "He said I belong to you."
"You do belong to me." Lexa nodded, her brows furrowed in concentration. Sometimes Clarke said things that she knew were important, but she didn't quite understand, she could tell this was one of them.
"No, I don't."
"But you're my partner."
Clarke cringed slightly at the term Lexa always used in reference to the two of them, "Yeah, I am your girlfriend."
"So you're mine." Lexa said slowly, her head was beginning to hurt with the circles they were talking in.
"Yes, Lex, but I don't belong to anyone."
"Except for me, because we are," Lexa trailed off, trying to find the word Clarke had used before to describe them to other Sky people, "excluded!"
Clarke dropped her head into her hand, "Exclusive, we are exclusive, but that's not what I meant, sweetie."
Clarke sat on the bed next to Lexa and put a hand on her arm. Try as she might to be mad, she couldn't when Lexa was looking so adorably confused.
"It's like, this is your tent," Clarke said, pointing at the structure they were sitting in, "and it belongs to you. And the people of the clan are your people, but they don't belong to you."
"What's the difference?" Lexa was getting exasperated.
"The people can make their own decisions and do whatever they want."
"But they can't, because I'm the Commander."
Clarke took a breath before trying again, "Yes, you are the Commander, but the people still don't belong to you." She couldn't believe she was sitting here, trying to explain the complexities of the english language and all the implications therein to her girlfriend, "It's like, belong implies property, so people just don't belong to other people." Clarke explained slowly, "That's called slavery."
"Which is bad." Lexa said, trying very hard not to let the end of her sentence inflect up into a question.
"Yeah, Lexa, it's bad."
"So you don't belong to me, but you're still mine?"
"I mean, sort of." Clarke trailed off, running a hand through her hair, "But we're equals."
"Of course."
"I guess that's what really what matters."
Lexa smiled, "You were wrong earlier." She smirked.
Clarke raised an eyebrow, she was only marginally concerned, sometimes Lexa would try to say sweet things to her that only ended up being overtly sexual or completely nonsensical, "What was I wrong about?"
"This is our tent." She said, moving in closer to Clarke. She rested a hand on the back of Clarke's neck to bring her in close enough to kiss (which she did), "And this is our bed." She said against the blonde's lips, pushing Clarke down onto her back and straddling her hips.
Clarke smiled, watching as Lexa sat up for a moment to pull off her shirt, before leaning back down to continue kissing her.