Self Control.
Prompted by silverlightdragon.
Lexa was wondering how many different ways she could break the arm of the woman whose hand was currently sliding down Clarke's back to her a-
Never mind.
She was was just going to cut it off.
If she didn't kill her first.
Lexa looked around the room for the millionth time. Her eyes peeled over her various ambassadors and clansmen, meticulously picking out the warriors from the healers, the men from the women, the young from the old. She even made herself look in great detail at their clothes, making sure to take the time to notice the worn holes in shirts and the dirt stains from training. All the abandoned thoughtless forget. Just so she wouldn't have to turn her attention to the corner of the room where she knew she would find the only person she truly wanted to speak with tonight.
Clarke had looked so beautiful when she'd entered the room. With her golden hair perfectly braided, her eyes flawlessly coloured in blue warpaint, her body barely hidden in a tight pelt dress that gave no room to the imagination. Lexa had barely been able to keep from staring at her. And when Clarke had made her way through the crowd to offer Lexa a quick bow and words of hello, Lexa had found herself embarrassingly voiceless. Something that had the blonde skaigada gently smiling. Teasingly almost. Which only furthered Lexa's silence. Returning nothing but a curt nod back Lexa had stood back as Clarke walked off to speak with her people.
Until another stole her attention that is.
Lexa collapsed onto her throne and slumped back in it with a moody glare towards the place where she could hear clarke and this newcomer speaking. She wished they would move away. Or better, take their conversation someplace else entirely. She didn't want to hear another making Clarke laugh like that.
"You look like Gus just took your sword from you again" Indra commented walking towards the commander to stand armed at her side.
Lexa flitted her a brief look. Her lips curled a little with the memory Indra spoke of before it was burned through by the memory of betrayal by the man who had helped raise her. The father figure that had crushed her by forcing his death from her hand.
"If you want to remain standing, Indra, do not speak traitor names in my presence" She snapped back. Indra glanced down at her but nodded.
"Yes, Heda" she spoke obiediently, "But may I ask what has fouled your mood? Your people are at peace. You should be too"
Lexa looked around at the room with Indra's words. She saw her people celebrating with one another happily. After so much war and blood. She almost smiled seeing them all revelling in the new peaceful future that lay ahead of them now.
The commander lifted her head back to answer her general but stopped seeing Clarke walking towards her new friend with a refreshed cup of wine and a bright smile. Lexa felt her insides coil icily. Slowly she breathed out and looked back to Indra, who had been watching her with intense curiosity. Lexa sat straighter and lifted her chin in an ever stubborn show of indifference.
"My mood has not been fouled. I am happy for this peace" She tried to sound like she believed herself. But she didn't. Lexa had fought so hard for all of this. For the longest time it was all she had wanted. And now she had it, it wasn't enough.
She looked towards Clarke again and watched her interact with her new friend. Lexa let her heart jump and skip whenever Clarke smiled. She let herself secretly smile when Clarke laughed. But then she looked to the newcomer beside the sky princess and her fists curled angrily. Because she should not be the one to be making Clarke so happy.
"Who is that?" the commander spoke up angrily with a nod towards the newcomer when Indra looked down at her, "Talking with Wanheda"
Indra looked over at the pair and frowned. She shook her head.
"I do not know, Heda"
"Then find out" Lexa seethed back at her.
She turned to study this stranger while Indra hurried off to speak with her warriors. She had to admit the woman talking to Clarke was beautiful. She had a tall grace and slender arms covered in fine belt. Her blonde hair was braided down and pinned back against the side of her head, fitted here and there with beads that glimmered in the candlelight. She smiled with gentle looking lips and kind eyes that glowed affectionately on Clarke whenever she was able to make her laugh.
Lexa grumbled internally to herself. The stranger was a beauty. And Clarke liked her.
The evening moved agonisingly slow for Lexa. Talks with her ambassadors and clan leaders approaching to offer words of tribute were often broken by her quick glances towards Clarke. The skai leader had failed to leave her new friend for the last hour. Not even to check on her people. Instead the two seemed to have moved around the room together, introducing themselves with everybody as if they were a couple. It singed Lexa's nerves and drew her patience. Every time she peered discreetly over at the pair she found the tall blonde's hands wandering dangerously closer to Clarke's body. And every time Lexa envisioned a brand new way she would snap them away.
Lexa waved off another ambassador while they were mid speech, not wanting to even try to be interested in what they wanted to tell her. Instead she commanded them away and breathed deeply to calm herself. This wasn't the way of a commander. To lead was to be alone. She had accepted that. Now she must accept this.
Only, it was a hard thing to accept when she watched the woman she liked being touched by another.
Her eyes zeroed in on the tall blonde's hand squeezing Clarke's wrist. Lexa imagined what it would be like to snap it in half in her hands. She smiled imagining the screams.
"Why don't you just go talk to her?"
Lexa jumped in her seat and turned to scowl at her mentor. Anya simply smirked and pointed past Lexa at the two blondes.
"One thing you have always failed to hide from the world, Lexa, is when you are taken with someone" Anya's smirk deepened at her heda, "Might I make a recommendation?"
"Please dont" Lexa huffed back turning in her seat. Anya hid a snigger and bent down to be level with Lexa.
"If gold is your desire, maybe try the molten first" Anya pointed out at Clarke. Lexa frowned to herself trying to decipher what Anya meant. Her mentor squeezed her shoulder, "Niylah is wild. But maybe too wild for your tastes. Wanheda, however.. I think she might just drain your stamina, Lexa"
Lexa couldn't help but laugh, and the light noise immediately attracted Clarke's attention through the crowded room. The blonde threw Lexa a bright smile, happy seeing the usually stoic commander look so happy herself. Lexa's heart jumped up into her throat receiving it. Beside her Anya chuckled again.
"If you don't go talk to her, then I will" she threatened knowing it would push the commander into action. As she expected Lexa rose off her throne and in seconds was making her way through her people towards the two blondes.
"Commander!" Clarke greeted with another bright smile. She gave a respectful nod before she turned to her friend, "Let me introduce you to someone. This is Niylah. She helped me after..." Clarke's expression shifted in pain for the briefest of seconds before she swallowed and continued, "After Mount Weather"
Though Lexa's chest shuddered guiltily with the information she nodded politely in greeting to the other grounder. Niylah turned from watching Clarke with sad eyes and instead smiled and bowed to her commander. When she straightened up again her hand went to Clarke's back, holding it soothingly. Lexa forced her eyes away before she could think about wrenching the two blondes apart. She turned to Clarke, eyes softer for the moment. And Clarke's immediate smile back was well worth the self restraint.
"How are your people tonight, Clarke?" she asks the blonde formally, just gently reminding her of her place in the celebrations.
Clarke's cheeks held the lightest of blushes when she looked around and realised she can't see any of her people present in the room. The blonde has a moment of panic deciding what to tell Lexa. Lexa watches on amused. She knows the Sky delegation retired long ago for rest after their long travel to the city. Still, it was fun to watch Clarke handle a situation.
Clarke met Lexa's eyes again and smiled like she knew the commander's game. And then she shrugged.
"You would have to ask somebody else, Heda" Clarke returned calmly enough, "I seem to have lost them"
Lexa's heart throbbed pleasantly with the blonde's careless reply. It was brave to be so brass in front of the commander. And Clarke knew it. She raised her cup to her lips and took a long sip waiting for Lexa's reply. And all awhile her eyes held fast on Lexa's.
"Perhaps they are exploring the tower, Wanheda" Niylah offered with a reassuring rub to Clarke's back that had both commander and the Sky ambassador remembering her presence. She looked to be trying to save Clarke from what she was assuming would be Heda's anger. It annoyed the commander greatly. If Niylah knew Clarke at all she would know she never needed saving. Especially not from Lexa.
Lexa glared at the other woman and ignored her. Clarke simply smiled and, testing Lexa's mood, leant into Niylah some more, forcing her hand to wander further down her back as she did. It caused Niylah to smile affectionately at her. Clarke hid her victory grin into her cup when Lexa's jaw clenched tight seeing how low Niylah's hand had travelled. Lexa quickly deciding whether to have it removed for good.
"Niylah," Lexa forced herself from growling the taller blonde's name, "Have you met my war general, Anya?" She spoke her mentor's name loudly, ordering her over.
Obediently Anya came as summoned, swallowing a smirking grin at her commander as she took up a stance at her side. Niylah's eyes ran all over Anya, taking in her tall muscular frame appreciatively. She shook her head at Lexa, suddenly too shy to speak. It made Lexa want to laugh. She was a strong somewhat cocky woman around the commander of death, and even heda. But throw her to Anya's gaze and suddenly Niylah was a little girl.
Lexa's eyes flitted over Clarke watching the pair curiously before she glanced back at Anya staring deadly at the tall blonde. She decided to gift the warrior.
"Anya, this is Niylah. Wanheda's friend from the wilderness" she leant closer after the two exchanged a nod and whispered lowly in her mentor's ear so only Anya would hear, "You like them wild, don't you?"
Anya began to smirk understanding her heda's offer. She strode forward to the intimidated blonde to accept it and offered out her hand. Clarke was rolling her eyes the entire time.
"Niylah" Anya husked with a slow smile, "Would you allow me to show you the south balcony? It has the greatest view of the city"
Lexa looked away hearing Anya's ever charismatic line hook another unsuspecting victim. She didn't need to look to know Niylah would fall prey to the general.
"Excuse me, Wanheda. Heda" Niylah placed her hand into Anya's and was immediately surprised and relieved by the gentle pressure closing her fingers. After a smirk to Lexa in thanks, Anya silently began pulling Niylah away. Niylah followed her curiously. Without a look back to Clarke at all.
"That was low" Clarke told Lexa the second the commander turned her eyes back to her. Lexa began a short smile.
"I don't know what you mean" she pretended with a wave in the direction Anya and Niylah had vanished, "I was simply introducing them to one another"
Clarke strode forward unswayed by Lexa's lie. She got right in the commander's face. Her blue eyes piercing every last piece of Lexa they brushed over. Lexa found herself frozen. Found herself wanting to admit the truth and apologise. But she could barely remember how to speak when Clarke looked that way at her. And Clarke knew that. As much as she knew the real reason why Lexa had walked over to her.
The sky leader lifted her chin a little, stubbornly refusing to back down in the moment. Lexa's brow lifted at her, uncertain for this new challenge. It made Clarke smile that smile that had Lexa's heart banging in her chest. The blonde lifted her hand to drain her cup in one and then walked away. Lexa turned on the spot, staring after the other girl as she walked past the commander's throne and onto the balcony behind it.
"If you didn't know already," Lexa almost jumped at Anya's voice speaking sultry in her ear. She felt Anya push on her shoulder, harshly forcing her a step forward, "It means come get me" she laughed shoving Lexa away before turning back to return to her own night with a blonde.
Lexa swallowed nervously but walked on through the celebrating crowd towards her throne. She stopped beside it and looked out past the curtains blowing in from the balcony on the gentle breeze, to the candlelit space outside. She saw the outline of Clarke sat on the wall, looking up at the stars. And suddenly she didn't feel so nervous.
"Heya" Clarke whispered not looking down from the stars above her when Lexa stopped behind her.
Lexa smiled and moved forward with an outstretched hand that glanced the soft skin on Clarke's cheek. She heard and felt the blonde's sharp intake of breath. She felt it in herself too. They'd barely touched one another since that stolen kiss in Lexa's war tent. Not unless it was to attempt to kill each other in blind betrayed rage, or softly bind wounds made by others. Somehow the heat of their skin touching tenderly again burned brighter than any fit of anger or wound.
"Hello" Lexa whispered back, smiling with the blonde at their respectful exchange.
Clarke looked back at her. Baby blue eyes locking on green permanently. Lexa waited for her to speak and call her out for her behaviour in front of Clarke's friend. Clarke's mouth opened, but not to speak. Words seemed to fail her when her heart raced like that in the commander's presence. They had tip toed and danced for too long around one another. Clarke always waiting for Lexa. Lexa always waiting for Clarke. Enough was enough.
Lexa watched as Clarke leapt to her feet, felt as soft hands cupped her face and a small body pushed hers backwards into the wall beside the balcony entrance. She felt the roughness of the tower press into her back before the warmth of Clarke's front moved to be against her own. Lexa looked down into those blue eyes again, entranced by the deep dark taking over the usual bright blue.
Lexa opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. Quickly she ducked her head down instead and caught Clarke's lips against her own, with a little hungry moan when Clarke immediately responded. She'd expected their second kiss to resemble their first. Because she felt just as nervous as she had all those months ago. Instead she was pleasantly relieved to feel Clarke's mouth moving quickly, eagerly, wantonly against her own. It was different, she realised, and deliciously so because it wasn't a kiss stolen. It was one given freely. And when Lexa moved back to look down at the panting blonde she could see a promise of many many more to come. Lexa smiled and brought Clarke back to her, kissing her as feverishly as Clarke.
And while they kissed she made a mental note to invite Niylah back to the city more often.