"I don't care if I sing off key, I found myself and my melodies. I sing for love, I sing for me. I shout it loud like a bird set free."

-Sia, Bird Set Free

(Lexa's POV)

"My mother left some fresh bandages and another dose of pain killers, your healer brought this." She holds up the herbal mixture, bringing it to her nose. "Which smells terrible." She adds, her face crinkling up adorably.

"The more potent the scent the better it will work." I chuckle at her.

"Let me change them for you. Take off your shirt and lie back." Clarke commands, moving to gather the materials off the side table.

"How very forward of you Clarke." I smirk, following her instructions. The silken sheets caressing the skin of my bare back, my nipples pebbling in the crisp morning air.

When she turns to face me again her cheeks are slightly flushed, her eyes trained on my own almost as if she's afraid to look anywhere but. "So uh have you given any thought about what you're going to tell our people?"

"Briefly yes, I'm not trying to hide anything. So I will tell them what has happened, of course there will be questions and I'll do my best to answer but clearly there are many things about this that I myself still don't understand." I tell her, still relishing the way she has referred to them as our people. As she leans over me, peeling off my bandages her sky blue eyes well with tears. "If this upsets you Hodnes I can do it myself." I place my hands over her to still them.

"No," she shakes her blonde head, "it's not that."

"Then what?" I wonder.

"I just...god I missed you Lexa. I missed you so much." She voice catching in her throat.

"I didn't want to leave you," I tell her, but of course she already knows that. "But I knew I could, because you're strong and smart and the world has so much to offer you, but you have even more to offer it in return."

"I wasn't strong enough," she argues, "not for that."

"In peace I left the shore, in love I found the next, with safe passage on my travels, on our final journey on the ground...we met again." I change the worlds slightly so it is no longer the end of a story, but the beginning of a new one.

"You remember that?"

"Because of you Clarke I left this world knowing nothing but love. At the very end, when I could no longer feel the pain, my vision began to tunnel, no matter how hard I tired I couldn't force enough air into my lungs and there was only you. The sound of your voice, lulling me to sleep for the very last time." I brush my thumb over her cheek, feeling the wetness of her tears, wanting nothing more than to take them away.

"Please don't ever make me do that again." She moves forward, her face pressed into my neck as she lies atop of me, mindful of my injuries. I kiss the side of her head, any part of her I can reach. My fingers tangling in her soft hair, caressing her scalp light with my nails, my other hand wrapped around her waist keeping her close.

"I'll do my best." That's all I can do. I can't promise her I will never die just as she can't promise me, but I can promise to try my damnedest not to. "Ai hod yu in, Klarke kom skaikru."

"Ai hod yu in, Leksa kom trikru en skaikru." She pulls back slightly so that her lips hover over mine.

I crane my neck upward, seeking out her mouth, my hand moving down to her hip to press against the skin there, pulling her closer to me. Clarke let's out a strangled moan, her leg coming over to straddle my waist. Blue nightgown rising up her thighs as she goes, I run my fingers over the smooth skin there greedily. Last time Clarke and I made love it was a goodbye, not knowing if or when I'd see her again. This time however will be a hello, a greeting to our new lives together where I know that she is mine and I am hers. A life where making love doesn't have to be rushed, where the looming fear of losing her does not exist. I trail my lips down the column of her lean neck, nipping and sucking on the skin there until her breath quickens. Full hips canting against my own, her hands tangled in my hair, I cup her backside drawing her closer. Dragging the material of her gown over her waist, up her stomach and breasts, pushing it past her shoulders and off onto the floor leaving her in only her panties. She sits back on her heels, her eyes raking over me intently, committing every new detail to memory. Her gaze falling to my chest, after a moment she cups my breasts, testing their weight, my nipples straining against her palms. "Mmm," I hum at her ministrations, letting her have her way with me.

"You're still so beautiful baby." She whispers sweetly, the foreign term of endearment that makes my heart pound in excitement. She sinks lower to take my harden peaks into her mouth, first the right, then the left, taking her time with each until I'm panting and needy under her touch.

Her lips make their way down to my stomach, placing open mouthed kisses along the plains of my abdomen as she rids me of my pants and under garments, tongue swirling around my navel. Then lower and lower until she- "oohh," I groan as her fingers part my folds, her breath fanning over my most intimate area. Then her mouth is on me, flicking my bundle of nerves with practiced strokes. Oh Clarke, oh sweetheart, oh baby, I throw my head back into the pillows, fingers gripping the sheets until my knuckles are white. I feel her press against my opening, circling, teasing me.

"Please Klarke, please." I feel her smirk against me before slipping a single digit inside, loving me so slowly, so sweetly it makes my heart ache. I reach for her hair, pushing it away from her face so I can watch her. Her eyes closed intently, the sight of her between my legs alone almost sending me over the edge. A second finger joins the first and she begins curling them upward, hitting that spot inside of me that makes my back arch off the bed and my hips sputter wildly. Her free hand comes to rest on my lower belly, thumb stroking over the skin there tenderly but when I twist my hips a second time that same hand pressed me back down into the bed; forcing me to endure her delicious torture. The coil in my lower stomach tightening to the point of near pain before I explode, pulsing around Clarke's soft fingers again and again. Her mouth working me over as I come down from my high, placing a final kiss on my clit before making her way up to lie next to me; clearly satisfied with her work. I roll her onto her back, my lips sealed over hers, reaching between us I cup her sex, feeling the wetness that's gathered there. "The gods took their time making you Clarke. You're the most beautiful thing I've seen in all my years, you fill my heart with love and my days with an abundance of joy." I tell her quietly before wrapping my lips around her left nipple and she cries out. I will never love anything more than you, I spell out with my kisses. My only desire in life is to please you, I write out with my tongue. And from the moment I first laid eyes on you...I knew.

(Clarke's POV)

I stand behind her at the vanity, my finger weaving the delicate patterns and braids into her hair, the way she's worn it since the first time I saw her. It's a little more complicated to replicate with her hair being shorter and not as textured. She was very different and yet not different at all. It wasn't her features that were familiar, but her mannerisms. The way she looks at me, the way she smiles, like she doesn't mean to but can't stop herself. It's the way she scowls when she is troubled, the way her arms find their way around me when she's sound asleep, and the way she makes love to me so thoroughly that when it's over and I'm boneless staring up at what used to be Ontari's face all I can see is Lexa. "Sorry it's taking so long, I can't get the bottom right."

"It takes as long as it takes Clarke," she replies patiently. Her eyes finding my reflection in the mirror with nothing but love, when she turns them back on her own that's when I notice it. She looks so lost, lost within her own body, not recognizing the person staring back.

"Lexa..." I want to help, to say the right thing, to say something, but I don't even know where to begin. "Lexa-" I try again but to no avail.

"Yes?" She laughs.

"I just wanted you to know that it's ok. Everything that happened, everything that's going on; it's ok. You can talk to me, you don't have to but if you want to; I'm here. I'll listen."

"This is so easy for you. How? From the second I woke up you never questioned it, you never hesitated, not once; how can you do that?" Lexa frowns.

"Because you're still you Lexa, I see that. But you're not ready to see it, you will be, just not yet. One day you're gonna wake up and look into this mirror and know that you're looking at yourself. Not at a stranger, not at Ontari, but at you."

"What she did to my people, what she did to my natblida-" she seethes through gritted teeth.

"I know, but that wasn't you." I reason.

"I just don't understand why it had to be this body. Out of any vessel in the world my spirit had to chose one that I hate." Her hands fly to her temples, rubbing them roughly, brown eyes screwed shut.

"Because this body is the only one that can accept the flame, your spirit did chose wisely." I kneel down beside her, smoothing my hands over the tense muscles in her back. "This is your body now Lexa. All those terrible things it did, all the things it would have done, this is your chance to use it to do some good."

There's a knock at the door effectively popping the little bubble we created in which only Lexa and I exist.

"You better get that." She nods toward the sound.

"What makes you think it's for me?"

"My people know better than to disturb me when we're alone unless it is of the upmost importance."

"It's Abby," my mother announces, proving Lexa right, "I just wanted to check in and see how Lexa's feeling."

"See," Lexa grins, "I told you so."

(Lexa's POV)

My second ascension is much faster than I remember, namely because they was no conclave. No one else to contend with me, Ontari made sure of that. I clear my throat, moving from the throne to stand in front of it. "Ambassadors of the thirteen clans, I've asked you here to solidify the bonds of our coalition. Tonight we celebrate the promise of a new future. Tomorrow we cleanse the pain of the past, we set ourselves free, we restore our beloved capital to its former state of beauty, we chose a new beginning. For our loved ones, for our children, for those we have lost, we chose it most importantly for ourselves. Ai laik Leksa kom trikru, serving as your commander for these past years is an honor that will be surpassed only by our years yet to come." My next words catch in my throat when one by one they begin to kneel before me, accepting me not only because it was their duty but because they wanted to. Because they believe in me. This is it. I steal a glance at Clarke, bowing with the other ambassadors. We did it love.

"I'm glad to have you back commander." Indra says when it is over. The room is quiet as the last of our guests trickle out of the throne room.

"I'm glad to be here." I admit.

(A/N: Translations

Hodnes=Love

Ai hod yu in Klarke kom skaikru = I love you Clarke of the sky people.

Ai hod yu in Leksa kom trikru en skaikru = I love you Lexa of the tree people and the sky people.

Natblida = night bloods

Ai laik Leksa kom trikru = I am Lexa of the tree people.)