A/N: Happy Sunday, Clexakru! Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, or reviewed on this fic. I am really honored that so many people like this story already, and I hope that you will enjoy the next chapter!


Clarke got back to camp hungry and thirsty after being on a hunting patrol, and she couldn't wait for the meat to be ready. The boys she had been out with, Ronnie and Myles, brought the deer they had taken down together to the tent where their people housed their food and water, and Clarke followed after them, grabbing a cup and filling it with some much-needed drink. Clarke was no use with the bows and arrows that her people had constructed to hunt with, but she still went out on hunting patrols to serve as the lookout for Grounders. She wished that she could hunt with her gun, but she was smart enough to see that they shouldn't use their limited supply of bullets when they didn't need to. She took soothing sips of her water as she left the meat tent, making her way over to the fire to join the people that she had become closest to in her time on the ground.

"How's your Grounder doing?" Raven asked as Clarke plopped down next to her on the log that the mechanic was perched upon.

"As well as she can be," Clarke answered. "I'll probably have to give her some painkillers again soon."

"Can I come see her?" A spark of excitement flared up in Octavia's eyes.

Clarke wished that she didn't have to turn the other girl down, but she didn't think it was a good idea to bring Lexa company so soon. "She needs to rest."

Octavia rolled her eyes, seeing the excuse for what it was. "She's been resting for a good two or three hours if you've been on patrol, maybe more."

"I know you don't want to wake her up, Clarke, but maybe you should get her up to eat," Raven suggested. "I'm sure she's hungry and thirsty by now."

Clarke only blinked when she realized that Raven was right, and she was instantly swarmed with guilt. How could she just grab water for herself and sit down to casually talk with her friends when she hadn't given Lexa a single thing to eat or drink since the poor girl had gotten here? Even though it was only early afternoon, she was sure that Lexa was dying of thirst right now.

"Shit, you're right." Clarke downed the rest of her water in one gulp. Raven opened her mouth to reply, but Clarke didn't even give her a chance to, instead half running, half walking over to the meat tent and slipping inside. A few guys were still skinning the animals that the patrols had brought back. She was perfectly fine with waiting for her own food to be ready, but she wanted to give Lexa something as soon as possible, so she hurried over to the boys and put on her best casual face. "Could you cut off a few strips of that meat for me?"

Connor looked up at her in surprise. "Why? Just because you've become the closest thing we have to a leader down here doesn't meant that you get to eat before the rest of us. Wait your turn, Clarke."

Clarke sighed in exasperation. "It's not for me. I'm sure everyone in camp has heard by now that I rescued a Grounder from the explosion we caused, and she hasn't gotten to eat anything yet. The meat you give me will be for her, not me."

"Bellamy said not to give her anything to eat. I think he's hoping that she'll die of her own accord soon, but I don't want to be the person responsible for her death." He began cutting off a few strips of meat. "We're not savages like her people."

Clarke noticed the way that he excluded Lexa from that statement, trying not to upset Clarke, but it didn't matter. She bristled at the fact that he was indirectly calling Lexa a savage, something that she clearly wasn't. Or Clarke didn't think she was, anyway. Her shoulders slumped, though, when she realized that she didn't know anything about Lexa at all, not to mention the fact that she herself had thought of the Grounders as savages mere days ago.

"Thank you." She accepted the meat and quickly went to roast it by the fire, trying to ignore the anger that was now bubbling up inside of her towards Bellamy. He was acting ridiculous. Who gave orders to their people to let a young girl starve to death? That was just messed up, and quite frankly, Clarke was starting to get tired of him.

As she cooked the meat strip by strip, Clarke noticed Octavia fidgeting from her seat upon the log a few feet away. Clarke supposed that the younger girl was probably excited to meet Lexa. That didn't surprise her because Octavia had already taken a liking to the Grounder culture, from what Clarke could see, and she probably intended to ask Lexa some questions about it. The blonde knew that her friend would probably be disappointed when she found out that Lexa could not understand her.

Clarke knew that it would probably be a bad idea to take these two girls to see Lexa so soon. The warrior had only been here for a day, and it would be overwhelming for her to wake up and find two new people in her tent. However, Clarke knew that she wouldn't hear the end of this from Octavia until the younger girl actually got to meet Lexa, so Clarke decided that she might as well get this over with.

Once the meat was ready, Clarke stood from the log again to go grab some water, but she turned to find Raven already holding a cup of the clear liquid. "This what you were looking for?"

"Yes." Clarke nodded. "Thanks for getting it for me."

"So, are we going to meet this girl or what?" Raven asked.

Clarke wished that she could choose "or what" without feeling bad about it, but she simply nodded and gestured for the other girls to follow her, hoping that she was not making some sort of terrible mistake.

Lexa was lying out on her back when the three of them pushed their way into the tent, and Clarke thought she might be sleeping until a green eye cracked open to look at her. The other eye sprang open when the warrior noticed the girls that were with her tentmate, and she instantly pulled herself into a sitting position, regarding the newcomers with cold, hard eyes. Clarke knew immediately that she had made the wrong decision.

"We brought you some food." Clarke held the meat out like some kind of peace offering that was really more of a last-ditch effort to fix what she had only just realized that she had messed up.

When Lexa turned her green glare on the blonde, Clarke suddenly wished that she hadn't spoken at all. She felt like she was being burned alive by a fire the color of grass and trees.

"Do you know Lincoln?" Octavia sat on the ground beside Lexa, either not noticing or simply ignoring the glare that the Grounder was shooting her way. "He's from a village not far from here. Are you from the same village?"

Lexa didn't show any signs that she had even heard Octavia speak, her glare unwavering.

"O, she can't understand us," Clarke said.

"What do you mean she can't understand us?"

Clarke ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "I mean that she cannot understand us. She doesn't speak our language."

"Lincoln said that most of his people are well-versed in the language of the enemy. Their Commander makes sure of it."

"I notice that you said most," Clarke pointed out. "She must not be one of them."

Octavia pulled a face. "Maybe she just doesn't want you to know that she understands. That's what Lincoln did when I first met him. He didn't let me know that he could understand English until after Bellamy and you guys tortured him." She shot a small glare in Clarke and Raven's direction as she said this. "Maybe this girl is pretending, too."

"Why would she do that?" Clarke asked.

"Because she doesn't trust you," Octavia said, as if it should've been obvious. "We are enemies to the Grounders, after all. You expect this girl to just trust you immediately because you saved her? It's either that or maybe she's just spying on our camp, so she can report back to her people when you turn her loose. She doesn't want you to know that she's taking note of whatever you or anyone else says so that she can use it against us later."

Clarke hadn't even thought of the possibility that Lexa might be spying. The blonde wanted to brush it off immediately as ridiculous, but she knew that it was far from stupid. Wouldn't she want to do the same if she found herself in the heart of the enemy's camp?

"Let's not jump to conclusions. Lincoln is obviously a good man, and I'd like to think that this girl is inherently good as well. Innocent until proven guilty, right?" Clarke knew that she was trying to convince herself as much as Octavia. "Besides, she hasn't tried to kill me yet, and she has had plenty of chances."

Octavia just shrugged. "Then, maybe she's just scared. I mean, how would you feel if you woke up in the heart of enemy territory, and you weren't able to walk or do much of anything really? Not to mention, we tried to blow her up." Octavia turned her attention back to Lexa. "You don't have to be afraid of us. We know Lincoln, and we really do want peace with your people. We're not going to hurt you."

Still no response, and still no change in Lexa's ire-filled glare. Clarke found herself wishing for the thousandth time that Lexa could understand them. If she could, then Clarke was sure that she would've stopped looking at them like that by now. At least, the blonde hoped that she would've.

Octavia sighed. "Okay, fine. Don't talk to me. How about we get you something to drink instead?"

Octavia gestured for Raven to hand her the cup of water, which the mechanic did with ease. Octavia took the cup and brought it to Lexa's lips, cupping the back of the Grounder's neck in an innocent gesture that looked almost motherly to Clarke. It clearly didn't come off that way to Lexa. The warrior grabbed onto Octavia's wrist, roughly pulling it away from her neck and not letting go once she had. Her grip tightened, and she emitted a low growl as Octavia gasped in pain, trying in vain to wrench her wrist out of Lexa's ironclad grip.

Clarke immediately sprang to action, rushing over and dropping down beside the two girls on the ground. "Lexa, let go! Now."

Lexa didn't release her grip, didn't even move her eyes from where they were trained on Octavia with a threatening gleam to them. Clarke grabbed onto Lexa's fingers, trying to pry them away from her friend's wrist, but they wouldn't budge.

"Lexa," Clarke called angrily, and Lexa's green eyes finally slid over to Clarke's blue ones. The blonde made sure that there was not a single drop of sympathy in the blue, keeping her voice stern as she spoke. "Let. Go."

Clarke knew that Lexa wouldn't need to be able to understand English to grasp the meaning behind Clarke's words. The brunette didn't listen right away, and Clarke was just about to reach over and grab one of her four sedatives, which she had been saving for emergency situations, when the warrior finally let go. Octavia yanked her wrist away, rubbing it as she shot her own glare in Lexa's direction.

"I was only trying to help you," Octavia said, and Clarke could tell that she was slightly hurt. Clarke was taken aback by Lexa's behavior as well. It didn't seem possible that this was the same girl who had let Clarke hold her last night.

"Octavia," Clarke started, wanting to explain that Lexa hadn't meant it or some other bullshit excuse, but the younger girl was already pushing her way out of the tent. Clarke sighed, looking back to Raven, and she felt slightly better when she saw that the mechanic didn't seem to be too put off by Lexa. Instead, she moved closer to the Grounder and took the space that Octavia had previously occupied, holding a strip of meat up to Lexa's lips. Clarke hadn't even seen her friend snatch it off the plate that she was holding, she had been so caught up in her thoughts. She hoped that Lexa would take the food, but the brunette refused it, turning her head away.

"Please?" Raven tried. "It's really good."

Lexa still refused to accept it, and Raven just shrugged, standing up and returning the meat to Clarke's plate. "Maybe she's not hungry."

"Maybe," Clarke agreed absentmindedly, even though she knew full well that the Grounder had to be starving by now.

"I guess I'll see you later then, Clarke. You'll probably have better luck with her without us being here." Raven stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans, looking down at the dirt. "I'm sorry for insisting that you bring us to see her. We didn't mean to cause any trouble."

"It's fine," Clarke said sincerely.

It wasn't as if Raven and Octavia did any of this on purpose. They were only curious, and they couldn't have known that Lexa would react so badly. Clarke hadn't even thought that the Grounder might act like this, even though she knew that the brunette would probably be uncomfortable with the visitors.

Dropping back down beside her patient once Raven had left, Clarke tried to get Lexa to accept the food and water, but the warrior refused even her. Clarke didn't know what to do other than try to comfort the clearly upset girl, so she began to run her fingers soothingly through long brown hair, like she had done last night. This time, though, Lexa recoiled almost immediately, shoving Clarke's fingers away with a glare.

"That's not what you were saying last night," Clarke said in frustration, trying to mask her obvious hurt.

Her eyebrows rose slightly when she detected a tiny clench in Lexa's jaw, almost as if the brunette had understood her. She waited for a further response, but got none, and Clarke knew that it had more than likely only been a trick of the light, the result of some very wishful thinking.

"Please eat this." Clarke held the meat to Lexa's lips again. "I know you're hungry."

Lexa turned her face away, but the growl of her stomach betrayed her, confirming for Clarke that the other girl was as hungry as she thought her to be. She would've found the growl funny in any other circumstance, but she was honestly too hurt and frustrated right now to care. She wondered why it was that this Grounder was suddenly refusing the food. How was Clarke supposed to have known that the brunette would react so badly to strangers? She hadn't reacted this badly to Clarke. Besides, it's not like Octavia and Raven had tried to hurt her or anything.

"Fine," Clarke snapped, pushing herself to her feet. "You want to be stubborn? Go ahead and starve to death. See if I care."

She strode out of the tent without looking back. She couldn't bear to be around Lexa for another moment. She only wished that her parting statement had been true, that she wouldn't care if Lexa starved to death or not.

She cared.

A lot more than she probably should.

She had hoped to perhaps get out of camp and take a walk, but before she could reach the gates, she noticed Bellamy approaching her. She groaned at the sight of him, not even wanting to think about what he could possibly want. She had just been starting to get along with him and trust him before this mess with the Grounder, but now it was like they were right back to square one. Yesterday, she had felt slightly guilty for wrecking their tentative friendship by bringing this girl here, but she now knew that it wasn't her fault in the slightest. If Bellamy was such an asshole that he couldn't trust that she was doing the right thing, then she didn't want him as a friend anyway.

"What the hell, Clarke?" Bellamy snarled. "You let your stupid Grounder hurt my sister?"

Clarke closed her eyes for a moment in frustration. She hadn't even thought about how Bellamy might react to Lexa's actions from a few moments ago, considering nothing had really happened. It wasn't like Lexa had tried to kill Octavia or anything. "She didn't hurt Octavia."

"Tell that to the red marks on her wrist," Bellamy spat. "She hurt someone, which means she dies."

Clarke's head spun when she heard his statement. This couldn't be happening already. Lexa had only been here for a day, and Bellamy was already threatening to kill her? Clarke wouldn't let him of course, but she didn't want to start a feud with him and force her people to choose sides. She knew that she would probably be outnumbered. "I'll admit that she got a little aggressive, but she didn't even draw any blood. I know that you hate her and that you're protective over your sister, but you can't kill Lexa for something small like that."

"Lexa? She has a name now?" He looked repulsed, like Lexa wasn't someone that was worthy of having a name, of being treated like a person. Clarke tried to swallow down her rage at the way that Bellamy insisted on treating the Grounders. She tried not to think about Lincoln strung up in the dropship like an animal, but she couldn't help but wonder if Bellamy wished that he could do the same to Lexa.

She wondered if he might still find a way.

"Yes, she has a name, just like everyone else, Bellamy. I thought even you were smart enough to know that." He glared at her, but she wasn't finished. "You're not killing her. I won't let you."

Bellamy was practically fuming. "The deal was—"

"The deal was that Lexa would be killed if she attacked anyone, but she didn't attack Octavia. She was just warning your sister not to touch her. She can't communicate with us, and that was the only way she could think of to get Octavia to understand." Clarke was pulling at straws now, but she knew that she would pull every last straw before she let Lexa die.

Bellamy let out a humorless chuckle. "By trying to break my sister's wrist? That's a great way to get us to understand her. I don't get why you're defending this bitch. You barely even know her, so why not just let her die?"

Clarke felt sick to her stomach at the thought of yet another dead body on the growing list of lives that her people had taken in their time on the ground. "I can't kill anyone else."

His tone softened as he responded, like he thought he understood when Clarke wasn't sure if he ever would. "I'm not asking you to kill her, Clarke. I'm perfectly fine with doing it myself."

"Don't you get it? Even if you do the killing, that girl's blood will still be on my hands. Even though I didn't build or set off the bomb that blew up the bridge, the deaths of those Grounders are on my hands, too. Do you want to know why?" Her voice cracked with a sob, tears falling from her eyes as she finally let her feelings loose. "Because the people in this camp look at me as their leader. They expect me to make their decisions for them and to approve their plans. They're my people, and I am responsible for every single person that they kill."

"That's your flaw." Bellamy's sympathy should've increased after such an admission, but it seemed that it was now gone. "You shouldn't think of them that way. The Grounders are savages. They don't view us as human, so why should we look at them any differently?"

"Because we were raised with a set of morals. It's up to us to be accepting and peaceful or we're gonna be wiped out by these warriors. We may have guns, but they have thousands of people while we have less than a hundred. Besides, we don't have to stoop to their level."

"If you think you can domesticate that Grounder, you're wrong." Clarke tried to keep her anger from flaring up in her eyes. It seemed that there was no reasoning with him, but Clarke was prepared to argue more if that's what she needed to do. She was surprised when Bellamy sighed in defeat, knowing that it was probably the sight of her tear-filled eyes that had finally convinced him to concede. "But I'll give her one more chance."

"Thank you." Clarke enveloped him in a hug to show her gratitude. She didn't think that he deserved the hug, of course, but she gave it anyways, knowing that it might help to sway him more in her favor. If he thought she felt indebted to him, it might make him less argumentative all the time.

He seemed shocked at first, but he returned the hug, and Clarke didn't miss the tiny smile that was on his face when she pulled away. She wondered if he might have feelings for her that went beyond friendship, and she thought that that might play out in her favor later, but she couldn't stick around to figure it out right now. She had more important matters to attend to.

After saying goodbye to Bellamy, she spun on her heel and stormed to her tent, rather annoyed with her new patient for putting herself in unnecessary danger. She threw back the tent flap to find that the food and water had already disappeared, confirming her suspicions that Lexa had been hungry. Lexa looked up at Clarke with a glare, probably still angry that the blonde had brought her friends in earlier, but Clarke didn't think that she had a right to be anymore. What Lexa had done had been out of line, and it was Clarke's turn to be angry now.

Lexa's glare instantly fell away at the sight of the tears that Clarke had not bothered to wipe from her face, and Clarke thought that she could detect a bit of concern in the green depths of the other girl's eyes. She was honestly too furious to care though. If Lexa didn't want to trust her, if Lexa didn't even want Clarke to touch her, then Clarke was not going to put up with the brunette's unacceptable behavior.

"I can't believe you did that!" Clarke didn't even try to hold any of her anger and frustration back. "Can't you see that Bellamy already hates you? You have to be careful, especially around Octavia. She's his sister, did you know that? And he's absolutely furious with you. He wanted to kill you because of what you did."

Clarke didn't care whether Lexa could or couldn't understand her. It felt so good to just let her emotions free. Now that she had started, she couldn't stop, and she didn't even care that Lexa's glare had settled over her face again at the obvious anger in Clarke's voice.

"You scared me half to death today because, for some crazy reason, I actually don't want you to die. I know that you come from a culture where you could do whatever the hell you wanted and hurt people for probably no reason at all, but you can't do that here. So, if you actually want to stay alive and heal with me, you have to do things our way."

Lexa raised her chin defiantly as Clarke spoke, and this only served to infuriate the blonde further. Was this girl not even thankful that Clarke had saved her life? Clarke could tell that this warrior didn't get chewed out like this very often, that she thought she deserved more respect than Clarke was showing, and the blonde wondered what this girl's status was in her clan. It must have been a well-respected one, which was surprising for her young age. However, none of that mattered here. With Clarke and her people, this warrior was just a girl, and the blonde wasn't going to show her an ounce of respect unless she earned it.

Clarke pushed herself up from the ground, eager to get away from the suffocating feeling that this tent was bringing her, and she wondered how her desire to stay in here this morning and never leave had turned into this aversion. She wondered how her feelings of attraction towards this Grounder had so quickly turned into this disappointment and dislike. She grabbed the painkillers from the corner and sorted out how much the Grounder should take, setting them beside her bed before turning to leave again.

"Jos sen ai op bak kamp raun ai kru," Lexa growled behind her.

Clarke whirled around as soon as Lexa finished her sentence, blue eyes blazing with cold fire upon hearing Lexa's angry tone of voice.

"I know you think you're better than us, but you're walking on eggshells," Clarke snapped, "and they're about to break."


Clarke finally found that she could relax once she had slipped into the relative quiet of the forest. The tenseness left her muscles as she walked under the canopy of the trees, alone at last. She hadn't spoken to anyone on her way out of camp, hadn't even chanced a glance in any of her people's directions, too desperate to get some much-needed time to herself.

Now that she could think about it, she realized how hurt she was that she had been wrong about Lexa. She had thought that she might have finally found a friend who wouldn't look at her as anything other than Clarke. The situation from this morning made her realize that her new patient had no interest in being friends, but then again, Clarke supposed she couldn't blame her. Would she really be focused on making friends if she woke up defenseless in the camp of the enemy? Probably not, but she would at least show some respect to the healer who had saved her life.

She didn't know exactly what to think about Lexa right now, other than the fact that she needed some time away from the brunette. The more that she walked through the forest alone, the more she wished she could keep walking. She wondered what would happen if she just kept on walking and never stopped. She would eventually reach water, she knew that, but she hoped that wouldn't be for many, many miles. If Clarke walked away right now, no one would look at her to lead anymore, and she would never have to kill anyone ever again. She wouldn't have to be anyone other than Clarke, a small girl in a big world, alone and completely free.

Ironically, as she considered doing just that, Finn emerged from the trees, reminding her of her people, the exact reason why she was tied here. She could never abandon them like that when they relied on her so much. She cursed her luck. Why couldn't it have been literally anyone else who found her? She supposed it was better than Bellamy or Lexa, the two people that she wanted the most to avoid, but still.

"Hey, are you alright?" Finn asked as he approached.

"Yeah, I just needed a breath of fresh air." Clarke tried to force a smile on her face.

"I'm not stupid, Princess. What happened?"

"Just trouble with the Grounder I saved, with Bellamy," she admitted. "You were probably right. This girl is causing more trouble than she's worth, but I wanted to save her. I thought that if I did, then maybe I could make up for the lives I took yesterday. I never wanted to be a murderer."

Clarke didn't realize that she was crying until Finn opened his arms to her, and she easily fell into them, taking comfort in his warmth around her. The hug didn't feel just right though. Finn's body didn't seem to meld perfectly with hers anymore, like she had once thought, and she wondered if anyone's ever would again. How many more people did she have to kill before she couldn't bear to be around another human being at all? She wished that she could stop feeling so miserable. She had become a murderer in her time on the ground, and now she had ruined everything with Lexa, the one person who had made her feel slightly good again. She burrowed her face further into Finn's chest, trying to pretend that this was just a friendly hug, but she knew that Finn didn't mean it that way. She couldn't remember the last time that she had actually had a true friendly hug.

He rubbed her back in an attempt to make her feel better, but it only made her feel worse. "You're not a murderer, Clarke. You're a survivor. That's why I took such a liking to you in the first place. You're not afraid to do what needs to be done."

Clarke stayed silent, not sure of how to respond to that, and Finn took that as his cue to continue when Clarke wanted nothing more than for him to shut up. "Raven broke up with me yesterday."

"I'm sorry." She wasn't because she knew what was coming next.

"It's okay, actually. She did what I wasn't brave enough to do, but I want to be brave now." He pressed a kiss against blond hair. "I'm in love with you, Clarke."

The blonde girl was pushing out of his arms immediately, adding Finn to the growing list of people that she needed to avoid right now. "You know what? I totally forgot that I promised Jasper and Monty I'd hang out tonight. I should probably get going."

She hurried away before he even had a chance to respond.


Crickets had been playing their sweet symphonies for hours once Clarke finally returned to her tent, knowing that Lexa would be asleep by then. She was relieved to find that she was right as she sank down onto her makeshift bed with a contented sigh, not wanting to deal with her patient again until tomorrow. It seemed, though, that luck was not on her side today because she was just drifting off to sleep when she jolted awake to the sound of a voice from across the tent. "Clarke."

The blonde breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the noise had come from Lexa and not some Grounder who had snuck into her tent to kill her, as her half-asleep mind had feared at first. She took calming breaths to slow her racing heart, wondering what it was that the other girl wanted and then cursing herself for even thinking about it. Lexa was probably in some kind of pain, but Clarke didn't care, not after the way that the brunette had acted earlier. She decided not to answer, still slightly hurt that Lexa had jerked away from her in disgust that afternoon. If the brunette didn't wish to be touched, then Clarke wouldn't touch her. She hoped this might teach the Grounder a lesson about how to be thankful and respectful.

"Clarke," Lexa said again, but the blonde didn't move. Even if she had wanted to get up and help Lexa, she was exhausted in the way that one is after having been awoken before one is ready. She couldn't find the energy to do anything in her sleepy state, so she couldn't go check on Lexa. At least, that's what she tried to tell herself.

She knew that she was making excuses because she was about to give in, no matter how much she didn't want to, and she wished that she could have the conscience of Bellamy or Murphy and easily leave the Grounder to suffer. However, Clarke couldn't help the worry from sneaking into her head, waking her more fully.

She couldn't help the fact that she still cared.

That thought frustrated her beyond explanation, but the feeling dissipated when the tent remained blissfully silent. Clarke breathed a sigh of relief. Lexa must have fallen back asleep. The blonde settled deeper into her pillow, waiting for sleep to come and claim her again as well.

"Claaaaaarrrke," Lexa whined pitifully, and the blonde wondered what on earth could be this important.

She better literally be dying, Clarke thought as she pushed herself up from her bed, grumbling under her breath.

"What, Lexa? What?" Clarke asked in annoyance.

Lexa didn't seem to be put off by her tone, looking up at her with sleepy green eyes. "Rid yu op hir."

"I don't understand." Clarke furrowed her brows, shaking her head.

Lexa seemed to get the gist of Clarke's answer through her body language, so she clarified the meaning behind her words by scooting over and patting the space beside her before looking back up at Clarke expectantly.

Blue eyes widened in shock. "You want me to lie down with you? In your bed?"

Lexa continued to stare up at her, patting the space beside her for clarification.

"B-but earlier today, you didn't even want me to touch you," Clarke stuttered.

Still no response from Lexa, unsurprisingly. The brunette girl didn't seem frustrated in the slightest, seemingly content to gesture to the space beside her until Clarke gave her an answer. Clarke marveled at the total change in the Grounder's demeanor from earlier. The girl was tough during the daytime, but it seemed that she became rather needy at night. Clarke wished that she didn't find that to be slightly adorable.

Her movements stiff, Clarke tentatively lowered herself into the space beside Lexa, still confused as to why the warrior was making this request in the first place. It wasn't like they were friends or even close at all, and Clarke couldn't help but feel awkward at the prospect of lying so close to this stranger. Her eyes widened again when said stranger rolled halfway on top of her, using her chest as a pillow and holding her tight. Awkward didn't even begin to describe how Clarke was feeling now.

When Lexa showed no signs of letting go, Clarke tried her best to relax, looping an arm around Lexa's waist so that she could lie more comfortably. She had no explanation for why she pulled Lexa even closer. After a few moments of lying like this, Clarke realized just how relaxed she actually was. She felt better than she had all day now that she was wrapped in Lexa's arms again. The comfort that she hadn't been able to feel with Finn, she was now feeling with Lexa. It seemed that Lexa's body fit perfectly with hers, and she wasn't sure how she could draw so much comfort from someone she didn't even know.

She only knew that she liked it.

More than she cared to admit.

Was it possible that she could like Lexa the way that Octavia liked Lincoln? She decided to stop lying to herself and admit that it wasn't even a question anymore. The real question was, would she let herself?

As she held the brunette in the dark of the night, she dared to let herself think that she might.

The thought that came immediately after that was that she had done enough thinking for tonight. Obviously, some kind of aliens were taking over her brain and making her think things that she wouldn't normally think in the light of day, and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to be welcomed by a mind-numbing sleep.

"Goodnight, Lexa," she whispered into brown hair.

She thought that Lexa had fallen asleep in the time that had passed while she laid awake with her thoughts. She didn't even think that Lexa would hear her, so she certainly wasn't expecting a response.

"Reshop, Klark," Lexa murmured.

For the first time ever, Clarke understood.


Trigedasleng Translations

Jos sen ai op bak kamp raun ai kru - Just send me back to my people

Rid yu op hir - Sleep here

Reshop, Klark - Goodnight, Clarke