Disclaimer: I do NOT own The 100 nor Please Don't Say You Love Me - Gabrielle Aplin
A/N: If you want to see the tattoo designs go here: post/114540382462/these-are-the-tattoo-designs-except-the-first-one
Translations:
Trikru gonas – Tree people warriors
Gon we, Ai na tich Klark op - Leave, I will teach Clarke
Em don hands odon yu op – He had his hands all over you
Ai wich osir keryon ste teina en Ai get yu wich em in – I believe our souls are entwined and I know you believe it
Heda – Commander
Trigedakru – Person of the trees
Hodnes laik kwelness – Love is weakness
Pauna – Gorilla
Once the Mountain Men were cured they left their base inside Mount Weather and built a village on top of the Mountain. Dante had made sure to get all of their supplies and equipment out of the base before sealing it off, intending it to stay closed for ever. He had even asked the sky and tree people to help them build the village but they refused. Instead they went to their homes.
A couple of hours after the sky people returned to Camp Jaha, Clarke was out in the campsite going over building plans with Raven and Kane, when there was a commotion at the gate. Clarke walked over to the crowd and saw Lexa leading a long group of people towards it. "Open the gate" Clarke ordered the guard. The large metal gate opened just as Lexa got to it and paused in her path. "What are you doing here?" Clarke asked her, curious as to why she had turned up unannounced and with her warriors.
"I thought it would be a good idea to teach your people how to fight" Lexa answered.
"I'm not sure my people will want to. They saw how brutal your people were when they were demonstrating last time" Clarke reminded. Lexa knew how her people usually trained and had been informed last time of that.
"I've instructed my people to take it easy on yours, so you don't have to worry" Lexa replied with a smirk. Clarke walked away from the gate and motioned for the tree people to follow her. They gathered to the left of the campsite while the sky people gathered to the right of the campsite. Clarke and Lexa stood at the front of the crowd.
"The commander and these trikru gonas are here to teach us how to fight" Clarke announced, which had the crowd murmuring to each other. "I know last time didn't work out so well, but the commander has promised that no one will be injured and if you don't wish to learn you don't have to. However if we were attacked by anyone in the future it would be useful to be able to defend ourselves. If you want to take part, put your name down on the sheet of paper Monty will bring around and we will match you with a tree person of similar height and weight."
Clarke waited for Monty to go around to everyone, collecting names and pass the paper to her. When he had, she and Lexa went inside Ark Station to the war room, which used to be the council room, and went through the list of people. Using their medical data Clarke had gotten from the med bay, they were eventually able to match sky people with a tree person sparring partner. They went back outside where the people were now either talking amongst themselves, waiting to be paired off, Lincoln offered to train Clarke and she accepted.
They moved to an open space and faced each other. Lexa who had been watching her people, making sure they weren't being too rough, paused in her rounds to watch Clarke and Lincoln. "Let's see your fighting stance" Lincoln said. Clarke got into a rough estimate of a fighting stance. "That's not good enough" Lincoln said moving behind her and turning her shoulders more sideways. As soon as Lincoln touched Clarke's shoulders, Lexa scowled at him and stormed over to them, surprising them with her presence.
"Gon we, Ai na tich Klark op!" Lexa demanded, her voice hard, eyes cold. Lincoln walked away from them silently.
"What did you send him away for?" Clarke questioned.
"Em don ands odon yu op" Lexa growled, glaring at Lincoln still. Her clenched hands were shaking at her sides, her jaw clenched tight. Clarke stepped directly in front of Lexa and gently turned her face to look at her.
Clarke lightly rested her forehead against Lexa's and whispered, "Ai wich osir keryon ste teina en Ai get yu wich em in" Looking into Lexa's eyes. Lexa nodded unable to say anything passed the lump in her throat. "There's no need to be jealous. Even though we're not together right now, it doesn't mean we won't ever be…Now teach me how to fight Heda". Lexa pulled away after a moment and moved to stand directly behind Clarke, close enough to be barely touching.
"You want to stand so you're facing your opponent at an angle. Your right shoulder, your off-hand, towards your opponent. Your left leg should be pointing in front of your body and your right leg should be pointing to your side, towards your opponent. Keep your knees bent at about a 45° angle and your arms up in front of you, elbows in. Your fists should be clenched with your thumb over your fingers, keep them in front of your chest so you can easily block or throw a punch. You need to face your opponent head on and keep your eyes on them. If you get distracted you could lose" Lexa instructed her, making sure she got the position right and moving her slightly if she didn't.
Lexa walked in front of Clarke and got into her fighting stance. "Let's see what you have. Punch me as hard as you can" Lexa told her. Clarke punched Lexa, but was easily blocked. She threw several more punches which Lexa easily blocked as well, but Clarke's punches improved. "Ok now I'm going to punch you and I want you to block them, using your fore arms, like I just did". Clarke followed Lexa's instructions and blocked most of Lexa's punches, the ones that landed, Lexa made sure not to hurt her. After Lexa had taught her how to kick without losing balance or injuring herself, they practised different types of moves until she got them perfect. Then they put them together in a fighting sequence, which they also practised.
It had been four hours, but Clarke wasn't ready to stop yet. "Teach me how to flip someone over my shoulder" Clarke requested, still panting from just finishing the last fighting sequence. Lexa didn't respond to her, her eyes were glazed over and she seemed unaware of her surroundings. "What are you looking at?" Clarke followed Lexa's line of sight and realised she was distracted by her cleavage. Clarke rolled her eyes and clicked her fingers in front of Lexa's face to snap her out of it. "Stop staring!"
"Sorry" Lexa apologised blushing.
"I need you to focus" Clarke reminded.
"Let's take a five minute break, I need to recompose myself" Lexa mumbled before walking away and getting a drink of water, then pouring the rest of the cold water over herself to cool off. As Lexa walked away Clarke sat on the floor to rest and watched Lexa. She watched as the water ran over Lexa's skin, down her neck and into her cleavage, her mouth going dry. Lexa walked back to Clarke and called Octavia over to them.
"What do you want heda?" Octavia asked, slightly irritated. She hadn't quite forgiven them yet for the missile.
"I need to demonstrate a shoulder flip for Clarke" Lexa answered. Octavia sighed and took her sword off her back, dropping it on the floor. Clarke stood about four feet away, to the right of them so she could see the move properly. Lexa moved in front of Octavia and Octavia wrapped her arm around Lexa's neck with her dagger to her throat. "If someone ever grabs you from behind like this, you want to use their weight to flip them over your shoulder like this." Lexa flipped Octavia over her shoulder easily; Octavia landed with a heavy thump. Octavia got up and walked off, sheathing her dagger. Lexa walked behind Clarke and wrapped her arm around Clarke's neck, like Octavia had done to her but without the dagger. Clarke grabbed her arm and tried to flip her over her shoulder, but was unsuccessful.
"I can't do it" Clarke said, annoyed at herself.
"You can do it. Try again. Grab my upper arm with your right hand, put your left shoulder directly under mine, bend over and push your hips up into mine as you pull me over your shoulder and onto the floor. Once you can flip your opponent over, you want to knock them unconscious or kill them." Lexa instructed. Clarke tried again doing the instructions, one step at a time but once again failed. "Try again but faster".
"You're enjoying this aren't you" Clarke accused, looking at Lexa over her shoulder.
"I'm focussed on teaching you" Lexa replied.
"You didn't deny it" Clarke teased, with a smug smirk.
"Just flip me" Lexa said, rolling her eyes. Clarke did as Lexa had instructed again, this time without pausing in between steps and managed to flip Lexa onto the floor. As soon as Lexa hit the floor, Clarke sat on her thighs and pinned her arms by her head. When Lexa realised the position they were in she became flustered and her face turned bright red. "Let me up".
"No" Clarke argued, smirking.
"I'm the commander, now let me up" Lexa protested.
"I don't care that you're the commander. I'm not going to let you up unless you beg" Clarke told her. Lexa used her superior strength to switch their positions. "I forgot you're stronger than me". Clarke pouted. Lexa was the one smirking now.
"Not so fun now is it" Lexa questioned.
"No. Let me up Lexa" Clarke requested. Lexa sighed, rolled her eyes and helped Clarke to her feet. "Ok, training session is over" Clarke announced to her people. The sky and tree people stopped practise fighting. The tree people headed towards the gate, ready to leave, including Lexa. "Wait, Lexa!"
"Yeah?" Lexa asked, turning to face her.
"We're going to have a party, why don't you and your people join us?" Clarke invited. Indra who was near them, overheard and walked over to them.
"Heda, I think a party would be good for the alliance" Indra approved.
"Ok well, then I guess we will" Lexa accepted. "Indra, let our people know". Indra walked off to talk to the tree people, most of them stayed, however some of them left.
A couple hours later Clarke and her friends, including Lexa, were sitting around a camp fire eating food, drinking moonshine and talking amongst themselves. Other people were eating, drinking, and dancing the night away. Monty had managed to use a laptop to play music with Raven's help. She had built a pair of speakers to play music through, making the party livelier. Jasper had made more moonshine for the party and people were drinking it heartily.
A short while after Clarke and Lexa had finished eating, long enough for their food to settle, Clarke pulled Lexa to her feet and lead her to the middle of camp where a crowd of people were dancing. They danced together to the beat of the pop music, Lexa's movements were stiff as she tried to copy Clarke. They danced for several songs before getting out of breath and grabbing another drink each. When they had the drinks in hand, they went inside Alpha Station to find somewhere quiet to talk and ended up in the war room. They started talking about anything and everything that came to mind.
"Will you show me your tattoos?" Clarke requested, when there was a break in conversation. Lexa took off her long coat to reveal a tattoo on her left arm of four right angle shapes with a spiral pattern inside them. "What's the story behind it?" Clarke asked.
"When a trigedakru becomes a young adult at 14 years, they get a tattoo to mark the occasion and this is what I designed for it. It was a good day. I celebrated with friends and family, got my first tattoo, had just come back from my first hunting trip successful and I lived a normal life, before I knew I was the commander." Lexa answered.
"You become an adult at 14?" Clarke questioned.
"Yeah what age do become an adult?" Lexa asked.
"18, I became an adult when I was trying to keep my people alive from your people" Clarke answered.
Lexa pulled up her left trouser leg to show her second tattoo of criss-crossed curly lines that looked a bit like a shield on her shin. "I got this one when I became commander, it represents me being the protector of my people" Lexa explained.
Lexa swiftly pulled her tank top over her head, with her back to Clarke, to show the tattoo on her right shoulder blade. It looked like a crescent moon, made up of square lines, but was partially hidden by her bra. "I got this one after the war with the Azgeda and killing their queen. It is the symbol that was on their banners."
Lexa pulled down the top of her trousers, so Clarke could see the tattoo on her right hip. It looked like a butterfly and was about 2 inches big. "I got this one when I met Costia, we met in a butterfly field when we were 14, about 6 months after my birthday."
Lexa pointed to her ribs on her right side. It looked like a shadowy heart with spikes on the outside, a lightning bolt on the bottom and a curved criss-cross pattern in the heart. "I got this one the day after I received Costia's decapitated head. It represents my heart going hard after losing her and realising hodnes laik kwelness".
Lexa walked closer to Clarke for the last one, showing her, her left wrist. The tattoo looked like several stars connected by tree branches, traveling down her wrist. "This last one is really special to me. I got this the day after being almost killed by a pauna. I designed the stars because they remind me of you".
"You got a tattoo about me?" Clarke asked.
"Yeah, it was a good day when we weren't fearing for our lives and I think it helped to bring us closer" Lexa answered. "That's when I realised I could trust you"
"What about what you said in the tent? That you couldn't trust me, that Octavia wasn't a threat" Clarke questioned.
"It's not that I couldn't trust you…I felt like I couldn't trust my judgement because of my feelings for you, I had to make sure I was listening to my head and not my heart, that I was doing the right thing for my people" Lexa replied. Clarke leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips until Lexa pulled away. "Maybe we should return to the party". Lexa put her top and coat back on and they left Alpha Station. When they got back outside, Bellamy was singing into a microphone to backing music and reading the lyrics on the laptop. Clarke led Lexa over to Raven, holding her hand.
"What's going on? Where did that microphone come from?" Clarke asked.
"We're doing karaoke and I made it" Raven answered like it was obvious. Clarke and Lexa sat down next to Raven and Wick and watched Bellamy sing. "You should go up there and sing!"
"What would I sing though?" Clarke wondered.
"You can look through the list of songs on the laptop and see what one sounds good" Raven informed her.
"I think I will" Clarke replied as Bellamy finished his song.
Monty took the microphone from Bellamy and asked, "Who's next?" Raven pointed to Clarke above her head and pushed her up out of her seat. Clarke walked over to the laptop and had a look at the song list. She found a song with a title that she thought best fit how she was feeling, told Monty to play that one and took the microphone to start singing.
Summer comes, winter fades
Here we are just the same
Don't need pressure, don't need change
Let's not give the game away
Lexa was pleased to find out that Clarke had an amazing singing voice and it brought a smile to her face.
There used to be an empty space Just please don't say you love me
A photograph without a face
But with your presence, and your grace
Everything falls into place
'Cause I might not say it back
Doesn't mean my heart stops skipping when you look at me like that
There's no need to worry when you see just where we're at
Just please don't say you love me
'Cause I might not say it back
As Lexa listened to the lyrics, her smile faded from her face and she stood up from her chair, intending to leave, when Raven shoved her back down in her seat. "Just listen, she obviously wants you to hear this and talk to her after" Raven whispered in her ear.
Heavy words are hard to take Just please don't say you love me And fools rush in Just please don't say you love me Please don't say you love me Just please don't say you love me
Under pressure precious things can break
And how we feel is hard to fake
So let's not give the game away
'Cause I might not say it back
Doesn't mean my heart stops skipping when you look at me like that
There's no need to worry when you see just where we're at
Just please don't say you love me
'Cause I might not say it back
And I've been the fool before
This time I'm gonna slow it down
'Cause I think this could be more
The thing I'm looking for
'Cause I might not say it back
Doesn't mean my heart stops skipping when you look at me like that
There's no need to worry when you see just where we're at
Just please don't say you love me
'Cause I might not say it back
'Cause I might not say it back
Doesn't mean my heart stops skipping when you look at me like that
There's no need to worry when you see just where we're at
Just please don't say you love me
'Cause I might not say it back
'Cause I might not say it back
When she had finished singing, Clarke walked over to Lexa and led her to a secluded area of the campsite. "What did you think of the song?" Clarke asked.
"I'm not sure. I don't know what you mean by it, does it mean you don't like me?" Lexa asked.
"Well, with Finn we slept together before we talked about having feelings for each other and then Raven came down from the Ark and I found out her and Finn were together and then the whole thing with him and the people of Tondisi…anyway it didn't go too well and ended even worse. I don't want anything to go wrong with us, especially if we entered a relationship too soon. I did have feelings for him and I'm still grieving him so, I'm not quite ready for a relationship, but I'm getting there." Clarke answered her. "And even though I'm not ready for a relationship or ready to admit my feelings for you outright, my heart skips a beat when you look at me with your heart eyes".
"Heart eyes?" Lexa questioned confused.
"Yeah, the way you look at me with affection in your eyes" Clarke explained.
"Oh…Can I kiss you?" Lexa requested.
"Please do" Clarke responded. Lexa leaned in and kissed Clarke with all the love and emotions she couldn't express verbally. They didn't care if anyone saw.
