Clarke let out a small smile as she finished touching up her painting, standing back to analyse her work, only for her small smile to drop as she realised the colouring was off slightly. Before she went to amend it, she heard the grass and twigs behind her give way.
Letting a new smile stretch across her face, she turned round to see Lexa, in some rugged black jeans and black t shirt. Sweat dripping down her as her and Anya must have been sparring once more. It hadn't long for Clarke to get the idea of how things ran around here. If Lexa wasn't planning her attack, or training the troops, she was sparing with Anya. Or sleeping – besides Clarke had only been here for two days.
I just hope Mom isn't too worried, Clarke noted in her head.
"Lexa" Clarke greeted the commander of this place. Lexa nodded her head with a weak smile, immediately Clarke registered something was off. "What's wrong?" Lexa leaned back on the tree and noted Clarke's painting and remained silent.
At first Clarke felt slightly self-conscious of Lexa's gaze on her painting, but the silence was more worrying concern. Clarke put her paint brushes down (that the boy called Aden had kindly supplied her from a village next to hers, famous for cave painting but the principal was the same.)
"Clarke" Lexa began, pushing herself off the tree to stand close to Clarke, "You know you cannot stay here much longer," Lexa got to the point as quickly as she could but trying not to be too blunt about it. She acknowledged the sad look on Clarke's face "not that I don't want you to stay, but with your mother in such an high powered position with the UN she would probably have this whole country searched to find you and –"
"That would result in you location being uncovered, I get it Lexa its fine." Clarke stated too, understanding how Lexa could fear for her mother overreacting, "So what's the plan Heda?"
"I shall escort you back to the centre, where you shall meet up with your mother." Lexa stated simply, "Where I shall discuss what her stance is with the UN on helping us." Lexa tried to keep her voice as neutral as possible, not wanting Clarke to think she was simply using her.
"You won't hurt her? Or kidnap her?" Clarke asked flatly that Lexa couldn't tell if she was joking or not, either way Lexa shook her head. "Good."
"We will leave soon Clarke." Clarke nodded watching Lexa leave, but then Lexa turned round again.
"Your painting is beautiful by the way." Lexa added then quickly leaving.
Indra stood in the hanger eyeing Heda and the blonde girl walk towards the range rover, "this is an unnecessary move Heda, you could be discovered." Indra mumbled under her breath as Heda walked past her. Lexa simply put her hand on Indra's shoulder to silence the warrior and her paranoia.
"Have you contacted the UN Chancellor?" Indra asked Clarke.
"I can't, because someone flung my phone into the fountain." Clarke eyed Lexa who paid no attention as she took the keys off the table. Indra nodded but turned to Lexa once more,
"Heda how can we trust her? What if she reveals our location? Or that you are in the country?"
"I trust her Indra, and so should you." Lexa replied simply getting into the car.
Indra simply sighed, whatever had convinced Lexa to trust this other girl was beyond Indra's imagination. Watching as the range rover driving off into the distance. Then suddenly an idea popped into her head.
Could it be love? Indra smiled as she walked back towards the table.
Clarke and Lexa drove silently into the capital city, Clarke was admiring the view while Lexa planned how the meeting would go with Clarke's mother- Abbey Griffin. For the safety of this mission, Lexa must separate her feelings from her duty.
"Before all this happened, what were we?" Clarke broke the silence as she stared out the window.
"We were work colleges," Lexa lied with a stoic face as she focused on weaving in-between other cars.
Clarke scoffed at the response, "what?" Lexa asked.
"Let's see, within a week you stayed round my house, taken the subway together, had dated Costia, you'd driven my drunk friend home, dealt with my breakdown about my apartment flooding then" Clarke emphasised "let me move into your home. How do you explain that?"
Lexa remained silent for a few seconds…
"Good work colleges." Lexa finally replied with a slight smile as even she knew they were more than that. Clarke let out another scoff, Lexa's eyebrow arched slightly with a devious smile spread across her face, "well I would say friends, but friends don't usually check out their friends every time they enter a room."
Clarke's face blushed furiously, had she been that obvious all this time?
"How long have you known?" Clarke asked trying to keep her face from blushing even more. Lexa's smile dropped.
"What? Are you serious?" Lexa asked, Clarke felt her stomach dropped. She'd just been caught out twice.
"Well I can't help it! You and those ridiculously tight jeans in the work place anyway." Clarke defended herself.
"You really checked me out? The infamous Clarke Griffin checked out her boss." Lexa teased as she watched Clarke put her head in her hands.
"This is so embarrassing" Clarke mumbled into her hands, only for her to shoot back up "wait, what do you mean 'infamous'?!" Clarke exclaimed.
"Oh I just hear things…"Lexa trailed off trying to get the spotlight off her.
"Ok fine," Clarke let Lexa off the hook but I'm bringing this up at the next staff meeting." The blonde added as she turning back to watch the traffic instead of Lexa. Lexa let out a chuckle.
"Doubt there will be a next one with the way Gustus is running things from what I've heard. Woods Inc. will be in the ground if I come back." Suddenly Lexa realised she'd let her tongue slip.
"Hold up, if?! You're coming back right?" Clarke snapped round.
"Well yes, but if this plan goes south then I may not have a choice Clarke." Lexa tried to remain as calm as possible. "I can't risk these monsters migrating to a larger target. Just in order to get back to me."
"I'm not leaving without you Lexa." Clarke stated, Lexa let out a sigh. Lexa applied the hand break and looked at Clarke's blue eyes, she couldn't risk dragging Clarke into her world even more than she already had. It was too dangerous. Clarke wasn't made for this life, she was too pure. Lexa would do everything in her power to keep Clarke away from this battle once it began.
"You cannot control everything Clarke." Lexa replied sadly, noting the lights changed.
"And neither can you Heda." Clarke added, noting Lexa to grip the steering wheel tighter.
"Clarke you don't understand I need to do this, so my people here can survive."
"I know you do! I'm just saying I'm staying here to help." Clarke stated starting to get annoyed at Lexa's stubbornness.
"Clarke you can't help! It's too dangerous!"
"I'm helping now aren't I?! I'm getting the UN practically delivered to you!"
"Yes and then you will leave with her!" Lexa snapped back.
Driving into town Lexa parked behind a local bar, getting out the car she stood at the front waiting for Clarke to move.
Lexa didn't have time for this, she was wasting enough as it is.
"Come on Clarke." Lexa gritted her teeth. Clarke did not budge.
Lexa slammed her hand on the car bonnet making Clarke jump (which made Lexa riddled with guilt immediately,) Clarke huffed as she opened the door placing her foot on the ground. As soon as this happened, Lexa stood beside Clarke.
"I'm sorry," Lexa mumbled "I didn't mean to snap at you. You didn't deserve that." Lexa apologised, looking at Clarke, watching to see if the other girl would reject or accept her apology, but Lexa couldn't tell. The blonde simply slipped out the car and shut the door and walked off.
"You don't know where you're going." Lexa called out.
"I need a phone don't I?" Clarke asked rhetorically as Lexa let her head hang for a brief second. Lexa quickly followed behind Clarke into the bar.
She took a seat in a booth that was facing away from the people inside and was next to the tinted windows. She watched as Clarke asked to use the phone with a charming smile that Lexa could only hope that Clarke would use on her after all this was over.
The man pulled a singular cell from under the bar and handed it to her.
Now it was just a matter of the waiting game, Lexa let out a heavy sigh.
"Get off you creep!" Suddenly Lexa snapped as she noticed this heavily drunk man fell on top of Clarke, accidently going head first into her breasts. Lexa felt a range of motions from jealousy, annoyance and humour. Clarke simply pushed him over for him to fall staggering backwards and collapse backwards.
Lexa watched as Clarke's facial expressions changed to signal she'd managed to get in touch with her mother, she told her mother that she was fine and looked up at the Bar's name and ran it back to her mother.
"Yeah mom I'm there, can you come and pick me up. Just you ok?"
"Of course sweetie, I'll be there as soon as possible." Abbey replied on the phone "I love you ok?"
"Love you to Mom." Clarke replied and hung up, passing the phone back to the barman, mumbling a quick thanks and went straight past Lexa into the bathroom.
Lexa took a deep breath and followed suit, by the time Lexa arrived into the bathroom Clarke was leaning against the sink with arms crossed.
"I get it. You're under enough pressure, but I don't want you just passing me off as just some blonde kid who you can use."
"Clarke you are so much more than that." Lexa replied deeply stepping towards Clarke. Lexa tried to ignore how Clarke glanced down at Lexa's lips.
Lexa couldn't hold it in any longer.
Taking a step forward, Lexa leaned into Clarke's lips and pressed lightly at first, then bringing her hands up Clarke's sides and pulling the blonde till she was fully pressed against Lexa. Next Lexa felt Clarke's hands on her shoulders… then pushing her back.
Lexa retracted as quickly as possible, looking at Clarke to see what was wrong.
"We can't." Clarke whispered. Lexa let out a sigh and nodded her head.
"I get it, you-" Clarke chuckled and pointed to a sign on the opposite wall. Lexa turned round.
"No Sex on the sinks."
Lexa also let out a chuckle and turned round again to face Clarke, "I am sorry I snapped at you, I just couldn't think about you getting hurt is all." Clarke nodded and placed a kiss on Lexa's cheek.
"Well if this goes well, we'll be fine. We can go back home, you can salvage Woods Inc. I'll get my apartment fixed up, and we'll cuddle all our problems away." Clarke teased as she ran her fingers across Lexa's hands.
Lexa felt her heart drop a beat, she hadn't really thought about getting past this, purely because she was unsure if she would be able to make it past this stage. Getting out once was a miracle, twice? Would be an act of God or something. And what of Clarke? How would their relationship work after this? Go back to normal? Was that really an option?
Lexa cleared all these questions out of her head and smiled at Clarke, nodding her head as they headed out the bathroom, taking their seats at the booth.
It was perfectly timed where as soon as they left the bathroom, one Abbey Griffin walked into the bar, immediately spotting Clarke's blonde hair and ran towards her, rapping her in a strong hug.
"Clarke I'm so glad you're ok, are you hurt? Where did you stay all this time? I'm so sorry that you were outside when the base went on lockdown, if I'd known I would have-"
"Mom it's fine, really. I stayed with someone I want you to meet." Clarke stepped aside to let Abbey get a good view of Lexa.
"You" Abbey hissed as she went to grab a pistol only for Lexa to grab onto Abbey's arm and hug the woman.
"You will remain calm and will not cause a scene. For Clarke's safety of course." Lexa whispered, Abbey heard a click of a gun close to her. Lexa pulled back and indicated to the torn up booth seat "sit." Lexa said as she watched Abbey uneasily slide into the booth, Clarke next then finally Lexa.
"Now Chancellor have you come to a decision to help us?" Lexa asked seriously, Clarke admiring Lexa's meeting posture.
"No I have not. My decision making process was interrupted after you kidnapped my daughter for two days as well as having my base put on complete lockdown for a day."
"That was for your own protection," Lexa added, "but unfortunately time is not on my side either so I need to request your decision now."
"I want to hear your finalised plan first before I can agree to anything." Abbey stated, Clarke also recognising her own mother's meeting posture.
Lexa hesitated, but then nodded. "Our plan is for one of our own to be placed in the next village that is suspected to be taken over by the Mountain Men, they will be taken to the head base of the mountain men, where we will locate them, and ambush them there. Hopefully with the help of the UN." Lexa concluded, looking at Abbey. "But they must not carry the uniform or even a hint of being part of the UN, any hints that the UN is planning a direct retaliation against them, will result in them going back into hiding for who knows how long this time."
"How long have they been hiding before?" Clarke asked.
"Seventeen years," Lexa replies "they have no limits in order to get what they want."
"Does the commander?" Abbey asked, breaking her silence. "Does the commander have limits?" Abbey's glare narrowed down onto Lexa.
"Yes. My people. These Mountain men stand for nothing. I stand for my people's freedom." Lexa defended herself.
"You know if the UN helps you, the UN and you become accountable for all your actions."
"I already do." Lexa added.
"But in a court of law?" Abbey added. Lexa merely nodded, understanding what Abbey was getting at.
"Ok so theoretically if we were to agree to aid you in this plan, who are you sending as bait for the mountain men?" Abbey asked.
"Me." Clarke chipped in.
Ok hands up who thought I was dead?!