Author's Note: OneKast has some personal things to attend to, so this chapter was written by me and just reviewed by OneKast.
Lexa is completely unprepared for Clarke's arrival because she is once again buried neck deep in reports all day, and attempting to meditate to clear her head when a knock resounds through the room. Right, dinner. Lexa had forgotten about the meal entirely. She would have to keep track of meals better from now on. Not because she needed to eat, but because she needed to know when Clarke would arrive every day.
"Today Ava should've been teaching you how to silence your footsteps, radon (right)?" Lexa asks as soon as the door closes behind Clarke.
"Yes. I never thought walking took so much skill until today", Clarke responds with a grimace, not bothering to hide her distaste. Lexa can't help but smile a little at her honesty. Clarke is just like that, stubborn, honest, and never minces her words. One could call it stupidity, but Lexa preferred to call it bravery.
Lexa examines Clarke for a few seconds. "Demonstrate", she commands, pointing at the bed and then the couch. "From here to there."
Clarke does as she is told, slowly walking in a way that won't make her shoes echo on the stone. Although her head is down and her pace is slow, Lexa can't hear Clarke's footsteps nearly as loudly as she used to. Lexa smiles in approval. "That is good progress. Shopta? (How are you?)"
Clarke is momentarily stunned. Lexa doesn't smile often. She blinks a few times before she realizes Lexa has asked her something and then frowns, trying to piece together the words to answer. She fumbles through her sentence when it comes out of her mouth, "Os. En…. Uhm. En yu? (Good. And… uhm. And you?)"
"Ded, ai don ge hosen. (Tired, I have been busy.)" Lexa really has no idea why she answers truthfully. When people ask her courteously she usually answers with brushing them off anyway. Clarke doesn't need to be any different. Except Clarke is different to Lexa, she has been from the start.
Clarke frowned, her face scrunching up in a way that Lexa was tempted to smile at. She absolutely adored how Clarke looked when she was confused.
Lexa chuckles, "That is good. You have improved, and a lot of small improvements over time will turn into a big improvement." Clarke's lips turn up a little. It isn't a smile, but it's there, and it's much better than nothing. Clarke looks as if she's about to leave, but she doesn't and simply stands there, shifting from foot to foot.
"I actually wanted to ask you if it was okay if I worked with healer Garrick. His wife runs the apothecary and she said he always needs an extra hand and would love to learn how skaikru heals", Clarke says. She is hesitant, as if she's not sure if she should speak up about this at all, and Lexa finds that her hesitance hurts more than any of Clarke's rejections because Lexa knows it is her own fault that Clarke is so subdued.
"You don't need to ask for permission as long as it doesn't interfere with training, Clarke… I'm not in charge of your life," Lexa answers softly. Her expression is unmasked as she looks at Clarke in a way that is almost hopeful.
Clarke understands that she is extending the proverbial olive branch, that Lexa is trying to make her understand that she truly is not a prisoner here. "Thank you."
"There is another thing, Clarke. Skaikru is invited to the Carnival of Mardi Gras, as an act of friendliness from the Coalition." Lexa says this, and it is like a bomb dropped. It is dead silence as Clarke computes this new information. It is a good thing Lexa is rather patient. At least, with Clarke she's really patient.
Slowly, Clarke nods and says, "Thank you for letting me know in advance." Clarke looks so uncomfortable with this news, almost as if she's ready to run away again.
"Clarke… if you want I can rescind the invitation", Lexa offers, although she has no idea how she is going to do that without breaking the already shaky relationship they have with Skaikru.
Clarke sets her jaw. Limitless determination sets her spine straight. "No. I won't run away from it. They'll have to know no matter what. This way we can get everything over quicker with."
Lexa however, isn't sure Clarke's actually ready for this. She knows she can't interfere with this though. It is Clarke's call.
-0-
Ava is certainly a forgiving teacher to Clarke. In fact she is so forgiving, Clarke almost forgets she is a trained and hardened warrior. She smiles and applauds Clarke whenever she achieves more. Ava is patient and understanding to Clarke's fumbling and Clarke's pain. She gives Clarke more water breaks than even Clarke needs with a broken rib.
The practice outside of Polis in a small clearing covered in moss. When Clarke is able to slowly walk across the clearing without staring entirely at her feet and doesn't disturb a leaf or branch or pebble, Ava is the one who breaks into a grin and cheers. "You did it, Clarke!"
Ava all but skips over to the basket of lunch they have brought and pulls out scrumptious looking slices of pies. "Teik 'sir choj op (Let us eat). I had Chef Grant make a pie to celebrate your progress." Clarke is proud that she can now understand the phrase from Ava.
Ava waves Clarke over and Clarke can't help but smile, because her peppiness is infectious, a far cry from Lexa's stoicness. She spreads out a blanket on the floor and holds out a hand to help Clarke sit down, but Clarke swats it away as always. It was endearing, but Clarke liked being able to do things on their own.
After lunch Clarke heads off to healer Garrick's where there is already a line into the building. Clarke has to admit it reminds her of her mother's work. The being lined up to see the doctor anyway. Except the mothers that are bringing their children are sociable and interact with each other, and the streets aren't dead quiet like the hallways of the ark.
Stepping in through the doorway, Garrick (a tall and lanky man that resembled string bean) immediately, "Oh Clarke! Bos (good), you're here. That gouda (child) needs stitches after falling off a wall." Clarke turns to see a little toddler screaming and crying in the arms of a mother desperately trying to hold him still, a gash bleeding down arm.
It was something about this that made this experience in Polis human.
-0-
It is after Clarke leaves a few days later that Lexa hears tapping on her window. She hurries over to open it for Yaretzi, who swoops in as gracefully as ever. Lexa let's her land on her bracer and deftly unties the note from Yaretzi's leg. It has been a while since the last letter returned, and Lexa is eager to devour the response.
Dear Defender of Mankind,
I'm guessing by the time this gets to you, the preparations for the Carnival of Mardi Gras will have started.
You are correct, there are many people who suffer the same affliction that you describe of the skaikru girl. It may not be something you can inherently help because it is ultimately inside her head. Here, we practice attempting to avoid things that trigger the switch in personalities. If you can find out what that is for the girl it should be immensely helpful. Of course the same could be said that if somebody else found out, they could use it to make her a bloodthirsty Wanheda, so it is metaphorically a double edged blade.
I am proud of you strisis (little sister). You have finally let go of Costia.
If your negotiations with skaikru through Wanheda truly prove fruitful, I will personally go to Arkadia to learn of this new tek(tech) they possess. It will be good for Floukru to know as much as possible even if we are to never use them violently. Perhaps they will have tek for the retired gonas (warriors), who have lost a limb to battles.
I wish you well from the sea,
-The Moon
Part of Lexa feels lighter. She has nobody to talk to, especially within the walls of the tower. Criss-crossing politics is a double-headed snake that will bite you at any time. This person however, she was sure the intentions of. Perhaps she wasn't exactly on Lexa's side, but at least she never masked her intentions. Not anymore anyway.
Briefly, Lexa wonders if there's a possibility she will see her if she really comes to learn about skaikru tech. It has been a long year, and an even longer eight years that she has been able to interact with her like the Nightblood sisters they are. In fact the last eight years since Lexa ascended have been too long, and she is a very different person than she once was.
For now, dwelling on that wouldn't help her. She sighed and mentally started compiling a list of the things that seemed to make Clarke uncomfortable, filtering through all her memories of Clarke. It wasn't all that hard, Clarke seemed to take up a lot of her thinking space nowadays. Slowly she drifts off, in her thoughts until the lights seem to dim.
Yaretzi watches as Lexa falls asleep sitting upright on the couch, cocking her head in a distinctly bird-like fashion. She flutters her wings so she is on Lexa's pauldron and nudges Lexa's drooping head with no avail. After determining that the girl is indeed not going to feed her, Yaretzi glides off Lexa's shoulder and lands solidly in her uneaten dinner, picking the meat off the plate happily.
-0-
Progress is slow with Clarke, but it's there. By the end of the first week of training with Ava and working with Garrick, Clarke has learned a lot more Trigedasleng. Of course, she only does small things with Garrick for now, like wrapping up wounds from small work accidents, but it teaches Clarke a lot about the Grounder version of medicine. In addition to that she has learned with Garrick, she has learned to almost silence her footsteps and the basics of tracking as well as sharpening a blade. Of course, to avoid aggravating Clarke's injury too much, Ava has her practice on a small dagger instead of a large sword.
Of course, Lexa knows of all this improvement from her daily check-ins with Clarke, and also Ava's reports (not that Clarke needs to ever know about those). However, she is still caught off guard when Clarke is leaving and says, "Reshop, Heda."
Lexa freezes, the words echoing in her skull. She has mostly communicated to Clarke in Gonasleng out of courtesy. She understands better than anyone just how hard it is to communicate in your non-native language when you've had a long and tiring day. Clarke has never initiated speaking in Trigedasleng. Lexa's heart beats so fast she wonders if it's about to leap out of her chest and through the nightgown she is wearing so that it can run to Clarke. In another way, it is Clarke showing that she respects Lexa and her culture enough to use Lexa's native language to speak to her.
It is knowing this, that Lexa finally unties her knotted tongue and returns the courtesy. "Goodnight, Clarke."