Author's Note: I have started putting the translations in parenthesis so that you don't have to scroll to the bottom every time we put Trig. Hopefully that isn't confusing anybody and makes the reading experience better.
The day Clarke is finally declared fully healed by Garrick is a clear and sunny day. The birds chirp in the trees as Clarke wakes up at the crack of dawn. Curse Lexa and her nightbloods for training so early in the morning. She finds the training arena using a map Ava drew her. As the dirt path turns into familiar moss once again, Clarke shoves the piece of parchment into one of the inner pockets of her cloak.
The nightbloods are all standing in perfect rows at attention. Lexa faces them, speaking in Trigedasleng. "Deyon, osu don hanga. Hai nou sousou. (Today, we have a visitor. Foolishness will not be tolerated.)"
With that, the nightbloods are disbanded and Lexa beckons Clarke forward with a small smile and hands behind her back. "Clarke, you didn't have too hard of a time finding this place did you?"
Clarke shakes her head as she takes her cloak off and drops it on one of the steps, "Ava drew me a map yesterday so I would know where to find it." The cloak may keep her warm, but it would get in the way and she would warm up eventually.
Lexa frowns on the inside. Why hadn't Clarke just asked her last night instead of Ava? On the outside, she is completely stoic and composed, head held high and spine rigid. "We're going to start with the basic stance for fighting with a sword."
Lexa picks up a practice sword and drops easily into a combative stance. "You need your feet wide like this, your dominant foot should be slightly in front of your non-dominant, like this."
Clarke observes, trying to memorize as much of the stance as possible and Lexa suddenly feels the urge to squirm under her scrutiny. Eventually Clarke seems satisfied that she has remembered enough and picks up a sword from the nearby rack and mimics Lexa's pose. It isn't too far off but her stance is a tad too wide and Lexa steps next to her to fix her grip on the sword. Clarke is tempted to reach out and touch Lexa's hands, with their intricate calluses that tell a lifetime of fighting and history. Instead, she lets Lexa shift her fingers on the handle of the sword.
Lexa taps her fingers on Clarke's hips. "May I? To correct your stance", Lexa asks. Clarke is surprised that Lexa asks for permission. It's almost as if Lexa is too shy to touch her, which is ironic compared to her usual self.
"Go ahead." Lexa's touch on her is like fire at first, but then she tells herself to focus and calm down. They weren't going to get anywhere if Clarke kept getting distracted.
-0-
Clarke attempts to bend backward out of the way of Lexa's sword, which stops at an expert distance of one centimeter away from impaling her in the ribs, and ends up slipping and landing on her butt.
Lexa frowns, "That is not correct, Clarke. You look like me when Anya first trained me at three years old, and the sword was three times too big for me." Lexa calls over one of the nightbloods and tells him to attack her and dodges the way Clarke should've in demonstration.
"You don't hold back, do you?" Clarke grumbles as she falls back into stance. Lexa was certainly not lax, that's for sure. She pushed Clarke about as hard as she did her nightbloods, and even encouraged Clarke to practice on her own time. Just mastering how to swing her sword properly took Clarke an entire day of training and replicating the movement afterward for the entire day.
It's so taxing Clarke has stopped going to help Garrick, but Garrick doesn't seem to mind if that's any consolation. It was relieving being able to move around without being careful, and the fatigue helped her get out of her own head. The only thing Clarke truly misses about being a healing patient is her nightly check-ins with Lexa.
Of course her training in the morning with the nightbloods is much more productive, but her check-ins with Lexa have a much more intimate type of tone set. Here, Lexa is all business. Not that it doesn't present some upsides. Lexa was captivating when she fought.
Like right now as Lexa lunges forward, thrusting her blade in a stabbing motion. Clarke attempts to remember the correct momentum before sidestepping to dodge it, knowing that she has probably done it incorrectly once again. To her surprise though, there are no critiquing words to follow.
She looks up slowly to find Lexa grinning at her, sword lowered. "Os job, Klark. (Good job, Clarke.) Now, to parry." Clarke tries to catch her breath as Lexa slowly demonstrates just the arm movement with the sword, but it is rather hard because Lexa is absolutely breathtaking.
Lexa finishes her demonstration and looks at Clarke expectantly. Clarke begins to get into stance, but is interrupted by Titus walking over, his distrust and hatred of Clarke completely unmasked. "Heda, it is time for the nightbloods to get back to the tower for their studies."
Lexa glances at the sun to check the time. Training time is indeed over. She claps her hands loudly to get the attention of the nightbloods. "Natblidas! Os job deyon! Osu kigon moron. (Nightbloods! Good job today! We will continue tomorrow.)"
Clarke and Lexa watched side by side as the nightbloods lined up in two rows behind Titus and filed out. As they left, the chattering receded until the two of them stood in silence, just watching the exit.
Clarke chances a glance at Lexa to see that Lexa is staring straight at her. She tries to convince herself that immediately looking away and walking over to grab her cloak from the steps is not because Lexa's gaze makes her face heat up. "Aden is really good", Clarke comments, attempting to avoid any potential words Lexa could have about her actions.
"Sha (yes), he is. Better than I was before my conclave. He will make a fine leader", Lexa answers. Clarke turns back around as she pulls her cloak on to see Lexa staring off. Her mind is off somewhere contemplating the future, and Clarke knows it.
"Fine? You're already an amazing leader, so if Aden is half as good as you're saying he is, then he's going to be way more than fine", Clarke snorts. The duality of this woman was insane. Sometimes she was the cockiest person Clarke knew, and that included Bellamy. On other days though, it was as if she truly didn't understand that she stood on top of the world and that everyone looked at her and watched her, no matter if they feared her, respected her, idolized her, or even lusted over her.
Lexa's eyes drift over to meet Clarke's. "Do you really think so?" She doesn't say no, she doesn't reject Clarke's idea and shut it down. She never does. Lexa is just like that. She always puts in consideration to everyone's words as much as she possibly can.
Clarke raises an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be standing here attempting this plan if I didn't."
Lexa nods slowly, taking in this new information. Clarke isn't sure what Lexa does with the information inside her head. Does she forget about it? That doesn't seem like a very Lexa thing to do. Yet, there was no way for Clarke to possibly tell with Lexa's impenetrable stoicness.
"Let us head back for lunch too."
-0-
This meeting is going in circles. Lexa has been sitting through this insufferable meeting for the past two hours, and not one of the advisors and ambassadors were giving her options that were remotely viable. Not even Indra.
"Are you all just going to give me bullshit ideas that even children can top, over and over again?" Lexa scoffs in Trigedasleng. She wouldn't be surprised if her scowl was permanently etched on her face after the amount of it she has been doing in this meeting.
"Heda, whatever you do, inviting skaikru to our festivities will not help. What if they terrorize the citizens?" the Sangedakru ambassador raises in outrage. He is a rather severe looking man, with dark skin and a tall physique.
Lexa slams her dagger down on the table they're all seated around, standing up from her throne that has been placed at the head. "This is exactly what I was talking about. You all skirt around the topic. Azgeda has refused to send a replacement ambassador, and their army is marching into Trikru territory."
"Azgeda might just be training, and after what you did to their last ambassador, can you blame them? Indra has already set up a defensive line too, no more is needed", Ouskejonkru ambassador answers bravely. She stares straight at Indra as she says it and Indra scowls, ready to bite back. The ambassador seems almost gleeful at the reaction that she elicits out of Indra until she catches Lexa's death glare. She shrinks back into her seat and mumbled, "There is nothing wrong with being overly cautious though…"
Lexa leans forward, her palms flat on the long and thick oak table, taking in a breath through her nose. There were better ways to spend their time than bickering. "That's enough. Today's meeting is adjourned. We will convene again tomorrow at the same time. I better hear ideas that are worth a shit at that time."
-0-
Ten minutes later, Lexa finds Clarke in the courtyard. She is practicing her sword skills by abusing the trunk of a tree in the courtyard with a wooden training sword when Lexa approaches her. Clarke hears her and stops to turn to face her. "To what do I owe this visit, commander?" Clarke asks with a small smile.
"Do you have some time to go with me to the tailor? Both you and I need to get fitted for our Mardi Gras outfits, and you need to get fitted for armor. You'll need it in the tournament on the second day of the Carnival", Lexa answers in explanation as she comes to a stop in front of Clarke. Nobody trails her today, and she is already dressed in yet another tattered robe with her hair down like every time she doesn't want to get recognized. Clarke supposes that changing out the robe might throw people off her track.
"Yeah, I have time", Clarke answers, pulling her hood up and falling in step with Lexa. "You seem to like that look. Maybe you should wear it more."
Lexa blinks at her several times before she formulates a response. It comes in the form of extremely quiet words. So quiet Clarke would've missed it if they weren't in a silent alleyway. "Before my conclave, when I had free time I preferred to let my hair down like this and let them rest from the braids."
Suddenly Clarke feels like she has crossed a boundary, just like when Lexa had shared about Costia; the first time Clarke had ever even heard of "love is weakness. It's an odd thing to think of Lexa as a kid who could run around with her hair billowing behind her, free and unhindered.
"After my conclave I never had the time to do anything that wasn't strictly necessary for my duties as Heda. I was too tired to think about what I wanted to do that makes me happy."
Clarke smiles a small smile and jokes, "Perhaps somebody else should remind you once in a while."
They reach the end of the alleyway where it meets the main road of Polis, and Lexa stops to face her. It is then, as Lexa looks at her with this odd mix of hope and restraint and conflict that Clarke realizes what she said wrong. Clarke had been the one to remind her before the mountain.