Disclaimer: I do not own The 100 or any of its characters.

Author's note: at the end.

WAR ON ICE

A time long ago.

The sun shone bright on Lexa's skin as she laid out on a rock near the river, drying off from a late afternoon wash. She had a break in her schedule today. Anya didn't need her to go on patrol with her or join a hunt, and there were no other duties that Lexa needed to assist with. "Consider yourself spared," Anya had drawled, in her sardonically-affectionate manner that wouldn't seem affectionate to literally anyone else. So Lexa had hooted and raced over to the water, but not before making a stop to a certain housing unit at the edge of Polis, conveniently located on her way.

"Costia?" Lexa asked, yawning and turning on her side to face her rock-lounging companion. Costia's eyes were closed as she continued to bathe in the sun. Her light brown hair was strewn over the edge of the rock, tangled with half-dried curls. Lexa wanted to reach out and tease through them, as she did on occasion when she and Costia had time together. She looked so comfortable, so at peace-as if she hadn't a single care in the world.

The time they had together was becoming increasingly rare as Lexa's training picked up and Costia found herself with more and more ambassador duties. They'd reached their fifteenth year, which was an age of heightened responsibility amongst the clans, Lexa's own Trikru and Costia's Yujleda. Lexa, as a nightblada, trained day and night in Polis as a warrior to both serve her Hedaand protect various cities and villages. Costia, as the daughter of a Yujleda ambassador, followed her father on his rounds and his missions to strike alliances and serve their for the past few months, that service brought them to Polis.

The two girls spent several days together upon Costia's first arrival, since Anya and Lexa were assigned as her father's guard. Their friendship was swift and fierce before becoming something more , which they realized even in their youth transcended anything else they'd ever experienced. When her father no longer required a guard detail Lexa still came to see them, checking in between training sessions and asking Costia if she wanted company traveling to the river or to collect the supplies she gathered as part of her healing interest. She would always agree, her eyes twinkling with her smile, and they'd walk together toward Costia's destination, eventually hand-in-hand.

They were not children by law, but not true adults by age. So they lived as best they could, bearing the responsibilities of their duties while enjoying one another's company.

"Costia." Smirking, Lexa took her hand and pinched Costia's arm. The girl immediately shimmied away and then opened one, narrowed green eye to glare at her.

"I am enjoying my sun bath, Lexa."

"We have been here for almost an hour."

"So?" Costia opened her other eye, batting them both at Lexa. She could see the sheen of her lashes in the sunlight. It was irresistible. And Costia knew it. "Can't we stay a little longer?"

"I have to get back to my training." Lexa sat up then, sighing. "Anya will be cross if I am late."

"You nightblada and your training," Costia sighed back. Her eyes were closed again as she took in a deep breath. "When you become Heda, please allow the nightblada to spend more time in the sun."

When Lexa became Heda. It was a burden as much as a privilege, just like the night blood that runs through her veins. It was every nightblada's ultimate goal and mission, but moments like these where the sun was warm, the water was cool, and Costia was so incredibly beautiful, Lexa wished more than anything that she was free to live and to do as she pleased.

"Costia?" Lexa said, her voice quieter than it was before. Costia merely hummed in return, her eyes still closed as the rays still reflected on her skin. "I like being with you."

Heat blushed at Lexa's cheeks at the admission. She then felt Costia's fingers brush against her own. "Can't we stay a little longer?"

Those eyes-those piercing green eyes. They fluttered at Lexa now, and she saw in them her past, her present, and her future; everything she ever was and will be. She saw comfort. She saw security. She saw happiness.

"A little longer," Lexa settled, smiling again and then closing her eyes, shifting closer to Costia as Costia scooted closer to her. Just a little longer.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Chapter 11

It wasn't hard to find them.

Abby had snuck away from the rest of the council and headed toward the woods, a traveling pack filled with enough supplies to last a week in tow on her back. She wasn't on board with the way Kane and everyone else decided to do things: mass strength and numbers via machine guns and guards. Big, swift moves to showcase strength and the severity of the issue. She was disappointed in Marcus, who she'd thought had higher moral ground.

They were better than that. And Abby would have no part of it when she knew Clarke would not approve and when she was still missing.

The kids understood this. As young as they were, the youth had stuck by their principles and their morals during a time of chaos and no law and order. Abby had underestimated them, but she realized now that they had the right intentions all along. Misguided at times, perhaps, and a bit rash, but pure.

"Hey, guys."

" Abby?!"

She'd caught them off guard. Bellamy swiveled around, his gun pointed at her, while Monty had shrunk away behind the tree they were standing around, an arrow at the ready.

"How did you…" Bellamy began.

"I didn't, at first." Abby set down her pack and told them everything-more than she'd told them before about anything. She told then about her misgivings, her fears, her own opinions on the situation, and her ultimately goal to simply get Clarke back. And they listened to her.

That was what it all came down to in the end: saving Clarke. Abby didn't care what she had to do in order to save her, or who she had to team up with. Neither did the kids.

"Alright," Bellamy said, giving her a stiff nod and sitting back down on the tree stump. "You can come with us."

"What's the plan?" Abby asked.

They all laughed. "We don't have one." Abby simply stared, somehow not surprised. "But we'll figure it out sooner or later."

o - o - o - o - o - o

"Do you have any family, Lexa?"

It was the first conversation they'd had in hours. Clarke didn't really know how long it'd been, or where they were, or what was happening. The sun had gone down by that point, and they'd had no sign of anyone coming to see them or talk to them in their prison of their cave. The men threw them in there, chained them to the wall, and then left. The Ice Nation was waiting them out, Clarke was sure. But she didn't even know where they were-in their camp or somewhere else nearby. Lexa didn't seem to know, either.

"No," said Lexa after a long while. In the dim lighting from the candle, Clarke could see Lexa's eyes darken, like she was hiding something.

"None at all?" That was an extremely personal question, Clarke knew, but she didn't care. They both could be dead soon for all they knew. Why not freely talk and ask invasive personal questions? Why not talk and at the very least not die in silence?

Lexa was a quiet person. From the day they'd first met, she saved her words and spoke only when thinking it through carefully. This was her demeanor during all professional and official events and converse, but sometimes at night when it was just the two of them by the candlelight, she'd speak more freely and profusely. She'd talk about the legend of Becca Pramheda, and how her people learned to fight and survive by the virtue of what she'd taught them. She'd talk about the wilderness and its many treasures, as well as some of the great artifacts she'd found on her journeys. And more than that, she'd listen to Clarke, soaking in everything she could about the Sky People culture and the history of their shared distant ancestors she knew so little about.

But they were not in the safe candlelight of Lexa's tent. Everything was different and so much had happened.

"None at all." Lexa was staring at her feet, stripped of her boots and left bare and scratched from the stones and dirt. It took her a long time to answer. "My parents died when I was young."

Clarke felt a stab of tenderness flow through her. She'd known Lexa led a tough life as the Commander and a warrior before that, but leading that life without your parents or a family felt especially cruel. Clarke didn't know what her life would be like if she hadn't been raised by her mother and father. She couldn't even think about it. "I'm sorry, Lexa."

At that Lexa turned to look at Clarke, her eyes taking in the cuts and burns on the blonde's face. "You're hurt."

Lexa had a bad habit of ignoring her feelings and focusing on the task at hand, as well as on others around her. Love was weakness, after all. Duty is stronger than feelings. Why bother dwelling on the love she felt in the past, for her parents or for anyone else? Clarke sighed, shaking her head and murmuring that it was no big deal and she was no more beat up than Lexa was.

"I miss my parents," Clarke finally interjected after a long lull. She could sense Lexa shift, presumably uncomfortable at the switch back to their families and their feelings. "Especially my dad."

"What was your dad like?" Clarke looked over at her companion as she spoke, surprised. Lexa merely stared back. "May I ask? Is that alright?"

There was something refreshing about Lexa, which isn't a word Clarke would normally use to describe any person who killed probably hundreds of people in their short lifetime and led an army of thousands of battle-hungry warriors. But sitting there filthy and dehydrated in a cave with an uncertain future, Lexa cared about Clarke's boundaries. She gazed at Clarke with concern and sincerity. And Clarke appreciated it.

"Yes." Clarke smiled, memories of football games and hide-and-seek across the Ark coming to mind. "He was the most wonderful man I knew."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Lexa stopped what she was doing, turning to glance at the blonde. Her eyes were glistening but not yet teary, and Lexa felt a softness swirl through her as Clarke admitted to missing her parents.

She'd never gotten to know her own parents. Nightblood children are taken to train in the capital as soon as they are able, and Lexa had barely turned 6 before she was whisked away from her small village in the woods to the capital of Polis.

She remembers her mother's embrace during a thunderstorm. That was a strong memory of Lexa's-being rocked in her mother's arms as the thunder wailed above, hitting a nearby tree and rumbling the earth beneath them. Lexa felt safe there in her mother's arms. She knew that she would not be harmed, even if she didn't know what would happen next. And she never felt that safety or comfort again after that.

But then Titus came and escorted her away, and eventually Anya became the closest thing Lexa had to a parent. Anya was tough on her, demanding she keep up and lecturing her for crying or resting or whatever other childish thing Lexa did. She'd quickly made a warrior out of a little girl. And then the Commander began to work with her for extra lessons before she became the commander herself.

So to hear Clarke speak so sadly and longingly about her parents stirred something inside Lexa. An estranged sort of warmth, in which Lexa wanted to crowd around and experience again per lack of ever having felt it.

"What was your dad like?"

That might have been too personal of a question, but Clarke smiled and then told Lexa stories. It was strange how guarded Lexa grew up to be and how open Clarke presented herself. She talked about the games they used to watch, the lessons he used to teach her, his watch, his detailed construction on the Ark's oxygen systems, their late-night conversations while overlooking the floating Earth.

Lexa moved closer to Clarke on the dirt floor, listening intently as Clarke's tone lowered and her voice started to shake. "You still have your mother," she reminded her gently.

At that Clarke's eyes watered again. "If we ever get out of here."

Clarke had broached the elephant in the room. They didn't know when or if they'd ever get out of there. It was humiliating for Lexa, really, to be held captive as Commander of all twelve clans, to have been snatched in the middle of the night like a common piece of prey. How had it all happened? She asks herself that every moment of every day as she searches for a way out, for the opportune moment to strike the Azgeda men. But that moment never comes.

"We'll find a way out, Clarke." Lexa's voice was low but certain. More certain than she actually felt. But certain enough to get them through this.

Author's note:

Thanks so much for reading! I thought I'd change it up a bit and do a Lexa-Costia flashback this time, to see more of their relationship. And Costia will be making a present day appearance very, very soon! I've drafted it :D