A/N: Hey guys, managed to get the majority of this written during a rehearsal, stressed a bit over this chapter but I'll leave it to you guys to let me know if it's any good haha :D Please enjoy and let me know what you think! xx
Clarke woke up to a cold bed and an absent girlfriend, with a sigh she rolled over to look across the room, expecting to see Lexa curled on the couch reading, laughing at Clarke's annoyed look.
Instead, Lexa was sat cross legged on top of the table in front of their couch, her arms resting loosely on top of her knees and her face relaxed and calm. If she hadn't been sat up, Clarke would have thought she was sleeping.
Clarke considered calling her name but decided against it, if Lexa hadn't already opened her eyes than she wasn't going to until she was ready, there was no way that Lexa wasn't already aware that she was awake.
Lexa walked briskly through the corridors, passing through usually bustling halls up to her throne room whilst trying to ignore how unsettled the sight made her feel.
As usual, the previous Commanders filled the room,all turning to face her at once, as though it was rehearsed, although really Lexa wouldn't put it past them to do just that in an attempt to make her seem inferior.
"I'm here to see Heda." She called out confidently, staring at a point above their heads to avoid the enraged stares they were giving her, as though she deserved to be put to death for the audacity of wanting a private audience with their ultimate leader.
"Leave us." Came the amused voice from behind them all.
Lexa could feel their glares as they stalked past her, eventually leaving her alone with Rebecca who smiled at her as she knelt in front of the older woman.
"Rise Lexa of the Tree People, let us talk as friends here."
"Heda." Lexa murmured, "I need your advice."
Rebecca nodded, "It is rare for a night blood to block my sight of what they are doing unless it is to be intimate with another, I assume that you haven't slept with Ontari of the Ice Nation."
Lexa smiled and shook her head, "No Heda-"
"Rebecca." She corrected softly, her affection for the young leader overriding the need for tradition.
"Rebecca." Lexa echoed, smiling again, "I was speaking with Ontari about my desire for the future Commanders. I don't want their reign to begin with the deaths of all the friends they have grown up with, I don't want the night bloods to slaughter each other after my death."
"This is not your love for them clouding your judgement?" Came the measured question, but there was no anger within it so Lexa forged ahead with a fresh burst of confidence.
"Perhaps in part, but practically as well, there is no sense in us killing each other, there are so few of us anyway and if we were all to die...? There would be no one to carry the flame." Lexa reasoned calmly, though her heart was racing as she waited for the reaction from Rebecca.
As she sat upon the throne, Rebecca leaned forwards, allowing the light to catch her face as she smiled a brilliant pearly toothed smile at Lexa, "You have no idea how long I have been waiting for one of you to come to me with that exact question. If you are searching for my permission then you have it."
Lexa gaped at her disbelievingly, "But then why-?"
"Was the Conclave ever set up in the first place?" Rebecca asked with a laugh, "It was not my doing, I was dead after all if you remember. But I believe that the first Flamekeeper sought to avoid any fights over the throne during my successors reign, and in the world we live in, our people cling to tradition so the trend continued."
Nodding, Lexa went to sit down on the floor as the night bloods sat before her during their lessons, but Rebecca held up a hand to stop her and then pointed. When Lexa turned round, there was a chair suddenly waiting for her.
"This is my world," Rebecca laughed quietly at Lexa's confused expression, "It obeys me in the same way as those that reside here. Now, what is you plan for a new Conclave."
Sitting down, Lexa paused for a moment as she looked up at Rebecca calculatingly, "I don't particularly want to change the Conclave, the current system has worked well for nearly one hundred years, but I do want to change the single combat element where the night bloods kill each other. I would change it so they fight until one of them submits to the other rather than a fatality."
Nodding along with her Rebecca considered what she had suggested, "And you believe that the losers of the fights would accept their defeat further down the line, once the new Commander had ascended?"
Lexa inclined her head confidently, "I do. In the past their may have been conflict, but I know each of these trainees, I have taught them myself and I have watched them grow up as one unit, as a family even. I truly believe that they will be an unstoppable force working together, with the winner of the Conclave winning them rather than killing them all before their reign even begins."
"And the emergence of the Azgeda night blood, Ontari?" Rebecca asked, wanting to make sure that Lexa had covered all of the angles in her thought process before she came to speak to Rebecca about her plans.
"She has proven she is one of us." Lexa said reassuringly, "In the short time I have known her she has become someone I consider a friend... No, family."
"You are the first to do that you know." Rebecca said quietly, accepting Lexa's words about Ontari, trusting the girls judgement.
"Do what?" Lexa asked curiously, not understanding Rebecca's meaning.
Rebecca looked up at her with a grin, "You are the first Commander to build yourself a family, a true one, and you will be the first to marry when you go through with your union with Clarke of the Sky People."
Lexa started to lean forwards defensively before realizing that Rebecca didn't look angry at her, instead she looked...proud. "You're not angry about that?" She asked with interest, fascinated at how different Rebecca continued to prove her self to how Titus had always described the first of their line.
Sighing, Rebecca shook her head, "You deserve happiness Lexa, and I hated how you were told your whole life that you didn't or shouldn't have it because of a twisted version of my words whilst I ruled. I am so proud of your determination to have a life as well as be the Commander."
Lexa's mouth opened and closed helplessly as she tried to work out how to answer that, causing Rebecca to start laughing.
"You should get going now Lexa, implement your new Conclave, and I am always here to speak to you if you need me."
"Mochof Rebecca." Lexa smiled gratefully as she stood up from her chair and started walking towards the door, stepping through the door being the catalyst to bringing her mind back to her body where Clarke was probably already waiting for her to open her eyes.
As her foot passed the threshold she heard Rebecca call out from behind her. "Tell Clarke thank you from me when you see her."
"Why?" She asked, already feeling herself leaving the meditative state, the sensation from her real world bleeding through to the flames reality.
"For making you happy."
"Good morning." Clarke smiled in greeting as she saw Lexa's eyes flicker open out of the corner of her eye. "Hey, are you ok?" She asked worriedly, crossing the room quickly to kneel in front of Lexa when she saw the tears tracking their way down her face.
Lexa touched her own face, pulling her hand back to reveal the tear drop now resting on the tip of her finger. "I didn't realize..." She trailed off, before she noticed Clarke and looked up, her expression turning into a beautiful awe filled smile as she surged forwards and met Clarke with a searing kiss, holding her close as she pressed her face against Clarke's shoulder. "Heda Rebecca told me to tell you thank you." She chuckled as Clarke wrapped her arms around Lexa's shoulders.
"Why would the first ever Commander say thank you to me?" Clarke asked, bemused at the entire situation she had found herself in first thing in the morning.
"Because you make me happy." Lexa grinned, as Clarke just laughed and held her close.
"Then she is very welcome, did you ask her about the conclave? I assume that's why you went to see her."
Lexa nodded, pulling back to look at Clarke, eyes shining, "She has giving me her blessing to go ahead with changing the rules of the Conclave Clarke, none of them will have to die with me!" She beamed happily, referring to the young night bloods that she had practically raised.
Clarke smiled just how brightly, all too aware of how much that had been bothering Lexa, "I'm so glad for you Lexa, how will the other clans and ambassadors react though."
Lexa just shook her head with a smirk, "It doesn't matter, I have the go ahead from the highest authority our people has."