kudos to my awesome beta mini .moogle5 =)

After a 4 days long trip, they finally got into Polis. Lexa was happy when she saw Clarke's eyes shining with happiness and that little smile on her face. She was determined to show Clarke just how kind and normal her people could be.

Polis had tall walls with only one gate. So, it was practically unconquerable. Majority of the buildings was still standing from the time before the bombs were dropped. Only some of them were either repaired or newly built.

They left their horses behind at the gate and made their way to the biggest building in Polis. Well, it was more like a palace than a building. "Welcome to Polis, Clarke."

When they got closer to the palace, Clarke could see the Commander's insignia on the outside.

"Let me guess. It's your home." Clarke turned her head to Lexa, who was walking next to her. Lexa looked back at her and nodded.

The guards standing outside of the building bowed to Lexa and opened doors for them.

Once they got inside the hall, an older woman greeted them. "Heda. You're back." She turned to Clarke. "And you must be the famous leader of the Skaikru."

Clarke was surprised by this. She wasn't expecting anyone to know her outside of TonDC.

"Clarke, this is Aleena. She takes care of my house when I'm not here."

They shook each other's hand in grounder style. "It's good to meet you, Aleena."

"I've prepared a room for you, Skai Heda."

"I'm no longer leader of Skaikru, I really never was. So, just call me Clarke." Aleena smiled.

"You led Skaikru to victory at the mountain. You are a leader whatever you wanted to be one or not." Clarke wanted to say something but before she could Aleena bowed and disappeared through one of the doors.

"I'll show you your room, Clarke."

Her room was on the second floor. It had a balcony with a view of the city below. It had the biggest bed Clarke had ever seen. She forgot about everything and jump on it and chuckled.

Lexa grinned at this. "Is everything to your liking?"

"Lexa, it's huge. It's like three times my bed at the Ark. And these furs are so soft." She was like a kid at a candy store.

"I take that as a yes to my question." Lexa's grin grew wider. It was nice to see Clarke so happy.

"I want to stay here and never go outside again. This is everything I ever need."

"I'm glad you like it. If you need anything, Karliah is the guard outside the door and my room is next door, so…" Lexa looked like she cannot decide if go or continue on conversation.

Clarke noticed this and sat on bed. She didn't want Lexa to go. She may not be 100% ok with her but she can't deny that she likes to spend time with the girl.

"I was thinking…. I would love to see the city…Well, if you don't mind."

"You are not a prisoner here, Clarke. You can go wherever you want and whenever you want." Lexa was back to her Commander persona. And she sounded slightly offended.

Clarke noticed that. "That's not what I meant. I could use someone to show me around. You know…to not get lost."

"I will assign someone to this." Clarke sighed. This girl is unbelievable.

"No!" Lexa looked confused on Clarke's outburst.

"Ok, I'll tell it to you as obviously as I can. I would like you to show me around. Was that better?"

"Oh." 'Does Clarke really want to be around her even when she don't need to be?' Lexa smiled at that and nodded. "We can go tomorrow. I will get you after breakfast."

Clarke smiled as well. "Thanks."

"Good night, Clarke."

"Night."

Clarke and Lexa had been going around Polis for hours now.

"Last part of city I want to show you today is the market. You will like it. If you don't mind crowded spaces." Clarke shook her head.

"I was living on the Ark for most of my life, remember? I was raised in crowded spaces." Lexa nodded and took them to the market.

The market was a huge place full of stalls with different goods. There was food, weapons, clothes, and jewelry. Just about everything you could possibly think of.

Clarke got close to one of the stalls with weapons and looked at beautiful dagger. Salesman looked at her and when he saw her, he took her hand. "You save my son from mountain. Thank you. Thank you. Take this as my thanks." He handed her the dagger she was looking at.

"It was the Commander who saved them, not me." Clarke was trying to give the dagger back to salesmen, but to no avail.

"But you made sure that no one else would be taken and you gave us the justice we deserved. You're a hero."

"I don't think I deserve it, but thank you." He just smiled.

It was like that at a few other stalls as well. So by the end of day, Clarke was going into Lexa's palace with a few weapons, gloves, some bracelets and one paddle. She had no clue what she would do with the paddle but Lexa told her it's considered rude to not accept gifts so she took it. Now she probably has to build a boat or something.

Some of the attendants at the palace took all of the things from Clarke at the front doors and took them to her room. Clarke continued to walk with Lexa upstairs in comfortable silence.

Lexa broke the silence first. "Do you like Polis?"

"It's a beautiful city. I understand why you said it would change my mind about the grounders."

Lexa opened the door to her room. "Did it change your mind?"

Clarke was going inside with her. "I already told you that you were the one who changed my mind."

Lexa stopped and looked at Clarke. "You still think that even after I betrayed you?"

Clarke sighed and looked into Lexa's eyes. "You changed my mind before you did what you did. And after today, I cannot even be mad at you. You love your people, Lexa and they love you. Everything you ever do, you do for your people, no matter what it costs you, personally."

She took a step closer to Lexa. Just inches separated them now. "That's what changed my mind all those weeks ago."

Lexa's heart was going mad. She didn't know if she could take being so close to Clarke any longer. Clarke slowly leaned closer giving Lexa time to back out.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, causing both of them to jump away from each other. Aleena came inside without knowing what she had just interrupted. "Heda, here is your dinner. Oh, Skai prisa. I didn't know you were here. Should I bring you some dinner too?" She placed plate on the table close to the balcony. Lexa was ready to strangle her.

"It's ok. I don't wish to bother the Commander while she is eating." Clarke almost kissed her and now she wanted to run. But, on the other hand, she knew she had to talk with Lexa about all of this.

"Your presence would not bother me." Lexa didn't want to pressure Clarke into something but she wanted her to stay.

"Ok then. Can you bring more, Aleena?" Clarke asked.

"Sha, Prisa" And Aleena was gone.

"Can you tell me why you told her about my nickname?"

"Isn't that your title? I heard your people call you that. And you hated it when she called you Skai Heda." Lexa was confused.

"I was something like royalty on the Ark. So, they started to call me princess. To mock me." She realized that she didn't think about the Ark and the Arkers in a long time. She promised to call Raven on the radio she had but somehow forget about it. She could do that later.

"I didn't mean it as mockery. And everyone who means it that way will be killed. I can promise you that." Lexa was pissed. How dare they to mock their own leader.

Clarke chuckled. "No need to kill anyone because of a nickname."

Before Lexa could say anything about that being unbecoming of a leader, Aleena was back with another plate and with a bow she disappeared from room again.

Then they ate in silence. When they finished, Clarke could finally look around Lexa's room.

It was similar to Clarke's room but bigger. Even the bed was bigger. There was a balcony with a view into the garden, a big table with maps and scrolls covering it, drawers with Lexa's personal belongings in it and a smaller table where they were eating. On the walls were all different kinds of weapons from staffs to swords.

Clarke stood up and went to the drawers. She took out one bracelet and looked at it. Its pendant looked like a tree made from metal.

Lexa saw what Clarke took. "My father gave it to me. He said that it belonged to my mother. He said she always loved the woods."

Clarke set bracelet aside. "Is she….?"

"She died when she was giving birth to me." Lexa said matter of fact.

"I'm sorry, Lexa." Clarke was surprised by this and at the same time, really sorry for Lexa. She cannot imagine how hard it has to be living without your mother. She could argue with her mother all the time but she is still happy to have her.

"It's not your fault. It's common among my people."

"Would you tell me about your family?" Clarke made her way back to the smaller table.

Lexa nodded and sat on bed, patting the spot next to her for Clarke to sit.

When Clarke did, she started to talk. "I was born in TonDC. My father, brother and sister took care of me after my mom died. My brother was twelve years older than me and my sister was five years older than me. We were in a war with the Azgeda before I was born and every day when my brother came back from his patrol, instead of going to bed, he started training me. He was one of best soldiers in our village. He always told me that one day I would be Heda and he wanted to be the one who show me how to fight." A sad smile appeared on Lexa's face "When I was six, the Azgeda warriors killed him. I promised that I would be a better warrior than him and avenge him one day. Next day I started training at the training ground with the seconds. After a few weeks, Anya took me as her second. My dad was really proud of me as well as my sister. Two years later, the mountain men took my father. He came back as reaper. I…I…" She never told this to anyone, not even Costia. She came so far, she would not start crying now. She clenched her fists.

Clarke took Lexa's hand and started doing patterns with her thumb on back of it.

Lexa started slowly relaxing again and took a breath to calm herself.

"I met my father in woods around our village. He didn't recognize me and attacked me. I was eight years old, it wasn't hard for him to get me on the ground and start to strangle me. His sword was just inches away from my neck. I took it and…and…" Clarke knew what her next words would be but she hoped she would be wrong.

"…and I killed him." It felt good to finally tell it to someone.

Clarke let go of her hand and hugged her. She knew that Lexa had to feel really guilty about it. "It's not your fault. If you didn't do that he could have killed people from your village."

Lexa hugged her back and started quietly crying. Clarke just hugged her tighter.

Lying down on the bed, they both fell asleep hugging each other.