Wanheda - A Clexa Fanfiction

Chapter 5

Clarke and Lexa had been riding all day. Polis was still far away, and the sun was starting to set. Lulled by the horse’s step, with the breeze on her face and in Lexa’s arms, Clarke finally felt safe. She breathed deeply. She was finally serene. She knew that the peace was only apparent, that it wouldn't have lasted long, since Azgeda’s warriors were probably already on her trail, but she wanted to try to be happy and enjoy the moment as long as she could. She turned to look at Lexa. She was really beautiful. Her hair was waving in the wind and her eyes were focused on the horizon. The last rays of sunset sun illuminated her eyes making them even greener and brighter than usual. Lexa noticed that Clarke was watching her, and gave her a shy smile. Clarke saw that her cheeks had tinged with a slight shade of pink.
-"What are we gonna do now?"
Lexa slowed the horse down and looked around.
- "The sun is about to set...we should stop and camp somewhere before it gets dark."
Clarke shook her head.
-"Oh, yes, of course, but I meant... in general, what are we going to do? Where are we going?"
Lexa looked at her hesitantly.
- "I don’t really know, Clarke. I’m sure we’re not in an enviable situation. There’s probably going to be a war."
Clarke opened her eyes wide.
-"Wait, what?! A war?"
Lexa looked down, embittered.
- "Right, I guess you don’t know anything about this, Clarke. That’s reasonable. Before you were caught, it had been established that if the general of one clan would've found you, the others couldn't have done nothing to try to take you away from him, otherwise the other clans would have declared war on him."
Clarke was getting more and more appalled.
-"This doesn’t make any sense...do you mean you made a deal with your generals as if I was a bargaining chip?"
Lexa sighed a little.
- "You’re angry, Clarke, I get it."
Clarke looked at her bewildered.
-"Of course I am! But above all, why, if you approved such a pact, did you immediately violate it? Couldn’t you prevent it from being approved?"
Lexa bit her lips.
- "Clarke, the clan leaders were already fighting each other for you...The coalition would break if we didn’t set the rules regarding your capture. I could not stop them from kidnapping you, they would never listen to me, convinced that you possessed the power of Wanheda...I thought I had everything under control, I was sure that I would have been the first to find you and then you would be safe, but I did not. I’m sorry, Clarke, I understand you’re upset."
Clarke, did sigh.
- "Well, there’s no point talking about it now, what’s done is done. Let’s just think about getting through the night."
She moved further on the back of the horse, in order to lessen the closeness between her body and Lexa's, closeness that at that time she was founding overwhelming.
Lexa, mortified, led the horse into the forest, looking for a place that was more hidden and suitable to camp for the night. After a while she stopped the beast and the two of them dismounted from the horse. Clarke went away, going deep into the thick forest.
-"I’m going to get some firewood to light the fire."
Lexa looked at her alarmed.
-"You shouldn’t go alone. It’s dangerous, they might find you."
Clarke walked away without looking back at her.
- "I can take care of myself, Lexa."
Lexa raised an eyebrow, but let Clarke move away anyways. After all, by that time, Clarke would be dead if it wasn’t for her, but she probably needed to take her space. She hated the fact that Clarke was mad at her, but there was nothing she could do about it other than wait for the anger to fade and for Clarke to forgive her, as she had done after Mount Weather. Lexa was waiting for Clarke to come back while sitting on a rock. Every minute that went by without Clarke coming back made Lexa grow a deep sense of unease. She kept waiting a few more minutes, and when the worry became too insistent she got up to go look for her. Lexa's heart was pounding in her chest.
She walked quickly into the forest, her senses alert.
-"Clarke!" - no answer.
-"Clarke! Where are you?"
Lexa’s breath was starting to wheeze when she heard a sound of broken branches behind her. She turned back, Clarke was coming towards her visibly worried.
-"Lexa! What’s going on, are you okay?"
Lexa breathed a sigh of relief and leaned on the trunk of a tree as her breath stabilized.
-"I thought...I thought you got caught."
Clarke felt guilty when she saw Lexa so worried about her. She approached her and put a hand on her shoulder.
-"I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine."
Lexa smiled slightly.
-"We should light the fire, it’s already dark."
They went back. They hadn't had time to get food before the sun went down, so they just warmed up by the fire. Clarke was watching the hypnotic movements of the flames, when Lexa suddenly stood up and signaled her to remain silent. Clarke looked around but saw nothing. She kept her ear open and heard it: it was the neighing of a horse. Lexa quickly extinguished the fire and loosened the bridle of the horse.
-"We have to go."
They had no time to escape, they would have found them, and they could not fight, because there were only two of them. The only way was to find a place to hide. They ran trying to make as little noise as possible, when at some point Clarke tripped over something and fell to the ground. Lexa stopped and ran to her.
-"Are you all right?"
-"I’m fine, yes, but what..."
She looked down. On the ground, partially hidden by the leaves, there was an iron handle.
Clarke turned to Lexa.
- "It could be a trap door...we have to try to open it, it’s the only chance we have at this point."
Lexa nodded and together they began to pull the handle. Clarke let go and pulled her hair away from her forehead.
-"It won't open...It must be blocked by the rust."
Lexa did not give up. She continued to pull the handle with all her strength until it opened with a dry clang. Lexa turned to Clarke.
-"Open. Let’s go in, quick."
A ladder led to a dark and humid room. Lexa went downstairs followed by Clarke, who closed the hatch behind her, leaving the two of them completely immersed in darkness. Clarke widened her eyes, but in that absolute darkness it was impossible to see anything.
- "Well...it won’t be great, but at least even if they came down here, they wouldn’t find us, I wouldn’t be able to find me myself."
Lexa chuckled.
- "We have to find something to light this place up, or else I won’t find you either."
Lexa moved into the room, the sound of her footsteps echoing in that deep silence. Clarke moved quickly in the direction from which the sound of Lexa’s footsteps came.
- "Hey, wait for me! You can’t just leave me here...where are you?"
She groped around in the room, looking for Lexa. She soon managed to touch something, and felt a hand resting on her arm.
- "You found me. Come, take my hand, let’s see if there’s anything here."
Clarke took Lexa’s hand, and the two of them began to grope in the darkness that enveloped the room. Soon after, Clarke bumped into something.
-"Ouch! A surface, it looks like a table."
She passed his hand over the smooth, dusty surface until she found what looked like a little cardboard box.
- "I found something."
She put her hand into the box and felt something long, thin, and...waxy.
-"Lexa, I think I found some candles."
- "Great. If they left them there, there must be something to light them too."
Clarke kept looking, and next to the candle box she found another box, much smaller.
-"Found it! Please let them be matches..."
She opened the box.
-"Bingo!"
She took a match out of the box and lit it. The flame illuminated the room. They were in what looked like a living room. Around them were chairs, wooden furniture, a table and a sofa with a worn fabric. Clarke smiled excited while she was looking around.
-"I can't believe it..."
Lexa looked at Clarke and smiled.
-"We were lucky; someone’s on our side, Clarke."
Clarke smiled at Lexa, then took the match and used it to light the candle. She took the matchbox from the table and handed it to Lexa.
-"Here, let’s light some candles, it’s time to light this place up."
They took the candles out of the box, and once lit they placed them on the various surfaces around the room. Once the last candle was lit, the two of them began to darken, rummaging through the various objects placed on the shelves or piled in the drawers. They found books, crockery, pens and old photographs that portrayed what must have been a family, many years before. At one point Clarke opened a drawer, and could not believe her eyes.
-"Lexa, come here!"
Lexa came up. Whatever Clarke had found, she must have really liked it, given how excited she seemed. Clarke handed her a small square plastic container of thin thickness. It had a yellow cover on it, with some writing on it and an image of a blonde-haired woman.
-"What is it?"
Clarke looked at her amazed.
-"You’ve never seen one of these?"
Lexa shook her head.
-"It’s a CD."
Lexa gave Clarke a confused look, and Clarke rolled her eyes.
-"It's music! Wait, if there’s a CD player here somewhere I’ll show you..."
She looked around and opened a few drawers, then she finally turned triumphantly towards Lexa.
- "Here it is, found it, give me the CD, I’ll show you."
Lexa handed her the small square container and Clarke extracted a thin silver disc, drilled in the center. She placed it in the door of a device that Lexa did not recognize, and pressed a button. The room was immediately filled with the notes of a song. Lexa was visibly surprised.
-"What is it?"
Clarke smiled, and closed her eyes moving to the rhythm of the melody.
-"Laughing on the Outside...a very old song I used to listen to when I was a kid with my father."
Clarke came closer to Lexa, swaying her hips to the rhythm of the music.
-"Come on, dance with me."
She grabbed her by the hand, and Lexa tried to imitate her movements. She was very awkward, she had never danced before. She looked at Clarke, her eyes ajar, her face illuminated by the dim light of the candles...she moved her hands on her hips, and Clarke put her arms on Lexa’s shoulders. Lexa felt her heart beating faster and faster as she stared at Clarke’s ajar lips without being able to take her eyes off her. Clarke arched her lips in a mischievous smile.
-"Do you like it?"
Lexa shifted her gaze from her lips to her eyes. She remained silent as she couldn’t stop looking at her. Clarke didn’t know how they ended up so close to each other. All she knew was that Lexa’s body was so close to hers, her eyes lingering so insistently on her lips... Lexa approached her face further, as she looked into her eyes, Clarke could feel her warm breath on her lips. She closed her eyes when Lexa finally joined their lips in a warm and gentle kiss. Clarke moved her hands from Lexa’s shoulders to her face. When Lexa took her lips off to catch her breath, Clarke noticed that she was breathless. This only accelerated the beats of her heart. She took Lexa’s hands and noticed that they were lightly trembling. She kissed her again, holding her hands on her hips. Lexa took Clarke’s face in her hands as the kiss got more intense. She took her lips off Clarke’s and kissed her neck. Clarke bent her head to the side while Lexa left a trail of hot kisses on her skin. She bit her ear lobe and shivered when Clarke whispered softly "I want you, Lexa". She turned to look her in her eyes, and Clarke took her by the hand, leading her to the fabric sofa. Lexa followed her. They sat on the couch and Clarke kissed her again, but Lexa pulled back.
-"We can’t..." she whispered with gasping breath. Clarke looked at her without understanding.
-"What do you mean, why? Don’t you want it too?" Lexa looked into her eyes and smiled.
- "You don’t know how much I want it. But we’re not safe here. We should be careful."
She looked around the place.
-"Maybe for tonight we could...just hug each other?"
Clarke smiled.
-"I think that’s a good idea."
She made room for her on the couch, and Lexa lay down next to her. She took Clarke's hand and cuddled into her.
That night, after a long time, she finally slept a quiet and dreamless sleep.