fragile | clexa

chapter forty five

_____________________________

Lexa had taken off her pants and shirt to go swimming and Clarke had followed her to sit by a rock at the pond. It was much more shallow than she had originally thought, so much that you could stand at any point and see the clear pebble stone ground beneath.

With a soft smile on her face, Clarke watched Lexa dive into the water, turn her body over and over and move so smoothly in the water as though she was a fish. Right in front of Clarke's rock, she broke surface again and shook her hair it like a wet dog did.

"Ew," Clarke laughed, her own shirt having a fair share of the water now too.

"Don't wanna come in? It's refreshing."

"I'm not even sure I can still swim."

"You can stand in here," Lexa said and because of the height difference between the rock and the water, she could only just lift her head over the rock to look at Clarke. It looked unbelievably cute, the way Lexa stretched her chin upwards to see something.

Clarke's little smile gave place to a slightly open mouth when Lexa's hands placed on the rock and just like that, she pulled herself upwards, her arm and stomach muscles flexing and her dripping wet skin shining in this little spot of sun.

"It's not too cold either."

"What?"

"The water Clarke, in the pond. Not my stomach," Lexa teased and red to the tip of her ears, Clarke looked up.

"Sorry. I was just... surprised you had such defined abs."

"I thought you've seen me naked before."

Clarke only got redder. "I of course didn't look."

"Well that's very polite of you," Lexa said and let herself fall back into the water. "Do you want to come in now or not?"

"I don't think my arms are strong enough to hold me up if my legs couldn't anymore."

"I can hold you if you want."

So Lexa ended up back upon the rock, her cold, wet fingers pulling up Clarke's turtleneck and taking off her skirt before she helped Clarke up and went into the water with her carefully. As soon as they had reached a point where their stomachs started touching the water, Clarke squeaked of the cold and unwillingly clung to Lexa in a way that Lexa just lifted her up a bit and Clarke's legs were wrapped around her waist.

"I thought you said it wasn't cold!"

Lexa hummed, distracted by relishing Clarke's warmth and the subtle scent of flower that seemed to come right from where Lexa's nose was nuzzled on her neck.

Carefully still holding Clarke, Lexa went on to swim to one of the warmer spots in the water, by the waterlilies where there were a few large rocks beneath the water Lexa used to sit down on. "Did you use perfume?" she murmured into Clarke's skin and felt it heat up a bit.

"Berta insisted. Do you like it?"

Lexa hummed again, this time in agreement, before placing several soft kisses along Clarke's neck. "I love it."

-

It was a pretty damn perfect day, actually. Lexa helped Clarke to try and swim a bit and when she actually managed half a round around the small pond, Lexa was so proud that she couldn't help kissing Clarke's lips. They sort of accidentally happened to kiss again after they had left the pond again and Lexa was carefully drying Clarke off, and after another bit of eating and talking when they laid on the blanket in comfortable silence.

When they were on the horse again, their food almost gone, with three more rounds of swimming and talks about really everything and nothing behind them, both of them were just the perfect kind of tired. Tired, and happier than either of them had been in quite a while.

Back in TonDC at their tent, Lexa brought away the horse, asked the guards to get Clarke's night medicine and inside, she helped Clarke out of her clothes once more and into a nightgown.

Clarke was standing in front of her before the mirror over the sink and Lexa couldn't help but kiss Clarke's bare shoulder from behind. She only saw the blush in Clarke's reflection. "You're so beautiful," Lexa whispered a second time, again not completely conscious of doing so.

Clarke's brow raised softly, her face turning a deeper shade of red. She didn't see any beauty in her scarred face, the little almost invisible ones, the one above her left eyebrow, the long, impossible to overlook scar that stretched itself from her forehead to her cheek, barely sparing her eye. She didn't see anything pretty in the eyes that of course had to become watery just then, nothing beautiful in the rest of her face, nothing kissable in her lips.

"Thank you," she said still and turned around to face Lexa. The woman was looking at her with eyes drowning in something Clarke couldn't name, something that made her heart stumble a bit. Her teeth worried her bottom lip, her fingers found the fabric of her gown to nervously play with and then she whispered, "You too. Beautiful. You're beautiful."

Lexa smiled. "Thank you," and then, "I had a lot of fun today."

Clarke decided it didn't matter now anymore either how much of her thoughts she let Lexa know about. "Me too," she replied softly.

"Would you- you know... like to do this again maybe?"

Clarke thought that maybe she didn't have to say anything in response at all, because Lexa must've heard her heart at that point. Even if she hadn't, without wanting too, Clarke lifted her chin up a bit and her body moved without permission. The kiss that followed still didn't surprise either of them, maybe because Clarke was too busy getting lost in the softness of Lexa's lips and Lexa was too busy getting her heart under control because as perfect as kissing Clarke was, it wasn't the same as being kissed by Clarke.

"I would love to," Clarke murmured against Lexa's lips when they parted. She could feel their corners turning upwards.

"When would you like to go?"

It was quiet for a moment before Clarke asked, "Lexa?"

"Yes?"

"Could I take you out this time?"

And just like that, Lexa's heart melted away completely.

________________________________

pretty short chapter, sorry for that but hope you still enjoyed :)