fragile | clexa

chapter sixty seven

____________________________

After breakfast, Raven and Anya cleared the table while Jake started washing the dishes. Lexa grabbed a towel and hurried to dry them.

"Raven, dear, could you go pick some apples this afternoon? We want to make juice and pie later today and sell it tomorrow on the market," Jake asked while carefully putting away some washed plates. He didn't really want the Heda to feel like she had to do any work, but then again, it was the Heda. Better if he didn't say anything.

"Me and Anya wanted to go out, actually."

"Oh uh- okay."

"Maybe I can squeeze a bit of time in?"

Jake hummed thoughtfully. He would be busy on the market until six, Abby would be preoccupied making apple juice and he definitely wasn't going to ask Clarke to pick all those apples from the trees.

"If you need a helping hand sir, I owe you a night and two meals," the Heda then said surprisingly.

"Oh, please Heda, you don't need to do anything. We are so honored to have you as a guest, you're welcome to stay any time. We could give you five meals a day for the next century and it wouldn't ever equal with what you have given us," Abby rushed.

"No, it's fine, I can help."

In the end Clarke was glad that Lexa managed to convince her parents because even though it wasn't Clarke's perfect imagination of Lexa relaxing, it was a way they could spend time together. "I can help you," she offered. Abby and Jake seemed even less happy, but who were they to speak against the Heda?

So half an hour later, Clarke sat in her wheelchair rolling around the family's garden and picking the lowest hanging apples and those that had landed on the ground. Lexa had climbed high into the trees, onto every daring branch and every impossibly thin twig just to get all the perfectly ripe apples into a jute bag. If she was too high to have taken it with her, she just let the apples drop in the hope that Clarke would pick them up.

Occasionally, there was an "Ow, that was my head!" or "Well, the apples are falling right into my lap. Who can call this work," sounding through the garden. An hour into the task, Lexa suddenly dropped out of nowhere right next to Clarke, almost giving the latter a heart attack.

"I have the absolute best idea," the brunette announced to the startled Clarke and pulled Clarke's wheelchair back a few feet. Then, she searched a large branch, wrapped both hands around it and shook.

Apples rained down and after Lexa had done it with all three, lush trees, the ground was more red than green. Lexa created a pathway for Clarke's wheelchair and finally, the two women could work on one level, talking to one another.

It was that day that Clarke found out Lexa could juggle. She found the three apples dancing in the air quite impressive, but Lexa asked Clarke to throw in another and another, until Lexa was juggling with 7 apples in perfect sync. She was just shrinking the cycle to stop again when Abby turned up, two filled glasses of apple juice on a tray.

She kindly offered that they had already done more than necessary and that she herself could pick up the rest, but it was only a task of 20 or so minutes left and so they politely declined, picking the rest of the apples to fill a total of 9 jute bags.

Lexa had changed into one of Raven's old, for Lexa slightly too tight long sleeve shirts. Jake had insisted, anxious that the Heda's armor would get dirty or scratched (not like it had to survive battles and wars). Now when Lexa lifted a jute bag over her shoulder like it didn't weight at least a 100 pounds, Clarke's eyes involutarily wandered and got glued to Lexa's torso.