UnderStanding (Clexa)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

TonDC – I'll give you all I have, you just have to claim it

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The air, although warmer than it was moments before, is still. Clarke can feel the steady rise of her pulse as heat fills her chest and slowly creeps up her neck to settle behind her ears. Their gazes remain locked, and Clarke is sure she should move; yet she feels anchored to the ground, suspended in a lossless amount of time as the air thickens and the faint sound of birds and the rustle of leaves in the wind can be heard. Outside the edges of her vision, she is aware of those around them and knows the silence that has settled over the camp won't last, but they all hold steady, waiting for some sign from their heda or their kwin before moving an inch.

Clarke swallows and runs her tongue over her dry lips, seeing Lexa's eyes darken, but she doesn't dare move, and Clarke knows she is being patient. Lexa is waiting for Clarke to make the first move, to make the decision of how to proceed after what she has so clearly offered the blonde: herself.

While she can feel the eyes upon her, she doesn't let it break her focus, which is still tied to Lexa's eyes. Green eyes that are penetrating her to her very core, making her feel bare and exposed. She crosses the short distance, just a few steps, until she is but two feet away from Lexa, and stills when something in those eyes change. Lexa raises her chin; a look of fierce conviction shining in her eyes, before a breath is released and her sword is drawn from its sheath at her side.

She hears those around her startle with slight gasps and feels all the eyes suddenly shift their focus to Lexa as she makes a figure eight pattern in the air with the weapon before slamming it down to the wood below, and she knows something she could not have ever expected to happen is happening before her very eyes.

The commander of the united clans is doing something unprecedented. Clarke feels the sparks in her eyes as they burn with the rest of her while her body is encompassed in heat and the hairs on her arms rise from the electricity that is forming.

She takes the final step forward, watching Lexa closely. The brunette's hands are both clasped on the hilt of her sword, and her eyes are imploring Clarke to understand.

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Lexa watches in awe as Clarke lowers herself down so that she is at equal level with Jovan in order to answer his softly spoken but desperately serious question. This woman, who has not only been known as the Skai Heda but who has also brought down the mountain, is answering a child's question with the utmost care and show of respect. Lexa is stoic as always, but inside, she's astonished. Clarke has not only earned the respect of her people but also their fealty as Kwin, and here she is, making herself equal to a young one, this task as important as any other, because that is who she is. She is the Kwin.

Her throat bobs and her heart begins its steady climb as her emotions spar within her. She is the Heda. She is the visionary and the one who united the twelve clans. She is the last commander.

Blue eyes connect with her own, and she, while previously feeling weak as if a slave to that gaze, suddenly feels the tightly bound coils that have wound around her insides snap, and she feels empowered. She feels tethered only by a strength she never knew she could possess, a strength that flows from Clarke. With a flare of her nose and a short breath, she beseeches her love with her gaze, willing the blonde to make the first move and to understand that she needs her closer to do what she feels is necessary, to follow her instincts.

Clarke approaches her, one foot in front of the other. Such a short distance, yet time is standing still and racing around her all at once. There are only a few steps left, and Lexa knows this is the moment she was waiting for, and as if she can read her mind, Clarke halts.