Our Journey (the Fourth Book in the Her Weakness series)

Chapter 4

Lexa's POV

I watch with fascination as Clarke's pencils dart across the paper as I describe Costia in as much detail as I can. Clarke sticks out her tongue in concentration as she tries to get the outline done first. I correct her a few times on her proportions, hesitantly at first, but gaining confidence when Clarke seems to appreciate my instructions.

Clarke pauses quite a few times to ask about things I have not thought about for years. It is... Refreshing to remember her in a less painful way. And to speak them out loud, it means more than I expected. Clarke seems to know, to understand. Her kind gaze finds me on more than one occasion. Especially when my breath hitches from the memories bombarding my mind.

Time passes in the blink of an eye, with us both focused on our own task. Me, with describing Costia. Clarke with drawing her. I watch as a crystal clear, perfect image of my dead girlfriend springs from the tips of her pencils and onto the paper.

My breath catches once more in my throat as I stare the finished product. Clarke turns the paper so it is facing me.

"What do you think?" Clarke asks after a moment of silence.

I cannot seem to find my voice. Tears drip from my eyes and for once, I let them. I can feel Clarke's worried gaze on me but my heart's in my throat and I cannot seem to choke out a reassurance. I lean in and kiss her deeply, pouring all my emotions into it.

Clarke's hand flies up like usual to cup my jaw as I kiss her sweetly, kiss her slowly. I reach up to gently tangle my fingers in her hair. She relaxes fully into it, practically melting against me. We only part when we are both smiling too wide for the kiss to continue. We rest our foreheads against each other.

"So... You like it?" Clarke asks breathily.

I laugh and Clarke joins in. I peck her lips before answering. "Yes, I do. Mochof (thank you). I love it."

She smiles bashfully, ducking her head in the pretense of looking over her drawing again. "Is it accurate? I wasn't sure about-"

"Clarke," I cut her off softly. She looks up at me. "It is perfect. It looks exactly like her." Clarke beams happily at me. "Is there any way to keep it the way it is? I know that pencil drawings tend to fade or rub off with time."

"Yeah, of course. We can talk about laminating it with Raven tomorrow."

I glance out the window. "You mean today."

"What?" Clarke sits up and looks outside. "Whoa. I guess we really got into this."

I hum in response, sitting up and pressing a kiss to her exposed neck. "That is just one of the infinite things I love about you, Clarke." Her blush is beautiful and I kiss her cheeks softly. "We should sleep, ai hodnes (my love)."

I recline, resting my body against the soft bed once again as Clarke nods and carefully takes the drawing over to the table to set it down. When she returns, she lies back down next to me. She is about to hold my hand when she frowns down at hers.

"What is it?" I ask, a hint of concern coloring my voice.

"Nothing, my hand's just covered in graphite. I need to wash it."

I groan and wrap my arms around her waist as she tries to her up, effectively trapping her. "No," I whine. "It is late. Stay and cuddle and go to sleep. You can do that in the morning."

Clarke nods and yawns, reclaiming her favorite spot of lying with her head resting on my shoulder. I kiss the top of her head and smile contently as I fall asleep.

I am awoken to the sound of someone knocking on our door. Not the house's door, but Clarke and my room's door. I blink tiredly, trying to fight against the lingering exhaustion from staying up so late last night.

"Heda? Are you awake? May I come in?" Lincoln's hesitant voice comes through the door.

I purse my lips unhappily at the interruption, but I know it has to be important for Lincoln not to wait until we come downstairs.

"Enter." I say, my voice is raspy from sleep.

I pull up the furs to cover Clarke and I better. I notice that Clarke is slowly starting to wake up. The disgruntled scrunch of her nose is adorable and I resist the urge to kiss it away. The door creaks open and Lincoln's eyes stay away from the bed as he comes in. He gently closes the door behind him.

"My apologies for interrupting, Heda. But there is important news that came this morning and I know you would want to be informed right away."

Lincoln's serious tones seems to be doing wonders with Clarke, because she almost sounds half-awake when she speaks. "What is it?"

She does not move her head from my shoulder as Lincoln gives her his usual 'good morning' smile. "Sorry for waking you up, Clarke. But there is a rather large sandstorm brewing right where we were going to go next."

"Are there alternate routes?" I ask.

"Not with this storm. It is large, and one of the worst ones that Sankru has seen in a while. It is just starting to form."

"So what can we do? Are we staying here for longer to wait it out?" Clarke questions.

"We could, but it is impossible to tell how long we would end up waiting. Our only logical option is to go to Trishanakru (the Glowing Forest Clan) next. That is something that excited Octavia and Raven very much, they seem to be looking forward to it."

"Yeah, Octavia loved the butterflies when we first got here." Clarke says.

It is a good thing she is not suspicious of their excitement, because I am having a hard time controlling my panic as it is. Gods, I thought I had a month before we get there. Now, I have a little more than a week.

*cue panicked Lexa* Aww, the poor thing she's so anxious (unnecessarily, of course). And two things.. Someone asked to see the painting I did of Lexa's tattoos, so I posted it on Tumblr. The link is below! :) Also, there's a link to a picture that's pretty much what I imagine Costia looking like, just less of a warrior and more of a blacksmith! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!

Costia: https://68.media.tumblr.com/99bc2ea08c288f61e27624e90de7235d/tumblr_nlhyca8TEK1s8b3ieo1_500.jpg

My painting: http://wolf3223.tumblr.com/post/159769355207/i-mentioned-this-painting-recently-in-a-chapter