Title: Bonding for Peace

Chapter Rating: K

Fandom: The 100

Pairing: Clarke/Lexa

Prompt(s): Clarke is forced to marry Lexa in order to insure peace for the sky people and to save Finn.

Warning: Femslash, First Time

Beta: (none) all mistakes are my own

Summary: It is time to make peace between the grounders and sky people. Only a bonding ceremony can make lasting peace. (Lexa/Clarke)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Nothing I write is for profit. Everything I wrote is not meant to offend anyone.

Warning: Change from story: Clarke and Finn never had sex.

Lincoln looked around sadly at the gathered sky people. These were supposed to be the leaders, but none of them could come up with a solution to save Finn. They probably would never reach an answer on their own. He sighed; he would have to provide an answer for them.

"There is a way." Everyone in the room stopped talking and turned to him. He had been invited to the meeting only because of his knowledge of the grounders. Normally, he would never have been allowed to sit in on a council meeting. "You would have to unify the tribes through a offering of one of your own."

Marcus looked at him disgusted, "You mean send someone to be slaughtered in his place?"

Lincoln shook his head. "No, I think your people would call it a marriage ceremony. We call it a bonding ceremony. Your leaders must offer someone to be bonded to my Commander. If she accepts then she has a right to chose anyone out of your village to keep as her own." Lincoln looked around the group. His face was grave. "These ceremonies are very rare. Three times Lexa has been offered a bonding, and every time she has turned them down and slaughtered their people."

"She will slaughter us all if she does not accept?" Abby asked appalled. She would not risk all her people's lives to save Finn no matter how much her daughter and Raven cared for the young man.

"No, she will only kill the murderer, Finn. The other tribes had offended my people. Your tribe's only sin is withholding a murderer from his rightful punishment."

Clarke, Bellamy, and Raven glared hard at Lincoln. They did not feel that Finn deserved to die for his actions. He had messed up big time, but it was not fair to ask a life for a life. Raven spoke her thoughts, "He does not deserve your savage's-"

She was interrupted by Marcus who was now clinging to the only hope of peace his people might have. "A bonding ceremony? Will it guarantee us peace?"

Lincoln nodded his head. He doubted his commander would accept their offer, but he wanted to help because Octavia had asked him to. He felt that Finn should have to pay for his actions, but he kept these thoughts to himself. He was already on thin ice with the sky people and did not want to make it any worse.

"It will guarantee more than peace. Your people would be considered our people. We would protect you and in turn you would protect us. All the resources from here on out would be shared. All food, all weapons, and all soldiers will be expected to protect all."

"What about Finn?" Clarke asked. A small part of her did not want to save him. He was not the same boy she had known. How could he have slaughtered all those people? There were women and children not just soldiers that had died because of him.

Lincoln scowled, as much as he didn't want to save the boy, these people, including his girlfriend, did. "He will be spared if the bride of the Commander wishes it. The Commander is allowed to ask one wish of her bride and your people, and in turn, her bride is allowed to ask one thing of the Commander and my people."

"Bride?" Marcus asked. In space they had been open to gay marriage because it meant that the population would not grow as large. Only those in a marriage could have a baby together. All babies resulting from sex outside a marriage were aborted. A gay couple could not have a child without seeking one outside the marriage. Thus, these couplings were good for population reduction.

"Yes, a bride. Very few Commanders have taken male as their bond mate, and I know that Lexa will not have a man warm her bed. Men are seen as inferior to women in my culture, and it would not do to have a pregnant Commander."

"Won't she want to continue her legacy?" asked Abby confused. She had thought of marrying the woman, Diana Sydney, on the Ark, but had decided that Diana was a bit too much for her. It had been a good decision seeing as Diana had eventually betrayed them all. She was lucky to have found Jake and eventually come to love him. The man was a good match for her. He kept her controlling personality in check.

"No, the best trained females become the Commander, and the Commander never has children of her own. It is part of our rules. Our last Commander allowed a man to couple with her wife just for the sake of having a child, but it was a boy so he never was able to led. However, he was one of our best warriors until the Mountain Men took him."

Everyone in the room looked at each other. There were only three females in the room. In total, the Sky People only twenty-two women from the Ark. Raven and Clarke were the only girls from the hundred that were not being held in Mount Weather. Most of the women would baulk at the idea of having to marry someone they considered inferior just to save Finn.

"What if she picks someone that does not want to marry her?" asked Abby concerned about her daughter and Raven being selected for the task.

"Any pure woman from your village can be selected. If they don't accept then it will be seen as an insult to our people and your village will be destroyed, assuming that you have someone that she is even interested in." Lincoln did not see what the big deal was with these outsiders. It would be an honor to be selected by his Commander for a bonding.

Clarke very much doubted that there were many virgins left between the Ark and the Hundred. "The woman has to be a virgin?"

"Yes, but she will only accept those of who are of the bonding age. She would never take a child."

Abby sighed this would be harder than it would have been to just give Finn to the grounders for slaughter. All the women that had come down on the Ark she knew were either married or too young. She looked at Raven and Clarke, she doubted either of them were still pure, but they were the only ones left. "No one in the Ark is eligible. Are either of you…have either of you…had sex?"

Raven's cheeks colored lightly. She had had sex with Bellamy only two weeks ago, and before that she had had sex with Finn twice. It felt awkward to admit to Abby, a woman she almost thought of as a second mother. "Yes…I…I have."

Clarke felt like vomiting. She was the only one left. Everyone's eyes were on her. It was embarrassing that she now had to admit to both her mother and a room full of council members that she was the only female virgin left in camp. "I…well…no…I haven't."

Her mother let out an audible sound of surprise. "Oh Clarke?"

"I thought you and Finn…" Raven let the rest of her statement hang in the air. She had assumed that Finn had cheated on her, but Finn and Clarke had only made out a little. Clarke was not the kind of girl to give it up without a form of commitment more than a necklace.

"No…it wasn't like that."

"You don't have to do this honey." Her mother's voice was full of sorrow. It was clear that she did not want her daughter to have to marry the savage's Commander. She had always imagined her marrying Jaha's son Wells. She had never imagined this scenario for her daughter, but she had never imagined a lot of things she found happening in her life, sending Clarke to the ground, getting her husband killed.

Clarke looked around the people in the room, her eyes landing on Raven. It was clear that the older girl was still in love with Finn. She would never forgive them if Finn was made to pay for his crimes, but they needed her. They needed her skills as a mechanic to get into Mount Weather. They couldn't afford to isolate her now. Clarke's eyes moved to Lincoln. He had been silent most of the meeting except when spoken to. He had a hard face, barely recognizable now after being a reaper. They had been lucky to bring him back to life with the zapper. It had impressed the Commander, but not enough to save Finn. His face remanded hard as stone as she looked at him. She knew that he wanted Finn dead as much as his people did. Could she trust him on this? She hoped so. "How do we start?"