Chapter 1

"I don't believe I'll ever get their acceptance, Lexa, nor do I believe they'll ever see the Sky People as a thirteenth clan or treat them like it. I am afraid that we've failed," Clarke whispered into the morning, its first sunny rays falling upon her pale face through the windows. She had not been able to stay in bed much longer at the thought that she had to leave Lexa, her lover, in Polis as she got back to Arkadia to face Pike and try to resolve the mess he had created there, to make work what she doubted anyone ever could. If it had not been for Charles Pike. If people had tried to see how good this was for them.

The Commander watched her with dark and hooded eyes, with her face set in a firm way that did not hint at the turmoil she felt raging deep inside her as she saw the blonde walk back and forth, hands clamped on the sheet she had, undoubtedly, taken with her when she got up to cover her nudity. She didn't look at the dark-haired girl left in the bed. The Commander doubted she even knew she was awake, by the way she seemed to murmur for her own sake. Lexa couldn't help but feel the need to get up and hold Clarke tightly, reassure her, tell her it would all be okay... but she couldn't. She knew her people, and she knew the way they held onto their ways. She knew the only way for them to show Clarke and the Sky People acceptance, lay within their ways and nowhere else. That's why she had issues the kill order for who stepped from the five-mile radius they had set. She had to have a way to enforce. If she trusted her own knowledge of Clarke as a person, she knew that the blonde was aware that that was the only possibility now. It didn't help the way she had felt upon the hurt look in Clarke's eyes, even if she had understood the reason why.

Frequently, the older of both girls had thought of ways to help their case, to prove to her people that Clarke was and had to be trusted, but not a single one of those potential solutions had made any sense or been remotely possible. In fact, the one that made any sense had been thrown at her in anger by Titus, as a way to mock her, to belittle her feelings for Clarke as opposed to how immense her duties as the Commander of the Twelve Clans were. She felt that he had overstepped his bounds, but at the time, she had just been too shocked to speak of it, and he had known that she would be, she assumed. Titus had played with the bounds of his position in many ways, since Clarke and her people had come down from the sky. She hadn't paid a lot of heed to his 'suggestion', had known that it would be ridiculous to try to go for that option, but now, as she saw Clarke pace before the open window of her room in the Commander's Tower, the sunlight upon her face, the skin she knew from experience to be so soft ── the skin she longed to touch once more, if possible maybe for the rest of her life on earth ── it suddenly didn't seem all that far-fetched anymore. That was ridiculous on its own, of course.

"There is a way that we can force my people's acceptance, of you if not of your people," Lexa spoke, and she saw Clarke jump slightly and turn back to her ── the blonde hadn't thought that she was awake.

When she had recovered a bit from being startled like she had been, confusion creased Clarke's forehead. She didn't know what Lexa meant. "I'm not sure I follow, Lexa. I believe the best chance we have is for me to go to Arkadia, and that barely forces acceptance from them," she said. "Instead, I'm in danger if I stay here."

As she held the dark sheet that covered her nude figure firmly in place with one hand, the Commander pushed her body up with the other in a slightly more seated position. She felt her resolve grew as her bare feet landed on the cold floor and she rose, making way to Clarke, the blonde's blue eyes upon her, filled with a wonder that really endeared Lexa as she made notice of it. She couldn't say that she had ever felt the intense need to keep a lover close before in her entire life ── after all, it wasn't in a Commander's nature to need. Costia and she had managed to be separated for days on end if they had to without much of an issue from either side. If any, they had come from Costia only. Clarke, however, was different. If she could, she would be with her every waking moment, maybe even every non-waking one, without getting tired or bored from it. She was an inspirational woman, to her if not to her people. She wished they could see what she saw at the moment, but maybe not. She didn't share easily ── not when she had been younger and definitely not now, not with Clarke Griffin. It was strange maybe, but despite the fact that Clarke's mere existence challenged Lexa as a Commander and the choices that accompanied her position, it was with Clarke, the girl who had fallen from the sky, that she felt like the person she was underneath the persona of Commander most.

Lexa's steps ── usually sure, measured and firm ── were as light as a feather as she padded over to where Clarke stood. The peace she felt after the night before, her night with Clarke, had settled in the depths of her soul and seemed to reveal themselves even in the way she moved. It had been the first night in forever that she had not woken to darkness, both mentally and physically. She came to a halt at Clarke's feet, and her lips couldn't help but turn up in a soft smile as she let her green eyes slide over Clarke's appearance and saw her as she was in the morning after having shared the bed with her, in a way that she had dreamed of for so long now.

The blonde's hair was static and wild and seemed to catch the light better than ever, as if spun with gold somehow. Her blue eyes seemed brighter, too. She felt her breath catch, felt herself fall deeper, harder, faster. She was so beautiful to her in that moment.

A deep sigh left the Commander's lips, the spell broken by the confusion that still resided in Clarke's expression. She noticed the same deep love she felt for her, the same love she had felt from her the night before, too, though, in the deep blue depths. "I wouldn't say that my people are religious," Lexa began, "However, we do believe in certain things as 'holy' and 'untouchable'. Marriage is one of those. My people believe it is a unity that can't be broken, a proof from two people to the world that they will be together forever as one. It holds a promise and a certainty. It can't be broken, only by death."

The Commander paused then, to let the words she had spoken sink in in the blonde's brain.

"Once two people pledge their loyalty to one another before the rest of the world, the unity between them deserves to be respected, and mostly is, even when the two who got married come from opposed families," Lexa continued. "In some circles it is strongly believed that Commanders shouldn't be married, for their heart should be with the people as a whole and not with one of them only. Titus, for instance, believes this as well. A Commander shouldn't be distracted from their duty by feelings, he says. One of our Commanders was married at the time her predecessor's spirit chose her to be the next. One other married while these rooms belonged to her already. It didn't stop either from being good, valuable Commanders. Despite critique, even people who oppose Commander's marriage recognize this."

Clarke's eyes widened. "You are..." she began. Lexa's words had created a lot of clarity where previously there had only been confusion. She had not at all thought that the conversation would go down this road when Lexa had implied a way to resolve this mess.

"If we were to marry... My people would have to see you as my equal. They would have to respect you and protect you like they do me," Lexa stated, as she took a hold of Clarke's hand and captured blue eyes with green ones. The reality of it hit her hard. This was the solution for the situation they had gotten into together. The only way through was together as well, it seemed.

Clarke's mind spun. Lexa's words made a lot of sense, of course, but it seemed too simple to her as well, and she couldn't shake that off. "What makes you believe they'll have respect towards you or me if we were to go for that option?" she wondered. "They've tried to have your head already, Lexa, if only for not opting for revenge yesterday. I can't imagine what they will do to you if you tell your people you plan to marry me and step into this unity ── which is quite a huge deal to your people, if I got it right ── only for my protection, for my acceptance."

Lexa's face hardened as Clarke's words hit. She looked very hurt for all but a heart beat before she re-built the walls she had let down for Clarke before sunrise. Lexa's quiescence lasted for several seconds before she spoke. Clarke had been a bit shocked at the Commander's demeanor, and she hadn't dared to break the silence either. "It wouldn't only be for your protection," the dark-haired girl said in a clipped tone. "If I was not the Commander and if we weren't in this situation, I would ask you to be with me for the rest of your life still, and it would have been easy, with no misgivings from anyone ── which I'm surprised includes you ── about intention."

Author's Note: Please review. I'm on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as well, by the way ── feel free to hop on and have a look and follow me; I'm BrokePerception on all three!