Clexa One Shot (the 100)

Arranged Marriage

 "I don't see, at all why this is necessary." Clarke groans as her mother pins up her hair in the traditional wedding style of the Grounder people.

"I know that you don't, but it was your idea, honey. You can back out at any point and we would all back you up Bellamy would be ecstatic. Anyway, I thought that this was something that you wanted." Abby doesn't actually know what to say to comfort her daughter.

"This is what I want. I just wish that it were under different circumstances. I wish that I knew her better and I wish that she hadn't completely and totally betrayed me. That betrayal is what forced us into this anyway." Clarke groans.

"You wish that you had it in you to forgive her." Abby nods understandingly. She wished for a lot of things too. Her little girl wasn't a little girl anymore and sometimes she felt like a total stranger.

"The worst part is that this is exactly what she wants. First I tell her that I'm not ready and immediately afterwards when I'm starting to feel ready, she betrays me in the most brutal way. Now, she's getting me back against my will and is totally going to try to bully me into forgiving her and letting it go. I can't. I won't." Clarke grumbles, refusing to look into the mirror to see herself.

"You might not be about to enjoy your wedding, but you look absolutely beautiful, sweetheart." Abby tells her.

It had taken a lot to get Clarke cleaned up and pretty for her big day She was bathed in the hot springs near TonDC and was wearing Grounder clothes, a white tunic and pants made out of woven linens. Her hair was pulled around her forehead in a single braid, with what was left falling down in waves. Clarke still didn't feel beautiful, gorgeous, or even pretty. She felt dirty and cheap. She felt as though she were being forced into an arranged marriage.

"Alright, I guess that you're as ready and willing as you are going to get." Abby says with a sigh, her feigned interest going absolutely nowhere.

"Let's just get this the hell over with." Clarke snaps to her mother, brushing past her and out of the door. Abby sighs heavily again in response and joins Clarke, taking her aim in preparation to walk her down the aisle where she would wait for the other bride. This was not at all how she had pictured this day occurring. Then again, she had always pictured this day occurring aboard the Ark.

Clarke herself had never really pictured herself getting married to anyone at all ever. She had much less imagined herself marrying the Commander of the Grounder army. She had never managed to think that any of this could have ever been possible before landing on the good green earth. She swallowed hard as she allowed her mother to lead her down the leaf covered dirt path, her bare feet not making a sound. When they reached the stone altar, Abigail Griffin kissed her daughter's cheek and released her.

"I love you. It will all be okay."

She felt as though she had been waiting for ages for Lexa to arrive when the doors opened up and the young woman began to walk the aisle to join her. She was flanked from behind on on her other sides by her strongest and best warriors, including Octavia Blake, Indra and Lincoln. Lexa was dressed in the same white linen outfit as Clarke and conspicuously missing war paint absent from her face. Her clothing was stark white against her tanned skin and dark tattoos. Despite how badly she didn't want it to, she was struck deeply by all of the caring and love that was in Lexa's eyes, and it kind of scared her a little bit. It was all too intense.

Now they were going to get married and all Clarke wanted to do was run. She very much wanted to run away as quickly as she could, right then. Lexa disturbed her with her multiple sides. She looked so much younger without her warpaint and her armor, not at all as though she were the Commander of an entire nation and their army. It completely confused Clarke, the sense of innocence, humanity, and warmth that came form Lexa without her shields, armies, and walls up around her. It all got jumbled up with the fierce warrior, the fierce leader, and the fierce Commander that she had gotten used to.

Despite her mind screaming at her to run, the look in LExa's eyes held her in place. Clarke was frozen by the kindness, warmth, and compassion that she was finding there. It was startling and very sudden and the young blonde woman didn't know what to do with the information as the official looking man said some stuff in Trigedasleng and Lexa took each of Clarke's hands in her own. Then, it seemed like it was their turn to talk, luckily Lexa went first in a formal but sweet tone.

"I never thought that it would have to come to this of all things. I had wished for things to be simple and easy between the people of the sky and the people of the trees, but as it usually ends up in war, it got hard and it got complicated. Nothing was anyone's fault, the Sky People and the Grounders were both looking after their own. No one can blame either of us." Lexa addressed her people , every inch the teenage Commander, all eyes were on her, every ear hanging on her each and every word. Clarke had always wondered what she did to make that happen. After her address to the people she commanded, Lexa turned to Clarke, looking straight into her eyes unflinching and unapologetic for the pure adoration that was there.

"I had hoped for a time when things could be more simple and more easy between the two of us as well. I admire you greatly and have since I met you. You are a strong leader, a fierce warrior, a gentle healer, and a beautiful young woman forced to grow up much more quickly than you should have been. Someday you might find that I can understand, and that I too share this quality with you. I hope that we can rediscover some of our youth together."

"I have found that one of your best attributes is your loyalty to your friends. WIth this union, your friends are mine and mine are yours. I will do my best to be as you would be to them." Lexa promises and Clarke can tell that she means it. Her beautiful blue eyes start to fill with tears. She hadn't expected any of these sweet words to have ever come from Lexa. She didn't know what to do with the new information.

"Clarke Skaikru, will you address your people?" the official looking guy says. She really and truly hated public speaking and Lexa's grip on her hands tightened reassuringly.

"Uh, yeah, sure." she answers him sheepishly. "The Sky people have lost a lot. We landed on this strange, new Earth expecting a hot and fiery death, or a slow and painful one from radiation poisoning. When neither of those came to meet us, we were set to meet even more challenges. We were leaderless, we were hungry and defenseless. What did we do? We did what we knew to do, we survived. My family was composed of 99 people, exactly, when we got here, and until this point that number has fallen with very few fluctuations." Clarke glanced to Raven Reyes and then to her mother, Abby Griffin.

"Now, i am surrounded by a new family, joining with my old one. Now, we can all defend one another. Now, we don't have to be alone." Clarke announces, trying to sound like the Commander had.

"Commander, Lexa, thank you for being here for me. Thank you for making sure that I am never alone again. As your wife, I swear that you can be as soft and warm with me as you wish in safety and security. WIth me, you can be Leksa. With me, you will always have permission to be as open and honest and vulnerable as you like with no judgement." Clarke said without thinking about it. She had not come prepared to give a speech, but as soon as she stopped and allowed herself to think about what she wanted married life with the Commander to be like, the words came to her. She didn't want to marry the Commander, she wanted to marry Lexa, or Leksa as it were. She also couldn't help but to realize that she didn't want to run anymore.

Lexa, just Lexa now, leaned forward to kiss Clarke's cheek the way dignitaries did when they married someone and wanted to respect the bounds of an arranged marriage with only political motivations. Clarke, not wanting a relationship along those lines at all, turned her face to Lexa's, kissing her full on the mouth and stepping into her personal space Lexa made a soft sound of pleasant surprise, and laughed a little bit into the back of her throat, her hands coming to rest on Clarke's forearms. They smiled when they broke apart, their foreheads resting against one another.

"You never fail to surprise me."

"I never fail to surprise me, either." Clarke answers.

"I know that you don't have it in you to forgive me now, but I hold out hope for the future, my wife." Lexa murmurs.

"I do appear to be stuck with you forever, now."

"I do believe that you are. I'm not thinking that it will be at all unpleasant though."

"Me either."