Warpaint | Clexa (Completed)

Chapter 11: Life As We Know It

Clarke had always like this time of the day. She would come back from her surveillance duties by evening and scrub every bit of dirt and dust off her body till her skin felt raw and sore. She would then slip on a light tshirt and pants and go over to The Tombom, or The Heart.

Situated at the northernmost end of the rig, the Tombom served rice wine and all sorts of drinks right from sundown. As the warriors returned to the rig at the end of the day with supplies and news, they would all assemble at the Tombom and share their stories of the day.

Clarke would take her usual mug of alcohol and go the pier at the far end of the rig where she would sit and finish her drink in silence before stumbling back into her room. The steel compartments of the rig suffocated her, and she tried her best to spend as much time outside, as possible.

It has been almost a year and a half since Clarke's alleged escape from TonDC and she has been living with Luna and her Noukru ever since. Life for Clarke had been very different since that night of her departure.

The NouKru were a highly secretive and suspicious clan within whose walls, very few outsiders were allowed. However, Clarke gathered that Luna owed some kind of debt to Lexa, and had agreed to give shelter to Clarke as a repayment. She had been nothing but a friend to Clarke, and had mentored her in her initial days as a clan warrior.

But the story with the other members of the clan was a different one, however. The news of her alleged betrayal of Lexa had travelled fast, and wherever she went, the whispers of Wompleiheda or the Commander Killer followed. She either got stares that were terrified or ones that were disgusted and distrustful. Life on the rig made her claustrophobic and suffocated, but that was the life she had come to know.

Things however had taken a turn towards the better after the NouKru-SkiKru alliance fostered by Costia who served as the Council head after Thelonius Jaha became the Chancellor once again. Clarke knew that she had a role to play in the turn of events, however. While the hate against the Arkadians were at an all-time high after Clarke's betrayal, amongst the Trigedans, the Arkadians blamed the Trikru for breaking into their camp and kidnapping several of their prisoners. There had been a short exchange of arrows and bullets near the border, and even though Lexa had established a ceasefire, the peace between the lands had been extremely fragile.

The condition had only gotten worse with the alliance with NouKru, and Clarke knew it was only a matter of days before war broke out again. Whatever she knew about Luna, she knew that Luna did not have to think twice before deserting Trikru in the alliance, as the technologically advanced Arkadians provided much better safety to her people. What bothered Clarke however, was the recent trips she'd had to take to Arkadia as a result of the alliance.

Clarke knew that Arkadia would never be her home again, ever since she had laid eyes on Lexa. She had fallen in love with Lexa and helped her friends escape at the cost of the safety and comfort of her home. She was now, a NouKru warrior, and visited Arkadia, as such. She wasn't an Arkadian anymore, in any way, whatsoever.

It was not the Arkadia Clarke had known, or grown up in. It was an Arkadia devoid of all her friends. There was no sound of Raven's laughter in the hallways or Jasper and Monty's bickering near the camps. It was a strange land ruled by an ever growing authoritarian Jaha and a Council where Costia held the reins. After Pike's injury at the border skirmish where he had lost the use of his legs, Costia had taken a completely dishevelled Arkadia and helped restore it again.

In her last few visits, Clarke had seen her mother nowhere, but in the hospital wing, a mere shadow of the woman she used to be. She had to however, accept that Costia was as good an administrator as could be. Unlike her father, she was level headed, sharp, and understood the troubled and nuanced politics of the land much better than most of the people. Helped by Kane, she had forged the alliance with NouKru, which Clarke's father Jake, had had to die for. What irked Clarke however was that Thelonius was still the Chancellor of Arkadia, and nothing would ever be stable as long as he ruled.

Downing the remnants of her mug, Clarke got up and stretched her hands out, feeling the cold sharp wind against her skin. Her mind was foggy with the alcohol, and every time she lost her footing slightly on the pier, the view of the bottom less ocean beneath her, made her high even more exhilarating. Every time she gathered herself back, a part of her wished she hadn't, and wanted to feel the salty ocean fill her lungs till she didn't exist anymore.

Clarke held onto the cold steel walls of the rig and descended down to the ground levels where the sleeping compartments were located. She entered her tiny cell like room and clanged the door shut, and fell down onto her bed in a heap. The day was over. Tomorrow she would wake up, go out for her surveillance, come back, drink, and fall asleep again. And the day after that. And the day after that. In these hazy nights she wondered how her friends were doing in Trigeda. She wondered if they were all together and happy. She wondered if Raven and Finn were still in love. Or if Octavia and Lincoln had ever hooked up. Or if Bellamy fought as a Grounder now. But most of all, she wondered about Lexa.

Clarke wondered where and how her Lexa was. She saw those dark green eyes lit with desire every time she thought of Lexa. She imagined Lexa's lips on her body every night she went to sleep alone. She wondered if anyone had stroked the tattoos on Lexa's back after that night. She wondered how many lovers the Commander had taken after her. She wondered if she ever saw Lexa again, would her eyes light up with the same desire and love as it used to, an year back. Clarke craved and needed Lexa. She craved Lexa every waking moment, and panicked everytime she began to forget the way the Commander's lips turned upwards in that slight smirk of a smile. At times she wondered if it would be so bad to just walk into the Trigeda territory and get captured, even if it was to just see Lexa once. But she gathered, that she would be killed even before she was brought before the Commander. Clarke wondered if Lexa missed her the way she missed Lexa. And she fell asleep every night with the same image and regret as always. All Clarke wanted was her anchor,the home she had found in those brief moments with Lexa, and that was everything she would never have.

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A/n: Hello beautiful people. So part 2 of the story starts here. This chapter was basically to set the context of what had happened in the last few months and give an inkling as to what is to come. Let me know if you like it. Keep reading and commenting, and tell me if you don't like something about the story.
Love,
Charlie.