I Couldn't Stop Caring

Chapter 17

Clarke moved through candle light, pulling her own jacket tighter over the sleep wear she had been given. She weaved through the corridors silently, hoping to at some point stumble across the room she needed to find. Candle after candle, she followed them like a pathway. She finally came across a door, taller than the rest, with metal clasps to reinforce it. Clarke took a step forward, and lifted her hand.

This probably wasn't a good idea. She didn't even know if this was the correct room, let alone if it was right. She rapped her knuckles lightly against the door then stepped away, holding the book tightly in her hand. And she waited.

And waited longer.

Clarke sighed and ran her hand through her hair, distraught with herself that she had found the wrong room. She slowly turned on her heels to leave when the door creaked, and the light of the candles inside filled the corridor which fought the light with only a few small flames. Clarke turned back around, eyes wide.

Lexa's hand gripped the door gently, staring back at the blonde haired girl. Her hair which was usually weaved into vicious braids, flowed and cascaded freely over her shoulder. Her features were soft in the kind light, skin glowing against her own sleep wear.

"Clarke?" Lexa whispered, looking the other girl up and down with worry "what is it?"

Clarke, once again, was rendered speechless. She shook her head in attempt to explain. Nothing.

"Would you like to come in?" Lexa tried again, looking down the corridors of her home. Every time her head turned, the candles casted new areas of light across her face and illuminated every single detail. Clarke cleared her throat.

"Yes" she said, following Lexa's eyes. Silhouettes of her guards moved in the shadows, but didn't pay attention to them. Lexa moved aside and allowed Clarke to enter.

"Is there something wrong, Clarke?" Lexa tried once again, the door clicking shut behind her.

"No. No not at all." Clarke looked outside through Lexa's softly wavering curtains and to the night sky. "you said that we can't afford distractions while the sun gives us time. Right now, there is no sun"

Lexa sat down on her couch, back straight and posture still fixed to be perfect. She tilted her head.

"Then... what is it you would like whilst the moon has replaced the sun?"

Clarke slipped the book she had been carrying into Lexa's lap, and the brunette tipped her head to look down at it, hair falling forward.

"I'm going to teach you. Like you wanted." Clarke said softly as she settled herself down besides the commander "I saw you today, you couldn't read what was on the map."

"I know" Lexa held the book out in front of her, letting the light catch on the dark and scrappy front cover "what is it?"

"You said Anya read Macbeth to you. I found this copy in my room" Clarke said, and Lexa's eyes fixed on the ground in front of her "there is another reason why you want to learn to read, isn't there? Something you haven't told me yet"

Lexa looked up and stared at Clarke like a child who had just been caught lying to a parent. She nodded slowly as let out a small sigh.

"Costia owned a notebook of which she wrote everything down in. About the animals of which she found, the wars which she fought and the people she knew. She told me that she would read it out for me the day before she died" Lexa admitted "I wanted to read it for myself"

Clarke sympathetically rested a hand on Lexa's thigh, the other landing on her back. Of course, it would be that both areas were just skin where Lexa's nightwear didn't cover. It was too late to retreat her hands though, and she didn't really want to take them away. The soft skin was heavenly and, although Clarke didn't believe in such places as heaven and hell, Lexa made her think otherwise.