Chapter Text
now i'm falling down, through the crashing sound / and you've come around, at the curtains of the waterfall / and you rushed to me, and it sets us free / so i fall to my knees, at the curtains of the waterfall / so say geronimo, say geronimo - geronimo, sheppard.
.
"this alliance is based on trade, each chief and general present here are representatives of the clans and the goods they will be able to offer you," the commander proclaims, her eyes on the sky people to her right. her chiefs and their respective generals are eyeing them warily in the strategy room, but they regard clarke with nothing short of grudging respect for eliminating their biggest threat. she is standing next to lexa, her chin tilted high in confidence and she listens carefully to each chief who explains their terms.
(the phrase 'power couple' comes to raven's mind as she eyes the two of them, along with octavia.)
luna is the only chief who smiles at the sky people, and she explains, "we provide fish, as well other food from the sea. and you may have that, however, there is a growing trend among my people," she sighs deeply. "some of them cannot eat seafood, others die, we think your medical technology can help us."
abby nods, the source of their problem was a common one back in the ark, "of course, we can share our knowledge about allergies and even learn about them with you."
"very good," luna beams. it seems that she is finished, but she continues when harvi, her general, nudges her gently. "oh, another thing. your people have been welcomed in my village from where they have crashed nearby, and harvi here would be very happy if you did not force them to come back to your camp. he is quite taken with one of yours." in the corner of luna's eyes, clarke smiles softly, and the boat clan chief gives her a wink. harvi lets out a grunt and rolls his eyes, trying to pretend he is apathetic to the current conversation.
"i'm sure that won't be a problem," kane reassures with a nod.
that seems to be the trend between all of the clans, they need the technology that the sky people have, thanks to their advancement and to the equipment they have in the mountain, and the sky people need their goods, like food and cattle, as well as knowledge on how to keep themselves running efficiently on the ground.
however, tensions rise when one of the generals voice out the worries they all seem to have in mind. he is old, not younger than fifty years old, but he stands tall and strong and his voice is deep, when he inquires, "what of mount weather's weapons?"
a quiet murmur breaks out around the table, and another general asks, "yes, what about the missiles and bombs?"
kane stands as the peacekeeper, but the generals do not calm down, not even when he says, "i'm sure we will have no use for them."
they do quieten down, when their heda calls out, "shop of!"
a hush falls on all of them, and for a moment, only the quiet mumbled singing of the child perched on the heda's throne is heard, and even that stops when dany registers the sudden silence. she looks up and her green eyes widen slightly at the adults around the table, but she is quickly reassured by lexa when she turns around and gives her a soft smile.
"getting rid of them will probably be more harmful than leaving them where they are," clarke announces, and the attention moves from the child to the sky princess. "we might need them, for dealing with paunas and other similar things here on the ground."
"clarke is right," lexa adds, "we are not the only allied clans, there are other dangers nearby, other clans with bigger armies. they will come useful should we face another war."
abby agrees with a nod, "who says there is only one like mount weather? there could be more."
the generals and chiefs mull over this possibility, and eventually they all decide that is better to have these weapons in their possession, than not.
the southern clan chief, kaito, a skinny man with ginger hair and freckles on his cheeks, huffs out, "how do we know you will not use them against us?"
"we will be allies," abby narrows her eyes. "why would we do that?"
kaito simply shrugs his shoulders. "who knows. you are more like maunon than like us."
it is clarke who speaks up, "then i suppose you better be nice to us, huh?"
kaito blinks his eyes at the sky princess, but he nods his head. "we have oranges. that is nice, yes?"
clarke fights back a smile at his unexpected response, and lexa places her hand over her mouth, trying to disguise the sudden laughter that bubbles up in her throat as a cough. clarke then nods, "oranges are nice."
(lexa tells her much later about each of her generals and their odd little quirks. "kaito is much like a child, his attention span is no more than five seconds. i know not how they chose him to be chief," the commander explains, followed by a sigh. "perhaps it is their impure bloodline that makes his personality.. unique."
"impure?" clarke inquires.
"they marry within their family, clarke. it is a strange custom.")
.
"you said some of our people are in your village," abby says, her eyes on luna and harvi. "some of them will probably want to be with us."
harvi frowns when luna answers, "of course. we can arrange trips to camp jaha soon."
"we can to do that, too," kaito and other generals around him nod in agreement. "we have some of your people, they say they are from mecha station of your ark," he elaborates.
"more engineers," raven mutters quietly next to abby. she speaks a little bit louder, "how about this, we can give you radios to give to them, so we can make contact. they'll know how to work them."
"that's a good idea." clarke suggests, "we'll be able to monitor raids and other things with each other, it'll be faster than sending a messenger on a horse."
she earns enthusiastic nods from almost everyone at the table, and the commander declares, "then it is settled. skaikru is the thirteenth clan within the new alliance."
lexa hears soft footsteps behind her, and then a little arm curling around her leg. "mama," she looks down at the child who is beaming up at her. "sanch," dany requests.
"we're almost finished, goufa," lexa murmurs softly, and clarke crouches down to lift her up and fix the blanket over her little shoulders.
"you need a bath, you're still in your pyjamas," clarke kisses her cheek and dany giggles.
"bath, bath, bath!"
.
"you guys can stay for another few days," clarke tells the sky people when their meeting is adjourned, with promises to meet again in a few days to finalise a few details, along with the trips to camp jaha. clarke glances at the commander as if asking for her to agree, and lexa nods her head slightly, "i want to take you guys to the beach."
raven fist pumps, "yes!"
octavia laughs next to her, "you are literally only here for the food and the beach."
"well, what other reason have i got to live for?"
.
kane takes derek with him to go explore polis, along with octavia, lincoln, raven and bellamy, while the chancellor opts to stay with her daughter.
dany is quite taken with her new gran, and they're sitting on a patch of grass outside, near the centre of the capitol when the child crawls onto abby's lap. clarke and lexa are watching them from where they're sat next to each other across abby, and they watch quietly as dany looks up and touches abby's chin.
"hi there," abby greets, looking down at her.
up to this point, the child has only communicated with words, repeated from her mamas and the people around her, but abby is the one who receives dany's first sentence. "yu laik ai gran." the child says with pauses in between each word, grinning proudly.
clarke is mirroring her grin, and she kind of wants to parade dany around polis because her baby is growing up, look.
lexa is smiling too, and she translates for abby, "she is saying that you are her grandmother."
"i suppose i am," abby chuckles, leaving a kiss on top dany's head.
dany responds with a serious expression on her face, "good."
(her family is growing, she's taking each person that's introduced to her and keeping them in her heart. no one else can deny that they have done the same thing with the child, who somehow has the the commander's eyes and clarke's infectious smile.)
.
when raven and octavia find them later, dany moves to octavia's lap and she sits still when octavia begins to braid her hair.
dany tries to pay attention too, when raven picks flowers nearby and begins making a flower crown, and shows her how to create one of her own.
(dany follows her instructions as hard as she can, but her flower crown falls apart when she holds it up and she lets out a whimper. clarke kisses the tip of her nose and reassures her, "it's okay, we can try again.")
dany is delighted when raven deems her worthy enough of the crown made of daisies and places it on her head, just after octavia declares that she's done with her hair.
"you look beautiful, strikon," lexa tells her, and dany crawls over to her and kisses her chin.
(she looks nothing like the commander covered in dirt and the blood of her enemies months ago, and raven and octavia watch lexa kiss the top of the child's head and wonder if this is how clarke managed to fall in love with her.)
.
dany is fond of abby, and she prefers to hold her hand when lexa and clarke are leading them to the beach the next day.
she's pointing at random things they pass around the streets of polis, while calling out, "look!"
"what's that?" abby asks and her shoulders shake with laughter, when the child shrugs and makes a noncommittal noise before she moves on to the next thing that catches her eye.
(at some point, she points to a small herd of ducks and she shrieks excitedly.
abby asks her, "what are those?"
when the child looks at her and doesn't offer an answer, bellamy loudly whispers, "ducks."
dany beams at the young man with her favourite hair, and she repeats, "ducks!")
clarke and lexa are walking ahead of them, their hands brushing, and they're listening to dany's antics.
"they like her," clarke murmurs happily.
lexa laughs quietly, "they love her, clarke."
.
"here it is," clarke declares, she opens her arms and breathes in the salty air. the stretch of sand and sea are before her, and it takes four seconds of silence before octavia is shrieking in excitement and runs to the water, followed closely by raven. dany copies them and her little legs run and she trails behind them, shrieking just as loud. it doesn't take long before bellamy and lincoln are following them, smiling and shaking their heads, and clarke tugs lexa towards the water.
abby is left standing with kane, and he asks, "do you think this alliance will help us, really and truly?"
she's watching clarke and dany splash around and play by the water, and clarke lifts the child up in her arms and gets closer to lexa. the usually stoic commander is beaming from ear to ear, and she leans in and begins peppering kisses on the child's face.
dany's giggles are loud and abby forgets for a bit that she has been fighting for their survival since her husband died, and she looks at kane and smiles, "i think it will be good for all of us."
.
(clarke does not forget, all of the things she has done and the people she has lost to achieve this sort of happiness she currently has. she does not forget argos, the mountain men, dante, finn, wells, her dad, she still sees them in her dreams.
they are not haunting her, however, they are only passing memories that get replaced with lexa's smile or dany's eyes, or sometimes even her mother's face.
clarke does not forget, she never will, but her family helps her forgive herself, and they offer the bliss that she has been searching for, for so long.)
.
when the sun is setting, and dany is shivering and sniffling from the sudden cold breeze that the night is introducing, lexa invites the sky people to have dinner at the commander's home. "after the mountain, there is much i have to do to earn your trust again," she explains when octavia asks why. she's soaked, from head to toe after being splashed by clarke, who is equally just as drenched. there's sand her clothes and on her skin, and her face is free of the mask she wears as heda.
(lexa looks just like them, she looks like someone who lost her innocence in order to survive, just like them.)
"you won't need to worry about the food being poisoned, because i'm cooking it," clarke adds, smiling proudly. she watches her mother's surprised reaction, as well as octavia, bellamy and raven's.
she watches their shocked expressions when lexa jokes, "i think we need to be even more worried since you are cooking for us, clarke."
"hey!" clarke's jaw falls open, and she shoves the smirking commander playfully.
("did the commander just make a joke?" raven whispers to octavia, who is apparently confused about the commander having human qualities, as they watch clarke and lexa.
a wide-eyed octavia whispers back, "she can flirt?")
"when did you learn how to cook?" abby asks her daughter, when they're walking away from the beach. lexa is ahead of them, with dany in her arms and clarke's jacket wrapped around the child.
clarke answers, "a few weeks ago, i think. lexa's mom taught me." she looks at abby who is staring at her with an almost crestfallen expression. "what?"
"these are things i'm supposed to be teaching you, not someone else's mother," abby mutters quietly.
she takes abby's hand and squeezes it with her own, "you taught me how to survive, how to lead," and clarke can almost see the train of thought that seems to be passing in her mind. she has them too, ever since she got dany, those little doubts of whether she's doing the right thing, those little doubts that come with motherhood. clarke smiles, and she adds, "i'll teach you how to cook, lexa says i'm amazing."
and abby laughs, with tears in her eyes, and she says, "i have no doubt you are."
.
kane and derek were apparently too tired for dinner with the commander, so it is only abby, raven and bellamy, along with lincoln and octavia who show up about an hour later.
dany is the one who is first to pop out of the kitchen when the stationed guards let them into the commander's home. she is dressed in dry clothes now, and there's a delicious scent wafting in the house. dany beams and tugs them further inside the house and towards the main room, where her toy box sits. she opens it and begins digging out her toys, babbling childishly about them and handing them to her guests.
"hir, yu bol," dany says as she places a small red ball into raven's hands. she approaches lincoln and gives him some wooden blocks, she looks up at this new, tall man before glancing at the blocks in his hands, "hey hey, say chof."
lincoln laughs, "mochof," just as clarke and lexa emerge from the kitchen, with aprons tied around their necks.
(it's so domestic, a far cry from the life back in camp jaha, where everyone is wrapped in a routine, in their respective jobs. it's a necessary cycle, a niche, and none of them can leave and disappear and find a better life just as easily as clarke did.
none of them bear the weight of the fallen mountain on their shoulders, as well as the death of the boy she loved, none of them have the scars of a girl who grew up too quickly and became a leader and took on dangers beyond their imagination, so they'll never need to.)
"hi," clarke greets with a smile as she steps into the main room, with the commander trailing behind her. "you guys hungry?"
"starving," bellamy grins.
(they get to watch clarke and lexa together in the kitchen, bumping hips and working like a well-oiled machine in preparing food. dany is the one who perches herself at the head of the dining table, sitting on a stack of books so she can reach everything, and she grins as if this dinner is called in her honour.)
.
"hey, commander, where's your mom?" raven asks, when she's gotten the courage to address lexa.
"com-an-duh!" dany echoes, standing on her chair.
lexa helps the child settle back down before she responds, "she's currently out for tonight, i'm sure she would love to meet you soon."
.
when dany's in her pyjamas and she's sitting on her mamas' bed, too stubborn to be put to sleep in her own crib, clarke asks her while pointing to lexa, "hey, dany, what is her name?" the commander pauses from changing into her sleepwear, a simple white shirt and loose shorts that fall just above her knees, and she looks at clarke curiously.
the child mirrors her, with a much more confused expression. "mama?"
"yes, but i'm mama clarke," the blonde places her hand on her chest, and then she points to lexa again, "what is her name? mama..?"
dany flicks her eyes between them, unsure of what exactly she's being asked, before she shrugs.
clarke continues, "can you say lexa?" dany blinks tiredly at her, and then she yawns. "lex-ah, just say it."
"clarke," the commander laughs lightly, "she is exhausted."
"she never says anything i try to make her say," clarke frowns before taking dany into her arms and slowly swaying her.
when lexa finishes getting dressed, she frees her hair from her braids and steps closer to them, pressing a light kiss on the sleepy child's face. "try again tomorrow," she whispers.
.
the next morning, a guard walks in holding a basket with its top covered with a white cloth, just as clarke is helping dany with her breakfast and lexa . "disha kom krista, heda," he says, "this is from krista, commander."
lexa nods and takes the basket from him, before dismissing him and setting the basket on the floor.
"what?" dany asks, squirming off clarke's lap and padding over, her eyes on this new, mysterious basket.
"your clothes we got from the tailor," lexa replies to her incomplete question, pulling away the covering and revealing folded clothes specifically fitted for dany. she watches dany's hands go for the new brown boots, made of thick leather and fur, with white painted laces.
"ooh," the child says.
clarke crouches next to them, "these are all hers?" lexa nods in response, and dany falls on her butt on the floor and tries to place the left boot on her right foot, and clarke chuckles, "wrong way around."
dany whines, a noise that indicates her difficulty, before she raises her foot in the air and says, "mama lexa, help."
.
("see, clarke, she does listen to you."
"heeelp!")
.
there is a full moon on the night before her birthday, and dany wakes in the middle of the night to hear a wolf howling. she sits up in her crib and looks around the dim room, and her throat is dry and she calls out to the two intertwined bodies on the bed, "mama."
lexa is the one who gets up and lifts dany in her arms before settling back into bed with clarke.
her wolves can wait, dany is only turning two tomorrow, she has her whole life to answer their call.
(dany has her whole life to fulfill the prophecy she can feel in her bones, the one that has been built around her before she even came into existence into this world.)
.
the sky people finally meet tarryn when clarke fetches them from the inn and takes them to the commander's home.
"it's dany's second birthday," she mentions as she leads them to the stone path towards the front door.
they find dany with a red ball in her hands and a woman around abby's age, with her dark hair tied up in a bun on top of her head and wrinkles at the edges of her eyes, kneeling down on the floor next to the child.
"look, ball!" dany calls out, before tossing the ball and watching it bounce towards lincoln's feet. he smiles before picking it up and bouncing it, higher than dany can, and she watches in amazement as tarryn stands.
"mounin," she greets warmly, "welcome."
"this is lexa's mom, tarryn," clarke tells them, and she watches raven's eyes widen, no doubt beginning to pick the features on her face that resemble the commander's.
lexa enters the room, and she notes, "she baked a big cake."
"dany helped," tarryn adds.
"cake!" dany yells from where she is now standing on one of the chairs. clarke is automatically moving next to her, holding on to dany to make sure she doesn't fall.
tarryn grins her signature mischievous grin. "i would have had clarke bake it but she was busy this morning," she remarks, winking at lexa, who rolls her eyes and avoids eye contact with anyone while clarke becomes flustered and pretends to become very interested in dany's babbling.
(raven and octavia share a glance with each other, and they both decide that they like this woman very much.
abby is fond of her too, especially when they both have a little too much wine later on that night and start sharing embarrassing stories of clarke and lexa when they were children.)
.
"it's skaikru tradition," octavia says to the child when she sticks candles on top of dany's cake and lights the wick with a match that bellamy provides. "you're supposed to make a wish before you blow them out."
they're standing around the table with a large cake decorated with white and blue icing sitting in front of dany.
(tarryn tells them, "i found the recipe from a book of the old world, that is amazing, sha?")
dany looks up at octavia, confused as to why she would do that, along with tarryn, lincoln and lexa. "why?" the child asks.
octavia shrugs. "because," is the only explanation she offers.
and when the sky people start singing 'happy birthday' to dany, she beams excitedly and claps her hands, while lincoln, lexa and tarryn look around, amused that all of the sky people seem to know this song, and confused because all of them know the song.
dany is standing on the chair, in between clarke and lexa who are standing next to her. she looks around happily at everyone present for what is undoubtedly the best day of her life so far.
"habotei, strikon," lexa smiles.
clarke kisses dany's temple, "happy birthday."
they finish the song and octavia reminds her to make a wish, and she yells out, "cake!" before huffing and blowing out the candles. and everyone cheers around her, and she claps delightedly along with them.
(dany gets her hand in the cake and smears icing on lexa's face, she giggles, "oops."
lexa takes the child's hand and makes her touch clarke's chin.
clarke glares playfully at them, and lexa echoes dany with a smirk, "oops.")
dany ends up eating nearly two slices of cake, and it impresses the hell out of bellamy, who is sitting in the main room with clarke and dany, along with lincoln and lexa.
"you ate all of that?" he marvels, his jaw slightly open in wonderment.
she grins up at him, "sha." dany's currently sprawled out on the couch next to him, her plate abandoned on the coffee table. "too much," she mumbles, frowning at how heavy her body seems to feel at the moment.
bellamy gently pokes her stomach, "how does it fit in there?"
dany lets out a noise, a high-pitched whine that sounds a lot like 'i dunno'. she shrugs her shoulders and looks up, reaching for lexa. "mama, up."
"yu gaf mou in, strikon?" the commander asks, "you want more, little one?" she's chuckling slightly and the child groans in response as she rests her chin on her shoulder. lexa kisses her head, "habotei," she repeats.
and clarke is watching lexa sway, lulling the child into that bliss that falls between being awake and being asleep, and there's a smile that's on her face before she can stop it.
bellamy nudges her and whispers, "you're staring." clarke glances at him and there's a smirk on his face when he continues, "'smitten' is an understatement if i had to describe you, right now."
she elbows his side and catches lincoln and lexa's attention when bellamy yelps, before bursting out in laughter.
.
that night, clarke watches as lexa whispers something to dany and the child jumps on the bed, hopped up on sweets that tarryn gave her, and she happily announces, "mama, ai hod yu in!"
"what does that mean?" clarke asks, her eyebrow raising curiously.
"i love you," lexa responds, her eyes twinkling and she has a smile on her face that's only reserved for clarke and dany.
clarke mouth falls open and she murmurs quietly, "say it again."
"ai hod yu in!" dany squeals, before collapsing on the bed, exhausted from jumping.
"i love you, clarke."
.
later, when dany is asleep between them on their bed, clarke whispers in the dark, "ai hod yu in, too."
lexa takes her hand and kisses her palm. "i love you," she whispers back.
clarke smiles into her pillow, "tell me again tomorrow."
"i will tell you everyday," lexa replies quietly.
"everyday sounds good."
.
(they haven't really talked of what exactly they are, but clarke knows lexa is hers as much as she is lexa's, and the little child murmuring quietly in her sleep is theirs.)
.
the alliance is finalised the next day, and trade is arranged for camp jaha, along with more trips to the other clan's villages so sky people can retrieve their other people.
"visiting won't hurt," luna smiles, eager to learn about the sky people's culture as well as for them to learn hers.
(when the meeting ends, luna corners clarke and lexa and she congratulates them, "you are a very cute family," she winks.
later, when clarke makes a comment about how she seems close to lexa, the commander laughs, "she's closer to anya, they are cousins, i think."
"really?"
"yes, anya's father was of the boat clan, but he lived among my people when he met anya's mother."
clarke notes, "so everyone is sort of mixed?"
lexa smiles softly at her, "look at us clarke," she gestures at herself and dany, "we are a very mixed family."
the blonde laughs and tries to imitate luna's accent, "we are a very cute, mixed family.")
.
(the skai prisa, the trigedakru heda and the little child born of parents from azgedakru but raised as one of ronwekru, a mixed family indeed.)
.
"you're coming back with us, right?" bellamy whispers, when he leans into clarke. they're walking towards the gates of polis, watching lexa ahead of them, who is arranging for their horses so they can return to camp jaha.
"not today," clarke responds, with dany hugging her leg. "someday," she promises. "i'll bring dany with me so the rest of of our friends can meet her."
bellamy grins, looking down at the child, and he echoes what lexa had said to her a few days ago, "they'll love her."
a little while later, when they're standing at the gates of polis, waiting for the horses, raven approaches clarke and says, "since you're gonna stay here," she hands her a small radio, "you can use this to keep in contact with us." she shows clarke how to turn it on and it cackles to life. "just call for camp jaha, at this frequency," she fiddles with the dial before she continues, "when monty finishes making the radios with the camera and screens, we'll send those along with a few solar paneled generators-"
"speaking of cameras," clarke interrupts, as she digs out monty's camera from her pocket, "tell him to make copies of some of the pictures for me when he gets that printer working. he'll know which ones."
raven examines the small device before nodding and shoving it into her pocket. she hugs clarke, "we better see you soon."
when raven pulls away, clarke doesn't have time to recover before she's being engulfed in another set of arms. "what she said," octavia mutters with a smile.
clarke laughs and nods, and soon bellamy and lincoln are giving her hugs and their best wishes too.
dany, not wanting to be left out, raises her arms in the air and calls out, "hey, hey!"
"you too?" octavia laughs, crouching down to hug her. "see you soon, squirt."
.
("mama, i'm a squirt." dany announces with a wide grin when octavia lets her go.
clarke laughs, "how do you feel about that?"
she watches her daughter stare up at her before simply shrugging and hopping over to raven to poke her leg brace.)
.
when the horses are ready and their saddles are being adjusted, abby kisses clarke's head and then both of dany's cheeks, and she nods at lexa, "take care of them," she tells the commander.
lexa nods softly, "you have my word that they will be safe with me."
abby wraps her arms around her daughter, and she murmurs, "come to camp jaha soon?"
"sure, mom," clarke grins.
"leida, gran!" dany yells out, pressing herself against abby's leg.
they watch the sky people leave through the gates of polis, on top of horses, and dany takes clarke and lexa's hands in hers and tugs, "houm, mama," she yawns.
"someone needs to nap," lexa laughs as she looks down at their daughter, "okay, okay, let's go home."
clarke nods, and she laughs, too.
she is already home.
.
"oh, yeah, i nearly forgot." raven takes out a small device from her jacket pocket and tosses it at monty, who catches it in his hands expertly. "clarke says you have to make extra copies of some of the pictures. she was pretty vague about which ones, apparently you'll know," she shrugs.
monty wastes no time in plugging in the camera into the computer he's sitting at, and when he opens up the file containing the pictures, he freezes, "whoa."
raven sits next to him and looks at the screen, "what?" she asks.
in front of them is a picture of clarke and lexa, surrounded by sand. the commander is smiling widely, her eyes are closed, and clarke is leaning in, wind blowing blonde hair on her face, and she's kissing lexa's cheek. monty presses a button on the keyboard, and a picture of a sleeping dany pops up, her hair in a messy ponytail and she has a blanket on her stomach, there's drool on her chin and an arm around her white knitted rabbit.
monty asks, "who the hell is that?"
raven smirks, "let me tell you about this kid. her name is dany.."