#TheGPqueen used to be active back in the days

[owl127]

Azgeda!Clarke (T)

resurrecting old requests :)

Read on Ao3

It was one of those days where the Coalition meeting brimmed with chaos, a reminder of deeply rooted distrust between clans. Lexa stepped out of the meeting room, where ambassadors still argued in harsh tones and loud voices. On days where escalating insults bordered on violence, Lexa’s hope wavered, but she reminded herself that any sort of heated words were better than civil war. She'd take angry ambassadors over them killing each other's puppies any day.

She nodded at the kind beta who brought her steaming tea, a small reprieve from the battle waiting for her back inside the meeting room. She had barked an order for a short break, the room reeking of alpha and veiled dominance. Lexa had to impose her leadership before things escalated between Floukru and Sangedakru. Another shout rang from the meeting, and Lexa knew Azgeda had entered the argument with the delicacy of a Pauna. 

So much squabbling over the price of salted fish.

The door behind her stretched open, and she had half a mind to wave Titus away, but instead of the submissive presence of her Flamekeeper, another scent enveloped her. 

"Shouldn’t you be inside making sure your ambassadors will not commit murder?" Lexa said sternly, her eyes on her tea. 

The woman behind her pushed back her navy blue hood, her pale scars gleaming silver against her sun-kissed skin."Astrid is a big girl. She can take care of herself."

Lexa did not move other than to look behind her shoulders. "There will be consequences if Azgeda starts a fight."

Unbothered, the intruder took another step, the small chamber behind the meeting room feeling smaller as Lexa breathed her in.

"What kind of consequences?" There was a playful tug to the Azgeda’s smile, teasing, but Lexa did not flinch. 

"Do not take another step if you do not want another mark on that pretty face of yours." 

The smile blossomed into a full grin. 

"You think I’m pretty?"

Green eyes widened slightly at the audacity. A clearing of the throat broke the stare Lexa found herself stuck in, and she turned fully to the door where Titus held it open. The voices from the arguing had died down.

"Heda, the ambassadors are ready to proceed with the meeting," he informed, his eyes avoiding the other presence in the room.

Lexa nodded, noticing how the Azgeda ignored Titus with the same levity as being ignored. 

"Commander." She bowed, and Lexa walked past her, heading back for another round of negotiations. 

"Clarke," she nodded curtly, but Titus' presence had soured the alpha's grin.

It was better that way.

The large meeting room felt hot as Lexa stepped back inside.

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It took another long day of meetings and ordering Titus away from her quarters for Lexa to find herself alone with that scent again. Her fingers rested on an unturned page, and she allowed her shy smile to grow, warming her cheeks. The unfamiliar shrill of nervousness ran down her spine, her belly erupting in expectation.  

The window was carelessly open, with dark curtains fluttering in the wind. Candles burned, forgotten, leaving a hazy scent of flowers to battle the new earthy musk that so uninvitedly affronted Lexa’s nose. 

"I keep forgetting how freaking tall this window is." Clarke, clad in full Azgeda gear, tumbled from the window high in the Polis tower. At the sweaty alpha dusting herself off the floor of her bedroom, Lexa raised one eyebrow. 

"What makes you think you’re welcomed here?"

"The two mean guards at the door who refused to let me in, of course." The big, contagious grin from two days ago had returned. Undeterred, Clarke kicked off her boots and walked to Heda’s bed. 

Lexa watched the confident woman plot unceremoniously next to her, her grin splitting her face in half. Her pale scars danced under the flickering candlelight. When Lexa took her sweet time simply staring at her, the grin turned to the beginning of a frown. 

"Am I not welcome?" Clarke sat on the bed, hands in the air. Her eyebrows knotted in uncertainty, and Lexa finally took pity. 

Lexa reassured her with a warm hand on her cheek. She felt the rigged lines on the tips of her fingers, multiple marks to attest to the warrior’s courage and bravery. A wet tongue met Lexa’s fingers, and she gasped at the touch.

Lexa’s cheeks burned. 

Before Clarke met her in a kiss, Lexa placed a firm hand on her chest. "Don’t pull that again in any other meetings. I do not want to give Titus any more reasons to want your head."

"It was harmless," Clarke defended. Lexa pushed her back again when another kiss was denied. Clarke huffed, her patience never having been a strong virtue.

"No one followed you?" Lexa insisted, clutching at a half-unbuttoned blouse.

"You know I am careful about that." 

"What about the Azgeda ambassador? Won’t she ask about who you’ve been with?"

"I trust Astrid with my life."

"Does she know?" 

"Lexa," Clarke tried, but the omega had turned to stand up from the bed. "We got our scars together. She would never tell."

"The Coalition will be in jeopardy if Nia discovers that her precious general shares my bed," Lexa said mostly to herself, ignoring Clarke's tired sigh. "You will be in danger," she finished with a whisper. 

Lexa had one hand on her chin and the other on her waist, planning different strategies around an irritable Nia to avoid any bloodspill. Clarke approached from behind and, with a little coaxing, wrapped her arms around Lexa so she could rest against her chest. 

"The Coalition is important to me too. I would never risk it," she said to Lexa’s hair, taking a deep breath of Heda. "But more than that, I would never jeopardize us."

Lexa wanted to believe her. She wanted to give herself to the alpha that called to her, to the scent that made her legs tremble and her heart flutter. She wanted to be free and to love Clarke.

So she did.

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It was always cold in the Ice Nation. Winter braved their lands earlier and was slow to leave. Close to the coughing fireplace inside the room destined for Heda, Lexa’s bones could not warm up under the unrelenting cold. The open window didn’t help, with the wind bringing bits of snow and invading her warm space. The loud wind and undeniable chill that ran through her spine told her of an upcoming storm. 

The Ice Nation was not welcoming in the least. 

She walked closer to the fire, adjusting the coat that covered most of her frame. One hand rested on the wall while the other, against her better judgment, rested on her lower belly, and she could not suppress a small smile. With her back to the open window, Lexa sighed when quiet feet padded into the bedroom. A smile cracked Lexa’s dry lips when a warm presence approached her from behind.

In the seconds that followed, the warming alpha pheromones that Lexa had expected never reached her nose. Instead, gut-clenching fear invaded her system as someone pushed her roughly against the freezing wall. A fighter held her knee immobilized and her left arm behind her back before Lexa could react. Her mouth opened to call for Anya, who guarded the hallway, but the smooth, chill touch of metal reached her neck, pressing just enough to tickle a line of dark blood. 

"Silence," a voice rasped against her ear, teeth gritting in disgust. 

Lexa cursed herself for not being prepared.

Those damn cold lands. 

The blade sank a breath deeper, and Lexa was ready to shove it back and die fighting, but as soon as it happened, the weight behind her vanished. A heavy grunt followed as the body was thrown haphazardly on the floor, and another alpha, now the familiar scent Lexa expected, jumped on top of the assassin’s body to push her own blade deep into a pulsing neck. Blood gurgled from a parted mouth once and twice until the body under Clarke stopped moving altogether.

Under the fire, the blood shone dark, and Lexa ran a hand over the shallow cut on her own throat. 

"I see you already had company." Clarke failed at her attempt at humor, with her eyes ablaze and her hands trembling. Lexa realized she shared her predicament when the warmth of Clarke's embrace enveloped her. They remained united in the silent room for an undefined moment, the fire suddenly loud as their hearts slowed down. 

A warm hand touched Lexa’s neck, gently, padding at the slow trickle of blood. 

"I’m fine," Lexa said with a peck on Clarke’s lip. "Who was this?" She pointed to the still body on the floor, and Clarke cursed under her breath.

"Doesn’t matter right now." She insisted on the pressure on Lexa’s wound, the blood slowing to a stop. "Are you alright?"

Lexa nodded, one hand resting on top of Clarke’s. "I didn’t come here only for the Coalition." The realization of why she was there came back in a warmth that started in her belly, dissolving the panic that the attempt on her life caused. "I needed to talk to you."

"You need to leave. You and your entourage. You’re not safe here." 

Before what happened that night, Lexa would argue. But the body of an assassin had barely been cold, and she knew she couldn’t find a reason to stay. Clarke’s eyes were dark under the flickering light of the fire, concern etched on every crease of her face. Lexa’s finger followed the scar that started on her eyebrow and outlined her face, dying on the tip of her chin. Clarke shuddered under her touch. 

"I’m sorry, my love, but you need to go." It was painful for Clarke to say that. She turned to kiss the tips of Lexa’s fingers. 

"Anya!" Clarke yelled from the bedroom, and Anya and another Azgeda guard appeared at the door. They both looked at the body on the ground and back at Clarke and Lexa. The guard’s blue eyes widened, and he bolted back to the hallway. 

"Don’t let him escape!" Clarke pointed, and Anya did not need to be told twice. 

Once again alone in the bedroom, Clarke clasped Lexa’s cold hands in hers. "Lexa, you need to go. There will be more." She pointed to the body on the floor with her chin, and Lexa gulped. "Azgeda is not stable right now."

Voices escalated in the hallway, with exalted barks of orders in a mix of trigedasleng and the clipped, guttural Azgeda language.

Clarity shone in Lexa’s eyes. "It's a coup," she breathed. 

Clarke nodded. "That’s why I insisted on you not coming," Clarke said in exasperation, her hands tightening around Lexa’s.

"I needed to talk to you, and letters were not safe," Lexa insisted. 

Quietly, Anya appeared at the door again. A splash of blood stained her cheek, but she did not seem to notice. 

"Heda, we are ready to leave," she said in trigedasleng, and Lexa nodded, but didn’t move. 

"Get my horse ready. I will follow." 

Anya seemed reluctant to leave her alone. She exchanged a small nod with Clarke before running back to the dark hallway. 

"You must follow her," Clarke finally turned around, but Lexa grabbed her hand.

"Clarke." Her voice trembled, and her stomach was in knots at being overwhelmed. She took a deep breath, and under the aggression, she found the calm scent she trusted. Steps reverberated from the corridor, and Clarke pushed them further into the room, her body protecting Lexa from whoever ran down the hall. Lexa’s hand closed on Clarke’s shirt, bringing the alpha’s attention back to her. "Clarke," she pleaded once more.

Clarke huffed a breath, exasperated. "I’m the general of the queen, and I’m leading a coup that might overthrow her, so you better have something very important to say or I—"

"I’m pregnant." 

"—will tie you to that horse, and... what?" 

Clarke’s eyes widened, showing she had understood what Lexa said, and her hands went to her shoulders. "What?" she repeated because there was nothing else she could do. Lexa looked down at her hands, which were still gripped tightly on the coarse material of Clarke’s coat. She couldn’t stare the alpha in the eye. 

"That’s what I needed to tell you," Lexa whispered. Clarke’s eyes searched her face, focusing on the fresh wound on her neck, down to her chest, and finally on her covered abdomen. 

"You sure?" Her voice changed, with a tone of reverence overtaking her earlier despair. Lexa found the courage to look up, finding dark blue eyes again and nodding. Not as far away as Clarke hoped, an explosion sounded in the royal Azgeda complex. A cacophony of voices and shouts cut through the night.

They were running out of time. 

Clarke embraced her lover, pulling her as close as she could, a desperate need to engrave the scent in her mind. When they pulled apart, Lexa did not comment on the coat of wetness on the alpha’s eyes. Clarke drew away with a final nod, a trembling hand over Lexa's covered tummy.

"Name her something soft," Clarke said when she looked up. "Soft but strong."

Lexa swallowed nothing as she nodded. Reluctantly, Clarke stepped back.

A bulking figure stopped at the door. Before Lexa could jump away, the tall man exchanged curt words with Clarke in the harsh way they spoke in their native language. Lexa didn't need to understand the language to understand war.

"You need to go," Clarke repeated with a firm hand on Lexa’s back. "Anya is waiting for you outside." With a single kiss to chapped lips, Lexa left the room where, minutes earlier, she had almost died.

Lexa, Anya, and Gustus made it a few miles away from the Azgeda palace before they heard new explosions. 

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A fortnight had passed since Lexa made it to Polis. The journey under the storm had made her feel sick, but she wasn’t sure if it was worry or the growing pup inside her. Other clans already knew of the battles happening in the Ice Nation, but no one knew who had emerged victorious. The Coalition had vowed to not intervene, and instead wait for the Azgeda leader, whoever that may be: a rebel general or the ice queen. 

It was late into the night when a knock on her quarters' door woke Lexa from a slumber. She had fallen asleep on her desk, reviewing letters from worried ambassadors. The knock repeated, and Lexa groaned, adjusting her shirt before ordering her guards to open the door. 

"Heda, a messenger has arrived." Noticing the urgency, the guard completed, "A messenger from Azgeda." 

Lexa nodded, stepping outside to make the trip to the main floor of the tower, where she met the messenger. When she arrived, with her sash and coat, she greeted the boy with a nod. Snow was still frozen on the pitiful attempt at a mustache on his red face. He couldn’t have more than fourteen summers, but his warrior scars were long healed. 

"A message for Heda Lexa." He took a respectful bow, even though his legs shook in exhaustion. "For Heda’s hand only," he insisted, a folded piece of paper in his hands. 

Lexa took the paper and ordered her guards, "Find him something warm to eat and a place to rest." 

Before the redheaded boy could leave, he bowed once more to Lexa. "A message, Heda, from King Roan." 

Lexa’s heart fluttered at the news. Her eyes remained calm, and she nodded at the boy. 

King Roan.

Not Queen Nia.

She smiled.

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Winter's deep, cold claws were receding from Polis, and the first flowers bravely emerged from the warming soil. With another treaty season on the horizon, new Council meetings loomed, and ambassadors and their representatives filled Polis with different colors and products. The market was as alive as ever, with pups running around among the new scents. 

Black consumed the sky in the late winter night. Lexa shuffled in bed, sleep a hard commodity as her body adjusted to the changes. The wind agitated the curtains, and there was a quiet grunt as a body rolled from the window without a single ounce of grace.

Lexa smiled into her furs.

"Bloody hell, this tower is so high." The woman inhaled deeply from the ground, her arms spread wide across the wooden floor. "Why do you stay on the top floor again?"

"It’s not the top floor."

Clarke made her way from the floor to the bed, and they both sighed in relief as they met in a long-awaited hug. Lexa melted against the arms around her.

"I missed you," Clarke whispered over the intricate braids, nudging the soft skin behind Lexa’s ear. 

"I wasn’t sure if you would make it. Ambassador." She turned to meet Clarke’s eyes, both their hands resting instinctively over Lexa’s belly. Clarke stared between them in awe. 

"You’ve grown."

"Measure your words." 

"I missed you."

"Please use the door next time."