Chapter Text
«Once upon a time there was a princess named Alexandra who lived in a land devastated by monsters and wars» Madi hid herself a little under the duvet and looked at her mother with big, scared eyes.
«Mom, it’s a horror story! How can I fall asleep now?» Clarke smiled and stroked her child’s head, holding her tight.
«It’s not a horror story, my love, let me continue and you’ll see. So, once upon a time there was a princess named Alexandra who lived in a land devastated by monsters and wars. Alexandra wasn’t a normal princess, though, cause normal fairytale princesses always get kidnapped by witches and put in super high towers, with fire-breathing dragons guarding them and eating every knight bold enough – or fool enough – to try rescuing the princess-»
«Moooom!» complained Madi; she laughed and sat up from where she was hidden under the duvet, pouting. «I don’t wanna hear your story anymore, I don’t like it!»
«But the good part is about to come!»
«Really?»
«Hmm-hmm» Clarke nodded, barely holding a laughter. Madi looked at her, hesitantly, eyes reduced into two green cracks, as stinging as pins. «You have to know that Alexandra was a warrior princess!»
«A warrior princess?!?!» Madi opened her eyes wide and curled up against Clarke, suddenly interested again. Clarke burst into laughters and held her even tighter, giving her a noisy kiss on the forehead. The night was silent around them, the city almost asleep in that chill autumn evening. Only their laughs could be heard in that small, green painted bedroom. «Go on, mom!»
«Okay, okay» Clarke smiled and looked around her, searching for inspiration for that crazy improvised story. But she knew that was the kind of fairytales her daughter liked the most. They were both tired of reading books where the damsel in distress got rescued by the handsome boy on the white horse. Because in their world, things were a lot different. In their world… well, in their world girls usually were the ones rolling up their sleeves and doing the saving. It was Madi’s grandma, Clarke’s mom, Abby, that cured people everyday at the hospital. Her aunt Octavia was a cop and always caught the bad guys. And aunt Raven could fix anything, from a car to a crazy blender to the doll that didn’t talk anymore when you pushed its belly. Madi revered all the strong and brave women that inhabited her world.
Because, like her mom said when she thought Madi couldn’t hear her – the little girl heard her anyway, though – women in their world kicked asses.
«So?» Madi urged Clarke hitting her with her shoulder «What happens next?» Clarke wrinkled her lips smiling to herself.
«It happens that Alexandra was a warrior princess, right? And that means that nobody nor anything scared her. In her realm there were monsters and wars, that’s true, but she fought them with tenacity and courage. She had a beautiful sword that shone under the sun and with which she fought fiercely. ZAM ZAM ZAM!» Clarke pretended she held a sword in her hands and mimicked a wild combat against an imaginary enemy. Madi laughed and started fighting too, kicking away the duvet with her feet: the mattress was a battlefield now. «All the bad guys fell at her feet. She had an army that followed her in battle and that obliged all her orders, and the enemies quivered in front of their power. Even the most monstrous monsters ran away. The people adored her, because she was a caring a charitable princess, and she always helped her subjects.»
Clarke stopped for a second turning towards her daughter, who was watching her, out of breath because of that improvised fight. She had a mischievous light in her eyes that Clarke loved. Even if Finn and Clarke had divorced years ago and didn’t always see eye to eye, she would have always been grateful to him for helping her raise the wonderful girl that Madi was. Clarke had no idea what it would have been of her hadn’t Madi been there. After her father died, Clarke had fallen in what had looked like a bottomless abyss, dark and terrifying, which she had a lot of troubles emerging from. But Madi had given her a new reason to live. She had given her strength, she had given her joy. She had given her life.
«One day, Alexandra and her troops arrived at a village that had been attacked by the monsters» Clarke pulled the duvet back up and patted it to show Madi to get back next to her. The girl smiled and hugged Clarke like a small koala «The housed burned and all the little birds and the other animals had run away from the fire. The people had found refuge in the nearby woods, in a clearing where the kids always played during the summer. Among all the people there was a girl, Clarissa, that despite having lost basically everything, still held onto hope. She kept fighting and helping other people. Clarissa was a healer, and after the attack at the village she had immediately started mending the wounded, saving them from the flames.»
«Like grandma?»
«Exactly, dear, like grandma.» Clarke stroked her head and checked the alarm on the bedside table. It was almost time to go to sleep: Madi had to go to school the next day, and Clarke to work; they both would have to get up early «Do you know what happened next?»
«Nope what what what?» asked Madi, excited «Teeeeelll meeeeee!»
«It happened that, just like I said before, Alexandra and her soldiers arrived at the village, extinguished the fire and tried to save what was savable, which wasn’t much, but still something. Then they went in the woods to help the people who had run away. And right there, the princess Alexandra met Clarissa. And it was love at first sight.»
«Oooooohhhhh» Madi couldn’t hold back a yawn. She adjusted on Clarke’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Clarke tucked her in smiling lovingly «And then?»
«And then the rest of the story has to wait, now it’s time to sleep» Clarke kissed her again on the forehead and got up from bed. She turned the nightlight on and turned off the bigger one on the bedside table, and went towards the door. «Goodnight, my love.»
«’Night mom» said Madi, already half asleep. Clarke stopped next to the door to look at her daughter, smiling. God, how much she loved her. «Mom?»
«Yes, baby?» said Clarke coming back to reality from the daydream she had watching her little girl.
«Can I be a warrior princess like Alexandra too?»
Clarke snorted, amused, and nodded «Of course, but you already are a warrior princess. My little warrior princess.»
Madi smiled, sent her a kiss and fell asleep.
Clarke gently closed the door not to make a sound and went to bed as well.
That was how a simple bedtime story started it all. That was how the story of the golden-haired princess who fell in love with the green-eyed warrior began. Although not Clarke nor Madi knew it yet. They would have found out only later, little by little.
For that night, Clarke could only dream about beautiful warrior princesses, not knowing that she would have soon met one that would have stolen her heart.
***
Clarke had no idea what she had started with that bedtime story. It wouldn’t have taken much to find out, though.
Her ignorance lasted exactly a night.
«Mom, when I grow up I wanna be a warrior princess» began Madi the next morning, entering the kitchen to have breakfast. She jumped on the stool and crossed her arms, looking at Clarke with the determined stare of who’s not willing to give in.
«Good morning to you too, Madi» mocked her Clarke with a smile, without turning towards her. She wasn’t the best cook in the world and the eggs needed all her concentration. One day, maybe the last month – or was it the one before the last one? Clarke didn’t remember exactly the day – she got distracted for a second and it had finished with burned eggs and the smoke detector beeping like crazy. Better learn from the past and not repeat the same mistakes. Clarke poured the eggs from the pan to Madi’s plate, took some for herself too and sat next to Madi. The orange juice was already in front of them, and so were the cutleries, the napkins and all the necessary for an excellent breakfast.
Why hadn’t Madi dashed on the breakfast like usual yet, then?
«Madi?» Clarke called her, watching her with her eyebrows up up up. The girl stood still on her stool, arms crossed and determined gaze set on Clarke.
«I wanna be a warrior princess» she said, serious only like a ten years old girl could be. Clarke smiled and ruffled her hair – she knew too well Madi hated it; that was exactly why she did it – inviting her to start eating «’cause warrior princesses can’t fight with an empty stomach!»
Madi put her hair in order, stuck out her tongue to Clarke and finally started eating. She inhaled the scrambled eggs and drank her orange juice in one breath, then she jumped down the stool and ran to brush her teeth and take the backpack to go to school. Clarke hadn’t finished her eggs yet when Madi came back in the kitchen, all ready to go, and looked at her mother, waiting.
«So?» said Madi impatiently.
Clarke wore her gaze thin, not sure whether to scold her daughter or start laughing. «Let me finish eating, at least. And by the way, what’s with all this excitement? The trip to the museum is only in a week.»
«I wanna ask to Miss Fisher – the science teacher – how to become a warrior princess! She always knows everything!» Clarke rolled her eyes and hid her smile, but hurried to finish her breakfast and take her daughter to school. She brushed her teeth too (because a mother always had to set a good example) and took her bag for work, then Clarke took her car keys and with Madi exited the house.
Madi spent the whole trip keeping moving on her seat, suffering. Her mom didn’t want to drive faster. The music on the radio wasn’t right. The kids walking down the streets with their parents weren’t right either. They weren’t invincible warriors or monsters she had to slay, and the world wasn’t a desolate land to save. But most of all, she wasn’t a warrior princess yet.
Clarke stopped the car in front of the school and Madi rushed to unbuckle the seatbelt, but Clarke blocked her with a hand «Wait a second, Madi.»
Madi grumbled and turned towards her «Whaaaaaaaaatttt?»
Clarke raised an eyebrow and closed her lips in a thin line «First of all, you quit this behavior. Now.» Madi became red red red and murmured a «Sorry, mom» in the general direction of Clarke «This time I’ll forgive you, but calm down. I told you you can be a warrior princess, but with calm. Patience is the most valuable virtue a princess can have, did you know that?» Madi shook her head and looked at her mother, interested «She has to listen to all of her people’s complains every single day, it must be soooo boring! But a princess is patient and listens to everybody with a smile and a kind word. So don’t rush into things, okay?»
«Okay, mom»
Clarke gave her a smacking kiss on her cheek and said goodbye with a smile «Now go, and don’t have too much fun, princess!»
Madi laughed and kissed back, then she fled the car to run after her friends.
Clarke watched her shaking her head, a fond smile on her lips. Then she put into reverse and went to the art gallery where she worked. A warrior princess. She smiled, thinking about the little fantasies of her girl. The previous month she wanted to become an astronaut so badly she made Clarke paint a starry sky – with all the constellation in the right place – on the ceiling of her bedroom during the weekend. But just like the fantasy came, so it went away. And it would have been the same this time too. Madi changed her mind pretty often, she got obsessed with something for a certain period, and then lost interest and passed to another thing, like you do with new toys. Weren’t all kids like that, though?
Clarke wasn’t worried. After work she would have bought her a plastic sword that would have made her happy until she decided she wanted to be something else, and that was it. In the weekend Madi would have gone to Finn’s and she would have made him go crazy too – which Clarke didn’t mind, not even a bit. Madi was in that age where her dreams were big and wonderful, but at the same time impossible. It would have passed.
(Oh, was she wrong!)