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Clarke's pov
The beeping of Clarke’s alarm wakes her up, she hits snooze and rolls over to burry her face in the pillows. She misses the grumbles that Lexa makes at her alarm. she misses snuggling into Lexa’s warmth until the snooze runs out and sets the alarm off again. she misses Lexa’s arms squeezing her, trying to hold her in the bed just a few more minutes and her sleepy voice saying not yet. She misses the smell of Lexa on the sheets and pillows. Clarke misses everything about Lexa. She has been gone for 8 months and 16 days. This is the longest she has been gone. Deployments on an aircraft carrier usually last between 6 and 9 months. Lexa’s were typically closer to the 6 month mark, the longest had been just over 7 months,until now. Clarke missed her girlfriend damn it. The alarm goes off again and Clarke rolls over and stares at the ceiling.
She sighs and reaches for her phone, she shuts off the alarm and checks her email. Three from target, one from the school, four spam, and that's it. Tears start to cloud her eyes.
“Stop being stupid, she can’t email everyday, suck it up.” Wiping her eyes and shaking her head she opens the last email from a week ago and reads it….again.
“Clarke I miss you too. I’m sorry it looks like I will be missing our anniversary, but I hope you have a good day. Mine will be spent thinking of you. I still do not know when I’ll be home, I know this is frustrating, but it really should be soon. I hate sounding like a broken record. I am not sure what else to tell you though. I hate that I have been unable to call on this deployment. Anya tells me you have not been to see her and Tris, perhaps you can do that, something to pass time. I am still spending my days when not working making use of the exercise room and running on the flight deck between flights. And of course with you in my mind. It is as usual fairly boring aboard the Polis. I cannot wait to be home and have you in my arms again. I miss you. I miss you more each day. I will reply as swiftly as I can. Hopefully with news on my return.”
Lexa had missed holidays and birthdays, but somehow she had yet to miss an anniversary. Until today. They had been together four years today. Today was going to suck. She was going to spend their anniversary with a bunch of teenagers, most of whom only took her class hoping for a blow off class.
She throws the covers back and pushes off the bed to head to the bathroom, to shower using Lexa’s body wash again. Most of the bottle was now gone after using it every shower, she makes a mental note to buy more for when Lexa gets home. Shaving her legs while distracted and sad was a mistake she nicked herself.
After the nick to her leg Clarke’s day just continues to get worse, it seems she is destined to not only spend today without Lexa, but to also be miserable. The lid of her travel mug screwed on crooked and it leaked all over her shirt and pants forcing her to change. Which forced her to skip breakfast so she could make it in time for her first class. Driving to work was a nightmare, the usual 20 minute drive takes half hour thanks to hitting every red light and getting stuck behind what is possibly the slowest driver in the history of driving. Finally pulling into the school parking lot 10 minutes late, Clarke is officially in a bad mood. Though she is unable to figure out if she is mad, grumpy, or just sad.
She rushes to her class to find the door open and her students working on their projects already, and her best friend at her desk. Octavia Blake, friends with Clarke since high school, sits in the chair with her feet resting on the desk.
“About time you got here Griff. Rough morning?” Octavia says quietly as Clarke sets her cup and bag on the desk.
Clarke’s shoulders slump, she sighs, and leans against the desk.
“That would be an understatement. Thanks for getting my class going. Not that I don’t appreciate it, but why did you get my class going? You usually sleep the extra hour, especially now that you have a certain mechanic keeping you up.” Clarke keeps her voice low so as to keep private conversation away from the gossipy ears of her teenage students. Glancing back she can tell a few girls who sit closest to her desk are trying to overhear as they are all rinsing clean brushes and one of their projects has tipped over.
“I figured with today you might have issue getting motivated. Happy anniversary by the way. Four years and still not married, I owe Bell 20 more dollars. I bet him every year that commander heart eyes will propose, and it still hasn’t happened” Octavia makes no effort to quiet her voice.
“You bet on us getting engaged? Is it just you and Bellamy or is it everyone else too?” Clarke’s tone is a mix of exasperation and amusement, and maybe a little bit of hurt. She has been waiting for Lexa to propose. She understood waiting until Lexa made Lieutenant, but when she made it 2 years ago she thought it would have happened by now. They had had conversations about getting married, having kids, their lives. Lexa had expressed that she wanted to propose. That it was important to her. They had talked about what they wanted for a wedding. Last year Lexa had even asked the blonde what type of engagement ring she would like.
“Well mostly me and Bell are the only two anymore. Murphy gave up after he lost 100 betting you would get married when we all went to Vegas a few years ago.” Octavia already regretted bring this up. She knew it was a sore subject, and once again opened her mouth without thinking.
“That was only 6 months into dating.” Clarke rolls her eyes.
“Yeah but Lexa has always had serious heart eyes for you. Like its gross.” The blonde can’t help but smile, Lexa for being an officer in the military has always had issues masking her love for Clarke.
“Stop it, like you don’t have heart eyes for Raven.” Clarke teased back, pushing her sadness down, she wants to enjoy talking about Lexa, and not let it make her more sad on their anniversary. Octavia goes to reply when she hears whispers of Raven’s name at the table closest the desk. The girls seemed to still be eavesdropping. Octavia being the gym teacher was not used to having to worry about that happening, her students were always being forced into some activity. The brunettes ears start to turn red. Clarke follows her friends line of vision to the whispering girls.
“Last time I checked it didn’t take 5 minutes to rinse a brush, and it is hard to paint something that is tipped over. Back to work.” She uses what Lexa calls her teacher voice and all three girls blush and get back to work. Octavia gets up and hugs Clarke and tells her she is heading to the gym if she needs her. Clarke sighs and sits in her chair looking at her class. She really fucking misses Lexa and as chatter breaks out around the room again she is really regretting not taking the day off to wallow in bed all day.
Lexa’s pov
Lexa fixes her hat on back on her head and straightens her uniform. She is finally back home, well almost. The USS Polis arrived back in port in San Diego late last night. Lexa took the first available flight back to D.C. that morning. Now she was waiting on her ride. Raven was supposed to pick her up, but she couldn’t see her anywhere. Trying not to panic the brunette starts to pull out her phone when she hears someone shouting.
“COMMANDER! HEY COMMANDER LEXA!!” Lexa’s head snaps up and sees Raven Reyes yelling and waving a sign that says Commander Heart-Eyes. She can’t help but smile, even as she feels the back of her neck heating up and her cheeks flushing. Making her way over Raven meets her halfway and pulls her into a hug.
“Commander glad you could make it. This is going to be the most epic anniversary surprise ever. Clarke has no clue. Octavia texted me saying Clarkey was all sad and missing you and pathetic. I can’t believe you never tried to surprise her before.” Raven rambles at Lexa leading the way out to her car.
“She’s really sad, is she okay? Has she..” Raven cuts her off.
“She has been sadish the whole time, but like okay. Its just today, you have always been here for anniversaries. And Clarke isn’t liking that the tradition is being broken. Besides I would be worried if I was you if she wasn’t sad.” Lexa sighs in relief knowing that Clarke wasn’t overly miserable the whole time. She can’t help but worry about her blonde love while she deployed. She knows deployment is hard. Lexa remembers waiting for Indra and later Anya to return from deployments when she was younger.
“I’ve told you guys I’m not a Commander yet, I’m not even a Lieutenant Commander yet.” Lexa has been trying to get this through her friends heads since they learned she was in the military. Well that and since the day she took over paintball game commanding everyone like it was a military drill. Hence the nickname Commander.
“It's not a rank with us, its attitude.” Raven teases, expecting Lexa to come back about how she doesn’t have an attitude she is a serious officer, but there is no response. Glancing at the officer next to her she sees a bitterly leg and nervous glances at the clock.
“Calm down Lex, we will be there soon. I can’t tell if you’re nervous or just anxious to see your girl” Lexa stops her leg from bouncing and looks back to Raven.
“Both, I don’t want Clarke to be mad. She is going to think I kept this from her. I knew that we would be returning very soon, and I figured it would be around today, but I didn’t want to give her false hope that I would make today, or even this week. I only found out for sure 3 days ago. I figured it would be romantic, but now I’m concerned.” Lexa’s voice is a little shaky and Raven can’t figure out why this is making her so nervous.
“It's stupid romantic Lex. Clarke is going to be too happy just seeing you to actually be mad. She is going to eat this up, and you guys will have a great anniversary. So chill alright. You’re making me nervous and I don’t have anything to be nervous about.” Lexa sighs, she knows Raven is right. But she has never surprised anyone like this. She has seen the videos on youtube, but has never been able to keep it from her loved ones that she would be returning. She could never justify making them wait and worry. Logically she knows being on an aircraft carrier is not one of the more dangerous military deployments, not by a long shot. Not compared to Anya and the army when she would go to war zones. Bug she knows that they worry still. She shakes her head to try and clear it and looks back to Raven and notices a dark spot under her ear. A hickey.
“Reyes is that a hickey I see there.” She reaches over and pulls down the latina's collar of her jacket a bit only to have her hand slapped away. Raven’s cheeks start to blush.
“Who is it? Wick again? I thought you guys ended that.” Raven’s cheeks turn more red.
“It's not Wick. I’m seeing someone new.” She mumbles the last bit and grips the steering wheel tighter.
“Someone new hmmm. Who? Clarke didn’t say anything in her emails?” Lexa smirks, distracting herself from her nerves by teasing her friend.
“We asked her not to, we didn’t want people to know until we knew it would work. And when we figured it would we kind of just decided to keep it on the downlow still so we didn’t have to deal with people yet. I mean it's only been a few months.” Raven is staring out the wind and mumbling. So Lexa figures she must know the person she is seeing.
“So who is then? It's not Bellamy is it? Why would you want to keep it hidden?” Lexa asks.
“Not Bell, but he is kind of the reason we want to keep it quiet. We are afraid he won't react the best.” That confused Lexa. Why would Bellamy be upset? Who would Raven date that would make him mad. Unless, it was, no it couldn’t
“Wait you’re not dating Octavia are you?” Lexa chuckles a bit and watches and Raven's eyes shift to her and her knuckles turn a bit white on the steering wheel at Lexa’s laugh.
“Oh you are? That's great Rae. I know you have liked her a while, but well, I kind of figured she was straight.” Lexa tries to bleed honesty into her tone so that Raven knows she isn’t making fun of her.
“So did I, but I guess not. She says she doesn’t want to label it. That she has only really liked guys in the past, but she really likes me.” Lexa can hear Raven’s voice starting to loosen up. Her knuckles have gone back to their normal tan color.
“How's it been, finally getting the girl you have pined for?” Lexa asks, letting a teasing tone back into her voice.
“It's been great. It was a bit rocky for awhile because I was worried she would changer her mind and go back to guys exclusively, but we talked and we are good now. BUT enough about me we are here, time to go surprise your princess.” Raven smiles as she pulls into a parking space and is relieved to be done having her relationship questioned. She still is uneasy talking about it, like talking too much will make it disappear.
Lexa gets out of the car and fixes her hat back on her head and brushes the wrinkles out of her pants the best she can. She puts on her war face and start toward the school.
“Whoa there commander you're going to see your girl not to war, we talked about this. Chill.” Raven says grabbing her arm. Lexa doesn't respond but loosens her back and relaxes a bit as she continues on to the front doors.
They have to stop at the office to receive their visitor passes before they can head to the art room. After explaining to the office aid, then the principal’s secretary, then the principal what they were there for they were given the passes. The office aid leads them to Clarke’s class, even though both Raven and Lexa tell him they know the way. The are intercepted at the stairs by Octavia.
“Thanks Monty, I’ve got it from here.” Octavia sends the boy back to the office. She kisses Ravens cheek and hugs Lexa.
“Ready to surprise the princess, Lex.” Octavia smirks and Lexa gulps.
“Has she been this nervous the whole time?” Directing the question to Raven. Lexa follows along ignoring the conversation. Her nervousness at Clarke being upset with her replaced with a nervous excitement at finally seeing her girlfriend again. Lexa hears Clarke’s voice coming from just up the hall. Its husky and and perfect and it makes Lexa’s heart leap to her throat and drop to her stomach and double in speed all at the same time. Lexa has finally made it to the door and can see her. She is beautiful as ever. The class is loud and she looks annoyed but Lexa can’t focus on that all she can see is Clarke everything else blurs to the background.
Clarke’s pov
“Okay you guys. I let you talk, listen to music, let the creative juices flow. But you have to work. I can only let you have this freedom if you actually use it positively. I don’t believe that a strict environment will make good art, but you need to actually create the art.” The blonde is frustrated. She has a headache and every class has been difficult. It seems like everyone wants to talk and no one wants to actually work. And the few who do seem to be having trouble do to all the disruptions. The class starts to settle down after her reminder, the third one for this class. She turns to head back to her desk and gasps as she drops her coffee, later she will be glad she is still using her plastic travel mug, but for now all she can see is Lexa standing in her service khakis.
Clarke’s eyes fill with tears and her hand goes to her mouth. The tears start flowing down her cheeks as she stares frozen.
“Happy Anniversary, Clarke.” Lexa’s eyes seem to be misty and her voice cracks on anniversary. Her voice seems to snap the blonde out of her shock. Clarke rushes forward and slams into Lexa. She buries her head in the brunette's neck. And she is surrounded by Lexa. Her warmth, her smell, her heart beat, her everything. Everything Clarke was missing this morning and wishing for is here. She is sobbing into Lexa. Lexa is sniffling and has her face buried right in Clarke's hair.
Lexa’s pov
Lexa wraps her arms around Clarke and it feels like she can finally breath again. It's like she just caught her breath and somehow lost it at the same time. Clarke smells like Lexa’s body wash.
“You’re really here? I can’t believe it. You didn't miss it. I love you” Clarke has collected herself enough to pull her face back just enough to talk into Lexa’s ear. Lexa can’t help the shudder that runs through her body at the feel of Clarke’s breath and the sound of her voice.
“Yes I’m here. I love you so much. So much Clarke.” Lexa replys tightening her arms around the blonde for a second before pulling back. Clarke’s face is wet with tears, but her eyes are bright and a smile is on her lips. And Lexa is helpless, she can’t stop herself. She reaches her hand up and cups the back of Clarkes neck and pulls. The kiss is soft. They move their mouths slowly, rediscovering each other, lost in the moment. Lexa pulls back and brushes her nose against Clarke’s as she changes angles. Their lips meet again. After a moment Clarke pulls back at the sound of clapping. The sound brings Lexa back to the moment. Clarke’s students are clapping. Clarke is completely flushed, her face, ears, and neck are blushing. It seems she had forgotten about her students. Looking at the blonde Lexa is overcome with how much she loves her. The naval officer can't wait anymore, this is the moment. Lexa grasps Clarke’s hand.
“I have missed you so much Clarke. I love you. I couldn’t imagine loving you more, yet everytime I see you I am proved wrong. I love you more every single time I see you. You are more beautiful than any art masterpiece. You have been with me through every moment since we met. The deployments, the hard times, and the good. You have made everything in my life better. I can’t go on without you being my wife.” Lexa drops to her knee, still holding Clarke’s hand. Clarke is crying again her hand is shaking in Lexa’s, but the brunette can’t tell because her hands are shaking just as much.
“Clarke Griffin, marry me.” It's not a question. It's a statement. But Clarke answers anyways.
“Yes, of course.” Clarke’s voice is choked, but it has never sounded more beautiful to Lexa. Following the pull of the hand in hers, Lexa stands and is pulled all the way into another kiss.
“I swear I have a ring, I just don’t have it on me.” Lexa says as she pulls back. Clarke smiles, as Lexa feels a nudge on her arm. Its Raven handing her a small box. She takes it and pulls out the ring to slide on Clarke's finger. Lexa pulls the blonde back into another hug. She is certain she has never been this happy. She hears Raven and Octavia in the background. Octavia asking if Raven knew, and the answer of Lexa being such a gay disaster she was bound to pull something like this. They are pulled back to the world by clapping again.
Glancing around a few of the students have tears in their eyes. Raven has a big smiled and there are tear tracks on Octavia’s face, and a phone in her hand.
“I love you so much” Is whispered into her ear and a kiss is pressed to her cheek. Clarke grabs her hand and pulls her over to their friends. The students asking questions. All Lexa can think is this was perfect and she is so happy she made it in time for their anniversary.