Chapter Text
“Come on, we have to go.”
“Just a few more minutes, Clarke.”
Clarke impatiently tapped her foot as she watched Lexa fussing at the lion cub they found a few minutes ago. They almost walked past it if not for the whimpering sound that made Lexa turn her head to investigate. The instant Lexa saw the cub, she had fallen in love with it.
“Maybe we should take it with us.” Lexa said as she kneeled down to the ground and gathered the trembling cub in her arms.
“Lexa, we’re still two days away from Polis on foot. We can’t just go around and collect any animals that we like. We don’t have time to carry them with us.”
“Look at it, Clarke. Look at it.” Lexa said as she stood up and lifted the cub to Clarke’s face. The cub stopped making sounds and stared oddly at Clarke. Clarke stared back. There was something familiar with the baby animal but she couldn’t quite identify what it was. Then the cub extended its tiny paw to Clarke.
“And it’s all alone,” Lexa continued. She then embraced the cub tightly to her chest which started the mewing again.
“She,” Clarke said without thinking.
“What?”
“It,” Clarke pointed at the cub, “is a she.”
“Oh,” Lexa exclaimed as she lifted the cub again to examine it. “You are right,” she said as she glanced at Clarke with a nod and brought back the cub, who was now mewing contently, to her chest.
“Mama lion will probably be back here in here a few minutes. I don’t want to wait to see her reaction when she sees you playing with her baby.”
Lexa looked sorrowfully at the cub, then she sighed. “You’re probably right,” Lexa said as she placed the cub back down to the ground. “Good bye girl,” she said as she patted the cub one last time before standing up. They’ve only taken a few steps when they heard the cub mewing. This time, it sounded like it was crying again. The cub seemed to realize that the two humans were leaving her. She ran towards them as fast as her little paws carried her. The moment she reached Lexa, the cub rubbed her head on her boots.
Clarke looked at Lexa’s face and knew she lost this battle. In all the months that she knew her, never once had she seen the Commander show any emotion bordering on sadness and pain but now Clarke can see Lexa’s eyes watering.
Clarke watched Lexa lift the cub up again and nuzzled her with her nose. “We can’t take her away from her mother,” Clarke said without any conviction. The cub turned her head towards Clarke and looked at her oddly again. Then she started mewing in a slightly different tone as she moved her eyes to the area behind Clarke. Instinctively, Clarke examined the bushes and trees behind her. After a few seconds, she let out a silent gasp. Lexa was about to follow her when Clarke waved her away. With one last look at the ground, she walked back to where Lexa was standing with the cub in her arms. “I found the mama lion. She’s dead.” Then for the first time since finding the cub, she reached out to stroke the cub’s head gently. The lioness looked like she had been dead for at least a day. The cub must have found her and have been crying since. “We might as well take her.”
Sighing with unconcealed relief, Lexa fixed her hold on the cub and started walking towards the direction of Polis. Clarke followed behind them. They had been walking for almost four hours when Clarke started to feel something strange in her chest that she can’t quite identify. Then after watching Lexa nuzzle the cub once more and whisper God-knows-what in its little ears, Clarke realized what it was. She was jealous of the little cub.