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It's nearing Christmas, and the walls of Arkadia are decorated with the traditional red and green colors of the holidays coupled with the white blinking lights. Even some of the nurses and health workers are keeping the jolly spirit alive with their Santa hats. They do this every year, especially for the children who are spending the holidays inside the hospital.
"Hey, doctor."
"Hi, Grace. Is-?"
Clarke's interrupted before she even finishes her question. With how frequent they visit, the people there already know who she's looking for before she even fully steps foot inside. "She's over there with the kids. Been playing with them for hours now and she still hasn't run out of energy."
She laughs at that. "That's her, alright. My own toddler. Thanks, Grace."
She walks inside, feeling the genuine joy and innocence of the kids as she hears them giggle.
"Stay still, Wexa."
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry."
Clarke smiles at hearing those voices, feeling the fatigue from operating all day ebb away. She's been on her feet for hours after an open heart surgery, and as much as she would like nothing more than to find a soft, flat surface to sleep on for hours, she finds herself here, desperate for the hug she's been looking forward to all day.
The daycare is currently occupied by at least a dozen of toddlers whose parents are most probably on call and had no babysitters to drop their kids off to on short notice. Which does not seem to be a problem for the 2-year olds themselves, as far as Clarke can see.
She tries and fails not to melt when she turns and sees her favorite person in the middle of the giggling toddlers with what she hopes are washable markers on their hands.
Lexa, always proper, even in a losing battle with children, is sitting straight on the playing mat with her eyes closed. Chubby hands hold her face hostage as it's being treated as the young artists' canvas. Even her arms, which are already decorated with permanent ink, are not spared. Her tattoos are now a mix of colors that goes in all directions.
Clarke really hopes those markers aren't permanent.
One kid then softly taps Lexa's cheeks to get her to face her. "Hiw. Me next! Me!"
"Okay, your turn." Lexa bows her head a bit for the child, and then closes her eyes again.
Clarke tries to suppress a laugh as she sees Lexa scrunch her nose when a big red dot is drawn right on her nose.
Unfortunately, one blonde kid, Aden, hears her. "Cark! No look yet! No look yet!" He scolds her.
"Okay. Sorry. I'll turn around," Clarke replies, turning her back immediately from the art, praying to all the gods listening that her earlier peeking doesn't result to some tears. She doesn't think she can handle it after a long surgery.
"Clarke? You're here!" Lexa excitedly calls out to her.
She then hears some shuffling, and what sounds like some stern scolding from the kids to Lexa. "No! Stay, Wexa. Cark not here."
"But-," Lexa tries to argue. She eventually ends up surrendering to the army of children with a defeated, "Okay."
Clarke finds it so cute that she shouts back. "Yes, Lexa. I'm not here. Let them finish."
She hears a reply that suspiciously sounds like an "easy for you to say" which she chooses to ignore.
After a few minutes pass, they finally let Lexa go with a last "hiw! Your ears!"
Aden runs towards Clarke and drags her to Lexa. "Look! Look! Wexa's a leindeer!" He excitedly says.
Clarke turns around to see Lexa now kneeling on the mat, a bunch of toddlers still crowding her, her hands tightly held by even smaller ones. She's wearing her favorite white cotton shirt that is now fresh with streaks of colored markers. A big red circle sits dead center on her nose, and her cheeks are drawn with Clarke thinks are whiskers of different colors. Her emerald eyes are highlighted with dark colors that, in another life probably has the potential to look like a war paint, but in the hands of toddlers, make her look like a cute, little raccoon. A headband of brown antlers, which she guesses are the ears she heard, sits on her hastily brushed hair.
"Hi, reindeer Lexa!" She greets her, a full blown smile decorating her face.
"Wait!" Madi, one of the kids, hands Clarke a Santa hat. "This!"
After Clarke puts it on, Madi exclaims. "Santa Cark!"
Lexa lets out a laugh. "Santa Cark! That's so smart, Madi."
Clarke, reminding herself that she's surrounded by kids who are pure and innocent, tries hard not to make a sly innuendo to Lexa.
"Uhuh. You're one to laugh, Lexa the red-nosed reindeer."
Lexa consciously touches her nose, scrunching it in the way that Clarke finds very adorable it makes her want to kiss her every time she does it.
"Isn't she pwitty, Cark?"
Looking directly at the eyes she's fallen hard for, she replies. "Very pretty. The prettiest reindeer in the world."
Not to be outmatched, Lexa compliments her. "Well, you're the prettiest Mrs. Cark I've seen. Must be a match, the two of us, huh?"
"Yeah. We definitely are."
-
"You're always helpless when it comes to kids, Lex." Clarke says as she reaches for another wet tissue.
"You would be too once they get their chubby, little hands on you."
They're back home after their brief playtime in the daycare. Lexa always comes to Arkadia near the end of her shift so that they can go home together, the daycare becoming their meeting place after Lexa got bored of waiting in Clarke's office and then being disappointed when the nursery with sleeping babies is closed for viewing.
Lexa patiently sits on their bed with her eyes closed while Clarke cups her chin on one hand and softly cleans her face from the thankfully water-soluble ink that's been drawn on her skin with the other.
"Yeah, I would be," came Clarke's soft reply.
Lexa slowly opens her eyes, her greens meeting blue ones. "Do you think-"
Clarke takes Lexa's face in her hands, runs her thumbs on cheekbones she loves to stare at. "Yes. I think we're ready. And we've wanted our own family for so long. We're financially stable. We're mature, I hope. You're good with kids. I-. I think this house is too big for just the two of us."
Strong hands wrap around Clarke's waist, making her fall on top of its owner. "I think so, too."
They stay like that for a few minutes, hugging each other tightly, hands trying to compensate for the time, years lost that they weren't together.
"You know your nose is still red, right?"
"Let it. I'm a reindeer today, remember?"
"Yeah, well I'm too tired to be Mrs. Cark. I also am not a fan of beastiality so this is the best I can give you." Clarke jokes.
"Ew, Clarke. You've been holding on to that joke for hours now, aren't you?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that in front of kids. I'm not that kind of person."
"Let's just stay like this for a little while. I love cuddling you anyways."
At that, Clarke burrows further into Lexa, breathing in her scent as she settles on her side and lets sleep take over.