Part III
"Ai skiv ai op … Gon nemiyon kom … Manik deya", Murphy was mumbling what he heard Luna and Raven say just mere minutes before. He was pretty sure he wasn't getting it right, less did he know what it really meant. Emori was trying to teach him her tongue for a while now but he wasn't a very attentive student and she wasn't a consequent teacher. More often than not they rather made out than going through the motions of him learning the language. But Murphy knew it would make her happy, and maybe learning Lunas meditation, or whatever shit that was after Raven went ballistic on him, could help them in the long run. In the long run, huh, as if they really had a chance. They were all out of their wits, Murphy was sure of that. It would be a miracle if they really could find a cure in this godforsaken place before the world burned down.
"It's the intention that matters", Luna said as she came into the office, he as sitting in. "Raven needs you, John. She's been in there a long time."
Murphy wondered about Luna feeling this compassionate of Raven. He had been surprised when she had come to his and Reyes aid after Raven went nuts after fucking up her simulation again and again. Luna had made sure in the last couple of days to be alone as often as possible. Murphy knew that she didn't liked them. He wondered why she gave them her blood to experiment on it. Was she afraid to be alone, the last survivor of a desolated planet or was she trying to be the hero here, saving them all?
"Well, in case you haven't realized. Raven hates my guts", Murphy said instead of asking Luna what her intentions where. You don't do things like that to people you hardly know, right?
"I don't think that was her talking."
"Oh, no, no, it was. You know that little limp she's got. Yeah, that was me", Murphy told her matter of factly.
"I don't think she hates you for that as much as you hate yourself." Luna voice was soft and maybe, just maybe, she was right. Murphy had been able to forget a lot about his time on the ark, the first days on the ground, in the dropship and being tortured at the hands of the Grounders who found him alone and hurt in the woods, when he was with Emori. She wasn't able to chase away all his demons. Not like Luna did to Raven with whatever meditation they did together, but Emoris presence helped him to put them away. Somewhere deep in the back of his heart and his mind, where it didn't hurt everyday. He also put away having crippled Raven. Even back then, when he had been stupid with the feeling of betrayal and wanting revenge for getting cast-out of the only group, beside his family, he ever felt like he had a place in, he didn't really wanted to hurt Raven. She hadn't even been on the ground yet, when the group decided that hanging him was a suitable punishment of a crime he didn't commit. Maybe one day, if they all lived, he could step up to Raven, eye to eye, and tell her that he was sorry. But for now, he couldn't let Luna get to him.
"Why do you care about any of this?", he asked instead, taunting her because offence was still the best form of defense, "You're the miracle, right? You're gonna live through the radiation either way?"
"Maybe I don't want to be the last person on Earth."
"Really? Why? Because that kind of sounds nice to me." Except it didn't, right? Because even now, just a mere few hours since he's seen Emori back at the mansion, he was kind of missing her. The thought of them being the last people on earth, that really didn't sound so bad, though. Like Adam and Eve in a hellish paradise, burned down by an all-destroying death-wave.
oo oo oo oo oo oo
When they got back to the Mansion, half dragging Raven, because after her seizure she wasn't really back to her full strength yet, they put her directly into her room. She needed sleep; they all did after the day they had. Murphy sighed. Raven had almost, maybe, found a way up to space, just to get her ideas crushed by Clarke losing a fucking barrel of the fuel they needed. They were all fucked, but on the way back to the mansion, Abby told him, that they weren't done yet. She would try, they still had time. Murphy stood right in front of the bedroom he shared with Emori. He just took a moment to compose himself, pinching the space between his eyebrows with the tip of two of his fingers. He was getting a headache out of this fucking day. But when he went to the room, he had to smile despite everything. Emori was sitting cross-legged in front of the huge full-length mirror on the wall. She wasn't wearing her bandana and in the reflection of the mirror he saw that her face was clean and slightly reddened, her hair was damp and she was running the fingers of her smaller hand through it. Murphy wasn't sure if she was trying to comb it or to braid it.
"You showered without me?", he asked her, playfully scandalized. Emori grinned at the mirror and when she saw him grinning back at her in its reflection, her smile grew wider.
"It's like seeing yourself on the surface of water or in the reflection of shiny metal", she said, still looking into the mirror. "It's so awesome."
"You're awesome", Murphy said nonchalantly but truthful. He sat down behind he and took some strands of her hair in his hands and played around with them, not really able to braid it beautifully.
"What have you been up to today?", he asked.
"Sleeping", Emori grinned again. "Showering. Without you, so more water for me. I've been downstairs getting some food. You hungry? I left some for you."
"Yeah, later", he said, for once not hungry enough to get up from his position at her back. He started to pet her neck below her long hair with the tip of his fingers. The skin there was soft, softer even than every other part of skin he touched before, being protected by her thick hair and the bandana she was always wearing.
"Did you do something for fun?", he asked again, just to hear her talk.
"Showering was fun", she said. "I like Water. And I like eating."
"Duh, 'Mori. I do too", he huffed. "I played around with a toy-car today."
"What?", she asked dumbfounded and he tried to explain what a car was and how a remote control worked.
"I wanna see one, someday. A car", she said, looking at him now instead of at the mirror. Murphy leaned forward to kiss her and when he stopped, his face was just a few inches away from hers. He smiled, again, even if the day was shit and maybe they were all gonna die either way. But right now, all his demons, the fear of them dying along with the world itself was so deep in the back of his head, his heart preoccupied with how beautiful Emori was. All big eyes, as she looked right back at him.
"I lo…", he started, feeling out of breath and his words got stuck in the back of his throat, but it got lost on Emori, who was jumping up, before she even heard him speaking. She was grabbing at his hands and pulling him upwards.
"Let's go down", she said. "I discovered something." She was still holding one of his hands, as she made her way out of the room and down the stairs. There was nobody in the kitchen. It was dark outside and everyone was probably up in their rooms, fast asleep, except for Paul who might just be running around the front of the mansion. He was taking the guarding very seriously.
Emori opened the backdoor and he followed her outside to the pool.
“It’s warm. I heated it.”
“What, how?” Murphy held his hand into the water and it was indeed warm, not as hot as the water in the shower yesterday but it felt good on his hands, while cold wind was blowing through the woods further down the terrace and through his hair.
“Look over there”, Emori said and directed his gaze to lid next to the pool. Emori opened it and beneath was a touchpad just like in the shower. “I saw it when we were sitting here and I was bored without you, so I went looking. It’s cool.” Murphy grinned. She learned that word from him. Grounders didn’t say cool or badass, but he did and Emori was his girl so she did it to by now. That was hot as hell.
Murphy looked at Emori. She was once again grinning, proud of having figured out such modern tech all by herself and he was proud of her too. While most other grounder shied away from the things, they didn’t knew, Emori was drawn to them. And she was so so beautiful.
“Go swimming with me”, he said suddenly. She laughed.
“You told me you can’t swim.”
“Nah,” Murphy shed out of his clothes, only stopping at his boxers, “I’ll survive.”
“You won’t say that anymore, if you drown.” But Emori pulled off her clothes too, not stopping at her underwear. She didn’t wait a moment, but let her body slide into the water. “But don’t worry, I’m there and I’ll teach you.”
Murphy followed her into the water but he still held onto the cold stony edge. The water felt awesome on his body and he felt almost weightless. Maybe that was what Zero Gravity felt like. Murphy wasn’t sure if he would’ve liked to experience Spacewalking but being surrounded by warm water felt really nice.
“Take my hands”, Emori said and he first grabbed at her with one hand before taking the other away from the rim of the pool. Emoris hands were warm, almost as warm as the water and the feeling of her different sized hands felt soothing to him. By now her hands were more normal than any others. She was his normal.
"Just push your legs. Like I do", Emori said and he looked down. Even if the night was dark, the pool shimmered in an almost magic-like blue glow. It was lit from below the water surface. While watching how Emori moved her naked, slender legs in rhythmic moves, he wondered how it would have felt like to live in a life like this, a century ago. Skinny dipping at nighttime in the backyard of a mansion like Beccas. He couldn't imagine to live that life but he was happy to be able to for one night. Murphy was a survivor and he always would be, that was the reason he went back to this freaking island, but right now, in this moment, he wasn't thinking about survival. The only thing he was thinking about was Emoris naked, beautiful body in front of him. They could very well be the only two remaining people in this world, that was how it felt like that night. Murphy started to move his legs in quite the same rhythm as Emori did and he surged forward to capture her lips, while still holding onto her hands. He kissed him back, sweet and slow, but hungry for more. Soon her legs where slung around his hip, her back to the pool walls. He stood on his tiptoes, the water on this side of the pool was shallow enough to hold his head above it without making strange movements with his arms and legs. He felt Emoris body all over his own, her hands on his back, then in his hair. She was kissing him on the mouth and just below the point where the water broke at his neck. He wasn't thinking about survival, not tonight, surrounded by warm water, making love to Emori.