“Murphy,” Lexa is sprinting three paces behind the boy, trying her hardest to step carefully at almost full speed.
“Please, tell me you saw that!” Murphy cries over his shoulder causing a raven to his right to soar into the air, cawing it’s disdain at him as it goes.
“Keep quiet,” is her hissed reply as she finally catches up to the dark haired boy. She reaches out and grabs the thick fur of his winter jacket before yanking him back harshly.
“Come on, Lex,” Murphy pants as he fights against her ridiculously strong grip, “it was a ship.”
The boy’s long hair is falling over his sharp features haphazardly. Really she doesn’t get how he sees a thing at all under all those twirls. His eyes are wild with wonder, something Lexa hasn’t seen since they were young. She doesn’t like it. That Murphy would get lost. That Murphy would get hurt. That Murphy was the biggest burden of Lexa’s life.
“Ships are not safe,” Lexa seethes, her hot breath ghosting inches from his face, “they bring skypeople. You know what happens to skypeople.”
It’s the very reason why Murphy lost that wonder in the first place. She found him in one of those ships. She protected him, she raised him and now at sixteen he should know better. As a child every time he’d show curiosity at something every normal grounder child should now, someone would notice and they would move. Looking back now, Lexa still doesn’t regret stamping out that light. She did it for his survival. Just like they wandered from clan to clan for his survival, until finally they wandered into Niylah’s trading post. Now they’re as safe as they can be. Now they’re as comfortable as they can be. They survive.
“Yeah, I do,” he spits back, his blue eyes flickering ablaze with a chilling anger all too quickly, “and I won’t let that happen again.”
He uses a sharp elbow to finally dislodge her tight grip around his furs. Before she can grab him again, he’s clambering up the final ridge to the ships smouldering crash site.
~
Smoke.
It’s all he can taste. All he can smell. All he can see. Wait, no that just the inside of his eyelids.
Alright. Landed. Probably not dead. Still a little hard to tell. Can’t feel much. Could have done a bit of spinal cord damage there on impact. Oh well. It was worth the shot. At least they’ll go out down here rather than being sucked out an airlock up there. Octavia’s safe and free.Something she’s never been before, but now she is, because of me.
That’s all Bellamy has to remember as he fades back into unconsciousness.
~
Ash.
It’s an underrated beautiful thing, especially when it’s mixed with something as pure as snow.
As Murphy crosses the final line of fallen trees, he sees it. The ship. It’s an odd shape. Nothing like the one from his nightmares. All panels flying off and flashing lights and horrified screams. Maybe, that isn’t the best thing to think about right now. Behind him he can hear Lexa climbing over the black smoking tree, for some reason her silent agility seems to scream at him.
“Wait here,” she mumbles, pulling her sword from its hilt in one fluid motion. Murphy knows it’s probably a good idea to listen to her once she’s yanked the sharp blades out so he stays put as she side steps around the wreckage.
He’s left to shiver in the dying heat as she all but vanishes for a torturously long time. Okay, it’s really only been a few moments but Murphy can’t help but slowly inch his way around the ship, messy hair first.
“Lex?” He calls, more than a little worried now. “Please tell me your cape didn’t catch fire again.”
“Shut up, Murphy.” She murmurs back. She’s very carefully perched on the ships open door now, leaving Murphy to wonder just how she got up there without a single noise. The small ship is on its side, Murphy can tell that at least but he’s lost as to what could be inside it.
“Damn.” He whispers back coming to stand at her feet.
That got a smile. Well, Lexa’s version of a smile anyway.
He thinks she might say something soon, maybe tell him it’s time to go or even look at him. But no, she’s just crouched there, glaring into the ship like it might swallow her whole at any second.
“That’s it,” he eventually grumbles, reaching both hands up to grip the edge of the door.
“Careful,” she snaps, not bothering to even offer him a hand as he loudly steps up beside her.
“They’re breathing,” she mutters more to herself then him, “just.”
“How do you know?” Murphy timidly questions once he’s got his own breath back. Just inside of the ship is what he first thought might have been some form of monster. Of course, then he realised it’s just one of those helmets Emori likes to bring on her visits. She always brings stuff from up there for him. Maybe this time he can take this one for her. Except this one’s attached to some sort of full cloth he’s never seen before, probably with someone in it.
“The inside is fogging up,” she whispers back. He can just make out her weary expression in the reflection. “Here,” she says even softer ten before as she lowers a gloved finger down to the glass.
“Pressure stabilization, screen opening.”
The pair jump back in fear at the ear piercingly loud tin like voice. Murphy only just manages to catch Lexa and the side of the ship before they go crashing back to the ground.
“Who was that?” She breathes, sword tightly clutched in her hand and dangerously pointed at the large contraption.
“I don’t think it’s human.” He breathes back, too focused on trying to chase the memory that voice triggered in the shadows of his mind to let go of his death grip on Lexa’s arm.
The braid loving girl shoots him a very doubtful eyebrow in the reflection of the now more than alarmingly noisy helmet.
“No it’s like a…pre…recording?” He tries but the word sits strange in his mouth. Like when Niylah’s dad forgets one of the ingredients in his autumn stew.
“Wait,” Lexa hisses through her teeth, “get behind me.”
“Um, might be a bit hard right now.” Murphy mutters, still trying to figure out why they’re whispering since the person inside the ship obviously isn’t waking up anytime soon. The creepy tin voice is still firing off incredibly confusing words at them. Murphy has to stick both hands over the top of the open door to stop Lexa shoving him down the sheer drop behind them regardless. She’s done it to hide him from mobs before and he doubts she won’t do it again now.
“I think its opening.”
And she’s right. The dark screen is gradually lowering.
~
Curls come first. Thick dark swirls plastered to a sweat beaded and blood smeared forehead.
Then lashes. The kind that swoop down to touch cheeks littered with freckles.
Then a nose covered in said freckles. Murphy’s really into the freckles.
Almost as much as he is into the masculine chin and jaw. You’d think they’d seem out of place above lips so soft.
Their pink colour kind of reminds him of Emori’s, but not in the way he saw them after his first (and last) kiss.
Really, the whole face below him may or may not be the best thing he’s ever seen, but those lips have to be his favourite thing on this Earth.
Then the skyperson opens his eyes.
Murphy breathes out for what may be the last time in his entire life and he can’t seem to care.
~
Fuck that’s cold. Really, if Bellamy wanted to freeze to death he would have stayed in space. He should probably be opening his eyes now since there’s a strangled noise above him shortly followed by the very distinct feeling of a sharp blade digging into his Adam’s apple. His eyes open.
Blue.
Too blue.
The kind of blue that hurts.
The blue he’s been peering down at for as long as he can remember, and it’s not the sky.
Its eyes. Then it’s a red mouth. Then all harsh edges of a nose and a jaw and my, those cheekbones that force their way around the blurry edges of the space man’s sight.
Bellamy breathes in for what may be the last time in his entire life and he can’t seem to care.
~
“Is that another fucking baby?”
~
(6 months later)
“No.” Lexa’s standing on a chair in Niylah’s shop, one arm around a screeching two year old Octavia and the other tightly gripping Murphy’s wrist. “You are still sixteen. You are not going with him.”
“What were you doing at sixteen again?” He hisses up at her, not deterred by her glowering scowl at all.
“I was running away from a fucking assassin flame keeper and oh, I don’t know, avoiding my destiny to become Heda to save your pale skinny ass.”
“Language! Also, you should let him go,” Niylah sighs from the sidelines before she’s quickly silenced by two matching death glares.
“I just want to show him the butterfly field,” Murphy’s resorted to whining now, really not helping his I’m an adult argument here, “nothing is going to happen.”
Niylah snorts in the background just as Octavia wails increase in pitch at the mere mention of the word butterfly.
“I. don’t. Care. I. Don’t. Trust. Him.” She’s practically simmering with fury now but Murphy just won’t get it through his thick skull.
“He’s. Not. Going. To. Hurt. Me.” Murphy parrots back, before yet again failing to pull his wrist away from the girl.
“BUDDERFIS!” Octavia’s face is flushed bright red with how hard she’s crying.
“Octavia, please!”
“Bellamy, please!”
The pair screech at the siblings just as Bellamy steps forward to take Octavia from Lexa. He isn’t even going to try to pry Lexa’s fingers off of the other love of his life.
“He’s a skyperson, Murph!” Lexa says before she can even gather her thoughts over the raucous of the room.
“So am I, Lex.” Murphy says it far too softly for anyone but her and Bellamy to hear but for some reason that hits hard in her gut.
“After everything I…” She breathes, she isn’t even bothering to look at him now, instead deciding the roof is far more interesting.
“I’m not leaving,” Murphy declares, forcing her to look down at him with two lean fingers wrapped under her chin, “we’ll be back by dawn. You know that.”
The best friends enter into a silent eye conversation private enough that even Octavia gets the message and reduces down to hiccups.
“I’m going to bring him back. I have to. Octavia’s here.” Bellamy eventually mutters into his little sister hair.
Murphy’s eyes finally flicker away from Lexa’s grey pools to meet Bellamy’s brown embers instead.
The way they instantly shift their weights to gravitate toward each other seals Lexa’s fate.
“Fine,” she finally groans through her teeth, “but if he comes back and you’ve touched him in any way, I am skinning you and selling your remains to Niylah’s highest bidder.”
Across the room, the other girl lets out the chuckle she’s been holding back ever since Lexa climbed onto her favourite chair to get Octavia way from all breakables.
“And then I’m going to sell her for fucking recommending this in the first place.”
“Language,” is the blonde’s only answer as she glides out from behind her counter.
“Now,” she begins as she unwraps Octavia’s chubby arms from around her brother’s neck, “for you, I have a special clay butterfly.” The way the little girl’s puffy eyes light up at the deformed mush seems to ease some of the concrete tension out of Lexa’s shoulders. “And for you two,” she smugly grins, “I have some of supplies you requested.” The tension is back twofold in the two seconds it takes her to say ‘supplies’ like that. “And last but not least Lex, O and I are gonna get out of your hair tonight for your special delivery.” Bellamy is really admiring the fact Niylah hasn’t fled halfway across the dead zone by now to get away from Lexa.
“Say hi to Costia for me,” Murphy teases as he uses one lithe hand to snatch Niylah’s pack and the other to entwine his fingers with Bellamy’s. “Well see you at dawn!” Bellamy yelps over his shoulder as he’s dragged toward the front door by the younger boy.
“In anyway, you hear me!” Lexa cries in her best commander voice as Murphy sends her one final pissy look and slams the door.