Taming Chaos // J.M // The 100

Chapter 85

Ethan exits the tent with a blinding urge to just tuck tail and run, this time on purpose, and go find Murphy instead. He can barely keep track of everything, not with it taking place two days after his escape - or, escapes, if he counted the lighthouse. Two steps forward and five steps back.

Apart from needing to see how the Ark was doing, and being with Clarke again, there was one other that had him breaking in the damp soil.

Something right in front of Ethan, in fact.

He's blessed with the view of a familiar delinquent working her way through the bodies. Shoulders slumped, machete in hand, long brown hair pulled back in braids.

Dropping the jacket he has twisted between his fingers, he yells, "Octavia?"

Her head jumps from the ground to stare directly at him, "Ethan?" Octavia's hand lifts to shade her eyes from the sun, and breathlessly, she calls out, "Is that really you?"

Ethan's feet move for him, bursting from his stunned position glued to the grass. He only slows to a limping jog after tripping over his own throbbing ankle. 

Octavia makes up for his speed by slamming into him, throwing her arms around his shoulder and swinging from side to side.

The air is forced out of him upon impact, but Ethan's also smiling like an idiot.

"Ethan, oh my god. I thought you were -" The sentence hangs in the air, low and quiet. She squeezes him harder and buries her head against his neck, her breathing frantic.

Ethan squeezes his eyes shut, feeling every touch through to his skin. Safe. Comforting. "I missed you, god, I missed you so much." 

"Your hair - you're so skinny!" Octavia breathes out all at once, pulling back to grab his face and pinch his cheeks. "What happened? Where'd you go?" He's grateful when she doesn't point out the redness of his eyes.

"I'll tell you everything." Ethan promises, clamping his hands across her shoulders, feeling the muscle she's built over the months. "But we have a problem." He gestures towards the tent, forehead scrunching back up in stressed creases.

Octavia's face hardens.

He wishes things would slow down enough to process seeing Clarke and Octavia again, but before long they're already making plans to infiltrate Arkadia.

"I can get her inside." Octavia suggests, with an easy shrug.

Ethan, arms crossed, nods. "I'm coming."

He wants Pike to go down. And if he has to do it himself, so be it.

If Clarke has noticed his limp, or every supressed flinch, she hasn't mentioned it. She just nods. 

In fact, she hasn't been talking to him much at all.

Seria is hesitant to let him out of her sight after everything they went through, but in the end, she grabs him in a hug. Stares him down as soon as they part. Silently damning him if he ever thought of not coming back.

He laughs on the way to the Ark, head lowered, a mirthless smile quirking at the lips.

"Ethan?" Octavia prods, slowing down to match his admittedly lagging speed.

"No, no, it's nothing." Ethan looks up, from Octavia to Clarke and snorts, "It's just-" He shrugs, "I always imagined this epic reunion, you know? Now I'm on my way to the same poeple that kept me locked in a cage. And Bellamy's in on it."

It seethes in his chest. Anger, upset, regret. He can't tell which, lately.

Octavia locks her elbow around his. If she curls her fingers especially tight around his arm, refusing to let go anytime soon, she doesn't mention it.