"Madi! Where were you? Do you have any idea how worried we were?!" Her sister screeched at her as soon as she entered the drop ship where Clarke had her hand on Jasper's chest. The older blonde wasted no time in turning to glare at her baby sister, furious bloodied hands going to her hips in a gesture of disapproval she copied from her mother.
"I was... Hanging out with a grounder." Madi replied breathless, sweat trailing down her temples and a dopey smile tugging at her lips.
"Seriously, Madison? This looks like a good time for you to joke around?!" Clarke snapped. "We were already gathering a search party and- You know what? I can't do this now. Did you bring the seaweed?"
"I wasn't-" Madi attempted to say.
"Did you bring the seaweed or not?" Clarke glared. "In case you haven't noticed Jasper has been suffering while you played rookie."
"Here." Madi lowered her head and handed her sister the red plant, smile all but wiped from her face. "I, I'm sorry, Clarke." She tried, only to be ignored as her big sister moved to dilute the herb and spread it on Jaspers, cleaned wound. "Do you need help?"
"I think you've done enough already." Clarke said, not a trace of emotion on her voice. "Monty, talk to him, he is waking up again." She ordered the teen who had refused to let his best friend out of his sight, completely ignoring the defeated blonde who slowly left the drop ship.
———
Madi looked like a deer caught in the headlights at the bulky stranger.
"Heeyy." She squeaked, clearing her throat at the unimpressed look she received in response.
"You dishonor me and my people." The stranger griped the hilt of a dangerous looking sword.
"Well, if we think about it you dishonored my people first by spearing my friend in the chest, so let's just call it even?" Madi out forward her cutest smile that (almost) always worked with the guards, but it seemed like this... person didn't get the memo because they just remained glaring as if challenging Madi to do something.
"You crash into our lands and call us cowards." The native's pretty brown eyes got stormier by the second. "I'll bring your head to my leader and prove my worth as a warrior."
At that the warrior lunged towards the girl and it was only years of living with teen criminals that helped her duck the first lunge. And the second one. And the third one.
By the fourth attempt on her life, she fell in the lake in a mass of flaying limbs coughing and sputtering as she spit the water out of her mouth.
Yep, she should've definitely came with a group.
"You're a warrior." The person (Madi was about fifty percent sure monkeys couldn't do what they had been doing) stared down at her from the shore, for the first time a semblance of emotion crossed her face, something akin to amusement.
"Or maybe you're just really lousy with a sword?" Madi suggested, pissed off at falling on her ass in a lake and making a fool of herself in front of the enemy. She was so busy on her self pity party she didn't realize or heard when the warrior moved and pressed their swords on her neck.
"You are weak and pathetic." The person glared. "But no other managed to scape my blade in battle. Of course, none of my people attempt to scape a fight, we die honorably." Madi wondered if the stranger was going to just standing there insulting her or if she'd just kill her already. "Regardless, you survived me. You'll live another day, Skai Branwada."
"Wha-" Madi attempted to inquire the grounder the second she felt the blade leave her skin, but by the time she managed to turn around there was no one in sight. For a second she wondered if she imagined the interaction, but even her mind wasn't fucked up enough to come up with something like that. "How the fuck did you do that?" She yelled at the trees.
Deciding she didn't want to try her luck with another grounder, she took off in the woods after her new acquaintance remained hidden and silent.
———
Taking a trek around camp to help around where she could was the way Madi found to deal with her sister's newfound intolerance of her presence. And with the fact that she almost got killed for the second time in two days.
"Where the fuck were you?!" The angry voice of her best friend broke through her gloomy haze as she helped putting up the wall. The other kids working besides her turned to her in a not at all discrete attempt to eavesdrop in todays drama.
Madi slowly turned around to the face the angry mob in the form of Octavia, Fox, Monroe, Miller and surprisingly Murphy. Though the last one was probably just there to see watch the argument as opposed to check up on her.
"Yeah! You can't just pull shit like that!" Octavia placed her hands on her hips with a glare.
"Okay, everyone, let's calm down." Miller attempted to pacify the situation before it escalated as the people working on the walls dropped the pretense of, well, working and turned to watch the confrontation unashamedly.
"I went to get Jasper his seaweed." Madi shrugged simply and turned back to the wall, no longer in the mood to talk. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got work to do."
"The hell you do!" Fox hissed, roughly grabbing her arm and dragging her out in the woods through the hole in the incomplete fence.
The rest of the gang followed along like some weird procession, all for the chance to yell at her, Madi thought bitterly.
"Okay, we are here." The lean blonde huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at floor the moment they were far enough from camp not to be seen or heard but close enough to be able to run back in case anything went south. "What did you want?"
"The fuck is wrong with you?" Fox venomous tone was enough to make her head snap up.
"I wanted to help." Madi replied but her voice came unsure in the face of the angry glares in the faces of the people she considered her friends.
"No, you wanted to die!" Octavia hissed. "Going out there alone like that, are you a fucking idiot?!"
"She's got a point there." Monroe mumbled under her breath.
"Okay, look!" Madi glared. "I'm having a pretty shitty day already without you all insulting me so if you don't mind kindly leave me alone."
"Okay." Murphy shrugged and made a move to leave the group only to be grabbed by Miller and dragged back.
"I don't trust you to walk around camp unsupervised." Miller said in lieu of a response.
"Jerk." Murphy glared but stayed put. "So are you going to start singing a song to the woods creatures about your hurt feeling now, or do we just wait here for another mutant monkey to kill us all?" The boy grumped at the other teenagers when no one said anything for a few minutes, too busy glaring at one another.
"Just sisters issue." Madi rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't get it."
"I would." Octavia said.
"Clarke isn't talking to me anymore because I told her that mom was the one who turned dad in and got him killed and her arrested." Madi deadpanned. "You think you can get that?"
"Wait, your mom turned your dad in?" Octavia asked shocked. "But Clarke thinks Wells did it! She told us yesterday after you were busy faking your death." She finished pointedly with a bite towards the end.
Murphy chuckle interrupted whatever Madi was about to say as the girl turned to him furiously awaiting an explanation.
"It was funny." The boy said nonchalantly, smile still tugging at his lips.
Madi couldn't help her little snort at that, go figures the only person who got her humor was freaking John Murphy.
"Can we focus on what's important please!" Fox glared ar the two giggling teens. "Your sister is mad at you so you try to kill yourself? That's not how people handle family issues, Madi!"
"Well, I wouldn't know." The tall blonde huffed, her arms crossing in front of herself protectively. "This is my first time actually having a family around."
"Madi..." Monroe, who had been happy to just watch the other grip at each other until now, attempted to come up with something to say to comfort the clearly uncomfortable delinquent.
"Look, I wasn't trying to kill myself." The impromptu leader insisted. "I wasn't." She reinforced when both Octavia and Fox opened their mouths to protest. "I just hoped that if I did something good Clarke wouldn't be so mad at me anymore. I know it was dumb, I just..."
"Well, next time you want to prove a point to your sister just come and get one of us. We'll help." Miller nudged her good shoulder with his. "Wait, are you wet?"
"Nah, don't worry, Nate, she isn't into guys like that." Fox said lightly, dissipating the somber mood, decided to simply talk better with her friend later.
"Dumbass." Madi shoved the ginger as everyone else laughed at her expanse.
"Clearly that wasn't what I meant!" The tall boy was blushing all the way to the tip of his years, thankfully his darker complexion prevented the blush to be all that obvious.
"Don't pout." Monroe teased her best friend. "No one is trying to take you away from Joey."
"Shut up, Zoe!" Miller mumbled, blush getting more visible by the second. By now even Madi was chuckling at his awkwardness. 'I meant she is wet as in her body not her, uh"
"Vay jay?" Octavia offered cheerfully.
"Oh my god." Miller placed his head on his hands. "I'm going now." He turned to go back to camp, only to be stopped by Murphy.
"You're not leaving now, this is just getting fun." John smirked. "Please, ladies, do tell us more about your 'vay jays'."
"Ew."
"Gross."
"I'd rather switch places with Jasper."
"You're disgusting."
"Yeah, we can go now." Murphy's regular frown had found it's way back to his face.
"No, now it's getting fun." Miller replied with his own smirk.
"Hey, you really are wet!" Octavia exclaimed as she leaned against Madi to watch the boys bicker.
"I mean, you're pretty cute." Madi teased, causing everyone to burst out laughing and Octavia to blush and punch her arm. "I fell in the lake when I was getting Jasper's seaweed." She said once everyone turned to her awaiting a response.
"What?!" Fox all but yelled. "You fell in the killer snake lake on your own?!"
"Madi, what the fuck?!"
"Are you okay?"
"Do you want me to get Clarke?"
"Did you get munched on again? Cool!"
"Guys!" She yelled. "I'm fine. Also, fuck you, John."
"Did Clarke check on you?" Octavia asked.
"I'm fine."
"You sure?" Fox gave her an once over.
"Yes! Now, c'mon, we've got a wall to build."
The group of six started trekking back to camp, each lost in their own heads or in parallel conversations, such as Fox, Miller and Monroe who were arguing over who was the cutest boy on camp. So far Bellamy was winning, which ew, Madi thought.
"Hey." She felt a nudge on her injured arm, hissing in pain. "Shit, sorry!" Octavia apologize. "Just wanted to say it sucks that Clarke isn't talking to you. For what it's worth, I think she is being an idiot."
"And you'd be an expert in idiots, right? What with being Bellamy's sister." Madi snickered in avoidance of acknowledging the girl's words. She was never the best at the whole communicating feelings thing.
"Right." Octavia snorted. "But then again, so are you. It's not Clarke is showing herself to be all that brighter."
"Big siblings are dumb." Madi agreed simply.
"And overbearing."
"And uglier."
"And annoying."
"Are you playing the insult game?" Murphy asked the girls seemly out of nowhere. "Can I join?"
———
It was nighttime of their second day on Earth and things could be going better on Madi's humble opinion.
The first issue was that they ate most of the snake the previous night, which meant today she had to figure a way to find food or risk a riot in her hands after everyone realized they worked for hours with no 'payment'. The answer came in the form of her now dry and ripped jacked, which had the smushed berries she got on yesterdays excursion still on its pockets. It didn't take long for her to assemble a group to go out and gather more berries so they could complement the dinner with the snake. It wouldn't be as satisfactory as their previous meal but at least it was something.
The second crisis arrived when another five fistfights broke around the camp, all over stupid arguments and she had to be the one to settle it. Though she thankfully had the help from her newly made friends.
The third issue was when, even though her sister spent the whole day attempting to make Jasper's injury better, the boy wouldn't stop screaming bloody murder, making more than one delinquent come to her demanding she do 'something'. Bellamy seemed particularly pleased at how their people's thick headedness, much to Madi's charging.
The fourth crisis, and the most emotionally draining issue in Madi's opinion, was the fact that her sister didn't acknowledge her the whole day. Whenever she stopped by the drop ship to attempt to offer help her sister would brush her off or demand she leaves. In fact it got to the point Finn started intercepting her because 'best not bother Clarke when she is trying to save lives'.
Now it was after dinner and Madi was making her way to the impromptu med bay with Clarke's, Finn's, Monty's and Jasper's food, as none had came to the fire pit earlier to eat.
"Hey, how is he?" The taller blonde asked, raising her voice slightly to be heard over the sound of Jasper's desperate screeches of pain. Finn, Clarke and Monty were surrounding the sick boy and formed a rather sad picture, reminding Madi of old painting of the plague she saw on her history books.
"Fine." Clarke answered curtly, quickly rushing around the upper floor of the drop shit in search for more herbs. They had moved Jasper up there after the noises he was making got too loud for the campers to handle, but so far that hadn't really helped as his screams were still being heard loud and clear from the outside.
"Really? Cause he doesn't look that good to me." Madi raised her brows. "Either way, I brought you guys some food."
"I'm good, thanks." Monty said immediately, while Finn moved to get his and Clarke's plate off her hands.
"You have to eat, man." The skywalker said gently.
"I'm not hungry." The lean boy replied simply, the despair in his face each time Jasper let out another wail speaking more of his discomfort than any words ever could.
"He is right." Clarke butted in, quickly crouching near Jasper and making him swallow more of the herbal concoction meant to help with the infection. "You need to eat, we can't afford for anyone else to get sick."
"Jasper is going to need his best mate healthy when he gets up." Madi approached Monty slowly as if not to spook him, gently handing him his food wrapped in a leave.
"She. Is. Right." Jasper spoke for the first time that day a sound leaving his mouth that was not a scream of pain. "Eat."
"Okay." Monty choked out, moving to do as his best friends said.
"You have to eat too, y'know?" Madi said once she saw everyone else seemed to be eating their food, Clarke and Finn talking quietly in the corner while they did so.
"Can't." Jasper whimpered before yet another wail of pain escaped his mouth.
"What if I feed you?" She shot him a little smile. "I'm sure Octavia would love to be the one to do this, but she is on wall duty right now."
"Dude, if you don't accept, I will." Monty attempted to joke, his try earning him a snort from the girl now perched on his best friend bed.
Getting Jasper to eat was long arduous process, not made easier in the slightest by the fact she'd have to stop after every spoonful to let him scream. That's not to say Madi didn't attempt to make things a little better for him though, she did her very best to maintain a patient and open face and to talk to the boy about anything and everything to take his mind off his pain, it was something she was used to, as it was among the only things she was really allowed to do when helping her mom at the med bay.
Monty did his best to help along, distracting Jasper whenever Madi ran out of things to say and holding his hands when the pain made the boy trash around. It took the two of them a while but they finally managed to make the sick delinquent eat all his food just before he passed out.
"Thanks." Monty whispered as soon as he was sure Jasper was out cold.
"Don't mention it." Madi whispered back, only then taking the time to look around the drop ship. She realized Finn must've left at some point while they're feeding Jasper because he was no longer around, instead their only other companion was Clarke and her penetrating gaze.
"Monty," Her sister came up behind the boy slowly and gently placed her delicate hand on his shoulder. "You should go, get some rest."
"No, I need to be here." The boy shook his head stubbornly. "What if he needs me?"
"You barely slept last night worrying about him, you need to rest." Clarke insisted, her voice going even softer.
"But..."
"How about this," Madi interrupted. "I stay here with him tonight and you take my tent? If he asks for you at any time I'll know where to find you."
"You are sure?" The teen asked after a beat.
"Yup." The taller blonde nodded. "Now go."
"We'll be here all night." Clarke promised when Monty turned to her.
The boy from farm station gently squeezed his best friend hand in goodbye and gave him a whispered promise to be back soon before leaving the upper floor, though not before Madi warned him to beware of possible bedmates showing up in the middle of the night in the form of a sleepy Fox seeking a comfy place to rest after her nightly fun was had.
"I'm sorry." Madi and Clarke said at the same time the moment they were left alone with an unconscious Jasper.
"Wait, what are you sorry for?" Clarke asked tilting her head.
"Finding the malfunction, telling dad about it, getting him killed, telling you about what mom did, not-" She was interrupted by her sister's arms sneaking around her waist and pulling her into a tight hug.
"Don't be sorry." Clarke whispered in her hear. "None of those things are your fault. If it weren't for you finding the oxygen issue and telling dad our people wouldn't even know there's anything wrong. It's not your fault he is dead."
"And mom?"
"And, and mom is not your fault either." Clarke sighed softly. "C'mon, I think we should sit down." The older Griffin guided her sister through the hand until they were both sat facing one another with their backs on the cold metal of the drop ship. "She made her choice." Clarke said after a tense moment of silence in which all she could do was stare at her little sister. "It's not your fault."
"It's not yours either." Madi squeezed Clarke's hand the moment she caught her sister self depreciating tone.
"I was there, I should've realized."
"How? How could you realize mom betrayed dad?"
"I... I don't know."
"This is not on you, Clarkey."
"Is this how our conversation are going to go from now on? Each of us trying to convince the other of their innocence?"
"I guess." Madi smiled a little. "Although, I have to admit, it kinda feels good to have someone believe I'm innocent for once."
"You are." Clarke shot her a smile back.
"What are you going to do about your friend?" Madi asked after a while of sinking in the warmth of her sister's companionship.
"What do you mean?" Clarke asked averting her gaze.
"I mean you have been treating the boy who apparently got himself arrested for you like crap and wrongly accused him of murdering dad, so..."
"Ugh, don't remind me." Clarke groaned. "What am I even supposed to do? Apologize? How can I apologize for that, I mean..."
"He is your friend, he did all this for you, he'll forgive you."
"I know." She sighed. "But I haven't forgave him."
"Clarke..."
"I knew. Deep down, I knew he wouldn't do it."
"Then why..."
"Because it was easier to hate him than the alternative, you know?"
"Not really." Madi squeezed her sister's hand. "But I can try to empathize."
"I just... I don't think I'll ever forgive him for letting me hate him."
"... Or maybe you're still trying to hate someone who isn't your mom?"
"Maybe there's also that." Clarke sent her a pained smile, whatever she intended to add to the conversation slipping her mind as Jasper's scream once more overtook the upper level of the drop ship.
"You go rest, I've got him tonight." Madi offered.
"No, I can do this, I-"
"Clarkey, I love you but you look lime crap. Go rest. I'll call you if we need you."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'll take a screaming Jasper over squabbling delinquents anytime, this is paradise to me." She joked, earning a tired a smile for her efforts and a hug of goodbye as her sister also took her leave. "It's you and me now, Jas, so don't die on me okay?" The teen begged the pained boy as she settled besides him for the night, his hand firmly grasped on hers.
———
Two whole days had passed since Jasper's first night back in camp and his screams weren't even close to getting better. He was in pain, feverish, terrified and, if Madi was being honest, terrible for morale around the camp.
Lately it felt like everyone everyone in camp did was ask her to 'handle that screaming kid', and Madi was a second away from a mental breakdown. It got to the point where Murphy got into his head to 'take Jasper out of his misery' by his own hand. Obviously that didn't fly well and he was stopped but still! She was tired.
So it completely justified what she was about to do.
"Hey! Grounder monkey person! Hey!" Madi screamed at the trees as soon as she found a clearing away enough from camp that she'd feel safe about being eavesdropped on. "Look, you almost killed my friend and threw me in a lake, the least you could do is talk to me!"
"I did not throw you in a lake, Skai Veida." A gruffly voice came behind her once more almost scaring her to death. "You fell out of your own incompetence."
"Oh, shit! You really need to stop doing that." Madi gasped, hand flying to her chest turning around so fast she got dizzy.
"You called." The grounder said simply, though there was a glint of amusement in their eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." Madi rolled her eyes. "Just give me a sec here, okay?"
After what was defined more than a second the girl finally found her composure again, and turned to the grounder who was nonchalantly studying her while leaning on a tree.
"What's your name?" The lean blonde asked, only to get no response, not even a flinch. "How old are you?" Again no sign that she had been understood. "Are there more of you? How did you get here so fast? Are you spying on me?" The only thing she accomplished with her trail of question was the grounder making quick move to climb up a tree. "Wait! Don't go! I just... I need to talk."
"Then speak, Skai Veida." The same voice said, now from up above her, somewhere hidden in the foliage.
"Why do you call me that? What does it mean?" Madi tried, hoping this time her questions would be answered.
"Because it's what you are."
"And that is?" She huffed, already exasperated by this grounder refusal to be straightforward.
"An invader from the sky."
"Oh. Skai Veida." Madi tried. "Sounds cool. Though if you want you can call me Madi too, that's what all my friends call me."
"We are not friends." The grounder replied, still not moving from the safety of the tree.
"That's okay, people I'm bot friends with call me that too. That's the beauty with names. So, have you got one?"
"Yes."
"Will you tell me?"
"No."
"Huh. Guess I'll just have to keep coming back until you do then." She smiled up, hoping she was a facing the right direction.
"Don't."
"No can do, friend." Madi said cheekily, hoping not to earn herself a spear in the chest for her troubles. "Same time tomorrow?" Again, no answer was forthcoming, but she took that as a yes. "Bye, then. Take care."
It was only when she was already halfway back that she realized she forgot to ask the grounder for some medicine for Jasper as they were the ones who speared him, which was the whole point of seeking the grounder out.
Either way, she couldn't shake away the weird warm fuzziness in her stomach that settled the moment the grounder's bright brown eyes stared into hers and that fuzziness felt nice, so the excursion couldn't have been a complete waste of time. Right?
———
If only things remained warm and fuzzy, Madi thought bitterly to herself not twenty hours after her meeting with her grounder friend.
"Bellamy, for the hundredth time, Jasper helped save your sister, we can't just murder him." Madi rubbed the bridge of her nose in exasperation.
"He is bad for morale, you know it, I know it." Bellamy snapped angrily. "The food we've caught today is barely enough for everyone, and if we don't catch anything else tomorrow we'll starve, all the while they work like crazy on your dumb wall and follow your dumb rules."
"My dumb rules? My dumb wall?" She asked incredulously, pacing on his messy tent with an angry frown.
"Would you rather we let ourselves open for grounders attack? Would you rather work your ass off to catch us some game only for some lazy ass to take for you because they get to do 'whatever the hell they wanted'?"
"I would rather the Ark didn't. Come. Down."
"Well, so would I, yet here we both are." Madi tolled her eyes so hard she was afraid they would get stuck. "And we better-"
"Wait, you don't want them to come down?!" Bellamy all but demanded, hands flying to her shoulder to stop her pacing and his face studying her expression carefully. He didn't expect this when he invited her to his cell to talk, at best he hoped she would help him handle the Jasper situation, at worst he expected her to go running back to his sister, he didn't dare to hope she'd want to keep the bastards from the sky up there where they belonged. "Then why did you..."
"Take Clarke's side?"
"Yeah."
"She is my sister, I'll always defend her, even if I think she's being stupid or wrong." Madi shrugged, averting her gaze from Bellamy's intense eyes. "I'll never let her face things on her own."
"Your sister your responsibility." The man whispered causing her to look up confusedly.
"Sure, or y'know, something a little less dramatic than that." Madi said, a smile tugging at her lips at Bellamy's oddness, not ten minutes ago she thought the boy was inviting her into his tent to murder her and now, here he was, holding her shoulders and looking at her like that. Boys are so weird.
"I don't think I ever thanked you for saving my sister's life." Bellamy said after a beat.
"You haven't." Came the expectant response.
"Huh."
"Are you going to thank me?"
"Sure."
"Well?"
"Right, right. Thanks."
"My pleasure. O really is the more likable Blake."
"Agreed." They shared a smile at that. "Now, we need to send more hunting parties if we want to keep everyone fed. The berries and fruits aren't enough to..."
And it seemed that just like that the two of them found a middle ground, there was a certain degree of understanding in Bellamy's eyes as the two of them decided together on the course of action for the next few days. Who would have thought, Madi asked herself later as she made her way to her clearing, that all it took to earn Bellamy's respect was to save his sister from a killer snake and wish for the ultimate demise of their people? Huh.
———
Madi had been talking up at the trees for the past half an hour when she finally had enough. She talked about how pretty the glowing forest was, how soft the flowers felt, how tasty the food down here was, how cold the nights got, she talked about literally everything Fox instructed her about earlier.
When she had gone to her best friend earlier and requested help on how to initiate a friendship, the older girl was understandably dumbstruck. Madi wasn't usually this nervous about meeting people as she was used to be on her own her entire life and didn't see what the fuss about impressing others was.
But then there was that grounder who called her a worthy opponent in a roundabout way and whose eyes were so deep and edgy and the blonde girl didn't understand for the life of her why she was so nervous about this. It was just a grumpy grounder, right? There were tons of grumpy Arkers back on camp and she didn't feel nearly this... weird about talking to them.
And the look Fox sent her when she talked about attempting to befriend someone (Madi wisely let out the part where the person was a grounder) didn't really help. She looked all smug and obnoxious when giving instructions about ice breakers, it was horrible. And useless.
"You know, you could at least come down here so I know I'm not making a fool out of myself talking to trees?" Madi called out. She talked about the weather, food, flowers, everything and the grounder hadn't even made a peep or at least showed themselves. She didn't even know why she was trying this hard. "Come on," She sighed. "Just say hi... I guess I'll just get going then."
"You were late." The grounder plopped from a tree on the edge of the clearing, glaring at her.
"... What?" Madi tilted her head, still not used to how her (hopefully) new friend just seemed to appear put of thin air.
"You said we'd meet at the same today. You're late." The grounder repeated.
"Oh... Is that why you weren't talking to me? Because I was late?" The sky girl asked, eyebrows shooting up. "I'm here now." She sent the grounder a cheeky smile which didn't have the intended effect as the grounder continued to glare. "Look, I'm sorry. I was coming but then Bellamy, he is like this idiot that people around camp listen to sometimes, he came to talk to me and I couldn't not talk to him, cause he is an idiot and then I realized he might not be that much of an idiot, y'know?"
The grounder simply stared as the girl rambled, though her eyes gave away an interested glint as the blonde started rambling about the inner works of her camp. It didn't tale long for Madi to resume her monologue when no answer came from the grounder she finally admitted to herself she was attempting to impress.
"I'm sorry. I'll try to be more punctual tomorrow." The teen promised. "It's just... Bellamy wanted to kill Jasper, the boy you almost killed, because he was screaming and then I... I really shouldn't give away all that info about my people, should I?"
"No." The grounder said simply after a beat, if Madi didn't know any better she'd say they sounded amused.
"Well, the least you could do now is tell me your name." Madi nodded once with certainty. "So we are even."
The grounder made a move to say something, but a bird's singing distracted her and next thing Madi knew they were climbing up a tree in apparent hurry.
"Koda." Madi thought she heard before silence engulfed the clearing once more.
The whole way back to camp the girl questioned herself how could one measly name make her feel so many things? The answer didn't take longer to come by, the grounder let her live which is more than can be said about her own council who sent her down there to die, so she was thankful.
And the grounder kind of complimented her dodging skills, that was nice of her (she was fifty percent sure it was a girl after hearing her voice again today).
And she was mysterious, made Madi feel important somehow by being the only one in her entire camp privy to getting to know a grounder.
There was also that persistent edge of danger that came from having these meetings.
And her eyes were really pretty.
Her wandering thoughts were interrupted rather rudely by a angry Octavia that dragged her away the second she arrived at camp.
"Oh, no, what did I do this time?" Madi asked the moment her hand was let go, not even bothering to look around the new clearing she found herself in. Octavia had this aura around her of someone Madi didn't want to piss off.
"Nothing!" The younger girl all but growled out.
"Okay?"
"It's my dumb, stupid, asshole of a brother!" The brunette all but screamed. "He gets to have threesomes in his little tent of sin-"
"Tent of sin?" Madi asked amusedly, only to be ignored.
"But I don't even get to kiss a cute boy because he says so? What the crap is that?! He is not my fucking keeper, he doesn't get a say in what I do with my life or who I do it with!" By the time she finished her screamed ramble, her face was red and her throat sore.
"Feel better?" Madi inquired.
"Yup." O sent her a cheeky smile
"Care to tell me what this was about?"
"Not really."
"O!"
"Fine... There's this boy-"
"Ew."
"Do you want to hear the story or not?"
"Okay, okay. I'll behave." Madi raised her arms in surrender, smile still tugging at her lips and making a show of plopping down on a tree roots and patting the space next to her invitingly.
"Anyway, there's this boy." Octavia started over with a roll of her eyes as she sat down. "And the day you and the others went searching for Jas we kissed. Apparently Bell had him keep an eye on me or something."
"And you found out and now you're pissed?" Madi suggested.
"What? No. I knew Bellamy would do something like this, he is overbearing like that."
"So what's the problem?"
"The problem is that I guess someone told Bellamy today that we kissed and now Atom won't talk to me." The brunette laid her head on her new friend's shoulder.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Wanna know my opinion?" Madi asked.
"Sure." Octavia turned her head slightly so she could look at Madi's face as the girl spoke.
"You are great and if this boy is too cowardly to face Bellamy for you, then he doesn't deserve you at all."
"I mean Bell can be scary to other people when he wants to be."
"Yeah, right." Madi scoffed. "Your big bro is terrifying."
"He is scarier than Clarke." Octavia shot back.
"You're kidding me right? Just today Clarke cut off a boy's skin while he was awake! You can't be much more scary than that!"
"Yeah? Did I tell you the time Bell..."
The next few hour were spent like that, trading stories and jabs that only youngest siblings could have and understand. In a way it felt like they had finally found a kindred spirit.
———
Madi woke up the next morning to realize a few more changes around camp.
One, the wall was almost entirely done. It was crazy what two and a half day of hard work managed to accomplish.
Two, she managed to get all the way to the fire pit for breakfast without being stopped to intervene in silly fights and squabbles.
Three, she was pretty sure the number of bracelets she saw this morning were reduced in comparison to the previous night.
Fourth, and most chocking, Bellamy Blake came by to say hi.
"Uh, hello?" Madi all but asked as the man plopped besides her on a log. Usually that would be Fox's seat but she had an intense night and said she'd be up later.
"Hey." Bellamy nodded, taking a bite of his own food. "We need to go hunting today, you're coming?"
"I don't know, someone needs to keep an eye on things if you're gone and Clarke is watching Jasper." She shrugged.
"Okay." Bellamy nodded simply, no questions asked no nothing
"Who is coming?" Madi asked suspiciously. Bellamy didn't just agree with her in things, sure, they might have come to a understanding of sorts the previous day, but still, better be wary around him.
"Oh, me, Mbege, Murphy, Daniels, Atom-" He said between bites.
"Wait. Atom is coming?" The blonde squinted her eyes at the man who was too immersed in his berries to notice.
"Yeah."
"I'll go too." She decided. No way she'd let Octavia's guy with Bellamy now that she knew of their fight the other day.
"You sure?" Bellamy finally turned to look at her.
"Yeah, O can be in charge while we are out."
"My O?" The former guard asked alarmed.
"Yeah, she did it before."
"But..."
"She is tough, Bellamy, she can do this." Madi said.
"Right." He frowned.
"I'll even give her my knife."
"Don't. I'll get her one myself." The man said simply. "See you by the gates in an hour?" He asked before walking off, not even waiting for an answer.
"Sure." Madi mumbled to herself. "Besides, what's the worse that could happen?"
———
A/N: So as you guys can see I've changed the time line a bit. Not by much, just little things like how instead of rescuing Jasper the same day he is hurt they do it the next day, meaning the panther was already dead, and instead of Bellamy finding out about Octavia and Atom on their second day on earth it happens on the fourth and so on.
They're not major changes just little things but I wanted to let you know about it anyway.
Also, please leave a vote and comments they make writing fun.
Let me know what you think of this chapter.