"Please, Clarke," Monty says, looking at her pleadingly. "He cut himself earlier when he was helping to skin something, and it looks pretty bad, but he won't go get medical treatment."
"Why not?" Clarke says plaintively, looking across at Lexa. They could be in bed already. Alright, it's probably a little too early for that, but they could at least be spending time together. As much as she loves Jasper, being called out into the cold night air so she can listen to him whine as she bandages up a cut is not her idea of a good time.
"You know Jasper," Monty says, with a heartfelt sigh and eye-roll. "He has a crush on one of the girls from Mount Weather – actually, the one Chancellor Kane put on the Council. She used to work in the medical area there so he wants to get her to patch him up. And he hasn't been able to find her so he's putting it off. But I'm sure he'd listen to you."
Clarke toys with the idea of sending him to ask her mother for help, but right now she'd personally rather bleed to death than ask her mother for help so she can understand why Abby wouldn't be Monty's first port of call. Plus, they are delinquents, part of the 100, just like she was – she's not sure any of them will ever trust authority fully again.
"I will come with you, ai niron," Lexa says calmly. "It would be good to see Jasper kom Skaikru again."
"Yeah! Good!" Monty says, looking unreasonably relieved. Perhaps he realises Jasper's not going to whine nearly as much with Lexa in the room. He's still kind of terrified of her.
They run into Raven in the street, surprisingly. Clarke thought she'd be curled up with Anya by now, since Anya tends to go to bed quite early so she can get up before sunrise and take a guard shift.
"Hey, Lexa, Anya asked me to come -" Raven starts, but then notices Monty. "Oh! Hey, Monty!"
"Hey, Raven!" Monty says with excessive cheerfulness, like they're two bad actors in a poorly-written play. "Just going to see Jasper! About his injury."
"Oh, right!" Raven says, nodding exaggeratedly. "Anya's thing can wait, then." She falls into step beside him, and Clarke can just barely hear her muttered, "I was supposed to be the one to come get -"
"Shhh!"
Lexa gives Clarke a sideways glance. "It is hard to believe any of your friends have ever managed to hide or spy, even though I have seen Raven do both," she comments wryly. "Even harder to believe Monty and Jasper kom Skaikru managed to commit crimes."
"Well," Clarke says, voice dry. "In total fairness, Monty and Jasper and the others didn't successfully commit crimes. There was a reason we were imprisoned." She's gotten so used to her crutches now she doesn't find it at all difficult to keep pace with the others.
The little home Monty and Jasper share – much to the disapproval of Monty's mother, who has apparently spent the last month petitioning Kane to forcibly return her son to her – is strangely asymmetrical. It looks like Jasper and Monty designed it themselves and decided halfway through that they needed more room, and so tried to add an extra room on the side and then one on the top. The room bulging strangely out of the left side of the building has a ceiling only a metre and a half above the ground, and judging by the size of the second floor sitting uncertainly on the first one there's no way there can actually be stairs up to it (in fact, she finds out it actually has a ladder with uneven rungs). It suits them, though, in its quirkiness.
It takes both Monty and Raven yanking at it to successfully open the oversized front door so that warm light floods out.
"Surprise!" a number of voices yell at once.
"Chit em sei?" Clarke distinctly hears Gustus mutter to Anya, who says back "shof op!" and then haughtily calls out "surprise!" as well ten seconds after the others like it's a perfectly ordinary thing Grounders yell whenever someone enters a room.
Clarke blinks, taking it all in. Wells, Anya, Gustus, Harper, Jasper, John, Kane, Zion, Sinclair and even Maya (though she looks uncomfortable and keeps glancing at Jasper) are all squashed into the small main room. Poorly applied dark paint across the wall says "HAPPY ENGAGEMENT CLARKE AND HEADER". Several mismatched bottles and intricately carved wooden cups are stacked on a wooden table, with flowers strewn around them as decorations.
Octavia, Lincoln, Indra and the Natblida aren't there, because they're in Polis. Finn isn't there because he's continuing to avoid Wells and Raven (and perhaps Clarke as well). Clarke's mother isn't there because she wishes they weren't getting married. But still, to have so many people she cares about in one place makes Clarke choke up with emotion.
"Congratulations!" Raven says brightly, grabbing a bottle immediately and pouring a hefty amount into one of the carved cups and shoving it at Clarke.
"Mochof," Lexa says, inclining her head as Raven passes her one of the cups. Then Anya grabs her arm and Lexa says "Wait -" before she's dragged away. Apparently being Commander counts for less at an engagement party. As Clarke watches, Anya brings her before Zion, who says something and bows low. Clarke remembers that he said he would give his answer by tonight. From the slight smile that touches Lexa's face and the happiness Gustus and Zion are attempting to repress, Clarke knows what his answer was. They have a new Fleimkepa.
"The cups are yours by the way," Monty says helpfully, drawing Clarke's attention back. "An engagement gift from Finn."
Clarke opens her mouth to ask why Finn keeps working so hard to give them things but avoids saying a word to any of them, then closes it again with the question unasked. That's something she should ask Finn himself. Instead, she says, "Thank you so much, this is amazing, you didn't have to!"
"Everyone needs an engagement party," Monty says.
"I mean, we can't get really wild until the old people leave," Jasper butts in. "But -" He breaks off, wearing a comical expression of dismay, as Kane clears his throat.
"I'm sure I'll leave soon enough for you to have – what is it you call it?" Kane says, sarcasm dripping from his tone, "A 'rager'? Us old folk need our sleep, after all. It's good practice for our burials."
Clarke snorts, and Kane gives her a smile as Jasper starts falling over himself to try and pretend he didn't mean the Chancellor. "I'm very happy for you, Clarke," he says, ignoring Jasper to focus on her. "And the Commander as well, of course. I can't imagine two people who are better suited."
"We're very lucky," Clarke says, smiling back at him. She sips at the cup Raven handed her, wincing at the burn of Monty's moonshine. Across the room, Anya seems to be egging Lexa into drinking the entire cup in one go by making it a race – a competition Lexa's sure to win, given her Natblida semi-immunity to alcohol.
"I planned to introduce you in a slightly more formal setting, but this is Maya Vie, the newest member of the Council," Kane says, gesturing to Maya, who takes a step forward and smiles nervously at Clarke.
"We've met," Clarke says, giving her a smile as well. "But it's good to see you again. I'm glad to hear your people are settling in."
Maya nods, and says in her soft, well-modulated voice, "Most of them are, anyway. There have been some teething troubles, of course, but I think things are improving." She shrugs. "It was never going to be easy. Most of your people see mine as murderers and vice versa."
"Yes," Clarke says thoughtfully, remembering the uneasy alliance between the Skaikru and Grounders in the first world. "I can see how that would make things difficult."
Maya sighs. "One of the biggest problems is that most people here view us as lazy, because we're consuming more food than we're providing. When really it's just that we have so many children to take care of it's hard to find time for anything else."
"There isn't a child-care centre here?" Clarke says. "There was one on the Ark."
"Yes, but it's difficult to persuade my people to trust our children there." She sighs again. "A lot of them just want to pretend things are the same as they were before, as if we're still inside Mount Weather. I wish they'd realise that the situation has changed."
"I know exactly what you mean," Clarke says fervently.
Maya flushes slightly. "Sorry, this isn't exactly engagement party conversation. I'm very happy for the two of you, truly."
Are you? Clarke wonders. Are you really happy that the two individuals most responsible for the execution of nearly all your people plan to settle down and live happily ever after? Regardless of her people's crimes, something like that would be nearly impossible to let go of. Something about Maya's shining eyes tugs at Clarke's heart, and she thinks that if she could believe anyone was that forgiving, it would be Maya. "You should come to our bonding," she says without thinking. "As a representative of the Council if Kane's not able to come, or as Jasper's date, or just on your own... you should come," she finishes lamely. "At the very least the ambassadors will be there, so we'll have people from every clan to witness. It would be good to have someone from the Mountain as well. Because you are a part of this alliance, all of you."
Maya flushes and smiles again, nods, and changes the subject to something less emotionally charged.
"Clarke!" Raven cannons into Clarke and nearly knocks her over right when she's in the middle of discussing drainage systems with Maya. "You should sit down! This can't be good for your ankle! And we need to talk!"
"You're drunk," Clarke accuses, although she does sit down and accepts the healthy slosh of moonshine Raven adds to her cup. Maya, eyeing the booze in alarm, manages to back away quickly.
"Nooo!" Raven widens her eyes in exaggerated innocence and collapses ungracefully beside Clarke, beaming and clearly wasted already. "Of course I'm not! Are you gonna have a bachelorette party? I wanna organise a bachelorette party. Anya says she's organising Lexa's."
"Lexa's having a bachelorette party?" Clarke says in complete disbelief.
"Well, I think the Grounder warrior version is you go out hunting with your old First and bring back furs to be blessed for the marital bed," Raven waves her hand as if this is a small difference. "Pretty much the same."
"That's not even remotely the same. Can't we do that too?" Clarke says pleadingly. Hunting sounds pretty nice compared to whatever horrifying ordeal Raven will come up with.
"We're not copying Anya's idea!" Raven says. "She'd never let me live it down." She gets a wicked smile on her face, mind clearly drifting elsewhere.
"I noticed you guys seem to have worked things out," Clarke says teasingly.
"You have no idea," Raven says fervently. "I could tell you stories. In fact, I'm going to tell you stories."
Clarke blanches. "What? No you're not." She really, really doesn't want to hear anything that personal about Anya. Partly because Anya would probably murder her.
"I listened to one – hundred – percent of your stories about Lexa," Raven says sternly. "All the dirty details."
"I never told you any stories. Or dirty details!"
"Exactly. So I've listened to a hundred percent of them," Raven says proudly.
"That's not how numbers work! You can't have a hundred percent of zero," Clarke argues. She takes a long drink of her cup to fortify herself, sure that this is an argument she'll lose.
Raven points an unsteady finger at Clarke's face in an accusatory way. "Hey! Who's the genius here?"
"Raven -"
"Exactly," Raven says again smugly. "I am. I know things about percentages that computers don't even know. So you are going to listen to my stories. Anyway, I would have listened to your sexy stories if you'd been less discreet about. I would have loved to hear your stories! And it's the thought that counts. So it's payback time!"
"Please," Clarke says weakly, but Raven's already casually moved her crutches out of reach. She's trapped in the corner. She can't see an escape. She has no weapons. She wonders if she can somehow signal Lexa for help, but her fiancée seems to have gone up to the other room with some of the rest of the group. "No, Raven, you can't do this -"
"Wanna bet?" Raven says brightly.
Clarke takes the bottle off her friend quickly, and pours a generous helping into her already empty cup. She drinks deeply, ignoring the burn of it against her throat. Then she gives in and looks at Raven, facing her fate with as much bravery as she can muster. "Okay," she says guardedly, and drinks another sip to encourage herself to keep going. She's not sure she's ever been so successfully cornered before. "Go for it."