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FUN DOESN'T LAST forever, not on the ground at least. There's always something to be worried about or someone to run from. The danger was always knocking on the delinquents' door, patiently waiting for them to make the slightest mistake.
"If we get out of this alive," Asteria spoke while walking through the woods with Bellamy, Jasper, and Raven. "Remind me to kill Finn for ruining my night of rest."
"You could still have it, you know," Bellamy told her. "It depends if whether we get out of this alive like you said, but still."
The mention of Finn's name still made Raven awkward, and to make things better, she started a small fight with Jasper.
"Both of you shut up," Bellamy demanded, turning to see them and shaking his head as a joke to Asteria. "Keep your eyes open."
He picked up some nuts from the floor, assuming Clarke left them there for them to follow.
"You think it's going to work out?" Asteria asked the leader in a soft whisper.
"After all they've done to us," He started, with a hint of pain in his voice, haunted by the memories of the lost delinquents. "I don't think they are up for comparing survival stories and have tea with us."
Asteria laughed, remembering those as the words she told him their first day on Earth. She wasn't expecting him to remember what she said, after all, she was the lonely stranger that entered camp looking to be safe.
"I bet you were scared," She teased him, elbowing his left arm. "And that's why you remember it."
"Bellamy, are you really going to let her talk to you like that?" Jasper added, making the four laugh.
"You weren't scary," The leader defended. "You were really dirty and creepy, that's true."
"So, scary then?" She questioned again, smirking.
He just shook his head, making his curls dance around and smiled, lifting some of his freckles along with his cheeks. That was the first time Asteria noticed the simplicity of his life, endless and timeless, trapped in a laugh.
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The backup team made it to the bridge, getting there after Clarke and Finn. The youngest Blake was already there, and even from that distance, Asteria could tell she was drowning in nervous.
Everyone was pointing their guns at the bridge, waiting for the grounders to appear. They weren't going to shoot unless there was a threat falling upon their friends' souls, but they wouldn't be taken by surprise either.
"Someone's coming." The leader stated.
Lincoln appeared first from the other end. He was running towards Octavia, which ended up in them embracing each other. Asteria smiled to herself, while Bellamy's jaw clenched in anger and disgust.
"What's Octavia doing here?" Jasper asked confused. "Oh."
"I guess we know how he got away." Raven teased.
"Relax, Bellamy," She suggested, being loud enough to only be heard by him. "Try not to be driven by emotions."
Three grounders riding horses appeared from behind Lincoln. There was a woman whose face was not covered as the rest of them, and Asteria thought she recognized her.
"That's their leader," She recognized out loud. "I'm trying real hard not to end her right now."
"Did she do something to you?" Bellamy asked, looking at her worried.
"She made my life a living hell, that's what she did."
She closed her eyes for a moment, and lowed down her weapon, trying to calm down. The fact that she was carrying a gun wasn't helping, she was used to using a bow. Her aim wasn't as good with a gun as she was with her favorite weapon since she had learned how to use them not long ago. She didn't know why she picked it, she just did.
The meeting was happening in front of them, the grounder leader and Clarke were talking and not knowing about what was annoying Asteria.
"Grounder Princess looks pissed," Raven stated.
"Our princess has that effect," Bellamy answered her.
"Raven, when have you seen a grounder smiling anyway?" Asteria joked, earning small smiles.
She was tired, that was the truth. She felt her arms heavy and aching from holding the gun, and she was getting tired of waiting, mixed with curiosity and fear.
"Oh, no. No. This is bad," Jasper claimed.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Raven questioned, confused and annoyed.
"There are grounders in the trees," He explained, being bombarded by questions from everyone else as they tried to look for the grounders hiding. "They're gonna shoot! Clarke, run! Run!" He shouted, taking a step forwards and starting shooting himself.
Asteria didn't understand what was happening anymore. There were bullets and arrows flying through the air, looking to hit something, someone. Her own ammunition was being directed towards the grounders on the bridge, to keep them from attacking her friends. All the noise was resonating in her ears and her sight was getting blurry from all the cold breeze hitting her face.
She saw Lincoln get hurt in all that mess, and she wanted to run to help him. A strong grip grabbing her right arm stopped her from running to aid the fallen grounder and forced her to run.
The green blur from the trees she couldn't recognize anymore surrounded her, and the delinquents were all running in front of her.
She was almost out of breath when they reached the camp's front gate. Her legs were shaking from the adrenaline that ran through her body, and her hands were still holding the gun the leader had given her.
"You got anything to say?" Bellamy asked Finn, anger bubbling up inside of him as they stopped.
"Yeah. I told you no guns!" Finn replied, blaming them.
"I told you we couldn't trust the grounders," Clarke reminded him. "I was right."
"Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?" Raven asked him, hurt.
"Okay, how about we all turn off the drama and get to camp, peacefully and happy that we didn't die," Asteria suggested, earning various eye rolls.
"I tried, but you were too busy making bullets for your gun," Finn told Raven, and then looked at Asteria. "And you, stop acting like you're not to blame for this."
"I'm not the one that arranged the meeting at everyone's backs like some damn kid that's scared of being grounded by his parents, in case you forgot." Asteria hissed at him, pushing him with her finger stuck on his chest.
"You're lucky she brought that!" Bellamy exclaimed in Raven's defense. "They came there to kill you, Finn."
"You don't know that!" Finn yelled at the leader. "Jasper fired the first shot!"
"Yes, so?" Asteria asked. "It was after he saw grounders about to throw an arrow at Clarke's head!"
"You ruined everything," Octavia spoke for the first time, at Jasper, before leaving to enter the camp.
"I saved you! You're welcome." Jasper shouted at her back, following the youngest Blake into camp.
"Well, if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now," Finn stated. "You didn't have to trust the Grounders. You just had to trust me," He told Clarke, upset, leaving along with the mechanic.
"He couldn't be more of a drama queen, you know," Asteria joked, trying to make the two leaders laugh to relieve the tension.
"Like I said, best Unity Day ever," He whispered.
The three of them were standing there, not exactly knowing what to do when a loud explosion noise came from above. There was a ship, just like theirs, crossing the sky, surrounded by the flames. The Exodus ship was coming down to help them, and their smiles grew bigger.
"The Exodus Ship? Your mom's early," Bellamy smiled at Clarke.
Clarke's face began to change, from a happy expression to a hurtful and confused look.
"Wait," She told them. "Too fast. No parachute? Something's wrong."
The ship crashed against the ground, the noise of the rough landing resonating through the woods and a cloud of dark smoke rising from the site it fell in.
The blonde's body collapsed into the ground, sinking her knees into the dirt and her cheeks cleaned by her tears. She kept denying what she just saw and trying to keep it all in, but she couldn't.
Asteria and Bellamy kneeled in front of her, putting her hands on the leader's shoulders and trying to calm her down. She knew what losing her mother was like, and Clarke didn't deserve it, and she didn't deserve going through it alone.
"Clarke, Clarke, look at us," She demanded, struggling to get her attention. "Just breathe, Clarke, breathe."
"You are going to get through this, alright?" Bellamy told her.
The blonde's eyes stared into theirs, trying to mimic their ease breathing to remain quiet. The girl was trying to close herself, shutting out everyone by wiping her tears and looking like nothing happened.
"My mom, she's—"
"I'm so, so sorry," Asteria pitied her. It was an awful feeling, a deep ache in your chest where that person you loved used to be. "But you're gonna make it."
Clarke pulled herself back together as fine as she could, standing up and raising her head up high after wiping away all the evidence from her broken heart. She was hurting, and both Bellamy and Asteria could tell, but they knew this was a fragile subject they couldn't just interfere with.
Grieving it's not the same in every person, coping mechanisms vary according to who we lost, and who we were. It has changed people, for better and for worse, and it's not something they could decide for her.
"Thank you," Clarke whispered to them before passing through the gates.
The two people that were left behind stood up, staring at each other like they understood something that deeply connected them.
"Do you think she is going to be okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, someday at least," She thought of them, and how they had their own demons in the past, how they had them now. "We all will be."
"For now, I think you should really get some rest, " He suggested, with a half smile. "You can still use my tent. "
"I'm on watch first, and then I guess I'll keep you company."
"That's fine by me."
She left, with a strange warm feeling in her chest, and a smile gracing her face.
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