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⌈ 𝙶𝙾𝙳𝙳𝙴𝚂𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙷𝚄𝙽𝚃 ⌋
SEVEN —— grease monkey
˚ .･*｡༄ "AYE! THAT WAS A NASTY LITTLE BUGGER! BE GRATEFUL!"
Raccoons weren't easy to catch either. But Noah was a good shot, thank god, and she killed the son of a bitch and cooked his hissing ass. And now, he was considered lunch.
She named him Cedric.
"So why in the hell did you name him?" Murphy chuckled, gnawing on what little meat was left on the bone, not wanting to get reprimanded again for wasting precious food. "And why Cedric?" He laughed.
She shrugged, tossing her finished bone into the grass and going in for the tarp rolled package of nuts she'd also packed. If it wasn't blasphemy to be where she was, she'd say she was completely in bliss right now. "He striked me as a Cedric when i first encountered him."
John nodded. "Don't hit me when I say thank you this time, okay? I'll never come back if you keep hitting me." He mumbled, pointing a daring finger at her.
Both cracked a smile at each other. It was quite strange, like a dog and a cat suddenly getting along, but it was unforgettably blissful to just sit with someone who isn't a total stranger. To be able to soak up some vitamin D while they could and just be decently happy for just a little while. They didn't have to worry about a raging dictator or anything in between that Bellamy preferred to be called. They didn't have to worry about anyone looking at them like they were the scum of the earth, particularly Murphy for that one, because not for one second would he let anyone look at Noah Santiago the wrong way, heaven forbid. She'd saved his life, over and over, the least he could do was cover for her.
"But thank you, Solo. Seriously. I don't think I remember the last time someone wasn't disgusted by me or afraid of me." He muttered, spitting out the shell of a nut.
And she disobeyed, punching his shoulder and curling up into a small ball so she could keep her eyes on the swaying grass ahead of her and not Murphy.
"Again with the hitting! What's up with you?" He exclaimed, chuckling slightly as he rubbed away his imaginary pain. Thankfully she didn't actually punch him, he knew he'd have a gnarly bruise to match his other ones if she did. "Heaven forbid I be nice, huh?"
She shook her head. "No, it's just - I haven't really had friends in four years. Not since.... uh.... yeah." She nodded, finishing off the rest of the canteen of water. "Sorry. I'm not good with any of this." She whispered.
He nodded. "Right. the Solo gig. No, yeah, I got that. Since who? Who was the lucky duck that spent their lives being punched?" He quipped, unconsciously picking at one of his scars, wincing at the tender bruising around it.
She smiled. "Indigo Greenwood. He - uh - he was a Solo too. We met when I was fifteen, back when I first started training. He was seventeen, from farm station." And she seemed almost moved at just the mention of such a name.
Murphy nodded. "That was the dude with the tattoos, right? All over him? Yeah, he's from my station. He went Solo? That's what happened?"
Noah nodded. "Yeah...." She hummed quietly, before turning to Murphy, "What do they say happens to us?"
Murphy shrugged. "I was still a kid, I think. But uh, usually they give you guys a petty crime and say you got floated. But, some people say you guys spacewalk, like your boy Finn. I mean, god, Indigo must've had the I.Q. of 150. They say you spacewalks and got caught, and then surprise! Got floated. And then, there's the suicide stories. Too smart to live on the Ark, had to get out, blah blah blah."
Noah nodded. "Well, all lies. He - uh - he left a year before me." She continued, sliding the switchblade out of her boot, showing Murphy the pristine blade, Indigo's initials dug into the handle. "About two miles that way, one mile from my old hut, he was shot by grounders after a month. I found him when I got down here, half decayed." She hummed.
Murphy examines the blade, sneaking glances at noah as she choked down her tears. She'd gone so long without crying about him too, she was a bit disappointed she was still tender on the subject. "I didn't know him, but uh... sorry you had to find him like that." He mumbled.
Noah nodded. "You remind me of him."
Murphy smirked and dusted his shoulders. "Is it the strapping good looks or the astronomical intelligence?" He boasted.
"You both talk way too damn much." Noah chuckled.
Murphy mocked laughter, slapping her shoulder as he did, making her roll onto her side, clutching her stomach as she trie to contain her own laughs.
Neither would change anything in their past, just to make sure they'd get to this exact moment again and again. When would they ever be this happy?
˚ .･*｡༄ "HEY, CHECK IT OUT!"
Noah isn't exactly sure who is shouting, but she doesn't appreciate it when she's trying to get some simple work done. She'd been gone all day with John, and the sun had just set by the time she got back. She had shit to get done. The melee weapons weren't exactly going to make themselves and Noah sure as hell wasn't building a damn wall. That wouldn't keep anything out for long. Weapons could at least do some real damage.
"Bellamy, get out here!" Another's nameless face calls out, earning the attention of the shirtless man sauntering out of a tent, two girls following close behind, topless.
Bellamy searched the ground for Noah, momentarily glancing worriedly back and forth between the pod and a missing Solo. He was almost hoping she would see him with his nightly sexcapades. He sighed, not even giving them a second thought as he didn't see Noah around. He wasn't quite sure what he was hoping she'd do about it, but he wanted her to see it.
"They're coming to help us. Now we can kick some grounder ass." Jones, one of the delinquents Bellamy actually trusted with anything bigger than a pocket knife, spoke with excitement. Bellamy specifically remember having to seriously convince Jones to take off his wristband.
Must have someone up there.
One of the brunettes behind Bellamy, covering her solely bra covered top poorly spoke up. "Please tell me they brought down some shampoo." She muttered, just as Noah exited her tent, Bellamy's head snapping to meet hers.
Bellamy tended to stay silent inside the tent while the other three mumbled about the pod. He was busy thinking about Noah for some reason. He wasn't angry at her, for some reason. He'd act like it, for sure, after all he had an image to uphold. A dozen kids had seen her tackle him to the ground and keep him down. He had to ask to be let up.
And it still irked him how loyal she'd been to Murphy for no apparent reason. It'd come out of nowhere, blindsided him completely. And he didn't exactly appreciate it, either. Where had the Noah from that hunting trip gone?
When would she find another guy to tell her about mythology, if you knew what he meant?
"Hey, Artemis, you ever get supply pods while you were here?" Bellamy voiced, seeing her not even turn to look at him and rather just assume the spot beside him in the tent. "Or while you out on your little adventure today? Huh? Where were you today?"
She smirked. "Why? Miss me that much?"
He hesitated. "No — I — it's too dangerous to hunt alone." He answered, directing the conversation away from him conflicted emotions about the Solo. "We go in groups or we don't go at all."
She patted his bicep. "Calm down, didn't catch anything anyhow. And that," She pointed to the soaring rocket in the sky, the bright fire burning around it, "is not a supply cache. That is a pod. Could be a misfire. Could be a escape from the dying Ark. Or maybe they're killing people one by one." She answered.
"Great." he murmured.
He knew about the rumors, the plans, the brainstorming on how to get to that pod as fast as possible began. The eagerness to have something new around lighting a spark around camp faster than a match to rocket fuel. "It cleared the ridge than it's probably near the lake." jones mumbled beside Bellamy.
And Octavia nodded, crossed her arms and stood beside Noah. "We should get moving. Everyone's ready."
Bellamy shook his head and pursed his lips. "No one's going anywhere. Not while it's dark it isn't safe. We'll head out at first light; pass the word." He ordered, feeling Noah's surprised gazed on him.
Blocking him from leaving the conversation, Octavia continued "Everyone for a hundred miles saw this thing come down. What if the grounders get to it first? Bell, we should go now."
Noah nodded. "Send two groups, stay together. We can get there, most of us alive, get whatever's inside back to camp by sunrise." She mumbled, seeing Octavia smile brightly.
"See?"
Bellamy shot a harsh glare at Noah. "I said we wait till sunrise."
Two of the worlds worst negotiators entered the conversation, uninvited and never would be if Noah had a say, Clarke and Finn.
"Did you guys see that? You know it's from the Ark, right? It had to be." A kid ran up to the two, burst of with excitement.
Clarke nodded. "Grab your stuff. Let's find out." She ordered, only to be abruptly corrected.
"Bellamy said we're gonna wait until sunrise."
She furrowed her brows, sliding away and beelining for Bellamy's tent and busting in, seeing two girls dressing themselves, (technically the girls who'd been turned down for a round two).
Roma scoffed and throwing her shirt over her bare chest hurriedly. "Ever hear of knocking, bitch?" She accused, just as Finn himself walked in, eyes widening at the nudity, a warning would've been nice. "Oh, great, it's a free show. Anyone else want to take a look?" She muttered angrily.
"Where the hell is Bellamy?"
Roma shot her a nasty look. "He took off a while ago. probably screwing that Santiago bitch with the eyes he's giving her."
Finn, shifting through Bellamy's mess of a tent, no jacket, boots, or gun to be found. "Gears gone."
Clarke narrowed her eyes, and glanced around, "He told everyone to stay. Whatever's in that thing, he wants it. We've gotta get there before he does." She mumbled, storming out of the tent and heading two over, Finn sliding in front of her before she broke and entered another tent.
Specifically this one. Two from Bellamy and four from Finn.
"Woah woah woah! What are we doing with Noah?"
Clarke pushes past him. "Roma sees it too. Bellamy's got a soft spot for her, and she's gonna be the one to get through to him, not me or you." She stated, tearing open the flap to a pantless Noah,
only dressed in a tank top.
Finn yelped and bent out of the tent. She was his best friend, practically sister, he did not need to see that.
But Noah didn't exactly scramble to cover up. She was just as comfortable in her own skin as Octavia was that first day on earth. and Clarke forced herself to ignore how Noah looked. She didn't even know there were that many leg muscles to even work out.
"Clarke. Nice of you to stop by." Noah hummed.
Clarke huffed and crosse dhwr arms over her chest. "Did Bellamy say he was leaving?"
Noah perked a brow, wandering around her tent and over to her workstation that she'd set up in her tent so she could work without bother. "Not his mom, so no. Why? You need to relax? Finn not big enough?" Noah joked, knowing her friend was right outside.
Clarke's cheeks burnt a crispy red at the mention. "He went for the pod without a crew. He knows something."
Noah nodded. "And why are you informing me of this?"
"If we get there in time, you need to talk some sense into him. no matter what you think, he listens to you." Clarke exclaimed, snatching the pair of pants she'd folded up on the desk, throwing them at her. Noah caught them against her chest and raised her brows. "Get dressed. or don't. Whatever you think will get him to listen to us. Let's go."
And with that Clarke was gone.
"Alright Blondie. I dig the confidence, but don't ever throw shit at me." Noah mumbled to herself, stubbornly pulling her legs through the pant legs and sliding her bow over her chest.
Noah has done the deed, gotten the unlikely trio to the pod in a matter of forty five minutes on the dot, and they'd only taken the extra three because Finn needed a leak right in the middle of it, and gave Noah the opportunity to push him into the adjacent river.
Clarke wasn't amused.
But they'd gotten there, and there was no sign Bellamy. Clarke glanced around, "We should split up."
Finn agreed, nodding his head. "Yeah. Noah, go up, I'll check the bottom." He stated, shuffling down the hill to check the valley for the eldest Blake sibling, Noah heading for the nearest climb-able tree and beelined for it, beginning a ascent to the top, surely scraping her newly healed hands. She'd gone two weeks without climbing, not much need when you hunt with a crew.
Clarke nodded. Heading for the pod alone, first checking behind it and the tall grass for the curly headed psychopath. She sighed, and yanked open the pod door and sticking her head in, only to see a waking girl, and a patch of blood on her forehead. "Oh my god!" She yelped.
Raven smiled shyly. "Hi. I made it?"
Clarke releases a breath of relief, and nods.
The girl climbs out, peeling her suit off piece by piece, and taking deep breaths of the new (non-machine-produced) air. Extending her arms and even letting herself spin, eyes straight up to the sky above her. No longer was it stars and a void, but a mix of blue and grey, green leaves hanging above. And with sugar on top, droplets of water trickling from the sky. "Ahh" She sighed. "I dreamed it would smell like this. Is this rain?"
Clarke couldn't help but wish she could go back to that bliss of her first steps on earth. It was a rush, why ruin it for the poor girl with all her issues? "Welcome home."
Finn emerged from the hilltop. "Raven!"
The girl twists, and joy flushes through her face "Finn!" She sprints to him, crushing him a tight hug with laughter and the brightest smile Clarke had ever seen. "I knew you couldn't be dead!" She grinned.
Finn gently touched her forehead, her blood staining his thumb as he did. "You're bleeding."
She shook her head and placed her hands along his jawline. "I don't care." And she smashed a wet kiss on his lips, Clarke's heart rolling to her stomach as she watched Finn accept it curtly before pulling away.
"How did you get here?" He questioned.
Not willing to release a hold on him, she turned slightly to the pod behind her. "You know that big scraphold? The one on K deck?" She mentioned.
"You built that from scrap?"
She grinned cheekily. "I kind of rebuilt it." And not even Finn could hold back his laughter. No matter who he'd slept with, raven would always amaze him. "Please, like that's hard. It just needed a couple parts and some love."
"You're insane."
She shrugged and let her gaze find his eyes, staring lovingly into them. "I'd do more for you and worse. Just like you would for me." She sighs happily.
"Holy shit. Is that my favorite grease monkey?" Noah smiles as she drops from the limbs, a negative on the Bellamy situation. Not that she cared about it that much. Now that raven was here, there wasn't a soul she cared about on that floating sardine can.
Raven twisted and Clarke didn't even know she had a bigger smile in her than before. "Noah!" She shrieked and bounded towards her and basically tackling her in a hug. Noah stumbled back and laughed, wrapping her in a hug right back. "I though you were a goner!"
"Come on, Reyes, I'm a bad bitch. They can't kill me." She smirked, suddenly lifting her hand. "Don't tell me you forgot." She muttered.
Raven gave a sly smile and connected hands. Shaking hands, pulling away, and flying through their eccentric hand shake. They even act out a fake fight in the middle of it, before bursting into laughter. "Oh my god! We must've been eight years old!" Raven chuckled out. "Finn, look! It's us three again!" Raven cheers, either ignoring or not even seeing the discomfort on Clarke's face.
Noah is ignoring.
Raven suddenly staggers, her hand flying to her head, as if to hold in the contents within. Finn rushes forward to steady her, guiding her backwards to a boulder half buried in the dirt. "Come on, sit down. Sit down here." He mutters, sliding his medkit off and wrapping it around her shoulders. "Let me get something for that."
Finn jogs over to Clarke, where she already has a ice pack out of her bag for Raven.
Noah can feel Clarke's tenseness as she follows Finn, and opts to ignore his feeble attempt to apologize to the blonde. She shakes her head and take the ice pack from Finn, caring more about Raven's head injury than Finn's pathetic love life.
She kneels beside the mechanic, pacing the ice pack properly for Raven to hold in place. "Gnarly cut." Noah mumbles, seeing Raven smile loosely.
"Thanks." Raven whispers, Finn and Clarke joining.
Finn gestured to Clarke and presses his lips together tightly, not at all prepared for he brutal awkwardness the next few days would bring for him. "This is Clarke. She was on the dropship too."
Raven rises from the boulder, her brows furrowed. "Clarke Griffin? This was all because of your mom." She exasperates, still slightly out of breath.
"My mom?"
Raven nods, "This was all her plan. We were trying to come down here together. If we waited — oh my god. We couldn't wait because the council was voting whether to kill three hundred people to save air!" Raven explains a fast as possible. And the curtains of bliss and good times has crashed. No more hugging or handshakes, no knocking boots in underground bunkers, and no time for sunny field picnics.
Noah wanted to scream. Never could she ever catch a break.
"A wha — when?" Clarke questioned worriedly.
"Today. We have to tell them you're alive!" She leads the four back to the pod swiftly, ripping open the door panel and sifting through the mess of wires and buttons, searching for something in particular. "The radio's gone. It must've gotten loose during reentry. I should've strapped it to the A-strut. Stupid!" She reprimands herself, slamming her hand of the outer wall of the pod in frustration.
Clarke shakes her head and backs away. "No, this is my fault. Someone got here before us. We have to find him."
Finn turns to Noah. "How good at hunting people are you?"
She scoffs. "Give me some credit, Collins. Let's go, it's still wet, the footprints are probably still good." She muttered, seeing Finn finally smile in some sort of relief. Then she was off, jogging into the tree line with three followers, noting Bellamy would be searching for the fastest way back to camp, instead of the cleanest. After all, his bulky boots were sure to make a divet in wet mud.
Noah pats herself on the back, stepping up and over leaves too loud and twigs bound to snap, the other three carefully stepping where she did. "One radio thief, as ordered."
Clarke burst past her, Raven smiling and patting Noah on the shoulder. "And I thought you just another pretty face." Raven muttered, following a very angry Clarke Griffin. Noah waved her off, laughing along as they approached Bellamy.
"Hey! Where is it?" Clarke barks, seeing the wide shoulders of the suspect on his treck back to camp.
Bellamy turns to face Clarke, and plasters a smug smirk on his lips, "Hey Princess, you taking a walk in the woods?"
And very quickly was Clarke dismissing personal space and getting dangerously close to him. "They're getting ready to kill three hundred people up there to save oxygen, and I can guarantee you it won't be council members. It'll be working people." She spits, tapping his chest. "Your people."
And Finn is next in the barrage, shoving Bellamy backwards "Where's the radio?" He almost shouts. Noah smiles to herself, not in the mood to get in the middle of anymore politics dealing with the Ark. Rather just strolling in the woods, kicking some rocks around in the meantime.
Bellamy shrugs, pushing Finn right back. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Raven perks a brow, approaching confidently. "Bellamy Blake? They're looking everywhere for you." She countered, and he's quickly to shoot a harsh glare her direction.
"Shut up."
But Clarke's interest has already been peaked. "Looking for him, why?" She questions.
"He shot Chancellor Jaha."
Noah's head lifts, raising her brows.
"That's why you took the wristbands. Needed everyone to think we're dead." Clarke spat, a little bit more disgusted with the man in front of her. He wasn't righteous or a 'natural born leader'. He was a selfish prick.
Finn narrows his eyes. "All that 'whatever the hell we want'? You just care about saving your own skin." He accuses harshly, and by then Bellamy has already turned away and kept walking, not at all in the mood to dicuss what kind of person he was.
He didn't even know.
But Raven didn't care, chasing after him and rounding in front of him. "Hey! Shooter! Where's my radio?"
"Get out of my way." he bellows.
Raven grits her teeth, not backing down. "Where is it?"
Bellamy shakes his head and looks down at her. "I should've killed you when I had the chance." He hissed, words dripping with poison that would kill if they could.
She scoffs, opening her arms. "Really? Well, I'm right here."
The Blake huffs angrily, throwing the mechanic against a tree roughly, Raven quickly to pull her knife on his, not even a skip in her heartbeat. "Where's my radio?" She whispers venomously, the tip of her blade almost touching the skin of his adam's apple.
Noah's suddenly beside them, her bow loaded and arrow tip an inch away from Bellamy's skull. "Get off of her, Blake." She threatens. "Back up, and let her go."
He lifts his hands, backing away from the Reyes girl slowly, a bit bewildered that Noah thought he was the bad guy here. "Jaha deserved to die. You all know that." He explained, watching Noah slowly disarm herself, still giving him the death glare.
Raven rolls her shoulder and puts her knife away. "Yeah, he's not my favorite person either, but he isn't dead."
Bellamy furrows his brows and looks to the girl incredulously. He'd shot him point blank. How was the guy not dead? "What?"
"You're a lousy shot."
Clarke lifts her head up and down with a bit of relief. "Bellamy, don't you see what this means? You're not a murderer. You always did what you had to do to protect your sister. That's who you are. And you can do it again by protecting three hundred of your people. Just — where's the radio?" She pleads.
He sighs and shakes his head. "It's too late."
Noah wades around near the shore, Bellamy off the side, staring at the crowd of people they'd collected on such short notice to search the river for the radio. Her hands dig around, hoping maybe it'd gotten stuck in the mud and gotten buried. Anything better than it already being gone a couple miles down stream. "So you shot him to get on the drop ship." She hums.
Bellamy sighed. "I wasn't letting Octavia come down alone."
Noah shrugs, she understands. If she had a sibling, or even if Indigo was on that drop ship, she'd kill Jaha too. It wasn't like Jaha was a stand up guy either. "No, I get it. I just — I don't know."
"I'm not a killer."
She smiles. "Please, you? Tough guy couldn't even hurt a butterfly." She jokes, splashing up water onto him with a bright smile. "Oop! What're you gonna do? Shoot me?"
And he can't help but grin. "I hate you."
"Hey! I found it!" Jones, the same delinquent from earlier shouts from a couple yards away from Noah. The crowd huddles around him, Raven digging into the middle, taking it from his hands.
Clarke peers over her shoulder with a hopeful look. "Can you fix it?" She asks quietly.
And she hesitated, sputtering to find hopeful words. "Maybe, but it'll take half the day just to dry out the components to see what's broken." She answered truthfully.
Bellamy shook his head. "Like I said, it's too late."
And another wave of anger rolled through Clarke Griffin, and she turned to Bellamy, storming up to him. "Do you have any idea what you did? Do you even care?!" She cried.
He pointed a daring finger at her. "You asked me to help. I helped." He shouted.
"Three hundred people are gonna die today because of you!"
Noah shrugged. "Who said we have to talk to them?"
Raven's eyes widened, shaking Noah's shoulders. "We just have to let them know we're down here!"
"Yeah, but how do we do that with no radio?" Finn questioned, suddenly seeing Raven's grin grow ear to ear.
And within hours, five flares were lined up, aimed at the sparkling sky above them, the star of the Ark the bullseye of the target. Sparks were lit, and the fuse growing shorter as it burned and crisped.
With a loud whistle and a roar of the explosives, a bright flash of purple and the flares fired away. A trail of fire and smoke as the shot upward, every member of the camp crowd to watch them sail.
"You think they can see it from up there?" Bellamy mumbled.
And the blonde beside him shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I hope so. Can you wish on this kind of shooting star?" The freckled Blake looked down at her strangely, before she shook it off. "Forget it." She whispered.
But he scoffed. "Wouldn't even know what to wish for." He spoke quietly, before looking around him. "Speaking of, where's Noah?"
Clarke furrowed her brows and looked to him, "Speaking of?" she questioned, except he was already gone.
The rest of the camp mesmerized by the shining purple glow, Bellamy had already disappeared from the crowd and slipped off to the side to find the bow and arrow clad woman who was relaxed along the edge of the camp on a log.
"What you did for Atom, I didn't know you had that in you." Bellamy stepped beside Noah, her face under a blanket of shadows. The exact bow he was thinking about resting in her lap as she watched the trees sway in the wind.
Noah hummed. "You don't know a lot of things."
"You know, you were kind of a legend in factory station. I use to tell my sister about you before bed." Bellamy laughed taking a seat across from her. Whe smirked softly.
"Yeah? Was I cool?"
He laughed a bit. "Oh yeah. The coolest. But you're different than the stories. They never tell you about how obnoxious you are."
She scoffed, shaking her head, only hesitating for just a second before looking to her feet, and then back to the freckles face. "The song." She muttered, making his head turn to meet her gaze, revealing the honey color of his eyes. She's never quite noticed them before. Though who has time to look at eye color when you have to worry about being shot from the trees at all points of the day. "I can't even remover my mom's eye color and that stupid song is all I have left. She would sing it before I fell asleep. And it was — they were terrible parents. I slept in — my bed was this little drawer. And they were both floated and dead before I even grew out of it. I'm told they smuggled drugs and booze... so, real stand up people. But that song... it kinda stuck. Used to calm me down."
He furrowed his brows. "Used to?"
And she shrugged, soundlessly pulling at the fraying string of her pants. "Kinda lost its ring... but I think Atom liked it. Singing was never popular in space."
Bellamy took the silence and abused it. He soaked up every ounce of the figure in front of him. The rusted brown color of her hair was mostly fallen out of its braid, and the rigid definition in her biceps. And despite the strength, her hands were slim and looked like they couldn't do harm to even the smallest of creature. "You slept in a drawer, huh?"
An airy laugh bubbles out of her chest, her hand reaching over and playfully slapping Bellamy's shoulders. "Drop it, Blake. No more sob stories."
AUTHOR SPEAKS!
—— murphy and bellamy
moments. we love it.
a medium burn is all i need
with bellamy and bby noah.
but john murphy gets all of
noah's love and it's non
debatable.
spread love
- spidermandes