"Raven Reyes kom Skaikru."
Well, someone's being pretty damn formal today, she thought, looking up from the computer where she'd been busily trying to save the world for the second (or was it the third?) time.
Oh, fuck, it's the asshole. Roan. King Roan. Can't forget that part.
He was standing just inside the doorway to her workshop.
"Something I can do for you?" she asked, frowning at the interruption. "Otherwise, I'm kinda busy here."
The look on his face reminded Raven that this was the guy that nobody ever questioned.
He was silent for so long after that that she began to think he might leave without stating his business. But then he finally spoke up, and it was with his usual air of entitled arrogance.
"I'd like an update."
"An update?"
"Yes. On your progress. With the, uh, technology."
Well, hell! She wasn't wasting her time giving random "updates" to every idiot who walked in her door.
"There's a meeting at the end of the week. Everyone will get all the latest information then."
Roan's eyes narrowed and he started across the room toward her worktable. She rose from her seat, and for that one tiny instant she somehow forgot about her goddamned leg. So of course it began to crumple beneath her.
Roan's eyes flickered, and for one horrible moment, Raven was afraid he might be going to try to help her or something. But he finally stopped in his tracks while still several feet away.
Raven regained her balance, at the same time shooting daggers at his majesty.
"How did you get in here?" she asked, going on the offensive. She hated getting caught being clumsy, but on the other hand, she refused to be embarrassed by it. Especially with this jerk.
"Your door was unguarded," he said. "Perhaps your warriors need more discipline."
"They're not warriors, they're guards. But, yeah! Someone's gonna get read the riot act."
Roan's cocked eyebrow let her know he hadn't quite caught her meaning, but Raven didn't care. She wanted to get back to work.
"So you got in, and now you can leave the same way." She waved her hand towards the door to emphasize her point.
For a moment, they just stared at one another, and then Roan widened his stance, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Not before I get my report."
Raven sighed. She'd been running calculations all day, and while she never thought she'd say it, she was missing space/Ark, and it's climate-controlled always-perfect temperature.
It was the middle of summer, and she was hot. More than hot. She couldn't seem to keep the sweat from dripping off her face. And so her patience, never very robust, had reached its threadbare edge.
King Roan was about to make the acquaintance of hot, disgruntled Raven Reyes.
"You know, instead of coming in here all demanding, why don't you try doing something useful?"
"Useful?" The way the man rolled the word around on his tongue, you'd think he'd never heard it before. "And what would you find useful?"
And Raven was suddenly inspired. She smirked. Crossed her arms in front of her, nearly mirroring his stance.
"Well, hell, you're the Ice Nation, right? Maybe you could bring me some of that ice so I could cool off. Then I could finish these calculations faster, and you could get your damn update that much quicker."
Raven saw the very second that amusement lit his face.
"And how would this ice that you request help you cool off? Would you sit on it, perhaps? Or rub it all over you? I don't think you'd find either very comfortable."
She knew this was a stupid conversation, but Raven couldn't seem to find it in her to back down. It had something to do with the cocky smirk on the man's face.
That's when inspiration struck for a second time.
"I'd make ice cream," she crowed triumphantly, "and then we could all could cool off."
"Ice...cream?" Roan's brow puckered.
"Yes, it's delicious," she assured him.
"Ah, something to eat," he nodded.
Now in truth, Raven had never in her life eaten ice cream. It was far too frivolous an item to have ever been produced on the Ark, and she'd only ever seen it on some of the old vids in the Ark's library.
(Of course, Jasper never shut up about the stuff. About how cool and creamy and tasty it was. But that had only been in his head. And why the hell was it, anyway, that her experience in the City of Light had been one of torture and despair, but Jasper Jordan had gotten to eat ice cream? It seemed so unfair.)
But Roan didn't have to know any of that, and it didn't matter anyway. Because no one was going find any ice in the middle of a heat wave.
Not even the king of the Ice Nation.
"So," the annoying man was saying now, "if I understand you correctly, if I bring you some ice, you would agree to giving me regular updates on your progress. And perhaps even offer me some of that delicious ice cream."
Huh? Is that what she'd said? It hadn't seemed like she'd agreed to that. She shrugged inwardly. It was never going to happen anyway.
"And if you don't show up with the ice?" she inquired, brows raised, looking after her own end of the bargain.
"Then you have my word I will never interrupt you again."
Hah! She couldn't think of anything she'd like more.
"Done," Raven said, impulsively holding out her hand to seal the deal.
With a few long strides, Roan covered the rest of the distance between them, enclosing the proffered hand in his much larger one. His skin was rough, as she might have expected, but it was also warm. So warm, in fact, that she felt her already overheated body climbing a few degrees higher.
Raven looked up at the man to find him studying her intently.
"I've been told you are a genius, Raven," Roan said abruptly.
"Oh, yeah?" she said, gratified. "Who told you that?"
"Bellamy Blake. But he did not tell me that the beautiful Raven was also a clever negotiator."
Raven felt her face heat up at the unexpected compliment, and she suddenly realized that Roan still had hold of her hand. She pulled away from him, dropping back into her chair, and turning once again to her computer.
"It's not my fault if you want to make crazy deals," she huffed, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
For the first time in their acquaintance, she saw king Roan of the Ice Nation grin.
"We shall see," he said, bowing his head briefly, before making his way across the room and out the door.
Raven blew out an annoyed breath. Good! Now maybe I can get some work done.
She was staring at the monitor, her hands poised atop the keyboard, when Raven began to laugh. It was a giddy sound, and it startled her because of its rarity.
For no apparent reason, Raven found herself grinning unexpectedly several times that afternoon.
XXXXXXXXXX
There were less than twenty-four hours left until Kane's progress meeting, and Raven was rushing to finish some important calculations. So she was not happy at the interruption.
"Raven! Get out here!"
It was Nathan Miller who'd stuck his head in the door to demand her appearance, and Raven was pissed.
"Go away, Miller. I'm busy."
"Sorry, Raven," Miller said, and now Raven could see that Bryan was with him and that both were grinning widely. "You can either come out here under your own steam or we're going to go in there and carry you out."
What the hell was this? Raven jumped out of her chair and made her way to the door as quickly as she could on her always unreliable leg.
"This better be important, or I'm gonna rip you guys a new one," she muttered, following them down the hallway to the outer door.
What with trying to prevent a cataclysmic disaster in their little corner of the universe, Raven hadn't had much time to spend out of doors lately, and she blinked at the bright sunshine. And was still blinking as she crossed the inner yard. So perhaps she could be forgiven for not, at first, seeing exactly what all the commotion was about.
But when her eyes finally adjusted to the light, she couldn't seem to control the little thrill that ran through her when she looked up and saw King Roan of Azgeda sitting firmly astride a large white horse. Roan caught her eye and smiled down at her, but she didn't understand the reason for the satisfied smirk on his face.
"Hello, Raven," he said, leaning down and speaking to her directly. "I hope this will be satisfactory."
He turned his head, and for the first time, Raven noticed the vehicle that sat in the yard behind Roan's horse. Not a motorized vehicle, like the Arkadians had, but rather a wagon, piled high with cargo, and pulled by two enormous horses. An Azgedan warrior was at the reins.
At a nod from his king, the warrior reached around and pulled the cover off the cargo. To reveal...hay?
Raven was perplexed. Why was there a fucking load of hay in the yard, and why was Roan looking so smug about it?
By now, the area was full of Arkadians, including all of Raven's friends. Alerted, no doubt, by Miller. Clarke was smiling, while Bellamy was clearly losing the battle to suppress his grin. Monty's smile was discreet, but Jasper felt no such compunction. His laughter filled the yard.
She'd told them all about stupid king Roan, of course, and her stupid "negotiation" with him, but surely that was nothing to do with this. This was a wagonful of hay.
"It's how we keep it cold," Roan said, and she suddenly realized that he'd jumped down from his horse and was standing right beside her.
"Here, see," he said, picking up her hand and moving it to brush the hay aside. Her hand came away wet, and that's when it hit her. It wasn't a wagonful of hay. It was a wagonful of hay-covered ice.
"But...how..." Raven was so flummoxed she couldn't even get out the question, but it didn't matter, because Roan answered it anyway.
"I had to travel into the more northern parts of my lands to get the ice, Raven. We cuts blocks from the lake during the cold time and store it underground in hay and sawdust. It usually doesn't travel well, so I'm sure a lot of it has melted during our journey."
He looked at her closely, his expression giving away nothing.
"But I think there is still enough left for you to make your ice cream."
Raven could feel her jaw dropping, and her face beginning to heat to what she knew must be an unattractive shade. And then she heard them, all of them, all her fucking friends. They were laughing so hard that even when Raven turned around to glare at them, they couldn't seem to stop.
Even the stoic, serious Clarke, who at least had the grace to shrug apologetically through her laughter.
But now Roan was speaking again, and Raven just knew she wasn't going to like whatever it was he had to say.
"Since Kane's committee is meeting tomorrow, I won't bother you for an update today," he conceded magnanimously, pausing to let that sink in.
Then came the coup de grace.
"But I am looking forward to tasting the ice cream."
And in that space in her head where Raven's awesome brain usually functioned so precisely there was suddenly a complete and utter void.
Shit! She was well and truly fucked.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Goddammit! This is the most sophisticated computer ever created. I've already used it to save humanity and now I'm working overtime to pull that off again."
Raven banged her head on her table in utter frustration.
"So why, in the name of all that is holy, does it not contain any information anywhere in its database about how to make goddamn ice cream?"
Raven swore, if she didn't need the thing to save them all - and if Monty weren't sitting right next to her - she'd throw the damn computer against the wall.
Monty was sympathetic. The two of them had searched the system for hours, certain that such a simple piece of data as a recipe for ice cream must be somewhere in its vast recesses, but they'd come up empty.
But Raven refused to give up. She'd made that stupid bargain with that asshole Roan and she'd be damned if she'd let him think she couldn't live up to her end.
"How come Jasper doesn't know?" Raven complained for the dozenth time. "He's a chemist and he also ate the stuff. Sort of. In his head, anyway."
"All Jasper could tell me was that it was cold, creamy, and sweet. And that it came in different flavors. He had some kind of berry ice cream, I think."
"Berry-flavored? You never told me that before." Raven sighed. "But what the hell does it matter, anyway, if we can't find a recipe, or instructions, or..."
The door opened then, and Bellamy Blake sauntered in carrying a couple of books and wearing an amused look.
"Why did you not come to me with this problem earlier?" he asked, striding across the room and banging the books down on her worktable.
"Why, are you the information wizard?" Raven asked, her lips twisting into a smirk.
"No, but I did know the location of just about every book on the Ark, and most of them were on Alpha Station. Like this one," he said, picking up a stained and faded book and handing it to her.
"Betty Crocker," she read aloud, bewildered.
"Check out page 186," he said, nodding at her until she turned to the right page.
"Holy shit! Monty, it's a recipe for ice cream. Bellamy you're a...oh, no. Dammit! You need a special kind of bucket to make the ice cream."
"It's called a churner," Bellamy said, "and that's why I brought the second book."
"DIY?" she asked, when he handed it over. "What's that?"
"Do It Yourself. It was a craze during the 21st century. I think if you look in chapter 6..."
But Raven had already found the relevant page for the construction of an ice cream churner.
"You really are a lifesaver, Bellamy," she said happily, throwing her arms around him and smacking him on the lips.
Bellamy was startled, his eyes blinking in surprise.
"Hey, don't get any funny ideas, Blake," Raven said immediately. "Just got carried away with gratitude. Besides, I'm not crazy enough to piss off Clarke," she added with a grin.
Bellamy had been only mildly embarrassed by Raven's unexpected kiss, but the mention of Clarke had a blush running up his cheeks.
"Don't be stupid, Raven," he said gruffly. And perhaps on the principle that the best defense was a good offense, he made an observation of his own.
"And I certainly wouldn't want to offend King Roan." His deep voice dripped with sincerity. "Not after he brought you all that ice. So was that like some kind of bride price, Raven? I mean I know it was a lot of ice, but I really think you could have gotten something a little more substantial. Like a horse, maybe. Did you forget that the ice was going to melt and then you'd having nothing left?"
Beside her, Monty choked back a laugh and Raven glared at them both.
"Get the hell out of here, Blake, before I throw one of these books at your head!"
Raven was in no mood to be teased about Roan. Especially since she hadn't been able to control her physical reaction to him when he'd shown up that day. Or stop wondering when she might see him again.
"Gladly," Bellamy grinned, turning to leave.
Beside her Raven felt Monty rise as if to follow, and she put out a hand to stop him.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" she barked. "Start gathering materials. You and I are gonna build an ice cream churner."
XXXXXXXXXX
The churner, Raven decided, had been the easy part. She was, after all, a mechanic, and although it had taken them most of the night, she was satisfied that she and Monty had been able to replicate a workable ice cream maker. She'd even added a small motor from her stockpile of leftover parts. A helluva lot easier, she thought, than cranking for hours by hand.
But she still had work to do on the planning for that day's meeting, and she was pretty sure Kane wouldn't be all that sympathetic if she said she hadn't had time to finish because she was too busy building an ice cream churner. So after a couple of hours of sleep, Raven was back at her computer, doing her real job.
She had a master plan for the ice cream, though. One that had been forged in her awesome brain with just as much care as everything else Raven undertook. All it needed was a little bit of assistance from the same people who'd found her humiliation so funny the day before.
Raven hit up Clarke first, since she was likely to be the most sympathetic. And feel the most guilt about laughing at Raven's plight. Clarke thought she could probably procure the cream. She had a Trikru patient who actually owned some cows, and she thought she could barter some good will owed her for the output of a couple of milkings.
Jasper, who'd at last decided to be helpful, said he'd get the sweetener. There was nothing like refined sugar available to them, of course, but Jasper claimed he knew of an acceptable substitute. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Raven was too tired and to desperate to do anything other than believe him.
Monty and Harper said they'd be delighted to spend the day in the forest picking the sweet berries that would give the ice cream its flavor. So Raven used her influence to get them assigned to "assist" her for the day, and they happily took off, buckets in hand.
Miller and Bryan, she set to chipping the ice into chunks small enough to be useful.
With the "ice cream team" deployed, Raven was at last free to concentrate on more familiar problems, like leaking radiation and nuclear devastation. In some ways, it was a relief.
It was while Raven was eating dinner in the outdoor mess that evening that she began to think that her team may have run into one or two snags. Her first clue was the sight of Clarke walking into camp leading a very large, very smelly, brown-spotted cow.
"What the, hell, Clarke?" Raven was out of her seat and shuffling over to Clarke as quickly as her tired leg allowed. "You were just supposed to get the cream, not bring the whole damn cow!"
Clarke's face was a study in confusion.
"I'm sorry, Raven. I'm still not sure what happened. One second I was explaining to my patient that I needed some cream, and the next he was smiling and handing me the cow's halter."
Raven frowned. "And were you carrying on this conversation in grounder-talk?" she asked suspiciously.
"My Trigedasleng is perfectly adequate..." Clarke began to protest.
"Hah!" Raven cut her off, "and that's why you're standing there holding onto a damn cow instead of a bucketful of cream."
It was at that point that the animal itself was heard from, perhaps protesting her change of ownership with a very loud "Mooooo!" Clarke jumped at the sound, and tried to hand the rope to Raven.
"What the hell do you think I'm going to do with that thing?" Raven said, slipping both hands behind her back.
The girls glared at each other in silence, while the rest of the table erupted in laughter. Finally a sympathetic Bryan, late of Farm Station, rose with a sigh.
"Here, give her to me," he said. "It's obvious she needs milking."
Obvious to whom? Raven thought as she resumed her seat and picked up her fork.
She was still sluggishly shoveling food into her mouth when she heard a loud gasp to her right. Raven looked up just in time to see Clarke racing towards a boy whose entire face was covered in painful-looking welts. It took Raven a few seconds to recognize him.
"What happened to you, Jasper?" Clarke was saying, her voice filled with concern.
"Might have got stung a few times," Jasper said, his attempt at a smile looking like nothing so much as a lot of teeth set in a round pink ball. He stumbled the few extra feet toward Raven.
"But I got your sweetener," he said, triumphantly holding something aloft, before suddenly crumpling to the ground at her feet.
Raven sighed, picking up the honey, while Bellamy scooped up Jasper and hurried off to med bay, Clarke following in his wake.
Will this day never end? she thought tiredly.
She perked up when Monty and Harper returned only minutes later. Raven wondered what kind of berries they'd decided on, because the mid-summer bushes were packed with all varieties of sweet fruit. But it really didn't matter. It only mattered that they were smiling and happy and had clearly been successful in completing their task.
Monty and Harper were always so reliable.
"Whatcha got for me?" she asked almost cheerfully, peering into their buckets.
But when she saw that there were berries in only one of the buckets, and that even that bucket was only half-full, Raven exploded.
"What the hell! I needed you to come back with buckets of berries, not stars in your eyes," she remonstrated, noting their guilty faces. "Now get back out there and get me some fruit!"
"But Raven," Harper protested, "we're hungry. And it'll be dark soon."
"Take a flashlight," Raven bit out through gritted teeth. "And it serves you right for spending so much time working up an appetite instead of picking the damn berries!"
Miller tossed Monty a flashlight and a sympathetic grin, and the berry-pickers scurried off for a redo.
As Raven watched them exit the gate, her eye caught that of the Azgedan king, who had clearly been observing it all with amusement from his vantage point on the other side of the yard.
"Ice cream tomorrow," she hollered sassily across the intervening space, accompanying the promise with a confident smirk.
Shut up, Raven, she told herself as she drained her cup of water. But it was already much too late.
XXXXXXXXXX
The lovers finally returned, buckets overflowing with berries. The honey was separated from the comb and crystallized. And the cream was skimmed by the competent Bryan from the top of the fresh milk. Raven looked over the recipe once again, gathered the team in her workshop, and proceeded to give them a pep talk.
"Listen, I'm going to kill you all if we don't have ice cream by tomorrow."
So maybe it wasn't so much a pep talk as a promise.
They mixed the ingredients according Betty Crocker, and Raven and Monty high-fived each other when they saw that their "DIY" ice cream churner actually worked. The motor, unfortunately, had seen better days, and conked out early on. So they were forced to jerry-rig a hand crank after all.
And hand-cranking was tiring, so it was a good thing there were several of them there, all working together to get the job done. Perhaps making ice cream hadn't exactly been the most significant or crucial challenge the group had ever faced, but still, upholding Raven's honor was important to them all.
XXXXXXXXXX
When King Roan of Azgeda arrived the next day at noon, the appointed hour for their "ice cream social," he found the members of the team sprawled in various positions all over Raven's workshop, sound asleep.
"Am I too early?" he inquired, clearing his throat noisily.
Raven awoke with a start, yawning hugely. It wasn't too surprising that they'd still been sleeping, since the sun had been peeking over the horizon by the time they'd finished cranking, wrapping, and packing the ice cream. Or what Raven hoped would turn out to be ice cream.
Because in truth, she had no idea if it would look good, or taste good, or, in fact, be any good at all.
The others woke slowly as she gathered up the spoons and bowls she'd set aside for the event.
"Party time," she said, nudging a whiny Jasper, whose face was still swollen and mottled from his battle with the beehive the previous day.
"Uh, Bellamy, would you do the honors?" Raven said, trying to quiet her nerves. She refused to think about how she would ever face Roan again if the ice cream wasn't...well...ice cream.
Bellamy nodded, pushing aside the slowly melting, sawdust-covered blocks of ice, and lifting out what she fervently hoped was a churnful of berry ice cream. When he removed the cover, multiple pairs of eyes peered down at the dubious concoction until Raven finally shoved them all away, declaring, "The first serving goes to our...guest."
She scooped out a small portion into a bowl, added a spoon to the side, and handed it over to Roan.
She could, she supposed, fill up the other bowls and hand out the other spoons, and they could all get their first taste of ice cream together. But Raven wasn't really sure she could put anything into her stomach at that moment, and the others seemed far more interested in Roan's reaction than in actually tasting the stuff themselves.
Roan accepted the bowl from Raven, taking his time about settling onto one of the few utilitarian chairs in her workroom. He couldn't have failed to notice the others watching avidly as he finally pushed his spoon into the ice cream, scooped out a frozen bite, and shoved it into his mouth.
Raven held her breath as they all waited for the verdict.
And then Roan smiled, swallowed quickly, and scooped another spoonful into his mouth, licking his lips.
"You were right, Raven," he said matter-of-factly. "Ice cream is delicious."
Raven blew out the breath she'd been holding, and suddenly the others were all clamoring for their share. Raven scooped and served and finally sat on her workbench with her own bowl of freshly-churned berry ice cream.
It was just as Jasper had described. Cold, sweet, creamy. She'd never tasted anything like it.
After that, the ice cream social actually turned...sociable, even including the grounder king who'd seemed so forbidding to many of them only moments earlier. Eventually, after they'd eaten every last bite, the others drifted off, Clarke and Bellamy the last to leave.
"Uh, Raven, you'll be okay, right?" Bellamy asked, eyeing Roan.
"Yes, Bellamy," she said, laughing. "You can drop out of Badass Daddy mode any time now."
Bellamy frowned and nodded at Raven, exchanging a significant look with Roan before ushering an amused Clarke from the room.
Then it was just the two of them. She and Roan. Raven was surprised at how little she was bothered by the prospect of being alone with him. Or maybe she was bothered, but it was in a really, really good way.
For a moment they simply stared at one another, but then Roan laughed and shook his head. "You are a surprising woman, Raven Reyes."
"Oh?" she said, pleased. Raven could think of no higher compliment than to be thought surprising. Who the hell would ever want to be considered predictable?
"So how did I surprise you today?" she asked, her eyes sparkling in challenge.
"By producing the ice cream," he said immediately. "Which I don't believe you'd ever before eaten, let alone made."
Raven let out a bark of laughter. "What gave me away?" she asked, curious.
"Does it really matter? The point is that you said you'd give me ice cream and you found a way to make that happen. I...admire your determination."
Roan rose suddenly and moved across the room to sit beside her on the bench.
"You know," he said, turning to face her, "the ice cream was tasty but it was also a little...messy. In fact, right now you have a tiny speck of it right...here."
When Roan reached out to wipe the bit of ice cream from the edge of her mouth, Raven found herself holding her breath. And when his thumb continued to gently sweep across her lower lip, her heart began to beat erratically, and she found she couldn't breathe properly at all.
"Will you allow this, Raven?" he asked softly, his eyes on her lips.
"Yes," she breathed, just as his lips touched her own.
The kiss was everything she'd desperately tried not to imagine since she first laid eyes on the guy months ago. For some reason, it felt so natural to reach up and wrap her arms around his broad shoulders, pulling herself closer while at the same time deepening the kiss. His long arms wound around her waist, until soon there was no space between them at all.
Then Raven's brain turned off and all she knew was sensation. Lips, hands, arms, all moving without thought or plan or intent. Desire shot through her in waves, and the kiss became explosive.
Roan pulled back, breathing hard, the expression on his face a mix of excitement and amazement. As though whatever it was he was feeling was something completely...unexpected.
His hands came up to cup her cheeks, stroking softly.
"I know you must be exhausted, Raven. You can't possibly have had much sleep these past two nights."
"Almost none," she agreed, her eyes glinting and the corners of her lips tugging upward. "I really think I could use a nap."
"A fine idea," Roan said, scooping her off the bench and into his arms.
"What the hell are you doing?" she said, blinking in surprise.
"You're very tired, so I see no reason why you should have to walk to your room when I can just as easily carry you," he said reasonably.
As Roan made his way down the corridor, Raven wound her arms around his neck, enjoying, for once, the feeling of being taken care of.
But by the time they reached her quarters she'd thought of a very important question.
"Do you really intend to waste my time with all those extra updates?" she asked, frowning.
Roan gave her a cheeky grin. "Perhaps not," he said. "But I might hope to take up your time in other, more pleasurable ways."
Raven smiled craftily. "I think we may need to reopen negotiations."