A/N: As Summer comes dangerously close to an end and Autumn approaches, bringing with it yet another school year where half of our days are despicably taken away from us – I have decided to try my luck at a NaNoWriMo-esque story that I will (hopefully) update every single day, rapping it up at the end of August. My goal is to have a complete book of at least 25 chapters at the end of the month. Stay tuned...

Chapter 1

Ella Pov

"Hey Murphy, we're about to leave, you coming?" called Ella as she stepped through the gates and out into the still woods, slinging her backpack over one shoulder.

She made the pack herself out of pieces of discarded material she found in the Drop Ship, which had been brutally torn apart after its crash landing to Earth to make makeshift beds, backpacks, and other like objects. It came quite in handy when she was gone from camp for long periods of time with the guys, hunting or scavenging for food or whatever task that the group was sent out on that day.

"Hold your horses kid, can't you see I'm peeing," he shamelessly yelled back, his voice coming from behind a bush somewhere to her right, making Ella chuckle.

He had called her Kid ever sense they were little; they had been friends all their lives and she had become use to his superior attitude in which he associated with everyone.

Finally reemerging from his hiding spot, Murphy walked over to where Ella stood and picked up his backpack laying at her feet as the rest of the group scurried around them in preparation for their trip: packing water and food, checking packs for loose straps, and every once in a while running back to their tents to retrieve a forgotten item.

"About time."

Murphy smirked and playfully bumped her with his shoulder.

"Lets go, we're losing daylight!" called Bellamy, causing those who were still in the camp to dash back out so as not to be left behind.

Once he was sure that everyone was there, Bellamy started down the path with Jasper and Miller hot on his heels, everyone else following a few paces behind them.

Ella and Murphy dropped back a bit, taking up the rear as usual and fell into step beside each other. Ella glanced over at the boy beside her, holding back the smile that was trying to creep onto her lips. Everyone around camp tried to avoid Murphy, not wanting to chance eliciting his wrath or have to hear some smutty or sarcastic comment that seemed to fall from his mouth more than half the time. But, growing up with him, Ella just learned to roll with it, and really liked being around him. He let his guard down when he was with her. True, he wasn't a perfect gentleman – no Murphy would never be described as that – she was the butt of most of his jokes and still had to stand his sarcastic comments, but they were always laced with humor when concerning her, and never really bothered her. She was fine with who he was and wouldn't want him to change for the world. The only thing she hated was that he put his walls back up when dealing with other people. He never wanted anyone to see his weaknesses... no one but her. He trusted her.

They walked through the woods just far enough so that they could get away from the noises of camp without crossing the boundary into Grounder territory. No one side a word as they made their way through the woods trying not to scare away any potential game.

They were all still relatively new at this however, and the crunching of dry leaves and twigs under the feet of five teenage kids would be enough to give their position away to anything close by.

Bellamy stopped abruptly holding one fist in the air to signal for them to do the same, everyone behind him followed suit save Jasper who almost ran straight into him. Ella gave Murphy as sideways glance and rolled her eyes, Murphy returned her look with a smirk. Jasper had been late to join the game, and so had the least training.

Pivoting on his heels to face them, Bellamy gave the surrounding trees a once-over and deciding that this was as good a place as any to hunt, he returned his attention back to the party awaiting his instructions.

"Alright," he said in a quiet but demanding voice,"we'll split into two teams – Miller, Jasper, you're with me - Murphy you're with Ella. We'll catch as much as we can in the expanse of three hours, then meet back here.

"You got it boss," said Murphy, before the two groups dispersed – Bellamy, Jasper, and Miller breaking off to the right, leaving Murphy and Ella to go left.

Heading down their new path, Murphy reached his right hand to his belt where he kept his knife and took it out, tossing it into the air in the same motion, then catching it with ease as the hilt landed in his palm. Ella shook her head at him causing a grumbling laugh to erupt from deep in his chest.

"intimidated aren't you?" said Murphy cocking one eyebrow at her.

"Please," said Ella shoving him playfully. "I bet I can catch twice as much game as you can. Every time you get near an animal it rolls its eyes and scoffs at you before disappearing into the woods."

Murphy's face was a mask of mock shock that was quickly turned into a sly grin as he tucked his knife back into its place holder. Before she could realize what was happening, he bent down, grabbing her around the waist and tossed her over his shoulder like a rag doll, with little to no effort because of her small frame (yet another thing that Ella was use to). He continued down the path like that while she laughed and struggled to break free of his strong grip.

"Murphy - Oh my God -Let me down," she half panted half laughed, giving up the already lost battle and instead tried to hoist herself up by bracing her open palms on his back to stop the blood from rushing to her head, her white blond hair swinging around her in time with his steps.

"Alright – but first say that I'm a better hunter than you."

"Y-your such a child – let me down."

He smiled to himself and started spinning her around, her hair whipping them both in the face as he did. Ella started laughing even harder, having to resort to biting down on his shirt to keep from screaming and scare all of the animals away, although she had a sneaking suspicion it was already too late for that.

"Alright, alright," she panted. "You're a better hunter than me, you're the best hunter on the entire Earth!"

Pleased with her answer, he set her back on her feet, though not completely leaving each others embrace to keep from falling over from dizziness, a big lazy smile spread across both of their faces.

"You're exhausting," Ella huffed and pushed off his chest once she felt like she could walk down the path without running into a tree.

"Come on, you know you love me," said Murphy running back to her side and falling back in step with her.

"Ha!" She tried for sarcasm, but couldn't help giving him a quick glace, her smile wavering.

Ella couldn't even remember a time when she didn't have Murphy in her life. Their mothers had been best friends before they were born, and when they both had children it just seemed so natural for them to become friends as well – living in close proximity, and visiting every single day.

Over the years she had started to gradually become closer and closer with him, until she was afraid that she really was falling in love with the stubborn man. She was sure that all of her friends (which weren't very many) would think that she was going insane if she told them, so she just kept this bit of information to herself. After all, she was the only one who really knew him, and knew that he could be quite playful and charming when he wanted to be, and had been very protective over her her whole life. But, she was afraid that he would push her away if she tried to take things any further with him, and so kept it from him as well.

"I think you might have scared off any animals for a hundred miles in every direction from your screaming," came Murphy's voice, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Oh, ho, I'm sure you'll have a very detailed story ready for Bellamy in which the reason that we inevitably return to camp empty handed is somehow my fault alone."

Murphy looked down at her and winked, sending butterflies through her stomach, that she tried desperately to push down.

A/N: I never fail to fall for tortured/angst male characters, whether that be in books, movies or TV shows, so obviously I just had to write a Fan Fiction with Murphy as one of the main characters. I however couldn't see any of the girls who were on the show being with him, except maybe Raven, but I decided to just go ahead and write one for him, because in order to go with the feel of the story I wanted the girl to be a bit more sweet and playful than Raven who – even though I am total obsessed with her character - I felt was a little to harsh for the roll. Anyways – sorry for the short chapter, you can expect the next one to be longer.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the story!