1. Wake Up Auntie Clarke

"The year you were born marks only your entry into the world. Other years where you prove your worth, they are the ones worth celebrating."

Jarod Kintz, This Book Title Is Invisible

She's sleeping soundly when screaming and light footsteps envelop her cabin. She's on high alert for a few seconds, her mind drifting to all those wars they've been trhough, even though it's been a good seven years of solid peace now. She can't help how her senses are sharpened by sleepless nights and the inability to trust people, surroundings, animals or things. Faith was a luxury she had gave upon long ago.

When she opens her eyes, sat upright on her bed and heavily breathing, she is met with Raven deep brown eyes and an expression that resembles pity a little bit. She knows nobody is on alert nowadays but her, the only person in Utopia Camp who can't seem to relax as the years pass. She blinks a few times and looks around her to see children springing happily on both sides of her furs, laughing and singing. It takes her a few more seconds to recognize the tune then she finally gets it: today is her birthday; she's twenty-eight years old today. Then the realization that she has now spent ten years on Earth downs on her with the force of a wrecking ball although she doesn't have time to dwell upon it because her attention is being strongly claimed.

-Come on aunt Clarke! It's your birthday! You need to get out of bed and celebrate.

That voice, that cheerful voice, belongs to none other than Augustus Blake. Octavia and Lincoln's son, the first offspring to be born through the union of grounders and sky people –but in no way the last-, who was now almost nine years old. Physically, Augustus was just like his father but with his mother striking blue eyes and the cute freckles he had inherited from his uncle. All things considered, he was a beautiful child and Clarke was not surprised, he definitely had genetics on his side. He was usually a calm child but Octavia's hunger for life was definitely etched in every one of his gestures. The boy launches his arms around her neck and she smiles into his hair, her heart tightening at the affection he showers her in.

-Come on auntie, there's people waiting to see you.

Clarke's smile grows larger as Augustus uses "auntie" to refer to her. She still can remember the day he first uttered that word.

He had been five when he had tugged his mother's sleeve before whispering something into her ear. Octavia's laugh had ran freely through the camp, startling Clarke and Bellamy who had sat only a few feet away while looking through some gathering trip's details.

-What's so funny, Augustus?

Bellamy had asked, a fond expression on his face. Since Augustus was born, Bellamy had become sweeter, happy at the fact that his little sister –the one once confined under a floor, without a single flicker of hope- was now a mother, among many other things. Once they had achieved the peace, something in Bellamy seemed to forever relax as if at least part of his mission in life had been successfully accomplished. Clarke had soon found that anybody who was responsible for the happiness in Bellamy Blake's eyes was as precious as a person could get in her eyes.

-Go. Go tell them. They should know.

Octavia had spoken softly to Augustus and he had obeyed immediately.

-Clarke, can I call you auntie?

Both Clarke and Bellamy had looked at the little boy surprised, even shocked, until she had asked:

-Why would you call me that, August?

-Well, aunts are the persons who are with uncles, right?

It wasn't exactly right, but it wasn't completely wrong either, was it? And Clarke couldn't find it in her to correct the cutest boy of Utopia Camp.

-Um, yeah, sure.

-And whenever I go to see uncle Bellamy, you're there so I shall call you auntie.

Octavia had exploded in laughter all over again while Clarke and Bellamy had stared at Augustus with a dumbstruck expression on their faces. Octavia had looked at Clarke smirking slightly; as if she held a precious secret she wouldn't let her in just yet. In the end Clarke had looked over at Bellamy, asking permission with her eyes, and he had reassured her with a small smile.

-Sure, August, I can be your auntie.

The kid had hugged her so strongly that some of her broken parts, she thought, may have found their way back together.

It had not always been so easy; Clarke still recalled vividly the first years of Augustus´ life. Octavia had been resentful towards her for a long time, refusing to let her come near her child if it wasn't for a medical emergency. She had even preferred a grounder healer, Nyko, to help her give birth. She had never forgiven Clarke for Ton DC even though she had kept silent about it, leaving the blonde to judge when to reveal that information if she ever wanted to reveal it at all. Octavia had worked with Clarke in the aftermath of Mount Weather, but she had as sky people had worked with grounders, forced to work with someone you didn't trust or like. Back then, she had taken every opportunity to let Clarke know how easier would life be if she wasn't there, how easier would everything be if she had never came back. For three years, Octavia had kept her away from her and her little family, casting dirty glances on Lincoln whenever he spoke to her, but in the end Bellamy's sadness about it had won her over. Her relationship with Bellamy had not been in the best place and Clarke had thought he didn't really blame Octavia's for her behavior until she had surprised a conversation, upon returning to camp from a trek.

Octavia had been pacing near the entry of camp while Bellamy had stood still, in front of her, his arms crossed in front of his broad chest.

-I can't believe you Bell! I don't get it.

-What don't you get, O? You have to let it go at some point and, honestly, it has gotten ridiculous. Everybody in camp is allowed to go near your son but her. It doesn't make sense.

-Oh yes, to me it does.

-She loves him; she loves him as much as anybody here does.

-She doesn't deserve it! She doesn't deserve love, Bellamy.

Bellamy had looked at Octavia with a sadness that had tightened around Clarke's heart like a serpent, mirroring her own feelings.

-And who are you to be the judge of that, Octavia?

-I'm as good as any.

Bellamy had nodded and thrown his arms in the air.

-Fine, then let judge everybody else by your standards, shall we? My hands are as bloody as hers, Octavia. My heart is as dark as hers so maybe you shouldn't let me come near my nephew either.

Octavia had looked at Bellamy angrily before pointing her index finger into his chest.

-Don't you dare comparing you two! You have nothing to do with her, you're not a betrayer.

Bellamy had chuckled humorlessly, with something in the air much that smelled much like despair.

-That's what you like to think O; but we're all betrayers of some sort. We have all betrayed ideas and people. We're survivors. You don't get to survive otherwise.

-What do you want from me, big bro?

-I want you to stop punishing her. Believe me, there's no need. She does that on her own brilliantly.

Clarke had left unheard, not wanting to intrude more in a conversation that felt so private but only a few days afterwards she had been allowed to hug Augustus for the first time.

During the ten years Clarke had spent on Earth, she had discovered that the devotion Bellamy held for Octavia wasn't, as she had initially thought, one-sided. The most she grew, the most Octavia seemed to appreciate everything her brother had done for her. He was the only reason she ever let Clarke back, the only reason she had finally craved in and let her be someone in her kid's life. Bellamy had smiled softly at her, eyes full of tenderness, and Octavia had rolled her eyes as if it didn't matter that much. Octavia had still kept Clarke at bay but, as the years passed, she had warmed up to her until they had become friends again, almost as good ones as they once were.

-Hey! Don't keep her to yourself; she's my aunt too!

Maya's voice echoes load in her ears and soon enough not only one pair of arms is at her neck, but two. Maya was now seven years old and Clarke was pretty convinced she would end up marrying Augustus. The boy had taken it as a personal mission to protect Raven and Wick's daughter, which wasn't a surprise seeing as he had Blake's blood running through his veins. They bickered all the time, both of them with a strong personality, but wouldn't let anyone else as much as look badly at the other. Maya was the vivid image of her father: blonde haired, blue eyed and very faired skin; she looked more alike Clarke than alike Raven witch had become a running joke between both women. Her personality, however, was a mirror of her mother's: strong, brave and forward, Maya was a force of nature to reckon with.

-Okay guys, there is aunt Clarke for everybody, yeah? Now get out of here and let her breathe. Don't you have siblings to attend to?

At the mention of Aurora and Finn, both of the children leave running. The rule of one child per couple having determined their existence on the Ark, the old delinquents had ended up contemplating that kind of bond as nothing short of sacred. Clarke thought Bellamy and Octavia's relationship, that had gathered admiration and envy through the years, wasn't innocent in the matter either but she kept it to herself.

-How is the birthday girl?

Clarke sighs and looks at Raven feeling much older than she actually is.

-It's like a truck just hit me.

Raven chuckles and rolls her eyes. It has always amazed the blonde how after everything she had been through, her limp leg a silent testimony of it, Raven could still be so full of strength.

-It's been ten years, Raven.

Raven could hear everything that was unsaid in that short sentence; every single regret, the awe at having survived that long, the realization life was escaping through her fingers one day at a time, the never ending memories...

-I know. It's pretty shocking. Ten years ago I lost everything and look at me today.

Clarke smiles at the blissful expression on Raven's face and ignores her own sadness. What has she become ten years later? A mass destructor, a broken girl, a lonely leader, Wanheda.

-Take your sweet time because, I'm telling you, once you set one foot out of that tent, there won't be a moment of peace for you.

Clarke hides her face into her hands and grunts.

-Party?

-Oh girl, every kind of it. We'll begin with your mom's visit, then the grounders delegations coming to pay their respects to you, a PG party for the kids and an adult one at night so you can finally loosen up a little.

-Amazing. Is it my birthday or "Let's torture Clarke" day?

-Aren't those two the same thing? I'll give you half an hour then I'll come barging in here and get you out whether you like or not.

-Love you too, Raven.

-Hey, Clarke?

-Yeah?

-Happy birthday.

-Thanks Raven.

Then she remembers she is now twenty-eight years old and laughs out loud because she would have never imagined her life to be what it is at twenty-eight years old. At some point in the not so distant past, she had stopped imagining a future altogether.

"A birth-date is a reminder to celebrate the life as well as to update the life."

Amit Kalantri