OCTAVIA

The world looks different on the outside.

This is her first gathering, and even a year after her release from captivity, it still comes as a surprise to her how beautiful everything seems. The huge crowds of people milling about, talking to each other, the bright colors, the atmosphere, it's almost too much for her to handle. The sights, the sounds, the smells. She takes it all in, determined to not let anything pass her by unappreciated. So she walks with a permanent smile on her face, talks to people, and revels in the excitement of the festival.

It's when she appreciating some accessories, that she feels someone staring at her. Having developed a sixth sense for when people are nearby, she is immediately aware of her surroundings when the hair at the back of her head stands up. Under the pretext of examining her face in a small mirror, she flips open its lid, and trains its view right behind her. Who was this elusive person that was…

Aha! There she was.

Surreptitiously adjusting the angle to focus more on the girl who appeared to have been following her around for a while now, Octavia observes her more carefully. She can't make out her face clearly at this much of a distance, but she can tell that the girl has tanned skin, and dark hair that she's tied up in a tight ponytail. Oh, and also, there's something wrong with her leg. Whenever she turns, or twists her body, the movement is always deliberate, slow.

And she moves a lot. Her antics make Octavia laugh, with the fidgety style of standing she has, the way she keeps sneaking glances at her, the numerous things she pretends to pick up at the shops she is at, just to look out of the corner of her eye, the various ways she tries to creep out of direct view by hiding behind the stalls, she might possibly be the most inept spy she's ever seen in her life.

Not that she's seen a lot, she thinks bitterly to herself, what with being raised underground and all.

She shakes herself out of the dark gloom that threatens to spread, and focuses on the mirror again, just in time to see the girl being dragged away by a flash of blond hair, that, taking into account the height and the clothes the other girl was wearing, could only be Princess Griffin. She puts the mirror down finally, and then notices the sudden, insistent ache in her hands at the movement. Forming her hand into a fist, and straightening it repeatedly, she decides to run before the crazy spy comes back. Inept or not, it's not safe to just wait around for someone who, as ridiculous as she seems, might be an Ice Nation scout or something. Shuddering at the thought, she makes her escape, heading towards the river.

Octavia's always had an attachment to animals. Maybe, it's because she didn't really see a lot of wildlife where she lived, except for the occasional glimpses of the dog, Atom that Bellamy brought along on his trips to cheer her up. Maybe, it's because they are a link to the great wild beyond, a place she was deprived of for the first fifteen years of her life. Whatever it is, she stills when she catches sight of a squirrel examining her with interest from a distance.

Slowly, very slowly, she reaches out a hand, while the small animal watches on with interest. It seems as though it's just decided to come closer, when there is loud noise of leaves crashing, and branches meeting with a huge CREAK sound, and her follower comes falling through. She doesn't just fall; she makes a whole circus out of it. Twisting on her weak leg, hands flailing like a windmill, she goes down, and in the process drives the squirrel away.

"You couldn't have followed me a little more quietly," she says, a tad bit irritated.

"I…sorry?" the girl replies.

The girl may be an idiot, but she's certainly a beautiful one at that. Dark haired, golden skinned, and with brown eyes that reassure her that there is no way she could be an Ice Nation spy. They are warm, kind and don't look like they've ever encountered one unkind thought in her life. Mischief, on the other hand…..mischief twinkles in those eyes, like it is second nature to her. She talks fast, with a lot of hand gestures, and blushes a lot when their eyes meet. Octavia figures out that the girl has a crush on her within five minutes of their conversation, and it amuses her, though she doesn't let it show.

Somewhere in the middle of when they are talking, Bellamy comes to mind, and she realizes that she hasn't checked in with him in almost an hour. She thinks of how worried he gets when he hasn't seen her, how he panics, and she makes a sudden movement.

"I….I'm late."

"Hi Late, I'm Raven," the girl (Raven, she corrects herself, Raven is her name, and it suits her too. Makes her think of the wide blue skies, and freedom) replies and she cannot stop the smile that steals over her lips at the absolutely horrible joke. She keeps taking slow steps towards the main road while Raven is talking, and turns around when she is asked for her name.

She doesn't know why, but at that moment, ignoring everything Bellamy has ever told her about Strangers, the Sky people, and spies, she tells her name. Something tells her to trust this strange girl, and without questioning it a lot, she just does.

It feels strange. Strange, yet freeing.

Bellamy is understandably angry when she gets back. It was a rather rash thing she did, and he makes sure to tell her exactly why, for what feels like the thousandth time (because she could have gotten kidnapped, attacked, or killed. Or she could have gotten a bruise, or ripped a tear in her dress, or lost a hair or two…she isn't really sure what Bellamy considers Danger when it comes to her. Overprotective is his second name). She listens to it for the most part, though, without a lot of fussing and sighing, because it's Bellamy. Her big brother, who has raised her with the fierce love of a mother, and the strength of a father. She knows he would die for her. That she is lucky to have him. There is nothing she would do without his absolute blessing. Nothing.

CLARKE

Everything is just wrong with the world today.

Maybe that is a good explanation for why things have been such a disaster since the morning. Why she has done nothing right. Why she keeps falling over, and bumbling in front of Lexa all the time. Lexa, of all people! She used to be the weird kid back in the old days, and Clarke used to walk around lording over all of them. What's happened to her?

Lexa's happened, a quiet voice in her head answers. Lexa's come back, and she's all changed now. She's become all tall, and gorgeous, and calm and confident, and you find her, dare I say it….

Don't you dare, she threatens.

Attractive, the voice continues, ignoring her.

She forcibly shuts it down, because it couldn't be more wrong. Not the part about Lexa's looks (because God knows she's still having trouble catching her breath, Lexa's beauty having surprised it out of her), just the part about her finding the Commander attractive. Because that would imply something along the lines of romantic territory, and that is not something she is willing to get into.

"You look like you're up to great thought," Raven says, suddenly popping up and taking a seat beside her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, your face looks all constipated and shit."

Clarke makes a face, and hits her on the arm "Don't be an asshole. At least my thinking face is better than whatever you looked like when you were out stalking that chick at the market. All dreamy, like you were tripping or something."

"Girl," Raven says, absently.

"Huh?"

"Girl, not chick."

Clarke takes her time turning to her friend (to create a better dramatic effect), and when she finally does, Raven is fidgeting with the straps of her mechanical leg, like she already knows she's said too much.

"Is there a particular reason I'm not allowed to call this girl chick?"

"I don't know," Raven replies, looking everywhere but at Clarke "Just, chick seems a little disrespectful, doesn't it?"

"Never seemed disrespectful before," she replies. Her friend cringes under her intense scrutiny.

"Whatever, dude. Call her whatever you want. Doesn't matter."

Clarke smiles to herself at the thought of her friend being all weird, and chivalrous, and all for a girl she's met maybe an hour before. Matters of the heart, alright.

She keeps a hand on Raven's shoulder "Fine, I won't call her chick. How does Lady sound? Or Your Majesty?"

"Ha ha," the mechanic says, but she seems placated "Real funny."

"So will you tell me about this girl you met?"

Raven smiles, a smile Clarke has never seen on her before "Okay, so her name is Octavia, and…."

She's starting to think she does this to herself. She can blame a lot on the situation, because that is not in her control, but when one asks her how she managed to find herself in them, the answer is invariably something stupid she'd done. Like that time, she'd decided to go fishing with Raven, with some contraption that the mechanic had built that morning, and that had resulted in her nearly getting strangled to death when the fishing rod's wire went haywire and wound itself around her neck. After Raven had got her out of that deathtrap and made sure she was fine, she'd laughed at Clarke for nearly ten minutes, because, quote "The way you were flailing around was so hilarious, even the fish was laughing. Talk of death by fishing". In that case she could blame all the events on one not very thought out decision of trusting one of Raven's half-hazard inventions to function properly. Now, she isn't sure where she'd committed the ultimate stupidity that has resulted in her being stuck at a most awkward angle on top of a tree. A very tall tree.

(Why did she get out of bed this morning? Why?)

Was it when she left Raven to get snacks? Or when she saw her mother, Jaha and Kane whispering to each other and wondered what they were up to? Or was it when she heard one of them say 'Lexa' and couldn't resist the urge to follow them to hear what they were saying her name for?

It had to be one of these three actions, because after that, she abandoned her earlier mission in quest of food to sneak after the three chancellors. What a chase they led her into! Full of perils and dangerous temptations (or, if she's being honest, Lexa's advisor Titus, and the snack table), causing her to hide through the market shops, climb the roofs of unknown houses and risk getting caught by (oh, the horror!) her mother, who would have probably told her to go mingle with people and be all princessy. And all she heard was brief snippets of conversations about the food, trade, harvest and just when she heard Lexa's name again, all three of them disappeared into some hut. So Clarke decided to climb the nearest tree which had an overhanging branch, and in the process, banged her leg up so badly, she was stuck there even after the three chancellors exited the hut after their conversation (which, by the way, Clarke couldn't even hear a word of, so fat lot of good it did).

Up on the tree, Clarke decides that today just isn't her day. She'll just have to wait for Raven to come along, and get her out of here. And hopefully not have to interact with anyone else. At least, that is the plan. This day has been pretty terrible.

Then the one thing that could actually make this terrible day even more terrible occurs.

"Clarke? What are you doing up there?"

LEXA

Even when Clarke doesn't mean to, she always makes Lexa smile.

"Just, you know," she says, trying to straighten up "You know, taking in the natural sights."

"And you couldn't do it near the riverside, where people expressly go for that purpose?"

"Ah, but you see, because there are so many people there to take in the nature, it reduces the natural elements and increases the man-made ones. So, really, there is no point," Clarke counters her, confidently.

(That confidence she has, God. Lexa believes Clarke could talk her body out of falling ill if she put her mind to it. Could probably convince fish to take a walk in the fresh air if she so wanted.)

But Lexa see the awkward way she is sitting on the branch, sees the occasional discomfort that passes over her face every time she moves her leg, and surmises that Clarke is probably stuck there. So, she decides to have a little bit of fun. She puts her feet on the trunk, tries to find a small indentation for a foothold, and starts making her way up.

"Um, Lexa?" Clarke asks her, alarmed "What are you doing?"

"Why, Clarke, taking in the natural sights," she replies, finally making it to the branch her old friend is sitting on, and sits down beside her, all without breaking a sweat. Then, something occurs to her, and there is suddenly a cold feeling at the bottom of her stomach "Unless…you don't want me here. In which case, I could climb back down. And, leave you alone."

"What? No!" Clarke sounds genuinely shocked, and puts her hand on Lexa's forearm to stop her, not that she could move, not with the shockwaves travelling up her arm, and originating from the point Clarke's skin touches hers "Of course I don't want you to go. Don't be an idiot."

"Calling the Heda of the twelve clans an idiot?" she raises an eyebrow "There are people who would have your head off for that."

"There are people who don't know the real Heda, then, and how much of a branwada she can be."

"Nobody really knows the real Heda, Clarke," Lexa tells her, a little melancholy "Not even you. Things have….changed."

Clarke looks at her for a long while, her clear blue eyes cutting through Lexa "That's true. Tell me about her, then."

Lexa can tell you about the moments that changed her life. The day she met Clarke for the first time, when the girl challenged her to steal a loaf of sweet bread from the baker's stall so that she and Bellamy could eat it. When she fell down on the street, in front of the current Heda's soldiers, and her black blood was discovered. When she was dragged, kicking and screaming from her mother, and unceremoniously told to learn to fight (that was the day she saw tears in her nomon's eyes for the first time. That was the day she realized that being hailed as a future hero doesn't really matter to a mother, not when she doesn't know if her child is safe or not, if she will even live to see the next morning). Her Ascension Day. The day she lit fire to her nontu's funeral pyre, and knew that the man who used to play with her, who used to show her the stars in the night sky was now one of them, burning bright, and out of reach forever.

The five words Clarke says seem so simple yet they make her feel strange. They reach somewhere inside of her, rip through the Heda part of her, and bring Lexa to the surface. All these years she has been away, fighting and training, there has never been anyone who has just asked how she is. Never been someone who has bothered to. It's just been 'duty', and 'honor'. These words are a surprise. They seem like a long forgotten luxury.

"What do I tell?" she asks, bewildered.

"Everything."

So she tries. Tells Clarke of the good days and the bad. The blood and self-loathing. The battles, the fields of blood. The first time she killed a man, how she threw up and couldn't sleep for a whole week afterwards. She also tells her of the different cities she has been to, the people there. The wonderful things she's tasted, seen, smelled and felt. Her life would make a strange book, and tries to do a good job of chronicling all the events that have taken place in it. By the end of it, she's feeling tired of talking, yet strangely invigorated inside, as though getting it all off her chest has re-energized her. She takes in her surroundings then, and sees how dark it has become.

"It's nearly night time."

"And you couldn't even enjoy the nature," Clarke smiles mischievously, blue eyes glittering in the dark.

"Truly a pity," she deadpans "We should get going."

Clarke makes a show of stretching a bit "Yes, that's…go on ahead, Lexa. I'll be down shortly."

She just stares. Clarke shifts a little under her gaze "What?"

"What do you take me for, Clarke? I know you are stuck."

"Stuck? Who's stuck? I'm just…..okay, I'm stuck."

Lexa just smiles. It feels nice.

"Lexa?"

"Yes?"

"Stop smiling, and help me down."