When Kayden woke up, she felt well-rested for the first time in days. She spent a moment basking in the glow of beauty sleep when she realized that Bellamy was no where to be found. He wasn't in bed beside her. Did he run off? She thought jokingly. But she felt a slight panic in the pit of her stomach.

She sat up in the bed and brought her feet over the side, standing up. She grabbed her knit sweater and began putting it on in a hurry. Kayden was heading for the door when she stepped on something. Something alive. It grunted. That's when she looked down and saw Bellamy.

She had been in a such a panic that she hadn't even noticed him lying on the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief, and then couldn't help but laugh. He was awake now. When he noticed her above him, he quickly sat up. "Sorry," he grunted, blinking the sleep from his eyes and running a hand over his face.

Kayden chuckled again but then awkwardly quieted. "No, um… I should be the one apologizing. I stepped on you." He looked up at her and when he saw she was smiling, he smiled too.

She offered him her hand. He took it and she helped him to his feet.

"Should we… go to breakfast?" he asked. He'd slept in his clothes.

"Sure," Kayden said, her mouth turned up at the corner. She followed him out the door.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Kayden said anything.

"You know you didn't have to do that," she said, looking at her feet.

"Do what?" he asked, looking around anxiously.

"Sleep on the floor," she answered, turning to look at him sideways. He looked at her too. She thought he was going to say something about how he wanted to, or that he didn't mind, or maybe that he never wanted to sleep next to her again, but instead he spoke plainly.

"Noted," he said. The word itself was almost meaningless, but Kayden noticed the warmth in his voice.

They didn't talk the rest of the way to breakfast but for the first time, they weren't not talking because they had nothing to say. They weren't talking because instead, they were just enjoying the walk. It wasn't awkward silence. It was peaceful. Quaint. Easy.

When they reached the pavilion, everyone was already there this time. When Raven saw her, she gestured for Kayden and Bellamy to join her at the table. Kayden waved and smiled, and was about to walk over when she remembered Bellamy. She turned to him for approval.

"It's okay," he said. "You go. I have to go get your schedule anyways." She nodded as a thank you and he turned to leave.

She picked up some food from the buffet before heading over to join her friends. Could she call them that yet? Kayden figured she would decide that later. She sat down next to Monty and Jasper this time. Jasper had just given his boyfriend a wet kiss on the cheek.

"See? My boyfriend, the genius!" he announced to the table.

"What's he so excited about?" Kayden asked, laughing a bit.

"I just told him that he should try mixing the peanut butter with jam. He's all worked up about it now," Monty said. He smiled at Kayden kindly.

"So what's up Sleeping Beauty? Decided to get out of bed this morning to eat with us?" Monty inquired.

"More like Sleeping Bed-Head," Wick cut in, taking a huge bite of an apple.

Kayden instinctively reached up to touch her hair. She'd gotten ready in such a hurry that she hadn't even fixed it. She realized with sudden despair that she also hadn't bathed since she got here. Her hair was starting to smell.

Raven heard what Wick had said and slapped the apple out of her boyfriend's hand.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Waste of food!"

"Don't make fun of her!" she told him, gesturing with a flick of her wrist. She grabbed Kayden's hand. "Don't listen to that idiot. You look beautiful. He wouldn't know beauty if it punched him in the face," she said to Kayden, winking at her.

"Probably why you've never punched me," Wick said. Then he grabbed Raven's coat and immediately sprang off the bench and started sprinting. Raven ran after him, laughing. Kayden sighed.

Bellamy showed up just in time to take Raven's seat. He offered a piece of paper to Kayden.

"Here," he said as she took it. "This is your schedule. Chores start after breakfast and run until just before dinner, but you get lunch off and one other break depending on your rotation."

"Thank you," she said, nodding her understanding. Everyone started clearing out of the dining area. Breakfast was over. She got up to help clear and grabbed her plate off the table when she realized suddenly that Bellamy hadn't eaten anything.

"You didn't eat," she stated, turning back to him.

"It's alright. I'll get something later."

"Here," she decided, offering him her plate. She'd left over some bread and cheese. He shook his head at her. "You need it more than I do," she insisted. "You're working military."

He looked down and then looked back up at her and smirked.

"You picked up on that, huh?" he said.

She smiled back at him. "I pick up on a lot of things," she responded simply.

She left Bellamy at the dining pavilion after making sure that he finished her food. Then she pulled the folded schedule out of her pocket.

She was on laundry duty first. She remembered what Bellamy had told her - they did laundry at the creek over the ridge. She pulled her sweater tighter, breathed in deeply, and headed over to her morning job.

She couldn't help but feel relieved when she saw Raven already there. She was in Kayden's rotation. When Raven saw her, she waved again like she had this morning. Kayden waved back. At least I'll know one person, she thought gratefully. She wondered if Bellamy had done it on purpose.

After introducing her to the other people who'd be working with them, Raven showed Kayden the ropes of the job. Literally.

She explained what types of clothing Kayden should tie onto the ropes in the stream, and which ones she had to clean by hand. Raven showed her how to use the scrubbing board, and how to get the best clean using the least amount of soap. After, she pointed out the different bins for the different clothing.

"There you're a laundry master," she joked. When she was satisfied that Kayden could do everything by herself, she went over to her own post and worked.

Kayden worked in silence. She heard some laughter echo from behind her. She might have been a bit jealous, but she was just happy to be around people rather than in her cabin alone. And if she was being honest, she actually kind of enjoyed the work. It was calming and peaceful and Kayden liked how it was honest, straightforward labour. It reminded her of the way things ran back at her own camp.

She spent the next hour or so cleaning clothes to perfection, deep in thought, when Raven came over to check on her.

"Hey," she said kindly.

"Hey," Kayden responded back.

"Okay, look I don't know how else to say this but the others and I have been talking and we were wondering…" Kayden gave Raven a look of approval so she'd continue. "What is it that you do?" Raven smiled uneasily.

The question was vague enough but Kayden knew what Raven was asking. Kayden smiled at the other girl so she'd ease up. She looked over at the others. They were all staring at her and Raven intently, but quickly returned to work when they saw her watching.

"I bet that it's super-strength but Norma thinks it's telekinesis," Raven explained excitedly. Kayden laughed and shook her head.

"No, nothing like that," she said. Raven seemed a bit disappointed at having lost the bet, so Kayden looked at her daringly. "You wanna see?" she asked. Raven broke into a smile and nodded.

"Hold this," Kayden said, handing Raven her scrubbing board. She rolled up her pants and walked into the creek a few feet. Everyone had stopped working and was staring at her curiously. She breathed in deeply, calming herself and bringing her hands together at her chest. Then, she worked. She moved her arms and legs, becoming one with the current.

She didn't do anything major. Just a couple of fancy splashes. A spiral spray or two. But when she'd finished, everyone was staring at her in awe. She immediately blushed, and then started to panic a bit when still no one said anything. What if they thought she was a freak?

Then, Raven began clapping. A smile broke out on her face. The rest of the people followed and before long, Kayden had stepped out of the water and everyone was clapping her on the back, telling her she was incredible. Kayden was just happy that they'd thought it was cool instead of weird.

She spent the rest of the rotation answering questions about her mutation.

"No it doesn't hurt," she said to Flint.

"I can't teleport the water, just move it," she answered Kyle.

"No, I don't think it counts as a form of telekinesis," she told Norma a bit nervously. She explained how it only applied to certain things. Specifically water, earth, fire, and air. "Our guys call it bending," she told the crowd.

Before she knew it, the job rotation was over and the group headed down to lunch.

She saw Bellamy when they arrived. He was talking to some guards. When he noticed her, he waved and said something to the guards before they both walked away. She turned to Kimi, one of the women she'd worked with and handed her the cloth she'd asked for. "Bye Kim, see you later too," she said, waving back at her.

She squinted when she turned back around, tightening her lips a bit at the corner and walking over to Bellamy. He smiled as she reached him.

"So… how was your first job?" he asked. He seemed genuinely interested in hearing about it, which surprised Kayden.

"Good," she said simply. She nodded to let him know she wasn't lying.

"Anything, particularly exciting happen?" He inquired, raising an eyebrow. She exhaled smartly.

"You heard," she said rolling her eyes. "Can nothing in this camp stay quiet for more than an hour?"

"Like I said yesterday, shiny new toy." He gestured to her that they should sit down. When they did, Kayden spoke again.

"So," Kayden turned to him. "What did people say? Just how much of a freak am I?"

Bellamy turned to face her. He smiled. "They said you were amazing."

Kayden must have looked as surprised as she felt because Bellamy chuckled a bit at the look she gave him. They didn't say anything else on the subject but Kayden couldn't help but feel a bubble of happiness erupt in her chest.

They'd seen her. They'd seen what she could do. And they'd loved it.

Maybe I was wrong about this place, she thought hopefully. Maybe I can have a life here. She turned to see Bellamy laughing as he greeted the people who came to sit at the table with them.

Maybe I can have a life with him, she thought to herself. In this one moment, watching him talk and laugh with everyone else, the prospect didn't seem so strange.

The next few days passed in a blur. Kayden would wake up next to Bellamy, head down to breakfast, go to her work rotations and then meet up with him again at meals. In the past few days alone, she'd worked every job from farming duty to inventory organizing.

Raven wasn't on all her shifts, but as she started to learn the lay of the land, her and the others would discuss places they could meet on their breaks and would get together and share stories and jokes and snacks that Jasper had stolen from the kitchens. Sometimes Bellamy would join, but Kayden quickly learned that his job took up a lot of his time and was often unpredictable. She started getting used to waking up in the mornings alone, going whole days without seeing him, and then listening with her back turned as he crawled into bed beside her late at night.

They'd gotten closer in the past days as well. Kayden was surprised at how comfortable she was getting with him. They were nowhere near the level of married couple, but she felt she could now consider him a friend, if not a good one at that. With only a select crowd of people in the camp that she'd really spoken to at all, Bellamy was at the very least the person who she'd interacted with the most.

It didn't hurt that he also kept giving her things. Nothing major, just small gifts here and there. But she found herself thanking him a lot.

For example, one lunch a couple days after the Mutation Demonstration, as some people had come to call it, he offered her a brown piece of cloth that was twisted intricately.

"Here," he'd said to her. "I got it from one of the women who works in clothing. In case you're sick of your hair always being in your face." She'd thanked him, genuinely grateful for the token.

She'd put her hair up in a ponytail, and couldn't help but notice as Bellamy watched her work, then blushed and looked away when he noticed her noticing him.

A few days after that, he'd come home with a brown satchel. He showed it to her, and she took it in her hands gingerly, looking carefully at the braided designs and colorful embroidery on it. "Raven told me you were going around collecting things. I thought maybe... you needed something to carry your stuff in."

He'd watched as she studied it intently. "You like it?" he asked nervously.

"It's perfect," she told him, flashing an appreciative smile.

She placed some berries in the pocket of the satchel now, sighing as she stared up at the sky. She put her hand above her eyes, shielding them from the sun. She was on picking duty now. But most of the people in camp had come to call it "Picky Duty" in reference to the old woman, Mary, who was in charge. She was very selective about the plants and berries that she accepted and often screamed at workers who handed in pickings she deemed unsatisfactory.

Raven wasn't on this rotation with her, but Kayden had become friendly with a man by the name of Clement who had warm blue eyes, a mop of yellow hair, and laugh lines and crinkles around his eyes which told her that he smiled a lot. He often spoke about his daughter and how she was turning 10 next week.

"I still can't believe I picked up that little bundle of joy for the first time 10 years ago." He shook his head. "I swear time passes fast when you're watchin' your kids grow. You'll see," he said to her.

Kayden was reminded of her other duties concerning the grand scheme of the Alliance. She knew Clement hadn't meant to bring up feelings of uneasiness, so she tried to put it out of her mind and continued working.

By the end of the shift, her bag was overflowing with all kinds of herbs, berries, and plants, and Kayden emptied it into the bin on her way out of the woods. It was time for her break.

Normally, Kayden would have met with some of her friends, but today happened to be a day where none of their shifts lined up. She sighed as she walked past the Wash house and the Hollow and headed back towards the living quarters.

When she reached the cabin she opened the door, walked in and gasped. It wasn't a meal break so she hadn't expected to see Bellamy sitting on the bed, waiting for her when she got there. He stood up suddenly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said.

"I wasn't scared. Just... surprised," she explained. "Pleasantly," she added, offering a smile. He returned it.

"I got some time off. I figured... we could go for a walk." He seemed to be nervous about the request. She hoped to calm him down and answered kindly.

"I'd like that," she said, half-smiling.

She turned to head out the door but he stopped her.

"Wait," he said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a blue triangular piece of cloth. Kayden recognized it as a bandana. He offered it to her.

She took it gingerly and studied it. She must have been looking at it intensely because Bellamy asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing," she answered, tying it around her neck. "It's just," she dropped her hands and began fiddling. "You keep giving me gifts and... I don't have anything to give to you." She looked up at him.

He seemed to be glad that she wasn't upset with the gift. He smiled at her and turned his warm eyes to hers. "I don't need anything," he said simply.

"I know," she responded a bit shyly. "I still wish I had something to offer." She looked up at him and for the first time, she saw something she hadn't seen before in his eyes. Affection.

"You don't need to give me anything, because I have everything I need," he said. He raised his arm to rub the back of his neck like he did when he was nervous. She could tell the next line was difficult for him to say.

"You're still here, aren't you?" He said timidly. Then he walked out of the cabin and left her.

At first, Kayden was so taken aback, she couldn't respond. Then she calmed herself and smiled.

I guess I am, she thought giddily.