Ai Hod Yu In

Chapter 2

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"Marcus, would you and Nala be willing to take Clarke in for now? I know Madi is a handful, but you two have the only available extra room right now," the woman spoke into the crowd, and the man with the familiar hair stepped forward.

"We would be more than happy to, Ali. If you'd like, Clarke, you can follow me on a tour right now." Marcus didn't really expect an answer to that, she supposed. He'd already started to walk away from the crowd. Having no other option, Clarke cautiously followed him.

"Thank you for opening your home to me and giving me this tour," Clarke hoped he would be a little talkative to her. She'd come here because of how lonely she was.

"It's no problem. My wife Nala has been lonely, stuck at home with our newborn Madi lately. The company will do us both some good. Though I must warn you that Madi does not like to let us sleep very much, and she'll likely wake you as well." he chuckled a bit, and she could almost hear the smile in his voice. He clearly adored both his wife and his daughter. It reminded her a bit of Bellamy when he talked about Octavia, actually. The same affection covered both their tones. He gestured around.

"Welcome to Shallow Valley. We are a close community. We have about 25 kids here, my daughter Madi being the youngest. My son Gustus is six. We don't have many old ones here anymore. They've all passed on to their next journey, I suppose. To your left, you will see the schoolhouse. We don't really have enough kids to have individual classes, and the older ones are generally apprenticing anyways. All the children from age 3 to 12 go to school there," he paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking hard about something.

"Your village is beautiful," she remarked quietly, trying her best to fill the silence. Marcus didn't seem interested in focusing on anything but whatever was on his mind though.

Clarke felt her mind wandering, as it often did, to a certain dark-haired spacewalker. Before, in the middle of a war, it had been easy to cast the thought of him aside. She had to focus on her people, on saving them. Now, Finn was often on her mind. She could remember how he had looked at her, so full of wonder and love. She remembered how safe she felt with him. She had lost Finn long before he died, but his death… It broke her to kill him herself. She had to save him, though. She knew that what he would have been through, going through the pain of 17 deaths, would have been horrible. She did the right thing. She hoped so, at least.

Hoping to forget Finn for a moment, Clarke's mind instead wandered to Bellamy. She felt so guilty for leaving him behind, but she also knew she had to leave. Her mind was too consumed with the past right now, too raw from the recent traumas she'd endured. She had hope though. One day, she'd be ready. She just hoped Bellamy would take her back then.

Bellamy was her best friend. He was the one who gave her a purpose. He kept her centered. She knew she was lucky to have him in her life. How could she not know? When she agreed to let him go inside the mountain, she'd first had to admit to herself how much he meant to her. She first had to admit that maybe, somewhere deep down, she might love him. Love him as she loved Finn. Love was weakness, though. She'd learned that one lesson from Lexa.

"And this is my wife and I's home," Marcus's voice brought her back to the real world. She was surprised to note that she'd seemingly toured the entirety of the village while she was out of it. The little house in front of them was nice. It was one of the only houses in the village to have a front porch, and on it stood the woman and baby from earlier. Joining her was a young boy, likely the child Gustus.

"Hello, I'm Nala, and these are my children Gustus and Madi. Welcome to our home," the woman told me. She had sad blue eyes and black hair. She looked… scared, tired perhaps. She looked like the kind of woman who spent way too much time worrying. Most of all, though, she looked sad. Her husband had looked sad too, now that she thought about it.

"Hi. I'm Clarke. It's nice to meet you," Clarke did her best to smile, though it was not easy at all. It had been so long since she had genuinely smiled that it seemed she had forgotten. Still, she had no choice but to hope for the best with this new arrangement.