"So does anyone actually know what we're doing today?" Octavia grumbled as she trudged through the thick layer of snow that had fallen the previous night, her arms crossed tightly over her chest for warmth.
Lincoln, Raven, Ontari and Clarke were already present at the edge of the forest, shaking their heads as she arrived.
"Lexa just told us to meet here." Clarke answered, looking back up the path to see if she could see her wife heading towards them from the direction of the city.
Hands suddenly seized her from behind, shrieking she leapt away towards Octavia who was clutching her sides laughing as Lexa smirked at her irate wife.
"Why the hell would you do that?!" Clarke yelled, struggling to slow her panicked heartbeat down.
"I apologize ai hodnes," Lexa grinned, not sounding sorry in the slightest, "But I couldn't resist."
Ontari rolled her eyes as Clarke opened her mouth to reply, "As funny as that was, please tell me that you didn't just call us down here to play a prank on Clarke."
Lexa shook her head quickly, "Of course not, we're going to play a game today."
Lincoln just looked at her blankly, "A game?" He asked.
Raven chuckled, "What kind of game?"
Pointing out towards the forest, Lexa gestured towards a strip of cloth hanging from a stick, just visible through the tree line. "It is the game you told me about Raven, capture the flag."
"Why are you telling Lexa about games Raven?" Clarke sighed, especially ones that make her drag us outside in the freezing cold."
Shrugging helplessly, Raven gave her an apologetic look, "I didn't expect her to decide to play it today Clarke, because you know, it's insane to be out in this weather."
Practically growling at them, Lexa pointed at Clarke, Lincoln and Raven, "You two are the blue team. And we are the red." She said quickly, pointing at herself, Ontari and Octavia.
Groaning, Clarke looked towards the forest and then back at Lexa, "There's no way you're going to let us get out of this is there?"
"I believe you know how the game works," Lexa smiled, ignoring Clarke's previous comment completely, "We will head in the direction of the other flag, wait fifteen minutes from when we disappear from sight and then the game begins."
Pulling on Octavia's arm she took off running into the forest, Ontari following after them, leaving the other three looking between them helplessly.
"Do you think she'd be mad if we just went home?" Raven asked once they were out of hearing range.
Clarke gave her a withering look, "My sex life depends on this game Raven, I do not want Lexa mad at me, especially now Octavia had been ever so helpful and taught her what sending someone to sleep on the couch means. So we are going to play, but we are also going to kick their asses."
Meanwhile, Ontari was yawning behind her hand as she hurried to keep up with Lexa and Octavia, who seemed far more enthusiastic about the game than she did.
"Late night last night?" Octavia grinned slyly as they came to a stop at their flag, Lexa quickly checking the watch she had gotten from Raven to see how much time they had before they could start.
"Shof op Octavia." Ontari grunted, drawing her sword and laying it across her lap as she took a seat on a nearby log, not particularly caring about the thin layer of snow covering the surface of it. "But let's just say that Raven wasn't in the mood for sleeping last night." She grinned.
Octavia made a face, her teasing turned on it's head as Lexa snorted beside her. "That's just weird, you're all domestic and you have a kid, I don't want to hear about you having sex."
Laughing, Lexa clapped her on the shoulder, "Because we all want to hear in excruciating detail the things you do with Lincoln?"
Opening and closing her mouth helplessly, Octavia shook her head defensively, "We don't have a kid."
"That doesn't mean we want to hear what you get up to." Ontari chuckled, before pointing at the watch Lexa had attached to her belt, "How long left?"
Checking it quickly, Lexa nodded to them, "It's time to get going."
"Does one of us stay here to guard the flag?" Octavia asked, looking at the fluttering piece of material thoughtfully.
"I will." Ontari volunteered quickly, "You two go get theirs, they won't get past me without a fight."
Throwing a grin back at her over their shoulders, Octavia and Lexa drew their blades and darted back into the trees, heading back towards where the blue flag was, assuming sooner or later that they would run into the attackers from the other team.
They were over half way back to the starting point when suddenly Lexa was tackled around the waist by Lincoln who had charged straight at the Commander, the impact physically lifting her off her feet and sending her flying and then crashing down to the ground hard.
Standing over her intimidatingly, Lexa shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears as he raised his sword. As she tried to lift her own to block, Octavia flung herself onto her boyfriends back, clinging around his neck and flinging herself back to overbalance him.
As they hit the floor, Lexa jumped up and quickly pulled a length of rope from a pack she was carrying on her back.
Grabbing one of her arms, she helped Octavia to pull Lincoln back against a trees so they could bind his arms and leave him unable to go anywhere. He struggled fiercely, but the two women were motivated, not giving an inch as they dragged him kicking and screaming until he was no longer a threat.
"Sorry." Octavia grinned at him, "But as much as I love you, we're going to win this."
After one last check that he couldn't go anywhere, they started running again, aware that there were still two members of the blue team running free in the trees.
Skidding to a halt, Octavia held up her arm to stop Lexa moving any further forwards as the opposing teams flag came into view.
"No guard." She whispered.
"At least not one we can see." Lexa replied suspiciously, her mind racing as she tried to work out what the familiar feeling in her stomach was telling her.
"Hod op!" She cried out quickly as Octavia went to step into the clearing, but it was too late.
The second she passed through the edge of the tree line there was a fierce cry from above and Clarke dropped down on top of her, the two of them rolling across the floor before Clarke managed to get in a punch that dazed the Trikru warrior.
Octavia temporarily out of the way, Clarke climbed back to her feet and drew her sword as she met Lexa's gaze fiercely, "You're not getting past me."
Raising her own sword, Lexa stepped in to the clearing herself, "We both know you can't beat me." She grinned, twirling and striking out at Clarke who blocked quickly, settling into the dance easily as they struck and parried up and down, Clarke's training shining through as she managed to match Lexa without too much trouble.
Narrowing her eyes, Lexa changed tactic suddenly, breaking from the clean, honorable fighting methods to instead knock Clarke's sword to the side before slamming the fist holding the sword hilt into Clarke's shoulder, knocking the air from her lungs as she fell to one knee. "As I said, you can't beat me ai hodnes."
Clarke grinned even as she gasped for air, "I never needed to. I just needed to keep you busy until it was too late."
There was sudden crashing behind her, the sound of someone running at full speed through the trees towards them.
Recovering, Octavia used her sword as a crutch to clamber to her feet and look back in the direction of the noises.
"Raven must have gotten past Ontari." Lexa growled, "Do not let her past, I will handle Clarke and then we will return both flags to our clearing."
"Sha Heda." Octavia barked out seriously, raising her sword and planting her feet as she waited for Raven to appear.
Yelling a war cry, Lexa flung herself at Clarke, driving her further into their clearing.
To Octavia's surprise, Lincoln suddenly dashed into the clearing, with Raven situated firmly on his back gripping the red flag firmly in her hand. "How did you get free?" She growled as his step faltered at the sight of his girlfriend facing him down.
Without warning, Ontari leapt out, following them from the treeline, kicking off from a boulder to slam into Raven, dislodging her from Lincoln's back and sending them crashing to the floor. Although even with the competitive nature of the game, she was careful to twist round so she took the brunt of the impact with the ground to spare Raven injury. Grunting she immediately started wrestling with Octavia for the flag.
It was chaos, the three couples locked in intense battles with each other, each of their stubborn natures meaning they were unwilling to give an inch as they fought.
Then there was a short, deliberate cough from the edge of the clearing and they each froze, looking up to see who had found them in the middle of their game.
To their surprise, it was Aden standing their, along with Abby and Marcus, neither of which they had been expecting to visit them.
Quickly breaking from their individual battles, they stood up to face the two Skaikru council members, "Why are you here?" Lexa asked curiously.
"Yeah mom," Clarke said, stepping towards them, "We weren't expecting you."
The second Clarke was closer to her mother than the flag, Lexa nodded to Ontari who yanked their flag out of Raven's hand and bolted, Lexa grabbing the blue flag and following straight after.
With matching bemused expressions, Marcus and Abby watched as Clarke yelled in anger, spinning around to grab at her girlfriend as Octavia jumped onto Lincoln's back again and threw herself backwards and forwards to stop him going after them.
Raven just sighed and picked herself up from the floor, realizing that there was no way they were winning after all, even as Clarke disappeared into the woods after Lexa and Ontari.
"Will someone explain what's happening?" Abby demanded as Lincoln came to the same conclusion and surrendered to a smug looking Octavia as she slid down from his back.
"We're playing capture the flag." Octavia grinned brightly, tilting their head as they both heard a victorious cry coming from further into the trees, immediately followed by a furious scream, "And our team just won."