A/N: Sigh. Okay, guys. I swear that I will try my best to update at least once a week, but no promises. School is pretty busy at the moment, but I swear that I will do my utmost to keep updates at least semi-regular.
I still have no idea where this story is headed, but I plan to figure that out soon! I'm hoping to make this last a bit before I wrap everything up. Might put a few deaths, some serious injuries maybe...I do love angst.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.
Clarke woke the next morning to the faint chirping of birds and the sunlight streaking across her face, the light reflecting off her hair and making the blonde look almost like a fallen angel. If it weren't for the ugly grimace and clenched shut eyes. Rolling over, she buried her face further into her pillow and let out a pitiful groan. The pillow she was laid on shook with laughter, deft fingers flicking her ear and a low but much too loud voice sounding from a few inches above her.
"Good morning, sunshine!" Clarke turned her head to glare at Murphy, groaning when the movement seemed to upset the tiny gremlins banging away at the inside of her skull.
"Sh," she reached up and placed her hand over her companions mouth. "No yelling...or cheerfulness." Satisfied that she'd temporarily shut the other up, she rolled onto her back and threw an arm over her eyes in an attempt to block the sunlight currently shining directly in her face. The blonde was close to falling back asleep when a calloused hand grabbed her arm and tugged gently, removing it from her face.
"Not yelling, Princess. That's the hangover," he smirked down at the dower teen currently laying in his lap. "And you told me to get you up when the rain stopped. Well, the rain stopped a couple of hours ago. So up and at 'em, we've got a long walk back to camp and I'd like to get back in time to eat." Murphy flicked her ear once more before he moved her head off of his leg and stood, stretching his arms above his head and grunting when his back popped.
"Why didn't you wake me then?" she mumbled, rolling onto her stomach and burying her face in the blankets in another failed attempt to return to sleep. This attempt was soon foiled as well when Murphy kicked her none too gently in the side. Grunting, she pushed herself up into a push up like position and turned her head to glare up at the smirking culprit. Cursing loudly, she slowly pushed herself up until she was standing and pressed the heels of her palms hard against her eyelids.
"Because you waking up on your own meant I wouldn't be murdered for waking you up?" he showed her pity, reaching into his bag and handing her a half full water bottle. "Drink up. It'll help a bit." Clarke took the bottle with a grateful half smile and took several small sips before handing it back.
"It'll have to do until we get back to Camp Jaha." she sighed, running a hand through her hair and ducking down to retrieve her bags. Once she had both her backpack and bag of supplies securely over her should she waved to Murphy.
"Lead the way."
Murphy cocked an eyebrow but nodded, shrugging his own bag over his shoulder before picking up his gun and opening the hatch to the main floor of the drop ship. He climbed down and landed with a thud on the grates below, waiting for her to join him. She made her way down just a bit slower, landing with a thud of her own that seemed to rattle her brain. Barely containing a groan, she followed the lanky teen out of the drop ship and back out into the forest. The air outside was muggy and hot, a common thing they'd learned since summer had begun. Usually it was bearable but the rain from the night before had made the air muggy and uncomfortable, gnats and mosquitoes flying around in swarms as they began their journey back to camp.
Clarke was starting to regret her choice not to do as most of the girls at camp had done and cut one of her pairs of pants into shorts to bare the heat. But she'd thoughts best of it and decided not to. Now she was sweating, her long sleeved t-shirt and jeans sticking to her skin with sweat.
"Stop." she ordered, dropping her bags to the forest floor and leaning against the nearest tree as she fought to catch her breath. Thankfully, Murphy was quick to follow her orders most of the time and had stopped as she said, watching her with concern. She waved him off and reached back to lift the hair from the back of her neck, sighing quietly.
"M'fine. Just hot." Waving off his concern, she used one of the few hair ties she had to put her hair in a messy bun at the base of her neck. It didn't help as much as she hoped so she gave into temptation and striped off her first layer, leaving her in a thin black tank top. Sighing in relief, she used the t-shirt to wipe the sweat from her face and arms before pushing away from the tree.
"Once we get to camp I swear I'm cutting up my thinnest pants and making shorts, I can't stand this weather any long. Then maybe head for the river, god knows I could use the wash." Clarke grimaced, eyeing the layer of dirt and grime that seemed to cover them all with distaste. Thought she'd gotten used to being dirty and going up to a week without taking the time to wash more than wiping a washcloth over her skin, it stilled bothered her. Glancing over, she glared slightly when she noticed Murphy shaking with silent laughter.
"What's so funny?" she demanded, hands now on her hips as she stared the other down.
"You, princess. Only you would look so offended by the dirt on your skin." Shaking his head, Murphy chuckled as he readusted the bag on his shoulder and gave her a look. "Now that your done, can we get going? We have over four miles to go before we get back to camp and I for one am absolutely starving." Not waiting for her to answer, he turned on the heel of his boot and continued his march through the forest with her trailing behind. Once again wiping her face with the shirt, she steeled herself for the rest of the walk. They didn't stop anymore on their trek back to camp, allowing them to return in record time.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the tree line and made her way up to the gates. The order was quickly followed and the both of them were soon surrounded by questions, both adults and teens alike demanding to know where they'd been. One of their grounder guards making the mistake of grabbing her elbow a bit to roughly for her guard dogs liking and soon found himself with a knife to his throat.
"Goddammit, Murphy, put that away." she sighed, running a hand over her face. At this point she couldn't even get angry at the boy for doing this, most grounders had learned by now not to touch her unless she allowed it and even then Murphy was wary of them, his knife always out in some casual way such as using it to clean his nails or carve things into the nearest object.
"He didn't mean any harm and you know it." Reaching up, she pushed his hand down until it rested at his side, her own hand gently running up and down his arm in hopes of soothing him slightly. Clarke knew that grounders made him uncomfortable, that they made him want to run and hide until they left. But she also knew that he would never hide and that he'd try his hardest to make them as uncomfortable as they made him feel in his own camp.
"He touched you, Clarke." his voice was low, almost a growl as he glared harshly at the grounder before them rubbing his neck with a glare of his own. Rolling her eyes skyward, she wondered what she'd done to become moderator before speaking.
"That he did, but that doesn't mean you can kill him, John." Clarke hid a smirk behind her hand when the teen beside her turned his glare upon her instead when she used his first name. He opened his mouth to speak but they were both cut off by the voice of her mother shouting her name. Groaning, she gave both Murphy and the grounder a glare of her own before turning to face her mother.
"Mom, I can exp-" Clarke didn't get another word in before her mother cut her off, hands on her hips and a fierce glare on her face.
"Clarke. I don't care if you can explain. My tent. Now." She was about to protest but decided better of it with the crowd currently gathered around them. Nodding, she started on her way, Murphy trailing behind her.
"Not you, Murphy. You have kitchen duty. Go." Abby Griffin glared at the filthy teen currently following her daughter and waited for him to follow her orders as most did. Clarke was about to protest when she noticed the look on his face but was again cut off, this time by the cold voice that she rarely heard from Murphy anymore.
"Sorry, Chancellor, but I don't take orders from you or anyone else at this camp but Clarke. Unless she wants me to leave, I'm not." his voice was cool, carefully blank of any emotion as he stared down her mother with nothing but contempt. Her mother opened her mouth to yell at him but shut it when he fingered the knife resting at his hip.
"I am the Chancellor! I give the orders here, not my teenage daughter." Abby's face was flushed a bright red in her anger, lips pursed tightly. "As for you, you have no say here. You're a criminal, nothing but a child. If I say go, you go. What parent doesn't teach their child to follow orders." Clarke's mouth gaped open as she stared at her mother, eyes wide before she shook herself from her stupor and placed a restraining hand on Murphy's arm. She could feel him practically vibrating as he glared at her mother.
"Well then, Chancellor...I have only one thing to say to you before I take my leave." Murphy's lips curled into a cruel smirk.
"Go fuck yourself." The words were spoken slowly and with an almost sugary sweet tone before he turned on his heel, middle finger up over his shoulder as he strode away with Clarke staring after him with a small smile.
"What he said, Mom. If you want to be Chancellor so bad, I'm sure my people wouldn't mind moving back to the drop ship too much." Bowing at the waist, she turned on her heel and followed after her partner, hoping to catch up to him before he did something stupid.
A/N: Okay, guys. I need a bit of help. I originally planned for their relationship to be purely platonic but I'm not too sure about that now.
So, I'm going to ask you guys what I should do! I will most likely put up a poll, but reviews are appreciated as well!
Thanks for reading! Don't be afraid to leave me reviews, they never fail to cheer me up!