After the last episode, an anon required fluff and I actually wanted fluff myself and thus this was born. You can all oooh and aaaah about my Trigedasleng because it took me an hour to get a simple sentence together (joking – about the oohing and aaahing not the fact it took me an hour).
Five Times Abby Griffin was obsessed with Marcus Kane's hair and one time he called her out on it
1
Abby looked up from the boxes she was sorting when she heard the familiar sound of his footsteps and bit her cheek to stop herself from laughing. It wouldn't do to laugh when he had gone to the trouble of tracking her down to a supply closet and yet it was almost impossible to stop herself.
Marcus took one look at her and rolled his eyes but his lips twitched with amusement.
"It's really not that funny."
That was a matter of opinion, she thought. She had grown used to teams coming back to Arkadia in various states, from injured to sick, but watching Bellamy, Octavia and Miller walking through the gates holding their stomachs because they were laughing so hard had been a first. Abby had been on her way back to Medical and she had stopped, eyebrows furrowed together until she had spotted Marcus, unhappily trailing after the kids, covered from head to toes in a slimy brown substance.
Mudslide that led directly into a mud pond, Octavia had explained between two hiccups.
None of the kids had been able to look at him without doubling over. Apparently there had been some panicking on his part when he had found himself in the pond because he had thought it was quick sand instead of a two feet deep sticky mud hole. According to Bellamy there had been an undignified shriek – Marcus had vividly denied, dripping mud everywhere and glaring at everyone. Unfortunately, his glares had lost most of their power on the kids. They didn't fear him anymore.
"Sorry." she grinned, standing up from her crouch next to the shelf to face him. He had obviously taken a shower but there were still things caught in his hair.
"You're not sorry." he accused without any heat. "You're mocking me."
She shook her head at him and walked closer to take the twig and what she suspected to be pieces of broken leaves out of his hair.
"You have to admit it is a little funny though." she teased, trying not to notice he was watching her like a hawk. She was standing very close to him, one step further and she would have been pressed against his chest.
"I didn't shriek." he grumbled. "I may have screamed but I didn't shriek."
His hair was still slightly damp from his shower and she thought she had all the twigs and bits and pieces of leaves out but she kept running her fingers through the thick mane a few more times just because she could.
"I'm sure it was very manly." she chuckled.
"Maybe it was a little funny." He shrugged, amusement dancing on his features. "Abby?"
"Yeah?" she hummed distractedly, brushing dark strands back with both hands.
"Do you want me to jump into another mud pond so that you can have a real excuse to pet my hair?" he smirked, eyes sparkling in mischief.
She took her hands away, cheeks flushed, and stuttering. "You have stuff in it, I'm just helping you picking it out."
"You haven't picked out anything in at least five minutes but I'll pretend I believe you." he mocked her gently. "Now that's funny."
"No it's not." Abby muttered, fighting to keep a smile off her lips as he started laughing at her.
2
There was an odd buzz in the dining hall when Abby came in, looking for some company and a drink. She spotted the guard sitting on the chair not far from the new bar first, and then Gina who was waving scissors around his head next. Raven was sitting at an empty table, tinkering with a tablet and Abby joined her, still watching curiously at the unusual amount of guys leaning against the bar or sitting in groups not too far from Gina and her scissors.
"What's going on?" she asked Raven, sitting down next to her.
The young woman glanced up at her and then at Gina, letting out a round of chuckles. "Jasper cut his hair and it was a disaster so Gina tried to make him look less like a madman. Then she decided Bellamy needed a haircut and after that… Well, guys started showing up. I think Kane's next."
"What?" Abby frowned, alarmed.
Raven shot her a knowing look, a smirk on her lips and nodded at another table in the corner where Marcus was sitting reviewing files. She probably should have commented on the smirk because it wouldn't do to encourage this sort of rumors and Raven had a lot of – unfounded – ideas about what was going on between them – or about what Abby should do in any case, there was no stopping her from talking after a few drinks – but this was an emergency.
She pretended she didn't notice Raven's laughter following her as she hurried to his table. He looked surprised to find her there but the surprise quickly morphed into a welcoming smile.
"You can't get a haircut." she said outright. "Chancellor orders."
She knew him. He would revert back to the strict style he had adopted on the Ark if only because it was practical and neat and… No. There was something to his too long hair that made her stomach twist in very pleasant ways. It was the perfect length to tangle fingers in and she found she liked the idea of that way too much.
He frowned and opened his mouth and then closed it and lifted his eyebrows. "Alright."
"Alright." she repeated. She cleared her throat. "Alright, well… I will see you later."
"For dinner?" he offered.
"For dinner." she confirmed and then ran away as fast as she could without actually running.
3
Madness had finally receded and Medical was almost peaceful now, aside for a few scattered whimpers and moans.
Functioning on too short naps, an empty stomach and too much tea, Abby roamed between the beds, letting her eyes trail on her patients. She briefly stopped to pull the blanket higher on Jackson who had finally crashed four hours ago after dutifully following her for the last week.
She was about to go track down Lincoln and Octavia to see if they could get more medicinal plants when her wrist was grabbed in a surprisingly tight grip. She gasped in alarm because even though she knew she was safe in Arkadia, she had thought she was alone with sleeping bodies.
She looked down to find Marcus watching her with glassy eyes from his cot. He was still pale and his skin still looked a little clammy.
"Hey." she smiled softly, quickly checking his vitals before sitting down on the edge of his bed.
He didn't let go of her wrist.
"What happened?" he croaked out.
She gently uncurled his fingers from her forearm and reached for one of the glasses of water she had left in easy reach from every bed. She helped him sip from it – which wasn't exactly an easy task because he couldn't quite sit up. Some water trickled down his chin and got lost in his beard. She wiped it with her sleeve.
"Flu." she explained. "I think we managed to contain it before it turned into a large scale thing. We haven't had a new patient in a few hours." The way he was looking at her made her think she might as well have been speaking in Trigedasleng. She put the glass of water down with a sigh and placed the back of her hand on his cheek and then his forehead. "Your fever isn't as high, that's good. We will have you back up on your feet in no time."
There was no question he was still feverish though. His skin was hot to the touch, his eyes were too bright and there were beads of perspiration on his forehead. She checked the chart but he wasn't due for his next dose of meds yet.
"Abby…" he mumbled. "You're so beautiful…"
She chuckled. "I haven't showered in a week, I don't remember the last time I brushed my hair, people keep throwing up on me and I think I will have to burn these clothes when I'm done here… I am at my best right now." He blinked, his eyelids slow and heavy, apparently unable to understand what she was saying and she found herself smiling down at him with fondness. "Go to sleep, Marcus. You will feel better when you wake up."
"Stay?" he pleaded.
"Of course." she agreed easily, reaching out to brush his hair back from his face. He closed his eyes and leaned into her hand so she kept petting his hair. It was a little damp with sweat but it was still soft to the touch.
She kept running her fingers through it long after he had succumbed to sleep.
4
Marcus had made it a habit of keeping track of her sleeping schedule. According to him, he couldn't trust her to get the rest she needed. Truth be told, there wasn't much rest to be had when you were both Chancellor and doctor. Most of her evenings were spent in the war room, studying reports and files or discussing how they could improve life in camp.
Marcus was there with her every evening when he wasn't on duty and there was probably something to be said about a pot calling a kettle black, Abby mused as she watched his chest rising and falling regularly. His head had fallen on the back of the couch around ten minutes earlier and he was now soundlessly asleep.
She picked up the forgotten data pad from his lap and put it safely on the floor with the rest of the reports. She made a note to find a blanket to leave on the couch. One of them if not both always ended up spending the night in the war room after all…
She went back to her – oh so not fascinating – reading, jotting down notes for the next Council meeting.
Marcus shifted and his head landed on her shoulder. She sat very still. It wasn't particularly chilly in the room but it was cold enough that he let out a pleased hum at her warmth and shifted closer, reaching out in his sleep, overbalancing, and almost rolling off the couch entirely. She held him back by the back of his pants at the very last moment, thinking it would be enough to wake him up but apparently not. She hauled him back up and he ended up with the lower half of his body on the couch and the rest very much on her lap. She tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder and he breathed out a content sigh. His hand curled around her knee.
She glanced at the open door and prayed that it was late enough nobody would come seek either of them. She wasn't sure how people would react if they found Councilman Kane sprawled on Chancellor Griffin's lap.
She propped the report on his back so she could keep reading without having to hold it, leaning back against the couch a little. She didn't know how her fingers ended up in his hair. When his hair was concerned, her hands seemed to have a will of their own. It was like an odd distorted gravity. If it was within reach, she yearned to touch and tug and brush.
The truth was that she fought sleep as much as she could because her nights were plagued with nightmares. Sometimes though… Sometimes she had good dreams. And lately all those good dreams involved her hand in his hair guiding his head into a kiss or something much more intimate…
There were a few silver strands here and there in the dark mane and she found herself imagining how he would look like as an old man. Somehow when she pictured it, an older version of herself was standing right next to him. She liked the thought. It was somehow comforting.
He jerked awake around three a.m., lifting his upper body a little before dropping back on her legs with a long sigh. She had long abandoned reading reports and had been dozing off, her head cushioned on her arm, slightly turned on her side so she could use the back of the couch as a pillow.
He rubbed his face and she felt the precise moment he realized where he was because his whole body tensed.
"It's fine." she mumbled sleepily. She reached out to run her fingers through his hair again because it was soothing and it had always helped Clarke when she was still a kid and she had had nightmares. "Go back to sleep."
But instead of doing that he sat up and she let out a long whine of protest at the loss of contact, of warmth. She was half asleep and even though a part of her brain was telling her she had no right to resent his retreat, she did all the same because the sleepy part of her just wanted to remain close to his reassuring presence.
Of course, that part of her settled down when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gently guided her down. She had no more access to his hair but his chest was a nicer pillow than her arm and so she didn't complain.
She was out in a matter of seconds.
5
They had been in a desperate need of a party.
Parties were rare things on the Ark but down there on the ground it was easier to find reasons to celebrate and thus when the first snowflakes dropped out of the sky, Chancellor Griffin gave in to the general call for a winter party. Not that she had any choice in the matter, Gina had already started organizing the moonshine Monty was supplying and Raven had hooked a sound system to the camp's emergency speakers.
That was how she came to lean against the metallic outer wall of the station, watching her people having fun with the thin coat of snow covering some uneven patches of the ground. She was hoping the snow they were so excited about wouldn't become something to fear very soon. Weather had been on their side since they had landed but winter… Winter was a frightening word for the Chancellor, one she and Marcus had tried their best to anticipate by piling food in their stocks and collecting wood.
The Grounders survived it and Indra had assuaged their fear with a noncommittal shrug and a 'Chit sounda kom na kom' that hadn't contributed in making Abby more at ease, even more so once Marcus had discreetly translated it for her. What must happen will happen.
And there was Clarke to consider… Clarke who was all alone in the wild and whom she wasn't sure she could trust to do the smart thing and come home if the weather became too cold…
"Stop brooding."
She looked up at Marcus, her lips automatically stretching into a smile as was now the norm when he sought her out like that. She had to admit there was something almost magical about snowflakes, all the more so when they caught in his eyelashes, his hair and the collar of his jacket. He was just as excited about the first sign of snow as the kids – although cautiously so – and it was… endearing. Everything about Marcus was endearing lately.
"I'm not brooding." she lied, accepting the metallic cup of moonshine he handed her while taking a sip of his own.
"You're not having fun either." he pointed out. "This is a party. You're supposed to have fun. I know we're old – Raven's words, not mine – but we can still have fun at parties, Abby."
She had to fight to keep herself from grinning like an idiot. "Did you ever have fun at any party, Marcus? Because if I remember right…"
"I'm turning a new leaf, haven't you noticed?" he chuckled, leaning his back against the station right next to her and growing a little more serious. "We'll be fine."
"Chit sounda kom na kom?" she snorted without any amusement.
"Kom strik hof." he answered and at her blank face translated "With a little hope. You really need to get a hand on your Trigedasleng."
"Everyone can't be a natural at it." she pointed out because he had taken to the language as if it was easy when she struggled with the simplest sentence. Octavia had tried, Lincoln had tried, Marcus had tried… She was starting to feel like a lost cause on the language front. "It's good to see them happy."
She nodded at the kids who were dancing to the music the speakers were blaring, having fun like she hadn't seen them have fun since Mount Weather. A few adults had joined in the dancing but most of them were having their own party on their side of the yard, sharing booze and stories.
"Do you want to dance?" he offered and she almost choked on her sip of moonshine. "We could go right next to Bellamy and Octavia. Embarrass them."
She shook her head, the laughter bubbling out of her throat without warning. "It's us we would embarrass. How do you even dance to that?"
She was reluctant to call it music.
"I don't know." he shrugged, a smile stretching his lips. "That's half the fun, isn't it?"
It was something she had never thought she would heard Marcus Kane say. Never ever.
He was watching her with open fondness, obviously enjoying her amusement and she found herself smiling back impossibly softly. She reached out to brush the snowflakes out of his hair, stepping a little in his space to do so and barely noticing. She was doing it too much lately to notice it. It seemed natural to gravitate around him, they were co-leading a camp full of people. And also…
Well… She could never resist an opportunity to run her fingers through his hair.
"There are some in yours too." he said, tentatively gathering her ponytail in his gloved hand and letting it stream through his fingers.
She wondered how they must have looked like to anyone else, standing there, touching each other's hair… Deep down, she knew what they looked like. She didn't even care, perhaps because it was a little bit true.
For every snowflake she brushed away, two more replaced it. She focused on that hopeless fight for a while, if only because it gave her an excuse to touch. It was only after ten minutes that she realized Marcus was watching her with a telling spark in his dark eyes.
It wouldn't have taken much for him to lean in, she thought, a simple sign on her part that it would be welcomed and the only reason she didn't give it was that the rest of the camp was around them, maybe not watching but certainly looking at them from time to time. They were in plain sight and it wasn't how she wanted this to go.
"Stop looking at me like that." she chided him, biting down on her bottom lip to fight her smile. Perhaps it was unfair to request that when her fingers were still in his hair. Perhaps. Probably.
"Yu laik meizen." he said, the strange syllables rolling off his tongue with an ease she envied.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
His smile was mysterious and tender when he gently coiled his hand around her wrist and brought her hand down. He squeezed once before letting go.
"That's a lesson for another day." he told her, bringing his cup to his lips. "Drink your moonshine."
She settled back against the station, her shoulder pressed tight against his.
6
She would never get tired of the feel of his bare skin against hers. That was a fact. A defining feature of who she was. Someday, maybe, a young child would ask who Chancellor Griffin was and amongst a few other trivial details like the fact she was the second Chancellor to officiate on the ground, there would be this tiny information about how she could never get tired of the feel of the first Chancellor to officiate on the ground's naked skin against hers.
His lips roamed on her throat, his kisses were almost lazy now. The beard tickled her a little but that only made her smile. She was utterly and completely satisfied, her body limp and heavy from the aftermath of pleasure and she tangled her fingers in his hair, bringing his head back up, his mouth on hers.
Another thing she would never get tired of? Kissing him.
She used her grip to angle his head the way she wanted it, tugging on the thick strands when he didn't respond as quickly as she would have liked him to. He chuckled against her lips and propped himself on his elbow, planting it next to her head to look down at her.
"You have a thing for my hair." he accused.
"Absolutely not." she lied with a straight face. He lifted an eyebrow, smirking, his eyes twinkling in joy and she rolled hers, unable to refrain from smiling back. How long had it been since she had felt so happy? "Maybe a little."
He let out another round of chuckles as he leaned in to kiss her again.
It wasn't just his hair though.
It was him.
The whole package of him.
AN: "Yu laik meizen" actually means "you're beautiful" (at least I hope it does, as I said I'm not grounder speeech expert haha)