ᶦ ʰᵃᵖᵖᵉⁿᵉᵈ.

@hascoded     ♡’d  for  a  starter !

“  you  should  be  resting.  ”

          amusement colours his features as the ball is stolen from him .   he makes no attempt to stop her ,   in fact ,   he chooses to relish in the fact that she is no longer hunched over the console ,   looking tragically stressed .   her comment has one of his eyebrows quirking upwards ;   something akin to faux - hurt in response to the word weirdo .   of course ,   john murphy has been called much ,   MUCH  worse ,   and so it’s easily brushed off .   head shakes in her direction .

         “  actually ,   while you’ve been—-  ”    —-saving all their asses ;   AGAIN—-    “  —-holed up in here ,   i’ve been making sure the other criminals napping in cryo pods stay asleep .  ”    self - satisfied smirk makes itself comfortable between his cheeks ,   and he leans against her work station leisurely .   “  apart from that …     not much .  ”    he won’t say this out loud ,   but frankly ,   he’s just glad she’s willing to step away from the console for a while .   he’s sure bellamy would kill him if he brought raven back crazed out of her mind .     “  there’s a mess hall ,   a hundred thousand hallways that lead to practically nowhere ,   and that’s about it .     ——      i’m game if you are .  ” 

    “john murphy, saviour of us all.” her tone is flat, but a minuscule, wry smile curves her lips ; she knows he goes down there consistently to make sure nothing’s amiss despite her repeated claims that they’d be alerted if one of them woke up. she doesn’t blame him, though — even after switching the silent trigger alarms to ring shrilly instead, there’s the slight worry that something will go wrong, anyway. ( it’s not like they don’t have experience to back this theory up, right? ). when he agrees to her suggestion, the mechanic casts a last look towards the still calm monitors before she nods & turns on her heel. “c’mon.”

     they take off, raven leading them in the general direction of the east wing — she remembers coming across some of the more recreational rooms down there when she skimmed the ship’s schematics —, spinning the soccer ball between her palms, fingers digging against its plastic form. the restless, anxiousness refuses to shake off completely. 

      college so far was going all right for finn  ー  he was doing decently in his classes  ;  he liked his roommates,  monty and jasper  ;  he had a girlfriend  ;  and he had a part-time job in between classes to help support himself.  he’d met clarke in one of their art classes this semester and they’d hit it off pretty much right away.  he didn’t know that they’d call it a serious relationship  :  they hadn’t been “together” that long.  but he liked her,  she seemed to enjoy him,  and they had fun together.   she’d mentioned her friend raven a time or two,  but this was the first time finn actually got around to meeting her.  ( come to think of it,  he should probably introduce clarke to his roommates soon,  if they were going to keep seeing each other. )

the way raven’s entire expression seemed to  ー  change  ー  when she looked at him was maybe a little weird,  but maybe she’d just been engrossed in whatever she was reading.  he wore his hair longer,  but otherwise,  finn thought himself rather nondescript.  ❛ nice to meet you, ❜  he repeated,  adding a little hand-wave. 

❛ finn and i were going to get lunch, ❜  clarke said,  adjusting the strap of her backpack.  ❛ do you want to come with?  we’re gonna go to that one irish pub around the corner from campus.  they’ve got a promotion going. ❜

❛ ーー and it ends this weekend, ❜  finn picked up,  ❛ which means it’ll be packed,  so i figured we should go now.  before all of campus realizes it’s the last weekend. ❜

clarke stuck out her bottom lip towards her best friend.  ❛ please come with us?  we haven’t gotten lunch together in two weeks,  raven. ❜

     he sounds different, looks different ; she allows her gaze to linger on him for a beat, eyes tracing the way his dark, shaggy hair falls around his face & the way his form fills out this decade’s style so differently from the 19th century. she must look completely different to him, too — that is, if he recognized her. but she finally tears her eyes away when they meet his again. while they’re the same, kinds ones she’d fallen in love with so long ago, they look back at her now like ... like she’s another random, friendly.face. a stranger. it hits worse than she’d expected it to.

     “uh —” she’s tempted to make an excuse because she’s really not sure if she can keep from acting so strangely for a stretch of time. clarke’s bound to realize something’s wrong. ( but then again, raven could skate past it with the weak excuse of pre-test jitters. it’s not unusual for her to work herself up before an important exam, even when she does always pass it with flying colours. ) she ultimately relents, though, when she meets her friend’s gaze, a flash of guilt crossing her when she thinks of why she wants to ditch this lunch. so instead, raven rolls her eyes playfully at her pout, nudges clarke’s arm with her own & says, “all right, let’s go,”, all the while consciously avoiding looking back in finn’s direction. 

     ten minutes later finds the three of them sliding into a corner booth at the pub ( clarke & finn were right — the place isn’t nearly as packed with college students the way it typically is on weekends ). it isn’t until after they place their orders that raven internally takes a deep, steadying breath — it’s a balanced mix of curiosity, longing & respect to her best friend that she doesn’t spend this entire hour pretending that finn isn’t here at all. 

     the words are soft, barely above a whisper in her ear, matching the comfortable stillness in the moment. the movie they’d settled on had turned out to be more boring & predictable than raven had anticipated, so she more or less tuned out nearly thirty minutes in when it proved clear that it wasn’t even ridiculously bad enough to make fun of. but it’s been a long day, & though she isn’t altogether sure how it happened, she’s perfectly content to just lay here wrapped up in finn’s arms. ( she refuses to believe there’s some other-worldly forces at work here, constantly pulling her towards him now that they’ve crossed paths & found each other. she’s still her own person, makes her own choices. besides, it’s not like she’s never cuddled with a friend before. big deal. )

     she was on the verge of dozing off before he spoke; she blinks a few times in an attempt to make herself fully alert again before her gaze focuses back o the movie. she huffs, words slightly muffled from where her face is comfortably pressed into finn’s chest. “maybe it’s doing you a favour.” but raven pushes herself off from him ( doesn’t allow herself  to think about how she already misses the relaxing way his fingers were stroking up & down her arm ), & slides off the hair tie around her wrist to pull her hair back into a messy bun. “better?”

Raven begins to ramble of her science, which is nothing more then magic to the grounder, but it brings the softest smile to her lips. Simply listening even if it made little sense to her. It was something Raven was obviously passionate about and that alone made Luna want to listen. She can see how exhausted the woman is, as sleep begins to take her, simply waiting for it to come. She moves to stand, thinking she’d finally drifted off, only to turn when hearing her speak again. She had not expected words of thanks but it warms Luna’s heart nonetheless. “ It wasn’t needed. ” she reassures. “ But it’s been stated now, that’s all that matter. Now rest. I’ll wake you on the hour. ” another soft smile before she’d moving off into the lab in search of food and water. 

     luna’s last few words sound dream-like as raven finally allows slumber to fully drag her into unconsciousness. it feels like almost no time passes at all when something causes her to blink awake, bleary-eyed. however, she feels more well-rested than she has in awhile — different from the occasional times she’d wake up feeling more cranky than anything else after a power nap. there are no windows in the room that tell her how far the sun has gone down. she props herself up by her elbow, gaze sweeping the room until they land on luna who’s still close by. “luna? what time is it?” her voice is still a little scratchy from sleep.

     15. …passionately

     relief washes over her when she sees him. he’s alive, of course he’s alive. she’d steeled herself in preparation for when his wristband would go offline, but it never did. ( raven had to take abby’s word for it as she worked away on the old, broken-down pod during every waking hour, & though she trusted her, she wouldn’t have put it past the doctor to cover up the truth in an effort to not deter her from their mission. ) still, it’s a different feeling, seeing him before her, safe & standing, with her own two eyes. it’s like she can finally breathe again.

     she rushes towards finn, no longer soaking in the new & mesmerizing sensation of rain falling on her face; she meets his expression of shock with a brilliant smile, barely acknowledging his concerned comment on the blood trickling down her temple before she wraps her arms around his neck & kisses him. it’s been a year since she’s been able to do this, but it’s still so familiar. she grips his coat beneath her fingers as she pushes herself closer to him, that same relief in her chest pouring out into this kiss, along with love & utter joy. raven feels all her worries slip away in this moment; they’re on the ground now. she can finally drown out the ever-present voice that’s lingered in her thoughts this past year, the one telling her she was going to lose him the day he turns eighteen. she doesn’t have to to worry she’s going to lose the only family she’s ever known, not anymore. 

     she catches a glimpse of a figure approaching their table in her periphery, but she doesn’t bother looking up right away; he greets clarke, & raven doesn’t recognize the guy’s voice, but she does recognize the slight shift in her friend’s voice as they converse. it’s an imperceptible change to anyone that doesn’t know her, but it’s a decibel lower, sexier. it’s what raven likes to call clarke’s flirt voice, a teasing remark that earns her a huff or an eye roll from the blonde. raven idly bites down on the tip of her pen cap in a poor attempt to keep a smirk from crossing her lips. 

     but the next moment nearly sweeps her off her feet. ( in hindsight, she’s glad she wasn’t drinking something or standing & loosely holding her phone or something because it would have surely slipped between her fingers. ) clarke introduces her & she finally looks up. finn, she said his name is, & it immediately clicks into place that this is the guy clarke’s been sort of seeing. 

     but wait — fuck. those eyes. she’s seen them before, knows them like she knows the back of her hand. something heavy drops in her stomach & simultaneously sends her heart racing. there’s this sudden, loud buzzing noise in her ears, a myriad of emotions hit her, a thousand thoughts flit through her mind without pause & she can’t keep up with any of it. it’s been over a century & a half, how is this possible —?

     it takes her a beat longer than normal to finally realize they’ve both said something, but she’d completely missed it, still stunned to the spot. “i’m sorry, what?”