It wasn’t like he usually cared what people thought or were doing, but when an individual but into the engineering bay without an appointment it was a little annoying having to throw the nearby blanket over his work. Avery had ( left ) he wasn’t supposed to be working on this anymore, else risk the idea that he was “ helping the enemy ” and even without a good subject to test this on, he wanted to know if it worked, he needed to make it work for her if not anyone else. He needed ( CLARE ) on this was what he needed. Jackson had started to help out too – but he knew that a medical personnel, and engineer could only go so far. What he needed was a SCIENTIST, new innovations might help him figure out how to do this. He needed a blueprint of the problem so he could find a solution. God this was a mess.

When he glanced up, the last thing he’d expected to see was Steel Argent’s kid. If he remembered correctly, the boy was friends with Zoe Monroe, and one of Bellamy’s boys… what was he still doing here. Shrugging that off, he crossed his arms over his chest, eyes examining Sterling for a moment, deciding that the boy hadn’t ( MEANT ) the question and that he’d simply been excising the rather ( common ) proper greeting to use when one interrupted another working. So instead of delving into details the twenty one year old shrugged, “ A pet project of sorts. ” he answered. Stepping around the table ( but not before double checking to make sure that the objects under the blanket were completely covered ).

“ What do y'need kid ? ” he asked, reaching a hand out to greet Sterling with a handshake before running that same hand through his hair. It’d be nice if it was something quick, he could get back to work on the Avery thing… though a project would be nice too. While Pike wasn’t getting in his way – most of Kyle’s usefulness was deemed a luxury to the man so he’d been benched ( of sorts ). The electricity was running steadily, so were the heating and water systems on the ark, there was already a group of engineers figuring out housing and heating for new structures. So there really was nothing for him to do. It was sad ( really ). That he was hoping this kid had something fun to do. Though if he was being realistic, from what he’d heard about Sterling he wasn’t sure if the kid was lost or just high enough to feel like talking to someone new.

Wick was straight forward and yeah, maybe it was obvious Sterling wasn’t just there for a courtesy visit (after all, they didn’t even know each other), but it wasn’t like he was gonna put his cards on the table right away. He needed to know if he could trust Wick, but he had heard a few things about Wick and his past, so Sterling was pretty sure of one thing.

          He was being careful, Emori didn’t know if she could blame him or if she should throw out his fears all together. Men being careful wasn’t useful when you wanted them to move and act a certain way. But she was just meeting this boy, she couldn’t expect him to be comfortable with her just yet. But she kept a friendly disposition, but he was just as careful as he was once he got a little closer, shifting her stance ever so calmly, hair falling off her shoulders as she kept an eye open for him. Any weaponry, how strong he looked, he wasn’t ( bad ) looking closer up either. She didn’t know what they fed people in space, but whatever it was they needed more of it on the ground. That was her one and only important conclusion to the matter.

He was smart though. Taking a second to consider and then stating his condition. She considered the idea of smiling. Instead she just took a step towards him, “ All I need is life of death statuses on a few of my guys. ” she spoke evenly, voice dragging a little on the word ( MY ). Emphasizing her ownership of the males she was referring to, even if just in the most subtle way. “ Location would be fun to, but I’m willing to negotiate the latter. ” her tone changed then, less playful, more ( business like ). She wasn’t sure where she was going with this to be honest. But people did this all the time from what she remembered, and it’d been weeks without contact from both of them ( though one of those had been on purpose ). Any information would be nice right now – so yeah. She wasn’t going to regret this.

Sterling gave half a nod as a sign that he agreed to the deal offered by the female. “Yeah, I can do that, if I know them”, he told her, raising his eyebrow. “Who are your guys?”, he asked her, leaning in a little bit closer to her.

          The boy was all grown up now. Sixteen years old. Which meant that for the past twelve years he and Metais hadn’t so much as thought of sharing a room before. So even though he knew Sterling meant to ask if he and Metais were okay ( physically – and maybe emotionally, making sure they didn’t have anxiety or worse ) the first thought in his head was their relationship status, which Steel wasn’t even sure of at the moment. So it took him a moment to gather himself but. “ YEAH ” came out with a soft sigh and a smile he gave his son a nod and shrugged, “ You know that war you guys had ongoing with the grounders for the first few months, we’ve been fighting that for the past six. We lost a lot of good people — I’m just glad that I’d gone to visit your mother that day and ended up with her, otherwise I would have been back in factory station and then I wouldn’t have had a clue about either of you. ” he paused, thinking for a moment, “ Have you lot really no found anyone else, the grounders down here seem much more… ” what was the word for ( non ) MURDEROUS. “ … lenient when it comes to explorations. ”

At the confirmation that ( YES ) Sterling was  fine and Steel had nothing to worry about he relaxed ( if only slightly ). So his son was okay, he was safe and fine ( and apparently back to his old habits ). Steel gave a small curt nod as the boy’s voice got a little more serious when asking about his mother. “ Met- ” he stopped himself, yes his girlfriend was just fine. But he hadn’t used to following phrase in months and it was throwing him off – “ - Your mother is fine, she’s alive and has been doing well you have absolutely nothing to worry about. ” he concluded with a small smile in the direction of his son. It was true, she was doing well and while the pair was even sharing a room her in Arkadia due to lack of space and the fact they seemed to have gotten along perfectly for the past six months – Steel wasn’t sure how BOTH parents felt about this whole arrangement. It was strange to be living together again, something they hadn’t done since– well ever since Sterling was tiny.

Sterling blinked hard as he was trying to stay focused as his dad spoke, but as the marijuana was starting to affect his brain, it was getting harder to do so. “Well, they’re grounders”, he tried. Sure, he was becoming a lot more open to them, but that didn’t change the fact that they had tried to kill them and for that reason, it was gonna take time for him to trust all of the grounders.

Winter was approaching in not too long and knowing that — at least before the nuclear apocalypse — cannabis plants needed heat to survive, Sterling was well aware that he had to find some way to keep the plants warm.

Naturally, if they’d die, they’d come back once the climate was warmer again but that meant he’d most likely run out of weed and he was not up for being without a high for months. Hence, Sterling had a mission to decided to befriend someone with a bit more knowledge than himself— not when it came to plants, but when it came or technology and engineering.

Sterling had read books about it, infrared heat was something many had used in the past but no matter what they used to keep their plants alive, their electrical bills had been sky high and albeit that wouldn’t be a problem for him, there was an even bigger problem— he didn’t have access to the electricity needed.

           The boy was curiously interesting — she had to give him ( THAT ). The way h carried himself CONFIDENTLY and yet somehow still managed to give off the aura of a rather lost puppy. It was SAD really. But she had to admit that she was enjoying the fact that he was already so comfortable in her presence. She took a second to step around a tree that was blocking him from her and leaned up against it as she got a better look at who he was. He certainly was SKAIKRU and he looked that way. “ That tends to be something I’ve heard I’m good at. But I don’t quite think that YOU will be getting that luxury young man. ” but she did let her guard down a little. The boy didn’t look like he was going to bite. Which probably meant that if she — the girl raised her good hand, motioning for the boy to come closer — she was going to keep this one. A confident Sky kid could come in handy.

“ You give me something, and I’ll GLADLY return the favor darling. ”  she hummed a little. She needed a bit of updated  on the situation back on the ARK or the MOUNTAIN either would do right now. Being out of the loop was terrible. Especially for business. Though at the moment she was far more interested in whether or not Noah and Scarlette and Bellamy were still alright. “ Information for favors ? Sounds like a fair trade ? ”

Sterling watched the female cautiously as she came a little closer — it wasn’t like he had forgotten about her people executing members of his people mere months ago  — but as she stopped by the tree and then gestured for him to approach her, he figured she was harmless. Besides, if she wanted the arkers dead, he would (most likely) not still be alive.

        It WAS him, Steel would have dropped something if he’d been holding anything. There was nothing that could describe the feeling that washed over the man at that point, there was nothing that ever would. That was his little boy, sure Sterling was sixteen now, and could handle himself well ( he always had ). But he was still his baby in Steel’s eyes, and any parent will tell you in a moment. That there’s a different love that one feels for their child, being apart slowly kills you, and the idea that something might have happened to them makes you go MAD. So maybe it was a bit much, grabbing Sterling and pulling the boy into his arms, holding him close. He was okay he was —

Steel pulled back a little. The sent had probably hit him before but it was only NOW that he was noticing it. A small tilt of the man’s head indicating the curiosity behind ( a. how in the world his son had gotten his hands on the thing ) and ( b. why he’d smoked this much of it ). As he pulled back he kept his arm’s on his son, one on his shoulder while the other moved his head back so that Steel could have a closer look. “ Don’t let your mother see you like this. You probably should be a little more subtle. ” and that was the extent of that line of questioning ( though now he really wanted to know where the boy had gotten it from – he could use some ).

“ You alright kiddo ? You’ve been holding up okay ? ” He’d heard that most of the kid’s had gone through HELL but Sterling at least looked ( physically ) uninjured so that was something to thank God for. He certainly was going to need to tell his girlfriend about this, their son was fine. Whoever was in charge upstairs had delivered him back in one piece and that’s all Steel could have asked for. “ You’re okay right ? ”

Sterling didn’t get much of a chance to take in the fact that his dad was standing right in front of him, alive, before he was pulled into a hug by said man — which caught Sterling off guard, as they had never been much for showing each other affection in the past. Yet once his brain caught up with what was going on, he hugged his father back, thankful to have his father back.

Emori UNDERSTOOD the tensions in the camp even though she refused to take ( one step ) into Arkadia now that grounder-killers had taken over ( though in all fairness Azgeda probably deserved the hate — she just didn’t want to get shot because of it ). She also UNDERSTOOD the whole “ we’re fleeing to the mountain ” thing. A fortified bunker in the ground was good for any business. But it also meant that she could exactly go visit whenever she wanted to ( because you know the whole taboo death thing surrounding the mountain — well that and she was pretty sure it was cursed ). Needless to say she hadn’t seen that many sky-kids lately and she was PERFECTLY FINE with that. So needless to say when she saw one stumbling around near her home she was a little thrown by it ( lucky asshole was wearing a something with the guard insignia otherwise he might have gotten his face blasted off ). He wasn’t one of HERS — that’s for sure, she would have remembered a face like that. But the grounder cleaned her throat to let her presence be known.

“ Yo, kid. Can I help you with something ? ”

Sterling had decided to take a walk — when he was high — in the woods, which had ended with him taking a nap in a tree and as he woke up, he had sobered up and cannabis, unlike the effects alcohol could have, usually left your memory of what you'd done while high intact. The problem was, he hadn't been paying attention as he had been walking and thus, he wasn't sure how to get back.

For the more part, he knew how to navigate the woods, but he was quite sure he hadn't been around this part of the forest before. However, he wasn't just gonna sit around waiting for someone to notice he was gone — because even with his dad back, that could take DAYS — so Sterling had climbed down the tree and gone towards the direction he thought he came from.

An hour later or so, Sterling was quite certain that he had been heading the wrong way, even though the forest was less dense at this point than it was back where he had woken up. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he came to a stop and not more than a few minutes passed before he heard a female's voice.

Turning to the source of the voice, Sterling paused for a moment before making a mental note that she was surprisingly good looking for a grounder.

Steel wasn’t one to CARE how people treated him. He was one of Pike’ leading commanders however – a strong charismatic engineer wasn’t something that people came by often, and since ( FARM ) station hadn’t gotten the luxury toland with a large amount of guards, most of the leaders weren’t trained military ( STEEL ARGENT for example ). And if Steel was being honest, he didn’t mind either way. He was accustomed to being in charge more than he ( cared ) about it. The ONE thing he had to admit he disliked about having found people ( because the people certainly wasn’t one of them – having running water and pluming was great ) – was the fact that even Pike was starting to tell him that carrying around his baseball bat was going to be problematic. They weren’t in Azgeda territory anymore, they didn’t have to be ( on guard ) twenty four seven ( though Steel had a hard time believing that ). Especially after going on a perimeter check and finding one of his oldest friends strung up in a tree having him splattered with white paint and an X of blood painted across his chest. The ( GET THE F*CK OUT ) message had been spelled out LOUD and clear. So was the fact that there was no way they were going to be at peace with these people ( much to Steel’s disappointment ).

They’d arrived in Arkadia a week or so ago ? More ? It felt like yesterday but he knew it was more than that, as he walked down the halls with Hannah draped over his shoulder he wasn’t surprised as the Farm Station members bowed their heads and the Apha Station guys just looked at him in disgust ( or maybe it was Hannah they were looking at ). He’d been on his way to the FUCKING bathroom this time ( because let’s face it it wasn’t like he had a mirror in the room he was in and he was pretty sure he needed to trim his beard by now – it’d been like a week with no maintenance, because their haircut girl had been dragged into the kitchen when they arrived and Steel hadn’t been able to get a chance to sit her down ). Except when he was about to turn in he stopped. Taking a step back as a person was pushing the door to the bathroom open and stepping out, their head was down at first and just by their structure Steel concluded it was a kid ( actually he looked a lot like – ) he stopped.

“ Sterling ? ”

Knowing that most people around Arkadia frowned upon the smoking of cannabis, Sterling had found himself a few spots to smoke without having people bother him about it. The bathroom was one of those places.

Smoking was, in Sterling's opinion, the best way to use cannabis, — whether it was weed or marijuana didn't matter — solely because the effects were fully manifested within minutes rather than minimum half an hour up to two full hours with oral ingestion. Given, oral ingesting the cannabis gave a longer lasting high and was a lot more discreet, but the way Sterling saw it, he could just take another hit if he needed to prolong the high. Besides, considering how life on Earth was, it was much better with the shorter highs.

Leaving the bathroom, Sterling was fully aware he left it smelling strongly of cannabis because of him hotlocking the room, but it wasn't like they'd float him if they caught him anyways.

Sterling didn't bother giving the man standing outside the bathroom a second look, not when he knew the smell of weed escaping the room along with him was too strong to get away with. But the man said his name in a voice strangely familiar, too familiar, which caught Sterling off guard just as he was about to walk away.