WAR OF CROWNS, the hundred

one: arkadia

Nine months after the fall of the mountain.

"Flowers."

She heard his whisper. Avery felt a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off.

"Avery."

She burrowed herself deeper into their pillows, which were really two sleeping bags stacked on top of each other.

"'Cmon, get up." His voice had that familiar morning scratchiness. "We have shit to do."

"Alright, fine." Avery got out of bed faster than Bellamy could process. When she swung her feet out of bed to face him, Avery saw Bellamy already in full guard uniform. Avery rolled her eyes.

"I still have no idea how you get up so fast." Bellamy said.

"Force of habit." Avery answered. Bellamy quirked his eyebrow. "Prison'll do that to you." Bellamy raised his eyebrow further. "I'm being serious! Ask Octavia, she probably does the same thing."

Avery took off her shirt, switching to her practice gear. As she did, Bellamy glanced at her arms. Her scars were long-healed, but still distinctly white against her skin. They ran from the tips of her fingers, where the nerve damage was bad enough that she couldn't feel, up her arms and neck to her face, which bore two jagged white lines, one on either side of her chin.

"Yeah, well, my sister sleeps on the forest floor," Bellamy retorted.

"With Lincoln." Avery added, turning around and pausing getting dressed to raise her eyebrows suggestively. Bellamy rolled his eyes. His girlfriend was so antagonistic for literally no reason.

"Yes." Bellamy deadpanned. "With Lincoln, her boyfriend of a year. Point is, she probably has to wake up fast so the two-headed bears don't get her."

The joke got a small giggle out of Avery as she put her hair up in a ponytail and slipped her jacket on. It wasn't a guard jacket. Avery and Octavia still wouldn't wear them.

"Ready?" Bellamy asked.

"Ready to kick some ass? Hell no." Avery opened the flap of the tent.

The pair got attention as they walked from their small portion of the town, a small circle of tents where mostly delinquents slept, to the middle of the square. There, children were already chasing each other through the garden. Gardeners were already out working before the heat of the day. Corn, beans, and a whole number of delicious things were growing. Avery had never tasted food so good.

Summer was winding down, but they were still bringing in crops. And with their storages of meat, Arkadia was much more equipped to deal with the coming winter than they had been the year before.

"Avery!"

Raven's call came from across the courtyard. Avery and Bellamy turned, spotting the mechanic walking swiftly toward them with Kyle Wick trailing a few feet behind her.

"Good morning." Raven greeted.

"Morning." Bellamy responded. "How'd it go last night?"

"Good news, we have heat!" Raven said excitedly, pumping her fists in the air.

"That is good news." Bellamy replied. "How's Monty?"

"Tired, I think." Raven replied. "Or he and Harper are just fucking again."

"Ugh, I do not want to hear about that." Avery cringed. "At least both of you got the heat running. Last winter sucked without it."

The group nodded in sympathy for their past selves.