Ground Down

Chapter 78

Out of all the places Clarke had expected Lexa to have grown up in, a cute little cul-de-sac marked from repetitive rebuilding after missile impact and very clearly solely inhabited by warrior families hadn't been one of them. Not that she had spent much time imagining Lexa's childhood at all, but, like, for purposes of emphasis. She also hadn't imagined Lexa's family to have a pet, but something had started rampaging behind the door as soon as the front wheels of Anya's chair had rocked onto the ramp mismatched to the porch. And it'd pounced at everything as soon as Anya had pulled the door open.

It had probably once been supposed to become a dog before Jabba the Hutt and the Hulk had started an orgy with various animals not related to canines in the same radioactive tank. Either way, its presence distracted Clarke both from getting much of a look at the interior of Lexa's childhood home and from realising Westmount had to have a civilian and a warrior side and that that had never really occurred to her. Because that thing had pushed its big-teethed snout into everybody, uncaring about which body part it could reach, tail wagging, until it had spotted her. Hadn't taken it long, really. And facing it from where she was half hiding behind the door so her belly wouldn't lay right on level with its head, she kinda really minded. 

It'd stopped wagging its tail. It'd stopped huffing, too. It stared at her with its chops twitching and, at the very least, that finally gave her something to worry about that wasn't Raven. Trying to see things positively and all. Her feet were too damn sore for positively. 

Raven hadn't gotten up since she'd collapsed into Anya's arms. Not for lack of trying, but Anya had wordlessly tightened her grip around her and after the third half-assed attempt to push against that, Raven had let her head slop onto her shoulder and Clarke had been doubting whether she was still awake since. She was. Anya turning away from Ontari hissing something Clarke did not care to listen to because animal with teeth right there threatening to hate her revealed Raven gazing at Anya's neck out of half-open eyes. Her breathing came slow and heavy. 

Steps came pounding from inside the house, slipped, distracted the dog, the numb thud of flesh to floor left to assume somebody landed really uncomfortably on a major body part, especially because somebody cried out in pain, sobs joined steps. Something inside Clarke made her stretch up despite the dog. Raven heaved her head off Anya's shoulder a second before Aden threw himself against Anya's side so hard the front of her chair spun outwards. 

"Onja!" 

His hands latched on to her shirt, he all but yanked the fabric off her chest trying to scramble onto her lap, she grabbed the back of his shirt, her arm flexed, Clarke's jaw flopped open because his body actually lifted off the ground with everything on him flailing around like a struggling kitten. Anya pulled him onto her lap and Aden threw his arms around her and Raven's necks so hard he knocked their heads together. 

"Reivon!" 

"I'm okay-" Raven brushed his hair out of his forehead, more or less gently, she kinda tried to wrench his head away from her shoulder more than she concerned herself with his hair- "she's okay."

"Bilaik haiki [That's obvious] ?" Anya muttered and Raven gave up on yanking on Aden to press a sloppy kiss to her jaw with a dragging shake of her head that had Anya exhaling through bared teeth. 

"Joken bibet, goupa op [Fucking nerd, grow a pair] !" Ontari kicked the wall. And very narrowly managed to avoid Anya's swinging arm because she left a wet bootprint on it. 

Anya loosening her grip on his neck had Aden burying his face in her shirt.

"Ontari ste ku [Is Ontari okay] ?" he asked into the fabric. 

"Ste wodafou [She's wet] ."

She yanked on him, seethed, stabbed one arm up the stairs with a demanding glare at Ontari who kicked her boots off so hard they splattered mud across the floor before she complied, Anya went back to trying to get a grip on Aden persistently weaselling out of her hold to clutch her tighter, and, well, Raven, too, in the process, or maybe deliberately, hard to tell. Clarke rolled her lips in around a thoughtful pout. Raven mainly got shaken by the whole ordeal, her body followed the motions without much will of its own, she kept blinking to focus. Didn't seem to faze Aden much, he clutched her jacket so tightly his knuckles shone white under his skin and the contrast to the red fabric really made that shade pop.