The Ones On The Ground (sequel to The One Who's Fallen)

Chapter 55

Raven's POV

After a short pause, Madi continues. "I ran away from Nia."

"How long ago?" Luna asks gently.

Madi shrugs, her gaze fixed on the table. "It was hard to keep track. I travelled a lot, trying to stay away from her and get out of Azgeda. Maybe a month and a half? Two months?"

"That's before Nia died." I murmur to myself, but apparently I'm loud enough that she can hear it.

"I did not know she was dead until they told me. I found a chance to leave after she left for Polis, but I could not convince the others to leave." Her expression falls. "They were too scared."

Clarke's body stiffens and I can tell she wants to hug Madi but is restraining herself. So I was right, she doesn't like physical touch. I don't blame her with all she's undoubtably been out through by Nia. I make a mental note of it so that I don't do anything that might make her uncomfortable.

"Do you think they're still there, sweetie?" Clarke asks softly.

Madi thinks for a moment and then shakes her head. "No. If they are, they are not kampas. Roan was always sweet to us and made his distaste for us being kampas known. If he is King, then they should have been released and given freedom."

"Good. We can talk about this more later if you want, sweetie," Clarke offers.

Madi nods, then turns to us. "Your pets are very cute. Is it alright if I play with them?"

"Yes, that's fine," I say. "Just don't interrupt them if they're eating, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you."

With that, Madi gets down from the table and sits on the floor. The pets that aren't eating come over to her. Lupita purrs and rubs against her as Beowulf sniffs at her excitedly, his little tail wagging hard.

With her no longer paying attention to us, I gesture for Clarke and Lexa to move closer so we can talk.

"I have to admit, you guys move faster than I thought you would." I say when Lexa and Clarke settle into chairs closer to us. Hopefully we can talk without Madi paying too much attention or anything. Not that I want to talk about anything bad. "I didn't think you would have kids for a while. Anya and Luna didn't even believe me last night when I said I saw a kid."

"We don't-" Clarke cuts herself off, glancing at Madi, who's being covered with kisses from the three pups. She lowers her voice. "We don't have her. She's not ours, we haven't adopted her."

"Yet," I say the words that were silently floating around us, evident to us all. "But you want to."

Clarke bites her lower lip and looks away, happening to look in the direction of Madi. I turn to see Madi giggling as she tries to pet the pups as best she can, alternating between the three and also petting Lupita, who's curled up in her lap and purring. Clarke's entire body softens at the sight, her eyes warm.

She glances over at Lexa, who has a knowing look in her eyes. I can see Lexa's hand tighten around Clarke's on the table. She smiles warmly at her fiancée and Clarke lets out a breath, staring into Lexa's eyes.

"Yeah, I do."

"Whoa, save those words for your wedding." I joke, earning amused looks from the others. "So how did Mama Griffin take it?" At the way Lexa and Clarke pale, it must have been bad. Wait, is that guilt on their faces? "You guys haven't told her? Dude!"

"We just haven't found the right time," Clarke tries to explain.

"You just have not had the courage to tell your mother that you have a child," Anya says.

"We don't..." Clarke trails off and sighs. "This isn't something we've even discussed with her."

"Then you should probably do that," Luna murmurs softly. "Trust me, I know what it is like to be without a home and not knowing where you are going to end up. Knowing that someone is willing to have you stay with them is a great comfort."

Lexa frowns. "Luna..."

"It was not your fault, Lexa. But you should talk about it yourselves, and then with her." Luna says.

Clarke nods. "We will."

***

Clarke's POV

After a long day of hanging out with Anya, Luna, and Raven, Lexa and I retire to our room. Madi went to bed earlier than us since she's younger and since she let us, we all briefly came into her room to say goodnight. Raven, Anya, and Luna wanted to walk around Polis, so we all spent the day together, showing Madi Polis.

"So you want to adopt Madi," Lexa says as I close the door behind us.

I let out a nervous, breathless chuckle. "You really don't waste any time." I meet Lexa's eyes and meet her halfway, our hands intertwining. "Yeah, yeah I do. She's an amazing kid and I would love to have her around. Only if you're okay with it, and so is she."

Lexa smiles softly and pecks my lips. "I would like it too, ai hodnes (my love)."

I let out a shaky breath. "Okay. Okay. How, um, how would this work? We just adopt her?"

"I think we should wait a little bit." My mouth opens and Lexa shakes her head. "I know what Luna said, hodnes. But this is what I think. Luna is a more free flowing person, but I think Madi likes more structure. I want to at least tell her she is welcome here or with us for as long as she wants. But I do not want to change too much too quickly. She has been through so much, I do not want to overwhelm her."

I purse my lips and contemplate what she's said. "So you don't want to tell her about us wanting to adopt her yet, but tell her she's welcome here and with us?" Lexa nods. "Okay. Alright, yeah that's fine. Tomorrow."

Next chapter, they talk to Madi! And now, with this chapter done, I'm off to work on my Final Philosophy Paper :/ five to six pages due Tuesday... Ugh. At least I don't have to get up at seven tomorrow morning! Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!