Down to Earth (A 100 Fanfiction)

Chapter 18 - The Boy with the Nightblood

Five years ago ...

"Please, let it be here," Clarke muttered, digging through her bag. "Come on ... where - ah! There it is!"

She pulled out the piece of paper with her latest sketch scribbled on it. It was a picture of the newborn baby that her mother had just delivered. While Abby was checking on the mother, Clarke was sitting in a chair beside the baby's incubator. She was so intrigued by the baby's features, she pulled out a loose piece of paper she had and began drawing the baby. After she had finished, she placed it in her bag and went to help her mother with a small task.

Abby would be home late that night, but Clarke's father Jake would be there to make dinner, so she told Clarke not to wait for her. That was why Clarke was walking down the hallway towards her family's quarters all by herself.

She looked down at the picture again, she had gotten a lot better at drawing over the years. She had come a long way from the stick figures she used to draw on her father's work papers when she was very small. 

'I can't wait to show Ro and Wells this.'

She wondered where her friends would be at that moment. Wells would probably be busy with his private combat training class, his father had made arrangements so that he could start his cadet apprenticeship early. Roman would probably be on his way home from his engineering class, but he usually stopped by the scrap depot to look for some old pieces of metal he could fix and repurpose into new gadgets, like the art case he had made for Clarke to keep all her drawings and pencils. She would most likely run into him, maybe then she could show him her new drawing. 

'I should also invite him to dinner if his father is working late again. Not that Dad will mind, Ro is basically the son he always wanted.'

Clarke turned the corner leading towards her home when she stopped dead in her tracks. 

There was Roman, he was sitting on the floor with his back leaning against the wall. His face was buried in his arms, which were propped up on his knees. She heard small sniffles coming from the thirteen-year-old boy, he was crying.

Clarke slipped her picture back into her bag and rushed up to him. She stood in front of him. 

"Ro, are you okay?" she asked.

She watched as Roman tensed, he lifted his head, wiping away the tears in his eyes.

"H-hey Clarke," he said softly. 

Clarke's eyes widened in horror when she saw the big black bruise on his left eye. She then began to notice the other things that were off about him. His clothes were ruffled and creased as though he had been in a struggle.

"What happened?" Clarke asked anxiously, kneeling so that she was face to face with him. 

Roman shook his head, giving her a smile that looked forced. "I'm fine, just me being clumsy as usual."

"It was those boys in our math class, wasn't it?"

Roman looked away from her. "No, I just fell down that's all."

Clarke knew he was lying, his voice always got very high-pitched whenever he was lying about something. And earlier he had tried to hide the fact that he was crying, Roman Kane rarely showed that people got to him, he always pushed that vulnerable part of him aside and kept a straight face. He had always been like that around everyone, even around his friends and family. 

"When I get my hands on those assholes, I'll make them wish they were never born," Clarke said through gritted teeth, she rose to her feet. "No one messes with one of my best friends like that. I'll freaking beat them to a pulp! Then I'll fucking drag their asses to the floating chamber and - "