After the End [ The 100 ]

3. Change of scenery?

pilot

[eiden]

My dad — my first dad — taught me to always be aware of my surroundings. If you don't recognize a place, turn back to go home. And if someone's touching you and you don't know about it, then they shouldn't be.

I can't leave because of the harnesses over my shoulders, but when my eyes slowly flutter open at the touch of someone's hand, I'm suddenly wide awake.

"Eiden?" a familiar voice calls out my name. It lowers the severity of my response.

So my head snaps to the side, only to see a blonde with blue eyes staring back at me, and my eyes widen at who it is. "Clarke?" I ask in disbelief.

"Eiden! What are you doing here?" The disappointment is clear in her voice. I'm usually not on the receiving end of it. It's usually reserved for the boys in our life. "How are you..."

Stopping her mid question, I glance down at my bloody fist from punching the Guard's nose. Wincing, I turn back to her and shrug.

She's looking at me with a mix of concern and, still, disappointment. "That blood's still fresh. Did you just get arrested?" Her tone was going back and forth like it sometimes did whenever she was practicing with her mom and I was third-wheeling them. Lots of laughing in between telling me to hush whenever she had to think about a difficult question. "Luckily for you, it won't get infected, but I need to see your hand."

"Clarke," I say with a light smile. She's entertaining at least, but I think she's forgotten our current situation. "I'm strapped to this seat around a bunch of prisoners who hate my step-father —"

"Sure do!" One calls out, causing me to briefly look in that direction.

"Jediah Golde can suck it!"

"He arrested me!"

"Hear that chorus, Clarke? A stiff hand's the least of my worries. Plus, I only got it because I know how to protect myself."

"Getting yourself arrested and sent on a spaceship hurtling toward Earth is not protecting yourself. Quite the opposite."

Earth? My eyes widened at the thought, but just as I'm about to question why something like that would even start to occur, a familiar voice enters my head.

"Eiden."

"Wells?" I turn to the boy strapped in a few seats from Clarke. He did it. He actually did it... "What the hell were you thinking?!" I shout in anger.

"That I needed to get myself arrested to be with Clarke."

"How could you let him do what he did, Eiden?" Clarke asks, getting upset all over again.

"I— maybe he was expecting a mug, or something? Best boyfriend?"

"You destroyed the last tree, Wells."