I Can't Wait for you Anymore

Eleutheromania

The rest of the morning flew by. Clarke and Dean were both working on separate projects across the shop from each other and didn't really speak for most of the day. Dean, for the third day in a row, was trying to fix some faulty wiring in some solar panels. He'd managed to get them to absorb energy but was having trouble getting them to release it back out. He'd been getting more and more frustrated as the days passed without a solution presenting itself. Clarke, on the other hand, was working on a series of small projects for the Sanctum natives, mostly fixing small gadgets and generators, with a few broken and bent kitchen cutlery thrown into the mix that needed mending. She was finished with most of them before noon. One of the nice things about working in the junk shop was nothing was ever too urgent so she had plenty of time to pick up small side projects in between assignments. Right now she was tinkering with a small metal mobile someone had dropped off in the salvage box outside the shop. It was a delicate little thing that once upon a time must've been very beautiful. It showed the double moons and main planet of Sanctum's solar system revolving around the binary suns with a few noticeable stars scattered throughout it to give it a creative flair. When it was operational it was meant to revolve and crisscross to follow Sanctum's actual path around the suns. Currently, though, it was broken with half the metal rods holding up the ornaments bent out of shape and the other half jammed so that when plugged in, the mobile only sputtered and twitched a few times before short circuiting.

Honestly, Clarke should've thrown it out but it was beautiful and beauty had been a rare commodity for most, if not all, of Clarke's life.

Clarke had been working on the piece for a few hours before Octavia came through the shop's doors, dragging the daily load of scrap metal behind her. Octavia was one of the few members of Wonkru that hadn't been assigned a permanent job. Part of the reason was that no one truly trusted her enough to work on anything important like the council, but the other part was that without the practical education going through school on the Ark gave you, Octavia's only real skill was being a seamstress, a profession that Sanctum was hardly lacking in. While waiting for a permanent assignment, Octavia was given many menial tasks to complete throughout the day. Among them, helping in Wonkru's camp's kitchen in the evenings, janitorial duties in the clinic on weekends, and working in the excess department - Sanctum's job title for their garbage services - in between her other jobs. This also meant that Octavia was the one who sorted through all the garbage Sanctum threw out and brought all metal and electronics to the junk shop every afternoon.

"Hey, Clarke! Hello, Dean!" Octavia called out in greeting before dropping her wheelbarrow behind her.

"Got anything interesting for us today?" Dean asked standing up from his workbench, wiping his hands on his pants as he did so.

"Nothing too exciting. Someone threw out some old digital clocks that don't seem to be working but other than that it's mostly scrap metal."

"Boo! I told you not to come back till you had a fun challenge for me."

Octavia let out a lighter laugh than Clarke had heard in years, something she'd been doing more and more of lately. "Well, I would but it seems those solar panels are still giving you trouble, so-"

"Oh piss off! I'm gonna fix them one of these days, they're just being stubborn, is all."

"Yeah, yeah. You've said that the last two days as well," Octavia laughed him off. "Hey, Clarke. How're you today?"

Up until then Clarke had been steadfastly ignoring the both of them. Stifling a groan, she looked up at Octavia and smiling politely answered, "Fine, thank you." Pointedly, not asking how she was in return. Hopefully she'd get the hint.

"What're you working on?" she asked, curiously looking down at the mobile.

"Oh that, it's nothing. Something she should've scrapped eons ago," Dean cut in.