notrocketscience

She doesn't know how she ended up here, exactly. Raven remembers walking down the street, remembers feeling her stomach rumble and deciding she should eat, but everything from that point on seems like something out of a fever dream. The place is called The Enchanted Forest of Pizza, and that probably should have been her first clue that things weren't going to be normal. She'd made the mistake of hesitating outside, the lure of pizza overriding her better common sense.

There'd been nothing remotely appetising on the menu she'd glanced at - everything seems to be some weird horrible combination of ingredients that should never go together let alone be on a pizza - but a waiter had grabbed her arm and pulled her inside talking excitedly before she could protest. Now, she's being watched by a handful of creepy terracotta gnomes with jaunty Santa hats as he pulls her through the strangest looking restaurant she's ever seen, seating her at a table that already has a man sitting at it.

"This one's taken--" she protests uselessly, but the waiter is already talking over the top of her, announcing the specials loudly and with a smile that she's pretty sure is going to cause his face to crack.

If nothing else, the gnomes have definitely made her forget she had any appetite at all, and Raven looks at the guy across from her helplessly. She recognises him, remembers him washing up on the beach months ago, looking like hell. Now he just looks as bewildered as she does. "Bodhi, right?" she asks, ignoring the waiter who's still powering on determinedly, almost robotic. "I'd apologise for crashing your table but I don't think I had a choice in the matter."

Raven had gone to work that morning to find Church gone, and the garage trying to work out how to function without him. Raven's heard of people just up and disappearing but she hadn't had it happen to anyone she knows yet, and it's left her feeling a little blindsided. She'd done her job because Raven is good at compartmentalising, putting the bad things away to deal with later, or never. It's the only way they could survive on the Ground, by pretending that the bad things weren't all happening at once, pretending that she could deal with one problem at a time and be okay. She puts missing people in a box and decides that it's something she'll deal with later.

As soon as her shift is finished she goes to Clarke and Bellamy's place. It's irrational; she knows they're still here, both of them, because she'd texted both of them during the day. She knows they're fine, but she still goes straight to the apartment anyway, needing to see them to make sure. They've all lost so many people back home, she doesn't think she could stand it if she lost them here.

When she gets out of the cab and knocks, nobody answers, but Clarke gave her a spare key, so Raven lets herself in anyway. She'll sit and wait until they get home, and maybe she'll even have coffee ready for them as an apology for her minor freak-out. She busies herself in the kitchen, setting a pot on and leaning against the counter while she waits. Raven closes her eyes, tips her head back against the cupboards and breathes slowly. This is Darrow, not the Ground. No one is going to take them away in their beds, not Grounders or Mountain Men or anyone. This city can apparently make people disappear at will, and that's not something she's thrilled about, but she's determined that it's not going to happen to her people.

A knock on the door startles her out of her own head and she leaves the coffee machine to head back to the font door. If it were Clarke or Bellamy they wouldn't bother knocking, obviously, but she should probably see who it is anyway.