Set in some weird canon divergent ‘verse taking shape in my brain in which Lincoln doesn’t survive the battle of the mountain, Octavia leaves Arkadia with Clarke, and Niylah is the one that helps them put the pieces back together.
Otherwise known as: Gay nerds at the end of the world “It hurts,” Octavia mumbles, looking up at Niylah dazedly from the floor of the cave. Niylah knows it must; Octavia’s femur is fractured and Clarke had set it by hand with no painkillers. The black swelling of the flesh of Octavia’s thigh is angry and hot to touch, but they can’t go anywhere. Snow swirls in drifts across the entrance, and Niylah is worried Clarke won’t be able to get back to them.
“I know,” Niylah soothes, wrapped around Octavia to keep her warm. The broken leg is propped on their packs, splinted with twigs and wrapped in a fur. Niylah tangles their fingers together as they lay there, Octavia trembling from cold and shock. Niylah wills Clarke to hurry up. Octavia tucks her face into Niylah’s chest miserably.
“Make it stop.”
“I can’t, love.”
“Please,” Octavia whispers, fingers tightening around Niylah’s as a wave of pain rocks through her, “please.”
Clarke is the one who makes the decision to move her, three days later. Octavia’s thigh is webbed with shiny red veins, a fever burning her up even as snow whips around the mouth of their shelter. She’s in and out of consciousness, confused and tired and delirious when she is awake. She’s playing with Niylah’s fingers as Clarke finishes the makeshift stretcher, eyes glazed and unfocused.
“Clarke, are you sure?”
“We can’t just let her die,” Clarke snarls, tying a knot viciously, “and Arkadia is the only place with medicine that can take this.”
Octavia coughs suddenly, her head lolling to the side. Niylah braces her through it, smoothing her hair back. The blood and mucus in Octavia’s lungs are, according to Clarke, signs of a systemic infection. They look like a death sentence to Niylah.
It takes nearly a day to get Octavia back to Arkadia, snow freezing in their hair and eyelashes. It melts where it rests on Octavia’s skin, streaking her flushed cheeks and greasy hair. Octavia twitches and moans beneath the furs covering her, too hot. One limp hand dangles from the edge and Clarke carefully tucks it onto Octavia’s belly.
Octavia’s face twists with discomfort and panic as they approach the gates of Arkadia.
“No,” she moans, trying to wriggle herself off the stretcher as they stop, allowing guards to swarm them. A few look at Clarke with distrust, a few look at Niylah with resentment. Niylah knows about the mountain, and she knows why Clarke and Octavia left Arkadia.
“Yes, I’m Clarke Griffin-No- she needs medical care- Bellamy!”
A man who can only be Octavia’s brother is striding through the gate, shoving through the guards surrounding them, and crushing Clarke into a hug. Clarke clings to him, pushing her face into his shoulder. The guards had forced them to lower Octavia’s stretcher to the snow and when Bellamy breaks from the hug, hand still resting between Clarke’s shoulder blades as she leans into him, his face darkens with fury. He drops to his knees beside his sister, smoothing sweaty hair back from her windburned cheeks.
“Hey, O. Look at me.”
“Not real,” Octavia mumbles, turning her head away from Bellamy’s hand. He goes to pick her up but Clarke stops him.
“Don’t. She fell, slipped on ice and broke the bone in her upper leg. I think it’s infected.”
Bellamy nods, once, and then helps Clarke lift the stretcher up. Octavia’s hand falls over the stretcher, big green eyes begging Niylah to take it.
It’s what @kohiruu and I named the Clarke/Octavia/Niylah ship in a very specific AU we had come up with.
Basically given all the deaths through s3 ? (i stopped watching after 3x07 - and then couldn’t start again because i thought they’d kill Raven) Clarke, Octavia, and Niylah help each other heal and you know, fall in love, etc. We had a whole outline for a fic that never got written. There was a side of sea mechanic in it too.
Anyway we needed a ship name/AU name because we have a lot of fucking AUs that never really saw the light of day. And for this one Grounder Pounder Recovery Project fit and made us laugh.
Clarke has seen true joy twice in her life, and both times involve Octavia Blake.
They’ve come so far from that little girl stepping off the dropship, but in a way they’re right back at that moment, right back where they started. Octavia takes a tentative step onto the grass at the edge of the desert wastes, her boots dusty and hair mussed, then turns around, reaching for Clarke’s hand. Clarke laces their fingers, holding out her other hand to Niylah. Octavia flutters a kiss against her knuckles with a grin, and then all three of them take as big a step as they can manage out of the dirt and into the grass.
“We’re back, bitches,” Octavia murmurs against her lips, biting at them as she tugs away from Clarke and presses her body into Niylah’s, a hand creeping towards the back pocket of her pants.
Around them, 1000 people swarm into the last green place on earth, as near as Raven can figure. Clarke cups the back of Octavia’s head and licks at the roof of Niylah’s mouth, still on the edge of the wastes but facing towards the forest.
1) congrats on the girlfriend. 2) got an GPRP headcanons for my emo ass??
ha, thank you. she’s pretty awesome :)
as for GPRP... I haven’t thought about them in a while but sure.
For those of you who don’t know. GPRP is the Grounder Pounder Recovery Project aka the ship name for Clarke/Niylah/Octavia that I thought up with @kohiruu back at the start of the year.
It starts in a fictional version of the end of season 4 where everyone ends up in the bunker, Luna is NOT dead, and no one is in space (Raven ends up figuring out that they can create the same conditions needed to make nightblood in deep sea/heavy water/sensory deprivation pools as found in space - ssshhh fake science happening here anyway. and voila. No one needs to go to space. And Luna and Raven get to spend copious amounts of time together).
AHEM. anyway.
Clarke and Octavia bond over loving and losing grounders who helped them come into themselves. There’s a lot of sitting silently side by side and watching things like stars and sunsets and... well... the wall.
Niylah is the ONLY one Octavia will let help her with her physical therapy.
Until Octavia becomes theirs Niylah is the only one that Clarke lets herself be weak in front of.
Niylah is afraid to let herself love either of them but it’s the only thing she can seem to get right so she lets herself because she can see that they need her... and more importantly that they want her. She’s not used to being wanted.
Octavia sleeps in the middle. She only really falls asleep easily if one of them is stroking her hair.
Clarke is wary about letting on to the others that the three of them are together. Octavia gives no fucks. Niylah tries to keep a delicate balance.
The trio has movie nights with Luna and Raven. Their favorite thing is comic based movies.
Octavia has nightmares (before the trio gets together) and searches out Clarke. Niylah gets in late and realizes she has complex feelings about them both. She knew she found Octavia attractive (and she’s involved with Clarke)... that starts the potential for the conversation.
It’s Clarke that brings her feelings up to Niylah first, feeling guilty.
Octavia is the most resistant, not wanting to let herself fall for anyone else after having lost Lincoln. After many long conversations with Niylah she comes to peace with the fact that loving them doesn’t mean she loves him any less or dishonors his memory.
