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'"This means war," Murphy says, but Raven just smirks. Yes, yes it does.
“Draw four, asshole,” Raven says, gesturing at the card she'd just put down. “And I pick blue.”
Murphy glares at Raven, and Clarke hides a smile.
Someone had decided to grab card games after the battle at Mount Weather had ended, and so here they are.
Clarke is 95% sure that Monty was the one who did it, considering that he’d been talking about how important it was that they all decompress and have some fun.
“Life needs to be about something more than just surviving,” Monty had said, and those words had resonated with Clarke. She’d said them once too, and now that they aren’t in the midst of a war, it’s okay to take a little time to relax. It had taken time to get away from the Grounders after they'd been betrayed at the Mountain, and more time to find a new home, and then more to settle in.
But now, they have the time to start living again, to do silly things like playing card games, and Clarke is grateful for that.
Clarke needs this. When she looks around at the faces of her people, she can tell that she's not the only one. They all do.
They need to believe that things are actually going to be okay.
Clarke watches as Murphy picks up his cards. He looks a bit murderous, but that's just Murphy, mostly. Plus, it's Uno, and while Clarke has only played it a few times, she's noticed that it tends to bring out the competitive side in people(and that's putting it nicely).
Clarke hopes that he, or Bellamy, who is sitting on the other side of Murphy, changes the color or puts down a number she has, because she doesn’t have any blue cards.
Anything but blue, she chants in her head. Anything but blue.
“This game sucks,” Murphy says now. He sets down a blue three, and then Clarke turns to look at Bellamy.
She knows the look on his face, because she's seen it before.
Shit.
He sets down a blue skip, and she narrows her eyes at him. He’s skipped her last two turns. She should have known better than to sit down next to him in the circle.
She’s going to reverse this little circle as soon as she can, and vengeance will be hers.
Octavia goes next, setting down a red skip and simply shrugging when Lincoln looks betrayed.
“I thought we were in this together." Lincoln doesn't have the murderous glint in his eyes of, say, Murphy, but he does look like he's contemplating revenge.
“This is war,” Octavia says simply. Clarke's not proud of it, but she hopes they turn on each other.
“This is a game,” Lincoln points out, but Clarke sees him smile slightly.
Clarke thinks they’re sweet, and if there were couples in Uno, Octavia and Lincoln would be some interesting competition for her and Bellamy. Octavia and Lincoln would lose, of course, but it would be fun.
It’s Raven’s turn again now, and she puts down a red draw two card, and Murphy groans while the rest of them laugh.
Murphy glares at Bellamy and slams down a yellow draw two, and Clarke celebrates inwardly. She loves him, but as long as the game runs, she might as well not. She wants to take him down.
Bellamy draws his cards and puts down a yellow four.
Clarke casually puts down a yellow reverse, and Bellamy looks at her like he’s not worried at all, but she can see the concern in his eyes.
Bellamy puts down another yellow card, and the cycle continues.
Clarke pays attention to the cards out of the corner of her eye, but then she turns to look at Octavia.
Maybe it’s not a good thing that she’d redirected the flow of the game.
Octavia puts down a draw two card, and Clarke winces. She has Blakes on both sides. What an incredibly poor decision.
Clarke draws her cards, and then puts one down.
Bellamy puts down a number card, but then Murphy frowns down at the discard pile and the draw pile and sighs.
He reaches out to grab a card, and then another, and then another.
Clarke watches as the others try not to smile with varying degrees of success—though, well, Raven’s not even trying to hide her satisfaction.
Murphy pulls eight cards before he finds one that he can put down, and at that point he just sighs and drops his cards on the ground. “I give up.”
“That’s crappy sportsmanship,” Raven says. “You can’t do that.”
“I’m not going to win anyway.” Murphy just shrugs, and Clarke's disappointed in him.
“There’s more to the game than winning,” Clarke says, but then the group looks at her, and they all laugh. “Okay, maybe there isn’t.”
In a lot of ways, Uno is a game of strategy and chance. To a certain extent, cleverness is necessary.
Putting down the right card, even when everything seems random, can be the difference between drawing more cards and saying Uno later on.
“I have to pee anyway,” Murphy says, and Raven glares at him.
“You suck. Just come back and play when you’re done.” Raven looks disgusted with Murphy, but that's nothing new.
“You guys are probably going to look at my cards while I’m gone anyway,” Murphy points out. Clarke would like to believe that isn’t true, but she’s not entirely sure that they wouldn’t do exactly that, and team up to find the perfect way to get half the deck into his hands.
“We wouldn’t do that,” Lincoln says. Clarke directs her gaze to him, and studies him carefully. Yeah, he probably wouldn't.
Clarke looks back at Bellamy, who smiles at her slightly and nods. Yup, she and Bellamy definitely would, though Raven would probably grab the cards first.
Murphy looks at them all carefully, as if searching for something. Weakness, probably. “I’ll take the cards with me.”
“Hell no,” Bellamy says, shaking his head. “You’ll switch them out.”
“Is there no honor among us?” Murphy asks dramatically. “And here I thought you trusted me.”
“That’s debatable,” Octavia says softly, almost under her breath, and Clarke stifles a laugh, and it comes out as a snort. So that everyone else can hear, Octavia says. “There is no honor among Uno players.”
They look at her strangely, but she just sits there serenely, smiling shamelessly.
“We’ll get you a sub,” Clarke says. She looks around for someone. “Harper, hey, do you want to sub in for Murphy?”
Harper comes over and looks at Murphy’s cards. She laughs. “Looks like he’s losing.” She shakes her head. “Maybe next time.”
Clarke frowns, and Harper wanders off.
“Maybe—“ she starts to say, but then Bellamy just sighs.
“Let him go.”
Murphy smiles, like he’s won something. “He’ll just have to forfeit," Bellamy continues.
Murphy shrugs then. “Whatever.” He's gotten exactly what he'd wanted, and you'd think he'd be a little happier, Clarke thinks.
They tighten their little circle then, and Raven looks down at her cards. She shares a weirdly significant look with Lincoln, and that makes Clarke suspicious—alliances in Uno aren’t against the rules, but they always cause drama, temporary as they are.
Clarke watches Lincoln shakes his head slightly, and she turns to Bellamy, who looks as suspicious as she is.
The game carries on though, and Clarke gets sucked back into the intensity of it all.
Clarke isn’t quite sure what it is about this game, but it’s vicious and cutthroat and addictive.
Murphy never comes back, so Clarke watches as they destroy Lincoln, who now has about twenty cards in his hands, and then she sees Raven put down a reverse, and she realizes the true horror of what’s happening.
She only has three cards in her hands right now, but she knows that won’t last.
Damn it.
Bellamy puts down a draw four card, and Clarke glares at him.
“You’re going to regret this,” she hisses.
He smiles. “Try your best. Green.”
Clarke almost slams down a green reverse, but then she realizes that he only has two cards in his hands.
She makes eye contact with Raven, who has about five or six, and nods her head towards Bellamy’s hand.
Raven had just aided Bellamy in screwing her over, but this is a fickle game, and allegiances shift quickly.
Raven narrows her eyes, and looks back at Clarke, nodding slightly.
Clarke puts down a green draw two, and ignores the bitter cursing of Octavia, who was down to only a few cards too.
Lincoln puts down a blue draw two, and Clarke watches as Raven’s face lights up, despite the new cards she has to grab.
She puts down a blue skip, and Clarke smiles at the look on Bellamy’s face.
“I’m not worried,” Bellamy tells them. “I’m still going to win.”
Clarke draws a card, looking for a blue or a skip, or maybe even a wild, and is rewarded with a green skip. “In your dreams,” Clarke tells him.
She's not proud of it, but all this back and forth gets her hot, and she's looking forward to the eventual end of the game.
She almost misses the look between Lincoln and Raven, because she's so busy looking forward to it.
Raven looks between Lincoln and Bellamy, and Clarke can't quite read her odd facial expression.
Raven puts down a reverse, which is fine, because yet again everyone else is going to get to go before it’s Bellamy’s turn.
Bellamy’s reshuffling the discard pile, because they’ve run out of cards to draw, and then suddenly Lincoln puts down a wild card.
Octavia motions with her hand. “What’s the color?”
“Marry me,” Lincoln says, and Clarke swears her eyes feel like they’re about to bulge out of her skull, and her jaw drops.
Octavia stares at him blankly for a moment, and Clarke wishes she could see Octavia’s face. "That's not a color," Octavia says, stunned.
Clarke looks at Bellamy, who is smiling slightly.
Octavia seems to fully process what's going on now, and flings herself at Lincoln then, kissing him soundly and hugging him tightly.
Clarke’s heart aches inside her chest—she’s happy for them, truly, she is.
“I think it’s time for a little moonshine,” Raven says casually, grabbing a nearby bag and pulling it toward her. She pulls out a big bottle, and wow she can already feel the hangover just looking at it.
Raven passes the bottle to the newly engaged couple after making a toast and taking a long drink.
They each take a drink, and the bottle goes around the circle, stopping depending on whose turn it is.
“Uno,” Octavia says eventually, smiling so brightly it’s stunning.
When it’s Clarke’s turn again, she wonders if she should put down the draw four wild card or just take her chances with a random card. A damned reverse had left Clarke with this irritating little problem.
She is newly engaged, Clarke reminds herself.
On one hand, being nice to Octavia and letting her win would be a nice gift to Octavia—but on the other hand, the other woman is engaged, how many more nice things does she need?
This is Uno—this is war.
Clarke takes the middle road, and throws down a reverse.
Of course, once it’s Lincoln’s turn, it's just another step to Octavia winning.
Octavia throws down her last card, and then it's all smiles and hugs and another round of congratulations.
The happy couple wanders off, and Clarke, Raven and Bellamy tighten the circle.
Uno isn't just about the winner, it's about the absolute loser.
And yes, technically Lincoln and Murphy both gave up, but that's not enough.
The game continues, and Clarke considers her options.
She tosses down a draw two, and a reverse, a blue seven, a red four, and the three of them carry on, drinking and playing.
"I think we're getting too drunk for the game," Clarke suggests, and Raven laughs.
"Sounds like someone doesn't know how to hold her moonshine," Raven teases lightly.
Clarke smiles. "Have we forgotten the last time you got drunk?"
To be fair, the last time she'd gotten drunk, she'd proposed a threesome between herself and Bellamy and Clarke.
Also to be fair, they'd taken her up on it, and she'd been a fairly regular participant in their relationship for the last month or so.
Clarke thinks it might become a permanent arrangement one of these days, but it's still new, and fresh, and you never know what might happen.
"I make great decisions then," Raven says lightly, and there's a spark in her eyes that makes Clarke want to speed up this game.
"Uno," Bellamy says then, throwing down a card, and Raven and Clarke both look sharply at him. "If you two had stopped flirting long enough to actually pay attention to the game, I wouldn't be one card away from winning," he says smugly.
Clarke and Raven turn back to look at each other, and Raven nods.
Clarke tosses down a draw four, and Bellamy curses lowly, in that deep growl of his.
"Maybe we should just call it a draw," Raven suggests, and in the spirit of love and celebration, Clarke and Bellamy agree.
There are other games they can play, after all, which are much, much more fun.