Chapter Text
Clarke was 5 when she felt someone bite her on the arm. Clarke yelped and looked around her empty room. When her mom came rushing to comfort a scared, crying Clarke, she sat her down and told her what it meant. Clarke spent the next 7 years looking forward to the day she would meet her soulmate. She daydreamed about her future husband those 7 years.
Then she turned 12 and everything started to change. She was browsing the library stacks looking for the new book the librarian told her about when it happened. She felt an unknown stinging sensation for the first time. It was right under her eye and then she felt like her breath was knocked out of her. Her eyes widened in realization. What was going on? That night she cried herself to sleep, hoping that her soulmate was okay. She spent that whole summer getting beaten up. Only, it wasn’t her, it was her soulmate. Clarke felt helpless. She wished she could be there to comfort them. Or make them stop. The sudden realization that maybe this was all her soulmates fault terrified Clarke. She knew they were either being bullied or they were starting fights, but judging by the way her knuckles sometimes ached first, warning Clarke of the impending pain, she assumed it was both. What the hell were they doing??
Over the next few years the pain lessened and then it was just her knuckles aching. They were still starting fights, but at least they weren’t getting hit back all that much. Clarke couldn’t tell if she was grateful or angry. Grateful that they werent getting hit back but she hated when her knuckles ached.
When she was younger, she always dreamed of her soulmate being a him, but sometime in her midst of growing up she realized she didn’t care boy or girl. She even had a high school fling with a girl named Lexa. She was torn up for weeks after it ended, even though she knew Lexa wasn’t her soulmate. But then one day something horrible must have happened and it shook everything she knew.
Clarke was at Raven’s house. Raven was Clarke’s recently acquired best friend thanks to that asshole, Finn. Finn was her first boyfriend. He lulled her into a false sense of comfort by spouting all this anti-soulmate stuff. Looking back, Clarke doesn’t even know if she believed any of it. He and Clarke had been dating for 5 months when Raven, Finn’s beautiful girlfriend of a year, transferred to their school.
When Clarke realized he had used Clarke as the other woman, well, let’s just say that this time, her soulmate was the one who felt the ache in their knuckles. Raven had forgiven Clarke immediately after realizing what was going on and they’ve been inseparable ever since.
Raven always reasoned that she and Finn were just passing time until her real soulmate came so she didn’t feel the need to hold a grudge against Clarke. And Clarke was the “other woman” so they moved on fast.
Raven was the one who brought Clarke out of her shell. Ever since Wells, Clarke’s previous best friend had died when they were 14, she had been sullen and angry at the universe. Angry that Wells had died, but not her. Survivor’s guilt, they said. It was a terrible accident and there was nothing to be done, she knew, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be angry. That was the only period in her life where she missed the constant and terrible pain. Raven had helped Clarke and ever since, Raven had held most of her love and been her best friend. Raven was, after all, by her side for every argument with her mother and every rebellious act Clarke felt she needed to do. Raven was usually the one to encourage her now that she thinks about it. Sometimes, when she looked at her a certain way or Raven touched her a certain way, she wished Raven was her soulmate, but Raven had her own that was constantly breaking his toes and fingers.
She was listening to one of Raven’s rants about her mate’s most recent accident when ‘the incident’ happened. Clarke let out a shriek that stopped Raven in her tracks, quite an accomplishment. Clarke vaguely heard Raven talking to her, but she was too busy clutching at her head. She felt her nose break, her ribs, her head felt like it was split open and her leg felt like it was on fire. What the actual fuck is actually happening to me?
Her vision went blurry with the pain of being struck in the head again. Then the kicks to the stomach and sides came, hurting her already broken ribs. Not yours. Theirs.
Clarke hissed at the pain, but all she could do was worry before she passed out from the pain. Raven was frantic, but there was nothing she could do but call Abby.
When Clarke woke up a few hours later, all she saw was Raven and Abby staring down at her. After an hour of assuring them both that it wasn’t her, they finally stopped interrogating her so she could go back to sleep. Her mom left but Raven stayed with her, of course, and after Raven had fallen asleep, Clarke let out a shaky breath that she didn’t know she’d been holding in. She was scared. Clarke knew something horrible had happened and she couldn’t do anything about it. That wasn’t a normal fight. They’ve never been hurt that bad before. The tears streamed down Clarke’s face. There was nothing she could do about it.
Clarke felt nothing for almost a year and a half.
Clarke had just said goodbye to her mother and was putting the finishing touches on her room when her roommate stumbled into her room with a box that was almost as big as she was. Clarke laughed and reached out to help her set it down. Her roommate smiled at her gratefully.
“Hi!” she said energetically. “You must be Clarke! It’s so nice to meet you!” The girl stuck her hand out towards Clarke, who accepted it with a chuckle. She’s beautiful, Clarke thought, this will be a good year.
“Yeah, you must be Octavia.” The girls smiled at each other.
“It’s nice to put a face to the name.” Octavia said.
The girls were just smiling at each other when Raven walked in loudly yelling about how she was walking up the stairs when her roommate decided to get punched in the gut. Octavia and Clarke looked at each other and laughed.
“Octavia, this is Raven. Rav-“
Clarke was in the middle of talking when she was cut off by the feeling of something scratching her. Clarke’s eyes widened and she looked down at her arm. No sign of any scratches of any kind, nothing even close to her that could have done that. She looked up at Raven who was eyeing her suspiciously.
“They’re alive! Raven, they’re alive!” Clarke was jumping up and down crying. Blindly she hugged the first person within reach who happened to be Octavia.
Poor girl looks so confused, Raven thought to herself. Then it clicked. Clarke’s soulmate was still alive. After all this time of radio silence, her soulmate was still alive.
That night they inducted Octavia into their little family with a celebration none of them would forget.
The next day, Octavia got home later than usual, mumbling about stupid nurses needing to be more careful about their needles. Clarke glanced at her but paid no mind to what she actually said.