Archive of our own
By: DeereReaderGirl
Bellamy decided that the sky had never looked more beautiful, but then he found everything to be more vibrant when Clarke was around. It didn't matter if the two of them were out looking for medicinal plants-like they were today-so that Clarke could keep doctoring people, or if Bellamy was backing her up in a potential fight; there was just something about Clarke that made everything mean more to him. He looked over at the beautiful girl walking next to him. When he shot Chancellor Jaha and got on the escape pod to protect Octavia, he never thought he'd end up feeling like this. Since meeting Clarke and, more often than not arguing with her, Bellamy felt like he had met his match. He felt like he'd finally met someone who could understand why he did what he did, even if it never made sense to anyone else. Great, Bellamy thought, I'm turning into a gushy wuss. Clarke must have noticed him staring at her, because she turned to look at him quizzically.
"Why are you staring at me?" Clarke asked.
"Uh," Bellamy started. "Well, you, ah, had um, some leaves in your hair."
He knew he was losing his cool, and of course there weren't leaves in her hair, but he reached over and pretended to brush them away anyway. When he brushed the non-existent leaves away, Bellamy's fingers got slightly tangled in Clarke's long, blonde hair. It dawned on him that he wasn't sure how Clarke's hair could be so soft when they had no shampoo and were only able to rinse with water. Bellamy realized belatedly that he'd started running his fingers through Clarke's hair, and to his horror she was looking at him like he'd lost his mind. He didn't do stuff like this. He didn't run his fingers through girls' hair. He didn't think about matches, other halves, and how someone else could make everything around them look more beautiful. He was a love 'em and leave 'em kind of guy. How had he gone from being with a different girl every night to mooning over one girl? This was insanity, absolute-
"Bellamy? Are you listening to me?"
Clarke's voice jolted Bellamy out of his reverie, and he had absolutely no idea what she'd been talking to him about. He desperately thought back and tried to remember anything Clarke had just said to him, but he came up blank.
"I wasn't paying attention," Bellamy admitted.
"Surprise, surprise," Clarke muttered. "I wassaying that if we want to make it to the lake soon and be back before dark, we need to hurry up."
Of course Clarke would be reminding him of a deadline. She needed order in her life to operate, or at the bare minimum she needed something to work towards. Bellamy suspected Clarke hadn't always been this way; but not having known her before coming to the ground, he had no idea if his assumptions were correct. He picked up his pace, and she almost had to jog to keep up with him. For the rest of the trek, neither, and he stared stoically ahead to avoid getting tripped up by Clarke again.
Finally, they reached the lake and Clarke started her search for her medicinal plants. While she was searching, Bellamy checked the snares and traps he had set up in the woods around the lake. He knew that since the lake was a source of water, creatures would have to come there to hydrate, but he also knew that if he had traps set by the lake that he'd be the who would get to go with Clarke when she searched for her plants, and he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to spend time with her. Bellamy found a rabbit and a couple of squirrels in his snares, and was pleased even though the sparse amount of meat on them wouldn't feed all of The 100. When Bellamy broke through the tree line, he was surprised that he didn't see Clarke anywhere.
"Clarke?"
When he didn't receive an answer, he set down his catch and walked to the edge of the lake, peering into the water, checking to see if Clarke had maybe decided to take a swim. If that were the case, where was her satchel and her outer clothes? Surely she wouldn't go swimming in her clothes. When Bellamy started to feel panic seizing control of his body, making him feel tense and antsy all at once, he heard the sound of someone running up behind him. Before he could prepare to defend himself, he was pushed into the lake. When he hit the water, he immediately tried to resurface and discover just who his attacker was. Maybe the same person who had shoved him in the lake knew what happened to Clarke. Bellamy burst to the surface, ready for a fight-to his complete and utter shock, instead of being met with weapons he was met with uproarious laughter. Clarke was clutching her waist, laughing so hard that she was red in the face.
"What was that for?!" Bellamy growled.
"You were so grouchy on the trip here I had to do something to lighten the mood," Clarke wheezed through her laughter.
"And you thought that shoving me in the lake would make me happy?" Bellamy asked.
"I thought it might cool you off," Clarke said, smirking at him.
"Cool me off, huh?" Bellamy replied, arching an eyebrow at Clarke as he tread water to stay afloat.
Clarke rolled her eyes and looked away, but not before Bellamy noticed her blush and grin slightly. While they had been having their back and forth, Bellamy had been moving closer to the edge of the lake, where Clarke was standing. Before she had a chance to get away, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the lake after him. Clarke screeched when she hit the water, and he laughed as he was hit with spray from the force of Clarke's body splashing into the lake. She came up spluttering and Bellamy threw his head back and laughed harder. Arching her eyebrow for a second, she next fixed him with a look that said he was going to regret pulling her in. He kept on laughing, and she splashed water at him. Bellamy choked when water fell into his laughing mouth and made its way into his throat.
"Bellamy!" Clarke growled. "You are so dead!"
Clarke threw herself through the water between them and smacked into his chest with enough force to throw him off balance. Bellamy's arms came around Clarke to keep her from falling, until he realized that he was in danger of falling over, at which point he started pin wheeling his arms, desperate to keep his balance. With the extra weight of Clarke against him, he couldn't stay upright, and ended up falling into the lake with Clarke on top of him. They stared at each other in shock for a moment before Clarke started laughing and stood back up.
"You know Bellamy," Clarke chuckled, "if you wanted an opportunity to kiss me, you didn't have to drag me into the lake."
Clarke wiggled her eyebrows at him, making Bellamy blush. He turned his face away, hoping she hadn't noticed that embarrassing display.
"Pfft. Why would I want to-to kiss you?" Bellamy sputtered indignantly.
Clarke tilted her head and arched an eyebrow at him.
"Seriously? Give me a little credit. We've been leading the Hundred for months. I spend more time with you than anyone else, and you think I haven't picked up on the signals you put out when you're attracted to a girl?"
Bellamy was shocked. No one was able to read him like that, except Octavia. He thought he'd been hiding his feelings so well, and here Clarke had been on to him the whole time? Perfect. Now, instead of finally telling her how he felt, he was just sitting in murky water staring up at her with what he could only assume was a dumbfounded expression on his face. This was not how he imagined today going. Not at all. He hadn't even planned on Clarke finding out how he felt for at least another couple of weeks. Clarke looked down at Bellamy with a frustrated expression on her face.
"How is it, that you can just woo any other available girl in camp, but you can't even admit that maybe, just maybe you care about me beyond our bond as leaders?" Clarke ground out. "I never took you for a coward. First, I thought it was just a passing thing, that you were only interested in me because of how much time we spend together, but then, you started rejecting any female that came your way and I was sure that you actually, legitimately saw me as more than a friend and were working up the nerve to tell me. Now, I'm thinking you're just bored of everyone else, and that this is just some sort of game to you, which really irritates me. You know why? Because I-I can't believe I'm admitting this-I actually like you, Bellamy. I see how you are with Octavia; so protective and loving, like an older brother should be, and I hoped that if this wasn't a game, that maybe someday you could love me, too. . . but now I don't know what to think and I feel really stupid for unloading this on you, and you aren't saying anything, and-"
"Clarke!" Bellamy cut her off. "If you would let a guy get a word in edgewise, you'd know that I do have feelings for you, but I was worried that you still had feelings for Space Walker and-"
"Finn!?" Clarke shrieked. "You think I still have feelings for Finn!? When was the last time you saw me spending any time with him, Bellamy? Huh?"
Clarke huffed and stomped out of the water, up onto a rock at the edge of the shore.
"I know, Clarke! I know! You haven't spent any time with him recently, and I figured you were avoiding him at first, but then I realized that when you weren't busy tending to the sick and enforcing the rules that you seemed to seek me out over anyone else. I was thrilled when I realized that you were choosing to spend time with me because youwanted to, not because you were avoiding Finn. I know that I'm outspoken and normally have no problem letting people know exactly how I feel about something, but Princess, you both terrify me and enthrall me. I've been building up the courage to tell you how I've been feeling for weeks."
Clarke was looking at him with an expression that could only be described as thrill.
"And how exactly do you feel, Bellamy?" Clarke asked.
"How do I feel?" Bellamy repeated, getting to his feet and walking to stand in the water below where she stood on the rock, which made it so they were eye to eye. "When I'm around you, Princess, I feel like I can't catch my breath, but that my lungs are about to burst. I feel like a better man; I don't feel like the monster that I am and have been and have the capability of being. When you look at me, I don't feel like a janitor or a criminal, I feel like a king. I feel like I'm finally someone people can look up to and respect, all because you look at me and smile, and you trust my decisions and back me up, but you aren't afraid to let me know when I'm wrong. Clarke, everything is just more vibrant, more beautiful, more. . . fulfilling when I'm with you. You challenge me and you make me see the world in a new way, and it is terrifying and thrilling. I'm not used to seeing things any way but my way, and you've changed that. You've changed me."
Clarke stared at Bellamy with wide eyes and an open mouth.
"I know," Bellamy said, shuffling his feet awkwardly, "I sound ridiculous and sappy, but it's true Clarke. All of it. Every last word."
Bellamy looked down at his feet in an uncharacteristically bashful moment. He knew Clarke said she liked him, wanted to be more than his friend, but he knew he'd sounded so little like himself that it would be unsurprising if Clarke started guffawing. Bellamy closed his eyes and shook his head, waiting for the inevitable, but instead of hearing laughter, he felt a small, cool hand under his chin tilting his face up. When he opened his eyes, he saw Clarke looking back at him with a huge grin.
"That was beautiful, Bellamy," Clarke said softly.
He couldn't resist any longer, not with her smiling like that, with shining eyes and wet disheveled hair. He reached forward slowly and wrapped one arm around Clarke's waist, pulling her towards him, while he reached the opposite arm to thread his fingers through her hair. Clarke's eyes widened in pleasant surprise the moment before he kissed her. Clarke's eyes fluttered closed, and she sighed when Bellamy's lips met hers. She wrapped her arms around Bellamy's neck and she pulled back slightly to grin happily at him.
"Clarke," Bellamy whispered, "will you be my girl?"
She blushed and looked down for a moment. When she looked back up at him, he knew what her answer was; he didn't even need to hear it. He kissed her once more, and then pulled away, leaning his forehead against hers. Finally, he didn't have to play it cool in front of Clarke anymore, he could just be. He could kiss her or hold her hand or run his fingers through her hair without feeling like the biggest putz on the planet. Clarke chuckled and her breath fanned against his face, causing him to tremble and tighten his grip on the girl in his arms. His girl. His princess.
"We make quite the pair Mr Blake" she asked. "The princess and the king."