He hears the whispers on the dropship as they're falling to earth. "Prince of the Ark, what did he do to get locked up and sent down with the rest of us?"

"Don't listen to them, Clark," Wells says beside her, "they don't know anything."

Clark just glares at him. "And neither do I," he spits at his former best friend. "Because I still can't figure out why you betrayed me."

Wells opens his mouth to reply, but the shaking stops, the video of the Chancellor cuts out, and the power dims. They made it.

Clark watches everyone start to unbuckle. "Stop!" he cries as he climbs down to the first level. "The air could be toxic."

On the first level is a girl with long black hair, her hand poised on the lever. "If the air's toxic, we're all dead anyway," she says with an air of authority he wasn't expecting. "You think we can survive in this tiny metal box forever, Prince Clark?"

Who the hell is this girl? And who put her in charge?

Behind the both of them, a voice is heard from the ladder. "Bella?"

The girl—Bella—smiles widely then, and Clark stands by and watches as another of the Ark's legends reunites.

-x-

Clark knows the rest of camp calls them Mom and Dad. At first, they used to be rather secretive about it, but now, it's practically a term of endearment. He's pretty okay with this. It helps them cope after what they've seen in Mt. Weather. They need people to look up to, and it was him and Bella—and others, of course, but the kids don't really see that—who rescued them.

Bella gets this smile on her face when she hears the nicknames, but she tries to remain serious when they slip up and say it to her face. This just makes Clark smirk, though, because he knows it pleases her—the girl who has always valued family becoming part of such a large one.

"Do you think they'll ever grow out of it?" Bella asks him one day after Harper calls her Mom during a conversation about guard rotations.

Clark shrugs. "Maybe. I mean, they'll get older, start their own families. We won't always need to be the surrogates."

Just then, Bella notices Jasper and Monty trying to pull their still out. "Jasper, put that back. I already told you we are not doing that tonight!"

Clark scoffs.

Bella looks at him curiously.

"Well, they're not going to stop if we keep behaving as if we're their parents."

-x-

Bella is constantly mesmerized by the blond boy.

He's absolutely gorgeous, she's not going to deny it; but also he's caring, brave, and an amazing leader. He adores the kids, and takes care of them when they injure themselves doing stupid things. He stands up to the Grounders and the Arkers and gains them independence and alliances.

And he sees something in her that she's not sure anyone else ever saw in her before. (Besides Octavia, of course, because in this she doesn't count.) Clark believes in her, that she is a good person, and so she has vowed to protect him.

Clark isn't all that fond of violence and fighting. That isn't to say he hasn't caused or partook in either before. His body count is just as high as his, but it affects him more deeply than it does her, and Bella just wants to help him through it.

"Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it," Clark whispers one night as the two lay side by side in their tent.

Bella reaches for his hand and squeezes. They stay in silence for the longest time before she finally decides to speak. She leans over him and straddles his hips.

"We survived the war, Clark," she whispers, her tone serious. "Now, we must live. We need to make it all worth it." She leans in, then, and kisses him.