Just in time for Bellamy's birthday, the animals decide to all stop being stupid and the seeds everyone's planted in the new greenhouse Raven created for the camp are too stubborn to grow any new vegetables. Frankly, Clarke's a little worried.
She survived a year in lockup. She survived the last two years on Earth and finding out that the people on the Ark aren't the only ones. She survived losing her best friends and her first love. There was a lot Clarke Griffin could handle but food wasn't one of them.
Bellamy wouldn't be too upset anyways if Clarke lamely told him that the Earth had magically decided to stop producing food for them and her previous promise of a birthday dinner date would have to be canceled in trade for hunting in a different part of the forest. He'd gruffly respond that food for the camp was a hell of a lot more important than a silly dinner and he would be out by dawn to go hunting with her.
And maybe a dinner date is silly but Clarke can't help the nudging feeling in her stomach when she realizes it's not just for him, but her too. It's a representation of how despite the past two years being hell and rebuilding the planet into a somewhat comfortable civilization, they can still do normal things like dinner dates. She'd seen the old movies with Wells up on the Ark and she was sure Bellamy had too. There was a secret wanting in all of them to be that one guy or girl being swept up off their feet without a care in the world and god, she just wanted that for one night. Was that so hard to ask for?
Clarke forced a poor Monty to take her guard shift beside Bellamy to lie and say she's at the medbay, hard at work because of some stupid teenager falling off one of the roofs of the new cabins. She told Raven to open up the perimeter for her as quietly as possible, and not let even Wick know what was going on. Even a confused Miller has his gun borrowed for the early morning, with a promise that it'll be back before he even remembers it was gone in the first place.
She set up traps in the unknown area and steadied the gun in her hands, her feet careful as to not crunch any leaves left in her path. It was a little ridiculous that she was going this far for a damn dinner but they deserve it after everything they did to get here.
When she signaled for Raven to open the gates back up again, she had three rabbits in her makeshift duffle bag and a few plants she's (pretty) sure aren't poisonous. She's thinking about making a stew out of it, letting it simmer for a few days and serving it just in time for Bellamy's birthday. First, she's got to check with Monty and Jasper to make sure she didn't just pick up Jobi nuts again.
Three days later, she finally opened the pot she has hidden behind the old dropship to see how the soup is doing. She took a sniff and almost puked at the smell, but pretended not to notice.
"Too late now," Clarke muttered, wincing. Let's just hope it just needs a little more time to… Ferment.
She sprinkled a little more spice and seasoning she traded for an elk with one of the Nomadic Grounders into the pot, praying to whatever god they still had down there that it'd taste okay once it came for dinner time.
She was in her best clothes, which meant a worn cotton church dress she found in one of the bunkers while hunting. She tried to fit into an old pair of converse she also found lying around, but to no avail. Damn her big feet.
It's borderline obsessive how far she'd taken the whole "normal" attempt for Bellamy's birthday, really. She just wanted to be a normal couple for once. The kind of couple who makes dinner for each other, dresses up for each other, pretend that they aren't living in a radiation-soaked wasteland with new threats at every corner.
And when she saw Bellamy, she could believe it.
It was hard trying to remember whether she'd ever seen Bellamy in nicer clothes than worn henleys and ridiculous leather jackets, but she decided she didn't care, because when he comes to kiss her on the cheek, wearing a tattered suit and all, she almost cries, really.
"Where'd you get this?" She asked, looping a finger through one of the belt holes of his worn slacks, pulling him even closer toward her.
He gave her a half smirk. "You know, something lying around. But how about you, Princess?"
Before she can respond with a you know, something lying around, he pulls her in for a deep kiss.
"On a scale of one to ten, how James Bond do I look right now?" Bellamy laughed, pointing his pistol at nothing in particular, fixing the cuffs at his sleeves. Clarke gave him an eyeroll.
"More of an Austin Powers kind of look, but whatever you say."
Bellamy nudged her. "Take that back!"
"Make me!" Clarke smirked, stopping in the middle of the forest. He stared at her, deep in thought. It almost feels like another moment in time, two years ago. Brave Princess. How far had they come.
She raised an eyebrow for only a second before she pulled him down for a kiss, and she didn't mind that her dress is really starting to itch at her waist, or that they were about to have the worst dinner of their lives.
"Jeez, if this dinner thing was just a ruse to get me to make out with you, you could've said so, Princess," Bellamy said between kisses. "it's not like I mind anyway."
Clarke quickly pulled away, gnawing on her now swollen lips. "Come on, asshole."
Admittedly, she was a little nervous for it. She forced Jasper and Monty into bringing dining supplies; chairs that are missing parts of their legs and a table that threatens to shake with every move, candles that held barely any wax left to burn and napkins made from an old shirt too worn to wear. Just like the movies.
Bellamy's tapping his foot beside the pot where Clarke's scooping soup out with a ladle. He's a little annoyed, she notices, but she knows it's not because she's taking her sweet time. They're both so used to helping everyone out that being served feels awkward nowadays. Even more for him, probably. He's told her stories about his life on the Ark and it seems so far away from her privileged one.
She doesn't feel pity. She knew pity when the kids looked at her after her four month trek in the middle of the forest alone, now knowing Finn's fate and what she did to get them back to Camp Jaha after Mount Weather. Bellamy didn't need it. They were the same now and that was all that mattered. No stations designating their status anymore.
"You look nervous," Bellamy observed, quirking an eyebrow.
Clarke shrugged, letting out a nervous laugh. "Well, you know. Slipping the poison in while you're staring right down my shoulder is a little tough to do."
"But if you kill me, who're you going to make out with and tell embarrassing stories of your youth with then?"
Clarke shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Didn't that Ice Nation girl Echo just break up with her boyfriend? Maybe she'll want to- hey!"
Bellamy squirmed a finger into her side, tickling her. She nearly dropped the ladle in response, letting her laugh echo through the silence of the woods.
"Treats you right, Princess," Bellamy laughed, bumping his hip into hers lightly.
"Yeah, yeah."
Her arms quaked as she carried the clay bowls over to the rickety table, but eventually she sets it on the crappy plastic and sits herself down. Bellamy prepared to take a spoonful, the spoon only an inch away from his lips when she nearly slammed his hand down on the table.
"Woah, what the hell?" Bellamy shouted, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"
"Let me taste it first," Clarke said, sounding considerably relaxed for her recent actions. She sees him looking at her oddly so she added, "-to assure you that there's no poison in it, okay?" He smiles at that.
"I'm willing to take a bullet for you, Clarke. I think I can handle some soup." And before she can stop him, he's already slurped the soup up, wincing.
Clarke wilted. "It's bad. It's bad, isn't it?"
"It's just… Hot. I forgot to blow on it," Bellamy said, ignoring Clarke's narrowed eyes. She hesitantly took a spoonful and nearly vomits when it hits her taste buds.
"Bell, it tastes like shit. Let me clean this up and we can go back to Camp and forget this ever happened. Maybe Lincoln and Octavia found some food while we were gone," Clarke said, beginning to push herself out of her seat but Bellamy holds her arm on the table.
He gives her the widest smile she'd ever seen on him since he found those grease soaked guns in the bunker so long ago. "No way. It tastes good. Great, even. Maybe you don't want to eat it, but I do, okay?"
She knows this is just him being Bellamy, the father of the group, the one who wouldn't let anyone's face drop because of him. He'd come such a long way since 'whatever the hell we want', and sometimes it was a little scary, honestly. He'd do anything for them if it meant they'd be alive, especially when there's a large risk for his life in protecting them. And god damn it, it was just soup but it's just like anything else he does.
He ate all of the soup even after Clarke's dumped the rest of hers in the soul behind the dropship. She can't help but want to kiss him, shitty soup stained lips and all.
It was an hour trek back to Camp Jaha from the dropship and miraculous that he still hadn't thrown up the contents of his stomach yet. Clarke was a little convinced that he was holding it in just for the sake of her feelings but she'd voiced her indifference if he did.
They get to the gates and while they're opening them for them, Clarke stands up on her tippy toes to plant a kiss right upon his lips like she'd wanted to in the past hour.
"You're my home," She whispered against his lips, letting her forehead rest against his.
He doesn't say anything back, but the way he looked at her as they walk through the gates tells her that he felt the same way. And that was enough for her right now.
AHHH this is pretty ooc and im also kind of convinced that the ark had like a good movie archive hence the movie references (james bond, austin powers, a little 10 things i hate about you if you look hard enough, romantic movies that i feel like octavia probably watched when bellamy snuck them in or something)
this was a hell of a lot longer than i expected but i hope you guys are good with that? thank you for reading!