Just a short little something about these two. I absolutely adore the song that inspired it, where the title also comes from, Skydiving by Lights, so go and check that out if you haven't already listened to it!
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, or the title, obviously. Haha.
"It's never going to happen, Bell," Clarke Griffin shook her head with a laugh.
"It's going to happen," despite Bellamy Blake laughing as he said it, there was determination in his eyes.
"No," Clarke shook her head.
"Yes," Bellamy repeated, and he reached out and took her hand, something he had been doing a lot more of recently. He laced their fingers together and gave it a little squeeze, acting as though this was completely normal, before looking over to where Octavia was laying back on the chair in front of them, her face completely impassive as the hum of the needle filled the room and the ink slowly began to show on her skin. It was nearly two in the morning, and yet Octavia had managed to find a tattoo parlor that was open, and she was adding the ever growing story on her arm. This one was the star sign of her long time boyfriend, Lincoln Whittle, just underneath a large blue butterfly that looked as though it was glowing on her forearm.
"I think I'm gonna go and find something to eat," Clarke stated after a few more minutes, and she tugged her hand away from Bellamy's, heading out of the parlor. Bellamy chewed down on the corner of his lower lip and touched his thumb to each of fingertips of the hand that had been holding Clarke's. Octavia turned her head toward her big brother and smirked up at him, completely unphased by the needle inking her arm.
"Go after her," she stated.
"What?" Bellamy raised an eyebrow, attempting a neutral expression.
"Go after her," Octavia rolled her eyes. "It's getting pathetic, really, watching you pant after her. It's been nearly six years." Bellamy snorted and shook his head.
"Don't know what you're talking about," he responded.
"Bullshit," Octavia snorted right back at him, their expressions almost identical. "You've been in love with Clarke since I became friends with her back in high school when we were fifteen. Now, we're twenty-one and you're twenty-three, and I get that you're still young and you've got all this time to have fun and go crazy, I get that. But I think that both of you would be happier if you just stopped being so stubborn and got together."
"I love how you say that as though you're the older sibling here," Bellamy shook his head at his younger sister, his lips still pursed together and his faces impassive, as though he still didn't know what Octavia was talking about.
"Listen," the tattooist, who had only introduced himself as 'Murphy', looked up, lifting the tattoo gun away from Octavia's skin. "I'm not interested in getting into any of this family drama that's going on here," he looked completely unimpressed. "But with the way you two were looking at each other and holding hands and shit, I thought you guys were a couple."
"Well, we're not," the words came out a little defensive.
"Whatever," Murphy shrugged his shoulders and looked back down at Octavia's arm. He wiped at some of the excess ink and then began tattooing again. Octavia shrugged as well, with the arm that wasn't getting tattooed, and looked back at the work being done. Bellamy stayed where he was for a few more minutes, arms crossed tightly over his chest in a defensive position that he would argue about if anyone pointed it out to him, lips pursed together.
Yeah, so maybe it was a little true.
Octavia and Clarke had become best friends when they had first moved into the city and from the first day that Octavia had brought her home, Bellamy had felt a pull toward her. They had gotten to know each other well over the years, and Bellamy was glad that Clarke wasn't only considered Octavia's friend, but his as well. She was confident and beautiful and smart and funny and loyal, and Bellamy had fallen in love with her over the years.
But even though he had thought about taking a chance and stepping over the ledge, he pulled himself back.
What if it didn't work out?
Not only would he loose someone that he considered a best friend, but he would also make things awkward and uncomfortable between Octavia and her own best friend. He adored Octavia more than anyone else in the world, and he never wanted to do anything that would hurt her.
On the other side though, what if it actually worked out with him and Clarke?
What if they could actually make something of it?
What if all this worrying was for nothing and they made each other happy?
Bellamy hadn't realized he had completely zoned out before he blinked and the room came back into focus and Octavia was staring at him. She hadn't said anything, but she was looking at him knowingly, as though she knew that the cogs were turning in his head and clicking together, coming out with the same result that Octavia had not-so-subtly been trying to push on the pair of them for the past few years. Bellamy's hands dropped to his side and his lips curved upwards, almost in a smile, before he turned around and quickly walked out of the tattoo parlor.
He looked around the little complex, where most of the shops were still open, despite the late hour, and his eyes were drawn toward a little kebab shop. Clarke was smiling at the girl behind the counter as she handed over some cash and then took her kebab. When she turned around, Bellamy couldn't help but grin at the way she wiggled her hips from side-to-side and bounced her shoulders a little.
It was her food dance.
She denied that she had one, but Bellamy knew she did for a fact. It was cute and it was adorable and it was just one of the thousand reasons that he loved her.
Clarke looked up and met his gaze, and she grinned at him and her eyes lit up, and Bellamy smiled back at her. She came over, holding the tin-foil wrapped kebab in both hands in front of her, like a prize, and playfully nudged her hip against his.
"She almost done?" Clarke asked as she looked toward the parlor. The three of them were usually out late when they were together in the college holidays—or at least, when Clarke and Octavia were on college holidays, since Bellamy had finished his architectural degree the year before and was now working full time. They had gone out to see a late night movie, and then gone to a bar for dinner and a few drinks, and that was when Octavia had decided that she wanted another tattoo.
"Nearly," Bellamy licked his lower lip before moving forward quickly. "And then I was thinking we could get one."
"Oh, we?" Clarke let out a laugh. "Really? I thought you were against tattoo's," she looked down at her kebab and began ripping off the tin-foil.
"That's not true. I told you that I was thinking about getting my mothers birth date tattooed on my arm, remember?" He pointed out, and Clarke looked up as he said that, a softer expression on her face. "And you said that you wanted to get your dad's name tattooed on your wrist, under his watch." Clarke's eyes dropped down again, to the watch that she wore on her left wrist. It was his, and after he had died, she had worn it on her wrist ever since, making sure it got properly cleaned and fixed anytime it needed it. "So, I was thinking we should...Just go for it."
"Go for it?" Clarke looked a little confused as she looked back at him, and Bellamy could understand that. Neither of them were particularly impulsive, they both liked to think things through and consider the pros and cons.
Maybe that was the reason they had been dancing around each other for so long.
"Yeah," Bellamy turned so that rather than the pair of them standing side-by-side, he was directly in front of her, looking down at the blonde. "We should go for it," he repeated, and the intensity in his eyes definitely told Clarke that they were talking about something more than tattoo's.
"We...Should go for it," she repeated back at him, emphasis on the first word.
"Yeah," Bellamy took in a breath that was a little shaky in his chest. "I think that we've been acting as though it's not something we really want and dancing around the subject and I think that we should just do it. Just, like, fuck it. Do it and see how it goes. I mean, it could go bad...But I'm willing to bet it won't. That if both of us work hard, then we can make it work." Clarke's eyebrows had been steadily rising as he spoke, and by the end of his little speech, she was squeezing her kebab so hard that the fillings were beginning to rise upward.
"That's way too specific to be talking about a tattoo," Clarke's voice was almost breathless. Bellamy couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh.
"Maybe," he nodded, clenching and unclenching his fists at his side.
"Maybe?" Clarke asked, sucking her lower lip into her mouth and blinking up at him with her neverending eyelashes and big blue eyes.
"Definitely," Bellamy confirmed before he could stop himself.
"Definitely," Clarke echoed quietly. Bellamy shifted from foot to foot, wondering if he had misjudged this whole thing and just been dreaming up all those shared looks and casual touches. But then Clarke lifted up on her toes, closing the distance between them, and bringing their lips together. Bellamy was stunned for a moment, but then he lifted his hands and cupped her face and kissed her back. He had to hold back, not pouring all the intensity of what he was feeling into the kiss because then he would never stop, and that really wasn't something that he wanted to get into here, in the middle of a shopping complex, with the smell of the kebab strong between them and Octavia getting tattooed just a few metres away. As they pulled away, Clarke's eyes were still shut for a few beats and Bellamy couldn't stop himself from dropping a few, feather-light kisses over her eyebrows. "Oh, shit," Clarke made a face as she stepped back.
"Wh—" Bellamy looked down and let out a laugh. The kebab had gotten squashed between them and some of it had come off onto his shirt.
"Sorry," Clarke reached out and tried to brush it off. She managed to get the cheese and the lettuce but some of the relish was clinging to the blue shirt he was wearing. Bellamy just laughed again and shook his head, batting her hands away from his shirt but gripping onto her fingers.
"It's fine," he told her, and he knew that he had a stupid smile spread across his face but he didn't care. "So...Tattoo's?"
"Oh, you were serious about that?" Clary let out a laugh. "Yeah, that's not happening. I'm happy to free fall into this relationship with you, but I'm not ready to get something inked on my skin. Besides—any guy who needs to be open for work at two on a Sunday morning isn't someone that I'm really going to trust to ink something permanent on me."
"I can agree with that," Bellamy nodded.
"Yo! Love birds!" The two of them turned around to see Octavia standing a few feet away with a bandage around one arm and her head tilted to one side. "So is this...Is this a thing now?" She waved a finger between where the two of them were pressed together, kebab in one of Clarkes hand and the other one twined together with Bellamy's. Clarke looked up at Bellamy and the dopey smile on his face and nodded. "Great! Okay, so can we go and find a pizza place? I'm starving!"
Let me know what you think x