Don't take this fic too seriously, okay?
Clarke likes to think she's good at most things. She knows she's good at acting, though sometimes it's hard to prove with the scripts she's given. She's artistic and has a nice singing voice, and she can play guitar. She's not overly athletic but she's fit enough and she's a pretty good swimmer. She knows she's smart, and she's definitely a fantastic kisser.
But if there's one thing she's truly bad at, it's having a crush. Which she doesn't have to deal with that often, because when you work in the entertainment industry you kind of have to build up an immunity to attractive, charming people or you'd just have a crush on everyone. Which would be a disaster for Clarke. So she's pretty good at fending off crushes on the people she works with.
Which is why it kind of hits her by surprise when she finally realises that she has a crush on Bellamy Blake. And it's not like she hadn't realised he was hot. But everyone in Pretty Little Teen Mermaid is hot. And everyone is funny and charming and nice. But somehow her stupid brain picked him to have a crush on, which is, as far as she is concerned, the worst. And it's the worst for two reasons.
The first reason is that he's obviously totally out of her league. Like, everyone in the cast is hot, yeah. But Bellamy is on another level of hotness. She's just thankful she hasn't been in a scene with him where he's shirtless because she's pretty sure she would have forgotten all her lines.
The second reason is that Clarke is well aware that a lot of fans already ship their characters, despite Clarke's character, Lila, being in a relationship with someone else. And she knows the fans are going to ask her about it at the upcoming con.
Clarke loves interacting with her fans for the most part. It's a relatively small fanbase, the show only being in its third season, but the fans they do have really love the show.
The premise of the show is that her character, Lila, drowned at sea in a storm while out sailing with her dad, and was then revived by mermaids, subsequently turning into a mermaid whenever she comes into contact with salt water, or any time there's a full moon. It's pretty much what one would expect from a teen drama about mermaids. Lila has a crush on a popular jock at her high school, her friends have to stop Nosy Norah from finding out her secret and Lila has to protect her father from mermaids every time he goes sailing.
Despite the seemingly cliché plot, the fans always manage to come up with interesting questions, and Clarke genuinely enjoys answering questions about her character. She can't answer much about the plot due to spoiler reasons, but she's put a lot of thought into Lila and talking about her is her favourite thing. She doesn't even mind answering questions about Lila's relationship with Aiden, because that's a thing that's already happened on the show and Clarke has no feelings for Finn whatsoever, so it's easy to separate Lila's feelings from her own.
But she doesn't know if she can sit there and answer questions about Lila and her theoretical feelings for her new friend Wesley, and not make it blindingly obvious that Clarke herself may be just be a little bit in love with Bellamy Blake. And she's absolutely determined that no one can ever know.
"These cons are the worst," Raven complains as she throws herself on the seat next to Clarke. The cast is taking a bus together to the con, but Clarke and Raven are the only ones on board so far. Raven plays Olivia on the show, one of Lila's three friends.
"What? Why?" Clarke can't help but be surprised. Everyone else loves going to cons and interacting with fans and answering questions about their show.
"I hate our fans. They have such terrible opinions," Raven huffs. "Like they hate Avery for no reason and basically worship Harley."
"It's because I'm amazing," Murphy says as he gets on the bus.
"No, it's because you're a pathetic white boy with no moral compass. Your character isn't great either," Raven snorts.
"Everyone loves a bad boy, Raven," Murphy grins, taking a seat a few back from where Clarke and Raven are sitting.
"Also, this shipping thing is getting out of control. I can barely keep track of all the ships these kids have. I do know they're obsessed with Olivia and Harley getting together though."
"They ship Harley with everyone," Clarke points out. "Even Julia. Which is just wrong. Julia was established as gay in the first episode," Clarke huffs.
"Exactly," Raven rolls her eyes. "Although I guess you can't blame them for coming up with their own couples when the canon ones they've been given are Lila and Aiden or Daniel and Avery."
"Hey, what's wrong with Daniel and Avery?" Jasper sounds hurt as he gets on the bus and sits in front of them, followed by Maya and Finn.
"Daniel is the blandest character of all time," Raven tells him. "Followed closely by Aiden. And no offence, but in real life someone who looks like Luna would never date someone who looks like you. No offence, Maya."
"Some kind of taken," she grimaces.
"I think you're way hotter than Luna, babe," Jasper tells her, kissing her cheek, and Maya seems placated.
"The point is," Raven says, exasperated, "that the fans clearly can't be trusted with our characters."
"Yeah," Clarke agrees. "Can you believe they ship Lila with Wesley?" she scoffs, sounding maybe a little too sceptical. Raven gives her a funny look and Clarke swears she hears Murphy give a snort of laughter.
"Actually that one I can believe," Raven says, and Clarke lets out a squeak of protest. "What?" Raven shrugs. "I would've thought you'd be happy about that one."
"Why?" Clarke asks, fully aware that everyone on the bus is listening to their conversation, and very glad Bellamy isn't there yet.
"Because you so obviously want to make out with him," Raven says matter-of-factly, and Clarke's jaw drops. Is she that obvious? Like sure, she spends half her scenes with Bellamy thinking about kissing him, but she didn't think it came through in her acting. After all, she's acting. She's an actor. It's what she does. (So why is she so bad at acting like she doesn't have a crush on her co-star?)
"I do not," Clarke denies hotly.
"I meant Lila wants to make out with Wes," Raven smirks. "Obviously." And Clarke drops the subject, lest she make more of a fool of herself, but her face is flaming and she knows Raven knows. And now probably the rest of the people on the bus, had they not known already.
Her face has thankfully turned its normal colour by the time Bellamy gets on the bus and seats himself next to Murphy. He's looking gorgeous as usual of course, and Clarke does her best to not stare too much. And she knows Raven is up to something when she switches with Bellamy, claiming she wants to talk to Murphy.
"Bets on who will be last on the bus?" Bellamy asks as he sits next to Clarke.
"Luna is always late for everything," Clarke says knowingly.
"Yeah, but will Miller be able to tear himself away from his new boyfriend?" Bellamy counters.
"How much do you want to bet?" Clarke asks him, as she tries to ignore how good he smells and the feel of his arm brushing against hers. His eyes glint mischievously, but she never gets to find out what he bets, because Miller walks onto the bus with Harper at that very moment.
"No!" Bellamy groans. "Miller, get back off the bus!" he yells.
"Suck it!" Clarke pokes her tongue out, but it turns out she's wrong too as Luna somehow makes it onto the bus before Kane and Jaha, and then once Clarke's TV father and the show's creator are on the bus they head off.
Clarke thinks she manages to act like a normal person with Bellamy on the way to the con, although she's not entirely convinced. But he doesn't seem to be weird around her, so she thinks she's still getting away with it.
She's seated between Jaha and Finn for the panel, and she's feeling excited but also weirdly nervous. The crowd cheers for her as she walks on, and that's a good sign, but also Murphy gets the biggest cheer, and Raven manages to give Clarke a look of disdain.
The panel goes well for the most part, and Jaha actually manages to make the show sound deep, despite it being about a teenage mermaid. Clarke talks about Lila and her relationship with her father a lot, as well as the friendship between the four girls, and she can honestly tell the crowd that they really are good friends off screen as well, even with Harper, who plays Nosy Norah.
Then the fans get their turn, and the questions start turning towards ships, much to Clarke's dismay. Raven gets asked about Olivia and Harley, and her response is clear and precise, if nothing else.
"Never ask me about that again," she says, shooting daggers. Jaha swiftly interjects.
"What Raven means to say is, Harley doesn't really have the best interests of the girls at heart, and it may not be very uh… healthy for her to engage in a relationship with him," Jaha says smoothly.
The other cast members manage to humour the fans without getting their hopes up too much, saying things like they'd love to work with such-and-such, and of course Avery and Olivia would make an awesome couple. And then Clarke gets the question she's been dreading.
"So it kind of seems like Aiden is struggling with finding out Lila is a mermaid, and their relationship is kind of on the rocks. Do you think there's a chance Lila could turn to Wes? You know, romantically?" the fan asks, and Clarke swallows. She isn't surprised by the question, but she is thrown. Why didn't she have an answer prepared?
"Look, I really don't think there's anything between Lila and Wes. They're just friends. They're never going to get together," Clarke tells the fan, and then feels a little guilty looking at the fans disappointed reaction. And it's not like she has any idea whether or not the writers plan to have Lila and Wes get together at some point. And she honestly wouldn't be opposed to it. But she's feeling defensive and she just doesn't know what else to say. She can't talk about the chemistry they have because she's worried he won't agree. She can't say how much she loves working with him, because it might be too obvious exactly how much she likes working with him. She's bad at crushes, okay?
But Bellamy apparently has no qualms about talking about such stuff.
"That's just Clarke's opinion though," he assures the fan. "None of us know what's going to happen with our characters down the track. And obviously there's chemistry between Lila and Wes, and I think Wes has feelings for Lila. But whether those feelings are reciprocated remains to be seen. Plus Aiden is still in the picture for now," Bellamy laughs. And Clarke feels relieved that he's able to talk about it so effortlessly, even though she knows he's only saying all that stuff so that the fan doesn't feel bad. That's the kind of thing he does.
"Yeah, don't write me off just yet!" Finn laughs, "But Wes and Lila would be cute together." Clarke glances down the table at Bellamy, but he's not looking in her direction. Everyone else is nodding, agreeing with Finn though, much to Clarke's surprise, and it makes her wonder if maybe he really does think Wes has feelings for Lila. She hadn't realised he was playing it that way. And yet, she seems to be the only one who's surprised.
They're only there for the day, so after the panel and autograph signing they jump back on the bus to head back to the hotel they're all staying at.
Clarke wants to ask Bellamy about what he said about Wes and Lila, because she thinks if he's playing his character as having feelings for her character then she should know about it. They'd never discussed it, even though she's had conversations with him before about their characters, as she has with most of the cast, and with Jaha as well. But Bellamy never said anything about Wes being in love with Lila.
So she intends to talk to him on the bus, but Raven sits next to her and Bellamy sits with Miller and then he heads straight to his room once they're back at the hotel and she doesn't really get the opportunity.
Raven invites her to drink with her and the others in Harper's room, but Clarke doesn't really feel like it, so she just heads back to her room and gets into bed, her clothes and make up still on.
It's probably about half an hour later, just as she's dozing off to sleep, when she hears a knock on the door. She startles, sitting up and blinking at the door in confusion until the knock comes again.
"I said I don't feel like it!" she calls, assuming it's Raven or one of the other girls come to drag her to their party.
"It's Bellamy."
"Oh." She gets out of bed and opens the door.
"How come you aren't drinking up a storm with the others?" he asks. Clarke just shrugs, subconsciously smoothing her hair.
"Did you want to come in?" she asks. Bellamy nods and walks past her into the room. "What's up?" Clarke prompts when Bellamy doesn't say anything.
"I just wanted to apologise for contradicting you today. You know with, the question about Wes and Lila," Bellamy says, looking a little embarrassed.
"Oh," Clarke says, surprised. "That's okay. I get it. I mean, it was just so that girl wouldn't feel bad, right?"
"Right," Bellamy nods. "Well, not really. I meant what I said."
"You think Wes has feelings for Lila?"
"Yeah," Bellamy shrugs. "I mean, you and I have great chemistry. On screen. It's hard not to play it that way. I guess I was surprised that you didn't think there was the possibility of something romantic happening between them."
"I guess it's more likely than Olivia and Harley," Clarke jokes, but she's feeling kind of weird. Like she's in a scene instead of real life. He thinks they have chemistry. And he says it's hard not to act like he has feelings for her. Well, that Wes has feelings for Lila.
"So if we get asked again, what should we say? That it could happen?" Bellamy asks.
"I guess so."
"Would you want it to?" Bellamy asks, and Clarke suddenly has the strange feeling like they aren't talking about their characters anymore. She swallows and her heart rate speeds up.
"Yeah," she says, her voice thick.
"I have a question," Bellamy says.
"Mmm?"
"Do you believe that theory that if two people get together off screen it ruins the on screen chemistry?"
"Doesn't really matter, does it?" Clarke says, laughing nervously. "Our characters aren't romantic."
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Bellamy grins, and then he's kissing her and she half thinks it really is just a scene that they're acting out, because in what world would Bellamy Blake actually want to kiss her? But she can feel him grinning and she laughs and their teeth clash a little and he bites her lip, but not in a sexy way, and it's real.
"Sorry," he says sheepishly, pulling back slightly, brushing her jaw with his thumb.
"It's okay," Clarke replies, still smiling, because she's just so happy.
"Maybe you were right and we don't have chemistry after all," Bellamy jokes.
"Shut up," Clarke rolls her eyes. "I only said that stuff so no one would figure out I had a crush on you," she admits.
"You have a crush on me?" Bellamy grins teasingly.
"Yeah," Clarke says matter-of-factly. "Don't you have one on me?"
"Yeah," Bellamy agrees. "You want to go join the others?" he asks after a short pause. Clarke shrugs.
"I mean, we could just stay here," she suggests and Bellamy nods in agreement before he's kissing her again.
It only takes another three seasons before Lila and Wes finally get together on the show, but not before Aiden has died, come back to life and turned evil, Nosy Norah has become a mermaid with the help of Lila's dad, and Olivia and Harley have gotten together (much to Raven's chagrin). But then, the course of true love never did run smooth.