Clarke refuses to let Bellamy give her a tattoo. It shouldn't bug him so much, he knows that. It's not like he cares whether or not other people have tattoos, or want tattoos. It's their skin and their choice. But it bugs him anyway.
It's probably mostly because he's pretty sure Clarke does want a tattoo. She's mentioned it offhandedly before, and Octavia tells him that she and Clarke have even talked about it in depth. But she doesn't seem to want him to tattoo her, which frankly, is a little insulting. He is a really good tattoo artist and it hurts that Clarke, one of his best friends, has so little faith in his ability. It's not like she hasn't seen the work he's done. He's given tattoos to Raven, Jasper and Miller and he even gave Octavia her first tattoo. But Clarke won't even broach the subject with him.
"You know I'd give you a discount if you wanted a tattoo right?" Bellamy tells her one night as he's sitting in her living room flicking through the channels while she scowls at him for not just picking something already.
"That's great, Bell," she says.
"I might even do it for free," he shrugs nonchalantly.
"I'll keep it in mind, but I don't even really want a tattoo," she says, which he knows is an outright lie. He stops flicking through the channels and sits up to narrow his eyes at her.
"Then why did you tell Octavia you do?" he accuses. Clarke screws up her face.
"She is such a blabbermouth," Clarke huffs.
"You do realise I'm a professional tattoo artist? And a fucking good one if I do say so myself," Bellamy points out. It's not really a brag if it's the truth.
"I know," Clarke sighs. He doesn't miss the way her eyes flick to the tattoos on his forearms, and he wonders if she's admiring or judging. "It's not that I don't think you'd do a good job. It's just… don't you think it would be weird?"
"Why would it be weird?" Bellamy asks, genuinely confused. "I did Raven, and Jasper, and Octavia. I could do you."
"What if I wanted it on my ass or my boob or something?" Clarke challenges. "You wouldn't get all weird about it?"
"No," Bellamy lies. "Do you want one on your boob?"
"I might," Clarke sniffs, her voice a little high.
"You don't," Bellamy calls her out. "So what is this really about?" Clarke purses her lips and squints at him.
"You'd think it's dumb," she says finally.
"What?" Bellamy asks.
"What I want as a tattoo. You'd think it's lame and you'd tease me about it," Clarke explains.
"I would not," Bellamy denies, offended that she thinks he'd be so cruel. "If there's one thing I don't judge people about it's their tattoos."
"You tell me about all the shitty tattoos people get all the time. Once you made fun of a guy for getting a tattoo of a monkey riding a horse," Clarke reminds him dryly.
"In my defence, that was a shitty idea for a tattoo," Bellamy grins. "Come on, Clarke, yours can't be that bad," he reasons with her. "Unless it's two monkeys riding a horse. In which case I don't want to know." Clarke rolls her eyes at him.
"I'm still not telling you," Clarke says stubbornly. "Now are we going to watch something or what?" Bellamy shakes his head at her but drops the subject. For now.
Bellamy does try not to bug her about it, but it's hard when the whole thing bugs him so much. Okay, well he doesn't try that hard. He brings it up at almost every available opportunity, plus opportunities that he just creates himself. He even tries to drag Octavia into it.
"What does Clarke want as a tattoo?" he asks her on their weekly bike ride together. They're going at a slow pace at the moment, so it's easy to have a conversation.
"How should I know?" Octavia scoffs. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"
"She won't tell me," Bellamy sighs.
"Then why are you asking me?" Octavia points out.
"It seems like it's only me she doesn't want to know," Bellamy frowns.
"Well, she hasn't told me," Octavia assures him. "Maybe it's the name of her new girlfriend and she doesn't want to hurt your feelings."
"She has a new girlfriend?" Bellamy blurts out, showing way too much concern for someone who supposedly isn't into her like that, as he has repeatedly told Octavia.
"Nope," Octavia laughs. "But you should've seen your face."
"Not funny, O," Bellamy scowls. "Besides, I wouldn't care if she wanted to get a tattoo of some girl's name."
"You keep telling yourself that, Bell," Octavia smirks before speeding ahead of him, leaving him to catch up.
"Is it a quote from a movie?" Bellamy asks Clarke, watching her in her kitchen as she makes herself a sandwich.
"Nope," Clarke shakes her head.
"A picture of your dad's face?"
"No."
"Some really artsy thing you designed yourself?"
"No."
"Song lyrics?"
"I'm not telling you, Bellamy!" Clarke huffs in exasperation.
"So it's song lyrics," Bellamy smirks and Clarke rolls her eyes. "Is it Justin Bieber? One Direction? Aqua?"
"Why would it be Aqua?" Clarke snorts.
"It's got to be something you think I think is lame," Bellamy shrugs.
"Will you just drop it?" Clarke begs.
"Not until you tell me," Bellamy asserts.
"If I tell you will you drop it?" Clarke asks.
"No, once you tell me I want you to let me do the tattoo," Bellamy folds his arms. "Unless it's on your boob. You were right, it would be too weird." Clarke gives a strangled noise of exasperation and Bellamy knows he's won.
"Fine," Clarke gives in. "But you aren't allowed to make any comments about it. Deal?"
"Deal," Bellamy agrees smugly. "So what is it?" Clarke wordlessly walks out of the kitchen and comes back with a pen and paper. "You can't just tell me?" Bellamy raises an eyebrow.
"Do you want to know or not?" Clarke responds, looking up at him disapprovingly. Bellamy just nods and she goes back to writing. When she's done she hands him the scrap of paper and Bellamy reads the words she's scrawled.
So take a chance and don't ever look back. Bellamy glances up at her, his mouth dry. She has her lips pursed and her eyes narrowed like she's daring him to make fun of her for wanting to have Katy Perry lyrics tattooed on her. He doesn't want to make fun of her though, he just wants to ask her why. Because from an outsider's point of view, the lyrics are lame. But they obviously mean something to her, and he can't help but wonder if it's for the same reason they mean something to him.
"From Teenage Dream by Katy Perry?" Bellamy asks, his voice strained.
"I said no comments," Clarke reminds him and Bellamy nods.
"Where do you want the tattoo?" he asks instead. Clarke pulls up her shirt and gestures to her right side, along her rib.
"Okay," Bellamy nods.
They arrange for her to come into the shop two days later, and he almost expects her to not show up. She does though, and his face cracks into a huge grin as soon as he sees her.
"Let's get this over with," she sighs and Bellamy chuckles and leads the way from the front of the shop, to one of the salon rooms.
"Okay, just lie down and I'll get everything ready," Bellamy tells her. Clarke nods and Bellamy can tell from her expression how anxious she is. He feels bad then, that he's pushed her into this. "Clarke, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I promise I won't be offended."
"I know, Bellamy," Clarke sighs. "I'm just nervous, okay? I want you to do it." Bellamy nods and starts getting the needle ready. He had spent a lot of time trying out different scripts for the lyrics, finally settling on one he thinks she'll like. He's also spend a lot of time thinking about the song itself and Clarke's possible reason for wanting those lyrics tattooed on her body.
Bellamy wasn't really a Katy Perry fan, and the song itself was kind of annoying, but it reminds him of a night a few years ago now. He'd only known Clarke a couple of months and she and their other friends had dragged him out to a bar, because he was moping about Octavia moving away.
He was feeling a little better, surrounded by his friends, sitting in a booth drinking good beer and he was watching Clarke dance with a random girl, to what song he can't remember now. That song ended and Clarke got the girls number as she walked back to their table.
"Having fun?" Bellamy asked her, unable to keep a smile from his face as she approached him.
"Yeah, are you?" Clarke asked, grinning. Bellamy had shrugged and Clarke cocked her head at him. Then Teenage Dream came on, and she smirked at him and started pulling him out to dance, though he strongly resisted.
"Come on, this is a great song!" she had pleaded with him and he surrendered, like he had really had a choice in the matter in the first place. He wasn't much of a dancer (he still isn't) but he forgot for a little while as Clarke jumped around in front of him, yelling the words to the song. He watched her, grinning, forgetting to dance himself he was so entranced by her, and it didn't take a genius to figure out how in love with her he was.
He had wanted to kiss her that night, almost did, but he held back and he's regretted it ever since. Clarke started dating Lexa a week later.
He's never really spoken about that night to Clarke, but it was the first time he realised he loved her and he's come to think of that song as their song, though it would probably sound stupid to anyone else. But he's never mentioned it to her. Is it just a coincidence that she wants this as a tattoo, or is it a sign?
Once he has everything ready he gets Clarke to pull her shirt up to reveal her ribs, and he forces himself not to blush like a teenager with a crush. He has to remind himself it's just skin, and he does this all the time. All the same, he pretends it's not her as he wipes her skin down and gets to work.
"You're sure about this, right?" he stops before he presses the needle to her skin. "I don't want you to regret it."
"I'm sure," she says confidently, and Bellamy makes the first mark. It's very intimate really, tattooing someone and his heart is thumping erratically as his fingers brush her soft skin. He gets into the zone eventually though, and he forgets who he's tattooing.
When he's done he pulls back to admire his handiwork before he bandages it.
"How does it look?" Clarke asks him.
"Uh, great," he tells her, suddenly remembering who the tattoo belongs to.
"You don't sound that confident," Clarke says worriedly.
"No, no, it looks really good," he promises. He goes through what to do with the tattoo to take care of it and then he sends her on her way. He's happy that she seems happy about it, but he's still thinking about the lyrics and that night at the bar. Does she know what some dumb Katy Perry song means to him?
It takes him a couple of weeks, but he finally works up the courage to ask to see the tattoo while they're sprawled on her couch watching a movie, her head on his shoulder.
"How's your tattoo?" he asks quietly. "Has it healed okay?"
"Yeah," Clarke replies.
"Can I see it?" he asks, and Clarke nods, pulling up her shirt. It really does look nice, the cursive looping across her pale skin. He gets a sick thrill knowing that he got to be the one to put it there. He gets the urge to touch the ink and before he can stop himself he presses his hand against her side, brushing his thumb over the tattoo. She shivers under his touch and he flicks his eyes up to her face. She's watching him run his thumb over the words on her skin, her lip caught between her teeth, her brow furrowed.
"Clarke," he says softly, his heart lodged in his throat. She meets his eyes but doesn't say anything. "Clarke, why did you get this tattoo?"
"You wanted me to, remember?" Clarke says, trying to come off nonchalant but he sees right through her.
"But why this song?" he pushes. Clarke still doesn't pull her shirt back over her tattoo and Bellamy doesn't remove his hand.
"I knew you'd want to know," Clarke says softly. "That's why I didn't want you to do it."
"Did you think I'd never see it?" Bellamy raises an eyebrow.
"I didn't think you'd see it until…" she trails off.
"Until?" Bellamy prompts.
"Until you were ready to see it," she finishes and Bellamy frowns in confusion. She takes a deep breath before continuing. "You remember when Octavia first moved away?" Clarke asks him, and Bellamy nods, barely breathing. "We took you out and I made you dance with me. This song came on. To be honest, I was having kind of a rough time myself and that night really meant something to me," she shrugs. "I always think of you when I hear that song."
"Me too," Bellamy can't help but blurt out. Clarke cocks her head at him, waiting for him to continue. He doesn't know what else to say though, how to explain how much she means to him, how he's been in love with her for years now. So he kisses her instead, surging forward to meet her lips with his and his heart lurches when she whimpers into his mouth, her hands reaching up to twist into his shirt and pull him closer. He can hardly believe he's kissing her, and that she's kissing him back, and he doesn't want to stop, but he still wants to talk to her so he draws back slightly, letting her follow him with her lips for a moment, brushing together softly before he pulls away completely, although his face is still only inches from hers, his hands still on her waist.
"What did you mean when you said you didn't think I'd see your tattoo until I was ready to see it?" he asks her. "When would I have been ready to see it?"
"When you realised how madly in love with me you are and wanted to rip all my clothes off," Clarke chuckles, ducking her head as she blushes slightly. Bellamy grins at her.
"I've known all that for years, Clarke," he tells her. "Thanks to Katy Perry."
"Oh yeah?" Clarke purrs. "Well how about we 'go all the way tonight' and I'll 'be your teenage dream?'"
"You're such a fucking dork, Clarke," Bellamy rolls his eyes and she laughs as he pulls her in to kiss her again.
"I still can't believe I seduced you using Katy Perry lyrics," Clarke muses from where she lies beside Bellamy in her bed a week later.
"You're the one who has them permanently written on your body," Bellamy reminds her, leaning over to press his lips against the tattoo.
"I think I want another one," she tells him.
"Already?" Bellamy laughs at her.
"Hey, you can't talk, you've got like a trillion," Clarke points out.
"Which you seem to like very much," Bellamy says smugly. Clarke rolls her eyes.
"I can't help but notice you got a new one," she says raising an eyebrow at him as her fingers dart to the new tattoo on his hip. "So now I'm not the only one who has Katy Perry permanently written on my body."
"You like it?" he asks and Clarke nods.
"Who knew you were such a romantic?" she giggles. Bellamy screws his nose up at her before pulling her down to meet his lips. Bellamy has plenty of tattoos, so getting one for Clarke doesn't really bother him. But this one is probably his favourite. He'd gotten Clarke to write out the lyrics for him, so he could have her messy scrawl tattooed on his hip bone, saying simply; you and I will be young forever.