A bellarke modern au. Prompt: bellarke + blind date.
Written for the amazing tracylorde on tumblr!
"Not another blind date, please," Clarke groans, exhaustion taking over her body completely, as she sags further down into the chair.
"You are going to love this one," Raven smirks." Trust me."
Clarke lifts her head from the table and narrows her eyes. "Really?" she asks, trying but failing at keeping the suspicion out of her tone. "You said the same about Riley…. Oh, and let's not forget – you said the same about Echo, too; who, by the way, we all knew had been salivating after Bellamy For. ."
Raven scrunches her nose. Which … she doesn't do that often, is indeed suspicious. But then, she clucks her tongue, effectively dismissing any further protest.
"In my defence, Echo said she was interested."
The Echo thing was actually pretty funny, considering Echo's obvious crush on Bellamy.
The date started off a little awkward, to say the least; regardless, she stayed the hour to be polite, and thought it would be a good story to share with Bellamy later. They'd laugh. And yeah, it was totally worth it for a hot second. Seeing the deep shock on Bellamy's face was priceless.
(Her amusement had died down pretty quickly, effectively at super speed, after taking in, actually taking in Bellamy's face…
His expression was positively tortured, his jaw clenched. To say she was thrown by the fact that Bellamy might actually be jealous of her date with Echo was a cruel but sobering thought.
So he was playing hard to get, after all.
Worst day of her life, honestly. But she swallowed and smiled back at him.)
...
"Okay, do tell me. Why is this person 'The One'? "
"Because – "Raven starts, dragging those syllables out." I asked Roan about said candidate and he thinks it's a brilliant idea. The best." Raven's voice dips," 'You will have the prettiest babies', – his words not mine – but I gotta give him full credit for this one. He is right."
"Okay, so it is a man."
"Pfffff, does it matter, babe?"
No, it doesn't. But there's no way in hell she's going on another date anytime soon.
In the end, Raven tricks her into it. Clarke nods without a word, and when they part and she tiredly agrees, "Alright, one last time," she still half-expects Raven to just smirk and leave with a wink and a "– for a while". But Raven simply grins, her ponytail dancing in the air and she's already out of the door when Clarke realizes that this date is most likely going to be an utter disaster. Again.
At least, Bellamy is out of town this time and won't be around to witness any of it.
Not that he cares. And maybe – maybe it's better this way. Maybe all those dates had sucked so much because she was thinking way too much about Bellamy; picturing his face and his smile and his voice – practically the whole damn time. (If she's being honest with herself, he's a constant, faint awareness in the corner if her mind every time anyway.)
The day of the date arrives, Raven swings by, with Roan in tow.
"You look good, babe." Nodding to herself proudly, as she walks straight to Clarke and extends a hand to tug on her top so that the cut of the fabric falls lower, revealing some cleavage Clarke very pointedly did not want to show. But what's the point in arguing with Raven over this? She's just gonna go back to decent, angelic Clarke when Raven is out of sight.
"Your date is gonna be speechless."
"Yeah, poor thing won't know what hit 'em," Roan gestures languidly with his hand, voice impassive as ever, the corners of his mouth twitching into a cocky smirk.
"Even Bellamy would approve of this one," Raven winks, looking around. "Where is he anyway?"
"He's visiting an aunt," she responds on autopilot. Then panics. "Don't tell Bellamy, okay?"
Raven lifts an eyebrow, so she clarifies, "He's been weird after the Echo thing. And since you're not telling me anything about my mystery date, he'd freak out. Big time," Roan snorts, Clarke tries to ignore him." Like all my dates are a serial killer or something." Roan grins wider. "Shut up. He's a good friend."
"Such a good friend, indeed."
She's sure he means it as a teasing remark, like always, but it kind of gets to her. Under different circumstances, she'd come back with an equally biting remark – something along the lines of 'Remember the first time you two met? Because that did end perfectly well...' But she's too nervous about this mystery date to care.
So she ignores him. "Bellamy showing up on this date uninvited, or whatever, is the last thing I need right now. He doesn't need to know."
"No problem, babe. You're making a good argument." Raven reaches out and pulls on her henley again. "Don't fidget! Look at that! Your shirt is all rucked up. You're ruining the impact. First impressions are important."
She rolls her eyes but lets Raven pull on the fabric.
Raven hugs her quickly when they part this time, squishing her a little before letting her go.
"Clarke, I have a good feeling about this one."
The date is set to be at a place called The Haunted Airman; a new cozy little Cafe with books and … well, coffee.
Raven told her she'd know when her date arrives, they are easy on the eyes and she'd recognize them instantly.
She's barely settled in when she decides to grab a book from the surrounding bookshelves to kill the time until mystery person shows up, and turns to settle in with her coffee.
That's when the bell over the door chimes.
And it's like in the movies.
She looks up.
They stumble in through the door, panting, their hair a little dishevelled. Their eyes meet and she blinks a few times, taken by surprise; although why is she so surprised she doesn't know. She should have known. Raven practically shoved all the clues in her face.
The winks. The remarks. Roan. Her insistence on this stupidly low cut thing.
To say Bellamy is equally surprised is an understatement. He is gaping like fish for a prolonged moment, her heart misses a beat, but then that guarded expression is gone from his face and he smiles.
At her.
Smile is always a good look on him. A very good look on him, which is nothing new but – this smile feels something special. Reserved only for her.
Bellamy crosses the room in an instant.
"What – what are you doing here?" See, Bellamy is the one who practically rushed through the place from the door in like three big steps but she's the one to feel so out of breath now.
"I – I, uh– Raven sent me to ––" he blows out a long, steadying breath." Raven practically begged me to help her out with 'a friend'. "
He scratches the back of his neck. "Look, Clarke, I'm stupidly happy that it's you. I've been wanting to ask you out for over a year now ––"
"Why haven't you?"
"Because – " he groans," because the night I finally gathered my courage to ask you out, Finn showed up and it was just too chaotic… I decided to wait. And then, months later, Raven started to send you on these dates and … " he sighs again. "And you went and smiled and I thought I misread your signals and you were not interested after all."
Clarke is quiet for a long time, and when she finally looks over, Bellamy exhales, bending down a little holding her eyes.
She groans with a smile. Ughhh. "I cannot believe I didn't see this coming."
"What is it?"
"Raven said you would approve of this one."
Bellamy huffs, a hint of a smile curling at his lips. "Did she now?
Clarke feels herself flush, it is really inconvenient to think about those pretty babies right now. Dammit. Dammit Raven for putting the image of babies (her and Bellamy's babies) in her head. Mostly, because she thinks Raven is right – they could have pretty babies once, if this evening goes well – but they are definitely not there as of now. (It doesn't stop her wanting them one day.)
If Bellamy noticed her temporary embarrassment he doesn't say. And it takes her a moment to remember she hasn't actually answered his question yet, so she shrugs and quips, "Well, you know how Raven is."
It doesn't exactly feel like a date, not with them feeling so at ease with each other, not really. It is their normal, after all – less the rapid happy patterns her heart beats.
But quite honestly, she hasn't felt like he might kiss her before and the way he's brushing up against her is something distinctively new. Something good.
They chat and tease one another for hours, they smile so much, it should hurt. At some point, Bellamy takes her hand, and he doesn't let go.
And if she tugs him down for a kiss when he squeezes her shoulder to part for the night… Raven doesn't need to know everything.
She finds out soon enough, of course.
She storms into her apartment the next day, and one long look at her is enough to make Raven scratch her chin conspiratorially before she does that look.
"How?"
"You didn't call me to complain. Not a tweet. Not even a text," Raven shrugs.
(Raven leaves her some privacy to dress for the day, but before she does, she calls dibs on their first born child on her way out. Just in case, before Roan could beat her to it, she says.)
xxx
NB. this story has been written as part of my tumblr celebration thingy.
NB2. I like comments? ❤️
NB3. There's a bonus follow up thing to this in the original Tumblr post which I am unable to post in here (because of pictures and emojis). Ffnet is messing with my editing in general and I have no idea if anyone actually reads this. But - if you want to see proper editing, and that bonus ("3 years later") social media thingy, please go on my ao3 or Tumblr ( post/168397339669/exactly-your-type)
xxx