Clarke can't get to sleep because she is bone deep, teeth chattering cold. The first real frost of winter has arrived in the camp and everyone has been doing their best to deal with it. They had all been spoilt by the climate control of the Arc and it's continuous clement atmosphere, but now on Earth they have had to face reality. The weather has become a daily topic of discussion and shelter now means the difference between life and death.
Clarke has extra layers clothes on and extra pelts on her bed to keep her warm, but tonight the wind has picked up and is howling a gale through the gaps in the seams of her tent. It doesn't matter how many layers she has put on; her fingers are cold, her feet are cold, and her nose feels like a small petulant ice block screaming for some summer sun to melt it.
For the past 15 minutes, Clarke has argued with herself about who exactly she is going to cozy up to and steal warmth from because this is the only solution she can see to her current problem. It's either share body heat or subject herself to a lovely case of hypothermia. She remembers reading about this when learning about surviving on Earth, it didn't sound like the most awful way to die, but Clarke is not ready to give up on a future on Earth just because she's got qualms about sharing someone's bed.
She has gone through her list of possible candidates, stemming from the girlfriends who are probably cozied up with their own significant others to those not so friendly that would take advantage of having Clarke in their bed – physical advantage or bragging rights (either disadvantage having crossed most of those off Clarke's list of possible warming bed monkey's). So in the end, Clarke can only think of one person that she would feel safe enough to ask to warm her up and who maybe would actually be alone- Bellamy.
Bellamy has hugely toned down is alley cat ways since the days of Whatever The Hell We Want, so much so that she had not seen any females make hasty retreats from his tent and had not once walked in on him with someone in his bed. Of course, Raven had revealed her night with him after some- a lot of, really- moonshine and a messy tearful bought of remorse on Clarke's shoulder. She had thought that maybe the remorse went both ways and Bellamy was avoiding complications, but in truth they were both so involved with keeping everyone alive that neither of them had had any time for relationships.
Clarke lets out a huge sigh which projects a large puff of visible moisture laden air into her tent. Enough is enough, she thinks. It's time to bite the bullet and search out some heat. So after wrapping some of pelts tightly around her frozen body, she gathers her courage and stomps towards the door of her tent.
The camp outside is eerily quiet for the amount of people who live inside of it, Clarke guessing that everyone must be wrapped up inside their tents keeping warm. Clarke's path is easy to see as it is lit by the moon which is high, round and bright in the midnight blue sky above and as she tries to stealthily make her way across the camp, all she can hear is the pacing of the guards at the walls and the all too loud crunch of her boots on the frosty ground beneath her. She tries to lessen the sound by tiptoeing as she makes her way towards Bellamy's tent, but in the end huffs at the stupidity of that idea- the people on the wall have probably already seen her.
Well, that's their job, she muses to herself as she attempts not to worry about what they may be thinking when they've spotted her crossing the camp in the dead of the night.
She quickly reaches the door to Bellamy's tent and before she can lift the flap, she hesitates. She's struck with a coil of nerves in the pit of her stomach and wonders, what if he's not alone?
Clarke then begins to pace as the thoughts run around her head, chasing each other and biting at each others tails at their contradictions. What if her assumptions about him and his relationship status are wrong? But what if he is alone?
Should she just open the flap a little and check and if he is alone? What will he think when Clarke joins him?
She smacks her forehead lightly with this final thought. She wants the time to ponder all these possibilities as she is the Queen of deep consideration and possible consequences, but as she paces she can feel the cold seeping deeper into her bones, almost to the point of physical pain.
Stomping her foot on the ground as if to say stop being a whimp, Clarke reaches for the flap before she can second guess herself, yet again. Grasping it and gently lifting it to pop her head under, she quickly glances towards the bed and can see by the moon light drifting in through the raised flap that Bellamy is alone. And if the gentle, calm breathing coming from his bed is to believed, he seems to be sound asleep.
She ducks into the tent and lets the flap fall shut, cutting off the light from the moon and throwing the room back into shadows. She silently makes her way over to the makeshift bed and starts to disrobe- Earth skills having taught her that to share body heat, you need skin to skin contact and everyone knows that Bellamy likes to sleep in as little as possible- The boy has no shame when it comes to his body and he is all about flaunting it when he feels the need. The amount of times Clarke has caught him half dressed when she's come to his tent for a leader discussion, you would almost think that he had planned it that way.
Quickly stripping down to her underwear, Clarke pulls back his covers and eases herself into the bed with her back facing Bellamy as gently as she can. She pulls the covers over herself and can't suppress the groan of pleasure that escapes her cold lips as she feels his warmth start to seep into her chilled skin. Clarke's audible groan then causes her to tense up and her eyes to spring open- She really hadn't meant to do that. Keeping still, Clarke listens to check and see if Bellamy has woken up. Seconds pass, but his breathing remains the same. Thank goodness, she thinks, and settles back into the warmth of the bed.
His bed is so much warmer than her own was and that is totally due to the heat that emits from Bellamy- She's only recently started to notice that he always seems to be warm, and might slightly be jealous of him because of it. When Clarke is busy pulling on extra clothes, Bellamy is still wandering around in a t-shirt and when they are standing close together discussing plans, she can feel the heat radiating from him. Actually, Clarke has started to notice a lot about Bellamy recently. She's noticed the way he looks at her when she's making plans and she's noticed the way that he listens to her above everyone else. She also found that he takes care of her by making sure she eats regularly and making sure she has help when she needs it, but most of all he talks to her. He talks to her about everything- about plans, about himself, and he asks about her plans and about herself.
She's still awake and she's now frustrated by it all. Her feet are warmer, her hands are warmer, and that iceberg on her face is definitely melting. But now, her mind is whirling.
Being this close to Bellamy, but not touching, and being this undressed next to Bellamy, but not intimate has Clarke's head going to places that she has never allowed it go before. The frustrating thing is that she wants to sleep; she is warm enough to sleep now, but her mind wants to know what all the little things that she's been noticing really mean. She wants to know if these midnight revelations are one sided or if she's truly been ignoring the change in Bellamy's feeling towards her.
Clarke huffs quietly in her frustration with these thoughts and the insomnia they are inducing, and decides that maybe it's time to get Bellamy involved in this internal dialogue. Giving into her immature side- I can be fun, Clarke tells herself- she slides closer to Bellamy until her back presses up against his arms and her butt pushes up against his groin. In his sleep, Bellamy lifts his arm and allows her to snuggle into his chest as his arm slips down around her waist- almost as if they do this every night. He does not wake when she does this, much to Clarke's annoyance, and so she goes for a sure fire way to make her presence known and places her still cold feet onto his shins. The reaction is immediate and hilarious to Clarke who is unable to suppress a giggle of amusement.
Bellamy springs back and almost out of the bed- or he would be if the side of the tent didn't catch his fall- and his eyes snap open as a gasp of alarm falls from his mouth. Clarke rolls over and grabs at his waist to pull him back into the middle of the bed, and Bellamy allows himself to be pulled forward in a daze- his eyes staring into Clarke's with a look of disbelief on his face.
He doesn't move or speak and his hands stay resolutely at his sides as though touching her would burn. As his silence surrounds them, Clarke tries to quiet the rapid beating of her heart by reminding herself why this seemed like good idea a few minutes ago. But faced with a mute, shocked Bellamy, she begins to think that maybe she was wrong about all this and then lets her gaze fall from his face to his chest so that she can't see the disdain that she thinks is about to appear on his face.
"Clarke?" He murmurs when he finally breaks his silence. It's said in a questioning tone, but she has no idea what the question is, so she doesn't answer.
He tries again, this time his tone more demanding. "Clarke. Why are you in my bed?"
This would probably have made her want to sink into the bed with shame if he hadn't, at the same time, finally moved towards her. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her into his chest, and Clarke finds her face pressed into his neck as he presses his head into her hair and takes a deep breath. She lets her hands roam up from his waist and his back as her legs entwine with his, and she allows the relief of knowing she wasn't wrong ease through her taunt muscles.
"I needed you," she mumbles into his neck.
"Since when?" He huffs out in humorous disbelief.
"Since I nearly froze to death tonight." She lightly tugs at the curls at the base of his neck as though it was his fault to begin with. "Since I realised that the only person I wanted to share body heat with is you and since I realised that, maybe, these feelings might be mutual?"
Bellamy pulls back slightly and puts a finger under her chin to lift her head so that they can be eye to eye again. "What feelings are we talking about, Princess?"
Clarke would normally have completely clammed up at being asked to reveal herself first, as her heart still reels with her fears and insecurities caused by Finn, but the heart stopping smile on Bellamy's face as he gazes at her gives her the courage to speak up. His feelings are written across his face for her to see clearly for the first time, and maybe they have been that way for a while, but she's just been so caught up in avoiding them that they have gone unrecognised by her.
"These feelings that I have for you," she finally and honestly admits. "These feelings where you are my safe place, where you are the only one who knows the true me, and where you are my favourite person on this entire planet." When she finishes, she allows him a few seconds for her admission to sink in before she moves in closer to press her lips gently against his. The kiss is light and gentle, and a bit dry from the cold. Pulling back and licking her lips, she finally asks, "Am I wrong?"
"No, Princess, you're not wrong." He huffs out as he stares into her is no need for her to explain what she's asking as he knows her and knows what she needs. "You, Princess, are my safe place, plus you know me inside out too and you are above all- except Octavia," he says with a little smirk and a shrug. "-are my favourite person on this entire planet."
She watches with fascination as his tongue darts out to wet his lips and his head slowly descends so he can tug her bottom lip gently with his teeth. Clarke's eyes fall shut and her lips part allowing his tongue access to dance with hers. They get lost in the feel of each other, both grasping the other tighter to remove any gaps between them. Falling back against the bed Clarke drags Bellamy down with her and as her legs fall open he grinds down onto her causing them both to groan at the new sensations.
Clarke eventually pulls back, breathing heavily to pull some much needed oxygen into her lungs, and lets her head fall back allowing Bellamy to place soft wet kisses down her neck and along her shoulder. She is so warm and languid, and her eyes are starting to droop. She doesn't want to sleep as she has Bellamy all to herself, and this is such a happy and exciting moment for them both, but the lack of sleep and the energy she used fighting off the cold tonight are beginning to creep up on her.
"Bellamy," she says drowsily and places a kiss to the side of his head. "I'm sorry, but I really need to sleep." She can't quite believe she's saying this, but it's almost too much effort keeping her eyes open.
"That's okay," he tells her and moves off to her side. She rolls onto her side and snuggles in as he pulls her back flush with his chest. "Sleep now. I'm not going anywhere."
As the waves of sleep begin to drag Clarke under, she feels a gentle kiss on her bare shoulder and just barely hears a whisper from Bellamy. "Glad it's not just my warm body you need."