A/N: I am going to preface this story by saying that this is a story about life and love and multiple relationships that spans over many years. This story will feature Bellarke, Bravenlarke, Braven, Princess Mechanic and Clexa. I don't know exactly how it ends yet but obviously not all of these pairings can be together in the end. Fair warning, if you want to read a story where your favourite ship is definitely endgame this one may not be for you. For anyone who does want to go along for the ride welcome and I hope you enjoy it. As always any reviews and comments are greatly appreciated if you have a moment to leave one or send me a message on Tumblr (shesamarshmallow).

She hands him a towel and he smiles at her. It was that smile that made her give him a chance in the first place. She wasn't looking for a relationship and she certainly wasn't looking for a relationship with a pretentious history major but here they are. Two and a half years on and she still gets butterflies when he smiles, at least when he smiles at her like that.

He shakes his head and the water flies out of his dark curls and onto her face. She swats at him playfully, he's always doing this. Why can't he just dry his hair with a towel like a normal person? He takes the towel she just handed him and wipes off the water he just flicked on her face. He is gentle about it, he always. Is. He reaches a hand up and brushes Clarke's own wet hair out of her face. He leans in and kisses her, his warm, wet chest press against her own. Showering together was a good idea she thinks, a very good idea.

They dry off and get dressed, eventually. It's a Sunday morning and they have nowhere to be, no one to answer to. If Clarke wants to lay in bed with Bellamy and watch trashy reality TV that's what they're going to do. He never complains about her choice of programming, even though she knows he doesn't much care for the drama. He watches for her and most of the time he just watches her, or reads. She lays her wet head on his now dry chest; he doesn't even flinch. He curls his arm around her shoulders and kisses the top of her head.

After a few episodes she tires of the drama herself and maybe she gets a little bit hungry. She's brave to be cooking bacon in just a bra and shorts but this summer has been pretty hot and Bellamy enjoys the sight. He comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist. It is way too hot out for the skin on skin contact but neither of them cares. She flips the bacon and turns around, her lips meeting his. There's a hunger inside of her that has nothing to do with the growling in her stomach. She doesn't want to stop but he untangles his hands from her still wet hair as she turns back to the bacon. No one likes burnt bacon, especially not Bellamy.

"Do you want some juice?" he asks.

"Orange. Thanks babe."

Their routine is comfortable, like they have been doing this for more than a mere seven months. They dated all throughout their last two years of University and moved in together afterwards because it just made sense. He was looking for teaching work and her for a nursing position at the local hospital. She got hers fairly quickly and she kept him company at night while he looked for job openings. He started teaching fourth grade at a school nearby a couple months ago and they were relieved. He had talked of looking for work in other districts but Clarke wanted him here, she needed him here.

She watches him as he crunches on bacon and reads the paper. He only ever reads the main news section and the classifieds. He never buys anything so Clarke is not even sure why he reads them but sometimes he reads her the funny ones. She laughed so hard she squirted orange juice out of her nose one time. Why someone even had a fifty foot blow up elephant, much less was trying to sell it was beyond her. He passes her the rest of the paper, she only ever reads the sports section. She always jokes with Octavia that she has the least stereotypical boyfriend ever. He hates sports; he doesn't know a thing about them. While Lincoln, Octavia and Clarke enjoy the Super Bowl, Bellamy prepares the snacks.

"Octavia invited us for dinner on Wednesday night," she announces as they finish up the last of the scrambled eggs.

"I like how my sister texts you to invite us over for dinner," he laughs.

He is glad Octavia and Clarke get along as well as they do. He's not sure how he would deal with loving a girl who his sister doesn't like. Octavia was his world for a very long time, they're grown up now but he's still close to her. She has a big place in his heart and Bellamy is just happy there is room enough for another woman in there.

"I think she's pregnant."

Clarke says it so nonchalantly and Bellamy almost chokes on his toast.

"She's not," he says flatly and shakes his head.

"Bell, come on. They've been together for years and they're engaged. Would it really be such a bad thing?"

He shrugs. Lincoln is a good guy but this is his baby sister.

"How do you know anyway?"

"I can tell. I think that's probably why she invited us to dinner. I mean, besides the fact that we are obviously very cool people."

Bellamy just laughs again and reaches over to wipe some jam off the corner of her mouth. Another thing he always does. Clarke figures he got so used to taking care of Octavia that it just carries over into his other relationships. She tries to imagine him wiping jam off of Jasper's cheek.

She picks up the plates from the table and brings them over to the sink. He gets up and follows her over, taking a new cloth from the drawer to dry with. She washes and he dries, that's part of their routine. They clean up all of the dirty dishes and utensils in silence. Clarke has always liked that the silences between them are comfortable. She can sit silently with Bellamy all day and be totally okay. Yet another reason she loves him. He is her comfort.

She walks into the living room, grabs a shirt off the back of the couch and slips it on. She took it off last night in the middle of a movie whose name she can't remember and it never went back on. She throws Bellamy's pants and t-shirt to the side and sits down. He comes in a few seconds later and just stands in the doorway staring at her. She winks at him and gives him a come hither look that makes him weak in the knees. He almost wants to throw that shirt back onto the couch and pick up where they left off last night.

Instead he lays down on the couch tossing his pants and shirt on the floor. His legs rest on Clarke's and he sighs contently. She picks up one of the five or six books he is currently reading off the table and passes it to him. He smiles a thank you and flips to the page he has dog-eared. She turns on the TV and keeps the volume on low. He never complains about her making noise while he reads but she tries to keep it down. She won't torture him with any more reality TV for today, but she has episodes of Grey's Anatomy to catch up on.

She plays with his feet absent-mindedly. Bellamy is not at all ticklish; he doesn't even flinch as she runs her fingers over his toes and the tops of his feet. She could sit like this for hours. Half way through the second episode he moves, switching his position. His head is now in Clarke's lap and he's smiling up at her. She leans down and kisses him before turning back to her show. She runs her fingers through his curls; she has never been able to sit still. When the third episode is over and she is caught up she begins drawing circles on Bellamy's chest. He continues reading for a while until he's too distracted by the feeling of Clarke's hands on his body.

He sits up and spins around to face her, his long legs crossed uncomfortably. He leans in and kisses her once, twice, three times on the lips. She can feel the words I love you on his lips. They sit in silence again, Bellamy running his fingers through Clarke's now dry hair. All she can hear is his breathing, and she likes that. This is what Sunday afternoons were made for.

"We should go pick up a few groceries," she speaks up after a few minutes of silence.

Bellamy doesn't say anything, just stands up and waits for her to follow.

He takes her hand as they get out of the car and walk toward the doors of the grocery store. Clarke remembers when grocery shopping together became a thing; it was before they even lived together. When she lived on campus and he lived at home with Octavia they would shop together. She would stop him from buying a cart full of junk food and he would help her liven up her basket. She made sure he ate vegetables and he would get her to try strange new things. She never said no to one his suggestions and she usually ended up liking them.

He pushes the cart and she grabs the items they need from the shelves. She still likes to eat healthy and Bellamy still has to fight her to get anything with chocolate on it. She always caves. It is impossible to say no to a twenty three year old man who smiles at her like a child who has just seen a puppy. He always promises to save them and not eat them all in one sitting and he usually stays true to his word. Unless Clarke makes him watch the Notebook for the hundredth time in which case all bets are off. You can't get through that movie without a large dose of chocolate cake he always says, and ice cream. Clarke has a weakness for ice cream so there's never an argument. He throws a pint of mint chocolate chip into their cart.

He tries to cook for her but he usually fails miserably. It shocks Clarke a little bit when she first discovers this and she isn't quite sure exactly how he and Octavia survived in all the years since their mother passed away. What he lacks in cooking skills though he more than makes up for in cleaning skills. Bellamy does her laundry and for that reason alone Clarke doesn't care if he ever cooks for her again. Laundry is her nemesis and Bellamy has never turned a load of her bras and panties bright pink.

He puts his arm around her shoulder and pulls her in close, kissing the side of her head as a guy in the store checks her out. Clarke thinks jealously looks good on him, but she thinks everything looks good on him. The guy walks in the opposite direction and they don't see him again. Probably a good thing for him she thinks. Bellamy isn't the type to keep his feelings to himself.

When they get to the check out an older lady rings them up. She smiles at them.

"What a lovely couple," she says.

Clarke and Bellamy both smile back at her.

"Thank you," he says, "I'm very lucky."

Clarke thinks she's the lucky one. The relationship she was in before she met Bellamy ended badly. He cheated on her and she was more than a little bit angry about it. Angry enough to torch every bit of clothing he had left in her dorm room, including his lucky shirt. He wasn't happy; she didn't care. He should have just dumped her instead of cheating; it would have hurt less. Bellamy said she was better off without him when she told him the story. She already knew that but she thanked him anyway. There was something very genuine about the way he said it; she knew he was saying it because he cared and not just to say something.

He was in one of her elective classes in her third year at University. It was a politics class but she knew he was a history major. He sat in the front row and he was that guy who raised his hand to debate with the professor at least twice per lecture. Everyone hated that guy, Clarke usually hated that guy but she didn't hate Bellamy. His points were smart and obviously well researched. He knew what he was talking about and only came off as slightly pretentious.

She walked right into him one afternoon after class. He was walking out one door and she was walking out another. His books fell to the floor and she bent down to pick them up. She apologized profusely; it was all very cliché she thought. Their first meeting was like a scene from every terrible movie ever. He stuck out his hand and she was confused at first, not realizing that he meant for her to shake it. He laughed and she caught on. He told her his name, even though she already knew it from all the times the Professor had called on him. She sat in the back and never said a word so he didn't know hers. He said it was pretty and that it suited her. He asked her out for coffee after their next class and she wasn't sure why at the time but she said yes. She wanted to know more about Bellamy Blake.

He ordered a caramel mocha latte with extra whipped cream on their date. Clarke liked that he didn't order something like black coffee to try and impress her. She ordered her black coffee and took a seat across from him. He didn't speak first even though Clarke could tell that he had a million questions for her. He was after all the guy from the front row who liked to debate with their Professor; of course he had a million questions. She took a sip of her coffee and asked him about his family. She took a risk by going there because you never know how a person feels about their family but she had a feeling it would be okay. He told her all about his sister Octavia and she knew he was more than a pretentious history major, even if he was still very much a pretentious history major.

She told him about her mother, a doctor at the local hospital, a surgeon. She told him of the long hours and how they have very little time to spend together but they make the best of it. He figures out that this is why she is a nursing student. She has grown up hearing about how her mother saves lives and now she is on the same mission. She changes the subject once she has talked about her mother; she never brings up her father on the first date. Dead parents aren't exactly a lively conversation starter, she didn't know about his mother at the time. She doesn't feel like she would have liked to bond over their mutual childhood loss, not one the first date anyway. They have talked about them many times since; it hurts less when she talks to Bellamy because she knows that he knows how she feels.

Bellamy begins packing the groceries into Clarke's car. She has an SUV and she insists that it is the perfect car. Bellamy prefers his little Honda Civic but they never argue about it. Her car can definitely fit more stuff in it and sometimes in life you have a lot of stuff to carry. It's not profound but Bellamy said that the day she bought the SUV and it stuck with her. She hates the way he packs groceries sometimes. It is not at all logical. She's not sure how many times she has told him to be careful where he is putting the eggs or not to put the bread under other bags. She just waits for him to finish and get in the car and she rearranges the items. He knows she does it so he just waits, turning on the engine and switching the radio to the indie rock station he likes. He loves Clarke dearly but he can only listen to Taylor Swift so many times.

"One more stop to make," she informs him.

He raises an eyebrow, he wasn't aware that they needed anything other than groceries. He just turns up the radio and waits to find out where they're headed. When they pull up in the drug store parking lot he knows they're here for makeup. There is a sale and he thinks Clarke has been going on about needing new lipstick and mascara for a while. He thinks about staying in the car and just waiting but he doesn't know how long she will be. Really he doesn't mind what they're doing if he gets to spend time with Clarke.

He holds her hand as they walk through the aisles. The store has been renovated and she isn't sure quite where they have relocated the makeup. He grabs a box of condoms off the shelf as they walk by them. Eventually she finds the makeup and starts looking at the mascara that is thirty percent off. As she looks at each of the different brands Bellamy thinks he sees a familiar face. When she turns and walks towards them he knows it's her. She stops when she sees him and smiles.

"Raven," he says and Clarke looks up to see who it is he's talking to.

"Bellamy," the girl responds excitedly.

A girl with dark hair pulled back into a tight ponytail is standing in front of him. Unlike Bellamy she is not the jealous type so she thinks nothing of it. He could know her from anywhere.

"What brings you back to town?" he asks, obviously they have a history.

"I moved back here a few weeks ago. It turns out this is the cheapest place to open up a garage. I bought space next to that restaurant Miller works at, does he still work there?"

Bellamy isn't sure, he hasn't kept in touch with everyone from high school. Jasper has mentioned Miller before but Bellamy can't recall anything specific in the moment.

Clarke clears her throat, she may not be jealous but she is definitely curious.

"This is my girlfriend Clarke," he introduces her, "and this is Raven, she's an old friend."

"Nice to meet you Clarke. I have to get going but we should catch up."

She scribbles her number on the back the mascara package Clarke is holding. Before she walks away Raven winks at her and Clarke finds it a little strange but doesn't say anything.

The car ride home is silent. Bellamy doesn't talk about Raven but Clarke knows he's thinking about her. She still isn't jealous. Bellamy is the kind of person who thinks deeply about everyone, not just people he's in a relationship with. He will tell her about Raven at some point, he is probably just processing still. Bellamy grew up in this city, Clarke moved here for school. He has a past here and she knows a lot about him but obviously not everything.