I love these three together, so here's a little something.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.
John Murphy had met Clarke Griffin about sixteen years ago, and he had been in love with her since about fifteen and a half years ago. Clarke had always been this incredible person, so completely different from him and, as he would later find out, so completely different from any other person that he was attracted to after her.
Maybe it was because of Clarke that he wasn't attracted to anyone else similar to her, though he hadn't really thought about that as a teenager.
Clarke was all smiles and bright eyes and she was a fucking cheerleader when they were in high school. She volunteered at the animal shelter and she wanted to be a nurse when she got older, just like her mum. She laughed loudly and she was open and inviting and Murphy always felt better when he was around.
Murphy was a foster kid who shared a room with another kid named John, actually, John Mbege, which is why he was known as Murphy, rather than as John. He didn't have any clothes without rips in them and his hair was shaggy and falling forward over his face.
He wasn't sure what it was that drew Clarke's attention to him, but he would be forever grateful to it. Whatever it was solidly joined them together with friends, it was what got Murphy through school. Clarke helped him with studying, she was the reason that he had been able to stay with his age group at school, right from the age of five, because he had been falling behind right from the start, given he had no one helping him, and it was her and her parents that had helped him figure out what he wanted to do when they got to high school, what to put all of his energy into.
He would never not be thankful to Clarke.
But he wasn't good enough for her.
Not that she had ever said anything to him—she would never—and neither would her parents, but Murphy could see it.
Girls like Clarke...They didn't end up with guys like him.
Girls like her...Well, there was her first real relationship, Finn Collins, who was on the basketball team. He was a typical jock, floppy hair, always wearing his letterman jacket and who had lots of friends. And then there was her second relationship with Lexa Woods, which was from when Clarke was seventeen right through to when she was nineteen, they both ended up at the same university together.
Murphy had gone through a couple of girlfriends, although they had never really been serious for him. Clarke had told him that he went for girls that were too similar to him and that weren't going to work. She said he had a habit of self-sabotaging and Murphy just rolled his eyes and laughed it off, although he knew that the actual truth was that even though he knew he and Clarke weren't going to end up together, that didn't stop him from not seeing himself with anyone else but her.
And then Bellamy Blake came along.
Bellamy was a year older than them, and it was actually through his younger sister that Murphy had been introduced to him.
Murphy was good at art, it was one of the things that had really bonded him and Clarke when they were younger, except he wanted to make a career out of it. Clarke had always told him he could, and that he could become an apprentice at some tattoo parlor and really make a thing of it. Murphy hadn't been sure about it, but it turned out that Abby Griffin had a friend at work who's boyfriend had a friend—long story short, he left school after finishing Junior year to work at a tattoo parlor.
He had to work two jobs, and he barely had any time for anything else, but given things were bad with the foster family he was with at the moment, he just wanted to move out.
Clarke offered a few times for him to move in with her and her parents, but it just didn't feel right, and he wanted to do it himself.
And when he finally did have enough money to move out and get his own place, he was prouder than he ever had been before.
And Clarke was as well, it was in her face when she had thrown her arms around him as she came to the apartment for the first time.
Clarke was at university, and she was busy, and she was dating Lexa at the time, and then even when they had broken up, she had just thrown herself more into her studies and work. It was a few months after her nineteenth birthday that Murphy had been introduced to Bellamy, through Octavia Blake, who was dating one of the tattoo artists where Murphy worked.
Bellamy was...Bellamy was incredible.
He was funny and snarky and even though it was clear that he had been through a lot in his life, which became even more obvious as they got to know each other, he was so similar to Clarke in the way that he was so quick to smile and he was so warm and welcoming to people around him.
Murphy had never been attracted to a man before, and it had taken him a while to process it, but then he realized, he was okay with it.
More than okay with it.
They weren't dating, or anything, and they had kissed a few times, but nothing else had happened, and Murphy had been curious as to why, because he knew that Bellamy liked him. And he thought that he had made it obvious that he liked him as well.
The way he felt about Bellamy was the most he had felt about anyone other than Clarke.
And then Clarke graduated from university, and threw a party, and Murphy took Bellamy, and he found out why nothing further had happened. Clarke and Bellamy had never met before, even though they both knew a lot about each other, but because of how busy Clarke was, and the fact that Bellamy had his own business and pulled some long shifts, including in the weekends, they had never actually come together.
Murphy couldn't help but feel a little sick when they did.
Because they just clicked.
And they even looked good together.
Fucking good together.
They talked for hours, standing next to each other in the corner of her apartment. Murphy was talking to Raven Reyes, a good friends of Clarke's that he actually got on really well with, although his eyes kept flickering over to Clarke and Bellamy. She was laughing, tipping her head back, and exposing her long neck, and Murphy saw Bellamy looking at it before her eyes kept going back to her face.
When everyone was leaving, it was Clarke, Bellamy and Murphy left, and Murphy wondered if Bellamy was going to stay the night, if the two of them got on so well that something more was going to happen.
He should be happy, given how much he liked—maybe loved—them both. He should want them both to be happy. But it was just...That he really wanted one of them—both of them?—to be happy with him.
Clarke was a little drunk when she came over to Murphy, throwing her arms around him and giving him a tight hug.
"Bellamy and I were talking," she began and Murphy arched an eyebrow. "And we were thinking that we should all go out for brunch tomorrow." That took him by surprise and he looked over at Bellamy who was smiling back at him. "I don't start working until midday and you guys have the day off, so we should all get together and hang out."
"Uh," Murphy didn't really know how to respond to that, because that wasn't exactly what he had expected to hear. Bellamy came around to Murphy's other side, nudging him gently with his elbow. "Uh, yeah. Yeah. That sounds good."
"Perfect," Clarke gave him another squeeze. "Anyway," her cheeks were a little flushed and she took an unsteady step back. "You know the way out. I'm heading to bed—can you make sure you lock the door on the way out?" Murphy nodded, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek and Bellamy gave Clarke a hug, as though they had known each other for a long time, and then she was heading toward her bedroom.
Bellamy picked Murphy up the next day, and he greeted him with a chaste but firm kiss.
Murphy tried not to act too surprised, because they had kissed before, but usually it was after a few drinks and when they were in the shadows of a bar. He didn't have any problems with this though, in fact, his only issue was that it didn't last any longer than it did. They left the building side by side, shoulders bumping together, and Murphy got into the passenger seat of the car.
The brunch went...Well.
Murphy couldn't help but be a little nervous, but he really had no reason to be.
He got on well with Clarke and he got on well with Bellamy, and the two of them got on well with each other.
The three of them got on well when they were all together.
Murphy felt...Weird when he was with both of them. It was like they were just a group of friends, going out for something to eat, but there was this charge in the air around them, and he knew he wasn't imagining it. There were prolonged looks and lingering touches and even when they were all quiet, when their food arrived, there was this warm feeling that settled over them that Murphy recognized as the feeling that he felt whenever he was with either of them, one on one.
Now he was feeling it when it was all three of them.
Clarke was only slightly less busy than she had been when she was getting her hours in as a nurse and studying now that she had graduated, because now she was working full time and she worked strange, long hours. But now that Bellamy and Clarke had met and hit it off, it just made it easier for them to see each other. When she wasn't working through the days, she would come by the tattoo parlour around lunch time with Bellamy in tow, and they would all eat out the back in the tiny court yard that mainly served as a smoking area for the other shops in the building. Sometimes it would be the other way around, Clarke would pick up Murphy and they would go to Bellamy's work, although Murphy's schedule didn't generally allow that.
It became a regular thing, the lunches, at least twice a week, and they always managed to find some time in the weekend to all get together as well.
Clarke's boss seemed to love her, and juggled the ever changing rosters so that Clarke always had one at least one full day off through the weekend, and Murphy always had weekends off, and Bellamy was his own boss, so he could choose when he worked within reason, and after the first few months, he adjusted those times to work around Clarke, so that all of them could hang out together.
There was a concert that Murphy had brought them all tickets to, and Clarke had gotten the full night off work and the next day, it was like Christmas. She had grand plans about getting so drunk she was going to pass out, but Bellamy managed to talk her down from that plan, saying she wouldn't enjoy the concert if it got to that point. He also said that they wouldn't enjoy it if he and Murphy had to pick her up off the floor once she had passed out.
Bellamy picked Murphy up first, and when he came down, he gave him a kiss.
That was another regular thing.
Not in front of Clarke, although Murphy was pretty sure Clarke knew that there was something going on between him and Bellamy, but whenever he picked him up and they were alone, or dropped him off. Murphy really wanted there to be something more, but whenever he thought about something more, Clarke was there as well.
Ever since the third or fourth time they had hung out, it had always been the three of them together. He had stopped trying to figure out which one he wanted to be with more, stopped trying to choose between them, and just accepted that he had strong feelings for both of them. He had been in love with Clarke longer than he would care to admit, and with the way he felt about Bellamy, it was heading in that direction as well.
"Holy shit," Bellamy whistled out through his teeth as Clarke came down the front steps of her walk up apartment and Murphy looked up from where he had been checking on his phone for available parking around the concert venue.
He blinked as Clarke skipped over the car, opening the door for the backseat and got inside.
"Hi!" She slid into the middle and then leaned forward between the seats, giving each of them a kiss on the cheek and acting as though everything was normal. "Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go!" She gave Bellamy's shoulder a squeeze before sliding back into the seat behind Murphy's and buckled in. The two men in the front seat exchanged a knowing look, shaking their heads and grinning before Bellamy shifted the car into first gear and pulled out of the parking spot in front of her apartment.
The concert they were going to was a band that Murphy had liked for a while and had gotten Bellamy into, although Clarke only knew a couple of songs by them, Greta Van Fleet. But she had said it would be fun and she was clearly excited.
She looked so good, it wasn't fair.
She was in cut off, dark denim shorts that were a lot shorter than what she would usually wear, just underneath her ass, and a cropped black and grey shirt that showed off her stomach and had a few tears in the material, so that the bright red bra underneath also showed. She had a few silver necklaces on and half her hair was twisted back in braids and secured with bobby pins, while the rest of her short hair bounced just above her shoulders. She had cut her hair about two months ago, said that it was easier to maintain, and even though Murphy had been a bit hesitant at first, because he loved her long hair, he really liked it.
When they got to the venue, and Bellamy had managed to find a car park reasonably close, they joined the line of people that was winding it's way around the block. The concert wasn't a big one, it was at a venue that only held about a fifteen hundred people at the most, and Murphy preferred it to the big places where things got so loud and crowded that you couldn't really enjoy the music. There were couches around the sides of the building, and a terrace that created a second floor for people to look down at the stage, and then of course there was a mosh pit near the front, for people who wanted to crowd in.
Once they got inside, they got drinks from the bar at the back, Bellamy getting a beer and saying it would be his only one for the evening since he was driving. Murphy managed to get them a spot reasonably close to the stage but off to the stage, so that they could get up onto the backs of couches, with their feet on the cushions, and a perfect view of the where the band was going to be.
Clarke didn't get drunk, like she had said, although she was most certainly tipsy, and then she had the general Clarke energy that made her bouncy and all wide smiles. When the band came on, she spend most of her time on her feet, standing on the cushions of the sofa, where she had been sitting Bellamy and Murphy, jumping up and down and waving her arms around. Bellamy and Murphy kept glancing at each other and grinning, and there were a couple of times that they had to reach out to steady her when she nearly over balanced herself and fell off the couch.
Neither of the boys missed the way some people looked over at Clarke, both men and women, but no one approached her, probably because while she was dancing and having fun, she was also making it very obvious that she was here with Bellamy and Murphy.
She gave them kisses on their cheeks and noses and wiggled up against them to try and encourage them to dance and sat on both of their laps in turn, throwing her arms around them. Near the end of the evening, she seemed to have tired herself out, and she settled herself between the two of them, linking her fingers together with Bellamy's and resting her head on Murphy's shoulder, her hand on his thigh. Murphy looked over Clarke's head at Bellamy, who was already looking at him, and they shared a soft smile. Murphy's arm that was behind Clarke was also reaching out for Bellamy, resting his fingers against the elbow of the arm of the hand that Clarke was holding.
Murphy had never thought that he was good enough for Clarke. He had never thought that he had a chance of anything more than friendship with her. But then, as he felt the warmth of her body against his and smelt the gentle scent of her shampoo and perfume mixing together, he thought that maybe...Maybe he didn't think he was good enough, but maybe she did.
Clarke had never looked down on him or treated him like he was beneath her. And she had respected and supported every decision he had made, including dropping out of school to pursue a tattooing career even though she was a firm believer in finishing high school. And in the past several months, things had really shifted for them, probably because she didn't have to spend so much time studying anymore, and they had been spending as much time together as possible.
And then there was Bellamy, who was a gorgeous guy with his own business and a family who adored him and was very settled in his life. Another person that he didn't think he was good enough for, but for some reason, viewed him as valuable and important enough to spend his time with, and give him a kiss to say hello and goodbye almost every time they saw each other.
Murphy cleared his throat, and he jiggled his shoulder gently, to catch Clarke's attention. Clarke lifted her head, and in the tiny lights above them he could see her big blue eyes staring up at him, her lips tipped up in a smile. Murphy felt Bellamy move, and he glanced toward him, but then quickly looked back at Clarke so that he didn't loose his nerve.
"I love you," he told her, his words so soft he wasn't sure if she could hear them. But even if she couldn't hear him over the noise from the band, she could make out the words that his lips form. Her eyes widened and the smile on her face grew and she suddenly lunged forward, smushing their lips together. Murphy was so surprised he didn't have time to react before she was pulling back and bouncing up and down and then she leaned over and kissed Bellamy.
Bellamy looked just as surprised as Murphy, but he recovered quicker, kissing Clarke back before she pulled back and threw her arms around both of their necks, pulling them in close to her.
"I knew you did," Clarke nuzzled her nose against his cheek. "Does this mean that we can make this official?"
"Official?" Murphy asked, sounding confused, looking over at Bellamy who had an adorable smile on his face, his eyes sparkling.
"Well, we've been dating, right?" Clarke continued, the band all but forgotten on the stage. "These past couple of months? We just haven't been doing...All the extra, without-any-clothes stuff," she wiggled her eyebrows playfully and Murphy couldn't help but snort. He wondered if Bellamy had been giving Clarke the same kisses that he had been giving him, but part of him didn't think so, it seemed like Clarke had saved both of their first kisses with her for this evening, at the same time.
"Yeah," Murphy said slowly and somehow, Clarke's smile seemed to get even bigger. She had a tight grip around both of their necks, clearly nowhere near the point of letting go, and Murphy felt a hand press against his lower back, and he knew it was Bellamy's. He reached behind Clarke, letting his fingers gently skim over the soft skin of her lower back before reaching out for Bellamy, wrapping an arm around his waist as well.
This felt right.
This felt good.
And maybe, Murphy did deserve a girl like her, and a guy like him.
Let me know what you think x