The power was out.
Most nights, this was a recipe for s'mores, cuddling up under a blanket and sharing a book. It was the kind of thing they didn't do very often, only when there was no light.
Tonight, though, it was one in the morning and Bellamy was busy studying for his police cadet exam, rereading the rulebook over and over again. He had a paper copy, luckily, so once he was done reading all the information he could get his hands on on his laptop and his battery had died, he found himself reading his rulebook by the light of his tiny flashlight keyring, squinting at the pages.
Of course, that was when his flashlight ran out of battery.
He paused, blinking at the fact the bedroom was now pitch black, and pulled a face, then reached out to his side and lightly smacked Octavia's chest with the back of his hand.
"'mwake!" she squeaked as she jerked awake. She blinked at the ceiling and how dark it was. "Bwuh?"
"Can you light up?"
There was a moment of silence. "Huh?"
He pawed at her hand, lifting it up so her arm was bent and her hand was in the air between them. "Like a torch!"
Her hand ignited and he retracted his own, barely missing a burning. "Thank you." He looked back down at his book, lying on his chest next to her with his chin on his hand.
"...did you seriously just wake me up to use me as a light source?" she said.
"Yeah." He turned a page. "My flashlight died."
"You woke me as a light source."
"My flashlight died!"
"You woke me as a light source!"
He squinted across at her. "What would you rather I wake you for?"
She paused and considered that. "... kisses?"
He chuckled, leaning past her hand and trusting her not to burn him, to kiss her. "I like waking you for kisses," he agreed against her smiling lips, "but if I fail this exam the power's gonna go out more often."
She grinned a bit and wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling him a bit closer. "What does it matter if the power goes out, Bell?" she said, kissing his lower lip in between words. "You have your own personal light and heat source! I can even microwave our dinners."
"...this is a good point," he said and kissed her a little harder. "But. We'd also not have money for food."
"I could incinerate a rat," she said.
He paused and drew back. "You ruined the mood with roasted rat." He moved back to his book.
The fire went out.
"Hey!"
"Oh no," she said. "I guess you'll have to get me all fired up again somehow."
He tried to eye her through the gloom, then sat up, reaching out blindly to catch her by the leg and haul her towards him. She squealed and giggled as he dragged her down the bed and moved partially on top of her.
"You get five minutes," he said in amusement, trying to find her mouth in the dark to kiss her.
"That's my nose, Bell," she said, giggling.
"Well if there was some light..." he said.
Her hand ignited again by their heads.
"Oh, look," he said. "...a rulebook." He grabbed his book, trying to read it half on top of her.
"Bellamy don't make me incinerate it!" she said around laughter.
"You wouldn't dare!" he said.
Which... in hindsight, was a mistake.
Five minutes later they were pouring water over not only the rulebook but also their pillow. "O."
"Bell." She peered at the ashes. "I did say I might burn the house down one of these days."
He scowled at her, grateful that she'd kept her hand burning just so he could see her face and glare at it. "You burned my rulebook. I'm going to fail."
"You won't." She wrapped around him and kissed the side of his head. "You have this down, Bellamy. You're just shoving more and more of the same information into your brain now and it's not helping. You're prepared. You're over-prepared." She turned around him a little and kissed his forehead. "Just believe in yourself. You can do this."
He smiled a bit. "Promise?" he said.
"I promise," she murmured. "Now... what say we go make s'mores?"
His eyes lit up and he got off the bed, pulling her with him and laughing when she squealed. "Last to the marshmallows gets the second s'more!" he exclaimed and dashed away.