Clarke jogged towards the gate, with her pack slung over her shoulder. As she neared the fence, she noticed Bellamy, leaning against it with his arms crossed over his chest, smirking at Clarke.
"You're late Princess." Bellamy arched an eyebrow. Clarke narrowed her eyes and brushed past him.
"I'm sorry. I'll just let him die next time." She scowled. Bellamy's expression softened slightly before he followed her outside the gate. He waved at the guards over his shoulder and waited to pick up the pace until he was sure they were closing the gate.
Clarke zipped her black jacket up to her throat, warding off the cold and praying it wouldn't start to snow any harder than it already was. Even now, it was the warmest it had been in a few days. Bellamy walked a little faster until he fell into step beside her.
He didn't miss the way she gravitated towards him and his warmth, undoubtedly subconsciously. He wasn't above admitting to himself that he was cold and therefore didn't exactly mind her close proximity.
"You have a place in mind, Princess?" he asked through tight lips. Clarke nodded stiffly and stepped over a fallen, iced over log.
"The lake maybe." She sighed, going slightly cross eyed to watch her breath turn white in the air before her.
"The lake's frozen over." Bellamy shook his head, hiking his pack higher on his shoulder. Clarke stopped in front of him so suddenly that he nearly skidded in the icy dirt.
"Well than what, O Great King, did you have in mind?" she shouted, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. Bellamy's expression darkened as her voice echoed and he lunged forward, clapping a hand over her mouth and backing her into a tree. Clarke stayed still while watching Bellamy's eyes flit around in paranoia.
It wasn't until a few minutes after her echoing voice had died out that he released her and took a slight step back.
"Are you insane? If you don't learn to keep it down Princess we will be dead before nightfall." He hissed. Clarke gritted her teeth and nodded once. "As for whether or not I have a plan, I do, in fact, have an idea." He answered, voice slightly strained between the attempt at whispering and the cold seeping into his skin.
"Feel free to share with the class." Clarke sighed in frustration, glancing back and forth and over her shoulder.
"Few weeks ago, found a few rundown buildings maybe a mile and a half north of the lake." He nodded behind her.
"Think there's anything left?" Clarke asked, cocking her head to the side. Bellamy shrugged.
"Worth a shot." He said shortly. Clarke nodded once in agreement and motioned for him to lead the way, slipping her hand around the hilt of the knife in her back pocket as she followed him. "We can maybe make it there by dark if we pick up the pace. No way we can get back to camp tonight."
Clarke nodded in acceptance and rubbed her arms through her jacket. Bellamy glanced back at her over his shoulder and took in her pale lips and stark white skin. He had told her this was a bad idea.
Then again, when had the princess ever listened to him. Bellamy just hoped this time her stubbornness didn't cost the camp their leader.
Or him his princess.
Bellamy gritted his teeth in realization of what exactly he had just thought and promptly refused to think about the implication of it. Distraction would not help either of them right now.
He looked at Clarke again, who was slowly starting to fall behind him. Slowing his pace, Bellamy looked her up and down, narrowing his eyes while subconsciously noting that he was starting to shiver as well; her blonde hair was flat and dark with the melted snow, her lips faintly blue, hands bright red.
It was only because he was studying her so intently that he was able to catch her when she stumbled on the perfectly flat, snow coated ground they were treading across.
"I'm fine." She mumbled, nearly incoherent. Bellamy tightened his grip on her waist and watched her cautiously.
"Clarke…" he hedged lowly, absently noting that he was starting to shiver as well.
"I am fine." She repeated, words starting to slur a little bit. "We 'eed to keep goin." She muttered quietly. Bellamy glanced up at the rapidly darkening sky and the snow that was starting to fall heavier by the minute and sighed in resignation.
He had been in the room while Clarke had been treating Octavia's case of hypothermia and he had taken careful mental notes of every symptom and diagnostic test. At that point, he was already thoroughly positive Clarke was suffering from the same thing but as he raised his fingers to check her pulse, the slow beating he felt there confirmed his suspicions.
Clarke moaned softly and leaned into his hand, needing that warmth radiating from his skin. Seconds later, Bellamy heard Clarke curse under her breath and he knew she'd belatedly realized what he already had.
"Clarke, we've got to get out of this snow for the night. At this rate, we're both going to freeze to death before we reach the lake." He said just low enough for her to hear over the storming weather. She nodded just slightly, doubling a little under the onslaught of shivering that started up again when a gust of wind blew over them.
She could feel Bellamy's arm shivering around her waist and she folded her own over top of it. His shuddering slowed slightly as he glanced around for any form of shelter. His eyes landed on something that could hardly even be considered a cave. It was more of a stone overhang that would barely shield them from anything not to mention the wind.
But that small cave would have to work because there was no other form of shelter for miles. But as Bellamy glanced down at the doubled and shrinking form of the usually strong Clarke Griffin, he wondered if it would matter either way. The twenty two year old swung Clarke into his arms, ducked his head and ran for the rock.
Once he reached it, and was now full on shivering against the cold himself, Bellamy set Clarke down against the far wall and tapped her cheek to rouse her from the self-preservation induced sleep she'd slipped into.
As soon as she was semiconscious, Bellamy unzipped his jacket and shrugged out of his shirt, shivering violently against yet another gust of wind even as he fumbled with the zipper on Clarke's soaked jacket.
She didn't fight him as he pulled her shirt off of her body, didn't even fight him when he pulled her into his lap, holding her flush against his chest. She gasped at the heat and pressed herself closer to his body until her hands were trapped against his abs between her bare stomach and his.
It was Bellamy's turn to gasp against the shock of just how cold her fingers really were against his skin. His own hands dug into her freezing back a little harder in response.
"Careful." He hissed, eyes narrowing in concern when some other unnaturally cold part of her anatomy touched the base of his neck. It took him a minute to realize that it was her lips that were so ice cold against his throat. She was shivering so forcefully in his arms that he was sure her body was going to shatter at any moment.
There wasn't much more he could do to protect her from the weather aside from turning them both so that she was between him and the wall. The former folded around her as best he could and tilted his cheek against the top of her soaking wet hair.
Clarke was so cold she hurt. The only thing making the cold even slightly bearable was the muscled figure wrapped around her. It was purely for survival reasons, she knew that and he knew that. But she could help but let her mind wander, even if it was solely for distraction purposes.
She could feel her stiff and frozen fingers curl into a fist over his perfectly sculpted abdomen, feeling each groove carved out by the muscle even under her numb fingers. At that small shift of hand placement, the tendons and muscles in Bellamy's body tightened noticeable and Clarke flattened her hand again, drawing her fingers together so that her cold wasn't touching as much of him. If she wasn't careful, he would become just as hypothermic as her.
"Stay awake, princess." She heard him mutter lowly, moments after she had let her eyes start to drift closed. Bellamy's body jerked with a sudden chill of cold that washed over him and Clarke slowly slid her hands around his torso until they were spread out over his back. Even her skin was warm against his freezing back that she suddenly realized was completely exposed to the wind and snow.
A growl rumbled in his chest at that one selfless act and he shifted to try and coax her to put her hands back where they would stay warm.
"You're h-human too." She denied against the slowing pulse in his neck.
"Selfless princess." He muttered into her hair.
"You're gonna f-freeze." She said. Bellamy shrugged stiffly.
"I'm not the one who's hypothermic." He reminded her. "Besides, we can't have our doctor dying, now can we?"
The implication hung in the air in the little to nonexistent space left between them. They need you more than they need me.
"The-they need you t-too." She stammered through body wracking shivers. Clarke could feel Bellamy's smirk against the top of her head.
"They need you more." He replied calmly.
"Not true." She replied, voice a little more muffled as she shifted to press her nose against his neck as well. Bellamy jumped a little at the cold and grunted at her.
"I'm a killer, Clarke." He said seriously. "I'm a killer leading a camp full of sinners and criminals." He chuckled. "I'm a hypocritical leader. They need someone who can practice what they preach." He told her gently.
"I've k-k-killed." Her teeth chattered. "We all ha-ave. You're not a ba-bad guy, Bell." She stuttered; Bellamy noted that it wasn't as a nickname that she shortened his name, but simply the lack of ability to say it without biting her own tongue off. But then he was chuckling quietly at her naivety.
"I've shot people, tortured people, stolen… I got my mother floated, princess." He said dryly.
"Octavia." She said in way of justification, grip on him tightening shakily. "Mm." she moaned, pressing herself to him tighter in an attempt to ward off a new wave of excruciating cold.
"Not all of it." He whispered, leaning back slightly to expose more skin for her to draw warmth from. Part of the reason he had tortured that Grounder, was to get that begging and helpless look out of Clarke's eyes – to help her get what she needed to do what she needed to do. That had been for her.
He was weak when it came to women. Particularly Octavia, and now Clarke. It was a dangerous and worrying reality that he would do anything to keep them alive. That didn't stop the denial from reminding him that his keeping Clarke alive right now was an indirect act of keeping the camp alive.
"You aren't a m-murderer. Camp needs you. I need you. I c-couldn't run this godfors-saken place without you. So d-don't t-th-th…" she trailed off then and curled her fingers into his back, breathing harshly into his neck. Bellamy dragged her arms from around his back to his chest, cradling her a close as he could as she shook hard enough to make him shake too.
I need you.
WHAT'D YOU THINK? TOO FAST? STILL IN CHARACTER? LET ME KNOW!
