A/N: The small town Phoenix is meant as a reference to the station on the ark and not as the existing town Phoenix.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the 100.
Her shift at the hospital had been stressful, as usual and Clarke was still kind of hiding in a supply closet even though she could have gone home for some time now. She could manage the pressure, noise and blood that came with the work reasonably well, but when her mother showed up earlier, Clarke had followed her instinct to run. Sure, she loved her mother, but Abby was quite the hand full (people kept saying that Clarke got her bossy attitude from her mom) and Clarke just didn't want do deal with her in that instant.
Her thoughts were still full of the upcoming charity event for Another Chance and of course the past days encounter with the cute Augustus and his engaging father. The last thing she needed today was her mother pushing her career and asking her why she kept smiling as stupidly as she was.
When the door opened, Clarke busied herself with rummaging through the shelves, keeping her head down.
A gangly looking guy, dressed in the dark red volunteers uniform, peered into the room.
"Dang it, Jasper. You nearly gave me heartfailure! I thought my mother finally sniffed me out", she half yelled, half whispered.
The young man stepped in, grining at Clarke as broadly as usual.
"I saw her earlier, bossing everyone around, looking for you in stupid locations like the locker room and the ER. She interrogated me for nearly ten minutes before she found her next victim, poor Jackson."
Clarke patted him on the shoulder in a consoling sort of manner.
"I owe you a shitty cafeteria coffee or something, your choice."
Now that she didn't need to hide anymore, her mood lifted again. Arm in arm they left the storage room and walked down the corridor.
"For throwing myself between you and the chancellor? No way you get out this cheap, mom. I say you're not allowed to say no to the next game night at the 100. Monty and I are planning something huge this time. You missed out the last three and that's just unacceptable!"
"Fair enough. Just say the word and I'll make sure to be there.
It's been too long since I was at your shop anyway. I began to wonder if you two were to drug me and drag my unconscious body over there."
They both laughed at the idea, but when Clarke glanced at her friend, she didn't like the look on his face. Normally, she knew better than to give him such ideas.
She was just about to make sure he wasn't thinking about actually doing this to her, when someone collided with her front. If it hadn't been for Jaspers arm around her shoulders, she would have landed face first on the floor.
"Hi Clarke", came a muffled voice from below, a small hand gripping the one that wasn't holding onto Jas. Then hurried footsteps rounded the corner and none other than handsome awesome-dad Bellamy Blake came to a halt in front of them.
"Hi Clarke", his voice was a little breathless and the husky note from yesterday seemed not to have come from sleep. He looked at her curiously again and she fought against blushing stupidly.
"Hi Augustus, hi Bellamy. What are you two doing in the hospital? Are you hurt?"
Bellamy shook his head and his loose curls fell onto his brows again. He looked slightly uncomfortable, almost shy and was obviously looking for words. The small boy disentangled himself from Clarke, though still clutching her hand and spoke first.
"I came for my checkup", he said confidently.
His father was fighting and to Clarkes delight loosing, not to smile and when she discovered a small dimple in his right cheek, she was once again thankful for the steadying arm around her.
"Well, I felt rather stupid after our encounter yesterday. Gus and I thought we could do better at expressing out gratitude, so we tried to come up with an excuse to come here again."
He grinned at her apologetically. "Unfortunately, the Blakeman are not known to be very imaginative, so we thought to make up something on the go. A mistake, obviously."
His laugh was catching and looking down, she saw Augustus nodding alongside his fathers words. They couldn't have acted more adorable if they had rehearsed this scene.
The two Blakeman looked at Clarke and she looked back, the three oblivious to their surroundings until someone to Clarkes right made a noise between coffing and giggling. The three pairs of eyes snapped over to Jasper.
"Don't mind me guys. I'm just going to make myself more invisible than I am already. See ya."
He leaned in so Clarke could give him a kiss on the forehead and wandered down the hallway giggling.
"Who was that", Augustus asked, eying Jaspers back suspiciously.
"That's Jasper Jordan. A guy that hasn't quite the manners you have Augustus."
That seemed to soothe the kid and he smiled at Clarke again.
"Call me Gus Clarke. All my friends call me Gus."
"I am honored Gus, thank you", she said squeezing his hand. She looked at Bellamy who was staring at their hands again.
"So how about you buy me a coffee at the cafeteria and if we survive the food poisoning we'll be even?"
"Sounds good prin... Clarke."
They made their way to the cafeteria and Clarke raised an eyebrow at him. He smirked again.
"We kind of started to call you princess, it was Gus' idea."
"Because you look like one. But with a dinosaur army remember", interjected Augustus.
"Of course. I'm still working on that, it might take me some time though."
The thought that they had obviously talked about her, made Clarke feel something she couldn't quite put her finger on. But it felt warm and good.
"As long as you give me a few lessons about dinosaurs, I will be ok Gus. Don't want to embarrass myself in front of my army."
For the rest of the walk, Augustus resumed his lecture about dinosaurs from yesterday. Bellamy and Clarke were stealing glances and smiles at each other.
When they sat down, the boy became distracted with their drinks and snacks and seized talking.
"I'm sorry we came here unannounced like this. Surely this must seem a bit weird to you."
Clarke stopped watching Gus and looked into Bellamys dark eyes, getting lost in them for a few moments.
"No, I'm glad you came. It was very nice meeting you two yesterday. I'm in the hospital so much, sometimes I think I don't know how people interact normally anymore."
"It's just singular for him to be so enraptured with a stranger. A women no less.
No offense, but he is usually not very trusting and I've never seen him holding hands with someone like this. It made me really curious about you, to be honest."
Clarke looked at the small hand in hers and felt honored.
"Well, I can't deny that I'm a little in love with him myself", she confessed and was surprised how much she felt these words.
"He is a great kid and you better be proud of your parenting skills."
Now it was at Bellamy to blush. It colored his olive skin in a coppery tone and Clarke noticed for the first time the handfull freckles that were plastered across his nose and cheeks.
Damn, he was so painfully handsome at this moment that she suddenly longed to dig out her old sketchbook to bring him alive on paper.
He coffed humbly and continued to grin at her.
"Ok princeps, life trivia as short as possible."
She thought for a second before answering him.
"Only child to Abby Griffin, former doctor, now chancellor of the medicinal directorate of Arcadia and Jake Griffin, former head of aerospace engineering at Mountain Man Corp. He died when I was 17, right before me graduading high school. Born and raised just up the road in Phoenix, in Arcadia since college. I'm now 26 and in my second year to become an ER surgeon. I enjoy my work because I love to help others and in my unlikely freetime I like to work with my hands and make sure my friends won't get into too much trouble. Though I seriously need to work on the last part."
She looked at him expectantly and after a moment of hesitation he began, "born and raised in Arcadia. My father left when I was three, my mother Aurora was a seamstress. I always loved history, especially the Greco-Roman times but couldn't really pursue a career in that field because my mom died when I was close to 18 and I looked after my 13 year old sister Octavia. Just after she became independent, Gus was born. My wife Gina died in an accident when Gus was 7 months old and since then he is pretty much my life. With that and my two jobs, I have no free time, not even unlikely."
He patted his sons head lovingly, the kid uninterested in the adults conversation.
"Yeah, I get that. Im my case, I have some sort of control over how much workload I have, but a child is nothing you get sickleave from.
Octavia is a really beautiful name, like Augustus. Did you choose that one too?"
"Yes, I did. Even back then I loved the stories about greek gods and roman rulers. Actually, Augustus was the first roman emperor in 31 ad and Octavia had been a widely admired sister of him."
She beamed at this little outbreak of his nerdy side and was relieved that he couldn't drop his smile either.
"So you're basically a history nerd with a knack for naming stuff, or to put it better, people. What do you want to do with this passion? You said you hadn't really the time yo study in that field."
He nodded and went on, "I got together a few semesters at the the local community college, Polis U, before Gus was born. I always did some courses while earning money for O's education and a year ago I restarted it. I don't have much time between Gus and my jobs, but when I'm finished I hope to become a teacher for history and Latin. Even though that will be in another ten years or so."
He didn't seemed bitter about the fact that he had to put himself last again and again. On the contrary, the talking about his sister, his son and his passion made his eyes grow soft and Clarke couldn't help but admire how strong a person he was.
She wasn't the type to plunge early into feelings or romanticize people, but if Bellamy Blake didn't reveal some serious character flaws in the next minutes, she was in deep, deep trouble.
"So, uh. This Jasper, is he your boyfriend or something like that? You two seemed pretty close."
She just happend to have watched Augustus, who made a face at the word boyfriend and therefore missed Bellamys slightly nervous fidgeting.
"Yeah, we are. Pretty close I mean", she almost laughed, finally looking up at him again.
"I've known him for a little more than four years now and he is a mix of very good friend, little brother and something like a son. A 25 year old son that likes to get into trouble and blows stuff up", she mouthed the last words as to not give Augustus any ideas. She wouldn't do that mistake twice in one day.
"My dad hasn't a girlfriend, too. In like forever", Augustus suddenly blurted out. The adults both laughed at his words.
"Thanks buddy, good you pointed that out", Bellamy said while shaking his head in slight disbelief.
"No problem tata", he answered seriously.
Clarke couldn't stop her chuckling and after rubing his neck in an embarrassed sort of way, Bellamy smiled at her sheepishly.
"We still need to work on the whole concept of sarcasm. Or maybe better not. I'm not sure about that."
To be continued.
A/N: So far, the reviews were quite encouraging, thanks for that (and yes, it was supposed to be 'young ', that's what you get from editing on the phone, stupid german autocorrect).
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please consider to leave a review.