A/N: This is a short, fluffy chapter and probably the last. Thank all of you who have stuck to the story until the end, especially those who took their time to leave a review - these mean the world to me. Happy New Year, too!


Christmas 2020

(Clarke is 25; Bellamy is 29)

Her glasses nearly slipped over the tip of her nose again. Clarke sighed as she adjusted them, her eyes jumping over the lines of her textbook. Being in the fourth year of med school, she had to study hard lately; she had a big test coming up, the one basically deciding over her future. It drove her mad to see all her friends, who had finished college and threw themselves onto the job market, doing things they dreamed of, while she was still stuck in school.

But this year, she'd be finished and would start working at the local hospital. She was really looking forward to it; after all those years of hard work, she'd finally be able to pursue her dream and help people. Bellamy's job at a security agency gave them financial security, but sometimes Clarke caught herself thinking ahead; what if they needed to move to a bigger house, if she got pregnant, what if…?

The sound of the front door opening interrupted her line of thoughts, then the sound of boots coming up behind her, and she broke into a laugh when Bellamy's big hands grabbed her under the arms to lift her up, causing her to drop her books.

"Bell!" She laughed as he spun her around the room before he set her back onto her feet and pressed a kiss to her neck.

"'Tis not the time to study, Clarke, 'tis the time to be jolly! It's Christmas, for Christ's sake!" He spun her around so she was facing him.

"Don't curse on his birthday!" She giggled and put her arms around his neck.

"I'm serious though. Chuck those textbooks and come on a walk with me. It's snowing!"

"A walk in the snow? Wow, how romantic. Just like that time you almost made me cheat on my boyfriend."

"I didn't make you do anything" he answered with a smug grin. "The good thing is, now we can go on a romantic walk in the snow and you can cheat on your boyfriend with me all you want."

"Oh, but what will I do when he finds out? My boyfriend is awfully jealous, you know."

"Only because he loves you so much."

"That's nice to know, though I'd prefer hearing it from himself."

"Oh, if you insist: I love you, Clarke Griffin!" He declared dramatically and laughed, then he picked up her coat and scarf.

"Take a walk with me?" He cocked his head to the side and gave her one of his smiles, the kind she couldn't resist.

Sighing, she put on boots, the coat and scarf, took his hand and followed him outside. It really was quite romantic, the sun had just set and the snow fell in the grey twilight. The street below their apartment wasn't very busy; only a few people hurried by, wrapped in their hats and scarfs. Bell directed her to the park; he knew it was one of Clarke's favorite places in the city. Sometimes they'd go out there and feed the ducks for hours, and he knew that whenever he came home and she wasn't there, it was likely he'd find her by the lake, sitting on a bench with a book or simply watching the water.

"So, Clarke, I was thinking." Bellamy broke the comfortable silence they had walked in for the past few minutes.

"You're always thinking."

They had played that game before, and usually, he would now respond with "Of you", but he didn't, his face growing serious.

"I think it's time to think ahead, you know? There's a lot coming for us, with you starting to work and me getting that promotion…" He trailed off and briefly cleared his throat.

"I don't think it's going to be easy, with you probably working really hard, and you know my working hours aren't always exactly convenient."

She suddenly started to feel very cold. Was he breaking up with her?

"Bell…"

"No, wait, let me finish. I know it's not going to be easy, but I know that we will be able to make it. And I know that because I know that I love you more than I've ever loved anyone. Ok, maybe you're on a par with O, but that's different." He cleared his throat again, fidgeting a bit nervously.

"What I'm trying to say is, that I know that I want this love between us to always be there, and I know that when I picture myself old and gray, it's you I picture next to me, just as old and gray but still the woman I fell in love with, like, fifty years ago."

"That's a long time to be together."

"I know. But I also know that I will love every second of it. Hell, I even love your mom. You love Octavia. We're basically one big family. And I- I wanted to make it even more so."

Clarke's heart was beating so fast she thought it might just explode.

It was dark by now, and the streetlamps bathed everything in a light orange glow.

They were near the middle of the park. She could see the water fountain, out of order in the winter, and a few kids laughing as they played in the snow. One of them was a little boy with bright blond hair. She imagined he had freckles and deep brown eyes.

A light tug on her hand made her stop and turn to Bellamy. He stood there, one hand clasped in hers, and one nervously twitching.

"Clarke… I want to marry you."

She wasn't able to form words for a second, dumbly staring at him.

"Do you want to? Marry me?" His nervous smile faded as she continued to be silent.

She looked at his face; his freckled nose, the little dimple in his chin, his tousled curls, and those brown, brown eyes that she wanted to keep looking at until she was gray and old.

"Yes." She nearly whispered. She cleared her throat and repeated it. "Yes."

His whole face lit up with a beaming smile. He threw his arms around her and lifted her up, twirling her around two times before gently putting her back on her feet.

"Clarke." The way he said her name gave her chills, as if it was something sacred, something to be in awe of.

"I'm sorry if you're disappointed. I know O will hit me when she hears about this. But, I thought about it, and grand romantic gestures just take away the meaning, I think. Had I gotten an orchestra and let a plane write 'Marry Me' into the sky, it would have turned this thing into a show, and I didn't want that. I want to be able to make you want to say yes simply because I'm asking, and not because I've taken you to Paris. Does that make any sense to you?"

Strangely, it really did. Though she had, of course, always imagined the big knee drop and a ring in a little box, right now, this was more than enough. It was Bellamy, true and simple, who wanted to marry her. It was all she needed.

And then, one by one, all the Christmas lights around the park turned on, the fairy lights woven in the trees and around the fountain, in between lanterns, making the world shine and twinkle in their gleam. The snow descended softly around them, and Bellamy started laughing.

"I swear I didn't plan that."

"It would have surprised me if you had, because the timing's perfect." Bell gasped in mock offend before grinning cheekily. "You're probably right."

She heard a shriek from one of the kids playing, and turned her head to look; two of them were wrestling each other in the snow.

She turned her head back to Bellamy; he was lacing his shoe.

Or at least she thought so for a second, before she realized he was facing her, holding up a little box.

"Now that you've said yes just because of me, I'm trying to be a bit romantic. Clarke, love of my life, light of my days, will you marry me?"

She laughed at his cheesiness. In fact, she couldn't stop laughing as her brain comprehended it all, her happiness bubbling inside of her and finally overflowing as tears made their way down her cheeks. She was still grinning like an idiot when he put the ring on her finger and stood up to kiss her.

"I thought I'd do it on Christmas, because it seems to me that it's always at Christmas time that you and I had our most significant moments."

"Maybe that's because Christmas is the time of love."

"How poetic."

"Shut up."

"Imagine where we could already be if you'd just realized what an impossibly great guy I am just a few Christmases' earlier."

"Imagine where we could be now if you hadn't called me a stuck-up princess the first time we met."

"Point taken."

He was silent for a while, before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Just imagine where we could be around Christmas time next year. Or the year after that, after that, and after that."

"Around Christmas next year, we'll be married. I'll have a husband. That's some serious adult kind of shit."

"Clarke, you are an adult."

"Still. I don't think I'm prepared for that."

"Don't worry, princess, I'm prepared enough for the both of us."