3
In his mind he'd replayed over and over how he would deal with this situation however he didn't ever believe it would come to be. He took a moment of just staring at her, his eyes skating over every inch of her drinking her in a desperate manner that betrayed his fear of her absence again. She looked even better than he remembered, her fresh and glowing complexion enhanced effortlessly by the enchanting sparkle in her bright azure eyes. Her teeth toyed nervously on her lower lip, as her gaze locked with his. Finally able to comprehend that this was in fact reality he gingerly made his way over to her, stopping just in front of her before he gasped in disbelief,
"Clarke?" A crooked smile came across her features, as she replied in a teasing tone that concealed a painful truth,
"Hi Destiny's a bitch." Both erupted into a breathy but uneasy chuckle as they revisited the pun they had shared so many times before, back when things... hurt less. After their amusement subsided, Bellamy looked upon her with such affection; care and concern that it made Clarke fidget slightly. He never used to look at her like that, or did he and she just never noticed? Who knows, the silence was far too much for her to handle right now and so with that in mind she spoke,
"A dating profile? I thought that went against everything you believed in?" A casual shrug of Bellamy's shoulder was his initial reaction, his fingers toying with the pen he held simultaneously a distraction and an outlet for the apprehension he currently felt. In a gentle but sincere manner he replied,
"I met someone who was worth it." Clarke felt the breath knocked out of her, as if she'd fallen backwards with an almighty slam onto the cold hard floor, making her gasp in a panicked desperation. Her gaze however identified immediately the shame that fell upon his handsome features, the way his lips pursed tightly into a severe line of guilt. With that image pierced into her mind she started to speak,
"Bellamy I..." Although before she could even start, he blurted out his voice helpless and vulnerable,
"I fucked up." She paused conceding that actually what he was going to say was probably far more important than what she was going to babble on about, she had a bad habit of just talking continuously about nothing when anxious. He dropped the pen from his grasp, the plastic hitting the wooden surface with a light thud before he continued,
"I'm sorry for not being there when you needed me... I'm... I'm really not good at this." With a slight tilt of her head, one that was simultaneously adorable and slightly unnerving by Bellamy's account, she answered him. Her tone was calm and even, consideration thrumming through her every word,
"It's fine you told me what you... did, I knew what you were like. It shouldn't have surprised me, not really." Her words held no malice but the clean and concise detail of fact, because it was true. Immediately his mind threw back at him the oh so eloquent explanation of himself: 'He fucks', she had known what a shallow and unfeeling arsehole he was yet she had liked him. She liked him enough that seeing him with someone else had meant enough for her to avoid him and the bar altogether and weirdly that gave him some hope. With her agonizing words of truth fresh on his wounds he admitted to her,
"I don't want to be like that... not anymore." She could not suppress the flash of hope that gleamed within her eyes, the way her heart started to beat that much harder within her chest that she couldn't help but ask,
"Do we have a chance?" The tension he seemed to have once held in his posture ebbed away, allowing a similar expression of hope to paint his features too. A slight curl of his lips indicated heavily the answer she was going to receive,
"I think so." With the grin he had so missed appearing upon her lips, he couldn't help but bask in the moment in which his heart seemed to lift so high he was sure it might fall out of his mouth. Looking up at him she stated,
"I think so too." Placing his hands on the bar he leant towards her, stopping in the middle of the space that had been between them. Her gaze glanced down at his lips, before he too did the same the gravitas of the moment holding them in a state of suspension. He wasn't going to say it, and he didn't really want to say it but before he knew it he hushed,
"I'm falling in love with you." Placing her hands to cup his face she pressed her lips to his, it was tender and sweet but held all the pretence of a passion and fervour ready to be unleashed. Their lips moved in a synergy that suggested they had kissed many a time before, a kind of familiarity enabling them to express all the affection they held for one another in a mere touch of lips. When they finally parted Clarke's hands remained on his jaw, her nose still brushing against his as she hushed back,
"I'm falling in love with you too." With a quick endearing peck to her lips, one that strongly suggested Bellamy really wasn't quite ready for them to stop, he moved back from her space. His dimples had reappeared their prominence all the more important from the fact that she had been the one to make them appear so, she made him smile... she made him happy. As he forced himself to step back, worried that he may not be able to actually function at work knowing that he could be kissing Clarke, he quipped,
"We changed the wifi password by the way." An amused titter emanated from Clarke herself, as she replied with the vigour of hilarity,
"I don't care I have my own wifi!" She watched as his features fell slightly, almost as if he genuinely thought for a moment that a lack of wifi meant she wouldn't want to come to the bar. This time it was she who leant up onto the bar, her hands allowing her to lean forward and coax him back towards her. Pressing his hands atop of hers, he gazed adoringly into her eyes his nose a mere hair's width from hers as she drawled lovingly,
"I've got a better reason to come here now." Before she placed her lips upon his again, allowing every ounce of fondness and emotion she felt for him bleed into it. She could feel his lips edge into a smile against hers, and she knew for a fact that despite all the shit they had gone through, self-inflicted or not, it was worth it. He was worth it... they were worth it.