Chapter 38: Sappy Stuff, Bellamy

Chapter Summary: Bellamy & Alex have some bonding time while shopping for Clarke's birthday :) One thousand percent fluff

Chapter Notes: HELLO LOVELIES!
I sincerely thank you all for the fantastic feedback these past few chapters - I've been floored by all of your support :)
The past few chapters were pretty heavy, so for this one, I give you fluff!

An AO3 reader requested a fluffy chapter of Bellamy and Clarke shopping together for Clarke's gift. This request was perfectly timed :)

"Bellamy?"

"Yes, Alex?" I look up from my tablet to see Alex join me in the living room, taking the seat next to mine on the couch.

"Mom's birthday is coming up."

I nod, "I'm aware."

"Normally, I'd have my dad take me shopping for her present, but I thought maybe this year, you and I could shop together."

I smile at the thought. "I'd like that a lot, Alex."

She smiles back at me, "Good. Can we go to Cherry Creek?"

I feel a scowl on my face, "The hoity-toity mall?"

She rolls her eyes, "I wasn't really planning on going to the actual mall. There's the Cherry Creek Arts District and a bunch of boutiques in the surrounding streets."

I nod in agreement, "I could get on board with that."

She gives me a satisfied smile, but keeps looking at me expectantly.

I give her a sidelong glance, "What?"

"Well, can we go now? Mom won't be back for hours – she's in surgeries all day today, remember?"

I nod, "True."

Alex grins, "See? The timing is perfect. She won't suspect a thing." The kid has a point.

"Okay. Put Zoe in her kennel and we'll get going."

"Got it. I have to finish up something, too. How about we leave in fifteen minutes?"

I nod, "Fifteen minutes."

The entire car trip to the mall, Alex is explaining the order of the shops she wishes to browse for Clarke's birthday gift. "I think it would be best to park on a street in the center of the district. There are all kinds of cafes with great snacks and drinks if we want a little break. I really want to make sure we go into this boutique with all these scarves. Mom has been wearing a lot of scarves this winter." I can't hold back the laugh that comes when I think of why.

"It sounds like you've got this all planned out."

She nods, "Yeah. Is that a problem?"

I shake my head as I pull into the parking space, "Not at all. I prefer a game plan."

She smiles as we get out of the car, "Sometimes it's nice to just browse, but today's the only day in the near future where we can get out of the house and do this without having to tell her we're shopping for her birthday gift. I'm hoping we can find the right gift today."

"Agreed."

"So have you thought about what you're gonna get her?"

I nod, "Yeah… Now that I'm thinking about it, you will actually be more helpful than Octavia for this."

Alex shrugs, "Probably. She is my mom. And I know her pretty well." I ruffle her hair and she dodges out of my reach with a laugh, "I'm just saying… You're right. I'll be more helpful."

"What are you going to get her?"

She shakes her head, "Nope. I asked you first."

I scoff playfully, "Fine… I'm thinking… fancy spice rack." I pause, waiting for Alex's reaction. There's no fucking way I would even entertain the idea of a spice rack for the least domestic female I know. I'm just testing the waters with my new shopping partner.

Alex stops walking and gives me a level look, trying to decide if I'm serious. After studying me for a moment, she laughs, "Thank god you're kidding. I would hate to have to reconsider my whole plan for today."

I laugh, "How's that?"

She smirks, "That's for me to know, and you to find out."

I nod with a nervous laugh, "Great. You're so much like your mom, it's scary."

Alex shrugs, "Well, I guess I came by it honestly, then."

We keep walking until we get to a bohemian-looking shop with all kinds of trinkets. Alex pulls me to an area of the store filled with various wind chimes. After jostling a few of them, she pauses at a chime that is wide and long, producing deep soothing tones as they make contact with the pendulum. After playing the chimes a few times, she looks up at me, "I think I like this a lot. But I want to check a few other places, first. Since this is on the way back to the car, we can come back here if I don't find anything better."

I nod, "Sounds like a plan."

She elbows me, "So you still didn't tell me what you're thinking about getting her."

I take a deep breath. "Well, it's..." I pause, since I haven't actually verbalized what I want to get her. It's just something that's been on my mind since Alex cornered me at Lakeside this past summer.

She raises an eyebrow, "Are you gonna finish that sentence?"

I huff, "It's jewelry, okay?"

Alex smirks, "I thought as much. It's good I'm with you. I'd hate if you got her the wrong ring."

I roll my eyes, but can't wipe the smile off my face.

Alex pulls something out of her pocket and hands it to me. "This fits her left ring finger."

I hold it up to inspect it, "How do you know?"

"We were playing dress-up with her jewelry. It's kind of something we do. Anyway, I had both of us putting on a bunch of different rings, and I made a mental note that this exact ring fit her left ring finger perfectly."

"Smart."

She shrugs, "I know. I'm still deciding how you can thank me."

I scoff, "I have a feeling I'm gonna owe you big after this."

She nods with a smug grin, "Yup." She takes hold of my hand as she guides us down the block. She stops when we're in front of a jewelry store. "In here. They're expecting us."

I can see my confused expression in the reflection of the glass just before the door opens. "Expecting us?"

She doesn't bother explaining herself because we're immediately greeted by a trio of jewelry salespeople. One of them has an awed grin, "Are you Alex?"

Alex nods, "That's me."

The saleslady smiles, "I thought so… a curly-haired blonde girl wearing a pink dress, leading a possibly confused-looking gentleman into the store."

I raise an eyebrow at Alex, who just shrugs and looks me over, "Yeah. That was accurate."

The younger saleslady sees my bewildered expression and offers an explanation, "Miss Alex called an hour ago and told us to be expecting you. She tells me you're in the market for an engagement ring?"

I nod, "Yeah, you could say that." I glance down at Alex, who is beaming.

Alex pipes up, "It's for my mom. Her name is Clarke." This earns united "awwwww's" from everyone in hearing range who has been privy to the exchange so far. Everyone in this store is clearly taken by this precocious blonde girl.

The saleslady smiles, "Well, I'm going to introduce you to Laurel. She's going to work with you to design Clarke's ring."

A woman steps forward and shakes my hand, then Alex's. "It's lovely to meet you both." She leads us over to a desk where she pulls out a sketch book, as well as a book of photos.

"So, do you have an idea of what you're looking for?"

I furrow my brows, "Not exactly. I'm kind of hoping I'll know it when I see it."

She nods with a smile, presenting a book of engagement rings, "Well, let's look through these to get a ballpark of what you're looking for or not looking for. Then we can go from there."

I open the book up and I'm immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of options in front of me. "I don't want to give her just a run-of-the-mill ring." I flip through the pages, trying to get a sense of what I'm looking for, but nothing is jumping out at me. After flipping through another few pages, I look up at Laurel, "So far, I'm not seeing what I'm looking for... They all seem like the same ring."

Laurel looks at me meaningfully. "Have you considered letting someone design a custom ring?"

"Isn't that what we're doing? I can mix-and-match settings and stones?"

Laurel nods, "Yes. But we can go beyond that. I design custom metal work and settings. We can put something together that can't be found in any book anywhere."

I nod with a smile, "I like that idea." I look down at Alex, who has been uncharacteristically silent for the past few minutes. She sides up to me, resting her chin on my shoulder. I look up at her, "Got any advice, kid?"

She smiles, "I like her idea. Coming up with a totally unique design. I think it would make it even more meaningful for mom."

"Agreed... We should set up some parameters, though. Like, no yellow gold. She doesn't like yellow gold."

Alex nods, "And you know mom wants nothing to do with diamonds."

I nod with a laugh, "I've been aware of that fact since her Blood diamond/anti-DeBeers manifesto our junior year of college."

Laurel chimes in. "All of our stones are ethically sourced, diamonds included."

I tilt my head to the side, while a grimace forms on my face, "Let's go ahead and eliminate diamonds from the mix completely. She'll go off on some tangent about how they're not actually rare, just tightly controlled by a cartel… It's a can of worms I really don't want to open when I'm down on one knee, you know?"

Laurel laughs. "I understand. Is there a specific stone you have in mind?"

I nod, "Blue sapphire."

Alex grins, "Good choice." She directs her attention to the designer, "Mom has blue eyes like mine."

"Well, I have an assortment of loose stones available. Rather than flipping through photos of rings, we could pick a stone, and I could create a design around that. Or we could go the other way around and design a ring, then choose a stone."

I frown, "I don't know. Maybe start with a stone?"

She nods with a smile as she rises from her seat to gather what I come to realize is thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of gemstones. She presents five stones at first – each a different cut. "Now, I want you to look at the shape of the stone, not the size. Does anything in particular stick out?"

I nod, pointing to the pear. Alex nods furiously, "Yes, yes! That's the perfect shape. You don't see that one often."

Laurel smiles, "I'll be right back." She returns with several stones of different sizes and varying shades of blue, all in a pear cut.

I pick up the biggest stone with the tweezers, then take a glance at Alex, whose appalled scowl matches my own. We both laugh at each other for a few moments before Alex opines, "Can you imagine mom wearing this in a ring? She'd probably be walking lop-sided!"

I nod in agreement, "I can't see her being comfortable with anything this ostentatious."

We choose a deep blue 1.8 carat pear-shaped sapphire. After we've chosen the stone, Laurel sits down across from Alex and me. "I have a process when I design custom rings. To put it simply, your story is my inspiration. I'll give you a few prompts, and as you talk, I sketch my ideas."

I find myself feeling enthusiastic about this. "Sounds good."

She nods, "Tell me about you and Clarke."

"What do you want to know?"

She tilts her head to the side. "What's your origin story? When did you meet?"

I chuckle, "Well, it's a really long story. Clarke and I have been in the works for fifteen years… We met in college, and we pissed each other off on a regular basis for a year and a half. It was like a sport..."

Alex starts laughing, remembering the stories I've told her about Clarke before we lay down our figurative weapons. She chimes in, "Bellamy used to call her Princess. Mom used to hate it."

I chuckle, "Yeah, yeah."

Alex continues, "I don't think she minds it now, though. When you call her princess now, she smiles and blushes." I feel a smug grin stretch across my face, chuckling because there's no way Alex can ever know why her mom blushes so furiously when I call her Princess.

"Eventually, Clarke and I became friends. Best friends. Yeah, we went through ups-and-downs. We even fell out of contact for several years… But we found our way back to each other."

Alex coos, "Awww… So it took you guys fifteen years to realize you wanted to bone?" I unsuccessfully stifle my laughter at Alex's word choice.

"Bone, Alex?"

She nods, "You know, like have sex."

I shake my head, murmuring, "We have a new front-runner for most awkward conversation with my future step-daughter."

Alex laughs, "Yeah, yeah... But answer my question. It took fifteen years?"

I shrug, "Not exactly… We were both interested in each other in ways that went far beyond platonic, but our timing was always wrong. Until last March."

Alex asks, "What happened last March?"

I smile, "The timing was finally right."

Laurel smiles as she continues sketching. She's been drawing this entire time, and I'm curious as to what she's going to come up with. "Tell me about Clarke."

"What do you want to know?"

Alex cuts in, "Sappy stuff, Bellamy."

Laurel laughs in agreement, "Yeah, what she said, basically. I don't know Clarke, so tell me why she's special. Why are you giving her this ring?"

"Well, I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

Alex rolls her eyes, "Obvs. Now tell us why."

I narrow my eyes at Alex, "Why do I feel like I'm being tested?"

Alex shrugs, "Maybe you are. Now do as the nice lady asked… Describe mom."

I laugh as I lean back in the seat. And the words just start pouring out. "She's… my other half. She not only understands me, she accepts me. All of me. And loves me even when I don't think I deserve it. That's Clarke. She loves so much and so deeply. She'd been burned in the past, and she was wary of the notion of 'love.' But I have the privilege of getting to love her… She let me in." I look down and Alex has this wistful smile on her face. She loves hearing about her mom.

"She's one of those people who doesn't quite believe how truly amazing she is. She'll joke around about being conceited, but she doesn't sincerely consider herself to be the extraordinary woman she is. She's so unbelievably strong… She's impassioned and loyal. When she goes for something, she puts her entire self in it. Clarke makes impossible things happen. She always rises to the challenge. She finished med school, then went through a grueling residency as a single mom, and has this kid here to show for it." I motion toward Alex, who is smiling brightly.

"She's hilarious. Sometimes her humor is dry and tactless. Sometimes her obliviousness is the funniest thing. Other times she's a total nerd. She has a great laugh, and when she lets herself really laugh, it's among the most beautiful sounds in the world."

I feel a flood emotions pass through me as I think back on the past decade and a half like a highlight reel. The first time I heard her playing the piano… The first time she scowled at me in class for calling her Princess… The countless fights I picked with her just to see the spark in her eye, the fire burning inside of her... The inappropriate surge of pride I felt because I was the one who put that spark there…

I don't realize I stopped talking until Alex pokes at me. "What else? You stopped after talking about mom laughing."

"Oh, sorry. I was thinking about the first time I realized I loved her." Alex looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue. "I had already accepted the fact that I was addicted to her fiery temper, otherwise I wouldn't have devoted so much time to pissing her off." Alex chuckles when a grin stretches across my face. "For a while, I told myself that my fixation was just misplaced intrigue… But one day, it finally hit me. I was sitting across from her in the music library while she took down notes for our Stravinsky presentation. It was our sophomore year of undergrad, back when we were both still studying music. We got assigned to work on a project together, analyzing The Rite of Spring. Our professor had purposefully matched us together, and both of us were… less than pleased about it. He wouldn't change the assignments, so we were stuck working together. It ended up being fantastic. Working together to prepare that presentation is what probably helped us to get over our mutual dislike of each other. If we're being honest, though, we had stopped hating each other long before that." Alex raises an eyebrow, clearly recalling a story I told her this summer, so I amend my statement. "Okay, fine… I never hated her. But she was so infuriating, and she loved being right. So, of course, I made it my mission to pick apart every argument she made."

Alex interrupts to inform Laurel, "Apparently, he thought that any attention was good attention."

I shrug with a smug grin, "Like I told you the first time, Alex: Clarke Griffin knew who I was."

Alex rolls her eyes, "Yeah, whatever. Back to falling in love with mom."

"Alright, alright… You're so pushy."

Alex shrugs, clearly not bothered by the accusation. She just gives me an eager smile, waiting for me to continue.

"So we were forced together for the Stravinsky presentation. We met up at the music library because it was a neutral location. It must have been shortly before the presentation, because Clarke was assembling the PowerPoint slides, using my hand-written notes. I remember intently watching the line between her brows deepen as she frowned in frustration, trying to decipher my writing. Clarke sighed and looked up at me, and when she met my gaze, my heart practically skipped a beat. We had a moment – like we were trapped in each other's gaze, you know?" Alex smiles fondly and nods. I continue, "Then the moment passed, and her gaze transformed into a glare and she scoffed 'I swear to god, Bellamy… How the hell did you get this far in life with the handwriting skills of a five-year old?' That probably should have ruined it, but I could still hear my heart pounding wildly in my ears, undeterred by her condescension. I realized I was so far beyond gone for Clarke Griffin."

Alex asks, curious, "What did you do about it?"

I huff and shrug my shoulders, "I insulted her…" Alex sighs exasperatedly, so I continue, "Hey, give me a break. I was taken off-guard by the sudden realization that I was in love with her, and I needed some time to sort out the unfamiliar feelings."

Alex rolls her eyes, "You guys were ridiculous."

I laugh, "No one ever accused us of being rational…"

Laurel is still sketching, responding to my narrative with strokes of her pencil moving wildly over the paper. I continue, "Clarke knows how to push my buttons, for sure… There's no one who can set me on fire more effectively than Clarke. I mean that in every possible context. Except for actual fire." I think on it for a minute, before correcting myself. "Actually, I wouldn't put real fire past her." Both Alex and Laurel chuckle. "But in all seriousness, Clarke knows better than anyone how to put me back together when I feel broken. She makes me feel human." I pause there. There's so much I want to say, and it's starting to jumble around in my head. "And fuck, she's so beautiful…"

Alex agrees, "He's right. My mom is so pretty."

Laurel smiles at her, "Well, if she looks anything like you, I'd have to agree."

I keep going, "I mean it. Beautiful, inside and out. She's a good person, and that goodness inside of her is radiant." Alex smiles at me as I wrap up my paltry description of Clarke. "If I were to describe Clarke in one word, it would be… home. Because she is who I will come back to every day. Wherever Clarke is, that's my home."

Laurel straightens out her papers with a delighted smile. "Ready?"

"Really? You're done? That took like, no time at all."

Laurel smiles, looking pleased, "I'm good like that. Keep in mind, these are rough sketches, just to put the design concept on paper."

She unveils her sketches, and I'm stunned. Each ring is perfect in one way or another, but one stands out beyond the rest, and judging by Alex's delighted smile, she agrees with me. The details are stunningly Clarke-like. Two strands of platinum will make up the shank, weaving and wrapping around each other. I can't help but smirk at the fact that the strands remind me of ropes, which is interesting considering that I mentioned nothing about Clarke's love of rope bondage. Laurel took creative license and added two additional smaller sapphires, also pear-shaped, placed on either side of the main stone, encased between the two metal strands where they separate. The pointed ends of the side stones face away from the center stone. On the face-side of the ring, the metal "strands" will hold several small round ice-blue sapphires as they surround the darker sapphires. The combined elements of the engagement ring together look like an ornate infinity symbol around the center stone. The final, winning component is a wedding band. When put together with the engagement ring, it looks like a crown fit for a princess.

After we've finalized the details, I pull out a bank card that's never been used. I started putting money away specifically for this purpose about a week after Clarke came back into my life. I figured the sooner I start saving, the better prepared I'd be for the price tag. I know now that nothing would ever really 'prepare' me for the price tag, but thankfully I've saved more than enough to cover it.

While we're walking back to the car, I hear my phone chime and I look at it. It's a file sent from Alex. "What's this?"

She smirks, "I recorded you when you were talking to Laurel. I thought you might want it for later, because you know, vows and stuff."

I stop walking and crouch down to Alex's level, pulling her into a hug. "Thank you, Alex. That's perfect."

She hugs me back, "You're welcome, Bellamy…" She squeezes me harder and adds softly, "Don't fuck it up."

I huff a laugh, "Charming."

On our way back to the car, Alex pulls me back into the store with the wind chimes. "I wasn't kidding when I said I needed to get her a present. I liked the wind chimes." As the cashier rings us up, I start pulling out my wallet. Alex stops me, retrieving her own wallet. "No, I've got this. Thanks, though."

"You got it."

After she pays, we walk back to the car. "So have you figured out how you're gonna propose, yet?"

I smile, "I've got a few ideas..."

End Chapter Notes

I've got a billion ideas for how Bellamy will propose to Clarke... picking just one will be a challenge.

I've got a play party chapter in the works... It's taking longer than I thought because there is just sooooo much happening in that thing. Thank you all for your patience!

Also, I'm on tumblr now! I(username MissEMarissa) Come visit me while I figure out what the hell I'm doing on there.

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Also, if you have any requests for scenes you'd like to see, please leave a comment and let me know, and maybe I'll be able to work it in :) THANK YOU ALL!