Continued...
Raven followed Clarke into the kitchen and they took their spots at the table, like they had years in the past.
"So, have you two every made cookies?" Raven asked.
"Obviously." Murphy retorted, as the one out of them all who loved to cook, he figured it would be obvious he also knew how to bake.
"I used to bake with O every year." Bellamy replied, coming up to the table the girls were posed at. The ingredients were on it in a line down the middle.
"Well, with you two here, we're upping the ante. Normally we bake only two kinds of cookies, cut outs and usually snicker doodles because who doesn't love a snicker doodle?" Raven boasted.
"Heathens." Clarke joked.
"Four of us, four type of cookies." Raven continued.
"You sure you have the means for that?" Bellamy wondered as he looked at the table. The girls nodded, almost in unison.
"We went to the store before you guys got here." They smiled as Clarke informed them, they were well prepared.
"Well alright, Boss." Bellamy smiled back at her. "Cut outs, which I assume will be decorated, Snicker doodles and what else?"
"Well I don't know. You two seem so confident?" Clarke pinched her fingers in the pot of flour and flicked it at him. His mouth fell open but he didn't fight back. He narrowed his eyes at her but his grin gave him away. She looked to Raven. "Think we should make one of them do pinwheels and the other. We could make the other do gingerbread." She snarled. Neither of them liked Gingerbread but so many people loved it, a classic cookie for the season."
"Fuck that, you make your doughs and if you have enough eggs left over, I'll make you girls Parisian macarons." Murphy proposed.
"Do we even have what you need for that?" Clarke asked. He nodded and moved to the kitchen. He presented an almost full bag of almond slivers, of which he could grind to make almond flour.
"How- Oh, he made us dinner." Raven put together how he knew they had almond slivers.
"Alright, I'll do the cut-outs, Ray can do the doodles, Bell can do the pinwheels and Murphy can do macarons.
With their game plan in place, they got busy and quickly made a mess. Murphy was surprisingly serious in the kitchen, but Clarke and Raven were more relaxed and wanted to fuck around a bit, as proven when they would flick flour around at the boys and at one another. Naturally as the day progressed there was a lot of flour to clean up on all four of them and on most surfaces in the kitchen. At some point they pairs had ended up on one side or another of the table, Raven and Bellamy essentially changing places. This worked though as Clarke and Bellamy's doughs were the same thing, he just needed different colors for his cookie. Once all the doughs were made, they took a break to let them chill while Murphy put together his batter. Bellamy and Clarke left Raven and Murphy alone in the kitchen.
"We look like kids." Bellamy noted the blotches of white peppering their clothing and how playful the kitchen had gotten. Clarke reached over and brushed flour off his cheek, freeing his freckles from being hidden. He leaned into her touch and met her hand with his.
"Sorry about before." He said quietly, they were in their own little world right now and following his words Clarke had a devious grin on her face. Confused, he looked at her. She took his hand into hers and lead him out of the living room and into the main bathroom. She shut the door behind them and moved him to lean against the sink. He got flustered in that moment. He was in this very room for about an hour ago putting cold water on his face after the display he made. Heat in his body rose as he watched her every move. She was deliberate and slow but she didn't make any move on him. Instead, she grabbed a washcloth from the stack on a shelf and moved to his side, her hip touching his. She wet the cloth and rang it out before standing in front of him. Their eyes danced for a paused moment before she reached up and wiped the flour off his face. Every tiny gesture of hers seemed so calculated, like she had a plan. If it was to kill him, it would work. A slow death. She was painfully silent and she just gently brushed whatever was on his face off. It was a tiny gesture, something only lasting a few seconds but it felt so long He stopped her hand though and took the rag. His fingers held her chin like a cloud in his hand and the other taking the wet cloth to her skin to pick up the stray flour on her own face and a little cluster on her neck. His eyes grazed her skin, it was so soft, so tempting.
He was pulled out of his lust by her brashly taking the rag back and swatting it at his shirt. He was confused for a moment but the look on her face said everything he needed to know. She was fucking with him at this point and it was clear as day. She spotted up and dusted off his clothing, starting at the neck of his shirt and moving down slowly, her eyes moved up to his as she moved to the bottom of his shirt. She stopped and he looked at her very seriously. The tension was thick, just how she wanted it. She riled him up and had him on edge, so when she took the rag and tossed it gently against his chest he felt momentarily annoyed. She would.
Clarke wasn't as messy as he was, so she only needed to dust herself off a little bit. She grinned and began to turn from him but he dared to stop her. One hand on her side, a soft touch but one that spoke volumes. She looked at his hand and then back up to his eyes. Her hand moved to the top of his and pushed it down, off of her body but she continued holding it. Her body came to meet his, pressed fully against the front of his body, her toes lifting her to meet his height or close to before her lips pressed against his. She was much more gentle than his display before but no less diabolical. Her teeth grazed his lip, threatening to take it in and nip at it but she paused and let her tongue part his lips and she kissed him with a depth they hadn't felt since Halloween. Only this time, there was no alcohol in their systems. Bellamy was beside himself moments later when she parted from him and left his lips hungry for more.
"Payback is a bitch." Clarke whispered as she walked out of the bathroom, leaving him in a stupor at the sink. He literally had to check that he was still presentable by glancing down before exiting the bathroom himself. He was steps behind Clarke who had just turned into the kitchen.
"Cookies don't make themselves!" She called out, ready to attack the dough and bake things up. Murphy was piping out a thin macaron batter into near perfect circles on parchment.
"Shouldn't those be on a sheet?" Bellamy asked.
"Not yet. We don't have enough cookie sheets and they need to get a skin so for now they can sit." He explained, knowing what he was doing.
"Alright, let's cookie." Raven said moving away from Murphy. They pulled their doughs out and rolled them out. Clarke had an array of holiday shaped cutters to use for her cookies, where as Raven just had roughly sized balls that she squished down onto sheets of parchment. Bellamy had to roll out three doughs, a non-colored one, a red and a green one. Once they were all roughly the same size he stacked them and rolled them into a log. From that log he cut discs that formed the cookies with a spiral of Christmas colors. The oven only had two racks, but they had extenders that allowed them to put in four sheets. Two of which were for the cut outs, one for the snicker doodles and one for Bellamy's pinwheels. They all set timers for their respective cookies and the four piled onto the couch for a break. None of the cookies took long to bake and the small amount of counter space they had was quickly covered in cooling cookies which made the house smell so sweet and festive. After the sheets were cooled down enough and the oven was changed, Murphy was on display transferring the parchment to the back of the cookie sheet without messing up the circles he had piped. He baked off the meringue cookies very carefully and ended up with perfectly baked cookies.
While the cookies cooled they cleaned the kitchen up and then Murphy gladly put together some food for them. The girls normally had takeout but Murphy made magic which what little they had to work with. He scrounged around the kitchen and remembered they had a bunch of avocado, something they both ate a lot of. They also had chicken, a mixed array of veggies in different states of ripeness, and a ton of seasonings and spices that had mostly been used once and forgotten about. It took him only thirty minutes to cook up chicken, make a homemade salsa of sorts, a fresh guacamole.
"Christmas Eve Taco Bar." He presented the small array set up on the stove top. He left the seasoned meat in the pan on the warm burner and the three unused burners held a plate with bowls of fixings like cheese, shredded lettuce and tomato, the bowl of salsa he prepared and then a platter with chips and guacamole on it.
"You just did all this?" Bellamy looked, very impressed.
"Yep. They don't leave me much to be creative." He boasted.
"Oh I'm so sorry we aren't stocked like a professional kitchen for the one random time you'll be here cooking for people." Raven feigned sympathy with a bright smile on her face. Clarke nodded. "Yeah!"
"You mean twice." He boasted. "I've made you dinner twice now."
"If they don't want your food, you can come home and cook for me." Bellamy dryly said and the other three broke into laughter.
"Let's eat." Murphy handed the girls plates and moved to the side. They all went through line a lineup and grabbed what they wanted. There was enough stuff for a few tacos a piece and plenty of chips. The kitchen was a bit busy with things so Raven declared they would eat in the living room. The girls sat on the floor using the table while the two men sat on the couch behind them.
"This man can cook." Bellamy said between bites. Such a simple meal but very flavorful. Murphy took the compliment less than humbly, knowing his prowess in the kitchen. Full bellies and half way through an action movie playing on a networked station, Clarke's phone rang.
"No no no." She mumbled nervously as she got herself up to answer it.
"What's up?" Bellamy asked, but she said nothing. Raven on the other hand turned to look at him.
"She's on call" was all she needed to say to make the point clear. Clarke paced into the kitchen with her phone to her ear, speaking quietly so the rest of the group couldn't hear her. It was a short call but lasted a good minute or two which was out of the norm for being called in. When she finally put the phone away, she didn't look upset or happy as she rejoined them.
"False alarm." She said with a half-cocked grin.
"Oh Thank God." Raven was relieved.
"Yeah. Should we decorate?" Clarke scooped up her and Raven's empty plates and nodded to the kitchen. The trio followed. Bellamy politely helped himself to the dishes with a minor fuss from Clarke, but she of course wouldn't win. They didn't have a dishwasher so keeping things clean as they went along was the best practice. Raven taped down wax paper to cover the table, knowing the mess they could make or had in the past. Clarke prepared a large batch of royal icing from scratch and separates it into a handful of colors, all of which were put into sandwich bags with the tips cut off. Meanwhile Murphy was blending together a buttercream to full the macarons and Raven then collected their basket of sprinkles. That's right. They had accumulated sprinkles year round for this very evening. Any time they saw something they didn't have or just needed to have, they would buy it. The collection was vast, to say in the least. As Bellamy finished up to help them decorate, he snapped the damp hand towel he dried his hands with against Clarke's ass and feigned innocence, moving to the other side of the table. She shot him a glare that could kill a man and he couldn't help but grin the size of the sun.
There were a lot of cookies to decorate and four different people decorating. As the evening progressed it was interesting to see bare brown cookies return to the table in full dress and all in different styles. It was clear that Clarke and Raven had done this before and their cookies, especially Clarke's came out looking like they were from a magazine. Murphy was a good cook but he was not a good decorator. He didn't seem to have the patience to pipe and flood the cookies so he just smeared the icing on and would put odd arrangements of sprinkles on them. Bellamy on the other hand tried. He filled the cookies in pretty smoothly even separating colors like on the stocking shaped cookie he currently had. He used little pearl sprinkles to spell out Clarke's name, barely fitting it on the small cookie. With it complete, he moved around the table to her side and set it down beside her, brushing her back before moving back to his post. She beamed to the heavens at the gesture and made sure that cookie stayed safe.
A fair chunk of time had passed by while they decorated their cookies, even Murphy added some sanding sugar to the edge of some of his Parisian macarons. The girls were getting tired though, so she set them all out to dry and packaged up Bellamy's pinwheels and the macarons before cleaning up the rest of the kitchen. This time Clarke kicked everyone else out, which didn't go over without resistance but she insisted and was allowed to clean the kitchen up by herself. They collapsed into the sofa and sat through a couple of classic Christmas movies, the animated ones that used to show on TV when they were kids. Raven was getting uncomfortable though and tried to suggest they end the night. No one else wanted to, but she wasn't ready to show the boys that side of herself. It was something she dealt with very privately, not wanting to seem vulnerable. She pressed though and finally gave in saying she would just go to bed. She seems brash in her choice, but Clarke covered for her.
"Yeah, I'm tired too." She lied to support her friend. Raven stayed seated on the couch due to her pain and it made embarrassment rise in her cheeks as the boys hesitated to leave, but Bellamy caught it. Murphy noticed something was wrong but wasn't quite aware of what it was. He knew she had been injured and had sustained life changing damage but he didn't understand that she felt she needed to hide that from them. As he processed that though, he almost said something but Bellamy stopped him.
"Let's let the girls get some rest." He helped cover for her and ushered Murphy to the door. He could tell Murphy was going to say something so he clapped him on the shoulder a bit harder than normal.
"Walk with me, I want to know what else you cook." That worked in distracting him and the two were bid goodnight and let out of the apartment. Once they were gone, Raven let her body relax a bit, tension building from the pain.
"I shouldn't have stood the whole time." She bit back tears as she sat still on the sofa.
"How can I help?" Clarke asked both as her best friend and as a nurse.
Raven let the tears fall, just a few stray droplets that she blinked away. "I need to lay down." She wouldn't look at Clarke. Now, this wasn't the first time she had seen her in this much pain. They were incredibly close and Clarke and Abby were the only people to ever see her this vulnerable. She knew what routines Raven had in place for when she had different episodes of pain or mobility issues. The brace, wedges to elevate with, crutches and a wheelchair she refused to let see the light of day. It was nerve damage and swelling which would be so debilitating.
"Okay, how do you need me to help you?" Clarke was so formal knowing not to trigger any emotions right now. It was the nurse side of her.
Raven looked flustered. "I don't know if I can walk right now." She admitted, humiliated.
A light tap on the front door made them both jump, only the slightest bit.
"One of the boys must have forgot something." Clarke reasoned to keep her upset friend from getting less upset. She went to the door and looked to Raven for permission to answer it. The teary-eyed woman nodded, putting on a warrior expression.
Clarke unlocked the door and pulled it open a little, checking who it was. It was Bellamy.
"Forget something?" She asked in a quiet but stern tone.
"Is she okay?" He whispered, warming her heart by showing his. She didn't look to Raven, and she narrowed the doors opening to a smaller crack.
"Not sure." She replied back.
"Let me help, please." His tone was a bit louder, likely still out of earshot of Raven. She looked into his eyes, the depth of them showing his concern. She gambled the idea that opening the door would piss her off, but it would also help her and him. Clarke could lift Raven if she had to, she was a nurse and she had to help move, life and flip people all of the time. Right now though, she too was tired. She took in a breath and made the choice, silently stepping away and pulling the door open with her.
Bellamy stepped back into the apartment and looked over to Raven with an understanding and concern that only a brother could have. He had seen this behavior with Octavia before and he completely understood. He was the same.
"Did you forget something?" Raven posed unaffected by her pain, but she struggled to ignore the biting pain and swelling in her spine and leg. He could see through it.
"Yeah, I forgot to ask how you are feeling."
"Just fine, thanks. Good night."
He turned to Clarke and looked at her. "How is she really feeling?"
"Ray." Clarke cocked her head, hoping to get Raven to open up. The woman was too tired to fight and she dropped her facade at Clarke's request.
"I hurt like hell okay, I'm not a spectator sport, I'm fine." The fact that she felt like she needed to defend herself hurt their heart.
"No one said you were, Raven. You are however stubborn. I get it. You don't want to let people see you hurt because you think it makes you look weak." He moved to her side, sitting down with her. "The thing is, you're strong as fuck for putting up with the pain that you do. You're just like Octavia and hell, even me. I don't let people see my pain, or I try not to, but when I need help I let others help me. You know why? To make them feel better, not me." Clarke watched him explain this to her and her heart flipped in her chest at his words.
"Look at the people who love you. We look at you with hurt, not pity." He looked at Clarke and her face embodied his every word. "It's not a weakness to not be okay or to need help." He summed his thoughts up in one sentence, to preserve giving her some long-winded speech. She was crying freely at this point as she knew he was right but it didn't change her need to self preserve.
"Okay shut up." She finally said, wiping her eyes with her fingers. Clarke offered her a tissue too late but she smiled at the gesture and used it to wipe her nose.
"Can I just go to bed now?" She asked, cocking her head at the two who looked over her lovingly.
"How do you want to get there?" Clarke asked, back in nurse mode.
"If you guys support me, I can walk." She suggested and moved herself a little bit to get ready to stand. A nerve pain shot through upper leg and into her lower back making her cry out. A nerve was probably pinched, Clarke figured.
"What if I carry her?" Bellamy looked to Clarke, wondering if that would hurt her more or relieve the pressure. She clearly needed to get off her butt after standing still for so long which had punished the injury.
Clarke looked at Raven and then Bellamy and nodded. She knew everything about Raven's injury, where her pain could manifest and how bad it could. In a way she was her caregiver when she needed it, which was a very unspoken concept.
"That okay with you?" He stood up and removed his coat, setting it down. Raven simply nodded, no words.
"Hold on to my neck, I'm just going to scoop you up." He said, expecting her to understand that he wouldn't be carrying her in some weird way but a very standard one-person carry. After hiking up his jeans, he hooked an arm around her upper back and the other under her knees. He checked his balance and looked at her before counting a quick one, two and three he hoisted her up. She was incredibly lightweight with little to no fat on her body. She winced in pain from the pressure of her knees being pressed together so he made quick work. Clarke led him to Raven's bedroom and opened the door for her. She peeled back the bedding and laid out a fold-able wedge system that would elevate her hips a tiny bit but mostly her knees. Without word Bellamy put Raven in her bed and moved out of the way, letting Clarke's nurse mode kick in.
"You need to be whisked away any time, just asked." He took a shot at a light-hearted joke, and she laughed.
"If I didn't know better I'd say you were flirting with me!" She feigned shock.
Chuckling, Clarke looked at her friend. "Good thing you know better." They all laughed and Bellamy excused himself out of the room, giving them privacy. When Clarke was done making sure Raven was alright for the night, she found Bellamy standing at the door, his coat draped over his arm. They shared a warm smile as she walked over to him.
"All that just to make cookies and impress a boy. She'll never grow up." Clarke joked and Bellamy grinned.
"Sounds like Octavia to be honest."
"Speaking of the boy, how did you get rid of Murphy?" She asked.
"I was honest. He didn't like it, but he listened. He could tell something was wrong, he just didn't know why she would hide her pain. I think he was even offended she would, like she should bare it all to him." He shrugged.
"She doesn't bare it all to anyone, not even me. When she's having a bad day like this, it's always a silent thing. Help when I know I'm needed but we don't really talk about it. She doesn't want to and I don't press her. She feels so much shame."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Nothing to be ashamed of. I don't know much about her injury but I imagine it's not easy to deal with." He rubbed his face and shook his head.
Clarke reached her hand out to his other hand, taking it. "Stay and I'll explain." She said even more quietly than they were already talking. He didn't hesitate to heed her request and he hung his arm letting her pull him to the sofa. They did just that, talked about Raven and Clarke's history together and in turn he shared about his relationship with Octavia. Hour passed by just chatting with the TV on in the background and white noise. It was around just before two in the morning when Clarke was yawning more than she was talking and he decided to let her get to bed.
"Thanks for today." He said walking to the door, her behind him with her arms wrapped around herself, cold and tired.
"Thank you for coming over." She smiled and stepped just slightly into his space.
Without thinking, be reached out and pulled her body into his, enveloping her in his arms. She wrapped hers around him in return and they held the hug tight and long before leaning apart just enough to look at one another. Rolling up on the tips of her toes, she levels the inches between them a bit and placed a sweet, tender kiss on his lips.
"Merry Christmas." She whispered when her lips were no longer on his. He lit up with a smile.
"Merry Christmas, Clarke." He kissed her forehead before breaking apart a little bit. "Get some rest, I'll see you tomorrow." They separated fully. "If Ray needs any help just tell me and I'll be here, she doesn't need to ask."
Bellamy turned to the door and pulled it open before putting his coat on. "Good Night." He looked at her.
"Night." She was short with words because she was so tired, but she smiled and watched him walk down the hall before closing the door and locking up. She checked everything was turned off and peeked into Raven's room for a moment before going into her own and curling up for the night. Warm, content, and full of hope for many tomorrows to come.
To be continued...