AN: Some more Venice before we continue to Rome! Hope you're all enjoying the European tour so far :)
I don't own anything relating to The 100
Chapter title from "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" by Switchfoot
33
Hold Fast to the Break of Daylight
They venture out for dinner a little later, before returning to the hotel for some more sex and, eventually, sleep.
All in all, Clarke thinks, a pretty awesome Saturday in Venice.
The rain is pouring down when they wake up on Sunday.
"The downside of travelling through Europe in the winter, I guess," she notes blearily, blinking at the window where Bellamy's just pushed the curtains to the side to let what little light there is into the room.
"It could be worse," he replies, flopping back onto the bed and throwing an arm over his face. "It could be snowing. Or it could be a hundred degrees outside. I prefer a bit of rain to both of those."
"Mmmm," she hums in agreement, snuggling closer and burying her face against his chest. "Still not ideal for island hopping."
His arm goes around her and he pulls her even closer, half on top of him.
"True. Do we need all day for that?"
They've bought two-day travel cards for the water buses and were planning on doing south and south-east – Giudecca, San Giorgio Maggiore and Lido – today and north and north-east – Murano and Burano – tomorrow.
"Probably not," she decides. "Definitely not if it's raining, we'd just be hurrying around anyway."
"Then I vote for staying in bed until the rain lets up," he says, squeezing her butt.
"And what if it rains all day?"
He pushes her back a little, so they're both on their sides, facing each other, and hitches her leg over his hip.
"Then I guess we'll just have to stay in bed… all… day… long," he replies, punctuating the last four words with kisses, starting at her mouth and finishing at her collar bone.
"Good plan," Clarke agrees, sliding her hand into his hair when he tugs the neckline of her t-shirt down and places an open mouthed kiss on her breast.
Her stomach chooses that exact moment to growl loudly, and Bellamy pulls back, laughing.
"After breakfast?" he asks, eyebrows raised.
She lets out an exaggerated sigh. "Fine."
He pinches her side before pushing himself out of bed and she throws a pillow at him before following. Sure, she is hungry, but on the other hand… sex.
Breakfast is nice, of course, and they're back in their room soon enough, making sure that the 'Do not disturb' sign is on the door before falling back into bed.
The rain finally stops around noon, and they – or at least Clarke – reluctantly put on actual clothes and leave the hotel.
"Come on, this is what we're here for," Bellamy tells her amusedly as they cross the open space outside their hotel to one of the ferry stations on the basin. "I mean, you know I'm all for sex, but we'll have plenty of time for that later."
"Should I be offended that you prefer sightseeing to sex?" she asks, trying to hide her grin.
"Not prefer," he objects, tugging her in by the hand to be able to wrap an arm around her waist. "Trust me – if I had to choose between sex and sightseeing, sex would win, hands down. But I don't, so we can do both."
She heaves an exaggerated sigh. "I guess."
She ends up having a great time, of course, but it's still fun to mess with him a little.
The first boat ride is only a few minutes and then they stroll around San Giorgio for a while, checking out the beautiful church they saw from the gondola yesterday, all the – more or less weird – pieces of art along the harbor and a labyrinth hidden between the buildings, before continuing to Giudecca. They get off at the first stop they get to and just wander along the water, admiring the buildings and the view of Venice across the water. When they get hungry, they grab some lunch, and then just continue exploring until they reach the other end of the island.
Lido is a bit further away, and they have to go by several ferry stops both on Giudecca and in Venice proper, as well as switch ferries before they finally reach it half an hour or so later.
"So what do you do on Lido?" Bellamy asks when they've gotten off the ferry.
Clarke frowns. "Honestly, I think the beach is the main draw, normally."
"Maybe not today."
The weather has improved during the afternoon, the sun has even managed to chase most of the clouds away, but it's definitely not warm enough for a day at the beach.
"Nope."
They check out the war memorial close to the ferry station before heading down the main street towards the beach, where they follow the promenade south. She can definitely see why the beach would be a nice spot to visit during the summer, but even though the sun is shining down on the sandy stretch and the water is glittering beyond it, the temperature has barely cleared fifty, so it's still not very inviting.
They continue until they hit a wall, and then they take a right and eventually find their way to the other side of the long, narrow island, heading back the way they came.
By the time they reach the ferry station again, the sun has definitely started to set, casting a golden glow over the islands dotted in the distance. The ferry arrives within minutes, and they easily find spots in the half-full cabin.
"So… good afternoon?" Bellamy gives her a sideways glance that anyone else would probably miss.
"Great afternoon," she assures him, leaning her head against his shoulder, and feels him let out a breath.
She's pretty sure he realized that she was joking about the sex over sightseeing thing earlier, but he's such a worrywart, it probably bothered him a little anyway.
"Good."
Still, it seems like he wants to make sure that she really doesn't feel like he picked an afternoon of sightseeing over staying in bed with her – they don't leave their room for the rest of the evening, and he insists that they order room service for dinner and doesn't let her out of bed except to use the bathroom.
And, well, it's not like she's going to say no to that.
The sky is still blue and the sun is shining when they get up on Monday, and it even feels like the temperature has risen a little, so they get an early start after breakfast with a nice walk to a ferry station on the north shore of the city.
On a whim, Clarke suggests that they make a quick stop on the island of San Michele, which functions as the main cemetery of Venice.
"Is it weird that we've visited…" she pauses to count, "three cemeteries so far?"
Bellamy considers her question for a moment. "Isn't it four?" he then asks. "The one in Glasgow, the one in Paris, the American cemetery and memorial near Omaha beach, and this one."
"Right, I'd forgotten the one in Normandy," she replies. "So that's even weirder."
He squeezes her hand as they leave the dock. "I wouldn't say weird… after Octavia left and before I moved in with Miller, I used to come to the cemetery in Paterson a lot. To visit Mom's grave, of course, but also… it was a peaceful place, you know? Somewhere I could just forget, for a while."
She offers him a smile that she hopes is comforting. "I do know. I've always found cemeteries beautiful, in some strange way… and, like you said, peaceful. And I like visiting different graves, learning about traditions from around the world. Did you know that in some Buddhist areas, like Tibet, the bodies of loved ones are cut into pieces and left for animals to pick clean?"
He grimaces a little. "That doesn't sound very nice."
"They believe that the body is just a vessel, so when the spirit inhabiting it has moved on, it's empty, and the ritual, they call it sky burial, is an act of charity and compassion."
"I guess I can see that. I mean, we burn our dead, what's so much better about that?"
"Exactly." They continue in silence for a while, before Clarke speaks again. "Do you know what region your dad was from, by the way? I know Taytay is in Rizal, but was he from there originally?"
"I have no idea, actually," he replies. "I only got Taytay from his passport, it's listed as place of birth, so he was at least born there, but I suppose his family could have been from somewhere else. Why?"
"Just another odd funeral tradition I remembered, from the Cavite region, just south of Manila. In some rural areas, people are buried in hollowed out tree trunks, which the person chooses before they die."
Bellamy shakes his head. "That's just… so weird. And what happens if the person dies in an accident or something, and doesn't have a chance to pick a tree they like?"
"I don't know," she says with a shrug. "I suppose someone else would have to pick one for them.
"Weird…"
There's hardly any people on the island, not strange since it's only half past nine on a Monday, and they stroll around the different areas of the cemetery mostly in silence, Clarke now and then commenting on something. There are many different types of graves – traditional ones with tombstones, columbaria, crypts…
Bellamy mostly offers hums of agreement or one word responses, and when they're heading back towards the ferry, she looks up at him to find his brows furrowed.
"What's wrong?"
He glances at her and lets out a sigh. "Just… I should probably think about this stuff, right?"
"Why?"
He just raises his eyebrows, which draws her attention to his Number – 138. Her stomach does an unpleasant flop. "Right…"
"I did give it some thought back when Mom died," he continues. "She didn't have a will or anything, and she never talked about it, so we had no idea what she wanted. In the end, it came down to cost – Mom's insurance covered some of it, but not everything, and cremation was just a lot cheaper, it was really the only option… but Octavia insisted on an actual plot, and we somehow managed to get enough money for it."
"Is it just a single plot, or…" Clarke doesn't finish the sentence, can't say the words out loud – is there enough space for someone else?
"Yeah, it's a single, and I…" He lets out a humorless laugh. "Is it bad if I don't want to be buried there? It's my hometown, or the closest I have, at least, but I just… I got out. It would almost feel like going backwards, if I end up there anyway."
She lets go of his hand so she can wrap both arms around him. It's not an ideal walking position, but she doesn't care. His arm comes around her shoulders as well. "It's not bad," she assures him. "There's nothing right or wrong in this type of situation, the only thing that matters is what you want, OK?"
He nods a little. "Yeah."
"And you don't have to decide anything right now," she continues, swallowing down a lump in her throat. "Just… when you figure it out, let me know or… write it down or something, OK?"
She knows that they will have to think about it, talk about it, before he… before. And maybe she should have been prepared for this, should have been thinking about it herself, to be able to help him figure it out, but she's just… well, she's been trying to not think about any of this, so she just hasn't.
Bellamy stops to be able to lean down and press a soft kiss to her lips, maybe sensing the war going on inside her. "I will. OK, time to talk about something else, because this is getting depressing – Murano, is that the one with the glassmaking?"
She's grateful for the change of subject and tries to push everything else aside during the short boat trip to Murano. As soon as they get off the ferry, Bellamy pulls her along to the lighthouse right by the station, stopping at the foot of the high tower and tilting his head back to take it all in, and she can't help but smile at the excited look on his face.
They check out glass blowing at one of the factories on the island – Clarke has seen it before, but Bellamy seems fascinated by the process of shaping glass – explore both sides of the Grand Canal and grab some lunch before wrapping the visit up with a tour of the glass museum.
Burano is a briefer stop, they basically just stroll around for a while, check out the colorful houses along the canals, stop to watch some little old ladies making lace here and there, and fulfill the tourist requirement by taking photos of each other pretending to prop up the bell tower of the church, which is leaning slightly – not as bad as the more famous leaning tower of Pisa, but enough to make it fun to play around a little.
They're back at the ferry station by a little after four, and since the weather is still nice, they decide to take a bit of a detour and hop on the ferry going the opposite way. The trip takes them through more of the Venetian archipelago, past mostly uninhabited islands until they reach Punta Sabbioni, which is actually on the Italian mainland, where they have to switch boats. The second leg of the journey, they follow the shoreline of Lido for a while, and then they're back in Venice.
"No seasickness today either," Clarke notes when they've disembarked at the station right by their hotel.
Bellamy laughs. "I think we can safely say I am not prone to seasickness."
"Yup," she agrees. "So you up for trying pizza tonight?"
"Sure. Know any good places?"
She thinks for a moment. "There was a great place near the Rialto Bridge last time I was here," she says. "But that was in the early nineties, so I wouldn't bet on it still being there."
"Maybe we can ask the receptionist if they can recommend something."
They do, getting the name of a restaurant just a few minutes away, which has some of the best pizza in Venice, according to the young woman at reception. Clarke's frankly amazed that she manages to tell them anything at all, with how much she's smiling and batting her eyelashes at Bellamy.
"Seriously, am I invisible or something?" she asks when they're climbing the stairs to their room.
"What?" He frowns at her question.
"Did you not notice that she was practically eye-fucking you?"
He snorts. "I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. She was just being friendly."
"Right, friendly…" she grumbles.
"Hey." He reaches for her hand and pulls her to a stop. "I'm sorry, if you say she was flirting, she probably was. I just didn't notice."
She raises a questioning eyebrow, because really, it was so obvious.
"No, hear me out," he continues. "I didn't notice, because I don't care."
OK, that's a pretty good reason. "I don't even know why I care," Clarke sort of exclaims. "I'm not a jealous person."
"I know," he replies, squeezing her hand before tugging her along down the hallway towards their room. "Honestly, if I had noticed, I probably would have been pissed. I mean, we're obviously together, who flirts with someone right in front of their partner? Especially someone in the service industry. Being nice is one thing, but straight out flirting is just bad customer service."
"Right?" She does feel her annoyance fade, which is a relief. She really isn't prone to jealousy and doesn't know where it came from.
"But you know you don't have anything to worry about, right?" Bellamy asks when they've reached their room.
She offers him a reassuring smile before flopping onto the bed. "Of course I do. Like I said, I don't usually get jealous, I don't know why I did this time. I feel a little silly, to be honest."
"Don't. If some Italian hottie was flirting with you, I'd probably get jealous too."
She raises an eyebrow at him. "Oh, so she was hot, was she?"
He rolls his eyes. "I was talking hypothetically."
"Sure you were." She's kidding. Mostly.
He joins her on the bed, turning onto his side so he can look at her, and runs a finger up her thigh. "Do I need to remind you how much I love you?"
"Hmm…" She pretends to think it over for a moment. "I suppose it couldn't hurt."
And, oh, he does.
They do need sustenance, and despite Clarke suggesting room service again, Bellamy is adamant that they really try the pizza the girl at reception suggested. She grudgingly agrees, dragging herself out of bed and pulling on some clothes before following him out of the room.
Instead of continuing through the lobby and out the door, though, he pulls her to a stop just inside it, in plain view of the reception desk.
"What're you…" she starts, but is cut off when he leans down and claims her lips in a kiss that is probably just a shade inappropriate for a public space. She returns it anyway, of course, because there's really not a scenario in which she wouldn't want to kiss him, stepping a little closer to get a better angle. His hand slides around her waist and settles against her back, and she fists her hand in his shirt.
They finally break apart when someone clears their throat next to them, and find a middle aged couple a few feet away. The man looks ruffled, blotches of red visible above the collar of his jacket, but the woman is smiling at them.
"City of love," she stage-whispers as they pass, and Clarke has to bite back on a chuckle.
"So what was that?" she asks once they're out in the open air.
Bellamy shrugs. "Just wanted to make it clear who I'm with."
It might be silly, but it makes a warmth settle in her stomach. She squeezes his arm. "I love you, you know that?"
She feels his lips press briefly against her temple. "I do. I love you."
The pizza is just as amazing as she hoped, and they linger at the cozy little restaurant for a while, enjoying some fantastic local wine and even indulging in dessert, splitting some tiramisu and panna cotta – they are in Italy, after all.
Their final full day in the city, they finally get to St Mark's Square. They have tickets to the Basilica for eleven in the morning, so they won't have to wait in line, but still head over as soon as they've had breakfast, strolling around the square, checking out the beautiful buildings, the campanile and, of course, the church itself. There are a few little carts selling souvenirs here and there, and they browse a little, even though Bellamy's already bought a beautiful, heart shaped pendant made of Murano glass for Octavia, and Clarke's not really looking for anything since Raven's been to Venice.
The Basilica is just as impressive as Clarke remembers, and the look on Bellamy's face when he takes in the golden mosaic covering the walls and ceiling just after they enter the church is just amazing.
"This is…" he starts, but doesn't seem to be able to find the right words.
"I know," she agrees, tilting her head back to take it in. "There's a reason it's called the Golden Basilica."
"I can see that." He shakes his head disbelievingly. "I can't believe it's… how old again?"
She opens the information folder she grabbed at the entrance and quickly finds the information. "Most of the mosaics in the domes date from between 1160 and 1200, so almost nine hundred years."
"Jesus." He snaps his mouth shut, glancing around. "Is it OK to say that in here? I don't want to, like, offend anyone."
Clarke pats his arm comfortingly. "I think you're good."
They continue strolling around, taking in all the amazing décor in the different rooms. Once they've both had their fill, they continue to the museum next door, to check out the original bronze horses, before climbing to the balcony stretching along the front of the Basilica, where reproductions of the same horses keep an eye on the square below.
"Lunch?" Bellamy suggests when they leave the museum and emerge into the sunny afternoon. "When do we have tickets for the Doge's Palace?"
She checks the electronic ticket on her phone. "Three, so we have plenty of time for lunch."
Since the cafés and restaurants on St Mark's Square are known for being ridiculously expensive, they venture away from the square, finding a little hole-in-the-wall place just a few minutes away.
The Doge's Palace is another hour of amazing art and décor, the gilded and painted ceilings making both of them crane their necks almost continually. The old prison cells are a stark contrast, dank and bare.
Since they've also booked the secret itineraries tour, they then get to step behind the scenes and visit the old torture chamber, venture down secret passageways and cross the Bridge of Sighs.
"We were down there the other day," Bellamy notes when they're stopped on the bridge, peeking through the small openings in the structure.
"Yeah," Clarke agrees.
"So do they say something about kissing on the Bridge of Sighs?" he asks after a moment.
She can't help but let out a brief laugh. "I don't know but… why risk it?"
He smiles at her reiteration of his words from their gondola tour under the bridge and then leans down to kiss her, nothing too intimate, just a soft press of lips.
-100-
Clarke wakes up with sunlight streaming in through a crack in the curtains on their last morning in Venice. For a moment, she's confused as to what she's looking at, but then she realizes that Bellamy's sitting propped up against the headboard, and she's sort of snuggling with his hip.
"Morning," he greets her amusedly when she looks up at him.
"Morning," she replies. "What're you doing? You know the train to Rome doesn't leave until after three, right? We're not in any hurry."
"I know," he confirms, eyes returning to the screen of his cell phone, which he has in his hand and is… writing on? "I'm just checking out some stuff to do in Rome."
Clarke frowns as she pushes herself up on her elbow to be able to peek at his phone. "You know I already have all that done, right? All the tickets are booked. I mean, we have a couple of free days, so if you've found something else, we should be able to fit it in, but not a whole bunch of things."
"Yeah, but this is none-ticket stuff," he tells her. "I'm planning my birthday."
"I thought you just wanted to check out the city, stroll around aimlessly?" she reminds him.
Bellamy shrugs. "I decided I wanted some structure."
"OK, show me what you've got."
"So this is our hotel," he says, pointing in the bottom right corner of the map on the screen, right next to the circle indicating the Colosseum. This might be the hotel Clarke is looking forward to the most – apart from the actual luxury hotels – since their room will have an amazing view of the Colosseum, something she hasn't told Bellamy yet. She can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees it. "I figure we head along this street, with the Roman Forum on one side. Piazza Venezia is up here, with the Vittoriano. I know we have tickets to that on Saturday, so we'll just check out the exterior. Then we'll take a left and eventually get to Piazza Navona."
Clarke nods. "OK, sounds good. And from there we'll stroll around aimlessly?"
"More or less." He skips to another screenshot of a map of the city. "I figure the final goal would be the Spanish steps, up there, with the Pantheon – just the exterior if there's too much people, if not, we can get that out of the way while we're there – and Fontana di Trevi along the way."
"Great." She looks closer at the screen. "What're all the red dots? Tezenis… Yamamay… Intimissimi?"
Bellamy blushes a little. "They're, uh… underwear stores."
She just stares at him for a long moment, watching as he becomes more and more uncomfortable. Finally, she can't take it anymore and bursts out laughing, flopping back down on the bed.
"Seriously?" she asks when she's gotten her laughter under control.
He rolls his eyes, clearly not embarrassed for getting caught anymore. "What? I just wanted to know the lay of the land before we get there. I'm helping."
"You're ridiculous, you know that?"
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbles, focusing back on his phone.
Something occurs to her and she pushes herself up so she's sitting cross legged on the bed. "How long have you been awake, anyway, if you already have the whole day planned?
"A while," he admits, looking a little sheepish. "I just, I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep… we're going to Rome!"
She sort of wants to laugh again, but he looks so earnest that she bites it back. "I know. So I guess we're going with even more enthusiastic about Rome, huh?"
"I wasn't sure but… yeah," he agrees easily. "Expect full out kid-on-Christmas levels of excitement when we actually get there. Seriously, I won't blame you if you're sick of me by the time we leave and want to cancel the rest of this trip."
"Yeah, that could never happen." She leans over and steals a kiss before getting out of bed. "Come on, time for our last Venetian breakfast."
They've done everything they were planning in the city, so they take their time at breakfast and then go back to the room to pack and… well, do other things.
Clarke paid for late checkout, since their train doesn't leave until almost half past three in the afternoon, so they don't have to check out and figure out what to do while dragging their luggage around, which is a relief. Now, they just head down to the lobby to check out at two thirty and hop on the vaporetto to the train station.
She's never really seen the Italian country side before, so the train ride is a new, nice experience. And, if she's honest, the best part might be watching Bellamy get more and more excited the closer they get to the capital. Once they're actually within the city limits, he can barely sit still in the seat, and he bounds up as soon as the train's come to a stop at the station.
Fortunately – or maybe unfortunately for Bellamy, who would no doubt love a complete tour of the city – the cab ride to the hotel is just fifteen minutes. They're dropped off literally across the street from the Colosseum, and for a moment, he just stands there, staring at the lit up building.
"You OK?" Clarke asks, voice only a little amused, when it's been a few minutes.
He shakes his head, as if trying to snap out of a daze. "Fine, sorry… it's just… this has been a dream since I was, I don't know, eight? I think it's going to take a while before it actually sinks in that I'm really here."
She slips her hand into his and squeezes. "Then I guess it's a good thing we have a week to do that."