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"Guys, I have news." Bellamy announced at breakfast the next morning, fidgeting with excitement as he waited for his friends to take their seats at the breakfast table.
"My news is better." Murphy decided, stealing his thunder.
"What news?" Asked Emori, looking, Bellamy thought, almost alarmed and distinctly shifty. "You don't have news." She rushed to decide on her boyfriend's behalf. This was, he decided, somewhat suspicious behaviour. He would file this under things to muse upon next time he was waiting impatiently for a radio call.
"I might have news. You don't know." Murphy continued to be Murphy, but Bellamy couldn't help but feel that Emori looked relieved at the news that he was intending to be a bit of a tool rather than actually having any news.
"I, on the other hand, do have news." Bellamy insisted, trying to regain control of the conversation.
"And I have algae!" Monty announced triumphantly, as everyone except Echo groaned loudly. Bellamy couldn't decide if she was actually insane enough to like algae, or if she was just trying to win over the rest of the group.
"Oh, joy." Raven trilled sarcastically. "Let me guess, is it green today?"
"Don't be rude, Raven." Harper admonished gently. "It's better than starving to death."
"Wow, Harper. Keep complimenting his cooking skills like that and he's bound to fall in love with you." Murphy deadpanned.
"Right. Stop it, everyone. I have news." Bellamy announced, loudly, aware that the expression on his face was disproportionately fierce for the occasion. He went unheeded.
"If the news is that you and Clarke got together, don't bother." Raven recommended, and Bellamy felt his ears growing warm in embarrassment and annoyance. "I called that one years ago. I think that time when you radioed from Mount Weather and she looked like she was about to faint?"
"In that case," Echo joined in, "I win. I called it when I met him in Mount Weather when he first arrived and he was all super motivated to go off and save the world. It was pretty obvious he had someone in mind."
"I have you all beaten." Monty insisted. "First argument, first day on the ground. When she tried to stop you opening the doors and you looked like you'd been hit in the head by a moderately sized bear."
"You can't possibly -" Bellamy started the sentence, then realised he had no idea how it would end. "Anyway. That is not the news."
"Because it wouldn't be news." Harper interjected. Harper? It seemed absolutely everyone had it in for him this morning. Whatever. He would rise above it.
"So, as I was saying. My news. We're having a party via radio with Clarke and Madi tonight. In honour of getting in touch with them, and solving the fuel problem, and having a lot of things to celebrate."
"How does one have a party via radio, exactly?" Monty's eyebrows were twitching as he asked.
"Well, you know, we have a celebration, but we talk over the radio, so it's like we're all together." He felt defensive of this idea. It was a nice idea, dammit.
"I think there are other things that are better over the radio, but you refuse to find out..."
"Shut up, Murphy."
"So we sit around drinking moonshine while you hog the radio to talk to Clarke? I'm in." Raven decided.
"I – what – no. We all talk to Clarke. Also Madi. That's what makes it a party."
"You're telling me you're not going to hog the radio." Raven looked skeptical at best.
"I will not hog the radio." He promised.
"Hmm. Who'll take a bet that he hogs the radio? A week's worth of latrine duties? Emori?"
"I'm not taking that bet. We both know you'll win." Emori shrugged.
"I will not hog the radio. I feel no need to hog the radio." Why was no one listening to him?
"I'll check on the moonshine situation after breakfast." Monty volunteered, ignoring him. Again. He was growing to expect it.
"Please do not provide snacks." Raven requested with a quirk to her lips. "I know people think snacks make a good party, but algae snacks do not make a good party."
"I'll put together some music." Harper volunteered.
"I'll see if we can set up so that it plays to Clarke on Earth as well as up here." Emori suggested.
"I suppose I'll just grace this event with the pleasure of my company." Echo offered, one eyebrow raised, and Bellamy found himself laughing out loud. He wasn't used to hearing jokes from this particular crewmate.
"Well, it seems this promises to be the highlight of our extensive social calendar." Murphy's tone was, if possible, even more sarcastic than usual.
"Oh, be quiet, John. Your friend is excited. You could at least pretend to be happy for him." Bellamy wondered quite how they had all functioned before Emori walked into their lives.
"Thank you, Emori. I appreciate your support. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go tell Clarke and Madi that you're all really excited about this party, and that they'll hear from us later." His tone permitting no disagreement, he swept from the room. It was, he thought, really quite a good exit.
…...
Raven wouldn't necessarily have called it a party, but on reflection that was probably because she was naturally inclined to cynicism. As far as rather geographically distant friends in the midst of a nuclear apocalypse went, she supposed it was a pretty festive gathering. Madi was evidently having the time of her life, squealing with joy every time a new song came on and endlessly asking if they could play some old Earth game called pass the parcel, until Clarke had gently explained to her that she thought that might not work so well as they were really quite a long way away from each other. If she hadn't witnessed it first hand, Raven would never have imagined that Clarke could be capable of being quite so maternal and, well, sensitive. She'd always thought of her as rather abrupt, really, until now.
Here came Monty, doing the next round with the moonshine, doling out generous measures into the assortment of mugs that served them as tableware. Raven gladly received a hefty share, and turned to her right to toast Emori, only to find that her friend seemed to be refusing the alcohol.
"No, thanks, Monty." She was saying now.
"What's wrong with you then?" Raven, almost as good at sensitivity as Clarke, asked.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." Emori assured her a little too quickly. "I just don't fancy it, you know? I'll leave it to those who'll appreciate it more. You can have my serving." She smiled at Raven, who felt it was at least a little forced.
"Right. Sure." This, she felt, was not a likely story.
Emori was saved from her further questioning by Bellamy bounding over to them, doing an uncanny impression of one of those overenthusiastic puppies Raven had seen on old Earth footage.
"You see? I said this would be fun. Isn't this fun?" Raven was beyond pleased to see him this happy. Watching him mourn Clarke had not been a fun experience, to say the least.
"It's great, Bellamy. It was a good idea. Madi seems to be having the time of her life."
"Isn't she a great kid? I'm so pleased Clarke's not on her own down there." Raven privately thought that Madi and Bellamy seemed to have taken to one another rather quickly, and it would surely not be long until the child started referring to Bellamy as dad, and sniggered slightly at the idea before she could stop herself.
"What is it?" Bellamy asked, annoyingly perceptive as ever.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." Raven assured him. Hmm. There seemed to be a lot of nothing at all doing the rounds tonight.
She was saved by Harper beckoning them over to the radio.
"Madi has demanded stories, you guys. About our lives and our time on the ground. Who's up first?"
"I would remind you that she's seven." Clarke's voice came over the radio. "Please keep it age appropriate. If we could leave aside some of my more ruthless decisions and some of Bellamy's life choices from our first week or so on the ground, that would be excellent. I'll, erm, explain those to her when she's a little older."
Harper laughed aloud at that.
"I'm not sure there's any explaining some of those life choices of Bellamy's, Clarke." Raven began to feel a little uncomfortable, having been part of one of those life choices herself. "Thank goodness he settled down a bit once he got to know you."
"What are you guys talking about?" Madi's voice piped up over the radio.
"Nothing that matters any more." Bellamy rushed to reassure her. "Let's have a story."
"How about the story of Jasper leading the forty-seven inside Mount Weather?" Monty suggested quietly.
There was a beat of silence, then -
"That sounds perfect, Monty." Said Clarke. "Would you be able to tell that for us?"
Raven saw Monty reach out for Harper's hand, then he began to speak.
…...
Madi had gone to get ready for bed after Monty's story, after much convincing from Clarke, and the party – OK, perhaps it was more of a gathering, he had to admit it – was starting to drift to a close up on the Ring, too. Emori had been the first to call it a night, citing tiredness, which had Bellamy cocking an incredulous eyebrow at the efficient young woman he was pretty sure had never been tired in her entire life before. Murphy followed not long after, considerably the worse for wear from moonshine and visibly worried about Emori's unusual behaviour, in spite of her insistence that he shouldn't be worried. Harper and Monty were gathered by the radio, speaking quietly to Clarke and giggling softly. It was pretty wonderful, he decided, to see all his friends so happy after such a tough time on the ground, but all the same he couldn't help missing it. Stale air and the distance between him and Clarke were not his favourite things. Echo and Raven had both hit the moonshine with a good measure of enthusiasm, and were now dancing chaotically to Harper's playlist, a mess of limbs and laughing faces, as he wandered over to join them.
"Great party." Raven hiccuped in his face, never having really been one for boundaries.
"Yeah." He was aware he was smiling like an idiot, but he figured he had eighteen months of abject misery to make up for.
"Do you think she knows about our poor life choice?" Raven was half-yelling at him now, with no regard for the fact a terrifyingly ruthless spy was right there, and he wondered whether the Ark had just jolted beneath the soles of his shoes or whether it was his heart making that strange stuttering motion.
"I... I don't know, Raven." There was no point pretending he didn't know what she was talking about.
"Hey, relax, Bellamy. She wouldn't care. She's like the most forgiving person I know." Raven's arms were moving more than normal, in a sort of sweeping alcohol-induced way.
"You're probably right." He said, but he wasn't sure he felt it.
"I always am. All the same, I think I should tell her."
"What? No. You absolutely should not." Why was drunk Raven so convinced that telling Clarke about his past sexual encounters was a good idea? "Not tonight, at least." He hedged. "If you still want to have some honest heart-to-heart with her when you're sober, go for it." She seemed to contemplate this carefully.
"OK." She agreed.
"Good."
"I am drunk. I shall bed." She proclaimed suddenly, and stumbled from the room, and left Bellamy standing there, feeling an amused Echo's stare.
"Relax." She repeated Raven's earlier advice. "Clarke loves you, you love Clarke, anyone who's ever met the pair of you knows that. The fact that, it seems, somehow you and Raven once had sex is neither here nor there. It is, however, really very funny." At that, she revealed her own drunkenness in a fit of giggles. He frowned, but it made her no more grave. Why was everyone set on ignoring him today?
"I don't know what you're talking about." He needed to practise saying that with more conviction. He wasn't going to fool anyone at this rate.
"Yeah, you do." She insisted. "Night, Bellamy. Great party. Say thanks for me to Clarke for "hosting" too I guess."
"Yeah, of course. Night."
He walked over to Monty and Harper, who had clearly seen the others leave and decided that was their cue to call it a night as well.
"Night, Bellamy. Don't stay up too late." Monty grinned and pulled him into an enthusiastic hug. Maybe he'd had a little too much algae juice too.
"Goodnight, Bellamy. Night, Clarke. Sleep well." Harper shepherded her boyfriend out of the room.
"Clarke? You still there?" He asked into the radio.
"Me? No. Thought I'd go to bed without saying goodnight to you." He could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
"I choose not to rise to your sarcasm. Echo says thanks for co-hosting, albeit in an unconventional way, by the way."
"That's nice of her. She seems more fun than I expected."
"Yeah, agreed. To be fair, though, everyone's a bit more fun with less threat of immediate death, it turns out."
"That does not surprise me. Have the others all gone to bed, then?"
"Yeah. I think Emori's not well or something, she's been acting a bit weird recently and she went to bed early. Murphy basically followed her. Raven stayed long enough to get absolutely smashed and embarrass everyone."
"Nice. Standard Raven. So I think I should maybe go at some point and check that this child I'm responsible for has actually gone to bed and isn't, I don't know, running around the bear caves or jumping in the river or something."
"Seems reasonable. I should maybe go and check that these adults I seem to be responsible for were not too inebriated to get themselves safely back to their rooms."
"Not easy, being in charge, is it?" She quoted his words of just over two years ago and he laughed from deep in his belly, the alcohol having lowered his guard somewhat.
"I understand a very wise man once said that." He offered.
"Oh, absolutely." She agreed. "A man for whom I have the deepest respect and admiration."
"OK, now I know you're being sarcastic." He teased her.
"What gave me away?" She asked. "Was it the eye roll?"
"I wish." He mused, suddenly sombre. "I miss being able to see your face."
"Because it makes it easier to tell when I'm taking the piss? Or was that another one to add to my list of your awkward attempts at compliments?" Her voice was, he thought, not quite as light and carefree as it should be as she asked the question.
"Another one for the compliment list." He assured her. "I'm still practising. They'll improve over the next three and a half years, I promise"
"I should hope so. You can do better than that." She paused for a moment, as if considering something, then - "I miss your face too, by the way."
"Thanks." He thought that maybe he was in danger of hurting himself, smiling this widely. Surely his jaw was not built for this.
"Bed time?" She asked.
"I suppose so." He agreed reluctantly.
"Goodnight, then. Sleep well. And please consider this as a verbal goodnight hug." She offered, sounding slightly nervous at the idea.
"You sleep well too. And look after yourself down there. Please avoid savage mutant animals, etc. Here is a verbal goodnight hug from me, which is obviously better than your attempt at a verbal hug, because it is redeemable for an actual in person hug in three and a bit years."
"I look forward to it." He could hear her smile. "Speak to you tomorrow."
"Bye." He released the call button.
"Lots of love." He told the empty room.
a/n Thanks for reading!