Wow, it's been almost four months I suck at this updating lark! Anyway, this hasn't been beta'd so if there are mistakes I'm really sorry, but do feel free to tell me about them, and if you don't want to tell me about mistakes, tell me about something else :) thanks to everyone who reviews xx

The rest of the day is spent in relative silence between the two leaders. It's not unheard of for them to spend short amounts of time with one another not speaking, but these occasions are few and far between, and so at the end of the day, Clarke feels herself getting antsy. She gets that not talking is a necessity when hunting, and concedes that they've actually done pretty well. But not talking about the 100? It's agony to be alone with her thoughts, her worries, especially when she is so close to the person that she normally shares the burden with without being able to tell him of her fears. The two of them have never been gone for so long, and while she trusts Miller's stalwart commitment to keeping the camp safe, she can't help but become more and more fidgety as the day lengthens, with no sign of their returning to camp.

It's when she finally snags a deer without looking at the creature that she demands to be taken home.

"Bellamy, this is great, but quite obviously I don't need this training." Bellamy scoffs and mutters something under his breath, but she has a feeling that it wasn't complimentary, and rather than argue (which she thinks is probably what he wants anyway, he reverts back to whatever the hell we want pretty quickly when he doesn't get his way) she lets it slide.

"Look, I just took down an adult deer at fifty paces. I'm not leaving it, and it's easily going to take us the rest of the day to get it back to camp on our own. So let's move it," she huffs as she steps forward, bracing herself to slide down the slight dip on the forest floor and through the thickets of weeds that don't hesitate to cling to her legs, trying to trip her.

It takes a few moments, but soon enough she can hear Bellamy sliding down after her, mumbling something about "these damn triffids." She has no idea what a triffid is and calls back to ask, keeping her eyes trained on the trees surrounding the animal lest any larger prey is lurking.

"Nothing," Bellamy breathes into her ear, making Clarke jump a foot into the air, having not realised that he had gotten so close so quickly.

"Ju-ju-just something…. from a book that I read once," Bellamy forces out, pressing his hand against his mouth in an attempt to stem his laughter.

She scowls and shoves him, treading slowly out towards her kill. It was a clean shot, the arrow lodged deep into her throat. It had snapped, and the blood of the animal had spilled over the clean, soft fur at the neck, but given a chance and the kids on duty at the wash station would be able to get it out. At least it would mean another warm pelt for someone, come winter.

Bellamy joins her in hunching over the once majestic creature, catching up Clarke's hair in his hands and holding it out of the way. She turns to him in confusion and he holds up the ends of her locks to show her the red tips, while looking surprised at himself.

"Uh," he clears his throat, "didn't think you'd want this kind of hair dye," is the feeble joke that he manages to get out. He motions to her that he doesn't now know what to do with her hair, and she sighs her thanks, wrapping it around her hand to tuck it down her jacket. It's itchy as hell but he's right, she knows that she won't be leaving camp for a while once they return, and wouldn't get the chance to wash it out.

Bellamy quickly stands, putting some distance between him and the last curly strand of her hair that has fallen over her shoulder. He thoroughly inspects the arrow once she has pulled it out of the deer's body, and discards it with a sigh, knowing that he'd have to put someone up to the job of creating more, (not the most coveted job in the camp).

She winces at him in apology, but he just shakes his head and motions for her to help haul the beast almost entirely onto his shoulders.

"Come on you," he says, looking towards the sky as the sun begins to touch the tops of the trees, "we've probably not got long until sundown. We're not too far away though, believe it or not, I wanted to get back just as much as you."

They walk and she is relieved that the stretching silence has dissipated. Every so often he stops to readjust the carcass on his back, and refuses her offers to carry it (just for a little while to give him a break, even her ego admits that she could never have the strength that Bellamy does).

The journey is an odd one, their conversations going far deeper than anything that either of them had experienced before with one another. When they weren't discussing the camp (see fighting about) their exchanges tended towards a light bantering between the two, teasing and easy, not anything to think about. But their slow progress back to the dropship is the setting for talk of memories and hopes, of parents and siblings (that's rather one sided of course, but Clarke can't help but express a jealousy over his relationship with Octavia).

Bellamy reacts to this with a soft smile at first, but it slowly becomes ever more clouded as she talks of the ease of the relationship that he has with her, and her envy over not having a companion like that during her time on the Ark.

"Stop it," he snaps at her, after a few minutes of her words. They cut deep into him, about all the times he wished that he didn't have to deal with the burden of a sister living under the floor, and all the times he watched her with fear in her eyes, having to pretend that she didn't exist. It makes him feel guilty, but it also angers him, Clarke makes it sound so easy, but it never was. Not for a single one of them.

To Bellamy's credit though, he tells Clarke precisely this, his tone short and his words harsh, though every one of them the truth. She looks shocked and he almost regrets it. But she brushes her hand down his arm and it stops him just long enough to look into her eyes. There is no pity there, but a hint of understanding, and he knows it is because of the secret that she carried for such a short time, and the duties that she faces now. It is comfort, and it allows him to smile in apology and walk on.

They arrive home just after dark, and Clarke startles herself with the use of the word. Home. It's a foreign concept to her, but she supposes it fits here as well as anywhere.

And home? Well, home is chaos.

She follows Bellamy to the smoke-house, where he deposits their bounty, and turns with him to the crowd that has gathered around them, loudly proclaiming their woes to their leaders. It's not quite all of the camp, but it's most of them, with Miller at the very centre tightly embracing them both.

"Never leave again," he pleads passionately, "please never put me in this position again. God, I'm so glad you're back. It's been a living hell." With this he casts a look over the band of miscreants, and they slowly fall silent under his gaze.

Bellamy chuckles to himself must have had some success then, he thinks, before the physical weight that he has been carrying on his shoulders for the better part of three hours returns, it's Octavia, giving him a bear hug.

Raven jogs towards them, closely followed by Monty and the two start talking at the same time, making wild arm gestures and tripping over their words.

"Okay, okay!" Bellamy finally shouts, holding up a hand to halt the streams of words coming from multiple mouths. "Has anyone been injured, seriously or otherwise?" he asks. He is greeted with several shaking heads. "Have there been any threats to the camp?" once again, the delinquents mutely shake their heads. "So what the hell is the problem then?" he demands, and immediately regrets it, as a cacophony of voices assault their ears.

"QUIET!" he bellows, and they all shut up. He turns to Clarke and sees the mirth in her eyes, her body shaking from constricting her laughter.

"Clarke and I will be in the dropship. Miller, Raven, Monty – you're with us." Complaint and objections begin to fill the air.

"EVERYONE ELSE will wait in an orderly line outside the ship and we will get to you. If I don't deem your problem as important, then you will be on latrine duty for the foreseeable future." There is some grumbling but immediately almost half the crowd disperses back to their chores, while the others quietly line up outside the make-shift clinic to wait for their leaders to see them.

He sighs and turns to Clarke, and while she is no longer laughing at him, he can still see mirth lines around her lips, and he flicks her nose as he begins to steer her towards the dropship in the wake of the others.

"Come on Princess, we've got a lot of work to do, and we can't have any distractions," Bellamy states, clamping his hands onto her shoulders and walking her up the ramp into the metal box. Just as she turns her head to answer him Spacewalker's annoying whine rings out across the camp.

"Clarke! Clarke!"

Bellamy sighs. Perfect.

Just as the thudding of his feet reach the slope of the dropship, Bellamy releases Clarke and gives her a little push to signal that she should go in ahead of him, and turns to deal with Collins.

"So sorry Finn," Bellamy drawls sweetly, "but we're so super busy right now, lots to do, people to see, if you want to talk to us then there's a line. Bye now." With that, he turns and stalks into the ship, allowing no time for another word out of the younger boy's mouth.

He smiles smugly when he thinks no one is looking, but as he looks over to his small group of ragtag leaders he notices Clarke give him a soft smile and mouth thank you, nodding towards the entrance as she does so. He shrugs in return, but feels his cheeks go a little pink, pleased that she noticed.

Clarke and Bellamy spend the rest of the evening debriefing Miller (that's what Bellamy calls it and she thinks it is just hilarious) and listening to the petty squabbles and rows of almost forty of their kids, culminating rather spectacularly with Clarke pulling rank when two of the four boys she is dealing with ignore what she is saying, putting them on laundry duty for the next fourteen days.

It's nearing midnight, Octavia tells them, when everyone has been dealt with, meaning that most of the camp are abed, only those on watch generally being up and about at this hour. She gives them both a brief hug and heads out of the ship, leaving Bellamy and Clarke exhausted and almost dead on their feet, leaning on one another while they make their way out towards their respective tents.

Just as he turns to her to bid her a goodnight, she's ambushed by bloody Spacewalker again, and no matter how many times she tells him that she needs to sleep, he pleads to her over and over, until Bellamy just has to step in again.

"Clarke, we should go look over those maps for tomorrow if you want to send out that scouting party for those herbs that you need," he says, and not waiting for her to catch up to what he is saying, leads her away from Finn and into his tent. She's almost asleep on his shoulder by the time they enter, and he turns his body so she is able to collapse onto the bed, full clothed.

He shakes his head at her crumpled form, her arms above her head and her face turned to the left to stop her from suffocating while she lays on her belly. He tries to shake her awake but she doesn't stir more than to smack at his hand, so he kneels down and tugs her boots off. If she's going to sleep in his bed then she's sure as hell not going to dirty it up by wearing shoes.

He throws off his jacket, and toes off his boots and socks. He toys with the idea of leaving the rest of his clothes on but fuck it. It's my bed he thinks, I'm going to be comfortable. It's not my fault that she collapsed here, and as such shucks off his shirt and trousers and crawls underneath the covers, nudging Clarke over with his hip so that he has enough room to be comfortable. She rolls onto her back away from him and without thinking he follows her warmth.

They don't cuddle, but for Bellamy, sharing his bed with Clarke makes him sleep deeper than he has done since he was five.

Again, sorry for taking so long, and I hope you guys like it. Much love x