Chapter Two:
Rain and Snow

"She's just like the weather,
can't hold her together.
Born from dark water,
daughter of the rain and snow."

Walking through the gardens with the Prince beside her was most assuredly the most awkward experience of her life.

Clarke hugged her coat against her body. She did not want to be here. She did not want him to be here. He knew both of these things. And he was smiling...again. He was also whistling softly behind her. Clarke didn't usually mind whistling, or smiling for that matter, but when he did it she wanted to pull her hair out. She supposed it was because she already disliked him so much, he could have brought her a puppy and she'd have hated it.

It was also distracting. She was chastising herself for ever hoping something might happen with Finn. She had known of this engagement since before she could talk, she should have been more careful. But Clarke was stubborn, and that was putting it mildly. Her mind had been set on hating this whistling, smiling man her entire life and there wasn't anything that could change her mind.

She said a silent thanks when she saw the greenhouses in view.

Her silent thanks quickly dissolved into a silent rage when she heard him speak.

"So, Princess, these are your precious greenhouses?"

She sighed but did not turn around. "Yes." As an afterthought she said, "My name isn't actually Princess." Even though he knew that.

She could actually feel him preparing to annoy her.

"I'll call you whatever you like, Clarke." She found herself hating the way he rolled the letters of her name together.

She huffed. The nerve of him. "That's rather familiar, don't you agree?" She bit out with a glance over her shoulder.

He stepped closer to her, almost brushing her back with his chest. She felt his breath stir her hair when he replied.

"Yes."

Clarke refused to step away, despite the voice inside her screaming that this was extremely inappropriate. She would not give him the satisfaction of bothering her.

"Well, seeing as we've just met I'd prefer if you did not refer to me as such." Only then did she move forwards, walking ever so slightly faster towards the greenhouses. She heard him jog to catch up up behind her and bit back a smile.

"You don't like me, do you, Princess?"

She whirled around and looked him in the eye, which was quite a feat considering he was at least 5 inches taller than she was. She briefly noticed that they were standing far too close to one another again, but did not step back. "No, quite frankly, I don't. Meaning no disrespect, Your Majesty." She said the title almost bitterly, as though he didn't deserve it. "I don't know the first thing about you, and I never asked for this marriage."

Damn him. He was still smiling. Clarke wanted to smack it off his face. She wouldn't dislike him nearly as much if he would stop taunting her.

"Well, my dear Clarke-" She cut him off with a pointed glare. "Princess. Seeing as you are a Princess -dare I say, the Princess- and I am a Prince of a highly influential and respected family, and this arrangement has been in talks since before either of us ever existed, I'm terribly sorry but I'm quite positive there is no way you'll be getting out of this."

"I'm well aware of that," Did he think she was a child? Of course she knew this, "However, nowhere in this arrangement does it state that I need to be happy about it."

And with that, she marched off back to the castle.

She could practically hear his smirk following after her.

Bellamy watched her walk back to the castle.

He spoke to the empty garden. "Whatever you say, Princess."

No, she was definitely not what he had been expecting. She was...passionate. Not just in the way she spoke to him, he saw it in the way her eyes lit up as the greenhouses had neared, he saw it in the way she walked, the way she breathed. Her very essence was spilling with passion.

This passion was the very reason he enjoyed teasing her. He knew she would be more inclined to like him if he stopped, but he saw the real Clarke Griffin come out when she spoke to him. The unreserved, animated way she behaved when he riled her up was so different to her manner in the tea room. Her eyes flashed and her cheeks turned pink and she lost some of the discipline. Her stance slackened slightly and her chin wasn't held quite so high. He liked her better this way.

Clarke stormed into the East Wing -her wing- in a flurry of blue skirts and blonde curls. She wanted to cry. She hated the Prince, she hated his devil-may-care attitude, and his stupid laugh, and his gorgeous face, and his god forsaken whistling.

She hated what he represented.
Her future

What he reminded her of.
Her heart

Her heart...why had she been so foolish as to fall for Finn? They could never be together, not in a hundred different lifetimes. She'd set herself up for a life of misery. She knew she could love again, but certainly not with Bellamy. Certainly not with her fate.

A knock sounded from the hall, causing Clarke to glance at the doors. She did not want to see anybody.

"Clarke, I know you're in there..."

She changed her mind, there was someone she needed to see after all.

Clarke opened the door and dragged the other girl inside before soundly shutting and locking the doors. She leaned against the handles and grinned at Raven.

Raven. She had been dying to talk to her, he best friend. Clarke, Finn, and Raven were something of a force to be reckoned with around the castle. Whether they had been 5 and running under people's feet, 10 and causing unwanted trouble, or 15 and sneaking around the halls at ungodly hours. If Clarke was not with one of them, she was with them both. She had always suspected Raven to be sweet on their mutual friend, but the girl had never said anything, so Clarke had kept quiet.

Her friend looked much too excited. Clarke was almost sad to disappoint her.

"You must tell me everything! Was he handsome? Funny? Tall? Is he nice? Did you like him? Did he like you?" All of this was said in one breath.

Clarke rolled her eyes. "Yes...No, yes, no, no, and dear god I hope not."

The darker girl frowned. That was the thing about Raven, if Clarke was day, she was night. Clarke was pale...extremely. With her ivory skin and golden hair and icy blue eyes, she looked like a snowflake. But Raven was striking in a way Clarke simply would never achieve. She had amber skin and rich brown hair and dark captivating eyes. Clarke was a snowflake, she was a thunderstorm.

She had always envied Raven for her beauty. Not that Clarke wasn't beautiful, but she had always wished to have the mysterious intrigue Raven possessed so naturally.

The other girl grabbed her hand, startling Clarke from her thoughts.

"Oh, come on, Clarke! He can't have been that terribly awful, tell me what happened."

The two friends sat cross-legged on the floor like they had when they where little girls and Clarke told her everything. Her initial fears, her first impression from the balcony, the greeting, the walk ,the whistling, all of it. Raven listened intently and when Clarke was finished she was silent for a moment.

"You know, Clarke...I think you're being a little hard on him. I mean, he's probably just as nervous as you are."

Clarke considered this. "Maybe you're right, but I will never love him, I don't know the first thing about him and we're to be married within the next four months..."

Raven looked apologetically at her friend, "I'm sorry Clarke, but it will work out in the end, it always does for you."

A/N: I want to thank you for all the wonderful reviews I've received already! I'm so happy people are enjoying this story because I really wasn't too sure how it would go over. I need to thank my amazingly fantastic beta Mandy for being amazingly fantastic. Also our friend Grace (who Mandy is also betaing) is writing a wonderful crossover fic for The Mortal Instruments and Harry Potter called This Magic Can Break Us. So if you should definitely go check it out! (Her user is StarsandGalaxies)

The lyrics at the top are from Landscape by Florence + The Machine

I'd also like to take a moment to reply to the reviews from the previous chapter that I can't respond to privately.

Anonymous: this is great! i really want to see where this goes and meet raven!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed Raven :)

Anonymous: The writing is amazing and this AU is really intriguing. I look forward to more in the future.
Wow, thank you, that's so kind!

Melissa: I really love this! I like how you have taken a different approach to Clarke and Finn's story and it's quite sweet. I can't wait for more Clarke and Bellamy interactions, especially the real Clarke who doesn't hold back just to please her mother. :)
Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback. I hope you liked the real Clarke (even though she doesn't like the real Bellamy yet)

Anonymous: Please write soon! And no Finn and clarke moments or raven and bellamy moments it's not right for the story.
Anyway You should have bellamy watch clarke at combat and make her a total badass! And make it supper romantic I love romantic story's!
THANKS
I have written! I hope you enjoyed it. There will of course be Finn and Clarke interactions but they will not be having romantic moments, no. I don't want to make this too love triangley, Clarke's just stuck on Finn right now but she'll move on soon. There will be Raven and Bellamy moments but once again NOT romantic. Bellamy watching Clarke at combat is most definitely coming up soon, so be on the look out! And I assure you, this is going to be way too fluffy and romantic.

Thank you guys so much, and please R&R!

- Lauren