A/N: WOOOOOOW so I'd like to apologize for the wait but unfortunately my situation won't be changing anytime soon so I'm very sorry about that but I want you all to know that I have absolutely no intentions of abandoning this fic so don't worry, I will always update eventually.

This chapter is really fun (I think) and I loved writing it so I hope you guys love reading it!

Chapter Seven:
Incredible Things

"Nice to meet you,
Where you been?
I could show you incredible things.
Magic, madness, heaven, sin."

Clarke watched the landscape roll by outside the window of the carriage. Currently, she was sitting across from Bellamy in what she referred to as the 'travelling carriage'. Herself and Bellamy also had separate, smaller carriages for sleeping but were set to spend most of the daylight hours together. The travelling carriage not only contained the two royals, but also had two long cushioned benches on either end, with a low table in the centre. At the moment, Clarke's sketch book lay open on the otherwise empty surface, but she had yet to draw anything.

If she had to guess, Clarke would have said it had been about two hours. Two hours of white trees, wheels rolling along the bumpy path, horses hooves clicking, and Bellamy Blake.

She stole a glance at him across the table and observed the way he focused so intently on the book he was reading. She watched as he prepared to turn the page, his eyes nearing the bottom and his fingers gently playing with the corner of the paper.

So caught up in the delicacy of his actions, Clarke failed to notice when he stopped reading.

"Was there something you wanted, Princess?"

Clarke startled and quickly turned her attention towards her sketch book, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.

"Not at all," she replied offhandedly.

With a small grin and a light shake of his head, Bellamy returned his attention to his book and Clarke returned her attention to Bellamy.

She found herself studying his rugged features. Not rugged, she told herself...He was much too put together to be rugged. To her surprise, she could not quite find a way to describe the smoothness of his skin contrasting with his sharp cheekbones and defined jaw line. His ruffled dark hair curling near the ears or the light spattering of freckles dotting the skin below his eyes. He was simply...Bellamy. And that was that.

Suddenly, Clarke felt the little flicker of excitement that burned in her heart whenever she found a new subject to draw. She hadn't drawn portraits in forever, and sitting before her was the perfect challenge. She did not know the Prince's face the way she did Finn's or Raven's. She had not looked at this face for seventeen years, had not known this face her entire life. But she was beginning to know it now...and she had to admit it was a rather beautiful face.

Setting her mind to it, Clarke toed her shoes off and pulled her feet underneath her, using her knees as a pseudo easel, grabbed a pencil, and set to work.

No one could say quite how much time had passed, it could have been an hour, it could have been a day, but eventually Bellamy closed his book and looked up at Clarke. Seeing the movement from the corner of her eye she silently cursed him for not having waited until she had finished, but said nothing. She was almost done anyway, she could do the rest from memory.

"What are you drawing?"

The question startled her concentration as she tried to seem nonchalant. "Oh, nothing..."

She could imagine his incredulous eyebrow raise before he spoke again. "It doesn't sound like nothing."

There was a long pause where Clarke ignored him, and she realized these silent interactions weren't awkward anymore.

She heard, rather than saw the Prince raise himself and carefully maneuvered the moving carriage as he came to sit beside her.

"May I see it?"

She looked up then, surreptitiously angling the book away from his sight line, but found an honest curiosity so innocent on the face of the young man sitting before her that she found herself nodding. Before she could change her mind, she handed him the book.

She watched the curiosity in his eyes slowly turn to recognition as he no doubt recognised his own face. Watched the recognition turn quickly to surprise, before fading into what Clarke could only describe as amazement. She felt the blush begin to spread across her pale skin and willed it to stop before it became too obvious.

"Clarke..." He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. "This is...amazing."

Not used to praise, she hastily informed him that it wasn't finished yet before holding her hand out, awaiting the return of her book.

"Not finished? Clarke, it's incredible, how did you do this?"

She felt that pesky blush begin its journey down her neck and hoped the curtains on the windows kept out enough light to hide her surely red face. She never really showed anyone her art. Hell, her mother didn't even know about it, and Finn and Raven had always accepted her wishes to not display her work to them. There was something about Bellamy though, that made her want to show him. She wanted him to see the way she saw him. Wanted to give him that little piece of herself. And that, out of everything that had happened since he had entered her life, is what scared Clarke the most.

Slowly lowering her hand Clarke delicately shrugged. "I don't know, I just...see something that catches my eye and I draw it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not..." She trailed off, not really knowing where she had been going in the first place.

She paused to think before she continued. "It's like...when I am holding a weapon that I haven't been taught how to use yet. I look at it, and it's beautiful, but I don't know how to make it work...so I study it, and I start slowly, making cautious, light patterns, until I get into a rhythm. Until I find something in it that helps me understand. I could never fight with daggers, Fi-Mr. Collins tried to teach me many times but I could never quite get the feel for it. And sometimes I find something I'm drawing like that. it just...refuses to show me what makes it special, won't let me fully understand it's beauty, and then the picture turns out all wrong. Where as other times I find something that I understand so perfectly, where I can see everything that makes it special, and then I can translate that to the paper. It takes practice and time but...if you can find what feels right, it always ends up a masterpiece."

Having spoken with her eyes down for the majority of her impromptu speech, Clarke looked up at Bellamy. He was looking at her as though she were a new person. Not necessarily a better person, but different. Perhaps more complex.

Before she had too much time to read into it the carriage came to an abrupt stop and one of the guards opened the doors.

"Apologizes, Your Highness," he addressed Bellamy. "The horses need to rest. We will start up our travels again soon."

Bellamy nodded kindly. "Thank you, Miller. It's no trouble at all."

The guard, Miller, curtly nodded before disappearing as fast as he had arrived.

Clarke watched as Bellamy regarded her for a moment before handing her book back and reaching for his borrowed winter cloak.

"Come with me," he said with a smile lighting up his face. "I have something to show you."

Bellamy discretely snatched two rolls from a tray no doubt being prepared for them, before leading Clarke towards the side of the road.

"Miller!" He called. "I'm taking Princess Griffin for a walk, we won't go far."

Miller looked hesitant until Bellamy pulled away the side of his cloak, revealing the sword holstered at his hip. With one last nod to the guard, him and Clarke slipped into the trees.

"Where are we going?" Clarke wondered aloud.

"Away from them," he replied vaguely as he gestured a hand behind him to the road.

"Why?"

Bellamy spun in his tracks and tossed her one of the rolls before replying. "Because I want to show you something."

He thought he heard her mutter something along the lines of "so you said..." as he turned around, but he couldn't be sure.

After a brief minute longer of walking, Bellamy stopped and turned to Clarke before shedding her father's cloak and taking care to fold it and set it lightly on the ground behind him. Then he bent down and pulled a knife from the side of his boot before casually spinning it in the air, catching the blade and holding the handle out towards the Princess.

She eyed it with something of a resigned recognition before asking him more or less what the hell he thought he was doing.

Bellamy raised an eyebrow in amusement before answering. "Teaching you how to use a dagger."

He watched Clarke close her eyes for a brief moment before reluctantly reaching her hand out to take the blade.

"What makes you think you can teach me better than Mr. Collins?"

Bellamy wanted to say that he was quite positive he was better at everything than Mr. Collins but decided to keep his mouth shut. Instead opting for, "Because I understand you now, Princess."

"Is that so?" He watched her mouth quirk in suppressed amusement.

"Do you trust me?"

He found himself desperately hoping the answer was yes.

"Yes."

Bellamy allowed himself a moment of relief before sending her his most dazzling grin.

"Alright, so this is a seax. Initially, they were intended as sort of a backup in case your opponent got your sword away from you, but now they are used much more frequently in combat. This one here is a short seax which means you have to get in very close to attack your opponent, which," he added with an approving smile, "Will actually benefit you. You're small, most likely you will be much smaller than anyone you fight so you need to use their size against them. Because of your convenient size, it will be much easier for you to slip in and out of range quickly. But first, you have to learn how to use the damn thing.

The basic rules of knife combat are don't get cut, "defang the serpent" which I will explain later, keep control, time is of the essence, -you don't play around and tease like in a sword fight- and survive. Survival is your number one goal."

He watched her face take in all the information before he continued.

"Take up a basic forward fighting stance. Good. Now, may I?" He gestured to her person, asking permission to move her body.

When she nodded, he stepped forward and placed his hand behind her left knee. "Bend just a little more, but don't put your weight on it, you should be balancing weight between the balls of your feet. The idea is to be light and quick."

After she complied, Bellamy straightened and gently grasped each of her elbows, tucking them in to her sides. "You want to make yourself as small a target as possible so keep your arms close to your body, you don't want to give them anything extra to attack. Use your left arm to block your face," he said, raising her arm and positioning her hand in front of her head and throat. "This is your checking hand, which means it helps your attacking hand to...well, attack. You will use it to grab hold of your opponents attacking hand to provide you some leverage."

He paused for a moment before slowly raising his hand to her chin. "Tuck your chin in," he spoke quietly, "But keep your head up so you have a proper sight line..."

It was in that moment that Bellamy realized how inappropriately close they were. He could feel her bent knee brush the side of his leg and her face was just a breath away from his own. He cleared his throat and stepped back.

"Okay, great. You have to remember that this is a mobile stance, so when you move try to keep your body as close to this as possible.

As I'm sure you are familiar with, the knife is an extension of your hand, treat it as such. You are fully in charge. Do not doubt yourself."

He watched as she gently scrunched her face together and nodded seriously before continuing his lesson.

"The main thing to remember is that you want the fight to be over as fast as possible. Go in early, and go in strong. Once you have a grip on your opponent's weapon hand, use that to not only keep it away from you, but to pull yourself into their body. Don't think, just stab. Odds are you hit something important, and if you have not, you've seriously hindered them.

Now you need to take control, attack the weapon hand, slash at the wrist or the elbow, wherever there is a large joint or artery. That is what they call defanging the serpent. If you take the poison out, the snake can't kill you. If they can't hold the weapon, they cannot hurt you with it. You need to keep this control, remember that if they had a knife, their intention was to kill you, they probably won't give up easily. Attack the throat and the upper arm, and remember to never lose your hold on their weapon arm.

Once they are injured enough, knock them to the ground. Then run, your goal is not to kill them, but to save yourself."

He could practically see her brain spinning, trying to store all the information she had just heard. Bellamy allowed her a moment before carrying on.

"Now, do you think you can do that?"

Clarke's eyes widened in surprise as she slackened her stance slightly.

"What? Just like that? All you've done is talk to me for five minutes, what do you expect me to do?"

She was trying not to look scared, he noted. Clarke wasn't one to give up or say no. Bellamy smiled softly.

"Just try, Clarke. You trust me, remember?"

She rolled her eyes before nodding slightly. "Alright."

Bellamy took up a fighting stance. "We'll take it slow, okay? Pretend I have a knife here," he waved his right hand, "and just go through the steps."

He watched as Clarke regarded him for a moment before darting forwards and snatching his right hand wrist and twisting it to the side. Bellamy quickly grabbed the wrist that held her knife and turned her arm in on herself, using her hand to hold the dagger to her own throat. He smiled.

"Good. But you forgot that I have a checking hand too."

He watched her eyes turn frustrated as he released her wrist and stepped back.

"Don't get frustrated yet, you are doing really well, you've just started learning give it some time."

Her eyes hardened in determination.

"Show me again."

After ten more minutes Clarke had to admit that she was getting much farther with Bellamy than she ever had with Finn. While Finn was a good teacher, Bellamy seemed to understand Clarke's personal methods better. Finn had been a very by-the-book fighter, whereas Clarke preferred to improvise when possible.

Bellamy was obviously very experienced, he always managed to disarm her or deliver a fatal blow. Currently she was walking back towards the carriages with him.

"You're learning very fast," he was saying. "You will no doubt be an expert in no time. Though I imagine you would do better if you weren't in your dress and heels..."

He trailed off as she looked at him funny and blushed.

"...You brought your training clothes didn't you?"

"Maybe...I never expected to do anything with you though, I thought I might be able to sneak away sometimes and practice on my own."

She watched him smile incredulously, as though she were a puzzle he had just found another piece to.

"Well, now you don't have to be on your own."

A/N: I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I liked writing it. I spent days researching many alarming topics such as "different kinds of daggers" and "knife fighting" so just be really thankful that I didn't get framed for some hideous murder and had my internet searched...

The lyrics at the beginning are of course from Blank Space by Taylor Swift :)

The last chapter was longer than this one but I am definitely lengthening the chapters considerably so I hope you all like that!

Love you guys,

Lauren