Dividing Lines
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.
The weeks passed slowly, every day getting colder and colder. Clarke was so thankful that the 100 Camp had the luxury of making their own clothes or else she'd have been frozen without her extra layers.
Clarke had stocked up the medical bay with every plant and tea that could help with colds, flues or frostbite; Monty was learning more and more as time went on. He had become a great friend to her, as well as Raven. Despite Finn, the two girls liked each other's company with Octavia completing their little trio. While Wells and Clarke had had years of friendship behind them, it was nice to have friends again. Jasper, of course, was always a source of laughter for Clarke and even Miller and Monroe were counted as friends.
It wasn't just people her age who were good to Clarke. The adults around camp were nice and welcoming, always happy to see her. Wick always greeted her with a wave and some extra berries. He was the one who recounted to her the time when the camp had eaten some crazy, hallucination causing nuts- Wick had though he was a teapot there for a minute. The little kids loved her, even when she told them to zip up their jackets or to chew their food. Like with the Ark camp, there were a few orphans; except these kids had been taken in by other families and looked after.
What surprised Clarke the most was that Bellamy had become the constant in her life. She saw him every day, no matter how busy they were. Most nights, he was last person she said goodnight to because they would spend too much time talking. After their heart to heart in her room- which was totally never spoken about, ever again- things between them had changed. There was no coldness or distance; they were friends, good friends. Even though neither one of them was going to say it out loud.
By the time icicles were lining the tops of roofs, Clarke was used to the community feeling at the 100 Camp. People were spending most of their time indoors, either in their homes or the Main Hall. It was difficult to do work in the cold and with the snow probably only days away, no one wanted to chance anything.
Dinner was always held in the Main Hall now and Clarke locked up the medical bay before heading over there. Her stomach was growling and she stuffed her cold fingers in her pockets as she scurried over to the steps. She could see her breath in the air and was glad to push aside the thick wooden doors and step into the warmth. As the door shut behind her, Clarke took a good look around the room for her friends.
The Main Hall was a long building, well able to hold the entire camp comfortably. Two large, rectangular fire pits stretched down the room, the smoke disappearing through the well placed holes in the ceiling. They were designed the let the smoke out and let nothing else in. There were tables and chairs dotted all along the room, as well as a raised platform at the end; it was usually for any speeches or reports that Bellamy had to make. Since the weather was getting colder, some people spent their entire days in the Main Hall, like a giant sleepover with blankets and pillows. Clarke could see the food being cooked over the fire, still amazed that the smoke wasn't covering the room.
The first person she spotted after that was Bellamy. He was easy to see because he was surrounded by children, all who didn't even come up to his waist. They were all giggling and laughing loudly and Bellamy had a wide smile. She found herself walking towards him and he quickly caught sight of her. He had one boy thrown over his shoulder and the kid was nearly going red in the face from being upside down.
"Clarke! Thank God you are here!" he exclaimed, "We have to gather a search party immediately!"
She couldn't miss the grin that threatened to come over his face and she tried her best not to smile as well.
"Oh really? Why, who is missing?" she asked casually.
"It's Luke, one of the younger children. He's clearly gone and we need to go find him straight away."
"He's behind you Bellamy!" the younger kids called and pointed at the kid over his shoulder. Bellamy made an exaggerated turn, Luke letting out a loud giggle as he spun around too. "What? Where is he? I can't see him!" Bellamy said and the kids ran around him as if pointing at the boy would get Bellamy to see him.
"Clarke help me! I don't want to have a search party," Luke said to her and she stepped into the crowd of kids to ruffle his hair.
"I found him Bellamy!" Clarke said, containing her laughter, "He's right here."
Bellamy put Luke down on the ground and the kid's face went back to its normal colour. "There you are; how did you get up there?" Bellamy asked but the kids just laughed again.
Their parents called them away for dinner and they hurried away with bye thrown back to Bellamy and Clarke. She looked sideways at him, watching his kind smile. She shouldn't have been surprised that he was good with kids; he had raised Octavia after all.
"So... no to the search party then?" Clarke teased.
Bellamy shook his head and replied, "They're good kids; I'm amazed that they've managed to keep that innocence through all of this."
Clarke agreed and she said, "They went through the Landing right? I've noticed there aren't any newborns here. The Ark Camp doesn't have any."
"No, everyone is busy surviving; thankfully the birth control from the Ark still works and Monty found some plants that help as well. But in the next few years I wouldn't be surprised if we get some."
They both knew that the first child born on Earth would be a big deal; the first child in nearly 100 years. Or at least that's what they used to think before the Grounders. Still, it would be an event.
"Do you want kids?" Clarke asked him, just as the meat was being taken off the fire.
Bellamy grinned and said, "I want a team of kids. As many as my wife will let me have."
Clarke gave him a funny look and titled her head.
He looked back at her with a frown. "What?"
"Nothing," she answered, "Just never took you for the marriage type. Your one night stands don't surprise however."
Bellamy leaned back against the wall with a nearly embarrassed sigh. "That was a long time ago, when we first landed. Not that there haven't been girls since then but I have a job to do and some people don't understand that. And, also, when I have kids you better believe I'm going to give them the united family, white picket fence crap. Octavia and I didn't get that but they sure as hell will."
He talked with such conviction; Clarke knew he was telling the truth. She also knew that there was no way he would tell this to anyone else so she felt kind of honoured.
"Yes, but you actually have to find a girl who can stand you for more than five minutes!" she exclaimed with a joking smile.
He gave her a withering glance and she leaned against the wall beside him. Clarke could see that dinner would be announced at any moment, so she found herself blurting out a question that she had been anxious to ask for a while.
"The thing between you and Raven was just a one night stand?"
Bellamy's head snapped towards her and Clarke suddenly felt very self-conscious. She had no right to ask about something that happened two years ago. But in the last few days, it had been bugging her, the thought of her friend and Bellamy together. Bellamy looked down at the ground but then back to her again.
"It was just one night-she wanted to feel something, anything after Finn. He and I didn't get along so I think she wanted to punish him. Trust me Clarke, there is absolutely nothing between us. Wasn't then and certainly isn't now."
She swallowed, trying to stop her suddenly dry throat. She gave him a nod and turned back to the room again. Over the past few weeks, he had taken to calling her by her name sometimes instead of just Princess. When he called her Clarke, it meant that he was worried or serious. It meant that he really needed her to listen to what he was saying.
She still felt his eyes on her and she could practically sense the slow grin that was working its way onto his face. "Why the sudden interest in everyone's love lives? Were you day dreaming about Spacewalker?"
Clarke huffed indignantly, which only caused him to chuckle. But that slowly faded when Bellamy asked, "Are you missing him?"
The answer was no; she hadn't thought about him in a while. He didn't even spring to mind when she remembered her mom or Chris. "Actually no," she finally answered, "I don't miss him...not like everyone thinks I should."
Bellamy frowned at this and he slid closer to her. She didn't move, just stared at him. "You don't have to miss him if you don't want to; you don't have to be with him if you don't love him, Princess. We're on Earth and here, everyone gets to make their own choices."
"You've made sure of that," Clarke found herself saying and Bellamy gave her a real smile, a soft one that she had rarely seen before.
"Dinner is served!" Jasper called and there was a round of cheering. Bellamy and Clarke pushed themselves away from the wall and, with everyone else, got in line for food.
It was a few hours later, the sun just about to set, when Clarke crept out of the Main Hall. She wrapped her jacket tighter around herself and looked out at the camp. It was still light out but a grey cloud covered the sky so there was a hooded feel in the air, as if a blanket covered the camp.
Clarke took in a breath of freezing air, letting it stab at her insides. She needed a moment to clear her head, sort her thoughts. Only seconds before, she was curled up between Octavia and Monty, enjoying a talk with her friends. Bellamy had been sitting across from her but he had had his legs stretched out so that they rested against hers. Clarke had thought that she would have loved to stay there forever.
And that thought-that was the one that freaked her out. This was not her camp but damn it, sometimes she really wanted it to be. And it scared her. What if they didn't want her to stay? What if they just kicked her out? Clarke took in another breath but it caught in her throat as she spotted something in the sky. That was where Bellamy found her a moment later, staring up at the sky.
"Princess, are you ok?"
"Sshh," she whispered and kept staring. He followed her lead and a smile came over his face. It was starting to snow. Tiny snowflakes floated down from the clouds, white pinpricks in the air. He knew the snow would become a pain in the ass later but it was beautiful when it first fell. He closed the door to the Main Hall and let Clarke have this moment without the masses storming out to see the weather. She deserved this moment.
As the flakes landed in her hair, he did have to pull her back to stand under the side of the roof. Together they watched as the snow covered the trails and houses, a white blanket over all surfaces. Bellamy had seen it before but that didn't stop it from being mesmerising. And he kind of liked watching it fall with Clarke. He knew that she was getting to him, creeping into the cracks in his armour. He had already told her so much about himself without thinking about it first. She was becoming too much involved in his life; he didn't even care enough to mind. Bellamy turned back to Clarke again but this time, she was chewing her lip with worry.
"What's wrong?" he asked and she glanced at him.
"I was just thinking...it'll be snowing at the Ark Camp but they always shove everyone inside so they won't really see this. But it'll still be cold and I know that Chris will give away his jacket again because he'll see another kid shivering. I don't want him to be cold."
Bellamy had heard all about Chris; Clarke didn't realise that she practically bragged about his kind heart and smart head. He sounded like a good kid and even Bellamy didn't like the thought of him being on his own without Clarke. "He'll be alright. He's a smart kid so I bet he'll figure something out."
Clarke nodded but that didn't stop her from clearly worrying. Bellamy stared at her again and then he turned back to the snow. As casually as he could, Bellamy stepped out into and bent down.
"What are you doing?" Clarke called but Bellamy just kept gathering the snow together in his hand. When he had a good sized snowball, he turned back around to Clarke with a grin. She glared at him and held both her hands up.
"Bellamy," she warned him, "Don't. You. Dare."
A second later, she got a snowball to the chest.
Gasping at the cold, Clarke looked at Bellamy with an open mouth and angry eyes. "You're going down Blake," she promised and the two of them dived for more snow.
Bellamy was better at it than Clarke; clearly the Ark Camp didn't have snowball fights. But she had good aim and he got a few to the face. They were slipping and sliding everywhere and not since the rain storm a month ago, had Bellamy seen Clarke this happy. Through their laughter and the smacking of snow, they both heard a throat being cleared.
The doors to the Main Hall were open and people were gathered around staring at them. Jasper, Octvaia, Monty and Raven were standing in the front with a large number of children standing on the steps. Jasper held one snowball in his hand and he deliberately gave it to one of the older kids.
"Get 'em," was all he said.
The kids all scrambled for snowballs and Bellamy grabbed Clarke's hand. "Run!" he exclaimed and she did just that, never letting go of him.
They skidded down the snowy trails, dodging around houses and trying not to laugh. The kids chased after them, nearly hitting them a few times. Finally, they stopped by two of the cabins, squeezing into a hiding spot between the walls. Clarke leaned against the wood and let herself take a breath. Bellamy put one hand on the wall beside her, checking down the trail in case anyone had spotted them. Clarke's hands felt cold from the snow but she realised that she was still holding Bellamy's. His was freezing too but they were getting warmer.
Bellamy turned back to her and said, "I think we're safe; which good because we would totally have lost that fight."
Clarke laughed but quickly covered it up in case anyone heard. Bellamy's dark hair was smattered with snow and she could guess that she was the same. But she could see all the freckles on his face and the wayward icy flecks on his jaw.
For some reason, Clarke reached up and brushed them away. Bellamy stilled but didn't move. When Clarke was finished, she let her hand drop but her gaze met his head on. "Thank you," she said quietly, "Thank you for letting me come here. For letting me stay."
Bellamy swallowed, and he replied lowly, "You're welcome Princess."
Before either of them could say anything else, a bunch of kids appeared and yelled, "Found them!" Clarke and Bellamy ran faster towards the nearest exit, having no choice but to go back to the centre of camp; which just started an even bigger snowball fight.
Later that night, Clarke heard a knock at her door. She was all set to curl up into her warm bed but she walked over to her door and opened it. Octavia was standing there, something wrapped up under her arm.
"Hey, my brother told me to give this to you," she said, as she handed the object to Clarke.
Clarke unfolded it, her confusion fading away. It was a well made jacket, blue just like Bellamy's. The inside was lined with fur and would be very warm. But it was a small size: a child's size.
"He's says it's for Chris, when you see him again," Octavia filled in. "Although I don't see why my brother couldn't have given it to you himself..."
Clarke was still staring at the jacket, running her fingers over the fur. The jacket may have been made a while ago, like so many others but the fur was new, as was the stitching. Bellamy had probably done this right after the snowball fight. Clarke tried to keep her emotions in check, even though all she wanted to do was hug Bellamy Blake as tightly as she could. That was probably the reason why he hadn't been the one to give the jacket to her.
"Clarke, what happened to your window?" Octavia asked and they both looked over the bottom pane of glass. There was small, thin crack in it, right in the centre.
"Oh, I think someone accidently picked up a rock or a pebble with the snow. It hits the windows at the right angle and there's the crack. But it's fine."
Octavia nodded and gave the glass another once over. "I hope so; it would take us a few days to make another pane of glass and repair the whole thing. Oh, but we could have a sleep over in my room!"
Clarke folded the jacket carefully under her arm and tucked it away in the truck by the wall. "I guess winter is really here," Octavia said with a huff, "Give it a few days and it'll be impossible to leave camp. Plus it'll be freezing." She smirked suddenly, so much like Bellamy. "Who knows," she teased, "You and my brother might have to cuddle for warmth."
Clarke let her jaw snap open but Octavia just winked at her and strutted out the door. She called back a goodnight but Clarke quickly shut the door to hide her blushing face.
Clarke shook her head, climbed into her bed and put out the candle on the table. As she settled down, she couldn't help but remember the warmth from Bellamy's hand earlier that day. With a huff, Clarke pushed the thought from her head and turned over, determined to fall asleep without giving Bellamy-or Octavia's comment-another moment of thought.