AN: OK, so all feelings are out in the open, finally, right? But there are still people who need to be filled in on the situation, like Madi and the gang, and that's what we're doing in this chapter – some Clarke/Madi interaction, since it's important to Clarke that Madi doesn't feel left out and is onboard with everything, and then a big group dinner with the whole gang, and some good ole' Raven ribbing, of course! I know you're impatient to get to the "good" part and I promise, we will, very very soon ;)
As usual, I don't own anything relating to The 100
-15-
Clarke doesn't move as Bellamy leaves the cabin, closing the door behind him. If she's completely honest, she's surprised she's still in an upright position, her legs feel like jelly and her head is spinning, and she's not entirely sure she's even able to move from where she's leaning against the wall.
If she couldn't still feel her mouth tingling from their kiss and if her breath wasn't still coming in shallow gasps she might think she just had a very vivid daydream. But she can still feel the pressure of Bellamy's lips against hers, the ghost of his fingers against her skin…
She finally pushes away from the wall, going into the washroom to splash some water on her face and maybe snap out of the daze. She grabs the berries from where she dropped them on the table when Bellamy surprised her earlier and goes into her bedroom, where she curls up on her bed with her book.
None of the cabins have much furniture yet – the building work is still focused on actual housing, and other, non-essential things are going to have to wait until everyone has a roof over their head. They've moved cots from the ship, though, so they have somewhere to sleep, and they have a basic table and two chairs in the main room, but that's about it.
She tries to get comfortable – fluffing up the pillows behind her, which she managed to bring with her from the ship, along with her wonderful comforter and some other bedding and clothes as well as mugs and plates and cutlery – and really get into the book, but when the front door opens a little while later, announcing Madi's arrival, she's read the same page about ten times without taking in a word.
"Clarke?" Madi's voice drifts in through the open door. "What are you doing home?"
Clarke puts away the book, giving up all pretense of actually reading it, and joins Madi in the main room.
"No injuries today," she explains. "I checked all the meds and supplies, and even cleaned, but eventually Mom sent me home since there was nothing to do."
"And you actually went?" Madi's eyebrows shoot up so fast it looks like they're attached to strings.
OK, so maybe Clarke's been working a little too much lately.
"You know how Abby gets when she sets her mind to something," she replies. "No point in arguing."
Madi turns away and Clarke's pretty sure she mutters something along the lines of guess it runs in the family, but chooses to ignore the jab.
"So, what did you talk about at school today?" she asks, as she always does when Madi comes home.
"Mythology," Madi replies with a shrug. "It seems kind of cool, I guess. Gaia talked about Chaos and Gaia – not herself, obviously, a goddess in, like, ancient Greece – and Titans and stuff…"
"That sounds interesting," Clarke replies. "You should ask Bellamy about it, he loves mythology, especially the Greek."
Madi gives her a calculating look. "Would that be OK?"
"I've told you that I'm not trying to keep you from spending time with them," Clarke says. "And Bellamy might be… around more from now on."
It's completely silent for a moment, before Madi's eyes widen and her mouth turns up into a wide smile. "Did you guys finally really talk?"
Clarke shrugs, trying to act casual and probably failing miserably – she can feel the smile on her face. "We… talked, yes."
She doesn't think her slight pause is noticeable at all, but of course Madi picks up on it.
"Oh, you 'talked', did you?" she says, using air quotes – where did she even learn that? "Clarke and Bellamy, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S…"
"OK!" Clarke cuts her off loudly. "You are spending way too much time with Raven, she's clearly a bad influence."
Madi laughs, a light, carefree sound that Clarke hasn't heard a lot since Eligius landed in their valley. She's missed it.
"That one was actually Murphy," the girl says.
"I already knew he was a bad influence," Clarke grumbles good-naturedly.
"Nah, he's cool." Madi's smile slips a little. "Wait, what about Echo? I thought…"
"Apparently they ended things right after we landed," Clarke explains.
"Oh. That actually makes a lot of sense," Madi says. "See, if you hadn't been all avoiding him and stuff, you would have known that and maybe you wouldn't have been so miserable lately."
Clarke frowns. "Hey. I may have been a little… down, but I could never be miserable when I have you, OK? You're the most important person in my life, don't ever forget that."
"Yeah, yeah," Madi brushes her off, which actually warms Clarke's heart – it means it's so obvious to Madi that she doesn't even question it. "So does this mean we can actually eat dinner in the mess hall now? And hang out with everyone in the evenings? Please…"
Clarke rolls her eyes. "Yes. I'm sorry, I didn't realize my company bored you."
Madi doesn't even dignify that with an answer. "I'm going to go change, and then you can braid my hair again, and then we can go to the mess hall, OK?" she says as she disappears into her room.
"It's still pretty early, dinner won't be ready for a while," Clarke calls after her.
"So? There's always people in the mess hall, it's like a… meeting place, sort of. Murphy said it's like the canteen at Arkadia, whatever that means, and then Bellamy said 'yeah, but without the moonshine', so then Raven and Jordan started talking about making a… stall?"
"Still?" Clarke contributes to the tirade. "It's what you use to make moonshine."
"Right, so they've been wanting to get started on that for a while, but Raven said they have to wait until all the essential things are done, like the water system and stuff. What is moonshine, by the way?" The last sentence is muffled as Madi comes back into the main room, pulling a sweater over her head.
"It's a type of drink that you can't have until you're at least eighteen," Clarke replies, gesturing at Madi to turn around so she can re-braid her hair, which is escaping from the current braid here and there after a long day.
"Why?"
"Because it's alcohol," Clarke explains. "Remember when we ate those apples back in the valley, from that old, gnarly tree by the stream?"
It had been the first time they'd seen apples, or any fruit, really, since Praimfaya. In hindsight, Clarke probably should have tried them first, but Madi, who had been eight at the time, had been so excited that they'd both just dug into the fruit. Which had fermented, so after a couple of apples each, they had both been pretty loopy.
"Uh-huh."
"Those apples were fermented, which sometimes happens with fruit and means that they had alcohol in them. You remember how you got dizzy and felt sick and had a really bad headache the next morning?"
"Oh yeah," Madi says, and the distaste is evident in her voice. "So why would people want to drink that?"
Maybe she doesn't have to worry about Madi wanting to try the moonshine anytime soon.
"Well, to grown-ups, it's sort of a social thing," she tries to explain. "Like, you and your friends might hang out and climb trees or play with Lynx. Grown-ups like to hang out and drink a little."
"That's weird," Madi decides.
"It is," Clarke agrees. "And you don't have to try it ever, OK, not if you don't want to. Don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise."
"Are you going to drink it?"
"I might, just a little. But if it's anything like Jasper and Monty's moonshine from the Dropship, it's not going to taste very good. OK, you're all done."
"Grown-ups are so strange," Madi mutters under her breath. "Come on, let's go."
It turns out that Madi's right – the mess hall is already milling with people when they get there. Clarke pauses in the doorway, unsure of where to go since she doesn't immediately see her friends, but a moment later, Madi takes off for the far corner. Clarke follows at a more reasonable pace and spots what Madi saw when she's about halfway through the room – Raven, Shaw and Murphy sitting at a table and Bellamy leaning against the edge of it, half-turned towards the door while he talks to their friends, as if he's waiting for her.
By the time Clarke reaches the table, Bellamy has an armful of Madi, who seems to have thrown herself at him and has wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his middle.
Bellamy raises his eyebrows as Clarke stops a few feet away. "I take it she took the news well?" he says drily, carefully disentangling Madi's arms. The girl hops down onto the floor and claims a seat next to Raven on one side of the table.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Clarke replies with a chuckle.
"What news?" Raven pipes up from the table, but Bellamy ignores her, taking a step closer to Clarke.
"Hey," he says, mouth quirking up into a half-smile.
"Hey," she repeats.
For a split second, she wonders if this will be awkward, being out in the open, but then he's leaning down and pressing his lips to hers in a soft but chaste kiss and nope, it's not.
Clarke wouldn't mind deepening the kiss, but she reminds herself that they're in public and that Madi's just a few feet away, so when he starts to pull back after a couple of seconds, she reluctantly lets him.
"Hang on a minute," Raven says from her spot at the table, eyes narrowed. "When exactly did that happen?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Clarke tells her with a smile as Bellamy sits down next to Murphy and pulls her down in the seat next to him, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her flush against his side.
"I would, actually," the mechanic replies. "Some of us have a lot riding on this."
Bellamy gives her an unimpressed look. "Excuse me?"
"Well, there's not really much to do for fun around here when we're not busy working," Raven defends herself. "It was just a friendly bet between friends, no big deal. Winner gets one favor of their choice, within reason, from each one of the losers."
"And who else was involved in this bet?" Bellamy asks, clearly annoyed. Clarke's more amused, though that might just be due to her extremely good mood.
"Well, me, Emori, Echo…" Clarke feels her eyes widen slightly. "… Jackson, Miller, Kane, Abby…"
"My mom?" Clarke interrupts. "Seriously?"
"Oh yeah, she had, like, a month ago," Raven reveals. "She clearly had more faith in you two than the rest of us. She was pretty disappointed."
"I bet she was," Clarke mutters, and Bellamy squeezes her comfortingly.
"Where was I? Oh yeah, Octavia, Jordan… not Shaw, he said it wasn't 'nice' to bet on our friends…" she rolls her eyes at the man in question, "… not Madi, we don't condone underage gambling here…" Madi giggles at that.
"And not me," Murphy pipes in, earning a scowl from Raven.
"It was your idea," she deadpans. "Just because you had 'never' doesn't mean you get out of it now."
"Thanks, man, nice to know you have faith in us," Bellamy says and elbows Murphy in the side.
"Can you blame me?" he retorts. "You two have practically been moving backwards since we landed on this damn planet. It seemed like a safe bet."
"Why are we talking about the bet when they're right there?" Emori's voice comes from Murphy's other side before she plops down in his lap and faces the others around the table.
"Bet's over," Murphy tells her. "They finally got their heads out of their asses."
"Language, Murphy!" Clarke admonishes him, and Madi rolls her eyes.
"Really?" Emori's eyes widen before she leans across Murphy to take a closer look at Bellamy and Clarke.
Clarke's not sure what exactly she's looking for, but she seems to find it, because she holds her hand out expectantly for a high five, eyebrows raised, and Bellamy reluctantly raises his own hand to slap it against hers.
"So when did this happen?" she asks. "I had last week, so unlike John, I might still be in the running."
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Raven replies, giving Bellamy and then Clarke an expectant look. "So? Spill."
"I don't see why it's any of your business," Bellamy grumbles.
"And even if we were planning on telling you, basically all our friends and family have made bets on our lives, so I think it's safe to say that we've changed our minds," Clarke adds, enjoying Raven's annoyed expression.
"I'll get it out of you, just you wait," Raven half-promises, half-threatens.
As it turns out, she doesn't have to.
They've just grabbed some food when Miller and Jackson appear at the table, a smug look on Miller's face.
"It must absolutely kill you that I won the bet," he tells Raven with a smirk.
Bellamy's eyes widen and he reaches around Clarke to punch the other man in the shoulder. "You had today?" he asks in a disbelieving voice. "I should have known you had ulterior motives…"
"Wait a minute…" Raven gives Miller a look through narrowed eyes. "If you intervened in your own interest, I don't know if it counts."
"When did we decide that?" Miller counters. "All we said was pick a date and whoever's closest wins."
"He has a point, Raven," Murphy says. "We never specified any conditions. And it's not like you haven't tried to meddle to make things go your way."
Raven lets out a dramatic sigh. "Fine. Miller, you are the winner, you are free to cash in on your favors when you want to."
"Excellent," Miller says happily. "I already have a couple of ideas, I'll let you know when I decide."
"He's going to be insufferable now," Murphy notes as Miller and Jackson head off again.
"Takes one to know one," Raven replies, and Murphy throws a berry at her.
-100-
"So…" Raven says later that night, when she and Clarke are alone at the table for a moment – Madi's been sent off to bed, Murphy and Emori disappeared some time ago, and Bellamy and Shaw have been roped into a card game with Jordan, Jackson and Miller – I'm obviously lucky today, got to cash in on that – a few tables over. "What happened?"
Clarke doesn't need to ask what she means.
"Apparently, Miller happened," she half-jokes.
"No, I want details!" Raven insists. "I'm guessing Bellamy made the first move, since Miller was somehow involved, but how did it actually happen?"
"God, Raven, don't you have your own boyfriend?" Clarke grumbles. "It's not like you need to live vicariously through me or something…"
"Boyfriend, huh?" Raven smirks.
For a moment, Clarke falters. "I don't know, we didn't actually discuss labels."
"Oh, please, that one's a no brainer," Raven waves her doubt off. "Now spill!"
"I don't know what you want me to tell you." Clarke shrugs. "I was walking home from the med bay, Mom kicked me out early because there was nothing to do. Then I heard Miller call my name, and when I looked up they were working on the roof of a new cabin. We talked a little, and then Bellamy asked if I wanted some company, since I had some time off, and I made some excuse…"
"Of course you did," Raven huffs. "But he wouldn't take no for an answer?"
"He did, at first. I said maybe another day and he just nodded, so I left. I guess that's when Miller must have said something, because just as I got home, he sort of burst through the door."
Raven looks like a kid on Christmas. How can their friends be so invested in this? It's mindboggling to Clarke.
"Ooh, things are about to get good," the brunette sing-songs, and Clarke rolls her eyes.
"Anyway, he started by accusing me of avoiding him," she continues.
"Which you have been," Raven interjects.
"Fine, yes, I have. But I denied it of course, and we argued about it a bit and then he asked if he did something wrong, like if I was mad at him or something, I guess? I don't know…" She pauses for a moment, the memory of the look on Bellamy's face in that moment still tugging at her heart. "And he just… he looked so hurt, I ended up telling him everything. That I just needed some time to get used to him and Echo being together, to get over my feelings for him and…"
"But they broke up," Raven cuts her off. "Like, ages ago."
"Yes, I know that now. I guess I was too busy trying to avoid seeing them together that I didn't notice that they actually weren't."
"So he told you that, right?" Raven asks, leaning toward Clarke as if she's waiting for the best part of her favorite story.
"No, he kissed me, actually."
"Ooh, nice, Blake, didn't think you had it in you."
"No, not nice," Clarke protests. "Well, yes, the kiss was nice. But I thought he still had a girlfriend!"
Raven's face scrunches up. "Right. Bad memories?"
"Sort of." Clarke shrugs, and Raven reaches out to squeeze her hand. "Anyway, it's a little blurry, to be honest, there were a lot of emotions all over the place, but I said something like, I won't be the other woman again and… he laughed."
Raven's completely still for a moment. "I… he laughed?"
"Yup," Clarke confirms. "I mean, he apologized right away, but he did laugh. Then he said that if I hadn't been avoiding him, I'd have known that he and Echo broke up right after we landed."
"Which is a good point," Raven notes.
"I know, Raven, can we be done with the whole Clarke has herself to blame soon? I didn't know that they weren't together anymore and I was just trying to do what was best for myself in a bad situation, OK?"
Raven's eyes soften. "I know, I do get it. But now you don't have to…"
Clarke can't help the smile that tugs at her mouth. "Nope."
"So…" Raven continues, wagging her eyebrows suggestively. "How was it?"
"I'm assuming the it you're referring to is sex, in which case, it wasn't."
"What? You're telling me that he kissed you and told you that he loves you – he did tell you that, right?"
"Yes."
"And you still didn't hit that? What is wrong with you?"
"It was the middle of the day!" Clarke exclaims. "Madi was getting home at any moment, I wasn't exactly going to jump him in my living room!" No matter how much she might have wanted to.
"That's what your bedroom is for," Raven says slowly, as if trying to explain why the sky is blue to a four-year-old. "Which has a door."
"Yes, Raven, thank you. I know what a door is."
"But clearly not how to use it."
Clarke rolls her eyes. "You do know I technically don't have to talk to you about this at all, right?"
"Fine, I'll stop," Raven agrees. "But if you're going to have some no-sex-with-the-kid-in-the-house rule, Madi can stay with us some night. Just… think about it."
"I might take you up on that."
"Take her up on what?" Bellamy's voice comes from behind her, and Clarke half-turns on the bench so she can look up at him.
"Nothing, just some girl talk," Raven covers for her.
"Okay," Bellamy looks between them for a moment, but then just shrugs. "You ready to head out? We both have a pretty early day tomorrow."
"That sounds like a great plan," Clarke agrees, accepting his hand and letting him pull her to her feet. "Night, Raven."
"Night," Raven replies, dragging the word out and somehow making it sound way more suggestive than should be possible.
"She being pushy?" Bellamy asks as he steers Clarke through the people still milling around the large room, one arm around her waist.
"It's Raven, what do you think?"
He lets out a chuckle at her words. "Right. Sorry I left you all alone with her."
"Nah, I can handle Raven. Besides, you're probably going to get an earful about the whole laughing at me when I said I didn't want to be the other woman thing, Raven was not impressed."
"Shit! I apologized about that, didn't I?" he asks, glancing down at her with a contrite smile.
"You did," she assures him. "And you're forgiven."
"Then I can handle Raven too. As long as you and me are good."
She returns his smile. "We are. Very good."
They're almost at the door when Bellamy glances past Clarke and tenses slightly. She turns in the direction he's looking and finds Echo at a table with some Grounders Clarke doesn't know too well. Their eyes meet, and Clarke is suddenly very aware of Bellamy's arm around her waist. But after a moment, Echo's mouth turns up in a small but genuine smile, and she nods at them once before turning back to her party. Clarke feels Bellamy let out a breath next to her.
"You OK?" she asks when they're out in the open a moment later.
"Yeah, of course," he assures her. "I just wasn't sure how that would go."
"Yeah," she agrees, slipping an arm around his waist and squeezing a little.
"I mean, she was the one who ended things, technically – even if I had a sort of vague plan for doing that once we got a little more settled down here – and she's been kind of encouraging me since, but still…"
"Still a little weird," Clarke offers, and he nods.
"Yeah."
The settlement isn't large, at least not yet, so soon – too soon – they reach Clarke's cabin. She steps up onto the porch and turns around, realizing that they're almost the same height with her a step above him.
"Well, this is me," she says unnecessarily.
"I know," he replies, but his voice has dropped an octave or so and says more than the two little words.
It's almost completely quiet here in her little corner of the world. They're at the end of a row of cabins where the inhabitants are either already asleep or not home yet, the row opposite not yet complete. Laughter carries on the wind from the mess hall for a moment as the door opens and then closes, but the only other sound is Clarke's heartbeat, which is pounding so loudly in her ears that she's sure he must hear it.
They move forward at the same time, colliding in the middle. Bellamy's arms wrap around her waist, pulling her close, and his lips are demanding against hers. Clarke returns the favor, sneaking her arms around his neck and opening her mouth for him. He deepens the kiss and slips one hand underneath her shirt, pulling a low moan from her throat that he swallows.
The darkness feels charged, the stars above them twinkling down but no moon to light the scene. Clarke feels a surge of excitement at the thought that someone could walk by, could see them…
She's not sure when it happened, but she's suddenly backed up against one of the posts for the porch roof, pinned there by Bellamy's body pressed up against hers. The hand that's not warm against the skin on her back trails down from her waist, pauses for a moment to squeeze her butt and continues further down. A moment later, he hooks his hand around her thigh and hitches her leg up around his hips. She can feel that this is affecting him as much as it is her, and with a herculean effort, she manages to break their kiss.
"I…" she starts, but doesn't know how to continue.
Bellamy sighs. "I know," he replies, letting go of her leg and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "I got a little… carried away, sorry."
"No, don't apologize," she says hurriedly. "Never apologize for that."
He chuckles a little and tries to take a step back, but she still has her arms wrapped around his neck and doesn't let go. Not just yet. Instead, she leans up on her tip-toes and kisses him, not like the kiss just a moment ago, but sweet and short.
"God, I want you," she murmurs against his lips as she pulls back, pulling a groan from him. "I just… Madi…"
"I know," he says again. "It's OK, really. There's no rush, we can take our time."
She knows that, of course, but the thing is that she doesn't want to. "Raven offered to have Madi spend the night," she says. "I could talk to her…"
He nods once. "Yeah, that sounds good. If it's what you want."
She lets out a low laugh. "What I really want is for you to take me back to your tent right now, but…"
"Trust me," he says, pulling her hips flush against his again, "it's mutual."
After a moment, Clarke groans and takes a determined, if reluctant, step back. "Right, we're going to be here all night if one of us doesn't walk away."
Bellamy laughs. "And you're asking me to be the one do that?"
"I'm not completely sure I can, so yeah."
He nods before taking a step forward and capturing her lips in one more kiss.
"I love you," he whispers as he pulls away.
"Love you too."
"OK, walking away," he says, stepping backwards off the porch. "Night, Princess."
"Night," she replies quietly as he disappears into the darkness.
She's pretty sure it's going to take a while before she can sleep, considering how fast her heart is beating and how worked up she is. She wishes she had a shower so she could stand under the cold spray until her overheated skin cooled down a bit, but has to settle for splashing some water on her wrists and neck before crawling into bed. Alone.
AN: I know, sexual tension all over the place! But for various reasons, I decided to do their first time together from Bellamy's POV, so I had to break here. Which means you should be able to figure out what's coming up in the next chapter ;) Let me know if you liked this one for now, reviews are always appreciated!