"Why the hell are you two handcuffed- and no, better yet, where did you even find handcuffs?"
That was the question, wasn't it? Well, they both were questions, Clarke told herself, but the prior one...that was the one that she knew would be weird to explain, but heck, here they were.
Clarke answered 'on the ark' at the same time Bellamy started explaining why.
Raven stopped them immediately, "Right, fine, okay. Uhm, I couldn't hear anything of what you two were saying because you were talking at the same time."
They tried again, to similar results. This time, however, Bellamy gave an aggravated groan.
"Princess, we're going to be standing here until sundown unless one of us shuts up so we can properly answer Raven's question," He said, sneering at her, "So I'll go first."
"What?" Clarke squawked, "Excuse me? No, no! My answer is shorter and frankly-,"
"I don't care whose answer is shorter! I said I'm answering first!"
"I am going to stab you-,"
"Hey!" Raven yelled, causing anyone in their general area to flinch and pause. Once they realized that Raven was directing her frustrations on someone else, they went back to whatever they were working on. Clarke did have to wonder why no one else was bothered by the strangeness of her and Bellamy's predicament? "Bellamy. Talk. It seems like your answer is at least the beginning of whatever stupid-ass idea this is."
Clarke huffed at Raven, surly and grumpy.
"It wasn't my idea, trust me, and it's a necessity," Bellamy ground out, trying to cross his arms, before realizing that he was yanking Clarke across the ground with him. His hands hovered for a second before they went into the pockets of his pants, "But you know how we went out yesterday and got trapped during that weird fog?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well, we got hit by some of it. And surprise, we're not dead. But afterward, we...noticed something," Bellamy said, his eyebrows knitting, "If we happened to walk more than a few feet from each other, we'd get horrible headaches and our noses would start to bleed. I mean, I passed out once, and Clarke started vomiting. It seems, for some ungodly reason, we can't be more than five feet from each other."
"Are you sure?" Raven's interest was piqued, "Have you-,"
"Tested it?" Clarke guessed. She rubbed her nose, still sore from all the times it had violently spurted blood two days ago, "Uh-huh. Many times. We've scienced it out. At least the parameters. Vaguely. We don't know why."
Raven looked mildly put out she wouldn't get to take them through the wringer. However, she seemed to perk up after a second, as though mentally telling herself that they still had no idea as to why this was happening, and that was something she could study.
"Okay. Handcuffs?" She turned to Clarke.
"Found them in the Ark. We have a bad habit of...wandering away from each other," She sighed, pinching her face, "So, until this curse or whatever-,"
"There's no such thing as curses," Raven was quick to scoff.
"This curse, or whatever it is, reverses," Clarke ignored her, repeating the last bit louder, "We're, ah, stuck together. I guess."
Bellamy blew a short snort, "Yippie." He said, utterly deadpanned.
Raven licked her lips, staring between the pair. She was wincing.
"What?" Clarke demanded. Raven just gave a rickety laugh, something that caused both Clarke and Bellamy to start to protest until she managed to get a few wheezing words out.
"You two are going to murder each other."
XXX
The news spread quickly.
It was hard not to when Clarke and Bellamy were literally joined at the hip.
It was for the better that the truth was out there, Clarke decided, since the idea previous to speaking to Raven had been wildly inaccurate.
Some people thought it was on a dare and both were too stubborn to give in. That one, unfortunately, wouldn't be incorrect...if it were true.
Some people assumed it was some weird bonding experience, to try to make them both better leaders.
The worst, though, were the whispers that it had been a sexual and kinky tryst gone wrong, and someone (votes on Bellamy, ha, take that!) had lost the keys, so they were stuck like this. Clarke shuddered at the thought of sleeping with him.
So fine, at least the truth was out there now.
Life moved so fast down here that she noticed that even one day after Raven confronting them, it seemed the 100 was on to the next juicy gossip.
But they were still handcuffed together, unable to separate.
XXX
"Arg! Bellamy!"
Bellay coughed up dirt, wiping his face, "Oh? Oh! What in the name of all that is good have I possibly done now?" He demanded hotly.
"You nearly ripped my arm off, that's what," Clarke said, rubbing the raw place where the metal had dug into her wrist.
"Me?" Bellamy said, pulling himself to his knees, "You caused me to pretty much eat a mouthful of dirt, Griffin."
"Oh boohoo. It's probably good for you," Clarke yanked her side of the wrist back, tying her hair into a bun, "I thought we agreed we were going my direction." She huffed.
"We never agreed that." Bellamy's eyes widened. It was their first day back to official duties since being cursed, as Clarke still liked to call it.
"I said 'hey, my job seems far more important, so we should stay in the med tent while we're stuck together' and you nodded and said 'sure'," Clarke said.
Bellamy frowned, "Ah, is that what you were yapping about this morning? Eugh," He wiped the dust from his pants, "I just said 'sure' to placate you and shut you up. If I knew what it was about, I would have never agreed."
Clarke saw red. She reached out and hit his side, hard. Bellamy yelped.
"I cannot believe you! You sorry, stupid excuse for a human!" She yelled, "Well, it doesn't matter, we agreed!" She said, stomping her foot, "So we're going to the med tent."
"Uhm, no," Bellamy's eyes widened, "I have a lot of shit I don't trust anyone else to do. Do you think this whole camp runs itself? Think again. So we're going my way."
Unfortunately, Bellamy was quite a few heads above her, and certainly stronger. Even as Clarke dug her heels in, Bellamy was easily able to pull her whole body with him. This is how Monty found them; Clarke rag-dolling and yelling profanities at Bellamy, who lugged Clarke's whole body behind him while singing a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' very loudly to drown her out.
"Uh, guys?" Monty said, "Should I-,"
"No, it's obviously some sort of foreplay between them," Murphy snorted, "Let 'em be."
"It is not!" Bellamy stared at the two boys, slack-jawed, "You..I...you…" He sputtered.
"We wouldn't be doing this willingly," Clarke added, glaring at Bellamy.
"What's going on?" Monty asked, helping Clarke to her feet.
"Well, the issue is we can't be in two places at once," Bellamy said, "And I have important stuff to do."
"Bellamy thinks if he leaves anyone else in charge for any longer, they'll burn the camp down," Clarke rolled her eyes, "Me, on the other hand, I have actual people to heal!"
"Well, Bellamy's not wrong," Jasper jumped in, "Most of us- I mean, not me, but others - aren't renowned for intelligence."
Bellamy gave a haughty smile.
"But Clarke also makes a good point. She's our most trained doctor here." Monty said. Clarke stuck her tongue out at Bellamy.
"Well, this is a pickle I'm glad I'm not in," Murphy said, abandoning whatever he'd been working on, "Toodaloo, lovebirds."
"I think...you're gonna have to compromise. Do you know that word?" Monty asked with a hint of aggravation.
"I'm not stupid, Green," Bellamy said, glaring at him down. To his credit, he didn't flinch under the usually imposing glare of the oldest person in this camp.
"What?" Clarke shook her head, "Oh, no, no, no! There's no 'compromise' when it comes to medical emergencies!"
"True," Monty agreed, "But most of these injuries are superficial. Thorns or small cuts or sprained ankles. It's rare we have a bad one, isn't it?" He asked. Clarke dropped her shoulders, knowing he was right, "Look, why don't you...be where Bellamy needs to be unless there is an actual emergency. If there is, Bellamy stops what he's doing and goes with you. That sound fair?"
"No." Clarke pouted.
"Fine with me. I can meet in the middle." Bellamy said, teasing.
Clarke snorted. The first time she'd ever seen that ability in him.
"Clarke?" Monty prompted again.
"Okay! Fine, fine. But the second there's any sort of issue, you come and get me. I don't care if he's building Rome. You get me." Clarke threatened, "And tell that to Paul, word for word." She said, referring to the next most experienced medic in the camp.
Monty saluted her, "Aye-aye, Clarke."
"See," Bellamy said, triumphantly dragging Clarke from her spot, "Isn't it nice to share?"
"Shut up, Blake."
XXX
Okay, okay.
So maybe what Bellamy was doing was important, and maybe it was stupid to hand all of it off to other people. And maybe he did have to be in like eight places inside and outside the camp, but was Clarke ever going to admit this to his face? Hell to the nope.
"Hmm, try the north side," Bellamy said, scratching his chin with his right hand, his left hand tied with Clarke's hand and keeping the paper down, "Finn, you said you picked up some hint of deer there?"
"Yeah," Finn said, hardly even glancing at Clarke, which she was a bit put-out about, "But we've hardly explored that area."
"Do you want to take a team?" Bellamy looked at another sheet, one that showed him the members of the hundred who were more or less doing things that they could be pulled away from, "And see if it's worth hunting there? Or do you think in your expert opinion, the deer will return?"
"They're grazers," Finn said carefully, "So yes, there's a chance they're just...moving a bit, but do we want to take that chance?"
Bellamy sat back down on the lawn chair, tilting his head.
"How much deer meat do we have left from the last kill? And turkeys?"
"About half the deer, but the good meat is gone. And two turkeys," Finn ticked off on his fingers, "A few squirrels. Not great tasting, but it's protein."
Clarke watched Bellamy sit in deep thought for a few seconds. She'd give anything right now to crack his head open to see what he was thinking. It was moments like these that she was honestly curious about him. What criteria was he running through right now?
"Clarke?" His voice startled her, "What do you think?"
Clarke spun around, as though there was another Clarke he was speaking to. She pointed slowly to herself, "...me?"
"Yes, you," Bellamy rubbed his eyes, "If you're sitting there, might as well be useful," He muttered.
She wondered if he was reaching out because even making choices like this, which seemed small, could have disastrous consequences, and perhaps that was a weight he didn't want alone.
Clarke leaned forward, examining the map they'd constructed so far. The areas that were safe. The areas that weren't. The areas that were unknown.
"I think…" She tilted her head, "We have about a day until we start to worry. So I guess my question would be, is it better to explore a new location and put effort into that today, or be catching nothing today and worry tomorrow?" She asked, "Or, could we do both?"
Bellamy shook his head, "No, no. More than that, there's only a few I'll give weapons to, and a lot of those people we need for other projects." He looked back to Finn, "Do you want to?"
"I...I think yes, either way, a new area to hunt can't be a bad thing. We know that's where the deer are now. So even if tomorrow they go back, tomorrow we'll have another deer for dinner from today."
Bellamy stared, and for a second, Clarke wondered if he was going to deny him just to be an ass. Then, he gave a cut nod.
"Take Jordan, Mbege, and Monroe," He made little dots next to names, "And by god, be safe."
"I always am," Finn huffed, ducking under the door of the tent on his way out.
Bellamy gave a long sigh and collapsed into the chair, slumping low. Clarke laughed a bit.
"Don't," Bellamy snapped, looking up.
"I'm not...no, I'm not laughing at you," Clarke explained with her hands, "I...uhm, I'm laughing with you." At Bellamy's dubious expression, she continued, "It's like...one thing down, but two million more on your plate, right?"
Bellamy's shield in front of him broke, his face became a bit softer. He laughed a bit himself, "Yeah. Yes. That's the way to put it, for sure."
XXX
"Woah, woah...you have a mattress?"
Clarke dragged the mattress around the corner.
"Yes," She said simply, choosing not to engage further. Bellamy was sputtering in shock.
"Wait, why the hell do you get one?"
"Because," she said, grasping the edge of it with one arm to drag, and drag, and drag.
"That's unfair!"
"Life sucks," Clarke shrugged, "Doncha know?"
They were currently moving their sleeping situation. It was now day four of this totally unfortunate and entirely shitty circumstance. The first night, they'd been in the bunker underground, and closer than five feet. The second night, they'd slept outside, grouchy and pissed off at each other.
Last night, they tried their first long-term sleeping solution. Clarke absolutely refused to sleep closer to Bellamy than strictly necessary, and certainly not on the same mattress pad as him! Luckily, Bellamy was in firm agreement.
Clarke slept in the dropship, to be close to patients. There was a tiny nook she'd curled up in, where her mattress had been hiding. She needed to be able to go to sleep at a moment's notice and wake up for anything, thus, she felt she rightfully got the one good mattress that had come down with them. She would fight Bellamy for this.
Bellamy had been fine with her choice of sleeping. There had been a wall between them last night. They'd of course uncuffed themselves to sleep. She'd gotten an earful of his 'nightcap', as it were, and Clarke was not sure she wanted to know who the atrocious and honestly sorta fake moaning had been from. She was sure Bellamy was doing it just to piss her off.
It had been fine, though, at first. They both agreed to stay close to the wall to keep within the five feet limit. All had been well...until she found something out about Bellamy.
Clarke, once she curled up, didn't move an inch until morning. Bellamy, however, moved. He moved a lot.
Clarke had been woken up at who knows when to the worst headache of her life and her nose bursting with blood. She'd groggily stumbled and tripped over her blankets to round the other side of the wall to find Bellamy….impossibly on the other side of the room. He was now sitting up too, grasping his nose.
"Get. Back. Over. There." Clarke growled, and he had the proper decent to look embarrassed.
"Shit, I thought...sorry," He said, his first true apology ever, she was sure, "I thought maybe I wouldn't tonight."
"This is a common occurrence?"
Bellamy, now standing next to Clarke, sniffed up the rest of the blood. Clarke felt loads better too. He stood and took two uneasy steps towards his bedroll.
"My mom said I used to sleep like a tornado."
"I will chain you to that radiator to keep you in place at night." She threatened, hating to be woken for non-medical emergencies.
"We gotta figure something else out," Bellamy groaned.
So they would.
There was a tent that was exactly five feet across. It was currently housing some supplies that needed to stay dry, but they were extremely tired in the morning, so it seemed like a good sacrifice. Clarke at least felt guilty; they'd had to kick four people out of another tent so that the supplies could stay dry and just her and Bellamy could sleep less than five feet away from one another.
She hated the idea of being in an enclosed space, like a tent, with him, but what were their other choices?
"So you get to sleep on a nice mattress and I get to basically sleep on the ground?"
"Uh-huh. Fair, considering I gotta stick by your side all day." So far, unfortunately, no medical emergencies. Pre-curse, it's like people were cutting off hands left and right. Suddenly, everyone was an angel, doing nothing stupid or dangerous. Where was good old teenage idiocracy when you needed it?
"Can we make an agreement?" Clarke said as she shoved her mattress in. Bellamy offered zero help. He just watched her, "No...sex in the tent? It was fine with a wall between us," It wasn't fine, but it wasn't anything worse than what she heard from others, "But I'd have to be in here and that's just…"
"You could sit outside the tent," Bellamy said, serious.
"No, I'm not sitting outside the tent whenever you pop a boner," Clarke was deeply offended he thought that would fly.
"Fine," Bellamy shrugged, "But guys will be guys...can't stop you from seeing something."
"I'd rather poke my eyes out."
Bellamy laughed. Why, why was he laughing? "I think you're just jealous. You know that it's not as good when you do it. Don't wanna be confronted with perfection."
"That's far from it. Don't you find it...well, gross?"
Bellamy looked at her, his eyebrow raised, "I'm a guy. I would have sex anytime and anywhere I could get it. I'm fine with a few watchers too."
"Well, I'm not. It weirds me out. No sex."
Bellamy snorted, "Fine. Fine. I guess I'll just waste away…"
By this time, Clarke had finished dragging her things into the tent. They sat in the middle and unclicked their handcuffs. Then, cautiously and carefully, they scooted to opposite ends of the tent, waiting for the searing pain.
Nothing. They were backed up against the tent walls and perfectly fine.
They both let out a sigh of relief.
"Well, with that!" Clarke said brightly, reaching out and turning off their lantern. Once under the covers, she began to shimmy her pants and top off.
"Clarke?"
"What."
"What is that sound?"
Clarke paused, "What?"
"What you're...doing." There was a long pause, "Oh, shit, you're such a hypocrite, aren't you! I should have known!"
"I'm not masturbating!" Clarke said quickly, her face bright red.
"Then what are you doing?"
"None of your business."
There was a long pause again, "Fine. I'll believe you're getting yourself off then."
Clarke groaned, "I sleep in my bra and underwear. Anything more and I overheat." She expected a snarky reply but instead got a rickety laugh.
"Okay, okay." She might be imagining it, but it didn't have a hint of dislike in his voice. Clarke finished de-clothing and snuggled under her blanket.
She was nearly asleep when she heard a very quiet, almost too-faint whisper.
"Night, Clarke."
She didn't reply for a very long time but finally relented.
"Sleep tight, Bellamy."
XXX
"Ah!" Raven spotted the pair and strode over to them with a wide, slightly mad-scientist grin, "There you two are."
"Here we two are?" Clarke tilted her head.
"Been looking for you guys. Not the point. Blake, give me your arm."
Bellamy immediately took two steps back, "Why do you need my arm?" Honestly, his response was totally valid.
Raven blinked at him, as though he was a misbehaving child, "Because, Bellamy Blake, it's been two weeks and this weird scientific head-scratcher hasn't let up."
Clarke couldn't help but startle in surprise, looking at Bellamy. Had it really been two weeks since they'd been stuck five feet apart already? She guessed it had been, but honestly, it still was a surprise to her.
She and Bellamy had fallen into a good routine. Not one that was always easy, stars no! They still fought more than they got along, but each day was a bit better. Ever since they figured out the five-foot tent, things had been much easier, now that they were getting actual sleep. Even if Bellamy did end up in strange places each morning.
"That doesn't explain why you want my arm." Bellamy narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her.
"To take your blood, now give it," Raven said, "I'm coming for you next, Clarke."
"Where'd you get that stuff?" Clarke asked.
"Doesn't matter. Bellamy, arm." Raven commanded. Usually, people just listened to Raven. Instead, Bellamy threw both his arms far up, throwing up Clarke's arm enough to make her arm hurt.
"No way! You're not touching me with that needle!"
"You're afraid of needles?" Clarke guessed, surprised.
"What?" Bellamy turned to her, as though he'd forgotten she was attached, "No! No! It's Raven. You trained as a Zero-G Mechanic. You know how to work with spaceships, not people."
"I'm still a scientist, and I'm aggravated that this hasn't stopped."
"Oh, you're annoyed?" Bellamy looked her right in the eye, "Say that again."
"I am! I want to get to the bottom of this, don't you?" She volleyed back. Bellamy opened his mouth, then closed it.
"But you're a mechanic! What about Clarke; she could research. She needs shit to do now that she's stuck with me all day."
"I have things I'm doing!" Clarke huffed. She did, that wasn't a lie. She was writing down everything she knew about medicine from her mom and cross-referencing with Monty for flowers. She was making a medical survival guidebook, something quite important, "Plus I worked with just healing. Not so much study."
"I don't care. She's not doing whatever she thinks she's doing on my arm."
Raven stared at Bellamy for a few seconds, before turning on her heels, stalking away.
"You pissed Raven off. She's gunna murder you in your sleep tonight." Clarke laughed, "Bellamy, would it really be so bad to figure this out?"
"No, but I don't know if she can." Bellamy shrugged.
Two hours later, Raven found them again, now with a scrawny kid in tow. Clarke vaguely recognized him, as in, she knew he was logically one of theirs, but wasn't sure they'd ever talked.
"See!" Raven said triumphantly, as though this ginger fixed everything.
"Uhm...what?" Bellamy looked up, confused. He looked to Clarke to see if he missed something, but Clarke shook her head.
"You had doubts about what I could research. Fair, fine. So I found…" She turned, "What's your name again?"
"Colter Harrison," The kid squeaked.
"Colter! Yes, right. He was on the medical research ring before he was put in the SkyBox, on early rotation." Raven said triumphantly.
"Well, that's better, I guess," Bellamy sized Colter up, "Kid, why were you in the SkyBox?" He asked. Fair question. If he murdered his mother, Clarke didn't want him studying her.
"My supervisor was sorta a dick. One day I found one of the girls under his authority sobbing. She told me that he'd slept with her and taken a bunch of pics on his holopad without permission. He was spreading it around the research center. Saying she was a slut, and that just wasn't true. So I...punched him. I didn't think I even knew how to punch, but I broke his nose."
"I remember that!" Clarke said, "My mom made a comment that she didn't even want to set his nose, that he should have to walk around with it all funky. Good swing." She said in appreciation.
"See? Acceptable now?" Raven pressured Bellamy.
"Okay, yeah, that's reasonable. But I still want Clarke to take my blood."
Clarke startled, "Wait, me?"
"You do it most often. Clarke or nothing." He said to Raven, who Clarke did think looked a little blood-happy.
She pouted, "Fine. Clarke, can I at least do yours?" She asked with excitement.
Clarke, in the few months she'd had on her medical rotation, had often offered up her arm for pin practice. She was used to it.
"Go crazy."
Even though Raven missed her vein once, Clarke hardly flinched, and even yawned a bit as Raven, with a sense of barreling toward an answer, ran off with Colter.
"Okay, your turn, I guess," Clarke said, turning to Bellamy. Slowly, he lowered his arm for her to gain access to. She rolled up his sleeve, fingers ghosting across his forearm, marveling at how sculpted, how perfect they seemed, how-
"Give me a warning, okay?" Bellamy said, his voice higher-pitched than usual. She startled up. His face was sallow and he was pointedly looking anywhere but his arm. Clarke gave a laugh that ended in a sort of hiccup.
"Oh, stars! You actually are afraid of needles!"
"Yeah, well," Bellamy didn't quite deny it, just scowled, "It didn't seem like the most moving rejection to Raven's plan! I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it, 'kay?"
"Oh, what's that? Recognition that I'm actually a good doctor. Possibly the best here? That I'm important?" Clarke asked, her lips curling into a mischievous grin.
"Look, you save lives. Can you just get it over with, before I faint and yank your arm out of the socket as I go down?" Bellamy said, using his other hand to cover his eyes and he inhaled hard and fast.
"Yeah," Clarke said. If there was one thing her mother had taught her, it was to read her patients carefully. She ticked off in her mind how his heart was racing, how he was inhaling and exhaling really fast, and how his jaw was tightly clenched. To her, getting blood taken was no worse than a mosquito bite. To him? It was a big deal.
"On three." She said. Bellamy nodded, trying to swallow. Clarke found a vein, a perfect one, one that would make anyone else envious it was going to be so easy.
"One...two-," Clarke poked him. Bellamy yelped.
"Can you count, Princess?" He asked, shaking, "I thought you got a great education on the Alpha Station!"
Clarke capped the needle and tightly wound his arm in a piece of fabric. She reached up on her tip-toes to pat his head.
"You were going to throw yourself into a panic if I actually counted to three. And you were distracted while I did it; yelling at me. Now we're done," She said, holding the vial between her fingers to show that she didn't need anymore.
Bellamy came down abruptly from his anger, staring at her in shock. Finally, he just muttered something inaudible and began tugging her in the direction Raven had merrily pranced away to.
XXX
Clarke poked Bellamy's side. He's currently half off his sleeping mat, one leg twirled in his thin blanket, one arm over his head, and the other...gosh, she can't even chart it in this low light. If she still had holopads with data to take pictures, she'd take one of him, to memorialize the way that a weird person like him sleeps, but that's hardly pressing now.
What is pressing, however, is the pressure on her bladder.
"Bellamy!" She hisses, poking his cheek now, "Bell!" She whines in a low, whingeing intonation.
Bellamy slowly opens one eye, "Go back to sleep." He grunts, rolling over, still keeping perfect form.
"No, Bellamy," She shakes his shoulder, "I gotta...we...you…" She stumbles over the issue, embarrassment tripping her words.
"What? Words, Princess?" Bellamy asks, for sure more awake now, rubbing his face. His question is muffled behind his fingers.
"I have to go pee." She says in one waterfall of words. Yikes, nope, no thinking of waterfalls.
Bellamy gives her a 'are you serious' sort of annoyed look, "We wait until morning."
They were on a schedule. It sucked to have to do your duty at specific times, but when you were limited to five feet, you made your body get on that schedule. And often, always actually, it was in daylight. Where they could easily go a few feet from each other, relieve themselves without the embarrassment of what was actually happening, and keep each other in their peripheral sights.
"I really, really, really got to go," Clarke said, biting her lip.
"Who, exactly, told you you should slow down on the liquids at dinner tonight for this exact reason?" He asked with an 'I told you so' smile in his words.
"Yes, yes, you're all-mighty, all-seeing," Clarke huffed, "But it was tea, Bellamy! Tea!"
The only thing anyone had to drink since arriving had been water. Water that tasted a bit like dirt, even when going through like eighteen filtration systems, even if it was from the sky. Actually, the sky water tasted a bit like electrical tape, which was worse. But Monty, currently her favorite of the 100, had found some mint and bergamot leaves while foraging and for the first time in practically forever, Clarke had had more than just water.
And okay, she sorta overdid it. Like by four glasses.
For anyone else, this wouldn't be an issue. For her and Bellamy, however?
"Can't you just go right outside the tent?"
"Ew! Someone, probably Mbege, would murder me. He's really into sanitation. I mean, at least someone here is. We really should talk with him, now that I think about it, and start to seriously-,"
"Can you talk quieter? It's like...the middle of the night. Middle of my sleep."
Clarke cupped her hands, pointing them to Bellamy, "Look, come with me, and I'll shut up the rest of the night."
Bellamy pulled his pillow over his face, "I'd rather take my chances at a nosebleed. Haven't had a good one in a while. Night, Princess." He said, and she was sure he wasn't joking.
"I'll even give you the good mattress." She squirmed, "It's like...now or never, Blake."
This got his attention, "Fine! Fine! Let's go out," He said, getting up. She cursed. Damn, now she actually had to follow through on that, huh?
They went outside the barriers of the camp, Bellamy making exaggerated yawning. Clarke did her business, reminding herself to never have more than half a glass of anything liquid before bed.
Once they returned, Bellamy took the time in switching his pillow for hers.
"They're all the same," She argued.
"No, this one is fitted to me," Bellamy disagreed, "Oh, gosh, this mattress...damn, you have it nice."
"I know," Clarke said, curling up on Bellamy's very uncomfortable and very thin pad. Jeeze, how did anyone get any regular sleep on these? First thing tomorrow, she needed to figure out how to make better mattresses, because this...she was personally offended at the low quality!
"Wake me up to go to the bathroom anytime," Bellamy said, and she could hear him turning on the mattress.
"Won't make that mistake again." Clarke sighed.
"Night, sleep tight."
Somewhere, this had just become a regular thing between the two. Did it mean they were friends? No, maybe not. They certainly weren't enemies anymore. But had they traversed that leap between the two?
"Night?" Bellamy said again, worried, for some reason, she hadn't heard.
Clarke gave a chuckle. Perhaps he needed that moment of human connection, fleeting and utterly ironic since they were attached for the entire day but in general, didn't have a moment as intimate as this. But she understood it. She understood it far more than she wished.
So, she simply smiled, "Night, Bell. Don't let the bedbugs bite."