#actually it was a flop moment yesterday because my sister and i took the bus all the way to the city center yesterday

[lost-n-stereo]

A/N: Inspired by this post. Bellarke Modern AU.

your eyes look like coming home

I. Summer always comes when you least expect it.

One day you’re fighting the cold of winter, wool sweaters warming freezing skin. The cold blends seamlessly into spring. Days are longer, the sun bright and cheerful in the sky during the day before settling to sleep in the cool nights.

But summer comes with no warning. The sun bakes down, scorching sidewalks and skin alike. Sunglass tan lines and red noses cover smiling faces. Summer comes with no warning but it’s always welcome.

On days like today, when the temperate hits the rare and dreaded three digits, Clarke heads to the beach. One of the upsides of living in a sleepy ocean town. She stops for an iced coffee on the way, pays for the car behind her because she believes in paying it forward when she can, and presses the Bluetooth button on her dash.

“Call Octavia,” she says out loud as she makes a left hand turn out of the parking lot. It takes five rings before her best friend picks up.

“You better be in or on your way to the hospital for calling me this early,” comes her sleepy voice on the line.

Clarke laughs and takes a sip of her coffee. “Want to meet me at the beach?”

Octavia sighs heavily and Clarke can hear the rustling of blankets. “It’s like nine in the morning. Why are you going now?”

“Because it’s going to be hot as hell today and I want to beat the crowds. I have everything we need, just bring your sweet ass and some drinks.”

She can practically hear the evil grin when Octavia responds with, “Alcholic?”

“Bring your flask,” she laughs. “I’ll be near the surfboard rental shop. Your brother working today?”

Clarke and Octavia’s older brother Bellamy have had an ongoing flirtation for awhile, something neither of them have had the nerve to actually do anything about yet. She digs her teeth into her bottom lip, hoping that he’ll be around today so they can finally change that.

“Yeah, but not until noon.”

She pumps a fist in the air silently and then forces herself to chill out. “Okay, cool.”

Octavia snorts. “Okay, cool? Who are you trying to kid here, Griffin? I know you have the hots for my brother.”

“O, we’ve talked about this. You need to stay out of my love life. And your brother’s because it’s creepy.”

Octavia calls her a rude name and Clarke laughs as she ends the call.

*** The beach is packed by the time Octavia finally shows up.

“So much for hurrying,” Clarke teases when Octavia walks up to the spot she picked out over an hour ago.

“Eat me,” her best friend retorts as she drops a beach bag onto the sand. “You’re lucky I’m here before noon. Bellamy wanted to carpool.”

Clarke laughs. “Your brother and his love of the environment.”

“I know, right. What an asshole.”

They both laugh as Octavia settles down onto the second beach towel Clarke laid down next to her own. A group of kids, no older than ten, run past them and into the ocean. Clarke smiles as she listens to their giggles as they play and splash in the water.

“Remember when we loved this place that much,” she muses as she watches them from behind her aviators. “The ocean used to be my favorite place in the world.”

“And now it’s where? My brother’s bed?”

Clarke snorts, reaches over to pinch Octavia’s side. “You and I both know that’s one place I’ve never been.”

“That’s not exactly true,” a deep voice says from behind them. Clarke practically jumps when Bellamy leans over them both, his hair longer than it was the last time she saw him. Unruly black curls mixed with his crooked glasses are enough to heat her skin without the summer sun.

Octavia sits up and scoots over so he can drop down beside her on the towel.

“Do tell, brother. You know I love Clarke gossip.”

Clarke flips her off and Bellamy laughs. “Don’t you remember last summer? When O threw that rager and you knocked back over half a dozen strawberry jello shots?”

Her skin flushes as the memories of that night rush back to her. Dancing on the coffee table in Bellamy and Octavia’s house. Singing “Don’t Stop Believing” with Raven and Jasper at the top of her lungs while Bellamy watched her from the other side of the room. He had watched her that whole night and she thought, finally, that something was going to happen between them.

But the next morning she woke up in an unfamiliar bed. A pair of wire rimmed glasses sat in a dish on the nightstand and she realized that at some point in the night Bellamy must have put her in his bed.

Alone.

Disappointment had washed over her as she took a moment to cuddle deeper into his sheets, the plaid comforter smelling like his expensive cologne and green apple shampoo he must have stolen from his sister.

“I guess you’re right,” Clarke agrees. “It’s a place I’ve been one time. Hardly think it can qualify as my favorite place in the world.”

Bellamy’s eyes lock onto hers. “Pity,” he says, his tongue darting out to lick his bottom lip. Clarke inhales sharply and Octavia rolls her eyes.

“Jesus, I can’t watch this. I’m going to get a corndog.”

Bellamy chuckles when Octavia uses his shoulder to stand up before heading towards the food stands down the beach.

“I thought she was going vegan?” Clarke laughs and Bellamy shrugs, lays down so his feet are pointed at the water.

“Yeah, she says a lot of shit.”

They lay there in silence for a few moments, their hands resting next to each other on the sand between them. Close but not touching. Sort of like their entire relationship.

“Excited to go back to school?”

Bellamy’s voice is quiet as he moves his head so he’s looking at her. Clarke is headed to Boston in the fall, her senior year of college looming over her head every day.

“Yes,” she answers and he raises an eyebrow at her tone. “No. I don’t know. This is my last year. After this it’s…”

“Real?”

She nods, turns on her side so she’s facing him and he does the same. “Exactly. I’m still not even sure what I want to do with my life. After I’m out of school I have to decide and it fucking sucks.”

Bellamy chuckles, his glasses pushed in an odd way on his nose because of the way his head is sitting on his hand. “You’ll figure it out.”

She scoffs. “And how do you know that?”

“Because you always do.”

His voice is so sure, like he honestly believes she can do anything she wants to do.

“Bell…”

Before she can finish her thought, and if she’s being honest she’s not sure she even knows what she was going to say, he’s pushing off of his hand and pressing his lips against hers. His fingers card through her hair and she can taste the salt from the air on his tongue. She whimpers when he bites at her bottom lip and tugs. They are both breathless when they finally pull away.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for years,” he whispers, his forehead pressed against her and she smiles.

“Why’d you wait so long then?”

He grins, kisses her harder and they don’t stop until his sister interrupts them by clapping.

“Finally! But seriously, Bellamy, get your ass to work so my best friend and I can play in the ocean.”

*** The sun sets at the same time Bellamy walks her to her car.

“I love your hair like this,” he says when he presses her up against her door. His fingers tangle in her salt water curls. “You can take the girl out of the beach but you can never take the beach out of the girl.”

She tastes the ocean on his lips, the sand on the skin of his neck. His fingers press into the small of her back and she swears she can see stars when she closes her eyes.

“Come home with me,” he mumbles against her cheek and she eyes him warily.

“What about your sister?”

“Ilian’s,” he responds in explanation. “Said she won’t be home until you and I have, and I quote, ‘Fucked each other until exhaustion.’”

Clarke laughs. “She really has a sick fascination with our sex life.”

Bellamy shrugs and nibbles on the skin behind her ear. “Maybe but all I heard just now was you say our sex life and if I don’t get you back to my bed immediately I might just die.”

“Dramatic,” she teases and he grins. “Where’s your car anyway?”

“I caught a ride with Monty,” he tells her and she motions towards her car.

“Want a ride?”

He presses against her and she gasps, feels every hard line of his body pressed against her. “Fuck yes.”

*** She’s exhausted in the best possible way.

Bellamy’s arm tightens around her waist, his face burying into her neck from behind.

“I think you broke me,” he says and she giggles, turns over so they are lying face to face.

“I think your old age is catching up to you.”

He narrows his eyes and moves his hand so he’s tickling her waist. “Take it back,” he says as his fingers dig into her sides.

“Never,” she cries as she laughs, tears stinging her eyes as she squirms. Laughs turn into moans when his fingers move further south and she’s shaking with need when he looks up into her eyes.

“I thought you were broken?” He shakes his head, licks his lips slowly before pressing them to the skin just under her belly button.

“My tongue isn’t.”

She moans loudly, thankful that her best friend isn’t around to hear the dirty way she cries out Bellamy’s name as his tongue and fingers do incredible things to her body.

They fall asleep quickly, their bodies the kind of tired that only a full day of sun, beach and sex can create.

When she wakes up, wrapped in the plaid comforter with that familiar cologne and apple smell, she smiles.

Bellamy tugs her over so she’s secure in his arms and she hums in content, kisses his chest once before going back to sleep.

II.

As quickly as summer begins, it ends.

She trades in shorts and flip flops for jeans and a BU hoodie. Her car is packed with most of her belongings, things that she’ll need for the next few months while she’s away from home.

“This is the part I hate,” her mom says, tears in her eyes as she hugs her tightly. “You couldn’t have chosen a college nearby?”

She says this every year, as if Clarke made this decision yesterday and not years ago when she was still in high school.

“I’ll be back in December,” she tells her, hugging her just as tight before pulling away. “I love you.”

“I love you,” her mom says against her hair. “Say hi to Bellamy for me. Drive carefully please. Call me when you get there.”

She rattles off even more instructions and Clarke laughs. “Yes, mother.”

Her mom hugs her one more time, sends her off with a wave as Clarke backs her car out of the driveway.

Bellamy is waiting for her on the steps of his front porch when she pulls up to the curb.

“Hey, beautiful.”

Her heart clenches in her chest, the thought of being without him for three months almost too much to bear.

“Hey, handsome.”

Bellamy kisses the breath from her lungs when she reaches him, his arms snaking around her waist and clutching her so tightly she knows that he’s feeling the same things that she is.

He leads her to his room, locks the door behind him, and reminds her with every kiss what she’s going to be missing for the foreseeable future.

“I’m going to call you every night,” she whispers, her face pressed up against his neck.

“Good.”

Her eyes tear up when he drops a kiss to her forehead. “I’m really going to miss you.” She can feel his lips turn up in a smile against her skin.

“Good.”

*** Autumn in Boston is beyond gorgeous.

Trees are bathed in reds and golds and yellows. The temperature is always just right, warm during the day and cool at night. She jogs in the park in the mornings she doesn’t have class, spends evenings bent over books in the library.

She’s months from graduation, earning a degree that will hopefully help her settle onto an actual career. For now, she��s happy in her classes. There’s an art class that she loves in particular. She feels at home with a charcoal pencil in her hand, the tip gliding across the blank page like an extension of her soul.

“That’s beautiful,” her professor tells her one afternoon. “Who is he?”

Bellamy’s eyes smile at her from the sheet in front of her. “My boyfriend,” she says proudly. She’s drawn him like she saw him so many times this past summer. Board shorts slung low on his hips, surf board under his arm. His hair is wild, blown by the wind, and he’s smirking, his eyes shining with mischief. The ocean is behind him, waves promising a fantastic ride to anyone brave enough to face them.

“Clarke, you’re very talented,” her professor says, her eyes pouring over every inch of Clarke’s drawing. “I’d like to feature this in the spring showcase, with your permission of course.”

“That would be amazing,” Clarke says genuinely. “Thank you, Professor Clemmons.”

She calls Bellamy as soon as she’s back to her room to tell him the good news.

“Congrats, baby. I’m so proud of you.”

She doesn’t tell him that it’s a portrait of him but when he asks what the theme of it is she answers with one word.

“Love.”

When he chuckles softly and tells her how much he misses her she assumes he figured it out anyways.

*** A month before she is set to go home for winter break she feels the tell tale signs of a cold coming on.

Her nose is runny, her voice scratchy, and she groans as she drags herself into a pharmacy for some cold and cough medicine.

She calls Bellamy when she gets home, like she does every night, and he immediately asks her what’s wrong.

“I’m sick,” she whines into the phone, a cough punctuating the end of her statement.

“Aww,” he says and she can hear the laugh in his voice at her tone. “I wish I was there to take care of you.”

“Yeah?” She asks, snuggling into her twin bed, the medicine already causing her eyes to drop closed. “How would you take care of me?”

Normally if she asked him this question he’d lower his voice, whisper all of the dirty things he’d love to do to her if he was there. Now his voice is soothing, water over gravel as he lulls her to sleep.

III.

Graduation comes sooner than she expects.

Everyone travels to Boston to celebrate with her. Her mom insisted on paying for Bellamy and Octavia to fly first class with her and Clarke doesn’t know who to hug first when she meets them at the airport.

Bellamy reaches her first, his arms folding around her as he buries his face in her neck.

“I love you so much,” he says in her ear and she’s crying when he pulls away.

“Really?” She says and he laughs, nods and kisses her deeply. “I love you, too.”

He grins shyly, steps aside so she can hug her mom and his sister, but her eyes never leave his.

They go out to dinner after the ceremony, her mom surprising her with reservations at one of her favorite restaurants in the city.

“I can see why you like this place,” Octavia says when the waiter returns to their table. She smiles and flirts with him as he refills their wine glasses. Bellamy rolls his eyes as he takes a pull from his Stella.

“Wait,” Clarke says. “What happened to Ilian?”

Octavia laughs and takes a dainty sip from her glass of wine. “That was so last summer, Clarke. You really need to catch up.”

So that’s what they do. The four of them sit and tell stories of the past year. Clarke saw them all over winter break but this is different. This isn’t just a visit, it’s a new beginning.

*** “So I have an idea.”

She’s practically laying on top of Bellamy, the hotel bed large enough for four people but she doesn’t want an inch of space between her body and his.

“Can I guess?” She trails her fingers over his tight abs, down his hips and under the blanket. He lets out a deep growl, his body responding to her touch.

“Well, that wasn’t what I meant but…”

Clarke laughs and rests her chin on his chest so she can look at him.

“So what, then?”

He runs his hand across her back. “I think we should take a road trip.”

Her eyes widen in surprise. “Really? That sounds amazing, actually.”

“Yeah?” She nods and Bellamy grins. “I was thinking we could just leave from here, if you’re up to it. I got a one way ticket instead of round trip. We could just pack up your car, head out of town. What do you say?”

She leans up to capture his lips with hers. “I say, hell yeah.”

*** They take off two days later.

Luckily she thought far enough ahead to move most of her stuff back home on winter break, so her backseat is full of just enough clothes to last her a couple weeks and everything else fits into her trunk.

She smiles when Bellamy throws a full duffle bag next to her Pink gym bag.

“You came prepared,” she says with a laugh and he shrugs.

“I was hoping you’d say yes,” he retorts and kisses her quickly on the forehead before holding his hand out for the keys. “I’ll take first leg.”

They drive for hours with no destination in mind, his hand resting on her knee the whole way. They stop at a random diner, stuff their bellies full of pancakes and stale coffee, before taking off on the road again.

“We should stop and sleep soon,” he says as they pull back onto the freeway.

Clarke nods, her eyes starting to close on their own accord. Bellamy notices and chuckles, reaches blindly behind him for her pillow and hands it to her. “Here, grab some shut eye until I find a place to stop.”

She almost argues but then she yawns and realizes that she’s actually a lot more tired than she thought.

“I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute,” she says with a smile, leaning over the console to drop a kiss to his cheek.

“Sure,” he laughs. “G’night, princess.”

She falls asleep to the sounds of the radio. Bellamy’s fingers tap lightly against her knee to the beat and it soothes her, eyes dropping closed on some random freeway in Pennsylvania.

*** “Baby, wake up.”

Soft kisses rain down on her skin, her eyelashes fluttering as she tries to focus on the face in front of her.

“Hey,” she says, her voice scratchy. Bellamy passes her a water bottle and she thanks him as she takes a long drink. “What time is it?”

“After midnight,” he says with a laugh and she groans.

“Why’d you let me sleep so long?”

Bellamy shrugs, his face lit up in green and pink from the motel sign from outside the car. “You needed it.”

She looks out her window, trying to figure out where exactly they ended up while she was out.

“Where are we?”

Bellamy reaches for her and tugs until she’s straddling him in the driver’s seat. “Exactly where we should be.”

It’s the perfect answer, from a perfect boy, so she covers his lips with hers to let him know.