complicated | bellarke

one | it's our responsibility

CLARKE:

"Bellamy, stop! You'll kill him!" I cry as he attacks Murphy, pummeling him to the ground.

Finn pulls him off, but Bellamy still protests. "He deserves to die!" he shouts.

I run to face him. "No, we don't decide who lives and dies!" I yell shakily. "Not down here!"

He's catching his breath, looking between Murphy and I, trying to decide if it's worth it. I could tell as his face changed that he knew I was right.

We come to the decision to banish him. After all he's done, maybe he deserves more, but on the ground, things aren't like the Ark. We have to be better than that.

As we all head back to camp, I pull Finn to the side.

"Want to go to the art supply store?" I ask him, smiling. "I could really use an escape right now."

"Sure," he replies, starting to walk in the other direction.

My impulsive side takes over and before he can go, I grab his hand and spin him back around, just to kiss him. I just need someone. He doesn't move, though, so I stop.

I try to play it off. "Nevermind, we can actually-"

He pulls me back in before I can finish my excuse, kissing me back this time. It's only a moment before he withdraws again.

"Clarke, I'm sorry, I can't do this," he says, looking down at the ground.

I feel my cheeks turning red, even though it's too dark out for Finn to notice. "Okay, that's okay, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

He interrupts me again. "It's not you. I really like you. It's just... back on the Ark, I had a girlfriend. And I know I'm probably never going to see her again, but there's a part of me that doesn't want to move on that quickly, you know?"

I nod rapidly, just wanting the awkward conversation to be over with. "Yes, I understand. Thank you for telling me."

Finn gives a sad nod before walking away to get back with the group. I stand there for a few seconds, and as I'm about to walk back to camp, Bellamy appears in front of me.

"We need to talk about this banishment," he tells me.

I start walking away, trusting that he'll follow. "What about it?"

"We should go into the terms of it, and then talk about other crimes and their respective punishments," he says, catching up to me.

"You want to set up some sort of judicial system?" I asked, eyeing him. "What's with the sudden change of heart?"

"We both know that Murphy was a result of 'whatever the hell we want'," Bellamy concedes. I'm shocked that he's admitting a failure of any kind, but I don't let him know it.

"Why do we get to decide the laws?"

He catches my arm to stop me from walking and meets my eyes. "Clarke, we're the leaders of these people now, especially after tonight. It's our responsibility to do make laws, to protect everyone, to keep them alive."

"What's the point of keeping them alive if the Ark isn't allowed to know it?" Something in me knows it's dangerous to pick a fight with Bellamy, but I can't help it.

"We don't need the Ark to survive. If we create our own system down here, there's no point in letting them know we're alive."

"You don't understand," I moan, as I stop moving. "They didn't send us down here to create our own system. This isn't a game, or a punishment." I turn to face him. "It's a test. And everyone up on the Ark is going to die if we fail it, or fail to get them the results."

Bellamy doesn't say anything to that. "Princess, please, we need to make the laws. That's the only way we're going to survive. And we both want that, don't we?"

I stare into his eyes. They almost look desperate.

"Fine," I accept.

"Okay, we need to find somewhere in camp where we're not going to be getting outside input. I don't want this going public too soon."

I take a deep breath. "There is somewhere, follow me," I tell him, walking off to the art supply store. Finn and I don't need it to be our special place anymore.

Hey, guys! Welcome to my new Bellarke fic! I hope you like it so far! It's going to be kind of similar to the show for a bit with some plot changes, but then it will be branching in its own direction. I'm going to be posting a short chapter three times a week: every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I've already written a lot of the story so I don't expect to fall behind on schedule. Please vote for this if you liked it! Thank you so much for reading!