Mountains Shelter Secrets (Bellamy Blake x Reader)

IX - Remember Me

Finally an end to the slow burn?

The truce began with a journey to the Grounder village of Tondc. As per Lexa's terms, Finn's body would burn alongside the victims of the massacre. Clarke had asked me to come. I had no desire to go back to that place after what I'd seen, but I hadn't been able to refuse. Not when her eyes were still red, and her hands stained with blood. I hugged her, took her hands in mine trying to share the blood to let her know I could help carry her burden, but it didn't seem to help. I didn't think it would, but at least I tried.

Walking near the Grounders was disconcerting, seeing as we hardly received a warm welcome from any of them, nor would we in Tondc. I didn't hold my bow in my hand, nor my knife, but I let their presence comfort me as we walked through the enraged Grounders. Each time I looked up from the dirt, I would find a Grounder glaring at me, or muttering what were unmistakably threats under their breaths. Everyone was experiencing the same thing. They wanted us all dead for Finn's massacre.

Bellamy walked a few steps ahead of me, clutching tightly to his gun. Everything about him was so tense, always so tense. I knew beneath that rigid exterior was a gentle man, full of kindness and love for his friends. Protective, caring, and yet guarded, terrified to let people in and let them down. Everything about him was all I ever longed for in a friend. Family.

I had never been in love before. A few crushes here and there, but nothing to the magnitude of what I felt for Bellamy. God. I was going to go insane.

"Y/n," my father said as he walked next to me. "Are you feeling alright? You've been quiet all morning."

I nodded, keeping my eyes on the ground. But my father would have none of it. He grabbed my arm gently, forcing me to look at him.

"You don't have to pretend with me, kid."

I sighed, giving up. It was no use lying to the man who had raised me. "It's just a little much, you know? All my friends are locked up in Mount Weather and I don't know if they're alive, if they're being strung upside down in that chamber being drained of their blood, or if God forbid they think we gave up on them. Seeing Clarke kill Finn broke me a little. She's one of my best friends and I hate that she had to do that.

I took a deep breath and continued, "Then, there's that truce. I'm worried it won't hold for long. Scared it'll break before we can rescue everyone from Mount Weather. And even if we do get our people back, what comes after? Will the truce evolve into an alliance, or will we go back to slaughtering each other?"

My father shook his head, chuckling. I furrowed my brows, wondering what, among all I'd said, was worthy of laughter.

"You sound just like me," he said, his eyes fond. "I would always worry above every little thing that could go wrong, long before it did. It drove your mother mad. You carry so much for someone so young. But you know what? Your mother would be proud that you've never lost your way, that you've stayed true to your heart."

I swallowed, my eyes burning. How long had it been since he'd mentioned my mother in my presence? Two years? Five? She had always been a forbidden subject the last few years. But it seemed that, just like me, my father had changed.

"Do you want to know what she said to me, when I worried too much?" My father continued.

I nodded.

"Daima mbele," he said, and I almost choked on my own breath. No one had spoken anything other than English on the Ark for decades. I knew down the line my mother's family spoke Swahili, but I had never learned. It was strange, hearing it. "Always forward. Deal with what you can in the present, and push through it, to move forward. Always have hope."