Bellarke One Shots Book 1

7) Touch

A/N not my story

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There are five senses, but it's only when around Bellamy that Clarke begins to appreciate how strong touch is.

If she thinks about it, it started when she hugged him. When she leapt into his arms without thought or fear, because she knew that he would never reject her. In that moment they weren't careful with each like they usually were; in that moment they were free.

Yet if she's honest with herself, it had started even earlier than that. When she had walked out of the drop ship after the storm and Bellamy had taken the object he had stabbed Lincoln with out of her hand. Their hands, for a brief moment in time, touched. In that brief moment there was electricity, a connection between the two of them.

And even before then, when she had fallen into the trap the Grounders had made when she had been trying to rescue Jasper; when Bellamy reached down and grabbed hold of her. How she had looked up and he had looked down, how their eyes had met in a second.

The first time they touched, he had saved her life.

That's when it began.

It happens the first night they return to camp after rescuing their people from Mount Weather. The general mood is high, especially when parents and children have reunited (there are only a few families that are lucky enough to do so), but Clarke is exhausted. By the look on Bellamy's face she can tell he feels the same way.

"Do you feel bad?" she had asked him as they made their way back to the camp.

"No," he had answered bluntly. At the look on her face he added, "They were trying to hurt our people. We had to stop them. And the Grounders have suffered for years."

"At least that explains about the Reapers," Clarke had pointed out. "I feel bad about those Reapers that managed to survive the explosion. They're going go through a hell of a withdrawal."

She saw Bellamy look back at Octavia, who was walking with a number of Grounders, including Lincoln. He seemed to be doing well, though he looked a little grey. Clarke had almost believed that she would never see Grounders and her people co-existing together; but not only were they co-existing, they were actually taking an interest in each other. Some things united people, and battling a common enemy was one of them.

Back at Camp Jaha, the adults were thrilled to see them. Abby clutched Clarke to her and berated her for running off, but she is so happy to see her that she has barely let her out of her sight. Clarke manages to slip away though and is currently walking down the halls of the Ark. Abby has mentioned that the children that don't have any rooms can make do with some areas of the Ark that haven't been taken yet. "There may have to be some doubling up," Abby had warned. "We'll start thinking of building in the morning." Clarke knows this doesn't apply to her; she'll be sharing with her mom.

To Clarke's surprise, there are some mattresses and blankets (she supposes that it helps bringing the Ark to the ground in regards to supplies) in these rooms already. She pauses in a small one that looks particularly cosy. It's going to be winter soon, but the good thing about sticking in the Ark is that it was built to protect people from space, which is pretty cold. Right now Clarke is actually warm.

Before she knows what she's doing she has settled on the mattress, pulling a few of the folded blankets across her.

It feels like only a second has passed before she feels movement. She jerks up, her eyes blinking quickly.

"Hey, relax." She recognises the voice and automatically settles, even though doing the opposite of what Bellamy Blake wants is highly entertaining.