Chapter Text
The stiffness in Clarke’s neck was the first thing she noticed when she fell slowly into consciousness the next morning. The second thing she noticed was the light snoring coming from a few feet away where Miller was sprawled out on the floor in between Monty and Harper.
She smiled to herself as she sat up and stretched out her stiff muscles. Sleeping on a couch definitely wasn’t ideal, but she was certain that she felt significantly better than any of her friends would when they woke up. Clarke tried to check her phone but at some point while she was asleep it must have died. It wasn’t too much of an inconvenience, though. Anyone she might need to contact was already in the apartment. She’d charge it when she got back to her parent’s house to get ready for tea with Grandma.
Another look at her friends as she tiptoed over their sleeping forms had her deciding that she needed to make her classic cheesecake pancakes for the. Nothing cured a hangover better. She was halfway through making the batter when Monty joined her in the kitchen and offered to help. He started on the bacon and she sipped her coffee as the pancakes cooked on the griddle.
Raven was the next to make her way to the kitchen and she greeted Clarke in a tone that could only be described as cautious- like she was trying not to startle a wild animal or something. Clarke shrugged it off, though, and blamed it on her friend’s hangover combined with a caffeine deficiency. She pressed a cup of coffee into Raven’s hands and hoped the problem would go away.
The rest of the bridal party was lured (presumably by the smell of bacon) into the room one by one after that and soon Harper had put on a second pot of coffee and Monroe was pouring orange juice for the group as they sat slumped at the table. It was quiet, only the sound of forks scraping the plates to fill the space.
It hadn’t slipped Clarke’s attention that Raven wasn’t the only one eyeing her suspiciously, but no one was offering up an explanation for it, so she figured that she didn’t have anything to worry about- her friends were a fairly direct group of people. She toyed with the idea that maybe something had happened last night, but it was unlikely that any of them even had a full recollection of the evening, Monty’s brew made sure of that.
Never in her life had she seen Bellamy drunk like he had been and it was an unreal experience. If he was drunk enough to forget that their fake relationship was just that- fake, then he had better prepare himself for one hell of a hangover. He and Clarke’s brother had yet to appear in the kitchen, which was probably for the best because Clarke was fighting a slight blush at Bellamy’s words that were playing on repeat in her head and she didn’t want to have to explain it to him.
Still, she figured she should go check on the pair of them. Clarke was about to ask Raven if she’d heard anything out of them that morning when a pair of familiar arms startled her by wrapping around her waist from behind.
“I can’t remember a damn thing from last night,” Bellamy’s voice, heavy with sleep and something else, rumbled into her hair.
Clarke blamed her racing heart on the surprise of his appearance instead of the feeling of his stubble against her neck as he buried his face in her shoulder.
“Oh?” she stammered out.
It was probably for the best that he didn’t remember last night and she’d probably tease him about trying to marry her when he’d recovered.
“Yeah,” he breathed. “Is this what being hungover feels like?”
Clarke made to let out a light laugh at that, but it came out more as a sharp inhale because Bellamy was tightening his arms around her. This was new behavior. She shot a panicked glance over to the table only to see Harper staring at them starry-eyed and Raven deliver a swift kick to Monroe under the table when she opened her mouth as if to speak.
Raven turned her attention back to Clarke and raised her eyebrow expectantly. Oh, right. She was dating Bellamy. She probably shouldn’t be acting this freaked out at his arms being around her.
If Bellamy had realized Clarke was tense, he hadn’t let on, but when she relaxed and leaned back into his chest she could have sworn he let out a contented sigh.
“Well what does it feel like?” she asked him, a little louder than was strictly necessary.
“Pain,” he flinched, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Stop enjoying this,” he murmured and squeezed her tighter, fighting off a laugh himself.
“You don’t understand how long I’ve waited to see you like this,” she smiled. “I’m finding it quite rewarding.”
He responded by pinching her sides where he knew she was embarrassingly ticklish. Clarke tossed her head back with laughter and leaned it on his shoulder. She could feel him smiling at her. He pressed a quick kiss to her neck and it stopped her laughter short.
When she rolled her head to look at him he was already staring at her, looking almost as surprised as she was at what he’d just done. A beat passed before he seemed to snap out of his shock.
“Seriously, Clarke,” he recovered, “How do I make it stop.
“I made cheesecake pancakes,” he lit up at that.
“God, I love you,” he said with all seriousness.
“I know,” she replied. Clarke smacked a kiss on his cheek and turned out of his arms to get him some pancakes.
Wick was standing in the doorway and she caught the end of him having a silent conversation with Raven before he met her glance with a questioning expression. Clarke’s face matched his until she realized- shit, she’d just kissed Bellamy.
This was becoming too easy. Surely and swiftly Clarke’s life was turning into a rom-com. Why was it so easy for her to act like this around him (because it was, of course, an act)? There were no feelings to substantiate her actions. That would be ridiculous.
This was fine, Clarke could handle it. Only a few more days and then everything would go back to normal, right? It had to.
Clarke handed Bellamy and Wick plates and ducked out of the room with a flimsy excuse. Why was she so freaked out about how easy it was to act like she was with Bellamy? She should be happy that they have enough trust with one another to make it convincing.
Whatever it was, Clarke resolved not to dwell on it. She went to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face. It was nearing on 12:30 and Clarke judged from her mascara-smudged reflection that she had more than a little freshening up to do before tea at four. Nothing sounded better to her right then than a shower and some alone time, so she grabbed her things, popped briefly into the kitchen to say she was headed out and left.
She turned on some music while she showered back at her parents’ house and it was enough to block out her thoughts for a while. After a nap and the reapplication of makeup she was feeling refreshed.
When the doorbell rang at 3:56, she figured it was time to go downstairs and put on her “happily-in-love” face for her grandmother. Wick and Bellay were walking in the door when she walked downstairs and they both inexplicably looked nervous as hell.
Bellamy caught sight of her and brightened up immediately- he was getting really good at playing the part. Clarke could still see the anxiety in his posture though. Determined to find out the cause of it, she started to pull him aside to ask him about it.
Before she had a chance to open her mouth, though, her father burst into the room.
“Congratulations!” He nearly crushed the two of them as he initiated his surprise group hug.
Clarke must have missed something because as far as she knew there was nothing that required congratulations. Bellamy seemed to register her confusion almost faster than she did, but stopped her questioning with a hand on the small of her back as they were released.
“Thank you so much,” Bellamy returned with a joy Clarke could barely tell was forced.
“I do wish I had found out from you two instead of from my son’s twitter,” Jake teased and Clarke found herself getting more and more lost. “Oh, I just can’t believe my little girl is getting married, too!”
Conveniently for Clarke, her father chose that moment to scoop her back up into a hug so he didn’t see the shock that registered on her face.
“Married?” she mouthed at Bellamy over Jake’s shoulder.
“I’ll explain, just go with it,” he responded silently.
Clarke’s brain was scrambling to put the pieces together. She knew it had to have something to do with what drunken Bellamy concluded. He had said he was happy they were getting married, but that didn’t explain how anyone else knew about it. Her phone still lay in her purse upstairs- forgotten and uncharged, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t have time to ask questions because her father was pulling away, sniffling. God, she hoped he wasn’t going to cry.
Wick had mysteriously disappeared during the exchange which left Clarke to handle this curveball without any familial moral support. She wasn’t sure how yet, but she was almost certain this mess was his fault.
She gave her beaming father a look to match his own and watched as he gave Bellamy a hearty handshake. Again, Clarke found herself envious of Bellamy’s ability to maintain his composure in any situation. Granted, he seemed to have more of a heads up than she did in this situation, but still, he was taking it in stride.
As her father, speechless with joy, ushered the “happy couple” to the back patio to where Grandma Griffin was hosting tea, Clarke felt the guilt of having Bellamy help her creep up again. This wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan. It wasn’t like it made that much of a difference, though. Either way they were telling a lie to the people she loved most in the world.
Every single concern she might have had about the plan, however, completely evaporated when she and Bellamy walked out onto the porch and saw Grandma Griffin smiling with teary eyes. The only thing Clarke could think was that everything had been worth it.
Clarke felt her own vision go misty as her grandmother slowly rose from her seat and made her way over to embrace her only granddaughter.
“I’m so proud of you, Clarke,” Granma Griffin sniffled as she pulled away. She shook her head a little to get a better handle on her words before she spoke again. “Now show me the ring!”
The ring.
There wasn’t a ring.
Clarke hadn’t even begun to think about the details of this whole situation.
“Oh, we didn’t get one yet. We weren’t planning on telling anyone, actually. We didn’t want to steal any of the attention from Raven and Wick,” Bellamy it seemed had had time to process at least some of the problems with this whole story, and as far as excuses went, that was a pretty good one.
“Oh,” Grandma Griffin crooned and placed a hand on her heart. “That is so considerate of you two. What did I do to earn such angels as grandchildren- and Wick, of course.”
“Hey!” Wick called from across the deck. So that’s where he had gone.
Throughout the meal Wick pointedly avoided making eye contact with Clarke, which further confirmed her suspicions that this mess was his fault. To her surprise, however, plotting revenge on her brother wasn’t taking up her thoughts like it might have at one point in her life. She spent most of tea accepting congratulations on her engagement and just enjoying being with her family- Bellamy included.
Having his hand linked with hers under the table felt right. Romantic or otherwise, it was becoming abundantly clear to Clarke that Bellamy felt like home just as much as her family sitting around the table did. Somehow, Bellamy had found his way into her life and not only become a part of it but so much a part of it that she couldn’t picture her life without him.
The realization came as much more of a shock than it should have, of course, but Clarke was still firmly rooted in her denial that this week would play out as a rom-com. Still, she might have been staring at him as she processed this.
“What?” he addressed her lightly when the conversation shifted away from the two of them.
“Hm?’ she returned, still mostly zoned out.
“You were staring at me.” He said by way of explanation.
“Oh. Yeah, I was. Just zoned out I guess,” she tried to brush the conversation off. It wasn’t like she could just come out and say that she was finally realizing that Bellamy was an unmistakable staple in her life and that she needed him. Fake-engaged or not, there were some boundaries that needed to be maintained.
He gave her a few more seconds of an eyebrow-furrowed gaze before he let it slide.
Teatime began winding down shortly and Grandma stood up and announced she needed a nap before dinner time and everyone being of sound mind chose to oblige her. Clarke and Wick dutifully helped clear away the dishes and she waited until the two of them were alone in the kitchen before she broke her character.
“Wick, what the hell is going on,” Clarke whispered venomously.
“I have no idea what you’re talk-“
“Kyle Wickham Griffin,” She cut him off and poked him in the chest. Hard.
“Okay look, I’m sorry. I was wasted last night and heard Bellay talking, and since you’re still really confused, I’m assuming you didn’t see that I tweeted about it. Drunk me was just really excited for you kids, okay?” Wick sounded genuinely remorseful, but that didn’t fix anything.
“No,” she hissed. “Not okay. What am I supposed to do now?”
Wick had the decency to look ashamed. Chances are he probably hadn’t spent too much time dwelling on this specific mistake he’d made and logically Clarke knew she couldn’t ask him to- it was his wedding week after all. And as much as she wanted it to be, this wasn’t his problem.
She was just so overwhelmed with guilt though- she wanted it to just go away. Lying to her family may have been temporarily rewarding- everyone seemed so genuinely happy for her, but what was going to happen when she inevitably had to tell the she and Bellamy weren’t getting married?
“Whatever you do, Clarke,” Wick wrapped an arm around his little sister’s shoulders. “Just know that the whole family will still adore you. I mean obviously not as much as they already adore me, but a very, very close second.”
Clarke smacked him lightly but couldn’t help a laugh. Her brother had an uncanny knack for making light out of tense situations with almost no effort. She’d envied it as a child, but now she’d come to appreciate that everyone just had different gifts. She was thankful that if anyone had gotten her into such a mess, it was her idiot brother.
“But really,” Clarke sighed. Moving to rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher (Wick always put them in the wrong way). “What am I supposed to do? Grandma Griffin finally got her hopes up about my future. She’ll be absolutely heartbroken to hear that Bellamy and I ‘broke up’,” Clarke made air quotes with her fingers in between reorganizing plates. Wick remained silent at that.
By the time she’d finished with the dishes Wick still hadn’t replied and she was getting concerned. She rinsed her hands off out of habit and raised an eyebrow at him. The look he was giving her took her longer to process than any of his other looks. She was so used to there being some sort of joking glint to his expression that this new, raw, honesty in his look was freaking her out.
“Did you ever consider you two might not need to break up?” He said softly, almost like he was talking to a frightened animal.
Clarke stopped short. What was that supposed to mean? There was no way she was going to pretend to be engaged or God forbid, actually force Bellamy to marry her and live a lie for the rest of her life. It was ridiculous to think she could even pull that off.
Wick was watching her process his words warily and seemed to understand the way she’d interpreted it before she could even vocalize her protests. She opened her mouth to respond but Wick quirked his eyebrow at her knowingly and her jaw ended up just hanging there.
Obviously Wick couldn’t mean that she and Bellamy actually get engaged. They’d never even dated. Hell, they weren’t even romantically interested in one another- right? Even if she had acknowledged silently and begrudgingly in her head that yes he was very good looking and perhaps he was kind to people and made her laugh, but that meant nothing. Bellamy most certainly wasn’t interested in her, either.
Her brother gave her a few more seconds to gape at his words before he did anything else.
“Remember, this was all Bellamy’s idea to begin with,” Wick said in a tone that was far too meaningful for Clarke to really deal with as he walked out of the kitchen. She wanted Wick to make a joke, or tell her that she could just waltz right out of the situation instead of telling her to put on her big-girl-pants and actually think about things for once.
No matter how much she had to think about though, she couldn’t spend forever dwelling on it when she needed to be in the back yard with her family. She’d think about it later.
Back outside her father had cornered Bellamy and was no doubt giving him a stern talking to about not hurting his daughter- but Bellamy seemed to be taking it in stride. She knew part of that derived from his protectiveness of his sister, he’d no doubt given the same chat several times over. There was a n air of seriousness coming from that corner of the yard- Bellamy’s posture was stiffer than usual and her father’s wasn’t meant for joking,
She crossed the lawn with every intent to intervene, but by the time she made it across the grass the two were laughing together and getting along swimmingly. Clarke would be a lying fool if she said it didn’t make her heart swell a little bit to see them so comfortable with one another.
“Can I cut in,” She caught their attention as she sidled up to their conversation.
“Of course, sweetheart,” her father beamed at her. “I’m just so happy for you two.” He sighed and shook his head before reaching out a hand to Bellamy.
“Good talk, son,” he said and gave Bellamy a handshake before kissing Clarke on the head and sauntering off to tease a few of her cousins.
“Sorry about my dad,” Clarke said as soon as her father was out of earshot.
“It’s totally fine, Clarke,” Bellamy said. He was doing that annoying thing with his eyes where he’d try and stare into her damn soul. She hated it.
“No, actually, I’m about the whole thing. I shouldn’t have made you do this. I know this wasn’t the plan and we can call the whole thing off right now if you want to.” Clarke knew she was rambling a bit, a panicked habit she’d developed over the years but she couldn’t stop herself. Bellamy didn’t deserve this. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this and there’s no reason that I should have dragged you into it, especially with it being-“
“Clarke.” He placed a huge hand on her shoulder. It effectively silenced her.
“Clarke,” he started again. “I should be the one apologizing.” He dropped his hand and shoved both of his in his pockets. “I lied to you. I do remember last night and I don’t know why but for some reason I figured it would be better to just pretend that I didn’t.”
Bellamy was looking at the grass like it was the most interesting thing he’d seen since all day and Clarke was glad because she was certain that her heart was almost visibly beating out of her chest. She had been almost relieved that he hadn’t remembered the night before- it was fewer repercussions she’d have to deal with. If he remembered the dancing, the drinking, his assumption that they were getting married- well. She wasn’t sure what that meant.
“Anyways,” he cleared his throat and fidgeted some more. “This whole mess is my fault I guess.”
“Stop, Bellamy.” She wouldn’t let him take the blame for this. He always tried to take the blame for everyone and everything. “It’s still my fault whether you like it or not- I’m going to take the fall for it. But in all honesty if you want to call it off, we can do that. It isn’t fair of me to ask you to play fiancé.”
“I don’t mind,” he rushed to answer. “I mean it isn’t that bad-” he sighed, frustrated. He was always so good with words and she knew she had to give him space to figure out what he was trying to say exactly. “What I’m trying to say is, I guess it’s kind of nice, really. Your family is really great and I can see why you want to do everything you can to make them happy. I don’t want to call it off, but if you do, that’s fine with me.”
Bellamy was gazing off at her family members that still lingered in the backyard even though the meal was long over.
Clarke was having difficulty tamping down her grin so she acted on impulse and threw her arms around Bellamy’s neck. It took him a minute to respond but as soon as her action hit him, his arms were wrapping around the small of her waist in return.
“Does this mean we’re still engaged?” he laughed lightly into her hair.
“You still owe me a ring,” she smiled and buried her face into his shoulder for a moment. She ignored the way that sparks ran through her body at the contact and the way that his fingers curling into her sides made her feel lightheaded. She drew back slightly so she could place a kiss on his cheek, and if it lingered a second or two more than she meant it to, well, they were engaged after all.