Chapter Text
Twelve years Clarke’s been away from Arkadia, twelve years of her mother ruling the kingdom alone. She’s eighteen years old and doesn’t know what her home looks like or the feel of the place she’s supposed to call home but the tower was the only place she knew and leaving it felt wrong. It was her duty to leave, go back to Arkadia once her curse was broken but with Bellamy, the little Azgedan village was her home.
She’d only known him a year and he’s become her home and Clarke didn’t know how or to what extent someone who essentially lied to her for that period of time had gotten so close so quickly that she trusts him more than she trusted herself, but it happened and she can’t change that.
“You okay?” he asked again and though she was tired of the question, she was also grateful.
“Yeah,” she smiled, looking ahead to Octavia flying ahead of them.
“Could you explain to me how Octavia is a fairy, it still gets past me.”
“So you know how on my father’s side of my bloodline, we’re dragons until true love’s kiss. On O’s fraternal bloodline, they’re part fairy and my mom is too. The dragon won out with me because the percentage of fairy wasn’t great enough. So because they were both part fairy, O got the wings and what I think is the best part is that she produces magic, no matter how minuscule.”
“Wait, she has magic?”
“She doesn’t know how to properly use it, Azgeda banned any and all magic and its users so she didn’t have a teacher and she was hidden because of it for a majority of her life.”
“You and Aurora hid her? Aurora spoke of her often.”
“And in your twelve years in Azgeda, how many times were you out in the village without me?” he countered and had a fair point, she’d never shown any interest in going into the village until she could actually see where she was.
There was a more pressing point to Octavia’s magic. “An affinity for magic can’t be dampened, it—it grows and gets stronger and she can die if she doesn’t use it.”
“I—we know, she does little things, like your dresses. She made your dresses with magic.”
“That could be why I felt so amazing in them,” Clarke smiled at Bellamy on his own horse.
“That must be it,” he nodded, looking ahead.
“Did you watch me?”
“I was a dragon, I can’t be held responsible for what I did when I had a different form. I couldn’t control my body back then.”
“That does not sound good.”
“I’m not saying that I did good things or had appropriate responses to things. Needless to say, I’m somewhat grateful that you were blind.”
“You watched me,” Clarke said definitively with a smirk. Her eyes caught on something in the distance and froze, halting her horse. “Is that it? Arkadia.”
Bellamy stopped his horse, turning towards her, “The capital, yes.”
“What if she doesn’t approve?”
“Of you or me?”
“Me. And of you for me.”
“Does it matter? You are the Princess and I’m…”
“You’re the man that freed me, my True Love.”
“Okay then. Together.”
Clarke sighed and had her horse forge onward to the capital and the castle within.
“Clarke?” her mother asked once she, Bellamy and Octavia were allowed into the throne room after two more hours on horseback and another hour of interrogations involving too many questions about events from her childhood that she barely remembered.
When Clarke last saw her mother, she was five and took nearly everything she saw for granted figuring she could take it all in later, the privileged princess mindset. She remembered some things but seeing her mother now, for the first time in thirteen years, Clarke felt lost and like she didn’t belong. She didn’t know the woman standing in front of her with greying blonde hair and crow’s feet in the corners of her eyes.
“Mom,” she smiled and immediately felt guilty for Bellamy and Octavia, Aurora spent the last ten years of her life looking out and caring for Clarke and not them, her own children and now Clarke gets her real mom. How was that fair?
Abby ran over to her daughter and hugged her and Clarke hugged her back but didn’t feel connected to her mother when they hugged like she did just standing next to Bellamy. “Clarke, I am so glad you’re here. Who are your friends?”
“Aurora Blake’s children. Octavia made my dresses and Bellamy has looked after me since Aurora’s passing. He’s also—“
“Where’s your suitor?”
“That’s the other thing, it’s Bellamy.”
“This Azgeda commoner?”
“Regardless of his origins or caste, I won’t ascend without him at my side and his sister in our army.”
“What?” Octavia countered, her wings hidden away with her magic like she did working under the seamstress in Azgeda.
“You have demands for your birthright?”
“It shouldn’t matter where they came from, Mom. They stepped up and took over for their mother so I wouldn’t have… not that I could have, but I didn’t have to write about getting her replacement. Bellamy was better than I expected, doing more than his mother did.
“I never expected to fall for him but I had and when I kissed him… it doesn’t matter, I can see again because of him and I need him by my side. He’s a quick study and can rule with me.”
“Clarke…”
“I read all the books, I watched you and Dad and I’m assuming you aren’t going to hand over the reins for a few years, let me watch what you do, make my own decisions. I think that giving Bellamy a chance too would be beneficial to the realm.”
“You’ve had a long couple days of traveling, you should get some rest, bathe, and we can talk about this later. I haven’t seen my daughter in twelve years, I’d like to get to know her.”
“The letters updating you on my progress didn’t suffice?”
“They could have been doctored, altered.”
“You’re paranoid and they’re good people, the best I know.”
“They’re all you know.”
Okay, that’s fair, Clarke did get to know Murphy, Miller, Monty, and Jasper the few times she was in the village after learning that Bellamy was her True Love, but she was also used to judging people by their tone of voice, how they talked to her and treated her after learning she was blind, and not their appearance. She didn’t care that they were commoners, that they were thieves and a gahe—which Clarke didn’t know existed until she met Monty—and a gremlin (Jasper).
It was easy to assume that Clarke and her mother didn’t get along or agree with anything in the months that passed. Octavia and Bellamy were living in the castle but they didn’t have anything to do and Clarke talked to some of the staff about Bellamy teaching their children since he was so good at it back in Azgeda. They kept that a secret though and Octavia was difficult to keep busy because she didn’t want to be a dressmaker so Clarke couldn’t really give her anything to do. That is until she met Lincoln and Clarke set out to have him train Octavia so when Queen Abigail finally approved of the blue-winged fairy becoming a guard, she didn’t need much training.
Clarke sighed getting back to her suite one night after her mother’s dinner party, hating that she couldn’t have Bellamy on her arm and found Bellamy sitting on her sofa waiting for her.
“What’s going on?” She asked worried, he’s never shown up unannounced before.
“I can’t live like this. I love you and your mother has you out there dressed like that every other night for suitors. If you want someone else, you need to tell me or if you want me to stay then I need you to say something to her.”
“That’s what you think is going on down there? Bellamy,” she sighed, partly in relief but mostly exhaustion with the inability to breathe in her corset. “I’m relearning how to be diplomatic and yes, I think you should be there because you are going to be my prince consort and need to know this too, but she’s still wrapping her head around the fact that a commoner is her royal daughter’s true love.”
“Does she know I was a dragon?”
“I didn’t tell her, but I’m also not hiding it. She knows Octavia is a fairy, so I’m assuming she thinks you are too. She might ask you to do something magical at some point.”
“I actually learned some the other day. I didn’t mean to but it just happened and I liked it. I’m not at the same caliber as Octavia, I can’t do anything big like a dress or protect you from kidnapping or regicide. She’s big magic.”
“You underestimate yourself.” She turned her back to him and pulled her long blonde curls over one shoulder. “Would you unbutton me please?” Bellamy’s fingers went to work and Clarke took a big breath of air when the corset released her ribs. “I know a year and a half is barely any time to get to know each other but I know that I want to be with you, regardless of what my mother says or what our curses have told us, I knew I wanted to be with you long before I kissed you. Hell, I offered to marry you back then so you could become a teacher like you wanted. Nothing’s changed for me,” she turned around to look at Bellamy when she asked the next part. “Will you marry me?”
“Clarke, you should think about this before—“
“I have. I want to marry you, not to prove some point or to make my mother angry but because I love you and I don’t ever want someone questioning that. I don’t want you questioning that.”
“I don’t, I just want you to think about your kingdom,” Bellamy said and she knew he was right, but she also hated what him being right meant.
“My kingdom doesn’t have a say in my personal life, besides marrying you and having you become a prince will do this realm some good.”
“You think I’m going to make a difference?”
“I think you’re going to reform education and liberate the magical creatures. I think that you’re going to be more important than me during my own reign and I believe it’s appropriate.”
“You put too much faith in me.”
“No, I don’t. You’re a force when you use your heart, you make people believe in you. Miller, Monty, Murphy, Jasper, they believe in you. I believe in you and I know you’re going to change Arkadia with your ideas. Maybe even Azgeda.”
“Nia won’t align herself with Arkadia, you’re too liberal for her already.”
“Prince Roan will take the throne and from what I remember from two weeks ago, he’s more pliable than his mother.”
Bellamy’s eyes narrowed, watching her for a moment. “You’re serious.”
“Of course I am. Now, will you answer me?”
“Of course I’ll marry you, I just don’t know how your mother’s going to approve.”
“Don’t worry about my mother. Just meet me at the south gate tomorrow night at dusk. I have a plan.”
“I’m so going to regret this.”
“Stay tonight. Please, I want to be with you.”
“What about the morning?” he asked and Clarke knew he was referring to her handmaids.
“They won’t say anything, they’re loyal to me, not my mother.”
“Okay.”
Three Years Later:
“You’re stunning,” Clarke heard behind her and she turned to find Bellamy behind her.
“I’m hugely pregnant.”
“And still stunning, you glow and it always amazes me that you’re not magical.”
“What if it’s residual from the curse? What if our baby is cursed?”
“Then we’ll figure it out without putting her in a tower on the other side of the realm.”
Clarke took a deep breath, taking in Bellamy’s words. “’Her?’”
“I have a feeling it’s a girl. I’m good with girls.”
Clarke laughed, turning back to the mirror and fixed her hair. “You never raised a boy and matriarchy is considered weak. I’m considered weak and ascending while pregnant is weak.”
Bellamy came up behind her and stood, watching her in the mirror. He looked as regal as ever but she knew how uncomfortable he was feeling. “You’re the strongest person I know and anyone who calls you weak doesn’t know you at all.”
She turned around again and looked up into his dark eyes and took his hands in hers. “I can still be nervous though, right? That doesn’t make me weak?”
“No, it makes you strong,” he smiled, dropping his forehead to hers. “I’m proud of you.”
“I’m not even Queen yet,” she smirked, jokingly.
“No, but you will be in an hour. That means something, Princess.”
“It means my mother’s not getting any better, not that I’m ready.”
“You are. You’re going to be amazing.”
Clarke sighed, looking into Bellamy’s eyes again, so close and she still sees the unconditional love and pure belief in them.
Taking a breath, Clarke’s nerves settled. “You center me.”
“We do this together, just like we have the last four and a half years.”
Clarke nodded and straightened herself. “Together. Let’s do this.”
An hour later Princess Clarke Alexandra Griffin of Arkadia, Duchess of TonDC became Queen Clarke Alexandra Griffin of Arkadia, Duchess of TonDC. Bellamy Blake became Prince Bellamy Bradbury Blake Griffin of Arkadia, Duke of TonDC.
Three months later, Clarke gave birth to Prince Wells Jacob Griffin of Arkadia, Duke of Mount Weather.
Octavia Blake married Knight Lincoln and became a member of the castle guard. They had a son, Kennedy, who was close in age to Wells, the two boys were friends from the start. Their daughter, Eleanor was rambunctious and always causing trouble with her brother and cousin.
When Prince Wells was six, Clarke gave birth to their second child, another boy named after one of Bellamy’s friends from Azgeda that passed suddenly, Prince Nathan Alexander Griffin, Duke of Eden.
Queen Abigail passed away when Nathan turned one, two months shy of meeting her granddaughter, Princess Aurora Abigail Griffin. She’s in an arranged marriage with King Roan of Azgeda’s son, Maxon, Clarke hated every moment of the engagement, hating the ritual and that it was the only way to become allies with Azgeda without starting a coup in both their countries.
Clarke was right in the end, Bellamy did more for her nation and Azgeda than she did during her reign. She wasn’t ashamed in the fact at all, on her death bed, fifty years later she told him as much, she told her son Wells to listen to his father’s perspective, to let his brother help him, to always welcome his sister in from the Azgeda cold, even though she was completely in love with King Maxon, which was a relief to Clarke when she found out.
Bellamy passed within a month of Clarke, some said he died of a broken heart, but Octavia knew the truth. Octavia knew that dragons die soon after their person passes, Bellamy lost his person and therefore died.
None of their children were cursed, neither of them got close enough to a witch to anger them into cursing them or their family, and though the risk was always there for royals, it didn’t happen. At least not while they were alive to witness.