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Clarke was honestly annoyed when her soulmate mark showed up on her eighteenth birthday.
Most people got them by the time they turned sixteen, so when Clarke’s didn’t, she thought she would be one of the lucky ones who never got their soulmark.
Clarke didn’t mean to be ungrateful or whatever, she just liked having options, okay? Having a soulmark means you get one person and that’s it. While that’s nice in theory, there’s the potential that your soulmate is a total asshole or, like, dead, so Clarke always thought it’d be better to have her pick of the non-marked people. That way, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if the relationship didn’t work out. Other fish in the sea and all that.
But if she had a soulmate, she was suddenly limited to one freaking fish. It was too much pressure.
She leaned her head on Raven’s shoulder. “Soulmates are bullshit,” she groaned. “You sure you don’t have a mark? If I have to have a soulmate, it would’ve been ideal if it was someone cool who I already knew.”
“Sorry babe, no such luck,” she patted Clarke’s head. “You know other people would be happy with this?”
“Other people aren’t pessimistic.”
“Well, that’s blatantly false, but whatever. At least your soulmark is pretty.”
Clarke watched the vines wind down her inner forearm, colorful buds blooming occasionally.
“True,” she smiled. “Monty’s pacman on his neck that runs in circles whenever he eats is pretty entertaining though.”
Raven laughed and said, “Already shitting on other peoples’ soulmarks, huh? Then you’re definitely ready to go to your party.”
Clarke groaned, “Oh no, Raven, what have you done?”
Raven grinned devilishly, “Invited all of our friends to my basement and got a fuckton of alcohol.”
Clarke pursed her lips, then nodded, “That actually sounds like exactly what I need.”
“Ha! I really am the best friend in the world,” she grinned.
Raven drove a little like a maniac back to her house because apparently Clarke’s small meltdown was not accounted for in the plan.
Once they descended into the basement, everyone popped out and yelled “Surprise!” emphasized by the crash of Jasper tripping over himself and slamming into the foosball table.
Luckily, Clarke’s laugh at Jasper covered her need to pretend to be surprised.
She made her way toward the drinks, careful to keep her long sleeves covering her new soulmark. That was a conversation she didn’t feel like having tonight.
Bellamy was pouring himself a drink when Clarke made it to the table and said, “Welcome to adulthood, princess.”
Clarke winced, “Oh, don’t remind me. The only exciting thing about eighteen is that now I can buy lotto scratchers.”
Bellamy laughed, “True, but I think you’re ready for the big bad world.”
“Thanks, Bellamy,” Clarke smiled, “That was actually nice of you.”
“Don’t expect me to keep it up,” he grinned back. “Special birthday behavior, you know.”
He tapped his cup against hers in farewell and made his way back into the bulk of the party.
Clarke caught herself watching his back a little too long, the way his shoulders swayed with his steps, the way the veins in his arms stood out, and his ass in his jeans, but she shook herself out of it. They were somewhat antagonistic friends, but she really liked Bellamy. He was a little course and never let her get away with anything, but she needed someone like that in her life. She idly wondered if he had a soulmark.
Octavia walked up then and said, “Look at you, unashamedly objectifying my brother.”
Clarke’s jaw dropped as a blush spread across her cheeks and before she could formulate any words besides a stutter, Octavia grinned and said, “It’s okay, I’ll give you a pass for your birthday. Especially if you distract him while I make a move on Lincoln.”
Clarke sighed, “Octavia, you and Lincoln have matching soulmarks. Bellamy understands. Also, I don’t think it counts as making a move when you’re already together.”
Octavia huffed, “Fine, but just know, this is your fault.”
Before Clarke got the chance to ask what was her fault, Octavia turned to the crowd and yelled, “Who wants to play spin the bottle?”
Everyone whooped, besides Murphy who mumbled, “I definitely thought we weren’t twelve anymore,” but begrudgingly sat in the circle.
Clarke drunk a lot while they played, partially because the bottle wasn’t landing on her much, and partially because when it did, most people were too drunk to be kissing properly, like Roan, who basically just licked her face.
Finally, Clarke spun and the bottle pointed to Bellamy. Her stomach dropped when she caught his eyes from across the room. She took a deep breath and crawled to meet him in the middle of the circle.
In his eyes, there was a question, asking if it was okay without saying anything. Clarke nodded subtly and Bellamy’s mouth turned up in a small smile.
The kiss was softer than Clarke expected and she could immediately tell that Bellamy wasn’t drunk as his tongue deftly swiped at the seam of her lips. She opened her mouth for him and moved her hand up to cradle his face, getting lost in the pleasure of kissing him.
A tingle ran down her body and she pulled away with a gasp to the raucous cheers of the group. Still, she couldn’t take her eyes off Bellamy’s blown pupils, noting that he looked just as wrecked from the kiss as she was.
They both crawled back to their spots and she watched Bellamy absently scratch the back of his neck. Her forearm felt like it was buzzing, so she pulled back her sleeve and saw that all the flowers were blooming and the vines kept twirling new patterns around her arm.
She glanced back up to Bellamy and caught him watching her, but he just winked and turned his attention to Raven and Wells making out in the middle of the circle.
Soon, people began to get bored with spin the bottle and Jasper began complaining how hot it was in the basement.
“Jasper, you know you can just ask to go swimming. You don’t have to wait for me to invite you,” Raven said.
Jasper grinned with glee and immediately ran up the stairs and out of the basement, everyone following behind him at a reasonable pace.
Clarke lagged behind to grab another drink, trying to shake away the weird tingling she’d felt since she kissed Bellamy. Just because her soulmark reacted didn’t mean anything; it was new and Clarke wasn’t really sure what anything meant. Maybe it just did that because it was a good kiss and her forearm was encouraging her to get laid.
Clarke quickly finished her drink and made her way up the stairs and out to the pool, carefully stepping between discarded clothing and shoes.
She saw Octavia on Lincoln’s shoulders first, playing chicken against Raven and Luna. Clarke was mildly concerned they were too drunk for that, but then she saw that Bellamy was wading nearby, on alert if anything should happen.
She got distracted again and was appreciating the way the water dripping down his chest, when he suddenly turned and Clarke got a glimpse of his back.
Vines tangled down from the back of his neck over his shoulder blades, displaying a wide array of beautiful flowers that made Clarke’s own soulamrk tingle.
“Holy shit,” she breathed, then immediately started removing her clothes. She thanked her past self for choosing to wear cute underwear, then jumped in the pool, and headed straight for Bellamy.
As she got closer to him, she watched the vines on his back swirl to take up more space and the flower expand as if they were reaching out to her. He must have felt the tingling, because when she was about a foot away from him, he turned to face her.
“Hey, princess, having a good birthday?”
“Yeah, actually, I have to admit, it’s going way better than expected.”
Bellamy’s eyebrows drew together, “Do you just expect shitty birthdays or…?”
Clarke pulled her arm from where she had it trapped against her side and showed him the flowers and vines dancing along her forearm.
Bellamy sucked in a breath and reached out to trace the pattern with his finger.
He looked up at her and smiled, “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“So you’re okay with this?” Clarke asked, searching his face for any sign of hesitation.
Bellamy laughed, “Of course I’m okay with it. I’ve been hoping it’d be you since I got this mark two years ago.”
Clarke grinned, “Okay. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t pressuring you or anything.”
Bellamy smiled and pressed his forehead against hers, “Having the same soulmark is just an excuse for me to admit how I’ve felt about you for a long time.”
Clarke tilted her head to kiss him and let herself fall into the joy that came with. Suddenly everything people always said about soulmates made sense. Everyone else disappeared and there was only him. She felt safe and loved like she had never felt before, and as his hands skated around her hips and waist, she felt a heat she’d never expected to feel.
Bellamy pulled away to ask, “So, speaking of not pressuring, do you want to get out of here?”
Clarke bit her lip and nodded enthusiastically, causing a grin to break out across Bellamy’s face. She intertwined their fingers and they did their best to rush out of the pool, but honestly you can only walk so fast in water and Clarke was sure that they looked pretty stupid to anyone who noticed them.
They quickly grabbed their clothes off the ground and hurried to Bellamy’s truck that was parked on the street.
Bellamy got all the way to starting his car before he said, “Dammit. I’m drunk. I can’t drive. Is it bad I forgot about that?”
Clarke laughed and said, “No worries, I forgot too. We can just hang out here. Privacy and whatever.”
Bellamy grinned and said, “So, bed of the truck?”
Clarke grabbed Bellamy’s giant blanket from the backseat and hopped into the bed of the truck she laid out the blanket. Bellamy lay down and wrapped his arm around Clarke, so she snuggled into his side.
The stars were beautiful and Clarke couldn’t help thinking that it really did turn out to be her best birthday yet. If only her soulmark could’ve gotten its shit together and shown up earlier, she could have been this happy years ago. She knows that’s not how it works and she may not have been ready then, but the thought of missing out on all that time with Bellamy was a little disappointing.
“So did you just get your mark today?” Bellamy asked.
“Yeah. I was actually pretty upset about it at first.”
Bellamy’s hand that was stroking her arm paused, but all he said was, “Oh?”
“I didn’t like the idea that this mark meant you were basically trapped with someone forever, no matter what. It’s like getting married without your consent. But honestly a lot of my problem with it was because I didn’t think you had a soulmark. I thought getting my soulmark meant I would never get the chance to be with you,” Clarke said, a little sheepishly, but he’s her soulmate so she wasn’t too embarrassed.
“I’m glad your main problem was missing out on me, but just know that you aren’t stuck with me or whatever. If you’d rather be with someone else or be alone, I’d let you go. I’d be kind of crushed, but I’d let you go.”
Clarke smiled and placed a light kiss on Bellamy’s chest. “You’re the best soulmate I’ve ever had.”
Bellamy grinned down at her, “You bet your fine ass I am.”