Chapter Text
Despite the fact that they had been planning this for months and discussing the possibility of it even longer, it was insane to Clarke that they had finally made it here. One, fifteen hour drive later with Raven in her passenger seat, the two of them singing throwbacks down 95, and they finally made it to North Carolina. They were the first two, which was fitting, seeing as Clarke had been the one to put the most planning into this.
“Monty says he and Wells and Monroe are about an hour away,” Raven said, following Clarke down the dock to their first sight of the beach. “Bellamy and Jasper are a little farther out, maybe a few more? Three or four, depending on traffic?” Clarke was listening, of course, but she was more excited to see the ocean. Their house was beach front and they could hear the waves from their bedroom, see the sunrise if they kept their curtains open. “Harper, Maya, Miller, and Murphy are still--”
Raven stopped, bumping into Clarke’s back, and looked up from her phone. Raven sidestepped Clarke with a small smile of her own, gazing out over the Atlantic ocean in silence.
They made it.
What had once been a dream, a fantasy, had slowly been molded and formed into this new reality. By the end of the night, people from all walks of life would be in this one house for one reason and one reason alone: fandom.
It was absurd on a thousand levels but it was also necessary. Clarke had started toying with the idea over a year ago after a particularly devastating season finale of Whispers of the Future when she started chatting with her fandom friend Raven about how much better it would be if they could all weep together. The conversation went on for a long time before it shifted into a possible something, a possible house, a possible vacation. It stayed a possibility for a long time before Clarke said fuck it and booked a house in North Carolina.
A month before the week finally arrived, people were still joining the crew.
“This is insane,” Clarke said simply.
Raven had stayed at her house the night before, flying in from the West coast, but to actually be in the presence of one of her best friends that she’d ever known, making this dream a reality? It was insane. And soon more people would be there.
Monty, always able to bring her to tears with his fic. Wells, pointing out the parallels that no one else had noticed. Miller, calling people out on their shitty opinions.
Bellamy.
“If anyone could pull off something like this,” Raven said, swinging her arm up and over Clarke’s shoulder, “of course it would be Clarke Griffin.” But she’d never have been able to do it alone.
Monty was nervous. “It’s okay that I’m nervous,” he said to Wells who was driving, and Monroe in the back, “right? It’s totally fine.”
“I climbed into a car with two complete strangers,” Monroe chimed from behind her phone where she was browsing Twitter. “So get the hell over your nerves.” Monty laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. He was so nervous. He was finally meeting his best friend, someone he’d known for years and was constantly talking to, in the flesh. Monty Green was finally going to meet Jasper Jordan, and it was going to be absurd.
There were other people he was nervous to meet, of course. Clarke was ridiculously pretty and smart and had been the brains of this whole thing. And Bellamy was always so well put together and also smart and ridiculously handsome. And Miller who had tweets so sarcastic and funny that made Monty double over with laughter while also being insanely attracted to like, every photo of him ever. It wasn’t just Jasper.
“It wasn’t complete strangers,” Wells said evenly. They’d all had a group chat for months now, a group Snapchat too, so they at least knew the basics about one another. Everyone had someone, even if they didn’t all totally know one another. “Do you feel unsafe in my car, Roe?”
“Never,” she called back.
Wells smiled, his eyes darting to Monty who was staring out at the trees that zipped past. “Hey,” he said gently. “You’ve known Jasper for forever,” he said. Longer than Bellamy, longer than Clarke, longer than any of the other people coming on this trip.
“What if it’s different?” Monty worried.
“It won’t be,” Wells said. “You two still have all of the same fandom opinions and you still finish each other’s thoughts and you still are practically related.” Monty ducked his head at that, fighting off his smile. Monty loved Jasper. He’d been there through all the hard times in Monty’s life--his parents getting divorced, another move, figuring out his sexuality--and he’d always stuck around. He was his best friend, his brother, and still he was worried it wouldn’t be enough. They’d been finishing each other’s sentences in the Skype chat for months now. “If something goes wrong,” Wells added, “you can like, hide in my room.”
“Same,” Monroe added.
Monty smiled. “How much longer?” he asked.
Bellamy could not, for the life of him, figure out why Jasper wanted to listen to Take On Me another time. They’d already listened to it like, fifty times, and they still had a few hours to go, and Jasper was hell bent on listening to it again. He blamed it on Jasper’s nerves, what with meeting Monty and all that, and gripped his steering wheel tight enough to drown it out.
He wouldn’t admit that he was nervous too.
He was excited to see everyone, that was sure, but there were certain people he was more excited about than others. Jasper, for example, was someone he was less excited about. Not that he didn’t love Jasper, Bellamy loved everyone who was coming on this trip to some degree, but Jasper was like that dorky annoying younger brother that liked to get into fandom fights while Bellamy would rather discuss the plot.
Bellamy’s phone chimed another time, muting the music just a touch, and Jasper spun on him to serenade a bit more.
“Can you see who that is?” Bellamy asked to cut Jasper’s singing short.
“We already know it’s Clarke,” Jasper said, reaching for the phone anyway. While Clarke had been the brains of Operation Beach Week, Bellamy had been the heart. He’d been the one to reach out to various corners of the fandom that didn’t feel as though they had a right to attend, reminding them that they did, adding to their numbers and making them feel included.
They’d planned this week together. Clarke, however, was the first to arrive with Raven by her side. Bellamy still had another two hours in the goddamn car.
“From Clarke,” Jasper read out loud. “If you’re not here before the sunset I’m going to smother you in your sleep. It’s insane. This is insane.” Bellamy tried to fight his smile and failed, shaking his head just a bit. “Hello this is Jasper,” Jasper said slowly, each word coming from his mouth as he typed out his responding message. “ETA is roughly… 8pm…” he paused as he was finishing off his thought. “Almost ran out of gas… on the highway…” he went on, “Bellamy got some… on his face…”
Bellamy shook his head another time. “You’re annoying,” he said.
“We’ve been in this car together for approximately twelve hours,” Jasper said, finishing off the message. Through the AUX, Bellamy heard the message dwoop from sending. “You love me. We’re bonded now.”
“Whatever the hell you say, Jasper,” Bellamy murmured fondly. Jasper reached over then, throwing his arms around Bellamy in the most awkward angled hug ever. “Jasper,” Bellamy said with a laugh. “I’m driving!”
“I’m happy!” Jasper said. “We’re just a few hours away from all of our favorite people, Bellamy! Aren’t you happy, too?”
Bellamy laughed another time. “Insanely,” he admitted.
How Miller ended up the driver of one of the most crowded cars, he did not know. It’s not like he was a particularly good driver. And it’s not like he even had a particularly large car. It’s just that of course he was coming up from Alabama and drove through the most states, in which the most number of people could gather at various points along the line.
Murphy in the front seat was asleep, and Harper and Maya were quietly talking in the back. If Miller knew any of them very well, it would’ve been Harper. They’d been Twitter friends for an pretty long time. But Maya hardly knew anyway, so she was being polite, and Miller didn’t really enjoy conversation as he drove.
Murphy snored on.
They were almost there.
He was sure that the girls had noticed, seeing as they were driving through a beach town rather than the long stretches of endless highway that came beforehand, and the fact that the app Miller had pulled up said the arrival time was like, two minutes away, but he didn’t want to wake Murphy. It was a lot easier to stifle his nerves about the inevitable awkwardness of this meet-up if he wasn’t talking about it with everyone else.
“Miller,” Maya said gently, leaning forward. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about the quiet girl. “We’re almost there?”
In lieu of answering Miller simply flicked on his blinker, turning in into the driveway of their temporary home.
“No,” he finally said. “We’re here.”
They were the second to last car to arrive, meaning Bellamy and Jasper were still a bit away which was a shame as Miller just wanted to fucking have a beer with his best friend finally, but they were greeted by everyone else who’d already arrived with smiles and hugs. He recognized names and URLs (Clarke made name tags, thankfully, hilariously) but some of the faces were unfamiliar.
“Look who it is,” Raven said, appearing from behind Clarke with her arms wide open to greet Miller with a hug. “The resident asshole has finally arrived.”
“Unsure if you’re talking about me or Murphy,” Miller murmured as he returned her hug. “Nice to see you.”
“You say that as though we’ve seen each other dozens of times before,” she countered.
“Well saying nice to meet you is a lie,” Miller said. “Because I already know you.” He gazed out across the groups of people saying hello, Murphy simply tipping his head at everyone annoyed that he was woken from his nap, Harper hugging everyone, and managed a smile. “Griffin,” he said to Clarke, who was watching, too.
“Yeah?”
“This is going to be insane,” he said.
Clarke grinned. “Yeah.”
From Jasper
FIVE MINUTES
From Monty
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Nervous?” he heard. Monty turned, finding Miller leaning against the balcony beside him. After greeting everyone, most people flocked to the beach to see it before the sunset. Jasper and Bellamy were cutting it close. “To meet Jasper,” he elaborated.
Monty shrugged. “No,” he lied.
Even if it wasn’t for the soft orange paper clipped to his shirt that read Miller, Monty recognized him right away. He was a longtime mutual who Monty only followed, originally, because he was hot . Miller rarely posted selfies but when he did? It was great. Monty was a fan. But at one point he’d realized that Miller was following him too, liking the fic that he was posting for Whispers, so Monty reached out.
They weren’t like, Jasper and Monty level close. Or Bellamy and Clarke level close. But they were friendly enough. Truth be told, Miller was way more intimidating than Jasper in terms of Monty meeting the both of them. But that was probably because anything regarding Miller, including just the other man favoriting Monty’s tweets, made Monty’s stomach do twisty things.
“Don’t tell anyone,” Miller said, his voice dropping just a touch, “but I’m kind of nervous to meet Bellamy.”
Monty laughed. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“He’s insanely smart about--fucking theorizing and history and all that bullshit and I’m worried I won’t be able to tolerate his rants in person.” Monty laughed again and Miller smiled, turning to gaze across the ocean. Wells and Raven were out there now, their toes in the water as they conversed. “It’s low level nerves, I’m sure, compared to him meeting Clarke.”
“They’re going to be hilarious,” Monty said. “You’re in that second group chat, right?”
“The one titled Which Day Will They Kiss?” Miller asked. “Yeah, Jasper added me last night. And also--it’s crazy that we all have iPhones. Makes group chats easier.”
“Right? But, my money’s on Monday,” Monty said. “Get the first awkwardness of Sunday out of the way and just fall into it then.”
“Nah, I’m leaning for Thursday or Friday. They’re going to pretend that there’s nothing between them until they realize that we’re leaving and they just fucking go for it.” Monty laughed another time, shaking his head fondly.
From Jasper
MONTY ONE MINUTE OMG
“I should head for the front,” Monty said, reading his screen, and Miller pushed himself from the ledge as well. “They’re almost here,” Monty explained.
“I’ll come with you.”
Monty grinned before asking, “Shall we grab Clarke?”
“She’s probably already waiting,” Miller answered.
Clarke was waiting on the front porch for Bellamy to arrive.
He was the other half of this trip and he was among the last to arrive. It was crazy, okay? They’d spent dozens of nights up until the wee hours of the morning (of both of their time zones) and Clarke was ready to just meet him. If it hadn’t been for his endless support and encouragement, there was no way this would’ve taken off.
Raven had commented that Clarke would’ve been the only one to get this done, but that simply wasn’t true. Clarke needed Bellamy.
It wasn’t even just this trip that they’d shared, really. They’d been friends for forever. They hadn’t gotten along at first, that was true, and had been in numerous Twitter fights, but it didn’t last. After season two of Whispers, things had changed between the two of them. Neither one of them could really figure out what had shifted (maybe he realized she was the one who did the fanart that everyone loved?). But suddenly Bellamy was defending Clarke on Twitter rather than shooting her down, and then the two of them were in a group chat with Raven and Monty discussing character dynamics and plot holes, and that was that.
“Told you,” Miller murmured as he stepped out onto the porch, and Clarke wheeled around to see him and Monty exit, the latter of which was laughing. “Hello Clarke,” Miller said.
“Hello Miller,” she returned before twisting to look back at the driveway. “Monty,” she added.
Monty settled by her side just in time for the three of them to watch Bellamy’s car turn down the driveway. “Oh man,” Monty hummed, “it’s happening, it’s really happening.” He moved from the railing and hurried down the steps and, before Bellamy’s car had even really stopped moving, Jasper was jumping out of it and sprinting in Monty’s direction.
“Jasper!” Bellamy shouted from inside the car, a laugh in his voice, but soon Monty and Jasper had flung themselves at one another, holding tight, and none of it mattered.
Clarke and Miller were still on the porch but she turned to him them, gesturing just a little. “This is why we did this,” she said gently. “For things like this.”
Jasper and Monty had parted now, their hands on each other’s shoulders, talking rapidly about this and that already and laughing with so much bright excitement in their eyes it was impossible to understand either of them. Throughout their union Bellamy parked, killing the engine, and pushed his door open. He looked up to the porch, eyes landing on Clarke and Miller, and grinned.
“Made it before sunset as requested,” he called up.
Clarke couldn’t stop her smile even if she tried. She pushed past Miller and hurried down the steps as fast as she could. She hadn’t meant to fling herself at Bellamy the way that Jasper and Monty had, but the closer she got the less she cared about that. Clarke collided with Bellamy so forcefully that there was an oof of surprise, and it took a moment for him to react before winding his arms around her as well.
This was overwhelming.
All of this, generally, was overwhelming, but actually meeting Bellamy took the cake. She nuzzled into his shoulder, trying and failing to stop herself from smiling the way she was, before Miller slowly made his way down the porch steps as well. He smelled like she thought he would, like clean and warm, and his arms around her were so comforting and secure that just this singular moment had been worth it all. Clarke pulled back to look up at Bellamy and he was grinning, too.
“Oh hey,” he said. “Nice to meet you.” Clarke laughed, shoving his shoulder just a bit, and stepped out of the way for him to greet Miller. “Come here, asshole.”
“Aw, it’s great to see you too,” Miller called back before the two closed the distance between one another to hug as well. “Thanks for finally deciding to show up.”
“Yeah, of course,” Bellamy said with a grin.
After Miller showed Bellamy to their bedroom, Clarke and Raven on the other side of the hall, everyone gathered in the upstairs living room for a formal greeting of sorts. Bellamy moved to Clarke’s side as they stood in the front, looking out across the room of people they’d gathered. Despite the fact that they were here, it still felt like a dream. Bellamy couldn’t even remember how many times Clarke called him in the middle of the night, panicking, because she didn’t think it would work out. And here they were.
Jasper and Monty had settled on the same couch, practically in one another’s laps, with Murphy on the only other open end. Miller had perched himself on the armrest of Raven’s chair. Wells was in the kitchen area while Harper and Monroe had claimed stools, wolfing down pizza that Clarke must’ve ordered in advance, and Maya lingered at the dining room table. There were a few others that Bellamy knew scattered here and there: Atom and Roma and Fox and Bree, and everyone looked happy.
They shared names and URLs and there was laughter and, holy fuck it was happening. That thought just played on a loop. It was happening, this was happening.
“There are like, very minimal house rules,” Clarke said once they’d gone around the room. “Knock before opening any door, but especially bathrooms.”
“Don’t go through people’s things,” Bellamy added. “Ever. Murphy.”
“Ugh, whatever,” Murphy responded.
“If you puke,” Clarke carried on, “we are not cleaning it up for you.”
“Every mess you make you’re also in charge of cleaning up,” Bellamy said.
“The thermostat can’t go under 70.”
“Don’t drag sand into the house.”
“And just--be open!” Clarke finished. “This is something super great that we’re doing. Have fun, please don’t fight with each other, etcetera, etcetera.”
“They’re like our parents,” Jasper mock whispered.
“Mom friends,” Monty agreed with a nod, causing Raven to laugh.
Bellamy and Clarke both rolled their eyes. “You’re adults,” Bellamy said to the room. “Just--behave.”
“Yes, Mom,” Miller said from his seat.
Exhausted from the long day, many people headed right off to bed. Wells was the first to disappear to one of the many bedrooms, that of which he was weirdly sharing with Murphy and Atom, and Raven and Harper and Maya all darted out to the beach to dip their toes in the water.
Monty and Jasper, after three very large glasses of wines, decided to climb into bed as well.
They had their own bedroom, thanks to Bellamy and Clarke’s spectacular planning, and a bed the size of the goddamn sun that they were definitely going to jump on at some point this week. But for now they were tired, and Jasper collapsed on his side with a deep and heavy sigh that made Monty grin.
His best friend in the entire universe was three feet away from him.
“I am so tired,” Jasper said, swinging his arm over his eyes. “Help. Get the light. I can’t do it.”
“You’re annoying,” Monty said, but still he stood and marched to the lightswitch. “This is the best. I love this house. I want to live here.”
“Die here,” Jasper responded with a grin of his own. Would they ever stop grinning this week? Probably not. They were here. “I only know, like, five of us,” Jasper said.
“Your contribution to the fandom is like, memes and shitposts,” Monty told him, sinking back into bed. “You very rarely engage in actual conversation.”
“I converse with you! That’s all that matters!” Monty smiled, propping himself up on his elbow to look at his friend in the now dim-lighting of the room. “Have you talked to Harper yet?” he asked.
Monty and Harper had a brief (very brief) flirtation at one point, but it never turned into anything real. If anything, it made things awkward. They were still friends but they were less likely to respond to one another’s posts or tweets. Harper was great at still leaving comments on Monty’s fics, but Monty struggled to read most of hers. It was weird. But.
“Yeah, we talked,” Monty said.
“Hook up potential?”
“Zero.”
Jasper threw his hands up while groaning, “Ugh, lame!” They were both quiet for a bit before he asked, “Hey, that Maya girl? Do you know her?”
Maya was a bit quiet, perhaps a bit out of place. “She knows Clarke through some like, super small sub-fandom of Whispers,” Monty said. “She’s super nice. Miller said she keeps to herself--he drove her--but she’s happy to be here.”
“Oh, Miller,” Jasper said, rolling to face Monty. “Hook up potential?”
Monty huffed. “Zero!” Jasper groaned again, dropping down to the mattress another time. “I’m not here to hook up with people, Jasper,” Monty said with a laugh. “I’m here to write fic. And not get sunburned. And be drunk a lot.”
“Man I’m so good at making mimosas,” Jasper said. “I will make us mimosas in the morning, okay?”
“Yes, good,” Monty said.
“Also I brought weed.”
“Even better,” Monty laughed.
They were both quiet, and Monty was sure they were falling asleep when Jasper turned to him again. “Monty?” he murmured.
“Hm?”
“If this was a fanfic,” he said, his voice drifting off as he fell asleep, “then we’d wake up spooning.”
Monty grinned. “There’s still time.”
Clarke found herself in the middle of Miller and Bellamy in their bedroom while Raven showered at the end of the night. She wanted company. They’d come all this way for company. She wasn’t going to waste a single moment by herself.
“I’m impressed,” Miller said from his side. “You two actually pulled it off.”
“It’s still only Saturday,” Bellamy said with a yawn. He’d driven the most. He deserved to be asleep. But they could sleep later. That was what Clarke said, anyway, when she stormed into their room just as they were about to fall asleep and flung herself into the bed between the two of them. “The house could blow up, like, tomorrow.”
“Don’t give Jasper ideas,” Clarke teased, to which Bellamy snorted. “This is a good group,” she said, sureness in her voice.
“It’s a good thing Lexa and her crew pulled out,” Miller muttered, causing Clarke to tense him. Not many people knew the whole story. Clarke assumed Miller didn’t, or he wouldn’t have brought it up, but Bellamy did. He twisted his hand then, his fingers, twitching to brush against Clarke’s in silent support. “Who else was it--Echo? She can choke.”
Bellamy snorted another time. “Chill, Miller.”
“Luna and Roan could’ve come,” Clarke said, trying to change the subject. “They would’ve been okay. Anya, too.”
“Whatever,” Miller said, yawning himself. “I’m cool with everyone here.”
“Me too,” Clarke said.
“Me too,” Bellamy echoed, tiredness laced into his voice.
Clarke could still feel it in her bones. This was going to be an amazing week.