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Bellamy never believed in soulmates – to be honest he’s still only partly convinced and he holds a lot of resentment toward the entire idea, left over from his childhood – but he sneezed at the same time as Clarke and that means they’re soulmates.
That doesn’t mean he knows what to do with it.
It’s been almost a month and a half since he and Miller heard someone sneeze at the same time as him while they were in the library and found Clarke in the only occupied work cubicle. To say he’s been a wreck since he found out would be an understatement.
Thankfully, Miller found out about Monty a week later, and he was even more of a wreck than Bellamy – they spent a solid month trying to get Miller to sneeze around Monty so that he could be sure and Monty still made the first move – but now they’ve got their shit together and Bellamy’s back to being the only one who doesn’t know how to deal with his soulmate.
“You’re the most pathetic person I’ve ever met,” Octavia says from where she’s sprawled across his couch.
Bellamy’s in the kitchen getting snacks ready for movie night, so she can’t see when he glares at her, but it still makes him feel a little better.
He rips open a bag of tortilla chips with a little more force than necessary. “I’m not pathetic,” he calls, dumping the chips into a bowl.
“You’ve known about Clarke being your soulmate for over a month and you haven’t done anything about it. Pathetic.”
“You can barely function around her,” Miller adds as he comes out of his bedroom. He stops by the fridge to grab two beers, grinning at Bellamy’s scowl. “You spent the first two weeks after you found out stuttering and spilling shit on yourself whenever she was around. It’s not like you’re subtle about your freak outs.”
When he hands Octavia a beer, she fist bumps him. “That’s true. Miller might have been even worse than you, but he at least finally got his shit together. You’re still flailing around, big brother.”
Bellamy set the chips down on the table, along with a jar of salsa and another bowl full of popcorn. “Are you trying to be helpful or do you two just get a kick out of shit-talking me?”
“You’re not too pathetic that I need to be helpful yet,” Octavia says, smiling up at him. “I’ll let you know when you get there, then I’ll give you a pep talk. For now, shit-talking is all you’re getting.”
A knock keeps Bellamy’s from answering, but it doesn’t keep him from grumbling on his way to the door.
When he opens the door, Clarke shoves a six-pack into his hands and pushes past him to the living room, where she sits next to Octavia and launches into a story about her asshole biology teacher’s latest eugenics rant. Raven and Monty follow behind her, actually greeting Bellamy before they come into his home.
“I didn’t bring you beer because my presence is a gift,” Raven says, patting his shoulder as she passes.
“Clarke didn’t bring me a gift,” Bellamy says, examining the beer while they make their way into the living room. “She’s trying to poison me.”
“You probably deserve it.”
“Fuck you, Reyes.”
Raven just grins at him, claiming the overstuffed armchair and putting her feet on the coffee table.
The living room is a collection of mismatched furniture that Bellamy and Miller found from Goodwill, Craigslist, and the side of the road, but it’s enough that it fits everyone comfortably for movie and game nights. Monty takes a seat next to Miller on the loveseat, curling into his side. Bellamy scowls at Miller’s pointed look and pokes Clarke’s side until she scoots over to the center cushion of the couch.
“Seriously, what the fuck is this?” Bellamy asks, pulling out one of the bottles once they’re all settled.
Clarke stops mid-conversation to answer. “Some pineapple craft beer,” she says, her face lighting up. “I bet it’ll make you puke.”
Bellamy rolls his eyes at her and grabs the bottle opener off the coffee table. He sniffs the drink once he’s gotten the cap off and grimaces at the smell of it. “Just because I’m not into your overly-sweet rich kid beer doesn’t mean I can’t handle it. I was raised on Budweiser and bottom-shelf vodka, Princess, I can stomach anything.”
Clarke tugs the beer out of his grip and takes a sip, making a face. “It’s not the best,” she concedes, handing it back to him. She grins as he takes a sip.
“Not the best is an understatement,” he says, coughing and passing the beer back to her. A few minutes later Bellamy’s still coughing and Octavia leans around Clarke to give him a disappointed look.
“It couldn’t have been that bad, Bell, don’t be dramatic.”
He glares at her, coughing into his elbow before answering. “I’m not being dramatic,” he says. “I think I’m getting a cold.”
Clarke turns toward him, eyes narrowed. “Have you been taking your vitamins? I tell you all the time, you need to do everything you can to strengthen your immune system when you work with kids. It’s flu season, you should be using hand sanitizer after every-“
“Jesus, it’s just a little cold,” Bellamy says, cutting her off. She glares at him, but he continues, “I’ll be fine, it’s not a big deal.”
Miller barks out a laugh. “You’re the worst sick person ever,” he says. “You act like you’re dying.”
“I do not,” Bellamy mumbles, grabbing the remote and putting the movie on.
***
A few days later, he’s buried under a pile of blankets, surrounded by tissues and empty bottles of Gatorade when his phone buzzes.
Clarke: You gave me your cold, asshole.
I’m coming over so we can be miserable together.
Be there in ten, I want a cozy blanket ready and waiting for me on your couch.
Bellamy lets out a shriek that he doesn’t think he could replicate even if he tried.
He hears the water in the kitchen shut off before Miller calls out, “What the fuck was that?”
“Nothing,” Bellamy says.
Miller pokes his head out of the kitchen and raises an eyebrow.
“Clarke’s coming over,” Bellamy says. Then he sneezes, because of fucking course he does.
Miller’s confusion clears and he lets out a soft, “Oh.” He’s already making his way toward his room when he says, “Let me just grab some shit and I’ll go over to Monty’s.”
“What? No!” Bellamy shouts. It comes out rough and it hurts his throat, but he scrambles until he’s half-off the back of the couch anyway, grabbing onto Miller’s arm. “You can’t just leave me here.”
“Dude.” Miller say mildly, “Get it together.” He shakes Bellamy off and pulls out his phone, pressing a few buttons. Whoever he calls picks up on the second ring. Miller says, “Bellamy’s got a cold and Clarke’s coming over. He’s freaking out.”
He tosses the phone at Bellamy and it lands with a dull thud on the couch.
Bellamy looks at it, unblinking and still tangled in the blankets he’d been wrapped up in. Miller rolls his eyes. “It’s baby Blake. I’m gonna get my stuff and then I’ll be back, so make this pep talk quick.”
When Bellamy picks up the phone Octavia is fucking cackling. Bellamy considers just hanging up on her, but honestly, any advice is good advice at this point.
Still. “You’re the fucking worst,” he tells her. He’s almost whining, but he doesn’t care. “Clarke’s coming over and I can’t stop sneezing-“
As if to make his point, he feels a tickle in the back of his throat and proceeds to sneeze three times in a row.
“Bellamy,” Octavia says, laughter still in her voice. “She is your actual, literal soulmate. I don’t understand what you think is going to go wrong.”
“Everything.”
Octavia sighs. “Can you give me some specifics?”
“No time,” Bellamy says when he sees Miller coming back down the hall. “Just give me advice.”
“My advice is to stop being a dumbass,” Octavia says. Then her voice softens. “She’s your soulmate, Bell. And even if she wasn’t, I’ve seen the way she looks at you. Her knowing that you guys soulmates isn’t going to fuck anything up.”
“That was really nice advice,” Bellamy says, pulling the phone away for a second to glare suspiciously at it. “Why are you being helpful and not teasing me?”
He can feel her eye roll through the phone. “Because, you’ve gotten to the point where you’re pathetic enough that you need advice,” Octavia says. She pauses before continuing. “And, I’m going to get to make fun of you for months about how a cold is what got you two together. Trust me, I’ll have plenty of teasing material.”
“That sounds about right,” Bellamy says. Octavia wishes him luck and once she hangs up he hands the phone back to Miller.
“You never get to complain about how dramatic I am again. You’re way worse,” he says, grinning when Bellamy tries to hold back a sneeze. “Dude, just let it out. There’s not gonna be any way to hide that you two are soulmates.”
Bellamy shoots him a look. “You can go now,” he says, sitting up and pulling a blanket around his shoulders. “Octavia was more helpful than you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Miller says, heading for the door. “I’m just saying, I’ve got money riding on this, so let me know how it goes.”
When he opens the door, Clarke’s there, one hand raised to knock. Miller ducks around her and shoots Bellamy a thumbs up.
“I was just leaving,” Miller says, “Have fun being miserable and sick together.”
He closes the door behind him and Clarke looks over her shoulder before shrugging and taking off her shoes. She flops down on the couch next to Bellamy, instead of the loveseat or the chair, and he tenses.
“So, how exactly is it my fault that you’re sick?” he asks.
Clarke gets settled with a blanket before answering. “You knew you were sick when we shared that beer and you didn’t tell me. Therefore, it’s your fault that I’m sick.”
“Solid logic.”
“Hey, if you had just listened to the advice of your friend, who is an almost doctor, you wouldn’t have ended up getting us both sick.”
“You’re not an almost doctor yet,” Bellamy argues, grinning at her. “You’re not even done with undergrad.”
Clarke huffs, turning and pulling up one leg so that she’s facing Bellamy on the couch for the familiar argument. “Just because I’m in undergrad and you’re fucking ancient doesn’t mean-“
She’s cuts herself off with a sneeze. Bellamy sneezes with her and her head jerks up so fast that he worries she might have given herself whiplash.
“Did you just-?” she doesn’t finish the question because Bellamy’s already nodding.
“Yeah,” he says. “Uh, surprise?”
Confusion flashes over Clarke’s face for a split second before she’s crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him. “You knew?”
Bellamy can’t quite read the tone of her voice so he gives a weak shrug. “For a month or so,” he says. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”
Clarke raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Was just saying ‘hey, Clarke, we’re soulmates’ too direct for you?”
“I didn’t know how you would react!” he defends. “I thought it would be better if you just found out on your own!”
She continues staring him down and Bellamy cracks. “I freaked out when I found out and didn’t know how to tell you because I was into you way before I found out we were soulmates.”
Clarke doesn’t answer for a minute, continuing to stare at him, and when she does she says, “That’s why you were so weird for those few weeks.”
“That’s what you want to comment on?” Bellamy asks. “That I was weird? Not that we’re soulmates or that I just told you that I like you or anything more relevant?”
“I was working my way toward that,” Clarke says, a small smile growing on her face. “After I teased you about that time you spilled your entire drink on yourself and then didn’t talk to me all night because you knew I was your soulmate and you were afraid of me.”
“I wasn’t afraid of you,” Bellamy grumbles, sagging back into the couch. “I just had a brief few weeks of panic where I didn’t know how to interact with you because we’re soulmates and I knew and you didn’t.”
Clarke hums in agreement and settles into the couch, leaning into Bellamy’s side. “It’s cool. I’ll make up for your weirdness by being totally normal about the soulmates thing.”
Bellamy squints down at her. “I’d rather you freak out a little bit.”
“I like you, too, Bell,” Clarke says, soft, as she snuggles closer. “I’m not mad that we’re soulmates.”
When Bellamy takes her chin in his hand to turn her head toward him, she’s already smiling. He leans down to kiss her and she reciprocates for a minute, the kiss tasting vaguely like cold medicine, before pulling back.
“I’m not making out with you, you’re sick.”
“So are you,” he argues, moving back toward her.
She pushes his head away with a finger to his forehead. “And we’ll still be soulmates when neither of us is sick anymore. You’ve waited this long, you can wait longer.”
Bellamy frowns at her. “Is this you getting back at me for not telling you we’re soulmates?”
“This is me doctoring you,” Clarke says. “We’re already sick, we don’t need to make it worse. That’s my official stance, as an almost doctor.” Bellamy opens his mouth and Clarke grins at him, admitting, “And it’s a little me getting back at you.” She settles back into his side and grabs the remote from the arm of the couch. “We can cuddle and watch a movie, though.”
They get halfway through the movie before they end up naked and when Miller walks in on them he exclaims, “Yes! Fifty bucks to me, baby!”