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“The heart and the head.” Clarke smiles upon the familiar phrase. She looks to Bellamy, anticipating his usual echoed response, as they’ve done so many times in the past.
Bellamy looks back at her, silently holding Clarke’s gaze, lost in thought for a moment. And another. And yet another.
She’s still waiting. “Bellamy, are yo-”
“I love you,” Bellamy breathes, so quick, so quiet, Clarke almost doesn’t hear him.
She almost doesn’t believe him either.
Almost.
Seconds upon seconds pass as the head gazes into the eyes of her heart, trying to think of the right words to convey the feelings she’s been waiting to reveal for several years. She had never felt it had been the right time, and it still doesn’t feel right, but for better or for worse the moment is here and Clarke suddenly can’t think because she's falling, falling, falling into Bellamy’s dark eyes and she can’t seem to breathe because all the past feelings she’s suppressed for the sake of the mission and protecting Madi and not wanting to hurt Echo and being afraid that he won’t feel the same come rushing back to her and–
She’s waited too long. As Clarke blinks back to the present, she sees Bellamy to shake his head slightly, a timid– or… guilty?– apology forming on his face.
Before he can say anything, before she can regret it, Clarke reaches up to cup Bellamy’s head in her hands and hurriedly stretches up to close the space between them. She hesitates a fraction of a second before closing her eyes, blurring with tears from her panic, and gently pressing her lips to Bellamy’s, praying her actions speak louder than the words she had not been able to say.
The intensity of the moment is overwhelming, but she still feels Bellamy kiss back, bringing one hand to hold her head and one to wrap around her shoulders in a warm embrace. Clarke sighs through her nose in relief, a small tear escaping down her cheek. The long-awaited kiss is deep and passionate, full of a desire that had been brewing between them for so long. Clarke never wants it to end. Never wants to leave Bellamy again, never wants to pull apart from his embrace. She lets herself sink into the moment for a little longer, and she feels Bellamy do the same.
Another moment passes.
Slowly, unsure, Clarke and Bellamy pull a few inches apart, the electricity between them yearning to grow close and connect again. Intensely, they hold each other’s captivating gaze. Clarke smiles shyly, a deep blush inching across her face. Bellamy’s eyes brighten in return, a playful smile starting to appear.
“Well, that’s good to know,” he laughs. Clarke doesn’t need to ask what he means. In fact, she’s relieved, too.
“Yeah, well…” she trails off with a smile, taking the joke in stride. “I love you, too, Bellamy. I tried to tell you before, on one of the radio calls, back when I was on Earth and you were on the Ark, and I didn’t know if you’d made it, if you could hear me, or if I’d ever see you again…” Clarke takes a brief pause from her nervous ramble to look into Bellamy’s thoughtful eyes, then she continues, “Turns out you couldn’t hear a single word I’d said, but I’m glad now, that I got to tell you– well, to show you– in person.”
Bellamy takes her left hand in his right and lifts it to his lips, planting a gentle kiss on her knuckles. They smile at each other and spend a few moments gazing into each other’s eyes in comfortable silence.
Clarke knows they’ll talk more about this later. Eventually, she’ll learn that Bellamy had loved her for a lot longer than she’d imagined. She’ll learn how it took years for him to move on from loving Clarke after they’d been separated, and how he feels like he’ll never shake his guilt from leaving her behind, even though they found each other again and never intend to part. She’ll learn how he wept after she’d been proclaimed dead by Josephine– though she won’t learn that from Bellamy… She’ll tell him about her time alone on Earth after Praimfaiya, how before she met Madi, he was the one who kept her company, if only in spirit. She’ll tell him how she thought she was dreaming when she saw his silhouette lined by the light of the retreating rover, and how much she’d hurt when she watched Bellamy run to Echo and embrace her in a way Clarke thought she’d never feel herself. And she’ll tell him how grateful to him she is for saving her life countless times, often in ways he could never understand.
But right now, they hold each other in silence, knowing that they’ll get through anything.
Together.