Chapter Text
"Do you believe in ghosts?"
Bellamy squints at Clarke over his coffee, looking for the hidden message in the question. Clarke has this way of approaching topics from the side, like if she just asks him what she wants to know, it's too easy or something.
But he's not sure how to answer this particular question other than the truth. "Of course not. Why would I believe in ghosts?"
She ignores his perfectly valid question, which is the first red flag. Or the second, really. It's not even ten a.m. yet. Bellamy considers any conversation with Clarke before she's finished her coffee to already be suspect. "Awesome, I need you for a video."
"I don't do videos. Also it can't be that hard to find people who don't believe in ghosts. Who believes in ghosts?"
"I do."
It's not like Bellamy has spent much--or, in fact, any--time thinking about whether or not his coworkers believe in ghosts, but if anyone had asked, he would have said Clarke didn't. Monty and Jasper he could believe, maybe even Miller, but Clarke really doesn't seem like the type. She was pre-med before she decided she was going to rebel against her parents by becoming a weird internet celebrity. He assumed she was on the science side of the ghost question.
"Really?" is all he manages to actually say on the subject.
"It's not like I think every ghost story is true or anything like that. I think most of them are probably bullshit, or easily explained scientifically. But I've also had a ghost encounter."
"Wait, you think you've actually seen a ghost?"
"Yup. And that's why I need you for this video."
He opens and closes his mouth. The problem is, Clarke actually knows him, which means she knows he's now curious about this, but she's not going to tell him until he admits it. "What video?"
"I'm not telling you unless you say you'll do it."
"I'm not agreeing to do a video without knowing what it is. Videos aren't in my job description."
Clarke, Raven, Monty, and Jasper started Arkade Online when they were seniors in college, and they weren't originally about video content. They wrote about pop culture, video games and movies and whatever else took their fancy. Clarke did a series on queer issues that turned into a podcast and then into actual interviews, and since then she's decided she prefers that to writing her content. The website still does traditional articles, but Bellamy can't help suspecting it's on the way out.
Not that should matter much to him either way. Bellamy was hired to write (both articles and scripts) and do research, but somehow he ends up on camera every few weeks, mostly because Miller's favorite way to contribute his own creative work is filming behind the scenes. He's still telling everyone he doesn't like it mostly because he's a little embarrassed he does. And he knows he's popular, he's seen the comments.
But there's a difference between appearing in videos at the office and being in a video. Being in a video means losing all plausible deniability.
"It's a Halloween special at my family estate," Clarke finally admits, once she realizes he's not going to budge.
"The fuck is a family estate?"
"The haunted house my grandmother lived in."
"Yeah, I need more information than that."
She goes over to her desk and motions for him to follow her. She's got a website already pulled up: The Clarke House. "My mom's maiden name," she explains. "So when I was a kid, I said it was my house. Even though it scared the shit out of me."
He has to admit, the place looks haunted. It's not dilapidated or anything, but it's definitely creepy in the way old houses tend to be, big and looming and probably very dark at night. Octavia would have freaked out there when she was a kid.
Bellamy's never really been like that, though. He's not afraid of the dark, except when it might be concealing people. Humans are the only monsters he believes in.
"Your grandmother moved out and turned it into a historic site?" he asks.
"Yeah. It's got a lot of local historical value. It's not a huge tourist attraction of anything, but they do okay."
"So what does this Halloween special look like?"
"Monty and I were talking about filming something seasonal. We thought a haunted place would be cool, and I've got an in here."
"So why are you asking me about filming instead of Monty?"
"Because Monty believes in ghosts."
"And that's a problem?"
"Have you ever watched a ghost-hunting show?"
"No. Why would I watch a ghost-hunting show?"
Clarke rolls her eyes. "I assume you sometimes have fun, Bellamy."
"You're one to talk."
She ignores that too. "The thing with ghost shows is that everyone on them wants to believe there are ghosts."
"That makes sense. Why else would you be a ghost hunter?"
"But it means that they all feed into each other. One of them hears a sound and they convince themselves it's moaning, not just the wind."
"When all you have is a ghost-hunting hammer, everything looks like a haunted nail?"
"Exactly. If Monty and I did this, it would just be us winding ourselves up. I asked Raven, but she says there's no way she's walking around an old house at night on her leg."
His eyebrows go up. "You're going at night?"
"Why would you go to a haunted house during the day? I talked to the director, she said we can spend the night there."
"And you believe it's haunted," he says, not quite able to make it a question. It just sounds so absurd.
"My grandmother didn't move until after my grandfather died, that was when I was in high school. I spent a lot of vacations and Christmases there. And I know some of it was my imagination," she adds, quickly, before he can say anything. "Every creak was suspicious. But when I asked my grandmother why she was leaving, she just said she wasn't going to live in a haunted house alone. We'd never talked about it before that, I never heard anyone else say it was haunted, but my grandmother and I both knew."
"What convinced you? Come on, I know you, Clarke," he presses as she hesitates. "You don't start believing in ghosts without an inciting event."
"You're right, I didn't. But I think it would be better if we waited until we were on camera. Get your real, authentic reaction."
"Don't you do takes when you're on camera?"
"Which one of us is the expert on videos here?" she shoots back.
"Point."
"Look, I think you'd be good for this. And you know you're popular in the behind-the-scenes stuff. Don't pretend you haven't checked."
"That doesn't mean I want a starring role."
Clarke just keeps going like he didn't say anything. "We need something for Halloween, and I think this would be really cool. But no one else is the right fit for it."
He does see where she's coming from with that at least. Even without having seen any ghost-hunting shows, he can see how it would go with Monty and/or Jasper so easily. They'd hype the whole thing up so much that they'd be paranoid and terrified before they even got to the actual house. And Miller might not actually believe in the supernatural, but if Clarke got creeped out, he'd definitely do his best to creep her out more. He'd go with it just because he loves ghost stories, regardless of their authenticity.
"I want to get paid extra."
"You know we have rates for appearing in videos, right? You'll get appearance pay, the same as everyone else."
"And travel and accommodations are covered?"
"We're sleeping in the house. But yeah, we'll cover food and equipment. All the incidentals."
"I wasn't sure if there was going to be a night in a hotel or something."
"I don't think so? It's in Virginia and we have a ton of stuff, so I think we'll just take the van down and come back the next day. It's a lot of driving, but between you, me, and Miller, we have enough drivers."
"You really want to do this, don't you?"
"I think people will love it. And I want to go back and see it again. It's been like ten years since I was there. Even though I wasn't a kid the last time I went, it feels like I'm grown up now. Maybe I can be objective."
"And if you aren't, I will be?"
"You know it's a good idea."
"I do." He sighs. "You owe me."
"You're getting paid. And all expenses covered. This isn't a favor, Bellamy, you don't get to hold it over me."
He wants to protest, maybe even tell her that if she doesn't say she owes him, he won't do it, but it's a stupid, immature impulse. It is a real job, and he's the best person for it. It might even be fun.
"Fine. I'm going to make fun of you for being scared, though."
She just rolls her eyes. "Yeah, that's the whole point."
*
It's already September, so things move quickly. Bellamy's never actually done an honest-to-god planned video before, and he didn't actually appreciate how much work went into them. And even this video will involve less work than some of their other content, at least according to Miller. Clarke has a script about the history of the house to make sure she hits all the points she needs to, but he doesn't have lines written at all.
"We're going for a more natural, improvisational vibe," she explains, as Jasper does his makeup. They keep as small a staff as possible; everyone wears a lot of hats. "The plan is for you to react how you react, and we can keep stuff like laughing, teasing, anything like that. We really only want to do retakes if something's totally unintelligible."
"Yeah, the two of you have natural chemistry and a good rapport," Raven says. From anyone else, Bellamy would take it as light teasing about his barely extant crush on Clarke, but Raven is matter-of-fact, professional. She's assessing them from a business perspective. "We don't want to get in the way of that."
"Thanks, I think." He makes a face as Jasper moves away from Bellamy to check that Clarke has done her own makeup to his satisfaction. "So, intro here, drive to the location, film onsite overnight, and then drive back, debrief, and we're done, right?"
"Right," says Raven. "You're all going on a road trip and I'm stuck here, watching the office."
"You said you didn't want to come!" Clarke protests.
"Yeah, I don't, I just want to make you feel bad. You need to bring me some cool souvenirs."
"You think Clarke's family mansion has a good gift shop?" Bellamy asks. "I've been to a lot of historic house museums and all the gift shops have the same stuff, and all of it sucks."
"This is why this doesn't count as you doing me a favor," says Clarke. "Not only is it your job that you're getting paid for, but you love weird history stuff. You're excited to get to go to a historic house as a VIP."
"If we find a bunch of racist shit in there I'm going to make fun of your ancestors."
"My ancestors were definitely racist and built this house with slave-owner money. Go for it."
They're filming their introductory footage in the same place they film everything, the Arkade Online news desk, and it's Bellamy's first time actually sitting there. Clarke and Monty made a bunch of Halloween decorations, spiders and ghosts and pumpkins, and taped them around the desk and its surrounding room, and the whole vibe reminds him of elementary school.
"How much Halloween content are we producing?" he asks. It's not that he doesn't pay attention to the film side of the company, just that if he's not doing research for it, there's really no reason for him to be involved.
"Monty and I are taste-testing weird candy we found at the dollar store," says Jasper. "Raven and Clarke are carving pumpkins, I think? And Miller's reading some public-domain ghost stories. Not a ton, but it's not like the decorations took that long."
"Yeah, I can tell."
"Be nice," says Clarke. She takes her usual seat and Bellamy sits next to her, bouncing a little in the chair. Miller's filming, as usual, and there's a camera looking right at him and lights beating down.
"How do you not feel fucking weird about this?" he asks, and Clarke shrugs one shoulder.
"You get used to it." She flips through her papers, checking to make sure she has everything. "So, I'm reading this live, but we're going to do a clean take of just me reading after, so don't worry about making noise or anything. Raven's going to make some graphics to go with the voiceover, so unless you're interrupting, don't worry about what you're doing. You won't be on camera."
"And I'm supposed to interrupt?"
"Yeah, when you have something to say. It's supposed to be a conversation, not a monologue." He must still look worried, because she says, "Just be yourself, Bellamy."
"I'll do my best."
Miller counts them in, and he can actually see Clarke settling into her screen persona. She's not different in the videos, exactly, but there's a slightly superficial sheen to her, like to be on camera, she has to pretend she's not quite herself.
"Hello and welcome to Arkade Online's Halloween special. Most of you know me, I'm Clarke Griffin. Fewer of you will know my associate, Bellamy Blake. Bellamy?"
"What?"
"You want to introduce yourself?"
"You didn't tell me I had to introduce myself."
He's expecting them to stop filming, but Clarke just rolls her eyes. "I didn't think it was hard. Just tell them a little about yourself."
"I'm Bellamy, you might have seen me in the background of behind-the-scenes videos. I write articles and I also do research for whatever stuff anyone else wants to write. If you've ever emailed our information email asking for a source on something, I was probably the one who wrote back. This is my first time doing a video on purpose, and so far it's weird."
"See? You were fine. I did a survey of everyone on staff and it turns out Bellamy is one of the only people here who doesn't at least sort of believe in ghosts."
"Seriously?"
"I said sort of!" says Clarke. "Jasper says he doesn't believe, but he thinks that spending the night in a haunted house would be scary."
"I never said I didn't think that would be scary."
"Yeah, but I told you that's what we were doing and you didn't say you couldn't do it."
"Spoilers," he tells the camera, "we're spending the night in a haunted house."
"Yup. As I've mentioned, my family is rich, especially on my mom's side. Old, southern money."
"Racist money," Bellamy puts in.
"Yeah, that too. I used to go to this house when I was a kid, and it always creeped me out. I didn't think it was actually haunted until I was fifteen though."
"Oh, hey, do I get to hear about why you believe in ghosts now? She wouldn't tell me until we were on camera," he adds, in Miller's general direction.
"You do, but we're not there yet. We're doing this because I've got a personal connection, but it's not a particularly well-known historic site, so I figured we should do some background first."
"I can't believe you did research without me," he teases.
"I can't teach you about the house if you did all the research on the house first. You'd already know about it."
"So you decided to do my job for me to keep the element of surprise?"
"I did do my own research before we could afford to hire you, you know. I know how to use Wikipedia," she adds, teasing, but it doesn't actually rile him up. Clarke's way too much of an overachiever to use wikipedia as her primary source on anything.
"There's no way your family mansion is on Wikipedia," he says, and she smirks.
"Only one way to find out. Okay, so the Clarke House."
Bellamy does like history, even if US history isn't his favorite, and it's more interesting because this is about Clarke's family. It's one thing to know, intellectually, that she comes from old money and another to hear about where that money came from, which parts of her family were divided by the Civil War, and what makes their house important enough to be a historic property.
"I didn't know you were this rich," he remarks, once she's done with a quick overview of the collections.
"I'm not anymore. All that stuff belongs to the museum trust now. And even before that, we were rich in, like, stuff. If someone sold the old silver, they would have gotten a lot for it, but we never did. So none of that stuff ever really felt like money to me when I was younger."
"Yeah, I still think your family is really rich."
"They are. But old money is weird. And no one in my family figured out how to turn it into new money, really. We're not good at investing."
"Wow, I feel so bad for you."
"You should. We're regular rich, not Bezos rich."
"Get back on track," says Raven. "We're going to cut most of this."
"I still want to hear about the haunting," Bellamy says. "Are we getting to you in this story?"
"Yeah, we can be at me. The last person to own the house before it became a museum was my grandmother on my mom's side, Elaine Clarke. She and my grandfather lived there until he died when I was seventeen, and that's when she left the house. I asked why, and she said it was haunted."
"Just like that? Had she ever brought this up before?"
"No! I was honestly kind of mad at her?" she says, a small spark in her eye as she smiles at him. This is performer Clarke, and they're a team now. "I'd stayed there at least twice a year every year for my entire life, and after seventeen years of that, she was telling me it was haunted."
"Yeah, but she lived there for your whole life, right? It's not like she wasn't right there with you."
"I guess that's true."
"What was her evidence?"
"The usual stuff. Weird sounds, stuff moving on its own, bad vibes. Sometimes she said she'd see someone out of the corner of her eye but when she looked again, they were gone."
"Okay, but some of that is just being a person. Sometimes you hear weird noises or see something out of the corner of your eye. Also, did she bring an exterminator in? I'm pretty sure half the time it's like squirrels in the chimney. And with an old place with that, there might be some weird gas leaks or something. None of that means ghosts are real."
"I actually asked her about exterminators before the episode. She said they'd come in a few times to take care of rats and stuff and nothing changed with what she experienced."
"But they were looking for rats, not chimney squirrels."
"I assume they checked everywhere."
Bellamy shrugs. "I don't know if your grandmother actually hired good exterminators. Sometimes rich people are cheap."
"Okay, but there were exterminators. You don't get to move the goalposts on this one."
"Fine. What did you see? Did you tell your grandmother?"
"I told her it creeped me out, but I never wanted to tell anyone what actually happened. It's honestly kind of embarrassing to admit you think you maybe saw a ghost."
"Which explains why you're doing it now, on camera."
"Once I do it here I can probably stop doing it, right? Everyone will know."
Bellamy snorts. "Yeah, if anyone asks you can just send them the link and you're done."
"Exactly. It answers every question." She lets out a long breath, and Bellamy nudges her foot with his under the table, somewhere the camera can't see. A private show of support. "I was fifteen, and I was at the house alone. My parents and grandparents went out to a dinner party and I begged off. I always thought the house was creepy, but I thought it was just my imagination. It was in the middle of nowhere, it was old and creaky, of course it felt haunted."
"Did you know it was used as a hospital in the Civil War?"
She laughs. "No, I actually learned that when I was doing the research for this episode. No one ever told me. Which is probably good, that wouldn't have helped."
"So what did you see?"
She leans in, like he thinks she would if this was a ghost story she was telling at a campfire. "So, I was feeling pretty paranoid and scared. And ordinarily I'd say that my mind was playing tricks on me, but that's not really what my mind does, usually. I've never psyched myself out like that."
"Except this one time."
"Those are the options, yeah. Either one time in my life, my brain made something up, or ghosts are real and this is the only time I encountered one."
"You still haven't actually told me what happened."
"It's called building suspense, Bellamy. I was listening to music and it started glitching. Not quite skipping, more like radio static? With a few snatches of weird voices. And it was an iPod, so that definitely shouldn't have happened. I went to turn it off and I heard this voice say no and I swear I felt a hand on my shoulder."
"Okay, yeah, that would probably freak me out."
"Right? It's freaky."
"So what did you do?"
"Honestly? I stopped the music and called my best friend. I didn't tell him what happened, but I didn't call him except to make plans to hang out, so he knew something was up. He didn't call me out, just talked to me until my parents got home. By then, I was pretty much telling myself it was my imagination. I'd already written it off."
"Tell me more about the voice. What did it sound like? What kind of no are we talking about?"
Clarke laughs softly. "That's your question?"
"I'm curious. You're the first person I know who's had a ghost encounter, I want more details."
"It was just kind of soft, but it felt close, you know? Like someone whispering in my ear. Not mad or even very scary, but really distinct."
"And you were fifteen?"
"Yeah. Old enough to know better."
"I was actually doing the math on you going back there. They didn't sell until you were seventeen and you said you were there twice a year. You weren't freaked out?"
"I was, but it only happened when I was alone, so I avoided that as much as possible. Sleeping was the worst, I never slept well there again. But every time I went and nothing happened it felt like more evidence that it was just my imagination."
"Did you tell your grandmother?"
"Not until she told me why she moved, but then I did, yeah."
"And what did she say?"
"Sounds about right, pretty much. She didn't have anything that specific, but it wasn't a surprise to her, I guess? I don't know if she really thinks it's haunted or if it was just too creepy for her to be there alone."
"Especially just after her husband died. She was probably already lonely."
"Yeah. She was picking between hiring a live-in maid and going to a retirement home and I think that the possibly haunted thing was the deciding factor, but it definitely wasn't the only one."
"And now you want to go spend the night there with just me and Miller?"
"Miller's our cameraman," Clarke supplies. "I figure there are two outcomes here, and they're both good for me. One, nothing happens. I can write this off as just my imagination and move on with my life."
"Makes sense."
"Two, we get some ghost activity, and I know I was right."
"Okay, you never explained that to me. Do we have ghost-hunting stuff? What are we actually doing here?"
"Good question, we needed to cover that anyway. So, our producer, Monty, got drunk and googled ghost hunting equipment and bought a bunch of weird stuff with his corporate card."
"That's pretty much what I was expecting, yeah."
Clarke walks him and, by extension, their viewers through the equipment they'll be using, which she promises is "standard," like the fact that they're doing what all the other ghost hunters (who have yet to prove the existence of ghosts) do is supposed to be comforting.
"This is a one-off, right?" he asks, suspicion creeping in all at once.
Clarke is all innocence. "What do you mean?"
"I mean this is a lot of stuff to buy for a holiday special."
"Like Monty and Raven won't come up with more reasons for us to use ghost-hunting stuff."
He narrows his eyes at her. "I'm just doing this one, Clarke."
"What if it's fun?"
"Clarke."
Her smile is angelic, and he has never trusted another human being less. "Just this once."
*
The director of the Clarke House Museum is a brisk, calm woman named Charmaine, who tells them that the place is creepy but she doesn't believe in ghosts. From the way she says it, Bellamy assumes that this is something of a mantra for her when she's alone in the house at night, a reminder that nothing is frightening because ghosts aren't real. Not that he really blames her. He doesn't believe in ghosts, but there's a small part of him that's wondering if not believing in ghosts is one of those things that's easy until you're alone in a creepy old house and on high alert for every sound.
Apparently, he's going to find out.
"I can't believe you're making me sleep in a sleeping bag," he grumbles to Clarke as they set up. "I'm old, this is bad for my bones."
"You're not that old."
"I'm too old to sleep in a sleeping bag."
"You know people at least twice your age camp, right? This is normal, Bellamy."
"I don't camp either."
"Good thing you're just doing this once," she says, too brightly, and he glares at her. "How are you feeling?"
"I think you're really rich and your grandmother has an extremely creepy house."
"No opinions on what we've seen so far?"
"We haven't seen anything. We heard some noises that could be anything--"
"We're the only ones here!"
"There could still be squirrels in the chimney. This place has a fucking ton of chimneys, anything could be in there."
"The spirit box picked up some noise."
"I don't like or trust the spirit box."
"That sounds like a you issue, Bellamy."
"Really?" he asks, giving her a look. "I'm pretty sure it's a you issue."
"How?"
"Well, okay," he grants her. "Not the spirit box specifically. But you wanted an answer, right? Either there was a ghost here or there wasn't. But you've got all these weird things that are designed to make people think maybe ghosts are real, so now you're thinking there's a third option, which is that maybe ghosts are real."
"We haven't spent the night yet," she points out. "We could get something more definitive."
"Yeah. But it would be easier if they came out now." He looks around the room, the flashlight on his chest illuminating dark corners as he moves. "Hey, ghosts, I would love to sleep in a hotel tonight, so if you're here, can you come out now? Whisper something in our ears, touch us, turn on that flashlight, maybe--"
The flashlight turns on.
Clarke jumps, and Bellamy finds he just…doesn't. He doesn't think it's scary. He doesn't really think it's a ghost. Clarke explained how the whole flashlight thing works, how this is a specific kind that can get switched on if something just nudges it. That's what makes it a good tool for ghost hunters, supposedly; ghosts may not have the power to flick a switch, but they can exert enough force to nudge a flashlight.
But so can the wind.
"Bet you can't turn it off," he tells the room.
"Bellamy!" Clarke hisses.
"Look, I get the timing was pretty impressive, but I'm talking and moving, that probably affected the air."
Even in the dark, he can tell Clarke is staring at him agog. "You think that was a coincidence?"
"I think if ghosts are real and haunting us, they should be able to do more than switch a flashlight on and off. And it can't even turn it off," he adds.
"So you're telling me that you think you said turn on the flashlight and the flashlight turned on and that means nothing."
"I think you got a flashlight that's supposed to be easy for ghosts to interact with because it just turns itself off and on all the time, which means that if you wait long enough, it'll turn itself on sooner or later. If the ghosts want to talk to us, they need to be a little less ambiguous. And if they really want to talk, they can turn the flashlight off, too."
They both watch the flashlight for a long moment, but nothing happens.
"I'm turning it off myself in three, two…" Bellamy starts, and the flashlight turns off.
"It's hard for ghosts to do this stuff, you know," Clarke snaps. She actually does look freaked out, like this is getting to her, and for a second, he wonders if he should be doing something else. Humoring her or comforting her or something. But that's not his job. He's here because if Monty saw this, he'd believe it was a ghost too. Bellamy's job is to remind Clarke that ghosts aren't real, and he's not backing down from that for anything short of an actual ghost telling him, personally, to fuck off. Ideally while they're filming it.
"I don't know, and you don't know either. Everything we know," he says, with finger quotes for emphasis, "about ghosts comes from the people who decided that, hey, if they get lucky with timing on asking the air to turn on a flashlight, it means a ghost has been trying to talk to them the whole time and this is the only thing that worked. But ghosts manage to do all sorts of other stuff when no one has cameras around to prove it, so why can't they just do this?"
Clarke is starting to look more amused than scared. "Maybe they're trolling you."
"You think ghosts are trolling me?"
"I think we should allow for the possibility."
"Hey, ghosts, if you're trolling me, do absolutely nothing." Nothing happens, and he grins at Clarke. "Wow, they sure showed me."
"You're such a dick," she says, fond. "Go to sleep, Bellamy."
*
When Octavia was born, Bellamy's mom explained that she needed to sleep through the night so that she could go to work and they could eat, so she was putting the baby monitor in his room. If he heard any sounds in the night, he needed to get up and go check on his sister. At age six, he hadn't thought anything of it, had accepted without question that this was his duty as a big brother. At thirty-one, he can admit that this was really fucked up, and he's talked to his therapist about it more than once, but when he was six, it just seemed normal. Octavia was his responsibility.
Clarke is an adult who's definitely not his responsibility, but old habits die hard. He doesn't know how to hear a person making noise in the night and not wake up to check on them. His previous significant others had differing opinions on how much of a plus this was, but it's not like Bellamy can just turn it off.
If he could, now would be the time to do it, though. Miller got to take off to a hotel around ten, once he'd set up a few cameras to film Bellamy and Clarke overnight, so the two of them are alone in sleeping bags in the giant, creepy mansion. Bellamy's goal is to go to sleep as soon as possible and wake up when it's time to leave, but Clarke is having a lot more trouble, and it's literally her job to talk through that trouble for their audience. Even when he manages to fall asleep for a little while, Clarke will wake him back up, despite her best efforts to be quiet.
After the third time he wakes up, he tells his own camera, "I guess I'm not sleeping tonight."
"Sorry!" says Clarke. "I'm being as quiet as I can."
"Yeah, I'm a light sleeper. Did something happen or are you just generally freaked out?"
"Generally freaked out. I feel like someone's watching me."
"There are two cameras on you right now. That could be a factor."
"I'm used to being on camera."
"Did this ever happen before? Like, when you were a kid? You slept here a lot."
"I listened to music," she says. "Until the music skipped that one time, then I was scared it would happen again when I was trying to sleep. But I didn't feel like I was being watched."
"Do you want me to keep talking until you fall asleep?" he offers.
"You don't have to do that."
"I'm not going to get to sleep until you do. I don't mind. You want to hear some Greek mythology? That's kind of my specialty."
"If you really don't mind."
He starts with Hermes, on the grounds that most of the stories he remembers about Hermes aren't creepy, and then moves to Athena and Arachne, and once he's done with those, he says, "Clarke?" softly enough that he doesn't think he'll wake her.
There's no response, and he rolls over to look at her. She's facing him, not the camera, her eyes closed, her breathing soft. She doesn't look afraid at all.
He doesn't wake up again until the alarm goes off at six the next morning.
*
"So, the best evidence we got for haunting was the flashlight, right?" Bellamy asks, at their unscripted debrief back at the office. It's supposed to be the last thing he does for this, but he can't help thinking Clarke has something else up her sleeve. "Because that didn't convince me."
"Not quite," says Clarke. He raises his eyebrows. "Raven's been reviewing our footage and audio."
"And?"
"And there were some weird sounds."
"We were in an old house. It's full of weird sounds."
"That's why Raven's doing the checking. She's a skeptic."
"So we have to see what Raven finds before we can be done with this."
"What, you aren't enjoying yourself?"
"Who doesn't love spending the night in a sleeping bag in a former war hospital? That's my favorite weekend activity."
"We went on a weeknight and you got paid. I know you had fun, you can stop pretending you didn't."
"Did you have fun?" he asks, genuinely curious. "You could barely sleep. If I actually believed in this stuff, I would have been terrified."
"I love this, yeah," she says, ducking her head like it's costing her something to admit it. "That probably means there's something wrong with me, but I like answers. If I'm going to believe in ghosts, I want to have something to back it up. And if I don't find something, I can stop believing."
"You know," he says, picking his words carefully, "you keep saying stuff that makes me think you're planning to do this more often."
"Every one-off we do is basically a pilot, you know that. If people like this, why wouldn't we do it more?"
"I assume you don't actually want my list of reasons."
"You wouldn't do more?"
He opens and closes his mouth. Clarke is watching him with her cheek propped on one hand, her smile soft. The problem with Clarke isn't his small, stupid crush, it's that he has absolutely no sense of self-preservation when it comes to her. If he was smart, he'd avoid any and all excess contact with her, try to get over it, but every time he has the chance to spend less time with her or get a break, he doesn't take it. If Clarke wants to do something with him, he'll always do it. He'll cancel other plans to make it work.
"Maybe if it's really popular," he grumbles, and Clarke's smile says she knows she's won.
*
"You went ghost hunting?" Octavia asks when he picks up her call. "I thought you didn't want to be on camera. I knew you liked the attention."
"Hi, O. Good to hear from you too. How's Montana?"
"Empty and weird, I love it. Seriously, Bell, ghost hunting? Why?"
"It's Halloween," he says. "Happy Halloween, by the way. Do you get trick-or-treaters? It must suck for Montana kids who don't have actual neighbors to see."
"They drive. You're changing the subject!"
Bellamy grins. He and his sister have been through more than a few rough spots in their lives, but it feels like they've finally gotten to a healthy place. More like regular siblings. "I don't know what you want me to say. We do videos sometimes, Clarke wanted to do a Halloween special and thought I'd be good at it. It just went up like an hour ago, I didn't know you paid this much attention to my job."
"My friend Harper from high school texted me and told me about it. She's subscribed to your youtube channel."
"As long as you're not actually supporting my career or anything."
"This is the first time you've ever actually been credited in a video. Maybe if you did more, I'd watch them. Did you know they put up a poll to see if people want more of you and Clarke at haunted houses?"
"And?"
"Let's see, 96% yes please, 3% nah not my thing, and then 1% no strong opinion just show me the results. So, yeah. It might be kind of skewed because I assume people who are watching your videos in the first hour they're up are really into your content, but so far overwhelmingly positive."
"What was your vote?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
"I want you to see a ghost, obviously."
He smiles. "Obviously. What did you think about the flashlight?"
"Honestly, I was wondering if you faked it."
"No way. Integrity is everything. I think ghost hunters just set themselves up for success with their weird equipment."
"Well, why set yourself up for failure?" Octavia asks, pragmatic.. "Would you do more?"
"As long as they give me a raise, yeah. They hired me for research, on-camera talent makes more."
"You're not really talented, though."
"Wow. Thanks, O. Love getting harsh feedback from my only sister."
He's trying to sound sarcastic, but some of his nerves must leak through. "Oh god, you aren't actually worried about that, are you? You know you were great, Bell. You and Clarke are great together. Did you two sleep together?"
"You saw us sleep together. They filmed it."
Raven cut him telling Clarke stories until they drifted off, which makes his stomach twist a little. He hadn't been thinking about the audience when he did that, and it wasn't a moment he particularly wanted to share with them. But he didn't ask for it to get cut, and he doesn't know why she did. Nor does he know how to ask her about it without making it a bigger deal than he wants to make it.
Octavia huffs on the other end of the phone, pulling him out of his thoughts. "You know what I mean. She's cute."
"She is. We're colleagues."
"So you want to sleep with her. That explains why you're going to be a ghost hunter. Kind of better than it just being your passion."
"I don't see why I need a better reason than getting paid more."
"People are going to start recognizing you. As a ghost hunter."
That actually is a little worrying. Not that he would ever in a million years admit that to his sister. "But a good one, right?" he asks instead, and Octavia snorts.
"You've done one haunted house. Call me after thirty."
*
Bellamy checks in on the poll throughout the weekend, and there's no point at which yes is at less than 93%. Even when it drops, it's usually because people are just voting to see the results, not because they don't want the show.
Monday morning, he brings Clarke a coffee and says, "I want a raise and an updated job description."
She takes the coffee but doesn't look up from her computer. "Yeah, of course. Raven's going to write up a contract for you and update mine, but we need to figure out some details first."
He grabs his seat and rolls it over next to hers. "What kind of details?"
"How many episodes we do a year, time commitment, what percentage of merch sales we get, stuff like that. My friend Wells drew up a performer contract for us a while back so we're just adapting that one. And then we figure out what other duties you're keeping."
"I like being a researcher."
"I know. I don't want you to stop doing that. But I think we'll need to hire someone else to report to you."
"Report to me?"
She shrugs one shoulder. "You're good at your job and I don't want you to stop doing it. But if we have a regular series, especially one with travel, that takes up a lot of your time. Plus, you can't do the research or write-ups for the cases we're doing. We can hire someone else to help you out when you're busy and take point on doing the research and scripts for our new show. Plus, managerial experience looks good on your resume."
"Looking out for me?" he asks, trying to sound amused and not stupidly fond of her.
"Always. And that video was really popular. Like, really, really popular. I think it's going to do really well for us, and the last thing I want to do is not give you your fair share if that happens."
"I guess when you put it like that." He glances at her. "You really want to do a whole series with me?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
There's not really a good answer to that, other than his general need for reassurance. "It felt a little weird," is what he finally says. "You were scared and I wasn't even trying to make you feel better."
"You helped me get to sleep. And, honestly, the skepticism? It was good. I don't need you trying to comfort me. If you're ever convinced that something is actually supernatural, let me know, but until then, just tell me your non-ghost explanations. You're doing exactly what I wanted you to do."
"But if that ever changes, you'll tell me," he says. "I don't care that we're being filmed, if you're freaked out or upset and I'm making it worse, tell me, okay? We can stop filming. I don't really care about artistic integrity, but I do care about not being an asshole."
"I will. And same for you, you know. If either of us crosses a line or needs a break, we can just stop. We do it in our other videos all the time."
"Really?"
"Okay, not all the time. But when we need to. When you do kind of improvisational stuff like this, it's easy to accidentally hit a nerve. This isn't our first rodeo, Bellamy," she reminds him, her smile gentle. "We kind of know what we're doing. And we'll teach you."
"Cool. Offer me a nice raise and I'm in."
"I think we can handle that."
*
As it turns out, their new show--tentatively titled Unreal Arkade--is phase one of a whole thing. Arkade Online is doing pretty well, but it's their straight reviews that are getting the fewest hits. What people like about Arkade is actually the team itself, and the way they play off each other, and Clarke, Raven, Monty, and Jasper figure they should lean into that. They need more content like Raven and Monty's video game podcast and all their weird videos, and doing more of that means getting more staff to help out, coming up with more audio/visual content, and doing a kind of soft rebrand. They're shifting into one of those weird, Youtube empires, and Bellamy saw it coming, but he'd sort of thought they'd be moving away from at least him and possibly Miller as artifacts of the old website.
"It's not like we're founders," he grumbles to Miller.
"We've been here for a while and they like us," says Miller. "Also, do you not want a raise and promotion? I love raises and promotions. And you're still doing your weird research, right? And writing scripts. You just get to flirt with Clarke on camera too."
"I'm not flirting with her," he says, perfunctory, but it makes him feel better. "Are you pitching a show yet?"
"Not yet, but I've got some ideas. I figure video games are a good start, and then I can flirt with Monty. Which I'll just admit, because I'm a better person than you are."
"I've never denied that."
"What about you? Are you going to do more being on camera?"
"Fuck, I don't know. I want to see how Unreal goes first. I know people liked the first one, but that could have been a fluke."
"Nah." He says it so easily that it shocks Bellamy. Like this isn't even an option. "You're good on camera and you know it. And you like it too, don't even try to tell me you don't. You fucking love being the center of attention."
"I do. It just feels like someone is going to figure out I'm not actually an actor or anything." He looks down at his hands, feeling stupid, but he probably needs to tell someone about this, and Miller's his safest bet. "I did a few plays in high school and I liked it, but then this girl took me aside and told me everything I was doing wrong and how I needed to fix it if I was serious about my craft. I figured if I sucked that much, I should stop."
"Fuck, I wasn't expecting you to have actual childhood trauma about this. What did she say?"
"A lot of weird bullshit. She said I didn't emote well and my delivery was off and I should talk to an elocution teacher and maybe get a tutor to help me get more comfortable with Shakespeare, and maybe a singing teacher to help train my voice. Looking back I'm pretty sure she was just pissed that I was getting the leading roles she wanted her boyfriend to have, but at the time I just heard you're not rich enough to be good at this."
"And you internalized that?"
"It wasn't like I thought I was going to become an actor or anything. It was a fun hobby and she ruined it, so I stopped. When they started doing videos here, I didn't think anyone would want me to get in on it either."
"You talk to Clarke about this?"
"No. It's not like it haunts me or anything. I didn't really think it would come up at all. But yeah, I always figured that girl knew more than I did and I wasn't actually doing a good job."
"I think you're fine. But you know if you wanted to pay for any of that stuff, you could afford it. You could probably charge it to the corporate card. I can't really imagine you singing."
"I don't think I'm great, but I can carry a tune. I could probably be better."
"Well, get singing lessons if you want, do whatever acting you feel like, and maybe that asshole from high school will see and get jealous that you're more successful than she is."
"I might not be."
"She's not a famous actress, right? I assume you would have mentioned that."
"Not one I've heard of, anyway."
"So yeah, you're winning. And if you need someone to validate you being good at your job, any of us will do it. I didn't want you getting a big head, but that'll take at least a few seasons, right?"
"Probably."
Miller elbows him. "I bet you could come up with some fun, weird history shit to do."
Bellamy smiles. "Yeah, that's going to happen eventually. But I'm not in a hurry."
*
His first suggestion comes when they're budgeting the first season of Unreal and realizing that while traveling every episode may be affordable someday, it isn't yet. If they're visiting places within a day's drive of Boston, it's pretty much fine, but any farther afield and things get stickier. Plus, they have to find locations that are willing to let them do their thing, and they're not exactly household names.
"What if we did some general history stuff here?" Bellamy says, and everyone turns to look at him.
"Like, history of Boston?" Clarke asks.
"No, the history of ghosts. Folklore. It doesn't have to be tied to a specific location, just about ghost-sightings in general. Maybe a feature on the development of ghost-hunting equipment, or stuff about, like, werewolves and vampires and all that. I don't actually have much background in this stuff, maybe our viewers don't either. We're aiming for ten episodes in the season?"
"Eight to ten," Raven confirms.
"Say six on-site, four here. We can say I wanted to learn more, and I can do the research and present those. Clarke can ask questions and make comments. Then when we go to specific places, Clarke does the background and I pick holes in it. If the show's successful, we'll get a bigger budget and we can phase out the general history."
"I like that," says Clarke. "General overview of hauntings, general overview of ghost hunting, maybe something on demons and possessions? I think we're probably going to have at least a few of those." She grins. "I knew you'd find a way to do research."
"I like research," he shoots back. "It's almost like that's what you hired me to do."
"Speaking of which, we've got resumes for new researchers, I figured you would want to help screen those and be in on the interview process. Am I right?"
"Yeah." He regards her across the table. "I want to be involved in everything, honestly."
Her smile is bright and huge. "Good. Just because you weren't here when we started doesn't mean it's not your network too, Bellamy."
"I know," he says. "And I want to have an awesome staff of researchers to help me come up with awesome content. Email me the resumes."
"Will do." Her phone buzzes and she glances at it. "But I've got a lunch date. I'll send the resumes after?"
His heart doesn't break. Really, all it does is twinge, a vibration like a plucked guitar string. It reverberates for a while, echoing around his chest, but it's a very small thing to start. "Business date or date date?"
"Date date. This girl I knew in college. She kissed me at our graduation party, and then she went to teach English abroad a week later and we lost touch. But she's back in town and living in Boston and claims she's better with feelings now, so we're getting lunch."
"Have fun."
"Thanks. Have fun researching the history of ghosts."
"I will," he says, and spends the next two hours find sources and doing his best to not think about how long Clarke has been gone.
*
They end up staying in Massachusetts for the entire first season, mostly because they find plenty of haunted stuff locally and they figure it's worth it to save money if they aren't sacrificing quality. They agree on eight episodes, two with Bellamy addressing the history of ghosts and ghost hunting and six where they travel to wherever will take them. Bellamy's a Boston native, but he's never had a lot of interest in the paranormal, so most of their destinations are new to him. They start with two shows in Boston, one to visit a bunch of graveyards during the day and then after hours, and then a night in the Omni Parker Hotel, which mostly teaches them the lesson that filming in hotels where other people are staying is kind of awkward. Even Clarke can't get freaked out because every time they hear footsteps, it could just be another guest just living their life. They go up to Salem and check out the various witch sites and Bellamy rants about puritans for a while, then head to some swamp Raven found on Wikipedia to look for orbs of light and stop by a haunted university while they're there. Even Clarke can't manage anything like genuine fear for any of their first five visits, but she at least puts on a good show of being freaked out at the graveyards.
Their second-to-last episode takes them to the Mount in Western Massachusetts, and it's at least a big, creepy house.
"I missed big, creepy houses," he muses. They're filming the background portion of the episode at Arkade headquarters, which is actually his favorite part of the whole show. Just him and Clarke talking, poking fun at each other, shooting the shit. Not flirting, because Clarke's date went well and she's officially got a girlfriend, but having fun. Like Raven said, they have good chemistry. "It feels like we're getting back to our roots."
"Yeah, this feels right. Next season, more creepy houses for sure."
"Who was at the Mount again? It's an author, right?"
"Edith Wharton," says Clarke. "Who said that as a child she was haunted by formless horrors."
"Sucks for her."
"Apparently she wrote some great ghost stories, so she made it work for her."
"I think I read Ethan Frome in high school?" Bellamy muses. "Pretty sure that's Wharton. No ghosts, just depressing."
"How about formless horrors?"
"There was a sledding accident, I'm pretty sure. My sister got mad because I wouldn't let her go sledding for like a year after I read it."
"Yeah, that's a pretty specific horror."
"Fully formed and terrifying." He does a drum roll on the desk. "So, tell me all about her."
As usual, they get through with just a few retakes, and Bellamy can't deny that every time they do it, it feels more like he's good at this. Really good at it. Not exactly better at it than he is at doing research, because they're two totally different skill sets, but at least as good, and it's more fun, too.
It's even fun when Clarke calls her girlfriend from the van, although that's the kind of fun that makes him add "maybe not with Clarke?" to the file he has open for brainstorming what his own shows could look like. He loves working with Clarke and he knows they're a good team, but he likes everyone on the Arkade Online team. He and Miller could do something together. He guested on something with Raven and Monty and that went well. Maybe he could do something where he tries to teach Jasper how to be better at dating. He's not an expert, exactly, but he gets laid more than Jasper does, and it might be nice to have some kind of media about picking people up that isn't gross.
But it's probably a losing proposition because as soon as Clarke hangs up, he closes his laptop and asks, "How's that going?" As he already knew, given the choice, he'll always hang out with Clarke.
"What, my relationship?"
"Yeah. That sounded kind of tense a couple times."
"Eavesdropping?" she teases.
"We're in a van and I'm not wearing headphones, it's basically impossible to not eavesdrop."
"Yeah, we both heard," says Miller.
Clarke leans back in her chair, closing her eyes. "I didn't do anything like this in college. The Arkade stuff, I mean. I was pre-med, like my mom wanted me to be. I think when Lexa called, she thought I'd tell her I was done with medical school and doing my residency or whatever. Instead, I'm making weird videos for a fringe website. She still likes me, but I think it bothers her that my ambition doesn't look like hers."
"What's she doing?" Bellamy asks.
"She's a lawyer. She taught abroad for a couple years because she wanted to live in another country, then she came home and went to law school. She's got a great career and I'm happy for her, but I think she has a pretty limited idea of what success looks like, and it includes going to the Berkshires for fancy weekend trips, not to ghost hunt."
"Those don't seem mutually exclusive."
"Yeah," Miller puts in, "it's fall, I'm going to check out some foliage before it gets dark."
"You're going to check out foliage without me?" Bellamy asks, like he's deeply offended.
"I figured we'd just wander around the grounds. I went on the website, it looked like they had some cool gardens."
"I like gardens." He turns his attention back to Clarke. "So, she doesn't like your job."
"I think it's more that she doesn't understand it. She doesn't believe in ghosts, which I get, and it's not a deal-breaker or anything. But she figured this was something I was doing and I'd stop when I got bored. When I told her we're actually planning to expand and I'm going to start doing more shows, she just didn't get it. And maybe she will? But right now it feels kind of like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I'm not even sure what the other shoe is. Maybe it's that she accepts that my job is my job and I like it, or maybe she breaks up with me because she doesn't know how to tell her family what I do."
"Did she actually say that?" Bellamy asks, unimpressed.
"Yup."
"Is you breaking up with her on the table? Because it sucks when your girlfriend doesn't want to introduce you to her family."
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," Clarke remarks.
"Yeah, a couple times. I'm poor and I'm not white and my home life was pretty rough, and I had a few girls in high school and college who talked around how they didn't want to bring me home. Maybe it wasn't because of any of those things, but no matter what it was, it sucked. Especially when they brought it up, like I guess Lexa did. I hadn't even thought about meeting their parents, but suddenly it was something they'd thought about and didn't want to do with me. It always felt like a test I didn't know how to pass, like they were expecting me to change into a new person so I could do this thing I didn't want to do in the first place."
"That makes sense. It didn't feel exactly like that to me, it was more like she didn't know how to explain my job to her parents. I guess they're pretty internet illiterate and she doesn't think they're aware you can make money off YouTube."
"So how is that your problem?" he asks. "That's what got me. It's her family, it's her job to talk them through this. She gets what you do, she can explain it however she wants. You don't have to be involved at all."
Clarke and Miller are both quiet for a while, and Bellamy reviews the conversation, trying to figure out if he overstepped. It's hard, having a crush on someone, because that taints everything else. But he remembers how much it sucked to hear about how Roma's family, whom he'd never even met, might not approve of him. How it was somehow his problem that she thought they'd be uncomfortable hearing about how his mother was dead and he worked two jobs on top of school to take care of his sister. As if he should somehow change that to make himself more palatable for a meeting that might not even happen.
"I hadn't thought of it like that," Clarke finally says. "It did seem kind of passive aggressive, I guess, but it didn't bother me too much."
"I spend a lot of time overthinking things, someone else might as well benefit. I'm not saying you have to dump her or anything, obviously. But I think it's a shitty thing to say to someone you're supposed to like. She's probably not thinking about it like that, but it's one of those things where if you dig into it, the best-case scenario is that she's turning a problem of hers into a problem of yours."
"What's the worst-case scenario?"
"That she's using her parents' made-up disapproval to make you feel bad about yourself and try to convince you to change your life, because telling you she doesn't like your job didn't work."
She smiles a little. "Yeah, it's probably that."
"So it's just how much that bothers you," he says. "It doesn't have to kill a relationship, but when I realized the girl I was dating in college thought I should put my sister in foster care so I wouldn't be distracted taking care of her, I couldn't date her anymore."
"Jesus," says Miller.
"Yeah, I don't think she realized that was what she wanted until we had the argument, and she felt really shitty, but we couldn't come back from that. Fundamental incompatibility. This job might not be as important as custody of a sister," he grants, nodding to Clarke, "but you don't have to pretend like it's not a big deal if she thinks something you're passionate about isn't good enough."
"Yeah," says Clarke, soft and a little distant, and they lapse back into silence.
He waits until they're wandering the grounds of the Mount, waiting for night to fall so they can go into the house, before he says, "Sorry if I overstepped. With the Lexa stuff. It hit a sore spot. Just because it was a problem for me, it doesn't mean it's a problem for you."
Miller's ahead of them, but she still glances over to make sure he's not close enough to overhear. "No, you don't have to apologize. I'd been feeling like I was overreacting, I guess? She's not exactly wrong about my job. It's hard to explain and pretty risky. If our new stuff doesn't do well, we could go bankrupt. It was easy to tell myself that because the stuff she was saying was true, I shouldn't feel bad. But you're right too. She doesn't have to make this my problem. I never asked for her opinion on my job, and she doesn't know the first thing about how viable our brand is or how successful we are. And her issues with her parents are hers."
"Also, how soon did she bring that up?" he can't help asking. "I didn't exactly get the impression you were serious enough to be talking about meeting each others' families."
He's fishing, and he knows it. They've been dating for about four months now, and he and Clarke don't really gossip much. Just because she rarely mentions dates, it doesn't mean she rarely has them. They could be talking about getting married, for all he knows.
"She knows I'm not close to my mom. But yeah. I think she was thinking about me while she was gone in a way I wasn't thinking about her, you know? I think she thought I was waiting for her."
"But she wasn't that good a kisser?"
Clarke snorts. "Even if she was, she needed to tell me that. One kiss and then like five years of radio silence isn't exactly clear and consistent messaging."
"Yeah, she doesn't get to be disappointed that you had a life of your own while she was gone. And if your life doesn't fit with hers, you don't have to feel bad."
"It might," she says. "But I think she'd need to put a lot more effort into wanting to fit with me than she has so far."
"Well, you should make her put the effort in. You're worth it."
It feels a little weird, after he's said it, but Clarke just smiles. "I am. Thanks."
*
The first episode of the season--the Boston graveyard exploration--doesn't go up until the entire season is done filming, and Bellamy can't help feeling antsy about it. He wants the show to be a hit, to feel as if they're doing something right, that this is the right call. It feels like he's doing well, but maybe some of Clarke's girlfriend's wariness has rubbed off on him. He's never been wealthy enough that he can take risks like this, and while it won't ruin him financially if Arkade goes under and he has to get another job, he'd be disappointed. And obviously Unreal Arkade isn't their only new show, but it's the one Bellamy is on. He's honest enough with himself to know that he would take its failure personally, some sort of sign that he isn't meant to be an on-camera personality.
It doesn't have to be rational for him to believe it. That's a rule for ghosts only.
The first episode releases at noon on Friday, and it's doing well enough by five o'clock that they go out for drinks at Raven's friend's bar.
"Is Lexa coming?" Miller asks Clarke, because he's a good friend who knows Bellamy doesn't want to ask himself.
"Nope," says Clarke, ducking her head. "We broke up.
Bellamy exchanges a look with Raven and Monty, confirming that none of them knew this had happened. "When? Are you okay?"
"Just now, actually. And, yeah, I'm feeling good about it. I asked her if she wanted to come celebrate, she said she wasn't sure what we were celebrating, so it seemed like a great time to break up with her. She doesn't have to love my job, but if she can't even pretend to be happy for me, I can do better."
"So now we're celebrating two things," says Bellamy. "I'll buy your first drink."
Clarke smiles. "It's the least you can do."
It's just the six of them, none of the new hires this time, what Bellamy now thinks of as the core of Arkade, whether they're founders or not. Once they've all got their drinks, Raven raises her glass and says, "To Unreal!"
All five of them roar back, and when Bellamy taps his glass against Clarke's, she grins, bright and wide and real, and he thinks, yeah.
This could be it.