Chapter Text
Clarke’s POV:
Clarke’s nose was red. It wasn’t just the acceptable “it’s Christmas time, it’s snowing and everyone looks like models for cold tablets ads” red, it was the extremely embarrassing “it’s a boiling hot summer yet still I’ve managed to get this embarrassingly obvious cold”. Multiple times she put up with awkward but socially polite conversations with people she knew just well enough to justify having to greet each other when they made eye contact, without being close enough to hold an interesting chat for the entirety of the long bus ride they both shared; so she received many “you look like Rudolph with that big red nose bless your heart”. She never wanted to receive that observation again.
But now she didn’t just have a big red nose, she also had a big red face as she was running across her campus, late for her second semester of history- an extra class she was able to take using her extra credits- and for her introduction to her new TA. She really didn’t want to mess that introduction up, Clarke was an extremely intelligent woman, but sometimes she needed that extra push when it came to history, people’s actions weren’t as easily explained as a cut to the bottom left quartile of the abdomen to remove a bursting appendix in medicine (her major) or even a stroke on the canvas with just charcoal that managed to bring to life the sparkle in her father’s eyes. Most of the time in history she found herself arguing with the lecturer about the foolish actions of the heroes and villains in their very own miniature versions of the past, waiting patiently within the pages of her textbook, ready to be read when she was able to cope with the actions that led to the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children alike.
She was a good, hardworking student- but she needed a lot of time.
Her last obstacle was a heavy wooden door that separated her from her lecture room where she could just slip in a get a seat at the back, inconspicuously and thankfully only a couple of minutes late. As she was forcing herself through the space she suddenly dropped her books and tripped up, landing painfully on the floor and groaning slightly out of embarrassment.
“I’m so sorry, are you ok ma’am?” a deep, gravelly (and most importantly slightly Southern) accent inquired. Clarke looked up to see constellations of freckles covering the smooth skin of the most beautiful man she had ever seen. For a second she couldn’t speak as she sank into the deep brown puddles of eyes this man, but quickly she rushed through her words, trying to pick ones that would make sense without embarrassing herself further.
“Uh I’m- yeah fine, oh thanks” she replied as the beauty reached down and stacked her books up quickly and neatly, passing them over and offering her a hand up. “Thanks” she repeated, cheeks growing redder than her nose by the second, “um sorry for, you know, tripping on you” she winced as she realised how weird she sounded. The guy smirked in return and quickly bobbed his head before Clarke swiftly spun on her heel and silently screamed at herself for being such a loser.
It was only when she sat down in a seat at the back- even though amazingly the new TA hadn’t arrived yet- she realised she didn’t know his name, but as she looked down at what she threw on only ten minutes ago and pictured the vision of her literally falling over him red nose and all, she wasn’t surprised. The one day she was late and had no time to think of her appearance she meets the most handsome guy on earth. Typical.
Pitying herself took up so much of her concentration she almost missed the new TA walk in, except for the fact that she immediately felt self conscious and ugly since it was the model from the hall. Great.
Bellamy’s POV:
He didn’t see much before he felt the impact of foot on foot and heard the thump of a body landing the floor, but he did see waves of golden hair and he managed to think of how much it reminded him of Aphrodite’s long blonde locks and how much he wanted to feel the softness.
He saw her lying on the floor and immediately recognised her beauty, even with her obvious cold, sleep deprivation and late start to the morning. As he held out his hands he was surprised he wasn’t shaking as her blue eyes pierced into his and her soft smooth hand was interlocked with his for a fleeting moment. He barely recognised the words that passed between them, but felt empty as soon as her presence was gone. Bellamy compared it to that moment when the sun emerges from the clouds, changing the appearance of every object from the clouds to the smallest beetles, only to return and leave the Earth looking plain and normal once more. He felt the emptiness in his heart as the warmth was gone.
He didn’t register the fact he was following the blonde beauty through the same door, or even the fact that he was walking, he just kept putting one foot in front of the other like he’d been doing for years, only to find that when he stood at the front of the room to speak his eyes found hers immediately like magnets.
One of the only rules he had as a TA flashed through his mind:
NO FRATENISING WITH YOUR STUDENTS. EVER.