Archive of Our Own ^beta

Of course, it's Octavia's idea.

"Come on, Bell! It can be my birthday present, if you want."

Bellamy raises his eyebrows at her. "Seriously? You're gonna give up a real birthday present for, what, me making an idiot of myself?"

"It's an open casting call and you're a good actor!"

"I was in two school plays."

"And you were good!"

"I'm pretty sure open casting calls are just publicity stunts, O. There's no way they're actually going to cast some random guy for whatever this is. Especially not me."

"The ten best people from the open call get to do a scene with Clarke Griffin."

"Which one's she?" he asks, even though he knows. He just likes pissing Octavia off.

Truth be told, Clarke Griffin is probably his favorite of the Disney Channel stars. Not that that's saying much; the only reason he has favorite Disney Channel stars is that he spends way too much time looking after his little sister. But Clarke always seems pretty cool in the dumb behind-the-scenes stuff they make them do, chill and funny, not too full of herself, and she's a decent actress, no over-the-top histrionics or mugging for the camera. Plus, she's fairly hot, so, yeah. If he's going to try out to be in a stupid Disney show, he'd rather it was hers.

But he still thinks the whole idea is stupid.

"She was the little sister in that show about the guy in the band, and she's been in a couple movies. You said she wasn't even that annoying!"

"Doesn't sound like me."

"Bell."

He heaves an over-dramatic sigh, which is definitely the kind of awesome acting skill the Disney Channel is looking for. "You really want me to do this?"

"I really, really, really do."

"Okay, fine. But don't get your hopes up, okay? Like I said, I'm pretty sure open casting calls are a scam." He pauses. "And I'm seriously not getting you a birthday present. You're not getting out of that."

"Will you get me one if you get cast?"

He snorts. "Yeah, fine. If I miraculously get picked for this stupid show, I will get you another birthday present. Otherwise you're out of luck."

*

He's honestly not that surprised he makes the top ten; he's decently attractive, knows how to emote, and is within the fifteen-to-eighteen age range they asked for, and given what he sees of the competition, he'll be surprised if they get ten guys who are all three.

Octavia gets to come with him to meet Clarke Griffin, so he's definitely not getting her a birthday present.

Clarke is a little taller than he expected, with perfect waves of blonde hair and a weary expression that she covers with a smile when she sees them. Octavia is hiding behind Bellamy, because she has apparently decided to experience shyness for the first time in her life.

"Don't look cheerful on our account," he says, sitting down next to Clarke before she can stand to greet them. "I'm, what, the eighth guy? You must be exhausted. Hell, I'm exhausted, and all I had to do was read ten lines and get up early to catch the bus."

She laughs, surprised. "You guys took the bus?"

"Our mom works a lot. I think she planned this," he adds, jerking his head at Octavia. "They had to let her come in with me because she didn't have another adult around. You gonna just lurk, O? It's creepy."

Octavia shuffles over, sitting down on the floor by Bellamy's feet.

"She's a big fan," he adds. "This was her idea."

Clarke smiles, and it looks more genuine. "It's nice to meet you," she says, mostly to O. "I'm Clarke."

Octavia is still starstruck, so Bellamy takes over. Again. "I'm Bellamy. This is my sister, Octavia. We need to do stuff, right? A scene to read? I'm sure you've got a really tight schedule."

"They give us a few minutes mostly alone for, like--" She waves her hand. "Chit-chat, fan stuff, whatever. So you don't feel like you got no Clarke Griffin time."

Bellamy snorts. "Jesus. No wonder you're tired."

She laughs again. "You know, Disney Channel stars aren't allowed to say stuff like hell and Jesus in public."

"Good thing this isn't public and I'm not a Disney Channel star, that sounds like it would suck."

"Hey, you could be. You are in our top ten."

He regards her, measuring her up. He's not really expecting honesty, but he's curious what she'll say, so he asks, "Are they really going to use one of us for this part? Or are they just giving a bunch of random people a shot and it'll go to that dude with the floppy hair from the movie about the magic cat."

"It was a robot cat and his name is Finn Collins!" Octavia bursts out. "He totally knows that, he's just being a dick," she adds, to Clarke.

"You can't say dick, the Disney police are gonna get you," Bellamy tells her.

Clarke is laughing again. She's really cute, and she looks like she's relaxing, which makes Bellamy pretty proud. "Finn is actually already in the show," she says. "And they're not required to cast from this, no. But they might."

"I'm not holding my breath," he says.

Octavia seems to have gotten over her shyness. "He's really good."

"Yeah, he is," Clarke says, surprising him. She shoots him a smirk. "What? I was watching the auditions."

"Creepy."

"It's my show. I get to decide who I want on it."

Bellamy feels his cheeks heat up, just a little. He's not one of those people who really cares about celebrities, but--it's kind of flattering that she thought he did a good job. "So, how were the first seven?"

Clarke considers and then says, carefully diplomatic, "I don't think any of them are what I'm looking for."

The producers come in before he can respond, and Clarke gets Octavia settled into the seat she vacated, with juice, while Bellamy is introduced and photographed and signs some shit. They're clearly annoyed that his mother isn't with him, since he's only sixteen and not able to give legal consent to anything himself, and he gets even more forms to take home for her to sign and send back. He's been forging his mother's signature on every official document he's gotten since he was about nine, but he'll pretend she's going to do it herself, if it will make them feel better.

The scene is a lot better than the monologue he had to read for the first round, which was some motivational stuff about being yourself and not worrying about popularity. He didn't even disagree with it, in principle, but it was not anything any sixteen-year-old guy he knows would ever say.

The scene makes him more optimistic that he will not want to die every time Octavia watches the stupid show, which of course she will, because the Disney Channel is basically her religion. He can't wait for her to hit puberty. She'll be a nightmare to deal with, but at least she'll probably start watching the CW or something.

He's auditioning to be Clarke's childhood best friend, so he assumes he's also secretly in love with her, because he has never seen anything on the Disney Channel involving different gender childhood best friends that does not involve one of them secretly being in love with the other, and Clarke is the star, so she's probably the one with an alternate love interest.

Probably Finn Collins, in fact.

Why does he already know the plot of this fucking show? It doesn't have a name yet. It's still Untitled Clarke Griffin Project.

Their plot is basic and fairly derivative; Clarke is the princess of some made-up country, and she's keeping it a secret so she can have a normal high-school experience, She's dodging some determined wannabe journalist from the school newspaper who thinks she has a secret and--honestly, it's basically The Princess Diaries meets Hannah Montana, and if Clarke wasn't so cute, it would not work at all.

But there's an earnestness to her as she talks to him, an honesty that gets a lump in his throat. As her best friend, the unnamed character Bellamy is reading is the only person outside of her family privy to Clarke's secret, the only one she can talk to about her worries, and having more information re-contextualizes his stupid monologue into don't worry that you're not popular now, because you're amazing, and you're going to be a good ruler because of you, not because of your title.

This scene is probably the final one in the first-episode script, and he's telling her he'll always be there for her, cracking a few jokes to make her feel better, and it's weirdly familiar, even though they've never met before. Bellamy's natural tendency is to take care of people, and there's something he likes about Clarke, an instinctual fondness that makes him want to look out for her.

They nail the scene, if he does say so himself.

He thanks the producers and they tell him they'll be in touch, which he does not believe for a minute, but it's polite of them to say, anyway.

Clarke tags along as he gathers Octavia.

"Thanks for coming out today."

"Thanks for having us. It was fun." He glances at his sister. "If you play your cards right, she might give you an autograph. But don't tell anyone, I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to ask."

Octavia turns red. "Don't be a jerk. She's busy, she doesn't have time for autographs, that's why you're not supposed to ask. God, Bell, you're so embarrassing."

"How could I," he says, with a wry smile at Clarke. "Good luck with the whole casting thing."

"Thanks." She looks at Octavia. "You're right, I don't really have time to sign stuff. But I can do a hug if you want."

"Really?" she asks, shy again, and Clarke leans down to squeeze her quickly.

"Thanks for bringing your brother. He was really good," she tells Octavia, like a secret, although she's looking at Bellamy.

Octavia beams. "I told him so! He'd be amazing on the show!"

"We'll definitely keep him in mind. Have a good rest of the day, you two."

She shakes Bellamy's hand, and then security ushers them out. He can't help one last glance over his shoulder, to where he can see Clarke going over to confer with the producers. She looks back at him too, flashes him a thumbs up, and then they're back in the hallway, and back to the real world.

*

He sends the paperwork back with his mother's signature, or something that looks close enough to his mother's signature that no one will question it. He made a good-faith effort to get it signed; it's not his fault his mom ignored the giant PLEASE SIGN note he left on the counter for two days. He even mentioned it to her, during one of the rare times they were both in the apartment and awake at the same time. But she never did it, and they might want to use the footage of him for a promo or something, which would be cool, so he does it himself and sends it back.

He gets the call two weeks later, while he's making dinner for himself and Octavia.

The voice is firm and official, vaguely familiar. "Is Bellamy Blake available?"

"This is Bellamy."

"This is Marcus Kane, I'm the show runner for Princess Proper. We met a few weeks ago."

"Oh, cool, you guys got a title," Bellamy says, absent, giving his chicken a prod. He's never very confident about cooking chicken, but Octavia is going through a phase where it's all she wants to eat, and at least it has nutritional value. "Was there a problem with my paperwork? I thought I sent everything."

Kane lets out a strange huff of laughter. "No, everything's in order. I'm calling to offer you the part."

Bellamy drops the phone, and then recovers it before Kane notices. Hopefully. "Uh, sorry, what?"

"We'd like you to be on the show. Your audition really impressed everyone, and Clarke was very insistent."

"Oh," he says blankly. "Thanks?"

"I know this must be a shock, and you'll need to talk to your mother about logistics. I sent some more information and initial paperwork for you to review, it should arrive tomorrow. If you decide you're interested, we'd like to get everything moving as quickly as possible. Do you think you'd be able to get back to me within a week?"

"I babysit my sister after school," he blurts out. "Could she--is that something you guys could work around?"

Kane chuckles again. "I'm sure we can figure something out. Can you get back to me in the week, or do you need more time?"

He lets out a long breath. "No, that's fine. I'll, uh--I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks."

"I hope we'll be seeing more of each other, Bellamy," he says.

And that's how Bellamy ends up on the goddamn Disney Channel.

*

It probably shouldn't be a surprise that they have the whole thing down to an art. Within forty-eight hours of Bellamy faxing back the initial paperwork, he's got a metric ton of shit to look at, from contracts to salary to information about tutors and on-set childcare. It's almost enough to make him change his mind, just so he doesn't have to deal with it.

He's trying to sort through the contract, which he's pretty sure was written in as confusing a manner as possible, when his phone rings; he's gotten more calls in the last two days than the rest of his life put together, he's pretty sure.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Bellamy?"

"Yeah, this is Bellamy."

"Hey, it's Clarke. Griffin," she adds, like he knows so many Clarkes he couldn't keep them all straight.

"Oh, uh--hi," he says, standing and smoothing down his shirt, even though she's on the phone and there is no possible way for her to know he's sitting on the floor in his pajamas being totally overwhelmed. "What's up?"

"I'd say I wanted to say hi and congratulate you, but honestly, I was kind of worried."

"Worried?"

"You don't have an agent, right? So you've got a giant pile of papers and no idea what any of them are or if you're getting a fair salary and perks or anything?"

Bellamy looks down at the mess of paper on the floor. "Uh, yeah, basically," he admits.

"So, can I help? My agent's pretty cool and I've been doing this for a while, so if you want we can get lunch and look over your stuff. I know it's a total nightmare."

"Fuck, yes," he says, letting out a huge, tense breath he didn't even know he was holding. "I mean, uh--something Disney-Channel appropriate."

Clarke laughs, something bright and musical. "Is your sister around? Does she want to come? We can come get you guys."

"She's hanging out with a friend, it's fine as long as I'm home by like five." He worries his lip, and then says, "They said, uh--Kane told me you were really insistent. About hiring me."

"Well, you were my favorite," she says, like it's no big deal. "What's your address?"

Bellamy looks around the apartment, trying not to wince. He's poor. He knows he's poor. He didn't even think about telling them they weren't offering enough money; they're offering an unreal amount of money to him. Enough his mom could probably go down to just her job at the call center.

"Uh, I can just meet you," he says.

There's a pause, the kind that makes him think she knows exactly what he's worrying about. But all she says is, "I'll text you the restaurant information? And just call me back if it's going to be a pain to get there. We can always meet you on the way or something."

He lets out a breath. "Okay, great. I--thanks, Clarke."

"What are BFFs for?" she asks, amused. "See you soon, Bellamy."

Bellamy puts on his nicest clothes, which are still pretty sad, just a fairly unrumpled button-down and a pair of khakis from Goodwill, but he at least doesn't look like a total bum. He puts a token effort into smoothing his hair down, but gives it up as a lost cause, and instead gets all his paperwork neatly into a folder and stuffs a tie into his bag, just in case. The restaurant website was pretty fancy; he doesn't want to make Clarke look bad.

He texts her his ETA, just to be polite, and then texts Octavia, I'm going out, lmk if you're coming home early or anything.

He's heard if he was really poor, he and his sister wouldn't have cell phones, and he hates every single person who has ever said that.

Clarke texts back, See you soon! followed by a box that indicates she's using an emoji, and he takes a second to just kind of stare. He's getting text messages from Clarke Griffin. She's not that famous, but a lot of the kids at school probably know her face, if not her name. It's pretty surreal.

The restaurant is way worse, though. No one's wearing a tie, but he still feels like he sticks out like a sore thumb, like everyone can tell this is not his kind of place. He's been to a restaurant with actual table clothes exactly once in his life; this is way too much to deal with.

And then Clarke appears at his elbow and says, "Hi. We're over here."

He stares at her for a second, not quite recovered from the restaurant. Then he wets his lips and says, "Sorry?"

She takes his arm, gentle. "We got a table. Don't worry, it's private."

"Oh," he says, trying not to come off as a total lunatic. He lets her tug him to the back. "Thanks for calling," he says. "I was about to google contract law, and I don't think it would have done much good."

"Yeah, I bet. I was too young to do much with my first contract, but I remember reading it over my dad's shoulder and I've never felt stupider, I swear. And I didn't want that to scare you off."

"I thought about it," he admits. "But Octavia never would have forgiven me."

"I might not have either," Clarke says, and lets his arm go when they reach a secluded booth. There's an Asian woman glaring at her smartphone already on one side of the table, so Bellamy slides in next to Clarke, feeling awkward. "This is my agent, Anya. You're probably going to want to get an agent of your own at some point, but she's going to help us out today pro bono. She was an actress when she was a kid and got some pretty raw deals, so she likes to help. Anya, this is Bellamy."

Anya's eyes barely flick up for her phone, but she gives him a curt nod. "Bellamy," she says. "Do you have your contracts?"

The first half of lunch is all business. The contract is fine, but Anya seems vaguely horrified by various parts of his compensation package, and wanders off to call Kane and yell at him about it, leaving Clarke and Bellamy alone.

"What's the problem, exactly?" he asks her.

Clarke shrugs. "They can afford to give you more. Like I said, Anya doesn't like people getting taken advantage of. And you're getting third billing, that's a pretty big deal."

"I would have been fine with it," he admits.

"Don't worry, they're not going to give you less because you argued or anything. I'm pretty sure Kane knew it was coming. You should have seen his face when I asked for your number so me and Anya could help you with the paperwork."

"So he was trying to lowball me and just figured I wouldn't notice?"

"He's a businessman," Clarke says, shrugging. "I was lucky, my mom's an agent, that's how I got into the whole acting thing. She got me good deals early."

Bellamy frowns. "Your mom's an agent, but not your agent?"

She shrugs, taking a sip of her lemonade. "It got kind of weird. Not--she's my mom, obviously she always wants what's best for me. But it was making us fight, and bleeding into our relationship, so we agreed it'd be better if there was a work/family divide, and she referred me to Anya. And that definitely works a lot better for us."

"Cool," he says, nodding. And then, because he can't help it, "Why me?"

She grins. "Because you were the only person I read with I could actually imagine being my best friend."

Bellamy ducks his head, hoping she won't see his blush. "Oh," he says, and it feels inadequate, but Clarke is smiling at him, so, yeah.

He's doing fine.

*

It's not an exaggeration to say Princess Proper changes Bellamy's entire life.

They start filming in early July, and the first week is only not a disaster because Clarke's been prepping him pretty much non-stop. He's been spending a lot of time with Clarke, actually; he thinks she considers him her responsibility, since it was her idea to hire him, and it's honestly kind of adorable. She's a year younger than he is, but she frets about him like he frets over Octavia. Of course, she's been in the business for a long longer than he is, but--it's still really cute.

She's really cute, which he mostly tries to ignore. They're coworkers now, right? And they're becoming friends. It's totally unprofessional to want to make out with her.

And she really is a godsend. She's an old hand at all this stuff, so she puts a lot of time and effort into getting him ready for everything that's going to happen, how long they'll be shooting, what the schedule will look like, what Octavia will do if she comes to set. It's still totally overwhelming, but not like it would be if he didn't have Clarke on his side.

And it's kind of fun. The show is ridiculous. It's a Disney show about a secret princess, of course it's ridiculous. There's a lot of unfortunate slapstick comedy, mostly centered around Tristan and Alex (a couple Disney Channel regulars, Monty Green and Jasper Jordan), the school newspaper guys who are overly invested in figuring out what Penny (Clarke) is hiding, and Clarke's little brother, Alan (some kid named Myles, also in his first Disney-Channel role), always has a really annoying subplot where he's trying to pull off some stupid scheme no one cares about, but--there's something solid at the core. He'd say it's Clarke, but he knows it's not just Clarke.

They're a good team, the two of them. Penny tends towards being optimistic and a little naive, always seeing the best in people and working her hardest; as Ian, Bellamy gets to be a little more cynical, and he's the show's main source of sarcastic asides and eye rolls, which works just fine for him. But there's something that feels honest in his and Clarke's scenes, a kind of genuine support and friendship that everyone remarks on.

"She was right about you," Kane tells him, at the end of that first week of filming, and Bellamy doesn't particularly like the guy, but it still makes him glow a little. Because it's Clarke.

They're also doing an actual special feature on him, which is more than a little weird. But they'd publicized the open auditions, so now they want credit for following through and actually casting him. It mostly means there's a guy with a hand-held camera following him around for the first month, getting "candid" statements about how it's going, about half of which they make him redo because they ask him questions at six-fucking-thirty and then have to tell him to try again without the profanity.

There's a lot of Clarke giggling in the background of those.

And then, without any warning, it's just--his life.

His first paycheck went towards a new apartment that's closer to the studio and in a way better school district, so he doesn't have to wake up quite as early. Clarke's is on the way, so they just use the same car, which mostly means they both sit in the back seat, half-awake, grunting at each other. It's probably sad how much he enjoys the ride in, given they're not even fully conscious, but it's companionable, and sometimes Clarke slumps onto his shoulder.

They're bound by various child-labor laws, so the days are long, but not grueling. Filming is interspersed with on-site tutoring; the tutors are awful, but he's usually on a pretty similar schedule to Clarke, so they make faces at each other while the instructors drone, and he reads during his own time to make sure he can pass whichever tests they come up with.

He's also, technically, on broadly the same schedule as Finn, but he hasn't managed to bond with Finn. He tells himself it's for purely show reasons; Finn's character is pretty poorly defined, not going too far beyond "popular-dude love interest," and the scenes he has with Clarke's character tend to serve her poorly, because she's reduced to a stammering mess, which is way less fun than her usual burgeoning self-confidence.

But he knows the real reason is that Finn and Clarke are "dating."

"It's not real," Clarke explains a few weeks into filming, with a roll of her eyes. "He has an actual girlfriend. But, you know, we appear at stuff together, people think it's cute, so the network encourages it. Pictures of us together, promos, they're hyping our characters' relationship on the previews a lot. Hopefully you and me will be more popular and they'll switch over to us instead, but he is my nominal love interest. What did you get for five?"

"B," he says. He wets his lips. "Doesn't it creep you out that they encourage you to pretend to date people?"

"I don't really do much," she says, shrugging. "I mean, we were hanging out at premieres and event shows anyway, all I really have to do is give vague answers about my love life and make sure people get photographs of us together." She toys with one of the rings she's wearing. "I guess it's a little weird, but I've been doing it for so long, I don't even think about it. It's pretty harmless, and kids like it. Real-life romance makes it better for them."

She looks kind of bummed, so Bellamy puts his arm around her, silent support. Over the past few months, he's learned that while Clarke loves her job, she knows how fucked up a lot of things about it are, especially the network-mandated shit.

"I don't think about a lot of it," she says, leaning her head against his shoulder. "It's just--my life, you know? People have been asking me who my celebrity crushes are live on-camera since I was ten."

"Yeah, your life is fucking weird."

She pokes him. "Just wait until the show starts airing, You're going to be a total heartthrob."

"Yeah?"

She tugs his hair, gentle and affectionate. "I'll totally put your picture up in my locker."

He snorts. "You are my biggest fan."

"Yup," she agrees. She taps her book. "Okay, let's review. No way I'm failing this, I don't want a lecture from the stupid tutor. If she was a better teacher, I wouldn't be learning everything on my own."

Bellamy laughs and squeezes her shoulder, expecting her to pull back, but she just settles in closer, and he's not going to object.

Even with Finn, it's a pretty great setup.

*

It turns out she's right about his popularity. The network starts airing his behind-the-scenes thing in thirty-second chunks on commercial breaks, getting their viewers hyped for a new show with teasers of an average guy like them getting his first taste of fame and fortune. Clarke gleefully pulls them up on YouTube, and they watch them in the car going home. They're not bad, if he does say so himself; he's kind of wryly amused most of the time, and Clarke will occasionally jump on his back to offer her own insights, which the people in the comments section are apparently very excited about.

"They're totally going to let me fake-date you instead," she says, proud, and Bellamy's glad it's dark enough she won't see his blush.

He's recognized for the first time the day before the show premieres, when he and Octavia are grocery shopping. A couple of girls, probably eleven or twelve, just a little older than Octavia, approach hesitantly and ask if he's Bellamy Blake, in slightly awed tones.

"Uh, yeah," he says. "Hi."

The girls kind of giggle, and he wants to sink into the floor. The brunette says, "We're really looking forward to your new show!"

"Thanks. It's pretty cool, I hope you guys like it."

"Are you really friends with Clarke Griffin?"

"Yeah, Clarke's the best."

"Do you guys, like, hang out? She's the one who picked you to be her costar, right?"

"Yeah, sometimes," he says. "She's actually going to come over and watch the premiere tomorrow," he adds without thinking. They're planning to make fun of themselves pretty relentlessly and drive Octavia crazy when she's trying to pay attention.

The girls giggle again.

"What about Finn?" asks the black-haired one, and then claps her hand over her mouth.

"Oh, uh--" He flails a bit. He's probably supposed to act like they're dating. "He's got plans."

"Isn't he jealous?" asks the brunette, pointed.

"No, we're just friends," he says quickly. "Me and Clarke. And me and Finn. We're all friends."

They ask for his autograph, and he makes a mental note to thank Clarke for making him practice it, because his previous autograph was basically just a B followed by a vague scribble, and the one the two of them came up with together is a lot cooler.

He texts her as much, and she replies, omg do you have fans already I KNEW IT you're so dreamy.

"You know, if you want people to think you're not into Clarke, you need to stop smiling like that," Octavia remarks.

"Shut up."

It's not really a big deal, the whole being into Clarke thing. She's funny and pretty and he spends like 75% of his waking hours with her, so it's just kind of normal. Anyone who spends as much time with Clarke as he does would be into her. He assumes all the other actors in their age range are too. Why wouldn't they be? It's fine.

"So, tell me more about your fan encounter," she says. She's stretched out on his couch with her feet in his lap, and Octavia is sitting in a chair to the side. His mom isn't home because his mom is never home, and Clarke has stopped asking about it. At least he isn't embarrassed to have her in his place anymore. He's got it looking pretty decent these days. "Did they giggle?"

He groans and drops his head against the back of the couch. "God, so much."

Clarke pats his shoulder. "What else?"

"I kind of flailed around if you and Finn were dating?"

"You're going to do so well with public appearances."

"I know. It's going to be so fucking bad."

"Language."

"It's going to be so Disney-Channel bad," he corrects.

"I'm not sure replacing profanity with Disney Channel is really going to work."

"Disney Channel you."

"Oh yeah, never mind, that's perfect. Keep doing that."

He grins at her and she grins back, and Octavia rolls her eyes.

"Will you guys shut up? Some of us haven't seen this before and want to watch."

"Spoilers, Clarke's character is dead the whole time and I'm the only one who can see her," Bellamy says, grinning, and Octavia throws a pillow at him.

*

The show's a hit, which no one at the network seems particularly surprised about; they wouldn't have bankrolled a Clarke Griffin vehicle if they didn't think it was going to be a hit. But Bellamy is as popular as she is, apparently, which none of them seem particularly prepared for. Aside from Clarke, who's as smug about it as Bellamy's ever seen her. She really is his biggest fan.

They start reworking the second half of the season to take advantage of the fact that people actually like him, which is kind of a mixed blessing. It's cool to have more of his own plots to do, but he misses when basically all of his scenes were with Clarke. He liked all of his scenes being with Clarke.

In October, Octavia turns eleven, and Bellamy decides he should probably get her a birthday present. He recruits Clarke to come with him and goes to get her a cat.

"This is the cutest thing I've ever seen," Clarke says, gleeful. "You're buying your sister a kitten!"

"She's always wanted a pet," he grumbles. "Our old apartment wouldn't let us have one. And we can afford it now."

She sobers a little. "Can I--am I allowed to ask about that?"

"Ask about what?" he asks, letting one of the kittens bat at his fingers. They're a motley assortment, and he has no idea how to pick one. He maybe should have just brought Octavia instead of surprising her.

"Money. I know you don't like talking about it, but--you're doing okay, right? You'd tell me if you weren't?"

He concentrates on the kitten and tries to ignore the slight prickling of his eyes. She sounds so--not worried, not exactly. Not patronizing. Caring. Sometimes he wishes he knew what he did to make Clarke Griffin like him so much, just so he could make sure to never stop doing it.

"We're good, yeah," he says. "My mom isn't around because she doesn't want to be, not because she can't be. Which I kind of saw coming, but--we have enough to eat and me and O are set, so I don't really care."

"So she's not--stealing your earnings or anything?"

He has to smile. "No, she's not. I gave her an allowance, she's sticking to it."

She rests her forehead against his back. "Is it okay if I hate your mom? I know I've never met her, but--"

"Yeah, it's okay." He leans back to press his cheek against her head, a brief acknowledgement of the comfort she's offering. "Come on, help me play with this giant pile of kittens. We have to find the best one."

"You know, this kitten is going to be alone a lot," Clarke points out, scooting around to peer over the box with him. "So I should probably get her a kitten for her birthday too. So it'll have company and won't get lonely."

Bellamy snorts. "You know she already likes you better than me, right? You don't have to work on that."

"I like this one," Clarke says, picking up a tabby, and Bellamy just gives up and admits that they will be getting two kittens.

Octavia's party was yesterday, and Clarke wasn't invited on the grounds that having Clarke Griffin show up to Bellamy Blake's baby sister's birthday party would probably be a little much, given the party was absolutely packed with their target demographic and Clarke is still not-officially-but-very-strongly-hinted-to-be dating Finn, even though, according to Octavia, everyone knows she likes Bellamy better. It was definitely the right call, given how much attention Bellamy himself was getting, but he still would have liked to have had some backup. But it was for the best.

Clarke follows him home for dinner, both so she can get the celebration she missed out on yesterday and so she can watch Octavia get the kittens. And it's nice, really, just kind of--a lot. Bellamy's never had a lot of friends, mostly because he was five when his sister was born, almost six, and it became pretty clear pretty quickly that he was going to have to do a lot of the work of taking care of her. It didn't leave him with time for much of a social life outside of school, no team sports or clubs, no sleepovers.

And now there's Clarke, bright and warm, like the fucking sun. It feels like his entire life has rearranged itself around her, and he thought he'd feel bad about that, but she loves Octavia too, makes sure she's taken care of just like he does, has dinner with them and plays with the kittens and it's just--he doesn't quite know how to exist, really.

He might have slightly more than just a thing for Clarke.

His own birthday is a month after Octavia's, in November, and he spends most of the day when he's not at work teasing Clarke about how young she is, since she's fifteen for six more days, the only period of time in the year where he's officially two years older than she is.

"You're a Disney Channel," she tells him, affectionate, and then she pecks him on the cheek. "Happy birthday, Bell."

He's flabbergasted enough to stop teasing her for almost a full five minutes. Almost.

Octavia gets him a framed copy of the first positive review the show got, which is oddly affecting; Clarke gets him a cane while she's on break.

"If you're going to be a Disney Channel about how young I am, I'm going to be a Disney Channel about how old you are," she says brightly.

"All this is really telling me is that you forgot it was my birthday and didn't get me anything," he teases.

She actually blushes at that, which is kind of alarming. Clarke is rarely embarrassed. "Did Octavia give you hers yet?"

"Yeah, this morning."

"Mine was--she gave me the idea, but it's stupid."

He bumps his shoulder against hers. "I bet it's not."

"No, it's--" She goes into her bag and pulls a piece of paper out of her bag. "It really is stupid," she says, but hands it over. The top says Open Casting #8: and someone has written Bellamy Blake on the line that follows it. There's a blank portion at the top, presumably where she blocked something else out, but the bottom half has the heading CLARKE followed by a paragraph in her handwriting.

Definitely my favorite, no contest. Did admirably well with the monologue, which was really not good, and v comfortable with me, laid back and fun. Only one of them I would actually want to hang out with, for the record. Great in scene together, felt totally natural, excellent chemistry (is it weird to say that about myself?). If Marcus is serious about this relationship being the heart of the show, Bellamy is absolutely the one we want. My top choice, including the pros. Hire him.

"It's weird, right?" she asks, soft, when he doesn't respond. "I just thought you might like to, I don't know. See what I said."

He puts the paper down, careful, and then wraps her up in his arms. She laughs a little, relaxing against him.

"So, it's okay," she says.

He presses his lips against her hair. "Not quite as cool as the cane," he says, voice gruff. "But not bad." He lets her go. "You blocked out what Kane said?"

"It was like 95% positive and then he ruined it by saying you were probably a little too ethnic."

He's used to Kane by now, so he just snorts. "If you have a copy of the argument you guys had about that, that's what I want for Christmas."

Clarke laughs. "Sadly it was in person, and I don't think there's a transcript. I threw my shoe at him."

"Why your shoe?"

"Nothing else to throw."

Bellamy shakes his head. "You're actually my favorite person."

"I know."

*

Finn kisses Clarke at her birthday party.

It's a total surprise to her, but not at all to Bellamy; he figured out at some point that Finn's the kind of guy who likes having people, and he didn't like that he didn't have Clarke. His girlfriend started school at MIT in September, and Finn seemed discontent after that, annoyed at the world generally and Bellamy specifically. Since Bellamy didn't much like him to begin with, it hadn't bothered him much.

"He said he broke up with his girlfriend and now we can be together," Clarke tells him, with a sigh.

"You sound really excited about it." She glares at him, and he smiles a little. "Sorry, sorry. Just tell him no, right?"

"What if I want to tell him yes?" she asks, squinting at him.

"I figured if you wanted to tell him yes, you wouldn't be hiding with me," he says, swallowing past a lump in his throat. If she wants to tell him yes, he will be pretty upset, honestly. "And I never got the impression you weren't dating him because he had a girlfriend."

Clarke looks down, biting her lip. "Okay, yeah. He's not my type."

"What is your type?"

"I don't--I haven't got much practical experience with it," she says, which doesn't surprise him much. She's sixteen and spent her formative years on the Disney Channel, and she doesn't have a lot of close friends than he's seen. He doubts she gets to date much. "Just--first base a couple times. When I got the chance." She looks over at the people dancing, face twisting up a little. It's a big party, but he's pretty sure that's because her mom planned it. He and Octavia had her over for lunch so she could play with Octavia's kittens, and she seemed to have a lot more fun with that than she's having with this. "I like people who make me laugh," she says. "Who get me and just--like hanging out. People who make me feel like myself, you know? Does that make sense?"

"Yeah. That makes sense."

She nods to herself, like she's making her mind up, and then meets his eyes again. "If I'm gonna be shallow, nice arms for guys and--" He can see her swallow. "Legs for girls."

She looks almost defiant, like she's daring him to react poorly, but he thinks it's more likely she's never actually said it out loud before.

"I'm more into chests, but hey, legs are good too," he says. "Not much of an opinion on arms in general, but Finn's are kind of noodley."

Clarke laughs softly. "Not everyone can be ripped like you," she says, but she still sounds tense, so he wraps his arm around her shoulder, tugging her in. She hugs him back instantly, both arms coming up around his waist, holding on tight.

"Thanks for telling me," he says.

"I didn't actually say it."

"Do you want to?"

"I want to all the time," she says. "It's--god, it would be good, you know? I'm not that famous, but a lot of kids look up to me. And some of them are probably struggling with this stuff, and it would matter to them." She buries her face against his chest. "But I'd lose my job, I'm pretty sure."

"Just this one. You could get a new job."

"Yeah, but--not everyone could. There's a cast and crew and--you."

"What about me?"

She looks down. "You might not get a new job. And you need the money. Don't try to tell me you don't."

"You know how much I'm saving?" he asks. "Even with the new apartment, I'm not spending that much of this. It's all going straight into O's college fund. If we got canceled, I'd still be able to take care of her better than before until I graduate from high school, and then I'll get a real job." He squeezes her shoulders. "If you want to tell the entire Disney Channel to go, uh, Disney Channel itself, you know I'm with you. I'm on your side, Clarke."

She lets out a choked noise; he can't tell if she's laughing or crying, but she holds him tighter. "You know you're my favorite person too, right?"

"Yeah," he says, resting his head on her cheek. "I do know."

*

Their first season ends on a cliffhanger. Monty and Jasper's characters finally catch a break and manage to expose Clarke as Princess Penelope of Arcadia, and it's clear that everything is going to change.

Bellamy's just looking forward to having a couple months off to relax. Ian got a lot more to do in the back half of the season--his own subplots, a girlfriend, and some developments on his family. Bellamy got more to do too, awards ceremonies and movie premieres and interviews, but thankfully he got to do them all with Clarke, who continues to tell everyone that will listen she's his Hollywood mentor. He doesn't deny it either; she's the only reason even survived the Kids' Choice Awards, honestly.

So, really, if there's one thing he's not looking forward to about the summer, it's the lack of Clarke. Not that she's gone; she's filming a Groundhog-Day-inspired DCOM where she has to relive the same day over and over until she makes peace with her little sister and also kisses Finn, and it's filming in LA, so she's still around. But he's going to miss her anyway. And he's possibly a little annoyed Finn gets to film with her more and he doesn't, but, really, he's excited about the summer off. He actually got offers to be in movies, which was unbelievable, but he wants to hang out with his sister's cats and play video games, like a normal teenager.

"You're kind of disgusting," Clarke remarks, when she visits after her first day of filming. "But I appreciate that you're not wearing a shirt."

"Definitely for your benefit," he says, sitting up so there's room for her on the couch. "I wasn't just too lazy to get dressed this morning."

"You're going to be so bored in a couple weeks."

"I feel like you don't know how many video games there are," he says. "How's Finn?"

"We're mostly back to normal. I think he's not used to girls not dating him."

"I could give him some tips."

Clarke snorts. "Yeah, do you know how many girls have asked me if you're single?"

"No, you've never told me how many girls ask you if I'm single. Do you tell them I'm single?"

"Yeah, but I also tell them you're gross and just lie around playing video games all the time, so--" He shoves her, and she laughs. "Seriously, didn't you notice how many people were trying to hit on you at the Kids' Choice Awards?"

"No?" He mostly remembers that her dress did some awesome things for her breasts and made her legs look about ten million miles long, and also that he's actually kind of terrified of kids and their choices. "Were they?"

She pats his arm. "We should come up with a signal I can give you when girls are hitting you. You could be so non-single."

"But then who's going to play all my video games?"

When Octavia gets back, she's curled into his side, fast asleep, and Octavia just raises her eyebrows at him. "So, this time last year, what would you have said if I told you you'd be hanging out with Clarke Griffin because of me?"

"I wouldn't have known who Clarke Griffin was," he says, and Octavia smacks him on the back of the head as she passes.

That's how the first few weeks of Clarke's movie goes. He doesn't just play video games; he hangs out with Monty and Jasper, and Miller, one of the sound guys he likes, and Clarke comes over every few days to make fun of him and then pass out. It's going pretty well, all things considered.

Then his mother leaves.

He's not even sure when it happens, which is fucking depressing. He realizes he hasn't seen her in a few days, and he asks Octavia and she can't remember seeing her recently either, and when they go into her room, her stuff is all gone, her bed stripped. There's no note, but a third of the money in Bellamy's saving account is gone.

He punches the wall and then calls Clarke, even though she's filming today.

"Hey, what's up?"

"My mom took like a third of my money and left. We don't even know when. I never see her that much, I didn't even--"

"Fuck," she says, after a long pause, and he can't help a soft snort of laughter.

"Disney Channel," he corrects.

"Bell--"

"I know," he says. "That did make me feel better."

"Have you called the bank yet?"

He rubs his face. "Not yet. It's not like she did anything illegal. I'm underage, I was underage when I made the account, her name is on it. I told her she could take money out of she needed it. I didn't mind, she wasn't--she never took that much, I figured it was fine. I didn't think she'd--it's not like we ever asked her to do anything, I never thought she'd bother to leave."

Clarke makes a strange noise. "God, I wish you heard how you talk about her. That's not--it's not how a mother should be, Bellamy."

"I know," he says. He leans against the wall, closing his eyes. "But it's how she is." He sighs. "So, yeah, I guess I'm gonna spend my summer vacation becoming an emancipated minor and getting custody of Octavia." He wets his lips. "I, uh--can you talk to your parents? We might legally have to have people identifying as our guardians until I get it figured out, so--"

"Yeah, of course." There's some noise on her end, and she says, "One sec!" she calls, muffled, and then comes back to him. "I'm going to see if I can get out early, I think they've got some other scenes they can film. I'll get in touch with my parents and be over there as soon as I can."

"You don't have to come," he says. "But--if you can, I'd appreciate it."

"Call the bank. And Anya. She got emancipated when she was a kid to keep her parents away from her acting money too."

He smiles a little. "Yeah, I was planning to," he says. "She's the most terrifyingly competent person I've ever met."

"Give me time," Clarke says brightly. "I'll see you soon."

That ends up eating up most of the summer. He manages to keep himself and Octavia out of foster care, and by the time filming is set to resume, he's legally an adult and legally Octavia's guardian. Anya, being actually the best agent of all time, had already negotiated a raise for him, but she manages to talk them into a little more, since he lost the money his mom was bringing in.

Three days before they go back on set, he and Clarke have an interview with some website he's never heard of, and the interviewer somehow knows about the whole thing.

"Bellamy, I've been told you recently legally emancipated yourself?"

He and Clarke glance at each other, which is their response to about 90% of reporter questions that go off-book. They've gotten the standard questions about what's coming up in the new season, how they spent their summers (Bellamy kind of talked around that one), and if they're currently in relationships, but this was totally out of left field.

"Uh, yeah," he says, shifting a little in his seat. "I'm financially independent, so it just made sense."

"And is it true you're now your younger sister's legal guardian?"

"Is this something your readers care about?" Clarke asks, squinting at her. "Aren't you, like, tween gossip?"

"You have got to stop saying this stuff directly to the reporters," Bellamy says dryly. "You're supposed to be good at this." He smiles at the reporter. "I've been taking care of my sister most of my life. So, yeah, it made sense for me to get custody of her when I emancipated myself." He looks at Clarke, who raises one shoulder, and he adds, "Our mother took off, so it was that or putting her into foster care, and I didn't want that."

"Seriously, this is a weird place to go with this," Clarke says mildly. "We went from are you seeing anyone to tell me about your legal status."

"Clarke," he says, mild, and she crosses her arms over her chest with a huff.

"I'm just saying. There's questions about our personal lives and then there's this."

"I don't mind."

"I mind."

Bellamy turns back to the reporter with another smile. "So, uh, can we ignore this part? Feel free to say I'm, you know, emancipated and taking care of my sister, but--Clarke just thinks she needs to take care of me."

"I do!" she protests.

The reporter smiles at them. "I'll make it work."

In the end, it turns out tween journalism cares that Bellamy has custody of his sister because responsibility is sexy, which. okay, whatever, but it's seriously weird if pre-teen girls think it's hot he's the legal guardian of someone their age, and also that Clarke is protective of him, because Clarke being protective of him is also sexy. That one he actually agrees with, so at least they got that part right.

"Although she's almost exactly one year younger than Bellamy," he reads aloud to her, "Clarke totally has his back! She doesn't care that he's legally a grownup now, she's still looking out for him. Nothing but love on the Princess Proper set, guys!" He grins at her. "You looooooove me."

She scowls at him. "Shut up."

*

The second season is--different. Apparently it's not unheard of for Disney shows to periodically reinvent themselves; Bellamy kind of remembers it from watching shit with Octavia, characters appear and disappear at random, he's pretty sure one changed its location and name at some point, and it's just generally accepted that retooling happens. It mostly isn't bad for him--Ian and Penny are still the core of the show, their friendship at the heart of everything. The amateur reporters, Tristan and Alex, have become Penny's allies instead of antagonists, her brother is basically gone, and the focus has moved almost entirely to high-school stuff, instead of Penny's home life. She's tentatively beginning a relationship with Finn's Chad, which Ian does not approve of, although no one is saying it's because he's in love with her. It's because he thinks Chad only likes her because she's a princess, supposedly, which--do they think none of them have ever seen another TV show? Like, ever? Ian is so clearly in love with Penny. And, according to Octavia, Ian and Penny are a way more popular as a pairing than Chad and Penny. All her friends want them to get together.

Not that he cares. It's just a TV show. It doesn't really matter. But he's definitely playing it like Ian's into Penny. For legitimate acting reasons. Not just because he's into Clarke.

His life is dumb, sometimes.

There's also Lexa, and she's the biggest change because--Clarke isn't interested in Finn, but he kind of thinks she might be interested in Lexa. She's playing Madison, the popular girl who's decided she needs to take Penny down to be the undisputed queen of the high-school scene. As roles go, Bellamy thinks it's pretty dull--he'd much rather Clarke got a cool girl friend instead of a stupid rival, but he's not a writer, sadly. And he's not a particular fan of Lexa herself--she's a little standoffish for his taste, and clearly doesn't think much of him, but Clarke likes her, so he tries to play nice.

He also thinks that dating another Disney Channel girl is probably pretty much a recipe for disaster, but--that's Clarke's business. Mostly.

"I'm not dating her," she protests, when he asks her about it two months into filming. "I'm not doing anything."

"You could."

She bumps her shoulder against his, amused. "I thought you were just telling me I couldn't."

"Not that you couldn't," he says. "Just--be careful."

"You think I should go for it?"

It's a question he has trouble answering. On the one hand, he wants her to be happy. On the other, he kind of wants her to be happy with him.

"I support you whatever you want to do," he says.

"That is such a Disney-Channel cop-out."

"I know." He glances down at her. "Have you thought any more about coming out? You haven't mentioned it."

"They want the show to go for three seasons. If it does, when it's over, I'll be eighteen. And that's a good age to potentially be done with the whole Disney thing. So--we finish the show, make sure everything is resolved for the fans, and then I'll come out. And if the Disney Channel never wants to see me again, that's cool."

"It's nice of you to worry about the fans, but you know my subplot in this episode involves being catfished by an actual cat, right? A lot of our stuff is actually just ridiculous."

She snorts. "Yeah, okay. Your plotlines this season have been kind of shitty. But I think Penny and Chad are gonna break up at the midseason finale, so that'll help."

"Not that Ian and Chad are romantic rivals or anything."

"Definitely not. When do you think Marcus is gonna admit we're totally endgame?" she muses.

"Knowing him, like a week before the finale. Just like, by the way, you guys are going to hook up, good thing Bellamy's been assuming he's in love with you since he auditioned."

"You really planned ahead for this one."

"I've seen a lot of Disney Channel shows." He gives her shoulder a quick squeeze. "And for what it's worth, I think coming out once the show is over makes a lot of sense. Or, you know, earlier if you get caught in a compromising position with a girl."

"As always, your support is appreciated."

"Any time."

He doesn't forget about the Lexa thing after that, but he puts it on the backburner. He does have some pretty shitty plots this season, but he's getting to work more with Monty and Jasper, and he likes them, and he gets a new recurring girlfriend played by an actress named Roma, who's pretty cool. None of them are as fun to do scenes with as Clarke, but he and Clarke still have a good deal of scenes together, even though their characters have been kind of at odds. For reasons that are definitely not Ian being in love with Penny.

He really should just be head writer for the show too. It would be so much less stupid.

Right around his and Clarke's birthdays, they get Kyle Wick in to do a special guest spot. Wick--as he apparently prefers to be called--played Clarke's older brother on Band of Bros, which was largely terrible, aside from Clarke, and the dude who played the drummer. And even he was a pretty bad character, Octavia just counted him as a positive because she thought he was cute. Still, that wasn't really Wick's fault; the writing was shitty and in the second season they got totally revamped so they were a spy band, which was definitely not the actors' fault. And the show was wildly popular in spite of that, so Wick doing a special guest spot will get them a lot of buzz. It's also going to be the episode where Penny dumps Chad, although not the episode where Ian admits he has feelings for Penny, even if it does end with her leaning against him, her head on his shoulder, and the two of them looking up at the stars. Kane maintains it's in a platonic way. Bellamy really has no idea what his deal is.

Filming on the episode ends the day before Clarke's birthday party, and there's a general air of triumph to the festivities. Bellamy has a summer project lined up--a non-Disney summer project, even, which is pretty cool--and Clarke's in negotiations to do something that involves some amount of filming on-location in Paris. Wick sticks around for the party, to Clarke's delight, and there are some illegal substances going around, giving everything a very festive air. Bellamy doesn't partake, but he has fun, hanging out on the sidelines and watching the blur of people having fun.

Wick sidles up next to him an hour into the party. "So, you're Bellamy."

"How drunk are you?" he asks, raising his eyebrows. "We've met like five times."

"I know, but we haven't gotten a chance to talk."

"That's not ominous at all."

"It's not! I think you're cool. I like you. Clarke likes you. But--I know it's sappy to say, but Band of Bros was her first show and I was the one who showed her the ropes. She really is like my little sister, you know?"

"Yeah," he says, because she's his best friend, too. He understands what it's like.

"And she talks about you all the time."

"I know. I talk about her all the time too."

Wick is watching Clarke, who's letting Jasper do some ridiculous dance moves with her. She looks happy and uncomplicated, and it makes Bellamy's heart twist with pride, even though he's not doing anything. He just loves to see her smile.

"She's tough, but--not in some ways. This isn't me giving you some if you hurt her I'll hurt you lecture or whatever," he adds, absent. "I'm not really that guy. But--don't hurt her, okay? She deserves something good."

Bellamy sips at his, okay, slightly spiked drink. It's a party, he can slightly spike things. Clarke's parents are watching Octavia and it's not like he's drinking much.

He gets what Wick is saying, he really does. And he could play dumb, say he doesn't know what Wick is talking about, or that it's not like that with him and Clarke, but that doesn't get to the heart of Wick's worry, which is that Bellamy could hurt Clarke in a thousand big and small ways. And Bellamy understands that all too well. Octavia is going to start dating in a few years, and he's preemptively terrified.

"She's my best friend," he says. It's what he'd want someone to say, if they were talking about Octavia. "I want her to have everything good too."

"Best friend," Wick repeats, a little dubiously.

"Favorite person," he corrects.

"Does she know?"

"Not all of it," he admits. "But--I'm not in a hurry."

They drink in silence for a minute, and Wick starts, "You--" when Clarke dances over, gives Bellamy's drink to Wick, and takes his hands.

"Come on, Bell, it's my birthday! You have to dance."

He laughs, tripping over his feet a little as she tugs him. "How drunk are you?"

"It's my birthday," she says again, and he snorts.

"I was looking for a number of drinks, but I guess that works too." He twirls her. "Having fun?"

"So much fun. Do you like Wick? I like Wick."

"I like Wick. He was kind of threatening me, that was cool. I don't get menaced a lot."

Clarke giggles, which is a good sign she's very drunk. "He's not scary. And that's stupid. You'd never hurt me."

He has to smile; she sounds so decisive. "That's the plan, yeah."

*

"All right, our twist ending for this season is a different kind of twist."

Bellamy flips to the end of the script and then glances over his shoulder at Monty. "You owe me ten bucks."

Clarke looks at his script and then back at Monty too. "You seriously bet against Ian is in love with Penny?"

"There were odds involved. If I won I got $100," says Monty. "It was an acceptable risk/reward ratio."

"Can we focus?" asks Kane, irritable. "This is going to set the course for season three, as we're going into the endgame."

"This is basically is the opposite of a game-changing twist," Clarke says, putting her feet up. "Twist: water is wet."

"Pope is Catholic," Monty adds.

"Bears Disney Channel in woods," Lexa adds, and she still isn't Bellamy's pal or anything, but he's really glad Disney Channel in place of profanity is a thing that's caught on.

"Bellamy's in love with Clarke," says Jasper, and Monty elbows him. "Oops, sorry, Ian's in love with Penny. Character/actor divide."

"Penny is also leaving," Kane snaps. "That's a twist."

"She'll be back," says Lexa. "Unless you're replacing the entire cast except for Clarke next season." She pauses. "And Bellamy. I assume you can't keep Clarke if you get rid of Bellamy."

"That's true," says Clarke. "It's in my contract."

"Does it bother you that you have a serious scene of Penny leaving and Ian realizing he loves her in the same episode as me convincing Jasper I turned into a muppet?" Monty asks. At some point, they all just stopped worrying about making fun of Kane, and it's really improved the entire work experience.

"I help," Lexa protests.

Kane is finally starting to smile. He's not the worst, he's just way too convinced he knows better than his actors, and none of them are willing to let him get away with that shit anymore.

"I have come to terms with the fact that I write Disney Channel shows," he says. "Now, can we get to the read-through?"

It's not actually a bad ending, broadly speaking. Penny's father back in Arcadia is sick, and she spends the episode anxious, worrying that he'll die, that the responsibility of the throne will fall to her. Ian is trying his best to be there for her, but Madison keeps reminding him she might have to leave, and Ian's facing the possibility of a life without his best friend for the first time. The final shot is Penny on a plane and Ian looking at a picture of the two of them together, and it's all very emotional. In a pre-teen, Disney-Channel way.

"This is exactly how I'm going to be when the show wraps," Clarke says, leaning against his shoulder between takes.

He kisses her hair. "So that's when you figure out you're in love with me. Cool, I was wondering."

His summer movie part isn't big, but it's kind of cool, a minor role in an action flick where he plays the protagonist's teenage son who's been kidnapped and is being held for random. He spends most of his time tied up and scowling, so at least he's not being type-cast, and everyone on set is pretty chill. The lady who plays his mom is warm and friendly, so it's pretty easy to treat her like he assumes normal kids treat their parents, and no one calls him out for not being able to draw from life experience on that one. So he might be a better actor than he thought.

Octavia's been getting more independent, which only bothers him a little. She's twelve, and he was basically self-sufficient by that age, but he didn't want that for her. So they do fun stuff on his days off, going to the movies and the beach, water parks, whatever. They go to Disneyland when Clarke has a day off too; Bellamy and Octavia have never been, but Clarke is an old hand, so she can serve as their tour guide.

Of course, pictures of that get out, but they've been Disney-Channel dating for like a year, so it's hard to care. Anyone who cares about what he and Clarke do already knows they hang out all the time. In the wake of the season two finale, they've been getting a little more attention, as a couple, but Bellamy's been ignoring it and hoping it will go away.

"Or you could ask her out," Octavia says pointedly. She's looking at the pictures of them at Disneyland on Tumblr, because she's creepy and follows some shipping blogs for them. To keep up with public opinion, she claims. But he's pretty sure it's just creepiness.

"I will," he says. "Eventually."

And he means it. It's just that his life is so good right now, and it would be better if he was dating her, really dating her, if he got to have her, but he also might not get that, if he told her. And then it would be awkward, like her and Finn.

After the show ends, he can do it then. She can come out, and he can tell her he's in love with her.

Until then, she's still his best friend.

They see each other less over this break, since Bellamy's filming too, and Clarke's non-Disney movie tires her out more. She still comes by when she can, but she mostly just falls asleep on him immediately. Bellamy buys a new couch that folds out, just so he can sleep on it and give her his bed. And it's--nice. He's pretty sure it's not what he's supposed to be doing at eighteen, but it's a lot better than what he thought he'd be doing, working a shittier job with worse pay, with no one like Clarke in his life at all. And that would be a fucking tragedy.

*

He comes home from his second-to-last day of shooting late and exhausted; he actually misses stupid child-labor laws, because shooting forever is fucking rough. Octavia was hanging out on set with him, and she's been passed out for hours; it's hard not to be jealous. He doesn't bother to wake her up, just picks her up and carries her inside.

He's only surprised to find Clarke on the couch because he would have assumed she'd text when he was so late getting back; she's had a key forever, and he never minds her showing up.

Once Octavia's squared away, he sits down with Clarke and shakes her awake, smiling as she makes a face and curls in on herself before she wakes fully.

"You know you have your own house, right? With a bed and everything."

"I had a bad day."

Just like that, he's awake, and not tired at all. "Yeah?"

Her hand comes up to poke his cheek, where he's got some makeup he didn't manage to scrub off. "How dirty are you in this movie?"

"By the end? Incredibly. What happened?"

"I was hanging out with Lexa." He winces, and she gives him a wry smile. "I didn't get to the bad part yet."

"It sounds like a situation that could go very wrong."

She puts her head in his lap, and he toys with her hair, his best attempt at comfort. "I was just saying--we've never actually talked about sexuality or anything before, but I was pretty sure she was gay. And she is." She pauses. "Uh, don't tell anyone, obviously. I figure you know how to keep quiet about this stuff."

"I know. So she turned you down?"

"No, I didn't ask. I just--I wanted to talk about it, the whole--queer and on Disney Channel and how that is, and it was kind of okay but she was--weird? And finally she was just like, yeah, but you never have to deal with it."

He frowns. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm bi, so I can just date guys for the rest of my life and never bother with it. And it's--I know it's true. But that doesn't mean I'm going to."

He strokes her hair. "You should date like fifteen girls. Just to show her."

Clarke laughs softly. "You just want to see me kissing girls."

"I wouldn't be opposed to seeing you kissing girls," he grants. He scratches her scalp. "Sorry I was home so late."

"It's okay. I just--wanted to see you."

"I'm glad." He kisses her forehead. "I'm on the record as never liking her."

"She wasn't wrong. I mean, she was, but it's an option for me, I guess. And she probably does--it's not an option for her, and I can see how she'd be kind of resentful. But it sucks that that's what she thinks I'd do. Like I'd just ignore it because I can. Take the coward's way out."

"She's not out either," Bellamy points out, fair in spite of himself. "Grass is always greener or something. You could marry Monty and never have to worry about it. But you wouldn't, because being honest and doing the right thing matters a lot more to you than doing the easy thing. And that's what Lexa doesn't get."

She looks at him for a long time and finally says, "You do know Monty's gay too, right? He has a crush on your friend the sound guy."

"Huh. Nope, that one's news to me."

Clarke laughs. "Well, uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure." She bites her lip, looking up at him. "Are you gonna keep doing this?"

"Coming home and finding you passed out on my couch? I don't know, that one's on you. You have a key, I can't stop you."

"Not that, you--Disney Channel," she says. It still doesn't sound like a swear, but it's his favorite thing. "Acting."

"Oh." He looks up at the ceiling, considering. "I guess it depends on if I keep getting jobs. I'm not against it." He grins. "Of course, my first choice would just be working with you forever, but that's probably not going to happen."

She smiles. "I'll get it into all my contracts. Must have a part for Bellamy."

"That's what I'm hoping for." He shrugs. "I'll look for stuff after the show ends, but I dunno. I wouldn't be heartbroken if it was just a weird blip in my life. The whole acting thing." He feels her tense, and he rubs her scalp again. "You wouldn't be. I'm keeping you."

"You better. I have a key to your place. I'll just keep coming back." There's a pause, and then she adds, "You should keep doing it. You're really good."

"I'm a little too ethnic," he teases. "Go to bed, Clarke."

*

Bellamy had figured that playing Ian as officially in love with Penny wouldn't be that different from what he'd been doing before, but it's rougher because now instead of his feelings being in the background, the most obvious subtext of all time, he's supposed to be pining for her, while also dating some random girl he met while she was in Arcadia over the summer, which--god, he hates that stupid plot device. Bellamy has some experience being in love with his best friend and not knowing what to do about it, and dating someone else to keep from dealing with it has never seemed like an even slightly appealing option.

But he is again, tragically, not the head writer for the show. So Ian has a forgettable love interest who is being vaguely pitted against Penny, Penny has rekindled her thing with Chad, and they're both pining while Penny tries to figure out how to run a country from high school as her father repeatedly has remissions of his mysterious illness. And Bellamy just has to stare longingly at her all the time, which feels--obvious. It's a little too easy to do, honestly.

"You should have come out last year," Bellamy tells her when they're reading the latest script in her dressing room. "I think we jumped the shark."

"I think we would have had to be better to begin with to jump the shark," Clarke says, frowning. "We're just sort of coasting. On the shark."

"That's not how the shark works."

"Whatever. If this is my last Disney Channel show, I'm milking it for all it's worth. Besides, Tristan and Alex invented a cloning machine just so Penny can go on a date and attend a UN summit meeting at the same time. What part of that isn't awesome?"

"Did your brother just die off-screen? Remember when you had a brother? Are they using his body for the cloning machine?"

"Hey, I'm seeing Octavia a lot less this year and I never ask if she died off-screen. It's rude."

"That's because she's in seventh grade and allowed to be at home alone. She likes her cats better than she likes us."

"Can't argue with that." She gives him a shy smile. "Come on, it's our last season. I don't care how much it sucks, I wouldn't miss it for anything."

And Bellamy can't argue with that either. Besides, it does get better. The Penny/Chad thing is short-lived, and Bellamy's girlfriend doesn't last much longer, and then they're hitting the predictable beats of him trying to tell her, but he can't, because Chad interrupts, or there's a sudden power outage, or she's got an important Skype meeting with a hot young Russian diplomat.

"Yeah, review that plotline and tell me we didn't jump the shark," Bellamy grumbles, and Octavia pats him on the shoulder.

"Fake you is still closer to telling Clarke how you feel than real you is," she points out. "At least he's trying."

"We're still both gonna make a move around the finale, so it's not like it's doing him any good," Bellamy says, even though Octavia maintains his whole wait until the show is over thing is dumb and the argument will not help him.

The truth is, he doesn't really know how to make a move. It still feels like a miracle that Clarke is in his life, and part of him is afraid of ruining everything with his stupid crush. He's still not as famous as she is, still not--well, she could probably do better. She's going to be a star, he's a guy on her show.

And then Kane gives him the script for the mid-season finale with the smuggest expression Bellamy has ever seen in his life and says, "Here's a twist for you."

Bellamy is honestly kind of worried he's been killed off, which would be pretty edgy for a Disney Channel show, but Kane's a weirdo, so who the hell knows. Instead, when he flips to the end, he sees--kissing. Him kissing Clarke. Or, well, Ian kissing Penny. Which is, to be fair, way earlier than he saw that coming. Which possibly means they won't be together by the end of the show, but still. He has to give Kane some small amount of credit. He thought they were going to draw it out longer. This actually is a twist.

It takes about ten minutes for Clarke get to his dressing room after he finishes the script, which seems about right. It's a pretty decent episode overall; minimal extraneous wackiness, solid emotional core, and a couple decent jokes, all building to a school dance Penny thinks she's missed because of her princess duties and car trouble, only for Ian to show up, apparently to give her a ride in, but then he kisses her instead.

"I'm actually going to have to give Kane credit for this," Bellamy remarks, when Clarke doesn't say anything. "That's a new thing. I don't like it." And then he actually looks at her, sees her balled fists and the determined set of her jaw, and frowns. "What?"

"You have to kiss me."

"It's not going to be a problem," he says. "You're acting like it's some huge burden. Do you have a curse or something? Are your lips fatal?"

"Bellamy."

"What?" He tries a smile. "I know it might be weird, but--"

"I meant we need to kiss now. Rehearse it. I don't want the first time I kiss you to be in front of everyone. It'll be awkward. What if we're no good at it?"

"Oh." He wets his lips. They don't do a lot of rehearsal, not real rehearsal; usually they just sort of hang out in the studio half in costume, reading lines and making fun of dumb plot points. This is different, but, then again, it's new territory for them. It's supposed to be different. "Yeah, uh--no, you're right. That's a good idea."

She nods, like she didn't really believe it until he said it too. "Yeah. It's--we want it to be good, right? For your sister and all her shipper friends."

He can't help a laugh. "Right, for Octavia." She would definitely love this.

"Okay." She nods again, opens up her script and checks it. "I guess there's not a lot of set-up, huh?"

"There is so much set-up. Everything has been building to this. There was foreshadowing."

"You did all the foreshadowing. Marcus should give you a writer credit."

"Yeah, that sounds like something he'd do." It feels like it's he should start, irrationally, because of the way she's looking at him. But she's the one who has the first line. "So, uh, I get out of the car," he prompts.

"Right. And I say--" She checks the script. "I didn't think you were going to make it."

"I wasn't at the dance anyway."

"I thought you were going with--"

"No."

Clarke nods, her Penny nod, more effusive than her normal one, and lets a little smile creep in. "Cool. So, um, are we going to go?

"In a minute," Bellamy says, and puts his script down. He tries to semi-discretely wipe his hands on his jeans, hoping she won't notice, and then he slides his hand under her jaw, tilting her face up to his, and leans down to kiss her.

Bellamy hasn't kissed a lot of people in his life. There were a couple girls before he started working on the show, but he hasn't kissed anyone else since he met Clarke, and he really doesn't want to kiss anyone else ever again.

It's not even a good kiss. It's not going anywhere, because the Disney Channel is not, on a corporate level, aware that tongues can be involved in kissing. But her lips are soft and he can smell her, even through the stage makeup, and it's Clarke.

He should pull back a lot sooner than he does, but he can't bring himself to, and even when he finally does, he doesn't really move away. He stays close, watches her eyes flutter open as she smiles at him, and it's just--

He's done.

"Disney Channel it," he mutters, the clearest character break he can think of, and kisses her again.

Her arms come up around his neck with no hesitation, and she kisses back like she wouldn't have lasted much longer either. He lets his hands drop to her waist, resisting the urge to move them into her hair and muss it up. She'd have to go back to hair and makeup, and they'd never hear the end of it.

She opens at the first swipe of his tongue, and then it's just nothing but feeling for a long moment, the press of her against him, the slide of her mouth and his, sheer fucking happiness as he finally, finally kisses Clarke Griffin.

Then the PA crackles, because they have to be on set in ten minutes.

They just stare at each other for a long second, and Bellamy hopes it's not really, really obvious that they were making out. Her mouth is a little red, and, honestly, his smile is kind of a dead giveaway.

"Yeah, uh--that was a good idea," he says, bumping his nose against hers, unable to keep away. "That would have been really awkward, in front of everyone."

She laughs and hugs him, resting her head against his shoulder. "That's what would have happened in front of everyone, huh?"

"Probably, yeah." He worries his lip. "You know, right? You have to know. I'm--God, I'm so--"

"I was hoping," she says. She gives him a final squeeze around the neck and then pulls back. "Me too."

"We should have rehearsed that at home," he grumbles, checking his hair in the mirror. He still looks mostly like Ian, aside from a flush in his cheeks and the grin.

Clarke laughs and takes his hand, tugging him toward the door. "We can later," she offers, and even though it's not a surprise, he still nearly trips over his own feet.

He's not much better in his scenes that afternoon, to his shame. They're not actually filming the end of the episode yet, so he's supposed to be kind of serious and pensive, and he keeps ruining it by remembering Clarke saying Me too and accidentally smiling. It's totally unprofessional, but he thinks he's allowed one afternoon of goofy smiling after two and a half years of good behavior.

And Clarke loves him. That's a lot more important than this random scene about how Jasper has two dates to the dance.

He manages workable takes for everything, still apologizes to the rest of the cast and crew for being kind of off, and is profoundly grateful none of his scenes were with Clarke, because that would have been impossible. Luckily, they're being mostly kept apart until the final scene, and with any luck, he'll be used to it by then.

He's going to get used to dating Clarke. It's still making him grin.

Clarke tells their driver to just take her to Bellamy's about half the time anyway, so the request isn't anything unusual. It's not even weird when she leans her head against his shoulder, because they do this all the time.

Everyone's thought they've been dating for years.

"Is Octavia home?" she asks, breaking his train of thought.

"I don't know."

"You're such a shitty legal guardian."

He glances at his phone, finds that Octavia did text working on group project @ library, home for dinner.

"See? She texts. I just ignored her. I'm the best."

Clarke shifts a little closer, and he puts his arm around her. Their driver is probably just happy they've never hooked up in his back seat; slightly more cuddling than usual is nothing. "So, she'll be back in like an hour?"

"If we're lucky."

"Was your afternoon as useless as mine?"

"I kept smiling and breaking character, yeah."

"Good. Kane asked if I had finally started doing drugs. He seemed kind of excited about it."

"Maybe he was going to win a bet."

Clarke laughs and presses her face against his shoulder. "You know, when Lexa--when we talked. It was you. She said I'd never have to do anything because I'd just be with you."

"Yeah," he says. "For as long as you want me. But you should still do whatever you want."

"I'm planning to," she says, and slides her hand under his shirt where the driver cannot possibly see it, because she wants him to die before they get back to his apartment.

Of course, Octavia's already when they arrive, sitting at the table working on her homework, and Bellamy doesn't notice her before he kisses Clarke's neck, so he has to deal with a truly terrifying squeal of delight from her instead of getting laid.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" she says, once the euphoria has died down and suspicion has set in. It took all of three seconds; Octavia has a very specific set of priorities.

"It happened today," Bellamy says. "This is the first time I've seen you."

Her mouth forms a silent O, and she gathers up her books. "Okay, so, I'm going to go to my room and put in headphones and do homework and--"

"O," says Bellamy, rolling his eyes. "You don't have to hide."

"Yeah, we can totally make out right in front of you," Clarke says, bright.

"You're not helping," he tells her. "Seriously," he adds to his sister. "We're just going to have dinner and watch TV."

"Clarke doesn't look like she thinks that's what you're doing," Octavia points out.

"I do!" Clarke says. "I'm just not going home. I already told the driver to pick me up here tomorrow. I can't leave, I won't have a ride."

"Everyone's going to find out about this in like five seconds."

"Everyone already knows this," Clarke shoots back. "Come on, Octavia, we can play video games while Bellamy cooks."

"This sounds like a bad deal for me," Bellamy says, and Clarke just beams up at him. He has to lean in to kiss her. He doesn't know how not to.

He does manage to keep it quick, at least. And Octavia still makes gagging sounds, like she hasn't been telling him to do that for years.

"You should definitely stay," he tells Clarke, soft.

And she does.

*

They film the actual kissing scene three days later; Jasper and Monty ruin the first take by whooping, and then on the second take he actually trips moving closer to her, stumbles, and nearly knocks both of them over.

"Don't act like you've never kissed her before," the director teases, and Bellamy rolls his eyes.

"Aren't I supposed to be acting like I've never kissed her before?" he asks, mock-serious. "This is supposed to be our first kiss."

This earns him some more good-natured jeering, and Miller shouts, "Which number kiss is this exactly, Blake?"

"A gentleman never tells," Clarke says, prim, and they nail the third take. He gives her a perfectly appropriate Disney-Channel kiss, pulls back without any difficulty, and watches her, anxious, for her reaction, as she slowly opens her eyes and stares up at him, expression unreadable, just like he's supposed to.

The director yells, "Cut!" and there's a general outburst of cheering. Someone thumps Bellamy on the back, and he rolls his eyes.

"That was an excellent impression of someone who has never kissed Clarke," says Monty.

"Thanks, I practiced," he says, dry.

They do tell the rest of the cast, eventually. It's not like they particularly want to keep it secret, it's just nice to have it to themselves for a while.

Well, to themselves and Monty, but that's just because Monty comes to ask Bellamy about a scene without knocking a day after the kissing scene and finds them making out. But he agrees to keep it quiet until they mention it, after giving them both very long hugs. Everyone else has basically the same reaction when they do announce it; they're entering the final months of filming, and the entire cast and crew are filled with vaguely nostalgic love. Even Lexa gives him a hug when she hears the news, and he and Lexa are, at best, at the level of Facebook friends who see it's the other's birthday and decline to write a message of any kind.

The last half of the season is pretty decent. Bellamy is kind of biased because most of his scenes are with Clarke again, and there's a lot of holding hands and casual affection, which is impossible not to enjoy. Penny is making up her mind about college in the United States vs. returning to Arcadia to learn more about how to be a ruler, and Ian trying to be supportive while not really wanting her to leave. There's the requisite angst about leaving her new boyfriend and her other friends, and Tristan and Alex have their own similar sideplot about how they might not get into the same college and would have to live without each other. Chad and Madison get together, Bellamy assumes just because they didn't have anything else to do with the characters. It would be hard to say if Finn or Lexa is more annoyed with the situation, except that Lexa is able to be annoyed on actually superhuman levels. Finn just can't reach her levels of disdain.

The final scene is nice, wistful and hopeful, Penny and Ian using a program that is basically (but, for legal reasons, not actually) Skype to catch up on their lives. He's at Stanford and she's at Arcadia University, the rest of the characters get name checked with current locations and a couple trivia facts, and they say they love each other and make plans to see each other at Christmas.

It's not art. It's not going to get any Emmys. But he likes it. And he does have a Kids' Choice Award, which is pretty cool, and another movie lined up for the summer, again not on the Disney Channel. He's going to be the snarky best friend in a romantic comedy, so his plan is basically to channel Miller and see what happens.

Clarke comes out a week after the finale, via an interview in Teen Vogue. It was a deliberate choice on her part, because that's the part of her audience she's really coming out for, the kids who haven't seen many people as young as she is being open about their sexualities. It's an excellent interview, in his more than a little biased opinion--she picked her interviewer herself, and Indra doesn't pull punches. Clarke agrees that she has a serious boyfriend and probably could have avoided coming out when she's asked, and denies that it's a publicity stunt to coincide with the end of the TV show.

"I wanted to wait because I didn't know how it would affect the show," she explains in the article. "They could have retooled it without me, it's happened before--Demi Lovato left Sonny With A Chance and they kept the show going. But I didn't know if that would happen, and I didn't want to put anyone out of a job, or leave any fans of the show hanging. I don't have anything else lined up, so whatever happens to my career from here, it won't be a burden on anyone else. It was important to me to come out, but I had responsibilities to my friends too."

"It's Disney-Channel awesome," he tells her, once she gets home.

Clarke laughs. "You know, I think we can swear again. If we're going to get lifetime bans from everything Disney, I think it's already happened."

"Speak for yourself. If I want to get back in their good graces, I could still just dump you and beg for their forgiveness."

"Yeah, that sounds like you."

"Disney money is good money. I've got a few good years being the hot older brother in me."

She laughs again. "Yeah, okay, you convinced me. You should definitely denounce me."

"Any day now." He kisses her hair. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's nice. I've gotten a bunch of calls from people who still want to cast me."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She worries her lip. "A new TV show, actually."

"Good one?"

"I think so. It sounded cool. Nothing fancy, family dramedy, slice of life. But it's Jason Katims, the Friday Night Lights guy, so it'll probably be critically acclaimed and under-watched."

"So why don't you sound happy?"

"It films in Vancouver."

"Everything films in Vancouver."

She pokes him. "You're here."

"Yeah, but, like I said, everything films in Vancouver. I could be in Vancouver. I can do guest-spots on Criminal Minds."

She squints at him, like she thinks she misheard. "You just--you want to move to Vancouver?" she asks.

"Want is a strong word. But I will. Or maybe I won't, I'd have to talk to O. But I'd consider it."

"Just like that?"

Maybe it should be harder. Maybe it should keep him up for a few nights, weighing the pros and cons. But he's still got a lot in savings. Cost of living is probably lower up there. He could probably take some classes if he doesn't find an acting job. Maybe get a degree or something.

"Just like that," he confirms.

*

"A pony," says Octavia.

"What?"

"You got me cats for setting you up with the Disney gig, but I don't think that was enough. Considering, you know, acting career, famous girlfriend, you making me move to Vancouver."

"I'm not making you. We're talking about it. But Clarke's got a series regular spot, I've got an offer for a recurring guest thing with the chance to go to regular, so--"

"So I think I should get a pony."

"What would you even do with a pony? Where would we keep it?"

She thinks this over. "Okay, fine. A dog. You're getting me a dog."

"Deal. I get you a dog and we're even. And moving to Vancouver."

"Nope. We can go to Vancounver, but you're still going to owe me for the rest of your life."

Later, when he tells Clarke, and she throws her arms around him and kisses him, he thinks, yeah.

For the rest of his life.