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It was no secret that any video that had Bellamy and Clarke in it together gained more views than any other video that Beanspill put up (something now dubbed ‘the Bellarke Effect’). The last video they had been in together – ‘People Learn the Dirty Dancing Routine’ – was the most viewed video on their YouTube channel. Most of the comments on the video were about them (and their ceaseless squabbling), despite the fact that Jasper and Raven, Monty and Miller and Harper and Monroe had all been in the video together as well. Bellamy and Clarke as individuals were within the top 5 favourite Beanspill employees (with Raven, Murphy and Lincoln), but Bellamy and Clarke together were the favourites. They were notorious with the audience for bickering, and they had a chemistry that somehow made their arguing something that was pleasant to watch. With this in mind, Jasper had pitched an idea to them: ‘People Get Handcuffed Together for 24 Hours – Bellarke Edition’. After some persuasion, Bellamy and Clarke had agreed - on the grounds that they did not have to edit the footage. So they had done it, filmed it, and sent the footage to Jasper (who forwarded it to Monty). The video was open on Monty’s computer in the office and almost completely edited. He watched it through one more time, sipping on a fruit smoothie through a straw, and jumped when Jasper jumped into the chair beside him, sending it spinning away on its wheels. Jasper pulled himself back towards Monty with his heels and placed a box of doughnuts next to the keyboard.
“For you. How’s it going?”
“Pretty good, though I seem to recall you saying we would do it together?”
“I brought snacks and I’m here for emotional support,” Jasper replied, prodding the doughnuts towards him.
Monty just smiled and rolled his eyes, then took his headphones off his neck. “Want to watch it? It was actually pretty surprising.”
Jasper nodded eagerly, slipping the headphones on as Monty rewound the video to the beginning.
-
The video opened with a shot of Bellamy and Clarke sitting at a desk in front of a red back drop, the pair of handcuffs lying on the table in front of them and jaunty music playing in the background.
“How do you think it will go?” Jasper asked from off-camera, and they both seemed to consider the question for a moment.
“I think that either we’ll get along fine, or we’ll hate each other even more for the rest of the time we know each other.” Clarke said, and Bellamy watched her as she spoke, his eyes flicking across her face as he nodded then looked back to the camera.
“Yeah, so nothing too radical,” Bellamy replied, dead-pan, and Clarke burst out laughing. The Beanspill logo swung into place with the title of the video.
In the next cut, Clarke was holding the handcuffs and looking at Bellamy. “You ready?” She asked, and he nodded. She grinned and closed the handcuff over his wrist.
“Too tight,” he said immediately, and Clarke looked up in concern before immediately loosening it and checking with him.
“Better?” She asked, and he nodded as he took the other handcuff and clamped it around her wrist, making sure it was comfortable for her.
“You guys are basically going to find out if either of us has a handcuff kink at the same time as us,” Clarke said, looking slightly off camera to where Jasper and Raven were sitting. Bellamy snorted as he looked up from fiddling with the handcuff.
“So far, I’m feeling like that’s a no,” he responded. Clarke immediately turned and looked directly down the lens and winked.
“We’ll see about that.”
The next scene was filmed on an iPhone by Bellamy as they walked down the street.
“So far, it’s not so bad,” he informed them, “I mean, we’ve only been handcuffed together for like twenty minutes but so far it’s good. We’re going out for dinner. We haven't argued yet.”
“We literally argued like five minutes ago about who the best Roman god was," Clarke argued, and Bellamy shot an exasperated look at the camera. Clarke coughed, then continued. "Unfortunately handcuffs limit the number of high-class establishments we can go to, but I think we’ll manage with pizza or something,”
“We will more than manage with pizza.” Bellamy grinned.
The next cut was them walking, filmed by Clarke who pointed the camera at Bellamy who was holding a pizza box. He grinned, wobbling the box on his hand.
“Where are we going, Bellamy?” Clarke asked from off camera.
“We are going to your apartment, because mine is too far to walk to and my sister and her boyfriend are currently living there.”
“Also I have a cat that we have to feed,” Clarke said, turning the camera back towards her.
“And that.”
“The handcuffs so far haven’t been much of an inconvenience, but we did get some odd looks in the pizza place from the guy behind the counter.” Clarke said to the camera.
“We discovered that it’s more comfortable if we’re holding hands, and we get fewer looks because people don’t see them,” Bellamy put in, glancing down at the camera. Clarke turned it back to her, looking serious.
“We won’t be doing much of that.”
The next cut was Bellamy filming inside Clarke’s apartment.
“If you have never been to Clarke’s house, this is what it looks like. It is essentially Versailles. There are mirrors on every,” he pointed it at the wall next to him, which had a large mirror in a plain wooden frame hanging from it, “freaking,” then pointed it at the wall opposite him with a small, more ornate mirror, “surface.” He pointed it lastly at the back of the door of the room he was in – going by the couch with a laptop open on it which faced the camera, bookshelves and TV it was her lounge – and sure enough, there was another mirror. He pointed the camera at Clarke, who rolled her eyes.
“It lightens up the room and makes it look bigger.”
“She’s actually just vain,” Bellamy replied, then cast the camera downwards to where a short-haired tabby cat was rubbing against his ankles. “And she’s jealous that her cat prefers me.”
“She doesn’t prefer you,” Clarke objected, and Bellamy pointed the camera back at himself and shrugged.
“Sure she doesn’t.”
In the next cut, Clarke was filming. Her hair had been tied up into a messy bun and she had an empty glass and a bottle of whiskey in her hand.
“Doing things with handcuffs on is hard, so we decided to watch Troy and make a drinking game out of how historically inaccurate it is.”
“We’re going to get pretty drunk by the end,” Bellamy replied, and Clarke grinned.
“Let’s hope so.”
One jumpcut later: “Helen apparently didn’t used to live in Sparta,” Bellamy said, knocking back his shot. Clarke quickly followed suit.
Another jumpcut: “Achilles and Patroclus aren’t gay, they’re just cousins,” Bellamy said, and they both knocked back their drinks.
A third jumpcut: “Llamas.” Bellamy said, and down their drinks went.
A fourth jumpcut: Clarke looked into the camera, holding a bottle of Coke. “We decided to water down our shots because we don’t want to get too hammered and forget to film the rest of the video. Drink responsibly, kids.”
“Should we give them a time update?” Bellamy asked, scratching his collar bone with the hand that was handcuffed to Clarke. Her hand followed his easily, the movement surprisingly fluid given he hadn’t vocalised his intention to move so much.
“Yeah, good idea. It is nine-thirty PM, we’ve been handcuffed for four hours. We’re gonna finish this movie and then get ready to go to bed.”
“This movie is a blight on the good name of Ancient Greek epic poetry,” Bellamy said, and Clarke rolled her eyes.
“You’re such a nerd.”
In the next cut, Bellamy and Clarke were getting ready for bed. They moved with ease with one another, handing each other things the other one needed with hardly a word spoken and just a clear understanding of what each other needed. They seemed synchronised, and it was almost like they could read each other’s mind in the way that they responded to slight signals given by the other one.
In the next cut they were lying in Clarke’s bed with her filming, on their backs with their hands down the middle.
“We changed into pyjama bottoms but we have to sleep in our shirts,” she said, pointing the camera at Bellamy. He had glasses on and was reading, wearing blue and white pinstripe pyjama bottoms that were too small, ending a couple of inches above his ankle.
“Sleeping is probably going to be the hardest bit,” Bellamy said, and Clarke nodded.
One jumpcut later: Clarke was filming, the room dimly lit by a bedside lamp. The clock was just about visible in shot, showing the time as just after 2am. She pointed the camera at Bellamy, who was asleep. His hair was more ruffled than normal, his face peaceful – and curled up asleep on his chest was Clarke’s cat. Clarke turned the camera back to her and scowled.
Bellamy was filming as they ate breakfast, then in a jump cut they were in the bathroom brushing their teeth. In the next cut they were sitting in Clarke’s lounge, him on the floor with his back leaning against the couch and her behind him on the couch combing his hair and braiding it. Bellamy filmed her doing it with his free hand. There was a time-lapse of her playing with his hair, occasionally having to pause so that Bellamy could rest the arm he had bent behind his neck so that she has both hands free to do what she wanted. They didn’t have to talk, it was just peaceful and companionable and there seemed to be something intimate about the innocuous act of her fiddling with his hair. The contrast of this compared to their normal, argumentative state was stark but somehow not unexpected - like they just fitted in with each other, and had done for a while.
This effect was ruined in the next cut, which was a shot of Clarke waiting outside her bathroom door with half of one of her arms inside the door as she waited for Bellamy to finish peeing.
In the next scene, Bellamy was filming. They were on the couch again, and Clarke was curled up asleep under a blanket while Bellamy had a book balanced on his leg. Her cat was sleeping on the couch next to her, lying over her exposed bare feet.
“The cat still prefers me,” he whispered to the camera.
“Does not,” Clarke mumbled into her blankets, and Bellamy laughed, clearly surprised she had heard him.
“We are going to have dinner with Raven and Wells, and we’re wearing the same clothes we put on yesterday.” Clarke was filming, and she held the camera out to film her slightly creased shirt that she had slept in, then turned it and did the same to Bellamy. “Somehow, Bell looks good.”
“Oh, stop, you’ll make me blush,” Bellamy joked, fiddling with the chain of the handcuffs. He looked up at the camera. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to getting these taken off. I can’t wait to pee without taking you with me.”
“Likewise,” Clarke said, looking up at him with a slight smile playing across her lips. “Other than that though, the experience hasn’t been awful.”
There was a jumpcut to a noisy restaurant. Raven was filming them both eating. Clarke managed the chopsticks fine with her right hand, but Bellamy struggled with his left until eventually he swapped them to his right and decided to drag Clarke’s hand along with his each time he wanted them to eat.
“How has it been?” Raven asked, and Clarke smiled as Bellamy chewed and swallowed.
“It’s been fine. We’ve just been hanging out but, like, a lot closer and for a lot longer.”
“We discovered that her cat likes me more than her,” Bellamy said, picking up his glass of water as he spoke. Clarke elbowed him gently, and his eyes sparkled slightly as he looked at her.
“Stop,” she said, in a fake whiny voice, then smiled and turned back to the camera, saying: “It’s not true, anyway.”
Bellamy grinned at the camera and mouthed ‘It is’, then sipped from his glass.
“We have just left dinner with Raven and Wells, and we are on the way back to the office to get these handcuffs off,” Clarke grinned at the camera as she filmed.
“Hopefully Jasper hasn’t lost the key,” Bellamy said, and Clarke just nodded.
“I’m not sure how much longer I could spend, like, in the constant presence of you, even though we’ve had a fine time. I just need to recharge.”
“I agree with that,” he replied, and Clarke smiled and moved her thumb slightly into shot as she stopped recording.
They were sitting at the same desk they had been at the day before when they had put the handcuffs on.
“So, how did it go?” Jasper asked from off-camera, and they looked at one another.
“It was good,” Bellamy said, “though we decided to drink a bit, which was a mistake in hindsight, given the trips to the bathroom we had to take afterwards.”
“We didn’t have any meltdowns or major arguments anything, it was just kind of… normal,” Clarke said, and Bellamy watched her intently and nodded as she spoke. A moment later, the keys were thrown on to the table. Bellamy smiled and picked them up, and Clarke held her hand out for him to unlock her. He did it quickly, his fingers tracing along her skin lightly, and then he handed the key to her. She unlocked his equally gently. He smiled at her as he rubbed his wrist.
“So, any lasting lessons learned from this experience?” Jasper asked.
“Clarke’s cat likes me the most,” Bellamy said immediately, and Clarke swore, though it was covered with the Beanspill logo over her mouth and a bleeping noise to cover the word. Bellamy just grinned and the credits rolled, followed by the Beanspill title falling into place.
-
Jasper grinned and removed the headphones. “It’s so good, nice job! You’ve earned yourself at least two doughnuts, my friend.”
Monty shook his head, a slight smile playing across his lips, then caught sight of Raven walking to her desk with coffee. “Hey, Raven! Want to see the handcuffs video with Bellamy and Clarke? I just finished editing it. You have a cameo.”
“I am a sucker for myself, handcuffs and Bellarke,” Raven said, dropping her bag into her chair and then walking over to them with her coffee. Jasper handed her the headphones as Monty rewound the video again, and when she was ready he hit play. She watched in silence, sipping her coffee and smiling – occasionally laughing in the expelling-air-through-your-nose way.
“‘If you have never been to Clarke’s house, this is what it looks like. It is essentially Versailles. There are mirrors on every. Freaking. Surface.’” Bellamy’s voice could be heard quietly leaking from the headphones. Raven’s eyebrows knitted together.
“Pause,” Raven ordered, waving her hand at Monty vehemently. He stopped the video. Raven leaned forward, staring closely at the computer screen. “Now rewind. More. More. Stop! What’s that?”
Jasper and Monty leaned forward too, inspecting what her finger was pointing to (without actually touching the screen – she, Monty and Wells all had rules about that).
“Clarke’s laptop,” Jasper said. The video was paused on the shot of Clarke’s lounge, with her laptop open on the couch.
“I can see that. I mean the background of her laptop. Does that look like-”
“Bellamy and Clarke kissing,” Monty finished, and the three of them looked at each other, then all started turning suddenly, trying to find Bellamy and Clarke in the office. Raven walked over to Bellamy’s desk and pulled his headphones off his head, then grabbed the back of his chair and pushed him at surprising speed to Monty’s desk.
“What are you doing?” Bellamy asked, bewildered, and then Jasper pointed at the computer screen, still on that same frame of the video.
“What is that?” Jasper asked, and Bellamy frowned and looked closer. They could all see the moment of realisation dawning on Bellamy’s face, though he tried to hide it.
“That’s… well. See. The thing about that is – Okay, so…” He paused, then looked across the room and waved to Clarke. She got up and walked over. “Clarke,” was all he said when she arrived, then pointed at her laptop background image. She nodded slowly, then looked at Monty, Raven and Jasper, who were all waiting for her to say something.
“Yeah, we’ve been dating for like the last three months. I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner. You can put that in the video if you like,” she said, glancing to Bellamy, who nodded his approval, then just shrugged and walked away. Bellamy just nodded again, stood up, and wheeled his chair back to his desk. Raven grinned, sipping from her coffee and pulling off the headphones.
“Awesome,” she said, heading back to her own desk, while Monty and Jasper sat dumbfounded for a few seconds before Monty started adding a last frame to the video after the credits, saying: BELLARKE IS REAL!