Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Clarke!” a voice called out from a little ways away.

Bellamy glanced up from the cover of the book he was looking at and saw a pretty blonde woman duck her head and begin walking quickly towards the door of the bookshop.

The brown haired woman who had called out almost ran to catch her at the door. Bellamy didn’t mean to over hear the next bit but the women’s voices carried across the almost empty secondhand bookstore.

“I don’t want to talk to you Lexa,” said the blonde woman. “Now or at any future time.”

“Can we just get a coffee and talk about this? Please?”

“No, being in a relationship with you was like being at war constantly. I never felt like myself and we could never have a serious discussion without ending up screaming.”

The brown haired woman, Lexa, took Clarke’s hand in hers. “But we had our moments, we were good together for a while.”

“Moments do not a relationship make,” Clarke said, and Bellamy couldn’t help noticing how often her eyes glanced around, looking for an escape route. “You hurt me a lot, and you hurt a lot of my friends, I can’t forgive you for that.”

“But if you-”

Bellamy took this opportunity to step in. “Hey Princess, look I think I might have found a first edition Poe – oh Hello,” he said as he walked up to the two women, looking between Clarke and Lexa, playing the part perfectly. He held his breath for a moment staring at Clarke hoping she would understand his offer of an out.

She smiled gently at him, and let out a breath, before linking her arm with his and saying, “Honey you remember what I told you about Lexa, right?”

“Of course,” he said and then held out his right hand to shake. “Bellamy Blake.”

Lexa stared at the hand as if he had offered her a snake, then glanced back to Clarke. “Really, this is what you’re into now?” she said, almost sneering.

“Yes, I never denied being what I am.”

Lexa opened her mouth angrily to speak, but, before she could, Bellamy looked at his watch. “We’d better get going if you wanted to get something to eat before the movie. Nice meeting you.” He tugged Clarke towards the cashier, and payed as they watched a stunned Lexa leave the shop

Bellamy watched the tension ease from Clarke’s shoulders the moment Lexa closed the door behind her.

“Thank you for that,” she said turning back to him as the cashier gave him the bag with his purchases. “She wasn’t going to let up anytime soon.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Bellamy said, waving off her thanks. “Anyone could tell you didn’t want to be there.”

“Well apparently not her.”

Bellamy shrugged as they walked out of the shop together and began walking down the street in the opposite way that Lexa had. “Can I at least buy you lunch for helping me out?” Clarke asked as they approached the street corner.

Bellamy smiled. “That sounds great.”

They spent the next hour and a half in comfortable, if a little strange given their respective weird sense of humors, conversation over pasta. Bellamy left there with her number and plans for a real date next weekend.