From The Ashes | The 100 S5 [Bellarke]

|23| Ai Hod Yu In

Once again, Bellamy found himself looking up at the stars after living among them.

As the night fell thick and dark, and the voice of the villagers filled the cooling air, he felt the years between his time on Earth slide away into the past like that time had become nothing more than a distant, weightless memory.

Clarke wasn't lost to him – she was right here, laughing at a witticism of Murphy's. His heart lightened at the sound, and he watched the joy crinkling at the edges of her eyes and mouth, lighting the blue of her fire-lit gaze.

He was home.

"So," a young voice said, as someone settled down on the wooden bench next to him. "You're Bellamy."

He looked over and found the curious, gray-eyed inspection of the girl who'd driven the rover during those terrible hours after their escape from the colonists. Her braided brown hair was tucked under an oversized cap, and the skin around her mouth glistened with grease from the chunk of meat she held in one hand.

"That's me," he acknowledged with a faint smile.

"Clarke's told me lots of stories about you," the girl said, biting into the meat and talking around the mouthful, her words muffled. "I mean, she told me about the others, too, but she talked about you the most. She also radioed you every day, no matter what. Even when you didn't reply. Did you hear her?"

Bellamy shook his head slowly as he glanced over at Clarke once more, their gazes meeting across the few feet of table and people that separated them. Emotion surged up into his throat, hot and choking.

Every day?

Clarke had radioed him every single day without fail. She'd been the static crackling overhead in the Ring, as regular as clockwork. She'd been alive, and he could have known.

Every day.

~ ~ ~

Bellamy stayed as the rest began to drift from the remnants of the celebratory feast back to their homes.

Raven and Wick lounged by the fire, while Clarke saw Murphy and Emori slip away, their intentions clear. Monty had been invited into the rover by Madi to listen to Jasper's old music files, and the faint sounds of music filtered out into the quiet – strumming guitars and crooning voices.

Clarke knew that the Eligius colonists were a problem that couldn't be ignored, but she also knew that they could wait until tomorrow. Beni had left the feast early to set a watch around the village, so there wasn't the chance of any surprises.

She glanced over at Bellamy, taking in his familiar features once more. He was looking up at the sky, his hands loose in the pockets of his old Guard jacket that she'd kept for him in the hope of his return. When she'd given it to him that morning, her wound healed enough to allow for movement, his smile had been incredulous.

"I thought I'd never see this thing again," he'd said, slipping his arms into the worn blue material. The jacket had still been slightly too-big, which meant that it was perfect. "I wonder if the Guard made it through O's reign."

"This maybe been the jacket of a Guard once," Clarke had replied, reaching up to fix the collar where it had been crumpled under against his neck. Her fingers had felt electric against the warmth of his neck, the tension between them almost tangible. "But I always saw it as yours – nothing more. Plus, it gets pretty cold here at night now; you're going to want something warm."

Beni had come in after that to change the bandages across her stomach. She could have done it herself, but her Second insisted on making sure she was healing properly himself.