From The Ashes | The 100 S5 [Bellarke]

|21| All That Remains

6 years and 11 days after Praimfaya

Clarke would live.

After those long hours of horrible uncertainty and dread, Bellamy was able to breathe. She was here, she was alive, and everything felt perfect. It felt safe to hope again, like anything was possible now that Clarke was in his life again.

"Wamplei nou na hod yu op, ai heda," Beni said, replacing the bandages over Clarke's wound.

"Ai gonplei nou ste odon nowe," Clarke said dryly. A weary smile pulled at one corner of her mouth, but her eyes were bright with wry humor.

Thanks to Echo and Emori's teachings, Bellamy was able to understand the short conversation. When he chuckled softly, she glanced over at him, her blue eyes still catching him off guard with how vivid and alive they were.

She was really here.

Clarke moved to sit up, but Beni put a hand on her shoulder.

"Slou yu rou daun." He shook his head. "Yu laik ste kwelen. Yu get dison klin."

"Damn it," Clarke muttered, closing her eyes.

"Hey," Bellamy said, laying his hand over hers, and her fingers curled up around his at the contact. "It could be worse, right?"

"She needs to stay still for at least another day," Beni said, rolling up the old bandages. "After that, the bliden hod klin will have done its work."

He left them alone, and once again Bellamy didn't know what to fill the silence with. When he thought Clarke was lost to him, everything he hadn't said weighed on him, all of the could-haves and should-haves he'd missed. So why did he lose them now?

Oh, there was one thing he knew, but the six years that stretched between them were a barrier he wasn't sure he could break past. Not yet.

"Ron yu op bida riden," he said, gently squeezing Clarke's hand.

Her eyes were already drifting shut, her body's instincts taking over her desire to see the rest of her friends. They'd already been told the good news of her survival, and they understood that the continuance of that rested in a good recovery.

Besides, they had time now. They weren't going anywhere.

3 days on the ground

For the first time in his life, Icarus had woken up to the sound of happy, chattering voices. Before, it had always been the scheduled morning alarm that sounded ship-wide, unless he'd worked a night shift, in which it was the evening alarm that woke up.

He opened his eyes, savoring the lazy sensation of not needing to get up immediately. In this hazy moment of waking awareness, he forgot about the things he'd done to his people, the death's he'd caused, and the certain warfare he'd brought about. He basked in the new sounds of the village they'd arrived at, voices echoing off the stone walls of the buildings and laughter ringing through the air.

So this was what Earth could be like.

"Rise and shine, sunshine," a voice drawled above him, one of the Ring survivor's features coming into view as the man looked down at him.

Icarus sat up, blinking rapidly. "Is there something we have to do?"

"Relax," the man said, a smirk at the corners of his mouth. "This is our part of the world here, and we've got a day or two of relaxation ahead of us."