—-
I've got big, big plans

And they've got to mean something more than just once

I just don't know what I want

I'm gonna tear your ass up like we just got married and you're all mine now

Tonight is the night we've been waiting for all our lives

Bedroom Talk- The Starting Line

—-

Harper and Jonesy started it.

Near-death experiences or near-death adjacent experiences were apparently great motivators when it came to realizations of feelings and subsequent declarations of said feelings, and Clarke and Bellamy were hardly the only people in Arkadia to start a relationship within the first week after the virus began to clear.

Jones had been crazy about Harper since the dropship came down so when he finally got up the courage to make a move things escalated quickly. It had only been 3 months when they approached Bellamy to ask if he was willing to officiate their wedding.

"You give the best speeches," was Harper's casual response, delivered with a shrug when a highly flattered, but also highly embarrassed, Bellamy asked why the hell they would want him.

Monroe and her girlfriend Isla were a close second, followed by reformed playboy Ryder and a smitten Mel.

It got to a point where such ceremonies needed to be scheduled and every few weeks there was another happy couple publicly declaring their commitment to each other. They weren't the solemn and traditional weddings that had been held on the Ark where couples had been through months of vetting in addition to invasive compatibility and genetic testing. They also weren't the elaborate spiritual affairs that were favored by the grounders for both love matches and marriages for political advantage. They were a hybrid of long held customs and new found means of celebration and ended up tailored to each individual couple depending on their preferences.

Mel refused to walk down the aisle until she had something old, new, borrowed, and blue while Isla insisted that the service be centered around the feral pig she had tamed and now lead around camp in all manner of colorful bandanas.

It didn't always fall on Bellamy to preside over the ceremony. Many of the older couples turned to Kane, finding comfort in his familiarity with the rites once preformed by his mother on the Ark.

When it finally came to Kane and Abby, Clarke tearfully preformed the duty, relieved to find that the tears were almost entirely out of happiness for her mother.

Clarke had thought that the broken heart she suffered at the outcome of her own parents marriage would have permanently soured her on the entire institution but it was hard not to get swept up in the romance of it all. Marriage meant something different on the ground and it was hard not to see it as a kind of victory. On the Ark it was a matter of business in order to procreate in the most efficient and logical way and for the first two years on the ground love and relationships were a luxury that could not be afforded in the middle of a battle for their lives. To be able to make decisions for themselves, to marry a person of their choosing in front of all of their friends, without the threat of violence informing their every move, truly was a win.

"We're going to be late for the wedding," Bellamy groaned as Clarke tugged urgently at his shirt, mouth ghosting over each inch of the tan skin of his torso as she exposed it.

"Better finish what you started quickly then," Clarke ordered, sparing him a quick glare before yanking off her own shirt and bra in a single practiced motion. She had no intention of ending up back out by the lake this afternoon until Bellamy's wandering hands had traveled a little too far north under the lunch table.

As little as she typically minded being a little late for the commitment ceremonies, and as much as she loved her handsome boyfriend and his talented fingers, this particular wedding coincided with Dropship Day and so the party planned was a little bigger than usual and she was pretty sure their tardiness was going to be noticed.

She was also aware that for all of his feigned nonchalance on the topic, Bellamy considered Dropship Day their unofficial anniversary and two years together seemed worth celebrating. It wasn't that she thought that their bond wasn't going to be strong enough to take them that far but it had seemed beyond the realm of comprehension to think that she would be lucky enough to keep someone she loved, safe and happy for that long when she had been so woefully unable to in the past.

"You should know by now that I can work quick when circumstances demand it."

If Clarke hadn't been wet already from the memories conjured by that smug reminder of his head between her legs in the medbay and her legs around his waist as he dragged her to the other side of the fence in the middle of the day, his hands gripping her waist to spin her around before dragging her pants down her legs would've done it for sure.

Clarke leaned forward to grip the tree in front of her to give herself some leverage to grind her ass back on his jean-clad crotch because it seemed like he was getting a little too much of an edge on her and their innate competitiveness made for some pretty mind-blowing sex.

"Fuck, Princess," he breathed, his voice the deep growl that drove her crazy as he pulled away long enough to shove his own pants down with one hand and snake the other around to sink two fingers in her.

"At least you don't have to officiate this one," Clarke said, her attempt to appear unaffected completely ruined by a choked gasp which punctuated the sentence as he crooked his fingers in the way he knew she liked.

"You want quick or you want to have a conversation?" Bellamy asked, his fingers pulling out to trail up and circle her clit, his other hand moving from her hip to slide down her back and fist in her hair.

Clarke chose to let her actions answer for her and pushed back against his exposed cock, one hand still bracing her on the tree, the other coming up to play with her tits.

"Awesome, me too," Bellamy said and pushed into her from behind, Clarke couldn't help but laugh and she could feel Bellamy's smile against her neck as he pulled her up lightly by the hair so he could drop a kiss on her shoulder.

Bellamy was true to his word as it didn't take long for her to fall apart with him pounding into her, his fingers on her clit and mouth and teeth sucking bruises into the crook of her neck, while he came with a shudder and her name on his lips as she met him back thrust for thrust.

"It's rare that I feel I deserve praise for a quickie but honestly I think I proved a point here," Bellamy panted, pulling out with a slight wince and refastening the pants that had barely made it past his ass.

Clarke rolled her eyes but offered him a high five before pulling up her own pants and retrieving her shirt from the ground.

"Congratulations on your diminished stamina," she teased, picking stray foliage off her shirt. Had she not been closely acquainted with the actual limits of his endurance she might have thought twice about the joke but she was pretty sure Bellamy would just use the taunt as encouragement to demonstrate his abilities for hours later that night and far be it from her to take issue with that.

"I'll diminish your stamina," he muttered, attempting to look forlorn, but sure enough she could see the promise of an interesting night in the darkening of his eyes.

"Cool," Clarke responded to his nonsensical retort and slipped her hand in his as they began the hike back to camp. The slightly goofy smile that Bellamy gave her when she did filled her with warmth and just the slightest hint of guilt as she remembered how she had been so cautious about such casual touches before she had come to her senses and they made it official. The small shows of public affection clearly meant so much to him and it hurt to think she had ever denied him such a small gesture.

Clarke was struck with a wave of fondness for her now long-term boyfriend. It wasn't unusual for her to be caught up in such a moment of affection but every time she was simultaneously stuck with a sense of wonder, that this was something she got to have. The first 16 years of her life had passed without much heartache but the trauma from the intervening 3 had left her convinced that nothing good could last for her. She had enough death on her conscience to be pretty convinced that it was her karmic lot to suffer.

Bellamy had always been open about his feelings of inadequacy. Feeling as though he was a disappointment to the people who believed in him and undeserving of the respect and love he received. It had taken years for Clarke to break him of feeling unworthy and it was taking even longer to fully banish the emotions in herself.

It had been two years since they crossed the first line and started sleeping together and had been an official couple for just under that. Not every moment was perfect. Bellamy was quick to follow his heart while she was ruled by her head and sometimes it put them at odds. But at the end of every day they fell asleep together sure in their love. Now that she had this, she couldn't begin to understand why she had ever fought against it or tried to ignore her feelings. Loving and being loved by Bellamy Blake was all she ever needed.

"Love you," Clarke said simply, looking up at Bellamy with a small smile. She had waited long enough to say it and she had made sure that not a day for the past two years went by without him hearing it. Murphy said they were disgusting but Jasper said they were his romantic idols so she considered it pretty much a wash.

Bellamy squeezed her hand and smiled brighter, their conversation turning to routine matters in Arkadia. Peace time meant that resources could be turned from guard duties and war room meetings to education and art and when Arkadia's first school year had begun it had done so with both of them as teachers. Bellamy was in heaven talking endlessly about history and literature and Clarke no longer had the stomach for the medicine after all those hours in the airlock. No one had much of a heart to argue when her hours slowly dwindled to nothing and she spent most of her time teaching the artistically inclined and serving as their de facto hairdresser. She and Bellamy could come together each day for lunch and again in their cabin at bedtime with endless stories about their respective students, and feeling finally, like they were doing what they wanted instead of what they had to in order to survive.

"Jesus fucking Christ, you two."

"It's like living with Shakespeare," Bellamy muttered and Clarke smothered her smile into his shoulder, "she truly has a way with words."

"You can't keep your damn hands to yourselves for 24 fucking hours?" Raven groused, meeting them as soon as they crossed back into camp with a scowl and a clear set of marching orders.

"Nope," Bellamy responded unapologetically and Clarke just shrugged.

"Your public sex kink is showing Griffin. You've completely ruined the lake for me. And the showers. And my desk." Raven paused for a second as if taking a mental tally, "Everywhere. You two have ruined everywhere."

"No fair," Clarke bleated, she could feel her cheeks heating up and was sure a completely embarrassing blush was totally blowing her cover, "No fair kink-shaming me when I am clearly not the only guilty party here."

"Oh no, before you this one kept all of his conquests more or less tucked away in tents and cabins," she said gesturing vaguely towards Bellamy, "this is definitely a you thing."

Clarke kicked Raven lightly in the shin and affixed her best pout, but there wasn't much she could say. It wasn't like her friend was exactly wrong.

"This is a him thing," Raven groaned reaching out and tugging Clarke's shirt to the side to expose the already darkening hickeys decorating her neck, collarbone, and cleavage.

Bellamy failed to display the same embarrassment as Clarke and looked down on his handiwork with pride. Raven caught his stare and let go of Clarke's shirt to smack him across the back of the head.

"You two are awfully violent today," he observed, "It's a wedding day, today is a day for love."

"Oh so you do remember," Raven retorted, "I wasn't sure you did given you both decided to disappear for a quickie an hour before the damn ceremony."

Bellamy did manage to look chagrined at this and tousled his fingers through his hair in a show of making it presentable.

"Yeah, no" Raven said, latching onto Clarke's arm and gently pulling her away, "It's going to take a lot more than that to make you presentable. Shower, shave, and put on something without a gaping hole in the armpit."

Bellamy saluted with his free hand and pulled Clarke back to him briefly with their still tangled hands so he could press a quick kiss to her knuckles before setting her free.

Raven rolled her eyes but a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, "Let's see what we can do about disguising the fact that you are apparently dating fucking Dracula."

"Dearly beloved, mere acquaintances, people I frankly don't care for, and Murphy, we are gathered here today to witness the one, and only one, of these ceremonies that I will be officiating. For the most part I've thought these were a waste of time and just a stupid excuse for a party that would be a hell of a lot more fun without all the sentiment. But this one is different, and for reasons beyond the addition of my witty, original banter."

Raven paused, giving the soft laughter from the crowd a second to die down as she turned her attention from the gathered audience to the couple in front of her.

"These two came to me and asked me to do this for them and my initial response was to ask if they were fucking crazy since unlike the two of them I am not well known for my rousing speeches and I am also loudly on the record as believing romance is dead. The fact is though, that we came down here four years ago and became a family. We've been through some dark shit but we've had some great times too and every second of it just brought us closer and when family asks you for a favor you need a pretty good reason to say no. I thought my screwed up history and utter cynicism over relationships was excuse enough. It's hard to stand up in front of a crowd and talk about love and commitment when you have my sort of track record. I haven't had many reasons to believe in true love from my own experiences but I do have these two. It's really hard to stay as pessimistic as I would like when my best friends prove me wrong every day. Seeing how they compliment each other and the happiness it brings them I can't help but think maybe there's something to all this after all."

Bellamy was pretty sure Raven was tearing up but it was tough to tell when his own eyes had been watering pretty consistently for the past half hour. Clarke for her part was just beaming. Her smile was radiant and there was a teasing glint in her eyes over his tears since she had bet him a back rub that he would be the one to break down. Bellamy didn't think her smugness was quite deserved given he in no way had disagreed that he was going to be the emotional mess between the two of them.

Getting ready hadn't been an especially complicated process since formal wear and bridal parties weren't a concern but they had been separated for an hour before the ceremony so that Harper could 'make Clarke presentable'. It was a struggle as he had been unwilling to let Clarke out of his sight for more than 5 minutes at a time for the entire week leading up to the wedding.

Neither of them had ever had much doubt in their relationship since its start, or needed some sort of acknowledgement of it to make their commitment to each other official. Nor were they under the impression that marriage made a relationship stronger or more real given their respective parents' examples. They were happy and that was enough. Then Abby and Kane had gotten married and Clarke's mother had very calmly and matter of factly passed her wedding ring from her marriage to Jake off to him as she replaced it with one of the plain iron bands Raven had taken to forging in a lucrative side business. 'Just in case' she had said, but given her former reluctance over their relationship Bellamy knew it had been her giving him her blessing.

It had still taken more than a year for him to actually use the ring. Without life threatening chaos at every turn Jasper had the opportunity to get bored and with it came a literal deluge of pranks. Miller had ice water poured on him over the wall of his shower. Monty had an air horn blast everyday for a week when he opened the door to his new cabin. Murphy bit into a caramel covered onion. Bellamy found every one of his books gift wrapped and replaced on his shelf. Clarke had been twitchy for a month waiting to become the target of Jasper's juvenile restlessness before she walked into the medbay and was met with a face full of shaving cream. Bellamy had been walking just behind her and wasn't even remotely successful in keeping a straight face when she turned around, mouth agape in horror, eyes screwed tightly shut against the burn from the white foam. She wiped at her face with her hands and finally opened her eyes and Bellamy almost laughed at the look of abject betrayal on her face, as though she had been assaulted with something much more dire than shaving cream. Instead of laughing though, he went with what was really running through his head in the moment and said simply 'Marry me?'

Clarke had blinked at him blankly for almost half a minute, justifiably confused by his timing before she grinned and pulled her father's ring out on the chain from where it hung beneath her shirt. 'Think Raven can make this fit your delicate fingers?'

In something that felt a little bit like fate the ring hadn't actually required any sort of alteration and 3 months later on what Bellamy had always considered to be their anniversary they were standing in the middle of camp while Raven roasted them in front of half the population of Arkadia.

So, pretty much perfect.

Raven sighed and handed him a handkerchief which more or less answered his question as to her emotional state but he was validated to see most of the front row, including his usually stoic little sister, crying softly once he wiped his own eyes.

"And with that I'm going to hand it off to these two melodramatic fools who of course had to write their own vows," Raven prompted and yanked the handkerchief back to dab at her own face. Bellamy might have felt vindicated but his attention had shifted solely to Clarke who was standing across from him and still smiling a smile he wasn't sure he'd seen before.

Bellamy squeezed her hands lightly and cleared his throat. It went without saying that he would have to go first since he would probably be reduced to a mute emotional train wreck by her vows. He wasn't normally one to broadcast his personal life but in this one instance they both agreed they wanted to say a few words. He still chose to keep his voice fairly low, so there was no doubt that his words were meant for Clarke and the rest was just collateral.

"I wake up every single day in awe of you Princess. I was half in love with you the day we met and every day since you've proven how strong, intelligent, resourceful, and caring you are. You are an amazing woman," he gave Clarke a smile private smile and reached out to brush a stray curl from her temple and she leaned into his touch until he returned his hand to hers. "I didn't believe in love at first sight but I've had to reevaluate my thoughts on soul mates since you came into my life. I'm far from perfect but for all of my numerous failings there's you to bridge the gap. In the most basic sense you simply complete me. I love you Clarke."

Clarke leaned across the space between them and pecked him quickly on the lips.

"For fuck's sake," Raven complained, "it's not time for that yet."

Clarke completely ignored their cranky officiant and looked him directly in the eyes for her own vows.

"I love you Bellamy Blake."

Bellamy was glad he went first as Clarke reached out this time to brush a tear from his cheek. He didn't even last a sentence.

"You are a good man. Whenever I have a doubt about humanity, whether we deserve this second chance, I just look to you and I see your kindness and your love and I'm reassured. You make me want to be a better person and I honestly think that's the most important trait to have in the person you love. I have my dad's ring here today and I can't think of a more perfect person to wear it. You are all the good he ever wanted to be. He would be so proud of us and I just know he would have loved you. You inspire me and I am so lucky you're mine and I'm yours."

Octavia stepped forward from the assembled crowd and handed each of them a ring, pausing quickly to give her brother a frighteningly tight hug.

"Since you're so eager to make out let's finish this up," Raven said but her smile, again, was fond. "Clarke do you take this absolute mess of a human as your husband?"

"I do," Clarke said through a smile as Bellamy slipped her mother's old ring on her finger.

"And Bellamy do you take this literal disaster as your wife?"

"I do."

Clarke pushed her father's ring onto his finger and Bellamy beamed at his wife.

"Great, now kiss," Raven ordered and Bellamy and Clarke didn't need to be told twice.

Bellamy had considered going for the dramatic and dipping her back like some of the more demonstrative couples had done previously but ultimately was glad for the simple moment with her arms wound around his neck and his hands cupping her face while the crowd erupted in cheers.

The party would come soon and it was going to be followed by the rest of their lives together. But for a second he rested his forehead on hers and they shared a loving smile.

"Remember when I said it was a bad idea when you propositioned me? I've changed my mind."

"Yeah," Clarke said before leaning up to kiss him again, "it was pretty much my best idea ever."