The first time it happens, Clarke goes into full business mode. She's only been a lifeguard at this beach for a few weeks and this is the first time she's had to rescue someone from drowning. She grabs the floatation device and powers into the ocean, dragging the guy into the shallows and onto the hot sand. She leans over him, ready to check if he is still breathing when he sits up and grins at her.

"Hey, I'm Bellamy," he holds out his hand for her to shake and she stares at him in disbelief.

"What is going on?" she asks in annoyance. She has a job to do, she doesn't need some asshole playing a prank on her so he has something to laugh about with his friends later.

"I believe you just saved my life, so I owe you my eternal gratitude. Or I could just give you a kiss?" Bellamy winks. Clarke cannot believe what is happening. Does this guy actually think he's being smooth?

"Did you seriously just pretend to be drowning so you could use that lame pickup line on me?" Clarke scowls.

"I don't know, I thought it was pretty good," Bellamy shrugs. Clarke huffs and gets to her feet, leaving Bellamy in the sand. "Okay, see you later!" he calls after her, and Clarke flips him off without looking back.

The next day, the same guy sets up a volley ball court right next to Clarke's lifeguard chair. She tries to ignore it but Bellamy and his friends keep hitting the ball out of the court into her line of vision, and every time someone scores a point they cheer uproariously. Not to mention this Bellamy guy isn't at all bad to look at. She keeps having to drag her eyes away from him so she can scan the ocean to make sure anyone isn't drowning.

"Hey!" Clarke calls when the ball nearly hits her in the head. Bellamy runs over and picks up the ball.

"Hey!" he grins back. "Bellamy, remember?"

"I remember," Clarke rolls her eyes.

"And your name is…?" he prompts.

"None of your business," Clarke tells him flatly. "I'm going to have to ask you to move your game away from this area. It's very distracting."

"Hey, it's not my fault you can't keep your eyes off me," Bellamy smirks. Clarke groans in exasperation. It totally was his fault she couldn't keep her eyes off him. She had every reason to believe he knew exactly how good looking he was from the way he kept throwing himself around and showing off his toned chest and arms.

"I'm trying to do my job here," she gestures to the entire beach. "You know, saving lives."

"Right, sorry. We'll move," Bellamy nodded, and to her surprise he and his friends actually pack up and move their game away from her.

Two days later he tries the drowning thing again. She's skeptical, but she can't just leave him out there, in case he really is drowning. Although she suspects he's actually a very strong swimmer, judging by those arms.

She paddles out on the floatation device and drags him out of the water and onto it.

"Are you really drowning?" she asks him.

"Not anymore," he grins and her heart does a little flutter in her chest. Damn that perfect smile. "Can you give me a lift back to shore?"

"It isn't funny, Bellamy," Clarke raises her eyebrows and begins paddling back to the beach slowly.

"You love it. I still don't know your name," Bellamy points out.

"And nor will you ever," Clarke promises. They reach the beach and Bellamy begins walking back to the lifeguard chair with her.

"You weren't working yesterday," Bellamy muses as they walk along the beach.

"Do you come here every day?" Clarke raises an eyebrow.

"I like the beach," Bellamy shrugs. Clarke finds a small smile playing across her lips.

"Yet you can't swim," she teases glancing at him out the corner of her eye. He snorts in laughter.

"Only when pretty girls are on lifeguard duty," he responds as they reach the lifeguard chair. "See you," he winks and begins to walk away. Clarke shakes her head, still smiling idiotically.

"Nice tits, sweetheart!" some fuckboy yells as he walks past. Clarke is about to ignore him, she usually gets half a dozen comments like this a day and it gets tiring trying to yell at every guy who says something, but Bellamy hears and strides over to him.

"Hey, fuck off. She's a person not a piece of meat," he growls at the guy, towering over him.

"Whoa, sorry, I didn't know she was your girlfriend," the guy whimpers.

"She's not, asshole. Learn some fucking respect," he spits. The guy glares at Clarke at scurries off.

"I don't need you to defend me," Clarke tells Bellamy as he glances over at her to make sure she's okay, though she's secretly glad he did.

"Okay, sorry," he nods and wanders off. Clarke feels a little bad about it as she climbs back onto her seat. She should've thanked him at least, he was just trying to help. She watches him from the chair as he meets up with his friends. He looks up and she quickly looks away as he smirks at her.

"Clarke, I think there's a guy drowning out there!" Raven points, getting ready to go out and save him. Clarke has already seen the guy, but since it's Bellamy, she's taking her time.

"He's not drowning," Clarke rolls her eyes.

"Are you sure?" Raven asks worriedly. Raven usually works the days Clarke is off, and gets called in on the really hot days when the beach is really packed.

"Go save him if you want," Clarke shrugs. She watches as Raven paddles out, Bellamy mysteriously stops drowning and he and Raven have a conversation, and Raven returns to the beach.

"What did he say?" Clarke asks.

"He said he'd rather be saved by 'the blonde one'," Raven rolls her eyes. "What a dickhead."

"Totally," Clarke agrees, although she's starting to see him as more than just a dickhead. Said dickhead has paddled back to sure and approaches Clarke, grinning as per usual.

"Have you ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?" Clarke says to him, suppressing a smile, lest Raven actually thinks she likes this guy (even though she does).

"Yes, and I have also heard of one Clarke Griffin," he smiles smugly. Clarke turns to Raven.

"Did you tell him my name?" she accuses.

"He asked," Raven shrugs unapologetically.

"But you said he was a dickhead," Clarke reminds her.

"Yeah, but he's a hot dickhead," Raven smirks knowingly and Clarke flushes.

"I don't think I'm a dickhead at all," Bellamy interjects.

"No one asked you," Clarke rolls her eyes.

"Aw, come on, Clarke. I know you like me," he winks. "If you want to go out with me, all you have to do is ask."

"You wish," Clarke scoffs. Okay, maybe she does want to go out with him, but he was the one who started this whole flirtation, so if he wants to take her on a date he can bloody well ask.

Bellamy continues to show up to the beach every day, with or without his friends. He doesn't try the drowning trick again, but he does find every possible way to try and show off in front of her. Of course, Clarke's face remains unimpressed at all times, except when he isn't looking and she allows herself to smile at his ridiculous antics. Why won't the guy just ask her out already? Raven wonders the same thing.

"Seriously, why has this guy not asked you out?" Raven asks as Bellamy walks into the waves to wash the sand from his face that he had acquired from face planting while trying to do a one handed handstand.

"I don't know!" Clarke replies.

"All he ever does is hang around you and when he's not hanging around you, he's talking about you," Raven shakes her head with a laugh.

"How do you know that?" Clarke asks in surprise.

"I overheard him and his friends talking the other day," Raven smirks.

"What were they saying?" Clarke asks, trying not to sound too interested.

"Bellamy was telling them about how you told him you're an artist," Raven tells her, "and one of his friends said, and I quote 'will you please shut up and just fucking ask her out already because you're pathetic and I'm sick of hearing about her,'" Raven cackles. "Bellamy's face just went bright red. Funniest thing I heard all day."

"So why won't he then?" Clarke whines. She knows she could just ask him out herself, but that would be letting him win, and she's determined that if he wants her then he can do the asking.

"Maybe he's shy," Raven suggests, before bursting into laughter at the ridiculousness of her statement. Clarke snorts in laughter too, and looks back out to the ocean, only to see Bellamy doing his drowning act again.

"Not again," she sighs. She had thought he was over that particular trick.

"Clarke, isn't that a rip?" Raven asks. "That's why we put the flags over here," she reminds Clarke. Clarke's stomach drops as she realizes Bellamy is in a rip, and that she can't see him struggling anymore.

"Holy fuck," Clarke swears, immediately jumping into action mode. She's tearing along the beach, splashing through the water and paddling as fast as she can towards where she last saw him, panic rising as time passes. She's normally much more collected in stressful situations, but somehow she can't bring herself to calm down.

The rip takes her out fast and soon she spots him. She pulls him, unconscious, out of the water, dragging a huge length of seaweed with him, attached to his leg.

She finally gets him to the beach, her heart pounding. She frantically checks his pulse before pressing on his chest to start CPR. She can feel tears in her eyes but she doesn't have time to brush them away as she puts her mouth to his and breathes air into his lungs.

She feels him start to breathe on his own again and he splutters to life. Clarke is so relieved she can't even speak. Bellamy leans up in his elbows, panting.

"Did you just give me mouth to mouth?" he asks hoarsely. Clarke nods, wiping the tears from her face. "Damn. I was kind of hoping I'd be conscious for our first kiss," he grins. "Well, maybe-,"

Clarke cuts him off, pressing her lips to his, kissing him for real this time. Bellamy responds eagerly after getting over the initial shock. He presses a hand to her back and sits up properly as Clarke's mouth moves against his. She pulls back when his tongue brushes her lips.

"You asshole!" she cries. "You could've died! What were you thinking?"

"I was just trying to get your attention," Bellamy shrugs.

"Do not tell me you did this on purpose," Clarke warns.

"Well, no, but it worked didn't it?" he grins.

"Why didn't you just ask me out like a fucking normal person?" Clarke scolds him.

"I didn't think you liked me," Bellamy admits, turning red.

"Didn't think-," Clarke starts, before trailing off, shaking her head.

"So… will you go out with me?" he asks.

"Yes, of course, you complete loser," she screws up her nose and leans in to kiss him again. "But you have to promise I won't have to save your life again."

"Promise," Bellamy grins.