The moment Clarke awoke she knew something wasn't quite right. The only thing she could taste was blood and cotton, and, god, if she hadn't been nauseous before, she definitely was now. The dull ache she felt in her cheek spread into her skull and developed into a splitting headache before she ever even opened her eyes.

Groaning, she turned over and as she did so, she got a whiff of the pillow her head was lying on. The smell wasn't entirely unfamiliar to her. It was familiar and even through her headache she felt her heartbeat settle down. But the feeling of the bed's mattress and pillow were still unfamiliar enough to coax her into opening her eyes.

As far as she could tell it was already dark outside and just the light of a few street lamps accentuated the outline of the crisp white sheets she was lying on.

She could hear the faint murmur of a TV outside of the room she was in. Sitting up slowly, she tried not to upset her stomach any more, so when her feet finally touched the floor, she deeply breathed in and out.

She knew that she wouldn't find some unfamiliar creep outside of the bedroom's door but she honestly couldn't remember who had picked her up. Octavia had called her and told her that she couldn't be the one to pick her up after the surgery but she never told her who would be her ride instead, only saying that "she was handling it".

Octavia wouldn't have set her up with some random stranger or someone she didn't trust. But that hardly left anyone in Clarke's circle since she knew most of their apartments. She knew Raven's, hell, Raven had even offered her a key since she visited her so often. She also knew Jasper's and Monty's.
But this one, it was different, new, and completely unfamiliar. The only thing that kept her somewhat calm was that she knew that smell from somewhere. It was a combination of fresh laundry, aftershave and something that reminded her of a forest, even though they were miles away from one.

Now matter how many times she mulled over it, there was no way around it but to walk out of the door to reassure herself that Octavia hadn't just set her up with some creep. She couldn't even call Octavia to ask her. Neither her phone nor her keys were in any of her pockets or even on the nightstand.

So after another minute of thinking and trying to ignore the shooting pain in her cheek, she finally went and slowly but surely opened the door.

The moment she saw Octavia's brother, she had to close her eyes and take a deep breath. She knew it hadn't been an unthinkable thing that Octavia had asked Bellamy to take care of her but, god, she had hoped.

She knew it would be ungrateful to just up and leave but she knew of the kind of things people did while under the influence of laughing gas and if she was anything like the poor people in the videos Octavia had shown her when she had scheduled her appointment, then, damn well - she could deal with being ungrateful. Had it been any other friend of her's, she could have dealt with the ridicule that would have ensued. But Bellamy - he was a whole different story to her. She just hoped he hadn't recorded her.

Thankfully, Bellamy was lying on his sofa, asleep. But Clarke needed her phone and keys and rummaging through his whole apartment felt like a huge breach of privacy, especially since it was Bellamy's place. So she resorted to just walking around his apartment and looking, not touching, in the hopes of spotting her belongings.

She still did not feel all too well, the pain in her cheek growing with every minute. She could also tell that her movements were still somewhat uncoordinated and sloppy. Although, this fact became painfully obvious to her when she bumped into a small glass table which caused the vase on top of it to fall down and shatter into a million little pieces. " Shit. "

"Clarke?" she heard Bellamy groan and turned around to face him with a sheepish smile on her lips. He just looked at her with furrowed eyebrows, his voice thick with exhaustion and his hair adorably tousled from sleep. When he noticed the broken vase he finally put two and two together and the look of confusion turned into a look of amusement at the terror on Clarke's face, as well as irritation at the broken pieces of glass that littered his floor. "What were you doing?"

"I was just.. trying to find my phone and keys?" She answered with a hand to her cheek.

Bellamy just nodded and motioned towards her cheek. "Painkiller?"

Clarke all but sagged in relief and nodded. "I'd kill for one right about now."

"Right, come on." He led her into his kitchen and placed both the painkillers as well as a glass of water in front of Clarke before leaving the kitchen with a small dustpan to clean up the mess Clarke had made, leaving her on her own.

Greedily swallowing the pills, she savored the cold of the water and sighed before holding a hand to her forehead, willing the headache to disappear.

"You okay?" she heard Bellamy coming back, disposing of the shards of glass and filling a glass with water for himself.

"Yeah, just-," she sighed. "Woozy, achy and nauseous," she answered to which he nodded while taking a sip. But she looked at him a little more closely and noticed a hint of amusement that he desperately tried to hide. "And I feel like I should be embarrassed but, honestly, the less I know the better," she added to which he snorted.

"It was amazing," he told her with a grin and Clarke groaned, hiding behind her hands.

"I don't want to know," she grumbled. Normally she would have had at least one snarky reply in mind but she wasn't in form for that and the way her body felt, she wouldn't be able to be snarky and sarcastic any time soon. "Please tell me you didn't tape me."

"No, but now I wish I did," he replied wistfully and glanced at her cheek, then shook his head with laughter. "I swear, you looked like a freaking chipmunk when I picked you up but that was nothing in comparison to now."

Clarke frowned and her hand shot up to cup her cheek which was indeed warm and swollen.

"Like you're the most beautiful person in town right now," she at least tried to retort with something snarky although it sounded more like she was in third grade.

"Huh. Well, see," Bellamy replied, not offended in the least. "I don't really believe that. You explicitly told me that I am very pretty."

Clarke froze and her eyes widened. No matter what had happened, she decided then and there that he had definitely seen too much.

Not replying to him, she started moving again. "I need my keys and my phone." Moving around his apartment, she searched for the items, while Bellamy stood by the small bar in his kitchen, watching Clarke in amusement.

"I've never seen you this affectionate, Clarke," she heard Bellamy from behind her but it didn't throw her off her search.

Moving the pillows on the couch to the side, she answered him, "Shut up, Bellamy."

"Even the nurse thought you were being exceptionally cute," he continued while Clarke kept telling him to shut up.

"Did Finn like his bottom pinched?" he finally asked and Clarke froze, a look of horror on her face.

"What?" she asked. When it clicked, she loudly wailed and turned around to hide the blush that creeped up her neck. Falling onto the couch, she grumbled into the one of the pillows, "Kill me. Now. Just do it. Don't make me suffer any longer."

Bellamy sat down next to her, and helplessly patted her back. "It wasn't that bad," he tried to reassure, smothering a laugh. But when Clarke looked at him with sad eyes, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Okay, it was bad. If you promised me a show like that, I'd take care of you again in a heartbeat."

Clarke was torn between punching Bellamy and hiding but she chose to press her face into the plushy pillow again with a groan. "Anything else I should know about?"

She could see something flicker in his eyes but he shook his head with a small smile on his face, which made Clarke sigh in relief. "I'm so sorry. Octavia should have never pulled you into this."

"Nah, it's okay," he told her with a shrug of his shoulders. "The kind of things you do for friends, right?"

Clarke eyed Bellamy suspiciously, trying to find a trace of sarcasm or bitterness. But there was none, only a friendly smile on the mouth that usually only reserved snarky comments for her and a twinkle in his dark brown eyes.

"Right, friends," Clarke repeated and exhaled sharply, looking down. But she still felt Bellamy's eyes on her, so she looked back up. "What?"

"Nothing, I-," he stopped suddenly and shook his head slightly, the smile still prominent on his lips. "I don't think I've ever seen you act like this."

"Yeah, I'm not usually high on laughing gas, if that's what you mean," Clarke replied with a roll of her eyes.

"No, that's not what I meant," Bellamy told her, more seriously.

"So what did you mean?" Clarke asked curiously.

"I don't know, I've just.. I've never seen you this relaxed and happy, I guess."

"Is that a polite way of calling me a stuck up bitch?" Clarke asked, her eyebrows raised. Bellamy's face fell and tried to counter but she reassured him, "Relax, that was a joke."

"Right," he breathed and chuckled nervously.

"Anyway… Thanks for putting up with me but I should go," she told him and stood up.

"Do you really want to go home now?" he asked with a look at his watch. "It's two in the morning." Following after her, he went to retrieve both her phone and her keys from the small chest on the cupboard by the door, as well as her bag.

"Yeah, I just… I'll be out of your hair," she told him with a shrug and grabbed her belongings.

"Right, come on, I'll drive you," he told her and motioned towards the door.

"You really don't have to. I can call a taxi," Clarke told him. "You've done enough already."

"I know but I want to," he told her, grabbing his own keys and opening the door. "Come on."

/

When they were both seated in his car, a comfortable silence had settled between both the two of them. Clarke had to admit that it wasn't as awkward as the many other times that Octavia had left them standing together without anything to talk about. There was no awkward pressure to make small talk, or at least it felt that way to her. She couldn't exactly speak for Bellamy.

"Thank you," Clarke finally spoke up and added with a laugh, "I don't think we've ever talked this much before."

"Tell me about it," Bellamy answered with a laugh of his own and with that they resumed their silence.

Clarke knew that Bellamy wasn't exactly someone who would chew your ear off but she had hoped that he would at least speak up once. She knew he hadn't told her everything but if it would spare her dignity, she would be okay with it. Or maybe not. The look on Bellamy's face - that quiet, thoughtful look - made it hard to stick with her decision of not wanting to know anything.

Looking down at her phone, she saw that Octavia had messaged her. When she saw what it was, she giggled.

"What?" Bellamy asked curiously

"Your sister wants to know whether you're still alive or bound and gagged in an alley by yours truly."

"Tell her I'm fine," Bellamy laughed and resumed driving.

He didn't speak up again until his car was parked in the parking lot in front of Clarke's apartment. "Thanks for that amazing show today."

"I aim to please," Clarke squeezed her eyes shut and laughed. "Anyway, thanks. Drive home safely."

Bellamy nodded and Clarke opened the door to let herself out. She had almost closed the car when she heard Bellamy call after her, "Clarke, wait."

In a matter of seconds he was out of the car and on her side with a shy smile on his face that was atypical for him.

"I'm, uh… Since I had to put up with you at your worst today," he started which made Clarke laugh but she let him continue anyway, "I think I have the right to claim some sort of compensation," he told her and leaned against the hood of his car.

"Really?" Clarke asked and put her hands on her hips. "And what did you have in mind?"

"Dinner," with a look at her cheek he corrected himself, "Or Ice Cream. Tomorrow?"

Clarke was visibly taken aback but the smile didn't leave her face.

"You really want to do this?" Clarke asked. She had anticipated something completely different. But Bellamy had turned out to be a lot better to hang out with than she had thought.

"Yeah," he told her with a nod and looked at her intently. Clarke could tell he really meant it.

"Right, okay," she agreed and Bellamy's posture straightened in triumph.

"Really?" he tried to reassure himself.

"Really," Clarke assured him with a smile. "See you tomorrow then."

"Right, tomorrow."

Clarke was almost by the door when she heard her name again. But this time, when she turned around, Bellamy was already standing right behind her. Looking at her closely, he closed his eyes briefly and put on a look Clarke could only describe as fuck this.

When his lips met hers, Clarke couldn't help but retaliate. She was surprised, that was safe to say. But it was pleasant and she had never thought that Bellamy would actually initiate something like this. Especially with her.

The kiss was short but when he pulled away he had a grin on his lips that made Clarke grin just the same.

"Kissing you feels better when you're sober," he told her with a laugh and Clarke blushed furiously.

Leaning her face onto his shoulder with a groan, she answered, "Oh god."

A/N: A few folks over at ao3 asked me to write a second part to this one-shot, so I thought I'd post it here as well. Thanks to everyone for reading :)