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sometimesrosy · 7 years

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The Carriage House, chap 2: : Mr Griffin and Mrs Blake ha ha ha

rosymamacita

Chapter 2 Read on AO3

Summary:

They moved in right away. No one saw a need to wait. Their friends helped them out and Vera, the landlady welcomed them with open arms.

It should have been so easy. It was easy. What was hard was the ruse. Because he didn't want it to be a ruse at all. And his friends seemed to want to rub it in his face.

Moving in was easy. And quick. By the next weekend, Clarke and Bellamy had bought simple gold bands to wear around the carriage house, rented a truck, and filled it with their stuff.

Vera greeted them at the gate, holding it open with a delighted smile on her face.

“Welcome, welcome! I’m so glad to invite you into our happy home. Aren’t you such a beautiful couple?” She reached out and held Clarke’s face, kissing her on both cheeks firmly before letting go and turning to Bellamy, pulling him down with surprising strength and doing the same to him. She linked one arm into each of theirs and walked them through the garden courtyard, showing them all her flowers and fruit trees, the barbecue set up on the patio and the fountain that tinkled and cancelled out the noise of the city streets through the alley entrance.

Bellamy and Clarke’s friends carried box after box through the garden paths into the carriage house while Vera refused to let them get away.

“Seriously, Vera, I feel guilty letting our friends do all the work, we should help them…” Bellamy said.

Raven passed them with some of Clarke’s paintings under her arms. She shot them a look. Bellamy rolled his eyes back at her. She knew the game. Of course she did. She was the other teacher in their partnership, the one who taught the kids math and science. The three of them worked together and she was the one who teased them half that time about being ‘married.’ She knew this was fake, but she also knew it was the best apartment possible. She was the one who convinced Bellamy he should go through with it when he wanted to back out. So why was she giving them that look?

“Nonsense. You’ll buy them a pizza and some beer tonight and then once you get settled in, you’ll invite them over and we’ll have a barbecue. This is what friends are for.”

“We?”

She smiled and guided them over to her barbecue again. “Did I show you my barbecue? It really hasn’t gotten much use since my kids moved out. It’s time we have a nice family party.”

“Do you mean Marcus?” Clarke asked. Bellamy could tell she was charmed by Vera. “Do you have other children.”

“My own children? No. Just Marcus. But all the kids I’ve taught or taken under my wing are my kids. They all have a home here. You’re my kids now. Your friends are my kids. This is what we believe. Family. A future. Community. When we have your housewarming barbecue, we’ll add all your names to The Tree.”

“The Tree?” Bellamy was starting to get a funny feeling.

“The Tree.” Vera stopped them in front of a beautiful old plum tree with twisting branches, already heavy with fruit. “This is the representative of all that we believe. Community. Family. Home. When we add your names to the branches, it will bless you and your union and consecrate your marriage and family for the future.”

Bellamy was definitely uncomfortable. “I thought you were a Christian, Vera.”

Vera chuckled. “Oh no. I believe in the Unity Path.”

Oh. Unity Path. That kind of wacky church that was basically about bringing humanity all together and valued intermarriage and children to create a more beautiful future yadda yadda. Right. Now it all made sense. They had these temples precisely for young couples. He caught Clarke’s eyes. She was biting her lip and grinning. She’d figured it out too. That’s why she wanted her tenants to be married. It was how she honored her church. He almost felt guilty that Clarke and he were faking. They wouldn’t be a real couple and they wouldn’t be having children.

He definitely felt guilty. Well he could give her what she wanted at least, a garden courtyard full of young people ready to celebrate life and love and their new home.

Monty and Jasper were hauling a dresser. Raven had a box for the kitchen. Miller had a whole pile of boxes on a dolly, heading down the paths to the carriage house. “You guys up for a courtyard barbecue at the end of the school year? As our house warming party? Vera would love to have you all.”

“Sweet!” Jasper said and Monty grinned along.

“Yeah, I could hang out in this garden with a beer and some friends. If I have to,” Raven said. Which was Raven being enthusiastic about non science and technology things.

“If I have to,” Miller agreed. Which was Miller being enthusiastic about pretty much anything.

Yeah, Bellamy and Clarke weren’t going to give Vera her couple with babies, but he could give her a courtyard full of young people that she could matchmake.

Strangely, this made him feel less guilty. He turned back to Vera with a smile. She didn’t seem to notice his divided thoughts. He glanced at Clarke and she raised her eyebrows at him. She, however, probably knew exactly what was going through his mind.

“See?” Vera said. “That’s how it works.” She turned to their friends, burdened with boxes and furniture. “None of you mind getting them set up while I take them for a tour of their new home, do you?”

Miller pressed his lips together, but Raven got a glint in her eye that Bellamy didn’t trust. “Not at all, Vera. We’ll take care of them. You can be sure of that.”

He shot a look at Clarke. She looked worried, too. But there wasn’t time for worry. Vera grabbed their arms again. “Perfect. I’ll send them back with some sangria. Come, children,” she said and shuffled them off down the garden path behind some trees and flowering bushes until Bellamy couldn’t see his friends anymore, but he could still hear their muffled laughter.

***

When Vera finally released them from her tour of the garden and her brownstone which was full of empty rooms and old knick knacks and books and paintings and mementos and plants and cats and a life well lived, the sun was going down and Bellamy carried a huge jug of nearly purple sangria. Clarke had her own tray of birds nest cookies filled with jewel colored jams. They’d already ordered four large pizzas from the pizza place that Vera had suggested and that should be along soon.

Bellamy went into the carriage house feeling rather strange. Spending the afternoon with his arm wrapped around his partner, pretending to be her husband, receiving cheek kisses and whispered wry comments, had already gotten him buzzing with a strange energy, so when he held the door for his Clarke and walked into the living room to find his friends all sprawled out on Clarke’s cozy couch, drinking the beer he’d bought for them, he felt like he’d entered an alternate reality.

Was this his life? Was this his home? Was this his…wife?

“Close the door dude. You’re letting in the smell of flowers and gardens,” Jasper said reclining back on the couch, beer in hand, feet up on a box that hadn’t been opened yet. He caught a look at Bellamy and then sat up. “Wait. What’s in the jug?”

Jasper jumped up and came over.

“Vera made us some sangria,” he said, but not before Jasper got to him and tried opening the lid on the jar. Bellamy tried to hold him off and instead, splashed sangria down his front.

“What the hell, Jasper?”

“You spilled it!” Jasper cried, taking the jar from him and cradling it. “The glasses! We need glasses!” He went off to the kitchen in search of glasses.

“Are you high?” Bellamy grumbled, holding the now soaked t shirt away from his skin.

“A little,” he said.

Clarke came up and put a hand on his arm. She blinked at him slowly, reminding him that their friends had moved the whole truck with virtually no help from them. Bellamy sighed. She was right. “Vera also made us cookies,” Clarke said and held up the tray. Monty came up and relieved her of the cookies.

“Cookies and sangria?” Raven said, sitting on the couch rubbing at her thigh and bad leg. “You promised us pizza.”

“We ordered it already. It’s coming,” Bellamy said, looking at her worriedly. She looked tired. “Did you hurt yourself? I told you not to over exert yourself.”

Raven snorted and rolled her eyes. “I can handle a few boxes.”

“I wouldn’t let her carry any of the big stuff. Don’t worry,” Miller said, “I took care of Raven while you were being a good husband to your wife.”

Raven chuckled along with Miller, both of them smirking up at Clarke and Bellamy. “You’re looking pretty purple there,” she gestured to the rapidly spreading stain on his shirt. “You’d better go change before the pizza gets here. You wouldn’t want to embarrass the wifey.”

“Shut up.” He was doing a lot of grumbling. Clarke rubbed his arm comfortingly. For some reason the teasing didn’t seem to bother her.

Probably because she didn’t have to worry about actually being in love with him. To her it was just silly teasing. Just a ruse.

“Go change, Bellamy,” Clarke said. She looked so happy.

A knife twisted in his gut. Because he didn’t want it to be ruse. The realization hit him at exactly that moment. He didn’t just have crush on her. He didn’t just want to get her into bed because she was hot. He wasn’t in danger of falling in love with her. He was actually in love with her and he wanted her to fall in love with him and he wanted to be her boyfriend and then marry her and have kids together and grow old together. He just stared at her.

“Bellamy…go change and rinse that out before it stains. That’s my favorite t shirt of yours.”

“Huh?” He looked down. It wasn’t anything special, just an old t shirt meant for moving, with the nasa logo fading out, and nearly worn thin.

She shoved him towards his room. “Go. I’m sure they’ve put all your stuff in your room. All your boxes were clearly marked with contents and location.” She’d teased him so much about his anal moving organization skills, but he was the one who would laugh, when all his things were easily unpacked and put away and hers were still lost in the chaos of her moving system, which entailed throwing random things into the nearest box and taping it up and shoving it out of the way.

Clarke’s teasing put him back on steady ground. He liked her, no matter how much he loved her. And he could just be. And like her. And be her roommate. It would wear off he was sure, once the newness of it all settled in. He was sure.

“Laugh now, Griffin,” he said. “You’ll be crying when you can’t find any of your art supplies or cardigans.” Two things she was never without. Her art supplies and an endless stream of thrifted vintage cardigans, because she was always cold, even in the middle of summer.

She tried to mock him again but he waved her off and headed into his room, the one on the right, pulling his tshirt over his head as he went. He closed the door.

The room held nothing but a bed with a bare mattress, a desk, and a lamp. There were no boxes. There was nothing in his room. None of his things were there. What the hell was going on? What had they done with all his stuff? He knew he shouldn’t have let them take charge of moving, and he kept trying to get back to direct them and help out but Vera commanded him to stay and he’d felt such guilt over the lies that he stayed. But now look what his fool friends had done.

He whipped his door open and stormed back out into the living room. “Where the hell is my stuff?”

Jasper and Monty were snickering over the plate of cookies but Raven looked cooly back at him. “We put it in your room. You’re welcome.”

Miller flicked through the tv. “That’s mighty ungrateful of you, Mr Griffin. All our hard work in setting up your love nest and this is what we get.”

“What’s going on?” Clarke came out of the kitchen with a bunch of wine glasses, stopping short at the sight of him.

“They hid all my stuff. There’s nothing in my room. Look, I appreciate your help moving and all and I owe you one, you know it, but can I have my stuff back now? I need to change.”

“He told you, Bellamy, we put it in your room.”

“My room is on the right and there’s nothing in there.”

Miller flipped through the channels, still not looking at him, cool as a cucumber. He shook his head. “We put it in your room. That is the guest room. You’re welcome.”

Clarke choked a bit on nothing and then shook her head as if to clear it. “Are you guys kidding me?” She put the glasses down on the coffee table and grabbed Bellamy’s arm as she lead him down the hall to the room on the left. HER room.

She opened the door and there was Clarke’s room, all set up, the bed nicely made with her fluffy down comforter. Two small cozy chairs that he knew were meant for the living room. Flowers, cut from Vera’s garden in a vase on the bedside. They’d even put up curtains in her window. They were his curtains, plain white ones that filtered the light just a bit, but they were on Clarke’s windows.

“What the hell?” he said. “My room was completely empty. This one is all set up.”

She rolled her eyes. “And you couldn’t find your clothes?”

“I couldn’t find anything.”

Clarke went to the closet and opened the doors. Her clothes were all hung up, neatly, right next to his.

He stepped up to look closer, because. Ridiculous. “Why are my clothes hanging in your room.”

“Our friends are assholes.”

He ground his teeth. “They’re never going to let go of this fake marriage thing, are they? Married couple. Sharing a room. Calling me Mr Griffin.”

“Probably not. They’ve been calling me Mrs Blake if it makes you feel better.”

He was not going to tell her that hearing that name on her lips actually sent a thrill through him. He ground his jaw again. “I’m going to kill them.”

Clarke laughed throatily and looked down at his bare chest. “I think you should put on a shirt before you do.” She reached in and pulled a tshirt off of a shelf. “This is a great closet,” she said. “Way bigger than yours.”

“My room gets the morning light. I like to wake up to the sun.”

She smiled then handed him the shirt. “This is my second favorite shirt of yours.”

It was an old vintage style shirt. “Battlestar Galactica?”

“I love science fiction.”

“You just love calling me a nerd.”

She hummed. “Mm. That too.” Her smile made his heart leap.

A clangor went up in the garden. Clarke jumped.

“What the hell is that Griffin?!” Raven yelled from the living room.

“It’s the courtyard gate bell,” he said, and he couldn’t quite help how gruff his voice was.

“Oh right.” Clarke nodded. “Get dressed before the pizza gets here, hubby. I’ll let the the delivery guy in.”

Clarke left her room— their room according to his friends— and he had to hold onto the closet door for a minute in reaction. He took deep breaths. This would get easier right?

#bellarke #bellarke fan fiction #modern au #the carriage house #fake marriage

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