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[ he looks at her in amusement, brow arched and his smile wide. ] You think it's a weakness?

[ bellamy may smile, but he knows she's right. there's a reason why he never sat around one of the campfires at their first campsite and told story after story to the kids. there's a reason why he hasn't told anyone a single tale, save for raven, now, letting himself slip. mom will always be a vulnerable point for him; exposing this part of himself shows bits of her, and bellamy, for as selfish as he is, wants to keep aurora blake with him, only sharing her with octavia. ]

[ it's easier to shrug off being called an asshole, a murderer, or even a monster, but when it comes to aurora blake, he finds that he's ready and willing to give up at the first mention or thought of her disliking the person he's become. his greek stories are the only thing he has left of her. but bellamy doesn't think to tell anyone that. ]

[She shrugs.] No. But it does betray you. [She reaches out and gives Cerberus the toy a soft pat on the head, before taking a sip of her beer.]

You're a dreamer. Story-tellers usually are.

[ watching her acknowledge cerberus, he's the tamest dog in his apartment. quiet and obedient, he doesn't make a fuss over being looked at, let alone touched. he shifts on his bed so he's facing her slightly. he keeps his expression one of amusement, but bellamy finds that he's searching for something in her words. ] You say it like it's a bad thing to be.

Of course it's not. [Because, she thinks, for all her bluntness and all her similarities to a shark (a hammerhead, was it?), she's been a dreamer too. She dreamed the stars would carry her away from a shitty life on the Ark, she dreamed machines and contraptions most people didn't see the use of.]

You're in good company, right?

[ he shrugs his shoulders, unsure. the stories mom told him had kept him company long before octavia had ever been born. after that, they'd been the only friends bellamy could rely on after his sister had become his responsibility and even his only confidant. but now things are different; sometimes bellamy's grateful for the shakeup. ]

I guess. [ in bellamy's context, the greek figures could never tell the council on his mom for having a second child. they'd been a hell of a lot safer than making good friends with the kids his age living in section 17. who could they tell, when they only existed on paper or in mom's memory? ] I've never really thought about it. [ he shifts on his bed. ] I kind of thought everyone grew up hearing those stories.

[She lets out one very dry laugh.] No. [Her mother wasn't a story-teller, and if she ever told stories, Raven tuned them out as ramblings of a drunken woman. She hadn't been put to sleep once with a fairy tale, and she read all the stories she knows later, when she was older and her mother no longer traded everything for booze.

It makes her swallow a sudden burst of dormant rage, and down it with a longer sip of beer.] No, some of us never heard one.

[ sometimes bellamy doesn't realise how lucky he'd been growing up. at times, he thought himself to be unlucky, and he had when he'd lost mom and octavia for a year. in hindsight, though, he's begun to realise what he assumed everyone else may have had, he's able to give it to them now. looking at her, he thinks to nudge her. he goes to do so, except he doesn't do it with his elbow. lifting his leg, he nudges her with his foot to draw her attention to what she has now instead of what her hands had been empty of in the past. ]

You've heard some. [ from him, which may not be the same as hearing it as a child, or even from a mother. tilting his head slightly as he regards her, ] Not tired of them yet?

[Nudged, she breaks out of the webbings of her past, and reaches out to stroke the sole of his foot once, possibly scanning for tickles. But not pushing it.

She gives him a smile.] No. I'm still asking for them, aren't I?

[ he moves his foot away from her as subtly as he can, finding her touch against the sole of his foot to be ticklish. he lets his feet hang high, bent at the knee, swinging the one closest to her away from her. ]

Just checking.

[ he looks away to smile to himself. letting his legs hang off the side of his bed, bellamy shifts before he looks at her again, smile still lingering, even if the shyness of it disappears. ] I just wanted to make sure. I need to read up on some of them before I tell them to you. Want to get all the facts right.

[Is he trying to pretend he's a stork? No, he's ticklish and she will remember that for when she needs to use it. Not now, there's this beer to be had.

Maybe not the chocolate though, it's not agreeing with her much. She ignores the bar from hereon.]

You really could get away with it either way.

[ bellamy stretches, reaching for his beer on the windowsill, and tips it back. wiping his thumb against the glass, he looks at her with an arch of his brow. ] I'm not going to tell you the wrong story, Raven. [ he places the glass back on the windowsill, but doesn't unwrap his fingers from around it. ]

[ truthfully, now that he knows she's never had the luxury of aurora blake telling her story after story despite informing her she's to go to bed the moment they finish their second one, he doesn't want to lie to her. shifting it around to suit his own agenda, or simply making one up on the spot, letting her believe it's true even though it's not, he doesn't particularly want to lie. even though he's sure she wouldn't read up on it until later, or even care if he gave her a version that's his own, bellamy doesn't want to give her the wrong one. it means something to him, that she's even asking for stories, welcoming them as she seems to remember the names he says and asks for him to tell her about them later. ]

You could go around and spread it. I'm not going to be responsible for that.

Such outstanding work ethics. [What a change in personality he's had, since the first time she met him. It's shocking, really. She never thought she'd end up spilling her guts to the guy who welcomed her to Earth with a hand around her neck, let alone have a beer and talk about storytelling with him.

They've really grown as people.]

I try my best.

[ he'd puff out his chest if he wasn't lying on his stomach. instead, his voice sounds lighter than it usually is, or how it's become in eudio where he's had the opportunity to tease or joke. he lifts his beer and takes a swig of it, placing it back down on the windowsill. looking at it, he sees he's already drunk half. ]

[ turning to raven, he arches his brow, and tells her as though it's a fact, ] I take the integrity of stories very seriously.

[She hides her smile behind the sip of beer she takes, and thinks about that. Lets it steep for a bit, before coming up with:] You should write them.

[ touching the neck of his beer to his cheek, he's about to take another drink until she speaks. pulling his glass back, bellamy looks at her as though she's grown two extra heads. ]

Everyone knows the Greek stories. There's no use in writing what's in every book about them.

[ they've been through this before, with raven pushing him to try and do what he wants instead of what he thinks he needs. being at the coffee shop for the sake of keeping in line with what he had been thinking back when he first appeared in the city isn't healthy, let alone any use to him. ]

[ but bellamy likes to fall back into old patterns, even though the coffee shop isn't a part of his. ]

Sure, whatever, but they're written about a dude from centuries ago. [She shrugs.] You tell them different.

[She knows, because she's compared from memory. It's not her duty or job to set him on paths to self-discovery, she's merely making suggestions this time around.]

[ he smiles, brows furrowing, ] I tell them how they're written.

[ except he tends to tell the different versions, choosing the one he likes best, the one that seems more plausible for him given what he knows. he doesn't think much on it. raven's revealed her hand a little, even though he's not too sure if he's leaping to the wrong conclusion, thinking she's read a little more than he'd last thought. ]

[ looking down at his windowsill, his tone shifts into something lower. ] I'll write them down for you. Just in case.

[He makes it sound like a favor, but somehow she thinks he's going to enjoy the journey too. It makes for an opportunity in the future to say I told you so, and she wouldn't give that up.]

Good.

[ she's right — he'd enjoy writing them down, just as much as he likes telling them. it's not a favour for her, but for himself, being able to remember something he had loved as a child and seems to have held onto a passion for in his adulthood. being able to leave that behind for her when he inevitably leaves, he thinks it's a good thing he can do, at least. ]

[ looking out his window, up at the dark sky lingering outside of his apartment, bellamy thinks to ask the stars instead of her, ] Read anything new lately? [ he takes a moment before he glances at her, stretching his legs until they're as straight as he can make them. ]

[A little jealous of his sprawl, she decides that fuck it, she's comfortable enough around him to join him. She wants the view, too. So she lies down properly, somewhere beside him but not close, on her back. She has the choice now, to either look at Bellamy or at the sky.

Cheesy as it is, she likes that choice.]

Are you asking them or me?

[ when he feels her move beside him, he watches her from the corner of his eye. he doesn't need to do that anymore, watch her leg, make sure she isn't pushing herself until she's leaning against the wall or struggling to even summon the courage to ask for help. it's never been a burden for him to give her support when she needs it. ]

[ glancing up at the stars, he thinks over her question before he looks to her. the stars have never been a friend to him, not in the way raven has. it's an easy answer. it's one he tries sabotage any hope from warming his voice. ] Have you?

[She doesn't need the support or the help now, won't need it again. She thinks that maybe in the upcoming weeks, she'll train and get her legs in shape again, so she can give him a piggy-back all the way down to the shore.

Meanwhile, there's the ability to move around autonomously.] I haven't had the time. Got any recommendation that isn't about stories I'm going to end up asking you to tell me anyway?

[ he smiles, and looks up at what he can see of the night sky through his window. as if asking the stars for a little help on a story that isn't one he knows from the ark, he finds that they're useless to him. ]

What did you do when you first got here? [ he looks at her, brows slightly furrowed. maybe he should know this, if he was here in the beginning of her stay. he doesn't ask about it, never thinks to. he imagines that it might be a hard thing for her to stomach, him arriving and then departing without so much as a knock on her door. ]

Ha - I ate everything I could get my hands on, and I tried every drink I was told came free... [It's been so long now, if she thinks about it, and she almost gets nostalgic thinking back to that day. She'd met Clarke, and told her to back off. She'd heard he was in the city too, but...

She looks sideways at him. It was worth the wait, the second time around.] And I went to look at the cars, so all mechanics in the city ended up knowing of me.

I'm not surprised. [ by her eating all the food she could, given he's done the same, or the mechanics coming to know her. bellamy's pretty sure the people who work at the bookstores along the boardwalk have come to know him by name. it seems as though, when given the chance, they've gravitate toward the things that they like most. on their ground, there's obviously no opportunity to do so — he doubts there ever will be. ]

And now you work at a garage. If I ever get a car, I'll only ask you to ever fix the dents. [ he smiles at her. bellamy blake owning a car seems like a joke to him, but he thinks if he ever gets one, finally tired of walking everywhere, he'd only trust raven to fix the dents, the broken lights and windows, and whatever else makes a car function other than gas and a foot on the pedal. ]

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ack, html failure ack

i see nothing of the sort.

good continue

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