The new chapter was so good and beautifully unexpected! Honestly, my favorite thing about your work is the way that the characters are fully realized with dynamics going on outside of their romantic relationship
And I so loved getting to see the struggles and tension of friendship (but with the grounding of them love and respect), but the space and growth of another friendship at the same time
But also the little nudge of Hey you have to literally promise me that you were going to take your Situationship on a peaceful vacation day
And it adds such lovely layers to Jehans face when they get back and he is like 👀👀😻
it is truly spectacular to see them coming back together as grown, and a better version of themselves though
this is why I am forever yelling at anyone I meet upon finding out that they fic to read this
hello! I'm so sorry it's taken me such a long time to reply to this, I was honestly just hoarding it like a treasure in my inbox 😭
I'm so glad you liked the chapter!! And yes it's very important to me that all of the different relationships in the story have their own weight. Romance is like, a nice bonus thing if it comes along (and extremely fun to torture The Characters with), but platonic relationships are just as meaningful so I always want to reflect that :)
Ehehe Jehan is done messing around!! He's only going to dispense advice if his favourite idiots promise to actually take it 😂 And of course while Enjolras and Grantaire were off having their beach episode, Jehan didn't 100% know where they'd gone? Obviously he was HOPING that Enjolras had made good on his promise but when they got back, there was definitely some "oh thank god" in there along with his general glee 😂
Thank you so much for the lovely message! It's so nice to hear which elements of the story someone is particularly enjoying, it really means a lot 🥹
KATIE!!!! I thought of another book rec for you: Tash Hearts Tolstoy! Feat: an ace main character and fandom related shenanigans. Some plot, but not really. :D - other Katie
okay, Other Katie, NOW you’re speaking my language, i’ll def be checking this one out!
Hey! Just wanted to say that you are a super lovely, talented, amazing, inspiring lady!!!! I am so sorry that receiving awful abusive and cruel anons is a part of your life at all. No one should have to endure that. But I wanted to pop in and say that you are a wonderful soul living what I assume is your best life and we are so blessed to have you in this fandom <3 I hope you have a lovely day!!!
This means so much, thank you! Really, it’s such a small part of my fandom experience but when it crops up it’s frustrating, but messages like this make up for it tenfold. I really, really appreciate it. <3
Bellarke version of the princess diaries 2 with one of them attempting to prevent the royal wedding (to third party), whilst falling in love with the prince/princess. Thank you, and you are truly incredible!
Clarke thought she knew exactly how stupid it would be to see Bellamy before her wedding. She knew all the reasons she shouldn’t have seen the person she isn’t marrying, the one she’s actually in love with, the one whose sister has a claim to her throne if anything goes wrong with this wedding. She thought she had assessed all the risks and decided it was worth it anyway.
But she hadn’t known all the risks. She hadn’t thought he’d betray her.
“We can spin this,” her mother is saying. “It’s not great, but it’s not–”
“It’s not royal behavior,” says Queen Katherine, her voice icy. No one can disapprove like a queen, especially a queen who’s also your grandmother.
“I was talking to a friend,” Clarke protests. “That’s not spin. That’s the truth. Just because it turned out I was wrong about our friendship doesn’t mean–”
“Don’t act like you went out there that night to be with your friend, Clarke,” says Abby. “You’re getting married, and–”
“And that’s bullshit!” She doesn’t mean to say it, but it’s the truth too, as important a truth. “It’s bullshit that getting married is supposed to magically make me a ruler. If he died tomorrow, I could still be queen, as long as I was married once.”
“Don’t say that,” says Indra, mild. “It makes it sound like you’re planning to assassinate your own husband.”
“You know what I mean. I can be just as good a ruler with or without a husband.”
“I specifically told you to stop seeing that boy,” says her grandmother. Given she and Abby aren’t actually related, it’s amazing how similar they are. Clarke honestly can’t believe that Katherine disapproved of the marriage.
But there were strict rules about what her father’s marriage could look like.
“I wanted to see him,” she snaps, reflexively, and it’s the wrong thing to say for a thousand reasons.
“Which doesn’t speak well to your judgement. A friend who betrays you–”
“From everything I’ve seen, he didn’t betray her,” Indra interjects, and this time all three of them whirl on her. “I looked into it.”
“And you’re only telling me this now?” Clarke adds.
She shrugs. “I don’t know how much it matters. After all, the main issue remains.”
“Main issue?” asks Clarke.
“The footage is damning, regardless of anything else. Just because Bellamy wasn’t aware of the deception, that doesn’t mean it’s not a problem. But he does seem to have been innocent of all wrong-doing.”
“If he wasn’t doing anything wrong then what was he doing?” Katherine demands.
“Saying goodbye,” Clarke says, less to them than just in their presence. It’s for her. But since they’re there, she adds, “He just–he wanted to say goodbye. That’s what he told me.”
“You’re getting married, not dying.”
She feels exhausted, suddenly. “I stopped my flirtation with him, like you told me I had to. That doesn’t mean I stopped having feelings for him. You know as well as I do what my getting married will do to our friendship.” She exhales, getting her feelings under control. “But it doesn’t matter. Like Indra said, all that matters is how we deal with the fallout of the video. It doesn’t affect anything else. Wells and I are getting married this afternoon. And Bellamy and I are–nothing.”
Her grandmother watches her, a small frown on her face. “I am sorry,” she finally says. “I know this is not–the life of a princess is not an easy one, and I did you no favors when I told you this was your future. It isn’t all balls and true love’s kiss, in real life.”
“No,” she agrees. “But I know my duty. I’ll do what has to be done.”
*
“So,” says Wells. It’s bad luck to see him before the wedding, but they have fallout to deal with. He deserves an explanation. “That guy. Bellamy?”
“Yeah, Bellamy.”
“Why aren’t you marrying him? I remember seeing you two dancing at the ball. He seems like a good prospect.”
“He’s not royal. Not even noble. He was there with his sister. Who’s apparently my heir, until I produce another one. So it’s this whole–” She sighs. “His family was working to dethrone me, because I’m not a good ruler.”
“You know that’s bullshit, right?” he asks. “You’re going to be a great queen, Clarke.”
“I hope so.” She bites the corner of her mouth. “But I don’t think I can marry you.”
“I was thinking that too.”
Her smile aches a little. “You were?”
“I want to do what’s best for my home, my country, my people. But I want to do what’s best for myself too.”
“I get that. But–I think this might be easy for me.”
“Which part?”
“What’s best for all of those is the same thing, I’m pretty sure.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
This time, her smile is sure. “I need a really good speech.”
*
As Wells said, Clarke did meet Bellamy first at a ball. He was hard to miss, handsome and charming, but more importantly just a little bit lost. A little like Clarke herself felt, honestly.
When she asked what he was doing there, he answered honestly: he was escorting his sister. In fact, he basically always told her the truth, or at least most of it. He’d been honest about the fact that he thought monarchy was an outdated practice, that he thought the country would be better off with someone who understood the perspective of the common citizen. He and Clarke had bickered about it, her pointing out that she had lived most of her life as a common citizen and Bellamy shooting back that she hadn’t been an Arcadian citizen.
She’d thought that if he was one of the choices for marriage, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Now, though, she knows he isn’t. Even if he didn’t ask to see her the other night because he wanted to see her, he’s still not someone she can marry. She’s a princess, and she needs to marry a prince, not a man whose mother married into the nobility after he was born.
But if he isn’t trying to keep her from being queen, she assumes that means he wants to help.
“Clarke!” he says, when he picks up his phone. “Fuck, I’ve been calling all morning, I wanted to apologize, O’s uncle, he–”
“It’s okay,” she says. “I know it wasn’t your idea. My head of security filled me in. That’s not why I called.”
There’s a pause. “Uh, okay. Then why are you calling?”
“You’re a speechwriter.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m writing a speech to give about why I’m not getting married today that’s hopefully going to convince parliament to change the law about my not being able to be queen. I’ve got most of it done, but I could use another set of ears.”
Another pause. “So, I don’t need to come to your wedding and try to talk you out of it? Because these YouTube videos about how I’m supposed to tie this tie aren’t really helping much, so it would be good if you already changed your mind.”
“I’ve never been the one who needs to be convinced this is a shitty idea,” she points out. Her smile is so big it almost hurts. “I always thought it was a bad law. I’ve been trying to change it, and this is my last chance. So I need to bring my A-game.”
“You came to the right guy,” he says. “After we got O on the throne, the next step was taking out that law.”
Clarke smiles. “So, your plan was to use a shitty law to dethrone me and then immediately get the law overturned so she wouldn’t have to marry some random guy?”
“Like you said, it’s a shitty law. So tell me what you’ve got and I’ll tell you if you’re missing anything.”
“This isn’t getting you out of coming the wedding, by the way.”
“No?” he asks, sounding surprised.
“I’m hoping I’m going to have something to celebrate after. And I want you to be there.”
“You do?”
“I kind of like you,” she says, and there’s another pause.
“Okay, well. Let’s get this thing done,” he says, voice thick. “And then I’ll figure out how bow ties work.”
“It’s not really going to be a wedding. You don’t have to dress up.”
“I still want to look nice,” he says. “Read me your speech.”
*
It’s not hard to come up with a whole list of reasons the Arcadian tradition is archaic and unfair, including its inherent misogyny and homophobia, and apparently her parliament likes her well enough that their response to an ultimatum about changing the job or losing her as the heir is changing the law.
So she doesn’t get married, but they’re still set up for a big party, and as far as Clarke’s concerned, they have a lot to be grateful for.
Unfortunately, everyone else seems to feel the same, because they all want to talk to her, tell her how happy they are, how they always supported her, and it feels like hours before she disentangles herself from the politicians and finds enough space to breathe.
“To your left, in the corner,” Indra says, low, and Clarke follows her gaze to spot Bellamy, looking slightly awkward in the corner with his sister. He’s more dressed up than she’s seen him since the first time he met, but this time he didn’t slick his hair back or put in his contacts. His glasses are sliding down his nose and his hair is a riot of curls.
She told him she liked him better like this, and he listened.
“Can you watch but not stay that close?” she asks Indra. “There’s security everywhere. I just want to pretend I have some privacy.”
“I do love pretending I’m not here,” she says. “Good luck.”
Octavia notices her first, raises her flute of champagne in Clarke’s direction with a wry smile. “Congratulations on getting the law changed. Honestly, I’m relieved.”
“Really?” Clarke asks.
“I know Bell was convinced I’d be a good queen, but I think I can do more good outside the monarchy. Plus, if they didn’t change the law I would have had to marry some noble I’d never met. That would have sucked.”
“Glad I could help. I did it for you, obviously.”
She smirks. “Yeah, for me. Which reminds me, I have to go talk to–” She casts around, clearly trying to find someone whose name she can use. “Lord Kane. Good to see you!”
“Subtle,” Clarke tells Bellamy, and he rubs the back of his neck, flushing slightly.
“I told her she needed to come so I’d have backup.”
“You need backup?”
“I wasn’t sure.” He clears his throat. “Not that I’m not glad you’re not married, but that means you’re going to be the queen. I assume you’ll be–busy.”
“I will be. But I could use someone I trusted to talk to. Give me feedback on my speeches. Consult about important issues.”
He looks her up and down, dubious. “You want to hire me?”
“No, that’s not–if you want a job writing speeches for me, you can have it, but that’s not really what I was thinking.”
“Which was?”
He’s smiling, so she can too. “I’m not really ready to get married yet, honestly. But I wouldn’t mind dating. You, specifically.”
“I didn’t think queens dated.”
“I think we can do what we want.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not true. If the last few weeks of trying to derail your coronation taught me anything, it’s that you really can’t. You technically couldn’t marry me if you wanted to. Not that I’m, uh–”
“I bet that’s a law we could get changed if we wanted to. And it’s not like we’re in a hurry, right? We can figure it out later. When it comes up. But maybe we should start with dinner.”
He offers his hand. “How about starting with a dance?”
She takes it, feeling his fingers close around hers, rough and warm. “I’d love to.”
*
A year later, he puts a draft of an amendment to the law about female members of the royal family having to marry titled nobles to retain their own status and property.
“It’s not homophobic, but it is misogynistic,” he says. “I think you should be able to get it changed.”
She smiles, scanning over the papers. “Thanks. Any particular reason you want me to look into it?”
“I figure you might want to get married someday. You want to have your options open. In case there’s a commoner who’s planning to make you dinner and propose soon. Just for example.”
“Soon?”
“As soon as the law changes, probably.”
“So I should work on it now, is what you’re telling me.”
“Just if you want to get married soon. I know royal weddings can take a while, so–”
“So let’s get the law changed and see if we can find a commoner to propose to me.”
He grins. “Yeah. I don’t think it’ll be too hard.”
I have had the MOST UNPRODUCTIVE MORNING because I am just thinking of scenarios in which Enjorlas could be made to witness Grantaire interact with a child. Like, we are def not getting to the point of him seeing that memory any time soon, but on a hunt they could need to PROTECT A CHILD, or be made to BABYSIT (for REASONS), or a child comes up to them and starts talking and Enjorlas would be the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE and Grantaire would just be earnest and sweet and ENJORLAS WOULD BE THERE WATCHIN
sfkjhasl yesss
this is 100% not actually going to happen in the fic bc god it’s going to be long enough as it is but I think we do all need to consider the AU where some creature with strange powers comes along and de-ages some or all of Grantaire’s human friends?? Can’t quite decide which version of this scenario would be most delightful:
a) only Enjolras gets de-aged and Grantaire tries to keep his distance from him at first bc he knows that Enjolras is going to be furious when he gets turned back to normal but ultimately he just can’t bc it’s a CHILD who NEEDS HIM and yes Enjolras is utterly mortified when he ages back up but also uncomfortably aware of how very kind Grantaire was to him while he was tiny and helpless
b) everyone BUT Enjolras gets de-aged and suddenly he and Grantaire have to wrangle tiny Jehan and Combeferre and possibly the entire Lyon crew and Enjolras is overwhelmed and kind of useless and has to witness Grantaire’s incredible babysitting skills first-hand
my heart is BROKEN but also, somehow, SO FULL!!!!! that update was BEAUTIFUL and Grantaire talking about his past was so heartbreaking. MY KINGDOM FOR THESE BOYS TO ACTUALLY SUCCESSFULLY READ EACH OTHER AND HOW THEY ARE FEELING. Excellent Excellent work. 👏👏👏 Thank you for being a bright spot in dark times
ahaha yeah every chapter is kind of a mixed bag of emotions but hey that’s part of the FUN!! 8) thank you for such a nice message!! I hope the fic can continue to cheer you up/break your heart through these weird times.
