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You Can’t Deny This Gift

Bellarke Christmas Calender 2017

December 19th:

by Hannagh [flawlessbanshee/] [ao3] | Beta: foreverfelicityqueen

Word count: 3967

Thank you so much to Hannagh ♥ for participating in our bellarke christmas. Please go and check out her other great work.

Clarke hates Secret Snowflake.

She loves her job and that’s only amplified by most of her coworkers, who she considers family, but Secret Snowflake makes her kind of hate them. The stress of the office draw, the budget, people swapping names and the unpredictability of it all irritates her.

The only thing that could possibly be considered to irritate her more. Is Bellamy Blake.

They’re both heads of their own departments and equals in the hierarchy scheme and in power. They also hate each other.

It’s been going on for as long as Clarke can remember. Both competitive as hell and ready to fight for what they want. Forceful, strong, defensive. They offset each other in the worst way more often than not. It’s better now than it ever has been. They’ve settled in to a truce of sorts and Clarke can admit that even if they aren’t friends they’ve worked together for long enough that they’ve become used to each other, often civil and when they have to work together they can. Slotting into each other's work methods and working as a team more smoothly than anyone could have guessed. Mostly though they spend their time working each other up and pressing each others buttons. Their rivalry is common office gossip and today is no different.

When Bellamy yells out Clarke’s name the entire office’s eyes flick to her waiting for a reaction, but it’s early on a Wednesday morning and Clarke isn’t ready for a fight.

“Bellamy?” Clarke answers calmly pushing her chair back and away from her desk standing to greet him.

“I thought we agreed that I’d take the Diaz meeting?” Bellamy snaps coming to a stop at the edge of her desk. He’s wide eyed and his jaw ticks showing his obvious irritation with her. Clarke only draws herself up and replies in her most business like tone.

“Well they called, they want an extension to the campaign including graphics for social media, and public transport,” she answers. “So they want me to show them some new designs.”

When Bellamy doesn’t reply Clarke moves past him towards the coffee machine, on mornings like these she thanks God and all other higher beings for coffee. Bellamy follows behind her and rests his hip up against the counter as she makes her cup.

“I was preparing the materials all of yesterday,” he grumbles at her. “You could have told me sooner.”

“What and loose the pleasure of seeing you over react?” Clarke laughs. “I sent you an email didn’t I?”

Bellamy just shakes his head and reaches past her to get a cup of his own and Clarke passes him her teaspoon when he looks at her again. He sighs and takes it from her, over the years Clarke has picked up a few tell tail hints and tricks the can defuse Bellamy’s behaviour. Distracting him with coffee and maybe a large donut in the morning is alway a winner.

“You’re doing secret snowflake this year, right?” Bellamy asks just before they leave the kitchen.

“Yep, gotta promote that team spirit,” Clarke chirps sarcastically. “You?”

“Mmmmm,” he replies stirring his drink. “Couldn’t avoid it this year. Monty forced my name into the hat.”

“Maybe it’ll help you with that bad attitude, add some Christmas spirit to you,” Clarke prods. Bellamy smirks at her.

“I know you hate it too Griffin.” Clarke tries to deny it but Bellamy strides towards his desk before she can say anything. God she hates him.

Monty and Jasper summon everyone to the meeting room later that day to draw names. It’s a small office and Clarke can recognise every face in the room, even Murphy’s there watching as Jasper circulates excitedly forcing a hat filled with names onto people.

Clarke see’s Bellamy standing next to Miller, he looks bored as always and is watching Jasper with curious eyes as each team member pulls out a name. Finally it reaches him. He smiles at Jasper and Monty while reaching into the hat but his face drops a little when he reads the name on his piece of paper.

Finally, Jasper stands in front of Clarke, hat in hand, offering it to her. “Ms. Griffin.”

Monty tries to peak over her shoulder as Clarke pulls out the paper and reads, in his own block capitals “Bellamy Blake”.

Well fuck. She should have known. Fate is conspiring against her. She forces a smile and looks back at Jasper and Monty, thanking them and hiding the paper from their sight. Clarke glances up and see’s Bellamy already on his work phone drifting towards the door. He catches her staring and raises a brow in question.

Secret Snowflake sucks.

______________

“That’s possibly the most hilarious thing to happen to you this year,” Raven declares as they’re getting drinks after work. Clarke huffs and thins her lips. “Oh come on, it’s like the beginning of some Hallmark movie. All you need is a dog and to make all your friends white and you could see it.” Raven laughs.

“Ugh, I don’t even like him, what am I going to get him?” Clarke whines swirling her drink in the bottom of the glass.

Raven just hums and picks up the bottle to refill their glasses.

“What?” asks `Clarke.

“Nothing… I just kinda assumed you did like him.” She offers smirking to herself. Clarke snorts into her drink.

“What?! Raven you can’t be serious?!” the blonde asks shocked.

“Well you talk about him… like a lot and I always just assumed that the shouting matches were a weird type of foreplay, a way to get the tension out. And honestly who would blame you. He’s the walking talking version of a Greek God I’d let him tie me up...or down....whatever he wanted really.”

“It’s not sexual tension!” Clarke objected.

“Are you sure?”

“I think I would know.”

“But you do think he’s hot?” Raven coaxed. Clarke takes a gulp of wine to avoid answering but judging by the way Raven is laughing at her she already knows.

______________

She hurries over to Bellamy’s desk the second she gets the email. Honestly this isn’t how she wanted her day to go. Not after Raven threw weird ideas in her head, that kept her up half the night dreaming about the toned abs Bellamy had to have under his shirt. Not that she was thinking about those now. Nope.

“Did you see?” she demands, he looks confused for a second and she flicks her eyes to his computer. He gets the hint and opens his emails. She watches as his face changes from confusion to annoyance to frustration.

Their CEO and not so glorious leader is hardly ever here. Jaha seems to think that because Ark Industries is small his quarterly appearances count as running the business. Now he’s just dropped a new client on them, a big account employing them to do all aspects of a large marketing campaign and giving them little time to do it.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Now?” he asks rubbing a hand over his face.

“Tomorrow, 9am.” Clarke offers, meeting his eye. “I guess we’ll be staying late Blake.”

It takes them 5 hours to come up with a logo they can both work with. Clarke is sitting at her design desk drawing up the last few options when she hears Bellamy send Harper home just behind her. It’s been dark outside for hours and Clarke’s eyes are beginning to blur.

“Come on Princess,” Bellamy says. “Take a break.”

Bellamy is on his phone tapping away when Clarke looks up. He hair is a mess, obviously having run his hand through it one to many times, and his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows.

“Unless you’ve got food hidden behind you i’ll pass,” Clarke informed, rubbing her eyes.

Bellamy smirked and waved his phone at her.

“Don’t look so shocked, I can be a nice person.”

“i guess there’s a first time for everything,” Clarke teases “If it’s pizza there better not be pineapple on it.”

“What do you think I am Clarke?” Bellamy gasps dramatically. “Some kind of savage?”

It’s almost relaxing sitting with Bellamy in the meeting room, her feet tucked under her and an empty pizza box between them. Bellamy’s outside on the phone to his sister and Clarke watches as he walks up and down next to the glass windows.

When he walks back in he looks more frustrated than he has all evening and he drops into his chair with a huff.

“You good?” she worried.

“Yeah just… I was meant to help my sisters boyfriend, Lincoln, set up for his art show and she already thinks I hate him,” he supplies massaging his temple.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Clarke offers. “I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Bellamy laughs and shakes his head.

“Eventually, she’s just,” he pauses trying to think of the right word “Stubborn.”

“Must run in the family,” Clarke nudged, he laughs in response.

“Yeah, well I kind of raised her so I shouldn’t be shocked.” Clarke raises her eyebrows, he never talks about his homelife much, she knows bits and pieces but she’s never heard him talk as candidly to her about it. “I mean, I love her don’t get me wrong. But sometimes she’s so strong willed and I forget she’s not a child. It causes tension.”

“You raised her well though.” Clarke offers. “Being strong willed isn’t a bad thing.”

“I know,” Bellamy replies, meeting her eye for a minute. “But she’s just graduated so...it’s a period of adjustment.”

He finishes closing up the pizza box. Clarke follows suit and picks up the rest of the rubbish they’ve left. He’s revealed more about himself then before and Clarke seen a new side to him and his life. It explained a lot, why he was so patient and kind to younger staff members, why he looked after every member of his team, and hers, carefully. He worked hard and long hours. She knew his feathers were ruffled easily when money was mentioned. It also explains why he hated her when they first met. He’d assumed she was a rich girl who’d walked into a job held for her.

The pause was becoming longer and Clarke tried a different subject.

“Wait, your sisters boyfriend, it’s not Lincoln Woods is it? she wondered, walking through the door as Bellamy holds it open. He looks shocked for a second before recovering.

“Yeah, do you know him?”

“Only through his work,” she admits. “But he’s a great artist.” Bellamy just nods in response as they drop the rubbish into the bin.

They work the rest of the night side by side. Pushing each other to bigger and better ideas, working together well and supporting each other through the tiredness and brain block to get the work done.

They ace the pitch the next day. The client is so impressed with their work and strategy he signs on the spot. It’s a massive win for the small team and even Jaha, whose graced the meeting with his presence, looks impressed.

Clarke beams at Bellamy as soon as they’re alone. He grins just as brightly back and steps towards her.

“Nice work Griffin.” He compliments, and Clarke can’t even detect a hint of sarcasm.

“Couldn’t have done it without you Blake,” she returns. It feels odd to compliment him so openly and honestly, but it also feels good. Like somethings opened up between them and they’ve allowed it to move their relationship forward.

______________

She goes to Lincoln’s art show. It’s a wet Monday night so she gets the Gallery all to herself. She gets to admire Lincoln’s work alone and in silence.

She makes the decision to text Bellamy on the way home. She has his personal number and they’ve exchanged a few work related texts before but this would be a step forward between them. She has a glass of wine before she presses send.

Lincoln’s show was great by the way. Good job.

She waits a few seconds and then she sees the grey bubbles that indicate he’s typing back.

Glad you enjoyed it Princess, I did very little to help.

I’m sure you were required for heavy lifting and moral support.

I’m glad you appreciate my contribution.

I always do Bellamy.

That’s nice to know.

Let Lincoln know I enjoyed his show, maybe it’ll help convince Octavia you like him.

It’s a long shot, but I will!

From then, they text more and more. It becomes familiar to Clarke that after work she’ll text Bellamy. They avoid talking about work but cover everything in between. It’s nice and easy between them and Clarke finds herself smiling at her phone in the evenings a lot more.

____________

The office Christmas party is 15 days away and Clarke still hasn’t gotten Bellamy a gift.

She has honestly been looking but everything she sees isn’t right. She’s on the verge of getting him a christmas jumper and a some tacky gift when an opportunity falls right into her lap. She’s having lunch and Miller sits down next to her. Miller is Bellamy’s best friend who works in the social media team. Which is ironic because Clarke doesn’t think she’s ever heard him speak more than 5 words at a time. But at this point anything is worth a shot.

“So,” she says dropping her lunch down next to him. “Secret snowflake.”

“I’m not swapping,” Miller declares focusing on his food.

“I don’t want to swap,” Clarke says offended. “I want help.”

That makes Miller look up, he looks over Clarke for a second before nodding at her to continue.

“So I drew Bellamy’s name and I have no idea what to get him, suggestions?” She urged.

“Just get him something he’ll hate.” Miller suggests, poking around at his lunch. Clarke scrunches up her face. She thought about that, she honestly did but they’re somewhat friends...or at least something more than enemies and she doesn’t want to go backwards. So she tries again.

“I kinda wanted to get him something he’d actually like, we’ve worked together long enough that I should get him something he actually wants.” She pushes, trying to convince Miller.

He doesn’t look up again but Clarke hears the slight “hmp” sound he makes and waits till he finishes thinking.

“You know he named his sister? Octavia after the sister of-” But Clarke cuts Miller off before he can finish.

“Agustus! Yeah. He did a history degree right?” Clarke fills in, she can work with that. “Thanks Miller.”

He just nods at her as she stands up and offers her a small wave. Clarke spends the rest of the day subtly googling history related gifts that come within the budget. It probably isn’t a great idea to do it while she’s at work.

“Clarke,” Bellamy asks as she panic closes the screen. “Have you seen the feedback from Kane?”

“Yeah erm did you want to talk about it?” she offered gathering up some papers.

“No no it’s fine, you’re bus0,y” he waved her off moving to leave.

“Bellamy it’s fine,” she assured. “I was just looking up stuff for my secret snowflake.”

“Oh? You get someone you like?” Clarke smiled and then cocked her head to the side.

“I guess, they’re kind of a bitch to buy for though. They’ll probably complain.” she alluded and he wrinkled his face up in confusion.

“It isn’t Murphy is it? “ he guessed and Clarke laughed.

____________

The office Christmas party is a fancy affair. They join with the other teams and the company splashes out for a fully funded event in a fancy hotel downtown.

She’d given Monty her gift earlier. He’d smirked when he’d seen the name on it but one look at Clarke had silenced any comment he was going to make, each year Monty and Jasper interrupt people, sloppy after to many drinks, and pass out the gifts.

Clarke slips into her new christmas dress. It's a red off the shoulder dress, more elegant and slightly more revealing than she’d usually wear to a work but when Raven had forced her into it in the store she couldn’t deny she looked good. She gently curled her hair and added a red lipstick to her normal makeup. Making sure she drops her room key in her clutch and heads downstairs to the party.

Jaha has out done himself this year, even Clarke’s mum would be impressed with the level of planning that had gone into the event. There was a small raised platform with a DJ and what looked like room for a band, the tables were set with cream linens and shining glasses. The lights were dimmed and replaced with fairy lights cascading down walls.

A champagne glass appeared in front of Clarke as she admired the room. Bellamy stood next to her dressed in a black suit, the tie was still slightly loose as always and his hair was a mess.

“You look good,” he swallowed out offering her the glass. Clarke smiled and ignored the glass to grab at his tie and tighten it a little. Once she was finished she smooths the tie against his chest.

“And now you do to Blake.” She takes the glass he was holding for. “You scrub up well.”

A faint blush appears across Bellamy’s ears and he looks down nervously.

“You better be careful Clarke, keep complimenting me people might think we’re friends.” Bellamy quips, Clarke just rolls her eyes at him before they’re interrupted by Monroe dragging them over to the ice sculpture in the middle of the room.

By the time dinner is over and everyone’s plates have been cleared Jasper and Monty are ready to hand out their presents. They round up everyone in the corner of the room and Clarke wedges herself in next to Miller and Harper hoping that at least one of them will keep her distracted.

It’s not that she’s nervous about Bellamy opening his gift, but if he doesn’t like it or it’s too much she wants to be able to avoid eye contact with him.

Miller blushes deep red next to her as he opens a CD and hangover kit from Monty, Murphy actually smiles when he opens his gift from Emori and Charlotte screams at the customised Harry Potter glasses she receives. Jasper shoves Clarke’s gift into her hand while she’s admiring the gifts Harper got. It’s a large rectangle shape, wrapped simply.

“Clarke, you have to open it,” Jasper prompts her eyes flicking from the gift to her face with a look of utter glee which make Clarke nervous.

She unwraps the gift carefully and notices straight away it’s a painting, she pulls off the rest of the paper and knows who the artist is straight away. Lincoln. She’d seen this piece at the gallery and loved it on site.

She scans the room for Bellamy and finds him already watching her out the side of his eye checking for her reaction. She smiles at him nodding happily and mouths thank you in his direction.

Jasper watches their exchange intensely until Monty moves him on. Clarke looks down at the painting again. It’s a landscape of the city’s skyline, multicoloured and vibrant with Lincoln’s own unique stamp all over it. She almost forgets to look up when eventually Bellamy’s name is called out. Monty hands him the gift. Clarke looks on nervously, his gift for her is something he knew she would love, now thinking about her own gift makes her feel almost silly.

He seems happy with the museum tickets she’d thrown in as a last minute thought but then he sees the book. An old copy of The Odyssey used before Clarke picked it up second hand, through it she’s drawn illustrations of story. She covered any space she could with sketches and drawings from the plot filling in extra details with her own imagination. She watches as Bellamy flicks through unable to see the expression on his face.

Eventually secret snowflake is over for another year and the crowds drift off, Clarke winds her way through the tables and towards Bellamy. He’s drifted over to his seat and is still turning the pages to the book.

“Merry Christmas,” she brakes in, pulling him out of his thoughts and sitting down next to him gently.

“Hey, Clarke,” he looks up at her, and she almost doesn’t know what to make of the expression on his face. Almost.

But she knows the look, or at least she thinks she does. She is sure he’s happy, happier than she thinks she’s ever seen him at a work event.

“You liked the painting?” He asks meeting her eyes for the first time since she opened it.

She still held it close to her, as if too many eyes on it would break the magic of the gift. “I love it. Did it score you any points with your sister?”

“After about 20 minutes of me convincing her I was not in fact joking,” he chuckles, but his eyes drifted back to book.

“I have a confession.”

He looks at her again, and she’s not sure how she could have gone so long without actually see him.

“I got your name for secret snowflake, but I didn’t know what to get you. So I kind of convinced Miller to give me some insight,” she pauses, biting her lip. “I hope that’s okay.”

“You did all this?” he was pointing to the drawings. “For me?”

“It’s not that big of a deal. I just wanted to do something… special I guess.”

“Clarke, it’s amazing,” Bellamy praises resting his hand gently on her knee. “Thank you.”

Clarke smiles softly and lets her eyes wander down to his hand. His palm is resting on the bare skin of her knee and she can feel the warmth settle into her.

“Should we get a drink?” Bellamy asks after a moment but Clarke just shakes her head.

“No, I think I’m good right here for now…” she assures letting her eyes drop to his lips and back up to his eyes again. It not the perfect angle, but they make it work. Clarke leans in at the same time as Bellamy. It’s soft and slow. Everything is the opposite from the start of their relationship but it feels comfortable and sure. Bellamy is the first to pull back brushing his hand along Clarke’s cheek.

“That was… if I say better than a secret snowflake gift will you kill me?” Clarke laughs and rests her forehead against his.

“.... I might need a bit more persuading,” she smiles leaning back in to kiss him. She gets more leverage this time by leaning her hand against his thigh to move herself closer to him. Sucking his lip into her mouth Clarke focused on Bellamy, running her hand through his hair and the heat of his hand on her bare leg.

“I have a room,” he mumbles against her ear, kissing the side of her cheek gently. “And a king sized bed.”

His hand reaching further and further under her dress and she could feel the back and forth motion of his thumb leaving shivers in its wake.

She stands and grabs his hand just before it reaches the top of her thigh and pulls him up.

Bellamy smirks at her and waits for her to rise to the challenge. She does obviously, and picks up her gift and saunters out of the party and towards the lifts. Bellamy following behind hand dangerously low on her back, stroking the zip line.

Clarke hates secret snowflake, but she can’t say she hates Bellamy Blake anymore, not now that she knows what he can do with that mouth.

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