#lotsa fluff

Look, in hindsight, Bellamy should have really thought this through. But to be entirely fair, he didn’t think that a single haircut during Clarke’s post-Lexa-breakup-phase would lead to this becoming a frequent occurrence of sorts. Prior to this, she would drown her sorrows in peach schnapps and a Netflix marathon. Now, she just comes over and insists that he help in whatever new scheme she has to change up her look, whether it involves putting colored streaks in her hair or accompanying her to get her nose pierced. He’s not sure if it’s a coping mechanism or just a distraction, at this point, but he prefers it to her getting wasted anyway.

Plus, she always comes to him for this, which he really likes. It’s one of those things about being hopelessly in love with your best friend: you take whatever you can get, even if that means that you have to spend hours inhaling toxic fumes.

“Raven is going to kill me for this,” he reminds her, snapping on a pair of latex gloves while she sways in place, practically vibrating with excitement. “She thinks I indulge you too much.”

“You do,” she agrees, giggling when he sinks his hands into her hair, spreading the dye evenly. “But that’s why I love you.”

His heart gives a little twinge at that, and he has to bite at the inside of his cheek to keep from responding. It’s mostly the offhanded, throwaway comments like this that gets to him, really, because it’s a struggle not to think about her saying it in another context. He should probably tell her all this, one day, but the thought of losing her friendship makes him go cold.

He tunes back in when she starts telling him about the argument she had with Abby- predictably, about her latest decision to go to art school instead of majoring in medicine like she had always planned to. It’s nothing new or unexpected of Abby (at least, that’s how he feels) and he tells her as much, twisting the colored strands up into a knot before flopping down onto the sofa next to her.

“Does it look good?” she asks, and he slaps her hand away when she reaches up to poke at it. “You know, it’s really unprofessional of you to do this without a mirror.”

“Go to a salon and get it done for ninety bucks then,” he retorts, yelping when her fingers dart over to tickle at his ribs. “Hey. Cut it out.”

That pulls a laugh out of her, the sound bright. “God, you’re such a baby.”

“You’re the—” he nearly falls off the sofa when he feels hands against his hip, tickling mercilessly, and he lunges over to grab at her wrists before she can do anymore damage. “You’re such a brat.”

“Sure,” she goes, easy, close enough that he can smell the alcohol on her breath, her chest heaving against his as she gives another giggle. He swallows, and it takes almost all of his willpower not to shiver at her proximity, the way her gaze dips down to his mouth and lingers, like she’s curious about him.

“What?” he manages, hating the hoarseness of his voice.

She tilts forward at that, only a hair’s breadth away from him, and he closes his eyes when he feels her slide her hand up to his jaw because holy shit, Clarke Griffin wants to kiss him—

The sudden thrill of an alarm makes him jump, with her pulling away at the exact moment. For a second, he can only stare in a dazed sort of silence, before the blue splatters on the towel slung around her shoulders reminds him what it’s there for.

“You should,” he gestures at the still-ringing alarm, rubbing at his face. “Go wash that out.”

“Yup.” She mumbles, strangely red in the face. “I’ll just— I’ll be back.”

“Yeah.”

He buries his face in his hands after she goes, groaning.

The rest of the night passes by without any of the strange tension from before, thankfully, and he’s positive that things are back to normal by the time he drops her off at her apartment. Bellamy’s just going to chalk it up to a terrible, booze-fuelled, almost incident that he’s just… not going to think about. It’s better for his health, really. They can just forget that it ever happened.

Well, until she turns up on his doorstep the next day with blazing red hair instead of blue.

He stares, tightening his grip on the door knob. “What the fuck?”

“I did it myself,” she hastens to point out, wringing her fingers together. “It was, uhm. A real bitch to cover up, but. Yeah.”

“Pray tell, why?”

She takes a shuddering breath, drawing closer. “Because I do this every time something big or disastrous happens in my life.” Then, shooting him a weak smile, she adds, “It’s kind of a tradition, at this point.”

“Yeah, but,” he crosses his arms over his chest, frowning. “Wait. So something else happened last night?”

Another step, until they’re practically standing chest-to-chest. He tries not to get distracted by the way her tongue darts out to wet her lips, her arms coming around the back of his neck.

“Uh, just a life-altering revelation.” She breathes, giving a small laugh. “That I’ve been in love with you, all this time, and—”

He twists his fingers into her hair to kiss her then, laughing into her mouth, hands going to her hips and lifting her so she can rain kisses against his cheek, the corner of her jaw.

“I can’t believe you dyed your hair all over again just to make a point,” he gets out, slamming the door shut behind them. “You’re such a drama queen.”

“Far be it for me to break tradition,” she goes, prim, breaking out into a dizzying smile as she leans up to kiss him again. “So, I take it the feeling is mutual, right?”

“Depends on if you’re going to bleach your hair again if I tell you yes.”

After a while, Sylvia finally blinked awake. "mmm?" A duet of snores was the only thing that greeted her when she woke up. Well, that and two warm, muscly bodies next to her. She snuggled in closer. "Guess I can sleep a bit more..." The two smiled in their sleep, moving even closer to her. "Love you~"

They each mumbled something that sounded like "Love you too" before going back to snoring. She smiled and fell back into a soft sleep. By the time any of them woke up, it was nearly supper. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a rude awakening provided by Hater's glove-phone. "Grrr, turn that offffff...."

"...it's gotta be one of you guys...I don't have a phone..."

"Dude, Hater, I think that's yours, bro."

"Gahhhhh." Making the rock and roll sign, he answered it - and immediately flinched from the high pitched voice that came out of it.

"SIIIIIIIR!"

Sylvia cringed. "GH! Shut up Peepers..."

"Aww, ouch. Okay, that hurt..."

"Grr, what do you want, Peepers?!"

"Sir, I'm sorry but I'm putting my foot down! The ship's been docked for three days now! Either you come back here and run it, or we may have a mutiny on our hands! We ca'nt just sit here and, and not conquer planets while you hang out with Awesome and his girlfriend or hooker or, or whoever she is!"

"HOOKER?" She sat up and grabbed Hater's hand, yanking it towards her ear. "You listen here you little creep, I am NOT a prostitute, and even if I was I'd be making more money than you do!"

Both Hater and Awesome snickered at that before getting angry once more. "Yeah! And who says you're allowed to speak to our girlfriend like that?! You better step off before I come over there and show you what happens when you don't keep your mouth shut!"

"Yeah! So just shut up and hang up before I assign you to toilet cleaning duties for the next millennium!"

"Look, he'll be back! Just...consider it a vacation. Even conquerors have to have one!"

"B-But-!"

"YOU HEARD HER!" Hater yelled. "Look, you take the watchdogs out conquering, or give them shore leave, I don't care! Just leave me alone!"

"And if someone has a problem with that, I'll go personally take care of it!"

"And I'll be right behind her!" Awesome added.

"So, do we have an understanding, Commander?"

"...Yes Sir." "Good, HATER OUT!" With that, he flattened his hand, hanging up the call.

"Ugh...so ANNOYING!"

"I know, right?!"

"Ugh, I can't believe he called you a hooker! So not cool!"

"Ick, I haven't even...done it with anyone yet!"

"Hmph, maybe I'll demote him just for even saying that!" Hater growled.

"Hey, I'd say he deserves a bit of a butt kicking first." "Oh believe me, I was planning on it."

"Can I get first dibs there?"

Hater smirked. "Gladly."

"Thank you~" she kissed his cheek.

"Heh, no problem," he said, giving her a quick kiss in return (and blushing slightly)

"So...anything you want to do now?"

Awesome stomach growled slightly. "Uh, how 'bout gettin' a bite to eat?"

Her stomach rumbled too. "Ah...probably a good idea, yeah."

Hater placed a hand on his own stomach. "Yeah..."

Leaving the blanket behind and the dvd player turned off, the three headed for the kitchen. Sylvia grabbed a leftover burger from lunch and heated it up before biting into it. Awesome helped himself to some sushi from the fridge while Hater microwaved a mini pizza.

"mmm...so other than thish, you guys wanna finish the season?"

"Oh yeah, totes! The end of Book two is when it gets really good!"

"Cooool, sounds good to me."

"Sweet. Come on, we can eat in the living room."

"Sounds good to me," Hater nodded just as the microwave went off.

Sylvia snagged some of the sushi and followed them. With Handy bringing in their drinks, the trio started the dvd again - right now they were at the episode with a secret library hidden in the desert.

"Grod, it must suck not being able to see with her feet like normal.

"Yeah..." That was all Awesome could say, not wanting to give out spoilers. They continued to watch, with Syl picking at sushi but not keeping her eyes off the screen. Hater complimented Sokka on his good idea to try and find an advantage for their attack on the fire nation, but both he and Syl gasped when the Spirit Owl found out, and was determined to take his knowledge back by sinking the library.

"Glorn, that thing is freaky!"

"Yeah! Geez!" They watched as the owl chased them down, and they ended up just barely getting out alive. ...Unfortunately, while they were in there, another member of their group was kidnapped.

"Hey! Nonono, where did those guys come from?"

"They live in the desert, remember," Awesome mumbled, "Sandbenders..."

"But how did they find them? Isn't this place out in the middle of nowhere?"

"They probably followed them out there," Hater scowled, "The cowards! Waited until they had their backs turn to strike."

"Hmm..."

The Earthbender tried to fight them off, but she just couldn't see with all the sand - plus the fact that she had to keep the library from sinking. "I'm sorry Appa..."

"No...."

Just before Toph couldn't take it anymore and nearly let go, her friends flew out, and the library sank deep underground.

"That guy...he's still in there."

"Yep." "Well, he did want to read all those books. Guess it was his choice," Hater shrugged.

"Still...there's no food or anything! He'll starve to death!"

"...He pretty much knew that when he chose to stay," Awesome told her, just as Aang noticed that his bison was missing.

"But...but why would you just do that to yourself?"

"Guess he just really liked books," Hater mumbled as the episode ended on a somber note.

"That's...messed up..."

"Yeah..." The next episode left off right where the previous one ended - the four of them stranded in the desert with no Appa...

()()()()()()()()()

Hater's eyes were glued to the screen, and even though he knew what would happen, Awesome didn't dare look away.

"Did...did she just-kill him?"

"I... N-No, she couldn't have!" Hater argued, "I mean, we still have another season to go, so- ...He has to be alright, right?"

"But his species can't take lightning well, right? How could he survive that?"

"...I..." Hater had no clue, and Awesome wasn't giving any spoilers. So, they could only watch.

Sylvia breathed a sigh of relief as Katara resurrected Aang with the Spirit water. Hater visibly relaxed while Awesome gave a small smile as the episode ended. "So... You guys still liking it?"

Sylvia nodded rapidly. "That was way more intense than the first season!"

"Yeah, and it just gets more intense from here!"

"What?! How could it get MORE intense?!"

"Well they still have to end the war, you know."

"Oh... Right."

"But....wow. Just...wow."

"I know, right? So... You guys wanna finish the series?"

"Maybe not tonight. i mean, we slept, but it's also been a kinda exhausting day and all..."

The emperor stretched slightly. "Yeah, I get that."

"Besides, if it's intense as you say, we need a break before we watch it," Hater added.

"So, you wanna cuddle again?"

Both conquerors smiled. "Gladly~" "With pleasure~"

She chuckled. "Let's head to bed, then."

"Yeah, okay." "Sounds good. ...You know, if I'm on 'vacation', I should have Peepers bring me some clothes."

"Probably a good idea, yeah. I'm sure we have a spare bathrobe that'll fit you, though."

"Really? Huh, I... guess I could wear that then."

"Hope you don't mind wearing white," Awesome told him as they headed upstairs.

"Would you though? I mean, I've never seen you wear anything but black and red, but..."

"Well, I don't LIKE to but, I can wear other colors," he shrugged.

"It might be neat to see that sometime." she nudged him and smiled.

He blinked. "Uh, i-if you say so."

"Yeah, wouldn't it be cool?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What's cooler than black and red?"

"I dunno, blue and white can be pretty cool." she shrugged.

"I guess..." "Purple's pretty great too, bro. And hey, if you wear some green every once in a while, it'll go with your eyes - and your powers."

"He's right! I think it would look pretty good on you."

"Grrr, but green just reminds me of Wander and that dumb hat of his! Besides, green is a spring color. Spring isnt evil!"

"I dunno, you ever had hay fever?"

"No, it's pretty much impossible for me to get sick." Though, there was the occasional cold... "But I guess I get what you mean."

"Yeah, and there's storms and all, too."

He smiled slightly. "Yeah, but I like storms." He supposed he could describe it as getting in touch with nature since he could feel the lightning in the air and the thunder calmed him, but that just sounded lame. So - "They're just cool."

"They kinda freak me out..."

"Wait, they do?"

"I don't...it's n-not like I'm scared or anything..."

"Oh, well, that's good at least... And I, I guess I could understand if you don't like them or whatever."

"There used to be a lot of thunderstorms back on my home planet..."

"Huh? Really?" Hater hadn't heard much about her home planet. so this was news to him.

"Yeah, and I was alone for most of them..."

"Oh..." "Aw, seriously?" Awesome asked, frowning.

"So it's just kinda...I get a bit freaked out, is all."

"Well, i'm sure Hatey wouldn't mind keeping you company the next time one rolls around," Awesome smiled, "and neither would I."

"...Thanks." she smiled.

"Yeah." "No problem." Reaching the shark-man's bedroom, Awesome got out the robe he had gotten a week ago in the mail and gave it to Hater. "Here."

"Oh, thanks." He slipped off his shoes before retreating to the restroom to get changed. Sylvia stopped by her room and changed into her robe, snuggling against the soft fabric.  Deciding the others wouldn't mind if he got comfortable, he took his shirt off as well as his boots before putting on a clean pair of pink and teal plaid pajama pants.

Sylvia returned to the bed and sat in it. "Still can't believe everything worked out like this."

"Yeah, but I sure am glad it did," he smiled, "Honestly... It's only been a couple days but, this is pretty much the best relationship I've been in. Like, forget the sex and the party hookups, this just... feels right, ya know? I'm havin' fun with you guys, just hanging out and talking and all that stuff."

"Yeah...and it all feels complete and safe and warm and I...I didn't know I could feel this happy."

"Yeah, me neither..."

"Same here." The two looked over at the restroom, where Hater - who had heard the whole thing - just entered wearing the white robe. It looked like it fit pretty well, though it was open slightly, revealing a bit of his bare chest.

Sylvia took a moment to take him in before looking back up and smiling. "Good. We both want you to be happy, you know."

He smiled slightly. "Yeah... That's kind of a new one for me but, thanks. I, I appreciate it."

"C'mere." Sylvia held out her hand. "Let's make you feel even better."

Hater stared it for just a moment before taking it and letting himself get pulled into a group hug, immediately returning the hug. Sylvia rubbed his back and nuzzled his cheek. Awesome nuzzled his other cheek while taking one of his hands, squeezing gently. Sighing contently, Hater just closed his eyes and enjoyed the affection. Before he'd only seen it as a weakness, something he didn't need. But now... He hugged them tighter.

"Love you both, you know."

"Yeah, we love you too, Syl." "Yeah... Love you guys..."

Sylvia leaned in and gave them both a kiss on the lips. And of course, both of them kissed back, humming slightly and clearly enjoying the kiss. "Wish there was a way we could all kiss at once..."

"Heh, as good as I am at kissing, I'm pretty sure that's not possible, Syl."

"I mean....maybe if we all put our heads together?"

"Uh, I really don't think it's gonna work, Sylvia. But, like, at least we can still all hug at the same time."

"Yeah... And other stuff."

"Oh...y-yeah." she blushed.

Hater blushed as well, looking away from them. "Uh, y-yeah..."

"Hey, I'm not sayin' we have to do anything tonight, I was just reminding you guys about it."

"Yeah...I mean I wouldn't mind, I guess but...maybe when we're all energized?"

"Yeah, totes. When we're all ready for it and in the mood, I know we'll have a good time with it." He then gave a serious look. "But only when you guys are sure you're ready, kay?"

"Alright." she nodded.

"...Yeah, okay." Hater nodded as well.

"But for now we can just snuggle, right?"