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Bellamy was on Cloud 9. He had just purchased a house with the two loves of his life. It was a nice one-floor, three-bedroom ranch house. The house was perfect for the three of them! It gave them plenty of space, with room to grow. They had a spacious fenced-in backyard with an attached patio to the house, where they couldn’t wait to invite their friends over for the first barbecue of the summer. The three of them had even purchased a fire pit to set up. The house also offered a huge master bedroom, a den, and a living room. While one of the other bedrooms was going to be Clarke’s studio for her art side projects, the other bedroom was going to be a guest room.
It was all coming together for them.
There was just one thing though; Clarke had been not-so-subtly hinting at wanting a dog to go with their white picket fenced house. It had started once they had actually found the house and she saw the yard.
“Oh Bell, this would be PERFECT for a dog or two!”
Bellamy and Gabriel just gave each other a knowing look and let the realtor show them the rest of the house.
That wasn’t to be the last time Clarke brought up the idea of getting a dog.
After they had been all moved in and settled for a week, Clarke brought it up again one night when the three of them were lounging on their new patio furniture. Clarke and Bellamy on the sofa and her feet in his lap and Gabriel on the love seat across from them, spread out working on the crossword puzzle in the weekly newspaper.
“So have you thought any more about getting a dog?”
To be honest, Bellamy had given it a little bit of thought. He had always wanted a dog, but his mother never let him and after a while, he stopped asking. His dad died when he was one. His stepdad came into the picture when he was 5 and when Octavia was born when he was six, he just up and left. Aurora Blake had to work 3 jobs just to put food on the table for the three of them and to make ends meet. He wasn’t going to ask for a dog on top of that. It just wasn’t going to be possible. Besides, Bellamy had to look after his sister. He wouldn’t be able to look after a dog as well.
“Clarke, a dog is a LOT of responsibility. The three of us all have full-time jobs. You and Gabe work on weird rotations of hours. It’s just too much right now.” Clarke had started to pout. Bellamy hated to disappoint Clarke.
“But Bell, it’s June and school ends in two weeks and Gabriel and I have been given more on-call hours for the next two months, so we won’t necessarily be at the hospital more. I think it’d be an okay time to at least check out the shelter.” Proceeding to get on her knees on the couch right next to Bellamy, Clarke starts to beg. “Please Bell? There’s a dog out there that needs a home. Our home. We would love them so so much and take care of them so well.”
Not looking up from his crossword puzzle, Gabriel speaks up, “You’ve done it now, Bell. She’s not going to stop.”
Heaving a sigh, he rethinks it over. They would ALL be home more this summer. They planned to do some light renovations on the home and they wanted to do it themselves. He could probably handle a dog on top of that.
Knowing he’s lost this one, he looks between Clarke and Gabriel, who’s put down the crossword and settled his attention on him, “We can look , but no promises!”
Letting out a screech, Clarke proceeded to fling herself on her boyfriend. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Oh Bell, you won’t regret this!”
“Yeah, I doubt that, Princess.”
***
The Arkadia shelter’s adoption day was on Sunday afternoon. Clarke happily dragged Bellamy and Gabriel behind her and then proceeded to abandon them at the door and rush over to see the puppies.
Gabriel and Bellamy took a second to admire the view of their girlfriend fawning over all the puppies in the puppy pen that went to greet her.
“God, she’s beautiful,” Gabriel remarked. “How lucky are we, huh?”
“She’s far too good for us, that’s for sure,” Bellamy added in agreement.
At that moment, a woman with a head full of curly hair with strands of purple and blue came up to them, “Hi! I’m Luna. Welcome to the Arkadia Animal Shelter! We have cats and dogs of all ages up for adoption today. Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“Our girlfriend has her eyes on a puppy, it seems,” as Bellamy gestures towards Clarke, who has sat herself down in the middle of the pen and let the puppies climb all over her lap. She was even holding up one of the puppies to a child to pet, who’s parent was standing right next to them.
“Okay, awesome! Just let me know if you’ve picked one of them out and I can help you from there!”
“Thank you.”
Bellamy makes his way over to the puppy pen and towards Clarke. She has two in her lap. One is a chocolate lab and the other some weird little mixed breed. “You find one you like?”
A bit exasperated, she gives him a very pointed look and replies, “Bell, we’re not just looking for one I like, we all have to like each other.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Getting on his knees so he can sit down, a little golden retriever puppy waddles her way over to him and trips right into his leg. He gathers her up into his arms and just melts when he looks into her big brown eyes.
Hearing the sound of a camera taking a picture, he’s snapped out of the moment and turns to look at who took the picture.
“Aww, Bell! She likes you! Do you like her?” Clarke just starts gushing over the sight of the two of them. “Should we get her? Do you want her?”
The little golden has stretched herself up to lick at his chin and he pulls away, laughing. “Yeah, I like her. Do you?”
“She’s precious, of course I like her!”
The two of them like her, so now they just need Gabriel’s seal of approval. However, looking around the pen, they can’t seem to find their boyfriend.
“Uh, where did Gabe go?” Bellamy asks. “He was right next to me when the lady from the shelter was introducing herself to us.”
Holding the puppy, Bellamy gets up and offers a hand to help Clarke up. Together, they get out of the pen and make their way to Luna at the front desk, where he last saw Gabriel.
“Oh hey! I see you found one! She’s a sweetheart!”
“Yeah,” Clarke agreed. “Can you believe this one here was only interested in looking today? He was puddy in her paws the second she waddled up to him.”
Bellamy just huffed out a laugh. “Well can you blame me? Look at her, Clarke. Look into her eyes. I dare you to tell her ‘Not Today’.”
Smiling at the twosome, Luna starts putting the paperwork together for the adoption. “Your boyfriends are certainly going to have their hands full.”
Clarke gives her a puzzled smile. “How do you mean?”
“Well this one with the puppy and the other one with the kitten.”
“What.” “What?!” Bellamy and Clarke both exclaimed and looked at each other.
Stepping forward from the room labeled “Kitten Room”, Gabriel finally reappeared and with a tiny black bundle in his arms.
“Hey, guys! I found one that kind of looks like me!” Gabriel gently scratched the underside of the kitten’s chin, encouraging him to lift his head. The tiny little black kitten had rich copper eyes and a little streak of white on his forehead.
Today was just a day for melting in feels. Bellamy and Clarke both softened at the sight. Clarke left Bellamy’s side to give the kitten a gentle pat and wrapped her arm around Gabriel’s waist to watch the two men with the baby animals.
Gabriel starts to make his case, “I know we only came here with the intention of getting a dog, but I think the dog could maybe use a friend too.”
Not able to tell the two people he loves most “no”, Bellamy goes on to say, “You don’t have to try and sell me.” Turning to address Luna, he says, “Looks like we’re going home with two fur babies today.”
“Excellent! I’ll get the paperwork together! What are you going to name them?”
“That’s a good question! Clarke, any ideas?”
Putting her pointer finger to her chin in thought, Clarke ponders, “How about Picasso for her?”
The three of them turn to the puppy in Bellamy’s arms, as she starts yipping excitedly. “Seems like a keeper to me! How about you Gabriel? Any ideas for him?”
“Actually yeah. I was kind of thinking maybe Xavier? He seems like an Xavier to me.”
Twenty minutes later, Bellamy is driving the new family of five home. Clarke, entertaining Picasso in the backseat and Gabriel holding little Xavier in the front passenger seat. Bellamy smiles at the four of them as he drives home and yeah, he would definitely say he’s on Cloud 9.