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"Fuck off, Blake." I nearly yelled.
Bellamy Blake did not fuck off. He continued to follow me, John Murphy a few paces behind him, as I trekked through the woods.
"C'mon, we'll make it worth your while." Bellamy flirted. He glanced back at Murphy, who gave him a short lived smirk.
"I don't want to fuck you!" I cried. "And I'm certainly not going to fuck you in exchange for taking off my wristband!"
"Everyone else is taking them off, what do I have to do to get you to join?"
I spun on my heel and pointed at him. "First, get off my ass and leave me the fuck alone. And second, nothing! I'm not interested in appeasing a shithead like you!"
With that, I stormed off again. Bellamy went to follow, but Murphy grabbed his arm.
"They're not gonna listen to you." Murphy said. "Let me try."
"Because you'll have such better luck." Bellamy scoffed.
Murphy shrugged and pouted his lips some. "Well, they hate you, they made that clear. And as for me? Jury's out. Maybe they just need some… Better convincing."
"Better? What, are you gonna beat them half to death before prying the thing off?"
Murphy rolled his eyes. "I only did that once."
Bellamy sighed and shook his head. "Fine. Good luck. I'm heading back to camp."
Murphy wasted no more time, chasing me down to where I'd disappeared off. He followed me back to a half-buried van from before the Arc. It had practically disappeared under a hundred years of dirt and plant life, but one of the back doors hung open. The slightest bits of rain had just started coming down, and the sun was beginning to set, and the light that came from the van became the most welcoming thing to Murphy. He approached and poked his head in, spotting me, laying back and running my fingers along the small lantern beside me.
"It's about time you caught up." I said softly.
Murphy smiled and came inside, pulling the door closed behind him. He sat back against the doors.
"Bellamy… What an asshole." He sighed.
"Don't try to suck up to me, Murph. You follow him just as much as everyone else."
He nodded, smile fading. "Yeah, I know…"
"He didn't follow you here, right?"
"Don't worry. Our hideaway is safe." He assured.
We fell into silence for a minute, listening to the rain fall above us. A loud crack of thunder made me jump, and Murphy quickly moved to sit beside me, his arm wrapping around my shoulders and pulling me close. It was stupid, how kind he became behind closed doors. Only to me, only for me to see. But it was nice. So I let myself relax into his hold, resting my head on his shoulder. I took my chances and laid my hand on his thigh. He tensed for a moment, before putting his free hand overtop mine and intertwining our fingers.
"Is it a bad time to ask 'what are we'?" He joked.
I rolled my eyes. "You're ridiculous, Murph."
"Really, though, what do we call this? You and I?" He turned to bury his face in my hair, his voice becoming slightly muffled. "I'd never treat a friend like this, but can I call us…"
"Us."
"Us." He repeated. He stared off into space for a second, rolling the word over in his mind. "Us."
"Don't need anything else in my opinion. No rules, remember? What's stupid titles but more rules?"
Murphy chuckled. He turned to look at my wrist. The silver wristband wrapped around it– marking me as the Arc's property, in a way. Murphy hated it. What it symbolized.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
He untangled his hand from mine to run his fingers along the band. "Why keep it? You don't want to return, I know you don't. So why are you so insistent on keeping this thing on?"
I shrugged. "It pisses off Blake. Few things please me more."
"And what does please you more?" He had a teasing lilt to his voice.
I looked up at him and smiled. "You."
He grinned.
"And you know what would really piss him off?"
"What?"
"You being the one to take this off."
Murphy's smile, if somehow possible, grew. He shifted to pull his knife from his pocket, then moved his arm from my shoulders to gently grab my wrist. Before he went to pry off the wristband, though, he froze and looked at me.
"Are you sure?"
I hesitated, I could feel his fingers twitching around my arm. Removing this… It meant cutting all contact with the Arc, letting them think I was dead. I had no intentions of returning, I hated it there, but it was all I'd known only a few weeks ago. This meant cutting out my past, and potentially risking my future.
"I'm sure." I decided. "Only with you."
He nodded solemnly, then dug his knife into the wristband. It clicked and snapped open, dropping into my lap. Murphy put his knife away and picked up the band, looking it over. He then tossed it to the side and sidled back up to me, his arm returning to wrap around my waist and pull me close.
"Bellamy's gonna hate me for this." Murphy laughed.
"Oh, definitely. But he'll get over it, at least I finally joined his crew– or whatever."
"Nah, you're not a part of his bullshit. We've got our own thing going on. Our own team. We do this–" He gestured to our free wrists. "–for us."
"Us."
He smiled down at me. "Us."
"Always that, hm?"
"I'm not asking for anything more."
I looked up at him. A triumphant smile with that mischievous glint in his eyes. He was beautiful. Even despite the cuts and bruises that littered his face from his countless fights. He was beautiful.
"I love you, John." I said. Finally breaking that wall down, finally saying the words we'd been hiding from.
He let out a breathy laugh, it felt like a breath he'd been holding in since forever. He leaned in and kissed me.
"I love you." He replied, lips brushing mine.
He kissed me again before pulling back, watching my face intently. Another clap of thunder broke the mood as I jumped, grabbing onto his arm. Murphy hugged me, pulling me partly onto his lap. I buried my face in his neck, he ran his fingers through my hair.
"I love you." He whispered, again and again, between soft kisses.
And he continued to do this, comforting me through the storm, us holding onto one another, until sleep overtook us.