Work Text:
BRRING..!
BRRING..!
"Ugh.."
Consciousness dripped into Bellamy's slumbering mind as water would from a leaking faucet; one plink at a time, rippling then spreading out within the basin of dreams to carry them down a drain of no return. He fought against the return of sensation to his body, searching for the blanket of buzzing numbness belonging to sleep, but the incessant ringing yanked it away with grubbing hands. Light danced along the back of his eyelids; tiny stars sparkled and darted around like a probing doctor's flashlight searching for his eye's movement as if the damn ringing just knew he was awake.
BRRING..!
BRRING..!
And it wouldn't stop.
Bellamy groaned and rolled over onto his back. He pressed his hand's heels to his eyes, trying to blot out those too-bright light until his eye sockets ached from the pressure. Once the buzzing sensation slipped down the drain entirely, he threw his hands down on either side of him with a defeated sigh drowned out by the steady chime. There was a gauzy film clinging to his eyelashes as he peeled them apart, wincing at the funnel of bright light coming from his right. Bellamy winced against the warmth in his eyes, scrubbing away the sleep and tears rimming their lids as he blindly reached for the light. The ringing muffled in a blissful moment of silence when his fingers covered a speaker, then wrapped around his cellphone. His chest rose as he took in a deep breath to gather what frayed nerves he had left, then brought the phone closer to his face as he uncovered his eyes.
He winced at the screen's brightness, quickly thumbing up to the control panel to turn it down. The incoming phone call dutifully ignored as he stared accusingly at the bold numbers at the top right of his screen proclaiming 4:29 AM proudly. Of course, someone would think it would be a good idea to wake him up before his eight AM class. As if it weren't bad enough that he would have to be up in four hours to sit through a droning lecture while hardly clinging onto his grade or his sanity. He pinched the bridge of his nose, drawing in what little breath would pass through his nostrils from the closed airway. It was a losing battle but so would finding sleep after this.
Just don't let it be them, he thought to himself as his eyes cracked open. I couldn't stand talking about any of that right now.
His hand drifted down —
The contact photo of the perpetrator emerged on the screen —
A whimsical grin, eyes squinted from the flash of the camera, browned skin weathered from the shining sun —
Bellamy could almost taste the ocean's brine on his lips as his fingers skimmed down the corners of his mouth, and the forest's natural cologne filled his nose, an ancient smell which stirred his heart and grabbed hold of his limbs. He bolted upright, head spinning from the movement and blindly jabbed his finger against the screen. The ringing stopped. For a second, he wondered if he'd accidentally pressed the wrong button in his confusion and his heart's maddening drumbeat slowed in sheer terror. Ice flooded his veins as he hunched over with the phone pressed to his ear, searching for a single sound.
Then he heard it -
A sea breeze - low, cooling wind bumping and crackling against the speaker as if the person on the other end didn't know how to muffle it. The splashes of waves, intermittently gently and harshly crashing against something intent on defying their majesty. His heartbeat quickened and he grasped his phone harder, staring into the dimness of his dorm room while trying to quiet his labored breaths so he could listen. It was like holding a seashell to his ear, trying to catch the tiniest hint of the churning tide.
"Is this thing on?" A low, yet strong voice grumbled in his ear. "Hrm, Bell! Y'there, m'boy?!"
Bellamy swallowed harshly, shakily drawing the phone away from his ear. He quickly thumbed at his eyes in case they decided to betray them then looked at the phone's screen. On the other side, a watery eye looked back at him. Crow's feet pulled at the corners of it, but as soon as their eyes met, the eye receded and the person on the other side pulled back until an old man with river-silver hair and a timeworn faced lined with thousands of lines could be seen. His eyes glinted, still cleared though Bellamy remembered when he was told that he'd needed to have his cataracts removed only a year prior. The ensuing argument tugged at the corners of his mouth but the sheer joy in the man's face wouldn't allow the ill mood to linger for long.
"Ah, there ya are!" The man laughed, the smile lines around his mouth deepening as his eyes scrunched up into crescents. "Good afternoon, or.."
His eyes squinted open then as he seemed to finally realize something was amiss. "Eh? It ain't too early for y' over there, is it?"
Bellamy chuckled, the agitation of having been woken out of his sleep evaporating. "It's four a.m."
"Four?!" His grandfather squawked, balking from the phone as if it'd burned him. The camera skewed to one side and Bellamy bit the inside of his cheek as his grandfather cursed under his breath, trying to right it again. When he was upright once again, the beaming grin was replaced by a little frown. "Oh, I'm sorry, Bell. I didn' mean to wake y'."
"It's alright, Papa," said Bellamy. A tingling pricked at the back of his eye and he kept his eyes trained on his reflection in the camera's preview of his end, reminding his face to keep it together. "But where are you..?"
The sky behind his grandfather's head, devoid of his usual straw hat, was a bright blue which couldn't have been right. It should have been night on the island. His question returned the smile to his grandfather's face and his eyes twinkled with a familiar mischief that had Bellamy sitting up a little higher, feeling as if he were a kid at his grandfather's knee again wondering what magic he would make up today.
"Well, if y'd believe it, I'm actually.." His grandfather paused for a second, drawing out the suspense and Bellamy did his best not to huff or roll his eyes. He didn't remember him being this dramatic but he had to admit that it was working. Then suddenly, the camera flipped around and Bellamy's breath caught at the sight of blue stretching far into the horizon.
"On a boat!"
Bellamy blinked, eyes wide and mouth parted as the camera flipped back around to the shaky view of his grandfather's laughing face. "W-What are you doing on a boat?!" Bellamy shouted, wincing at the loudness of his voice. He looked toward his doorway as if one of the residential assistants would come knocking at any moment, that or one of his dorm mates. He lowered his voice to a whisper, frowning at the screen while his grandfather simpered, "Where are you? Are you alone? What's—"
"Aht, aht, no need for all the questions, Bell," his grandfather said, raising one of his hands defensively. "I'm perfectly fine, and you don't need to go worryin' about this old man. That's not what I called y' for."
"Papa," Bellamy groaned, letting the irritation leak into his voice as he pinched his nose.
"Ah, y' do the same thing your Ma does."
Bellamy flinched, his grip tightening until the could feel the cartilage beneath his skin. He did his best not to rip them from his face but the agitation returned as he lowered his hand, taking in a steadying breath before he asked, "Does she know you're out on a boat somewhere?"
"Mm, I reckon I'll let her know after I'm done tellin' you the news, I imagine y' both will have a lot to talk about."
"What?"
His grandfather's smile ebbed away slowly, fading like the final notes of a summer long lost and Bellamy's heart sank at the sight. "Bellamy, you've always been a part of my heart. Y'know that right?"
Bellamy nodded slowly, and the corner of his grandfather's lips twitched but it didn't raise. Not fully, and not for long. His eyes lowered slightly, looking somewhere to the left. "Even if we haven' seen much of each other, y' always tried to look out for me. This old man owes a lot to y'."
"What are you talking about? You don't owe me anything. You.." Bellamy's lip quivered as he stared at his grandfather. No, what was he talking about? Why was he talking like that? "Are you alright? Is there something wrong..?!"
"I told y' it's not that kind of call."
"Then why do you sound like you're going to.."
His grandfather's eyes snapped up to him as he trailed off, and they stared at one another in silence. No, no that couldn't be it. Bellamy's breathing quickened, and he felt as if he couldn't get enough air in for a moment. His grandfather said it wasn't like that but what else could it be?
"I wanna start livin' on my own terms."
".. What?" Bellamy blinked, brows furrowed. "What does that mean?"
His grandfather smiled then, but it was a gentle, small thing. Like he was thinking of something fond, a memory Bellamy couldn't quite see. "I've lived on Starsand longer than you've been alive, made many good memories and friends too. Watched you, and a lot of the young ones grow up. And now that you're all grown, think it's time for this old man to see what else is out there."
Bellamy opened his mouth then closed it, thinking it over. "You're not.." The word dying set on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't let it go, couldn't let it be real even as a consideration. His grandfather shook his head, then chuckled and relief flooded Bellamy's veins.
"But that ain't all," his grandfather said, smiling at him blithely. "Bell, you're almost done with that school of yours, aren'tcha?"
"Mn.." Bellamy said, glancing aside to the books stacked by his bedside. "Did Mom tell you?"
"Yeah," his grandfather smiled wistfully, then nodded his head. "She said y' were giving some thoughts to the future and I thought I'd help out with that."
Bellamy frowned. "You don't have t-"
"I want to," his grandfather butted in. "Besides, it'd be a right shame if the old place just sat there with nobody to look after it. It's a good plot of land."
For the umpteenth time since their conversation started, Bellamy felt as if he'd been led around the nose and couldn't keep up. A good plot of land? Nobody to look after it? ".. Are you talking about your house?"
"Right in one!" His grandfather crowed, a bellyful laugh shaking the screen and blustering Bellamy's speakers. "The ol' place is goin' to you! Your ma was never interested in that kind of life, so why not?"
Bellamy gaped, looking around as if he were searching for the answers. He'd gone to bed thinking about his presentation, about the symposium , about the countless years of academics ahead of him. The accolades, the people, and now.. this? "But I don't know anything about that either. And I have a life here, and.."
"If you're happy with what you're doing then stick to it," his grandfather said. "It'll be there waitin' for you, no matter how long it takes you to get there. And I might not be there but, I'll come in to check on y' from time to time, just like this! Now that you're grown, we can talk whenever you want! Y'know I love to hear from my grandson."
Bellamy stared at the screen. He stared long after the conversation came to an end, and the screen went black, reflecting nothing in the dimness of the room. The sound of the ocean waves still crashed along the walls of his mind, sweeping away thoughts of city lights and universities filled with people he didn't know arguing points that would carry on into forever. He loved his studies, he loved crafting new worlds from his hands and his mind, but it had all started on those distant shores with a man that had a smile like sunshine. One who'd led him to a work station, put a hammer in his hand and told him to make a mess because that was the only way to make progress.
He set his phone on the bedside table and laid back, pillow cooled from the lack of body heat. His eyelids felt heavy, but somehow his heart felt light and as he drifted back into sleep - he swore that he could hear the voices of old friends calling him home.