Strings of Fate

82- Planning and placating Bellamy considersfor a moment then nods.

“Fine. | might be mad, | can’t be sure until you tellwhat's wrong. But | promise I'll get over it and I'll help you fix it. Whatever it is. Now, tellwhat's wrong.” His voice is quiet, like he’s trying not to startle me. | relent and accept my fate.

“Well... yesterday morning | found a letter under my door.” | start. | expect him to interrupt but he waits patiently forto explain. I tell him what the letter said and about what | saw on the security camera. Bellamy drops his hands to his sides, closes his eyes and takes three deep breaths. | can tell he’s trying to stay calm, but his shoulders and hands are tensed up and his jaw is so tight I'd be surprised if he could get words out. | wait, giving him tto process. Without opening his eyes, he speaks again, his voice measured and, controlled.

“Why did you hide it? Why wait so long to tell me?” He asks.

“I... | panicked I guess. | didn’t want you to be worried about me. Then | decided that | should tell you and | wanted to do it in person rather than on the phone, and | got sidetracked by Megan and...

well, you know the rest.” | watch Bellamy. His eyes are still shut as he processes what I've told him.

“Are... are you angry with me?” | ask quietly. His eyes fly open and meet mine. Unlike the molten gold his eyes were this morning, now they're burning embers.

“I'm trying to convince myself | shouldn't be. You were afraid and made a stupid choice, but you're here and you're okay and that’s what | really care about.” He says he isn’t angry but the words are practically a growl. | fight the urge to cringe. I'm quickly discovering that while | enjoy bickering with Bellamy, | don’t like it when he’s actually upset with me.

“You sound angry.” | comment. Bellamy begins pacing his office, glancing over atevery the turns.

“I am angry. I'm angry with you for not saying anything sooner and walking around like everything is okay, I'm angry at myself for being so out of control that you weren't comfortable saying anything sooner. I'm angry with Aaron for not noticing something wast 1/4 wrong, I'm I'm angry with my sister for distracting you. But mostly I'm furious that anyone would threaten you. I'm going to fix it, Ryann. I'll find out who it is, I'll keep you safe.” he promises. | almost tear up again. | interrupt Bellamy’s pacing with a hand on his arm.

“I won't lie and say a little bit ofnot saying anything wasn’t because | thought you would overreact. But mostly I didn’t think it was a priority because | already feel safe. You've already taken every reasonable step to keepsafe. | didn’t feel like there was anything to worry about.” | explain. Bellamy stares for a moment, frozen in place, before grabbingtightly and pullinginto a hard kiss. It's over before | can even process that he’s moved. He continues to clutchtightly against his chest.

“Nothing is going to happen to you.” I'm not sure if he’s promisingor reassuring himself, but | nod against his chest anyway.

“I'm pretty sure I'm not the one who needs convincing. Anyway, go on.” | wait. Bellamy steps back to look at my face. He looks confused.

“What am | supposed to be going on with?” he asks and I roll my eyes.

“I don’t know. But | figured you'd have snew irritating slash sorta endearing super overprotective behaviour forto deal with. Or something like that at least. So go ahead, lay it on me.” Bellamy stares for a second, then bursts out laughing. Before | can even ask why, he grabsand kissesfirmly before lettinggo. | step back in shock.

“Uhm... what?” | ask. He laughs again.

“Sorry, | couldn't help it. You did say to lay it on you, and you were looking so serious.” He places his hands on my shoulders.

“You're going to stay safe and use your security system. Hopefully this isn’t a big deal. You also need to givethe letter so | can look into it properly. Ill call Alex right away and have him check the security footage again, in case you missed something.” He starts planning and | can’t help but smile. | thought telling Bellamy would make life harder, | should have known that all he would do was try and make things better.

“Yeah, | have the letter at home.” 2/4 82- Planning and placating “Letgrab my keys, I'll drive you hand you can grab it for me. I'll tell Aaron to meet us there. | assyou put it somewhere safe?” | shrug.

“I put it... in my bottom drawer.” | admit. Bellamy raises an eyebrow.

“What, you're pretty nosy, and | already told you to stay out of that drawer. It seemed like a good idea at the time.” | protest.

“Objectively, it was a good way to hide it from me, although I still wish you didn’t feel like you needed to... I'm mostly just thinking that I'm going to have to be on the lookout in the future, you're actually good at hiding things from me.” | frown.

“Bellamy, | lasted less than a day before | changed my mind and wanted to tell you. I'm pretty sure | won't make that mistake again. It was miserable. You really don’t need to worry about it. Next tI'll definitely call you right away.” | assure him. He crosses his arms and looks away from me.

“See that you do.” The next few weeks pass pleasantly. | don’t receive any more weird threatening letters or any other kinds of issues. Aaron and | develop a routine and | spend the majority of my free twith Megan and Bellamy. The group chat between myself, Megan and Harry stays strong and we all chat every day. I'm finally starting to feel comfortable in my own life again. It’s a Friday night and I'm super excited for one of my rare weekends off.

Megan is coming to hang out and we are only going to drink in moderation from now on. | hope... | hear her quick knocks at the door and let her and Darrien in.

“Hi guys! | greet them. Darrien drops Megan’s bag on my table while Megan starts rummaging through my fridge. Sh rummaging through my fridge. She’s been visiting a lot lately and has gotten very comfortable here. | don’t mind it, but it's definitely a strange feeling. Bellamy is the same, helping himself to things and moving things around all the time. It would be annoying but they constantly bring groceries and treats to make up for the stuff they use up so somehow despite constantly feeding guests, my shopping budget has gotten lower. Even Aaron has taken to bringing meals along, using my microwave and stove. He cleans up all the ttoo. I've told him he doesn’t need to but, in the smallest number of words he could manage and with a lot of interpretation on my part, he’s made it clear that technically he is not a guest, he’s at work and will clean up after himself. | argued at first, but it’s ridiculously hard trying 3/4 82-Planning and placating to argue with someone who basically never answers, so | gave up quickly. I'm starting to think that being quiet is just Aaron’s method of getting his own way.