A/N: Buy my book, Cock-Punched By The Changeling, out now on Amazon.

"Hey, Ock, come check out Clarke's new tats!" Raven called, gesturing Octavia into the engineering bay.

Looking down at her Grounder armor as if incensed that it didn't intimidate Raven at least a little, Octavia allowed herself to be ushered inside. Raven and Clarke were sitting on barrels, which turned out to be far more resilient to space station crashes than most government-issue chairs.

Clarke was in a tight T-shirt, drawing back the sleeves to show the tattoos that marked her biceps and continued onto her shoulders. Raven held the fabric away from her body for a closer look.

"Lexa did them," Clarke said, smiling sunnily. She had kind of a stupid-looking grin. Good that she only deployed it when Lexa was spoiling her. "They're cool, right? So are we the same rank?"

"Those aren't rank insignia," Octavia said unthinkingly.

Clarke's brow furrowed. "Lexa said they were about taking me into the tribe. If they aren't insignia—"

"Lexa didn't go over this with you?" Raven asked, mirroring the other two's concern.

"Well, she mentioned—stuff—I told her I knew how the tattoos worked. I know Lexa's says she's the heda, and Indra had the same tattoos as Anya, and there's a hierarchy…"

"Different tattoos," Octavia said simply. "These are Trigedasleng promise markings. They're used when a Grounder takes a mate."

As Raven goggled, Clarke said "Well, we have been mating."

"They don't say that Clarke is her property or anything, do they?" Raven demanded of Octavia.

"No, nothing like that. They're romantic gestures. The person who makes the tattoo, the pledge, they're inking a promise to the person being tattooed, the committed, and those promises are considered sacred."

"So… we're… married?" Clarke said slowly.

"Grounders don't have marriage. This is more of a—" Octavia wagged her head, trying to figure out how to express it. "It's hard to explain. A contract is a horrible way to put it; Lexa is basically saying she loves you so much that she promises to do certain things as long as you—the literal translation is 'have skin,' but until you die, really."

"Good, I'd hate for her to weasel out of our deal just because I don't have any skin," Clarke joked.

Octavia gave her a solid look. "The idea is, she loves you so much now that she'll keep doing these things, even if aren't in love anymore. It's a debt she takes on, long into the future, just so you'll know how much she loves you."

"Cool," Raven said brightly. "Wha'd they mean?"

"Oh, little things," Octavia said. She pointed at a sigil of an eight-pointed star above Clarke's elbow. "That means she'll always kill the spider."

"You can't kill spiders yourself?" Raven asked Clarke mockingly.

"They grow three feet high now…"

"This one…" Octavia tapped the top of Clarke's shoulder. "Says that she will get water from the well, even when it's your turn. Which is very romantic, because that is a fucking hassle. You'll see."

"Other arm!" Raven cried, and Clarke made a muscle with her other arm.

"Oh, that's nice." Octavia indicated a scroll of weaving text following Clarke's bone down to her elbow. "'I will always listen to how bad your day was even when mine was worse.'"

Raven went "Awwwwwwww…"

"What about this one?" Clarke asked, turning her arm to show Octavia a pink circle with a five-pointed star inside.

"That's, uh…" Octavia bit her lip. "That one… is a little hard to translate, maybe I should double-check and get back to you later. In private."

"Ock, c'mon, you can let Raven in on it. Who's she going to tell?"

"Besides my many fawning admirers?" Raven agreed.

"Well, it means—roughly translated—that you can…"

"Yeah?"

"That she's giving you permission to make love to her…"

"See?" Clarke broke in. "That's not so bad."

"Make love to her butt."

"I'm sorry?" Clarke said.

"Anal sex," Raven said. "When the guy puts his business up your butt? I guess you can do the same with dildos, or fingers, whatever. The lube's the important thing."

"I know what anal sex is!"

"Yeah, you did date Finn," Raven recalled.

"It's a very big deal for a Grounder," Octavia added. "They have to trust you an awful lot to turn their back on you."

"Oh, you don't have to turn your back," Raven said. "You just have to be either really good at cowgirl. Or really bad at it."

"So it's just a romantic gesture," Clarke said, nodding earnestly. "I mean, just so we're clear, we haven't—Lexa and I haven't—that's not the kind of thing we do during our… private time."

"Well, you can go down that road now," Raven chuckled. "The road is open!"

"We don't even use dildos!"

"You don't have to."

"What else would I use!?"

"You're comfortable eating her out, right?" Raven shrugged. "Her butt's right next door."

"And it's her butt!" Clarke stressed.

"How can you be bisexual and not toss salad?" Octavia asked. "It's the one sex thing you can do on both men and women."

Raven pointed at her. "True dat."

"No! Not true dat! I am not licking Lexa's butt and I don't want to hear any more on the subject!"

"You could just put your finger in there," Raven said."

"Then my finger would be in her butt."

"It would show a certain appreciation," Octavia reasoned.

"Yeah," Raven agreed. "She's offered. Are you really going to turn your nose up at Lexa's butt?"

"Yes! It's a butt!"

"Clarke, c'mon." Octavia patted her on the shoulder. "We're all adults here. We've all had a finger up our butt."

"I haven't!" Clarke protested.

"She's never had a finger up her butt?"

Raven guffawed in response. "Didn't know we were talking to a virgin."

"I've had sex! I've had sex with your boyfriend!"

"Yeah, but apparently he didn't put his finger up your butt." Raven smiled. "Suddenly, I feel better about the whole thing."

"It was just a bit of harmless fun. He didn't put his finger up her butt or anything."

"Not everyone puts fingers up butts!" Clarke insisted.

"Well, no, not if they're a freak like Jasper."

"I am not putting my finger up Lexa's butt," Clarke said slowly. "I am not putting my finger up anyone's butt. As far as I'm concerned, butts are for pooping and occasionally thermometers. Okay? Okay!"

Raven and Octavia were silent for a long moment.

"It could be," Raven finally said, "that she's trying to butter up Clarke to be, you know—the penetratee."

"Yeah, that's fair. If a relationship's going to work, either both of you have to be willing to do it up the butt, or you agree that neither one of you is doing it."

"But you should at least try it first," Raven replied.

"Yeah, definitely."

Clarke stormed off.

"'Butter up Clarke'," Octavia repeated. "Bet that would come in handy for anal sex."

Raven nodded smugly. "Wordplay."