A/N: I have no defence whatsoever. I'm such a dork.
I have one defence. I wanted to do a Spin the Bottle fic but we had too many of those already.
So here's one of mine.
(it will be part of a kissing trop series actually)
"What?!" two voices echoed together.
"Ok, don't get mad-"
"And how exactly do you think we'll do that" Bellamy growled.
"Look, Octavia, I know you're Indra's second but-" Clarke started
"It's a Before Earth tradition!" Octavia yelled, waving her hands around as Monty and Jasper nodded behind her.
"It says here that people on earth would celebrate their alliances on social gatherings, symbolizing their unrestricted and broad trust on their company by performing the twist the carafe rite," Wick read the grey and heavy book in his hands with a raised eyebrow, not happy to be part of it himself.
Raven snorted, "That sounds ridiculous."
"I don't know… that thing about draining rivals blood in sacrifice on top of a heart shaped altar on that Valentin something seemed legit." Jasper said with narrowed eyes as he scratched his chin.
Monty furrowed his eyebrows," Yeah, but people eating bunny eggs? That looks like a stretch. Radiation can only change so much."
Bellamy and Clarke narrowed her eyes but before anyone could add another enlightened comment, Octavia raised her voice again," Stupid or not, it's grounder tradition for peace celebrations and I don't need to remind you all that this is the first time we have one of those and if you don't do it, they'll take great offence." Some people grunted and some nodded at that, "And, besides, it's not even a romantic kiss, it's just a sign of reliance between people, it's just a three second peck."
The leader duo deflated. Clarke's shoulders fell and Bellamy sighed before adding grumpily, "As long as I don't end up kissing Clarke's mother."
"Good, I'm not eager to get to know that deeply either, Mr. Blake," Abby walked into the room at that moment, of course.
Everyone held their breath trying with every fibre of their being not to burst out laughing at the elder Blake's face.
"Are you ready?" Abby raised both her eyebrows at her daughter and her… friend (the doctor hoped), who glanced at each other (and he tried to ignore how the girl was biting her lip and scrunching her face in a solid effort not to laugh).
They looked back at the woman and nodded curtly before following her out of the room, not without hearing their friends gasping and cackling embarrassingly loud as they followed.
It wasn't…. bad.
Just extremely… weird.
They still didn't know why the grounders had to be so damn poetic and traditional all the time but they didn't question, peace was more important than awkwardness. Different cultures, different people, they've learned on Earth what exotic meant and it meant free pass for doing unusual, crazy things.
(Or at least that's how they'd defend themselves later
Much later when all everyone could talk about was-
When the grounders were-
Anyway, it didn't matter, because it was all very exotic, that was it. And not whatever it was that Jasper ,Raven, Miller, Octavia and freaking Lincoln were trying to tell everyone.
And It didn't even matter because it was all for the cause.)
At first all grounders and sky people were drinking, laughing and talking only among themselves- which, okay, wasn't the best way to fraternize but it was a thousand years better throwing spears and bullets at each other.
So that was nice.
But, there was a … was that a gong?
There was a gong in the middle of Camp Jaha, Clarke realized with surprise. She had only seen images of the instrument back on the Ark and while she should be more mesmerised, it made her insides clench as it only reminded her of the stupid rite.
She glanced at Bellamy and by the furrow of his brow and the glint in his eyes, she could tell he was equally disturbed by the presence of any musical instrument during an already pompous moment as he was incredibly fascinated by the presence of such an old and peculiar artefact;
(the big history nerd that he was)
Octavia had explained how it would work. A grounder would play an instrument, that now they figured was a gong, and it would dictate the pace of the ceremony. Faster beats would indicate the beginning and the end of it, slower ones would be there in between, and when two people…kissed….he'd play three rhythmic beats to establish the duration of it.
A metallic sound echoed in the air, claiming everyone's attention and Clarke snapped out of her thoughts, only to see the smaller and skinnier grounder she had ever seen playing the gong.
(if there was even such thing as small and skinny grounders).
All those who would be part of the ceremony walked towards the grounder: some leaders, guards and even civilians. That part Lincoln was the one who tried to explain, how the people were sorted out. It had something to do with spheres of knowledge: like healers (Abby), warriors (Bellamy), leaders (Clarke), intellectuals (Wick) and civilians (Harper). It still didn't explain why Kane had to be there too, but then Lincoln tried to explain something about moon phases and the way horses bestrode and they simply waved him off.
What he did tell them was that they should hold hands and make a circle around the tiny grounder and they did as Indra, Nyko, Lincoln himself and three others they didn't recognize also joined their hands. Finally, Kane took Indra's hand and Clarke took Lincoln's closing the circle, before they took a few steps forwards as the player started hitting the instrument with more ferocity.
From where Bellamy and Clarke stood side by side, they could see Octavia in the crowd right behind Lincoln. The rest of the gang was near her, either giggling or giving them thumbs up and Bellamy resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Clarke squeezed his hand, predicting his reaction or trying to control hers (she didn't know. But it was probably both).
Lincoln gave a small nod when the bang, bang, bangs of the gong grew louder and faster (seriously? weren't those people afraid of other grounders or night monsters or gorillas or something) and then they all sat down.
The gong grounder stopped playing to place an old dusty bottle by his feet before moving himself and the instrument to a place right out of the circle. The flask was pointing towards Nyko, so it meant he was the one chosen to start the ceremony. His long arm reached the glass of the bottle and he spun it when the metallic beats resumed.
It had been awhile, maybe less than Clarke thought, but almost everyone had their turn. She was beginning to think she'd walk away kiss free until she saw the bottle pointing towards her.
At least it was Lincoln, it could have been worse.
(Like Kane.
Like her Mom. Urgh that would give her nightmares. Bellamy was so right)
They nodded respectfully at each other before moving forwards, he gave her a peck while they both heard the tum, tum and final tum of the gong, signalizing the achievement of their trust (or something along those lines, Clarke was sure).
The girl thought about how funny it was that the guy she once tortured (not directly but, semantics) now had declared his trust in her publically and vice versa. She smiled at the thought as she took a deep breath, placed her hand the bottle and twisted.
It stopped.
She heard gasps before she could react.
The blonde looked up as if it would change the person who was sitting right beside her.
The boy in question let his eyes widen for a fraction of second before clenching his jaw at the object pointing at him.
(as if even century old dusty bottles wouldn't dare challenge Bellamy freaking Blake)
Clarke kinda envied his broodiness since she was pretty sure she was point-blank dropping her jaw.
Truth was, ever since they've found out about the whole ceremony, all they could think about was how ridiculous they'd look, how unnecessary it was and should they ended up kissing Indra would she knock them in the head and\or spit into their mouths.
(Bellamy did end up kissing her actually and, other than the murderous look she wore, there was nothing to worry about.
Also, her lips were pretty soft).
They never even considered they could end up kissing each other.
As Clarke stared at Bellamy, she realized she should have definitely considered it because there was no way she could go through with it. One thing was awkwardly kissing a stranger or acquaintance from the Ark or the Ground, another thing entirely was kissing him.
But the gong was signalizing they should – literally?! – go for it and neither could exactly stand up and run away claiming they had an indigestion. So, since he was right beside her, they just turned around so they could face each other while sitting indian style.
Clarke forced herself to stare at him as naturally as possible, but when he stared, her heart hammered.
Bellamy looked as intense as he was, piercing brown eyes and tight lips. But his chest rose and fell agitatedly, his resolve to make it stop causing him to shake a little. He glanced down at her lips and her breath hitched. He glanced back at her eyes and his seemed darker, closer, his jaw was clenching, his breath was uneven and-
Oh.
His mouth tasted like Bellamy.
At that realization, a shiver ran down her spine and goosebumps went up and down her arms. She saw a mess of freckles, then everything went dark.
The feel of his rough lips against hers, of his warm breath against her skin spread a tingling sensation all over her stomach. Clarke tilted her head and moved her lips, pressing them fiercely against his as she grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards her, making him inhale her soundly.
His hand was suddenly holding the back of her head, stroking her hair, drawing a little desperate throaty noise from her.
Her mouth opened as she captured his top lip slowly, relishing the feel of his skin and smell against her and the sound of her blood pumping in her ears with a loud, crazy and winded tump tump tumping rhythm as Bellamy-
"Clarke!"
A hand gripped her shoulder painfully, pulling her away from the boy. At the back of her mind, the sky people leader realized that was probably her mom's hand.
Panting, the two looked at each other. Bellamy was flustered and wide eyed, she figured she looked just the same. The girl then realized that the noise she had been hearing wasn't her blood, it was the gong ferociously begging them to take a damn hint.
Before they could even wonder if they'd ruined the ritual, they noticed the roars. And the squeals. And the… She was pretty sure there was some singing going on too.
In shock, they looked around. Everyone was in frenzy. Grounders were screaming approvals and raising their drinks at their direction with wide smiles. Arkers had just gone insane, between whistles and people shouting "yeaaahh"s, some of them were taking (or being taken by) grounders to dance and twirl around.
(Jasper. Jasper was the one twirling with not one, but two drunk grounders)
Gong player was downright joyful, white teeth decorating his grin as he hit the gong rapidly, energetically, indicating that he was happy to end the celebration like that.
(so at least the rite was a success, right?
It's not like people would remember what happened exactly.)
Thinking back, Indra was the only one who looked at them with her usual "Damn, sky people" face. Abby was probably looking slightly displeased too but Clarke and Bellamy couldn't care less as they gaped at the commotion
(And avoid looking at each other
Like forever
No, not because they felt anything. It just was embarrassing. They were leaders, they had solemn and serious reputations to protect.
That was the only reason.
If anyone said they caught Bellamy Blake or Clarke Griffin blushing or having trouble sleeping that was definitely because they happened to get very sick on the other week.)
Lincoln walked their way, trying not to laugh at their perplexity. The girl looked up at him as he stood right in front of them; she closed her mouth, trying to formulate any excuse before he could comment on what had happened.
"I guess I heard Octavia wrong. I thought she meant six beats instead of three." she chuckled weakly as she not-so-secretly hoped he'd let it slide, since he obviously knew she was lying, having kissed her in exact three beats.
(but come on, she and Lincoln had just declared their trust there, that would be a great time to act accordingly and let her have it, right?)
"More like thirty beats." He replied with a raised eyebrow and the most amused smile she had ever seen in him. Her jaw dropped again and then Lincoln looked at Bellamy, who had been deadly silent since the incident (except for the heavy breathing, but if she was going to ignore hers then she most definitely had to ignore his). The grounder glanced at the loud and happy crowd behind him, then back at the paralyzed duo who was still watching said crowd.
Before they could ask why everyone had gone wild and crazy, the grounder explained with a smirk," It's always cause for celebration when a couple breaks the record"
Two hundred years later that would be known as the most successful grounder-skaikru peace festivity of all time.
A/N: So I might write a sequel of this with another kissing trope one shot, if you guys feel like it (or maybe i'll just do it anyway haha)
PS: So This was me making fun of social customs in general (no matter the country or culture). And this is me having fun at the idea that things aren't always perfect when it comes to studying history and trying to contextualize and understand old customs.