Raven heard the tell-tale rustling noise of the tent flap. She looked out of the corner of her eye and discovered the intruder was Octavia. Fierce scowl. Sword. She looked battle-ready, but Raven knew it was only her just-another-Tuesday look. Raven shifted her focus back onto the gears she was trying to fit together. She had learnt that people talked more easily when it looked like you were busy with something else. It was the bane of her existence on most days, but today it could work to her advantage.

'Need any help? An extra pair of hands, a sword to discourage thievery?'

Though Raven had been holed up in this tent working on a project for most of the week, she knew from her friend's reports that things had been getting dangerous out in the camp. All of the various threats looming over them were making people antsy, and things had been disappearing from their stores. People were hoarding supplies. Raven had nothing edible in her work tent, but she had a lot of materials that would be valuable in trade. She put down her work and looked Octavia straight in the eye. 'There are a million things in here I could use as a weapon at a moment's notice.' She picked up a blowtorch and flicked it on in demonstration. 'Plus Clarke and Bellamy come in here bugging me so often that they might as well be my bodyguards.'

Octavia looked a little disappointed, but she didn't leave. She started pacing up and down until Raven sighed and threw a bag of wire at her. 'Untangle these. Put anything longer than your hand in a separate pile.'

It was ten minutes before Octavia spoke up again. 'People respect you.'

'That's true,' Raven said. 'I'm a genius. They should bow down before me. Give me ten hours and I might have a working torch that only sucks half the time.' One of her previous designs had blown up and the other had barely lasted for an hour. But she knew there was a breakthrough just around the corner. Let there be light.

'I need a thing of my own. Something I can do besides cut out someone's intestines.'

Raven was pretty sure Octavia knew how to cut out many other body parts with her sword, but she understood her point. 'You're an all-rounder. You've got the guts and smarts to do anything, to jump in where you're needed. Specialising is more trouble than it's worth. There are some days when I would love to just pick up a sword and stab something. But then who would fix all of this crap? I couldn't resign from this gig if I wanted to.'

'Do you want a day off? I told you, my sword is yours if you want it. I can scare everyone away. I'm good at that.'

'I might take you up on that someday.' She looked at her pile of junk and sighed. 'But not today.'

They worked in silence for a while. Lately Raven had preferred to work alone, but Octavia wasn't bad company. Even so, she didn't want the girl haunting her tent all day. She tried to wait long enough to lull Octavia into a false sense of security before she struck. 'People respect you too. Bellamy respects you.'

'I know he does.'

So Raven's first guess was wrong. Trial and error. That was the way to get things done. If it wasn't Bellamy… 'And Clarke.'

This time Octavia gave her a sceptical look.

'Really, she does. She cares what you think. She's won't show it because she's scared that you don't respect her back. That you disapprove of her choices.'

'Of course I do. She can be a pain in the ass and she makes some dumb choices. But she heals people, can practically bring them back from the dead. And she's a total badass, a rebel and a goody-goody at the same time. How could anyone not respect that?'

'Exactly,' Raven agreed with a wink. 'How could anyone not respect someone like that?'

Raven could see her point sink in. Octavia might be feeling a bit insecure right now, but no one had ever accused her of being modest. Octavia sat there thoughtfully for a while and then left with her sword hand relaxed. Raven crossed one more problem off her to-do list and moved on the next one. She attacked her torch design with a new enthusiastic zeal. Machines could be complicated and frustrating, but compared to dealing with people they were a breeze.