Her sisterâs scream wakes her. Katniss blinks into the sudden brightness before checking her phone: 5 am, well past last call. âHow was your date?â
âJesus Christ Katniss! You scared me! Have you been there all night?!â
âWell I couldnât stay at my place, could I? Didnât want to risk being there if you went home with Peeta last night⊠Which you obviously did.â
Prim stays at their childhood home between semesters of med school. Even with their mother working the night shift, It was a safe bet that Prim wouldnât try to bring someone back here if she could help it. Then Peeta had text at 9 pm to ask if he should expect her that night, and it was as good as hanging a sock on the door. Thatâs when it really hit her. Sheâd sent a single word response before putting her phone on do-not-disturb and waiting in Primâs room for the awful night to be over.
âAh-ha!â Prim points triumphantly, âSo you admit it! It bothered you, didnât it?â
âYeah! I fucking hated it! Are you happy?â
âBut why Katniss?â she affects a too innocent air, âI thought you would be happy if Peeta met someone you approved of.â
Katniss stares up at the ceiling and exhales, âbecause I like Peeta, alright?â
âJust like?â
âDonât push your luck.â
âFine,â Prim says, dropping to sit next to her, âand yes: I am a little happy. So, now that youâve finally admitted it, what are you going to do?â
âI donât know⊠Move probably?â
âDonât be so dramatic.â
Katniss scowls at her sister.
Prim huffs, âI was at Rueâs, by the way. We went to the Hob to dance last night and then I slept off the buzz at her place. Youâre lucky I had to come back early to get ready for work. You would have been sitting here in misery till well after brunch.â
âHe still agreed to go on a date with you.â Katniss hadnât wanted to believe Primâs assertion, so on Wednesday sheâd asked Peeta if heâd wanted to go to happy hour with her at the end of the week. Heâd said he was meeting a friend for drinks, and that was all the confirmation sheâd needed. It hurt, but sheâd convinced herself it only bothered her because he hadnât trusted her enough to be honest.
Prim rolled her eyes, âI was fucking with you. I asked him to meet up to talk about your birthday. Told him not to mention it to you or youâd try to tag along and it would ruin the surprise. Heâs not an idiot. Heâd never hurt his chances with you by even feinting interest in me.â
âPlease.â
âAre you kidding me? Heâs not even trying to hide his feelings. I donât know how you can breathe in that apartment with all the pent up sexual tension.â
She probably should never trust Prim again, but Katniss allows herself a small bit of hope that what sheâs saying is true, âYouâre the worst.â
âYeah, yeah. Rue agrees, if that helps. She said I was the asshole and that I owe you an apology... But she didnât think it would work either, so jokes on her.â
Katniss snorts.
âBut seriously; I may have gone a little overboard, but the next person wonât be doing it for your benefit. Now, get out of here and do something about it.â
Now, could you give Virginia some love too, pls? đđ€
Again, off the top of my head:
Her schtick with the boots on the table, eating an apple and being obnoxious, getting everyone to underestimate them and then wiping the floor with them.
Her self-awareness.
How she knows she's smarter than almost everyone but never looks down on others because of it.
Her level-headedness, and how she always keeps her cool.
The way she talked Sevro down from trying to kill the Duke of Hands, convinced him and the Howlers to come back into the fold, and gave Sevro a dressing-down for leaving Darrow behind. It's one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.
Her relationship with the Telemanuses.
The way she tries so hard as Sovereign not to take/use too much power, even when she knows so many things would be much easier if she did.
Reasoning: This one is the easiest to determine and makes sense from both a power point of view and story-arc point of view. Matthias is a natural born leader, and sees himself as someone who needs to keep the rest of the crows in line and act as a sort of moral compass. This reflects well with the position of Number One, as the leader of the group and a somewhat self-righteous character in the beginning.
Number Two
Character: Inej
Reasoning: Although it would make sense for Jesper to be Number Two due to the metal/trajectory manipulation, Diegoâs character better fits Inej in my mind. She would definitely hold a grudge against Sir Reginald Hargreeves for taking them away from their parents and for not protecting them when they were kids. She also would fit the vigilante role well, due to her pirating arc at the end of Crooked Kingdom.
Number Three
Character: Nina
Reasoning: It was a toss-up between Number Four and Number Three for Nina, due to her powers as a corpse witch, but I feel that she would fit better as Number Three with the reality manipulation/rumor ability, because of what she was able to do under the effects of Jurda Parem, and the line about her and Jesper seducing all of Ketterdam into submission.
Number Four
Character: Jesper
Reasoning: This decision is mainly based on character arc and personality. Klaus and Jesper are similar levels of chaos, sass, and queerness. As well as the fact that addiction is a big part of both of their arcs. I felt that Number Four was a better fit than he would have been for Number Two.
Number Five
Character: Kaz
Reasoning: I felt that out of all of them, Kaz would embody the 50+ year old man in a 13-year-oldâs body arc the best. He and Five just remind me a lot of each other, and view themselves as the leader of their respective groups, whether or not everyone sees it that way. Plus, Kaz, due to his PTSD, is kind of stuck in the past sometimes, and I think that preventing the apocalypse would be a good mirror to his drive for revenge against Pekka Rollins.
Number Six
Character: Jordie
Reasoning: I find this one very, very interesting to explore, and for this reason, I thought about giving Kaz the role of Number Four, but no one else really embodied Number Five like he did. Plus, the idea of Jesper being able to talk to Jordie while Kaz canât? I want to explore it. But other than the fact that he is dead, I like to think that Jordie would act as a common sense filter for Jesper, and by extension, Kaz, much like Ben does.
Number Seven
Character: Wylan
Reasoning: This was another fairly easy decision for me. The treatment of Number Seven by Sir Reginald Hargreeves is somewhat similar to Wylanâs treatment by his father. The isolation, the constant reminding that they are not special and are nothing compared to everyone else. The fact that Wylan was very much considered an outsider by the Crows for a large portion of Six of Crows. As well as the connection of both Wylan and Number Seven to music.
Iâve been here for fourteen years, do you think I remember? I donât know who any of these people are anymore. I donât know why theyâre on my dash. I allow them to stay because they havenât pissed me off enough to unfollow them yet. âWhy did you follow this person?â Iâm not sure I ever did. Theyâre just part of my ecosystem now.