#anyway yeah i want victor to live

[nebulaafterdark]

Exile (Part 2)

Summary: Y/N Undersee thought the games were over after becoming a victor. Unfortunately, life outside the arena has become just as dangerous. Prequel to Moves & Countermoves

Trigger warning: forced prostitution, explicit sexual content, alcohol abuse and other mentions of trauma. 18+ ONLY

Part 1

Haymitch doesn’t sleep, but he does wait until a reasonable hour to climb out of bed to drink. And glare at Y/N from the dining table of their suite.

Their wedding attire, as well as the sheets they’d consummated said marriage upon, had been prompted collected. Nothing is ever really theirs. Not their clothing or their houses, nor their bodies. Everything belongs to the Capitol, everything belongs to Snow.

It is a foolish endeavor, trying to keep Y/N safe. Haymitch knew it from the moment her name was plucked from the reaping bowl. Surely she would die in the arena, but somehow she didn’t. Surely Snow would kill her after, but for some reason he didn’t.

For a moment, Haymitch almost believed that he could do it. That he could save her. Spare her from this. But Snow wanted her; everyone wanted her. Haymitch’s stomach turns at the rather extensive list of patrons who are chomping at the bit for just one night with her.

If he’s being honest, he doesn’t know if it was pride or stupidity which caused him to blurt out that he would do anything, in exchange for Y/N’s safety.

Clearly Snow intends to take full advantage of anything. The victors of district twelve can still prove themselves useful and lucrative. A new means to entertain and distract people from what is really going on.

Haymitch isn’t sure how many of the Capitol’s higher ups will have seen their wedding night by now. Not that it matters, most of them have already seen him anyway. But they hadn’t seen her.

Some part of him understands that it is stupid to become attached to her. She’ll be another person for the president to hold over his head. She is just a stupid girl, who makes him do stupid things.

Y/N begins to stir against the mattress.

Haymitch knocks back the remainder of his drink. He has the full lineup waiting for her. Uppers, downers, sleeping pills, painkillers, something to calm her nerves. All color coded and laid out on the table, next to a glass of water.

Sure, there are other ways a person might comfort another. But Haymitch isn’t familiar with them. However, he’s on a first name basis with pills. Booze.

Y/N’s lips part and she lets out a sleepy sigh.

God those lips…her mouth. The noises she made.

Haymitch slaps a hand against the table. He could not and would not think about it. She didn’t want him, she was forced. They both were. He has to figure out how to live with that.

Eventually Y/N wakes, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Her eyes find him, at the table, watching her, intently. She excuses herself to the washroom and returns a few moments later. Haymitch is still staring. “Good morning,” she says, in a weak attempt to break the awkward silence.

Haymitch grunts in response, observing as she opens her travel bag in the corner and produces a tablet. The same one she taps away at day and night. Frankly, he’s surprised it hadn’t ended up in bed with them. “What are you doing?” He asks, as she presses a button and the screen comes to life.

“I was just…” about to pour my heart out in a word document, then seal up the file. “Going to play a game.”

“You should take something,” Haymitch nods to the pills, “then you should eat something.”

“Which ones do you take?”

“None.”

“Did you eat?”

“No.”

“Then we should call for breakfast.” Y/N turns her gaze back to the tablet screen. “What do you like?”

“Are you taking notes?” Haymitch huffs a laugh.

Y/N arches a brow, “yeah.” Knowledge is power. Anything from how a person takes their eggs, to their favorite color.

Haymitch purses his lips, “I like bacon, crispy, toast with strawberry marmalade, and eggs over easy. What about you?”

“Oh,” Y/N jots it down, waving a dismissive hand. “I like french toast, with fruit. Hash browns, with hot sauce and coffee. I love coffee.”

“They’ll have it sent for you, back home in twelve. They’ll send you anything you ask for…they’re not supposed to give us money, but things, they are allowed to give us things.” The people who get to watch. The people who pay to watch.

“Do you think we’ll have to do it often?”

“I think last night will keep them entertained for a while.” Haymitch says, “how are you?”

Y/N feels her cheeks heat up. The ask is too intimate. “I’m fine.”

Haymitch sighs, “white one’s for pain, pink peps you up, blue helps you sleep, yellow is for nerves.”

Y/N clears her throat, “my mom…has a pretty nasty addiction to morphling.”

He can respect that. “You should only take what you need then.” Nothing less, nothing more.

“I don’t really need anything.” Y/N lifts a shoulder.

“But you will take one if you need to?”

“Yes, Haymitch.” She assures him.

“Does this bother you, then?” He lifts his bottle between them.

“No.” Y/N shakes her head. “You said you wanted to keep your liquor, that was one of your terms.”

“But does it bother you?”

“No, Haymitch. It doesn’t bother me. We all have our vices. I take notes, you take shots. We are who we are.”

————————————————————————

They take the first train out of the Capitol, after they’re dismissed by President Snow. It takes about a day and a half, straight from the Capitol to twelve.

Haymitch keeps mostly to himself. His own room or the bar car.

Y/N realizes that he values space more than anything. She keeps that in mind when they return to victor’s village. Going their separate ways.

Y/N slides the key into the lock, turning it open and flicking on the light. Home sweet home. After a while she takes the stairs up to her bedroom on the second floor. She turns the knob…and then she screams.

Cameras, like the ones in the honeymoon suite. Folded away neatly against the far wall. No envelope. No threat. Just a promise, that they’ll have to use them one day.

She stumbles back into the hallway, colliding with something firm. “AHHH!” Y/N turns, ready to fight off her intruder.

“Hey, hey, shh. It’s me.” Haymitch hushes her.

“Haymitch?” She breathes.

“What happened?”

“They’re in there,” Y/N tells him, burying her face against the crook of his neck. “They’re in my room.”

“Who?” He’ll kill them.

“The cameras.”

Fuck. Haymitch tightens his hold. “Then you’ll stay with me.“ Snow must’ve had them placed strategically, to set her off. He wanted the cameras to be the first thing she saw, the second she felt an ounce of comfort, returning to her own home. “Stay right here, with me.”

“But my-”

“I have spare rooms, we can clean one out for you. Until then, you can stay with me. We’ll make it nice for you. Whatever you want.”

“You wanted to keep your house.” He asks for so little. “I know you need space.”

Haymitch draws back slightly, cupping her face in his hands. “It’s big enough for two, we can figure it out.”

Y/N nods, as he thumbs tears from her cheeks. “Thank you.”

She can’t go home, back to the house in town, she grew up in. This was made clear the day she became a victor, but she can come here. To him. And Haymitch would welcome her with open arms.

————————————————————————

Haymitch is used to sleeping with a knife under his pillow. But with Y/N landing in his bed night after night, he is forced to retire the blade for her safety.

He still has nightmares. Just like Y/N. Twisting in the sheets restlessly, waking her as he does.

“Haymitch,” Y/N whispers. Shaking him, lightly. “Haymitch, it’s Y/N. I’m here with you, in district twelve. You’re safe now.”

Haymitch startles awake, to soft fingers carding his hair. “Angel?”

“You’re safe.” She says, a second time.

————————————————————————

President Snow is quite pleased with the results of his latest stunt, the cameras in Y/N’s room. The closer his problem victors become, the less likely they will be to cause a fuss.

Haymitch has proved, time and time again, that he will go to great lengths to protect his former tribute.

Coriolanus remembers that feeling well. The way a woman like Lucy Gray or Y/N Undersee could make a person feel. Especially a mentor. The need to save a dying bird is strong, until they inevitably bite the hand that feeds.

Y/N will bite Haymitch eventually, deep; to the bone. Snow is sure of it. Because that is what pretty little birds do.

Part 3

Taglist: @spideysimpossiblegirl

#haymitch abernathy x y/n #moves & countermoves #exile #haymitch x y/n #haymitch abernathy x you #haymitch abernathy x reader #haymitch abernathy smut #haymitch smut #haymitch x reader #thg haymitch #haymitch abernathy #the hunger games

[xxblairexxss]

Prime

Pairing : Jude Bellingham x reader

Theme : Fluff

Got this idea from those tiktok videos of him playing football with a group of kids. You probably know which one I’m talking about if you stumbled across one. Haven’t proofread! Sorry for any mistakes.

Jude was like your mom’s favourite child. She was eternally grateful for her lovely daughters but when you introduced your boyfriend to the family, you knew she had put him above you and your sisters. Your dad was a huge fan of football and he thought you were joking when you told him you were dating Dortmund player so of course when Jude first joined your family’s dinner, your dad was elated that you thought he would have forgotten about you if it wasn’t for your constant glare at him.

Since then, Jude always got invited to any family events of yours, just like how he always invited you to his family events.

judebellingham has added to their story

Your nephew, Noah was obsessed with football. Guess it ran in the family because of how the obsession went from your dad to Noah. Different from you, who barely knew anything about it. Noah had asked you a week prior if Jude was gonna come to the housewarming party but when you asked why he was so eager to know, he said it was secret. Turned out he wanted to ask Jude to play football with him because he got a proper football ball from his birthday last month.

You were in the kitchen, taking over the duty to cut the fruits so your sister could sneaked out to the nearby store to get some more ingredients for roasted garlic hummus with her husband. You were left with Jude and the kids as your parents are yet to arrived.

You were decorating the plate with the colourful fruits when you felt a sudden impact on your side. It was Noah, who was suddenly crying and hugging on your legs. Confused, you bent down and wiped the fresh tears on his cheek as he pulled away.

“What’s wrong? Did you fell?”

“No…”

“Why did you cry?”

“Jude wouldn’t give the ball back…”

“What…?”

That was when you saw Jude walked in with Noel, Noah’s baby brother.

“Jude Victor William Bellingham! Did you seriously make my nephew cry?”

“I didn’t! He asked me to play like I was in a match.”

“You are so silly! He’s not prime Lewandowski, is he?”

He chuckled in response before leaving a peck on your lips and squatted down to be on the same level with Noah, who was now refused to look at him.

“I’m sorry, buddy. Let’s do another round, yeah? You’ll be in the same team with Noel and I can only play with one leg, how about that?”

Noah responded with an immediate “Okay!” and a wide grin as he ran to Noel to pull him outside. You could see the little one waddled trying to catch on his brother.

Jude stood back up and pulled you closer by your waist. He found you so adorable when you were still frowning at him that he wanted to just planted kisses all over your beautiful face.

“I’m sorry, princess. I swear I didn’t mean it. Anyway, I didn’t know you actually have some basic football knowledge. I thought you don’t know any other players except me. That was kinda hot, not gonna lie.” He bended down his head to kiss on your exposed shoulder blade from your off shoulder crop top, pressing his body against yours even more.

“Well, I’m actually a barca girl.”

Jude tilted your chin up as he brushed his lips against yours before nibbling softy on your bottom lips.

“Shut up, you’re my girl.”

“Jude, come on!” You heard Noah called out for him from the backyard, probably getting annoyed at how long he was taking his time.

“Coming!” He pulled away and strode across the living room to the kids, leaving you with butterflies in your stomach, even after all these years.

#football imagine #jude bellingham fics #jude bellingham blurb #jude bellingham x reader #jude bellingham #football imagines #football fics

[zaimta]

彡A VS. B

paring: laxus dreyar x reader

zai says: the ova was so funny but the fan service was certainly something, anyways laxus fic bc it's all i can write for the 10 other fairy tail stans on here this is for you

suggestive!! i’m pushing 18 let me live

it was the aftermath of the grand magic games, fairy tail won like they said they would but the little wager they made didn’t get forgotten. since the two split teams were forced to join as one, neither team could uphold the agreement. so as a tiebreaker makarov decided on an old-fashioned rock-paper-scissors to determine the victor.

erza stepped up to face laxus in the match “you got this erza! wipe the floor with em!” you cheered on your friend along with the rest of team ‘a’. erza nodded and raised her hand, laxus took up the same motion, when erza dropped her hand she had scissors while laxus had rock.

your jaw dropped and you felt your eye twitch “you got to be kidding me.” a chorus of groans and complaints came from the ‘a’ team, it was going to be a long day for all of you.

the ‘b’ team wasted no time, as soon as they won they got straight to business. laxus pulled out a map and presented it to the ‘a’ team “go to this forest to get a magic stone.”

“magic stone?” wendy asked curiously

“the forest is called ‘las puertas del infierno’.”

you blinked at him “let me get this straight you want us to go to some forest that is literally called the doors of hell, for a rock…yeah i’m not going.”

he laughed and smirked at you “that’s cute but you don’t have a choice here babe, you have till noon.”

“please i barely wanna look for some stupid rock so why would i-” mid-sentence you let yourself think, you caught the smirk he sent your way so he was sending you along with the exploration team on purpose. he knew you, and searching through a swamp for a rock was the last thing you wanted to do.

“you sick son of a bitch you are good.” you glared at him, he knew you well and you hated it, he had just what he needed to get the upper hand in the punishment game.

you slowly trudged through the swamp, disgusted by all its inhabitants and the murky water you were walking in “guys i wanna go home.”

gray looked at you from the corners of his eyes with a sigh “you’ve been saying that for the past ten minutes y/n.”

you sucked your teeth at him and rolled your eyes “that doesn’t make it any less true. let’s just find that stupid rock go we could get out of here, i mean lucy over here covered head to toe in leeches.”

“what?!” she shrieked while running around in circles “get them off me! get them off!”

“i would put im not touching those” you pointed to the leeches on her thighs “besides i just got my nails done these weren’t cheap you know.”

nastu fired a flame attack to help lucy with the leeches, while peeling off the remaining creatures he spoke to you over his shoulder “when did you find time to get those we just, got back from the grand magic games, and how did you pay for them last time i checked you’re dirt broke like the rest of us.”

lucy slapped his head “speak for yourself!” lucy had rent to pay so she could be anything she wanted but dirt broke, she's been taking jobs back to back just to pay her rent.

you shrugged "you have your strengths and i have mine, and i happen to have a bottomless wallet on my side."

happy snickered behind his paws “yeah a bottomless wallet who’s in loveee”

you whipped your neck around and yelled at happy “can it cat!” unfortunately for you he continued giggling floating off to be by natsu.

after walking through the swamp for what felt like hours, when it reality it was a long hour and thirty minutes you finally found the stone. thanks to gray and his unfortunate set of circumstances.

when you finally returned to the guild and returned the stone just for it to be used for a makeshift jacuzzi, you and lucy shared a single glance that spoke volumes.

your eyes took in laxus' chiseled body going lower and lower until your eyes rested on his happy trail, you were no stranger to this sight but it still did the job for you every time, too busy admiring his body you didn’t notice him looking at you with a lazy grin on his face “my eyes are up here y/n.”

his voice snapped you out of your daze “hm? oh yeah sure whatever.” you looked away from him ignoring the snickers coming from the remainder of the b team.

it came time for the b team to pick members from the a team. cana took wendy, mira took erza, gajeel took lucy, and unsurprisingly juvia took gray. you, elfman and natsu unfortunately got stuck with laxus.

you were stuck tending to laxus and the thunder legion by the jacuzzi while he sent natsu and elfman on a while goose chase for milk and bread, you rose a brow as they ran out of the guild for the items.

“y/n.” he smirked at you as he spoke, he pointed to his shoulder with his thumb “i want you to give me a massage if you don’t mind.”

you resisted the urge to roll your eyes ‘if you don’t mind’ he says, like you had a choice in the first place.

you flashed him a fake smile “gee i would have too but i don’t have a swimsuit! what if i fell in? we wouldn’t want that now would we?” you knew there was no proper way to get out of this, but even if you could stall a little you would be fine.

“i could get you a swimsuit y/n.” evergreen chipped in with a smile

you immediately turned around to face her “say what now?”

laxus smirked at you and nodded towards the guild doors "evergreen go take y/n to get a swimsuit." you couldn't protest even if you wanted to, and you were a little irritated that you didn't think your plan through. after picking swimsuits with evergreen, which you think she enjoyed more than you did, you walked back to the jacuzzi where they were all waiting for you.

laxus gave a low whistle shamelessly letting his eyes hungrily roam over your body and then pointed to his shoulders "where were we?" sometimes you couldn't deny how much you hated him.

bickslow smiled and pointed to his own shoulders “i’d like a massage too.”

you scowled at him which only caused his grin to become wider “freed is literally sitting right there make him do it. you’re all dead once this day ends.”

as you massaged his bare shoulders, you noticed the marks on his back that you left from your last night together, rolled your eyes at how he showed them off and traced a finger on the red scratches letting your nail gently glide across his back.

he pointed to his shoulder with a smirk on his face “my shoulders are up here y/n. are you feeling okay you’re out of it today?” he chuckled as he felt you glaring him down, as you massaged his shoulders you occasionally moved your hands to the base of his neck, longing to put your hands around his neck and clutch.

evergreen nudged the boys knowing it was their cue to leave, evergreen sent you a wink over her shoulder as she left with bickslow and freed "try to act civil you two we're in the guild after all."

within seconds laxus pulled you onto his lap clearly ignoring evergreen's words of wisdom. he rested his hands on your waist to support you, and he smiled up at you with a gleam in his eyes. his hands roamed your body as they moved down to your hips, he pulled you closer to him your body was flush against his and he whispered in your ear “that was a dirty move you pulled using your nails like that.” his voice sent shivers down your spine, the way he whispered those words just for you to hear despite the empty room, if there was one thing he knew how to do it was how to leave an effect on you.

you fiddled with the hair on the nape of his neck knowing how it affects him “it was just a harmless massage, you were the one who told me to give you one after all.” you gently dragged your nails from his neck into his hair, grazing your nails into his scalp, grinning when he hummed at your touch.

“you play a dangerous game y/n. we’ve got a couple more hours till the day ends let’s make it count.”

#laxus x reader #laxus dreyar x reader #fairy tail x reader #fairy tail x you #fairy tail x y/n #laxus x you #laxus x y/n #laxus dreyar x y/n #laxus dreyar x you

[waywardangel-wilds]

Putting this here so I don't lose it. I think this would be fun to rework into a longer version for ao3.

I had an idea (I wrote this on my phone, forgive all the random mistakes):

Catnip asked me to help her out with training. I didn’t mind, she’s never been the best at snares. Plus, it was time with her. But, as usual, the merchant got priority. I hadn’t been all that excited about teaching boy wonder, I’m still not that thrilled, but I can be nice. That’s what Katniss likes now right? She likes ‘em nice.

Anyway, whatever. Today’s the first day. I told Ma’ I’d be late from hunting so I could help Katniss out. She took the Quarter Quell announcement really hard. I did too, obviously. Every Sunday’s gonna be a long day, but it’s for the best. We gotta get Katniss home for good this time, no strings.

I’m just walking up the Victors Village hill when I spot her. She’s sulking on her front steps, covered in sweat. My mouth goes dry. She looks really good. She doesn’t notice me though, she’s too busy glaring at Mellark who’s standing in front of her.

“That wasn’t your best time.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard him talk to her like that before. Guess I got used to the sappy stuff, like everybody else.

“I’m not doing that again,” Katniss snaps. She’s glaring at him as if she wants him to drop dead. I’m surprised he doesn’t.

“You’re beating that time,” he starts saying as he shucks off his sweaty shirt to use it like a towel “tomorrow.”

Katniss doesn’t say anything in return. She stands up and walks past him, making sure to knock into him with her shoulder.

Peeta turns to stare after her, “that’s gonna cost you another twenty minutes, you know.”

She flips him the bird, but doesn’t bother sticking around. She keeps walking in my direction, “Gale!”

“Hey,” I smile. She nods at me. “You ready?”

“Yeah, yeah. Where’s Haymitch?” The last half of her sentence she directs to the guy behind her.

“Probably passed out somewhere by the fence,” he snorts, taking a long drink from a bottle of water. He thankfully pulls the shirt back on. “I’ll get him, get started.”

Katniss rolls her eyes but lets Peeta leave without saying anything else. She crosses her arms, “come on, let’s practice in the house.”

I’m expecting her to head to her place, but she walks past it, going down the street towards some other house I’ve never been to.

“Where are we going?” I ask. “Haymitch’s?”

“Peeta’s. No Prim or mom, plus it’s clean.” She answers. She jogs up the steps and pushes the door open, “come on!” She says when I don’t follow right away.

Great, now I have to be in his house. “I’m right here.”

“Layouts the same, put your stuff in the living room,” She jogs towards the kitchen and I follow her at a slower pace.

I watch her turn on the tap and stick her face into the water, splashing the sweat off and taking a long drink. “What?” She asks once she catches me staring.

“Nothing,” I shake my head. I wander over to the kitchen window, looking around for anything… interesting.

“Ugh, he sucks!” Katniss whines behind me. I turn around and find her digging through Mellark’s fridge. “There’s nothing worth eating in here,” She opens the fridge wider so I can see all the vegetables in there. “Not even bread.”

I make a noncommittal sound, “yeah”

Some noise from the front door interrupts us. “Katniss!” Mellark.

“Crap.” She closes the fridge and grabs my wrist, yanking me into the living room. “I’m in here!”

“Walk,” I hear Mellark snaps at someone. Probably Abernathy.

Katniss plops herself down on a couch and I put my bag on the coffee table. Haymitch and Mellark come into the room. Mellark shoves the older man in front of him.

“Don’t make me shank you,” Abernathy groans halfheartedly and drops himself into the spare cushion next to Katniss.

“I’d love to see you try,” Mellark scoffs, side stepping around the couch. “You can’t even see straight.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“Let’s just start,” Mellark says curtly.

“Would you quit being such an asshole?” Katniss says, but Mellark just stares at her, arms crossed with and a blank expression. “Show us what you brought, Gale.”

I glance at all of them, clear my throat and pull open my bag, kneeling down on the floor once I’ve got the wire and rope on the table. “We’ll start with the basics,” I say.

I start off showing them some easy traps, simple knots. Mellark crouches nearby to get a better look, accidentally knocking against Katniss’s knee. She leans forward to have a better look too, but she knows this stuff. While Mellark is frowning down at my fingers she picks up some spare wire and slowly arranges the trap. It’s a small thing, good enough to catch a curious rabbit, if you’ve got a branch nearby. Mellark turns to look at what she’s doing, reaching out to put a hand on her wrist to slow down her movements.

I watch him, frowning. Katniss doesn’t seem to notice he’s touching her at all, and honestly, I don’t think he noticed he did it either.

I brush it off and glance at Abernathy to see how he’s doing. I raise my eyebrows when I realize he’s snoozing against the couch, not a care in the world.

“Yeah that’s good,” Katniss says, picking up the loop Mellark made to inspect it. “We should probably practice setting these outside so you can see how they actually work.”

“Hm,” Peeta says dismissively. “Show me something else,” he nods, directing the words towards me.

I can tell that Katniss is bothered by his attitude, but if Mellark notices he doesn’t seem to care. It sucks to see it gets to her, but I’m glad there doesn’t seem to be anything going on between them.

I spend some time showing him a basic wire snare. I can tell Katniss checked out a while ago, she isn’t looking my way. She’s picking at some of the string in front of her without really seeing it. Mellark is paying me very close attention, so I’m surprised when he suddenly jumps up.

“You’re hungry,” he says.

“What? Oh yeah.” Katniss puts a hand to her stomach. “I’ll go back home-“

“No, come on.” Mellark motions for her to follow him into the kitchen but she stays put.

“Don’t bother, I’m sure there’s food at the house.”

“Come,” Mellark takes her hand and pulls her after him.

“I don’t need you feeding me,” Katniss grumbles but she goes along with him anyway, a small smile she hides from him tugging at her mouth.

I show up at the same time the week after that. I don’t find them outside though. I walk over to Mellark’s house again and find Haymitch drinking moonshine on the porch.

“Where is she?” I ask.

“Good morning, how are you?” Haymitch says sarcastically. “She’s inside with the boy. Might as well give em a few minutes if you value your peace.”

“What?”

“They’re fightin’. I don’t know a whole lot, but even I know when to leave something alone.” He chuckles and takes another drink. “Don’t tell em you saw me drinking!”

I ignore him and keep walking past him. You can’t hear any yelling or anything else that sounds like a fight so I push the door open and walk over to the living room.

“Catnip..?” The question dies in my mouth.

“Ugh, get off!” Katniss is struggling, trying to kick out Mellark’s legs from behind her but missing. The guy’s got her arms held behind her back, half on top of her one the ground.

“You can get out if you do it like I taught you,” he shifts his grip to compensate for her struggling. “Come on, go for the weak spots.”

“Get off of her man,” I take a step into the living room, dropping my bag to the ground along the way. “She told you to get off!”

“Gale, it’s fine,” Katniss blows some of the hair out of her face and looks in my direction. “I can figure this out, give me a sec.”

“You can wait over there, if you want.” Mellark nods towards the couch without looking at me, he’s too focused on Katniss. “Go for the leg for real this time.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Katniss snaps and keeps trying to pull her arms free. Mellark’s grip doesn’t budge. I stay standing close by. “Gale, it’s really fine. Go outside if you want, we’ll be done in a minute.”

“I’m gonna stay here.”

Mellark ignores me. “You’re already dead. You think anyone in the arena’s gonna give you this much slack? Huh? Kick!”

“Shut up!” Katniss puts all her force into throwing her shoulder back, knocking Mellark backwards. She tries to crawl away from him in the confusion, but he catches her right away, crawling on top of her and locking her wrists down with his elbows.

“What’re you gonna do now?”

“Ugh!” She tries to pull her hands free but it’s futile. Mellark shifts his weight from one hip to the other. Katniss’s feet scramble against the floor but find no purchase.

“Think it through, how do you get out?” Mellark asks, staring down at her. Katniss moves her head around, trying to get her bangs out of her face but Mellark smooths the hair back with a free hand. “Come on, stay cool. You can figure this out.”

Katniss is frowning. She looks beyond pissed. She gets one of her feet flat on the ground and uses all her strength to buck at him with her hips. Mellark merely shifts his weight again and slams hers back down to the ground.

“Damn, buy me dinner first.”

“That,” Katniss’s expression breaks and she laughs. “That’s not funny!”

“It’s a little funny,” Mellark heaves himself backwards and off of her, settling onto his knees. He offers Katniss a hand to pull her up. “We can try again some other time.”

“Fine,” once she’s seated she busied herself with fixing her messed up braid. Mellark steps past me and out of the room.

“Sorry that took so long,” Katniss is saying. “Peeta really wants me to do well at close combat.”

“Yeah, that’s what this is.” I can tell my expression is bitter because Katniss’s smile drops. “Let’s just get started.”

“Who the fuck sold to you??” We both hear Mellark shouting from the porch. “Tell me! What the hell did I say, Haymitch?!”

Katniss cringes but hops up to her feet. She starts rearranging the furniture. It had been moved to make space for their little wrestling match. “Haymitch was drinking again?”

“Yup,” I say.

“That sucks. Just when we got him in a better mood he goes and blows it.” She shakes her head.

Anyway I spent wayy longer than I intended writing this! Hope you liked it!

#fanfic #everlark #the hunger games #peeta mellark #katniss everdeen

[secretmellowblog]

I hope tumblr doesn’t die because No other social media site is as good for long, thoughtful, nuanced analyses of media. Yeah tumblr is also full of dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts, but you can make dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts anywhere —-there are no other popular social media sites that let you easily format and share long essays on the media you enjoy, and then have conversations around those long essays.

Fandom on all the other big social websites just seems so utterly …shallow. And it’s not because people on other websites aren’t thoughtful or don’t have deep things to say, but because these sites’ formats do not allow for any kind of long nuanced conversations.

Tiktok? Things have to be crammed into a super short video with an attention grabbing headline, and you can’t hyperlink sources. Instagram? Everything has to be in an image format with strict limits on length, and nothing will be shown to your followers anyway because of how Instagram’s algorithm works, and also no hyperlinks. Twitter? Strict character limits, and if you split it into threads it means someone can retweet a part of your essay completely out of context, and also very little freedom with formatting.

It frustrates me so much. If I go into the Tumblr Les Mis fandom I’ll find really compelling long essays on the original novel (including essays being written for the ongoing book club) on the story’s historical context, or the parallels between different characters and their narrative foils, or the way the politics were defanged for certain adaptations, or the way Victor Hugo’s personal life and failings affected the novel. But on tiktok I’ll get the same five shallow stale jokes from 2013 over and over, or maybe the same “DID U KNO THAT IN THE MUSICAL JAVERT AND VALJEAN SING THE SAME LEITMOTIF” style of basic Intro To Les Mis 101 For Babies media analysis (which is what Tiktok considers deep media analysis), or stale “LOL JAVERT ACTS GAY” style jokes as if we’re living in the early 2000s and calling a character gay is still a funny punchline. And it’s impossible to have any kind of deeper thoughtful discussions than “DID U KNOW <x Kool Fact>” or “lol <shallow observational joke>” on tiktok because the platform just isn’t built for building niche communities around in depth conversations. it’s built to churn out bland generic content for as wide an audience as possible, which means pointing out a small detail like an Easter egg and calling it “cool” is deep media analysis, because you cant have longer more in depth conversations without alienating people. And I hate it. Bc like, it’s not because there aren’t smart clever thoughtful people on Tiktok— there are—it’s because Tiktok isn’t built for these conversations, and anyone who wants to have them has to really fight against the things the website encourages or prioritizes!

Or like, if I go into the LOTR fandom on Tumblr, I’ll find tons of extremely long analysis and fanfic, and analysis of queer readings of the story. On Instagram people will still shriek in terror if you suggest the characters are gay, and most of the popular lotr posts are stale memes recycled from like 2007. There’s really no room for thoughtful media analysis, and even if you did create it, instagram’s algorithm would make sure no one saw your post anyway.

And everyone’s going to say “the algorithm shows you what you’ve seen before so maybe it’s your fault ~” or whatever but i do look for things I want! I do! “The algorithm” doesn’t know me or what I want or value or care about beyond this meaningless surface level.

The only thing that was worthwhile about these sites was the great visual art people were creating, but now the websites are overwhelmed with meaningless soulless machine-generated AI glurge, and it sucks. It just really, really sucks.

I’m honestly confused about why people don’t use tumblr….There’s no character limits! You have freedom with post formatting, and can insert images throughout textposts to illustrate specific points you’re making beneath the paragraphs where they’re necessary! You can add hyperlinks, linking to your sources! People can reblog your entire essay and share it, and then add on with commentary that then becomes part of a larger conversation! People can find your stuff through the tagging system! Reblogging means posts stay in circulation for years instead of being dead 30 minutes after they’re uploaded! If you want to have genuinely interesting text conversations about a piece of media, there really isn’t a better social media website for it anywhere.

To be clear, I’m definitely not saying Tumblr media analysis is *always* clever and thoughtful or etc etc. there are shitposts and nonsense here too (plenty of which I’ve created lol.) I’m saying that Tumblr gives people the tools for in-depth insightful analysis to happen. Whether people choose to do it or not is their own decision XD. But the reason lengthy in-depth conversations and book clubs are even possible here is because Tumblr is built for allowing these conversations to happen, in a way other sites simply aren’t.

It’d really suck if it died, because it’d be a huge blow to…being able to easily find long insightful in-depth media analysis written by fans. I currently don’t think there’s anything that could replace it.

#tumblr #I’m currently working an overlong essay post #comparing the locations Hugo references in Les Mis #with the photographs taken by Charles Marville in the 1860s of those very places #and just thinking “wow this would be hard on other sites

[eardefenders]

Sherlock & Co - Mailbag Episode 3 Transcript

00:00 John: Heyyy there, I’m,uh, I’m, uh, back in your ears! Heh. Uh, thanks for inviting me in. Um, I-I just wanted to add a chunk on before this Q and A just to give you an update on all things Gloria Scott. Uh, thanks so much for the kind words, first off. Uh I-I-I did warn about its angst. Um, and I appreciate i-it’s not always a fun ride when, when those kinds of things happen. Um. But hey! I’m glad you all enjoyed it. Um, glad the masterful sound design was appreciated.

00:32 John: Uhm, yeah I thought I’d, I’d check in now and give you a rundown of it all. Post match interview sort of stuff. Uh, Lionel did recover from the stroke. He is out of hospital, but he will be going back to Australia. Um. He’s-he's obviously cooperating with the government, um, down there. It’s not an easy situation, but he’s handling it with remarkable grace and dignity. Um. Victor is, as well. Can’t quite get the read on things with him at the moment. He’s obviously very, very torn. Uh, we solved the case for him, but, y’know, yeah. H-he’s in a much worse place then he was before. Um. *pause* Such is life. Uh, such is a very complicated life, I should say. He’s helping his dad, with the inquiries. Uh, m-my gut says there’ll be prison time. *sucks teeth* Um, y’know, c-cooperation and evidence and the, yeah, t-the mitigating circumstances might be helpful to Lionel and all, but, uh… *deep breath* ultimately lives were lost. He was complicit. Y’know this is the world we live in.

01:49 John: *sucks teeth* Victor has paused the job search, but uh I-I do believe he’ll be coming back to the UK once, y’know, whatever happens, happens. But, uh, yeah. Tough stuff. Um, glad you all enjoyed Mariana joining in on the adventure. Um, don’t know if she enjoyed it all that much. So far she’s watched corpses get pulled out of the canal and now she’s watched an elderly stroke victim get extradited for murder. So, uh, y’know. *chuckles lightly* Welcome to the world of true crime, Ametxazurra!

02:23 John:Um, Sherlock asked me to apologize, also, actually. Um, yes, to apologize that he wasn’t technically correct in his solving of the case. Um, uh, Hunter did reveal the actual truth. I, I told him people wouldn’t really mind. He got me to apologize anyway, so, uh, yeah. There you go. Um, so he’s been a right mopey bastard, as you can imagine. *clears throat* So, to cheer him up, I carted him off to…an indoor theme park! Heh, yeah, you heard that right. Theme park. But indoors. Well, theme park’s a bit strong to be honest. I-I-It’s like an arcade with an indoor roller coaster. But yeah! Y’know! Uhm, back to Camden, but for a much more enjoyable experience.

03:05 John: These questions were asked, um, before The Gloria Scott episode aired. T-two that I ask Sherlock right at the end are eerily prescient. Um, that’s the right word, I think? Uh, I hope. Welp, you’ll see what I mean. Enjoy!

03:19-3:49 *Intro Music*

03:47 *Arcade Sounds Fade In, we can hear Sherlock exerting himself*

03:50 John: Yoooo, wassup guys! Welcome to the John Watson channel where we talk all things John Watson all the time! Ehh, that’s my impression of a youtuber or real podcaster, hope you enjoyed it. Ah, right, Sherlock, tell the members where we are.

04:01 Sherlock: Indoor theme park! Augh! *through gritted teeth* You little alien bastard! Get back here!

04:09 John: Sherlock is doing some whack-a-mole, ah, or they’re aliens in this place, not moles. Could be alien moles. Who knows. Ah, it’s an indoor theme park in *in a very exaggerated North London accent (genuinely he sounds like an ass here)* North London. That’s North London, sorry. Bit excited. Had about a kilogram of sugar. Haha, I’m looking at all sorts here. Arcade machines, carousels, basketball hoop game thingy, air hockey, bumper cars -dodge’ems, call’em what you will-, and an indoor roller coaster! Hahahaa! It’s wild stuff. Okay, let’s get to some questions over a casual game of air hockey.

04:40 *Audio Cut, sounds of air hockey being played*

04:41 Sherlock: Have that! *puck hit sound* And that!

04:44 John: ‘Have that and that’? What are you, a musketeer? Hahahaaaa! *sound of a puck entering the goal* First point Watson! Heyheyheeeey, ahhhh. And now for the first question. Uh, Tonkster aka Resetoaster asks, “To John and Sherlock, if you go to Subway -the fast food I should clarify- what do you usually order?”

05:03 Sherlock: *with exertion* You’re *sound of the puck being hit* distracting me! Ah!

05:06 John: Ah, you wouldn’t be saying that if you were winning.

05:07 Sherlock: I’m not winning *puck hit sound* precisely because of it.

05:11 John: Alright, fine. I’ll answer. Uh, I like the turkey club. Is that-Ow! That hit my finger. *hisses in pain*- I think there’s a turkey one. Um, I like that one on plain-ish bread. I don’t think their fancy breads are all that good. Uh, and then I’ll have a southwest sauce- Wham! Haha! *sound of puck entering goal*

05:23 Sherlock: Oh, bugger.

05:26 John: Subway order?

05:26 Sherlock: Never been.

05:27 John: Great.

05:27 *audio cuts. Sounds of automatic rifle fire going off*

05:29 John: Reloading. Cover me!

05:29 Sherlock: Covering.

05:30 John: Incoming at your two o’clock.

05:31 Sherlock: On it!

05:32 *sounds of two loud gunshots*

05:33 John: Yesss, Sherlock. Right, through the lobby. Okay, let’s see how this goes. Bellaxbear01 asks “If you guys want another pet, what animal would it be? Another dog, another cat, or maybe a fish?”

05:47 Sherlock: I like fish. *sound of gunshots* Very much. Reloading.

05:50 John: *pleased* Oh, hahah! I like fish too!

05:52 Sherlock: Really?

05:53 John: Yeah! Tropical?

05:54 Sherlock: Tropical or temperate.

05:56 John: Well that’s good to know. Yeah, worth maybe one day looking into that? Oo! Getting shot at here. Uh, Amelie5 asks “Do you have a favorite case you’ve solved so far?

06:05 *sounds of a big gun being fired*

06:07 Sherlock: A good question at bloody last. Die you bastards! *big boom*

06:12 John: Oh wowhaowhaooow! *sounds of I guess dirt falling, maybe bodies???* *with a smile in his voice* Oh, you made him blow up! Ha! Ahh, I know the feeling. Poor sod.

06:18 Sherlock: I rather enjoyed the Red Headed League.

06:22 John: Yep, that was a good’un. -Oh, duck down! That’s a machine gun.- Did you like the Red Headed League because of the case or because it proved me wrong about it being boring?

06:27 Sherlock: Mmm, both.

06:28 John: Great, well-oh I’m dead. *sound of man yelling, presumably John’s character dying in the game* Balls.

06:31 *audio cut. Ambient arcade sounds with something fizzing at the forefront*

06:34 John: What is that?

06:35 Sherlock: *struggling to speak* opp ing andy.

06:37 John: Opping Andy?

06:38 Sherlock: *still struggling to speak, but clearly annoyed* Op-opping. Andy.

06:41 John: Ohhhh, popping candy. Right. Well, RangerPip asks any specific reason you started smoking a pipe?

06:49 Sherlock: *unintellible gargling and consonant sounds*

06:54 John: Right, well, if you understood that RangerPip, well done you, haheh. *pause* *in a considering tone* Hunnh. He may or may not be choking.

07:03 *audio cut, loud music and bumper car sounds*

07:04 John: Ah!

07:04 Sherlock: Ahahaha!

07:05 John: Hahahah, left! Left! Left!

07:08 Both: Ah! *sound of impact*

07:09 John: Oh my god, my ribs! Argh, right! Let’s get up some more speed and smash into these kids-uh, I mean! These, um, big burly blokes.

07:17 Sherlock: Here we go.

07:20 John: Yesss, Sherlock, we are at some speed now, baby! Hahahah, right! Question from Raylein, “Does Archie get human food? And if he does, who feeds it to him?”

07:30 John: Ah yeah I do feed him, I-

07:30 Sherlock: Yes.

07:33 John: Wait.

07:34 Sherlock: What?

07:35 John: You’re feeding him as well?

07:36 Sherlock: I am, yes!

07:38 John: Well, that explains a lot. Uh, yeah Raylein, I don’t really like animal products going to waste so I just, um, I chuck him all sorts. Ope, here we go. Come here you little shits.

07:44 Sherlock: Ahhhhhhhh!

07:45 John: *sound of impact* Ah hahah!

07:48 *audio cut, it’s much quieter now, but they’re still at the arcade*

07:49 John: *remorsefully* I just didn’t think they’d cry and tell their mums is all.

07:51 Sherlock: That’s what children do. *accusingly* You told me to smash into them.

07:55 John: I did not say that.

07:57 Sherlock: Can I get the SD card out of your microphone and check?

08:00 John: No.

08:01 Sherlock: See.

08:02 John: Andrew says, “Question for Sherlock: Do you have any piercings? And, if you don’t, do you want any? And, if you do, which ones do you want?”

08:10 Sherlock: *sucks in a deep breath* Ear piercing. I haven’t used it for some time.

08:14 John: Why not?

08:15 Sherlock: Was that asked in the Discord?

08:17 John: What?

08:18 Sherlock: That. Just then.  The ‘Why not?’

08:21 John: …No.

08:22 Sherlock: *takes a breath* Well then. I needn’t answer it. This is a time for members.

08:26 John: Right. Great. Lovely. Ok, MushPit says “Your deductive skills, was it talent you were born with or a skill that you developed and perfected over time?”

08:34 Sherlock: I assume MushPit is asking me, not you?

08:37 John: Ah ha ha, very funny.

08:40 Sherlock: My senses have always been, um-

08:43 John: Overcalibrated?

08:44 Sherlock: Yes, quite. Sooo, I’ve always observed a lot. When I found it difficult to tune out of my surroundings, I decided to analyze them. Then it became rather addictive. Yes, it became a skill, but I feel it much stronger then a skill. It feels like a byproduct of my very existence. I cannot unlearn it. IIII cannot wind it down or soften it. It occupies me as much as I do it. I fear that I  cannot stop it. Even if it kills me. Even if it drains everything from me and I can never truly find it to know myself, to know my surroundings without the necessity…uh, no, the-the requisite to my very self. To t-try to understand everything-

09:33 John: The rollercoaster’s ready.

09:34 Sherlock: Oh.

09:35 John: Uh, we- we can finish if you want? Uh, y’know we can go on it later?

09:40 *audio cut, we can hear the roller coaster going and John and Sherlock on it. John keeps saying ‘Woohoo! Wheee!’ and Sherlock is saying joyfully ‘Bloody fantastic! Absolutely bloody fantastic!’ Both of them also keep laughing in between their exclamations*

09:48 *audio cut. We’re outside. London traffic can be heard.*

09:53 John: Oh that was good! Wasn’t it?

09:54 Sherlock: *pleased* Superb.

09:56 John: Not a bad idea, is it? A theme park, indoors? I mean we were a little old for it, but hey, y’know, there’s no age limit on enjoyment! Well, I mean you can’t go jumping into a soft play or anything like that, but yeah. Yeah. Now we are walking near Chalk Farm. Not actually a farm of chalk, of course. It’s just a nice place between Bellsides Park and the Northern end of Camden town. How’s that q and a session for you, mate?

10:16 Sherlock: Is that question on the Discord?

10:17 John: Right, ok. This is not a thing. You can still have normal chats with me inbetween members questions.

10:25 Sherlock: Noted.

10:26 John: Well it’s a question for me now anyway. Um, has your mother finally listened to the podcast? And if yes, what does she think of it? Uh, yes, has she listened? She has! She didn’t like the sound of my bomb. That makes two of us, there. Eheh. Uh, and she sent me further messages about Mariana. And! She will occasionally point out when I’ve been rude to people on the show. *clicks tongue* She also asked me if the Austrian man’s face was okay, so she has at least, definitely finished one adventure. And, no. His face is not. Ok. Mum. Uhh, so- hunh, this is weird.

10:59 Sherlock: What’s that?

11:01 John: Two questions here, next to each other. Uh, I-I’m not making this up. First one, Ramt or-or Ramtonk, “t-the flowers on my orchids are gone, but the plants themselves are thriving. Uhh, they’re watered as they should be and get optimal sunlight. Will the flowers ever come back?”

11:19 Sherlock: *pleasantly surprised* Hhha!

11:20 John: Right? Yeah and the second one from Batonks the Graveyard Ghost says, “Question for John, do you have any funny memories from your childhood that you’d like to share with us?”

11:30 Sherlock: Yes, that is quite remarkable.

11:32 John: Well! I’ll let the adventure of The Gloria Scott answer those questions! So, ah, everybody, thanks so much for these. I hope you enjoyed the answers. Sorry it’s been so short, but I’ve just noticed that that’s our bus!! We’re gonna miss it! Go! Go! Go!

11:46 Sherlock: *frustrated sigh* For goodness sake!

11:47-12:17 *Outro Music Plays*

#sherlock & co #sherlock and co #sherlock holmes #john watson #sherlock and john #transcript #transcripts #goalhanger podcasts #my transcript #sorry once again for the delay on this #i've got a lot of things I'm doing all at once lol

[cwritesforfun]

Finnick Odair x Fem!Reader: love as sweet as sugarcubes

You're a Victor from District 5 (Power/Electricity) and you won the 67th Hunger Games, two years after Finnick won his games. He was impressed by your knife work and immediately befriended you the next year. You both have been Mentors for 8 years together and have been each other’s best friend in the Capitol. This year is the 75th Hunger Games/the Quarter Quell.

Y/N = Your Name

** I do not own the Hunger Games plot. The scenes are in italics and from Catching Fire and all rights go to them.

this is a LONG one and it is not fully accurate to the books teehee

Y/N’s POV

I’ve been standing with the other tribute from District 5 and he has glared at me for hours. I have no idea what I did wrong. I walk away and lean against the wall away from people.

Finnick walks up twirling a sugar cube asking, "Do you want a sugar cube? I mean it's supposed to be for the horses, but I mean, who cares about them, right? They got years to eat sugar whereas, you and I, well if we see something sweet, we better grab it." I answer, “Don’t sugarcoat the truth. It’s bad for your teeth.” He smirks, reaches out to hug me, and says, “Oh how I’ve missed you.” I hug him back and say, “I’ve missed you too, Finnick. I will take a sugar cube though.” He tosses one and I catch it in my mouth prompting us to high-five each other. Finnick asks, “Hey, why does the other tribute from District 5 hate me? I asked where you were and he gave me the worst glare I’ve ever seen.” I answer, “He hates everyone. I don’t know why he’s in such a pissy mood. He was fine on the train here.” He replies, “So we hate him, good to know. By the way, you look really hot and I don’t think it’s the heat radiating off of your dress.” I smirk and reply, “Thanks. You’re hot too. It’s making me feel wet and I don’t think it’s because you're from the fishing district.” He blushes a little and says, “Hey…” My stylist runs up right then and pulls me away. It’s apparently time to be shown off to the Capitol. Damn, and I was just getting my flirt on... :(

Two Nights Later...

Finnick caught me as we walked to the elevator following our weaponry practice and told me to meet him on the roof in an hour. I don’t particularly like breaking the rules and being out late, but I’m going to die soon in the games anyway.

I walk out to the roof and see Finnick leaning on it. I lean next to him and say, “It’s quite pretty up here.” He replies, “It makes you think that the city is actually a decent place to live and somewhere you want to have a future.” I reply, “Yeah… people loved you during the opening parade. Caesar Flickerman complimented you and his praise will do wonders in influencing the people here. You have a real shot at winning this game.” He replies, “Yeah. Everyone loves you too. I mean, what’s there not to like? You won with kindness during the interviews and by showing your power with knives and sweet talk in the games. After the games, you’ve held your end of the bargain by appearing on TV with Caesar Flickerman and being the Capitol’s friend. And not only that, but every tribute here is practically in love with you.” I laugh and say, “Very funny. But, actually, everyone is in love with you, not me. I've heard many people say they'd choose you over me.” He replies, “Districts 1 & 2 think you would be a perfect addition to their team, but they know you won’t join them because I won’t. They think you’ll only go where I go, which is crazy because we're not that dependent on each other. Beetee and Wiress are in love with your brains. Your District 5 friend is mad at the Capitol for loving you more than him, even though he thinks he’s put more effort and work into it. Yet, he still wants you on his team and with him. Katniss let slip she wanted you on her team and she barely likes anyone here. I am. I could go on, but I won’t.” I ask, “Why did you just say you are? You didn’t even elaborate. What did you mean?” He faces me and I face him. He then exclaims, “I love you Y/N. I know we have less than a week left of our lives and I should’ve told you earlier so we had a chance to be happy. I'm such an idiot for not telling you and now I'm realizing that if you don't like me back, you will kill me first in the arena. I'm just regretting this. I should really learn to think with my head not my heart." I ask, "Wait, are you being dead serious?" He answers, "Yeah I am. Ugh, um let me just take it back. We can pretend I never said anything and we never met up tonight. Let's stay friends for the games." I answer, "You can't just take it back. Especially, not when I feel the same towards you! I love you, Finnick Odair!" He smiles and says, "You're lying now." I reply, "Pretty sure, I know my own feelings. In fact, I've always loved you. I thought I just liked having you in my life and around, but the longer we spent time together, I learned my feelings for you could only be one thing, love." He cups my face and asks, "May I kiss you?" I answer, "Yes."

SKIP to the Interviews ...

I'm watching Finnick's interview right now and I'm about to walk out. Caesar Flickerman says, "And Finnick, I hear you have something special to tell the Capitol about a special someone in your life." Who could they be talking about!? Finnick looks right into the camera and exclaims "My love, you have my heart. For all eternity. And if I die in that arena, my last thought will be of your lips." I gasp and start coughing as he walks off.

I quickly stop coughing and put on a smile. I walk out waving and hug Caesar Flickerman. He exclaims, "My oh my, Miss Y/N. You've grown so much and you've always been the Capitol's best friend. Right, everyone?" There are cheers and I exclaim, "And you're my best friend, Caesar." He laughs and the crowd cheers again. God, they're so easy to please. Caesar asks, "We'll miss you so much. Truly. Is there anything or anyone you will miss?" I answer, "Yes, I will miss so many people. Starting with, my family. I love you, mom and dad. I'll miss you, the people of the Capitol, and all of your excitement. I will miss the person with whom I shared my last kiss because if we had more time, I would've kissed you so much more and shown you so much love." He replies, "Oh, do tell us more." I reply, "All I can tell you, Caesar, is that this man that I kissed is someone who I've liked for years and I love him so much. He's got the kindest soul and he's one of the most loving men I've ever met." He replies, "Ah young love. I'm sure he will be cheering for you this year. Miss Y/N everyone!" I bow then walk up to my spot in the lineup.

Finnick glances over at me, makes a kissy face, and smiles. I smile back. God, I'm so in love. Why do we have to go in these Games?!

SKIP to the GAMES ...

Protecting Katniss is my new line of duty. Finnick, Beetee, Peeta, Johanna, and I are the main ones set to protect Katniss. Mags and Wiress are both on team Katniss as well. I know we don't need a team name, but it makes me avoid thinking about the games. Team Katniss for the win! Even though, we've only been in the arena for a day.

I'm with Johanna, Beetee, Wiress, and Blight right now. I love Johanna to be honest, she can come off as rude, but deep down, I know she cares about people. She just doesn't want to show weakness of any kind.

Before the games started, Finnick begged me to find him first and I told him that Katniss had to be our first priority to survive. He was pissed and said that our relationship should be number one over Katniss' survival. However, to survive and get out, we have to save Katniss. I can only hope that Finnick and I find each other alive. Honestly, we were both not explaining ourselves clearly enough during that last night. We both were just filled with so many emotions and we needed to let them out.

We just ran through the blood rain and made it onto the beach. Johanna starts screaming at Wiress and Beetee. I hear my name being screamed and I see Finnick. I keep washing the blood out of my hair because there is no way I want to hug him covered in blood.

Finnick starts running his hands through my hair washing it out and I exclaim, "Careful, Finnick. We'll all know who you were talking about during your interview." He says, "Let them," as he spins me around and brings his lips to mine.

Finnick pulls away and says, "Look, I need to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so rash and rude the night before the games started. I didn't even let you explain your side and that's not a healthy way to start a relationship." I reply, "It's not. I'm sorry as well. I shouldn't have blown things out of proportion when you said we should prioritize each other. I love you so much and wanted you to be okay. I do want to prioritize us and be in a relationship with you, before the end." He smiles and says, "I love you so much too. Now let's get this blood off of you!"

... SKIP to the end of the games...

... The plan is hatched!!!

Katniss insists I go with her and Johanna if Peeta cannot come. Finnick pleads with her to not take me and I agree that I should be with Katniss causing Finnick to shake his head. He walks forward, puts his hand on either side of my head, and says, “You do know what this means, right?” I answer, “It means we’ll survive. We signed up for this, Finnick. I’ll be okay. I’ll come back to you, I promise.” He replies, “I love you.” I reply, “I love you too."

I split off with Johanna and Katniss. As if on cue as we walk, Johanna pins Katniss down. I grab Katniss' legs trying to keep her down to the ground and we yank her tracker out. I whisper, "Careers, we need to move." Johanna nods.

Johanna and I lead the final Careers, Brutus and Enobaria, away from Katniss. It's all for Katniss.

The last thing I remember about the Arena was the loud boom and it sounded like electricity breaking everywhere.

... PART TWO??!?! ...

I'm already writing it hehehehe

#the hunger games #the hunger games catching fire #catching fire #thg finnick #finnick odair #finnick x you #finnick x reader #finnick imagine #finnick odair x reader #finnick fanfic #thg series #thg fanfiction

[expectopatronum81]

For me, the psychology of how the games work is even creepier than sending 23 kids to be murdered on television each year. Because not only are these 12 - 18yr old kids being forced to engage in a bloody fight for their survival, or commit atrocities that'll haunt them for the rest of their lives; they are also forced to do so on the terms of the Capitol audience. The hunger games weren't just created as a punishment to the districts. One of the main aspects of it was to provide entertainment to the people of the Capitol.

So during the games, not only do they have to cope with the fact that they could be murdered any second, they should also be cautious of how their actions affect the mood of their audience. In terms of it being a reality show, showing their expertise is enough to gain them some recognition, but what really gains them audience sponsors is behaving in the exact way that is desirable of them, and playing it accordingly.

Throughout the 1st games, Katniss is constantly aware of how the games are being perceived. Instead of focusing on her emotions about peeta joining the careers, she thinks of how ecstatic the audience vil be knowing she was there the whole time, and smirks to increase their curiosity on what was going on. She thinks of how the wall of fire was to shake up the tributes and how the 'real fun' was watching them dodge the fireballs. She plays a cool and arrogant persona when she's stuck up in a tree with the careers around her despite seeing no hope of escape, knowing the audience will be having a laugh (she most likely receives the burn medicine for the promise of dropping the tracker jacker nest). She gives them enough of a promise by destroying the career pack. Then there's the whole thing with Peeta, where she constantly ponders as to how she's going to believably sell the romance on her part to ensure them food. She passes casual comments on how there hasn't been enough bloodshed or 'excitement' that day, hence fearing game maker intervention. She does her best not to show her remorse for the other dead tributes or her longing to escape from this horror because 'no one wants a victor who snivels over the deaths of her opponents'. How she couldn't end Cato's life sooner out of pity, because that was the 'climax of the hunger games, the last word in entertainment as the Capitol audience wouldn't look away from their screens for even a minute', even though that took a severe toll on her sanity( not that she needed it after surviving the whole games). Then the whole 2 victor rule change solely to ensure 'the most dramatic showdown in hunger games history'. To continue their popularity( as a distraction), they are required to act as lovers in front of the cameras at all times, and would be expected to get married and have children who could take part in the games, just for the 'extra drama'. Even smaller things like how they're required to have a hobby after the games to show off to the audience. This applies to the 3rd quater quell too, but I think I've made my point.

In perspective, the Capitol ppl dictate the terms of their lives. Their likes, dislikes, personal relationships, mannerisms, attitudes are all carefully designed to see what gains them the most popularity. Behaving in a certain, expected way ensures that they r'nt cancelled killed. The constant need to know every single detail of their personal lives ensures they r'nt forgotten. Which is why they go desperate lengths to gain that popularity( Glimmer's see through dress being her angle for the interviews....).

Yeah yeah, ofc its just a rant, totally not about a literary master piece dedicated to commentary on our worsening culture, who'd waste time on that when u have twitter anyways?

#hunger games #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #just ranting #haymitch abernathy #finnick odair #johanna mason #74th hunger games #quater quell #suzzane collins

[avaelangel]

Marie is an emotional drunk.

LiMoreau blurb. I thought, since Jordan has tolerance towards most abilities in terms of combat, they also might have an inhuman tolerance to any substance. Or spice, but this is another story. Anyway, Marie doesn't have than kind of tolerance, even though she might be able to control how a substance will affect her bloodstream.

Dimmed lights in Jordan's room would have been a good start to an intimate atmosphere, if Marie wasn't beating her partner in Mortal Kombat. It was newbie's luck consistent of smashing buttons and learning their position without looking down at the controller. Marie was torn on Jordan letting her win or at least letting her down easy. They did show her the ropes and activated the fatality the first moment they got. ''So not fair!'' Marie nudged laughing Jordan, that even fell over to make her feel better, while Sub-Zero showcased Mileena's crushed head on the screen.

''Sorry! Couldn't resist,'' they nudged her back, but much softer, ''Do you want a beer? Or like a gummie or something?''

Their thoughtful gaze and Marie's complete unfamiliriaty with all things perspective-altering. But she squinted, sighed and noded.

''A beer, please. Do you really have a fridge there?'' Awkwardness was overcome with curiousity.

Jordan laughed again, getting off the floor in front of the TV.

''You know NOTHING about me,'' that earned them an eye roll.

''To be fair, we are sitting in the dark of your...'' Marie trailed off, feeling Jordan's eyes on the back of her head, ''Very nice room,'' Jordan let out an exaggerated sigh, still smiling. They did clean! Very fast, because they ran back from class to get here before Marie.

''I do mean it, though,'' she said, when Jordan sat back down with with two bottles of beer. They opened one, handing it to Marie while feigning seriosness,''I like your room. It looked lived it. If it weren't for Emma, my room would look like dungeon,''

Jordan smiled in a way that made Marie want to look away. It made her feel too special. The way their eyes sparkled, their soft head tilt that made their nicely curled hair fall on the side of their face, but not too much to be a nuisance. Marie managed to take a huge sip of beer to stop herself from gawking.

''You'll get to it. I could get you a fluffy duvet to compete with Emma's. Maybe a plushie?'' Jordan, seemingly, only now remembered about their beer and opened the bottle.

''Make it the pinkiest and the sparkliest one, please. I want to be a worthy opponent,'' Marie chuckled turning to the screen.

''Deal,'' Jordan was proud for the idea to dim the lights. Because they felt their ears burning a bit.

Marie stuck to Mileena and nearly knocked down her beer, desperately trying to get to a fatality of her own. When she finally did, she watched in awe when Mileena became a flying murder spinning circle that eviscerated Jordan's D'vorah.

''Mileena wins!'' Marie threw her hands in the air, ''Finally!''

Now it was Jordan's turn to look at Marie in slightly offended astonishment.

''How dare you! It's not even the forth time and you won!'' They sounded fully upset, but they watched Marie intently. Jordan felt so happy that they got her this moment of joy from a video game. And then she laughed all her breath away, she swayed towards them and Jordan changed to reach a hand around her shoulders, while she finished her beer in a final sip. They both haven't noticed how easily their bottles got empited.

'Wanna go again?'' Jordan nearly stattered, looking into Marie's eyes.

Come on. You already kissed.

They didn't have much time to chastise themselves for being soft. Marie nodded eagerly.

''Yeah! I want the yellow one now,''

''Which yellow one?!''

Marie ment Scorpio and she also remembered his name. Another win went to her, Jordan sulked less each time, still enjoying full on weirdo screams of the victor. It was exhilarating to be liked by Jordan in any way, but sometimes just being slightly annoying was the most delicious thing of all. She knew with all of her heart that Jordan feels the same. They were almost competetively annoying. Also very cool, and strong, and...

''You are so beautiful, by the way,'' Marie felt warm and wobbly, but she didn't mind. Jordan stopped before loading a new fight. Their brows slightly furrowed, they couldn't quite pin point what was wrong.

Marie was actually tearing up.

''Are you crying because of my beaty?'' Jordan put away their controller, turning to face Marie.

''No,'' she giggles, wiping her eyes prematurely, ''Well, yeah, kind off. I think I got so happy with you that I went the full circle,''

''Awww,'' Jordan tugged her closer, wrapping their arms around her, ''You are such a light weight,'' but when she hugged them back, pressing her face to their chest, Jordan felt drunker than ever before. They weren't expecting to feel as tender as an uncooked stake today.

''I am really glad you don't hate me anymore,'' Marie murmured and shifted her face, so her tears wouldn't stain Jordan's shirt.

''You are very hard to hate, even for a hateful dick like me,'' they were totally joking, but it made her worry.

''Nooo,'' Marie raised her head and shook their shoulders, suddenly, ''You are so much more than just a dick. Shit, sorry, no. I mean, you are great. You so beautiful, you can literally slay a dragon and carry me like a princess. I mean, I had dreams, but I don't have that much imagination to dream up someone like you,'' she sniffled, another tear falling down her cheeck.

Jordan wiped it without thinking and quickly hugged her again, now much stronger. They couldn't stop blinking, their face hot and their heart heave and light at the same time. To be honest, changing into their impenetrable self didn't do shit. They stil were crumbling, because for some reason, somehow, they ended up with Marie as their girlfriend.

''Did you have a favorite princess?'' Jordan asked in a quite voice.

''Yeah. Mulan still the best,'' Marie was hugging them with all her strength.

''She wasn't exactly taken by a dragon,'' A smile spreads on Jordan's no longer trembling lips.

''Shut up. You know what I meant,''

They look at each other for a moment, hands touching at least the smallest amount of skin. Moving into the kiss was incredible natural, even though Marie grabbed onto Jordan's shirt, giving the moment a more dramatic flare. When they both pulled away, both sighed.

''Want watch Mulan?'' Jordan asked, then adding, ''I had a katana when I was a kid because of her,''

''I might cry more,'' Marie warned, averting her gaze.

''You are not getting another beer, then,'' Both laughed.

Jordan will be salty about ending gaming on Marie's win. It will lure Marie into playing again, so she could win more. It will be another nice evening and a night, maybe even weed-infused. But for now, they snuggled into Jordan's bed as the movie started. Almost putting their head on Marie's chest, Jordan pulled away, reached their hand under the bed and took out two full bags of chips Marie had never seen before.

She judged them so hard in this moment.

''I'm moving in with you,'' she said bluntly and shook her head, wraping a hand around Jordan's waist.

''I kick in my sleep,'' they retorted with a smirk, opening a bag of puffy tofu chips.

''I lived with worse,'' Marie shrugged and took one, cursing at how tasty the chip was. They legit could camp out in Jordan's room and never go out. But she stayed silent, putting her cheek on Jordan's head that was on her shoulder.

#marie moreau #im a sad drunk myself #jordan li #jordan x marie #mariejordan #limoreau #fluffiest of fluff that i've made #gen v #i just need to feel #i hope it's a nice enough thing to bring to the tags on those two #i also can't find the only kind of tofu chips there was and i'm sad

[moonshynecybin]

one thing that i think we should talk more about is marc & vale's different manipulation techniques. idk if manipulation is the right term, at least for marc it's mostly about how he approaches the media

I think when marc was really young in the beginning of his career he was very honest with the journalist as he was excited to be a rookie for example and didn't have any bad feelings to hide. but i think he learned a lot from 2015, he progressively started to alternate moments of real and brutal honesty and even vulnerability to moments of (fake)politeness so that he can act as angel to the media while still being a menace on track and still be seen as someone who's brutally honest. (I'm not criticizing him, this is a smart move and nobody is honest all the time) obviously this happens a lot more with non-spanish media where he tries to appear less threatening

and then there's vale...vale who established himself when he was REALLY young has a funny guy, a lovable leader who's not afraid of saying what he thinks because he's aware of his charisma. he always knew how to work the media for some reason and in 2015 but also with every other rivarly he had he knew he could be as mean or cunty or corny as he wanted cause he had all the italian journalists wrapped around his finger. true marvel supervillain shit, iconic

yeah i see what you mean it IS manipulation but they also live and work in such a ruthlessly public arena that i can’t ever blame them for it like it’s not necessarily a bad thing that they know how to play the game and protect themselves a lil…

it’s also interesting in relation to each other i think. like marc IS very careful never to say bad things that can be used as sound bites about valentino and vale (WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS IN THE PAST LOL) makes an effort to do the same… they’re both always reframing and changing the subject and dodging the question… vale gets asked about marc on the ducati and says yeah he’s fast lets talk about BEZZ. marc gets asked to name valentino’s strengths and weaknesses and says well he’s charismatic and has no weaknesses. marc gets asked about vale’s retirement gives a loooong spiel about vale being a huge part of motogp then essentially says yeah he hates me but i don’t have any problems and wish him the best :) like he orients himself in such a way as to make the feud seemed one sided which hmmm i don’t know about that anymore lol… truly marc only furthers their beef under specific and controlled circumstances ie his documentary (almost NEVER to the press writ large that’s why that misano press scrum had me like 👀) and vale is the same (podcasts are the optimal time for a deranged monologue). BUT he also sometimes furthers it when he’s just the angriest little motorcycle racer the world has ever seen and his temper gets the best of him. they’re too media trained for anything else

anyways all this to say is that they would both make such excellent hunger games victors…

#i am curious what you mean about him making himself ‘less threatening’ in english than spanish though that’s compelling #i do not uh. speak spanish very well. i’m on that duolingo grind. #callie speaks #motogp #rosquez #asks

[captainlunaxmen]

All for the cameras

Chapter 4

Finnick Odair x reader

This is a repost since the old blog doesn't work anymore. 🥰

Chapter summary: a little about the making of the Games, the reaping, and the Parade.

Chapter warnings: talking of lethal threats, Cal has his own warning, Snow, forced marriage.

I take a huge gulp of wine as I sit in Plutarch's living room.

He did convince Snow to make me his personal assistant for this Quarter Quell, Plutarch told him it's a perfect way to show my "participation". Although I hate to keep up such a facade, I love that I can use it as an excuse to not stay, nor spend any time with Cal.

"Careful with that," Plutarch comes back into the room with his own glass, "we need you lucid for this."

"Trust me, I built a strong resistance to alcohol... no amount would help endure this shit anyway..." I mutter, looking at my fucking ring.

"You spent too much time with Abernathy, I'm afraid," he comments, he's not judging, no, he's probably just teasing.

"Or not enough," I tease back, he smirks amused by my answer.

He then suddenly turns the TV on, on display my answer to Cal's proposal.

I groan as I see that.

"I gotta say, that was smart," he compliments me, referring to the kiss.

"Could you turn it off? One fucking time was enough, thank you." I tell him.

"Not telling you about the Quartel Quell was smart too," he throws this out like nothing, my head snaps towards him.

"You little... that's why..." I start, but his proud stance stops me, "fine... smart thinking on your part too, okay."

"Thank you very much," he does a little bow before turning serious, "I'm sure now you can know more." He declares.

"Really?" I ask, I really want to know more and help, but at the same time I don't want to risk everyone.

"Yes, miss L/n. But... you have to know this, all this, will require a lot from you. From all of us, actually. So just know... you can still change your mind and no one will hold it against you." He explains, I can feel he is sincere, I know I can trust him.

I take a deep breath, this is a good chance to actually change things here... I won't pass this opportunity.

"Anything." I say and he smiles.

"Alright, our primarily goal is to get Katniss out." He starts and I nod, of course she would be the face of the revolution, "every Victor involved knows that,"

"Did you warn them? The ones involved?" I ask.

"Didn't have the chance... not everyone... I also need you to start thinking that not everyone will see this revolution starts." He says bitterly.

"I..." I don't know what to say, so I try to reason it, "yeah... of course... if not all of them know... the others would just want to survive, as always."

"Reasoning won't help you much this time," he says and he uses the remote to change the scene on the screen.

The reaping ceremony of each district.

"Cashmere and Gloss... God... they're brother and sister.."

"It never stopped the Capitol before. It just adds up to the drama." Plutarch sighs.

"I know," I sigh as the next district's reaping starts, "it may sounds cliché, but Enobaria is actually a sweet person... when you get past the teeth," I try to chuckle to ease my tension. Yeah... I might not see some of them after...

"Please tell me you were smart enough to recruit Beetee," I look at Plutarch who nods confidently.

"Oh..."

"This is where I wanted you," he says softly.

"Finnick... yeah... I... it makes sense..." I say as I see him walking up the stage.

"You need to..."

He doesn't have the time to finish his sentence before I let out a big gasp.

"Mags volunteered..." I whisper, "she... she can't... they can't... not them both... oh c'mon..."

"I'm sorry. When the time comes we will do our best to take everyone to safety, but..." he explains.

"But you can't control what happens in the arena..." I mutter, "not without raising suspects. I know."

I hear him sigh and walking closer to me, offering a comforting hand on my shoulder, I nod and we go on watching the reaping.

Johanna of course... I know she has all the skills to protect herself in there, but she's still my friend and I can't not worry. Especially knowing she has nothing left to lose.

Finally we get to 12 and of course Katniss, being the only living female victor, she's reaped.

Time for the male.

Haymitch's name is said, and for a split moment my heart breaks, but Peeta is quick to volunteer for him. I see Katniss shocked and terrified expression and I know she asked Haymitch to volunteer in his place if the roles were reverse.

"That was rigged... wasn't it?" I ask.

"Exactly, we need Haymitch here and..." he motion for me to go on.

"She needs Peeta there," I say earning a proud nod from him, "she just doesn't know it."

There's a moment of silence, where I take a second to recollect myself and take a sip of wine.

"Now," he claps his hands, "to make your participation more believable... you need to write down 2 ideas for the arena."

"What?" I ask, "I thought the arena was already decided."

"The arena yes... not the threats inside." He says.

"What do you mean?" I'm actually confused right now.

"This year arena is... quite special," he starts explaining, showing the concept on the screen, "it's divided in sections, like this, each section hosts a threat. Like these: acid fog, monkeys, this big wave... And so on."

"Acid fog? Isn't it a little too much?" I ask getting nervous for my friends.

"I told you it's gonna be hard," he gives me a sympathetic smile, "and we need your suggestions to be... authentic. It has to look like you're actually putting an effort."

I sigh, bouncing my leg.

I need to think of something that's horrifying, but safe at the same time.

They're all there... all my friends are there. The only family I've ever known since... I shake my head and drink more wine.

"Okay. Yeah... I get it." I nod, "when do you need it?"

"Tomorrow." He answers, "I have faith you can do it and... you can say you're busy working for me." He winks at me with a reassuring smile.

"That's the only good thing," I let out a humourless laugh and take one last gulp of wine before standing up. "Then I should get going. Thank you, Mr Heavensbee."

I walk towards the exit when Plutarch's voice stops me.

"One more thing," he calls and I turn my head, "even though you'll try and think of the least lethal threat... they might kill someone anyway. Keep that in mind."

I nod and walk out.

----------------

As I enter my apartment I instantly smell flowers... lots of them.

I look around and I see, probably, more than 10 bouquets of flowers.

"Oh god..." I sigh, defeated. I look at some of them, noticing most are from "admirers" congratulating me for my engagement.

But there are three that catch my eyes more than the others.

One, huge, bouquet is made by all sort of flowers, I don't think I've ever seen such variety of flowers in the first place. I look at the card... I groan, it's from Cal.

"My love, everyday I count the days that separate us from being finally together.

I can't wait for you to be mine.

Properly mine.

Enjoy your job, my sweetness, and happy Hunger Games!

Love,

Cal Kingslay. "

I throw the whole bouquet with the rest, and just look at the other. It's simple and small, my favourite flowers and a few seashells here and there, the thing holding the bouquet it's not paper... it's fish nets... Finnick. I unconsciously smile as I take the card.

"I wanT to congRatUlate you, my SweeT girl!

TheY tOld me the news jUst now! Miss L/n, You shouLd've tOld me, I've neVer beEn so happy!

Congratulations!

Dario."

He signs each letters, making it look like it was ink fallen from the pen... smart.

"I trust you, my love"

He even signed it with an anagram of his name. I let out a laugh at that and move to the last bouquet.

Even smaller then Finnick's, a few green leaves are like a frame for the one, white rose.

I shakily take the card in my hand.

"Congratulations on your engagement, my dear. I look forward to see what you'll come up with for our Games.

I'm sure one day you'll make a fine Gamemaker."

There's no sign, not that he needed to...

"Gamemaker... yeah... sure." I scoff.

I go to the kitchen to get myself some wine. As I'm about to pour a glass, I look at the bottle and just... take it all with me to my room.

I sit on the desk in my room and, as I take some gulps from the bottle, I try to come up with some ideas.

Plutarch mentioned a few potentially lethal threat already, I mean... acid fog, deadly monkeys, that I'm sure will be modified.

What to do, what to do...

Other animals maybe, but a non lethal one... something that creates a hassle, but not death.

Bugs?

I shake my head, no, they would make it poisonous no matter what my suggestion is.

Something else, something else.

Jabberjays. Yes!

I write down my idea and take the bottle to take a big gulp, but the bottle slips from my grasp and falls on the desk spilling the liquid all over the desk and the pavement.

"Shit!"

I manage to safe the paper I was writing on and I immediately go take a towel to wipe the wine off.

As I kneel down cleaning the liquid, I find myself staring at the little drops of wine falling from the desk to the floor.

The dark liquid looks a lot like... blood.

Blood rain.

-------------

I walk nervously behind Plutarch, he just told me Snow wanted to hear my ideas himself, so now, as I'm walking I clench my fists nervously.

"You couldn't have told me sooner?" I ask him.

"He didn't ask me sooner," Plutarch answers as we finally stand out of Snow's office, "you wrote it?"

"Of course," I slightly scoff at his answer.

"Then take a deep breath and... show time," Plutarch smiles and knock on the door.

"Come in," Snow's voice gives us permission to enter.

"President," Plutarch greets him.

"Good morning, sir," I say, putting up the best 'diligent student' appearance.

"Good morning, Mr Heavensbee," he nods towards Plutarch and then turns to me, "and what a pleasure, miss L/n."

"You said you wanted to hear her ideas for the arena, right?" Plutarch starts.

"Oh, of course!" Snow's suddenly happy, as if he's about to hear a good story, "tell me, my dear girl, what did you think of?"

If it were a different universe this could've seemed a sweet exchange. The old "mentor" interested in his protégé ideas...

"When Plutarch showed me the arena and the already existing threats, I have to admit I was intrigued," I start and I see, from the corner of my eyes Plutarch smiling proudly, "but at the same time, I was a little bored." I say and that earned a surprised 'oh?' from Snow, "I mean... from those you either die or survive... so I thought of something more psychological."

"Oh, now that's interesting, my dear, please go on." Snow is pleased so far.

"I thought of a section of the arena where... uh..." I pretend to stutter for a second, to give him the impression that I'm nervous because I care for his opinion.

"Don't be shy, I'm open to all suggestions,"

"I thought of a blood rain... sir." I say.

I see him pondering the idea, then a smile creeps it's way on his face, it makes me sick.

"I like it," he finally says looking at Plutarch, "she's smart, isn't she?"

"Very smart, sir." Plutarch agrees.

"I'm even more curious to hear the other idea, please don't leave me hanging," Snow's 'sweet' tone almost freezes me to the spot, but I swallow hard and just ignore this feeling.

"Jabberjays." Is all I say.

He looks a little taken aback, and motion for me to elaborate.

"I thought about using Jabberjays that imitate the screams of people the tributes know." I say, pretending to feel unsure of my idea, "maybe create a sort of an invisible wall that prevents them from escaping if they finds the birds."

Snow looks at me, considering me for a moment, then he smiles, that sick smile once again.

"You were right in recruiting her, Mr Heavensbee. Good thinking, miss L/n, very good thinking." He compliments Plutarch and me.

"Thank you, sir." I smile.

"No, thank you," he says, "now, one more thing before I dismiss you."

I nod and stay put, even though I was ready to run, or better walk very fast, out of here.

"This role of assistant Gamemaker won't exonerate you from your duty to assist the mentors," he tells me.

"I wouldn't dream of it, sir, I've always taken my role very seriously," I tell him, faking pride as I speak.

"I know, my dear." He smiles, almost as if he knows I wasn't exactly fond of it, "we were supposed to randomly assign you to one district, like every year, but we thought to just let you stick to 12. Apparently the Capitol's people loved your... friendship with the two victors." He says the word 'friendship' with a not so convinced tone, almost repulsed.

"Of course, sir." I nod my head, eager to just get out of here.

"But," he adds, probably keeping me longer to see when I'll crumble, I look briefly at Plutarch who keeps his confidence stance, "you'll be assisting all of the districts." I look at him confused and he continues, "I mean, you'll be present during the training sessions and will help."

"Oh, yes, sir, of course." I nod again.

"That's all." He claps his hands, satisfied, "the tributes arrive today so... better be there to welcome them home."

'Home'...

"I'm going right now, sir." I promptly tell him, he smiles and motions me to go and to Plutarch to stay.

"Send my regards to Cal Kingslay when you see him," I hear him say as I walk out, not bothering to answer him I just go straight to the tributes living centre.

--------------

I enter the building and see Haymitch, Effie, Katniss and Peeta arriving.

"Well, well, well, aren't you lot a sight for sore eyes?" I say once I'm close enough to pull Peeta into a hug.

"Oh! We got the Princess this year too, uh? The president is spoiling us," Haymitch jokes ans I roll my eyes as I hug Katniss.

"Rather spoiling me," I greet Effie too, in the perfect 'Capitol style', "lots of opportunities."

"I figured," Haymitch says wrapping his arms around me.

"Now," I say holding my arms open, theatrically, "let's take you to your apartments."

I start walking towards the elevator, heading to the attic, again.

------------

Once inside we start to have lunch, the atmosphere is quite tense before Effie breaks the silence.

"All right," she starts, clearing her throat, "before we begin, I've had a thought."

"You don't say?" Haymitch jokes, unimpressed.

"Be nice," I tell him, throwing a balled-up napkin at him.

"Katniss has her gold Mockingjay pin. I have my hair. I'm going to get you three something gold." She declares, as if it were something obvious.

Haymitch looks at both me and Peeta, confused, before asking why.

"A token." Effie explains, "Show them we are a team. And they can't just..." she starts getting emotional and Katniss takes her hands.

"Thank you." She tells her, meaning it.

Effie might be too theatrical sometimes, but she's so much more than that, I'm grateful I got to know this side of her. I take her hand too.

"That's really sweet, Effie." I smile at her, "and... thank you for including me."

I notice both Peeta and Katniss sharing a look as if I said something unbelievable, but I ignore it.

Not the time.

"Now..." Effie composes herself, "everything will be different, because it's a Quarter Quell. The Capitol has spared no expense. A new training centre. New Tribute living quarters. And of course, a very special arena."

I tense at that, I took part in that...

"But this year you'll be facing other Victors." I step in, " all Capitol favourites. Smart, cunning, skilled... angry. And they all know one another. You two are the outsiders."

" I want you guys to forget everything you think you know about the Games. Last year was child's play." Haymitch starts explaining, he's the best to mentor them about a Quarter Quell, "this year, you're dealing with all experienced killers."

"All right," Peeta speaks up, "what does it mean for us?"

"Allies." I tell him, "you'll be needing allies."

"Okay. I think that if..." Peeta's reply is quickly interrupted.

"You're not the problem." I say and, I don't have to say anything more, Haymitch is already pointing at Katniss.

"No." She sternly says.

"A little help, Haymitch?" I ask him.

"Look, you're starting at a disadvantage. Most of these people have been friends for years."

"That just puts us higher on their killing list." She replies, annoyed.

I roll my eyes, she needs to do her part.

"Do it your own way, but I know these people. You go it alone, their first move is gonna be to hunt you down." Haymitch keeps explaining, patiently, "both of you."

"Katniss, come on," Peeta's sweet tone seems to convince her... a tiny bit.

She sighs deeply, which usually mean she's gonna listen, even though she doesn't agree.

"How could any of us even trust each other?" She then asks.

"It's not about trust. It's about staying alive," he states.

Peeta and Katniss look at each other and finally Katniss nod her head.

"Great!" I cheer, "time for some brainstorming, shall we?" And I stand up walking to the living room.

They soon follow and Haymitch turns the TV on, so they can see who the other Victors are, and who might seem like a good ally.

"Cashmere and Gloss. Brother and sister. District one. They one back-to-back Games. Capitol favourites. Lots of sponsors." He shows them the siblings.

"They will be lethal." I add and Haymitch nods, strongly agreeing.

"And the other half of the Career Pack, Brutus and Enobaria."

"What's with her teeth?" Of course, Katniss asks about the teeth.

"She... well... she had them filed into fangs..." I respond, "so she could... rip people's throat out better."

"She's committed. I'll give her that." Peeta comments, I can sense some tension in him... which is very understandable.

"Wiress and Beetee," Haymitch keeps on presenting the tributes, "not fighters, but brilliant."

"Very brilliant," I agree.

"And weird." He adds, earning a glare from me, "real texh-savvy. He won his Games by electrocuting six tributes at once." He changes the scene again, "the Morphlings. Masters of camouflage. Basically, won their Games by hiding until everyone was dead. Self-medicating ever since. Which I applaud. Not a threat."

We arrive at District 4 reaping.

"Finnick Odair, right?" Katniss asks.

Haymitch looks at me, silently telling me to explain this one myself, there's a hint of a smirk on his face that makes me roll my eyes for, what feels like, the millionth time today.

"Yep. The one and only." I starts, "he won his Games at 14. He's the youngest Victor ever... of course modesty is his peculiarity." I joke.

"You're kidding."

"Kinda," I chuckle, "he's very confident. Very. But... he's the Capitol's darling. They all love him here." Unfortunately, I want to add. "He's smart, he's skilled at combat, especially... especially in water."

"What about weaknesses?" Peeta asks, interested.

"Only one..." I sigh, deeply, "Mags. She... she volunteer for Annie. Mags was his mentor, the year that I was assigned to 4, she raised him, basically. He will try to protect her, even though it would expose him."

"A guy like that has to know she's not gonna make it," Katniss shakes her head, unconvinced, Haymitch looks at me knowingly, "I bet when it really comes down to it, he won't protect her."

I really want to hit her right now, but I know it's not her fault, she thinks this because it's what the Capitol wanted everyone else to think. That's what he had to pretend to be.

"Well... she's an amazing woman, Katniss, I... I just hope that... if... w-when she goes, she goes quickly." I stutter out. It took everything in me to say that... I want to hope we will rescue everyone before that happens... I really do.

I space out as Haymitch goes on explaining and introducing the other tributes.

I can feel his eyes on me every now and then, but I stopped pay attention minutes ago now.

Mags is the mother I never had... if there is one person who deserves to see a free Panem, it's her.

---------‐---

I was walking on the train heading to the restaurant car where I found an old lady sitting there, drinking a cup of tea.

"Hi..." I shyly said.

"Oh hello, dear." She greeted me with such a kind smile, I felt so much better and less nervous.

"I'm... I'm Y/n." I started to introduce myself, but her hand gently taking mine stopped me.

"I know, dear. I'm Mags." Another kind smile, "you're here to assist me, right?"

"Yeah." My hands were getting sweaty... I was so nervous.

"Hey, no need to worry about it. We can do it." She reassured me.

"I hope so..." I muttered under my breath.

She sighed and offer a seat to me, I took it and stared at the cups on the table.

"I watched you last year," her voice was soft as she spoke, "you were assigned to... what district?"

"5"

"But you were helping the little one from 11, right?" She asked.

I snapped my head to her, eyes wide open.

"Please, don't worry about it. I never told anyone." She assured me, handing me a warm cup, "I just meant that I saw you're not like the rest of them, my dear. You care."

"My tributes didn't want to listen, they were older than me and thought I was just a spy... which is understandable." I sadly kept my head low. "That boy from 11 was my age and... he was having trouble with some essential survival techniques."

"He got pretty far thanks to those." She tried to make me feel better.

"Not far enough," I bitterly replied.

"I'm sorry." I let her take my hand again, "it's not a consolation, I know, trust me, but... I have a feeling we can do it."

"They won't trust me," I told her, referring to the tributes from 4.

"Not at first... and most likely not the girl... but the boy, he seems to be more open to suggestions." She explained.

"I'm not sure he would accept suggestions from me."

"He's a smart one. Same age as you. Just be yourself and he will trust you." She smiled.

I considered her for a moment before nodding. Hope growing a little more.

The door of the car opening had my head turning immediately.

"My dear Y/n," Mags stood up and walked towards the boy entering, "this is Finnick Odair. Finnick, this is Y/n."

--------------

"Are you okay?" Haymitch's voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

"Uh? Yeah... yeah, sorry, I zoned out." I apologise.

"I noticed." He sits with me.

"Where are they?" I ask, noticing no one else was in sight.

"Getting ready for the parade." He answers.

"Right... I better get going too. I have to check everyone is ready..." I tiredly sigh as I stand up, but Haymitch softly pulls me back down.

"If you take a few minutes it won't be a tragedy." He tells me, "what's going on in that head of yours?"

"Nothing... I just started to think about Mags." I whisper, afraid someone might hear.

"Plutarch gave you the speech?" He asks and I nod, "I'm really sorry, Y/n."

"It's okay... I mean, it's not, but I think it was inevitable... she would've never let anyone else go, not if she had any say in it." I tell him, "she's strong." I see him starting to speak but I beat him to it, "I know better than to keep my hopes up, trust me, I know."

He just sighs and wrap one reassuring arms around my shoulder.

"I really better get going now, gotta check on those outfits." I stand up.

"You do that, sweetheart." Haymitch smiles at me and I walk to the elevator.

--------------

I walk out of the elevator heading to where the parade is about to begin and I instantly loom for someone.

I spot immediately Peeta talking to Cinna, who's probably refining last minutes details.

"Hello." I greet once I'm close enough, Cinna turns around giving me a small smile and a hug. "You look good, mr Mellark."

"Only with his help it's possible." Peeta, humble as usual, replies pointing at Cinna.

"I'm not a magician, I can make people look good if they're worthy." Cinna shakes his head, waving off the compliment.

"I couldn't agree more." I sigh, "so, are you lot ready? Where's Katniss?"

"She's should be here soon, her dress is a little more complicated than Peeta's." Cinna answers, "and, since you're here, I was thinking about them not doing anything out there."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I mean, no waving, no smiling, nothing of sort. Act like they're above them. What do you think?" He explains, genuinely interested in my opinion.

"I think it's perfect." I smile and he return it.

"Oh, there she is." Peeta points behind us, I turn seeing Katniss talking to Finnick, who's a lot close. I hope he's not putting up his flirting persona, I don't think Katniss would trust him so easily then.

Peeta excuses himself to join her, just as Finnick walks away... spotting me.

"Snow asked..." Cinna gently nudges my arm and lowers his voice, "or better, ordered me to make her wear a wedding dress for the interview."

"Of course..." I roll my eyes. "You good with that?

"Oh yeah...I got a great idea for it." He says, I look into his eyes seeing determination so I don't ask more questions.

"Better get them ready to go, it's almost time." I tell him.

Cinna walks to Katniss and Peeta and I turn to check if someone else needs a hand with something or needs advice, unlikely, but never say never.

I see Mags petting a horse so I decide to go to her.

As soon as she sees me her smile grows ten times, warming my heart.

"You look very beautiful," I tell her, once we're close enough I hug her, "I'm so sorry." I whisper into her ear.

She pulls away gently, looking at me with that kind smile that always makes me feel better. She caresses my cheek with her hand, reassuringly, nodding her head to tell me that it's alright.

I nod too, taking a deep breath.

"Do you think I look presentable?" A very familiar voice says from behind me.

I look at Mags, rolling my eyes, glad I made her laugh a little.

I turn around, fully admir... noticing his naked chest and the golden fish net tied at his... oh shit.

"My eyes are up here, sweetheart." He smirks and I just turn my head away, shaking it as I try to pull myself together.

"Did your stylists finished the fabric?" I finally say, "I could've ordered some, if they told me."

"Of course," he smiles and walk closer to me, leaning down to whisper into my ear, "just between us... I'm wearing it just for you."

My head snaps to him, our faces mere inches apart. I notice his eyes looking down to my lips, I instantly put some distance walking up to district 3.

"And here I thought you would never come to say hi," Beetee waves.

"Did you lose all hope in me? And here I thought you were the smart one." I tease back.

"It's a pity seeing each other here, under these circumstances." Wiress shakes my hand.

"I know. I wish it were different..." I look down, sad and ashamed too, Beetee softly touches my arm. I look up at him noticing him mouthing something on the line of 'it's gonna be fine' so I smile at him. "Well, don't you two look great?"

I compliment them, just before the announcer warned us of the beginning.

I wave them goodbye for now and head back, watching every district ride out there.

When it's Finnick's turn he turns to me and winks at me, earning a big eye roll. When it's finally District 12 turn as they pass by I nod my head, encouraging them. I see them looking st each other and straighten their back proudly.

I walk towards the end of the parade, where they should get off the chariots and head back to the elevators, and I wait.

I look at them in the distance, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves.

All of a sudden I feel someone watching me from behind.

"You did a pretty good job, my sweetness." His voice makes me wince.

I turn around, showing the usual fake smile I show to everyone in the Capitol, pretending to be happy to see him.

"Cal... hi." I say, holding back from walking away as he nears, "what are you doing here?"

"I missed you. I didn't scare you, didn't I?" He says with a smile, that clearly shows he's proud he did.

"Of course, not. I was just thinking." I tell him sweetly.

"What about?" He ask, curious.

"Well, I have a lot to do these days and when they're back I'll have to make sure everything is organised." I tell him. "And also, taking part in the making of the Games... Plutarch asked me to write down some ideas."

This is probably the only time I'm glad I have this job, if I didn't, Cal would've kept me basically locked up, in his apartment. 'All to himself'... the thought makes me shiver.

"Would you share them with me?" He whispers.

"I can't ruin the fun, can I?" I say back.

"Aahh... you're killing me, babe." He shakes his head chuckling.

If only...

"No special treatment, Cal." I smile, feeling uneasy from the way he's looking at me.

In that moment, thankfully, I hear the parade is ending, which means everybody is about to get back.

"Such a diligent girl." He moves his hand to take mine. I let out a nervous laugh and a 'thanks', and finally, one district at a time, they're back.

I lock eyes with some of the Tributes, who noticing Cal with me, tense and give me sympathetic smile.

Then Finnick's back.

As soon as he sees me, he can't keep up the fake smile and his expression darkens.

"Well... I'm sorry, but I have to go now. I'll see you." I say, starting to turn around, but his hand grabs my arm. Rather harshly, which makes my eyes widen at that.

"We hardly see each other these days... I miss you." He looms over me, a dark look in his eyes.

"Well... uh..." I clear my throat, looking at the tributes still arriving, "I have a job to.. to do."

I see Mags and Finnick, she has a hand on his arm, to stop him from coming here.

"Good thing that when we're married you won't need to work, then." He tells me directly into my ear, "I would be able to have you any day I want."

"Wouldn't that be a dream..?" I choke out, my throat tightens. I still look at Finnick, more to check he doesn't intervenes than anything.

"There you are!" We both look at the source of the sound, Johanna.

I let out a sigh of relief as she walks closer.

"I was looking for you." She says, "they told me to ask you for the schedule."

"Yes... yes! I got it." I tell her.

Johanna pretends to notice Cal just now and extends her hand towards him.

"Oh hey there! You must be the lucky one, uh?" Johanna greets him.

Cal looks at her sceptically before shaking her hand.

"Yes, that's me."

"So nice to finally meet you, she talks about you all the time!" Johanna's (fake) cheery personality and flattery seem to work on Cal, who smiles smugly, "you don't mind if I steal her, do you?"

Before Cal could answer, she pulls me to her linking arms and walks away.

"God, he looks so annoying." She groans.

"He is... he is." I sigh, relieved.

"I thought about stepping in before Finnick over there could rip his eyes out," she teases. "So... how are the lovebirds?"

"They're completely in love." I tell her, she nods smiling knowingly.

I spot them talking with district 11 tributes, I wave at Haymitch, letting him know I'll be up in a second.

"Ugh... he still looking this way," Johanna complains getting in front of me, "is he always like this?"

"Even worse." I roll my eyes.

"Alright," she take the end of her dress in her hands showing it to me, "Plutarch told me."

I understand now what she's doing with her dress, she's pretending to show it to me, so it looks like we're talking about the dress.

"I know," I say touching the fabric, pretending to check it out, "you're sure about doing this?"

"Of course I am," she now turns to 'make me see her back', "never been more sure."

"I'm just sorry," I tell her, motioning for her to turn back around.

"No need too," she smiles, an emotionless smile, "oh he's gone.. finally."

"Thanks for saving me," I tell her.

"Anytime," she says, she turns her head towards the elevator, "well... I'll go introduce myself."

"Be nice." I tell her, she winks at me and walks away to the elevator with Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch.

I go over the last details, seeing the horses are attended to, the chariots are about to be put away, everything seems fine.

I then walk to the elevator myself, I lean against the elevator's wall as soon as I enter.

Before the doors can close, someone rushes in, I look up finding myself face to face with Finnick.

Being in a confined space with a shirtless Finnick is...

"Hi, my love."

Shit.

#the hunger games x y/n #the hunger games x reader #the hunger games imagine #the hunger games fic #the hunger games #finnick odair x reader #finnick odair imagine #finnick odair fic #finnick odair #finnick imagine #finnick x reader

[on-my-vigilante-sht]

Capitol Punishment XIV

Haymitch x Reader ~ Completed

Summary: The Capitol continues to torture it’s victors no matter how long ago they won through punishment, exploitation, and worst of all; their relationships.

A story in which Haymitch’s lover is a plaything for the Capitol.

Warnings: Canon level violence, rape, alcohol, murder, systemic poverty, exploitation, rebellion (?), more reliance on movie than book, suicidal thoughts, swearing, illness, pregnancy, miscarriage, torture, sexual torture, medical stuff

Word Count: 2.6K

Part XIII | Masterlist

A/N I’m radically changing the ending because I hate the ending of Mockingjay

You didn’t watch most of it, too terrified to see your friends be maimed by whatever fucked up creations the game makers could come up with. Plutarch told you, Haymitch, Beetee, and Johanna horror stories of all the planned mutts they had sitting in archives that would likely be brought out for this.

Those four days were some of the worst you had experienced. The only words that released the tense hold of worry on your mind came from Coin. “We’ve taken the Capitol,” she announced to the remaining victors in 13. “Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick are all okay,” she mentioned with a kind yet forced smile.

But you didn’t care to read into that. Your friends were okay.

~

The next day you were entering the president’s mansion again. The first time in two years when Haymitch the was brought here and nearly executed for punching a Capitol man. Remembering the circumstances of being here last time Haymitch pulled you a little bit closer.

As you entered a grand meeting hall you were greeted by Coin and Enobaria. Beetee immediately got defensive. “What is she doing here?” he asked, remembering the knife in the back he had received from one of her district partners.

“Enobaria here is the last victor alive apart from the ones that made it to 13. The rest were killed shortly after 12 was bombed,” Coin explained calmly as if she weren’t explaining a massacre.

“I was the only one left in the arena that wasn’t a part of your alliance. They knew I wasn’t a part of the rebellion so they let me live if I did propo,” Enobaria explained with a shrug.

The doors then opened, revealing Finnick and Peeta. Annie immediately went to her new husband, embracing him. Peeta, now de-muttified, came to you and Haymitch. You hugged him first. “Thank god,” you whispered, having feared for his life and mental state.

“I’m okay,” he assured you, pulling away gently. He then faced Haymitch, his mentor bringing him into a quick hug.

“Where’s Katniss?” you asked as Johanna and Beetee approached to greet Peeta.

“Talking with Snow in the greenhouse. He had something to say to her I guess,” Peeta explained.

Nodding at his explanation you turned to Finnick. He was already two steps away from you, pulling you into a hug. “I guess you win shittiest honeymoon of all time,” you joked.

“Yeah, we do,” Finnick laughed, pulling away to greet the others.

The door then swung open, bringing everyone’s attention to Katniss. You were first in line to greet her with a hug.

“You did it,” you muttered against her shoulder. You felt her wrap her arms tightly around you, enjoying your comfort.

“Snow wants to see you,” she said.

You were a little taken aback but nodded anyways. You looked over your shoulder at Haymitch who looked hesitant. “I’ll be okay,” you assured before exiting, headed for the garden.

An armed guard followed you wordlessly, never averting his gaze towards you, only staring straight ahead. Shrugging it off you continued on until you reached the greenhouse, another two guards allowing you to enter.

You were immediately met with warmth and a very strong scent from the thousands of white roses that grew around you. “Ms. L/N, I’m glad you came,” Snow smiled.

“It’s the least I can do to honor a dead man’s final wish,” you returned his smile.

“Ah yes,” he chuckled. “And I’m sure Katniss will be the one to do it. Tell me, does that bother you that she’s the one to do it? After all I put you, Haymitch, Peeta, Johanna, and Finnick through much worse. Don’t one of you deserve to do it more?”

You practically spat a laugh out. “You really are desperate aren’t you? You’re not going to turn us against Katniss. Her executing you as The Mockingjay is bigger than our grievances with you.”

“Still, I bet you’d like to put a knife in my throat after everything you’ve endured.”

“The knowledge that you’ve been brought down to your knees by the people you considered to be less than the dirt on your boot is enough for me. And you’ll be executed by the girl I trained for the games, the very same girl who started all of this,” you sneered. “You know you could still be in power. You could’ve just stopped the games, said the districts paid their penance and been done with it. Or at the very least let the victors live in peace, treat them well. But no, you just had to have a group to be a scapegoat for all of the Capitol’s and Panem’s problems in order to harbor as much power as possible.”

“Do you really think Coin will be different?”

“I’m not interested in the politics. If she fucks up like you did, well the country’s so bloodthirsty right now I’m sure she’ll be gone within an hour of he decision. Goodbye Coriolanus.” And with that you existed, leaving in his prison of roses.

As you approached the meeting hall again you saw Katniss and Gale walking in the same direction as you. “Do you know what this is about?” she asked you.

“What what is about? I just left Snow’s greenhouse.”

“Coin has asked all the victors to meet,” Gale explained.

Shrugging, you followed them into the meeting hall, being greeted with all the victors plus Coin sitting around a table, two spots left for you and Katniss. You took your seat next to Haymitch and Coin began.

“I have invited you all here for several reasons, but first, I have an announcement. I have taken the burden and the honor of declaring myself interim president of Panem.”

“Interim?” Haymitch interrupted with a scoff. “Exactly how long is that interim?”

“We have no way of knowing for certain. But it's clear that people are far too emotional right now to make a rational decision. We'll plan an election when the time is right.”

Haymitch sent an astonished look towards you, as if saying, ‘Can you believe this?’

“But I have called you here for a far more important vote. A symbolic vote,” Coin continued. “This afternoon, we will execute Snow.” Everyone’s gaze slipped towards Katniss, including yours. “Hundreds of his accomplices also await their deaths. Capitol officials, peacekeepers, torturers, game makers. But the danger is, once we begin, the rebels will not stop calling for retribution. Thirst for blood is a difficult urge to satisfy. So I offer an alternative plan. Majority of five may approve it. No one may abstain. The proposal is this:” A pregnant pause mad everyone hold their breaths, “in lieu of these barbaric executions, we hold a symbolic hunger games.”

Everyone was taken aback, Haymitch even having his mouth wide open. Well everyone except for Johanna who was laughing. “You wanna have another Hunger Games with the Capitol’s children?”

“You’re joking?” Peeta calmly asked, a touch of outrage in his voice.

“Not in the slightest,” Coin answered.

“Is this Plutarch’s idea?” Haymitch asked.

“It was mine. it balances the need for revenge with the least loss of human life. You may vote,” she declared, settling back against her seat a little.

“No,” Peeta said immediately. “No, obviously not this is crazy.”

“I think it’s more than fair,” Johanna jumped in eagerly. “Snow’s got a granddaughter. I say yes.”

“So do I,” Enobaria agreed. “Let them have a taste of it.”

“You guys, this way of thinking is what started these uprisings,” Peeta protested.

“I vote no, with Peeta,” Annie chimed in.

Next to her Finnick was staring at the table, uncomfortably. “I vote yes,” he said softly. “They’ve taken so much from the districts. They should know what they did to us.”

“No,” Beetee answered. “We need to stop viewing each other as enemies.”

Everyone was looking at you now. You weren’t sure. On one hand these were innocent children who did nothing wrong and who had happened to be born into the Capitol. But you also wanted their parents who were so complicit, and even perpetuated, your torture to feel your and the the districts’ pain. You turned to your husband, completely unsure what to say. He gave you a nod, his expression telling you to vote however you feel. “No,” you answered. “Those children are innocent, the same way we were. They don’t deserve to pay for their parents’ sins.”

“It’s down to Katniss and Haymitch.”

Katniss sat there for a minute, an unreadable expression on her face. “I get to kill Snow,” she declared.

“I expected no less of you,” Coin agreed.

“Then I vote yes,” she answered, shocking almost everyone. “For Prim,’ she explained.

“Haymitch?”

He and Katniss shared a look before he turned his gaze to you. His expression read something along the lines of ‘trust me.’ “I’m with the Mockingjay.”

“That carries the vote,” Coin said. “Excellent. We’ll announce the games tonight after the execution.”

You were all then dismissed, everyone leaving without a word. Unsure of where to go you just followed Haymitch into what you presumed was your bedroom for as long as you were in the Capitol. “What the hell is going on?” you asked as soon as the door was closed.

Haymitch breathed deeply before answering. “Coin isn’t trustworthy. She’ll become just like Snow.”

“So why’d you let her have her games?” you asked. “The Capitol will be rising up against us in a couple years.”

“I needed to back up Katniss so she knows I’m with her. Coin is already distrustful of Katniss, that wasn’t a vote to see if we wanted another games, that was a loyalty test.” Suddenly all the pieces fell together. “Right now Coin thinks her biggest threat to her power is Katniss. The best thing she can do right now is to play her part as Coin’s Mockingjay.”

“So what does that mean for those of us who voted no?” you asked, afraid of Coin’s ambition.

“Don’t worry, she’ll feel safe as long as she has Katniss’ loyalty. And even if she tried anything, I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you again.” He paused, struggling with the next words. “I couldn’t protect you from Snow, and for that I’m sorry. But I can protect you from Coin and I promise nothing will happen.” He sealed his covenant by pressing his lips to yours which you melted into.

When you both pulled away you rested your hand on his jaw. “Don’t do anything to get yourself hurt.”

~

Later that afternoon you and the other victors were marched out onto the Avenue of the Tributes, where you had been paraded around 8 years ago as well as just over a month ago.

Snow was strapped to a whipping pole in the center of the ring at the end of the avenue. Above you in the stands were both district citizens and Capitol citizens who were being forced to watch. Stood along the avenue, waiting for Katniss were the surviving rebels who had fought in the Capitol and the Districts. On the balcony overseeing everything were the other leaders of the rebellion, including Plutarch and Paylor. The eight victors were divided on the ground, they would be flanking Katniss as she fired her shot at Snow. Peeta, you, Haymitch, and Johanna all stood to one side, facing Snow. On the other side were Enobaria, Finnick, Annie, and Beetee.

As the drums began you could see Coin above you, walking onto the platform with her arms open, reveling in her victory. Down the Avenue was Katniss dressed in battle gear, the rebels following her as she passed.

Haymitch took your hand, squeezing it as Snow took a second to meet every victors’ gaze. You stared back coldly, fulfilling your promise to him that this was enough for you.

You all gave Katniss nods as she finally reached her spot, a silent promise that you’d follow her no matter what. You watched as Snow and Katniss met each others’ gazes, a silent understanding of hatred between the two.

“Welcome to the new Panem,” Coin announced, her voice echoing over the ave making you shiver. “Today, on the Avenue of the tributes, all of Panem, a free Panem, will watch more than a mere spectacle. We are gathered to witness an historic moment of justice. Today, the greatest friend to the revolution will fire the shot to end all wars. May her arrow signify the end of tyranny and the beginning of a new era. Mockingjay, may your aim be as true as your heart is pure.” With those words she opened up her arms, as if embracing the moment.

Katniss wordlessly and flawlessly pulled an arrow from her quiver, notched it and took aim. The entire stadium held their breaths as she paused before suddenly aiming up, firing the arrow into Coin.

You heard yourself audibly gasp as Coin fell from her platform with an arrow sticking out of her heart. The crowd was clamoring in shock, you began to look around worriedly. ‘What the hell did Katniss just do?’

You could hear Snow laughing as Haymitch began tugging you away from the crowd that was now rushing at Snow, determined to finally kill him.

You could see some guards dragging Katniss away, the rest pulling the other victors towards you and Haymitch who was leading you into another room. The room was immediately filled with the sound of a million questions, trying to figure out what was going on and what would happen next.

The sound was only ended by Plutarch entering, letter in hand. “What is going on?” Finnick asked.

He took a breath, holding up his hand in a pause. “With Coin and Snow both dead the district leaders and I have agreed to hold a free election. Katniss will be sent away for now and will be pardoned once everything has calmed down. For now I need you,” he looked at Haymitch, “to give her this letter for me.”

“What about us? Where do we go?” Johanna asked.

Plutarch shrugged. “Your job in the rebellion is done. It’s time to form a government now. You’re welcome to stay in the Capitol now or return home.”

“What even is home anymore?” you asked, remembering what Katniss told you about 12.

Haymitch wrapped an arm around you, pulling you into his side with a kiss to the top of your head. For the first time since you met him, he didn’t have an answer for you.

“I’m sorry,” was all Plutarch said before exiting.

“So what now?”

~

7 Years Later

You sat on a bench, facing out into the harbor of District 4, Haymitch by your side with his arm around you. Peeta and Katniss were sat together on the other side of the bench, cooing at their new baby as their older son played on the beach with Finnick and Annie’s son. The couple inside preparing drinks for you and the other victors. Johanna and Enobaria sat at the table together, discussing the furniture that would go in their now shared home. Across and to the side of you was Beetee with his two year old daughter in his lap, playing with a small metal logic game as she tried to figure out the puzzle.

You smiled in content, enjoying the future you fought for. You had fought for this in the arena for the first time 15 years ago and you had fought for it again during the rebellion. You felt a finger reach under your chin, pulling your gaze towards your husband. “I love you,” he whispered against your lips before pressing his lips to yours.

A/N And that’s the end of Capitol Punishment. Thank you so much for everyone who read and supported this, I had absolutely no clue so many of you would love this so much

Part XIII | Masterlist

#haymitch abernathy #haymitch abernathy x reader #Haymitch #haymitch x reader #THG #The Hunger Games #the hunger games x reader

[lunamadhatter99]

All for The Cameras

Chapter 4

Finnick Odair x fem!reader

I would like to take a moment to thank you all for the support and love for this story. Thank you so so much. I'm not very confident so it means a lot. Thank you all❤️❤️❤️

If you're new and would like to be added to the tag list, tell me🔥

Chapter summary: a little about the making of the Games, the Reaping, and the Parade.

Chapter warnings: talking of lethal threats, Cal is has his own warning, Snow, forced marriage.

Tag list

@guacam011y @justtrying2getby @idontevenknow1359 @alexandra-001 @bambikitten @maggiecc @redh00dsbf @haneybunny @1-800-styles @sisiking99 @merromimo @yourdailymemedelivery @regsg18 @gordorio @bambikitten @gracieeleanorr @shev3nom @honethatty12 @savingprivatecass @erindiggory @martahabla @sterredem @aawdrea @wpdarlingpan @strawberry--fawn @barbarathewanderer @ih8books @a-mysterious-potato @mayonesavegana @celinaiscrying

I don't know why I can't tag some people, I'm sorry 😞

I take a huge gulp of wine as I sit in Plutarch's living room.

He did convince Snow to make me his personal assistant for this Quarter Quell, Plutarch told him it's a perfect way to show my "participation". Although I hate to keep up such a facade, I love that I can use it as an excuse to not stay, nor spend any time with Cal.

"Careful with that," Plutarch comes back into the room with his own glass, "we need you lucid for this."

"Trust me, I built a strong resistance to alcohol... no amount would help endure this shit anyway..." I mutter, looking at my fucking ring.

"You spent too much time with Abernathy, I'm afraid," he comments, he's not judging, no, he's probably just teasing.

"Or not enough," I tease back, he smirks amused by my answer.

He then suddenly turns the TV on, on display my answer to Cal's proposal.

I groan as I see that.

"I gotta say, that was smart," he compliments me, referring to the kiss.

"Could you turn it off? One fucking time was enough, thank you." I tell him.

"Not telling you about the Quartel Quell was smart too," he throws this out like nothing, my head snaps towards him.

"You little... that's why..." I start, but his proud stance stops me, "fine... smart thinking on your part too, okay."

"Thank you very much," he does a little bow before turning serious, "I'm sure now you can know more." He declares.

"Really?" I ask, I really want to know more and help, but at the same time I don't want to risk everyone.

"Yes, miss L/n. But... you have to know this, all this, will require a lot from you. From all of us, actually. So just know... you can still change your mind and no one will hold it against you." He explains, I can feel he is sincere, I know I can trust him.

I take a deep breath, this is a good chance to actually change things here... I won't pass this opportunity.

"Anything." I say and he smiles.

"Alright, our primarily goal is to get Katniss out." He starts and I nod, of course she would be the face of the revolution, "every Victor involved knows that,"

"Did you warn them? The ones involved?" I ask.

"Didn't have the chance... not everyone... I also need you to start thinking that not everyone will see this revolution starts." He says bitterly.

"I..." I don't know what to say, so I try to reason it, "yeah... of course... if not all of them know... the others would just want to survive, as always."

"Reasoning won't help you much this time," he says and he uses the remote to change the scene on the screen.

The reaping ceremony of each district.

"Cashmere and Gloss... God... they're brother and sister.."

"It never stopped the Capitol before. It just adds up to the drama." Plutarch sighs.

"I know," I sigh as the next district's reaping starts, "it may sounds cliché, but Enobaria is actually a sweet person... when you get past the teeth," I try to chuckle to ease my tension. Yeah... I might not see some of them after...

"Please tell me you were smart enough to recruit Beetee," I look at Plutarch who nods confidently.

"Oh..."

"This is where I wanted you," he says softly.

"Finnick... yeah... I... it makes sense..." I say as I see him walking up the stage.

"You need to..."

He doesn't have the time to finish his sentence before I let out a big gasp.

"Mags volunteered..." I whisper, "she... she can't... they can't... not them both... oh c'mon..."

"I'm sorry. When the time comes we will do our best to take everyone to safety, but..." he explains.

"But you can't control what happens in the arena..." I mutter, "not without raising suspects. I know."

I hear him sigh and walking closer to me, offering a comforting hand on my shoulder, I nod and we go on watching the reaping.

Johanna of course... I know she has all the skills to protect herself in there, but she's still my friend and I can't not worry. Especially knowing she has nothing left to lose.

Finally we get to 12 and of course Katniss, being the only living female victor, she's reaped.

Time for the male.

Haymitch's name is said, and for a split moment my heart breaks, but Peeta is quick to volunteer for him. I see Katniss shocked and terrified expression and I know she asked Haymitch to volunteer in his place if the roles were reverse.

"That was rigged... wasn't it?" I ask.

"Exactly, we need Haymitch here and..." he motion for me to go on.

"She needs Peeta there," I say earning a proud nod from him, "she just doesn't know it."

There's a moment of silence, where I take a second to recollect myself and take a sip of wine.

"Now," he claps his hands, "to make your participation more believable... you need to write down 2 ideas for the arena."

"What?" I ask, "I thought the arena was already decided."

"The arena yes... not the threats inside." He says.

"What do you mean?" I'm actually confused right now.

"This year arena is... quite special," he starts explaining, showing the concept on the screen, "it's divided in sections, like this, each section hosts a threat. Like these: acid fog, monkeys, this big wave... And so on."

"Acid fog? Isn't it a little too much?" I ask getting nervous for my friends.

"I told you it's gonna be hard," he gives me a sympathetic smile, "and we need your suggestions to be... authentic. It has to look like you're actually putting an effort."

I sigh, bouncing my leg.

I need to think of something that's horrifying, but safe at the same time.

They're all there... all my friends are there. The only family I've ever known since... I shake my head and drink more wine.

"Okay. Yeah... I get it." I nod, "when do you need it?"

"Tomorrow." He answers, "I have faith you can do it and... you can say you're busy working for me." He winks at me with a reassuring smile.

"That's the only good thing," I let out a humourless laugh and take one last gulp of wine before standing up. "Then I should get going. Thank you, Mr Heavensbee."

I walk towards the exit when Plutarch's voice stops me.

"One more thing," he calls and I turn my head, "even though you'll try and think of the least lethal threat... they might kill someone anyway. Keep that in mind."

I nod and walk out.

----------------

As I enter my apartment I instantly smell flowers... lots of them.

I look around and I see, probably, more than 10 bouquets of flowers.

"Oh god..." I sigh, defeated. I look at some of them, noticing most are from "admirers" congratulating me for my engagement.

But there are three that catch my eyes more than the others.

One, huge, bouquet is made by all sort of flowers, I don't think I've ever seen such variety of flowers in the first place. I look at the card... I groan, it's from Cal.

"My love, everyday I count the days that separate us from being finally together.

I can't wait for you to be mine.

Properly mine.

Enjoy your job, my sweetness, and happy Hunger Games!

Love,

Cal Kingslay. "

I throw the whole bouquet with the rest, and just look at the other. It's simple and small, my favourite flowers and a few seashells here and there, the thing holding the bouquet it's not paper... it's fish nets... Finnick. I unconsciously smile as I take the card.

"I wanT to congRatUlate you, my SweeT girl!

TheY tOld me the news jUst now! Miss L/n, You shouLd've tOld me, I've neVer beEn so happy!

Congratulations!

Dario."

He signs each letters, making it look like it was ink fallen from the pen... smart.

"I trust you, my love"

He even signed it with an anagram of his name. I let out a laugh at that and move to the last bouquet.

Even smaller then Finnick's, a few green leaves are like a frame for the one, white rose.

I shakily take the card in my hand.

"Congratulations on your engagement, my dear. I look forward to see what you'll come up with for our Games.

I'm sure one day you'll make a fine Gamemaker."

There's no sign, not that he needed to...

"Gamemaker... yeah... sure." I scoff.

I go to the kitchen to get myself some wine. As I'm about to pour a glass, I look at the bottle and just... take it all with me to my room.

I sit on the desk in my room and, as I take some gulps from the bottle, I try to come up with some ideas.

Plutarch mentioned a few potentially lethal threat already, I mean... acid fog, deadly monkeys, that I'm sure will be modified.

What to do, what to do...

Other animals maybe, but a non lethal one... something that creates a hassle, but not death.

Bugs?

I shake my head, no, they would make it poisonous no matter what my suggestion is.

Something else, something else.

Jabberjays. Yes!

I write down my idea and take the bottle to take a big gulp, but the bottle slips from my grasp and falls on the desk spilling the liquid all over the desk and the pavement.

"Shit!"

I manage to safe the paper I was writing on and I immediately go take a towel to wipe the wine off.

As I kneel down cleaning the liquid, I find myself staring at the little drops of wine falling from the desk to the floor.

The dark liquid looks a lot like... blood.

Blood rain.

-------------

I walk nervously behind Plutarch, he just told me Snow wanted to hear my ideas himself, so now, as I'm walking I clench my fists nervously.

"You couldn't have told me sooner?" I ask him.

"He didn't ask me sooner," Plutarch answers as we finally stand out of Snow's office, "you wrote it?"

"Of course," I slightly scoff at his answer.

"Then take a deep breath and... show time," Plutarch smiles and knock on the door.

"Come in," Snow's voice gives us permission to enter.

"President," Plutarch greets him.

"Good morning, sir," I say, putting up the best 'diligent student' appearance.

"Good morning, Mr Heavensbee," he nods towards Plutarch and then turns to me, "and what a pleasure, miss L/n."

"You said you wanted to hear her ideas for the arena, right?" Plutarch starts.

"Oh, of course!" Snow's suddenly happy, as if he's about to hear a good story, "tell me, my dear girl, what did you think of?"

If it were a different universe this could've seemed a sweet exchange. The old "mentor" interested in his protégé ideas...

"When Plutarch showed me the arena and the already existing threats, I have to admit I was intrigued," I start and I see, from the corner of my eyes Plutarch smiling proudly, "but at the same time, I was a little bored." I say and that earned a surprised 'oh?' from Snow, "I mean... from those you either die or survive... so I thought of something more psychological."

"Oh, now that's interesting, my dear, please go on." Snow is pleased so far.

"I thought of a section of the arena where... uh..." I pretend to stutter for a second, to give him the impression that I'm nervous because I care for his opinion.

"Don't be shy, I'm open to all suggestions,"

"I thought of a blood rain... sir." I say.

I see him pondering the idea, then a smile creeps it's way on his face, it makes me sick.

"I like it," he finally says looking at Plutarch, "she's smart, isn't she?"

"Very smart, sir." Plutarch agrees.

"I'm even more curious to hear the other idea, please don't leave me hanging," Snow's 'sweet' tone almost freezes me to the spot, but I swallow hard and just ignore this feeling.

"Jabberjays." Is all I say.

He looks a little taken aback, and motion for me to elaborate.

"I thought about using Jabberjays that imitate the screams of people the tributes know." I say, pretending to feel unsure of my idea, "maybe create a sort of an invisible wall that prevents them from escaping if they finds the birds."

Snow looks at me, considering me for a moment, then he smiles, that sick smile once again.

"You were right in recruiting her, Mr Heavensbee. Good thinking, miss L/n, very good thinking." He compliments Plutarch and me.

"Thank you, sir." I smile.

"No, thank you," he says, "now, one more thing before I dismiss you."

I nod and stay put, even though I was ready to run, or better walk very fast, out of here.

"This role of assistant Gamemaker won't exonerate you from your duty to assist the mentors," he tells me.

"I wouldn't dream of it, sir, I've always taken my role very seriously," I tell him, faking pride as I speak.

"I know, my dear." He smiles, almost as if he knows I wasn't exactly fond of it, "we were supposed to randomly assign you to one district, like every year, but we thought to just let you stick to 12. Apparently the Capitol's people loved your... friendship with the two victors." He says the word 'friendship' with a not so convinced tone, almost repulsed.

"Of course, sir." I nod my head, eager to just get out of here.

"But," he adds, probably keeping me longer to see when I'll crumble, I look briefly at Plutarch who keeps his confidence stance, "you'll be assisting all of the districts." I look at him confused and he continues, "I mean, you'll be present during the training sessions and will help."

"Oh, yes, sir, of course." I nod again.

"That's all." He claps his hands, satisfied, "the tributes arrive today so... better be there to welcome them home."

'Home'...

"I'm going right now, sir." I promptly tell him, he smiles and motions me to go and to Plutarch to stay.

"Send my regards to Cal Kingslay when you see him," I hear him say as I walk out, not bothering to answer him I just go straight to the tributes living centre.

--------------

I enter the building and see Haymitch, Effie, Katniss and Peeta arriving.

"Well, well, well, aren't you lot a sight for sore eyes?" I say once I'm close enough to pull Peeta into a hug.

"Oh! We got the Princess this year too, uh? The president is spoiling us," Haymitch jokes ans I roll my eyes as I hug Katniss.

"Rather spoiling me," I greet Effie too, in the perfect 'Capitol style', "lots of opportunities."

"I figured," Haymitch says wrapping his arms around me.

"Now," I say holding my arms open, theatrically, "let's take you to your apartments."

I start walking towards the elevator, heading to the attic, again.

------------

Once inside we start to have lunch, the atmosphere is quite tense before Effie breaks the silence.

"All right," she starts, clearing her throat, "before we begin, I've had a thought."

"You don't say?" Haymitch jokes, unimpressed.

"Be nice," I tell him, throwing a balled-up napkin at him.

"Katniss has her gold Mockingjay pin. I have my hair. I'm going to get you three something gold." She declares, as if it were something obvious.

Haymitch looks at both me and Peeta, confused, before asking why.

"A token." Effie explains, "Show them we are a team. And they can't just..." she starts getting emotional and Katniss takes her hands.

"Thank you." She tells her, meaning it.

Effie might be too theatrical sometimes, but she's so much more than that, I'm grateful I got to know this side of her. I take her hand too.

"That's really sweet, Effie." I smile at her, "and... thank you for including me."

I notice both Peeta and Katniss sharing a look as if I said something unbelievable, but I ignore it.

Not the time.

"Now..." Effie composes herself, "everything will be different, because it's a Quarter Quell. The Capitol has spared no expense. A new training centre. New Tribute living quarters. And of course, a very special arena."

I tense at that, I took part in that...

"But this year you'll be facing other Victors." I step in, " all Capitol favourites. Smart, cunning, skilled... angry. And they all know one another. You two are the outsiders."

" I want you guys to forget everything you think you know about the Games. Last year was child's play." Haymitch starts explaining, he's the best to mentor them about a Quarter Quell, "this year, you're dealing with all experienced killers."

"All right," Peeta speaks up, "what does it mean for us?"

"Allies." I tell him, "you'll be needing allies."

"Okay. I think that if..." Peeta's reply is quickly interrupted.

"You're not the problem." I say and, I don't have to say anything more, Haymitch is already pointing at Katniss.

"No." She sternly says.

"A little help, Haymitch?" I ask him.

"Look, you're starting at a disadvantage. Most of these people have been friends for years."

"That just puts us higher on their killing list." She replies, annoyed.

I roll my eyes, she needs to do her part.

"Do it your own way, but I know these people. You go it alone, their first move is gonna be to hunt you down." Haymitch keeps explaining, patiently, "both of you."

"Katniss, come on," Peeta's sweet tone seems to convince her... a tiny bit.

She sighs deeply, which usually mean she's gonna listen, even though she doesn't agree.

"How could any of us even trust each other?" She then asks.

"It's not about trust. It's about staying alive," he states.

Peeta and Katniss look at each other and finally Katniss nod her head.

"Great!" I cheer, "time for some brainstorming, shall we?" And I stand up walking to the living room.

They soon follow and Haymitch turns the TV on, so they can see who the other Victors are, and who might seem like a good ally.

"Cashmere and Gloss. Brother and sister. District one. They one back-to-back Games. Capitol favourites. Lots of sponsors." He shows them the siblings.

"They will be lethal." I add and Haymitch nods, strongly agreeing.

"And the other half of the Career Pack, Brutus and Enobaria."

"What's with her teeth?" Of course, Katniss asks about the teeth.

"She... well... she had them filed into fangs..." I respond, "so she could... rip people's throat out better."

"She's committed. I'll give her that." Peeta comments, I can sense some tension in him... which is very understandable.

"Wiress and Beetee," Haymitch keeps on presenting the tributes, "not fighters, but brilliant."

"Very brilliant," I agree.

"And weird." He adds, earning a glare from me, "real texh-savvy. He won his Games by electrocuting six tributes at once." He changes the scene again, "the Morphlings. Masters of camouflage. Basically, won their Games by hiding until everyone was dead. Self-medicating ever since. Which I applaud. Not a threat."

We arrive at District 4 reaping.

"Finnick Odair, right?" Katniss asks.

Haymitch looks at me, silently telling me to explain this one myself, there's a hint of a smirk on his face that makes me roll my eyes for, what feels like, the millionth time today.

"Yep. The one and only." I starts, "he won his Games at 14. He's the youngest Victor ever... of course modesty is his peculiarity." I joke.

"You're kidding."

"Kinda," I chuckle, "he's very confident. Very. But... he's the Capitol's darling. They all love him here." Unfortunately, I want to add. "He's smart, he's skilled at combat, especially... especially in water."

"What about weaknesses?" Peeta asks, interested.

"Only one..." I sigh, deeply, "Mags. She... she volunteer for Annie. Mags was his mentor, the year that I was assigned to 4, she raised him, basically. He will try to protect her, even though it would expose him."

"A guy like that has to know she's not gonna make it," Katniss shakes her head, unconvinced, Haymitch looks at me knowingly, "I bet when it really comes down to it, he won't protect her."

I really want to hit her right now, but I know it's not her fault, she thinks this because it's what the Capitol wanted everyone else to think. That's what he had to pretend to be.

"Well... she's an amazing woman, Katniss, I... I just hope that... if... w-when she goes, she goes quickly." I stutter out. It took everything in me to say that... I want to hope we will rescue everyone before that happens... I really do.

I space out as Haymitch goes on explaining and introducing the other tributes.

I can feel his eyes on me every now and then, but I stopped pay attention minutes ago now.

Mags is the mother I never had... if there is one person who deserves to see a free Panem, it's her.

---------‐---

I was walking on the train heading to the restaurant car where I found an old lady sitting there, drinking a cup of tea.

"Hi..." I shyly said.

"Oh hello, dear." She greeted me with such a kind smile, I felt so much better and less nervous.

"I'm... I'm Y/n." I started to introduce myself, but her hand gently taking mine stopped me.

"I know, dear. I'm Mags." Another kind smile, "you're here to assist me, right?"

"Yeah." My hands were getting sweaty... I was so nervous.

"Hey, no need to worry about it. We can do it." She reassured me.

"I hope so..." I muttered under my breath.

She sighed and offer a seat to me, I took it and stared at the cups on the table.

"I watched you last year," her voice was soft as she spoke, "you were assigned to... what district?"

"5"

"But you were helping the little one from 11, right?" She asked.

I snapped my head to her, eyes wide open.

"Please, don't worry about it. I never told anyone." She assured me, handing me a warm cup, "I just meant that I saw you're not like the rest of them, my dear. You care."

"My tributes didn't want to listen, they were older than me and thought I was just a spy... which is understandable." I sadly kept my head low. "That boy from 11 was my age and... he was having trouble with some essential survival techniques."

"He got pretty far thanks to those." She tried to make me feel better.

"Not far enough," I bitterly replied.

"I'm sorry." I let her take my hand again, "it's not a consolation, I know, trust me, but... I have a feeling we can do it."

"They won't trust me," I told her, referring to the tributes from 4.

"Not at first... and most likely not the girl... but the boy, he seems to be more open to suggestions." She explained.

"I'm not sure he would accept suggestions from me."

"He's a smart one. Same age as you. Just be yourself and he will trust you." She smiled.

I considered her for a moment before nodding. Hope growing a little more.

The door of the car opening had my head turning immediately.

"My dear Y/n," Mags stood up and walked towards the boy entering, "this is Finnick Odair. Finnick, this is Y/n."

--------------

"Are you okay?" Haymitch's voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

"Uh? Yeah... yeah, sorry, I zoned out." I apologise.

"I noticed." He sits with me.

"Where are they?" I ask, noticing no one else was in sight.

"Getting ready for the parade." He answers.

"Right... I better get going too. I have to check everyone is ready..." I tiredly sigh as I stand up, but Haymitch softly pulls me back down.

"If you take a few minutes it won't be a tragedy." He tells me, "what's going on in that head of yours?"

"Nothing... I just started to think about Mags." I whisper, afraid someone might hear.

"Plutarch gave you the speech?" He asks and I nod, "I'm really sorry, Y/n."

"It's okay... I mean, it's not, but I think it was inevitable... she would've never let anyone else go, not if she had any say in it." I tell him, "she's strong." I see him starting to speak but I beat him to it, "I know better than to keep my hopes up, trust me, I know."

He just sighs and wrap one reassuring arms around my shoulder.

"I really better get going now, gotta check on those outfits." I stand up.

"You do that, sweetheart." Haymitch smiles at me and I walk to the elevator.

--------------

I walk out of the elevator heading to where the parade is about to begin and I instantly loom for someone.

I spot immediately Peeta talking to Cinna, who's probably refining last minutes details.

"Hello." I greet once I'm close enough, Cinna turns around giving me a small smile and a hug. "You look good, mr Mellark."

"Only with his help it's possible." Peeta, humble as usual, replies pointing at Cinna.

"I'm not a magician, I can make people look good if they're worthy." Cinna shakes his head, waving off the compliment.

"I couldn't agree more." I sigh, "so, are you lot ready? Where's Katniss?"

"She's should be here soon, her dress is a little more complicated than Peeta's." Cinna answers, "and, since you're here, I was thinking about them not doing anything out there."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I mean, no waving, no smiling, nothing of sort. Act like they're above them. What do you think?" He explains, genuinely interested in my opinion.

"I think it's perfect." I smile and he return it.

"Oh, there she is." Peeta points behind us, I turn seeing Katniss talking to Finnick, who's a lot close. I hope he's not putting up his flirting persona, I don't think Katniss would trust him so easily then.

Peeta excuses himself to join her, just as Finnick walks away... spotting me.

"Snow asked..." Cinna gently nudges my arm and lowers his voice, "or better, ordered me to make her wear a wedding dress for the interview."

"Of course..." I roll my eyes. "You good with that?

"Oh yeah...I got a great idea for it." He says, I look into his eyes seeing determination so I don't ask more questions.

"Better get them ready to go, it's almost time." I tell him.

Cinna walks to Katniss and Peeta and I turn to check if someone else needs a hand with something or needs advice, unlikely, but never say never.

I see Mags petting a horse so I decide to go to her.

As soon as she sees me her smile grows ten times, warming my heart.

"You look very beautiful," I tell her, once we're close enough I hug her, "I'm so sorry." I whisper into her ear.

She pulls away gently, looking at me with that kind smile that always makes me feel better. She caresses my cheek with her hand, reassuringly, nodding her head to tell me that it's alright.

I nod too, taking a deep breath.

"Do you think I look presentable?" A very familiar voice says from behind me.

I look at Mags, rolling my eyes, glad I made her laugh a little.

I turn around, fully admir... noticing his naked chest and the golden fish net tied at his... oh shit.

"My eyes are up here, sweetheart." He smirks and I just turn my head away, shaking it as I try to pull myself together.

"Did your stylists finished the fabric?" I finally say, "I could've ordered some, if they told me."

"Of course," he smiles and walk closer to me, leaning down to whisper into my ear, "just between us... I'm wearing it just for you."

My head snaps to him, our faces mere inches apart. I notice his eyes looking down to my lips, I instantly put some distance walking up to district 3.

"And here I thought you would never come to say hi," Beetee waves.

"Did you lose all hope in me? And here I thought you were the smart one." I tease back.

"It's a pity seeing each other here, under these circumstances." Wiress shakes my hand.

"I know. I wish it were different..." I look down, sad and ashamed too, Beetee softly touches my arm. I look up at him noticing him mouthing something on the line of 'it's gonna be fine' so I smile at him. "Well, don't you two look great?"

I compliment them, just before the announcer warned us of the beginning.

I wave them goodbye for now and head back, watching every district ride out there.

When it's Finnick's turn he turns to me and winks at me, earning a big eye roll. When it's finally District 12 turn as they pass by I nod my head, encouraging them. I see them looking st each other and straighten their back proudly.

I walk towards the end of the parade, where they should get off the chariots and head back to the elevators, and I wait.

I look at them in the distance, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves.

All of a sudden I feel someone watching me from behind.

"You did a pretty good job, my sweetness." His voice makes me wince.

I turn around, showing the usual fake smile I show to everyone in the Capitol, pretending to be happy to see him.

"Cal... hi." I say, holding back from walking away as he nears, "what are you doing here?"

"I missed you. I didn't scare you, didn't I?" He says with a smile, that clearly shows he's proud he did.

"Of course, not. I was just thinking." I tell him sweetly.

"What about?" He ask, curious.

"Well, I have a lot to do these days and when they're back I'll have to make sure everything is organised." I tell him. "And also, taking part in the making of the Games... Plutarch asked me to write down some ideas."

This is probably the only time I'm glad I have this job, if I didn't, Cal would've kept me basically locked up, in his apartment. 'All to himself'... the thought makes me shiver.

"Would you share them with me?" He whispers.

"I can't ruin the fun, can I?" I say back.

"Aahh... you're killing me, babe." He shakes his head chuckling.

If only...

"No special treatment, Cal." I smile, feeling uneasy from the way he's looking at me.

In that moment, thankfully, I hear the parade is ending, which means everybody is about to get back.

"Such a diligent girl." He moves his hand to take mine. I let out a nervous laugh and a 'thanks', and finally, one district at a time, they're back.

I lock eyes with some of the Tributes, who noticing Cal with me, tense and give me sympathetic smile.

Then Finnick's back.

As soon as he sees me, he can't keep up the fake smile and his expression darkens.

"Well... I'm sorry, but I have to go now. I'll see you." I say, starting to turn around, but his hand grabs my arm. Rather harshly, which makes my eyes widen at that.

"We hardly see each other these days... I miss you." He looms over me, a dark look in his eyes.

"Well... uh..." I clear my throat, looking at the tributes still arriving, "I have a job to.. to do."

I see Mags and Finnick, she has a hand on his arm, to stop him from coming here.

"Good thing that when we're married you won't need to work, then." He tells me directly into my ear, "I would be able to have you any day I want."

"Wouldn't that be a dream..?" I choke out, my throat tightens. I still look at Finnick, more to check he doesn't intervenes than anything.

"There you are!" We both look at the source of the sound, Johanna.

I let out a sigh of relief as she walks closer.

"I was looking for you." She says, "they told me to ask you for the schedule."

"Yes... yes! I got it." I tell her.

Johanna pretends to notice Cal just now and extends her hand towards him.

"Oh hey there! You must be the lucky one, uh?" Johanna greets him.

Cal looks at her sceptically before shaking her hand.

"Yes, that's me."

"So nice to finally meet you, she talks about you all the time!" Johanna's (fake) cheery personality and flattery seem to work on Cal, who smiles smugly, "you don't mind if I steal her, do you?"

Before Cal could answer, she pulls me to her linking arms and walks away.

"God, he looks so annoying." She groans.

"He is... he is." I sigh, relieved.

"I thought about stepping in before Finnick over there could rip his eyes out," she teases. "So... how are the lovebirds?"

"They're completely in love." I tell her, she nods smiling knowingly.

I spot them talking with district 11 tributes, I wave at Haymitch, letting him know I'll be up in a second.

"Ugh... he still looking this way," Johanna complains getting in front of me, "is he always like this?"

"Even worse." I roll my eyes.

"Alright," she take the end of her dress in her hands showing it to me, "Plutarch told me."

I understand now what she's doing with her dress, she's pretending to show it to me, so it looks like we're talking about the dress.

"I know," I say touching the fabric, pretending to check it out, "you're sure about doing this?"

"Of course I am," she now turns to 'make me see her back', "never been more sure."

"I'm just sorry," I tell her, motioning for her to turn back around.

"No need too," she smiles, an emotionless smile, "oh he's gone.. finally."

"Thanks for saving me," I tell her.

"Anytime," she says, she turns her head towards the elevator, "well... I'll go introduce myself."

"Be nice." I tell her, she winks at me and walks away to the elevator with Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch.

I go over the last details, seeing the horses are attended to, the chariots are about to be put away, everything seems fine.

I then walk to the elevator myself, I lean against the elevator's wall as soon as I enter.

Before the doors can close, someone rushes in, I look up finding myself face to face with Finnick.

Being in a confined space with a shirtless Finnick is...

"Hi, my love."

Shit.

#the hunger games x reader #the hunger games fic #the hunger games imagine #the hunger games #finnick odair x reader #finnick x reader #finnick imagine #finnick odair imagine #finnick x y/n #finnick odair #finnick odair x y/n

[semisutopia]

pairings: douxie x fem!reader

warnings: 5.1k word count, smut, name calling (baby, darling, love, pretty boy), making out, straddling, fingering, groping, saliva, hickeys, handjob, eating out, penetration (p in the v), thigh riding, cock riding,

as a writer, writing a romance novel, it's quite common to have a chapter that is completely devoted to sex. smut chapters are actually quite expected in romance books, especially when the main love interests are over 18.

so you sat on your bed, one leg crossed, one knee up, chin rested above it, and stared at the blank page on your laptop. make no mistake of course, you had plenty of, shall we say, unholy thoughts, but for whatever reason, you couldn't find inspiration. almost as if on cue, you heard a knock on your window. 

normally, living on the second floor would deter people from climbing up to your roof, but here, you must remember that hisirdoux was far from normal. you sighed and opened the window to let him in, "you know we have a door, right?".

as he climbed through the open window he responded, "i didn't want zoe to see me. your roommate doesn't exactly approve of me". you snickered, "yes i know, i told her not to. anyways, what do you want?". he leaned on the windowsill, "i felt like coming here. should i not have?".

any other time, you would've tried kicking him out immediately, but seeing as you couldn't get any work done, you decided letting him stay wasn't the worst idea, and decided to watch a movie together as there wasn't much else to do.

"corpse bride?". "yeah sure", you loaded the movie on your tv and walked to your bed. douxie sat at the head of the bed and motioned for you to come near him. you sat next to him but turns out that's not what he meant. he patted the space in between his legs and you gave him an 'are you serious' look. "please?".

damn it he's cute. you placed yourself in between his legs and his arms snaked themselves around your waist, resting his chin on your shoulder. you relaxed into his touch as the movie started, intertwining your hands with his. the butterflies in your stomach rising as he melted into your touch. 

you looked down at your linked hands, "wait why are you wearing a suit?", you turned to look at him. "ah well, there was this ceremony at school so we had to dress up" "remind me again why you keep going to school events when it's just your alias?". 

he chuckled, "there's not much else to do". "no of course not. it's not like you work two part-time jobs and are a full-time wizard or anything", you said, giggling a bit.

"well, if we're talking about dress codes, how come you're wearing the same skirt you wore last week to the party?". if you were being honest, you wore some lingerie underneath your short skirt and long t-shirt to try and spark something in your writing. 

"why can't i wear it?" "c'mon just tell me", he hugged you tighter. the butterflies came back. "i...i just wanted to spark up some inspiration for my writing" "and what exactly are you writing about?", you could tell he already knew the answer. and he knew exactly what he was doing. "you're really enjoying this, aren't you?" "absolutely".

"something similar to what happened at the party...in this skirt", flashbacks of last saturday flooded your mind as you closed your legs tightly, placing a hand above your skirt. "may i help with that?", he said, dangerously close to your ear. 

"just watch the movie", you tried focusing back on victor and his skeleton bride on the screen, but failed after a few minutes as you felt soft fingertips tracing along your thigh. you decided to ignore it...or try to, at least until he started softly kissing up your neck. 

he placed soft, long kisses along your nape, drawing small circles along your inner thigh, slowly rising higher. "what are you doing...doux?".

he heard you. oh, he definitely heard you, so he kissed you harder, sucking on your skin, and his hand groping your thigh more, other hand on your waist, traveling to your hip. 

both of you were clearly not paying attention to the movie anymore but it didn't matter. 

your hand traveled up to his hair and tugged on it slightly. he hummed in response. soon enough, his fingers reached under your skirt and started touching the lace of your panties. 

you sucked in a sharp breath as his index finger circled your folds. you pulled harder on his hair to stop yourself from being vocal, but that only made him let out a moan, himself. 

fuck that was hot. soon enough, his second finger reached your clit. then his third, and you finally gave in, vocalizing your appreciation. you didn't want him to stop. actually, no, that was incorrect. you wanted more. 

you removed your hand from his hair and brought it down to his chin, lifting his head up from your neck and brought his lips to your own. his right hand came up to your ribcage under your shirt and you shivered at his cold touch. his left hand still playing with you under your skirt. 

you moaned softly into his mouth, eliciting him to bite your bottom lip. this whole thing felt like a positive feedback loop; one of you moans only for the other to react in the same way, and over again. 

"doux..", you seperated for air and leaned your forehead against his. he removed his hand from under your skirt and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. his hand not leaving your face, and making its way down to your neck. "hm?" "please could we⏤", he kissed you abruptly. you responded immediately. you parted and opened your eyes only to see him looking back at you, eyes glossy with desperation. 

you smirked and turned around to face him. you connected your lips again and placed your knee between his legs, making him groan. you placed your hands on his chest to support yourself and he held you by the waist. "turn the tv off, please", he broke the kiss and went back down to your neck. you took the remote from the bedside table and switched the tv off.

you were getting more light headed as he kept kissing you, his hand travelled down to your thigh, gripping it tightly. you rocked your hips back and forth slightly as you hummed into his ear the more he nipped at your soft skin. you were driving him crazy and he wanted so much more of you. he wanted all of you. "pl..please y/n you're driving me mad" "what do you think you're doing to me?".

you pulled away from him, "give me your tie". normally, he would have asked why but he simply complied and started loosening his necktie, in the most attractive way possible. he removed it and gave it to you. you took it and smashed your lips into his. "fuck", he mumbled into your mouth. "you're really something, yknow that", he asked, rhetorically, when you broke away. 

you smiled again and got off his lap, walking to your door and placing the tie on the door handle. "what's that supposed to do?", he asked, walking up behind you now. you faced him and wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him closer. "it tells zoe not to bother us", you said and pulled him back into a kiss. "smart girl", he murmured. 

he guided you towards the foot of the bed and sat you down. "can i touch you?", he pleaded, not taking his lips off yours, "please?".

you remembered how he touched you before and rubbed your thighs together at the thought of him doing it again. you hummed into his mouth and mumbled, "yes please". his hand moved down to your thigh and rose up slowly, reaching the hem of your skirt, and tugging on it slightly. 

you removed your skirt for him, leaving your legs cold and barren, only wearing your panty. your pretty, lace, black panty. to be frank, the day after last saturday's party, you and zoe went shopping and stopped at the lingerie store. you bought a set of black lingerie specifically for him, not that you'd ever admit it. 

his lips parted from yours as he looked down at the pool he created between your legs, and smirked as you tried rubbbing your thighs again to create friction. "do you really want me to touch you, darling?", he whispered in your ear. 

you gasped as he bit down on your neck, forming a purple mark, similar to what he did last week. his index finger hooked the string of your panty and slowly pulled down. you shivered at the cold air hitting your folds. his lips were still attached to your neck, but his fingers found your opening and rubbed around your clit. "doux..hurry u..up", you breathed. 

he went back up to your ear and whispered, huskily, "patience, sweetheart". your titled your head back a bit and breathed out. without any more hesitation, he inserted his first digit into you, getting a loud gasp from you. soon, his second, and then his third, just like before. 

your moans were melodious to him. you pulled his head back up and kissed him as his other hand roamed under your shirt. he pumped faster, his long fingers hitting just the right spot. "doux fuck~", you moaned as you threw your head back in pleasure. he loved seeing you like this. moaning his name, his fingers in you. he was the one giving you pleasure. fuck, it was turning him on. though, to be fair, almost anything you did turned him on. 

he tried surpressing his own moans to not drown yours out, that he loved hearing. 

a heat started filling your lower stomach. the kind that was going to flush out of you soon, very soon. he dipped down to kiss and suck on your collarbones, sliding the loose shirt off your shoulders. "doux i'm- fuck. d-doux", you started growing light headed as his pace increased. 

he knew you were going to climax, and he wanted you to. but not with his fingers. he removed his fingers quickly, robbing you of an orgasm.  "hisirdoux, i swear to god, if you don't let me come", he attached his lips to yours quickly, and started moving down. 

kissing your neck, your collarbones, lifting your shirt up to kiss the place right under your boobs, and he kept going down. kissing lower and lower until he reached your clit again. you sucked in a breath and carded your hand through his dyed locks. 

he held both of your thighs tightly, like he was trying to keep you from running away, not that you ever would. and started kissing the spot right above your knee, going up slowly. the higher he got, the sloppier his kisses became. 

he placed open mouthed kisses up your inner thighs. "doux...", you whined. he didn't raise his head but you could practically hear his smirk. finally, he reached your folds. he kissed around your clit and you moaned, tugging his hair as a result. "pl..please doux", you wanted him. you wanted him to eat you out so bad. and he complied, inserting his tongue in your folds. licking and kissing you, the sounds of wet skin became louder. 

not as loud as you were moaning though. you knew that this was horrible for his ego but you couldn't help it. he had a way of making you feel so damn good. 

"fuck baby", his words vibrated in your pussy, sending you even higher. you arched your back as he gripped your thighs even harder. you moans became higher in pitch as you were nearing your climax again. 

"you better let me come this time, casperan", you said. he chuckled, deeply and kissed you harder, in the perfect spot. "aah! d..do that again. please", you pleaded. and he did, and again. your eyes rolled to the back of your head, moaning in ecstasy. 

"i'm cl-close..", you said, pulling on his hair harder now. "cum for me, darling. please", he mumbled against your lips. you let out a final moan as you hit your limit. you exhaled a shuddered breath as you opened your eyes to see him wiping his lips, smirking. 

it just hit you what happened and you quickly covered your vagina with your shirt, trying to not make eye-contact with him. he rose, slowly, and leaned in close to you, lifting your chin up with his finger. "was that not good for you, love?", he asked, fully knowing the answer. you had a hard time focusing on him and your legs were quivering. he leaned in close to your ear and said, "i think you liked it", sending a shiver up your spine. 

he placed his right hand in between your thighs and carressed it slightly. he knew he was in control here, but not for long. you pulled him back into a kiss and slid your hand down his shirt, slowly. you reached his belt and went even lower to place your palm on his erection. you could feel his dick twitch inside his pants and you smirked into the kiss. 

you started rubbing his bulge, eliciting him to groan into your mouth. you bit down on his lower lip and slid your tongue into his mouth. he couldn't have asked for anything better, but he got it anyways. 

you started unbuckling his belt and took it off slowly. undoing his pants, you parted from the kiss. you looked at him, eyes closed, he bit his lip slightly to keep from moaning. you went to the shell of his ear and kissed it once, "sit down". he did as told.

you placed yourself on his thigh and locked eyes. now, this wasn't a competition but neither of you wanted to look away. his eyes were filled with longing. he wanted you just as badly as you wanted him a few minutes ago. he was the first one to break as you started palming him over his boxers. "fuck", he mumbled, barely over a whisper. you slid down his underwear and he broke free. 

you had assumed that he would be an average length but no, a solid nine inches of slender, throbbing, cock sprung free. you leaned in and kissed him again. his hands went up to your waist, under your shirt and he slipped his tongue into your mouth. you moaned as he sucked on your tongue with his own. you delicately touched the tip of his cock, smiling at how he twitched at that. 

"so sensitive...", you mumbled into the kiss. you traced your fingers softly over his length. he knew why you were teasing him, the same way he did to you. but fuck, he wanted you. he needed you to touch him. 

"pl..ease y/n", he breathed. you stroked him along his length, circling his tip at times. he threw his head back as you pumped him faster. you couldn't help but smile at how good you were making him feel. 

you decided to buck your hips back and forth on his thigh to drive him over the edge. and it worked. you were driving him crazy. his mind started to fog as you were grinding against his thigh. to add insult to injury, you started moaning too, being stimulated in a lovely way by riding his thigh. the friction against your clit was perfect. 

he honestly didn't know how much more of this he could take. but he didn't want to come. not just yet. he wanted the feeling of your warm hand on his cock. he wanted the feeling of your wet pussy grinding against his thigh. he wanted to hear your moans as you pleasured not only him, but yourself too. 

unfortunately, his body couldn't take it anymore as his dick started twitching more, signaling his soon release. "i think i...i'm cumming- fuck-", he was a stuttering mess. and you loved it.

"go on, pretty boy", you said out loud and leaned in close to his ear. "cum for me", you whispered into his ear and kissed it. that was truly it for him. he groaned and felt his release coming in a few seconds. with a final touch to his tip, he reached his release and came in your hand. with that, he layed down on the bed, exhaling hard. 

with your newfound confidence, you took off your shirt and wiped the white liquid on it, before throwing it your floor. you leaned forward and placed your hands on his abdomen to support yourself, "douxie?". 

he opened his eyes and they widened in surprise, seeing you on top on him, in a lacy, black bralette, so loose that the strap was coming down your shoulder, that innocent look in your eyes. you weren't innocent, not by a long shot. and he knew that. but he wanted to corrupt you. he threw his head back as your hands started tracing up his shirt, undoing his buttons. 

when you reached the top most button, you leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "can you fuck me?", you kissed his ear, "please?", and again, moving down to his collarbones. he was stunned. you were just covering your wet pussy with your t-shirt a while ago, and now you've asked him such a bold request. not that he was going to decline. 

he grabbed your hip with one hand and your face with the other. he turned your face towards him and he crashed your lips into his, getting a moan out of you. he was getting hard already, and you were probably wetter than ever. you did mean it. you wanted him to fuck you. and he did too. his other hand went down to your thigh and started trailing back up. 

it was these moments when he touched you that reminded you how you were feeling. and right now, you were still a bit embarressed. you had barely rode him and you were still so wet. throbbing and pulsing, he inserted one finger into you again. you gasped into the kiss. 

he was done being teased and was ready to be in control again. he flipped you over so he was on top, and inserted his second finger into you. you tried rubbing your thighs together but he put his hand in between your legs. "now now, darling. i thought you wanted me to fuck you". his hand trailed up to stop right under your bra. he leaned in and kissed the spot. then bit it softly, sucking on the spot to leave it dark red. 

you were in a frenzy. his slender fingers were still pumping in and out of you, he was still giving you hickeys along your rib cage and stomach. you arched your back and threw your head back. 

"pl...please fuck me- doux..". he chuckled again, inserting his third finger, trying to drive you to the edge. "st-stop playing with me", you stuttered, completely a mess. 

"cum for me, lovely", he said, and kissed you up your stomach until he reached your bralet lace. "f-fuck~", you were close. you wanted to climax. and his fingers were working their magic on you. 

you had to finish. you had to cum. so you did. you gripped the bedsheet as you released, your back lowering from an arched position as your legs started shaking slightly. 

he stared at your cum on his fingers before licking it off with his tongue. god, his tongue can do wonders. "you still want me to fuck you, y/n?", he asked, staring at your shaking legs. 

"please", you pleaded. you were the desperate one now. and fuck, it turned him on. seeing you under him, legs shaking, covered in hickeys, and still gripping the bedsheet. all because of him. 

it took you by surprise when he took out a condom from his pocket and opened it with his mouth. "you brought a fucking condom?", you asked, partially rhetorically. "i didn't bring it. adam slipped it in my pocket when i told him i was coming here", you laughed a bit. adam was always rooting for the two of you. now that you thought about it, it was adam's idea to have the both of you parttake in seven minutes in heaven at the party. goddammit. well, in this case, you were sort of glad he medled. 

"do you not want me to use it?", he asked, he stopped putting it on halfway. "no no. use it", he smiled and put it on fully. you sat up slightly to kiss him, to which he gladly returned. you peeled off his shirt and then took off your own bralette. 

you were completely naked in front of him. fuck, if it was even possible, he got even harder. before even touching you, he threw his head back and bit his lip. "fuck" "what?", you thought you did something wrong. he went down to your chest and kissed you around your nipple, his hands pulling you closer by your waist, "you're gonna be the fucking death of me, y/n". you rolled your eyes. partly because of his comment, but mainly because his kisses felt so good. 

you held his shoulders and layed back down, pulling you with him to the point where he was hovering over you. you took him by the chin and connected you lips into a very sloppy kiss. 

"can i?", he asked into the kiss. you mumbled a verification, not breaking away and gasped when he started inserting himself into you. "fuck- doux!", you moaned as he inserted his full length. "you okay?", he asked after giving you a minute to adjust to him. "fuck..", that was the only thing to could say. without moving at all, he was already hitting your g-spot. "y-yeah, i'm good..", he leaned into you and kissed you again. 

your tongues moved in sync, just as your bodies did. after a few minutes, you needed air and broke apart from him, a string of saliva connects your lips. you cried out as his hand reached your clit, rubbing it slightly. as if his dick wasn't enough, you were in a state of pure euphoria. "f-fuck, does this feel good, love?" you wanted to ride him. you wanted to be on top. so you placed your hands on his shoulder blades and flipped him over. 

to say he was surprised would be an understatement. his eyes widened as they came back into focus. he always thought you were beautiful. gorgeous. but god, you were so pretty like this. he threw his head back, gripping your sides with his hands as you rode him. he loved this. no, that was an understatement. he never wanted this to end. you riding him, he loved seeing the marks he left on you, your boobs bouncing slightly as you picked up the pace. fuck he loved this. 

you ghosted your fingertips over his v-line , he sucked in a sharp breath. "i love when you touch me, sweetheart" "is that so?", you asked as you lowered yourself to kiss him along his lean figure. he was extremely thin, but toned. you placed kisses along the valley of his abs and it drove him mad. 

he groaned and moaned your name the more you did it, occasionally biting him and licking over the spot immediately after. you asked him to sit up and he did so, moaning as you both were reaching your climax. 

you pulled him into a kiss and he recirpocated, before going lower and kissing down your boobs again. your head rolled back as he sucked on your breast. "i-i'm close" "can i..", he looked at you now, "..inside you?". you smiled and kissed him again, "of course.", you whispered in his ear, "i'm all yours, baby". he threw his head back for the hundreth time tonight at your voice. it was angelic to him. and when you moaned, he felt like he would die right then and there. 

you felt his dick twitch inside you, knowing he was close. "can you cum doux. inside me. please?", you asked, kissing his neck. he did as told and came inside you. you followed suit a few minutes later, arching your back as you hit your orgasm. 

you removed yourself from him and sat on his thighs, he was still holding you up. "that was...something", he mumbled as he rested your foreheads together. "yeah..". you couldn't verbalize how great that was. were you selfish if you wanted more? maybe his tongue again. you had forgotten how good his tongue made you feel. but you knew you couldn't do anything for the next few minutes. your pussy was still wet, but swollen from everything you had done. besides, you couldn't just ask him, right? 

you both sat in silence for a few minutes, still hugging each other and covered in a thin layer of sweat, even though the ac was on. he abruptly gave you a quick peck on the lips and said, "i'm gonna go to the bathroom okay?", you nodded and got off his lap. he put his pants back on and walked to the bathroom. 

you threw yourself back on your head, facing the ceiling. you sighed heavily and closed your eyes, thinking about everything that took place, eyes shooting open when you recalled his tongue. that felt so good. the way he gripped your thighs tightly. the way his tongue circled in and around your clit. the way he parted your folds with his mouth. you didn't think you could get so wet this quickly, but you wanted it. you wanted him. 

you reached down your stomach, grazing your hips, and your inner thighs. you sucked in a breath as your fingers reached your clit. you rubbed on your bud, whimpering a bit as you rubbed your thighs together. you were so wet that you could insert a finger with no problems, but that wasn't enough. you gripped the bedsheet above your head as you put in two more fingers, gasping slightly. your eyes closed, tightly as you arched your back again. 

you pumped your fingers in and out the same way douxie had done and circled inside your pussy. you wanted to moan, so bad, but you didn't want him to hear you. you bit down on your lips, eyes rolling to the back of your hand as you touched yourself more. you were in a trance and moaned out, "fuck- doux.. mmh j..just like that..please". you were so close to your climax that you didn't even hear the bathroom door opening between your moans. 

your eyes remained close and your toes curled as you were going to come again.  "aah! mm-fuck!", you cried out as you hit your release. your knees started shaking as you lowered them. "fuck", you exhaled, opening your eyes. "thanks for the show, darling", you neck snapped in the direction of his voice. he was standing against your wall, leaning with his arms crossed. fuck he was hot. he was standing shirtless, in his suit pants. 

your lowered your arms to cover your swollen pussy, dripping with your juices. "h-how long were you standing there?", he started walking towards you, "long enough". he stood at the foot of the bed again and dragged you close to him by your legs, leaning down to kiss the shell of your ear. "do you want me to touch you again?", he asked. you wanted to tell him off for staring at you, touching yourself. but fuck, you wanted him to touch you again. "y-yes please", you stuttered as he placed open mouthed kisses along your neck, going down to your collarbones. 

"hm, how?", his voice rang through your ears as he kissed your breast, biting it slightly, going down to your rib cage. he made you a stuttering mess, "w..with your tongue...please, doux...i want⏤", a gasp escaped you as he started sucking on the inside of your thigh. 

"whatever you want, my love", he gripped your thighs like he did before. his lips reached your pussy. still soaking and red. "w-wait doux. too s..soon", you tried saying but he started kissing your clit anyway. he hummed against your folds, the vibrations driving you crazy. "f..fuck doux. pl..please mmh~", you decided it was useless trying to retalliate so you just enjoyed it. 

he made you feel so good. and he loved it. he looked up slightly to see your head thrown back, eyes closed, and back curved. he was doing this to you. he was making you feel this good. and he loved it. his tongue slipped in and out of your pussy, wet with cum and arousal. 

he loved the taste of your slick. it tasted so sweet to him. you tasted so sweet to him. "fuck", he mumbled into your pussy, "you taste so good, baby". 

"i'm c..cumming. d-doux w..w -ah!", he picked up the pace as he started sucking on your folds. the sound of wet skin slapping against his tongue filled the room."go on, love, cum", you did as told, reaching your climax for the fourth time because of him. 

he kissed your clit one last time before raising his head. you lifted his chin and connected your lips together, quite forcefully, unconcerned with where his mouth was a few seconds ago. 

this kiss was different than before. it was not filled with lust or longing, but with passion and understanding. you seperated and placed your heads together. "you're really good at that", you were the first to speak. he chuckled a bit before taking your hand from his face and planting a kiss to the back of it. "i'm glad you enjoyed it, y/n".

"y/n! can you come here?", you heard zoe's voice call you from her room. you laughed at douxie's horrified expression. "relax, she's not gonna kill you" "are you sure?" "well, she might when i tell her, but for now, no she won't. so i suggest leaving", you hand made a shooing motion. 

he quickly put his shirt back on, only doing three buttons as your put on a new shirt and underwear. "just a minute, zo", you called out so she wouldn't get suspicious.

"what about my tie?", he asked, before going out the window again. "i'll give it to you tomorrow", you kissed him on the lips briefly, "now go!". he smiled and pecked your forehead before wishing you a good night and going out the same way he came in. 

he was a great muse.

#douxie x reader #douxie x y/n #hisirdoux casperan x reader #tales of arcadia x reader #douxie imagine #tales of arcadia imagine #douxie casperan imagine #hisirdoux casperan #douxie #tales of arcadia #my writing #douxie kinda sorta smut #explore #fanfiction prompts #douxie smut #smut #hard hours

[astranne]

— APHRODITE; DIVINE BEAUTY

itoshi sae x female halfblood!reader

— HALFBLOOD MASTERLIST

— notes ;

welcome to my first work of my halfblood series hehe. very surprised with myself that i decided to write for sae, but you know what they say… why hot when evil? and he was evil for breaking rin‘s heart :( anyways, enjoy this madness, idk what i've been thinking when writing this nothing so uh yeah...

— genre ;

meet cute but the meeting was actually not cute, manager x famous!character trope

— word count ;

1.3k words

— warnings ;

fem!reader who is fixated on beauty, hints of both being possessive with each other, not edited nor proofread (i finally wanted to post this work dear lord), background story on relationship between sae and reader (there may be a part two to this one)

Beauty was something you held dear. Something you held close, after picking it up as if it were a lost treasure, hidden behind rocks and eons of dust.

Beauty was something many children of Aphrodite loved. They chased after it, they wanted to own it, they wanted to share it with the world. Most of them were satisfied with the classical beauty of a human, their appearance and looks, but there were some with more special tastes.

They chased after beautiful things, may it be clothes, flowers, weapons... people. You did that too. In the youngest generation created by the goddess of love and beauty, you were an oddball. While you admired the appearance of others as well, had an impressive amount of clothes in your possession, you loved especially the beauty of football.

Oh, not the one, where little boys kick a ball between them, of course not! You only saw the beauty in the best, the best football games, the best play, the best goals, the best players. All of them beautiful in their own way, fascinating you to the core and keeping you focused on one task.

With the blessing of your mother, one of the most present gods in the lives of their children, for she is the goddess of love after all, you've made it far already. As a scouter for the European League and the U-20 teams, you've already seen much of the world and saw its beauty and its ugliness.

You've seen glorious football players, still in their youth and unpolished diamonds, ready to shine on the world stage. You've seen them rise, most of them fell, some never quite made it and the small rest... achieved what most mortals couldn't. They climbed high, with steady feet and a strong body, their eyes always on the ball, ready to shoot the next goal, ready to be the next victor.

And when they made it, when they finally made it, the one moment, where everyone was overwhelmed with emotions, with victory, with the beauty of it- then you felt as if you've been blessed with godhood by Zeus, sitting next to your mother and gazing from Olympus, watching mortals to do the impossible.

You may not get high on adrenaline like the Ares kids, when they were bashing their heads in a good fight, or be filled with positive emotions like the children of Poseidon as soon they were close to the sea. Oh no, it was passion, it was beauty, it was love, that fulfilled you like nothing else in this world.

This is why you were here now, watching how boys of your age were fighting for a spot in the team of Royale Madrid Youth. The team had to fill in several spots, but only in the next season, when the eldest would climb to the seniors. They were preparing and they were counting on you, the girl with golden eyes.

It was a stupid nickname, but it was also close to the truth. All the talents you picked and recommended, brought gold in the form of medals home, in addition of more money.

Greedy they were, the mortals walking on earth and you were greedy too. But instead of searching for materialistic things to own, you and many other halfbloods were greedy for the proof of life. And this was yours. Football, soccer, kicking balls. Destroying dreams and futures of foolish mortals and blessing those with your honeyed words who were worthy in your eyes. Not once were you wrong and you wouldn't be wrong this time.

Because when you saw him, you were breathless. You immediately knew- yes, it was him. Pretty he was, beautiful, his face without any mistakes, his hair so soft and eyes so delightful. He instantly had your interest, the Japanese striker called Itoshi Sae.

Passion burned brightly in him, lighting up his face with a beautiful smile when he scored, victory shining in his eyes. But then someone else would come along, older and faster, take the ball and leave him behind.

The light in his eyes slowly dimmed, over the days, over the weeks. Not once you've spoken to him, but you kept a close eye on him, seeing how he slowly seems to be... less. Less beautiful, less passionate, less him. He dimmed, the fire in him slowly going out and it bothered you. Normally you wouldn't care, you shouldn't care, but something about him has awoken the divine blood in you, calling for you to cast your blessing.

You didn't. Not yet, he still wasn't ready yet. He still didn't see the whole world, he still wasn't broke, he was still foolish and naive- Itoshi Sae wouldn't be able to survive the way he was and acts now. He would be left behind, burned out, nothing more, but a small footnote besides heroes writing history.

But there was potential in him, there was potential he would evolve. And maybe you would help him, lead him towards the right path, whisper the right words in his ears.

In the end, you decided to help Sae, taking in the lost lamb and showing him around in the city, showing him the world. His eyes were wide, taking in the beauty of Spain, where the fates have decided for him to be, with you by his side.

His dreams have long been crushed, you had watched them, when another striker had beaten him without even really trying, fully knowing he would kill Sae with his actions. And it almost did. But you caught him, showing him the brilliance of the rest of the battlefield called football and Sae set his eyes on a new goal dream.

You became something akin to his manager and trainer in one, even if he had both of these more than enough. You were there to witness his rebirth, you were there when he started remolding himself, you were there, guiding and blessing him.

You were there when Itoshi Sae debuted as midfield, ascending to the world's best, leaving his burdens in Japan behind and becoming your blessed little mortal.

He was yours and you were his, by his side, always, you followed his path of victory, watched him and how his heart grew cold, until he owned the heart of a true warrior.

Itoshi Sae was one the new heroes, loved by so many, but he only gave his heart to you. You protected it like a treasure, almost possessive, with a keen eye on everyone who comes close to him.

"You're doing it again," he murmurs, not looking at you, but he knows you're standing right behind his seat. The makeup artist, that has been powdering Sae's face for a while now, tilts up his chin and starts applying mascara on his insane lashes. You were almost jealous, if it wouldn't be for the fact that you're a daughter of Aphrodite.

You just hum, typing away on your tablet, planning Sae's schedule for the next three months. There is much to do and you plan to make Itoshi Sae a household name. It was necessary for his career, and while he didn't like doing all these photo shoots and interviews, he could already see the fruits of his hard labor and your manipulations.

He was one of the most followed footballers in his generation, he had more fans than many older football players, which also affected his reputation. Itoshi Sae was the THE Middlefield player everyone wanted, and he could decide where he would go from now on.

"And what if I am?" You ask, and he just lets out a scoff. He can't say anything against it, you're being possessive of him, when he does it too. Keep you close, a blessing of the gods, close to him and his heart.

"I would tell you to stop, but are you going to listen?,” he asks, and already knows the answer. You wouldn't and so you just smirk, drop a kiss on his cheek and leave him behind. He knows you so well.

— taglist ; @stellumi , @keqism , @wanderersbell , @venexus , @lilikags , @kuminarim , @mael-0 , @dervaaas , @aly4a , @yanfei-kisser , @keyz-writes, @obsidianjewel @isentsworld , @tsukishiro-yue2402 , @him3ru , @horologiumwise , @kamiiyaka + more to be added!

-> if your name is bold, this means i can’t tag you!

-> if you wish to join the taglist, please read this infopost! thank you for reading

ASTRANNE 2023

#blue lock #sae itoshi x reader #sae itoshi x female reader #sae itoshi x fem reader #itoshi sae x reader #itoshi sae #itoshi sae x female reader #itoshi sae x you #sae itoshi x you #blue lock x reader #🪐 galaxy milky way

[an-aroaces-harem]

Ellis Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: I just deepl and google translated my way through this because I wanted to know what’s going on, so there are definitely mistakes but I believe I managed the general gist of the story. Anyway, it’s just a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes. Ikemen Villains belongs to Cybird.

Another note: I know Ikemen Villains is set in victorian London, but I will use the japanese suffixes because I prefer them.

Ellis: Guard?

At the breakfast table, Victor was told of my unexpected first job as a 'fairytale writer'.

Victor: Yes! Jud and Ellis protect Kate, so that our secret is safe.

Victor: Kate was able to observe and record Ellis and Jude up close ...

Victor: She can also fulfill her duties as a 'fairytale writer', killing two birds with one stone!

Ellis: If it's okay with Kate-san, it's okay with me.

Ellis: I don't know if something like yesterday will happen again, so ... I want to stay close to Kate-san.

Victor smiles at Ellis-kun's response and then looks to Jude-san.

Victor: Of course, Jude will take responsibility, right? You hate making loans, don't you?

Jude: Tch ...

(Although I think I'd feel safer if I stayed close to Ellis-kun ...)

I was mistakenly identified as 'Jude Jazza's woman', and my life was threathened just because I was with Ellis-kun ...

I can't help but be wary of Jude.

Jude: Don't cry when you get scared, princess.

(I'm scared ... but Victor made a good suggestion, so I can't be timid here.)

Kate: Don't worry, I'm surprisingly resilient!

Jude: ... Hah!

Jude-san snickered at my best smile and looked down at the newspaper.

Ellis: Then, it's decided.

Kate: Yes, thank you very much.

When I smiled at Ellis-kun, he smiled back softly, unlike Jude-san.

Ellis: Speaking of which, you can speak in a more informal manner.

Kate: Eh ...

Ellis: A "yeah, thank you" would be nice.

Kate: U-um, yeah ... thank you.

Ellis: Hmm, that's nice.

The air of warmth that Ellis-kun exudes is soothing and relaxing ...

Victor: Now that we've got that settled, let's get right to the task at hand.

Victor's words made my spine straighten.

(This is my first real job as a 'fairytale writer'.)

I brace myself, thinking that the first step is the most important thing in order to earn people's trust.

Victor: I actually want you to gather some information.

Victor: We've been talking about kidnappings all over London.

Kate: Is this ... a kidnapping case?

The disturbing words brought back the nervousness that was etched into my skin when I first met the members of 'Crown'.

Victor: Yes. The ages vary. From toddlers to teenagers, and, of course, adults.

Victor: The common deminator is that most of the adults are prostitutes and street performers.

Victor: The songstresses who were once popular at bars have disappeared ... but there are many people who don't have a fixed address.

Jude: The victims are not very nice people, and since they don't have a permanent address, they can't be reported missing.

Jude: And, as usual, the police refuses to act.

Sadly, as Jude-san says, those who work in the entertainment district are looked down upon.

Behind the salubrious world, they are treated as if they are being swept away.

Victor: So here's the thing ...

Victor: Did you know that there's an art fair in London right now that attracts performers?

Kate: Yes. It's not as busy as the social season, but it's pretty lively.

Victor: I want Jude and Ellis to go out there and gather information.

Victor: They're rootless, but they're more connected horizontally than you'd think.

Jude: Why do I have to go, too? Such a pointless mission.

Victor: I'm wondering if it might have something to do with the human traffickers that you just took down in private.

Victor: You're on board, right? And ... I heard today is your first vacation in a while.

It was information that Victor couldn't have known unless someone had told him ...

Jude-san cursed right next to him.

Jude: ... Ellis.

Ellis: He asked me, so I answered honestly. Sorry.

(Maybe the power balance between these two is more equal than you think ...)

Victor: So, have a good day!

Victor's cheerful voice sent us off on our way to our mission.

(It's even more crowded this time ...!)

Appetizing aromas waft from the gorgeous stalls lined up at the art fair venue.

It's not just the food that makes people happy.

There were people painting on the streets and others performing on large stages set up on street corners.

Walking along the street, one can almost smell the lively and joyful atmosphere.

(I'm totally excited and need to focus on the task at hand.)

(Yes, let's listen to them now.)

Kate: Ellis-kun, Jude-san, can you tell me about your curses?

Ellis: I don't remember if we've talked about that yet.

Ellis: I'm cursed with the curse of 'thorns' and Jude is the '13th Fairy'.

Ellis: It's the curse that became the motif of 'Sleeping Beauty'.

(The curse of thorns and the curse of the 13th Fairy ...)

The 13th Fairy is a villain who resents not being invited to the princess' birthday and tries to kill her with a curse.

(I can kind of understand why the fairy is guilty, but ...)

(What is the sin of 'thorns'?)

As I was thinking about it, Jude-san stopped and looked back at me, unamused.

Jude: We three don't have to get along with each other. You go gather information on your own.

Ellis: But, what about guarding Kate-san?

Jude: You alone are enough.

After saying this, he quickly disappeared into the crowd.

Kate: ... Does he hate me, even if he doesn't have to?

Ellis: He's like that to everyone, so maybe he doesn't hate you.

Ellis: Maybe so Kate-san won't be in danger if she's seen with him again.

(Hmm, that's not going to happen ...?)

I swallow the words that are about to come out of my throat.

Kate: ... If that's the case, he's a pretty kind person, right?

Ellis: I don't think he's nice. He loves to make people he doesn't like suffer and hear them scream.

Kate: ...

(I'm afraid I can imagine it ...)

He is the complete opposite of Ellis-kun, who spreads kindness to everyone he meets.

As if to prove this point, after we left Jude-san, he was approached by people from all over the place.

Red-faced man: Oh, you! Thanks for taking care of me the other day!

Ellis: You're welcome. Don't drink too much today.

Kate: This person is ...?

Ellis: He was drunk on the street, so I carried him home on my back. I don't know his name.

Kate: Oh!

(Did you bring a stranger home and even take care of him?)

And that's not all that's surprising ...

Furniture Craftsman: Ellis introduced me to people that helped me get my business off the ground! I'm so glad he did!

Student with glasses: Good to see you again! I'd like to thank you for helping me repair my bicycle, and I'd like to get your contact information ...

Cat: Meow.

Ellis: You're welcome.

(Even the cat thanks you ...!?)

(I can't believe so many people thanked him in passing ...)

It just goes to show how many good deeds Ellis-kun usually does.

Kate: You know more people than me, who works as a postwoman ...!

Ellis: I don't know. I think it's normal.

Seeing them smiling at him, Ellis-kun also smiled happily.

(I'm sure things like what you did for me yesterday are really ordinary things for you, Ellis-kun.)

When he sees someone in need, he extends a helping hand to anyone.

A person who sprinkles happiness.

These words came to mind as I watched Ellis-kun happily chatting with the people of the town.

(I wonder if there's any 'sin' I should write about such a person ...)

(Or rather ...)

(Why does such a kind person work for an assassination organization or in the company of someone like Jude-san?

Even though I have witnessed so much of his kindness ... the doubts that suddenly come to mind make my heart flutter.

Ellis: Kate-san, Kate-san.

Kate: ... Oh, I'm sorry! I was thinking.

Before I knew it, Ellis-kun was tilting his head and peering into my face from nearby ...

Ellis: You're thinking about me?

Kate: ... Eh!?

Like two lovers looking into each other's eyes, my heart pounds as he stares at me, so close that we're almost touching each other.

(Ellis-kun doesn't seem to be aware of it, but ... the distance between us seems to be very close.)

The same was true when he visited me in my room the morning after they took me to Crown Castle.

This is the second time I've been this close to his twilight eyes, and I look away as I feel a warmth radiating through me.

Ellis: Oh, I guessed correctly.

Kate: How do you know?

Ellis: Hmm ... somehow?

Ellis smiles and hands me a mug with steam rising from it.

Ellis: While Kate-san was thinking about me, I got a milk tea from the store there.

Ellis: Thank you for helping me with the delivery the other day.

(... Ellis-kun, I'm afraid ...)

Ellis-kun pushes away his curly hair and takes a sip of his milk tea with a sigh.

Ellis: If you have any questions, just ask.

Kate: ... Yes.

Ellis: "Yeah", right?

Kate: ... Ellis-kun, why are you a member of Crown?

Ellis: Is it because Victor recruited Jude and Jude said yes?

(Does that mean that since Jude-san is a member, Ellis-kun is a member as well ...?)

Kate: Why are you with Jude-san?

Ellis: You're full of questions.

Ellis-kun smiles and wraps his hands around the mug.

Ellis: Before I met Jude, I was living from place to place.

Ellis: I happened to meet Jude when I came to London.

Ellis: A lot of things happened, and I made a promise.

Kate: Promise ...?

Ellis: In exchange for working for him, Jude will do me a favor.

Ellis: So ... until then, we're in this together.

The feeling that something might happen when I listen to him makes my heart beat wildly.

Kate: What did you ask for, Ellis-kun ...?

Ellis: It's ...

Performer with flashy hat: What!?

(Eh ...!?)

I was surprised by the loud voice, and when I turned my head, it seemed that right behind me was the back of a special stage.

The performer was scratching his head in confusion.

Performer with flashy hat: Can't you two come? ... Oh god ...!

(He probably means two other performers ...)

Kate: Ellis-kun.

Ellis: ... Hm.

... "The common deminator is that most of the adults are prostitutes and street performers."

We exchanged glances and stepped toward the distressed-looking performer.

Kate: Um, excuse me.

Performer with flashy hat: Hmm? Yeah, I'm sorry, but I have to be onstage in 10 minutes!

Ellis: You just said two people couldn't come ...

Performer with flashy hat: The I was supposed to perform with have been out of touch.

Performer with flashy hat: How many people and days does this take ... It's been a bit strange lately.

(No communication and more than one person ...)

(If we could talk to this person, we might learn something.)

Ellis: I'd love to hear more about it, if you don't mind.

Performer with flashy hat: I'm sorry, but I don't have time for this right now! I have to think quickly about what performance I can do on my own.

After waving us away ... he stared at us again, as if a thought had just occured to him.

Performer with flashy hat: Unless you guys are willing to help me stage it.

Performer with flashy hat: Haha! What a surprise. No matter how much we're in need of manpower, we can't just bring in a bunch of amateurs.

He shook his head as if to say it was a momentary distraction, and Ellis closed the distance between them lightly.

Ellis: Cooperation? What do I have to do?

Performer with flashy hat: Haha! What's the matter with you? I'm just kidding.

Ellis: But if coorperate, you'll tell me the details, right?

Performer with flashy hat: ... What, are you just a couple of guys who are looking for something new?

He stared at us, his good-natured face twisted in puzzlement.

Performer with flashy hat: But, you know, selling information about your friends is a risky proposition.

Performer with flashy hat: I can't even guarantee that you guys don't have bad intentions. After all, we've never met before.

Kate: How do we get people to trust us?

Performer with flashy hat: I guess so ...

Performer with flashy hat: If you're not going to complain about being the target of a knife-thrower or being tied up and dunked in a tank, then ...

Performer with flashy hat: I wouldn't mind trusting you.

(Target of a knife-thrower ...!?)

Ellis: No problem. I'm good at that.

Unlike me, who was perplexed, Ellis-kun proceeded with the negotiations without fear.

(As expected, having been involved in business negotiations with Jude-san, he is used to the situation ...)

I thought that Ellis-kun had cooperated with the show and that negotiations had been concluded, but ... reality wasn't so sweet.

Performer with flashy hat: Tsk, tsk, tsk ... you can't do it alone, boy. You've got to help me out, too.

Kate: What ...!

Ellis: ... Why?

Performer with flashy hat: Of course, it's for the show!

Performer with flashy hat: A tragedy that tears lovers apart, followed by an emotional finale! You're sure to get a big cheer out of this one.

(Knife throwing ... tied up ... tank ...)

Ellis-kun peeked at me with concern as I grew increasingly pale.

Ellis: Kate-san, you don't have to do this.

(He was the target of Victor's knife-throwing, and I'm sure Ellis-kun will be fine.)

I would never be able to duplicate his extraordinary physical abilities ...

It's up to me to get information from this person.

(In this case, I have no choice but to trust Ellis-kun and this performer ...)

Kate: I understand. I will copperate.

#ikemen villains #ikevil #ikemen villains ellis #ellis twilight #resa translates something for once?