one - when I've finished my song

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Levi x Reader, Hunger Games AU! Only difference is that the reaping age ranges from 12 to 20, not 12 to 17. I have some half-assed explanation in here somewhere for why that is but I'm just putting it here because I want it to be clearly stated- I'm not writing a love story between minors.

Chapter titles are random lines selected from the song 'The Old Therebefore' in The Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds, because that book reignited my passion for the Hunger Games. 

Love you guys. Hope you enjoy this.

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You want the Capitol to burn.

You don't just want it to burn- you want it to explode. You want to watch every single one of those affluent, privileged, douchebag motherfuckers to roast over a slow flame and burn to death. You want to watch every stupid, weirdly constructed building with stupidly overcomplicated architecture burn to the ground. You want to watch President Reiss get tied to a fucking stake and have a slow, painful death as he burns to a crisp.

No, you don't want to just watch it- you want to do it yourself. You want to be the one that lights the match, the one that starts the fire.

It'd just be so much more satisfying to be the one that does it, wouldn't it? Be able to have a front row seat to the destruction of the capital, watching Rod Reiss's tough façade fade away as he screams for mercy.

"You scare me sometimes."

You blink, looking over to Petra. "Only sometimes?"

She laughs quietly, picking at some of the grass by her leg. "When you glare so hard at the birds that it looks like you're trying to kill them just by glaring at them, yes," she says with a gentle roll of her eyes.

"I don't need my eyes to kill birds," you grumble, rolling your eyes in return.

There's a chirp of birds in return to your statement, and you resist the urge to throw the small stone that you've been fiddling with between your fingers at one of them. You seek the bird out with your eyes, looking for how far away it is- yeah, that's within your throwing range. You could probably hit it if you wanted to.

You listen more. Besides the chirping of the birds, you can hear the rustling of the leaves in the breeze. The faint noise of rushing water from the river that's a fair distance ahead of you.

"Our last year, huh," Petra muses softly. "Who would've thought we'd make it."

You huff. "With all those extra rations I took last year, I thought for sure I'd be picked."

"Oluo thinks it's a conspiracy," she says.

"Of course he does."

"No, I'm serious! You know. They say that for every year you're eligible, you get more entries, right? But it feels like the twelve and thirteen year old kids are in it as often as our age bracket."

She's got a point. "You know, you'd think that they want the oldies in the games," you say, tossing the pebble down the hill.

"We're not old," Petra says with a laugh. "We're twenty."

"Oldest eligible for the games," you clarify with a roll of your eyes. "Because, you know. At our physical prime or whatever those stupid announcers say. We give better fights."

"You trying to jinx it?" she teases.

"No," you argue, kicking her shoe. She kicks you back. "Just- well, you know. I think Reiss has a thing for watching minors die."

Petra laughs, which turns into a cough. "You can't say that."

"Why not?" you reply, shrugging. You fall onto your back, the grass squishing underneath your jacket. "No one can hear us out here."

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