I am a cloud that ventures into it.

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Chapter Fourteen | I am a cloud that ventures into it.

"Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead, stabbed

With a white wench's black eye, run through the ear with

A love song."

2.3, 13-15 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare

Cashmere knows her brother like the back of her hand. They've always been inseparable from an early age. He would follow her around like a lost puppy when they were younger, wanting to be a part of her world. Since they were only a year apart, she'd let him. He had always been her best friend, the only one she ever needed.

When she volunteered for the Games, he was quick to follow. She had been furious at him for a long time for his stupidity. Neither of them had truly known what they were doing when they raised their hands up and shouted, 'I volunteer,' before anyone else could. Once she had won, Cashmere had realized pretty quickly what a Victor's life was really like, and it wasn't anything like the veneered glamor that she had always pictured it to be. It was dark and it was scary, and when Gloss joined the ranks of Victors a year later, she was so upset that she couldn't even talk to him for weeks without it turning into a shouting match. She wishes she could have dissuaded him from volunteering. Maybe it would have made him think twice about following her, this time.

Or maybe it wouldn't. Gloss is fiercely loyal. Even if he had known, back then, exactly what he was getting himself into, he probably wouldn't have stopped himself from volunteering. By then, he had discovered what sort of life Cashmere was living as a new Victor, and she knows that the reason he volunteered was to help her bear that burden. That's just how he is when it comes to the people he loves. She knows him too well to think otherwise. Which is why she knows that there's something going on with him now.

They've just returned to District 1 after another trip into the Capitol. Though their visits are sometimes separate from one another, they usually go in at the same time. Snow likes to have them do interviews and photoshoots together. They're a pair, and that's the image he's cultivated since they won their Games.

They've been home for about three days now, and as always after a trip to the Capitol, they've both sequestered themselves into their house. Snow had given them both separate houses when they won, but they mostly live together at Cashmere's place. It's nice to have someone around who understands your nightmares and is ready to make a midnight cup of tea to help calm you down from them. Besides, living by yourself in one of these huge houses makes you feel like the loneliest person in the world.

"Want some hot cocoa?" Cashmere asks from the kitchen, voice muffled as she riffles through the cabinets in search of the tin of powdered chocolate. It's her favorite drink, which is a little amusing because District 1 is so hot already. She says it makes her feel warm and happy though, and Gloss doesn't have it in him to complain about how much money she spends on the stuff.

"Nah," he returns, barely looking up at her from his seat on the couch. The kitchen and living are connected in a large, sweeping layout. If he lifts his head, he can see into the kitchen without any problem. As it is, though, his head is lowered and eyes are staring at the flickering light of the television. Capitol Nightly is on, a talk show hosted by Claudius Templesmith in which he goes over the current events of the Capitol. Sometimes he'll talk about things happening in the other districts too, but only if they relate somehow to the workings of the main city. It's called 'Capitol Nightly' for a reason, after all.

Anyway, tonight he's talking about the Victory Tour of the latest Victor, a girl from District 2 that he can't remember the name of. She'd just given her speech in District 5 that morning and the camera shows off the main square of the grey city, highlighting the speech for the Capitol audience back in their homes. They do like their Victors, especially new Victors, and the girl from District 2 has a certain way about her that the Capitol is obsessed with. Gloss, though, is far more focused on someone else.

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