"this year you're dealing with all experienced killers" haymitch abernathy announced, walking towards the young couple.
after both katniss and peeta won the 74th hunger games the year prior, they had been keeping up their false romance for the cameras. attempting to convince the capitol and the districts of their relationship meant acting as though they were deep, deep in love. the capitol would fall for anything but it was the districts that were trickier to fool. they were more weary.
though being in an arena with victors from previous years, protecting each other and the occasional kiss every now and then wasn't going to cut it. they all knew that this time around, the odds were stacked against them more so than usual. the other victors knew each other or had met at least once. katniss and peeta were new.
they were going to have to have some allies and so they were raking through the tributes that they were against this year. Peeta sat back against the back of his chair, arms crossed. "all right, what does that mean for us?" he asked, glancing at katniss briefly, then back at haymitch.
"that means you're gonna have to have some allies" he said, hoping Katniss would agree. he knew she could be difficult and wouldn't trust any of the others but trust wasn't what he was looking for.
peeta agreed instantly. "okay, i think that if..."
haymitch interrupted peeta's train of thought. "whoop, you're not the problem" he said pointing a finger above katniss, hinting at the fact that she was clearly the more difficult one between the two.
"no" she didn't want allies and she didn't need them. her and peeta could win by themselves just as they did last year and she knew she could protect peeta alone. having allies meant more people to look out for. the more people, the bigger the chance that they would betray them.
"look, you're starting at a disadvantage. most of these people have been friends for years" haymitch reasoned, sitting down at the table the two victors were sitting at. he could guarantee that the victors from district four and seven would most definitely be allies. and while they'd have the recourses to be the deadliest ones in there, there were definitely others to worry about.
"that just puts us higher on their kill list"
"do it your own way, but i know these people. you go it alone, their first move is gonna be to hunt you down. both of you" haymitch warned them both, knowing that it might convince katniss. implying that being stubborn would put peeta in danger. which it would.
"katniss, come on" the boy tried, agreeing with what haymitch was saying.
"how could any of us even trust each other?" she defended.
"it's not about trust. it's about staying alive" haymitch contradicted.
he stood up, walking towards the screen at the front of the room. the victor turned it on showing two people, a man and a woman who were holding hands as they smiled proudly. "cashmere and gloss" he stated. "brother and sister, district 1. they won back-to-back Games. capitol favorites, lots of sponsors, they will be lethal"
the district 1 and 2 tributes were almost always lethal considering how much of an honour they tended to think winning the hunger games was. they trained and trained since they were kids and many of the victors actually volunteered. he changed the screen showing the district 2 tributes. "and the other half of the career pack, brutus and enobaria" the man introduced. there were now another pair of victors, the woman baring her filed teeth to the camera.
"what's with her teeth?" katniss asked, seeing that enobaria's teeth looked strange.
"she had them filed into fangs so she could rip people's throats out"
"she's committed, i'll give her that" peeta joked, internally cringing as he thought of how uncomfortable it must've been to get her teeth so impossibly sharp.
"wiress and beetee" haymitch turned to katniss and peeta "not fighters, but brilliant. and weird, real tech-savvy. he won his games by electrocuting six tributes at once" he revealedb before moving on. "the morphlings. masters of camouflage. basically, won their games by hiding until everyone else was dead. self-medicating ever since, which I applaud. not a threat"
he changed the screen again, letting the young victors see a man standing there facing the crowd while waving and smiling. he crossed the stage, a cocky grin on his face.
"finnick odair, right?" katniss recognised the boy.
"yes. he won his Games at 14, youngest ever, extremely humble" the blonde said the last part sarcastically. finnick was a lot of things but humble wasn't one of them.
"you're kidding"
"yes, i'm kidding. he's a peacock, a total preener. but he's the capitol darling. they love him here. charming, smart, and very skilled at combat. especially in water" haymitch waved his hands around, causing peeta to lean forward in his chair.
"what about weaknesses?"
"one. lyra" he changed the screen to see a woman who was stood next to finnick. "her and finnick are together. she volunteered for annie. lyra hit her head real bad in her games. she's a bit" he made a crazy hand gesture. "she probably didn't know what she was volunteering for. if he's trying to protect her in any way, it exposes him. she won her games by hiding in a cave until there were 3 tributes left, then killed them. she got knocked over while she was killing the final tribute"
they all watched as he would turn to the girl occasionally. she kept her head facing his back, looking around the district every now and then. they watched as someone caught her eye and a bright smile appeared on her face. she was looking at the other victors, waving at two women while they looked at her with sympathetic smiles.
"a guy like that has to know she's not gonna make it. i bet when it really comes down to it, he won't protect her" katniss speculated.
"well, katniss, i just hope when she goes, she goes quickly. she's a lovely girl"
and it was true, lyra bell was a lovely girl. her and haymitch had met a while ago at one of the capitols parties [though she had no memory of that particular interaction]. that was what the games did, they took things away from lovely girls. for some it was their sleep, now plagued with nightmares. for others it was their sanity. for lyra it was her memory.
if someone were to ask lyra where she'd first met haymitch, she would say that finnick introduced them, while in actuality, they had met a few weeks before the interaction she could recollect. she just didn't remember that.
lyra and finnick had met when they were younger meaning lyra remembered that meeting clearly. anything after her injury, not so much. many things, including her ability to pick up on social cues, live on her own or remember to do everyday things like shower, were also stolen.
the games had taken things from finnick and lyra that couldn't be returned. and without those things, people could be ruined.
───── authors note ! Hey loves! First hunger games book! I'm in luv w/ Lyra already. She's my baby <3 Please comment and vote and hopefully i'll see u next chapter!!!
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