Star girl | 1

• Training Center •

Cyrus slips off down the hallway later that night after having been congratulated by our mentors, prep teams, and stylists. I met his stylist, a short man who has bright purple hair and tattoos all over his arms, named Jionna.

The capital citizens loved us out there, our mentors told us. Our prep teams were smiling and giggling like crazy.

Cyrus got tired quickly though, and left for bed. I soon followed after him, planning on heading to my own room, when I heard noises coming from his room.

I paused in the hallway, pressing an ear gently to the door and listening to what I realized was crying.

I knocked lightly at the door before slowly opening it. Cyrus was sitting on his bed with the blankets around him, his face red from crying.

"Cy? Hey come here bud, it's alright." I said softly, walking over to him and lowering myself next to him on the bed.

"I don't wanna die, Capella. I miss Callisto.... I miss dad.." he mumbled, hiccupping softly.

I wrapped an arm around him, pulling him against me.

"I'm gonna try my absolute hardest to keep you alive in there, Cyrus. I swear." I assure him.

He stares at me for a few seconds before closing his eyes and letting his weight rest on me, although it's not a lot.

"Get some rest, sunshine." I mutter, running a hand through his hair like I usually do.

He nods, so faint I can barely tell, and stays like that until he finally falls asleep.

I carefully move the blanket from around him to on top of the two of us, laying down with him. It takes a while, but eventually I follow him to sleep.

***

"Rise and shinee!" I hear the cheerful, chirpy voice of Feather float through the room and I sit up, carefully moving Cyrus and stretching.

"Training starts today, and we have a lot to discuss over breakfast!" She says, smiling as she turns and walks out of the room.

I change into an outfit laid out by my prep teams before waking Cyrus and helping him change as well.

The prep team had done well with hiding- or rather- healing his whip scars but I could still see the faint lines and imprints on his skin where the whip had once hit the same spot over and over.

I ran a finger softly over one, feeling Cyrus shiver and flinch away slightly.

"I'm sorry, Cy." I softly whispered. I was. Sorry that I hadn't taken every whipping that had caused these marks for him at home. Sorry that I had volunteered to try and protect him, because even if he won, he would still have to go through life with our father. Sorry for making him flinch. Sorry for everything.

He nodded slightly and wrapped his arms tightly around me, a gesture that said he forgave me without having to speak.

I smiled sadly and hugged him back before we made our way to the breakfast table.

When we got there, both of our prep teams, both of our stylists, Feather, Mars, and Apple were seated and talking about whatever capital gossip was going on right now.

We sat in the two empty chairs and waited for them to be done, eating out food as we waited.

Finally, Mars turned to us.

"Ah, our tributes, yes. Today starts training which brings us to the ridiculous question of if you two want to be trained together or not."

I scoff. I had an arm still wrapped around Cyrus, his bottom only halfway on his seat so he could lean against me. He only talked usually around me, and only trusted me enough to get him to bed and stay with him through the night.