A forbidden bond: part 1 (life before)

The Bombing

as Arachne stood in line in front of the arena she felt dread and was afraid, and she wondered if this is how the tributes of the last nine hunger games felt, is this how brandy is feeling right now, afraid?, scared?, terrified?,..... absolutely, and arachne realized just how powerless she was to actually help brandy and because of that arachne felt like crap, she remembered when she was younger before he father started abusing her and she would watch the games with glee and enjoyed seeing the 'district dogs' as her father called them fight each other like animals and she never questioned it.

but now after everything that's been done to her, befriending sejanus, and falling for (yes )falling for brandy she couldn't help but feel like the worst person in the world and she hated her younger self because how could she have ever supported much less enjoyed the games.

the same games that brandy could die in

and speaking of brandy, she was now standing next to her as a peacekeeper escorted her to her side and brandy looked at her and her blue eyes were filled with fear and all arachne wanted to do was comfort her

"hi" she said uncomfortably awkward 'great start arachne'  and she saw brandy's face harden into a steely expression most likely trying to hide her fear 

"you okay?"  and arachne facepalmed herself mentally of all the questions she could say she had to say the dumbest thing

'does brandy hate her now?'

"not really" brandy answered 

arachne really wanted to comfort brandy and so she offered her hand to her and she didn't miss the hesitation brandy felt as she hesitantly took her hand and laced their fingers and she didn't miss the way brandy seemed to slightly relax but was still tense and it was like holding brandy's hand allowed the girls emotions to seep into her body, mind and soul and it was like she could feel everything

fear, terror, sadness, despair, hate, anger, dread, worry, longing. 

and all arachne wanted to do was apologize to brandy and take her away from this but was utterly powerless to do anything....

and as they were ordered to go in the arena she wondered where clemensia was...

when they saw the inside of the arena arachne felt  dread pool inside her as she saw that there was nowhere to hide and that brandy even with her allies would be exposed and she saw that brandy seemed to have the same realization.

remembering the sandwich she had brought that was hidden in her pocket and seeing the fear in brandy's eyes she let go of brandy's hand and hugged her placing her hand on the other girls lower back and slipping the food into brandy's pocket.

arachne was secretly glad that tanner didn't abandon brandy and they even shared a laugh over insulting domitia and even teased vipsania about marrying treech when they met up

even though arachne knows that vipsania had a crush on Diana and it was obvious too and looked at where diana was and saw her with her brother and tributes, and she seemed to be comforting her tribute, what was her name again?, oh right Ginnee, diana and ginnee were hugging each other.

the sight of it made arachne look for brandy after making small talk with vipsania and walked to brandy who was staring at snow and was genuinely happy to find that like herself she held no love for snow and his songbird and even shared a laugh over mocking snow and even made eye contact and arachne got lost in brandy's eyes and smile and then felt her heart shatter as brandy started crying, tears were streaming down her face.