Chapter 1; The Day Before

It's the day before the reaping, and I'm always cheery this time of year.

But it's different this time. I'm clear of the Hunger Games for good this year, and have the sweet satisfaction, even if to myself, that I had outsmarted the capitol. Every year I would sneak into the justice building and take my name, Archaeos Electro (and that's "Electro" as in the Latin term "golden", referring to the golden hair running through my ancestry all the way back to the beginning of Panem, when everyone re-named themselves), out of the drawing balls.

Why, you ask? Well, I probably have the worst luck that any person could imagine. If I do have a stroke of luck, it usually means that something horrible is about to happen to someone else. I've learned to just stop caring about other people, and just worry about myself. Yeah, it makes me a selfish bastard, but it makes it easier.

Well, I guess I can't help caring about Nox...

Nox is some new form of mutt, I tell you what. He's from three, like me, but he looks like he's from twelve, with his black hair and pale skin. But his eyes are green, which are indicative of 1 or 4. Then, if you only look at his name, Noximus Maximilian, you'd think he was from the capitol.

We had grown up together, he and I, and he's probably the only person I'd give up my life for. Probably because he's the one that keeps me sane. He's sweeter than a cookie, though. Not the type of guy I'd think to be as delicious as I do.

But I'm not gay, so I don't think he's delicious...

We spent the whole day together enjoying the finer points of District 3, exhausting ourselves with dance games, stuffing ourselves to the brim with cheese and noodles, and pranking Ratchet, my arch nemesis. She and I exchange deadly pranks, but it's all in good fun. We know both of us are good enough to get out of it alive. Late in the night, Nox covered me while I took out my name slips, which is surprisingly fast and easy once you make an advanced probability formula.

We came home laughing, as usual, and I led him upstairs to my bedroom, where I pulled out a bottle of white liquor.

"Cheers to home free?" I grinned at him. He stared at me for a moment in disbelief, and then said "Cheers."

We drank for a while, but didn't get drunk. No way were we going to have a hangover the morning of the reaping. Still, I felt loose, and found myself touching various provocative spots on his body. Feeling his thigh, rubbing his chest, stroking his neck, clinging to his arm. I was soon in a warm embrace.

"Nox?" I was confused, but still touching as much as I could. "Yeah?" His voice was lower. "What are you─ah!─doing?" I sucked in my breath as he placed his hands on my hips. "I'm..." He started. "I'm going to fuck you, Archaeos. Really hard. All night."

The next part is a blur of emotions and heat. All I know is we went all night, he took me for all I'm worth, and I enjoyed every second of it.

Er, I could go on for a while about how great that night was, but I feel I should skip the details. The point is, from then on, I lived happily with Nox, facing crowds of disapproving faces, my mother crying that she wouldn't have any grandchildren, and I held his hand on through the reaping and we lived happily...ever...after...

BWAAHAHAHA! I can't even keep a straight face saying that! If only the past statements were true. Okay, okay, let me calm down and I'll tell you what really happened.

...

Okay, I'm done. What I'd planned to do was finish with him, and then after the reaping, turn him down. I've accepted that I'm gay, and I enjoyed it to no end, but there was no way I was gonna face the shit people would give me. Instead, I chose the smart path, to kill my feelings, hurt his, and marry a woman to have kids that I'll teach to outsmart the capitol too.

Well, that was my plan, anyway.