Disclaimer: Hunger Games does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Suzanne Collins, etc.
Written for Starvation Forum's March prompt, 'epic'.
(this isn't a) love story
Theirs is an epic love. A love of epic proportions. And like all great loves, this one is bound to end in tragedy.
The lovers don't know this though.
[Well, one of them doesn't, anyway]
xx
Tatiana first sees him on television. Blinding blond hair, piercing blue eyes, with handsome features to match. He is the personification of Tatiana's every fantasy. It's like he was made for her. His rich clothing, jewels of all sizes – mostly sapphires to match the brilliant hue of his eyes – glittering in the light, further emphasized against the black suit he is wearing.
It's an expensive, extravagant outfit, but what of value isn't, especially in the Capitol?
Money is no object for Tatiana Frost; her father is the vice-president of Panem, after all. At all of fifteen years old, Tatiana knows what she wants, and she knows how to get it too. 'No' is a word that doesn't exist in her vocabulary.
She watches, breathless, as Gloss' chariot travels majestically around the stadium, wishing that she hadn't chosen to attend her best friend's party instead of attending the chariot ride with her father. (Never mind that going anywhere with her father is decidedly 'unfashionable'.)
Tatiana gazes at the television screen, glad that whoever is filming is giving Gloss more than his fair share of camera time. It happens every year, after all; the most handsome or beautiful or striking tributes get the most attention – this year, that tribute is to be Gloss.
Tatiana watches him and she thinks I want him.
She hasn't even spoken to him, has no idea what his personality is like, what his interests are.
It's love at first sight, like all the great stories tell of. Like in Romeo and Juliet, the play that they had to read in school.
[The first time Gloss sees her, he is repulsed; she has dyed her hair blue, the same shade as his eyes, and it doesn't suit her at all]
xx
Tatiana watches him kill the other tributes. He is tall, leaner than the brute of a boy from District Two, but still muscled.
He is also much faster, which he proves when he betrays his allies two weeks after the Games begin. The number of tributes has dwindled down to eight; a weak boy from one of the higher Districts who has survived on luck, and a loner who has the potential to be a serious contender are the only tributes who remain beside the Career Alliance.
Gloss is on watch with the boy from District Four that night. He slits the boy's throat with the knife that he has used for nearly all his kills in the Games. The boy bleeds out silently, hands grasping vainly at his neck.
Tatiana hovers on the edge of her seat, one hand pressed over her mouth as she watches without blinking. Gloss hurls his knife with deadly accuracy into the skull of his District partner, the only tribute to get a training score higher than his own. The sound of her cannon wakes the rest of the Alliance.
The girl from District Four stupidly charges Gloss; he cuts her down easily with his sword, then turns and runs when it becomes obvious the pair from District Two intend to fight him together. Good, that's the smart thing to do, Tatiana thinks approvingly.
She spends all of her allowance on sponsoring him and sends Gloss the lavish meal that he'd commented on briefly during his interview with Flickerman, along with another knife identical to the one he lost when he betrayed his allies.
Gloss seems to instinctively know where the camera is; when he gazes straight into it, blue eyes clear, voice sincere, a small smile on his lips, Tatiana knows that he knows. He knows that it is her that sent him this gift. And going without the absolute, cutting-edge of fashion in the Capitol for a few days is a small price to pay for his gratitude. Gloss is worth it, after all.
"Thank you," he says (he lies).
[Gloss says it because it's expected, and because he needs the sponsors, not because he feels particularly grateful to the anonymous sponsor(s) that paid for his meals]
xx
Tatiana hardly sleeps, skips school so that she won't miss a moment of Gloss' Games. She knows he's going to win; the odds, which she checks obsessively during the stupid commercial breaks, are heavily in his favour, even if the pair from District Two is acting like a team who seem bent on taking down Gloss.
He eliminates the weak boy; the pair from District Two runs into the loner. The loner manages to fatally wound the girl from District Two, before he can be subdued. Tatiana cheers; with every death, Gloss is one step closer to escaping the arena and returning to her.
It is the brutish boy from District Two and Gloss who remain, now. They interview Gloss' sister, a pretty girl named Cashmere. Tatiana is jealous of her beauty, but then she realizes that Cashmere is only his sister, and can't possibly be a threat.
Seventeen days after entering the arena, Gloss becomes the victor of the Sixty-Sixth Hunger Games; he has nine kills to his name, and Tatiana is immensely proud of him. She knows that the determination Gloss displayed in the arena will translate into life beyond it; he's already overcome those challenges (the twenty-three other innocent children) that stood in his way, and surely he won't let something as minor as social status separate them from their destiny.
Just like Romeo overcame the challenges he was faced with to be reunited with Juliet.
["Romeo and Juliet died," Gloss points out when she tells him this]
xx
Tatiana tells her father she wants to get to know Gloss. He is indulgent, at first, but after seeing the depth of her love (obsession) with the eighteen year old victor from District One, he becomes concerned. Then he becomes angry. He forbids his daughter from seeing her one true love.
It is just like in Romeo and Juliet; their families won't let them be together.
It is also the first time he has ever refused Tatiana anything. She is understandably upset – there's no cause for him to be so unreasonable, after all.
Of course, he assumes she will abide by his wishes.
So Tatiana saves up her allowance for a few weeks. She has heard about this practice, among her friends; the super-rich can purchase a victor, for a time, for an exorbitant price.
It will be worth it, though. Tatiana just knows it will be.
She finds out who is in charge of these things. She arranges a meeting with President Snow; it's a show of how committed he is, to the nation of Panem and her dependent Districts, that he would take the time to organize these things. He doesn't want anything untoward to happen to the victors, after all. Tatiana admires him for his dedication, even if she finds his liking of roses a bit strange. There is also a strange, metallic smell that hangs around him that she doesn't recognize.
But she doesn't dwell on it, because Snow is smiling, taking her money, and assuring her that she will get the special night she has been imagining for months with Gloss. Best of all, he says he won't tell her father. Tatiana is very pleased to hear this, and thanks the President for his kindness.
[Gloss throws up afterwards, the first time; "it's just the alcohol, I think I drank too much," he says (he lies)]
xx
"I love you, Gloss," Tatiana tells (accuses) him. She's seventeen, he's twenty, and she just found out that he was sleeping with another woman.
"I didn't love her," Gloss says, which isn't a lie.
Tatiana pouts. "I can't believe President Snow gave you to someone else, even if it was only for one night!"
Gloss' lip curls upwards, an ugly, angry sneer that Tatiana didn't see even in the Games.
"I can't either," is all he says, quietly, furiously, before he kisses her forcefully.
Tatiana is glad he feels the same; it's only further confirmation that Gloss loves her, because he is obviously upset about being even one night without her.
She wonders if Romeo and Juliet's love was as passionate as hers. Then she remembers that they were only like fourteen years old, and they only had a night together, while she and Gloss see each other several weeks a year, and she decides that their love story is much better.
[Gloss stares at the sleeping girl (child?) who is the same age his sister was when she won the Games a year ago, and thinks about how easy it would be to kill her]
xx
"Why do you still purchase my time?" Gloss asks. The way he phrases the question, pausing between 'still' and 'purchase' makes Tatiana really look at him. It's been eight years since Gloss won the Hunger Games. He is twenty-six years old, no longer as muscular as he was in the Games (though still rather built) and he is definitely more handsome.
It's the intent look in his blue eyes that captures her attention, though.
"Because I love you," she says simply, confused by this question. "I wish we could be together all the time, maybe someday the President will allow it," she adds hopefully, wanting to alleviate whatever dark mood seems to have descended upon him.
And it's not such a futile hope – things can change. Claudius Templesmith announced the rule change only hours before; Tatiana knows that the change was made for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark – even the President can be swayed by love.
Gloss stares at her for a long moment, silent. Then he looks away, out the window of the penthouse she now lives in.
"It's too bad the President has to think of the...greater good," he says, sounding more sad and resigned than angry, which is a slight improvement.
Tatiana goes to stand beside him, wraps her arms around his waist and leans up on the tips of her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.
Gloss turns his head before she can repeat the action, captures her lips with his own, and all thoughts of the President are gone before long.
[Gloss hates when she acts like they are in love, hates the little intimate desecrations she (unwittingly?) forces upon him; if it's just about sex, that he can handle]
xx
Tatiana calls Gloss the day the Third Quarter Quell is announced. He asked her not to call him when he is back in District One, as he is usually out, but she makes an exception just this once.
A woman answers on the second ring.
"Hello?"
"Hello, this is Tatiana Frost-"
"Gloss' lover." The cold way this woman (she sounds familiar) says the last word make Tatiana shiver.
"Yes- I need to speak with him," Tatiana says, tamping down on her panic to infuse her words with the cool haughtiness that befits someone of her station.
"I'm sure—Gloss! Your lover's on the phone!" the woman calls, and the way she says 'lover' rankles. Why does she sound so sarcastic?
"Who was that?" Tatiana asks when Gloss picks up the phone.
"Cashmere," Gloss replies. "Is something wrong? Why did you call?"
"I- President Snow just announced...about the Quarter Quell... You saw, didn't you?" Tatiana says, biting her lip anxiously.
"Don't worry; the only District that has a larger pool of victors is Two; the odds of me being reaped are pretty insignificant," he assures her.
"But what if you do get reaped?" Tatiana insists.
"Then I'll win," Gloss says calmly, though he has that deliberately slow, I'm-trying-not-to-get-angry tone of voice.
"Even if Cashmere gets reaped too?" Tatiana whispers.
Gloss doesn't answer for one, two, three long seconds.
"You'll- you'll come back to me, won't you?" Tatiana presses, when the silence drags for almost a minute.
"If I get reaped," Gloss answers. "Which I doubt I will."
"Even if it means you have to kill your sister? You'll come back to me."
"I don't know," Gloss says finally, frustrated. "It's still months away- I'll think of something."
"Don't you love me? More than your sister?" Tatiana asks desperately.
"I have to go, Tatiana," he says (he lies).
He hangs up.
Tatiana slumps down beside the table, draws her knees up against her chest. The phone dangles beside her, the insistent dial tone unnoticed.
He's never outright said he loves me, she thinks, staring blankly at the wall opposite her. She'd always assumed it was because such open displays of emotion were uncomfortable for him, which she has been okay with, until today. After all, if Gloss was as much of a simpering pansy as Romeo, she thinks she would have tired of him early on.
She wonders now, a (somewhat) mature and self-aware adult, if that wouldn't have been better. She wonders for the first time if Gloss was worth it.
["It won't be both of us!" Gloss snaps at Cashmere when she asks the same question Tatiana did (she was listening on the other line); he ignores the thought at the back of his mind telling him that reaping a pair of siblings would be a great show, especially siblings as popular as he and Cashmere are]
xx
Tatiana pulls some – well, a lot – of strings and secures herself the position of escort of District One.
"Cashmere Chrome," she reads off the small slip of paper in her hands. She has no particular interest in the woman, other than the fact that she is Gloss' sister, but Tatiana still feels a pang when she reads the woman's name.
Cashmere is as beautiful as ever; she glides up to the stage as if such petty occurrences as getting reaped are beneath her notice.
President Snow wouldn't rig the reapings, Tatiana tells herself as she pulls out the slip of paper with the name of the male tribute.
"Gloss Chrome," she whispers, though the microphone attached to her collar magnifies her voice enough to still be heard.
He strides confidently to the stage, gives the cameras a level, disinterested look.
Tatiana stares at the slip of paper in her hand blankly, silence dragging out.
A familiar, warm hand settles at the small of her back.
"I, for one, am thrilled to be participating in the Hunger Games again," Gloss says (he lies) with a disarming smile to the cameras. "I thought my time entertaining the good citizens of the Capitol had passed, but it seems I've been given another chance."
His words awaken Tatiana from her stunned stupor. She recovers, gives the standard speech, and Gloss steps back to stand beside his sister.
Later that night, in Gloss' bedroom on the train, she asks him if he loves her. She isn't sure if she wants to know the answer, but she asks anyway.
"I think I might," Gloss replies quietly, thoughtfully. "I resented you for the longest time – I couldn't understand why you kept dragging me back. But I think now – well, yes. I know you meant well."
Tatiana presses closer to him, trying not to think about the fact that Gloss is probably going to die in a few days.
She cries once she thinks he's asleep.
[Gloss isn't asleep; he lies awake, wondering whether he meant what he said or not: he meant them as a lie to appease (console?) Tatiana, but he can't help but wonder if there isn't a grain of truth within them]
xx
Tatiana sends Gloss a spile, and two good water canteens, one for him and one for Cashmere. She also sends him as much food as she can afford at this point, because Gloss is worth it, and he's going to be coming back.
He dies on the third day; slits the eccentric woman from District Three's throat, then gets shot by Katniss Everdeen. The girl that Tatiana had sponsored because she thought Katniss and Peeta's star-crossed love was the most beautiful thing since her own romance with Gloss.
Tatiana cries and cries. Tears down the picture of President Snow that was a gift from her father when she moved out. Rips her phone out of the wall. Smashes her television.
She curls into a ball and lies in bed until the news that some tributes escaped, while others were captured by the Capitol, reaches her.
Romeo thought Juliet died, so he killed himself. She awoke from her drugged sleep, only to realize that her love was dead; then she killed herself too.
Tatiana had been so sure that her love with Gloss would be everlasting, until one of them died of old age, or disease, or- or anything that was natural, that didn't end with the familiar boom! of a cannon.
She stares at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She could join the rebellion that has obviously been brewing. Someone in her position would be an asset, to be sure.
But Gloss is dead. There is no point in living, now. He said he loved her, in the end.
She forgot that most of the 'great' love stories seem to end in tragedy and death. But the death just proves that their love was great, and epic, and everlasting... And he died a hero, didn't he? Killing that half-mad woman—
Tatiana swallows the pills clutched in one hand before she can over think things. She'll be with Gloss, wherever people go after they die, right—?
[Gloss' last thought is Cashmere]
A/N: I had a lot of fun (procrastinating on homework) writing this. I'd appreciate hearing (reading?) your thoughts on this.
And I know Romeo and Juliet isn't an epic in the poetic sense of the word, but I think that their love is certainly epic... If that makes any sense. ;)