NAIL LACQUER

"Enobaria?" called Brutus from their kitchen in their big house located in the Victors' Village. She walked into the kitchen to see what he wanted when she paused in her tracks, amused by the fact that he had two bottles of nail lacquer in his hands.

"What is it?" her face showing a bit of curiosity as to why he would be holding two bottles of nail lacquer.

"What is this?" he asked, holding up the two bottles.

"Nail lacquer," she replied.

He stared at the two bottles in his hands. "What's it for?"

She walked up to him and took the two bottles from his hands into hers. She sat herself down on the kitchen counter and held the two bottles in her hands. "For painting nails."

"Why is it here?" he asked. He never expected to see some beauty essential like nail lacquer to be lying around in their house. Enobaria doesn't seem like the type of girl who would spend her time perfecting her nails.

Enobaria tried to remember the reason as to why there was nail lacquer in their house. "Oh! I know. Cashmere left them when she and Gloss came to visit last week."

"Would she be mad if we used some of it?" he asked, curious about the expression the blonde woman from One would give if she found out what they were going to do with those two small bottles of nail lacquer.

"Probably," guessed Enobaria. "Why are you so interested in some beauty essential like nail lacquer?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I've just never seen something like it before."

She chuckled at his statement. "Then you've obviously never seen what my prep team has done to me the night of my interviews after my games. They put this type of weird gel on my arms and legs. Applied on as blue, came off pink. It was the slimiest, weirdest thing ever. Apparently, it was supposed to give me this healthy" – she rolled her eyes – "glow."

He leaned into her and kissed her neck, leaving a trail of kisses from her neck to behind her ears. "You still looked beautiful that night, well, you always look beautiful."

"Thank you," she said. He pulled away and continued to stare at the bottles of nail lacquer. "Brutus, do you want to do something with them?"

"What?" he asked. "No, of course not. Why would I want to do something with a beauty essential such as nail lacquer?"

Enobaria, knowing him too well, decided to give in. "Fine, you can paint my nails."

Brutus smiled and dragged her over to their large L-shaped sofa in their living room. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." He kissed her cheek and brought her legs up so that they could lay on his. She sat next to him while he got a cushion and rested her hand on it for support.

"Just this once," she told him.

He held both the nail lacquers in his hand. "Which one do you want?"

One nail lacquer was a purple plum color while the other bottle was more like a golden color. "I really don't care."

"Okay," he said as he unscrewed the top of the golden nail lacquer bottle. "I'm going to go gold so that they can match your teeth. But I'm going to leave your index finger blank, then paint it the plum color instead."

"Great," she commented, her voice dripping with sarcasm. But she was glad this simple act made Brutus happy. "Where did you even get that idea from?"

"I saw Antoinette wear it once," he said. He positioned her hand and gave the bottle to Enobaria so that she could hold it for him while he painted. "Now, quiet. I need to concentrate. Alright, babe?"

"Whatever you say," she said. She felt the cooling sensation on her nails as the nail lacquer was brushed on. The strong smell made Enobaria a little weary, but she shrugged it off and watched as Brutus painted all ten of her fingernails. Brutus was talking forever; she was even starting to fall asleep. Once Brutus noticed that he was taking too long, he picked up his pace, while still trying to make it as neat as possible. Anything for his Enobaria.

"Done," he stated as he screwed on the top of the plum colored nail lacquer bottle. Enobaria inspected her polished hands in two different colors. "Like it?"

"Eh," she commented. "How long does this take to dry?"

Brutus looked at the back of the nail lacquer bottles and read what it said. "It says in about two to three hours."

"What!?" shouted Enobaria in disbelief that nail lacquer would take so long to dry.

"I'm kidding," he teased. "I about seven to ten minutes it should be completely dry."

"Good, cause I'm not going to be wasting two to three hours of my time waiting for my nails to dry," she stated. "What do I do know?"

"I'll read you the Capitol newspaper," he said. He got up from his seat on the couch and came back with a newspaper to read to her while she did absolutely nothing.

"You're welcome," she said, referring to her allowing him to paint her nails.

"Thank you, baby, for letting me paint your nails," he thanked before he kissed her cheek.

A week later, Brutus found another beauty essential that Cashmere left behind; a curling iron. Poor Enobaria gave in, again, and let Brutus curl her hair. A few hours after he was done, she searched throughout the house, put all of Cashmere's belongings in a box, and shipped it off to District One.

THE END