Title: Dandelion in the Spring
Characters: Hikaru PoV. All named characters involved herein exist in the manga canon.
Pairing(s): Tamaki/Hikaru + other side pairings
Rating: T, or if you can read The Hunger Games, you can read this.
Disclaimer: Ouran High School Host Club belongs to Hatori Bisco and related companies. The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins and related companies.
Spoilers: The entire Hunger Games series even though no THG character will appear herein, hence why this is not a crossover. Also, you will find that it is much easier if you know the whole Ouran canon even though there are no specific spoilers given this is obviously AU.
This fic is a direct sequel to Here is the place.
Dedication: Thank you to the 12 of you who have read Here is the place and left reviews and messages. All of your support means more to me than I can say, and sometimes it is the only thing keeping me going. This is for you – Purpleflower00, themostprofoundchild, PruePhantomhive, Victoria62015, Think. Analyze. BeYou, Rozafunk, Krisuvial, stole-my-pen, That's not punny, Wenxi, Kamili, and the person who left kind words as a Guest.
Finally, if it matters to any of you as a reader, I have finished the Ouran manga and anime in full, as well as all THG books and the available movie(s).
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CHAPTER ONE
I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.
– Mockingjay
A reconstructed Capitol city centre, to be exact. As it was in all its glory before the war, all buildings intact and roads clean and smooth. No debris, no corpses, no sign of any damage.
It is perfect, it is familiar, and it evokes in Hikaru a sickening rush of homesickness.
That was probably the intended effect, given how the other tributes' faces also show signs of deep sorrow and longing. For a moment they all seem to forget where they are and what this is, simply lost in the remnants of their old life.
Then slowly Hikaru's ears tune into the doohm, doohm, doohm sound of the countdown ticking away the sixty seconds they have to orientate themselves to prepare to hit the ground running. Seventy-six of them stand equidistant from each other around the huge loop of Victory Parade. In the middle where there should have been the iconic towering memorial of the Capitol's victory over the Prefectures stands the Cornucopia instead, overflowing with lots of stuff. Hikaru frantically sweeps his eyes over whatever happens to be within his realm of vision – the wide array of items appear to be weapons and only weapons. Shit.
Games where the only provisions are weapons generally mean that everything else required for survival will be very scarce and a real pain to obtain. Think about it: the Cornucopia is a subsidy, an initial contribution to help the Tributes achieve their common objective of staying alive. If only killing is made easier by the Gamemakers... it's clear what sort of game they're in for.
The clock hits zero and Hikaru runs for it.