Reaping Beauty
By Alan Gilfoy in the world of Suzanne Collins. Glimmer volunteers one year earlier than in canon, and Johanna is reaped one year later than in my headcanon. They discover they have some rather significant things in common. (My first attempt at writing slash)
Rated M, Genres Romance/Adventure, Characters Glimmer/Johanna
Chapter
(Glimmer Shinesmith)
"You're two years too young," Cashmere insisted.
"You know I can do it," I countered.
"Why do you want to rush, Glim?" she wondered.
"With Diamond winning last year, and Sapphire the year before that, I want to make it three, a honor above and beyond even a regular Hunger Games victory," I explained. "After all, you won the year before your brother, which helped make your victories extra-special," I said triumphantly, because I didn't think she could counter that.
"You always were ambitious, Big Shiny," she admitted. Her and Lil' Shiny, my sister Lustre, were the only two people I let use that nickname. "There are no other obvious female candidates this year – you have my vote."
In the better districts, several people competed for the honor of volunteering for the Hunger Games, and the past victors determined who would actually receive it. District One had twelve living victors – Gloss would almost certainly agree with his younger sister, and their father Chrome and grandfather Facet would likely follow. Emerald, who won nineteen years ago, had always liked me. All twelve were mindful of continuing their legacy, but Sapphire and Diamond were especially mindful of who had the best chance of extending their streak. I don't think Cashmere and I were deluding ourselves – that person was me. So I had my seven votes, imagine my surprise when the victors returned a unanimous decision in my favor. Diamond had been named after a victor nearly a half century ago; the elder Diamond and Cashmere's grandpa Facet had won over all of the older Victors.
Jane was the pinnacle of a glamorous Capitol woman, yet I didn't even notice what name she had picked – in District One, that was merely a formality before a brave young man and woman said the words "I volunteer as tribute". It was finally my turn to utter that magic phrase, along with Alpha Miner, a boy I did not know except for relatively small interactions in the academy which trained us for the Games. Sapphire and Diamond were amongst the many girls that had put out for him, but I hadn't – I didn't understand what was appealing about an idiot braggart like that, however handsome and strong he was. Miss Silversmith, Miss Hoffman and his many other lovers insisted he was well-equipped, and that was very much how Glimmer liked her boys, but still, Alpha never appealed to me. I would've rather had Sapphire and Diamond themselves, but alas, they were born to feel that their jewels were for boys only, whereas I had the luck to be created open-minded as well as open-legged.
(Johanna Mason)
One more year and my worry would be over. The past six years, I had survived the Reaping and twelve kids from District Seven hadn't. May the odds be ever in your favor, they said, about entering and winning the Games, but I took it to mean not being thrown into the arena in the first place. My little brother James had already avoided death once. Both of us found love much preferable. He was always going on and on about the girls he had crushes on. The ladies that were too old for him, I was glad to take off his hands and put into my hands. The memories of fondling their breasts caused me to almost involuntarily touch my own chest lumber.
One more reaping, and I would be back in the woods cutting down trees to feed the Capitol lumber and paper mills. It wasn't much of a life, but it was life instead of death, and it had developed my muscles and skills with an ax. The boys around here appreciated toned and athletic women. I appreciated their physique too - I certainly liked their look enough to drop my pants, open my legs, and take them inside me.
Yet it was not to be. The Capitol airhead's hand just had to find one of the seven slips that read 'Johanna Mason'. I had long since been determined to be the fourth District Seven victor if it ever came to that, but I knew how unlikely that was, facing the bloodthirsty volunteers of One, Two and Four. At least Jamie was safe another year – I didn't want to face my own kin, and he had no chance anyway.
Peacekeepers threw me into a car as if I was a criminal like the ones The Capitol punished nearly a century ago. I saw Pine and Blight at the train station. They were old men, but they had won this once, and I would be wise to listen for tips on how to join them. "Seems Miss Airhead gave us a strong girl to work with this year," Blight said to assess my physique – I could tell his intention was nonsexual, since I knew darn well what men sounded like when they wanted a piece of Mason ass. Also, by omission he said that I had a better chance than my district partner – I wouldn't have bet on that scrawny little boy even if he wasn't my competition. "Pretend you're weak," Blight offered as his first piece of advice. "so when you demonstrate your strength, they won't see it coming." Johanna Mason was nothing if not smart, and I found this irresistibly clever.
(Glimmer Shinesmith)
Cashmere had prepared me for this moment, when we were on a luxury train hurtling towards the Capitol. We sat back in soft spacious chairs as we reviewed the other eleven reapings on giant screens and had Avox servants ply our mouths with the most delightful Capitol delicacies. Districts Two and Four provided the expected physical wonders, for they were much like my own District One in their loyalty to the Capitol. In most of the other districts, Peacekeepers dragged scrawny little kids kicking and screaming to the Reaping stages. In Three, they were stoic and had smirks on their faces, hardly uncommon for the clever technologists native to that district. The girl from Seven was in wonderful shape, probably from chopping wood all day as they did in the land of lumber and paper. Her forearms glistened in the summer afternoon sunlight, and I probably would have seen her abs shine too had she been wearing a smaller shirt. I had worn some of my very best dresses and jewelry for this occasion. I would wear one of my rings as a token of home in the arena. It had been a gift from Emerald. Yet Miss Seven was in common clothes like it had been any other day. She was as well-muscled as any boy, yet she was all-woman, and I wanted those hands all over my womanly parts….snap out of it, Glim! This isn't a time for two people making love! This is a time for 24 people trying to kill one another!
(Johanna Mason)
The train was damn nice, instead of our rustic life back in a District Seven hut, but I focused on the task ahead of me, paying little mind to the fancy food the Capitol's servants put in front of me. I ate aimlessly as we watched the tapes of the other 22 tributes being chosen or volunteering – I needed to understand the competition as thoroughly as possible if I stood a chance of outliving them. At first glance, I saw what was expected out of the District Two and Four brutes and no other threats from my fellow outer districts. One was a different story. The boy looked particularly strong, a threat for obvious reasons. He was tall and handsome, which would obviously draw a lot of positive attention from the vain residents of the Capitol. He wore tight-fitting pants which showed off his assets below the waist – I was starting to get distracted, let alone the Capitolites. I knew better than that, and had started to snap out of it when the camera refocused on the female from that lowest-numbered district. They way her braided pigtails bounced against her shoulders, the way her dark green eyes stared with an intensity that I had only seen in my brown orbs, the way her whole shapely figure moved as she walked up to the stage…I wanted her next to me, preferably with minimal clothes in the way, let alone any fabric at all. Blight wants me to put on a weak act? Maybe I can appear the lovestruck girl, but I'm afraid I'm not just pretending.
(Glimmer Shinesmith)
I'd have time for at least a short nap before we arrived in the Capitol. The city was beautiful, and so were the fashions of its people. The train station wasn't so decorated, but it still shined. Tribute trains were the station's only business on Reaping Day, yet the platforms were packed with Capitol residents wanting to get glimpses of the brave tributes. The display of pending arrivals listed 3/2 from the west, 7/6/5 from the northwest, 4/10 and 11/9 from the southeast, and 12/8 from the east. I couldn't wait for the northwest train. I'd have to see how impressive that Johanna girl was in person, preferably as she pressed up against me. Us tributes from One, Two and Four always formed an alliance, and sometimes invited particularly deserving tributes from other districts. Johanna seemed most promising this year, and not just as a way for me to get closer to her.
(Johanna Mason)
I tried to calm my nerves by laying in the luxurious Capitol bed, but sleep wouldn't come. Eventually we started heading through the tunnels in the mountains surrounding the Capitol. The city looked so garish, both from a distance and up close, and as I analyzed the crowds at the train station, I thought the people were just as bad. The station information said that 3/2 was due from the west, 7/6/5 from the northwest, 4/10 and 11/9 from the southeast, and 12/8 from the east. District One surrounded the Capitol, so I wasn't sure what direction Glimmer would be coming from. Try as I might, I couldn't help but be intrigued with the District One beauty. "Blight, screw that 'weak' shit," I told the relatively youngest of my two old mentors. "I'm going to try to get into the Careers."
"Try to get into a particular Career's pants," he teased. He was more accurate than I would have liked to admit.
I saw the District One train pull up on the same side the platform we had landed on. This year's mentors, Cashmere and her brother Gloss, were no slouches in the looks department either. Yet it was the female tribute I meant when I decided to cop an attitude and shout out "Hey, sexy!"
(Glimmer Shinesmith)
The tributes from Five, Six and Seven were still on the platform when our train arrived at the station, operative part being the female tribute from Seven. As soon as our team's feet hit the station's solid marble, Miss Mason called out "Hey, sexy!". She was looking right at me as she said that, I just knew it. I looked back at her, and her response to my glance confirmed my wishful thinking. I disregarded Cashmere and Jane's standard instructions to walk up to this Johanna. My fellow tribute reached out with her hand, not to shake mine, but rather to cop a feel, I thought, as her hand 'accidentally' brushed across my waist.
(Johanna Mason)
Glimmer obviously saw in me what I saw in her. It wasn't accidental as my 'hug' went lower than the standard friendly embrace, and I don't think it was accidental as her hands gripped my ass. Right there, Shinesmith. Right there. Even the sexually expressive District One girl didn't dare go farther with the crowd surrounding us. I wondered if it was even possible for two tributes from opposing districts to find time alone. Even before the chariots had paraded us into the Capitol, we already had a love or death situation on our hands.