A/N: Written for the Starvation Forum Monthly Challenge (November 2013). Prompt: 'The eyes are the window to the Soul'
/1./ Prejudice
Perched among Pine trees, the two girls' voices sound like Mockingjays tweeting in the foliage.
"…and yet, he still didn't see me!" the red-haired girl concludes her story.
Rue's giggles of amusement fall silent when she sees the other girl pull out a knife and shell some walnuts they've picked together. She looks into her amber eyes, and imagines waking up one day to the same pair of eyes looking down at her with the knife drawn across her throat.
"Rue?" the girl whispers, noticing her dark fingers shift towards a stone knife. "You're still afraid of me aren't you?"
/2./ Mesmerize
"I don't get why she has to be such a bitch about it," Glimmer groans, fingers clutched tightly around her bow, "it's not like they're together or anything right?"
Marvel cleans his spear and nods silently in response. Gazing at the glowing campfire embers, her green eyes take on a serpentine reflection. He can never tear his eyes from them, and wonders why anyone would want to look anywhere else.
"Maybe she just feels…you know, insecure?" he replies, stumbling on his words, "I mean, you're…kind of…p-pretty."
Glimmer looks up and catches Marvel staring into her eyes, but he doesn't look away.
/3./ Delude
"For fuck's sake Cato, stay still," Clove snarls, trying to focus on the stinger in his cheek.
"Me? You're the one who's shaking!" he growls, scraping his nails along her neck. In his foggy vision, one stinger becomes two – before another dozen take their place.
Amidst the hallucination-fuelled fumbling, their fingers find each other, followed by their lips.
Cato pulls himself away and her face swims into focus; steel-gray eyes gazing back at him.
"Did you just kiss me?" Clove slurs against his breath.
The pools of liquid darkness cloud his mind, and he falls deeper and deeper into them.
/4./ Retribute
Thresh hadn't counted on anyone daring to find him here. But he remembers that vengeance is a blinding emotion; stronger than fear, more potent than sanity. Cato was already lacking both.
Clouds have blotted out all trace of the sun, and the rain's pouring around him in sheets. But as the lightning tears across the sky, Thresh sees two points of blue piercing through the darkness, and the light-haired boy's lips exhaling foggy breaths thick with hatred. At once, their eyes meet: each telling the other the same reason why they're charging to their deaths.
We could've gone home together.
/5./ Recompense
"Katniss!" he pleads, frantically trying to shake her awake. Slick with blood, Peeta's fingers slip from her shoulders, and the sight of crimson dripping from his hands causes him to realize that she just did the unforgivable.
"No – not like this," he whimpers, ripping open the first-aid kit and fumbling for the bandages. He wraps her head and tears them in the process.
"Wake up!," Peeta begs, clutching her limp body against his and not even noticing the needle in his arm, or his fever subsiding.
All he needs are for those two seam-gray eyes looking back at him again.