I remember seeing him for the first time.
Well, for the first time…the second time.
Anything before Snow held me at the Capital doesn't count, so even if I saw him before, which everyone assures me I did, this is the only first time that matters.
Only problem is, will he let me make a first impression…a second time?
Battle was so imminent, and I was told that my mental health was crucial to our side's win. But I can't concentrate with that Everdeen girl around. The objective part of my mind understands that I have no reason to worry, but the animalistic side of me goes into full alert when she enters the room. I smell her before I hear her, I hear her before I see her. And when I see her, my body overrides my brain. I want to warn her before that happens, but it always happens too quickly. I see red, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up from sedatives on a bed.
The first time I met him was when they decided I was well enough to no longer blackout around her, but she still required the quickest, strongest fighter on the ship to protect her. I couldn't help it; I scorned her for it. The supposed face of the good fight could hardly face me, let alone masses of whatever Snow had in store from them. She is too delicate, can hardly imagine what could exist. Her naïveté wrinkled my nose as much as anything else about her.
"And what, may I ask, is bothering you?" He spoke. To me. He spoke to me. In a patronizing tone, with the air of one watching a fish pitifully flail itself to death on dry land. My attention was immediately diverted, my nose and my ears and my eyes cleansed. Though I hated my show of subservience, I couldn't help but beg him silently to continue.
I could see in his eyes that I must have startled him by not rising to the bait. I surprised myself a bit too. The one who did rise to the bait though, was she.
"Lay off of him Gale, please. For me."
How dare she presume to stand up for me. I began to see red again, but this time, it was translucent, and faded as quickly as it appeared. I growled at her, but the restraint of my savage was apparent to everyone in the room. I was proud. Not for having spared her, but for having controlled myself in front of him.
They buzzed around me for a while. Neither spoke a word, for which I was grateful. They left, but I knew she'd be back sooner than I would have liked.
So long as she brought him, I wouldn't mind in the slightest.