Disclaimer: I do not own Hunger Games: Catching Fire, or D. Gray-Man.
Gale carried the young boy they had found in the clearing on his back ignoring the crimson stain spreading through his already dirtied shirt as they made their way back to town.
Katniss took care to duck under the fence that separated the woods from District 12.
The fence was supposed to be electrified 24/7, but no one actually maintained it so Katniss had been sneaking out against the law with Gale to hunt wild game to support her family. Of course that was all before the Hunger Games.
Now she was a wealthy Victor with more money than she knew what to do with.
Gale gently lowered the boy and pushed him through the large hole under the fence.
"Who do you think he is?" He whispered softly in Katniss's ear making her cheeks redden slightly despite the freezing cold. She searched her mind,
"He's obviously from the Capitol, just look at his hair only the people in the Capitol do that to their body."
Her face contorted slightly at the thought of what the citizens of the Capitol considered fashion. Tattoos that covered their plastic surgery configured faces, and the most ridiculous outfits one could imagine to exist on the planet. It was rather revolting considering that one dress from the Capitol could probably feed an entire family in District 12 for a month.
The boy's clothing was odd, black jacket and pants with red trimming and high boots, but it didn't seem like the ridiculous frills and lace that covered the Capitols citizens clothing.
"But what would someone from the Capitol be doing in District 12 of all places?" Gale asked with a frown on his face. "With these kinds of wounds too." Katniss only shrugged in response just as confused as her friend.
"Sorry but you better take him from here." Gale said. Was Katniss imagining it or was there a hint of disappointment and sadness in Gale's voice. She shrugged it off.
"I don't think I should be seen in Victor's village, plus we don't want to be seen spending too much time together since we're cousins right?" He smiled at the lie Katniss had concocted about their relationship so the story that she and Peeta were star-crossed lovers wouldn't be challenged.
She nodded in understanding shifting her weight so she could move Allen onto her back.
She was alarmed at how much blood he had lost. If she didn't get him to her mother soon it might be too late. Katniss doubled her pace as she reached her beautiful house in Victor's village where she lived with her mother and younger sister Primrose. When she stepped through the door her mother greeted her hurriedly.
"Welcome back dear. How was your walk?" She asked quickly.
"Walk?" Katniss was mother knew she was out hunting with Gale so why? Then she noticed the man standing by the stairway that led upstairs and immediately understood. There were people from the Capitol in their house. Katniss heard her mother gasp.
"Who?" She asked pointing at the deathly pale boy hanging limply on her shoulder.
"I found him in an alley when I was on my walk." She lied smoothly. Katniss gently lowered Allen so they could support his weight equally and lift him onto the dining counter so her mom could inspect his wounds. The man from the Capitol raised an eyebrow at the odd scene.
"Help me get his coat off." She said. Her voice had changed to that of a healer, commanding and strong. Katniss admired this side of her mother. She had been in a daze after her husband had died, but whenever there was a person who needed her help she seemed to snap out of her trance and live up to the situation. Now the fire had returned to her eyes as she carefully removed the boy's shirt.
Katniss wanted to help, but the man from the Capitol stepped forward placing a hand on Katniss's shoulder. She tensed at this expecting a fight but he just said in a deep voice.
"This way please Miss Everdeen." She felt uncomfortable being ushered around her own home but followed silently as the man led her to the study room.
He waved indicating she should enter. As she eased the door open her breath seemed to catch in her chest so she had to gulp for air.
President Snow sat the desk waiting patiently for her with his fingers interlaced and an unnerving gleam in his eyes. He eyed her wearily as a snake might ponder how to kill the mouse already trapped in its lair. He waved her towards the wooden chair set up facing the desk. She sat stiffly.
"I think we'll make this whole situation a lot simpler by agreeing not to lie to each other," he says. "What do you think?"
Katniss was surprised when she answered in a steady voice.
"Yes I think that will speed things up." He gazed coldly into her eyes and she responded by sending him an equally cold and determined glare.
He explained in a monotone voice that sounded dangerously detached about the situation in the other district.
Katniss kept her face as blank as possible as she heard about the dissent spreading through the various district that viewed her trick in the previous Hunger Games as an act of defiance against the Capitol.
"If a girl from District 12 of all places can defy the might of the Capitol without any consequences then what is to stop them from rising up? What is to prevent let's say…" His gaze locked with hers, and an intensity she hadn't seen before now burned in his eyes. "A revolution?"
"Must be a delicate system if a small handful of berried can bring it down." Katniss was surprised at the words that came tumbling out of her mouth. President Snow surveyed her with a calculated gaze.
"It is delicate, but not in the way you might think. Will you Katniss Everdeen the girl on fire stop an uprising that would leave thousand dead and a collapsed country that can't support itself? Will you show the District that you are nothing more than a tame pet of the Capitol?"
She gritted her teeth, anger welling up in her chest making her wanting to snap back rashly, but instead she took a deep breath and answered.
"I'll convince them, I'll make sure they believe our love story and we weren't going against the Capitol." President Snow shook his head.
"No Miss Everdeen. Convince me."
With that he waved his hand in a clear dismissal. She turned abruptly to leave, anything to get out of that stifling room.
"Miss Everdeen one last thing." Katniss froze one hand resting on the cold metal doorknob. "You're not doing Gale Hawthorne any favors by spending time together with him." Of all the things that President Snow could have said to shake her that did it.
She spun to face him.
"Don't hurt him. He's my friend nothing more." He raised an eyebrow.
Before he could respond she charged out of the room meeting the startled gaze of her mother who had brought tea and cookies. The delicate swirls on the cookies indicated that they were made by Peeta who could paint the most beautiful designs on canvases and pastries alike.
"I'm fine." Katniss said quickly answering the unasked question. "The president visits the Victors before they give their victory tour, it's just formalities." When had she become such a natural liar.
Her mother's face lit up in relief.
Katniss sat on a chair contemplating the white haired boy who still lay unconscious on their table. His breaths seemed to have evened out to a deep steady rhythm rather than the shallow ragged gasps they were before.
With his shirt removed Katniss could see that his left arm was completely black from his shoulder all the way down to his hand which had a green cross design imbedded into the back. Some swirl and spike designs decorated his shoulder. The odd appearance of his arm only confirmed her earlier suspicion that the boy was from the Capitol.
She straightened when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs and didn't relax when she saw it was President Snow on his way out with his body guards close behind. He raised his white eyebrow at the teen laying on his stomach with the left side of his face turned up so his red tattoo and extensive bandages covering most of his upper body was revealed.
Katniss was surprised to see confusion, shock, then concern flash across the president's face, but she quickly dismissed it to her imagination when his face returned to the cold uncaring mask that was his usual expression.
Without so much as a word of farewell he stepped out into the cold wintry air.
Allen let out a small groan of pain as his mind finally floated back to consciousness. He could feel the hard wooden surface of the table pressing against his stomach, and the soft bandages that covered the worst of his wounds. His back felt surprisingly good considering the long gash he was sure was there from Tyki Mikk's attack.
A middle aged woman rushed to his side as soon as he let out the small sound that signaled his awakening. She quickly checked his temperature and asked something that Allen couldn't make out in his daze.
With a jolt of surprise and fear he realized he was shirtless and that the women could see his deformed arm. She must have thought that he was a cursed devil's child just as everyone else who had laid eyes on his arm before. To his surprise she lowered her face to his and whispered softly.
"Don't worry your safe. Please rest." She smiled slightly at him before rushing off to what seemed to be her kitchen. A loud noise like a train whistling came from outside the house causing a flash of pain in Allen's already pounding head.
"That must be the prep team." A voice sounded.
Allen lifted his head to see a girl that looked around his age standing in the door way. She had olive skin, gray eyes, and long black hair she had curled on her head held in place by a few clippers still dripping droplets of water like she just came out from the shower. She seemed surprised when she saw him looking at her.
"You're awake." She said. "Sorry I'll talk to you later, I need to go get chewed out by my prep team about how I destroyed their master piece." She sighed in exasperation as she examined her nails which she seemed to have chewed to small stumps. Allen would have cried out in surprise if he had the energy to do so when two people that resembled brightly colored birds fluttered into the house. The first women had pointed aqua colored hair, and gold tattoos that curled around eyebrows and extended around her eyes.
"Your eyebrows!" She screeched right off the bat.
"Venia." The girl greeted. The second woman who entered was if possible even more shocking then the first. Her plump figure was not only covered in clothing as ridiculous and frilly as the first woman's but her skin was green.
It reminded Allen of the poor victims of Komui's potions that hadn't been fully tested by the science division.
He couldn't help but feel that the two women made him look almost normal. "Octavia, it's nice to see you again." The green skinned women dubbed Octavia hugged the girl with enthusiasm.
"What did you do to your nails Katniss." The girl apparently named Katniss blushed slightly and pulled her hand out of Octavia's grasp.
"Sorry, I tried to restrain myself." The last man stepped in making Allen's eyes to go wide again. He had bright orange hair that bounced around his head in tight corkscrew curls. "Flavius I see your all here. Where is Cinna." Katniss asked.
"He'll get to you after we're done with the basics." He said examining Katniss as if she was a particularly interesting painting that he needed to touch up.
They usher Katniss off upstairs without even noticing Allen's half-conscious body still lying on the table trying to decide if what he saw was real or a hallucinations caused by his injuries.