"Welcome, welcome District 1 to the twenty-fifth annual Hunger Games!"
For Loki Odinson, the day had started out just like every other birthday he had the misfortune of having on a reaping. His mother fussed over him, cooked breakfast, and laid out his clothing for the reaping. The only difference this year was that after that, it was suddenly all about his older brother, Thor.
Last year, Thor volunteered to be the male tribute for District 1. Loki had done everything he could to stop his idiotic brother from dying, but miraculously, Thor had won the twenty-fourth games. When Thor returned, he (for some reason Loki still hasn't figured out) had refused to leave the large hammer that had won him the games. But that oddity didn't dampen the fact that their father had named the Odinsons the most honorable family in all of District 1.
"Good morning love," His mother's soft voice greeted him. "Happy Birthday! How did you sleep?"
Loki grimaced, "Thor's snoring is as loud as thunder! It keeps me awake yet I'm four rooms away!" His mother let out a chuckle as she heard her husband and other son approaching. "Speak of the Devil," Loki muttered.
"So Thor, my son," Their father says completely absorbed in their conversation as Loki glares out the window. "Who is volunteering for this 'Quarter Quell'?" Thor ruffles Loki's hair with one hand and grips the hammer he has lovingly named "Mjolnir" for some unknown reason with the other. Loki lets out a sigh as his mother threw him a pitying look.
"From what I understand, Father," Thor's voice booms through the kitchen in between bites of egg. "Is that with this new rule we have two male tributes. We have two seventeen-year-old named Castiel Novak and Wade Wilson. They both seem like excellent candidates."
Loki cleared his throat louder than necessary yet neither of the two looked up. "Excuse me, boys!" Their mother looked pointedly at her elder son and husband. "Aren't you two forgetting something?" she hinted while looking at Loki.
Thor jumped from his seat as he made his way towards his younger brother. "Ah, yes! Happy fifteenth birthday brother!" H ruffled his brother's hair yet again, to Loki's annoyance.
"Well my sons, sit down." Their father's eyes widened slightly. "Fifteen, already? It must be time then. "Loki," He said sternly. "Your mother and I have some important news we've been waiting till today to tell you."
Their mother's posture quickly stiffened as she dropped a skillet on the floor. She rushed over quickly to cover Loki and Thor's ears, not that it helped much. "No, we do not," She hissed at her husband. "I thought we agreed that they didn't need to know!" Thor and Loki shared a nervous glance as they looked in between their parents.
"No!" Their father exclaimed. "Loki is fifteen, practically a man now! He must know the truth!"
"Truth? What truth?" Loki's voice cracked out as his stomach clenched.
"Mother, Father," Thor spoke assertively. "What are you hiding from us?"
"Loki is not our blood son!" Their father bellowed as their mother screamed, "No!"
Loki stood up so quickly that he knocked over the chair he had been sitting in as he darted to a corner of the kitchen. "What?" His voice was barely audible.
His mother had begun weak attempts at smacking their father while tears were streaming down her face. "A couple in the Capitol decided that they did not want to raise a child anymore, so they left you outside in the winter on a road leading out of the Capitol and into District 1." His father explains in an emotionless tone.
"I… I…" His mother sobbed, "I found you when I was out for a walk. We took you in. Thor was too young to remember this. None of this matters though, we're still your family." His mother walks slowly over to him spot in the corner and reaches out a hand to touch his face.
"Don't you touch me!" Loki hisses as he runs in the opposite direction with tears stinging his eyes. "You mean to tell me that I am not who I've spent fifteen years of my life believing I was? That I'm just the mistake of some of those airheads in the Capitol?" He looked around with a look of pure hatred at everyone in the kitchen who all looked too shocked to say anything. "Both of you," He flailed his arm wildly at his parents. "Have never spoken the truth to me! No wonder you both worship the ground beneath Thor's feet!" Loki fixed his brother with a hard glare. He then looked down at his own hands. "I have no true identity. My life is nothing but a lie." Loki mutters as he storms out of the kitchen while flipping a table for good measure. He then locks himself in his room until the reaping.
As Loki huddled with the other masses of male fifteen-year-olds, he set his jaw determinedly and looked anywhere on the stage where Thor wasn't.
"Let us begin!" The Capitol woman's bubbly voice announced. She walked up to a single, large glass sphere where she fishes around for a name. As she pulls out a name, most eyes search for Castiel Novak or Wade Wilson. "Our first tribute is…" The woman unfolds the small piece of paper. "Anna Milton! Come on up, miss!"
Anna rolls her eyes and takes only two steps before a deep, gravelly voice calls out, "I volunteer."
As the owner of the voice emerges from the crowd, Loki swears he heard Anna whisper, "Thank you, Castiel!"
"Oh my, a volunteer! How exciting!" The Capitol woman exclaims with fake enthusiasm. "What's your name, hon?" She gestures the microphone toward the young man approaching the stage with a grimly serious face.
"My name is Castiel Novak. I'm seventeen and obviously from District 1." His piercing blue eyes scan the crowd as if analyzing anyone with the possibility of being an opponent. He then rests his eyes upon a camera and gives a nod.
"Wonderful Castiel! Now for the second tribute!" The brightly colored Capitol woman strolls back over to the glass orb and fishes out another name. "Our second tribute is…" She yet again unfolds the paper with more of a struggle then necessary. "Peter Parker!"
In the group of seventeen-year-olds someone suddenly began laughing hysterically. As a group of people shifted out of the way, it was revealed that Wade Wilson was the one cackling as he was playfully nudging Peter Parker, who had made the mistake of standing next to him, towards the direction of the stage. Peter was sighing and glaring at Wade, waiting for him to volunteer. As Wade was regaining his composure he was slowly reaching a hand up in the air.
Loki suddenly cleared his throat and yelled as loud as he could, "I volunteer as tribute!" A gasp echoes throughout the crowd of District 1 citizens. Loki hears his mother screech in the back, but he only strides toward the stage with his head held high. As he walks on stage he passes Thor, who was shaking violently and had dropped Mjolnir on the stage. He flashes a charming yet snakelike smile at the Capitol escort, whose mouth is hanging slightly open.
After a moment she clears her throat and asks, "So how old are you?"
"Well, I am fifteen, but are you not supposed to ask my name first?" Loki inquires with grin.
"Oh…Oh, yes!" The escort stutters out, obviously still bewildered at the young volunteer. "What is it?"
Loki leans toward the microphone and makes direct eye contact with his father. "Loki Odinson," He then shakes his head with a sour look on his face. "Wait. No, that does not sound correct. It doesn't belong." He bares his teeth on the last word. "If I'm going to make a name for myself, than I should enjoy it." He grabs the microphone with one hand and turns to face the camera. "The name is Loki, Loki Laufeyson." He then proceeds to wink at the camera with his bright green eyes, bow at the crowd, and smirk at dumbstruck look on Wade Wilson's face as his friend Peter Parker was laughing hysterically.
"You have five minutes, Castiel." A peacekeeper's gruff voice informed him as he shoves a sandy blonde into the room.
"Castiel Novak, I swear to President Snow I am going to kick your ass for this when you come back." The man says while surrounding Castiel in a hug.
"I am aware of that Gabriel. I believe that's what older brothers are supposed to do." Castiel backed out of the hug and tilted his head, "Where is the rest of the family?"
Gabriel Novak scoffed, "I'm the only one who had their shit together enough to talk to you. Michael and Lucifer are trying to calm Mom and Dad down. The rest are trying to calm each other down. Samandriel already called dibs on your room." Gabriel gives a dry laugh. "You know that if I was young enough I'd volunteer for your dumb ass, right?" He looks at his younger brother with a sad smile.
"Why do you think I waited till I was seventeen to do this?" Castiel asks quietly.
The two sit in silence for a moment as they listen to the muffled shouts coming from the other room. "Man, I thought we had family drama." Gabriel joked.
"Please take care of everyone, Gabriel? In case I… If I don't-" Castiel mumbled.
"You shut your dirty mouth, Castiel. You are coming back to us. I don't even want you to think about the alternate. Just remember the basics: what's poisonous, what's edible…"
The guard enters the room, "Time to leave." He begins to approach Gabriel.
Gabriel begins to move closer to Castiel as he continues talking, "Don't die from something stupid. I mean, don't die at all. Just make allies but don't trust them! Trust gets you killed!" Gabriel consumes Castiel in another hug while Castiel silently realizes that they're both crying.
The guard yanks Gabriel off of Castiel with a grunt and begins to drag him out. "I love you, little brother. Stay safe." Gabriel looks at him with a whirlwind of emotions but most of it being a foreboding feeling that was worrying him deeply.
Before the door slams shut, Castiel shouts back, "You too!" Once the door closes, Castiel Novak suddenly realized how alone he is. I regret this already, He thought as he swallowed heavily.
"You have five minutes, Loki." A peacekeeper warns him as his parents and Thor rush into the room. His mother begins cradling him in her arms as she begins sobbing.
"Oh my boy. My baby! What have you done? Why? Oh, why?" She was running a hand through her younger son's hair. Although his heart was still brimming with rage, Loki didn't have the heart to stop her.
"I've told you ever since you were young that Thor was the one destined for greatness!" His adoptive father had begun screaming at him. "When Thor returned from the arena, it was a blessing. Now, our honor, my blood will be spilled on the battlefield!"
Loki growled as he stood up and faced his adoptive father, "I am not your blood!" Loki spat at him. "I never was, and I never will be! I am doing this to prove that Thor," He gestures to the silent blonde in the corner. "Isn't as mighty as you think he is! All my life, it's been Thor this and Thor that. It's like you treat him as a god, and I am nothing but a lowly peasant. Well, guess what? I am no longer an Odinson. So, feel free to leave, father!" Loki screams as he gestures toward the door.
Loki's adoptive father looks at him, shakes his head, mutters a quick, "Good luck." Then he walks out the door without a second glance.
"Anything you'd like to add Thor?" Loki snarls at the only brother he's ever known.
"You are not ready for the terrors that lie within the arena, brother. I shall see you on the train." Thor's grip on his hammer tightens as he walks out the door.
"If they are not your family then neither am I." He hears a whisper behind him. He spins around to see tears streaming down his mother's face as she bites her lip.
"Although I may never trust you again, you will always be my mother." Loki says as he gives her a tight hug. "No matter about the rest of them. You are all the family I'll ever want or need." Loki's mother's sobs only amplified as she held her son and rocked on her knees.
A peacekeeper enters the room and Loki's mother's grip tightens around her younger son. The peacekeeper then rips her away from her child as she tries to beat her way back to him. Before the door slams on her face, Loki hears one final, "I love you more than life itself!" Loki then wiped the tears away from his eyes as he readied himself for whatever happens next.