There it was, Panem. The shining silver capitol that hardly anyone saw. A bit of an architectural waste if you ask me but then again, who am I to judge? Eric came to stand beside me and gape at the window before we headed into a rocky tunnel that blocked our view. I noticed Peeta leaned more heavily than usual on his cane today and had an unreadable expression as Katniss stared at him.
When the tunnel ended we were at the station where a group of city residents stood to meet us. Haymitch looked longingly at his teacup before taking the alcohol he had been pouring into the cup and simply taking a long drink of it.
"Haymitch, must you?" Effie scolded.
"You didn't seem to mind when it was in the teacup." I muttered. Haymitch pointed at me.
"I like her." Effie huffed and shooed Eric and I out of the compartment and to the door, straightening out our outfits and telling us where to go. I noticed Peeta had grabbed Katnisses' hand and were lined up right behind us followed by Haymitch and Effie. Poor woman, having to deal with us lot. Then again, I can't say I much liked her however poisoned her mind was from the Capitol.
The door opened and Eric jumped down immediately and helped me down carefully before smiling and waving at the crowd. I placed my hand on the crook of his elbow before waving at the crowd as well. Peeta and Katniss weren't far behind us as we were escorted by the uniformed peacekeepers to the inside of well, I don't know what it was. But now, I think I shall name it the halls of pain. Really, Katniss had arranged for Cinna to design our outfits and the prep team well, they liked waxing I guess.
It felt nice for the hot wax to lie on your skin, heating your legs in the otherwise bare room but then the world shattering rip as your legs became smoother than you thought possible banished all happy thoughts for good. The prep team plucked, pricked, snipped, and filed all of Katniss and I as we shared looks of agony from across the room, already had made peace with the fact we were naked and couldn't do a thing about it.
"Well, that was…unexplainably relaxing and painful at the same time." I muttered as we sat waiting for Cinna to come with costumes.
"Tell me about it. It was more awkward last year when it was just me alone." Katniss agreed. Cinna came in then and smiled at Katniss before turning a calculating eye to me- well mainly my slightly distended stomach.
"How many months Zila is it?" I nodded and told him five. "Portia, could you go get a case of fat?" he asked one of his helpers who had extremely long green and black fingernails that seemed to be split into many parts. She nodded and left the room.
"Since you're pregnant I'm afraid I don't think we can go for getting the audience to like you by being cute. That and the other tributes could just simply see you as a bloated fluff ready for the spearing or stabbing or whatever otherwise!" he rambled on and I smiled.
"I get it, just piss me off before we get on stage and we should be good to go?" he laughed and nodded before handing me a black dress bag and Katniss a matching one. Unzipping the bag I gasped as I saw a golden shimmering dress that probably fell to my feet. My suspicions were confirmed when I pulled the dress out. I also found out that there were two huge slits up both sides of the dress that stopped at my hips. Katniss awed at my dress before she opened up her own and I looked inside with her. Inside was a strange black wrap thing and a black skirt that too was split to her hips but fell to below her knees.
"I like that, dangerous and hardly anything to worry about ripping." She laughed as Portia came in with the case. I gulped rather audibly as Cinna pulled out a case and attached a large sterile needle to the end.
"Now this will be uncomfortable, I won't lie but I promise by tomorrow morning when you wake up everything extra will be gone." Cinna told me as he stuck the needle in my tummy.
"Oww," I whined before I became fascinated by how my tummy grew into a healthy looking one instead of the smaller one because of my lack of baby weight.
"Okay, I won't lie that's cool, but, what's the point?" I asked.
"Well, Panems citizens use it for many things, sometimes to replicate tracker jacker stings-don't ask or to get bigger whatevers." He explained as he injected the last of it. He lifted the dress above my head and helped me into it. The dress fell nicely onto my body.
Cinna helped Katniss into her outfit as the prep team did my hair and makeup. When they had finished I found Cinna had done Katniss as well and that we were ready. I looked in the full length mirror and was shocked at what I saw- a woman with a ponytail extending nearly a foot from my head wrapped in gold ribbon and gold and black eyeshadow was dressed in a goddesses dress that sparkled like nobodies business. She was beautiful and fearsome. Katniss looked every inch of the warrior I knew she was in the old style fighting garb.
The top Katniss had on was really only a long strip of black cloth with the middle on the back of her neck then it crossed over to cover her breasts and crossed over again on the middle of her back to become connected to the warrior skirt.
Cinna then took us out to meet the boys-Peeta and Eric respectively dressed to match us.
Peeta looked stunning in his matching garb to Katniss with black leggings with a huge split gold loincloth held in place by a golden sash and nothing to cover his bare smooth chest. A gold armband was wrapped around his left bicep. Eric was the same except his bottoms were completely black with hints of silver and a sliver armband on his right bicep.
"Well don't you two look attractive." I purred, winking suggestively at Katniss.
"Yes well let's get going, we will need to be there in ten minutes." Cinna urged us onward.
I found myself pulled off to the side and into a small closet. I looked up straight into the face of Peeta. His arms were on either side of me effectively pinning me to the wall.
DUN DUN DUN!
The Author Speaks: Thank you so much to my reviewers! You have no idea how much they mean even if it is just as simple as "good job" "loved it" or even just "update!". I will have to leave y'all hanging until Saturday because I'm heading off to Chicago for my school! Up next: The Conversation. I need to name my chapters! Ta!