Title: On Fire
Author: karebear
Disclaimers (Hunger Games): The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.
Summary/Notes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.
If you're ever having trouble figuring out how a drabble connects to its prompt word, go type the word into the dictionary - that's usually how I got the inspiration. "Titanic" for example, can be defined as "of exceptional strength or power"
Week 3 (Cinna)
Wings
He asks for District Twelve before the Reaping, before he could know anything about the children he will mold and dress and send to die.
Everyone thinks he's crazy.
District Twelve, with exactly one living Victor, two in all of history? What possessed him?
Some artist's insanity maybe?
But the premonition becomes certainty as he watches this girl Katniss sacrifice herself to save her kid sister.
He notices her token immediately, of course, the mockingjay pin.
But that isn't who she is, not now, not yet.
First she has to get through the fire.
The wings come much, much later.
Unforgiven
He keeps himself awake, popping pills and downing pot after pot of coffee, sleeping only an hour or two here and there, so that he can sketch and sew and surround himself with cloth and paint and crazy things that tie together into exactly what is needed.
The armor he sends in secret to District Thirteen is enough to condemn him, Be careful, can't get caught, not yet...
It's what he's doing now, declaring the revolution, on camera, in the heart of the Capitol at the height of their power, that they will never, ever let him get away with.
Rocky
He talks to other stylists, other prep teams, of course, and they'd always warned him against getting attached.
The odds are never in your favor.
But from the first moment with Katniss, he'd known that "not getting attached" was not a possibility for them.
He asks her to trust him, and she does, although he can tell that trust with her is always a rocky proposal.
She hates him for his part in the Games.
He only hopes that in the end she will read his apology in the gifts he leaves behind, and find some way to forgive him.
Titanic
He knows she doesn't need him anymore because of what she does after Peeta's interview.
With Katniss, the costumes and the cameras have always only obscured the things that matter.
It's expected that she clings to Peeta's hand, uniting the two of them in the minds of the audience at times of heightened emotion. He taught her that.
But then she reaches out for Chaff.
She leads the Tributes in this simple act of solidarity, and they follow her.
"A reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol..."
But they can.
Crash
He shakes his head, to warn her, to distract her, to make her look away. She's confused, but he knows exactly what is coming.
It isn't fair, this was his fault, his decision, she's not involved, she's suffered enough, she'll suffer more, she doesn't need to see this.
He falls to his knees, coughing, choking, it hurts to breathe and they just keep hitting and he can't run, there's nowhere to go. Blood runs down into his eyes but he sees her screaming.
He doesn't regret anything he's done to get here, he deserves this, but he regrets hurting her.