A/N Hi, it's Kaitlin again. We had a good time writing this chapter and I'm excited to see the responses. For those of you who are shipping Belle and Veeta, their relationship is about to get complicated. :3

Veeta sat with Lynn and Marlene at dinner, but her mind was elsewhere. She was just waiting for it to be seven o'clock, since she had decided that was the best time to visit Belle. Marlene had insisted on sitting close to Xavier so she could watch him, and Lynn was busy watching Marlene, so neither of them were paying attention to Veeta. She was snapped out of her intense clock staring when she heard Belle's name. She whipped her head around to look at Xavier, who was talking to his friends, Jackson and Gideon.

"I mean, I was just with her Saturday and now she's not at school. People think I broke her hips! Her hips were working fine when I left, I swear!" he said, head in hands.

"Dude, it's cool, she's probably just sick or something." Jackson assured him.

"Actually, don't go spreading this around but that's not what's going on." Gideon said. "Lily told me Belle is in trouble for something, and she got suspended. She didn't tell me why."

"Suspended!" Xavier's eyes were wide. "For what? She's like, a perfect student."

"I just said I don't know why, dude." Gideon shrugged sheepishly.

"Ugh, that's it." Xavier stood. "I'm going see her."

Veeta stood with him, "You can't see her right now." She said.

"Why not?" Xavier raised an eyebrow at her.

"Because she'll be cooking dinner and doing her homework right now. And she watches her little sister after school, so she'll be just finishing that up. She's got better things to do than talk to you." Veeta found herself unnervingly jealous of Xavier, especially after finding out he was Belle's secret boyfriend. She was in trouble because of him, and all of a sudden she wanted to make him pay.

"Says you." Xavier said. "Aren't you the one who terrorized a group of kids today because they were talking about her."

"Yeah," Jackson said, "I remember. You called her yours."

"She's my friend, you got a problem with that." Veeta crossed her arms and cocked her head at Jackson.

"Yeah, you sound real friendly." Jackson scoffed.

"We all know what you do with Amity girls." Xavier said. "You're wasting your on Belle, she's not like that."

"Oh, right, because your dick is all powerful, so you think you're the only one she's seeing." Veeta knew what she was implying, she just didn't care.

Xavier stepped forward, getting close to Veeta, "If you hurt her, Veeta, you will answer to me."

"Same goes to you pretty boy." Not her best comeback, but it worked. Xavier stepped off a little and sat back in his chair. Veeta smirked when she realized he had pulled back because Gideon was tugging the tail of his shirt to pull him away.

Instead of sitting down, Veeta went out to the train. She was not going to let Xavier get to Belle before her.

Bloom greeted Veeta at the door, she was missing her usual cute smile and it looked like she had been crying. It was heartbreaking.

"Hi Daunt-el-ease." She said sadly.

"Hi Bloom, is your sister here?"

"Yes." Her voice was so sorrowful, Veeta's soul died a little with every word.

"Can I see her, please?"

"Yes." Bloom opened the door a little. "She's in there." She pointed to the already very visible kitchen. Belle was washing some dishes at the sink.

"Who is it, Bloom?" She asked.

"It's the Daunt-el-ease. The girl one."

Belle turned around, "Oh, hi Veeta. What are you doing here?"

"You weren't in school. I guess I was a little worried. You never miss school for anything less than a near death experience."

"Yeah, it's a long story."

"All the best stories are long ones." Veeta decided that she wouldn't tell Belle she knew the truth if Belle didn't want her to know.

"This one's not."

"Okay then. So, are you okay?"

"Just peachy." Belle said sarcastically.

"All right then. Well, as I know you're alive, and neither of you seem to have any explicit injuries or illnesses, should I disappear before your mom finds me? I get the feeling she doesn't like me."

"Mommy doesn't get to come home anymore." Bloom said from the door. "This is Lala's house now."

Veeta raised an eyebrow at Belle, "So, about that long story?"

"Mom is in jail. She's going to be there for a long time. End of story." Belle said flatly.

"Shorter than I thought. Well I'm sorry, cause that sucks for you. But I'm not sorry, because she kind of sucks. Just sayin'."

"It is what it is."

"Okay, change of subject. Since when are you and Xavier a thing? Everyone at school is saying you were absent because he…" she looked at Bloom nervously. "'Hugged' you so hard it dislocated your hips." She put air quotes around "hugged".

Belle looked taken aback, her jaw dropped a little.

"Bloom honey, can you go play in your room a while?"

"Okay, Lala. I'll come get you at bath time."

Once Bloom had left the room, Belle stepped forward so she could whisper. For the first time, Veeta noticed a golden S pinned onto her shirt.

"Why are you here, Veeta?"

"Because people were saying you were hurt or sick, and the Amities said they didn't know what happened, but they were all acting quiet and morose, so I was worried. When I'm worried about my friends, I check in on them."

"You know what happened though, I could tell because you didn't pry when I said my mom was in jail. You always pry. Who told you?"

"Lily." Veeta didn't see the point in lying.

"Fine." Belle did not look fine. "Have you told anyone else?"

"No. A few people know you were suspended, as far as I know I'm the only non-Amity who knows why. And as you are being shunned, which I think is bullshit by the way, I figured maybe you could use some company besides a four year old. Sorry for giving a damn." Veeta was not appreciating Belle's cold stare.

"There is no need to be passive aggressive. I appreciate that you care." She didn't sound so sure about that.

"That's an Amity answer, we both know you're no Amity." Veeta said. "But thanks for lying. It means you care enough."

"Well you can tell Xavier that I'm fine, and I'll be back to school Monday."

"You can tell him yourself, he said he was going to come by later. Personally I don't think he wants to hear anything from me right now. We had a disagreement before I came over."

"I see, I'd prefer it if he didn't come over. I don't want him to see me like this."

"You'll let him see you naked but not sad? You sound like me."

"Well isn't that poetic irony." Belle muttered.

"He accused me of trying to fuck you by the way." Veeta said. "And of inevitably hurting you, and playing you. And he's also dumb as nails, because he thought he actually broke your hips and that it was some kind of dormant break that just slowly cracked."

Veeta didn't know why she was badmouthing Xavier and lying about him. Except, that she did, she did it because he had Belle. Veeta wanted Belle, and she did not want to share.

"You don't know anything about what it's like. Okay? You have no idea." Belle said.

"Then tell me, rather than expecting me to just magically figure it out."

And that was when Belle started yelling.

"Why would I want you to know? Why would I want anyone to know what it was like living with her? To feel completely alone and to have to hide everything! To know that people here knew what was going on and said nothing! To be responsible for a toddler because her own mother can't be trusted! Everyday was shit, everyday is going to be shit forever and there is no escaping it! So excuse me for wanting thirty minutes of bliss with someone who is actually nice to me! Someone who cares about me!"

Veeta was stunned, so many thoughts were running through her head. Before her brain could tell her feet what to do they were heading for the door. As her hand closed around the knob she looked over her shoulder at Belle.

"I care about you, too." And then she was gone, running out the door and down the street. She found herself finally slowing down in the art district and wandering over to the Twisted Sisters shop. She wasn't sure what drew her to the place but she stopped in front of it. The windows were dark and a fancy metal "Closed" sign hung in the door. For some reason that she wouldn't be able to explain later, Veeta walked up the steps and opened the door. It was unlocked, of course; the Amity rarely locked their doors. She stepped inside the cool dark shop out of the hot summer night. The twisted metal sculptures looked eerie and mystical in the darkness, casting huge malformed shadows on the walls.

"We're closed."

Veeta looked around to see the one named Blaze standing in a doorway behind the counter.

"I know. I'm sorry, I just…came in anyway, I guess. I wasn't going to take anything."

"Hey, I remember you. You were here the other day with Belle."

"Yeah, that was me."

"I heard what happened with her mom. Real shame."

"Yeah, it sucks." Veeta was feeling a little shifty. She didn't want to talk about Belle.

Blaze seemed to pick up on this because she said next, "Why don't you come on back with me? You wanted to see how the sculptures are made, right? I'll show you my latest project."

"Okay" Veeta followed Blaze into the back room. In the middle of the workspace was a sculpture nearly six feet tall. It wasn't complete, but Veeta could tell it was supposed to be a woman's figure.

"She's beautiful." Veeta gasped. "How did you get the lines so smooth?"

"Put this on." Blaze handed her a metal mask, which Veeta noticed Blaze was also wearing. She put the mask on and Blaze picked up a blowtorch. She stepped up on a little stool and began to weld. Sparks flew everywhere as she heated the metal. Then she turned the torch off and gently ran a gloved hand over the metal piece. The statue's breast, Veeta realized with a little humor. She manipulated it with her hands, shaping it as easily as if it were clay. When she was finished she removed her mask and hopped off her stepstool.

"It's just that easy." She smiled. "Would you like to try?"

"Welding?" Veeta's eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

"Just the smoothing, I'll handle the torch."

Veeta nodded and took the extra pair of gloves from Blaze, lowering her mask. She stood back as Blaze welded, then moved forward and began to shape a fold in the drape the covered the woman's hips. Once the metal became too cool to manipulate she stepped back for Blaze to add more heat. They moved in this pattern for almost half an hour. Every now and then Blaze would reach out and place her hand over Veeta's to help her shape the metal.

Veeta knew exactly were all this was going, and she decided that she was completely cool with it. After all, if Belle could screw Xavier, then she could hook up with this chick, right? She didn't owe Belle anything.

After a while the two Dauntless-born stepped back to admire their work.

"Well done." Blaze said. "You've got talented hands."

"I've heard that a few times." Veeta smirked, looking at Blaze.

Blaze raised her eyebrow at Veeta, "Oh really? Well maybe I should test them again. Just to be sure this wasn't just beginner's luck?"

They moved into each other slowly. Both knowing exactly where this would end, both dying for the fire to start.