Yay managed to write another chapter! This one isn't the longest one but hope you guys enjoy it!
Decided to try and write a Given au of KageHina and AtsuHina so if you're a fan of them, go check them out on my Ao3 account under the same name!
When Oikawa walks into the chamber, despite the number of people either looking at him or not paying much attention, he felt surprisingly calm.
Even as Ushijima Wakatoshi looked down on him from above, his eyes watching his every move, Oikawa felt like he knew his place.
The arrow from Iwaizumi's skill evaluation earlier was still embedded in the wall behind Ushijima, causing a smirk to form on Oikawa's face. Iwaizumi always had a good aim and for him to actually have the guts to do something like that, he was pretty impressed.
"Yahalo! I'm Oikawa Tooru from District 12. Please watch over me," he smiled and waved at the crowd, some of them turning to look at him. a few of them, especially the women, wiggled their eyebrows at him, one of them even licking her lips as she smirked.
"Oho. Been a while since I saw a Tribute this handsome and refined. Unlike the brute that had just walked in and decided to shoot an arrow at us. How uncivilized, considering we are the ones giving him luxuries he could only dream of if he was still stuck in that dump of District 12," she laughed. The woman wore far too much jewellery that she could possibly carry, rows of diamonds gleaming on each of her fingers. She was dressed in a fur coat that seemed to slither around her neck and her face had so much make-up on, she could pass for a very disgusting doll.
She also happened to be one of the Gamemakers for the Games.
"Ah, Lady Glimmer Divine. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance. If you would so wish, I could speak to you in private about certain things," Oikawa winked as she laughed.
"Oh, such a naughty boy. But I'm not going to be sleeping around with a rat who is going to die soon. Still, it might be fun to have you to myself. Its such a shame I cannot keep you as a pet," she sighed as Oikawa felt a vein pop in his brain.
How he wanted to skewer her with a knife right about now.
"My Lady. I would prefer if you refrain from doing anything outside of our contract," Ushijima rumbled as he came close to her, her arm wrapping around his waist as she snickered, "Come on, Ushijima. Don't be such a spoilsport. Haven't you heard of threesomes? They've been quite the rage lately."
Oikawa blanched at the thought of going anywhere near Ushijima without wanting to kill him. To think he was low enough to stoop to being an escort and playmate of a Capitol citizen, much less a woman who had designed Arenas that killed his friends. It wasn't unheard of for Victors to be brought into the Capitol as prostitutes or even loaned out to people who bid for them to be by their side for a certain amount of time.
"Ushiwaka-chan. I didn't know you liked to dabble in those things. I always assumed your hands were more built for the… bloody side of life."
"You do not know anything about me, Oikawa."
"Oho, don't I?" Oikawa grinned as he lifted a knife from the table, twirling it in his hand as Ushijima's eyes widened before whipping his hand back to throw the knife at the wooden target at the end of the room. He could see Ushijima's lips part ever so slightly as he grabbed a few more, holding them in between his fingers as he let them fly loose one by one, each knife hitting the centre of the target so hard, the target eventually split into pieces.
Some of the Gamemakers turned their attention to him at long last, eyes wide as Lady Divine clapped her hands in glee.
"Ohh, interesting! A few of the Tributes had used knives in the past but never as throwing knives, mostly for stabbing and the like. You're a pretty interesting contender this year, Oikawa. If you do manage to live, you can also be one of my little pets. There is always room for one more," she smiled, her cat-like eyes scanning Oikawa's face like a delicious meal as Oikawa beamed.
"Well, I'll think about it. Thank you for your graciousness, my Lady."
He did a bow, his mind screaming for him to get out of there when Ushijima rumbled, "You're strong. Its unfortunate you're stuck with the senseless brute, Iwaizumi Hajime. You would have fared so much better if you had been in District 1 with the freak duo or with District 2's Goshiki and Shirabu."
"I have to admit, Iwa-chan can be a little bit pesky when he wishes to be."
"He thinks he can win the Games by winning it with you. Its impossible to have two Victors in each Game. His attempts are futile and going to be his downfall. I suggest you stop pining for him the way the media makes you out to be and come to your senses. You are strong and you can win this," Ushijima's face didn't provide a flicker of emotion and Oikawa couldn't tell whether he was joking about it.
"Well, not like it matters to me, Ushiwaka-chan. Iwa-chan can be a brute, but he is my best friend. And no, I won't leave him in the Arena, even if it gets me killed."
Oikawa reached out to the table to pluck a dagger from it, spinning it lazily in his hand before turning to glare at Ushijima. He could sense the man flinching from his gaze as he smile turned feral and his wrist bent back.
"Don't you ever forget my worthless pride, Ushiwaka. I won't ever abandon Iwa-chan, and I would rather die than become someone like you."
Lady Divine shrieked as the dagger flew at their direction, Ushijima not moving from his spot as the dagger shattered into pieces. A mirage of colours flickered before their eyes as a forcefield came into view, shielding the viewers from the Tribute below as Oikawa smiled.
"Well, at least I tried. Have a nice day," Oikawa beamed before walking out, never forgetting the feeling of rage when Ushijima had told him to abandon Iwaizumi on the field.
If he did manage to make it out alive, he was going to turn Ushijima into an Avox, one way or another.
…
"What in blazes were you two idiots thinking?!" Osamu yelled the moment they stepped back into the apartment. The Avoxes standing to take their things nearly jumped out of their skins as Osamu snarled, throwing his jacket at one of them in the face as Matsun turned to the two of them.
"Good game well played," he grinned, giving them both a thumbs up as Osamu shouted, "Don't you go telling them that it was a smart ass thing to do. I can see Atsumu doing that but heck, unless you want all of us to die, you can continue trying to throw arrows and daggers at people's faces! Holy shit, why did that blinking moron decide to drag me into this shit?"
Osamu ran his fingers through his hair as he tried to calm himself down, Iwaizumi and Oikawa turning to give each other tiny smiles before he snapped at them to go shower and get ready for the announcement of their results. Since that would be done in about an hour or so, that gave them excuses to hop into the bath and ponder about what would happen.
When they were finally done, Osamu seemed to have managed to calm himself down after eating about two dozen onigiri. Matsun gave them a wave as he munched on the last one, Osamu typing onto his tablet so vigorously that the screen was on the verge of cracking when he realized the two Tributes were there.
"Well, no one has asked for your death warrant yet so you're in the clear. I just hope your results will give me something to work with when trying to get you some sponsors," Osamu moaned as he flicked on the TV to show his twin's face on it. Osamu looked like he regretted turning it on as his brother cracked into a grin, his ears twitching in anticipation as he held the results in his hands.
"And welcome to the news of announcing the results of each Tributes skills! I am Miya Atsumu and once again, I will be your host for tonight. Well, we have quite an interesting mix here, don't you think, Ushijima-san?"
The camera moved to show Ushijima dressed in yet another white tux, his biceps threatening to rip the material as he rumbled, "Indeed. A few of them were very strong."
"Come on, Ushijima-san! Please show a bit more enthusiasm here!"
"I am enthusiastic. The most I have been since the Reapings."
Atsumu didn't seem to want to bother about it anymore as he moved on to the results, his eyes scanning the screen of his tablet as he announced each of the results in turn. As he read out each of the Tribute's names and results, their picture would flicker in the background along with their score, each image staying for less than 10 seconds before moving on to the next. Each Tribute was rated for their skill out of 12 and while it was possible for people to get a solid 12, it wasn't exactly the most common score to get.
Osamu was thumping his leg on the ground, nervous on what they were going to get as they started with the freak duo. The face of a scowling Kageyama appeared next to a large 12, his speciality being in close range combat and sniping. His partner was the next to appear, beaming brightly next to the number 11. Iwaizumi could imagine the two of them squabbling about their scores 11 floors below them now as the next pair came in.
Iwaizumi was a little shocked at how quite a number of them were within the two-digit range. District 2's pair was expected, with both of them earning 10s while the pair from District 7 earned an 11 and 10 respectively. The rest churned out reasonable numbers, the most despairing one being a solid 0 for the small blonde girl from District 11. Her face was pulled into a look of terror on the screen, her face white as the camera zoomed in. Atsumu made a joke about her being the first one to die on the field, Ushijima not saying anything as the results for Iwaizumi and Oikawa came in.
"Heard that there was quite a commotion with these two star crossed lovers. I heard they tried to impale you in the face, am I right, Ushijima-san?"
"Yes, but they didn't succeed."
"Clearly, or you wouldn't be here today. Anyways, here is the score for Oikawa Tooru. With a knack for the knives and accurate skill, he earns a score of… 7."
Matsun gave Oikawa a squeeze on the shoulder, the boy deflating a little bit as he whined about how he should have gotten higher with nearly hitting Ushijima in the face when Atsumu continued, "And to round up the results for tonight, we have Iwaizumi Hajime of District 12 with a score of… oh… interesting. An 11."
"Eh?" Iwaizumi gaped as he saw the number 11 hovering next to his name. There was no way he was capable of getting a score that high anyways, even though he had nearly hit Ushijima in the face.
"That's an interesting turn of events. Why did Iwaizumi get a higher score than Oikawa, Ushijima-san?"
"I don't have any comments on that."
"Ok… well then. Here are the results for this year's Hunger Games skill evaluation! I will see you all for the finale tomorrow at the studios for the final interviews, where we will be interviewing each Tribute alone. Goodnight, my lovelies and let us see each other tomorrow!"
Osamu turned the TV off before he could see his brother give Ushijima a farewell kiss on the cheek, turning instead to look at Iwaizumi and Oikawa as Matsun said, "Well, that was unexpected."
"I thought Oikawa would be the one to get the better results but guess not," Osamu murmured.
Iwaizumi didn't know whether he should be happy or sad. The scores meant nothing since it depended on how well they performed in the Arena anyways. There had been cases of Tributes with very high scores who died within minutes when the Careers had swamped and targeted them right off the bat. This often happened if they weren't allied with anyone, very much like in Iwaizumi's case.
Oikawa reached to hold Iwaizumi's hand, his hand clammy as he turned to gaze at Iwaizumi. His eyes had a ferocity in them that told Iwaizumi had he had worked out the meaning behind his high score and that it wasn't good news, although Iwaizumi had pretty much worked it out.
Suddenly, their luxurious apartment felt like a box closing in on him, squeezing out the air in his lungs as his time slowly ran out.
"Iwa-chan, you do realize what this means right?"
High scores mean labelling the Tribute as more lethal.
Being more lethal means they would be targeted more than the other Tributes whilst in the Arena.
The Gamemakers had just painted a large target on Iwaizumi's back, and he didn't know if that just narrowed down his chances of surviving even more.