A/N: This one's long. One more chapter, and then we're at the Games.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Shine Bright
When I exit my long lonely shower, I find my outfit on the bed. It's a suit, mostly black covered in bright orange flame accents. There's a small box next to it. The box has a black ring, it's ridged and jagged, like the coal from our district.
The suit's tailored very nicely to me, and soft and feels smooth. The flames on the suit appear to shimmer as I move in the mirror. When I open the door, I find my entire prep team outside waiting for me, Portia included. She immediately glances to my hands, looking for her gift, and smiles when I show it to her on my left ring finger.
All of them push into my room, opening the suit jacket, and shifting everything to make sure it's properly arranged. They also particularly focus on my head, mixing various products in my hair, and examining my face for any blemishes and imperfections. The only thing they do is take a pair of tweezers and fix my eyebrows up a bit. They also put something that looks like makeup on me, but because it's in my face, I can't see what it's doing. Glancing in the mirror, I see that it's simply making my face shimmer lightly glow. I have to admit, I kind of like it.
Once they're done messing with my face, they bring me outside, where finally I catch a glimpse of Katniss. She's always beautiful, but the outfit she's wearing makes her a siren tonight. Her dress doesn't cover her shoulders, and reaches down to her knees, and sparkling like gems in the same color as my flaming accents. Her gorgeous hair is pinned up in a semi messy bun. The makeup on her face is far from too much, it makes her face shine brilliantly. She's the very definition of what true beauty is. I barely notice that she's also staring at me like I'm a sex object. I kind of am, just that I'm only hers.
Portia stands in front of me to get my attention, and laughs as she says, "You guys have the rest of tonight for that. Right now we have something very important to do." Cinna who's next to Katniss giggles at that.
I still don't take my eyes off Katniss, until she turns away, heading for the elevator. She's walking in her shoes pretty nicely, thanks to Effie.
We're down in the area where we get our last minute touch ups and advice from our stylists. Portia's right now making sure that the outfit is perfectly arranged, nothing beats doing something yourself.
She asks me, "You like the ring?"
"Yes. I like what you did with it." She smiles and keeps checking my outfit. I start wondering about how things will be, especially when the games begin. Everyone is given odds, but this is a serious life and death situation, because 23 people must lose for 1 to win. That means, that one of us will have to give up the other in order to make it out, but neither me nor Katniss could ever bear that on our consciences. I know I'd rather not live than live without her, and I know (in truth I more hope) she feels the same way.
I get too caught up in my thoughts to realize that Portia was talking me. "Hey, you paying attention?"
Her words snap me back. "Oh, sorry."
She gives me a really? face. "Fine. I was saying, I have something I need you to put on." She pulls out a small, pink circle thing. It almost looks like a piece of a tongue. "You have French kissed Katniss before, right?"
"Yes." I don't feel like that's a major thing to reveal, why does it matter?
"Good, open your mouth."
"Why?"
"A surprise." Goes to figure, whatever's gonna happen, it won't be something that we know. If I know Portia and Cinna well enough, it's something that deals with flames. I'm looking forward to seeing it myself. "Katniss has hers, Cinna gave it to her in the penthouse. You won't even feel it."
I hesitatingly open my mouth, and all I feel is the pressure from her placing the circle on the tip of my tongue. When her hand is out, I realize that I don't feel the circle just like she said. "I just have to kiss her?"
"Yes. Save it for the right time. Now, let's get you out to the others."
She takes me to the waiting area, everyone is scattered with their respective prep teams. Me and Portia head over to where we see Katniss and the others.
Cinna asks Portia, "You gave him his sensor?"
I'm the one who tells him yes. He smiles, and so does Katniss.
Haymitch comes in with a few last words. "Roughly five minutes with him, he'll give you an intro and it'll be obvious when lets you go. Make an impression, again."
Katniss and I thank him for this, for everything he's done for us over the past week. Knowing him, that was rather surprising. The same can be said for Effie. Given how stuck up she seemed when we met, we never would've believed she'd be so helpful with us. Speaking of her, when I see her, she's looking somewhere, the look in her face not very happy. Following her eyes, of course I find the careers, this time the four from 1 and 2 of them glaring daggers at us. Looks like we may outshine them yet again. Instead of being intimidated, I intend to show them that I will not back down to them, and I just smile. I smile at them to get under their skin, and it works.
Before anything could escalate, someone calls all the tributes to order, telling us to get with our District partner and arrange in order from 1 to 12. They then file us out to wait before the stage, and have each district come out one at a time to sit down on their chairs. We're sitting in an elevated semicircle above Caesar and the second chair where we will be interviewed. The female sits on the right chair, males on the left. When we all are seated, the show begins.
A spotlight shines over Caesar and the interviewee's chair. He gives an introductory speech, trying to energize the crowd. I'm hardly giving any mind to it, I'm only concentrating on Katniss, I know that she doesn't deal too well with this type of thing.
I grab her hand, and mouth to her, "It's okay."
She simply smiles, and then kisses me, without tongue. Apparently, the crowd was paying attention to us, because I heard the amount of whistling and catcalling from the audience. skyrocket. I see that Caesar is smiling at us, and the crowd is practically worshiping us. We give a little wave to the crowd. I don't dare to look at the careers, nothing will ruin the moment between me and Katniss and the crowd. But I'm willing to bet that they're scowling at us right now.
I mouth to Katniss, "Let's do that again, after my interview."
She excitedly nods, and Caesar regains control over the audience. He ends his introduction, and begins the interviews.
He calls up the girl from 1, Glimmer. I still think it's such a stupid name, and her outfit matches the stupidity. It's light pink in color, and see through, leaving little to imagination. I'm surprised to see anything but skin beneath the dress. Trying to get sponsors by posing as a sex object.
"Well hello Glimmer."
"Hi Caesar." Her voice is high pitched, almost like it's supposed to innocent sounding, contrasting the immodesty of her outfit.
"Let me ask you Glimmer, how ready are you for this?"
"I'm very ready, and I'm going in with confidence."
"I think you won't have a problem with sponsors, they probably all have their eyes on you right now." Yeah they all probably did, until we came on the scene, stealing them with our public display of affection.
Glimmer starts looking at all the tribute boys, saying "They definitely have their eyes on me." When she looks at me, she seductively says, " And maybe they want to give a little more," while licking her teeth.
The moment she looks at me is a perfect moment to undermine her. Effie even suggested it, but what can I say to do that. As it turns out, I don't need to. Katniss pulls off her shoes, and stands up, screaming, "Hey, what did I tell you about looking at my boyfriend?!"
Glimmer doesn't say anything, she simply stares at us, in anger. Caesar seems rather enamored with what he's seeing.
"Oh, so now you got nothing to say?! Where's all that confidence, or better yet where's your competence? Did your district not teach you those?"
The crowd loves her fiery temper, they give her a standing ovation for her outburst. I love what she said to get under Glimmer's skin, and it looks like it's working, cause Glimmer's face is simmering in anger.
Katniss yells, "You better hope that whatever sponsors still have their eyes on you have extra eyes to give you once we get in that arena," before sitting herself back down and putting her shoes back on."
Caesar seemed slightly shocked at Katniss's words, and Glimmer is now fully enraged, but clearly trying to hide it. The crowd uproars in cheers and whistles for Katniss, especially when she leans into my shoulder.
The rest of Glimmer's interview is ruined, and since her interview had just begun, she literally has five minutes of shame. mostly by her own fault for not listening to Katniss. When Glimmer's interview ends, she walks back to her seat, scowling at us.
We don't pay any attention to Marvel, when he's called up. I just look at Katniss with a smile and an approving nod. We take a look at the main careers, and see that they're scowling at us just the same. I notice that when Clove looks at Glimmer, she looks quite condescending, I guess she knows how to follow someone's words. I pull Katniss in and whisper in her ear, "Hopefully Cato tries something as well."
We turn back to face Caesar for the interview which we still aren't paying attention to. In fact I kind of drift off, until I hear the crowd go into another uproar of whistles and cheers. I look to Marvel to see what he did, but he's looking towards us clearly pissed off, and not making any attempt to hide it. I wonder what happened, and then I turn and see Katniss swinging her now loose hair from side to side, and then starts waving to the crowd. I'm really surprised that she's able to do this, because knowing her, she's not good with making people like her.
When things quiet down, I quietly say, "I didn't know you were so good at making people like you."
"Gale. That was actually an accident, the bun was getting heavy and giving me a headache."
I look at her and just laugh, I couldn't believe it. When she tries to get people to like her she fails, when she doesn't she's a prodigy at it.
Caesar lets Marvel off in one last attempt to reinvigorate interest in him. He lets off a nice cry of enthusiasm, but his face as he walks back is furious.
Clove seems to have learned from Glimmer's error, and doesn't bother mentioning us demeaningly, or in an attempt to undermine us. She only says, "I have nothing very personal against them, that's their problem," gesturing to Glimmer and Marvel. I highly doubt that. She focuses primarily on herself. The crowd seems rather neutral at that, not cheering, but not booing or anything. I don't think it worked fully in her favor.
Cato's interview should be interesting. The first question Caesar asks him is about the clear feud between the career districts and ours.
"Caesar, I don't know what everyone's all over, seriously. Anyone, even the 12 year olds can take them on blind folded."
Caesar gives an ingenuine giggle, probably to make some noise since everything is silent, the crowd isn't impressed with his words.
"Cato, how will this interdistrict conflict play out in the arena?"
His admittedly menacing voice drops even lower, a point where it seems like he's a stealthy predator when he says, "A whole lotta blood will be spilled, and none of it is gonna be mine."
The crowd didn't like his earlier words, but they absolutely hate his most recent ones. The crowd is throwing screams of anger at him. Looks like us from 12 have seriously made a hell of an impact this year. They absolutely adore me and Katniss, I find it amazing.
Cato looks back at us, and I immediately say, "What? Not my fault you said the wrong thing."
He looks even more incensed, and he turns back and shakes his head. The rest of his interview is boring, completely ruined from his early words. I love how the careers are quite weak in appealing to sponsors and the citizens this year. It gives not just us, but everyone else a stronger chance.
With Cato's interview let off, the careers are behind us. Everyone else is incorporating their own tactics, most with much greater success than the careers. This is clearly not lost on them, evidenced by their obviously scornful reactions throughout the interviews. A few of them mention us, saying they were inspired by our flame. They imply that our flame inspired them to try, and not to give up. Things start to come to a head when he reaches Rue.
When he calls her up, she's wearing a green outfit with graceful gossamer wings, fitting for her since she can basically fly between the trees. The crowd seems as endeared to her as they are to us.
Caesar first asks her, "What do you love most being here?"
Rue quickly begins, "I would have said I loved the nice and filling food," she turns to look at us, "but there have been some things that really made my stay here good." The crowd is even more endeared to her now, and most of the crowd flashes her smiles.
"Now, you got a 7, not an easy feat for someone…" Caesar seems to be trying to find the right words, I can only guess why but I think it's because he doesn't want to offend her.
Rue finishes his sentence, "For someone from 11, or someone my age? Or both?"
Caesar's face collapses in apparently genuine guilt. Rue reaches to him, "It's ok, you could've said it, I know where I'm from and my age makes people think I'm weak. But that's a good thing. I may be weak, but I'm hard to catch, and if you can't catch me, you can't kill me. Don't count me out just yet."
Rue's small speech earns her a standing ovation, and when they quiet down, Caesar with sincerity tells her they wouldn't in a million years, ending her interview.
Now it's for Thresh. Whenever Caesar asks him a question, he answers simply, often yes or no, or short answers if it's not yes or no. Caesar seems to like it, as does the crowd, they probably like the strong and silent type of guy. Thresh doesn't even have to try and earn their adoration. Caesar seems to end the interview with the same overall tone, simply calling his name, and shaking his hand, rather than raising it in the air. It looked like Thresh appreciated that.
Caesar recollects his prior aura of flare, "And now for the girl you know as the girl on fire." The crowd immediately stands and applauds. "Well we know her as the lovely Katniss Everdeen."
Katniss stands up, clearly nervous, but she takes a breath, and moves forward in a unique gait. It accentuates the motion of her legs, making her lower half flare as noticeably as her top half. She also does a few twirls on the way, making her dress literally ignite in flames. This makes the crowd go crazy.
Caesar starts out, "Quite an energetic entrance now."
Katniss smiles, "Thank you, though truly, my stylist Cinna is the real deal here. He's been so great to me over the last few days."
"Of course. Please, Cinna, stand if you will." Cinna stands and gives a wave as the crowd applauds, though for me personally, Portia is the one, but I guess Cinna is kind of the leader of the two person team.
"Now, Katniss," he changes the subject, "I want to talk to you about the reaping, an event that moved everyone in here."
The crowd is appropriately silent, no one contests. You'll be okay Katniss, you can do it. Just let the emotion in and speak the truth.
"We were especially moved when you volunteered for your sister. Please, tell us about her."
"Her name's Prim, she's only 12. It was her first reaping and she only had 1 slip. She and Gale. They're the only ones that I can say I truly love."
"Did she come to see you after the reaping?"
"Yes. She did."
"And what did you feel, when Gale was called up?"
She hesitates before saying anything. It's a torment on her, and myself, and he knows why. "Nothing at first, and then I felt a rush of fear and horror. Because, I know that I'm gonna lose him." She's rapidly beginning to cry, as am I. "If it was just me, I would be in a sense alone, but I knew that I would have him to come home to, just as my sister and my mother."
Caesar takes her hand, appearing rather sympathetic to her. The crowd at this point joined us in our tears. I also begin to realize to the fullest extent Haymitch's advice, using our relationship to our advantage. There's nothing wrong with that, we're not faking anything, we're just showing everyone who we are. Me loving Katniss is more natural than breathing, and I know that it's the same for her.
She recovers from her sobbing, "The most painful part is, knowing that no matter what. Our future together is gone. All we can do...no. All we WILL do is fight for our lives. I hope that can at least make our families proud."
Caesar takes her by the hand, and when she looks at him, he gives her a sympathetic smile. "You are strong Katniss, and I know you will fight because that's the girl we've seen over these past few days." He stands up and announces her name once more, drawing a soft, but not weak applause from the crowd.
I'm already standing when she comes back to sit down. I take her by the hand, and give her a close mouthed kiss, drawing sympathetic cheers, rather than adoration cheers from the audience. I pull back from her, and whisper to her, "I love you Catnip." She smiles back at me, before I trek to Caesar.
Caesar decides to change the tone to something more cheerful. "You and Katniss know how to make entrances."
I simply accredit everything to Cinna and Portia, something that Caesar says he knew I would likely say.
"Now, tell us about the career feud here, we've heard their side, now let's hear the side of 12."
"Well, they offered me a place in their pack and I not so subtly turned them down." I look at him to see his face for what I'm about to say, "And I took the extra step of saying that we were safer and stronger without them.
"Gale. You and Katniss scores justify that perfectly. How do you like having the highest scores seen in a long time, not just in this year?"
"It feels nice, knowing that the rich kids are scared of the poor kids."
Apparently, the crowd and Caesar took a lot of humor in that. The laughing echoes loudly, and I simply look back at Katniss, who seems a lot more composed, and shrug. I glance at the careers who at this point are as livid as can be. I turn back and smile knowing that I'm doing my job well.
When he's done laughing, Caesar changes the subject back to me and Katniss, "How did you two meet?"
"We met officially right after the mining explosion that claimed our fathers four years ago." I can't tell him the full illegal truth here, "We became friends because we both had to be the breadwinners for our families."
Caesar gives a genuine smile. "You said you were friends, when did you become something more?"
"About a year ago, right after the last games. This 18-year-old girl invited me for some fun times with her. Right in front of Katniss." The crowd seemed to be collectively holding laughter. "I said no, but nonetheless Katniss was evidently very jealous. I already knew what I felt for her after a few years, but I didn't know what she felt or even could feel for me. That incident left no doubt, our feelings were mutual."
Caesar seems enamored with the story, kind of hypnotized until I finish. "Now, Gale. Do you share Katniss's sentiments on the both of you being the tributes of 12?"
If he's asking me if I regret my love for her, definitely not. "I share her feelings, of knowing one of us will lose the other," the crowd begins murmuring amongst themselves, interviews don't usually involve such a somber topic, "but any regrets I have, none are because I love her."
The crowd loves what I said. They all stand up, whistling and cheering for me and Katniss. I feel a hand move across my shoulder, it's Katniss. I stand and pick her up, diving my lips onto hers in an open-mouthed kiss. We don't know if the sensors touch, that is until I feel a slight tingling sensation, and then hear nothing but silence. Almost as soon as the crowd goes silent, a huge uproar ensues. I pull back and open my eyes, and see that Katniss's dress is on fire, and so is my suit. Unlike the other flames from the parade, we feel the ones here, and it feels rather soothing. The tingling sensation doesn't feel like pins and needles, but I can't really place it. It's nothing I've ever felt before.
I look out to the crowd, and wave at them, drawing an even stronger applause from them. With that, Caesar ends my interview, and all of us file out back to where Effie and Haymitch were watching the interviews. Caesar's voice and face made it glaringly obvious how enamored he was with the sight before him.
Effie can't hide her pride and joy for us. "That was incredible!"
Haymitch is just as proud, but more reserved as per typical Haymitch. "You guys were amazing out there." They both pull us into a nice embrace, just as Cinna and Portia arrive and join in celebrating with us. Cinna and Portia express gratitude for us acknowledging them, but claim it was unnecessary. Haymitch expresses that he's genuinely hopeful for us when the games begin. So am I.
Song credit: Diamonds by Rihanna