District Six

Welcome Party

Philip "Flip" Weissmann (17)

you wanna live like common people
you wanna see whatever common people see
wanna sleep with common people
you wanna sleep with common people like me
(but she didn't understand
she just smiled and held my hand)

common people — pulp

Flip was holding a fancy Capitol cocktail in his hand the first time he realised he had feelings for his District partner.

They had known each other all their lives, coming from the very same neighbourhood and with Flip's father being a frequent customer at Holden's family's bar. Flip remembered the way they had played together when they were little, and how they had practically shared the same group of friends growing up; the girl had eventually drifted away from them due to her prolonged shifts at the bar and the way she tended to keep nearly everything to herself and her small group of friends, all older and quirkier than Flip himself, but the boy had still found her an intriguing and undeniably beautiful girl for most of his teenage years. Flip liked the way she lived for the excitement and the worry, never thinking things through before following her instincts; she was a fiercely independent soul, and yet she had somehow chosen that she liked him and wanted him as an ally from the very beginning. He was calmer, more methodical, and they somehow evened each other's characters out — Holden pushed him and made him want to strive for greatness, and he usually managed to tone her recklessness down a peg or two in return.

They made a good team, Flip told himself with a smile as he observed the way Holden danced around the girl from Five, laughing and chatting about nothing in particular, and it suddenly came to him that he may have fallen in love with her under more normal circumstances.

"Hey, Six," a voice called behind him, "Stop staring — your jaw's gonna drop off."

Flip frowned, and turned around to find the tributes from Four standing behind him. The boy was tall and very handsome, with strawberry blond hair and striking blue eyes, and the girl was shorter but equally attractive, with her long brown hair pulled into a sophisticated-looking bun. Holden had told him earlier that they both looked like Greek gods or like two Capitol models, and Flip quickly realised that she had been absolutely right about it.

"Hey," the boy said in a friendly manner, offering Flip his hand. "I'm Markus. We saw you earlier and thought it'd be nice to say hi."

"Hey," Flip echoed, nodding in a gentle agreement as he shook the boy's hand. "I'm Flip. Those are Holden — that's my District partner — and Solar, the girl from Five." He tilted his head towards the two girls, who were still laughing together, perhaps a little too tipsy on the alcohol that they had already ingested. "And, as you can see, they're already absolutely wasted."

"No, shit, Sherlock," the girl from Four snorted as she observed the two girls with a half-pensive, half-amused expression. She then offered Flip her hand, too. "Anyway. I'm Adaliah. Your District partner and her friend are very cute."

A reddish patch appeared on Flip's cheeks, and the boy just shrugged before casting a glance towards the two girls.

"Yeah, they really are," he mumbled, more to himself than to the two tributes standing in front of him. He shook Adaliah's hand, then offered the two of them one of his bright, relentlessly extroverted smiles. "So, how's the Capitol treated you two so far?"

"Not terribly, honestly," Markus shrugged. "A bunch of teen girls came screeching at me asking for autographs after the Chariot Rides, which was a little strange, but oh well."

"Oh, you should've seen him," Adaliah said, snorting quietly. "The guy was loving the attention. He even called each and every one of them 'darling' — like he was gonna become their boyfriend all of a sudden or something."

"I'm sure they'll be rooting for you," Flip nodded, laughing too. He liked how easygoing Markus seemed to be, and the way Adaliah's temper seemed to resemble Holden's — reckless, and perhaps a little sarcastic, but friendly nervertheless. "I wish they had let me bring my camera with me — the architecture's stunning here."

"You a photographer?" Markus questioned curiously before taking a sip from his cocktail.

"Well, yeah, sort of," Flip replied, a gentle smile appearing on his lips as soon as his mind went back to his camera and the photographs that he had taken over the course of the years and that had been neatly placed into an album that his parents bought him for one of his birthdays. "It's just a big hobby of mine, I guess. I'd typically spend most of my spare time roaming around my District, taking pictures of whoever and whatever I found." It hurt him to realise that he spoke of his hobbies and ideas in the past, almost as though they were condemned to disappear as soon as Flip's feet grazed the Arena.

"You talking about your camera already, Flip?" Holden's voice asked behind him, right before the girl wrapped her arms around Flip's neck and hugged him from behind. Flip's cheeks turned a light crimson, even though he knew full well that the girl's suddenly bubbly attitude came largely from the amounts of beer that she had been drinking with Solar, and even smiled a little at the gesture. It was undeniable that he enjoyed the feeling of her arms around his neck immensely, though, so he simply leaned his head back and laughed a little as he settled into her tipsy embrace.

"Hey, hi!" Solar said to the two tributes from Four. She had struck Flip as a rather reserved person when they had first met, but he gathered that the alcohol had made her a little more extroverted than she had been during the Chariot Rides. The girl shook Markus's hand amiably, then stared at Adaliah and outright blurted, "You're gorgeous."

Adaliah and Markus exchanged a glance, but the girl finally replied with a half-smile, "You're not too bad yourself."

"Wanna dance?" Solar added, a bright, tipsy smile on her face. She even laughed at the surprised expression on Adaliah's face, and simply grabbed the girl's hand before dragging her to the dance floor, all laughs and smiles and relaxation after a rather tense past couple of days.

Markus whistled behind them, then observed Holden and Flip in front of him. The girl was now resting her chin on Flip's shoulder, standing on her tiptoes because her District partner was a few inches taller than her, humming to the song that was now playing as Flip closed his eyes and listened to her singing with an amused smile on his face.

"God, why am I surrounded by couples all of a sudden," groaned Markus, shaking his head a little.

Flip and Holden looked up at him, and replied at once, "We're not a couple!"

Markus only laughed in return. "Yeah, my ass." He then offered the two of them an amiable wave and added, "I'm gonna head back to bed, I think. Have fun, and please make sure Adaliah doesn't do anything stupid. I feel like I've been parenting her for the past forty-eight hours or so."

Flip chuckled, but eventually nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no problem. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, let's meet up for breakfast or something," Markus nodded. "If the girls aren't too hungover, that is."

"We're not drunk!" Holden groaned, and poked Flip's nose repeatedly. "Philip, please tell this man we're not drunk."

"Don't call me Philip, Chevelle," Flip countered immediately. When the girl grimaced at his use of her first name and punched his arm, the boy just laughed and ruffled her hair a little, which only seemed to further infuriate her. He then looked up at Markus and added, "See you tomorrow, then."

Markus just shook his head and waved them goodbye with an amused smile before leaving the room. Flip then wrapped his arm around an exhausted-looking Holden and squeezed her shoulder ever so gently as the two of them observed the way Adaliah and Solar kept dancing together, their bodies getting closer with every song and with both girls seeming perfectly comfortable with the idea of their faces being only inches apart. Flip, who was a lot more sober than his District partner and their two prospective allies, wondered for the briefest of seconds what it may feel like to have his face that close to Holden's — how he may feel if their lips were ever to touch, how she would react if he ever kissed her. He knew that she had never been all too concerned about boys, and that she regarded him as a valuable ally and perhaps even as a friend, but he certainly felt as though assuming there was something else going on between the two of them would be overstepping.

He took another swig from his cocktail as he mulled it all over in his head, and smiled quietly when he noticed that Holden's head was resting on his shoulder, her eyes closed and a peaceful expression gracing her face.

Chevelle Holden (16)

it's always tease, tease, tease
you're happy when i'm on my knees
one day it's fine and next it's black
so if you want me off your back
well, come on and let me know
should i stay or should i go?

should i stay or should i go — the clash

The rest of the night went by in a blur. She remembered seeing Solar and Adaliah kiss, with her and Flip whooping loudly in the background and the boy from Two pulling a disgusted face at them; she also recalled having swirled around the dancefloor with Flip for a bit before claiming that she was too tired to stay any longer. The boy had gallantly offered her his arm, motioning towards the lift, and Holden had offered him the brightest of smiles in return. She had always refused to acknowledge the possibility of having romantic feelings for other people, simply because she deemed the concept of dating too boring and uninteresting, and she had always loathed the idea of having a boyfriend or a girlfriend like some of her best friends did. But all of those preconceptions seemed to vanish whenever Flip was around, all smiles and kind words and a gentle laugh that made Holden's insides melt. She had liked him ever since they were little, and even though they were nowhere as close as they were when they were children, she had resolved to stick to his side from the moment she realised that they had gotten reaped together. He never questioned her interests or the way she enjoyed getting into trouble, and he even seemed to like her reckless attitude, which was normally frowned upon by most of her peers. Holden felt as though he liked and accepted her for who she was, and the idea of it made her feel both ecstatic and immensely vulnerable, simply because she had never felt this safe around anyone, let alone during something like the Hunger Games. Their timing was absolutely horrid, and she knew that they had two or three weeks at most, but she somehow resolved, in the midst of a drunken haze, that she wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.

That was precisely why she grabbed the collar of Flip's shirt as soon as they reached their lodgings, pressing a warm, urgent kiss against the boy's lips. Flip was visibly surprised by it, but kissed her back longingly, with a hunger that made Holden's insides churn, and she found herself wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer, urging him to continue.

The boy, however, pulled away a few seconds later. He licked his lips, smiling the smallest of smiles as the kiss played back in his head, but ultimately stated, "Holden, you're drunk. Let's get you to bed, all right?"

Holden shook her head firmly. Granted, she still felt a little dizzy, and perhaps the alcohol had helped her overcome her fear of rejection, but she had never felt as sober as she did right then.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, her nose still rubbing against Flip's. She pulled him closer and whispered, "Shit, I… I really like you, all right? I think I always have, kind of. I just can't stand the idea of acting as though there's nothing going on between us."

"And I like you too," Flip replied, his thumb tracing a gentle pattern on the small of Holden's back. The boy sighed and closed his eyes before adding, "But... shit, this is really bad timing, Hol. You get that, don't you?"

"That's why we should make the most out of it!" Holden replied, feeling a little frustrated. She ran a hand through Flip's hair, then looked up at his eyes with an almost pleading expression. "Just forget about the Games, all right? Let's pretend we're still home and that we've bumped into each other at the market or at school or something and that we're just — well, having a good time, all right? Let's do every single thing we're not supposed to do to please the Capitol — dying's going to be hard enough, but it will be a whole lot more painful if we just... act all weird around each other instead of, well, getting at it."

Flip even chuckled a little at that. "Getting at it does sound nice, yeah." There was a faint smile on his lips, and he tucked a strand of hair behind Holden's ear before adding, "But we should just get some sleep now, all right? We're supposed to meet Markus and Adaliah and Solar for breakfast first thing tomorrow."

"Ugh, fine," Holden feigned a groan, but ultimately offered him one of her half-smiles before taking his hand. "Let's go, then."

The two of them made their way upstairs, with Flip's thumb gently tracing circles around the back of Holden's hand as he hummed to a song that they had both heard and danced to at the party earlier. His tie was loose around his neck and the buttons of his collar had come off when Holden had pulled him close, and the way his short, wavy brown hair stuck up at different points from all the kissing earlier made Holden smile. She didn't let go of his hand when they reached their bedrooms, their two identical doors facing each other in the gleam of the night, and she looked up to meet his eyes for the briefest of seconds.

"You want to, um, stay over?" Holden found herself blushing, which was absolutely ridiculous since she had never done blushing; she quickly added, in a more casual tone, "It's totally all right if you don't want to — "

But Flip just smiled and silenced her with a gentle kiss to her forehead, before adding, "Sure, I'll stay."

And Holden smiled, pulling him a little closer as she opened the door to her bedroom. She had been with both boys and girls before, but she only realised right there and then that she had never actually slept with someone, in the sense of sharing a bed and getting to doze off feeling the warmth of a friendly body next to her. She had never been a self-conscious girl, and she couldn't care less what others thought of her appearance, but she meekly motioned for Flip to turn around before changing into the pyjamas that had been left for her on top of the bed. Flip just chuckled in agreement and turned around as he took his shirt and pants off; Holden couldn't help but let out a soft snort when she realised that he was wearing hotdog-patterned boxers, along with a white t-shirt that must have been hiding underneath his original shirt and tie. She just threw the pyjama t-shirt on after getting rid of her dress and decided that, if Flip didn't need his pants, neither did she.

"You good?" Flip asked from the bed, eyeing her with an amused expression. It was all a little strange, now that Holden came to think about it, but the girl just shrugged before slipping into bed right next to him.

She curled into a ball, staring right into Flip's eyes, and did an almost mischievous smile before whispering, "I can't believe we're doing this."

"Well, I'm glad we are," he whispered in return, offering her a broad smile before resting his forehead against Holden's. He closed his eyes and muttered, "Good night, Hol."

"Good night, Flip."

They dozed off together, Flip's fingers curled around hers hand and Holden's toes brushing gently against the boy's legs.

I'M SUCH A SAP I'M SORRY. I just really loved the dynamic between these two and? I don't know? It sort of just happened ok sorry. I hope you lot enjoyed it in spite of its general sappiness (?) anyway. Thanks again for reading & reviewing — your comments never fail to bring a smile to my face, so thanks a ton for that! :)

Up next — District 7 + Training!