TRIPLE UPDATE! – MAKE SURE TO READ PREVIOUS 2 CHAPTERS!

Chapter One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Nine; Human

Patience had never been one of Wirin's strongest assets, and when his patience was already worn thin the true Wirin was more easily glimpsed.

Wirin rolled his eyes, "this is ridiculous," he muttered under his breath, "Seneca – she's nervous again."

Seneca eyed Wirin coolly, "and what exactly do you expect Wirin?"

"It's only a bloody scan!" Wirin expelled in agitated impatience. "It's going to help her! Only a bloody district idiot wouldn't underst – "

Wirin didn't get to finish his insult as his words and air supply were instantly cut off by Seneca's forearm crushing his windpipe.

"Wirin," Seneca's voice had dropped to that silky murmur that instantly spelled death. "I'm already imagining ways to repay you for your careless words earlier. So I'd advise you not to give me any more reason to encourage my creativity."

Wirin fell back choking in his chair as he groped at his throat raking in ragged breaths.

Seneca moved swiftly for the door that led from the small control room.

"Seneca!"

Seneca halted briefly, looking to Wirin with impatient expectance.

Wirin frowned, looking for all the world baffled.

"She's a district girl Seneca," Wirin said earnestly; the stark statement conveying all the confusion he felt, because Stephanie had been right about him. Wirin viewed her as nothing but a worthless district dweller and though Wirin knew Seneca claimed to love Stephanie, the idea of a Capitolite feeling anything for a district dweller was completely beyond Wirin's comprehension.

Seneca actually scoffed at him, looking like he was barely resisting going back and finishing crushing Wirin's windpipe. Wirin cringed down in his seat.

"She's more human than you," Seneca corrected him icily as he exited the room.

…

Stephanie jumped, turning around.

The scene was familiar as she was lying on the cold table-like slab in her papery thin gown. But she wasn't surprised this time to see Seneca striding towards her.

"I'm nervous."

She had said the words before he had even reached her.

A ghost of a smirk flitted across his lips; a shadow of his former self.

"I suppose me telling you there is no need to be nervous would be a waste of my breath?" he questioned sardonically, an ebony brow arching smugly.

Stephanie scoffed lightly as she averted her gaze. "I feel like a test subject in a laboratory; Capitolites dissecting a district dweller to find what lies beneath," she joked weakly.

She looked up at him but he wasn't even smirking, "your jokes are in poor taste," he said bluntly.

Stephanie released a measured breath as she stared up at the blue-eyed Gamemaker feeling more confused than ever.

"How long will this 'scan' take?" she asked instead.

"No more than twenty minutes if you can keep still and keep your breathing even," Seneca replied.

Stephanie sighed heavily; her eyes flitting about the clinical whiteness of the room in all its sterile cleanliness that made Stephanie feel just slightly more nervous.

"I'll try," she muttered unconvincingly.

She heard Seneca echo her sigh and she frowned; thinking similar thoughts from earlier about the impossible nature of her situation that prevented her from being completely at ease.

"Move over."

Stephanie's wide-eyed gaze snapped around immediately at the command, as she looked agape at Seneca. He had discarded his blazer unceremoniously on the floor, and was currently fiddling with the cufflinks on his shirt sleeves.

"W-what?!" Stephanie managed after a few dumbfounded moments.

Seneca rolled his eyes, "you're not deaf," he muttered, as he discarded his cufflinks as carelessly as his blazer on the floor.

They landed with audible yet unnoticed clinks and Seneca began to roll up his shirt sleeves.

"Wirin it is possible to do multiple scans at once?" Seneca called sharply. His gaze pierced the pane of one-sided glass effortlessly as though he could pinpoint exactly where Wirin was sitting.

There was a moment's hesitant pause before Wirin's voice sounded though the intercom uncertainly, "y-yes, it is possible and it won't affect the results. But Seneca –"

"Thank-you Wirin, that's all I needed to know," the edge of finality to Seneca's words was unmistakable as he once more turned to Stephanie.

Stephanie was still staring at him in almost incomprehension.

Seneca, seeing that Stephanie was suffering some kind of shocked stupor, didn't wait for any further invitation.

He hoisted himself lightly up onto the table swinging his legs up until they knocked against Stephanie's, as she had yet to move.

However the contact caused Stephanie to be ripped from her dazed staring as she scooted as far away from the blue-eyed Gamemaker as possible without falling off the table.

Seneca spared a glance at her. "Better," he muttered before he simply lay back as Stephanie had been instructed to do at first.

Seneca stared up at her; his blue eyes brighter as a smug sardonic smirk grew on his lips.

"Are you going to lie down?" he asked her, arching a cool brow.

Stephanie snapped to her senses. "What the hell are you doing?" she demanded as she edged even further away from him, glaring at him steadily.

Seneca grinned then, "you said you were nervous, and felt like a test subject because you don't understand nor necessarily trust the scanner."

Stephanie glared at him harder, "and you think you're going to make things better," she bit sarcastically.

Seneca remained looking unfazed as he shrugged unconcerned, "at least you won't be worrying that the machine is going to kill you and that in turn will slow your heart-rate down enough to complete the test."

"You think getting the test with me will make my heart-rate slow down?" Stephanie barked at him. She was seriously considering just shoving him off the table in the next moment if only to get rid of his smug expression as he looked up at her.

"Are you saying that I make your heart-rate speed up?" Seneca refuted with a wicked smirk.

Stephanie shoved him then, but her attempts at shifting him were namely unsuccessful and she only glared all the harder at him. She made to move then, readying to hop off the table when he caught her arm as he leaned up on his elbows.

"The sooner you get this over with the sooner you can get out of here," Seneca told her seriously and Stephanie released a heavy sigh of defeat as her shoulders slumped.

She leaned back then, frowning worriedly. But she forced herself to take deep calming breaths and studiously ignore the heat radiating off the man lying the length beside her.

"Readying for scan," Wirin's voice came across clear after a moment or two and Stephanie consciously made an effort to slow her heart-rate.

Twenty minutes and it would be over, she thought encouragingly.

The whirring sound began again then, as a shadow began to approach the periphery of her vision. It was usually then that she began to feel nervous, as she was essentially swallowed up by a tunnel-like machine. It would make all sorts of precisely non-encouraging noises while lights would flicker unexpectedly in her eyes.

The machine did its work across her head, and Stephanie worked hard not to even let her eyelids flutter, as the luminous blue line of light moved further down, past her chin at a slow measured pace.

"We'll be able to see if you have any brains in that foolishly stubborn head of yours."

Stephanie frowned, "I thought you were supposed to keep perfectly still."

"The head scan is already completed. As long as you keep the rest of your body immobile you can talk."

Stephanie rolled her eyes slightly, "lucky me," she muttered sarcastically.

Seneca smirked but it swiftly disappeared as the line moved further down across their shoulders.

"You really think I'm a monster?"

Stephanie inhaled sharply at Seneca's words, resisting the urge to jerk away and crawl off this table.

"You've done unjustifiable things. Things that are indefensible and unforgivable," Stephanie replied quietly, "countless tributes have died in the Hunger Games, a century's worth – "

"You can't seriously place all the blame on me!"

"I'm not! – But you have to accept some of it."

"You're asking me to feel sorry for those tributes' lives that I took?"

"I'm not asking you to," Stephanie corrected, "you can't force someone to feel anything."

Seneca glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, a rueful smirk crossing his lips. "I know," he agreed.

Stephanie swallowed, having felt Seneca's gaze on her and suspecting his meaning.

"Do you still hate me?" Seneca asked suddenly.

"You ruined Haymitch's life," Stephanie replied immediately, her voice cold and accusatory.

Seneca released a measured breath. "Haymitch," he repeated scathingly, his voice laced with bitterness.

"Yes, Haymitch," Stephanie echoed fiercely.

"Abernathy certainly has a way of – "

"I love him."

A charged silence fell at Stephanie's abrupt words as she inhaled deeply.

She could practically feel the resentment radiating off Seneca where his shoulder touched hers.

"I know." Seneca said stiffly as he worked his jaw, his blue eyes smouldering darkly.

Stephanie consciously released a long breath as she tried to consider her next words carefully.

"I can practically hear you thinking," Seneca sniped sardonically, his voice laced clearly with bitterness.

Stephanie frowned, "well what do you expect?" Stephanie snapped back.

"You really think I would kill him?"

Stephanie chewed on her bottom lip, "I don't know. I would've said yes…once."

"Once?"

Stephanie swallowed as she fidgeted slightly. She was far from comfortable with this conversation. Something completely terrifying and strangely exhilarating was licking across her skin like electricity.

She had never spoken so frankly or so long before with the blue-eyed Gamemaker, she realised.

"You didn't kill Fas," Stephanie stated rather uselessly, having no idea what she was trying to say.

Seneca snorted somewhat derisively, "and that's your reasoning why I wouldn't kill Abernathy?" he questioned, his voice heavy with condescension.

She scowled, moving her shoulder in an attempt to nudge him reproachfully.

"Keep still," Wirin's disembodied voice sounded warningly, almost startling her.

"Shut up Wirin!" Seneca called almost immediately, and Stephanie couldn't help but snort in poorly concealed amusement.

But the brief moment of levity ended swiftly as she considered what she was about to say. It was a risk she knew. And it was placing a worrying amount of trust on someone she was still questioning her sanity for believing in.

"You wouldn't kill Haymitch because…I love him," Stephanie stated quietly.

There was silence and Stephanie held her breath as she waited in tense hopefulness.

"I hate Abernathy." Seneca stated petulantly and a breath trembled unsure and worried on Stephanie's lips.

"But as idiotic a decision as it is, you love him," Seneca continued in a much quieter voice, "and as long as that remains true…I won't ever kill him."

Stephanie felt her eyes slip shut in relief as a strangled gasp left her lips.

"Thank-you Seneca," Stephanie whispered watching as the blue line slipped down past the hem of her thin gown.

She chanced a glance at the blue-eyed Gamemaker to find he had his eyes shut; the muscles in his jaw visibly tense as he clenched his teeth. Her eyes also flickered to his white-knuckled fists at his sides.

However his eyes snapped open before Stephanie had the chance to avert her gaze.

Stephanie frowned worriedly; not at all reassured by Seneca's stiff posture.

"What – do you expect me to look happy?" Seneca bit sarcastically, "I love you and you just told me you love the man I hate most in this world."

He sighed heavily as he turned his head away from her again, glaring at nothing in particular.

Stephanie swallowed as she fidgeted uncomfortably.

"And don't worry; I'll keep my word," Seneca's voice laced with bitter sarcasm sounded again, "because I know how spectacular your trust in me is."

Stephanie flexed her fingers, feeling her heart thump against her ribcage faster than was helpful.

First she had slapped him, then she had fainted in his arms, before she then cried on his shoulder as he held her and now…

"I do trust you," Stephanie whispered so quietly it was barely audible, as her own blood pounded in her ears.

Seneca actually physically jerked at her words, as he propped himself up on an elbow to frown down at her.

The intercom crackled as Wirin made to complain, but Seneca snapped a few fierce words that essentially warned Wirin, that if he were to speak, it would be the last words he would ever utter.

"Why?" Seneca asked her bluntly then, as he pinned her down with his gaze.

Stephanie breathed deeply, inhaling Seneca's clean scent that had clung to his blazer. "Because you love me."

Seneca smirked ruefully then as he looked down at her. "I suppose that makes me even more idiotic than you for loving Abernathy then?"

Stephanie felt a mirroring smirk tug at one corner of her lips, "no, loving someone does not make you idiotic," she replied, catching his gaze meaningfully, "it makes you human."

Seneca's gaze grew more intense as he hovered above her and the blue line slipped closer to her ankles.

"I thought I was a monster?" Seneca questioned, trying to sound sarcastic and nonchalant but failing.

Stephanie studied Seneca's face for a moment, every conclusion she had ever come about the blue-eyed Gamemaker flitting through her mind.

"A part of you is," Stephanie replied honestly, "but…a part of you is human too."

Seneca stared at her for an interminable moment in silence.

And it was in that second that Seneca's lips crashed down on hers, with a ferocity and a possessiveness that refused to be ignored as he slanted his mouth more firmly across hers.

Thanks to girlworthfightingfor for the review as always; I'm glad to hear you're still enjoying it. I particularly hope you enjoyed the ending of this last chapter also :P

P.S; I would really appreciate and be interested to hear people's opinion on Stephanie/Haymitch vs. Stephanie/Seneca? Or if you could even pop over to my profile there's a poll; it could very well change the story!