"So tomorrow you'll actually try some weapons after observing the other tributes today? You drew out those vector diagrams." Beetee asked. Wiress nodded. They were talking in Wiress' room. "Good."
"Beetee – did it feel weird – working with weapons knowing that – you'd kill someone." Wiress asked hesitantly. Beetee nodded. "I – I don't want to be –" She was overcome with a mix of emotions and looked at the floor.
"You don't want to be a killer like me." Beetee finished looking at the floor and then away from Wiress. "It changes you, Wiress."
"I – I just keep thinking – you managed somehow – and you – you still have – love." Beetee shivered as Wiress took his hand.
"Wiress –" Beetee whispered. "You think it's love?" He felt her arms go around him before she buried her face in his neck.
"Yes." Wiress whispered. "You care about all your tributes. You set up that scholarship. You took me in as an intern. You – You're still you."
"Sometimes I don't know about that." Beetee admitted.
"You're the Beetee I love." Wiress said before pressing her lips to his. "I – I love you too." Wiress managed to say before they were wrapped up in each other's passionate kisses again. They lay down on her bed. "Beetee?" Wiress asked cautiously as Beetee rubbed her back. She placed her hands on his chest and pushed herself back a bit to look into his eyes that were filled with desire. "I – I don't –" She paused. "I don't want to take anything away from you."
"What do you mean, Wiress?" Beetee asked looking at Wiress' eyes that couldn't hide her sadness behind her love for him.
"I don't want to die and take a piece of you with me." Wiress whispered as tears ran down her cheeks.
"Correction." Beetee said wiping tears away with his thumbs before kissing the rest of her tears away. "I don't want you to leave without you knowing exactly how much I love you. Even if we just have right now." He paused. "Do you want to know?" Wiress smiled at him.
"I think I know already." Wiress whispered. "I – I want you too, Beetee." With that, they gave each other a few hours where the world of the Hunger Games seemed to shatter under the force of their love.
"Beetee?" Wiress asked sleepily. Beetee smiled at her with his eyes still closed. "Beetee, love, wake up." Wiress shook him harder.
"What's wrong, baby?" Beetee asked kissing her on her face and neck. He looked at the clock on the wall realizing he had been there for over two hours.
"You're still in my room." Wiress whispered blushing. Beetee put a hand to her cheek and chuckled at its warmth. "I think Eustacia's home." Beetee sat up as Wiress turned on the lamp next to her bed. He pulled on his clothes cursing under his breath. The door to the bathroom closed before they could hear Eustacia's heels clacking on the stone floor. "Go!" Wiress whispered leading him to the door.
"I love you –" Beetee managed one more kiss before Wiress pushed him into the hallway.
"I know." Wiress whispered before hurriedly closed the door. She climbed back into bed and shivered in the absence of Beetee's warmth. She rolled around and tried to sleep. However, she felt an acute absence of the piece of her that was now with Beetee. Even though he was only in the other room, she knew that if she didn't return from the arena, she would have left less whole. Beetee. Tears streamed down her face. She had a piece of him that would also die if she died in the arena. She wrapped the blankets around herself but couldn't stop shivering. This went on for an hour. Great. Training is tomorrow. She stared at the clock and calculated the time in binary code. It was 1 am. She rolled over yet again before walking around and then plopping back down on her bed. She was startled by a knock on her wall sometime around 2:30am.
"Hey, Wiress!" Terrance called through the heating vents that connected the rooms. "You guys broke a spring or two in your mattress! Just FYI. I can hear it in my room. I can hear lots of things through these vents as a matter of fact –"
"Terrance – What are you doing still up?" Wiress shrieked horrified.
"Well, the people in the neighboring bedroom were making a racket and then I keep hearing this spring squeaking whenever you roll around or get up or down –" Wiress ran to the closet and pulled out random clothes. She unscrewed the grate over the heating vent and started shoving bundles of clothes down it until she couldn't hear Terrance's chuckles anymore. The manual labor of plugging the vent between the rooms made her sufficiently tired enough to crawl under her blankets and sleep.