Title: I Didn't Even Know His Name
Fandom: Hunger Games
Characters: Glimmer and Marvel
Prompt: 084 He
Word Count: 671
Rating: K+
Summary: Glimmer's initial thoughts on her district partner.
I Didn't Even Know His Name
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
-Mark Twain
Marvel Masters. She didn't know him, had never even heard his name before he had announced it during the reaping when he had stood opposite her on the stage. She had no idea who he was but he had volunteered just like her and his grip was firm when they were told to shake hands. She knew that they would be allies in the arena.
At least at the beginning.
Glimmer took her chance to study him now as she waited in their chariot, watching his stylist make the final adjustments on the purple feathers draped over his shoulders. Trying to remember if she had ever passed him in halls at school or saw him practicing at the training grounds. Anything about him that would give her an edge against him if it came down to the two of them. But there was nothing.
And in a district as small as One that was certainly saying something.
She had only what she had observed since they had been ushered onto the train. All the notes he had taken during while they watched the other reapings, notes on the size of the other tributes and how old they were and if they had volunteered or if they had accepted being reaped or not. He was clever and observant. But she also remembered the look on his face when they had first entered the train, the way he had stared around at the dining car as if he had never seen that much food in his life.
But he looked healthy to her, healthy enough, but maybe now wasn't the best time to be looking for that. Not right after he had left the remake centre. He was too strong and well fed to be from the poor quarter of their district, they could often scrape together enough food from what others didn't want but they certainly didn't get trainers.
Not the type who normally volunteered.
Could that leave the community home, she wondered. The home for orphaned or abandoned children, held in the oldest mansion in the district and run by two of the sternest women Glimmer had ever seen. They used the training grounds sometimes, taught by the handful of standby trainers with few skills themselves.
If that was Marvel's only experience she had a better chance than she thought.
"And remember to smile, they're going to love you," his stylist was saying as he climbed onto the chariot beside her. Marvel smiled down at the strange Capitol man who has designed both their costumes or he tried to at least. It looked rather forced to her.
The applause as their chariot lead the parade was deafening. She had thought she knew how loud it was going to be, District One was always well received since they were the fan favourites for the games, from the sounds that bounced around the crystal pavilion that held the public screening of the games. But the amount of people packed into this one stadium must have been several times the entire population of District One and the noise they could make was like nothing she ever could have imagined.
Glimmer caught an image of herself magnified in the large screens all across the stadium and she couldn't help but laugh. She had always loved attention and now was no different. She fed off the energy from the crowd, laughing and smiling and waving as they made their way down the central roadway. She took a glance beside her, a quick glance at Marvel to see how he was doing. For his sake, his survival, she hoped that the Capitol snobs that would be their sponsors couldn't see what she could. That his stiffness and small smile and shaky wave would come off arrogant or reserved. Otherwise he'd be in a lot of trouble if he needed help in the arena.
Because Marvel was terrified.