Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.
A/n: This is a series of oneshots. Each oneshot features, in order, a person from the character list on this site as well as a few i felt should be there (Boggs, Coin, Caesar, Cashmere, Gloss, and Marvel) each with a randomly picked prompt (or as random as i could manage without throwing actual darts at my poor old dictionary!). Updates will be one a day (hopefully) though when i go back to uni, this might change. Anyway, i hope you enjoy! As always, any criticism, just shout it out. Any advice on law, shout it out louder!
Caisha702, please try not to kill me by the end of this.
7) Cashmere – Grout
What is the last thing you expect Cashmere Ludovik to do in her spare time? Ruling out all of the fantastic impossibilities that you can think of, such as skydiving into a volcano. Well, if you look at her, you would probably have 'manual labour' somewhere in your list of things you don't think she'd be doing. That being said, you also would probably not think she is a deadly killer and considering she won the Hunger Games four years ago, we can safely say you would be wrong.
Anyway: manual labour. Not the sort of thing you would expect her to do in all of her free time. Especially considering her house is nigh on perfect. And, unlike the deadly killer thing, you would be completely correct. So one of the final things Gloss expects to see when he walks out of his house in Victors' village is his older sister, patiently grouting the wall of her house.
(It isn't the last thing he expects to see. The very last thing would be far more controversial and would (probably) be an activity less possible to do than grouting)
"Cashmere?"
She looks up. "Hello, Gloss," she says politely.
It is best to add now that the siblings are not close. An argument involving volunteering for the Hunger Games and a misplaced (and childish) 'I hate you' does wonders for separating two inseparable people.
"What are you doing?" he asks.
Her face is closed. Normal people would associate it with a secret someone doesn't want to tell. Gloss decides that it is embarrassment. The other thing arguing does wonders for is making you constantly see false motives in the person you argued with.
"Grouting the wall," she answers as though this is something she does every day.
"Why?" Gloss frowns. "It doesn't need it."
"Well ... I guess I thought..."
They look at each other in silence. It's ridiculous. They've fallen into an awkward silence over the state of Cashmere's wall. Probably the best thing to do now would be for Gloss to nod and then to leave for wherever it is he was going to.
Gloss isn't the sort of person who does what is expected of him though. No other person would volunteer for the Hunger Games, just to demonstrate how betrayed they felt when their older sister volunteered. This probably shows a bit of insanity, among other things, but the point is that Gloss never does anything conventionally.
"This is because you went to the Capitol, isn't it?" he says.
"What?" Cashmere – who has had twenty-one years to get used to her brother's way of asking things randomly – is thrown.
"The Capitol. You're always upset when you come back."
"No, I-"
"Well, I can understand that," Gloss says, pulling his usual trick of ignoring whatever it is his sister is going to say. Cashmere – not usually someone to be ignored – stays silent. "If your trips are anything like mine." He looks her in the eye. "Are they like mine?"
At first, she isn't going to answer. Cashmere doesn't talk about her problems. But nor does Gloss and it doesn't appear as though he will leave until she's given an honest answer (being her little brother, Gloss has the annoying ability to tell when she's lying). She looks at her grouting (which, curious observers may be interested to know, is so badly done that all it does is demonstrate Cashmere's lack of talent) as she asks, "Do yours involve new lovers and huge amounts of money, Gloss?"
"Yes." He bends down. The other thing you wouldn't imagine Cashmere (or Gloss, for that matter) doing is sitting in the dirt. "Exactly that. And it's worse for you, isn't it? You were always more popular than me."
"What did you come here to talk about?" she asks wearily, trying to get off the subject.
"Nothing originally," he replies, "until I saw you grouting. Now ... I'm staying here to talk about our new lovers. And why our parents shouldn't be the only people who 'my loved ones' applies to."
They lock eyes. He opens his arms. For a second, Cashmere hesitates and then she leans forward and embraces her younger brother. Their first heartfelt hug in four years. Four years too long.