Victorious Children

by Tobu Ishi

He volunteers to protect his sister. She dedicates her life to a new dream. He sees himself in an unlikely ally. She vows to choose her own fate. We will be victorious. Ladies and gentlemen, let the Sixty-eighth Hunger Games begin! (A RotBTD/Hunger Games AU, rated for eventual violence.)

4. The Train

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THE TRAIN
(District 10, Livestock)

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She's sitting with her back to him, staring out the window of the train at the green blur of the forest whirring past. Hiccup has never seen the forest this close before. He'd be over there himself, watching it in fascination, if it wasn't for the aura of cold hostility radiating from that blond head.

"Astrid," he says. That single word shatters the awkward silence like a china plate.

Her fingers tighten on the seat cushion until her knuckles go white, but she doesn't turn around. "I don't care if you are the mayor's son." Her voice is harsh and determined and strong. She's strong. Hiccup's seen her hollering at cattle ten times her own size and dragging them around by the horns since they were schoolchildren. It's a beautiful voice, harshness and all. "I don't care if everybody in the District pools their money to sponsor you. I'm going home."

Finally she turns to look at him. Her blue eyes pierce through him, every sorry inch of him, and Hiccup feels pinned to his seat.

"No matter what I have to do," she declares, and turns back to the view from the window.

Hiccup tries to think of something to say to that, but the memory of how Astrid's parents sobbed while she walked straight-backed and calm up the steps of the stage is still fresh. So is the look on his father's bearded face, the way his words of encouragement grasped at straws, talking about sponsors and doing his best. Sponsorship will be wasted on skinny, clumsy Hubert Haddock, a boy so hopeless that the nickname was almost an improvement, but his father will try to get it to him anyway, and Astrid's family is dirt poor. Hiccup is aware of all of that, with painful clarity. For once, nothing worth saying comes to mind.

"Fair enough," he says, lamely, for the sake of some kind of comeback, and quietly leaves the train car. The door slides shut behind him.

Astrid waits, listening until his footsteps fade away. Then she leans her face against her knees, curls into a ball on the train seat and finally, silently, lets the tears slide down her cheeks.