The Stars

by Takai No Hibiki

Series of oneshots. In District 3 there is a nameless group of people whose crimes go unpunished because their interests coincide with that of the Peacekeepers. They were thieves, hired hands who sometimes killed, but they were the closest thing to a family Pyro had. When one of them is sent to the Games, the rest are forced to come to terms with the nature of their job.

4. Dark

The Stars

Title: Dark

Characters: Pyro, Cuan

Word Count: 738

Warnings: Cuan is a creep.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games and the inspiration for these characters comes from another series entirely.

Notes: I tend to picture Districts with factories as places with factories, apartment buildings, houses and shops, and the further out you get the more dilapidated the buildings. Not sure when this takes place - could be shortly after Introduction or a few years down the line.

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004: Dark

Cuan's eyes were a dark, charcoal grey, a smoky color that by no means should have been capable of the deception that he held as his most trusted confidant.

Many of District 3's inhabitants were dark eyed or dark haired, their skin a universally pale and ashen hue from lack of sunlight and exposure. Although Cuan looked no different from the average man walking around in town, Pyro sometimes felt a sense of unease staring at him.

That scrutinizing gaze was fixed on him now, even through the sharp darkness of the night. Pyro could sense more than see the man sitting on a low, moth bitten couch only a few feet away.

With a soft shiver he settled down amongst the well worn blankets adorning his makeshift bed, tugging the edge to cover his mouth and nose. Nearly an entire wall of the room they were in had been surrendered to time, but it was remarkably the most stable of all the ones they had checked.

The cold was bitter, but they hadn't been able to have the luxury of a fire for quite some time now. Fires attracted too much attention, but it would have been nice to be warm.

He closed his eyes for a moment, but was too cold to fall asleep easily. Groaning in frustration, he pushed the blankets down enough for him to talk unobstructed. Cuan was still staring at him.

"Why are people afraid of the dark?"

"Do you really think people are afraid of the absence of light?"

Pyro threw a sharp glare in Cuan's direction, knowing that the inscrutable man would somehow sense it through the distance between them.

He gave the idea some thought, considering every word that Cuan had spoken. He was a man who wasted little on frivolities, even in his speech, and despite his infuriatingly calm and whimsical persona, Pyro found that he could trust every word to mean something even when the man was lying.

"People aren't afraid of the dark…" he pondered. "Then...they are just afraid of being unable to see?"

"Perhaps it is difficult for you to comprehend, because you yourself have no fears."

"No fears?" he echoed with a frown. "I wouldn't say that."

"Do you trust me?" Cuan suddenly spoke. Pyro sputtered, withdrawing as if the man himself was directly in front of him.

"What're you talking about?"

"Do you trust me?" Cuan said persistently.

"Well, yes, I suppose so," he grudgingly replied. In a weird, twisted, somewhat perplexing way.

"You are unable to see me because it is dark, and yet you say that you can trust in me not to hurt you and to keep watch and ensure that no harm comes to you as you sleep."

Pyro flushed at the insinuation - the notion that he was so vulnerable that he needed Cuan for any of that at all. He said nothing, though, in favor of hearing what the man had to say about the topic.

"And thus, you have no fear of the dark."

Pyro shot upright, tossing the blankets aside as he snapped with a mounting growl, "That's it?"

"That's it, simple, really," Cuan said. Pyro could sense (again, sense more than feel or see) him stand and walk over to settle down next to him. Now he could see a vague form take shape, a man cloaked in dark clothes in the shadows.

Cuan pushed him back down with a tap, urging him to try and sleep as he settled against the wall where he was more comfortable. Even if someone were to sneak into the room, Cuan would wake immediately - in that sense Pyro did place trust in him, but particularly in his instincts.

"I am not afraid because I know that you are here," he said aloud.

"Well, do you believe in monsters?" Cuan said lightly, in the sort of mockingly innocent tone that Pyro detested.

"No," he replied sharply. "They don't exist. Unless you count the mutts, but they're just mutated animals. And they don't exist in the Districts."

"Well, there you have it. For you, there is no unknown - you know exactly what the dark contains. And people, believe it or not, are afraid of their own imaginations."

"Afraid of what the darkness might bring…?" Pyro muttered, settling into his makeshift bed once more with a quiet yawn. "I used to be afraid, I think, a long time ago."