Chapter 18: Shine
Waking up to Katniss Everdeen's steady gray-eyed stare was, to put it mildly, disconcerting.
"...Why are you in my room?"
"Because Helvius, Kori, and Twyla are busy with routine exercises right now. Once they're finished, we're flying to Twelve and you're invited." Turning, she headed for the door, saying over her shoulder. "So you should probably start getting ready. Last breakfast shift is in half an hour."
She was gone by the time Lee managed to sit up. "Not going to tell me why we're going to Twelve," he muttered, wincing as pain flared along his left side. "Although she's not wrong about me sleeping in too late..."
The non-morphling painkillers he was on for a bruised rib had been affecting his ability to wake up in the morning. His current lack of real schedule didn't help, either; despite being released from the hospital relatively soon after returning to Thirteen, he was back to a restricted activity level while he healed. The painkillers might be suppressing the nightmares somewhat, but the flashbacks and fog are as bad as ever...
He'd been lucky, that night about a week earlier. The person who had shot him, somebody further back in the crowd of refugees from the Nut, hadn't had the best aim. The bullet had dealt a glancing blow rather than a direct one, and the hidden layer of bulletproof material inside Lee's uniform, courtesy of Paloma, had minimized the damage. The official surrender had come minutes later. District Two had at last fallen under rebel control.
And now preparations for the Capitol invasion are underway. The war could be over within a month or two.
Although everyone doubted that Snow would give up his city easily. "My uncle is not quite as smart as my grandfather was," Celeste had been heard to say after the fall of Two. "But he's just as stubborn if not more so. The question isn't if our side is going to win; the question is how many people our side will lose before we do."
My question would be: How much are the rebel Victors going to be involved in the invasion? Besides the actual generals like Mason and Patel, of course. He knew that Helvius, for one, kept dwelling on the subject. Along with Katniss and Kori. Spend more than five minutes with any of them these days and it will come up.
However, no one was on about the subject when he boarded the hovercraft to Twelve a couple hours later to find it not as crowded as expected. Katniss and Twyla were there, the former listening to the latter's description of the day's military exercises, and Haymitch was already settled into a seat, eyes closed.
"No camera crew?" Lee asked.
"Not today." Twyla smiled. "We're just going to Katniss's house to look for outfits for the double wedding."
"I've got too many dresses," Katniss said. "And I need to check on Buttercup the Third."
Confused, Lee stammered, "I...What double wedding? And who's Buttercup the Third?"
"He's her cat," Helvius chose that moment to turn up. "Didn't you hire someone still in Twelve to keep an eye on him?"
"Yes, but the Third gets grumpy when I'm gone too long."
"...Can I ask happened to the First and Second?"
Katniss seemed unperturbed by this. "Old age, more or less. The original Buttercup was Prim's cat. Mangy beast. The descendants of his that I have kept have been much more presentable."
"Oh. That's nice. But, um…" Where does the wedding come in?
Helvius seemed to get what he was after. "Finnick and Annie are getting married. More like renewing their vows, actually. Did you know they got secretly married years ago? Not officially, though, so they wanted to sort that out. And Celeste wanted some kind of happy event to use for a propo, so…"
"Orla picked up dresses for herself and Annie when she and Finnick dropped by Four, so they're set," Twyla said. "But it's only three days until the wedding, the other bride still needs a dress, and Katniss offered…"
"Who's the other bride?"
"Who do you think?" Kori had arrived, with Mina Pix and Paloma in tow. "My best friend is marrying my brother."
She slunk off to a seat a distance from the others, leaving Paloma amused and Mina looking embarrassed. The woman from Three quickly explained, "Since Finnick and Annie feel like they're already married, Annie said a couple days ago that they would love to share the celebration, and Kiro took that as inspiration to propose, so…"
"I still don't understand why Lee and I were invited," Helvius said. "And Haymitch?"
"My house is in Twelve, you jackass," the older man interjected without even opening his eyes.
"He wants to get drunk for a day." Katniss gave Helvius a look. "As for you...You've been on edge the last few days, and the consensus is that you're a menace when you're on edge."
"And Lee needs an outing after being cooped up since Two," Kori put in from the other end of the hovercraft. "You did agree to this earlier, Helvius."
"You just said we'd be getting out of Thirteen for a few hours with a relatively low chance of dying; why wouldn't I agree to that?"
"Exactly." Katniss motioned to a not-quite empty seat. "I'm bringing my bows and arrows. You can go hunting while we're there. I know people who could use the extra food in Twelve tonight."
Once Orla and Annie got to the hovercraft a couple minutes later, Katniss called forward to the pilot, and they took flight.
"I've been more out of it that I thought," Lee told Helvius quietly as the hovercraft soared over Thirteen's overgrown surface ruins. "Missed all the wedding announcements."
"Well, in your defense, it happened fast. When Celeste gets an idea, she likes to run with it. Plus war accelerates stuff like marriage."
"That so? What would you know about it, anyway? Marriage, I mean."
"Next to nothing." Hesitating, the One said awkwardly, "I thought about asking you to marry me during the interviews. I...I thought it might be step too far. At the time."
"Oh." After sneaking a glance at Helvius, who seemed to be going red in the face, Lee ventured, "Only at the time?"
"Well...when the war's over...Life will be different. We could be...different."
"Not too different, I hope." Feeling an emotion he couldn't put a name too yet, Lee reached over to take Helvius's hand. "You're right, though. There...the timing could be right someday."
Helvius's responding smile was not quite like any Lee had ever seen from him before.
But I think I like it.
The weather was cold but sunny in Twelve. Lee and Helvius spent a few golden hours in the woods outside the half-demolished district fence, only splitting up when Lee needed a rest and Helvius could take the opportunity to hunt. By mid afternoon, they ended up with two rabbits and more confirmation that Lee was a terrible archer.
"We should head back soon," Lee said as they sat side-by-side on the shore of the lake nearest the district. "Or they'll send a search party."
"I guess. How's your rib?"
"Getting better."
"Good." Helvius leaned back against a tree trunk. "You heard Katniss's speech, right? After the surrender?"
"Wasn't much else to watch in the hospital." Not much except me getting shot and Katniss showing everyone yet again why she is the Mockingjay.
Once the Nut had fallen, Katniss had gone back on air to rather eloquently encourage any remaining reluctant citizens in the districts to put their full support behind a Capitol invasion. "Turn your weapons to Snow," was becoming a slogan.
I'd much rather people continue focusing on that than what I said while trying to talk down my would-be shooter. He'd completely forgotten about the mic on him until he saw a replay of the footage.
"Better a bullet in the brain than starving to death in a bathtub."
He shivered. "Let's go. Coat's not thick enough anymore."
The ran into Kori and Katniss near the fence. While the archers of the group went on ahead, bickering over hunting efficiency, Kori fell back to walk beside Lee. "How did the dress selection go?" he asked.
"It went okay. I would've been fine going to the wedding in whatever, but Mina wants me to stand with her and Kiro and thought I should get a dress, then Paloma asked if I was going to consider Twyla a plus-one of sorts, then Orla and Annie started talking about how Katniss should get a dress too because she's being so generous...Anyway, a lot of people in Thirteen are pretty excited. They usually don't get to have weddings."
"I bet Effie Trinket is thrilled."
"Absolutely delighted. She's going to be the person doing Annie and Mina's makeup. Paloma's happy, too. I think she's tired of just doing alterations on military uniforms."
"How are you dealing with it?" She didn't sound too happy on the hovercraft.
"It's still fucking weird. But as long as they're happy...and they are...I'll get used to it."
She slowed then, and Lee matched his pace with hers, glancing over at her. Her gaze was piercing. "Are you doing all right, Lee? Don't bother lying; I've already seen you at your worst, remember."
"Not sure you've seen me at my very worst, but good point." He looked away, out towards the wooded hills. "I...There's nightmares, there's flashbacks, and ever since Two...I still don't understand what I did."
"You talked someone out of killing you." Kori rested her hand on his arm for a second. "You also proved that you're stupidly brave. Just like some other people I could mention."
With impeccable timing, Helvius's voice came echoing down the quiet Seam street. "I never said that about turkeys!"
Katniss's retort followed quickly. "Yes, you did! Do you take me for someone who's going senile?"
Lee let out a breath. "I just don't know how to...feel about it all."
Kori replied with something that must have been comforting. Lee didn't really hear it.
I didn't understand until I was in the hospital, but... When I said Snow was the only one who would win, when I told that man to shoot me if he wanted to make Snow happy, it wasn't just the mind fog coming back that I felt...
He'd never, ever felt rage like he had in that moment.
Now I'm afraid of it.
Limited resources and the bunker setting did not prevent the wedding, which took place in the public dining hall, from being incredibly beautiful.
As many people as feasible had been invited. Dozens of volunteers had fashioned hundreds of decorations last autumn leaves from the forest above and almost covered the hall in them. Almost all of Thirteen's children had signed up to learn and sing traditional district wedding songs. The Mellark family had contributed a glorious wedding cake.
Annie, beaming in pale green embroidered with glittery sea creatures, and Finnick went through a simplified version of a District Four wedding ceremony first, with Orla dressed in sky blue and gold standing and crying happy tears beside them. Then Kiro and Mina went through an exchange of almost list-like District Three vows. Their happiness shone through regardless. The ceremonies were followed by a toast with non-alcoholic cider, despite Haymitch's previous offers to smuggle some of his own stash in from Twelve for the marrying couples and guests of honor.
Two fiddlers, one from District Twelve and the other from Eleven, both of whom had fled to Thirteen early on during the war, provided music for dancing. Most districts had their own dances that their citizens knew, while the people from Thirteen had to be taught.
I guess they haven't had any real parties in about a hundred years.
Even with cameras on and watching the entire time, it was nothing short of a joyous event.
Standing against a wall, watching the dancing in full swing, Lee couldn't help smiling when he saw Kori and Twyla go whirling by giggling, the Three in silver and the Eight in maroon. Across the make-do dance floor, he glimpsed Katniss in elegant black and gold, speaking with Ava, who had returned from a visit to Ten in order to attend the wedding. She'd brought her own gown, deep teal and silver, and her hair was done in one very long braid. In the middle of the room, dressed in an altered suit of Haymitch's, Kiro spun around with Mina in sparkling purple; near them Finnick, wearing a suit of his own that he'd been able to pick up in Four, nearly lifted Annie off her feet as he twirled her. Effie Trinket darted between clusters of people, clearly thrilled and wearing a very frilly Capitol dress that she must have someone saved in the aftermath of the Games.
The occasional splashes of color against the gray of almost everyone's uniforms didn't draw attention from the fact that every single person looked truly delighted to be there.
This is a good day, isn't it?
"Hey!" Helvius approached him, smiling as openly as everyone else. "Want to dance? If your rib's up to it."
"That injury isn't the problem." Lee laughed ruefully. "People don't really dance in Six." We just get high and watch people beat each other up or drive half-trashed cars too fast around back alleys and …
"Whatever you're thinking that's causing that expression, stop. We're not brooding today."
"...Who are you and what have you done with Helvius Glitz?"
"I'm...evolving. Trying to, anyway." Helvius took his hands. "Now, people do dance in One, and though I was rarely invited to, I picked up on a few things. Come on."
As Helvius talked him through the steps and stumbles, Lee let all the memories and worries fade into the background. The fog isn't here, the flashbacks aren't intruding right now, and today is a good day.
This was one of the few days during which the war could wait.