Wild Card || Levi x Reader

four - when my boat's run aground

Turns out, rock walls are very much different from trees.

With trees, it's very three dimensional. You can maneuver every which way, moving around the tree to find a better climbing point, or even using neighboring trees if they're close enough. They're much easier to navigate, and much more forgiving on your hands.

Rock walls? Not so much. It's all flat, only one plane that you can move across. Significantly less options to choose from. Plus, your fingers hurt like a bitch- the rock hurts your hands as you climb.

It's different, but that doesn't mean you're not good at it. Once you get used to it, you can still scale the wall faster than anyone else who tries. Once you're at the top, you sit down with your feet hanging over the edge, staring at the distance you just covered. You're hooked into some sort of pulley system, so you can't fall, not even if you tried. You don't really care- you'd be fine without it.

You like being up high. You can see everyone from here, and if you had your bow? Oh, it'd be game over. It would be like playing a game from up here.

So, on the second day of training, you do the same thing. You skim through some survival stations and do some climbing. You want to do weapons, so you practice throwing a spear around. You're not bad at it as long as the target's close enough- you can't get a lot of distance with your throws, but your aim's not bad.

Eventually, as day two of training dwindles, more and more people have moved to survival stations, having already physically exerted themselves at the weapons. You want to try your hand at throwing knives. You've used knives plenty back in District 12 and would spend time lazily throwing them at trees, but you've never done it properly with targets.

When you stroll over, Zeke's there. You haven't talked to him since that elevator ride yesterday morning, and you're content for it to stay that way until Zeke says, "finally trying a weapon?"

"I threw spears," you dismiss, picking up a set of knives.

"Ever used these before?" he asks mockingly. He throws; the knife hits the dummy in the chest. Not bad at all. "Or do you need a lesson?"

God, if only you could drive one of these into one of his eyes. Frustrated, you pinch the blade of the throwing knife between your thumb and forefinger. When you were thirteen, you watched the Hunger Games with rapt attention as one girl won it all by expertly killing her opponents with throwing knives. You'd watched in awe and tried to recreate her throwing style on your own in the woods.

For a second, you consider not doing this. You've been trying hard for a 'I have nothing to prove' kind of attitude. And you're right, you've got nothing to prove- but you'd really like to see Zeke shut up for even just a second.

Fine. Fuck not biting on this shit.

You pinch the blade hard, line up your hand, and throw.

The blade hits the target, striking somewhere in the midsection. Not bad. "I think I'll be okay," you mock, glaring at Zeke.

Zeke shrugs. "Lucky shot."

Lucky shot? So much for holding back.

You've got three more knives, and you throw all three of them as fast as you can. By some miracle, all of them stick- you knew you were decent at this, but you do tend to mess up from time to time- with one lodging in the torso next to your first one, another hitting the arm, and by some miracle, the third one hitting the top of the dummy's head.

You shoot your hardest glare at Zeke. "I think I'll be okay," you say to his gaping jaw. "Maybe you want lessons instead?"

There's a huffed laugh from behind you. Both you and Zeke turn to see none other than Levi leaning against the nearby weapon rack, smirking. Some of the other Career tributes are there as well, watching you. Some of them even look mildly impressed.