kill for your love - the hunger games

(018) neither daughter nor father moved

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act two. 

(chapter eighteen, neither daughter nor father moved)

victor's village, 75 ADD.

▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄

"I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU punched Brent, I really do, Juniper."

"I didn't come here for your understanding."

"Then why are you here?"

"... Finnick is busy."

Lucy Stevens rolled her eyes as she blew on a steaming hot mug that was filled to the top with a beige liquid. Juniper also had one in her grasp, hands cupped around the porcelain, the heat soothing her cuts and scars on her palms as well as giving her a sense of comfort. For some reason, Juniper liked hotness. It required her with the facts that she still felt things.

"So I am, what, a second choice?" Lucy asked as she finally took a sip of her tea. She was standing behind the counter, Juniper on a stool as they conversed in the older woman's kitchen, which seemed to be much brighter than Juniper's ever was. 

"Yes." Juniper nodded with no remorse. She liked Lucy, she did, but she desperately wanted to speak to Finnick although she knew he was out with Annie back in District Four. "Yes, you are."

"I'll take that." Lucy shrugged. "But back to Brent... you punching him in-front of everyone really shook him up."

"Good." Juniper scoffed as she gingerly took a sip from her mug. She cherished the burning feeling as the tea went down her throat. "He's a jerk, Lucy."

"Oh, I know," she said. "I'm not disagreeing... but he is young. The younger Victors' are always naive."

"First off, ouch," Juniper replied. "And secondly, Brent is not young."

"He's twenty-five."

Juniper looked up from her cup, eyes wide as she spoke with disbelief, "There is no way. He looks nearly Haymitch's age."

"The effects of alcohol and morphling." Lucy smirked and Juniper felt a little twinge in her heart knowing she had gotten drunk out of her mind a few weeks ago. "But yes, twenty-five. He won seven-years-ago now at eighteen."

"Right, the Sixty-Eighth..." Juniper nodded slightly. "Damn, I forgot about that... huh."

"Yep," Lucy replied. "He's only five-years older than you."

"That's not comforting."

"It's not supposed to be."

Juniper narrowed her eyes at her mentor before looking back down at her tea. She did like Lucy, she really did, but she rather preferred her when she barely spoke, when she was so distant and faint. She was more upbeat now, more lively that it really did a number on Juniper. And not only was it that, she was always transported back to three-years-ago whenever she first saw Lucy in the mornings. The woman had not aged a day that it was like she had time-travelled to that time. She had not, of course, because Justice was still dead. And so was Cedar. And Ash. And Wing and Hermes. And Leona. And Rayon. And Dallas.