After The Storm (A Hunger Games Fanfic)

Morning Light - 15

Jax bounds through the early morning, feeling the air fill his lungs with a big grin on his face. If he jumps high enough, he can see just over the top of the grass, and a small cluster of trees bob towards him.

He's looking for any sign of tributes. He doesn't know, of course, that if there are any tributes in the way, they've fled from his crashing footsteps. To him it seems too quiet, so he whoops into the air and listens proudly to the sound of his own voice whirling through the air. He's actually here. He's trained for this and now he's here. Eat this, Trey. The lad from one is a laugh, and he's a devil with whatever weapon you throw at him, but he needs the girl to keep himself together and, once she's dead, he'll be a wreck.

He's not thinking of abandoning the Careers, oh no. He's a Career through and through, and that would be a betrayal. His people have expectations of him. Besides, the more people there are in a group, the more targets there are and the more likely it is that he won't be one of them. He'll even tolerate that creep from Three if it means he's less likely to get shot at by some pathetic lower-district kid with a bow and arrow hovering out of his massive grasp.

Interesting. There's a shuffling noise behind him, somebody following. His grip tightens on the mace and he smiles widely to himself. So what if Trey thinks he's holding the mace wrong? It works.

"Listen, kiddie, I know you're there," he booms, "And I can kick your ass before you even get close enough to lay a finger on me!" He waves the mace in a circle around his head, just to emphasise this point.

"No worries, it's just me!" chirps a fluid voice. Avery. He lets the mace drop and turns to face her. She smiles at him, flashing perfect teeth. She seems in a better mood today than she had in training; maybe she's starting to think that she can win. Huh, not a chance. She's not even a proper Career. She had to be reaped. Amazingly, she doesn't seem to feel the shame.

"You're meant to be looking for water," he grunts.

She tosses her head, her chestnut hair flicking over her shoulder. She looks like a little doll, small for her age. Or rather, small for a District Two fifteen year old, the only kind he knows. "Jewel can't tell me what to do," she huffs. Jax frowns. He'd thought it was the other way around, that Jewel had told her not to. But apparently not.

"So what are you doing following me then?"

She giggles, "Oh, just for something to do. It's dull out here."

"Sure is."

She swings the bowstring, looping it around her hand and untangling it again with deft fingers. Jax watches with a frown. Fat lot of good that would be in a fight. Yeah, she got that girl from Ten who stank of cows, but she was standing still and didn't fight back.

Jax wracks his brain for something to say. He knows nothing about Avery at all, apart from that she's from District Four and she doesn't like it. She's made no secret of the fact. That's probably why she doesn't feel the shame of having to be reaped; she's just happy to be out of the place.

"So, uh, Avery..." he starts, shoving his spare hand into his pocket and nearly ripping the material, "How come you ended up being reaped?"

He's looking forwards, Avery scurrying to keep up behind him, so he doesn't see the dark expression that dances across her face. Her voice, when she answers, is cheerful. "Oh, the girl who was meant to volunteer was jealous," she trills, "She wanted me out of the way so she could be the prettiest girl in the district!" She can say this without fear of any kind of repercussion; as soon as there was any hint that the volunteering process might be rigged, the Capitol would stop the feed to the districts, so the people back home won't be hearing this. Jax obviously hasn't seen her reaping or has a bad memory. Probably both, given how easy it was to convince him that Jewel had sent her to get water even though he was there when that little scene happened.