Post by Seek on Apr 27, 2013 22:08:36 GMT 10
Title: Lunch
Rating: PG
Word Count: 526
Pairing: Beka/Rosto
Round/Fight: 1C
Summary: Hunger Games AU. Beka meets the Tribute from District 7.
Warnings: None.
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I recognise him as soon as he sits down opposite me at lunch. He's the Tribute from District 7, the one who volunteered for the crippled boy. I look at him as Clary's taught me to look. Tall, though not as much as Mattes is. Hair so pale it may as well be white, but his eyes are dark. Slender, with sharp, jutting cheekbones. Still looks like he knows his way around knives. I think I've seen him at the knife-throwing station, casually flicking knives into targets. The Careers have been giving him a wide berth. Maybe they're deciding whether to ask him to join their alliance.
There's a pale Y-shaped scar above his left eyebrow. I make a note of that. Other knife-scars all over his arms. He's been fighting, then. He's a Tribute to stay away from. District 12 is the joke of the Hunger Games. Things have gotten a bit better since Clary Goodwin won her Games and tries to beat some basics into those who can be bothered to show up for her classes. But no one will think well of my chances, and neither do I.
Something glints in his left ear. Despite myself, I lean forward to take a closer look. A earring, shaped like a silver skull. Maybe it's his District token.
He chuckles, and a hand grabs mine by the risk. "Didn't anyone teach you it's rude to stare, lovey?"
Without thinking, I do what Clary's taught me and make the move to free my hand. "Ow!" he mutters, wringing his hand. "The puppy's got a bite."
"My name's Rebekah Cooper," I tell him tartly. “Not ‘lovey’. And I’m most certainly not a puppy.”
Before Ersken can say aught, someone else says, very cheerfully, "Oh, leave off, cabbage head." A very tall girl—so tall I have to crane my neck to look up at her—sits down in the empty seat opposite him. I vaguely remember her from the Reaping tapes—she's the female Tribute from District 7. What was her name again? She casually plants her elbow on her fellow Tribute's shoulder and says, to me, "Rosto doesn't know what to do with girls who don't fall at his feet. Aniki Forfrysning."
Ersken says, "Ersken Westover." They clasp hands briefly in greeting.
I say, "Cabbage head?" I struggle not to laugh at the expression on Rosto's face.
Aniki explains to me where she gets ‘cabbage head’ from, and we all laugh at Rosto’s expense. I think about it; Rosto is arrogant, and I’d much rather he not turn whatever charm he thinks he has in my direction. But I remember, too, that he volunteered for the Games. He must think he has a decent chance of winning this. And he volunteered for that little crippled boy. Is that supposed to count for something as well?
He’s not the only volunteer in these Games, after all. But I don’t think that little boy is his brother. And I know, of course, that if Diona’s name hadn’t been drawn in the Reaping, I’d never have volunteered.
I don’t like to think that we might share something in common.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 526
Pairing: Beka/Rosto
Round/Fight: 1C
Summary: Hunger Games AU. Beka meets the Tribute from District 7.
Warnings: None.
-
I recognise him as soon as he sits down opposite me at lunch. He's the Tribute from District 7, the one who volunteered for the crippled boy. I look at him as Clary's taught me to look. Tall, though not as much as Mattes is. Hair so pale it may as well be white, but his eyes are dark. Slender, with sharp, jutting cheekbones. Still looks like he knows his way around knives. I think I've seen him at the knife-throwing station, casually flicking knives into targets. The Careers have been giving him a wide berth. Maybe they're deciding whether to ask him to join their alliance.
There's a pale Y-shaped scar above his left eyebrow. I make a note of that. Other knife-scars all over his arms. He's been fighting, then. He's a Tribute to stay away from. District 12 is the joke of the Hunger Games. Things have gotten a bit better since Clary Goodwin won her Games and tries to beat some basics into those who can be bothered to show up for her classes. But no one will think well of my chances, and neither do I.
Something glints in his left ear. Despite myself, I lean forward to take a closer look. A earring, shaped like a silver skull. Maybe it's his District token.
He chuckles, and a hand grabs mine by the risk. "Didn't anyone teach you it's rude to stare, lovey?"
Without thinking, I do what Clary's taught me and make the move to free my hand. "Ow!" he mutters, wringing his hand. "The puppy's got a bite."
"My name's Rebekah Cooper," I tell him tartly. “Not ‘lovey’. And I’m most certainly not a puppy.”
Before Ersken can say aught, someone else says, very cheerfully, "Oh, leave off, cabbage head." A very tall girl—so tall I have to crane my neck to look up at her—sits down in the empty seat opposite him. I vaguely remember her from the Reaping tapes—she's the female Tribute from District 7. What was her name again? She casually plants her elbow on her fellow Tribute's shoulder and says, to me, "Rosto doesn't know what to do with girls who don't fall at his feet. Aniki Forfrysning."
Ersken says, "Ersken Westover." They clasp hands briefly in greeting.
I say, "Cabbage head?" I struggle not to laugh at the expression on Rosto's face.
Aniki explains to me where she gets ‘cabbage head’ from, and we all laugh at Rosto’s expense. I think about it; Rosto is arrogant, and I’d much rather he not turn whatever charm he thinks he has in my direction. But I remember, too, that he volunteered for the Games. He must think he has a decent chance of winning this. And he volunteered for that little crippled boy. Is that supposed to count for something as well?
He’s not the only volunteer in these Games, after all. But I don’t think that little boy is his brother. And I know, of course, that if Diona’s name hadn’t been drawn in the Reaping, I’d never have volunteered.
I don’t like to think that we might share something in common.
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!