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glassartpeasants · 5 months

Text

Run Rabbit Run pt.04

Yandere!Eustass Kid x F!Reader

Warnings: Slight gore, nightmares, being stabbed, death, Heat being a real one once again, blood, mentions of injuries, trauma responses, forgotten memories???, edited to the best Grammarly would let me, long fic

Trash Summary: After an incident that blurs reader's memory, she's met with a crisis. Turn a blind eye and continue to love the man who saved her or dig deeper and find out who Kidd truly is.

A/N: I was feeling a little silly and decided that Kidd hit the reader a little too hard after the last chapter, so here you go. This shit is fucking LONGGGGGG. And very much edited to the best of my abilities. Grammarly wasn't on my side so it is what it is. really hope it's not confusing

pt.1 pt.2 pt.3 pt.4 pt.5 pt.6 pt.7 pt.8 pt.9 pt.10

@rebeccawinters @iggy5055 @dairygrrl @childconnoisseur @menifire1092

~~~

It was always so easy to sleep when you lay next to Kidd. His heartbeat was like a lullaby when you laid your head on his chest. Your fingers would sometimes trace the scars that adorned his body. All of them containing a different story. You liked to place small kisses on them just to see Kidd’s face turn brighter than his hair.

When you weren’t sleeping next to each other, you’d sit on his lap and watch him work on whatever new project he had in his shop. You even got to help him make his robotic arm! The happiness you felt inside when he praised you made your face burn hot. You loved making him happy.

He’d tell you stories about his travels on the sea’s before meeting you. Tell you all sorts of things that only you would ever know. The trust he put in you had your heart overflowing with love.

When you laid in bed together, you’d tell him about your day or about the new book you’ve read. He’d just sit there and listen, not saying a word, only humming when you ask if he was still awake. He might not be the most romantic guy in the New World, but he was perfect the way he was.

And that’s all that mattered to you.

~~~~

Leaning against the railing, you look out to the sea. The beautiful sunset had a calm washing over you. Even though the smell of salt hit your nose, it still didn’t change your mood. Why would it? This is the happiest you’ve ever been in your life! How can you be sad when you have the love of your life by your side?

You don’t know what you would’ve done if you hadn’t met Kidd. No one’s ever made you so happy! He truly was an angel in disguise. He saved you from a group of pirates who burned down your home! At least, that's what Kidd helped you remember. You couldn’t remember what the pirates looked like, but you remember seeing Kidd’s face. With that in mind, he helped you remember that he rescued you.

According to Kidd, PTSD and trauma can cause people to forget things. He told you it was okay to forget things. Everyone does. It made you feel better that he knew you so well. You swear he knows you better than you know yourself.

“Pretty, ain’t it?” Your thoughts were interrupted by a voice beside you. To your shock, it was Heat leaning against the railing next to you.

“It is. You’ve been pretty busy these past few months, huh? Feels like I’ve barely seen you.”

“The New World keeps you busy. How’s it with…Kidd?” Heat sends you a look that you couldn’t decipher. Almost sadness, maybe pity? But what would he have to pity you for? You were perfectly healthy, and your life is great!

“Great! He told me he’s making me something, so I’m looking forward to that!” You feel a big smile crawl across your face as you look at the man beside you.

“That’s good.” A silence followed after his words.

“Oh! Also, he’s teaching me self-defense! He’s worried that other pirate groups are gonna take me away. Isn’t he such a sweetheart for worrying about me?” Your gushing didn’t help fix Heat’s expression. Instead, it seemed to worsen it.

“What’s wrong, Heat? You look sad?” Heat sighs before pushing himself off the railing.

“Does the name Sabaody mean anything to you by chance?”

“Huh? I mean, the name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember.” You hear Heat mumble to himself, but you can’t make it out.

“I see. Well, just know that I’m sorry.” You furrow your brows as you watch him walk away. His words made an unease settle inside you. What could he have to be sorry for? Maybe you just misheard? Yeah, that’s the logical answer.

The whole experience made you tired and the calming sunset didn’t help either. With one last look at the sea, you make your way to your and Kidd’s shared bedroom. You couldn’t wait to snuggle under the covers and lay next to him.

Opening the door, you see Kidd already passed out. You smile as you discard your own clothes before joining him in bed.

Throwing open the covers, you lay behind him and look at his bare back. The skin looked so soft that you couldn’t help but gently drag your fingers against his shoulder blades before kissing them. You can feel him tense slightly but let out a small sigh. Rolling his shoulder blades, Kidd turns to look at you over his shoulder.

“Having fun?” Kidd’s groggy voice had you silently laughing.

“Am I not allowed to admire my love? You work so hard as a captain. No doubt you’ll become King of The Pirates.” Kidd turns around to face you, his hair cascading down his face. You smile at him before cupping his cheeks and moving to give him a kiss. His flesh arm grabs you and pulls you closer. You scoot up so your face to face with him. Wanting nothing more than to look in his eyes.

“Cheesy.” He laughs as you pout at his words. With a huff, you turn around, upset that he ruined the mood.

“You big baby.” Kidd places his head on your shoulder before kissing your neck. He kisses the sensitive skin before nibbling across your neck, making you sigh.

“Your so lucky I love you.” A groan leaves Kidd’s lips, and it vibrates along your neck.

“Say it again.”

“I love you Kidd.” You smile as you move your hand so you can run your fingers through Kidd’s red locks. The familiar silk feeling never faded. You can feel Kidd start to suck against your neck to the point red blotches appear.

“I love you too.” It was a silent whisper but still loud enough to have your heart overflowing with love. You never wanted to leave his side. He was the love of your life, and you couldn’t bear the thought of living without him.

~~~~

“Come on! Let’s go shopping! You’ve been busy all week! I haven’t seen you other than bedtime, and even then, you're out cold!” You grab Kidd’s flesh hand with both of yours as you try to drag him away from leaving the bedroom.

“I told you I’m working on something. Don’t be impatient, princess.” Kidd laughs with a cocky grin before throwing you over his shoulder and leaving the room.

“Plus…”

“There’s something I want you to try.”

“Oh? Did Killer make something new?”

“No, and why do you assume Killer made something? I can cook!”

“You’ll be good at cooking the day the sky turns green.” You feel a slight pinch on your thigh, causing you to slap Kidd’s back.

“That hurt you jerk!”

“Kidd!” The sound of footsteps running caught your attention as you caught Killer in the corner of your eye.

“What? Can’t you see I’m busy?” You couldn’t help but laugh when you heard Killer sigh.

“Anyways, we’ve got everything stocked, so we can set sail anytime.”

“Alright, let’s get going.” Kidd’s response had your face drop and your mood souring.

“Hey! You said we could go shopping after you had me try something!”

“Never said that. Nice try, princess.”

“Well, you heavily implied it!” Kidd laughed at you, and it only pissed you off more.

“I actually needed things! I could have just gone by myself-”

“No!” Kidd’s voice boomed in the hallway, echoing repeatedly in your ears. You could feel your mouth grow dry, and your heart skipped a beat. Turning back, you see Kidd glaring at you with his amber eyes. His piercing gaze made you freeze as the look was something you’d never seen before from him.

“You are never to leave this ship unless I say so. Do you understand?” His words put a heavy unease in your stomach. You look at him with shock before you grit your teeth. The air was so tense you could cut it with a knife.

“I’ve got somewhere to be. Bye-” Killer quickly left, leaving you and Kidd alone.

“Kidd put me down.” Seemingly, Kidd snapped out of whatever ‘trance’ he was in and started tripping over his own words.

“Shit I-well…I mean-” You didn’t want to hear it. You were an adult woman who could make her own choices. Even if you loved Kidd, you wouldn’t let him talk to you like that.

“Put me down now. This is not for discussion.” He held onto you for a few more seconds before putting you down. You look up at his face, and to your distress, it was blank. No emotion or anything. But he emitted an aura that had you scurrying away without saying another word.

Seeing Kidd like that deeply disturbed you. Why weren’t you allowed off the ship? And why did you need his permission? Does he not trust you or something? What reason would he have to keep you trapped on the ship?

Your head started pounding, causing you to stop in your tracks. Another migraine. You’ve been getting them a lot more recently, and you couldn’t pinpoint why you got them or why they’ve become more common. It was always in the same spot, right in the back of your head. There happened to be a huge scar there so you originally thought it had to do with that, but Kidd was very insistent that it had nothing to do with the headaches. That it was just a councidence. Per your request though, kidd’s brought doctors to the ship to check you out, but no results. They gave you some meds, but nothing worked. No ice, meds, dark rooms, or water helped with the pain that it caused. Even though the meds didn’t do anything, you still took them just in case. Which is why you needed to go to town today. To get meds and scar cream.

The scar cream was needed because every time your eyes landed on your body, you saw scars that stuck out like a sore thumb. It bothered you more that you can’t remember how you got them. Well, you did know a few now after Kidd told you what happened. The two rough scars that adorned your left thigh was caused by a Marine after they stabbed you in the thigh when you wouldn’t tell them where Kidd was. There were times where it made you scratch your head cause you were sure that you’d remember something like that.

Another scar you don’t remember is the one on your ankle. Kidd said a pirate tried kidnapping you by putting a shackle on your ankle. While it fit the scar mark, surely it would have taken much longer to make such a scar if you were only really kidnapped for a day or two, like he said. He said the same thing about the one around your neck. Still, your logical side said it was impossible to cause such scars in such a short time. By the looks of them, it would have taken months to cause such damage to the skin. But it didn’t make sense. Why would Kidd lie about something like that?

You understood that trauma can cause memory loss. How much memory is lost truly depends on the person. If that was the case with you, did that mean you endured so much that you forgot almost everything? The thought ate at you. You only had so many memories with Kidd, and when you tried asking him to help you remember more, his eyes went wide, and he stuttered on his words again. At that time, you let it go. Having no reason to question him.

While walking along the ships halls, lost in your thoughts, you passed by a door that caught your attention. Stopping in front of it, you look at it with curiosity. While you don’t remember the door, it feels like you’ve been here before. Curiosity got the best of you, so you went to open the door, only to realize it was locked. A frown works its way on your face before you start backing up. Maybe if you charge at it a little bit, it’ll open.

You didn’t know why you needed to get in so badly, but you wouldn’t leave till you saw what was in that room. So, with a deep breath, you charged your body towards the door.

The sound of your body impacting the door rang throughout the hall. Strangely, the door collapsed after one hit. The sound of the door hitting the ground had a thunderous noise coming from it. You look at the door hinges and notice old damage compared to the new damage you just caused.

“What the?” Looking inside the dark room, you can barely make out what was a lantern light near the very back of the room. Biting your lip, you move quickly through the dark and turn on the lantern light. The suffocating dark of the room soon leaves.

Once you turned on the light, your eyes met an entire wall full of tally marks. A tingling sense of fear hits you as you look closer to them. They weren’t deep enough to be caused by a knife, so it had to be something else.

Looking closer at the scratched wood, you see something embedded in it. Leaning down, you grab it and bring it closer to the light to get a better look. To your shock, it was a fingernail with dried blood on the very bottom of it.

Goosebumps prickled at your skin as the thought of who this could belong to had an unease forming in your stomach. You’ve never heard of this room, and you never heard of Kidd keeping prisoners. The room felt soul-crushing the more you looked around it.

Books scattered across the floor, dust slowly collecting on them. A makeshift bed with a mattress and a few blankets. The bed hadn’t been made, so it caused more questions to roam in your head. If a person was actually in here, did something happen to them? If so, what?

The final nail in the coffin was when you see a spot on the wooden wall that looked darken then the rest of the room. With a deep breath, you slowly move to the spot. With shaky hands, you carefully touch the wood and the texture had a shiver running up your spine. You lifted up the latern light to get a closer look and you can feel time stop as you stare at the wall.

There was no doubt in your mind that what you were looking at was dried blood and how some of it soaked into the wall. Your eyes even catch what seems to be strands of hair stuck against the nails that secured the walls together. Moving the lantern closer, you can see the color of said hair. The room tempeture seemingly dropped to zero when you see that the type of hair stuck against the wall was almost the same as your own.

Your heartbeat quickened, and you decided it was time to leave the small room. While grabbing the light, you see a white piece of paper sticking out from the floorboards in the corner of the room. Almost as if it was trying to be hidden. The paper moved side to side even though there was no wind.

Quickly kneeling down to grab it, you carefully pick up the paper only to realize it was a viver card with the name ‘Rayleigh’ scribbled on it.

“Rayleigh? Who’s…” Your thoughts were interrupted when you heard footsteps coming down the hall. The feeling of impending doom hit you hard, so you quickly scrambled out of the room before running away in the opposite direction of the footsteps.

~~~~

All you did was stare at the food in front of you. It was dinner time, and you still couldn’t get rid of your migraine or the intense feeling of unease. The room full of tally marks that contained an unknown viver card, the dried bloody spot on the wall, Kidd’s outburst, and Heat’s words from the other day all mushed up inside you. You didn’t know what was happening, but you wanted to eliminate the gnawing feeling you were experiencing on the ship you were supposed to call home.

The thought of the tally marks didn’t help you when you remembered the fingernail you found embedded in the wood. While it was disturbing to see it, it was even more distressing when you looked at your own nails. The nail that was supposed to be on your pointer finger was missing, and it seems like it never regrew another one. Not to mention how hair with the same color and texture of yours was also embedded into the the bloody wood.

While it could be an eerie coincidence, it still fueled an unknown fire inside you.

“Hey (Y/N), you okay? Your staring at your plate, and you haven’t eaten a thing.” Looking up, you see Killer sitting on the other side of you.

“I just have a huge migraine, and I’ve been feeling really uneasy. I’m probably just tired or dehydrated. No need to worry.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.” You snap at the man in front of you.

“Is it about Kidd? Have you talked to him yet?”

“No, I haven’t. He needs to apologize first. Treating me like a captive rather than a girlfriend.” Killer coughed, causing you to look at him.

“Ah, I see. I’ll go talk to him. How does that sound?” Letting out a sigh of relief, you smile at Killer.

“That sounds good. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Killer left without another word, leaving you alone now with a cold dinner. Even with Killer going to talk to Kidd, you still didn’t get rid of the unease.

“Psst-(Y/N)!” You hear someone whisper next to you. Turning your head, you see Heat standing outside, waving you over. Quickly looking around, when you saw no one was watching you, you made your way to Heat.

“Hey, what did you need-”

“Eat this.” Heat suddenly shoves something against your chest. You quickly grab it before looking down at it—a yellow-colored fruit with an unnatural pattern and shape.

“What the hell is-”

“No time to explain. Eat first.”

“You didn’t poison it, did you?”

“Eat it!”

“Okay! Okay!” You quickly take a bite and swallow to try to appease the man before you. The fruit's disgusting flavor hit your mouth, and just as you were about to puke, Heat stopped you.

“I know it’s gross, but you need to eat it all. It’s vital that you do.” Looking Heat in the eyes, you see a look of urgency in them. Despite how disgusting it tasted, you had no reason to doubt Heat, so you choked it down.

“Alright, it’s down. Now tell me what the hell I just ate.” You gag slightly before looking at Heat.

“I’ll tell you later, okay? I can’t right now, not when everyone’s awake.” Before you can ask what he meant, you see Heat run across the ship without a sound. It was dark, so he was hard to see to anyone not looking for him.

“Heat you ass. You better tell me what I ate the next time I see you.” The gross taste of the fruit only stuck to your tongue as you whispered into the dark sky. The disgusting aftertaste had you grabbing some water to try and get rid of it. Whatever he made you eat, there better be a good explanation for it.

~~~~

There was an awkward silence between the two of you. You could feel Kidd staring at you as you faced away from him. He hasn’t apologized, and you weren’t going to talk to him till he does.

“Enough of this bullshit.” Before you could question, you felt his flesh hand grab you and pull you close to him. Your back hit his chest as he wrapped his arm around you, locking you in place. Kidd places his head on your own before letting out a sigh.

“Clingy.” You feel him grab your breast, causing you to yelp and hit his arm.

“Mm, not clingy.” Kidd moved his head to your shoulder before placing kisses along your shoulder blade before making his way to your neck. Even though you were mad at him, he always managed to make you forgive him by fucking your brains out. But this time was different. The way his voice sounded, and the look he gave you wasn’t something a simple fuck could fix.

“Us fucking won’t make me forgive you for the way you talked to me earlier. All I want to know is why you were acting the way you were.” With your best attempt, you turn to face him. His hair was down and his face bare, letting you see tiny freckles adorning his skin. You’ll never understand why he hides them. It makes him look so cute.

“Just worry.” Kidd moves his gaze away from you.

“Worried that I’ll get hurt?”

“Yes. Happy now?” A red hue covered Kidd’s face. He wasn’t a man of many words when it came to expressing what he felt. You sigh before placing a kiss on the tip of Kidd’s nose.

“What are you doing?!”

“Giving you a kiss 'cause I forgive you. Just promise not to do that again, alright?”

“Fine, I promise.” It was a whisper, but you’d take it. You smile at Kidd before going to kiss every inch of his face.

Kidd grumbled before his face was as red as his hair. He always got so flustered when you showered him with affection. His cheeks would burn and warm up your cold fingers every time.

“Once we hit the next island, we’re going shopping together, okay? If you're truly worried that I’ll get hurt, you need to plan the day with me.” You softly spoke as you connected your forehead to Kidd’s.

“Why do you wanna go so badly? I can have Killer shop for you-”

“Killer has shit taste. Plus, I’d like to pick out my own panties. What do you want Killer to see-” Kidd pulled you down to his chest, your face smashed against it.

“Okay, you made your point. On the next island we go, we’ll shop. But you are NOT leaving leaving my sight.”

“So paranoid. It’s not like I’m gonna run away.” Kidd squeezed you tight, causing you to cough.

“Just go to sleep.” Rolling your eyes, you press a kiss to his chest and close your eyes. Happy that he finally let you go shopping with him.

Your eyes flutter open when you feel drops of water hitting your face. The water pounded against your skin as you picked yourself up. Rubbing your eyes, you find yourself in a deep forested area caked in mud.

Standing up, you feel your feet sink into the mud, only stopping when your foot is fully covered. The rain slightly cleaned the dirt out of your head as it drenched your now shivering form.

You looked around, and you couldn’t see the end of the forest for miles. A sinking feeling settles in your heart as you realize your alone. You try to scream out for Kidd or anyone, but nothing comes out. Even when you tried to talk in general, all that left your lips was silence. Your heart starts beating against your ribs as the thought of being alone in such a dark forest makes fear fill you.

Just then, the smell of smoke and the feeling of blazing heat sneaks up behind you, causing you to turn around. Terror filled your body as the forest behind you was engulfed in flames. The harsh, pounding rain did nothing to stop the fire from devouring the forest.

To your dismay, you hear screaming coming from the flames before all black silhouettes of humans emerge from the fire. Your mouth falls open as you take a few steps away from the blaze, only for it to spread closer to you.

Taking a deep breath, you take one more step before you start running as fast as you can from the hell behind you. The mud clung to your feet, making it all the much harder to run away. You look behind you and feel your heart stop when the number of silhouettes doubled from the last time you looked at them. Their screams were ear-piercing, and yet, they sounded so familiar. All of them had the same pitch, and all of them sounded like they were in a constant state of agony.

You tried picking up the pace, but the fire only stayed right on your tail. The screaming getting closer as the rain hit your face, making it slightly hard to see in front of you. Despite your lack of voice, you begin screaming for Kidd to come and save you. To get you away from whatever hell is chasing you.

You can feel the flames lick at your feet as your tears mix with the rain. Covering your ears, you desperately tried to ignore the blood-curdling screams coming from behind you. The fact they sounded so familiar disturbed you as you tried to pinpoint the person they came from. Turning around to see how close they were, you could only ‘scream’ in horror when you saw yourself running at you. Different versions of you hunting you down. All of them have some sort of injury covering their body. The same injuries that matched your own scars.

You see yourself in a metal collar and a shackle chained to their foot. Tears streaming down their face as a look of despair plastered on her face. Another was limping but still kept up the pace of the others around them. One of them had obviously been beaten by the swollen black eye all the way to the minor cuts that littered their skin. You see one with a horrifically burned chest. It took you only a couple seconds to recognize that the burn was the exact image of your branding of Kidd’s Jolly Roger on your chest. It then finally clicked on whose screams you were hearing.

They were yours.

Turning back to face forward, you see Kidd standing at the edge of the forest line. Relief washed your body as you drew closer to him. He’d save you from the clones that chased you. He’d save you from them even though they screamed no. Why they were was a question you didn’t care to find out.

A burning grip grabs your left arm and jerks you back towards the flames. Countless more hands grabbed your body trying to drag you away from Kidd and into the blaze. Their screams of a desperate ‘NO’ rang all around you. You were surrounded by yourself as they held onto you for dear life. Seemingly begging you not to run to Kidd, silently telling you to join them in the flames. Despite their begging, you ignored them as you escaped their grasp and finally made it to Kidd’s arms. A loud scream came from behind you and the sound of flames flickering stopped.

Turning your gaze, you no longer see your disfigured clones. The fire that once chased you gone, almost as if it never existed in the first place, the forest green and lush. Your heart felt like it was gonna beat out of your chest and your lungs burned, But now you were safe, Kidd would never let anything hurt you-

An excuricating pain comes from your stomach. It was something that you couldn’t even describe. Quicly looking down, you see a knife plunged deep into your abdomen and to your horror, Kidd’s hand connected to it.

Looking up, you freeze when you catch a glimpse of his face. The look of insanity stared right back at you.

He pulled the knife from your stomach before lifting it up above his head. His other hand harshly gripping your hair, making you unable to move. You pound your hands against his chest and kick anywhere you can, but he doesn’t move an inch. The way your blood dripped from the blade above your head had your heart stopping before your mouth drops open when you see Kidd violently bring down the knife. It’s only then do you finally hear yourself scream.

Your body jolts up as your scream starts to echo all around Kidd’s room, making the man himself wake up.

“Jesus! What the fuck-” His words died in his throat when he saw you with tears pouring down your face. Fear swirled in your eyes when you turned to look at him.

“(Y/N)?” Your body shook feverishly as you desperately tried to calm yourself down. The room seemed to spin around you as you try to catch your breath. Only when Kidd grabbed you and pulled you closer to him, did you finally come back to reality.

“What the hell is wrong?” Kidd’s grumpy voice only contributed to your never ending tears. You wrapped your arms around him the best you could before hiding your face in his chest.

“It felt so real…I was so scared…” Kidd says nothing, only letting out a low hum. Indicating he’s listening.

“You were in my dream…” You say with a shaky voice before you hear Kidd’s laughter as he puts his chin on your head.

“Oh really? What was I doing?”

“You killed me…” Kidd froze before finally coming up with the words to say.

“I’d never hurt you, alright? So quit your crying princess.” You let out a few sniffles before looking up at him.

“Promise?”

“Promise.” You both lay back down on the bed, holding each other tightly. A few tears still slipped from your eyes before landing on Kidd’s chest. He starts rubbing your lower back before whispering in your ear.

“I’ll never hurt you. Never have and never will.”

~~~~

Ever since the dream, you’ve been extra jumpy. One wrong sound had you heart almost jumping out of your chest. The constant migraines didn’t help either. You just wanted to sit in bed all day and sleep. Unfortunately, overwhelming questions overtook you urge to sleep.

What was the small room and who did it belong too? Who was ‘Rayleigh’ and why was his viver card stuck in between the floorboards? Who’s blood was on the wall? What did Heat make you eat and what was he talking about that day when you both watched the sun set? Lastly, what was the meaning of your nightmare? It must have meant something!

Your head pounded and to your displeasure, you ran out of water and the cool towel you placed on your head earlier had now turned room temperature. With a groan, you slowly get out of bed and wrap a blanket around you. Maybe grabbing some meds will help. It’s been a slow day so hopefully the kitchen won’t be too loud.

While making your way to the kitchen, you hear Killer’s voice whispering to someone else. You carefully get closer to hear what they're saying, you're nosiness getting the best of you.

“Aren’t you worried? At least a little bit?”

“Why should I? The accident was 5 months ago and ever since then, everythings going my way. She remembers me and only me. Not the pathetic straw hats and anything I’ve done before she hit her head again!”

“I don’t know Kidd. You should at least have a plan in case anything were to happen.”

“What the hell are you going on about? What could possibly happen?” You could feel your heart pounding in your chest as you bit your lip.

“I found the room’s door busted open a week ago. The dust had been disturbed and it was obvious someone has been in there-”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

“I tried but you weren’t paying attention! So don’t yell at me for your lack of listening skills.” A tingling feeling moved through your fingers before spreading to your whole body as you try to make sense of what the conversation between Kidd and Killer could be about? But one thing you did know now was that whatever room you stumbled into, you were never suppose to see.

“Board up the door. Hell place small traps, just make sure she can’t get in.” Another uneasy feeling filled your heart as you eavesdrop on a conversation that had given you more questions. What could have been so important behind that door that Kidd’s making Killer board it up?

A pounding in your head started up again which helped you remember what you really left the room for. After taking a quick breath, you start to walk down the hallway where they ‘hid’. Just to see if they’d continue the conversation if you walked by.

“Oh, (Y/N)! What are you doing up? I thought you had a migraine?” Killers panicked voice rang in your ears, giving you the confirmation that you weren’t suppose to know about their conversation.

“Was going to the kitchen to get some meds. Did I interrupt something?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

~~~~

Almost everyone was asleep by the time you went out on the deck to watch the stars. Kidd was in his workshop no doubt while Wire and Killer were tonights lookout. It allowed you to have a nice quiet evening to count the stars and ponder on your thoughts.

With a warm cup of tea in your hands and a fuzzy blanket wrapped around you, it was hard not to give in to the temptation to fall asleep. The waves hitting against the ship was a smooth melody that had your eyelids grow heavy.

“Mind if I join you?” Turning your head, you see Heat sitting down a few feet away from you.

“You owe me an explanation on that wretcehd fruit you made me eat.” A quick laugh came from the man next to you.

“I thought you might have known by now but I guess I was wrong. But what I had you eat was a devil fruit.” His words had you spitting out the tea you were drinking before you looked at him in shock.

“A devil fruit?! Why on earth would you feed me a devil fruit?!” You whisper yell at him while looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

“You won’t understand it all right now but trust me it’s going to be a big help-”

“No more cryptic messages! I want to know what’s going on!”

“It’s hard to explain alright!” Whatever Heat was withholding from you had to be something serious cause the way he was acting was starting to piss you off.

“Just tell me, what’s the last vivid thing you remember?” His question caught you off guard. Last vivid thing you remember? What could he mean by that?

“Go back from times from when you met Kidd.” Furrowing your brows, you turn to stare down at your knees.

Kidd told you that he met you after saving you from the other pirate group that burned your entire town to the ground. Saying nothing was left except ashes and smoke. With that being said, you try to remember it, but all you could see was fog. The same thing happening with other memories or things Kidd told you happened. All your memories were so foggy that it soon felt like you were missing a whole chunk of your life that you didn’t remember.

“Nothing. I…don’t remember anything at all. All there is, is fog.” Heat whispers a curse and you can feel another tingling sensation crawling across your skin.

“You need to trust me, okay (Y/N)?”

“Trust you? What are you going on about?”

“Everything Kidd’s told you? It’s a lie.” Hearing Heat’s words, your eyes widen.

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand?” The tingling sensation grew stronger as you try to understand Heat’s words.

“Kidd is not the ‘savior’ you think he is. He’s lying to you (Y/N).” The world seemed to start spinning around you. You knew that there were things that Kidd could’ve been hiding from you after overhearing his conversation with Killer. But is Heat was acting like this, then there had to be something more that you didn’t know. Yet the question still stands.

Why would Kidd lie to you? What was there to lie about?

“Don’t trust what Kidd says. No matter how convincing he may sound. I can’t explain everything right now but you have to believe me.” Heat grabs you by the shoulders and looks at you, the look of desperation filled his eyes. You can feel your heart beat quicken as you try to make sense of the whole situation. How deep could such a rabbit hole be if Killer, Kidd, and Heat knew something that you didn’t? You go to say something but no words leave your mouth. Every one of your senses was overloaded to the point where your body started to get fidgety and your breathing starts getting faster.

Just then, you see a bright light before a loud ZAP could be heard. You see Heat recoil back shaking his hands as if to cool them down. Worry filled you as you go to see if he’s okay, but your eye catches something slithering along your hand.

With wide eyes, you watch as what you could only describe as lightning snake across your arms and hands. A low buzzing could be heard as you comeptley forgot about Heat in shock of watching what was happening to yourself.

“Fuck that hurt.” Heat’s words went through one ear and out the other as small bursts of electricity started to accumulate in your palms. You quickly make a fist to try and stop whatever was happening, only for it to continue the moment you opened your hand again.

Your hands start to shake as you slowly move your hands together and watch as the small flickers of electricity grow louder and bigger. Heat’s words from moments ago lost on you as you couldn’t help but be memorized by what you were creating with your own two hands.

The sound of it flickering reminded you of flames while you looked at it. The fact you were creating something so unnatural, something so extrordinary, had you speechless. It felt like a dream watching the ball of pure eletricity crackle in your palms

It’s only when it started to get bigger that it started to burn and shock your palms to a painful amount. You started freaking out as you turn to Heat for any advice.

“What do i do?!”

“Throw it out to sea like a ball or something!” Without a second thought, you did just that and to both of your relief’s, the ball of pure electricity left your hands and flew straight out to sea. Small lights flashing around it as it grew smaller and smaller the farther it got.

The low buzzing quickly stopped and the small ropes of electricity fizzled out. Your heart beat still ran wild as you slowly turn your head to Heat, who looked just as shocked as you. No words could’ve been said as you both look at each other, astonished at what had just happened mere seconds ago.

To your dismay, the familiar sound of Kidd’s footsteps approached where you and Heat sat. You both try to quickly shake off the shock that covered your faces and try to act like you didn’t almost electrify Heat moments ago.

“There you are. Why are you on the deck? It’s late.” With a quiet gulp, you respond.

“I had another nightmare so I came to get some fresh air and Heat was already here.” A low hum comes from Kidd as you see him give Heat a questioning glance before moving towards you.

“Well your gonna get sick if you stay out here. Let’s go.” Grabbing your blanket wrapped body, Kidd threw you over his shoulder.

“I can walk you know?” You laugh before turning your attention back to Heat. He puts a finger to his lips before you lose sight of him as Kidd walks away.

~~~~

The sounds of peoples screams had your eyes shooting open in fear. What could be causing such a horrific noise? Rubbing your eyes, you let your vision adjust before you finally got a look at the hell that surrounded you.

Flames higher then the sky flickered and roared as it engulfed the buildings around you. The heat it produced almost as suffocating as the smoke that came from it.

You look around, hoping to find the cause of the screams, yet no one was there. All that was there, was you. You and the fire that circled you. It closed in closer and closer as you breathed in the smoke. It burned your lungs as the heat soon started to affect how open your eyes could be. You couldn’t even hear your own breathing due to how loud the flames yelled around you.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from behind you, causing you to walk away. Whatever could survive in such heat was not something human. Through the flames, you can see a silloutte of a man. Taller then any man then you’ve ever seen. Due to the flames, it even looked like the man had horns and a tail. He looked like the devil himself engulfed in the blaze. Yet when the man finally stepped out of the flames, it caused you to step back and lose your footing, falling to the ground with a thud.

It looked like Kidd. But it couldn’t be Kidd. The man in front of you didn’t have a single scar to be seen. Both arms in a competely different coat. Yet when you looked into the man’s eyes, there was no doubt that the man in front of you was the man you called your lover.

Your eyes scanned him and you can feel your blood freeze when you see his hands covered in blood. Fresh enough to where the blood drips down his fists. His boots covered in the red liquid as well.

“Must be my lucky day. I get to burn down an entire village and keep a little trophy.” The laughter that left his throat had your body shaking. A sense of dread filled your soul as you unknowingly get on your feet.

The man in front of you started running at you with speed you could never compare to, yet you still ran.

Running through the flames, you can feel them eat away at your flesh as you try your best to run away from teh laughing man behind you. Smoke invaded you lungs as breathign soon became harder and harder. Your eyes scanned your surroundings and its then when you realize where you are.

Home.

The building collapsing in on themselves causing ashes to float into the air. All the buildings that stood with you through your childhood burning to the ground. Not a single one was spared from the blaze. Everything from the homes of the citizens to the hospital was burning to the ground without a care in the world.

The sight was too much to bear and hearing Kidd’s words earlier had your mind racing. A trophy? Burning down an entire village?

Your village.

No it couldn’t be right. Kidd saved you. He saved you from the monsters that took everything away from you. He couldn’t be the one to cause all the destruction that left you the only surivor of a village that had once been bustling with people.

“Your too slow princess.” A large hand digs its fingers into your hair and grips harshly. Your jerked back as you can feel your scalp burn as the man behind you pulled you to the ground. A sickening crunch echoed in your skull.

With your eyes wide open in seconds, you sit up and look around. Your breathing heavy as you see that your in Kidd’s bedroom. It’s almost pitch black but you can see teh sunrise peaking out in the horizon, casting a small light into the room.

Looking to yoru side, you see Kidd laying away from you. His breathing calm and a small snore left him. His body covered in the scars that you love and knew. Yet at the moment, you couldn’t bear to look at him.

With your heart still beating against your ribs, you carefully lay back down against the soft sheets of the bed. But instead of curling up next to your lover, you moved to the very edge of the bed. Anything just to get away from him.

~~~~

A week has passed since Heat confronted you about Kidd. Not a second goes by were you didn’t think about it. Was there something Kidd was lying to you about? If so, what could it be? And why? Could it possibly have to do with the small room? What about the secret conversation between Kidd and Killer? Who were they talking about? What was the ‘incident’ Kidd was babbling about? All these questions burned into your brain and bothered you every second of the day.

And it’s starting to show.

According to some crew mates, you’ve been more quiet and reserved then normal. Killer has noticed it too but Kidd hasn’t said a word. Was he holding back? Has he not noticed? He’s been busy in his workshop so maybe that’s why? You were hanging out with him in the workshop as well but he’s got all his attention on his trinkets at that point. Either or, the knowledge that something was going on and you have yet to figure it out what it is has affected you to the point you started to lose sleep over it.

It was about 1am when you looked at the clock. You had tried to go to bed at 10 but all you could do was toss and turn. Your eyes had slowly adjusted to the darkness and all you could do was stare at the ceiling. Counting sheep didn’t work and Kidd wasn’t in bed to give you some sense of warmth and safety. He was on watch tonight and the loneliness didn’t help your insomnia.

Even though you were perfectly warm in bed, Kidd’s presence might be able to help your uneasy mind. So grabbing your comforter, you get out of bed and start journey to find Kidd.

Walking down the corridors of the Victoria Punk at night never bothered you before. It was home so there was no reason to be scared, but now it feels as if a million eyes were watching you. Staring you down without a word. The feeling was suffocating as you try your best to quickly run out to the deck of the ship.

Once you were out on the deck, you looked around to try and find Kidd. There was a new moon tonight so the sea’s were even darker than normal. The floorboards creaked with each step you took as you continued your journey to find Kidd.

“Kidd? Where are you?” Your voice were quiet as you looked for any signs of life. It’s only when you saw light in the corner of your eye that you finally let out a breath. A small smile played on your lips as you decide to give him a little scare.

You tip toe to the light source and you see Kidd’s shoes popping out from the corner. Just as you were about to attack, you were flung forward, causing you to fall on Kidd’s lap.

“Next time you try to scare me princess, don’t wear metal bracelets that clink around.” Kidd gives you a smug grin before pulling you up, having you sitting on his lap. Your head laying on the soft fur of his red coat.

“Kidd, can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“Have I been more closed off then usual? Maybe it’s just the migraines and my lack of sleep, but I feel…I don’t know how to describe what I feel.” You throw the comforter covering you to cover the small part of exposed skin Kidd had on his chest. Moving your head to look up, you see Kidd staring back down at you. His amber eyes scanning your face.

“I haven’t noticed. Probably cause you’ve been following me around like a lost puppy. You’ve just been hanging out with me more as you should.” He wasn’t wrong. You’ve tried to stick closer to him, hoping that his presence will push away the questions that have raided your mind. It’s worked but the times where it hasn’t out weights the time it has. In fact sometimes it even worsens it. The thought of him doing anythign behind your back that could possibly involve you had you tearing up. And now with Heat’s words plaguing your mind it plays in your head like a broken record.

“You’d never lie to me right?” Your voice laced with insecurity as you grabbed his metal hand and held it.

“This about another nightmare? Told ya princess, their not real. What would I possibly have to lie to you about?” Kidd lets his flesh arm wrap around your body and lets you continue to hold his metal hand. A slight red hue on his cheeks.

“I guess. I’m sorry for bothering you so much.” You turn your head to kiss his neck lightly before snuggling on his chest.

“Good. Now go to sleep. I ain’t going anywhere.” Without another word, your eyes flutter shut, letting the darkness embrace you.

Your awaken by loud explosions and the ground shaking harshly, yet when your eyes open, you find yourself laying on lush green grass. Rubbing your eyes, you notice that your surrounded by the biggest tree’s you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Bubbles floating all around you, giving you a small feel of childhood nostalgia.

Reaching out, you go to touch a bubble in front of you only for a gunshot to echo around you and simultanisouly pop all together. Jumping to your feet, you look around trying to pinpoint teh cause of the gunshot. The sound of the soapy substance under your feet had you worrying that someone might hear you.

Another gunshot rings out and in your panic, you bring to run away from the direction of where the sound came from. As soon as you were 20ft from where you woke up, the sounds of gunshots multiplied. Not it sounded like there were hundreds of shots being fired instead of just one. Fear coursed though your veins as your heart worked harder to pump blood into your system. Quickly glancing back, you see hundreds of shadows holding guns and shooting them in your direction.

It’s then when you go to look up to the sky, you notice to your horror that the sky was black. A never ending black abyss that not even the blackest of nights could compare. You were speechless as you continue running from the shadows that followed your every move. It was a miracle you haven’t been shot yet.

You can hear bullets passing by your head as they broke through the wind. Panic started overtaking your sense of reasonas you look every which way to try and find a spot to hide. You don’t know how much longer you have left to run on your feet.

The familiar sound of buzzing hit your ears, making you look down. You see ropes of electricity moving across your body, causing your heart to quicken. What could you possibly do now? You have two problems to take care of now! Running from teh gunshots that threatened to take you down and now trying to control your new found devil fruit power before it gets out of control and ends up hurting you.

Before you could take another step, the sound of gunfire ceased. NO more bullets whizzing past your head and no more jumping to avoid getting shot in the leg. Whipping your head around to see why it stopped, you can feel your blood freeze at what you saw.

A huge scarred red snake looking right back at you. It’s amber eyes staring right through you. Your words caught in your throat as the snake lifted itself up, making it taller than you by 10x. It’s body longer than any sea king you’ve seen. The sound of it hissing brought you back to your senses. With a quick turn around, you start running away from the giant predator. The ground started to shake as you could hear is slithering right behind you. To your horror, you didn’t even make it 10ft before the giant snake wrapped it’s body around your own.

Even with your body emmiting the cursed electricity, the snake was unbothered. You struggled to free yourself, but were no match against it’s strength. The snakes hissing simply got louder as it got closer to your trapped form. It’s eyes locked with yours and only then did it hit you who’s eyes they belonged to.

“K-Kidd? What the h-hell?” You can feel the snake tighten it’s grip against your body as it opened it’s mouth. Two gianormous fangs protruded from it’s gums. The snake moved it’s head back a little more before striking towards you.

Only then, did you scream at the top of your lungs.

Your eyes shoot open as you quickly looked around. To you relief, you see the Victoria pushing through the waves. Looking up, you see Kidd sleeping, his arms still tight around you. Your breathing calms as you lay back down on his fur coat, your eyes never leaving his face.

“What are you hiding?”

~~~~

After teh most recent dream, you started to distance yourself from everyone, includding Kidd. You needed time to think, and time to control the power that digusting fruit gave you.

So far, everytime it’s shown itself, it’s been when you were overwhelemed with emotions. It brought you to the conclusion that you might have to think og things that upset you for it to show itself. Which brought you down to the hallway with the small room was in. Even though the small room freaked you out to no end, it was far from everyone and at the very bottom of the ship. No one would be there so it’d be easy for you to truly practice wihout being interrupted!

As soon as you reached the small room, you curse yourself for being so forgetful. Wooden planks nailed in front of the door along with a sign saying ‘OFF LIMITS’. This must have been Killers doing after Kidd told him to board up the door. You furrow your brows as you look at teh door. THere was no way you’d get in normally, no with how thick those boards were.

Scanning the door a little bit more, your eyes catch a tiny spot at the very bottom of the door that Killer didn’t board up. If the door wasn’t there you’d be able to crawl under teh planks. Your brain went through idea after idea before one finally had your interest piqued.

Looking at both ends of the hallway to see if it’s clear, you sit down and move your body closer to the door. Putting your hands on teh ground for support, you move your leg back before kicking it forward with all your might. THe sound of the wood splittering had you smiling, knowing that your plan to kick a hole in the door was going to work. All you had to do, was give it a few more powerful kicks, then you’d be in the room in no time!

BAM!

CRACK!

Finally, your foot kicks through the door. A quiet yes leaves your lips as you look around the hallway once more to check if anyone heard it. Seeing you were alone once more, you scoot closer to teh door to kick in more of the wood, just to make sure it was big enough to crawl through.

BAM!

Splinters of wood scatter around the newfound hole in teh door. But you didn’t care, now you could crawl through and do what you originally planned to do.

Crawling through the hole, your met with darkness once again. You move around and try to feel for the lantern light that you had left last time you were there. WHen you finally manage to find it and turn it on, you stand up and take a deep breath. Looking around the room, you ignore the tally marks and blood, and get ready for your new ‘training’.

~~~~

“God this is much harder then I thought it’d be.” You didn’t know how long you’ve been in the small room, but it was certainly long enough to feel your body on the verge of collapsing. With a few last stretches, you get ready to crawl back under the door. As soon as you start moving towards the hole, horror washes over you when you hear footsteps echo in the halls. Heavy footsteps make their way closer and closer to the busted door.

You quickly move your body through the small opening, trying to get out as fast as you can. As you almost make it halfway through, a piece of sharp wood scratched your back and ripped your shirt, taking a small piece with it. Biting your lip, you try to hold in a yelp of pain. Once you finally make it through teh door, you knew you didn’t have much time left to hide. You desperatly look around the hall before a small pile of crates catch your eye. Quickly you manouver yourself to hide behind the crates as quietly as you could.

Once you were out of sight, you manage to have a small sliver of light that allowed you to peak outside your hiding spot and look directly at the door. The footsteps go louder and so did your heartbeat.

“Fucking shit.” Your eyes widen at the familiar voice of your lover. Looking between the crates, you see him kneeling down, inspecting the broken door. You can feel your blood freeze when you see Kidd holding the ripped piece of your shirt in between his fingers.

“Heat, you are so fucking dead. This is the last time you play hero.” Kidd returns to standing and starts storming back the way he came. A deep dread fills you after hearing Kidd words. You needed to warn Heat! You wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you had gotten Heat killed due to your recklessness.

You needed to warn Heat and you needed to warn him now.

~~~~

Once the dark of night had covered the Victoria punk, everyone had made their way to bed. Ever since you made your way back to the deck after teh events of earlier today, you made sure to always be by Kidd or always have Heat in your eyesight. There hasn’t been an oppurunity to warn him yet. What if you couldn’t warn him fast enough?

But thankfully tonight, the crew decided it was Heat’s turn to keep watch for the night. Hearing that, it was the perfect oppurtunity to warn him! All you needed was to keep Kidd distracted for a second. But first, you needed to brush your teeth since whatever the hell Killer had cooked left an unpleasant aftertaste. Kidd was following you to the bathroom probably to do his skincare routine and drag you into it like always. You didn’t mind usually, but tonight was different.

“Make anything in the workshop today love?”

“Working on my arm.” Turning your head, you see Kidd leaning against the wall behind you.

“Adding anything cool? Or just repairs?” You question as you brush your teeth.

“Repairs.” His plain answers had an unease bubbling in your stomach.

“Kidd! Where are you?” Killer’s voice broke through the small tension in the room.

“Oi! Give me a second!” You see Kidd go to leave teh bathroom making you quickly grab his metal arm.

“Don’t go! Stay with me!” Kidd looks at you and you give him a pout.

“It’ll be a second alright? What’s got you so clingy princess?” You wrap your arms around his torso the best you could before looking up at him.

“Am I not allowed to want to spend time wiht my lover?” Leaning up, you manage to press a kiss to Kidd’s lips as you stand on your tip toes. You can see Kidd’s face turn red before he grumbled and tried looking away from you.

“Your clingy.”

“Clingy cause I love you.” You send him a smile which caused the red hair man to sigh before leaning down to kiss your forehead.

“Love you too. Now, give me a second to see what’s got Killer bitching and moaning.” His first words were mumbled against your lips before he pulled away and walked out the bedroom door. You could thankfully hear them talking so it calmed you down knowing he wasn’t far and anywhere near Heat. Heat would be okay for a little longer.

~~~~

Kidd had been talking for awhile. What on earth could be taking him so long?

After finishing your own skincare routine, you leave the bathroom and make your way out of the bedroom door. To your surprise you see nothing. But you could still hear Kidd and Killer’s voices. Quietly, you tip toe towards their voices, yet the closer you got, the more you notice the voices didn’t sound quite…human.

When you finally turn the corner, you feel your heart drop to your stomach. Instead of what should have been Kidd and Killer, was pre-recorded responder snails ‘talking’ to one another.

Horror filled yoru body when you realizing what’s happening. Turning around, you start running as fast as you could to make yoru way to the deck. Praying that Kidd hasn’t done anything to Heat. You cursed yourself for being so dumb and taking so long to realize. The sound of your footsteps echo the halls and ring in your own ears.

After finally making it to the deck, your eyes quickly scan around to see any sort of movement or light. Suddenly, a loud thud comes from your right and you see a bright light. Not wasting anymore time, you make a mad dash towards light and sound.

The closer you got, you could finally hear Kidd’s voice break through teh silence.

“You think your fucking slick?! Did you think I wouldn’t notice?!”

“Kidd, what are you talking about?” Another thud rings across the deck as Heat lets out a rough cough.

“I’ll be damned if you ruin this for me, Heat.” When you finally make it close enough, you see what was happening.

Heat sitting against the railing breathing heavily, red slowly seeping into his clothes. You turn yoru eyes to Kidd as you let out a gasp of horror when you see a bloody knife clutched tightly in his hand.

Heat coughed once more and you can see droplets of blood leave his mouth. You see Kidd getting closer to heat and that’s when you start running cause you knew right then that if you didn’t do something right now, Kidd was going to kill him.

Your footsteps had Heat slowly looking up before his eyes widen. Shock evident in his face as he sees you running in his direction.

“I’ll just tell the others you fell overboard. That’s all I need to tell (Y/N) and she would never ask another question.” Kidd moves closer to Heat still clutching the knife.

“Should have stayed out of things that don’t concern you. Now, you get to see what happens when someone tries to take something that belongs to me-”

“No!” Before Kidd could strike, you move in front of Heat and move your arms so theyre spread out to protect Heat from both sides. A silence fell over the three of you as Heat’s ragged breath was the only thing you could hear.

“(Y/N). Step aside. Don’t you know what he’s done? He’s a spy for the marines! He’s a traitor!” Despite Kidd’s words, you didn’t move a muscle. The tingling sensation grew stronger has you fear Kidd’s next move.

“Move (Y/N). I’m trying to protect you. Come here, it’s not safe to be next to him-” Kidd moves his flesh arm to grab you and before you could properly think, the familiar buzzing before a loud ZAP echoed across teh Victoria Punk.

“Son of a bitch!” Reeling back, you lover moves his hand up and down against his red cloak, trying to get rid of the shock.

“(Y/N)...” Turning around, you quickly move to Heat’s aid. You look around to see for any more wounds but only see teh stab wound that was stationed dangerously close to his heart.

“Hang on! You’ll be okay! Just give me a second!”

“Where did you get devil fruit powers.” Kidd’s voice broke through your panic and you turn to see his face. His face looked just as sinsiter as his voice. The look was worse than teh day he refused to let you off the boat.

“I-I..”

“You gave her devil fruit powers?! I’m going to kill you, you bastard!” Your hear almost stops as you watch Kidd stomp towards the two of you. It truly felt like another nighmare the way Kidd’s face looked. Standing up once again, you place yourself in front of Heat as you move your arms away from your side. Buzzing hit your ears and you can see electricity slither around your body, helping you by giving off a threatening aura.

“Don’t hurt him Kidd!” Kid moves his hand towards you and just as you think he’d gonna grab your am, his hand grip your hair and throws you behind him. Your body landing against the wooden deck with a loud ‘thunk’.

The air was knocked out of your lungs and your head pounded. You cough and struggle to regain the air before turning your eyes to Heat and Kidd. With eyes widening in horror as before you could do anything else, you see Kidd grab Heat by his shirt and lift him to his feet.

“Have fun at the bottom of the sea Heat! Say hi to the sea kings for me will ya?” With the rest of yoru strength, you pull yourself to your feet. You only took one step before you feel time stop.

Giving Heat a harsh shove, you watch Kidd throw him back, causing Heat to tumble over the railing. A scream leaves your voice as tears rim your eyes. Your legs move on their own as you go to the railing, hoping to see Heat hanging on, but the sound of a splash crushes your hope almost instantly.

Kidd turns around and looks at your shaking form. A look of insanity plastered on his face. You didn’t even have the time to register how close Kidd was before you feel Kidd dig his fingers in you hair, dragging you away from teh crime scene.

“You couldn’t just mind your own buisness and wait could you? But that’s fine. I can teach you once more. I’ll do it as long as it takes, no matter how much blood that needs to be spilled.” Tears start pouring down your cheeks. The monster dragging you was not the Kidd you knew. Well, the Kidd you thought you knew.

Unfortunately, you were too late to see the truth, and Heat paid the price for your ignorance.

#eustass captain kid x reader #eustass kid x reader #one piece x reader #dark content things

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natspookie · 11 months

Text

fearless

inspired by sam and monica on tiktok hehe natasha romanoff x fem reader :))

☆ summary : tony challenges natasha to prank you by judging you the worst way possible, your taylor swift concert outfit.

☆ a/n, i switch to “y/n” and “you” every now and then soooo thats the same thingy and i haven’t written in a longggggg time and not proofread

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

It had been y/n’s birthday last week when Natasha surprised her with floor standing tickets to Taylor Swift, or “mother” as y/n says. Since then, y/n had been talking non-stop about what to wear since the concert was already the next week.

Sat on the compound’s stool eating her sandwich with some Avengers while you were training, the topic of the concert came up.

“Hey Nat, why don’t you prank y/n about her outfit being bad?” Tony prompted from the fridge, raising a glass of water to his mouth.

“Now why would I do that?” Natasha raised a brow, looking up from some book she was reading, recommended by y/n.

“C’mon sestra, didn’t you say you’ve always wanted to prank someone?” Yelena chimed from the couch with her Nintendo.

“I don’t even know what she’s going to wear and she’s been so excited about this concert” Natasha frowned

“You’re too soft for Y/n” Tony laughed taking a seat beside her

“i’m not!… Ok maybe a little” Natasha groaned standing up… This couldn’t be too bad, right?

The day of the concert and the prank itself, Natasha had an internal fight whether she could do this but the teasing face of tony flashed her mind, she could do this.. just this once.

natasha was wearing a black tanktop and your taylor swift cardigan since you insisted it was unacceptable to show up to a taylor swift concert without much thought, not that natasha minded giving into your pleas.

she sat on the couch in your guys’ shared room when you walked out the bathroom wearing a white dress that flowed down with flowers embroidered at the bottom (wanda helped you with that), high white boots, glitter all over your face, and the number 13 on your hand.

natasha thought you never looked better.

“you’re wearing that to the concert?” Natasha questioned as you walked to the dresser, already feeling this was a bad idea

“Yeah!” Natasha looked the outfit up and down with a straight face

“It’s Taylor Swift fearless with the grammys thing at the bottom! you dont see it?” you twirled around with a smile. Natasha was close to calling off the joke when she saw that smile.

But one thing everyone knew about Natasha was she was not one to back out on something.

“you don’t like it” Y/n said defeated with a frown at the lack of Natasha’s response

“i can change it you want? i have the reputation outfit at the back of my closet” you sniffled walking back to the closet when natasha jumped off the couch and hugged you from behind

“nooo! my love im sorry it was a prank, i love it” natasha mumbled against your neck pressing apology kisses

“are you serious, nat?!? that’s not funny” you huffed but by your tone she knew you weren’t that mad

“Im sorry im sorrryyy ill buy you that merchandise you wanted” natasha resorted to bribery

you stayed quiet for a moment

“the blue crewneck?” you turned your neck to look at natasha “all of the ones you want”

“really?!? oh my god let’s go before the line gets long!” you dragged natasha out of the room before she stopped you “honey you forgot the tickets and shoes” natasha laughed as you sprinted back to the room “got em! lets go!”

natasha ended up talking for you the next morning as you lost your voice and were extremely worn out.

she also ended up stealing (borrowing in natasha’s terms) your crewnecks and oversized taylor shirts. as much as you loved them, you knew deep down they looked better on natasha and didn’t mind.

#natasha x y/n #natasha romonova #natasha romanov #black widow #natasha romanoff fluff #natasha romanoff x reader

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linkdedruid · 9 months

Note

HEY BABE, WHAT SIZE PUSSY YOU HAVE

(Headcanons)

The Trigun Folks and Buying Period Supplies for Their Partner for the First Time

I'd like you to know that I *cackled* when I saw this in my inbox. Sorry it took so longggggg! So, I'm basing this off a mix of TriStamp and Tri98 (only reason not TriMax is bc I haven't read it yet I'm sorryyyyy) Big thank you to @abject-indulgence for helping with Legato (go follow him; he's pretty rad) Dividers by @benkeibear

Livio

he's such a sweetheart he offers to go get more supplies because your cramps are really bad he gets to the store and is very overwhelmed by the range of options he'd just text you to ask which ones you preferred to make sure he gets the right ones he also picks up your favorite dinner while he's out because at least it'll be a nice surprise

Wolfwood

this man runs an orphanage, so he knows what's up you ask him to grab some more when he's running errands he checks with you before he leaves to make sure he gets the right brand, size, etc. he's gonna maybe give you a little funny remark but he's back later that day with the supplies and some of your favorite snacks and he'll give you a uterine massage if your cramps are particularly bad also, he's the world's best heating pad because he runs so warm

Vash

poor, sweet Vash is trying his best he's never really had a partner before and wants to make sure he does everything right so he's doing a store run and notices pads and tampons are on the list doesn't look at the list before he goes and just panics nearly has a breakdown in the aisle because he doesn't know which ones to get he's too nervous to ask you or the employees he ends up getting one of each that he can find because he can't get it wrong if he gets all of them, right

Knives

he's gonna complain like, he's gonna say some crap about how humans are such a pain and a nuisance and he'll make someone else do it he will, however, make sure there's someone keeping an eye on it in future so you never have to ask again but he won't ever admit to it

Roberto

look me in the eye and tell me this man doesn't have this on lock I dare you because you'll be dead wrong this man has been around the block no hesitation just asks which ones you want like it's no big deal to him it's just another part of life

Legato

he's just confused why you're asking him to do it he's not grossed out or upset, just confused like, anybody could go do that and he's got things to do that only he can do anyway, he makes sure it gets done though he just has one of the lower level grunts do it with the threat of an excruciating death if they mess it up

Milly

you never have to ask her to pick up supplies because she's already on top of it like, she knows when anything is running low at home what makes you think she'd be anything less growing up with a big family means making sure there's plenty of household supplies you're actually more likely to have the issue of there not being enough space she always accidentally ends up buying too much

Meryl

she's the one who's gonna forget to supplies honestly she's too busy focusing on everything else to check and so she's doing emergency runs to get something to tide y'all over until she can get to the store to actually get the ones y'all want spoiler: she forgets and the cycle repeats

#link's writing #link's letterbox #trigun #tristamp #tri98 #livio x reader #wolfwood x reader #vash x reader #knives x reader #roberto x reader #legato x reader #milly x reader #meryl x reader

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manic-pixi-dreamworld · 1 month

Text

Night check✨

7:09pm EST

It was the easiest Monday I’ve had in a longggggg time. I guess I just need to work 7 days a week so shit gets done…I can’t wait until the horses are out longer. My bestie convinced me to ride with her after work and I’m so happy she talked me into it. I had such a relaxing fun ride outside on a gorgeous night.

Hoping to make it through the rest of the week. 4 more days until the weekend!

Hope you all had a good Monday 💕

Remember

You are loved

You are wanted

Drink your water

Take your meds

Be kind to yourself

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stargirlfangirl · 9 months

Text

The Unsinkable Eight Headcanons

Leah

-Verrrrryyyyyy pretentious with media she likes

-Bisexual

-Aspiring Novelist + Poet

-Loves Cats

-Her favorite month is November

-Huuuuuuuuge Lana del Rey stan

-Secretly loves "shallow" media

-Her favorite colors are maroon and navy blue

-Favorite Taylor Swift album is either evermore or Red

Rachel

-Favorite color is forest green

-Asexual + Aromantic

-Likes hoodies, sweaters and other cozy clothes

-Her favorite movie genre is action

-Weirdly good at pottery

-Eventually finds a way to love swimming and the water again but it takes a longggggg time

-Absolutely a dog person

Dot

-Will argue with you over the best kind of fast food

-Is extremely competitive with board game nights

-Really likes turtles

-She knows a lot about fashion bc Fatin talks about it all the time

-Adding on to the last point, she's a really good listener

-Wants to learn to play the electric guitar

Shelby

-Gay that can do math

-She's a huuuuuge theater kid at heart and has always wanted to be an actress but never rlly took it seriously until Toni encouraged her to follow her dreams

-The one thing she cannot do is cook. She will burn everything she makes

-Crochets and/or colors to relax

-She used to hate makeup bc it was yet another thing she felt like she had to do, but post-island, she's been doing a lot of creative eye makeup looks and loves using it as a way to express herself

-Is a huuuuuge Swiftie. Her favorite album is 100% folklore

Toni

-Has a secret stan Twitter account that only Martha and Shelby know about

-Follows women's soccer and basketball very closely

-Not a huge fan of school in general but she really likes science-----especially biology

-She loves paintball

-Tells dad jokes that are so bad they're good

-Says she's not a Swiftie but she is secretly a Lover stan

-Loves dogs

-Also crochets bc of Shelby. The two of them 100% have crocheting contests

Fatin

-Bisexual

-Loves horror movies

-Yells at the TV whenever someone does something dumb

-Went through a huuuuuge mermaid phase as a little girl

-Definitely has a TikTok account where she does makeup tutorials

-Favorite musician is Dua Lipa

-Uses lots of emojis

-Gets good grades without even trying

-Her favorite Taylor Swift album is 1989

Martha

-Pansexual

-Says she doesn't have a favorite animal but it's 100% guinea pigs

-Secretly loves rock music

-Generally not into sports but she's amazing at volleyball

-She comes up with rlly good comebacks but she's too nice to actually say any of them

-Her favorite color is pink

-Plays Animal Crossing

-She really likes gardening and painting

-Also a huge Taylor Swift fan. Her favorite album is Speak Now.

Nora

-Rlly funny but nobody knows bc she's quiet

-Reads and draws comics

-Avid gamer. She really likes the Zelda games

-Likes cats and otters

-She also really loves swimming and the water but she pretends not to so that can be Rachel's "thing"

-Favorite colors are grey and yellow

-Scares easily when it comes to horror movies

-Cannot carry a tune, no matter how hard she tries

#the wilds #leah rilke #rachel reid #nora reid #dot campbell #fatin jadmani #shelby goodkind #toni shalifoe #martha blackburn #the unsinkable eight #headcanons

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the-paris-of-people · 2 years

Note

One of my favorite things they did this season was having Devi fully get over Paxton before getting with Ben. It made that whole moment so much better!! She actively chose Ben!! It was perfect.

YES and also I love that they skipped months of her mourning instead of making rash decisions (which I thought she would do) and she had a whole process to get over Paxton. I still wish Ben and Devi could have dated in that longggggg time jump but I enjoyed it overall! I think it's really signifcant that over a year + Ben and Devi both grew individually and chose each other (Ben literally could NOT think of anything else but her)

#never have i ever #thefabulousfab-3 #benvi #ask #answered

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billiemania · 2 months

Text

I had a longggggg chat yesterday with some of my grad school girlies who are in the exact same boat as me of being phd failures/non-starters about how insane it is to leave academia and feel like youre being deprogrammed from a cult and how the entire system is built on exploiting labor for half of a prayer that you might get a CHANCE at finding success after sacrificing 10+ years of your life to the void and then came into work today and had a longggg chat with my supervisor who is a full on tenure track faculty member and STILL has almost no security because she's struggling to get funding and I'm just. good god I've never been so certain that I DON'T want a phd anymore. It is so easy to become blinded to the fact that the rest of the world doesn't operate like this. Why would I dedicate another year to applications and prep, 5+ years to getting the damn thing, anywhere from 3 - 8 years to a POST-DOC, and THEN begin the struggle of actually GETTING a tenure-track job, and then still have to worry about funding for the rest of my life, when every step of this process has a greater chance of failure than success and is so mercilessly competitive that you essentially have zero conditions about where you live and you'll get paid a pittance for the majority of it all. I'm 26 and I've already wasted so much time in school that my life is barely beginning. Fuck no I am not putting it back on hold for at least, AT LEAST, 8 more years for the ghost of a whisper of a chance at being a researcher. No fucking thank you I'm good being an admin so I can watch all this shit from the sidelines get paid good and have an actual life outside of work

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the-illusory-seer · 1 year

Note

Ah, hopefully you can rest soon? Oh, how long have you been away so far?

- Wisp

Too longggggg.

[she lays her head down on her desk]

#vivian/wisp

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everythingisblue-if · 10 months

Note

How scary can the ROs get when they are angry?

I’m labeling their scary levels on scale from 1-10 when they’re angry. 1 being least and 10 being most.

Lane - It depends. To others, they can seem pretty scary due to their title, as no one likes to see a king become angry. So, he’s scary, but it’s actually not bad. 6

Henery - He is definitely someone that you have nightmares about after you made him angry. He doesn’t yell or anything—it’s a quiet simmering that has you more scared of him. 8

Simon - When he’s angry, he’s fuming. But it doesn’t necessarily makes him scary. The worst case scenario is that he’ll berate (silently) or ignore you. He doesn’t have the face to be scary. 4

B - They’re usually cool as a cucumber, but they do get angry. They do have the tendency to appear scary, but it’s more likely that it’s to force others not to make them angry again, or they get the look. 7

Samara - A femme fatale; her eyes have souls swimming in them. She’s not “scary” when angry, but she looks more determined. Determined to get her revenge on you as soon as possible. 9

M - They get aggravated, but not exactly angry. When they do, however, they force themselves to calm down, not once yelling a word. When angry, their face may be expressionless, attempting to bottle up the anger inside. 3

Knox - Due to their imposing stature and known history, they are the most scariest out of all the ROs when angry. They don’t have a bad temper, but if they’re provoked, they’re essentially a bomb. 10

Another months old ask that I’ve answered. Sorry for the longggggg wait, Anon! 💋👑

#everything is blue #if #ask #interactive fiction #asks #ro asks #ros #ro #henery #lane #m #simon #b #samara #knox

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aquanova99 · 2 years

Text

Haunted (Cato x Reader)

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Part 4

Prev <<

Next >>

A/N: Jesus it’s been forever I apologize in advance but this is a long longggggg chapter last I checked it was at 6.5k words so I’m sorry about that. Really so sorry again, it’s hard to resummarize and also rewrite your version of the book

A/N: I hope you are having a day as wonderful as you 🤍

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Y/ns pov

Day 1 travel to the capitol. Day 2, tribute parade. Days 3, 4, and 5, group training with private training with the gamemakers the second half of day 5. Day 6, train for and have the interview of your life. Day 7, travel to location and begin trying to survive. Lovely, at the moment you were on day 4. How many hours of sleep did you end up getting last night, two? Four? It didn’t matter, you were ready to begin training. You debated going into Peeta’s room to ask him if he wanted to get in some extra training but you enjoyed having space to destress and actually practice.

You put on an oversized, long sleeve t-shirt and black leggings and some white sneakers. You put your hair up in a high ponytail and headed down to the training center. You weren’t surprised to find it empty, but luckily at least this time there were trainers and instructors setting up for the day. You had been improving but even with the extra practice you were still behind the rest of the careers. You asked for the instructors help with archery, you knew if Katniss had been here that would be her weapon of choice. It was clear to see it was not your strength. After a few minutes you managed to at least get close to your target. You were frustrated with yourself, you knew how accurate Katniss’s kills were, you wondered how she would fare in the games for a split second before shaking your head and trying to refocus.

You shot another time and you were shooting too much to the right. You threw the bow and arrows down out of frustration, groaning as you sat with your head in your hands.

“Not bad 12.” Your head shot up to see the district one tribute standing against the door to the training center. You scrambled back to your feet, worried about more people now knowing about having extra practice. “When did you sneak in here?”

“Uhm, like ten minutes ago?” Lie. “I saw them start to set up so I figured it was okay to come in.” Another lie.

“Not bad at shooting, probably around the same as Glimmer.” He was stating an observation, you weren’t able to figure out if he was annoyed or impressed. You were nervous. And also annoyed you’d seen Glimmer shoot you were better than her. Your mind started racing. What if he had been standing there for longer than 10 minutes? You needed to get out of there.

“Well, uhm I should go… and get my partner.”

Marvel picked grabbed a spear and perfectly shot it at a target, “Sure 12.”

You sped walked to the elevator and headed back to your floor. You weren’t surprised to see your team waiting for you.

“Where have you been?” Peeta asked

“Couldn’t sleep I was just walking around, went to the roof and then went to see if the training center was open, they just finished setting up in there by the way.”

You knew Haymitch could tell you were lying but he didn’t press. Instead Peeta replied again, “You should be careful going to the roof, I went up there the other day and I think the victor from District 2 was up there.”

“Cato?” Effie asked

“Yeah that one.” You could tell Peeta did not like him. Most people didn’t. Anyone who trained and won the games were never the favorites back home. You decided to keep the run ins you had with him silent.

“I’ll be careful. Are you ready?”

“He has to change first. Go pick out a shirt that at least coordinates with hers.” Peeta just nodded and left, “and you, I can’t do anything about your sleep sweetheart but at least grab something to eat before you go down there.”

You nodded and grabbed some rolls leftover from breakfast and a bottle of water to take with you. When Peeta still hadn’t come back you ended up grabbing a small plate full of breakfast food and eating as quickly as you could. You were halfway done with your food when Peeta finally came back out.

“This is as close as I got to that color.”

“Its fine, lets go.”

“Don’t you want to finish?” Peeta motioned at your half-finished plate.

“Nope all done.” You grabbed Peetas hand and led him to the elevator, “Come on, I want to try some actual fighting skills today.” You weren’t the last to arrive this time. In fact, it was only the careers and the boy from 10 and the girl from 5. The rest of the tributes started trickling in after you and Peeta had lined up for the hand-to-hand combat station. The boy from district 11, Thresh was behind you. While Peeta was getting instructions from the trainers you turned back to him. You noticed no one was lined up behind him, probably too intimidated.

“So, still thinking about possibly being allies?”

“No chance 12.”

“Come on, I know Rue wants to.”

“Yeah, but I don’t trust your boyfriend over there. I think I saw him talking to the careers.”

“What? When?” This was news to you, you weren’t supposed to train separately, but if he had been waiting to use another station like this case maybe he had talked to them. You looked back at Peeta sparring and felt thresh lean over just a bit.

“Yesterday after he had thrown those weights. The guy from 2 and the girl from 1 talked to him while you were cleaning up from the camouflage station. Rue isn’t sure about him either.”

You remembered, Peeta had fallen on an obstacle course and when the careers began laughing you had told him to go against what Haymitch had said. You made sure to keep your eyes trained on Peeta. Your plans to not work with him solidifying every day. Thresh could just be messing with you, but he seemed too straightforward to say something like this. You spoke loud enough for him to be able to hear, looking annoyed with your arms crossed.

“I’m only doing this until the games. I don’t plan on working with him after that.”

“We’ll see.”

You were prepared to say something else but Peeta came down right then, “Go ahead y/n, good luck up there its intense.” You smiled as sweetly as you could and headed up there. Thankfully you were able get some of your anger out. You did your best to avoid most of the hits and land a few of your own but you ended on your back more often than not. You were not looking forward to having to do that in the games. You looked over and noticed Peeta talking to the district 1 girl, Glimmer. Now you knew Thresh was right. Dammit. How were you supposed to get allies if he was doing stuff like this? All of the guys were bigger than you and most of the girls were too. The only upper hand you had is that you would be used to foraging and surviving without the comforts of the capitol.

Once you reconnected with Peeta the two of you headed back to a smaller station, identifying edible plants and roots. A relatively easy one for you, and it gave you and Peeta a chance to talk again.

“So, what did you and Thresh talk about?”

“I was asking him about being allies with us.”

“Anything with that?”

“Nothing.” You sighed, it was a shame. Peeta was so nice, but he was making mistakes. Even though you didn’t mind at the boy from 1, you would never talk to him in front of the other districts. That would be suicide none of the other districts would even think of considering to being allies. “Why were you talking to Glimmer?”

“She was trying to dig for information. See what we found out about the other tributes. Since we decided to talk to them yesterday.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing, I told them no wanted to be allies. Which is true. Since you talked to Thresh and he said no.” You just nodded. If you kept up this whole charade of working together, you’d never be able to work with anyone else. And if came down to a fight you didn’t stand much of a chance.

This time at the cafeteria you didn’t talk to anyone. You were starting to panic, especially for the private sessions with the gamemakers, you weren’t sure what you were even going to do.

“Y/n?” Peetas voice snapped you back to reality, “Come on pretend I said something funny. We still have to keep this up.” You just complied, you weren’t trying to upset Haymitch and so far he’d actually been trying to help. This whole charade seemed to be so easy for Peeta, you wondered how much of everything he said was true. You were so tired, you wanted to get these games over with. Win or lose, at this point you didn’t care. Peeta had to ask you things several times and direct you on what to do, while you did enjoy Peeta’s company forcing yourself to work with only to possibly have to kill him in a few days was doing a number on your mind. The worst part was that because you liked him you wanted to work with him less and less, you would know it was all business with Thresh. Rue… well. Rue was different you were almost rooting for her to win at this point. Especially seeing her potential come out in training, she never missed with her slingshot and she was always climbing on equipment, it wasn’t until she had managed to steal one of the knifes Arioch had been training with that you realized you were underestimating her, Rue had potential, real potential to get far in this game and you wanted to help her do it. You tried not to think at what cost that might affect your own game.

Going back to training Peeta asked you again what you wanted to work on, you had told Haymitch your skill lied in spears and as you had come to find out knives, and it did but you weren’t sure you’d be able to practice that in front of the careers. Might as well get adept in other areas, your mind went to the bow.

“Can we try the arrows?”

“Why not, I’m sure you’ll knock it out like usual.” Peeta smiled at you, you couldn’t help roll your eyes and let out a small chuckle. You nudged him and headed towards the archery station. Unfortunately, you had done relatively well in most of the stations, but they were mostly the survival ones. The trap setting being your best one, but Peeta did much better at the hand-to-hand combat and swords. You remember how much it had irritated you because honestly the swords were heavy and awkward for you to deal with. You needed something lighter, its why you preferred the knives but the chances of getting them really were almost zero.

Peeta went first with the bow, he managed to hit the dummy but not by much. He might be able to stop someone if he got his hands on it but he certainly wouldn’t kill them, unless he got lucky. You noticed the careers watching you as you lined up to practice, you suddenly began panicking about this morning. Maybe Marvel had seen more than he let on. Why were they so close? You tried to slow your breathing as you released your first arrow, definitely hit the chest of the dummy but it was going to the right. Again. Your head dropped in frustration, while strands of your hair had fallen loose around your face you could see Arioch and Glimmer laughing at something he said. Marvels head was tilted and he raised an eyebrow, almost daring you to miss again. Fine. You remember that you used to hate when people doubted you but after a while you realized that it was actually a kind of a good thing. You loved proving people wrong.

“y/n we can just leave…” Peetas voice went in one ear and out the other as you nocked your bow and you readjusted your aim slightly to the left. Don’t overthink it you told yourself. Before Peeta could give you any other warning you drew your arm back and released that arrow. Finally. You shoot another at the head this time and it manages to land as well. You shoot another couple targets just for good measure all of your arrows now landing right in between where the eyes would be. Just like that day 2 of official training was over. Time to tone it back down.

“Do you want to try anything else?” You ask Peeta.

“Not much else to do.” He smiled at you, “Want to teach me how you did that? Or is that too much help?”

You cursed yourself internally, cursed Peeta for being so likeable. You handed the bow over to him and told him to find his dominant eye, then you started restating everything the instructor had said. He got a little better, but not by much. Peeta had never had to scrape for food, he needed to be able to imagine the target was something that needed to be killed. You thought of game, animals. In a few days, you wouldn’t be able to pretend you were killing deer. After he had exhausted his archery skills Peeta asked to switch one last time

“Hey, since we have about a half hour do you mind if we go back to the camouflage station?” You nodded and followed him, the two of you had just passed this station but Peeta had been really invested in it. He got straight to work on camouflaging his arm into a tree, if it wasn’t so infuriating it would be really impressive. Peeta had a lot more strengths than he had let on, and you wondered exactly how much he was sharing with you and Haymitch. You watched as he Peeta continued to blend his arm into different backgrounds, you had stopped trying a while ago, your fingers were too shaky whenever you tried. Your hands had to work with all at once, not deal with hyper precision. Its why you did well with the knots and knifes, it was quick no thought behind it, you could focus on other things.

“You know I used to do the cakes.” Peetas voice snapped you out of overthinking, again.

“The ones in the bakery? Those were always beautiful.” You commented, this seemed to satisfy Peeta enough that he didn’t need to talk any more. He smiled at your recollection of them. You hadn’t actually paid much attention to the cakes but your brothers always wanted to save for them, you thought the money you earned could be used elsewhere. Older sibling privileges won out most of them time, especially since there was no real need for cakes in 12. Few could afford cakes like the ones Peeta made. Anyways, he didn’t need to know how little you knew about him.

As he finally finished and was washing up you looked around the other tributes. They were all getting tired, all of them focusing on the weapons. Ignoring Atalas initial brief, sure everyone touched the fire making but that was about it. Except maybe Rue and Thresh. But that was because Rue followed you to almost every station at first, today she stayed near Thresh for the most part unless he went to one of the big fighting stations then she would hang back and watch or depending on where you and Peeta were she would tag along. Rue made it easier to talk to Peeta, she was shy and for whatever reason Peeta was good at making her smile. Another reason killing Peeta was going to be difficult.

Everyone filed out and you waited until Peeta went into his private quarters before sneaking back downstairs. You wanted to work on what you were going to show the gamemakers. The instructors were all gone and the room was finally empty. It was relaxing being able to practice without everyone around. You decided to pick up the bow and arrow again, you figured if you needed to try and get rid of someone from a distance. You shuddered at the thought of you planning it, these games were unnatural and you had to remember that.

“You’re definitely making improvements 12.”

You couldn’t whip around any faster you came face to face with Marvel again, he had a smirk knowing you’d been caught, and not to mention clearly freaking out. Before you could try and stammer anything out he held up his hand, effectively stopping you. You were furious at yourself for not being able to get it together.

“Relax 12. We know about the extra practice.” We? All of the careers? Why weren’t they in here? He tilted his head when he looked at you, clearly confused. “District 2 gets a little too fight-happy their mentors wont even bring up the practice. I meant me and Glimmer.”

“Don’t need the practice, I’m guessing?”

He looked down for a second, he seemed almost…sad? Did he not think he had a chance to win? All he needed to worry about was Arioch, if he was smart he would get him during the bloodbath, when he was distracted. He might be able to play it off as someone else. He shook it off quickly and out of nowhere his confidence was back.

“I think Glimmer might benefit.” He shrugged, “Don’t you think?”

“I’m not one to judge.” You stopped caring then, tomorrow would be the final day to really train before meeting with the gamemakers and you needed a good score. Besides if the careers knew about you anyway, it wouldn’t matter. You shrugged and grabbed another arrow and shot it at the dummy. You aimed for the head. It was close but not exact, how the hell did Katniss never manage to miss moving targets, you couldn’t even manage the ones that were still. You looked at Marvel who just raised his eyebrows, you desperately wanted to ask him for help but you knew that would get you nowhere. “Are you going to just stand there or are you going to pick something up?”

“I don’t know yet. Seeing you frustrated is pretty entertaining.”

You couldn’t help mocking him. A habit from messing with your siblings. But it did get a small laugh out of him, wouldn’t you know? The competition had a personality outside of the games.

“You want to try the combat station?” It was your turn to laugh

“Yeah right, I got my butt kicked everytime. And we aren’t supposed to fight each other.” You say as you start racking the bow and arrow

He clicked his tongue and threw me one of the sparring sticks. “Technically the rules say not to hurt any of the other contestants.”

Your lips twisted as you took in this information. Would it make that much of a difference in the end? He had already seen you eat the ground with the trainers. You shrugged and followed him up to the mat. It took less than a minute before he had you pinned down.

“Ugh. Get off. I’m going to get my butt handed to me out there.” You said as you dusted yourself off, but made no effort to get up

“Yeah you should really practice that.”

“I hate you.”

“Ooh ouch 12. Don’t be mad at me because you cant handle a fight.”

“You’re how much bigger than me? And you’ve had practice, fuck off.” He chuckled and offered to help you up. You tentatively took his hand and got up. You took this moment to use you leg to trip and get him on his back, “Yeah you’re right I do need practice.” You smiled down at him.

“That’s cheating.”

“Ha!” You jumped off the mat and headed towards the elevator, “Theres no cheating in the hunger games.”

It was almost dinner when you got back to your floor. Thankfully no one was really around to see you come in, you didn’t feel like answering any questions. You focused the rest of the night on tomorrow. This is when it all counted. You knew Haymitch had told you to save your skills from any of the tributes, well that didn’t work. As far as you knew Marvel told the rest of the career pack what you had been doing. You were the first one at the table, again. Haymitch came in next and you couldn’t help but start worrying about what exactly to show the gamemakers. Haymitch assured you that you had nothing to worry about. You had begun planning what to actually do for the gamemakers when Peeta joined you. You felt but you got quiet, you needed to draw some kind of line between the two of you before the games started. You couldn’t let your feelings get in the way, and Peeta was way too nice.

“What are you guys whispering about.”

“Y/ns just nervous about tomorrow, doesn’t know what to do.” Thank God for Haymitch, it was like he knew exactly when not to say too much.

“Why, its not like she doesn’t have an array of weapons to choose from. You should have seen her with the bow and arrow today. Shes amazing.” Dammit Peeta.

Haymitch raised his eyebrow at me, now you had to say something “And that sparring station was…what exactly? I was right from the beginning, if it comes to combat Peeta has a better chance than me. I ended up on the floor everytime.”

“Well, I don’t know if you can fight anyone during the private sessions Peeta but now is when you want to pull all the stops. Everyone will be in the same training uniform tomorrow so don’t worry about making yourself look nice.” This got a chuckle out of both of us, “You two are going to be the last to go so make it count.”

Effie had been listening to the whole conversation, which shocked you because she usually made quite an entrance. “You two are going to do just fine.” You weren’t exactly sure how much of that she believed but Effie was nothing if not polite. Her and Haymitch left to try and get information. Effie wanted to hear who people were leaning towards, as if she didn’t already know and try to sway them to look at us. Haymitch wanted to talk to the other victors, apparently they had somewhere they all gathered to watch the games and do whatever it is they did. You wondered if Cato would be there. He might have been willing to offer some more advice. Guilt hit you the second you had that thought, you didn’t want to use Cato for his advice. You genuinely enjoyed his company, he had just always been willing to help.

You started walking to your room, you had to at least try and get some rest before the private sessions tomorrow. You noticed you were lagging, a part of you wanting to relax on the roof again. You noticed Peeta had stayed in the common area, he looked as if he was trying to sleep himself. In the end you couldn’t help yourself, Peeta had tried his best to be friendly, you may as well do the same.

“Everything okay?” You asked as you sat next to him

“Just thinking about tomorrow I guess.”

“You’ll do fine Peeta, you’ve done really well in the combat stations. Those are important.” The thought of you losing to Marvel flashes through your mind, it was the one thing you probably wanted to improve and just couldn’t seem to get the hang of.

“What about the games? I’m not…I’m not cut out for them. You’re set, all you have to do is get your hands on some rope and you’ll outlive everyone. And if you get a hand on a weapon? You’ll win.”

“I doubt that, I don’t have the practice for it.”

“That’s not entirely true.” He smiled at you, he was right. You’re experience in the woods had given you a huge advantage, and it had allowed you to pick up a lot of new skills. Still, you didn’t dare get your hopes up. You needed to have your guard up.

“Y/n, you ever feel like you want to do something in these games?”

“Just survive honestly.” Peeta chuckled

“I don’t know I just hope that when I die I can still be me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just don’t want the games to change me.”

“How could you not though? Even the victors who didn’t have to kill anyone came out different. People have to die for you to win. How can you not change? I think it’s a package deal.”

“Yeah….maybe.” You weren’t really sure what to say next, in the end the capitol wants to see a good show. You just nodded, you didn’t think he needed to hear that.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Peeta usual cheerfulness seemed feigned at the moment, “Yeah, sleep well. We got a big day ahead of us.” Well now you had to go to your quarters. You tossed and turned most of the night. It seemed like you were about to finally close your eyes when Effie knocked on your door to get you ready. You felt like you were walking through some kind of mud just to get to the breakfast table. Your body sore from training the day prior. As much as you needed the energy you couldn’t seem to eat.

“Come on sweetheart, nows not the time to be losing sleep. You’ll have plenty of time for that in the arena.”

You weren’t sure where it came from but as your head slumped into the crook of your elbow your other hand shot up flipping Haymitch off.

“Y/n!” Effie yelled

“She’ll be fine today.” Haymitch chuckled, at the end of the day Haymitch liked your temper. He threw a roll at your head and your spirits were lifted enough to eat as much as your nerves would allow you, not that it was much but it was something. You and Peeta were mostly silent on the ride down to the training center. Everyone had until lunch. Those few hours were dragging. Besides the careers and a handful of others, the tributes were scrambling to get in any practice that might give them an edge in the private sessions. You were frankly too tired and sore to use any possible energy until it was time. You and Peeta had wasted some time trying to work on identifying different plants. A relatively easy task for you, Peeta not so much. Even Rue came by and giggled at his many wrong attempts, you were lucky Prim really had been willing to talk to you about all the different kinds of plants you could find in 12, it made things much easier to remember.

Lunch was pretty silent, minus the career table talking loudly about how well they were going to do. The warning that the private sessions about to start got everyones attention. The boys were up first. Marvel got called up first, getting some cheers from his table. His demeanor was so different than when it had just been the two of you. Then again, you shouldn’t be too surprised, his alliance took priority. You’d only seen him a handful of times. It only took him around 10 minutes before he was done and headed towards the elevators. You could have swore he looked at you for a second but you’d only just caught his eye as you lifted your head to hear Glimmers name called out. Her session seemed to take longer. Maybe it was just because your eyes were still fighting to stay awake. You decided to rest your head in your arms. Your head shot up as the girl from 10 went in.

“Jesus y/n how late were you up last night?”

“That’s a great question Im not sure I want you to know the answer to.”

Peeta laughed, “Why not?”

“You might tell Haymitch, or worse Effie.” You were only half joking, if they knew you really hadn’t slept all night you’d never hear the end of it. Effie would probably have suggested some kind of Capitol concoction to knock you out. You looked at Thresh and Rue sitting off by themselves, it was just the four of you left. You motioned towards them to Peeta before trying to break the ice again, “Good luck you guys.”

Rue nodded, “You too.” Thresh had the ghost of a smile on his face. But he did a quick nod to you. And just like that he was called up. His session seemed to fly by and you were a nervous wreck, you wished rue luck again but you couldn’t stop shaking your leg in anticipation. Peeta tried to say something to you but you didn’t really hear him.

“What?”

“You’ll do fine.” He repeated, you nodded but your leg didn’t stop. Peeta put his hand on your leg and your attention was drawn away. His steady hand calmed you, if he was just playing a game he was doing a great job. Regardless, you appreciated his kind gesture. You patted his hand when his name was called, “Good luck, and don’t forget what Haymitch said.”

He smiled at you as he went in. It was just you now, you and your thoughts. You hoped your aim wouldn’t fail you. You got called back before you could see Peeta come out. Besides the careers none of the other tributes had come back through, nothing to brag about I guess. Your heart sank to your stomach, the gamemakers couldn’t look less interested. They had been there too long, they were probably ready to go home. No, they were just ready for lunch, some food was being brought in.

You cleared your throat to try and get their attention. “Uhm Y/n L/n. District 12.” Why did that last part sound like a question? One of the gamemakers told you to go ahead.

You decided to grab the arrows, you’d gotten much better at them. You managed to get a bullseye, well not exactly but it was close enough the gamemakers would think so. You got excited and went to grab the knives youd been practicing on your own. You threw them at the surrounding targets, it hit much more accurately. You wanted to do more maybe grab a spear next, it was your best chance at impressing the game makers you had thought but when you smiled and looked up you noticed that only a couple of the gamemakers were actually paying attention. Everyone else was focused on the pig that was being rought in. Your life was on the line and they couldn’t focus on you for another few minutes? Was lunch that important You grabbed another knife instead as you heard one of them wonder how they were going to cut into the pig. They had just finished setting the pig on the table when the knife left your hand. It landed above the apple and in between the pigs eyes. Suddenly all eyes were on you.

“You guys need a knife for that?” You could hear the venom in your voice. “Sorry to disturb your meal.” You spun on your heel and knocked over a stand with a bunch of swords and spears on it on your way out. Hot tears began streaming down your face. You immediately regretted your actions, after all the work you’ve put in. Now you doubted if you’d even make it into the games. You stormed into towards the elevators, you passed District 1&2 hanging around the lobby. Thankfully no one glanced in your direction, the last thing you needed is for them to see you as weak and puffy. You wiped your eyes as you opened the elevator doors, you’d never wished these weren’t made of glass as much as you did now. You smashed the button for the door to close. You could feel a pair of eyes on you but you refused to look up and kept your eyes trained on the floor.

The fresh air that once felt so refreshing and welcoming now felt like a slap to the face. But you felt like you would suffocate if you stayed inside any longer. You found yourself wishing again that you could talk to someone, and your mind flashed to Cato. God, why did he popping up? None of that mattered, you knew Effie and Haymitch were waiting for you but facing them felt worse than facing the hunger games at the moment, they had been trying to rally sponsors for you and Peeta. Now the gamemakers would give you such a low score no one would even look at you. You screamed into your hands, you just messed everything up. As you paced you found yourself knocking down and kicking any flower vases and making a mess. It did help the anger you felt but the guilt doubled when you thought of whatever poor avox might have to clean this up later. You tried, without much success to move all of the broken pottery shards but you started getting worked up again and decided to face Haymitch, it was almost dinner and they would be looking for you.

“Y/n there you are! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Effie wasted no time in fussing over you the second you stepped off the elevator.

“I was just getting some air…” She led you to the table as you mumbled your excuse

Cinna, Portia and the rest of your stylists were waiting for you, great. After the amazing job they did at the tribute parade, it just reminded you how much you had messed up. You could only imagine how puffy your face was, you thought about excusing yourself to go wash up but everyone was waiting on you to talk about the scores. You decided to sit next to Peeta this time

As the adults start their small talk he leans over to whisper to you “You okay?”

You shake your head, no point in hiding. It was clear to anyone you had not had a good day. You keep your eyes trained on the rolls you were nibbling on after that.

As they start serving the main course Haymitch finally asks what you’ve been dreading, “Alright.” He says as he stands up to go to the bar to get some kind of spirit, “How bad was it?”

Peeta goes first quickly saying no paid him any attention and he just threw heavy things until they eventually told him to leave. You avoided looking up at the rest of the team waiting for you to go next

“And you, sweetheart?” Haymitch asked as he began pouring his drink, well theyre going to see your score sooner or later.

“Well.” You tried to make it seem like a smaller deal than it was, it did not work, “The gamemakers said they needed a knife, and I helped them find one.”

Everyone stopped eating. Even Haymitch though his back was turned was still, “And just what do you mean you helped them?” He asked you

You sighed, “Well the pig they had ordered didn’t come with a kinfe and it seemed pretty important so I just…sort of, maybe” your voice dropped to a mumble “threw one at their direction.”

Effie is first to break the silence, “You what???”

“I mean I didn’t throw it at them, I threw at the pig. Since apparently that was more important than me trying my best to get a good score for sponsors.” You could hear the initial annoyance at their actions rising again, “I’m sorry… I just lost it, I was doing really good, or at least I thought I was and they wouldn’t even look at me!”

“Y/n, what did they say?” Cinna asks carefully

“I—I’m not sure. I left after that.”

“You weren’t dismissed?” Effie looks as if she is about to pass out “Haymitch!” She turns to him looking for some help to scold me, I’m sure but Haymitch surprises even me when he just turns around with a smile and his thumb up.

“Well Sweetheart, I know I told you to make an impression but that’s—that’s something.”

“Will they hurt my family for what I did?” You voice must have sounded desperate because Haymitch patted your shoulder before he sat back down

“I wouldn’t worry about that, theyd have to say what happened in there. Its supposed to be a secret, more likely than not they will try and make your life hell in the arena.”

“Isn’t that already the goal?” You asked

Haymitch shrugged, you’re glad he wasn’t upset at you. You had managed to work well to Haymitch and the last thing you wanted was to waste his efforts. He started chuckling to himself, “What did they do when you threw it?”

All eyes were on you again, but everyones curiosity was piqued and you could feel a smirk growing on your face, “Its not supposed to be funny, but some of them were ridiculous. One of the men screamed like a girl and backed into someone else who fell into a punch bowl. The rest of them were mostly shocked.”

Haymitch laughs harder than you’ve ever seen. The others are laughing into themselves, even Effie who is trying hard to not look at the table to hide her smile, “It serves them right. Their job is to pay attention to you and give you a decent score.” Her eyes grow wide and darts to the other capitol members at the table who thankfully for Effie nodded in agreement, still she said “I’m sorry but that’s how I think.” You remember how even out on the roof where the wind would pick up Cato was wary of saying anything. It shouldn’t surprise you that the capitol was always listening, the scary part was how scared a small opinion could make someone like Effie and more so a career like Cato. You wondered how they would feel about all the things you had to say. You tried to distract her by bringing the conversation back to your score

“I’m not going to get anything higher than a 1.”

Portia, Peetas stylist speaks up “Oh scores only matter if they’re really good. If anything it could be a strategy to do poorly. Some people have done that. And from what Haymitch has said that’s what the other tributes will think.” She reaches across the table to squeeze your hand.

“Well why don’t we go to the living room? The scores will be getting televised soon!” Octavia clapped her hands together and began getting up. Regardless of what you would get, you were at least more relaxed about the outcome. Effie and Haymitch could spin something up about your low score if it came to it. Peeta is worried about his score thinking he will only get a four after just throwing around obe of the bigger weights around. At least you would be in this together.

The capitol insignia flies across the screen, tonight everyone in every district will see the chances of all of their loved ones on live television. Today your family would see how you would fare against some of the careers. Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith begin excitedly talking about the games and how exciting it will be to see the scores we turn out. It irritated you, how this was seen so casually as nothing more than a game to these people. Your life was on the line and they were talking as if this was another news day.

The careers scores all range from the eight to ten range. Not surprising. The rest of the tributes range across the boards. A few of the stick out, the girl from 5, Hana you think, getting a 2. The boy from 10 got a 9, interesting you thought, He had mostly kept to himself. Rue getting a 7, that was impressive, you tried to not be too happy for her, especially not in front of your team. Thresh pulled out a 10 as well also, not surprising. Finally, its Districts 12’s turn. Peeta’s face comes up on the screen. Everyone is silent before an 8 flashes across his face. Everyones starts congratulating him while your name and picture pops up on the screen, it was interesting seeing yourself. You looked so…serious? Initmidating? You weren’t quite sure. You braced yourself as the team began shushing and getting quiet to hear your score. Then after 5 excruciatingly long seconds you see the eleven pop up on your screen.

Wait. An Eleven??

Effie’s squeal breaks the silence suddenly everyone is congratulating you. The highest score out of all the tributes. Theres no way. You look at Haymitch as he claps your shoulder,

“They must have liked your attitude. This is a show after all, they need some players that will make the games interesting.”

“The girl on fire,” Cinna says as he gives you a hug, “Just wait until you see the dress we have planned for tomorrow.”

“More pretend fire?”

“You’ll see.” Cinna was entirely too excited for tomorrow. And whatever he had planned was going to make a statement. His mischievous smile told you everything you needed to know.

When the adults stepped to the side you and Peeta were left facing eachother, your smile fading when you saw his expression but before you could ask anything he spoke “Congrats y/n.”

After that he turned and left. You weren’t even able to congratulate him back. Was he upset you got a higher score than him? That wasn’t your fault? Not entirely anyways. You weren’t going to let this ruin your night, you had just gotten an 11. You could worry about Peeta another time. You retired to your quarters, finally cleaning yourself off. The tantrum you had thrown earlier had worn you out, but you were determined to go to bed refreshed. Refreshed and ready. Now you could just wake up and start training for the interviews. Since you had volunteered this was the first and last night (you assumed) of decent sleep you would get for awhile.

You woke up feeling very refreshed the next day, you let your hair stay down since Cinna and the stylists would be in charge of it later. By the time Effie knocked on your door to tell you it was going to be ‘a big big day.’ You were out ready to step out and ended up being the first one at the breakfast table. You thought briefly about you would be doing back home, but besides setting up traps for the week with your brother there wasn’t much else to Sundays. Peeta and Effie joined you next. Peeta still seemed annoyed. You hoped he wouldn’t let it affect training. Haymitch barely had a minute to sit down before Peeta decided to clear his throat to speak up.

“I think its time me and y/n trained separately.”

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Cato’s POV

You were starting to get a headache. Arioch had been moaning non stop since last night. More like screaming and throwing a fit but now it had come down to moaning, both him and Clove were being insufferable. Everyone but you and Enobaria had stopped watching after District 4’s training scores. The year before you would have done the same, but you were interested in how the other tributes had done. Well, more like you wanted to see how District 12 had done You weren’t sure when you got so invested in their training. Especially y/ns, you had found yourself wondering how she was doing in training more often than not. You couldn’t really understand it. But you’d paid attention to whatever Arioch and Clove would debrief after practice. Apparently after egging her on she’d shown she was pretty adept at the bow and arrow. Which was interesting as she had never mentioned that, then again she had been careful not to reveal too much to you. It must have been pretty good if Arioch had said she had potential, he didn’t even talk that way about his own allies.

You saw the boy from 12 come up first, not bad with an eight. The competition was actually decently impressive, not that Arioch would know he wasn’t paying attention. Apparently y/n had endeared to Enobaria because she began shushing everyone when y/n’s picture came up on the screen. Thankfully everyone got quiet enough just as her score was passing through. While you usually kept a straight face even you couldn’t help your shock and Enobaria was now trying to cover her surprise as well covering her mouth with her hands.

That was the start of Arioch’s temper tantrum. Not only had y/n done well but she had the best score. Arioch crushed the glass he had in his hand and a slew of curse words came out of his mouth. While everyone tried to clean and calm him down you once again retreated to the roof, half hoping to see y/n there to congratulate her. What you found was a mess. The flower pots that decorated the roof were thrown and shattered all over the floor. Something had not gone well today.

Worse than that you felt anxious to see how y/n would do after that score. While it may have gotten her some sponsors, it also painted a huge target on her back. Not any more than the parade but now they knew she was a force to be reckoned with. The mentors were all about interviews tonight. Arioch as annoying as he was put on a good show. As he should because if anyone from the capitol saw he behaved he’d never get any sponsors, even his fake persona was boring the only thing he had in his favor was that he came from District 2. Clove was the same, but in a different way while Arioch tried to make himself look like a decent person Clove was determined to have everyone see her as vicious and some to be afraid of. You’d seen the other female tributes she didn’t have much to worry about.

The whole day was prepping your tributes on how to answer Caesars questions. Its mind numbingly boring. You found yourself tapping your leg as you counted down the minutes for the interviews to actually start. The mentors and stylists were lining up the tributes. Well, depending on how many mentors on a few of you actually got to go and do last touchups. You hung around with your babysitters just to see the ridiculous get ups they had put the tributes in. You had to look away from Rue when you had a flashback to your games. She was too young. District 12 came in matching again. Not exactly but they complimented eachother well, they were still going at this like partners. At least thats what their mentors were doing. For whatever reason you couldnt keep your eyes off of y/n her red dress complimented her tan skin beautifully. As the tributes walked past all of the mentors to stand in line she caught your eye and smiled at you. You werent sure how you felt about that.

Once Glimmer was called up the mentors all sat around a screen behind the stage. You sat next to Haymitch wondering if you could get something out of him.

“Looks like 12 has a chance this year.”

“Hmph. We’ll see how tonight goes first.”

“No chance on me knowing what she did to get that 11?”

“To be honest kid, we don’t know what she did to get that 11.”

You turned your eyes back to the screen.

As the tributes each hyped themselves up Haymitch began to try and get information out of you, “Where’d the sudden interest for our district come from?”

You shrugged, “I’d be interested to know about anyone who managed to score an 11 around here.”

The interviews were the same as always quick 3 minutes. One of the few visitors from District 11 came to steal Haymitch for a drink when their district came up. Rue interview was finishing as she asked everyone to not count her out, you thought about her score as well. A seven, not bad for someone so small, better than a lot of the older ones even, you wondered how she would have fared had she joined the games later. The guy from 11 was quiet refusing to answer anything Caesar asked, then it was y/ns turn.

She was quick to get up and greet Caesar.

“So, Y/n , the Capitol must be quite a change from District Twelve. What’s impressed you most since you arrived here?” Caesar started easy with his question

“Oh the food easily.” This got a laugh out of Caesar and the Audience, “Can I tell you a secret though?”

“Of course you can!”

“I can’t stand your shoes, I barely made it up here and Cinna wants me to show you guys something but I’m pretty sure I’ll fall over.”

Caesar began laughing agreeing that they probably don’t have the events for those kinds of shoes in 12 . This seemed to set her off but she played it off by saying how she was determined not to fall. She stood up and she began to spin around, flames began engulfing her. You wondered if she had actually talked to Cinna about this, regardless the crowd was losing their minds. You could feel yourself struggling to swallow.

Caesar begged her to keep going but she really did seem dizzy, stating she should have removed the shoes after all. The capitol was eating her up. Had she not had such an impressive outfit with the tribute parade most of them would have fallen asleep by now, everyone would remember the ‘girl on fire.’

Caesar finished the interview with a more hard hitting question. Saying how touched he was to see her volunteer for that family. You felt Haymitch stiffen. They had practices this question.

“Well, both of our fathers were in this really bad mining accident and mine well—we were lucky he was able to make it out but the little girl, Prim, her and her sister lost their father. Her older sister and I are the same age and our families are so close I don’t know what she would do if she lost her sister. But to be perfectly honest, a part of me had been wanting to do this for my own family. My dad was still injured and we have counted on the extra tesserae from to get by a lot. If I won maybe my family could finally relax for awhile, I’d always been to scared to volunteer but when Prim was called and Katniss was screaming for her. It just felt like the right time, and it was my last chance to do something different with my life.”

The best lies always had some kind of truth to them. This. This was a good lie. You looked at Haymitch exhaling in relief before taking another shot of something. A lot of the crowd was tearing up. If the tributes didn’t think she would get sponsors before, they would now. She was already a threat in the game but now she could be unstoppable. You wondered what weapon she had impressed the game makers with again. Then you wondered why you seemed to take such an interest in her success or lack thereof in the games.

Caesar said a few more words to finish up her time and she exited the stage. Haymitch clapped his hands on his lap.

“Well that’s my cue.” Haymitch left to go greet her, maybe lead her to the waiting area with the rest of the tributes, or probably watch the last interview in their own rooms. Some of the other mentors from 2 stayed behind but most of them had gone to watch Arioch and Cloves cameras from the floor. You looked at Enobaria and she nodded for you to follow her. Usually you’d be annoyed at being told what to do but what else was there to do but wait for everyone to finish.

Most of the mentors were talking, you saw your other babysitter sitting on the couch and having a drink. The interview still playing, you sat down next to him.

“How’s he doing?” You asked

Brutus shrugged, “he hasn’t really been asked enough for me to tell.”

You came to find out it was because Caesar was waiting until the end to ask the best question. Baiting him to talk about someone he was interested in so Caesar could encourage him to win. Peers began talking about how he was pretty sure the girls weren’t interested.

“She have another fellow?” Caesar may have asked this to get him talking but one thing that tied the capitol people together was gossip.

“I don’t know, but there’s alot of guys interested in her.” The camera panned to the crowd many of them holding their hands over their hearts. District 12 was giving them a show. Caesar encouraged Peeta to win. Suddenly you heard a shush from your left. Brutus got invested when the poor guy said winning wouldn’t help his case. Enobaria stood behind you and Brutus as Caesar asked for more elaboration.

“Why ever not?” It was a good question, winning anyone desirable in your own districts. Realization hit you a second before Peeta answered one of his final questions. You could feel the rest of the mentors crowd the viewing area behind you.

“Well Caesar…she—she came her with me.”

It was safe to say it was a pretty collective shock. Most everyone’s mouths dropped. Both in that viewing room and in the crowd. Gasps filled the air. The camera panned over to y/n, who seemingly was just as shocked as everyone else. Her face was stunned and she quickly buried it into her hands, the camera panned back but you wouldn’t be surprised if she stayed like that the rest of the interview session. Caesar pitied him and gave even more praise to y/n, saying it would be hard to not fall for her. A part of you was agreeing.

Peeta wasn’t done working the crowds yet, “I wouldn’t be surprised if has even caught some other tributes attention.”

“You think so?” Caesar prodded, Peeta just shrugged. Caesar began to say what a shame they couldn’t bring y/n back up. Peeta finished shortly after, with Caesar wishing the best of luck and the crowd roaring with approval. You tried to see y/ns face as they had to stand for the captions anthem, her face had turned from a pretty obvious red to stone. Her eyes never left the floor and she walked so fast when they were told to leave it was almost a run.

Arioch was unsurprisingly throwing a fit when we got in the room. More broken glass everywhere, Jesus the mess he left in every room was absolute destruction. You wondered if any avoxes got in trouble for his whining.

“God. Shes SO annoying.” He screamed as a glass flew by your head. This guy. He was going to cause you to blackout one day and then everyone will be having issues. You had to leave on several occasions and twice this week Brutus had to sedate you when you tried to shut him up yourself.

“Seeing her spin makes me sick. Who does she think she is?” Clove added her arms crossed, “she’s an embarrassment to the games.”

“And then lover boy pulls that card??? Argh!” He grabs another glass from the table to throw against the wall.

You nudged Enobaria and she just nodded and let you leave. You slipped into your quarters until his screaming died down almost an hour later. Probably resting or trying to rest for the games tomorrow. Finally, the week was of feigning admiration for the games was over. The tributes weren’t the only ones with interviews. Most of the mentors were asked how they felt about the competition this year. Especially as last years victor you’ve had to pretend to feel as if everyone had a chance at least in front of the reporters. You made sure to remain impartial but say that you were confident in your district. You don’t know how Finnick wasn’t exhausted by it all and it was only your first year. You had hoped to avoid after last years incident but the capitol somehow buried or maybe purposefully forgot the news of you almost killing a civilian within your first few months back. You weren’t looking forward to the crowning ceremony. Having to pretend the winner would be living a fine and dandy life.

You decided to go to the rooftop, needing to calm yourself down. Again. Another part of you was hopeful, for what you weren’t that sure of. You felt something lift in you when you saw y/n laying across the bench again. Her arms were covering her face, you hope she wasn’t planning on doing that in the games.

“You know if you sleep like that in the games you’ll never make it.”

“Sleep sounds nice. But if they walk like you then I’ll be able to hear them from a mile away.” She slowly sat up and smiled at you. You sat down next to her.

“That was definitely one of the more interesting interviews.” You said as you sat down next to her

She rolled her eyes, and buried her head in her hands “It was a disaster.”

“You’ve gotten the attention of the capitol that’s a good thing.”

“Ha!” She flipped her hair back up, “the capitol and every tribute out there. I’m going to be the first one everyone tries to get rid of.”

You paused as you thought about it. If anyone felt close to what Arioch was screaming it certainly did paint a target on her, then again… “didn’t you get an 11?”

“That was a mistake. I shouldn’t have gotten that, but I was hoping I would be able to play it off and have people forget about it after the interviews.”

“I mean you kinda did, or Peeta did anyway.” The name set off a groan as she repeated her earlier action but this time she let herself fall accidentally leaning her head on your arm. Your body didn’t hide the shock well, you stiffened immediately

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to do that.” Y/n straightened up.

“It’s fine.” You chuckled, it wasn’t. But you were a good liar. What you didn’t like was that your brain was having issues forming any thoughts that made sense. “So, you wanna tell me what got you that eleven?”

She couldn’t help the grin that grew on her face, even as she looked away to hide it it was clear that she had done something she was not supposed to.

“All I can say is your…uhm throwing lessons helped me out.” The knife thing? What exactly had she done to be more impressive than clove? She saw you trying to figure it out, “You can ask Haymitch once I’m out of the games.”

“You could win.”

“Not likely now that everyone assumes me and Peeta are going to be working together.”

“Weren’t you guys going to do that anyway? Isn’t that you guys were always together?”

“No! He even asked to not train with me after the private sessions. And I wasn’t planning on working with him at all. Why get attached when only one person makes it out?”

Made sense I guess, “and the whole ally thing?”

“I mean you all go in knowing it won’t last, but Peetas stupid lie messed that up.”

“There’s no way he’s lying.”

“Yes he was, we talked about who he liked while we were training together. He said he knew I was the only one who was going to get sponsors and he needed attention on him. Haymitch said it was a good thing because it made ‘desirable’ but I don’t want to worry about pretending I have feelings for him. I mean—“ her eyes widened “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I was just talking your ear off. You’re really easy to talk to.”

“You’re probably the only person who thinks that.” She just shrugged. You knew she would have to go back soon. Probably at least try to get some sleep. Unfortunately you felt the same about her, she was one of the only people you actually wanted to talk to. “Did you see the damage that happened out here the other day? Someone made a mess out of Al the stuff up here.”

You knew it had been her but you still wanted to see how much she was willing to say, “don’t remind me. I felt so bad i was trying to clean up and I think I made it worse. That was after the gamemaker sessions.”

“You thought it went that bad?”

“They weren’t even looking at me. You guys are lucky going early, but I was the last one. Almost all of them were looking at the lunch that had just been brought in.”

You never knew the other districts had that kind of disadvantage. You assumed the game makers took turns or something. I guess you never even really cared beforehand. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

“Still if that had happened during my session…I don’t know what id do.” You paused because you knew exactly what you would have done. You would have thrown a fit worthy enough to match Ariochs.

“Yeah it’s not great. But somehow I guess I got their attention.” You could she was hesitant.

“Nervous?”

“Terrified.” She said as she looked up at the stars. “Anyway enough about me, what about you? Still can’t sleep?”

“Hard to sleep when all I hear is Arioch complaining.”

“He is very…determined.”

A laugh escaped you, “yeah I guess you could call it that.”

You met her eyes, you could see she knew there was more to it. Maybe she didn’t want to know the actual answer but she didn’t push. The fireworks had been going off but you didn’t notice it until the last one illuminated the sky signaling everyone to go home.

She sighed, you both knew it was time to get up. Still, neither of you loved for a moment. “We should probably try and get some sleep huh?”

“You? Definitely.” She chuckled at your response. You intended to get up and start heading to the elevators but you stood up too quickly almost knocking y/n over . You grabbed her arms before she fell over the bench. She gripped on to the side of your shirt sleeve to try and catch herself. You pulled her back way too hard. It couldn’t have been more than a couple seconds but you stood her up to close to you. Her face face looked up at your and was inches away. You both noticed you were still holding eachother at the same time. She released your sleeve and patted your arm.

“Sorry. I wasn’t trying to—“

“It’s okay.” She smiled as she took a step back “probably should have waited to stand up.”

You could feel your cheeks burn. Probably bright red. You assumed at your mistake. You weren’t usually so careless with your actions. You could feel your heart running in your ears.

“You coming?” She said as she pressed button on the elevator. You just nodded and got in with her. Her floor almost immediately stopping, she slightly bowed her head and smiled again as she got out. You wish you could have answered those interviews honestly. If you could get on a tribute it would be her. You thought about telling her that. The doors would start to close soon,

“Hey 12.” She turned around immediately, the doors coming to a close “I hope you can make it back.”

Her eyes seemed sad, it was clear she thought her chances really were next to zero. Still she offered one last smile, “me too.”

Taglist: @chloe-skywalker

#Hunger Games #The Hunger Games #hunger games cato #hunger games imagine #hunger games cato imagine #cato x reader

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yonemurishiroku · 2 years

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I would love more of ur "If Nico dies" headcanon plz :3

You have come to the right place. Buckle up, buddy, ‘cause we’re going for a longggggg ride.

I have like, a bunch, a dozen, a lot of ideas about Nico passing away, and I might not have a coherent way to organize them all, so you might have to bear with my millacenous thoughts, then, just a head-up!

Why I love “If Nico dies” that much

Hades breaking rules of death for Nico because I’m nothing if a sucker for parental love, really.

A list of post about psychopomp Nico. Basically Nico nearly died only for Hades to make him an immortal psychopomp. Now he collects souls, travels the world and haunts people.

My most obsessing fantasy is the shadows blossoms and reaches out to Nico. Just. A blob of darkness suddenly covers the sky and he dazedly looks at it. Something’s calling for him from the dark. Nico extends a hand. The first fingertip touches the lingering darkness and he’s. just. gone. The shadows hug him tight, embracing him in an eternal slumber. Cold. Numb. No feeling, no pain, no suffering.

If Nico manages to die of old age like a normal person, Thanatos will greet Nico with a smile, “Your father is waiting, young Lord” and Nico would walk through the door of the palace with a glowing laurel wreath like a prince he is.

Hades sets up a whole coronation ceremony LMAO. Jk, he probably did it when Nico became the official Ambassador of Hades.

Makaria cheering “Baby brother!!!” while peppering kisses all over Nico’s face. She kinda takes permanent residence of Nico’s house in the Elysium and complains in their weekly afternoon tea parties that Nico spends too much time in their father’s palace.

Melinoe can legitimately bullies Nico now. So he makes a point of avoiding her and sticking close to Makaria everytime they have family dinner.

Nico’s near death trying to save Bob, and Zagreus tears down the Tartarus coming to his brother’s aid.

Bob’s happy because Nico stays in the Underworld much more frequent now. And they play Mythomagic together, yay!!!

When Nico dies, his power goes haywire. The shadows want to pull everything into demise to accompany their master. I have talked about this once but I lost that post so... ehehe ig??...

That post about Tartarus corrupting Nico and he begs Jason to kill him.

The most possible way, tho, would be him fading into the shadows due to over-exertion after transporting the Athena Pathenos. I had another post about this specific outcome. And ohhhh this is a painful ride.

Well technically Nico has and is still suffering from a lot of physical burdens, I honestly can’t fathom how tf he manages to stay alive but i glad he did. So now I’m fantasying he doesn’t.

This death of Nico would be tragic and glorious, yall, because it’s a sacrifice. Even though it’s not in the prophecy, huh.

It would be after the battle has died down, and Nico looks up at the clear sky sparkled with Imperial Gold, the ringing of Octavian’s death resounding sound and clear through his bones, drowning every other sound. He feels lightheaded. Someone is screaming. He can’t quite hear it. The sky turns grey. His vision turns monochromic. He feels sleepy.

He doesn’t feel anything when he falls to the ground. All of his senses are plunged into slumber.

And his body and soul dissolve into nothingness.

Hades would be the first one to come to his side - because he is the one who can feel Nico’s life force fade away the clearest. But there’s nothing stopping death, as the god can only manage to grab his son’s hand before the boy’s eyes close and the grass under them withers away just as fast as his body’s disappearing.

The next one is Hazel - sprinting and dropping down her knees on the ground at the other side, blood and tears on her face, a broken voice calling her brother’s name. She pays no mind to her father, instead grabbing Nico’s hands. But her hands go right through him. As if waving through a fog. Hazel watches it ripple and turn transparent. She can’t touch him. She cries harder. Black diamonds and onyx stones pop up around them, building up until it suddenly looks like a gemmed tomb.

Reyna appears next to Hazel. She understands right away what’s happening, but she can’t help panicking at the realization that Nico is truly disappearing for good. Her hands instinctively go to touch him, but they, too, can only feel thin air. Only Hades can touch Nico now.

Hazel is screaming at Hades, now. Rules be damned. She begs him to do something. Because Nico is dying. Because Nico shouldn’t be dying, that after all of this he just can’t be dying like this i can’t lose him too you’re the god of dead please please——

But all of those fall in deaf ears as Hades just blankly gazes at his son’s lifeless face, the lips now nearly grey, the dark circles under Nico’s shut eyes, the black hair slowly dissolving into nothingness. His two big hands clutch the smaller hand, wrapping them whole as if the god is, too, begging for Nico to wake up.

He can feel his son’s soul crumbling. He can’t feel Thanatos coming to reap it. And Hades, for once in his life, fears that he wouldn’t be able to see his son after all those years of having him running around in his kingdom.

The circle of dead grass keeps widening as shadows stretch out - from Nico or Hades, no one can tell - but Jason and Percy can feel the weight, sorrows and sadness, pure grief and pain, suffocating them the moment they step in the clearing. And they fail to take another step when their eyes catch the image of one unmoving body in Hades’ arms. Percy falls to his knees, digging his nails in the dirt as a silent scream tears his lungs apart. Jason watches the scene, hands balled into fists at his sides. And he wonders, what kind of evil game are the Fates playing on Nico di Angelo to give him such devastating ending?

Gosh this is so hard to write because i keep crying arghhhh.

Anyway, on to the aftermath.

- Nico’s body was gone. They have nothing to burn. Until Persephone and Hades appears with a black shroud and Nico’s stygian sword. Hestia lights the flame. The gods stay to watch, and Percy stands next to them until it burns out completely.

- Hestia comes to Underworld on Nico’s death day to share Hades’ grief.

- There’s a pomegranate tree next to the Hades cabin the following day after Nico’s funeral. Huge and lively, green leaves glinting in the morning dew and big red fruits forever fresh hiding in the foliage. It surrounds the wooden cabin, hugging it, magically alive as if a late wish to the lost boy. Forever waiting.

- Hades’ grief shakes the earth. His darkness cloaks New York City in nightfall for three weeks. Mortals wonder if the apocalypse’s coming. Apollo’s sun chariot barely makes a small night lamp. The gods want to tell Hades off, but the Underworld has been shut down from all entrance and Persephone knows that even Hades isn’t in a clear enough mind to control his powers.

I have so much for a grieving Hades but it’s kinda messy so we’ll just have to settle for this ^^^^ and the previous post I mentioned.

- Hazel. Gods, Hazel. She loses her only maternal relative. The one who pulled her away from the timelessness of Asphodel. The one who, technically, gave her a new life. Who loves her unconditionally and always places her on top of everything else. She’s alone. In a new world. Her father cannot acknowledge her existence lest she dies again.

If anyone, who grieves the most would definitely be Hazel. A pure family love.

She draws him every time she misses him, and all the walls in her room are stuffed with drawings of Nico. She puts some in the Pluto shrine, too, only for them to disappear the next day, taken by Hades, sometimes replaced by little gifts.

Hazel imagines they grow up together, a normal pair of brother and sister in the 21st century. She talks to those drawings. She tells Nico on the canvas about how she’s doing, what she learns about the new life, how Frank is treating her and Nico doesn’t have to worry. She asks herself “What would Nico do?” every time she feels troubled.

She wears his ring (Hades took it before it was gone with the body) on a necklace - because she can’t stand to retelling his story every time someone ask about such mismatching ring when she wears it next to her wedding band. She tells her children about their uncle, tho, little by little. About how he brought her back to life and gave her a new future. About how brave he was to give this world a future, too, and by extension, her children’s lives.

She tells them that the ghosts aren’t necessarily hostile, and the darkness isn’t that scary - because they befriended their uncle Nico, who was so full of love it hurts.

- Jason would be devastated because he lost two of his friends at the same time: Leo and Nico. One is his best friend, the other is one he feels responsible for as he inadvertently knew of his deepest secrets. Jason was made a leader. His hero-complex would definitely makes all deaths heavy on himself and if he starts doubting the gods then it’s his problem.

And Leo returns 5 months later, whereas Nico never shows up again.

Jason finds out that some of the minor gods actually know Nico, so he makes a habit of asking them about the boy and manages to collect a bunch of stories to tell Hazel and her children every time he swings by. He helps Frank cheer up Hazel when Nico’s death day comes every year.

He meets Hades during his journey through the Underworld, and he sees the same pain reflecting in the god’s eyes when he grits his teeth, ready to smite him with a spiteful “Why did he have to die only for you children of my brothers to be praised as heroes?!!”.

He was saved by Persephone who interjects with a firm “Nico wouldn’t want this”. Jason stays for a while, though, to tell Hades about what he learnt of an amazing Nico di Angelo. The god listens silently. His face’s tired and somber.

- Reyna praises Nico with all her heart. He’s forever a soldier in her heart. She calls him her brother because that’s who he is to her. She just gained a new family member and loses him in one journey oh gods. Does she blame herself? If only she could lend him more of her strength? But she knows Nico wouldn’t want that.

The Ambassador room that Nico used is kept in pristine condition because Reyna, even when it’s groundless and stupid, still holds a thin hope that Nico would one day appear in front of her, swaying sleepily and waving goodbye again. She builds a corner for him in the Pluto shrine: his Stygian sword displayed in the middle of all kinds of glowing jewelries, some of Hazel’s drawings tucked in between. Reyna goes there when she needs to think, sometimes sharing McDonald’s with Hazel and/ or Jason.

She calls his name when she has a panic attack over her father’s ghosts. It works, as if Nico’s still protecting him even from the nothingness.

Her Hunter of Artemis accessory has a small bone put into it. What kind? I have no idea but I like the concept so yall will have to get on with it.

- Percy. Hello guilts my old friend, i have come to talk with you again. Jeez I have no idea how Percy’s gonna cope with Nico’s death. He would probably blame himself. A lot. Like really. Everyone has regrets when it comes to one Nico di Angelo. That’s how his tragedies affect and haunt people, Percy is, without a doubt, the most severe.

He helps rearrange the funeral for Nico. It’s hard, because it was normally Nico who does this kind of thing. He only manages with the help of Annabeth. Percy has so much to say to Nico, yet he asks Hazel to do the speech because he doesn’t think he’s can utter anything about the child whose life has gone downhill partly of him.

He talks to Hestia more often.

He thinks he sees Nico’s ghost sometimes. That can’t be right though, because Hades once cursed at him, pain in his voice that Nico was forever gone from every corner of this earth.

Percy visits Hazel a lot, maybe he thinks that he can at least take care of Nico’s sister after disappointing his other sister and, unintentionally, contributing to his misery life. He finds Nico’s mythomagic cards and gives them to Hazel. Percy tells her about the young Nico. About how Nico had gone through so much because of him. About how despite all of those Nico still saved him countless times.

And he sits there, in the small living room, repeating sorrys over and over again whenever Hazel’s grief causes her to bite out a hateful blame.

I think this is probably it? I would probably come up with something sooner or later, but oh well I think this is enough for one post.

Immensely, sincerely, genuinely THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK. Oh gods you have NO idea how thrilled I was when I saw this ask!!! 😭😭😭🥹🥹🥹 Lots and lots of love to you, dear!! I’d definitely write at least one of these ^^^, and when I do I’d hit you up!

Luv ya 💕💕💕

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