michelangelo "mikey" stront | D6 | FIN

it had been years since the lab explosion in the university building. he was on campus but in another part. he still felt the world shake as the building had come down.

it took years for him to shed off the fact that he was related to the person that caused it.

no one really thinks about what his family had gone through that day as well. holding them accountable for an accident that no one could predict was far out of mikey's understanding. the world was cruel in that sense, but mikey was already an adult by then.

some days he missed being a teenager.

---

his parents never really understood why he never took to science like they did. being in district six, the main commodity was medicine and medical studies, but mikey did not really understand the fascination with that. they always said that he was born on the wrong phase of the moon. whatever that meant.

mikey was just always a little more creative than. the rest of the family.

that creative side took him to weird places, ones that involved people who also did not subscribe to the ideal that learning about medicine and science was all there was to do in six. however, mikey, being young and introverted, didnt really understand most of the highbrow art that people claimed was "so fulfilling". he only understood that he liked looking at art and thinking past the picture. he didnt meet many people that shared his passion, most of them too busy trying to be the next great panem scientist to discover some sort of cure.

to mikey, there was no cure to a singular mind.

---

his brother was probably the only one who understood this about mikey. while he did excel at science and followed in the footsteps of his parents, he did not let them diminish mikey's passion for anything but medicine. if there was someone that was going to fight for him, it would be his brother.

they spent too much time goofing off at the library from time to time, always being hushed at by the librarian whenever they were a peep over a decibel of noise. most of the time it was his brother asking mikey what he thought about the paintings in books they would randomly pick out. none of them were provocative in mikey's mind, but he was still young. they would look at each other for moments, waiting for something serious to come out of each others mouth, but the only thing that would follow would be laughter.

even after reaping age, mikey's brother working in laboratories, and mikey working on getting an arts curriculum added to the university requirements, they still found moments to spend time in the library for a good laugh.

---

mikey didnt want to go to the funeral. however, he was probably one of the only people that showed up. he felt obligated to be there for his wife after all. her young children all standing there, wondering why their father would never come home. they spent years as pariahs in the district, and mikey and his parents felt obligated to make sure that they were taken care of until it all passed.

the only good thing about the explosion in the college was that it showed kids the dangers of studying science and medicine. his classes went from nearly empty to increasingly full.

all of the sudden, everyone wanted to be future philosophers.

---

mikey though was no stranger to weeding out the boys and girls that thought they could change the way the world is thought about. sure, the children he taught at the college were all bright eye and ready to change the world, but he was always going to be a realist. there were many days were he simply would burst the ballon of anyone's balloon that got far too big.

he was scared of getting attached to people, that was the crux of it. losing someone that he was so close with, his own brother, was enough to horrify him. he sought help, but his trauma was not something that could just be whisked away. it was deep rooted in the fact that he was never able to say goodbye to his brother.

so thats how he treated his students for a long time.

---

the college was rebuilt and after years of having full classes, everything seemed to go back to normal. the philosophy classes had started to dwindle in enrollment and the children took an interest in medicine and science again. his brother was forgotten about eventually. people could only hold onto grudges for so long.

at least, that is what he had thought.

when his nieces and nephews had started to enroll into the college, his protective nature had intensified. he watched over them closely, mostly because he was worried that people would remember what happened all those years ago. the lives lost, the pain caused by a mistake. all of it was enough for mikey to obsess.

but that didnt happen. they all flourished in their own ways, but caesi had a particular proclivity to science. she was just like his brother. the faculty had all made a stink, saying that she shouldnt be anywhere near a chemistry lab, but mikey knew that wasnt the way to handle it.

she was not her father.

and so conversations happened, and trust was built in rooms where no one could see eye to eye. mikey made it very clear that this was a place of learning, but also, now they can make it a place of healing for everyone. the explosion happened, but they rebuilt. that was in the past now.

he got to protect them again.

---

years past and he thought everything was going to be normal. right up until he heard that one of his brothers children was reaped. lithe, the quietest of the bunch.

he and his family had survived all those years without ever being pulled into the games. that all changed, and never treated anything like it was more important that supporting his brothers family. maybe it helped that he never had a family of his own, no one wanted to date someone that was too far deep into the world of hypotheticals anywhere. mikey still was trying to figure out his own life, the confusing and somewhat overbearing fact that he was never going to keep anyone safe.

panem did not care.

the capitol did not care.

---

lithe did not survive, in fact, he died rather quickly. it was horrifying to hear, but at least mikey could hope it was as painless as possible. lithe's siblings were inconsolable as well as his mother, but mikey simply offered a shoulder to cry on. it was all he could do. nothing made sense at this point, for any of them.

he just hoped the day would never come where another one of them would have to go into the games.

---

even as the years pass, he sat in the chair of his classroom, kids started to file in one by one. everyone one of them seemed to have bright dispositions, and this was the first year he had a full class in a long time. he had heard the some of the district officials might be coming around to visit some of the classes, so mikey did have to be on his a game that day.

as the kids all sat in their desks, mikey stood up and moved to the board, writing the subject on the board along with his name. right before he started speaking, his door creaked open and in popped a face that he had seen before. the mayor of six. parson cham.

he welcomed into the classroom, told him he could sit in the back and he smiled.

he finally felt like things were finally going to go back to normal.