i can't pretend | {romily/mackenzie}

^{M A C K E N Z I E}

bedding with me, you see at night
your heart wears knight's armor
h u n g e r   o f   t h e   p i n e
sleeplessly embracing

"Please don't kill the legacy," Mackenzie watched from the edge of his seat, Arlo's full lips pressed into a thin line on screen as he aimed to throw his knife. The drama that came with something like that was worse than killing a career these days- when Torian killed Larissa last year it'd cost him nearly all his Capitol favor. Officially, his odds sky-rocketed, but behind the scenes, Mackenzie was literally begging sponsors not to withdraw in the hours leading up to the finale. Not that it ended up mattering- that weird-ass arena had warped practically every shipment Mackenzie ordered for the kid. Or maybe the title cards were just purposefully overly-simplified: It said 'Bag of Peanuts' when he ordered it, not 'Bag of Peanuts Who Gossip If You Listen Closely.'

Arlo's knife landed squarely in the boy from 2 with a haunting thud, and then the boy's portrait faded to gray on the bottom of the screen. The legacy ran in the opposite direction and the fight came to an end. Sickly, Mackenzie found himself exhaling in relief. Arlo lived, and he killed a career. That was marketable. Now, if he and Torian could just get Vin to leave that obvious loose cannon from 12, they'd be set up just about as nicely as they could be heading into the top eight.

The screen switched to the face of Caesar Flickerman, who chose to bathe himself in the brightest shade of lime green Mackenzie had ever seen for the occasion, where he began droning on about the fallen tribute- Siberite. From what Mackenzie had seen of the kid, he was a nice little mold of exactly what you'd expect a tribute from Two to be. Heartless, cunning, arrogant. Peculiarly stern and absolute. Mackenzie was lucky that Arlo and Vin were both still at least mostly in-tact at this point: with Siberite's death, District 2 was out of the running for a victor this year entirely.

He didn't dare say it out loud, though: Mackenzie's tributes made it to the top eight often. Maybe even more often than they didn't. But the only one of them who'd ever made it out alive after fifteen years of trying was sitting right next to him.

Mackenzie's eyes moved from the screen to Torian, who was only a year older and already so different from the boy who won the Games last year. He was at that age, Mackenzie supposed. It was the summer when Mackenzie was Torian's age that he finally grew taller than Maxine. They started the school year the same height and by the end of summer break, Mackenzie had grown six inches.

"Alright, I'm gonna head downstairs."

Mackenzie generally made it a rule not to drink, but curiously the metal tin he had in his coat pocket had mysteriously disappeared the night they moved everyone out of the Training Center to start the Games. He was still waiting for the other shoe to fall about the fact that he and Romily had been in bed together, but everything had been completely silent on that front. They'd moved Romily to her own room, business went on as it normally was.

Still.

Daring to have a drink together at the hotel bar felt... risky, almost like they were tempting fate. But it was better to be seen on their own terms now, as soon as possible. If they started this thing maintaining that they were in complete control of it, the thought to force their hand might never come. That was the hope, at least. One thing about his marriage and divorce from Jacinta: Mackenzie learned how to navigate the delicate intricacies of Capitol psyche before it was all said and done.

"Sorry I kept you waiting," he offered, knowing she'd likely just arrived early, as if by design. He knew how she was- if it was going to be her job, she was going to be better at it than anyone. If managing time was going to be her job, she was going to become a master of it.

Nervously, he cleared his throat, his hand reaching for the small of her back as he leaned in and kissed her on the forehead.

i'm there for you, be there for me
i'll hum the song the soldiers sing
as they march outside our window
h u n g e r   o f   t h e   p i n e


♕
^{_{V I C T O R}}