Birthday sparks [Bolts/Joule]

Joule had fallen asleep almost immediately after she climbed into bed. She'd had a tiring day, and was glad to finally rest. The stress of the upcoming reaping was starting to get to her. Her dreams, however, were pleasant that night. She dreamt about a world where the Games didn't exist. Everyone was happy and safe, just like she wanted it to be. If her family were as safe as they were in her dream, she'd have felt so much better about life. Unfortunately, the Games were very real. They were a threat looming over her ever since people in her life were of reaping age.

As Joule was sleeping, she was interrupted by the soft voice of her older brother, Bolts. He had awoken her by placing his hand on her shoulder, gently. She opened her eyes slowly and looked up to her brother's face. His eyes were full of kindness, as they always were. She glanced at the clock on her bedroom wall, and saw that it was the middle of the night. It was around midnight, to be exact.

"Bolts, what are you doing? Is everything okay?" Joule questioned her older brother. Normally, if she was awoken in the middle of the night, she thought that something had to be wrong. Had someone gotten hurt? Was there an emergency of some sort? Did they have to evacuate the house? Thoughts of panic were streaming through the mind of the young girl, and she was nervous.

The girl was rather worried, and was hoping to Ripred that everything was okay. Joule looked at her brother with mixed emotions, which were both concern that something was wrong, and hope that everything was okay. She was nervous, but there was a small portion of her brain that hoped that maybe, just maybe, her brother had woken her up for a good reason. Maybe he had a surprise for her.

When Bolts put a finger to his lips, he told Joule that everything was okay. This calmed her down a bit, which was good, seeing as her nerves were likely to have gotten the better of her if he hadn't given her reassurance. Her older brother told her to put on her shoes, and she did what she was told, slipping her cold, bare feet into her sneakers without any socks. Bolts held her hand and lead her outside, into the crisp, night air. The sky was rather clear, and the stars shown beautifully.

The red-haired boy pulled his sister along and they headed down the street. She decided to just trust her brother's instincts. He lead her to a park that she recognized immediately. When they were younger, they used to play there as kids.

"Why are we here, Bolts?" she asked.

It had been years since the two had played there together, but it was nice to be there again. She didn't know what had prompted Bolts to bring her in the middle of the night, but thought she'd go with his judgement. He was smart, and was probably the one person that Joule trusted more than anyone else in the entire world. She didn't know what she'd ever do if she lost him. What we he do if he lost her, though? She didn't really think about that.

If Joule got reaped for the Games, would Bolts be as crushed as she would if he got picked? She wasn't sure if he would be, but at the same time as she hoped he cared that much, she also didn't want him to be too significantly hurt by it. The only thing she could really hope for then was that neither of them got picked, so it wouldn't end up as a concern.

Her older brother smiled when he released her hand, and that made Joule all the more curious about what he was up to. There was some sort of bulge she had noticed in the pocket of his sweatshirt, too. Originally, she thought it was just his hand in his pocket, but then realized that he had been carrying something with him. She didn't ask what, however.

Bolts almost seemed nervous when he spoke up next. He didn't seem certain of what to say, which made Joule more curious than worried. The only reason she wasn't worried is because he had assured her that everything would be okay, and she knew he wouldn't break a promise. He started by explaining to her that everyone was going to be 'super busy soon', and she knew what that meant. Bolts was talking about the reaping without mentioning it directly. She knew that was what was coming up soon, and it made her nervous. Although, she did her best not to think about anything negative, since she was with her protective older brother. He surely wouldn't want her to be concerned, right?

He continued to say that by the time her birthday came around, that everyone would want to be celebrating with her. She knew that was true. The Spark family always liked to make a big deal out of birthdays. Of course, Joule didn't enjoy her twelfth birthday as much as she should have, since she knew that in her mind, it really just mean that she could be reaped for the Hunger Games. As she would grow older, her chances would increase until she was older than eighteen, which would no longer be reaping age. Unfortunately, that was quite a ways away. She could always be picked before then. The family always tried to make birthdays happy, rather than worrisome, though. Bolts did a good job of trying to keep Joule's mind off of the negative parts of growing older.

The older boy explained that he wanted to have a little celebration for just the two of them, and that her gift worked out better where they were. This instantly made the young ginger-haired girl curious. What kind of gift could mean that they should be in a park in the middle of the night, just the two of them? It had to be something special, or really important, she supposed. That must have been what Bolts had had in the pocket of his sweatshirt.

A soft blush came across Bolts's face, and he pulled two things out of his pockets. One was a small box that was wrapped in paper, and the other was something wrapped in napkins. Instantly, Joule was even more curious as to what it was. She didn't ask, however, as he told her to close her eyes, and she did.

"I'm excited, Bolts!" the young girl said with a bright smile on her face.

Joule's older brother laughed a bit when she said that she was excited. Bolts gently touched the girl's shoulders to turn her around so that she was facing away from him and not looking at the surprise until he revealed it. She could hear him opening the items that he had had in his hands, and then told her that she could look. Joule turned around and looked at what Bolts had for her. Before she looked, however, she could hear a sound that sounded rather mechanical. Bolts was someone who often tinkered with different mechanical bits and bobs, so Joule wasn't surprised to hear such a sound.

When she opened her eyes, she saw something hovering in front of her. It was almost like a small helicopter or a large insect, and suspended below it was a chocolate muffin, Joule's favorite. Her older brother wished her a happy birthday and her face lit up. She smiled brightly and immediately went to embrace her brother in a hug. Hugging him tightly, she whispered to him.

“Thank you so much!” were the words that the young, red haired girl whispered. When she released him from the hug, she went over to the litle drone-like machine and smiled at it, gently removing the chocolate muffin from its grasp. Joule's smile was more sincere than it had been in ages. She was often worrying about things in life, such as the reaping, but at the moment, no troubles crossed her mind. Bolts had cleared her mind for the night.