Chasing an Idiot {One shot}

S P E A K I N G // T H I N K I N G

He sat on a bench, right in the center of the city, watching the billboard images on the giant screen above her flip through his latest shoot. He was holding a long rapier as he teased another man's lips between his own. He stared at the images with indifferent boredom, his legs stretched out beneath him as comfortable and relaxed as you would please. His arms draped against the back of the bench, and suddenly he blinked, the sun catching one of the brilliant buttons that adorned his suit. He sat up slightly in annoyance at the brightness in his eyes, and he noticed the sun had risen while he had waited. He checked his watch, and sighed in annoyance at himself, noting that the time was ten minutes past five in the morning, and ten minutes had been lost not standing in the peacekeeping building, learning of his friend.

He had made a habit of it to go to the Peacekeeper recruit office every Saturday only because they had gotten annoyed with him coming in every single day, sometimes twice. He couldn't help the fact that Maddox was a total idiot who got himself in the worst situations possible. He had almost locked Maddox away in his closet when he told Prince that he was going to be a Peacekeeper. If he was so far away he couldn't look after him, and there was no way that the Capitol would even consider taking his application form, let alone look at it. He was too important to too many Capitolites, and too rich to even bother with it. Truthfully, now he wished he had simply gone with him, as he couldn't stop worrying about him everyday. It's not that Prince thought that Maddox wasn't cut out for it.

It was more like he was too qualified. Really, if there was the job of 'Superhero' available, it would have been perfect for Maddox. Prince remembered seeing tapes of the Districts that belonged to her father, as it was within his job to keep a watch on them. He knew that as soon as Maddox saw them, he would want to save them all. Everyday, she wondered if he had gotten himself dead, arrested, or had simply run away. He didn't even bother thinking that he might have gotten avoxed, because he knew for a fact he would bite his own tongue off and choke on the blood first. The Arrogant little prick that he is. He shook his head and stood up, bracing himself on his knees, his tired muscles groaning in protest. Shoots always took something out of him, all that standing in awkward positions killing his muscles even more than some good fencing did.

He waltzed across the center, the door of the office drawing ever nearer. he didn't know why he felt so nervous about it this morning, but it was as if something had decided to settle down in his stomach and was not giving up space anytime soon. He rested his hand on the cold metal of the door, noting the marks of hand prints all over it. He stared at the thing, knowing that the receptionist, Debra Duchess, could see him, and was probably getting the information for him already, her long red nails clicking away at those keys. Sovay had already written her countless autographs for her relatives, and he was wondering if she would ask for another today. With sudden force, he flung the door open, pasting on a smile as he raised his head. "Morning Debra," he sang as he slammed his hands down with a dull thud on the counter, "The usual please!"

She began to go off on her usual train of banter, and information, and Prince nodded and smiled where applicable, his eyes only on her fingers as they speedily tapped along the keyboard. It always took a minute to get information on Maddox because he was usually in detention for something, and his chart always said 'detention.' When it said that, Prince could always go home with a comfortable sigh, taking comfort in the fact that his friend was still an idiot, but a safer one. Today however, Debra's incessant chatter, and the clacking of the keys stopped with an, "...oh "dear." Sovay's blood ran cold, and he almost ripped the computer off of it's stalk trying to see what was wrong. As his eyes scanned the screen, he slowly started to giggle, anger, annoyance, and relief flooding through his veins. The idiot had only gone missing, nothing that Sovay could not fix.

Calmly he said thank-you to Debra, and waltzed out the door, kicking it open with a booted foot. He clasped his hands behind his back, an insane smile across her face. He had two weeks until his next shoot, and until then, no one would miss him. he would go find Maddox and return him to the Peacekeeping place he was stationed at, and then return home, no harm or foul. the Grin pasted on his face grew larger and larger until it was almost maniacal in proportion. He paid no mind as rain started to fall, wetting his hair. His fists swung back and forth, his stride mechanical. He knew very well that runaways were avoxed or killed, and he found his mind working out which one would be worse. his plan B was too simply sit and watch for Maddox to come in avoxed and buy him right away. But he knew that plan B would never happen.

He let himself into his flat, and made his way quickly over to the closet. He was lucky he had thought to keep that bag packed in the closet just in case something like this did happen. He slung his best long bow over his shoulder and tucked his rapier into the sheath he already wore around his hip. He stared down for a moment at the spot on his body where his chest swelled a tiny a bit, vaguely remembering wrapping his chest up in bandages this morning. Just as quickly the thought was gone and he flung the rucksack over his other shoulder, careful to not harm the bow. A quiver of arrows were also on his back, and suddenly he was loaded down. He paid no mind to it, and instead grabbed bottles of water, beef jerky, protein bars, and an apple for his pantry, and crossed the floor, exiting his flat so easily it would almost appear he had not been living there for at least ten months now.

He lightly jogged down the residential streets ignoring the billboards placed here and there that advertised the club he went to, or the ones with his face on them. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that chasing Maddox meant that he might not be able to return to the capitol. But he didn't need to think about the positives and negatives because he had spent much of his life fixing Maddox out of problems. There was no other option than to go into that good night and find his best friend. He gave himself other excuses too, such as he had already decided to leave and Maddox's running was coincidental. Or maybe he had gone for a walk, and strayed too far, getting lost. Maddox knew that Sovay's direction was terrible. And maybe he always went for walks fully equipped with weapons, food, and clothing.

He sighed as he began to reach the outskirts of the capitol. The bag on his back seeming to try and drag him back, all the good reasons telling him not to go into the woods shaking their fists at him in uproar. His shoulders sagged as he continued to walk onward anyway. There was no one else in Sovay's life who he would give up so much for. People usually called that true love, but Sovay called it true love as well. but in the sense that he loved him so much, that he was a brother to him, a younger brother that he had to watch to make sure he did not trip over his own feet and break his nose on the pavement of consequence. He tried not to think about all that he was leaving behind, the tug of his favourite cupcake store seeming to call him back.

He tried not to think about the consequences his father might face, or if his modeling company would replace him so easily and quickly. He wondered if anyone would miss him or if he might even be mourned. But at the same time he knew that if he had not been ready for this for a long time, he wouldn't have kept an escape bag filled with essentials in his closet for the past ten months. Truthfully, Maddox was giving Sovay the kick in the backside he always needed to get started up. A smile formed itself on his face as he thought about seeing his best friend once again. Truthfully, he had missed him greatly and was happy he had run away, no matter how much he would pretend to be annoyed when he saw him. He smiled, remembering when Maddox had started modding himself, and when he had gotten the tattoos he had. A lot of alcohol, and some tears had been involved, but the guy always knew how to cheer him up.

He was certain of the fact that Maddox would have gone to find himself in the wilderness just as quickly as Sovay had left to go find him. And that was why when he found himself staring into the dense trees around the capitol, Sovay found himself stepping into them with only a moments hesitance. Almost immediately, his face broke out into a grin as he realized that he was suddenly experiencing true freedom. He set off in what he hoped was the direction of District one, unconsciously reaching behind him to pat his bag. Inside it rested a nicked map from his father of Panem. He would start with the first district and work his way down. And if he still couldn't find the idiot, he would venture into the ruins of district thirteen even. Running his hands along the bark of the trees he passed, his voice rose in a toneless song, nothing to hear him but the birds, the bees, and the trees.