i'm coming home, tell the world {kaiser/scout}

Kaiser bounced on his toes. The crowd was taking forever to disperse, the careers having lingered to gossip about the new tributes in the Square. Both were volunteers, so everyone was excited to see what another Lexig and a new Fray had to offer, especially with such a long streak of losses. Scout had been escorted to the Justice Building by now. Goodbyes were in order, but he couldn’t reach his destination until these irrelevants moved out of the way.

Moments later, he impatiently weaved his way through the clutter and stepped up to the building with a grin. A Peacekeeper was stationed outside. The poor bastard looked bored as hell, but the hardened gaze he flickered to Kaiser was a warning. ”Not yet.”

He rolled his eyes.

The holdup didn’t make any sense. Why not let him in now? Time was being wasted. This was his twin, not some random broad. Their time together was important.

When the Peacekeeper finally stepped aside, he pushed the door open with glee. He expected his sister to be lounging on one of the couches, relaxed and confident. Instead he heard a growl and a thud. The door bounced off of something solid, and he jolted sideways to check the source. He found his twin cursing and holding her nose, and he laughed. Typical Scout. She would get smacked with a door the moment she volunteered for the Reaping.

Upon recognizing him, a smile beamed across her face and she threw herself on him. It was effortless to lift her up and spin her once. ”You didn’t tell me you were gonna volunteer!” he exclaimed, but he wasn’t bitter over it. Circumstances would’ve been different had they the opportunity to prepare, although he supposed it was the element of surprise that motivated her. He liked that. The Capitol would not be disappointed.

He set her down and stretched his grin wider. ”Got any plans?” he asked, because he wanted to know what to expect. Was she going to be herself and torture every tribute she got her bloody hands on, or was she going to adopt a new approach? He was genuinely curious.

”Soft?” Never,” he boasted, glad that Scout was acting her usual self. The Games often buried illusions into trbiutes’ heads and turned them into something they weren’t – like pissbabies, crying or failing when their District needed them most. Look at Peridot!

Fortunately, he had complete faith in his sister. The Games would not change her. In fact, they would only amplify the darkness within her, and allow her to express herself with full force. Now everyone in the District would learn how savage the Fray family could be.

They weren’t breathing in everybody’s dust this time.

Scout wasn’t skilled in the art of patience, he knew that. Torture would be her top priority in the arena, and he knew that would interest the capitol more than anyone. However, she also mentioned the fact that a quick kill was probably more beneficial, and at that he grinned. Fast kills were his expertise – at least in the field, spilling real blood with real blades unlike the fakers in the career center slicing at straw and plastic. Scout was the one favoring stretched out intervals of suffering. She wanted her victims screaming and hopeless. All Kaiser really wanted was the warm, sticky texture of blood running down his palms.

In that sense, they were very different.

”Go for the throat,” he said, drawing a line across his own neck. ”It kills quickly, but they’ll also feel it. There will still be some suffering before they die.” He knew she would like that.