Noon | [kass one shot]
Sept 23, 2019 9:55:29 GMT -5
Post by sbeeg on Sept 23, 2019 9:55:29 GMT -5
The house was far too big for her. After years of sharing rooms, and sometimes beds, having an entire building to herself felt like too much to Kassandra.
She sat at the kitchen counter, bare toes gripping the foot rest of a metal stool. She stared at a plate of crackers but did not feel hungry. The clock chimed in the foyer.
The Victory Tour had been as stressful as the games itself. Face to face with the consequence of every action she took.
She pushed away from the counter, standing in front of the large window in the living room. It displayed the rest of the Victor houses and the meticulously maintained gardens. A fountain bubbled in the middle of it all, wasted drinking water.
Kass thought about slipping on shoes and knocking on Harbinger's door. She often ate dinner with the Rhodes and found their dining table similar to the from the orphanage. However she had already eaten with them every night this week and coming around during lunch as well would overstay her welcome.
Kirito had other things to worry about than a lonely young victor. He had children and an unsure amount of time left with them. She couldn't swoop in and steal precious hours away just because she wanted company.
Her eyes fell on Persimmon's house. The woman was never there anymore and despite all the red hot emotions she felt towards the woman, she missed her company. She needed someone to bicker with every now and then.
She could leave the Victor's Village, walk the few miles to the big white house and see the Izars and Killian. Kass had tried to spend as little time with Killian was possible since returning home. They would be watching her, seeing who she spent time with and prepare to use them against her.
He was the only one she cared about, the only weakness in her armor that could make her crumble. So she threw him aside.
It's better if they're all pushed away then when the time comes no one will be hurt. No one but Kass.
The clock ticks in the foyer. A pipe groans in the wall.
She could go for a walk, but the thought of running into a Fel kept her feet rooted to the carpet. She couldn't go anywhere unseen now. Months ago she could sit outside the square reading palms for a few coins but never looked at twice. Now everyone looked at her. People wanted to talk to her, people larger and older than her. Peacekeepers followed her from store to store, to watch or protect she was unsure.
People were scared of her too.
She couldn't blame them. She watched the footage, alone in her big house, and felt terror swirl in her gut.
It was safer in the big house. No eyes, no keepers. Inside there was no one to hurt.
She felt so cold by herself. As if she was still teetering on the cable bridge in the cold vacuum of space.
She went upstairs, stepping into the master bedroom large enough to house ten people easily. Kass sat at the vanity, the mirror displaying her pale face back at her.
Dark circles clung beneath her eyes, the blue veins visible in her eyelids.
She grabbed a black pencil from a drawer and dragged an unsteady hand across her lash line. Her left arm ached nearly everyday, still not use to the strain of doing everything. She abandoned all her clothes with buttons or zippers up the back. Instead, she lived in t-shirts and sweatpants because at least she knew how to pull them off without help. On the Victory Tour there had been helping hands to slip the dresses of her shoulders and to help strap her robotic arm in place. Alone, she left the metal on her dresser, her right sleeve hanging loose at her side.
She blinked. Her eyes, watery from holding a pencil too close, were ringed with black. Her knuckle had brushed the outside corner, smudging it out like a raccoon.
It didn't look the same when she did it. She didn't have Dio's steady hand.
She threw the pencil against the table, it hit with a thud before rolling off onto the floor.
The clock chimed in the foyer. Another hour gone. Another hour unused. Another hour wasted.
The days marched forward, another Hunger Games on the horizon.
And she had done nothing to stop it.
And, for the first time, she thought-
There was nothing she could do.
table by griffin
