time hasn't been kind to me // patricia.
Apr 25, 2020 5:57:12 GMT -5
Post by ✨ zozo. on Apr 25, 2020 5:57:12 GMT -5
All she has done this entire trip to the Capitol is double-take. At the arena, at the tributes, at her own reflection. When it's all over, after a boy from Four takes the crown that Saffron had plucked out of Ewe Saw's trembling hands, she bundles Quinn into day-care for the last time and slips past the Dining Hall into the Victor's Lounge.
Katelyn --
no.
"Patricia?"
How many years had it been? Saffron can barely remember. The first time she had met Patricia Valfierno she'd been a teenager. Barely seventeen, the latest victor was only a year older and yet Saffron had felt years her junior. She supposed now, with hindsight and age by her side, that it was the trauma. The plague of warped years forever tormenting her, even now - but back then she grew taller, yet felt like a child every other day. Or perhaps she was just intimidated by the girl - now a woman like she. Even now just the sight of her made Saffron's thoughts stammer, her eyes widen, her spine straighten up.
It was like seeing a ghost - but then all she felt was relief.
"It's been a long time. Drink?"
She eyes the clock and winces, then shrugs, picking up a glass and a bottle of wine. "Don't tell Mace," Saffron adds, knowing he would be too polite to say anything about drinking this early. "This year's one actually pinched a nerve."
Amberly. Saffron can't even say her name. They pass through every other year - fierce, spirited, defiant girls that remind her of herself. Far too much for her liking. She shrugs them off as best she can, always the more selfish of she and Mace. Saffron had poured her whole heart into far too many tributes over the years. Too young. The lot of them. It was easier to shut that part of herself off, almost instinctual - but every so often an Amberly, an Esme, an Emberly or a Myara or a Clementa tap her on the shoulder and dig their claws into her conscience.
The wine helps. So does good company.
"Glad to see you're still alive," she adds, sipping the glass and staring out toward the Capitol skyline. "There were rumours, but I don't believe any of that horse-shit."
lyrics - faith, the weeknd