Kovu Luzell [District Nine]

He was a terrible child, all messy hair and dirt-crusted hands and trouble. His parents never said why they got rid of him. One night when he was eight years old, he went to sleep in a soft, comfortable bed, but when he got up to pee he wasn't in the same room he fell asleep in.

His parents had taken him to the community home during the night as he slept.

And, alright, maybe he could see some sense in it. The homeless probably had more money in their pockets than his parents did, and their son didn't exactly help with the situation. Eight years old and particularly useless, all he did was cause trouble in the market and steal coins from his parents' pockets whenever he could. His back is slashed with lines like a faded tic-tac-toe game where the Peacekeepers have whipped him for stealing and fighting.

Oh, but it was all a game, and he pretended that he didn’t care for a while. Even when he saw his parents in the market and ran up to them with bright, troublesome eyes and asked them when he could go home, he wasn’t bothered. Kovu had been a hopeful child, stealing and playing and smiling even when things went wrong. Harmless, really, but his parents treated him like a tragedy. When he went up to them in the market for the first time, confronting them with a sweet smile and those hopeful eyes, they pretended not to notice him. He thought nothing of going back to his home. The community home lady had no idea how he arrived because he was apparently left in front of the door without any notice, and whenever he asked about going home she just stared at him coldly and told him that nobody could take care of him. It was then, he realized, that it wasn’t much of a game after all.

Until, of course, he encountered Zanita in the streets. The time became all blurred in his head, but he just knew that his life got a hell of a lot better when she was the one that started taking care of him, like a sister. He lost track of the where and when and how it all happened, but one day he left the community home, more bitter and less hopeful than when he first arrived. An abandoned mansion of orphans soon became his home, and for a while he dared to believe that his life had turned around.

It hadn’t.

Kovu became an ugly outcast – a boy with scars on his back and about zero power over anything. This bothered Zanita more than anything, but he could still feel the effects of living in a house where he was hardly welcome. He just didn’t have the courage to stand up and do something about it, not like Zanita. He envied her for that, but hers was a particular kind of strength that he could not seem to grasp. Perhaps her conniving and power-hungry spirit was not the best model of behavior, but she always seemed so strong, like the entire world could go wrong and she would still be there for him while telling the rest of the world to fuck off. He liked having a sister, especially because everyone else in the world had abandoned him. But in the house of orphans – the “Pride” – neither of them was very popular. They lived, of course, but gained no respect. Zanita tried to kill the leader in the house while Kovu was forced to take no part, but her struggle for power turned ugly and soon she was forced out of the house. Kovu, being an outsider as is, could hardly have stayed. Though he wasn’t involved, he was still other, and he couldn’t think of leaving the one person who had ever taken care of him. So he followed Zanita and the others, who put up a camp in the woods and remained there. Now, he misses living under a stable roof, but even he knows better than to go back. He would not be a welcomed guest.

Even when he was young and innocent, Kovu was trouble. He stole, he disobeyed, and he held his head up a little too high. Nobody could tell him what to do – not the lousy Peacekeepers, not his parents, not the shopkeepers, and most definitely not the Capitol. Not then, at least. Oh, but there wasn’t any sense in his trouble. He just liked being difficult when he was young, and it never occurred to him that being a living, breathing problem held consequences. But it did, of course. He lost his parents, felt dozens of lashes against his back where Peacekeepers’ weapons tore into him, and found one day that he was an outcast. Impulsivity aside, he could still feel the pain of his actions. Some of the trouble has been squashed out of him, but it shows itself sometimes.

Still, he is smart. He knows when to shut his mouth and when to speak up, and sometimes he feels like a servant, following other people’s orders. What is disobeying worth if he doesn’t have the power to do what he pleases? Kovu can be troublesome, yes, but there is a stark difference between being mouthy and taking action – like Zanita’s assassination plot. Of course, there are a few people in this world he would not dare to disobey, Zanita included. Or so he tells himself. He follows her almost blindly, for she is the only person he does not question. She helped him and became his sister, so how could he act out against that? Through his trouble has grown a bit of order. Impulsive or not, he is still a follower, and he knows who deserves his respect and how to act in order to placate others.

His past has made him cold, in a way, and hesitant towards others. He’s not exactly a fan of people, and they don’t like him much either. He can be loud, rude, and just plain hostile, but it depends on the person he’s dealing with. He can also be kind, but only if he is shown kindness. He is even scared of them sometimes – especially those in power. He doesn’t particularly like being a follower, but he has little choice in the matter. He has always been pushed around, given little choice in his own life. He’s even more afraid of pain. The scars on his back, though difficult for him to see without a mirror, don’t leave him. He remembers being hurt, and losing his parents, and feeling worthless. And he tries so very much not to care, and has found his number one skill in life:

Not giving a fuck about anything.

Except he does. Sometimes.