Remove the [] Between Me & You {Charas}

for what it's worth, I always aim to please
but I nearly died

The Training Center had not been all he had envisioned; it just one more piece of the nightmare. He'd expected to pwn when it came to combat training, and that simply hadn't been the case. Sure, he was strong and could land a punch better than anyone else, but he didn't even know that fights could have rules, that there was a certain better way of doing things. Use your core, the station instructor had said, and Mace had very nearly made his fist meet his core. All the shit about muscles and breathing and tension - none of it made any sense to him.

And it never once stopped him from winning a fight before.

He saw the other tributes, though, the Careers. It might be hooey, but clearly it allowed one a certain fight style, one he wasn't familiar with. It was clean and quick - things that could beat him, maybe. He doubted it, hoped against it. Maybe if they'd been allowed to rough each other up a little, but of course something that logical would be against the rules. They just got to theorize about things. It absolutely disgusted him, to the point that he failed for form a single word during the course of dinner and instead gripped his fork until it bent. He hadn't said goodbye, or anything polite, before leaving the dining hall. He should have, and immediately regretted it.

Was that what the Games were about? Regret? He hadn't felt the emotion much before, and didn't want to know it any more. Much too powerful. Mace put his fingers to his temples, stretched his palm across the top of his skull as he walked towards the residential area. He pressed into the bone, holding himself together from the top down. It wouldn't be long now, which was a strange comfort, but one nevertheless. He'd found few things, few places to rest his thoughts, since leaving the district.

Mace simply wasn't used to thinking so hard all. the freaking. time. The cows he had under control, and he had pretty much cornered the market, at least when it came to the weeds he picked outside of the community home's properly. That all made sense to him. Herd the cows, sell the tobacco, squirrel away the profit for his own farm. What a waste. He hadn't even remembered to tell Cygnus about it, but he rather thought that Icarus knew where it was, and maybe he'd come around, someday, and realize they had some extra cash. For food, or flying lessons, or something. It just didn't matter any more.

Mace kept his eyes on his feet, strange in the Capitol's shoes, as he walked. So it wasn't until he reached up to press the elevator button that he saw her, and then only a glimpse. A daintier hand. He wasn't the least bit interested in talking, but he probably looked like a freak with his hand smashed against his forehead. No, like a weakling, which he couldn't afford. His size was his only advantage, his only way to intimidate, especially if he refused to talk. Reluctantly Mace forced his hand back to his side and was surprised to find her standing there.

Oh he'd been watching her. Not consciously at first either, but then he couldn't hardly ignore the way his eyes found her, no matter if she was across the center. He stood a little taller, cocked his head to one side. And when the elevator opened, he smacked his hand against the frame, holding it open for her. He didn't think about the impact, about the sudden noise. No, he thought about his hand and how he'd much rather be touching the sweep of her neck than cold metal.

Mace inclined his head to the empty box, his mouth pinched, a tightness around the edges of his eyes as well. "After you," he murmured, the first words he'd spoken in hours.