The Forest Through the Trees // [Leobon]

[garnet beauford d8 [earthling]]

Two years. Two long years of ducking tree branches and stumbling over rocks and dodging questions. Two years, and for what? To hope to catch sight of those clear blue eyes? To hope to have her heart torn asunder? Even if the woods granted her wish, she would be seeing him through diamond-shaped bars buzzing with electricity. After awhile, she began to hope against herself, to pray that they would never meet, that he had been a figment of her wild imagination.

Still, she walked the same path. She walked it muddy in the spring, dry and dusty in the summer, littered with leaves in the fall and totally obscured by snow in the winter. January had been wet in One, dumping snow and sleet with no relief in sight. She'd bundled up in her heaviest coat, her warmest mittens, and still the cold bit at her flesh. She turned past the last great oak, the dormant trees the markers of her path, their bare branches long fingers pointing towards the fence.

She shivered as she drew close. The trees, if shrunk, looked oddly like people. She had been fooled so many times, tricked into believing one of them was him. But it never was. She paused for a moment, breath crystallizing, as she searched beyond the fence's hum. She thought she saw... something.

[Cato]

Leo Pine
cause you search for years
but you lose everything you find

Two long years in this new district. Many times I could have been caught for what I've done. I still remember that night I made the decision to come here. Found someone who wanted to switch places. Everything checked out. Today I decided to visit the fence that always seem to cackle with electricity. I don't want to say trapped here, but I visit this place from time to time. Reminisce about my past. Something to keep my mind off of her.

I am safe now I know that. Only someone from two would be able to expose me. This place is large and no one will know who I am. They might recognize me pre Olympics, but I've changed my look since I've been here. More rugged and older looking. I only wish that in the two years I've been here that I could have glimpsed her at least once. With a sigh, I drop to my knees. Another day will go by that I wont think about her.

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[garnet beauford d8 [earthling]]

The fence's electricity beckons. It hisses and zaps, promising a temporary, lethal sort of warmth. Charbon stays just outside of its reach, the little hairs on her arms stand up beneath her jacket and she wonders what would happen if she leaned just a little closer. Would it jolt her heavy heart? Or would it stop entirely?

She wiped snow from her brow, resisting the temptation. He was still there, her ghost, ever in the distance. It was getting late, the light starting to fade from bleak to grey. She should go home; ghosts always morphed into trees or Peacekeepers by the time she came close. Maybe it was the lure of the electricity, but today she wanted to go a little farther.

The snow crunched beneath each step, her toes a long forgotten thing. But there, betwix two bare trees, he knelt, a victor bowing to accept his crown. Charbon's voice caught in her throat, her breath crystals in the air as she finally spoke one word, "Leo?"

[Cato]

Leo Pine
cause you search for years
but you lose everything you find

There's no mistaking that voice. I would recognize Charbon's voice even if I were on the verge of death. How I've longed to hear it. I turn around and there she is. Looking as magnificent as the first moment I laid eyes on her so long ago. My feet have a mind of their own as I find myself running toward and hugging Charbon. I've wanted to see her for years. I've always been afraid of what would happen if I saw her again.

Would she still care for me? My own feelings for her have not grown weaker. In fact they've gotten much stronger. So much that I would go to the ends of the earth just to keep her heart. Its not everyday someone meets a woman like Charbon. If I ever had any amount of doubt coming here the doubt has disappeared with this one meeting."Charbon? It's me. I've missed you so much."

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[garnet beauford d8 [earthling]]

Her feet are frozen and her lips are numbing but suddenly her arms are full and her torso is warmed. Leo does not hug her so much as leap upon her. Charbon doesn't think. She opens her arms wide and holds him close. She has to turn her head to fit against him, against the Olympic athlete that he is, but it doesn't matter because then she had heard the steady rhythm of his heart beat beat beating.

And it is warmer and more electrifying than the fence.

She giggles, tears icing at the edge of her eyes. "Of course it's you, Leo Pine. I've walked half the district looking for you, and here you are, not a mile from my home." She laughs because irony is stupid and if you don't laugh, it will break your heart. It takes her a moment of sharing his warmth before the wheels begin to turn again. Her laughter subsides, and she looks to him, still prepared to cry or scream or throw herself at the diamond links.

"But how did you get across the fence?" Will you have to go back?

[Cato]

Leo Pine
cause you search for years
but you lose everything you find

I knew the first question would be how I got in here. She must be expecting some sort of elaborate and well thought of plan on how I get in here. I wish I could tell her how I did it. Except that I've been here for years. I'm afraid if I tell her that I've here for years and not once try to find her that she won't care for me anymore. I'd rather face death in the hunger games many times over than lose someone like her. They say you can find love at first sight. I've found that and more with someone like Charbon. We're alike in a way. Our siblings overshadowing us. Opal with her and Ares with me. Had I stayed in two, I would always have been compared to Ares. How I look and the way I act. I had been sick of it.

Now when I went to compete in the Olympics, I never expected to find the happiness that I discovered when Charbon and I met. The Olympics were meant as a means of making a name for myself. For a while I had done just that. No matter how I performed in the events it felt good to do something on my own. To force people to realize that Leo Pine was a man of his own. I don't know what happened with Charbon. She happened to be walking in the night and found me. One thing led to another and I fell for her. I wish I could explain how it happened. It just did. I love her with all my heart and would face death just to keep her heart. "I'll tell you everything in time. For now know that I will be here for good. I will not be going back."

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[garnet beauford d8 [earthling]]

In this piece of bent time and space, it's easy enough to lay her head against his chest, to pretend through the layers of wool and plastic and cold that she can hear his heart. Hear it beating, just for her. It's easy to imagine that he did the impossible, that he climbed over the fence and survived, that he's made a life for himself. It's easy to imagine that she can just forget all of the ties to her own life, to the name that haunts her like the tide. It's too easy, to just fall beyond the stars.

Charbon holds him a little closer, forehead to his chin, arms around his waist, and her face buried in layers. She breathes in deep, trying not to confuse the scent of the woods for him. But he does smell earthy, like the spring, which is nothing but a distant memory.

Like him.

"I'm not sure that's a promise you can keep," she says, a smile in her voice, because how can she help but smile when she's holding onto him? But it's a dream, an endless dream, and soon she'll be back in her cold bed. Alone. "But for now, can we just pretend? I don't want to talk about the past. Let's just be here, right now, in the woods. What should we do with the afternoon?"

[Cato]

Leo Pine
cause you search for years
but you lose everything you find

Her arms around me provide a warmth that's more comforting than anything I've felt in years. The feeling of finally being here in Charbon's arms makes me happier than any moment I've had in my entire life. There's no question that I'm one hundred percent in love with her. Hell I risked everything just to be here in her district. Until a few moments ago, I thought she was only a figment of my imagination. Over the years that's happened several times. I'll look off in the distance and for one moment imagine its her. A few seconds later she's gone. Its reassuring to know the woman embracing me is the woman I've dreamt of seeing for an eternity. If I could freeze Charbon and I in this exact moment only then would I feel truly alive. Heartbreakingly that isn't possible. I'll settle for growing old with her.

"I would love to spend every waking moment with you. I can hardly believe after all this time its really you. If not for your embrace I'd think I'm imagining things." Which is true. I still question if my mind is playing tricks on me. There's only one other thing I'd rather be than here in her arms. At her home. I've been here for a long time. Lived with someone who took me in. It might be too early to visit her place but now's a good a time as any. "Why don't we head to your place? Catch up over there rather than being near this fence. It almost terrifies me to be so near a place that could separate us." I could never handle another separate like the one I suffered in the Olympics. I felt like a piece of me was missing.

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