Regrets Collect Like Old Friends // [Lex/Mace]
Jan 22, 2019 17:22:34 GMT -5
Post by Baby Wessex d9b [earthling] on Jan 22, 2019 17:22:34 GMT -5
It doesn't hurt me.
Do you want to feel how it feels?
Do you want to know that it doesn't hurt me?
Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?
You, it's you and me.
The train had departed the Capitol some hours prior. He kept expecting - hoping? - for the motion to lull him, to eat the right combination of cookies to feel normal. But it didn't happen. Nothing was normal about staring at Enzo and Temple, about tucking Coralee into her bunk, knowing he could pop back into the main compartment and find the District Ten tributes there, unharmed.
More than his tributes.
It was that thought, more than the million questions and the eagerness to see Saffron and the strange rumors on the whistling breeze, that made him most unsettled. It was early in the evening still, early enough that no one would look twice at a middle-aged victor hopping from car to car. Not on this train, anyhow. He washed his face, tidied his things, and dressed as he so often did: in faded jeans and a worn leather jacket.
He passed through the nearest compartments with no interference, slowed down in the middle to marvel at the activity. It still felt new to him to have victors in Six through Eight. But he wasn't looking for victors. Not today.
In the transition car between Four and Three, he lifted the collar of his jacket and buried himself in the leather. He rushed through two cars, avoiding Klaus and Julian in equal measure. He carried himself with enough momentum to practically crash into the District One train car, which had been transformed into a safe haven for the newest tributes.
Mace came to an abrupt halt. "Uh, 'evening," he said. He scanned the group and his shoulders visibly sagged in relief when he finally found her.
Carefully he slipped out of the jacket, folding it over his left arm. "Suppose I could have a moment of your time, Miss Lionel? I just wanted to offer you this." He holds out his arm with the jacket, painfully aware he's interrupting something. Something more important than what he held? He couldn't tell. Best to get on with it. "It's, well it's not really from my arena, as I returned all the tokens years ago. But it's a replica and one I've kept and worn for years. I just had it cleaned in the Capitol, don't worry, and I know you got a jacket already, but in case you need another one. This one here, I call it 'Sawyer' and I'd be honored if you took it home."
He steadied his grey eyes on the face of Alexander Hood and tried to see the girl beneath. "If you want."And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building.
If I only could, oh
running up that hill
-placebo-[dars]