you must believe in spring [Eden&Ambrose] blitz

[charade]

It is twenty-three years ago and Laurna is having twins. They are debating names at home one night when her water breaks suddenly. It is a cold night and Ambrose remarks that it is as cold as Siberia;whatever that is, it is a phrase his great-grandfather used before the hunger games ever came into existence. "Siberia", his wife repeats. "I like the sound of that." It is seventeen years ago and he finds her playing dress up in the back room of the costume shop. It takes some pleading, but she convinces him to be her horse as she goes on an adventure. It is eight years ago and as they watch the Moreno boy fall to the sand he fervently hopes his daughters are never reaped more than he had before. It is five years ago. The earthquake hits while they are out shopping. There is chaos in the air.

Ambrose screams for Moira to grab Blair as he pulls Aurora away from a rapidly growing sinkhole. They make it to safety and he does a headcount, dread clutching at his heart when he realizes their number is one short. He runs back to the store they were in to find it caved in and he sinks to his knees in disbelief. It is four years ago, and the peacekeepers tell him straight up that searching for those lost in the quake is something they will not be doing any longer. They tell him to make his peace with it; he tries, but it not until Keira dies from a gamemaker trap that he loses hope completely. It is nearly a half hour ago, and as he walks towards the family plot he sees someone standing in front of his daughters graves. Daddy? She said as her voice wavered like the strings of an ethereal harp. She apologized and he brushed it away like newly fallen snow from the front porch. "No, no my dear, I am sorry. I...I should have looked for you longer. I should have known..." His voice threatened to crack as a half formed sob hitched in his throat.

[gamemaker kelsier]

E  D  E  N

She had always been prideful of her ability to remain disconnected. Sentimentality, as she had often told herself, was for fools and layabouts. Perhaps she only said so because of the firmness that lived at her core, it was convinced that she would be alone and so to long for a family she could not have was pointless and painful. Perhaps she had always admonished those that cried over their lost loves in order to keep her own self from hurting at the feeling. It felt like waves were crashing into her chest, all at once. There was so much regret and it bewildered her as two lives crashed into each other.

They were shopping and the earth began to shake beneath their feet. Her father shouted, told them all to get out of the little shop they were in and she panicked, so unlike her. She'd always been levelheaded, always the intelligent one in comparison to Kiera's odd insanity. She ran the wrong way, into the back of the shop and there was a door. When she pulled it open, all that faced her was a little closet, she dived inside and covered her head and then-

the world had crumbled down around her and she had screamed and screamed.

She had been so stupid. "I was at the shop," she said, nearly laughing and crying all at once, she'd been so silly, "The floor shook and I ran the wrong way and I was buried, and I didn't mean to Dad, I didn't mean to do that."

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[charade]

The shop. She had been left behind in the shop. The peacekeepers had pulled dozens of people out of that district block's ruins, and countless more bodies besides that. Ambrose had checked every hospital for months, but between the number of patients bandaged up and unconscious and the flood of volunteer workers from the other districts she had gotten lost in the shuffle. Not for the first time, he cursed the people of the district and his nephews actions. Perhaps if he hadn't become a homebody that never ventured far from their house, if he had traveled through the district more often, he would have seen her sooner. "It's alright darling, truly, he said through his tears of joy."What matters is that you're back. You're back.  You're here now, and so am I."  A laugh, an actual laugh formed in his throat."Mother will be ecstatic. I can see her whipping up your favorite meal in no time and your sisters...The laugh died almost as quickly as it had come to life, a dagger working its way into his heart. Ambrose slowly breaking off the hug and looking Siberia in the eyes. "I..." How to tell her? Especially when she might not remember everything yet. Just him."The past five years have not been kind to our family." he said in defeat.