dead hometown // teddy&niho

[Tom]

☾

"Get me home. Please."

Run. His mind screams at him. There's no escape. No way out. Nothing but people surrounding him as the emotions burn in his chest. Hand wipes at his eyes blocking the tears that threatened to escape. He's falling. Chest wasn't expanding with air. A gasp from his lips as he looks to the peacekeeper that's protected him, safety is what his mind screams as he moves towards him. Too much for him to handle as he's gasping for air to ease him from the fall. Ree's words come into his mind as he can remember the two siblings that he had left behind.

Burn my picture.

Burn the picture. Spit on the grave. Do whatever it takes to forget. He can't do that when everything comes crumbling down from under him. A hero is what District Six considered him, but he was nothing more than a pathetic man who left his siblings in the hands of his parents. A father who had made him bleed and a mother who's poisonous words drove him to run away in a raging storm. How could he have left them there? He may never know, but he needed an escape. An escape into somewhere that he didn't have to choke over lack of air and his own tears. Home. The only place he wanted to be was home.

Eyes only glance back to his siblings for a second before he closes his eyelids and move forward, pushing himself through a small crowd to Nihongo Moon. There's a sense of safety that comes when they move to the home that was going to be his now. His mind doesn't even remember how they got there, other than his breathing getting harder, until they went inside the nice home that was his own. Silence was the first thing that he heard as he slumps down against the wall away from the front door. The stories in his mind that he had told his younger sister and brother before he had vanished from a storm. A story that his mother had probably told them to make them forget him. There's too many questions and not enough answers for him. He didn't dare go back and ask them.

Pathetic.

The word screams into his head at the way he handled that, but even the strong must hide. They expected a hero, not a broken man who wanted nothing more than just silence and the comfort of his home. Six wanted him to be the killer that they saw on the big screens as they watched him tear down three people who would never have a voice to speak words that never would be found. Smile in the face of suffering, but all he could do was want space. Emptiness that could only keep him from losing his mind. Ma would have told him that he needed to man up. Man up and go out there and face his problems head on with a smile and kind words, but there's no Ma to push him to do that. There's no escape from the constant reminder that twenty three people had died young in order for him to be there.

Looking up he can see the officer that he made sure to look to for help in getting to a place where he didn't have to feel like he had to hide how he was truly feeling. There's a moment where he's just studying the peacekeeper. Nihongo Moon or as he's been calling him since the victory tour started Officer Moon was not what he expected from the men in white uniforms. They always made him feel uncomfortable, but under the impression of him, Teddy felt safe. Strength in just a glance at him as Teddy feels his heart slowing and his breathing evening.

Stronger than Teddy could ever be.

That's when words decide to escape from his throat.

"T-Thank you."

Eyes glance back to the door for a moment as he steadies himself up off the wall and floor. Home. Empty and cold in a place that was lonely. No one there to make sure that he was okay. He never expected to live his life with someone else and eventually having to live on his own. Ever since he left for the games, he had been on his own with no one there to watch him go. Coming home, he realized there were quite a few people who he hadn't remember that knew him. Watched him leave on the day where his name was called from the glass bowl. Luck hadn't been on his side, but now it's all he had. Luck and crimson blood that glimmers on gold.

The politeness that he was used to as he tries to ignore what had just happened moments ago in the arrival to District Six. Acting like everything was okay. Acting like he was okay. A smile pulling gently at his lips as he speaks to Officer Moon. No reason to listen to the sound of his thoughts that scream at him for not knowing who he was. The thoughts that make his chest hurt and his head pound in pain move away as he speaks.

"Sorry, you had to see that."

A smile for the dead that don't speak.

Words for the politeness that Ma left behind.

No more draining echoed thoughts to be stuck on.

"Could I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?"

A whisper under his breath of the truth.

"A better person to watch over?"

[gamemaker kelsier]

They placed me on victor watch before I really knew what was happening. I'd been in the Capitol for only a week when I'd been handed my new orders. My leave was meant to have lasted longer. I'd had nothing to do anyway. Everything that had used to entertain me when I was younger was no longer interesting. I'd spent my days inside the musty library in my family's grand estate. Nothing but silence.

I stood, hands behind my back and watching over a crowd. The end of a week long tour finally was in sight after long quiet hours on the Capitol's victor cars.

I hadn't been so close to a victor before.

I don't quite know what I'd expected; an animal perhaps. The murderers usually came from one or two, sometimes four. Victors didn't come from six, they hadn't in years. I'd been expecting someone formidable. I got a lanky boy with an unruly head of hair and a softness to him that shouldn't have existed anymore.

Yet there it was.

I'd watched him at each location, eyes scanning the crowd for a weapon, anyone who looked like they had something to hide but no one came about. There was silence as they took him in, a weary sadness mixed with indifference in the District Squares we stopped at and I could feel his uneasiness, his anxiety swelling like a balloon.

"You'll be home soon," I'd whispered as the train took us from Eight to Seven.

I'd felt a twinge of sadness, dull and throbbing.

It'd been awhile since I'd felt anything at all.

I look at Teddy, making sure that he's alright and for the first time in the week we've travelled, his eyes are wide, glassy. They fixate on a figure in the crowd and my eyes try to follow his gaze but fail.

Then, in less than an instant, his hand is curled up in my shirt and we are running.

I don't ask him where to, just pump my legs and listen to the ragged sounds of his breathing. The loudness is behind us in the square and here, in the quiet streets of six, we are alone.

And I know that I shouldn't, but I am in love again; in this moment I am in love.

The echo of our falling feet on the cobbled roads cause a discourse in the darkness and damp of grey skies. Sound hits the heavy ceiling above and bounces back down and my hand is on his back, pushing him forward.

We go for a long time, as long as it takes to reach his new home in the otherwise empty victor village. His house is obvious, lit in anticipation for his arrival and we push our way in the door with no trouble.

Our breath comes quick and I bend over, hands on my knees as he leans against the wall and an unruly curl falls across his forehead. I think about how easy it would be to reach out and push his hair back.

But that isn't my place.

"Could I get you anything?"

I shake my head wordlessly, moving through the ground floor quickly, almost absentminded to make certain that it's secure. The place is nice, well thought out except for the large windows which make up the kitchen and living room. They've made it easy for him to be a spectacle and I consider the backyard and if there's a fence.

I don't know what ails him but I wish that I could do my job better, could take his anxieties off of his shoulders for him.

I would.

I finish checking the house and return to the kitchen to find him. The kettle's on anyway.

"What did you see?" I ask him.

Purely so I know what I need to protect him from.

Nothing else.