You're Still a Mystery [Berlin/Saturn]

[Deleted]

 

- Saturn RhoDon -

I am starting to see stars and moons
(it's an awful sham, but I follow suit)
This is how it ends, a courageous boom

It could’ve been the way the boy from four had appeared in his reaping video: that he’d stepped forward, glowering, as though he had something to prove. Or that in the training center he’d noticed Berlin’s size in comparison to the rest of them. They were careers, bodies that had been bred and bled for this, born into a life that was all sacrifice and suicide. As he stretched atop the matt at the hand-to-hand station, he wondered whether or not life in four had been much the same as in one. If there was the constant pressure to succeed, the demand to perfect their bodies, or that certain families stood atop the hierarchy to let it be known they were to serve and not be seen.

Saturn knelt forward, his hands pulling the base of his heel and bringing his chin down to his thigh. He was not the top of his class, but smart enough to know that if the boy were a true career, he’d have long forgotten what it meant to have remorse for taking another’s life in the hunger games. Death weighed down the spirit only if they let it, and Saturn had swallowed such advice whole. It was far easier to silo what he felt and what he believed separately. He’d done a good enough job the past few years, what was another few weeks, anyway?

He put his hands across the matt and brought his body into another stretch. Arching his back, Saturn turned to get a glance at Berlin. The times that he had fought in district one, he focused on brute strength and speed to subdue his opponent. He’d never been showy in his matches. That was the sort of thing that led to defeat, and worse, embarrassment. Saturn abhorred the type of man that thought arrogance was earned. There was no purpose served in humiliation, other than a self-serving need to fill an emptiness that had never haunted Saturn.

“Berlin,” Saturn got to his feet, and moved forward toward the boy. He’d been particular in choosing the station that morning after seeing the other career edge his way along the matts. He was curious, Saturn determined. If he learned nothing, at the least he could settle what sort of fight he would be looking to in the future. “Thinking we could go hand-to-hand here, see who comes out on top.”

Perhaps he was much too friendly. There had plenty of careers that had stalked the arena with an air of vengeance, or downright sociopathy. He felt far less intimidating, no matter his size, or what he’d been trained to do, when he offered to fight with a smile. One of the few things that hadn’t been trained out of him, Saturn couldn’t help but grin. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in the sort of horror that was coming to him, it was that he simply didn’t seem to much care.

“I heard that you were someone I needed to keep my eye on.”

*Star & Moons, Dizzy

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[alex 🐺]

He had always wanted to know the difference between a god and the devil, but that’s just it, there was no difference. The devil whispers in his ear, curling around his throat and clenching his claws around Berlin’s heart, grasping and undulating. The boy was bursting within himself and outside of himself, a fallen god, his own fangs and his own coils wrapping around his soul. He existed in two

Five syllables. Four words and the course of his life had changed forever. Never one to be told what to do, Berlin had chosen this. He had yearned for it, craved it, and the asshole Perch boy would be a small footnote in Berlin’s larger story. The prince of District Four had no place in the Games after all, even if his parents were storied Careers. They were all washed up, like spent cigarette ash, while Berlin was a boy with his soul afire. Desperate for redemption. Desperate to do something.

He dodged a punch levied from the trainer, sweat dripping down his brow. Everything from the moment he had volunteered had turned into a game of strategy. Do you overexert yourself in the Training Center so that you’re underestimated? Do you intentionally fumble with weapons? Do you play coy, knowing all eyes at all times are on you? Words from Anatalia Morrisen filtered through his brain and immediately out - she had survived, yes, but so had all the others. Her victory, while admirable, was nothing to emulate.

The boy from District One had taken to watching him and Berlin had chosen stolen moments to observe the boy in turn. He was gorgeous, that much was for certain. Fists like hurricanes and a body molded in the images of the gods. With a nod to his trainer that the session was at its end, it was a few moments before Berlin realized that Saturn was speaking to him. The motions that he had taken to remove the tape from his hands slowed as he levied a raised eyebrow towards Saturn.

"Berlin,” he spoke slowly, walking towards him. He was taller than Berlin, his shoulders broad and tanned. “Thinking we could go hand-to-hand here, see who comes out on top.”

A bark of laughter and Berlin rubs his hands together. ”I’m sure you would like to be on top, Rhodon. Or are the rumors I’ve heard untrue?” Replacing the tape on his hands and standing before Saturn in the middle of the mat, Berlin stretched his shoulders, pulling his arms back and raising his fists once more. His mother had told him when he was younger that his fists were hurricanes, he had storms within his soul. 

”Are you ready to put on a show, One?”

[Deleted]

 

- Saturn RhoDon -

I am starting to see stars and moons
(it's an awful sham, but I follow suit)
This is how it ends, a courageous boom

I’m sure you would like to be on top, Rhodon. Or are the rumors I’ve heard untrue?

Saturn knew his reputation had to have preceded him. He’d spent much of his time in district one acutely aware of how quickly that word spread. Boys that asked him to train for a session and then showering in the locker rooms after – don’t you want to walk home with me, Saturn? The ones that stammered out words about how they thought they could never be with a boy like him and, that Saturn didn’t see them so much as invisible as just another beige person. Someone that would never mean much in the grand scheme of things; an uninteresting man that even as hard as he tried, could never please him.

But it didn’t mean he wasn’t one to let them try.

“Even if I’m not on top, Batalanto, I wind up getting exactly what I want,” Saturn chided back at the boy from four. Next to Saturn, he contended the boy was likely one of the larger bodies there. His face was all fury and sharp edges; he liked the way Berlin seemed exactly as he presented himself. When he stared at the boy’s face he couldn’t quite place his eyes – a curious look that Saturn saw as more than just playful. He didn’t doubt Berlin was ready to tear him apart just as soon the niceties were dropped. Wasn’t it strategic to challenge the biggest one to prove just how powerful you were?

Are you ready to put on a show, One?

“I think the question is whether or not you could handle being my co-star, four,” Saturn twisted left and made sure to stretch out his hip before turning right. He brought both arms above his head in a cheesy pose to show off his biceps before hunching forward on his knees, making sure to keep on the balls of his feet. “You can tap out whenever you’d like, of course. No shame in losing – well, I’m sure that’s what some of these other boys have been taught.”

Saturn wasn’t showy – at least, not unless he was proving a point. Other boys liked to challenge him because they saw him a threat, or to put him in his place. Except he thrived in moments where there was a true chance he could lose, as though the possibility kept his heart racing, made him just that much better. It helped, too, that he could picture the boy from four struggling underneath of him, frantic in Saturn’s strong hold.

“Let’s go.” He took a step forward, readying for Berlin to take an opposing stance, before racing charging forward to bring his frame crashing into him like a wave.

*Star & Moons, Dizzy

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[alex 🐺]

He had done his research, the boy from One, that was for sure. The endless studying of opponents - their names, habits, talents, likes, dislikes - had been pounded into their heads almost as frequently as they had been thrown to the mat and told to defend themselves. You could not call yourself a Career if you hadn't assembled dossiers on your opponents - Berlin's were scattered all around the District Four apartment as if someone had thrown them up in anger. He knew how to telegraph his movements. He knew the intricacies of their reapings. These saints and savages, he knew them. Which made it easier to kill them.

This harmless sparring session that was anything but. It was a show, a catwalk on the runway of expectations, and Berlin hoped that he would not tip his hand. But then again, this could be fun.

Hand-to-hand combat was a warzone, their bodies the artillery, the guns, the weapons. Backs against the wall, hands on skin and muscles and you learn a lot about someone else. The intimacy was intoxicating and Berlin was getting drunk off of the thought of it.

Cracking his neck from side to side, Berlin smirked, before giving Saturn a sardonic laugh and bow. “I think the question is whether or not you could handle being my co-star, four.” Oh, god, he was going to be a talker, wasn’t he?

“As much as your voice is music to my ears, you really aren’t going to narrate this for me, are you?” Berlin straightened up, hands raised in front of his face, his pointer finger on his right hand daring Saturn to make the first move.

“You’re cuter when your mouth is closed. Ball’s in your court, Spaceboy.”

[Deleted]

 

- Saturn RhoDon -

I am starting to see stars and moons
(it's an awful sham, but I follow suit)
This is how it ends, a courageous boom

As much as your voice is music to my ears, you really aren’t going to narrate this for me, are you?

He has to hand it to Berlin: he plays the part well. The type of boy with a devil-may-care grin, and words that slice through any kind of jovial barbs Saturn may have had. He’s electric, Saturn thinks, and there’s more to him that he could’ve anticipated. He’s familiar, in the way that he has known boys like him his whole life, the same that have been in his bed or stood next to him on the training mat. There is something comforting in how close he thinks their souls are, no matter how separate they may actually be. Berlin straightens and points a finger, daring Saturn (his heart beats faster, too).

You’re cuter when your mouth is closed. Ball’s in your court, Spaceboy. Ah – here’s the dance. They are two bodies ready for destruction, bred for this. And Saturn turns the word cute over in his mind, the smile betraying any sort of intimidating glower he could offer. Berlin is handsome – strong arms, thick legs, eyes he could wake up next to, stare into – and he thinks, maybe I’ll smash his face in. He steps forward and gets ready to pounce, but not before one last glance at Berlin, unharmed. It was a shame they’d been born in different districts.

“With pleasure,” He grits his teeth and charges forward, heavy body dipping forward into a crouch, legs low, fast. How many boys have thought that just because Saturn is big he can’t be nimble? Well – he imagines Berlin face down, his body atop the boy from four’s, a hand pulling his hair so his head tilts back, whispering into his ear call me spaceboy, I dare you – utter power. He wants to make sure that no matter the outcome it is not his skill that Berlin can see, but that a boy like Saturn left alone and underestimated was foolish.

And so he launches, knees downward, then body upward, moving to push his frame into Berlin, and hands that come up behind his head. He is a flash of white teeth and a sneer; he is electric, thinking only of power, of the willingness of the weak. He lets out a grunt as he locks arms with the boy, and turns a heel to bring them both down onto the mat together.

*Star & Moons, Dizzy

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[alex 🐺]

work in progressssss