Bring Me the Flowers

The wasps seemed to fly off, gradually but surely. Some remained, but not for long, following their swarm back to wherever their hive brain led them - or wherever the Gamemakers told them to go. Perhaps they were satisfied with what had already transpired. The stings on Helios' neck and arms already burned enough to have a sweat break out on his forehead, to have nausea start roiling in his gut, and he'd only been stung by a fraction of what Flora'd had to endure.

Flora rested her back against Helios' chest. Her head leaned on his shoulder as she tried to relax. Her whole body was trembling from the burning pain. The lumps on her skin began to change colors and swell even more. "I-I must be sweet t-to them or something. Or t-they think I'm super cool." She said with a small laugh which then turned into a wince as even laughing was painful. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked at the tablet that was close to her face. Weakly she lifts her hand up and push his hand away, shaking her head. "I-I'm not taking that. It's not going to help a-and you may need it later on." The girl was delusional but not that delusional. She was in bad shape. Covered in many stings and knew it would take a miracle to fix her back up.

Helios made the smallest of displeased sounds as she let go of his hand to skip ahead. She seemed to be excited about whatever idea she had, and that was at least a little bit distracting for Helios. A distraction from the pain that sat so deeply anchored in his chest, barbs hooked into his very bones. "Are you sure?" Helios asked, managing a humorous chuckle. "We're so busy with this baby, how will we possibly deal with a second one?" The doll island was at the very least far away from here, where all he could think about was watching Callisto die in the Oasis's lake, while his own wounds began to heal.

Flora desperately tried to get the paper wasps away from her. It was sting after sting the next hurt worst the last. Though she tried to remain calm, the girl squealed and whimpered as she tried to get the wasps to stop. The girl began to feel herself blacking out. Dizziness was overcoming her and she was feeling sick. Knowing nothing about these kinds of mutts, she was unsure if it was from the mutts itself or just a reaction to the pain that ran through her body. Feeling herself sway a bit, she was prepared to fall to the floor until she realized Helios' had his hand on her. The next thing she knew, he pulled her backwards out of the swarm.

Even as her arms wrapped around him, Helios kept his hands in the air for several moments longer. Something in her touch shook him loose, shattered a very carefully built wall that Callisto's death had made so fragile already. Helios squeezed his eyes shut and his arms sank, wrapping around Flora in turn as tears finally welled over and spilled out onto his cheeks. Thank the gods there was rain to hide his grief. Not from Flora, though. She could see it perfectly well. He hugged her tight. For a few moments, he'd take the comfort she offered, even if he knew he didn't deserve it.

"Everything's going to be okay.. I promise." Flora smile at him as he squeezed her hand before taking off in a random direction. She was silent for a moment, trying to think of anything to break the awkward silence. It was obvious, but grief and emotions was not something Flora knew how to handle well. Everything was unserious to her.

The sun dipped in slow motion, inched closer and closer to where the ocean met the sky. They were bathed in golden light, lovely shadows cast upon her features as Helios looked at her with curiosity. All of a sudden, she seemed shy. And Flora was never shy, that much he'd learned. Perhaps, that was a good sign - and a bit of a personal triumph. She looked down at her feet before looking up at him, searching his eyes for something she obviously found. Because next, she quietly agreed.

Flora couldn't help but let out a small giggle. She wasn't sure if it was just from happiness, excitement or maybe just nerves. Either way, it was all good vibes. Everything around them turned golden, though Flora didn't look around. Her eyes didn't leave Helios' features, still taking them all in.

The relief at her being okay pierced even through the gut wrenching numbness that'd taken a hold of him. He'd hoped that Flora would be as easily distracted as she usually was. But the topic circled back, and Helios' expression darkened in grief even more.

Flora tried to read his expression in the pouring rain. Though, after he said they couldn't help her, it confirmed her worries. She felt her heart sank at the thought of Calli being dead. "Helios.. I am-- I am so sorry." Flora said as she hugged Helios tight. Calli and her hadn't been that close, but Flora really had enjoyed every time they were around each other. From making flower bracelets on the floor of the training center to almost getting eaten alive by bats in the cave. Also the relationship between Calli and Helios was unknown to Flora, but they were from the same district and they had seemed pretty close. At one point she had even thought they were dating.

Helios's lips twisted into a smile, gentle. A rare thing for a rare moment. The sun was starting to set around them, and here they were - bloodied, bruised, holding hands. A Career from One and a crazy girl from Seven. "Hm," Helios hummed, dry humor in the tone. Just sitting in my favorite tree with this really handsome person. Not as handsome as you, of course. "Naturally." Cockiness rose to the surface, the smile widening to a lopsided smirk. The sun setting over the treeline around us.. Helios looked back out over the ocean. He was rubbing it in Flora's face, even if unintentionally. But it felt horribly sad to him, missing out on those things. Perhaps... well, perhaps he could help her, even if just the tiniest bit.

Flora was taken by surprise as Helios stood up and pulled her up as well. Though, she smiled up at him when she turned to face him. At first she wasn't exactly sure what he was doing but she was interested for sure. The girl then also looked around them and for a moment, noticing how beautiful the sunset looked over the water. "Well.. maybe if I would've known what a beach looked like I would've envisioned it. And for sure would've imagined you, too, of course." She teased, letting out a small giggle.

Flora approached, reached out and touched and - Helios didn't flinch. Had it been anyone else, he probably would have. Except for Flora, he wasn't sure he would have let anyone touch him in that moment. Bramble, perhaps, but she played on a different team entirely. There was no telling if she would make use of his affection at some point or another. To gouge out his eyes, to strangle him, to do whatever. Helios would have selfishly welcomed blindness now, but the thought of pitch black darkness and seeing only his loss reflected was driving him a little mad. But Flora took his hands and used them to shield herself from the rain while the drops slid down his face and erased all tracks of his tears and he stood still, even if he wanted to hug her now.

The more she looked at Helios, the more she was beginning to realize he wasn't okay. Even before he claimed not to be. Things felt different, his energy felt different, and at first she wasn't sure what to make of it. "Calli?" The girl asked, smile dropping off her face. Though he moved onto the next subject. "I'm fine. Literally perfect and still totally cool. Same as you left me. Well, a little more soaked but--" Flora said before cutting herself off, still wondering why he sounded so sad and why he brought up Calli.

Callisto was dead. Calli was dead and Helios was still here. Wounds healed, while she had been lifted out of the Arena. He had watched, had shakily crawled out of the Oasis to cower underneath a tree as the Hovercraft had come. The wind had picked up, rainwater spraying while the claw had lowered down in near slow motion. Calli had been picked up gently, but not gently enough for Helios' taste. She had looked so small, being picked up and taken away. His heart had ached. It still did. He didn't want to never see her again. He wanted her smile, her affronted gasps when he teased her. He wanted to clink his champagne glass against hers and feel her head lean against his shoulder.

Flora had spent the entire time of the storm alone. The time had mostly been spent wandering around looking for any other tributes to battle the rain and wind with. But, it had been pointless. It had gotten to the point where she began to wonder if there was anyone alive. Had she accidentally won the Hunger Games? Had they forgotten to come back and get her out of the arena?

His brows were furrowed the entire time she was speaking. "So, your parents isolated you?" It sounded horrible to him. To not be allowed to speak to anyone, to not wander off and make experiences for himself. "Don't you wonder what your life would have been like, had you gotten to experience the world a little?" Her shoulder bumped into his, and involuntarily, just because Flora seemed to get it out of him, he chuckled. "You're missing out, I think. There's a... thrill in being close to a person. Someone who shares your warmth, desires, thoughts." He lifted his hand between them, palm upwards as a wordless invitation for her to take it. "You said you've imagined it. How did you imagine it?"

"Sure." Flora nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I guess I missed out on a lot but I don't just sit around and think about how life could've been.. It wasn't like that and now it never will be. But that's okay, I mean, I really did have a good childhood and a good life, it was just different from most." Then, she laughed. "And maybe if I would've had a 'normal' life I'd be a little too normal for you and you wouldn't like me as much since I wouldn't be strange." She looked at his hand and smiled before softly grabbing it. "Well, I wouldn't realize what it felt like or how much I missed out if you wouldn't rub it in my face, you jerk." She joked, fighting the urge to push him over. "Oh you know, just sitting in my favorite tree with this really handsome person. Not as handsome as you, of course, but pretty close." She teased, smiling at him. "The sun was setting over the treeline around us.. You know, just kind of how they describe it in books. Cheesy and cliche. But super cute."

Helios squeezed Flora's hand as she took his, watched her with amusement as she closed her eyes to likely try and transfer her superpowers over to him. They were quiet for a few moment, but Helios felt his chest squeeze with fondness. Flora was horribly odd, but he found he enjoyed that. "Yeah," he breathed out, grinning lightly, "it worked. No more pain."

Flora laughed. "I am glad that I am just the right amount of insane." She joked though she took it as a compliment. The girl was different, she knew that, but it seemed like the other tributes enjoyed her strangeness, which she liked. "Of course I have." She started before looking at him. "But then I accepted it was never going to happen and stopped thinking about it. My parents never let me wander off far. I didn't go to school, I went to the reapings but was never allowed to speak or look at anyone while I was there." Then she shook her head. "I didn't like anyone but only because I didn't know anyone. I've never even spoken to anyone other than my parents until I got to the Tower." She thought back to when Helios and her had made flower crowns on the roof of the tower, causing a small laugh. "But it's okay. That just means I get to die as a cool bitch who was never kissed and never loved. Kinda cool, right?" She asked, lightly bumping him with her shoulder.

"Please, try," Helios said, slightly dry but with an edge of amusement as he looked at her from the side. How he'd kill for the sort of superpower that could spare him of this particular sort of pain. He could handle a lot, but not everything. "Can't be that hard to transfer, can it?"

"Hm." The girl hummed as she reached out and grabbed Helios hand with her good hand. "I'll try." She said as she held his hand close and closed her eyes. Again, she didn't know what she was doing but she would try her best. Focusing on her superpower and Helios for a moment, she stayed silent. Then, she looked at him hopeful. "Did it work?" She asked, though she couldn't help but let a small laugh escape as she let go of his hand.

"I.. don't really know, honestly." She said as she shrugged her shoulders. "My parents had always been super care-free. Reminding me not to care too much about things that I can't personally fix or control. So I've been teaching myself not to since I was really young. I think now, sometimes, I have to actually remind myself to care." It was kind of funny, which caused the girl to let out a laugh. "Are you saying I shouldn't trust you?" She asked curiously, squinting her eyes at him. "I mean, you've had plenty of time and opportunity to kill me but you made fruit salad instead of like, Flora salad. But if you don't want me to trust you.." She put her hands up defensively. "Then I won't trust you and you can totally kill me now."

"I'm pretty sure we'd have a much prettier baby," Helios snapped back, though not unkindly. The doll was creepy and ugly. Killer combination. Nothing like what he'd imagined his potential children to look like. He snorted when she appeared rather elated to be called fucking insane.

"Well, you see, I was just born with them. Passed down for many generations. I just basically never feel pain and it's great because who would want to feel something as awful as that?" Flora shrugged her shoulders. "But, I definitely have some to spare! Not quite sure how to transfer them over to you though." She joked with a small laugh.

"I don't hate everything," he huffed. "It's just... any name picked for a doll would be stupid." The doll was creepy. Naming it Angel had been a funny jab, but it was still weird. He softened a little at her next words. "I haven't called you stupid," he said. Helios did not think that Flora was stupid. "I think I said you're fucking crazy," he teased then.

"It's not just a doll, it's our baby." Flora responded quick, annoyed. But then she perked up as if she had been given the best compliment ever with a smile on her face. "Oh! That's definitely much better."

Nettle was glad she was facing away as flora spoke. her eyes involuntarily widened, surprise coating her features. Flora was a lot to get behind. excited to cut off a finger was a very unexpected feature. still. Nettle had to get with it too, because flora was the one she was with.

"Wait, you're trusting me?" Flora asked shocked for a moment before gripping the rock in her hand slightly tighter. She was nervous but she didn't let it show. "Listen, I'm no expert on cutting off pinkies but I swear I will do this perfectly. Won't cut off or smash any other fingers and it'll look clean and hardly even noticeable." She held her right hand up as she promised. "It'll look you so good you'll probably even thank me." The girl then held the rock up. "Just tell me when."

Slate frowned, not knowing that Flora and Nettle had run into one another, and certainly not that Nettle had had a gun. The question about killing came very suddenly, and he was a bit frozen by it, unsure what to say. The truth would make her trust him less; but he was sure that Ezra and Helios had also killed. In the Bloodbath, surely they had. "Lots of people killed in the Bloodbath," he replied. "And I don't fully trust anyone, never have."

"Sure." Flora said, nodding her head. "I was one of them." She admitted, though she could always argue that it wasn't her fault. That he had attacked first. That she had no choice. That she was a good person.. nonetheless, though, she had still killed. "I'll take that as a yes that you did kill since you didn't say no." She started. "Which I don't think that makes you or I any better than the Careers. But it also doesn't make us bad people. So that's why I choose not to judge them. Plus.. I really just don't even care that much if I'm being honest." She shrugged and laughed before holding her hand out for another piece of fruit. "Word, I hear that. Well, for what it's worth I trust you, fully."