#123launch

Abel was drunk. He’d drank with Bran for a couple of hours, and in his mission to keep up he’d managed to get himself into a terrible state. He was supposed to be heading to bed, but ended up in the training centre of all places. He’d snuck past the peacekeepers, had learned those skills years ago, and had become quite good at sneaking around.

He’d found the knives, which was a terrible thing, and after he’d managed to accidentally cut himself (just a small cut at the tip of his finger) he threw it, the knife flying right passed the target and then right passed someone’s head. “Shit— where did you come from?”

He was sitting on one of the benches on the roof, watching the snow fall. He needed to watch something other than the stream of the games, and Nick and Wheatie seemed safe for now, so he had pulled himself away and found himself in his usual hiding spot. He’d also stolen Bran’s pack of smokes so he had a lit cigarette hanging from his fingers, had only had two drags, but the nicotine buzz had him feeling nice.

“Fancy meeting you here” Abel smirked. 

Abel felt sick with nerves. Which was so new to him. He was never nervous about hanging out with people, but he’d called this a date, and now it was a thing he couldn’t quite get over. He’d spent the whole day before setting it up, in between watching the livestream of the arena. It was actually quite a nice distraction, and he’d get excited about something he’d thought about and want to tell somebody, but then remembered he couldn’t be harping on about a date when it was day 1 of the games.

He knocked at her door and waited with his hands behind his back, swaying nervously in place. He was wearing a pink ruffled shirt which was just sheer enough that his butterfly tattoo was visible, along with some tight black pants and black shiny boots.

A grin spread from ear to ear when she opened the door, and he could feel himself blush which was ridiculous because they’d literally seen each other yesterday morning. “Hello” Abel smiled, leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek. “Are you ready to go?” He asked, looking her up and down obviously checking her out. He may have been nervous, but he was still Abel.

Abel had watched the launch with Hyacinth, he almost cried when he noticed the snow melting because he didn’t think either of his two could swim. There wasn’t much swimming in nine. He bit on his nails as he watched them make it through the launch, feeling like he could do with one of the oxygen masks himself right about now. 

He’d pulled himself away long enough to grab a coffee, sneakily pouring a swig of whiskey into it before closing the lid and making his way to one of the many viewing rooms. He’d entered, noticed Kai and almost turned back around. They hadn’t spoke much really, and if something were to happen to one of his, he didn’t want to cry in front of a stranger. He pushed through though, something on screen catching his attention. “Hey” he smiled, sipping on his coffee. “Looks like your two made it this far, that’s good”

“Hey Ari” he smiled, happy to see the familiar face. He’d spent the morning glued to the screen, watching for something awful, but it hadn’t happened yet so he thought it was reason enough to celebrate. It’s the little victories really. He was at the bar, and yes, it was only early - but he felt it was deserved. He was already on his second, and it had calmed him a little. “Wanna join me?” he asked, nodding to the seat next to him. He hated being alone, especially when drinking. 

Abel had been camped out in one of the viewing rooms for a few hours now. He’d become a little delirious, probably due to a number of reasons: forgetting to eat, lack of sleep, enormous amount of caffeine consumed. He was talking to himself, mumbling angry commentary to the screen. “Fucking game makers” he huffed angrily. “Water?” He continued on, anyone who could overhear probably assuming he’d gone mad. “Have they got some weird alliance with four all of sud-” he stopped when he heard movement behind him, whipping his head back to find Alexandria looking back at him, “I uh-- how much of that did you hear?”