#unidingo

Fishie sat on the floor of the camel’s house, fidgeting with the bottom of her new jacket. There was still work to be done to make the place feel more like home, but for now: it had walls, it had a floor, and it had windows. It was better than anything she’d had before the games, but that wasn’t relevant to what was currently on Fishie’s mind.

She watched as Dingo fiddled around the furnaces, engrossed in whatever her hooves were working on. She said she’d make them both dinner, but Fishie wasn’t sure what could really be done with just the handful of potatoes and salmon. Last season Fishie hadn’t been able to make anything extravagant with what they had. She was in charge of food since Kiki was the one handling caving, so everything they ate just got the job done. Simple bread and cooked cod with the occasional well done steak or mutton if they really needed it.

Dingo suddenly looked over and Fishie quickly looked away. Was she being weird for staring? Did Dingo not like being stared at while she worked? Fishie stared down at her lap. They hadn’t talked that much yet, which was fine. The season literally just started after all, but there was a bit of awkwardness in the air. They were enemies last season, Dingo literally blew up her husband. Well, ex-husband. Death did them part, those are the rules as far as Fishie knows. So while she still definitely loved him and wished he was here with her, that’s just how the things work. She thought it was strange how not angry she was at Dingo about it. She remembers being absolutely devastated about it when it happened and vowing revenge, but for some reason, the fire just wasn’t there. Was it because Dingo died in the end? She didn’t know.

Fishie looked back up to see Dingo still staring, the hog quickly returning to her work when they locked eyes. Was this awkward for her too? Fishie coughed into her knuckle and spoke up.

“So, uh. Do you like cooking?” There was a pause before Dingo responded.

“Yeah.” Dingo stated, not looking away from the food she was starting to plate.

“Cool. Cool.” Fishie scratched her cheek. Where could she take the conversation from there? Does she ask about her favorite food? Or is that too boring? What if she asked about what she made for her allies last season? Or was it a bad idea to talk about last season considering their history?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt something on her lap. Her new dog had rested his snout on her lap, begging to be pet. Fishie smiled, giving the boy what he wanted.

“You like dogs?” She looked up to Dingo walking over with two plates of food.

“Oh, yeah, they’re cool.”

“Nice.” Dingo knelt down and handed Fishie a plate, then joined her on their jungle wood floor.

“We’ve got to get some chairs set up in here tomorrow.” Dingo leaned back against the wall, setting her plate on her lap.

“What, you don’t like eating on the floor?” Fishie retorted while stopping her dog from gobbling up her food.

“I mean, I can. But it’ll probably be easier to eat without your dogs gnawing at your plate.” Fishie sighed and put her plate down.

“Alright, c'mere you little shit.” Fishie picked up her unnamed dog and set him in the corner next to her other dog.

“You two will get food later. And probably names if we’re lucky.” She’d wanted to do more fishing later. Last season it got her that sharpness book that she didn’t get to use that much, but she hoped she’d have a better go-around this time.

“Do you have names picked out for them?” Dingo asked.

“Maybe, there was a book I read as a kid that mentioned “The Dogs of War” so I might do something with that.”

“You read a lot?”

“Yeah, hobby of mine during uh. The before times.”

“Ah.” There it was again, back to the awkwardness.

Fishie wandered back next to Dingo and picked her plate back up. Now that she wasn’t distracted, she could look at the food in front of her. The salmon was practically glistening while the potatoes’ fluffy insides were bursting out of their skin. She hadn’t seen food prepared like this before, let alone thought it possible in the games. She cut off a part of the salmon and put it in her mouth. Her eyes widened and she immediately started stuffing more of it down her gullet. She could hear Dingo chuckle to her right.

“Taste good?”

“Mhm, ‘s good!” Fishie felt a bit of spit fly from her mouth. She stopped and covered her mouth.

“Sorry, sorry.” Fishie sputtered out. Dingo laughed.

“It’s fine, I’m glad you like it so much.” Fishie could see a glint of pride from Dingo’s eyes.

“I don’t know how you did this with what we had to work with.”

“I have my ways.” Dingo said coyly. “Just wait until we get the cows going. Then we’ll really be on our way to flavor town.”