#uvstarter

The aftermath of the bombing was over, but that didn’t settle Dahlia’s mind. She was thankful that no one from District Seven had been caught in the crossfire and she was beginning to see people come home from the hospital at that point. with her being nearly eight months pregnant, she couldn’t go anywhere. The thought haunted her that she could have accidentally been up there for some reason, whether it be for an appointment or to get out of the house. To think of what would have happened to her unborn son if she had gotten involved in that was horrifying. 

Because of that, and Reid’s insistent kicking into her kidney, left her with minimal sleep. 

So one morning, she decided to go outside, waddling to get to her favorite chair on her porch. She was wearing an oversized t-shirt and one of her red flannels and a pair of leggings. Her feet were too swollen to wear shoes so she went outside with socks on. Dahlia eased herself into the chair with a heavy breath, her hair pulled back into a messy bun to keep out of her face as she rubbed her stomach. Reid was flipping and excited all morning and it was starting to wear on her. 

Still, she leaned back in the chair and watched the nearly empty streets. Her eyes traveled down to different houses, looking to see if she could spot anybody familiar. She couldn’t help but lean forward to check further down toward Delsin’s house, unsure if he was out and about. She didn’t see any activity, so she frowned and leaned back again. After a moment, her exhaustion got the best of her and she rubbed her face with her hands, trying to press her palms into her eyes. Once she did, she heard her name and she looked over.

His face hurt.

Ares was refusing medication to try and fight through the pain, thinking that it was partly responsible for why he was having so many gaps in his memory. As soon as he had gotten back to his quiet mansion from the Capitol Hospital, he immediately fell into his own bed to try and sleep it off. He kept his painkiller at bay, hoping that he could make it as long as he could until the pain naturally went away on its own. 

Except it didn’t, and he was miserable, even after days of being released from the hospital. 

So, he decided to try and occupy his time as much as possible, but up until he managed to change his lighter bandages on his own and actually saw how bad the wound was did he really understand that perhaps it wasn’t the medicine that was making him have memory gaps. He didn’t remember Serenity being in the bed with him, he only remembered that Fell had been there at all when he brought it up to him again, and he misplaced the memory of a panic attack when Seph was standing there in comfort. 

The fear of his lost memories and the pain he was feeling made him have panic attacks alone in his mansion. It was hard to deal with but he managed to self-soothe and go to sleep soon after. The minute he remembered how bad his face looked, the angrier he became at whoever had blown up the market and the angrier he got at himself for letting him get hurt at all. He couldn’t imagine Serenity even stomaching to look at him with how bad he was messed up. 

One morning, when he realized the day was beautiful and the air was at a nice temperature, he decided to open the front door and let the air in as well as one of the back windows to let the cross breeze come in. Eventually, he had to change his bandages again and after a mishap in the bathroom caused pain, he was immediately sent into a foul mood but managed to get them changed. Now his head was pounding and his left eye was aching, and instead of going straight for his medicine, he went to the cabinet in the kitchen where he had one bottle of whiskey left, poured himself a shot and took it without a care in the world.

If anyone caught him, he wasn’t sure if he cared. At least it took the edge off.

Except he wished he hadn’t when he heard a knock on the door and his name echoing into the main room. He quickly put the bottle away and put the glass in the sink, grimacing as his head throbbed again.

She moved to a bench, placing her foot on the wood backrest and stretching her quads. Her head rested on her thigh and Serenity saw someone approach as she stretched. 

“I could have used someone to race against if you had come by at the beginning of my run, rather than the end,” she smirked. 

Valor didn’t rest as much as he wanted to even when Rhys came home. Rose had immediately calmed down and allowed people to start interacting with her again. That didn’t mean that Valor was ready to go back to normal with his daughter after she had treated him and Hudson poorly. Things weren’t normal yet. Not by a long shot.

Rhys was sore and still having a rough go with some pain, and in order to give him as much room to spread out and be comfortable, Valor let him have the entire bed to himself. At least that was his rationale for it over the last several days. The truth was that Valor still felt distant toward his family. He felt more and more useless as the days went on. Valor tried to make up for it and do everything in the house to keep his family afloat.

The worst of it, however, was that he still wasn’t sleeping. He hadn’t taken his medication in nearly a week and he was tired of pretending. Except he still did, because if he did, he knew Rhys would catch on and he would have to talk about what was bothering him. The fact that Rhys was looked to by the children so much more did bother Valor and made him question his place in the family. So he stayed distant, but pretended he wasn’t.

But God, he was exhausted.

The dawn of the third day broke after he had brought his husband back from the hospital. He slept for two hours, his body beginning to feel the pain of the lack of sleep. Still, he made coffee, went to pick up another bottle of his antidepressants and quietly stored it with his half used bottle before continuing on with breakfast. He had just finished preparing biscuits when he heard his husband behind him. Valor turned to meet his gaze and he forced himself to smile.

He had been led away from Oakley by some sponsors, making some comment or another about his kids and what he should do for his tributes next year. Rubbing his neck and picking at his implant, Birch excused himself from the conversation, finding an exit into the garden. Birch was worried about the rebels, but he always was fighting the crushing grief of not bringing one of his tributes home. Some twenty-six years later and there wasn’t one he could say he helped live. 

But, he couldn’t dwell on that here, of all places. Birch made his way to one of the open doorways back into the ballroom, leaning against the door jam and bopping his head a little to the music. Noticing a figure come near, he smiled, his eyes still on the musicians. “What do you think? Should we make this more of a karaoke night and convince those musicians to let us sing? That would definitely take the pressure off of the events of the week.” // @uvstarters

She had left June in the hands of her Capitol tutor, scheduling the session for the evening and into the night so she could hang out with June in the morning. Despite the reason she thought this event was being called, Sierra was quite happy that it was being held outdoors. Wine glass in hand she wandered the hedges, coming across a bench and taking a seat. 

In her hand bag, she had brought her e-reader, wanting to read if she had a moment or a space to herself. Sierra pulled it out, but quickly placed it on the bench seat when she heard someone coming. “Nice evening for a party, huh?” she said, a little awkwardly. “Maybe next time we can convince them to have the party in actual nature.” // @uvstarters

“I’m sorry, can we do it again?” Cordelia asked to the cameraman as the stylist came into sight to fix the long strands of hair that acted as the frame of an uneasy face. The cloudy horizon was a warning: she needed to get it once before the rain made them lose the chance of getting a perfect shot. Considering the level of technology the Capitol owned, it was able to change the weather out of boredom or need. One day it could be raining, other snowing…the brightest sun could be up decorating the blue background or the biggest moon could be shining through the darkness. It was almost like another arena. It only took her a second to let her eyes rest on the houses inhabited by survivors of the worst artificial weather conditions to reproach herself for such thoughtless idea. Who was a doctor who had been brought up in a crystal castle to even consider having the right to speak about how the games were? 

Her house- filled to the brim with all ten other members of her family- was feeling stuffy today, as it had a tendency to do. And, as Pixel had a tendency to do, she felt an immediate need to escape before that familiar strike of panic fell into her chest. Usually just stepping outside and leaving any kind of closed space helped, but even the gates of the Victors Village felt like a prison to her today. And once she left the Village, she couldn’t think of anywhere to go to but her old friend, the Tribute Tower. 

“Don’t bother,” Pixel closed her eyes as she felt a figure approaching, just knowing that someone was there to scold her for messing up the furniture, or perhaps ask her what she was doing there, or even ask for an autograph. She remembered her first time in this Tower- bright eyed and blasting the cameras and crowds with a brilliant and manufactured smile. Anything for sponsors back then. Nowadays, what was the point? // @uvstarters