Our Love Could Be Lethal

Act II: Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Seneca continues to speak with Caesar but he dismisses Octavia who disappears behind the small curtain they'd set up and into one of the areas of the Tribute Tower where the press can't go. I move through the crowd that I'd previously been standing at the back of to try and go after her. Once I'm behind the curtain there are significantly fewer people walking around, although still a fair amount. I call Octavia's name and she stops in her tracks. She takes a few moments to turn around, probably debating if she wants to talk to me or not. Eventually, she does with her arms crossed over her chest. "How convenient that you just so happen to make this announcement right after the transports take off."

A smirk forms out of the corner of her lip. "What can I say? It's called strategy look it up."

"You're playing dirty this year," I inform her.

Octavia rolls her eyes at me, a common occurrence these days. "Well sorry if I happen to have a lot on the line Haymitch." When she says my name she practically spits it out.

"I didn't know," I say honestly. If I had...I don't know what I would've done, but I would've done something different. Maybe.

"I know you didn't," she says stiffly.

So I decide to tell her something she probably hasn't heard all morning, but something she needs to hear. "I'm sorry."

It's as if my words disarm her, which is quite a significant feat because of how often shes' armed. I can see the tears building up ever so slightly as she blinks rapidly to try and get them to disappear. Her head scans the moving people around us, and I'm not sure if she's looking to make sure no one can see her emotion or if she's making sure no one heard what I said. "I don't know what you're talking about Haymitch. It's an honour for my brother to represent our district." I don't need a truth serum to see that she's lying. Her voice shaking is more than enough to figure things out. But I understand her wanting to protect herself from prying ears, the Capitol isn't afraid to punish Victors when we say the wrong things.

I smile politely at her. "Of course." I sigh. "Good thing we're working together. Peeta told me he's going to wait around the Coronopia for the Careers, he wants the alliance." I purposefully leave out Katniss in hopes that we can find some common ground in this conversation.

Of course, she's way too smart to not notice that, but she doesn't seem to care. "Good. They'll be looking out for him."

"Octavia, just remember who the real enemy is," I say in a thinly veiled statement. Hopefully, she understands what I'm saying. As I said, she's a smart girl, but people only hear what they want to hear. And if Snow's been talking in her ear the past few years, her ears might be closed to what I have to say.

Octavia's POV

Haymitch's words catch me off guard. At first when he told me to 'remember who the real enemy is' my mind instantly flicked to Katniss. Katniss is my enemy. She's the biggest threat to my brother. But after my knee-jerk reaction, I slowly start to think about things more rationally. Haymitch of course doesn't mean his own Tribute, he means the Capitol. The ones who put us here and force us to fight in the first place. The ones who prostitute us, kill our families, and turn us into walking dolls.

While it's a sentiment I appreciate and desperately wish could be true, that the Games would someday end, I know it's not realistic. The Capitol is too powerful. And either way, unless this radical change were to take place overnight, it wouldn't be enough to save my brother. He's probably in the tunnels under the arena now. Right now the danger is out of the hands of the Capitol, and in the hands of twenty-three other Tributes. "I can't afford to think like that," I inform Haymitch.