❛ IT IS KILL OR BE KILLED
- and the destroyer isn't planning
on being the lamb ; not when
she's a lioness.
*✧･ﾟ:* book one of the destroyer series
pre seventy-fourth / oc...
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═════ ten. 「 COUNTDOWN, START 」
That night, for the first time since landing in the Capitol, Dalia isn't at the dinner table with anxiety dipping into her stomach every few seconds. She's sitting in the viewing room of the apartment with an ice pack against her jaw as she laughs with her mentors and stylists. Everyone seems to unexpectedly be in a great mood and Dalia leans back in the plush chair she's seated in. She takes it in, pausing as she soaks in the moment.
Olympia's got a genuine smile on her lips, dressed down for the first time Dalia's seen. Pollux is still in his dress clothes, due for an appearance at an exclusive party tonight, but his arm is draped around Olympia protectively, who's eyes were red when they returned from training but now glisten with excitement. It feels like home in the dimmed viewing room as she nurses a sore jaw.
"How're your hands?" Olympia asks, interrupting her moment and nodding to the hands she helped wrap.
"They're okay." Dalia flexes her fingers, looking at her bandaged covered knuckles.
She had struggled earlier, breaking down inexplicably in her room when she tried to tape them herself. Olympia had been walking by, bowing her own head to cover her own eyes when she poked her head in, spotting Dalia trying and failing to tape her bruising knuckles. She didn't notice how hard she had been going until she was dismissed, riding the elevator up with a tingling jaw and stinging knuckles.
Olympia didn't say anything when she approached, shutting the door behind her quietly and walking over to take care of her. She took the pre-wrap and the tape from her fingers and did it herself expertly and quickly.
"Who do I remind you of?" She asked as she wrapped the bandage around her knuckles.
"What?"
"Who usually wraps you up back home? I can tell you do don't do it on yourself often."
She reminded her of Eros, who would always hold her hand on the way home when she punched a little too hard and patched her up when she got a few scrapes or cuts. It'd been a while since she had to patch herself up, having to remember how she used to do it before it became a thing between them.
"My training partner," she answered.
Olympia nodded knowingly. "Do you love him?"
She shook her head, wiping away her tears. The look on Olympia's face made it clear she didn't believe her and she wrapped tighter as she finished.
"That's what I said, too." Olympia nodded. "The boy I was supposed to enter the games with I had trained with since I was seven. His original partner was cut and mine dropped out so we were paired up and I expect you know what it's like, to grow up day in and day out with someone only to realize you have to kill them eventually."
