The only light in the theatre came from a single spotlight, trained on the edge of the stage. Empty, it took on an eerie quality; too full of shadows and dark spaces. Athena shivered as she entered.
Dyo was sitting alone on the edge of the stage, one leg dangling over the side, leaning back on his arms. He looked tired, weary, and sad.
The knot in Athena’s stomach relaxed when she saw him; she hadn’t really expected to, but now that she had found him she had a hope of making everything okay. Dyo had manged to survive in this chaotic, deceptive world. He could help her to do so too.
Athena could barely force each leg to step in front of the other anymore; her whole body felt numb. Her mind was as dark as the theatre around her. She made it up the aisle and almost to the stage before Dyo caught sight of her through the gloom.
“Athena?” he raised an eyebrow and his leg stopped spinning. “What are you-” he began, but stopped as he took in her appearance properly. “Are you okay?”
Athena shook her head. No. She was most definitely not okay.
He dropped from the side of the stage, crossing the rest of the distance between them so that he was stood directly in front of her. Hesitantly, he extended his arm, placing a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“The vote,” she said softly, but his brow creased in confusion.
He had taken off his glasses when she refused to read his apology message and he hadn’t put them back on since. But only one announcement could have affected her so greatly. “The military budget?”
This time she responded with a nod.
Her knees wobbled. She was pale, so very, very pale and he didn’t think that she wouldn’t be able to support her own weight for much longer, so he took her by the hand and led her over to the stage, lifting her up onto its edge so that she was sat down.
“They announced it seconds after Castor Grant, a spokesperson from the Freedom Institute, delivered a speech about 'the great threats our nation currently faces’,” she sniffed, her voice catching slightly. “It’s all just a game, isn’t it?”
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head into his chest. “I’m sorry, I wish that it wasn’t. I wish this could be the world you thought it was. The world we all want it to be.”
He smelt sweet, like apples, but also of something familiar that Athena couldn’t quite place.
With her head against his chest, she could feel the steady rhythm of his heart and, after everything that had happened that night, his arms around her felt safe, secure.
She knew that it should feel odd, being this close to him; she had spent much of the past few weeks complaining about him, after all. He had shouted at her and tricked her. But he had also been honest. He had wanted her to see the truth. And being in his arms didn’t feel wrong. It felt inexpressibly right; as though she had found the one place in the world where she was supposed to be. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but nothing was really making sense to her after the evening she’d just had.
However, just because it felt right to her, didn’t mean that Dyo wasn’t wondering why on earth she hadn’t moved away yet, so she shuffled back slightly on the stage, loosening his grip. “I’m sorry,” she started to say, avoiding his gaze. “I don’t mean to be such a mess.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry about it, really. We’ve all been there.”
Athena moved back even further so that she could see him properly. “So who was here for you, when you were like this?” She wondered if it had been Orion, or Briseis.
His face clouded. “It doesn’t matter; it was a long time ago now. Too long ago for it to have had much of an impact on me. It’s worse for you, because you’ve become so involved in the system.” She noticed the deflection; there was a lot more to the story than Dyo was willing to share with her. But it didn’t seem like the right time to push him.
“How do you all cope?”
“By staying together, as a group, and through our determination to do something about it. This isn’t how the system is supposed to be; it should be fair and equal and all those things you spoke about at the first meeting. And it can be, we just have to make everyone else realise what is going on.” He looked so sincere; he believed completely in what he was saying. In a way, he reminded her of Cress, when she heard about a new vote. Cress. What would she say about all this? Cress was even more impassioned by the system than Athena was; to hear that it was flawed in any way would destroy her… Especially given her obvious attachment to Castor. It was unlikely she would believe Athena even if she tried to tell her.
“I want to help,” Athena told Dyo, her mind still on Cress.
Dyo smiled at her. “I was hoping that you would say that.” And he tilted his head down towards her and kissed her.
As she felt his lips on hers, everything else slipped away: the vote, Castor, Cress, all of it floated straight out of her mind. Leaving only the here and now; the heat of his lips, the taste of his mouth and the security of is arms around her, drawing her in.
But all too soon, he broke off. Resting his forehead against hers, he said: “I’m sorry about this afternoon. How about you let me make it up to you by taking you out on a real date.”