I Read TBOSAS Over Christmas And I Gotta Say The Film Deprived Us Of Some Very Funny Classmate Dynamics

I read TBOSAS over Christmas and I gotta say the film deprived us of some very funny classmate dynamics

What do you mean Finnick is dead?

The Finnick that makes Annie and his son cute little bento boxes everyday?

The Finnick that takes his family on excursions to Districts 7 and 12 to meet Uncle Peeta, Uncle Haymitch, Auntie Johanna and Auntie Katniss every year?

The Finnick who likes to throw Johanna and Katniss into the ocean whenever they manage to make their way over to District 4?

Nah. Finnick isn't dead.

a cowboy and a capitol girl → tanner

tanner!tbosas x reader

notes → in which you find it a struggle to connect with your tribute, too distracted by his charm. this was supposed to be a request fill but i got too off track, sorry 😭

warnings → not edited & uploaded via iphone. 2k+ words

     you had been taking an early walk, hours before you were required to get ready for school, when you saw your classmate, coriolanus, already dressed in his uniform, a white rose in hand. he was walking with purpose, a pep in his step as if he had somewhere to be this early in the day. there was something odd about it, and before you could stop yourself, your feet were carrying you to him.

     “coryo!” you called out, running to close the gap between the two of you. the boy stopped, shocked that someone he knew was up early enough to see him. it was clear he wasn’t expecting it, as he tensed up, putting on a faux smile for you. “where are you going this early?” you pushed, squinting your eyes at him skeptically. he opened his mouth to answer, but you cut him off. “and what’s with the rose?”

     “well, y/n, i was planning to meet my tribute when she arrives at the train station.” he answered, truthfully, to your surprise. it was quite a clever idea. you recalled coriolanus’ tribute, the small girl from district twelve who sang a song after shoving a snake down a girl’s dress. her voice was quite haunting, if you were being honest with yourself, but you were almost certain she was a psychopath. that was useless to her here, though. she could do no harm given her small frame, and she was no match for the other tributes. 

     “may i join you?” you asked politely, even though you intended to do so despite whatever his answer was. you had been intrigued by your tribute ever since he was assigned to you, even taking this walk to brainstorm strategy, and you were eager to finally meet him. coriolanus obviously wanted to object, but you came from a very powerful family who’s bad side he did not want to be on. not to mention, you could help him persuade the peacekeepers if he was forced to, so he agreed. you kept a steady pace with him as you made your way to the station, walking inside the building hurriedly. the early morning breeze made you shiver, and you realized how inconveniently you were dressed. you were clothed just in your pajamas as well as a fleece cardigan with your family crest plastered on the back that didn’t offer much protection from the wind. 

      you must’ve been waiting there for a couple of hours. at this point, you opted to just sit down, leaning back against a metal post in the spacious station. you had already informed a peacekeeper to contact your mother and let her know where you were, and within the next half hour your driver arrived with your school bag and uniform. you quickly changed in the back of the spacious vehicle, digging through your bag for the small hairbrush you kept and brushing the tangles out of your hair. you were worried that the tributes would arrive as you were getting ready, but thankfully, you scrambled back into the station just as the whistle that signaled a train’s arrival blew. your brows furrowed in confusion as you saw coriolanus turning around, preparing to leave.

     “what’s wrong?” you asked the boy, placing your hand on his bicep to prevent him from walking away further.

     “it’s a cargo train, the tributes aren’t here. we might as well go home,” he informed you, continuing to leave before a distinctly human cry came from one of the carts. almost immediately, he turned around, walking closer to the train, you right beside him.

     “there’s no way…” you muttered, in disbelief that they couldn’t even provide the tributes with decent transportation before they sent them to their death. really, you shouldn’t have been all that surprised, considering the capitol’s track record. typically, you would not put something like this above them, but it felt so surreal knowing that your tribute was in one of those carts. twenty minutes had passed of you and coriolanus sitting anxiously in silence, waiting for peacekeepers to unlock the carts and let the tributes out. you had half a mind to demand them to do so, but you decided against it with a protest from coriolanus. finally, a few peacekeepers sauntered to the train, taking their time as they opened the carts one by one. the stench of manure reeked from the carts, and you gagged as the scent filled your nostrils. nothing could’ve prepared you for seeing the tributes in person, especially in the conditions they were in. coriolanus’ tribute, lucy gray, emerged from the second cart, and he became preoccupied with the girl. as patiently as you could, you waited as the peacekeepers opened the third cart, threatening the tributes to come out. 

     your eyes lit up as you saw tanner for the first time in person. his back was turned to you, but you recognized the outfit he had worn during the reaping. nervousness crept up on you as you debated approaching him, but that was the whole reason you joined coriolanus, and you didn’t want to have waited multiple hours for nothing.

     “tanner?” you called, catching his attention, as well as the few tributes around the boy. he sized you up with a menacing glare as you took a hesitant step closer to him. “i’m y/n, i’ll be your mentor.” your eyes darted up to peer into his as you stuck your hand out. he didn’t take it, leaving you slightly flushed from embarrassment. “well.. welcome to the capitol!” was the best you could do, trying to keep your cool.

     “a real warm welcome alright. your peacekeepers yanked my district partner out of the cart by her hair.” tanner scorned distastefully.

     “woah, woah, woah, who did?” you asked, tone growing concerned as your hand instinctively reached for his arm. he nodded his head in the direction of a younger peacekeeper, and you excused yourself, striding over to the man. “sir, pray tell, what does peacekeeper mean?” you demanded, stealing the man’s attention.

     “miss l/n, oh wow.. uhm, to keep peace in panem, ma’am.” he answered, surprised by your presence. it was not a shock that he knew your face, your family had been well known in the capitol for many generations.

     “right. and is pulling a girl by her hair keeping peace, officer?” you queried rhetorically. the man shook his head shamefully. “so, to make things clear, you weren’t doing your job correctly? i’d go as far to say that you were doing the opposite,” the man shook his head once more. “than i will see to it that you will no longer be employed. hell, you may never be employed again if it was in my wishes,” you remarked, promptly walking back towards tanner, whose face held a look of astonishment.

     “damn, i didn’t think you had that in you,” tanner mused, a southern drawl peeking out, giving him an alluring charm. you smiled, glad that he seemed to be warming up to you.

     “right, so.. as your mentor, i’m supposed to help you win the games, and introduce you to the capitol,” you explained in another attempt to get him to trust you.

     “how so?” he simply asked, scanning your eyes for any sign of deception, which he didn’t find.

     “well…” you thought long and hard hard for an answer, but came out empty handed. the boy laughed, and although it was directed towards you, you couldn’t help but think his laugh attractive. “i’m currently trying to figure that out. that’s why i came to greet you here! i really wanted to meet you, y’know.” the comment seemed a little too flirtatious as it escaped your mouth, and you cringed as tanner raised his eyebrows.

     “yea?” he teased, smiling slightly at your embarrassment. you nodded hesitantly, just to see how he would take the comment. tanner was amused, it was evident, but you weren’t sure that it would be enough to win his trust. from what you had gained, flattery could possibly be the way to his heart, and you decided to continue further down that path.

     “mhm, you were real handsome on camera. it won’t be hard to get the capitol to like you. you could win, too. easily, given your physique.” you complimented, just to see how far adulation could take you, and partially because you meant it. sure, it was over the top, but you would gladly take on the role of a sycophant if it meant tanner would cooperate with you.

     “well, you’re not too bad yourself, cutie,” the boy shot right back at you, causing you to stutter as you processed his statement. blood rushed to your face as you tried to brainstorm something to say. peacekeepers beat you to it, though, herding the tributes to a van near the entrance of the train. tanner was whisked away, the gap between the two of you growing by the second, and you stood next to coriolanus, slumped. your chance had slipped out of your grasp, and you were more than embarrassed as you realized you had wasted your time flirting with tanner. coriolanus was inquiring a peacekeeper about something you weren’t paying attention to, instead staring longingly at tanner’s shrinking figure climbing into the truck, disappearing from your line of sight, and suddenly coriolanus had grabbed your wrist, pulling you along with him.

     “let’s go, y/n” he said, following the path the tributes had taken to the entrance of the station. “we’re going with ‘em.” the truck heavily resembled a cage on wheels, reminding you of what they had used to transport circus animals before the rebellion. coriolanus hoisted himself into the cage, hauling you in after him. the door slammed shut behind you, making you jump. coriolanus took you to the front of the truck with him, eyeing the tributes apprehensively.

     “what’s the matter, pretty boy? you in the wrong cage?” said the boy from district eleven, reaper, if you had remembered correctly.

     “no, this cage is delightful.” coriolanus remarked. reaper surged forward, hands encircling coriolanus’ throat, you tried to back up, shocked, but instead fell into the lap of a tribute, brandy. tanner’s district partner. you were unable to pick yourself back up in the cramped car, forcing you to remain, stuck, head pushed against her knees.

     “i will kill you right now,” reaper threatened, inches away from coriolanus’ face.

     “he’ll do it too,” reaper’s district partner, dill, coughed out. “reaper killed a peacekeeper back in eleven. they never even found out who did it.” reaper growled at the girl to shut up. “who cares now?” dill hopelessly whispered.

     “i say we all kill ‘em,” spoke up bobbin, the boy from eight, viciously.

     “i’m in,” brandy mocked, glaring down at you with malicious intent. you gave coriolanus a look, both of you rigid with fear. 

     “oh, hush, brandy. she’s the one who helped you earlier, remember? got that peacekeeper who pulled you out fired. we’re not killing her,” tanner reprimanded his partner condescendingly. he was stationed nearby the girl, grabbing your hand to help you up and pulling you towards him. the contact seemed to make the rest of the world stop, leaving just you and your tribute. there was discourse occurring between the rest of the tributes, but it was simply background noise to you. it seemed only like a brief moment, but it was quickly crushed as suddenly, the cage tipped, dropping you down a chute nearly twenty feet. you landed in a heap on the floor, a pained groan escaping your lips. rock formations towered around you, and upon squinting up at your surroundings, you saw that a crowd was formed outside the bars enclosing you. you were in a cage, but not just any cage. the monkey house at the zoo.

     you took notice of the capital children that were gawking in at the lot of you. lucky flickerman’s voice, which you could recognize anywhere, boomed as he spoke into his microphone. standing up slowly, you caught your breath, locating coriolanus, as well as tanner. some of the citizens must have recognized you, calling out into the cage and alerting lucky, who asked why the two of you were in there. you stared at the crowd like a deer in headlights, unconsciously inching towards tanner, who was a foot to your left. he was looking at you expectantly, curious as to why you weren’t already begging to be rescued. coriolanus had already taken quick action, though, guiding lucy gray to the front of the exhibit and interacting with the children that stood there. you groaned in frustration as you realized that he had gotten a one up on you, already stealing the camera man’s attention. his demonstration was being aired to all of panem while you merely stood in the background.

     “is that what you’re supposed to be doing?” tanner asked, nudging you with his elbow.

     “yep,” you deadpanned. it had been a waste of time to go to the train station, you had gotten virtually nowhere in your assignment, instead embarrassing yourself in front of not only your tribute, but all of panem. “i’m sorry for bothering you, tanner. i just wanted you to warm up to me, that’s all.”

     “hey, don’t beat yourself up over it,” tanner tried, brushing your arm. you were delightfully shocked that he had made an attempt to reassure you. maybe your journey to the station had been more fruitful than you believed.

     “thanks, tanner,” you muttered, but peacekeepers soon stormed into the enclosure, striding towards you. looking between the peacekeepers and tanner, you almost didn’t want to leave, deeming him as the much better option. but it was too late for you as a peacekeeper wrapped a hand around your wrist, leading you away.

     “will you be back later?” tanner called out for you, genuine interest in his tone.

     “of course,” you smiled as you were being pulled away, and he offered you a small smile in return. you would undoubtedly be looking forward to seeing him again.

Reflecting Light

Once the annual Reaping has passed, and summer rolls out, Winter is the next toughest part of the year—another season of survival. Fortunately, best friend Treech knows exactly how to brighten up the stormy days.

Treech X Lamina | The Hunger Games

IT’S RAINING, just as it was the day she met him. The clouds are so thick you could just reach up and eat them—they do nothing to quell the rumbling in Lamina’s stomach; unfortunately, tesserae doesn’t do much to quell an appetite.

School’s out for the day—mostly everyone has left, besides the few troublemakers that still roam the halls, trying to escape detention. Perhaps, to them, Lamina looks the same. Or at least she hopes she does; it might keep them off her back. She watches as they jostle around by the door, trying to shove one another out into the heavy rain, thunder rumbling every few seconds. They laugh and shout as boys typically do, the way her cousins do when she sees them.

The sound of new footsteps growing closer prompts Lamina into action, turning her head. Newly-cut hair tickles her neck, but it’s forgotten quickly when Treech’s sharp, cheeky grin comes into sight.

“Thank goodness,” Lamina pushed herself off of the wall. “I was starting to think you were going to ditch me.”

“Ditch you?” He gasped, as though it were a crime worth the punishment of a hanging. “How dare you think so lowly of me.” He swung a heavy arm around her neck, pulling her along to the door where the boys are still shouting. As it always does, her heart speeds up ever so slightly at the chance of an altercation, but it doesn’t matter now that Treech is here—he’s popular within the small school.

She grimaces as the first few drops hit her face, and then all at once as Treech throws them out into the weather, at its mercy. Its cold texture shocks her at first, but Treech just laughs, as if there could be nothing better in the world than to be exposed to the elements, feeling life itself. Perhaps, though she’d only realised it now, he always had been that way.

“Oh—no, let’s go back inside—” she tries, resisting against his hold. “We’ll wait the rain out.”

He’s stronger than he looks, she’s always said so. Tall, firm around the shoulders when he swings her over his shoulder. In this last year of school, it’s like he’s shot up at a thousand miles a second. Lamina yells in surprise, protesting.

“Don’t be a baby,” he calls. “What’s a bit of rain?”

“What will your mother say?” She rolls her eyes playfully, “when you return home with ruined clothes?”

“Not much!” He bounces down the steps of the building, Lamina jostling at his shoulder. She can’t help the laugh that escapes. Treech’s hand on her ankle, just over her boot, holds tighter on the last, steepest step, the other hand he has raised to her hip holding her there.

This isn’t helping the accusations she thinks to herself, flexing her hand against Treech’s neck. My mother will never let this go.

Another part of her brain whispers, do you want her to?

No. She isn’t sure she does.

She’s shaken to life when he suddenly leans forward, hands releasing her. Lamina’s boots crunch the gravel and stones. They’re on the Main Street now, through the town. And she’s drenched from head to toe. A glance up at Treech shows her that he is, too. What were this morning dirt-brown curls, shiny and soft, are now flat against his head like a wet dog, his jacket dripping water. He still beams at her, and snatches her hand.

“Come on, then!” He calls, yanking her into a run with him. “I got something for you!”

She pants with exertion, trying to keep up with him. He doesn’t let go of her hand, warming it up. “Like what?” She manages. They fly past people on their work breaks, sitting outside their stores. They fly past the peacekeepers patrolling, who simply follow herself and Treech with calculating eyes. They shoot past the barbed-wire fences separating the soggy, dirty woodlands from the town, and the people working out there, axes coming down every few seconds, the people slick with rain and sweat.

She tries not to think of the future. Of what will be for her and Treech in only five months. A torturous summer, a lifetime of work. Another Reaping. If they can make it this final Reaping without being called up, they’ll be safe for the rest of their lives. Just let them turn eighteen, after the Reaping. They’ve been lucky since the Reapings started, just before they turned seven years of age. Luck has been on their side, mostly. Ten years, no calling their names.

Lamina hopes with all her heart, so hard, that it physically aches.

Treech finds a spot just behind a building due for demolition in a couple of weeks. There are no peacekeepers this far out of town, there’s nobody this far out of town, especially not in this weather. You’d have to be insane, she thinks.

“What is it?” Lamina’s brows raise, staring Treech down. His own eyebrows jump, a sly little grin coming to his face; it fits him well. Tanned hands dig around in the pockets of his pants, until finally he pulls out a small, white package.

“What is this?” She snickers, in a way she only does around Treech and her family. “Some sort of deal?”

“Only just,” he shrugs his shoulders, gesturing for her hands. She holds them out without question—trust came easily between them. He tipped the package until two little things fell into her palm.

Her eyes wide, Lamina can’t believe it. “No. Way. But—how did you get these?” The two small, wrapped candies are a delicacy she only had the luxury of tasting once, in a memory before the war, before the first games.

He winked. “Well now, I can’t go ‘round just telling anybody the tricks of the trade, can I?”

She rolled her eyes, a smile betraying her, and moved to pull her hand away. Treech’s larger one shot out, clasping hers closed around the candy.

“What, changed your mind?”

“Don’t I get a reward for my hard work?” He asks, not shy in the slightest.

She scoffs loudly, shoving him away softly. “My presence is enough, don’t you think?”

They sit, knees knocking in the rain, eating stolen candies.

Anything for one another.

Summer comes around much too quickly. School ends, the weather ramps up and sooner rather than later, the days are scorching.

Lamina knows, this is where things begin to head downhill.

Working in the woods is torture, in the heat. Peacekeepers guard the place, and have it surrounded. No breaks are to be taken unless they say so. Her skin is burned and sore before she knows it, and she hasn’t talked to her friends even once in the last two months. The shifts are exhausting, and prompt no want to so much as visit anybody quickly. It’s tedious, tiring work, but she becomes quick with an axe before she knows it, as if it was second nature. There’s always the fear of striking herself, something she tries to not think of before bed at night. But it never comes.

The Reaping is approaching. Only a matter of weeks away. And she prays to whatever is up there, whoever it is that her grandmother prays to, also, that she will be kept safe and granted this final wish.

Two months after the start of working long days, Lamina finally catches a glimpse of Treech. He’s just a few yards away, swinging that axe into the base of a tree with another guy on the opposite side of it. Under the unforgiving sun, his tan skin shines with sweat. He’s built up more muscle than he had at school, but the little amount of food everyone receives even after working isn’t enough to build up the way anyone should in District 7.

A peacekeeper notices she’s stopped working, and yells, jabbing her in the neck with the end of his gun. The altercation causes people to look and stare, until she raises her axe on sore arms and brings it down once more, splitting wood over and over again. People go back to work, but she slows ever so slightly, looking to her left.

Treech, dark-eyed, sleeves rolled up, watching.

He looks away before she can smile.

Reaping day comes around.

And the world comes crashing down.

Her name, the mayor calls.

Treech’s name, last.

He doesn’t look her in the eyes.

She can’t stop the crying.

She can’t believe their luck.

Or rather, lack thereof.

It happens quickly.

A long trip to the Capitol, embarrassed on live television. A capture in a zoo enclosure. A mentor in red shows up for one of the tributes, a Lucy Gray Baird. Where is Lamina’s tribute, she wonders? What about Treech’s? Don’t they care?

It’s the first night in the zoo that he talks to her.

“I’m sorry.”

The whisper comes when everyone else is asleep, the zoo empty of visitors, the night cooler than it gets in the district.

Lamina turns her head, aching on concrete. At her side, Treech is watching her. She’d been watching the starry sky, wondering if it would be the last time she saw them ever. Who knew; maybe she could win this thing.

Her eyes burn with tears again, throat closing up. And she nods.

“It’s okay.”

He reaches for her hand, and she lets him take it.

“I’ve got your back, alright? You can trust me.”

They meet with their mentors the next day. Treech has a girl who is soft-spoken and almost kind. Lamina gets a harsh boy, who smugly states, “You will win, Lamina.”

But not for her sake.

She can’t stop crying in there, either, under the judging gaze of her mentor, who runs through a list of everything she can do to win this game, including a detailed plan of which tributes to take out first—Dill, an ill girl who coughs through the night; Wovey, she’s young, an easy target. And then the ones to look out for—Treech, he says, but she knows he won’t touch her; Coral, who has been eyeing her up already, looking for her weak points.

They’re led back to the zoo straight after the meeting. Visitors come and go—Lamina almost wished they’d stay, and make the day last longer, to avoid the games tomorrow morning.

On the edge of sleep, she can’t quite grasp what is is that’s happening when peacekeepers burst into the zoo and demand they get in the truck. Panic strikes her so firmly in the face that Treech has to pull her along into the vehicle, by the hand, like they’re back in school.

They’re shown the arena they are due to fight to the death in from tomorrow morning. It’s huge, and she tries the best she can to take in all the places she could hide—there aren’t many. It’s one big, open space. She feels more hopeless and desperate than ever.

“Hey—lumberjack,” the girl—Coral, Lamina remembers her as—calls over to Treech. “Come here.”

Treech nods his head over to her. “Lamina—”

“No. Just you,” Coral says firmly. She eyes Lamina up and down. “Just you.”

And now she wants to scream. Wants to tear down the arena inch by inch with nothing but her hands, even if they bleed. Wants to shoot the peacekeepers away, wants to pull Treech back to her and demand he doesn’t let her go.

But, wishes aren’t granted when you’re from the districts. She should have been used to it by now.

People are watching them when Treech abandons her, walking over the Coral.

That’s when the bombing starts.

‘Rebels’ she hears a peacekeeper cry. The arena begins to fall to pieces and she can’t believe her eyes. Dust, fire and sparks fly up from everywhere, making it hard to breathe. The dirt in her eyes stings and burns, and she stumbles for a second, rocks and pieces of rubble hitting her skin, hurting her. She can’t see anyone, but she hears him.

“Lamina?”

It’s a loud, terrified shout of her name, and it hurts her a little bit more.

Treech shouts again, less sure this time. In a way, she’s glad he’s worried. On the other hand, she’s just as scared for him. At least he isn’t dead.

Someone picks her up from the floor with such vigor that it makes her dizzy, still unable to see. People are shouting and crying all around. All she does is hope the person pulling her along is someone good.

It’s a peacekeeper. He shoves her back into the wagon, falling into Dill, one of the other girls. One by one, the tributes are rounded up again, and taken back to the zoo. Treech is the last to be put on the wagon, heaving for breath. He blinks wide-eyed at Lamina, wiping his hands across his face, trying to get as much dirt off as he can.

She’s hurt. Physically, it’s easy to deal with the pain. More than once she’s fallen in the woods and had more splinters than she can count stuck in her hands. But emotionally, she’s scared. Treech has willingly offered himself up to another group—an alliance, she wants to call it, without a second thought. They’re supposed to be partners—if not district partners, at least friends.

That night, Treech sleeps away from her, on the other side of the pen.

And in the morning, when the games begin, he doesn’t talk to her. She cries the whole way to the arena, trying to hold it all inside, but she’s loud. Reaper, one of the boys, keeps glancing over at her, and she’s terrified. He’s sizing her up for the kill, she knows he is. He’s bigger than her, a lot stronger, and he hasn’t shown one bit of weakness this whole time. Coral grins cruelly when she meets Lamina’s eye, and again in the arena, when the countdown begins.

The bell rings, signally the start of the end. It’s a bloodbath already, but a sudden determination has struck her. She will not die here. There’s a small axe relatively close, at the bottom of the pile of rubble the others are climbing up, striking one another for the best weapon. She’s trying to ignore the district 2 boy, hanging from a rafter. Is he still alive? She’s not sure. Maybe he escaped last night in the bombing—she didn’t see him back at the zoo.

She’s got her weapon, and she gets out of there, climbing a broken beam all the way to the top. There’s a good vantage point up here, where she can watch the other tributes, the whole arena, and see who’s coming.

It’s a long, slow game.

Up from her height, she watches people die, just glad it’s not her. It’s awful to see, of course, but she thinks the more that go already, the more chance she has of getting home. They’ve all noticed her, sitting and watching, but nobody has approached, not yet. She keeps note of Treech guiding his little group away from her where he can, and wishes she could laugh. He’s abandoned her, left her to fend for herself, but tries in his own way to help.

Whatever was the point?

A day passes, and then the night, and before she knows it, she’s tired, thirsty and starving. Nobody has sent anything yet. Nothing at all to anybody.

But plenty have died.

Eventually, when she thinks she might be safe, Coral comes for her. Mizzen, a small, skinny boy, comes from one side, climbing up, and Coral the other, approaching her like a trapped animal. Treech and another boy watch from below.

She tries her best.

She hopes her family know that. She really, really fought to the end.

When Coral strikes her the first time, she’s stolen of breath. Lamina drops her axe, her heart plummeting in shock. This can’t be happening, surely? This isn’t the end, right? Treech wouldn’t leave her up for the kill, would he?

Oh, but he would. Lamina gasps, trying not to scream. Her betrayed eyes drop down to Treech as her hand shakes violently, trying to push down on her bleeding stomach, punctured from Coral’s weapon. Treech has turned pale, his eyes so wide, looking at her and away, at her and away.

Coral strikes her again, in the chest this time, and Lamina shouts, her whole body weak and shaking. Coral pushes her off the edge of where she thought she found safety, and she plummets toward the ground, dizzy and tired.

It doesn’t take long.

Her last thought belongs to Treech.

for @lofhdfn who requested the Treech and Lamina fic :)

‘It doesn’t take long’ hurt me icl. It took a while to get this out, I rewrote it a couple of times but I think I’m fairly happy with it, now. This is more of an interpretation story, I didn’t want to make anything too set in stone in case it didn’t go well or didn’t work with things I planned while writing it. I did take a bit out, but I tried to include as much angst as I could while still showing how they cared for one another.

AAAHH LOOK WHAT I GOT!!!

Hey! I just suddenly had an idea for a fic so can I req something for coral x district 7 -> capitol reader? Where R is like Sejanus and moved from the districts to the capitol, before she moved though she was dating coral (ignore all the weird timeline stuff sdfjvjd). Years later she's given coral for her to mentor and basically their kinda reunion at the zoo where they sort out their misunderstandings and etc... (why do I actually love this concept) Thank you and feel free to change things around! Take care <33 - N

long lost lovers → coral

coral!tbosas x reader

notes → in which you and coral are reunited under troublesome circumstances. i made the reader from district four just to try and make it make a little more sense in my head :) this is such a good idea, i hope you like it!! feminine intended reader

warnings → the whole reunion part is a little rushed imo.. not edited & uploaded via iphone.

     none of your classmates were rather fond of you. they thought it quite entitled that you had bought your way into the capitol, as if you wanted to be there in the first place. to them, you might as well have been "animal," along with all of the other district kids. you tried to keep quiet, in an attempt to avoid the torment they inflicted on you, and it worked for the most part. your counterpart, sejanus, was subject to similar circumstances as you, having moved to the capitol after the war had ended. he, on the other hand, had a much different plan of action than you. sejanus was very outspoken, a trait you admired, though it was not very appreciated by your classmates and teachers. having seen how they treated him when you first moved there, you decided it would be best if you just kept your mouth shut.

     among some of the top students of the academy, focused mostly on your studies instead of your nonexistent social life, you were picked to be a mentor for the tenth annual hunger games. but it was also plausible that your parents had bought you a spot as a mentor to “push you out of your comfort zone.” it was more like punishment than privilege to you, being forced to mentor someone you may have known. faces flashed across the screen during the reapings, those of children of various ages, some more malnourished than others. dean highbottom called out names as the tributes were being announced. your breath hitched when he reached your assigned tribute. the district four girl, a rather familiar face. you hadn’t seen the girl in years, two, to be exact. all the memories you had with her, the feelings you forgot you could feel, which you thought you had left back in district four, came flooding back. you were itching to see her again, and you couldn’t help but wonder when that day would come, but you knew it couldn’t come fast enough.

     it was agonizing, waiting for the time to come where you could visit coral. you had been thinking of what you would say since the day she was assigned to you. first and foremost, she was definitely due an apology. you had moved to the capitol without warning, awoken one day with directions to pack your most precious belongings. you left with no chance to say goodbye to coral. of course, you tried writing her tear stained letter after letter, but with no response for months on end, it was either she officially despised you, or your mother was intercepting your mail. you prayed it was the latter, but the day had finally come where you would find out. you hurriedly made your way to the zoo after collecting some of the finest capitol foods to offer her, in hopes that food would make the meeting a little more bearable for the both of you.

     immediately, you caught sight of the girl. and oh, was she a sight for sore eyes. coral, your girl, the only person you could ever open up to, was so close to you after having been separated for so long. you lacked self-restraint, scrambling up to the bars like a lunatic. “coral!” you cried, causing heads to turn your way. her eyes met yours, a striking blue, just as beautiful as the last time you had seen them, but with a new tinge of anger that hadn’t been there before. she didn’t run up to you like you thought she would’ve. no, she stayed sat on her rock, staring at you, dumbfounded. had it been a mistake to come? maybe after all this time with no contact, she had really started to hate you. or worse, she had forgotten about you. it took her district partner, mizzen, nudging her to wake her from her daze. coral slowly got up, stick still in her hand, and hesitantly walked towards you. “coral, i’m so, so sorry,” you started, reaching for her hand before she aggressively pulled it back.

     “save it. it’s not your fault i’m here,” she claimed, tone bitter, but underneath that, you could sense it was coming from a place of pain. 

     “about leaving, coral. i swear to you, i didn’t have a choice. my parents never told me anything, they made me pack the day we left. i tried writing, but they wouldn’t send my letters out,” you were about to cry, at this point. a part of coral wanted nothing more than to wipe your rising tears away and hold you close, forgetting about all the pain you caused by abandoning her. she could see where you were coming from, but her world had shattered when you left. the hole you left in her heart had been left to rot, filling with resentment. but as she witnessed you now, as heartbroken as she had been, the blame seemed to lift off of your shoulders.

     “so you didn’t leave me.. just like that?” coral asked. it was like a stab to the chest that she ever thought you would do that to her. coral had once expressed her fear of abandonment to you, and to her it appeared that you had gone and done just that. the girl, who just a moment ago stood defensive and closed off, now looked especially vulnerable.

     “i could never, coral. i loved you more than anything, still do. i never wanted to leave!” you expressed. coral dropped her stick, taking a small step closer to you. 

     “if… you mean that.. i missed you. it’s not the same back home without you,” she claimed, nodding her head slightly. you smiled sorrowfully. you had missed a lot in coral’s life, it felt like there was no possible way you could make up for lost time.

     “i’ve missed you too. here, eat, i brought you some food,” you invited, sitting down to get comfortable. you wanted to spend as much time with her as you could. coral was close behind, accepting the arrangement of food you slid her through the bars. she examined it, deciding which to try first “remember when we used to have picnics? on the weekends. we’d sit on the dock and just talk,” you reminisced as coral smiled at the memory, already stuffing her face with food. you were glad she was finally getting some sustenance for the first time since she had arrived.

     “the good ol’ days,” she joked, then proceeded to go silent for a few moments. “…what’s gonna happen when i have to go in there?” you didn’t think that through very well, too preoccupied with your reunion to remember who you had to thank for it- the capitol. maybe the source of all of your problems. you started to resent everything about the place you were forced called home. running away may have been the only option to get away from it all.

     “i’ll get you out of here. then we’ll leave, together. i promise.” you finally had her back, and there was no way you would be letting her go now.