Sticks and stones may break my bones

[calledmenasir]

WHO| Nasir and all the people he fights during the week (open)
WHAT| Nasir explores the mall, kicks some ass, and gets his ass kicked
WHEN| Throughout Week 2
WHERE| All over the mall
WARNINGS| Some serious violence, brief mention of past torture

Nasir had not done well during the Arena. His fights had been failures. He had not seen Gannicus since the Cornucopia. And the autobiography of himself had made him burn, not the least of which because he didn't know if the starting chapter was a lie. To make things worse, it taunted him with pictures of better days with Agron.

He was tired. He felt the bruises from his battles here. His muscles were still aching from the torture he'd been through at the hands of the Peacekeepers. He could barely sleep as memories haunted him. Then there was the fear that this was not enough. That they would not return him to life and he would break his promise to Agron. He would fail him and his brother and they would all die for it.

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[calledmenasir]

Nasir felt the pain shoot through his head. He was shaken for a moment but then he rallied and, before Venus could slam his head down again, he butted her in the face. The resulting pain to his nose made him yell but it was worth it because it had given him the time find his knife again-- find it and close his hand around it.

Without a moment of hesitation, he moved to stab the side of her neck, hissing just before he made the attack.

[celebrityskinned]

The blade hisses by her temple, ripping blood from her forehead that sprays over the both of them, gets in her eyes. And she backs off.

She backs off not because of the sudden strike of pain and half-blindness, but because some part of her brain tastes Nasir's skin in her teeth and feels his stubble against the roof of her mouth, and she realizes that she's bitten him, and what the fuck is wrong with her?

When was she ever lawless enough to bite a man?

She throws herself not forwards, but backwards, scooting away from him.

[calledmenasir]

The bite was just one more pain, one that left Nasir gritting his teeth. Venus's blood coated his hand and face. He spat it out but the copper taste lingered in his mouth and he had to blink before wiping his eyes with the back of his hand as he sat up.

He slowly got back on his feet, ignoring the ache in his muscles. He stood but saw that something was wrong in Venus. He froze, knives ready but not taking advantage of the moment. Blood, both his own and Venus's, dripped down from his face, trailing down from the Capitol's insignia branded on his face.

[celebrityskinned]

Somehow, the brand seems so much more obvious to her now that there's blood filling in the lines of it. They were on the same side not long ago.

Now she's got his blood in her teeth.

"You know what?" She backs off, hands up in a defensive gesture. "You know what? I don't fucking want this fight."

[calledmenasir]

Nasir needed to kill her. He needed to drive his knife between her ribs and end her life. But he still hesitated.

He knew this wasn't right but somehow, staring into Venus's hollow eyes, the depths of it hadn't struck him until now.

He would not win favor by killing her now.

Slowly, half expecting her to charge him, he lowered his knives.

"Nor do I."

[celebrityskinned]

She lifts her hands up in a shrug, showing how empty her palms are. She wouldn't need a weapon to attack, but somehow it just drives home how messed up this all is. Here, where they beat each other with knives or just with their bare hands.

Then she wipes the blood from her mouth like a kiss she wants to displace.

"We aren't really enemies."

[calledmenasir]

"No," Nasir said as he took a step back. "We are not." He found that there were no more words to say or at least none he could give under the gaze of all of Panem.

The blood still dripped down his face, falling onto his shoulders and the floor.

He kept walking back until, finally, he risked turning his back on her and seemingly calmly, walked away.