Run, boy, run.
It wasnât hard to find her the next morning, but there was no meeting or group training. It was all individual at the large variety of stations. She had been showing off, or possibly working through something emotionally but slicing off the heads of mannequins left, right, and center. Deciding to leave her alone, but also recognizing he wouldnât be able to stop himself from glancing in her direction frequently, he decided to try out the climbing station. The harness would keep him from injuring himself if he got distracted, but after scaling train cars and numerous fences back in six, he felt there wouldnât be much of a challenge to make it to the top quickly.
But now it was lunch, and although his distraction had worked out perfectly that morning, he was now faced with Tempest as loud and feisty as ever.
It was impossible not to hear her from around the corner, having ensured that Jeyne was stopping to eat something to replenish her strength. They rounded it together just in time to watch the knife wedge itself into the plastic. Malâs eyes flicked to the other Peacekeepers instead of the tributes reactions, hoping she wouldnât be thrown out of not only training but the Games themselves. Quickly dishing up, he stuck to the basic foods, the ones that werenât coated in some kind of fluorescent color. With Jeyne tugging on his sleeve, he hardly had time to pick up his tray before she pulled him over to the table where Tempest had made herself comfortable. Realizing that they were approaching her from behind, he tucked Jeyne behind him for a moment in case she had another knife to fling when they snuck up on her.
"Couldnât agree more." He whispered in her ear before side stepping out of armâs reach quickly, much to a giggling Jeyneâs delight.
She caught sight of Mal assisting Jeyne with a plate of food and sighed, still wondering how they'd truly get her through. She didn't care about the 'difficulty' level, but more of the little girl's mental capacity. The Games weren't going to be rainbows and sunshines, and Jeyne would more than likely become frightened of her rather quickly. She would be doing the killing- even more for her own benefit than another's- because that's what she knew. The thought of herself covered in blood and standing before this child, however, even made her shiver. There would be nothing about Tempest that wouldn't be violent, and she couldn't apologize for it either. Sometimes her own thoughts were enough to scare her, and other times they weren't enough.
"Oh shit-" Occupied with her thoughts, she hardly had time to catch the sound of footsteps behind her. A knife gripped firmly in hand, she swung around and away from the chair, "Mal! You idiot, are you dense? Are you trying to die before the Games? It isn't funny, either." But it was- or maybe the sight of a giggling Jeyne made it that way- because Tempest couldn't help but grin at her in return. Abandoning the weapon she peered around Mal to look at the door, where a Peacekeeper removed the lodged knife before quickly disappearing, "I could destroy them with a damn spoon. Honestly, wait till they spar me after lunch. I'll break them."
















