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1
trainer Rich Galore was known for his short temper at the academy, but all the tributes he trained were always chosen to volunteer. So of course her parents got her and her brother the best option victor money can buy.
When they both stood in front of him, he walked towards her almost immediately: his eyes barely skimming Gloss.
Cashmere was twelve, but knew exactly why him, and all the older guys at the academy stared: Your beauty is your knife now. Jade, one of her parents' victors, told Cashmere that just as puberty started catching up with her.
So when he spent way too much time with her, she didn't object.
One day, when Gloss didn't show up to practice, Galore shrugged it off and said he's being taken care of.
It started with a simple sparing session: he taught her to use the knives on close quarters as well as from afar. His hand on her elbow as she raised her hand to strike.
Then she found her legs swiped from underneath her, and her body hit the mattress. "Come on, I wanna see just how good you are." His knees pinned her legs down. "Show me.." he groaned as she tried to get a good kick at his groin. But for all the training he gave her, it wasn't enough to fight against him.
So Cashmere relaxed her body instead. Your beauty is your knife now. Jade's words echoed through her
2
she had many boyfriends over the years. Galore left when she was fifteen, and when she turned seventeen many boys were at their house, watching her brother killing people on live tv before asking her for a quick pleasure.
The most notable was August Eryden. Who later became her district partner.
He winked at her on the train, but didn't do more because Gloss was there, watching his every move.
It was on the night of the first day of training when he walked in. Shirtless. "We don't have many days for pleasere now, you down?"
She turned away. "I'm tired. Maybe tomorrow?"
He didn't move: "tomorrow you'll say the same thing, arent you?"
"You don't know that" Cashmere sat up straight. Frowning.
"Yes I do. Besides-" he sat on the bed, his hand caressing her neck. "It wasn't a question"
"No!" she yanked backwards.
"Come on, your brother is not here, your mother is asleep. Do you really want to say no?"
Nothing in the room was suitable for a weapon. But sometimes your body can be a weapon.
He doesn't ask her again.
3
Before the victory interview. One of the sponsers came to check the merchandise.
Snow apparently sent her a letter when she was just out of the hospital wing. All she remembered was Gloss' face: pale white then burning red.
Apparently neither the man nor Snow cared that was she was hazy and high as fuck from the painkillers.
When she woke up clear minded, her side hurted. And she knew exactly what happened. The next letter from the president assured her that she will be sober and focused during the rest of her appointments.
4
"Um- I'm not- I haven't like.. had sex yet."
His voice cracked a little, and that made all the difference. This wasn't her ex-sponser or Capitolite. This was a fourteen year old. A handsome one, who killed six other tributes, but a fourteen year old nevertheless.
And he was terrified.
One of his mentors, a woman Cashmere remembered as Gemma Leon, 52nd victor. Shook her head earlier. "I have a date to go to, but I'll let Cashmere here explain it better, okay? I'll see you in the morning."
Don't leave me here to be the bearer of bad news! Cashmere wanted to scream. But Gemma had already left.
So Cashmere explained, and Odair listened. Watching her as she took off the dress. She turned around to give him his privacy.
Doing most of the work, she couldn't keep it in, not the horrible fate she knew would befall him the moment he turned sixteen, and so she warned him, his innocent disbelief broke her heart.
Even later, when she crawled into the bed of her next client, she still remembered the way he gasped when he reached an orgasem. In what she correctly guessed was the first of many.
5
when she started mentoring with Gloss, the president devised a plan to balance her mentoring duties and responsibilities for the Capitol. (He obviously took her brother into account as well, except that he wasn't as popular as her)
She had six appointments during the night, and in the morning she was to look after Ashley and Augustus, Their tributes who are still alive. Her brother did the opposite. So she almost never saw him.
On the thirteenth night, only four tributes remained: Augustus, Ashley, the girl from Two and the girl from Nine. Cashmere was to pleasure Gaias Delphine, owner of about a thousand acres of wheat field areas in Nine. But surely she could sway him to Ashley's side. Your beauty is a knife. Jade's words still echoed through her.
"You know, my vote is Constance from 9. She is a genius kid, that one. But I'm sure you can persuade me to.. spare some of that money for your girl." He purred.
"Even a few hundred dollars to the gamemakers' box would do." Because the money from her clients went to Snow, only indirectly towards the tributes. But maybe.. if he so enjoyed himself... she smiled, lowering her body to expose her bright, diamond laced delicotage.
It started nicely. He wasn't too violent, and was a gentleman (he prided himself for being one). But he had the games open on the TV.
The arena- a patch of wet grasslands and hills that made hiding difficult, was lit under moonlight, and the cameras caught Ashley, stalking with her double swords through the hills. It was then she found Constance, the girl from Nine.
Cashmere turned her attention back to Gaias, caressing his inner thigh as she felt his cock go hard under her touch. He buried his head in her neck and her hair. "Oh, Cashmere my darling, you are simply the best one." She rubbed harder, listening to his moans as Ashley stalked closer, closing in on the bolting girl.
Good. Keep going. She told inwardly, to both Ashley and herself.
Ashley lunged, catching up to the girl as her swords dove into her back. Cashmere internally cheered.
Gaias heard the canon, and turned back from his position on top of her. He took in the scene on the tv, and as his moans turned angrier and his cheeks flushed hotter, his hands reached for her neck.
Cashmere gasped as she raked her nails across his arms trying to free herself. His grinding became painful, as he plunged himself deeper and deeper into her. Air escaped her lungs as she wheezed against his tightning squeeze.
She wasn't there in that bed anymore, her back scraped across hard dirt, not the soft, smooth silk sheets of a luxurious bed, and the hands squeezing the life out of her were not smooth yet manly hands of a social climber, but the coarse, bloody nail-less hands of Lydia Wright. Who raved mad revenge for the brother she lost.
A sister for a brother. Lydia hissed. No family will ever be that privileged to victory.
This time she wasn't bound to a tree. Cashmere freed her hands, clasping them around Lydia's neck, and a swift crack. Her neck snapped.
But it wasn't Lydia anymore. It was a man with Blue hair and pink eyes with no light in them.
She stared at him in shock.
what have I done?!.
One.
She didn't know how she left that apartment. It was Like some well meaning automaton possessed her to pick up her things and ride the trolley to the Spirit Hall. Sporting fresh purple bruises like a physical manifestation of the collar she was forced to wear.
She didn't stop until she reached the fifth floor- room 502 was not her room, and she had perfectly sensible quarters in the mentor quarters in the Tribute center, but in her semi haze, she knocked.
And Enobaria answered.
At first, the woman she loved merely stared her up and down with her wide dark eyes. She didn't ask- nor did she have to- and when her eyes rested on the chain of bruises and Cashmere's shaking fingers. She wrapped her two hands around Cashmere's body and led her inside.
"Hey, it's okay. You're just a little overwhelmed. It's gonna be fine." Enobaria sat her down on the silk bed- he must he still laying there, slimy and naked. There is no hovercraft to pick up his body.
Enobaria must've spoken and she didnt hear, because now she knelt right there in front of Cashmere. Taking her hands in her own. "It's going to be okay. Just look at me, okay? Here-" she kissed her bruised, shaking palms. "Here. That's right. You gotta take a deep breath, Imagine you're standing in front of a target..."
Cashmere closed her eyes tight. Imagining the halls of the training room in the Tribute center, where Enobaria, Gloss and her go to let off steam during the games. It's the closest thing they had to training together.
"Now take a breath, and hold it. Imagine you have a knife in your hand and you gotta throw between heartbeats. Right? I'm not half as good at knife throwing as you- I like swords." Enobaria continued, and Cashmere instead focused on her rich, naturally lower voice.
"Good." There was a smile in her voice now. "Good. Now throw the knife-" Cashmere imagined the projectile cutting the air, landing perfectly square in the middle. "-and release that breath." Cashmere exhaled.
"Now, open your eyes." Cashmere did. Finally seeing Enobaria, still kneeling before her as she caressed her knuckles and pressed another kiss against them. She stood up, then sat right by Cashmere on the bed. "Now you have to tell me what's wrong, okay?" She stroked Cashmere's hair. "Otherwise I can't help you."
"I-" the words stuck to a lump in her throat. Why? She had killed before, she had no qualms about killing necessary to her survival. So why couldn't she admit it?
Surely there are cameras all around. Bugs too. Cashmere coughed. "Can you help me wash my face?"
Enobaria's eyebrows furrowed, then knitted as she understood the hidden request. "C'mon, I'll do you one better. You can use my shower." She said softly. Then she marched Cashmere to the bathroom, and together they opened the showerhead and the sink to maximum pressure.
"You know Gaias Delphine?" Cashmere began.
Enobaria shrugged. "Heard about him. He bought around basically every other circle prize except me. Even Finnick had a ride with him last month, I'm pretty sure."
They both shuddered at the thought of their young friend, only recently introduced to the concept of the circle.
"He was my last of the round tonight. But Ashley killed that girl from Nine, and he got mad- tried to choke me-"
"I can tell." Enobaria snarled. "That bastard." She added quietly. "If you want me to roughen him up for you, I can. He comes to the Night of Debauchery party, of which I am invited." her teeth grated against eachother as she spat the word out. "I've noticed him eyeing me for the last year."
"You can't." Cashmere swallowed the lump I her throat. "I already killed him."
Enobaria's oh face could've been funny, with her sharp fangs fully open to see, but Cashmere was still shaking over the news. "You-"
"Snappedhisneck." Cashmere cut her off, the words rushing out of her.
Enobaria's eyes lit up. "Good job, Cash."
"No!" Cashmere wailed. "Because now Snow could know what I've done- could punish me.. I still have people to protect, not my parents, not under their protection.."
Enobaria steadied her shaking shoulders, wiping her eyes. "Then we'll just erase the circumstances. Won't be the first high born socialite to go missing in this city."
Not a day later, Augustus Braun was to be crowned the victor of the 67th hunger games, and Cashmere would take on a new priority. A victor.
At the crack of dawn that day, where quiet still resided over the city, Cashmere snuck back into that apartment. He was still laying there in the bed, flat on his stomach. Naked as the day he was born. His head lulled to one side, showing exactly how she snapped his neck clean to the side.
Unable to look away, she merely waited for Enobaria to come with whatever stuff she had to bring. She set the big bottle down "alright. I'll carry him down to that back ally- I've noticed no cameras back there, and the neon lights of this giant ass building would have to hide it." She gestured with her head at the bottle she brought. "Pick up the gasoline, I'll carry him."
They run into the kitchen, packing him up with four trash bags before Enobaria hauled him over her shoulder. "Let's scram. Check there are no cameras."
As Cashmere sweeped the room, she found no cameras in the living space at all.
The hallway was a different story.
Somehow, Enobaria had a thing to take care of that as well. "I borrowed it from Latier, didn't ask me what for, but I paid him and he gave me his word to keep quiet about this. It supposedly jams the cameras so they show an empty loop for a window of about two minutes."
"So we'll have to hurry." Cashmere agreed.
Strong and athletic as they were, they managed to get out in less than two minutes, zooming out the back door, Enobaria didn't stop until they reached the furthest trash can. Cashmere pinched her nose and set the gasoline bottle by the body.
She watched in awe as Enobaria poured thin stripes of the liquid over the body and the bags that covered it. She passed Cashmere a lighter. "There. All yours."
"We'll never speak of this again." Cashmere swore.
Enobaria took her hand. "Never."
Cashmere let the lighter drop, the fire caught immediately, eating at everything wether it was covered in gasoline or not. It warmed the pit in her belly as Enobaria squeezed tighter.
Cashmere really tried not to think about Gaias Delphine burning as the fake flames licked across the stage to welcome Augustus to the crowning ceremony. He strode through like a king, or an oiled wat god of old. Accepting the crown silently as he dropped to one knee, so Snow could reach his head.
So close to him, does Snow know what we've done? Cashmere didn't dare breath as she plastered her showface over her terror.
But despite the spotlight, Cashmere caught Enobaria in the crowd. Her secret lover whistling with pride despite Augustus killing her tribute literally hours before.
Keep going, just a little more. They were permitted to sit down below the stage for the recap section, and since Gloss was Augustus' official mentor, she was permitted to sit with Enobaria.
"How are you?" Enobaria asked quietly over the interview above them.
"Could be better. At least I have no clients tonight. Courtesy of my victor."
Enobaria's eyes twinkled. "Good."
Cashmere stared at her, at this woman who buried a man with her and treated her and only her with softness Cashmere never had felt before. "How about we leave this place? Go somewhere.. more private." She offered.
Enobaria's eyes softened. "Only if you want to."
In response Cashmere grabbed her by the arm and led her away.
Gloss said nothing, merely gave them a knowing smile.
Wiping blood of her lip, Cashmere laughed as Enobaria rolled over to lay beside her. "That was.. so much different than what I'm used to."
"Because men are meaty pancakes with an unnecessary handle hanging off their pelvis." Enobaria huffed. "When my fingers can slide in far more easily."
"I'm scared." Cashmere admitted with a sigh. "He slid into me so fast.. I took an after pill but.."
"Hey." Enobaria pressed a kiss to her knuckles again. "If it.. catches, if you feel anything wrong. Tell me, Aria-Mae knows a guy, below the tribute center."
Cashmere nodded. "Let's not think about that, alright?" She turned to Enobaria. "I'd much rather think about you instead."
That made her lover's eyes light up. "You think about me? When you're with these men? Because that's what I do when I entertain."
Cashmere nodded. Pressing a kiss to their clasped hands.
Enobaria sighed. "I don't expect you to say it back to me. But I want you to know.. Cash. I love you most."
Love. Cashmere's eyes watered. This wasn't sex. This was something else.
Funny, wasn't sex nicknamed "making love?"
"Why would you think I won't say it back? I love you, Enobaria Dominiquez. The only constant in my job, in my visits." She kissed her again. "I love you more than you'd ever know."