(every fire is a lesson learned)

[burnwithus]

She finds herself singing lately, more often than not, and Katniss doesn't really know why. It feels as if suddenly, everything comes rushing back to her. All of the songs her father taught her; old ballads and the songs coal miners used to sing. Love songs and those that tell stories alike. She sits and sings, hands busy with the knot of a snare

Comments

[highf]

For all that Broadway is about the bright lights, the animated dance routines, make-up and choreography, performers singing at the top of their lungs, there's one thing that most people don't realize: Broadway is actually, in many ways, about subtlety. About finding beauty in the little things- the brush of fingers, the wonder of an orphaned girl singing to all those around her, the joy of a young boy as he discovers all that dance opens up in his world. The accent of a flower peddler. The way hands link when a couple goes to dance. On the stage, Broadway doesn't center on all else there is in the world, the dirt and the grime, the blood shed. Broadway is a place where people are encouraged to live to the fullest, and in many ways, it's this philosophy that Kurt has taken up in his personal life as well as in the spotlight, refusing to let himself be dragged down.

Still, there are times when reality hits one square in the face, making it impossible to look away. This might be one of those times. He rolls up the sleeves of his shirt,

[burnwithus]

People don't normally end up drifting this far out. Katniss has watched them, at times, mapping out patterns like she would do with wild animals. Most of the island's citizens preferred to stay near their safe places and populated areas like the Compound. It wasn't too different from District 12 in that sense. Stay away from the fence, stay safe.

She'd come out here on purpose, mostly because conversation on a good day was exhausting. Katniss shrugs the critique of being 'morbid' off, the motion of her hands that were skinning the rabbit stilling. "It probably really happened, and they made a song out of it,"

It wouldn't surprise her.

[highf]

A brief brush of his gaze over the young woman- or perhaps girl would be more accurate, if not for that aged look in her eyes, like someone who's been forced to grow too much, too fast, too thoroughly in ways that no one from Lima can really ever know- lands his eyes on the splash of crimson over her hands, and Kurt's eyes immediately flutter to a close. He feels the blood drain from his face and tries to fight the nausea down, but if there's anything that he knows, it's that animals die and are butchered all the time. And he shouldn't resent it. And if he plans, indeed, to make his way easily around an island where most of their food sources are hunted down on a daily basis, then he'd better start sucking it up now and dealing with the sight of carrion

[burnwithus]

The blood unnerves him. Katniss can see that, and in a way it marks him as someone who was like the rest of the island. Jason wouldn't have blinked an eye at it, she was sure. That isn't exactly a bad thing, but Katniss is waiting to see if he'll make a big deal out of it. Animal rights, and all. The term sounded ridiculous to a girl who came from a place where people didn't even have rights, let alone animals.

"I guess," she says dubiously, not quite seeing the point where 'morbid' meant bad. "Would you rather want sappy love songs?" she knows a few of those. As a child, Katniss had loved them. Before everything went wrong.