A Hair's Breadth
Title: A Hair’s Breadth
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Word Count: 350
Rating: G
Characters: Katniss, Gale
Spoilers: through Mockingjay
Author’s Note: Not mine! This is borne of a very small thing in Mockingjay that for some reason really, really bugged me.
Katniss toys with her braid in a way she’s not usually wont to. She’s never tied it with ribbons or brushed it over her shoulder like the merchant girls in District 12 had done. The most she’d ever regarded it was in preparation for the Games, her mother’s last indulgence a complicated plait or Cinna’s hands affectionately smoothing it. Now, she considers it with her own rough fingers, the dark, smooth hair so characteristic of the Seam. It’s shorter than it has been since she was a girl, a real girl, a girl who sang with her father and tickled her younger sister. It’s one more thing that ties her to her home, to her family, to a life she is no longer capable of living.
She has been thinking of this for a few hours now, normally a waste of time to dwell on something so trivial. But it must be done, she’s decided, since she passed her final test to go on active duty. The rush of being assigned to her team has faded since, and she has had time to think about the minutiae of her wartime duties. It’s one thing for her to wear the Mockingjay outfit prescribed by Cinna; she treasures the idea of him working diligently on something to keep her safe. But her hair, always camera-ready, seems so silly, so alienating in the face of the thousands she hopes will fight by her side with their own shorn locks, a small token of their dedication.
Katniss raises her hand and knocks on the sterile grey door of Gale’s quarters. Ever observing his hunter’s silence, he opens the door soundlessly, expression bemused. She looks to her feet, one hand still connected to the braid along her collarbone. The other grips a razor at her side. She holds it out and without hesitation his open palm extends to collect her offering.
“I want you to cut my hair,” Katniss says, grey eyes meeting their twins.
Gale smiles crookedly, “Come in then, Soldier Everdeen.”
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Word Count: 350
Rating: G
Characters: Katniss, Gale
Spoilers: through Mockingjay
Author’s Note: Not mine! This is borne of a very small thing in Mockingjay that for some reason really, really bugged me.
Katniss toys with her braid in a way she’s not usually wont to. She’s never tied it with ribbons or brushed it over her shoulder like the merchant girls in District 12 had done. The most she’d ever regarded it was in preparation for the Games, her mother’s last indulgence a complicated plait or Cinna’s hands affectionately smoothing it. Now, she considers it with her own rough fingers, the dark, smooth hair so characteristic of the Seam. It’s shorter than it has been since she was a girl, a real girl, a girl who sang with her father and tickled her younger sister. It’s one more thing that ties her to her home, to her family, to a life she is no longer capable of living.
She has been thinking of this for a few hours now, normally a waste of time to dwell on something so trivial. But it must be done, she’s decided, since she passed her final test to go on active duty. The rush of being assigned to her team has faded since, and she has had time to think about the minutiae of her wartime duties. It’s one thing for her to wear the Mockingjay outfit prescribed by Cinna; she treasures the idea of him working diligently on something to keep her safe. But her hair, always camera-ready, seems so silly, so alienating in the face of the thousands she hopes will fight by her side with their own shorn locks, a small token of their dedication.
Katniss raises her hand and knocks on the sterile grey door of Gale’s quarters. Ever observing his hunter’s silence, he opens the door soundlessly, expression bemused. She looks to her feet, one hand still connected to the braid along her collarbone. The other grips a razor at her side. She holds it out and without hesitation his open palm extends to collect her offering.
“I want you to cut my hair,” Katniss says, grey eyes meeting their twins.
Gale smiles crookedly, “Come in then, Soldier Everdeen.”