"I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living, so different now from what it seemed... Now life has killed the dream I dreamed."
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You are? Really? Heathcliff? What an odd name… Then again, this is the Capitol— oh! Oh, pardon my manners! How very rude of me, knowing your name and not even telling you mine— I’m Alvy! Alvy Foreman, atcha service. Oh, nonono, don’t be sorry, it was my mistake. Yes! I’ll talk to him right away.
Oh, sorry. I tend to talk fast.
Odd? It is, isn’t it? Even for the Capitol. No, no! Please, don’t apologize, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t call you anything I shouldn’t be. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Foreman. You found the right man to talk to earlier, with Xavier.
It’s not a problem at all! It’s a quirk, and quirks are always fun.
‘allo, ‘allo, ‘allo! Lavinia Foxworth, right? Of course, you are, never mind that question, it’s stupid. All right, here’s the thing, Lavinia— I need an Avox and Ror— Nonono… Xavier suggested you, among two others, but I didn’t like the sound of one of the names and the other seemed to be working for two people? I don’t know, it kind of flew over my head, but ANYWAYS, then he mentioned you, and I thought, Hm! Lavinia Foxworth! That sounds like a grand name, Lavinia, and then Foxworth, because well, I really like foxes, and the worth made me think of worthy and well here I am! So, are you free?
Xavier was suddenly buried in memories of his family. Not just ones of his family as they were now, but memories of his Grandma Paige before she passed and spending time with his mother. His parents dancing together in the kitchen and the bed time stories they would read to him at night. The memories changed after his mother’s passing, things were sadder, no one danced and it became Xavier who told the stories. He shook his head as if he could shake the memories away.
He shook his head, Lavinia was always so animated when she told stories, it wasn’t just her hands that moved, her expression changed and it made you believe you were right there next to her. “You’re a wonderful story teller. You always have been, even without a voice to tell them with.” he said. He adjusted slightly, bringing one of his feet to rest under him. “Tell me a story about your family, please?” he asked wanting to be lost in someone elses tale. Lavinia’s family were well known in District Five, if only because of her father’s status as an inventor but he had heard of her cousins and the mischief that they had gotten up to so he knew she would have some great stories to tell.
“Sappy Lav just needs a hug and a nice hot cup of tea. It’s over-dramatic Lav and angry Lav you really need to be worried about.” Xavier lifted his tea to his lips when a memory hit him and he started to laugh. “I-I’m sorry. Do you remember when Pullox asked you what your tampons where?” It was a memory from the early days at Avox house. Pullox had come out looking confused, Xavier had buried his face in his hands try to hide his blush of uneasiness and Lavinia, she had gone bright red, her cheeks had matched her hair and she silently yelled her curses at Pullox through sign language and their note books, throwing the pages at him. Now, it was funny to look back even though at the time it had been absolutely mortifying.
He gently bumped his shoulder back against hers. The companionable silence was nice. There wasn’t anything to be said and they weren’t ones to rush into conversation just for the sake of noise. Xavier wondered if that was from their silent days. Either way, sitting on the comfy couch with a cup of tea and one of his best friends was exactly what Xavier had needed after the stressful weeks gone by.
Lavinia noticed Xavier shaking his head, and immediately she recognized the motion. It wasn’t an itch, or a twitch, it was the shaking of someone who was thinking about something they didn’t want to think about. Someone carrying a lot of weight on their shoulders. She’d been on that end of things many times, and was sad to discover that it didn’t often work. It was a bit self-satisfying, however, to feel as though it might one day. That a simple shake of the head would erase all of the nasty thoughts from your mind. Like magic.
Lavinia couldn’t help but laugh when he said she was a good story-teller. “I don’t know about a good one,” she said with a small shrug. “I’d say more of an… energetic story-teller. I talk with my hands,” she admitted, and held up her mug of tea. “Which could prove rather messy if I leave this in my hand.”
At this, when Xavier asked her to tell a story about her family, she cocked her head. “A story about my family?” she asked rubbing the rim of her mug. “I would hate to bog you down with more stories about me,” she shrugged, but decided to tell a story anyway. Taking from the shake of his head, she assumed Xavier didn’t want to think about whatever was on his mind, and if she could help with him, she would. She hardly realized, however, that she was subconsciously avoiding any story that involved Apollo.
“Let’s see… Well, I had these two cousins, Tom and Christian, perhaps you heard of them? You must’ve, they were always wreaking havoc, but they could never prove it was them. They got away with so much,” she started, a small smile coming to her lips. “But most of the time it was harmless. We were celebrating their birthday, once, and my mum and dad and I all went to their house. It wasn’t much of a party, really — until we lit the candles on the cake.” Lavinia looked at Xavier and raised her eyebrows. “I would tell you to use your imagination, but I don’t think anyone could possibly imagine what they managed to do.” She sighed, shaking her head again. “When Aunt Alana lit the candles, a fuse set off, followed a line all along the floor, and set off some kind of lock. The lock, Xavier, opened, and opened a cage that they’d hidden in the next room, allowing hundreds - hundreds - of birds to fly out . Different kinds of birds! The majority were pigeons, and there were doves, and more I couldn’t quite make out. It was incredible. The peacekeepers were sent scrambling. Ready for war, they are, but birds? Hardly. And Tom and Christian knew it.”
As Lavinia finished her story, she found herself laughing, harder than she’d laughter in a while, at the memory. She could still see Tom and Christian rolling on the floor, crying because they were laughing so hard, Aunt Alana shouting out in surprise, Uncle Emerson standing perfectly still in shock, her own parents hiding laughter behind their hands, and she, laughing in disbelief at what they’d managed. To this day, none of them know how they’d managed to even catch all the birds, let alone hide a cage, or set up the fuse to let them free.
When Xavier brought up the day Pullox asked her what her tampons were, she started laughing harder. “How could I forget?” she asked. “I was furious with him. He has a sister and all, I still can’t believe he didn’t know what they were!” She shook her head. “Didn’t we tell him they were for nose bleeds?” she asked, putting her hand over her mouth. If it had been Pullox bringing up the story again, and if she hadn’t been in such a good mood from her last story, she probably wouldn’t have found it nearly as funny. In fact, if it had been Pullox, she probably would have hit him (lightly, mind you) and told him to drop it.
But Lavinia smiled, and leaned against Xavier with a sigh that was still choked in laughter. ‘I’ve really missed this,’ she thought to herself, and was overwhelmingly glad that they were there.
xavier-williams replied to your post:
awks but they aren’t gf/bf but he kind of wish he said that because he still loves her.
That’s what I mean! That’s what would make it gr9, because it just ao;slgjadfs sums everything up omg
