the sixth deadly sin; ❛ ENIGMA ❜
↷ the hunger games
❝ I call dibs on killing the new capital darling ❞

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When Alina was little and her father was still alive he liked to read her countless stories about Greek mythology. It was no secret that Nevan King has always been quite a history nerd and even though his oldest daughter would not admit it, she slowly grew up into one too. She spend the few free hours she had at the library or reading in her room. While training usually only made her stressed and frustrated, shoving her head into a book made her relax. When she was reading, she did not think about the things that were expected of her or the people that usually surrounded her. She was alone with her thoughts.

So, when Cato, Ikarus, Mare, and Alina finally arrived at the building that all the tributes were staying in before the games, she couldn't help but compare the size of it to what she imagined the Roman building looked like. She visited The Capitol once or twice when she was younger but she did not remember everything being so big. The buildings looked old but polished at the same time and if Alina did not have bigger things to worry about, she would have taken a few moments to admire them.

But she 𝘥𝘪𝘥 have bigger and more important things to worry about.

She brushed past Cato ── who was staring at the building in amazement that was abnormal for him because the only emotions he ever showed were smugness, pride, and anger ── and followed a grinning Mare inside.

"Come on, Angel. How do you block all of this out?" Cato asked with a childlike grin that was so different from his usual smug expression that she almost did a double take to make sure it was actually Cato walking behind her.

"Well, first I think about how one or both of us is going to die in two weeks" Alina deadpanned as she walked into the elevator, "and then think to myself; 𝘩𝘮, 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺-𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘴?"

"Grumpy." Was all Cato was able to muster, giving her a side glance, expecting to be met with a taunting smirk but was surprised and slightly worried that Alina was anything but amused.

Ikarus rolled his eyes at their bickering and pressed the button for the penthouse that they will be staying in "She's right, Hadley. You have more important things to worry about. A lot of kids let two weeks of glory get into their heads and think they can win everything because they're famous now. Most of those kids end up dead."

"Grumpier." Alina heard Cato mutter under his breath with sarcasm clear in his voice and almost cracked a smile at his poor attempt to lighten the mood.

The elevator made a small ding before opening, announcing that they were on their assigned floor. The four made their way inside and Alina's eyes visibly widened at the sight of their penthouse. Her house in District Two is nothing if not huge and over-decorated but this was something else.

Cato let out a low whistle, in awe, as he took in the penthouse, most likely having the same thoughts as Alina did. Mare chuckled at their expressions and clapped her hands together with a more genuine grin than before, "You two can go get cleaned up. After that, we will take you to get ready for the parade."

𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. Alina scoffed bitterly under her breath. The annual district parade where all twenty-four of them will be dressed in tacky costumes that somehow represent their district.

She just hoped they did not have to dress as Roman soldiers like last year's District Two tributes. They looked like a hot mess and she did not think that was a good way to make a good first impression. Sure, the costumes represented what District Two stood for but the armor their tributes usually wore looked tacky.

Mare must have noticed Alina's sour expression because she gave her forearm a soft squeeze accompanied by a comforting smile, "Don't worry, sweetheart, you got one of the best stylists in Panem."

"Perfect." She let out a fake laugh, which went unnoticed by Mare but Cato caught her sarcasm and chuckled under his breath.

"I'll go take a quick shower." The blond boy announced, giving Alina a quick once over before he winked "You are free to join anytime, Angel."

"Do you flirt with everyone that can kill you with their eyes closed?" Alina deadpanned, leveling him with an annoyed glare.

"Nah, just you." He called over his shoulder and continued to the showers while chuckling under his breath.

-

Alina was sitting on the comfortable red couch of the unnecessarily big dressing room that she was assigned to when a beautiful woman with radiant blue hair walked in. She did not look older than twenty and Alina could not help but wonder why she would choose to work somewhere connected to the Games. But now that she thought about it, maybe it was for the same reason she volunteered.

"Panem, you are absolutely gorgeous!" Was the first thing the young woman exclaimed, her red lips tugged into a big grin, "I don't usually work with careers because they always put me and my partner Pascal with the outer districts but I'm absolutely ecstatic to be working with District Two this year. My name is Evie Goldheart."

"I'm Alina." The redhead said, feeling less anxious at how genuinely excited Evie actually looked, but still not letting her guard down all the way. "But you probably already knew that . . . "

"Well, Alina," Evie grinned happily, "as soon as I saw you and Cato on that stage I instantly knew exactly which piece of mine and my partner will put you in. It's a new design but I have been working on it specifically for District Two. I am aware that most designs for your district look more like costumes for kids, rather than something that's supposed to represent your district and leave a good impression. Someone as gorgeous as you should not have to be put into some messy costume."

More and more tension left Alina's body with each word that left her stylist's mouth and she gave her a tight-lipped smile before asking, "What did you have in mind?"

Evie practically skipped over to the closet and was quick to open it before she pulled out the hanger with the outfit on it. Alina felt a smile ghost her lips as she stared at it. While it was still very much a Gladiator costume, it was not made out of tacky gold armor but rather out of black, gold, and red fabric. The cape was red and probably long enough to reach her ass and the rest of the outfit consisted of a black dress that had gold details on it which, in a way, reminded her of armor.

Evie chuckled at the awe on her face, "I'm guessing you like it."

"It's beautiful." Alina said, only taking her eyes off of it to give her an impressed look. Evie's grin only brightened at her praise.

"Perfect!" She practically squealed. "Let's get you ready then."

-

Almost four hours later, Alina was dressed and her red curls were braided into two braids that laid on each of her shoulders. The shoes that she was wearing were a little small but she sucked the pain up due to the fact that she knew that she was going to be taking them off in an hour.

When she exited the room, she saw that Mare was already waiting for her in front of it. When her escort caught sight of her, she gasped ── in either surprise or excitement, Alina was not sure but it seemed to be a positive reaction.

"You look absolutely gorgeous." Mare exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear, "The Capitol will not know what hit it. Now let's go before we're late. The boys are already there."

When Alina and Mare arrived at the place the parade was supposed to be held, the King girl instantly caught sight of an impatient-looking Cato and a bored Ikarus next to their big golden carriage. Ikarus was scanning through the crowd and when his gaze fell on the two women, his lips twitched into a smug smirk. Alina could see him nudging Cato with his elbow as they got closer to them.

The Hadley boy turned around to see where his mentor was pointing just as Alina and Mare arrived in front of them. Cato was wearing a black and gold outfit that consisted of black leather pants, a matching top with a belt that had a lot of gold material on it, and a shield that was practically glued to his back. The red eyeliner on his face was a good contrast to Alina's cape.

Alina was just about to say something snarky about him looking like a hitman until she noticed that the boy was stunned into silence. Instead, she chose to only raise an amused eyebrow and cross her arms over her chest, the movement seeming to snap Cato out of his trance.

The female tribute could swear she could see a faint blush take over Cato's pale face but did not have a chance to question it because he chose that exact moment to open his big mouth, "Looking good, Angel. The whole 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 look looks good on you."

Alina scoffed under her breath, not sure if she should take that as a compliment or not but luckily she did not even have to answer because Mare started rushing them toward their carriage. Surprisingly, Cato didn't hesitate to grab a hold of Mina's hand and to interlock their fingers together like it was the most natural thing ever before he tugged her towards him and helped her onto the carriage.

Alina raised her eyebrows in surprise at the gesture and Cato was quick to defend himself, "Relax, Angel. They will eat it right up."

"Whatever." she muttered and felt him give her hand a squeeze before they both watched the District One tributes appear on the big screen. Marvel and Glimmer. Both of them were in ridiculous-looking bright pink costumes and wearing big matching grins.

Cato gave her hand another squeeze before whispering "Show time." On cue, the white horses tied to their carriage started moving and led them out, right in front of the enormous crowd of Capitol residents. They were already cheering so loud that Alina was sure her ears were gonna start bleeding before the parade was over.

The carriage made its way through the crowd and a few flowers landed on the District Two volunteers. The camera zoomed in on their hands and they were shown on the big screen long enough for the crowd to cheer even louder. Alina let a small smirk grace her now confident features and she could practically feel the smugness rolling off of Cato ── both of them soaking in the few minutes of fame they were allowed to have without getting blood on their hands.

Everything was going perfectly and all attention was on them until the crowd's cheering turned to someone else behind them. Alina's eyes snapped towards the screen where she saw the two tributes from District Twelve passing through the crowd, both of them literally on fire. The King felt something harshly tug at her insides.

Something more dangerous than any anger or annoyance she could ever direct toward her mother or Cato.

A disastrous mix of envy and jealousy was lighting up inside of her just like the flames on Twelve's clothes.

"Tributes," Snow started, making the redhead turn away from District Twelve's tributes to look at him, "we welcome you. We salute your courage and your sacrifice. We wish you Happy Hunger Games. And may the odds be ever in your favor."

Alina could tell by the almost painful grip Cato had on her hand. He was just as pissed as she was about their newfound competition.

The second the District Two tributes got off the carriage and came face to face with their scowling mentor, Alina did not waste a second before growling out. "I call dibs on killing the new Capitol Darling."

With those final words and one more glare towards Katniss Everdeen, Alina King brushed past everyone and stomped towards the dressing room with only one thought on her mind. She was going to be the one to kill Katniss Everdeen, and she was gonna give Panem a show they will never forget. She will be damned if someone from an outer district would take her crown away from her.

a/n: evie>