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.

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.

‘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? 

— Alvy Foreman

Oh! Of - of course - I mean, thank you - no, I'm not working for anyone. Er - that is - yes, I'm free. I mean, excuse me, but you might have to let Heathcliff know, so he can keep tabs on where we all are.

I'm really sorry, you talked so quickly, I may have missed it - what should I call you? I'm really sorry, sir, I'm afraid I don't know your name.

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.

we'll be free || Lavinia & Xavier

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.

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

 

Karen & Arthur, The Guardian Guide photoshoot

 

jameson-barton replied to your post:  

For a second I thought Dani’s comment said ‘eating pilgrims’. Zombie Thanksgiving?

THIS SHOULD BE A REALLY BAD CARTOON SOMEWHERE

mellark-thebakersson replied to your post:  

I’m currently pretending like I understand why people do thanksgiving. Besides eating and Indians and pilgrams.

That's literally all we do it for. At least, that's all my mom and I do it for. To eat. It's our only excuse during the year to eat as much as we can, while we can. 

 

 

`

Lavinia couldn't help but smile as Xavier talked about his family. She loved listening to it. There was something special when you talked about family, like you were doing them a justice, letting people know how amazing they are. There was something nice talking about family. She loved telling stories about her mum and dad, about Uncle Emerson and Aunt Alana, and Tom and Christian. How her dad was always whistling or humming or singing. Aunt Alana and Uncle Emerson were always making wise-crack jokes, always the life of the party amongst the adults. Tom and Christian wreaked more havoc than the entirety of District 5 put together - and they were practically her brothers.

"No, no," Lavinia said, shaking her head. "Don't be silly. I love listening, and I think the best comes out of a story when you get lost in your thoughts." She took another sip of tea and shook her head again. "God knows I can hardly get through a short story without getting totally lost somewhere along the line. But maybe that's when we're the most honest."

She was very conscious of her dad's presence in the Capitol.  Ever since she'd had that conversation with Artie, when he found out that her dad was somehow, some way back, she was overly-aware of how lucky she was, and how unfair it seemed. She was happy her dad was back, and she wouldn't trade it for the world - she wouldn't trade it for this universe or the next - but she wished that somehow, there was something she could do for Xavier. Give him back someone he loved. He deserved that much and more.

Lavinia laughed. "I'm glad you can tolerate all of them. Sappy Lav, from what I understand, can be quite a pain, and a bit annoying. Don't even get me started on over-dramatic Lav," she joked, cocking her head and raising her eyebrows. "I think I'm starting to sound like I have multiple personalities."

She nudged his shoulder lightly with her own, but didn't respond. Nothing needed be said.

we'll be free || Lavinia & Xavier

Xavier thought about what he could tell Lavinia, he hadn’t seen his family in six years and he knew a lot must have changed since then. He returned Lavinia’s smile and nodded. “Now there is only my father, my brother Joseph, he’s twenty-two and my sister Evelyn she should be nineteen. I think I told you that my mother passed away, she died giving birth to Samuel. Samuel didn’t survive his games unfortunately but he was only twelve, no one really expected he would. We all look like my mother, tall, skinny and blonde, except I was unlucky and ended up with my father’s nose. Evelyn was only thirteen when I left but she had always wanted to be a teacher and she used to pretend that me and Samuel were her class.” He laughed at the memory, remembering the way Evelyn would boss them around and how Joseph would have no part in it, claiming he was too mature for that.

Xavier realised he had been babbling on a little bit, he was still sorting through the memories in his mind. He shot Lavinia a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I sometimes get lost in my thoughts.”

Sometimes he couldn’t believe how lucky some people were. Pullox had Leda show up in the Capitol, by some miracle Mr Foxworth had been brought back, Katniss had Gale, Peeta had Kota and even Jameson had his friend Alabaster. Xavier didn’t feel upset about it, he was glad that people had friends or family members around them. Xavier was certain he would be constantly worried if any of his family showed up in the Capitol. Besides, what reason would they have for bringing his family to the Capitol. Xavier was of no importance to the Capitol and neither were his family. He could only hope one day that he would be lucky enough to see them again.

Xavier could imagine that they looked like quite the pair, both with pink in their cheeks and small smiles on their lips. He felt the small flip in his stomach, he was surprised it hadn’t appeared early, it always happened when he was in Lavinia’s presence. “I thought because - things might have changed but nothing has, you’re still Lavinia and I’m still Xavier.” he said. He took another quick sip of his tea before continuing. “The real Lav, happy, silly, sappy Lav and even the cheeky Lav are all my favourites and I love them all dearly. I’m so glad I get to see them all.”

Xavier kept his eyes on her face. “I see more than most people do and I know I am right.”