Luke feels an unexpected flicker of warmth in his gut at the offer.
The last time he had had a drink with new faces, it had been on his birthday - or what he guessed was his birthday from the tally marks he scratched into a piece of paper out of a quiet determination to give structure and meaning to long and dreary days that threatened to bleed together. The few of them that remained had been warming their tired, aching bones by a bonfire at a long-dead power station, passing around a bottle. A little sip for the pain, rum dulling the razor-edge of sobriety and teasing hushed laughter out of them. Reminding them how to let go, at least for a little while.
Kindness is a rare commodity at home; few encounters with strangers having been peaceful ones. But it has been so long. Over half a year in Panem now, too, and he still hasn’t lived a single day of it. Maybe one day, he’d learn how to start. Maybe this is the first step.
“Sure... I'd like that.” He says, offering a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. But it's a start, too.
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The last time he had had a drink with new faces, it had been on his birthday - or what he guessed was his birthday from the tally marks he scratched into a piece of paper out of a quiet determination to give structure and meaning to long and dreary days that threatened to bleed together. The few of them that remained had been warming their tired, aching bones by a bonfire at a long-dead power station, passing around a bottle. A little sip for the pain, rum dulling the razor-edge of sobriety and teasing hushed laughter out of them. Reminding them how to let go, at least for a little while.
Kindness is a rare commodity at home; few encounters with strangers having been peaceful ones. But it has been so long. Over half a year in Panem now, too, and he still hasn’t lived a single day of it. Maybe one day, he’d learn how to start. Maybe this is the first step.
“Sure... I'd like that.” He says, offering a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. But it's a start, too.