itinere | Bonfire Mingle Post || OTA

Around the time the sun is starting to set in the early to mid-evening on Saturday, 11/12 as promised, Lydia will (hopefully with the help of Allison and a couple of others) have set up a bonfire on the beach. She's brought several bags of marshmallows, boxes of graham crackers, bars of chocolate, and s'more skewers so that s'mores can totally be a thing. There's also plenty of blankets and towels spread around, because she wants to be sure everyone is comfortable. Jill has offered to bring the alcohol.

Lydia can be found making her way around, greeting and mingling with anyone who arrives and throughout the night. She'll be doing her best to appear approachable so that anyone who maybe hasn't ever been to a bonfire and has questions will feel comfortable approaching her to do that.

[ ooc: please feel free to respond directly to this with your own top comments to play out stuff in here or you can use this as a prompt to make your own logs elsewhere, totally up to you. If you'd like to play with Lydia, please consider this her top comment. Mods, let me know if I need to make any changes to this.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She'd never consider it like that. For half of her stay in Itinere, Katniss had been entirely focused on one thing and one thing only: Prim. She had somehow convinced herself that watching her sister thrive was all she needed to survive. Katniss knows better now; if she wants to do more than survive, if she wants to live, she needs to take advantage of all the opportunities Itinere gives her. Living is important. It's ridiculously important.

And she'd like to think that she's taken a shine to living. She has more than her sister now. She has a friend or two. She has a boyfriend, a boyfriend that's currently driving her crazy with his mouth. Katniss quietly groans when he nips at her neck, tilting her head to give him more access. "Keep this up and I'm going home with you tonight."

Matt is so incredibly glad she's gotten to this point. He remembers when he'd first met her, when she hadn't wanted anything out of life outside of surviving. It's important and wonderful that she gets to watch Prim live, but that's not enough; she knows that now and he's more than willing to help her realize every day how important living is.

He thinks she has anyway. Driving her crazy like this is part of being a boyfriend, a part that he readily embraces and enjoys as much as she does. When she tilts her head to the side, he takes a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her skin and pressing a feather light kiss there. "Hmmm," he hums against her skin, pausing a moment to bite lightly once again. "My devious plan is working."

She's incredibly glad that she's reached this kind of point, too. She spent her whole life practically hiding from life. Maybe it's been Matt's patience with her or maybe it's all just a coincidence - that sometime around meeting him, she realized that she wants more to life than what she had. Either way, while she has so much more to lose now, she's starting to suspect it might be worth it. Katniss laughs far more than she used to.

She's laughing even now, albeit that laugh is throaty and mixed in with a groan when he nips at her skin again. Sex is addictive. Or maybe it's Matt who's addictive. She can't decide. And he's too distracting to reach any kind of decision. Somehow, she manages to pull away enough to regain sanity for a moment.

"Devious plan?" It's definitely working. Ignoring what's left in her glass, she wraps her arms around his neck and tilts her head up to kiss him hard. The remainder of her drink falls down his back. "Should've known," she whispers between kisses. "But it is working."

Matt thinks environment plays a little part in her state of mind, though he's happy to take credit for as much of it as she wants to give him. Most days things in Itinere are pleasant and slow, a perfect spot to build a life. That's the problem with life: unless you've got something to lose, you're not really living it.

He'll hope for the latter. She's equally as addictive as he can't keep his hands or his lips off her. He'll blame the alcohol in part and the secluded feeling of this spot of beach, but it's got a lot more to do with her than any of those other things.

"Naturally," he jokes with her. "You didn't think I was innocent here, did you?" Then she's kissing him and he notices her drink going down his back, but it doesn't seem terribly important right now. "I'm even better than I thought," he teases, nipping at her bottom lip. "Let's go get you another drink." He'll worry about his shirt later.

Environment probably does play a significant role in the freedom she feels. That Prim is here, alive, and starting to thrive again plays just as significant role. But having Matt, having this relationship with him, is important. This is something real they've built. And it's unlike anything Katniss has experienced before.

It's definitely the latter. She can't imagine feeling like this around anyone else. This might be love after all - as afraid as she is to admit it. What else would explain the way they're so incapable of keeping their hands off each other? It has to be something more than the alcohol.

"You are much better than you think," she agrees, groaning as he bites down on his lip. The drink doesn't seem important right now. Nothing does but Matt. She kisses him again, though there's something tender and caring mixed in with her need. "You're so much better."

This is different from Matt's previous relationships as well. This is domestic, content and solid in a way that his relationship with Elektra never was. Perhaps there are reasons that he and Katniss shouldn't be together (her age) but he's long since forgotten those, especially when they're together like this.

At least he's equally as afraid to admit it. It's more than the alcohol, but it's also more than lust, which is something his relationship with Elektra had had plenty of. Oddly enough, it's the quiet, still moments that convince him this is love more than the moments when they can't keep their hands off each other.

"As long as I keep you convinced of that," he says in a voice that is too rough with desire to be teasing. When she kisses him like this, he also knows it's love because of that tenderness, that caring mixed in her kiss. He returns the kiss, fingertips beneath her jaw, tracing the line of her neck as he kisses her.

There's nothing wrong with life being a little domestic. Given that Katniss has spent most of her life as provider for her family, she's used to that kind of domestic lifestyle. What's different is having a boyfriend in the mix. A good different, as if someday, she could easily settle into a more permanent form of this relationship. One that might even include co-habitation. She's long since stopped seeing him as so much older than her. Any reasons why they shouldn't be together seem small in comparison to why they should.

The quiet moments mean a lot to her, too. She doesn't have to constantly talk around Matt. Nor does she have to inform him about every second of every day. Her life is balanced around Matt. It's far better than she thinks it has the right to be.

She can hear that roughness in his voice and it sends shivers down her spine. Her fingers play with the hair on the nape of his neck as she sighs into the kiss. Keeping her convinced of that will be easy. He just has to keep being himself. "I think the odds are in your favor," she murmurs against his lips.

Bonfire Mingle Post || OTA

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