Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/1601279.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Choose_Not_To_Use_Archive_Warnings, Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Rape/
      Non-Con, Underage, Major_Character_Death
  Category:
      F/M, M/M
  Fandom:
      One_Direction_(Band), Hunger_Games_Trilogy_-_Suzanne_Collins, Hunger
      Games_Series_-_All_Media_Types
  Relationship:
      Harry_Styles/Louis_Tomlinson, Niall_Horan/Zayn_Malik, Niall_Horan/Louis
      Tomlinson
  Character:
      Harry_Styles, Louis_Tomlinson, Finnick_Odair, Johanna_Mason, Niall_Horan,
      Zayn_Malik, Liam_Payne, Luke_Hemmings, Cara_Delevingne, Ashton_Irwin
  Additional Tags:
      Alternate_Universe_-_Hunger_Games_Setting, Horror, Mental_Health_Issues,
      Mental_Breakdown, Forced_Prostitution, Flower_Child_Harry, niall's_a
      slut, Innocent_Harry, Sad_Louis, Depression, Alcohol_Abuse/Alcoholism,
      Drug_Use, he's_cute_though, sort_of
  Stats:
      Published: 2014-05-11 Updated: 2014-07-02 Chapters: 2/? Words: 3995
****** Love Among the Ruins ******
by CarbonInsolence
Summary
     Louis looks at Harry and realises that he should not be alive. He
     should not have won his Hunger Games.
     No one decent ever wins the games.
Notes
See the end of the work for notes
***** Prologue *****
The first time that Louis Tomlinson sees Harry Styles in person is when he
visits District Seven on his Victory Tour. He’s looking at a mountain of
profiteroles covered in chocolate and surrounded by mini cheese cakes with a
sense of awe that only a very new victor can possess. Soon they’ll just become
another part of the endless functions that the Capitol forces them to go to.
Louis smiles bitterly. He thought he would be given his life back when he won
but really it was just the start of a different type of games.
‘What are you smiling at?’ Johanna appears next to him with Finnick at her
side.
‘Just…’ Louis shrugs noncommittally.
Johanna looks at him with concern before turning back to Finnick. ‘I haven’t
congratulated you yet?’ she says.
‘I didn’t think congratulations were in order.’ Finnick looks at her.
Johanna shakes her head. ‘Getting someone through the games is tough,’ she
says. She regards harry who’s just dropped a soup ladle back into the pot
splashing everyone around him. He looks mortified but the Capitol girl laughs
and starts to flirt with him. He rushes away from her as soon as possible.
‘Especially someone like that.’
‘Someone like what?’ Finnick asks.
‘You know what I mean,’ she says. ‘He’s not like us.’
Finnick shrugs. ‘He’s different to us, definitely. I have a feeling that
getting him through the games won’t be the hardest part of all this. It’ll be
getting him through the rest of his life.’
Louis agrees. There’s something about Harry which he can’t quite put his finger
on.
                                       -
Louis completely disregarded Harry when he was reaped for the seventieth Hunger
Games. Sure, District Four was a career district, albeit not in the same way as
One and Two. Four found no glory in the games, they just trained for them. But
Harry just looked so vulnerable. When his name was called out he had frozen
like a dear in headlights and when he stood on the stage he shook. The girl
next to him was bigger than him and much more muscled. Harry was small and only
fifteen. Louis was almost shocked that no-one volunteered for him, but then
maybe he didn’t have anyone eligible.
Either way, Harry was nothing special. Louis took no notice of him. He only
caught brief glimpses of him at the training centre He was clumsy and tripped
over nothing too often. It was Louis’ second year as mentor, Johanna’s fourth.
She had taken to pointing out the people who were going to die at the
Cornucopia.
‘That curly kid,’ she said one evening. ‘That young Career. He’ll die in the
first five minutes. The girl and the boy from Twelve. The thirteen year old
from six.’
‘Our kids,’ Louis says.
‘Our kids,’ Johanna agrees.
They look at each other for a minute. Both of their tributes are twelve. They
have no chance.
Finnick is more confident. ‘My female tribute will win,’ he says. ‘Shay will
win. I have a winner.’
Johanna and Louis agree somewhat bitterly. Shay is big and strong. She wields a
spear like it’s an extension of her own arm.
Shay gets a ten. The boy from One matches her. The girl from Two gets a nine
and the boy gets an eight.
Louis and Johanna’s Tributes both get six.
Harry gets a five, the drawn lowest with the boy from Twelve.
                                       -
It’s not until Louis has a conversation with Harry that he realises what it is
that’s wrong with him. What it is that Finnick hasn’t told him.
Harry is mad.
He doesn’t notice it straight away.
‘Go and talk to him,’ Johanna says. ‘Let the press get some photographs of you
with the current victor. It’ll help us with sponsors in six months.’
Louis sighs. He doesn’t really know what to say to him but he sidles up to him
anyway.
‘Hi!’
Harry whips around spilling wine everywhere. Louis catches real fear in his
eyes and curses to himself. He should have known better than to sneak up on a
new victor like that.
‘Oops.’ Harry says looking at the floor where the wine is in a puddle.
‘I’m sorry,’ Louis takes the glass from him and sets it on the table. ‘I didn’t
mean to sneak up on you.’
‘There’s wine on the floor.’ Harry says like he’s devastated.
‘Sorry,’ Louis apologises. ‘That was me.’
‘But…’ Harry looks confused. ‘How did it get there?’
‘You were…’ Louis frowns. ‘You were just holding a glass and you spilt it.’
‘Oh,’ Harry’s face falls like a lost puppy. ‘I’ve always been a bit stup….’ He
trails of and looks at something in the distance, alarmed.
Louis turns to look at what he’s staring at. It’s a wall.
‘You okay, mate?’ He says to Harry.
‘Yeah, I just, I thought…’ He trails of again and looks at his shoes like there
the most interesting thing in the world.
Louis doesn’t know what to do.
Harry perks up suddenly. ‘Have you seen the flowers?’
‘What flowers,’ Louis asks.
‘The ones on the table,’ Harry sounds ecstatic and eyes are wide. ‘Let me show
you.’
Harry takes his hand and literally drags him to one of the buffet tables.
‘Look, look, look,’ He says pointing at the bouquet in the middle of the table.
He’s almost hysterical. ‘Look, look, look!’
Louis opens and closes his mouth. ‘They’re beautiful,’ he finally manages.
‘I know!’ Harry says happily he’s looking at Louis but his eyes aren’t
focusing. It’s like he’s forgotten Louis there and is just taking to himself.
‘Finnick and Madge say that tributes can have a talent and I want to do flower
arranging with mine. I want to mix together tulips and lilies and orchids.
Madge says I can mix together whatever I …’ And then he trails of again like
he’s forgotten what he was saying.
He stares at the floor and Louis doesn’t really know what to do.
‘There’s wine on the floor.' Harry says. ‘It looks like blood.’
Louis looks.
There’s nothing on the floor.
                                       -
Harry’s interview the night before the Games begin is so plain that Louis only
remembers Harry tripped on the way out.
Louis and Johanna cling onto each other on the sofa the night before the games.
Blight passes out drunk in his room.
The two tributes cry the next morning when they are handed over to the peace
keepers.
‘Don’t,’ Johanna says. ‘You’ll look weak.’
Johanna and Louis sit in the mentor’s office and watch as the arena is
revealed.
They both gasp.
There’s snow everywhere and no trees.
‘Oh God,’ Finnick says.
The countdown starts.
Johanna and Louis’ tributes are both dead fifty-six seconds after the games
start. The boy dashes for a rucksack and is beheaded by the boy from Eleven and
the girl doesn’t run fast enough from the girl from One.
Harry runs in the opposite direction to the Cornucopia and disappears into the
snowy mist with nothing.
The remaining careers slaughter anyone who tries to enter the Cornucopia. Shay,
Finnick’s other tribute and Harry’s female counterpart is with them. The
fighting ends after ten minutes.
Louis drops his head to the desk. Fifty-six seconds and it was all over.
Johanna sits very still. Madge and Finnick look at them both sympathetically.
Louis wonders what it must be like for them. He wonders what it must be like to
have a winning tribute. He looks at Shay. She’s the biggest Career there. It’s
obvious she’s going to win.
But she doesn’t survive the night.
The careers’ slit her throat in her sleep. She’s too much of a threat.
Finnick sits in shock. ‘That’s not… that’s not…’
‘Fair?’ Johanna asks. She and Louis are required to watch so they might as well
watch in the mentor’s office. ‘Nothing about this is fair. Our tributes were
twelve. They were meant to be at home playing but they died in the arena. Is
that fair?’
‘’Arry,’ Madge says.
‘Yeah,’ Finnick visibly shakes himself. ‘Yeah, we’ve still got Harry.’
Louis doesn’t have the heart to tell Finnick that Harry’s probably the worst
tribute there now that both of Twelve and his own kids are dead.
                                       -
It’s Madge who finds Louis talking to Harry. He seems to have forgotten about
the non-existent blood on the floor and has gone back to discussing which
flowers are his favourite.
His face lights up even more when he spots Madge. ‘Madge braids flowers into my
hair sometimes,’ he says. ‘But only when my mummy and sister aren’t there to do
it.’
Madge smiles at him and says something incoherent that Louis can’t understand.
Maybe Harry does though because he lets her lead him off to some other part of
the hall.
Finnick sidles up beside him. ‘I see you met Harry.’
‘Yeah,’ Louis says. He looks at Finnick sadly. ‘He seems sweet.’
‘He’s so…’ Finnick sighs. ‘I don’t know what to do with him. I don’t know how
to help him.’
Louis has no answer. ‘What if Snow wants him? What if he want him to-?’
‘He can’t,’ Finnick says. ‘Harry will never be able to handle that.’
‘But what if he does,’ Louis says.
‘Then we’ll take his clients.’ Finnick says. ‘You’ll do that for me won’t you.’
‘Of course,’ Louis says. ‘But that might not be enough. The clients might not
like that and if they don’t like that, Snow won’t let us.’
Finnick closes his eyes. ‘He’s so young.’
‘You were younger.’
‘But I was stronger.’ Finnick says. ‘His Mum says he already had problems. He
was already a bit… a bit off. But after the games he lost it.’
‘Who can blame him. What happened to him was… well it was a different type of
horror.’
‘He’s a virgin.’
Louis curses. ‘I’ll help him with you. Like you helped me.’
‘You were never like Harry.’ Finnick snaps. Louis sees an apology in his eyes
straight away.
They’re both silent for a moment. ‘Can I give Harry your number. I think he
needs to talk to people who care. You know lots about flowers right?’
Louis shakes his head. ‘I know nothing. But if you care about him so much I’m
sure I can brush up.’
                                       -
Harry’s hauled up in a cave. He’s not freezing like the other tributes, but
he’s going to starve.
‘There’s no food or tree’s’ Finnick points out stupidly. He’s not stupid. He’s
just under stress.
On the same night Shay dies six more tributes die of hypothermia. By the next
day there are just eight left: all the careers (who have found a cave
alarmingly close to Harry’s), the boy from Five, the girl from eight and Harry
himself.
‘I wonder how many game makers will die for this.’ Louis says at breakfast.
The game makers do seem desperate. The day after when the girl from eight dies
from the cold they release a pair of  mutant polar bears. Harry’s starving and
can’t run that fast, but it doesn’t matter because the boy from five falls.
Harry grabs his spear as he runs past and leaves him for the polar bears.
He makes the mistake of looking back and sees the torso of the boy with the
head still half attacked rolling down the hill he’s just run down. He freezes
and stares.
That’s when the careers arrive.
They don’t see the polar bears through the snowstorm and converge on Harry.
Harry literally yells at them to watch out.
They’re half a meter away from him when the polar bears pounce.
The boy from two is ripped apart. Harry blindly stabs with his spear. The
tributes are all too close together and it goes through the heart of the girl
from two instead of one of the polar bears. The horror on his face is evident.
The boy from ones’ spine is pulled out as harry feels a bite at his leg. He
falls to the floor. Everything so close. They’re in a little crowd in the
middle of a snowy field and from his computer screen Louis can’t tell who’s
dead and who’s alive. The polar bears are just ripping and killing.
It all ends when the girl from one’s guts fall out of her stomach and onto
Harry.
The final cannon goes off and the polar bears wonder away.
‘I present to you the winner of the Seventieth Annual Hunger Games, Harry
Styles.’
Harry stands up somehow despite the bite to his leg. Louis realises with horror
that he’s covered head to toe in blood and the intestines of the girl from One
are all hanging of his shoulders and around his neck. Harry seems to have
realised that some things on him and he looks sideways to see what it is.
It takes him a couple of seconds to realise that it’s a set of intestines.
He looks around and realises he’s standing in a pile of limbs.
He puts his bloody hands over his ears and starts to shriek.
From the mentors office in the training area Louis wonder’s if he’s ever going
to stop.
***** Chapter Two *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Louis still hasn’t gotten used to Harry calling, mainly because he wasn’t used
to the phone on the wall yet. It had been there for two years and he had only
used it on a handful of occasions, mainly to call Finnick when Johanna or Niall
weren’t there to remind him what he had to live for on the dark nights when
everything got a little too much.
But Harry calls every day to tell Louis about his flowers or his mum and his
sister or even what he had for dinner.
‘Gemma caught a salmon today Lou and brought it home,’ he would say. ‘I’m not
sure she was allowed to because usually Salmon go straight to the Capitol
because they’re so rare, but she did anyway and mummy made a stew and it was so
yum.’
Tonight though Harry was telling him about a certain breed of tulip he was
trying to grow. ‘Mag’s says I can grow a tulip which is half purple and half
yellow. She’s going to help me start tomorrow. I can press one for you and send
it to…’
Every now and then Harry would trail off as if he had forgotten he was talking
to Louis but in general he talked and talked which was something Louis liked.
He wasn’t much of a talker himself so having Harry talk about so much mundane
happy stuff like flowers and fish was nice.
‘What where you saying Haz?’ He asks after the silence stretched on for too
long.
‘Oh!’ Harry says. ‘Sorry, I continued in my head. I do that sometimes. It was
an accident.’
‘It’s okay.’
‘I was just saying I could press a flower and send it to you.’
Louis smiles. He genuinely thinks of Harry as a good friend now so if something
like that makes him happy then so be it, even if he won’t have much use for a
pressed flower.
‘Sure Haz,’ Louis says. ‘I’d like that.’
‘Mummy’s run a bath for me so I have to go,’ Harry says. ‘But I’ll see you
tomorrow after the re – re – rea…’
He trails of again and Louis catches on that he’s scared. ‘Sure Haz. I’ll see
you tomorrow right.’
‘Bye!’ Harry says. ‘See you.’
When Louis put the phone back on the wall he slowly goes upstairs to where
Niall is waiting for him.
‘That Harry?’ Niall asks as he folds the last of Louis washing into the draws.
‘Yep,’ Louis says.
‘Is he getting any better?’ Niall asks. He’s never spoken to Harry but he says
he seems nice from what Louis’ told him.
‘I don’t think it’s something he’s going to get better from,’ Louis says sadly
and Niall frowns at him.
‘Are you okay love?’ He asks.
‘Yeah,’ Louis says. ‘Now I’m with you.’
Louis cups Niall’s mouth and kisses him and Niall sighs into the kiss. Louis
lets his hands wonder down to Niall’s arse and he slips his hand down the back
of his trousers.
‘Lou,’ Niall says. ‘Louis.’
He pulls away and holds Louis gaze as he slowly drops to his knees. He kisses
Louis half hard cock through his clothing and reaches up to unzip the zipper.
‘I want you to be okay,’ he says as he takes Louis cock out.
‘I’m okay when I’m with you,’ Louis says as Niall kisses the tip.
Niall looks up at him and smiles sadly and Louis knows he’s missed the point.
‘I want you to be okay always’ he says before swallowing Louis cock in one go.
Louis thinks he’s going to black out as Niall bobs his head taking him down his
throat like he was born to do it.
‘God,’ He moans and time seems to pass too fast.
‘I’m going to come,’ he says after a while.
Niall pulls of his cock and releases it. ‘Not in my mouth you’re not,’ he says
taking his top and trousers of. He’s not wearing any underwear and Louis nearly
comes at the sight of his arse as he spreads his leg and arches his back as
though he’s presenting to him.
Louis reaches out and runs a finger over Niall’s hole. Niall pushes back into
the touch.
‘Take your clothes off Lou,’ Niall keens. ‘Please fuck me.’
So Louis does. He finds comfort in Niall in a way that he never thought he
could do again after the games. Niall spreads his legs as wide as they go and
Louis enters him as he has done so many times before.
After they finish Louis rolls off Niall and turns onto his side to face him.
Niall curls into a ball and shuts his eyes. Louis thinks he’s beautiful. He’s
pale but the sunset creeping in from the not quite shut curtains casts beams of
light over his naked skin. His blond hair is dishevelled, his lips are red and
swollen and he has a scattering of bruises over his neck.
Louis recons that Niall is what angels would look like if they existed. After
what he’s seen Louis doesn’t think they do.
Niall opens his eyes to look at Louis and suddenly he looks so sad.
‘That was the last time,’ Niall says as they lay back in a post-orgasmic haze.
Louis’ expected this for a while but it hurts more than he thought it would.
Perhaps it’s because Niall’s been one of the few people who’s made sex more
than just a job to him since he survived the arena. Perhaps it’s because he
never realised how much he needed to feel wanted.
‘Niall…’ he says and then stops because he doesn’t know what to say to make him
stay. He doesn’t even know why Niall should stay. He’s got nothing left to
offer. Sure he has money and a house for his ruthlessness in the arena, but
he’s emotionally wiped. He doesn’t know if he’s even really there anymore.
‘I found someone Louis,’ Niall says softly and almost regretfully, because he
knows what he’s doing. He knows he’s hurting Louis. ‘He’s wonderful.’
Louis nods. This was always going to happen. It wasn’t like he and Niall were
together. They weren’t in a relationship. It was just convenient for both of
them - or just convenient for Louis. He needed the human touch after the arena
and Niall knew that. He had always been his best friend and there for Louis, so
he was there for him then.
‘I’m glad,’ Louis says.
And in a way he is. He’s not good enough for Niall. Not really. Niall is soft
and warm and gentle and he’s just… he’s just not. Niall needs someone better.
This is a good thing.
‘Tell me about him,’ He asks Niall.
Niall’s face lights up and suddenly he’s off at two hundred miles per hour
talking about a boy called Zayn who lives in one of the biggest squatter camps
in Seven. Apparently he sells cheap cigarettes that he’s scavenged from the
remains of old ones to get by. Niall says that he’s going to take him back to
his when he next sees him so he won’t have to live out in the cold anymore.
With his teacher training salary Niall thinks that he can pay for them both if
he’s careful.
Louis thinks his heart might be breaking a little.
                                       -
The next day is the Reaping and Louis’ drunk.
It’s a new feeling. He wonders if it’s noticeable and it clearly is seeing the
way in which Johanna is frowning at him and Blight is looking at him with
understanding.
He likes it though. He can’t even remember why he’s sad – for a while anyway.
When the Reaping starts he remembers.
The girls go first and Louis not so concerned with that anyway. His families
all gone so it doesn’t matter. The girl Reaped is seventeen and skinny. She’s
called Cara.
When the boy is Reaped he holds his breath. Niall is eighteen which is only
slightly younger than him, but he’s still eligible. He’s paid alright these
days since his teacher training course started so he hasn’t taken the Tesserae,
but Louis still worries.
Niall isn’t Reaped, a boy called Luke is.
Maybe it’s the alcohol talking but Louis thinks he’s quite beautiful. He’s
blond and if he squints he looks a little like Niall.
Louis takes a moment to consider how fucked up that is. There’s this boy who’s
about to be thrown to his death in an arena and Louis’ checking him out?
He doesn’t remember how he got to the train but he trips on the way up the
stairs and has to cling to the barriers.
‘Tomlinson, Tomlinson, how pissed are you,’ one of the reporters yell as snaps
are taken.
Louis briefly see’s Johanna’s horrified face as he’s picked up by his escort
Sheila and practically thrown into the train.
‘Whoa,’ Louis says. ‘I’m not really into that rough stuff. Or women.’
Blight guffaws and Sheila opens up a door to the living quarters and shoves
Louis, Bight, Johanna and the tributes inside.
 ‘Ouch,’ Louis says as he falls onto a sofa.
Sheila turns on him her orange hair falling out from underneath a comical
miniature hat on her head. ‘What in god’s name are you on?’ she says. She has
an annoyingly high pitch voice and a ridiculous capitol accent.
Louis shrugs and tries not to slur. ‘I think its whiskey or something. My bad.’
Sheila looks outraged. ‘It’s nine o’clock in the morning Tomlinson. What were
you thinking?’
Louis shrugs and Johanna runs her hands through her hair.
‘This just isn’t like you,’ Sheila says. ‘What’s gotten into you?’
Louis shrugs again. ‘Maybe I just don’t care.’ He points at Luke and Cara who
are staring at him in shock in realisation that this was the person who was
going to try and keep them alive. ‘There going to die anyway.’
At that Cara and Luke look horrified.
‘And Niall doesn’t want me anymore.’
Johanna looks up from where she was looking at her lap. ‘Oh Louis,’ she says.
Then Louis starts to cry and it just doesn’t stop.
He’s aware of Johanna putting her arms around him and Blight getting up to
leave the room.
The two tributes are herded out of the room by Sheila who says they’ll start
preparations for the Games later on in the train journey and in the mean time
they should make themselves at home.
He cries onto Johanna’s shoulder and wonders if Niall knows what he’s done.
Maybe he should have said something earlier. Maybe he should have told Niall…
or maybe Zayn’s just everything he can’t be anymore. Maybe Zayn’s everything
about Louis that the Games destroyed.
‘I love him. I love him Johanna.’
‘I know Lou,’ she says.
‘I love him so much and he doesn’t need me.’
Chapter End Notes
     Hi :) I hope you enjoyed that! If you have any comments that would be
     great! I'm not that great at writing smut so sorry about that bit. I
     should update again soon :)
End Notes
     Please feel free to leave me any comments :) It would be much
     appreciated.
     I will do my best to update as much as possible.
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