A/N: Rated E for violence, language, and explicit sex. Please note that there is quite a bit of potentially upsetting subject matter, including violence against children, body dysmorphia, non-graphic torture, and murder. Stay safe, y'all.

July 1999

"Is it an elephant?"

Peeta stifled a laugh as Katniss frowned down at the drawing. It wasn't the best picture of, well, whatever she was trying to draw, but the blob on the road looked nothing like an elephant.

"Do you have a guess?" Katniss asked.

He shook his head.

Prim still hadn't given up hope. "A pink elephant. Like in the movie."

"We only have pink and purple chalk," Katniss explained, her words slow and precise as she barely held on to her last scraps of patience. "Everything's gonna be pink or purple. You can't use the colors to try to figure it out." She scuffed out what Peeta assumed were the ears with the palm of her hand, scraping her skin in the process, and added a smaller, triangular pair at the top of the creature's head. "Try again. It's someone or something you know." They didn't usually play with clues, and Peeta wanted to call Katniss out on changing the rules to her own game, but they had already taken four guesses each, and he knew Katniss wouldn't let them switch draw-ers until they got it right.

"Is it Foxworth?" Peeta put forth. Panem High's fox mascot seemed like a safe guess. Just like her picture, it had four legs, a tail, and triangle ears.

"Are you two even trying? It's not that hard. He lives in our house."

"It's Buttercup!" Prim practically squealed.

"Finally."

Katniss passed the chalk to her younger sister, who immediately handed it to Peeta. "You draw."

"It's not my turn."

"I want it to be your turn. You draw better than me." A pout had crept into her voice, and Peeta sensed that they could be dealing with a tantrum soon if he failed to comply. There was no use in arguing anyway. Katniss' five-year-old sister always got her way eventually.

He glanced towards Katniss to see if she was all right with the change, and when all he got was an eye roll, he smiled back towards Prim. "Maybe we can draw together? You tell me what you want, then you can use the pink and I'll use the purple, and we'll have Katniss guess what we're making."

"Okay," Prim agreed. "Cover your ears, Katniss." She scooted over to Peeta, who leaned down so she could whisper in his ear. "I want Buttercup."

"That's what Katniss just did."

"Then she won't be suspecting it." Man, that kid was devious.

"You three had better not be playing on the road!" Mrs. Everdeen called from the house.

Katniss pulled Prim onto the long, scratchy grass that made up the Everdeens' front lawn. "We're not!" She shouted back.

"Katniss, you can't lie to your mom," said Peeta.

She shrugged. "I wasn't lying. We're not playing there anymore."

"And Peeta, your dad called. He wants you home in fifteen minutes for dinner."

"I'll be there!" He stood up and wiped the chalk dust onto his shorts. Mom would be mad about the grey-pink stripes on his pants, but they would come out in the wash, just like they always did. He had given up on trying to keep Mom happy anyway. "Sorry we didn't get to finish the game. See you two tomorrow?"

"Let me walk you to your bike. Prim, go inside."

"I don't have to do what you say."

"If you want to get your chalk back you do."

Prim stuck out her tongue at that, but she did start running up the long gravel drive toward the house.

Katniss waited until she reached the door to turn to Peeta. "Come on, you need to get home eventually." She grabbed his hand and pulled him up the drive to where he'd left his bike earlier that afternoon. It wasn't holding hands, not exactly, but Peeta basked in the way her hand felt around his anyway. "I have a plan for tomorrow."

"Yeah?"

"Come over as soon as you're done at the bakery, and we can go and pick strawberries. Prim still watches Sesame Street every morning, so if we get going early enough, we won't even have to bring the baby. I've got the buckets washed out and everything."

"That sounds fun."

"It's going to be. My dad took me up there a couple summers ago. They have a ton of berries."

"Okay. I'll come as soon as Dad lets me leave tomorrow."

"See you soon."

The slam of a car door woke Katniss. She moved the curtain out of the way to look outside but in the dark, she couldn't make out anything beyond the dusky shape of the car in their driveway. At the knock, she rushed for the door.

"Don't open it." Mom tied her bathrobe in place and grabbed the rifle from its spot in the kitchen. "Who's there?"

"Haymitch."

Mom turned to Katniss and lowered her voice. "Go back to your room. Nine is too old to be wandering around in your nightdress."

Instead of obeying, Katniss lurked in the hallway that separated the living room and kitchen. If something was important enough to bring Haymitch Abernathy, Panem County's sheriff, to their house in the middle of the night, it was too important for her not to hear.

Mom tugged open the door to reveal Haymitch's tall, broad form. "So, what brings you out here?"

"Good morning to you too."

"Not at two AM, it isn't."

"Sorry about that, but I'm looking for one of Katniss' friends. You seen Peeta Mellark today?" Katniss' ears perked at the mention of Peeta's name. How could Mom have wanted her to go back to bed when the adults were going to talk about her friend?

"He was over here earlier, but I sent him home for dinner."

"When abouts?"

"Maybe five or five-thirty? I don't really remember."

"Shit. Mind if I have a look around?"

"No, go on ahead. Just let me wake up my younger one before you check her room."

"I'll have a look 'round the outside first. Got a lock on your shed?"

"Nah, it's open."

Katniss pulled on her sneakers, not bothering to lace them before she ran after Haymitch.

The sheriff cursed when he stumbled over the warped back deck. He shouldn't have gone out that way. Mom always made them use the front door, said that the rotting deck was going to give out underneath someone someday. Dad was going to fix it last year. He'd drawn up some plans and decided on the pretty red wood they would replace it with and everything. After the accident, when everything else changed, the deck just kept rotting.

She held her breath as she crossed the deck.

"Who's there?" Haymitch turned his flashlight on her, and atniss winced against the binding light. "Didn't your mom tell you to go back to bed?"

"I want to help you look for Peeta."

"You should listen to your mother." There was no real conviction behind his words, and Haymitch didn't stop her when she followed him to the shed. "Hold this for me, all right?"

The flashlight was heavier than it looked. Katniss' arm burned as she trained the light at the latch so Haymitch could open it. It didn't matter that it hurt. If it would help Haymitch find Peeta faster, she would do anything.

The door creaked as I opened, groaning at the use after months of standing still. Something skittered away from the light, and Haymitch took a hesitant step inside. "Flashlight?"

She handed it back to him and followed him into the shed. They hadn't kept chickens in years but the outbuilding still smelled like them. Katniss pulled the collar of her nightdress up over her nose as Haymitch poked through the shed's contents, moving anything big enough for a ten-year-old boy to hide behind.

"Nobody's been in the shed since Dad died. Peeta's not here."

"No, he's not," Haymitch agreed. "Still, I had to check. You got any ideas where I should be looking?"

"No."

"Figured as much." He surprised her then by crouching down beside her, lowering himself to her eye level. "Katniss, if you have any ideas where Peeta might be, I need you to tell me." Haymitch's voice was quiet, and his grey eyes were steady. "You're not going to be in trouble if you've helped him hide, and he won't be either. I'll make sure both of you are taken care of. My job is to keep you all safe, and to do that, I need to know where he is."

Katniss didn't think he could make that promise, because she already felt like she was in trouble, and she hadn't even done anything. "I don't know where he is."

"The two of you are friends, right? He ever mentioned anything about running away? Maybe you two have some hiding places in the woods where he might go?"

"No."

"I only want him to be safe."

"Me too," Katniss said. "Peeta's my friend, and you should be looking for him."

One side of Haymitch's mouth quirked up into a smile, and for the first time, Katniss understood why all of Mom's friends thought he was so handsome. "Then we're on the same team." He stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees. "Let's get this thing closed up and head –"

His radio crackled. "Aabernathy," Haymitch answered.

"We found the kid's bike. It's down by Applewood Creek."

"Peeta there?"

"No, and no bike tracks either, but there's definitely been a car up here in the last few hours."

"Shit. I'll be there in ten." He clipped his radio back to his belt and started jogging toward his car.

Katniss sprinted to keep up with him. "I want to come with you. I want to help look for Peeta."

"No. Go inside. Tell your mom what you heard, and tell her to keep the two of you inside." He pulled open his car door. "I've already got one missing kid to deal with, and I don't want another one."

"Haymitch, please –"

"I said no." He dropped into his seat and put the car in drive, sticking his head out the window to talk to her. "Listen to me, Katniss. The best thing you can do right now for Peeta is to stay out of all this, let everyone focus on finding him instead of keeping you out of trouble."

"But –"

"Promise me, Katniss."

She nodded.

"Good." He started to pull out. "I'll do everything I can for Peeta."