Take My Hand

"I think you've got a shadow," Peeta says, pointing to a corner of the training center with his chin. Katniss turned around to see what he was talking about. And then she saw it.

Right behind a support column was a girl from District 11. She was around there age, her bushy hair giving away her hiding spot, her big brown eyes watching them.

Peeta smiled at the girl, feeling bad for how scared she was. He touched Katniss on the shoulder gently,

"I'll be right back," He said before walking over to the girl.

The closer he got to her, the more she squeezed herself into the crack in the wall, trying to hide from him, hoping he would go away.

Peeta stopped a few inches in front of her. His voice was soft and sweet.

"Hey. You're not going to get a lot of training done from there."

"I'd prefer to stay like that fox girl and stay hidden," She responded, her voice soft as silk and very playful.

"Stay hidden, literately," Peeta joked."Well she looks like a fox, you don't. You're actually quiet pretty. Let me help you, I don't want to see you die in the bloodbath," he said, his voice calm and sincere. The girl thought about his words, wondering why he would want to help her live. Only one comes out. But she concluded that he was safe for now and that this was a good way to find out what he was good out.

Peeta held out his hand for her. She looked up into his sparkling green eyes and smiled, taking his hand.

After training Peeta took her upstairs to the District 12 penthouse.

The Avox handed him the two cups of hot chocolate.

"Thank you," Peeta smiled before walking out to the living room, seeing the girl comfortably sit on the couch, her thin legs criss-crossed. He handed her the hot cup before sitting down across from in a comfy arm chair. He put his elbows on his knees as he lifted the cup to his lips. The girl just looked at her cup, wondering what the light brown liquid was.

Peeta smiled, "its hot chocolate, it's really good,"

She nodded hesitantly before taking a sip, her eyes widening at the exquisite taste. Peeta laughed quietly at her reaction before clearing his throat.

"So um… what do you already know how to do? I mean today when we were training you seemed to know everything pretty well,"

"I know how to start fire, keep warm, I know what's edible, how to heal wounds, and climb. I'm from District 11 so-,"
"I can see that," Peeta laughed, pointing to her training shirt that had 11 written on her arms. "What's it like there?" He asked, taking another sip.

She set her cup on the table.

"That is mahogany! Use the coaster!" Effie screamed, randomly walking by.

The girl quickly moved to the cup onto a coaster.

"Thank you!" Effie screamed back.

She just looked up Peeta, her eyes wide before she began giggling.

"Well umm… before that. District 11 is actually really nice. My family just makes the best out of it," She said shaking her head sadly as she thought of them. "I have 5 younger sisters and an older brother whose friends with Thresh, my district partner. Both our families get together every Sunday and have this Bar-b-q. It's the only day we're not actually working. I'm not complaining about working, it's kinda fun. I climb trees every day, pick some apples that I see. I'm really just suppose to tell the workers when it's time to stop working, but a lot of people like to use me as a messenger bird.

Hours passed.

"And this one time my sister and I were playing tag but she ran into our boss and we were so scared! But lucky he has a soft spot for little girls because his daughter was reaped for the Games and didn't make it back. Oh or this one time we had a bar-b-q and there was this food fight, it was so funny! Thresh had my brother had food all over them and started chasing us, trying to put food on us." She smiled, her laugh drowning down and her voice turning sad as she stretched out her hands to take the new cup of hot chocolate from the Avox.

"Thank you," She says before sighing.

"I really miss my family. I know there are so many of us that sometimes it gets hard, but. All of us are so different, and I think that's what makes it fun," She gave a small smile to herself before taking a sip from her cup.

She looked up at Peeta who was sitting there, watching her, listening to her every word.

'You know, I didn't really want to talk about my family after I was reaped. I was afraid it was a weakness," She said quietly, her voice almost a whisper.

Peeta looked at her, leaning forward to pat her on the leg gently. His voice was sincere and understanding.

"Don't worry. You're secrets safe with me,"

-The next day in training-

"Weakness. Instead of training today, you will learn how to become invincible. You all are going to be watching a bunch of videos, about friends, family, other tributes you will kill. Let's begin,"

They did 2 tributes at a time. District 1 and 2's tributes, were emotionless when it came to friends and family, but when learning about opponents they couldn't stop smiling. The rest of the kids got teary when their family was shown on the big screen.

It was District 11's turn, the girl who had finally told Peeta her name was Rue, and Thresh her district partner, stood in front of the screen, watching as their family came on the screen, waving and crying for them, begging for them to come home. Peeta immediately saw Rue start crying. He wanted to run up there and hug her but Haymitch held him back.

Soon they started to show them what would happen if they did not win the games. They showed all of Rues family dying. That was a bit of a lie but they only wanted a reaction out of her, and they got one. Rue burst into tears, she pushed everybody out of her way and ran out the training center.

Peeta pushed Haymitch away and ran after her.

He had followed her upstairs to her floor into her bedroom. And now they sat on her bed.

"Hey, hey it's okay," Peeta said in a hushing voice, cradling Rue in his strong arms. "The Capitol just wanted a reaction out of you. That will never happen to your family," Peeta said, stroking her head, tightening his grip on her. She shook her head, gripping at his arms, tears soaking his shirt.

"No they will die without me!" She sobbed.

"No they won't. And you're not going to die. I promise." Peeta said, kissing her head.

And for the rest of the night he stayed with her till she fell asleep in his arms.

-The next day. The night of the interview-

The crowd laughed harder as Peeta sniffed Caesar Flickerman.

"Well you smell better then me,"

"That's cause I've lived her longer," Caesar said and there was another explosion of laughter from the crowd.

"So Peeta. A handsome man like you, do you have a special girl?"

"Well-," Peeta began until he saw Rue climb onto stage. He immediately got up, Caesar just looked at them in confusion.

"Rue, are you okay?"

She walked up to him, taking his hands. She nodded her head, "Yeah I'm alright. It's just," Her voice was very low and nervous. "Last night I never got to thank you. So, thank you for everything that you did for me," She smiled before leaning up on her tip toes and kissing Peeta as passionately as she could.

The crowd went wild.