Amy and Karma watch The Hunger Games together. Short drabble.

"I still don't get why she picks Peeta."

Karma turned to look at her best friend. "You're kidding me, right? He's like, too romantic to be real."

"But she's totally not into romance. I mean, she hates romance." Amy made the kind of horrified face that she made when the schmaltz became too much for her to handle.

"Well, yeah, but he like, does everything for her. That's worth more than a bunch of flowers."

Amy pulls a face, then nods. "I guess that's true. Still, Gale is like ten times hotter."

Karma turned to looked at Amy, flummoxed. "And since when do you care about looks?" She giggled. "Wasn't I supposed to be the shallow one?" She smiles as she says it, and Amy giggles in reply.

"Karma, you're not shallow."

Karma rolled her eyes. "I know. I'm just saying. Besides, didn't you ship her with Johanna?"

Amy's eyes widened, and she nodded frantically. "Oh, I totally do. They're so perfect for each other."

"But… Johanna hates her."

"Enemies to lovers! It's a classical trope."

Karma snorted. "Well, I would prefer friends to lovers any day." Her eyes widened as she said it, and she felt a twinge in her gut.

Amy appeared not to have noticed anything, because she nodded. "Also a classical trope," she admitted. "But if you'd go that way, then Gale would be the logical pick, wouldn't it? I mean, Peeta and Katniss were never really friends. It was always going to be more than that."

"That's not fair," Karma argued. "Peeta tries really hard to be her friend, even though he knows she doesn't feel the same way." Another uncomfortable lurch jolted Karma's stomach.

Amy looked at her with raised eyebrows, then narrowed her eyes. "Don't you ever think it's strange that all the movies you pick involve love triangles with two guys fighting over a girl?" A wicked grin spread across her face. "Because I see a pattern here."

Karma gasped, outraged. "But you said you liked The Hunger Games!"

"Calm down, Karma," Amy said, chuckling lightly. "I admit that I prefer The Hunger Games to Twilight any day. At least it has a strong woman in the lead."

Karma smirked. "And you have a not-so-secret crush on JLaw."

Amy didn't even blush. "She's really hot, okay? Plus, she's wicked with that bow and arrow."

"Is that the way to your heart now?" Karma teased. "Should I take up archery?"

Wrong thing to say, Karma realized a second later. Amy smiled at her like she was a fascinating scientific experiment. The wicked grin returned again, and she licked her lips slowly before she turned back to the screen. Karma swallowed.

"Well, you do have one thing in common with Katniss," Amy said. "You both have a beautiful singing voice."

"Aww," Karma said, blushing. "You always know what to say."

Amy smiled, looking at her sideways. She narrowed her eyes. "Actually, you really do have a lot in common with Katniss." She half-turned towards Karma, as if studying her. "You often wear your hair in a braid, you're kind of short"—this earned her a swat from Karma, which only made Amy giggle—"aaand you're really protective of the people you love." She paused for a moment, then smirked. "That's where the likeness ends, though, because you can't climb trees, and Katniss becomes famous very much against her will."

"Amy!" Karma cried, swatting her again. She took a breath and stared at her friend for a moment, feeling warm from Amy's statement of her protectiveness. It was true, Karma thought: she was really protective of Amy. And she imagined that she would really do everything for a little sister if she had one.

Amy kept her gaze for a few seconds, then turned back to the movie. Karma looked at her friend for a second longer before she did the same.

"It looks like a really horrible thing to go through, though," Amy said musingly, "Seeing Peeta being hijacked and all. Losing all his good memories of Katniss…"

Both Amy and Karma shuddered for a moment, and Karma wondered if they'd been thinking the same thing: how terrible it would be if one of them ever would lose their memories of all their years together. How terrible it would be for Karma if Amy ever… Karma shuddered again and fell silent, her stomach queasy. She reminded herself that this was just a movie, and nothing about it was real. But the girl sitting next to her was…

Karma took a breath. "I don't think she could've made it work with Gale, though," she said, "even though they had been friends for so long."

Amy looked at her with her trademark skeptical frown. "Why not?"

Karma shrugged. "I don't know, they're… Too alike, in a way. It's like Peeta complements Katniss perfectly, but because they're not alike, you know? I'm willing to bet that Gale and Katniss wouldn't go a week together without having terrible shouting matches."

Amy giggled. "Okay, true that," she admitted. She sighed. "I still don't get why she'd go with Peeta instead, though. He just seems so… boring." She scrunched up her nose.

"You're so mean!" Karma said, exasperated yet amused. "He loves her! And he's always been there for her, even before they knew each other, and then when the whole nation is watching he just… protects her. A-and he makes sure that she doesn't get hurt, even though he has to compromise his feelings in the process and he has to… like…" Karma's breathing hitched then, and she fell silent.

"… fake it…" Amy finished quietly. She had her eyes trained now on a very nervous-looking Karma. She licked her lips, then settled back into the pillows with a wide smile. "I think," she said finally, deciding to release Karma from her quandary, "that we need some more popcorn, don't you think?"

Karma veered up at that. "Yes! Absolutely!" she said. "I'll get it!" She grabbed the bowl and all but flew out of the room.

Amy sighed languidly, looking at the screen, where Katniss was just entering Peeta's bed, and he was comforting her. It was odd, she thought, that she'd never seen the likeness between their and Karma's relationship. It all worked out: her 'faking it' to protect Karma from the angry mob, with one having unrequited feelings for the other yet never wavering, despite how difficult it was. And it made Amy wonder, wonder… She knew it was dangerous to compare her life to a fictional story and draw conclusions from that. After all, Katniss Everdeen and Karma Ashcroft were very different in several aspects—in terms of character you could even say that Karma resembled Peeta more, and Amy resembled Katniss. (That worked out, too: Karma was better at playing the public and human relations in general, while Amy didn't care so much about the public, but was fiercely protective of her close friends and family.) And yet, in other ways, the blonde girl sitting on the bed more resembled the blond guy in the movie more, and Karma more closely resembled the brunette more. Like how Peeta loved Katniss from the start, and how that love became Katniss' rock after a while, even though she didn't feel the same way. But when she thought that she'd lost that love, she went all but crazy… Amy shuddered. It was all extremely odd, and extremely intriguing. And while she was happy right now with her and Karma being just friends, it gave her hope somewhere.

Shimmying in her place a little, Amy burrowed further into the bed and waited with anticipation for the best friend to return to the room.