Fanfiction
The cave was cold in a very different way from any cold I had ever felt before, this cold was lonely and dark, whereas cold had always been shared before: with Mum and Dad and Prim on cold days in the Seam, with Gale when a cold breeze whispered through the woods and with Rue on the cold nights in the arena. There had always been someone there to remind me that it would get warmer in the end, that the cold would be driven away by the sun's warm rays. Here I was alone.
Well, not quite alone, as a muffled grunt and half snore from beside me reminded me. I had Peeta.
But he wasn't like the others.
He wasn't family, or a friend. He wasn't even an ally like Rue had been. He was more of a not so unwelcome burden, someone I kept around because I had to, not because I actually wanted their company.
Ok, so maybe I wanted his company a little, but that was just to stave of loneliness, to keep me from getting disheartened in the cruel environment of the games.
The kiss had certainly done that. No matter how much I convinced myself I was faking, that at that point I would have done anything for a little help from Haymitch, it warmed me up inside, reminded me that there was someone here who cared about me, no matter how overemphasised his feelings may have been.
But I was beginning to question whether his feelings towards me were overemphasised at all. I mean, who would risk their life for some girl they barely knew, let alone cared about? And he had taken a beating to give me that bread all those years ago. Maybe he did genuinely care for me.
But I didn't care for him, not like I cared for Gale. He was just a boy who happened to end up stranded in the arena with me. Wasn't he?