I just wrote this to practice my writing, but I had fun writing this because I LOVE the Hunger Games so much! This is my interpretation of what happens after Mockingjay. SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MOCKINGJAY! Have fun reading this little Katniss/Peeta fanfic! I own nothing but my own ideas and dialogue! Thanks! :)
Prim still comes to me when my eyes are closed and the room is dark. I don't know why my brain has to put the most painful images possible in my dreams; but sleep is inevitable as are my nightly visits with my ghosts. Tonight it is her, and as usual, I cannot save her.
"Katniss, I the fire is so hot." She whispers, her shirt becoming untucked from the burning wind that swirls around us. It hangs out just like that day so long ago at the reaping. The day my world spun uncontrollably beneath my feet; and everyone I loved started to slip away.
"Prim, close your eyes!" I scream at my sister, as the fire illuminating the horizon blazes closer. Our lungs are filling with ash, as if the coal from district 12 has followed us all the way to the capitol. I watch in horror as the flames catch up to us, engulfing the helpless girl in a red hot inferno. She screams in pain and falls to her knees as her skin boils her alive. I run to her, unaffected by the blaze, and pull her charred blonde braids behind her head. She is burned to the point where her muscles are bloody and raw, her once soft, angelic face now nothing but a bloody, black skeleton. The smell of burning flesh chokes me.
"Katniss, I don't want to die!" She screams in pain. Her words hurt worse than the flames that begins peel at my skin, and I hold her until her bones disintegrate to dust. The flames disappear and I am surrounded by darkness. I kneel alone, holding my face in my now-dusty palms. Painful sobs escape my mouth, as figures start to become visible around me.
Rue and Finnick. Cato, Glimmer, Foxface, every single person that never deserved to die stand in a circle around me, a look of disatisfaction painted on their bloodied faces.
"Girl on fire." They chant over and over. I cover my ears and scream. The voices get louder and louder until I feel like my head will explode. Suddenly the floor drops open and I am falling. Falling into the darkness.
I wake with a scream, feeling like I just landed in my bed, and reach to my side to hold on to the one person who can make the nightmares disappear from my mind. My sweaty hands grip the sheets, but he's not there.
"Peeta!" I scream, panicked. "Peeta!" The sound of feet slamming up the stairs and the door slamming open is enough to throw me out of bed and onto my feet.
"Katniss, I'm sorry! I was downstairs!" He whispers as I hurtle myself into his arms. I am hyperventillating, and would be collapsed on the floor in hysterics if he wasn't holding me up. "Shhhhh," he hushes, brushing my hair off my damp forehead.
"I can't do it anymore, Peeta." I gasp. "I see her dying a million different ways every night. This one was the worst yet."
He holds me close to his chest and pulls my head tight against his warm body. I take comfort in the sound of his heart beating, and focus on the hypnotizing beat. "Katniss, you can deal with them. I'm always here for you." His hand rubs circles on my back, and I clutch his arms, lost in his embrace.
"But I have to go through the nightmares alone," I breathe. "I can't take another night."
He takes my face in his calloused hands, and his brow furrows as his blue eyes look down into mine. "Katniss, I know how you feel. I relive things every night that I can barely handle. I know what it's like to wake up feeling like you can't breathe because everything you love is being ripped away from you." He holds me tighter, the pain in his voice becoming more noticable. "But I wake up and see you next to me and I know that you will be there the next night. And the next. And the next, and it's a little more bearable."
He wipes a tear from my cheek. "Peeta, I don't want to live like this, where I'm terrified to go to sleep. I want to dream of the good times I had with Prim."
"I'm sure with time you will be able to dream again. But please Katniss, just know that if you ever decided that you don't want to live anymore, it would kill me. I don't want to face my nightmares alone."
I lean up and hold his face close to mine. "Peeta, I would never leave you." He tips his face a few inches closer to mine until our lips touch. His blonde eyelashes flutter as his eyes close. I wrap my arms around his neck and he lifts me back onto the bed, our lips never parting. I am seated on the edge of the bed, and he is above me, one hand wrapped in my hair, one on my hip. We are entwined, kissing like this for a few minutes until we crawl into the warmth under the covers.
"I love you," Peeta whispers in my ear, leaving a trail of kisses down my neck.
I pin my body against his, sliding my hands over his chest. "I love you too, Peeta."
He pulls me close, and we lay together in the darkness. His fingers draw circles on my face, down my arms, and play with the pieces of hair that stick out of my braid. I feel safe with him, and I know that the nightmares will return again tomorrow night, and there will be many more to come. But the nightmares only last a few hours at most, and I have much more time to spend awake with the man beside me.
My lips touch his again, and I look into his eyes. "If I have another nightmare tonight, will you hold onto me, Peeta?"
"Back in the arena, we fought together. Even though we are long gone from that place, and we know we are safe, I will never ever let you fight alone."