Safe and Sound

Katniss P.O.V.

I could feel someone beside me, touching my face. They looked like an angel through my bleary eyes, haloed in a white glow. Then my face was wet and I tasted salt as I inhaled. Someone was…sobbing? Angels don't sob, I thought to myself. I vainly reached my arm out to touch the divine creature. I had to kill whatever was making it cry. Kill. Kill. Kill. The word that had echoed through my mind since the first tribute was killed 2 days ago, the event that made this so real. The word that made my tongue burn and made my stomach churn when I thought of Peeta being killed. Could he be my angel? I heard more sobbing. "I think… she's… gone…" A voice said. A familiar voice. Peeta's voice. Was I dead? That couldn't be. I could taste and hear. I tried to tell him I was ok, that he didn't lose me. I could see his face more clearly now. He was crumpled in a heap, head buried in his lap. He was wet with blood, I didn't know if it was mine or his. I looked down at my body. I could see blood and that someone had put makeshift stitches in my chest. I tried to speak, "Peeta.." I reached for his hand. He stopped sobbing and looked at me. "Katniss?" He scrambled closer to me to hug me. I had never seen his green eyes so sad. His beautiful face so distraught. He clung to me, like my blood soaked shirt. "I thought.. you were gone." He began to cry this time. Hysterically. "I thought I'd never see you again. I can't lose you.. Your all I have." I had never realized how much he loved me. He had always watched me from afar from the bakery, and complimented my game when I returned from hunting, but that never signaled love to me.

Peeta P.O.V.

I looked down at her in my arms. So small and helpless. Covered in blood. The stitches I threw together had held the stab wound closed long enough to stop the bleeding. I shouldn't have turned my back. If I wouldn't have gone after those berries, she wouldn't be in the pain she's in. She would be safe and sound in the cave with me. I told her I'd protect her and that we'd both make it through this game without killing anyone. So far, I'd killed 3 people. Two who were stabbing Katniss and one who tried to kill both of us while I tended to her wounds. I'd broken all my promises. I loved her so much, it hurt. I couldn't decide whether to stay by her side or to go kill all the potential harm to her. She was perfect to me. You don't slaughter a perfectly perfect thing. You protect it. You cherish it. Which is why we hid out in the cave for most of the games. I couldn't risk her being hurt. I couldn't watch it again. I couldn't stand her blood on my hands, literally. Soaking my pants, my shirt, my face. Like she needed me to protect her. I hadn't done a good job of it so far. She'd done better at protecting herself. But still, I couldn't leave her. She couldn't die. She was Katniss. And it scared the hell out of me when I saw her with a knife sticking out of her ribcage. She had multiple stab wounds all over her precious body. My body. She was my Katniss. Somebody had touched MY Katniss. Stabbed her. Hurt her. Almost damn near killed her. I killed them. But it wasn't good enough. I needed to revive them and kill them again. Over and over until they experienced the pain that she felt. The pain that I felt as I watched her gasp for breath, blood gurgling out of the wounds and running down her precious chin.

Nobody was ever going to hurt her again. Ever.