"Are you sure?" Peeta doesn't seem to want to take my answer as truth. "Even the baby thing?"
"It was all brilliant. Well done." I pull him into a hug and he instantly relaxes in my arms. I feel a shot of guilt run through me as I think of our 'romance'; I still don't even know how I really feel about him and he seems like he'd do anything to make me happy. I hear footsteps and use them as an excuse to step back out of the embrace, turning towards them. An avox is approaching us, and she is carrying a small communicator which she holds out to me. I look at it for a moment, then guess that I am supposed to put it to my ear and say a querying hello.
I am greeted with a sharp, "What the hell are you playing at, Katniss Everdeen?!" I am taken aback by the voice.
"Hi, Mom."
"Pregnant? PREGNANT?! You're barely seventeen years old, barely out of childhood yourself, and you expect to raise a child of your own?" I'm holding the device away from my ear now and I can still hear her, clear as a bell. I think Peeta can probably hear her too, judging by the way he is holding back laughter, and the avox definitely heard as she is backing away swiftly with widened eyes. "I can look past the marriage, even though it's stupid and I just know you'll regret it- Peeta is a lovely young man so I can just about accept that. But if you think for one second that I am going to let you keep this child, you are so wrong, because the moment I next see you I'm taking you straight to a doctor to get rid of it- I don't care about training, I don't care about money and I don't care what you think!" The avox is running now and is soon out of earshot.
"Mom, listen-"
"No, young lady, you listen to me!" She takes a deep breath and sighs. "I will pay for the least painful method, whatever it may be. Just- Just please, realise that getting rid is the best thing to do." Her voice is choked up and she seems to have worn herself out so I grab my chance to explain.
"Mom, there's nothing to get rid of. There is no baby. It's all for the sponsors." Silence. "I know I'm not ready, so does Peeta. We're not even married, that's fake too." I hear a quiet sob and bite my lip. "Are you ok? I'm sorry for worrying you."
"You have no idea how relieved I am right now," my mother says, laughing through her tears.
"You can't tell anybody that it's a ruse, you know that. Our lives are at stake," I say gently.
"I know. I just- phew!" She laughs again. "The amount of trouble I went to to get this call, and there was nothing to worry about! I had no idea that- that tributes were so protected up there." She still struggles with the word, even the second time around. All I want in this moment is to hug her and the fact that I can't is surprisingly painful, so painful that when Peeta's arm wraps around my waist I don't recoil; in fact, I drop my head onto his shoulder, and it feels like the most natural thing in the world. "So I guess I'd better leave you to it, baby," Mom says. Her tears seem to have stopped and I can almost hear her sad smile. "Stay safe, alright?"
"I'll try, Mom." My voice is the one that's teary now. "I'll try."
"Goodnight, sweetie. Come home soon." There is a small beep, telling me that the call was disconnected, and I drop the communicator from my ear and turn even further into Peeta, trying desperately to hold my tears back. I fail miserably and Peeta's soft hand rubs my back soothingly as I dampen the front of his shirt.
"I'm sorry," I mumble.
"There's nothing to apologise for," he replies. He guides me to my room and squeezes me quickly before leaving me to get changed, promising he'll return. When he does come back a few minutes later, we are both in our nightclothes. All my makeup is gone, my nose and eyes are red from the crying and my nightdress doesn't fit me properly; I feel ugly, but the moment he comes to where I lie on the bed and pulls me in I feel as radiant as I did in my fire dress, because that's how I am in his eyes. We lay on the bed together. That's all. We just lay there, close in the calm quiet of night, and it is such a beautiful moment that I never want it to end. So it doesn't. My eyes start to cloud over with the darkness of sleep and a fond memory comes back to me.
"Stay with me," I murmur. I can feel him smile as he remembers too, burrowing closer into the back of my neck.
"Always," he whispers back, and then sleep takes over.
AN: Wahey, that was actually my own work! ;) I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think by reviewing! x