Chapter Two
While her little sister and her mother slept, Katniss sat up in her bed and silently watched them.
Prim deeply breathed in and out, curled up on her side cocooned by their mother's body. Their cheeks pressed together while they slept. In their slumber, Katniss noted that her mother looked younger, worn but not so beaten-down. Prim's face was as fresh as a raindrop, and as lovely as a primrose. Making doubly sure that her family was actually deeply sleeping, Katniss quietly crept away from her bed and into the kitchen.
She pulled out a bundle of drift wood and four soapstones from her leather satchel before she settled down onto one of their kitchen chairs. She started to whittle the soapstones into different shapes, but made sure to carve the same protection rune sequence into the back of each of them. This all took about an hour, but when Katniss was just about done, she carved out a small hole for a necklace to go through each amulet. She had made a little duck for Prim, an Aven flower for her mother; so she would have father close to her heart, a dandelion for Peeta, and a mockingjay for her. She recalled her father bestowing that nickname onto her before he had died.
Katniss shook her head to shake off that thought. She hadn't had time to properly grieve and she kept forgetting that it was Before-Katniss's father and not hers. Her mind was melding far too easily with this body.
She sighed and continued examining the amulets that she had just finished. All that she needed now, were either four leather strips, or four necklace chains. Either way she would need to hunt something big enough so she could get what she needed. She still wasn't sure what money looked like around here, and she didn't want to conjure up junk that she couldn't use.
With that task done, she began to focus on turning each piece of drift wood into a white picket for the fence that she had in mind to put around their house. She figured with this much energy from what she had consumed at dinner, and the realization that sleep also helped, she would be able to transfigure the whole house in no time. She looked at the ancient ticking clock that hung on their wall and sighed. It was already two in the morning and school started up at eight. She stretched out and decided to leave what she had done on the table. Four dozen pieces of white pickets with repelling and protection runes sat on top of the kitchen table while a small group of carved soapstone amulets sat beside them.
Katniss spotted the chickens snoozing by Prim's, still unnamed, kitten before she trudged off to bed. She could finish off her projects later. As she drifted off into sleep on her lumpy mattress under her coarse thin blanket, Katniss smiled despite it all because she knew that it wasn't forever.
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The morning sun streamed through the broken window pane near Katniss's head. It warmed her eyes enough to rouse her, and as she did she was bewildered at what she breathed in. She smelled toasted bread, frying eggs, and something else in the air. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and squinted against the morning daylight. Prim sat up in her mother's bed across from her and blinked in confusion.
Before they could voice out their mutual bafflement, their mother cheerily popped her head into room and beamed at her two drowsy daughters, "The chickens laid some eggs, so I fried some. I also toasted the bread from yesterday and cooked up some of the katniss tubers from your father's leather satchel. I couldn't find the other food from your haul yesterday, so I figured that it was all still in the magic bag. I was right, and I found the tubers. I ended up putting the eggs that I didn't use in there. It would go to waste in our fridge since it isn't really cold enough for any ice to come through our district to keep it from going bad." It seemed as though their mother had finally returned to them from the brink of the abyss. She could see that her mother was trying so hard to be her past self. It was a little painful to watch.
Katniss sat up and stared at her mother as though someone else had replaced her. She chuckled inwardly at that thought, 'I'm the one who actually replaced someone here, so I really shouldn't be one to judge.'
Prim goggled at her mother before a great big beaming smile lit up her face, "That's great mom!"
Not one to be outdone, Katniss grunted in agreement before she got up to get ready for the day, "Thanks, mom."
The two girls started up their morning routines before school, and just as their mother was about to mention something, a knock could be heard from the door. Katniss narrowed her eyes and shot the door a suspicions look. 'Had their neighbors smelt the food?' Katniss bit her nails.
Prim ignored it all and swiftly stole the bathroom first. Her mother tsked at Katniss when she started to nervously bite her nails. Katniss was about to begin pacing, but before she could, her mother steered her towards the kitchen table. Around their combined kitchen living space, Prim's kitten lounged in the corner while their four unnamed chickens pecked at a bowl of wild black berries. She was surprised at how well her mother was taking the whole magic thing. The last time she'd been a child with magic, she'd been violently burned at the stake. She didn't miss that Life Cycle.
Katniss plopped herself down onto one of the nearby kitchen chairs, and noted that the stuff that she'd been working on still lay where she had left it. She dragged over some eggs, katniss tubers, and toast towards her and idly noted that they'd probably be out of oil for the rest of the month if they didn't somehow obtain some more.
Her mother's hushed words almost reached her ears as she just about inhaled her breakfast. She wasn't used to eating this well, and had to practice slowing down while she ate. Prim poked her in the shoulder, surprising her from moving closer to hear what her mother might be saying to the stranger at the door.
Prim motioned towards the bathroom with her head as she sat down, "Your turn, Katniss." Grinning at her older sister before she too, dug into breakfast, Katniss decided to not eavesdrop on their mother.
They'd figure out who it was eventually. After all there were only seven healers in District 12, and that wasn't including Prim since she hadn't finished learning all the basics as of yet. Although, if you really thought about it, that was probably one of the many reasons as to why so many people died every year around here. The three fancy doctors that lived in the Justice Building for all the Capitol stooges didn't look after the main populace of District 12. The one fancy doctor that did, only permitted seeing the miners and no one else. Instead they had self trained healers, and her mother and her other neighbor were really more like midwives than general healers when she really thought about it. It was no wonder that so many people in her district died every year.
She shook her head while these thoughts swirled in her mind during her quick icy shower. At this point Katniss had given up hope that their hot water would ever work again. The Capitol only really cared about a chunk of them surviving; they had no compassion for any lack of comfort people had in this district. After quickly drying and dressing herself, she found her mother finishing off Prim's braided pigtails before she motioned for her to come and sit down in front of her.
Katniss noticed that Prim's blouse was pulled out of her skirt in the back again. She rolled her eyes good naturedly and cleared her throat, "Tuck your tail in, little duck."
Prim looked over her shoulder and found that indeed was the case. She giggled, "Quack."
"Quack yourself," Katniss lightly laughed as Prim tucked in her blouse and righted her skirt.
She happily went over to check on her kitten and announced over her shoulder as Katniss sat down, "I'm going to name him Buttercup because his yellow coat looks exactly like the same shade as the flower."
Katniss couldn't help but snort while her mother braided her hair, "He looks more like mustard than a buttercup, Prim." Katniss made sure to gather up the soapstone amulets into her pants pockets while her mother finished doing her hair. Although if she were being honest, the kitten's mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, and eyes the color of a rotting squash made him look really tough for a fucked up cat. She supposed that, eventually in the far future, she'd have more affection for him, but right now she only tolerated the cat because Prim loved it so much.
Prim huffed and shook her head, "That's not true, it's just the fact that the light in here is muted, and that's what's making his fur look muddy." She gently patted his little head as he rolled around his little corner. Before Katniss could insert how unsuited that name was, Prim continued on, "I have also decided to name the hens. That one is named Maribel, that one over there is Henrietta, this one is Cheryl, and lastly that's Debbie. Debbie is the one with the attitude."
Katniss raised her brow and let out a guffaw, "Those are great names, little duck."
Her mother chuckled and blew Prim a kiss, "I'm sure that the hens love their new names, sweetheart."
Prim proudly nodded, a small smile gracing her lips, "We should head to school. I wanna get it over with as fast as I can so I can play with the animals when we get home."
Prim's enthusiasm warmed Katniss's heart as she nodded and made sure that they had their bagged lunches. Their mother bade them farewell before she too left the house after making sure that the animals all had food and water for the day. She tided up and double checked that the doors and windows were secure enough to keep them all inside, before she left to go attend to another patient. Life and death stopped for no one, especially not for anyone with patients. She'd do better to remember that this time.
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School was normal, every lesson was related to coal with a touch of basic reading, arithmetic, and the weekly lecture on the history of Panem. Katniss noted that it was mostly blather about what everyone owed the Capitol's elite one percent rather than the actual account of the Dark Days that lead to this dystopian future. She internally bet that it had something to do with a World War something or another. That, or some sort of unnamed calamity had happened. Something that radically changed this world. She couldn't really decide on either with the paltry information that she could find at school.
The only additional information that she found of any note were scribbled notes in random textbooks. Notation that looked weathered and faded. It was how she found out that Panem had actually been taken over by several different dictators over the years. Each dictator always enacted the Hunger Games for one reason or another. Each always taking on the moniker 'President Snow'. And children were always sacrificed for some bullshit reason. This government dictatorship appeared to be composed of the elite 1% who claimed that the children sacrificed would stop the country from losing more chunks of land to the ocean. It all seemed like hogwash.
She did some more digging. Katniss found that this school severely lacked the subjects that she had encountered learning about in her last lives. There wasn't any biology, sex ed, chemistry, geology, and the like. They didn't learn about cooking, sewing, or doing anything else sort of handy either. Additionally, their library was only filled with information about mining and Capitol propaganda. Besides that, there was only one school for everybody from ages five to eighteen, and then that was it. There were no other dedicated places to the pursuit of higher learning. Not even for any trades. It was both depressing and distressing to find out.
Katniss figured that the 1% in charge wanted them stupid; stupid and easily killable for their amusement. It seemed like something they would want with the whole Hunger Games thing.
She bumped into one of the Before-Katniss's friends; Madge, at lunch. Now that she finally had something to eat, she actually had to sit somewhere at lunch. It was odd eating in a cafeteria again. It smelled like stale food, the smell of sticky children, and the strange scent that all old buildings had. It brought back a certain nostalgia that she didn't know how to deal with. It felt both good and bad, and a little strange, so Katniss did her best to ignore it.
Madge was, apparently, in the same year as her at school. Being the mayor's daughter, a lot of people expected her to be a snob, but she was alright. She just kept to herself much like the Before-Katniss. Since neither of them really had a group of friends, they seemed to gravitate towards one another a lot at school. Eating lunch, sitting next to each other at assemblies, partnering for sports activities. They rarely talked, which suited them both just fine, but she did notice Katniss's absence at school. She was probably one of the few people to take note of some 'Seam brat' not showing up for school. It warmed the cockles of Katniss's heart enough to try and have a conversation with her.
She undoubtedly felt awkward, but she pushed through, "Hey, Madge." Katniss opened up her brown paper bag and found some left over fried salmon, cooked tubers, and wild vegetables wrapped up in lettuce along with a corked glass bottle of water. She smiled. It was nice having a parent again, it made her usually tense shoulders relax one iota. She warily wondered how long it would last.
Madge shot her a bright grin, "Hello, Katniss. You okay? You weren't at school for a while."
Katniss dug into her food and nodded, before murmuring, "Yeah. M'okay."
She smiled and finished eating her own lunch. It was a short and slightly awkward conversation, but Katniss felt like she really made progress. She never noticed the shy looks that Peeta had been throwing her during her entire conversation with Madge. Katniss did feel his eyes on her, although she ignored that feeling all the same. She was far too used to the glares of derision from people for being a 'Seam brat' for this feeling to really bother her anymore.
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Katniss passed by Peeta in a familiar hallway, and noted that his cheek and eye still looked pretty bad, but he looked like he was in less pain today. He was surrounded by his group of friends again and didn't acknowledge her, yet again, but she was okay with that. She knew that the class divide was even more pronounced at school and didn't really blame him for it. The two sides didn't mix that well in public settings anyways.
As she collected Prim and headed towards the Seam once school had finally ended, Katniss found Peeta leaning on a nearby wall staring at her. She caught his eyes and shot him a warm smile that lit up her entire face, "Hi Peeta." A slight flush spread across her cheeks, which caused Peeta's eyes to widen.
Prim noted this new interaction and impishly grinned, "Hello, Peeta!"
Peeta in turn blurted out, "Hey, Katniss. Hi Prim." His cheeks darkened as he straightened up. It seemed like something was about to burst from his lips before Prim decided to announce, "I'm going to head home first. I just can't wait to see Buttercup and the girls." She gave her sister a tight embrace before happily running off. Katniss did not miss the mischievous twinkle in her eyes before she had taken off.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes at her littler sister's antics. Peeta cleared his throat and nervously scratched at the back of his head. His ashy blond hair shinned gold against the afternoon sunlight, falling in waves over his forehead. Languidly, she noted that his eyes were a much deeper blue up close and that he smelt faintly like baked bread, flour, vanilla, and a musk that she assumed was entirely his own smell.
"Uh, so..." Peeta gulped and let out an awkward laugh.
The smile on Katniss's face refused to leave and only deepened when she realized that he was as nervous around her as she was of him, "So...do you want to walk with me?"
Peeta had never seen Katniss smile this much at anyone besides her sister Prim and it felt like he was on top of the world. The fact that the girl of his dreams, the love of his life, had just asked if he wanted to walk with her, blew his mind. He knew that if he was late for his shift at the bakery that he would get another wallop from his mother, but he threw caution to the wind. A chance with Katniss Everdeen was all that he had ever really wanted so far, and he wasn't going to pass it up.
He cleared his throat and moved to walk beside her, "I'd love to." He absentmindedly noted that she was close enough to him that he could actually feel the heat of her shoulder as they walked side by side. His heart nearly burst out of his chest while his blush darkened when he realized that Katniss smelt like pine trees, with a hint of sweet peas, sunshine, and something that was definitely all her.
She basked in the sunshine and the comfortable silence that settled between them as they slowly walked towards the Seam. Katniss didn't want to break the silence, but felt that they were far enough away that she could muster up her courage to do what she had been thinking about doing. When they reached the cusps of trees that lead to a pathway into the Seam, she paused and pulled Peeta back.
A confused look flashed across Peeta's face, "I don't mind walking with you all the way. I like walking."
Katniss let out a short chortle before an open mouthed smile overtook her face, "That's not it. I just... I'm not good with words..." She took a deep breath and stared at him head on before she took his hands into her own.
He fidgeted and gently grasped her hands in return, "Katniss?"
She gripped his hands before she dropped them so quickly that he was momentarily shocked and confused. Before he could voice these feelings, Katniss slipped her arms around his torso and gave him a bone crushing hug.
He blinked rapidly and was totally caught off guard. In the six years that he had been watching Katniss from afar, he hadn't ever seen her hug anyone other than her immediate family, and even then it was mostly just Prim. He gingerly returned her embrace before gently tightening his hold. He'd never been hugged by a girl before. It felt amazing. Katniss was softer than she appeared.
Katniss nuzzled his neck and was grateful that they were nearly the same height right now, but she knew that he'd out grow her sooner rather than later. This was nice. She didn't normally hug people that weren't Prim. She took in a deep breath of his scent before murmuring, "Thank you... I don't know if you know it, but you saved us. You saved me." It felt hard, to say that out loud. To admit her own weakness about it all, it made her feel more like the child that she was. It was an uncomfortable feeling.
Peeta heard every single word she said, clear as a bell, and flushed again, "Always. Anything. Anything for you, always." His tone was both sincere and firm as he tried to convey how much he already loved her with those words. He had so much more to say to her, but it felt like stale bread had been caught in his throat. For a moment he felt like this was another one of his dreams before he decided to discretely pinch himself. He inwardly flinched. It was definitely not a dream.
She pulled away from him and pulled out the soapstone amulet that she had been working on for him and held it out on the palm of her hand, "I made this for you. To...uh..thank you. It's not done. I need a necklace for it, so you'll get it when I'm done." She wanted to be softer about the whole thing, but it came out really blunt. She inwardly vowed that she'd work on that.
Peeta spluttered, "Uh..Thank you, Katniss. Can I? Can I look at it closer?" This was out of the blue, but having something that Katniss made for him. Just him, not anyone else. Not for any other boy that had a crush on her in their year. It was for him. He was having a bit of a hard time wrapping his head around it, even though he felt so happy he could burst.
She flushed a little and nodded before she handed over the amulet. While he was examining it, utter wonderment colored his face, she softly murmured, "It's a dandelion. You remind me of it, because you both give me hope."
He didn't know quite what to say to that. Instead, he gave her a warm grin before he gave the amulet back. It was something he'd never seen before, and the markings on the back looked interesting as well.
He took a deep breath and decided that today had to be the day, "So does this mean we're friends?" His cheeks had darkened once again, from the apples of his cheeks to the tips of his ears.
Katniss pocketed the soapstone amulet before she shyly looked up at him. Inwardly her emotions raged, 'Would it be okay? Would she even be a good friend? She only really communicated with Prim and her mother. Maybe Madge and her cousins sort of counted, but even then...'
She tilted her head downwards and murmured, "I don't really know how to be a good friend, but I'd like to try..."
Peeta impulsively gave her a hug in response, which caused her to jolt her head up to rest against his shoulder. He hummed, "Then we're friends now."
Katniss hummed in response and settled into the hug. She didn't like a lot of physical contact with most people, but she decided to make an exception for Peeta. He gave nice hugs. A sudden idea struck her, one that was crazy, but she went out on a limb, "Do you trust me?"
"Of course," Peeta raised a brow at that question, but he did wonder what she was up to. He was still feeling the glow of accomplishment right now to really question it though.
Katniss stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. Right on his bruise.
Peeta blushed even redder and gave her a flabbergasted look. This was officially the best day of his life.
"Come with me," Katniss beamed at him and pulled him along as her mind whirred.
With his heart hammering in his chest, Peeta couldn't help just going with it. All he could concentrate on was Katniss's warm hand in his, the afternoon sunshine basking them in warm light, and the sweet cool breeze that blew past them.
