Please review, they're like little Christmas presents for me. Thank you and please enjoy.
Disclaimer: No, I did not receive rights to the Hunger Games for Christmas (In other words, as far as I know, rights still belong to Scholastic, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Suzanne Collins.)
- Writing4YourLove
She walks carefully into the huge group of people, looking for her father. She doesn't know what she would ever tell him. Not with everything that's happened. She goes through the living room, hugging the walls, watching silently as everyone else laughs and jokes around with each other.
Then she sees that man's grey eyes. She stops for half a second, breath catching in her throat, chest tightening in fear. Her breath comes in short, fast little pants as she stares into his eyes. He sees her, she knows he has. He's looking right at her. A scream is rising in her throat, but she swallows it back. Can't be him, it can't be, it's impossible. She tells herself, but it is him.
Her mother must've spotted her because from a different part of the room, she's calling Lavinia. She ignores it and retreats into the kitchen, falling into one of the old chairs at the old table in the center of the room. She stares down at the grain of the wood on the table as she works to slow her breathing, holding her head in her hands.
Only her father's voice pierces her concentration. "Lavinia, are you okay? Your mother's looking for you."
She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Not really," She's not able to lie to her father, he'd know. Or find out.
Peeta may not know as much as he'd like to about his daughter, but he knows enough – from the Hunger Games and the Rebellion - to understand what fear looks like. "You want to talk about it?"
She glances over her shoulder, into the other room. "I don't like him." She says evenly and he tries to follow her gaze. Still, he's uncertain as to who it is. She seems to understand this, from one factor or another, because she continues, "The one talking to the brown-haired woman."
"She's Johanna Mason, that person next to her is Gale Hawthorne; he was your mother's old hunting partner." Peeta replies, successfully identifying the man she was looking at. When she doesn't respond, he starts to stand, then hesitates. "You want to talk about something?" He asks softly.
She begins to speak, but then quickly shakes her head. Running her fingers through her hair, she sits back, taking a deep breath. "No, it's not important. Thanks for asking."
He gives her a warm smile, "As I was saying earlier, your mother wants to talk to you." He pauses, "If you ever need to talk, you know where I am." She nods, watching as he walks away, then gets up to go to her room, not wanting to find her mother.
Katniss spots her daughter before Lavinia even rounds the corner leading from the kitchen to the hall. "Vinny, there you are! I've been looking for you." She says and her daughter whips around, something passes through her eyes for a split second before she smiles.
"Hey mom," Lavinia replies, hoping her mother doesn't see that she'd rather be upstairs in her room doing anything but talk to new people. One of which is scaring her more than she'd ever let on. Gale Hawthorne, or so her father called him; she recognized the name. Her mother mentioned him once in a blue moon - probably because she could always tell her dad didn't like him. Lavinia had never known her father was such a good judge of character. "I heard you were looking for me."
"I was," She says, "I want you to meet our guests." She says leading her daughter into the living room where she brings her right to the center of the room.
Lavinia has never liked being unprepared, she's never liked introductions, and she's definitely never liked large groups of people. You might even say she's afraid of the latter. In fact, standing in front of over a dozen people, eyes trained on her, even his, silently judging her, she feels like she's about to have a panic attack. Her mother introduces her to old friends, and she tries to pay attention, she makes an attempt to learn their names, but she knows the attempt is futile.
The familiar-looking woman with metallic-blue hair – was she Effie? Or did that name belong to the brown haired woman next to her? – spoke first when her mother finished. "It has been so long since I've seen you." She says, smiling. "You've grown up so much. You look just like your mother did at your age."
She doesn't know whether she's supposed to respond to that or not. All she knows is that her heart is beating a mile a minute and her brain is probably going about that speed too. If there's a fight, she has the advantage. She's lived in this house since she was born and she knows where every exit and window is. That's what she'd have to depend on, especially since he's so much bigger and stronger than her.
Keeping her head right now is probably the hardest thing she's ever had to do. She wants to run, but then he'd know that he's won. She'd rather die than let him think he's trapped her.
A blonde woman nods, "You remind me so much of her." What was her name? Delly or something, maybe Dolly? "How's school been going?"
"Decently," Lavinia says, not really even thinking about the response.
A dark-haired man – one she recognizes as one of District Twelve's few victors – Haymitch Abernathy, "With the same amount of charm." He says, laughing.
The sound makes her jump. It's loud and sudden, not to mention unexpected. She forces herself to recover and smile. "Still more than you," She says and the room explodes in laughter.
"I like this girl," One woman – Johanna Mason, maybe – says proudly. "Come on, kid, sit down."
"I'd love to, but I have to work on a school project." She lies. There's no truth to lie, either. Her mother gives her a strange look and Lavinia only shrugs in response.
"Oh, I'm sure you can get it done tomorrow. You have a whole week to finish it. It's due this Friday, right?" Her mother replies, giving her an 'I have no idea what you're trying to do, but it won't work' look. Lavinia finally gives in, sitting down on a chair that's been pulled up into the strange circle. "And what happened to your squirrel, I thought you had her."
She looks down at the floor, "Wild dogs got her and tore her up bad. I couldn't save her so I buried her in the forest." Another lie and with each one she's starting to feel more and more guilty. She knows she's going to need to convince her brother not to tell, but how could she do that? Bribe him?
There's silence, complete and utter silence until Titan walks in and examines the scene. "Well this is . . . awkward," he announces, looking around at everybody carefully, his dog at his heels, then he looks directly at her as he speaks. "I just wanted to say that if you guys want cookies, there are some in the kitchen, dad just finished making them." A lot of the people in the room get up and go to retrieve cookies and Lavinia uses this as an excuse to get up and leave. She doesn't even have to speak for her brother to know to follow her into the library. "You look worse than you did before," He says evenly, "What's up?"
Lavinia refuses to directly answer her brother's question; instead she takes a deep breath. "You can't tell." She whispers, "I'll do anything, just, please, you can't tell them."
He crosses his arms, "Vin, as your brother-"
"Don't start with the 'all I want is what's best for you' monologue; I don't need to hear it. Titan, they can't know." She says harshly.
"Why should I hide something this big from them? You just lied to our mother and an army of her friends. She's going to find out eventually and she's going to be pissed." He practically growls.
"Because she'd never believe me," Lavinia hisses. "Why should she believe that her old hunting partner raped her daughter?" The words ring through the room, and for a long moment they just glare at each other, suddenly wondering why they were mad at each other.
Titan is the first one to break the silence. "He did that to you?" He asks softly, and when this is met with a small nod from his sister, he closes his grey eyes. "I'll kill him." And it even sounds like he would; it sounds more like a promise than any kind of empty threat she's ever heard.
She shakes her head, "No, you won't."
"What he did-" He starts, but his sister cuts him off.
"Was unforgivable and horrible and cruel and so on and so forth, but that doesn't mean you should kill him." Although if he did, she thinks, I wouldn't necessarily try to stop him.
"Kill who?" The voice comes from the door which both kids had neglected to lock, foolishly assuming nobody would try to disturb them. They both turn to face him at the same time. "What a . . . happy little reunion, isn't it? You've already told him, right?" He asks, looking directly at Lavinia who looks to the side. "Someday I'll kill you both. Your mother too, the little-"
"Gale," The voice of the kids' father stops him in the calmest, most rational voice any of them had ever heard, but his eyes contain anger, something that neither Lavinia nor Titan have ever seen in their father's eyes. They exchange a frightened glance before looking back to the two men. "I believe you've outstayed your welcome. I'd appreciate it if you'd leave right now and never come back." He continues, stepping forward, into the room. "If you ever bother my family again, it will be the end for you. Please leave immediately."
For a minute, Gale contemplates killing the man who stole his girlfriend right then, but he knows that Peeta wouldn't suffer enough just if he killed him, so he stalks out, not saying another word. Lavinia waits until he's left before she silently walks up to her father and hugs him. When she lets go he speaks. "I heard you guys talking." Peeta says simply then kisses his daughter's forehead lightly. "If he ever touches you again, tell me. Okay?" She nods and he looks to his son, still speaking to both of them. "He's dangerous and if he plans on going through with any of that, you two had better watch out. I'll do everything I can to protect you, but there's only so much I can do."
He takes a deep breath, "Vin, if you want, you can stay in your room or stay here; I'll talk to your mother. I'll make you whatever you want for dinner once everybody's out. I've got to go for now. Titan, could you run down to the basement and grab some more fold-up chairs?"
The boy nods and hurries out the door. "If you want to join us, dinner will be ready at six." Peeta says, "You know I love you."
"I love you too, dad," She whispers, trying to keep herself from crying long enough to go up to her room and lock the door.