Hiya! I have procrastinated on this, but I've finally got his chapter up. Thanks all of you guys who could take time to review my story. Remember, I accept all comments! Thanks to those who read my little game: give me an idea to put in the story and I'll do it. Of course, it has got to be reasonable. You know who you are that did so! Now… here it is!!
Disclaimer: Own nothing of the Hunger Games! (Darn)
We've landed. We've landed in District 13. I'm afraid, so afraid that I've locked myself into my room. Haymitch and Finnick have been yelling outside my door for the last five minutes, and it's giving me a serious headache.
"Give me a minute! Ladies take time to get ready! I thought you knew, since you are both a bunch of nagging, old women!" I scream at the door. I chuckle to myself as Haymitch gives an exasperated sigh.
"Fine," He yells, and I can here them both retreating, "But hurry up! We've got a world waiting out there for us."
I grumble to myself over Haymitch and his short patience. Truth is I've been ready for hours. I couldn't sleep, decided to get ready and dressed, and alls I've been doing for the past couple of hours is worrying. You know why, too. We're in District 13! A year ago I laughed at this idea, and now I'm here to see it live, in person.
It's my heart that tells me that I won't be any readier than I am right now. Before I compute my actions, I'm out the door… down the hall… sliding doors open before me… Haymitch pressuring me to step forward into the vessel that will take us to the ground… my mind is slipping from me. Then we are landing, on this forbidden soil, and all I think is this is a trick, President Snow is here to kill me, and my life is officially gone from my grasp.
"God, girl!" Finnick yells at me.
I've been holding his hand without realizing it. He yanks it away, and rubs it furiously to regain circulation. I wipe my hands off on my shirt as they are sweaty enough to be their own waterfall. I feel the floor vibrate a bit as we land on the District 13's ground.
"Well, Katniss you'll be stepping out first, so the crowd can get their cheers out before we discuss the plan with them," Haymitch says to us all: me, Finnick, Gale, Plutarch Heavensbee, and a few other people who seem to know the plan all ready.
I glare at Haymitch. Thanks for throwing me to the sharks, Haymitch. I can't go out first, I'll faint surely! Also, what is the plan you may ask. I don't know what it is. This will be much as a surprise to me as it will be to the people of District 13.
I don't have time to think much at all, since Haymitch is pushing me to the front of the crowd before I react. The doors slide open with a whoosh. My hair spins around me in circles that get caught in my mouth and eyes. It takes a minute; I have to reposition myself, before I can acknowledge my audience.
"Oh my god," I gasp at the enormous horde of people standing and shrieking my name that stretch out for miles in front of me.
Well, not miles exactly. All my vision could contain was thousands of people as far as my eyes could see. They looked like you and me: regular pants and shirts, normal colored hair, and average bodies that have had no unusual development done on them (unlike the people of the Capitol). They kept screaming Katniss until I thought my eardrums would bust with overuse.
Thankfully, Haymitch stepped forth to take a mike and yelled over the crowd's straining windpipes, "Please, settle back down! We don't have time for this foolery! QUIET!!!" They shut up pretty fast; I would've too if I was them.
"Now that I've got your attention, go back to your houses and stay there 'til we've got things sorted out."
They all rushed to these secret doors in the ground that I didn't notice before. I didn't notice much at all but the massive crowd, now I looked. The land was barren, not a single leaf or shrub or one blade of grass. I did see the ruins of some of the buildings, like the ones we sometimes see on television, but this was unsettling different than what I expected. I expected there to be some life, maybe not human, but at least a mouse. No, there was not even a solitary mockingjay flying overhead. It was a dead land, no hope emanated from it, not one ounce.
I am now in a room much like the one I had on the hovercraft. I sit here impatiently as I wait for someone to come and fetch me for the meeting with the leaders of this underground colony. Hours pass and no one visits, not to even give me a beverage or a snack. I pace until I began to make a trail of dirt on the once perfectly white carpet.
"Ahhhh!" I cry into my pillow after I flung myself onto the overstuffed bed.
"I guess I'll come back at another time," Gale whispers from the doorway.
I was so consumed with my brief flash of anger that I didn't see him standing there in all his glory. I haven't talked to him since he told me about the destruction of District 12. I watch him walk slowly over and sit on the edge of my bed. It was like he didn't trust my temper, like I was an animal that couldn't be tamed. That made me ticked, and I instinctively clutched to the pillow so hard that when he reached to take my hand, I pulled a way so fast I ripped the pillow right down the seam. We stared at it for a minute then laughed like there was no tomorrow, which for us could be true.
"I've missed that smile like you can't believe," He muttered, his hand brushing hair from my face, and making me ever more uncomfortable about him sitting next to me so close.
If I loved him like I was supposed to (in his opinion) then I wouldn't care what he did to me, like brushing the hair out of my face, and I wouldn't care what others thought of it. I did, though, more than anything. Peeta, my mom, Haymitch, and President Snow flashed in front of my eyes, all reminding me that I will never be able to be with Gale unless we finished this monster, this war. Gale realized the awkwardness and took his hand away from my face.
"Anyways," He said louder with a touch of hardness, "I came to tell you the meeting is over. We didn't want you coming in your delicate condition after all that has happened."
My delicate condition? I thought he knew that I wasn't pregnant. He stressed the two words indicating he was mad at that so-called fact, and that leads to him not knowing the pregnancy is a con. I thought everyone knew by now, but apparently I've been mistaken. I stood up and stalked around to the bathroom, following along. There must be some reason Haymitch wouldn't want anyone else besides Finnick and Plutarch knowing. I couldn't think why right now, but there has to be some reason. As I stepped into the bathroom I pulled my shirt up to show a flat stomach. I held my breath at the pit of my torso, puffing it out.
"I wonder if I'm showing yet," I said looking back at Gale on the bed, and hoping my fake attempt at a slightly pregnant stomach wouldn't be exposed as a fraud.
Gale looked up at my face; I was trying to look like a happy expecting mother. I didn't try to stare at him too long because, well, he made me feel like crap. His eyes were filled with sorrow that I loved Peeta… that I had Peeta's child growing in my abdomen. It made me feel depressed, but also angry that he couldn't even try to be happy for me!
"You aren't mad?" He spoke up above my annoyance.
"What? About not going to the meeting? No. I wish you guys would've told me before I went to the trouble of picking out the right outfit, though," I spoke back, pointing at the black dress I actually had planned on wearing tonight. I wanted to make a good impression on the leaders of District 13.
Gale stared at me with raised eyebrows. Oh no, I realized a second too late. I was way out of character. He would never believe that Katniss Everdeen would get married without his permission (or to him), or get knocked up, or care what she wore unless it was a life or death situation. I laughed trying to disperse from that heavy criticism. Perhaps he would think the pregnant woman mood swings were doing this, or the games had changed me, or something. His glare was making me fidget. He glanced around the room allowing me a second to collect a lie to why I was acting this way.
"So, what do you have to say about all of this?" Gale says dismissing that ill at ease moment with a gesture around the room.
I sucked in a breath prepared to answer, when abruptly he jumped forth at me, pinning my hands to my side, and kissing me straight on the lips. I gasped into his mouth, surprised out of my wits! I hooked my foot up and caught him in his stomach. He immediately let go, backing away with his own realization of what he just did.
I combed my hair back with my fingers and hissed at him, "What the heck do you think you are doing?! Are you determined to make this decision hard on me?"
His voice went dark and deep, rising from some place I've never seen, "What choice? The choice of Peeta or me, is that it?"
"Yes what else!" I screamed at him.
"I don't know," Bitter and sarcastic was his tone, "I thought you made that pretty damn clear when you became the father of his child, when you made out with him in front of the whole Panem, when you didn't even stop to think I loved you too!"
"What?! I thought about it long before you probably did. You know what I thought; I thought we would live best taking care of our families and staying good friends. Then I thought if you really liked me, you would have the guts to say so!" I answered back with as much verve.
"Ha! You are just too stupid to even look under your own nose for it! I gave you so many hints! I gave you every reason to make you believe I loved you, and I still do. It really doesn't matter now, since you already chose," Gale's face crumpled from his just-a-second-ago purple-faced rage.
My anger didn't subside at this compassionate break through, "How dare you! How dare you make me decide! If you really loved me, this would've been forgotten after that kiss in the woods."
He smiled ruefully, "That was just a chance at seeing what it was like. I fought hard for that kiss before this whole Hunger Games thing happened, and you didn't see. Peeta practically dies and gets whatever he wants from you, your life, which includes your kisses. He didn't need to work for those kisses, so I think I deserved a little love from you too."
"He doesn't own my life if that's what you are implying. I am my own independent person. Yes, I guess you did deserve that kiss, but you could've just asked for it back when. Now it is too late, so don't try," I yell.
"He owns you, Katniss. You saved his life, he saved yours, and that means eternal gratitude from each of you to the other. It doesn't mean you each are done owing each other, like you think, but that you just sealed your fate with each other," Gale steps forward after he says that.
I've thought about my idea of owing people, so I got where he was coming from. My voice becomes softer, "I know now. I don't entirely think that's true, but who am I to know what love is and isn't."
Gale whispers, "Is it really too late for that kiss? I tried my best and I deserve a reward. Please, Katniss, we probably won't make it out of this war, and I want to know if I ever had a shot. I need to know Katniss."
My face burns hot. Gale is so close, a breath away. His eyes are smoldering, even in this darkly lit room. My hands shake, so I hold them behind my back as I lean forward, inch by inch. Gale closes the space and we are kissing. We are kissing with more passion than I could give Peeta after our first games were over
Gale doesn't realize Peeta worked for those kisses too. Peeta probably worked harder than Gale, maybe not as long, but definitely harder. Yes I gave Peeta many kisses, but I'm talking about the kisses that actually meant something, which was probably a third of what I actually kissed him. Peeta had to nearly give his life up for me so many times over that I can't count them. Right this second he is trapped with his life clutched in President Snow's hand, which is just another way Peeta is saving my life by risking his.
Gale is still kissing me. I'm still embarrassed I caved so easily to this. I feel shame over myself as I think of Peeta lying in a cell starving to death and only wishing for my wellness, and I am here kissing another man. Of course, I too am thinking about him, and I feel shame for what I am doing, so I have got to get some credit for that.
Gale breaks away and whispers into my hair, "I love this, just so you know. I love you loving me, and feel no remorse for it."
I push him towards the door and he doesn't leave 'til he gets to have one last peck on my cheek. As I close the door, I catch the light outside of my door sparkle on some metallic object. I glide over to it, and as my hand closes over it I become very aware. The object feels familiar, and I don't know what it triggered to cause such awareness.
I tug at it and a string pulls up with it. I keep pulling until I have about five feet of cord wrapped around my hand. The end of the cord strings into the wall vent. With a grunt and a kick, I get the wire out of the broken vent, and I understand what it is I'm holding. It is a black microphone and camera. I gasp as I understand why I became so aware at the familiarity of the camera. I am being watched. What just happened has been recorded and is being seen by the leaders of District 13.
I feel dread at this, but even worse dread as another idea plants in my brain. Why would District 13 have to watch us? Don't they trust us? Are the people of District 13 really here to help us or them selves? Do they want to end this war or supply it with hate only man, as a race, can produce? Where has our ship landed?
That's that. Review please, please, please, please! I told you would get something extra special. What is going on with this 'plan' for the war? What of Katniss and Gale's kiss? Are the people of District 13 really planning on helping with the rebellion/war, or something more sinister and darker than Katniss can imagine? I will leave you thinking of these questions. Ta ta for now, darlings!
Yours truly,
Peeta's Lover