Chapter Four
Disclaimer: This story is rated M for swearing a violence in later chapters
I do not any characters except for Claire Moore, Logan Smith, Cynthia and the other characters that are currently owned by Suzanne Collins.
I'm really happy with how I wrote this chapter and I hope you feel the same. If you have any ideas, no matter how big or small, I would really love to hear them So please review and be honest with me.
The train hasn't changed since the last time we were here. Without anything to do and no one to really talk to I'm happy that the train ride will only take a few hours. I end up sitting alone on the couch waiting for us to arrive. Katniss and Peeta immediately went into their rooms as soon as the cameras were turned off, leaving me all alone. I'm getting sick of them, I know what they went through, but the least they can do is try to be nice to each other.
As I'm complaining to myself, Cynthia joins me on couch. She smiles at me and asks, "How's the baby?"
"She's fine, but she's due around the time when we come back from the Victory Tour," I answer.
"Let's hope that you get to have her back home," comments Cynthia.
"Yeah, that would be much better than having her in the Capitol," I agree.
"Claire, I know that this is none of my business, but I couldn't help but notice the tension between Katniss and Peeta. And even though this might be out of place, I think you should talk to them," Cynthia suggests.
"I've been talking to them, they're too stubborn," I protest.
"Come on, we both know there's something that you still haven't tried," she urges me. Almost as if she had planned it, an announcement comes overhead saying that due to technical difficulties the train will be stopping for some time.
"There's your opportunity, go do something," she says.
"Fine, but it's not going to work," I relent. Pushing myself off the couch I set out to find the supposed star-crossed lovers of District 12. Walking fast, I burst into Katniss' room and grab her arm.
"What the hell are you doing?" she screams.
"Just come with me," I reply while pulling her. After a while she stops fighting. When we get to Peeta's room she goes stiff. I do to Peeta the same as I did to Katniss. Now that I have both of them by the arm I pull them down to the end of the train, and the three of us hop off the train. As we land on the ground a flustered looking attendant runs out to yell at us.
"Save it," I interrupt. "We're not going to run off, I just can't have any witnesses when they kill each other."
He looks at me for a second, as if he's trying to decide if I'm actually being serious then goes back inside. The three of us walk in silence for some time. When I feel that it is safe to bring up the subject I stop them.
"Listen, I don't want to do this, but I have to," I state. "Frankly, you two have been acting childish. Peeta you're mad at Katniss because she told you that she was pretending. I get that you would be mad, I would too, but ignoring her and not talking is not going to help. And it just makes you look like an asshole. Katniss, you're confused. It's completely understandable; you don't know what to do anymore. I know it'll be hard, but you have to talk to him again, you're never going to know how you feel about him until you actually spend time with Lover Boy. The very least you two can do is try to be friends. Being mad isn't going to help either of you, and it's going to give me a hell of a lot of stress, so if my baby has something wrong with her and the doctor says it was stress related I'm going after you two."
The two are silent for a few minutes after my rant. I'm afraid that now they hate me as well. I'm just about to give up and walk away when Peeta speaks up, "You have a point. Being friends would be much more bearable than what we've been doing, I'm sorry Katniss. I shouldn't have blamed you."
"I'm sorry too," Katniss speaks like a chastised child. "I agree being friends would be best."
"Thank you," I sigh. "Now let's go back."
As we're walking back you can feel that the tension between the two of them has lessened, it will probably never fully disappear but we're off to a good start. We talk about what we've been doing since we got home, and as I turn to ask Katniss something I can tell that she's hiding something from Peeta and me. She's terrible at keeping secrets. I can always tell when she has one, and judging by the way she bites her lip this one is huge.
"Hey Peeta, I need to ask Katniss something, girl stuff, so why don't you go back ahead of us," I propose.
"Um, alright," he agrees reluctantly, he knows that I'm not telling the truth but thankfully he doesn't bother to question me.
After he's a good distance away I ask, "What are you hiding?"
"What do you mean?" Katniss lies.
"Katniss, you're lying. I know you, something happened now tell me," I demand.
"I really hate you sometimes," she grumbles.
"That's what makes me a good friend," I smile.
She glares at me and replies, "President Snow came to my house and told me that if I don't convince him and the other Districts that I was crazy, stupid in love with Peeta he's going to kill my family."
"He's lying to you," I tell her.
"I think he was pretty serious, Claire," she retorts.
"No, listen; he came to my house too. He told me that the spark of rebellion in the Districts can't be stomped out by anyone, that the only thing we can do is make sure we don't add fuel to the fire," I explain.
"Why would he tell you that and not me?" she inquires.
"I don't know, he's a psychopath he can do whatever the fuck he wants. Maybe he had some false sense of hope that if it was just about your love the rebels will calm down, but he knows that there's nothing that will stop this."
"But why?" she presses.
"It's my fault," I confess. "I know that you took the berries because you didn't want to go back without him, even if you didn't actually love him you two had been through too much, but me there was no reason for me to try to kill myself. I took the berries as an act of defiance."