The Hunger Games, in Peeta's Point of View. -None of the Characters or events are owned by me, I can only lay claim to how I imagine Peeta's thoughts and some actions may be.

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Chapter Seven

We move to a sitting room where we watch the replays of the opening ceremonies, and then Haymitch is telling Katniss and I to meet him for breakfast in the morning so we can start our first day of training. He dismisses us. I realize this is my chance to talk to Katniss about the Avox girl. She walks with me down the hall and we stop at her bedroom door, where I lean against the door frame to make it clear I wish to talk.

"So, Delly Cartwright. Imagine finding her lookalike here." I say as casually as I can, fairly certain I sound like an idiot. Katniss hesitates whilst avoiding my gaze; she hesitates for so long that I can almost see the thoughts running through her head – I'm sure she's deciding whether she can trust me with whatever information is stored in her head. It almost hurts me to know she thinks I'm going to turn on her and possibly share the information with someone else, but I know this is just how Katniss is. I decide to cut in before she can decide against trusting me.

"Have you been on the roof yet?" She shakes her head, "Cinna showed me. You can practically see the whole city. The wind's a bit loud, though." I'm sure Katniss is smart enough to get my meaning – nobody would be able to hear over that wind, if there were cameras up there watching us.

"Can we just go up?" She asks, which a reasonably good question is – you'd think the Capitol would have a lot of rules and regulations over where their Tributes would be allowed to venture. They wouldn't want us disappearing or dying before we even got in the arena, after all.

"Sure, come on." I say, setting off down the hall and feeling a little relieved when Katniss instantly follows me up the stairs to the rooftop. As we step out, I get a little satisfaction out of the wonder in Katniss' expression at the sight before her; that I had been the one to show her this. I can't help but watch her for a moment whilst she's distracted, to just admire her. She breaks out of her admiration and snap my gaze away, not wanting her to catch me gazing at her again. We both wander over to the railing to look out on the City that's still alive, whereas we'd probably be heading to bed back home.

"I asked Cinna why they let us up here. Weren't they worried that some of the tributes might decide to jump right over the ledge?" I tell her, noticing Katniss glance at me quickly.

"What'd he say?"

"You can't," I repeat Cinna's reply, and just like he did; I held my hand out into the air. A sharp current shoots my hand and I automatically snap my hand back, away from the pain. "Some kind of electrical field throws you back on the roof." I tell her, wondering at how much pain that would cause to somebody – although I'm sure no matter how much it was they'd still force the Tribute into the Arena.

"Always worried about our safety." Katniss says sarcastically, making me smile a little.

"Do you think they're watching us now?" She asks me, I can't help but glance around subtly to try and figure out where they might have cameras trained upon us.

"Maybe," I admit before thinking of the small garden I'd seen on my way out with Cinna. "Come see the garden."

It's a small garden with some flower beds and potted trees; there are hundreds of wind chimes hanging from those trees that are making a constant tinkling sound due to the wind – so much that there wouldn't be a chance of any camera picking up what we are saying. I watch Katniss and wait for her to decide when she's ready to talk.

"We were hunting in the woods one day. Hidden, waiting for game." She whispers to me and I have to move in a little closer, pretending to examine some of the flowers.

"You and your father?" I whisper back, knowing that this must be a quiet conversation.

"No, my friend Gale." Of course, always with Gale, I think to myself rather bitterly, but tuning back in to what Katniss is saying. "Suddenly all the birds stopped singing at once. Except one. As if it were giving a warning call. And then we saw her. I'm sure it was the same girl. A boy was with her. Their clothes were tattered. They had dark circles under their eyes from no sleep. They were running as if their lives depended on it." She falls silent for a while and I ponder on what she told me, thinking of a time when I noticed the birds stopped singing one time; except one, I had thought. But it hadn't been a bird singing, it had been a very beautiful, very wonderful young girl. Then I try to imagine Katniss and Gale in the woods, hiding from this fleeing pair – but I can't. That is a side of Katniss that I do not know. I have no idea of the Hunter in Katniss, except for what I see in her in our everyday life.

"The hovercraft appeared out of nowhere," she suddenly continues. "I mean, one moment the sky was empty and the next it was there. It didn't make a sound, but they saw it. A net dropped down on the girl and carried her up, fast, so fast, like the elevator. They shot some sort of spear through the boy. It was attached to a cable and they hauled him up as well. But I'm certain he was dead. We heard the girl scream once. The boy's name, I think. Then it was gone, the hovercraft. Vanished into thin air. And the birds began to sing again, as if nothing had happened."

"Did they see you?" I ask her.

"I don't know. We were under a shelf of rock." She says, her eyes staring ahead of her; she's completely lost in the memory of this Avox girl and their brief encounter. I can't be sure, but I think I see guilt in her expression – perhaps that she didn't save the girl from her fate and the hovercraft. I suddenly want to take her in my arms and comfort her, I want to hold her and keep those bad memories at bay; but I also know that she wouldn't let me. She would push me away, step out of my reach, and look at me with uncomprehending grey eyes because she has no idea what kind of effect she has on me.

"You're shivering," I suddenly notice, pulling my jacket off and wrapping it around her shoulders; at first I think she isn't going to let me and my heart sinks a little, but she seems to give in and accepts my jacket.

"They were from here?" I ask, returning her attention back to the story she was telling me as my fingers fumble a little at the top button of the jacket, fastening it to a close. She only nods in answer and I take a step back, not wanting to invade her space too much.

"Where do you suppose they were going?" I wonder at this; a boy and a girl fleeing from the Capitol and ending up on the outskirts of District 12. Something bad had to have happened to make them run that far and fast. But where could they have expected to have gone past Disctrict 12? District 13 had been destroyed, as the Capitol liked to remind us on a regular basis, and there wasn't really much to see beyond Panem.

"I don't know that. And I don't know why they would leave here." I think about that – about living in the Capitol, but I can only think about how we are here for their entertainment.

"I'd leave here." I suddenly say, forgetting to whisper. I glance about nervously, thinking of spying cameras and microphones that might have picked up on my outburst. I try to laugh, rather nervously. "I'd go home now if they let me. But you have to admit, the food's prime." And now I'm just a home sick boy who's afraid to be called out as a Tribute. "It's getting chilly. We better go in," I finally say, feeling the cold now that I've given my jacket over to Katniss. "Your friend Gale. He's the one who took your sister away at the reaping?" I ask her casually, but of course I already know who Gale is.

"Yes. Do you know him?" She asks me.

"Not really. I hear the girls talk about him a lot. I thought he was your cousin or something. You favor each other." I tell her, which is true. The girls around school are very fond of the tall, dark haired Hunter and how supposedly handsome he is.

"No, we're not related." She tells me.

I nod my head and avoid her gaze. "Did he come to say goodbye to you?" I'm not entirely sure why I'm asking her, and I can see her looking at me curiously.

"Yes. So did you father. He brought me cookies." This surprises me a little, as he hadn't mentioned that he was going to see Katniss, and I wonder at his motives. Although he had always been fond of the Everdeens, of course he would try to look after the children of the woman he once loved so dearly. "Really? Well, he likes you and your sister. I think he wishes he had a daughter instead of a houseful of boys," I admit to her.

Katniss looks somewhat startled at this – perhaps the idea that my father and I might have talked about her and her sister at some point; I feel like I should explain to her.

"He knew your mother when they were kids."

"Oh, yes. She grew up in town." Katniss says, which probably meant her mother hadn't really talked much about her life before the Seam, obviously not about my father. I realized that we're at the door to Katniss' room, and she hands me my jacket back. "See you in the morning then."

"See you." I reply, before turning and walking off to my own room, wondering if Gale would have kissed her goodnight.