Disclaimer: I don't own Taylor Swift's songs or anything else. "Eyes open" by Taylor Swift.

Singing - Singing

~o~

Effie tugged on her clove cuffs. When she was younger, she and her friends would play a game when a tribute died in a rather dramatic way. They would take a shot of some fruity liquor. But seeing Calla Lily stirred something in her stomach, and not in the way the shots of her youth did.

~o~

I ran through the Forrest to the river bay and spotting a tiny pool of blood on the rocks. I crouched down and dipped two fingers into it, rubbing them together. It's still pretty fresh, only a couple days old at the most. I looked up a bit seeing another tiny pool a few feet ahead, I followed the blood trail through some bushes and down the river's bank. I walked closer down by the river and that's were the trails ends. I look around for more puddles of blood and take a few steps forward when something grabbed my foot. I gasped in fright and look down, a hand was attached to my boot. I followed the hand to the rock and found a head, it's mouth slightly open and eyes squinted.

"Oh, my God!" I cried. "Peeta!" I got down onto my knees and pulled the rock and moss that he used to cover himself with.

"Hi." He breath out, lifting his head. I moved all of the stuff off of him and took him gently into my arms.

"It's okay." I sobbed into his hair, "Peeta . . . Peeta . . ." I whispered into his hair over and over again to help relax myself. I petted his hair a few times and planted a few kisses before moving back a little to look at him. "Your a mess." I told him in a hoarse voice. I look to the river. "Do you think you can move closer to the river?" He nodded with a little groan. I pulled one of his arms over my shoulder and helped stand up and hobbled down to the river. Laying him back down, I tear a strip of my shirt off and plunge it into the chilly water. I ringed it out then folded it into a square before wiping the gunk off of Peeta's face. As I was rinsing the cloth out in the lake, I spotted the long ill looking gash on Peeta's leg. I quickly tear the hole more and away from the cut. I gently clean it with the scrap of cloth, Peeta grunted and moaned from the pain.

"I'm sorry." I said to him gently, "We have to get it clean." After a few more minutes of cleaning it, I look up at him. "What was it?"

"A sword." I looked back down at it, if anything it looked worse then before. "It's bad, huh?"

"It's going to be fine." I lied. I poured some water on it wash it out.

"Ah!" I flinched back a bit at Peeta's agony. "Callie."

"Shhh." I shushed him, not wanting to hear a single bad thing come from him.

"Callie." I jerked my head up to him.

"No!" I raised my voice. He gave me a shock look. "I'm not going to leave you. I'm not doing that." And looked down again, going back to work on his wound.

"Why not?" I paused for a moment then looked him right in the eye. It felt like years since I saw his ocean blue eyes staring into my stormy greys.

"Cause I love you, Peeta." His eyes widen to the size of saucers, "Even though you teamed up with the Career pack and broke my heart, I still love you. So shut up." I throw Peeta's arm around my shoulder again, we began to stumble down the river until we find a cave to hide out in. I help him lay down on the floor. "Nobody's going to find you in here." I told him.

"They already found me." I look down to his leg. I turn back to him and brush his hair from his forehead.

"We'll just get you some medicine." I whispered soothingly.

"Callie, I don't get many parachutes." I bit my bottom lip for a moment, trying to think of what to do.

"We'll figure something out." I told him, earnestly.

"Like what?" His breaths were coming in gasps.

"Something, Peeta. Trust me." I lean in and give him a peck on the cheek. Peeta just stared at me for a while before falling asleep. I sat by his side watching him until a electronic beeping sound reached my working ear. I turn to the mouth of the cave with a curious look then to Peeta before taking off with my bow and arrows. I loaded an arrow just to be on the safe side and looked around, up on the rocks was a parachute. I climb up the rock and take the basket off the parachute. I opened the basket up, inside was a note and a medium size tin.

"You call that a kiss — H" I rolled my eyes at Haymitch's note and went back to Peeta. He was still asleep when I got back. Sitting back down beside him, I unscrew the tin and saw that there was broth inside.

"Medicine?" Peeta asked in a weak voice.

"No, broth." He reaches out to take it, I pull it back from him. "I'll do it." He let his arms drop down and I gave him a spoonful of broth.

"That's nice." He said, I smiled down at him.

"You feed us once, Peeta." I went to give him another spoonful.

"I think about that all the time." He told me, I looked at him confused. "How I tossed Katniss that bread."

"Peeta . . ."

"I should have gone to her. I should have just gone out in the rain and . . ." I began to shush him, I laid a gently hand to his forehead and sweep it down to his cheek.

"You feel hot." I said softly.

"I remember the first time I saw you." he whispered. "I think I was ten maybe? Or was it you that were ten, anyway it was after school and I was heading to the playground when I heard this amazing voice."

"Peeta, stop." I muttered with a light blush.

"It was you singing while Prim was trying to braid your hair. I've never seen such a patient little girl! Anyways, after Prim was done, Katniss came out of our school and you all went off back home." I stared at him in astonishment for a moment. I had never known about that. "After that, I watched you go home every day. Every day."

"Until I caught you staring one day and asked you if you wanted to walk home with us." He smiled brightly.

"Yeah. Come here. Please." I lie down next to him, my head on his shoulder and hand on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me. "Even if I don't make it . . ."
"Shhhh." I stopped him in his tracks. And we both went to sleep wrapped up in each other's arms.

~o~

Haymitch let's out a weak groan as he set he set his glass down. He rubbed his face as the scene played over again on the screen in front of him. It's all that played now, Calla Lily's brutal killing with the Games on another screen. He reached for a crystal flask and poured whatever was in it to the brim of his cup.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." He consoled the blonde girl on the screen as he drowned the glass. He looked at the bottom of his glass and saw a distorted pink blob come towards him.

"Well, that was just a smashing performance!" Effie mused a little too bubbly. "I knew she was a fighter but, oh my, I did not expect this!" She added, tugging at the hem of her magenta leather gloves.

"Yeah, smashing." Haymitch snarked, pouring the remainder of the crystal pitcher into his glass.

~o~

Blinking a few times, I stared blearily at the cave as I slowly sat up and stretched. Peeta let out a pain filled groan in his sleep. I ran my fingers through his hair gently, coaxing him to wake up. I smiled down at him as his eyes fluttered open.

"Hey, sleepyhead." I whispered to him affectionally.

"Hey." He whispered back, voice rough with sleep. I continued to pet his soft blond hair even though it was greasy from sweat.

"Do you think you can make it to the river to bathe?" I asked him, he nodded and with my help up we headed to the river. I helped him sit down on the closest rock near the river. "Alright, strip." He snapped his head to me, startled.

"What?!" he exclaimed. I stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"I want to wash your clothes, Peeta." I got out before laughing again as his face went cherry red.

"Oh." He muttered as he slowly got undress until he was left in his underwear. I took his clothes and began to wash them in the river, then laying them down on the rocks to dry out. I turned around when I heard a splashing sound, Peeta was leaning up against the rock in the water washing his hair. After a few moments, I began to strip from my clothes and washed them, laying them out next to Peeta's clothes. "That's a lot of blood." I looked up to Peeta. He had a worried but confused look on his face.

"It's not mine." I told him, slowly he moved over to me.

"Who's is it?" He asked. I bit my lip and undid my hair.

"No ones." I said, he gave a look.

"Callie, who's —"

"Peeta, please. I don't want to talk about it." I interrupted him. He sighed with a nod.

"Alright, alright." I slipped into the water and began to was my hair. After a while, we got out of the water and just sat in the sun to dry off. I played with the ends off my hair, staring off into space as Marvel's death replayed over and over in my mind. I jumped with a hand landed on my shoulder. I snapped my head in the hand's direction to find Peeta with his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry." I said. He shook his head.

"No, it was my fault. I forgot for a moment that we were in the Games." He replied. I gave him a half smile. How could anyone forget that they're in the Hunger Games, even for a second?

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I just thought for a moment that we were back in District Twelve at the creek, swimming and sunbathing." He blushed for a moment.

"You braided my hair while we were drying off." I remember that day very well, it was the day that Peeta asked me out.

"And you sung while I did so." He gave me that dimple smile I loved. I looked over to the clothes, they were still pretty damp and I didn't want Peeta to get a rash from the damp clothes to go along with the cut.

"Peeta?"

"Yeah?" I moved over to him and sat down in front of him, my back towards him.

"Would you braid my hair?" He ran his hands through my hair to untangle it.

"Of course." I let out a sigh and closed my eyes as Peeta's gentle hands played with my hair. We sat in a comfortable silence for a while. "Callie?"

"Yes?" I asked, my eyes still closed.

"Would you sing?" he asked me with a shy tone. I turned my head slightly to look at him over my shoulder.

"Of course." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"Everybody's waiting,

Everybody's watching,

Even when you're sleeping,

Keep your ey-eyes open,

That was a true statement. The Capitol and all of the Districts were watching us, day and night, awake or asleep.

The tricky thing,

Is that yesterday we were just children,

Playing soldiers,

Just pretending,

Dreaming dreams with happy endings,

In backyards, winning battles with our wooden swords,

But now we've stepped into a cruel world,

Where everybody stands and keeps score,"

We were just children only a few days ago, Peeta and I did have dreams with happy endings but we knew they'd never come true. Not in the world that we lived in but maybe in a world where the Hunger Games didn't exist, they could come true.

Keep your eyes open,

Everybody's waiting for you to breakdown,

Everybody's watching to see the fallout,

Even when you're sleeping, sleeping,

The world already saw me breakdown and become a monster. What did everyone think? What was their reactions to that horrific scene? Was Haymitch disappointed in me? Was Effie freaked out? Did Cinna think I was a blood thirsty monster? Did Gale and Kat hate me now for letting the Capitol get to me? And Prim, my baby sister, was she afraid of me now?

Keep your ey-eyes open,

Keep your ey-eyes open,

Keep you ey-eyes open,

So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard,

Every lesson forms a new scar,

They never thought you'd make it this far,

But turn around, oh they're surrounded you,

It's a showdown and nobody comes to save you now,

I wonder if everyone thought I was going to die within the first few days because of having the Career pack on my tail, I wonder if I surprised them with how well I adjusted to the Games.

But you got something they don't,

Yeah, you've got something they don't,

You've just gotta keep your eyes open,

Everybody's waiting for you to breakdown,

Everybody'd watching to see the fallout,

Even when you're sleeping, sleeping,

Keep your ey-eyes open."

I finished quietly and just in time as Peeta finished my braid by securing it with the hair band.

"I knew it." I turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Knew what?" I asked.

"That the birds stopped singing to hear you sing." I blushed an bright red and softly hit his shoulder.

"Peeta!" We laughed for a bit. I stood up to go get our clothes and helped Peeta redress then got dress myself. We slowly walked back to the cave, I laid Peeta down and picked up my bow and arrows. "I'm going to go get us dinner."

"No, Callie don't leave." I kneeled down and pressed a kiss to his scorching forehead.

"Peeta, you need to eat to keep the infection off. I'll be quick." I got up and left, walking a few feet away but still close to hear Peeta if he yelled for me. My foot stepped onto a twig causing a loud snap and a rabbit shot out of a bush. I shot an arrow, hitting it right in the eye. I went to collect it, walking back to the cave I collected some fire wood to make a fire to cook the rabbit. I skinned and gutted it, tying it to a stick and roasted it while looking around for any sign of District Two. After it was finished cooking, I put the fire out and went back into the cave. Peeta's eyes snapped open when he heard me rustle around with my pack. I pulled out the tarp and knife, I began to cut the meat off the bones. Peeta slowly turned onto his left side and I placed the food in the middle of us, making sure Peeta ate a bit more then me.

"Thank you," I looked up to him, "for taking care of me."

"It's what you would've done." I shrugged and cuddled up to him, pulling our jackets over us like blankets. "Goodnight, Peeta." I laid my hand on his stomach.

"Night, Callie." He whispered and placed a kiss to my crown, taking my hand into his while wrapping the other around my shoulders.