If anyone can help correct my German, please feel free to PM me!
It was night when she retreated outside to collect the sheets and left Prim whimpering at the kitchen door. She held Peeta's hand and pressed her face to the window overlooking the yard. Katniss sighed and stretched. The quiet night was welcome. She pulled the down the sheets and they smelled like the sun. She was sorry to sleep on the floor again as she piled them over her shoulders.
Prim let Katniss take her into the bathroom to dress her for bed. Her donated dress was still damp on the curtain rod, so Katniss helped her into a man's undershirt to sleep. She rifled through the bureau drawers until she found other clothes for Peeta. There was one woman's nightdress left behind. It was patched, but made with soft spun wool. It was a relief to peel off her heavy clothes and pull off the soft gown. Katniss fastened the three wooden buttons from her sternum to her collar and reveled being enveloped. She sighed. Prim mimicked her with a puff of an exhalation.
"Are you still tired?" Katniss asked her. "Müde?"
Prim nodded.
"We'll go to bed as soon as I wash these clothes, okay?"
Prim nodded again and watched Katniss ring out her peasant shirt to hang by her uniform on the rod across the tub. Katniss saw the little girl begin to chew her lip at the second button that was still left.
Peeta came upstairs from locking the doors and checking the windows. "I think we are hidden. I have turned all the lights down." He spotted them in pajamas. "Prim, you have grown. That shirt nearly fits you."
She shook her head at his teasing and reached for his hand. "I must dress. Will you go with Katniss? Gehen Sie mit Katniss?"
Prim agreed and Katniss took her to the bedroom again. "Will you help me put the sheets on the bed, Prim?" Katniss struggled to think of the German words. "Sheets, sheets," she muttered to herself. Prim hung on to her nightdress while she moved around the room, unfolding the bedsheets from the line.
"Here we are," she said. "Sheets."
Prim looked at her. "Sheets."
"What is this called in German?" Katniss asked her. "Sheets."
"Bettwäsche?"
"Bettwäsche," Katniss fumbled. "Bedsheets, bettwäsche. Thank you. Danke."
Prim helped Katniss as best she could stretch the clean sheets over the bed. Katniss lifted her up onto the bed and sat beside her as they waited for Peeta. Prim stuck her thumb in her mouth and seized a fistful of Katniss's dress.
"I did that," Katniss told her. "It made my teeth stick out." She pointed to her crooked front teeth. "I can whistle through them, but my dentist wants to give me braces." She could see she'd lost Prim, but the girl was still listening intently. "You should try to stop when your permanent teeth come in. Braces hurt like the dickens."
Prim looked to the door as Peeta appeared in the ill-fitting found pajamas. "Thank you, Katniss. These are very much better. Prim, did you thank Katniss for your shirt?"
"Danke," Prim muffled around her thumb.
Katniss stood up and Prim pulled herself down by the nightdress to follow. Katniss chuckled, "No, no. You need to go to bed, little one." Peeta sat down on the bed and Katniss lifted Prim to bounce on the mattress. She smiled as she crawled over to her brother and lay down.
Katniss was at the door when Prim started to whine.
"What's wrong?"
Peeta sat up. Prim had one hand on his wrist and another reaching for Katniss.
"I'm not going anywhere," Katniss said, crossing back to her. "I'm just down the hall." Prim caught her wrist and dug in her fingernails painfully. "Ow! I'm not leaving you, Prim. Ow!"
"Prim, let Katniss sleep," Peeta tried to warn her, working on the vice grip keeping Katniss captive. He pried the small fingers loose and Prim growled.
Katniss covered her ears in pain. "Okay, okay," she knelt by the bed. "I'll stay right here." She patted the carpet.
"Shall you sleep with her?" Peeta asked, trying to climb out of the bed with Prim still holding his arm. "I will take the floor."
Katniss looked at Prim hanging on him like a creeping vine. The panicked little keening noise she was making was drilling a hole through Katniss's skull. She gritted her teeth against the pain in her head. "There's enough room, we'll just both sleep with her."
Peeta hesitated. Katniss saw their night in his backyard weighing on his mind.
"If that's all right," Katniss said quickly. "I mean…I didn't mean…"
"No," he said quickly. "I just-"
"So she'll sleep," Katniss said.
Peeta met her eyes reluctantly. "Yes."
Katniss shut off the small bedside lamp as he took the spot by the wall and Prim moved close to him to make room for Katniss on her other side. Her fist found Katniss's wrist again and held her demandingly.
The dark quiet settled into the room.
She wanted to sleep. But now she could only think of Peeta's embarrassment. She thought of the night again. She'd never regretted it. She'd never regretted any of those moments. But now it was different. He hadn't disappeared into her past like the rest of them. He was still there. He was beside her. And bothered her that he did seem to regret it.
Katniss listened to the soft, deep breathing beside her until it lulled her to sleep.
She woke to the pressure on her chest. Her right arm was asleep as she lay on her side.
Prim chewing the button of her nightgown over her heart.
She was curled up against Katniss, her fuzzy head bobbing as she tried to eat the button. Katniss thought of the feral kittens in the neighbor's barn when she'd watch them nurse on their annoyed mother.
"Prim," she whispered, trying to sweep the button from her mouth. "Are you awake?"
Prim grumbled and pushed Katniss's hand away. She attacked the button again.
"Prim, you're going to choke," Katniss whispered, slipping her fingers to the button and pushing Prim away gently. Prim began to whine and wriggle. "You're going to pull the button off and choke," Katniss repeated. She rolled to her back, yanking the row of buttons away from Prim's mouth.
Peeta stirred. "Katniss?" he yawned. Katniss yelped as Prim kneeled on her right hand to go after the button. "Prim?" Peeta sat up. Katniss could see him searching blindly in the dark.
"She's trying to eat the buttons again," Katniss told him and Prim landed on her sternum. "She'll strangle if she swallows it," she coughed.
Peeta's hands found Prim and pulled her face gently away from Katniss.
Katniss felt the warmth spread over her hip and stomach immediately. "Peeta!"
Peeta heard it. "Prim," he sighed in despair.
Prim started to cry.
Katniss took Prim to the bathtub while Peeta changed the sheets and tried to scrub the mattress. Katniss pulled the dripping shirt from Prim's back and tossed it under the faucet. Prim watched her pull off the wool nightgown and run it under the spigot.
"Oh Prim," Katniss sighed as the green eyes watered and she sniffled. "It's all right. I know you're just scared." Katniss looked down and tried to laugh gently. "You've wet my underpants, too."
She found a towel to wear while she rinsed her underclothes in the sink. Prim stopped crying and began to splash in the tub. Peeta knocked on the bathroom door. He glanced at the towel Katniss wore when she opened it to him.
"Did she ruin your nightgown?" he asked.
"Not ruined, just…dampened," Katniss quipped.
His shoulders sagged. "Is she sick?" he whispered.
Katniss looked back to the splashing. Prim was pressed against the lip of the tub, leaning out to where they stood. She saw them watching her and stretched out a hand.
"I think she doesn't want you out of her sight," Katniss thought out loud. "I think she won't leave you long enough to go to the bathroom." She looked at him. "She's afraid you'll be gone again."
Peeta squeezed his eyes shut."I should have run away sooner," he moaned, rubbing his face. "If I had gotten back to her sooner. My brothers." He had to stop and turn away. "Peeta," Katniss whispered. "She's here, she's all right. You found her."
He nodded but did not turn to face her.
Katniss heard the splashing as Prim tried to climb out of the tub and she rushed a towel to her before she flooded the bathroom. "We're going to have to find more towels," she smiled at Prim as she rubbed her back and arms dry. "You're making it rain inside."
"What do I do?" Katniss looked at Peeta's exclamation. He was watching her in misery, a lost boy underneath his soldier's face.
"We'll just take her to bathroom often, Peeta," Katniss soothed. "She'll learn what do to again. It's all right." She looked at Prim watching him. "Come take her for me, I need to wash up."
Peeta took Prim into the bedroom. It wounded Katniss to see her pull and stretch to keep Katniss in her sight. Katniss closed the door as Peeta started humming to Prim.
She rung out their nightclothes and hung them with the day clothes that still clung to the rod. She looked in the mirror as she ran a washcloth over her hip and thigh. There was a red scrape over her heart. The thread from the button had scratched her when Prim bit down on the button. Katniss touched it gently with her fingers. She closed her eyes and felt the child against her. She thought of her mother. She opened her eyes to look at herself in the mirror. She shut off the water and hurried back to the bedroom.
They laid out lightweight spring blankets when they couldn't find more sheets. Katniss pulled a torn undershirt from the drawer and peered around. "I don't think there are any more clothes, Prim. You'll have to wear this."
"What will you wear?"
Katniss looked up at Peeta then down to her towel. "Oh."
"You wear the shirt," he blushed. "She can wear her towel."
"All right." Katniss felt oddly shy as she pulled the shirt over her own towel. It hung to her mid-thigh. The child did not seem to care what was happening either way. She crawled onto the blankets and lay down in the middle of the mattress, forcing Peeta to crawl over her to the wall. Katniss smiled and lay back down.
Peeta rolled in close and kissed Prim's ear. "Träum schön," he whispered. "Dream well."
Katniss closed her eyes and felt the fatigue rush back like a tidal wave. She was nearly asleep when she felt Prim's forehead against her arm.
Her uniform was not quite dry when she pulled them on the next morning. She grimaced as she buttoned the damp fly and zipped the pants.
Peeta was in similar discomfort when she found him buttoning his shirt. "Maybe we should put them in the oven to dry?" she asked.
He shrugged. "We will dry. Prim, will you give me my shirt?" She stopped picking at his buttons and held it out to him obediently.
"She seems to be feeling better this morning. Has she gone to the bathroom yet?"
"No," he said, eyeing the girl fidgeting with her toes.
"I'll take her," Katniss offered. "Come on, Prim."
She set her on the seat and Prim stared at her. "Do you have to go?" Katniss asked. She shook her head. Katniss narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure?" Prim shook her head. "Let's just wait a little bit, okay?" Katniss suggested. She was practicing the German words for toiletries when Prim finally relaxed.
The little girl stood on Katniss's shoes to reach the faucet. There were no towels left so she dried her hands on her dress. Katniss cringed and thought of how her mother would sigh at the wet handprints on her Sunday clothes at home.
"Success?" Peeta asked as Prim ran to his legs.
Katniss smiled. "Success."
She could see the relief flood through him. "She will be okay," he breathed.
Peeta gave Prim a piggy back ride down the stairs and Katniss told her in broken German to drink the glass of water she set in front of her. Prim did so but watched the leftover food with certain interest.
Peeta toasted the remaining half-piece of bread and Katniss heated the last of the rice in a shallow pan over the pilot.
"It's not much," she sighed, setting the meager plates of food on the table. "I'll need to figure something out soon."
"It will do," Peeta assured her. Prim finished the water and reached for the bread. They watched her chew a bite and spit it out.
"I guess the bread's gone bad," Katniss said, sniffing it. She sighed. "What I would give for my mother's roasted chicken. Fresh green beans and carrots." Katniss sank into the chair to dream. "My father would sneak into the kitchen and pick at it whenever she pulled it out of the over to baste. Gave himself food poisoning twice when it wasn't fully cooked." She laughed. "He couldn't help himself."
"My mother, she roasts a ham at Christmas," Peeta smiled. "It takes four days to eat. There is so much of it, even three growing boys cannot finish."
She watched his smile fade.
Silence settled over them both.
Prim finished the milk and belched.
"Prim!" Peeta exclaimed. Katniss tried not to smile. "Entschuldigen Sie sich."
"Entschuldigen mich," she parroted through a small smile. "Pardon," she lilted to Katniss.
They finished the food and cleaned the dishes.
Peeta leaned against the counter at Katniss's side. Prim sought the lost button under the refrigerator. "You go on Wednesday," he finally whispered. "Tomorrow."
"Yes." She willed her voice not to shake.
"Will they take her away from me?" he whispered. "If they find out. If…if I have to go north to Berlin. Will they take her to an orphanage?"
Katniss didn't answer.
"Will you take her?"
Katniss gripped the plate. "Don't ask that. Don't think that."
"Katniss, if they find out I am German I must go to Berlin! I cannot take her with me," he begged. "It will destroy her."
"I can't take her away from you!" Katniss threw a plate into the sink. It broke neatly in half. "She needs you! I can't take care of her!"
Prim gasped. They looked at her sitting on the floor in front of the icebox. She was holding the recovered button in her fingers.
"Shhh, Prim," Peeta shushed, picking her up.
Katniss watched them. Her heart ripped apart.
Peeta looked past Prim at her. She turned around and fished the broken plate from the sink. She crossed to the door to throw it out in a bin outside.
Gale was standing with his fist raised to knock as she opened the door. Prim snarled. He eyed the little girl in a faded dress in her brother's arms. He seemed to forget what he was going to say.
Katniss stepped outside; forcing him backwards. She shut the door behind her. He said nothing. She looked down at the broken plate. "Will I get a court martial?" she whispered.
"Only if they find out," he sighed. He took the plate pieces and tossed them into the garden. "Katniss. He's a Kraut. What are you doing?"
"He's a good man," she sighed, "who loves his sister. I'm helping them."
He gave her a hard look. "You're helping yourself to jail."
"Where else do I have to go?" she cried out. "What do you think I have left after this is all over?"
The screaming on the other side of the door brought her back. "Now I've scared her," Katniss complained. "I've got to go."
"Katniss-"
"I've got to go."
He stopped her with a grip on her arm. "The MP's are coming around." He hesitated before adding, "Stay hidden." She watched him turn around a walk away, wanting to say much more but not. She pressed her fists over her eyes, then shook her head and walked back inside with a smile.
"Prim, you are going to make us deaf," she said, silencing the girl with an embrace.
"Is everything all right?" Peeta asked nervously. "Did Captain Hawthorne need something?"
"MP's are coming around," Katniss told him. "We need to think of a new last name for you two in case they find us."
"My mother's birth name is – was Sobzcak," he offered. "I will say that is our name."
Katniss nodded. "All the same, let's make ourselves scarce."
They wrapped Prim in shirts and sweaters to keep her warm and she followed them reluctantly out to the pasture beyond the tiny chapel graveyard. Once out in the meadow, she began to run forward a few steps of them only to stop and wait. She snuck another smile as she somersaulted gracelessly.
Katniss and Peeta sat low in the high grasses and watched her collect winter buds in a circle around them.
"She is looking like Prim again," he whispered.
"Except that hair," Katniss bit back a smile as Prim fell over trying to pull up a bunch of foxglove with deep roots."Why do you think they did that?"
"To hide her? To scare her? To make her forget?" he shrugged. "I saw many things I did not understand." He looked over at Katniss. "I do not care about her hair."
"Me neither," she agreed. Prim ran over with a fistful of weeds for Katniss. She gave her a clumsy kiss on the cheek and ran back out to pick more flowers. Katniss scrunched her nose at the drying splotch on her cheek.
"She does like you very much," Peeta said. "I am glad."
"I like her too," Katniss told him.
Prim tucked a bunch of clover behind Peeta's ear. He rolled his eyes at Katniss's grin. "It suits you," she teased.
They quieted as she spotted the transport team moving through the town in the distance.
"Katniss," he whispered. She looked at his terrified eyes. "I cannot lose her again."
She said nothing. The team moved out of sight. The day grew chilly. Prim sat down between them to string limp daisies together. The last few birds of the season chirped around them. Peeta rubbed her head.
A small voice broke the silence after many minutes. The necklace of daisies had been abandoned.
"Papa kommt nicht."
She looked up at Peeta. He nodded. Her lip quivered. She turned to Katniss. "Er ist weg?"
Katniss felt her throat close. "Yeah, Prim. He's gone."
Prim was gone into the beyond again. Katniss stared with her.
"Prim, are you getting hungry?" Peeta murmured.
She nodded blankly.
"Peeta, you can't go into town," Katniss said.
"But she is hungry," Peeta pleaded.
"I'll go get rations."
"They will only give you food for one," Peeta said. "You will be hungry if you give food to her."
She looked down at Prim stripping leaves off a clover one by one. "I'll take her. We'll be in and out in no time," she replied to the look of alarm on his face. She glanced down. "Would you go with me to get food? Peeta will have to stay here."
Prim looked stricken. "Peeta must stay."
"I won't go anywhere," he assured her. "I will lay down right here in the grass. And you will come back and find me."
"No," Prim panicked, gripping his arm. Katniss saw Peeta wince at her small, sharp fingernails.
"Prim, you must be brave," Peeta told her softly. "You must help Katniss get food."
She gripped him and looked fearfully to Katniss. "He goes."
"He won't go anywhere," Katniss assured her. She took Prim's hand. Prim released Peeta's arm very, very slowly.
"I will wait right here for you," he whispered to her. "Katniss will take good care of you."
"You stay!" Prim shouted suddenly. "You stay!"
"I will, Prim."
She nearly crushed Katniss's hand as she walked with her down through the graveyard to the marketplace. She kept glancing over her shoulder, straining to see where Peeta was peering out of the tall grasses anxiously. "Prim, you have to look forward," Katniss whispered. "Stürmer. I don't want them to look back."
Prim looked forward and Katniss found herself worrying Peeta would be gone as well.
The little girl's arms went around her thigh tight as a tourniquet as they reached the marketplace. Katniss spotted the truck unloading packages into waiting soldier's arms and sighed with relief. She struggled over with Prim dragging on her leg.
"I need food," she told the soldier. He turned and looked at her. Her American accent and German farm clothes confused him. "Second Lieutenant Everdeen, nurse corps," she said, hauling her dog tags from her shirt.
"Oh. Sorry," he stumbled, handing over a few packs, as well as a package of saltines and a few cans of meat and vegetables. She snagged a burlap sack from his truck and filled it with the supplies.
"I need a bit more," Katniss said, nodding her head down to the child clinging to her leg.
The soldier looked terribly confused at the little girl with a boy's haircut. "Um. The prisoner laborers should get their own rations," he mumbled.
"She's four," Katniss snorted. "You think she's going to go stand in an aid line?"
"Um."
"Just give me the damn food."
The soldier handed over the food, unwilling to fight with her. Katniss thanked him with a hint of sarcasm and dragged her encumbered leg away slowly.
"Prim, I can't walk," she told the face buried in her thigh. "Can you hold my hand?"
"Katniss?" A voice from behind stopped her.
Katniss winced and turned around. "Hi, Aurelius," she mumbled.
He was looking back and forth between Prim and Katniss. "She all right?"
"I think so," Katniss frowned. "This is pretty normal for her."
Aurelius nodded thoughtfully. He looked at the burlap sack. "Getting rations?"
"Yeah."
"For the three of you?"
Katniss didn't answer.
"I found some canned stuff. It's unlabeled. But. You should take it." He turned and marched into a commandeered duplex home behind him. She blinked in surprise. She stumbled along for two steps before she picked up Prim and carried her into the building.
Aurelius was in the narrow kitchen immediately off the front door, pulling plain silver cans down from the shelves and putting them on the kitchenette table. Katniss set Prim down to start putting them in the burlap sack. Prim started her high-pitched whine. Katniss sighed and set her on the table in front of the food and started to pack the bag behind Prim's back.
"Where is he?"
"Hidden," Katniss said simply.
Aurelius didn't ask any further questions. "Need clothes?"
"If you have anything to spare. I could use some undershirts. Or nightgowns," she scoffed at herself.
"I have an undershirt," he said. He turned around and stopped.
Katniss swallowed hard.
"What is she doing?"
Katniss tried to sound calm. "She's eating my shirt." Prim was chewing her remaining button, her nose pressed into Katniss's shirt. "It's just a nervous tic," Katniss said uncomfortably. "She knows not to swallow the buttons." She paused. "She's not crazy, Aurelius."
Aurelius looked up at her. Prim pressed harder into her chest and pinched her skin under her shirt. Katniss felt like Aurelius was looking through her. "Hmm," he said.
She flushed. "I…don't," she stammered. "She wets if I make her stop. She's not crazy!"
Aurelius shifted his weight to his other foot. "Katniss?"
Aurelius stared hard at her. "Katniss, you're not a psychiatrist. You're not a doctor, and you're not her mother. She needs real help - or at least will when she gets home. You can't get attached to this kid and you can't let her get that attached to you."
"I didn't think it would hurt her," Katniss stumbled. She was horrified to feel tears escalating in her throat. "She was…Peet...I just wanted her to feel safe. I…I could help her. I couldn't help my father. I couldn't help Messalla," Katniss stammered in a thin, high voice. "I could help her." She looked at Aurelius imploringly. "Please don't tell Peeta." Prim looked up at his name. She was frightened at Katniss's tears.
Aurelius took off his glasses and massaged his eyes. "You're not hurting her, Katniss," he sighed. "For God's sake, after all that's happened. But Katniss, you're going to leave her behind."
"I can't leave her alone," Katniss said firmly, wiping her eyes. "If Peeta goes to Berlin with the other POWs she'll be alone."
"Odair won't let a kid go alone, Katniss."
"He said they were prisoners."
"He said that to keep you from settling down with a Kraut and a kid."
Katniss stared. She sniffled. "What?"
Aurelius nearly laughed. "Katniss, what the hell do you think it looks like? You're bunking with a Nazi."
"He's not a Nazi!"
"And you're barely a nurse anymore."
It stung. Prim was nearly biting her. Katniss winced in pain. Her wet shirt was clinging to her skin.
"You haven't treated a patient in a week," Aurelius said sternly. "A soldier patient, anyway. You've been hanging all over that kid since we found his house." He took a deep breath. "Are you screwing him?"
"No," she lied through gritted teeth.
"There's at least that," he sighed. "Don't think anyone will believe it, but at least you're not knocked up. That was most of the talk."
She closed her eyes. "So much for a damn brotherhood."
"Yeah, well," Aurelius shrugged. "What are you going to do?" he finally asked.
"I don't know."
"Well. You have a day."
Aurelius nodded towards a few unlabeled cans he'd left on the counter. Picking up his medical bag from its perch by the door, he left.
The second button popped off Katniss's shirt and Prim spit it into her hand. Katniss sighed and threw the wet button into the kitchen sink. She looked down at the curious green eyes.
"What am I going to do?"
"Peeta?"
Katniss nodded. "We'll go to Peeta now."
Prim walked more steadily knowing they were leaving town. She pulled on Katniss's hand only to retreat if someone else passed too close by. As they reached the chapel she was trying to run without releasing Katniss.
"Prim, you're going to pull my fingers off," Katniss smiled.
"Peeta?"
They looked out to the field. Katniss couldn't see anything.
"We're not quite there yet," she gritted her teeth.
"Where is Peeta?" Prim pulled harder.
Katniss juggled the heavy bag on her opposite shoulder. She wondered if she could run without drawing attention to them.
"Peeta!"
"Prim, shhh. He's a secret!" Katniss hissed.
But Prim was as panicked as she was. Katniss glanced over her shoulder. She didn't see anyone watching them. Not that she knew off.
"Prim?"
Katniss started and jumped as Peeta popped up from the tall grasses three feet from her shoe.
Prim let Katniss's hand fall as she raced over to her brother.
"We didn't see you," Katniss scolded. "You scared us."
"I'm sorry," he apologized. "The soldiers were walking through town, I thought I ought to lie down."
"It's fine," she stammered. "I just...we were worried."
"She has bitten your shirt?"
Katniss looked down. The damp spot over her sternum was still visible.
"Yeah," she tried to smile, lowering the bag onto the grass with a clink. "We found lots of food, though. We'll be okay for the time being."
"This is more than enough until you go tomorrow."
Katniss felt cold in the sunlight. She watched Prim sit in the grass with her body leaning against her brother.
"Peeta, I can't just go," she whispered. "I can't let them separate you and Prim. You know she won't be okay with just me. She needs you. She needs to see you and be with you."
"You cannot stay, Katniss," he said slowly and severely. "You will get into great trouble. I...you have given us so much."
She shook her head. "Is it enough?" she asked the grass.
"Yes," he said firmly.
Prim picked a long stem of grass and chewed it. She made a face and spit it out.
"Let's go back to the house. We need to open and eat some of this food."
The cans yielded potatoes, leeks, olives, corn and beef soup. Peeta eyed it hungrily before pouring it into a pan. "Let's add some water so it stretches," he said.
Katniss smiled. "You take it."
"No, that would not be right. We all share."
She shook her head. "You did have siblings, didn't you?" she chuckled.
"You did not?" he raised his eyebrows.
"Nope," she said, watching Prim pulling on his shoelaces.
"Were you not lonely?"
"I had my dad. And my mom," she said. "They were always around." She looked down as Peeta pulled Prim away from his shoes. The girl smiled and tackled the shoes again. "But a little. Yes."
The soup began to boil.
They put Prim into a chair, pushing their chairs up along side hers so she couldn't wriggle away from her plate. She struggled against the potatoes, but after enough scolding she was reluctantly eating proper food. They nearly got a full plate into her before she was crawling on the floor under their chairs, mewing.
"What is she doing?"
"She is playing cat," Peeta smiled. "We had a cat before it ran away one summer. Prim decided she would be our cat and so she crawls under foot."
Katniss watched her green eyes pop out from the shadow. She meowed. Peeta laughed.
Katniss smiled, but felt lonely.
They watched her sleep on the bed. Her fingers were curled around Katniss'. They twitched as she dreamed. Katniss let her drooping eyes drift up to meet Peeta's.
"What will I do?" he whispered.
"We'll pass you off as prisoner laborers that were liberated," Katniss murmured. She looked away. He might see how frightened she was.
"And if they know?"
"How could they know?" she said too harshly.
"Your friend Odair. He does not like that you lie for me."
She brushed Prim's fingers with her thumb. They were sticky from being chewed on.
"Katniss. If they take me-"
"Stop it!" she hissed.
"Katniss, please," he held her arm. She forced her eyes to meet him. He was more frightened than she'd seen him before. Her arm ached where he hung on. "Please."
"I'll look after her," she whispered.
His whole body relaxed and he released her arm. "Thank you."
He left the bedroom, carefully climbing over his sister. She heard the water running in the bathroom. She wondered if he didn't want her to hear him cry with relief.
Prim woke with a cry. "Mama!" Her eyes found Katniss. She wept. She held out her arms.
Katniss collected her into an embrace. "I'm sorry, Prim. I'm not. I'm so sorry." She rocked the crying child back and forth. "Shh. She's looking after your brothers in Heaven. With your Papa. My dad is helping her." Katniss swallowed hard against the lump in her throat.
"Hey," she said, pulling back to hold Prim's face in her hands. Prim looked up at her and blinked away her own tears. "If I...if I look after you. For your brother. Don't hold it against me if I screw up, okay?"