That's when his lips touch hers.
And she allows it. She melts. She melts right into them.
Chapter 13- Red
It's good having Gale by her side again.
It's nice to have someone accompany her through the streets.
It's good to have someone there to carry her home when she gets too tired to make it back on her feet.
It's moving to have someone remind you that you're alive, and that you matter.
They're sitting in the meadow when he tells her he's found someone in District 2. He's thinking about asking her to marry him he says, his eyes lighting up.
"She's amazing Catnip," he says, radiating with joy.
"Real?" she asks, because it's the only way she can tell what's true from what's not.
"Real." He answers and she smiles.
Real.
She's surprised, because this warm feeling that spreads through her body is so foreign.
Happiness.
She's happy.
The happiness doesn't last for long because its only two days later that she wakes up to low murmuring sounds emitting from downstairs.
She drags herself out of her bed and she knows.
She just knows.
Carefully she takes the last step and becomes fully visible to the three men that occupy the large mahogany table in her dining room.
Gale, Haymitch, and Peeta.
She instantly feels self-conscious in her nightshirt, her legs fully exposed, her hair a mess from a night of restless sleep.
"Sweetheart, why don't you sit down?" Haymitch gestures to the empty seat directly in front of him but she ignores him, her eyes fixed on the only set of blue irises in the room.
"What's going on?" she demands, ignoring the timid glances she's receiving from the intruders.
Nothing good can come out of this and she knows it.
She notices a perfectly golden loaf of bread sitting in the middle of the dining room table. The smell is intoxicating, but she can't stomach how nonchalantly he sits in her house.
In what used to be their house.
"Catnip, we've been discussing your health, and we're all very concerned..." Gale begins but all Katniss sees is Elena coming out of her kitchen with a slicing knife for the bread.
Red, red… red.
That's all she sees.
Elena opens her mouth to greet Katniss but in an instance Katniss is by her side, her hand clasping around the slicing knife so hard blood seeps through her palms, dripping to the ground.
"Get the fuck out of my house!" Is all she gets to spit out before she is forcibly removed from the dining room by Haymitch and Gale, her hands dripping crimson red.
She hears Elena sob and catches a glimpse of Peeta comforting her and she can't stomach it anymore. She shoves, and kicks, and screams profanities at him.
Her body floats in the air and is eventually smashed on her bed by Gale as Haymitch tells her to calm the bloody hell down. She thrashes as the two men desperately try to restore her calm.
She watches as her bedroom door swings open and Peeta storm in his eyes enraged. She continues to thrash because her target is so close by.
"I hate you! I fucking hate you!" she screams at him tears streaming down her face.
She feels a prick in her arm.
Her vision begins to blur.
Blue.
The color of Peeta's eyes.
That's the last thing she sees before everything goes black.
She wakes up in an uncomfortable yet familiar metal bed. The buzzing of the engine hints at her whereabouts within the hovercraft.
"You're up," he says, briefly catching her puffy eyes in his tired ones.
He doesn't say anything for a while, simply takes her bloody hand, and cleans the wound using a damp cloth, before wrapping it gently in gauze.
"It's not going to leave a scar or anything," Peeta says his hand lingering on hers.
He looks uncomfortable, perhaps regretting his choice in words. Physical scars were the last thing that Katniss cared about and he knew that very well. It was the emotional, more mental ones that were tearing her apart.
"It'll be good for you, you'll be in good hands in the Capitol. Dr. Aurelius and his team are amazing, you know that." Peeta finally takes his hand away from hers and instantly it feels empty, hollow… cold.
"Then when you're all better, you can go visit your mother and Annie and her baby, Johanna and Gale and—" Peeta smiles down at her, and that's when she realizes that she never had a say.
The decision for her to leave his side was already made.
"When you get better, and you're yourself again… come back to 12."
She sees it, the glint of hope in his eyes. Like he still believes in her, and that he still cares.
And that's all the reassurance she needs.
Peeta makes his way over to the door and she can't help but call out to him. She can't imagine her life without him. Even if it's some sort of a masochistic obsession with being tortured by his clear devotion to his wife. She so desperately needs to be connected to him. To have his attention. To occupy his thoughts.
"Can I… write to you?" she asks her voice hopeful, but she knows that she will do anything—anything to be connected with him.
So when he turns and gives her a small nod, her body relaxes and she instantly falls asleep.
Thoughts?