Intricate Strokes, Delicate Precision


Option A


By: KaKaVegeGurl


Author's Note:

Option P will most likely be going up tomorrow, watch my twitter if you want to know when exactly.

Omg this chapter's long.

I got so deep into it, writing everything out and not paying attention to the length (that's what she said). Next thing I knew, it was a page longer than normal. That's a good thing though, huh? Considering we're reaching the end.

Be delighted in the amount of detail and understanding I'm going to strive to keep collected at the end of Mockingjay, unlike someone else.

Ironically, I think the first chapter of TBBA was lacking in details compared to SuCo's version.

Alright, alright, fer Option C, I think we've finally come to a conclusion of votes. Everyone has been taken into consideration. And Option 2 won out by one vote. Not at ALL supported by the amount of common sense that Option 2 voters supplied, and the lack of reason that Option 1 voters contained.

Nearly every person that voted fer 2 put thought into it. And the 1 voters didn't even give me much beyond 'he SHOULD be'.

To help you all accept Option 2, think of it this way: there's OBVIOUSLY three other options where he stays with Katniss. AND, Option 1 will exist on my website. Though it might be surprising to some of you how it plays out. But it will be plot heavy.

There's some... Interesting news regarding the options, soon. So expect that. It will be in a special, SEPARATE author's note from the chapters. Should be coming up after Chapters 14.

Nothing to report irl really. Been playing Skyrim and SWTOR, waiting fer Mass Effect 3, and clearing through Warehouse 13. That's about all. ^^

I hope everyone is doing great and you all are safe! Please continue on and enjoy what I have presented before you! May the odds be ever in yer favor.

~KaKaVegeGurl (A)


Side Notes:

I don't know you, but I want you,

All the more for that.

Words fall through me and always fool me,

And I can't react.

And games that never amount to more than they're meant,

Will play themselves out.

Take this sinking boat and point it home,

We've still got time.

Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice,

You've made it now.

Falling slowly, eyes that know me,

And I can't go back.

Moods that take me, and erase me,

And I'm painted black.

You have suffered enough, and warred with yourself,

It's time that you've won.


Chapter 12 - Peacekeepers


It feels surreal, watching Katniss clean the blood from my wrists, wringing out the towel in a warm bowl of water as she sits in front of me, her eyes staring intensely down at the wounds. She carefully spreads an antiseptic over the cuts and then begins to wrap them up in gauze.

"You've got to keep them clean," She says softly, her fingers touching my palms before she leans down and kisses them, "Otherwise the infection could spread and–"

"I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss," I whisper, watching the memory of her staring down at the cut in my leg, "Even if my mother isn't a healer."

Her eyes meet mine, wide; but pleased.

"You said that same thing to me in the first Hunger Games. Real or not real?"

"Real," I answer at once and she smiles, "And you risked your life getting the medicine that saved me?"

She nods, "Real," and then adds: "You were the reason I was alive to do it."

I'm unsure of this comment though. I can only remember her pulling me from the bank and nourishing me back to health, and then poisoning me with sleep syrup so that she could get the medicine. But how does any of that entail me saving her?

She poisoned me, that's all.

"Was I?"

I can't stop the anger and distrust from rising up and I find myself unconsciously pulling at the cuffs that hold me, trying to break free.

I don't want to break free, though. It's not safe to.

Pain stings sharply in the cuts as the metal digs in and it helps me to collect myself again, "I'm so tired, Katniss." I breathe between my teeth as I struggle to keep control.

"Go to sleep," She says. But I haven't meant that kind of 'tired' at all. I'm exhausted physically too, yes, but the mental strain is much more threatening, I think. To try and keep the facts straight to myself.

"Not yet," I answer back, "I don't want to be free to do anything, Katniss. I'm dangerous."

She seems hesitant at first, eyes looking me over questioningly before she finally nods, getting up and pulling out her key to free one of my wrists, wrapping the metal around one of the stair supports and clicking it back into place with me.

"Thank you," I say as she lowers herself back down to look at me, leaning in and pressing her lips against mine in a soft, reassuring kiss.

My stomach twists in excitement and then she pulls away before it can become anything more than just a simple, friendly kiss between two people in a time of war. Two people in need of simple physical connection.

She takes a seat just feet from me, crossing her arms over her chest and watching the others in the room in silent observation.

I close my eyes at once and allow sleep to settle in.


Over the next two days we struggle with the news of Peacekeepers invading the areas directly outside the store we hide out in and chaos in the streets as Katniss and what's left of our group try to decide on the next course of action.

It doesn't come to a head until her and Gale approach me with a suggestion.

"We're leaving in the morning," Katniss announces to me, eyes staring deeply into mine, "Gale, me, Cressida and Pollux will be going after Snow. But we can't have you coming with us."

She's right, there's no argument about that, so I nod. But it doesn't stop the sadness of the fact.

"You're right," I agree openly, "I'd just be a danger to the group. Especially you, Katniss." And then I continue with the best suggestion I've got, the one I've been thinking over since the beginning of this trip, "I'll head out on my own then. It's best that we part ways here."

Katniss's eyes water immediately and she looks devastated despite being the one to bring it up first.

"And what would you do?" Cressida asks, watching me as well now.

"I'm not sure exactly. The one thing I might still be useful at is causing a diversion. You saw what happened to that man who looked like me."

"I don't want that for you."

"Katniss–"

"What if you lose control?" She asks, raising her voice.

I shrug, thinking it over for only a moment and speaking aloud as I do, "If I feel it coming on, maybe I can make it back here."

"And if Snow gets you again?" Gale questions me, "You don't even have a gun."

"I'll just have to take my chances. It's not the first time I've been some place dangerous, on my own."

Gale nods slowly and then reaches into his chest pocket, pulling out his own nightlock berries and handing them over to me.

"What about you?"

He smiles and motions to Katniss, "Don't worry about me. Beetee showed me how to detonate my explosive arrows by hand. If that fails, I've got my knife. And I'll have Katniss."

Of course he will.

"She won't give them the satisfaction of taking me alive."

Let's both hope not.

"Take it, Peeta," Katniss says, her voice small and soft as she looks at my open palm, "No one will be there to help you."

Not even you.


During the night, Katniss's nightmares jar me a few times as I drift and my own nearly wake up the entire room.

We all are finally able to avoid trying to get some sleep when five rolls around. Of which, in record time, we're dressed, camouflaged like people of the Capitol, and getting ready to head out into the streets to join the crowd moving steadily through them.

Katniss takes out her key again before she leaves with Gale and removes the shackles from my wrists at last.

"Listen," She says as I rub them over the gauze, "Don't do anything foolish."

As if she could stop me.

"No. It's last resort stuff completely," I kid, watching her eyes glass over and she's moving close before I have time to stop her, wrapping her slim arms around my neck and pulling me into a warm, welcome hug.

I'm surprised, taken aback for a moment, but I finally melt into the embrace, grabbing her around the waist and squeezing her close to me.

And just like that, she releases and rushes out of the door, joining the crowd with Gale by her side.

Not looking back, not once.

I wait a short moment before turning to Tigris and thanking her before setting out myself, alone.

The chill of snowflakes and ice bite over what little of my face is exposed as I follow the crowd, eyes steadied on the cloak Katniss is wearing.

I'm jostled and shoved a bit, but not enough to bother me. Yet.

There's a single Peacekeeper making his way through the crowd in a direct beeline to Katniss and Gale, and there's nothing I can do to stop him but what I decide in that very moment.

"Hey!" I aim my shout at him and he turns to see me throw off the head cover, shove the woman next to me out of the way for her own safety, and begin to weave from the street towards the shops lined along a larger road.

Fortunately he follows at once, probably because he's more sure I am who I am than Katniss and Gale are who they are.

I turn back to see him draw his pistol, even though he's in the middle of a crowd of people and there are more heads in the way of me than a few bullets are bound to get through. It's impossible for him to hit me from this range without taking out innocent bystanders.

"Peeta Mellark!" He shouts and I see another Peacekeeper nearby turn his head to look at me before joining his companion.

If I stay too far ahead, now that we're both moving into a more empty alleyway, the first one can easily shoot me from where he is at this point. I turn immediately, shoes digging into the snow as I run back before he can even try and aim at me.

His eyes widen as I reach him and ram my fist into his stomach. On reflex, most likely, he pulls the trigger of his gun and I feel the bullet hit home in my side.

I grab his pistol, mostly out of anger and adrenaline, and slam the butt of it into his temple when the second one reaches me.

He makes to grab around my waist but I duck and, in his momentum, he throws himself over me completely and lands hard into a slosh of snow and gravel ahead.

The first Peacekeeper grabs at the brick wall behind him, stumbling and dizzy, but he's too slow when I turn back and continue through the alleyway. I stop just in time to grab the second one's gun as well and run past him as he's finally getting up to pursue me.

He's joined by three others that are closer and try to make grabs at the robes still covering the rest of my body.

In response, I throw them off as well, now only dressed in my team suit and armor. I turn back to see two of the men get caught in the robes, struggling to stop themselves, and end up falling head over each other.

The closest, one of the three that joined the chase, pulls out his gun and I stop, boots sliding on the snow for a foot or two before I drop down and throw out my leg to catch him up.

His legs stay back as the rest of his body throws him forward and his face buries itself into a dirty, ice cold pile of mush.

I painfully stand up, hand over the bullet wound in my side, and I look down at it to see the blood leaking out between my fingers, dripping down onto my boots and turning the snow on that side of me an odd shade of pink as it stretches out like little veins through the wet substance.

The second Peacekeeper from before finally reaches us and, without a weapon, throws himself on top of me and tries to grab one of the guns from my frozen fingers.

I roll up from my back and shove him, taking his right arm in my hands and twisting it behind his back with a sharp snap. He howls in pain and I slam his head down in the snow covered ground, against the hard stone below. He stops screaming at once.

Now though, the other two Peacekeepers, void of my robes at last, come panting up.

The first one, a thin man with brown hair, struggles to stop me by shouting: "Don't move there, Peeta Mellark! Don't move."

The second collapses, a large man with a red face and soaking wet black hair clinging to his neck, breathing too hard to control his self.

"Where's your guns?" I ask the two.

At this, one of them reaches to his side and grabs his.

"Don't shoot him, Crooner," The brown haired man says, shoving his panting partner so that the other man falls down on his side, already barely able to hold himself up.

This act surprises me. Don't shoot me?

The second one, Crooner, gives him the same look I am, staring up at his partner with a scrunched up face and red cheeks, "Why not?"

He's about to respond when the Peacekeeper I'd tripped up, Peacekeeper five, rolls over and whips out his own pistol.

A bullet rings past me and almost shoots the Peacekeeper on the ground, struggling for breath still. He starts up at once in surprise, standing on his feet and looking at me, but his eyes fall on the other man just by my feet.

"You're gonna shoot your friend here?" I ask, grabbing the gun and shoving him back down on his side.

"Peeta Mellark," Crooner says stubbornly, holding onto his belt and staring proudly at me.

"Shove it," the first one growls, turning to leave his partner.

"Dennis–"

"I said 'shove it'."

A large group of Peacekeepers run by the alley entrance just at that moment, one of them stopping and looking in the alleyway to see me with four other Peacekeepers around, two not moving on the ground and the other half of them turned away.

"Peeta Mellark!" The little guy shouts, grabbing the attention of his group and they all turn to run in after us.

"Shit!" Dennis says, turning to me, "You better run, bread boy."

I don't wait as the Peacekeepers advance forward in a dead sprint. I bolt into a house nearby, shoving the door open and stumbling over the large furred carpet, blood dripping onto the cream colored rug as I trip and plant myself in the ground.

"Ay," The Peacekeeper behind me, Dennis shouts, helping me up, "Get off your face, man."

The door shuts, locks, and I can hear Crooner panting at it, "They're coming, that's not gonna stop them."

"Get your fat ass over here and help me." The first one says and the two of them struggle to help me leave the hallway but Crooner gasps the second he realizes that I'm wounded.

"Shit, Den, he's bleeding everywhere."

The door is thrown open, wood splintering, and the hallway fills with Peacekeepers, most of them fighting over each other to get to me.

A loud banging starts at the front door and we all stop to look at it.

"What's that?" Dennis asks and then the knob of it explodes, the bullet ringing through the room and taking out the Peacekeeper that's hand is clamped tightly on my shoulder.

He collapses and the door swings open.

Peacekeepers move towards it as I watch Gale Hawthorne throw himself up into the room and get grabbed up by them.

Some of the men draw pistols and I slam my fist into the closest one's rib cage, pulling out one of the three I've collected for myself.

More gun shots ring through, a bullet buries itself into the wall by my ear and I hear Gale shout in pain.

One of the Peacekeepers yells over the group: "Stop, stop, stop shooting, Ergin. You idiot!" And then points his own gun to my head, "Everyone stop moving!"

The room stills at once and Crooner puts his hands up innocently, his eyes trained on the one shouting orders.

Gale clutches his chest and stares up at me in surprise as the Peacekeeper looks around the room.

"Come on, Mencin," Dennis says, holding his own pistol up to the Peacekeepers at the door. They turn back slowly as one of them drags Gale further into the room.

The hunter groans in pain, blood pouring from the bullet wound in his shoulder and a second one on his right leg.

"Let him go," Mencin, with his cropped short silver hair and stern expression, a man use to making the calls, demands and shoves away the Peacekeeper that's got me pinned at the wall, "Tennel, please. Don't make me make you, recruit."

The man looks at me and lets go finally.

I push off of the wall and look around at the men in the room, now appearing as more than just Peacekeepers when you become aware that they've got names and you even know a few of them, "You're not going to kill us?"

Mencin smiles and crosses his arms over his chest.

Most of them shake their heads and Dennis motions to me, "You're going back out there, eh, Peeta?"

"I have to," I say, rolling my shoulders and trying to avoid feeling intimidated by the group at large, "What about him?"

"We'll get him somewhere safe," Mencin says and motions to the thin man that had alerted the Peacekeepers in the alley, "Brethal can treat Mister Hawthorne's wounds. You just be careful, young man."

I nod and pocket my pistol, "Why are you helping me?"

Crooner smiles wide and answers before anyone else can, even though I see other's mouths open, "Even the Capitol has people that are on you're side, Peeta. We're not all mindless soldiers."

Peacekeepers. Good Peacekeepers. Things can't get weirder than that.

I make for the door, giving them one look back before I drop out into the alley once more.

I follow out through it as quietly and unnoticeable as possible, joining the patterns of footsteps from panicked Capitol civilians that stare at me in shock with gaping mouths and pointing fingers until I reach the City Circle.

Katniss is easy enough to spot from here with her outrageous outfit still on, as she holds onto the rope of a flagpole to get away from the crowd and watches out at something ahead. I can't see what she's looking at so intensely, but I stare as her expression changes from fear, to realization, and then to horror as she drops from the rope and begins to run.

It's there, then. In my head. The image of her running through the crowd, yelling for her little sister.

"Prim!"

"Prim!"

"I volunteer!"

I couldn't stop her before, standing uselessly with shaking hands and numbing mind, in the crowd of young men like myself as I stared on in fear, watching the girl I'd loved so adamantly sacrifice herself on the stand ahead. But I'll be killed twice and buried rock over dirt if I don't try to save her life now.

I shove the people ahead of me, moving on impulse and muscle memory to bolt after Katniss, swimming through the crowd, fingers first, making my way through them as quickly as she does. But I'm faster than her.

She yells out in horror as an explosion rocks the area before her, bright light and violent flames lash out through the crowd, throwing everything nearby back.

Katniss whips away from the fire involuntarily from the force of it as I throw my body over hers to shield the damage. I feel the tendrils of fire lick over my exposed face, across my back, arms, and wrists as I hide Katniss under me.


Ending Notes:

Don't ferget to review!

~KaKaVegeGurl