Intricate Strokes, Delicate Precision
Option C
By: KaKaVegeGurl
Author's Note:
Managed to get this one out in a somewhat reasonable time, yeah?
There will be a big note in D12, hehe, Mighty Ducks? Uh, anyways. There will be an IMPORTANT note in D12, Mighty Ducks. Seriously tho, there will.
So wait fer that, and please, please read it. It will be a uh... Turning point, fer some certain options. Will have lots of news about what's coming up soon. Some of you readers prolly see this coming, some might not.
As you know, from TBBA (13 Chapters and an Epilogue) and PWPP (14 Chapters and an Epilogue) seems like some of these Options aren't close to ending at ALL. I wonder why.
So wait fer that note, and READ it. Is important.
As fer me news, haven't finished ME3 at all yet, I only just got Garrus and Jack, taking a bit of a break from it. My SWTOR Bounty Hunter is like lvl 26? I just finished the 4th season of Six Feet Under, and TristAn an I are almost done with season 2 of Warehouse 13 (he's slow). We're nearing the middle of the Glee 7-week-long hiatus, we're also on like episode 7 or 8 of The Walking Dead season 2. Yeah, I think that's everything.
Also, fun side note, I was into this option so much, writing this chapter, that I got some of C13 done. ^^
Uh, I think that's it! Thank you all fer sticking around, being avid, and talking to me even when I'm not posting up a chapter. It's nice to have such love!
May the odds be ever in yer favor!
Oh, and beware of B13, beeeewaaaaaare.
~KaKaVegeGurl (A)
Review Response:
Time to give the anonymous some love...
Blank (Chapter 49): "I think most readers love B. XP You will kinda find out what happened to 4-5-1 in B13."
Side Notes:
I seem to recognize your face.
Haunting, familiar, yet I can't seem to place it.
Cannot find the candle of thought,
To light your name.
Lifetimes are catching up with me.
All these changes taking place.
I wish I'd seen the place,
But no one's ever taken me.
Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away.
I swear, I recognize your breath.
Memories, like fingerprints, are slowly raising.
Of course you can't see me, for I'm not my former.
It's hard when you're stuck upon the shelf.
I changed by not changing at all,
Small town predicts my fate.
Perhaps that's what no one wants to see.
I just want to scream, "Hello!"
My god its been so long, never dreamed you'd return.
But now here you are,
And here I am.
Chapter 12 - After the Snow
"You want me to do it?"
Haymitch nods, his hands on the table in front of himself, staring at me, "It wouldn't be right making Katniss do it. She's... She's not even capable of something like... It just wouldn't be right. Trust me, Peeta."
I hate to ask it, I don't even really want to... But I do.
"How is she, Haymitch?"
He bows his head, hair greased and fingers nearly clawing at each other. It's not often, seeing him like this, I can easily read into the amount of insecurity he has here. I can see the man that cried for Maysilee on the surface now.
"I should've been there," he said, tears spilling out on his cheeks, sobered slightly from the shower, "I should've saved you."
I'd seen more than I should've that night. More of an older man than any boy my age should ever be subjected to. To see Haymitch cry himself to sleep in misery. To understand why he always drunk himself under the table.
It was the start of weaving in respect for the man. But I'd rather have never had to see him suffer like that.
Only Katniss and I can imagine what he'd been subjected to when he won the Games.
And it's painful to know that we aren't the only ones that have been deeply wounded by this war. Haymitch isn't drunk enough right now to hide it from me like he'd prefer, "She's in surgery, but it doesn't look good. She got burned from an explosion in the City Circle, and some muttations... Got a hold of her face."
The image that makes it's way over my vision isn't one I'd like to be directly reflected the next time I see Katniss Everdeen.
I fight back showing him my own affections and nod instead as he shakes his head.
"You should've been there with her, Peeta," He says weakly, through his pain, "I know you had your own reasons, but Gale's not cut out to protect that girl."
"I–"
"You should go and see her."
"I know," I agree, pulling my eyes from the broken man before me, "I will, Haymitch. I planned to. I need to see her, you're right."
Haymitch chuckles, "It wouldn't be right to put a weapon in that woman's hands, trust me. She might kill herself. She might just aim at me. She can't trust me anymore. She hardly even knows who she is, herself."
"It can't be that bad–"
"It is," He says loudly, slicking his hair back with a shaky hand, "It's worse, even."
Worse.
"She doesn't remember a thing about anything, all she ever seems to remember is that Gale Hawthorne, and he doesn't deserve her," Haymitch shrugs, "She knows some things about me, but I think a lot of who Katniss was... Is gone. Probably for good."
Katniss, who she was, gone for good.
The same girl that made it through the games with me, the girl that was the only one I could share sympathy of the Capitol people with, the girl that I held nearly every night so that she'd have comfort when she woke up screaming from her nightmares.
"Why am I expected to kill every leader?" I ask suddenly, standing up and staring down at him, "First Coin, now Snow. Haven't I done enough for you people?"
There's enough blood on my hands already.
"It's symbolic, you know that better than anyone, Peeta." Haymitch says, looking away from me, "I wouldn't ask you if I thought you weren't capable of it."
I nod, "Of course you wouldn't."
He looks up at me finally, eyes relaxing, body calming and laying his hands back down on the table, "So you'll do it?"
"Yeah," I reach out and take his shakiest hand, squeezing it tight and staring into his eyes, "I wouldn't think twice. Of course I'll do it, Haymitch. If Katniss isn't going to be the one killing him, it's only right that I do."
He smiles sadly and bows his head, just as I lean in and kiss it.
He's like a father at this point, an uncle or something. Someone dear to me. Someone that means more than most.
"Take care, Haymitch," I say, walking to the door, "I'll see you in the Capitol, I guess."
She looks good for a girl just out of surgery.
I stare at Katniss from the door of the hospital room for a moment, for a second time, remembering how Gale had been sitting there, just in front of her before. And then I move slowly into the room, taking the seat beside her, holding her hand again.
I kiss the soft, unmarred skin as I fight the tears from welling up.
There's a large, violent scar going up from her right jaw and ear, curving into her forehead. There are burn marks coming in from the back of her neck and I can see them on her fingers as well, traveling up the inside of her arms like little veins.
I see, first, the ring on her other hand's finger, rested on her waist and I can't stop myself from reaching out to touch it.
Her chest slowly rises and falls, eyes shut tight as she sleeps.
"I thought you'd be here."
I turn to the door, hand lightly clenching Katniss's out of reflex as I follow the shadow up and have to force the glare from appearing on my face as Gale Hawthorne walks in to join me by the bed.
"Figures you'd get the honor of doing in the old man," He says angrily, eyes homing in on the quiver and bow that I've shouldered.
"You have a problem with that?" I ask, raising a brow.
He glares at once, anger radiating off of him as he balls his fists, "It's Katniss's kill. You owe that much to her."
"I owe?" I stand up, taller than him, and look down into his eyes, "I don't think there's anything owed between Katniss and I, save an explanation."
"Of what?" He asks, taking a step back to get me out of his face.
"There's only one thing that doesn't make sense to me. Why's she with you?" I move closer to him, keeping my palms open, keeping the glare from my face still, "She's been confused from the start, I know that, but do you really think you can just keep lying to her like this? You think she won't remember me sooner or later and then put everything that you've been doing to her together?"
"You lied to her first," He tries to justify.
"I think it's safe to say that that argument is invalid at this point. After what her and I–"
"She doesn't remember what you did," Gale says suddenly, moving his self between the bed and me.
I have to hide the gasp, eyes widening at his words, "What–"
"About how you forced yourself on her, she doesn't remember that. But I do," He does his best to look down on me, even though the height difference wouldn't normally allow it.
"I don't... I didn't force myself on her."
He smirks, crossing his arms, "Keep thinking that. But I know better. You can't fool me, Peeta."
"I don't need to," I say, trying to hide the effect of astonishment from my face, "What you're saying isn't true, so I don't need to do anything to justify myself."
Gale raises a brow and grabs my arm, "Why can't you just accept that you've lost? It doesn't matter if you think you got to her 'first', she married me. And the less you're around, the more of you she's going to keep forgetting."
"Peeta," Katniss breathes suddenly in her sleep.
Gale, despite talking himself up just a moment before, instantly gives me this wounded animal look; like Katniss has literally just kicked him between the legs.
I give him a look of my own, preferably one that's somewhat cocky, optimistic, and something akin to proof-in-the-pudding, "Is that so?"
He turns his head from me, face flaring up in embarrassment and fists tightening.
I take the opportunity to hold onto the upper hand, showing him my back and leaving the room without another word in my honor.
I hold the bow tight in my grip, staring the snake down as they set him out for me.
In the corner of my vision, I can see Finnick and Annie standing together, their fingers intertwined as they both stare at him.
Gale stands by Katniss, his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at me.
Katniss herself, however, has her own eyes on me as well, but with a look of confusion, wonder, and maybe jealousy. She'd rather be where I'm standing, here to deliver the final blow.
Above us, I can see Boggs, staring proudly down, smiling in only his eyes. Haymitch, sober and smirking more obviously. Effie and Katniss's prep team are huddled together against the top railing over-looking the giant crowd in the City Circle below.
There are guards and Peacekeepers, leaders of the rebellion, and interspersed are common soldiers, citizens of the Capitol, and victims from the districts alike.
The camera crews are trained on both me and Snow as I raise the bow and arrow supplied in my arms.
He's a corpse already. He's bound to die soon. This is just for... Relief. Justice.
It doesn't really matter what happens to him right now, he'll still die in the end. But it's important to the people, what kills him now. What I do today will be represented and recognized throughout history for years and years to follow.
I was holding the back of the arrow so close to my cheek that it caressed the soft, invisible hairs over my skin. It could've been ticklish if the feather of it wasn't so completely stiff. I felt my tongue wanting to glue itself to the floor of my mouth, the soft serenity of the forest around calming me.
I watched the sparse snow fall, slowly and patiently through the leaves. And a piece of it had to have landed on my cheek as I felt the wet of it become a bead of water when it reached the heat of my skin. It dripped down quickly, sliding over my throat, and dying in the collar of my shirt.
The silence around was sharp and I enjoyed the feel of the taught string pulled under my hand. I thumbed the bladed tip of the arrow before my fingers as I waited patiently.
Katniss was as still as a statue by my side, she sat unnoticed by everything around, but I enjoyed knowing that she was there. I could hardly hear her breathing, but she took a deep one to let me know, it was the only way she could communicate at this point. Because, if she made even the smallest move, she'd startle our pray. My pray.
I let the breath out silently, felt my arms numb with it, my chest tighten up despite that it should've loosened instead. And then I released the arrow with it.
This bow is tighter than Katniss's father's bow that I'd hunted around with, learned with, in the forests behind her home. And I can feel the strong, new, young string pull tight down the length of my arm.
I haven't been able to take my time and aim, slowly pacing my breaths, in a while; not without my heart racing, adrenaline pumping as I strive to keep myself alive. It's been years, it feels like, since I've trained my eyes on the prey long enough to recognize the details surrounding. Painting out an image before me.
The diluted trail of blood and spit running down his chin as he hacks and coughs his life out. The soft flecks of snow landing on my bangs and hands, wetting them, as the camera crews tighten in anticipation.
Cressida herself, talking feverishly into her microphone, staring into the camera as her eyes flicker over to me from time to time.
A hushed silence falls over everyone as I wait, as I pay them each attention, as I steady my arrow center on Snow's flushed forehead.
Out of the corner of my eye still, I can see Finnick's eyes wide, hand squeezing Annie's own tight.
Snow's own granddaughter in the crowd by Johanna and Beetee, her long hair pulled back into a ponytail, her still, cold eyes staring at me. What must she think about me killing her grandfather? What am I, to her?
And then there's Katniss again. She's seen me shoot my bow recently, she knows the superior aim that I have gained through time.
It's like I can hear her steady breath from just behind me almost, taking the deep one to let me know that I have it. I can see her bitting her lower lip from this spot, as she stares at me, silently mouthing 'now'.
I center my eyes on Snow at last as he smirks, granddaughter staring at me, and I let out the heavy breath, frost forming from it before me, glistening in the rays of light from the bright sun.
The burden releases from my chest at last and I feel that familiar ache, numbness in my arms as I release the string and let the arrow fly.
The rabbit was struck before I could blink and was thrown through the wet leaves of the forest floor when the blade of the arrow hit it directly in it's side. The small body was slung like a rag doll, lifeless, incapable of struggle or disagreement against my attack.
That doesn't happen to Snow though. He isn't some small, unguarded little rabbit.
With his hands tied securely behind his post, the arrow lodges into his head at once with a sick, dull thud, his neck jerking back lamely, and he's stilled once the point sticks him into the wooden post.
The crowd is strongly silent, but only for a moment and they start swarming the center of the area, filling in the space between Snow and I.
I catch sight of his granddaughter once again, eyes not even watering as she nods and turns her back.
Cressida makes her way to me first, throwing the microphone to my mouth with a: "How does it feel, Peeta Mellark, finally ridding Panem of such a tyrannical threat at long last?"
I raise my hand up to her as the crowd rushes forward. I drop the bow at once and back away from them quickly, turning and leaving, making a quick flee into the mansion behind me without a single word to them.
I'm done with the press. I've had enough interviews with them and I've moved on from being the spokesperson of the rebellion. They can find someone else now. I'm... Retired.
"Peeta Mellark!"
I stop as the voice trills through the large room, my own traitorous legs stilling me as I turn at the voice to stare over the strong frame of one Katniss Everdeen.
Her scars are soft, pink, in the light, long brown hair braided back as she makes her way over the marbled floor, soft boots clicking and she offers her hand out to me, "Katniss–"
"Everdeen, yes?"
She smiles and nods, "You know my name?"
"Of–" I stop, closing my mouth and staring at her, I can't help my eyes widening at her complete innocence, "Of course I know your name, Katniss."
Haymitch wasn't lying. Neither was Gale.
"She hardly even knows who she is, herself."
"I–" she smiled, confused still, "I," and then she shrugged and held out her hand, "I guess? We've never properly met, have we?"
"She doesn't remember what you did... About how you forced yourself on her, she doesn't remember that."
I stared at the hand, and felt the chill bumps rise over my skin, the fear settling in, "Katniss?"
"That's right," she grinned wide, "You know my name?"
"And the less you're around, the more of you she's going to keep forgetting."
"I..." I swallowed as my stomach dropped and I had to fight the tears prickling, "Of course I know your name, Katniss."
She may say my name in her sleep, but she doesn't remember me at all. Does she even remember me lying to her? Pretending I hated her?
"Who doesn't, I guess," She says, "I never talked to you after you saved my life that night in the rain, it feels like forever ago. But, well, I'd like to be friends."
Friends.
She doesn't think she's ever talked to me. Again.
My heart winces, curling in upon itself as I stare into her deep, empty gray eyes. Void of recognition and void of memory. Void of care.
I take her hand and shake it, watching her eyes still there and stare at them together, "That sounds... Nice."
"It's weird," She says, blinking as she continues to shake my hand, eyes widening, probably remembering something, again. "I feel like I've done this before."
"Me too," I agree, finally pulling my hand away.
Me too.
It's like the time spent trying to push her away and fighting with her has been completely for naught.
Ending Notes:
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, feel free to give me yer points of view in a review, or just drop in to say 'good story' anything werks. ^^
~KaKaVegeGurl
