Companion
AN:
Katniss can't process her feelings.
Special thank you to my dear friend, GinnyGinervaWeasley, for betaing my story.
P.S. I love the Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins owns everything!
CHAPTER 7
It's Thursday, and Peeta is nowhere to be found. Katniss had woken up in the middle of the night searching for him, thinking that he might have slept in the porch swing again, but Peeta Mellark was not there. Is he even in Twelve? She fiddles with the telephone, wondering if she should call his office, but it's too early for anyone to pick up. Feeling defeated, she gathers her hunting gear and jogs to the woods. She checks the snares impatiently, taking the game then resetting it as quickly as she can with her fumbling hands. Whatever she is feeling is seeping through her fingers, and no amount of deep breathing could steady them.
How could Peeta forget to come? Didn't he promise to come today? Maybe something happened at work? But he would have called ahead if that was the case. Did I scare him off with the kiss? Oh god, the kiss.
Thoughts of Peeta run through her mind faster than a Capitol train, and she becomes more uneasy as the morning progresses. She lets it out through her bow and arrows, shooting all her targets through the eyes. Even at thirty meters, she is hitting all her targets squarely. She is laser-focused on letting out whatever it is that she is feeling. She cleans all the game, almost butchering them right in the woods. She eventually stops herself and begins her heavy walk back to town. The butcher notices her scowl, but she shrugs her shoulders when he looks at her with questioning eyebrows. She thought of going to the orphanage, thinking that the children would surely get her back in a good mood, but her boots have bloodstains, and her bow and arrows are with her. Reluctantly she jogs back to Victor's Village. With her game bag empty of its grounding weight, her thoughts wander back to Peeta.
"Why didn't he call?" she mutters to herself. She shakes her head then tries to focus on her feet hitting the dirt.
"It's not like him not to say anything. Oh god, did he want me to ask him to stay that night? How could I ask him to stay? Did he want to stay? I wanted him to stay, so why didn't I ask?" she continues, mumbling to herself like a woman confused about which way is up.
She pauses in front of her house, wondering if Peeta might be inside. She brushes the wild strands of hair along her forehead and fixes her gear. Her bloodstained boots will just have to do.
She opens the door. "Peeta?" she starts, calling as if the house isn't hers. "Peeta, are you here?" She stays quiet, listening for footsteps or little sounds of movement, but nothing comes. She grunts, covering her eyes with the heel of her hands. "This is pathetic!" she announces to herself. "Katniss, you're pathetic!"
How could Peeta make me feel this way? She asks inside her head.
After taking a shower and eating three times as many pancakes as she would normally eat, Katniss reluctantly walks back to the orphanage. She hadn't felt this out of sorts in a long time. She remembers to call Peeta's office but stops herself as she is already halfway down the path.
When she arrives at the orphanage, there is laughing and giggling in the kitchen. She rolls her eyes and stirs herself to go in the opposite direction, then she hears a familiar voice. It's Peeta. She does a 180 and silently skitters to the kitchen door. When she peeks in, she sees him. There he is! Why didn't he go to the house? And he is laughing? Laughing? Laughing without a care in the world!
"Oh hey, Katniss!" Delly calls from behind her. She startled her. Delly ignores her reaction and pats her shoulders, then gestures for her to go to the kitchen. She shakes her head and gazes at her friend with wide eyes.
"No, Delly," she mouths, eyes like saucers.
Delly tilts her head and scrunches her eyebrows. "What's wrong, Katniss?" she asks suspiciously.
Katniss lets out a grumble then just walks away from the kitchen. She finds herself in the knitting room, where the children became a very good distraction. She avoids Peeta during lunch, bringing some children out in the grass to eat, so she won't have to see him in the cafeteria.
"You're pathetic, Katniss. Why are you acting this way? Just go and talk to him. You're a full-grown woman, so go and just talk to him!" She argues quietly with herself while eating with Annie, Sophia, and Byron. The three children are oblivious to her musings. She almost butchers her roast beef with the steak knife.
By the afternoon, she tries to convince herself to just approach him, but she feels truly discombobulated, and so she does the opposite. She exits any room when she sees him coming. She looks down when he turns to look at her from afar. She surrounds herself with Annie and her friends, thinking that Peeta will not interrupt their time together. She busies herself, always doing something with her hands or pacing around the orphanage. Dinner came soon enough, and Peeta gave up approaching her. He sits with Elrick and Sae as they plan for the Town Festival. Bedtime comes, and all the children are sent to their rooms.
"Good night, Annie," Peeta's voice sounds from behind her. Katniss is kneeling beside Annie's bed, humming a lullaby. She forgot that he also says good night to Annie now.
"Good night, Peeta," Annie replies, then rises off of her bed to give him a hug. Peeta kneels beside Katniss, and she becomes keenly aware of his presence.
"You go to sleep now, Annie. I'll see you in the morning."
"Good night, Momma. I love you."
Katniss kisses her small forehead and lifts the blanket to cover her shoulders. "I love you too, Annie."
The walk back to Victor's Village is quiet but no longer uncomfortable. Katniss' feelings have finally settled, and she allows Peeta to walk beside her. He's carrying his usual orange and black backpack on one shoulder, and it makes a rhythmic sound as it flaps on his back while he walks.
"Are you going to tell me why you've been avoiding me all day?" Peeta finally speaks nervously. He's been confused and feeling uneasy all day because of Katniss.
"I'm not avoiding you. I was just busy. The festival is in three days," Katniss says casually, but Peeta could see through her.
"So you leaving every room when I enter and looking away when I turn to you is just you being busy?"
"Yes"
"Yes?"
"Yes"
"You're a terrible liar, Katniss Everdeen," Peeta says as he shakes his head and buries his hands in his pockets. "You were avoiding me."
"Why didn't you come to the house?"
"The trains are different on weekdays," he explains coolly. "When I arrived, I thought you would already be at the orphanage. I thought I'd save myself the extra walk because I was so sure you were already there with the children. But you weren't, so I just waited."
"You should have called."
"To the woods?" he replies jokingly, then laughs. This lightens the mood, and the change in Katniss is instant.
"Okay," she finally relents. "I was just worried. You weren't there, and I thought that you had forgotten."
"Forgotten?"
"Yeah. Forgot about the festival."
Peeta chuckles, and Katniss smiles a little. She couldn't stay irritated at him anymore. Why was she even avoiding him in the first place? she thought to herself.
"I would never. Also …" he stops and faces her, "it's such a good excuse to come back earlier. I couldn't wait to see you."
This makes Katniss warm and a soft blush forms on her cheeks.
Peeta pulls her into a huge hug. "Oh, Katniss."
This is really a short chapter. It's fun though, getting Katniss ruffled up.
More in the next chapters.