It's November now. The time when trading starts slowing, at least for the Seam. Katniss has been keeping an eye on their food stocks, warry even with the extra provisions coming in once a month. She hasn't been able to trek to the woods in a little over two weeks, due to the snow piling up. The extra time she spends finding wood to fill their bedroom with while they sleep in the living room, directly in front of the fireplace for warmth.

The school will be closing at the start of December. Which is a shame, since it's mandatory to keep it heated enough that the students won't freeze in their desks. It's usually warmer than any home in the Seam, and even the occasional Town house.

Katniss casts her gaze over her shoulder at Prim, who sits huddled under blankets on the couch. On her lap perches Buttercup, preening as her sister works an old comb through his matted hair. Katniss pulls her hand back quickly as a fluttering ember lands on her bare skin, biting against the numbness. She readjusts the poker in her hand and stirs the dying fire before adding another log and slowly straightening from her crouch. Her muscles protest the movement, stiff with the ever present cold. Unfortunate, since she's already layered on all the pants she owns. Minus the pair she had given Prim to wear.

Gale has been giving them some of the coal he brings home from the mines, but she's saving it for when December comes. Or possibly January, which is usually the worst month of the season.

Katniss settles in next to Prim, close enough to barely feel the tendrils of heat coming from her but far enough away that Buttercup's swat misses. Her mother- who she ignores- sits on the other side of her blonde sister.

"I'm going to miss going to school," Prim sighs absently.

Katniss won't. Instead she wonders to herself if she can cut down how much she eats at home more than she already has. If she's not hunting, and not expected to leave her house for at least a few weeks, then she won't need but half the strength she runs at now.

The house shudders as the wind howls through the street, lose shingles screaming at the strain. Buttercup hisses, and Prim coos to the cat. She gives him tender strokes as he settles down once more, and she returns to her brushing.

"Katniss, good morning," Madge greets.

Katniss merely grunts in reply, her eyes still heavy with sleep.

"I agree. Father says the temperatures are expected to drop at least another twenty degrees by the end of the month."

She says this absent handedly, as if she isn't sharing possibly confidential information. Katniss's head snaps up to look at her friend with wide eyes.

"And after this month?" She asks.

Madge merely gives her a look in answer. "We're handing out winter clothes that the Capitol is shipping out with this month's food winnings. Hopefully they will help." Katniss barely manages to contain her scoff as they stop at Madge's locker.

"How… Thoughtful." Katniss drawls, and falls unsurprisingly silent.

Madge hums in agreeance before patting the dark haired girl on the shoulder.

"Until lunch."

Katniss's stomach lurches just at the word.

Gale comes to visit for a few hours every Sunday afternoon, since they can't meet in the woods anymore. The morning and evening, however, he saves for his family.

Katniss doesn't admit she looks forward to the coal he brings more than the company.

It's not that she doesn't enjoy Gale's company; it's just that they work better in comfortable silence than small talk. And in her tiny kitchen they don't have the same excuse to remain silent anymore.

They argue a lot. Gale, being older, insists he knows everything. And Katniss, being stubborn enough to match his need for control, insists he's wrong. But the spat is usually forgotten by the next weekly visit. Still, Katniss can't wait for spring to come and bring back some sense of normalcy to their friendship.

Katniss lurches from sleep, gasping for breath. Her ears ring with the whisper of an explosion she never heard. The light from the nearby fire sends her heart racing anew before she focuses her eyes on it and realizes the house isn't burning down around them.

Prim is curled tightly into her mother's back, sleeping soundly stil. Her eyebrows are pinched just slightly, and Katniss smooths a thumb between them. She sighs as Prim's face falls back into a peaceful expression, wishing it could be that easy every night. But she'll gladly take this alternative to the nights Prim wakes screaming.

Knowing she won't be able to go back to bed, Katniss quietly slinks to the kitchen table and sinks down into one of the cold, wooden chairs.

She spends the rest of the night staring at the shadows dancing across the boarded windows, her head full of crumbling mines and frozen hands reaching up through the rubble.