4.
"Why are you avoiding Peeta and Gale?" Prim asked, in a serious tone that meant troubles.
Katniss groaned and rolled her eyes, not particularly surprised by the question. She had been dodging it for a while now and with her sister perched on the couch behind her while she sat on the floor so Prim could do her hair, there was no running away from it.
"I'm not avoiding them." she denied although that might have been a bit of a lie. Prim remained silent, clearly waiting for the whole story, her fingers deftly working on the braid. "Peeta is avoiding me. And Gale…" Gale was becoming annoying in his obsession to play knight in shining armor but that one she kept to herself. It felt disloyal. In the end, she just shrugged. "I don't need them anyway."
Prim hummed an unconvinced little noise. "Maybe Peeta thinks you like Gale better."
"Gale is my best friend." she pointed out.
"Gale doesn't like that you're the Slayer." her sister argued with far more clarity than Katniss would have thought. But Prim had always been mature for her age, circumstances obliged, and she had always had a keen eye.
By reflex, Katniss glanced at their mother's bedroom. The door was open but Aster was knocked out because of her meds. Her doctor had left another message on her phone about having her stay at a clinic for a while, insisting that it would help her recover a lot more than staying there…
She considered lying and pretending she didn't know what Prim was talking about but if even her sister had noticed…
"He thinks he needs to protect me." she snorted. "It's insulting."
"Maybe he liked you best when you needed his help." Prim suggested. "Now you're a superhero and he's not."
"I'm not a superhero." she argued, scowling a little. "I'm just…"
"The Chosen One." her sister mocked with such emphasis Katniss could hear the capital letters.
"I'm not Harry Potter, little duck." she teased.
"No." Prim answered, a little more seriously. "You're the Slayer and I think it's awesome. Peeta never said you couldn't or shouldn't do it." True, but there was an odd tension with Peeta that she couldn't really explain. Was he really in love with her like everyone said? Was that why he was avoiding her now? She missed him on patrol. He was funny and unlike Gale he didn't treat her like she was made of glass. Prim wasn't done though. She tied up the braid and placed her hands on her shoulders. "Don't let Gale tell you what you can or can't do. Even if you love him."
She was uneasy with that word, always had been. The only person she knew for sure she loved was Prim. Everyone else… Everyone else had to come second to that.
"How did you become so wise?" she joked, hoping to make the conversation lighter.
"Internet." Prim deadpanned. They laughed and then her sister wrapped her arms around her neck from behind. "Be careful on patrol."
"I'm always careful." she promised. "Don't open the door and don't let anyone in."
Those instructions didn't need to be given again. After the short hours she had spent as Cashmere's hostage, Prim was more careful than ever. When Katniss shouldered her bow and walked out the door, she was very confident her sister would remain safe and sound during her absence.
She wasn't surprised when Gale fell into step with her as she was about to leave the trailer park.
"Are you avoiding me?" he asked, after five minutes of silence. Gale wasn't someone who minded long silences so the question must really have bugged him.
"No." she lied. She hadn't gone out of her way to seek him out at school.
"I thought you'd patrol the cemetery but I haven't seen you around for two nights, now." he pointed out.
She didn't like having to explain herself. She adjusted the strap of her quiver and sighed without much patience. "I was with Effie. She likes patrolling in town."
Given that Haymitch had been unavailable again the previous day – a nice euphemism for drunk – she had gone to Effie's place again. They had trained this time – well, mostly, Effie had tossed fireballs at her head in the backyard, forcing her to dodge and get close enough to engage her, up until Katniss could do it without getting singed – and the witch had offered to come around on patrol again so they had set off in the direction of the woods this time, so they would be able to loop by the Hellmouth on their way home. There was something like too much quality time with Effie Trinket though and she was happy Haymitch was operational again. Training with him that afternoon had been great.
"Effie?" He made a face. "I thought we didn't like her."
We. Katniss didn't want to be part of a we. She was very content being an I.
"She's not that bad." she retorted, maybe a little too harshly. She didn't like Effie that much.
"She's a witch!" he scoffed, incredulous.
"She's part of my team." she snapped, without thinking twice about it.
"I wasn't aware we were a team." he mocked. "Seems to me like we're the ones doing the vampire cleaning while Abernathy makes moon eyes at her in the background. When they bother to show up at all." Katniss gritted her teeth and quickened her steps. "Wait!" he called after her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"
"Yeah. You did." she cut him off. "I don't know what your problem with Haymitch is…"
Gale stopped walking and scowled, lifting his arms before letting them fall. "He did this to you. That's my problem."
Her jaw clenched. "He did nothing to me. Do you even listen when I explain stuff? Slayer powers don't work that way. Fate…"
"Fate doesn't exist." he argued. "And if it does, I'm sure it can be cheated."
He sounded too proud of himself for thinking of that option, as if she hadn't wondered about it herself in her bed in the first few weeks after seeing her first vampire. But that was the coward's way out and she couldn't take it. Not when Prim was looking up at her with so much pride in her eyes. Her sister had decided she was a hero and so a hero she would be.
Heroes didn't take the coward's way out.
"I don't want to cheat fate." she snapped. "I am the Slayer. Deal with it or go home."
She left him standing there, striding down the street that would take her to the cemetery with an angry scowl on her face. It didn't fade when he eventually fell back into pace with her, mostly because he didn't apologize or say anything more and she just knew the argument wasn't over.
They made a quick sweep in the graveyard and killed a few vampires – not that it was a competition but she managed to shoot them all before he could notch his arrows – and then she decided she would take the long way home by making a detour in the heart of town. She didn't inform Gale of that and he didn't ask what she was doing. He simply followed, silent and unshakable like a shadow.
Anger was stirring deep in her belly, increasing with every new step she took. When they ran into a group of four vampires coming out a dark alley, still in demon faces, she was almost happy to forego the bow to engage them physically. Gale lacked range and had to let her do most of the work and that felt good even if the vampires weren't a real challenge. She really was getting good at dusting them. Gale was seething by the time she staked the last one and she was certain he wanted to tell her she was taking too many risks.
She strode away before he could say anything.
She was becoming better at feeling the presence of vampires, it was like tingles on her nape. There was, however, no tingles for demons and she hadn't been expecting one to appear from behind trash bins in a deserted street not too far from the square. She didn't dodge in time and found herself flying in the air, only remembering to curl up into a ball and roll to absorb the landing because of the long hours of training when Haymitch had made her fall again and again until she learned to land without breaking anything.
"Katniss!" Gale shouted.
She jumped on the demon before he could get it in his head to try to fight him himself. It was taller than a human would have been, only vaguely humanoid, his arms were longer than his body and he stood a little hunched over like a gorilla, his eyes glowed red and it was hairy. And strong. Very, very strong.
There was no skill to his fighting so she decided he wasn't really smart. Some demons were clever, some were closer to animals, Haymitch had told her that much. This one clearly ranged in the second category.
It was only when he sent her flying again and she landed in the trash bins he had come out from that she spotted the body. It was a homeless woman with frizzy white hair and blue eyes that didn't see anything anymore. She looked unhurt, no wounds that she could see, but she was very dead.
The demon let out a roar or something very close to it and she struggled to get out of the sea of upturned garbage and to reach Gale before he could get himself killed. He was shooting at the creature but the arrows seemed to glide away as if its fur was thicker than it looked.
She dropped the bow and the quiver so they wouldn't bother her and took out her stakes before attacking it again.
"Get out of the way!" Gale ordered, still shooting the useless arrows.
She ignored him and kicked, dodged and stabbed. Focus was paramount. The problem was, the stakes wouldn't pierce the skin. One of them actually broke and she tossed it away without a blink, to concentrate on punching. Her knuckles bled long before he tired. He flung his big arms around, roaring some more…. She managed to stab him in one of his red eyes. It might not have been much of a plan but she figured that if she pushed the stake deep enough it might pierce the brain and kill him. She might even have finished him if Gale hadn't come at her from the side, pushing her away.
She hadn't expected it and hit the pavement hard.
She had been expecting the clawed arm aiming at her head and would have avoided it however.
Gale didn't.
All in all, it was lucky that she had managed to hurt the demon. With both of them on the ground, he fled. She would have pursued him if Gale hadn't let out a pained moan.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" she hissed, glancing around.
Lights were being turned on inside the nearby houses and she didn't want to get caught next to a dead body and an injured classmate. She crawled closer to him to get a look at his wound. It was bleeding a lot, his leather jacket and his shirt were both torn from shoulder to elbow. That wasn't the kind of scrapes they could patch in her kitchen, nobody the wiser.
"What were you thinking?" he retorted. "That thing was going to kill you!"
"No, it wasn't." she growled, shaking with fury. "I almost had it. I was going to…"
"It was too strong." Gale cut her off. "You couldn't do it. You can't keep doing this. You can't. This isn't a comic book or a TV show. This is life. You're going to get yourself killed. You can't do this."
She opened her mouth to tell him just where he could shove his concern when he bundled the lapels of her jacket with his good hand and pulled her forward. Another thing she hadn't been expecting that night: to be kissed for the first time.
She gave in to it for a second and then she shoved him back, even more furious than she had been a minute earlier if possible. She hauled him up to his feet, deaf to his pained gulps, grabbed their weapons, and dragged him away from the scene of the crime before people came out of their houses to investigate. She let go of him two streets away and let him slid down the dirty wall of a back alley while she rummaged through her pockets for the phone she didn't always remember to carry around.
Prim had developed a habit of slipping it into her pocket though and thank god for that.
She hesitated only a moment on who to call. She needed a car and the closest person with a car she knew was… not answering her call.
"Peeta!" she exclaimed when he finally picked up, just as it was about to go to voicemail. "I need help."
There was a shaky intake of breath on the other side and then his steady reassuring voice. "Okay. What can I do?"
She glanced at Gale who wasn't looking at her. His face was closed off, his lips a thin pained line and he was awfully pale. His arm was still bleeding too much.
"Some sort of demon attacked us. Gale is really hurt. He needs to go to the hospital." she said, her voice rising in panic.
"Okay." Peeta said again, with some urgency but in a calm tone that helped her keep her cool. "Tell me where you are. I'm on my way."
She gave him the address and then hung up, clutching the phone in her hand. She didn't dare take a closer look at Gale's wound. First because she had never been good with blood and then because she was a little afraid he would try to kiss her again.
"So, you're in trouble and he's the one you call…" he commented quietly, his voice a little faint.
"Shut up." she snarled. She was so furious. So furious. "This is all your fault."
"Hunting vampires and demons wasn't my idea of a new hobby." he shot back.
She turned away from him and selected another number. Haymitch's phone rang and rang… She closed her eyes, feeling close to throwing up with nerves. Pick up, she silently begged, pick up. It went to the standard voicemail. She ended the call and peered at the end of the street, hoping to see Peeta's truck appear under the pale streetlamps. Her phone rang before she had time to count to three.
"Everything's okay?" Haymitch asked without bothering with a hello.
That was such a stupid question that she almost started hysterically laughing. Instead she focused on the thing that caught her attention. "Why are you out of breath?"
There was a meaningful pause and then. "I was working out."
"Why are you working out in the middle of the night?" she insisted. She could feel the tears burning her eyes and making her throat itch. Her voice wavered. He must have caught it.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong? You need back-up?" Haymitch said.
She summed up the whole thing as neatly and calmly as possible. "Peeta can take Gale to the ER and I can try to find this thing."
"No." her Watcher refused. "I'm not sending you after something we don't know how to kill. Go to the hospital with the boys, I'll meet you there, alright?"
Peeta's headlights finally pierced the night at the end of the street. He was driving fast and he braked hard right in front of her. She had the vague thought he had almost crashed the car again.
She watched him jump out of the truck and walk around it to grab her arms, his blue eyes traveling over her face, her body, looking for an injury…
"You're alright?" he asked. "I'm sorry. I should have been there with you. I could have distracted it while you stab him or something…"
That was such the right thing to say compared to Gale's you can't do it that she threw her arms around his neck. He froze for a second and then hugged her back, his hand coming to rest at the back of her head.
"Shit." he cursed when he caught sight of Gale over her shoulder.
"Don't mind me." her best friend snorted. "I'm just bleeding out. I wouldn't want to interrupt your moment."
"Shit." Peeta repeated once he took a closer look. "Katniss, open the door."
Gale wasn't able to stay upright by himself anymore, Peeta had to carry him to the car and he slumped his head against the window as soon as he was sitting down. On Peeta's request, she climbed on the backseat too and applied pressure on the wound while he drove recklessly fast to the hospital.
"I'm sorry." Gale whispered, for her ears only.
She wanted to say he should be.
"Try not to die." she replied. "That's all the apology I need."
Gale was taken away the moment they passed the ER's doors. Katniss slumped on one of the plastic chairs in the waiting room, leaving Peeta to spin a story about an animal attack for the nurse on duty. When he eventually came to sit next to her, he took her hand without a word and she clung to it.
It was perhaps ten more minutes of tense waiting before Haymitch and Effie barged in the hospital. She surprised everyone and herself the most by jumping off the chair and straight into Haymitch's arms. To his credit, her Watcher immediately hugged her back.
"Ain't your fault, sweetheart." he offered quietly. "Shit happens. Sucks but it's like that."
"Truly. Would you mind your language in front of the children?" Effie berated him. "Here, dear, let me have a look at you. Are you alright?"
She stepped back from Haymitch's embrace only to be subjected to the same kind of visual inspection Peeta had done earlier. Her Watcher must have dragged Effie out of bed because the witch had clearly dressed in a hurry, her blouse was buttoned wrong under her open coat. The Art teacher considered a gash on her cheek with pursed lips and pressed her thumb on its length, muttering something under her breath that really didn't sound English. Next thing she knew, the gash was gone.
She gaped. "I should have brought Gale to you."
Effie shook her head. "You were right to bring him here. I am not much of a healer."
"You'd never be much of anything if we listened to you." Haymitch mocked. "How can you be so arrogant about everything else and doubt your magic when you're clearly powerful?"
The witch glared at him and neglected to answer. She cleared her throat and patted Katniss' shoulder. "I will go and see what I can find about Livia while we are here, shall I? Plutarch told me her parents brought her here, her doctor was concerned it was some kind of disease. Peeta, perhaps you could assist me."
It wasn't very subtle but Katniss was glad to find herself alone with Haymitch. When she slumped back on the chair and buried her face in her hands, he didn't judge.
"Gale kissed me." she blurted out. It wasn't exactly the most important thing right then but she felt it needed to be said.
Her Watcher let out a long suffering sigh and rubbed her back distractedly. "What did I say about boys troubles?"
Her lips stretched into a smile despite the horrible night. "You don't advise on boys troubles."
"Right." he approved.
"But you're going to do it anyway." she pointed out. "'Cause when you have an opinion, you've got to share."
"I can keep my opinions to myself alright." he retorted. "I'm just offering them to you free of charge in hope you start using your brain sometimes." His voice lost the sarcastic edge and he took a second before continuing, which in her experience meant he was trying to find the right words – which didn't bode well. "Ain't gonna tell you how to live your life, sweetheart, but the Hawthorne boy…"
"I know you don't like him." she sighed.
"I don't like the way he sniffs after you, no." he confirmed. "This being said… I know the kind. He can't accept who you are, what you've become. If he doesn't get it into his thick skull soon that you ain't some helpless girl in need of his protection, that you've never been that, he's gonna get himself killed. And you with him." He let that sink in and moved his hand from her back to her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. "Most Slayers bear their burden alone. That's the way it's always been. It doesn't have to be like that for you, that ain't what I'm saying but… Some guys… Some guys feel threatened by who they are 'cause they feel the need to be the strongest one in the room. Hawthorne… I think he's one of these guys."
"You weren't." she whispered. "Your girlfriend…"
"Mabel'd have kicked my ass all days to Sunday if I'd tried to pull what that boy did tonight. Then, she would have cut me loose." he cut her off. "And that's the last of her we're talking about."
The tone was definitive so she straightened and leaned against the wall at her back. "That's what you want me to do? Cut him loose?"
He squeezed her shoulder again. "Ain't telling you what to do."
"Since when?" she snorted.
"Since this ain't my scene." he replied with a shrug. "I've said my piece. There are plenty of boys out there who'd respect you for who you are. I sure know of one…"
He nodded in the vague direction of one of the hallways. Effie and Peeta were coming back toward them.
She elected to ignore that. He was the second person telling her Peeta was a better choice tonight and she still didn't feel like she wanted to choose.
"Do you think that demon killed the homeless woman?" she asked.
"Hard to say." he sighed. "I'll stop by the morgue in the morning. See if I can dig any info against a few bucks."
"Well…" Effie exclaimed as soon as she was within hearing range. "The doctors cannot explain Livia's warts."
"Big shock." Haymitch snorted. "That had magic-gone-wrong stamped all over it."
"Miss Trinket distracted the nurse while I stole the file." Peeta told Katniss with a happy grin. "I feel like James Bond."
Haymitch stood up and stepped closer to Trinket, a smirk on his lips. "Don't tell me I missed you playing James Bond Girl… 'Cause that I'd have paid to see."
"I am very talented at distracting people." Effie countered without batting an eyelash. "Flirting goes a long way. Besides… She was cute and she gave me her number. All benefits."
Haymitch's eyebrows shot up at that declaration but then he licked his lips. "Might want to fix your blouse, Princess. We wouldn't want anyone to think you've been up to no good with nurses."
She looked down at her blouse and realized the predicament but she didn't even look embarrassed. She just buttoned it the right way with an amused smile on her lips.
"No, we certainly wouldn't want that, would we?" the witch hummed.
Peeta's gaze darted between the two of them and then he looked back at Katniss with open amusement. She failed to see what was so funny though. She didn't really care if Effie liked girls, she wanted to find her demon and put it down.
They couldn't get deeper into it though. Hazelle barged into the hospital, her younger children clinging to her, disheveled, looking pale and frightened. Haymitch immediately went over to her with a reassuring expression on his face. When the woman asked her what had happened, Katniss found herself mumbling a vague explanation about a huge animal she couldn't identify. The woman left the kids with them and went straight to the nurse on duty.
It turned out Peeta was also good with young children. He spared Rory's sensibilities by addressing him as if he was his equal even though the boy was the same age as Prim and making it sound as if the boy was actually the one in charge of his brother and sister, he had Vick wrapped around his finger in no time at all, as for Posy, she had declared she was going to marry him after only five minutes. Hazelle came back with reassuring news that helped Katniss breathe a little easier.
"We're having an emergency meeting tomorrow after school." Haymitch announced, once they had left the hospital. "We need to identify this demon." It might have been a little more impressive if he hadn't been leaning against the open door of Effie's pink miniature car. He must have realized it because he glared at the other teacher. "I hate your car. I told you we'd have been faster if…"
"I am not getting on that bike." she huffed, her eyes glancing down his body and back up as if he had professed the most horrendous comment. "It would wreck havoc in my hair."
Katniss and Peeta exchanged a look and hid their smiles.
Somehow, she was sure Effie Trinket's hair being in disarray must have been one of the signs of an impending apocalypse.
Sooooooo Gale ended up getting himself hurt. And stole a kiss. And now Haymitch HAS to give boys advices XD
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Happy Easter!