Katniss woke up in a cold sweat with her vision still blurry as she tried to make out where she was now. The last time she remembered was trying to get away from a swarm of bees ...had she made it?
She glanced at parts of her body and saw leaves covering patches of her skin. Slowly she took off one of them looking underneath and she could see there was once a wound there, most likely from bees stings she summarized. The sound of a twig breaking brought her out of her thoughts. She looked around at the terrain then caught a glimpse of a form behind some trees.
"Rue?" She asked curiously as she could she some features of the girl from the distance. But Rue kept hidden only glancing at her hidden behind the tree. "It's okay i won't hurt you" she said getting a slowly walking towards her with her hands raised.
Rue slowly stepped out from behind the tree slowly, she was still cautious as the past few days she had seen her fair share of horrors and people using their old relationships to a deadly end. They met halfway and Rue was still nervous, after all she had left Katniss with her weapons having nothing of it at the time.
Katniss had already saw that she had all her weapons but chose to not concentrate on that at the moment, "did you help me?" Rue gave her a small nod still shifting her weight unsteadyily. "How long have I been out?"
"A few days, I found you" she said finally making eye contact with Katniss, who was now glancing at the remaining leaves left on her body. "So are you hungry?" She cautious asked, with Katniss on glancing back at her with a shocked look but slowly nodded nonetheless.
They ate some fruits and berries that she had been gathering but mostly sat in silence. "So what happened while I was out?" Rue continued eating not really giving katniss her full attention "a few kids from the other districts were ..." she didn't want to say it "its okay you don't have to .." a thought struck Katniss's mind "did you see Peeta?" She asked her voice shakey and nervous. "No, he was made a banner from what I've seen."
An unsteady relief flooded Katniss "good he might still be alive?" Then she remembered something "Rue where is your brother?" She looked away as if not wanting to talk about it "he's somewhere, we got separated at the start in all that chaos." Her eyes are slightly glazed over as she recounts the memories of the start of the game. She had tried so desperately to get to her brother but they both had seen that it was too dangerous and had to split up.
"All I know is that he is not dead, and a small part of me is still wishing that he is going to make it home to mom and dad." Rue had a stray tear running down her cheek and Katniss quickly grabbed her by both shoulders turning Rue to face her. "What do you mean only him? You will make it too" Katniss gave her best smile that she could master but she knew Rue could see right through her.
Truth be told she didn't have all the answers, she didn't know if she was going to make it out. But she thought about Rue, the young girl who reminded her so much of her sister back home. She had protected her sister before and she was going to protect Rue as best she could, for as long as she could. Slowly she brought Rue in for an embrace which the girl didn't even try to resist, they had formed an unlikely friendship before the games but Rue had maintained it into the games.
Rue hug her back tighter almost as if she was the only thing keeping her alive. The smaller girl buried herself into Katniss's chest, and although she couldn't see it she could feel the wetness of tears on her chest so she held tighter. Rue could also feel the tears that dropped onto her head from Katniss. They stayed in each other's embrace for a long time only letting go when Rue said it was time to prepare for the night.
Unbeknownst to them their whole ordeal had been watched very closely by the games master and the audience. Even the director and his room of producers had caught the small glimpses the younger girl had been giving to the older one. He vaguely remembered seeing the same back at training, well he hadn't remembered the people who were hired for that had.
"So she might have a little crash or looking for a big sister? Either way this is good for ratings." Hey Ellen why don't you give me a banner for those two, something sweet and whole some with some taboo." After a few more inputs from the other producers they finally had their banner as the screen showed Katniss and Rue hurdles together under some large leaf covers.
"Sisterly love or maybe more, why not both?" Everyone in the room gave a slow nod of approval "Fantastic."
Katniss had closed her eyes after giving watch to Rue but not after repeatedly telling her to wake her up if anything seemed odd.
Rue had walked around setting up some branches and sting as sound alerts. After returning to sit next to a now sleeping Katniss. Rue had seen from the way Katniss was walking today that she was still very worn put and recovering, Rue had even caught her dosing off during her watch. She practically had to force Katniss to lay down and rest, after telling her she was their only defense if someone came. That eventually got her to sleep but also left Rue with something she had already known, that she was a burden to Katniss right now.
Katniss seemed to be agitated in her sleep, Rue had seen this while she was taking care of her the past few days. Back then she was able to approach and calm her down but now she was nervous because Katniss was twitchy and thats the last thing they needed. She pushed through regardless gentlely lifting Katniss's head to her chest as she laid her head against the tree that was providing most of their cover against the rain. She was far smaller than her but thought this would be better to keep Katniss warm.
Rue slowly stroked Katniss's head as she looked closer at her facial features in the moonlight that seemed to light up her face like an angel.
"Nice work on the moonlight Timothy, remind me to get you a drink" the games master said praising one of his producers. "Thank you sir."
Rue slowly removed some of the grime that was on Katniss's face. She could see some of the cuts that she suspected that Katniss had got from her other encounters that she had made it through. She cradled Katniss closer to her chest leaning more into the tree because it was hard to keep her up. Her right thumb hovered over Katniss's lips and slowly pulled away, just wrapping her arms around Katniss.
"Ain't that just beautiful" the games master said with a malicious smile on his face. "Sir this seems to be trending" one of the Co-ordinators said in the back of the room. "Really, show me" he saw all the mentions online just promoting the two of them. "So they want themselves some star crossed loves i see... a shame I've always been more a fan of Romeo and Juliet."
