Chapter 2

Katniss has never before bothered showing much interest in men. She's always had Prim to think about, and life on Atoll 12 was hard enough so as to make things like marriage and a family seem less sacred and more about raw fucking for the interest of procreation.

But even she can't deny that this stranger, Peeta, is handsome. She smiles at him admiringly. Imagine all the miles he's sailed! Any man... mutant... whatever who has recovered a jar of dirt has to be well-traveled.

Has to have...

"You've been there, haven't you? Dryland." A realization hits her like a thunderbolt. "You know where it is."

Peeta lifts his head from where he's been securing anchor lines. "Yeah, I know where it is."

Katniss lets out a disbelieving laugh, full of hope, beaming. "And... we're going?"

"You and I are. Kid we've gotta pitch over the side."

Her entire face falls like a curtain. "What?!"

"My boat's taken on water. I'll be lucky to keep getting hydro rations. Besides, a growing little one like that will eat everything in sight, and that's food I can ill afford to lose. Better one of you dies now quick, then both of you die slow."

He stands and starts to make his way to where Prim is perched on the other side of the tamarin.

Katniss panics. "Wait... Wait! She can't swim!"

"So she'll sink faster. Painless."

She gawps at him. "We saved your life! We got you out!"

"No: you got me out so you could get out. We're even."

Katniss scrambles to her feet and desperately blocks him. "Wait! She can cook. She can heal. She can fish."

"So can I."

"Then take my pendant! Please..." She frantically unfastens a grimy, gold pin from her bodice and gives it to him, begging.

"I have better ones..."

"No!" She pushes against his chest, faltering a little at how firm and strong a chest it is. "Look... after what you went through on the Atoll, I can understand why you would want to... but she's a child!"

He folds his arms. "You seem to care an awful lot about her, when she's just another mouth to feed."

She glances down. "I'm not her mother, if that's what you're asking."

She can feel him studying her. "Can't blame a guy for wondering. After all, she looks a lot like you."

Katniss lifts her gaze, squaring it with his evenly. "She's my sister. And I'm her guardian." She leaves the statement and all that it implies to hang in the wind.

Peeta pauses. Katniss lets her eyes appraise, rove his body. A crazy idea falls into her head. She might not have much, but there is something she can bribe him with, in exchange for his mercy. She knows what men want, and gills or no, Peeta is still a man.

Her breasts heave as she lets out rough gasps. "Is there something else, then?"

He doesn't answer her, and she takes it as affirmation. That he wants her. Katniss takes a deep breath. Let it be. Without turning her head, she calls over her shoulder:

"Primrose, go below!" She doesn't want her sister's innocent eyes to see this as a man beds her. She hopes Prim won't hear the sounds of fucking, her moans and Peeta's grunts when he shags her. No response. "Prim!" Katniss glances over her shoulder.

Prim warily obeys. Once she senses her sister is below deck, Katniss tremblingly rests her palm against Peeta's chest. In the most seductive way she knows how, she shrugs her tattered blue dress off her lithe frame and lets it fall, pooling at her feet, revealing her naked beauty.

Peeta lifts a hand towards the swell of her bare breast. Katniss keeps still, though it's a struggle, and she squirms. She barely refrains from looking at him. She holds her breath.

After a long pause, Peeta drops his hand. "You've got nothing I need," he grunts before moving past her.

Katniss can only stand there, naked and gawking. Here she is, offering herself to him to do with what he likes and he turns her down. She's almost offended, at how he could refuse a proposition.


Peeta is gruff, she learns, and he doesn't let many people in. She can understand that - she's had to be leery of most people herself, after her mother died. Still, he could be kinder. When Peeta discovers how Prim has gotten into a box of crayons she found belowdeck, he nearly throws a fit.

He clearly has a very short temper, Katniss comes to find out - almost to the point of abusive.

A few days after leaving Atoll 12, the tamarin makes contact with another vessel, piloted by a drifter. The sailor doesn't give his name, but he twitches a lot and his eyes are shifty. It's customary for explorers on the water to make a trade when they encounter one another. The drifter lays down his offer, and Katniss notices how Primrose's eyes gleam: paper! Peeta is clearly intrigued as he examines the artifact.

Then the drifter names his price: 30 minutes alone belowdeck with Katniss. Katniss is affronted and enraged beyond words when Peeta actually agrees. The drifter takes her below and is about to ravish her when Peeta suddenly appears, declaring the deal off. The drifter attacks and Katniss flees upstairs, shielding her sister from the sounds of struggle from the men. The drifter at last emerges, only to keel over dead; Peeta buries his body at sea.

That same day, a seaplane spots the tamarin and circles it from the air, firing upon the vessel. Loading Peeta's harpoon, Katniss returns fire, killing the plane's gunner but also accidentally tethering it to the tamarin's mast. Peeta has to cut the plane loose. After the pilot flees, Peeta threatens her with a knife.

"Don't touch anything on my boat again!" She nods dumbly. Peeta decompresses by diving over the side to fish for their supper.

As the sun sets over their dinner, Prim examines the webbed quality of Peeta's feet. "I wish I had feet like that. Maybe then I could swim."

To Katniss's surprise, Peeta offers to teach Prim. She spends the day watching from the boat as Peeta holds Prim afloat in the water, teaching her the basic strokes. Katniss is struck, impressed even, by how gentle Peeta is with her sister. A rare moment. A marked change from a man who wanted to throw the shrimp overboard.