Prompt: I'm so happy you're back with the prompts! Even tho I'm about to suggest an angst story over the song "Already Gone" by Kelly Clarkson, if you might. ^_^
Already Gone
Every times she looks at him, he flinches.
It's not the resentment that sometimes flashes on her face or even the anger that comes out now and then. It's the lack of it. The way she clings to him for hours, sobbing and whispering his name again and again, begging him not to let go of her, to protect her.
He wants to. Oh, hell, how he wants to…
Nothing will hurt her again. No one will hurt her again.
The thing is, though… He's the one who hurt her most often than not in the past. Sure, she has done her share of loathing and hating him over the years… Sure, they haven't always been the most healthy couple out there… If couple was even the right word…
The memories of those years… They hurt. They hurt because he doesn't how to act outside of that established pattern of being adversaries, reluctant allies…
They've never been meant to be more than a one night stand.
They've never been meant to be more than two people too different to work out.
He knows all that.
He also knows he loves her and she loves him.
He also knows he never wants her to be hurt again.
He also knows he's never been good at not hurting her.
Perhaps he already knows how their story ends and it hurts him.
When they ask him to take Katniss back to Twelve, he leaves the city behind without a goodbye.
She will be furious, of course. She will rage and she will curse him and hate him and that's for the best. He doesn't think anyone can love him better than she does but he knows someone can love her better than he does. She deserves better. She deserves the best.
He's hurt her so much, he can at least give her that.
He loves her enough to let her go.
So he climbs in the hovercraft that leave the city without a glance back.
Already gone.