Author's Note: I am so sorry this is late! The past few days have been rough, but here is a long-ish chapter to make it up for you guys 3
Thank you for your patience, your reviews and your favorites. You rock!
Walking through a wall of fire is probably the most treacherous thing I've ever done, and coming from a girl who pretty much daily broke the law to hunt in the dangerous woods, well, I think that counts for something. The worst part is not actually to walk through it, but what comes after that. Even when crossing it takes no more than two or three seconds, my hair manages to catch on fire, and so do some of our clothes.
I push Danny into the cave I spotted before running into the fire, and quickly we put the fire off our clothes. He cries and pushes his face into my chest. I hold him tight, even though the corporal heat begs me to let go. I don't.
Once the sky clears and there seems to be no danger of being burnt to death I coarse Danny outside to examine our wounds. Our arms and legs have some damage, and a good part of my hair burned down, but it's Danny's face that took the worst part. A good portion of his cheek is red and blistering, I'm afraid to touch it.
"It doesn't hurt that much." He promises me, but I know he is lying.
It doesn't ease the guilt.
For the first time since we entered the Arena, Danny refuses completely to do something I say.
"My hands hurt, and I'm tired, and I want to sleep in the cave. I can't climb, Katniss. Not tonight." And just like that, the baker's son enters the cave and stubbornly sits down, arms crossed and everything. The sudden urge to yell at him, to order him to get up and climb with me so we can be safe consumes me. But I know that the whole world is watching, and our life depends on how well liked we are in the Capitol. I have to keep being the loving, tender sister that helps him out, and I have to remember I already got him burnt down today. I don't think I'm one of the Capitol's favorites right now, but hopefully Danny is making all the Capitol women swoon and eager to help him.
"Fine then." I say eventually, dropping my arms to the sides. He doesn't relax his posture, and I know he doesn't trust me to be saying the truth. "You've got your knives?" I ask him and he gives me a confused nod. "Alright, I'm going to go hunting and then I will be back. Stay hidden, alright?"
Panic flashes through his eyes, and I want to tell him to come with me. But he forges a brave face and nods.
Even though I'm far more quiet and faster without Danny, it's still not my best hunting trip. Fortunately, neither my bow nor my arrows have suffered any damage with the fire, so I quietly try to track some animals, but the fire has scared most of them away. I manage to hit a rabbit, but that's it. I spot a wild pig, but he runs away when I accidentally step on a branch, I could easily catch up with him, but I don't want to get far from the cave.
I feel trapped. Not only I am inside a fishbowl, the whole world watching me. But not even inside that fishbowl can I move freely. But I can't give up Danny, that thought never crosses my mind.
As I have already done something really stupid today, and I'm about to do another stupidity ― indulging Danny's tantrums about sleeping at ground level ― I decide to do another stupid thing and I light a fire outside the cave, even though the sun is setting. My bow sits right beside me, and I'm ready to take down anyone who so much as approaches us, but I hope that everyone is too busy licking their wounds to actually come after us.
The night falls, and Danny leaves his spot at the back of the cavern to join me as I finish cooking the squirrel. He accepts his half and we start eating as Panem's anthem begins. Tonight there are two faces projected. First is Lara's, the girl from District 4 that formed part of the Careers, the girl that had kept guard while I slept. Again I find myself wishing I hadn't found out about her name. And then the face from the girl from Ten shows up, the seal of the Capitol remains a few seconds on the sky to only leave space for the stars after.
"You think both died during the storm?" Danny asks after a while and I nod.
"I only heard one canon, but I'm guessing the thunder drowned the other." I reply, and we both focus on eating in silence.
The squirrel is gone too fast, and my stomach rumbles. The exercise of the day begs me for more food, but there is none. Instead I try to quench my thirst with two sips of water before handing the canteen to Danny. He takes four long gulps and I don't stop him, I can't find in myself the strength to do so. But I know I need to find water soon.
"Can you sing for me Katniss?" Danny whispers from behind me.
I'm sitting by the cave's entrance, next to the fire, and he is curled up in a ball inside the sleeping bag he's laid at the back of the cave. His words make their way into my brain slowly, and I freeze once I process them.
After my father died I stopped singing for good. It wasn't until one day that Prim had a particularly bad nightmare that I brought myself to sing. I hadn't sung for anyone else ever since, not until Danny was reaped and I comforted him on the train. I am just not ready to sing in front of the Capitol.
I hear some rustling and I look up. Danny is pulling the sleeping bag with him and he lays down next to me, his body curled up against mine. "Please." He asks me, and I can't bring myself to say no.
When the lullaby is finished my hand is still running down his curls over and over again. I think he might be asleep, but moments later he speaks again.
"That's how he fell in love with you, you know? He says you sang the first day of school when you both were in first grade. He's told me the story so many times I almost feel I was there." He chuckles tiredly, and I hope it's too dark for the cameras to catch my blush, or maybe the fire will disguise it.
I don't know why, but I ask. "What's the story?"
"Well, you were wearing a red plaid dress, and you had your hair in two braids, not one. And he hadn't noticed you because back then he used to be 'boyfriend and girlfriend' with Delly, you know Delly right? Delly Cartwright." I nod, trying to piece my own memories together. I remember the dress he mentioned, Prim wears it now. And I did used to wear my hair in two braids when I was younger, so maybe this is all true. I chuckle at the air quotes he draws at the words boyfriend and girlfriend and he continues.
"So, my father had told him that in his class there would be a very pretty girl, she was the daughter of the woman he wanted to marry when they were young, but she ran off with a coal miner." My fingers freeze in his hair. My mother has never elaborated on her relationship to Peeta's father, but I know they grew up together, as she used to live in town when she was young... before she ran off to my father. "Peeta didn't believe him, because ― no offense, Katniss ― but who would choose a coal miner over a baker? And then my dad said that it was because he had a voice so beautiful that when he sang, even the birds stopped to listen. Peeta still didn't believe him."
Somehow I am more and more convinced that he is telling the truth. When my father sang the birds did stop singing, and the mockingjays paused respectfully after his song before repeating it. It was one of my favorite things of going to the woods with him, singing with the mockingjays.
"But then, in music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the Valley Song. And Peeta said you shot your hand up, and you went to the front and stood on a stool because you were so tiny, and you sang. And he says even the birds stopped to listen."
Now I know that no amount of darkness could possibly hide the blush in my cheeks, and I don't think there is nothing going on at this hour that is interesting enough for the cameras not to be capturing my embarrassment. "That's a lie, birds don't stop to listen to me."
"They did now."
"It's night, silly. There are no birds singing." I remind him and he frowns, but before he can protest a parachute falls from the sky, landing safely beside me, away from the fire. Inside the pot there's a small can with a white cream. My mind jumps forward and I rub some of it on the burn in my arm, when the relief hits me I turn around to tend Danny's wounds. Once he is sleeping peacefully I tend mine.
The message is clear this time.
Keep it up, sweetheart.