Chapter 4: Mistletoe and Whippings

Perhaps it is just as well that I can only see Gale on Sundays now. During those first few weeks after our argument over Darius, I have no desire to talk to him. Our hunts on Sundays are even temporarily suspended. I prefer instead to hunt alone.

It's a bad season to be hunting alone. Winter is in full swing, which means there is scarce game as it is. I have to work twice as hard to bring down the few meat I can find without the help of a partner.

One Sunday, I only have a few rabbits in my game bag when I go to trade in the Hob. Predictably, I encounter Darius there. I find myself flushing when I see him, even with the cold already bringing a red to my cheeks that is normally uncommon for someone Seam. I offer Darius one of my rabbits.

He grins. "You know, I never got to give you that kiss from before. How about now as payment? Besides, there's mistletoe." And he points directly above us, where there is indeed a sprig hanging from a beam.

I let out a nervous laugh, as I glance about the black market. It's busy, and my guarded nature dictates that I do not want everyone startled by the show of Katniss Everdeen openly kissing a Peacekeeper in public. Maybe just a quick peck will do...

"Sure," I shrug.

I intend to peck Darius's lips, but he makes the first move, wrapping his arms about my waist and pulling me close. We drift towards each other slowly, and my mind goes blank. My resolve that this be an innocent peck goes flying out of my head. Besides... is a rabbit worth so little...?

I get the sense that Darius is about to kiss me until I forget my own name (and I shiver to realize that I was about to bestow on him the same courtesy), when a head of blonde hair comes shrieking into the Hob. Darius and I fly apart, caught just short once again.

"Peacekeeper! Peacekeeper!" And Peeta Mellark makes right for Darius, the first white-armored guard he sees.

"What is it, boy?"

"They've got Gale! Whipping post!"

Darius looks flummoxed; he knows as well as anybody in Twelve that the whipping post hasn't been used in years. Even more than that, he actually looks scared. "What the devil...?"

Any thoughts of our kiss-that-wasn't forgotten, Darius tears out of the Hob, Peeta and I right at his heels. We end up leading a crowd of gawking onlookers from the Hob to the square.

Where indeed, my best friend is chained to the whipping post, and an unfamiliar Commander is giving him lash after agonizing lash. Gale's back looks as shredded as an animal's hide. Off the one side, I can see another head of red hair pleading with the flogger. Purnia.

"That is more than enough for the proper punishment, Commander Thread..." Purnia is begging. I can tell she is lying through her teeth. Who is she to know the proper number of lashes when the lash has lain dormant as a mechanism of justice for years?

Perhaps feeling that a second opinion might calm the raging Commander, Darius steps in and confirms Purnia's bullshit story.

"He was poaching deer!" Thread, the Commander, splutters. Evidently, he isn't used to subordinates making suggestions on how he should do his job.

"And he has been dealt with admirably," Darius eases. "Commander, it would not do for you to make a scene with your first official act here in Twelve."

Thread finally acquiesces. Darius and Peeta cut Gale free. The strength between the two of them alone is impressive, as only they are needed to carry him away. Back towards my mother. Purnia dithers after them, looking oddly more concerned than I have ever seen them. I jog to keep pace with the men.

As Mother and Prim look after Gale, Peeta and I badger Darius with questions.

"Who is he?" I demand.

"New commander. Looks like Cray's out," Darius muses.

"Cray's been fired?" Peeta stares. That is a startling development indeed. True, none of us really cared for him, but at least Cray left us alone. Compared to other regimes in other districts, we probably had it pretty cushy under Cray, in fact.

"I guess his laziness finally caught up with him," Purnia hypothesizes.

"What do we do now?" Peeta demands of Darius.

"Ride him out for the time being. Any regime change in districts has some growing pains and its share of violence before the dust settles. I hope Thread can be persuaded to relax some of his harshest tendencies. There's nothing to be threatened by from a backwater like Twelve. Things may well revert back to what they were under Cray. You'll see."

And he and Purnia take their leave, the latter lingering on Gale to make sure he is taken care of.

I almost feel disappointed when Darius doesn't kiss me goodbye. It's almost like I expected him to. I find myself running after the Peacekeepers. Purnia has gone on ahead, for I find Darius alone in the street.

"Darius!"

He turns back. "Yes?"

I want to kiss him. I want to throw my arms around him and eat his face off in a kiss so indecent, I would get thrown into the stocks. That is a punishment sometimes, for indecent affection/exposure. Sex between consenting adults is only accepted in the bedroom or the Slag Heap, obscured by mountains and mountains of trash. But two people can kiss in public, provided that they are conservative about it.

And now I want to kiss Darius badly. To thank him for saving Gale. I want Darius to kiss me back. Or finally work up the nerve to kiss me at all. I don't even care so much that it would be in full view of the neighbors...

But my courage fails me. I flush scarlet and glance away. "Thank you. For saving Gale."

Darius beams. "You're welcome."

It is late evening. I am sitting up, alone with an unconscious Gale on our kitchen table. Primrose and Mother have gone to bed. Peeta left ages ago. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door. I answer it to find Darius.

"Did you forget something?"

"Yes,"he breathes deeply. "This." And pulling me tight against his body, he kisses me full on the mouth.

I freeze for a moment, eyes bulging. Until I remember that I've been waiting for him to plant a kiss on me. Snaking one arm around his neck and my other hand against his chest, I close my eyes and kiss him in return.

The kiss quickly becomes heated. Darius staggers back into the archway of the door. His calloused hands squeeze my ass while he hoists me up the wall. We begin to tear at each other's clothes, hungry for that violently intimate act they call sex...

I awaken suddenly, dismayed to find my panties and bedclothes soaked with fluid. And even more dismayed to discover that my long-awaited kiss with Darius was just a dream.

The thought makes me scowl. What is wrong with me? Since when am I demanding or expecting or even dreaming that a man kiss me? I only hope the answer isn't that I, a poor Seam woman, am falling for a Peacekeeper...