Katniss POV:
I don't open my eyes when I first wake up, I can feel Clove's arms around me. I smile sleepily and open my eyes and stare into her beautiful face. She murmurs something, screwing up her face slightly.
My heart flutters at her adorableness, She murmurs something else and pulls me closer to her. I lie there, just enjoying being near her. She stirs and opens her eyes blearily, when she spots me watching her she gives me a sleepy grin.
"Morning." She mumbles. I try to extract myself from her arms but she holds me tighter. "Nope you have to stay here now." She pulls me closer to her and buries her head in my shoulder. I laugh and kiss her.
"How about we go into the forest together?" I suggest, she grins at me and nods finally letting me go. I scramble out of bed and start to get ready for the day. Glancing at the time I gasp when I see it is 9:30. That's incredibly late for us to get up, I shake my head vowing to get something useful done today to make up for it.
Once we're both ready we leave the house. Traveling the distance through the town to the fence. I let Clove go through the hole in the fence fist and follow her. I retrieve my bow from the tree where I hide it.
"How about another archery lesson?" I offer holding up my bow. Clove nods and takes the bow from me eagerly. "We could try shooting actual animals." I suggest and Clove agrees as we start to sneak through the forest.
Clove struggles with hitting moving targets I note as I watch Clove miss a squirrel for the third time. "You've got to aim for where it's going to be." I tell her.
"I know that, it just takes me a while to aim with this thing." She growls glaring at the bow.
"Hey, don't take it out on my bow." I say jokingly. She turns to me a playful grin on her face. She pulls out a knife and passes it to me I accept it unsurely.
"Alright let's see how you do when using knives to hunt instead of your bow." She says grinning at me.
We sneak through the forest I throw knives the way she showed me a while ago. I keep missing though. "Damn it." I curse and I nick a squirrels tail causing it to squeak and run off. And arrow flies towards it hitting the branch where it sat moment before.
I roll my eyes grabbing the bow from Clove and nocking an arrow expertly before releasing it, hitting the squirrel directly in the eye. "Not bad." Clove says turning to me. I shrug and she goes to collect the knife that I threw that's now imbedded into a tree. "Maybe we should stick with our own weapons." She suggests and I have to agree, it feels better to have a bow in my hands than a knife. I retrieve my arrows and the dead squirrel.
We wander off deeper into the forest. I examine the trees searching for something to hunt. "Hey…Isn't that a mockingjay?" Clove points out I look to where she's pointing a spot a small mockingjay watching us warily from a high up branch.
I smile slightly. Mockingjays mean a lot to me, my father used to sing to them and they remind me of Rue. I swallow the lump in my throat. "Are you alright?" I turn to Clove, she watches me her eyes filled with concern. I nod my head and give her a small smile.
"My father used to sing to the mockingjays, when he started singing they'd all stop to listen and then copy him." I smile at the memory, he taught me to sing to them too but I haven't really paid them much attention since he died, not until Rue anyway.
"I'm sorry." Clove says but I shake my head.
"It's all right, I like remembering him…And Rue…." I take a deep breath, "She used to sing to them too…" I whisper, Clove puts an arm around me. I meet her eyes and she smiles sadly at me. We settle ourselves at the bottom of a tree, her arm still around me as I lean into her.
"Do you sing for them?" Clove asks suddenly indicating to the bird that's still watching us. I shrug.
"I haven't for a long time…" I murmur, frowning slightly.
"Why not?" She asks.
"I guess I just stopped singing much at all when he died…Except for Prim…"
"What about for me?" She grins at me jokingly and I can't help but laugh.
"You want me to sing for you?" I ask laughing, her grin widens.
"Only if you want to."
I laugh and sit up straighter. Softly I start singing a song my father taught me long ago. Clove is silent as I sing. I finish the song and the forest is quiet for a moment before the mockingjay picks up my song singing the tune throughout the forest as other mocking jays hear it and start singing it.
"Wow." Clove grins at me and places a kiss on my lips. "That was beautiful." She whispers. I shrug, blushing slightly at her compliment. She laughs when she sees it and kisses me, pushing me to the ground and leaning on top of me.
We stare into each other's eyes for a while, I find myself overwhelmed by the feeling of love I have for her. "I love you." I tell her, my eyes glowing, the words don't seem to be able to describe just how much I love her. She smiles and kisses me.
"I love you too." She grins at me before climbing off of me, allowing me to sit up.
"We should probably get back." I say, we've spent hours in the forest already, Clove agrees and stands up holding her hand out to help me up. I grin taking her hand and she pulls me to my feet. She pulls me closer to her and kisses my lips quickly before releasing my hand.
We walk together back to the fence. Stashing my bow back in the tree on the way. We scramble back through the hole in the fence and into District 12. As we walk through the town towards Victors Village I find myself taking Clove's hand and entwining my finger with her.
People stare as we walk through town, some people nod at us in acknowledgment others scowl at us but we ignore them. They're not important. Right now I'm just happy to be with Clove and to have her hand in mine.
I glance into the living room and see Clove engrossed in whittling. I smile, deciding to leave her to it as I enter the kitchen where my mother is cooking dinner while Prim sits at the table with Buttercup on her lap.
I offer to help my mother cook and she accepts passing me some vegetable to start chopping up. After a while Buttercup hops off Prims lap and darts out of the open window. "Come back Buttercup." Prim shouts, she runs over to the window and watches him scamper away from the house. "He always doesn't that…He doesn't like it here. " She mutters almost to herself. "I'm going to bring him back, it'll be dark soon." She says to our mother who nods and Prim runs out of the room.
We're silent as I cut up the vegetables in front of me while my mother sorts out the bits of rabbit. "How have you been Katniss?" My mother asks after a while, I glance at her and shrug, not liking where she's going to this.
I can feel my mother's eyes on me but I studiously ignore her. She sighs and puts down her knife and pushes the rabbit away from her before approaching me. "Katniss…"
"I'm fine." I snap not allowing her to finish. I shoot a glare her way, she swallows hard before taking a deep breath.
"Have you been sleeping? You don't look like you have." She says trying to look me in the eye. I purse my lips and turn to her.
"I'm fine." I repeat angrily, I don't want to talk about this and definitely not with her.
"Katniss, please…talk to me... I might be able to help."
"I don't need your help!" I find myself shouting at her, my hands curling into fists in irritation. I instantly feel guilty at the look of hurt that crosses my mother's face. Shaking my head in an attempt to clear it I stride out of the room.
Things are awkward between my mother and I during the next few days. I tell Clove what happened and she says she'll speak with my mother if I want her to but I decline, nothing good would come of it.
Cinna calls a lot, trying to help me find my talent for the victory tour. He eventually manages to convince me to sing. I don't particularly like the idea of singing for the Capitol but it is definitely the easiest option.
I sit under our usual tree in the woods. It's become routine for Clove and I to go into the woods together in the morning. It's nice to have her there especially when I have flashbacks while hunting. After nightmares and flashbacks it's always her I want, not Gale, not my mother not even Prim, just Clove.
"I have something for you." She says suddenly and I turn to her as she reaches into her bag and pulls out a small item wrapped in brown paper. She grins at me as she passes it to me and I look at her questioningly. "Well you going to open it?" She asks laughing at my confused expression.
Slowly I pull away the paper not sure what I'm expecting. I gasp when I see it, a wooden mockingjay sits in the palm of my hand. Its wings spread out as if in flight. I run my finger over the wings taking in how each feather has been carved into the wood.
"Do you like it?" Clove asks and I look up grinning at her.
"You made this?" I ask, she nods and my grin widens. "Thank you." I say happily, leaning in and kissing her. "It's amazing, I love it." I tell her, she smiles and kisses me.
The days pass quickly and almost too soon it's the day before the tour. I find myself going hunting with Gale. He's silent throughout most of the trip and I can't help but feel something is wrong. He keeps giving me sidelong glances and refusing to look me in the eye for longer than a second.
We leave the forest and suddenly Gale takes my hand leading me down an alley way. He doesn't look at me and he keeps a hold of my hand. "Gale…" His eyes snap up to mine.
"You're leaving tomorrow…For the Victory tour." He says and I nod slowly.
"It's not like I have a choice." I shrug, he nods slowly averting his eyes from mine.
"I…just wanted…" He sighs and shakes his head. Suddenly leaning in and kissing me on the lips. Once I've got over the initial shock I feel white hot anger course through me. My hand curls into a fist and I find myself pulling it back and belting him in the face.
Gale stumbles back a couple of steps and looks up at me, holding a hand to his cheek where my fist had collided with it. I glare at him, how dare he? I thought he was my friend, I love Clove not him. He shakes his head lowering the hand to reveal a bruise forming there. "I just wanted to do that once…"
"You had no right." I snap at him, my hands balled into fists, I take a few deep breaths to stop myself from punching him again. The hand that I used to hit him stings slightly and I flex the fingers causing them to crack satisfyingly. "I love Clove…I'm not going to leave her Gale….Not even for you!" I growl.
Gale holds up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry" he says, I shake my head and turn around. Before I walk off I glance over my shoulder. "Don't talk to me again Gale." I shout before storming off wishing I'd brought Clove with me on this hunting trip, he wouldn't have dared to try anything around Clove.