09/07/2016
A/N: Thanks again to elfielovesbooks for your review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one!
Forgot to update yesterday but I'm doing it now. Whoops D:
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.
Chapter three: Smell~
She smells like cinnamon and tree bark, wild and natural and untamed.
He loves it, but he doesn't tell her that. Not right away.
It's taken him a little over six months to get Katniss to warm up to him, and it's taken a lot more effort than he's used to on his part, but he doesn't mind. If anything, he enjoys the chase, the thrilling challenge of finding a crack in the concrete-like barriers she holds around herself at all times and weaseling his way past them.
The Capitol charm that he is so used to resorting to when trying to break the ice with a complete stranger hasn't worked in the slightest, so he's had to get creative.
After testing out various approaches, he found that standing at attention and saying nothing seemed to work best. Rather than walking up to her and telling a joke or offering to get her a drink, he finds the most success by keeping his mouth shut and just settling for being within a five-foot radius of her.
It's after these first few successes that he realizes the tables have turned; he is the privileged one now. And he doubts that Katniss is even aware of what she's done, which is the funny part. The woman had barely allowed him the time of day and yet he had already bent himself over backwards to try and get close to her, as though she were the veteran and he were the newborn Victor enthralled by her presence.
Which leads to where they are now, standing on the balcony of yet another fancy house belonging to yet another fancy dignitary throwing yet another fancy party, taking an occasional sip from their wine glasses and chatting at the pace of a snail as they look out at the crowd.
Katniss sighs forlornly through her mouth at his right, looking at the Capitol natives in distaste, and he can tell that she would rather be anywhere but here.
He isn't sure what causes it - maybe it's the gust of air that leaves her mouth or the light breeze blowing in from behind them - but his next breath picks up her strong and heady scent with his sudden intake of air, and his senses are flooded with the raw smell of cinnamon and nature.
He chuckles quietly to himself, thinking about how ridiculous it is that he would enjoy standing next to someone for the sake of their smell alone, and though he is sure it will go by unnoticed, Katniss picks up on it like a Peacekeeper's dog.
She shifts slightly and asks him what he's thinking about that has him so giddy, and so he tells her.
He tells her that she smells like cinnamon and tree bark mixed with the slightest hint of spice.
She tells him that he smells like chlorine mixed with cheap Capitol perfume.
And she doesn't mind one bit.