Warning: These one-shots feature heavy subjects, including alcoholism, drug abuse, and torture... so far. Now adding: depression, cheating, heartbreak, underage, implied prostitution, suicidal thoughts, someone having acid thrown on them. I'll add more as the story wears on, just in case.

Disclaimer: Credit goes to HannahSongla for the story idea. Please go check out her Hayniss story similar to this - Sweetheart. Credit goes to Suzanne Collins for the verse and the characters. I don't really own anything but the text of these one-shots. And no, that doesn't mean the song lyrics or the playlist. Enjoy c:

Song: Stay Alive by Jose Gonzalez

Stay Alive

Leaves you empty
With nothing but dreams
In a world gone shallow
In a world gone lean

She has her first nightmare the same night that the cameras leave. She wakes her sister and her mother screaming out Prim's name in terror, thrashing and screaming. And it's not only them she wakes, it's him too - he wasn't asleep anyways, but that's another story. He doesn't even think twice about it before he's out the door, not even bothering with shoes. He remains calm and stony across his lawn and into hers, pounding on the door with a handful of strange orange pills and a glass of whiskey.

Her mother is skeptical, but she allows him to go and see her - taking the whiskey from him and replacing it with cold water. He does the first thing he can think of - he crawls into bed with her. He doesn't touch her, he doesn't try to hold her to comfort her like the way he knows Peeta would. He just looks at her glazed over eyes and murmurs sweet nothings to her, words that should penetrate whatever horrors are playing in her mind.

"Wake up, sweetheart," he whispers gently, his voice barely a wisp of a thing. "It's not real. Come back. It's over. It's just a dream."

That's all it takes, really. And then she's nothing but a weeping mess in his arms and she's ripping at the cloth in wracked sobs. He allows her into his arms, allows her to find her warmth in him because he remembers how much it felt like hell when he'd had no one there to understand. She chokes and sputters, tripping over her tongue to tell him about how she was back in the arena, about how she had to murder her sister. He ignores the muffled squeak from the hallway or the scurrying of house slippers on the cold hardwood floor. He listens and rocks with her gently, pressing gentle kisses into her hair and muttering about how she's safe now - how whatever she'd dreamt up was over and gone.

When the tears have dried and her breathing is slowly coming down from it's high, he realizes just how inappropriate this is. He extends his hand and the orange pills, attempting to get her to go to sleep so he could leave, but she smacks them out of his hand furiously. She stares at him with grey eyes filled with rage at the insinuation. She finds her only consolation in that soiled shirt with the whiskey scent.

So when she's done wetting his shirt with her tears, he stands and clears his throat - preparing to make his exit. He shouldn't have come here in the first place - this should be Peeta's job. It was perilous business being here like this. No matter how much he wanted to be the one to comfort her. But it seems she doesn't want Peeta, because she launches across the bed and tugs on his sleeve, staring at him expectantly.

"Stay," she whispers, swallowing past the terror in her throat. He winces but concedes - because honestly, he could at least give her this - and slides back into her bed. Her bed that doesn't have odd yellow stains or wreak of whatever that days poison was. Her bed that smells of honey and strawberries and just her. He wraps his arms around her shoulders and she lies her head over his chest, moving her ear this way and that to find his heart beat. His arm drapes lazily over his waist, and it brings him a comfort that he didn't know he could feel. To be here with her, to be her protector for once.

Neither of them say a word, just sitting with each other and finding contentment in the others presence. They don't need words, they fill the hush with a silent understanding. An understanding between two kindred souls that know what it's like to lose everything and nothing at the same time.

And when the sunlight filters through the drapes and the moon has gone to rest for the night, when her breathing is even and she's fallen into a serene sleep, when his eyes are burning and fluttering closed, he clutches her closer and refuses to let go.

I will stay with you tonight
Hold you close until the morning light
In the morning watch a new day rise
We'll do whatever just to stay alive