Ambush
Rue was asleep in the bedroom Peeta and I had added into our house especially for her. I smiled remembering how happy she was when I told her. She had jumped around and even hugged Peeta. She was so happy she almost hugged Cato too but a quick scowl from him changed her mind. Thresh and Eight had both decided to have a house on their own, it had been more work but we knew everyone deserved the space they requested.
As I laid next to Peeta in our bed of leaves I wanted so badly to fall asleep. I tried laying on my side, my back, my other side, my stomach, the other side of Peeta, I even tried laying so my head was next to Peeta's feet. Nothing worked and I was miserable. I was too strung up wondering if Cato and Clove were ok, wondering when they'd be back.
I finally accepted that I would get no sleep and so instead I stood and grabbed my bow from beside the leaves. "Where are you going?" the soft voice of Peeta nearly made me pee myself.
"I was going to get breakfast," I whispered back.
"It's pitch black outside," Peeta whispered glancing outside the window he'd cut the previous day.
"I can't sleep," I confessed. He opened his arms to me and I sighed setting the bow and arrows back down. I returned to the leaf bed resigned to a boring night without sleep when Peeta surprised me. I had lain down with my back to his chest but he quickly flipped me. He ran his fingers threw my hair and it trailed down my back until it rested just above my butt. I blushed as I stared at him through the darkness and his blue eyes were intense. I blinked a few times hoping to find that it was my imagination bringing on this intensity, it wasn't.
He brought his head forward ever so slowly and placed his lips on mine. My heart froze, my lips froze, my fingers became stiff, and my lungs forgot how to breathe. I could die, I dramatically thought, Peeta's trying to kill me! This was, of course, ridiculous, Peeta was trying to kiss me, not kill me. Still forgetting how to breath was deadly and, ok ow still not breathing! I jerked my head away and gasped for oxygen. I was so focused on ensuring my lungs were overly supplied with air that I missed the hurt look that swam across Peeta's face. Just as I was beginning to accept that I could breathe again Peeta turned away from me.
I looked at his back curiously and felt a twinge of hurt in my heart, I didn't want Peeta to hate me. I was confused though, wasn't all of this love business for the camera? Then it hit me, Peeta wanted this house with me, he could have gotten a house alone like Thresh or Eight but he wanted it with me. When we had been at the Peacekeeper's base and I had woken Cato for his shift Peeta had stared longingly as I took up residence next to Clove, with her wary approval.
I hit myself in the forehead; I could be so stupid sometimes! Of course this wasn't an act for Peeta, sweet beautiful wonderful Peeta wanted to be cut to shreds by my inability to trust, love, or allow people close to me. I looked beside me again, surely if anyone deserved a chance it was Peeta, though the only person who'd ever stand a chance against my rough exterior was Gale. Gale! Now I'd really never see him again. My thoughts drifted back to the world, the districts, and the Capitol. What on earth did they tell the families? Whom did they crown the victor? I shook my head, all good questions none important right now.
I sighed and bit my lip, I reached a hand down and gently stroked Peeta's hair. He made a noise of comfort but didn't turn towards me. I sighed and moved my body over his so that we were, once again, face to face. I looked at his closed eyes and they stared back without blinking. I then closed my own eyes and lost myself in my heart, not my mind, or my reason, my heart. When I let myself return to sensation I was kissing him, damn I liked Peeta. His lips were chapped from the several days of travel and I was sure mine must be too. His hands grabbed at my sides and tugged them closer to himself. My arms, shaky as they were, wrapped around his neck, pulling him to me. I felt Peeta smile into the kiss and he had me smiling too and we had to pull apart because it wasn't really a kiss anymore anyways. We were smiling and laughing softly when we heard it, a single tiny bell ring throughout the camp.
I was the first one up, I grabbed my bow and arrow and raced to Rue's room. I grabbed her tiny body from bed and while she was waking up carried her outside. "Get up, get up," I hissed in her ear shoving her at the nearest tree. "Don't come down until I whistle," I commanded. Her big childlike eyes looked at me in horror before she disappeared.
I saw Thresh and Eight coming out of their houses looking worried too. I ran into Cato and Clove's house and quickly fetched everyone else a sword or dagger or whip or, Cato was really holding out on us weapon wise. I returned and they all took something from my hands and the rest were tossed into Peeta and my living room until we were done with the fight that was on it's way.
We all bristled again as another one of the bells rang, this time it was from a closer string. The idea had been brilliant, though hard to execute. Rue had suggested taking some string, or wire, or whatever long substance we could possibly find and weave invisible trails through the forest and rock area surrounding us. The string from different distances would then be run through all the houses and a bell from a hideous Capitol shirt we had discovered in the Peacekeeper base would be tied to it. Depending on the sound the bell made, using different sizes caused different noise, it would tell how far the enemy was.
"At least we know the security system works," Peeta said in a hushed whisper. Thresh looked at Peeta with an unamused face. My bow was held at the ready, a bow already attached and waiting to kill. Whoever was coming to find us was running into five of the seven finalists from a game designed to kill. Eight looked back at her house worried as another bell rang.
"What's wrong?" Thresh asked in his usual quiet voice.
"That was the first one again," she whispered.
"They're retreating?" Peeta asked.
"Or whoever it is isn't alone," I said clenching my teeth with worry. I really could have used Cato and Clove here, they were trained to kill and all of these people? Well we were lucky to be alive. I inhaled deeply hoping to catch a scent but I smelt nothing. Soon some piercing eyes were peering at me from within the woods, all I needed was one eye to hit my usual mark. My bow rose, my arrow flew, and the first Peacekeeper that had seen us was dead.
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AN: SpeakNow4: I hope this is what you were hoping for because I took your notes to heart and tried to improve this chapter. The rest of your questions I have written down on a pad of paper near my laptop so when I write I think about them. I will, in time, answer them all though some will be a longer wait than others. The only one I won't answer is 'what does the room look like that they are currently in now' and that's just because I got out of that part before I could answer it. But I'm aiming to be more detailed from now on.
Keeta-X-Tribias: Yes it was Foxface who was alive in the story but when my friend was going back and forth with me for ideas we ended up thinking that a character that no one knows anything about from the book would be more entertaining. So yes I cut Foxface out, sorry Foxface fans. But hopefully Eight will be just as entertaining, I have some big plans for her soon including finding out her name.
Thanks for the reviews everyone and please keep them coming they make me update faster!