District Mingling

"Good to see we didn't entirely miss the party," Cato said stepping out from the trees while holding the end of the whip in his hand.

"Thanks," I said as I grabbed Rue into my arms.

"We killed all of the Peacekeepers we saw while coming here," Cato said trying to reassure me.

"We have a total of 8 dead here," Peeta announced pulling bodies with Thresh and Eight.

"We killed 5 in the woods," Clove added.

"That makes 13 in total that's a normal Peacekeeper crew," Cato said taking his whip from the Peacekeeper's wrist.

"Well it seems as though the threat is gone for now," Cato said.

"It would seem so," I replied cradling Rue in my arms.

"So we found some cool stuff in the base," Clove said wiping her knife off on a Peacekeeper's uniform.

"That's good hopefully that'll make life easier," I smiled picking Rue up. "What kind of stuff did you find?"

"We found some refrigerators, mattresses, bedding, food," Clove was thinking. "We couldn't bring anything back though because we saw the attack on some screens there."

"Thanks for coming," I said smiling at her.

"Oh shut up!" Clove screamed at me. My head jerked back startled as I was examining Rue for injuries.

"Pardon?" I asked.

"Shut up! What are you perfect!" Clove was holding her knife tightly now.

Peeta rushed to my side even with the cuts he wore on his legs. "Clove calm down," Peeta said.

"Shut up Lover Boy!" Clove snapped.

"We're gonna go back and gather," Cato said grabbing Clove's hand.

"You have a pretty nasty cut Cato, you should let Eight heal it," I whispered.

"We really shouldn't stick around," Cato said pushing Clove away.

"I already have some medicine on," Peeta said "she and I can go, you guys can meet us there so we have more people to help carry stuff. I mean are you ok with that Clove?"

"I feel fine with Lover Boy I just don't like his Twinkie."

I decided not to push the issue and just returned with Cato to Eight's house. "Sorry about her," Cato apologized awkwardly, maybe trying to decide if he meant it.

"That's ok," I said biting my lip "it's just something I'm going to have to learn to live with."

"Hopefully she'll get over it," Cato muttered as Eight put on some medicine we had taken from the Cornucopia. The few medicines the thing had contained were at the very tip inside the Cornucopia, only Rue could reach in far enough to grab them. But the result from the medicine was expected. The cuts healed within two minutes, the Capitol really was amazing even if they did send their citizens to the slaughter.

"So she hates me," I whispered.

Cato looked over "well it's in our culture to some extent. That doesn't make it right, by any means, but she's mad at you because you don't fit what we're told about people from District 12."

"What are you told about us?"

"That you guys are weak, feeble, skinny, basically pathetic," Cato said. "But you, you scored higher than we did and you had no training."

"Well I had to hunt to live," I shrugged.

"Still have to now," Cato said sitting in the empty wooden room we called a living room.

"That's true," I smiled.

#

Clove was walking about ten steps ahead of Peeta and refused to slow down. Peeta's cuts had long since healed and even though his legs were fine he was still just a little hesitant to follow Clove. He thought perhaps she would still harbor some resentment for him after the alliance broke.

"So Lover Boy you must think I'm just horrible," Clove whispered into the air as she finally slowed down.

"I don't think that," Peeta said softly. "I don't think negatively about anyone really," he finally caught up with Clove who still refused to face him.

"I always liked that about you Lover Boy," Clove said now keeping pace with Peeta. "You're always so kind, you had no business being in these games."

"So what kind of things did you find?" Peeta asked.

"Blankets, bedding, mattresses, some food, I was asking Cato if he thought we could hook up some water for sinks and some electricity for refrigerators too."

"You sure have a vision for this place," Peeta said as the two entered beyond the forcefield.

"Ya I know it'll never be like the homes we had before but maybe it'll be something nice still."

"All we need are the ideas," Peeta said kindly. "Plus as they are these homes are better than the ones Katniss and I grew up in."

"You mean the perfect little princess didn't have a castle on a hill?"

"Why do you hate her? She doesn't really have much to be jealous of, she's a great person and I really like her but as far as fortune goes she hasn't had much of it."

"What do you mean she got all the sponsors for the games, her mentor picked her over you, she could kill so easily once she got that bow, and she got an eleven even though she never trained once!"

"That's what this is about," Peeta said finally understanding. "You're mad at her because she beat you at a game she didn't even know she was playing. You trained your whole life for these games and she just walked in and swept everyone off their feet."

Clove looked away from him. "So what I have a right to be angry, I should hate her!" she snapped.

"Ya you could do that," Peeta shrugged "or you could try to understand her. She wasn't even supposed to be in these games, she wasn't picked or anything."

"Ya, ya we all saw, some little girl got picked and then she flipped out," Clove spat.

"Not just a little girl, her little sister. She loves her little sister more than anything. More than her life. I think she freaked out so much because she didn't start out with much and as life went on she only got stuff taken away. Her dad died when she was eleven you know."

Clove stopped walking "I didn't know that," she paused. "But, but so what, people lose people all the time in this world. It's part of life!"

"Have you ever lost anyone?"

Clove looked up at him "no."

"Then I don't think you understand the pain she went though, I don't understand it either. We've both been fortunate in that, but Katniss, she knows death."

Clove walked on "fine I'll give her a chance."

#

AN: Done! I hope you like it. Please review!