The MATRIX: The One

8 - Peeta requires the right motivation

Peeta POV

I'm already awake when my door squeals open and light from the corridor floods my, uh, room. I sit up, already dressed and ready to go, but pause when I see that it's not Katniss standing on the threshold but Rory.

I can only imagine the look on my face. Rory grins widely. "She's busy with repairs," he informs me before I can cobble together a tactful way to ask. "So it's just you and me this morning, Lover Boy."

"What?"

Rory smirks, leans against the door frame and crosses his plugless arms over his chest. "Did you think nobody noticed that you and Katniss have a thing?"

A thing? Like a life-debt?

"Dude. She let you hug her in the Construct yesterday. She cried on your shoulder. You guys got a thing."

"Fine," I agree, secretly pleased and silently horrified. Katniss has lived through so many tragedies. If I were her, I'd be a fucking mess every damn minute of every single day. She's the strongest person I've ever known. I'm honored and humbled that she trusts me enough to let me help her, to lean on me and let me keep her safe and sound and standing upright. I tell Rory, "I'm not going to waste my breath arguing with you."

He chuckles. "Shit, man, you even sound like her."

I decide to take that as a compliment. Pushing gingerly off from my lumpy mattress, I ask, "What's on the agenda?"

Rory throws an arm around my shoulders. "Good times, man. Good times."

"I think we disagree on the definition of good times," I inform him two hours later. So far, all he's done is stuff my head full of computer languages and combat training. Why do I need this shit? It hasn't helped Katniss hijack her sister so what good is it going to do in my head?

Rory groans. "Oh, man. C'mon. Put your back into it, huh? This shit's important. And you're totally crapping all over my record."

"Your record?"

"Yeah. You're my first trainee. Don't leave me oh-and-one."

I sigh.

"Okay, let's try this," he suggests a bit desperately.

The screen in front of me blinks, announcing the topic of the next upload. "Aikido?" I read. Why bother with Japanese martial arts when I already know how to field strip and assemble a variety of semi-automatic weapons in the dark and underwater?

"Yes, aikido. Please don't suck."

I sit back and bite down on a second sigh. "Okay then. Fill 'er up."

I hear the tapping of keys behind me. I close my eyes, curling my fingers around the battered armrests to brace myself. A tingle deep within my brain is the only warning I have then suddenly I know how to walk on my knees in silence and how to fluidly tumble under an opponent's sweeping arm. I know exactly what amount of force to apply to the pressure point on the human hand in order to make the fingers go nerveless and drop the knife in their grasp.

In an instant, I have all of this knowledge, and now it's time for me to spar with a simulated opponent, but I'm bored with all this. I just want to see Katniss, ask how she's doing today, check to see if she'd slept all right, sneak a hug. I miss her. She's the reason I'm here, not these glorified video games.

When my mind drifts and I fail a simple maneuver, the simulation ends and a string of curses welcomes me back to the deck.

"Problems, Rory?"

I grin at Katniss' droll remark. "Hey," I greet.

"Hey, yourself. Are you giving this idiot fits?"

She leans a hip against my chair and crosses her arms. Her hair is lank with sweat and I catch a whiff of that peculiar odor that melted metal gives off – something acidic and dry. "Yup," I reply.

"Hm. I should have known you wouldn't behave yourself."

I shrug. "I guess I don't have the right motivation."

"Right," she agrees, her lips curving into an almost smile. I grin back at her, unashamed of my enthusiasm. She squints at me for a minute and then her expression sobers as she looks over my head and back toward the operator's station. "Load me up, Rory. And give us an hour in seventy-one-dash-G."

"Uh, are you sure about that? If Finnick—"

"I'll deal with Finnick. Peeta and I have both earned a break."

"Okay then…"

Katniss squeezes my hand and then pivots away and hoists herself into the next seat all in one fluid motion that I catch out of the corner of my eye. I wish I could turn my head but there isn't much clearance around the plug still embedded in my skull and after what she'd told me yesterday evening – after learning what the consequences of being disconnected are – I'm not in the mood to test my luck.

"Where are we going?" I ask cheekily, thrilled that she's here, that she'd stood up for me against Rory.

"Someplace quiet."

I blink, my head tingles, and when I open my eyes, I'm staring out over a low, stone wall ringing a cobblestone courtyard, taking in an illuminated cityscape. It's midnight and I can smell rain on the breeze, dusty and lush. I've missed this smell. Smells. I've missed so many things, even if they hadn't been real.

"See? Quiet."

"Hey," I greet her, smiling at her approach. Her hair is in a braid like always, but tonight she's wearing a dark tank top and a pair of old shorts. Her hunting boots look a little scuffed, but they embrace her legs all the way up to her knees. God I love those boots. It drives me nuts imagining tugging those laces free and peeling the leather down her calves. I think I actually dreamed of her ankles last night. We were in the back of a car speeding down a thoroughfare and the constant shift of streetlight and shadow had frustrated me to no end as I'd tried to decide exactly what shade the skin of her bare legs had been.

I clear my throat. "Um, nice view."

She nods, stepping up to the wall next to me and bracing her hands on the stone. I study her as she looks out over the vista. "I like it."

"Where are we?"

"Lisbon. Um, this is a castle ruin within the city limits."

I frown. "Is this really out there somewhere? Still?"

"I've never been to the surface," she admits, "but I don't think so."

"Then how do we even know this is what Lisbon looked like?"

"The Matrix," she answers with a sardonic grin.

"Wow," I answer. "A prison that preserves our cultural heritage." Ironic.

Katniss snorts. "That little bit of admiration is going to turn into horror once I take you to a Chuck E. Cheese's."

"The kids arcade? I love that place!"

She chuckles. "You would."

The wind stirs again and I take a deep breath. The streets are winding and quaint. Romantic. Draped in shadows that are meant to be entered while clasping a lover's hand. I daringly reach for Katniss. "Let's go for a walk."

"Okay."

We wander down the castle hill, passing souvenir shops with their shutters closed for the day. I can hear music in the distance; there must be an open-air bar around the corner. I wish I knew how to dance. I might actually pay attention to that training program.

"Boa noite!" an older woman calls from across the street beside a cart overflowing with flowers. She waves an arm toward the blossoms and I ache to buy one for Katniss. I check my pockets, but I only come away with American coins, a couple crumpled bills, and my old inhaler. My usual pants pocket fodder. I'm pretty sure the flower vendor only accepts Euros.

"Peeta?" Katniss inquires, frowning at me.

I feel a flush begin to creep up my neck. "Uh… um…" And then I glimpse something out of the corner of my eye: a miracle. I keep my grip on Katniss' hand as I step over to the patch of greenery poking up between the stones and pluck a single, yellow bud from the cluster.

"A dandelion?" Somehow she manages to pack an entire age of philosophical inquiry into the single phrase.

"Yeah. I'm sorry I don't have any Euros on me right now."

"It's okay. These are my favorite anyway."

I inhale sharply when her fingers brush mine as she steadies my hand, leans forward, and breathes from the blossom deeply. "Here," I offer in a hoarse whisper. I tuck the flower above her left ear. I take my time because, damn it, her hair feels amazing against my fingertips and, yes, I'm stalling. I want to kiss her, but I know Rory's probably watching us on one of the monitors and I'm not sure if I care but I think Katniss might so—

Running footsteps approaching.

Katniss' gaze flies over my shoulder, her eyes widening and body tensing.

I cry out when my head hits the wall. My vision blurs and my knees buckle. Something hot and wet drips into my eyes. But it's not until Katniss' hand is yanked from mine that I panic.

"Katniss!"

Angry words. A man's voice. A feminine grunt. I force open my eyes in time to see Katniss' back connect against the wall and her head knock against the tiles. She winces, brings her hands up in surrender.

Distant lamplight winks off of the blade in the man's grasp.

I don't even have to think about it. I charge him, clamp my arms around his waist and spin him away from Katniss, slamming him into the street and pinning his wrists behind his back. Perhaps I apply a little too much pressure to his hand, but the knife clatters onto the stones so I don't second guess myself.

All of this happens in an instant and in a blur. I startle when I feel Katniss' hands grip my shoulders. I look up into her eyes. I blink and nighttime Lisbon melts away, leaving us in the endless, seamless, white glow of the Construct.

"Shh, you're all right. Just breathe. Like this." She inhales deliberately and I realize that I'm panting, almost hyperventilating. Why don't I need my inhaler? Oh, right. Because none of this is real. Because that hadn't been real. I'd never had asthma to begin with.

"Good," Katniss praises softly. "Good. Just like that. You're all right. You did really well."

"I… what?"

She answers my frown with a soft smile. "If this had been the Matrix, you would have saved my life again."

My lips purse but I can't decide which question to ask. Had she seriously just put me through a mugging simulation?

Finally, I just shake my head. "Okay. You've made your point. I'm motivated now." I attempt a glare. "But did you have to scare the shit out of me?"

"I am sorry about that."

"It's okay. You can make it up to me later."

She almost laughs. "You have my word."

Notes: Nope, none of this happens in the movie. The dojo fight and the jump program is coming up, though!