"Take three times a day with food," Katniss reads to herself in her bathroom. She puts down the pill bottle on the edge of the sink and riffles through the other contents in the box. "Vitamin D, once a day. And… extra burn cream." There's a small sticky note attached to the tub of lotion, reading 'don't ignore me,' Katniss shakes her head. Is it normal for therapists to include such notes?

She's feeling purposeful. She's happy that she managed to go to town and complete an errand, however small. It feels good to move her limbs, to be among other people. She never would have thought that being in a crowd could make her feel good. But it did.

"Katniss?" a woman's voice asks along with a knock on her bedroom door. She looks towards the bedroom, past the open en-suit doorway. "It's me, Delly. Cartwright." A self-conscious chuckle. "You know that. Sorry, I just thought I'd say hi."

Katniss' raises her eyebrows. "Come in," she's surprised to have a visitor. It wasn't quite dinnertime, and she wasn't expecting anyone, other than Peeta of course. She goes to pull open the door when Delly doesn't open it herself. The other woman smiles sheepishly. "Hi," Katniss greets her with a smaller yet confused smile of her own.

"Peeta let me in," Delly motions with her thumb over her shoulder. "I just—uh, I thought it might be nice to drop in to see you is all."

"Oh," Katniss nods. She's unsure of how to navigate this conversation. "That is nice." She agrees.

"I didn't get to talk to you much the other day," Delly appears eager to clear up the purpose of her presence. Katniss has no idea why she'd be so uncertain about it. She's just Katniss after all. "Peeta invited me over, but I already know him, so, no reason to bother him."

"Yeah," Katniss nods. She's briefly distracted by Buttercup, who's slunk up the staircase to twine himself along Delly's ankles.

"Oh!" she exclaims, jumping slightly. "Uh, nice kitty."

"You're not a cat person?" Katniss asks amusedly.

"Um," Delly says, trying to shake off the orange fur ball. "I wouldn't say so? I don't know, I never had a pet growing up." She furrows her brow, seemingly not wanting to offend her, but very much wanting to remove her cat from her person.

Katniss laughs, "here." She bends over and picks up the cat. Without much ceremony she tosses him further down the hall. He hisses at her, but lands on his feet unharmed. "There."

Delly smiles, "I didn't know cats were that sturdy."

"That they are," she nods and steps fully out of her bedroom. "Come with me downstairs?"

Delly nods, "sure."

As they're walking down the stairs Katniss glances at Delly's profile. Is she supposed to say something else? She'd never been much of a social butterfly, but even she can recognize when someone's trying to befriend her. Katniss doesn't mind it, she's even a little flattered by the effort. In the interest of fairness she says, "how are you and Davey settling in?"

Delly smiles in her direction, "Oh wonderfully! Miss Sae took us in."

"Greasy Sae? That's nice. I didn't know you two knew each other." Katniss comments as they step into the parlor.

"Oh, we don't. At least not really." Delly says. "I worked with her in the kitchens, back in Thirteen. I guess she must of not minded having me around that much."

Katniss laughs, glancing towards the kitchen when she notices sound coming from there. "Of course she didn't mind, you're Delly Cartwright."

"Oh?" Delly asks in confusion.

Katniss glances back at her briefly. "Because everybody likes you?"

"Ah… I wouldn't say—"

"I didn't hear you come in?" Katniss steps into the kitchen, smiling in Peeta's direction. He's riffling through her cupboards, clearly looking for something to snack on.

"Did you hear that Dells? The great Katniss Everdeen, slipping?" he smiles and comes closer to squeeze her shoulder, "I came in the kitchen door."

"Oh, we should probably lock that." Katniss comments, pulling out a seat at the island.

"And where would I go?"

"Elsewhere," she rolls her eyes, glancing at Delly with a playful smile.

"Ouch. I guess I'll eat these all by myself then?" He motions towards the covered plate in front of her.

"I didn't say that." She says, tugging it closer. She peels off the dish cloth to reveal some left-over cheese buns from earlier. Katniss happily takes one. "Do you want some?" she offers her guest.

"Um, thank you!" She takes one for herself, coming closer to lean against the edge of the island. "Wow, I haven't had one of these in forever."

"They're not the same as the old ones," Peeta tells her sheepishly. "These are Katniss's version."

"There's more than one?" Katniss asks.

Peeta and Delly's gazes meet in an old inside joke. "Oh, man is there?" Peeta kind of laughs. "Yeah. The original one's kind of sucked."

Katniss raises her eyebrows in question.

"They're called cheese buns, but someone should have said that to Peeta's mom." Delly clarifies. "The woman was stingy."

"But it's not like we had money for cheese." Peeta excuses. To Katniss he says, "I made them extra indulgent for you. Figured you'd like them like that. And you did! I've been making them like that ever since."

Katniss averts her eyes in embarrassment. "That just makes me sound greedy."

"No, no!" Delly insists, shaking her head. "You just have taste."

"And my mom didn't?" Peeta asks with a laugh.

Delly shrugs, "your words." But she's smiling too. To Katniss she adds, "Peeta and I like to poke fun at people together."

"Ah," Katniss nods sagely. "You're gossips."

"Gossips!" Peeta exclaims in mock outrage. He drops his voice back to normal, "yeah, we are."

"Peeta's the instigator," Delly adds with a sly smile. "I'm just an innocent bystander. He's older after all. He should know better."

"Okay, I'm one month older than you," Peeta rolls his eyes and Katniss smiles, she can tell this is probably a repeating joke between them.

Delly tsks, "And yet you never learn. For shame."

Peeta picks up some crumbs off the plate and flicks them in Delly's general direction. The other girl laughs in return, sticking out her tongue in retaliation.

Katniss smiles at them. She's happy Peeta has a friend, but a part of her, regardless of how small, aches. She's lost that specific brand of friendship. "Will you stay for dinner, Delly?"

"Oh," Delly glances at Peeta, her expression unsure. "I don't want to intrude."

"You're not, I'm inviting you." Katniss insists. To Peeta she adds, "is that okay with you?"

He looks surprised. "It's your house, Katniss."

"It's our house." She rolls her eyes and pushes herself away from the island. She's already walking out the kitchen door when she adds. "I'm going to invite Haymitch!"

"O-okay!" Peeta calls back, blushing. When she's gone, Delly squeals, covering her mouth. "Shh!" he insists, mortified. "She'll hear you!"

"There she comes, shut up."

"I wasn't saying anything!" Delly insists. "I won't embarrass you in front of your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Peeta elbows his oldest friend, smiling in Katniss's direction so she doesn't figure out what they're talking about. "Quit calling her that."

"Katniss and Peeta sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n—ouch!" Delly yelps rubbing at her lower back where Peeta manages to pinch and twist, just like when they were kids. "You suck!"

"And you swa—hey Katniss!" his voice swings from annoyed to perky so quickly Delly has no choice but to roll her eyes. "What did Haymitch say?"

Katniss wrinkles her nose in distaste, coming to a stop on the cobblestone path in front of them. "Same old, same old. He'll be around later."

"Cool!" Peeta says, causing Delly to quietly snicker. For an extremely brief moment, Peeta gives Delly the stink-eye. "Delly and I were thinking about going back to town, just to help out, you know. Do you wanna come?"

Katniss seems to think about that, "Again? I don't know…"

"You don't have to!" Peeta insists. "I don't even want to go—"

Delly makes an amused face at that while Katniss shakes her head. "No, it's alright. Don't change your plans for me. I'm sure you guys want some time to just talk anyway. I'll be okay on my own."

"But—" Peeta insists but Delly yanks him up by the elbow.

"You heard her. You can see her for dinner." Delly rolls her eyes for Katniss's amusement. "This guy," she doesn't quite complain while pulling her friend along with her, but she sure tries to look exasperated. "See you later!"

"Later!" Katniss calls back, watching them make their way down the street, already visibly bickering, like overly enthusiastic children.

Again, Katniss tries not to be jealous, but it's hard. They clearly care about each other, deeply, without it being weird. There's no doubt in her mind that Peeta would make a comically disgusted face if anyone told him to kiss Delly Cartwright on the mouth, and she's sure the feeling is mutual for Delly.

Once inside the house, Katniss sighs. It's rather quiet without Peeta. He's always making some sound, even if it's just his prosthetic leg taping against the hardwood.

"It's just us for now," she says as she watches the cat jump up onto the dining table before her. "Do you want to eat something?" the cat tilts its head at her. "I knew it."

"This," Katniss says once she's pulled open the fridge. "Is Peeta's favourite thing on the planet. Milk." She looks down at the cat conversationally, "he'd hate it if he knew I was wasting it on you, of course. He barely shares with me." She snickers, because that just isn't true, while she looks for something appropriate for serving a cat milk. "But, since you're already picking favourites, I figured I might as well try and put myself in the running, shouldn't I?"

Buttercup doesn't really care about what she's saying once she places the milk before him. He shoves his ugly orange head in the bowl and slurps it down. Katniss watches amusedly for a moment before placing the milk back in the fridge and wandering away from the kitchen. She really should find something to do before everyone comes back and she has nothing to show for the time she spent alone before dinner.

She finds the things she wrote about Finnick earlier in the notebook in her room, and she lovingly caresses the pages, rereading everything she wrote. She even finds herself smiling at times, thinking about the positive memories. Maybe it was a good idea; to capture the positive memories she had about someone, rather than dwelling on the bad.

She looks out her window and thinks about Delly and Peeta, and how lucky they are to have each other. She bites her lip and considers the notebook in her hand.

She thought she was going to write about Gale, but he keeps blending with Madge, so she ends up writing about both of them. She laughs out loud at one point, remembering Gale's impressions of some of the powerful people in the District they both didn't like too much. It's really a shame he never could see past Madge's father, they might have been friends, he and Madge, if he'd tried a little.

The pages start to fill up, and it feels easy, but exhausting. Her love for Gale is a big part of her, or at least it was, in the past. It's odd to think about him, still, but she isn't angry. At least not right now. Maybe it's easier to think about him because she isn't really thinking about him. She isn't writing about the Gale of recent, but rather the Gale of before, of the earlier days of their friendship, when she thought she could only smile in the woods.

She must dose off, because one moment she's thinking about Gale's knobby elbows pre-growth spurt and the next thing she knows she's dreaming about big fat strawberries that never end.

"Hey, Katniss," someone murmurs. "Wake up, little bird."

"Dad?" she whispers in bewilderment.

The other person laughs. "What? No, it's Peeta. It's dinner time. I made your favourite."

"Bread?" She replies, rubbing at her eyes.

"No, not—I mean yes, of course I made bread. But I meant stew, with dried plums. I didn't have any lamb but," by then her eyes are open enough to catch him shrugging. "I tried."

She smiles indulgently at him. She's feeling rested and lazy so she stretches a careless hand across the space between them to caress his forearm.

"I love stew," she mumbles.

Peeta smiles at her, "I know. It'll get cold though, or Haymitch will eat it all, take you pick."

"Mm, okay." She closes her eyes while Peeta laughs at her. "My dad used to call me that."

"What? Haymitch? That's weird."

"No," she smiles. "Little bird. Birdie. It was one of my nicknames."

"Oh" Peeta's tone has taken a serious turn. "I can stop, I had no idea."

Katniss opens her eyes again. "No, no, it's not a bad thing. My dad had a million nicknames for me. He was that type of guy, you know? He just gave you a name and never said your real name again. Unless it was something serious, I guess. Like 'Katniss Everdeen, you listen to you mother, you hear?' that type of stuff."

"Was that your impression of what a man's voice sounds like? Yikes." She laughs loudly at that, mostly from surprise while Peeta snickers. "Good thing you've never tried to do me."

"No, I can! Give me a sec." She makes a big deal out of clearing her throat. "Would you like a cheese bun?"

Peeta laughs, "I don't sound like that at all!"

"Yes, you do," she insists. "I swear it on anything."

"Darn, I should probably do something about that then." He smiles at her indulgently, and time must be flying by, she thinks, there's no way they aren't just smiling at each other for way too long, but it doesn't feel awkward. It's nice.

"You wanna go eat now?" Peeta whispers.

She stretches out a little, smiling at him because she doesn't want to get up if he keeps her company. "Fine."

"Look who I found," Peeta announces once they make it back into the dining room. "I found her under a bridge. She told me a riddle and asked me for my first born."

"Haha, I snore, I get it." Katniss mumbles from behind him, bedhead galore. "Where's my stew?"

"Looking good, sweetheart. Where's the photoshoot?" Haymitch chortles as she takes a seat next to him. Katniss offers him an impolite gesture.

"How'd you get out of the toll? Did you try to bargain with your sugar roses?" Delly snickers. "Those are very valuable, I hear."

"Bite me."

"Yuck, I'd catch something." Delly fires back.

"She's a funny one." Haymitch comments. "Didn't see that coming."

Delly inclines her head gratefully, "Thank you very much. I also do weddings."

"Oh my god," Peeta rolls his eyes. "Here. Eat, and don't befriend my mentor. It's weird." He says as he hands his friend a piece of bread.

"What did you guys do in town?" Katniss interjects as she scoops up her first bite.

"Oh, nothing really." Peeta makes a non-comital face. "There was some lumber on the train they needed a hand with unloading."

"Thom said we should keep an eye out for Capitol workers. They're supposed to get here soon," Delly scrunches her nose in as close as she'll ever get to distaste. "So, there's that."

"What are they sending Capitol here for?" Haymitch grumbles.

"Beats me. It can't be that hard to put up a few walls." Peeta shrugs. "Guess we'll see."

"Do you think they're gonna live here? We don't have any space left." Katniss directs her question to Haymitch.

He shrugs. "Who cares?"

"Can you imagine it? A Capitolite, living here?" Delly looks at her when she speaks. "Do they even eat food?"

"They eat, just crazy stuff." Peeta answers. "Hey Katniss, do you remember that soup that made my mouth dry?"

She smiles. "Yeah." She looks back down at her stew. "But the food isn't all bad. As long as they mind their own business, maybe it'll be alright."

From there the conversation veers in a different direction. Katniss listens, at times. She likes the company, and her stew is very good but she's just… spent. It's been a long day. There's also something about Delly and Peeta when they get to talking… something exhausting about it.

"Do you mind if I go to bed?" Katniss asks no one in particular once they've finished dinner. "I just—I'm really tired."

"Of course not. Go ahead," Peeta encourages her. "I'm going to walk Delly home anyway. Just leave your plate there, I'll get it later."

"Should we…" she motions towards Haymitch, who's fallen asleep at the table.

"He'll leave in the morning." He shrugs. "Come on, Dells."

Delly runs to hug her goodnight before she follows Peeta's long strides out to the foyer. Katniss stacks their plates, making sure to throw out the trash and leave them in the sink for Peeta later. She's truly exhausted. Her limbs feel heavier with every move she makes. She even has to pause for a moment, leaning heavily against the counter, until she gathers her strength.

On her way back through the dining room she stops to be concerned about Haymitch. She tries to close his hanging mouth, but his jaw just drops again. With a tsk, she grips him by the shoulders and attempts to gently lay his head on the table. Her grips slips at the last moment and Haymitchs head thumps painfully against the tabletop. She watches with bated breath for a moment or two but the old man doesn't stir. If anything, his snoring just gets louder.

With that in order Katniss begins he long trek to her bedroom. Halfway up the staircase she takes a break, feeling as if all of her energy leaked out of her on the steps a moment ago. She takes a strengthening breath and fights her way up what remains of the stairs, finally collapsing heavily against the hallway wall once she makes it to the landing.

By the time she realizes that she won't be able to make it to her bed she's crawling down the hall. She groans, frustrated with herself, and decides to lean her weight against a nearby door, only to fall backwards into the upstairs supply closet. She looks blankly at the ceiling for a while, too tired to cry. Why can't she just walk herself to bed? What's wrong with her? She gives a frustrated kick and ends up shutting the door behind her, leaving her entirely in the dark.

From there she can feel herself retreating. Further and further back she falls, as if she's really a tiny person inside her own skull, she sinks away from herself, into a still and silent place. She doesn't know if she falls asleep, but it doesn't matter, it wouldn't make any difference.