The more hours spent trapped deep in the ground, waiting for the cease fire, the more Eliza's head seemed closer to combustion. Only a little over two days of sharing a room with dozens of people, and she already missed her peace and quiet, her room, her textbooks, and most of all, her routine.

Furthermore, she was not the only one starting to feel agitated. The children, scattered around in fear on the first night, had quickly formed alliances and now played all around the rooms. It had to be some sort of irony phenomena as it was probably the first time most of them had a chance to do so. The adults around seemed keen on letting them have it, at the lack of a better way to keep them entertained.

Eliza had thought it endearing at first, but all the noise enclosed in the growingly tight space soon started to make her ears bleed. Not only that, but her face was still swollen, and the effect of pain medicine had long ago worn off, chaining her to her bunker bed for most of the time. The only solace was having her sewing satchel back, but even that she had to be cautious about. She'd spent so much time embroidering; half the thread was gone already. Even after committing not to spend more than a few hours on it every day, with barely anything else to keep the mind busy, it was difficult to resist it.

Especially when she was actively trying to avoid her thoughts meandering to what happened on the first night. Gale had yet to say a word to her and she had no idea how to even begin approaching him, even if she wanted to. One or two hours after falling asleep, she had opened her eyes at a loud thud, convinced it was another bombing. Her body was starting to hurt all over again, and she instinctivelyreached a hand to her sore neck, even if it did nothing to help her.

"Sorry, I just wanted to use the bathroom." Finnick said, and she realized she'd just heard him jumping off the bed. He went on about his way, seemingly calm enough for her not to worry, even though he didn't exactly try to be silent about it.

Eliza had fallen asleep on Gale's shoulder, and somewhere after that, with Posy in between them, the three of them had rearranged, lying on the mattress.

She could already feel the medication wearing off, all the little spots in her body aching as she turned around to find Posy was still sound asleep in between her and Gale, with an arm around his torso.

Eliza could barely see him with only the distant flicker from someone's flashlight to lighten up the room.

His eyes, on the other hand, were open, darker circles outlining them. His body faced her way with his back glued to the wall, taking as little space as possible.

"I should get to my bed." He said, without moving an inch.

She wanted him to stay, desperately, but couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I can't believe I didn't know it was you," he let out before she even had to open her mouth.

Eliza smiled, a part of her proud of having surprised him, "I think I sound different when I sing."

"Still..." his brows furrowed, "it makes so much sense now. Whenever I saw you leave the house after work... Now that I think about it, most of those days I'd stay there longer, to listen. And it is not that different. I'm just a dumbass."

She wanted to laugh but felt her stomach ache instantly. He smiled back to her but then stopped himself, frowning again once it occurred to him, "Why didn't you say anything? When we talked about it the other day?"

"You'd just told me you had a crush on Madge. I didn't want to ruin your memory." Eliza laid her index finger on the crease between his eyebrows to smooth it out. Then took it away almost immediately, realizing what she was doing.

Gale didn't seem offended. He grinned instead.

"You didn't ruin it."

That familiar sense of warm ran through her body once again. With everything that had happened, it seemed almost criminal that she was enjoying that night so much.

"What do you think about when you sing it?"

She'd already dwelled on so many distant memories in the last few days, she wasn't sure if she should open that box as well. Gale's eyes took longer and longer to blink, but they still did. She could see the greyish colour, despite the bad lighting, staring back at her, ultimately giving her the courage to say out loud, "About Joni, about my mom. It could mean so many things but... it's just a beautiful song...it makes me think how they'll never be able to listen to it."

His eyelids had been getting heavier but perked up at that. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." Eliza smiled sadly, miraculously without shedding tears. Maybe she was getting sleepy again. "What do you think about it?"

He smiled sadly. "Something selfish. I don't really want to tell you."

"It's only fair. I told you mine," she teased him, but yawned right after.

Gale exhaled heavily, so much that Posy moved in her sleep.

Both of them kept quiet for a moment, making sure she wouldn't wake up, and then he said back with a low voice, "It makes me think about myself."

Eliza's heart strained. "That is the definition of selfishness. How can you even live with yourself?"

Gale was rolling his eyes as she took her right hand to his head, this time doing it purposefully. Pushing away bits of his hair that fell to his forehead, her fingers moved tentatively, until Gale's hand suddenly reached for her wrist and guided her further along his scalp.

Eliza caught a glimpse of his eyes and wondered if any of it had him thinking about the past, as it had her.

A few minutes later, he had fallen asleep, and she soon followed.

Eliza vaguely remembered him leaving her bed when Posy started to shuffle in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, when she got up in the morning, there was that familiar warmth again. Despite their circumstances, the pain on her body, and the gloom of the previous days, a part of her could not help being in a good mood.

It didn't take long for her spirit to take a nosedive, with another bombing falling soon like a slap on the face, aiming to propel her back to reality.

The truth was, since then, even the smallest distraction had been welcomed. Anything at all for a chance to numb her mind away with her embroideries and stop thinking about all of it. No amount of thinking would stop the raids, and it definitely wouldn't change the fact that Gale was not planning on coming to talk to her again if he had not done so up until then.

Eliza just had to accept that it had meant nothing, and that there was no use in wallowing if he was so clearly unbothered.

At least she did have Finnick, even if he wasn't that big of a solace. He'd taken a liking to his bed, and rarely left it, unless to use the toilet. They chatted for a few minutes once in a while, but Eliza quickly gathered he'd rather be left alone with his own knots and thoughts. Still, when she mustered the courage to leave their room for a bit, she asked him to join her in looking around for Erica. He was nowhere near as shaken as in the beginning, and seemed happy at the idea of leaving their bed site for a while.

Eliza was glad at first, but also realized it was much easier to deal with him while they were enclosed in a small space and about to sleep. Once she understood that bringing him with her meant trying to keep up a conversation while every pair of eyes in the room stared back at them, she tried not to regret inviting him in the first place.

"How are you feeling?" Erica asked, once she sat down next to her. Finnick opened his arms in Sarah's direction, and Erica gave her away to him without question.

"Your face looks no better, honestly."

Eliza took her hand to her cheek instinctively. It would be good if she could say it looked worse than it felt, but it wouldn't be true.

"I'll be okay. It wasn't that serious, they said it will be back to normal in a couple of days. How are you holding up?"

But she didn't really have to ask; Erica's face said it all. Confined in a room full of parents, babies and toddlers, there didn't seem to be much room for peace and quiet. Her friend's face looked tired in a way she hadn't seen in months, and despite Eliza's best intentions, their chat didn't seem to be helping. It didn't take much longer than twenty minutes for baby Sarah herself to get fussy, giving Eliza and Finnick their cue to slip away.

"You're good with kids." She told him, gathering from how comfortable Sarah had seemed while in his lap.

"What can I say, it's part of my charm."

"Would you like to have them, someday?" Only after it came out did Eliza wonder if it was too personal of a question to ask.

"Not up until recently. But even now..." he hesitated, looking around. "I think this isn't a nice place for a child. All this living underground is unnatural." He retrieved his piece of rope from his pocket, splicing it mindlessly. "I don't think I would've survived it."

"You mean, if you'd've grown up here? I suppose it's not the prettiest, but people seem happy enough."

"Surrounded by walls on all sides? Every shade of concrete and nothing else to look at for their entire lives? It's the least inspiring place I could think of."

Eliza chuckled, internally agreeing that despite all its merits, District 13 was not exactly inspiring.

"I imagine District 4 is much prettier, surrounded by the sea and all."

Finnick nodded, but didn't answer directly. "Don't you miss it? Your home?"

Eliza's eyes traveled away from him as soon as she noticed his stare while asking. Then she stumbled out the words, "I–ah...I don't know... I miss the people. Those I know I'll never see again."

Finnick's fingers trembled for a fraction of a second, enough to let the rope fall on the ground. She got down to pick it up at the same time as him, and their hands brushed together by accident. She looked up, meeting his eyes, and felt her face grow hot like a teapot. The aloofness was gone, replaced by a sly smile that Eliza recognized from TV.

"Don't be so saucy or it will look like I'm courting you, Eliza. We can't have Hawthorne thinking that, can we?" He asked, punctuating it with a wink.

"What? I wasn't–"

"I'm going back to bed." He stated simply, getting up and walking away without another word, leaving her alone to decide what to do with herself.

A/N:

1 - Merry Christmas

2 - This is not an official comeback for the story, unfortunately. I just had two chapters brewing for so long and decided to post on a whim. Maybe I'll get to finish this someday, or at least give it a sense of closure. Thank you for reading