An argument with a boy. If it wasn't for the fact that Katniss wasn't the type of girl he could see getting worked up to the extent she was over romantic matters, he might have laughed. Then again, he reminded himself, in spite of all that he'd seen in his life, there was never anyone who quite managed to catch him off guard than Kate, including even Anthony Cooper himself. Enemies, they mattered, but not always more than friends, because if there was anything Sawyer had learned from those overall do-gooders of the island, it was that true friends were hard to make. Required playing a goddamn dance. The only thing worse, to his mind, were strangers.

Did Katniss still count as that?

"Boys... Ya gotta understand, Katniss. We ain't the most skilled with words," he told her, unable quite to reach out, contenting himself with watching her. "Sometimes we're asses for the sake of being asses. You saw my past, you saw my dreams, I made a friggin' living outta it. But I've seen your nightmares too. And those ain't nightmares to keep so close to your chest that you end up screaming over a prick instead of socking him in the jaw."