volcanoes melt you down ➴ peeta

[burnwithus]

Every time she settles down to sleep, there's the feeling of being grabbed that shakes her awake. The Peacekeepers are her new nightmare fodder, not that Katniss was lacking in that department. It's really the only thing that she's thought about since they've returned home, the memories of screaming for Gale to shoot her hitting too close to home. Like everything is an echo.

He didn't, though. The deal Katniss had made with him did not apply to this version of Gale, just as she never quite knows how to act around this Peeta, unbroken and whole after being resigned to the reality of losing him for so long. All of the rules have changed, and she's stuck in the middle of it all, trying to adapt.

Trying is the operative word.

It's late. She's not sure how late, but the night air has the sort of stinging chill that only comes in the small hours of the night. Possibly foolish to be walking around at this hour, but she has her bow and her ears are as good as ever. Briefly, Katniss wonders if Jason's somewhere out there, now that she knows that he's watching her.

A twig snaps somewhere behind her, back to a cozy-looking house with lit windows. Katniss whips around, every muscle already tensed and only relaxes when she sees a flash of blonde hair, even by the pale light of the moon.

"Peeta?"

As always, there was a twist in her stomach when she sees him, of emotions she couldn't quite disentangle even if she were up to the momentous task of doing so. "What are you doing here?"

Comments

[ourshinycity]

Recently Peeta has come to remember how much he enjoyed the feeling of flour. The way that it got stuck under his fingernails and got caught in his hair. Working in the bakery reminded him of all of the good things about growing up (the bad things hung around but his mother wasn't here and hopefully never would come here) which was a double-edged sword.

He hadn't been expecting to run into Katniss, but he stopped hand in one of his pockets and pointed lamely in the direction he had been headed. "I was taking the long way back to the Boarding House," he explained. "What are you doing here?"