Darker And Colder

1.03: Victors

Chapter 3
Peeta's POV

I wake in the middle of the night after having a nightmare, and go to take a shower. I can't lose Katniss. I can't. The games can't take her away from me.

She is the only female Victor, and me and Haymitch are the only male Victors. No matter what, it will be her going in with one of us. And I'm going to make sure it's me. If I'm in there I can protect her.

I hear a muted scream, and run back into the bedroom. Without a thought, I instantly go to hug Katniss, and she hugs back. We lie there for a second, and I ask if it would help to talk about it.

"I... I'm not sure. But I can't lose anyone else," she whispers.

I bring her closer and we eventually fall back asleep.

♤♤♤

It's morning, and we go downstairs. Katniss's mother and Prim aren't down yet, so I decide to go down to the bakery to get the cheese buns she likes for breakfast.

It's very quiet as I'm walking the streets of District 12. Sometimes quiet just means peaceful, but this quiet brings a feeling of terror, like the people are scared of going outside. I see someone looking through their window, and when they see I'm looking back they give me a look of pity. Maybe people don't like the Capitol, so they don't normally like us, but nobody can help being disgusted at what they have done.

When I arrive at the bakery, my mother comes and embraces me. This is unusual for her, as even when me or my brothers were sick and off school, she would be kind but not overly caring. My mind goes to her shooing away a 12 year old, starving Katniss from our bins. I always liked Katniss, and I felt terrible that we had food and plenty of it, while she had nothing. I didn't want her to starve completely, so I burnt a couple of loaves of bread just enough so that we wouldn't be able to sell them. My mother shouted at me and hit me, saying we would have to feed it to the pigs and we had wasted money that would keep us alive. I went to feed it to the pigs, but instead threw them to Katniss and ran back in, too embarrassed to make eye contact.

My mother is different now. She knows what we have both been through and is kinder for it.
She gives me a bad of cheese buns and two loaves of bread, still warm. She sits me down to talk with my brothers, which I do, but then explain I have to go back and I'll see them soon.

♤♤♤

Katniss's POV

After around three quarters of an hour, Peeta comes in with some bread for us. My mother takes them off him, and gives me, Prim and Peeta a cheese bun each. She slices a loaf and lays some goat's cheese from Lady onto them.

We eat the loaf and make small talk but I find it hard to talk about normal things when we have the games looming over us. After a while Peeta suggests we go see Haymitch, so when we have finished our breakfast we do.

He is still asleep and there are a dozen empty bottles on the table, so he is definitely on a hangover. I prise the knife from his hands and Peeta shakes him awake. Somehow, considering how much he must have drank last night, he isn't in too bad a state.

"So," he says, his neck not quite supporting the weight of his head, "I guess you heard the news."
I assumed wrong then, he is in a very bad state.

"Yes," Peeta is somehow managing to stay calm and not shout at him, but shout at him appears to be all I can do.

"Do you not care? One of you two is going back into the arena with me, and the other is going to be the primary support. Only two of us are going to get out there alive. You can't just drink your life away any more Haymitch, we all need to support each other."

He looks slightly taken aback at this, but replies "I know, I.. that wasn't.... wasn't a clever thing to do. But I don't have any more of that stuff- that was it. So I could be alot worse. Now, do you mind getting me some more-"

"No- Katniss is right. We can't have you even slightly drunk Haymitch, it's not going to help any of us. Even you."

I am surprised by Peeta's response but it does its work on Haymitch.

" From this day onwards," Peeta says, "we are going to train hard, all three of us."

Eventually we persuade Haymitch to agree; not without him being stubborn however. After a lot of talking, we manage to land on an agreement and we begin training the very next day.