"I'm glad you found me, too," I whisper back, grinning, our foreheads still resting against each other's. We stay like this for a little longer, absorbing the other's presence, and I wish that the moment will never end. I've been wanting, needing this, but not realising it, since the day of the reaping, early that morning when Newt helped me with the coal.
It seems so long ago, back before the Games, before either of us realised the pain we were going to go through. But a small part of me is glad that the Games happened. Because without it, Newt might not really have noticed me, and certainly not in the way he has now.
"I never thanked you properly," I murmur, "for Chuck. And for the coal. And for-for everything."
"Don't mention it, love," Newt replies, seriously. "But now that you have, you know what you could do to help?"
My tone matches his. "What?"
"It's dinnertime. I'm starving, and you probably are, too," he says, and cracks a grin. I smile back and slap him lightly on the arm.
"Way to ruin the mood," I tell him, but grab the large bowl of rabbit stew anyway, and examine it closely. "It's definitely enough for both of us for now," I say cautiously, "but I don't know how long it'll last."
"Relax, y/n," Newt says, and eases back against the rock. "We have, what, two birds, another half squirrel, and a rabbit. And besides, I don't want to be dead weight. I'll hunt tomorrow, and you can stay here."
"Not a chance," I say, frowning. "Despite the painkillers, your leg's still hurt, and I don't want you to risk damaging it anymore."
Newt frowns. "There's more painkillers. I'll be fine."
"And what happens when they run out?" I argue.
Newt throws his hands up in the air in surrender. "Let's discuss this in the morning, love," he says wearily. "I just don't want you to do more than you bloody have to, okay? We have to keep buggin' order, which means I need to do things for you, too, because I want to help you," he finishes softly.
I look him up and down and finally set the stew between us, down on the cold stone floor. "Fine," I agree. "We'll decide it in the morning."
"Good that," Newt says. I bite my lip.
"We don't have any spoons or anything," I apologise. Newt chuckles.
"I don't bloody mind, love," he says. I hand him one of the full bottles instead of going to the waterfall, while keeping one for myself, and he takes a sip.
"So, how are we going to eat this stew, then?" I prompt loudly, peering outside of the cave at one of the trees. I grin when I see a silver parachute float down slowly and almost lazily from the sky, illuminated only slightly because of the soft flames from inside the cave. The parachute snags on a twig close by me and I reach up to get it. Two silver spoons are attached with hair-thin wire to the parachute, and I pull them down.
"Newt!" I whisper-shout, "look what else Minho sent us!" I sneak back inside the cave, nearly hitting my head on the ledge as I go in.
"Brilliant," he says, and plucks one from my hand. I take my seat next to him and over the course of the next half an hour, we devour the entire rabbit stew between the two of us. Once we're done, I sit back.
"Are we sure that was wise?" I ask hesitantly, fidgeting with the spoon in my fingertips as I continue to take sips of water to stay fully hydrated.
YOU ARE READING
The Tributes of Twelve | Newt x Reader
Fanfiction(y/n) (y/l/n). A girl from the Seam in District Twelve. She lives under the control of the Capitol with her father and younger brother Chuck. She has avoided the Hunger Games her entire life and has instead focused on putting food on her family's ta...
