The Last Hunger Games

Chapter 37 - One Bag

A/N: Hi this hasn't been updated in a month and all I can say is that I procrastinated. For a month. Yeah, I'm sorry. (just as heads up, this chapter really briefly mentions SA, and so just skip through if that might be triggering to you. It's not much but there's just a warning for you.) Thank you for reading. 
On a side note, who else here is obsessed with the enemies to lovers trope. Like damn.

"It's okay, I'm sorry," Jack's voice says, and I take a deep breath in an attempt to compose myself. 

"No, no, it wasn't you. Sorry, I..." my sentence trails off as I come to realise that I am still in his embrace and my head has been in the crook of his neck this whole time.

"Oh my - sorry, I've soaked your jacket. There might be some tissue in that bag you can dry it wi-"

"It's okay, I don't mind," he says.

"Are you just saying that because you like me?"

"No. I mean, everyone needs a good old cry from time to time. And besides, you're kind of keeping me warm."

"Fair point," I respond. I subtly lean my head on his shoulder and decide that now is the time to sort out my feelings about him. But then I remember something.

"Hang on, don't get all comfy," I say, sitting up, the top of my head narrowly missing his chin. 

"Too late," he then says, which I ignore. I climb over and grab my mace, and look around using a lighted match. 

"What are you doing?" 

"You'll see," I say, and spend the next couple of minutes smashing anything suspicious. When I'm done, I put the mace back down. "Cameras," I tell him. "Cornelia is never finding out about this."

"About what?" Jack says. I can see his face in the orange glow of the match, which is slowly burning out on the ground. I lick my finger and put it out. 

"Us, hiding in a basement. If I get home she will never let me forget it." 

He laughs a little and smoothly says, "Hey, I'm getting cold."

"I'm not a hot water bottle, Jack. Screw you!" I say, and lob a sleeping bag at his face. 

"I didn't mean you! How dirty is your mind? I meant I'm getting cold in general, as in this basement is chilly," he says, and I'm surprised. It doesn't even seem like a lie. 

"My mind isn't that dirty. It's just...let's just say that my being a Snow isn't the only thing about me that people have taken for granted." He doesn't say anything and neither do I, so we just climb into our separate sleeping bags. My mind tries to recall some scarring memories, ut I just force them backward, like all the other times.

"Sorry," he says into the darkness.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for," I say.

"Well then I'm sorry about whatever happened to you," he says.

"It's fine. I'm fine," I say, shuffling further into my sleeping bag. 

"Stop lying."

"Look, whatever happened to me is in the past, and I'd like to keep it that way. There's a reason I don't talk about this stuff to people, a reason I like to be alone. If you let people in on your problems, I find that they just get bigger. So just leave me be, alright?" I blurt out. I'm tired of people thinking they can solve my problems for me. 

"Alright," Jack says. "And now I swear on my life that I mean this in the most innocent way, but it's like North District 7 in here, could we share?"

"Fine," I say, unzipping my sleeping bag. "Damn, it is freezing in here." I climb into his sleeping bag. This feels so wrong, but I'll choose it over freezing to death. I zip up the bag and get as far away from him as possible; this is big, and I'm glad. 

"Truth or dare?" I ask him. I doubt he'll choose dare, it's much too cold to do any sort of funny dare down here. 

"Truth," he says, as expected. 

"How many of my friends have you kissed?" I ask. It's a weird question but nobody ever tells me the real truth about their breakups, and I've always had my suspicions about him. 

"Plot twist: Avita has friends!"

"Answer the question." 

"I don't know who's in your little group, or squad, or whatever you call yourselves, but I think three, and by the end of tonight probably four."

"What the hell do you mean by-" my sentence is cut short as my whole body freezes when something touches my cheek. 

"Did you just..."

"No."

"But you-"

"Wow, you have a lot to learn. That, was a peck. A kiss is very different, I can show you if you'd like." I contemplate it for a moment or two and then hesitantly say, "Okay." This could well be my last night alive, I might as well make the most of it. After all, maybe Jack Egnatia isn't nearly as bad as he was back at the Capitol Academy. I find myself turning over to face him and he leans in first. I lean in too, because I think I'm supposed to, and then suddenly our lips are touching and my whole body has a wave of heat rushing through it. Then I go cold again, and I realise that the kiss is over. 

I sit up in the sleeping bag and lean against the wall.

"I can't believe I just did that," I say with a slight laugh in my manner. He laughs a little too and sits up beside me. 

"You're not bad for a beginner," he says. I can feel his eyes looking at my face but I don't meet them. Eye contact has never been one of my strong points. A sentence forms in my head but I"m afraid to say it.

"I guess I could use some practice," I end up saying under my breath.

"Hmm?" he says, obviously not hearing me. 

"Celestia would've kill me on the spot if she found out about this," I say. He chuckles slightly.

"Violet would've too," he says. 

"I'm gonna get some sleep. You wanna keep first watch?" I ask.

"I think we might be alright down here without watches. What do you think?"

"As long as you don't snore, then we'll be fine."

"Okay. Night then." As we settle down into the sleeping bag, there is a sense of peace in the air that hasn't been there for much too long. I don't feel the need to get quite so far away from him this time; after all, it is very chilly down here and he is the only source of heat. Not in a looks way, in an actual heat way.

"Goodnight," I whisper, and then gradually drift off into a dreamless sleep.

a/n: You're welcome :)