Pregnant in the Quell | ✔️

Chapter 3

Peeta finds me looking out the window of the back of the train. He sits next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulders. I lean into him, not because we need to "act like a couple," but because I need the comfort. Gale would have usually done this in the woods, but he works in the mines now.

We sit there for a long time until Effie calls us to dinner. We follow her to the dining car, where the mahogany (A/N: hehe) table sits. The Avoxes bring out food, but I can't eat. I just look down at my toes. After a while, I excuse myself and go to my room. I change into soft, silk pajamas. I slip into bed and close my eyes to pretend l'm sleeping.

I eventually do fall asleep, but the nightmares come. I wake up screaming and Peeta is there. He must have come in when I was sleeping. He hugs me tightly as I feel tears fall down my face.

We fall asleep and this time, Peeta wakes up screaming. I'm there to comfort him though. He sobs into my shoulder as I whisper, "I'm here, I'm here." We fall asleep again, and Effie wakes us up. Giving us a disapproving look when she sees us together, of course. I don't understand why she did though, we are married.

We quickly eat breakfast and then get ready to face the cameras at the train station. We see the Capitol, for the third time in our lives, and we get ready to get off the train.

"Ready?" Peeta asks as he links his fingers with mine. I nod as the doors open. The cameras flash as we head to the car that will take us to the training center.

Haymitch and Effie climb in and I prepare for a sarcastic comment from Haymitch, but it never comes. We get to the training center and we climb out to walk into the big, concrete doors. We get into the elevator and I press the button for the twelfth floor. The doors slide open and I walk out into the large room. Peeta, Haymitch, and Effie follow me.

We are greeted by Portia, Cinna, and our prep teams. They take us to our rooms, and I am left alone with Flavius, Venia, and Octavia. They all at least cry twice each. After they leave and Cinna comes in I say, "I swear if you cry, I'll kill you here and now."

He chuckles. "Don't worry. I channel my emotions into my work."

"Good," I say slightly less annoyed. "What am I wearing tonight? Headlamps or fire?"

"Something along that line," he says.

He puts up my hair first, in the braided style my mother introduced him to, then proceeds with my makeup. Last year he used little so that the audience would recognize me when I landed in the arena. But now my face is almost obscured by the dramatic highlights and dark shadows. High arching eyebrows, sharp cheekbones, smoldering eyes, deep purple lips. The costume looks deceptively simple at first, just a fitted black jumpsuit that covers me from the neck down. He places a half crown like the one I received as victor on my head, but it's made of a heavy black metal, not gold. Then he adjusts the light in the room to mimic twilight and presses a button just inside the fabric on my wrist. I look down, fascinated, as my ensemble slowly comes to life, first with a soft golden light but gradually transforming to the orange-red of burning coal. I look as if I have been coated in glowing embers — no, that I am a glowing ember straight from our fireplace. The colors rise and fall, shift and blend, in exactly the way the coals do. "How did you do this?" I say in wonder.

"Portia and I spent hours watching fire," he says.

We make our way down to where the chariots are, and I see all the other tributes chatting with each other. Unlike last year, they are talking with other people from other districts. Peeta and I are the only ones who don't know anyone, so we just stand there awkwardly. I see Finnick Odair coming up to me and I feel my skin start to crawl. I see he has a pile of sugar cubes in his hand.