Kindred

Sneak Peek of Chapter Two!

Regular updating for Kindred shall commence Friday the 19th of June! I felt bad for leaving you guys hanging without anything for so long so here's a sneak peek for chapter two! Enjoy! :P

Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback, read and voted. This is for you guys!

"Was this her room?" asked Peeta.

Katniss nodded. The other room, the one down the hall from here, was off limits. Even Katniss didn't dare enter. The room would be in the exact condition in which her sister left it before Gale took them out of the District. Katniss wasn't yet prepared to see how her sister's life had been at the exact moment her childhood ended. She didn't let Sae empty it, like her mother's room. Primrose's room was untouched and would remain that way for the rest of Katniss' days.

"So what have you been doing with yourself, anyway?" asked Katniss, trying to divert her thoughts away from Prim. Thinking of her sister's room alone made her throat ache and her eyes well up a little. If Peeta saw her cry, he would grow concerned, and she wasn't prepared to talk about it. Not even to him.

"Not a lot, honestly," Peeta admitted. Katniss couldn't look at him. She moved stuff around in the top drawer of the big white chest she was searching, even though there was only a couple of buttons; some socks; underpants; and three marbles inside. "I don't leave my house too often. There isn't really a reason for it. Only to let Haymitch know that I'm getting by."

Katniss scoffed softly. Haymitch must have burst into Peeta's house and made demands as well.

"Well, I suppose I go into town once a week to stock up as well. Lifelong supply of food doesn't seem to bode well with being left in cupboards for months on end while a rebellion goes on," Peeta added.

Katniss remembered when she first returned to her house. Before Sae even began helping her out. All the perishable food in her cupboards had rotted into green mulch and most of the other food stuffs had gone off. Thankfully, when Sae arrived she removed the mulch and went into town to stock the house up. If she hadn't have done, Katniss would probably have starved to death.

"So the District has a place to shop at?" she asked vaguely.

"There are quite a few small business, actually. Not a lot because of the rebuilding, obviously, but we have enough to get by," Peeta answered.

Katniss slammed the top drawer shut, making herself jump at how violently she did so. She opened the second somewhat gentler and rummaged around inside it as well. "Do you feel good? Mentally, I mean?" She didn't realize until she'd asked that it probably sounded like she was being nosey about his hijacking situation when in reality she had wanted to know if he was going through what she was. If he was a bit of a wreck as well and tried to hide it when he discovered that he was going to her house for tea, just like she had when she found out that he was coming.

"Some days are better than others," Peeta honestly told her.

"Do you think you'll ever reach a point where you'll be okay?" Katniss already knew the answer for herself. No. She wouldn't.

"What is 'okay'? That's what I'd like to know. What sort of life constitutes as okay?"

Katniss stared intensely at the contents of the second drawer. Bear keychain; more buttons; a book; some wipes; and a pack of bandages. Of course Peeta would answer with something like that. A question for a question. Except his question made much more sense than hers. What did constitute an 'okay' life?

"Not this," she finally said. She shut the second drawer and opened the third.

There was a pause. Then Peeta said, "No. Not this."