The Night Train | EVERLARK

Night Two | Reliving Everything, Everynight.

NIGHT TWO

Peeta is running.

He can feel the pain in his leg as he tries to scramble through the woods, he has just been slashed to bits by Cato's sword, and the tracker-jacker venom has finally reached his brain.

He thinks he sees his mother, her rolling pin in hand as she approaches him, ready to strike him for burning yet another batch of bread.

"You worthless boy! Always with your head in the damn clouds!" His mother shouts at him, and he feels tears escape his eyes.

He's still running, but he realises that he's now eleven years old, trying to outrun his older brother as he chases him. Rye chucks pieces of Peeta's recently decorated cookie that had been so intricately painted by him only earlier that day.

Rye had destroyed the cookie only minutes after Peeta had finished it, effectively ruining hours of work. His reason being that Rye needed to toughen him up.

"No girl is ever going to want a little crybaby !" Rye sing-songs, catching up to him. He was always faster than Peeta, always winning every single fight.

Peeta blinked and he was sixteen again, running into the woods and finding Katniss on the ground, Glimmer's bow and arrow gripped tightly in her hands.

This is when Peeta realised that it wasn't his brother chasing him, it was Cato.

"Get out of here go! Katniss get outta here!"

Peeta stops, yelling in Katniss' face, but realises that as Katniss turns around, her entire face is burnt.

"Wake up Peeta," She whispers menacingly, tears of blood streaming down her face as she lunges for him...

"Peeta wake up."

Peeta opens his eyes, meeting the real Katniss' stare as he realises that it was all just a nightmare and that he was in reality and not in the games anymore.

The star-crossed lovers had finished their second stop on their victory tour earlier that afternoon. Peeta tightly holds Katniss' hand the entire time, wishing that it was real. Wishing he could let go of his love for her.

"What?" Peeta asked, his voice thick with sleep. He could feel the phantom ache of his leg, feeling as if it was still there tucked beneath the sheets, when he knew for a fact all that was left was his hideous stump.

"You were screaming, I could hear you from down the hall," Katniss explained, sitting down on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the edge of the duvet cover.

"Sorry for waking you."

Katniss shook her head at this, her hair, which was undone from its braid, was cascading down her shoulders. He tried not to think about dragging his fingers through it. Obviously, he was failing at this whole trying not to be madly in love with Katniss thing.

"I wasn't asleep anyway," Katniss explained.

Peeta noted how tired she looked. During the day it was easy enough for her prep team to cover up her worry lines and dark shadows beneath her eyes. But now, without an inch of makeup, Peeta could see just how exhausted she looked.

"Would you like to lie down? You look..." Peeta began, unsure of how to word it so as to not hurt her feelings. He knew that she was beautiful, obviously, but he also knew that Katniss was not in the least bit aware of this.

"Like death? Yeah I know," Katniss finished, not meeting Peeta's stare. He knew that Katniss was embarrassed. He could tell by the fact that she let her hair fall over her face, trying to hide any emotions that her face might be showing.

"No, you just look tired sweetheart," Peeta corrected softly, reaching forward to grasp Katniss' free hand.

Katniss blushed at this, peering up at Peeta through her hair, "you and your merchant manners," Katniss said, the beginnings of a smile on her face.

Peeta knew that she was just teasing, which was rare for Katniss to do nowadays, so he permitted it.

"What was your dream?" Katniss asked, all the playfulness gone in an instant. They always told each other about their nightmares, they were often eerily similar.

Peeta sighed, sitting up and explaining to Katniss that his dream had mainly been a flashback to his time in the arena. He watched as Katniss turned away from him, tears filling her eyes.

"I should have warned you about those tracker-jackers, it's my fault you got stung," Katniss said. Peeta knew that Katniss regularly blamed herself for almost everything that had gone wrong in the arena.

Grabbing her hand and smiling softly at her he shook his head, " none of it was ever your fault."

Katniss nodded, but he knew that she didn't believe a word that was coming out of his mouth.

"Would you like to go get a midnight snack with me?" Peeta asked, there was no way the two of them were going to sleep anytime soon, and he knew food was Katniss' weakness.

"Why not?" Katniss replied, smiling at the thought of food and proving Peeta right.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚˚ʚ♡ɞ˚˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

"If you dip it in the ice cream, it tastes significantly better," Peeta prompted, dipping his cheese bun into the tub of ice cream that the two were sharing.

After some gentle persuading, the victors had managed to acquire quite the midnight feast from the few staff that were awake at such an hour. It had only taken a mild display of patheticness from Katniss as she explained that she had a nightmare, covering for Peeta.

So now they were sharing the feast on Katniss' bedroom floor. A makeshift picnic blanket was placed down, allowing the two to display their spread of crackers, cheese buns, hot chocolate, ice cream and several other strange foods that they had received.

Katniss wrinkled her nose at Peetas' unsavoury combination of foods, "that is disgusting Mellark."

Peeta just grinned at her, showing her the inside of his liquidy mouth.

"Close your mouth you animal!" Katniss laughed, playfully swatting him away.

Peeta just laughed, swallowing his odd combination of foods and taking a moment to study Katniss as she sat across from him. With her legs folded and hair down, she looked her age, sixteen and carefree. And Peeta could almost kid himself enough to forget the fact that the President was after them both.

He could just taste a future between him and Katniss, one where he could see her smile like that every day.

"Your cheese buns are better anyways," Katniss adds, completely distracted and not taking note of Peeta's watchful gaze.

Forever humble, Peeta laughed but accepted the compliment graciously, secretly agreeing with Katniss that his version of them was better.

"Can I just say one thing, Katniss? One compliment? And then I'll shut up forever if you wish," Peeta asked, knowing that this was more than likely going to result in Katniss hitting him or worse.

However, as Peeta expected a smack in the face, or for her to get up and abandon him, Katniss just whispered, "I'll allow it."

Peeta tried and failed to contain his shock over this, but managed to contain himself as he prepared what he was about to say.

"I just wanted to say that I think you're so beautiful Katniss, and no matter how you feel... I'm so grateful for you," Peeta began, delighting in watching Katniss squirm over the niceties. She never took compliments well at all. So he left it at that, not daring to push his affections further.

"Thank you Peeta," Katniss whispered back, offering him a rare and sweet smile. She looked almost too good to be true as the soft golden glow of the candle the two had lit danced across her face.

Peeta, being unreasonably chuffed with himself, could only grab her hand and whisper back,

"Always."