~ Author's Note: So. I wrote this ages ago, but uploaded it only today. Mehehehe. It was supposed to be a one-shot, but I didn't really finish it at one shot because I got sleeply, and lazy, and yeah. But today I was so damn bored 'coz we had no internet, and I kinda was lurking around the files in my USB, and I found a document named 'Mockingjay Fanfic', opened it, and found this. Finally finished it, tho, so YAY! Congratulations for the first story I uploaded in wattpad, that hopefully, I'll never delete. LOL. [: ~
My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am 20 years old. Years ago, I volunteered as tribute for the 74th annual Hunger Games. I was the girl on fire. I became the Mockingjay. I started a revolution. People I didn't know, people I loved, cared about, and knew even only by name or face died because of me. But Snow's dead. I killed Coin. The Hunger Games are over. And I'm with Peeta now. Everything's okay. . . I think.
I made another mental list of all the things I believed was real. A habit that I've grown used to over the years, even if it no longer is that necessary.
I watch the sunset color the sky with orange. Peeta’s favorite color. Peeta, whom I deemed as the one I "can't survive without."
More thoughts flooded my brain. Images of the past, me thinking about what I should've and shouldn't have done. What I could've done to change things. Things that would've or could've happened, and things that shouldn't have. I feel regret, but I also remember the moments when I was truly, and genuinely happy. Moments like this are what makes me doubt if everything that I've been through was indeed worth it.
Darkness engulfed the surroundings as the sun bid goodbye and welcomed the nightsky. I realize that I've been sitting here for hours, in the forest, at Gale's and my rock, already used to the feeling of it being seemingly too wide without him beside me. Getting used to the feeling that my best friend, my partner, is living happily at District Two, probably already living with his new family as a married man, instead of hunting with me.
I stood up and after picking up my bow and arrows, started my way back home, the bag containing my afternoon's hunt (or lack thereof) strapped over my left shoulder.
I walked with certainty, each step sure of where I was passing, aware of everything around me even with the lack of sufficient light. Thoughts were still swarming in my head. Being too preoccupied with them, I must have accidently ignored the people whom I regularly pass by as I take my usual route, because the next thing I know I'm already standing before my house, Peeta waiting for me on the front porch, head on his lap.
"Peeta."
He raised his head, as if waking up from a little nap. "Katniss! Where the hell have you been?! I've been so worried--"
"I know. I'm sorry. I was hunting, and then I lost track of time and. . ."
He sighed. He approached me and cupped my face. Worry was etched all over his face. I didn't see any tinge of anger or annoyance in his eyes. Instead, I saw the one thing that was never gone in them everytime he looks at me: love.
"I'm sorry for making you worry so much," I whispered, but audible enough for him to hear.
He smiled lovingly. "Don't be. I'm used to it. It's kind of becoming a hobby now, actually."
"Well," I smiled back at him. "That's a pretty boring hobby, don't you think?"
He laughed. "Quite the contrary, in fact, considering that you're the woman I'm worried about."
I knotted my forehead. "What's that supposed to mean?" He just laughed, and gave me a peck on the lips.
I shook my head, amused, and held his hand. "Let's get inside."
