The Runaways

camaraderie!

Later, when it's finally time to sleep, Katniss lays staring up at the tarp. Her sister sleeps soundly to her left, curled towards her. She's glad Prim can still fall asleep easily, even here, under the circumstances.

There's shifting to her right, and she turns her eyes in that direction. Peeta's head lifts from where he was sleeping near his own brother. He looks confused, but his eyes land on hers and she sees him visibly calm down. She smiles.

I'm okay once I realize you're here.

No one else is awake, save for Gale, who sits further away from the group, bow in hand. She's exhausted, and she thinks it's visible on her face. Peeta seems to notice, despite being about five feet away from her, because he sits up, pulls himself out of his sleeping bag and comes to her.

"Have you slept at all?" he whispers.

She shakes her head and shifts closer to Prim to make room for him. He lays down his bag and gets back into it.

"Hopefully this helps," he whispers again, turning to face her. She breathes deeply. She should be able to sleep fine without it. He was only five feet away anyways. But there was Gale's family in between them, and, for some reason the magic only works when they're shoulder to shoulder. She rolls over to face him better too.

"Thanks, Peeta." She whispers, hands under her chin, trying to get as comfortable as she can despite sleeping on the forest floor.

"No worries," he whispers back, pushes some of her hair off her face, and mirrors her position.

She sleeps.

[]

"Hey," someone shakes her shoulder, and she groans. She opens her eyes to Peeta's sleeping face, but someone shakes her shoulder again. "Katniss, wake up."

"What?" she whispers, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. It feels like she just fell asleep a second ago.

"It's your watch," she opens her eyes properly and turns her head towards Gale, who's shaking her awake.

"Oh, right." She sits up. "Okay, I'm going."

She's sandwiched between both her sister and Peeta, so she struggles to get out of the sleeping bag without waking both of them. Once she's standing, Gale shoves her bow into her hands, and just then she's awake enough to notice he's angry at her.

She scoffs. She's not going to attempt to explain this or apologize for it, so she hits him with her shoulder on the way past him and gets out of the makeshift tent. Once she's under the moonlight she sits on the long grass. She's still tired.

She's growing annoyed by it all. Gale's bad attitude every time she interacts with Peeta around him. They haven't done anything out of the ordinary, they're not pretending to be anyone else to keep anyone alive and she doesn't see their friendship as a threat to her friendship with Gale. It's not her fault that it bothers him.

She rolls her eyes, deciding it's not worth the distraction to think about that right now and instead focuses on the horizon. They've set up their camp at the crest of a low hill and she can look down into a meadow. It's beautiful, dotted with trees and filled with swaying grass. She can see the mountains that form the border of the District in the distance. Once they get past them, they'll be out of the valley where District Twelve is a mere dot. Beyond that, the land is 'wild,' no one knows what lays beyond Panem, no one has ever gone into the 'wild' and returned.

She hopes that is a good thing.

They're so close already, she can almost taste it. She estimates that they're perhaps a week's journey away. The mountains are far apart enough that she doesn't think they'll have to climb over them. They should be able to get by alright, with the equipment they have.