Kindred

Chapter Seven

A/N: The past few chapters have kind of been sort of fillers but I promise that there's some plot planned for the next chapter :)

Thanks for the love and support you've all been giving me it's greatly appreciated :D

Chapter Seven

What woke Katniss up the next morning wasn't a nightmare, it was Willow's crying. The wails slowly reached her ears like she had muffs covering them and they were being slowly pulled away. Katniss squeezed her eyes shut before slowly peeling them open. Her blurry vision saw movement by her bed and suddenly there was a hand touching her arm.

"It's okay, Katniss, I've got it," a voice said gently. "Go back to sleep."

Content to let the voice do as it wished, Katniss shut her eyes again and burrowed back into her pillow, allowing sleep to consume her once again. She slept for a couple of extra hours before waking up again. Feeling more refreshed than she had in years, Katniss climbed out of bed and stuffed her slippers onto her feet. She went to the window and peered outside.

The sky was a heavy grey. All light was smothered under the clouds' oppressive blanket. The heavens were weeping, thrashing buckets and buckets of rain down onto the ground outside. At least the primroses would get fed . . . Katniss stepped back, allowing the curtain to fall back into place. Her room was dark but opening the curtains wasn't going to do much difference. It was as dark out there as it was in here.

Katniss' stomach grumbled and she wondered what time it was. Her gut felt depressingly empty; something she hadn't felt for a few days now because Peeta made sure that she ate three meals a day. The thought made her worry. Was he okay? Why didn't he come and get her up to eat like he usually did? She passed his make-shift bed on the way out of the room. The covers were unsettled, like he had left in a hurry, and Willow's basket was empty.

"Peeta?" Katniss called as she exited her room. There was no answer. She popped her head into the next room, in case he had went to sleep on a proper bed for a while, but it was empty too. A knot of worry formed in her stomach and she made her way to the stairs, concern growing with every step she took. "Peeta, are you here?"

As soon as she set foot on the last step, her worry evaporated.

In the living room, Peeta sat on the sofa. His head had fallen back over the top of the cushions and he was sleeping like a rock. Willow lay on his chest, also fast asleep. Katniss shuffled closer as quietly as she could manage so she wouldn't wake them. When she was close enough, she saw that underneath Peeta's eyes there were heavy bags, showing the lack of sleep he had gotten lately. She felt guilty. What was the cause? Willow or her own nightmares? Or, as Peeta himself put it, the fear of having a hijacking attack?

Feeling a little useless-and not wishing to wake them up-Katniss pulled the thick blanket that hung off the top of the sofa off and threw it over them as gently as she could. She also lifted Peeta's head as gently as she possibly could and wedged a pillow underneath. He'd get a crick in his neck if he didn't have some sort of support. Katniss reached out, as if to brush the blond hair that had fallen over Peeta's eyes back, but stopped herself and retracted again.

She turned and went to the kitchen, which wasn't separated from the living room by a wall or door. The entire downstairs of the Village's houses were like a huge room with different clusters of furniture determining where each room was. It was a nice way to keep an eye on everything but Katniss couldn't help wondering if that was how Snow kept an eye on everything. All he would need was one camera in the corner of the room by the door and he'd have a full view of the entire lower portion of the house.

Katniss pressed the back of her hand against the kettle. The water wasn't warm, meaning that Peeta must have fed Willow a while back. She filled it up with water and flicked it on before turning to the islet and determining what she was going to eat. A basket sat in the middle. When she went closer, she saw that it contained cheese buns. A note sat on top.