Always

Deal (revised)

As I ride the hoversraft to the arena, there is only one thing on my mind. . . Peeta. His wounded face as I walked away from him fills my mind and I swear I could hear his heart breaking. I don't love him, but I never wanted to hurt him.

My arm stings as they insert the tracker into me. Why do they insist on doing that, clearly I'm going to the arena? Everyone crowds at the walkway as we leave the hovercraft. A glimpse of blonde hair flashes by me, but he's gone before I can say anything.

Cinna pulls me away from the crowd and dresses me in the arena outfit. I have so many butterflies in my stomach I can barely eat the food I'm given. I know I should, considering I may not have food for days. A voice counts down from 30, waiting for me to get into the glass tube. I hug Cinna goodbye, climb onto the platform, and rise up to the battlefield.

The light is blinding, that is until my eyes adjust. Where is he. I have to find him. I search frantically, watching as the 60 seconds until the game starts tick away. Then I see it. A brief blonde curl. I try to make eye contact with him, but he keeps his eyes glued to the ground. Dang it Peeta just look at me.

Three, breathe Katniss.

Two, just breathe.

One, this is it.

The gong sounds and I'm flying off of my plate. Haymitch told me to run away from the cornucopia, but right now I'm headed straight towards it. Peeta is gone, he's run off in another direction, but I don't care. He's not my problem. I quickly grab a backpack and turn towards the woods. I grab a bow and arrow that lays at my feet as I run by. Blood splatters behind me and I can feel a cool blade fly by my face.

I run for hours, until I deem myself safe enough away from the blood bath. I pull open the backpack and quickly look inside to see what I have. Rope, an empty canteen, matches, and a pack of saltine crackers. It isn't much, but it will have to do.

The sound of a twig snapping pulls me out of my trance and I quickly look up to catch a glimpse of blonde hair. They stand behind the tree, but their build is too big to be disguised. Peeta.

"Katniss?" The voice is soft and weak.

I slowly stand and walk towards the tree. A bloody hand reaches out to me and I grab it before he falls. Blue eyes stare up at me and they fill with tears as Peeta grips at his leg. A long gash runs down his thigh and I quickly have to keep myself from throwing up.

"I can't help you." I tell him and slowly back away.

"Please don't go." Peeta swallows. "I'm not asking you to love me, I'm only asking you to help me. . .as a friend."

I bite my lip and tell myself to run. Flee. Get away from anything that you could get attached too. But my legs move forward and sink down next to him. "We're not allies."

"Okay." He struggles to breathe through the pain.

"As soon as you're able to walk, we will go our separate ways. Deal?"

He lifts his bloody hand to mine and shakes it firmly. "Deal."

A.N. Hi!! Here we are! We are finally in the arena. Now as you can tell I love Peeta and Katniss scenes, so there will be a lot of that. Also I noticed I haven't mentioned much of Gale. Beware Gale fans, I don't talk about him much in this first one. Anyways, what do y'all think? Let me know! Don't forget to⭐it.