Caged Nightingale [Hunger Games Fanfic]

Methods of Communication and Phobias (I)

Talking:

Talking is easier for the two of them after. She's less filtered, even more so than before with her blunt nature, but she's also more open and honest in a way he hadn't thought she could be with him. It was something he appreciated and loved.

The jabberjay sits quietly next to them, jumping around on the couch every once and awhile, with its gold cage on the table next to them. The cage's door is always left open, on Katniss' preference, allowing the jabberjay free reign to come and go as it pleases. It's free from its cage, even when Katniss can't be from hers.

"Why a jabberjay?" she asks him one day, beginning one of their talks.

"They talk," 'sort of' he adds in his mind. "I thought you might like something you can talk to."

She shrugs, absentmindedly petting the jabberjay's head gently with a single finger.

"You're here, aren't you?"

And that pleases him immensely.

Letters:

He manages to get permission for her to be able to receive and send mail back home. The only stipulations she needs to follow is that her mail, incoming and outgoing, must all be read and approved by a Capitol official, and that she can only write to one person. She dislikes it, he can tell by the way her face scrunches adorably, but she says nothing and he leaves her paper and pen to write.

He's not the Capitol official assigned to her letters, though he wished he could be for her sake, because of the fact his actions on her behalf are already suspicious enough as it is and that he is actually sort of obvious about his bias.

But she lets him read her letters anyway.

He's surprised to feel a jolt of jealousy when he realizes the person she's writing is male and not her precious sister –it's a Gale Hawthorne who she writes to fondly and who writes back eagerly.

"Gale's my best friend," she tells him. "And he's much more reliable and organized in writing. He can make sure to get news and words from Prim and Mother and of the rest of the District."

Her voice is too fond when speaking about this boy. Her announcement of Gale being her best friend does nothing to soothe him, though outwardly he is cool and collected.

He doesn't like this Gale.

Prim writes and scribbles onto the letters anyway, and Seneca thinks that the Capitol official is thankfully looking the other way and turning a blind eye to it, kindly allowing such sweet and loving words from the younger sister to her older sister. Still, Gale is prominent in them and Katniss eagerly receives the letters and always quickly writes back.

He's utterly jealous and can't stop himself from feeling it.

Phone:

"You didn't tell me you turned 17 during the Victory Tour," Seneca tells her reprovingly.

She shrugs. "I didn't think it mattered. No one here would care anyways."

"I care," he says quietly and she grows silent. He clears his throat to try to clear the air after that statement. "And so does Haymitch, Cinna, and Effie. Haymitch sends his love, albeit drunkenly, and he also sends it in the form of a boxed gift. Cinna and Effie will be around later to take you to be pampered for the day, Capitol style. You have permission."

She doesn't know what to say to that, so she stays quiet. Instead, she asks something else.

"What about you?"