"Allies?" "Always."

Chapter 20

"Medicine?" I ask as excitedly as I can in my hurt state.

"No, soup." She says. My heart drops a little. I could have lived if Haymitch would have sent medicine. Then again, Katniss doesn't have to go hunt now. She can stay here with me and out of danger.

I reach out to grab the pot and she jerks it back. "No, I'll do it." She says and takes a spoonful. I prop my back up against the cave wall. She brings the silver spoon to my lips. I sip it and the flavor seems to explode across my tongue. I've never had it before, and the taste is hard to describe. It's salty, but still amazing.

I smile. "That's nice." I look up at her. "Do you want some?"

"I'm okay." She brushes her fingers over my forehead and tucks some stray hair behind my ear. "You eat it, baby."

With every spoonful, another wave of nausea hits. Still, she wants me to finish it, so I won't stop eating until it's gone. Anything to make her happy.

Afterwards, she lets me drift off to sleep while she finishes up her "chores".

*************

I wake with a start when I hear Katniss scream my name. Is sit up straight and see Cato standing at the cave entrance. He must have found our hiding spot. Now, he's holding a sword to my fiancèe's throat while tears fall silently onto the steal of his blade. My leg makes me stay to the ground. I can't protect her. I can't even delay her death.

"You almost saved her, Lover Boy." Cato taunts. "Except for that leg of yours kept you from it." He digs it a little into her neck and blood mixes with her salty tears. "But now, she's dead." He slits her throat and lets her fall. "You can't save her now, can you?!" He starts to snicker to himself.

Mix of two emotions threaten to choke me: Sadness, from the loss of the love of my life, and anger, toward the man who put her to death.

I grit my teeth and push myself up to a stand, but my leg buckles beneath me with excruciating pain. I yelp in agony from both my leg and heart.

"You're pitiful, you know that?" Cato says and slings Katniss's blood off of his sword and onto my face. "You can't even save yourself."

He walks closer to me and thrusts his sword into my injury and continues to cut downward. I scream and lay my head back when he's done. Cato flees and acts like he was never even here.

Katniss is gone. Now I have no worry against dieing. I want it. Desperately.

***********

I wake up in a cold sweat. My first thought isn't that my fever must have broke, it was that Katniss is gone. I start hyperventilating and struggle to get up when Katniss comes back through the entrance. I sigh in relief. "I woke up and you were gone." I huff. "I was worried about you."

She laughs as she makes her way over to me. She helps me lay back down and says, "You were worried about me? Have you taken a look at yourself lately?"

"I thought Cato found you. Him and Clove like to hunt at night." I whisper as tears threaten to spill over. "They are still alive, aren't they?"

"Yes, there's them, us, Thresh, and Foxface. How are you feeling?"

I'm debating telling her about the heart attack she gave me when I woke up. I decide against it. "A little better." I admit. "The soup helped a bit." She reaches out to touch my cheek and I catch her hand in mid-air. I bring it to my lips and kiss it gingerly. "I love you, Katniss Everdeen."

"I love you too, Peeta Mellark." I go to kiss her hand again when she jerks it away. "No more kisses for you until after you've eaten."

I pitifully fake cry as she feeds me the first spoonful of some mush made from berries. I make her laugh and do the same, choking on my food and setting us off again. When the pot is empty, I decide to speak up. "You didn't sleep."