Remade (After Mockingjay Story)

Chapter 8 - Stay

(Thank you all for the nice comments in my past chapters they are what really push me to write more of this because I'm happy to make someone else happy, I'm sorry if this chapter is trash because I haven't written in a while.)

Katniss

"Katniss, you can't leave him." Haymitch says.

I sigh and run my hands through my messy hair. I didn't brush it before I left Peeta's house.

"Think about it." Haymitch continues on. "Right after a second Hunger Games, he'd been beaten bloody for who knows how much, then they hijacked his mind, somehow twisting love into hate and forcing these fake memories into him, messing up the real ones. After that, he finds out that his home was destroyed and his family dead. Then he was thrown into a bloody war which was a gold mine for triggering flashbacks. He saw each of his squad members get killed, while causing one of them himself. Just one horror after another, and you of all people should know that it takes a long time to heal. He barely had time to comprehend anything, never had time to sort all of it out. He just got thrown from one thing into another. So it's all coming back to him now. Then all that hijacking business just spotlights you into the middle of it all, I'm sure he's been running away from this fear of you for a while because in reality, he really cares about you. That's why he's having so much trouble, and you have to lead him back in the right direction before he does something crazy and they end up locking him up in some Capitol-supervised mental institute permanently."

"Haymitch, I can't do anything about it. I can't help him."

"You're the only person that can."

"How?!"

Haymitch leans forward, letting out his own heavy sigh, a half empty bottle of whiskey sloshes in his hand. "Look at his home, he's alone. Anyone he ever knew either left or died."

Suddenly I feel awful. He was always friendly, selfless, and kindhearted. He was proud of that. They even took away his pride. He didn't deserve any of that. I can feel my hand tighten into a fist, a sudden anger prickles through me. They left him with two major conflicting personalities, a fake one that's driven by forced hatred and viciousness, then the original one that's tainted with lies and guilt.

"Katniss," Haymitch says. "You know him better than anyone else, all I can say is that you shouldn't leave him, that's the worst thing to do. There really isn't much more that I can help you with now."

In that moment, when I listen to him, I understand.

"Thanks Haymitch."

I stand up, out of his living room chair, and walk towards his front door, snatching the bottle in his hand on my way out. I can hear him sigh as I open the door.

When I get back to Peeta's house, I can smell breakfast cooking from the kitchen.
He looks back when I walk in.

"Hey, Katniss," he greets subtly. "I made you breakfast."

I notice he's holding a pan over the stove. He dumps the last remaining scraps of eggs from the pan onto a plate, I see bacon and toast on the side. He turns off the stove and grabs another plate that I didn't see before, it already has all of the food neatly arranged on it. At first he holds out the second plate, then he just sets it on the counter in front of the chair as he sits down in the other one.

"Thank you." I say, sitting down next to him.

We eat in silence, until Peeta finally says,

"Hey Katniss, about last night, thank you."