Real or Not Real

Chapter 2

The screaming of an infant pulls her from her slumber. Katniss slowly walks to the nursery and gathers her daughter Rose in her arms, rocking her back to sleep. Looking her daughter in her eyes, she remembers a song that Peeta once loved. He use to say that she made the birds fall silent while singing it. Clearing her throat, she looks back into the crystal, blue eyes of her baby and sings.

"Deep in the meadow, under the willow
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes
And when again they open, the sun will rise."

Peeta's smile fills her mind, his blonde curls shining in the sunlight.

"Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you."

His laughter fills her ears and she chokes down a sob while continuing to sing. Rose closes her eyes.

"Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away."

The tears fall from her eyes as she remembers her husband. The man that would have loved Rose with everything he had.

"Here it's safe and here it's warm
And here the daisies guard you from every harm
And here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you."

She closes her mouth and listens quietly to see if the birds have fallen silent, Peeta was right. He always was.

Katniss gently lays Rose back into her crib and walks down the stairs into the kitchen. "Good morning." She whispers to Prim and her mother.

"We heard you singing. You sounded lovely." She smiles at them and sits down on the stool.

Her mother slides a bowl of thick porridge towards her and Katniss takes it with a sigh. She is grateful for all they do but it has become slightly overbearing. Since they returned back to the formerly bombed District 12, the two have insisted on living with her. Taking care of her. Feeding her. Loving Rose. Treating her like she is a kid instead of an adult. And Katniss cannot tell them to back off. She might have once. But she's lost too much. She could never tell them to leave her alone.

Katniss sits at the kitchen table and tentatively picks at her breakfast. She's not hungry. She never is. She's shed all of her baby weight already, so much so that she's back to her small pre-games self. But she can't get away with eating nothing entirely. Her mother whisks around the kitchen, prodding at her every few minutes to eat. Katniss wishes they would stop talking but she just grits her teeth and keeps her mouth full of food instead.

Haymitch enters without knocking as soon as she finishes her third mouthful. He slurs a hello to her mother and Prim and smiles at Katniss. He sits opposite Katniss and her mother hands him a bowl as well. He's become a fixture in all of their lives now, and though Mrs.Everdeen tolerates him, she does not particularly approve of him.

Not that Haymitch cares. He's never been one to worry about what people think about him. He accepts the bowl happily, and Katniss can tell he's already had one or two drinks at nine o'clock in the morning. He talks with his mouth full, rattling off nonsensical chitchat that Katniss does not pay any attention to. His voice is like a drill going in and out of her brain.

When Gale and his family stride in ten minutes later, an empty game bag slung over his broad shoulders, Katniss has had enough. "Morning all," he says, ruffling Prim's hair.

"Are you ever going to stop cramming people down my throat?" Katniss asks angrily. All of them stop and stare at her. Prim stops laughing; her mother stands over the sink, a soapy pan suspended in the air; Gale freezes with his hands perched over the back of a chair; Rory looks at his feet; Haymitch is the only one who doesn't seem fazed by her outburst, reaching into his pocket and taking a long swig from his flask.