Katniss and Peeta Mellark:There are Far Worse Games to Play

Chapter 5

He's laying on his back, looking at the sky, in the meadow. I don't know what he's doing until I approach him. "Peeta?", I ask cautiously. " "Katniss!", he says, immediately sitting bolt upright and stares at me. I start to back away when he leaps up and comes towards me. I stare into his eyes and its amazing. For the few short seconds that I look into Peeta's eyes, they change from a cloudy, misted white to a clear blue again. I just stare at him and then I realize that the real Peeta's back. Not the Capitol creation. Thank god for that. "Oh, Peeta", I say, exasperated. "Katniss, I'm so sorry", Peeta apologizes. I look into his bright blue eyes, the very eyes that I fell in love with. As I look at them I see a small tear fall from his eye and streak his face. "Peeta, it's ok. It wasn't your fault", I reassure him. "But you can't even stay in the same house as me when I hallucinate. When I go into that terrible Capitol dimension, I don't even know what I'm doing. It just happens then I wake up and I know in some way that I've hurt you", Peeta says. "And you shouldn't have to live your life with a Capitol mutation like me". Now I'm starting to cry because I know what he means but I could never leave him, alone and defenseless against the Capitol hallucinations. He's practically all I have left, apart from my mother. He can't leave me and I'd rather die than live a life apart from him. It's impossible.



"No, Peeta", I say, fiercely. "Look, Katniss. I don't want to kill you by accident and have to live with that", Peeta starts before I cut him off. I don't cut him off with words, instead I kiss him. He seems to be calmer when we finally break apart and I take his hand and we walk back to our house. It's getting very dark now so we should really be getting inside. When we get home I take a bath then I go straight to bed and just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Just thinking. When all of a sudden I start to feel really sick. I run to the bathroom and throw up. Almost immediately Peeta's standing there, holding my braid back while I'm sick. When I'm finished, Peeta helps me lay down on the bed, then he sits on there too and I lay my head in his lap while he strokes my face. "Are you ok, Katniss?", Peeta asks. "Yep", I reply, faintly. "Are you sure?", Peeta asks again. I nod my head at this and close my eyes.
When I open them, I realize that I'm still laying on Peeta. When I move slightly to stretch, he wakes up immediately. "What's wrong?", he asks.