A New Adventure

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, and sat straight up in bed. What had awoken me so quickly? That's when I felt it again; the uneasiness of my stomach. I put my hand to my forehead and felt it drenched in sweat. The room spun in the darkness for a minute before I bolted towards the bathroom, making it just in time to crouched over the toilet, vomiting violently. The relief from the nausea was instant, but I carried on being sick. It wasn't until I felt a cool hand on my back that I realized I must have woken Peeta up. He sat down next to me on the tiles.

"Katniss?" He asked concerned, rubbing small circles on my upper back but for some reason I didn't want to be touched.  I shrugged out of it as I sat up from the toilet, leaning against the wall to face him.

“Go away,” I whispered in a hoarse voice.  I hated when Peeta saw me like this. His eyes, though sleepy, looked full of worry. His blond hair was ruffled, and he wore a t-shirt and black shorts. I looked up at him, wiping my mouth with a bit of toilet paper.  “Are you okay?" He asked ignoring my request for him to leave.  For a minute I thought of snapping something back but then realized it was just the lack of sleep and feeling sick that would make me say something sarcastic. I decided against it and nodded my head a little; he was just trying to help.  I could feel my eyes watering from the force of being sick.

“Guess its just morning sickness." I murmured, my mouth suddenly feeling dry.  Trying to stand up to get to the sink and wash it out with water, I felt the motion unsettle my stomach again. Peeta's hands went out to help me as I leaned back over the toilet, heaving. His fingers gently held back my hair to keep it out of my face; though this time he refrained from stroking my back, guessing I wanted to be left alone. When it was over he flushed the toilet, and grabbed a glass from the bedroom to fill it with water and let me drink. I started to chug it down appreciatively, feeling miles better now it was out of my system. He sat closer to me this time, against the wall too, and grabbed the glass out of my hand.

“Sip it Katniss. You don't want to get sick again." Peeta said and carefully handed it back to me. I did as he told me to, even though I really did feel okay. He watched me and put it on the side when I was finished. My hands were pressed to the floor either side of me; longing for the coldness of the hard tiles against my flushed body. I felt bad for waking him up. He was still going through a patch of nightmares at the moment and was frequently awake in the night, even if he thought I didn't hear him stir. Peeta put his hand on my knee and I instinctively leaned into him, placing my head on his muscular shoulder. His hand moved to circle around me, knowing now it was okay to touch me. I cradled into him more, suddenly wanting to be as close as I could to him, to let him protect me. We sat there for a little while. He rested his head on the top of mine and occasionally he bent down to press his lips to my forehead. I had a feeling he was just trying to do regular checks of my temperature.  He held me there making no move to let go of me, or me let go of him.  His arms tightened around me affectionately, his way of telling me it would all be okay without any words.

“I'm sorry Katniss. I wish I could do more to help you." He muttered, looking off to the other side of the bathroom. His eyes looked wide-awake now. I could feel mine already beginning to close again, tiredness taking over.

“It's fine." I said, rubbing a hand on his chest. "Nothing I can't handle." He laughed a little at this.

“True.”

"Hopefully this isn't a regular thing." I added, trying to make him feel better. One way or another, I knew whatever I did, I was causing him pain when I suffered myself. I had to make light of this situation, to help Peeta.

"Hopefully," He replied, placing his hand on my stomach and lowered his head slightly to it.  “Why are you making your mother sick?" He whispered, while tracing his finger in delicate patterns on it. Despite his weary tone, I could tell that behind it, was this undying love for our unborn child.  A love I did not know could exist until three days ago when we found out that I was pregnant.