The Hunger Games One Shots

4. Love Fades; Mine Has

Inspired by Spirit Bound, written by Richelle Mead

Peeta has been hijacked but has overcome the worst. He never wants to see Katniss, for fear of hurting her more than he has. But he doesn't realize that by doing this, he is hurting her even more.

{Katniss POV}

I sprinted off towards the church, going in the opposite direction of my original errand. The doors were shut when I reached my destination, but a few other people were trying to slip in before all the spots were full. I entered with them, pausing to get my bearings together. It was a packed with a lot more people than I was used to seeing on a Sunday. Most of the seats were full.

But not all of them.

My hunch had been right. Peeta sat in one of the back benches. A few people sat near him, of course, but that was it. Even in a crowded church, no one else had joined him on the bench.

The pastor had already begun to speak, so I moved down the pew to Peeta's bench as quietly as I could. Silence didn't matter, though because I still attracted a fair amount of attention from nearby people who were astonished to see me sitting next to my once loved. Eyes stared and several hushed conversations began, much to the dismay of the priest up front.

When I sat beside him, the look on his face showed he was both surprised and not surprised by this.

"Don't," he said in a hushed voice, "Don't start-not here,"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Peeta," I murmured back, "Just came for some enlightenment of the soul."

He didn't need to say a word to convey me that he doubted I was here for any holy purposes. I stayed quiet throughout the service, though. Even I had boundaries. After several minutes, the tension in Peeta's body eased a little. He'd grown wary when I joined him but must have eventually decided I'd be on good behavior. His attention shifted off me and focused on the speaker, and I did my best to watch him without being obvious.

His expression was beautiful. I was so used to seeing him hide emotions that it was a bit startling for him to suddenly have thousands of them purely on his face. He was absorbed in the priest's words, his face completely and gorgeously focused. And that was when I realized he was taking everything said about sins personally. Peeta was replaying all the terrible things he'd done while hijacked. From the look on his face, you would think Peeta himself was responsible for all of the sins the priest mentioned.

When the rest of the crowd rose to take communion, I leaned over and whispered to Peeta, "If God can forgive you, shouldn't you forgive yourself?"

Peeta just sighs in return.

"I bet you thought I wasn't paying attention, didn't you?"

"You weren't. You never do. You were watching me the entire time, Katniss."

Interesting. To have known that I was watching him, would he had to have been watching me watch him? "You didn't answer my question."

He kept his eyes on the communion line while composing his answer. "It doesn't matter. I don't have to forgive myself, even if God does, which I doubt He will."

"The priest just said God would. He said God forgives you for everything. Are you calling him a liar? That's pretty profane."

Peeta groaned. I never thought I'd take this much joy in tormenting him, but the frustrated look on his face wasn't because of grief. It was because of me being persistent.

"Katniss, you're the one being profane. You're twisting other people's faith for your own purpose. You never believed in any of this, you never have. Don't pretend to now."