Never Leave Me Alone

Chapter 7

Peeta

I am in my Chambers, getting ready for bed and I am struck by a screaming down the hall. I throw on my robe and look out my door.

"What on Earth was that? Ask one of my grooms and he shruggs before one of the others answers behind me.

"The Queen of Seam, most likely," he says. "One of her maids mentioned to me that she's plagued with rather violent night terrors after I heard a wail her first night here." I look at him, confused.

"No one informed me?" I ask.

"The maid said Her Magesty is rather embarrassed of it," he continues," I did not feel it necessary." I sigh and start down the hall to her wing.

"Your highness, she will not welcome a visit at this hour," One of the gentlemen of my chamber say.

"I want to check that she's okay," I say. "I think I would owe the lady that if I am to care for her." I knock on the door and one of the Ladies opens the door, bowing immediately.

"Your Highness," She says. "I'm sorry, My Lady has gone to rest for the night."

"I heard her scream," I say. I hear soft, calming voices in the bed chamber towards the back of the room. "Do you think maybe she would see me so I might rest easy knowing she's okay?" She looks towards the back of the room before nodding and walking to the back of the chamber. I wait until she comes back a moment later.

"She'll see you in the back," she says. "Please excuse her appearence this late, as she has been to bed." I nod and walk to the back of the chambers, where Katniss keeps her bed. Her ladies bow and shuffle out around me. Katniss is sitting cross-legged against her bed, a thick robe wrapped around her, buttoned up tight to preserve her modesty.

"Your Highness, how can I help you?" She asks, her cheeks were clearly red and puffy from tears.

"Katie, save the plesentries," I say, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I heard your scream through three wooden doors."

"Oh, that was just a nightmare," she says.

"One that clearly shook you," I say and see clutches her hands over one another.

"We'll, when you've had as many attempts on your life as I have," she says. "You tend to dream about it from time to time.

"Were you threatened here?" I ask. She rapidly shakes her head.

"No, I have never felt unsafe in Panem," she says. "But back home, two of my tasters fell dead in the last month. I think the reason I was sent here so soon was because my mother feared the assassins would succeed."

"No one will dare harm you here, Katniss," I say. "I promise you that." But I honestly cannot believe my words. The issue of the Seam wanting to execute their queen, to allow another, a man to take her place, I do fear these threats may try to follow her here. I take her hand and squeeze it and she looks at me.

"I didn't ask to be an only child, and certainly not a queen," she says. She looks up at the sky. "Who would want a life like this? In constant fear of death?" I nod and look at her.

"I would lay down my own life before I would let anyone hurt you," I say. "You don't deserve to live in such fear and I will not allow you to feel such terror in your sleep." She suddenly breaks into laughter.

"Oh Peeta, you cannot fight all my battles," she says. "I may fear poisoning, but you cannot keep my mind from dreaming of tragedy. I'm just stuck like this."

"Well, is there anything I can do to help, make you feel safer?" I ask. She shruggs.

"It is good to know you're concerned," she says. "I mean, you came to see me. That does show a great deal of courtesy and care. I do appreciate it." I smile at her and she shuffles a little.

"I uh, Maybe I should go," I say and she shakes her head.

"You don't have to," she says. "I mean, you can always stay a while."

"If you want," I say. "I guess I can. If you're alright with it." She nods and scoots to the side of her bed, giving me room to sit up on the headboard next to her. She slides down so that she can lay her head down into the pillow.

"You don't need to be so uptight," she says. "If I didn't want to have you here, you wouldn't be here. I could have you shown out."

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable," I say. She sits up and reaches for a long throw pillows and lays it down between us.

"There, a boundary," she says. "As long as we stay on our own side, we can't make the other uncomfortable. Now lay down and relax. It's late."

"Are you trying to keep me in your bed, Your Majesty?" I ask and she tuts.

"No plesentries, Peat Moss," she says. "Let's make it a rule of being in private company. Each other's company. I am Katniss, and you are Peeta. Not any highness or majesty or grace period. Of any sort, I don't want to hear it."

"You really are against that," I say laying back.

"Well, we are equals," she says turning to me. "So why waste our breath? I much prefer to just sit in silence with you than be constantly reminded of a title." I lay on my side so I can look at her. Her grey eyes are clear, no longer frightened as when I arrived.

"I guess I can agree with that," I say. We both lie there a moment and I feel so taken with the beauty of the women who lays beside me. Her long hair frames her face and her long lashes move like the wings of a butterfly with each blink. It's as though we can't find anything to say to each other, and neither is offended by it. Not needing to fill the air with the waisted breath she was talking about.

"I must confess something," she says softly, in a fluttering whisper that the maids outside the door cannot possibly hear.

"What is it Katie?" I ask. Her slender fingers slide into the pillow between us.

"I was hoping you would come tonight," she says. "And that you'd stay. I am just so lonely, without my family and few friends. You're the only one who seems familiar. Even if you aren't necessarily." I nod, tentatively reaching out to brush a stray strand of hair from her face.

"I'll always come when you need me," I say. "And I will always care for you, even when you hate me." She smiles and I notice how heavy her eyes look. Within a few minutes, her eyes close a last time as she falls asleep next to me. I pull her blanket over her and kiss her cheek as I leave.

I nod to her ladies as I leave and walk down the hall back to my own rooms. I lay down and fall asleep nearly instantly. My dreams are filled with her voice, singing and laughing with a baby in her arms.