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WHO: Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch (eventually)!
WHERE: Outside the 'Porter building
WHEN: Just after this.
WARNINGS: Possibly spoilery things for those who haven't finished The Hunger Games! Also, predictably, violence. Because tributes.
SUMMARY: Katniss and Haymitch find out what's been going down in Panem. Among other things.
FORMAT: Quick!

[There he was, just in front of her. Safe and sound and totally real. Right? Unless her eyes had gotten very good at playing tricks on her in the past few weeks. He's fidgeting, though, and so is she, standing warily a good five feet back from him. She's honestly unsure of what to do, half-fearful he'll be a clever hallucination and vanish as soon as she gets near enough to hold him. And for that matter, does she hug him or shake him for leaving her?

(Though it's all her fault, she knows it is, she still cannot help it.) So she stands, hesitant, watching him carefully.]

You're -- real?

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[ She's so close now that he can't help but start forward immediately. Katniss isn't the only one expecting the other to disappear though. He's very aware of the fact that his mind hasn't exactly trustworthy lately. He assumes that the moment he gets his hands on her (or thinks his does), she'll simply cease to be]

I'm real. [ He just needs confirmation that she is too. This place... He doesn't trust it. Why should he trust the things he sees in it? ]

[She takes a step forward, still slightly unsure, and offers him a hand.]

I -- [What does she say? I missed you? I had nightmares about you? I'm sorry? ~~I love you?~~ I don't know what's happening? ...All of these are options, and there is a moment of silence.]

I'm ...glad you're here.

Edited 2012-05-13 07:38 (UTC)

[ A glance down at her hand has him almost taking a step back away from her. Her hand isn't quite what it should be. It's something a little more terrifying, something that he wants to lash out at. So it's little surprise to him when he reaches out to her, when his hands close around her neck. Exposed, vulnerable. Perfect ]

I'll be glad when you're not.

Wha-- [But then she's fighting, squirming, pushing at his arms and trying to kick, to get him off her. This is wrong, this isn't how it was supposed to go, even if she did deserve it.]

[This is like watching the scene of some accident, where you know the people but you try to keep yourself from remembering that part of things.

He's drunk, he's not coordinated, but he can throw himself easily enough at Peeta with weight enough to hopefully dislodge his hands from around Katniss's throat. He doesn't say anything, no words yet, but he knows they'll have to come -- and that just makes him more nauseous.]

[ Peeta's vaguely aware that there's something wrong with this. There's a small part of his mind that knows that trying to kill Katniss just isn't what he wants to be doing right now. Unfortunately, that part of his mind is practically drowning in tracker jacker venom.

And then Haymitch is there, trying to stop him from doing what needs to be done. Between his mentor's weight, and Katniss's struggles, it's hard to keep the tight grip on her neck.

Everything he's been through and it's all her fault, the mutt who made him care about her ]

[She chances a grateful look at Haymitch and wrestles her way out of Peeta's grip, backing up and rubbing her neck as she fights to get her breath back.

Sure, she may not have a knife power like Haymitch's, but one is never too far, and it's in her hands now, at the ready if necessary. She's too busy with shock and adrenaline to feel the betrayal just this second, but it will come.]

[It should be a measure of how he really feels about Peeta that a knife hasn't appeared in his hands, actually. It did in fact come up, but he tossed it to the side before lunging for Peeta.

If either of them deserved the blame for this, it was him. He's grabbing Peeta's shoulders now, trying to steady him enough to look him in the eye.]

Who's the enemy, Peeta? It's sure as hell not Katniss.

[ Peeta actually takes a step back from Katniss when she frees herself from his grasp. He takes a second to note the knife in Katniss's hand and the one that Haymitch tosses to the side.

Attention drawn back to Haymitch when he grabs his shoulders, Peeta takes a swing at his mentor. Katniss, Haymitch, they both have to go ]

I know who the enemy is. She is, Haymitch! That mutt that you're supporting is the enemy.

I'm not a mutt, Peeta. [It's hoarse, and a little shaky, but she can still be heard.]

I don't know what they did to you, but I'm not. [She is not entirely sure what else to do -- if she helps Haymitch, Peeta will try to kill her again, and she can't exactly ask the network for help. So she'll talk, try and keep him distracted.]

You think any of this was her idea, Peeta? If you want to blame someone, you want to blame me. I'm the one who helped set up the break-out.

[And this is -- not something he's told Katniss directly yet. He's not exactly great at timing when it comes to these two. He spits out blood after Peeta swings at him, but keeps himself between his two tributes.]

Is that what they told you at the Capitol, Peeta? That she was a mutt?

[ He knew that they would deny it. It was obvious. He doesn't believe it though. His memories clash with what they're trying to tell him. Things just don't add up.

He eyes Katniss, past Haymitch, and lunges at the older man in an attempt to get to her. Kill her, help everyone else. Save everyone else and stop the bloodshed that comes with people following the lead of a muttation ]

I blame both of you. I blame you and that stinking mutt.

[She's stuck staring at Haymitch, now, fighting the urge to lunge at him too. That wouldn't help anything at all, but she's still too shaken to move, frozen like a deer in the headlights.]

I should let him kill you.

I've been dead for a long time, sweetheart.

[And there's that drunken flippancy in his voice, but it's -- true. It's been true. He dies again each time a knife or an arrow embeds itself into the heart of another of his tributes, another failure.

He shoves his body against Peeta hard, aiming to push him down. To hold him, even if he doesn't want to be restrained.]

I deserve the hatred of you both, but don't you hate each other.

[ Peeta's attention moves fully to Katniss when she basically gives him her blessing, as far as killing Haymitch goes. She really is an awful girl, tossing her mentor to the wolves when she's threatened. He's not sure how she ever managed to make him think that he was in love with her. How did such an awful girl make anyone fall for her?

He's taken by surprise when Haymitch's body hits his and he goes down. He starts to struggle, trying to free himself so he can finish what he started ]

It's because of both of you that Panem at is at war now. [ He practically hisses the words ]

Let go of me, Haymitch.

[That makes her flinch, and if she could read Peeta's thoughts, she'd agree with him. She should be dead, or crazy, or anywhere but here, watching this and knowing it's all her fault.]

I didn't start it. I never wanted to, I tried to stop it. We both did. Remember?

Not going to happen, Peeta.

[He's going to continue struggling to hold Peeta back from Katniss until one of them exhausts -- at this rate, it's likely to be him, but he can still try and push himself right in front of Peeta's blows once he gets tired.

They can talk, though, and he'll just -- try to be a body.]

[ Peeta's the one that's crazy, now, when it should be Katniss. Tortured, driven crazy all because of her. Tortured for information, tortured to break her. He doesn't understand why, though. It isn't as though she ever truly cared for him the way he's supposed to have cared for her. He saw the tapes from the time they spent in the cave. How anyone ever believed that she cared for him too is beyond him ]

I tried to stop it, Katniss. [ He pushes against Haymitch ] I tried to convince you to stop it. But now the Districts are at war with the Capitol and more people are dying than ever died in the Games, and it's all because of you. You could have ended it before too many people got hurt. Things could have simply gone back to the way they were, which is a lot better than they are now. But instead you did nothing.

[ He turns his attention back to Haymitch ] And you were probably just as big a part of the decision to sit back and watch Panem burn.

At least people are feeling things again.

[Sitting in the Seam, watching all those people starve to death because they weren't willing to do anything against the Capitol, feeling useless himself -- it makes him as ill now as it did then. Knowing that the District is mostly gone -- well.]

Things have been boiling under the surface for years now, whether the Capitol let people know it or not. Now, we're going to get you some help.

[He's a hypocrite for wanting to help other people and not himself, he knows that. But Peeta and Katniss were and always will be his real hope.]

[She's curled in on herself a little by now, one hand at her neck and the other silently putting her knife away.]

Please. [It's all she can say. It's obvious Peeta needs help, so much so that she might even resort to asking on the Network at this point. She is terrified, yes, but not for herself. It's more at the thought of what they did to Peeta, knowing she's responsible, and she has to fix it. She will fix it.]

What's the point in feeling if no one lives long enough to actually appreciate it? People used to die in the arena and now they're dying in their homes. And the Capitol won't stop fighting until we stop. [ Peeta's yelling now as he tries to free himself from his mentor, all but ignoring Haymitch's talk of 'help'. Instead his eyes are locked on Katniss. He's speaking only to her ]

We grew up with the people in District 12. Are you okay with letting them suffer and die because of something you won't stop? [ The yelling stops and he speaks a little more quietly ] Anyone with even an ounce of compassion would care. She's not even human, Haymitch. You can't let her lead the Districts to their deaths! Just let me kill her!

[It's becoming rampantly obvious that Peeta isn't going to shut his mouth or stop trying to injure Katniss, so he turns his head away from Peeta long enough to snap at Katniss,]

Would you get out of here? I can't hold him off forever!

[He frowns, but when Peeta calms down a little he takes the opportunity to try and catch his eye...and start to force him away from Katniss.]

Come on. Let's go.

[She's about to tell Peeta about District 12, about how they're all supposedly going off to 13 now, but now is hardly the best time. So she nods at Haymitch, and turns, and runs. She needs somewhere she can be alone for a while.]

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