Sea green eyes

31 - An entirely different battle

Peeta Mellark is a broken shell of a boy, and I can tell that just by my first glance. I'm behind the one way glass, staring at the restrained boy on the bed, and trying very hard not to chicken out of going in there. In this state, Peeta might not hesitate to say the things he really feels about me, and even I'm not sure how fragile I am. If he says the wrong thing I'm not sure how I'll react.

But anyway, Plutarch clicking his fingers in nerves, and I need to go in before I snap them off, so I just suck in a breath, take my hand out of Finnick's, and walk in the door.

It seals shut immediately after me, leaving the soundless void that is Peeta's cell. He's sitting, staring at me with an expression I can't determine between distrust and pain lingering on his beet up face. He looks like he's skin and bone he's so small, and his bruised face looks so much like a skull it's scaring me. Gods, did they even feed him?

"Kasia?" Peeta asks and I realize I've been frozen, staring at him. I blink, loosening my limbs and prowling closer.

"Hello Peeta," I whisper, and he gulps.

"Why won't you come closer?" Peeta says, tears shimmering in his eyes. "You don't trust me?"

"You- Of course I trust you," I say, cutting myself off from mentioning how he almost killed Katniss. I don't know what will set him off. So instead, I walk to sit on the bed, and reach out to his face. I touch near a large cut on his forehead and he hisses in pain, twitching away. The cut is still red and raw looking, stretching across half his forehead. It'll scar if it's not taken care of. "Why has no one healed this yet?"

"They won't come near me." Peeta says bitterly. "They're afraid of me. Everyone is now."

"Well I'm not," I say. "And the first thing I'm going to do when I leave is get some salve for your head." Peeta frowns.

"I don't trust you. You're one of them."

"Peeta, if you can trust anyone in the world, you can trust me." I say, and place my hand on his shaking one. "And I am not one of these District Thirteen soldiers. Ask me a question and I have no problem answering it."

"They're watching us you know," he spits, frowning at the glass. "Through there. She's watching. Katniss." I frown, hating the way he says it, with such rage.

"Peeta, I'm not going to talk about her with you. That's not what I'm here for."

"Why?" He spits, eyes getting agitated. His hands form fists and I freeze. "She's going to kill you Kasia. She'll kill all of us!" I snort.

"Katniss couldn't kill me if she tried. And I won't let her get near you, alright? I promise." Peeta calms slightly, but his eyes are still wild enough that I take a risk, folding my hand into his. There's a second of pause, but his fingers mold to mine. I smile slightly. It'll be a lot of work, but the old Peeta is still in there. He's just fighting a different kind of battle now.

---

Over the past few weeks, Finnick has slowly been unofficially been moving his stuff into my room. It's kinda sweet, how he shows up coincidentally with an extra item that he 'forgets' every day. I smile more every time he does it. He could just ask me to move in with him but I think he's too scared.

Anyway, right now I'm lying on his legs as he reads aloud from a book Plutarch managed to find for him. It's really ripped and torn, but he can still make out most of the words. It's about some kid named Peter Johnson? I don't really know, I haven't been listening to hard, focusing on keeping my breathing steady. This is our new ritual, to help me with my panic attacks. Finnick pauses his ready, and I open my eyes, looking up to see him leaning over me.

"Hey," I smile sleepily.

"Hey," He says. "You know what I just realized? We've never had a proper date." I smile.

"I mean we are in the middle of a war."

"That's no excuse," He says. "How about tomorrow night at dinner?" I blink.

"Are you serious?" He nods. "I- Yes, sure! I'd love to go on a date with you!" Finnick's mouth splits into a grin and I smile as his hand curls in my hair, continuing to read.

---

"Now let's try something, alright Peeta?" I say. I'm back in his room on one of my daily visits, and I've decided to try one of Finnick's suggestions of what to talk about. It's been a week since Katniss left for Two, and we've made little progress except Peeta is now allowed to feed himself. Finnick and I have been brainstorming every night for ways to help him. Well, brainstorming and... Other stuff, if you know what I mean.

"OK," he whispers. I think I've finally earned his trust now, as long as we don't talk about Katniss. He's still convinced she's a mutt.

"There's a game I like to play with Annie, do you know her?" He nods like a child and I continue, suddenly struck by how young he is. Barely seventeen and tortured. "It's called real or not real. So you ask the question, and I'll answer if it's real or not, alright?" He nods again, clearly thinking.

"You won the 67th Games. Real or not real?"

"Real." I reply. "Yours were the 74th." Peeta blinks, taking in the real information.

"In my first Games I got cut, " Peeta says.

"Real." I reply. "You almost bled out, but Katniss went to the feast to get medicine to save you." Do I imagine it, or does something change in Peeta's eyes?

"You killed half the other tributes in your arena. Real or not real?" I freeze. One to go. "Real or not real?" Peeta insists.

"Real," I whisper, and Peeta's finger taps my hand, dragging me out of memories of the stone arena, the way the blood looked so much like wine.

"You OK?" I almost laugh. The boy who still looks like hell is asking if I look OK? But the honest answer drifts from my lips.

"Yes. I'm OK now."

Hey y'all,

I'm sorry for the short chapter but school's started up again and it's really stressful. Sigh. But anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter although it was mostly filler, and I wonder if you guys caught the hint for something I may be interested in writing.

Ughh btw there may be a few time skips in the next few chapters as honestly Mockingjay Part One is kinda boring and repetitive and I need to skip through otherwise I'm going to lose motivation :(.

:)

- LeopardE