Together, Always || An After Mockingjay Everlark Fanfiction

Chapter 18

"Since when did you have geese Haymitch?"
"Since I decided I wanted them Katniss," he retorted, mocking my hostile tones as he fed the five white birds squawking noisily at his feet.
"Since when are you sober enough to look after anything other than yourself?"
"I looked after you two, didn't I?" he gestured to me and then to the open window to the room that Peeta still slept in.
"Oh, and that turned out just great, didn't it?!"
"Why do you care?!"

I was woken to the honking chatter coming from Haymitch's house very early this morning. I marched out to scold Haymitch for waking us so early, but I was stopped short in surprise by the tall white birds, honking away at the rising sun.

The idea of the lives of a defensless animal in Haymitch's hands was repulsive to me. Peeta and I will most definitely have to keep an eye out for them. Feeding and cleaning them day after day while their proper owner lies past out drunk on the couch. We might as well bring them to live in our own house instead. I doubt they would survive more than a week with Haymitch.

"Your stupid birds could have woken Peeta! He needs all the sleep he can get . . ." thanks to me.
"Well I doubt you're helping him much in that department."
For some reason, Haymitch saying that made me feel much worse. Like he was confirming my fears. Peeta would be much better off without me in his life, that's for sure. He would be free of his flashbacks as majority of the time they are triggered by me and he wouldn't have to lose sleep comforting me from nightmares. I doubt he'd have any trouble at all finding another girl so much better for him than I am. I am just a broken nineteen year old, and a depressing person to be around.

My eyes dart up to my bedroom window. Haymitch does the same. I can here the bed creaking as if someone is thrashing in it. The creaking stops and a loud, strained yell echoes through the street. Then a single word, spoken in a hiss meets my ears.

"Katniss."

My body freezes in place as the realisation hits. Peeta must be having a flashback. Sometimes Peeta has nightmares about me being the mutt Snow wanted him to believe was real. He would then wake, still unsure of reality and would attempt to hunt me down. These kinds of flashbacks are normally stronger than ones triggered by me during the day. When the flashbacks are stronger his eyes are blacker, he is more determined and strong and he loses the ability to to talk or really hear things. Nothing matters more to him than ending the life of the one person in his life that he thinks killed his family and poses an imminent threat of death to him. Me.

I sprint off through the door and can vaguely hear heavy footsteps following me. I run upstairs to the bedroom.

He sits on the bed in a tight ball. The bed frame looks like it might reduce to powder in his tight grip. I sit on his lap, pinning his legs down, hold his clenched fists in one hand above his head and hold his face in my other hand.

"Peeta?"

In the space of a single second, his clenched eyelids burst open revealing his completely black eyes and he throws me off of him.

Everything seems to go in slow motion. I am flying through the air backwards and a sharp burst of pain rips through my body as my back hits the wall with a loud thump. I fall to a heap on the ground, whimpering in pain. I try and push the pain from my mind and focus on helping Peeta.

"Peeta. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," I stammer. He sits in a ball against the bed frame again and squeezes his head between his hands. He begins murmuring furiously to himself and tears streak down his face. He refuses to look at me.

I continue to lie motionlessly on the floor, too scared to assess the damage in my back and cause more pain by movement. A shooting pain bursts across my back with every breath as my lungs expand.

I hear footsteps as another person enters the room. Haymitch, I guess. He crouches hesitantly in front of Peeta and slowly brings him back to reality. I sigh in relief as I witness his eyes return to their familiar blue. Even this small exhale makes me wince as more pain stabs through my spine. At the sound of my breath, Peeta seems to become aware of my presence in the room. I hear him gasp and rush over to me.

"Oh Katniss. Oh my god. I'm so sorry! What did I do to you?!" He tries to lift me as carefully as he can into his arms and onto the bed but a cry of pain escapes my mouth before I can stop it. The look of agony and shame in his expression added decades of age to his face. He was careful to lie me as gently as possible onto the bed with the help of Haymitch as he tried to asses the damage.

"Where did I hurt you?" he said, pain and hatred for himself obvious in his tones.
"I'm fine Peeta. Seriously, don't worry about me," I tried to make my voice sound as calm and cheery as possible but it was clear that neither Peeta nor Haymitch were falling for it.
"Where did I hurt you?!" he repeated more forcefully.
"Well my back is a bit sore but nothing I can't handle. It will pass." I tried to sit up to prove my point, determined to not show a single sign of pain but Peeta and Haymitch eased me back onto the bed.
"I think we should take you to a doctor," he said. He stared at the ground miserably.
"Hey!" I reached up to hold his face between my hands and force his gaze to mine, "I. Am. Fine. Do not beat yourself up over this. What just happened earlier, that was not you. I know you would never try to hurt me intentionally. We just have to deal with this. We can get through it together."
"Deal with it?! How am I supposed to just deal with the fact that one day I might hurt you! What if I kill you?! I could never live with myself. What if I permanently injured you? For all I know I could have permanently injured you today!"
"If it makes you feel any better, I will go to the stupid hospital to get my back checked up but I bet it's nothing."
"We will go now then."
I internally groaned. But if it will make Peeta feel better then I will go without an argument.

Getting into Haymitch's car was painful. Every step Peeta made as he carried me, no matter how soft and steady he tried to make them, made me wince. I buried my face in Peeta's blue button down top to hide my expression from him.

The new hospital was nearly empty so we were served quickly. The doctor said that my back was badly bruised but no breaks or tears. If it wasn't for Peeta's miserable expression I would have punched him playfully and said I told you so. The doctor gave me some pain killers and told me to rest and use ice on my bruises. Just to make everything worse, the doctor gave Peeta a knowing glare, as if she knew he was responsible. I glared back at her as Peeta helped me walk out of the hospital by supporting me around the shoulders.

As soon as we got out of the stupid place Peeta lifted me carefully so I wouldn't have to walk. When we got home he laid me out on the couch and got me some ice. I shivered as the ice pressed against my back, in relief at the numbing sensation on my inflamed skin and the cold. I hoped Peeta would lie next to me to keep me warm but instead he put a blanket over me and walked into the painting room we set up next door. I quickly decided against going after him. I think he needs some time to himself to sought fact from fiction as he usually does after a flashback.

After a whole day of this I start to feel quite lonely and worried. Peeta makes me a brief dinner of toast which is very unlike him. Normally he would try to make an amazing feast for me despite my protests. Not that I'm complaining about my dinner tonight. I love the taste of Peeta's home made bread. He lifts me off to bed as soon as I'm done.

"I'm sorry for hurting you Katniss," he whispers once I'm settled comfortably on his chest.
"Stop," I yawn. I drift off to sleep before he can argue further.

Hi again! Sorry I haven't updated in so long. It's barely one month into 2015 and I've already broken my promise that I would update more often this year. Sorry for letting you down.

I just finished the Twilight series and I LOVED it. It was a kind of dumb book with no good message or moral to it like other books I've read but I still enjoyed it. The one thing I hated however was the ending of Breaking Dawn! I was expecting some massive epic final battle between the Volturi and the Cullens and their friends! I was so disappointed that the series was finished without a final epic battle!!! WWWHHHHYYYYY???!!!
If you have read it, what did you think about the Twilight series?

Also, this story just reached 1k reads!!!! You have no idea how happy that makes me feel! Thanks so much for reading my (even though it is a dumb everlark story that has pretty much the same plot as every other everlark fanfic 😂) and I hope you guys enjoy my story as much as I enjoy writing it!

See you guys next chapter!
~everlarkeverlark~