Living Lies ✜ Hunger Games x Reader

Explosions

"So what exactly are these things?"

It's Rue's turn to smile at your confusion at the weird goggles inside your pack. You never had time to examine them, and had rated them high up on your least concern list, more worried about water, shelter, and tracking the Careers than anything. So you don't have any regrets about waiting until now, after the two of you have eaten, to finally ask if Rue knew what the goggles were for while going through your pack.

"They let you see in complete darkness," Rue explains, watching as you examine the goggles closely, periodically glancing to her for more information. "I heard there were only a few out for the picking during the Bloodbath at the Cornucopia."

You nod slightly at her information, hardly believing you were lucky enough to manage to pick one of the few bags with these goggles in it. You're also really glad you didn't give up while fighting for the bag with the boy at the very beginning. Maybe the mockingjay pin has some lucky qualities to it after all.

"This is incredible, I've never seen anything like it," you murmur out loud as you run your fingers over the goggles, peering at the tinted lenses. "This would be really useful for hunting at night. I wonder who else got the other ones—these goggles make them dangerous at night, especially if they were found by the Careers."

"The Careers do have them," Rue informs you, sounding quite gloomy at the idea. "They found both of the other pairs—but I don't think they've used them yet. They've stockpiled everything they have including food into a pile down by the lake and are guarding it all the time around the clock. They're really strong."

"We're strong too," you assure her, watching her doubtful young face carefully. You're all too painfully aware of how she wears her heart on her sleeve—she's so innocent it's a jarring and unnerving contrast to the Hunger Games that you're both stuck in. "Just in a different way. We're smart."

"You're strong and smart," Rue points out, her voice sounding slightly depressed. "You can throw knives and shoot a bow and arrow, and rescue your friend from the Careers. What can I do?"

Your heartbeat quickens slightly at the mention of Peeta. Where is he now?

Brushing the thought off for now, you determine to come back to it and ask her later but continue now with the task at hand. "You're smart Rue, I'm telling you," you insist, "I might be able to do those things but without you I'd probably still be hallucinating right now from the tracker jacker stings, but I'm not, thanks to your leaves." You pause slightly, a smile tugging at the corner of your lips. "Just like my friend's little sister Prim—I don't know much about healing herbs, just what kinds you can eat and what not, which you do too. You can feed yourself, which the Careers probably couldn't without their supplies. And if you thought I was a good archer you should see my friend Katniss, she's way better. You'd like her—and her sister," you ramble on slightly, causing Rue to perk up at the lift in your mood, as if happiness is an air borne contagion.

"I think I would like your friends," Rue agrees with you. Then a mischievous grin breaks out over her face.

"What?" You ask her, curious as to why she's suddenly so cheeky.

"Katniss is the friend who wants you to save Peeta, right?" Rue asks, to which you nod in answer. "You never felt the same way about him as she does?" she spurts out quickly.

Your eyes widen slightly, feeling a red blush creep up on your neck. "I—I never really thought about it," you confess, placing your goggles gently back in their bag. "I just wanted to support her, you know? Besides, I never really had time to think of stuff like that, and there's no use chasing after something that would never happen."