41) Because your cat sleeps on my chest. (I’m not here for you… of course.)
Set between the first and second THG books.
"Bad night?" Prim asked as Katniss stopped to pull her boots on before heading out to do whatever she filled her days with while their mother worked and Prim went to school. Katniss had been so different since she'd come home. She worried about her sister.
“Yeah, it was; sorry I woke you up,” Katniss admitted.
That wasn't why Prim had mentioned it. But now that the door was open---"I don't know if you're aware, but you were calling for Peeta in your sleep again," she said.
Katniss visibly stiffened.
“I wish you would at least talk to him,” Prim said, picking Buttercup up and scratching the big baby behind his ears.
Katniss stared out the window and across the road where Peeta’s house sat, silent as the grave. No one but Haymitch ever visited there. If it weren’t for the tail of smoke coming from the chimney, it would be easy to think the house was empty. “He's avoiding me too. It’s complicated,” she said before leaving.
Prim sighed. Ignoring each other wasn't going to reconcile anything.
Buttercup began purring in Prim's arms, a low rumble that vibrated through her fingertips. She studied her big orange tomcat, and an idea took root in her mind.
"Hey boy, we have some work to do," she explained, carrying him into the living room and sitting with him. As she brushed out his fur, Prim explained the details to him. Buttercup's gold eyes glowed with extraordinary intelligence. He blinked at her, occasionally capturing her wrist with his paws and licking her hand.
Prim watched out the window as Peeta crossed Victor's Village with Buttercup in his arms. He navigated the walkway and the front steps, balancing the cat before disappearing beneath the porch roof. Stealthily, she snuck out of her bedroom and hid in the back stairwell where she could eavesdrop on his and her sister's conversation.
"I don't know why Buttercup keeps coming over," she hears Peeta say.
"Me neither. He's obsessed with Prim," Katniss said. "But, uh, thanks for bringing him home. I'll make sure to shut him in tonight."
"He's fine. He doesn't really bother me, just sleeps on my chest," Peeta admits.
"It's a nice place to sleep," Katniss says, shocking Prim so much she has to stifle her laughter to keep them from hearing her.
Her sister was an idiot when it came to her feelings, plain and simple. She knows Katniss better than everyone else, but still, Prim thought her crush on Peeta was pretty obvious to everyone watching from home. Why else would Gale be so jealous of Peeta?
Peeta and Katniss both laugh quietly. "Yeah, I like knowing someone else is there at night," he said.
"Probably gets lonely at your house with your family all in town," Katniss said, voice soft.
"Yeah. Too far for them to walk to work, so my mother says."
"Still feels like I'm alone a lot of the time, even when everyone is home," Katniss admitted.
"No one else understands what it was like," Peeta supplied the answer they both had to be thinking.
Prim left after that, allowing Katniss and Peeta some privacy to talk now that they were beginning to patch things up. Her work was done, and Buttercup's as well.
"Tonight, you need to stay with me," she whispered to the cat when he nosed the door open and strolled into her room. Buttercup sat down and regarded her seriously. Prim had no idea how he understood her, but she knew he did. Later that night, when Buttercup was curled up at her side, she heard the back door open, followed by heavy footsteps to Katniss's room.
Prim just knew her sister would sleep better tonight.
