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[little_duck]

The weather hasn't really grown any warmer, but Prim can't stand the idea of staying cooped up any longer. She's still supposed to be resting; for as many strange things that happen in Darrow, they don't have a bead on faces disappearing. Prim figures that she'll be fine. After all, she survived dying.

It wasn't anything like dying, anyway.

When she'd died, there had been flight and peace. When her face had been stolen, there had been darkness and silence.

She's so glad to be awake again.

Sitting on the fence at the edge of the land on which their house sits, Prim watches a rabbit seek out a bit of bare earth where the snow has melted away. The wind is changing; she thinks it might rain or snow. At the sound of footsteps behind her, Prim turns, a greeting on her lips.

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[beautyof_form]

To say that things had been strained between the two of them was a rather gross understatement. They'd avoided one another, or more accurately, Prim had avoided Hanna, and not knowing what else to do, Hanna had allowed her to.

But things changed the moment Prim was taken to the hospital, the moment that Hanna realized that she could've prevented all of this, if she'd only killed that creature when she'd been given the chance.

Still, after it was all over and Prim was awake, all the brokenness between them wasn't magically mended. In fact, Hanna found herself in the same position as before, without knowing the first thing about how to make any of this right. What she did know, however, was that she never wanted to lose Prim, as a friend or as something more. She wanted to be there, in whatever capacity Prim would allow.

She'd run, and her cheeks were flushed pink as she crossed the grass toward where Prim sat, a heaviness filling the air.

"Prim," she said, a line of worry between her brows. She felt relief, a swell of happiness at seeing her friend whole and alive, but at once, came a stab of guilt so sharp she could hardly draw breath.

She'd mucked everything up. Eric hadn't prepared her for any of this.

[little_duck]

Prim turns further, swinging her legs up and over the fence to do so properly.

And she can't help it. The smile passes over her lips like a ghost, but it passes all the same, an instinctive reaction to seeing Hanna.

"You're here," she says, and while her tone is wary, it's not unwelcoming.

[beautyof_form]

"Yes. I... I would've come sooner, but I... I thought you might want a bit of time to settle," she admitted, though now that the words were out, they sounded monumentally silly.

"It's good to see you."

[little_duck]

Prim just shakes her head.

"No, I wanted to see you," she admits, pulling and folding her hands into her lap. "I was hoping you would come." She doesn't know how to do this, not even a bit. It's not as if she's had an abundance of examples in her life.

[beautyof_form]

"Oh," Hanna said, taking another tentative step closer. "I'm... That's good, I'm glad. I..."

Tucking her hair behind her ear, she ventured another step, her eyes flickering from the ground to Prim's face.

"I thought you might not want to anymore."

[little_duck]

"I thought that too, maybe," Prim says. She chews on her lip, trying to find the best way to fold her hands, something that will make the butterflies settle down in her stomach. "I missed you, though."

The butterflies won't leave.

[beautyof_form]

"I missed you, too," Hanna said, her breath catching, eyes wide and imploring. "Oh, Prim, I'm so sorry."

There was nothing else to say, really. She didn't deserve to make any excuses.

[little_duck]

"I'm sorry too," Prim says, and holds a hand out to Hanna. "I-- it hurt. It hurt, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't go out and sleep with any boys or anything. I thought about it, but..." She chews on her lip.

[beautyof_form]

Hanna wanted to tell that she'd have understood, if Prim had found a boy of her own, to answer whatever curiosity she might have had, but she realized it might've been the wrong thing to say.

It might've been a gradual learning curve, but she was getting there.

"I don't want to do those things with anyone else," she said, which was the absolute truth. She stepped forward, slipping her hand into Prim's. "I want... I want us to talk about what we are to one another. It was silly of us not to, before."

[little_duck]

Prim smiles down at their joined hands, starting to feel right again. She doesn't know how she didn't know some part of her had been missing, but here it is.

"Okay," she says, flicking her gaze up to Hanna. "Let's talk about it." She's learned to be brave in the past few years, but there's still a bit of fear when she asks, "What am I to you?"

[beautyof_form]

"We are friends. I would like to be more than friends. I don't know what label would be preferable to you. Girlfriend, a somewhat informal declaration of commitment. Lover, which tends to connote a sexual relationship. Partner, a formal declaration of commitment, often used by adults when legal marriage is either impossible or unwanted," she said, watching Prim with open curiosity.

"I know I would like to kiss you more often. I would like to show you what an orgasm feels like. They're quite nice."

[little_duck]

Prim smiles so hard that her face hurts. "Girlfriend," she says, selecting the term that she hears the girls at school use to refer to themselves. They have boyfriends, of course, but she will have a girlfriend. "That's what people our age say. You're my girlfriend." She uses their linked hands to pull Hanna closer.

"I would like those things," she says quietly, cheeks going pink. "I want you to show me."

[beautyof_form]

"All right. Girlfriend," Hanna agreed, smiling with a bit more confidence, her thumb gently stroking the back of Prim's hand.

"I will. Whenever you'd like," Hanna promised, then, with a slightly mischievous smile, she confessed, "I did a bit more reading."

[little_duck]

Prim echoes the mischievous smile with a tiny grin of her own. "I'd say right now except I don't think that's probably smart of us." She pauses. "What kind of reading?"

[beautyof_form]

"It was very informative. Some of the books had pictures," Hanna said, and though she wasn't certain she understood the purpose of waiting, she certainly wasn't going to argue.

[vocalfuel]

It's been a long few days. I haven't yet shaken the exhaustion of them, a tension that's greater than usual having settled on my shoulders and in my limbs, the product as much of helplessness as days spent by my sister's side. They're the two most difficult things for me to stand: someone hurting Prim, and me not being able to do anything about it. She's alright now, and I couldn't be more grateful for that, but that doesn't make me feel any better about being so ineffective.

At least this time it wasn't because of me. I guess I should be glad about that, too.

Mostly, what I am is still worried, knowing that I shouldn't hover, not really able to help it. Offering her a small smile when she turns towards me, I pull myself up onto the fence once I've reached it so I can sit beside her. "Hey, you," I say lightly. "How are you doing?"

[little_duck]

"I'm okay," she says, with her own tiny smile. She leans against Katniss, taking comfort in her sister's warmth and solidity. At this time, she's in need of a little hovering. "A little cold, but it's good to be outside."

Later, she'll go and check on the animals, safe in their barn.

"How are you doing?"

[vocalfuel]

"I'm alright," I tell her, more for the sake of trying to be reassuring than anything else. It's not too far from the truth, at least. I'm a lot closer to alright than I was while Prim was still in the hospital. Having her back and healthy, knowing that creature's been gotten rid of, makes all the difference.

Careful to keep my weight balanced, I slip my arm around her shoulders. It won't do much to keep her warm, but I like having her here. "You don't need to worry about me."

[little_duck]

"Of course I do," Prim says, gently scolding. "I worry about you, and you worry about me, and that's forever. I'm really glad you didn't put any arrows in the doctors." She's more serious about that than perhaps she should be.

She needs to learn how to use a weapon too, she decides in that moment. So she can threaten people on Katniss's behalf.

[vocalfuel]

"Believe me, I wanted to," I say, brow arching. Though there's a slight smile on my face, I mean it entirely. I just about lost my mind for the few days Prim was in the hospital. All things considered, I think it would have been pretty understandable if I'd snapped and gotten violent. "But I don't think they would have let me stay with you if I did, and I wasn't about to leave you alone in there."

[little_duck]

"I know." And she does. "Some day, I'm going to be the one protecting you." Prim smiles at her sister, secure for the moment. "Just you see."

After a moment, Prim asks the question that's been weighing on her. "Katniss, did Hanna come to see me? While I was unconscious?" Her stomach tightens up despite happiness of only a few moments ago. She doesn't know what she wants the answer to be.

[vocalfuel]

"She did," I say, nodding. I'm not entirely sure what happened between Hanna and my sister. Were it anyone else, I think I'd be a lot angrier about whatever it was. But Hanna isn't exactly someone I could just go fight, and difficult as it might be, I need to accept that Prim has her own life. She'll tell me what she wants to, and in her own time. "I didn't talk to her much, but she was there."

[little_duck]

Whether Prim likes it or not, that brings a little smile to her face. "She did," Prim confirms, letting her hair fall over her eyes for a minute. "She didn't say anything, though?"

She doesn't know what the correct answer to that is, but exploring the feeling with Katniss beside her seems safe.

"She was upset?"

[vocalfuel]

"She was worried about you," I say thoughtfully, glancing over at Prim. "That was about all I got." Any other time, any other circumstances and I might have tried to question her about whatever went on between them. As it was, I was too preoccupied, too scared. Now, much as I might not want to press, I can't help being curious. "You know, if you want to... talk to me about anything, I'm always here."

[sciencesaggressively]

He's supposed to go countryside exploring with Henri one of these days but Newt's never been good at the patience thing. Between killer ice bees and giant slugs in alleys and a face-stealing centipede and goddamn weevils, Newt's becoming increasingly convinced that there's got to be evidence of more than just natural flora and fauna out here somewhere. If that is, indeed, the case, Newt wants to be the one to find it.

Of course, he'd totally forgotten about the part where it's still, y'know, winter. It becomes a bit difficult to search for something unknown when there's still snow on the ground and his scarf and gloves had been left who even knows where. He huffs a sigh because he's starting to get tired and his hands are going numb when he spots her, sitting on the fence, and he wonders why anyone would come out here to be in the cold alone. It's a laughable thought, though, and he rolls his eyes at himself because anyone could wonder the same about him.

He approaches her slowly, not wanting to startle the girl, before coming to a stop a couple feet away from the fence, awkwardly shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. "Anything exciting going on out here?" he asks, curving his lips up into a friendly smile.

[little_duck]

Prim smiles back, if a little tremulously. "Not much," she says. He doesn't seem like the kind of man she should be afraid of-- old habits die hard, and she still appraises people for possible danger. Not as much as Katniss, perhaps, but the thoughts still swim in the back of her mind.

"There's a rabbit over there, and some deer might wander by. I'm afraid it's a little quiet here, if you're looking for excitement."

[sciencesaggressively]

She doesn't look entirely convinced that he's not going to do something crazy nefarious, so he tries to be casual about taking just one step back, putting the tiniest bit more space between them. He glances over at the rabbit and sighs with disappointment. He doesn't know what he'd expected to find today, but he'd been hoping for something. Anything. "I guess that's not like, a terrible thing," he muses, more aloud to himself than actually addressing her. "With all the shit that's been going on in the city, maybe it's good to know there's a place in Darrow that's actually still quiet."

Looking back at her makes him remember that she can't be more than, hell, fourteen? Fifteen? But he'd been around that age when he'd shipped off to MIT, one of the youngest students at the school ever, and he'd had to grow up quickly--though some might argue he still hasn't grown up at all. He wonders if she's a Darrow local or if she'd been handed an envelope upon arrival, too. If the latter is true, he suspects she's has to do a fair amount of quick growing herself.

[little_duck]

What he doesn't know is that the quiet is enforced by the older of the Everdeens, usually at the business end of an arrow. Prim sees no reason to enlighten him, though he seems fairly harmless now. She does smile at his commentary.

"I bet you weren't here at the beginning, when that... decay took over. Night would come and everything would turn to ruins and monsters. Almost nowhere was safe." It's her gentle way of saying he hasn't seen anything from this place. "I suppose maybe not the beginning, but I can't find anyone who was here before Katniss and me." She pauses a moment. "Oh. I'm Primrose Everdeen. It's nice to meet you."