Who: Katniss Everdeen and Kate Bishop What: Friends meeting again Where: The woods When: afternoon Warnings: not really Status: closed/complete
Being in Madison Valley as long as she had meant that Katniss was used to the revolving door of people and the part where sometimes they came back without remembering their previous time here, so when she saw Kate posting on the network, she only felt a momentary pang of disappointment that it wasn’t the Kate she previously knew. Still, she assumed that all versions of Kate Bishop were archers, so she was keeping an eye out during her weekly trek out to the woods to hunt for some game to stock the freezer at home.
It seemed luck was with her today when she caught a flash of brunette hair behind a tree not too far in the distance. Not wanting to startle away any potential targets, she crept silently through the woods until she was a few feet away. Since she also didn’t want to startle Kate, she deliberately stepped on some dead leaves, making a faint crunching sound.
***
Just because she’d been pulled into some bizarro world, didn’t mean Kate would let her skills go rusty. After her first couple of days in this town, she’d spent time scoping out places she could practice, and purchased both a longbow and recurve bow. She had a couple dozen arrows in a quiver on her back, and was using the recurve as she practiced. Draw, notch, aim, release. Thunk. Repeat.
She’d used some spraypaint to put little dots on the trees, and each of them had a bow in dead center.
At the sound of the crunch, Kate turned. Thankfully, she didn’t have an arrow notched, she was between shots when the other came closer. It looked like a young woman… Kate didn’t think she was dangerous, but Kate was glad that she had her bow and arrows, nonetheless.
“Hello?”
***
“Hi,” Katniss said. Even after all these years, she was still slightly awkward when it came to being social, though she had improved by leaps and bounds since she initially arrived. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you. I’m Katniss.” She paused, trying to figure out the best way to explain that she’d been close friends with a previous version of Kate Bishop.
There really was no good way to drop that, though she knew that Kate was aware there’d been other versions of her in town. “I’m an archer,” she settled on saying. “We have a kind of club.”
***
“Hi.” Kate was relieved it wasn’t someone coming after her. Not that she really expected people to come after her in Madison, but you never knew, right? She broke into a smile. “Katniss. Hey.” Like the chick from that book, right?
“Oh!” Then her eyes lit up. “Hey, that’s cool! I was wondering. I’m still pretty new around here, and thought… well, the woods were as good a place as any to practice and all that. Right? I’m Kate. Sorry. Kate Bishop.”
***
Katniss gave her an awkward smile and nodded. “I know. The woods are a great place to practice,” she said. “We have a place set up about a half mile to the south of here. There’s a cabin and something of an obstacle course. You’re welcome to use it any time.”
One of the other Kates had helped build the place, so that gave her as much right to use it as anyone else as far as Katniss was concerned.
***
“Wait, what??” Kate asked. “An obstacle course? Why am I shooting at trees like a chump if you’ve got an obstacle course set up near here?” She grinned brightly. “...do you… wanna go together? Show me the ropes, as it were?”
***
That sounded like the Kate she remembered and the excitement made Katniss smile. “I’d love to,” she said. She thought that maybe she should text Susan and Allison to join them, but there’d be time enough for that later.
“How are you doing?” she asked. “I know that coming here is weird.”
***
Hey, Katniss had a really nice smile. Kate’s brightened as she saw the happiness behind Katniss’s smile. It was nice to meet someone with a similar interest to her own, especially considering she didn’t have a whole lot of friends in Madison yet. And she was missing her friends back home--America, Billy, Teddy, and even her own Clint--so very much.
“Thanks.” Kate slung her bow over her shoulder and put the arrow away as the pair of them walked together. “I mean… it’s been bizarre. Did you know there are vampires here? But it’s also really cool! Did you know there are vampires here??”
***
“Yeah, there’s a lot of things here that I never heard of before,” Katniss said. “Vampires, witches, superheroes…” she shrugged. “It’s pretty fascinating.” She’d also learned a lot about the presumed history of Panem since best she could tell, her home had developed from a civilization that was similar to this one.
She thought that Kate was familiar with superheroes at least. “My home is very different from this place,” she explained. “A lot of things here were new to me.”
***
“Yeah, we don’t have any of those things in my world. I mean, superheroes we have, but not the other stuff. Vampires. Werewolves. Angels?” She shrugged her shoulders. “But I can definitely understand how it would be new to someone who doesn’t have them in their world.”
After a quick pause, Kate added, “what was your home like?”
***
Katniss pressed her lips together. It was a common question and somehow it still always caught her off guard when someone asked it. “Uh… it was… not great,” she said. “There was a war a long time ago and the government punished the people who were against them. For a long time.” She paused. “We were fixing it. But we lost a lot.”
Like her sister. She cherished every single moment she had with Prim here.
***
“...you wouldn’t happen to be from Panem, would you?” Kate asked, feeling a bit of a flush cross her cheeks. She’d read those books, and wondered… were they about this Katniss? Could just be a coincidence that there was a girl here… called Katniss… who was an archer… from a war-struck country?
Or maybe there was something more to it. Maybe the story was about this young woman. Somehow.
***
So many people here had never heard of her home that Katniss was actually a little surprised Kate had. “I am,” she said. “Did you meet one of the others?” She paused. “I know there are books about it too in some universes.” Why people found that interesting to read about, she would never understand.
“My sister, Prim, is here. Johanna Mason. Clove. Effie Trinket.” There had been others over the years, but at the moment, it was only the five of them.
***
“Yes, I read them.” It wasn’t widely known, but Kate was a big reader. She would almost rather spend an evening with a good book in her hands than anything else. Though, movies with her friends and drinking/dancing in clubs came in a very close second.
Kate’s eyebrows rose and drew together in surprise and sadness. “Prim is here?” She asked, her voice almost catching. “I didn’t think that was… oh, man.” She pressed a hand against her chest. “I can’t even. The feels.”
***
Her reaction was so unexpected that Katniss found herself getting a bit choked up as well. “Yeah, it’s… amazing,” she said. “I am grateful for every single moment we have here.” She was also grateful that her sister was growing into an amazing young woman as she should have had the opportunity to do at home.
“So I guess I don’t need to feel guilty that I know things about you from your previous versions in town if you’ve read books about my life.” She hadn’t read them herself and had no intention of doing so, so she wasn’t sure how accurate they really were.
***
Kate grinned sheepishly at that. Yes, they knew things about each other’s lives that was a little weird… unconventional… but might make them stronger friends in the long run? If they were on that road. Kate really hoped so, she needed friends. She felt awfully lonely a lot of the time. How could two amazing, young archers not become the best of friends?
“No need to feel guilty. Think of it as a leg up? We’ve got each other’s backs.” Kate grinned a little more brightly. “...wait, unless you and the other me had beef. Was she a bitch, or was she cool?” Kate was totally teasing, but there was a part of her that hoped it was the latter.
***
Katniss laughed. “She was actually a really good friend. So maybe we can be again.” Even though she’d been here for a long time, she didn’t have a lot of those. “And you’ll have to meet my girlfriend, Susan, too,” she added. “She’s also an archer.”
There weren’t as many of them around these days as there once were.
***
Well, that sounded great to Kate. She needed more friends. Madison Valley was a nice place--there were no bad guys chasing after her or hurting people (that she could tell, anyway)--but it would be even nicer with good friends.
“That would be great!” Kate beamed. “There are so many archers in Madison! Do you know Mia, too?”
***
“We’ve spoken a few times,” Katniss said. “I think it’s time we hosted another gathering for all of us to get to know each other. With the way people come and go sometimes it’s difficult to keep up.”
Her phone chimed and she realized she had a message from Su asking where she was. “Oh, gosh, I’ve been out here a lot longer than I planned,” she said. “I should get back. But we’ll talk soon, okay?” She was glad that she’d run into Kate and had a chance to chat.
***
“Yeah, definitely.” Kate gave Katniss a warm smile, glad that they’d bumped into one another today. “You know how to find me.” Kate was hoping that maybe the whole archer contingent could get together and shoot. She didn’t often have time to train with other archers, but her time training with Clint was the best time.
***
It wasn’t really difficult to find people in Madison Valley. “I certainly do,” Katniss said, returning the warm smile. “And I will do so very soon.”