Who: Mitsuko, Prim, & Katniss What: Reunited Where: their house When: at midnight Warnings: not really Status: complete gdoc
This week had been the worst for Mitsuko. Things had already been bad enough that Billy had left awhile ago. She was fine but deep down, she missed him. But eventually, she moved on. She also still had Katniss and Primrose. Without them, she didn't know what she would've done.
But then the dome just had to take both the Everdeen sisters away, leaving Mitsuko utterly alone now. She didn't really know what to do. She'd lost people, sure. But she never really cared for them. Katniss and Primrose? She did care about them. Maybe she even loved them. She wasn't too sure but that's what it seemed like to her.
So while she seemed to have moved on while she was out or with people, when she was home alone, she just stayed in her room. Sometimes she slept, sometimes she just laid there. She hardly ate since they left. Basically she was just miserable. Most of all, she was angry. Angry at the dome for taking them away from her. All her life, things had been taken away from her. Just take and take and take until she was almost an empty shell.
She let out a sigh as she turned on her side. She didn't want to get out of bed, not even to go see what the sudden noise downstairs was.
*** The trip to Disney had been an absolute delight and Prim had enjoyed herself, but there was always that underlying fact that they were unable to reach anyone back in Madison Valley. That was definitely a sour note for sure and Prim did not like that aspect at all. She knew the people that knew both the sisters would be worried about them or worse, think they had been sent home. Prim didn’t want them thinking like that especially when the two were fine and had returned home, but there was nothing that could be done.
Poor Mitsuko. She worried for the young woman living with them that kind of felt like another sister to both the Everdeens. No doubt she was worried sick for them or believed them gone forever. Thankfully, this was not the case at all and Prim was grateful when they were sent back to Madison. They arrived back at their house and before they hit the network to let everyone know they were fine, Prim wanted to check on Mitsuko.
“Mitsuko!” The young woman shouted as she took the stairs two-by-two and headed for the other woman’s bedroom. “Mitsuko, we’re back…” Prim trailed off as she spotted her friend, curled in bed on her side and clearly miserable. “Oh Mitsuko. It’s okay. We’re here.”
***
Just as suddenly as they’d left Madison Valley, they were back, though it took a moment for Katniss to realize it since there were fireworks going off in both places. She agreed with Prim that they needed to find Mitsuko and make sure she was okay. Her next priority would be checking in with Bellamy.
“Hey, what happened while we were gone?” she asked, going over to sit on the edge of Mitsuko’s bed. She’d noticed that things looked… odd, but couldn’t quite put a finger on what was different.
*** Mitsuko had heard the door open and footsteps downstairs. And she didn't care. They could be burglars and she didn't bother to move. Then she heard them, heard their voices, but even so she didn't move. In fact, she just thought she was imagining things. Imagining that there were downstairs. She knew she was a bit unhinged but she hadn't expected to be that much.
Then her bedroom door open and she turned. She was completely stunned to find both Everdeen sisters walking in. "What? You're back? How-?" she said as she sat up. "Am I dreaming?" That could be what was happening. Maybe she'd fallen asleep and this was just a dream. But it seems so real.
*** Primrose followed Katniss’s lead and took a seat beside her sister on Mitsuko’s bed. The poor young woman looked absolutely bewildered and simply stunned at their sudden return. She thought she was dreaming it all. At the question, Primrose quickly shook her head. “No, Mitsuko. We’re real. I promise,” she reassured the young woman quickly. “We just were sent to this wonderful place, Disney World, for a few days. That’s all. I really wished you could have come-” she broke off as she realized that Katniss was right. Things seemed...different.
“Something does seem...different,” Primrose said softly. She looked over at Katniss who seemed just as unsure as to what as herself. ***
“I’m sorry you didn’t get to come with us,” Katniss said. “You would have enjoyed it.” And clearly whatever happened here while they were gone was not as much fun. “We realized it was a very small group of people this time, unlike the cruise when it was pretty much everyone, but we weren’t sure why.”
With as haunted as Mitsu looked, Katniss was kind of glad that she hadn’t been here, but it made her even more worried about Bellamy and everyone else that she hadn’t seen in Disney.
*** Underneath the covers, Mitsuko had dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand. When she felt the pain, that was when she figured, yes, this was real. Katniss and Prim were actually back, and she wasn't having some terrible dream.
She sat up, shrugging at the whole 'something seeming different' thing before she fully turned to the sisters. "Disney World? Wonder why some people went there and some stayed?" she said frowning a bit. She also couldn't help the bitterness in her voice. Perhaps her question was more why didn't she get to go? Why did they get to go but not her?
*** Primrose did feel bad about Misuko not getting to go with them. It wasn’t fair for her or a lot of other people, but like Katniss, Primrose didn’t know the reasoning behind it either. She just knew they had gone, along with a selected few, and the rest had been left behind. Seeing as Madison Valley did crazy things all the time, it wasn’t surprising to Prim about how it just all happened suddenly. And things did happen to only certain people sometimes, too. It didn’t mean that she didn’t question some part of it though or feel bad that their friend hadn’t come with them.
“Well, Madison Valley does sometimes do only certain things to certain people,” Primrose replied. But usually those things didn’t involve complete disconnect from everyone else in the town. “But it was strange that we couldn’t reach out to anyone from Disney World,” she added after a moment. ***
“What happened while we were gone?” Katniss asked. It obviously wasn’t something good, but why would the dome have chosen to keep a small group of them out of it? She was glad that Prim was safe from whatever it was, but she could have likely been useful with her archery skills.
She wondered if Mitsuko had even been taking care of herself. “Come on, let’s go downstairs and get something to eat and you can fill us in.” And they could maybe figure out what was happening now. Everything seemed really bright despite it being midnight.
*** Mitsuko supposed Prim was right. The Dome did things so randomly that there was no rhyme or reason to anything it does. Some people went to Disney World and some stayed and that was that. It was useless getting upset about it.
So she just sighed and got out of bed. "Well, either way. I'm just glad you're both back now," she said and she meant it. There was even a brief pause then she suddenly hugged both of them. She rarely hugged anyone, not sincerely anyway. But right now, there was no ulterior motive. She hugged them simply because she suddenly felt like it.
But she was quick to pull away as well and nodded to Katniss. "Food sounds good," she said. "I'm not sure if there's enough in the fridge, though. Supplies and such were running a bit low." Then again, she hadn't eaten much, so maybe there might be something left.
*** “We’re glad to be back too,” Prim reassured the other young woman. Disney World had been fun, but she was glad to be home. Madison Valley was her home and she hadn’t like the idea of being away from it or Mitsuko. She feared the thought of leaving this place for good, regardless if it was for home or not.
“Yes, let’s get food,” she replied just as Mitsuke stood and hugged both of them. It was brief, but Prim managed to hug back before the young woman pulled away. Her words about supplies and such running low shocked Prim. “But deliveries come in everyday…” ***
If nothing else, Katniss knew there was a decent stock of game in the freezer. It would take a little longer to prepare, but she was pretty sure that Mitsuko wouldn’t have gone through all of it. Unless they were gone an inordinately long time.
“It sounds like things were a little rough here,” she said. “Are you okay? I mean, physically. There weren’t any attacks or anything, were there?”
She didn’t look injured, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t.
*** Mitsuko knew about the game in the freezer, but she had no idea how to prepare it. She didn't know how to really cook at all, she just stuck to eating whatever snacks she could find. Maybe she should've learned how to prepare the game, but she hadn't expected this to happen.
"No, no attacks or anything like that. But it was kind of like the world was ending," she told them as they headed downstairs. "We lost the internet and tv after you guys left. Then the power and network went out. You could hear weird noises. It was strange."
*** Primrose listened intently to what Mitsuko was saying and it definitely scared her. All of the things she said had never happened in Madison Valley before. They never lost the internet or television and definitely not power or the network. Worst of it was those sounds she mentioned. Primrose didn’t like the sound of that at all. What was going on in Madison Valley? Why send them away to Disney World and hurt the people that remained? It didn’t make any sense…
“I can help prepare the stuff in the freezer Katniss,” Prim offered once they were in the kitchen. Maybe cooking would help take her mind off the creepy sounding things happening around here. “I’m glad you’re okay Mitsuko,” she added. “But that all sounds really creepy.” ***
“It really does,” Katniss agreed. She was kind of glad that she and Prim hadn’t been here for it, but she felt bad that Mitsuko had to go through it on her own. “The power is obviously back on now. I wonder if the network is up. Maybe we can figure out what’s going on. It honestly sounds like there’s a party going on outside somewhere.”
She opened the freezer and started to rummage around, trying to find something that wouldn’t take too long to prepare given that it was the middle of the night.
*** "It got really bleak towards the end there," Mitsuko told them as she sat at the dining table. She never really ate game before, but now she was looking forward to it.
She checked her phone real quick and nodded to Katniss. "Yeah, seems like the network's back up. You guys should probably message people and ask how they're doing. I know some have missed you both." She on the other hand, was really only close to the two in the room, so she didn't have anyone to check on. The ones that mattered to her were right in front of her.
*** “We’ll reach out,” Primrose assured her, opening the fridge to see if there was anything else that could be used along with any game Katniss managed to dig up from the freezer. Not surprising there wasn’t much, but Mitsuko had said there was no deliveries. It worried her, but she pulled out a can of salsa that she found and opened the cabinet, relieved to find an unopened bag of chips inside.
She set them on the table and moved to grab some plates. “I’m just glad we’re back-” Primrose paused because at the moment, she heard the party too. “It does sound like a party outside.” ***
Katniss pulled out some some small birds that would cook up pretty quickly. “I’ll check in with them after we eat,” she said, filling the dishpan with hot water and setting the meat in it to thaw a little while she pre-heated the oven.
“Is there any rice or pasta we can make as a side dish?” Maybe it was ridiculous to cook a full meal at this time of night, but she didn’t care. Mitsuko was part of their family and she’d had a rough week. This was something they all needed.
*** "Good," Mitsuko said. She knew quite a few people have been worried about the sisters and she was sure they'd be happy to hear that both had returned.
"I ate all the rice since it's the only thing I know how to cook, but I think we have some pasta around here." She got up and headed towards the cupboards, digging around a bit until she found a bag of pasta. It was the ones that were shaped like bowties. "This good?" she asked Katniss, holding up the bag.
*** Primrose watched as Mitsuko dug through the cupboards and pulled out a bag of pasta shaped like bow ties. Primrose, silly as it as, thought they looked kind of cute, almost too cute to eat. “I think those should work just fine,” she replied. She was sure her sister would say the same thing about the bow tie shaped pasta. At this time of night, she figured Katniss was not about to be picky about what the pasta looked like anyway. “I’ll boil some water.” Taking up a pot from the stove, she filled it with the appropriate amount of water and set it on the stove, clicking the setting on so that it could start to boil. ***
“Perfect,” Katniss agreed. “Now you two relax and we’ll be eating before you know it.”
They were all back together and that was the important thing.