Bobby Singer; Paranoid Bastard (notanidjit) wrote in wariscoming, @ 2015-01-06 18:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | bobby singer, katniss everdeen |
Who: Bobby and the Girl on Fire
What: Checking up
Where: Katniss’ apartment
When: backdated to mid-December
Status: Complete
It had been a few days since Katniss had literally stumbled into his pathway. He still wasn’t quite sure what had happened, some of the events still a blur considering how inebriated he had been. He did remember getting her to the welcome center though, getting her one of those amulets and then letting the others fill her in as best they could. It would take time before the girl was able to believe any of it. Considering the hell she had been through before Lawrence, all of the mind games he knew her government liked to play, he wouldn’t be surprised if it took her longer than some. Also might mean she was more adaptable. Only time would really tell.
She didn’t know anything of their world though and while she would no doubt be able to locate the woods again and hunt game if she wanted, she might find other necessities a little harder to come by. He could always bug Florence to go check on her but Florence had Bo and little kids could be a handful. Maybe Bo wasn’t but it still didn’t mean that her energy wasn’t tiring enough.
Plus there was the whole getting Katniss to trust other people. It seemed like she trusted him at least some and it would probably be a good idea if he helped show her a few things. Or at least made sure she wasn’t starving.
It’s what Karen would have wanted him to do and it was a way to try and not think about how his wife was gone all over again. So he headed over with a bag of canned goods and knocked on Katniss’ door, waiting for a reply.
~~~
Being in Lawrence was strange and new and terrifying. And exhausting.
Katniss didn’t like it - she didn’t like not knowing what was happening, what her role was, what she was supposed to do - even in the 74th Games, she’d had one goal: survival. In the 75th? Keep Peeta alive. She’d succeeded at the first, but the second? Well, she didn’t know. The Capitol had him and he was likely dead. Snow might have done that - it would be like him. Though it would also be like him to use Peeta to convince her to come back.
But she wasn’t there. And she didn’t know.
All she could do was go out every day - visit the woods to hunt and then wander the streets, searching for Peeta. Though the city was large and confusing - and this was after she’d been told it was a small city - Katniss had a very good sense of direction, and always made it back to Sanctuary, and her apartment, and even that didn’t feel safe, or permanent. The name made her want to laugh at the irony, laugh hysterically until she broke down in tears.
When the knock came, Katniss froze in the act of crossing from the bedroom to the couch. For a long moment, she stared at the door, wide eyed, fearing that it would be broken down at any moment. When that didn’t happen, the seventeen year old finally moved, slowly walking over to the door. She checked the tiny hole that gave her a view of the outside, then relaxed minutely when she saw who it was. Even so, she pulled the door open about half a foot, gaze lifting slowly to meet Bobby’s eyes, the wariness in her own matching that of an abused animal just waiting for the next strike.
“....Yes?”
~~~
Bobby didn’t like the look she had, didn’t like how much the girl looked wary of his presence, of probably anyone’s presence, but there was little he could do to fix that. Didn’t mean he had to like it though. He held up a bag. “Brought you some things that you might need.”
Inside would be some different canned goods that she should be able to eat and clothes. He’d gone through Karen’s things, knowing he wouldn’t want to have them around, that he wouldn’t be able to deal with the constant reminder of what they represented. It had been difficult to go through them once he’d had the idea though. Throwing them out wouldn’t work, he couldn’t just let them rot somewhere like her body was doing. Donating them seemed like the best course of action and he had most of them boxed up and ready to donate to some local shelter.
It had seemed like something his wife would have wanted and the least he could do was honor her memory in a productive way. He also knew that Katniss would need clothes and maybe the ones in the bag would fit her, maybe they wouldn’t. He didn’t have a clue, but he held out the bag to her.
“Figured you’d need clothes and food. Up to you whether you take them or not.”
~~~
It took her a moment, a brief minute while she considered a thousand different options and scenarios, but none of them seemed real - least of all him extending kindness to her. She’d been shown so little kindness in her life that she could count the acts on one hand - and remember their faces, faces who haunted her now because they were either dead or lost. Peeta. Cinna. Rue. Mags. She had so much death on her hands that it was a wonder they weren’t bloody even now.
But none of this was shown, or said aloud. In silence, she reached out and slowly took the bag, then after a moment Katniss actually took a step back, pulling the door open further. “Do you want to come in?” The words held a mix of hope and dread - hope that he’d keep away her nightmares for a time, if only the few minutes he was there, and dread that he would leave her to her demons.
~~~
He nearly shrugged a no out and headed off but something about the way she looked at him has Bobby muttering a “sure” and heading on into her place. It wasn’t much different than his own, less bedrooms and it lacked the homey charms that Karen had put in place in his but it should work just fine for her. Maybe it was too big though considering what her life amounted to back home. He wasn’t all that sure.
“Been settling in okay? Got anymore questions now?” He figured she might because of everything that was going on. Some of the questions didn’t pop up until people had been around a few days and the reality of not waking up and it all being a nightmare finally sunk in. He didn’t quite understand it like the Seal-napped did. He’d lived in this world his whole life but he’d be able to answer the basics for her and that was better than nothing.
~~~
The apartment more than lacked any personal touches - it was totally barren of them. There were few things in the world that Katniss was attached to, and right now she figured they had all been destroyed, back in District 12, thanks to Snow. Right now, this place - it was somewhere for her to sleep. It wasn’t a home, not to her. As Bobby stepped in, she waited until he cleared the door, then shut it and locked it securely, testing it once before she finally turned to him. Walking over to the couch, she set the bag on the coffee table, staring down at it for a long moment.
“...Where is this Seal? I saw people say that it brings others here. And that it can take them away again, too. Is there any way to...to control it?” She asked it quietly, sitting on the couch’s edge and looking back up at Bobby. Katniss still didn’t understand a lot of what she’d been told, but some things were clear: she was stuck here.
~~~
“We ain’t really got a clue where it is. People have been looking for some time but ain’t had no luck yet.” It wouldn’t surprise him at all if the damn thing moved around. With the amount of power it seemed to have it was a definite possibility that it could. “It does bring others and take them away whenever it feels like it though.” Even brought people back from the dead only to rip them away again.
“Controlling it ain’t something I’ve ever seen happen. Plenty have tried but considering no one even knows where it is I doubt it’ll ever happen.” It would probably cause more chaos than good if someone was able to do that, especially depending on the person. Might give folks a chance to decide if they got to stay though and wouldn’t that be something to see.
~~~
“Sounds awful,” she said softly, her eyes still on him. Slowly, she was beginning to relax, if the fact that she wasn’t on the edge of bolting could be called relaxing. Katniss wrapped her arms around herself, almost defensively, focusing on the sound of his voice rather than his words. He was gruff, but he still seemed almost comforting, in a strange way.
When he fell silent, Katniss’ eyes dropped to the bag in front of her. After a moment, she started to pull things out of it, slightly surprised by his generosity. “I - I didn’t need you to bring this. I don’t have any way to pay you back,” she told him, glancing back over. “I can hunt, though - bring you fresh game? If you want. Or...clean something?”
~~~
He didn’t really need her to bring him anything but he understood not wanting to feel beholden to another. Especially not when one’s life had been toppled upside down like hers had. “I’ll take fresh game if you wanna do that.” Never hurt to have something like that around. “You can skin whatever it is and keep the coat. I’ll just take the meat.”
It seemed like a good exchange and one that she would be okay with, especially because she had initiated the idea of it. “Don’t need it right away or nothing though. Feel free to get a little more used to this place before you go hunting anything.” There were forests where she would be able to do so but people stumbling upon a Katniss Everdeen doing that could cause a few issues.
~~~
When he accepted her offer, Bobby was rewarded with Katniss’ first real smile since she arrived. She liked having something to do, because it made her feel as though she was contributing - and it kept her from thinking too much about the Games and Peeta. The nighttime was better for that crippling terror - during the day she really wanted to try to not think about all that. She nodded her agreement to his words. “That’s fine - I’ll bring it to you after the next time I go hunting.” And she could probably find somewhere else to sell the pelt, or just clean it herself. Her mother had taught her enough about sewing that she could make it into a decent blanket.
“I go out almost every day - not always hunting,” she admitted, “but to look for P - someone. Anyone I might know.” So lately she’d been staying near the graveyard since that seemed to be where people generally showed up, from what she’d seen said.
~~~
He had a feeling that he knew who she was looking for, and considering the time period he thought she was from that wasn’t surprising. It wouldn’t be long before she probably found out about the fictional aspect but he had no plans of being the one to fill her in on that part. Some people needed a chance to get settled before that was thrown in their faces. Bobby had a feeling she was one of those.
“You never know, they could show up. There are people who watch the graveyard where you came in from in case anyone does get brought over. So if someone does show up, they’ll get told about who’s here already.” Well, usually anyway, not everyone realized who all was around all the time. “No harm in looking though.”
~~~
“I hope he does,” she replied sincerely. She’d been worrying about Peeta ever since her own arrival - and she knew that he was becoming her obsession, but honestly? She didn’t care. Sometimes her longing switched, and she wished Prim were there instead, or even that stupid cat of her sister’s...but generally it was Peeta who consumed her waking thoughts - and her dreams.
“They watch it? Can I watch it too?” It would be something else she could do, at least, and maybe she could learn more about these people and some of their primitive technology at the same time. So far, she hadn’t seen any sign of the Capitol or Snow...but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone (or something) worse out there. After all, why was she even there? “Who do I talk to about being one of those people?”
~~~
“They’re usually looking for new recruits for it.” Especially with how many people the Seal could take away without a moment’s notice. Seemed better to have extras on hand to help out with it than limit who wanted to help. “I think Lois is the one who’s running it. If you talk to her I’m sure she can get you onto one of the teams.” Or make her an alternate. He didn’t know. That wasn’t his cross to bear. He stuck to the monster classes.
“You needin’ anything else?” he asked as he looked around the apartment again. It seemed like she had everything she could need but maybe not. Definitely didn’t hurt to ask in case he was missing something. Food, clothes, shelter was all there though. Karen would have been better at this. She would have been able to offer some kind of comfort, something to make it more homelike. He was at a loss on how to do that.
~~~
“I’ll talk to her, then.” At his question, Katniss shook her head - though likely wouldn’t have said, even if she did need something. “No, I don’t.” For a long moment she was silent, but then gave in to the mental nudging of her mother regarding her manners. “Thank you,” she added. Curious despite herself, Katniss reached into the bag and pulled out a light blue sweater. The material was richer than she was used to, and soft, like something that might come from the Capitol…
But she liked it anyway, and accepted it. For now. Looking back up to Bobby, she set the sweater aside, then pinned him with a serious look and repeated her words. “Thank you. For everything.” Even if this was all a lie and she ended up dead (or worse), she’d remember his kindness to her, even when he’d been in pain himself.
~~~
Bobby nodded, not really sure what else to say. He had done his part, checked in on the girl and there wasn’t much else for him to do. He would look in on her again later on, make sure she was still doing okay until she started to make friends. Then they would be able to do it. Until then he wanted to know she was alright.
“Alright then. I’m gonna get goin’. You know where to find me if you got any questions.” He nodded to her once more and then slipped out of her house and headed back toward his own place, hating how utterly empty it felt with Karen’s absence.