Room 221 [Thursday evening]

[thegirl_onfire]

Katniss had been on the island for over two months now. She still believed she was being watched, and she still looked over her shoulders for cameras (she'd found the obvious ones in the dorms, but she was fairly sure there had to be more.) And she'd assumed that the lack of communication from her family and Peeta was part of her exile -- another

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[momslilassassin]

"You moved," Ben observed from the doorway. "It's because Ender's socks smell, isn't it?"

[thegirl_onfire]

Katniss, not being known for her sense of humor, had to pause a moment before formulating a reply. "Is that what that smell was? I assumed it was some sort of open sewer."

[momslilassassin]

"No, that was all him," Ben cheerfully slandered. "This is Blysse and Blind Seer's room as well, right?"

[thegirl_onfire]

"Yes. It's convenient to have my hunting partners in the same room," Katniss said. "And Madison left without much warning, it seems."

[momslilassassin]

"That happens around here a bit," Ben admitted. "It's why I have to leave notes or voicemail messages when I leave the island so people don't fret at me."

[thegirl_onfire]

That earned a little smile. "If you leave overnight, people just assume you're gone forever?"

That actually...probably meant she could go either way on leaving notes. If she went home, it probably would be forever.

[momslilassassin]

"It depends on where I'm going," Ben said. "The war's over at home--well, the last one, is--but for a couple of years there it was pretty hairy. When I went home, I needed to let my relatives know about it or I got lectures when I came back."

[thegirl_onfire]

"Because you have so many of them here," she recalled thoughtfully. "No one here seems to care too much about me, though, so if I'm called back home I might as well just slip away."

[momslilassassin]

"I'll keep a lecture on standby if you do that," he decided. "And Blysse would wonder where you went." He paused, then offered, "If you do get called home and want to leave a message for her, I can relay it. Blysse isn't a big reader."

[thegirl_onfire]

"No?" Katniss quirked a tiny smile at that. "I'd appreciate that, then. But if I go home, Ben, I probably won't be coming back. I'm here as punishment."

[momslilassassin]

"So if you went home the punishment would be over?"

That was the optimistic part of the Skywalker genetic code shining through. The more realistic part of Ben didn't really think that was what would be happening.

[thegirl_onfire]

"Something like that. I need to go home when they call me to take my Victory Tour -- it's an event at home," she explained vaguely. "If I haven't satisfied them here, and on the Tour, I won't be coming back and I don't know what will happen to me. If I have satisfied them, I get to stay home with my family."

[momslilassassin]

Ben's eyebrows drew together as he processed that. "What do they need to be satisfied?" he asked. "Is it something you can work on here?"

The "I don't know what will happen to me" struck him as a little dire.

[thegirl_onfire]

Katniss bit the inside of her cheek, glancing around her room as though she thought she was being watched.

Which, of course, was what she thought.

"I have to," she said softly. "I'm here to work on it. When I go back, I have to be convincing."

[momslilassassin]

"Squirrels?" Ben mouthed. "I can make them go away."

[thegirl_onfire]

She shook her head helplessly. "I'm under supervision, even here," she said carefully, choosing her words delicately.