A/N: I've never written Hunger Games fanfiction before. This is my first attempt at it, and I'm proud of what I came up with, despite how short it is. This is also my first attempt at writing in first person. I usually write in third person, but I decided to do something different with this story. However, I'm not a big fan of the GalexKatniss (Galeniss?) pairing, but the story wouldn't have made sense with anyone else. So, here is GalexKatniss! :D I hope you enjoy the story, and please review and let me know what you think. :)

The snow covered everything as if it were a thick, glistening white blanket. Crystalline flakes floated from the sky, a seemingly-endless addition to the blanket already draped over nature's dying greenery. Animals hibernated in trees and caves, peacefully awaiting the time when the sun's warmth would melt the snow so they could come back out and play.

Katniss sat beside me, bundled up in her winter clothes and a thick coat. She inched closer to the small fire we had built to keep our squirrels and rabbits from freezing, shivering as the cold wrapped around her.

The feeble fire had only been intended for the animals, to keep the harsh winter winds from freezing them solid. But as the temperature rapidly dropped and the snowfall lessened, Katniss and I had been forced to hunker down in a small, abandoned shed. Waiting for the snow to pick up enough to cover our tracks was excruciating, and I knew it must have been killing Katniss, as well.

I heard her teeth clacking together as I reached my arm out, wrapping it around her shoulders. I could feel her warmth through her clothes and knew that they weren't doing anything to protect her from the weather. Katniss shivered violently as she huddled closer to me, balling herself up as small as she could.

"I hate that we had to do that," she whispered. A cloud of hot air accompanied her words, disappearing soon in the cold winds of winter.

"Do what?" I asked, my voice just as soft as hers. I already knew what she was talking about, but I had to hear her say it, even if it was only an excuse to hear her voice.

She indicated the four rabbits and the two squirrels that we had tied to the string above the fire. "Taking them out of their homes like that," she explained. Her voice was so low, it seemed to be swept away by the wind soon after she spoke. If we were any farther apart, I wouldn't have heard her. "It reminds me of the games and how President Snow takes us away from our families, only to slaughtered for other people's entertainment. That's kind of what we're doing to these guys. Taking them away from their families when they're even more helpless than we are..."

My eyes wandered up to the string of dead critters, and my heart clenched at the sight. Katniss had a point, but it really wasn't the same thing at all.

"Kat..." I murmured, burying my face in her hair. "We need these animals. It's not the same thing at all. We took these animals to feed our families. Without them they'd die. They needs these animals to survive, and so do we. When President Snow holds the Games, there's no point in that other than control, and you know that. We're nothing like that man, and we never will be." My grip on her shoulders tightened slightly, and I hoped it was reassuring.

She didn't say anything, just shivered and buried herself tighter against my side. I could feel the fear in each shiver, could feel the contempt for the circumstances that had driven us here.

As the snowflakes stopped falling, I realized just how deep my contempt for these circumstances ran. I hated how we had to sneak out and barter our way through the black market just to provide for our families. I hated how we were forced to live hand to mouth. I hated how each year we feared for ourselves and our siblings and friends. I hated how there was no way of telling if anything we did was worth it.

Looking down at Katniss, the both of us shivering in the frosty little shed, I smiled. Out of everything I hated, Katniss made it all a little easier.