Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me, all main characters belong to Suzanne Collins.

Hope you enjoy :)

'You are not alone in this'

-Mumford and Sons

"Maybe I shouldn't have done it."

The thought runs through my head over and over. Yet here I stand at the end of my own grave looking down, digging a little deeper just to prove my point.

After Snow's announcement of the quarter quell, I was stunned speechless.

"For the 75th hunger games, the third quarter quell, each distracts mentors will have to chose a male and female tribute to participate in the Games."

The entire district saw it, if Peeta, Haymitch and I weren't already hated, we definitely were now. Giving the mentors the power to chose who went into the games was like telling the people there was no one they could trust. Snow was turning us around, instead of putting us on the side of the people, he was showing them that we were his pons. We would be forced to pick our friends, our family, our neighbors. People we may have known our whole life.

I was brought back to reality when I slammed straight into Peeta's chest.

"Oh ouch, are you ok?" Peeta questioned as he steadied himself on the snow and ice that littered the ground. His fingers dug into my arm, almost painfully as though he was trying to balance his entire life here in this moment clawing onto my arm.

"Yeah I'm okay. Sorry, I guess I wasn't paying attention" Our eyes met. The sparkle that was usually in his light blue eyes had disappeared. His pupils had dilated taking on a dark look. If someone saw him now, they never would have thought he had blue eyes.

His well sculpted merchants face looked hard, the clench in his jaw showed that he was clearly not happy. I wasn't essentially sure if it was due to the fact that I had just unknowingly slammed into him, or the announcement that had just been made.

I was drawn back to reality by the loss of warmth on my arms. His hands had disappeared, and with them it seemed so did my warmth. I wanted him to put his hands back on me, to comfort me to tell me, well, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted him to tell me. That he loved me? That seemed uncalled for, almost out of character for me. That's not what I wanted to hear.

"Katniss do you want to come with me to talk to Haymitch, I was just heading over there?" Peeta's voice was nice, it was calm and soothing not how it had been when he had first ran into me. It seemed he had finally grounded himself.

"Oh yeah, um, sure."

"Lead the way" Peeta didn't offer his hand, if anything he waited for me to start walking before he followed, a step or two behind. Slightly disappointed I trudged to Haymitch's door, not bothering to knock I walked straight through.

The sight before me was one to truly behold. In front of me sat a mostly sober Haymitch. His eyes had not clouded over yet, and the cup in his hand was still full. When he heard us come in he shifted slightly in his seat. Placing two glasses next to each other on his coffee table, he shifted back into how he had been before we came, staring blankly at the TV which was now just repeating the announcement again and again.

"For the 75th hunger games, the third quarter quell, each distracts mentors will have to chose a male and female tribute to participate in the Games."

"Finally heard the news did you," Haymitch snickered, throwing his head back to down more of the vodka that sloshed around in his glass.

"What are we going to do?" Peeta questioned, walking from his place behind me now to his seat across from Haymitch. Taking the liquor, he poured himself a glass and sat back staring at how the drink swirled in his glass.

"Do you plan on just standing there all night, Sweetheart." I glared at him, but he just smiled wider, opening his arms as if to present to me the space he had. The dirty room, or the innocent Peeta slowly downing his glass of vodka. I moved, though my legs felt heavy. Moving till I fell in the seat beside Peeta, who offered me a drink. Accepting, he poured the vodka staring only at my face. He must have seen the slight twitch in my eye because as the glass was about a quarter filled, he stopped pouring and put the bottle down.

"You never did answer Peeta's question Haymitch, what are we going to do?"

"We are going to do the only thing we know how to do, what Snow says. We are going to have to be more vigilant, see who has a chance in winning the games, or find someone who would not be missed if they disappear. The fate of the 12 is literally in our hands. So what I suggest is you both go home and do your research, pick two boys and two girls who you want to enter. From there we will try to come to common ground with the six boys and girls we selected. Got it." The way Haymitch said it was more of a demand then a request. But it was probably the best chance we had of picking people for the games.

As Peeta nodded his head, finishing off his glass of vodka, he rose to leave. Me, having not touched my vodka, got up as well. I was hoping for an opportunity to speak to him alone, before curfew and without Haymitch to watch us. Peeta looked at me, the blue in his eyes was clouding over now due to the liquor, but he was still sober enough to walk and talk without slurring his words. As we bid Haymitch goodnight, we heard a howl, a low growl come from the back of Haymitch's throat before his glass went flying into the wall behind the screen, pieces of glass installing themselves into the drywall as other pieces fell to the ground. But rather than comforting him we closed the door. We knew Haymitch needed time to mourn on his own, our presence may just make him more distraught.

As Peeta and I now walked down Haymitch's porch, I grabbed Peeta's hand. It was large and smooth and soft, unlike my hunting hands, but most importantly, it was warm.

"What is it?" Peeta seemed concerned, but the alcohol was finally starting to take its impact and if I didn't start speaking now, I may never get a chance.

"Would you stay with me, during the night I mean?" My voice shook, so much for trying to be calm. My eyes stared at our hands, which had now intertwined themselves.

"Of course." Peeta's voice was barely above a whisper. If I hadn't been standing so close to him I may have not heard him. I hadn't even realized I was standing that close to him, when had I stepped in? Had he stepped in? Had we both stepped in? I wasn't sure, but the nearness of him was becoming suffocating and if I didn't pull him behind me now, we may have never moved. Spending the entire night looking at one another, trying to figure the other person out.

As I dragged him along with me I made sure to be as quiet as possible, walking up into my room which was large and vast and had an almost eerie feeling. But Peeta didn't seem to think much of it. He throw off his shoes and crawled into my bed. The liquor in his head now taking what was left of him with it and he drifted off. I took this as my moment to shower and change quickly before sliding in next to him. When he felt the pressure of the bed move, he adjusted himself putting my head against his chest with his arm encircling me and we drifted into a calming sleep.