Come Here

Chapter One

Summary: Katniss and Peeta's scene in the cave in the arena goes a little differently than in the movie.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games.

Katniss didn't know how to respond. Here Peeta was, explaining to her how long he had loved her, and she couldn't say anything in response. As she sat there, listening to his words, realization hit Katniss… Peeta had loved her since they were 5 years old. That was the last time that she had worn her hair in 2 braids… Peeta just admitted that he has loved her for 11 years.

"Will you say something?" Peeta asked.

"I'm not good at saying something." Katniss replied as she gave him an apologetic look.

"Then come here." Peeta said. When she made no movement to come towards him, he continued. "Please?" he asked.

At this, Katniss went to lay down with her head on Peeta's chest, but Peeta stopped her and pulled her up and lightly pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was slow at first, and it held a small amount of want, but that didn't stop Katniss from pulling away after a moment. Staring intently into Peeta's eyes, Katniss tried to figure out her feelings for the boy whose heart and love she had unknowingly been holding for over a decade.

"I'm sorry." Peeta muttered as he looked away from her.

"Don't be Peeta." Katniss replied as she turned his head so that he was looking at her.

"You pulled away Kat…" Peeta reminded her.

"I know what I did Peeta. But it wasn't because I didn't like it." Katniss assured him as she leant in gently grazed her lips against his.

"Katniss please don't do this to me." Peeta muttered against her lips.

"Don't do what?" Katniss asked as she locked eyes with him.

"Don't kiss me if you don't return my feelings." Peeta said leaning in slowly, giving her time to stop him this time.

"Peeta… I'm still trying to figure out if I return your feelings or not." Katniss responded as she gently placed her hand on his cheek.

"If you aren't sure, then why are you helping me?" Peeta asked.

"Peeta, I won't be able to kill you. And you won't be able to kill me. But we could still win this. We could both go home." Katniss said.

"How? There can only be one winner." Peeta commented.

"They made an announcement. If it comes down to it, and the last two people standing are from the same District, they both win. We're the last team left Peeta." Katniss explained.

"They're toying with us Kat; they want a winner, a sole winner, they won't let both of us stay alive." Peeta argued.

"If that's true, then we'll do what we have to do." Katniss said before pressing her lips to his to silence any response that he was going to give.

As the kiss went on, neither Katniss nor Peeta heard the noise of a branch cracking just beyond the cave; they didn't notice the shadow of someone standing in the entrance to the cave. They didn't notice that Cato had seen them kissing. And they didn't know that Cato would use that against them.

Pulling away when the need for air became apparent, Katniss and Peeta just stared at each other. Peeta knew that his feelings for Katniss were true; he had had them since they were 5. Katniss, on the other hand, wasn't so sure about her feelings. Yes, she could just be playing it up, you know, pretending to be in love with Peeta Mallark, for the sake of the 'Star Crossed Lovers from District 12' thing; or her feelings could be true as well. All she knew was that there was no way that she would walk out this arena without Peeta by her side. If that meant that they both walked out, or if neither walked out, she wasn't sure that she cared at this point, but she wasn't going to kill him, and she knew that he wasn't going to kill her. They both had a reason to live, and they both needed to find out if their love, a love that was being broadcast to the world, would be able to last outside of the arena, and past the games.

"Kat, I need you in my life." Peeta said, breaking the silence that had fallen between them since they had broken their kiss.

"Peeta…" Katniss started to say.

"Hear me out Katniss." Peeta interrupted before clearing his throat and continuing. "I need you in my life. I cannot, and will not, kill you. We will figure out a way to live through this. If you end up realizing that you don't feel the same way about me, that I feel about you, as long as you are in my life as a friend, and an ally, then I will be content." He explained.

"Peeta, there are so many things that are running around in my mind right now; I can't make sense of most of them; but the one thing that I can make sense of is this. We will win this thing. No matter what else happens between now and the end of the games, we will survive this… together." Katniss said as she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug.

After that, the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms, but it was anything but comfortable. With the cut on Peeta's leg causing him pain, he had to stay in a state of semi-consciousness so as to not get anything into the wound that might cause an infection. And with Katniss being the hunter, she had to stay somewhat awake so that if either Cato or Foxface happened across them, and their lives were threatened, she would be able to kill them to protect both of them.

When sleep failed to overtake them completely and they could no longer fight to stay semi-conscious, they laid there awake, just staring at each other. As Katniss stared up at Peeta, flashes of the time that he had tossed her some bread went across her mind; it was the first time that she had seen how much he had cared about her, but it would have been better if he had walked over to her to hand it to her, rather than toss it to her like he had the pigs.

Unknown to Katniss, the same flashes of the same of the same memory were also going across Peeta's mind. He was continuously kicking himself for not walking out into the rain and handing the piece of bread to her like a decent human being would do. She wasn't one of the pigs that he had to feed outside the bakery, and she wasn't a begging dog. She was the girl that he had loved for most of their lives, and he had treated her like she was beneath him.

"What are you thinking about?" Peeta asked as he leaned over and kissed Katniss' forehead.

"I'm thinking about the time that you tossed me the piece of bread." Katniss whispered as she laid her head against his chest. "What about you?" she added.

"I'm thinking about the same thing. I should have walked over to you. You didn't deserve to have me throw bread at you like you were a dog begging for scraps." Peeta said as he looking down at her with an apologetic look.

"It's okay Peeta. That's all in the past. All that really matters is how we treat each other from here on out." Katniss replied with a small smile.

"I can't stop thinking about that day Kat; it plays on a loop almost the entire time that we are together." Peeta said.

"It's okay Peeta." Katniss said placing a light kiss on his chest.

"Are you sure?" Peeta asked skeptically.

"I'm sure Peeta. You don't have to worry about it anymore." Katniss replied.

"Consider it forgotten." Peeta said pressing his lips to her forehead again.

"We should try and get some sleep. We don't know how many days we have left here; and we don't know how things are going to go tomorrow." Katniss commented after a couple of minutes of silence.

"I can do that." Peeta said as he wrapped his arm around Katniss' shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

For the rest of the night, both of them drifted in and out of sleep. Each time one of them would wake up, they would just lay there and stare at the other sleeping peacefully. Each time that Peeta was awake and staring at Katniss, she could feel his gaze on her, but she couldn't bring herself to wake up, so her face just settled into a small smile. If they ended up dying, at least they could be happy in that moment. Each time that Katniss was awake and staring at Peeta, he squeezed her shoulder, letting her know that he was there for her, and was going to continue to be there for her no matter what.

When the sun rose, or at least, when the game designers had the sun rise, Katniss stirred awake first, and she took the time to just stare at Peeta; he looked so peaceful, with a smile on his face, and the cut in his leg looking a lot better. It was at that moment that Katniss knew that her feelings for him were real, and that if they both managed to make it out alive, that she would continue to love him, even if she lost Gale in the process. She needed Peeta. Gale had been there for her as a best friend for a good majority of her life, and she loved him like a brother; but with Peeta, she knew that she would be truly happy if given the chance to spend the rest of her life with him.

A couple minutes later, Peeta started to stir under Katniss' gaze. When he finally opened his eyes, and saw that Katniss was in fact staring at him with an intense look, he smiled at her. Sitting up, Peeta pulled the girl in his arms with him. Katniss might not know if she returned the feelings that he had for her, but that didn't matter. At this point, what mattered was that they were still alive, and that they had each other.

Right as Peeta was about to say 'good morning', both of them jumped when they heard the canon go off, signaling that either Cato or Foxface had just been killed, or had died in another way. Looking at each other, they both got up quickly and went outside of the cave and looked up. On the sky screen, Foxface was shown with her District number beneath her. That meant only one thing to the two Tributes; Cato had either just killed Foxface, or she had died on her own, and that it was down to the two of them, and Cato… and that was not going to end well.

End Chapter One

(A/N: Please take it easy on me with your reviews. I have not read any of the books, so I don't know how in character Katniss and Peeta were in this compared to how they are portrayed and written in the books, but I hope it's close, because I tried to get them as close to in character as I could to the movie, which, I have seen. I am thinking of writing at least one more chapter for this, just to cover the fight with Cato, but I definitely need input on how to go about that. If you think that this is a good ending for the story itself, please let me know. Also, I have 3, maybe 4, other story ideas for this pairing, based off of the movie, so if I can get some reviews on how IC or OOC Kat and Peeta were in this one, I will know what needs work for those stories as well. – Emma)