**Author Note: This story is only for entertainment. I don't have any rights to Hunger Games, but I appreciate all those that were involved in creating it.

Rapid Fire:

I'm escorted into a holding room. I know what is happening, but at the same time I don't. I'm leaving. To the Capital. To my execution. To the Games. I can't leave though. Don't they know? I can't leave. Prim. I need to protect Prim. Gale will provide for her. School will keep her occupied. But who is going to care for her? My mother might, but I just don't know.

My mother and Prim come into the room. We hug. We cry. We promise one another to do whatever it will take to survive. I confront my mom to stay alert and to look out for Prim. We hug, and they are asked to leave.

Just as I think the end of my old life just left out that door in bursts Gale. Gale.

We recite the plan that we have calculated for the last couple of years. He promises to provide for my family as I would his. That's it then - All business taken care of. I look into his eyes and something tells me there is something more; something so important that the Capital's train is just going to have to wait.

Gale takes a step forward. Wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me right up against me but leans my body backwards as his head descends to meet mine. One moment we are all business and best friends the next his lips are sealed to mine as I feel fire-life…love? coursing through me. My fingers greedily claw into his back like a cat that has just captured their first meal ever. Gale lifts my whole body, grabs my legs to wrap around his hips and pushes me back against the beam in the wall. Never has my body felt this alive -this aware, not even when hunting in the woods. I feel a sense that I have never felt before that is ready to respond to every move he makes.

Remembering that a peacekeeper will walk in any second Gale releases his grip on my legs and lowers me back to the ground. He places his forehead against mine as I get my footing back. Then he speaks.

"You feel that energy coursing through you?"

I nod.

"Does it feel like fire to you? Because it does to me."

I nod.

"Use it."

He knows I'm confused now.

"Don't you dare ever feel let yourself feel like that just because everyone is going to be alright back here, because they are, that you aren't needed and Wanted back here."

"But…" I start and his thumb immediately raises to my lips.

"Feel the fire Katniss. Use the fire inside you. Let that fire guide you back to me…" He kisses me again. Tenderly this time and when he pulls away he is struggling to breathe as his forehead contents to mine again. "Win. Don't try. Just Win. This isn't a funeral, this is a fight. Whatever it takes win and come back home to me."

A peacekeeper walked back in right then. He starts ordering Gale out of the room, but before Gale's body is turned away from mine, I launch myself at him. Both my hands grab his face and I kiss him hard and fast.

"OK you two, that's enough! You out! You proceed to the train."

I watch Gale leave as he is dragged out of the room, but his eyes never leave mine as I promise, I will use the fire he has ignited in me. Not just the fire from today, but the fire from four years ago when we first started hunting together and taking our lives in our own hands and not the Capitals. That fire has kept my family alive. And that fire has kept me alive. It will continue to keep me alive and bring me back.

I hear the engines of the train heat up. I feel my engine start to heat up a well. Fire is my future.