Hey guys. For those who were waiting for this, sorry.

Don't own Hunger Games.

Hm.

How to proceed with this?

Six deer. Four hunters.

Well that's not hard.

The deer haven't noticed us yet, so I'll see if everyone else can get to positions. All the hunters have the district twelve look, except for one; olive skin, black hair, and grey eyes. I look at the boy at my right. I point my left forearm up, and point at it with my fingers on my free hand. Nlon nods and takes to a tree. I turn to the girl behind me and motion to some bushes a few yards to my left. Fash takes to them. Peeta puts a few feet between us. He and I arm our bows, Peeta with one arrow, and three arrows for me. We hold them aiming at the deer, waiting for the two tone note that Katniss taught me as a sign that the others are ready. We hear the note.

"Shoot already!" A voice that's neither mine nor my hunters shouts. An arrow embeds itself into the tree next to my head. The deer's are startled by the noise and they make a move to take off. My hunters fire.

Six arrows fly.

Six deer drop.

I can hear the collection of sighs my little hunting team give at almost leaving empty handed. If I'm correct, that was Gale's voice. Guess he didn't have the patience for Katniss waiting for the shot. The hunters, Peeta and I move forward to retrieve the deer. Peeta and Nlron take two deer while Fash and I take one.

"Come on. Let's take these back to the shelter." Peeta says.

We start making our way through the forest. We aren't that far away from the shelter, which two of these people are there actual home. Were only about half an hour out. There's no conversation on our way back, only the sounds of the forest and the needles crunching under our boots. On our way, we run into another hunting group who came out with hares and a few beavers ties to their belts. During that meeting, we hear a growl. We turn to see a bear staring us down.

"I got this." I point at the other hunting group. "Stay close, you may need to take this bear back." They nod and take to a safer area for the time while my team makes their way back to the shelter.

I take my tomahawk in my hand. The bear seems aggressive, which possibly means that were in its territory. I don't see any cubs with it. Either that or it's hungry enough to attack anything it sees. It roars and charges. I simply stand, waiting for him to get in range. When he gets within a few meters, I spin myself once and throw.

The bear's legs give out and it slams into the ground face first. Due to the inertia that it still has from the running, he continues sliding forward before coming to a stop a few inches in front of me. I pull my tomahawk free from its head.

"I remember when this was exciting." I say aloud. "Come on, it's dead."

The other group comes and they all pick the bear up after some difficulties. I pick the deer back up.

"I'll check up on you guys in a minute."

"Hawthorne's house?" One of them asks.

"Hawthorne's house."

"Alright. We'll see you an a few." They slowly walk with the bear until their out of my sight.

I begin walking to where Gale and Katniss would get through to get out here; that supposedly electrified fence. I'll slip through and hand this to Hazelle. Kantiss and I had agreed that we would help supply Gale's family since he's working in the mines almost everyday. We both offered him money, but he won't accept it, I don't know why. I've tried asking him, but he never answers me. That's the other thing about Gale; he doesn't like me anymore. As to why, I'm not sure. I mean, we were good friends for a few years, before the Games and everything, but now…I don't know. He despises me for some reason. It's not the money or the status or the house. He hasn't given any reason to hate me, but he does. When I'm around him, he pretends that I'm not even there, and even when he recognizes me, he treats me like trash, when Katniss is not around of course. She knows that Gale and I aren't on good terms and she's tried everything she can think of to break the ice, but nothing works.

I hear footsteps that aren't my own. I turn my head slightly to find Katniss with ten hares.

"Hi." She says

"Hey." I reply. She picks the pace up to match mine.

"So how'd you're hunt go?" I ask as I glance at the full moon high above the horizon.

"Good. I guess."

"You guess?"

"Oh, Gale was angry like he always is. He decided to vent his anger out on me today which I didn't take a liking to."

"Well, from what I've seen, Gale's been angry ever since we came back from the Games. I've tried asking him why, but he doesn't say."

"I've tried asking him too, but he doesn't tell me either. I wish he would." She says in a semi irritated voice.

"Maybe we have to wait a little longer for him to open up." I say.

Life over here in twelve hasn't been the same since the Hunger Games. That would be obvious. When we came back, the whole place was ecstatic. It had been over thirty years since twelve had won, the last winner being Haymitch. There were parties and ceremonies galore for a few weeks, then things started to subside. After the cameras had left, Katniss and I had gone forward with what she called 'ground rules'. Basically, everything that happened in the arena and the Capital, the star-crossed lover's thing, she didn't like all that too much. So we agreed that we'd ease up on that. I still get to hold her sometimes, and sneak kisses, which she hates, but it's worth it to see her reactions. Basically, were mediocre when showing our affection. The Games didn't leave us unscathed thought. I still have that scar the Nazo's gave me at the last day of the Games on my chest. That and both Katniss and I can't rid ourselves of the nightmares we have every night, either of the deaths we witnessed or took part in. After we saw that we weren't going to get sleep, we tried sleeping together. That helps a lot for us. Katniss doesn't have any nightmares anymore, but I still get some periodically. But it's better then it was before.

"I have a question Katniss."

"And what might that be?"

"I've noticed your hair's been down and not tied like you use to have it." I prod her hair with my finger. "Why is that?"

"I don't know. I still tie it, though not as often anymore. Maybe I just like it this way."

"Hn." I respond while still prodding her hair.

"Stop fingering me."

I stop immediately. "Um…well, I wouldn't have put it that way but-"

"I didn't mean it like that you pervert!" She says while punching me in the stomach.

After a few more minutes of walking, Katniss and I slip through the hole in the fence, though it takes a few minutes to get the deer through. We quickly make our way to Hawthorne's house, because I still have my bow, knife, and tomahawk on me. I drop the deer when we make it to their front door.

"Where's Gale?" I ask.

"He's still in the woods, trying to clear his head." Katniss replies. "You're going to check on your friends?"

"Yeah. I'm doing that right now. I'll see you in a few minutes."

"Alright Alto." Katniss says. I start making my way to the shelter.

If you're curious to what the shelter is it's just that, a shelter. The building's the orphanage that I lived in as a child. It had closed down due to unknown reasons and that's where many others live. I use to live there too, but after the Games, they gave me a house at Victor Village. I get the people who live in there food through money and hunting. I do hunting first, but if I'm having an off day, I'll buy the food. Don't think I do that because I'm greedy; that's not it. It's because I love hunting, and it gives me something to do other then cook.

Yeah. We were forced to choose an occupation to do after we won the Games. Katniss chose clothing design, but I bet Cinna does that for her. I chose cooking. Three times a week, a professional chef from the Capital, whose name is Keth, comes over my house and teaches me how to cook different dishes. He's very good company. I've gotten the basics of cooking right now, but I can make deserts like no one else, especially if it has chocolate in its ingredients. Ever since I've tried it at the Capital, I've been hooked on the stuff. It's almost like a drug to me. I always have some of it everyday, which is about a five by five block.

Aw, now I want more chocolate. I'll get some at my house before going to Katniss. It only takes a few minutes to get to the shelter, an old rundown building that looks more like a scaled down aircraft hanger bay that has five floors. I don't knock, just turn the handle and push the door open.

We were able to get the electricity working in this place the second year I was here, but it always shorted out. I was able to fix that when I came back with a ton of money. I was able to fix the electrical, water, and gas lines in the building. I was able to buy everyone who lives here a bed with sheets, some cloths, and toys for the younger kids. The occupants of this building are both young and old, ranging from newborns, to young adults, to people who we consider are older then dirt. Most of everyone who lives here who's of age work for money; some in the mines, some wash cloths, others care for other children, and others work helping the merchant class that live here. The younger guys have better luck at that, especially with the merchant families that have a daughter that's the guy's age. Heh, heh.

The room I'm in doesn't have too many people in here. They must be eating in the second floor. I make my way up the stairs to the dinning area. I was right. Everyone was busy digging into the bear, deer, hare, and beavers that we brought. Everyone sees me enter and they start regarding me. Peetas' here too.

"Anything interesting happen at Gales?" He asks.

"No. He was still in the forest trying to clear his head. That's what Katniss told me." I reply.

"He seems to be angry all the time, mostly at you."

"Yeah. I don't know why."

"Maybe he's angry that you took his girl from him." Fash says with some humor, elbowing me in the ribs lightly.

I chuckle a little. "I don't think that's it. When I asked Katniss about that back in the Games, she said they were just friends. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Well if that's not the case, then Gale's one complicated son of a bitch." Nlon says before digging in to the bear meat in his hands.

"You're telling me." I take some bear meat as well. We all sit on the floor; there are too many people in this room at one time to have any tables and fit us all. That and it doubles as a sleeping area. There's lot of conversation in the room. I hear laughs and shouts of mock anger. It's something I enjoy seeing. Everyone having a good time. Some time during the meal, Peeta and another friend, Catlin, start wrestling each other, and everyone started placing bets with the left over food. It's rather comical. I leave sometime in the middle of the 'game' to get to my house. I more or less run to it. When I enter, I go to my bathroom to shower. After, I throw on some sweats and that's it. I don't sleep with a shirt on because it gets too hot for me. As I make my way out my door, I skid to a stop. I start to the covers in the kitchen. I open to find many spices and other things that Keth supplied me with for the cooking classes. I reach in to the very back of the covers and pull out a brick of chocolate at least five inches thick.

When I said I love chocolate, I meant it.

Katniss's house isn't far at all. In fact, it's right next to my house. I don't try to knock and use the front door, because her mother's kind of protective. When we came back and they interviewed her about the relationship Katniss and I had, she said that, while I was the very model of what a young man should be, Katniss wasn't old enough to have any boyfriend at all. She followed this with a pointed look at me. There were some laughs and someone said. "Someone's in trouble." She doesn't mind us being mediocre in our relationship, but she still doesn't see it as something we should worry about at our age. She does know that Katniss has nightmares and that both of us sleep with each other to stop or lessen them. She's not too comfortable with that and when we did start that, Katniss's mother talked with both of us. She basically said, and in her words. "You two be responsible. I'm still too young to be a grandma." You could imagine how disturbed and embarrassed we were. I don't try to disturb her mom and sister. That's why I don't use the front door. She lives on the second floor, but there's a tree that's right next to her window that I can easily clime. So, I just clime the tree and enter through the window. She doesn't close the window, so I don't have to knock and wait. When I enter, Katniss is wearing a nightgown and folding her hunting cloths.

"I'm back." I say.

"I can see that." She says tiredly. She looks at my hand. "Do you always need chocolate?"

"Yes. We already talked about this." I break off a piece.

"I know, I know." She takes the piece I hand to her.

After Katniss shoves her cloths into her drawer and I devour the chocolate, we make it to the bed and slip under the covers. We lay the way we slept back in the Games; she uses my arm as a pillow and my other arm wraps around her waist.

"Night Katniss."

"Night Alto."

Sleep comes within minutes.

Events take place before the book.