DISCLAIMER: All rights belong to Suzanne Collins.

A.N. Hello everyone. I was just re-reading The Hunger Games for the umpteenth time and I felt like there was something I need. The part, those fifteen years, how they grow back together, how Peeta finally convinces her to have kids, and what happens further. So this is just my attempt to keep this series going on in my mind forever. I haven't really thought about the story line, so all suggestions are welcome.

It starts from the part after Peeta and Buttercup have come back. The day when she finally starts breathing again. I really hope you guys like it. So without further ado…..

Katniss' POV

The nightmares just keep going on and on and on. No matter how much I try to shout. No matter how much I try to fight. This was the worst nightmare. The moment it started I had this urgent need to fight, because I was restrained. My ankles were held in shackles and my hands held above my head with some kind of rope. And also because I was back in my first arena. The place that had started my nightmares.

I tried to shout for help, hoping Peeta would find me. But it only took a moment to realize I had no tongue. I was an Avox. A mute, helpless Avox. And then out of nowhere a bow and an arrow materialized in my empty tied hands. The ropes loosened enough to let my hands fall and then tightened again. Someone was moving me like a puppet. A puppet of their games. And then one by one their faces appeared before me. And without my consent my hands moved and shot all of those faces right between the eyes. Rue, Thresh, Cato, Clove, Foxface, Glimmer, Marvin, Wiress, Cashmere, Madge, Mayor, Portia, Lavina, Darius, Chaff, Peeta's father, Mags. I'm crying, I'm struggling but they won't let me stop. They keep moving my hands one after another. Then comes the worst of it. First I shoot Boggs, then Cinna, then Finnick and the last person I shoot is my own sister, Primrose Everdeen.

"Katniss! Katniss! It's not real. Fight it Katniss! Don't let them do this to you. We are safe now. It's over." I hear the words. I hear the concern in his voice. I feel him trying to hug me tightly to ward off my nightmares. But it is not helping. All his words fall off from my ear. His arms just restraint me like the shackles from my nightmare. I want to get away. I want to breathe. I open my eyes finally and push Peeta away. He looks at me with worried eyes. The same old worried blue eyes of the boy with the bread. Not the boy with hijacked eyes.

"It wasn't real." He says quietly.

I stay quiet and look into void. It felt so real. Maybe I'm not the one who really shot those arrows in their heads, but I'm the one responsible for delivering them to death. Me and my act with the berries.

"It was." I say in a hoarse whisper. I hadn't even realized I was crying.

"Then don't remember it. Remember anything that keeps you hanging in reality. The one thing that gives you hope." He says. His blue eyes pierce me in such a way as if he can feel every emotion within me, as if he saw all my nightmares and felt my pain. Hope. The word immediately conjures the image of the day when I looked into his eyes in school, the day after he gave me the bread. And then I see my hope, the dandelion.

Peeta was my hope. Until they took away the very reason for me to exist. They took away Prim as a piece of their games. They hurt my mother so much that she ran away and they took my best friend from me and made him into someone I barely recognize. They took Peeta from me too. But he is back, only I don't know if he is the hijacked Peeta or my boy with the bread.

"What do you hang on to? What is your hope."

He answers in one simple word. "You." And gets up to leave. I watch him leave. I want to stop him. I want to fall into his arms and tell him about every nightmare I've had. I want to tell him everything I've gone through. But I can't. Because even though he has the same concern etched over his face and has the same love in his heart for me, I know some part of him is gone. And somehow I can't trust him. I can't trust Haymitch or even Greasy Sae. They took one thing away from me when those flames ate my sister up. My ability to trust.

I only move when I smell the bread. I can smell cheese and some eggs too. I hear Buttercup meowing towards the source of smell, urging me to get up. I finally rise from my bed and go downstairs to find Peeta fixing the table and Greasy Sae making eggs. Her grand-daughter looks at Buttercup and claps happily. She comes to pick the ugly thing up, but he hisses. But she is stubborn. Finally Peeta hands her a bowl with milk and points it at Buttercup. She places it gently down in front of him and waits. Food offering is enough for him to behave nicely with anyone. She takes a slice of bread and keeps it besides the bowl. Then tentatively she touches him behind the ear, his ears stand up, but he does not hiss. Finally he lets it go and let her enjoy petting him. At least someone is happy.

I sit away from Peeta and help myself to some eggs and bread. I take small bites. Seems like after all the years of struggle with hunger and finally the victory over destroying that need forever for everyone my appetite is lost. Everyone is quiet.

Just then Haymitch walks in and stumbles at Buttercup's milk bowl and falls face down on the floor. He stinks of alcohol. Peeta goes and helps him as I continue my breakfast. He helps him on the chair and pushes a glass of milk in his hands. He drinks it with his eyes closed. Only a sip later he realizes it's not his drink. Buttercup keeps hissing until Peeta has poured him some milk. And just like that Haymitch gets up and stumbles his way out.

"I should go after him, see that he eats something." Peeta says getting up and readying a plate for him.

I watch him leave again. As soon as he is out I get up to grab my bow and arrow but realise I can't even touch it today after my nightmare. So I just take some rope and net and set out to my forest.

I set up the nets and ropes and sit in a tall tree waiting for…something. I don't know what. I know it's not for a game because all my traps are like the ones I first made when I was twelve. I know they won't catch anything. Yet I wait. I wait until the sun has set and I hear a voice.

"Don't!" It's Peeta.

I look at him with confusion from above. How did he even find me? His hands are twitching uncontrollably by his side.

"Don't ever leave like that and not turn up! I told you, you are my reality Katniss. Don't do this to me. Don't kill my only reason to be human. I'll become a mutt again." He says. He settles down on the ground resting against my tree. I reluctantly climb down and look at him. He says nothing more except get up and offer me his hand. It has stopped shaking.

After looking at him for another long moment I take it. We walk through the forest back home. I'm trying to struggle with words. I have to tell him everything I have kept within me. He is the only friend that I have left. And yet no words come. He keeps glancing at me every now and then. But says nothing.

And then a few miles from the house he stops. He lets go of my hand and scoops up something from the ground.

A dandelion. My hope. He offers it to me. And this time I don't think before taking it and gently running a finger over its delicate body. I swear to myself to always keep this flower somewhere safe. Somewhere like my family's plant book. I look into his blue eyes that flit away from me once again and look at the flower in my hand.

Once again he has done it. Once again Peeta has given me hope. Hope that maybe everything won't turn normal, but hope that at least we'll all be ok. We'll all be fine.

A.N. So how was it? Good, bad, totally awful? You can be very frank in your criticism. And please please do not hesitate to point out errors and give me some suggestions. I'm always looking to improve.

Please please please review! Anything you want to say just type it in the box there.

Thank you for reading