Well hey and thanks for checking out my fanfic :3 I love THG as much as anyone can so when I read the end of Mockingjay I just decided that it wasn't long enough and rewrote it :). I'm sticking this up because I thought maybe someone else out there could enjoy it too ;D xxx

Ps: this starts just after that part where Peeta plants the Primroses and Katniss feels the need to suddenly get her butt up and go into the woods… I put in a few of the parts that happen after that straight from the book – I acknowledge I didn't write them and the characters and settings aren't mine… duh Suzanne Collins is way cooler than me ;)

Enjoy!

It is the old Katniss's favourite kind of day. Early spring. The woods awakening after the long winter. I wander through the forest for a while, gazing, admiring, picking berries, until the spurt of energy that began with the primroses fades away. By the time I make it back to the fence, I'm so sick and dizzy that I feel like I did back when I first arrived in 13 - helpless, depressed, and not knowing what to do with myself.

I dump my unused bow and arrow on the ground, and myself next to them, my back against a tree. Facing where the meadow once was, I watch through the fence as the remains of the dead are thrown into a mass grave.

'I killed you' is the one sentence stuck in my head. Stupid brain. I rest my head between my knees, and sigh.

You'd think that with the war over, all the pain would stop. Every worry would just vaporize; turn to dust like District 12 did. But nothing that easy ever happens to me.

I doubt I'll get him back. Peeta, I mean. Yes, he's changing, slowly, but nowhere near enough to be himself again. Just like Haymitch said, I don't think he'll ever be the same. After all we'd been through, after him realizing that I love him, ME realizing that I love him. The battles and the separation, his warnings for district 13, the nightmares we endured together, our kisses and love. Everything together had just been left behind and replaced by filthy lies.

A tear slides down my scarred cheek. Wiping it away furiously, I stand up and decide to go back into the forest. I have seen enough death for a life time.

What does my life mean anyway? What's the point? The Games are over. The rebellion's over. My relationship is over. My family is over. What is there left for me to care about? I walk restlessly for what must be hours, pondering life.

And love. What's love? A stupid feeling that's usually not returned. It's a waste of time and feelings. And makes you have a weakness.

A weakness.

My weakness.

Peeta Mellark.

A weak cry escapes my mouth, followed by more, and before I know it, I'm slipping into full meltdown mode. I turn, and stumble back into the woods, but not far because my legs are shaking, and I collapse half on top of what seems to be a berry bush. It hurts, but who cares? There's no-one left.

Sobs wrack my body, tears stain my face, and with every moan my voice grows weaker, until it's just whimpers again. Eventually, I drift into a fitful sleep riddled with nightmares.
I only remember one. Something is chasing me through the woods of the 74th Games. I'm not sure what it is, but I know for sure it wants to kill me. Or eat me. Or both. I'm running fast, but the beast is moving faster, and then I hear it whispering my name, like those lizard mutts in the Capitol. "Katniss . . . Katniss!" It seemed to get more urgent, panicky, as it came closer.
I turn, raise my loaded bow, to find a wolf mutt, with a blond curly coat and bright, startling blue eyes, running towards me. Then it leaped.

"PEETA!" I wake up, screaming his name.

Then I hear that someone is screaming mine.

"Katniss! Was that you? Katniss, please! Where are you?" I slap my hands over my mouth. Peeta? Here? In the woods at night, looking for me? I can barely see a thing; the sun had gone down a long time ago, but I'd know that voice anywhere.

I try to get up, and find I'm covered in scratches from the berry bush, and have a couple of bruises from thrashing around. I grimace, wipe the stains off my face, stand, and call out "Peeta!" just as the tears start again. Why am I crying? I shouldn't still be crying. I can't be crying when Peeta comes.

But then he crashes through the foliage, and he's here. A stray beam of moonlight illuminates his profile, and all I can do is mutter a strangled "Peeta," before my legs crumble, and I hit the ground again. I know I'm not being rational. What if he's calling out my name because he wants to kill me? But then I realize I don't really care if he does.

He's kneeling next to me in a second. I can tell he's unsure what to do, and I do try to cease the bawling but the tears just won't stop. Well, he doesn't look like he's about to strangle me. Not that I care or anything.

"Katniss . . . I, you . . ." He stops, and I swear it's the first time I have ever seen him lost for words. He gazes into the night, and tries again. "Katniss, you can't just leave like that." Huh, turns out he's not. I stop the sniffling and mumble, "Why would you care?" He sighs. He risks a glance at me put of the corner of his eye, but as soon as our gazes meet, his flickers away, just like it used to at school.

"I . . . Greasy Sae came to make you dinner, and you weren't there, so, um, she got worried and went round to Haymitch, but he's asleep on the floor, and so she came to me instead and I . . . I had to come looking. Greasy Sae said you went hunting . . ." he looks at me uncertainly.

I was planning to say that yes, I had gone hunting but the game wasn't easy today and I was coming back but got tired and fell asleep, but as I take a deep breath and open my mouth, my intentions shatter and I spill the one sentence that has been on my mind for a very, very long time. "I'm sorry… I've just… I've got nowhere to go!" I wail. A pause, and I begin to hope that that wasn't too much and that I hadn't started one of his mutt-fits. But then, the unimaginable happens: I feel safe, strong arms wrap around my shaking body. His hand touches my cheek, and tilts my head up, to look into those shining blue eyes. When he speaks, his voice is soft and warm, not fidgety and unsure like before.

"You love me. Real or not real?" I reply "Real," and, seeming happy with this answer, he leans down and touches his lips to mine. Our lips move faster, our hearts thrumming a hundred miles an hour. After a few seconds I pull our embrace apart, and I can see on his face that he thinks I want to stop. He looks terrified, so I give him a tired smile.

"Stay with me," I whisper, and his eyes light up, the way they do when he's really, really happy. "Always." He replies, leaning towards me.

Sooooo hope everyone liked! :D there are more chapters coming... THIS IS NOT THE END! :) not sure when I'll be updating next... but anyway I hope someone reads this and I didn't just waste my time ;) xxx 3