I can still feel her lips on mine. Still smell her body. Feel the softness of her skin. Sense the tender uncertainty of her kiss. Thinking about it drives me crazy. I told myself it was nothing. A mere infatuation. A game, maybe. Just teenage urges taking control. But it's not. It's more than that. It's love. It clutches at my very soul, dragging me under. Her spell enchants me. I know it. She doesn't. The way she laughs entices me into pure happiness. Her eyes. Grey like mine, a sure sign of the Seam. Her olive skin and dark hair. Again, like mine. What Snow has done, made us cousins, disgusts me. But it couldn't stop me if it tried.

I rise from my cramped sleeping position and look around, rubbing my neck. My mother is lying with Posy and Vick, all asleep. Rory is lying next to me, looking up at me. "Hey. Just go back to sleep, huh? I'm going out to the woods."

Rory smiles and leans back down, closing his eyes. "Say hi to Katniss for me."

I laugh and nod, climbing out of bed. Once I'm changed into my hunting clothes; a loose fitting work shirt, comfortable trousers, and my sturdy leather boots, I leave.

Ever since she left the arena, Katniss has become closer to Madge, the mayors daughter, and I've been visiting her to check how Katniss is coping. Madge usually tells me the same thing; Katniss hates thinking about what happened to her in the arena and she doesn't talk to anyone about it, not even Lover-Boy. She's bottled everything up. Doesn't sleep. Doesn't eat. Rarely talks. Her eyes are duller. She's changed. She's not the Katniss I knew. She's still here, but she's unwilling to come out. Show herself to the world. She's scared of getting hurt, of wounding herself. She's hiding, and I can't find her.

I'm at the fence. My feet have led me here as I've been thinking. I climb through the fence and head towards our place. She's sitting on the rock, head down, eyes closed. I'm about two foot away from her when she looks up. And that's when I see her again. Katniss is back.

"Hey Catnip" I say. She stands and throws her arms around my neck. Almost instinctively, I wrap my arms around her waist and bury my face in her hair. We stay like this for so long, I loose track of time. When she pulls away, she takes hold of my hand and looks me in the eye. In the few seconds she's looking at me, I can see so much of the person I lost, and so much more. Then she kisses me.