II

Katniss collapsed onto the sofa that was in the little room, her lungs desperate to get some her, but she couldn't get herself to breathe. Her vision was starting to get blurry when she heard the door opening and the quite steps she recognized as Gale's.

"What did you do, Catnip?" his voice said, everything was so quiet that it even made echo in the room. She heard him getting closer to her so she lifted her eyes to face him. His face was full of concerned, and she knew it wasn't just for her but also for Peeta. Peeta, they boy she had started to fall in love with. The boy that would never be hers again.

"You have to be with him," she said with a firm voice. "You have to care of him and my family. Promise me". Her eyes were desperate, silently asking for help, nobody as kind as Peeta deserved what she did to him, but it was the only she would save him some of the pain. Her sister, Prim, deserved better as well, but she had their mother and Gale's family to find some comfort. Peeta was alone.

"I will, Katniss, you know I will".

He finally sat beside her and held her hand. Katniss knew he would take care of Peeta and her family, and she also knew that he understood her decision, because he would've done the same thing in her position. Katniss let her head rest in her best friend's shoulder, not a word spoken between them. They had had that conversation before, about what they would do if the other got reaped, so they didn't have anything else to discuss right now, just enjoy the last minutes they had to be themselves again. The hunter felt her eyes water with tears, but she contained herself, she wouldn't give the Capitol the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

The rest of time passed quickly, and soon Gale was not-so-politely asked to leave by on the Peacekeepers. They hugged one last time, and he gave her a quick kiss on her forehead.

"You're strong, get a bow or make one if there is none. You're a hunter, and you have a good shot of winning this. Come back home, for Prim, for me and for your boyfriend, because you know you love him". Katniss simply nodded and allowed him to go before the Peacekeepers did something to get him out.

Less than a minute later the door opened again, this time revealing Prim and her mother. Katniss quickly started instructing Prim about fuel, and trading, and staying in school, the, she turns to her mother and grips her arm, hard.

"Listen to me. Are you listening to me?" She nods, alarmed by her daughter's intensity. She must know what's coming. "You can't leave again". Her mother's eyes find the floor.

"I know. I won't. I couldn't help what—"

"Well, you have to help it this time. You can't clock out and leave Prim on her own. There's no me now to keep you both alive. It doesn't matter what happens. Whatever you see on the screen. You have to promise me you'll fight through it!"

Katniss' voice rises to a shout at the end of her word. She knew it was because of all the anger and fear she had felt when her mother abandoned them My voice has risen to a shout; her mother gets angry as well and starts talking about her being ill and being able to treat herself if she had the medicine they have now. Katniss knows this is true, but at this point she doesn't even care, and it doesn't matter, not when she's about to go to face her death, they couldn't afford her mother getting sick again, not without her there to take care of Prim.

"I'll be all right, Katniss," says Prim, clasping Katniss' face in her hands. "But you have to take care, too. You're so fast and brave. Maybe you can win." Katniss knew that her sister was fulling herself with fake expectations, she had to know that she would likely get killed in that arena. The kids from the wealthier districts were trained since they were born to be a victor of the Hunger Games.

"Maybe," Katniss says, there was no way she could show any weakness in front of them, not when she had just told their mother she couldn't give up. "Then we'd be rich ad Haymitch".

"I don't care if we're rich. I just want you to come home. You will try, won't you? Really, really try?" asks Prim, her eyes full of tears. "Besides, you still have a lot of things to do in your life, and more people to come home to, not just us but Peeta, and Gale, and Madge, we all love you".

"Really, really try. I swear it," Katniss answers, her heart aching at the sound of her now-ex-boyfriend's name. "But Prim, you must know that there is no way Peeta will be expecting me if I come back, not after what I did".

Prim just rolls her eyes at her, not even bothering to tell her big sister the thing they both knew. Peeta loved Katniss. He would not get over her, and if she came back he would be waiting for her. Or at least, that's what Prim wanted to believe. After all, she had seen how Peeta was when he walked out of the room, as if someone had stripped his heart out of his chest… he looked empty, shattered. And Katniss was the cause of that.

Soon, the Peacekeepers ordered them out, and Katniss found herself alone in the room. She takes a pillow from the couch as if it could block the whole thing out. The door opens again and she's surprised when she sees the baker, Peeta's dad. Katniss can't help herself, she gets up and walks across the room, and in seconds she's hugging Mr. Mellark as if her life depended on that. He quickly wraps his arms around her and hold her there. Every time she went to the bakery, when his wife wasn't there, she would talk to the baker, they got closer every time, and Katniss could almost see his dad when he'd hug Peeta proudly. Right now, she could only think of how much he smelled like Peeta, like cinnamon, Katniss takes a step back and looks up at him.

"I'm so sorry," she says, she can hear her voice cracking but she continues. "You must know I did because is the best thing for him. I just want him to be happy, he deserves so much. He doesn't deserve to suffer watching me die. At least now that he hates he won't suffer as much".

"He doesn't hate you, Katniss," The baker's voice is full of concern. He cares about those two kids so much, he knew his son loved her for a long time, and that she had suffered so much in her childhood. "He could never hate you and you know it. He has loved you since he was five years old, and you honestly think he'll do it know? He knows you weren't thinking straight".

Katniss looks down, the guilt building in her stomach. She can't go back in time, she had made a decision and she has to stick to it, even if it was a bad one. She said goodbye to Mr. Mellark and waited. Her last visitor was Madge, they didn't talk much, they never had, but she gave her a Mockingjay pin, saying that it had been her aunt's and she wanted Katniss to have it. They just sat together, not a word spoken and when the Peacekeeper came in, Madge gave her a hug and left.

She didn't get more visitors after that, and apparently, the other kid was rather popular, because she had to wait for him for around twenty more minutes. She didn't care, every second extra she had in district twelve was better than in the Capitol. Her mind started to go back to every moment she had spent with Peeta in the last months, from their first real conversation, their first meeting in the Meadow, their first kiss… She didn't bother to push those thoughts away, it was impossible. Katniss knew she was falling for him but that was something that she could have never said to him, not when they would face the reaping every year.

At least he'll get to be happy, she thought, but then she started picturing Peeta with someone else, a blond girl by his side, them getting married and having kids. The thought sent chills trough her spine and her eyes watered. She couldn't let that be. She had gone through so much with him for her to give him up that easily. So, later that day, when she was on the train on her way to the Capitol she had made up her mind.

She would come back. She was going to win, for Peeta. To be with him.

Hello everybody! Happy new year, and here I am with the second chapter, I hope y'all like it :) this one is a bit shorter, but...

The next chapter is going to be told from Peeta's perspective!, how he reacted and also is about his reaction of Katniss' interview and probably the start of the games. Let me know if you're excited!

Thank you to everyone who take the time to write a review! it makes me really happy and excited to keep on writing this story.

thefarmersdaughter: wait until you see in the next chapter, but you know, when you're sad or angry you make decisions you regret later, but at the end of the day Peeta loves Katniss and he wants her to come back home.

karin6824: thank you, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. And don't worry, this is an everlak story ;)

MaddieTheAwesomeUnicorn17: Thank you sooo much! I hope you like this chapter 33

Guardian'sDragonOfDeath: thank you! I hope you liked this one as wel.

Follow/Review? the more reviews I get the happier I am to write :D