The rest of the week went much like this. Every morning Gale would get up and come over for breakfast. Bella would make a very large delicious meal while Gale and I ate and we eventually had to shoo her off to get ready for the day while we cleaned up the kitchen. Our days were spent with Bella and me walking around town, trying to find the perfect location for her dance studio.

Late one night, Gale had fallen asleep on the couch and Bella was covering him with a blanket when we heard a door slam from the direction of Katniss's house. I walked outside and stood on my porch as one by one each light in the house turned on. Katniss was home. Bella came outside after covering Gale with the blanket and stood with me and watched as Katniss searched the entire house for Gale. She didn't find him of course and instead of looking panicked she looked relieved. I saw her walk to the back door of the house and let someone in. It was some guy I've never seen before and Bella and I watch as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. Then the two of them disappeared from our vision and lights slowly turned off.

We stood in silence for at least 20 minutes as every light in the house turned off except the bedroom light and we could see shadows dancing across the blinded windows. I think anybody who knew anything could tell exactly what they were doing.

"Oh my God," Bella said. She pulled her fingers up to her lips as if she wanted to keep something in. "Oh my God Peeta, what are we going to do?"

"I think we should tell him." I state. I knew it would be hard to tell him something and I knew he might not even believe me. Maybe he'd think I was still mad or something. I wasn't mad at him at all. He was an awesome guy and I really liked having him around. It seemed like now with this recent turn of events he'd be around much more often.

"I'll tell him, you just stand there, and he might think you're lying." Bella said as she pulled me back into the house. She slowly walked into the living room, clutching my hand tightly. She was scared of his reaction but she released my hand and gently woke him up.

Once Gale realized where he was he instantly shot off the couch apologizing for falling asleep.

Bella silenced him at once, putting one hand up with a very serious look on her face.

Gale instantly knew something was up, "what happened?" he asked.

"Katniss is home," Bella said.

Gale instantly looked excited; he started to get off the couch.

Bella silenced him one again and said "she's not alone."

Gale sat silently processing what he just heard.

"What do you mean she's not alone?"

"I mean she's not alone. She's got some guy up there."

Gale stays silent for a few minutes. Then he jumps up and runs out of the house and Bella and I barely reach the front porch before Gale slams into the house and we can hear him yelling.

The lights in the bedroom change and we can see a silhouette of Katniss and that guy as Gale barges into the room and starts screaming at them. Katniss screams back and I don't understand a word their saying but it's obviously bad. We watch as shadow Gale shoves the other guy away from the dresser and begins rummaging through it. Bella pulls on my arm and I regretfully walk away from my new friends' terrible ordeal.

Bella and I go back inside and she goes straight to the kitchen and pours 3 glasses of whiskey and hands one to me. Gale suddenly barges in through the door and Bella instantly hands a glass over to him and then hands one to me.

"Need a place to stay?" Bella offers.

"Yes," Gale gruffs into his whiskey.

"Peeta, why don't you show him to the guestroom. That is if you don't mind."

I stay silent, leaning against the door frame leading into the kitchen.

"I don't mind." I say as I grab Gale's one small bag and walk away. Holding the glass in my left and carrying his bag in my right I head up the stairs and I can hear Gale's boots walking up the stairs slowly after me.

Gale walks into his new bedroom and looks around. He looks like he wants to cry a little bit. I didn't see any pain in his eyes, just anger and hatred. I decide to leave him to his emotions.

I go back downstairs and see Bella standing at the kitchen sink staring out the window at Katniss's house.

"I hate her Peeta." She says.

"I think everyone in this house does now."

She nods. "I'm going to bed." She turns sharply and heads up to our bedroom.

I decide to stay downstairs for a little while; I sip on my whiskey and stare out the window. The bedroom light suddenly turns off and I know Katniss has called it a night.

Bella's POV

I was upset for both Peeta and Gale. I can't believe that bitch would do something so horrible and act like she had a right too. I walk up the stairs slowly, attempting to collect my thoughts. I have to go check on Gale. We'd all gotten really close over the last week and I genuinely cared about him and I'm positive Peeta did too. Neither one of us wanted to see him hurt. Now that good for nothing whore hurt him.

I knock on his door quietly. I hear some shuffling and then something slamming to the ground loudly.

"Gale, are you OK?" I ask.

Peeta must have heard the same thing I did because an instant later he was by my side.

Gale suddenly opens the door and looks out. I can see blood on his hands and he's struggling to keep it from dripping on the ground.

"Yes, I'm fine, I broke a lamp though, I'm sorry."

"No worries Gale, I didn't like that lamp anyway." Peeta said. "Bella. Go grab the first aide kit."

I instantly take orders and run off into our bedroom and retrieve the first aide kit from our bathroom. I return to Gale's room and see him sitting on the bed with his head in his hands trying not to get blood everywhere. Peeta walked back into the room and quickly swept up the shards of porcelain that scattered on the floor. I sat down next to Gale and took his hand into mine and cleaned his cuts and bandaged them. He didn't seem like he wanted to talk to me. That was OK. After I was done fixing the last little bit of tape to his bandage, I gave him a kiss on his forehead and stood up. I walked over to where Peeta was standing against the wall and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips and left the room.

I went to our bedroom and shut the door and waited.

Gale's POV

"I can't believe she did that. What a whore. I always kind of expected it to happen though. I'm not at all surprised." I said to Peeta when I heard Bella shut the door to their bedroom.

"I'm sorry Gale," Peeta said.

"You have nothing to apologize for."

We stayed silent for what seemed like hours.

"You can stay here as long as you want, we have plenty of room and we love having you over." Peeta said as he shuffled on his feet. I could tell he was anxious to leave. A man should deal with this on his own.

"Thank you Peeta," I say and he nods and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

I hear the door to their bedroom open and instantly hear Bella's voice yelling obscenities about Katniss. I smile to myself. Bella's a good woman, much better than Katniss. She hardly knew me and didn't know Katniss at all but still found enough anger to yell.

I rolled myself into a cocoon and went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to suck, I'd have to get the rest of my stuff out of Katniss's house, at least it was Sunday and I didn't have to work. I notice that the sheets smell like vanilla as I drift off to sleep.

Bella's POV:

I couldn't sleep anymore. I roll over and take a look at Peeta; he was passed out next to me, sleeping peacefully with a silly little smile on his face. I leaned down and kissed the tip of his nose and he stirs but falls back into a deep slumber. I struggle out of bed and leave the room. I feel the need to check on Gale so I open his door and pop my head in. He too is sleeping peacefully, a strange look of relief on his face. Maybe he was subconsciously glad for what happened the previous night.

I shut the door and head back into our bedroom where Peeta still slumbers and dig through the closet for the bag that Peeta knows is there, but won't touch. I pull it out, cringing when the metal inside clanks and dart a look over my shoulder at Peeta who stirs but remains sleeping. I hike up the bag and leave the bedroom as quietly as possible.

I trek down to the basement and gently put the bag down. It's almost 7am and the boys would be up sooner rather than later so I hastily get up and go into the kitchen and start a pot of coffee for them. Gale likes his coffee black while Peeta likes it with cream and sugar so I pull the cream to the front of the fridge and set out coffee cups for them. I'm sure they'd be ok with just coffee for awhile.

I head back downstairs into the cold dark basement and sit down next to my bag. I unzip it slowly and start pulling out weapons one by one. Every time I did this I felt the need to inventory my collection even though the numbers never change. I spread them out and look at them each carefully. Of course they were all in perfect condition. I felt the need to touch them all, sharpen all my knives and straighten all the feathers for my cross bow. I take a sharpening block out of the side pocket of the bag and slowly begin sharpening my knives.

I'd started collecting weapons after things started to get kind of scary in 11. I didn't know why I did it and when I was there, before the Games Peeta was in and before the rebellion I would spend my sleepless nights cleaning the weapons and once dawn broke I'd hide them in a panel at the bottom of my closet. It was so camouflaged by shoes and clothes that nobody ever even knew it was there. Nobody knew I had the weapons or where they came from. Once people started finding out about the weapons, well after the Games they still didn't ask where they came from. At some point I started practicing in the middle of the night. Something told me that something was going to happen soon and I needed to be prepared. I'd mastered everything, using only my own judgment and own knowledge to teach myself. Slowly I'd started pulling friends into the deal one by one, giving them a weapon and teaching them how to use it. They sure came in handy when the rebellion took hold of all of us in 11. Peacekeepers were everywhere and anybody without a weapon was slaughtered. I armed my small group of friends with what I had which at the time was more than what I currently have. Several of those friends died but we managed to hold the small house that all of the children whose parents died by the Peacekeepers hands were now hiding out in. Afterwards, when all the fighting was done, we slowly started placing those orphaned children with other families with children their age. They all seemed happy. That was good. I was a hero in 11. Just like Peeta was a hero in the entire country. My small feat was nothing compared to what Peeta did though. He'd be proud of me but for now, when I got like this he'd just bring me down something to drink and leave me alone. Maybe it was time to tell him…

Peeta's POV

I wake up to an empty bed, Bella's side is cold, and she hasn't been in bed for a while. I look at the alarm clock and see that it's just past 7 in the morning. I could smell coffee brewing. I get out of bed and go straight to the bathroom. I shower, shaved and dressed and went downstairs. I poured myself a cup of the freshly brewed coffee, when Gales appears at the kitchen door looking like he rolled out of bed and came straight downstairs.

"Morning Gale," I say as I hand him a full cup of black coffee.

"Morning," Gale said. "Where's Bells?"

"She's downstairs, probably. Are you hungry? I'll make some breakfast."

"Not really, I'm hung over. My stomach is on a rollercoaster ride right now."

I laughed and refilled his coffee. I grabbed a coffee cup from the cabinet and filled it up and poured some cream in it until it was the perfect color and put the traditional 3 teaspoons of sugar and stirred it up.

"I've got to go check on Bella."

Gale nods and sits at the table and sips his coffee.

I go downstairs to the basement and see Bella sitting on the ground surrounded by weapons. I sit on the ground with her and hand over her coffee. She gratefully takes it and sips on it.

"Is Gale up?" she asks. She's genuinely concerned. It makes her more beautiful.

"Yes."

"He ok?"

"Seems like it. He's in the kitchen." She nodded. She carefully started gathering all of her weapons and placed them one by one back into the bag. "Are you hungry?" I ask as she continues packing away her things.

"I'm getting there. Pancakes sound really good right now." She states, not looking up from her bag.

"Sure, I'll go get them started." I say as I turn to leave.

Bella's POV

I get this sudden feeling that something bad is going to happen. I don't know what it is and the feeling is so small that I think I'd rather dismiss it than say anything. I continue to pack up my weapons for a few minutes while Peeta watches me. Peeta's always been good at reading my emotions and if I look him in the eye he might see the slight terror I feel. So I keep my eyes down until he gets up to leave. He offers to make breakfast and I accept. I hear him walk up the stairs and the basement door open and close. Now I'm left by myself. What could happen soon that makes me feel like this? Maybe, hopefully it's because of what happened last night. Some lingering hatred for that bitch that I would gladly annihilate. It's not like I wasn't a killer. Pretty much everybody that survived the war has killed at least once. We were a nation of killers. But the previous Capital had made us all that way, just like they'd made Peeta into a killer; he had just perfected the art.

I stood at the foot of the stairs, staring up at the door, wondering what I should do with the bag I had. I didn't feel safe leaving it in the house for some reason. In fact, I really wanted to go upstairs and gather all of our clothes and hide them away, somewhere outside of this house. I could kind of hear the house moaning with future pain. Maybe I was going crazy. I wasn't sure anymore.

I trek up the stairs and walk through the door into the kitchen. I smile brightly at my two handsome boys. I was so glad to have both of them. Peeta was the best boyfriend/lover/future husband in the world and even though I'd only known Gale for about a week I knew I could trust him with whatever I needed. I knew he would always stand by my side and I knew he would always stand by Peeta's side. Gale really was a good guy.

Peeta had his back to me cooking pancakes but Gale saw me as I walked out of the door with my heavy bag and jumped up to grab the heavy bag from me.

I let him take it and watched as he set it down gingerly in the hallway. He was always so careful with things, I think he had some idea of what was in it so he was being extra careful for which I was grateful for. On our way back to 12 the baggage handler roughly took the bag from me and tossed it aside. I almost went after him with the bowie knife I had tucked into my boot.

I sat down at the table with my coffee and waited patiently while Peeta finished cooking.

Gale's POV

Bells was acting strange. She wasn't cooking breakfast like she usually did first thing in the morning. Instead she was hiding out downstairs in the dark basement alone. When Peeta went to check on her I got up and made another pot of coffee. I hoped she was ok.

Peeta came upstairs, slightly agitated a few minutes later. "What's wrong Peeta?" I ask. I'm concerned. I've never seen that look on his face before and I've definitely never seen Bells act like this before.

"I don't know, she's down there cleaning weapons."

"What kind of weapon?"

Peeta laughed "Every kind."

"Why does she do that?"

"I don't really know. She's done it as long as I can remember. She's usually up before me every morning anyway but when she's not easily found she's usually hidden away somewhere cleaning those weapons."

"She got a story behind the weapons?" I ask.

"Yes, but I haven't asked. The way she cleans them suggests she knows how to use them. I'm sure you know what I mean about that. She'll tell me when she's ready."

"Oh," I say and suddenly the door to the basement opens and Peeta turns back to the stove before he burns the pancakes.

I see her not really struggle but handle a large bag with extra care, as she pulls it through the door and wobbles a little bit from the weight. I get up and take the bag from her and lay it gently down in the hallway.

She smiles at me and sits at the table, sips her coffee and waits patiently for pancakes.

We're all silent for several minutes.

"You OK Gale?" she asks.

I nod.

"Don't want to talk about it?" she asks again.

"Not really." I reply.

"Ok." She looks down at her coffee. She empties the rest of it into her mouth and gets up to get more. She quickly mixes her coffee and plucks a blueberry from where Peeta has washed and set them aside and pops it into her mouth. She leans against the counter and jokes with Peeta about when her damn breakfast is going to be done.

He playfully snaps at her telling her it'll be done when it's done and she pouts and throws herself back into her chair at the table.

I love watching the two of them together. They're best friends and lovers and you could really tell. They joked with each other and made fun of each other. They definitely loved each other. I hoped one day I'd have that in my life too.

Peeta signals to me and I get up, gather plates and silverware and napkins and set the table. When I come to her chair to set the plate down she sticks her tongue out at me and throws her napkin on the floor. I stick my tongue out right back at her and pick up the napkin and tuck it into her shirt. She looks down at the napkin and pouts.

Peeta brings a huge stack of pancakes to the table and distributes them.

"What's with the bag, Bella?" I ask while she stuffs her mouth with pancakes.

She takes her time chewing ever bit carefully but the way her eyes look I can tell she's thinking.

"I think we bury it."

"What do you mean bury it?" Peeta asks.

"I don't know. My instincts say to bury it. I have a bad feeling something is going to happen." Bella says.

"OK, where do you want to bury it?" I ask.

"Not around here. We have to put it where nobody is going to know it's there. Except, for us, of course. I think we're going to need it soon. You two are welcome to anything in that bag. Just give it back in the same condition." She says.

I pretended not to know what's in the bag.

"What's in there though? What's so important that it has to be hidden away?" I ask her.

"Weapons." She replied not bothering to look up. "I guess I should tell you two what all that is from…"

She explains everything in slow deliberate words. She explains about life in 11 before the first Games Peeta was in and explains how and when she started collecting the weapons. She tells us how she learned to use them and started teaching friends how to use them. After they lost Rue and Thresh in the Games more and more people sought her help to defend themselves. After breakfast she takes us into the living room to continue her story. She allows me to examine each weapon one by one as she tells us about when the Quell ended and the rebellion began she and a few of her strongest friends gathered all the children in 11 and managed to hold the house they were hiding out in. Not one child in their care died, even though she lost a lot of her own people during the good fight.

We sit silently for quite a while before Bells finally announces she's going to go wash up.

Bella goes upstairs and Peeta and I go into the kitchen and clean up. A short time later, Bella comes downstairs, looking clean and refreshed, and ties her hair back into a loose ponytail. She sits next to Peeta on the couch and he grips her hand. They're always beautiful together. I really appreciated them for everything. Especially Peeta. I hadn't always been a nice guy to him, Hell, I'd punched him right in the face as soon as he stepped off the train after the first Games but later that day he'd come to me and we spoke for the first time ever. He had laughed and told me he probably deserved it. It made me hate him slightly less.

I excused myself and went upstairs to shower, I had a big day ahead of me, one that was going to probably be very heart wrenching, because even though I hated Katniss at the moment, I still kind of loved her. I think I always knew it wouldn't be. No matter, I'm sure Bella had some gorgeous friends she could introduce me to.

Once in my room I examined the clothes that I had left. There was practically nothing, other than the clothes that I wore the night before Katniss had somehow found time to destroy everything I owned. It angered me. There was a knock on the door, and when I opened the door Peeta was standing there with a stack of clothes.

"We're the same size, these clothes should fit you." Peeta handed me the clothes.

"How'd you know?" I asked.

"Because, she did the same thing to mine," Peeta explained.

I looked at him solemnly, I didn't deserve a friend as great as Peeta but here he was, being the nicest guy ever. I thanked him. He merely nodded and left the room. I heard him take a few steps away, then I heard another knock on the door. I opened it once more.

"Listen, I'm going down to town for a little while. It's Bella's birthday and I wanted to bake a cake, would you like to come with me?"

"Sure," I say. I had no idea her birthday was so soon, I should definitely get her something.

Peeta nodded and left the room. I heard him pad down the stairs and open the front door. I showered quickly and dressed in some soft clean clothes. They also smelled like vanilla and I was really starting to truly enjoy the scent. It smelled like home.

I left my room, just in time to see Peeta carrying Bella up the stairs.

"She fell asleep on the couch." He stated.

I nodded and opened their bedroom door for him. He went inside and lightly draped her across the bed, he went into the closet and removed a thick woven blanket and covered her with it. I watched as he lovingly kissed her and left before she woke up.

On our way to town we joked about whatever. Soon we were done in town, both of us having several small gifts for Bella and Peeta had managed to get all the supplies needed for a chocolate birthday cake.

"Gale, I'm going to need a few hours to make the cake, would you mind taking her out for a while?" Peeta asked me.

"No, I don't mind, I really should go take care of the rest of my stuff at Katniss' house before I do anything else though." I answer.

"You're right, Bells will probably sleep for a little while longer, Go get your stuff, call me if you need me."

I nodded and left the room and went over to Katniss'. The guy she was with last night opened the door sheepishly and I pushed past him into the house. I went immediately to the small closet where I stored my boy and arrow, my hunting jacket and my few other belongings. I counted the money and was grateful when none was missing.

"I'm sorry," the guy said. "Katniss didn't tell me she was with someone."

"You can have her." I say back to this guy and turn around and left.

I practically ran to my mothers house to collect the rest of my belongings. I felt like the anger I was feeling would engulf me in flames if I spent one more second at Katniss' residence. My mother hardly had room for her younger kids much less me so I'd been depending on Katniss' home for shelter, so now that I actually had a room, plus a loving makeshift family I felt like I actually had a home for the first time in years. I wanted all my stuff with me. I headed back to my new home.

I burst through the door, just in time to see Peeta lifting Bella onto the counter and Bella's legs wrapping around his waist. He was cupping her face, kissing her as she pulled him hard against her.

I purposefully slammed the door hard behind me and they pulled apart.

"In the kitchen guys? Really?" I asked jokingly. Bella just smiled from her perch on the counter and Peeta turned slightly red.

"Sorry Dad," Bella said mockingly. "Won't happen again."

"It better not!" I punched Peeta in the arm good naturedly and he feigned pain. He rubbed his arm like a 5 year old.

"Gale, I just got word my sister is coming to town, I expect you to keep her company."

"Is she as pretty as you are?" I asked.

"She should be, we're twins," she states.