Thanks to Ilovemycrazygoofyweirdfriends for this chapter's inspiration and to LeahLucy, Mockingjay1804, Sheila Chiaroscura and Ilovemyfriends. for their encouragement! Ever body needs encouragement, as Haymitch would say. By the way, his accent is a hybrid of my Grandmother's (from "down the shore" in Maryland) and the good ol' "ridnick" that I used to hear when I was a kid.

Peeta Dreams

Peeta lies restlessly by the stream as his wound festers and his fever rises. He sleeps fitfully and dreams, mostly dreams of Katniss with an occasional visit from Cato or his sword. When he is awake he's not always sure of where he is or why he is where he is. During his lucid periods he tries to remember what is real and what is dream. Are he and Katniss in love? He knows for sure that he loves Katniss. Did he save her life or did she save his? Were they friends during the training, or was that pretend? He occupies himself by making a camouflage of leaves and mud and vines. He drinks from the stream but after vomiting up one of the packs of snack food he no longer tries to eat. Sometimes he remembers to take the pill for the water, and sometimes he doesn't. It doesn't seem to make any difference, so probably the stream is safe and clean. Peeta can't keep a schedule but he's awake when the trumpets sing out followed by the announcement that two can win the Games if they are from the same district. From a distance he hears Katniss call out "Peeta!"

In the morning when Katniss finds Peeta he is mostly lucid but his hours of dreaming have altered his reality, and now he thinks that Katniss and he are mutually in love and he's completely forgotten about Gale. He remembers his dad saying something good might come of the Games and Haymitch saying he should focus on living happily ever after with Katniss but not to tell anybody that. The announcement last night confirms to him what both his dad and Haymitch said, so when he hears Katniss whisper his name he thinks his dearest dreams have come true.

Snow Deals with Seneca

As Plutarch expected, President Snow is outraged by the rule change to allow two victors from the same district. The Gamesmaker is immediately responsible for this catastrophe, so he must be executed at once. After the Games Snow will dig into the matter to see if anyone else should be punished, but Seneca kept the secret between himself and Plutarch. Plutarch will be safe but Seneca is in deep, deep trouble.

Snow's personal guards raid the Games headquarters, rampaging through the halls and roaring for Seneca Crane. When they find him tucked under a table they use stun guns to immobilize him and two guards each clutch a handful of his hair and drag him out to the hovercraft. Snow's senior guard is a rebel, part of the topmost echelon of the Rebellion, (and one of the best kept secrets among the rebels). He must capture Seneca, deliver him to Snow and carry out Snow's orders, without allowing Seneca to speak and thus compromise Plutarch. Luckily Snow is too engrossed by the Games – Cato and Thresh are at war in the tall grass – to be as interested as he normally would be in Seneca's death.

"Why, it'ssss Sssssseneca Crane!" Snow hisses at the prisoner, and then commands the guards "Throw him in the pit and come back at once, I've got another job for you." The pit is filled with truly horrible muttations that will feed ravenously on anything but each other. Normally the guards would watch and enjoy the dreadful spectacle, but the rebel guard had manufactured some trouble elsewhere so that Snow would assign them another task before Seneca regained the ability to speak.

Plutarch is a pragmatic sort of rebel. He knows he sent Seneca Crane to his death, he knows how Seneca will die, and he knows that he is the one who caused Seneca's troubles. He is sorry for Seneca, but he doesn't trouble himself with guilt as Katniss would. He doesn't even feel responsible. He believes the Capitol and Snow are responsible, because Snow has eliminated all other choices but to fight back against Snow's system in Snow's way.

Plutarch is made Gamesmaker and the Games go on. Now that he doesn't have to curry favor with the boss, Plutarch begins to drop the annoying Capitol accent and talk like a normal person. Cinna, the Rebellion's master of style, had told him at the beginning of the Games that Plutarch could not use the Capital accent among the rebels of the 13 Districts; no rebel would take him seriously if he talked like that. Plutarch is getting ready to talk to rebels outside the Capitol.

Katniss Comes for Peeta

I hear her voice before I see her and I'm so happy I blink a couple of times to make sure I'm awake and not dreaming. But it's Katniss, it's really Katniss. She hauls me out of my comfortable bed in the stream and proceeds to torment me by cleaning me and treating my injuries. I would have preferred a gentler welcome, for instance she could have lain right down beside me; I would have made her very comfortable and invisible as well! But I do what she tells me because I'm so happy to see her.

But DAMN, some of her ministrations HURT. I can't not holler as she moves me, though I try to be quiet. She washes the mud off me; the cool water and her cool hands stroking my feverish skin are very nice and soothing. I feel the relief as the venom and infection is drained from each tracker jacker sting, but my thigh is hurting more than anything, and unfortunately that wound seems beyond even a healer's daughter. She looks pretty sick as she's working on it, so I tease her for a kiss to take my mind off the pain and her mind off the pus that so clearly disgusts her. I long to kiss her, I've been dreaming of kissing her for days, but now that she's with me I can barely move myself and I'm even to weak to reach out to hold her.

We start walking and I forget why we're moving and where we're going as a voice nags me inside to just LIE DOWN. When I'm starting to fall, Katniss catches me and helps me sit for a while. Then we haul me to a little cave where Katniss makes a bed and tucks me in. I watch her build a front wall for our little cave and weird thoughts flicker through my mind, like flashing pictures instead of words. I see first-grade Katniss singing to the birds, I see 11-year old Katniss shrinking away from my mother's harsh words, I see Katniss the next day looking like she has two good meals inside her. I see her twirling during her interview, and with her head turned away, blushing and confused after mine. Then I see Haymitch warning me Katniss wouldn't understand that I was telling the truth when I said I love her, so I have to tell her now, in case I die.

"Katniss, " I say. She comes over to me and strokes my hot forehead with her cool hand. "Thanks for finding me."

"You would have found me if you could," she says.

"Yes. Look, if I don't make it back – "

"Don't talk like that. I didn't drain all that pus for nothing," she says.

"I know. But just in case I don't – " I try again to explain that I truly do love her, it's not a Games strategy, it's how I feel.

"No, Peeta, I don't even want to discuss it," She touches my lips with her fingers, and I want to kiss them, but I have to explain.

"But I – " I try to insist, but her lips brush mine in a tentative kiss. Her face lingers above me so I reach for a deeper kiss while her hand steadies my wobbly head. Her eyes close and for a moment we're melded into one being, alive with love. She pulls away first and tucks the sleeping bag more firmly around my shoulders. I've never kissed a girl before and something in her face tells me she's never kissed a boy either. I guess a kiss is a way to say 'I love you,' so for the moment I'm satisfied that she knows what she wouldn't let me say.

"You're not going to die. I forbid it. All right?"

If I'm not going to die I reckon I'll have more chances to kiss and to talk, so I give in, "All right," and fall asleep for a few minutes while she steps outside the cave. When she returns with the pot of hot broth I want her to have it, but she insists I drink it. She wheedles and makes idle threats and even bribes me with kisses me to get all the broth down my throat. These kisses are delightful of course, but even though I had my first kiss only an hour ago, I now know the difference between a loving kiss and a fun kiss. It's like the difference between throwing those loaves of bread to Katniss when she was starving in the rain and selling bread over the counter in the bakery, or the difference between the sun, which gives us life, and the moon, which is merely beautiful.

When I wake in the morning Katniss is gone and I'm almost in a panic when she returns with berry soup for me. Eventually I persuade her to sleep and when I brush her hair off her face she seems to relax a little, so I stroke her hair until I'm sure she's asleep. The constant tension of the Games and her natural intensity drain from her face and body and she almost looks serene. Her face gains a different kind of beauty when she's asleep, a restful beauty, and I feast my eyes on her all day long.

When she wakes up the focus unfortunately turns back on me, and on my wound and the infection that has now entered my blood.

Gale

The last time Gale saw Katniss was the day of the reaping when he was hustled out of the room in the Justice Building while trying to tell her he loves her. "Don't let them starve!" Katniss cried out, clinging to Gale's hand. "I won't. You know I won't! Katniss, remember I – " but the Peacekeepers yanked them apart and Katniss never heard him finish the sentence when he was shoved out onto steps of the Justice Building, " – love you." If Katniss didn't hear him, it might as well remain unsaid, Gale thought, as he trudged toward home but the momentum behind the declaration had forced the words out. So his love wasn't a secret anymore, but the one person who needed to know it was gone, possibly forever.

That evening as he watched the reapings from the other eleven Districts, Gale assessed the competitors Katniss would face, and became cautiously optimistic for her chances of survival. The career tributes were big and strong, but if the past was indicative of the present, these tributes would only know how to fight. They would not know how to feed themselves, and they would suffer more without food than a hardy hunter and forager like Katniss. When the Games finally started Gale remained cautiously optimistic until the day Katniss blew up the pile of supplies. His optimism rose, and the next day, when Katniss shot Marvel, Gale became confident that Katniss would be the next victor.

Peeta's declaration of love irritated Gale when he made it, mystified Gale while Peeta teamed with the careers, and won Gale's respect when Peeta saved Katniss's life. After Cato wounded Peeta, the severity of his injury and Peeta's isolation eliminated him as a contender in Gale's mind. Gale felt a little guilty that Peeta's plight didn't concern him more, but "all's fair in love and war" is a platitude that makes sense to him.

Then the rules changed, Katniss immediately hunted Peeta down, and sacrificing her own safety, began to nurse him to the best of her ability.

When the kiss occurs Gale is blindsided. He had seen nothing in Katniss's manner to indicate any special affection for Peeta. He had noted Peeta flirting a little with Katniss and Katniss, as usual, had been oblivious. He considers the possibility that the kiss could be faked, because it's filmed so beautifully, close-up in profile, followed by a close-up of Peeta's blissful face. But Gale can't fool himself for long, he's too honest. He absorbs the blows one by one: Katniss gave her first kiss to someone other than him, Katniss initiated the kiss, Peeta perhaps took more than the kiss Katniss meant to give, the whole country saw her first kiss, and it wasn't with him.

Gale knows he's not being fair. Katniss is 16 now, whereas Gale had his first kiss when he was 13. He's kissed lots of girls. Girls run after him; he notices them and he used to respond. Since he realized that Katniss was the girl he wanted for life, he stopped responding to other girls and he's been saving up the flirty, lusty part of himself for Katniss, when she's ready.

He can't stand to watch any more. He sits outside the door where the Peacekeepers can't see him and lets the turmoil boil inside him.

The Everdeens

Ahngora and Prim watch Katniss nurse Peeta with pride. Her hands are gentle and her determination with the copious amount of pus is close to heroic. Both the healer and her daughter know how quickly Katniss flees the scene when someone sick or injured comes to their house for help. They both giggle at her shyness when she asks Peeta cover himself while she washes his undershorts. Katniss doesn't like nakedness of any kind, physical or emotional. So they are astonished when she kisses Peeta, and he kisses her back, a kiss Ahngora recognizes for what it is on Peeta's side – love spoken in a caress.

Mother and daughter had been on the edge of their seats since Katniss found Peeta. Ahngora sighs and leans back as one tension is eased – Peeta's OK for now – and another takes its place – Katniss in love? Prim sighs ecstatically and remains on the edge of her seat, eager for more romance and kisses and talk of love. Then she senses her mother's disquiet and asks, "Why did you sigh, Mama? Don't you like Peeta?"

"I like him very much from the little I know about him. But I don't think Katniss is ready to have a boyfriend or to kiss and talk about love. Besides, Gale also loves her, though she doesn't know it. I think there will be tears because of this."

Haymitch

The rule change was just announced. Plutarch hinted at this a while back. There's Katniss hollering for Peeta. Well, I'll be . . .

Ha! Here's Katniss hunting Peeta down. That gash on his thigh is gonna be real trouble. I'm gonna have to get him some serious medicine. We got sponsors enough to pay for it, but the other mentors will claim District 12 got an unfair advantage. I reckon I'll have to negotiate with ever body, see how each District can get something valuable like them drugs. Cato and Thresh are hurting each other pretty bad. Foxface needs food, she's gonna starve in a couple'a days. That dimwit Clove is still looking for Foxface, she's passed under Foxface in a tree twice. I hear from Plutarch folks are saying she's too stupid to deserve the victor's crown . . .

Whaddya know! Katniss jest kisst Peeta and damn if he didn't kiss her back, a real good kiss. She's definitely a virgin kisser. Peeta kisses like he knows how but I don't reckon he can have much experience either. Well, he's got true love to guide him. Where's that sponsor with the broth for him, he sure deserves it now . . .