Hello. I would like to start up with saying, thanks to all of those who have followed, favorite, and reviewed this story. I find myself looking forward to seeing what you guys think of it so far. I have been deciding whether or not to do another story. It would be of a different genre and story. I'll let you guys know with what I decide, if any of you wanted to check it out. Now, here is the next chapter of the story. There is a sexy scene at the end of the chapter. This chapter is a little bit longer.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or any of its characters.

Chapter 6:

Peeta POV:

I find myself waking up with the feeling of Katniss wrapped around me. Opening my eyes, I look at the beauty of the love of my life. Ever since we have gotten together, I have thanked the forces that be, for her love. She looks pleasant while she sleeps. I don't want to mess with that by waking her up to the nightmare that we are in. I have already decided that I will do anything in the arena so that she can come out as victor. I know that she will try to make it so I come out alive, but I don't want to come out if she dies. I won't be able to live with myself if she dies and I survive.

I see her starting to wake. I wait for her to say something, but she doesn't. I know she is having the same thoughts that I did when I awoke. Instead, she looks up at me with her head still on my chest. We sit and stare into each other for a few minutes. We are both brought out of our thoughts when we hear a knock on the door.

I get out of bed and go to open the door. It's Effie in a brightly colored dress that stands on the other side. I step aside to let her in. She walks over to the bed and sits down.

Effie says, "I hope you both slept well. Today is going to be a big day. We will arrive in the capital to a fairly larger crowd than usual."

I ask, "Why is that?"

She replies, "Because when she" she points at Katniss, "threw herself at you instead of shaking your hand. It made the people of the capital go crazy. Sure, there have been a romance or two in the arena over the years. But nothing like what you two have. You are the first real couple to go into the games. Haymitch thinks that we will be able to use this to our advantage. So, last night, he called someone in the capital and confirmed that you guys are together. Haymitch is very smart, and knows a lot of very influential people. He also knows how the capital works, so listen to what he says. We both firmly believe that one of you will come out of this for sure. But he has been working on a plan to try to get both of you out."

Katniss says, "Wait, both of us?"

Effie says, "Yes, but you both need to trust him for us to have a shot of this working. He told me to come in here and let you both know. I have never seen him put so much effort already for any of our past tributes. Also, when we arrive, which will be in the next hour or so, don't hold back how you guys act. A critical point in the plan is that you let everyone know that your love each other is real. When we arrive; wave to the crowd, hold hands, and kiss if you feel comfortable. When we get to the building of the parade you will both be split up for a few hours to meet with your individual prep teams. After that is the tribute parade. Then we will go back to where we will stay until the morning of the games. So, get ready and look nice. Meet back in the food car."

Effie stands up, straightens her clothes and goes to leave. She turns back around before she leaves and says, "Oh, and don't talk about the plan until we are in a place where we can talk without the capital listening." Then she leaves.

I turn to Katniss and say, "I'm going to go back to my room and get ready."

I kiss the top of her head and leave. I get back to my room and hop in for a quick shower. After the shower, I put on a t-shirt and pants. My stomach growls as I head to the food car. When I walk in, I find Haymitch talking to Effie by the table.

I grab a quick plate of food and sit down.

I ask, "How big of a crowd are we expecting?"

Haymitch answers, "A pretty big one. It will probably be about as big as the crowds that appear for the career tributes. If not, bigger than."

I nod my head, and then look back down at my plate and start eating. After a few minutes of idle conversation, we are joined by Katniss.

Haymitch says, "So, I hope you both understand the position we are in. I have already talked to each of your stylists, they know about what the plan is, and they are on board to help."

Katniss asks suspiciously, "Why are they on board? We haven't even met yet."

Haymitch replies, "Cinna, who is your stylist sweetheart, has known about werewolves for a long time. He can be trusted with your secret. Portia, who is lover boy's, found out about them a few years back. She can also be trusted. But don't mention anything to them, because of the eavesdropping of the capital."

"Okay, we understand." I say.

Haymitch looks out the window and says, "We're here."

I turn and look out at the approaching city. It looks huge even from this distance. We enter into a dark tunnel. Then the train starts to slow down. A couple of Peace Keepers enters the car and says that it is time to leave. I grab Katniss' hand and we follow the Peace Keepers. They lead us to the door that we entered the train from. They talk into a microphone saying that we are ready. I turn to look at Katniss; she turns at the same time. As we look at each other, the door opens to the screams of a huge crowd. We look back out at all of the cheering people of the crowd. I decide to give them a little something. So I turn to Katniss and press my hand to her cheek. I lean in and guide her to my lips. It is not a long kiss, but enough to make the crowd go crazy. I pull back and give her a smile, and she smiles back at me. We turn and are lead to a nearby car. The whole time the crowd is chanting our names.

The door shuts behind me. Haymitch says, "Great job. That will get people talking."

I nod and look out the window at all of the huge buildings we pass. After a while of driving, we arrive at what I assume is the stadium for the parade. We are ushered out of the car and into the building.

Haymitch says, "I'll go with Katniss, and Effie will go with Peeta. We will meet back here in a few hours."

I give Katniss a quick kiss, and follow Effie.

She says, "Portia is a good friend of mine. She will take good care of you. Don't worry about Katniss, Cinna is great."

Eventually, we make it to a room, which I assume is where I will be prepped. I sit down on a nearby chair. Effie leaves the room, and I am alone for a few minutes. A few people burst into the room and make their way to me. I stand and shake their hands as they tell me their names. They strip me of my clothes, which makes me feel uncomfortable, and start to work at making me look better.

After they get done with working on my body, they start to cut my hair. They get done with getting me ready, and I get put into a black outfit. They take me to a nearby mirror and I look at the seemingly different person in front of me. I turn around to see that the people who helped me get ready are gone and one person stands in front of me.

I walk toward her saying, "Hi, I'm Peeta, and I assume that you are Portia."

She nods her head and says, "Yes, I am."

We shake hands and then she says quietly, "I hope you know that I am on your side. I am helping because a few years ago, I found out that the love of my life was like yours. They got taken from me, and I vowed to never let that happen again to someone like us."

I give a sad smile and say, "Thanks, but if it were my choice, she would be alive at the end. Not me. So, don't just focus on me. Try to help her more than me."

She says, "Okay, I'll try. But you know how we are trying to make the outcome. So, don't give up."

I nod and we leave to head back to where we are supposed to meet the others.

We arrive back and I find Katniss talking to a man who I assume is Cinna. I walk up to her, she turns to me, and I give her a kiss. I pull back and say, "You look beautiful."

"Thanks. You're looking good too. Peeta, this is Cinna." She says gesturing to the man.

I shake his hand and say, "Nice to meet you, Cinna. I'm sure that it will be great having you with us."

He smiles and says, "Happy to be here. Katniss told me a lot about you."

Before I can reply, I look over and see a fairly large boy glaring at us.

Cinna follows my eyes and says, "That is Cato. He is going to be a favorite to win. Try to steer clear of him. I don't think you can trust him."

I nod at turn around and see Portia, Haymitch, and Effie walking toward us.

Haymitch says, "You know the plan. We will talk after at the rooms."

He leads us to a nearby horse drawn carriage and says, "You guys have done pretty well so far with the crowds, keep it up." then he helps us into the back.

When we get situated, I turn to Katniss and ask, "Are you ready for this?"

She sighs and says, "I'm not ready for any of this. But I'll try my best."

I nod and grab her hand.

We hear the music start, which signifies the start of the parade. We wait for all of the other districts to go, before our cart starts rolling. When we get near the end of the tunnel, we turn and start to kiss each other. The crowd gets louder when we emerge. Then a few seconds later, they get even louder. I get confused and pull back to see why. When I do, I look at Katniss and her dress is on fire. I'm surprised to say the least. The dress looks like it was made for the flames, so I relax. I look down and find that my clothes are also on fire. We smile at each other and look out to the crowds. We circle around at the end of the road and the president says something about the games. I don't pay attention; my focus is on holding Katniss' hand. I look up to see President Snow looking toward us. The cart starts moving again. And we head back to the tunnel where we came from.

We arrive back at the huge place where our rooms are, and we follow Haymitch up a small flight of stairs until we arrive at the roof.

Haymitch turns to us and says, "This is the only spot where we can talk about the plan. There are no microphones up here for sure. The wind is too bad for them to pick anything up. So, if you have any questions or ideas, say them here. Okay?"

We nod and head back downstairs. We have a dinner and he tells us that tomorrow is the first day of group training. There will be two group sessions, and one solo session. After that the interviews will be on the night of the solo session, then the games the next day. He tells us that we are not supposed to train with our best strengths, and to worry about things we aren't familiar with. He also tells us to not worry about allies. He tells us that we might have a pretty rough time with other tributes this year, but he doesn't think anyone other than Katniss is a werewolf. He also tells her to definitely not show anyone what she can do, and keep her abilities as quiet as she can. We understand and head to our rooms.

We head to my room first to pick up a pair of clothes for sleep, and for in the morning. We shower and get into bed exhausted from the long day.

In the morning, we head down to the first day of training. It goes pretty well. I learn a lot about which plants to stay away from and that sort of thing. The whole time we see Cato and his allies training hard. Every now and then we find him staring at us like he is trying to figure out if we are dangerous, he has no idea.

The next day goes by like the last. We learn a lot, but Katniss becomes friends with one other tribute from district 11, by the name of Rue. I think she reminds her of Prim, but I don't say anything. Rue is nice and trains with us.

On the day of the solo training sessions, I am a little more nervous than I was before. It is probably because Katniss won't be with me. We decide that I should try to show them my strength. So, the whole time I lift and throw things. They seem pretty impressed throughout, but they mainly sit and talk to each other. Near the end, I decide to get trained by one of the helpers in wrestling. He tells me that I picked things up quickly and that he will make sure the game makers know. After Katniss gets done with her solo session, she says that it did not go quite as well as she would have liked. I decide not to ask until we get back to the apartment.

When we walk in, we find Haymitch, Effie, Cinna, and Portia, waiting around the television. I tell them how my session went, and they tell me I did a good job. When they ask Katniss, she brushes them off saying that she did okay.

Haymitch says, "Don't give me that. How did you do?"

Katniss says, "Fine. I messed up."

Cinna asks, "What did you do?"

She says, "They weren't paying attention. So, I shot at them."

Effie says, "You shot at them!"

Katniss replies, "Yeah, but it didn't hit any of them. I shot an apple out of the mouth of the roasted pig they had."

Haymitch starts laughing and says, "You get better and better everyday sweetheart. And how did they react?"

Katniss says, "One of them fell into their punch bowl."

Cinna gives off a laugh, while Effie says, "Katniss! You should not have done that."

I say, "Well, there is nothing we can do about it now."

The show starts shortly after and starts giving scores. Like expected, the careers get pretty high scores. They get to my name.

"And now for the fan favorites of District 12. Peeta Mellark gets an 8."

I breathe a sigh of relief. I did not want to get low. That would have been embarrassing.

"Now for the girl on fire, Katniss Everdeen. She gets a surprising 11."

I give a little cheer. I definitely did not think she would get that high of a score for shooting the game makers.

Haymitch says, "Well, that is bad."

I ask, "Why is that bad?"

He says, "Because now she will be the one to go after. If a career gets a high score, they would be likely to get allies. But with someone from a lesser district, they might think they have something to prove by taking her out. She will be harder to kill. So, it might cause questions about why she can kill others so easily. Katniss, you need to get to a weapon fast, so you don't have to worry about using your strength. Don't worry about the bow at first, grab a bag for you and Peeta and get out. Peeta, stay out of the Cornucopia, and wait for her. If all goes right you will be together."

We agree and go get ready for the interviews with Cinna and Portia. When we get down to the place where the interviews are, we get directed to where we wait for our turn. During the interviews most of the tributes seem confident and nice. Some seem nervous and scared. I decide to try to give a little humor, and play with their hearts. I tell Haymitch my plan to get more sponsors, he agrees. I don't tell Katniss what I have planned, but I ask her not to be angry with me. Caesar Flickerman's interview with Katniss starts.

Caesar says, "Now for the girl on fire herself, Katniss Everdeen."

She walks over to Caesar and waves to the crowd. Caesar says, "Katniss, tell us about the young girl that you volunteered for."

She says, "That young girl is my little sister Prim. This was her first year and she was reaped. So, I did the only thing that I could do at the time, now here I am."

Caesar nods, and then says, "That's great that you love your sister. Katniss, tell us about that beautiful dress you had on for the parade."

Katniss says, "Well, I thought the dress was beautiful when I put it on. My stylist, Cinna, told me that it did something very special. But he didn't tell me what. So, I was pretty surprised when we found out that they lit on fire." This gets a good laugh out of the crowd.

Caesar says, "Ah, yes. That would be very surprising. Now please tell us about Peeta."

She says, "Peeta and I got together not too long ago. I love him very much."

He asks, "When were you first interested in him?"

She replies, "Well, I had known of him for a long time. But I first started to truly care for him when he helped me and my family out of a tough situation." The buzzer goes off signifying the end of her interview. She says goodbye and heads off the stage.

Then it is my turn. I walk out when he introduces me and shake his hand. He says, "Look at this handsome man folks." Which gets a cheer.

I smile and wave to the crowd. Then he asks, "So Peeta, What is your favorite thing so far about the capital?"

I say, "Definitely the showers. Now tell me Caesar, do I smell like roses?"

He smells me and agrees. Which gets a good laugh from the crowd.

He asks, "Peeta, please do tell us about home."

I say, "I grew up with my parents being the bakers of district twelve. I hope I can make them proud."

Caesar says, "They probably are, now tell us about your relationship with the beautiful Katniss Everdeen."

I say, "I have loved her for as long as I can remember. I first saw her when I was little; I thought she was the most beautiful girl ever. But she won my heart when I first heard her sing, I have been a goner ever since. We finally got together about a month before the reaping. I'm not only sad that we did not get enough time together, I'm also sad about something else."

He asks interested, "Peeta, what else makes you sad?"

I turn to the crowd and say, "Now, we can't get married like we had planned."

The crowd gasps, and the buzzer rings telling us that my interview is over. I stand and the crowd cheers loudly. I walk off stage after giving Caesar a handshake and head toward Haymitch, Effie and Katniss. Haymitch gives me a good job. Effie has tears in her eyes. Katniss has a streak of tears from her eyes and steps towards me. She gives me a kiss, and hugs me.

Katniss says, "I'm not angry that you did that. In fact, I wish that it were true."

I give her a small smile and say, "I do too."

Haymitch grabs our shoulders and gently leads us to back to the elevator that will lead us back up to our floor. When we arrive back, we have a light dinner to help settle our nerves for tomorrow. After dinner, Haymitch tells us to meet up at the roof.

Haymitch says on the roof, "Now you guys know the plan for tomorrow. We will be working hard to get both of you out. We might not be able to but don't lose faith. One of you will leave this arena for sure, so stay together. Katniss, if you get split up you won't be able to find him by scent."

"Why?"

"Because the capital knows about werewolves. They have found a way to make it so you can't find anyone by scent and you won't be able to sense emotions, but you will be able to use your strength, speed, and jumping abilities. But those are dead giveaways. So, restrain yourself. And try to keep your anger in check."

She nods and we head back to her room. We take a shower and lay down in bed.

She turns to me and says, "Peeta, I'm ready."

I turn to her and ask, "Ready for what?"

She says, "To have actual sex."

My eyes go wide and I say, "Are you sure?"

She nods, and reaches toward her side table and says, "I found these this morning."

She pulls out a small square package and says, "I think they thought that we have sex constantly."

I smile, lean forward and kiss her. We kiss for a few minutes, and then she sits up and takes her clothes off. I follow her lead and start stripping myself as well. Once the last piece of clothing hits the floor, I return to kissing her. She moans into my mouth, and I run my hands up her body. I take each breast in my hands and start working her. She arches her back when I take a nipple and give it a gentle squeeze. I start kissing down her jaw, and behind her ear. She moves to grant me better access. I kiss her collarbone and move one of my hands to cup her sex, finding her core wet and ready. She bucks up into my hand and I run my fingers in circles around her clit.

She grabs my hand and looks me in the eyes and says with glowing eyes, "Peeta, I need you inside of me now."

I continue my assault on her neck as I tear the small square open. This is my first time trying to put a condom on. I lean back and start to look for directions on the best way to put it on. Katniss gives a little laugh and grabs the condom. I look at her as she wraps her hand around me. I groan, as she strokes me a few times, then pinches the tip of the condom and starts to roll it on me. Once it is on, I position myself at her entrance. I look at her in question, and she gives a nod to answer my silent question. I slowly push into her. I stop when she looks in pain and wait for her to tell me to continue. When she does, I continue to go until I am as far as I can go. I give her another minute to adjust.

She says, "Move Peeta."

I pull back until I am almost all the way out. Then I slowly move back in. After a few strokes, she tells me to go faster, so I do. Then she says, harder, I comply. Eventually, she is chanting my name. It takes a few minutes before I get the feeling that I might explode. I tell her and she says that she is almost there too. When I feel her start to clench in orgasm, I let go. We both try our best to ride out our orgasms. When they end, I collapse on top of her in a fit of exhaustion.

Once we get our breathing back under control, I say, "I love you."

She says, "I love you too."

I say, "Katniss, please don't do anything in the arena tomorrow that would separate us."

She replies, "I will try not to, but we will need the supplies. After we get what we need, we will leave."

I nod, and move to hold her. She lays her head on my chest and I close my eyes and have the last great dream that I will have for a while.

Next: The Games Begin.