When Katniss came back, she found Peeta propped up against the big tree, asleep. If Peeta would have been awake he would have seen Katniss stop and stare at the heart he'd carved above his head and frown at him. And he would have seen her troubled expression change to affection, before she bent down and shook his shoulder to wake him.

Peeta woke with a start. "What?" He quickly remembered where he was, when he saw Katniss. She was carrying two rabbits by their ears.

"Hey, great," she said. "You've made a fire! Although you almost let it go out." She dropped the rabbits by the fire and stomped back into the thicket of trees and bushes. In a few moments she came back out, her arms full of dried brush and dead branches. When she had the fire blazing, she plopped down on the crinkly, silver blanket, next to Peeta. "May I?" she asked, pointing to the water bottle.

"Of course." Peeta didn't know what else to say. He was thinking he might still be dreaming. He pulled the bread and cheese out of his pockets and laid them on the blanket between them. He saw the appreciation in her eyes. "I thought you might get hungry," he said quietly.

Katniss leaned her back against the trunk, next to Peeta. She gratefully took a roll and watched while Peeta sliced the cheese with his pocketknife. They tore the rolls apart and placed a slice of cheese on each piece, then ate in silence. It reminded him of sharing food when they were in the cave. Peeta was afraid to say something that might break the spell of them acting like friends.

Katniss was the first to speak. "This was nice of you," she said, wiping crumbs off her clothes, "Although you did scare me a little when I first heard footsteps behind me. You should've called out or something. I could have mistaken you for a deer and shot you."

Peeta turned his head to look at her. "You're too good to mistake me for a deer." Her smile lit him up inside.

"Whatever," she said. "But the question is: Why did you follow me into the woods in the first place? I go hunting to be alone!"

"I wanted to talk to you about something," said Peeta. That wasn't a lie.

"So why not wait until I come home?"

"I like watching you hunt."

"You like watching me hunt? How many times have you 'watched me hunt'?" Katniss said, her voice hard and sharp. Her tone let Peeta know he had said too much.

"Only a couple of times," he lied. "But let's start over. Katniss, I need to ask you something," he said, effectively changing the subject. "Do you realize that the Victory Tour is coming up soon and we will have to…pretend" (he could barely get that word out) "to be in love again? Are you going to be able to do that?"

Katniss sighed deeply before answering. "I will," she said simply. "I am dreading the tour though. I don't know how I'm going to face the families of all the kids that died. Cato, Glimmer, Marvel, Foxface…Rue? Having a Victory Tour seems so wrong! They've lost children and then we come along and rub their noses in it. It's so cruel."

"I agree. The Capitol must think district people are as callous as they are."

Katniss rubbed her eyes. "I don't know what to say to them."

"I will be there beside you, Katniss. I can do most of the talking, if you want."

Her eyes locked onto his. "Would you?" she whispered. Then she yawned.

It made Peeta yawn in response. He realized he'd only slept for a couple of hours last night. "I had a nightmare last night," he said.

"You did? So did I," answered Katniss. "What was yours?"

All Peeta was willing to say was, "The mutts caught up with us. What about you?"

"I sometimes see those mutts with their horrible eyes in my nightmares, too. Last night, though, I was running through the forest, and the mockingjays had Snow's voice, and they kept saying 'You'd better hurry, or she'll die", over and over. That went on for a while until I was frantic. Then I heard Rue calling my name, and started running toward the sound, but instead of finding Rue, it was Prim in the net, and…" Katniss shuddered. "Prim had a spear sticking out of her stomach…and she says, 'You didn't hurry, you're too late.' And the mockingjays started repeating 'You're too late, you're too late,' and then I'm looking at Prim, who is now out of the net and standing in front of me, and I see the blood pouring out from a gaping wound in her stomach. Then the mockingjays take up Snow's voice again, chanting, 'You killed her, you killed her.'" Tears filled Katniss' eyes, and one spilled over and ran down her cheek. "I woke up crying and had to get up and go check on Prim, to make sure she was still safe in her bed. After that, I was afraid to go back to sleep."

Peeta patted her hand, and responded, "Me, too. I got up to paint. It helped." Peeta pulled his jacket closer around him and snugged his head down between his shoulders. "What I wouldn't give for a full night's sleep without any kind of dreams at all."

"That would be wonderful. Do you find you can sleep better during the day than at night?" asked Katniss, sleepily.

"Sometimes. I don't sleep much during the day either, though." Peeta's voice was softer and deeper, and his eyes drifted shut for a few seconds. Then something obvious occurred to him.

"Katniss, I have an idea," he ventured. "We are in your woods, a place you love, the sounds of nature all around us…and I am here to help you feel safer." He tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice. What he was about to ask was a big deal. "Why don't you take a nap right now?" Wondering if she missed his arms around her as much as he missed her head on his chest, he added, "I could hold you if you want."

Katniss stared at him, while she mulled the idea over in her mind. "Peeta," she began, "I told you I didn't want you to think…"

"I won't!" interrupted Peeta. "It's just that I understand what it must be like for you, because it's like that for me, too." Peeta hung his head. "I know how hard it is for your mind to turn off. I know how scary it gets when you're all alone in the dark."

Katniss lowered her eyes, remembering images she would rather forget. "You're right, Peeta, I am so very tired," she admitted wearily. "If I could just get a little sleep free of nightmares…"

"Come on, Katniss. I need it, too." He lay down on his back, his feet near the fire, and held his arm out for her to join him. Her eyes glided over his body with an expression of longing. "Let's try this, please?" he added.

Katniss gave in, scooting down to stretch out next to Peeta. She laid her head on his arm and he pulled her in close to his side. Peeta sighed. Katniss sighed, and then she turned toward Peeta and laid her head on his chest. Perfect! This feels so wonderfully right.

He had imagined this so many times over the last few weeks, mostly in sexual ways, that he began to get aroused. He tried not to think about it and concentrated instead on the things he might say on the Victory Tour. In two minutes, Katniss' even breathing told him she had fallen asleep. Her warm body and the heat from the fire lulled him into a dreamless sleep soon after.

He was awakened by a beam of bright sunlight coming from directly above him. It was mid-day; the fire had burned to ashes. Peeta figured he had slept for about four hours, but he felt more rested than he had in months! He became aware of how Katniss had shifted position, obviously still in a deep sleep. Her arm was hugging Peeta's waist, and her leg was lodged snuggly between his. He was also aware of his erection pressing into her inner thigh. He was so close to the center in between her legs, if he shifted and turned towards her a little, his dick would nestle itself there at her V. It was almost too much for him to bear.

He looked down at her and felt the weight of her head on his chest. There was such comfort in holding her. Oh, Katniss, Katniss….I have to make you mine! I love you so much! Please, love me! I don't think I could ever love anyone else….ever. His heart ached in need.

As he lay there quietly, Peeta began to get worried and embarrassed, because he was maybe the hardest he'd ever been, and Katniss would feel it intimately, the moment she woke up. He had to do something. He didn't want to wake her, so he moved his free hand very slowly toward his crotch, meaning to press on it so his erection would go down. He had to slip his hand under Katniss' thigh, and that didn't help his erection one bit. Heat just radiated from her center. Carefully, Peeta inched his hand farther under the uppermost part of her thigh covering his groin, and was astonished at how big he actually was. He rubbed the length of his fingers over it. God, it feels so good, and aches so bad at the same time! Nevertheless, he began to push down on it with his four fingers, while trying to remember the innocence they had in the cave; what it felt like to hold her without getting aroused. But since he had turned 17, he thought about her sexually all the time. It made his desire to be with her so much stronger. The pressure was working, though, and he was starting to lose his erection.

Then Katniss moved. She snuggled closer, hugged him tighter, and her leg slid up and down between his legs, and her intimate part rubbed across his hand. Once again, Peeta pressed hard with his fingers. It didn't completely go down, but it was no longer as hard as a brick. Just as he started to withdraw his hand from under her thigh, Katniss woke up.

At first she was disoriented, but she must've felt Peeta's hand moving so very close to her privates, and noticed that her leg was over his. She instantly sat up. "What the hell? What were you doing?" she demanded.

"I…I…wasn't doing anything," stuttered Peeta, as he shot up to a sitting position. His face burned from embarrassment.

"You had your hand between my legs! God, Peeta!"

"No! I didn't touch you, I swear! I was touching myself, not you!"

"What? Ewww!" Katniss angrily got to her knees.

Peeta laughed at the absurdity of the situation. "No, it's not what you're thinking!" Peeta cleared his throat. How could he say this without dying from embarrassment, or without making her think he's a pervert? "Uh…Katniss…I woke up and you had your leg on me. You know what I mean? On me?"

Katniss pressed her lips tightly together, and raised her eyebrows. She glanced quickly at Peeta's groin area and back to his eyes. Peeta took that as a yes. "Well, I woke up and…uh…I had a…a…condition."

Katniss had no brothers and he wasn't sure if she would understand that it was an involuntary 'condition'. He plowed ahead anyway, because Katniss was staring at him. "I'm sorry, Katniss, I couldn't help it. I was trying to remedy the situation when you woke up."

Katniss wrinkled her nose and switched her gaze to his crotch.

Peeta covered his face with his hand, and shook his head. Dropping his hand to his side, he tried again. "No, I had to fix it, make it go away, so I was pressing on it…and it was working. I didn't want you to wake up and feel it poking your thigh." Peeta chuckled in a non-humorous way. "Funny, I think that may have been less embarrassing than trying to explain it to you!"

He rose to his knees, turned away from Katniss, and grabbed the water bottle. There wasn't much left. "Need a drink?" he asked Katniss. She shook her head slowly. Peeta wished she'd quit staring at him like that.

He drank the rest of the water and put the empty bottle in his pocket. He stood up and grabbed the upper corner of the thermal blanket. Katniss wordlessly stood up and stepped off the blanket, so Peeta could fold it back up into a little square. She busied herself by throwing dirt on the hot ashes next to them. Then she picked up her bow, slung the arrows over her shoulder, and picked up the stiffened rabbits by their ears.

Peeta casually asked, "Did the nap help, Katniss? Were you able to sleep?" He watched her face light up, and she blessed him with a smile.

"Actually, yes. Thank you." She looked puzzled. "It surprises me that I could, especially with you, but I kept telling myself these are my woods, my woods, not the arena, and all of a sudden I was asleep. It was nice," she continued.

Especially with me? "Have you been avoiding me for that, too? Do I bring back bad memories of the Games?" Peeta frowned.

"Maybe…I don't know." She looked at the ground. "Sometimes in the first moment I see you, I feel like I'm back in the arena. That we're back in the arena. I've been trying to forget all that." Katniss walked away from him, heading back to the fence and the meadow. Peeta hung his head and clenched his jaw.