This extra long chapter makes up for my no update tomorrow! I'll probably update a few more times today, I've got nowhere to be and nothing to do!

When I wake, Peeta is slowly sliding me off his chest so he can get up. I notice that it is the middle of the night.

"Oh," he says when he sees I've woken up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

I shake my head. "Where're you going?"

"I really have to use the bathroom," he says.

I laugh. "Go back to sleep, it's two in the morning," he says. "I'll be out in a moment."

I watch him walk to the bathroom. His pajama bottoms are incredibly low; so low, in fact, that I can see at least two inches of his boxers. I notice how toned and tan his back is. He turns to me as he enters the bathroom. "Were you checking me out?" he laughs.

"Absolutely," I say. He doesn't even bother to close the door behind him. I hear the toilet flush and I hear him turn the faucet on to wash his hands. Then he comes strutting out of the bathroom, obviously pretending to be a model. I don't fail to notice, though, how toned he is in the front, too.

"How was that?" he laughs, lying down next to me and pulling the covers up around both of us.

"You should be a male model," I laugh.

"You think so?" he asks in mock excitement. He situates his arm around my waist, kisses my forehead, and closes his eyes. "Good night, Katniss."

"Night, Peeta," I say.

"I love you, baby," he says, giving me a squeeze.

"I love you, too," I say, and we drift back to sleep.

Training for the interviews was insufferable. Effie managed to make both Peeta and I feel like dirt at least three times and she mentioned almost every sentence how filthy we were to each other the night before. "We were under a blanket, Effie, you couldn't see anything," Peeta kept insisting, but Effie just brushed him off. By the time the four hours were up, Effie told us that we just needed to pretend we knew what we were doing because it was so completely obvious that we had no idea. Haymitch's was not worse, but it wasn't much better. Peeta was taking the 'I'm really friendly' angle. I, however, am not really friendly. Nor am I sexy, aggressive, humble, arrogant, or basically any other angle Haymitch made me try out. I wasn't comedic, I wasn't dramatic, I wasn't intense. I was just . . . kind of rude, as Haymitch would put it.

"Can't she just be herself?" Peeta asked about three hours into the session.

"She has the personality of a kumquat," snapped Haymitch. "A rude kumquat."

By the time it was over, Haymitch just told me to play the 'girl who is hopelessly in love' card. We all knew that was my best chance at securing us more sponsors. It wasn't going to go great, but it would go better than acting sexy or arrogant.

Cinna and Portia arrive and they take Peeta and me to be dressed. While my prep team is working on my hair, Cinna is putting the finishing touches on my dress. They do my makeup and Cinna tells me that Peeta and I will be coordinated in how we're dressing and that we're to be extremely affectionate throughout the entire night.

"I figured you would be anyway, because of what you're doing in front of cameras in your bedroom, but I just want to make sure you know," he says. "Tonight is a big night for sponsors. People are having a hard time choosing between you and Peeta or Cato and Clove. Make them pick you."

The dress he puts me in is absolutely amazing; it literally gives off the illusion that I'm on fire every time I move. "You look brilliant," Cinna says. My hair is up and my face has only enough makeup to make me look prettier than I actually am. "Absolutely on fire." I laugh at his joke. Portia comes to tell Cinna that we have to leave in five minutes. Cinna fixes a stray strand of my hair and motions for me to leave the room. I walk down the hallway and see Effie, Haymitch, Portia, and Peeta standing around talking. Peeta, who is in midsentence when he sees me, stumbles over his words and stops. "You look . . . amazing," he says. I blush. Peeta is wearing an all black suit with red lining, which matches my red dress perfectly. His hair is slicked back like it was the day of the Reaping.

"We have to go!" Effie says. "We cannot be late!" She shuttles us all out of the room and we enter the elevator. I grab Peeta's hands as we're walking.

"You do too," I whisper in his ear. He smiles and gives my hand a reassuring squeeze.

When we arrive, all the Districts are lined up. We aren't the last to arrive, but Effie is still displeased. We aren't in the first half to arrive, which automatically means we're late.

"Don't mess up," Haymitch says to us before they leave.

"Well, that was sweet," laughed Peeta. He looks me up and down again. "You look absolutely fantastic. I mean, thank God Portia put me in really, really tight underwear, or else –"

"Peeta, honestly," I laugh, burying my head on his shoulder in embarrassment.

"It's not my fault just the look of you gets me going," he murmurs in my ear. "That the look of you makes me want you, so, so much." I try to shush him but he ignores me. "Tonight. I want to make love to you tonight."

"Peeta, please," I say. "We cannot have this conversation right here."

"Just tell me if you want to or not," Peeta says. "Please. We're going into the arena tomorrow. If we're going to die in there, I want to know what it's like. And if we're going to live through it, I want to make that commitment to you."

"What commitment?" I ask.

"That if we make love," he says, his voice tight and pinched, "And we survive, I will make love to no other woman but you. That if we survive, I will ask for your hand in marriage. That if we survive, I'm committing myself to you for the rest of my life."

"I want to," I say. "And I want to make that commitment to you, too."

He nods his head, understanding. "So tonight, then," he says.

"Tonight," I reply.

We're told to walk onstage. All the tributes are sitting in chairs in an arc behind Caesar and whoever's being interviewed. Peeta and I scoot our chairs as close together as possible and hold hands the entire time. The tributes of District 1, I discover, have been best friends since they were very little and they plan on making it out alive and being best friends until they die of old age. The District 2 tributes believe they'll make it out because they're brutal and vicious. Districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 don't make very good impressions on the crowd, I can tell. District 11's tributes, Rue and Thresh, are very brother-sister with each other. Thresh is determined to get Rue out because it's so completely unfair that she's only twelve. And then I hear Caesar say, "And now we have our incredibly popular lovers from District 12, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!"

Peeta and I stand and we walk over to Caesar. I'm squeezing his hand so hard that when he has to let go to shake Caesar's hand, he almost imperceptibly gives it a little shake. I hold back my laugh. I shake Caesar's hand as well and he motions for us to sit. Once we're situated, Peeta grabs my hand again.

"So," Caesar says. "For the two of you, things seem to be well."

"As well as they can be, considering the circumstances," Peeta laughs. "But these past few days have been some of the best in my life."

"We could tell," Caesar jokes, and we laugh. "Now, the two of you are incredibly comfortable with each other. How long have you been dating?"

Oh, shit, I think. We never really determined a time where we started 'dating.'

"It's been about a year and a half," Peeta says nonchalantly. How is he keeping his cool so well? "But I've liked her for as long as I can remember."

"A year and a half," Caesar marvels. "That's amazing! You're a beautiful couple, did you know that? You just look so ideal!" We laugh. "Now, Katniss," Caesar says, turning to me. "You looked incredibly surprised when Peeta kissed you on the night of the parade. What was going through your mind?"

I smile. "Well," I say. "I was kind of confused." The crowd laughs.

"Katniss's mother isn't exactly happy about our relationship," Peeta says. "She thinks Katniss is too young for a boyfriend."

"But she loves Peeta," I hear myself saying. "It's hard not to love Peeta, honestly." The crowd gives a communal 'awwww.' "Well, look at him!" I say. I can't believe I'm saying all this. Where is it coming from?

"Oh, c'mon," Peeta says. "Look at me? Look at her! She's on fire!" The crowd laughs.

"Yes, the fire!" Caesar says. "That was spectacular, my heart literally stopped!"

"I brought it with me tonight, too," I say. "Would you like to see?"

"Of course," Caesar says enthusiastically. Peeta and I stand and he twirls me. The dress gives off the illusion that I am in a circle of fire. Peeta puts a hand on my waist to steady me and we sit back down. "That was breathtaking!" Caesar nearly shouts.

"She is pretty breathtaking," Peeta says, looking at me. I blush and look down at my feet.

"Now, Peeta, back to your kiss in the parade," he says. "What was your motivation for that?"

Peeta looks down to the ground. "Well . . . do you think our friends here can keep a secret, Caesar?"

"Well, I don't doubt it for a second," laughs Caesar.

"I suppose you would all find out anyway," Peeta says. "But . . . back in District 12, about a month ago, Katniss and I . . . well, we made a mistake. And she found out, right before the parade, that our little mistake had resulted in a . . . in a baby."

The crowd gasps in surprise. "So you're telling me that Katniss is pregnant?" Caesar asks. I hide my face by laying it on Peeta's shoulder. I don't want to reveal that he's lying by the look of utter confusion on my face.

Peeta nods solemnly. "I'd already decided that I was going to try and get her out of there alive, but that's when I knew that I wasn't going to try, I was going to succeed. And now both of us are going to get out alive because nobody's heartless enough to murder a pregnant woman." Peeta lets go of me hand and pats my knee, like he's trying to comfort me, and kisses my forehead.

"Anything to add, Katniss?" Caesar asks.

I shake my head. "Just that this was a very bad way for my mother to find out." The crowd laughs and then Caesar announces our time is up. "I can certainly say that my heart is with you," he says and we walk back to our seats. Caesar talks a bit more and the whole time, Peeta and I sit as close together as possible, our foreheads pressed together and we're whispering about nothing in particular, but everyone thinks he's probably trying to comfort me because of the 'baby.' He even kisses me a couple times, just for good measure. And finally, the cameras turn off and we're taken backstage to Effie, Haymitch, Portia, and Cinna.

"That was amazing!" Effie says. "So emotional, so real, so raw . . . the best interview I've ever seen!"

"Fantastic job, Peeta," Haymitch says. "And Katniss, your reaction was golden!"

"Wait, this was planned?" I say. "And nobody told me?"

"You would've ruined it, sweetheart," Haymitch says.

I look to Peeta, feeling completely betrayed. He just hugs me and whispers in my ear, "Once we're upstairs, go right to your room."