HORAAAAYYYY! This is to all of my readers who believed in me, and didn't give up on this story even when I had.

oOo

I woke as I normally did—to a nightmare. It was the kind that doesn't seem so scary when you think about it afterwards, but during it, your blood curdles and your heart screams inside your chest. It froze me in place, and when I woke up, every part of me was drenched in sweat and my muscles had seized. Though I couldn't remember the dream perfectly, its feeling was still there, so alive, so real…

Shivering, I wiped my hands down my face and opened my eyes. Gale wasn't in the bed next to me, which was okay. Having to explain my nightmare to him was the last thing I felt like doing. I didn't really care where he was, but not in a malicious way. It just…didn't matter to me that much.

The blankets were tossed off me and I slid my legs off of the bed. The bathroom appeared to be unoccupied, so I grabbed some of my clothes and dragged my frozen body into there to change. Prim was in my mind as I pulled off my pajamas. Her sweet, lovely face melting in terrible poisoned fire. I didn't like lingering on the memory that long, so I just turned my back to the mirror and finished changing.

The nightmare was still fresh in my mind when I went back into the bedroom. Though I didn't mean to, I caught my own eye in the mirror hanging next to the wardrobe. I looked awful, as usual. Circles were under my eyes and my hair was flyaway, a morose sag to my cheeks completing the corpse look. I hated looking at myself, but I couldn't tear my gaze away. Maybe I was getting better. The blue circles were darker a few days ago, weren't they? My shoulders were a little straighter, weren't they? If I waited a little longer, would I get all the way better? A year? Two? Ten? Probably not. Nothing could fill in the empty space the people I loved left.

I was so preoccupied with my own thoughts; it surprised me when Gale's face materialized behind me in the mirror. His eyebrows were slanted sadly as he gazed down at me. I looked back at him. I couldn't help but feel my own eyes sagging with grief, but it was muted with Gale next to me. He was like a campfire in the cold of night, warming the one side of me he was on.

Struggling for more warmth, I leaned back into his chest and closed my eyes, forcing the lump in my throat to go back down. What I didn't see was Gale's eyebrows arch in surprise, but I felt the tiny jump in his chest. He didn't expect me to do that, I knew, but he didn't pull away. Instead, I felt his fingers curl around mine and he leaned his face closer, not quite resting his chin on my shoulder. When I opened my eyes and looked at him, I almost felt content. He looked sweet right there, face so calm and void of harsh emotions or sorrow. My head was turned towards his and I could feel his soft breath on my cheek, but he still kept his eyes closed.

Without really thinking about it, I leaned in the extra few inches and pressed my lips to his. Gale's eyes fluttered open and he blinked at me when I pulled away. There wasn't anything for me to say, though. I turned away sadly and let go of his hands to walk out of the bedroom, leaving his surprised expression behind me.

Breakfast was surprisingly good, even if the atmosphere was less than settling. As we wordlessly ate, I couldn't help but feel Gale look up at me every now and then. Once, I even caught his eyes and he offered me a small smile, which I didn't succeed returning. Feeling heat just barely touch my cheeks, I looked back down at my bacon and poke it, appetite vanishing.

Why does he have to look at me like that when I'm so confused? He treats me like I'm the only one who matters here… How come he lets me be so selfish and mean? How come I am selfish and mean? Why couldn't I act better? He's giving up his life here to spend time with me. The least I could do is be nicer to him. Or at least…not the way I was acting.

I actually made an attempt for the rest of the day. Gale and I walked into town in the morning and had lunch there, like we did before. Every now and then, he'd lean over and grip my hand, but lean back away and go back to whatever he was talking about. I listened, not saying much at all. The words went in one ear and out of the other, though it wasn't intended meanly.

After lunch, Gale claimed he didn't have anything much to do, so we laid in his backyard.

"What do you plan on doing once you go back home?" he asked after a long moment of silence, twisting a bit of grass in his fingers.

I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at him and the curious tilt of his head. "…I don't know."

I really didn't feel like thinking about that, but I was forced to. What would I do? Hunt, definitely. Maybe spend more time with Haymitch. But what kind of life was that? Living but not really living. To be honest, I was almost enjoying myself here. Not exactly enjoying, but at least I had something to do, to get my mind off of things. Gale was my best friend. I loved him, despite everything.

"I'm sorry." His voice brought my eyes back onto his. He looked guilty. "I didn't mean to upset you."

You never do, Gale, I understand. I looked back up at the sky. "It's alright. I just…really don't know."

Gale bit his lip visibly, as if considering whether it was worth saying what he wanted to. "…If you want, my offer still stands."

"What offer?" A feather of confusion marked a crease in between my eyebrows.

"Stay with me," he whispered, rolling onto his side to face me. "I'll take care of you. We can hunt together. I won't force you to be anything other than a friend. I just…" Gale swallowed and bit his lip again. "...I just want to take care of you. It hurts seeing you in so much pain, Katniss. I want to help you. I want to fix you."

A lump formed again in my throat. "I can't be fixed, you know that. I'd be horrible for morale, sulking around all the time."

"That's why I want to help you." Gale propped an elbow underneath him and touched my wrist with a finger. "I still care about you. I won't let you go back home and be alone. At least you have a chance to get better with me."

"I'm sorry." I shook my head, blinking away a sneaky tear in each eye. I slid my fingers around his and gripped his hand, but only because guilt rode my back. "I have to go back home. I don't belong here, but don't worry about me."

His mouth turned down in a sad frown.

"I'll manage alone. I have before."

A long sigh was drawn from Gale's chest and he let go of my hand, not unkindly. "Then come on. Let's fix a dinner and pack it up. I have some place to show you."

Now it was my turn to frown, but in confusion. For a moment I forgot about how sad I was. "Where?"

He smiled a tiny smile, seemingly glad he got me interested, or at least caring about something. Standing up, Gale offered his hand down to me and helped me up. "It wouldn't be a surprise then, would it?"

"Are you alright so far?" Gale asked for the third time this hour.

We were trudging through the forest, side-by-side, dodging branches and holding silence between us to a place where I wasn't so sure, but Gale seemed positive of.

Knocking away a small sapling, I shrugged. "Yeah." Another pregnant pause followed, more awkward than the silence before. "Where is this place?"

"Just up there," he pointed ahead of us. "Maybe another fifty meters or so."

The fifty meters he guessed came a lot faster than I'd thought. We slowed our paces and Gale stepped to shoulder his way into a dense section of undergrowth. After nearly tripping over a tree root, I looked up and let an astonished puff of air leave my lips.

We were in a birch grove. Sunlight twinkled off of the leaves, dancing shapes across the mossy ground and illuminating all the colors. Shades of green up high, milky white from the peeling bark, the bluest of blue shining like stars on the tiny lake to our right. It was so warm and beautiful… I wasn't sure what to do other than stare.

"I go here a lot. The hunting and fishing are good," Gale said, interrupting my stunned reverie. He plucked a leaf from the nearest birch tree and rolled it between two fingers. "Do you like it?"

"It's…incredible." Tearing my eyes away from all of the colors, I gave my friend a look that I put all my honesty into. "Really."

The pride swelling in his chest was visible. "Here," Gale held out his hand and I took it unsurely. "Come see this." He took me gently around the edge of the pond and sat us down on a fallen tree, overgrown with moss and vines.

I followed his pointing finger and saw a tangled mess of branches clumped in between a fork in one of the trees across the lake.

"A bird lives in that nest. It has two eggs." He blinked with a peculiar look on, gazing out across the water. "I didn't have the heart to eat them, since I don't absolutely have to, so I've been watching them."

Though I didn't see any bird nearby, it was easy to believe. Head buzzing mutely, I dropped my eyes from the nest and bent down to peel my shoes off. The water felt cool and still as I slipped my toes into it, and I swished my feet around.

Gale watched me with a fond smile touching his mouth. He copied my actions by taking off his shoes and putting his feet into the water as well.

We sat like that for a while. Animals chattered all around us, rustling the leaves and slipping under tree roots and splashing in the shallow water. The both of us were absolutely silent, absorbing everything. Even I had to admit, I was content for the first time in a long while. It felt like magic, trailing from my toes up to my chest, a sense of ease and comfort. I didn't let Peeta or Prim or Finnick into my thoughts at all; just me and Gale and the sapphire lake nestled in our grove of birch trees. The sun drizzled rays of gold into our hair as it slipped closer and closer to the horizon.

An unfamiliar feeling of fuzziness spread inside my throat. My eyebrows furrowed subconsciously as I glanced over at Gale. He knew that he'd succeeded in softening me; I could tell by the light in his eyes. I did my best to smile at him, but it just wouldn't reach my eyes. It wouldn't even reach my mouth.

Gale caught me off guard by leaning over shyly and kissing me on the forehead.

Slowly, I could feel my smile turn from fake to real. Gale saw, too, because he reached over to pull me into a hug. I couldn't remember the last time I'd really smiled, and it seemed to move something inside of me. Though I didn't know exactly what it was, both Gale and I knew something changed just then.

"Still thinking about leaving me?" he whispered, moving a small piece of hair from in front of my ear.

The smile left as quick as it came. I caught my lower lip between my teeth and made a face, pulling away from his arms. "…I don't know, Gale."

"You say you're unfixable, but I saw that." Gale looked triumphant, despite my hesitant answer. "I saw that smile. Don't pretend it wasn't there."

I furrowed my brows and looked away. From in the purple of the sky, I could see a tiny star. "Just because… That doesn't really change everything. I don't even know why…"

"Does it matter why?"

From the corner of my eye, I could see him stand up from the log beside me and stretch out on the ground. I carefully scooted over to the other end and peered down, eyebrows still creased uncertainly. He motioned for me to come down as well, so I did, carefully laying my head down on the moss next to him.

Neither of us said anything for a while. We watched the evening stars rise with the moon, and let all the daylight be sapped from the trees so as where the only things we could see save the lights in the sky were our own silhouettes and the reflections in the lake. It was quiet, mostly. Cicadas hummed softly in the trees and fireflies blinked tantalizingly between trees, but all of the animals were settled down and asleep.

I wasn't sure how long it had been—perhaps an hour, I wasn't certain—but I felt sleepiness creep up on me. It was only until I was on the verge of unconsciousness when I realized how tired I was. Letting out a drowsy sigh, I flopped my head over onto Gale's shoulder, and before I even heard what he had to say, I was asleep.

oOo