A/N: Hi guys, sorry it's been so terribly long since I updated but I'm pretty stumped when it comes to writing these days. This is a fairly short oneshot, and I'm sorry about that. I wrote it because I was sick of not writing. Ideas/requests would be wonderful! Thank you.

-Joy

So breathe in so deep

Breathe me in, I'm yours to keep

And hold on to your words 'cause talk is cheap

And remember me tonight when you're asleep

Because tonight will be the night

That I will fall for you over again

Don't make me change my mind

Fall For You – Secondhand Serenade

The fire cackled in the hearth and the warm sound brought Katniss back from her thoughts. She often faded in and out of reality. Unraveling memories and fighting the ones that often brought the tears back to her eyes. For months, she hated fire. She hated the sound of it. The way it engulfed the logs to ash, and it reminded her too much of her sister. But she soon came to enjoy its calming sound after nights of insistence from Peeta that her house was too cold.

He looked after her. Made sure she ate and tended to the fire in the main room. Kept his distance, but even his distanced presence gave her a sense of security that she hadn't felt in months. She didn't ask about the hijacking. But she noticed that the deranged boy she saw in District 13 was not the boy who was caring for her now. Her Peeta's eyes were as blue as the sky itself and were not clouded with anger.

Silence became a third wheel to the relationship that they had created since the rebellion. Silence followed them everywhere.

She kept silent as the couch dipped at her side, and his warmth pulled her toward him, but she resisted.

When she often was left alone in her thoughts, she thought back to the urgency she felt when his lips met hers. She thought about those kisses that made her question her resolve. How she felt so much warmth throughout her body when he drew her to him. The way his arms fit perfectly around her waist. She wondered if he ever thought about it. If he loved her at all.

But everything was different now. They were fire mutts who had no family. Who were broken beyond repair and went to sleep knowing the second they closed their eyes they would be met with the same nightmares that had haunted them since they stepped out of that wretched arena. And Katniss would still awake from her nightmares, screaming, and instantly searching for Peeta's warmth, only to find the cold sheets.

She often wondered why she wasn't dead. What miraculously being brought her back to her home. But she wasn't home. She was brought to the same house that showed her the ghosts of two girls laughing. Blonde braids flailing around the smaller girl's shoulders and the taller, older girl laughing behind her as she chased her up the stairs. But when Katniss reached for the memory, it dissolved before her touch could reach it and she was left with a hollow pain in her chest.

Because Prim was all over that house. Prim was baking in the kitchen and Prim was sitting by the fire place. Prim was playing in the garden and Prim was doing her homework in the study.

Prim.

She was everywhere and Katniss could not fight her memory.

"Katniss?" She was brought out of her stupor by Peeta's warm hand on her shoulder. She turned her head in his direction and followed the stubble around his jaw to his eyes. How the fire reflected in them. How blue they were, it made her heart ache. Because those eyes had seen so much. They had seen so much death and pain and she instantly wanted take it all away but she didn't know how, so she nodded her head instead.

"Do you want to go on a walk? It'll be good for you to get some fresh air." She instantly perked up. Because the outside world was her escape, her haven.

"Okay." She whispered. Peeta smiled.

As soon as she met the fresh air, she felt better. Her thoughts cleared and she followed Peeta down the steps.

They didn't talk about the past much. They barely touched but as they walked down the winding road, her hands brushed his and she silently smiled. She wondered a lot what was going through Peeta's mind. How one who went through so much could smile. Could not only take care of himself but another human being. She wondered why he was even here with her. He could have stayed in the Capitol. Anywhere but coming back to poor District 12. But he did come back. He came home to her, for some reason Katniss could never understand.

She never could figure out what Peeta was thinking. He wore a mask that she couldn't reveal. He never talked about his nightmares, and she knew he still had them because how could they ever disappear? He just kept her company during the day and then excused himself at sunset.

His curls were as bright as ever and she smiled at that. The past peeked through sometimes, and she enjoyed it. He was still boyish and it brought her comfort.

But she missed the Peeta Mellark she used to know. And she wondered if he would ever show up again. The boy who smiled at everyone, even when they didn't give him a smile in return. The boy who didn't leave her alone to fight the demons in the dark all by herself. The boy who sacrificed everything for a girl he wasn't sure loved him at all.

Before she even realized, their steps had brought them to the meadow as the sun dipped into horizon. Oranges, yellows, and purples all mixing together to create a masterpiece that too quickly would disappear.

"It's beautiful tonight," Katniss heard Peeta say just above a whisper. She nodded in his direction and noted on how the sunset illuminated his crown of yellow hair and reflected in those blue eyes she wanted so badly to melt in to.

"Yeah, it is." Katniss confirmed. Watching the swirling colors fade into the sky.

"I missed the sunsets here. I could never see them in the Capitol." Peeta said his voice soft and far off, like he wasn't talking to anyone particular. Katniss suddenly felt bad for him, knowing that his time in recovery was probably anything but good.

"Do you still paint?" Katniss asked, clearer than all the others time she spoke to him. He turned his neck slightly and nodded slowly.

"Sometimes." He replied. Katniss didn't press, knowing he painted what he saw in his mind and his mind was a clouded, dark place. Full of terrors that filled her own mind.

Conversation was good. Conversation was what Dr. Aurelius wanted Katniss and Peeta to do. They both had questions that the other had the key to. Katniss knew that almost every question Peeta had swirling around in his confused mind, she had the answer to. He focused on details, he always had. The tiniest things most people would shrug off, Peeta wanted to know. Katniss remembered the day when they had guns strapped across their chests, killing time as Peeta asked his questions.

Katniss snapped herself out of her thoughts and focused on the sound of the fall wind rustling through the bare trees, and noticed she was shivering along with the breeze. Peeta took notice to this and began to shrug off his coat. He draped the coat over her shoulders and moved in front of her to fasten the button around her neck. Katniss smiled slightly as his bangs fell into his eyes and Peeta moved his head a slight amount. Nagging, in the back of her mind, Katniss saw this scene somewhere else, she knew. Her fogged memory brought up the image of two teenagers on a rooftop and she instantly remembered the night when Peeta lead her to the rooftop before their first Games. She got cold, and he gave her his coat.

Peeta began to draw away, the button fastened, his job complete, but Katniss caught his hand. She didn't know where such a bold movement came from, but she went with it. She searched his eyes carefully and only found the same blue eyes she had known a year ago. Yes, he was confused and disordered, but he was Peeta.

"Kiss me." Katniss's voice wavered, and her eyes found the ground. "Please." She brought her glance back up to his as many emotions fell over his features. Many she couldn't read. But she knew she felt like a coward as the seconds ticked by.

She was two seconds away from releasing his hand and apologizing when his lips met hers. It was a soft and delicate kiss. Peeta's hands rested on Katniss's waist and her arms found their way wrapped around his neck. She realized just how much she had missed him. Just how much this boy meant to her, how thankful she was that he was actually alive.

She had just missed him. Katniss had always missed him. From the second his footsteps were heard disturbing the gravel next to the train tracks when he found out how confused she was, to the last day she had seen him.

Her insides began to scream both for the lack of oxygen and the fact she finally felt something. Something besides her screams trapped in her throat. Besides the drawstring on her bow snapping her when she couldn't focus. She was finally feeling something good. And she didn't want it to end.

Peeta was the first to break away, his forehead leaning on hers. She closed her eyes, willing the moment not to end. Begging fate to let this one moment of serenity to last for ages. Hadn't she given up enough to be granted just one moment?

Peeta shifted on his feet and these movements made Katniss open her eyes and look in to his. She smiled when she found his smile mirroring her own.

"I missed you." Katniss whispered.

Peeta offered her a small smile. "I missed you, too."