The next time I wake up again, the sun is shining brightly in the sky. The bed feels empty though so I throw the sheets off and find that Peeta's gone; my heart sinks. Sighing, I climb out of bed and change clothes. My ankle feels a bit better and I can walk, well limp because I can't put much pressure on my left leg. Then I brush my teeth and wash my face. When I look up, I see my hair is so messy it seems birds have made a nest in it. Grabbing the comb, I try and run it through strips of hair smoothly. It doesn't work so I end up washing it because it reeks of sweat anyway. Drying it a bit, I walk downstairs and see Peeta has laid a loaf of bread on the table already.

"Good morning." I yawn.

"Morning sunshine," replies Peeta, "actually, you're brighter than the sun." He walks over and plants a kiss on my lips. Greasy Sae walks in and she smiles.

"Should I leave?" she asks. We shake our heads quickly. But that doesn't stop her from smirking a bit. When she does, I blush a bright crimson which makes her laugh. "Okay then. I saved the squirrel for tonight. Do you think you can shoot a rabbit?" She nods at my bandage left ankle and I shake my head apologising. "Don't apologise! Tonight's stew will be great." With that, she starts cleaning the house. I sit down and Peeta cuts a slice of bread for me, placing it on my plate.

"It's fresh." When he says this, I bury my face in it taking in the warmness and cinnamon making him chuckle.

"What?" I shoot him a look and he raises his arms dropping the knife.

"Woah. It's just that I've never seen someone do that before. I don't what it's like to be 'excited' to see fresh bread because I've been living in a bakery for my whole life." He tells me simply and lowers his arms to slice some bread for himself. We have a nice breakfast, making small talk. He asks me what I want to do and I reply simply saying that my ankle should heal before I do anything needing a lot of physical strength, like hunting. He agrees. When we're done, he washes the plates. At first, I try to help but he pushes me back down on the seat.

"I can handle that you know." I say wishing he wouldn't prevent me from doing anything.

"You should rest for a while before you start standing or walking for long periods of time." He replies. "Rest on the couch." Even though I'm kind of annoyed at him, I do as he says because it's probably true. Moving aside come cushions, I lie on the couch with my left foot propped up on a small pillow. Peeta comes over shortly.

"You don't have to babysit me. I'm fine." I tell him when I see his worried face trying to laugh it off. But he doesn't find this funny. Not at all.

"It's not funny Katniss. I hurt you badly." His words make me sigh. Maybe it was his fault but I wasn't angry at him. The only person I was furious at was President Snow. He made Peeta like this. Thinking of him just made me clench my fists.

"It's not your fault Peeta."

He just shakes his head, "Don't you understand?"

"No."

"I don't know why you let me stand this close to you anyway." He mutters, I'm not sure if it was supposed to be for himself because it was quiet, but still loud enough so I could hear it.

"It's not your fault." I repeat angrily. Why couldn't he just forget it? I already forgave him and I was absolutely fine. A few bruises, a scar and a sprained ankle. It wasn't that bad and it hardly hurt.

"Katniss, stop it." He sort of yells at me.

"No. You stop it Peeta. I'm okay!" I yell at him, a lot louder than he did. He touches my ankle and I let out a strangled cry of pain.

"See?" He thinks for a while before making his mind up, "I'm going to try and keep my distance from you." Then he picks up his things and casually strolls out the front door. I have to bite my lip real hard to stop the tears escaping. But they do anyway. Peeta just left me and I had never felt so lonely. Not even when he was in the Capitol. I knew why the pain in my chest feels worse than before, because we had just grown closer before his mind just had to go off and we were separated again. He was still here in District 12, but he wasn't with me. Even though he lives next door, he's left me.

Later, I hear Greasy Sae put my lunch down on the table before leaving as well. It smells delicious but I have no appetite and it'll stay the same until he comes back. The phone starts ringing so I carefully limp over and answer.

"Hello, it's Katniss." I croak and my mother's voice responds.

"Katniss," she tries to sound cheerful but it's not working, "I just wanted to see how you were going." My hand slams the phone down and I bury my head into them, bawling my eyes out. The phone rings again and I just ignore it, not wanting to talk to my mother. A short message plays and it's not my mother, it's Peeta.

"Eat you lunch. You can't starve yourself." Then it stops.

My feet kick the telephone off the table and I start screaming. I'm pretty I've gone mad and I don't care. My throat starts to hurt, but I don't stop, I just keep screaming my lungs out until a hand clamps over my mouth.

"SHUT UP SWEETHEART!"

My head whips around and sees Haymitch. He retrieves his hand when he's sure I'm not screaming anymore.

"Are you mad or something?" He shouts at me. My voice box doesn't let me answer, that's when I realise I've probably lost my voice so I nod at him. His palm makes contact with my face and it does sting but it's nothing compared to the growing pain in my chest. "What the hell are you thinking?" Then he adds something with a smirk knowing it will annoy me, "Mockingjay." My hand doesn't have enough energy to slap him back so I sit there and give him a death glare. This goes for a few minutes before my voice decides to come back.

"Peeta won't talk to me." I say making him sigh.

"Did he have an episode?" He doesn't let me answer because he figures it out first, "It's hard on him."

"I forgave him." I spit. Haymitch always tried to sound so smart when he actually wasn't making me the stupid one.

"Well, what you would say if you injured someone you loved badly?" He hisses back at me. My mind tries to conjure up a good comeback, but nothing comes out so Haymitch continues, "You would feel the same. Why not understand him for once?" I open my mouth up to speak but he doesn't let me talk. "Try reading these first." He stands up and shoves a bunch of letters into my arms. Then he leaves, slamming the door.

All the letters are from the same person. I don't need to open the letters to find out, I can tell by the handwriting on the envelope. Before reading the letters, I spend 15 minutes sorting them out from oldest to newest using the dates written at the corner of each envelope, then I gently open the first one.

Dear Katniss,

Dr Aurelius says that writing letters will help my therapy. I started writing to Annie and Johanna but they both said that writing to them wouldn't really help as much as writing to you. That's why you are reading this letter now.

I just wanted to tell you how much I miss you and how I look forward to coming home. Are the houses being rebuilt in the Seam and in town? I want to start the bakery again. I want to see Delly and her bubbly personality again. I want to see how Haymitch is doing. I want to know all the things that you've been doing while I've been gone and everything that's been happening outside the four walls I'm trapped in. Most importantly, I want to make sure you're okay. Dr Aurelius says I can go home in a few months or maybe even weeks. It depends on how quickly I recover.

Until next time,
Peeta

After finishing reading the first letter, I don't think I can get through another 10 or 15 because they make me feel so guilty. He wrote all these letters that ended up in the corner, invisible to my miserable life. Maybe I was his only hope. When I didn't write back, I'm sure the hope turned into dust, slowly fading away. No. There had to be some hope left. Otherwise he wouldn't have come back. Pushing my confused thoughts away, I pick up the next letter.

Dear Katniss,

I was quite disappointed when you didn't write back. I asked the nurses every day to see if a letter came from you. Every one of them shook their heads. I'm starting to get worried. Are you okay?

This was just a short letter. Please write back, I'll be waiting.

Waiting for your reply,
Peeta

A sole tear rolls down my cheek and onto the letter. Each time I didn't write back, he was getting more worried. I'm really starting to hate myself now. If only I had worked up the courage to read these letters and reply. If only I hadn't been living my life on the couch completely dead to the world. If only I had been Peeta who was suffering a worse situation then me but was still hopeful. I spend the rest of day reading his letters. My eyes are red and puffy by the time I get to the last one which I shakily open.

Dear Katniss,

This is the last letter I'm writing to you because I'm coming home in 3 days. You have no idea how excited I am. I'm going to see you soon.

You haven't written back to any of my letters. But I have enjoyed writing to you. I kept writing to Johanna and Annie just to keep myself busy. I also started writing to Beetee and Delly. She really misses District 12. She'll be going back though, once her house has finished building. Anyway, you'll see me soon, Katniss.

Yours sincerely,
Peeta

Greasy Sae doesn't come around to make dinner and I assume the squirrel stew will have to wait until tomorrow. At the table, I force my cold lunch down my throat and have gotten halfway through it before I rush over to the sink and it comes out again. The smell is putrid so I turn on the tap, washing it down the drain. I wander over to the couch and watch the fire till I fall asleep wishing Peeta's arms were around me to stop the nightmares.