Working Out

by shellbell0944

Peeta tells Katniss and Haymitch that they need to become Careers to get ready for the third Quarter Quell, but training can be comical...right? These are their final months in District 12 before the Quell. It's full of humorous workouts and sweet final moments with Gale specifically, Haymitch, Prim, Katniss' mother, Madge, and even Peeta.

10. Cornucopia

Chapter 9: Cornucopia

AN: A big thank you to my reviewers: no-oneimportant, Jerry Side, Pinklove21, ShortySC22, Ms. Random, moonlight goose, To be a rebel, Celtic Angel18, charliesunshine, Ellenka, and clara0414. It's very encouraging to see continual reviews. A big thank you also to the ones who just started reading and reviewed as you went, as well as those who put this on alert or favorited the story. All of your reviews were incredibly kind, but Ellenka, as always my dear, you stole my heart with yours :D I'd happily be your couch haha!

Big, big thank you to Pinklove21 again for her wonderful plot for Chaff's Games. I was fresh out of ideas and she gave me a ton. Thank you! I hope you like how it turned out :)

Italics are for dreams, inner monologues, or Galeniss telepathy ;) Anything you recognize is from Suzanne Collins. This chapter contains the only (I kid you not) quotes from this part of CF. I hope I did the conversation justice, and I hope you enjoy!

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Workout Day 52, Sunday:

The reaping is exactly one month away from today.

The reality of the approaching deadline is starting to hit me. Even my subconscious doesn't let up. My dreams last night we're about the reaping, which is strange because usually they take place in an arena…but there I was up on the stage by the Justice Building, reaped for the Quell. The stage floor gave way and I fell into complete darkness. For minutes, maybe hours I fell. At least it felt like it. I woke up before I hit anything, but it took me a minute to catch my breath and untangle myself from the covers.

Now as I stare at myself in the mirror in my room I wonder what exactly awaits me in a month. Will Cinna and Portia make Peeta and I stand out again at the parade? Will I get a high or low training score? What will Peeta get? Will the arena help or hinder us? Will we get any sponsors? There are so many unanswered questions, but all I can do right now is prepare to my fullest, so I go downstairs and begin our daily routine for the 52nd day in a row. In 31 days there won't be any more secretive training and we'll have to be ready.

With the fact that Gale isn't joining us today, coupled with my anxiety over the reaping, it's no surprise that I'm in an awful mood. All morning I'm moving slower and making snide remarks to anyone who speaks to me. Breakfast drags on, and I don't even feel like asking Peeta what we'll be doing today, since we probably won't be practicing our snares anymore.

"Prim?" Haymitch whispers after Peeta takes his plate into the kitchen. She goes over to Haymitch, and he whispers in her ear. I can't make out anything he's saying, but my little duck scrunches her face after he stops talking and she looks over at me hesitantly.

"Haymitch...what did you say to her?" my eyes warn him. Prim shakes her head in response to him and scurries off to the kitchen. I follow her.

"Prim, what did Haymitch say?" I ask.

Her eyes dart away like she feels guilty for even being part of the conversation.

"It's okay. I'm not going to get mad at you," I tell her. I have a feeling I'll get mad at Haymitch though…

She speaks so quietly at first I can barely hear her. "He asked me to do something for him…that's all!" she cries out suddenly. I can tell she thinks she's going to get in trouble.

"What did he ask you to do?" I ask calmly. I look back at the dining room table to question Haymitch, but he's already outside. Little sneak.

"He asked me to get him…some alcohol," she replies cautiously with bugged out eyes.

"He did what?!" I yell. I see Prim take a quick breath and grit her teeth. She knew how I'd react, but I'm not mad at her. Unfortunately, I'm too angry with Haymitch to reassure her of that before I fly out the door to go after him. To my surprise he's not anywhere in sight. But Peeta is, and he looks worried when he sees how upset I am.

"Where. Is. He?" I ask Peeta while scanning the area for Haymitch.

"He left for the meadow already," Peeta says. "He didn't want to wait for you, but I-"

I cut him off. "Come on!" I say to him, grab his hand, and sprint to the meadow. I'm nearly dragging Peeta after a while. He can't go as fast as I can on a straight path, especially when I'm angry.

When we get to the meadow I run at Haymitch. "How could you ask her to buy you alcohol?" I snap.

"I just asked if she had any on hand," he says.

"She's too young to buy that!"

"Ah, she'd be fine."

"If you ever-"

"Quiet!" Peeta interjects, stepping in between Haymitch and I. "This isn't doing us any good." He turns to Haymitch, "Now you won't ever ask Prim to get you alcohol ever again, will you?"

Haymitch sighs but nods his head. Peeta continues, "And you," he turns around to face me, "should be running by now," he says with raised eyebrows. The unforeseen switch to workout mode throws me off, but he puts on a scowl, which I've come to know as Peeta's get-to-business face, so I sigh and start jogging. Is it good or bad that Haymitch and I are rubbing off on him?

I look around the meadow, which is still torn up from the mud sliding last week, and depression sets in that Gale isn't coming today. No smiles from his handsome face. No laughter to break up the silence. No brushes from his fingers as he teaches me the snares. How can we have trap day without a trapper? How is it that the Capitol can take away my day of happiness when they're already taking my life?

None of us talk during our warm up jog, or afterwards when we stretch out. As much as Haymitch gripes and Peeta frets about snares, I think we all have come to enjoy trap day. After we stretch we don't really know what to do with ourselves today so Peeta instructs us to keep running. We run at least a couple miles, maybe three, and are sweating in the heat of the summer sun by the time we take a break for water.

I walk around the trunk of the tree to get to my water and run smack into Gale, who is holding my water bottle. I inhale quickly in complete confusion and delight.

He smiles big, whips me into his arms, and spins me around once. "You didn't think I'd miss trap day, did you?" he says happily.

"I hoped not, but how? How did you get off? I thought you said you had to work seven days a week now?"

He scratches the back of his head. "I still do, but I worked out a deal."

I raise my eyebrows and then shake my head in confusion. "A deal?"

He purses his lips. "Yes. I work one extra hour each day and a half day on Sunday."

Ohhh...he's a smart one. Yikes, 13 hours each day and then 6 hours on the day he used to have off. That's a taxing schedule. "So, you already finished your shift today?" I ask hopefully.

He gives me a big smile. "Yep. We start at 5:00 a.m., so I just got done."

"Oh, so that explains why you're a dirt ball today," I tease.

"Dirt ball?" he asks feigning to be hurt by the insult. "Maybe, I should be mad at that. Or maybe I should be mad at your little idea last night..."

I gulp. I knew it would be coming, I just thought he might have a few days to cool off before we had this conversation.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I'm going for innocent.

"Catnip, how many times do I have to tell you I don't need your help providing for my family, and I certainly don't want any contributions from Capitol gain?" His tone gets harsher as the question gets longer.

"What are you implying?" I ask, suddenly heated that he would suggest I'm using dirty money.

"Oh, don't tell me you feel good about taking that money, Katniss." And we're back to where we always go to...

I exhale in frustration. "I use that money to provide for my family. How is that wrong? I'm not using it for bad things."

"Any way it is used is bad. It shouldn't even be used," he says.

"That's ridiculous!" I throw my hands in the air. "It's just going to sit there and go to waste if I don't. Besides, your paycheck comes from Capitol money too."

"It comes from the District," he insists.

"The Capitol is where the District gets its' money!" I say angrily. "We sell coal to the Capitol. The Capitol pays the District, which pays you."

"It's not the same," he says simply.

He's really got me ticked now. "Well maybe you shouldn't eat any of our food then! I wouldn't want to poison you with delicious food bought with 'Capitol gain.'"

"Fine!" he exclaims. "I won't."

Then it hits me. I just dropped him out of our dinner party in my stupid anger. Why does he have to get under my skin like that? "I didn't mean that."

"No, you have a good point," he says.

"No, Gale," I tug on his arm to prove I didn't mean it.

"Shut up...both of you," Haymitch interjects suddenly.

We turn our heads to him and see that he and Peeta are watching with annoyed expressions.

"Haven't we had enough lover's spats for a lifetime?" Haymitch asks quietly while walking towards Gale's snare box.

I see Haymitch take Gale aside. I wonder if they're talking about the mine again, or if it's something new? Peeta watches the conversation too and his ears pick up something that mine don't since he's closer to them and he queries Haymitch, "Do you want to go to the stocks?"

Haymitch snickers but drops the subject and heads over to the tree to get a swig of water, while Gale makes his way to my side shaking his head with a smirk. He settles on teaching us how to make a baited hole noose and we set to work digging our individual holes and learning how to tie a noose properly. I'm not very good at knots so Gale has to show me how to make it more than a few times. In the middle of the final tutorial he loops my hands together with the noose and tightens it up. "That's one more for me," he calls to Peeta with a smug smile. I shake my head and laugh. When will they give this up?

After that he walks over to Haymitch. "Hey, I heard that you're not a fan of squirrels," Gale says to him. Haymitch turns to me and gives me a mean scowl to which I smile back at. "Want to learn a trap to catch them?" Gale asks.

Haymitch raises his eyebrows in interest. Gale might have finally found a snare to interest Haymitch with. "Sure, kid," Haymitch says.

Gale shows him how to make a squirrel pole, and Haymitch goes to work securing it to our tree in the meadow. I think he's excited to see if he can catch a squirrel or two with it, though I'm still unsure why he dislikes them so much.

We break for lunch when Madge comes by with her father's newspaper and read it leisurely in the sun until we've soaked up every last word, then we hand it back to Madge so her father doesn't sense that too many of them are going missing. After she leaves Gale tests our snares and finds that mine is the only one that is working properly. I smile with pride but Peeta just sits back down in frustration to start practicing again.

I notice Haymitch sneaking closer to my snare to mimic my movements so I pick up my materials and walk away from him. I dig myself a new hole and set myself a brand new trap, which Gale tests. It works just as well as the last one I made, which he praises me for. Peeta and Haymitch on the other hand take a few more snare attempts to achieve a functional snare. The sun starts to dip below the trees a little while later so we start grabbing our materials to place them back in the snare box.

On my way over to the box I forget to watch my feet and land on the edge of one of the snare holes we just dug. I try to balance myself so I don't fall in, but I overcorrect and fall deeper into the hole. "Ow!" I yelp when I feel a pain seize my ankle. I step out of the hole and walk on it tenderly.

"Is that the one you broke?" Peeta asks. I nod as I try to keep walking off the pain.

I only manage a few small steps though, because Gale picks me up and carries me away from the meadow to go home to my mom and Prim. My legs dangle off to the side, near where Peeta is walking. He's making sure no one bumps into my leg as we walk through town. I mouth a thank you when he looks over at me.

His face is pained and I know he's thinking about the Quell, just like I am. He's worried I'll be too injured to run from danger, and I'm worried that I won't be able to keep him away from danger. How could I be so stupid? It would be the worst timing ever if I were to get hurt right now.

When my mom and Prim see me being carried inside they panic. "What happened?" my mom asks and wrings her hands together as she scans me for injury.

"She hurt her ankle again," Gale says, still holding me in his arms. You'd think he'd get tired after a while but he carried me from the meadow all the way here and he doesn't even look that winded.

My mom ushers us over to the table where she works on patients, the same table that Gale was laid on. Memories of that night sweep through my mind and when I look at Gale I know he's thinking about that night too. I can't break away from his eyes even as my mom tells me to take my shoe off, so Peeta comes over and does it for me.

My mom checks my ankle for any sign of a break or fracture, or a muscle that is strained. When she tells me that my ankle will be fine and that it's just a sprain, Peeta and I exchange a relieved look and all the tension in my body releases. I can't imagine breaking a bone this crucial a month away from the Games.

Prim gets some bandages from the closet they use to store their medical supplies, and her and my mom tape my ankle tightly to make sure I don't hurt it worse. My mom tells me that I should keep off of my feet for a while, and when I look at Gale he just smirks at the thought of carrying me around all night.

After we finish dinner and the 43rd Hunger Games Gale swoops me off the couch and up into his arms.

"Gale!" I shriek. "What are you doing?"

"You're hurt, Catnip," he replies as if this is the most natural act. I have to admit, I don't dislike it…

"Night Haymitch," Gale says. "Night Peeta."

They mumble a confused goodnight and Gale carries me out of his house, into my own, and up the stairs.

"You didn't have to do that," I say to him when he reaches the last step and pauses, holding me tightly in his arms.

"Sure, I did," he says. "Your ankle needs to heal, Katniss. You can't go into the Games hurt."

"Well you can put me down now," I tease.

"Mmm I could…but I don't want to," he says. Our faces are close together. It's dark so I can't see well, but his warm breath is on my face, and I can sense how close his lips are to mine. For a moment I think he's going to kiss me, but instead he asks me a question. "So what's your nightly routine?" he asks.

"What?"

"You heard me," he says.

"Why do you want to know?" I ask.

"Because I'm going to help you get ready for bed," he replies.

"Okay," I give in. "I need to brush my teeth." All this dessert Peeta is feeding me is bad for my teeth. Not that it will really matter in a month anyways.

"Then to the bathroom we go." He sets me on the bathroom counter and I brush, thinking the whole time that Gale is being overly protective. What does he think I'm going to do tomorrow? I'm going to workout…and he can't stop me.

I try to shimmy off the counter to walk to my room, but Gale steps in the way and ends up right between my legs. This is new.

This time I don't have to wonder if he's going to kiss me. Neither of us hesitates, and when he lowers his face I draw mine upward, our lips meeting in the middle. He tastes sweet from the chocolate we ate.

Gale puts his hands on my hips and slowly pulls me closer. I pull my lips away and he senses my hesitation, backing up immediately, which has the opposite effect. It makes me miss the closeness of his body, closeness I have never felt before.

"I'm sorry," his eyes say. Now I feel bad. I didn't mean to make him feel guilty.

"Time for bed," he says, scooping me up into his arms again. The moment has passed, and now both of us feel like we made a mistake.

I sigh as he walks me to my room like I'm an invalid. When he reaches my room he has to shift my weight to reach the doorknob to open the door. He slides his hands along one of my most ticklish spots.

I laugh, and when I realize how loud I'm probably being and how my sister and mom are trying to sleep, I duck my head into Gale's neck.

"Gosh, Catnip, what are you trying to do to me?" he says, letting out a deep breath.

"Huh?" I try to examine his face but it's too dark to see what's going through his mind. He's not upset. In fact, it's a tone unlike I've ever heard before from him. It piques my curiosity.

He doesn't respond. He just walks me to my bed and lays me down. "Alright, what's next?"

Suddenly I feel awkward. "I get changed."

"Oh," he says in surprise, and then leaves the room so I can change without him present.

When he comes back in I'm in my pajamas, sitting on the bed.

"Do I have tuck you in too?" he teases.

I frown. "Well, yes. But if you don't want to," I start scrambling to get under the covers. He laughs and comes beside me.

"I thought you didn't want me to do that anymore. Didn't you say I made you feel like a caterpillar?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it," I let my words drift off.

"Alright, alright. You're a fickle girl, Catnip."

I sigh. "Tell me about it."

He pulls the covers up and tucks them in around me just like last Sunday. But this time, when he's done, he notices that my defenses are down and tickles my sides again until I'm laughing so hard that I cry.

"Stop or I'm going to pee!" I squeal.

He laughs hard at that. "Is that a step I missed? Do I need to take you back to the bathroom?"

My bladder will be fine as long as he doesn't do that again, so I shake my head. I wipe away the tears from my eyes. All our years together…and he's never tickled me. I guess we just never had cause to touch each other in a playful way.

"Are you upset?" he asks me suddenly.

"Why would I be?" I ask.

He tells me without words. The kiss in the bathroom. It's in the silence between us, because it's him and me, and we don't need words to understand one another.

"No," I reassure him. "I just-"

"I know," he interrupts. We don't say anything for a few moments, but when I yawn he asks, "Are you ready for bed?"

"Yes," I say sleepily. It's so warm with him beside me, not that I need the heat. It's summertime and the weather at night stays warm and humid. But his presence is comforting and every time he puts me to bed he makes me forget about the Games. Even if it's only one or two nights a week, I'll gladly take it. He presses a kiss to my forehead and says, "Goodnight, Catnip."

"Goodnight, Gale."

---

Workout Day 53, Monday:

"Who's Games are we watching tonight, Peeta?" Haymitch asks in between bites at breakfast. Peeta and I suspend our juice glasses mid-air and exchange a look. "What?" Haymitch asks in irritation.

'You never ask about the Games, that's all," Peeta says.

"Well, I'm asking now," he replies coolly.

I furrow my eyebrows. Why is Haymitch asking now? Two possibilities: He's suddenly interested in the Games. Doubtful. Or he's suggesting that these next Games are the ones to really pay attention to. Probable, and smart thinking.

Peeta looks in his notebook and finds the next blank victor page. "District 2 Victor Brutus' Games are next," Peeta says.

Haymitch sighs. "So we're on the 44th Games then," he says darkly. Peeta and I exchange another look. "He's going to be one of the toughest victors to beat."

"If he gets reaped that is," Peeta reasons.

Haymitch doesn't respond, and instead finishes his breakfast quickly. He gets up and heads outside, so we follow suit and gobble down the rest of our breakfast. Prim hands me a bag with my lunch in it, and Peeta and I follow Haymitch.

"I don't see how Brutus wouldn't be reaped," Haymitch says nonchalantly as soon as were about ten feet away from my house.

Peeta and I look at Haymitch with confused looks. "You don't see how he wouldn't?" I question.

Since we're outside, Haymitch doesn't pause in explaining, even though he does look around. "We have to be prepared for it to be rigged."

"What? The reaping?" Peeta asks.

Haymitch nods his head. Peeta and I look at each other with worried expressions. I never even thought about them rigging the reaping. I just kept thinking that they rigged the Quarter Quell card. Of course they would rig the reaping too. The articles in the paper could be a really good indicator of who will be reaped in that case. If it's rigged than the Capitol will likely pull the names of the favored victors, and the names of the ones who cause trouble, like me. I'll pay more attention the mayor's newspapers in that case.

"They'll reap me," says Haymitch.

Peeta and I fall into an uncomfortable silence. A few moments pass before I ask, "Why do you think that?"

"Because I'm the only Quarter Quell Victor still alive," he says miserably, and I can tell he's in desperate need of a drink, even though it's the early morning. Peeta stares hard at him and I know he's trying to communicate that it doesn't matter, that he'll still volunteer no matter what. It makes me feel a wave of familiar guilt all over again at the thought of him giving up his life so willingly for me. Does he know that I plan on doing the same for him?

Madge meets us in the meadow for yoga, but Peeta won't let me workout today because of my ankle, so I have to sit down and critique their form. However, I'm more interested in taking a nap in the warm rays of the sun, so I do that instead.

I wake up and feel disoriented until I realize that I'm still in the meadow. Peeta is lying down beside me, and at first I think he'll be mad at me for dozing off, but then I notice that he's sleeping.

His face is so content and he seems so at peace that I can't help but drink it in. I haven't seen him so tranquil in months, not since the Victory Tour where we clung to each other to quell the nightmares. He was indispensable to me in those moments. I'm sure it will be the same the next time we go to the Capitol, if he allows me to get that close in private ever again.

Haymitch and Madge come over to us after they finish eating their lunch, but I shush them because Peeta is still asleep and I can tell he's exhausted.

Madge waves and mouths a goodbye and Haymitch grabs an apple and starts eating it under the shade of the tree, leaving Peeta and I in the warm sunshine. I take it that Haymitch isn't going to grab the reins on afternoon training, so I rest my head back on the soft grass and soak in the sun.

Haymitch wakes us mid-afternoon, but by then we're too wiped to do any training, so we go home. At dinner Peeta and I are groggy from our nap so Prim and my mom keep most of the conversation going. Haymitch seems in good spirits from the break in training but he doesn't say so.

After we finish eating and washing our dishes we start watching Brutus' Games at Peeta's house. He's the biggest victor I've ever seen come out of District 2, like a monstrous version of Cato.

"Now sweetheart, I know you're into the whole cuddling and not paying attention thing…but the victors who are more likely to be a threat to you, are in these Games, so I suggest you start paying closer attention."

"What are you talking about?" I ask angrily. "I've been here every single night with both of you, watching the Games just like you."

"You may have been here physically, but your mind has been elsewhere," Haymitch says.

At this point I lose my temper. "No it hasn't. I've been watching them the same as you and Peeta!"

Haymitch laughs. "Oh? Oh really? Is this watching the Games?" Haymitch says and proceeds to mock cuddle with Gale, using Peeta as his dummy.

"Get off me, old man," Peeta says giving him a light shove.

"I don't do that," I scowl. Actually...yes, I do. Dangit.

"Whatever you say, sweetheart. Snuggle with him all you want," Haymitch says and I blush slightly. "Just make sure to pay attention to Brutus' Games."

"Right, he's a brute," I say. "I remember that conversation. Anyone else I should be paying attention to?"

"We're getting to them. You've already seen most of the ones I'm concerned about," he exchanges a look with Peeta and me before sitting in his chair.

"Newer victors?" I ask.

He nods his head in confirmation. My mind starts automatically compiling a list of the most dangerous ones: Enobaria...Johanna Mason...Savannah George...Finnick Odair, and a whole bunch of others.

After watching the first half of Brutus' Games I go back to my house to attempt to sleep. I toss and turn in my sheets, throwing them off me when I get too warm and yanking them back over me when my skin chills. I close my eyes and focus on the darkness, but that doesn't work either. After an hour I give up and look out my window at Peeta's house. If he's still awake I could go see what he's up to…I reason.

I see light flickering on the first floor and figure that it's probably coming from the television, so I walk over there. Lo and behold he's already watching the interviews, so I sit beside him Peeta and we judge the interviews together.

We determine that each tribute can get between a 1 and a 5, and we base it on personality, poise, and above all, the way they answer. Brutus only receives a 3 from us. His public speaking skills are horrible, but his body size and the ferocity behind his words win him a 3. His District partner didn't even speak, she just nodded and looked angry. We gave her a 1. Then there was a funny, little boy from 8 who broke our hearts with his small size but stole our hearts with his jokes. We gave him a 5.

When the interviews are over Peeta stops the tape and I bid him goodnight, again, and go back to bed, and this time I do fall asleep.

---

Workout Day 54, Tuesday:

Today when we get to the meadow I see that Peeta has set up a Cornucopia type scene.

"Peeta, is this what I think this is?" I ask.

"Yes," he says unsurely. "I thought we could sprint from the boxes for our afternoon training. The tree can be the Cornucopia, and we can put supplies in different spots and practice getting to them."

Peeta has put 24 wooden crates out in a circle around the large tree we use for climbing. It's not entirely accurate to how the Gamemakers would set it up, and it would be disturbing if it was, but maybe it will be a good training tactic.

And as much as I hate to admit it, it might be easier on us if we were to get ourselves in the mindset of the bloodbath before we're fighting in it. It's more of a mental exercise than a physical one, and I've come to understand that that's what it really comes down to at the bloodbath, especially with all victors as the tributes.

We start off with our normal workout though. We jog and stretch, and then lift weights and do strength conditioning. By mid morning the heat swelters and the humidity is stifling, so we all decide to forgo our shirts. I'm not topless though of course. I'm wearing the sports bra Cinna sent me at the beginning of training.

We're conspicuous to varying degrees. Haymitch's slight beer belly continues to proudly protrude, while Peeta...well I'd be downright lying if I said he didn't look good. Occasionally I catch him glancing over at me, and he finds me doing the same. I hate it when my eyes sweep down his body the way they do. It's like they have a mind of their own. But I can tell from his smirk that he's enjoying the attention.

Halfway through our last set of lunges I notice Peeta's gaze snap over to the entrance to the meadow and I follow it until I see Gale walking over to us. Peeta's content attitude quickly disappears as Gale gets closer, and he orders us to start doing our final pushups.

I ignore him to walk over to Gale. I know Peeta will hate that I'm not doing my push-ups but I don't care.

I meet Gale's eyes and blush when his eyes plunge downwards giving my body a full scan. I suddenly feel self-conscious, whereas I never have before with him.

"Boy I'm glad you didn't dress like that in the woods. I would've trapped myself," he says to me.

I laugh at the thought of Gale trapping himself. "It's a good thing I didn't have clothes like this then, huh?"

Gale makes a sound like he's not sure how to answer. I can tell he's fighting to keep looking at my eyes. "What's going on?" he asks looking around at the setup in the meadow as if he just noticed it.

"It's the Cornucopia scene," I say. "We're practicing our sprinting with the pedestal setup. What are you doing here though? Two days off in a week? I'm shocked."

"I got off early," he replies anxiously.

I'm about to ask him why, until I notice the worried creases on his face and his pursed lips. That's Gale's "don't ask" face, so I bite my tongue. He looks more stressed then ever, and I know he's thinking of his family and how to provide for what they need.

So I redirect to a different subject. "Do you want to do the countdown for us?" I ask. I'm sure Haymitch won't mind that his role is being offered up to Gale.

"Sure," he says.

"Did you know you were getting sunburnt?" he says to Peeta when they cross paths.

Haymitch, Gale, and I chuckle at poor, white boy Peeta who can't stay in the sun very long without protection. He huffs in frustration and throws his shirt back on to ward off more burnt skin.

We break to get some water and then we start our afternoon training. Gale does the countdown and Peeta and I practice racing off of the crates and playing out different scenarios: working as a team to gather supplies and flee, splitting up and using our strengths to get the supplies and take down the occasional ghost tribute, working together to grab weapons only and take down District 2, and every other combination we can think of. Next Haymitch is paired up with me "in case" he gets reaped and goes in with me.

Haymitch pauses before getting on the crate. "Peeta, it's not a bad idea to set up a Cornucopia scene," he says, which is actually a compliment from him, "but it doesn't feel real. The bloodbath is a mind game as much as it tests physical ability."

Peeta nods once and shrugs. "What do you suggest then?"

"More people," Haymitch replies.

Peeta looks at me, and I see a look of pain flash over his features telling me he really doesn't want to involve anyone in today's activity. If he does, then it will feel real, and that isn't something any of us want to feel right now.

"He's right," Gale chimes in. "It'll be more of a training exercise that way."

Peeta thinks it over and finally concedes. "Alright. so we just ask random people?"

Gale huffs. "If they don't volunteer on reaping day, do you really think they'll volunteer for this?" Gale asks. But a second later he shakes his head and says, "Alright, Catnip, let's get going."

I throw on my shirt again. "Where should we start?" I ask as we start walking towards the Seam.

He smiles. "My house."

Gale and I split up from Haymitch and Peeta, and we go to all the homes in the Seam where we know kids might come out and help us. Peeta goes to town to see if his brothers and friends are free. Haymitch stays in the meadow to ward off any Peacekeepers if they come by, but I think he really would rather be alone for a moment.

On the way to the Seam Gale confides, that he was forced to leave the mine early today because he got in a fight with one of the Peacekeepers. The way his words fall out let me know how ashamed he is of his actions. He knows that this affects his family more than it affects him. Then when Gale takes me to his crew members' houses for them to volunteer, I know how bad of a turn the fight took. If Thom and Bristel are home right now too then that means they were involved in the fight and got sent home. Now I understand why Gale is hunched a little lower today. He must feel awful that they lost a day's wages. Their family is in desperate need of every last coin, just like the Hawthornes.

Gale and I return with Posy, Vick, Rory, Rory's two best friends, Prim, Leevy and her little brother, Leevy's neighbor, Rooba's son, Greasy Sae's granddaughter, Gale's next door neighbors' son and daughter, Thom with his brother and sister, and even Bristel.

When I come up to Haymitch I see that he's busy digging through my lunch bag. "While I was waiting...I ate your apple," Haymitch says unapologetically. I scowl at him, but I'm not too mad because we've got a good sized gathering here, and mostly they're all people I enjoy being around.

When Peeta comes back he's got a couple large bags on his back, and his brother Rye carries another on his back. His other brother, Bannock, is also here, and I've never met him before. Madge follows the group of boys and Delly is walking beside her. So that puts us at...24. Good. They're mostly people raised in the Seam, but I suppose that makes sense. People in town are generally more wary of getting in trouble, and this is something they would see as trouble.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice Haymitch talking to Rye, up close and quietly. Peeta seems to sense that he's trying to bribe Rye to buy him alcohol so he barks at Haymitch to knock it off.

I walk over to Peeta who is rummaging through the big bag that he brought. Curiosity gets the best of me. "Peeta? What did you bring?"

He gives me a big smile and says, "We couldn't have a Cornucopia scene without supplies...could we?"

I look in the bag with wide eyes and see that he brought dozens of packs of food, backpacks, our fake swords and maces, rope, and a giant bag of cookies. Peeta and I go to work setting them out around the Cornucopia, while Gale explains what's going on today.

When Peeta and I are done we walk over to help direct them since Haymitch is proving useless on that end. We thank them for coming and ask each of them to choose their own pedestal. Prim instantly seizes the one beside me, which makes me smile. The rest of the group takes a minute to settle on to their own pedestal. Rory and Vick cause a stir when the fight each other for the pedestal next to Gale, but Rory wins easily and smiles coyly when he catches Prim's eye. I look at her and she instantly blushes and looks away from me.

Haymitch counts down once we're all settled, and as hard as it is to not speak to Gale with my expressions during the countdown I can't help but keep glancing his way. Ultimately though, it comes down to me helping Peeta, which means me helping myself. So I ready myself and set my sights on my practice bow.

"3...2...1..." Haymitch mimics the horn and then we're off. I race towards the Cornucopia for the bow that's placed on a branch on the Cornucopia tree, but something catches my eye to the left and I turn to see Delly's little brother running towards Prim. I stop and run to her and throw her over my shoulder. Then I run in the opposite direction of the "bloodbath" and set her down in safety. Posy runs after us and I sit her beside Prim and then run to the action to try to get a weapon.

But Peeta interrupts me. "Stop!" he yells. "Reset," he instructs and everyone puts their supplies where they found them and goes back to their pedestal.

"Peeta? What are you doing?" I ask him.

"You didn't grab anything," he says.

We reset and Haymitch counts us down. But a similar action occurs when Bannock gets a rope and comes for Prim. I grab her hand and pull her to safety away from the bloodbath.

"Stop! Reset," Peeta says again, and everyone looks at me and shakes their heads.

This time as we reset I see Gale walking over to where I am and a smile comes over my face. However, it disappears when he veers over to Prim and picks her up. He carries her over to his pedestal, setting her down next to a grinning Rory, and comes over beside me.

I look at him with a look of betrayal, but he just tells me, "You know she's not going to get hurt right?"

"I know," I mumble and ignore his chuckle.

The countdown begins again. "3...2...1..." Haymitch mimics the horn and I fly off the pedestal sprinting as fast as I can for the bow that's in the tree, in the "mouth of the Cornucopia." I grab it, scan for Peeta's location, and grab some rope on the way over to him. He's got a backpack over his shoulders and a bag of food. Once we make it to each other he smiles and yells "Stop! Reset," again.

We do this over and over again, each time our siblings and friends are becoming more loosened up. They start trying to tackle Peeta and I on the way to get our supplies, which gives us ample opportunities to use our skills at hand-to-hand combat. We grapple and wrestle, and fake injure the other "tributes" and manage to get out alive with supplies most of the time. After several rounds we see the kids laughing and jumping on each other, and they start playing dead once their "opponent" has made a "kill shot" on them. This was supposed to be more realistic, and it is to a certain extent, but for the most part it's just downright entertaining. We laugh more than anything, and everyone's spirits seem to be high.

"Stop! Reset," Peeta yells out after another sprint has begun and Gale found his way to me. Gale had tackled me and then pinned me to the ground holding a fake sword against my throat. "Yield," Gale commanded, but I shook my head. He lowered his face to mine, our lips were mere inches away from each others. "Yield," he said again. I shook my head again. His lips almost closed the distance until Peeta interrupted us and Gale flew away from me and helped me up.

"What now?" I ask Peeta in frustration.

"There's no way that's plausible, Katniss," he says. "In fact, let's all change positions," he instructs our group. We all move except for Peeta and I because we're already far apart from each other and that's how it will be in the Games. Gale and I exchange a look before the next countdown and he shrugs his shoulders at me. He's now the furthest one away from me.

We practice our runs over and over again, this time without any hitches. When it's coming close to evening we come to a natural break because everyone is pretty worn out and thirsty. All of us are sweating, and I hear more than one stomach grumbling. Peeta thanks them all again for coming and says, "In thanks for helping us, Katniss and I would like to give away the food we brought as supplies today and offer a meal to anyone who would like to join us for dinner."

The Town kids just shrug like they don't really need the food, but the people living in the Seam stand there, speechless. "Is he serious?" some of them whisper. I look down and smile because this is all Peeta's doing. It's just one more of his selfless acts. It steels my resolve, and fills me with confidence that he is the right victor to save in the Quell. Think of what he could do for Panem if he kept doing things like this, on a larger scale. And it's the way he does it that assures me that Snow won't be able to point a finger at his actions like he did with me.

Gale and I hang back from the pack of children, mostly from the Seam, who are tugging on Peeta's clothes for more food as we all walk back to our homes. They smile and thank him when he gives them a parsel of food and a handful of fresh cookies. They can hardly believe their eyes at his generosity. I know they'll never join us for dinner tonight, but this is the sweetest thing he could do for the kids from the Seam who are not only starving, but have probably never tasted sweets like that in their lives. Peeta knows better than anyone that dessert has a way of brightening anyone's day. Now he's giving that gift away freely, and everyone is extremely thankful for it. You can see it all over their shining, excited faces. He may not know it, but he might have saved a few lives here today. Just like he did for me so many years ago...

I look over at Gale, who is watching his siblings eat the cookies Peeta gave them. They have huge smiles on their faces. "It'd be better if he were easier to hate," he admits.

"Tell me about it," I say. "If I could've just hated him in the arena, we all wouldn't be in this mess now. He'd be dead, and I'd be a happy little victor all by myself."

He looks at me briefly and lowers his head. "You wouldn't be happy," he says wordlessly.

"No, you're right. I'd hate myself forever if I didn't try to bring him home." I "say" back.

We walk side by side without saying anything for a few minutes. "Where would we be, Katniss?" Gale asks me suddenly.

I pause, not knowing what to say. Where would I be with my pretend cousin who wouldn't be my cousin if it weren't for Peeta?

"Would you have still kissed me?" my eyes question him.

"Yes. Would you have kissed me back, Catnip?"

"Possibly."

He smiles.

"Would I have let myself open up to you?" I ask myself more than him, although he senses my lingering question.

"You were already starting to. I saw your eyes dart to the hills after you volunteered. You were thinking about running with me. You wished you had then. You still wish you could."

I look away because I don't want him to know how right he is.

"Katniss, where would we be if Peeta wasn't part of your life?" his eyes long for an answer.

I break our silent conversation. "Hunting. Like every Sunday," I say to him. This is as much as I can honestly give him right now.

"That's all?" his eyes ask.

"You know I chose you over Peeta. What's the point in talking about this?"

"Because I love you," his eyes say. He realizes how far in we've gotten ourselves, and I can tell he didn't mean for that to come across to me because he turns his face away from mine. I turn away from him too, because it hurts too much to let him know that I love him when I know that soon I won't be able to return his love.

We arrive at the Hawthorne's house soon after that, and Gale ushers his siblings inside. He gives me a long look before closing the door so I can go home to eat as well.

After we shower and eat dinner we start up Brutus' Games again. When the funny, little boy comes on the screen we know he is about to die. Brutus barrels towards him, and their sizes are a shocking contrast. It's heartbreaking to watch the boy we gave a top interview score die in such a cruel way.

"What's wrong with you both?" Haymitch asks, staring at us in concern.

"The little boy was so sweet, and so funny," I say miserably, not able to take my eyes away from where he lies on the ground.

Haymitch creases his brow. "And how would you know that?"

"I saw his interview," I say.

"What?" Haymitch snips, and my eyes snap over to him in surprise.

"I watched his interview last night," I say.

Haymitch's gaze slides over to Peeta, and a hard stare settles over his face. "Do you think that's a good idea, boy?"

"We just couldn't sleep," Peeta defends. "I've been watching the interviews from the beginning."

"You have?" Haymitch and I ask in unison.

"Yeah," Peeta shrugs.

"Okay, let me put it to you this way," Haymitch begins. "Do you think it's a good idea for her to watch them?"

"Me?" I ask in confusion. "What's wrong with me watching the interviews?"

"Just look at you!" he says. "You're practically crying over a boy you never knew."

I puff my chest in anger. "So what if I feel for this boy? It keeps me human!"

Haymitch scans my face, and gives a slight nod. "It's your decision. But if you get to know all of the victors, and start getting attached to them imagine how much harder it's going to be for you in the arena."

"What if we need them as allies?" I ask.

"We'll get to that after the reapings," he says. "Right now, we have no idea who will be there, other than you and Johanna since you're the only female victors from 12 and 7. Other than that," he pauses and throws his hands up in the air, "who knows who will be there." Haymitch looks at Peeta and says, "I don't want us to over think things."

"But they already know us," I counter. "How can it be a bad idea to get to know them a little better?"

"It's not," he says. "But I know who you'll align yourself with, sweetheart." He gives me a disapproving look, and I know he's thinking I'll find allies like Rue. Innocent, nonviolent Rue.

I look back at the television and decide that I'll make my own decisions on whether or not to watch the interviews with Peeta. It helps me take my mind off the blood and screams from the Games. Is that so wrong?

Later that night when I inevitably can't sleep Haymitch's words go through my mind, and I get up to look out my window at Peeta's house to see if he's up. I see different lights on upstairs, but not downstairs by his television. I sit down in a chair by the window and wonder what he's doing right now.

After a couple minutes curiosity gets the best of me and I make my way over to his house. It's too hot to sleep right now anyways.

When I get inside I call his name and he tells me he's upstairs, which I already knew. I make my way upstairs and find him in the bathroom trying desperately to put aloe on his skin.

"Woah! You really did get burnt," I say with widened eyes. His shoulders are burnt the worst, but his chest, back, and arms are all really red. No wonder he couldn't sleep tonight.

I come closer to him and take the container of aloe to help spread it around his skin. He flinches when my fingers press the salve into the small of his back.

"Thanks," he says quietly.

"Anytime," I say back.

He laughs softly. "Maybe I should get burnt everyday."

"No, that would be bad for your skin. I'm sure Prim would scold you if you tried that."

"Might be worth it," he says looking in the mirror at me. I blush and hide behind him so he can't see me in the mirror.

"I'm not surprised you can't sleep, Peeta. Your skin is so red."

"I know. I've never been burned like this before. I was always inside helping at the bakery."

I frown, thinking about how sad it is to have been cooped up inside his whole childhood. "Always?" I ask.

"Well, not every minute. We did sneak out sometimes. And my mom let us play with the neighbor kids on the weekends, as long as one of us kids was helping my parents in the bakery."

"Oh," is all I can manage to say. I start comparing how much time he spent inside and how much time I spent outside and see how different our lives have been during the last 4 years.

"I know, I know. It's pathetic."

"No, it's not pathetic," I say. "We just led very different lives until now."

"Until now," he repeats softly.

When I'm finished putting aloe on him we go downstairs and makes me hot cocoa while his skin soaks the aloe in.

"You don't have to stay with me," he says as he sets my mug of cocoa in front of me.

"I know," I say. "I just…can't sleep. It's hard to go to sleep after the Games."

He nods in agreement. "Every night I bake something or make some dough right after to try to rid the images out of my head, but it doesn't work and I still can't sleep. So then I paint."

"Does that help?" I ask. I wonder if things have changed since I asked him that during the Victory Tour.

"No," he says.

"What do you paint?" I ask him curiously.

"Do you want to see?" he asks.

"Sure."

He leads me upstairs to the room he uses specifically for painting. As he opens the door I prepare for paintings of the new victors we've seen or the horrible muttations. But I'm wrong. Most of the paintings involve me in some way, but I notice that I'm often doing something or I'm with other people. There's me giving Prim a hug as I always do before we leave to train in the meadow, one of Haymitch and I boxing, then there's my mom giving me the birthday present my dad made me, and me chasing Buttercup in the meadow. There's even one of Gale teaching me a snare in the meadow.

His paintings differ from the ones he showed during the Victory Tour. They now reflect something better. Family. But I notice one person is missing from "my life." Peeta. "Where are you in these paintings?" I ask scanning the rest of the paintings to see if he painted one of him and I.

He tilts his head at my question. "What?"

"You have all of my family here with me, but where are you?" I ask. There's a painting of him and his brothers, and a separate one of him and his dad. His mother isn't included in any of the paintings though, which doesn't surprise me. But there isn't a single one of him and I.

"Katniss, I don't understand," he says.

"Do you not see me as part of your family?" I ask with more emotion than I anticipated coming out of me.

His face scrunches in confusion. "Do you?" he asks in surprise.

There's something about his remark that makes me bristle, that makes my insides twist, and I walk out of the room quickly without answering and start heading for the front door.

"Katniss!" he calls out but I don't respond.

---

Workout Day 55, Wednesday:

Haymitch's POV

Sweethearts are very subdued this morning…I wonder what happened at Peeta's house last night? If she thinks she's sneaking over without me noticing she's got another thing coming.

Maybe I could ask Madge to buy me some alcohol today? She's bringing her father's newspaper. No, I can't do that. I wish I didn't have to sit through Chaff's Games tonight...

Katniss' POV

Peeta and I hang back after dinner and let Haymitch get to Peeta's first so we can talk. Haymitch didn't even seem to realize we weren't walking over beside him.

"This is going to be too hard on him," I say to Peeta.

He takes a deep breath. "He agreed to this. Knowing full well what he would take part in."

"Well what else was he going to do? You drained his stash."

He purses his lips. "Haymitch is tough. He can handle sobriety, and he can handle this. He watches the Games every year as a mentor."

"But this is his friend. Maybe his best friend."

As soon as Haymitch enters Peeta's house he's completely distracted. Getting a glass of water from the kitchen. Downing it and going back for another. He goes to the bathroom, twice before we even push play. I thought he might have a hard time watching Chaff's Games, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

Although it hadn't occurred to me that Haymitch's true friends, the ones that really understand him, are either out to kill us or be killed by us. And he is supposed to help that happen. I suddenly feel so guilty that he is here watching his friends' Games. Peeta obviously does too, because he walks to the kitchen, digs around in a cabinet, and returns with a bottle of white liquor. It's smaller than Haymitch's usual bottles, but I doubt he'd mind right now.

Peeta offers it to him, and for the first time ever I see Haymitch think before taking the bottle in his hands. He examines it closely, and surprises us when he goes to the kitchen and pours it down the drain.

I've never respected him more than this moment. I think, if I was in his situation, I would have chugged it all.

Chaff's arena is filled to the brim with vegetation. Some of it is so colorful and beautiful that I think it would be a pretty place to go to, but then I remember that these are the Hunger Games and what you see isn't what you get. Some of the tributes actually get bitten by some of the plants they pass by. Chaff is careful the entire time, but he gets bitten occasionally by some of the plants so he charges through the jungle looking desperately for a way out of it.

All of the tributes seem to wish they were out of the jungle. They sense that it's a ticking time bomb and it sets them all on edge. In fact, they're so worried about the arena that they hardly focus on trying to find and kill each other. On day 4 the announcers are discussing how the Capitol is getting agitated with the lack of "fight" in these tributes so we start seeing more muttations come out of the woodwork.

Chaff and his partner, Lilac, come on screen and Haymitch fidgets in his chair. I have a feeling it's because something is about to happen to Chaff or the girl from 11, and now I don't want to see it either, but I force myself to watch. The vines around them have started to come to life. They grow and writhe as soon as they come near them so they run through them, dodging them at every turn.

The screen splits to show the boy from 8 who was is very close to them. One of the vines wraps around his arm so he can't move. He panics as more and more entangle him and he starts to scream. The vines don't seem to squeeze though, they just hold him down. About a half hour later we hear a canon boom and it was for the boy from 8. The announcers tell us the vines are poisonous, and it all comes together for us.

Chaff and Lilac are now running through the vines even faster, but a few seconds after they hear the canon they come across the boy from 8's body, which is still entangled in the vines. They share a look and realize they need to get far away from the vines. They run and run until they finally hear water and run towards that sound. When they come across a river they test the water to see if it's poisonous, but assume it's okay so they start drinking from it and cleaning their faces with it.

The announcers come back on with gleeful faces as they show the Career pack headed towards the vine patch. They heard the screams and the canon and they figured there might be more tributes around to fight. When they see Chaff and Lilac they run back into the vines to escape, but the Careers cross the river quickly and are sprinting as fast as they can.

A vine trips one of the Careers, but they leave her to chase after Chaff and Lilac. Lilac is tiring from the running, but keeps up with Chaff. Then everything happens very fast. A vine reaches out and coils around Chaff's hand and the poison sets in against his skin quickly. He cries out in pain and then more vines attack him and coil around his legs.

They will be surrounded by the rest of the Careers soon and they both know that. Chaff slashes at the vines viciously but can't manage to get free. Lilac helps him, slicing through the vines attached to his legs. A few seconds later she hears the Career pack draw in closer. She looks at him and quickly says, "I'll draw them away," before she sprints off in a different direction from where Chaff is.

The Careers stop, look at Chaff and then at Lilac, and say to each other, "He's a goner. We probably wouldn't even get the kill." Then the leader says, "Sorry, just the way the Game is played," before leading his pack on after Lilac who is deemed a "better kill." "Run Lilac!" Chaff screams and hacks away at the only vine left with his machete. It's still coiled tightly around his hand and the poison is hurting him so badly that he can't seem to wield his weapon anymore. We watch as the tendrils tighten and he screams out in more pain. He looks at his hand and the machete, gripping it firmly in his hand. He gulps and so do I. Then he lifts the machete up in the air and brings it down as hard as he can manage on his own hand, severing it clean off. He screams in agony and holds his bloody wrist tightly to keep from bleeding out. He wraps cloth around it tightly and gets away from the vine patch of the arena as quickly as he can manage.

Lilac dies shortly after, and Chaff gets sent some medicine as a sponsor gift. They must have liked his guts. He heals after a couple days of rest, hidden behind a patch of tall grasses, and regains his strength when he gets sent some food. He even fights off a couple tributes several days later at the feast, and a day later he fought the final Career.

It was a horrible fight. The boy from 1 threw him on the ground before Chaff found his last bit of inner strength to kick the boy's legs out from under him and pierce his stomach with a machete. Seconds later the canon sounded and Chaff just laid on the ground holding his injured arm.

It's a horrible Games, and now I know why Haymitch didn't want to watch it. I don't think I'll be getting any sleep tonight...

Sure enough I can't, so I make my way over to Peeta's. When I get there I find Haymitch and Peeta playing cards so I sit down beside them and say, "Deal me in." And they do.

"You know," Peeta says, "this could be looked at as combat training."

Haymitch and I look at each other and scoff at this being combat training, but Peeta insists, "Bluffing in the arena can save your life." He pauses. "Or it can get you sponsors."

Ouch. That one was aimed at me, but it's true and I can't refute it. But he did too. "I wasn't the only one who bluffed," I say.

Peeta looks at me with a confused expression.

"You said tons of guys like me," I remind him.

"Yeah, and that's not true, is it Katniss?" he mocks lightly. "Hit me," he says, and Haymitch deals him another card.

We play on and on into the night, not keeping track of time, and more than anything just content to not be stuck in a nightmare. We talk occasionally, but the silence is welcome to all of us, even Peeta.

I find that we help each other now with more than just working out and training because we help each other through the emotional and mental battles we face as victors. No one in our District understands the state of our mind, or why we're still emotional wrecks after all this time, because the arena messes with your body, mind, and spirit. The nightmares come not because of what our bodies went through, although that's a good enough reason, they come because now we know how low we will go to survive. We experienced the jarring emotions that stem from killing someone else. Call it survival of the fittest if you want. Lawful murder seems a better term. And we know it better than anyone.

That's one of the many reasons that I'm adopting a new strategy with this Quell. I didn't have answers for why I pulled out those berries in the past, and I still don't to my great shame. I don't want to come out of another Games wondering why I killed or saved someone. Not to mention that it's Peeta's turn to be saved by Haymitch and I.

"Hit me," Peeta says, shaking me out of my rumination and worries.

"No," I tease him. He looks at me with a side smile that seems to be drooping with exhaustion from our late night. "You should go to bed, Peeta."

"Are you going to bed?" he asks.

I shake my head and look at Haymitch. I don't see sleep happening any time soon, and it seems Haymitch feels the same way.

"Well I'm going to go grab some cinnamon rolls from the kitchen then," he says, sliding back his chair. "We might as well eat if we're up."

While we wait, I rest my head on the table and listen to Peeta's heavy footfall heading to the kitchen. It's a strange comfort to listen to Peeta's familiar sounds, but a comfort nonetheless. I close my eyes and let the smell of fresh bread and cinnamon overtake my senses.

---

Workout Day 56, Thursday:

I wake up and I'm in a very foreign place. Immediately I feel like I shouldn't be here. This isn't my bed, this isn't my room. Is this even my house? Where am I?

I look around me in the bed and I'm definitely alone. I look around the room I'm in and realize that I'm in Peeta's room. How did I wind up here?

But then something catches my eye. A new painting is in his room, and it's set up in front of the bed to catch my attention. It's of Peeta and I together, the night I watched over him after his concussion, and it makes me smile.

Peeta walks in a few minutes later and as notices me sitting upright in his bed, holding his sheets up to my shoulders, a blush sneaks over his cheeks. "Morning, sleepy head."

I frown. "What time is it?"

"9:30."

"What?" I cry out as I fly out of the covers and look around for my stuff. But I don't have anything to grab because I didn't come with anything, except slippers, which are downstairs.

We head over to my house and I notice Haymitch is sleeping on his couch. "Did he fall asleep here too?" I ask.

Peeta just laughs and whacks the bottom of Haymitch's feet. He bolts upright and curses with his knife in hand.

"Come on, breakfast time," Peeta says to him.

When we get to my house I see a package that was waiting on our front porch. Our postman brings the mail and packages along with our newspaper if there's anything to bring. He never knocks to notify us though. I can only assume that he's afraid of us since were victors.

I open the package up and see a card from Effie on top. Great, what'd she send now. Another embarrassing outfit?

A mockingjay embellishment adorns the front of the card, and the inside reads:

Dear Katniss,

Peeta told me that you wore one of the outfits I sent you and it caused quite the stir in District 12! I'm so glad to hear it. He said you lit up the night sky, and I knew that would thrill everyone.

I've sent along another two workout tapes that are absolutely divine! They're all the rage here. I hope you will be able to use them.

Sincerely,

Effie Trinket

"Peeta?" I look at him. "You told her the outfit caused a stir, huh?" He bites his lip but doesn't respond.

I huff exasperatedly, but open the rest of the package. The first video is called "Peacekeeper Workout" and I know instantly that I will never want to use this one. The whole notion is ridiculous. I don't think I need to train myself how to whip and hang people. The second is some sort of game of the Games. It has a photo of Peeta and I on the front, but the back of the case has photos of the most famous victors.

"Is that us?" Peeta asks, snatching the game from my hands.

I snatch it back. "Yes, and we're going to play it today."

He looks at me like he wishes we'd do something more productive, but he knows Thursday is my day to choose the activity so it's useless to argue with me.

After breakfast we go over to Peeta's and put the game into Peeta's device. I hear myself whistle the notes that Rue and I devised as a signal in the Games and immediately see her in my memories.

"Are you okay?" Peeta asks me, gently shaking my shoulder.

I nod, "Yes."

We each choose ourselves as our "characters" and have fun getting them in and out of trouble, all day long.

I go over to Gale's house to drop off the laundry for Hazelle, and when I get there Gale is sitting on the living room floor in front of a fire, which is heating a pot of water. It's not cold, in fact, it's a warm June day, so I wonder what he's doing sitting so close to it.

"Gale?"

"Hey, Catnip," he says without looking at me. He's still staring intently at the fire.

I sit beside him, just like we did on our rock in the woods. I look around and listen but hear only the fire. "Where's your family?"

"They're getting groceries," he says, giving me an odd look.

"There's something I need to tell you," I say.

"Oh boy," he says. "That's usually not followed by anything good."

I tell him outright. "I fell asleep at Peeta's last night," I say, and pause to judge his reaction. He bites the inside of his lip but doesn't seem mad, maybe just upset. "Haymitch did too," I add quickly. At this he frowns, and I explain further. "We were playing cards and the next thing I know I was waking up at his place."

"Did you sleep together?" he asks.

"No. I actually don't know where Peeta slept."

He frowns. "So where did you fall asleep?"

"On his table," I say.

Gale laughs. "I bet you felt great when you woke up in the morning."

"Actually I think Peeta or Haymitch put me in Peeta's bed," I say cautiously. He raises an eyebrow but doesn't look miffed. "I don't know how I got there. I promise."

He's silent for a minute. "You know...if you dislike your bed so much you can come stay in mine," he says with a smirk.

"That's all?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" Gale asks.

"Last time that happened you stormed off and wouldn't speak to me," I say.

"This is different, Katniss. Last time I didn't know what you guys were doing. I didn't know how involved you were. That's what made me mad. But even that wouldn't matter if that was what you wanted."

Now I'm confused. "What do you mean?"

His face takes on a pained expression. "If he made you happy and you wanted him, I would learn to live with that."

"Gale, none of that even matters. We're going into the Games together. You know what that means for him and I."

Gale lowers his head, but I draw it up and give him a kiss to ease the pain.

We hear the door open and pull away, but not in time for Posy to catch us. "Eww, Nissy!" Posy interrupts us. "Don't you know boys have cooties?" she puts her hands on her hips while she scolds me. I look at Gale who just shakes his head and smiles.

The rest of the family isn't far behind with the groceries and small bags of laundry, so I leave Gale with his family and eat dinner back at my house. After dinner we watch the 46th Hunger Games. The victor was from District 2 and he was the leader of the Career pack. Career victor's Games are the most predictable Games we watch. I've almost become accustomed to how they win, and their attitude doesn't grate against me like it used to.

They team up, get their weapon of choice, and one by one work at getting their competition out of the way. It's a horrible path to take, but I'm going to be doing that soon enough so I might as well wrap my mind around it now. The only difference between the Career victors and me is that I won't be the last one standing.

After the Games I go back home and vow that I'll be able to sleep right away. As I walk upstairs I push away every image of the Games to the furthest recesses of my mind.

Only when I climb in my bed do I realize that someone is already in it. I jump out on instinct and try to find something to use as a weapon because this person is definitely bigger than Prim or even my mom, so I have no idea who it is other than the fact they're a man. But then I hear a small groan come from the man's lips and relax instantly when I realize that it's Gale. I climb back under the covers and he reaches an arm over my body and snuggles me closer.

"You're sneaky, Gale Hawthorne," I say while brushing his hair off his forehead.

"And you're not. You woke me up," he says groggily.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I'm putting you to sleep," he says.

"Are you coming here so I don't go to Peeta's?" I ask.

He hesitates. "No."

I roll my eyes. Usually his jealousy of Peeta unnerves me, but this just makes me smile.

He yawns. "I'm just putting you to sleep," he reiterates.

I laugh and clap my hand over my mouth to stop myself. "It looks like you're the one who needs to be put to sleep."

"I'm fine, Catnip," he mumbles.

"No you're not. You work 84 hours a week. You're exhausted. You need to sleep more." I bite my tongue. "You shouldn't watch the Games with us at night anymore."

He raises his head. "You don't want me to come anymore?"

"I didn't say that," I say.

"What are you saying?" he questions.

"I'm just looking out for your well-being. That's all." I pause. "I want you to come."

"I want to come too. I only get to see you for 27 more days." He rests his head back down on my pillow and pulls me even closer.

"You counted?" I ask with a smile.

"I've been counting ever since they made the announcement."

I nestle my body closer to his, drawn in by the heat and comfort he brings me, and close my eyes in enjoyment of his closeness.

---

Workout Day 57, Friday:

When I wake up I look to the other side of my bed and find that Gale isn't beside me anymore and it's definitely morning now. Did he fall asleep with me or did he just wait to leave until I was asleep?

After a hard workout this morning, I decide we should brush up on our tree climbing skills. Plus Haymitch has been sulking about his squirrel pole not catching any squirrels so I'm determined to put it in a more optimum location in the tree.

"Don't you move that!" Haymitch warns as I take hold of his squirrel pole to pull it higher into the tree.

"You're catching anything yet," I say. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

"No, you don't. You haven't hunted in months. You've probably lost all your talent."

I bristle at that and throw his squirrel pole down to the ground. He immediately goes over to grab it and check that it's still in tact. I'm angry and start to climb higher to get away from Haymitch.

"Katniss, come back down," Peeta asks.

"No!" I say resolutely. "I have not lost my talent," I say snidely to Haymitch.

"I know that," Peeta says. "He knows that." He turns to Haymitch, "Apologize to her."

He holds his precious squirrel pole up to the tree where it was and fastens it back down. "Sorry, sweetheart. You haven't lost your talent."

"Whatever, I don't believe you mean that," I cross my arms and rest on my tree branch.

"Katniss, why don't you just come down?" Peeta asks.

"Why don't you come up?" I ask him.

Peeta sighs and starts climbing. He barks at Haymitch until he gives in and climbs up the tree too. I take advantage of their clumsiness to sneak past them on the other side of the tree. When I reach the bottom I soundlessly unfasten Haymitch's squirrel pole and drag it back up with me on the other side of the tree.

Haymitch notices it's absence when I've made it halfway up the tree and have already begun fastening it to a couple of branches that are close together.

"Stop that!" Haymitch calls up at me.

"If you want me to stop you'll have to come up and stop me," I say. When I've finished tying the pole to the branches I'm satisfied that I've made a nice little squirrel ramp in between the branches. That'll get some squirrels.

Haymitch grumbles at me during the rest of the tree climbing lesson so Peeta tells him that he is "excused," which he doesn't seem to mind since he goes to take a nap in the sunshine.

After we shower the day away and come together to eat dinner I come back downstairs to a house full of bloody miners. I instinctively make my way to the door but Peeta's waiting by the front door with his arms crossed. Well, there's always the window. I make my way to the window that opens up to the porch but Peeta comes up behind me and picks me up.

"Let me go," I ask. He just laughs at me. "I'm serious," I warn him.

"Your threats don't hold any weight with me, Katniss," he says. So I start to squirm to try and wiggle free, but he holds on tighter. He sets me down in my chair in the dining room and grabs some rope. When I try to make a break for it he sits on my lap. "You're being rather silly, Katniss. It's just a little blood."

I watch the ropes start to go around my waist and start to throw my body against his movements. "If you didn't struggle I wouldn't be doing this," he says.

"I believe that's one more point for me," Peeta says smugly, admiring his handiwork.

But I can still move, so I stand up with the chair tied to my back and try to walk for the front door. Haymitch and Peeta instantly crack up as they watch me. "You look like a crab!" Haymitch roars.

I hear Peeta get up and try to walk even faster but he catches me and picks me up along with the chair. When he sets me back down at my spot he ties my ankles to the chair so that I can't move anything but my arms.

Gale walks in as Peeta's finishing the final knot, and gives me a panicked look. "Help me!" I cry out to him.

"Peeta what the hell are you doing?" he asks angrily.

"She won't eat her dinner," Peeta says and nods over to where my mom and Prim are working.

"Ohh.." Gale says and then laughs. "Catnip...the only blood she can't handle is another person's." He starts walking away and I realize he's here because he knows the miners who were punished by Thread today. They're part of his crew.

"I'm counting this as one," Peeta calls out and Gale nods without looking back at him.

As I eat dinner I can hear Gale talking with his crew about the incident with Thread. His voice sounds angry, but I have a feeling he's trying to hold his words back since he knows our house is bugged. He joins us for dinner after the miners have been bandaged up and take off for their respective homes. My eyes plead with Gale to free me from my constraints but he just ducks his head down, scoops up some food from his plate, and smiles before shoveling it into his mouth. I huff. He's going to leave me like this?

Tonight we begin the 47th Hunger Games. The Victor's name is Lyme, and she's from District 2. Lyme takes part in the Career pack and I'm almost glad for it because we'll probably get to see her fighting techniques if she's in the pack. Am I losing my humanity? I think to myself. These are human beings. Kids. I shudder.

"Your butt's in the way," Peeta says to me as I stand by the television to put Lyme's case in the proper order in our box of victor tapes.

"Yes, it is, isn't it?" I joke without moving.

He chuckles. "Can you move it, please?"

I feel someone slap my butt and jump up with threatening eyes to all of the boys. I'm not sure which one is the culprit.

"Do as the boy says," Haymitch says, and I narrow my eyes at him. Haymitch is the culprit. "What?" he defends himself. "He's giving me a headache."

"You give yourself a headache," I bite back. "And that hurt." I rub the area he whacked.

"You need to get a thicker skin then, sweetheart."

"Can we get back to the Games now?" Peeta asks.

"Thought you wouldn't mind a conversation like this, boy," Haymitch winks at him and Gale.

"Grow up, Haymitch," Peeta says.

"You guys are weird," Gale says breaking up our bickering.

"They are weird, aren't they?" I say, coming back to sit beside him.

He throws an arm over my shoulder. "Yep, I didn't have any problem with where your butt was." I whack his arm but he gives me a teasing smile.

Halfway through Lyme's Games Gale falls asleep with his head on my shoulder. I smile down at him. I told him he should be sleeping…I sigh, and nudge him awake.

"Huh?" he asks sleepily.

"Welcome back to the real world, kid. Usually I'm the first one to fall asleep," Haymitch says.

"Yeah, and you drool all over my furniture," Peeta says.

"Don't be such a townie," Haymitch quips.

I can see that Gale is trying desperately to wake up, but I know he needs more sleep than he's getting, so I say, "Gale, you should go to bed."

He nods his head, too tired to even fight me about it, and stands up slowly. I get up with him and we walk to the door. When I walk through it with him he looks back at me with a happy smile. "Are you walking me home, Katniss Everdeen?"

I chuckle. "Yes, I am, Gale Hawthorne."

He throws an arm around me and I don't push him away until we get to town. "What?" he asks when I step out of his embrace.

I glance around at the town for my answer. We walk beside each other and he keeps swaying closer to me but I make sure we keep a "friendly distance" away from each other.

It seems he can't take the space between us anymore when we get to his house because he grabs my hand and pulls me to the side where no one would pass by, even though there's no around at this point in the evening.

"Sundays go by too fast, Catnip," he says, stepping closer to me. I press my back to the wall but this time I don't push him away. "And they don't exactly go the way I would like them to…" He kisses each cheek. "And neither do the other days of the week," he says, giving my lips a deep kiss. His lips trace their way across the line of my jaw, but we stop in our tracks when we hear giggles coming from several feet away. We look around and see no one. Then we look up at the window above us, and see Posy smiling and laughing at us.

"Go back to sleep," Gale whispers to her and she reluctantly leaves her perch. "She's too mischievous for her own good," Gale says, shaking his head.

"Goodnight, Gale," I say, dragging him to his front door so he will allow himself to get the sleep he needs.

I make my way back to Peeta's but find that Lyme's Games are almost over. Peeta tells me it's down to her and two other tributes. I look over at Haymitch who is drooling and yawn.

"Why don't you go home?" Peeta says.

"But, we're watching the Games," I say in confusion.

"I've got enough notes on her. Just go home, you're tired."

I shrug. "Okay. As long as you don't mind."

"I don't mind. Now, go. I don't need two drooling people here tonight."

"I don't drool," I pout. He rolls his eyes but doesn't comment back.

I bid him goodnight, make my way home, and crawl into bed. I trace my fingers along all the places Gale kissed me and allow myself to get drawn into a deep sleep.

---

Workout Day 58, Saturday:

A nightmare drives me back to my Games a little while after I fall asleep. It's one of those half-dream, half-awake states where my subconscious lets loose all of its fears to torment me. I try to wake up from it so that it stops, but I also want it to continue to ensure that there's a good ending.

Glimmer is in front of me, on the ground, covered with dozens of tracker jacker stings. Dead. I reach for the bow that's in her fingers, and when I try to tug it free Glimmer's mouth opens and a swarm of tracker jackers fly out of her mouth and start attacking me. I pull at the bow, convinced that if I got the bow the tracker jackers would go away and I would be okay, but my struggles are met with more and more tracker jackers swarming and stinging me and I can't free the bow.

My thoughts go fuzzy. Why am I not dying? Haven't I been stung enough times to die? Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. The canon sounds over and over but I can't wake up.

Suddenly I fly upwards in my bed and let out a short scream. Prim is standing by my bed with wide eyes. She flies onto my bed once she sees I'm awake.

"It's okay," she coos. What a role reversal. I used to calm her from her nightmares. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asks.

I shake my head, and just let her hug me with her tiny arms. At least this nightmare didn't involve Prim. Those are the worst nightmares.

Tonight we start the 48th Hunger Games, and I've noticed that the closer we get to Haymitch's Games the more abrasive he becomes. Tonight he's really nasty to be around, and I have to wonder if watching Chaff's Games are still affecting him still, or if it's just his surly attitude rising to the surface.

But we don't even make it past the bloodbath for us to find out why he's acting this way.

They've zoomed in on the victor's face as the countdown comes to an end. "3…2...1…Boom!" Peeta and I jump in our seats. Our eyes are glued to the television to see how someone died before the horn went off. The commentators are laughing as the screen pans to an explosion. It looks like it was close to one of the pedestals holding a District 12 tribute and I wonder if it they were the one that died.

I peek over at Haymitch and see that his face looks devoid of all emotion. He's as white as the plate he's holding, and he's gripping it so hard I'm worried he might break it. What's going on with him?

Then the commentators come on and say, "Wow! Did you see that ladies and gentlemen? Harvey from District 12 stepped off a second too soon and paid the price for it! Well, it's too bad we didn't get to see him fight after all, with that 8 he got in training, but what a show!"

When Haymitch throws his plate at the wall it smashes into tiny pieces, that's when I understand him. Harvey was his friend. And he just watched his friend get blown to smithereens, again. And the Capitol is adding insult to injury.

Peeta and I exchange a look and we aren't sure what to do next. The commentators replay the moment again and again during the "slow" parts of the bloodbath, and comment that Harvey stepped off 33 milliseconds before the horn sounded. They blew him up for such a minute violation that it makes me sick to my stomach. "Hay-" I start.

But Haymitch interrupts me. "That's why you can't step off early," he says. That's all he says before he walks out the front door.

"Maybe this if for the best," I tell Peeta. Hopefully he'll just keep away tonight and try to take his thoughts off Harvey.

But he doesn't. He throws open the front door and walks over to Peeta, handing him a plate from his own collection. "Sorry about your plate," he says.

"It's okay. Really," Peeta assures him.

"The victor of these Games is from District 3 and her name is Wiress, but everyone calls her Nuts," Haymitch says, trying to detach himself from the emotions he's feeling.

"Why do they call her Nuts?" I ask.

"Because they think she's crazy," he says.

"Is she?" Peeta asks.

Haymitch scowls. "I don't know, but I wouldn't say she's completely there."

We watch her as she runs from the bloodbath with her meager amount of supplies. She looks around frantically and I have to wonder if she really is all there or not. She walks around for hours and then finds a rock to hide under the first day. She doesn't do a whole lot besides scavenge and hide until day 3, so we fast forward until we see the Career pack headed her way.

To our surprise she pops up from hiding when she sees them get closer. She doesn't run or try to fight. She simply speaks. "Have you noticed this is the safe part of the arena?"

Their faces knit in confusion. "Do you know you're not safe with us around?" they taunt and draw their weapons.

She doesn't seem unnerved in the slightest. "On the contrary. We're quite safe here. I've examined this arena, and I've noticed the patterns. Have you noticed the patterns?" Up to this point I haven't heard her speak. She speaks so quickly you almost miss her words.

At this point they're intrigued. "Patterns of what?"

"You'll see," she says and walks away from them without a care in the world. One of the tributes readies a spear, but the leader, Vincenzo from District 2, pushes it down.

"Why don't you tell us the patterns and we'll let you live?" he asks.

"I'll show you. Come on," she says without turning around. She keeps walking, examining the arena, and they follow behind. The other Careers are leery of her and shoot questioning looks at Vincenzo, but he tells them to pipe down.

Wiress leads them to the top of a hill, which overlooks most of the arena. Then she starts talking about different zones and sections with outcroppings. She explains things so fast that you can almost see their heads start spinning. "Zone 1 has explosives and mutts," she says about the Cornucopia. "The section by the lake has the bad fish, so you can't go there. The lake poisons the food in zone 2 so there's nothing to eat. Then the trees in zone 3 will move, so you can't climb them. And it's best to just not go near them. There's something alive under the rocks in zone 4. The section by zone 5 is too cold, but zone 5's temperature is okay. Then there's an outcropping…" She talks for nearly 10 minutes and the Careers are starting to get irritated. They see an easy kill in front of them and their leader is entranced by her words, which they don't seem to believe for a second.

We see them exchange looks behind his back and wonder if they're about to take him out. But just when the one is starting to pull out his sword Wiress stops and turns around to face them. I'm sure her eyes dip down to the sword being drawn, but her movements are so erratic they don't think she noticed.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" the girl from 2 asks.

"How should I know?" she says simply. "But Beetee says to not stay in the open for too long so I'm going back to my safe zone now." She starts walking away. "I did my part, right?" she says suddenly to the leader, who looks at her with an odd expression.

"No way. You're coming with us," the girl from 2 pushes Wiress forward towards the stretch of rocks she described as zone 4.

"No, please," she begs. "There's something under the rocks."

"Did your crazy mentors tell you that?" the girl mocks Wiress.

"They're not crazy," Wiress says in confusion.

"Go!" the girl pushes her on. But Vincenzo takes her District partner aside. "What are you doing?" he asks. "We had a deal with her."

"You're not serious, are you?" the girl's eyes widen. "You know her mentors took out the Career packs. She could be trying to do that too! She comes with us." She's challenging Vincenzo's authority, but he nods his consent.

"Looks like we've got a Cato and Clove situation here," I mumble.

"Don't you mean Clato?" Peeta says using the name we've been seeing in the Capitol newspapers when they talk about the 74th Games.

"At least that's better than Peeniss," I laugh and so does Peeta.

When Wiress and the Careers get to the rocks she starts crossing them quicker than the Careers. They yell at her to slow down but she ignores them. At one point she seems to see something in between the rocks and lets out a scream.

They think she's crazy until little muttation creatures crawl out from under the rocks and start biting their legs. Wiress kicks one away and makes it to the bottom of the rocks safely. Then she runs back to her safe zone as the Careers fight off the mutts.

We fast forward through the rest of her Games since they're very uneventful. She doesn't kill a single tribute, which will be easy on my nightmares tonight but now Peeta and I have no idea if she can fight or not.

"Haymitch, do you think she would ever kill someone if she got reaped?" I ask.

He purses his lips, and says, "No."

"Would she ally with us?" I ask.

"Ah…Katniss…." he mutters and shakes his head.

"What?" I ask him as he walks away and ignores me, muttering things under his breath.

---

AN: You didn't really believe I would take Gale out of Sundays did you? ;)

Anonymous review replies:

no-oneimportant: Thank you for your awesome review! I work very hard on keeping everyone in character, but having some fun with them :D feel free to reprimand me if I go OOC! To be honest, I crave more G/K and P/K moments too. The hardest thing for me is not writing too many of those though since to me, that would seem AU. Katniss has never been a mushy lady. Unfortunately. However, I will say that some lovely moments are coming in the final chapters for shippers of each pairing ;)

Ms. Random: Thank you also for your awesome review! Feel free to keep complimenting my story as "amazing" any time you want ;) Very glad to hear that I'm not going OOC with all the humor. Not to fear, Galeniss will return! I think you will especially enjoy the final "week."

I hope you enjoyed! Please review! If you had a favorite part I'd love to know it.