For there never was a story of more woe...

The darkness lifted artificially fast, the sun shining brightly onto the suddenly beautiful meadow. There were no sign of the mutts or the slaughter that had been committed there days before.

Peeta slid down from the Cornucopia, stumbling slightly on landing. Katniss followed closely. She breathed deeply waiting for the end. She clutched Peeta's hand and waited to go home.

"There has been another change of rules; there can be only one winner of the Hunger Games." Crane's voice reverberated through Katniss, meaningless.

"No…" she whispered.

Peeta turned towards her with his half-crooked smile. Damn Peeta with his open optimism and his hidden scepticism. Since she told him in the cave he had been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"It's all right Katniss," he said, reaching up to stroke her chin. He looked down at his leg, which was now bleeding more heavily than before. "It was always going to be you."

"No," she said fiercely, stopping his hands where they were reaching to undo the tourniquet. "You promised."

"Katniss…" he sounded tired. Like a tired old man scolding a naïve little girl. "You still have Prim and your mother and Gale…you still have a life in Twelve. The odds were never in my favour Katniss. You are everything to me and I'm just happy that you're safe, that you can go home."

"Do you think I will ever leave this place? Do you think I will ever forget Rue? Thresh? How can I live with your blood on my hands? You would damn me to that?" Peeta shook his head.

"Peeta," she said with tears in her eyes. "Do you remember that night in the rain with the bread?"

He nodded softly.

She bit her lip and looked into his blue eyes. "You gave me hope. Hope that I wouldn't starve, that I could survive. You gave me hope of a better place; hope that I could live in a world without being scared every day, without being worried every day. Peeta…" she cradled his face between her hands. "Don't leave me here."

A tear slid down his face. His hands found hers, dragging them away from his face and twining his fingers in hers.

"A place without fear," he said looking up at her under half-lids.

"Where we can be happy," she smiled at him wetly.

He stroked a thumb across her knuckles and gently tugged her across the meadow. She followed quietly as he limped across to a small rise and settled on the grass beside him. From this light the meadow looked deceptively beautiful, a sea of yellows, blues and pinks.

"Maybe we will find it," Peeta said suddenly. His whole leg was drenched a dark red, his face an ashen grey. "Find that place…where we can be happy, at peace."

She raised their twined hands between them and kissed his split and bruised knuckles. "Together."

He dug in his pocket and brought out the blue berries. He smiled dryly and slowly dropped a few into her open hand.

She scanned his face - the blonde hair, blues eyes – memorising the planes and angles. He offered her a small smile. "I love you," she said and to her surprise it wasn't a lie, a confession or an act, it was a declaration of fact.

Peeta's smile widened even if his eyes held sadness. He traced her jaw with his hand, flicked her nose and finally dropped his hand to tug her braid. "Do you remember when we first met?" He asked.

Her nose crinkled as she thought, wondering where he was going with this.

"Mrs Shaft asked if someone would like to sing and your hand shot straight up." Katniss tried not to writhe with embarrassment. "You sang so beautifully that even the birds stopped. But then, you stopped singing…"

She looked away from him across the bright meadow thinking about her family, her father, the greyness that permeated District Twelve. Softly, she began to sing, growing louder and louder as she went.

"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
…
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."

There was silence when she finished. Peeta leant towards her and brushed a kiss along her cheek, she turned her head to catch it on her lips. As they parted they heard the mockingjays start up, softly, repeating her song.

"Meet you at the hanging tree?" Peeta asked quietly his eyes holding her gaze.

"Only if I don't beat you there," she said equally quietly. Then she raised the berries to her lips.

The End.