Things change at the last second
and you realize that nothing is permanent.
But some things are strong, sturdy, unbreakable,
some things won't ever let you down.

A/N-- Another chapter :). I hope you guys like it. Sorry to those of you who thought Katniss was out of character last chapter, and I hope that she is back on now. Thanks to everyone for reviewing! 65 :) WHOOT WHOOT! Keep it up :)! And if you think you know who burned down Peeta's house, then check out the poll on my profile! :)

Disclaimer--You all know by now, that I don't own The Hunger Games, or the characters in it. I don't even own Prim's ugly old cat. :(.

ENJOY!")


"Gale!" Katniss gapes at him. Her voice is a mixture of confusion, anger, and embarrassment.

My eyes dart back and forth between the two of them. Katniss' tears have dried, and I wonder if I will ever see her in such a vulnerable state again. I doubt it. The conviction I had felt just minutes before is slowly seeping out of my system. Her hair has gone back to its braid, and Katniss has gone back to her old self. Not completely, though. I still can feel the fire burning bright inside of her. Blazing and consuming everything else. It takes over my thoughts, until I can concentrate on only her, only Katniss. I don't even remember that Gale is in the room when I take a step towards her and plant a light kiss on her lips.

The anger and confusion drain out of her face, and she is left with embarrassment. Her cheeks and ears flush red, but she is not looking at me. And that's when I remember Gale standing behind us. I wrap my arm protectively around her shoulder before slowly turning back to face Gale.

She loves me. She must. I tell myself, remembering how absolutely sure I had been before seeing Gale. And nothing about Katniss' reaction should have led me to believe anything else. She was surprised that he had shown up at her door, sure, but she didn't seem regretful in any way.

Gale has a cold look of utter loathing as he stares me down. He looks so angry that I experience a small moment of fear. I just tighten my arm around Katniss, however, because nothing should scare me now. I've gone through the very worst of my life, and I've survived. I won't fear Gale.

Yet he still looks about ready to shoot me. I actually see his eyes trail along the wall to where a bow is hanging. She shouldn't be allowed to keep it, but Effie had pulled a few strings, and gotten an imitation bow of the one that Katniss had used in the Arena made. It looks exactly like the other, but it isn't a real weapon. Still, Gale's gaze rolls over it as if he's about ready to pull it down from the wall and zing an arrow through my chest. Maybe he wants to.

"Katniss." He says through gritted teeth. He is absolutely seething inside. "Can I talk to you? Alone."

"Now?" She replies, and her eyes flit up to my face for a brief moment. She isn't asking for permission, she is just seeing what my reaction is.

"If that's alright." Gale spits out.

Katniss sighs and my grip around her shoulder tightens for a second before I loosen it and let her go. They walk out of the room and Gale closes the door, shooting me a death glare before doing so.

Being alone in Katniss' room brings up some sort of emotion in me that I've never really experienced before. I can't describe it. But I don't like it, and I want to get out of here. For all I know, though, Katniss and Gale might be right outside the door, and if I left they would think I was trying to spy on them or something... So I stay put.

My mind doesn't really register thoughts right now. It just skims over things quickly, lingering on the good memories for a bit, zipping right through the bad ones. I let it wander as I stare at Katniss' bow. Something about it just doesn't seem right to me. But I keep skimming the room, trying not to think very hard about what Gale and Katniss are talking about, trying to remember the absolute surety I had felt when Katniss kissed me, trying not to fall apart again. Then I realize what seems wrong about the Capitol bow. Katniss has spent the last months trying to forget about the Games. So why would she hang such a vivid reminder of them up on her wall?

I don't know how much time has passed when I hear Katniss slowly open the door to her room and enter. I must have fallen asleep on her bed, because my eyes are tired and my whole body is stiff. I guess that I deserve some rest, it's been a while since I've really slept. But now I am more tired than I was before, and I really want to see how Katniss will deal with what just happened.

"Hey." I say sleepily, stifling a yawn. She is still standing in front of her open door, trying to decide what to do.

"Hi." She says back cautiously, and it takes my brain a few seconds to realize why my heart has started racing inside my chest. She sounds cold and aloof, not at all like someone who is in love.

"Should I go?" I ask her, sounding much stronger than I feel. Maybe it hasn't completely hit me yet, but I can feel myself start to break apart inside. Again. Again. Again. Here it comes. I think as I wait for her to say something that smashes my world apart.

She hesitates. I can tell that she is trying to decide how to answer. Not just what words she should use, but whether I should go or not. I don't know what to do. I have to keep my promise, no matter what. Even if she continues to toy with my heart the way she has been. That doesn't matter anymore, my feelings don't matter. Nothing but Katniss matters. And I will keep her whole.

I stand up and start to leave. "I'll see you later, Katniss." I say, sounding completely healthy inside. Not at all like the broken thing that I really am right now. I touch her shoulder lightly as I walk by, pulling her out of my way. No part of her reacts except her eyes. They look at me with a mixture of relief, horror, and incredulity.

Katniss just doesn't know what she wants.

"Where will you go?" She asks me before I've taken two steps down the hall. I remember her sister asking me the same thing very early this morning.

I don't lie to Katniss, though. She isn't a fragile Prim. She can take the whole truth. "I don't know." I tell her, honestly. "I just don't know where I belong anymore."

This answer must surprise her, because without turning around, I hear her take in a sharp breath, but get through the hall and down the stairs before she has recovered.

I don't really know what time it is when I reach the front door, but Prim is just arriving home from school. She looks so excited to see me that I feel bad about leaving.

"Peeta!" She yells, almost dropping the pile of clean, white cloth bundled in her hands.

"Hi, Prim." I say back, nice and calm. Nothing like how I feel inside. "Just getting home from school?"

She nods quickly, but I know that this is the case before she tells me. "Yeah, have you been here for very long?"

I reach around inside my head for an answer, because I had fallen asleep up in Katniss' room, and I don't really know how long I've been here. I look out the door that Prim has left open, and decide that I have probably been here less than two hours. "Not really," I exaggerate, "Just a little while, to talk to Katniss."

Prim looks at her feet grimly. "Oh. She wanted you when she woke up. I went to tell her what you said, after you left, and she was really upset. Gale got mad." Her voice sinks to a whisper by the end.

"Really?" I ask, interested. I know that Gale was mad, because I just saw him, but I didn't know that Katniss wanted me that bad. Maybe she was delirious from her recent injury.

"Yeah!" Prim squeaks excitedly, closing the door and effectively cutting off my only means of immediate escape. Not that I really want to escape from Prim, but I want out of here in case Katniss comes down the stairs. Prim goes over and sets the cloth on a counter. It must be bandages for Ophelia to use. "She was really mad that you weren't there. And that made Gale upset because he was there, and she wasn't paying any attention to him at all, asking for you again and again." She still sounds excited, but her voice keeps getting quieter, as if she's expecting Gale or Katniss or both to emerge from some hidden corner and yell 'Aha!'.

"Did she hit her head?" I ask before I can stop myself. I know she didn't hit her head, of course, I was the first person to find her, but I still can't help but laugh inwardly at the strangeness of it all. Katniss may not have chosen me, but I keep forgetting that she hasn't chosen Gale, either.

Prim looks at me with a strange facial expression that I can't quite pinpoint. Something less than horror, but more than surprise. "Sorry." I say, knowing that she won't be able to find the raw humor in the statement I have just made. She smiles slightly, placating me. It doesn't really bother me. I'm just glad to talk to her again.

"Anyway." Prim says awkwardly, "Did Katniss say anything important?"

I sigh. I knew this moment was coming, and there is no point lying to her about it. She can read my face. "Not really. We didn't get much time to talk. Gale came about two minutes after I got here, and then they were talking out in the hall for a while. And here I am." I say, summing it up. Words usually come more naturally to me than they are right now. I can't seem to find my groove. I feel like someone dangled hope in front of me and then snatched it away at the last second. My mind has been shaken.

Prim's face falls at this news. She can tell that I am hurting. I know that she doesn't necessarily favor me over Gale, but she thinks of Gale as more of a brother to Katniss, and me as more of a... well, something else. Because she doesn't know the background Katniss and I have, which is hardly anything anyway, but a little. She only knows what she saw in the Games, and what Katniss has told her. From what I've garnered, that isn't much.

"I gotta go, kiddo." I say ruffling her hair. She smiles at me, hopefully. And when I think of hope, I wonder what Prim's future will be. Will they stick her in the Hunger Games, because Katniss has won, and they know that having her little sister forced into those Games will hurt Katniss more than dying would have? I wouldn't put it passed them, but I also won't say anything about it. I never do.

"Can't you stay for dinner?" She asks, that same wisp of hope and optimism showing on her face.

"No, Prim. Maybe some other time, okay?" I tell her, getting ready to leave. I walk to the door, and as I am opening it, risk a small glance backwards.

"Yeah, Peeta. Some other time."

As soon as I am out the door, I break into a run. Well, as much of a run as I can handle with my prosthetic leg slowing me down. I'm getting a lot better at it, because I've been practicing. I can't shake the feeling that I belong somewhere in that Arena, and it scares me. I always feel like I have something to run from, or run to; I don't know which. But regardless, I run. And it feels good to run, even if it is the awkward imitation of a real run that is all I can manage.

Again, I don't really know where I'm going, so I just keep running until I get to a fence. Then I turn in the other direction and start running again. I go in this fashion until I am completely tired out, and it's the strangest thing, because the place I have stopped is a place that I have never been, yet is as familiar to me as almost anything. It is Katniss' old house. It is right by a fence, and there is a yellowish cat pawing at the front door.

I cautiously approach the thing, wondering if it is feral. But it looks up at me with pleading eyes, and I recognize it as Prim's cat, Buttercup. "Hey, cat." I say to it, bending over and petting it's head. The motion sends pain through my entire body, because It's been a while since I've run that much. I straighten back up and slowly open the door to let the cat in.

I don't really feel right about it, but I have a strong urge to go inside this house, so I follow Buttercup. It's a very small house. Practically a room, but it screams of home to me, nevertheless. More of a home than the house that burned down in Victor's Village, more of a home even, than my family's place above the bakery. This just feels like Katniss to me. And to me, Katniss feels like home.

"What are you doing here?" A voice calls from the other side of the room, scaring me so bad that I jump a foot in the air. The action has me doubling over in pain, and my vision is briefly filled with black spots. I think that I may have overdone it this time.

I look up to where the voice came from, and see Gale sitting on an old, rickety chair, and staring at me skeptically. "I should--ask you the--same--question." I say through ragged breaths.

He laughs once without mirth. "Whatever. This is more my house than yours."

"Then why'd you kick the cat out?" I ask, even though I know from Prim's stories that Buttercup escapes from Victor's Village, and comes here any chance he gets. I have regained my breath, and the ache in my muscles starts to feel good and powerful. "What'd ol' Buttercup ever do to you, huh?" I ask in a sort of croon, bending over again to pet the cat on the head. He rubs his whiskers against my hand before running off and disappearing in a shadow along the wall.

"What's your problem, anyway? Katniss didn't want to talk to you after her conversation with me?" Gale asks.

I want to yell at him. Or better yet, tell him that I've decided to let her chose in her own good time. That I'm not pushing her in either direction like he is. But that would make me sound like I think that I am better than him. It would be bragging, and I don't really mean it to be that way. So I keep my mouth shut.

He waits.

I don't answer him, I just look around the room that Katniss grew up in.

"What?" He snaps at me, although I'm not really sure what he is referring to.

"I was just passing by. Thought I'd let the cat in and see the place that Katniss spent most her life in while I was at it." I say, and I sound much more civil than I think that I will. More so than I even try to sound.

I turn to leave. Half of me expects him to say something, to stop me. Half of me wants him to. Wants to stop hating him just for existing, to forgive him, stop being jealous. But he says nothing, and he sure isn't making himself easy to like.

I take a deep breath of air once outside, and decide to return to my family's house.

I don't want to see Matza or Challa, or my mother. But I do want to see my dad. I want to ask him about Ophelia. I want to just have any type of conversation with him, really. Because he's my dad, and I miss him.

And no one can live without family.


A/N--I hope you liked it! Please review, no matter what you thought!!! And check out my poll on my profile, if you have an opinion as to who burned down Peeta's house! ;)

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