Day 15

I must have been in a vertical position when I woke up, because the first thing I saw was my tail. It was a deep red.

"Great," I said aloud, swishing it idly. It was actually very pretty, and apparently very powerful if the amount I moved even from that small stroke was any indication.

"Katniss!" someone said, and I looked up. My eyes widened in surprise.

"Gale?" I gasped. His tail was also red, but brighter and veering towards the orange side, the intensity of the color almost hurting my eyes. "You…merman," I spluttered.

"You think?" he hissed back, sarcastic. I tore my eyes away from him (he was even shirtless and every thing. He would have fit right in, if not for the severe color) and surveyed the surroundings. We were in some sort of industrial area, surrounded by gray rock buildings that resembled factories. It was dark and the surrounding water felt heavy. Self consciously, I raised a hand to my neck and felt them. Gills.

"Gale," I said, keeping my voice low, "What happened? Where the fuck are we?"

"Hell if I know," he muttered, looking around. It was only then I noticed what he was clutching in his hands.

"Is that a gun?" I squawked.

"Catnip, shush!" he ordered.

"Those have been illegal for a century!"

"You're going to get us killed!" he accused. This shut me up long enough for him to continue. "Your mom was really scared, right? And Prim, too. They said you were afraid of being kidnapped, and you know there are prostitution rings out there, Catnip, it wasn't that much of a long shot, so when I came to visit you I brought it with me. Your mom mentioned something about six o'clock, so when the time came I was feeling kind of jumpy so I was holding your hand, and then all of a sudden there was this bubble thing and we were in this room with these weird-ass scientists with weird faces, like, tattoos gone wild, and we're all freaking mermen, so I shot in their direction grabbed you and tried to go back through the bubble 'cause I don't know what I was thinking, like it would bring us back or something, and we ended up here." He gave me a serious look, and I could tell that under his fairly shallow mask of annoyance he was freaking out. "What the fuck is going on, Katniss?"

"Um," I answered wittily, looking down both sides of the alleyway, and then down below, where there might be even more buildings, but the water got too dark too quickly to tell. "The ocean is filled with merpeople who are currently rebelling against their evil government?"

"What?"

"Do you know where we are?" I asked, picking a direction and swimming towards it. It took me a few strokes to get used to the tail and webbed hands. "I mean, what district?"

"I don't know what the fuck you're on," Gale hissed angrily.

I threw him a wicked look over my shoulder. "Trust me," I said. "They're not all evil." At least, I hope so. If this society had produced Peeta Mellark, it couldn't be. I stared straight ahead, looking for any signs of life. There wasn't any outside, but I could definitely see silhouettes inside the buildings and…hold on. "I see D13 guards," I whispered. "They all have gray tails."

"Am I allowed to ask what that is?" Gale snarked.

"District 13. They're in charge of the rebellion. That's where I stayed last time," I looked around for more people.

"Right," Gale said dubiously.

"They won't kill us on sight," I said. "We just have to cross the street and get to that building."

"Catnip, there are these white patrolmen circling the block," Gale informed me, "and I wouldn't be surprised if they have sentries on the roofs. If those are the ones that…will kill us on sight…Katniss, this is craz-"

"Just trust me, okay?" I repeated, staring at him.

He met my gaze for a long time before breaking eye contact and continuing, "If those are the bad guys, Katniss, we won't be able to make it without being spotted."

I reached out and grabbed his hand. "Thank you," I whispered. "Have you just been sitting here the whole time?"

"Well, Snow White, you were certainly taking advantage of your beauty rest," he responded sarcastically.

"They can't be paying that close attention," I argued. "If I can see the D13 people, so can they."

"Maybe it's a trap," he pointed out.

I crossed my arms over my chest. I noticed that while Gale had removed his own shirt, mine hadn't been touched. "Then what do you suggest?"

He sighed, closing his eyes momentarily. "I don't know. Katniss, we're fucking mermen. I don't even know if I'm awake."

"They say if you die in a dream, you wake up, right?" I reasoned.

"Katniss – Katniss, no-"

Before he could stop me, I darted out into the intersection. I heard Gale swearing, which I could only assume meant he was following me. Swimming was actually pretty instinctual, after the first couple of strokes. It couldn't have taken me more than five seconds to cross that path at top speed.

I barreled straight through one of the ventilation shafts and into the building. It took a few seconds for people to notice me. Looking around, it was clearly a hospital.

I felt Gale knock into me a few second later, still swearing under his breath, and we were approached a few seconds later by a D13 merman – I assumed he was a security guard. He glared down at us. "Who are you two?"

"Friends," I answered, before Gale could speak. "Look, I know you're probably really busy, but we need to contact District 13," I hesitated before adding, "Tell them it's Katniss Everdeen."

He narrowed his eyes, but glanced down at Gale and my tails. They were easily the most vibrant in the room. The most common color seemed to be a dull, navy blue. "Stay here," he ordered, signaling another guard from the perimeter of the building to come keep an eye on us.

I watched he swim away, into another room out-of-sight, and hoping desperately that I wasn't in way to deep over my head. "Sir," I addressed the guard, "If you don't mind, where are we?"

The guard glanced at us, surprised. He seemed to be looser than the last guy. "How do you not know?"

"Teleportation accident," I answered glumly, reaching behind me to squeeze Gale's arm with one hand. He was as tense as a found-up spring, and I was grateful that he was managing to hold his tongue.

"District 8," he said.

"8," I echoed, not really having a clue what that meant. Looking around, it meant a lot of injured people. "May I speak to them?"

"No," he answered shortly. Suddenly, there was a commotion on the other side of the room.

"I'm NOT doing this anymore!" someone shouted. It sounded like the middle of a royal temper tantrum. "I'm not going to let you put these people in MORE PAIN just so you can get a good shot!" My head perked up, eyes catching on a figure that tore into the room. I think Gale and the guard were the only ones in the room not to gasp.

Peeta, I thought.

"Is that a human?" I heard someone mutter.

The merpeople near Peeta were trying to usher him out of the room, but he was having none of it. "No! Let them know!" he shouted, turning around, raising his arms to the sky. "President Snow cursed me! I have legs. Now, can you stop hurting these patients just to get a shot of me from the waist up?"

The entire room of merpeople was stunned into silence. Making up my mind, I leaned forward and flicked my tail, flying past the guard. I think Gale called after me, but I wasn't paying attention.

"If you want a message for Snow, tell him this," Peeta continued. "You can destroy us, and our homes and our children, and our tails, but you cannot defeat us. Just look at how well your attempts worked on me." He straightened up and glared menacingly at the camera. "Tell him Peeta the Protector is watching over Panem."

I was about three-quarters of the way down the room and was attracting notice myself when he finally turned around. He only had the bottom half of his wetsuit on today. We made eye contact, and I swear he stopped breathing.

I tilted my head. "That was really cheesy," I said, but he may have been too far away to hear.

Likewise, he might have said something back; now that he wasn't shouting I couldn't catch it, but I saw him smile. I kept gliding forward and we crashed into each other two second later.

His flipper scraped part of my tail, causing us both to flounder around not-so-gracefully. "You're here?!" he exclaimed. "I thought you were dead!"

"That was quite a speech," I commented.

He smiled crookedly. "I had extra motivation," he said, hands grabbing my waist, and pulled me in for a quick kiss.

I pulled back for a second, eyes wide in surprise, and he let go of me and backed up, righting himself as he went. "Sorry," he apologized, one hand rising to cover his mouth, but I don't think he meant it.

I liked my own lips. He tasted like…actually, he normally tasted like saltwater, but I didn't sense that anymore. Maybe my new mermaid taste buds cancelled it out. Now he tasted…human. Distinctly human. And maybe I was projecting here, but he tasted like bread.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turning my head I saw Gale. Peeta and all the other D13 merpeople were looking at me questioningly, while the patients seemed all over the spectrum from pleased to shocked. "This is Gale Hawthorne," I said, mostly for the good of the group, trying to think of a reasonable explanation he would be with me. "He's my…cousin."

Gale shot me a look, but my attention was almost immediately reclaimed by Peeta. "This is Katniss Everdeen," Peeta introduced. He reached out for me, and I attempted to hold hands but couldn't because of my webbed fingers. He gave me an apologetic look and wrapped his hand around my wrist instead. "District 12," he continued.

I swallowed. Because humans were savages. Right. "Right," I agreed out loud, softly, and then cleared my throat to address the crowd. "We, um, ran away. Before 12 was destroyed. But now you found me."

"We found each other," he corrected. I heard some 'awwws' from around us, and realized it must be the patients. Peeta smirked a little, taking the opportunity to lean in for another kiss.

I didn't stop him.

"Katniss," Gale growled. I jerked away, reminding myself that this was the real world, no matter how much everyone else was dazzled by the famous Peeta Mellark effect.

"Um," I answered, "Peeta's a merman?"

Gale looked down dubiously at Peeta's legs.

We were interrupted by the first security guard, who looked slightly exasperated at the whole situation. "All of you," he announced, seemingly addressed Peeta, me, Gale, and all of the merpeople following Peeta around, "you have to evacuate. Immediately."

I was ready to question it, as usual, but Peeta's face just darkened, and he grabbed my wrist to pull me in the direction he had come from. I glanced over my shoulder at Gale, just to make sure he was following, and he was. A nervous tittering had broken out among the patients within earshot, but no one else seemed to be paying attention.

We were led into a small room, and then a smaller side room off of that, completely devoid of patients. Only then did Peeta open his mouth. "What's wrong, Boggs?"

"The Capitol tracked them," Boggs said, pointing to me and Gale. I stiffened and slid myself out of Peeta's grip, backing against Gale as though I could physically defend him. "They'll be here any minute."

I think my mouth dropped open. "That's where we were?"

"Sure glad I know what the fuck's going on," Gale mentioned casually.

"Just…" Boggs pointed to the corner of the room. Still slightly bewildered, I followed Peeta's lead, and Gale followed mine, and with about three gray-tailed merpeople holding obviously magical seashell-sand contraptions, we stood in a formation. Then the bubble thing happened, and then we were obviously back in District 13.

What is my life?

There were only a few people in the room we appeared in, one being Beetee and another Haymitch, who approached us. "Peeta. Sweetheart," he addressed, and then looked at Gale. "Who're you? The Dark Angel of Vengeance?"

In his defense, he had no idea it would stick.

Gale crossed his arms, the gun sticking menacingly in Haymitch's direction, which I'm sure wasn't an accident. "Gale Hawthorne," he said easily, jerking his head at Katniss. "I'm with her. And you look an awful lot like that harbor guy that took Peeta in."

Haymitch raised his eyebrows. "Hawthorne? What are you doing here?"

"Excellent question," he responded, turning to me.

I scowled at both of them. "It's going to be a long night."

Haymitch led us to some sort of conference room, where several very important people came to interrogate us, including President Coin herself.

"Did the…bullet injure the Capitol guards or not?" some woman named Paylor was demanding. She had a navy blue tail, like the rest of the District 8 refugees.

"I told you, I don't know," Gale growled back. "I was panicked and I kind of figured to shoot first and ask questions later. It worked, didn't it?"

Paylor frowned. "Apparently so," she mused. "You must have injured the magician severely enough to influence the spell. It's probably the only thing that kept you alive. That in itself is a miracle."

"Take it," Coin ordered.

Gale recoiled, clutching the gun firmly. "What? No!"

"Give it to us," she commanded coldly, staring Gale straight in the eye, "Or we will take it from you."

Gale cocked the gun and pointed it at her. "Oh yeah?" he challenged.

I help my breath, and everyone in the room seemed to do the same. Coin and Gale had their own private stare-down, and I'm not sure who won, but Gale spoke first. "Look, I'm willing to help," he said, lowering the gun a few degrees, "But I want to be in charge. Replication, training, arming personnel. You're going to need me, anyway. You wouldn't have the first clue on how to use these things."

"It doesn't seem difficult," Boggs snapped.

Gale smirked, but underneath the facade, I could tell how tense he was. Under the table, I ran a fin along one side of Peeta's leg again, which he thankfully didn't seem to be able to sense through the heavy wetsuit. "It will when you run out of ammunition," Gale answered.

There was a brief silence, caused mostly by the fact that they probably didn't know what 'ammunition' meant. Finally, Coin asked, "How do we know we can trust you?"

Gale's face darkened. "Snow kidnapped me and my…cousin," he answered finally. "And I know what living in an unfair system is like."

"You haven't had to send your children to die," Coin remarked.

His brow furrowed. "Excuse me?"

I realized quickly that he hadn't quite made it to the Hunger Games yet. "He said he knows," I interrupted, trying to make my voice as harsh as possible. I glared briefly at Coin, and shot Gale an explain-to-you-later look. He shrugged in response.

Coin looked from me to Gale. "Fine," she said, rising from the rock table and stools. "Report to Beetee's lab in the morning, 0700 hours."

We all watched as she exited the room quickly. "I don't like her," Gale said immediately after she was out of eyesight.

"She's all we've got, kid," Haymitch said, also rising, stretching his arms. "Oh, I need a drink. Guns. The ocean's going to run red."

"It's not his fault," I defended.

"It's late," Peeta interjected, kicking off his rock stool into the water. "We should get some sleep." He looked from me to Gale, and I got the sense that he was deliberately holding himself back from touching me. "I can show you to your rooms, if you like," he offered. "I recognize the locations the officers said in the meetings."

"Sure," I said immediately, also rising. Gale shot Peeta a nasty look and placed himself in between us.

The journey back was slow, hindered by Peeta's lack of fins and Gale's lack of prior experience swimming before. Peeta kept on trying to give us advice, but after a little while he just gave up, which unfortunately gave Gale the conversational opening he was looking for.

"So," Gale began, "President Snow gave you legs."

"It's irreversible," Peeta answered simply, which gave me a bit of a pang in my stomach.

"A true love's kiss from Katniss gave you your voice back," Gale answered.

Peeta started to glare back. It wasn't a good look from him. "Maybe there's another solution we're missing,"

"Maybe," Gale answered, "Either way, I couldn't help noticing that you and Katniss have tried several more times, and it's still not working?"

"You have a point?" Peeta asked.

"Yeah." Gale jerked his thumb at me. "Let her go."

"Gale!" I objected sharply.

He threw me a look. "What? You didn't even want to come back here in the first place, did you?"

"I…I didn't think about it," I answered. "It wasn't exactly an option."

Gale snorted. "It should be."

"We're here," Peeta told us stonily, stopping at a door-sized opened covered merely by a curtain – I supposed for water flow. "These are assigned to you, Hawthorne."

Gale nodded stoically, swimming forward to enter the room. He stopped at the last second, turning in the doorway. "I don't know why, but you're some sort of figurehead, Mellark," Gale said. "If you have any sort of power and a conscience, protect her."

"I can handle myself," I announced loudly.

Peeta just nodded. "I will."

Gale nodded back, and disappeared behind the curtaining. I rounded on Peeta. "I don't need protection."

Peeta sighed. "Of course not," he muttered. "It's not like I'm any good at it, anyway."

We swam in silence all the way back to my room, a different one now that I was no longer under hospitalized care. Peeta nodded at the doorway, calling after me when I was almost through it. "Goodnight, Katniss," he said. "I…really like your tail."

I stopped dead, turning around almost as an afterthought. "It's a bit gaudy," I said, wiggling it experimentally. "I mean, magenta?"

Peeta shrugged. "I think it suits you. It makes you look…like you're on fire."

I looked up at him. "Peeta," I asked, "What color was your tail?"

"Blue," he answered.

I closed my eyes to envision a blue-eyed, blue-tailed Peeta. "Where all tails in District 12 blue?"

"No," he told me. "Most were black. Merchant tails were bluer, but my family was really the only ones…and mine was always the brightest, so…" he sighed. "I should have known I was going to die."

I looked up at him sharply. "What do you mean?"

He smiled sadly. "Those with bright tails always ended up picked, one year or another. Makes the Games prettier." He scratched his head with one hand.

"You didn't die," I offered.

He didn't respond, but he didn't swim away, either.

"I'm glad you didn't," I offered suddenly.

He regarded me softly. "Goodnight, Katniss."

"Goodnight," I whispered back.

A/N: Hope you enjoy! Please review.