A/N:Thank you so FREAKING much peetamellarkbuns, InLoveWithPeeta, Meg123 (Don't worry, I think this chapter she's less cold:D...you may be sad though), DandelionOnFire (I don't know if you'll like this chapter so much...I find it kinda sad:)), Kari (Do you have an account? If yes, PM me. But to what you said, yeah, but in this story Gale never provided her family:) And you really like Gale getting angry, huh?), Happy Blossom (yeah well...make your day...I'm not so sure about that...read though:D), Aria-dancingdolphins15 (yeah, but she's way to stubborn to admit it:)), ohmygawdpeeta (he,he, yes, someone has to tell her;)), Takeiteasycharlie (I'm glad you like my Prim:)), L345 (thanks. I know, she can be really annoying;)), Tree Hugger11 (I just love to read how you want it to go...especially their dialogues:D), HungerGamesLover1020 (With Robbie Williams? If yes, I've seen it two years ago. It's so awesome! But it has an entirely different title in German, so I needed to search for it a bit:D), CharmChaser (Why do I have a feeling you're gonna kill me for that chapter:D? Oh yeah...Must be the proposal...;)), Bucsfan37 (It's okay. Better late than never. And OMG THANK YOU SOO MUCH!), ILoveTheBoyWithTheBread (THANK YOU SOO FREAKING MUCH! When I read you review I was overwhelmed xD. You made me SO happy:D), Amanda332czx (Well, the root is edible. But it does have flowers. Kinda like potatos. I can prove it. Just search "Pfeilkraut" {it's the German name for the plant} in google images. You'll find images with flowers:D), BBree23 (yeah...almost. But he doesn't feel better...), Alexis (Thanks. I really liked writing it and I'm glad you enjoyed it:D), silverchicklet (Why? Madge and Gale are nice together, but I don't think I'm gonna do that...), MissArinnaDark (it's ok. I have your review now:D),SilverLuna1997(Hmmmm. Yes, that's what everyone else is wondering about:D), theamazingtracy (THANK YOU!) and TwilightLove100 (Of course I continue:D)!

For the last chapter I got a few compliments about Prim being more mature than in the books. Well, there's a good reason. In this story Prim is 14 now, which means in the book she's already died. Sooo...she is just older, that's the reason.

And to answer Amanda332czx's question and maybe someone else was wondering, too, yes I did make a time jump. A half year, but I think Katniss mentioned that:D

And there were also a few reviewers mentioning the elves-thing. I have to admit, it isn't REALLY mine. I mean, I did it with Katniss, but actually that's what my father told me when he took me first really IN the woods, meaning away from the way. Yeah, I only added the names thing, because I have the name of a river (NO, not 'Tigris'):D

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own anything.

Chapter 14:

Now my feets don't refuse and I move as fast as I can. I have to hide! Whoever this is could catch me breaking the law. And kill me. Because Peacekeepers are allowed to go out here if they suspect anyone. And it's not as though no one knew about me.

I hurry to hide behind the nearest tree and not one second to early, too, because immediatly after I vanished I see two feets step on the clearing.

I knew I shouldn't, but I can't help it. I want to know who it is, and why he or she has stopped moving. So I risk a glance.

My heart almost stops and I stand here, frozen in shock. Because standing on this clearing, out in the woods, I see the last person I expected. After a few seconds, when I've come over my shock, I hide behind the tree again. And then the questions start forming in my head.

What is he doing here? Why is he here? Does he know I am here? Has he followed me?

But it doesn't take me long to see he hasn't. He just looks around the clearing once, probably looking if anyone is here. I quickly hide behind the tree again. I can't risk getting caught here by him.

Thinking about it, I should probably leave. I really should. I'm not supposed to be spying on him ,especially when everytime I look at him I feel that strange tightening in my chest. And this lump in my throat. The feeling I have every time I see him. This mixture of sadness, hurt, guilt and...something I can't quite place. Is it...longing? No, no it can't be. I refuse to believe that. But seeing him here, in this clearing, in our place has made this come up. And no matter how hard I may try, I can't shake it. So maybe, if I just stay here, hidden behind the trees, who would be hurt by it? And what if some wild animal comes here? He isn't aimed! It would kill him. Although I tell myself I don't care for him, I don't want him to die. So I have to stay here.

I take a deep breath and prepare myself for seeing him again before I take my old postion. This way I can see him perfectly, but he shouldn't be able to see me.

I watch how he takes his painting block out. What? Did he just come here for painting? I would at least have expected that he would have a kind of my thoughts. For some reason that upsets me. Does this really mean nothing to him? Did I mean nothing to him?

That is, until I realize where those thoughts are heading. I mentally scold myself. What was I thinking? I'm not supposed to have this thoughts! It's good if he doesn't think of me anymore. Why would I want something else?

I shake my head. These thoughts are getting me nowhere. I focus back on him.

He is sitting there, cross-legged and is staring at his block. After a few seconds I realize his isn't only staring. He is flicking through the pictures he has already drawn. I don't see many of them, since I'm quite a few feet away, but I catch a few details though. A red dress. A cake. Something I figure must be the sunset. One of the flowers he drew when we were first out here. And finally, he stops.

I bend a bit father away from the tree to get a better look. It's a picture I haven't seen before, but I know immediatly what it is of.

I can make out a dark background, lit by beaming white points that must be starts. Only a bit of the picture doesn't have any stars, which makes me assume this is where the ground is. Lying there is only one person. A girl. Her hair is so dark I can only see it where it falls over her face and where the stars lit the sky. Even though the sky is breathtaking, she isn't watching the stars. She is looking directly in the eyes of the one who is looking at the picture. I can't really see it, but I imagine a smile on her lips.

I don't need to ask or guess what it is. I know this scene, though he hasn't drawn it while we were there. He must have memorized what I, what everything looked like at this night. A warm, comforting and happy feeling fills me. So he hasn't forgotten. I already feel the smile on the corner of my lips. Until I remember.

This was the last day everything was like this between us. I bite my lip. How could I? What's up with me? Why did I think this? More importantly, why did I feel this? I...I mustn't allow anything like this. It's forbidden. I remember why I wanted to forget that day so badly. It was like...the quiet before the storm and when I now think of what was coming next, it hurts again.

Yes, it hurts, but it is bearable. That is, until I look at the boy in the middle of the clearing.

He is still staring at the drawing, but that's not the only thing I see. There are also little drops, making their way down his cheeks. Tear drops. Every single on of them glimmers in the light of the sun. Every single one of them is my fault. And every single one of them feels like a dagger, boring it's way into my heart.

He suffers. I knew he was hurt, but I never thought it was like that, would last that long. And, what makes it only worse, is that the tears down stop. They don't even slow down. There are more and more and more. They are now streaming down his face, almost like the waterfall I once saw in the Hunger Games. The only difference: The waterfall was something beautiful, something I liked to watch. But I can't stand the thought that he is crying. Crying about me.

I wish the pain I felt when I thought about the night in the woods back. This pain was one hundred times better than what I am feeling now. My heart feels squashed. My head aches and my stomach cramps. Not in the way it does when you're sick, but in another unpleasant way I can't really describe. I hate feeling guilty, but I have never broken someone's heart before. At least not like that.

The urge to rush over to him and take him in my arms and tell him...anything to make him stop crying is so overwhelming that I can barely resist. And he doesn't even make an effort to wipe them away. But I have to resist. I can't go to him, can't comfort him. It wouldn't be fair. He's just sitting there, silently crying. Until his lips start moving. He is whispering something. I can neither see nor hear it, but when he adds his voice to it I'm shocked.

It sounds so different. Distorted and hollow, instead of clear and full of life. It's not the voice I'm used to.

That's when I feel something on my own cheek. I'm startled. That can't be true. I touch my cheek, where I feel something wet. No. I...I haven't cried in ages. But when I look back at him I can feel the next tear forming in the corner of my eye.

I wipe it away, angry at myself. Why am I crying, why about him? I know I feel guilty, I feel sad, I feel hurt. But what is this doing to me? What is this boy doing to me, even when he doesn't know it?

I just...I can't stand it anymore. I have to go. Staying was a gigantic mistake. This day was bad enough, I have no idea how it could get worse now. But I have a feeling that if I stay, it will get worse.

So I gather all my willpower and pry my eyes away from him and this scene.

Just when I'm about to move, I hear something that stops me dead in tracks. "What are you doing here?"

I know this voice, it's familar. But I've never heard it as cold as that. First I think he's talking to me, but when I don't see him, there's only one option left. Gale is talking to the only other person in this woods. The boy that is sitting on this clearing, the boy that has been crying until a few seconds ago.

"You don't belong here." Oh. Right, Gale doesn't know about our trips in the woods. And when I hear him, I remember why I didn't tell him.

Of course I can't go now. I remember Gale's reaction when I told him about the kiss. And...Gale practically sees the woods as his territory. I know his angry fits. And I know the ones at me, his best friend. No, I can't go now.

So I go back to my tree. But this time I don't dare watching. There's a chance Gale could see me with his well-trained eyes...and I don't want either of them to know I am here.

"I was drawing." This time the blonde is speaking. I never knew he was able to lie that smooth. I can't hear anything in his voice. Not the slightest hint that he has been crying only seconds ago. Though, it is different from the voice I've come to know. It still sounds kind of hollow, but it also sounds convincing.

"I don't believe you." Gale again. So his eyes must give him away. No surprise there. I imagine they must be red by now. The thought makes my stomach drop again and I instantly feel bad. My fault. This is all my fault.

"You should. I can show you if you want." Yeah well, he does indeed have quite a few drawings of this clearing on his block. But if Gale sees the ones with me...it wouldn't be as good.

"No thanks.. I'm pretty sure I already know what I'll find on this block. But you haven't been drawing. You can't hide it Mellark. I see your eyes." So my guess was right. I don't know what I'm supposed to feel now. Usually, when I'm right, I feel content. This time I kind of wish I hadn't been right. I don't want to be right if it confirms I hurt someone.

This someone sighs. "What do you think I was doing?"

"Seriously?" Gale asks, but it's sarcastic. "Crying." How can he say that in a voice as cold as this? Crying. As though it isn't one of the saddest ways to express one's emotions. The worst emotions. Sadness. Hurt. Loss.

"So what if I was? Is it any of your business?" The other boy's words snap me out of my thoughts. He's right, of course. Why should he tell Gale?

Gale snorts. "It doesn't matter to me wether you are crying or not. What matters to me is the fact that this are the woods, a place a merchant would never, should never go."

Gale spits the word merchant as though it's venom. I know how much he dislikes them, because their life is so much easier than ours. And I don't think the fact that the merchant he is talking to kissed me helps a lot.

"Why not? What is so bad about us? What have they done to you?" Why is he first talking about us and then about them? He is a merchant, isn't he? So what…?

"You don't ask me what you've done to me?" I can imagine Gale raising an eyebrow now.

"No. I know about that. But what have the other ones done to you?" What? What do I not know? What has he done to Gale? Why didn't Gale tell me?

Suddenly I'm mad. At both of them. At one for doing something, at the other for not telling me. Gale is my best friend! But there's also the fact that I can't really imagine the other boy hurting Gale. What would his motives be? I don't know him like that!

I sigh. Did I know him at all? Or was everything a big lie? How am I supposed to know when he is able to lie like that?

"You are all the same. You're not better people than we are. You think you are, because you were born in town and are used to eating food every day. You laugh about the children from the Seam because they are so poor. You don't have to take out tesserae and why? Only because you were born in the richer part of the town, only because you have blond hair and blue eyes! That's the only reason your life is better than mine!" At the end he is shouting. I know his rants about the richer part of our district so I'm neither surprised nor shocked.

I always thought he is kind of unfair, though he is right. But they don't have control about where they're born. It isn't their fault.

I expect him to defend the town, his home and his family. But instead he says something I would never have expected. "Better? You think my life is better?"

"Of course. You always have food. You never have to worry about starving. What is so bad about your life?" It is clear Gale is frustrated with him. But those questions are absolutely justified. What does the merchant mean?

"I don't have love. Family love, I mean. Not like you in the Seam do." I'm surprised by his answer, though I probably shouldn't be. I remember how he was happy to watch the games with us. His family doesn't watch them with him. Same with Madge. Well, not exactly. I'm sure her father and her mother love her dearly. But they both can't show it. Her father doesn't have time and her mother is almost always in her bed, sleeping because of some headache. And I have witnessed how the baker's wife treats her son before my very eyes, after all.

"Love won't keep us alive." That's what I always say, too. But…what would I do without Prim?

"Would you want to live without them?" I don't know why, but he completely managed to change the topic. It must have something to do with his way of words, I think. It kind of fascinates me.

Gale snorts. He know he has lost this one. So he spits the words out. "Of course not."

"And you're even more lucky." It's a statement. But I don't know what it is supposed to mean. How is Gale any different? Only because he is able to hunt?

"Maybe you're right." Wait. What did Gale understand that I didn't? This is, as far as I know, the first time they ever talked to each other. So how come Gale understands and I don't?

"But maybe you're not." What? Now I understand next to nothing. What are they talking about? "She misses you, you know? She's different. More distant. She may deny it, she may act as though nothing happened, but she's a bad liar."

She? Who is that she? Who is that girl they both seem to know so well? Why do I...?

At this moment it hits me. ME! It's me they're talking about! Wait. WHAT? Gale…what is he talking about? I don't pretend! I don't miss Peeta…do I?

And then I realize what I just thought. HIS name! I haven't done that in month! How come…that now I…I remember. Earlier. Month ago. How I cried. How I almost cried. Every sad thought, every lump in my throat, every sinking feeling comes back to me. I try to prevent the tear that is forming in my eye again from doing so, but without success.

"She doesn't. She…kind of said so herself."

And only when he says it like this I know the truth. Yes, it is true. I do miss him. But I can't just go to him and ask him to forgive me…I hurt him too much. And I still…can't afford to have the kind of relationship he wants to. I can't very well ask him to stay friends with me, either. That would only hurt him more.

But what can I do about it? Maybe…maybe I should just tell him how sorry I am. So that maybe, some day in the future, he will be able to forgive me. Maybe this way I at least won't feel so guilty anymore.

I will still miss him, of course, but there's no other way. I won't be that selfish. I won't force him to see me everyday and pretend. I may be selfish, only by apologizing to make myself feel better, but I'm not that cruel.

"Whatever." Gale's voice is suddenly cold again. He seems to have remembered what he really wanted. I don't blame him for forgetting it. This is something else Peeta managed with his words. "Believe whatever you want. But you leave this place now."

"Yes. I'm going to go." With that I hear his heavy foot steps making their way home.

I wait a bit, until I'm sure Gale is gone too until I leave the shadow of my tree. I decide to go home, too. The squirrel is hanging on my belt, forgotten. I go straight home. I can't face anyone today. But I promise myself to apologize in the next days.

There. I managed it again. To brake a deal I made with myself. Maybe I should have listened to the feeling that told me it would backfire when I made it…

I was kinda surprised to see how you all thought she was going to talk to him. Have you forgotten how illegal it is to be out there? Yeah, I'll admit it, I didn't think of this until I started writing either:D I think this hurt Katniss more than anything they could have talked about...

And if anyone wondered about Gale's behavior (duh, who am I kidding? I'm sure there WILL be a review telling me he's OOC. Here my answer: HE ISN'T!)...how it wasn't as mean as some of you may have expected...remember how Peeta and Gale interacted in the books? I want you to remember that they do NOT hate each other. They don't like each other either, because of Katniss, but...I don't think Gale is evil enough to...make Peeta feel THAT worse when he knows how he feels. Plus he said it himself: It's hard to hate Peeta. So...I don't think they'd be too...hateful. And I needed this conversation...I think you know why:D I know, I know, I've always said I hate Gale, and I'm never gonna say I like him but...when I started writing about him I grew to love WRITING ABOUT him. It's kinda addicting. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me, but Gale...before Mockingjay...he isn't exactly that bad.

Oh god, I really hope you understood that...I don't...not really. Oh well:D

What do you think about the chapter? I know it was kinda sad but...yeah, just tell me:D

REVIEW! Only 25 left till I have 200...;)