Thanks to TheAbsoluteRandomGirl for following, really nice of you :). I didn't get any reviews, which is kind of depressing, but hey hopefully I'll get a couple for this chapter. Hope you like this, although I must say that this is one of the cheesiest things in the universe. Like legit, it's incredibly cheesy.

You Can Leave:

Johanna's POV

He can't even breathe by himself. The oxygen mask covers his nose and mouth as his chest slowly goes up and down with every breath he takes. The burn marks didn't reach much of his face, thankfully. He had a gigantic burn mark that went from his side to his chest all the way to his neck and a tiny bit on his cheek. It was like a huge red tattoo on his body. The fire wasn't the worse though, he got a major concussion when he hit the ground, enough for the doctors to think that he might not ever wake up. That, plus a pierced kidney, plus all the smoke he breathed in… If he ever woke up he'd have to endure long sessions of physical therapy; to walk, to breathe on his own…

Me? I was unhurt. Literally not a thing happened to me that day. And that's probably the most rotten luck I've had in my entire shitty as fuck life. After the first bombs fell and Nike started running towards the mansion I thought he was going to kill himself. I couldn't believe Nike would ever do that. Just… Just leave like that. I realized what he had wanted to do a moment later, after the second bombs fell and I saw Primrose burning like a torch. He had wanted to save her. That I could believe. I ran to his side and he was laying there, fire catching on his shirt and the flames starting to lick his face. I don't remember how I got the fire out. I just knew I had to. When the flames were out was that I realized how much he was bleeding. I remember wanting to cry, but I couldn't get the tears out. I couldn't even scream or talk or move. Paramedics got there. They took him from me. One of them knocked me out. I must've had screamed. Since then I'm with him every single day. It's been three months. I leave only when they force me; and even then I sneak back in his hospital room as soon as I can. I just can't stop staring at him.

Somebody opens the door. I don't turn to see who it is; it's usually nurses coming to check on him. "Johanna," the person says.

"Katniss," I reply, not moving my eyes away from Nike's face. I knew she'd come. Not today, maybe, but everybody has come to pay their respects. Cressida, Annie, Peeta, Gale, Pollux… They act like he's already dead. Well… Peeta didn't. He told me he'd be fine and he really seemed to believe it. He was the only one who shared my tiny glimmer of hope.

She walks around Nike's bed and sits opposite to me. After a while I finally turn to look at her. She looks almost as bad as I feel. She must've lost lots of weight, her face is sunken and she has huge bags under her eyes.

"I'm going back to 12," she says.

I was expecting it, honestly. Eventually they'd let her go. Just one month prior she killed President Coin, just after having agreed on hosting another Hunger Games with the Capitol children. It was a spectacular end for the last Hunger Games we would ever see. Katniss has a thing for flashy endings; first the nightlock with Peeta, then the arrow to the force field and now the murder of the President.

"Good for you," I say.

"Blight will go to 7 tomorrow," she says. "He says you should go with him."

The intensity of my glare surprises even me. "If he wants me to leave him," I say, "he can tell me so himself."

"I was surprised when he told me to tell you," Katniss says. "I think he doesn't want to see Nike like this." Hearing his name feels like knife to the chest. "Maybe he's right. You've left this room once in the last three months. Going to your house… It might help."

"Why do you care?"

"I don't," she says. "But for some reason he cared enough about my little sister to almost die for her. I owe it to him."

I snort. "I'm still trying to decide," I begin, "Whether that was the most selfish or the most selfless thing he's ever done." She doesn't say anything. "I guess if I say selfless I'm a good person, right? Oh, yes, Nike gave his life for a girl he didn't know, what a nice guy! But if I say selfish I'm a bitch, right? MY best friend died and left me for the chance to save someone else, what a selfish asshole!" I laugh humorlessly. "Even saying it I sound like a bitch. Maybe I am a bitch, no wonder he was in such a hurry to get himself killed."

"Just let Blight know whether or not you'll go to 7 with him," Katniss says, beginning to leave.

"Peeta," I blurt out. That stops her. "Have you seen him?" She shakes her head. "He was here, you know? He told me Nike was bound to wake up. He told me Nike was a fighter, and that he was fighting right now to come back and–"

"Maybe that's a bad thing," Katniss cuts me off. "Aren't you tired of fighting? He probably is, too. But he is too selfless to let himself go. And it wasn't selfish, what he did. It was selfless. He and Peeta, they're the most selfless people I know." She hesitates. "If they weren't… Maybe they'd be an awful lot happier."

She turns again towards the door. "Katniss," I say, she stops walking. "I'm sorry about Prim."

"I'm sorry about Nike."

I'm left alone again to stare at Nike's face and think of nothing at all. He is still as good-looking as ever; no amount of scars could make him look bad. I could never get tired of staring. His jawline, his high cheekbones, his nose's slightly protruding bone and the scar that runs across it, his spiky blond hair that was just beginning to fall on his forehead… I wish I could see his eyes. That green is unlike any other eye color I've ever seen; it reassembled the green of the pines back home, dark and powerful.

I ponder on what Katniss said, and what Peeta said. And I realize they're both right. Nike must be fighting still, against his own desire to just die. I know he wants to. He went through the games twice, he was tortured with his worst fear, he was forced to listen how they tortured his friends, and the final straw was Finnick. Still, I knew Nike loved me enough to live with all of that. For me, Nike would go through all the physical pain of recovery and all the emotional and psychological pain he has been enduring since he was fourteen. Am I selfish enough to… To want him to do all of that? For what? For the chance of a life with me?

I climb under the blankets with him. The bed is small, so I have to lay half my body on top of his to fit. I bury my head on the crook of his neck. I hadn't felt this comfortable since… Since the last time we had sex, the night before leaving for the mission. I snuck into his room after Katniss gave me the all clear from the guards. I don't think he was attempting to make anything inappropriate happen between us that night, but then again he never makes the first move, he's too much of a gentleman for that, but it's easy to make him take the lead once you start. Afterwards he told me he loved me again, and again I didn't reply anything. I don't think he cared, but I'm now realizing that I care. I should have said it back every single time, and I should've repeated it until he was tired of hearing it. And then repeated it a few more times.

I lay my head on his chest. My fingers trace his stomach and his chest slowly. He still feels incredibly strong for someone so weak. "The last two years were some of the hardest of my life," I say. "I mean, going back to the games and all. But… But they were also so great. I mean, I loved you so much before, but I guess I never noticed just how much I loved you. Or maybe during those games I just fell deeper in love with you."

I look up at him, but his face was still slightly to the side, his eyes closed lightly. "If I could go back and change anything, I-I wouldn't. I mean, yeah, it would've been great to have you not being such a shithead and realizing that you liked me before, but maybe we both just needed the time. If I changed anything maybe we wouldn't had had all the amazing moments we had."

I swallow, "I want you to stay. I want you to wake up, and to come to 7 with me, and to live with me and one day marry me, maybe have children, and die sixty years from now, when we're old and together. I want that more than anything in the world," I say. "And I'm just beginning to realize that maybe you don't want that," my voice cracks.

I close my eyes tightly. A single tear escapes through my closed lids. I sniff and take a deep breath. "So, here's the deal," I say, turning his head towards me, even though I know it makes no difference. "You can leave. You can… Die. You've fought enough already. You've sacrificed more than I could ever ask you to for me. You are the best man I've ever known, and I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky to have met you, and I'm so lucky be loved by you. Fuck, Nike, I am so in love with you. And I know living without you will be the hardest thing I'll ever have to do, but I'll do it for you. I love you."

The sobbing begins then. My fingers curl against his chest and I allow myself to cry. I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I'm saying this. I haven't cried in three months, and crying right now is the realization that maybe that tiny glimmer of hope is gone. "I love you," I repeat. "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…" I say it in between sobs, thinking that if he leaves he'll leave knowing.

I cry until I fall asleep, which is pathetic as fuck. When I wake up, it's early morning. I quickly get up and straighten my clothes and hair. I turn to Nike one last time. His hair is strangely straight; I immediately run my fingers through it to mess it up. I kiss his forehead. I wish he didn't have the mask, so that I could kiss his mouth before I go.

I kiss his cheek, right where the fire licked him, "If you do wake up," I say, "I'll be waiting for you back home. I love you, Nikey."

Well, fuck. Second time since I started this story that I actually got misty eyed. Please review; and I know it's annoying but legit story followers and favorites don't really do much to help the creative process. I mean, updates do come faster when people review. Like, I started writing again after like 3 months because somebody reviewed. It helps. So please review :), send some love to this almost ended story.