Hi readers! I know this is a really short chapter but it's late. I'm going to finish their conversation hopefully tomorrow. Sorry for cutting it off like that! Please keep up the reviewing though!

Peeta's POV:

It isn't time for this tough a conversation between us. We're not at the point where we can talk of anything that could possibly reconnect back to our past.

Even more, a conversation blatantly revolving around this impossible topic seems more than dangerous.

This time of night, where midnight starts to stretch into the bleary early morning hours, is not the best time for this.

But still, I can't avoid it. So as Katniss and I sit next to one another against the foot of my bed, both trying to catch our breath, I go to start in, but she beats me to it.

"What happened?" I know she already knows the answer to that one.

"Flashback."

She nods thoughtfully before continuing.

"Which was brought on because I was here." She says this as if there isn't a single doubt in the world that what I just did was her fault. Crazy, this girl is.

"No. It happens…a lot."

"Define a lot."

"About 4 times a week, at least."

I need to make her understand all of it before she makes a decision. I need her to know what it's like for me. My words spill out in a tumble, tangled together.

"It's not because you're here. I've never had one in front of anyone except Haymitch. I'm sorry you had to see that." I take a deep breath to continue but she beats me to it once again.

"What's it…what's it like?"

"Terrible. I can't hold onto what is real and what isn't. Sometimes I can tell the memory is fake because it's not really clear. I think it was the one thing they couldn't perfect about the venom."

"How do you make it stop?"

"Usually I can fight it off…but when it gets really bad, uncontrollably so, I have to use other, measures, so to speak."

She waves her hand, telling me to continue.

"Physical pain helps," she winces and bites her lip, "that works the best. If I can remember why it's necessary. I couldn't tonight. Something to hang onto helps too, like a solid object. A counter, a doorway, you."

The last example slips out before I can help it. But she just nods some more. Still no audible response. So I continue,

"I'm sorry that you had to be put in that kind of danger. I can't control myself, but that's no excuse. I wanted so badly to…to kill you. I hate myself for doing that. And most importantly, I would understand completely if you wanted to move back to you house."

The last sentence, that proposition, pains me. But it is her choice. I should be forcing her to go back to her house, but I'm not that strong. I'm far too weak.

She has a strange sort of reaction to my words.

First she takes a deep breath and I can see a war raging in her eyes.

Then her words come flying out with the speed of one of her arrows. But instead of being steady and sure like the arrows always are these are rushed and shaky. It's as if she doesn't want to stop herself from saying something she might regret later.

"It's not your fault Peeta. It's, well it's mine. You and I both know it. They should've saved you in the second Games. It's my fault they did that to you. So I'm sorry. And I would understand if you wanted me to move out. I don't want to hurt you anymore."

I blink, stunned. Words, as they so often do around Katniss, fail me. A few moments pass before I recover.

"It's not you Katniss. You didn't do this. But I don't want you to move out. It would be what is best for you and your safety. But I don't want you to go. I want you to stay here with me."

My little declaration causes a surprising emotion to flit across her face. More and more her face shows emotions pushing their way through the thick consistency of her mask. This time, the emotion is fear. Fear, I would love to believe, not of me, but of feeling too much.

I want it to be true so badly. If that's all it is, I can bring her past that fear.

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