Here's the next chapter! I really like this one, so enjoy! I do not own CF so any direct quotes will be in italics.

Ch. 21

The only words of explanation that Mrs. Everdeen needs before she gets to work on Gale are, "New head." and once we've set him down on the table she works on, she's all over the place. Working with Gale's back, going to the cabinet to get some kind of medicine, and nicely, like equals, telling Prim where to go. I can't handle this; I've seen too much pain in my life as it is. Then there's Katniss, watching hopelessly as her mother and sister work to keep her best friend alive. Best friend doesn't even describe their relationship from what I'm seeing now. No, there's more, Katniss looks like she feels the pain too, that she's dying right along with him. I wonder if this had happened to me if she would be so worried?

Haymitch sees me in the corner looking straight at Katniss, her face swollen from the lash across her face and the tears spilling slowly out. I can only imagine what my face looks like, heartbroken? Because that's exactly how I feel. "Peeta." Haymitch softly nudges me. "I think it's best you go be with your family right now. You don't need to see this."

Only now does it don on me that when Katniss told me Gale had other plans he had wanted to stay and face the rebellion head on. Maybe we were more alike than I thought. I don't know why it had hit me all of a sudden, maybe it was the way the room felt, or the lashes across his back; it just did. Gale couldn't stand this country any more than I could. "He wants the rebellion too, doesn't he?" I ask Haymitch, doubting he'd even know.

Haymitch just shakes his head and looks at the door, "Your family might be worried, and the snow is going to pick up. I'd leave right now." The snow had started falling, thick and heavy just as we reached the home. I don't know why Haymitch would want me to take that long hike. "And, if it gets to much, just stay with your family for the night." I motion my head towards Katniss with question in my eyes. "No, she doesn't need you right now." He turns and walks away; over to Hazel who holds her son's hand tight and the tears flow freely.

No one acknowledges me as I walk out of the house into the cold winter night; it's like no one even cared. It is hard walking through the snow, out of Victor's Village and back into town. The sun had gone away a while ago and the moon that could've helped was hidden by the bright white clouds. I'm glad I wear a heavy coat, and the boots I have on are a parting gift from Portia, they don't let any dampness into my socks. Even so, I'm freezing by the time I reach my home, or the home my family lives in. The lights are on and the firestone-oven is still working away. The fragrance reaches me even outside the house. The only time my dad baked this late was when he was worried. Surely this news should have reached them.

"Peeta." Marcus pulls me into a hug as soon as I set a foot into the bakery.

"Listen, Gale—" I try to explain, but Marcus cuts me off.

"We heard. Nothing's really kept quiet in this town for long. Especially when there's a new head." Says Marcus and he goes back to whatever bread or pastry he was working on.

"He shouldn't even have been hunting. He knows better. It's about time he got caught." Says Rhys, instantly coming into our conversation as he comes from upstairs.

"Cray didn't do anything, he thought it would be fine. The hunting he does keeps him alive. Rhys, some people aren't as lucky as we are. You have to know that." I shoot back at him. Like my dad I've always felt sympathy for the people from the Seam, sometimes I envied how closely knit they really were.

"I do. But you don't see all the people from the Seam risking their lives hunting. They find food other ways."

"Rhys you know that's not true. People are starving out there!" My voice has begun to rise.

"Well, maybe they should try harder!" He retorts.

"Boys!" My mom enters the room and the argument is over within seconds, "Peeta why are you late? We had to eat dinner with out you. It would have gotten cold." My mom doesn't move to hug me instead she sits down in an old wooden chair.

"I was helping with Gale." My mom frowns and looks away. I move around the counter and begin to join my brothers in making bread. We're all tense and you can feel it in the room. Still we work silently, working with the only thing we've known since we were tiny.

Pretty soon it's just me working, mixing dough, kneading it, throwing it into the oven, making even more. I could never fall asleep like this. Not with the fear of a new Head Peacekeeper, the ever becoming real rebellion, and the fact that it seemed Katniss had forgotten all about me when Gale needed her attention. I got it, I did, but it didn't make me feel any better that I did. I wasn't always there, Gale was. He helped pick up the pieces when her father had died; he helped keep her and her family alive. No one, not even me could ever break that connection.

Early in the morning when the snow had stopped for just a second and I'd filled up pretty much the whole display case, I had left. A couple loaves of bread in hand and with out a goodbye to my family.

Before going into Katniss's I had decided to go home for a change of clothes, but even before that I had stopped out side her window. It was like I was watching strangers. Two people I had never even met before. The girl, looked tired and lost and with out hope. The boy was in pain, his face showed trails of tears going down his cheeks. The girl whispered to him and he whispered back no matter how much energy it took for both of them to talk, you could tell there was love between those two. A yearning, a lost want. The boy's head falls back on his pillow, and the girl with a tear rolling down her face on to the ruffled sheet leans in and touches her lips against the boy's. There was no doubt; this girl was completely committed to this boy and the boy completely committed to this girl. There was no room for another broken boy, a broken boy who needed this girl even more. Maybe even more than the boy that she had just kissed needed her.

I hope you liked it! Okay so a couple words, please read this: Hi, I feel as if I was spoiled with reviewers with the Fate Games, I had a lot of normal reviewers (people who reviewed on almost every chapter) and now all those people have left and all I have is like three of those people now, and they weren't really normal reviewers on The Fate Games. So what I'm saying is that if you've come from reading The Fate Games, I'm wondering, have I gotten worse? Because I feel in the dark. No one has really reviewed, I don't know if I'm doing good, if I'm doing bad, if I need to change something, I don't know anything! So please I know I have more than 3 people reading this! You don't have to do it on every chapter and it will only take like one minute, you can even do it if you don't have a fanfiction account. So if you would like to take the time I'd like to know some stuff: Do you like it so far? Do you like the approach I'm taking? Do I need to change anything? ECT. Please, I feel like I'm writing for three people, But I know you're there! You don't even have to review you can PM me! Thanks for reading this long thing! Shout-out to Keb85, xxellabearxx, and last but definitely not least KatnissMellarkD12 she wrote a fanfic about foxface definitely a good read and I loaf her! Thanks! ~boywithbreadlover