Chapter Thirty-Seven

Johanna's POV

"Johanna?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked as adorably curious as ever.

"Hey Aunty Annie," I greeted, figuring that she'd finally worked out how to use her caller ID. I swear it was easier teaching Mags how to use technology than Annie.

"Are you alright? Did Finnick knock himself out again?" she asked, now sounding both confused and worried.

"Yeah everything's fine and no Finnick's not run into anything too heavy recently," I reassured her. "I just, had to ask you something that and I swear if you ever mention this to anyone, including Finnick, it will be the last thing you ever do," I half-threatened. I could say a lot worse but no one could possibly be that mean to the woman on the other end of the phone.

"Sure. What's wrong?" she asked, her voice soft and reassuring as ever. I knew that her lack of temper was one of the reasons she would make an excellent mother someday soon.

"I was just wondering, if you… when you and Fin were dating, how you knew when the right time to, you know, was?" I asked, managing to completely avoid the word that I needed to say. I sighed as I leaned my head against the cool surface of a nearby lamppost. "How did you know when you wanted to do it?" I questioned a little more bluntly this time.

"Oh, well, umm…" I could imagine her blushing and running a hand nervously through her hair on the other end of the line. "I guess it just felt like the right time you know? We were just comfortable and maybe we got a little caught up after a few too few moments but I wouldn't have changed it for the world Johanna. In all honesty if it feels right, it probably is, and if you avoid it you'll just end up frustrated at each other," she rushed her words together but the point was still clear to me.

"Ok, so you don't think you have to wait for anything?" I double-checked. Not that it would really make any difference in terms of me and Gale, it wasn't officially our first time, but it would be the first time we were officially together when we did.

"Nothing specific. Don't rush into anything but don't wait so long that the pressure builds up too much," she advised and I was suddenly incredibly glad that my uncle had found someone as sweet as her.

"Ok, thanks, there's also just one more thing I have to ask you…" I trailed off.

"Of course, anything at all dear," she promised, and I knew there was a strong chance she wouldn't be able to do what I was asking of her.

Clove's POV

What the crap was he doing here? The last time I'd seen him I'd made it pretty damn clear that I never wanted to see him again. Admittedly he'd basically said the same thing to me so why the hell was he here? Well for the athletics contest of course, I reminded myself, but it didn't help with the fact that he was still here.

Thinking too much was going to cause some serious problems, but I got the feeling that Thresh would be causing more problems than my thinking ever could.

"Ow. Sorry I, oh-" my apology was cut short as I realized that it was Cato that I had just literally bumped into. Crap. We hadn't spoken since I'd walked away from our pool game last night and I'd planned on avoiding him a little longer before bumping into him. Looks like fate had some other crueler idea.

"Umm, s'alright," he mumbled awkwardly, looking at me for some hint of what I wanted him to do. What I wanted him to do was to not be here so that we weren't having this stupid awkward encounter. Not that it was possible now.

"So… where you heading?" I asked, desperate to find some form of conversation to have with him. Although the fact his shirt was unbuttoned completely revealing his almost photo shopped looking abs made it sort of hard to do that.

"Just to see an old friend," he confessed and my mind went instantly to the blonde girl on the running track from earlier today.

"Oh," I replied awkwardly. I knew I could ask how he knew her, who she was, what exactly he meant by "friend" but I just couldn't. The words seemed to open the possibility of hurting myself or worse letting him know that I actually gave a damn. "Well have fun," I muttered and went back to walking down the corridor quickly.

"Clove wait!" he called after me and I turned back with a confused look. Not that it was attractive but I'd rather look surprised than hopeful at him right now. "Do you, umm, want another game of pool later?" he asked, reaching his hand up to play with the hair on the back of his head.

"I don't think I can," I lied. In all honesty as much as I did, I still didn't want to get caught up in Cato's games, especially right before the competition tomorrow. He just nodded and looked down at the ground for a moment before letting his hand drop back to his side.

"Guess I'll see you around then," he said as way of goodbye and went back to heading to see his "friend".

Katniss' POV

"Katniss," I heard a surprised Madge half-shriek as I closed the door to our room. "You're back early," she observed and I couldn't help but notice the slight panic in her voice. What the crap was going on here?

"Umm, yeah I guess. With the competition tomorrow coach doesn't want us overdoing it," I answered, still a little puzzled as she tugged down the edges of her shirt. What the crap?

"Katniss!" an all too familiar and slightly slurred voice yelled. I walked down the end of the short passageway and looked onto the bed where Peeta was rather unsuccessfully trying to hold himself up on one elbow.

"Peeta?" I asked, not quite believing that he was here. In this state. His blonde curls were mussed up and his bright eyes were slightly glassy.

"You look beautiful," he stated determinedly before slumping back down onto the mattress. "Not that I'm surprised or anything," he added as an after thought. I looked down to my running shorts and running top that really only just covered my sports bra. Then remembered the sweat that was causing my hair to stick onto the sides of my face unattractively.

"Umm…. Thanks?" I tried to sound sincere but I knew my voice sounded uncertain. "What the hell has he been drinking?" I whispered to Madge.

"Whatever Marvel bought him," she shrugged apologetically.

"You know if I hadn't screwed up then I'd tell you that everyday. Because you are Katniss, you're beautiful. Like an old hardback book though, not like a flower. Cause you could crush a flower, but you could knock someone out with the right hardback," he mumbled to himself. I only half-listened as he continued talking about books.

"I'm going to go get him some water and something to eat. Can you please watch him?" Madge half-begged. I resisted rolling my eyes at her.

"Alright. But you owe me," I threatened, and she only smiled at me before running out the door.

I turned back to the mess of a boy on the bed, who was now staring at me like he needed me to say something to him. Great.

"Katniss, I'm sorry," he eventually said, after what felt like far too long.

"Peeta, you're just drunk it's fine-"

"No. No I'm not sorry about that. Well I am, but not really because this is the most we've talked without yelling in days and I miss talking to you," he looked away guiltily as he spoke. "I mean, I know we only really properly started talking a few days ago, and that it sounds ridiculous that I should care this much after just that amount of time but I can't help it Katniss. I miss you, and thinking about all the possibilities of the things that we could be because I fucked everything right up before I even really got the chance to see if we could be anything," he rambled and I could see drunk tears stinging behind his too blue eyes. Crap.

"Peeta you didn't screw up," I lied. He had screwed up. Admittedly, I'd only encouraged him to screw up, but that didn't change the fact that he had.

"You're a terrible liar you know," he half laughed as he spoke, but instead of the usually chirpy sound, this one was hollow and painful to hear coming from him. He was always smiling, always so freaking happy it was irritating and now here he was. A blubbering, drunken mess that looked far too much like Haymitch had the other night for my liking but then there was nothing I could do about it.

I sighed and fidgeted nervously with the end of my braid.

"Alright so you fucked up. You hurt me so much that all I wanted to do was hurt you right back but I knew I couldn't do that because; well your smile makes me smile. And you being sad makes me sad and I hate that because it meant that no matter how much I wanted to hurt you I knew I'd just end up hurting myself," I confessed, suddenly praying that he would nap, wake up and forget everything I'd just said.

"And you've been hurt enough," he whispered and now I felt tears of my own prickling behind my eyes at the memory of the redhead girl confronting us in the pool. I'd finally been ready to let someone back into my life and he'd betrayed that trust so quickly that I wasn't sure I'd ever be able forgive him for it. But looking at him now, his eyes mirroring mine, I knew that was a lie. I'd already forgiven him, already accepted that I had pushed him towards someone else, but that wasn't going to be something I could change. My friends would always come first, unfortunately Gale topped that list, and if he couldn't deal with that fact then we wouldn't stand any glimmer of a chance.

"I, need to change," I mumbled, heading to the dresser me and Madge shared and just leant my head against the mahogany surface and breathing deeply a few times, trying to collect my thoughts and bite back the tears.

"Katniss," his voice was soft, and his breath warm as it hit the back of my neck. "Katniss I hate seeing you hurt," he whispered and I bit back a response telling him that he should have thought of that before he'd done god only knows what with that redhead.

"Well it's hardly an enjoyable experience for me either Peeta," I sighed instead.

He rested his hands on top of mine and leant against me, his front pressing into my back so I could feel every part of our bodies connecting. I realized then that even mad at him, even wishing that he were sober enough that I could yell at him without feeling guilty, I liked having him here. Liked having the potential to yell at him, liked having the potential of making up with him, liked the feeling of him resting against me, his breath tickling the back of my neck. So I let him stand there, rather than shoving him off me, because as much as there was fire coursing through my veins, and as much as I knew in a fight he would let me win I didn't want to fight. His skin was cool against mine, causing the fire to stop raging through me and turn into a calming warmth and I closed my eyes to fully enjoy the feeling and block out the rest of the world, just for a few moments, so that there was just me and him and where our hands touched. I couldn't change. And neither could he. I would be fire and he would be the wind that controlled where my fire burned, calming me and igniting me when it seemed fit.

He went to take his hands away from mine but I turned around quickly so that I was facing him and he stopped his retreat back to the bed to look at me. We both stood for a few minutes, each breathing heavily and not really sure why, each looking in the others eyes for some kind of signal as to what to do.

So I did something that felt just a little bit irrational. But when has fire ever really made any sort of sense?

I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck as our lips made fierce contact. At first I could tell he wasn't really expecting the pressure of my lips against his but he recovered quickly and his arms responded first, pulling my body closer to his as they made themselves comfortable around my waist. His lips responded soon after as I took his bottom lip between my own and noted that I could taste the harsh alcohol that stained his previously sweetened lips.

We broke away quicker than I would have liked but I could feel him swaying slightly on his feet, reminding me that the alcohol wasn't just on his lips.

"I don't want to hurt anymore," I whispered to his lips.

Author's Note: OK so Peeta was a little tipsy for their make-up but I pinky promise they will have plenty of time to make-up fully soon enough! Also want to thank you guys I only realized like yesterday that there are over 100 followers for this story so seriously THANK YOU! You guys are awesome and you're ideas are hilarious and support is so appreciated it is unbelievable! So I hope that you're all still enjoying the story. Also any thought on what should be happening next? Because there are still three and a half days of the trip left so anything and everything is still possible!

-R