AN: Happy birthday Joahn! I know it's late in the day but I hope it found it to you on your special day!

Please

"I told you I wanted it more this time." Katniss heard Brutus say to the now disarmed Miss Snow. "Are you finished fighting me off now?" His question was met with her heavy breathing and silent voice. He chuckled but continued to hold the arm that kept her at his mercy. His other hand held the knife he'd just removed from her and just as Katniss thought he might use it to do something dastardly, he instead tossed it behind him. It skidded across the floor before it banged into the baseboard just below her hiding spot. It made her jump but any extra sound she might have made was easily covered up by the knife's noisy disposal. Her eyes shot back to the movement across the room. He'd laced his now free fingers into Lachrimae's hair and was pulling her head back slowly without any seeming violence or malice.

"I said, are you finished now?" His lips now right next to her ear. Katniss watched as Miss Snow's body visibly relaxed before she sighed.

"Yes, you win. This time." She sounded resigned. "I'll admit, I didn't expect you to…" She was cut off when he suddenly released her captured arm and spun her around, keeping his other hand firmly in her hair. Katniss couldn't see much, he had shifted his body, effectively cutting Miss Snow's completely off from view but she had no problem discerning what was happening. He was most certainly not trying to kill her. She could see the way he'd leaned over, his face so close to hers and the way he pressed himself into her. She heard the light moaning coming from the woman and she heard his grunt when he easily hoisted her off her feet only to deposit her on the tabletop he'd used to trap her. He stepped between her bare legs and used his free hand to wrap one around his hip, letting Snow take care of the other on her own. She saw a pale hand run up his neck and onto his skull before coming back down, running blunted nails in the close cropped, dark hair. That's when Katniss turned her head away from the suddenly far too intensely intimate sight.

She remembered the first time she'd met Snow and the little demonstration her captor-turned-emancipator had put on with Finnick. Katniss had been flustered then but had quickly learned that it was nothing more than an act. An act that showed her what would eventually be expected of her. This time, it was no act. She closed her eyes to try and escape seeing this scene, which she obviously wasn't supposed to. Unfortunately, she couldn't close her ears. She was too afraid to move anything more than closing her eyes. Being caught here now seemed like a far worse thing than it had been five minutes ago. She would much rather be caught having witnessed a murder than being caught for this.

She did her best to block out the sounds coming from the kitchen at large while she hid, curled up in her little box. She tried just listening to he pounding of her heart, keeping count of each beat and comparing it to how many times she swallowed despite her overly dry mouth. Mostly, she was successful. She only absently noted the heavy breathing, breathy moans and quietly grunted curses. She fought against her mind's desire to recall her own intimate experiences. Mental flashes of every man she'd ever known flitted through her mind unbidden, some were just quick glances while other moments seemed to play themselves with excruciating detail within her mind's eye. She saw Gale and remembered the first time she'd ever had a man inside of her. She'd been so scared as she'd told him to meet her in the woods. He'd nodded and given her a small smile. It had been a Sunday, the only days he'd been able to escape the backbreaking work that had killed both of their fathers.

Every step she'd taken into the forest that day had felt clumsy. She would have to find a way to convince him to take her virginity. Her hands had shaken the entire time as her eyes constantly scanned for the cameras she knew were already in place. She wanted to run. She'd never wanted to run away from anything more in her life than she'd wanted to run away from this. She cared about Gale. He'd been her best friend for so long, her confidant, her hunting partner. He loved his family so much and did every thing for them, just like she did for Prim. He was a kindred spirit in so many ways and now she was being forced to deceive him in the most horrible way.

"You've lost your touch Catnip." His voice had made her jump. He immediately apologized. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you… you were just making so much noise and that's not like you." Genuine concern was etched across every feature of his face. "You ok?"

It was impossible to act like nothing was wrong she'd decided. It wasn't in her nature to be able to pretend these sorts of thing. Sure, she'd had a little practice in the arena but that was for a boy she barely knew and for a country that didn't know her at all. This was Gale. No one knew her better than him. He'd know something wasn't right immediately. She couldn't do this. It was too much. She just shook her head; a grimace of a smile was all she could manage. Prim flashed through her mind.

'…that little girl downstairs, I'll make her suffer in ways you've never even begun to imagine.'

"I missed you so much." She could say that because it was the truth. "I was so scared all the time and seeing all of those people in the other districts… so many people just like us."

He'd hugged her, enveloping her in those strong arms and the scent of him that was so comforting. It was the first time she'd felt anything even close to safety in the last six months. She could even begin to forget that others were seeing this. They'd stayed like that for so long until she felt Gale start to shake.

"I hate what they've done to you." He'd said quietly. "You're really going through with it, aren't you?" Her heart stopped in her throat. Did he know? How could he know? She thought only Haymitch and she knew about the horrible notes and what was and would be written on them. "You're really getting married to him." She'd let out a gasped sob. Of course he'd be talking about the marriage, all of Panem knew about it. "You're doing for the Capitol, aren't you?"

"I have to." It also wasn't a lie.

"Do you love him?" The question shouldn't have taken her off guard but it did. She didn't have an answer for that. She cared for him, she didn't want to see him or his family hurt but she couldn't know if she loved him. He'd saved her life outside of and inside of the arena but did that constitute love? She knew a bit more about him now but not all that much. She didn't understand how he could so easily say that he loved her. He barely knew her and didn't really know her at all before the games. It had obviously taken her too long to answer and Gale just assumed what he wanted, needed to know.

"They've already made you fight in the games, how can they keep torturing you?" His words started to make her nervous. She knew they were listening. "They're nothing but controlling, sadistic…" She'd cut him off with a kiss. The first one she'd ever given Gale. He stopped talking, immediately returning her terrified kiss, mistaking it for passion. She had to keep him from speaking again. She didn't have the words to calm him and she couldn't lie that way. She'd use his feelings for her to her advantage. It made her sick but she had no other choice.

She had no idea what to do besides press her lips to his. She'd barely done anything like this before. Experimentally, she placed hands on his chest, sliding them up and down marginally. He seemed to take it for what it was and let one of his hands tangle into her braid while the other rubbed small circles on her lower back. After a few awkward minutes where noses bumped and teeth clicked together, they found a rhythm. Katniss allowed herself to take comfort from it. She had been so constantly apprehensive for so long that this felt like a reprieve, that was until he started to pull away. Then the panic rose. This wasn't enough. President Snow would not be satisfied with just kissing. She knew what he wanted and it was far more than what she had given him so far.

"I don't want to stop." It was her first half lie. Gale let himself believe it, he didn't have any reason not to.

"Catnip?" He'd asked, his voice had a husky quality to it she'd never heard before.

"I don't want to stop. I want…" She'd reached up to kiss him again but he'd stopped her. Her heart sank. He was going to reject her like she had him before the tour. She felt the tears threaten as her throat became tight and uncomfortable. "Please. I need this… I need you, please." She'd begged. It was the truth.

"I…"

"Please." The tears were at the gates now, soon she'd lose any composure she'd managed up until this point.

"Do you love me Kat?" He'd lifted her chin to look at him. She shook her head and she saw the sadness creep into his eyes.

"I don't know Gale but you've always been there… I don't know what I feel about anything but…" She had to stop, anything beyond that would be a lie. So she became repetitive instead in her desperation. "Please." And she stretched up to press her lips to his once more. His lips were motionless against hers and for a moment, she was positive she'd failed. Then everything changed.

He crushed his lips to hers and his hands suddenly seemed like they were everywhere on her body at once. She didn't know when they'd made it to the cold ground or who had removed her pants and boots but she remembered how strange it felt to have twigs and early spring grass pressed against her bare bottom but only for a moment as Gale took off his coat and put it under her before he'd fumbled with his belt and zipper while he kissed her more.

"Have you ever?" He'd asked into her ear when she'd felt how hot that part of him was against her thigh.

"No."

"We shouldn't do this here." He'd kissed her neck. "It doesn't seem right."

He was having second thoughts and it terrified her. She did the only thing she could think of. She let her hand, that been running up and down his side, run between them and to the foreign thing she felt heated against her. She grasped him and clumsily ran her hand along him. She had no idea what she was doing and wasn't even sure if his groan was a good thing or if she was hurting him.

"Please." She repeated. "Please." She didn't ask if she was doing something wrong. She knew she was. She didn't say anything else, afraid the words would be wrong and he'd change his mind completely. She couldn't let that happen so she kept stroking him and praying that it would be enough. It was.

"Katniss." He'd moaned and took himself from her tender grasp. She'd let her hand fall away as he guided himself to her. She'd felt him rub the tip along the crevice of her. He'd mumbled something that she couldn't make out. Once more, she thought he was changing his mind and her eyes flew wide open in panic. He'd let go of himself and brought his hand up to his mouth.

"You're not ready for me." He'd said into her questioning eyes.

"Yes, I am." She couldn't help prickling at what he'd said even though she didn't fully understand it. She'd already told him that she was ready, begged him. His light chuckle at her words and expression didn't quell her. He spoke again before she had a chance to argue with him further.

"You're not wet." Her eyes had gone wide. She was confused again but she watched as he'd gathered some of his saliva and then let his hand go back between them. Obviously Gale had done this before. While his actions didn't seem completely confident, he did seem to know what he was doing. Also, it was clear that he hadn't changed his mind. He'd then rubbed his hand on himself and then her. She expected he'd take hold of himself once more but his hand lingered on her instead. Taking a single finger, he pressed it into her. It didn't hurt like she thought it would but it did feel strange. He did that for a while before he added another finger. He had been watching his own actions before his lips started to devour her neck. The third finger he added was a bit umcomfortable.0 and involuntarily she tried to draw her legs together.

"Relax babe." It was the first time he'd ever called her that. She would have laughed at how silly she thought it sounded if the way he'd said it hadn't sounded like it did. It was the first time she'd heard lust and it made her nether region twitch in a far too pleasant way. "There you go." He was kissing her neck again. That's when he'd removed his fingers and pressed himself against her again. She felt him hesitate but she was too close to accomplishing her goal now.

"Please." She simply said again. It was enough. He pressed into her slowly, drawing back a little before pressing in further and repeating the process. It continued to be painful but she'd known far worse before so she bore it with gritted teeth and tightly closed eyes.

Her eyes snapped open when she heard a groan and wasn't able to tell if it was from her memory or from the man in the kitchen. Then she heard it again accompanied by a strained curse. The rhythmic sounds she'd absently heard had become erratic before they stopped altogether. After a minute of quieter, recuperative breathing, Katniss heard Brutus speak.

"You should let me do this without all the literal cloak and dagger bullshit." Katniss chanced a look into the kitchen again, now that the more amorous activities were over. Hopefully they'd excuse themselves soon and she could sneak back to her room without anyone knowing she was ever here. She heard Snow laugh before seeing far more of her than she ever wanted to. Brutus had just stepped away from her and was placing himself back into the pants he'd never bothered to fully remove.

"You'd get bored quickly enough. It's the hunt you enjoy."

"Oh, you think so?" He laughed. "You never made the drunk work this hard." Katniss's eyes widened. They couldn't possibly be referring to…

"That was a long time ago and no, I did not. Two men, two motivations."

"I never did understand why you ever let that pathetic bag of shit touch you." Despite the words, there wasn't any real venom in the voice that said them. Katniss saw Lachrimae hop off the counter and step into her underwear before slipping them back up into place.

"He had an appeal once."

"Yeah, and what was that." She just smiled at Brutus as she tightened the sash around her waist.

"We both hate my father."

"Yeah, but he hated you too."

"That was also part of the appeal." Her face was blank as she said it. "Now, please be so kind as to tell me how you were able to get to this level without detection." Brutus laughed.

"It wasn't that hard. Their security is shit. It was easy enough to have someone else distract the guard to the stairwell. Then just a little bit lock magic for this level and the rest is history. They didn't even have guards here. I think they forget that a lot of the women, including you are just as dangerous as any of us men."

"Hmm. And just who did you get as your distraction."

"And give away all of my alliances? I think not."

"This isn't the arena."

"I know, you blew those up." He was touching her hair like he was inspecting its quality. "Was it everything you hoped it would be?"

"Mostly." She replied oddly. "Though I wish I could have seen the expression on his face as he watched them fall."

"I'm sure it was priceless." He'd wound a long around his hand and used it to pull her closer to him. "Let me have you again tomorrow without having to worry about these." He leaned over and pulled the knife from the door.

"Perhaps." He chuckled at her answer. He took a kiss in place of her non answer before letting her go. He moved the table back into it's regular position, made a crude joke about fucking in a kitchen before he ran his hand across her chest as he left. Katniss breathed a sigh of relief. She might make it out of this unnoticed afterall. Brutus was gone, now she only had to wait out Miss Snow. The woman in question pulled the tie from her hair and smoothed it down as best she could before tying it once more. She took the knife off of the table that Brutus had removed from the door before moving to retrieve the one he'd thrown behind her. Katniss froze. The knife was directly in front of the cabinet in which she currently hid. She tried to hold her breath, tried to will her heart to stop pounding in her ears and stayed completely still. Lachrimea stooped down and picked up the knife before standing and turning away. Katniss didn't chance a sigh of relief but then the legs stopped. Slowly they turned around.

Shit.

OoOoO

lavenderbrownfan: Just a few miles outside of Belfast… consider me jealous. Work always takes precedence over reviewing, I totally understand. I love that stupid song… can't help myself. Thank goodness you love them because I know a lot of people don't. It's nice that some people enjoy how my mind works, lol.
guest: I'm not egotistical enough to think that everyone is going to enjoy my version of events. Unfortunately that vision includes a lot of characters, not just the main ones. I completely understand and while it's a bummer you're not enjoying them, I'm stoked that you were honest about it. Honestly, thank you for that.
catie8: They most certainly are boinking. I hope it did make your night. I don't know if just hearing them will get her passed her past but it definitely made her think about her past… don't know if people liked that but I did. Tehe
hjfan: Here are my justifications, let's see if I can convince you. Everyone was surprised that Peeta was able to kill him and he did in what was described as a blind rage after Brutus killed Thresh. I think that means that the fight was two against one and Brutus took out the larger threat first, possibly getting hurt in the process before Peeta (said to have uncommon strength under normal circumstances) was able to somehow finish him off. Also, this Brutus will have known for a long time that he's going to participate in a war so he has kept himself in phenomenal shape as opposed to the original who was just a mentor who volunteered to go back in to the games because he wanted to. Also, he overpowered Lachrimae, a woman who's roughly 120 lbs. She's highly trained but that doesn't mean she's anywhere near his strength. Also, she was never trying to kill him as you now know but playing some odd sexual game of 'if I make you bleed, you don't get any'. So there's my justification.
enginette: haha. It got me an interesting response or two so I enjoyed it too.
Rawr: Kinky sex game, that's the reason for the fighting. I honestly don't see Rima as a woman that would get anything out of vanilla sex. Love that I'm keeping you unawares.
Carla: The end is inevitable but it's still a ways off yet. We'll see if I can pull off something believable in the third act… I hope so. In case people haven't noticed yet, Katniss is going to be sharing the spotlight with Rima. I've none too subtly made her a main character in this story and just a warning to everyone, that's not going away. She's our insight into what will happen in the war, how we'll see the politics of District 13 and how the other main characters will be involved in anything high level. I never liked the original where they just willy nilly involved an apathetic 17 year old girl into war room meetings and what not. It didn't feel realistic. She was a symbol, not a strategist. That makes Rima important to filling us in as readers since Katniss won't be included in those kinds of meetings in my version. Based on the ending of this chapter, I don't think Rima knew she was there until… You'll get your love triangle… a different type but you'll get it. Katniss has good reason to love either one for the exact reasons you stated so it's not going to be easy for her and I would never use the 'who she can't live without'… you and are very alike in what we didn't like about those books, lol. That was another one that made me cringe when I read it. Thank you, I still can't believe it. I originally thought the story would be 50 chapters. My ability of estimate its size wasn't so good. My idea for the last two chapters and the next one were originally just one chapter in my head but they just keep snowballing on themselves, lol. Thank you for the review shout out! It really is awesome!
Awesome: (50) Sadly, I don't see it as a problem that will go away anytime soon. Thank you. I love your reviews! (51) haha, yeah they are. Where is their sense of propriety? I don't know if it's fair to say that Peeta loves Katniss way more in this version. We haven't seen Gale in a very long time in any real depth so it's hard to tell. But there's no question that Peeta had very, very strong feelings.
MaidenAlice: Woot, someone else that doesn't mind character development! I know that some people will like it and others won't. Such is life, right? You were right about the bdsm thought. Snow has probably never had a… normal isn't the right word but she's probably never been into the side of sex and sexual relationships that most people would consider normal. She never lived a life where that would happen and we'll get more glimpses of that life in order to better understand that. Yes, it was mentioned that he had grandchildren… hehe. Any child of President Snow would be interesting to look at… you can't live with or near a madman and not be affected in some way. Thank you, my interpretation continues to grow… I'm so happy you're enjoying it.
Bloodredfirefly: Don't be ashamed. My story and your reviews of it take precedence over nothing. I'm just always happy when people get a chance to check back in. I'm glad you're still enjoying it despite the huge turn the story has taken in both plot and added characters. You have no idea how awesome it is to hear how much you like Miss Snow… she's my baby, a very disturbed baby but mine none the less. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are too kind. I'll look forward to that massive review! :)
Amyfan2004: Exactly! That was one of the points of this chapter; Miss Snow is not all-powerful. Thank you for pointing that out! She's a badass but she's not invincible. Don't worry; my mind was in the gutter long before yours was concerning this chapter, lol. Yea, I promise, all the regulars will be back, no worries there. At least I update almost everyday so it's not like you're waiting months for Peeta/Gale/Haymitch interaction. :) Will do!