DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY

IT BELONGS TO SUZANNE COLLINS

Fifty-Four

I carry Alouette down the flight of stairs and enter the kitchen, missing the smell of freshly baked bread. I put Alouette down in her high chair and secure her with the belt. I'm about open the refrigerator and prepare her food when there is a knock on the front door.

"It's Mr. Mellark." Harvey enters the kitchen suddenly. "Would you like me to let him in?"

"What?" I ask him startled. "No. No, let me do it."

I hand Harvey the bottle of baby food and make my way to the door. I brush my fingers through my hair and rub the sleep from my eyes before I turn the knob of the door.

Peeta stands in front of me, his drowsy eyes suggesting that he hasn't been sleeping well. His hands are in his pockets and his head looking down at the floor.

"Peeta." I start. He looks up at me.

"Why are there Peacekeepers all around your house?" He asks in a low voice, looking around the porch where the Security Team forms their usual lines.

"Peacekeepers? No, Peeta, they're our—my Security Team." I tell him, "They're here to protect me."

"From what exactly?" He says.

"From anything and everything." I sigh. From inside the house, I can hear Harvey struggle with feeding Alouette. I step out in the porch to close the door behind me but Peeta stops me.

"You told me that you're ready to help me anytime for anything. Can I come in?" He asks. I start to protest, thinking of our baby in the kitchen who is practically a stranger to him but he continues on talking, "I—I just wanted some answers and I was going to ask my brothers or my parents but I couldn't find them anywhere."

"Oh." I sigh, "Yes, okay. Sure, come in." I lead him to the living room and we take a seat on the couch.

"Everything is just so…" He starts and drifts off.

"Confusing?" I try to help him.

"Yes. Out of place." He says, "Katniss, this is the time of the year when the Reaping should be starting. Why isn't anybody in the Square today?"

I look back it him and notice how he looks so restless. He mustn't have gotten sleep because of the worry and fear of being chosen in the now already dead tradition. I take a deep breath and collect my thoughts.

"Peeta, I'm going to explain some things to you." I tell him again,

"Please don't try—" he says but I cut him off.

"No, please, this time please listen." I plead with him.

"Peeta there is no Reaping today because there is no more Hunger Games." I start.

"That's impossible." He says,

"Peeta, don't you feel like you're losing a big part of your memories?" I ask him, "Don't you wonder why I live in this big house or why you also have a house just like this one?"

He stays silent, looking back at me with such a pained expression.

"Peeta I'm so sorry this happened to you." I start, feeling the tears start to form in my eyes.

"What happened to me?" he asks then and I tell him our story.

"You and I were in the 75th Hunger Games. My sister, Prim was chosen and I couldn't let her go so I volunteered. Effie picked you next and that was that. We were pushed into a game we couldn't understand or survive. There were interviews, you know how it goes." I pause and Peeta nods.

"Interviews for each tribute." He affirms.

"When it was your turn, you confessed to Panem that you had a crush on me and that's how all of this—us started. Haymitch, our mentor thought that the star crossed lover story will get us through the Games, that making sponsors believe that a love like ours shouldn't be allowed to die in an arena would save our lives. And it did."

"But there could only be one victor." He says, his brows furrowing.

"They changed the rules, they told us that if both tributes from the same district were both alive in the end, they'd allow two victors."

"We must've put on a good show." He says, obviously hurt that it was just for show.

"We did." I confess. "But in the last minute when you and I stood alone in the arena, they revoked the new rule. We stood in front of the Cornucopia, our hands filled with poisonous berries. We were about to eat them and just give up on everything and everyone else when they stopped us. That's how we won our first Games together."

"Nightlock." Peeta whispers.

"You remembered." I gawk at him.

"This is surreal." He says, his eyes wide as though he's seen a ghost.

"This is the truth." I tell him.

"How am I supposed to believe that?!" He asks me, "How could I have survived the Hunger Games when I all know is how to bake bread?"

"That's why we both have a house like this." I say, trying to calm him. "We're victors of the 75th Hunger Games."

"Your sister." He says then, "My brothers…"

"They're gone, Peeta." I say, wiping the tears from my eyes when he covers his face with his palms.

"How?" He says, without looking up.

"Accidents. Or planned accidents, I don't really know, we couldn't prove anything. President Snow didn't like our trick with the berries because it started the rebellion in many districts. We were forced back into the Hunger Games, this time the Quarter Quell." I start, my voice heavy with the effort to keep my emotions at bay. "Haymitch advised us to keep the star crossed lovers story as real as it can be so that we could fall back on our emotions when the time came when President Snow would take his revenge."

"Only it wasn't just a show for me." He says, slowly lifting his head from his hands.

"That's not the whole story. Peeta, please, you have to believe me when I tell you that I love you." I plead with him. "It was. It was just a show for me but now it's not anymore. I love you."

"I think I've heard enough for today. It's a lot to take in." He says, rising from the couch. "Thank you, Katniss." I get up and follow him as he makes his way out of the house, begging him to let me finish the story.

"Peeta, please wait!" I call and grab his arm and pull him closer to me. He stops walking and he turns to face me.

"Katniss, please let me go." I don't let myself release my grip on him.

"I can't." I say as I feel my arm drop back to my side. He opens the door and I watch helplessly again as he is pulled away from me.

I run through the house and enter the study room and frantically search the drawers of the desk. In one of them I find what I'm looking for. I pull my robe tighter around my waist and put on my slippers. I leave through the front door and catch Peeta as he closes his own door. I run through the street, clutching the book in my hands. I reach his door and knock.

"I told you, I'm done with all of this." He says, when he opens the door.

"I know." I start, trying to catch my breath. "I understand how confusing all this must be for you and how hurt you must be after knowing that my feelings for you then weren't real. I understand that you don't want anything to do with me right now but, Peeta, I promised to help you whether you wanted my help or not."

I hand him the book and he takes it. He opens it on the first page. The bright smile of my sister and her goat greets him. Prim is followed by Peeta's father and then mine.

"What is this?" he asks in a low voice, still turning the pages of the book.

"It's our book." I say, "We wrote it together because we didn't want to forget everyone who died for us."

He continues to read through the pages, lightly passing his fingers through his own paintings of the people we love.

"I just thought this would help you remember." I say and turn away from him and start to walk back to my house.