A/N: Hello hello, another excuse for a line break! Don't forget to review!

PEETA POV

I can't say what I was expecting would meet us in the Capitol. It could have been anything, from mutts to explosives to fire to bullets, it could have been anything. Katniss was ahead of the group with the Holo scanning for unseen Pods, while I wasn't too far behind. I mostly feared that the Holo wouldn't detect a Pod and she would walk straight into it, being ripped away from me in an instant. The Holo beeped, signalling that there was indeed a Pod just up ahead, and I held up a hand to stop the unit behind me. My heart rate increased as my wife turned back to look at me. "What do you suggest we do, Commander?" she asked me with a wink.

"Uh..." I said. It wasn't my first decision to make as a commander, but it was my first with Gale in my unit under me. Part of me felt he was judging me, but then I remembered that I shouldn't care, considering I was the one married to Katniss and not him, and I was also above him. "Set it off?" I heard a snort behind me and I turned around to narrow my eyes at Gale, who looked highly amused. "Got any better ideas, Soldier?"

"No," he said, losing his amused smile, and I turned back to face Katniss. She bent down to pick up a rock, then turned back to where the Pod was located and tossed it. Out of the ground came three very large buzzsaws that would have chopped us into hundreds of pieces had we walked straight through it, and after a minute, it stopped, and the three buzzsaws went limp. Thankfully, once the Pods were activated, they couldn't be reactivated - a one time use.

"One down," said Katniss, turning back to face us, "several hundred more to go." So that became protocol. As we walked through the streets of the Capitol, we used the Holo to detect unseen Pods and set them off using rocks or other things that were throwable, and then we moved on. For each Pod that went off, Katniss marked it in the Holo so that we knew which ones were inactive. I could see on the map other marked off Pods from the other commanders at different parts of the city. After a couple of hours of setting off Pods and marking them off, Katniss stopped and took note of the street before us. "Might be a good place to rest."

"But we just started," said Gale, and Katniss turned to face him.

"If you want to continue without the Holo, then be my guest, but the rest of the unit is tired. We hardly had a break between arriving here and setting off, so we'll take a break. Two hours, then continue on," she said with confidence, and I smiled watching her shut Gale down with her leadership.

"I'll scope out this shop here. It looks empty," I said.

"Take Gale with you, he's not tired," Katniss said, and reluctantly, Gale followed me into the shop, both of our weapons poised and ready to attack if we had to.

"You should stop trying to undermine me," I said to him. "I'm your commander. If you're not happy about that, take it up with the Senate because they're who decided this."

"I voted against you and Katniss taking command of this unit," Gale reminded me.

"Look, I know you hate my guts and want me dead because of her, but you need to get over your distaste of me or I'll send you packing. I'm serious, Gale," I said to him firmly. "I will not have you poisoning this unit with your bad attitude."

"I'm sure Katniss would be upset with you. She wanted me on this unit."

"Because you're a good fighter, but you heard the attitude she gave you. You know damn well she'd have no problem with removing you from the unit if you don't quit acting like you're in control."

"That's not your decision to make anymore."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm under special orders, and I'm also under order to not tell you shit. So I can say what I like and you can't do anything about it."

"Think I'll have to check on that."

"Go ahead. Prove me right." I didn't want to believe this damn fool, but I got in contact with the members of the Senate that weren't on the mission - Haymitch and Delly Cartwright were standing in for Katniss and I in representing Twelve and Thirteen had two stand-in representatives as well. Fourteen and Eight also had a stand-in representative, since Carolina and Paylor were both here at the Capitol. It turned out Gale did have special orders, and I narrowed my eyes at him as he smirked with satisfaction.

"I'll find out what you're up to," I told him.

"Relax, he's just pushing your buttons," Katniss told me when I had relayed the conversation to her. We were inside the shop now, Gale and I having deemed it safe, and Katniss and I were in our own little corner trying to find a moment of peace together.

"He's here on special orders, Katniss. I don't trust him," I replied.

"You never trusted him to begin with. You didn't even want him on the team," she replied.

"And for good reason, but you stepped over my head."

"Peeta, it'll be fine," she said, sitting up and taking my hand, giving it a firm squeeze. "I have no idea what his special orders are, but I'm sure whatever the goals of his mission are line up with ours."

"You still trust him," I said with a hint of betrayal in my tone.

"Trust and love are two very different things," she reminded me, detecting the tone in my voice. "I trust him, but I don't love him. I trust you and I love you. See the difference?"

"I guess it's hard to see it after all the history you two have together," I confessed. I didn't want her to know that even though we've been married for two years, even though I'm the man she chose to have the intimacy that we've shared together with and that I'm the one who fathered the baby she was growing inside of her, I still can't shake the feelings of jealousy I get when I think of Gale and her.

"Peeta," she said, her free hand moving to my face and brushing a piece of hair from my eye. "Why are you still jealous of him? Have I not done enough to show you that I have no interest in him? What will it take to prove that to you?"

"You have proven it to me, I just..." I let out a sigh. "I just don't like him. I don't like being around him. I don't like the air he gives off. He always acts like he's the best option for everything no matter what the topic is and he always acts like everyone else is incompetent. And I hate to say it, but I don't feel completely safe around him. He..." I didn't really want to say it, but her eyes egged me on. "Nevermind. I don't want to talk about it."

"Peeta..."

"I could be dead in an hour, I'd rather spend that hour with you and not talking about him. Come here." I took her hands and pulled her towards me and though she sighed, she complied, crawling into my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck. I kissed the top of her head and held her tightly against me, refusing to let go.

"You won't be dead in an hour. I won't let that happen," she said.

"I know you won't," I told her. "Katniss, I'm tired of having this conversation. Let's just settle on the fact that we're not going to die and when this is all over, we go home, back to our normal lives, and we'll live long and happy lives until we die of old age. All right?"

"But our lives will never be normal. I don't think they ever were to begin with," she replied. "Peeta, we lived in constant fear of the Capitol, waiting for the day when they decided they'd stop playing with us and kill us."

"Loving you kept my life at least somewhat normal," I confessed.

"I thought you said it was a crush," she replied, teasing me gently, and I smiled down at her.

"It was a crush that blossomed into love," I told her. "Loving you now keeps me sane. Loving you after the Games kept me sane, even if you didn't return it."

"You really didn't try to turn to anyone else?" I shook my head.

"They weren't you, so I wasn't interested. Sure, there were girls who were interested in me. Delly being one of them, Madge Undersee... but I never looked twice at them. And I didn't want to lure them into a false love where at night, I would pretend that they were you in my arms, instead of them. That wouldn't have been fair."

"What if I never confessed my feelings for you?"

"Then I would have spent the rest of my life alone, but loving you. It would have made dying in the arena that much easier," I told her. It might have been stupid, yes, and immature, but it was the truth. I didn't want anyone else if I couldn't have Katniss.

"Oh, Peeta, that's such an awful thing to say."

"But it's the truth. I would rather be alone than have someone that isn't you."

"Then it's a good thing I confessed my feelings. I almost didn't, I was too afraid to. Afraid of what you'd think... I didn't know if your feelings were genuine or not and I was afraid you'd laugh at me, but then I thought I was dying anyway so I might as well have told you right then and there. It seemed like it didn't matter, and holding it back was pointless."

"You have no idea how happy I was when I heard you utter those words for the first time. I still feel the same every time I hear them."

"Oh, do you?" she asked with a smile, and I nodded. "Well, I love you, Peeta Mellark. I love you even though you drive me up the bloody wall sometimes and I love you even though you're the most overdramatic, jumping-to-conclusions type of man I know. I love you when you're ridiculously overprotective of me and piss me off, and I love you when you're sweet, tender and gentle. I love you for the little things you do, like picking out something for me to wear and laying it out on the chair or the bed and making sure my shoelaces are double-knotted." I smiled as she listed the reasons why she loved me, chuckling at the mention of the shoelaces. "I love you for how you see me for who I really am and still love me anyway. I love you for how you always know when I'm not being completely honest or how you know when I'm holding something back - I don't know how you know, but you know, and no one else is that observant of me. And I love you for how you still loved me even when I didn't return it." She lowered her voice a little. "I love you for how you know what drives me insane in bed." I couldn't help but chuckle, feeling the heat in my cheeks of a gentle blush.

"Katniss..." I muttered, and I opened my mouth to reply, but Gale's obnoxious voice cut through the room.

"Since the commanders clearly aren't paying attention, I'll bring our attention to the fact that two hours are up and we need to get moving," he said rather rudely, and I clenched my teeth to keep from saying something bitter right back.

"I hate him," I muttered quietly to Katniss, who laughed, kissed my cheek and climbed off of my lap.

"Very well then," she said. "On we go. Peeta, you take the Holo." She handed me the little device as I stood up and walked up behind her.

"Then we're moving on," I said, and we did.

KATNISS POV

It was in the cave when I first realised that I might actually have feelings for the boy with the bread. It was after the announcement of the feast, where Peeta's much needed medicine would be, that I realised I wanted him to live so badly, that I realised that I didn't want to live in a world that didn't have Peeta Mellark in it. "Katniss, no, you're not risking your life for me," he hissed, grabbing me as I tried to leave his side to go to the feast.

"You'd do it for me," I hissed right back. He didn't loosen his grip, only tightened it, and stared straight into my eyes with what I realised were very beautiful blue eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" he whispered, and I felt my heart thumping very quickly as I realised what I was going to do. I didn't have to do it. The thing Peeta needed was already out there waiting for me, but I felt the urge to do it. It wouldn't be for the Capitol, it would be for me - I just had to know. I dropped my bow and I reached down to catch his head with my hand, dragging myself down to him on the ground and furiously pressed my lips to his. I'd never kissed anyone before, especially not a boy, but I couldn't help myself from deepening the kiss more and more with every passing second. I hadn't wanted to hurt Gale - I knew he cared for me, but after what happened with Auburn, I couldn't feel the same way towards him - actually, I wasn't even thinking of Gale while I was kissing Peeta, only after. I didn't want to be the one that broke the kiss between myself and Peeta so I didn't. I clung to him and kissed him, my tongue sliding into his mouth and mingling with his, and I could feel him groaning into it. He was the one that had to break it, reminding me that we weren't safe in District Twelve, we were in the arena. He met my eyes, his hand still buried in my hair and mine still cupping his face. "Now I'm definitely not letting you go."

"Yes the hell you are," I told him, pulling myself from his weakened grip and fighting the urge to kiss him again. He grabbed my shoe with both hands.

"Katniss, no! I'm not letting you go! You're not dying for me!" he shouted, and I pulled my foot free as he held on tightly to the shoe, not letting it go as I stood on the other side of the cave in one shoe and one stockinged foot.

"Peeta, I don't know if it's escaped your notice or not, but I don't care that you don't want me to risk my life for you because I'm going to no matter what. I already have, and I'll do it again a hundred times over if I have to," I hissed at him, and I returned to his side, dropped back onto my knees, took his face in my hands and kissed him again. Who the hell was this person who lived within me and wanted Peeta? "I want a lifetime of this, and I can't have that if you won't let me go and get your medicine. So either you let me go with both of my shoes or I'll go wearing only one. Do you understand me?" He was silent as he contemplated my words. I didn't realise how much I made it sound like I was deeply in love with him until the words were already spoken, and I couldn't take them back. He nodded gently, then returned my shoe to me.

"Kiss me again, before you go... just one more time," he said as I slipped the shoe on. I didn't want to, but the part of me that did took over my body. The Katniss that I didn't realise I wanted to be nodded gently, then she leaned over his body and tenderly took his face into her hands, pressing her lips to his and kissing him deeply with the love for him that I had buried deep inside of me. Peeta had to be the one to break the kiss again, and he ran a hand through my chocolate brown hair as I looked into his beautiful, handsome face. "Come back to me," he whispered.

"Always," I told him, and off I went to collect his medicine.

Peeta wasn't the same frail boy that he once was in that cave, he was a strong, sturdy, confident man who led a unit through the minefield of the Capitol fearlessly. He set off Pods using rocks that he had collected along the way and commanded us through each and every trap safely, ensuring that no one would die on his watch. Watching him made my heart throb and I ached for his lips on mine, for his touch against my skin, for his love inside of me. He said something to the unit, but I didn't hear what it was, as I was too focused on him to think clearly, and when he approached me, his words finally became clear. "Keep the staring to a minimum and focus, why don't you?" he said in a teasing tone, and I smiled and blushed slightly, not even realising that I had been staring at him.

"Can't help it," I replied. "You should see yourself from my angle."

"This looks as good a spot as any for a great propo," said Cressida, standing ten feet behind two very large columns and holding up her hands as if to form a picture frame.

"Is that really our focus right now?" asked Cailean, wiping a bit of sweat off of his face. We were all dressed in black clothing and were very warm.

"Propos help build morale and win the war," said Cressida.

"There's a Pod between the two columns," said Peeta, checking the Holo.

"Fire an arrow at it, Katniss," said Cressida, setting up Castor and Pollux behind me. With a sigh and my back to the camera, I pulled out my little cylinder and pressed the button on it, activating the bow - the quiver had already been activated - and pulled out a regular black-tipped arrow, then drew it back and fired it between the two columns while Peeta stood beside me and watched, and the Pod was activated, two streams of fire shooting out from the top of the columns and going out in a matter of moments. "Yes! That was on fire!"

"In more ways than one," I muttered to Peeta, who chuckled gently. We passed through the column and entered a rather large courtyard, which almost looked like an arena itself.

"Scope it out, see if there's anything here," Peeta said, checking the Holo. "There's a Pod in the center of the courtyard so watch out for it." Calum, Zeodary Sage and Graham Leper made their way away from the entrance and into the courtyard. All seemed to be going well, until Graham stepped on a square and triggered a large explosion. All of us were blown back and hit the ground as the explosion went off, deafened by the blast. I was dazed, then sat up and saw Peeta screaming at me about something, but I couldn't hear him. I shook my head a bit, and his words became more clear. "KATNISS, RUN!" he was shouting, and he pulled me to stand and then picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder. Behind him, I could see Calum, Hadley and Finnick running in the same direction we were and behind them was a huge black sludge following closely behind. The courtyard had somehow closed itself in and we were now in a large bowl that was filling quickly and we had to get out of there.

Zeodary activated the Pod by mistake in his panic to get away from the sludge and he was captured in a net and suspended in the air, and the scratches on his skin told me that it was made of barbed wire. This left just myself, Calum, Cailean, Carolina, Gale, Hadley, Peeta, Cressida, Donnel, Castor and Pollux as we ran towards a building that Gale had blasted the door open to. Donnel had slung Graham over his shoulder and was carrying him, but I could see once we were inside and on the ground of an upper floor that he was bleeding out quickly from the two stumps that used to be his legs. Once I was free of Peeta's grip, I raced to Graham's side and tried my best to stop the bleeding, but it was no use. We couldn't get him back to the base camp in time, and we knew that with such a big trap, Peacekeepers were likely coming. I glance around at everyone around me. We've all been worse for wear before, but we did look rather beaten up. Dirtied and bleeding from the explosion, most everyone was okay, with the exception of Graham, who now lay dead before me in a puddle of blood, and Hadley, who had a very large gash on her leg that Carolina was trying to assist with by tying a tourniquet around her leg. "Katniss, I need your help," she said to me, and I nodded as I moved to Hadley's side and tried to help her.

"It's pointless," Hadley said, and I took her face in my hands.

"No it's not. You'll be okay," I told her, but she shook her head.

"I can't walk, I'm no use to the unit and you can't get me back to the camp," she replied. Hadley was a sweet young girl who was easily my age, if not a little bit older, with short brown curls who hailed from District Thirteen. We met shortly before I learned that she would be under my command on the mission to rally the districts two years ago now, and I remember being impressed by her enthusiasm.

"We have plenty of strong men who can carry you," I told her, and she shook her head.

"Don't waste time," she replied. I patched her up anyway, even though I knew the poor girl was dying, and Gale glanced out the window.

"The sludge has stopped," he said. It covered the courtyard and up to eight feet up on the buildings, just enough to look as if it had drowned us. In the middle of the courtyard, I could see Zeodary trapped in the barbed wire, dead and black from the sludge.

"Maybe if we're lucky, it'll have set off some Pods," I said.

"We can't stay, we've gotta go," said Peeta. "There's something popping up on the Holo. Peacekeepers."

"Then we'd better go. Hadley?" said Gale, turning to Hadley, and she shook her head.

"I'll stay here, ward them off. Make them think that we're still here while you all run off," she replied.

"You don't have to do that, Hadley," said Cailean somewhat sadly, and she smiled at him and raised a hand to his face.

"Go," she said. While everyone else started down the stairs, I paused to wait for Cailean, who bent down to kiss Hadley on the lips one final time, and then he followed without a word. The sludge thankfully didn't make any footprints so we were able to escape safely, but we still had to be on the lookout for Pods. As we walked through the streets on the sludge, we saw several Pods that had been activated, but when we reached the end of it, we knew that there were still many, many more Pods up ahead. I felt a dull ache in my left upper arm as I looked around, and then we all froze when we heard first the sound of gunshots, and then a rather large explosion.

"We need to go," said Peeta. "Get somewhere safe and hide out for the night." I realised then that the sun was setting, and he was right. Gale broke us into a fancy Capitol home and we made ourselves comfortable on the couch while Castor started raiding the cabinets and tapping on the walls, then found an empty pocket and peeled back a panel to reveal a stash of food.

"It's an old Capitol superstition. Maybe even a fear, from the Dark Days of the first war. Everyone was starving back then, districts and Capitol. Ever since, people in the Capitol keep a stash of food hidden in their homes, even though it's illegal," Castor explained as he brought over several cans of food to us at the table.

"That's amazing!" said Calum excitedly, grabbing a can and looking at it, then grimacing. "Maybe not so amazing..."

"It's only fish!" said Carolina, who was attached to his arm. "Don't you like fish? You're from an island."

"I always hated the smell and the taste of it, and I was glad I didn't have to eat it all the time when we got to Thirteen," Calum admitted, resulting in a laugh from Carolina and a kiss on her cheek from Calum. Cailean appeared somewhat sad and stood in the corner against the wall, not wanting to be near anyone. I was about to ask if he was all right when I felt a sharp pain in my arm and when I looked over, I saw Peeta with his fingers on my arm.

"Katniss, you're injured," he said, and I noticed the blood on his fingers.

"I'll be fine," I told him.

"Give me your medic pack," he replied, and I complied, letting him clean up the wound. I had been scratched by a sharp piece of metal and it required stitches, and at first I passed him the liquid stitches, but he set those aside and pulled out medical grade thread and a needle.

"Peeta, you can't do stitches," I told him, but he waved me off and stuck me with a jab of morphling to cut the pain, then started working on the wound. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"Watching you, the day the medical ship from Five came to Fourteen," he told me, not removing his eyes from his work. It wasn't a large cut so he was able to finish it rather quickly, and then he made me remove my jacket so he could bandage it.

"Thank you," I said to him, and he gave me a gentle reassuring smile and took my hand, giving it a squeeze, and then he turned my hand over and ironed out my palm with his hand, placing a can of lamb stew in my hand. I smiled at him, then took hold of the front of his jacket and dragged him to me to kiss him.

We were startled by the holographic television that began to project over the table before us, and a message from President Snow began to play. "It is with great pleasure that I can report the deaths of the rebels on the west side of the Capitol. The Mockingjay is dead, but there are still dangers all around us. The rebels continue to push forward, but the Capitol will resist. We will overcome this travesty together. We will provide food and medicine for any refugees coming from the outermost parts of the city and I encourage citizens of the inner city to open their doors to their fellow citizens. In the meantime, have no fear. The rebel forces will be defeated and the Capitol will come out on top." The image of Snow faded and was replaced by pictures of our faces on the screen, honouring us the same way we would have been honoured had we died in the arena with the Capitol anthem playing behind it.

Cressida Dubrow, Capitol.

Castor Chatham, Capitol.

Pollux Chatham, Capitol.

Finnick Odair, District Four. (I saw him smile and chuckle to himself).

Graham Leper, District Nine.

Gale Hawthorne, District Twelve.

Donnel Mellark, District Twelve.

Katniss Mellark, District Twelve. (Snow was one of few people to respect me by calling me by the correct name).

Peeta Mellark, District Twelve. (I gripped Peeta's hand tightly, and he gave it a squeeze).

Carolina Abernathy, District Thirteen. ("Fourteen," she hissed).

Cailean Fòlais, District Thirteen.

Calum Fòlais, District Thirteen.

Zeodary Sage, District Thirteen.

Hadley Walker, District Thirteen.

The screen went dark, and we all sat in silence for a moment, contemplating what had just happened. The Capitol thought we were dead. Snow thought we were dead. We had the advantage of being invisible to the Capitol, so long as we were careful to maintain it. If they went through the rubble tomorrow, they might find that we actually aren't dead, but until then, we were invisible. "We're ghosts, I said, addressing the unit. "Disappeared right in our own tracks." They all looked at me, somewhat melancholy, somewhat tired. "We need to take advantage of that. Rest up while you can, we'll leave in the dead of night."