Brand New Breeze
by FanficAllergy & RoseFyre

oOo

Chapter One: The Girl Is Mine

oOo

Last Time in Let Me Fly:

Peeta looks up from where he's roasting the duck over the fire. "So, how'd it go?"

"I think we've found home."

oOo

We've found a cave.

A place to call home.

Together with Gale, Rory, my mother, Prim and Peeta we've discovered a place that is large enough to house us comfortably with a little work. Make that a lot of work. And not that much time to do it.

We start settling in the morning after we find the cave. It's a bit of a change from all the traveling and making a home from nothing is harder than I expected it to be. A lot harder. Things I've never had to think about before are suddenly of the utmost importance.

Like going to the bathroom.

Along the way it wasn't a big deal, but now we want to make sure our waste doesn't contaminate any of our food or water. We've all seen the Games and know what happens when that occurs. Getting sick is just the tip of the iceberg. Not to mention it's gross. So, the very first thing we have to do is dig a latrine. But in order to even do that, we have to make handles for our tools.

Gale and I made the decision before we left Twelve that we would only bring the heads of the tools we wanted, other than the axes, in order to save weight and space. Specifically, the shovel, pick, and hoe. Making handles takes a couple of hours, during which I set up several snares around the cave. My mother joins me, pointing out the area of the floodplain she wants to use as a garden.

"Won't that be visible?" I ask, bending down to set a cloverleaf snare.

"Not if we're careful," she tells me. "We'll intermix the vegetables we're planting with the local plants and we won't keep the crops in straight rows. It'll be a little bit of a pain, but it's better than the alternative."

I look up at her. "Is it even worth the effort?"

"Yes, it is. I know it's hard to believe but we need more than just meat, Katniss. There's no guarantee this'll work, but it's worth a shot. Even if only half the plants make it, it's better than none, and there's no telling if we'd be able to gather enough vegetation to prevent malnutrition."

I shrug my shoulders. My mother's the gardener in the family but it's hard not to laugh. Malnutrition is something I've had to deal with my whole life along with starvation. Given the choice between the two, I'd rather be malnourished than dead. Still, a garden opens up other avenues to get food. It'll attract birds and rabbits so Gale and I should set several snares around that area. If there's one thing I know, it's that rabbits and other animals like to eat food from gardens and I like to eat them.

When I get back, I notice that Peeta and Prim are gone and so is the bearskin we brought along.

Gale looks up from where he's whittling a straight sapling into a handle. "He's down at the river with your sister."

"Why?"

"His grandparents are the furriers in town. Said he's got some idea how to tan that bear hide."

I'm glad someone does. It's a skill I've never needed. I've always sold the skins I've gotten and let someone else deal with the work.

Prim returns without Peeta, carrying a whole armful of cattails. "I figured what we don't eat, we can dry for bedding," she tells us, dropping them to the ground by the fire.

"But before we do that," my mother says, "we need to clean out the cave and do laundry. And we all could use a bath."

Gale looks up. "Before we do that, Rory and me should take care of the outhouse."

"You mean shithole," Rory pipes up.

"Rory Hawthorne! That is no language to use in front of a lady!"

"What ladies? I don't see any!"

"Excuse me! What about me or my mom or my sister? Are you saying that we're not ladies?" Prim leans forward, placing her hands on her hips.

He crosses his arms. "I meant what I said and I said what I meant."

"You take that back, Rory Hawthorne! You take that back!"

"No way! You're just proving my point!"

"You, Rory Hawthorne, are no gentleman!"

"Good! Wouldn't wanna be!"

"You two sound like an old married couple," Peeta says, walking back to camp, soaking wet and carrying the bearskin. "Maybe you should just kiss and get it over with."

Both preteens gape at him.

"Ewwww no! Gross!"

"What she said!"

Prim flounces up the hill toward the cave.

My mother sighs. "I'll go with Prim. Katniss, can you help carry the rest of the packs up to the cave? We might as well start getting unpacked."

Gale stands up with the reassembled shovel. "Rory, you're with me." He drags his brother away.

Peeta looks up. "I'll stake this out and then I'll start getting some firewood."

"Don't cut down too many trees," I warn.

Peeta smiles. "Wasn't planning on it. There's plenty of dead wood around here. I'm not the ignorant merchant that I was two weeks ago."

I'm not sure what I can say to that.

oOo

We have dinner inside the cave. The snares were really fruitful today and that eases some of my worries. This place has good hunting. We've just got to get enough stored before winter comes.

My mind keeps repeating that over and over while Peeta serves up a meal of the goose I shot yesterday with cattails and other greens.

My mother helps herself to some of the meat and says, "So I found something interesting while I was cleaning out the cave today."

"Oh?" Gale asks.

"In the remnants of the fire I found an empty glass jar and what was left of some old ID papers."

My mother is dragging this out. "Get to the point," I say.

"I'm getting there."

"Get there faster."

"I will if you stop interrupting me."

I growl at her.

She smirks back. "Anyway, I was able to make out the last name on one of the papers. And to my surprise, it read Donner."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Peeta asks.

My mother turns toward him. "That's because it was Mrs. Undersee's maiden name."

Peeta blinks. "The Mayor's wife? Why would there be an ID from her family out here?"

My mother takes a sip of her tea. "Maysilee, Mrs. Undersee's sister, and I were really close friends when we were kids. She got Reaped in the Fiftieth Games and, well, you all know what happened there."

We do. Those were the Games Haymitch Abernathy won.

"She mentioned that her dad used to have a brother but she never knew what happened to him. He disappeared along with his girlfriend back before the First Games. Maysilee told me that her uncle fought for the rebellion during the Dark Days and that everyone thought the Capitol had taken them both because of that." My mother motions to the mockingjay pin that I'm wearing. "That pin there was Maysilee's. Her father gave it to her when she was Reaped. Said it was a family heirloom and that it should bring her luck."

"How do you know that?" Prim wants to know.

My mother smiles sadly. "I was there in the room saying goodbye. She was my best friend and I never saw her alive again." My mother takes another sip of her tea and sighs deeply. "I wish Maysilee were still alive so I could tell her her uncle made it this far. She'd've been proud. She never liked living under the yoke of the Capitol, always was thinking about running away or rebelling. I guess it runs in the family."

I wonder what Madge would think if she found out. She's the Mayor's daughter. I can't see her being related to rebels or being a rebel herself, she's just too shy and timid.

Gale reaches into his pack and gets out a dark wood pin. It's shaped like a mockingjay in flight. "My dad gave this to my mom when they were courting. It'd been in the family a long time. I wonder if it means anything."

"Well, Maysilee always said that the mockingjays were a sign of rebellion, showing that the Capitol couldn't control everything," my mother answers, examining the wooden brooch. "Maybe your family was part of the rebellion during the Dark Days."

Gale smiles and puts the pin on proudly. "Good for them."

oOo

The next day, Peeta and Gale join forces to start building a smoker. I wave goodbye and head off to see what I can hunt. I don't get very far, just the base of the hill, when I spot a deer.

My arrow is out and nocked and before I can even think, I fire. The deer drops and that's when my mind catches up. What are we going to do with an animal this large? I can't carry it on my own and we may want to keep the skin and other organs. I need help.

My mother are Prim are useless, they've gone off to start gathering and gardening and Rory is who knows where. He announced this morning that he was going to start exploring the area and no one's seen him since. I need Peeta. Only he's strong enough to carry this thing up to the cave.

I trudge back up the hill to where Peeta and Gale are working. "Peeta, I need you," I say without any preamble.

"For what?" Gale asks.

"I got a deer and I need help hauling it back home."

"I can help you with that." He stands up and starts dusting off his hands.

I wave him away. "No, you should stay here and keep working. Peeta can lift it."

Gale's eyes narrow. "How do you know Mellark can carry a deer on his own?" My heart sinks at the name change. I've somehow managed to screw things up between them and I don't know how.

"I've seen him do it back in Twelve. I mean, not deer, but bags of flour, and it's pretty much the same thing." I'm over-explaining, trying to figure out what I did wrong, and I keep coming up blank.

"Have you been watching him that much?" And that's when it hits me, Gale's jealous. How am I supposed to deal with that?

I shrug. "Not really. I just happened to notice. Why is this such a big deal?"

Gale opens his mouth. "It-"

"I'd be happy to help," Peeta interjects. "I could use another skin to practice on. I'm not sure that bearskin's gonna make it." He brushes off his hands. "Lead the way."

Peeta and I dress the deer, removing the blood and digestive organs. We haven't seen nightlock since we left Twelve, but that doesn't mean there aren't plants this far north. We can't take the chance of a perforated bowel tainting the meat.

We haul the dressed carcass back to the cave. "This should keep for a couple of days," Peeta says. "At least until we finish building the smoker. I haven't seen any insects out and it's cool in here." He stands up and stretches, cracking his back. "We should probably go get cleaned up."

We wash our hands and arms in the river and Peeta motions toward my face. "You got a little on your cheek, there."

I scrub at where he points.

He shakes his head. "You're missing it. Here, let me." He reaches out with one wet hand and wipes away the blood. His fingers linger, tracing light patterns on my cheek.

I feel a little frisson of something deep in my belly. "Peeta...what are you doing?"

His blue eyes darken with some emotion I can't identify. "I never thought I'd ever be able to touch you like this."

"Like what?"

He pulls his hand back and smiles at me, leaving me more confused than ever.

I avert my eyes uncomfortably and spot Gale walking away. From the set of his shoulders, he's angry. I flinch guiltily. He must've seen Peeta and me. This is definitely not going to help with the whole jealousy thing.

Part of me wants to run after him and explain that nothing happened. But I don't. It's none of Gale's business what I do with Peeta.

Peeta follows my gaze. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't pressure you like this."

I stand up and walk away. "You aren't."

oOo

The air in the cave is decidedly chilly over the next couple of days - and not from the weather. All of Gale's earlier acceptance of Peeta has completely disappeared and he's now actively antagonizing the merchant boy again. Peeta, for his part, isn't doing anything to make it better. He isn't outwardly going out of his way to bait Gale but he refuses to back down when Gale baits him and I think, but I'm not sure, he's not doing anything to avoid trying to push Gale's buttons. Nothing overt, but I can't shake the feeling that Peeta is manipulating Gale.

And what's worse is that I've realized that they are fighting over me. And I have no clue how to get them to stop.

No, that's not quite true. I do know what would stop the competition. I'm just not willing to pick a side. Both of them want a relationship with me. Both of them have stated that they are in love with me. Both of them have made it clear that it's my decision who I end up with and both of them are determined that it be them. This has led to an unspoken competition of sorts. If Peeta is able to carry more rocks, Gale has to chop down a bigger tree. If Gale manages to hunt some game, Peeta counters by teaching himself how to fish and landing a huge trout.

It never ends.

Rory, my mother, and Prim are doing their best to stay out of the competition and keep looking at me to resolve it.

I can't.

I won't.

And that just means the competition continues.

I distract myself by spending all of my time hunting and gathering and exploring the region. There's several pre-Cataclysm houses in the area and we're able to find a few useful items amongst the ruins. Most of it's small things made out of glass or plastic - a jar here, a glass there. Rory seems to have the best luck, discovering an active beehive, a bottle of wine that has turned to vinegar, and even a porcelain kitchen sink, which Peeta and Gale use in constructing the smoker.

Every time I search through one of these ruins, I wonder what caused the Cataclysm so many years ago. But I'm grateful now that some parts of that civilization have still managed to survive. Most of it's trash and unusable, but every so often we find something made of plastic, glass, or ceramic that's survived. There's even the odd bit of metal or fabric that's been kept in a plastic container that's made it through. Still, everything we find that might be of some use we bring back to the cave, nothing is going to waste.

The area we've chosen is even better than I'd hoped. There's several herds of deer and elk, I've seen glimpses of goats and cows, and I've found the tracks of pigs and bears. My mother has us start drying much of the meat that we get, putting Prim in charge of watching to make sure scavengers don't make off with it.

My sister has taken this whole "getting a new start" seriously, taking it upon herself to provide mats and baskets and furniture made out of vines and grasses. She doesn't have much success, but she's getting better. She's made several mats that we can use for drying plants and berries, and she thinks she's figured out a way to make a drying rack for herbs. Anything at this point will be useful, we don't have any furniture and will have to make everything.

Things come to a head when Rory discovers a fully intact granite bench at one of the ruined houses. It's a welcome find. But it's going to need four people to carry it up, including both Gale and Peeta.

The moment we get to the ruined house, Gale and Peeta break into an argument over who's going to do what. Gale thinks he should carry the back end because he's more agile and can prevent it from falling, while Peeta argues that he's stronger and Gale's more used to moving through the woods and thus would be able to walk backwards easier. They continue like this for several minutes.

Rory offers to take the front and is immediately shut down by both his brother and Peeta. I sigh. The only way to stop this bickering is for me to step in.

"Both of you, knock it off! You're acting like two dogs fighting over a bone! I'm sick of it." I point at Peeta. "You take the back." I turn my finger to Gale. "You take the front. Rory and I have the sides. Let's go." My tone leaves no room for argument.

Both Gale and Peeta have the decency to look ashamed and the trek back to the cave is blissfully silent.

As soon as we're back, I immediately take off to blow off steam in the woods. I can't be near any of them right now. How dare they act like I'm some kind of prize to be won? Both of them promised that this would be my choice! Both of them promised that they wouldn't put pressure on me to make a decision! What in the hell do they think they're doing? I'm so angry. I'm stomping through the woods, not finding anything. I've got to get this out of my system.

I take several deep breaths and head towards one of the small streams in the area to wash my face. I crouch down at the stream and cup the cool water in my hands. I hate feeling like this. I hate being confused. But most of all, I hate feeling so out of control. I feel the tears pricking behind my eyes and I splash the cool water against my face. What am I going to do? I don't know.

I sit down against the bank to think. How do I choose between them? Why do I have to choose? I hate this stupid soap opera drama that I'm in and I want to be out. I want this to be over.

The sound of a twig snapping jerks me out of my reverie. Something's coming.

I slowly get to my feet, my bow at the ready. I hope it's not another bear. I'm so far away from the cave and I'm not sure I could kill one by myself.

A magnificent elk steps into my sight. It's huge, with a large rack of antlers. That much meat would feed our group for a long time and we could use the antlers to make tools and other things. The animal leans down to take a drink and I line up my shot. I need to get it right through the eye. I'm not sure I'll be able to kill it otherwise.

Another crack startles the elk and it looks right at me. Its dark liquid eyes meet mine and I can see the animal poised to run.

I'm out of time.

I fire.

My arrow flies true, slamming through the large dark eye into the elk's brain. The animal drops. I feel a rush of triumph followed immediately by dread. I'm going to need the boys to carry my kill back to camp.

Crap.

And worse, I'm too far away from the cave. I don't think I should leave the elk here. But I'm not sure I have a choice. I haven't seen very many mockingjays and I'm not sure if anyone will find me before dark. I have to chance it.

I run back to camp, heedless of the noise I'm making. As I get closer I start to yell. "Peeta! Gale! Anyone!"

"What is it?" Gale yells back.

"Come quickly!"

"Are you hurt?" Peeta shouts.

"No! I need you! I need both of you!" The boys meet me at the base of the hill and I motion. "Come on! Follow me!" I scurry back to where I left the elk, trusting that Gale and Peeta are following.

We're lucky. A few crows have pecked out the eyes, but otherwise the animal's mostly intact.

"That elk is huge," Gale says.

"I don't know how we're gonna get this back to camp," Peeta answers.

"What about the travois?" Gale suggests.

"We'll probably need more than one," Peeta says, eyeing the elk.

"They're not that hard to make," Gale replies with a shrug. "I'll go back and get the travois and the hatchet. You and Katniss start field dressing the thing."

Gale hurries off, leaving me and Peeta alone.

I blink at Gale's departing form for a moment. I'm surprised they managed to work that out without sniping at each other and it's clear to me that they make a good team, but I know if I were to point that out that any teamwork they've been displaying would fly out the window. I just wish they would realize that they're a good team and leave me out of it.

I sigh. Time to get to work. I strip out of my hunting jacket. It's warm enough out and I don't want to get blood on it.

Peeta pulls out his knife and slits the elk's throat to start draining its blood. We work together, removing the stomach, intestines, and other undesirable organs.

"Do you want to keep the head?" Peeta asks.

I nod. "Antlers are useful. They're good for making tools, and if nothing else, we can use them as drying racks."

He lifts the head. "They must weigh a good forty to fifty pounds. I'll carry them."

We continue working.

"Katniss?"

I look up from where I'm working to find him staring intently at me. I raise an eyebrow and make an interrogative noise.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. You're right. I shouldn't let Gale bait me. It's not fair to you and I'm sure it's not helping my cause any."

"You're right. It's not." I turn back to my task.

"What can I do to make it up to you?"

"You could start by not fighting with Gale anymore."

"I'll try," Peeta says, making a face. "He just...he knows how to push my buttons. I'm sorry."

"It's fine." It's not, but what else am I supposed to say? I don't want to talk about it further.

Peeta doesn't seem to get that hint because he continues, "It's just...Katniss? I care for you so much, I'm just - I'm not willing to give you up without a fight. You're too important to me."

I sigh, sitting back on my heels. "I like you, Peeta. I just like Gale too."

"I know. And I'll respect whatever decision you make. But until then, I'm going to fight." He pauses and takes a breath. "Have you kissed him?"

I can't stop myself from blurting out, "Who? Gale?"

"No, Finnick Odair. Of course Gale."

I hesitate. I don't want to tell him that I have. I'm not sure if telling the truth will make things worse.

Peeta sighs. "From your silence, I take it that that means yes."

I nod my head, staying silent to stop myself from apologizing. I'm not sorry. I don't know why I feel like I should be.

Peeta takes a deep breath. "Can I kiss you?"

"Are you doing this so that you're even with Gale?" I ask bluntly.

"Kind of? But mostly I've just wanted to kiss you for so long. I'll admit I'm jealous that Gale got your first kiss. I'd be lying if I said I weren't," he answers with a shrug. "So can I? Can I kiss you, Katniss?"

I don't give him an answer right away. Instead, I stand up and wash my hands in the swiftly flowing creek. If we're going to do this, I don't want to do it with blood on my hands.

Peeta sees what I'm doing and mirrors my actions hopefully.

I look at him. He looks at me.

I'm nervous. I've thought about kissing Peeta several times, but now that I'm about to, I can't seem to move my feet.

Peeta tilts his head and looks at me. "Katniss?" It's a question. The question.

I nod my head.

He steps forward and pulls me into his arms. I tilt my head up and his lips crash down on mine. The kiss is awkward - an uncomfortable fusion of tongues, lips, and teeth. I pull away.

"I'm sorry," Peeta blurts out. "That was - that was bad. I was bad. Too hasty. Too eager. I'm sorry. Please? Let me try again?"

"Let me," I say, leaning up to pull his head down to mine.

This kiss is better, softer. His whiskers tickle against my lips.

Peeta slides his hands up my sides until he reaches my face, cupping my chin in his hands delicately.

I lean forward, drawing on my memories of kissing Gale to deepen my kiss with Peeta. This feels good. Right. My arms slip around Peeta's neck almost involuntarily. This is nice. I could get used to this.

But I don't dare.

I step back.

"Whoa," Peeta says. "That was better than any of my dreams. Just...whoa. Thank you, Katniss."

I smile. "I liked it too."

If anything his face becomes even more radiant. "So you think maybe we could do it again?"

"Maybe. But first, we've got an elk to deal with."

oOo

A couple days before my sixteenth birthday Rory comes running up to camp very excited. Gale got another elk yesterday, so we've decided to spend today doing things other than hunting.

"Guys, guys! You won't believe what I just found!"

"Probably not," Prim says, looking up from the lopsided basket she's working on.

"I wasn't talking to you."

"Good, cause I don't wanna talk to you either!"

"Before you two start with your lovers' quarrel, do you want to tell us what you found, Rory?" Peeta asks.

My sister and Rory both glare at him. Peeta just shrugs and goes back to working on constructing some kind of cooking mechanism.

"Guys, I found a bathroom!"

We all sort of stare at him.

"No, really! I found a whole bathroom! Bathtub, toilet, and everything!"

"Okay…" I'm not really sure why he's telling us this.

"No, no! The bathtub's good! We just have to get it out of the house! And there's a sink, and a mirror, and some other stuff too!"

I raise an eyebrow, most of the houses we've found have been ruins with barely a wall standing. "So the house didn't collapse?"

"Well no, not completely. It looks like it was made out of brick. And, you know, the roof's gone, but most of the walls are still there."

"And just what do you want us to do with the bathroom?" Gale asks.

"I thought we could bring it up here! Well, not the toilet, it wouldn't work, but the tub! We could have a bathtub!"

"Are you telling me that you're getting sick of bathing in the stream?"

"Well it is cold. But it would be awesome, it would feel more like home!"

"Bathing in front of everybody else?" Gale quips.

Rory glares at him.

"And just how would we get the tub up here?" my mother asks.

"Carry it?" Rory suggests. "Use that, um, travel thing!"

"Travois?"

"Yes, that!"

We all look at each other.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check it out. It would be nice to have a tub come wintertime," my mother says.

"And I might be able to use it for tanning hides," Peeta adds. "That bearskin is in pretty bad shape, but I think the deerskin will turn out okay. It'd be better if I could heat the water before washing the skins."

Prim volunteers to watch the cave. It's probably for the best; she and Rory would most likely snipe at each other the entire time and we'll get enough of that with Gale and Peeta if they decide to go after each other. The rest of us go with Rory.

He leads us to a single story red brick house with one collapsed wall, revealing several ruined rooms within, including the bathroom that he is so excited about. The place is a study in mildewed white tile and the tub is full of fallen debris. Parts of it are chipped, but it looks to be in fairly decent shape.

"How are we going to get this back? It's got to weigh at least a ton," Gale asks, eyeing the white porcelain.

"Well, first we need to empty it out," my mother says.

Most of what's in the tub is broken or so old we can't tell what it once was. The sink looks impossible to remove so we decide to leave it, and there's no point in bringing a flush toilet. Something shiny catches my eye and I brush away dust and other accumulated things to reveal an oddly shaped mirror that looks to be made up of multiple rectangles. It reminds me of some of the decorations I've seen in Capitol TV shows and I wonder why anyone owned it. It doesn't seem practical. Still, it's usable. I quickly pack it up.

We clear out the bathtub and take whatever we might be able to use. We discover it's still attached to the floor with some ruined pipes, but a couple of good hits with a brick dislodges it.

We start to drag the tub out of the house and discover that it's much lighter than we first thought.

"What's this made out of?" Rory asks. "It looks like ceramic but it's not!"

"I have no idea," my mother says. "It's not mentioned in any of the books I've read. It kind of looks like plastic, but kind of not."

"Maybe this will work on a travois," Gale says.

"We didn't bring it with us," I point out.

"So we'll make one."

"With what? The hatchet and the axe are back in the cave."

"I don't think it's that heavy," Peeta says. "Gale, you and I can just carry it, I think."

Gale looks at it. "Maybe."

We carry it back to the cave and set it up in the room with the smoke hole.

"You know, we should check out some of the other houses to see if they have tubs like this. If they're going to be this light, I'm sure we could find good uses for them," my mother suggests, looking around the cave.

I shrug. "Later. For now I'm going to go get clean."

I head down to the river to wash up.

The water is cool and it feels good to get the dirt and other detritus off of me. I scoop up a handful of water and lift it over my head. Maybe I should strip down and wash my hair. I start to take off my shirt but stop when a shadow falls over me. I look up to see Gale.

"Do you mind?" I ask, standing up. "I was looking for some privacy."

He runs his hands through his hair. "You always have some reason not to talk to me. You're avoiding me again, aren't you?"

"I'm not avoiding you!" And I'm not. Not really.

"Then why aren't you doing stuff with me? We used to hunt together all the time and now you're always off by yourself! Or with Mellark!"

"That's all in your head and you know it."

"Is it? You're still sleeping with him!"

"Because we're still sharing a watch and it gets cold at night! We've only got five blankets! What do you want us to do? Freeze?"

"Of course I don't! But why do you have to sleep with Mellark?"

"Why is it such a big deal? It's not like we're doing anything. We're sleeping. That's it. What is with you and Peeta?"

Gale runs his fingers through his hair again. "I don't know why he gets to me so much. He's not a bad guy and I'm kind of glad we brought him along-"

"Kidnapped him, you mean." I'm not going to let him delude himself as to what we did.

Gale makes a face. "Yeah. But he's been pretty useful, you know? I like him. And at the same time I hate his guts! Except for he's really hard to hate. I keep forgetting I'm supposed to be hating him and not trusting him and find myself caring about him. It's just confusing!"

"Tell me about it." I wipe my hands on my pants. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know. I didn't come down here to talk about Mellark. I came down here to talk about us."

"What's there to talk about? There is no us."

"I want there to be." His voice is soft, wistful.

I refuse to let it get to me. "You're going to keep pushing, huh?"

"I don't mean to. I mean, if you want me to stop, just tell me, I'll stop. But I don't want to give you up, Catnip. Not when I might finally have a chance to have you without the specter of the Games hanging over our heads."

The confusion wells up in me again. Part of me wants Gale. Another equal part of me wants Peeta. But the largest part doesn't want to want anyone. I can not, I will not become my mother. I don't want to break like she did when my father died. Loving one person that intensely just leads to heartache and pain. Leaving Twelve hasn't changed that. No matter who I choose, they're going to die someday, leaving me alone. I've seen what that can do to someone, what it does to me. I never want to feel like that again. At the same time, I don't want to give up entirely.

I sit down against a tree and stare at the slowly moving river, trying to figure out what I want to say. What I can say.

Gale sits down next to me, idly throwing pebbles into the water. It's the most companionable we've been in a long time, and I realize I've missed it.

I come to a decision, but I'm not ready to voice it. Not even to myself. Instead I say, "Gale, I need time. Please. I need time to get used to the idea that it's safe. That we're safe. We've been gone for less than a month. It hasn't really sunk in yet. And winter is coming."

"It's May!"

"And we have a lot to do between now and when the snow comes! We can't take out tesserae to augment our stores of food. We can't just walk into town and buy things. Everything that we eat needs to come from us. We need to provide it. We aren't going to have the coal that we had in Twelve. We don't have a stove or running water or any of that. We're starting over from scratch and I can't even begin to think about a relationship until I'm sure we aren't all going to die."

"So what do you want me to do?"

This I can answer. "I need a friend, Gale. I need a hunting partner. I've missed going out with you."

He leans closer to me, letting our shoulders touch. "I've missed it too. I've missed you, Catnip. So it's settled? We'll start hunting together in the morning."

I nod my head. "Just one thing."

"What?"

"I need you to stop pressuring me. I need you to be my friend. But I can't handle your jealousy and insecurity about me and Peeta."

He frowns.

I turn to face him. "We took him away from his home. From his family. From everyone and everything he knows. We threatened to kill him."

"You mean I threatened to kill him."

"But I didn't stop you. And that's on both of our heads."

"So what are you trying to say?"

"I don't know. Maybe cut him a little slack? Stop this stupid competition you have going on with him. We need him and he needs us."

"I'll try," Gale says. "It's just he seems to know instinctively how to push my buttons."

"He said the same thing about you."

"Did he? What else did he say?"

I'm not going to tell Gale everything. I can't tell him everything. "He said that he'd try to stop provoking you. But you need to do the same."

"It bothers you that much, huh?"

"Yeah, it really does."

"Fine. I'll try. For you, Catnip. I'd try to destroy the Capitol if I thought it meant we could be together."

"Thankfully, I'm not asking you to. Just give Peeta a break and try to befriend him." I lean against him. "Who knows, you might even like it."

oOo

AN:
Written: 2/12/15
Revised: 3/6/15
Revised 2: 3/23/15

The title of this arc comes from a song by a Japanese singer named Kanon. The song "Brand New Breeze" was used as the opening credits to the anime L'Corda del Oro which was based off of a dating video game. It fits because this arc is mostly the romance and the resolution thereof.

The title of this chapter comes from the Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney song "The Girl Is Mine" off of the Thriller album. Special thanks to FanficAllergy's friend Shin for mentioning the song at just the right bloody time. The working title was "Anything You Can Do" which you can now thank us for not shoving that song into your head. Except we just did. Oops. ~_^

In our headcanon, Peeta's mother is the daughter of the furrier/tanner in town. We don't know about you, but some parents send kids off to Grandma and Grandpa to get a little adult time. We imagine that Peeta would learn some of the craft from his maternal family but he's not going to be perfect at it which was why his first attempt, the bearskin, is a failure. For the rest of his skins we're going to give him a chance of success and gradually improve it as he gets more experience.

Now we come to what they're able to salvage. FanficAllergy has degrees in History and Earth Science which covers a lot of this. Items made of glass, ceramic, plastic, acrylic, gold and a few other metals that corrode slowly will still be around. Houses made out of stone and brick will likely still have the walls standing and depending on the roofing material may still have a roof (slate shingles, cement shingles, etc.) That means that for the most part bathrooms and a good chunk of stuff in the kitchen will survive. Anything that comes in vacuum sealed plastic also has a chance of showing up. So that pair of scissors that comes in that impossible to open without scissors container may actually survive. We envision that this takes place about 300 years in the future from about 1985. Why 1985? First, cars and surviving technology. Sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s cars transitioned from being mostly metal to mostly plastic. The books don't talk about ruined remnants of traffic jams and Katniss doesn't run into a broken down car in any of her experiences in the wilds outside of any of the districts. Second, Effie brings video tapes of the games. Video Tapes! Not laserdiscs. Not DVDs. Video tapes are pretty much dead in 2015 and one of us is old enough to remember the Beta/VHS war. That and the lack of cell phone technology tells us that the Cataclysm happened some time before these technological changes.

We arbitrarily decided based on this information that the Cataclysm occurred when Reagan in 1984 famously said during a soundcheck "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." In this alternate history, it actually aired and led to an escalation of the Cold War leading to the Cataclysm in 1985. Yay headcanons.

Things We Randomized:

- If Peeta successfully tanned the bearskin

- What they managed to hunt/fish/gather (including if they were successful)

- If they found anything when they went exploring and what they found

- The Donners. No, seriously. Like the Fairburns, this was a plot point that came entirely from randomization. If you want more info, go check out FanficAllergy's tumblr. There's a link on her profile.

Thanks for reading! Let us know what you think!