A/N: Thank you all once again for your continued support (yes, I will thank you all every single time haha) I can't express how much gratitude I have for those of you following, favoriting, and reviewing my work. It truly makes my day :). I had thought about leaving you all with a cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 6, but I decided against it because there will be plenty of time left for those haha. That said, here is Chapter 7, and I hope you enjoy! Please review!

Change of Fate

Chapter Seven: Together

Peeta

The days after the debacle in District 8 are a blur... I was in and out of consciousness after they got us aboard the hovercraft for the next 3 days. In the medical ward, I saw all sorts of faces come to visit me. President Coin, Plutarch, Boggs, Finnick, Johanna, people from 12, and people I didn't know all came and went as I drifted in and out of my body. It was quite surreal. To the point I can't truly explain it. I'm told that I only spoke half the time I was awake, and of that only about half of what I said made any sense. Apparently, while Gale's arrow and my shove were able to move Thread's shotgun enough so that the blast wouldn't kill me, it was still a shotgun - so the shot sprayed. Some of it grazed the side of my head, so I was wounded. More so than I thought at least, but I'm told that I'm going to make a full recovery. My lungs were drained of all the pellets that were in there, and my arm has been repaired using stem cell technology that the Rebels have perfected. Yet this process has made me so exhausted, I am confused as to what is real and what is not. Throughout my entire recovery period, there were two constants: Haymitch was present very often, checking up on me and trying to get me to talk fluidly; and Katniss. She stayed with me literally the entire time I was in the hospital, and only left my side when the doctors ordered her to do so. We didn't get to talk much, considering my condition, but we will. Today, I am finally being released and I feel like a newborn baby.

As I sign out of the hospital, I am greeted at the doors by everyone in the rebel leadership. It's quite puzzling I must admit, I never seemed to think that they thought much of me. I believed that I was just the afterthought that came along with Katniss - their Mockingjay. Yet here they all are, giving my a round of applause and clasping me on the back and congratulating me. But after everything that has transpired, there really is only one person I want to talk to, and that person happens to be holding my hand as we make our way through the many people in my path out of the medical wing.

President Coin and Plutarch stop us as the President says, "We are so relieved you recovered. It would've been a blow to the entire Rebellion had you not," I smile and nod. I am unsure if she is being genuine, but I won't let her see that as she shakes my hand.

Plutarch then quips, "You know, this may not be what you want to hear at the moment, but all that footage made one hell of a propo. I'll send a copy down to your room later on." He's right, that's not what I wanted to hear or think about, but oh well he told me anyway.

Katniss and I make our way down towards the residential zone in complete silence, which is very peaceful. Yet I have many things gnawing away at my conscious that I wish to discuss with her. When I was on the verge of death and teetering on the brink, I had an out of body experience unlike anything I've ever been through before. Well, maybe not. When I was stung by the tracker jackers helping Katniss in the first games, that was probably the closest I've ever been to experiencing death. Yet this was so much more real... I had reached the point where if I didn't want to keep going on with life, I could just as easily be dead right now. But when I was having this out of body experience, I watched as Katniss pined over my lifeless body and proclaim many things to me. Hearing this - or rather seeing it and her condition - helped fuel my desire to return to life. Being alive and somewhat healthy now, I want to know if she truly meant all of those things. I know that Katniss is an awful lot like an onion, you have to peel her back one layer at a time, but I feel like our relationship could be reaching a different level now. If she meant what she said to me, then she is finally ready to reciprocate the feelings I've had for her for nearly my entire life.

We get back to my room, which is empty at the moment, and together we collapse onto my bed. Finnick is still emotionally reeling from the fact that the Capital has Annie and is torturing her to try and get to him, so he's likely with his shrink. It is interesting because in a way, that's exactly what they did to me, except that the target was Katniss. Snow must believe that if he could hurt me, he could hurt her. And evidently he was right. The pain on her face and in her voice as Thread was blasting my body apart in front of her was so apparent that not a soul in District 8 watching the tragedy unfold could have denied that it was hurting her.

Katniss carefully places her face into the nook of neck and kisses it softly, which sends tingles down my spine. "I thought I had lost you..." She whispers.

I sigh, because I don't think she knows just how close she was to actually losing me. I try to lighten the mood, "Nope. Never. You're not getting rid of me that easily."

She sits up and stares right into my eyes with her beautiful gray eyes, and says quite seriously, "I'm sorry that I put you into harm's way."

I sit up as well and meet her gaze, "You didn't put me there. Please Katniss, I'm begging you, don't blame yourself for this. There's nothing you could have done to prevent it, it was a freaking bombing. You couldn't have stopped my body from flying away. You couldn't have stopped Snow and the Capital from wanting to hurt me."

"But they hurt you so that it would hurt me," she says with her words drenched in sorrow.

"And that's a risk I've chosen to take," I say confidently.

"But I don't want you to - " but I cut her off.

"Katniss, I fell in love with you so long ago, it's not your choice what risks I take for you," I see the look in her eyes become one of longing as I say this to her. "I take them without thinking, because it's in my nature to protect you. If that means that the Capital is going to make me a target, hey guess what, I've been in two Hunger Games same as you, I've been a target of their's before. It's nothing new."

She lets this sink in and studies me for a moment before relenting to some degree, "Then I'm at least sorry I wasn't there to protect you. You've spent most of your life protecting me, ever since that day when you tossed me the bread, I just wish I could've done the same for you when you really needed it..."

It is my turn to let this sink in, because I don't really have anything to say. If she wants to protect me more, who am I to say that she can't? I smile, "How could you have protected me anymore? Stop acting like I'm a wounded puppy that will never be the same, I'm going to heal just fine," but then I start to laugh a little bit. "We make a great team, you know that? We are always looking after each other, and even if that leads to some bumps and bruises along the way, we are in this together, ok?" She nods. "So then please, do not continue blaming yourself for what Commander Thread did to me. He shot me. He tortured me. He wanted to kill me. Not you. And you know what? I'm still here. I'm still with you. And I'm not going anywhere."

She smiles radiantly, and I can only hope that she will be able to forgive herself. She rests her head back down on my chest and we sit in silence. I stroke her hair, while she listens carefully to the beating of my heart. It is perfect tranquility. Yet I have an itch in the back of my mind. We need to talk about what happened when I was dying. In reality, it's the talk we have needed to have since we left the arena. "Katniss, there is something else I wanted to talk about with you..." I trail off.

She perks up, "What is it?"

I sit up again as well, take a deep breath before continuing. "Well, after the third shot," I see her wince as I begin discussing the events that have obviously pained her deeply, "and you and Boggs dragged me out of the streets, I had a strange experience."

Katniss is eyeing me very curiously, "What happened?"

"It's very hard to explain, to be honest. But I had a sort of third person, out-of-body, experience. I saw you cradling my body, I saw Boggs and the others all around us, and I heard everything you said to me." This hits her like artillery fire, and I can see a flash of many different emotions run through her face. "Then everything went black, and I thought I was dead. I genuinely thought I was never going to come back. But I heard a voice... A voice in my head that told me I couldn't give up. A voice that told me to 'open your eyes.' And in that moment, I remembered all of the things you were saying to me just moments before. About how you really felt about me, and you weren't afraid of feeling it anymore, all of it, and I decided that I couldn't leave you. I wasn't ready to let go of you, Katniss Everdeen." The look on her face betrays her, she knows what is about to come. "You saved me Katniss... You brought me back. But now I need to know: Did you mean what you said to me?"

Katniss

I am frozen. Time does not exist. The connection between Peeta's eyes and my own will not break until I speak, and I do not know how long that will take. I can't believe that Peeta heard all of that. I can't believe that those words are what went through his mind as he fought his way back to life... Fought his way back to me... What am I supposed to say? I can't deny it, because then I would be lying and it would probably ruin him. But if I acknowledge it, it means admitting to Peeta, a conscious and living Peeta, - and to myself - that I love him. I swore against love so long ago, but how can I deny it any longer? How can I deny how I ache to be in his presence whenever he is not around? How can I deny the tingling feeling I get when his skin touches mine? How can I deny the hunger, the deep desire I have to kiss him all the time, and hold his hand whenever I want? I can't. He deserves to know how I feel. He deserves to know the truth.

"Peeta... I..." I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I'm going to to take my time. He's waited his entire life to hear what I'm about to say, so I'm sure he can stand an extra few moments as I collect my thoughts. The truth is I do love Peeta. I love Peeta more than I can even admit to myself. My problem with admitting it, is that I do not like being vulnerable. The idea of having a weakness, and one that someone knows intimately, terrifies me. The idea of giving my heart to someone is the single greatest fear I have in this life. The idea of someone having that sort of power over me, is a nightmare all on it's own.

Then it hits me. It's not just someone, it's Peeta! The idea of Peeta knowing my deep dark secrets does not scare me because he already knows many of them, and I know many of his! The idea of giving Peeta my heart is not something I'm afraid of anymore. It's what I want to do. It's what I need to do.

I open my eyes, and look right into his deep cerulean blue pools that I see when I dream, and I gently run a finger along his jawline before reaching it's prominent point, and I let out the words that mean the world to both of us. "Peeta Mellark, I love you." Time is still nonexistent. As I say this, I feel a flame light in my chest, the same flame that took ahold of me that night on the beach when he offered to sacrifice himself for me. When I kissed him out of my own desire to do so, not for the cameras, not for sponsors. Because I needed him. In this moment I realize that needing him isn't enough, I need his love, and I need him to know that I really do love him. That fire catches hold of my entire body once again, and I press my lips against his. I cup his cheek with the palm of one hand, with the other running through his beautiful golden curls. He uses his good hand to brush aside the hair that is in my face while pulling me deeper into the kiss. I have never kissed or been kissed like this before. As the passion between us boils, I realize just how good it feels and how good it feels to kiss Peeta. I begin questioning myself, wondering why it is that I didn't let myself feel the same way about him all this time. But I have no time for such thoughts, I am too busy. I can taste my name as he lets it out in whispers between kisses, I hear the longing in his voice that has always been there but only now is returned in kind. Us being like this, being together just feels so right.

Time finally returns to us as our lips part so that we can catch our breath, and I spot an uncontrollable smile spreading rapidly across Peeta's face. "Wow."

I blush and return the smile, "Yeah... Wow." I scoot next to him, and rest my head on his shoulders.

His smile hasn't left his face, but he turns to me and says, "So... what took you so long?"

I laugh for a moment, as I realize that I'm not sure anymore myself. "I don't know. But I meant what I said when you were... dying. I think a part of me has always known it was going to be you, ever since that day when you gave me the bread. But we didn't talk in school, you were always more popular than me, I didn't really have anyone other than Gale for a long time. I always wanted to thank you, but I guess I was just too shy."

He almost snorts as it's his turn to laugh, "Don't worry about that Katniss. We were children."

"I know... And I know that your question meant more recently." I pause to collect my thoughts once more before continuing. "You know after the first games when I let you down by saying I did it all for the cameras, there's a lot of truth in that. But during the games and in the cave, I didn't realize that you weren't just acting for the cameras. So I played along because I thought we were trying to survive. So when we got out of there I was so confused about my feelings, unable to decipher what feelings were real and what weren't, I shut you out. I shut you out and I'm sorry I hurt you," I say holding the tears back at this point.

Peeta sees this and wipes them away, "Katniss, come on you don't have to - "

But I cut him off, "No, it'll be good for me to get this all out of my head. Just let me finish... When we got back to 12, and I completely cut you out, it hurt. I can only imagine how you felt, but it hurt me too. I guess that's how karma works, huh? But I was just so resentful of the Capital and how they were making us be together. How Snow and the Capital was essentially shoving you down my throat, so I refused to play their game. You were the one that suffered the most from it, but I didn't want anyone telling me how to feel and who I could love. That's what drove me to Gale so often, even though I realized that I didn't feel same way about him as he did about me. If the Capital wanted me to be with you, then I wanted to be with Gale... If the Capital wanted us to get married, I wanted to run off with Gale... I realize how stupid I was now. I realize how all of your pain and suffering could have been avoided if I was just less stubborn..." I hide my face in my arms, determined not to let him see me at this moment.

He just wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close to his side. "Maybe... But we also wouldn't have inspired people to stand up to the Capital. We wouldn't be a part of a revolution that could free our people from years of enslavement and the Hunger Games." He picks his next few words very carefully, clearly trying to get me to laugh, "And to be honest, I might not like you as much if you were less stubborn." He succeeds as I let out a giggle that becomes infectious and I start to laugh. "You know, just because we're together doesn't mean we have to continue putting up the same show for the cameras. Just because we're together, doesn't mean we have to get married tomorrow Katniss."

He keeps saying together. Together. Together? "So we are... together?" I ask cautiously.

He lets out a howl of laughter, "Well you know Katniss, when two people tell each other that they love each other, something like getting together does happen. Unless you don't want that - "

"No!" I stop him. "No, I mean, yes..." I am stumbling over myself now. "No, I don't want that. And yes..."

"...Yes, what?" He asks.

"Yes. I do want us to be... together." It is an odd sensation letting those words come out of my mouth.

Peeta just smiles, and takes a hold of my hand, and gives me a loving kiss before pulling out and letting our noses and foreheads rest on each other's, "Well then, it's settled." I smile and kiss him one more time before we lay back onto his bed, and let our bodies intertwine as we get ready for sleep. "We're going to face all kinds of challenges in the future Katniss, and I mean after the war too. Just remember, that we'll face them together."

As my head rests against his chest, carefully listening to his heartbeat, I smile and nod. We are together, the thought echoes through my head. Peeta and I are together... also echoes through my mind. Together. Together. Together...