Don't own the Hunger Games, Catching Fire or Mockingjay. Never get royalty checks from any of them. Sigh.

Sunrise

I had told myself that I was just coming here to apologize, that it didn't matter what Katniss said or did, whether she forgave me or not, I just had to say I was sorry. Now I had done it. I wasn't good with words, but I did the best I could. She had to know I was sorry.

But she still hated me.

I lay in the bed in a huge guest room in the boys' house. I could smell the salt from the ocean in the air, could almost taste it. I saw the moon out of my window, full and bright, rising over the dark sea.

I spent thirteen hours on a high speed train to get here today and tomorrow I would get back on the train. I had to. Because there was nothing else I could do. And because I couldn't stand to make Katniss so unhappy. She had enough to deal with.

I deserved this. If she had killed Posy I would hate her, wouldn't I? But she would never have done anything like that so I couldn't picture it. On the train, on the way here, I tried to figure out what it was about Katniss that made her matter so much to me, what it was that made her so different from everyone else. I knew even thinking about it would be opening an old wound. But I did it. Now the wound was open and who knew how long it would take to heal.

Mercurius was the one who gave me that advice. It was stupid to listen to him, because he didn't understand what was going on. But he told me that the best way to compliment a woman was not to say something about what she looked like, but who she was, what made her different, special. And to do that you had to know her.

I knew Katniss. I thought about everything about her – how she talked, how she walked, how she hunted; how her jaw tightened when she was refusing to cry, how her eyes narrowed just before a kill, how her cheeks softened while she was asleep. I had reopened the wound. Why? If I was just here to apologize, if I really didn't think we could ever be friends, or anything else, again, I wouldn't need to compliment her. I wouldn't need Mercurius's advice.

But, of course, I had been hoping for more.

So now I would just have to keep what I had figured out about her to myself, and get back on the train.

I stared out the window at the moon and tried to remember that I deserved this pain.

Sometime before dawn I gave up. I could sleep on the train. The moon was pulling me down to the shore; I wanted to see the ocean one last time. I got up, put on some shorts and an old yellow t-shirt, and went out. I started out jogging, then went into a run, then flat-out sprinted trying to go far enough and fast enough to drive all thought out of my head, but the pain was still there.

I quickly discovered that the best way to run on the sand is to find the place between the surf and the dry sand where the sand was wet and firm. It meant occasional waves would catch me, but that was fine. I hadn't bothered with shoes. The moon silhouetted me on the beach. The shore was mostly smooth white sand, interrupted by jagged rocks. A few miles out I found a rock outcropping and climbed out on it. The sky was still dark.

The ocean was amazing. It was different in the night - black, menacing. I thought of how many boats it had eaten, how many sailors never came home. Did the people of District 4 think of the ocean as we thought of the mines – a place they were forced to work? A place that killed their loved ones? But how could they? Even in the dark, it was so big, so open. It made me feel free just to look at it. And no matter what the Capitol did, what the Peacekeepers did, what life did, it would still be there: untouchable.

On the way back I had the forest on one side, the ocean on the other. I could hear noises as the creatures started to wake. I ached to go into the woods with Katniss, but that wasn't going to happen. At least she was hunting again; that would be good for her.

I came around a point and I could see Annie's house, watching down over the beach. Then I noticed the large rock on the beach, near where we had walked, fought, yesterday. There was someone sitting on the rock. As I got closer I could see it was Katniss, sitting holding her knees, looking up at the moon. I stopped and leaned over onto my legs, trying to catch my breath.

I could see her face from where I was, shining in the moonlight. She didn't look angry anymore. Then again I wasn't there yet. Still she looked peaceful, beautiful. Maybe she was the one who had pulled me to the beach, like the moon pulls the tide. Should I disturb her solitude? She wasn't expecting to find anyone out at this hour. Just then she turned and saw me. Now I couldn't just leave. I ran the rest of the way to her.

"Good morning," I said.

"Hi." At least she was talking to me, a little. "Kind of early for a run, isn't it?"

"I guess," I answered, pacing, my heart still pounding from my run. "Kind of early to be out looking at the ocean, isn't it?"

"Either kind of early or very late."

"Can I come up?" I asked after a few minutes.

"Yeah," she answered. I climbed up on the rock and sat next to her.

She seemed cold, but I knew better than to try to put my arm around her now.

"I couldn't sleep," she said.

"Me, either."

"Annie let me have it last night."

"She did? I can't picture that. She's always so nice."

"I couldn't imagine it before either." She was still staring out at the moon. "She thinks I should forgive you." We were actually having a civilized conversation, but her voice was flat. I couldn't read what she was thinking.

"At least someone's on my side," I said. She didn't say anything. The sky was sliding from black to blue. "I think I know why you can't forgive me," I said as I watched the stars fade away.

"You do? Then tell me."

I took a deep breath. "One of the best things about you, Katniss, is how loyal you are. That's why you couldn't choose between me and Peeta before. You were loyal to both of us and you didn't want to hurt either one of us. Now, you are being loyal to Prim. You think you would be betraying her if you forgave me." The water was changing, white caps gently lapping the shore. Even if I was right it might not help anything.

"It's more than that." The finality in her voice made my stomach clench.

"What?"

"I trusted you. You were the only one I trusted to look out for her, to take care of her. I couldn't even count on my mother. But I thought I could count on you."

I closed my eyes. I was back in the Capitol, knowing I was the monster again. She was right. I had let her down, betrayed her trust. I realized that my head was between my knees, my hands clutched behind my neck. I shouldn't have come.

"Gale?" I felt her hand on my arm. I wanted to push her away, but I couldn't move.

"You're right," I spoke down at the rock, my voice shaking.

"Are you okay?"

"No." I would never be okay.

"The problem is I know what Prim would want me to do." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"That's too easy. Prim was too nice," I said, forcing myself to sit up and face her.

"I know. But that's why I loved her. Shouldn't I try to be more like her?"

"I can't answer that." Prim's sweet face filled my mind – flashes of her. The first time I met her, she was just a little thing, but she asked me to keep Katniss safe in the woods. One morning when I woke up early to go hunting – Posy had a fever and Prim was asleep next to her, curled around her on the tiny mattress.

"She wasn't always nice, not when she thought someone was going to hurt you. During your first Games she couldn't watch when we thought Clove was going to kill you. But when Thresh bashed in Clove's head she jumped up and cheered. I was shocked. I had never seen that kind of malice in Prim's eyes before."

"Really?" Katniss looked at me. "I didn't know that." She was silent again. I didn't know what else to say. I decided to just enjoy what might be my last chance to sit next to Katniss.

"I don't know what to do," she said. Her voice quivered. I turned to look at her. I wanted to comfort her, tell her it would be okay, but I couldn't.

The sky was now almost gray.

"I think I can forgive you if you make me a promise," she said.

"What promise?" I asked. Did she want me to promise to leave and never see her again?

Katniss turned and looked at me with both eyes, glistening silver. "Promise me you won't ever let me forget Prim."

"I don't need to. You won't ever forget Prim," I said.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Because I won't ever forget her and she wasn't even my little sister."

"Tell me again that you are sorry," she said. This time her eyes were gentle. I knew what she was doing.

I closed my eyes. Then I opened them and looked at her. "Katniss, I am sorry with my whole mind, body and soul that I ever had that idea, that I ever said anything about it, that I ever had any part of that. I am so sorry."

"Gale, I forgive you," she said. She reached over and hugged me and I clung to her until I had to remind myself not to hurt her. Finally, she let go. She sat next to me and put her head on my shoulder. I felt stunned. I guess part of me had not believed she would ever forgive me. We watched as the first rays of sun burst over the water.

"How long are you staying?" she finally asked.

I thought about telling her that I was going to leave today, but I wasn't in the mood to mess with her. "I have a week of leave," I said.

"Good. I want to show you the forest."

The sun was almost up now. The sky was full of what had been wispy white clouds. Now they blazed scarlet, rimmed with gold.

"I never saw anything like this back home," I said.

"Because we didn't have an ocean," said Katniss with a faint smile.

"Annie's lucky to have a house here. Didn't she have a place in some kind of Victor's Village?"

"She lived there before. It's in town. But when she came back, she and her mom came here. It's where she grew up."

"By the way, do they have any kind of a curfew? I don't want to get in trouble for keeping you out too late," I said.

"You think all night might be too late?"

"Come on," I said, jumping down from the rock. I held my hand out to help Katniss and she took it. My heart jumped. It felt great just to touch her. After she was down she kept hold of my hand as we walked up to the house. I wondered if she could hear my heart pounding.

When we reached the back steps Katniss turned to me and said "Friends?" I took the hand that I was still holding, gave it a handshake, and said "Friends." She went into the house.

As I walked back to the boys' house I tried to sort through all of the things I was feeling. Sitting on the rock I had felt more peaceful than I had for months, maybe years. Even now I felt as though a great weight had been lifted off of me, like I was on a different planet where gravity's pull was not as strong.

But there was also an ache in my gut that told me that there was something wrong. This morning I thought Katniss would hate me forever. I thought I would be happy if we could just be friends. But maybe I shouldn't have shaken her hand and agreed to friendship. I was right back to where I started years ago in the woods of District 12. But now I knew – I was not going to be able to settle with being just friends, even best friends, with Katniss.

Back at the boys' house, I showered. I had thought about trying to get some sleep, but I wasn't tired at all. I knew it would hit me later. Jonah and Davy were gone, clamming. It was weird to be alone in this big house. I was very hungry. I checked their kitchen and found some bread and butter. I washed it down with some milk and decided to go back over to Annie's. Katniss would probably be asleep, but Annie and her mom would be up.

I had less than one week to make Katniss fall in love with me. Why did it feel so urgent? Because I was going to have to go back down into the depths of the Nut? Because she would be here, on the shore, with Annie's brothers just down the road? Maybe it was because I had already waited long enough for her. Or maybe Peeta's death reminded me that we didn't know how much time any of us would have.

I should have gotten more advice from Mercurius. This was his specialty. Katniss couldn't be more different from the girls he was used to in the Capitol. But still, he would have more ideas than I did.

I tried to remember that I shouldn't rush her. She was still mourning Peeta. She had really cared about him. One thing I couldn't do was make light of that.

By the time I reached Annie's I still had no idea what to do next.

The front door was open. Was that safe? I knocked lightly on the door frame. "Hello," I called softly. I didn't want to wake Katniss. She needed to get some sleep.

"We're in the kitchen," Annie's voice answered.

As I reached the kitchen I said "Hi, is Katniss sleeping in?"

"Yeah," said Annie. She had Finnie sitting on the counter and was washing him off. "Were you up all night, too?"

"I was," I said. "But I wasn't . . . but not with Katniss. I mean, I was at the boys' house. She was here. I went out running early and ran into her." Suddenly I knew I was flaming red. Annie didn't turn around, but she laughed at my stammering.

"Did you have any breakfast?" she asked.

"Not really."

She turned and handed Finnie to me. "Mom is already out gardening. Why don't you boys get acquainted while I make you something? Eggs and toast sound good?"

"Sure." Finnie looked at me skeptically. I made a goofy face and got him to smile. "Is he walking yet?"

"Almost. He stands up and thinks about it. But he still loves to crawl. All over the place. Keep an eye on him. He's faster than he looks."

"So am I," I said. I put Finnie down on the floor and sat down next to him. He immediately headed over to try to open one of the kitchen drawers. I kept it closed with my hand.

"That one's okay," Annie said. "I only keep stuff he can play with in there." I let Finnie open the drawer; he pulled out a large spoon and started to suck on it.

"So, Katniss told me that you let her have it last night," I said.

Now it was Annie's turn to blush. "Well, we had a bit of a talk. Have you guys patched things up, then?"

"Yeah, at least she doesn't hate me anymore," I said as I handed Finnie a funnel. He dropped his spoon, frowned at the funnel and then put it on his head. I found another one and put it on my head. Finnie laughed out loud. He started babbling, telling me something, but I couldn't make out a word.

Annie smiled. "You seem used to kids," she said as she cracked eggs into a bowl.

"I'm the oldest. I have two brothers and a little sister. I was 14 when she was born so I took care of her a lot." I didn't mention why I had to take care of Posy so much. Annie might already know the story about my dad and Katniss's. I wasn't sure.

"Lucky girl," she said. "I'm the youngest. My brothers were just 2 and 4 when I was born. They tormented me a lot."

"Maybe you learned some skills that were useful in the Arena," I said. Annie stiffened and her hands twitched. What an idiot I was to bring up the Games. "I'm sorry," I said. "I shouldn't have said that."

"No, it's okay." She relaxed a little. "But all they had taught me was how to shoot spitballs and be quick with a snappy comeback. Nothing very lethal there. I was an accidental Victor. Not like Katniss who has some real skill."

"It's good that she's hunting again," I said, glad to find a new subject.

"Yeah, she's gotten us a ton of game. Although it's funny. The last two weeks her hunting's been way off." She looked at me meaningfully and put a plate of eggs and toast on the table. My stomach growled and I got up off the floor.

"Sorry if my visit blew your squirrel supply," I said as I sat at the table. Annie poured two cups of coffee and sat down, laughing.

"No problem. It was just strange to see Katniss so flustered."

"Thanks for all you have done for her." I took a big bite of eggs. They were delicious.

"No problem. We widows have to stick together. You've done your share, too."

I shook my head. "There was not much I could do. Besides, I had to. I had a promise to keep."

Annie raised her eyebrows at me. "To Katniss?"

"No. To Peeta." I took another bite of eggs and wondered if I should tell her. It wasn't exactly a secret, but I wasn't sure how Katniss would feel about it. Annie was giving Finnie some stacked plastic cups to play with. Then she sat up and looked at me expectantly.

"To Peeta?"

After all Annie had done I could at least give her some explanation. "It started a long time ago, just before the Quarter Quell. Peeta came to me and made me promise that I would take care of Katniss if anything happened to him. That wasn't even hard. I was planning to anyway. So when 'something' did happen to him I watched over her." I paused. There was more to this story, but I wasn't sure I wanted to tell Annie. I took another bite of eggs. Annie looked at me intently.

"So then what?" She wasn't going to let me off that easily.

"Just before the execution, when Katniss ended up shooting Coin, I went and found Peeta in the Capitol. I had to see what kind of shape he was in. It turned out he was doing pretty well, slowly pulling himself back together. I was a mess though. So I made him promise me that he would take care of her, not hurt her, but watch over her."

"So the promise went back the other way."

I nodded. I hadn't told anyone about this before.

"And then . . ."

"I didn't actually talk to Peeta before he died. He called me, but I was going off on an assignment and couldn't call him back. When we got back, it was too late. But I knew why he had called me. I knew what he was going to say."

"So you watched over her again."

"Yeah." Annie looked at me over her coffee. "Of course, there was more to it than that."

"I kinda thought so." She gave me a little smile.

"Now, I'm not sure what . . ." I wasn't even sure what I was trying to say.

But Annie smiled. "Just take it easy. Katniss might feel guilty about being happy for a while."

"Do you?" I asked. Now I was prying. But I was curious.

She squished her face up funny. I almost laughed, but held it in since the subject was serious. "Not really," she said, finally. "I did for a while. Once Finnie was born I felt much more freedom. Like I knew Finnick would want me to be happy for the baby so it was okay."

I had wolfed down the eggs. I at least remembered to wipe off my mouth before I said "That was great. So, do you have a list of things that need fixing around here?"

"Seriously? You're on vacation. You don't have to do that." she said.

"I can't stand just doing nothing. I've got extra time this morning. I told you I would help you take care of Katniss, but you haven't let me do anything. There must be something I can do."

"If you really want to . . . I do have a list for my brothers, but they don't get much time to work on it. But you don't have to do that."

I decided to tackle the clogged sink drain upstairs first. I had to go back over to the tool shed at the boys' house to get some tools. It was amazing. They didn't even keep it locked. It had stuff I had never even seen before. Maybe they were special boat tools. Back home I had made do with a hammer, a screwdriver, a wrench, and my knife. Anything else I had to borrow. When would I stop feeling jealous whenever anyone had any decent stuff? I grabbed some basic tools and went back over to Annie's.

The pipes were old with tight connections. When I finally got the bolt loose, some kind of foul black gunk started leaking out all over me. I crawled out from under the sink to reach for my bucket and looked right up at Katniss, standing there in her robe, looking quizzically at me. She looked strangely warm, almost out of breath. Her cheeks were flushed. She was beautiful. I would not let myself wonder what she had on under her robe. Knowing Katniss it was probably an old t-shirt.

"Did you . . . What are you . . .What's going on here?" she asked.

"Good morning," I said.

"Oh, good morning. Now, what are you doing? You're a mess."

I was. The black stuff had gotten all over my face. I grabbed an old cloth I had brought over from the shed and tried to wipe my face off. "I am fixing Annie's drain," I said.

"Why?" asked Katniss.

"Because you can't use the sink when the drain is clogged," I said.

"So now you are a plumber who makes cross district house calls?" She sat down on the side of the bath tub. I got the bucket.

"Did you get any sleep?" I asked, as I tried to empty all the garbage out of the U-joint into the bucket.

"Yeah, I was exhausted," she said. "So what are your plans for today? Any other sinks you need to fix?"

"I got Annie to give me a list of things she needed done around the house. Stuff I could do so I wasn't just sitting around, wasting time. What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking maybe we could go hunting. But I can help you with some of the jobs first before we go," she said.

I couldn't believe how different things felt today. It was so easy to talk to Katniss. Almost like the last couple of years never happened. Almost.

"Great. Hey, can you rinse this out in the tub?" I handed her the empty U-joint. She turned on the faucet, rinsed it, and then handed it back to me. Her hand touched mine as she did. I wondered if she had even noticed that.

"Okay, but I need to get dressed and have breakfast. I'll wait to brush my teeth until you are done in here."

"I'll be done in a couple of minutes," I said. By the time I had the drain reassembled she was dressed and back. I wiped my hands on the old cloth. I put all of the tools into the bucket and held my hand out to Katniss.

"Give me a hand up," I said.

"Sure," she said. She grunted as she yanked on my hand. But when I stood up, she didn't let go. It was a small bathroom and I was suddenly very aware of how close together we were standing. She looked up into my face and I looked at her lips. I had a mad desire to kiss her, and for a moment neither of us said anything. Then she laughed and said "You should look in the mirror. You are a mess."

I turned to look in the mirror, but didn't let go of her hand. My earlier attempts to wipe off my face had basically just smeared the grime around. I gave a nervous laugh and said "I'll let you have the bathroom now. I'll go downstairs and clean up." If I stayed in this bathroom with her much longer I could end up getting slapped.

As I washed my hands and face down in the kitchen I forced myself to remember what Annie had said. I needed to take it easy. Standing so close to Katniss, I had wanted to kiss her, and the way she looked at me . . . . What was she thinking? What was Katniss thinking?

Thanks again to IrishLuck19 – you're the best!

A little help here, my next project – not a fanfic – is going to be in the horror genre. What is the scariest thing you have ever read? So far Edgar Allen Poe is leading my list, maybe Stephen King next, although "Carrie" didn't do it for me. Send me your recommendations.

Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers - we are well past 100 reviews! Bliss!

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