Disclaimer – I don't own the Hunger Games, Catching Fire or Mockingjay. Which is probably a good thing, because I don't think I could remain calm with the casting they are doing for the movie.

Dangerous

My mind is a tricky place, a lovely field of flowers - with brutal landmines waiting beneath. Gale had always said that I didn't know my own mind. Maybe he was right. I was as surprised as he was at how I reacted when he kissed me. I hadn't realized how much I needed him.

Annie helped. It was annoying, but she pushed me to think about things I did not want to think about – about Peeta, about Gale, about life. About what I was I so afraid of. She seemed so sweet, but she was one of the bravest people I knew. She was able to have a child in the middle of a war, to send Finnick back into the fray, to smile for little Finnie despite all she has lost.

I still didn't think I could do what Annie had done. But I could listen to Peeta who told me that it was okay to be happy. And I could admit that I needed Gale. He had brought parts of me that I thought were gone back to life. The easy thing to do would be to spend all of my time kissing him, to be lost in his lips. He didn't seem to mind either. But every once in a while we had to break off and deal with life.

"Katniss," Gale said, leaning his forehead against mine, "How about if I go get Davy and Jonah to help carry Mr. Ugly up to the house?"

"I can do it," I said.

"But you don't have to," he said. "I think we are going to need to dig a fire pit anyway. They can help with that."

"While I sit around helplessly and watch?"

"No, while you skin and clean Mr. Ugly, unless you'd rather dig."

"I guess this big boy's going be a lot of work," I said.

"But well worth it. There's a ton of meat on him." Gale gave me one more kiss.

"Alright, I'll stay here and watch him while you get the boys. But can you send Annie down to see him?" I asked.

"Sure," he said, starting for the house. "Don't let him wander off," he called back.

"I'll keep an eye on him," I said with a smile, watching as he jogged up the hill.

I looked past Mr. Ugly, out to the ocean. It was mid-afternoon and anyone else would probably think it was too warm. For me it was just right. What a day. What a week. I usually didn't like change. In my life changes had mostly been for the worse. But now everything had changed. My heart rate was still not back to normal and for some reason I didn't mind. I leaned back on the rock and ate a blackberry. Would I blush every time I ate a blackberry for the rest of my life?

"Katniss!" Annie called, "Gale said you had a surpr - Oh, my gosh! What is that thing?"

"It's a wild boar. Isn't it great? Let's roast it and have a giant party," I said with a grin.

Annie looked puzzled. She put Finnie down and let him crawl over to inspect the boar. She stared at me intently.

"You have been kissed," she said.

I couldn't believe she knew. I tried to act like it was no big deal. "And not by Mr. Ugly."

"Who?"

"That's what we are calling this guy," I gave the boar a friendly nudge.

"What happened?" Annie was not interested in the boar.

I rolled my eyes at her. "I guess we were just celebrating our biggest kill ever."

"I guess." She folded her arms and gave up on interrogating me. "So what do we do with this thing?" she asked.

"Gale wants to dig a fire pit and roast it. I can clean it. Do you want the hide?"

"It's probably better to trade it. I wouldn't know what to do with it."

The boys were back soon. Davy and Jonah were suitably impressed. I had never seen Gale with such a big smile on his face.

We decided that we needed to go up near the house to dig the pit, where the earth wasn't quite so sandy. Gale called back to District 2 to talk to his friend Doc. Doc had been the one who told him about roasting in a fire pit. Gale took notes while Doc explained what was apparently a long, complicated process. After he got off the phone he called a meeting in the kitchen with Annie, Susan, Davy, Jonah, Finnie and I. We got to see Sergeant Hawthorne in action.

We were all assigned different jobs. Davy, Jonah and Gale would get the fire pit and spit ready while I skinned and gutted the beast and Annie and her Mom made a marinade. Tomorrow they'd get the stuffing ready. Davy and Jonah were already planning a trip to the market so we would all work on a list for them. Meanwhile, Finnie would just crawl around and try to cause trouble.

The boys brought Mr. Ugly into the shed and hung him up so I could get to him. Gale loaned me his knife. Then they left to go dig the pit. It had been a long time since I had cleaned anything bigger than a rabbit. I was glad I was in the shed where no one would be watching. This was going to be tough. After a few minutes of struggling I heard a noise behind me and whipped around, ready to kill Gale if he was laughing at me. But it wasn't him at all. Susan was standing in the door of the shed.

"I got to thinking that you would need more help this afternoon than Annie," she said.

I hardly knew what to say. "Do you know anything about cleaning an animal?" I asked.

"Actually, I do," she said. "I've mostly done fish, being from District 4. But when I was a girl we were allowed to raise pigs. I've watched my Dad and uncles clean a hog. We can figure it out."

So Susan and I wrestled with Mr. Ugly. I was very glad to have her help. It took more than one pair of hands, and more than my scrawny muscles. Plus, Susan was just about as nice as Annie and working with her made the job go faster.

By the time we finished I was exhausted, filthy, and starving. It was well past our usual dinner time. We washed off with the hose, but I took one look at the ocean and decided that I had to have a swim before we ate. The boys looked like they were almost done with their pit. I left Gale's knife nearby and walked down to the water. I felt too grimy to go into the house and get a swimsuit. Instead I kicked off my shoes and just went into the surf with all of my clothes on. I lay down in the shallow water and let the waves wash over me.

After a while I heard a laugh. I opened my eyes to see Gale sitting next to me in the water.

"You alive?" he asked.

I mumbled something in response.

"You should have chosen digging the pit," he said. "I think it was easier."

I rolled over and propped myself up on my elbows. "You couldn't have handled cleaning that big boy. Good thing I took care of it for you."

Davy and Jonah came splashing into the water. "Are you coming for a real swim?" Gale asked.

"I can't really swim in these clothes," I said, sitting up. "I think I'll go up to the house and get dressed."

"Annie said dinner was almost ready," Gale said as he stood up and offered me a hand.

"I'll see you in a bit," I said. I gave him a quick kiss and he went bounding off into the water with the others.

Showers are a great invention. I loved to stand under the water and imagine that it is my own private rain. After I showered I decided to indulge in Annie's lavender scented lotion, instead of my usual medical stuff. Then I realized why I wanted to smell nice. For him. What was wrong with me? I fell back on the bed and tried to sort through my thoughts.

My brain hadn't felt right since I'd seen the flash of Gale's leg flying through the air when the boar threw him off. I'd frozen. Even with however many hundred pounds of beast charging at me, all I'd been able to think of was Gale lying broken on the forest floor. If the animal hadn't been seriously slowed down by then he would have rammed me.

My heart was pounding again just thinking about it. Gale wasn't just my friend, not just my hunting partner. It was like he was part of me. No matter how happy I had been with Peeta, something had been missing when I hated Gale. Peeta had tried to tell me that, but I'd been too stubborn to listen.

This time I needed to do things right. If nothing else, I had always tried to be honest with Gale, even when I wasn't sure what I was thinking. Now two things had become crystal clear to me – two things I needed to tell Gale. And I was scared to death. But losing Peeta had given me this feeling of urgency, that anything I didn't say today I might never get a chance to say. So I would do it. Gale wasn't that dangerous, was he?

There had been no time to prepare a big feast tonight. Everyone was just grabbing some reheated clam chowder and bread. Gale and I sat on the back stairs to eat. I couldn't believe that it was just this morning that we had fixed these stairs. So much had happened since then.

After dinner we put an old trough down in the root cellar. It barely fit down the stairs. Then the boys brought down Mr. Ugly. We put him in the trough, poured the marinade over him, and covered him with a tarp. The boys have a freezer over at their house and Davy drove some ice over to keep Mr. Ugly cool. Then Annie padlocked the cellar to keep critters out.

Gale had started a campfire over by the pit. He and Jonah had gathered a bunch of firewood for the pit and there was some left over. Jonah also cut down a sapling to use as a spit, and Gale had found two forked pieces of wood shaped like "Y"s to hold up the spit. We settled around the campfire to finish the final touches, for this night anyway, to our big job. Davy and Jonah were stripping the spit and then hardening it in the fire. Gale and I each had one of the forked pieces to whittle and then fire harden, although mine was old wood so it would have to be soaked in water first. Annie and Susan were scraping the back of the hide to get all the gross stuff off so Davy and Jonah could take it to market tomorrow.

Annie kept looking at her watch. I got the feeling that she was up to something. It was late and Finnie was already down for the night. Sure enough, she finally got up and ran into the kitchen. She came out a few minutes later with plates, forks and something called a blackberry cobbler that she had made from the blackberries I had picked. Maybe Annie showing off with her cooking was a good thing as that was one of the best things I had ever eaten, although it did leave all of us with purple mouths.

"I decided that we shouldn't save the blackberries for tomorrow. They looked too good," Annie said.

"That's okay," I said. "There are tons of them in the forest. If you want more for the party we can pick some more tomorrow."

Gale winked at me and I blushed.

"That must have been the most . . . productive hunting trip ever," said Davy, with a weird smile.

Gale's neck went taut. I looked down and noticed that his hand, which had been whittling with his knife, was frozen and tense. He shot Davy a look that could only be described as ominous. The temperature around the campfire seemed to have dropped.

Davy was a burly guy, probably bigger than Gale, although not taller. But he looked abashed. The coldness in Gale's eyes reminded me that he was a soldier and knew how to kill people. Had killed people. Davy looked down and said "We're pretty lucky to get to feast on blackberries tonight and wild boar later."

I heard Gale take a deep breath and saw the tension leave him. Annie was chatting with her mom. I didn't think she had noticed anything at all. I reached over and stroked Gale's arm and he looked at me with a gentle smile. Whatever that was, it was over now.

Once I was done with my cobbler I didn't have much to do, since I had my wood soaking now. I started messing around with some of the dandelions which were growing everywhere. I was still embarrassed about my little fit the night before. Maybe I could make it up to Gale. He wouldn't know it, but I was also sending an answer to Peeta. I was going to listen to him. I could picture his face, eyebrows raised, surprised, but pleased.

Davy and Jonah finished up the spit. All that was left was to watch it and turn it in the coals. Since Gale and I were already doing that for our wood, we offered to watch the spit for them and they headed home. Annie and Susan were done with the hide. They wrapped it up and gave it to the boys before they left, then they went in. That left Gale and I. I suddenly noticed that we were very unchaperoned. This was the time for me to tell him what I needed to. I thought of Haymitch and wished that I had a drink.

By now I had finished my dandelion crown. I took it over to Gale and plopped it on his head.

"Sorry about last night," I said. "Here, you be the dandelion king."

He laughed. "You're forgiven. Come here." I sat down next to him and put my head in his lap. There was a bush of babies' breath nearby and he started picking the white flowers off and putting them in my hair.

"How about this kind of crown for you?" he said, and then he leaned down and kissed me.

"So what was going on with you and Davy?" I asked after a bit.

"You noticed that? He's just made some wise cracks I didn't like, about you and me in the woods." A tendon in Gale's neck showed his tension.

I sat up and kissed his neck. "He was right, you know."

"That makes it worse," he said, leaning to open his neck to me.

"Aren't you proud of me?" I said. "I am getting more observant."

He gave a soft laugh. "Like how you thought I was asleep yesterday?"

I sat back and glared at him. "You little sneak! You were awake the whole time."

"I couldn't miss one of the most incredible experiences of my life," he said as he took one of my hands and tried to massage it. I pulled it back.

"Why didn't you say something?" I turned my back to him. "Dang. You are a good actor. How can I trust you?"

"I didn't want to scare you off. Come on, Catnip, you know you can trust me." He started to rub my shoulders. This time I didn't pull away. His strong hands were melting my muscles. It was so hard to stay mad at him. That was the problem with him.

He broke off to reach into the fire pit and turn the spit. I flipped our two pieces of wood, then sat back and leaned into his arm. He turned his face and gave me a gentle kiss, then his hand held the back of my head as he deepened the kiss. I had to smile as I tasted blackberries again.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm never going to feel the same about blackberries," I said.

"They are my new favorite fruit," he said. He shook his head. "Sometimes I feel like I have to kiss you to find out what you are thinking."

"So what was I thinking just now?" I asked.

"You were trying to be mad at me and failing spectacularly." His sly grin sparkled in the fire light. Then he looked into the fire and grew serious. "The first time I ever kissed you I was amazed that you could be so surprised. How could you not have known how much I wanted to kiss you?"

I did not want to discuss those long ago kisses. "What about the kiss in the forest today? What did that tell you?"

"That you were very glad I had not been gutted by Mr. Ugly." The impish smile was back.

"What about the one on the beach, after?" I liked this topic.

"Then you let me know that the first one was not a fluke."

I sat up on my knees and tilted my face so that I could better meet his lips. I ran my tongue over his teeth and heard him suck in his breath. He lay back on the blanket taking me with him. Maybe the best way to give him the first message I needed to was with a kiss. My mind was saying the words over and over as our mouths merged.

I sat up on one arm and whispered "What was that kiss telling you?"

"You tell me," he said. His face told me that he knew, but he wanted to hear me say it. Fair enough. We both sat up. I let myself be lost in his dark gray eyes.

I was so close, but the words caught in my throat. I took his hand and put it over my heart so he would feel it pounding. Then I leaned in and kissed him again, hoping that my lips would tell him what I couldn't bring myself to say. What was wrong with me? I had finally been able to tell Peeta I loved him and had found that it wasn't such a horrible thing at all. I knew that I loved Gale. Surely, he knew it too? He would be here for the rest of the week. I would find a way to tell him.

He sighed then reached around to my back and eased me down onto the blanket. He kissed the scar on my cheek, then traced it with his tongue.

"This has always been my favorite scar," he said into my ear.

"You have a favorite of my scars?" I couldn't help but laugh.

"It gave me hope." He looked deep into my eyes. "You know, you never told me what you'd done when I was whipped. No one told me. I asked you what happened to your cheek and you lied. You said you had fallen."

"You were in so much pain. I didn't want to add worrying over me," I said.

"Don't do that to me again. Don't lie to me to protect me."

"What – like you deceived me to keep from frightening me just yesterday?" I wasn't going to let him get away from that.

"Okay, I won't do that to you again. I promise." He was up on one arm now, running his warm finger over my scar. The dandelions were falling off of his head. I lifted them off with one hand and placed them carefully on the ground next to me. I looked up at him. "It wasn't until I was back in the mines that I found out what you had done. Bristel said 'That girl of yours is unbelievable.' And he told me how you took the lash for me. It made me hope that you did love me, in your own screwed up, you-couldn't-even-let-me-know-about-it-way." He leaned over and kissed me again. I had so much to make up to him. So many times I had messed with his head.

He kissed my scar again, then started a line of kisses down my neck to my collarbone. My thoughts slid into mush as I thrilled at his touch. "You smell good," he whispered in between kisses. "What is it?"

"Lavender. Annie's lotion." I tried to focus and slid my hand up under his shirt. My finger found his scar upon a scar and I felt its outline. He groaned and pressed into me.

"This is my favorite of your scars," I said. I wasn't sure he had heard; he was pretty intent on my collarbone. Then he looked up at me "What kind of messed up people are we to each have a favorite scar?" He was smiling though.

"That is the one that you got when you went into the Capitol for the rescue." Of course, we both knew who he was rescuing, but I wasn't ready to say his name. "I was so selfish and you were so good to me."

"I would do anything for you," he whispered. His warm mouth met mine again and once again my thoughts floated away as my body enjoyed him. I was dimly aware of his hand stroking over my shirt. I arched without thinking, wanting to be closer to him. I had something else I needed to tell him, but I couldn't keep it in the front of my brain. Then I felt his hand begin to unbutton the top button of my blouse and it came back to me in a rush.

I needed to talk to him. I had to get away from him so that I could pull my brain back together. I began to plan my escape. I pulled up onto my elbows and pressed into his kiss. I slipped one ankle over the other and planted my foot flat on the ground. My mind tried to slide into pleasure and I forced it back under control.

"One, two, three," I thought, then I dropped away from him, flat onto the ground, ducked under his arm, and rolled out from under him. I jumped up and walked away from the campfire, rebuttoning my blouse with shaking fingers.

"What the . . . ." He fell onto the blanket. I almost laughed, but when he looked up his eyes were hard and angry. "What was that for?" He sprung up and stood glaring at me across the fire.

"I have something I need to talk to you about." I said, looking away from the fury in his face. But a pleading note crept into my voice. "You were muddling my thoughts. I had to get some space."

"Then just tell me to back off. Don't do that to me. Don't act like I am some kind of jerk you need to run away from." The hurt in his voice pulled me back toward him.

"I'm sorry," I said, as I turned toward him. "It wasn't you I was afraid of. It was me . . . I was losing control. I couldn't hold onto my thoughts."

"Catnip," he said softly, "Its okay to lose control. We aren't kids anymore." I knew what he was talking about. I couldn't put it off any more. He was not going to be happy about what I had to say.

"Come here," I said. I went back to the campfire. I reached in and turned the wood again. He moved the spit to harden a different section. I sat cross-legged and he did too, facing me. I took his hands in mine.

"I have something I have to tell you, that you are not going to like," I tried to keep the quiver out of my voice. Why was I such a coward about this? I didn't want to hurt him.

"What's going on?" he asked. "You can tell me anything. You know that."

I took a deep breath. This was not going to get any easier.

"I want to wait until I am married this time."

Thanks again to Irish Luck 19 for her wonderful beta (and alpha) work.

Thanks to all my readers. Even more thanks (no hard feelings readers) to my reviewers: HopeNeverDies, Iluvdinos, MountainAir, RipredtheGnawer, EchoDeltaNine, BookADDICT6, Hunger Games Girl 127, Katieg343, NightWolf, Analyn Lana Ruse, Toolazytosignin, Kina Kalamari, Oobay, An interested fan, The Dark Games, Solaryllis, Daydreaming Viking Girl, cattastrophies, .xX, and PlainlyIronic