Chapter 12

With fight comes Flight

(Peeta's POV)

I give Gale a right hook and then a left, blinding rage clouding my vision as I hit him over and over. I know I should feel bad for coming over here and starting a fight, but I honestly don't at all feel bad. I want him to hurt as much as he hurt Katniss, as much as he is going to hurt Katniss when she learns that he had the nerve to call a capitol reporter and tell them that we were willing to give him an interview and what bothers me most is the fact that he did it just to get back at us, it was like he is the victim in all this which was wrong in every way possible. He was a piece of garbage that needed to vanish from Katniss's life and I could do it, just the snap of his neck and he'd be gone, no more problems. Do it he's useless. The voice in my head becomes loud and persistent, my head begins to swell and hurt, an urge to vomit becomes great. My knuckles are bloody and aching. Gale isn't a weakling he flips me from him and I crash against the floor, quickly scrambling to my feet. He does the same and soon we are face to face. He sided with the mutt which means he killed your family and so did she. I place my hand against my head the voice distracts me from my opponent and Gale lunges forward, his fists connecting with my ribs over and over. Kill him and then kill her. My anger and rage has thrown me into an episode and I'm beyond thankful that I'm around Gale and not Katniss. No you want to be around her she's a mutt. My thoughts are killing me, I can do nothing but let Gale pound the shit out of me. He hits me all over the place, my chest, ribs, and he even gives me a good swift kick in the nuts, which I drop to my knees in pain.

"You're a fucking freak Mellark." Gale says punching me in the side of the head, which causes my brain to rattle more. He hit me over and over like I did to him, only when I collapsed on the ground he didn't stop punching me. He was just as angry as I was if not more. The more he hit me the harder it was for me to get my brain under control, to rise to my feet and defend myself. My entire body ached from his punches, I felt dizzy and confused as his fist connected with my jaw one last hard time, sending me to the floor, even then he kicked and stomped at my back. I could deal with it though, it wasn't the first time someone decided to pound the living daylights out of me, only I couldn't fight back I had to sit and take it. I can fight back now though. I wasn't helpless, I wasn't helpless. I thrust my foot forward, boot connecting with his shin, momentarily stopping his assault. I ignored the pain in my body as I scrambled shakily to my feet.

"I don't want to fight you anymore" It was a mistake to come over here to begin with but I needed to know why he did what he did to her. He knew she didn't want any reporters or cameras sniffing around here while she was pregnant and having Herson Henderson here was going to make it ten times more difficult, if Paylor gives us the okay to transfer to District 4 whose to say Herson wont snap a picture of her pregnant belly on the way to the hovercraft. So many things could go wrong and it was all Gale's fault.

"You attacked me, you sought me out having every intentions of kicking my ass. Tell me Mellark does she know your over here?" Gale growled.

"She's sleeping and I'm only over because what you did is unforgivable. Why the fuck did you do it" I hiss.

"I told you I was angry and I didn't think he'd actually come. Okay so get off my back."

"You do realize this guy isn't going home without an interview from Katniss and your to blame. If you care about her at all you better fix this. I don't give a flying fuck if you hate me, if you want to kill me, but don't take your anger out on her. She was your best friend and was willing to give you a second chances at becoming friends, but that didn't seem good enough for you, you had to have more with her even though you knew how she felt about me, how she was carrying my baby, you put stress on her, tried your damn hardest to force her to fall in love with you. Let me tell you something you can't force a person to love you, it has to come naturally."

"What do you know about love, Mellark, you tried to kill her. The woman you claimed to have loved since forever. You don't deserve her, you don't deserve that baby. I'm her best friend or was until you took that anyway from me."

"NO!" I scream at him so loudly that it wound surprise me if the entire District could hear what was going on between the two of us, not like there was anybody around to listen to begin with "You did that yourself, you made her hate you. She told you time and time again that she wasn't in love with you but you didn't take the fucking hint. Just because she didn't want to be your love didn't mean she didn't want to be your friend, but I guess on your end it was either lovers or nothing right."

Gale is silent for a second, he places his palm against his swollen face and rubs it gently. His hands are no longer fists and he no longer stands in an attack stance. Maybe we can actually talk like two human beings instead of lashing out at each other. I don't want no more fists to fly between the two of us, my entire body aches one more punch is going to force me to the ground and I doubt I'll have the strength to stand.

"You think we can sit down and talk like normal people?" I ask more calmly.

"Depends are you going to attack me every time I say something you don't like?"

"No as long as you don't attack me."

"Fine sit down" He orders and points to the leather couch in the middle of the living room. The glass from the broken coffee table still litters the ground and I'm thankful I have my boots on or else shards will be sticking into the soles of my feet. I still don't trust a thing Gale says so I'm on my guard the whole time he paces back and forth with his hands behind his back and a scowl on his face, sweat run down his face as he continues pacing. He doesn't sit down either which means he is weary of me as well.

"I'm waiting, talk, tell me how much of an asshole I am for everything I have done to Katniss, tell me how perfect you are compared to me."

"I'm far from perfect believe me on that. This has got to stop, this hatred we have for each other, its making things much worse on her."

"I turned that job down for her, I came back here for her when you didn't. I took care of her, made sure she ate and bathed. She was mine first, you hear me mine. I know everything about her and you don't. You were just the boy on the sideline watching, too cowardly to do anything but stare. She doesn't love you, you know. Katniss is incapable of falling in love with someone it's just who she is." Gale growls and stops his pacing all together, turning on his heels to look at me. I'm engrossed in his words, part of what he is saying is true, but the part where she doesn't love me is false. She's told me several times how she felt about me.

Gale takes advantage of my silence "You know I'm curious to know how you managed to get her to have sex with you because god knows she has to be in love for her to be able to do it."

"She is in love with me and you know it." I say.

"You might be right, but she loves me to, she is just blinded by anger right now to realize it." Gale takes a deep breath, his voice becomes a bit smoother and he ruffles his hair "I never ever wanted to hurt anyone or kill the innocent. She blames me for Prim and I hate that because I didn't know where the bomb was going or that it would kill innocent people, children. She shouldn't blame me for things that I have no control over, yeah I built the weapon along with Beetee, that makes him a murderer as much as it makes me one."

We all suffered differently during the war. Katniss has ways of dealing with grief, blaming you is her way of dealing with it." I explain.

Gale rolls his eyes at me and shakes his head "Don't act like you know Katniss inside out, there is a lot of things you don't know about her. You just ruin everything don't you? Your like a fly that keeps buzzing around, making things complicated and irritating me. I mean it Peeta I'm going to fight for her until my last breath and there is nothing you can do to stop me either. Katniss is everything to me and I wont sit back and back you destroy her."

I feel anger bubbling up inside me now at his words. He is starting to piss me off again and the urge to sink my fist in his face becomes great again "Your wasting your time she loves me, needs me, and wants me, not to mention she's pregnant with my baby. What you need to do is get rid of that damn Capitol reporter that you felt the need to call because that's just one more fucked up thing you did to drive Katniss away."

Gale sighs deeply and clutches his fist into a tight ball. He needs to know how serious calling the reporter on us actually is and that I wont stand by waiting for him to destroy our relationship. He wants to make amend for everything that he has done he should start by getting rid of that Herson guy before I kick that capitol reporters teeth in. Herson gets within a mile of Katniss and that will be it. I'll flip out on him.

"How many times are you going to bring that up?" Gale hisses.

"At least a dozen more until you fix your mistake. I have a choice to make either I tell Katniss that you called a reporter, getting her even more pissed off at you or you get rid of him asap and she never finds out he was here."

"You're a real asshole Peeta."

"No you're the one that fucks everything up" rarely do I use curse words, but Gale has me so angry that I can't help but have the words spill my from mouth. We stand there face to face, feet apart, both of us looking at each other with hatred. I can honestly say that he is not the person he used to be, he seems to be more violent, determined, angry. He's a threat and I truly don't want him near Katniss. Maybe once we call the Capitol and get the okay to transfer districts then we can sneak away from him, leave him here and hope he decides to take the job in 2 instead of wasting his time and coming between us. I'm doing having this conversation with Gale, I told him what's what and if that reporter isn't gone by either today or tomorrow then I'm going to tell Katniss what he did and she is going to hate him twice as much as she already does. I take a step towards the door, eyeing Gale hatefully as I go.

I don't say anything else to him, not a goodbye or anything. I'm out the door and into the cold afternoon making my way down the Victor's village path. Part of me should feel guilty for going over and fighting with him, but I honestly don't. He deserved what he got from me, maybe now he will open his eyes and realize that he can't do things like that or else he'll lose her forever, not that it's a big deal or anything. Katniss wants nothing to do with him and I don't want her near him to begin with. I get home and make my way up the slippery steps, snow has just begun to flutter, dusting the front porch with a small coat of white. I push open the door and stumble inside, its only then do I realize my knuckles ache badly.

Katniss is awake and sitting on the couch, her legs stretched out on the bed and her hand on her bump. I hear clattering in the kitchen which can only mean Lynn is back and is fixing some lunch. Katniss glances over the back of the couch and smiles when she sees me enter the room. I give her a warm smile back and kick off my shoes, moving into the living room. I gently lift her swollen legs for a second and slip onto the far cushion of the couch and then bring her legs back into my lap again. I begin rubbing the soles of her feet first then the sides, causing her to groan in complete comfort.

"Where did you head off to this morning. I really don't like to wake up alone" She says in a hushed tone of voice.

I cant tell her about the reporter that came knocking on our door earlier today because that will upset her and I told Gale he had 24 hours to get rid of that idiot before I tell Katniss and ruin every shot he had at rebuilding their relationship.

"I was thinking." Katniss begins, rubbing her prodding belly.

I grin "Uh oh, about what?"

"It hasn't been very long since the end of the war and I know we have a lot of healing to do and this baby to get ready for. My nightmares are still bad sometimes. I want to make a book."

I give her a questioning look "What kind of book?"

"Like a memory book, something that we will have for years and years. I don't ever want to forget our friends that we lost during the rebellion, maybe the book can be dedicated to those who lost their lives during our two games and the war. What do you think?"

"Are you really up for that though? Talking about it an all?" I ask in concern.

"It's been 6 months going on 7 and I've thought a lot about what's going on. I want to talk about it and heal and raise our baby. I don't want to be like this. Cooped up in a house crying because of everything I went through, crying because the people I have once cared about decides to put me under stress. I'll have the baby in District 4 or wherever they decide to put me, if they decide I can switch, but I still don't want cameras around. I want to be able to move on the best we can, be the best parents we can be." She smiles and moves her hand across her belly. Her words make my stomach drop and I'm really glad she is willing to move on, face the past inside of hiding in these walls. I glance over the back of the couch, making sure her mother is still hard at work on lunch. There is no sign of Lynn anywhere so I shift us on the couch gently so I'm able to give her a small sensual kiss on the lips. It only lasts a couple of seconds before she pulls back and sets her head against mine.

"I love you and this baby" She says and kisses me again "Don't you ever leave me or her"

"Still thinks it's a girl huh?" I chuckle and kiss her one last time before returning to my original position.

"It might be who knows, all I know is we got names to pick out and clothes to buy."

"That reminds me I called Effie earlier and told her the good news. She says she was going on a major shopping spree. I told her not to go crazy but something tells me she isn't going to listen to me."

"You know I was thinking of some names that we could use, I came up with three girls names and three boys names."

"Well If it's a girl I want the middle name to be Marie, its different, unusual and it's a name they used a lot back in the old days. So the names for the girl is Saffara, Asya, or Willow. If its a boy I want his middle name to be Peeta."

My heart flutters at this and a smile creeps across my face.

"So I like Nebis, Rye and Dyan. What do you think."

I tap my finger against my lip "I like Willow and Rye, those are my favorite ones you've come up with."

"So its settled then. Willow Marie Mellark, Rye Peeta Mellark."

to be continued...