A/N: For anyone unfamiliar with "HJ" when Gale mentions it: HJ refers to Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend in German). Thanks for all of your interest and words of encouragement! This chapter is twice as long as the others and will probably remain this length from now on. It was hard to judge how much to fit into a chapter, but I'm getting the hang of it :) Peeta's finally here to stay! Enjoy

The Hunger Games is owned by Suzanne Collins

3
Sweet Reprieve

"Some new clothes for you, dear," Liesel's voice called Katniss out of her haze.

She broke her staring contest with the wall and looked down at her clothing. Her once long sleeves rose halfway up her forearms, the cloth riddled with holes. Her pants had long since been ripped into shorts, but they were beginning to pinch at her hips. Despite poor nutrition, some parts of her body seemed determined on developing into a woman.

Katniss took the small pile of clothes from Liesel's arms. "Thank you," she said, her voice meek and tired. She hadn't had a change of clothes in months, and the soap in the bathroom sink did little in the way of cleaning fabric. It was harsh and weakened the threads more than anything.

The soft, warm sweater and cotton pants in her hands were more luxurious than anything she had ever been given since she arrived at Liesel's. There was also a pair of white tennis shoes on top of the pile. Katniss didn't see the need for sneakers, but she wasn't about to question them.

She had given up feeling guilty for not earning her keep, because Liesel categorically refused to accept it. Katniss did her best to at least sweep and straighten the racks at night when she went upstairs to wash up. For all that Liesel was risking for her, Katniss wished there was more she could do. There was simply nothing to be done that wouldn't chance being caught. Katniss promised herself, if she ever escaped, to never accept charity again as long as she lived. Which she knew could be but hours or days.

XxXx

The new clothes felt like heaven against her skin. She hadn't realized how perpetually cold she was until the lush fabric wrapped around her body. Katniss snuggled into the neck of the sweater and pulled the wool blanket around her shoulders. She decided she felt safe enough to switch on the radio again.

Bombings. Raids. A rising death toll. And, of course, overzealous praise for their fearless leader. The news broadcast signed off with the date and time, and Katniss had to think for a moment why the date sounded so familiar.

My birthday. Sixteen, she thought. What a way to celebrate.

She was awakened by Gale's hand on her shoulder. She sat up and wondered how long she was out. Katniss rubbed the sleep from her eyes and focused on Gale's face. He looked strong and healthy, but the dark circles and pain in his eyes told a different story. He looked lost, sad. The fire that always burned within him seemed to be flickering to embers.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"What's not?" Gale scoffed.

They sat in silence for a moment before he drew a long breath in preparation for what was to come next.

"I have to leave," he said. "They're shipping me off to Poland."

Katniss let go of her blanket and planted her palm firmly on the cold cement floor as the room spun around her. "What? No!" She was sure she would throw up if she had more than a slice of bread in her system.

Gale shrugged. "I'm old enough to be a soldier now. I knew it was coming. It's what the HJ prepared us for. I'm surprised it's taken this long for them to assign me somewhere." He could see the tears in Katniss' eyes threatening to spill over. "Look, you're going to be okay. I found somewhere new for you. Someplace that will be safe when I'm gone." He pressed a slip of paper into Katniss' hand and closed her fingers around it.

She wrenched her hand from his and threw the paper to the ground. Without crumpling it first, it only fluttered softly all the way down. It lacked the angry impact it was supposed to have. "Forget me. What about you? You can't go!"

"I have to. And so do you. It's not safe for you here anymore. You don't know what it's like out there." He pulled her into a strong hug and held her so tightly he almost feared he'd break her. "You have to go or everything I did, Liesel did, your mother did, will all have been for nothing. You want that?"

Katniss shook her head against his neck. "I just want you to be safe. Stay here. Hide here with me," she pleaded.

"You know I can't. And you have to go tonight." He released his grip on her and began to rifle through the brown messenger bag he carried with him. "You have to go tonight," he repeated as he found what he was looking for. "Promise me. Promise."

Katniss nodded, distracted by the copy of Mein Kampf he had taken from his bag. He held it out to her.

"Carry this with you when you go," he instructed.

After one last strong embrace, Gale was gone. And something tugged at the back of her mind, telling her she would never see him again.

Once all of her tears had been shed, she curled up in the blanket and looked down at the piece of paper that landed face-up.

Come to the side door. -Peeta

XxXx

That night, when the moon was shining silver high in the clouds, she opened the door to the outside world for the first time in two years. The air was chilled with impending winter and she shifted uncomfortably in the tennis shoes Liesel left for her. She hadn't had shoes on her feet in so long, they pinched even though they were in her size. Standing there in the still of the night with the stars twinkling above, it was easy to imagine everything was back to normal. The air was sweet with fall and fresh apples and the only noise was the quiet hoot of an owl.

Katniss thought back to the days when things were good. Back before she had to trade or hide. Back when she and her mother walked to the bakery after school for a special treat at the end of a busy day. Even the little butterflies that always made themselves known in her stomach when she was on her way to see Peeta were fluttering to life.

But those times were gone.

Her life was at stake now.

Liesel's life. Gale's. And even Peeta's if they captured her and discovered where she was headed.

She knew the butterflies were only nerves. Before, they had been inexplicable. They would overwhelm her at the mere prospect of running into him and she didn't understand why. Now at least the nerves had a proper reason to make her shake.

Don't let everyone's work be for nothing, she thought, and pushed herself forward.

She stopped shortly, however, needing a moment to orient herself to the town again. She had been locked up for so long, she needed to reconstruct the visual map in her head. Katniss spun in a circle and spotted the fountain she and Gale used to jump in until they were chased away. Everything began to come back together and she realized that the bakery was a good fifteen minute walk from where she stood. She worried about spending so much time out in the open. Just because no one was on the street at that moment, the odds were against her in getting all the way to her destination unseen. She was not about to get caught before she even started.

That was not an option.

She clutched Mein Kampf to her chest where all could see. With the book, her new clothes, and her freshly clean and braided hair, she could pass for any German citizen who actually had a right to walk down the street without hassle.

Katniss had just a few blocks to go when she was taken off course. The sight of a pack of Nazi soldiers sent her flying down a side street to flee from their vision. Her muscles were weak from two years of minimal usage, but the adrenaline coursing through her veins propelled her faster and faster. She finally collapsed in a dark alley to catch her breath. She closed her eyes and waited until she knew it would be safe to try again.

Once she caught her breath, she opened her eyes and looked around. She wasn't in an alley after all, but an old neighborhood. The windows of each building were shattered, debris still cluttered the street, and yellow stars angrily marked each doorway. A ghost town. It was the aftermath of Kristallnacht, she knew. What had happened to all who lived on this street? Captured? Dead? She stumbled backward, away from it all and continued on her trek to Peeta.

She breathed a sigh of relief when the Mellher sign came into view and she had seen no sign of anyone else. She slipped into the shadows of the building and reached for the doorknob. Her hand shook and she contemplated running away, but she forced herself to grasp the handle.

It was locked.

Of course it's locked, she thought. You don't leave your doors unlocked, not during this.

She looked around for a mat or potted plant that could hide a key, but there was nothing. The last thing she wanted to do was knock and call attention to her presence. She looked down at the book still clutched to her chest, noticing that the pages did not lie flat against the cover. She opened it and found a key taped inside.

In her haste to pull it out, she tore the page. She never cared less about defacing a book in her life.

She hardly had time to turn the key in the lock when the door flew open and she was being pulled inside. It was as though someone had been pacing the hall waiting for any sign of her.

He was taller and even more handsome than the picture she kept in her mind, but the piercing blue eyes that met her gaze could only belong to Peeta. He kicked the door shut with his foot and gripped her shoulders with his large, strong hands as he looked her over. His eyes were deep with concern. A line of worry creased his forehead.

"Are you all right?" he asked, but he sounded so far away and broken, like she was trying to hear him underwater.

His sharply defined features blurred together as all of the nervous energy was leeched from her body now that she no longer needed it.

And everything went black.

XxXx

Warm. It was such a foreign feeling to her. She snuggled deep into the sheets, clutching them tightly in fear of their warmth fading when she awoke from her dream. When she was in Liesel's basement, she would often dream of warm places; the park in mid-summer, the beach, her own bed.

But her own bed was small and made up of slightly scratchy sheets and a stiff comforter. Never had she felt something so soft as the blanket she held to her cheek.

How could I dream it if I've never felt it? she wondered and cracked her eyes open. But the warmth didn't fade, and neither did the soft blankets or the plush mattress beneath her.

Fear pulled her upright as she realized that she had no idea where she was. And a severe dizzy spell sent her slumping back against the headboard.

"Whoa, careful. Don't move so fast." she heard a man's voice caution.

When the room stopped moving in waves around her, she slowly turned toward the source of the voice. Her heart stuttered as she came to find Peeta sitting beside the bed, concern in his beautiful eyes.

"I'm glad you're awake. I've been hoping to get some water into you since last night," he said. He held a glass to her lips, free hand behind her head as he coaxed small sips of water down her throat before she was awake enough to respond or fight him off.

When he took the glass away, she pulled her bottom lip in with her teeth and found it severely chapped. All she tasted was ragged skin and blood. She released it with a wince.

"I put some of this on you, but you should use it regularly until that heals," he said, placing a small jar of lip balm beside her. "It's split pretty bad from how dehydrated you are. And I know you're probably starving, but I don't have much for you yet. It's not good for you to eat a lot after having nothing for so long."

Katniss finally collected some of her faculties and shook her head gently. "Why?" Her voice was hoarse and resistant. "Why do you keep saving me?"

He sat back in his chair, looking perplexed by her question. He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. "Any decent person would do the same," he muttered to the floor.

"No," she insisted. "They wouldn't." She glanced toward the window where the moonlight broke through the clouds. "What's going on out there is proof of that." She cleared her throat and reached for the water, which he pushed into her hand so quickly a little spilled out the top. Her voice began to come back stronger as the water soothed her scratchy throat and pounding headache. "There are a lot of decent people out there who are ignoring everything that's happening, going along with it to avoid trouble. People who would never risk their lives for some pathetic girl who can give you nothing in return."

Peeta shook his head. "Your safety is all I want."

Katniss was suddenly very aware that she was in his bedroom- in his bed. And she had no clue how to go about responding to him. How could this boy she hardly knew possibly care so much about what became of her? She toyed with her braid, finding pieces that had pulled free during her sleep. "Um, how long was I out?" she asked quietly.

"Since you got here last night. You slept pretty soundly all day."

"And your parents are okay with this?" she asked incredulously. There was absolutely no way his mother would allow any of it.

A strange look flashed across his features that she couldn't place. Fear? Sadness? She couldn't be sure. But Peeta shrugged one shoulder and changed the subject so quickly she didn't have time to dwell on it.

"Here," he said, holding his hand out to her. "Late birthday present."

She looked down at the fresh cheese roll on a napkin he handed her. She watched it in disbelief. "How… how did you know it was my birthday?"

"How could I not?" he chuckled. "Our first year in school when you turned six, you walked up to me and told me it was your birthday and I should sing to you."

Katniss gasped. "I did no such thing!"

"Yes, you did. You used to be quite an uninhibited little thing. It seemed like you lived for music class. You loved to sing so much and I think you assumed everyone else did, too," he smiled. "I told you I couldn't sing, but you looked so disappointed that I went home that night and made you-"

"A cupcake," she whispered, pulling the memory from a forgotten corner. "You decorated it with frosted flowers"

"I wanted to bake you a whole cake, but my dad assured me a cupcake was enough. He did most of the baking, but I insisted on decorating it which is why it was such a mess. I swear I've gotten better since then."

She knew he had. She saw his work in the bakery windows all the time. But the one he made for her birthday a decade ago remained her favorite.

"It was perfect. No one ever did anything like that for me before. Birthdays were for practical gifts, and we never had the money to buy a bakery cake. I can't believe you could remember my birthday after all that time," she said.

"You don't forget when the girl you love talks to you for the first time."

Katniss choked on a mouthful of water. "Love?"

She watched a deep red blush creep up his neck. "Well, I was six, you know and I…" he cleared his throat. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry." He peered up at her through his impossibly long lashes. "You really never knew how much I liked you, did you?"

The water glass felt too heavy to hold and she set it down on the side table with a shaky hand. She looked down at the roll. "How did you know I love these so much?" she asked quietly.

"You don't think I noticed how your face lit up when you'd see them in the box with your regular bread?"

Katniss shrugged, unaware that she showed any emotion in front of him before. Apparently, he had been paying much more attention to her than she ever realized.

She glanced over to the copy of Mein Kampf beside his bed- the Nazi uniform draped over a chair.

She knew their time together was limited and dangerous, but she couldn't help selfishly hoping to stay wrapped up in the comfort of Peeta for the rest of her life.