I am back, I think to myself standing at the station of District 12.

Where is he? I ask myself searching for him in the crowd.

"Hey there." I hear a voice behind. I turn around to see Peeta.

"Hey." I reply not knowing what else to say.

He takes my bag and turns around to go to the exit. I follow him and together we exit the station.

***…***…***

"So you're back."

"Yes. I'm back." I try to look excited but fail.

"Why aren't we happy about this?" he blurts out. Good to know he is thinking the same.

"I guess four months away has made things awkward. Maybe it will take a little while for us to adjust to it?"

"Are you saying this or asking me?"

"I don't know. I'm just as confused as you are."

"Then that means it was a question."

"Alright, maybe it was. No need to make a big deal out of it."

"I didn't. I just asked you whether it wasn't a question or not."

"I was confused. Maybe it was a suggestion and I wanted your opinion on it."

"Great. No, it's really great. We take four months to clear our heads and you still are confused."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you should have tried a little bit more instead of having fun."

That comment stung. It was as if he was saying I didn't want to save us and hadn't tried.

"I was confused because of you. Because I didn't know what to say. And you know, words haven't been my strongest suit. It was yours. So why do you expect me to speak first? Why don't YOU try to clear out this awkwardness? Why don't you try a little harder instead of blaming me for everything?"

"I DID TRY! I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY! EVERY SINGLE DAY! THE ONLY THING I THOUGHT WAS TO MAKE IT RIGHT!"

"WELL YOU DID A TERRIBLE JOB! BECAUSE AS FAR AS I KNOW, SHOUTING AT ME, FIGHTING WITH ME ISN'T A WAY TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT!"

"WELL, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ALRIGHT IF YOU ALSO MADE AN EFFORT. BUT YOU WERE TOO DAMN BUSY GOSSIPING WITH YOUR MOTHER AND JOHANNA."

"HOW DARE YOU? HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT I DIDN'T WANT THIS ENOUGH? MAYBE IF YOU TAKE YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR BREAD YOU'LL SEE YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO LOVES. THE ONLY ONE WHO HURTS."

"I AGREE. BUT I DOUBT THE OTHER ONE IS YOU."

I refused to answer that. I turned around and marched to our room upstairs. On the stairs, I heard Peeta's frustrated cry. He wasn't the only one who was frustrated. Even I wanted to tear something out.

How could this happen? Everything was supposed to be alright now.

I heard the front door slam. Probably Peeta going out.

So much for a happy reunion. Surprisingly, this time tears didn't come. I just sat in our room looking out the window.

***…***…***

"So the break idea? Not so good, right?" Peeta says. We had both calmed down after yesterdays fight.

"You think?" I ask sarcastically.

"Don't. Let's not fight for a while."

I bite back a response. We really need to work things out without screaming our heads off at each other.

"So what now?" I ask.

"I don't know. I'm all out of ideas. Anything up your sleeve?"

"No, I'm just as stumped as you."

"I don't think more break could help us."

"No, it won't."

We sat quietly for awhile, thinking hard about what can help us now. I tried to look anywhere but at him.

"How did this happen?" he asks quietly.

I keep my mouth shut. This isn't the time to fight, I tell myself. But my face gives me away.

"You have a theory don't you?" he asks me.

"It's just that after the last time we talked on the phone, I started thinking of this another way. Before I thought of it only as something that went wrong along the way and we could fix it. But then…." I trail of afraid to finish.

"Then you started thinking that maybe nothing went wrong. Maybe something was wrong from the beginning but we were just too blind to see it?"

I finally meet his eyes. I start to ask him how he knows this before realizing he knows this because he thought of the same thing.

"What do you think was wrong?" I ask him instead.

"Maybe I was never in love. At least, not in the way I thought I was."

I nod. I add "The reason we even got together was the Games, because after that nobody here, except Haymitch could understand us. And Haymitch hadn't been responsible for starting a revolution so that counts out even him."

"And what I loved about you was someone not you. She was someone I imagined you to be."

"What does that mean?"

"It means the first time I ever talked to you was after being reaped. I had an image of you in my mind that was very different than who you really were because I had watched you only from afar. I had never talked to you before. And then though I did realize you were different, I was happy to get the mystical girl I had a crush on forever to realize the crush I had was on a different girl, a girl who existed only in my mind, I didn't realize I never fell in love with who you really were."

"So basically we never really loved each other. We just loved the idea of us being together."

"I can't say that. I did love you. Actually I still do love you. But not in the way I should. Not in the way I want."

I understand that. I did love Peeta and I cared about him but not in the way one loves the one they marry.

"It's over?" I ask him.

"It is."

This time we don't cry or shed tears. I'm sure we'll cry later but right now everything's calm, or maybe that's numbness.

"Do you think we'll reach the point of ever being friends?" I ask again.

"Maybe. But not right now."

"Not right now." I repeat.

We stand looking at each other awkwardly. What are you supposed to do when your marriage ends?

"Umm, I'll sleep in the guest bedroom tonight and tomorrow we can figure out the next step. Where we'll go from here."

"Sounds good."

...***...***...

I move out and join my mother in District 8 two days later and the divorce proceedings are put in motion. I apply to various job positions in other districts as a teacher, a hunter, anything that I think I can do.

I get a job offer to teach archery in a school in District 5. I accept with no hesitation.

I gather all my things from my mother's house and get ready to move to District 5.

...***...***...

Finally, I'm in 5. A promise of a new start. New beginnings.

I bump into someone at the train station. I mutter a hurried apology and continue on my own way. But then I hear his voice. The voice I hadn't heard for so many years. He says only one word. But it's still enough to recognize him because no one calls me that. And it's the voice that I spent many years hearing. Voice of my hunting partner, my best friend, the guy who made the bomb that killed my sister.

"Katnip?" I hear Gale say.

...***...***...

Sorry for updating it after such a long time. I was suffering from a writer's block. But thankfully, I think it's over now. But since exams are on the way, it might still get a little delayed. My exams finish on 5 december and I'll start working on the nextchapter then so expect a new one by December 10. But I will only update if I get review. I need to know people are reading and want to read more of this story. And I promise even if there is only one person who wants to read this, I'll update it for that one person.

And now for the question, why introduce Gale so late? I didn't want to answer that because well, I thought telling you when Gale comes will warn you to expect Gale and I wanted it to be a little unexpected. And plus, I didn't know how to answer it properly before. So here's my reason. I wanted Katniss to let go, or be at least on the verge of letting go, Peeta. Otherwise, it will be the love triangle all over again which would make things a little repetitive. I couldn't show that Katniss is already over Peeta because, though I'm a Galeniss shipper, I think Peeta was a good guy too, just not good for Katniss. And Katniss did after all did care about Peeta, so showing him as nothing to Katniss, wouldn't make sense. He was an important guy in Katniss' life so I wanted Katniss to let Peeta go before starting the Galeniss part. And now I think, since Katniss has started to let Peeta go, it's time for Gale to enter the story.