As of now, I'm going on! (: Thank you for the responses, as always; I don't think I could say that enough!

It occurred to me that I have never used a disclaimer…and I'm not sure if I should. So here we go…Disclaimer: By no means do I own any of these characters, situations, etc. If I did, I would be very happy and I could officially claim Peeta as mine. Thank you Suzanne Collins for letting me explore the minds of these amazing characters!

There were four of us left. And now there are three.

When Foxface was still alive, what were the chances that it would be she that found us, and not Cato? I realize how lucky we are. If Cato had been the one to track us down, he wouldn't have stolen our food. He wouldn't have crept towards us, close enough that he could have killed us, and then scurried away. He would have made sure that we never made it home, and he would have had fun doing it.

I feel a shiver ripple through me. How did we get so lucky that, instead of being killed, we were the ones that were inadvertently doing the killing?

"I wonder how she found us," I say, thinking out loud. "My fault, I guess, if I'm as loud as you say."

I don't think Katniss realizes how bad she is at being subtle. I can tell she agrees with me as she says, very unbelievably, "And she's very clever, Peeta. Well, she was. Until you outfoxed her."

"Not on purpose. Doesn't seem fair somehow. I mean, we would have both been dead too, if she hadn't eaten the berries first." At least I didn't taste them earlier. I don't even know what kept me from it. "No, of course, we wouldn't. You recognized them, didn't you?"

"We call them nightlock," she tells me, nodding.

"Even the name sounds deadly. I'm sorry, Katniss. I really thought they were the same ones you'd gathered," I apologize, thinking that it's fortunate that she didn't give me these instead of the "sugar berries." I get another chill at the thought.

"Don't apologize," she tells me, sincere for once. "It just means we're one step closer to home, right?"

I'm itching to get rid of the evidence, get rid of the reminder of my kill, get rid of the evidence that almost took our lives. So I try to, wrapping them up carefully in plastic and hurrying towards the woods, desperate to get them out of my sight.

"Wait!"

I turn around in surprise. Katniss has pulled out a little leather pouch and fills it with the nightlock when I come back to her. "If they fooled Foxface, maybe they can fool Cato as well. If he's chasing us or something, we can act like we accidentally drop the pouch and if he eats them-"

"Then hello District Twelve," I say, catching on.

She ties the pouch to her belt. "That's it."

"He'll know where we are now," I point out. "If he was anywhere nearby and saw that hovercraft (A/N: Thanks, rawrzez! Sorry about that last chapter!), he'll know we killed her and come after us."

I can see the wheels turning in her head as she thinks her way through our options. "Let's make a fire," she decides abruptly, beginning to collect wood. "Right now."

Right here? He knows we're here, do you really think we should just stick around and wait for him so we can let him win? We basically told him that we're here, and once he makes it here, he won't hesitate to kill us, he won't hesitate to kill you. And didn't I promise that I'd get you home? "Are you ready to face him?" I ask eventually, having come to the conclusion that it wouldn't do any good to lash out at her. It seemed a rash decision to me, but I know she's smart, she surely has thought it through.

"I'm ready to eat. Better to cook our food while we have the chance. If he knows we're here, he knows. But he also knows there's two of us and probably assumes we were hunting Foxface. That means you're recovered. And the fire means we're not hiding, we're inviting him here," Katniss points out, and then asks me, "Would you show up?"

Well, she showed me. "Maybe not," I admit, and lean down, helping her collect the branches and wood. I end up making the fire, but it takes me a little while more than it usually does. The wood is a little damp, so I have some trouble with it, but I'm used to making fires, as our oven back home used one. Pretty soon there's a blaze burning, and it gives both of us hope to see food roasting and the overall hopeful brightness of the flame. We gather greens in shifts so that we don't let the food burn or the fire spread, and both of us are keeping an eye out for Cato; we could have misjudged him. Once the food is cooked, we pack up and leave the fire burning, each of us clutching a rabbit's leg for our trip to the currently undecided destination-which I'm hoping is the cave-and Katniss begins to scout out the area around us.

"How about this tree?" she asks, looking up into something that looks like a deathtrap to me.

I raise my eyebrows, wondering why she would consider a tree at all for our new home.

"No? Well, okay," she replies, moving on, and I guess she thinks that I just didn't like that particular tree. "This one?"

Okay, so she's set on trees. But doesn't she realize that we would be at much more of a risk in one? "I can't climb like you, Katniss, especially with my leg, and I don't think I could ever fall asleep fifty feet above the ground."

"It's not safe to stay out in the open, Peeta," she informs me, peering up into the depths of another monstrosity.

"Can't we go back to the cave? It's near water and easy to defend." And it's definitely not out in the open.

I don't think she notices that she rolls her eyes, but I see it. She considers it, and then, to my surprise, stands on her tiptoes and kisses me gently. "Sure. Let's go back to the cave."

I had been anticipating more screaming. She hadn't seemed to agree with me that much today, and now she just decides to kiss me? I'm not complaining, of course. "Well, that was easy."

We put a bit more wood on the fire, letting it burn as strongly as it can and hopefully confusing Cato, though I doubt he trusts any of our actions now. We walk into the unknown, and I'm still slightly in shock about how silent she is. I try to pull my leg up at times, keeping it from crunching down on the leaves that seem determined to make me seem loud.

We meet the stream, which has gone down a lot since the last time we saw it, and, as we've been trying to save our energy for this walking, Katniss speaks for the first time since we set off. "Let's walk in the water; it's quieter and easier."

I agree quickly, my feet aching, and step into it. I still have to limp, as I assume I always will, but the cool water has never been more welcome. Katniss eyes the stream, looking for fish that might fill up our stomachs a bit more than the rabbit did, but we have no luck. Instead, we face a hike that seems unending, especially considering we've had virtually no activity since staying in the cave. I shiver slightly as the wind picks up, blowing leaves in our path and Katniss' hair in her face.

The group of rocks that marks what I've come to think of as home nears us just as the sun is setting. In any other situation, I would stop and watch it as the colors streamed out everywhere and wish I had paints to capture it. But now isn't the time, so we replenish our water supply and trudge inside and begin to unpack. I unroll the sleeping bag as Katniss sets out food, dividing it up so that we will hopefully both end up with semi-full stomachs. I savor each bite, wondering when I'll eat again, and repeatedly find myself jerking awake. I try to hide it, but my blinks become progressively longer, and eventually Katniss orders me to go to bed, telling me that she'll take first watch. I don't want to make her stay awake longer, but I figure that if I guard now I would just leave us vulnerable. So I drift off, exhausted, into a dreamless sleep that's so welcome.

"…Peeta…Peeta," I hear from far away, and feel a slight shaking on my shoulder. My eyes open slowly as I wake up and take in the light of the cave. I was expecting near darkness; it's instead pale grey, like the sun is just beginning to come up.

"I slept the whole night. That's not fair, Katniss, you should have woken me," I yawn, struggling out of the sleeping bag. She takes my place in it, curling up and getting comfortable.

"I'll sleep now. Wake me if anything interesting happens," she suggests, her eyelids closing and her breathing immediately steadying.

I sit next to her, my leg stretched out in front of me, as I think through what is going to happen. We've retreated back to our home base, which could be interpreted as cowardly, or as smart. Either way, we're safe until Cato finds (A/N: FIND! avpm, anyone?) us, or until the Gamemakers deem this too boring. The thought of it makes me nauseous as I imagine fires, floods, snowstorms, droughts…anything to make this more interesting than two star-crossed lovers sitting in a cave with a fierce competitor on the prowl. And as I envision the many ways that I could die, I begin to see Katniss. Beautiful, perfect Katniss being torn apart, being killed, being ripped away from me. The one person that I would die for, being tortured and murdered in a million different ways. And each time that I think that my awful visions have ended, there's another, another stab to my heart.

I reach up and find my face soaking wet with tears. I brush them away and squeeze my eyes shut, willing myself to stop the thoughts that pain me so. But I can't stop.

Fire. Brutal animals. Fierce storms. Deadly weapons. Poison. Pain.

My eyes are suddenly open, and I'm gasping and coughing from keeping in the shouts of pain. I breathe heavily, feeling sweat and tears run down my face. I wasn't asleep, but that felt like a nightmare. Am I delusional?

I look down into the face that I could never forget and I feel a weight lifted from me. She's here now, she's safe. And you can keep her safe, I tell myself, leaning down to kiss her nose gently. "Nothing will happen to you," I promise her in a whisper, though I know she can't hear me.

She shifts, her arm hanging out of the sleeping bag, and I take her hand. My lifeline, right here.

I let myself calm down. Still holding her hand, I doodle in the dirt on the ground and suddenly find images of Katniss smiling up at me. I draw a sunset, and, though I don't have colors, I like the look of it. It's peace, it's beauty, it's simplicity. It's what I wish the world could be.

She turns over again and I'm forced to let go of her hand that has kept me from the horrors that my imagination has produced. I figure out that as long as I keep looking at her, keeping her face in my mind, the disasters stop. And now, I wait for her to wake up so that I can hear her voice again, and feel my sanity set in again.

Sorry that was a relatively unremarkable chapter. I tried to put in a bit of emotion at the end, as you never really know what's going on while Katniss is asleep. As usual, reviews are always appreciated!(: Thank you lovelies!