I'm so sorry for the cliffy! I've been super sick the last few days (which is why you're getting updated even faster than usual: I actually don't have a life right now!). And in my drugged-up state, I remember thinking, "Hmm. Is that a cliffy? Should I cut it off somewhere else…nah. It's fine." And just going for it. I'm sorry! I'm on far less meds for this chapter, I promise. Thanks for reviewing and reading even though I went all loopy on you. You guys rock!

The Hunger Games belong to Suzanne Collins, not to me, though I do enjoy playing with her characters.

She throws her glass down and runs into the studio, her worst suspicions confirmed: Peeta, on the ground, fist in his mouth, rage in his eyes. She's slipped onto the ground beside him and touched his shoulder before she realizes that she should be more careful, that Haymitch will be over-protective, that Gale and Johanna are surely following her.

She's pissed at Gale anyways, because of what he said about her leaving when things get tough, because if that were true, she wouldn't still be here. He's the one who questioned her motives for being here. Shit—none of this is going to end well with Gale in the room, is it? By the time she realizes the repercussions of her actions it's too late, she's already underneath him and none of it matters anyways. He's touching her throat with a purpose this time, as if he's trying to memorize exactly what it looks like. It takes longer than usual for him to look at her, into her eyes, and see that she's really there, not just a hallucination or a ghost.

"I tried to kill you, real or not real?"

"Real."

"I tried to smash your skull in with a gun."

"Real."

"And Boggs told you to kill me."

"Real," she whispers, tears choking off her voice. Why is he bringing this up so quickly on the heels of her nightmare? Unless it's her nightmare that set him off…

"District 12 was burned to the ground."

"Real, but we're here now, we're rebuilding it—"

"My family died in that fire and it was all my fault!"

He's upset, tears threatening, but she puts her hand on his face and he calms, somewhat.

"Not real. The fire was the Capitol's fault, not yours."

"And not your fault?" he asks, confused. "You killed my family, Snow told me—"

"Snow is a liar, and he's dead."

"But you killed my family—"

"No, Peeta, not real. The Capitol killed your family. Snow killed your family."

"And Haymitch was helping Snow." That's the first time she's heard that one.

"Not real. Haymitch was helping us."

"But he rescued you, not me. He didn't rescue me. If he was helping us, why didn't he rescue me?"

She's crying in earnest now, because she doesn't want to tell him the truth.

"He rescued me, but we rescued you, Peeta."

"Gale rescued me."

"Real."
"You're in love with him."

"Not real. I'm in love with you."

"No, no, I'm not…that's not…you love me?"

"Yes. Real."

"But Snow said you—"
"Not real, Peeta. Whatever Snow said is not real."

"I heard Johanna screaming. They electrocuted her, soaked her in water and cut her as much as they could so that the blood mixed with the water, rusty water, and when the shocks started she screamed—"

Katniss hears a strangled sob from above them, so she cuts him off.

"Yes, Peeta, that's real."

"Real?" he confirms. He's so confused.

"Yes, that's real. It's not shiny, right? Remember, if it's not shiny, it's probably real."

"You said that? Before?"

"Real."

"And I said that if I could grow wings, I could fly. But people can't grow wings?"

She's smiling, despite the horror the memory.

"Real. People don't need wings. Only Mockingjays do."

And then it's over, he's collapsed, and she strokes his hair, looking up to see Johanna sobbing into Gale's chest and Haymitch staring at Katniss and Peeta as if they're the most lost little children he's ever had the misfortune to know.

Haymitch makes his sentiments known the moment they're sitting at the kitchen table, after Katniss has poured tea for all five of them. Johanna's calmed somewhat but Peeta is still shaking.

"I don't know which of you I think is more dim-witted," says Haymitch conversationally. "You, to put up with her screaming or you, to put up with his…what'd you call them? Oh, episodes." She glares at him, feels Gale's eyes on her.

"Our Mockingjay's stupider, definitely," says Johanna, and it feels like it might be an attempt at a joke, but she doesn't think it's funny. Peeta sighs, rolling his eyes at Johanna. He clearly disagrees.

"I thought you said his episodes were better," Gale tells her, his voice deadly. She shrugs.

"I did. They are. They still happen."

She knows she should stop there, let it go, but frankly, he hasn't earned that yet. He might never earn that from her. She feels her anger welling up as she says, "Don't pretend I'm the one who was lying in the woods today, when you just wanted to lure me to the Capitol all along."

Gale's on his feet and in an instant, so is Peeta. It's such a predictable scene: Gale, on fire for something he's passionate about, Peeta, desperate to protect her. That's what you and I do, we protect each other.

"You sure you're safe to be around her?" Gale spits at him, and she wonders briefly why he's mad at Peeta. Whatever she might have said, she's the one who lied to him. Not that he doesn't deserve it but…

"I'd say we're well-suited to being around each other," Peeta tells him carefully. "We're still healing. The Capitol tried to destroy us, and we're building each other back up."

Gale snorts. Johanna's watching him carefully, no doubt ready to spring into action if necessary. Katniss feels like she's still in a nightmare; like what she does won't affect what's going on either way. Is she still dreaming?

"So, how are you building her back up, exactly? What makes you think that it's your job to do that? How far are you going to let your episodes go before you—"

"They're getting better, I already told you," Katniss snaps, glaring at him. Peeta puts his hand on her shoulder.

"If you're this upset, how come you didn't make a fuss about us living together?" asks Peeta.

Gale's jaw tightens and the next second, he's slamming his fist into Peeta's face.

Katniss shrieks, on her feet, out of control, not sure whether she should hit Gale or comfort Peeta. Johanna seems to have Gale under control, is pushing him backwards, calming the storm that's still raging in his eyes. She drops to her knees beside Peeta, who's holding his jaw.

"Ouch," he mutters, and then pulls her to him.

"Are you okay?" he asks. She's confused, pulls his hand away from his jaw to see it red and already swelling.

"That's my question," she whispers, and he pulls her close, kisses her temple. She stands, pulls him to his feet, goes to get him some ice. Gale has calmed under Johanna's less than gentle touch, and now she sees that they are good together, fire with fire.

"Sorry," mutters Gale as Peeta takes the ice wrapped in a towel Katniss hands him. "I just—I didn't know you two were living together and—"

"I'd probably punch me too," Peeta mutters, and Katniss is probably the only one who discerns that this is a far cry from forgiveness or even acceptance. Gale smiles, and then they're all laughing, albeit awkwardly. Katniss looks at Johanna with pride.

"You two are good for each other," she tells Gale. "I didn't teach you to apologize in 6 years, and she's done it in, what? Six months?" Gale rolls his eyes and gets straight to the point, but his lack of violence surprises her.

"You two are living together?" he asks, directing the question at her. She nods.

"Why the hell wouldn't you tell me this when we were talking about…" He trails off, obviously aware that their conversation was private, that he said things she wouldn't want Peeta to hear. (He did: If she could survive without him, would she be here?)

"I didn't…I didn't know how you'd react," she mutters, face red, not looking at him. "I thought you'd freak out."

"Yeah, you thought pretty accurately," Peeta mutters, and she looks at him, at the ice on his jaw, and smiles. How is he the one making jokes in this situation?

Gale smirks at this. "You think I overreacted?" he asks Peeta, challenging.

"Calm down," Johanna tells him. "Of course they're living together, they're the most disgusting in love people I've ever met. Your cousin's safe and sound, don't you worry." Peeta laughs at the "cousin" remark and even Gale softens a little.

"Is she safe and sound? You don't ever try to hurt her during your…"

"Episodes," supplies Peeta. "Never." She nods in agreement.

"But you're still having them," challenges Gale, not quite ready to let go. Katniss loses her patience. She supposed she should be more patient with Gale, but then, he just punched Peeta, and she was never the patient one to begin with.

"And I'm still having nightmares and Haymitch is still drunk and you're still punching people," she bursts out, causing Haymitch to bark a laugh. "We've all got scars from the Capitol. Mine match his. Now drop it."

Peeta's nodding. "She's the only one who can pull me out of them," he agrees, looking at the scar on his hand (her messy stitches gave him one more thing to look back on, one more pain he can never completely forget).

"And he's the only one who can pull her out of her nightmares," supplies Johanna. She's so firmly on their side that it makes Katniss feel like she really is her sister, like she's defending them the way Prim would have.

"Yeah, he is," she agrees. Haymitch blows out a breath in frustration.

"That's all you have to say," he tells them, exasperated. "Just come to the Capitol, let them brush your hair for the first time since the rebellion—" (This earns a glare from her, but he isn't as far off as he might think) "—and tell them how in love you are, how you're still healing but you're using each other to heal."

She sighs, takes his bottle and replaces her tea with his liquor. "I'm still gonna be the crazy girl who killed the wrong president," she mutters. The kitchen erupts into laughter; even she manages a small smile.

"Coin killed your sister," Gale reminds her (as if she needs reminding). "You were provoked."

"Oh, great, so I get to kill everyone who killed someone I knew? We'd have a much smaller population then," she reminds him, and Haymitch laughs again. Johanna and Peeta are silent, probably considering the truth of this. Katniss is thinking that if she followed through on Gale's logic, she'd get to kill him, wouldn't she? She's confused, clings to Peeta's hand.

"No one's mad at you anymore," tries Johanna feebly. Gale raises his eyebrows. "Okay, people are pissed, but everyone gets it. Coin was out of line, sending Prim into battle like that. She was doing it to break you."

"Yeah? Well it worked," Katniss reminds them. They all shake their heads, but it's Peeta who speaks.

"No, it didn't," he says softly. "You're still here, whole and healthy. You have overcome all of Snow's torture, the rebellion, Coin's last attempt to break you by trying to have me kill you and then killing Prim. And here you are, whole and relatively happy."

He raises his eyebrows as if he's questioning the last one and she blushes, nods. She is whole, mostly sane, relatively happy. Is that all they can hope for, anymore?

"What about you?" she asks. "You made it through, too. You're the one Snow hijacked…"

But now she's confused, because she can't remember which of them that was supposed to hurt more. It was meant to separate them, turn them back into children. But they're not children, they're victors. All victors start as children though, don't they? They haven't been children for a long time. But looking at Johanna, who has lost so much of her light happiness, her bravado, no matter how good a show she is able to put on, makes Katniss think of another Victor yanked away from childhood far sooner than he should have been. And she feels tears threatening as she relives the memory, so she just asks. They told Peeta to ask what was real or not real when he was insane, so why the hell shouldn't she?

"Finnick told us that whatever happened in the past was in the past. And that no one in the Quell was a victor by chance…except maybe Peeta."

Peeta grins, but sobers up as he sees her tears. Johanna is staring like she can't quite believe Katniss had the gall to bring that up. But Katniss is learning, slowly but surely, the wisdom in those words, the wisdom in a lot of what Finnick said. Because whatever happened in the past is in the past, whether it be Victors holding hands at interviews or Gale volunteering for the Games that killed Prim. That doesn't mean there aren't scars, doesn't make mean they tossed their weapons in the sea, doesn't mean she forgives him. It just means it's in the past.

Everyone has paused, waiting. She glares at Haymitch and is rewarded with an answer to the question she didn't ask.

"Real," Haymitch tells her.

"But now that's us. We're not children, not anymore, and we're not here by chance," she says, and she sees them nodding.

"Not even me," says Peeta, and she smiles.

"They really want us?" she asks, though the question feels wrong, sounds stupid. Of course they do. They want all their hopes confirmed. Can she confirm them?

"I mean…they want us, their star-crossed lovers? That's what's going to bring back their hope, confirm that what they did was right?" Haymitch nods, starts to speak, but he's cut off by Peeta's chuckle.

"When are you going to realize the effect you have?" he asks her, touching her cheek. She blushes.

"No one knows what to do with you," agrees Gale, echoing Tigris. He and Peeta look at each other, laugh, and suddenly they're friends, as they were that night. Then, Gale sighs as he looks across the table at Peeta.

"We probably shouldn't stay here, should we?" he asks. "I didn't realize you lived here. We'll set you off. We can find somewhere else."
She feels his grip on her hand tense, but Peeta shakes his head.

"You can stay here," he says, and though the delivery leaves a little to be desired, Johanna and Katniss both stare at him in shock. They will set him off: they already have. The fact that he's willing to have them here shows how much stronger he is, probably stronger than all of them put together. If Peeta were in her shoes, he could forgive Gale, probably already would have.

Peeta grins. "We wouldn't subject you to staying at Haymitch's," he teases, and their mentor makes a face at him as the boys laugh.

It's this, more than anything, that makes her mind up. The fact that they can make peace, after all that's happened, after bombs have been dropped and choices have been made that can't be unmade.

"Peeta?" she asks, and he looks at her, looks into her eyes. No one sees her the way he does. He's followed her thoughts perfectly, and she asks herself, for the millionth time, if she really could survive without him, if she were tested. Would she be here if she could?

He nods, takes her hand.

"We'll go," he confirms, and there's a contented sigh around the table.

Reviews make me smile.