Gale had been conspicuously absent since her return to District 12. Prim had told her that he got a job in the mines, working twelve hour shifts six days a week. But, Rory had promised her, he was free on Sundays. "I want to see Gale today," Katniss announced as she and Peeta laid in bed as the sun came up.

He tightened his hold on her. There had been a lingering jealousy when they returned to District 12 following the Games. When he had learned that she had pretended to be as in love with him as he was with her, he had been sure it was because she had Gale Hawthorne waiting at home. But then she left for the Capitol, and he hadn't had the opportunity to give it another thought.

Katniss sat up and his arms slid down to her waist. "What's wrong?" she asked, smoothing back the blond locks that fell across his forehead.

"Nothing," he mumbled.

She sat up straighter. "It's not nothing," she retorted. "Tell me what's wrong. Please?"

Rolling onto his side, he looked up at her and sighed. "I worry, okay?"

"That I'll do something?" she asked.

He sat up quickly. "God, Katniss, no. That never even crossed my mind," he stated. "But him...I don't know. I worry that he'll try something. You were forced to marry me, but what if you'd had a choice? I'm scared that you'll figure out that you'd rather be with him."

"Hey," she said softly, rubbing her knuckles along the fine, blond stubble of his jaw. "Gale's not someone I've ever thought about like that. He was a good hunting partner, and he took care of my family when we were in the Arena. But beyond friendship, I have no other feelings for him."

His head turned to kiss the bit of her palm that his lips could reach before turning a wry smile on her. "He's better looking," Peeta stated.

Katniss balked. "He could be my brother," she replied, scrunching her face in disgust. Peeta laughed and laid back down, pulling her down beside him. When she was nestled in her husband's arms, she kissed him and smiled. "I remember when I was little, maybe five or six, I told my father I was going to marry the first boy I kissed. He asked me what I would do if I didn't love him, and I told him I'd never kiss anyone I didn't love."

"I was your first kiss?" he asked, awed by that confession.

"And I want you to be my last."

Gale waited in the meadow, ankle deep in snow. His hands were stuffed in his pockets and his tall frame shook slightly with the blustery wind. Katniss approached, snow crunching beneath boots Cinna had specially made for her. Gale turned, shaking the snow from his shoe. Tall and lean with Seam gray eyes, dark hair, and olive skin, she was exactly as she remembered him. The last time they had spoken was the day after she returned home from the Games. He had begged her to run off with him, but she refused to leave behind her mother, sister, Peeta and his family, and Haymitch. Then she went back to the Capitol, and they never spoke again.

"Hi," she said nervously as she approached him. Gale's eyebrows merely rose in response as he assessed her and the fine clothes she wore. "Um, thanks for meeting me. We could have done it someplace less...cold though."

"I don't mind the cold," he answered brusquely. "How long have you been back?"

"A couple of months," she replied. Gale gave her a curt nod and turned his back on her. "Are you even going to ask me how I'm doing? What I've gone through? Or do you want to know what it's like to be 17 and forced to marry someone because it was either that or remain a prostitute? Do you care about what's happened to me at all, Gale?"

Turning, he slowly approached her. Katniss shuddered; it reminded her of the way he approached his prey. The thought of backing away didn't occur to her until it was too late. He was upon her in a few short strides, gripping her shoulders tightly to prevent her from fleeing.

"You don't love him?" he asked, gray eyes boring in her own.

"I didn't say that," she murmured. He squeezed her shoulders, and so she added, "I do love him."

He let go of her then and turned his back on her. "Ya know, it's crazy, but I thought you and I would be together one day," he said softly. "We should have run off before the Reaping. We could have left when you came home."

"No, we couldn't," she replied. "You know better than anyone the type of responsibility we had here. I wasn't going to leave my family here to fend for themselves, and there's no way they could have come with us. It would have been wrong to run off."

"We could have made it work," he grumbled. "You didn't have to resort to...that."

Katniss moved around to stand in front of him and levelled him with a dangerous glare. "Do you know what the Capitol is capable of? Do you have any idea at all?" she asked angrily. "They wouldn't have stopped at killing my family. They would have gone after you and your brothers, Posy and your mother. They would have killed Peeta and his family because we were the star-crossed lovers. And after all of that, they would have let me live. Force me to live with the reminder that I screwed up when I pulled out those berries. Remind me that no one defies the Capitol."

"What do you want me to say, Katniss?" Gale asked tiredly.

"That we're still friends," she cried, fighting back her tears. "That I haven't lost you too! God, Gale, I'll take anything right now."

He placed a freezing hand on her already cold cheek. Then he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. It didn't take much to push him away, and the look of disgust she wore let him know plainly that he'd made the wrong move. "Sorry," he mumbled, looking down at his snow covered boots.

"Sorry?" she demanded. "I tell you I love Peeta, then you kiss me, and all you can say is sorry?"

Gale shrugged. "I wanted you to know that you have a choice," he replied. "Like you said, you were forced to marry him. The whole 'I love him' act could just be for the Capitol. I just wanted you to know that I'm still here. That I love you. That I want to be with you."

Katniss shook her head and slowly moved toward the edge of the meadow. "I love Peeta," she stated. "I married him, and I'm not gonna leave him. And do you want to know why? Because since I came home, he's been there. He's helped me through the nightmares. He's held me when I cried. He's the one who tells me everyday that he loves me. Where have you been in the last three months?"

Without allowing him the opportunity to respond, she turned and ran through the ankle deep snow. It wasn't long before she reached town and the Mellark family bakery. After tapping each boot against the door frame, she entered the kitchen and walked straight into Peeta's arms.

"How'd it go?" he asked softly, trying and failing to keep the flour on his hands out of her hair.

Sighing, she told him, "You were right."