This is the last chapter! Thanks to everyone for reading and liking and reviewing. I just wanted to address two reviews I got for the last chapter. First - yes, they consummated their marriage back in chapter 2. Second - my reason for the gap between the last chapter and the previous one (chapters 6 and 7 I believe) is because we all know what happened during the Quarter Quell. I wanted the story to play out as if nothing they did could actually change anything.

The war was over, but the scars would never disappear. With time they may fade, but Katniss Mellark would forever wear them. Sitting alone in the back of her closet, she closed her eyes and pictured the faces of those she had lost. Rue during her first Games, Wiress during the second, Boggs and Mitchell and Jackson. Finnick Odair, who had become something of a companion during her time in the Capitol, was dead. A newlywed, finally happy and with a baby on the way that he would never meet, died to protect her.

Then there was Prim. Sweet, selfless, wonderful Prim. Her life had been cut short when the rebellion bombed Capitol children. Children. They were only children. And Prim was among them, fighting through crowds to help the wounded. In a single second, in a flash of fire, she was gone.

The scars on her body reminded her of Prim, how she had fought her way through the city to reach her little sister, the only family she had left. But she was too late. Too late to reach her, to save her, to say 'I'm sorry' or 'I love you' one last time. Grief and anger became her primary emotions, and they had led to the assassination of the wrong president. But had it been all that wrong? Wasn't Coin just as corrupt as Snow? She had proposed a new version of the Hunger Games featuring children of the Capitol, and though Katniss had voted in favor of it, it didn't make Coin any better than Snow.

She turned the simple silver ring around in her hand. Before the execution, she had demanded Snow give it to her. It belonged to Peeta, and it would be returned to him. If he ever returned. Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he no longer wanted a wife, one who was suicidal, one who killed without thinking. Perhaps he wouldn't be allowed to return to District 12. Only she and Haymitch, as a guard, had been sent back.

Tears stung her eyes as she closed her fist around his wedding ring. They were married in the Capitol with Snow presiding over the small ceremony. They never had their toasting. A piece of paper, tucked safely away in a desk drawer, legitimized their marriage in the eyes of all but District 12's tradition. She wanted her toasting, wanted her Boy with the Bread, wanted her husband.

Noise comes from the first floor, but she doesn't move. It's Haymitch, she assumed. If he needed her, he would find her. She wouldn't go to him, wouldn't go to anyone. The footsteps could be heard on the stairs, and as they neared the bedroom, her heart beat faster. But as quickly as they approached, they left. It wasn't until the intruder was downstairs that she left the sanctuary of her closet. When she emerged, a simple dandelion on Peeta's nightstand greeted her.

It might have been too good to be true to hope that it was Peeta who left the flower, but she needed to find out. There, seated on the sofa, was her husband. He nervously twisted his hands in his lap, but when he looked up at her, his eyes were a crystal clear blue. She felt her lower lip begin to tremble and she ran to him as he stood. "You're back," she whispered, chanting the words repeatedly as she clung to him.

"They wouldn't let me come back until now," he replied, tightening his hold on her. "Are you okay? I mean, you've been here alone for two weeks, and I'm sure Haymitch has been drunk for the entirety of it. Have you eaten? Slept? Showered?"

"I missed you," she murmured, ignoring his questions.

"It's over," he promised, rubbing her back soothingly. "It's over, and we never have to go back there again."

Tears wet his shirt. "I thought I'd never see you again," she sobbed. "They took you and hurt you and turned you against me."

"I'm here now." His words were meant to be reassuring, but did nothing to calm her. "I'm never leaving you again. I'm yours for as long as you'll have me."

Sniffling, she looked up into blue eyes. There was no sign of the tracker jacker venom to obscure them, venom that dyed them the darkest shade of black. "Will you do something for me?" she asked.

"Anything," he replied, drying her cheek.

One hand let go of his shirt and took the hand that cradled her cheek. She led him to the kitchen and found a small hunk of bread in the icebox. "We never had our toasting," she said. "I want to do it now."

"Let's wait until tomorrow when I can make it fresh," he suggested, taking the frozen bread from her hand.

Katniss shook her head and held tighter to it. "No, now," she pleaded. "While you're still..."

He winced at her unspoken words, and gave in. "Okay," he agreed. "We'll do it now."

Peeta started a soft fire and placed the bread over it. The couple sat quietly on the floor, watching as the small loaf toasted in the open flame. Katniss reached for his hand and scooted closer so his arms would wrap around her. When the bread was done, Peeta removed it and broke it into two pieces, handing one to her. They linked arms, and Katniss was the first to speak.

"I love you," she murmured softly. "I always thought it was my job to protect everyone around me, to keep them safe. And I did that, at least as well as I could. Then you showed up. I wanted to hate you because I didn't think I needed someone to help me, but I couldn't do it. You saved my life that day you tossed those loaves of bread to me, and you've saved it countless more times since then. I don't know where I'd be without you, and I don't want to find out. The day you took me away from the Capitol I knew I'd belong to you forever."

He held his piece of bread to her lips and she took a small bite. "I think maybe, sometimes, I'm a bit selfish," he stated as she chewed. "I've wanted to be with you since I was five. I would have done anything to get you to notice me. I hated the idea of anyone else looking at you or touching you, especially if it meant I couldn't. Buying your freedom meant getting you back. I would have given everything I had just to have you back here with me."

Katniss held the bread out to him. "You're not selfish," she murmured, slipping his wedding ring back onto his finger. "You love me. Real or not real?"

Peeta smiled as he swallowed his bread. "Real," he replied, kissing her. "Definitely real."