A/N: That's right – I'm still here, and I'm still writing. The odds, I hope, are still in my favor. And I'm still as in love with the Hunger Games as I was over a year ago, when I started this fanfic.

Some other things have changed, though: I'm now a junior in high school, not the freshman I was when this story began, so there's actually an age gap between me and Rose Everdeen, though we were the same age originally. I also have a Twitter account now (largely used for writerly flailing,) so if you want to follow me, I'm Reason2Write.

Most importantly: In the past year or so, I've completed my first novel – a YA high fantasy involving lots of dragons (I will say no more) – and I'm revising it in the hopes of eventual publication. This has caused me to be largely absent from fanfic, because I have a novel to complete.

But then I saw "Catching Fire" yesterday. And I'm not going to be able to work on my book until I get the sheer emotional turmoil that the film brought back out of my system. So I'm updating "Pieces" today – it's not a promise of regular updates, just a single update to release my Hunger Games feelings. Although I will probably return to fan fiction hiatus and go back to writing my book after this, your feedback still means far more to me than you realize. It's people like you – people who believed in me, before I believed in myself – who gave me the courage to write my own novel.

Well, I've rambled enough, haven't I? Here's the chapter. Thank you for reading this, despite the very long wait. Thank you for believing in me. If any of the character's physical attributes, such as eye or hair color, have changed, I apologize in advance – it's been over a year since I worked on this story, after all. In addition, this chapter will be short, but I have one more planned that I will probably post at some point before returning this fic to hiatus. Now...

To the fanfic!

(P.S. Please don't ask me to post excerpts of the novel online or to share details with you. As much as I love feedback, I'm keeping things very private to prevent against plagiarism, which would obliterate my dreams of publication. Thank you for your understanding, and I love hearing from you!)

~x~X~x~

Chapter 5: In Love and War

There will be talk later. Shane kissed Everdeen, they will say. Kissed the damaged baker's daughter. Kissed the wounded archer's offspring. Kissed the broken girl – cut his lips on her broken, shattered pieces.

There will be talk later; but right now, we are alone in the hallway, and my best friend's lips are pressed to mine, and I can't breathe. I'm frozen – not kissing him back, not pushing him away, not pulling him closer, not doing anything. Shane is kissing me, I think distantly, wondering why I'm not disturbed by the idea. His kiss is gentle, tentative, his lips soft against my own. The careful concern with which he touches me is so at odds with the relentless anxiety in my gut that for a moment, my head spins, and I think I might pass out.

Shane must sense my hesitation, because after a moment, he pulls away. When he looks into my eyes, fear flickers across his face. "I'm sorry," he says. "I shouldn't have... I never... I keep thinking I could make things better, and then I go and –"

The question that comes from my lips surprises me. "How long have you wanted to do that?" I ask.

"To do what?" Shane says.

"To... to kiss me," I say, stumbling over the words.

A fierce blush climbs Shane's cheeks. His shoulders are tense, his gaze unfaltering. "I want to kiss you every time I look at you," he says.

Seeing the lightness in his grey Seam eyes, his clenched, unshaven jaw, the slightly shaking line of his mouth, I find it impossible to doubt that he is telling me the truth. "How long... how long has it been like this?" I say, unable to think.

"That's the funny thing," Shane says. He runs a hand through his dirty blond hair. "I can't remember a time when it was different. I don't know when I started seeing you as more than a little girl. Every time you look at me, it's like I forget my name. And all I want to do is kiss you."

"No one has ever wanted to kiss me," I say.

"Well," Shane says. "I do."

I am standing stupidly, my mouth halfway open with no sound coming out. Everything is happening too fast. My heart is skipping and sputtering, like a mockingjay in flight, uncertain of whether to trust its own wings. "Oh, my gosh," I say. "You kissed me."

"That was several minutes ago," Shane says.

"Delayed reaction," I say. "Don't judge me."

He watches me, and I wonder how I have never seen that there is something more than loyalty in his gaze. His eyes look the way they do when they see a sunset casting the Seam into fiery light, or a deer running freely through the wildness of the woods, or a picture of District 4's boundless blue seas as they ripple and roll. The look of seeing something beautiful.

My breath catches. I'm unstable on my own two feet, and Shane slips an arm around my waist, steadying me.

"I'm sorry," Shane says again. "For kissing you. I won't do it again."

"You won't?" I say, teasing.

He fails to notice the lightness in my tone. "I won't," he says. He withdraws his hand from my waist, but it still burns where he touched me. "I swear it."

I look into his eyes, seeing my reflection there. "You won't kiss me again," I say.

"I won't kiss you again," he says.

So this time, I'm the one who leans in. And then I'm kissing him, and I don't even know how to kiss someone, but it doesn't matter because Shane is kissing me back. His hands find their way into my long, auburn hair, his fingers intertwined with the waves of it as he kisses me so slowly, so tenderly.

Kissing Shane, I decide, is like fire. Easy to start. Difficult to stop.

But we do stop – kissing, that is. Then Shane takes my hand in his, holding it tightly, and walks me home.

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