Ok, so this isn't a proper chapter! Sorry about this, I just realised that I left a bit of a gap so I wrote this quickly to fill in the blank before I move on. It's nothing major but I hope you like it anyway. I just thought this needed a bit of explanation.

I want to give a shout out to HgObsessed865. I don't know if that is you're real account name because you weren't logged on but THANK YOU for reviewing nearly every chapter in a row! Also, I wanted to mention my friend mrs edward cullenxxx she just started a new fic called The Story of a Broken Girl and we all know how hard it is when you are starting off on this so if any of you guys are Twilight fans, I would love if you checked out her fic!

To Naty: It may not be fluffy, but I updated REALLY SOON!!! :D

OMG, last time I updated, I had 110 reviews... now I have ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO!!!! YOU GUYS ROCK!!! Thanks to those who always faithfully review and those new reviewers too :D Also, a lot of people who don't review have been favouriting my fic so I guess thanks to you guys too!

I am dedicating this to the song Just So You Know by Jesse McCartney, because it fits perfectly with this chapter!!

Ok, on with the 'chapter'! As usual, hope you enjoy it and please let me know what you think.

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Chapter Thirteen - Gale.

"Gale!" he shouted as he bounded into the tent and I almost laughed at his expression. He looked like an over-excited terrier.

Then before I could say a word, he started shouting about Prim and the Hunger Games, as if I hadn't heard it from everyone else already. As if I didn't know. As if I didn't want to volunteer to take her place. Something. Anything.

Then Katniss strode into the room and I tried to act as though I hadn't even noticed. "Don't even bother, Peeta."

Her words were like icicles, cutting deeply into me and making me numb and her cool gaze did nothing to help the situation.

"But I-" he frowned.

"No Peeta," she spat, still glaring straight at me, "I can fight my own battles."

She didn't need to tell us that. We both knew how true that was. You don't win the Hunger Games out of luck.

"Can we talk alone?" I asked quietly. Now or never.

"I have nothing to say to you," she said fiercly, looking straight through me untill I unintentionally flinched.

"Well I have something to say to you," I insisted, "Come on."

I was sick of talking with Peeta standing close to her, a smug expression plastered on his face. I moved without thinking, reaching out almost automatically to touch her arm and she cringed away from me sharply, pain etched in thin lines across her face. I thought I saw a flash of disgust in her eyes.

For a moment, I let my guard down. I could feel my features melting into a searing pain. A pain I was trying to hold inside but she was making it impossible. She hated me. I knew that when I agreed to this, that it would always end up this way.

But she would see in the end. This would work. She needed to have faith. But Katniss was always a more act now, think later kind of person. It was one reason I loved her.

This was all for the greater good.

Her hating me was a painful, but necessary sacrifice, even if she never understood, never discovered. It would be worth the pain in the end.

Still, I had to try.

I looked at her for a never ending moment, seeing all this on my face, reflected back at me through her unforgiving eyes.

"Five minutes," she surrendered, like a candle about to burn out.

Then she turned on her heel and stalked out of the tent. I sighed and followed after her. She kept walking through the base untill she stood in front of the large boulder that sat at the back. Our place. Then she turned and said nothing. Just waited.

I noticed that the sky was a strange colour, red and smoky all at once, as if the day was bleeding into the night.

Now or never.

She looked at me expectantly.

"Anytime now," she pressed, pursing her lips.

Just say it. Say it now. Now!

"Just so you know," I started quickly, the words sounding more abrupt than I'd meant them too.

"This... this feeling... it's taking control of me and I can't help it," I kept my eyes on her to gauge a reaction, but her expression remained impassive.

"Before I go, before anything else happens, before it's... too late," I felt a sharp stab of pain rip through me like a silent scream.

"I wanted to say this. I won't let... him win now, not without a fight," it was coming out wrong, sounding like a competition for a desirable prize.

Still, she reamined silent, so I ploughed on.

"It's just... it's getting hard to be around you when there's so much that I can't say. I can't figure out if you want me to hide this feeling... to look the other way when you're with Peeta," the words were tumbling out faster now and I wondered if they made as much sense out in the open as they did in my head.

I realised that the words had been there for a long time.

"I can't just make it turn off. And I don't know how to act okay, when I know that I'm not."

I just had never voiced them before.

"I don't know why I waited this long. I think the games put things into perspective. But it's always been there, just never spoken," I realised just how true that was as I said it.

Katniss stared, her face seeming bored but I knew those eyes so well and I recognised hte flare of suprise in them. Her lips pressed together thinly.

I paused for a moment.

"I've tried my best to let you go," I hung my head, "But I... don't want to."

Her eyes stopped staring through me and finally, really and truly saw me. Like a ceiling with a single star.

I cleared my throat, my voice turning hoarse suddenly, "I just wanted to say it all before I go."

A crashing wave of delayed grief broke over me and I took a deep breath before finishing. She must know. She must have always known.

But still, it had to be said.

"I know that I... shouldn't... love you," I forced it out and registered the spark of shock and something else that I couldn't put a name on, "But I want to."

I stopped then. It was finally out in the open. No going back. Now or never.

But Katniss just stayed silent, her lips thinning so much that they nearly dissapeared, her eyes a deep pool of mixed emotions. She seemed to be having an internal battle with herself. Her dark hair fell in front of one of her eyes and I reached up slowly to brush it from her face.

I left my hand touching her face and felt a surge of hope when she didn't move away.

Ever so gently, I brought my lips to hers. Just as they brushed hers, she flinched away and spun around so that her back face me. Her shoulders heaved up and down as she took deep breaths.

I stroked her hair from behind, so lightly that I knew she wouldn't feel it, with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Goodbye, I told her in my head.

I knew it was goodbye.

She turned back after a minute, her wounded expression catching me off guard. I took a step back politely.

"Just so you know," I murmered one last time and she nodded slowly.

She knew.

It just didn't change anything.

I saw her mouth something, quietly, inaudibly, but I knew what it was.

"Prim," she had reminded herself, "Primrose."

Then without any proper words, she spun away from me deftly and strode back towards the main tent.

I sagged defeated against the boulder. I had said all that needed to be said. I had known that this would happen. Yet I still felt an unsettling sting of pain as I watched her silhouette retreat into the shadows.

Was the sacrifice truly worth it?

I thought it was before, but I hadn't anticipated this pain.

If it was all for the best, why did I feel this way?

Why was the right thing, the hard thing?

It's crazy, I thought, how love stays with me. This isn't a war I wanted to fight. It hurts that I didn't figure it out before.

It's too late for a soliloquy.

It's too late for dignity.

It's too late for apologies.

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Thanks so much for reading and please review!

LOVE YOU GUYS x

URGENT ANNOUNCMENT!!!!! Catching fire is already released in IRELAND!!!!!!!!!! Shocked, I know!! Me too! I can't get into town today, but I am heading in tomorrow and I will burn down the bookshop if I have to to get it!!! mrs edward cullenxxx already has it!!! (Ps. na na na na na! CF IS HERE!)