I love everyone one of you soooo much for reviewing and reading and everything you people do. :DD I hope things haven't gotten too OOC or too weird to be like the Hunger Games series in any way. As you can tell, I enjoy writing drama scenes and break-downs and such. So if you're all, "Katniss and Peeta are too darn emotional to pass as themselves" just understand my meanings. ^.^

oOo

At first I was planning to bring Katniss back home to my house. It was automatically the first place to pop into my head, but I was forced to rethink that when it occurred to me if I brought her to my house, I'd have to redress her again. It wasn't as though I minded, but part of me felt somewhat guilty every time I needed to because we weren't really married. It was just gentleman-like of me to bathe Katniss as little as possible.

I carried her quickly through the forest, and when I got to the door of Ms. Everdeens' and Primrose's house, I struggled to knock. It was a few seconds before Prim answered. She had her fat cat Buttercup in her arms and she looked curious and awake. When she saw the limp, half-frozen body of her big sister in my arms, big blue eyes widened.

With a thump, the orange cat fell from her arms and she let out a surprised squeal. "W-What's wrong, Peeta? Is she…okay?"

When the fourteen-year-old stepped aside, I wasted no time in trudging in and setting Katniss down gently on the couch. My arms felt like noodles.

"I don't know." I admitted, kneeling with Prim by the side of the couch. "I made the mistake of leaving her alone in the woods, and when she didn't come back, I went after her, and found her like this."

Primrose, swallowing, stood up. "Mother is at work, but you and I are going to help her, right?" She looked hopefully at me with a face much more mature and confident than anyone else I knew.

"Of course." Again, I didn't hesitate.

In her doctor mode, Prim began rattling off things I needed to do.

"I'm going to wash all this mud off of her in the main bathroom downstairs, and I want you to have a warm blanket and tea ready when I'm ready. But because I'm not strong enough to carry her on my own, you're going to need to help with carrying too…" She disappeared for a split-second up the stairs and came back with a fresh pair of Katniss' clothes draped over her arm.

At the word, I once again picked up the cold form of Katniss and followed Prim as she went into the master bath and motioned for me to place her in the tub. Once that was done and I had removed myself from the bathroom, I decided to work on what Prim had instructed me to do.

Ignoring the anxiety and exhaustion all this brought on, I went upstairs to the spare linen closet. Thankfully all the houses in the Victors' Village had roughly the same plan, so it wasn't easy to get lost.

When I draped two bed throws over my arm, I was abruptly reminded of the sandwiches and blankets I left in the woods a few hours ago. Oh well.

After tossing the blankets on the couch, I continued into the kitchen. Though I've known Katniss for a while, I have yet to learn her favorite tea. That didn't matter, though, so I just made a large thermos of tea from the first box I laid eyes on in the cupboard. While that was brewing, I did my best to quell the urge to whip up a batch of oatmeal cookies.

But just when I was about to cave in, a voice called out to me from the other room.

"Peeta, come help me with Katniss." Prim popped her head out from the bathroom door as soon as I stepped out of the kitchen.

To my relief, when I followed her back into the master bath, Katniss was already clothed. Clumsily, of course; her shirt was bunched awkwardly on her back and stomach, but the thought vanished as soon as my eyes flicked up to her face.

Grey eyes were open wide, staring at the ceiling. Even though no frozen slush-mud was visible anywhere, Katniss' lips were still a shocking ice blue and trembling still. Tracks of saltwater were already making their way down pale cheekbones.

As tenderly as possible, I curled my arms around the frail, still-cold form of Katniss. When her skin made contact with mine, she shivered violently and her eyes closed tight against the world.

I cradled her body to mine, hoping body heat would warm her some. "You're okay, Katniss. Prim and I'll fix you."

We dragged ourselves out of the bathroom—my arms were quivering from overwork—but stopped in front of the couch. Narrow and hard, it didn't seem like the ideal place to set a half-dead girl on to warm up. Glancing over at Prim, I saw that she was frowning. Her blue eyes flicked up to mine.

"Guest room." Those were the only words she said, and gazed earnestly at her sister. Without saying anything else, she just turned around and led the way upstairs.

On our way up, I inwardly wondered 'why the guest room'. Katniss had her own room here, right? But I just shrugged inwardly and kept following Prim.

She led us to an empty guest room, bare and quiet except for a bed, a nightstand, a wardrobe, and a round clock hanging on the wall moving almost indiscernibly. Ignoring everything around me I walked over to the bed and tucked Katniss under the covers. She was shivering more violently now, shaking and trembling uncontrollably.

I remembered the tea downstairs. I flicked my eyes over to Prim. "I'll be right back. Forgot the tea."

"I can get it." She offered and darted right out the door before I could object. But at least it gave me some time alone with Katniss, if only two minutes.

I sat awkwardly on the side of the bed next to Katniss, touching my thumb to the side of her cheek lightly. Watery eyes turned slowly to the right and she gazed miserably at me, keeping silent.

"I'm sorry, Katniss." I said quietly, still stroking the cold skin of her face. "I'm sorry I was stupid enough to think everything would go back to the way it was. I'm sorry I left you back at the lake. I'm sorry this happened to you."

She blinked and swallowed audibly.

Shaking my head, I scooted next to Katniss. Goosebumps shot up both our arms when I pressed myself to her side. She still felt like ice, even though she was tucked under thick blankets in a warm room next to me.

I took her hand in both of mine and tried to massage warmth back into her fingers. "I didn't want to let you be alone either, but I needed to trust you. I guess it wasn't your fault this happened…"

She was quiet for a few more seconds, then opened her mouth. "It was my fault." Katniss' voice was muted and raspy.

"Of course not." Though I was slightly surprised she chose to talk, I didn't do anything other than hunch closer to her and released one hand from hers to briefly brush my finger on her temple. "It's not your fault."

"But it is." Katniss shuddered slightly, and sucked in a painful breath. "It was fine the first few minutes. Then I…lost it. The woods reminded me of…of him too much."

Him. Gale. Of course. Before, I would have probably felt angry, jealous, something other than what I felt. Pity. I would have pinned it as "getting over my loathing", but now I just felt upset. He actually made her happy, and now that he's gone, she's in so much pain. And there was nothing I could do.

When I said nothing, Katniss leaned her head onto my arm and shivered again.

At that opportune time, Primrose decided to hop back into the room, thermos of tea in her hand. "Sorry it took so long. I had to heat it up again."

To be honest, I seriously doubted that, but it was considerate of her to let us have some time.

Without any hesitation, she crawled up onto the bed with us, and curled her body against Katniss' in hope for sharing body heat as well. The thermos in her hand was opened and put to Katniss' blue lips.

Her chest jolted and she coughed all the tea back out all over the blanket. She coughed a few more times, trying to get all the liquid out of her lungs. Then Katniss gulped and sat, shivering, back onto the pillows.

"Come on, Katniss, you need to drink." Primrose urged her, holding up the thermos again. "It'll warm you up."

The frozen girl in between us flinched away and coughed feebly yet again.

"Drink this, and we'll leave you alone." Prim offered the thermos again, but flicked her eyes up at me. "At least, I'll leave you alone."

Very funny.

"Maybe some water." I slid off the bed and went to fill up a glass in the bathroom. After returning to the room and sitting back up in the bed, I held it up to Katniss' lips. "Please drink this, Katniss. You'll feel better. It's not too hot."

I was given a familiar exasperated look from Katniss, and to my surprise, she pulled a quivering hand out from under the blankets and curled her icy fingers around the glass. I didn't quite trust her to hold it up on her own, though, so I held my fingers around hers as she brought the cup to her lips and drank half of it.

Primrose looked incredulously at me. "How come she listens to you and not me?"

After setting the glass back down on the nightstand, I shrugged.

A little mew sounded from the doorway and Prim's fat cat Buttercup slinked in and hopped up onto the bed with the three of us. He made a low gurgling sound and began kneading Katniss' lap, then flopped down.

"See?" Prim patted the cat's head, looking at Katniss. "Even Buttercup wants you to get better."

Katniss didn't laugh, just blinked and focused on breathing in and out.

Primrose sighed, discouraged by her older sisters' unwillingness to do anything she said. "Well, now that you have some water in your system I should go to the hospital and get Mother. I hope she isn't working on someone." She jumped off the side of the bed, but paused in the doorway. "Feel free to use the kitchen if you get hungry. I might be a bit."

Inwardly thinking of how much the young girl had changed, I nodded. "Thanks."

And as soon as Prim disappeared through the bedroom door again, I turned my attention back to Katniss. She had the slightest amount of color back in her cheeks, but still looked like a ghost. When she caught me staring, Katniss' eyes, colorless at the moment, met mine.

She let out a small shiver, but sounded more like a whimper. "Peeta, I'm cold…"

Feeling a pang of anxiety and sympathy at the same time, I deemed it safe to wrap my arms around her. Katniss buried her face numbly into my torso and shuddered yet again, but this time couldn't stop. I did my best to warm her, rubbing my hand on her arm in hopes the friction would create a little heat.

"Y-You're no use out of the c-covers." Her teeth chattered and she pressed closer to me.

I resisted the urge to laugh. "This isn't my house, Katniss."

Katniss crossed her arms tightly over her chest, hunched over. "Who g-gives a crap about whose house it is. I'm freezing my butt off and y-you just have to be courteous to my mother…"

"It's not just that." When silence followed that statement, I took that as her wanting explication. "Like I said this morning, I'm afraid."

With a trembling hand, Katniss reached over and grabbed the glass from the nightstand and took a sip. It was good to see her feeling better. For a good five minutes she was silent, only taking tiny swallows of the water. When the cup was empty, she wrapped her fingers around glass and kept hold of it.

"So am I," She admitted. "But fear always teaches us something. Most the time…we're just afraid to learn."

So she went from half-dead to reciting backs of cereal boxes. At this point I should probably be worrying about her, more than I was. "Do you remember…our promise we made to each other back in District 13?"

"There were a lot of promises. Which one are you referring to?"

I cast my memory back to the exact day. "It was—I think—a day before your surgery. We were talking about when we go home, and about how you were so keen on living with me right away. But I insisted on you being the Mockingjay first."

Katniss took a two-second pause. "Oh, that promise."

"If it isn't too against the rules, can I add on to it?" I was winging this, but every word that came out of my mouth was purposeful and true.

"Depends on what you want to add." Katniss' voice was quiet, and broke at the end.

I unwound my arms from her and began to get up. Her eyes widened and she reached out for me weakly as I got up. Though I did not pause. "How about when you feel well, you come and find me. When you deem yourself ready. I am not going to deprive you of anything. When you feel perfectly well again, come to me. For now, stay and rest."

Katniss' lips formed indiscernible words. But when nothing but air puffed out, I bent over and very gently pressed my lips to her forehead.

"You're the judge." I reminded her and left.

I didn't get any further than the doorway when I heard Katniss scrambling frantically out of bed, and I turned just in time to have her throw herself in my arms.

Tears were pouring out of the corners of her eyes, but she wasn't sobbing. "Stay, Peeta. Stay. You can't just leave me to decide when it's right. I need you now, I am well enough now."

My arms held her tightly, and my face buried in the black spill of hair haloing Katniss' head. "I know, but think of it this way," I pulled back to put a finger to her collarbone. "When you are ready to be on your own. When you are aware of every decision you make. When every part of you—your mind, your heart, your body—is ready for the mental and physical strain of being independent. When you are able to look back at times like these, of back in the Games, and not cry. And the only thing that comes to your head from those memories was how much that taught you, the both of us. Not how you owe Thresh, or how it was your fault Gale died, or any single thing that affected who you are now. When you can look at me and see not the boy in the Games, but who I am now, that is when you come to me. I'll be waiting for you until that day."

Katniss was quiet for a minute. It was obvious she wanted to protest and fall back into my arms, but she didn't. At the mark of fifteen grueling minutes, she lifted her head. "I'll be waiting for that day, too. But Peeta,"

I touched my thumb to her cheek.

"We'll still be able to see each other, right? Or is this you ordering me to house arrest?"

"We'll see each other." I promised. "What I just said only applies to living together and…other such ideas."

"Okay." Katniss swallowed and looked up at me. "One last kiss?"

I didn't need to say anything after that. My hand cupped the side of her face and I bent down. Our lips met with a soft, painful pressure, but only lasted a second. When I pulled away, Katniss' arms wound around my torso and we embraced each other, both trying not to cry.

This wasn't like a goodbye-goodbye. We weren't saying farewell forever, to have some emotional fit over. But when I pulled away and left her standing there in the room, I felt cold tears blur my vision, the salty taste of the kiss still lingering on my lips.

oOo

Okay, so my buddy and I were talking about where this was going. Originally I was going to make Katniss be depressed for a long time and have Peeta nurse her back to health and have Peeta/Katniss have a really big special (wink wink) reunion. But instead, I'm going to make *Mellark babies* happen sooner, as we had put it. I know you people are prolly thinking that Peeta's little promise-add-on would make the Mellark babies be in a while, but that's okay. I'm kinda half-winging it here.

I wasn't sure how this ended, so tell me, okay? Love you all, and wish you all happy tidings for the rest of your lives and…so on. OH! And,

P.S: Someone anonymously reviewed Lo and Behold a few times, going by the name of "Oliver". Since you don't (or didn't) have an account, I couldn't reply to any of your reviews or anything like that. So if you happen to be reading this story "Oliver", PM me or something, because honestly I am really curious to talk to you.

Okay. Thanks everyone and happy March something-or-other.