Thank you so much for your positive feedback. It is so appreciated and has spurred me on! I realise the last Chapter was quite short but this is a more appropriate length.

Hope you like

Prim's high pitched squealing was what greeted me as I returned to my house in Victor's Village. I allowed my mother kiss me on the cheek. After taking in my appearance she noted that Capital life clearly suited me.

I knew what she meant. I was no longer the starved girl that left District 12. I was starting to fill out slightly, and was no longer 'pointy' and skinny. My prep team was thrilled with this; seemingly dressing someone with 'a bit of meat on them' was preferable to an emaciated child. I, however, was less pleased.

I knew I looked, and felt, healthier. There was no denying that. But I hated what this represented. The only reason they fed me so well in the Capital was because of my new...duty. No-one wanted to hire out a bag of bones who, quite frankly, looked, ill. My new healthy glow was much more crowd pleasing.

Instead of pointing all this out to my mother, though, I just smiled and accepted the compliment.

The Reaping was to take place three days from now, so Peeta and I had been granted a little bit of time for our families. We couldn't rule put a summons from Snow with orders to fulfil our duty to Panem but the amount of people who would be able to pay the exorbitant prices he charged for us was somewhat diminished the further we got from the Capital.

Instead, of wallowing in hatred for the Capital, which very much tempted me, I decided to throw myself into life in District 12 for the few days I had. Effie had settled herself in one of the empty houses in Victors Village and was too busy organising the Reaping and the immediate aftermath to care what I did.

With that in mind, the first thing I did after a quick (albeit heavily edited, on my side) catch up with my family, was visit my brand new cousin, Gale.

"Cousin!" I shouted with a wry smile on my face as he came into view. I knew that he didn't like being called my cousin though he never said outright. I already considered him family and thought he felt the same about me, but something about being called my cousin aggravated him.

As expected, he glowered back at me, holding a pheasant over one shoulder and five baby rabbits in his hand.

"You didn't even wait for me to go hunting?" I exclaimed angrily as I eyed his kill. "You knew I was coming back today"

"I didn't want you to ruin your pretty Capital clothes" he muttered, eying me warily.

For the first time I realised that I was still dressed in the pretty summer dress Effie had forced me into this morning. It really wasn't something I could pull off but I intended to get in taken in so Prim could wear it - it would suit her better.

"Well I was in such a rush to see my cousin I forgot to change."

Again, he frowned.
"I missed you" I sighed. He just didn't realise how much. There are times in life when you just need your best friend, one of those times is when your body is being bid on and you are hopelessly used. And if that best friend happens to be your hunting partner who has deadly aim well that's even better!

"I missed you too catnip. How long do I have you for?"

"Not nearly long enough."

The following day, Gale and I met before dawn to indulge in a little light hunting. We were still in the forest well into the afternoon and we were rewarded highly for our efforts.

We both knew that we weren't there for the hunting per say. Of course, we needed the food but to hunt for that many hours was generally unheard of. What we really wanted was just to spend time together. I craved the normality and the companionship, and even when we were both exhausted and just sitting in silence, it felt so wonderfully normal.

"What do you do in the Capital anyway?" Gale wondered eventually. "You were up there for so long."

Snow sells my body to willing buyers. That's what I wanted to say, because if you can't tell your best friend who can you tell? "Just appearances and talk shows and that kind of thing. I guess they're building up a stock for this year's Games so they can televise them when there's not enough blood in the arena" I said instead.

This was not strictly a lie. Peeta and I had been forced to record many of those things for that very purpose.

"I missed you" he said so quietly I thought I might have imagined it.

Meeting his eyes, I saw that he was holding something back. There was an innate sadness which I had never seen before.

I scooted a little closer on the stump that we were sharing so that our hands were touching.

"We talked on the phone most nights" I reminded him gently. He had spent many evenings with Prim and my mother so he was usually on hand when I rang them to check in. "And I wrote to you all the time."

"But that's not...you, is it? I missed you. I..." he trailed off, his whole body tense with frustration. Without missing a beat, he grabbed my cheeks in his hands and placed his lips firmly on mine.

For a moment, I was so taken aback I just froze. I gradually allowed myself to relax. I was almost returning his affections. Almost.

But then his kiss got more urgent. More forceful. As he carefully slid his arm behind my neck, my breath began to quicken and panic filled me.

Any other time this action, while it would certainly have surprised me, would not affect me badly. However, having had men do this exact thing to me for months, having them violate me night after night, made this action thoroughly harrowing.

I prised his hands from my face and leapt to my feet, trying to contain the tremors that had taken over my body. Memories were flooding to my mind - that dreaded red robe, the taste of alcohol in their mouths, the bruises that cover my body, the violation. I fell to my knees, sobs coming in convulsions.

This was the first time it had really hit me.

"Katniss?" I could hear Gale's voice, somewhere far away. "Katniss what is it? What's wrong?"

I could hardly breath, let alone talk. I allowed him wrap his arms around me, and cradle me as if I was one of his siblings who had just fallen over and scraped my knee.

"I'm sorry" I managed to whisper eventually.

"Me too." He sounded so thoroughly glum.

"No, you've nothing to apologise for," I pressed, acutely aware that he did nothing wrong. "It's just...you don't understand"

"Then explain" he pleaded, desperation taking over.

"I can't."

He held me for a few more minutes. I could feel his face in my hair. After a lifetime, he helped me up and brought me and our days killing back to the safe confines of District 12.

As we passed Peeta's house, I disentangled myself from Gale's guiding arm and burst through the front door. I found Peeta in the kitchen, covered in flour. He took in my stricken tear blotched face and my dishevelled appearance and Gale jumping in behind me.

"What happened?" he demanded of Gale as he enveloped me in his arms, softly stroking my hair the way he always did to calm me down.

I buried my head in his chest, ignoring the rapid conversation happening between my two companions. Just breathing in Peeta's familiar smell - flour, paints and something I just couldn't place - made me calm down and come back to earth.

When I resurfaced Gale had left. Peeta led me outside to the bench he had in his garden and asked me questions about hunting and what I'd been up to since I came back. All very mundane. All very friendly.

We noticed a hovercraft coming toward us but paid it little heed. Effie was ordering so many things from the Capital the hovercrafts were more or less acting as her courier service. Seemingly, she had friends in high places.

But the hovercraft didn't go to Effie's. Instead it stopped directly overhead, and a package was dropped out the door, landing metres from our feet.

I tensed. It was unmistakable. The package consisted on the dreaded red robe with what could only be an envelope on top. Judging by Peeta's reaction he recognised it too.

We slowly approached the package to see which one of us was sold off tonight. The slanting writing confirmed my worst fears:

Katniss.

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