Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! I do not own Mockingjay.

Ch. 23

It was early in the morning when I heard the slight hesitated knock on my large heavy door. I had gotten news the day before that Katniss had gone off to the Capitol along with Finnick and Gale and that Johanna was in the hospital for an accident that happened during training. I was planning to go visit her today to find out what really happened, but I wasn't anticipating to see the small blonde girl that was partially at fault for starting all this, to be at my door early in the morning.

I hadn't seen Prim at all while in District Thirteen and I was surprised she was able to avoid me for that long. I heard somewhere that she would come and observe me sometimes, but she never had the nerve to walk into the room. I feel like she didn't talk to me because she felt it would be betraying her sister, I had a feeling I should fear her more than she had ever feared me.

She was much older looking than what I remembered, the little innocence I remembered in her was all gone and in its place was wisdom. Her eyes were closer to mine than they were in last months I had seen her. The little girl that Katniss volunteered for no longer existed and in her place stood a strong, independent woman.

I didn't expect her to wrap her thin arms around my waist or for her to lay her head against my shoulder as if I was an old friend. It wasn't anything romantic, no; it was more like she was my little sister seeing me after months of being apart. When I try to let go she pulls me in closer and holds me just a little bit longer and finally after I relax into the hug, I realize it's all I really needed.

I'm not sure how long it lasts or how we know that it was the right time to let go, but one second we just did and it was okay because I felt almost me again by the time she let go. With out a word she stepped around me and into my small room.

"I'm sorry I haven't seen you." Those are the first words she says to me. I don't remember being that close with Prim, but she was someone I felt I could depend on. If I had no one else, I could rely on Prim. With her standing in my room I realize why Katniss would do anything for her, she was hard not to love.

"It's been really hard for Katniss and I wanted to be there for her. The hospital needed me a lot too. I did miss you. You really changed our lives around and I liked it." She's sat down at my small table that is next to my dresser. I only use it when Haymitch comes over or in the small instances that Delly and I hang out in my room.

I'm not sure what she meant by 'liked it'; after I entered their lives it took a turn for the worst. There wasn't a lot of happiness with me in the equation.

"I know what your thinking. How I could like the way you changed it. I liked it because you changed Katniss, for the better. You made her more vulnerable and she needed that. We as humans need vulnerability and some are born with it and some gain it through experiences and Katniss learned how to love through you, she learned how to be vulnerable."

I walk and sit down across from her. I think about my words before I speak them. I no longer hated myself for loving Katniss and part of me was getting used to the idea of it. It used to be part of me. There was no Peeta with out loving Katniss and I think that is what freaked people out the most.

"She loved you before me." It's a simple sentence, but it was true. Wasn't volunteering for her sister some sort of vulnerability mixed in with bravery?

"Yes, but she had too. We're sisters. You taught her how to love outside of just me. Katniss is only the person she is today because of you. There would be no Mockingjay without Peeta Mellark behind her." I don't know how Prim came up with all of this. Her face was still young and if you only glanced at her you wouldn't know how truly wise she was. While Katniss and I were in the Games and at the Capitol and being Victors, Prim was back home becoming wiser and kinder and more loving than anybody I had ever known.

"Not any more. I'm not that Peeta Mellark any more." I hated being the disappointment; having to tell people that I wasn't the boy they had known before. I hated seeing their faces drop as they realized he was long gone, but Prim's didn't do that. She stayed composed and looked me straight in the eye.

"Of course you are. Peeta you may not think you love her anymore, but way deep down I know you do. She's tried to mourn you and get over the fact that you won't be there anymore, but she can't give up and you know why? She sees it too." She stops and lets her eyes peruse around my room and then back to me. She studies my face for a while before she speaks again.

"Haymitch told me what you wanted to do. How you wanted to die while in battle. I don't think you should. I do think you should fight, but I think you should keep fighting the internal battle as well. Katniss needs you Peeta. We all do. Don't kill yourself because you think it's the solution. Fight for her, for yourself, like you've always done. If you want to find yourself again, then start acting like him." Her words might sound malicious if she had said them in a different tone, but I had never heard something so compassionate before. Prim cared about me and she was willing me to fight. Not just the Capitol, but what the Capitol had done to me.

"Don't you see? If you go die, they win." She stands up and gives me one final hug before walking towards the door, "Don't let them win." She leaves and I'm left by myself.

I feel the tear hit my cheek before I realize I'm crying. It's not out of sadness, but something else completely. It's out of the want to fight; it's out of the need to win. I was going to win this battle; I was going to become me again.

I'm really sorry guys I have been way more busy than usual, and I don't mean to neglect this. Anyways have you guys seen the new Catching Fire victory tour pictures? They're so beautiful! And they make me so happy!

Don't forget to REVIEW on the way out! Thanks! ~Boywithbreadlover