We broke apart when Haymitch, who was standing behind us, cleared his throat loudly. "Are you done now?"

Gale and I stared at him, really annoyed. "No!", we said at the same time.

Haymitch rolled his eyes and went in the direction of our apartment. I took Gale's hand and followed him, Effie and Cinna. In the corner of my eyes I noticed that Cinna was smiling at us.

"So, I have to go this way," he said at the next corner and waved before he left. We saw him disappearing in the darkness of the hallway, then we took the elevator to our floor.

As soon as we had arrived Gale sat down on the couch and I took the empty space next to him. Effie stopped Haymitch from filling his glass with Gin. "It was a long day, Haymitch, let's give them their beauty-sleep, hm?"

Haymitch growled, but put down the glass and left the room.

"You have a big big day ahead of you, so you'd better get some sleep, right?", Effie warned us before she left the room. After she had closed her door it was silent.

...

"God, I thought that they would never leave us alone", Gale whispered and pulled me closer. We just sat there, cuddled in each other and enjoyed having a couple of moments of privacy. He ran his finger through my hair softly. "I really don't like to admit that, but she's right. We should get some sleep."

"Hm, as if I could sleep now."

With a big grin on his face he stood up and pulled me on my feet. When we had reached our rooms, he softly kissed me on my forehead. "Good night, honey."

"Good night."

Even in my room I could hear him closing his door. Lost in my thoughts I stared at my window, thinking about all that had happened today. I couldn't believe that things had changed so much since I had arrived in the Capitol. The sound of a door brought me back to reality only a couple of seconds later.

"I thought you wanted to go to bed," I asked Gale, who was leaning on my doorframe, watching me, and smiled.

"Screw sleeping." It only took him a few steps to reach me, then he pulled me tight and started kissing me passionately. I kissed him back, burying my hands in his hair.

...

"I think I should leave now," I heard his voice after a few minutes.

"That's a really bad idea, if you ask me," I murmured.

Gale grinned and pulled me with him as he headed to my door. "Dream something beautiful." With these words he left my room and I could just stare after him, confused. He had left so quickly that I wasn't really sure whether he had even come back again. At first I was so annoyed at his behaviour that I wanted to kick something, but as I thought about it I had to admit that he was right. The closer we got now the more painful it would be to say goodbye. And we would have to say goodbye, much sooner than I wanted to. Thinking about losing Gale felt like I had just drunk pure vinegar. It hurt and I sank onto my bed, burying my face in my hands. It was so unfair! Why didn't I realize that I loved him much sooner? We could have left months ago, I could have prepared mum and Prim, I could have run away with them and Gale. Why didn't I realize it sooner?

...

The next day passed without Gale and me speaking a lot. We kept our distance, training together silently, without even looking at each other. Effie and Haymitch observed us at dinner, irritated, but they didn't say a word. To be honest I couldn't say what was more painful: being close to Gale like I had been in the past days or the distance that was between us now. I stood in front of his room more than once that evening, ready to knock on his door, but in the last second I changed my mind and went back to my room. While I was lying on my bed, still wide-awake I thought about our future, but I didn't find a solution.

...

Suddenly I was back in the woods of District Twelve. I had just noticed a deer behind a tree and prepared my bow. As soon as it heard me shooting the deer made a quick move but I had definitely hit it. I went to the tree to get it, but there was no deer. Instead of the deer Gale was laying on the ground with my arrow in his chest and…lifeless.

"Gale!", I screamed and ran to him, but he didn't move, not matter how hard I shook him. When I touched his cheek with my fingers, they left a red track and I froze completely shocked when I realized that it was Gale's blood that was running down my hands…

I woke up, screaming loudly. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and freed myself from the warm blanket. It took me quite a while to calm down again. It had been just a dream, but it was so realistic. That was exactly what I would have to face in a couple of days. My heart was still racing when I tiptoed through the hallway and opened Gale's door quietly. I was really relieved when I saw him, peacefully sleeping on his bed. It had been just a really bad nightmare. I watched him for a couple of minutes, then I left and wanted to close the door.

"Katniss?"

"Hey. Sorry, I didn't want to wake you."

Gale turned on the light and looked at me worriedly. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah. I just had a nightmare and I couldn't sleep anymore", I answered.

He moved closer to the wall. "Come."

...

I hesitated for a moment, causing Gale to smile. "Are you suddenly afraid of me?"

"Of course not." I crawled under his blanket, cuddling up to him tightly. It reminded me of the past. I had always crawled under my parent's blanket after a bad nightmare. It really felt the same, only that it was Gale now. For a second I played with the thought to stand up again, but then I changed my mind. Why should I leave again if it didn't bother him. It was also one of the last chances to be together, before… I quickly blocked that thought.

"What happened in your dream?"

I started shaking at the thought of my nightmare and I wasn't able to stop it this time, no matter how hard I tried. Gale seemed to notice, because he wrapped his arm around me immediately.

"I….I shot a deer, but in the end you were the deer", I told him quietly.

"Oh…"

Although I had just decided not to ask this question I simply had to know it. "Gale?"

"Hm?"

"We have to face the fact that only one of us is coming out of the arena. What if we are the only ones left at the end? I can't hurt you."

"I know, Catnip. I could never hurt you as well. But there are so many things we can't predict, so we have to wait and see, as much as I hate it."

"Great." I buried my head in his pillow.

His hand moved down my arm, causing my skin to form goosebumps.

"We discussed that about a hundred times, but no matter how hard we try, we won't find a solution. Why don't we just enjoy the time we have left until the Games begin?"

"Okay." Before Gale had kissed me for the first time, there was just one winner for me: him. But now we were a lot closer so I had to rethink my strategy. Of course I could never kill him but could I really expect him to kill me when we were the last two tributes? I had never really thought about that, but what about him?

...

When I had been sad as a child my father had always started singing. This might sound strange, but I could swear that even the birds had stopped twittering as soon as they heard his voice. I wasn't even half as good as him, but after his death I had always sung to Prim at night when she hadn't been able to sleep. Now my own thought kept me from falling asleep and without really noticing it I started humming quietly. It was one of my favourite melodies and it helped me to calm down.

...

Gale hadn't said a word the whole time. Suddenly his arm got heavier and heavier and I realized that he had finally fallen asleep…