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A quick message from me: This is my first story to upload on fanfic, PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE REVIEW!

Random disclaimer: Suzanne Collins Owns Hunger games. I am merely rewriting it as if Katniss were stronger along with Peeta.

Enjoy!


For a moment, the cameras hold on Peeta's downcast eyes as what he says sinks in. Then I can see myself on the screen. I turn down as the blush threatens to form on my cheeks. I'm not sure whether to be mad or overjoyed. He had admitted he loved me. The only thing was that it was going to be displayed on screen.

"Oh, that is a piece of bad luck," says Caesar, and there's a real edge of pain in his voice. The crowd is murmuring in agreement, a few have even given agonized cries.

"It's not good," agrees Peeta.

"Well, I don't think any of us can blame you. It'd be hard not to fall for that young lady," says Caesar. "She didn't know?"

Peeta shakes his head. "Not until now."

I can see the double meaning to the words. I knew he liked me, but I never knew he loved me. I allow my eyes to flicker up to the screen long enough to see that the blush on my cheeks is unmistakable.

"Wouldn't you love to pull her back out here and get a response?" Caesar asks the audience. The crowd screams assent. "Sadly, rules are rules, and Katniss Everdeen's time has been spent. Well, best of luck to you, Peeta Mellark, and I think I speak for all of Panem when I say our hearts go with yours."

The roar of the crowd is deafening. Peeta has absolutely wiped the rest of us off the map with his declaration of love for me. When the audience finally settles down, he chokes out a quiet "Thank you" and returns to his seat. We stand for the anthem. I have to raise my head out of the required respect and cannot avoid seeing that every screen is now dominated by a shot of Peeta and me, separated by a few feet that in the viewers' heads can never be breached. Poor tragic us.

But I know better.

After the anthem, the tributes file back into the Training Center lobby and onto the elevators. I make sure to veer into a car that does not contain Peeta. The crowd slows our entourages of stylists and mentors and chaperones, so we have only each other for company. No one speaks. My elevator stops to deposit four tributes before I am alone and then find the doors opening on the twelfth floor. Peeta has only just stepped from his car when Irun. I run from everything and everyone.

I find myself on the roof of all places, not entirely sure how I got up here. I'm just able to hide my face from anywhere I assume there's cameras before I let the tears flow. How stupid I was. I was supposed to be fierce, I was going in the arena tomorrow and here I am crying. I bang my hand against the wall I'm facing. It hurts. I curse but it is lost in the wind.

The tears have blurred my vision and I can't hear anything over the wind. That's probably why Peeta startled me. "Katniss." He doesn't say anything.

Of all the nerve, I barely stop myself from shoving him. "Get out Peeta. You've done enough." I used the most venom I can manage to taint my words. I can feel him cringe but he doesn't leave. "Damn it Peeta! Go away!" I push up from the ground and rush inside a small building. It was filled with flowers.

I childishly push them all off the table and sit on it. To hell with the flowers. To hell with Peeta. I'm not surprised when he follows me and sits down as well.

"I suppose I was alluding myself to think my… Confession. Would make you feel any better." I can tell he's mad at himself. I sigh and pull my hair down to cover my face as I wipe away the tears. His gentle hand on my cheek hurts me. I cringe away from the sting.

"Why did you do that to me?" I sound so fragile. I know I should be punishing myself for being so vulnerably stupid. "All these lies. And now you dare to try to comfort me!" I turn to glare at him. He doesn't shrink away from my gaze.

"I would never lie to you Katniss." He grabbed my chin again, this time I slapped his hand away.

"You knew. You knew how hard it was to let you in." I get off the table and kick over a pot plant that hadn't yet been destroyed.

Peeta grabs my arm and envelops me in a hug. "I am so sorry Katniss." He whispers is into my ear as he pulls me back against him.

I sigh, I can't resist him. "How could you Peeta?"

"It's going to help I promise. You're going to get so many sponsors now."

"Don't do it again. If there is anything else you're planning tell me right now." I turned around and stared directly into his eyes. He was hesitant before he shook his head.

"There's nothing else." I sighed and pulled him back out of the greenhouse. Peeta helped me sit down and he dashed inside. I wiped my eyes again before looking at the sky. The Capitol lights ruined most of the effect from the stars, but it was still beautiful. Eventually Peeta returned with a few blankets and a tray of food. He dumped the blankets on the ground and I spread them out.

"I got us some food." He placed the tray down and helped me sort out the blankets. Peeta crawled and lied down behind me. He pulled me into his lap and I leant back against him. He handed me a plate and kissed my forehead, I couldn't help but cringe slightly from his touch.

"I'm sorry." He repeated his words softly and didn't speak again as we ate. We would be in the arena tomorrow. I grimaced at the thought. Peeta as if sensing my worry started brushing his fingers through my hair. I did not cringe from this.

"We are allies right?" My words were a question. He didn't seem to understand at first.

"Always." He hesitantly raised my hand and kissed it. Satisfied that I did not cringe away he kissed it again.

"Katniss. Don't look at the cornucopia alright?"

I frowned. "Why not?"

"If there is a bow there, I don't want you to get distracted. Just get out as soon as possible alright?"

"What about you?" He had hurt me. Whatever we had before was damaged, but I still worried for him.

"I'll follow you." I felt him lean down and kiss me on the cheek. I reached back and ran my hand up and down his back.

We didn't talk again until it was time for us to go to bed. I'm glad he didn't try to follow me into my room. He said his goodbyes and disappeared into his. I did the same and soon I was in bed. Sleep didn't hold for long after I awoke from a nightmare. I punished myself. I needed my sleep. I grimaced realizing what I needed to do.

I walked across the hall and knocked lightly on Peeta's door. He answered almost immediately.

"Hey." He whispered. Peeta opened his door wider and gestured for me to enter. It was too dark for me to see much but I saw his sheets were a mess.

"Nightmares?" I suggested to a nearly invisible Peeta.

"Nightmares." Peeta confirmed. Silently I crawled into the bed and curled up on the edge of the bed, trying to take up as little space as possible. Peeta entered and did the same.

After a few minutes the baker's boy cleared his throat. He caught my attention so that I wasn't too startled when he grabbed me and pulled me toward him. Sighing I sunk into his chest and closed my eyes. I could almost feel his grin.

"Goodnight Katniss." He kissed my cheek ever so gently. I felt my eyelids dropping and I was asleep.

When I wake up Portia is beaming at the sight of me and Peeta in bed I practically race out of his room and back into mine.

Cinna comes to me before dawn, gives me a simple shift to wear, and guides me to the roof. My final dressing and preparations will be alone in the catacombs under the arena itself. A hovercraft appears out of thin air and a ladder drops down. I place my hands and feet on the lower rungs and instantly it's as if I'm frozen. Some sort of current glues me to the ladder while I'm lifted safely inside.

I expect the ladder to release me then, but I'm still stuck when a woman in a white coat approaches me carrying a syringe. "This is just your tracker, Katniss. The stiller you are, the more efficiently I can place it," she says.

Still? I'm a statue. But that doesn't prevent me from feeling the sharp stab of pain as the needle inserts the metal tracking device deep under the skin on the inside of my forearm. Now the Gamemakers will always be able to trace my whereabouts in the arena. Wouldn't want to lose a tribute.

As soon as the tracker's in place, the ladder releases me. The woman disappears and Cinna is retrieved from the roof, An Avox boy comes in and directs us to a room where breakfast has been laid out. I eat as much as I can; knowing food may be scarce in the arena.

The ride lasts about half an hour before the windows black out, suggesting that we're nearing the arena. The hovercraft lands and Cinna and I go back to the ladder, only this time it leads down into a tube underground, into the catacombs that lie beneath the arena. We follow instructions to my destination, a chamber for my preparation. In the Capitol, they call it the Launch Room. In the districts, it's referred to as the Stockyard. The place animals go before slaughter.

Everything is brand-new, I will be the first and only tribute to use this Launch Room. The arenas are historic sites, preserved after the Games. Popular destinations for Capitol residents to visit, to vacation. Go for a month, rewatch the Games, tour the catacombs, visit the sites where the deaths took place. You can even take part in reenactments. They say the food is excellent.

I shower and clean my teeth. Cinna does my hair in my simple trademark braid down my back. Then the clothes arrive, the same for every tribute. Cinna has had no say in my outfit, does not even know what will be in the package, but he helps me dress in the undergarments, simple tawny pants, light green blouse, sturdy brown belt, and thin, hooded black jacket that falls to my thighs. "The material in the jacket's designed to reflect body heat. Expect some cool nights," he says.

I think I'm finished when Cinna pulls the gold mockingjay pin from his pocket. I had completely forgotten about it.

"Where did you get that?" I ask.

"Off the green outfit you wore on the train," he says. I remember now taking it off my mother's dress, pinning it to the shirt. "It's your district token, right?" I nod and he fastens it on my shirt. "It barely cleared the review board. Some thought the pin could be used as a weapon, giving you an unfair advantage. But eventually, they let it through," says Cinna. "They eliminated a ring from that District One girl, though. If you twisted the gemstone, a spike popped out. Poisoned one. She claimed she had no knowledge the ring transformed and there was no way to prove she did. But she lost her token. There, you're all set. Move around. Make sure everything feels comfortable."

I walk, run in a circle, swing my arms about. "Yes, it's fine. Fits perfectly."

"Then there's nothing to do but wait for the call," says Cinna. "Unless you think you could eat any more?"

I turn down food but accept a glass of water that I take tiny sips of as we wait on a couch.

"Do you want to talk, Katniss?" Cinna asks.

I shake my head but after a moment hold out my hand to him. Cinna encloses it in both of his. And this is how we sit until a pleasant female voice announces it's time to prepare for launch.

Still clenching one of Cinna's hands, I walk over and stand on the circular metal plate. "Remember run, find water. The rest will follow," he says. I nod. "And remember this. I'm not allowed to bet, but if I could, my money would be on you."

"Truly?" I whisper.

"Truly," says Cinna. He leans down and kisses me on the forehead. "Good luck, girl on fire." And then a glass cylinder is lowering around me, breaking our handhold, cutting him off from me. He taps his fingers under his chin. Head high.

I lift my chin and stand as straight as I can. The cylinder begins to rise. For maybe fifteen seconds, I'm in darkness and then I can feel the metal plate pushing me out of the cylinder, into the open air. For a moment, my eyes are dazzled by the bright sunlight and I'm conscious only of a strong wind with the hopeful smell of pine trees.

Then I hear the legendary announcer, Claudius Templesmith, as his voice booms all around me.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"


I think Peeta's pissed me off. I don't rlly want to write him atm. O well I'm glad they made up kinda :)

Alas the end of the chapter! do not fret however! If you manage to get 5 reviews I'll have another chapter up tommorow!

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