A/N: So sorry, everyone! I didn't mean to take so long to update but being that my winter vacations are over, I am back to work and back to being busy! :( I won't be able to update as periodically as I used to but I will not abandon this story, I promise!

In response to a confused guest- what I changed in the storyline was the fact that the Quarter Quell never involved past victors, but didn't really specify as to the rebellion. Will I include it? I can't say :) Enjoy!

Chapter 13

The cool breeze chills my body and swooshes my hair onto my face and Peeta's chest. I can feel my skirt pirouette over my legs but who cares? We are so high in the sky, who could be watching? I check Peeta and his eyes are closed. Good, because I never want to move from this position.

I close my eyes and feel my hair tickle my nose, my eyes, my lips, my neck and there is something so relaxing about it. It's very quiet except for the soft whistle of the wind in these heights and I can't remember the last time I felt so peaceful.

Here, with my eyes closed, feeling the slight rise and fall of Peeta's chest, hearing his heartbeat, the heat of the morning sun battling with the cool air, I can almost forget where I am. If I try very very hard I can picture myself in the forest, laying just like this with Peeta. I promise myself that I will take Peeta into the forest, my forest, when we get back.

A picture of us appears in my mind... him and I, in the woods, far, far in the woods, where no one could find us. I just want to leave all of this behind. I want to enjoy this peace all the time.

"Katniss?" Peeta calls out to me. I lift my head and look at him to let him know he has my attention. For a few seconds, he doesn't speak. All I see are his eyes, intense and hesitant at the same time. His brows furrow in effort, though what for I don't know. He opens his mouth to speak once but closes it again and I recognize the motions as the same he did back on the train, when Effie interrupted us. The thought of this makes my heart take an unexpected leap. He opens his mouth again, more decidedly than before, but closes it again.

"Peeta?" I ask, or give him encouragement to go on. But he sighs and looks away. I feel a little disappointed because I know when he speaks again he's not saying what he really wanted to say.

"This is nice" he says with a half grin. And I know he is sincere.

"Yeah" is all I say with tentative smile and just rest back on his chest. But this time I don't close my eyes. Peeta's other arm, which he has under his neck for support, catches my eye. I notice the way his muscles rip under his skin as he involuntarily flexes them to keep them in the desired position. I have always known Peeta was strong but I had never noticed how his arm does that. Hmm... I catch myself just before my fingers helplessly touches his bicep. I pray his eyes were closed. Please, let his eyes be closed.

His deep chuckle tells me my prayer wasn't heard.

And for the first time in my entire life, I am truly embarrassed, in front of Peeta.

I want to ignore his acknowledgement of my actions but I don't know if I have a choice anymore. Why did I do that? Really? And why am I so embarrassed by it?

I put on my best, scariest scowl and turn to his self-satisfied face and I feel proud when instantly I wipe away his haughty expression. But even after a minute, I still feel uncomfortable, and his closeness isn't helping. I sit up. My skin is on fire and every inch between Peeta and is an inch I want to triple by a million.

I stand up and start stomping away and almost on cue I hear Peeta's unique step, marked by his prosthetic leg, rushing behind me. He is calling my name but I'm ignoring him. He gets close enough and, to my surprise, grabs my hand.

I turn around ready to snap and yell at him to leave me alone but the look of confusion mixed with guilt kills me. I bite my lip, swallow, and look him up and down.

"Katniss, please, don't go" he pleads me. "Please stay, I'm sorry" he searches my face for any sign of compassion but I make sure he doesn't see what he is doing to me. "Look, this might be our last day of peace and tranquility before we get on this crazy ride. So can we please, just make the best of it?"

I look down because I know how right he is. I walk back to our blanket, sit down and wrap myself around my knees. My head is spinning.

What is going on with me?

Peeta settles beside me and puts a comforting hand around me and I lean unto his body.

Why am I having thoughts of taking him to my most sacred place in the woods, then running from him mad, then back to his arms?

I can't make sense of my own actions. Yet all I am doing is what Haymitch said. I am letting my feelings dictate my actions so the truth can be visible.

But regardless, I need this. I have to have this privacy, this time to gather myself together before tonight, because if I don't, I will be a bigger mess than usual.

So I do my best to forget it all. Peeta and I eat and talk a little, even laugh one time. I am grateful he can make me laugh and still wants to. As the guffaws escape my throat I feel the tension leave my body like steam and floating into the air.

But sooner than I expected Effie comes looking for us.

"Haymitch said you might be here. C'mon! It's time to get ready!" she says with a small clap.

"But Effie, we're not tributes this year. We won't even appear in front of the cameras" Peeta says.

"No, but everyone around you will still smell your stench" she says in her distinctive Capitol accent as she makes a disgusted face. I don't know why, but Effie's ridiculousness made me chuckle quietly, which goes unnoticed by her but Peeta looks at me, smiles, rolls his eyes and gets up. He offers me his hand for help and I accept it even though I don't need it and when we start walking I forget to release it. Only when we are back in the room do I notice.

I casually let go of his hand as I approach our bed to see our clothes neatly laid out. I never expected Cinna to attend to me since he is so busy with the tributes but it still feels a little strange to dress myself. Our clothes aren't too elaborate. I am wearing a simple pretty dress, to continue with the focus that I am some innocent little girl. Peeta has been more fortunate. He ends up wearing a mint colored t-shirt that goes with my dress and a shiny leather jacket over it. The green tint give his eyes a greenish shade that I had never seen before but is very calming to look at. We are soon ready and come down to where all the chariots are waiting. Just before the elevator doors open we hold hands and come out to see the rest of the tributes, standing by their chariots, while the mentors stand in little groups talking.

We approach Azalea and Gerrit as our role as mentors entitle. They are dressed in pitch black suits from head to toe. But it seems too plain for Cinna's talent. I am sure there is a surprise in there somewhere. But even before we reach them, we are intercepted by the Capitol's favorite- Finnick Odair. I have never met him before but I have heard enough of him to know he is coveted by everyone. He won the games when he was just 14 and even then he was making people swoon with his green eyes and bronze hair.

He gives us a conceited look and looks me up and down as he pursues his lips. Peeta's hold tightens just a bit on my hand.

"So, you are the famous star-crossed lovers everyone is raving about. Welcome to the world of the victors" he says as he gives us a welcoming gesture and walks away but not before giving us one last glance and there's almost a bit of pity in there. What could he have meant with his sarcastic comment?

I see the same confusion in Peeta's eyes but don't ask anything. This isn't the right place anyways. Just then Haymitch intercepts us and brings us to meet some other victors, the older ones I see. They are friendly and I try to be polite as these are the people I will be seeing every year from now on but my mind isn't here. Peeta, on the other hand, pulls it off flawlessly and by the end of the conversation everyone loves him. It's a relief I have him to do the talking and the friend-making. I have never been good at that.

Soon it is time to send the tributes on their opening ceremony and I am not disappointed as their suits turn into burning coal. I can tell the crowd is impressed by the unison gasps that spread as their suits catch on fire. I am so glad that Cinna is so amazing at what he does. Perhaps with his help we might even bring back one of them this year. My heart sinks to my stomach at the thought that only one of those kids will be alive in a few weeks and, even then, only to lead a life full of nightmares and terrible memories. I let out a sigh and Peeta takes a look at me. He gives my hand a tight squeeze and it brings me comfort. And I know for the next few weeks I never wish to let that hand go.

The next few days are busy for the tributes. They have training and interviews and fittings, etc... In regards to Peeta and I there isn't too much we got to do. We spend all our free time at the roof and thanking that the new tributes haven't found our secret hideout. And I also admit I am avoiding everyone else. This place has become my little haven and all I want to do is be here, away from it all. And when I am not, it is all I can think about. I have grown more comfortable around Peeta and have seen results to Haymitch's advice. We talk a lot more now and even laugh often. Peeta is always trying to distract me. We talk about home mostly. He tells me stories of his childhood and find that most of them include me somehow. He'll be telling me about the first time he got detention at school in the second grade because he wouldn't pay attention in class and one day the teacher got fed up. When I ask him why he tells me so naturally:

"How could I help myself? I was sitting right behind you" he says with a smile and a casual tone as if there could be no other motive. I can't hold his gaze, not only because of what he revealed but because I realize I don't remember him sitting behind me and I feel guilty that while he was getting detention out of his amorousness with me, I didn't even know he was sitting there.

Another time he tells me that in the playground he got into a fight and came out with a purple eye that was later matched by other bruises administered by his mother for getting into said fight. I ask him what he was fighting about but he can't remember. All he can remember is he had noticed me looking in his direction that day and he had seen it as an opportunity to show off in front of me.

And with every story he tells me I stop becoming so uncomfortable with his openness in regards to his feelings about me. He sees them as normal as the need to drink water or eat. And if he isn't ashamed of them, why am I embarrassed? So I try to adapt his cool manner about them and when he tells me about thefirst girl he kissed I don't get uncomfortable when he tells me he did it because I was walking through the town square as he was there with his first girlfriend and he had hoped the sight would have incited some interest towards him in me. But I walked by them as if they were just any other couple. A few days later he broke up with her because seeing her reminded him of my indifference that day and his eyes become lost far away. I just put my head on his shoulder and he wraps his hands around me and the feeling is so natural now that that night when we have to kiss on camera as they show a short shot of us during the interviews, a smile springs on my face after the kiss and when I see it on the screen I don't recognize the girl there because she is blushing and she looks... I dare not even say it in my thoughts. I won't. So I quickly push my thoughts away to the back of my mind, where I have to admit it's getting pretty crowded and decide I will talk to Haymitch tonight, whether he wants to hear me or not.

Once again, forgive me for taking so long to update! I am back to working and to being busy :/ so I write twenty minutes here and twenty minutes there and it takes me so long! But thank you for sticking around and please tell me what you thought of this chpaer! :) Love you guys!