A/N: I told you, chapter spam. SO HERE'S 28. 28 IS THE ENDING TO THE REGULAR STORY. 29 BEGINS THE ENDING THAT YOU ALL BROUGHT UPON YOURSELVES. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY. Cato's POV.

"You know what else is real?" I lift him and toss him onto my bed. Then, I climb on top of him, unzip my jacket, and lift my shirt up. "This." And I smile because I have Peeta back. ~

"Well thank god for that." I say almost in a pant, from the pleasant shock of this turn of events. ~

"Like what you see?" I wink seductively. ~

"I missed it so much.." I pull his bare shoulders down so he's right against me so I can kiss his lips again. How I missed them. ~

I make sure to prolong the kiss, since this is the first real one we've had in weeks, then I pull away. "Too bad." I sigh. "We have things to discuss, Lover Boy." ~

"What? What on earth could we have to discuss?" I whine, grasping at his bare back, trying to pull him closer-but as strong as I am, he's stronger. ~

"Someone's a little sex-crazed there." He's been wanting this since at least Day 2 in the arena. "Your sleeping arrangements, what we do during the day, what happens if you get caught? I can't enjoy you unless I know we have things planned." ~

That jerk. "I can sleep in bed with you, I'll sit in your closet all day for all I care, and if I get caught, well, I won't." I didn't even want to think about that at this second. All I could think about was Cato. "Now please kiss me again? And I am not sex-crazy! I've never done it!" I almost pout. ~

"But you've been eye-sexing me ever since training." I laugh and lean in for another kiss. "This is only because I missed you! I'm still not letting the topic go. Say you did, what would happen?" ~

I pause and think about it for a moment, clearing my mind. "You'd...try to come and save me? And...whether it worked or it didn't...we'd be together sooner or later." I glanced away from him quickly before looking back. ~

"And...if I couldn't save you," I choke out, "what would you want me to do?" I look at him. "Would you prefer sooner, or later?" ~

"Oh god, Cato, I..." I don't know what to say. "It's like, back in the arena, that first night... I mean...I think it'd be up to you. If...you felt you couldn't be without me, and that life just...just wouldn't be worth it..." I stammer. "Then sooner. I don't want you to have to...suffer. But...But if you think you can go on, then go on. And...and I'll wait for you. I'll wait forever for you." ~

"I've gone on without you before." I half-smile before kissing him again and hugging him. "You see how I turned out after that. I wouldn't ever be the same." ~

"Then...then sooner it is." I look at him, knowing the terminology we're using doesn't make it seem so dire when we're discussing him taking his own life. ~

"I...it won't happen like that." I refuse to believe it. "We'll find some way out." Just thinking about it reminds me of how we'd get caught if I don't get up and lock the door. "Be right back." I get up and walk over to close the door, putting the double-lock on it. "Anyway..." I jump back into bed with him, but lay next to him. "We'll live long and with each other. We have to." ~

"I dreamt about it, you know. While you were gone." ~

"Through all that terror, you still had time to sleep?" I laugh. "What was your dream about?" ~

"Barely." I laughed a little, though I wasn't lying. "It was nothing special, we just...outlived the times. Grew into adults in a time where I wasn't wanted, just...kinda lived life. Like two normal people." I pause. "I know, it's a silly thing to dream about, I just...I want it so badly." ~

"So do I," I say, staring up at the ceiling. "It could happen, you know. Even though I never want to grow up." ~

"Old man Cato, huh?" I look him up and down. "I don't think you'd age badly." I smile. "It could happen. I just...wish we didn't have to wait so long." ~

"The day I lose my sexy will be the day you stop loving me." I fake cry. "Then no one will love me." I look at him and see that he's giving me an all-too-serious look. "Fine, I'll stop. But look at it this way! You'll be a child forever, with that height." ~

"Are we really going to start with this again?" I laugh. "I'll just be a little old man." ~

If he makes it that far. "You know, with me always teasing you about your shortness..." I pause, then laugh. "Nevermind." ~

"What is it?" I give him a curious look. ~

Sighing, I say, "I was going to say that I wonder if all of you is short." I smile, then start laughing my ass off. "If you know what I mean." ~

Once again, my tomato face has returned. "Well you're the one who's stopping any chances of you finding that out!" ~

"Well, I have my reasons." ~

"At least tell me so I can not complain to you about it all the time!" ~

"Peeta," I begin, looking into his eyes, "our relationship was...rushed. I almost wanted to do it in the cave, but I didn't want to get killed mid-sex or anything, but ever since you came back, we've had a real chance, right?" He nods. "Well, I figured we'd have more time for each other, so if we gave it up to each other now, what would be left? We've done everything else because we thought it was our only chance to. But say we did it, and you ended up being fine...what would be left?" ~

For a moment, I couldn't believe this was Cato. My Cato. He was so right...so perfectly right. It just didn't seem like something that would ever come out of his mouth. "It's...positive thinking. Thinking...that we will get the chance again." ~

I shake my head and sit up in the bed. "No, you don't get it...there's something else. Another reason why we can't." ~

I pause. "What...what is it?" ~

"We aren't mature enough for that. You're...too innocent, and I don't want to ruin that. But me..." I take a deep breath and sigh. "I'm just not mature enough in general. I don't even know how this-" I gesture towards us, "-happened. I don't know what we are. I'm...I'm starting to forget how we started." I don't forget on purpose, but with him being here and hiding all the time, and me going on the Victory Tour, everything's slipping. Especially earlier, when I thought I'd gone insane. ~

"I...You took a chance on me." I whisper to him. "Don't you remember? If not.." It'll be hard, but it could be the only way. "I can show you." I laugh a bit. "It was all on television." ~

"Show me whatever you want," I say, then point towards his lower body. "Not that." Then I laugh, but I become serious again very quickly. "You're confusing, Peeta. You do these wonderful things, then I'm an ass but you still forgive me, and then finally you snap and I think you hate me...and I thought you'd never play my insecurity on purpose, but you did...and then you forgave me again." I turn away from him and face the closet. "You're too forgiving. That's something I don't understand." ~

"We...make mistakes in love. But I told you in the arena, that..that I knew I loved you. From the start." I wrap my arms around him from behind. "Why would I throw away something so incredible for...mistakes? You...you were just trying to protect me. Though I wish you hadn't in that way, I... I know you only ever meant well for me." I kiss the back of his head. "I told you...I'd love you forever. No matter what, I'd follow you to the ends of the earth." I laugh. "You have to at least remember that...and if not? Now you know. Unconditionally." ~

"I love you too, Peeta." I put my head down. "But I still don't want to...I'm sorry." ~

"Oh, no.. I wasn't trying to convince you to.." I try to turn him towards me. "I just want to make sure you know how I feel about you. That you never have to doubt me." ~

"Don't." I turn around and knock him down with kisses. "But you'll always be doubting me, and that isn't fair for you." As lies continue to surface, he'll just have more and more reasons to doubt me. ~

"Then don't give me a reason to...tell me everything." I take a deep breath. "Clean slate." ~

"Everything?" He warily shakes his head yes. "Well...since we're being completely honest here, I met someone...while I was on the Victory Tour..." ~

My heart stops. "O...okay." I can't breathe. But I try not to show a thing. Not that, or the fact that I'm on the verge of tears. ~

"There were a lot." And they wanted me to do things. ~

"W...what do you mean...a lot?" ~

I look up at the ceiling and start counting on my fingers. "Five, six?" ~

"How are you..saying this so casually?" Tears are escaping now. ~

"Because you said to tell you everything! It's not like I'm able to avoid this, so why beat around the bush?" I say. "I originally wasn't going to tell you, because I know how jealous you get sometimes, but you said no more lies, so there." ~

"...Who? ...why?" ~

"Just a few randoms. Mostly in the Capitol." I turn and look at him crying. "No! Peeta, don't cry, please! You see why I didn't want to tell you?" ~

"...you shouldn't have done it in the first place..." I start sobbing, but not even his embrace can comfort me. Knowing that it's held others. "I thought you loved me." ~

"I didn't do anything wrong, though..." I try to touch him, but he smacks my hand away. "I do love you! It isn't my fault that they were after me..." ~

"But... But you shouldn't have given in!" I cry. "What did you do with them?" I'm not sure I want to know. ~

"You thought I gave in?" I get out of the bed and stand up. "I was going to say that I turned them all down because I'm in love with you! I didn't want to tell you this because you'd get jealous, but with the no lies things, I had to! And you thought I'd give in?" I reach for my shirt, which was lying at the foot of the bed, and put it on over my head. "I didn't give in once! I never even considered it!" ~

I look at him dumbfounded. "You...should have started with that part." I begin wiping the tears off of my face. "You know how insecure I get about you and all the people who want you.." I grab his hand. "You're wonderful..." ~

"No!" I yell, pulling my hand away. "I thought it was implied that I wasn't with them...even though they did offer me more money than I can ever imagine." That's it. "Now do you see another reason why I can't have sex with you? It's because I'll always be reminded of that!" ~

"Of what? I'm sorry I'm horribly insecure!" My voice cracks. ~

"You don't get it?" I ask quietly, walking over to him. "They wanted me to whore myself out." ~

My eyes widen. "W-who...?" ~

"Everybody!" ~

"Why on earth would they expect you to do that?" ~

"Because apparently, I'm very popular in the Capitol! And I'm not the only one, you know. There are others. Other victors that go through this. You know what one person said?" ~

"W...what?" I wanted to know and I didn't at once. I wanted to know what they did to these people their Capitol loved so much, but I don't want to know what could have become of my Cato. ~

"That I would've been one of the more expensive ones." Chills are sent up my spine as I say the word 'expensive'. "That what they saw in the cave that one day was only a sneak preview of what I was capable of. When they said that, I thought of you, and how dirty I would feel if I was forced to break my promise to you. I tried so very hard to get out of it. It took a weird mix of crying and bitchy attitude to get out of it." I sit on the edge of the bed, not making eye contact with him. "They said it was such a shame that I was so messed up and they didn't want to risk it with me in the state I was in. They said I would've been good. But...all I could think about was poor Peeta Mellark from District Twelve, hiding out in my house forever. How you needed me, so I tried as hard as I could to get out of it. You're lucky I did." ~

"I guess I have more luck than I thought..." I whisper. "I'm so sorry." I stand in front of him holding my hands out to him. "I can't...believe they do that.. You're one of the strongest people I know. If not the strongest." I kiss his head. "That's horrible..." I think. "I suppose that decides it, then." ~

"Decides what?" Still not looking at him, I reach up and grab his hands. ~

"Everything seems to go wrong when we're apart." I say to him. "So...together forever is the only option." I give a small smile. "Okay?" ~

The first thing I see when I look up is his smile. "Okay." We stare at each other, holding hands, for the longest time. Eventually, I just stand up, knock him down to the floor, and kiss him. "I never want to be with anyone else but you, okay? You're everything...that matters to me. You're the most important thing in this house-in the country. We'll be doomed together. When, or if, the Capitol ever finds you. It'll still be you and me. Right?" ~

"Right." I laugh. I'm just so happy to see him like himself again. "I promise!" I kiss him back. This is how it's supposed to be. ~

A/N: I don't think any of you are quite ready for what you've gotten yourselves into. Review and we'll see how this goes… x