When we step foot in twelve again it feels as though a weight has been lifted from our shoulders and, despite the fact that it was still in ruins, it still felt like home.

Peeta, myself, Reed and Haymitch were sent back on the third hovercraft; Mother and Prim had chosen to wait a while, staying in the Capitol, before returning. We walked the familiar route from the square back to the Victors Village which had been left untouched.

"Well" Haymitch sighs, surveying his front door "I'd better make a start on cleaning up my poor excuse of a house."

"Is Effie coming here?" I ask, shifting Reed from one arm to the other. He was barely six months old but the kid weighs a ton.

Haymitch then did something that I've never seen him do before. He blushed as he swept a hand through his hair. "Well, I ask her, but I don't know, erm-"

I laugh at his unease "when is she coming?"

"The same hovercraft as your Mom and sister" he finally says.

I smile warmly at him before turning to Peeta "grab the mop, buckets and cleaning supplies my mother has stored under the stairs" I tell him "then meet me back at Haymitch's." Peeta nods before setting off toward my house.

"What are you doing, Katniss?" Haymitch asks.

"Helping" I say before leading the way to his house and letting myself in.

I strap Reed into a contraption Effie got for me; she says that it's called a push chair, something Capitol parents use to walk their babies around. In all honesty, I much prefer the sarong thing my mother put together for me; it goes around your front, or your back, and holds the baby against your chest, or your back, so that your arms are free to do other things but that wouldn't do for something like this.

Haymitch says that Effie jumped at the chance to move away from the Capitol; she, along with a few others, has completely lost faith in it because of Snow and they don't want to be associated with it anymore. So an invitation to twelve was just what she'd needed. Haymitch, of course, was over the moon, completely terrified, but happy.

It doesn't take us long to get his place in order; a week at the most. We gave everything a damn good clean, top to bottom, and aired the entire place out for the majority of the week. Twelve was still so quiet that we didn't need to worry about shutting doors and windows, not that we did much anyway, but it made it easier to air.

"I'm sure that Effie will add her own touch to the place" Peeta says, completing the entire task by setting a vase of flowers on the dining table.

Haymitch nods, looking around the room. It could be a different house; what once was dark, gloomy, smelly and messy was now bright, airy and clean. The scent of the flowers would soon make the room smell nice. "Yes" he says quietly with a small smile "I'm sure she will."

Peeta claps Haymitch on the back, ginning widely as he says "pop over any time, Haymitch."

"What are you talking about?" Our mentor asks, heading toward the front door "it's time to return the favour. I know that your place isn't as bad as mine but-" he looks to Peeta, his eyebrows raising as if prompting him to remember something.

"Of course" Peeta nods before turning to me "Katniss, you can head back to yours now; Haymitch, Gale and myself are going to be working on our house."

I frown "our house?"

"Yes; we're going to tweak it a bit before you move in and it's going to be a surprise."

We'd been discussing this whilst cleaning Haymitch's place. My mother and Prim was going to have my house and I was going to move in with Peeta. Though we hadn't discussed any alterations to it. "Ok" I sigh. I hate secrets.

"Don't worry" Peeta kisses me "we'll be back in time for tea."

I watch him and Haymitch disappear inside Peeta's house before sighing. Ideally, on a day like today, I would like to go hunting but, with Reed being so small still, it would be inadvisable to do so. I could, I suppose, haul him up into a tree, secure him, and leave him there for a while but I think that might be frowned upon. The last thing I want is to be labelled a bad parent.

"What are we going to do today then, Bugger?" I ask him just as he spits up all down my front. "Right, thanks, Reed; that's just what I needed." I sigh before heading for the house to change.

The next week was spent sitting on the front porch with Reed, watching Peeta and the guys haul stuff to and from his house. I did debate sneaking over there one night just to see what they were doing…the suspense was killing me! But I didn't. It wasn't till the end of the week did I beg Peeta to release Gale for an afternoon so that I could blow off some energy hunting.

And, perhaps, try to get Gale to spill a few secrets.

"We'll be done by the time you get back anyway" Peeta tells me as I hand Reed over to him. My husband had a splodge of paint on his nose and white dust in his hair which meant that he'd been painting and building. This just added to my frustrations.

"Right, ok" I say "I'll bring back supper, maybe deer or a nice fat turkey to celebrate."

Peeta smiles and nods "supper is handled too, Katniss, but don't let that stop you. We can have it tomorrow; I was thinking, actually-" he hands Reed off to Haymitch who starts throwing him into the air, causing the boy to squeal in delight. He loves his uncle Haymitch, purely because uncle Haymitch has a blatant disregard for child safety. Peeta wraps his arms around my waist and nuzzles his nose into my neck "I was thinking that we could put together a picnic and the two of us go off for the day. Haymitch says that he'll have Reed till the next day so that we'll have the entire night to ourselves as well."

"All day and all night with no baby?" I ask in mock horror "whatever will we do with our time?"

"We can work that out tomorrow" he says, nipping my ear lobe before forcing himself to step away from me. "Have fun hunting, Love" he tells me.

"I will so long as Haymitch doesn't kill our only child" I reply, eying the guy up just as he catches Reed again.

Haymitch chuckles "don't worry, Sweetheart, he's safe with me." Before putting him on his shoulders and running off toward Peeta's house.

I couldn't help but smile; I trusted Haymitch, of course I did, there was not buts about it. I watch him with Reed and, despite the fact that he throws the child into the air and stuff that I would never do, he's never reckless about it. He doesn't throw him too high and he's always there to catch him with the utmost precision. Plus, watching them together really warmed my heart.

"I hope he has kids one day" Peeta sighs, as Gale jogs up to us with our old hunting sacks "he'd be a good dad."

"Maybe he'll persuade Effie" I say before kissing him goodbye and heading off with Gale.

"So are Effie and Haymitch together?" Gale asks, as we head toward where the seam used to be.

I shrug "in a way, I suppose; they've not announced anything but they're pretty damn head over heels for each other."

It was nice to have my hunting partner back; it had been so long since I'd hunted but both Gale and I fell back into step with the other as though we'd been out here only yesterday. It was that easy, natural to us.

A couple of hours later, we found ourselves with our sacks full of wild turkey, fish, berries and even a boar. No deer though. We were resting up at our old meeting point, watching the sun slowly set.

"So how's things with you and Peeta?" Gales asks, throwing a berry into his mouth and crushing it with his front teeth, at a specific angle, so that the juice squirted straight into his mouth and saturated his tongue with the sweet flavour.

"Great" I say "why?"

"Well, I was still kinda hoping things wouldn't work out so I could get in there." He replies.

I gawk at him, too surprised by his answer to be horrified. I couldn't believe that he'd be so forward about his intentions; I thought it had passed!

And then he was laughing. "Your face is such a picture, Katniss!" He gasps, clutching at his ribs.

"That is not funny, Gale!" I snap, now embarrassed.

"It was damn hilarious, Katniss!"

In my embarrassed rage, I grab a fist full of the red berries and smash them into his hair, causing the juice to trickle down his face. "There" I snap "laugh at that!"

"Katniss" he chuckles, unfazed by my berry attack, "I wanted to ask you how you felt about me and Johanna."

This brings me up short "Johanna Mason?" He nods quietly, evaluating my reaction. "I thought that she terrifies you!"

"She does" he grins and it's a grin I've never seen before. His eyes kinda glaze over as though he's daydreaming. "She's fantastic" he sighs.

"Hey!" I slap his face to bring him back round "Gale, what the hell?"

"I don't know" he shrugs "I spent a long time avoiding her and then something shifted. I didn't want to tell you about it in case you didn't approve."

"It's not that I don't approve" I say, almost speechless "I am confused though. Every time I saw the two of you together you were always fighting."

"True" he nods "nothing really happened until we were about to go to the Capitol."

"Happened? What happened?"

"Well, we were arguing and then she kisses me and tells me to be careful. She punched me in the ribs afterwards" he added, smiling at the memory.

"So…what?" I ask "what are you going to do about it?"

He sighs heavily before shrugging again "not sure; I don't want to leave twelve but-"

"You could ask her to come here" I say "I know Finnick and Annie are toying with the idea, Effie's coming to. It'll be a new start for everyone."

"Everyone?" Gale raises his eyes "including us?"

"Well yes, twelve was all but flattened; we're all starting out again."

Gale was quiet for a moment before nodding "sure, I'll think about it, Catnip."

Johanna Mason and Gale? Even I have to admit that I never saw that one coming.