Later, when it's finally time to sleep, Katniss lays staring up at the tarp. Her sister sleeps soundly to her left, curled towards her. She's glad Prim can still fall asleep easily, even here, under the circumstances.

There's shifting to her right, and she turns her eyes in that direction. Peeta's head lifts from where he was sleeping near his own brother. He looks confused, but his eyes land on hers and she sees him visibly calm down. She smiles.

I'm okay once I realize you're here.

No one else is awake, save for Gale, who sits further away from the group, bow in hand. She's exhausted, and she thinks it's visible on her face. Peeta seems to notice, despite being about five feet away from her, because he sits up, pulls himself out of his sleeping bag and comes to her.

"Have you slept at all?" he whispers.

She shakes her head and shifts closer to Prim to make room for him. He lays down his bag and gets back into it.

"Hopefully this helps," he whispers again, turning to face her. She breathes deeply. She should be able to sleep fine without it. He was only five feet away anyways. But there was Gale's family in between them, and, for some reason the magic only works when they're shoulder to shoulder. She rolls over to face him better too.

"Thanks, Peeta." She whispers, hands under her chin, trying to get as comfortable as she can despite sleeping on the forest floor.

"No worries," he whispers back, pushes some of her hair off her face, and mirrors her position.

She sleeps.

"Hey," someone shakes her shoulder, and she groans. She opens her eyes to Peeta's sleeping face, but someone shakes her shoulder again. "Katniss, wake up."

"What?" she whispers, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. It feels like she just fell asleep a second ago.

"It's your watch," she opens her eyes properly and turns her head towards Gale, who's shaking her awake.

"Oh, right." She sits up. "Okay, I'm going."

She's sandwiched between both her sister and Peeta, so she struggles to get out of the sleeping bag without waking both of them. Once she's standing, Gale shoves her bow into her hands, and just then she's awake enough to notice he's angry at her.

She scoffs. She's not going to attempt to explain this or apologize for it, so she hits him with her shoulder on the way past him and gets out of the makeshift tent. Once she's under the moonlight she sits on the long grass. She's still tired.

She's growing annoyed by it all. Gale's bad attitude every time she interacts with Peeta around him. They haven't done anything out of the ordinary, they're not pretending to be anyone else to keep anyone alive and she doesn't see their friendship as a threat to her friendship with Gale. It's not her fault that it bothers him.

She rolls her eyes, deciding it's not worth the distraction to think about that right now and instead focuses on the horizon. They've set up their camp at the crest of a low hill and she can look down into a meadow. It's beautiful, dotted with trees and filled with swaying grass. She can see the mountains that form the border of the District in the distance. Once they get past them, they'll be out of the valley where District Twelve is a mere dot. Beyond that, the land is 'wild,' no one knows what lays beyond Panem, no one has ever gone into the 'wild' and returned.

She hopes that is a good thing.

They're so close already, she can almost taste it. She estimates that they're perhaps a week's journey away. The mountains are far apart enough that she doesn't think they'll have to climb over them. They should be able to get by alright, with the equipment they have.

She hopes the odds will be in her favor.

The next morning, Peeta wakes from another nightmare. She hears him sit up suddenly and turns her head from where she's been watching the mountains to look at him. He calms again, at the sight of her. He pulls himself out of the sleeping bag and gets up to come sit with her, rolling it up on his way.

"Hey," he whispers, fiddling with the Velcro that will hold the bag closed.

"Morning," she replies, eyes already back on the mountains. "The sun should be rising soon, I think."

"Good, I woke up on time." He drops the sleeping bag at his side. He sits, rubs his face with his hands and yawns. "Did you sleep okay?"

She looks away from him again, "not really, Gale woke me up to switch turns pretty quickly." The sky begins to light up with the rising sun. "But I think I would have; I fell asleep easily."

"That's good," Peeta is smiling up at the sky, his face coloring with the rays of sunlight that begin to fall across it. She's distracted enough looking at him that she fails to notice the sunrise itself.

"It's even better to watch it here," he whispers, his eyes on the horizon. "I've only ever seen it in the bakery and the train."

She finds herself smiling at him as his eyelashes and the blonde peach fuzz across his face light up, turning golden in the sunlight. She shakes her head and tries to look away for good this time.

The mountains look like a painting.

There are birds flying across the sky and singing a morning song. She tries to bite her lip, so she doesn't smile, but it doesn't work. She thinks she finally understands why he paints, sometimes you just want to hold on to something beautiful for a moment longer, she guesses.

"Did you bring a sketchpad?" She finds herself whispering, as if raising her voice would ruin the image before her.

"Yeah, but I'll draw it later." Her eyes return to him automatically. He's looking at her, smiling softly. His eyes have that concentrated look they get when he draws. For the second time that year she wonders what worlds lie beyond them.

Behind them, she can hear the others waking up and the moment is broken. She climbs to her feet and offers Peeta her hand to help him up.

He takes the help and stands, "thanks" he says, brushing some dirt off his pants.

They head over to help the others pack up their things. At some point Peeta wanders away from her again and she glances at him from over her shoulder. She turns her attention back to her sister whose hair has mostly escaped the neat braid she slept in.

"Here, let me help you." They sit down on the grass again. Prim picks up her bag and searches in it until she pulls out her hairbrush.

"Thanks," Katniss takes it and starts to detangle her sister's hair. It's quite the task on the side of her head she slept on. She must have rolled around a lot in her sleep.

Without any thought to it, Katniss starts humming. The morning air is refreshing in her lungs, and, for some reason, she feels lighthearted this morning. As she finishes detangling and begins braiding, she starts singing quietly. Prim leans back towards her with a pleased smile.

"I love that song," she sighs, her eyes closed.

Katniss smiles down at her and repeats the verse, her hands tying Prim's pink ribbon around the ends of her hair.

When she's finished, Prim hops to her feet with a smile "thank you, Katniss!" She calls back to her as she runs off after the others. She assumes no one's around, but when she goes to stand, she catches sight of Peeta standing a bit to the right of her, a dumb smile on his face.

She's blushing when Gale interrupts the moment. "Come on, guys, we're doing shooting lessons."

All four of them, Gale, Rye, Peeta, and herself walk off towards the trees. Rye complains about it being too early for this and will they let him take a leak please but he's mostly jesting. She goes to teach Peeta how to shoot, but Gale thinks he should do it, his bow is bigger and better suited for a guy of Peeta's size, he insists. Rye is over by the trees taking care of business, so he can't point out that he's taller than his brother. Katniss doesn't want to argue with Gale, so she lets it go.

When Rye comes back, she walks him through the basics. Demonstrates the proper stance and fires a few shots, pausing to show him her hand position and the tension in her fingers. The older boy nods along, but he admits he won't know how to do it until he tries it, so she hands him her bow and takes a step back to allow him to shoot.

Her eyes land on Peeta and Gale who're standing a distance away from her and Rye. Peeta's holding the bow awkwardly as Gale keeps adjusting his elbow, but she can tell, even from a distance, that he isn't a good teacher. Peeta's a good sport about it, but she knows she will end up having to teach him all over again later.

"Hey, I hit the tree!" Rye looks amazed, and she smiles at him, truly impressed that he managed that much this quickly.

"Where were you aiming?" she asks, watching him set up for another shot.

"The knot," he pulls his arms into a shooting position. "What do you think, this good?"

She examines his stance and tells him to lower his shoulders a bit. She looks back at the arrow in the tree, it's nowhere near the knot, but it's still good for his first shot ever.

"Okay, shoot" she says, watching critically as he completes the action. He's actually not bad. It must be easier for him to adjust to pulling a bowstring due to his upper body strength. She figures that most of the work he'll need will be on getting practice aiming and remembering to not tense up while shooting.

The arrow lands on the ground in front of the tree this time and Rye frowns, "aw come on!"

She laughs, "you have to keep practicing." She looks back over at Peeta and Gale and Peeta's shooting now, but his shoulders look all wrong and his feet aren't far apart enough. She sighs.

"I'll be right back, keep practicing" she calls over her shoulder, jogging lightly towards the other group.

"Hey, Everdeen" Peeta greets her once she's close enough to hear him. He's got one eye closed, and the other seems to be dancing with mirth. "What brings you to these parts?"

"Your terrible stance, here" she motions at Gale to move away. "I'll show you."

She walks behind Peeta and pushes her hands against the tops of his shoulders. He automatically lowers them.

"You're too tense." She adjusts his arms and taps her right foot against the inside of his, so he'll widen his stance a bit. "Okay, that's better. Let me have a look." She walks around him and nods. "Okay, shoot."

He does and his arrow lands near the tree he was aiming at, but the arrow flew out of the bow with little problem, so she considers it a victory.

"Okay, that's good. We just have to work on your aim a bit. Make sure you hold the string close to your face. Okay there, yeah good." She lowers her hand where she had it hovering over the bowstring near his face. She takes a step back. "Try again, shoot."

Peeta tries again, and he does better, but he's not hitting the tree yet. He laughs.

"I feel like this is going to take a while," he turns his head to smile at her. She can feel her lips turn up automatically in response.

"We have ti-" she starts.

"Well, we don't have all the time in the world," Gale interrupts, coming from somewhere behind Peeta's back to stand next to her with his arms crossed. "Don't waste our time, Mellark."

Peeta frowns but he's not mad, more amused, maybe surprised. "I don't have to learn if it's a bother," he begins but she interrupts him with a shake of her head.

"No, it's fine. I'll teach you." She turns her gaze towards Gale, "Rye is doing pretty good already, so he won't need as much practice. If you need to go hunting, take my bow from him."

Gale kind of scoffs but turns on his heel and walks away. She ignores him and nods at Peeta, "go ahead, keep going."

They practice for an hour. Rye comes over to them after Gale's taken the bow and sits on the grass next to her. He comments on Peeta's shooting occasionally. She thinks he's improved a lot, and by the end every second arrow hits the tree but Peeta doesn't seem to see it as anything impressive. After shooting another arrow into the tree, he lowers his bow and rolls his shoulders a bit.

"I'm hungry, let's go find something to eat. I can practice some other time." He grimaces, cracking his neck.

She frowns but agrees. They haven't had breakfast yet, and she doubts there's any leftovers from last night, since that's what the rest of their group ate before they left them for shooting practice.

"Alright, well, help me gather some berries or something and we'll eat that. I think I have some jerky in my bag, so we can split that."

Peeta shows them where he got the berries from last night and she eats her fill. They won't be able to return to these bushes as they've picked them clean, but they should probably move their camp today anyways.

They head back over to camp and split the package of jerky. All three of them are laying on a patch of sunny grass, watching the kids play around the water, while they wait for Gale to come back. Her mother and Hazelle are sitting next to each other closer to the kids, laughing about some old gossip they've laughed about a thousand times before.

"Okay, Peet" Rye turns to him with a smirk.

"Stop calling me that," Peeta groans more dramatically than she's ever heard him, causing her to laugh.

"Whatever, okay, so truth or dare?" He moves his eyebrows challengingly leaning towards his brother with all the mischief in the world.

Peeta, who's laying between her and Rye, turns to look at her, "did you hear that? Sounds like a fly."

"Ugh. Come on." Rye insists, "I'm bored, play."

Peeta turns back to his brother, "fine. Truth."

"No dare!" Rye shoves him but Peeta doesn't react. "Okay, whatever, tell Katniss about the time you peed your pants in second grade."

Peeta sits up in outrage that she hopes is fake, "I did not!"

"Did too!" Rye looks at her around Peeta's head, "He was peeing the bed and his pants way later than he should have. Really concerned us as a family unit, you know."

"Okay, well, talking about things that never happened…" Peeta trails off with a smirk, "dare or dare?"

"Lay it on me," Rye claps his hands, looking for all the world like an overexcited toddler.

"I dare you to…" Peeta trails off, rubbing his chin like a fictional villain. "I dare you to streak across the lake."

"Done!" Rye jumps up and Katniss slaps her hands across her eyes, mortified.

"There's little kids here!" she insists once she hears Rye's pants hit the ground.

"Make sure Mrs. Everdeen sees you!" Peeta calls after his brother with a laugh, pulling her hands off her eyes, "it's okay, he's running that way you can't see anything."

She looks up to an unfortunately clear view of Rye's pale behind and turns her head onto Peeta's shoulder with a horrified groan. Peeta's laughing as he watches his brother run across the green without a care in the world.

"Ew!" The voices of multiple children can be heard in the distance, followed by a rain of laughter.

"Rye Mellark!" she hears her mother call out with a laugh, "stop this now!"

There's sounds of water and Rye screaming obscenities about how cold the water is and Peeta somehow manages to laugh harder.

"Rye Mellark! Get out of the water this instant," she hears her mother call out again just as little Posy can be heard shouting 'Rye Mellark said a no-no word, mama!"

"Done and dusted!" Rye calls out to them on his way back. She hears the rustling of clothes, and Peeta nudges her to let her know she's safe.

She looks up at Rye, his wet face grinning as if any of this was fun. He pulls his t-shirt back on, and it's not until he's buttoning up his flannel that she realizes he's looking at her with a challenge on his face.

"Oh, no way" she shakes her head. "I'm not playing."

"Come on," the eldest Mellark insists. She turns to look at Peeta pointedly, but he lays back on the grass with his eyes closed.

"Peeta!" She shoves him, and he cracks open an eye.

"No nudity," he looks at his brother, "Katniss doesn't like that."

Her mouth is hanging open at his betrayal, Rye laughs.

"Come on, it's just a game." Rye says around an easy smile, "what are you, chicken?"

She glares at him, "I'm not."

"Cluck, cluck, cluck" Rye begins slowly, standing up to imitate a chicken. "Cluck! Cluck!"

She looks over at Peeta incredulously when he 'clucks' at her once.

"Okay, fine!" she looks over at Rye who's visibly enjoying her discomfort, "ask."

"Truth or dare," the boy sits back down on the grass. Peeta opens his eyes to look at her too.

"Dare," she says, her jaw set.

"Ooh!" Rye snaps his fingers, "Okay, a challenge, good!" He looks over at Peeta with mischief, "what should we make her do?"

"Oh, anything embarrassing," he insists with a smile, she scoffs.

"Hm. Everdeen, Everdeen. I dare you to…" he snaps his fingers, "I dare you to embarrass Gale Hawthorne in front of everyone."

"Oh, that's easy," she leans back on her hands. "What do you want, an embarrassing story?"

Peeta chuckles and Rye shakes his head, "no missy, we want a prank."

"What?" she narrows her eyes at the pair.

"A prank. You need to embarrass him in real time, in front of everyone." Peeta explains in an almost bored tone. "It's Rye's favorite dare. He uses it all the time."

"I don't know how to do that!"

"Oh, but I do." Rye lays back down on the grass with a wicked grin, "it'll be way too easy."

She's standing at the edge of the group, shooting anxious looks over at Peeta and Rye who give her these thumbs up with fake encouraging smiles. Everyone is sitting in a loose circle near the big oak trees. The whole group is waiting to watch her prank, but Gale's taking his time. The sun is high in the sky by the time he steps into view.

"Hey!" she calls out too eagerly, already, she hears snickering behind her.

"Hey," he says slower, shooting her a confused look. He puts down the bow near the rest of their stuff and drops his game bag on the floor.

"Oh, what did you catch?" she asks, a touch too loudly.

"A turkey, some rabbits, why?"

"Can I have a look?" she asks clasping her hands to control the movement of at least some of her limbs.

"Yeah, whatever," Gale is still looking at her as if she's grown a second head, but she ignores him to pull open his bag.

"What is this?" she says with the air of a child playing pretend. She pulls out a rabbit by its paw, "Wow."

"What?" He tries to snatch the animal away from her, but she steps out of his grasp.

"I mean, look at it." She pretends to it, "we can't even use this."

"What are you talking about?" he says with annoyance, snatching the rabbit away. "It's fine."

"It looks pretty mangled up to me," someone coughs behind her and the group snickers.

"Wha-"

"Look, Prim" Prim looks at her with a deer-in-headlights look. "What do you think, it's kind of a beginners shot, huh?"

"Uh, sure, yeah."

Gale's face heats up in a combination of embarrassment and anger, especially when Rye can't resist it anymore and starts laughing.

"Um," Gale scratches his head. "What, you really think so?"

"Yeah, it's um, bad." She nods, unsure of how far she's supposed to take this.

"Oh god, Everdeen, you've got to be the worst actress on the planet." Rye says through his laughter. She turns to look at him. "You didn't totally succeed, but it was still funny."

Gale frowns in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

"Oh nothing," Rye shakes his head with a snicker, he turns to jostle his brother, who's laying on his back on the ground next to him and barely looks up from the sketchbook he's got propped against his folded knees. "I guess your little friend can't lie to save her life."

"Huh? Oh no, I guess not," Peeta says, but he looks at her with the inside joke on his face.

She shrugs, a smile flashing across her face for a moment. "Alright, let's eat and get moving again."

They walk for the rest of the afternoon. Rye walks off ahead of her and leaves her alone. Prim walks with Vick and Rory. Posey looks at her with tired eyes, her head resting on her mothers' shoulder just a few steps ahead of her, Katniss' mother at her side, chatting with Hazelle. Katniss scans the trees and the sky, anxious for any sign of danger.

Peeta's walking beside her, but he hasn't spoken to her yet. Occasionally, he speeds up a bit to pick something up and study it, falling back in step with her. Certain things catch his interest best and he tucks those into the pages of his sketchbook, or his pocket. She has noticed him pick up a flower, a fallen leaf, some moss, and a particularly smooth rock. She wonders what he intends to do with them.

After she watches him pick up a pinecone without any explanation she can't help it, "what are you doing?"

He raises his eyebrows, almost as if he'd forgotten she was there. "Oh, I'm picking up stuff that looks cool."

She frowns in confusion, "what do you mean? What's so interesting about leaves?"

He blushes and laughs a little, "oh, yeah. Well, you know, I draw so I think boring things are interesting sometimes." He shrugs, looking down at the pinecone in his hand.

"You're going to draw that stuff?"

He shrugs again. "Yeah, I mean some of it. Sometimes I just like to pick up stuff and put it in my book. I don't think you're going to get it, it's just a weird thing I do."

She chuckles, "Oh so this is just your weakness for beautiful things."

He frowns at her with interest, "what do you mean?"

She rolls her eyes, "you have a weakness for pretty things. They distract you. Get you into trouble."

He snorts, "Uh okay."

"It's true!" she insists.

"I don't think having an eye for beauty is the same thing as a weakness, Katniss" he shakes his head, looking ahead. "Except possibly when it comes to you."

She gulps and drops her gaze to her shoes. What a great time to remind her of his undying love for her.

"So, you agree, it gets you into trouble?"

"No, I don't," he smiles at her. "I mean, look at me, surviving so far this year and the year before that. Seems to me like my weakness is pretty useful right now."

She snorts, "you're hopeless." But even she can see that compliment.

"You should try it sometime," he encourages. "Seeing the beauty in life, I mean. You'll like it."

"Hm," she tilts her head. "How about you just point it out for me?"

"Oh, Katniss, cheating is bad. You have to do your own homework," he shakes his head.

She laughs, "you're an idiot."

He just smiles.

They're setting up their makeshift camp under a collection of trees when she hears it. Or rather doesn't hear it.

"Everyone down!" she shouts, and everyone drops to the grass, peaking at the sky through the leaves.

And there it is, after the unnatural absence of sound, a hovercraft. It goes by at high speed and does not appear to be patrolling. She's pressed against the grass, her heart beating wildly in her chest, and she knows there's no way she could defend her people, if it came down to it.

"It didn't have a capitol seal," Gale whispers into the unnatural silence, his voice brimming with uncontained excitement. "It wasn't Capitol, it wasn't, it must be-"

"No," she snaps at him. Despite being unable to move, her voice remains strong. "No changes to the plan. If you want to live out some fantasy, you go on your own."

It's silent, no one dares contradict her.

She's trying to calm herself and her breathing when it happens again. Another, seal-less hovercraft, followed by a third.

There's a keening sound, and it takes Prim crawling over to hug her for her to understand that she's crying.