Instantly, you whipped your head to your left. "Who's there?" you demanded, your grip tightening on the knife.

The hoarse voice laughed again. "Why hello there, (Y/N)."

"P-Peeta?" you asked, crouching by the pile of rocks. "Are you--AHH!"

Peeta's eyes suddenly flew open, and the blue against the grey startled you. "Camouflage," he smiled. "The last line of defense."

"Ah, you," you smirked, helping him out of the rock pile and pulling him away. "I honestly thought I would never see you again!" you cried now, hugging him so tightly and laughing in relief. "And that, my friend, is very effective defense. I almost didn't see you."

"Well, now you do," Peeta grinned, helping you remove all the rocks so that he could stretch again. "Ahh. That feels better."

You nodded as you held out a hand to help him up, but then thought better. "Wait. Your ankle."

The smile was soon replaced by shock on Peeta's face, and he bowed his head low as he rolled up the leg of his pants, showing not only the ankle that had been crushed while he was running away from the fire balls, but also the nasty burn on the calf of his other leg. Your breath immediately hitched. No way could he be able to walk.

"Do you have any first aid things?" you asked.

"Yeah. Bandages. Gauze. Haymitch also sent me medicine, but with me lying low here I didn't have time to put any more on," he admitted. "I managed to hide my bag over there," he added, pointing off to another shelf of rock just over your shoulder, "but I doubt I can walk and get it."

"You're right. Best if you stay here," you said. "I'll give you a knife to defend." With that, you gave him a blade that Clove gave you--a fairly long blade with a sharp point, somewhat like a dagger. To this, Peeta nodded and glanced at it in awe.

"That's amazing," he murmured, smiling his usual grin as he tested the weight and balance of the knife in his hand. "You must have gotten a lot from the Cornucopia. All I had was a knife, but it's in my pack."

"I'll get it," you said, getting up from his side as you walked over to the shelf where he said his bag was. Sure enough, there was a black handle sticking out from the pebbles, and you yanked it free, dusting the surface of the pack off and ridding it of any rock powder. Then you went back to Peeta.

"No one there?" you asked.

Peeta shook his head. "No one. I guess everyone's trying to let the news sink in. That two winners could be allowed from the same district."

"Funny why they bring this up," you shrugged. "I mean, there's six of us left, and there are only two districts with a chance of winning under this new rule."

"Two? Oh. Us, and District 2," Peeta realized as he watched you open his bag, locating the burn medicine. "How's everything with them?"

You shook your head. "I don't want to talk about it."

"(Y/N)," Peeta murmured.

"No!" you cried. "Stop thinking that I might be able to open up to you, Peeta. We're not even friends anymore. Why do you suddenly care about me?"

Unbeknownst to you, this immediately wounded Peeta. "Are you seriously still snapping at me?" he demanded.

"I wish I wouldn't have to, but you have a girlfriend back home who's probably waiting for you," you retorted, grabbing a bandage and wetting it by the river, coming back and then cleaning up the wound. "Who can't lie? No one wouldn't fall for Katniss Everdeen. She's probably much better than I am."

Peeta gasped and winced as the wet bandage made contact with his burn, but he managed to hold his screams in as you wiped the wound free of grime. "Look, (Y/N), we've got to stop with this. Honestly, I can't believe you wouldn't forgive me for such a genuine apology."

This time, you sighed in exasperation, glaring hard at him. "Okay, Peeta. Look, I..."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, tears started to brim in your eyes, burning them until they started to spill onto your cheeks, thick and fast. You dropped the wet bandage onto his pack and began to cry, curling yourself up into a ball as Peeta looked on in confusion.

"(Y-Y/N)?" he stammered, feeling his lips go dry and his heart pound harder than ever against his chest. He quickly moved forward, opened his arms, and enveloped you in his embrace, burying his head into the crook of your neck as you cried into his shirt for a while. This move suddenly shocked you, but you didn't resist it at all, sobbing your heart out into him.

"I...I'm sorry," you managed to say between shaky gasps. "It sounds really stupid, but...I don't know...I'm sorry for...not forgiving you and...leaving you like this..." you finally blurted out before the sobs took over and all you could do was cry. You hated having to break down like this--it would ruin your image of being a strong contender, a fighter. But as the tears continued to drench Peeta's shirt, memories began to rush back to you. The time Haymitch wanted to expose you to the Capitol as a weakling, someone vulnerable, for the interview. The time Peeta revealed he loved Katniss, only to try and ask you for forgiveness for hurting you. The time Cato told you that he wanted you and Peeta to stay together. People have been rooting for the both of you, and even if they didn't mean to, they wanted you to retain something from yourself. And ditching Peeta moments before you entered the arena wasn't like you at all.

Peeta said nothing at first as he continued to hold onto you, feeling your heart beat close to his as his only way to remain calm. He had to admit, he wasn't like himself either when he said he loved Katniss. That, he already realized, was a big mistake. That wasn't even what he wanted to do. True, his eyes glaze over, but that was only in admiration for her, to stay strong and protect her family. You, he realized, were not going distances to protect Katniss's sister and her family, but to make sure he got home and lived a good life.

And amidst all of that, he finally came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't Katniss he wished to spend the rest of his days with.

It was you.

"(Y/N)," he whispered, gently rubbing your back with his hand in a slow manner that calmed you down. "(Y/N), I forgive you. We're a team now. And we'll get home together."

To this, you lifted your head up to meet his eyes. "I just don't want to lose you the way I did so many allies. Like Glimmer, Marvel, Pearl...Rue..."

"You didn't kill her did you?" Peeta suddenly asked.

"Why in the world would I kill her?" you asked. "I would never! She was my ally! It was Marvel who killed her!"

"Okay, okay," he laughed, letting you go slowly. "I believe you."

"To think that I would kill someone so...so young--that's impossible," you whispered.

"I know," he whispered back, stroking a thumb on your cheek, sending butterflies floating through your stomach and rising to your throat, rendering you speechless. "And I won't leave you. I promise. We'll protect each other." With that, he reached his hand out for yours and closed his fingers around your palm. Instinctively, you curled your fingers around his hand, a smile tugging on your lips again as you wiped the last of your tears. It felt good to have Peeta's comfort again.

You nodded. "Yeah."

Time flew as you quickly tended to Peeta's wounds, ranging from the three tracker jacker stings he got to the burn on his calf to the ankle that he sprained. "You're lucky that's only a sprain," you said bitterly as you wadded up some of the gauze to create a dressing for the wound, despite it not being an actual open wound. But it helped to immobilize the ankle until he was able to walk again. "If it was broken, you'd be worse off. Trust me."

"Oh. That's pleasant to hear," Peeta joked as you wrapped the bandages tightly around his ankle, pinning the end down with a paper clip so that the bandage wouldn't unravel. "Wow. What is it that you're not good at, (Y/N)?"

Moving on from you, you thought, though you didn't dare say that out loud.

"I don't know yet," you said. "But we'll see. Now can you walk...?" You got up and held a hand out to Peeta again, and this time he gasped loudly as he was pulled to his feet, lifting his bad ankle up in the air as he recoiled amidst the pain.

"Okay," you murmured. "So no." With that, you helped him shoulder his pack, wrapped an arm around him, and felt him grip on your waist and hand as he leaned on you heavily, limping painfully away from the river bank. It soon dawned on you that you have no idea where to go.

"So? Where should we be going?" Peeta asked lightly. "You know very well that with my ankle bound like this, I can't climb a tree."

You nodded in acknowledgement, and was about to suggest staying here in the open where it was safe for him so that you didn't have to move around so much when your eyes alighted on a cave.

"Over there," you nodded, setting your sights on the cave as you lead Peeta through. Once you got there, it didn't take long before Peeta crashed onto the floor of the cave, and you smiled faintly as you unpacked your sleeping bag and placed it under him. Obediently, he rolled into it.

"Do you need anything else?" you asked, setting your bags on the side of the cave.

Peeta nodded. "You have food?"

"Yeah." Immediately you got out the remainder of your groosling and greens, handing them to Peeta as well as a handful of blueberries, which he ate. Then once he was full, he reached out and took your hand again, which took you by surprise.

"Peeta?" you asked. "What's wrong?"

Peeta hesitated, not exactly sure how to word his request. "Uh...(Y/N)...about that night..."

Your breath hitched.

"You do love me, do you?" he asked.

Why was he bringing this up? You nodded without hesitation. "Yes. I do. But you have Katniss."

"I made a mistake," he said, stroking the back of your hand with his thumb as he reached up with his other hand and cupped your cheek. "When I saw you with Cato...I--I felt jealous. I mean, well, I'm just going to say that right off the bat because I really didn't know what was going between you and him but when I did I have to say that I have to take back what I said in the Capitol in my interview because--"

He didn't even get to finish. Next moment, you leaned in, guided by his hand as he unconsciously pulled you close, and pressed your lips gently to his. Peeta's eyes widened in alarm when he realized what was going on, but once he did, the initial shock was soon replaced with love as he guided you through the moment of bliss. Lips locked and pulled away as you and he moved together in sync, a pleasant warm tingle starting from your head all the way down to your arms, your legs. Probably not the best way to initiate a first kiss, but it was still sweet, all the same.

Soon, you pulled away, gazing into Peeta's blue eyes as you breathed heavily. "You sure you..." you murmured. "You...so...you..." you mumbled, at a loss for words.

"I'm sure," he whispered back, pulling you down so that you were lying side by side with him. "It's not Katniss anymore. It's you. And I don't want you to leave my side. Ever."

You nodded, your head feeling light and woozy but still reeling from the moment of truth.

That Peeta loved you.

Maybe, maybe things won't be too bad in the arena after all.

"I'm...I'm going to catch a few z's," Peeta told you now, curling up beside you as he closed his eyes, his hand still holding on to yours.

You nodded and kissed him on the cheek. "Good night, Peeta. I'll take first watch." With that, you took out your night-vision glasses. Glimmer wasn't wrong--these glasses are seriously high tech. As you laid down in the sleeping bag with Peeta beside you, maybe, just maybe, things could change for the better.

"Thank you, Cato," you whispered softly to the sky, knowing that somewhere out there, Cato would be thinking about you. Smiling at the fulfillment of Cato's promise, you kept your eyes open for the rest of the night, looking out for potential dangers, for anything that would endanger you and Peeta...

Anything that would separate you from him again.