Peeta

Katniss kisses me goodbye the morning of the reaping, her bright spirit ever dampened by the impending event. I smile as I squeeze her hand. She will be escorted seperate from me. This is the last I will see of my wife until after she has been reaped and we meet on the train.

"I want you to know," she says softly. "That if I don't make it out of this, you have given me the best five months of my life, Peeta Mellark." I nod and smile sadly.

"You are a survivor, Katniss," I say. "I haven't any doubt you will survive these games." She says nothing more. Just turns and walks off my porch and to her house. She waves and I wave back as we always do and I go in to my house to prepare for the reaping.

As I head out, Prim suddenly comes up onto the porch.

"Peeta!" she says, "thank goodness I've caught you." She looks at me with worry in her eyes and she grabs my hand. "Please, if you have any love for my sister at all, do not do what you plan on doing. Please do not volunteer if Haymitch is reaped." I look at her, confused.

"Why shouldn't I?" I ask. "I plan on doing everything in my power to make sure that the woman I gave my heart to comes home. And the only way I truly believe that will happen, is if I do not." I pull my hand away from her and turn to leave. "Now I will tell you that I love you as though you were my sister of flesh and blood, Primrose. I will do everything to support you and your sister long after I have left this world. I'm sorry to have this be what must happen, but I see no other way." She nods and begins to cry so I hug the talented young lady who doesn't know that she has been my sister for two months.

"Please Peeta," she says. "Though I cannot tell you why, please consider just being her mentor. Save her with your words and not a knife." I shake my head and leave her side.

"I'm sorry Prim," I say. "That is simply not how it works in these games." She tries to say more, but I just walk towards the justice building and the reaping.

Katniss stands alone in a fenced off area at the side of the clearing. Haymitch stands next to me and I notice him staring at me. Katniss is reaped and walks with her head held high up to stand next to Effie. We look at each other and I know she sees my intention in my eyes, shaking her head as Haymitch's name is called.

"I volunteer as tribute," I say steping forward and Haymitch grabs my arm and I look at him.

"I can't let you do that," he says and I pull away for him and walk towards the podium. I meet Katniss eyes as I reach her side and she just looks away, a tear running down her cheek. We turn to leave to our rooms for goodbyes, but are roughly grabbed and pushed to the train.

"I need to say goodbye!" Katniss screams out. "I can't leave without saying goodbye!" The peacekeepers just keep pushing her towards the train.

"No time," one of them tells her. "You are to be delivered upon the Capital immediately." As we are thrown onto the train and the door is shut, I turn to find Katniss running through the train, obviously trying to shut herself up in her room. I follow her to find her histerically sobbing on her old bed.

"Katniss, I'm sorry, but I couldn't let you come here alone," I say and she gets up and turns on me, repeatedly hitting me with her fists against my chest.

"I hate you Peeta!" She screams. "You've ruined everything. Everything I had planned. You are not supposed to be here. You are not supposed to die."

"Katniss, I want to make sure you get home," I say. "I want you to live a happy life with your sister. I couldn't in good conscience send you in the arena with Haymitch." She doesn't even seem to lksten as she crumbles to the floor crying.

"We were supposed to be a family," she sobs. "I can't do this alone. I don't even want a baby. I don't want children. Now you expect me to watch you die. Expect me to go on as a poor widowed mother?" I kneel down next to her and lift her face from her hands, confused by what she is saying.

"Katniss," I say. "I don't understand. What child are you talking about? You aren't pregnant." She looks down and a tear runs down her cheek.

"I am, Peeta," she says quietly. "I have been carrying your child for over three months." I stand up and turn away from her, pacing the floor.

"And you never told me?!" I ask. "How long have you known?" Katniss says nothing to me and I make her look at me. "How long Katniss?!"

"Three moths," she says. "On the day they brought you in from your flogging." I turn away from her and sit on the bed, running my hands through my hair with frustration. With a little bit of effort, Katniss stands and walks over to me.

"And you never told me?" I say, tears welling in my own eyes now. "Why did you keep this from me for so long?"

"I wanted so badly to tell you, to tell everyone important to me I was carrying your child," Katniss says, obviously still fighting her tears. "I even began to try to tell you when you started to get better, but that was the night they announced we were to come here again. And then I couldn't Peeta. I couldn't tell you because I was certain if you knew you would do something foolish like this. I prayed you would not follow me here. I even made a deal with Haymitch to volunteer for you, so that we both would have a chance of living. Of being a family. But now, now you've gone and thrown your life away." I stand and face her.

"It is not throwing my life away if it is to save you and our child," I say. "I shall be proud to know I died to save my family." She begins to cry again and I grab her and hold her.

"Peeta, I can't," she says before losing her ability to speak and crying into my chest.

"Yes you can," I say. "Because no mater what will come or what will happen to me, I shall always love you and I will always be with you." I hold her close to me and we stand there together as the train takes us further and further away from our home and closer to the place I will not return from.

Or so I thought.