Mockingjay: the dawning

Chapter 1:Arriving home

Katniss finally got home, feeling dead inside. Her sister was gone and her mother was in the Capitol training doctors. District 12's victors village was a ghost town. She entered her house and put down her bag containing all the things that ever mattered to her. Her bow and arrow. Her mockingjay pin. Her mockingjay suit. Her photo of her father. Her pearl from Peeta. The spile from the 75th hunger games. The locket with the pictures of her mother, prim and gale. And buttercup. She took her back home. Buttercup was her last piece of prim. She opened the bag and dug out the locket. She frantically opened it and ripped out the picture of gale. He killed prim. He was supposed to save her.
"How could someone I loved so much hurt me so badly....?" Asked Katniss, meekly.                       She sat on the couch. She thought she was going insane. She took her bow and arrow, and left the house for the forest. 

Hunting. That's what would clear my mind, thought Katniss. She managed to shoot one bird, but then came home. As she approached the gates to victors village, she saw someone bent over the flower beds infront of peeta's house. She drew her bow and arrow, anticipating an intruder. The intruder turned around. It was Peeta, holding a yellow flower. 

"They're primroses. I found them at the edge of the forest."
Katniss dropped her bow and arrow and ran to hug him. He put the flower down and held Katniss in their close embrace. Katniss had tears in her eyes.
"You came back too?" Asked Katniss, sincerely.
"No point staying in the Capitol. And I figured you would be here." replied Peeta.
He was promptly cut off by Katniss kissing him. She was so relieved that he had recovered from the hijacking. She had her Peeta back.

"You want to come in and cook this goose with me?"
"Sure." Replied Peeta.
As they came inside, Peeta saw the locket thrown on the table and the picture of gale torn and missing from the locket.
"Katniss, is everything ok?" asked Peeta, politely, as he held up the locket, clearly displaying the missing photo.
"Yes. Why?" She replied, defensively.
"What happened between you and gale?" Peeta enquires.
"Nothing." She states.
"What happened? I know you well enough to know that you are not okay." He replies, empathetically.
"Gale killed prim." She states.
"WHAT?!?" He exclaims.
"You heard me." She states.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" He asks, in disbelief.
"Because I didn't want you to feel bad for me. Especially because you were still recovering from the hijacking." She says, quietly.
There was an awkward silence in the room as Katniss was plucking feathers from the bird.
"You are still trying to protect me. Real or not real?" asked Peeta.
"Real." answered Katniss, meekly.
"You shut Gale out. Real or not real." he asks.
"Real." She states, looking at the floor.
Peeta is silent, and tension mounts.
"He killed my sister." she beings, still looking at the floor.
"Coin killed your sister. Gale just gave her a way to carry it out." he begins.
Katniss is lost for words.
"She knew that if prim was still alive, you would seek ultimate justice. That would mean getting rid of her too. She was going to end up just like Snow. And look where that ended her." he continues.

By now, Katniss was stewing the goose in a pot, ready to change the subject.
"What are you planning on doing now that you are back home?" asked Peeta, changing the topic.
"I'm supposed to be hiding until President Paylor 'pardons' me." she replies.
"Truth be told you saved panem from another 75 years of dictatorship." he replies.
"I know, but not everyone realises that." she replies, stewing the goose.
"I know that all the victors know." he states empathetically.
"That's different. We are all wise to the capitol's political dictatorships. It's not new for us who have all been through hell and back thanks to a particularly poisonous dictator." she counters.
"The masses will eventually come to their senses. The remaining masses are mostly ones who either sided with Rebels or were rebels. That's the only way they survived." he says, ending the conversation.
Peeta crept up behind Katniss and hugged her from behind. Katniss was pleasantly surprised, as much as anything could be pleasant these days.
Katniss noticed Peeta had mixed up a bowl of dough.
"Are making something to eat with the goose?" she asks.
"Bread."
Katniss left the pot of goose on the stove, and joined Peeta in kneading the dough.

"Do you know if they have any plans to rebuild district 12?" asked Katniss as she kneaded a piece of dough.
"I know that as soon as you are pardoned by Paylor, Plutarch has a collection of pre made buildings that will be flown into 12 so people can live here again."
"What about the people? What is 12's industry going to be?"
"They are going to make 12's industry medicine."
Katniss had tears welling up in her eyes as she was putting the dough in the oven.
"Katniss?" asked Peeta as he heard he quiet sobs.
"I'm okay, really."
"No, you're not. What's wrong?"
"Medicine. 12. Prim." Did Katniss between her quiet sobbing.
Peeta said nothing. He hugged her and held her close. He couldn't think of anything else that would make her feel better at this moment.
"It's Plutarch's way of honouring Prim." Said Peeta, as he shut the oven with the loaf of bread inside. He left the goose simmering on the stove, picked Katniss up and took her to the couch. She curled up next to him, and put her head on his chest.
"What are we going to do?" asked Katniss, as she found herself holding on to Peeta.