Always

Chapter 1

Katniss P.O.V.

I am standing on a shiny, silver platform. It takes me a minute to realize where I am. And when I do, I start panicking. The higher the platform rises the faster my heart beats. I think my heart is about to burst out of my chest by the time I reach the top.

I don't even have a chance to get my thoughts together before it happens. There's not even a countdown before the tolling of the gong. That's when I see him. The boy with the bread. My dandelion in the spring. His eyes meet mine just seconds before he falls. I have just enough time to notice the knife in his back before the cannon sounds.

I start running towards him. I can hear myself screaming, but my lips aren't moving. I am about two yards away when it appears. The hovercraft to pluck my dandelion away from me.

I lunge myself towards him hoping that I can somehow pull him away from death. That's when I'm startled awake by a pair of warm, strong arms wrapping around me. I jump up. Still hyperventilating and unable to breath.

I'm not thinking straight, but somehow I manage to wrap my arms around Peeta's body. He pulls me in close, and soon I'm shaking his whole body too.

"It's okay," he whispers. "It's not real." I look up into his blue eyes that were once full of hatred. Ready to kill me all because of President Snow. I start trembling again at the thought of the most snakelike person I've ever known. Peeta pulls me back a little. "Are you okay?" He asks as he pushes a strand of my hair away from my face. I nod my head, still mute from terror.

"Yeah," I somehow manage to choke out. He leans down and kisses me. I get that feeling again. The feeling of wanting more but never being able to get enough. The same feeling I got on the beach. That was almost a year ago. Seems a lot longer considering what we've been through since then. Especially the whole thing with Peeta being hijacked. He still suffers from that.

Every so often he'll ask me a question about something that's happened. There have been nights where we've stayed up playing the Real or Not Real game. Nights where I'm not comforted from my nightmares right away because he's up pacing the hallways. Clearing his head. But he's always there the second I scream.

"What was it about this time?" Peeta asks as he sits down next to me. He wraps his arms back around me as I lay my head on his chest. He knows that sometimes talking about my nightmares helps to calm me down a little.

"We were back in the arena," I say hoarsely. "I had just enough time to get a glimpse of you before you died," I say as my voice cracks on those last few words. "The last thing I saw was them coming to take you away from me." The tears start rolling down my cheeks again.

"It's okay now," Peeta assures me as he kisses my head. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Great," I say smiling. "I just wish that I could stop having nightmares about losing the people I love. It's true. Peeta, my mom, Gale, Prim. Which is weird because I've already lost Prim. But in a way I've already lost Gale, too. I haven't seen him since he moved to District 2. There's a longer list of people I care about, but those four frequent my nightmares.

"It's okay. Broken memories are even scarier," Peeta says as he pulls me back just enough where he can see my eyes. "The only tangible memory that I got back from the arena is you. You're the only person who I can trust to tell me exactly what happened in there."

"I'm not the only living memory," I say as I stand up. "Wait here." I walk down the hallway and to the study. The room where President Snow had his meeting with me right before the Victory Tour. I look to the middle of the table and see it. Sitting right there where I left it. Laying on the parachute and replacing the vase of roses that were without a doubt place there by Snow. I pick up the parachute careful not to drop the object it's encasing. I walk back to the bedroom and hand the parachute to Peeta.

As he carefully unfolds it he looks up at me with disbelief. "The pearl," he says as he closes his eyes shut. Tears run down his face.

I sit down on the bed next to him and wrap my arms around his neck. We sit there in silence for a few minutes until Peeta speaks up.

"I wish I could freeze this moment and live in it forever," he says obviously remembering that last meaningful moment that we had to spend together right before the Quarter Quell.

"I'm glad Snow left that memory alone," I say smiling.

"There's a lot of things that I'm glad Snow left alone," Peeta says smiling from ear to ear. "And I don't mean just memories either," he says as he kisses me. "Were gonna make it," he whispers. "It's all gonna be okay."