Katniss POV.

Peeta's house is a complete mess. Doesn't even look like Peeta's. He has always been very organized and his house was always clean. I remember visiting him once in awhile after the Victory tour and his house was always so cozy and welcoming. The smell of cinnanim and fresh paint was everywhere and it always made me feel warm inside. But now it doesn't smell like that. It actually doesn't smell like anything and it makes me feel empty. The Tv is crashed into million pieces, the furniture is trashed, and there are pans, books, crashes glasses everywhere on the floor. There are also muddy footprints.

I follow them until the end of the hallway, where they finish.

"Peeta?" I call.

What happened? Why is the house like this. Did someone break in? What if they hurt him? But I know better than that 'Of course it was Peeta who did this. He probably had a flashback or something.' Suddenly I feel scared, what if he hurts me? Worst than that what if he hurts himself? I can't have that. I need to find him immediatly.

"Peeta?" I call a litle louder, urgently.

Out of nowhere I can hear mumbles and whispers near me. I look around.

Then I see him. Peeta is curled up in a ball with his hands covering his ears, rocking back and forward under the stair.

"Peeta?" I slowly walk up to him and place myself next to him, eventhough there's not a lot of space under the stairs. I place my arm around him.

His face is contracted into a frown and his eyelids are shut. Tears stream down his face. He is completely wet, shaking violently, and his clouthes are covered with dirt. Probably from being outside.

At first I feel awkward, I really don't know what to do in this situation. Peeta would know, he always knows how to calm me down. What would he do?

I think for a moment. Then I hold his hand and get closer to him.

His mumbles are getting louder, almost turning into screams.

"No... please stop it! STOP!" He chokes out between sobs. I feel a lump forming in my throat and my eyes tearing up. But I can't cry right now. I have to be strong for him, for Peeta.

"Peeta? Peeta, can you hear me?" I ask him. This only results in another round of mumbles and whimpers.

"Peeta, please. It's Katniss. You don't need to be scared, I'll protect you." I whisper to his ear. This seems to be working because his facial expression is softening and his whimpers are turning into loud sobs. I stroke his hair. "Shh it's okay Peeta. It's not real." I say soothingly.

Peeta keeps repeating to himself Not Real until he stops shaking and looks up to me.

"K-Katniss?" He stutters, his voice hoarse from crying.

"Yeah, I came here to check in you." I say in a soothing tone.

"Why?" He says. More like whispers.

Why did I come? That's actually a good question. 'Because I love you.' I think, but I don't say it. Instead I say:

"Because I care."

"Why do you care?" He looks deep in my eyes. They are not cloudy anymore, like they were when he came back from the Capitol. But there's not that sparkle that I used to see, they look empty. I don't answer his question, instead I stand up and let my instinct of taking care of the ones I need tale the controll.

I help him stand and take him upstairs.

"Where we going, Katniss?" He asks sleepily. He barely can stand on his own and I don't even know why. The flashback must have drained him all the energy. I look at him again. He has cuts in his face, one of them is bleeding badly. His covered in dirt.

"Let's get you washed up." I say.

I take him to the bathroom and turn on the shower.

"You can manage to shower alone?" I ask. He nods slightly, though he's looking at the ground.

"I'm going to get you a change of clothes." I say.

With that I leave him alone to shower.

I go to his bedroom, it looks untouched. Every thing is in its place. I go to his wardrobe and look for a change of clothes. He barely has clothes at all, which doesn't even make sense because when we won the Hunger Games, the wardrobes from the Victores Village's houses were packed up with fancy Capitol clothes. He probably didn't want them. I end up picking up a pair of pijama pants and a warm sweater.

I find myself looking at the pictures he has in his bedside table. There is one of a ashy blonde boy with probably five years old holding a older man's hand, also blond, who I assume to be Peeta and his father. The background is a school, district twelve's school. I remember this day, it was the first day of school, the day Peeta first saw me, the day he said he fell in love with me. I smile at the memorie. I look closer at the picture. Peeta is smiling like crazy, his front teeth missing. His blue eyes shine, the same way they always did. My eyes are tearing up again. How I miss this time.

I place the picture where it was and go back to reality.

Peeta's been in the bathroom for a while now. I'd better go check on him.

I knock on the bathroom door. There's no answer so I decide to just come in.

Peeta's under the shower dressed, with his legs to his chest, staring at nothing.

"Peeta, what are you doing?" I ask.

I get no answer.

"Peeta?" I repeat. This time he looks up at me. "When you take a shower your supposed to take your clothes off."

He looks at me questionly "My what?" He asks.

"Your clothes" I turn off the shower and help him out. Unless now he is clean.

I start helping him take off his clothes when he ligthly pushes me back.

"I can do it, don't worry." He says weakly.

"Okay then, I'm going to get something for us to eat." And with that I leave his house and go over to mine to get some left overs of Greasy Sae's soup. I pick the pan and go back to Peeta's. When I arrive I turn on the stove and put there the soup to warm it. The kitchen itself is a complete mess, it's not precisly where I would like to have a meal. Maybe we'll eat in Peeta's room.

I go upstairs to check on Peeta. He is sat on his bed looking at his hands.

"Hey. Are you okay?" I ask him calmly.

He frowns "I guess."

I sit next to him and hold his hand, squeezing it lightly.

"I'm sorry." He finally says.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." He frowns again, but doesn't answer. I look at his burnt hand, much like my own.

"Have you been taking your medicins." I ask.

He nods. I look at him, his face his bruised and the cut on his lip is bleeding.

"Let's clean your cuts." I say.

I guide him to the bathroom and clean his cuts.

I'm searching for some lotion of something for Peeta's burns, one of them in his arm is infected.

"Doesn't it smell burnt?" Peeta suddenly asks. Then it hits me.

"The soup!" I yell and run downstairs. I turn off the stove and serve the soup in two bowls. With that I go upstairs. Peeta's in the bedroom with a box of lotion in his hand.

"Found it." He says.

I smile at him. "Thanks. I brought some soup from my place, I hope your hungry."

He shrugs. I give him the soup. He is still very pale and is shivering.

"Are you cold?" I ask.

He shrugs" A litle"

"Then get under the covers." I say.

He does as he says and I cuddle him in the blankets. I myself am cold but try to shrugg it off. But Peeta notices, of course.

"Katniss, you look cold."

"I am a little but it's fine." I say.

"Do you want to join me?" He asks. He notices what he Just said and blushes. I blush too.

"Well it's a tempting offer." I say. With that I take off my shoes and go under the covers, cuddling with Peeta. He gets closer to me, so that we are warmer.

We finish our soup in silence. I take his bowl and place it in the bedside table.

As if by instinct Peeta puts his arm around me and I cuddle in his chest.

There's a question that as been in my head for a while now and it just leaves my lips before I can stop myself.

"What happened?" I ask.

Peeta understands what I mean since I feel him tensing up.

"This morning I had a flashback, a bad one. I started panicking and I did what I usually do. I run without even thinking. I just get this feeling that someone is coming after me so I never stop. When I got back to my senses it was raining so I run back home." I feel like I'm about to cry but Peeta's face is blank.

This is all my fault. I'm the reason Peeta got hijacked in first place.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault this happened." I say lookimg down at my hands.

"Katniss, it's not your fault, you know it." I don't say anything. Peeta places his hand on my cheek and makes me look up. The moment his hand touches my skin a warm fuzzy feeling spreads all over my body. "It's not your fault, you did everything right. Your the reason we are both here in this moment. Your the reason that the children now can play happily without fears, your the reason nobody starves anymore, your the reason I'm still here." He says.

"But why are we even here if we are miserable, we have nothing to Live for." I insist.

"We have each other. There's nothing else we need. And though we are not in our best today that doesn't mean we aren't going to be. Think in the primroses, for example, They are going to bloom in the future, if we treasure them today. And so are we. Better days will come." He says. I can almost see that old sparkle in his eyes, that hope that things will be better. Saying that after the storm there's a rainbow.

"You think so." I ask, hope feeling my voice.

He smiles "I do Katniss. I really do. But we can't do that alone, we need to protect each other. That's what we do, real or not real?"

"Real." I say.

"Katniss, let's make a pact?" Peeta asks. I nos my head. " Do you promise that by the time the primoses in your garden bloom, we will be cured, taking care of the flowers as well as each other?" Peeta asks.

And that's the moment I realize not everything is lost, and even if it is, it will be returned. And the only way we can grow again is with each other.

"I promise."