Peeta sat at the table staring at the stair case. The window behind him was still dark. It was hard to tell if it was letting up or not. The only source of light came from the oven.

In front of him was a mess of pastel drawing sticks and parchments. Stormy grey eyes followed his gaze. When they started shimmering he quickly gathered them up and placed them gently in the leather satchel where he kept his current supplies.

He sat hunched over, elbows on the table working his fingertips into the bridge of his nose. For today to work he needed to keep his personal demons away. His heart ached. Slowly he drew his breath in deliberately counting the way Dr. Aurelius had instructed him.

At his last session he had brought up his plan. The line was quiet for minutes on end. A prickle of impatience flared and as he was opening his mouth the doctor responded.

"Peeta…you have no control over anything. Especially not over her feelings. I do support what you are trying to do but…if –"

"Yes I understand." I didn't want to hear it again. What would be, would be.

A small metallic ding brought him out of his reverie. He looked up momentarily confused, the kitchen window was much lighter than it had be mere moments before. He had a plan.

He pushed himself off the kitchen stool, wincing as the stiffness of his distal ached as he stood swaying slightly before crossing to the oven to pull out his work. The warm aroma filling the kitchen as he went to set the baking sheet down.

"That smells delicious."

His body jerked involuntarily as if he had been stung and the tray clattering to the countertop. He let out a hiss as his fingers came in contact with the hot metal. "Damn," he winced looking over his shoulder to see her standing in the kitchen when mere moments ago she had not been there. He hadn't heard her get up. He was glad he had returned the drawings to the satchel.

"Oh, you're hurt. I…I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you…" she walked over and took his hand guiding him to the faucet. Turning the nozzle to where only a small dribble of water came out and held his hand under the cold stream.

Peeta stared in disbelief, unsure if the throbbing in his fingers was due to the burn or to the touch of the woman who stood next to him. His senses were coming of the fight or flight trigger he had experienced at the surprise of her voice and the pain and now the touch.

He leaned into the body next to him, his nose brushing her hair, he felt her stiffen for a moment and then relax. "It's feeling better, thank you." Instinct took over, the familiarity of her being, all the details he had learned about her through their years together. He worked his fingers into hers and held her hands the cool touch of the water was an added sensation.

She held still, not pulling away…she was on the opposite end of the hunter/prey relationship.

Peeta moved slowly as to not startle her, his cheek running down the silkiness of her hair, he felt a little drunk not quite there like it was a dream of sorts, one in which de desperately did not want to wake from. His lips touched the soft skin behind her ear and continued trailing down to her neck. He kissed each freckle from her neck down to her shoulder, lips smoothing the goose flesh that trailed from his touch.

He couldn't look at the eyes that haunted his drawings, not yet. His forehead kept them connected as he pressed it against her temple rocking side to side until their noses touched. She wasn't breathing but her pulse was heightened. He took a deep breath and closed his mouth on hers perhaps rougher than he had intended.

Katniss took a gasping breath.

He could feel the air being pulled from him and from the kitchen the air tasting of bread and tears. He wasn't sure when his hands had found their way to her hair gripping it like a lifeline. He felt the cold drip of water down his neck her hands cold and wet, the sound of the water dribbling quietly in the background trying not to intrude.

The gasps turned into sobs and he held her as her body was wracked with the pain of their reunion. They sank to the floor leaning against the kitchen cabinet as she clutched him and he held her in his arms. She sounded like a wounded animal. Pain and anguish coursing through her, everything she never allowed herself to feel flowing forth as a torrent of emotions.

Peeta held her in her grief it was a shared grief. The only difference was he had worked though this with Haymitch.

Rays of light came in through the window and Peeta watched the hues changing on the tiny particles that were floating in the air. Watching the light working its way across his field of vision, it was how he could tell the time was passing. It had still been more or less dark when he kissed her, she had sobbed until the light had worked its way off the ceiling and onto the highest part of the wall.

His body ached and was numb in places but he would not relinquish his hold on her body she had fallen asleep sitting between his legs, arms wrapped around his neck face buried in the hollow of his neck, her knees under his right arm. His only concession to his comfort was his raised left leg supporting most of her back and his left arm. But that too was becoming unbearable, the prosthetic rubbing against the elastic bandage. He would have to make sure he rubbed the vestiges of the edema completely from the limb but that could wait.

Today marked the anniversary of losing their child.

Today marked the first kiss in over a year.

In a year that was filled with many painful unknowns he couldn't bring himself to move for fear of decimating the small bubble of hope that had welled up uncomfortably in his heart. Vulnerability was holding the woman he loved and not knowing if she had returned to him. He sat silently breathing in the smell of her, memorizing the details he had missed. Telling him-self it was because he had the time, not because of the fear he might spend another year kept at arms-length.

The sun slowly crawled its way down the wall.

…

There was a whisper that drew her away from the child that ran through the meadow evading her…it was a word breathed out in the dark past of her memories one that had been calling to her. One from which she had been running from.

Her eyelids fluttered confused by her surroundings momentarily.

There is was again, like a memory long forgotten. The breath warm against her ear.

"Always."

She has been drowning this past year. It was worse, so much worse, than the loss of Prim. Never had it occurred to her that she would face something more terrible than losing her beloved sister. Yet, she had lost a piece of her body and her entire soul.

"Always." Came the whisper again.

She was rising. For a moment she fought to stay below to hang onto the dark, it was safe in the deep abyss. Now it was a life and death struggle, she had been given a lifesaving breath and her soul had awakened to find that it had been there all along. With it came the price, the unbearable pain, the howl of desperation…had that really been her.

"Always."

And her heart constricted in fear, she had to get out and she kicked frantically to the surface to the light that shown brightly above. Her soul was waiting. Fear had paralyzed her but life had seeped in. I'm coming she thought desperately. Peeta. Will you stay with me?

…

His eyes opened. Had he fallen asleep? No, he hadn't quite been asleep but he hadn't been exactly awake either. He was held in the in-between and he heard her whisper. "Peeta. Will you stay with me?"

He found himself staring into the fathomless depths of her soul. The gray eyes piercing, devoid of the veil they had worn over the year. Her hands were warm on the sides of her face she was searching for something. There was recognition; there was a myriad of emotions playing out one after another, tears suspended, and waiting.

His face hardened with a fierce anger he hadn't known in so long a determination to be there no matter what their demons brought them.

"Always." His voice was clear, unwavering, and sure.

His mouth met hers roughly but she responded in kind with the passion that comes from surviving the darkest circles of hell and living to see another morning. The lost being found in the realm of life giving desire, with the pain that lets you know you are alive. Giving and taking and when they were utterly spent, they stayed there in a tangle of limbs, neither one moving. The sound of the water continued softly.

a/n: Um…so that happened. First off let me apologize to everyone who has signed up for story alerts. I stopped writing on this because I was unsure where I was going. Just a side note Katniss surprised me by coming to the kitchen…that wasn't where I was going with this at all. I'm rambling. For you twenty-three souls that signed up to find out what happens next, thank you so much it means the world to me. So I will continue. Maybe if I can find some sort of rhythm to the writing I'll finally spill what's been happening in my head with these two. I don't know who is reading who might have young kids or know young kids but even in solid relationships children can throw you for a loop. And I can't get it out of my head how these two broken souls find a way to power through that. So onward we shall go.