The sound of rain drumming on the roof of her house gently pulled her toward consciousness.
She fought to return to sleep though, wrapped in a warm cocoon of blankets, safe at home.
She was vaguely aware that her head ached.
Possibly she had the flu and this is why she was allowed to stay in bed, even though she could tell she had been asleep a long time.
Her mother's hand stroked her cheek and she didn't push it away as she would in wakefulness, never wanting her to know how much Livia craved that gentle touch.
Then there was a voice, the wrong voice, not her mother's.
"Livia", It said, "Livia, can you hear me?"
Livia's eyes opened and the sense of security vanished.
She was not home, she was in a dim, chilly cave.
Her bare feet freezing despite the cover.
The air tainted with the unmistakable smell of blood.
The haggard, pale face of a boy slid into view, and after an initial jolt of alarm, Livia felt better, "Peeta."
"Hey", He muttered softly, "Good to see your eyes again."
"How long have I been out?" Livia asked.
"Not sure. I woke up yesterday evening and you were lying next to me in a very scary pool of blood", He explained, and Livia could tell by his voice it had definitely worried him, "I think it's stopped finally, but I wouldn't sit up or anything."
Livia gingerly lifted her hand to her head and found it bandaged.
The simple gesture left her weak and dizzy.
Peeta held a bottle to her lips and she drank thirstily.
"You're better." Livia noted.
"Much better. Whatever you shot into my arm did the trick", He said, "By this morning, almost all the swelling in my leg was gone."
He didn't seem angry about her tricking him, drugging him, and running off to the feast.
Maybe she was just too beat-up and she would hear about it later when she was stronger.
But for the moment, he was all gentleness.
"Did you eat?" Livia quizzed.
"I'm sorry to say I gobbled down three pieces of that groosling before I realized it might have to last a while. Don't worry, I'm back on a strict diet." He assured.
"No, it's good. You need to eat. I'll go hunting soon." Livia muttered.
"Not too soon, all right?" He started, "You just let me take care of you for a while."
Livia didn't really seem to have much choice.
Peeta fed her bites of groosling and raisins and made her drink plenty of water.
He rubbed some warmth back into her feet and wrapped them in his jacket before tucking the sleeping bag back up around her chin.
"Your boots and socks are still damp and the weather's not helping much." He sighed.
There was a clap of thunder, and Livia saw lightning electrify the sky through an opening in the rocks.
Rain dripped through several holes in the ceiling, but Peeta had built a sort of canopy over Livia's head and upper body by wedging the square of plastic into the rock above her.
"I wonder what brought on this storm? I mean, who's the target?" Peeta quizzed.
"Cato and Thresh", Livia said without thinking, "Foxface will be in her den somewhere, and Kirin- she cut me an then..."
Livia trailed off.
"I know Kirin's dead. I saw it in the sky last night", Peeta muttered, "Did you kill her?"
"No. Thresh broke her skull with a rock." Livia explained.
"Lucky he didn't catch you, too." Peeta jeered.
The memory of the feast returned full-force and Livia felt sick, "He did. But he let me go."
Then, of course, Livia had to tell him.
About things she had kept to herself because he was too sick to ask and she wasn't ready to relive anyway.
Like the explosion and her ear and Rue's dying and Marvel and the bread.
All of which led to what happened with Thresh and how he was paying off a debt of sorts.
"He let you go because he didn't want to owe you anything?" Peeta quizzed.
"I just- sung to her until her last breath. Then I surrounded her in wildflowers", Livia explained, but there was a coldness to her voice, "It wasn't much, but I guess it was something..."
Peeta was desperate to cling to her warmth, deciding on changing the subject.
"Cato and Thresh, huh? I guess I'd be spouting too much hope if I believed that they'd simultaneously destroy eachother." Peeta quipped.
But the thought only upset Livia, "I think we would like Thresh. I think he'd be our friend."
"Then let's hope Cato kills him, so we don't have to." Peeta sighed grimly.
Livia didn't want Cato to kill Thresh at all.
She didn't want anyone else to die.
But it was absolutely not the kind of thing that victors went around saying in the arena.
Despite her best efforts, she could feel tears starting to pool in her eyes.
Peeta looked at her in concern, "What is it? Are you in a lot of pain?"
Livia gave him another answer, because it was equally true but can be taken as a brief moment of weakness instead of a terminal one.
"I want to go home, Peeta." She said plaintively, like a small child.
She missed her brothers.
She missed Dominic's stupid big glasses and Ambrose's stupid laugh and Augustus stupid, stupid humming.
She missed falling asleep jammed into one bed, just the four of them.
"You will. I promise." He assured, and bent over to give Livia a kiss.
"I want to go home now." Livia sighed.
"Tell you what. You go back to sleep and dream of home. And you'll be there for real before you know it", Peeta suggested, "Okay?"
"Okay", Livia whispered, "Wake me if you need me to keep watch."
"I'm good and rested, thanks to you and Haymitch. Besides, who knows how long this will last?" He quipped.
What did he mean?
The storm?
The brief respite it brought them?
The Games themselves?
Livia didn't know, but she was too sad and tired to ask.
It was evening when Peeta woke her again.
The rain had turned to a downpour, sending streams of water through the ceiling where earlier there had been only drips.
Peeta had placed the broth pot under the worst one and repositioned the plastic to deflect most of it from Livia.
She felt a bit better- able to sit up without getting too dizzy- and was absolutely famished.
So was Peeta.
It was clear he had been waiting for her to wake up to eat and was eager to get started.
There was not much left.
Two pieces of groosling, a small mishmash of roots, and a handful of dried fruit.
"Should we try and ration it?" Peeta asked.
"No, let's just finish it. The groosling's getting old anyway, and the last thing we need is to get sick off spoiled food." Livia said, dividing the food into two equal piles.
They tried to eat slowly, but they were both so hungry, they were done in a couple of minutes.
Livia's stomach was in no way satisfied.
"Tomorrow's a hunting day." Livia jeered.
"I won't be much help with that", Peeta said, "I've never hunted before."
"I'll kill and you cook", Livia offered, "And you can always gather."
"I wish there was some sort of bread bush out there." Peeta huffed.
"The bread they sent me from District Eleven was still warm", Livia said with a sigh, "Here, chew these."
She handed him a couple of mint leaves and popped a few in her own mouth.
It was hard to even see the projection in the sky, but it was clear enough to know there were no more deaths that night.
So Cato and Thresh hadn't had it out yet.
"Where did Thresh go? I mean, what's on the far side of the circle?" Livia asked Peeta.
"A field. As far as you can see it's full of grasses as high as my shoulders. I don't know, maybe some of them are grain. There are patches of different colors. But there are no paths." Peeta explained.
"I bet some of them are grain. I bet Thresh knows which ones, too", Livia said, "Did you go in there?"
"No. Nobody really wanted to track Thresh down in that grass. It has a sinister feeling to it. Every time I look at that field, all I can think of are hidden things. Snakes, and rabid animals, and quicksand", Peeta jeered, "There could be anything in there."
"Maybe there is a bread bush in that field", Livia joked, "Maybe that's why Thresh looks better fed now than when we started the Games."
"Either that or he's got very generous sponsors", Peeta explained, "I wonder what we'd have to do to get Haymitch to send some bread."
Livia reached out and took his hand.
"Well, he probably used up a lot of resources helping me knock you out." Livia said mischievously.
"Yeah, about that", Peeta started entwining Livia's fingers in his own, "Don't try something like that again."
"Or what?" Livia asked.
"Or- or-" He couldn't think of anything good, "Just give me a minute."
"What's the problem?" Livia said with a grin.
"The problem is we're both still alive. Which only reinforces the idea in your mind that you did the right thing." Peeta huffed.
"I did do the right thing-" Livia said.
"No! Just don't, Livia!" His grip tightened, hurting her hand, and there was real anger in his voice, "Don't die for me. You won't be doing me any favors. All right?"
Livia was startled by his intensity, "Maybe I did it for myself, Peeta, did you ever think of that? Maybe you aren't the only one who- who worries about- what it would be like if-"
She fumbled.
She was not as smooth with words as Peeta.
And while she was talking, the idea of actually losing Peeta hit her again and she realized how much she didn't want him to die.
"If what, Livia?" he asked softly.
Livia wished she could pull the shutters closed, blocking out this moment from the prying eyes of Panem.
Livia opened her mouth but she couldn't find the words.
"Then I'll just have to fill in the blanks myself." Peeta huffed, and moved into Livia.
It was the first kiss that they were both fully aware of.
Neither of them hobbled by sickness or pain or simply unconscious.
Their lips neither burning with fever or icy cold.
It was the first kiss where Livia actually felt stirring inside her chest.
Warm and curious.
It was the first kiss that made her want another.
But she didn't get it.
Well, she did get a second kiss, but it was just a light one on the tip of her nose because Peeta had been distracted.
"I think your wound is bleeding again. Come on, lie down, it's bedtime anyway." He said.
Livia's socks were dry enough to wear now.
She made Peeta put his jacket back on.
The damp cold seemed to cut right down to Livia's bones, so he must be half frozen.
She insisted on taking the first watch, too, although neither of them thought it was likely anyone would come in this weather.
But he wouldn't agree unless Livia was in the bag, too, and she was shivering so hard that it was pointless to object.
In stark contrast to two nights ago, when Livia felt Peeta was a million miles away, she was struck by his immediacy now.
As they settled in, he pulled her head down to use his arm as a pillow, the other rested protectively over Livia even when he went to sleep.
She felt- safe.
And with the life she lived, safe was hard to come by.
With the aid of the glasses, Livia lied watching the drips of water splatter on the cave floor.
Rhythmic and lulling.
Several times, she drifted off briefly and then snapped awake, guilty and angry with herself.
After three or four hours, she couldn't help it, she had to rouse Peeta because she couldn't keep her eyes open.
He didn't seem to mind.
"Tomorrow, when it's dry, I'll find us a place so high in the trees we can both sleep in peace." Livia promised as she drifted off.
But the next day was no better in terms of weather.
The deluge continued as if the Gamemakers were intent on washing them all away.
The thunder was so powerful it seemed to shake the ground.
Peeta was considering heading out anyway to scavenge for food, but Livia told him in the storm it would be pointless.
He wouldn't be able to see three feet in front of his face and he would only end up getting soaked to the skin for his troubles.
He knew she was right, but the gnawing in their stomachs was becoming painful.
The day dragged on turning into evening and there was no break in the weather.
Starving, weak from injuries, trying not to reopen wounds- they sat huddled together wrapped in the sleeping bag.
The most exciting thing either of them did was nap.
"Hey, Peeta? If we had met each other sooner, do you think it would've worked?" Livia questioned, trying to distract her mind from her stomach.
"Do you mean if one of us wasn't going to die?" Peeta quizzed.
"Yeah." Livia huffed.
Peeta rolled to hover over her so they were making eye contact.
"Livia Distefano, if we weren't doomed- I would take you back to my home and marry you right on the spot. We would take over my family's bakery, raise our own little family of bakers and tell them our story- of how I met the most beautiful girl I've ever seen and fell head over heels." Peeta explained.
Each hour- minute- they were closer to the choice.
And right now, Livia knew in her mind she wasn't going home.
"Sounds lovely- in another life, maybe." Livia mumbled.
"In a another life." Peeta repeated.
Their lips had just barely touched when the clunk outside made them jump.
Livia's disc is between her fingers, but there was no other sound.
Peeta peered through the rocks and then gave a cheer.
Before Livia could stop him, he was out in the rain, then handing something in to her.
A silver parachute attached to a basket.
Livia ripped it open at once and inside there was a feast- fresh rolls, goat cheese, apples, and best of all, a tureen of that incredible lamb stew on wild rice.
The very dish she had told Caesar Flickerman was the most impressive thing the Capitol had to offer.
Peeta wriggled back inside, his face lit up like the sun, "I guess Haymitch finally got tired of watching us starve."