Katniss wakes in the cave after collapsing from her head wound and briefly dreams she is safe at home. Peeta tells Katniss she has been unconscious for a long time and that he woke to find her bleeding badly beside him, but the medicine she brought back has healed his leg dramatically. Because Katniss is still weak and dizzy, Peeta feeds her, keeps her warm, and tends the cave as a violent storm begins outside.

As they talk, Katniss explains what happened while Peeta was too ill to follow events: the explosion at the Careers’ supplies, Rue’s death, the bread from District 11, and Thresh killing Clove at the feast before sparing Katniss because of Rue. Peeta is shaken by Thresh’s mercy and by Katniss’s willingness to risk herself for him. Katniss, exhausted and overwhelmed by the arena, admits she wants to go home, and Peeta tries to comfort her.

That evening and into the next day, the storm traps them in the cave with almost no food. Katniss and Peeta finish their remaining groosling, roots, and dried fruit because rationing spoiled meat would be dangerous. With hunting impossible in the downpour, they grow steadily hungrier and speculate about the other tributes, especially Thresh in the tall grainlike field and Cato somewhere beyond the rain.

Katniss also thinks about Haymitch’s sponsorship strategy and realizes their romance is tied to survival, yet her feelings are becoming harder to separate from performance. When Peeta angrily tells Katniss not to die for him, Katniss recognizes that she truly does not want to lose him. They share a kiss that feels different from their earlier staged or desperate kisses, but Peeta cuts it short when he notices Katniss’s wound bleeding again.

The next day, with no sponsor gift arriving, Katniss decides to draw Peeta into personal conversation. Peeta tells Katniss he first fell for her on their first day of school, after his father pointed out Katniss’s mother as the woman he once wanted to marry, and after hearing Katniss sing like her father. The story makes Katniss realize Peeta may have been telling the truth all along about his long love for her, and she responds more sincerely than before.

When Katniss finally tells Peeta he has no competition anywhere and leans in to kiss him, a parachute lands outside the cave. Inside is a basket of rich food, including hot rolls, goat cheese, apples, and lamb stew, the exact Capitol dish Katniss once praised. Katniss understands that Haymitch has rewarded not simple affection, but the deeper emotional connection she and Peeta have finally shown.