A/N: Okay! One shot. Christmas themed. I know the book says Katniss and Peeta didn't talk to each other, but I had to have him in the story. And for those of you who follow Now, Forever, and Always, It IS NOT abandoned. I just had computer issues and couldn't type it. On with the story.
It's no secret that we don't have very much money here in the Seam, so our Christmas's are no where close to those in the Capitol, or even in the career districts. Gale and I walk back from the forest carrying the small evergreen tree we managed to find over the fence, with him baring most of the weight. Today was one of the day's when we don't have to be secretive about carrying what we got from the forest. On Christmas nobody will say anything about 2 kids carrying a tree, though they all know where we got it. Posy, Prim, Rory, and Vick will all be at my house with Hazelle and my mother making ornaments and stringing berries we couldn't have eaten. My game bag is bigger than usual today, because Gale and I got up extra early to make sure we had enough. When we arrived at the Hob, Gale sat the tree behind one of the old docks where the trucks used to get loaded with coal.
"Should be safe there. Nobody will be able to see it, so I doubt it will get taken."
"Great." I say. We walk through the entrance, and I run my hand along the thick layer of coal dust that settles on everything here in the hob, much like coal dust covers everything in the seam. The first place we walk to as soon as we arrive in the hob is Greasy Sae's table. I hand her a rabbit from my game bag and get a small bowl of soup in return, and though it is small, it is much bigger than those I am used to. I open my mouth to protest, and insist that she deserves another rabbit, she cuts me off.
"Merry Christmas." She says.
"Merry Christmas." I say back knowing that no matter what I say, I will lose. We take care of some other business before leaving the hob for the regular market. We walk into the Mellark bakery with the intention of only getting a few cookies, but I end up picking more than I originally wanted to buy. A blonde boy steps out from behind the counter and a name registers in my head. Peeta Mellark. The boy with the bread.
"Can I help you?" He asks, still looking at something on the counter. He looks up and surprise registers in his face.
"Oh! I know you!" He says. "Gale right?" My face falls, because I thought he was talking to me, but he wasn't.
"Yeah... And you are..." Gale trails off searching for the name.
"Peeta. Peeta Mellark." I finish for him.
"Yeah." Peeta confirms smiling. "So, did you need something Katniss?" He asks. My stomach is churning, and I feel my heart beating fast. He knows my name. And I don't like this feeling. It makes me feel vulnerable.
"You father here?" Gale asks, his fingers lingering on my back for a moment.
"No, he is out with some of his friends getting our tree, but he did say if a pretty lady came by with some squirrels we can use them as currency. That must be you guys, because I do see a pretty lady." He says flashing me a smile. I blush. I blush. This is not okay. I feel like Madge. Not that there is anything wrong with Madge, but we are two completely different people.
"That's us. Here." Gale says reaching into my game bag. I slap his hand away before he can grab a hold of the squirrels I had shot specifically for the baker.
"Gale! You will infest my turkey with your grimy hands!" Then I reach in my bag and pull out 3 squirrels.
"I will not!" He says, obviously offended.
"Well, Dad said 1 squirrels is 2 cookies, but since it is Christmas I will give you 3 for each."
"No." I say at the same time Gale says "Sure."
"No." Say again, reinforcing my answer. "Your mom will get angry again. Its not worth it." I don't catch that I said again until after it was out of my mouth, only Peeta seems to notice.
"You remember..." He says barely audible.
"Remember what?" Gale asks.
"Nothing." Peeta says, and then he turns to me. "And no worse than usual." My heart softens a bit when he says this.
"So." I say. "We have some room if you want to experience a seam Christmas I-"
"No." Gale cuts me off.
"Why not Gale?" I ask.
"We have enough people to feed this year."
"But-"
"No. He is right." Peeta cuts in."And besides. I have to stay here and mind the store." I nod in understanding. "Fine. I guess. But mark my words Peeta Mellark. You will have a Seam Christmas before you die."
"I will be looking forward to that." He says with a wink. We pick out our cookies me having agreed to get 8. He insists on Frosting a Primrose on Prims and my name on mine.
"There you go. So nobody else will eat your cookie."
"Thanks." I say, throwing him a smile. "Well, Merry Christmas. Hopefully I can stop by again before school starts back up. I am here early on Sundays usually to trade with your father. If your mother isn't here maybe we can hang out."
"Ill be looking forward to it. Merry Christmas." Me and Gale walk out of the bakery, and Gale stops walking.
"He was flirting with you." Gale says coolly.
"No he wasn't Gale."
"And you were flirting back."
"No. I wasn't."
"You smiled at him. It took you months to smile at me. And he called you pretty."
"Its Christmas Gale! I was just being nice!"
"Sure."
"Why would you care anyway, Gale?" I say sharply.
"Just looking out for you, Catnip."
"Sure." I say, using his own tone against him. We walked the rest of the way home in silence, picking up the tree when we got to the Hob. We don't say a word to one another until we get into my living room and are putting the tree up.
"We come bearing gifts!" Gale yells. Prim, Posy, and Rory come barreling into the room, followed by Vick, who seems disconnected from the rest of them. I feel so bad, because poor Vick is already taking after Gale at such a young age. It makes me wonder what their father was like. That's one thing I love about being with Gale. He is the only person other than Prim who I can talk about my Dad to. But he doesn't really talk about his Dad.
"The Tree! The Tree!" Posy screams.
"Yeah Posy! Gale picked this one out just for you!" I say, picking her up and propping her on my hip.
"Thanks Gale!" She says from my arms. Prim comes up behind me, taking my hand and leading me into the kitchen, where my mother and Hazelle sit stringing berries.
"We have made 3 already, but we still need to make a few more." I looked down at the string of berries and one of them caught my eye.
"Nobody has eaten any of these right?" I yelled starting to panic.
"No. Why?" Prim replies starting to panic herself, and I calm down a little bit.
"Sorry. Calm down Prim." I point to one of the berries on the top string. "Nightlock. It will kill you before it hits your stomach. Its fine though. We can just put it at the top where nobody but Gale can reach. He knows what it is, so we are good." After a little while, Gale, Rory, and Vick finish putting the tree up, and they join us at the table. We all string berries and cut shapes out of leaves stopped every now and then to feed Buttercup berries I have deemed safe enough. I throw in some of my knowledge of plants, and Gale tells stories of hunting, Posy tells us about the things she has been learning to read, Prim talks about the patients she and mother have healed. Today is about family. We are supposed to be celebrating the beginning of Panem, but this is one of the few days when we get to be together as family, and when we get to forget the Hunger Games exist. I eventually have to force myself to get up and start fixing the food, because at that table, is the only time I have been so sociable all my life. But tonight is going to be a feast. We have squirrel, turkey, goat cheese, apples, milk, strawberries, black berries, and for desert we have berry jam, and cookies. After I start a soup, I come back to the table where everyone was finishing up on the decorations. We had decided to keep the decorations simple this year, and though Hazelle and my mother insisted they could save up and get an angel, I want to stick to the star woven from some type of thick grass I remember from when I was a child. Gale hangs the garland with the nightlock at the top of the tree so nobody could get to it, and Rory insists on doing the next one himself. After several failed attempts and Prim telling him he would break it, he finally asks for Vick's help. Posy for one, had her own idea.
"This one is a pretty pink berry so I am going to get help from..." She looks around the room surveying her options."Katniss!"
"Me?" I ask in shock.
"Yeah!" She says. I lift her up and let her string the garland. Gale always asks how I don't want kids because I love Posy so much, but what he doesn't understand is Posy is 4, Prim and Rory are turning 12. Until now, I didn't have to be worried about them. They will all be standing in line at the reaping. Their names will be written on little pieces of paper, and if their names get called, I wont be able to do anything. The only one I might be able to help is Prim, but in that, I will be sacrificing my own life in exchange for hers, which isn't really a bad deal if you think about it. Hazelle and Mom went into the kitchen and we all sat on the floor in a silence that was unusual for us until Prim broke it.
"Lets sing!" I groaned. She always tries to get me to sing, but it hasn't been the same since Dad died.
"Please Katniss? Teach us 1. That's it." Prim begs. Soon enough all 5 of them are begging. Even the 18 year old.
"Please Catnip?" I groan again. How am I supposed to resist 5 begging children?
"1. That's it." Prim nodded excitedly and they all quieted to hear the song. I softly begin singing the words to Safe and Sound, a song my father had taught me only a few days before he died. That is probably one of the songs I remember most. I sing it one time all the way through making sure to hit all of the low notes that my father had gotten so easily, but as a child I had had trouble hitting. After I was done I went through and taught them verse by verse, by the time my mother and Hazelle had come to watch we had different people singing different parts and even though Posy had trouble singing certain notes, we had her doing the eerie notes in the background.
"Dinner ready?" I ask as soon as the song finish grateful for the distraction. Singing makes me miss my father, and missing people makes people cry, and Katniss Everdeen does not cry.
"Yes." Hazelle says. "Come on over kids!" We all sit at the table and eat. The meal is great, and nothing can stop the festive mood we have established. We talk non stop throughout dinner throwing in how thankful we were every once in a while.
"This is the fullest I have been in a long time." Mother states.
"Oh, well then I guess we cant eat the cookies." I say. With that everyone's eyes go wide, and as much as the adults want to pretend, theirs went wide too.
"Cookies?" Prim asks. Gale gets up, and walks over to my game bag and pulls out the small brown bag of cookies.
"Peeta Mellark gave them to us at the bakery. He even frosted Prim a flower!" All of the children showed great restraint while eating, all taking small bites one at a time, savoring them, even little Posy who is just beginning to understand how important that restraint is to survive in District 12. After a while, we had all finished our cookies, and we gathered into the small living room to open presents. The way we do this, everyone, and I mean everyone saves some money, and we all throw it in the middle and divide it and buy each other something. Prim receives her gift first, one that I picked out myself. It was a dress made out of the popular baby blue fabric in District 12, and a matching blue ribbon. She has been talking about how all of her friends have dresses that color, and my mother always tells her we don't have the money for the fabric.
"Oh! You shouldn't have! It must have cost a fortune!"
"Don't worry Prim. You deserved it." She holds the dress to her chest like she is going to cherish it forever, and knowing her, she will wear it until Posy can fit in it, by which time, Prim will be way to big for it, but she will be wearing it anyway. Rory is the next person to go, and I can tell the look on his face that the gift doesn't register until a little while after he gets it. It is a small notepad and a pack of colored pencils. He had been drawing in dirt, and on anything that could somehow make a picture. Gale went next and even though his gift was small and practical, I could tell he loved it. He got a pack of laces for his hunting boots, because he had been complaining that his had been fraying for months, but I don't understand how they have stayed this long without fraying. He has had the same pair of boots for years. I think he only has had one different pair in the time I had known him. Vick goes next, and he gets an old watch me and Gale found at the hob and had to haggle about for almost 3 days. Finally, It is my turn. My gift was one of the only wrapped ones, other than Vick's watch. I slowly peel off the paper, and I gasp as I see the thing inside the paper. It is a small sheath of arrows, which I could tell were handcrafted. There was intricate work on the shaft, little flowers were carved into it, and My name was carved around the bottom of them.
"Who did this?" I ask?
"I did." Gale says. "And you better be thankful, because those took me weeks to make." Gale flashed me that same smile that he gave me in the woods the very first day we met when I used his own words against him by telling him that stealing is punishable by death. Posy, who had been waiting patiently for her turn, gets to go. When Prim, Mother, and Hazelle told me what they wanted to get her, I told them not to. It is nothing practical, but I see Posy's face as she pulls out the blonde haired blue eyed doll from the box, and I forget how many wild dogs I had to kill to afford the thing. Tears fill her eyes and her chubby fingers close around the middle of the doll so lightly, like she is afraid the doll could break at any second. Prim slaved for weeks to make the pink dress that adorns the doll, which is actually made of one of Prims old outfits that is too small to even fit Posy.
"Shes so pretty mommy." She says to Hazelle.
"Merry Christmas Posy." Hazelle said.
"Thank you." Posy said, not really speaking to anybody in general, still staring at the doll, and with that, we talked late into the night. It truly has been a Seam Christmas.