A/N As always, I owe a big thank you to peetabreadgirl, the best cheerleader a fanfic writer could ask for. The song Peeta covers in this chapter is "Soul Sister" by Train. Big thanks to notanislander for the suggestion and to all the fic authors and readers who answered Peeta's call for a song.

The minute Katniss stepped out of her car and into the driveway of the little house she shared with Peeta, she frowned. The tantalizingly tangy scent of Peeta's homemade marinara sauce was drifting through the kitchen window to her nose. As a teacher at a nearby school, Peeta usually arrived home before she did and started dinner. He made everything from scratch with fresh ingredients and it was always incredibly delicious. But if he was cooking comfort food, something was bothering him. As she got closer to the door, she caught the yeasty and unmistakable odour of her favourite treat- cheese buns. When she heard him switch on his Kitchen Aid mixer, Katniss realized he was making the pasta by hand and a cloud passed over her heart. Peeta, it seemed, was having a very bad day. However, her stomach, the miserable traitor, was tap dancing.

"Peeta, I'm home!" she called out as she came through the door, but got no reply. He probably couldn't hear her over the roar of the mixer. Knowing that Peeta – the neat freak – was pre-occupied, Katniss kicked her boots into the closet. They hit the back wall with a satisfying clunk. She tossed her keys into in glass candy dish on the table near the door and wandered into the kitchen on silent feet. There was Peeta, wearing the "I've Got Hot Buns" apron she bought him for Christmas. The sleeves of his red henley were rolled up and his blonde hair was falling into his eyes while he focused on running the pasta through the roller again and again. Katniss slipped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his back, startling Peeta out of his reverie.

"Whoa!" Her boy clutched at the counter, trying to catch his breath. He turned off the mixer. "I've got to put a bell on you, Everdeen, you scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry," she whispered. Katniss squeezed him tightly and breathed him in. She loved his powerful back and the spice of his cologne did things to her lady parts that Peeta didn't need to know about. She laid her cheek against his shoulder blade. "What's wrong?"

Peeta shook his head and covered her hands with his own flour-caked one. "I'm fine," he replied.

"Peeta." She grasped him by the shoulders and urged him to turn around. When he faced her, his lips were pinched in a tight line and his eyes were shuttered. He crossed his arms and said nothing."

Don't lie to me," she insisted. "I know you better than that." She gestured around her incredulously. "Look at this kitchen."

Peeta surveyed the layers of flour coating the countertops, the cutting board still sticky from slicing Roma tomatoes into small chunks for crushing. He grabbed a nearby tea towel, wiped his hands and then pushed his hair out of his face. "Katniss," he sighed. "I'm just making dinner."

Her right eyebrow gave a skeptical quirk. "Peeta, you're going completely overboard for a weeknight dinner and you know it. You only do this when something is really bothering you."

Peeta's picked up the strip of pasta and turned back to his mixer. "Dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes," he said. "Could you take care of the salad?" Katniss huffed and stomped upstairs to her room.

Fifteen minutes later, she returned to the kitchen in yoga pants and Peeta's old wrestling t-shirt, her hair in a braid. Katniss was hunting through the refrigerator when she spotted the homemade salad dressing. She held up the bottle and shook it at Peeta.

"Really?" she asked sarcastically. "Nothing's bothering you?"

Peeta looked over from where he was plating the linguini. "There's absolutely nothing you can do about it, Katniss. And I can't either. So, don't worry about it."

She took the plate from his hands and plunked it decisively onto the counter. "Spill it."

"It's nothing really. I've just had a bad few weeks. First there was the break up with Glimmer." Glimmer, Peeta's latest girlfriend, had given him the heave-ho three weeks ago when he'd refused to give her a long-term commitment. Katniss was not sorry to have her out of their lives and Peeta hadn't seemed upset by it. She wondered if she'd misread the situation. She cocked her head to the side. "Do you miss her?" she asked in a tight voice. She quickly grabbed the plate off the counter and covered the linguini in marinara.

Peeta watched her out of the corner of his eye as he reached for his plate. "Parts of her," he said slyly, curling his portion of the linguini into an artful pile.

Katniss wrinkled her nose. "Gross," she snorted and snagged a cheese bun from the basket. "That's what's bothering you?"

"Kind of," he replied as they headed into the living room. "Then today at work, we heard that there are going to be budget cuts at the school and I'm one of the newest teachers on staff and you know what they've been doing to the fine arts programs." He sighed and sat down. "It just feels like, with my luck, I'll be back at the bakery in no time, listening to my mother say 'I told you so' until I finally lose it."

Katniss deposited her plate on the coffee table and dropped down beside him on the couch. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her lips to his cheek. "No matter what happens in this life, you will never be stuck under that woman's thumb again." Peeta's mother was a Grade A, certified witch. She'd make him crawl on his belly before letting him in the kitchen and paying him considerably less than he's worth. "I won't allow it, Peeta, so put it out of your mind."

He laid his temple against the side of her head. "I need to work, Katniss."

"You are the best teacher at that school and you know it. If they let you go, the kids would riot and their parents would beat down the doors of the school board's offices. They all adore you, Peeta. And I adore you. You're my very best friend in the whole world. If the school board makes that incredibly short-sighted decision, you'll stay right here with me where you belong and I'll look after things until you find something else."

"Katniss, I can't let you do that," he said, shaking his head.

"You can and you will," she said firmly. "I won't lose you. I can cover the expenses. It wouldn't be for long. You'd be snapped up by another school in a second. And anyway," she said, picking up her plate, "you'd do the same for me." Peeta opened his mouth. She held up her hand. "Don't even think about arguing with me."

Some light returned to Peeta's blue eyes and relief washed over her. "I wouldn't dare," he replied with a smile and reached for his plate and the remote before settling in beside her.

"Smart boys are hard to find," she mused.

He laughed and nudged her with his elbow. "I love you, you bossy, sexist thing."

She laid her head against his shoulder. "I know."

"These are for you, Brainless."

Katniss's business partner, Johanna, dropped a fragrant batch of tulips on her desk in her office at Stiletto Consulting the next day. The bright spring bouquet was a mix of cheerful purple and yellow blooms, combined with a handful of white ones with tips that were frosted a delicate pink. Katniss snatched the card from the blossoms. She smiled when she opened it. It bore two simple words, thank you.

"Thank you?" Jo tapped her manicured fingernails on Katniss's desk and narrowed her eyes. "Did you pick up a man last night?"

A curly blonde head popped in the door. Delly, Peeta's cousin, was the office manager in the all-female PR firm Johanna and Katniss started five years before when, sick of the office politics and game playing that went on where they worked at Crane & Heavensbee, they left the firm, taking most of their female clients with them. It was as though they'd shot an arrow into the smug and incestuous communications business in their city. Their departure had been the talk of the town, where men still dominated in the corporate elite. Using Johanna's sharp wit and Katniss's strategic thinking skills, they'd managed to keep their clients and lure several new lucrative contracts. These days, Stiletto was the PR firm of choice for someone looking for smart social media strategy, edgy collateral and solid media relations. Meanwhile, Delly kept the books balanced, the associates in line, and the bills paid.

"There's a new man?" Delly asked. "Why am I always the last to hear about these things?"

"Delly, no one ever needs to tell you the news," Katniss said firmly. "You hear all the news before it even happens."

"Well if I didn't keep my ears peeled, you two would never tell me anything."

Katniss rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I don't have a new guy. These are from Peeta."

"Oh right," Johanna said, crossing disinterestedly to the couch under the window. "The husband you cheat on all your boyfriends with." She tossed her long straight ponytail over her shoulder before sitting down. One Jimmy Choo, which Katniss was certain cost more than her entire outfit that day, was balanced precariously on Johanna's toe as her leg bobbed up and down.

"Peeta is my best friend, not my husband," Katniss corrected hotly.

"He kind of is, Katniss," argued Delly, leaning against the door frame. "You two share everything except a bed."

Katniss blushed hotly. Sometimes she did share Peeta's bed after a long night of watching movies in his room. She never slept better than when she was curled up beside him.

Jo gave Katniss a wolfish smile. "He's delicious, Katniss. Those broad shoulders and that tight ass. If you don't climb that tree soon, I'm going to have to do it for you." Katniss scowled. No way was she letting Johanna near Peeta. "Come on, Brainless. You haven't had a boyfriend in months. Not since Darius gave up trying to be the third wheel in your weird little triangle. And Marvel before him. And who was that guy you were with when we met? He had a girl's name, but holy hell he was beautiful…."

"Gale," said Katniss flatly, not wanting to recall the accusations Gale had levelled at her when he dropped her off for the last time. She told the girls the same thing she said to him that night. "Peeta and I are just friends. Best friends." Then she added a little more since these were her girls and not a soon-to-be-ex. "I would never risk our friendship by trying to turn it into something else that I would inevitably screw up."

"Well, I don't know how you stand it," said Johanna, brushing off her skirt as she stood up. "Going without for months and living with a guy who's as hot as fuck. You could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife sometimes."

Katniss turned her back on Johanna and started to click through her emails. Her co-worker made a "tsk-ing" noise and left the room. Katniss blew out a slow breath. She knew that Peeta was gorgeous. But she wasn't going to entertain this idea.

"Katniss." She looked up to see Delly biting her lip beside the desk and looking down at Katniss uncertainly. "I know you're my boss, but I've known you for years and Peeta my entire life, so I'm hoping you don't feel like I'm overstepping here." Katniss gave her a nod to go ahead. "Well, the two of you… the way he looks at you, the way he's always looked at you… It's like the sun rises and sets on you. And sometimes, when he doesn't think you're looking, it's … Well, I'd die happy if I had a man in my life who looked at me like that."

Katniss's heart fluttered at the idea that Peeta could want more from her from friendship, but she immediately repressed the sentiment. "He doesn't feel that way about me, Delly."

"Katniss, there's a reason why neither of you have ever had a relationship that's lasted, other than the one you've had together," insisted Delly. When Katniss looked away, she sighed and laid her hand over Katniss's. "Think about it, okay? You guys could be amazing together, if you'd just let it happen."

Once Delly went back to the front desk, Katniss could think of nothing else.

When Katniss got home from work, Peeta was sitting in a lounge chair on their back deck, shirtless, apparently soaking up the last of the warmth of the day. His bare feet poked out of the bottom of a pair of well-worn jeans and he was strumming his guitar. His hair was damp and tousled. Katniss supposed he'd had a shower when he got home from work. She forced the image of him naked in the shower from out of her mind. Damn Delly and Johanna for putting these ideas in her head.

Rather than going straight out to the deck to say hello, Katniss padded upstairs to her bedroom and pulled out a pair of cut-offs and grabbed Peeta's wrestling shirt off the foot of her bed. She happily shed her green silk blouse and pencil skirt for more the comfortable attire and went back downstairs. When she opened the patio door, Peeta was strumming away, working through a chord progression.

"I ordered pizza when I heard you pulling up," he informed her without looking up. "G, D, E minor, C." He named the chords as he strummed them and then he looked up at her and grinned. His blue eyes shone under the curls. "It's been awhile."

"I was going to say that." She dropped into the chair beside him. The one she'd designated as hers when they picked the set out last summer. "I can't remember the last time you had your guitar out."

Peeta shrugged, his wide shoulders golden in the last hours of the early summer day. "I play at night sometimes when I can't sleep. It's something to do with my hands; keep my mind busy, when it's too late to be banging around in the kitchen."

"What were you playing?"

He gave her a half smile. "The weather was reminding me of that summer when I bought this guitar. We did so much camping. Do you remember?" He sang softly:

Your lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains
I knew I wouldn't forget you and so I went and let you blow my mind
Your sweet moonbeam, the smell of you in every single dream I dream
I knew when we collided, you're the one, I have decided, who's one of my kind

The sound of Peeta's voice took her back in time to glowing campfires and s'mores; the comfort of his bulk in his sleeping bag beside hers. And this song, the one he was trying to learn all that summer. They'd sung it over and over. Before she knew it, her lips were forming the words of the chorus and her voice was wrapped around his, smoky and sweet.

Hey soul sister, ain't that Mister Mister on the radio, stereo
The way you move ain't fair you know
Hey soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight

It felt so unbelievably good to do this with Peeta again. Once she'd started dating Gale, an awkwardness had grown between them for a while and she and Peeta had stopped camping without ever really discussing why. Suddenly, she realized her mind was wandering and she looked up to see Peeta still strumming away. His eyes were serious when they locked on hers.

Just in time, I'm so glad you have a one-track mind like me
You gave my life direction, a game show love connection we can't deny
I'm so obsessed, my heart is bound to beat right out of my untrimmed chest
I believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna
And I'm always gonna want to blow your mind

Peeta's fingers stilled on the strings and Katniss froze in her chair. He was staring at her intently, like he was living in a desert and she was the last drop of water in his canteen. Everything in her that was female came to attention. Her throat went dry. Is this the look Delly was talking about? Was this real or were Delly and Jo just putting ideas in her head? She looked away quickly and spying Peeta's beer on the table, seized it and took a long gulp.

When she opened her eyes, Peeta was laying down his guitar. "Katniss," he said tensely, "I think we need to have a talk." She held tightly to the can so her hand wouldn't shake. "You and I have been friends for a long time, right?" She nodded. "And you know I love you." The girls were right, she thought. That look did mean something and once Peeta laid it all on the line, it would all be out there with no going back. "We share just about everything. I let you sleep in my bed. Hell, my clothes make up half your wardrobe." It was true. Their lives were completely intertwined. This next step just made sense, she reasoned. He was probably going to kiss her. And she was going to let him. He was Peeta. Her best friend, the best man she knew, and as gorgeous as a fallen angel.

"But just what makes you think you can steal my beer?"

Katniss stammered. "Wha-?"

"Seriously, Katniss. Some things have got to be sacred, and a man's beer is one of them. So hand that back."

Katniss's emotions were reeling. Her mind scrambled for something smart to say and she landed on the best line she could find in the circumstances. "Make me."

"Katniss, I want my beer. Hand it over nicely and no one gets hurt."

She jumped up and took another big gulp. "You'll have to catch me first, Mellark." She'd always been faster than Peeta and Katniss was out of her chair in a flash, throwing open the patio door and darting into the kitchen. She could hear his heavy footfalls in pursuit and darted toward the stairs, taking another drink when she knew he was watching. She snickered at his roar of mock outrage. Her feet practically flew over the landing at the top of the stairs and she arrowed toward her bedroom door. Peeta must have taken the stairs two at a time, because just as she reached the safety of her bedroom door, he was behind her, whipping her around and pulling her tight against his bare skin. She had nowhere to put her hands but his sculpted upper arms. Their chests heaved as they tried to catch their breaths. Katniss let out a nervous chuckle and smiled up at Peeta, who was gazing down at her lips with heavy lidded eyes. She watched his tongue dart out and sweep across his bottom lip. If she just raised herself up on her toes, she could put an end to this torment. And she'd know.

Her fingers flexed as she began to move toward him. Peeta's eyes widened. "Ka-", he began, but whatever he was about to say was cut off by the irritating buzz that passed for a doorbell in their house.

Peeta cleared his throat. "That's the pizza," he said, stepping back and heading downstairs to answer the door.

Katniss followed, stopping to bang her head on the door frame. What was she going to do?