This is my take on what happened between Mockingjay and the Epilogue. Enjoy!

-Jazz

Just putting it out there that I do not own Hunger Games or the characters. Suzanne Collins is a G, it was all her.

Peeta had told himself he wasn't going to do this. He was supposed to only come to Katniss's house for dinner, make polite conversation, and go back to his home where he could where he could be alone and safe. Everything was going fine until he made the mistake of looking into her eyes. She thought of them as a dull grey, but he thought they looked more like deep silver. When she was really determined there would be a spark in her eyes and it was almost as if diamonds were lighting up the room. Maybe if he had seen those eyes he would have finished eating, walked home, and gone to sleep to face the nightmares and suffering alone. He barely even saw her eyes because he couldn't ignore the dark purple circles around them indicating that she hadn't been sleeping either. She looked tired and frustrated and and like she was barely holding on. She was simply amusing the rest of the dinner guests by eating and chiming in to the conversation every now and then. He couldn't bear to see her like that because the Katniss he knew and loved never gave up. Peeta had spent 17 years making doing whatever he could to protect her, so that's why instead of going home after dinner he had lingered to talk to her.

Greasy Sae had gone home early that night to give them some privacy. He knew then that Katniss must be in bad shape because she didn't usually give a rat's ass about anyone's privacy. With zombie like motions Peeta watched as she attempted to clear the table silently and wash the dishes. He wasn't going to try to start small talk, because she wasn't that kind of girl. She'd talk if she had something to say. For a while they stayed content with the silence, her washing and him drying. He glanced over at her one more time, but now he saw the faintest smile dance across her lips for a split second.

"What's so funny?" he asked, not expecting a response.

"After all we've been through, here we are washing dishes and being all domestic." He laughed, because now that she'd mentioned it this was the most normal activity they'd ever done together.

"Star-crossed lovers from District 12 washing their own dishes…what would the people think." He said with mock horror. She sighed in response and he knew that their moment was over. There was no way to keep going without bring up things neither of them are ready to talk about. She had been washing the same dish for 5 minutes when he decided they were done. She was barely even paying attention when he grabbed the plate from her hand and began to carry her to her bed. The fact that she didn't protest at all to being carried when she had two perfectly good legs was proof of how tired she was. When he got to her bedroom, he laid her down and pulled off her shoes and socks before tucking the covers tightly around her body. When he moved towards the door he noticed that her eyes were still open nd she was staring emotionlessly at the wall.

He decided that just this once he would hold her until she fell asleep. He kicked off his own shoes and socks and shoes he climbed into the bed and wrapped her in his arms as tight as he could. Once he had settled in she let out a sigh of relief and whispered a 'Thank you' so softly that he might have missed if he'd been breathing louder. She drifted off to sleep almost instantly and he was glad that he could help her get some rest, even if he was breaking his rule of keeping his distance. He tried to untangle himself from her as softly as he could, but she woke with a start and looked confused. Once she had gotten her bearings she sunk down into the covers wearing a look of guilt.

"Where are you going?" she asked, trying too hard tosound disinterested.

"I was going to go back to my place for the night." He tried again to get up but her tiny hand grabbed onto his wrist with a vice-like grip, and she whispered the words he never thought he'd hear again.

"Stay with me."

That was all he needed to hear and he was putty in her hands. The next morning when they woke up it was amazing the difference you could see in her from just 9 ½ hours of sleep. When they woke up, they just stared at each other until it was time for him to go to the site where the Bakery used to be and she usually went to the woods. This continued on and on for a whole year. He would come over for dinner, stay the night, and they would spend their mornings together holding hands and just relaxing. Over time they had grown from staring to talking and the morning when he kissed her again he was shocked that she kissed him back with fervor and urgency. She was still guarded and careful, but he was growing attached to their time together and had managed to keep the flashbacks to a minimum, or fight through them silently.

They were the worst in the mornings. He always woke up before her and sometimes he couldn't remember how he had gotten there or what she was doing so close to him. Sometimes he thought it was some kind of trick on her part to distract him and kill him and he would have to sneak to the bathroom to get control of it. Other times he could at least hold back until he was on his way to the bakery, when he could duck off behind a building or into an alley way and fight through. He had been managing until this moment.

He was having a flashback so strong that it was making his entire body shiver and convulse involuntarily. He wanted to move and get away from Katniss but his muscles had locked up and wouldn't allow him to let go of her. He tried breathing to keep out the shiny images. He saw her in the cave during the Hunger Games telling Cato the best way to wound him without killing him, he saw her pretending to care about him, and he saw her planning to trick him into eating the berries to win so she could win the Games and he would die. He knew in is heart that it wasn't real but his brain had him furious beyond relief. That was the worst part about the side effects of the hijacking; not the images themselves, but the pain caused by the conflicting feelings that would boil up inside of him, each fighting for his attention. He was close to insanity when he heard a soft, soothing voice calling his name.

"Peeta." It called. He had no idea what that voice was but it reminded him of home. It was gentler than the voices he would hear in his flashbacks. It was real. He allowed himself to open his eyes and saw Katniss looking him dead in the eye and whispering his name. She had that determined spark in her eye. "Peeta, come back to me. It's Katniss." She began massaging his jerking arms lightly but firmly so as to not disturb his skin grafts. She began kissing the spots she had just finished massaging and humming a light tune. Her voice singing did it. That was real. No Capitol tracker jacker venom images could replace or imitate the sound of her voice. In an instant the shaking slowed and the room stop throwing images at him.

She had done it. After a year and a half or so of therapy and pills and mind numbing flashbacks, she was the one that was able to calm him down. The very thing that the Capital had wanted him to turn against so badly was the thing he needed to heal.

"Katniss?"

"Shh, Peeta. Go to sleep, everything's ok." She said, still massaging his sore muscles. The lull of sleep took over and he was dreaming in no time but even in his dreams he couldn't deny what he was feeling right now. He loved Katniss. Nobody could change that.

Two years later, at the ripe age of 20, Peeta couldn't take it anymore. He and Katniss had now moved in together and every day he loved her more than the last. She had even told him she loved him too and it was like they were living in some kind of fantasy world. They spent all of their time together almost and had come a long way since their first dinner after the war. She had returned to her olive skin tone and he could no longer see bones protruding from her skin. She laughed and smiled more than she stared and brooded. She had even learned to bake bread, and would come with him to his little shop sometimes. They were together and it was wonderful and Peeta thought that was enough, but it wasn't. He wanted the whole world to know they were together, not just Haymitch and a few of the people from District 12. He wanted to be with her forever because almost all the time wasn't enough. He wanted to marry Katniss. He was going to ask her today. No ring, because that might freak her out. He was just going to ask.

When he got home from the bakery that day he noticed that it was spotless and there was the smell of food in the air. When he walked into the dining room he saw that dinner had been made and put on the table and Katniss was sitting there looking nervous as ever.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"I have a speech."

"A speech?" he asked with a smirk. She was so cute and unpredictable and he couldn't help but laugh when she tried so hard to keep up her indifference act. He sat down and took a sip of wine, just in case this speech wasn't going to be in his favor.

"Yes, a speech. I worked on it all day."

"Alright then, I'm all ears."

"I love you and I know that for some reason you love me back. That's what kept me going those days after the war; the fact that you loved me so much."

"Katniss," he said cutting her off, but she held up a finger and continued.

"I know I can be difficult and…cold, but it's only because I'm unsure of the unknown. No one had really loved me before you. That was all new territory and I didn't want to mess it up. Then I realized I've been messing up all along anyway. If it wasn't for me, we could have been this happy a long time ago and I feel like I took that from you. We wasted so much time and I don't want to waste anymore, so I want to marry you." He wasn't sure if he'd heard correctly. She wanted to marry him? He was about to get all mushy until he remembered that was the very thing he had intended to asked her anyway.

"You're proposing to me?" he teased and she rolled her eyes.

"No. I'm telling you that I want to marry you. You are free to do what you wish with that information." He couldn't stop the idiotic smile from taking over his face as her ran to her and hugged her tightly. They kissed until neither could breathe and then looked each other in the eye like they used to.

"I was going to ask you to marry me tonight Katniss Everdeen. You stole my thunder."

"Aw, poor Peeta wasn't the one with the touching speech today." She teased. "Did you get a ring?" she asked with a smirk almost as good as his.

"Nope."

"Peeta! You were going to ask me to marry you without a ring?"

"Would you have a worn a big, expensive, shiny ring with diamonds?" he asked, knowing she hated that kind of stuff. He laughed at the look on her face after he was done describing the ring.

"I love you Peeta Mellark."

"I love you too Katniss Everdeen."

"Katniss Mellark." She corrected. Peeta didn't know if it was humanly possible to be as happy as he was, but the two of them deserved a little happy. They were going to be married; everything was perfect.