Hello! So, this is my first Hunger Games fic and I'm really excited to write it! I hope you enjoy it!

In this story, each chapter will be the story behind a separate trait/quality that Peeta has.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hunger Games.

i. Charm

As soon as Peeta had the ability to walk and talk, he spent his mornings working with his parents in the bakery. Except, he had been assigned a specific job: to entertain the little children that came into the bakery.

He was quite good at his job - never being afraid to start a conversation, always managing to make five-minute friends. The problem was, he found that he only had the courage to talk to boys. Whenever girls came in he would run into the bathroom or kitchen or he would hide behind the counter for protection from the unknown.

One hot, sunny day, the bakery was booming with business. The kitchen was unbearable between the heat from the fire burning oven and the blistering sun from outside. The bathroom had a endless line that looked about 15 minutes long. And to make things even worse, there were about 3 girls around Peeta's age in the store.

"Go on and talk to them!" His mother demanded, giving him a shove from out from behind the front counter.

"But, mom!" Peeta argued, trying to fight his way back behind the wooden wall. But with one more strong push from his mom, he was exposed to the entire bakery.

He slowly made his way to the clump of girls chattering in the corner of the store. As he grew closer, he could hear their small, sweet voices, but not clear words. Their voices were much too soft for that amount of clarity.

Despite the odd looks he was getting from the girls, he continued to approach – it was the feeling of his mother's eyes burning into his back, urging him to keep walking forward.

"Hi." He said quietly, once he reached the circle that they had made, "I'm Peeta Mellark. What are your names?"

The tallest one of the three stepped forward. You could tell from her posture that she was the most confident between the three of them. She had striking red hair and dark brown eyes. She squinted her eyes at Peeta and stared him up and down, as if to be interrogating him based off looks.

"I'm Aria," the red haired girl finally said, stepping so she was standing completely in front of her two friends, "This is Sage," she pointed to a girl with light blonde hair tied back in a bun, "And lastly, this is Ellen," she gestured towards a girl with very dark hair, and extreme features.

"Hi." Peeta said again, not really sure what else to say.

"Are you excited?" the girl named Sage blurted out. She seemed suddenly ashamed, and stepped back to her previous spot behind her friend.

"For what?" Peeta asked, completely clueless.

"She's talking about the reaping, it's in a week." Aria stated, crossing her arms.

"Oh right, I guess," Peeta said, shrugging, "The opening ceremony is always entertaining."

"Yeah!" Sage said, beaming, "I mean, look at the costumes! I would love to wear some of those gowns!"

The conversation between Sage and Peeta (with a few comments from Aria) continued on how spectacular the games were, while Ellen remained completely silent. It seemed that Peeta was the only one who noticed, because when he slowly exited the conversation, they other two girls continued to chat away.

"What's wrong?" he asked Ellen.

"Nothing." she mumbled, looking down at the hard wood floor.

"Well, something seems wrong," Peeta said, seeing a single tear rolling down her soft, gentle cheek.

"It's just that-t, my sister died last-t year in the games," she said, tears now flowing heavily.

Before Peeta could think, he felt. He felt her pain- he somehow understood it – and before he could think it through, he leaned in and hugged her. Her body was cold and was shivering, but he didn't care. He held on until she stopped crying, which surprisingly didn't take all that long.

"Sorry," she apologized, quietly; "I should know how to control my emotions better by now."

"It's okay," he replied, smiling, "I'm glad to help."

"Ellen," an adult voice called, "Time to go!"

"Okay!" she called to what Peeta assumed was her mom, and then she turned back to him, "Thanks," she said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, "Bye!"

***

From there on forth (until he started school), whenever little girls game in the bakery he was no longer scared. He would just run up and hug them, and it seemed to work just like magic.

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it! Please review!