A/N: My first multi-chapter in a long time! :) Wish me luck. Might not be that good - or too cliched, really. Katniss and Peeta in the modern New York world. Enjoy!
With a loaf of bread in hand and a furious expression painted over her face, Katniss Everdeen looked absolutely foolish in anger as she stomped her way to Mellark's Bakery.
Nobody was staring. In New York, things like this happen often - drunk men (and women, of course) wandering about, the occasional mental lad. "New Yorkers have seen everything", or so they say. Katniss didn't even look that weird - no beer foam on her chin, or slept-on, frizzy hair. She didn't even looked fashion-challenged.
Mellark's Bakery was only a few blocks down from her apartment. She never really went there, though - maybe because she either didn't have the money to waste on fancy bread (before she settled down, of course), or because she always tried to avoid the popular crowd. Mellark's Bakery was a big hit in Lower Manhattan for the trendy and young. Katniss didn't like to follow the crowd. She never did listen to anybody, anyways.
It just had to be the first time that she bought some banana bread from the bakery (rushing in, paying quickly and scrambling out, of course) and gave it to her sister, Prim, that the loaf was the reason for Prim's sudden allergy attack.
Prim had tried to stop her - it was Katniss's fault that she had mistaken banana bread for normal wheat bread, of course - but Katniss marched off to the bakery to tell them off, her mind hardly processing what had happened and how the bakery had done nothing wrong.
Katniss pushed open the door harshly to find only a handful of customers. Thank god. Now she wouldn't be that embarrassed. Not that she was thinking about embarrassment at all - she was only thinking about the bakery 'harming' her sister.
Slamming the loaf of bread onto the counter, she tried to find the words she wanted to before looking up and finding herself looking into the bluest pair of eyes she ever saw.
"I'm sorry," he said curiously. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Katniss suddenly forgot what she was going to say. Something about his eyes reminded her of somebody she used to know - yet she couldn't think of where or when she could have possibly met this young man.
Suddenly, all sense returned to her mind and she realized that Prim was shouting behind her, when she left to find the bakery, something about 'banana bread'.
Colour tinted her cheeks. "No, nothing - I think I got something wrong."
"Oh," was all he said. "Actually, have we met before? You seem familiar."
Katniss tried to hide her surprise at him guessing her thoughts. "I don't think - well, maybe," she admitted.
"Well, I'm Peeta," Peeta said, extending a hand out. He seemed like the friendly, polite kind. Way different from me, Katniss thought.
She took the hand hesitantly. "Katniss. Don't expect me to come around often, though. I don't usually go to bakeries at all, really."
Peeta smiled, as if he's heard this kind of talk before. Katniss couldn't help but notice how his blond hair reflected the sunlight, the defined muscles in his upper arm.
"Tell you what - I'll give you a bag of bread rolls, and you can come back sometime to tell me how they were." Katniss opened her mouth, about to refuse, but he cut in. "I don't usually do this kind of thing, you see, so you can't really say no."
Katniss didn't like owing people. But this was just a random guy that she'd probably never meet again - it wouldn't hurt.
"Sure," she said. His fingertips brushed against hers as he passed her the bag, and she felt herself tense and her fingers tingle for some reason.
With a word of thanks, she took her bread rolls and banana bread, and left. She looked back once though - to see Peeta's friendly smile as he greeted other customers, to see his eyes catch Katniss's for a moment before putting on a what seemed to be a embarrassed expression.