Disclaimer: I do not own anything dealing with the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I just enjoy the series and like writing fanfiction. Enjoy.
Peeta sat on the steps in front of the bakery watching a group of men head to the coal mines in the snow while he pieced on a fresh roll. Normally he would be in the bakery helping his dad bake break or make pastries, but since him and Katniss had gotten back from the Hunger Games his parents-his mother in particular-had gone a bit easier on him.
I bet Katniss would like this, he thought to himself as he pulled a small piece off the yeast roll. It's better than the bagged bread they give us in the Victor's Village.
The group of men was thinning and trailing at the end was Gale and Katniss. They were talking with grim faces. Peeta followed them with his eyes. He smiled and raised his hand when he saw Katniss look over at him. She quickly looked back at Gale and continued their conversation without another glance at Peeta.
Peeta angrily shoved the rest of the small yeast roll into his mouth and walked away from the bakery towards his enormous empty house in the Victor's Village.
"Hi Peeta," he heard from behind him when he was nearly there.
He looked over his shoulder and saw Primrose Everdeen, "Oh, hello Primrose."
"Prim," she corrected him. "No one calls me Primrose. How are you doing today?"
Peeta smiled at the short blonde girl. She looked nothing like Katniss, but, since the games, she had started showing more of the same stubbornness Katniss was now famous for, "I'm doing pretty good, how about you? What have you been doing?"
Prim looked at the small bobbles in her hands and shrugged, "Not a lot. I was just getting some of the stuff we forgot from our old house."
"Like an old hair ribbon?" he said lifting the edge of the fabric with his fingertip and smiling at her.
"This one is special," Prim said looking down at the small seemingly unimportant trinkets from her life before being the sister of a Victor. "Katniss still goes to our old house, too."
That surprised Peeta. Katniss was the personification of strength and self-reliance and he had never pictured her as a sentimentalist. "Interesting," he said with an idea coming together in his head.
"Well, I'm going to go help my mom with some chores in the house," Prim said and rushed to the door of their house. "I'll see you later, Peeta!"
"See ya, Prim," he said and jogged up the steps to his house and hurried to put on warmer clothes.
Katniss sat on the dirty bare floor in the middle of the room she and Prim used to sleep in, "Why does everything have to change so much?" She bitterly muttered. She stood up and brushed the dust off her pants and straightened her father's old hunting jacket before she opened the door to the old shanty.
"Hey Katniss."
She jumped at the sound and turned to glare at whoever startled her. "Oh, hi Peeta," She said coolly to him before turning on her heel and walking towards gap in the fence she used to go hunting.
She heard the crunching of feet on the gravel behind her and stopped to look at Peeta again, "What do you want, Peeta?"
"Just to talk," he sighed. "You don't talk to me anymore, Katniss. You go out of your way to avoid me."
"Well-"
"It hurts, Katniss," he cut her off. His expression was so pained Katniss felt a pang of guilt in her stomach.
"Peeta..." she trailed off and looked at the trees beyond the fence. It seemed as if yesterday they were in the arena, trying to protect each other.
She looked at Peeta. Her eyes lingered on his lips. She remembered the way they felt against her own. They had been warm and soft, just like Peeta. She drew her eyes up to his blue ones. They had a concerned look in them, "Peeta, I just can't do this. I know we have to put of the front for the cameras, but you know there's never going to be anything real between us."
"Nothing real? Katniss, tell me there was nothing between us when you saw I had picked the nightlock berries, tell me there was nothing real when you saved me from Cato," he clenched his fists and looked at the ground. "Tell me you felt nothing when you kissed me."
Katniss's tongue turned into cement in her mouth and they remained silent, not looking at each other. Katniss watched the snow drifting peacefully to the ground.
"At least there's still some beauty in this messed up world," she whispered.
"There's beauty everywhere, Katniss," Peeta said, stepping close to her. He raised his hand to her face, and brushed his thumb against her cheek, "You just have to know where to look for it."
Katniss could feel his breath on her cheek and she turned to face him.
Peeta looked at her mouth and leaned towards her. Katniss couldn't think of anything but Peeta-the way he looked, the way he sounded, the way he smelled like fresh bread. She moved closer to him and touched her lips gently to his.