AN: I don't (unfortunately) own the Hunger Games, but…I do own my mind (I hope, anyways...) and my ideas (thank God!), so here is the idea that came out of my mind this morning when I woke up. It's in Peeta's POV (point of view), by the way, I thought I would try my hand at writing his perspective. This story takes place in between the end of Mockingjay and the epilogue. IMPORTANT: Peeta's family is not dead, Finnick and Annie are still alive and happily married. District 13 still exists, but it's now the Military and Infrastructure center of Panem, so only soldiers and officers reside there.

Also, I'd like to do another SYOT, so PM me if you would want one. I would need all of the characters before I started writing…

ANYWHO… Without further ado, let's go!

-mrspeetamellark97

I walked down the road to Katniss's-no-my-house, it's still hard to think of it as our house. As I approach the faded door, I contemplate repainting it, then decide against it. Katniss wouldn't care, but I would. The green of that door was my connection to Katniss and her family.

After the first Hunger Games, I came by her house one day, with the intent of apologizing for thrusting her into this situation that she was so uncomfortable with, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, I was too scared, too weak, to talk to the girl that I had loved almost all of my life. Instead I went up to the door, raised my fist to knock, then turned and ran away. I couldn't do it, not now, not ever. I went back to my house that day, and got some green paint, thinking I could paint her the trees in the forest, where she went as a sanctuary. I tried to take a casual stroll, with my paint can in my hand, down by the fence, where she snuck through every week to hunt. I stared up at the trees for a while, and then started walking again. My feet led me while my mind wandered, and I ended up at her front door. It was cracked and peeling, weathered and old, and it looked like it was about to fall off of its hinges. Before I could dissuade myself, I started to paint, and I didn't stop until I was done. It was a beautiful green now, and her house looked like a home when it had this proper door on it. I left quickly, realizing that Katniss may plan on calling the Peacekeepers on me for vandalizing her house, but I came back, an hour later with some cheese buns, that I knew were her favourite thing at the bakery, and left them in a bag with a note reading :

"Hope these are still your favourites.

-Peeta"

The fond memories of painting that door, and her reaction, came over me like a wave from the ocean. The ocean-district four-all month. I had been gone for a month in District 4, visiting Finnick and Annie, and their delightful children. I remembered the way Katniss looked at me when I came home just last week, so full of longing and worry. She looked awful, like she hadn't slept in days. It turns out, she had been so worried when I left she couldn't sleep. She would have awful nightmares, and without me there, she had no solace during the night, and so, rather than trying to sleep, she just stayed awake, awaiting my return. I looked at her face, and realized that I could not bear to leave her like that again. She looked so hurt, and rejected. Her grey eyes reflected sadness, tears, and lost hope in the world. I could not let her remain that way. We went in, and for that night, she slept soundly in my arms, without a nightmare, while I stayed awake, thinking about everything I had seen in District 4. Finnick and Annie had an adorable girl, named Maggie, and a cute son, named Percy. They were respectively, 7 and 3, and they were adorable. Well behaved, energetic, spunky, my eyes lit up at the thought of it. Katniss could never do it. She never looked at children the same way after Prim died. She fell into a deep depression that could only be broken on high occasions of happiness, in which case she barely noticed. I was beside myself with grief for Prim, and for her, but I had to remain strong, for her, for Prim. I had to put my pride behind me, and be there for her, so she could have someone to lean on, even though she was still foreign to me.

Then she was sent back to District 12, and I was to remain in the Capitol, for further testing. I was struck at the feelings I experienced when she was gone. Anger, loathing, hurt, sadness, loneliness. I felt as if the people around me, and she, had betrayed me, and left me all alone to be a test pilot for these monsters. I bore with it, the loneliness, sadness, the strange feeling I felt in my heart, which was like an ache, because of her absence. Finally I was sent back home, to District 12.

The first thing I did was to buy a bush, a primrose bush, for Katniss. My arms, supposedly healed, but still weak from intense training and then therapy, throbbed as I pushed the shrub in a wheelbarrow to her house, a small building towards the outskirts of the main city. She looked out the window at me, and scowled, before she realized that they were primroses, after which her expression visibly changed, and she quickly shut the curtain. I could hear her, crying, weeping, and it broke my heart, but I knew she didn't want me in her house, her life, anymore. Instead I put my all into planting that bush, not ashamed of the trail of tears on my face. When I was finished, the bush was beautiful, sweet and innocent, just like Prim.

Five years later, I was married to her, and deeply in love. We purchased a house together, and transplanted the primrose bush to our new home. We lived happily there, with me working at the bakery, and Katniss hunting as she pleased, bringing in game for the town, and for us. Then I started being called away, to attend meetings in the other Districts, sometimes for military advice, sometimes for governmental, and sometimes to be on a television show. Initially, Katniss was thrilled that I was better, and that I was important enough to have advice taken form me. Then, she started slipping away from me again… So now, I was at my wits end… What was I to do, if she didn't love me anymore? She was-is- my life. I love her... Maybe if we had that talk again, it would help.

SO….how was it? I tried to capture Peeta, but I'm pretty sure I epically failed…..Review, PM, do whatever, I'll take criticism, and/or compliments (if there's actually anything to compliment, that is…)

Love Y'all

-mrspeetamellark97