"You love me. Real or not real?" His lips traced every word across her shoulder.
She whispered the single word softly in his ear, "Real."
Two Years Later
Chapter 1
"Katniss!" Katniss hears Prim call from the balcony, "Have you seen Dani? She was just here!"
She quickly ran upstairs to the living room, "There's only so many places a little 3 year old can go Prim, did you check her crib?"
"Of course I did! But I can't seem to find her anywhere!"
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Dandelion, or Dani as everyone calls her, was an unexpected, lucky baby. When the bombs hit District 12 about three years ago, killing nearly everyone there, someone had a little baby girl that was only 3 weeks old. No one knew about her until one day when Katniss headed to 12 to see the damage for the first time, she heard Buttercup, Prim's favorite cat, yowling from the rubble of the bakery. Alarmed by his sudden outburst, (since he usually just sits around waiting for someone to feed him), Katniss rushed towards the area with the most rubble with her bow and arrows in hand. As she got closer she could hear the soft cries of a baby coming from what looked like a bomb-shelter.
Hmm, Katniss thought, Maybe she actually knew what was going on.
When she got there Buttercup saw her and immediately bolted towards her grabbing her bow, ripping it from her hands and sped away stopping only to make sure that Katniss was following him. When he finally stopped it was in front of a small wooden box. The cries were especially loud now that she was at the source of where it was coming from. Katniss slowly opened the box, and there, laid a little baby girl with a hand-knitted blanket wrapped around her. Her eyes were the exact same shade of a clear ocean blue, and her hair was a soft golden color and had curl to it. She couldn't take her eyes off of her, she was just too beautiful. Katniss picked up the child as carefully and gently as she could. As she did a small piece of paper, burnt at the edges, drifted like a feather. Not caring what was in it, she was suddenly very glad about two things, one, that she had told Peeta to stay in the hovercraft and two, that only Haymitch could hear and see her. He would know not to say anything to anyone about where she found the baby. Slowly she made her way back to the Victor's Village with Buttercup close on her heels, walked in her house and sat down at the dining table with the baby still cradled in her arms. She was debating with herself, she wondered if she should save the paper and read it with Peeta, but she decided against it and slowly unfolded the creased paper.
At the top in swirly cursive, there were only eight words that read: "This is my baby girl, her name is…" The rest of the sentence was burnt off keeping the name of the child a mystery. The only other thing that was on the paper was the baby's birthdate: June 21, 3015.
Its July 11, 3015. Exactly three weeks after she was born, and two days after the bombing of 12 happened. Katniss didn't realize she was crying when she saw a single tear drop into the child's soft forehead. She quickly wiped her eyes and, after setting the baby on the couch with many pillows acting as a cushion around her so that she didn't fall, she went to the sink and washed her face so that any traces that might show that she was crying would disappear.
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It was 5:30pm. About a half an hour before Peeta was scheduled to get home from the bakery. Katniss and Prim frantically searched for Dani before he came home, but the slam of the door told them that they were out of time. In the few seconds before he got upstairs to the sitting room, they both scrambled to get themselves settled in the big fluffy chairs that were surrounding the fireplace. They had both just grabbed a book and tried to look like they were engrossed in their books when Peeta came hopped up the stairs.
Looking at Katniss with his million dollar smile, he asked, "What? No welcome home kiss?" putting his hand on his heart, feigning hurt, just for added effect.
She smiled, put her book gently down and got up. Walking towards her one and only love, she wrapped her arms around his neck and trailed light kisses up his neck to his jawline, all the way to the nape of his neck. She nipped his ear lightly and tried to pull away but Peeta was always one step ahead of her and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and kissed my smile.
During this little "private time" between Peeta and Katniss, she saw from the corner of her eye that Prim snuck out and went to find Dani.
"So, love, where might my little daughter be?" He asked, planting little kisses across Katniss' jaw line, "I haven't seen her all day. I missed her so much that I even took off early from the bakery to rush home and see her again!" A smile played at his face, but she wasn't able to see because her head was down making her hair fall in front of her face. She tried to compose herself before she looked up at him.
She still had her wits with her so she quickly came up with a lie. "Oh, you know, she's outside playing in the garden. You know how she likes to be outside a lot." She smiled her dazzling and irresistible smile that she knew he could not resist and she thought she sold it perfectly. Unfortunately he was already one step ahead of her. Still.
"So," Peeta said in a half smirk, "If i look outside, then she would be playing with Prim in the dandelion beds?" He made as if he was heading to the window that overlooked the backyard.
"Uhm, as a matter of fact I think she went to the bathroom," Katniss quickly said, pulling on his arm to bring him back next to her side.
"Oh really?" Peeta said, smiling fully now, without shame, "Katniss you know that you are a terrible liar."
She sighed. She knew that she could never lie to her one true love. Just thinking that she could get away with it brought tears to her eyes. Her sight was getting foggy and her eyes were glassing over.
"Ok, I'm sorry," she said blubbering. "We can't find her. One minute she was there, then the next she was just gone!" She buried her face in his chest and her tears stained his shirt. Her head was down and her body was shutting down because of the strong feelings she felt when she tried to lie to Peeta so she didn't see him or feel him reach around himself and pick up the little girl, wiggle himself out of Katniss' strong grip and carefully place the toddler in her arms.
Dandelion squealed with delight and wrapped her arms around Katniss' neck and held on. The squeal brought Katniss back into reality.
Katniss smack Peeta's arm. Hard.
"OUCH!" Peeta was trying to keeping his face serious. He was failing. Miserably. And he started laughing uncontrollably, "You should have seen the look on your face!" He had some trouble getting the whole sentence out in between his breaths. Katniss stormed out of the room with Dani still clinging onto her neck.
Making her way up to the attic, Katniss passed her and Peeta's room and grabbed the push-open mini playpen that was folded neatly in the corner of their walk-in closet. She walked out of the room with the baby in tow, climbed the ladder, sat on the loveseat that Peeta had given her for their 2 year anniversary, reached in between the cushions and pulled out a folder. She opened it and looked at the papers that she had found in the basket with Dani. Placing them on the floor, she put her hand between the cushions again and took out a small leather-bound book. Opening it to page 1,457, she took the pen from the spine of the book and began to write.
June 19, 3019
There's 3 more days until her birthday. I have to tell him soon. He has the right to know. After all, she is his…
She picked up one of the papers that she had put on the floor. It was old and had yellowed with time, she flipped the paper, with Dani's birthday on it, over and read the handwriting:
She's Peeta's now.
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone in this besides Dani :) but of course all you Hunger Games fanatics already knew that :D
Reviews would be AWESOME! constructive criticism? requests? helpful hint? Anything welcome!
OH! and btw I'm creating a Clato fanfic too so look out for that soon!
